Welcome to the Tuesday, February 10th, 2026 meeting of the Long Meadow School Committee. Mass General Law allows for remote participation at public meetings until June 30th, 2027. All votes while there is a remote participation must be made by roll call
vote. This meeting is being recorded and aired live on LCTV. School committee members, when I call your name, please say here for the record. Nicole >> here. >> Kate, >> here. Jamie >> here. >> And that's it. Pledge of
>> Allegiance. Pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for it stands. One nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. >> Correspondence.
>> Thank you. We have two emails from Michelle Hong dated February 3rd and February 8th. Two emails from Christine Cronage dated February 3rd. And two emails from Christine Cronage dated February 4th. An email from Cara Downey
dated February 3rd. An email from May and Dennis O dated February 4th. >> Thank you. We have um no minutes for tonight to be approved. So next we have public speak. Is there anyone here tonight for the public speak? I don't know if that's
>> Yeah. >> Sure. Go ahead, Angie. >> Hi. >> Hi. >> I'm Andrea Chase and do you need my address? >> Please. >> So, yes. 236 Crest Circle, Logto. Been a
resident here for 38 years going on a long time. Anyway, tonight I come to you as chair of the sustainability committee and ask you to help support the February 25th showing of a movie called Plastics
People, which is the hidden crisis of microlastics. And we're showing it at the Long Meadow High School Auditorium. And doors are opening at 6. And the movie will begin promptly at 6:30 and be followed by um a moderated panel with
questions and answers that will last about 45 minutes. The movie itself is 84 minutes, so we should all be out of there before 9:00. We're also uh there's a snow date of March 17th. Let's hope
there's no snow that night. Um, we're going to be offering child care if you register and there's a poster that's been presented and um, Dr. O'Shea, I think you've received a copy of the poster.
>> Uh, there's a QR code. Um, I'm sorry. I interrupted you. >> No, that's okay. Uh, just confirming we did receive it and it is posted on our uh, eboard and some of the principles have also sent it out directly. So, we're pushing the message out for you.
>> Thank you. I appreciate that because I feel like we're uh hosting a party and I don't know who is going to be coming. But in any event, this is um quite a coalition of Long Meadow committees and organizations and um that includes as I said energy
and sustainability, the Long Meadow High School climate change club, the Key Club will be offering child care for registered children, recycling commission, the conservation commission, First Church Environmental Justice Team,
the Sinai Temple Social Action Committee, St. Mary's parish transitions and alum democratic town committee and parks and rift is also helping us with this too. So it's quite a significant event and our hope for outcomes of this
is one education of people about what's happening with the use of plastics as you all may know they don't decompose. They just continually break down into smaller and smaller and
smaller micro pieces and they're showing up in everywhere from the fish we eat to the soil that grows our food to the animals that we eat uh in our own bodies. They're um present everywhere.
And I've seen pictures of microplastics. If you dust your house, you're going to find microplastics in it. So we don't um and it's showing up in uh mother's milk and placentas. So that's pretty ubiquitous.
And what we want to encourage people to do is there'll be um information provided to all attendees about how they can begin to reduce plastics, the importance of recycling um and ultimately looking at the use of
plastics within our community and hopefully having an impact on um both uh commercial and non-commercial entities about reding ing plastic use.
