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It's 6:00 on July 29th, 2026. I'd like to call to order this meeting of the Freetown Lakeville Regional School Committee and we're going to start with a roll call. >> Courtney Brightman here. Jen Blum here. Bob Clark. Becky Cushing here.

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>> Tim Emory here. Derek Maderas, he might not be on yet. We can check in a moment. Melinda Richards >> here. >> Katherine Tro >> here. >> Okay. Um, well, I'd like everyone to stand for the pledge of allegiance.

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>> I 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. >> Okay. >> I'd like to acknowledge our admin team

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that's here tonight. Director of curriculum, Miss Terry Fleming, director of finance, Mr. Jack Higgins, and superintendent, Dr. Barbara Starky, as well as Kelly Gonzalez, who is legal counsel for the school district. Um,

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okay. Before we begin, I'd like to ask if anyone is recording this meeting besides Lake Cam. Okay. I don't see anyone. Um, I do not have a chairperson's report for tonight. Um, so I think we will move on to public

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public comment. Um, is anyone here for public comment? Okay. Um, there should be something to sign in, I believe. >> Can you hear me? I do. Can you hear me? Okay. >> Hi, Noel Rillo Reservoir.

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Um, the school finance committee has presented a budget that according to our town administrator and town accountant gives us an assessment that would place the municipal budget beyond the guidelines recommended by the state of Massachusetts best practice guidelines.

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The town accountant has detailed this many times at many meetings, explaining the reasons that this jeopardizes our credit rating and ability to finance the town's budget. Last winter, unexpected

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costs for snow removal were just one unanticipated expense that required funding from the very account that the town is now being asked to put on the table. The outcome of Monday's meeting was a clear indication that the residents of Lakeville have spoken. We

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cannot meet the demands that this proposed budget is placing on the town. Please go back to the drawing board. Thank you. >> Melissa Ryan Nolton um Lakeville Holland Road. I do. The town of Lakeville has been

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represented by a very small number. So, while I appreciate you stepping up here, I think it's very misleading that the town of Lakeville has spoken. We do not have enough people out here voting.

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um and we're very we're being represented by very small numbers which is hurting us. Um so while I appreciate yes there was a vote but it is not an

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overwhelming majority by any stretch of the imagination. Can you hear? That's loud. All right, we'll do the best I can here. How's everybody doing today? >> Good. >> All right. All right. My name is Carlos Lopes. I'm a Freetown resident. I'm also

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a member of the board of select Freetown. Um, so I have a three minute speech to say. I promise to keep it short. All right. Good evening everybody. I want to take a few minutes to set some clear expectations because I've heard a lot of discussion lately about holding a town a joint town meeting. But before we go down that

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road, I think it's important that we all take a step back and ask ourselves one simple question. What has changed? Right? And there are there new numbers. Is there new information? Has something fundamentally changed since the last votes? To be clear, Freetown voted on the

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overall FY27 ominous budget for the entire town. Yes, that budget included our school district, but the school budget itself was not debated at great length. Probably the reason may have been because everyone already knew Lakeville had rejected the override and subsequently voted no again at his annual town meeting and of course a

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special town meeting recently. Uh it was also public communicate that Freetown could although painfully absorb the FY27 assessment for the cis year only. By doing so, we did cut all vacant positions and not fund our oped obligations. That context does matter. Lakeville's

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elected officials, members of the community and the school administration did a tremendous job presenting the facts and that's congratulatory all around you. That was great. They held meetings, answered questions, shared financial information and educated residents over the course of several weeks and months. People had every

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opportunity to hear the information and make an informed decision. In the end, the override did not pass and since then, Lake has held an additional special town meeting where multiple proposals and options were presented to the voters. At each meeting, these options were rejected by the will of the people. Now, whether we agree with those

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outcomes or not, they were the result of the democratic process. And tonight, here we are possibly discussing a super town meeting tenderly scheduled for late August. As we consider that option, I think it's important to keep our expectations grounded in reality. Even if the super town meeting were successful, the financial relief it

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would provide will only address one fiscal year. It is not a long-term solution. Beyond that, Freetown will almost certainly be entering its own override discussion. That means we could very well find ourselves facing the same difficult decisions Lakeville has already faced. The cuts currently being avoided in Lakeville could simply shift

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to Freetown. And depending on the outcome, the school district could ultimately face even greater reductions. Nobody wants that. It is also worth remembering Freetown's own history. Since Proposition 2 and a half was enacted, Freetown has had only one override discussion, now it's for approximately $1,700.

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Unfortunately, for those that wanted it, it was decisively rejected by the residents. While history doesn't determine future outcomes, it does provide important context. This suggests that passing a future override may be challenging. That's something we should honestly acknowledge as we discuss the option before us. I think it's also

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important to say something that often gets lost in these conversations. This is not a vote against our teachers. It is it may feel that way, but I don't believe that that's what happened. Both Freetown and Lake Phil care deeply about our schools, our educators, and our students, suggesting otherwise only

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divides our communities at a time when we need to be working together. The reality is that many voters were responding to the financial impact in Lakefield. The override represented approximately a thousand an additional $1,000 in in taxes per year. Um, that is what people voted against, not to

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teachers. It is also important to recognize that this projected tax increase was not solely attributed to rising insurance costs as have sometimes been suggested. It also reflected high abnormal salary increases along with the addition of new salary steps contained with the recent negotiated contract. Those were components of the overall

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financial picture presented to voters. It's important that we acknowledge all the factors that contributed to the budget discussion. Those are the facts after all. Whether we agree with the outcome or not, that's the issue that needs to be addressed if we going to find a path forward. We also need to stop the fingerpointing. We see a lot of

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that. I've seen people trying to assign blame to one town, another town, elected officials, school administration, residents, and that's not how democracy works. It just isn't. The voters came out, they cast their ballots, and the outcome reflected the will of those who participated. It may not have been the outcome many expected or hoped for, but

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that's exactly how the elections and votes are supposed to work. Now, looking ahead, I'm not convinced the votes are there in Freetown for a super town meeting either. If we continue increasing our financial commitments without addressing the underlying issues, we may very well find ourselves

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facing the same sustainability of concerns that Lakeville has faced. I simply don't believe that's a responsible assumption to ignore. At the end of the day, no one group's needs are more important than others. Every resident contributes to this community and every resident deserves to have their concerns heard. There has to be

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balance. There has to be. The difficult reality is that none of us are going to get everything we want. None of us. >> Okay. I think we're past three minutes. I >> have 10 more seconds to go. Do >> you have like a wrap it up? >> I'll wrap it up. Yeah. Um,

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do I believe there's a solution? Absolutely. But finding that solution will require collaboration between set of division, facts, a set of assumptions, and a willingness from all of us to work together on behalf of our entire community. Let's stop debating who's to blame and start working together to find a solution that our taxpayers, our students, and our

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educators can all support. Thank you. I do have suggestions how we can do that. If I get another 30 minutes something >> that's but no that's that's that's probably like good for an email and >> I I will forward the email to you if as the chair uh feel free to send it to your board members and I'll do the same team to our administration. There was

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little tidbit in there different things we can do such as you know renegotiating the contract or chapter 74 or reducing the school sizes again emails. Emails emails >> good for that. Thank you. Um, and I did forget to remind everyone

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that we have three minutes >> for um, public comment before we started. >> And for the for the record, I do want to note that Derek joined virtually, I think, at 6:04. So Derek Maderas is on um, the call now in the meeting. >> Thank you.

