I just wanted to speak to the transparency or lack thereof this meeting in your past for the last six years. In fact, we always had the documents prior to the meeting. I just wanted a
minute about can't find the documents online the project presentation I had to meet a few weeks ago members Jenkins had asked that ahead of time I think they want his new chair and vice chair this
is their responsibility um in here where there's a lot of talk about cuts and additional funding potential for it It's essential to have public behind you if you are bringing
down the training again from this district's finances which that could be may not be the intent but when we have six years complete transparency of dropping the numbers out pushing them out if there's any that
you go to the sites even those three departments there's a giant button that said budget It was right there. I doubt that I was very grateful, but not everybody had that availability
quite honestly the backbone to test yesterday. So I mean we discussed it particularly um that you know certain members sitting on the committee wrote emails out to Thousands of people got themselves
published in a newspaper citing a lack of transparency. definitely everybody that's beyond you have tables It's very notice I mean go back to 2002 everybody. Note
to vice chair I believe public are Not the same. updates. Um, Thank you. Now let's see. So audio
All right. Um, the superintendent update. >> Thank you, Mr. Chairman. >> Um, good evening. >> February is Black History Month. Um, the theme for 2026, as chosen by the Association of Student Study of
African-American Life and History, is a century of Black History commemorations, marking the 100th anniversary of Black History Month's founding by Dr. Carter G. Woodson in 1926, focusing on celebrating, studying, and preserving the contributions and stories of Black
Americans over the past century and into the future. This theme emphasizes Brazilian identity and the ongoing importance of inclusive historical narratives exploration of creativity, leadership, reflective care as as vital aspects of black history. I'm proud to
share that one of our juniors Naima Gante was recognized by Meco in their most recent newsletter for her digital black history month, Graduation. Sorry. Um uh let's see. Miss Fer Ferrer and I attended the Battle of the Books at Vets
yesterday, which is a way for students to be exposed to a variety of books and themes. It was the black team, the Chef Neto Cheetos, um, versus the red team, the Red Rockets. The two teams composed of four students each had had to answer 24 questions about many different books to determine the champions. It was a
great event, and I have to say that I've been to many, many middle school events, and I've never seen students that were so attentive and well behaved as I did yesterday. They should be proud of their teach proud and their teacher should be proud when when the students are on stage answering questions here pin drop
and the winner of the battle was the chefo Cheetos. So congrats to them. Um great event last year was awesome. Um I also had the pleasure of sitting in the on the Glovers grade one math data team meeting this week led by Emily Perez. The teachers and I shared and discussed
data collected from the ready assessments with their students. They worked together and shared strategies, student successes and areas of focus for the next units. It was at its finest and I was impressed by the work that is being done to assist certain students increasing their achievement levels and
growth teaching and learning the instructional coaches educators and instructional assistants for this collaborative approach. These data meetings transpire across our schools K to8 and I'm excited to continue sitting in on the different grade level meetings to witness how the growth and achievement of our students
is being captured, analyzed, and used for enhancing our teaching and learning practices. This is the work. This is the work that gets done. It was really cool to see. Um, so I was glad I got invited to that. Thank you. I'm going to jump into our shoutouts from Scott Williams, principal of Village School. I would
like to recognize and acknowledge Jenny Wilkins, an amazing teacher at Village. Jenny consistently goes above and beyond every day letters fully committed to not only the students she serves at village but the student population and our school at large. Jenny is tireless and selfless, never wavering or deviating
from our her commitment to our children. She helps out beyond her role teaching whole group lessons to our fourth graders. Her collaboration skills are exemplary and we are truly fortunate to have her at village. She has a steady compass and an incredible work ethic which benefits us all at Village. Thank
you all. Thank you for all that you do. Miss Wilkins from Malibi, Veterans Middle School principal. Surprise, surprise. Seventh grade teachers and instructional assistants. Thank you to seventh grade teachers and instructional assistants for the hard work in running the battle in the books contest. The
energy, enthusiasm they brought to the event were incredible and helped create an unforgettable experience for all students involved. Special shout out to Jim Shafnet and Ryan Jun for the leadership in organizing and running such a fantastic event. Michelle Carlson, the principal Marblehead High School. I'd like to recognize Kasia
Johnson, our MECO director, and Latoya Salters, our MECO academic coordinator, for their dedication to supporting students in planning a Black History Month celebrations. Through their guidance and support, MHS students have taken a lead in organizing meaningful activity to celebrate Black History,
culture, and contributions. Voice, leadership, and inclusive programming truly enriches our school community. Thank you both for the important work you do and for supporting our students every step of the way. Excuse me. From Frank Kowalsski, principal of Glover, he wants to shout out to his prek team, Laura Weiss,
Melissa Kaplan, Briana Defenilo, and Shannon Tarpy. The pre-K team is a cohesive unit that puts the needs of all all its children first. They work together and integrate the children across all classrooms. They all support Glover theme days and really make school
fun and enjoyable, nurturing learning environment for all. One of the most endearing traits of their years of experience and a love of the Glover community. Shannon is new to Glover but has benefited from listening and watching her team. Julia Ferrer, assistant superintendent teaching and learning the office of teaching and learning. Would like to thank the
teachers for their participation in data meetings which are happening PLC's across the district in grades K to8. We didn't even plan that. That was kind of cool. She said that there uh the integration of data meetings is a key focus this year and has been truly collaborative effort among our instructional coaches, teachers, and instructional assistants. Stata meetings
are focused on the analyzing student results and making informed instructional decisions to strengthen learning. We are proud of how effectively our educators are working to ensure all students have access to tiered academic supports and the opportunity to succeed at high levels.