So, any questions? I'm not sure if I did justice to what I'm asking, but uh Emily, perhaps you can also help with this. >> Yeah. Um, so Andrea has been instrumental in making sure that we've got some good awareness for um the event
coming up and wanted to just go ahead and plug it here again um and make sure that we can get some good attendance and some good partnership. Thank you, Andrea, >> and thank you, Emily, and thank you for your work in engaging the the schools
with this important topic. >> Is there anybody else? >> We're hoping that the climate change club, who is meeting tonight as well, will have one of their young people on the panel to talk about the importance of
the planet for them. and they're very involved and committed and so they're toying with the idea of actually having a presence on the panel which will be great. >> Thank you so much Andrea. Is there anyone else here tonight for public
speak? All right. Next is school committee announcements and recognitions. Does anyone have any announcements or recognitions? All right. So, and we don't our business with gas
is being postponed. So, now we'll move on to the public hearing of the proposed budget. >> Well, thank you. uh appreciate the opportunity to uh present
the administrative recommendation for the FY27 budget. This is the budget to support our activities during the 2627 school year. And um as a school committee can see, but perhaps folks at home may not be able to see that our entire administrative team is here. I'm
grateful that they were able to to attend tonight. Uh we bring this recommendation to you as an administrative team. um uh really fortunate to work with such an amazing team uh with such an array of talents and perspectives and uh we try to align
our activities uh align our goals, our school goals, our district goals so that when it comes time to put the budget together, some of the harder questions are answered. So uh I thank them for their attendance here. Um really really fortunate to have them as as as teammates in our in our work. Uh Mr. Naz
of course uh as the committee knows has been deeply involved in putting together the details of this recommendation. Uh there are detailed documents that have been made available to the committee and made available to the public as well. Um and so also thanks to the town manager
and uh the finance director for their assistance in helping us shape this budget. uh our intention always is to bring forward a budget that is educationally effective uh but is also conscious of the fiscal challenges that the town is facing as well. So it
represents a budget that I believe is very much aligned with our goals but is also uh manageable to the town. So uh quick look at our budget calendar. Uh as the committee knows this is a long journey. We're at the early stages of developing the uh the budget for the
FY27 uh for the 2627 school year. Uh still many moving parts and uh budgets can evolve right up to and even into uh a given school year. Um our job tonight is to present to you our best
understanding of uh projected costs and anticipated revenue. So we are at the the public hearing stage of the budget. Uh the committee will have one more opportunity to deliberate and potentially vote on the budget on February 24th. Uh this, as you know, is
a uh a budget that represents a revision from the recommendation that we made on February 3rd. Uh this recommendation is $174,000 uh below the recommendation that we made last week. Uh the reason for that is
that uh subsequent to the budget presentation last week, we learned that the Scanic Valley Regional Health Trust had voted to increase health insurance rates on active employees uh by 11.2%. And so that was beyond what the town had
originally projected. uh and it really is reflective of the the pressure that health insurance uh costs are putting on municipal budgets and state budgets uh and federal budgets everywhere. So uh we
had to be responsive to that. Um I'm pleased to say that uh tonight's recommendation it will not impact direct service. I use I use that phrase direct service very intentionally. Uh there are some reductions that we can discuss as
the presentation rolls on, but our intention anytime we have to make some adjustments to the budget, if it's a downward uh adjustment, we want to keep those um we want to keep the effects as far away from direct service as possible. And so that was our intention
and that's reflected in the revised presentation tonight. Um we'll we'll get into the details as we move along. uh at the high. So all of these um these figures are new uh based on the the recommendation, the revised
recommendation. This would increase the contribution of the town's general fund to Long Meadow Public Schools by 1,77,536 over FY26. And you'll see that the total budget when you factor in special revenue is about $1.1 million over FY26.
So we think that this is a uh a a manageable uh proposal that is again reflective of the the the challenges that the town is facing. Um it to think about it in terms of percentages. This
is a 2.6% increase um in the contribution from the general fund to Long Meadow Public Schools over FY26. The overall budget would increase by 2.47%. uh and we can we'll talk a little bit about how that those figures relate to
historic increases to set a a very broad context for the budget. I I really want to use this opportunity to convey to the committee and to the wider community that this budget is a reflection of our strategic
priorities that the allocations within this budget uh are reflective of the goals that are depicted here. uh the professional development that we organize, the resources that are allocated, the staffing decisions that we make, all of these things are driven by the strategic priorities that are
captured in our district improvement plan. Um I'm really proud that um the goals of the school committee are very much in line with the goals of the district, which are very much in line with the goals of the school and are in turn aligned with the goals of our
individual educators. So um everything is driven by the fiscal by the strategic priorities that are depicted here and we're happy to answer any questions that you might have uh towards the end of the presentation. We also want to convey uh
to the community that we take our responsibility to be stewards of the budget very very seriously. Um, I have a great administrative team that is always actively chasing down opportunities to enhance the budget through
non-entitlement grants. Uh, entitlement grants are those that that we're entitled to simply by application to the federal government or the state. But there's a variety of sources of uh non-entitlement grants that fuel our work as well. The drug-free communities
grant that the committee heard about a couple of weeks ago. Uh, nerari, Dr. Nlder Rosari, our director of student and family support, was uh the author of a hate crimes prevention grant that's that's u driving some important work for us. Uh Nick George is with us. He's our
technology director. Uh Nick has been actively pursuing uh cyber security awareness training grants. Dr. Beth Nelson, our curriculum director. um always seeking out ways to advance professional development and secure
highquality curriculum materials through grants as well. So across the board uh we're always looking for opportunities to enhance the uh the budget that is provided to us largely by local taxpayers.