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>> Sorry, I got kicked off like three times, so I apologize. It looks like I have better service now as we're going here. >> Okay, great. Brian Enllo. Uh, take a one out. Brian Enlo, three seedar pond rook. Um, or Cedar Pond Rook, whatever it is. Um, so

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been there twice, lost. I'm starting to feel like the Buffalo Bills. We get it. Um, I do think compromise needs to be the conversation here, right? I do think there are some additional funds that could be allocated at the school

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committee's request. um to reduce the assessment amount. I do think like Mr. Lo said when we look at the teachers that have taken other jobs that we know can't come back, there's an adjustment there as well, right? And I

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do think anything we do is going to require compromise or it's just going to lose everyone. So that's it. Thanks. >> Okay. Okay. Um,

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hold on. Oh, sorry. I didn't see you get up. >> Christopher Plano, Lakeville Select Board Vice Chair, but I'm not speaking on behalf of the Lakeville Select Board. Members of the school committee, thank you for giving me the opportunity to speak tonight. Nearly two years ago,

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both the Freetown Select Board and Lakeville Select Board voted in favor of conducting a full financial audit of the district. This was not a symbolic vote. It was a clear joint commitment from both towns that our residents deserve transparency, clarity, and c and confidence in how their tax dollars are

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being managed. Since that vote, public interest in the audit has only grown stronger. Families, taxpayers, and community members are paying closer attention than ever to how the district's finances are being handled. They want assurance that the information they receive is complete, accurate, and independently verified. The rising

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interest isn't rooted in suspicion. It's rooted in desire for responsible, accountable governance. The audit is not about blame. It is not about politics. It's about trust. Right now, many residents feel disconnected from the financial operations of the district. They see rising costs, budget

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challenges, and shifting priorities, but they don't see the full picture. A comprehensive audit provides that picture. It gives us facts instead of assumptions, clarity instead of speculation, and a foundation for long-term stability. Most importantly, restores confidence. When people know that an independent

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professional review has taken place, they can trust that decisions moving forward are based on accurate information and sound financial practices. And tonight, you have the opportunity to act. You will be voting on whether to move forward with the financial audit that both towns endorsed nearly two years ago. I'm asking you to

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support that vote, honor that commitment, and demonstrate that transparency is not optional. It's essential. Let's give our residents the confidence they deserve in the stewardship of their car of their schools. Thank you for your time and consideration. >> Okay. Any more public comment?

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All right. Um now I think that we would like to actually move some agenda items out of order. Um I'll make a motion to um move to B and 2 C the FY2712 budget

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update and FY27 budget um out of order. um to right now. >> Second. >> Okay. Um and we have to do roll call votes for everything tonight because we have a virtual member here. Um so, um

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there's a motion in a second. Is there any discussion on taking these out of order? Okay. No discussion. Um so, okay. Courtney Breman, yes. >> Jen Blum, yes. >> Bob Clark, >> yes. >> Becky Cushing, yes. >> Tim Emory, >> yes.

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Derek Maderas, >> yes. >> Melinda Richards, >> yes. >> Katherine Trrost, >> yes. >> Motion passes. >> All right. So, we can move on to those two agenda items. >> We'll do. Um, as you know, our FY27

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budget is a 112 budget that's been assigned to us by the state. Mr. Higgins is going to walk you through some of the steps that we've taken uh relative to the 112 budget. >> Thank you, Dr. Starky. Um as I shared with the the school committee at the last meeting, we have entered into the

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112 budget in July. Uh we were been monitoring very closely our expenditures uh as well as our incumbrances as we move through the summer months. Um the primary uh expenditures that we have in this in these particularly in July but then in also in August are those

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subscriptions and items that that come up annually uh things like uh annual subscriptions for technology curriculum and facilities as well as our Bristol County retirement uh contribution which goes it is required to be paid at the beginning of the year. Uh and then of

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course wages and health insurance. While we have wages um the only the wages uh for those who are individual contracts and our custodians and our fullyear secretaries are in FY27. Health insurance for all employees is within

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FY27 as well. So those were the primary um expenditures in July. In August, we'll see our um property and casualty insurance uh bill will come due, in which case we'll make those play those expenditures. And then we'll uh complete our instructional supply purchases in

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August with our AES, fees, and grace. As I'm sorry, I forgot to mention, we did uh have the high school and the middle school which have a larger number of instructional supplies uh and a little more timely in terms of the types of things that they're getting. So, we had them order to those a little bit earlier. Um, with that being said, um,

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it's important to note that we are, um, at the with the 112 budget, we're only at about $195,000 greater than uh, where we would be um, uh, from last year. So, the increase from the FY26 budget is just a little

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under $200,000, which um is about a a little over a million dollars less than where we would be if we were if we had an approved uh reduced budget at this point. Um so, I say those things because we're as we the further we get along through the year, we are going to have,

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you know, as the months go by, we're going to have difficulty making payments uh later in, you know, few months down the road. Um, with that being said, um, expecting that a conversation or a question might come up regarding, uh,

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regional go um, sorry, commissioner oversight in December. I did reach out to the regional governance office within Desi to get us an understanding of some history uh, to get a sense of what those budgets might look like coming from a commissioner. Uh the response um that we received was

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that it's first of all this is a very uncommon that with it that it's happened and only a few times in the history of the regional school districts. But typically um in those cases the commissioner has stated that the school district should not expect the final budget that the commissioner would identify would be a a number much

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different than the 112th budget. So which would be where we are right now. That would be uh difficult once we get into December or even prior to December. Um and they identified that the reference for the diff that would be that the local it's difficult for local stakeholders to implement higher budgets

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mid year. Uh I do have on here a couple of links for school committee members to be able to access and and read through the information the additional information that they were referencing um the office of regional governance when they shared that information with us.

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Are there any questions right now relative to FY27 and the 112 budget >> through the chair? >> Yes. Sorry. >> Um can you just recap for us please? You mentioned we were short. So we'll be

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short almost a million dollars over the course of the year. >> More than a million. more than a million short of the the budget if we even approve a lower budget than we brought to the table. >> That's correct. >> So, if we approve

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a lesser budget than we brought to the table last meeting, >> correct? >> It's going to be over a million dollars more than if we get stuck with this 112th budget. >> Correct. Cuz 112th, it's 112th of uh from last year.