And finally, I want to share this information is actually a great segue into our budget presentation. The business development manager from the education magazine reached out today to share that they are preparing a special edition entitled the 10 most influential school districts in 2026.
He let us know that this issue will celebrate school districts whose leadership, academic excellence and continuous improvements are shaping the future of U of education across the USA and they would like they would be honored to feature Marblehead public schools and share our district's story and achievements with our broader
readership. He go on to say, why is Marblehead schools stand out? Marblehead high schools rebounded in statewide academic rankings, reflecting strong college readiness, high graduation rates at 99%, and broad participation in advanced placement coursework. Across
the district, students consistently outperform state averages on MCCAST assessment, showing steady academic growth and strong proficiency rates, particularly in the elementary and middle grades. Superintendent Robert's leadership has been acknowledged as proficient and steady, helping guide the district through transition and refocus
on student achievement and instructional excellence. The district has expanded advanced placement opportunities and seen increasing student engagement and rigorous coursework, underscoring academic ambition and preparation for college. He goes on to say that they would love to showcase our district
achievements and share its glory and story with a global audience. So, I thought that was pretty cool and very timely. But thank you. Be well. Stay warm. Let's go Pats. That's why I have it. >> All right. Thank you, Superintendent.
>> Okay. Under the uh consent agenda, I am looking for a motion to approve the following. >> The identified schedules of bills totaling $321,62066. the 2026 2027 school committee meeting dates and the meeting minutes from our
January 29th, 2026 meeting. >> So moved. >> Seconded. >> Okay. The motion has been made by Kate, seconded by Henry. All in favor? >> I just want to make one comment. I don't I I talked to Mike earlier today. There
was there's a little bit of a snafu going on with the utility bills. I don't know if noticed that or not. Um so it looks like I guess it's being worked out um between the town side and the cell but >> yeah I think the uh the issue is
>> credits on the bills I don't know anyone >> the issue revolves resolves or revolves >> entirely with national grid they have credited payments from the town or the town's utilities to the school department's accounts we have a practice
though we only pay the amount of the invoice voice that is current for that current month and that certainly there's reasons behind that. Sometimes it takes sometimes our bill our check process before the payment hits. Uh sometimes you know just even like the time cut
warrant the week of Christmas uh holiday break or whatever. Um we only pay the amount that's due on the invoice for the current charges. We don't pay any past charges because we know they they were about to catch up. So those credits have been sitting there for a few months because National Grid took the towns money. They should have gone against the
town's account and put it against the school department's accounts and it's on them to fix it. So right now we have credits but they we can't use those credits. We shouldn't use those credits. So it's really the town's rights. >> So it'll be a wash. >> It is I mean right now we're not considering them as credits on our accounts because it's
>> been going on for any further discussion. >> All in favor? >> Okay. The motion passes 5. Okay, we will move on to turn it over to the superintendent to hear um a review
of the proposed budget for 2027. >> Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Uh Frank, if you can pull that up on the screen for me, the >> we were doing the meeting and the school. >> Oh, that was included in something. Um, no. The only thing I was going to
say, I don't I think it's helpful to add like the the heading for the minutes to show like the numbers were I do that on some committee ones, right? Like it's like a letterhead. >> I'll show you. >> I believe >> I think we've got the M on there, but
>> I I include this on those. >> Yeah. >> I have it here. And then I can post it today. >> Okay. >> Yes. >> Must have been late because I >> it was late. Yes. I I I sent a large.