Efficiency is very important to us. Uh and I know to the committee one of the things that like sort of the marching orders that we've received from the committee is to ensure that we have a a multi-year curriculum review cycle so that we can properly plan uh for those
adoptions and uh Dr. Nelson working with the curriculum subcommittee has put us in a great position for that. We have introduced panorama uh which I think is a a tool that helps us with our our workflow in terms of identifying student
needs. It's a it's a centralized uh place to hold academic attendance seal and behavioral data. Uh we're at the early stages of our use of panorama but it's be going to become increasingly powerful in the years ahead. Um Dr.
Nelson again to her credit has done a nice job of kind of making sure that we're properly accounting for and managing all the software subscriptions. As you'll recall during COVID, um it was sort of the wild wild west in terms of the adoption out of necessity of uh a
variety of software tools. But we're trying to make sure that we're being strategic and focused in in the use of uh software across the district, aligning curriculum, responding to enrollment patterns. Uh and credit to uh Nicole Paris Crow, our director of
special education, who's always seeking opportunities to serve kids better by building in district programs. And and we certainly that's something that is a continual pursuit for us. All of these things make education better, but they also make us more efficient. All of
these things help us uh work smarter across the board. Um again, on the operational side, um kind of a a credit to Nick George for doing such a great job of working with uh town
officials to make sure that we're we're managing the detection of cyber threats and that we're able to respond to those. Uh Nick has introduced some improved workflows uh on the technology side. We're managing uh more and more devices
nowadays. Um and I think about the number of uh devices and network points that uh we manage now compared to where we were 10 years ago. It's exploded. Uh and all these things make for a more robust experience for staff and students, but it's more for our tech
team to manage. and they've done a nice job of creating uh efficient ways to respond to end users, efficient ways to manage the fleet of devices that exist across the district and on the town side. Um we're always looking for ways
to work smarter. Uh Tammy Welcome, our our new assistant to the school committee and to the superintendent, uh has been working tirelessly over the last two months probably uh working towards a fully online approach to student
registration. I'm really pleased to say it's live. It's a go. Uh and we're receiving uh registrations from the class of 2039. I can't believe I'm saying that, but 2039.
um future kindergarteners. And then um we've begun to really tighten up the partnership with the DPW. We've invited DPW officials to our administrative meetings on a semi-regular basis. Uh and they've invited us to uh have access to
their cloud-based work order system. Again, these things we're we're always trying to refine our responses so that we're working we're working more efficiently. Again trying to convey that we're it's important to us that the community knows we take our stewardship of the tax
dollars that we are fortunate to receive very very seriously. Uh outside partnerships again looking across the administrative team each of our directors in their own way has established partnerships with Bay Path University. That's something that we
want to expand on. Uh the collaborative for educational services has provided some critical training for us. And then looking uh around the bend uh to the opening of the new middle school in 2028. I I believe that that's really a huge opportunity for us to work smarter
rather than harder. It's an opportunity for us to um create some operational efficiencies and be more educationally effective at the same time. So, uh, you know, we we talk a lot about teaching and learning, but I I would want the committee to know, the community to know
that behind the scenes that we're always working to, uh, increase, uh, our effectiveness. Um, and I feel like there's plenty that we can point to. Just to step back uh in terms of some context in terms of the revenue
expenditures and return on investment. Uh I'm I'm really proud uh to see the the return that this community receives on the investment that they make in Long Meadow Public Schools. And so some highlevel data uh to share and explain
that to you. I want to start by just talking about the building blocks of a school budget. Uh at the at the base is chapter 78. This is the main source of aid that we receive from the state of Massachusetts. Uh it's about a $7 million plus um source of revenue to
Long Meadow Public Schools in the town of Long Meadow. Every town is assigned a minimum local contribution. That's basically based on your ability to pay. So it's it's based on the uh the wealth and the tax base of a particular town. Every town has a
minimum local contribution. Those two things combine to establish a foundation budget. Most communities in Massachusetts, nearly all, spend above that foundation budget. They spend above what is minimally required. And I want
to talk a little bit about what that looks like in Long Meadow. And then on top of that is is everything from grants to user fees to um other sources of revenue, uh even gate receipts. So all of these things combine to uh build the
LPS school budget. So what does that look like here in Long Meadow? Um you'll see in the orange is the uh is chapter 70 aid. Um so again, we're anticipating about $7.3 million
from the state in chapter 7 or excuse me, this is goes back to FY25. the last year that the that the figures were were fully uh complete and baked and available to us. FY25, we received $7.3 million in chapter 78. The above minimum
contribution, the minimum contribution in Long Meadow was that that $27 million figure and then $14 million represented the uh the above minimum contribution. What the story this tells, I believe, is
that it's showing with that that top line, the the minimum local contribution. It's showing the increased cost of doing business, the increased costs associated with running a school district in Massachusetts.