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>> Okay. Okay, as I said, well 112 and it's $200,000 greater than 112th of last year. >> Thank you. >> Any other questions? >> Okay, then through the chair, we'll move on uh to the presentation regarding the

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uh an update on the FY27 budget resultant from Lakeville's meeting on Monday night. Uh as a reminder, we always uh reference the seated school committee when we make a presentation regarding the budget. The last time you took a vote on the budget, uh, you voted for a budget of $49,551,387

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and those were the result resultant assessments to the town. I'm going to move pretty expeditiously. You've seen this presentation before. There are some minor adjustments here, but uh, I'll move through for you. You probably recall that in the spring, in advance of sending the most recent assessments to

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the town, you took a vote to use $930,184 from END to fund a series of one-time expenses for the district. We have for you tonight uh again the historical data on END and Mr. Higgins can speak to you regarding our estimate at this point for

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what will be left in what will be certified for END and FY27. >> Thank you. We're still in the process of closing and this is only an estimate. uh this number could uh change. One of the items that we're looking at is um revenue that we received for regional transportation in 26 um potential being

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able to use some of that for regional transportation in 27. So we have some information that we're going to get from the state. It's not necessary for this evening, but for the next meeting I'll I'll have a full detailed information for you regarding that. But that could potentially be in END. If that was the case, it would add to this. if it wasn't

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sorry if it's not able to be carried over as for regional transportation usage then that would be added to this END um number uh so 1,392,000 is the estimate at this point we will have October 31st is our

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deadline for having um our certified END uh and I just as a matter of course so as understanding of the school committee the uh the timeline that the school committee has for voting to use END is between the moment that it had become certified and the June 30th of the

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following year. So we sit in a time right now where the school committee does not have access to an END value any of the END money because it currently is uncertified. No questions. I'll move along. Um as you presented before you have four options

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right now regarding the budget. You can reconsider and reduce the budget. You can reconsider and offer a compromise. You can support the original budget or you can increase your budget. Those are the four options you have before you. Moving ahead, if you reconsider and

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reduce the budget to adjust to the general fund budget to align with the town of Lakeville, the amount of the budget would be 47,164,370. If you reconsider and you compromise, a compromise that we presented to you earlier would impact some of the positions that have been reduced. The

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compromised budget is $47,779,830. Sorry. The only way to do that would be to present that compromised budget via an article on a joint town meeting or to locate and utilize district resources when and if they become available. you could uh support your original level

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service budget which was $49,551,387 and we are certainly not recommending that there is any motion from the school committee to increase the budget. Should you go with option one uh and this evening you decide to uh vote a budget that meets the number that was uh

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certified at the Lakeville Town meeting, then the budget would be deacto approved tonight and our treasurer would deliver new assessments within 7 days. If you do that, here are the numbers for you. They have not changed uh since before and the impact remains the same. However, it's

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60 positions and not 62 because as you know, we have uh received the opportunity to recall two positions to the district. I'll get into that again in a minute. And here are the assessments resultant from that. Moving forward, your second option would be to determine this evening to present some

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type of compromised budget. The compromised budget that we presented to you earlier uh is here on this slide. It affords the opportunity to possibly return 10 of the 60 positions to the district. I want to be clear of the 60 positions, 38 are full-time. The rest

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are part-time, absent, three that were shifted from full-time to part-time. Uh, we have for you a little bit of information tonight that's new on title funding. We had spoken to you at earlier meetings about title one funding and what that would look like when it comes into the district this year. We had

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predicted that that would be a significantly less number and Terry Fleming, who does uh apply for and oversee our grants, will speak to that. So, Massachusetts title funding um begins at the uh US Department of Education poverty estimates. Uh the

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state then refineses those counts using local data from the two years prior census data. So, this one is being um calculated from the 2025 census data to ensure funds are fairly distributed across um school districts, charter schools, and vocational systems. Um

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because our latest student poverty numbers fell below the required federal eligibility threshold um we saw a significant um decrease in title funding this year. And as some of you may recall um I spoke to this last year. We were in the same place where we were hovering um

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just above or just below the threshold line. And um so that could change again. Sorry, that could change again uh next year pending the 2026 census data. >> The reason we bring that up at this point in the presentation is you have

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seen this slide before. These are the positions that should you uh move forward with the compromised budget would potentially be restored to the district. That slide has been updated to reflect the return of two positions based on that title one allocation. So, we were able to restore the one half

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grant manager uh at the central office and restore and share a reading specialist across fees and AES. Uh moving forward, if you vote option two, this is the recommendation. Uh I'm sorry, these are the assessments to the towns. Your third option tonight is to

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continue to support a level service budget. These are the assessments to the town. Should you determine to do that, should you determine to support the level service budget, this will absolutely force uh a joint town meeting, there's information here regarding a joint town meeting.

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If a majority of voters at a district-wide meeting votes to approve the level service FY27 budget, such vote shall constitute approval. If a majority of voters at this district-wide meeting votes to approve a greater or lesser amount for the FY27 budget, such amount

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shall be placed before the regional school committee. So dep if this goes to a joint town meeting, it could potentially come back to you again and then that could precipitate a second joint town meeting. Uh the next slide just continues on with some of the um

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laws and regulations related to that special town meeting. They're not relevant in this moment. Uh, but I leave them. We can return to them or you could always speak to attorney Gonzalez this evening if you had any questions about that. As Mr. Higgins said to you before, if we don't res we don't reach a resolution by December 1st, Desi will

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engage in a fiscal takeover. And as Mr. Higgins shared with you, that fiscal uh takeover uh is not something we have a tremendous amount of information about and we certainly don't have any comparatives because it is very very rare.

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Next steps would be determining what will happen based on school committee's vote this evening. I would strongly encourage that we schedule an August school committee meeting tentatively for the end of the month. Available evenings because you meet on Wednesday would be August 19th and August 26th. Uh we will

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continue to engage in our strategic planning initiative which I will talk to you about when we move back to that portion of the agenda. I believe it's prudent to continue to communicate with our towns via our monthly TA meetings and certainly uh we will continue to prepare for the start of a school year

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when we open again on August 31st. Turn things back over to the chair. >> Okay. >> I have a question, Madam Chair. Um if let's can you clarify if we were to approve a compromised budget, does that

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then go to the joint town meeting? The only way you could do that at this juncture would be to to create a warrant, an article on a warrant and you would go to a joint town meeting. >> So it could be rejected at a joint town meeting. >> Correct. If you go to a joint town meeting with any budget at this

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juncture, it can be accepted or rejected. The number can even if you create an article on a warrant that suggests a compromised budget, it can be amended on the floor. >> Okay? And it could be voted in a greater

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or lesser value or the exact value depending on what happens at the town meeting. >> Okay. Thank you. >> You're welcome. >> Yes, Courtney. >> So, we have a rejected budget. We The only way to avoid a joint town meeting would be for twothirds of us tonight to

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agree to a number that matches the funding that's been approved at both town meetings already because it's projected. It doesn't default to level services. if you're asking me. Correct. >> I guess so. Yes. Thank you.

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>> So, it stays at the 112th until you have a budget or until December 1st. >> So, there's no default to level services. >> Becky, I have Yeah, just a question. While we're talking about the compromised budget, um I'm I'm reading through the slide

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of what would be reinstated. Does any of that impact the current um concerns about the high school accreditation in AP courses? >> No. No. >> Okay. >> Okay.

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>> So, I have a question. Sorry. Okay. So, um would accepting a compromised budget Would it affect accreditation of the high school?