>> Okay. That's >> Thank you. >> All right. Superintendent. >> Let me Is that okay? Thanks. >> Yeah, that's fine. Here you go. Excellent.
>> You guys have birthday copies. >> Yes, please. I sent an email. So, she gets it. She's usually pretty responsive. She may >> Yeah, what was what was sent? >> Yeah. Sorry for that miscommunication. I apologize for that. Um, so anyway, we're
here tonight to talk about our superintendent's proposed fiscal year 2027 school budget. Um, first I want to thank our central admin team. Mike Kryling, assistant superintendent of finance operations. Julia Ferrer, assistant superintendent of teaching and learning. Lisa Maria Pelo, our assistant
superintendent of student services, all of our principles, uh Steve Bitech, our leadership team, um for their collaboration. Um they were a huge part of of being um discussing the budget, going through uh
the different aspects of the budget to help create the budget. It was definitely not done in a silo. And I appreciate the uh collaboration, the support of all the uh the admins that were that um contributed to the the budget that sharing tonight. Also, I'd like to um thank the subcommittee, the
school school committee subcommittee, um Melissa and Jen. Um as we went through the process, we met quite a few times with uh members of Fincom. So, I'd like to thank them as well. Uh and also conversations with uh you know, the town officials. I think the collaborative
effort um in how we've created this budget and how we're presenting the budget is is uh really um really good and it's really the way we should be doing it moving forward. This is definitely not though just Mike and I sitting there in the room we had input from all the all the stakeholders that
um that need to be um part of the process. So I just want to say thank you. Um so tonight we're here to propose a level funded budget which we'll go through in a minute and um as we go through >> John just for a second. I'm sorry. >> Yeah. >> Did you have your your hand raised? >> I was trying to come in as a panelist. I
should be signing in but I'll um >> I'm sorry. John >> let me know when you're ready. Yeah, John, go ahead. I'm sorry. Go ahead. >> Oh, okay. Um, so I'd like to go through the presentation and obviously we'll entertain questions from the school committee um when we're done if that's
if that's okay. Uh, next slide. So, this this first slide is our our mission, vision, and core values, which I think is important to make sure that we have these outlined as a as a key component to our budget. I'll go through it a little bit. Um our mission is to passion uh to foster all students a passion for
learning and to provide safe nurturing inclusive school environments in which they can develop values, knowledge and skills needed to achieve full potential in their personal, social and work lives to become engaged and contributing members of society. The vision is especially important um because our
vision is to be a model school district exemplary in its student engagement and academic excellence in which all students and staff reach their highest potential in partnership with the community. The core values we have student achievement, personal growth, partnership and collaboration, school
culture and resources. And just to highlight encouraging students to excel u making sure that we're partners with uh community at large in schools and families and to make sure that uh we provide resources for in the best interest of the students growth recognizing funding and and that
supports education excellence and social emotional well-being. That's very important to highlight those aspects. Thank you Julia. Um, so again, we the town has required us to or asked us to do a a level funded budget this year, and I'll talk a little bit about what
that means in a minute. Um, but we've been working uh to identify efficiencies and reductions to meet that goal of a le level funded budget since November. This presentation and budget book is a culmination of that process and I'm proud of the work that's been done and
we're hoping that our work demonstrates the district's commitment to the collaborating with the town during this difficult financial time. Uh level funded just so we know what the definition is. So on the on your screen you see level funded, level service and increased services. Um quite often if
we're looking for level services or increased services um you know we would be engaging stakeholders, principles etc in a little bit different way um than we did this year uh where we'd ask them to come to the table and kind of tell folks what they're looking for what extra
services and justify those. When we do a level funded service, that's that's an exercise that that um you know is is not something that we uh in my opinion need to engage in. Um because the level funded is basically utilizing the same funding that we have this year uh for
next year. It indicates a need for reduction in services, staff, supplies and programming and or programming. So level services I mean level services is what we would uh what's required through the um the contractual obligations and
we're told um level funded so we have to kind of back off level service and level funded is using the same money this year next year to provide all the things I've talked about about academic rigor and uh academic excellence for our students. Thank you. Um the budget development
process a level funded budget was developed as required by the town incorporating feedback and input from administrative stakeholders to ascertain what is needed to maintain the education of all head students. I just want to focus on maintain the education. That's what we're doing. We're talking about a level funded budget. We're not talking