What I think we ought to pay some attention to is that flatline in the middle, which is the above minimum local contribution. We're fortunate that Long Meadows spends considerably above what is minimally required, but that that
increase is starting to flatten out relative to the increase in the minimum amount that is required. So, hoping that makes sense. is happy to spend a little bit more time on that if if you have any questions. How does our minimum local contribution
uh compared to the minimum local contribution across the state? So, you'll see that on average, communities spend about 25% above what is minimally required. Long Meadow is in the 40% above what is
minimally required. But but that number has crept down in the fiscal years that I'm showing you here. Um so again it's simply to say that you know that that amount that you spend above what is minimally required I I believe that's
where where excellence lies like that's where you can uh really achieve um comparative excellence. And so I think it's something that we just need to a trend that perhaps we need to sort of keep our eyes on.
Now what does what are we anticipating for chapter 70 in FY27? You'll see that the governor's budget that was released at the end of January uh has us receiving just $75 per student
increase in chapter 78. That's a That's only a 2.58% increase. Again, what's the story here? I believe the story is that that that increase doesn't really keep pace with the cost of doing business. Um it's a
$75 per student. That's the minimum amount that a district can receive. about 200 or so districts uh are are in the same boat as us in terms of only receiving the bare minimum increase in chapter 78.
Will that number go up? It's possible as the legislative process wears on. It's possible that we might see that increase um go up in terms of the you know the the gross
amount that we receive in chapter 78 from the state. U you'll see that it has increased in recent years. I would credit the state for making uh a considerable effort to increase chapter 78 aid,
but the fact is that it hasn't kept pace with inflation. It hasn't kept pace with the pressure points in our budget and other communities budgets that I'll I'll show you shortly. Um, every community in Massachusetts is put
into a uh by the state put into a uh a cohort of districts based on uh similar levels of wealth, similar tax base. This is a cohort that Long Meadow is assigned to. What I would say is that this
suggests that we're getting a lot of bang for our buck here in Long Meadow. I would say that the the MCCAST results that you're seeing here uh that we fare well in comparison to comparable
districts. Um particularly pleased with the ELA and math performance at grades three through eight that we're we're outpacing um comparable districts in terms of relative wealth. When you look at our performance
relative to area districts, I think it tells a similar story. This is I suppose more expected. Uh but I would want to highlight the amount of spending on a per pupil basis for in district expenditures
in Long Meadow 7 in 2024. again the the the last fiscal year where this information was available to us um where it was kind of digested by the state reports Long Meadow was um at that year
$17,78 we were spending on a per pupil basis for in district expenditures less than neighboring districts but our performance um in most cases has been higher. The last bit of context I want to provide for you so that you can make an
informed decision and and and think uh deliberately about the budget relates to enrollment and class size. Historic enrollment uh Long Meadow like other communities experiencing a decline in enrollment. We're seeing that across Massachusetts, across the Northeast. This is not just a Long Meadow uh
concern. Our decline has not been as precipitous as the decline that we've seen in other communities. Uh but it is something that we have been responsive to. As enrollment has declined, so too has our staffing levels. And you'll see that in a slide later on. So we try to
be responsive to changing enrollment patterns. Looking ahead, um projected enrollment, uh we're not expecting to see a uh significant upturn or downturn. This information is provided to us by
the New England School Development Council. They annually do a uh an enrollment projection for us. So, um these are figures that we're looking at when we're making decisions about staffing, particularly in the in the early elementary grades.
um current enrollment uh not including students who are placed out of district 2723 students. You'll see that the size of the cohorts in the early grades is is smaller than the size of the cohorts in the later grades generally. Some exceptions there,
but generally that's the case. Those cohorts do tend to grow as they make their way through our schools. So that 166 that you're seeing in kindergarten, it's likely that that cohort will be larger by the time they make it to LHS.
I doubt that it will get to the levels that uh uh the class cohort sizes that we're seeing at Long Meadow High currently. >> What this budget will project in terms of elementary class size, I know this is an important value for the committee. uh
it has been an important driver of our budget decisions to ensure that we are uh creating manageable advantageous class size and I think uh this budget does provide for manageable advantageous
class sizes. This could change. Um, enrollment can shift of course from February to September when we're up and running, but generally we have class sizes that uh really work for our students and our
educators at the elementary level. So, on to the recommendation. uh to repeat a slide you saw earlier, the uh the anticipated increase uh from the general fund uh 1,77,536 over FY26.