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>> No, not not with these positions as presented. >> Okay. What about um the >> cuts across the district and we the cuts in across the district are significant. >> Right. >> Right. And when we're trying to prioritize what we would bring back,

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this is not to diminish the importance of anything at the high school whatsoever. However, we have no libraries and we have no reading support with the exception of the one teacher that we we're able to just recall because of title one funding in the lower grades. >> Right. >> So, the focus of the compromised budget

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is the the bulk here seems to be the elementary schools. >> Okay. Now, does closing the libraries and the two elementary schools, does that affect um our accreditation standing? >> It does not. We are a a secondary level

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high school accreditation district only. >> Okay. Thank you. To be clear, are we actually concerned that this year there might be an issue with the high school or that down the road with like more cuts possible next

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year? Would is that more the issue? >> We would definitely have concern for next year if there were more cuts. We need to reach out to NASNC once we have a clear understanding of what's happening with this budget. We were able to retain the librarian here at the high school and that is something that

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carries a deep measure with NASNC. We were able to retain some of our AP programming here at the high school. I I I don't have a crystal ball. I can't predict what NASNC is going to going to say to us. I would have certainly greater concern next year if we made

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more cuts at the high school level. >> Okay. Um and I have to do you have another question? >> I did. So, if we're looking at a compromise, um, it sounds like we would require all of that money from

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the town at this point, or could we potentially do a compromise that when END opens back up, we could revisit a portion of the compromise from that funding? >> You could revisit a portion of the compromise from END. I would be remiss if I didn't say that we have had

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significant concerns for taking things that are not operating expenses, right? For taking salary out of END because they do become reoccurring expenses. >> Could you reinstate some of the positions on a temporary basis, you know, for one year? You could certainly

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you could discuss doing that. And would it be fair to say there are current items in the budget that could be solution four with END and then that funding could be moved elsewhere. So it wouldn't necessarily be

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applied to salaries. >> No, I believe you've addressed all of those all of those items already. That's the 930,184. Those were all of the onetime expenses. Okay. Anything else would be anything else at this juncture would be salary. Okay.

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>> Okay. >> So, of these positions you're that are under consideration, if we approved a compromised budget and got that approved, um do we know how many of those positions if we attempted to recall? Do we know how many of the staff have

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already found other jobs or would we be hiring all this all these positions fresh? >> That's a good question. So, I can't speak to these specific people, right? It's the position. No offense to the person who fills the position, but it's the position that matters, >> right?

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>> So, it would be reinstating the position. I can't speak to the specific people. I do know that of the 37 full-time people, I would say more than half. I would say almost twothirds have received jobs in other districts. I can say that with assurityity. I've served

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as reference. I have spoken to superintendents. We've been informed by some staff. Tim. >> So to that point, even with a compromised budget or say a level services budget, we have a lot of hiring

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to do as a district in the next 30 days. >> That would be correct. >> Um, >> and it would it wouldn't be within 30 days. It would be much later than that. >> Sure. >> I don't know if anyone can see Derek if he did end up having a question. Um, just in case Derek, do you have any

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questions? I'll follow everything. Okay. Katie does. >> Yeah, I do. Madam Chair, um, so we were talking about salary and Mr. Lopes had briefly mentioned reopening up the negotiation, the contract, the

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negotiations with the teacher salary. Is is I guess I'm looking to legal. Is that an option? >> Theoretically, it's an option. However, they the union is not at all obligated to agree to reopen the contract and I

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would be frankly surprised if they did since it was it was just settled. >> Um it's an ask and I again part of the reason why the the salaries were changed was because they needed to be to create a market value to bring your teachers up to market value. So, um I would be

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surprised if they would agree to change it to then take reductions, but I obviously can't speak for the the union. >> Okay. Um I have a question like what are some of the issues with if we push forward to a joint town meeting, what like what are the hardships or issues

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that the district is going to encounter? You did identify one which would be u difficulty in filling the positions at at a late date. Right. But in my opinion above and beyond that is the repair of the relationships with the two towns.

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We have we have tremendous work ahead of us. It's very clear that there are significant concerns in Lakeville. I can't speak for Freetown uh but I have been to the meetings in Lakeville and there are concerns regarding the school district

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uh that we have already begun to address uh as a leadership team engaging in strategic planning and bringing what could be 45 members into a committee representing both towns to take a step forward and plan for what could be best. Uh we've done that. you have the

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opportunity this evening to vote for an RFP, I'm sorry, to support an RFP to go out to get someone to come and do the audit that was spoken about this evening that would perhaps fortify the transparency that I believe we have presented at certainly in the past >> over and over

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>> year and a half. Uh I can't speak to time before that, but I think that we have some measures in place to begin to repair what seems to be a very fractured relationship. It's heartbreaking to be honest. Um, and I think we need to do that. And I'm concerned that a joint

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town meeting is going to sever what might be left and might also bring out some points in another town uh, you know, that are that are just going to be uh, that are hard to walk back. And I am concerned

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for our children who are listening to all of this and what that might do to them. Okay. Does anybody have any other questions? >> Sorry, just one more. >> May I I'm sorry. May I through the

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chair? I just want to conclude with one thing. I want to be clear here that we presented a level service budget and I believe the students deserve it of that. Perhaps this isn't the time to continue what's become a very

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divisive discussion. Perhaps we turn our attention to taking what has begun here and turning it into a very important conversation about how we value and support education in our towns. Thank you. I'm sorry.

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>> Oh, no worries. Um, so for the proposed compromised budget, do we know what percentage? So if so, if you were saying like twothirds of the current vacancies have already found jobs, we don't necessarily know if those

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positions in the compromised budget reflect the staff that haven't found jobs yet. >> Correct. And again, twothirds is an estimate because our employees were not under any obligation to let us know that they've received other jobs. This is

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based on phone calls and information I've received and and conversations that I've had. So, I certainly don't want to be misinterpreted in that. And I I I do want to emphasize to you though, it is the position. >> We value our individual teachers. We recognize what they bring to us, but

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it's the position we're talking about. I was just asking for in regards to like Tim's comment about what it takes from a human capital standpoint to fill from a human capital to fill positions. >> It would be challenging to fill any number of positions at this point. 30

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days from now, it would be even more challenging. >> I think there must also be some disruption, right? I think schedules have been changed at some of the schools to accommodate what's been approved thus far. If we're hiring late in the cycle, are we going to change the schedules for

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the students in after the start of the year? >> I mean, that's a potential possibility, is it? >> If if you're asking me, yes, it would be disruptive >> and but that's a it's a possibility. >> It is a possibility. >> Um, okay.

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Do we want to make a motion now to >> Yes. Make a vote on the >> I'd like to make a motion to move eight >> uh C and uh CNF I mean E and F up so that we can take the vote now please.

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>> Okay motion and second. Any discussion? >> I just have one final question. Sorry. For um for the joint time meeting, is it is it 30 days that needs to be given in advertisement to schedule that meeting or is it 45? >> Not in this case. I I'll defer to legal,

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but I believe it's 14 days. >> Yeah, that's two weeks. >> Okay. >> Wro it down. I I have the law right here. Just make sure. >> 14 days. Yep. >> Okay. Thank You're welcome. >> Okay. All right. Back to We had a motion

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and a second >> to move items 8 C and F. >> E and F and F. >> Sorry. Yes. To move. All right. Yes. To move 8 C and 8 F up. So E elephant E. Oh,

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>> sorry. Yes. Motions E and F. All right. Um, there's a motion in a second. Any discussion? Okay. And we need to do roll call. >> Courtney Breitman. Yes. >> Jen Blum. Yes. Bob Clark. Yes. Becky Cushing. Yes. >> Tim Emory. >> Yes.

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>> Derek Maderas. >> Is he still on? Did we lose >> I don't think he's on. >> Yes. Sorry. Sorry. I'm trying to find the people on the air while Sorry. >> Thank you. Melinda Richards. Yes. Katherine Trost. >> Yes. Motion passed. Okay. Now, we would need a motion. Um,

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I will make a motion to approve the FY27 budget salary portion in the amount of 27,813,04. >> So moved. >> Okay. We have a motion and a second. >> Second. Make the motion. >> I'm sorry.