You'll see the increase in the total budget is depicted on the bottom line. Again, percentage- wise was it what does that represent? A 2.6% increase from the general fund is the recommended uh figure for you tonight.
And then the total budget would increase with this recommendation by 2.47%. How does that increase in the general fund compared to historic increases? So this goes back uh about a dozen years or
so. So you'll see that the increase that we are anticipating are recommending we receive from the town of Long Meadow general fund is at 2.6% 6% falls in line with where we've been historically.
Same information uh depicted in chart form for you. I'd say that these have been I might even use the word modest increases in our budget over the years. uh when I when I talk to area
superintendent and I talk to them about the uh increases that they are projecting or anticipating quite frankly really goes beyond what we're seeing here and I just simply credit that to the the way that we're able to make wise
use of the budget that is available to us that is is critically important that you know we're investing where it makes a difference. Um, and again, I I think the increases that you're seeing are generally uh modest and have been
manageable over the years to the town. We always want to be cognizant of the fiscal position of the town. By fund source, you'll see that we are uh largely heavily reliant on the general fund where 92 just over 92% of
our funding uh comes from the town's general fund. Inside of that general fund number, of course, is the the chapter 70 fund that we talked about earlier. Circuit Baker. Uh some entitlement grants round out the
funding sources for our budget. Now, this is perhaps the most important slide. Um these are this is the revised set of recommendations revised from the recommendation that we provided you last
week. Um we will have to pay particular attention to hiring and be very cognizant that we are uh hiring folks who going to fit within the uh parameters of this budget. So I'm on the left side the reductions.
Um, so we we do have a a significant number of educators who are retiring and so there are some natural savings that come with retirement of individuals and replacing them with folks who are um lower on our negotiated salary
schedules. Anticipating a slight reduction in transportation services. Uh out of district tuitions, we're anticipating a decrease as well. Again, we we try to be very um thoughtful about uh serving
students in district to ensure that they're being educated, you know, in the most inclusive way possible, but also the most cost-effective way possible. One change on the again on the left side here that this recommended budget will
not allow us to fill a vacant elementary academic coaching position. So, I'd say that's that's one of the um biggest uh hits to the FY27 budget. That was not identified as a reduction last week. But
as we sat down to think about reductions that we could bring to you that were, you know, not involved in direct service, that was a position that we had identified. uh if we were down the road, if things broke more favorably in our favor, that is a position that perhaps
we'd want to come back to the committee and talk to you about restoring that uh academic coaching position. Those coaching positions have been really critical uh to support educators and to make sure that we're implementing curriculum with fidelity uh and in ways
that are supportive of the demands that are on our our elementary educators. on the right side call your attention to uh the fact that this budget will allow us to meet our negotiated contractual obligations.
Uh the number that also should jump off the page at you is the increase that we are anticipating in utilities. Everybody gets this. uh any homeowner, anybody who is responsible for uh heat,
electric bills, you understand that we're having the same experience here in Long Meadow Public Schools. So, that's an increase that goes way beyond what we have um ever seen in terms of the of projected utility expenditures.
We are expecting an uh to an increase in software and IT services. again, more devices, more users, more reliance on software. We can break that down for you uh uh with some additional detail if it
would be helpful. Um the other increases relate to instructional supplies and software, making sure that we have in particular the elementary um curriculum expenditures that we have an aotment for that. Um the we have an opportunity to
bring on uh a physical therapist while uh relying releasing uh lowering our dependence on a physical therapy assistant on the left hand side of the of the column here. And then some um some other modest increases that we are
anticipating. Substitute costs uh have continued to grow. That number is lower than what the increase that we had projected for you last week. So, we know we're going to have to tighten our belt and be really um sort of cognizant of
the amount of coverage that we need uh in our classrooms. So, it's a I wouldn't call this a level service budget, but I can confidently say that this won't have any direct impact on the services that
we provide, the programming that we provide to students. Thought this was helpful just to give you some sense of of um the cost centers that we um that uh that we have to excuse me. Um
you'll see that we are in a people business. Uh nearly 80% of our costs are tied to salaries. The next biggest chunk uh it relates to provide the provision of special education services to students. And then uh other utilities
that that gray wedge has grown, the orange transportation wedge has grown in recent years as well. Uh that was a big pressure point for us last year. You'll recall a lot of those costs haven't gone away. We are expecting to see some
modest decreases in our transportation costs, but it has grown regularly over the years. Um and then this again depicts the another pressure point for us the increasing costs of utilities,
electricity and natural gas. The FY27 proposed budget compared to the FY26 budget. Uh you'll see the dramatic increase from 26 budgeted to 27 budgeted
staffing. uh this will uh decrease staffing from the FY26 budget and it will decrease staffing from uh the revised FY26 budget as well. So uh again
when you look back to let's say FY 23 when we had the equivalent of 470 nearly near nearly 471 employees that number has declined and has shrunk as our enrollment has declined as well. So I
think that's important for folks to understand that that um we are responsive to changing enrollment patterns. And then again a wrap up at that with this highle summary that I've shown a few times. And
again I I'd say I know this is a slide that is important to Mr. Hench. He I think he recalls this one and and brings this resurfaces to one you know as as the budget season uh unfolds. But on the left hand side
are still some of the unknowns. Health insurance is still a a variable because we we still don't have the rates for retired employees. We have uh a projected rate for active employees. The town does. Enrollment can change. We
have two agreements that we will need to finalize hopefully before the beginning of the FY27 fiscal year. Federal grants. There's some uncertainty at the federal level as you know. special education services and
programming. Morally, ethically, legally, we need to be responsive to the the needs of special education students. Uh final state aid levels unknown. Committee still needs to make some uh decisions on feebased services.