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>> I said yes, I'll second. Move the motion. >> Yes. >> You made the motion. >> Oh, so moved. Okay. So then we need a second. >> Okay. >> Any discussion? >> Okay. Any ifs? >> Can you please clarify which option this is

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>> for everybody? >> Yes. This is the option to accept the um amount that Lakeville would like to give us. >> So reducing the budget. >> Yes. >> To match what Lakeville Yes. >> has been able to approve. >> Option one. Correct.

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>> Option one. Okay. Thank you. >> I have a question. So to what would be the cuts that are they the same as the compromised budget? It >> it is the the cuts that have occurred already. >> Okay.

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Okay. >> Yeah, we would be moving forth and being done with the budget discussion. Um, and as part of our discussion, I did prepare a little something that I wanted to use for discussion. Um, I believe

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that everyone on this committee wants what's best for the students and staff of this district. We've put up a good fight for the funding we feel the schools need and I'm proud of the effort that we have made. However, there comes a point where we have to ask ourselves not only what we want to achieve, but what is in the district's best interest

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today. Continuing continuing with this fight will create more disruption than benefit. Many of the staff who were laid off have already accepted positions elsewhere and would likely not be available to return in the event of a joint town meeting approving a level services budget. This would mean hiring

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and onboarding new employees just days before the start of a new school year. At the middle school, Principal Olivera and staff have worked very hard to restructure the schedule to account for the staffing cuts. Asking them to dismantle and rebuild that schedule days before the start of the school year

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would create an enormous burden when staff should be spending their final days preparing for a successful school year. We're going to be right back here in the same situation next year. And I believe accepting the town's proposed budget is the most responsible decision we can make today. It allows us to move

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forward, provide stability for our students and staff, and focus our efforts on building a stronger future for the district. If I may, I of course am very disappointed in everything that happened on Monday. And I did want to clarify the fact that the

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reason that no Freetown representative was there is it was a Lake T Lakeville town meeting and we are not allowed to speak. So just to clear up why no Freetown school committee members were there. That's why it's not because we didn't care. It's because our verse voice would

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not be heard anyway. So, I want to put that out there. Um I am really disappointed and the reason that I wanted this to go one step forward and I made that motion originally is because um opposite of what Mr. Lope said, "I have heard different within my community

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and the fact that Lakeville made a decision for,00 students in Freetown when their families had absolutely zero say impacts me and impacts my folks up here in Freetown because I don't want to see a joint town

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meeting. I don't think that that's going to create anything positive here. However, I just want people to realize that not only did you make a decision for your children and your town, you made a decision for an entire other town and 1100 students that again families

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had absolutely zero say in this. And to go to the point of the fingerpointing, there is a lot of fingerpointing. And I just want folks to remember that when your children are highly impacted by these changes,

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before you get on your keyboard, get up at that podium and make your calls angry at your teachers, your principles, our administration, and this school committee. Remember that you made this decision. This is not our decision. We

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support our teachers. We support our students. We support our faculty. Th I mean our administration. This was not our decision. This was the town of Lakeville's decision. And it hurts my feelings that,00 children in Freetown have no say and will be affected. And

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when we talk about $1,000 extra on people's taxes, I'm pretty sure tutoring is going to cost a lot more for the students of these towns. So, think about that before you come up here yelling at us that we're doing a crappy job and that we suck because we hear it all the

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time. This was not our decision. And Brian, thank you so much cuz you did a great job with your presentations and you did a great job with trying to help and we really appreciate that. >> It's fallen where it has and this is a very sad situation, but it is what it is

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at this point. Your people have spoken. It's just too bad the Freetown residents did not have an opportunity to speak. >> Um Becky, >> sure. Um just to add another perspective kind of in the sentiment of what um Jen

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was just saying, that's why I feel like a joint town meeting, even though no one wants to drag this out. I certainly don't want to drag it out, but I I do feel like it's unfair to those Freetown children that, you know, one side is

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making that decision for them. Um, I also wanted to just mention in the spirit of collaboration that, you know, we've been discussing. I did reach out to um, Mr. suit forth and I'm going to be meeting with him next week to just again have a better understanding for

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myself of what you know what the town budget looks like what questions you know there's a lot of questions and I know that you know we're all we're all in this for the same goal so I have um made an appointment with him just to get some more information and educate myself

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on that side >> and when we asked the question like what's changed what's going to change how is Lakeville all of a sudden miraculously going to get themselves out of it that next year we're not going to be here. This is our future for every single person in this room. I know everybody at this table in 20 years,

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your children are all going to be taking care of us. I hear people complain all the time, kids can't read clocks, kids are this, kids are that. They don't know how to do this. They can't do basic math. They can't count change. What do you think's going to happen now? And when we talk about the Chromebooks and

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how every child doesn't need a Chromebook, that would be fun to give some kids Chromebooks and some kids not. I would love to see how everyone would react to that. Never mind the fact that any eery that you go to when folks talk about screen time and how everything is

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on the screen. What do you see? Parents handing their children their phones or their tablets to keep them quiet. But here in the school setting, we're worried about how much screen time these children are getting. They all deserve Chromebooks. Every child deserves a Chromebook.

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>> Any more discussion or comments on before we vote? >> Just triple confirming this vote is accepting the Lakeville budget which is option one. >> The salary portion right now. Yes. >> Two would be the compromise. Three would be level service. >> Mhm. >> Right.

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>> Okay. Thank you. >> Okay. So, no more discussion. We will vote. Okay. Courtney Brightman, >> yes. >> Jen Blum, >> yes. >> Bob Clark, >> you repeat the motion.

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>> Okay. It is um vote to approve FY27 budget salary portions in the amount of 27,813,4. >> That's the original. >> Yes. I >> Okay. Becky Cushing.

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>> No. >> Tim Emory. >> Abstain. >> Derek Madaras. >> Yes. >> Melinda Richards. >> Yes. >> Katherine Trrost.

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>> No. We have one, two, three, four. Yes. does not care at all. >> And one abstained. >> How many yeses? Five yeses. >> We have four yes. >> Five yeses.

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>> Oh, sorry. Five yeses. Excuse me. It's not carried. Two no and one abstained. >> Oh, can I >> I just want to be clear. I I have to abstain. >> Yes. Um, and I know I've made that clear several times, but for anybody

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wondering, I have to. So, um, just just in case there's any question on what I feel. I just want to add something right now that you know

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it didn't pass and I hope we can revisit this again because as much as I appreciate you folks saying no. I would also be saying no if I felt in one little part of me that we would have the support in Freetown. But our administrators in Freetown and our

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select board I want you to remember sat there during the teachers budget and adamantly said Freetown no. So, we are not going to have the support and yes, this is going to drag this on and we are going to be in a worse position. If I felt

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my town was going to support the teachers and the students, I would say yes, but no. But unfortunately, I don't feel that way. I've watched the administration sit up there, both sides. You've got Lakeville and you got Freetown, and they all say no. No to

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teachers, no to school budget. No, no, no, no, no. So, what is that going to do? That's going to cause Freetown and Lakeville to sit in a room, go at each other, and we're going to be back here, and we're going to have nothing accomplished again. And what is that going to do? It's going to continue to

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hurt our students, and we're already doing enough damage, >> right? If I thought that it had any chance of batting because I do think these cuts are catastrophic, I would keep pushing. But

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at this point, I think we're just going to keep pushing and stay in uncertainty for no reason when I think the administration and staff would be much better served, able to move on and prepare and

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begin the next school year, not hanging under this. Can we sort of um flesh out what we think will happen? Right. Right. We All right. So, the boat failed. We don't have a budget right now.

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If we went with a compromised budget or if we went with level services budget, the next step is the joint town meeting. What do we think will happen at the joint town meeting? That what has changed? Because the message that I think we're getting from Lakeville is

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number one, we're not paying more taxes for the school budget. We failed the override. Number two, at the town meeting, we don't want your parliamentary procedures to move money around. You're not taking money from other places. Number three,

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just recently, you're not using our rainy day funds. We stay out of our piggy bank. We're not giving you that either. So, they've rejected every opportunity they've had to fund this. What will be different at the end of August? like do we

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what's changed to make us think that they're going to actually approve it? >> Yeah. And I will say that we took some heat for using our rainy day funds to cover salaries and we are now asking the town to do the same which then as they

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said at the town meeting next year there's going to be an even bigger gap between what we need to level service if we you know still had all those staff and what the town is planning to offer. We it

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next year would be a much bigger difference. >> I think this is very if we were to prevail at the joint town meeting. It is a very I don't know if it would be a win. It's very short term. That's one year and let's say we get to hire these

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people. We get to get these positions. We're going outside the district because we can't recall people. What's the message that you give when you know you're going to be having this fight in June again? Who would want to come here for a year knowing they're likely

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to get, you know, have the same be in the same position in June of potentially being laid off? >> True. You'd be trying to hire new people who know that that might be very temporary. So I believe that the end result will be the same regardless of

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the decisions. We are going to be in this position next year and the year after and the year after. We will be next year, but we have time to >> options to mitigate that. And we won't

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be as far apart as if we somehow got the town to agree to use, >> you know, their rainy day funds basically for school staff. >> Catherine, with all due respect, like you were there, I wasn't. I watched it,

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but I watched residents get up to that mic. They didn't even care. They said, "Get to the vote. Let's get to the vote. Let's get out of here. Let's get to the vote." >> That's not gonna change. >> It might not change, but

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the reason that I'm on the committee was that this is I took a professional and personal oath to the community's children. And I don't agree that this is hurting

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them more. I'm looking long-term. I'm looking that this has to get to the state level for change to be made and I don't see any other way around it

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that we will not recover from 60 positions eliminated. In my opinion, my opinion wanted to speak in that. >> Yeah. Court to Courtney's point, what would be different is a joint town meeting would give pre-Town residents a

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chance to express themselves, which they feel they haven't had an opportunity to at this. Now, I agree that probably the results are going to be the same, but for a lot of people, that's important for their voices to be at least heard. Uh I've been to a joint town meeting as I

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indicated in the past. I didn't see a big uh schism at the after that conclusion of that town meeting. Uh both towns know they have an obligation. Uh the fact that Lakeville wants to uh balance a budget on the backs of

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children is their decision. I can't agree with it. It's not my position as a school committee member to agree to that. I'm supposed to vote to give students the best opportunity they have to get an education. I don't think you can vote any other

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way. Even though it's probably going to go down in in defeat, but at least it gives some residents an opportunity to have their say, which they don't feel they have right now. Well, Bob, I think that's why we pushed

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it another step to try to give the Freetown residents a voice, but at the same time, I just don't I don't know where it's going to go that's going to change anything. And >> oh, I don't think it's going to change anything either.

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>> But I would argue that Freetown residents had their chance to use their voice. They voted to approve this budget back on June 1st or whatever. >> I don't I don't know. as they understand the situation we're in now. >> I'm honestly I think Freetown's going to

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very much have their chance to fight this out next year with you know their their own budget and town meeting next year's I I just feel like we need to focus our

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efforts on next year and and try to figure out how we can end up in Maybe not a better place, but certainly not a worse place. I respect the desire to see this through to the end, but I also think we can't be

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making decisions on hope alone, right? We I if we don't think there's a realistic path to this, there's a lot of time and effort that goes into this, too. We would have to fund it. I think the message is loud and clear, and I don't think Lakeville is going to

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change their mind. And I, you know, I respect the comment about, you know, it's a small number of people voting, but it's been a small, those are the same people turning out three times. There's been three opportunities to get more turnout, and it hasn't succeeded. Tim,

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>> um, I think my concern with a joint meeting is that Freetown was able to pass the vote probably for one of two reasons. The first being that we have the money available to support the level services budget and the second being I think a

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lot there was a lot of pressure relieved because even a week in advance they knew Lakeville wasn't going to pass theirs. >> So like Bob had mentioned in the past it's easy to to say no. My my concern is Freetown potentially maybe feels that

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they didn't have the voice to speak, but there are nos in Freetown also. And if all of the nos show up and not enough yeses, which is exactly what happened in Lakeville, then we have a joint town meeting where both towns now say no

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because now Freetowns may be ma made more aware of the reality of this and might not like it the same they did in June. And that's my concern is you get these towns coming together

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and they have their concerns and you have way more nos because as we've mentioned the town administrators on both sides elected officials and the the like there's not a huge support for our schools and our school committee and that goes for both

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towns. That being said, they have a lot more pull with the talents folks than we do sometimes because our main focus is the schools and the students alone. We don't work for the voters. We work in the best interest of the students. And at this

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juncture, dragging this out for however long, at least right now, we have 30 days to the start of school for families and students and staff to swallow this and prepare the best they can.

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I'm not looking forward to the next decade of my kids being in school here at all. And I should be. I sit here and I want what's best for my students and I'm not looking forward to it one little bit. Right? So that means other decisions need to be made for for folks and

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families. It doesn't make it easy, but pushing this out isn't going to fix it either. >> And to Tim's point, at our town meeting, there were a lot of other agenda items. This is going to be one agenda item specific for the schools. So people who

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have strong opinions one way or the other are going to be there. At town meeting there were so many articles. There was the library and COA. You might have had people out for that, right? Other things that were important to them. This is going to be very specific to us and not those other big ticket

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items that you know people just voted on the budget but they really wanted to vote on something else. Okay, Becky. Um, I just have a quick question. Has, um, has the town of Lakeville come back at all with a

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compromise? >> No. Right. No. No. I I mean, I don't know if we had gone with compromise to begin with. Maybe that would have been, but I I think at this point anything we

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keep pushing for is going to get much greater push back. >> Tim, just one, sorry. Um, I would be remiss if I didn't say that this is going to be very difficult for our families, especially those with

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students in school and a couple of us sit up here, right? Um, this will be a there will be reminders very consistently that this is what happened. This won't be forgotten this year coming or the

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following. I will remind Lakeville and Freetown both if I have to each meeting that when you have these classrooms full and you have your students struggling and you have these things happen where the Chromebook doesn't solve all the

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problems and parents still work and and these things still have to happen. If we had a level services budget in the first place, we would be fine. But it's because of the vote of the towns that we're stuck in this position

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and it is not our vote. We're just working with what we have left. Okay. Well, we have voted down that last motion. So, do we have a new motion? Make a motion to reconsider. Um, what's

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it? I have the number right there. Yeah. Motion to reconsider to approve the FY27 budget salary portion in the amount of 27,813,04. Option one. >> Seconded. So,

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I have a motion and a second. What would we like to discuss further? >> Okay. Well, roll call. >> I have a question. Sorry, I'm trying to organize my thoughts. Approving this amount.