these these wouldn't have a a huge impact huge swing on the budget but fee based services busing preschool athletics and then finally the number of school choice and metco students that we receive on the right hand side
what are you know some strategic targets if we were in a position to make additional investments if some things broke our way what would we want to consider some of those items are on the right hand side you making sure that we're
investing in that MTSS framework fully funding athletics. I know this has been an elusive target for us, but uh athletics is as as you know, as our parents know, as our staff knows, it's really funded uh to a considerable
degree um with user fees and gate receipts and the generosity of booster clubs. So, that's something that we feel like we could make a stronger effort in that area. uh career and prof professional development. Um really
Nicole Paris grow is this is something that she talks to us a lot about is is making sure that we have are we are we creating a pipeline uh from the par profofessional position into teaching positions that's something that we would like to support as well fully funding
curriculum renewal instructional coaching onboarding substitute teaching these are all strategic targets that we would like to hit if let's say the budget broke more in our favor favor and we are in a position to make some
additional investments. So, um again the calendar plenty in front of us. This will culminate with the annual town meeting on May 12th. Uh and we've been in regular communication with the town manager to make sure that we
understand the town's needs and to make sure the town understands the position that we're in here as well. That's it. and invite your questions, your feedback, if there's additional information you need. We got a whole bunch of administrators that are eager
to answer any questions that you might have. Um, I'm kidding. Uh, but, uh, we we stand ready to take any questions you have or go back to any slides or and if there's additional information you need before you vote on the budget in a couple of weeks, we can pull that
together as well. So, thank you for your patience. 36. It's awesome. >> Thank you, Dr. O'Shea, for the informative budget presentation. And um I just want to say thank you to all the
administrators and the central office including Tammy because it shows that there's a real h all hands- on deck approach that's been worked and collaborated on all year. And it's super impressive because in a time where things are not very good for many
schools and they're facing a lot of cuts and funding and increases in health insurance and utilities, you've managed to work together to provide a budget where the impact isn't affecting students and even like the elementary school
sizes staying between 16 to 22 kids is very impressive to me. Um, I know I I've taught elementary school for a long time and whenever there was budgets like this, my class got up to about 29 students, so I'm super impressed by this
and I just wanted to start with that. Does anybody else have >> you can go first? You good? >> Sure. Um, no. I mean, I was going to add on to what you said and I know the last week especially, um, suddenly thinking about where to find another 175,000 plus
dollars is not a small feat. So, um, thank you all for teaming up and finding a way to come together and find ways to make that number happen, um, without student facing results. Um, I did have one question that I suspect Tom is maybe
the person to answer. Um, can you talk about the transportation, um, and why we're anticipating a slight reduction there? >> Yeah, it's really based on utilization for our special ed students. So every year the collaborative gives us the assessment for what the next year's
budget will be and they base it on current ridership. So we see a slight decline in our special education wrership based on current ridership. So we're that's really where the the decreases come in for from overall in
our transportation because our regular ed transportation although the routes are staying the number of routes staying the same costs are increasing to provide the services but we're seeing about a half a bus reduction in special ed based on ridership. >> Great.
>> Does that also relate to the um savings and $95,000 getting >> No, that would be um associated to tuitions. So that's a separate cost center, but again it's based on at least our best guess in students in terms of their placements and the programs
they're in um and the cost associated with those specific placements. >> Thank you Timmy. >> Yep. Can you just go and thank you for the 36 minutes as well is the very thorough >> 36 slides. 36 I think it was
>> No, it was about 36 minutes. >> Oh, really? That must be lucky. It's a minute for >> Can you go to the uh the energy slide real quick? I just want to make sure. >> So on that energy side, am I reading this right? Is that we we're we're budgeting up, but we're budgeting down from the actuals.
>> Yeah. I mean, >> kind of taking a chance there >> a bit. It's been a very cold winter. Our natural gas consumption has been higher than what we've seen in prior years. So I'm hopeful that it doesn't reach the utilization that we're seeing this year
in FY27. So yes, we are taking a bit of a hedge that our consumption won't be as high. Correct. >> So our actuals, we're guessing that's going to go down. We're guessing our budget's going to go up based off of where we're at. >> Yeah. I mean the the driver really in
that is the increase in the the cost to purchase the electricity and natural gas over about a 12 month period in from November of 24 to November of 25. Our
natural gas unit price went up by about 47%. And our electricity price has increased by about 42%. In the last three years, in the last contract to our current one. So that's really what's driving that. I mean, our
consumption, although we track it, has been pretty consistent. Some fluctuations from year to year depending upon temperatures, but it's not it's more the per unit cost that we're seeing the increase that's driving um the bottom line increase for our utilities.
>> Okay. And then just my second question if go just on the uh athletics just so everybody follows the little line going through that 15 grand wasn't covering all of it. So on there >> just you know this past year just so everybody was I think we put either 215
or 230 from the general fund >> correct >> into it to cover cover it that the fees did not cover because the fees covered about 255 260,000 in that range. >> Yeah. The attempt was to increase the allocation of the general fund to
supplement what we received from user fees and gate receipts. Um it's short. It's been short for a number of years. Um this 15,000 would not have covered the full amount, but it was hopefully an incremental step, but with the need to
help reduce the overall budget, we felt it was an area to level fund it where we are based on the FY26 number. Um, I have a question. Under contractual obligations, did these
contracts account for the the uh the units that are still in mediation and the >> we made an assumption of where u a best guess where we hope it'll land, but um you know, we had to put something in.
So, we do have a placeholder, but not knowing where the final contract will settle, we put an assumption. >> Worth noting that we have certainty on our largest collective bargain agreement with our educators, with our teachers. So,
>> the volatility, you know, won't be as great because couple of smaller units still in negotiation. >> Does anybody else have any questions? >> I just have one last thing just to comment on too. So basically looking at
this if we we got fairly lucky I guess you can call it with the attrition right this year. So without that, so kind of looking at the future years, if you don't get lucky with attrition, you can call it lucky or whatever you want to
call it to reduce that, we would be in a very difficult position right now if that did not happen. Correct. >> Yeah, I think you're uh you're describing it as fairly lucky is probably an understatement. We got very very lucky.
>> It's what saved us from having a need to make staffing reductions for FY27. It's a it's a level of attrition that I don't think I've seen in my almost 20 years here. So, um I don't expect that to
happen in FY28's budget. Um we had a a high number of staffing changes occur some this year, some projected for next year, but that number is probably twice if not three times I'd say the average amount we have for attrition. So kind of
looking at next year, you got to get lucky with utilities that that doesn't happen again. Contractual obligations are going to happen again. And then attrition defines kind of where we're at going into the falling because we know what the number is going to be on contractual obligations. It's going to
be that number higher as it kind of >> continues. Okay. >> My expectation would be that. >> Yes. and the and the pressure on health insurance rates which >> um you know ultimately constrains the town budget that which in turn constrains our budget. So that that's another factor that we're kind of
looking looking ahead to FY28 with some apprehension. >> Got it. So either we increase revenues or we decrease costs one or the other. >> Kind of looking at next year. >> Yeah. Okay. I think too I don't have last year's
slide like this in front of me, but I feel like the consumable supplies went the cost went down. >> Yeah. In FY26, we actually um we had to make some adjustments to um balance the budget and so we made some reductions in
consumable supplies. is the amount you see there is bringing it back to the previous the FY25 level or 20 yeah 25 level back in for 27. So it's just basically replenishing those accounts to the level that they have been budgeted
at prior. >> Does anybody else have any questions or comments? >> Does anyone in the public have any questions or comments? No one online. >> All right. >> So that's
>> Thank you. So next next uh deliberation point will be two weeks from now and that'll be an opportunity for if you feel like you're in a position to you can potentially vote the budget and then we would forward that to the town manager's office. >> All right. So, since there's no further
comments or questions, um, we're going to close the public hearing and transition back to our open session of the February 10th, 2026 school committee meeting. Thank you for all the administrators for coming out and your work too, your hard
work. >> Thanks everybody. >> Thank you. >> Thank you. >> Thank you. Angel. >> Uh, no. I just They're not
>> still on. I just need to pull a field trip. >> All right. So, um, >> you didn't speak. >> Next, we have the school committee chair report. And um I'm just going to share some exciting things that I've noticed in the
school district since last week, which is actually quite a bit. Um winter sports are um h ending with strong seasons and um as everybody knows, I love swimming. So I'm just going to say that that uh there was a relay over the weekend in sectionals that broke a
record and a school record and a meet record, which is really impressive. And they've been swimming. They swam for the Long Meadow Aquatic Club when they were younger as well. So, we're all really proud of them. And there was also
many concerts at all the different levels and um I got to talk to kids about their concerts and performing and they felt really proud. So, thank you to everyone who arranges those things that enrich our students art lives. And then
also last week I got to go to the Grin Spoon breakfast at the high school and it was a really nice time. It's a reminder of how special that the culture is of the staff in our district because it was all the nominators and all the
nominees and it kind of builds that tradition and keeps it really special and congratulations to all the nominees. I think that's all I have. anything. Oh, I hope everybody has a really great primary vacation. That's it. Go ahead.