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What changes for us? What are we going to do differently? >> We do have >> What are the towns going to do differently? >> Yeah. >> Because again, this isn't us. >> This is the towns. So, this is going to require our select boards and our town

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administrators to figure out what they're going to do to get the money for our students. So, and I don't I'm not saying that towards you. I'm just saying like what does it do to us? We're still in the same position where we're trying to help our students. This isn't our

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vote. The towns are bigger than us and they need to figure out where they're going to get the money to continue to help our students >> to continue to have schools that are accredited. >> Yes. >> Um and right >> honestly more parents are going to need

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to come out to vote. >> And the folks that are upset about the teachers budget, your teachers are going to earn every single penny that they got with bigger classrooms and zero help. They are going to earn every single penny. Not that they weren't already

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because they were already underpaid. >> Okay. Any more discussion? All right. Well, um >> I I was just going to say, you know, I think I think we're all looking at the town administration, select board, and things

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to to work on our financial stability. However, if it were that easy, would already be there. >> Mhm. I agree. But maybe this is going to be a wakeup call that something needs to be done because unfortunately there are thousands 2500 2400 children in this

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district and a good amount of them are probably going to struggle and sometimes the only way that things actually work and people get to action is when they see how damaging this is for them and their families. And so I'm hoping that as sad as it is that it falls on our

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teachers and most importantly our students, I'm hoping folks wake up and realize that they don't want their district to be in this position next year. Cuz guess what? Probably next year we're not going to be in top 10 or top twelves of our state because we don't

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have it. So hopefully when folks start to see that and feel the impacts of what this is going to do, they're going to step up and do things that need to be done. I I agree with you obviously if it was that easy, but here's the thing. It's already it's always been funded. Someone's always figured out a way to

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make it happen. So, no one has unfortunately suffered here. And again, I am not for it being our students at all. But until the families feel the impact of what their children are missing, they're not going to do anything. They're just going to allow this to continue to ride and and someone

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else is going to take care of it. Just like the PTO, they raised a ton of money. They wanted to give some of the money to help us. You know what happens if they give the money to us? Lakeville says, "Thank you so much. Now that's one less thing we have to do next year." No. Not acceptable.

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Folks need to unfortunately feel what this is going to h what this is going to do and the impact in order to make change. >> I honestly think that there's probably a good portion of parents who don't realize what's coming.

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>> So there's that. And but I would also I forgot to for your question you know what what are we doing as far as going forward Dr. Starky, you know, as putting together her strategic planning committee. It's not like a, you know, instant solution, but certainly

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>> we're working on, you know, what we can do. >> Did you want to >> No. No. >> I just have one more question. Historically, when positions are cut, do they get restored?

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I think over time, you know, 60 positions don't come back in one day. 38 positions don't come back in one day. >> Huge. >> I think there's opportunity over time. Okay. Do we want to start the roll call

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vote now? I think we're all set with discussion. Courtney Breman, >> yes. >> Jen Blum, >> yes. >> Bob Clark, >> no. >> Becky Kushing, >> no. >> Tim Emory, >> abstain.

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>> Derek Maderas, >> yes. >> Melinda Richards, >> yes. >> Katherine Trrost, >> no. I do have a question for legal counsel now. What happens if we are just

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>> So we have a well two things. One, you still have the operational side of the um budget to vote, which I know it doesn't solve the budget problem, but it might be worth doing just so we see where everyone is. Um two options. One is to then discuss the two town meeting.

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you need to have a warrant that is signed by a majority of the school committee members um which we're numbers wise we're getting a little bit um complicated I think um or you know you also may want to consider adjourning and meeting again next week to sort of

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continue thinking and getting information um and just kind of giving it time maybe speak to constituents I don't know so those are sort of the two options I Okay. Well, in that case, I will move to vote to

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approve the FY27 budget all other portions in the amount of 19,351,366. >> Second. Motion second. Any discussion? >> Yes. >> Um, Mr. Mr. Higgins, could you comment

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on what you feel that vote would cover if we voted for the operational portion in a and accepted and approved that piece of it, where do we stand? >> So, this wouldn't uh vote to approve

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your budget. This would only be approving those non- salary portion that you're required to because you have a sitting member that is has a family member that works for the district. So this is an operation. The entire budget is operational. >> Uh this is non salary portion.

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>> So these are just >> so they're pretty hand in hand. >> Correct. Yes. It is broken up simply because you have a sitting member. >> Okay. Okay. It's not like we could say we're going to cut X Y and Z operationally and that piece could be

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>> correct. All of this is your operational budget. >> Thank you. just you wouldn't have a a budget, right? So like even if you approved this part, you wouldn't have a budget that you could then go to a portion of out because you still have the the salary portion. This is sort of a procedural way of getting to it, right? But

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>> the only reason why I said it was because Mr. Emory hasn't had a chance to to vote. So I thought again just as you figure out next steps, it might be helpful to just have the the larger discussion where he can he can vote. >> Thank you. >> Sure. >> Okay. Any more discussion?

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Okay, a roll call. >> Courtney Brightman, >> yes. >> Jen Blum, >> yes. >> Bob Clark, >> I need the motion repeated. My hearing aids are not working. >> I move to approve the FY27 budget, all

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other portions in the amount of 19,351,366. >> So that's not the original, >> which is the >> Thank you. >> option one. Yes. >> Thank you. So, your vote is >> no. >> Becky Cushing,

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>> no. >> Tim Emory, >> yes. >> Derek Maderas, >> yes. >> Melinda Richards, >> yes. >> Katherine Trust, >> no. >> So, one, two, five. Yes. And no, doesn't

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pass. if we were to come back next week and go around the same way, like what happens if we cannot come to a consensus at some point? >> So, you'll you'll have to go to a two- town meeting um at some point. Um the commissioner will keep the 112th budget

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from now until December and then in December would take fiscal control and I don't know if that's what u was talking about with the state getting involved and I think >> I think Mr. Higgins talked about that a little bit. It's it's I've never seen it happen. Frankly, it's very rare. Um I don't know that that the state would do

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something very different than sort of the 112. Um just to be clear, I can just that is the when we talk about uh commissioner control, it's not the state coming in and taking control of the operation operational or financial um

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operations of the district. they would be setting our budget and setting it in a very similar way that they set it for the 112th budget. Um they do that really because in I'm sure if you if I may uh

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if regional schools took it to the December one and it became and they were and the commissioner was to be creating changing budgets and increasing budgets that time you'd have towns really difficult time in the middle of the year and you'd have

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regional school districts doing that every year. So the the information we received from the re office of regional governance is that when the commission commissioner at December 1, they're resetting they're stating our new budget at the for the rest of the year and that it would be very much in line with what

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we currently have with 112th. With that being said, should we have to get past a threshold, and I don't have that threshold yet what that date would be, we would not have enough in our budget to fully fund the year given that we were about a little over a million dollars short of where we would have to

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make additional cuts if we went if we if we extended past uh a certain threshold. >> So, you're going to be looking at midyear cuts. >> Okay. Um, also, I just wanted to clarification. So if we didn't come to a

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consensus and it had to go to a joint town meeting, we do have to provide a warrant. >> Correct. If >> we don't agree on a warrant, I can we put in two different warrants. >> That's sort of the hard part because a warrant needs to be signed by um a majority of the committee. So I was over

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here unfortunately trying to do math, which is not my strong suit. So I'm not sure that you have a majority to sign the warrant. And frankly, I don't know what happens then because obviously there's the two-third vote for this and a majority for the warrant. The regulations do not spell out what happens if you can't get a majority for