>> Um, yeah. No. Uh, yeah. Grin spoon winners. Um, Julia Miller recognized as a early career educator, a wolf swamp educator. And then we had three veteran educators recognized through the Grenoon Excellence in Teaching Award program. Um, David Brewster from Glen Brook,
Mitch Nullles, Council at Glenbrook, and then Amanda Ericola, second grade teacher at Center School. So, uh, the prize patrol went out today and we, uh, we we gave them a little swag, some balloons, some flowers, uh, and, uh,
most special was to see the reaction of their students and how excited they were there for their teachers. It was, it was a ton of fun. So, um, and thank you for attending the the breakfast the other day. Um, it was a great celebration of of education in Long Meadow. Um, beyond
that, just a couple items for you. Um, uh, kindergarten registration is open. We mentioned that. Um, we have, um, one other item for you. Drawing a blank now. Um, that's it. Yeah, if it comes to me, I'll let you know. But, >> thank you.
>> Short report to make. >> So, now we'll move on to other reports. LPVEC, board of directors. >> So, I wasn't able to attend the meeting in January because there was a conflict with the building committee. Um, but I did get a copy of the minutes and um,
the LPVEC is going forward with um, rewriting the contracts. Um, and they're consulting with DESIE and I think that's sort of one of the big topics for them. >> Thank you, Kate. LPBEC board of governors.
>> Um, we don't have a a formal meeting until March. They are meeting tomorrow to elect a new president for the corporation. and I'm not able to make it tomorrow, but our next regularly scheduled meeting is March. >> Thank you, Emily. Next up is SEAL. Tomorrow night is the SEAL's monthly
meeting. Um, it's on Zoom and it's presented by the Federation of Children with Special Needs and it's on transitioning and everything you might need to know as a parent about the process and the law in terms of transitioning.
And that's it. um energy and sustainability. >> Um we meet this Thursday. >> Awesome. Thank you. Ongoing business. >> So the committee had offered pre-approval on an overnight field trip to the Mass Association of Student
Councils. Uh we have 12 students uh heading to uh the Cape on March 3rd through March 6th. And so, um, we bring it back to you tonight for final review and approval.
>> Thank you. >> Um, this is this is always really exciting because they always come and present to us after their trip and um I was in student council when I was in high school and I feel like it's just so cool to see them and that they're more engaged and that they collaborate like
with other places. So, I I'm happy that they get that opportunity >> and often come back with some fairly impressive uh >> yeah, it's always impressive >> conversations to share and new positions that they hold and representing Long Meadow very well.
>> So, recommended motion. I move that the school committee approve the uh student council MASC annual field trip on March 3rd through 6th, 2026 as presented in the proposal. >> We have a motion. Do we have a second? >> Second. >> Thank you. And now we'll vote. Kate,
>> yes. >> Emily, >> yes. >> Yes. >> Jamie, >> yes. >> And a yes for me, too. >> We don't have any new business. So, next on our agenda is executive session. >> I move that the school committee meet in executive session pursuant to Mass
General Law, Chapter 30A, Section 21A, Purpose 2, to conduct a strategy session in preparation with collective bargaining with units B and D, not to reconvene into open session. We have a motion. Do we have a second? >> Second. >> Thank you.
>> Vote. Kate, >> yes. >> Emily, >> yes. >> Yes. >> Jamie, >> yes. >> And a yes for me, too. Have a good night, everybody.