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the warrant. Um, it does say that there shall be a two- town meeting. So, I think at some point, um, we may have to call Desessie or figure that out. So, >> Courtney, >> um, so I have a question. Um, we go to the joint town meeting, they approve a

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number different than what we approved. It comes back to us. Correct. >> We go through this rig and roll again. >> Correct. >> We can potentially have a second joint town meeting. >> Correct. >> So, if the budget level services gets rejected at a joint town meeting, at what point do we decide

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we're calling it? Is that the point? I guess I'm I'm happy to answer that personally. So, in from my perspective, as we had previously discussed, you know, Free Time did vote for it. So I would like them to be able to have the

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opportunity to come to the table and do the joint town meeting for for that purpose. Personally, I would not then continue going. If we go to the joint town meeting and it gets turned down, I would personally call it a day at that

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point. >> Yes, Tim. >> I don't want to speak on behalf of the town of Freetown, but that scares the heck out of me. >> Absolutely. >> Absolutely. because I don't think our town will support it. I think it's going to be more wellnown. Um, you're going to have families who are still on vacation

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or at the ball field still who can't attend, which is what happened before. Um, and I think I think you're going to have a lot more people saying, is this override number four? What like what are they going to call this now? And I I'm

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not trying to have the secondhand embarrassment for our entire committee, but at what point are we going to sit back and say, you know what, we have a month for our families to figure out what they're going to do. We've already had I'm I I've heard through families

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and friends, we've already had uh folks interviewing at private schools, looking at other places to go in the first place. Mhm. >> Our numbers are going to continue to decline and that's not going to help the towns support us any better. >> But how does that leave us worse than

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the situation? Because from a financial perspective, we're in the same situation >> if we approve the budget, right, than the 112 budget. I don't know how quickly that could be wrapped up. And >> I I don't understand the question. How

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does what leap can you >> Yeah, sure. No, I um Tim was saying, you know, kind of that I I guess I don't see I don't see a negative to having the joint town meeting. >> I don't see the value in it. >> I think it's going to be incredibly

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divisive. I think what's happened has already been divisive in the communities. I think this is just going to make it worse. People in Lakeville are going to say, "This is the fourth time I've had to come out and vote." on top of going out to vote twice on Old Colony.

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You're, you know, we're not the only ones they said no to. They said no to Old Colony, too. >> And on top of that, >> not going to, >> sorry. On top of that, like, think about our Freetown representatives that get up at that podium. Negative, negative,

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negative. If you think that's not going to go out through the whole community, like Tim said, they have far more influence than we do. I hear about stuff at the transfer station, okay? Like that's the craziest thing. But I hear rumors at the transfer station. Like the

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fact that no one is going to get up. You're going to have our town administrators standing at that podium talking about how our our teachers get paid too much. They don't get enough. The schools are this. Everything has always come down on us. Everything has always been about the schools, the schools, the schools. We fund this too

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much. We fund that too much. That's what they're going to get up there and say in front of everybody in Freetown, the folks that do show up because to Tim's point, people are on vacation. People are still at ball fields. I know cuz I've been at one for the last 3 weeks. So, I get it. This is it's not going to

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it's not going to put us in a different position other than we're going to now have two towns that are fighting each other when right now we need to come together and figure out how this is going to work for next year. That being said, I would like to make a motion to

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table everything else on this agenda for tonight. I would like to adjourn. As much as I absolutely do not want to come back again next week, I think that maybe we take the pulse, maybe you take

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the pulse of the folks out there and see that this is not necessarily going to be beneficial. And again, I've said a million times, I'm here and I I push this forward because I believe in the voices of Freetown. But then as I started to listen to the people talk

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about the fact that brought to my attention, the folks that get up at that podium and do nothing but crap on us and this school department, they're going to have way more say than we are. Because if we had enough say, we wouldn't be here in the first place.

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The no votes are far more motivated than the yes votes. Plenty of people are I'm sure like yes, but they're not as passionate enough about that to show up and vote for it. The people who don't want it are very passionate and they all show up

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just like we don't hear enough about the great things that the teachers and our administration and we sit up here and do year after year. But you know what? We sure do get inundated with all the negative and it's the same thing. >> I think it's going to be a surprise for

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people to have their kids go back to school. Some, not everyone, absolutely not everyone, but some people and have their kids go back to the elementary schools and find no library anymore. That, you know, they're going to start some people are going to start to care. >> Point of clarification. >> I think there

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>> um I believe there was a motion to adjurnn. >> Yes. >> I didn't hear a second. >> No, true. There hasn't been a second. A motion was made though, just to be clear. >> Motion was to table everything. >> Yes. And the motion was to table everything, adjourn, and re

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>> reconvene next week. >> Are people available next week? >> Whenever they're available. You guys can put your email out, figure out what days everybody's available, and we can go from there. I don't know if everybody's available next week. I don't even know if I'm available. But I know we're not going to get anywhere here tonight and

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we're going to sit here and go back and forth about this for what, another hour and a half and still be in the same position. >> You will not find me coming back with a new vote next week though. >> Before we adjourn, is anyone compelled

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to change their position? >> I'm still going to abstain from the salary portion. >> Did you get a second? >> No, I didn't get a second. Did I get a second? >> Second. >> Second. All right. So, now discussion. >> No, I was asking a question, but

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>> Oh, I'll make the second. Now it's discussion. Before we adjourn, is anybody compelled to change their position based on the discussion we've had question? adjourning till next week then just pushes us out the deadline to

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>> have a joint town meeting. >> Yeah, >> we're not getting anything. >> We I agree with Jen. I think we need to adjourn because we also need to speak with look into the warrant situation and what happens if we do not have

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um the majority vote for the warrant because I would like to find that information out and that may um >> and that's my whole point is let's get a little bit more information. Put your feelers out there. Talk to your towns. See where the folks are at. gather all

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your information. Whether it changes your mind or not, who knows? But understand that like the warrants, >> right? >> If we can't agree here, we're not agreeing on a warrant. So, where are we going? We're going further and further and further. And that's not helping anybody in this situation.

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>> Yes. If I may, >> I'm not even the chair. Yes. >> If I may, and I I I don't like speaking on behalf of other people's feelings and their emotions and how they are. I can tell you that if it was my position that was on the

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line of being cut, and I feel this way about our school committee and the sentiment of looking at positions being cut, I'd rather have as much notice as possible. And it's disappointing that we couldn't figure that out tonight. Whether it's good news or bad news, >> I agree. >> It should have been handled tonight and

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not dragged out any longer. And I would just encourage folks when they're getting their information to think about the long-term implications of this. We're going to come back next year and we're going to need support from our communities for a budget and

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are we eroding that any chance of that by continuing it now? We need to look forward. I have another question. Sorry. Um for Mr. Higgins and Dr. Sty understanding that the one health budget has been

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assigned assuming your spending is more in align with the current funding or the minimum that Lakeville is proposing >> the 112 budget.

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>> No, if I may go ahead. So our we we currently have because of the riffs that were made >> we would be aligned with that budget. >> That was my question. Thank you.

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>> Okay. Any more discussion? All right. Roll call vote. >> Courtney Brightman. >> Yes. >> Jen Blum. >> Yes. >> Bob Clark. >> Nope. Becky Cushing, >> no. >> Tim Emory,

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>> yes. >> Derek Daryus, >> no. >> Melinda Richards, >> yes. >> Katherine Trust, >> yes. >> Motion passes. >> All right. So

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we're done.