about enhancement. We're not talking about increasing rigor. It's that's like an impossibility when you work with the same same dollar amounts. So I just share that because that's the reality we're in right now. um and and I don't like to be in maintaining mode, but
that's where we are. So, we're we're going to do our best to um continue to make sure that we're providing the services for our students and staff. So, administrators identified resources and services required to provide high quality education to students. We ensure the appropriate staffing levels and
programs are in place to support students social, emotional, and behavioral health in conjunction with rigorous academics. We identified areas of staffing efficiencies, reductions in nutrition. We identified and managed revenue streams outside of local operating budgets. So, federal and state grants, opportunities, user fees, things
like that. Uh, we had ongoing meaningful communication and collaboration, which I mentioned already, with town officials, the fincom select board, and continued collaboration with the PTO's and PCOS and community partners whose ongoing generous support to our students and staff is invaluable. and I share that
that's that's part of our process to get to the um the presentation we have tonight and to the budget book that's attached um to the presentation. Um so we always have to make sure that we're keeping our educational priorities at the forefront of the discussion and
in our practice. So some of our educational priorities are listed here. So to continue to cultivate it, cultivate a sense of belonging and allowance for our students, staff, parents, and community input into educational practices to utilize MTSS, the multi- tiered system of support to
promote student success. Align our goals and strategies with the new district improvement plans being developed and the individual school improvement plans. Ensure that database decision making is aligned to meet all students needs. Challenge students with rigorous instruction within safe learning environments to enhance student success.
enhance and reimagine special education programming and service delivery to meet students individual needs and also to provide meaningful professional develop and programming. So those are educational priorities that we have to stay focused on as we develop a budget to be able to um provide services for
our staff and students and community partners. Um so we're going to start getting kind of into the meat and potatoes of some of the numbers and uh you know we'll kind of bounce back and forth with Mike and I. This first this first um chart here is is our enrollment and I'm going to speak a little bit more about the
enrollment later on in the presentation but just for folks um edification in 2425 our enrollment was 2564 students uh for 2526 it was 2394 and that's the October one report. So when we look at DESIE um it's hard because when we have
enrollment discussions sometimes we're looking at different um points in time and then it gets confusing and we're talking about numbers that aren't accurate. So we get we get a weekly report that goes to school committee and there's a number at the bottom of that report that includes this number but also includes um numbers of children
that may be being tested for special ed homeschool students things like that. So we kind of have to back those numbers out to get the actual numbers. So this is more this is um in alignment with what the actual um enrollment numbers are. So if you look at that from last year to from 24 256 it's minus 170
students. Um but what I can tell you is that as of this Monday February 2nd um it's gone we've gone up plus 41 students. We're at 2435. So when I say a moment in time it's a moment in time. it es and flows and that's why sometimes that conversation
about enrollment gets a little convoluted and I just thought it was important to share that um out of the 2435 I just wanted to share that 23 2386 students are being serviced in district 49 of those students are being serviced out of district and then the other numbers that aren't reflected here that
I talked about that come to the report for the school committees are students that we have to identify but they're not in our schools either because they're either just being tested but we have to identify them because we're providing that service um or they're home school which we have to identify because we have to make sure that all students that reside in Marblehead are being educated
somewhere or it could be in private placements where parents have chosen to send students to other private placements. So again, I just want to share that sometimes those numbers are a little uh discrepant and that's the reason why. Um so moving on um to our
goals and challenges and this is just you know in an overarching way. Our goal is to ensure that our school budget allows the district to provide appropriate level of support, resources and programming for our staff and students in order to achieve excellence across all grades, levels, and all
abilities. Our challenges are many, but these are the couple ones that kind of rise to the top is establishing level funded budget as directed by the town and pro and in doing so and working within the level funded budget um providing excellent academic and social emotional learning pre-k to 12
professional development and districtwide educational programming utilizing the same funding as the current year while minimizing impact to the classrooms environments. So those are the overarching challenges. the next several slides, um, we start talking a little bit more of our funding sources
and stuff. So, I'll turn most of this over to Mike. Um, but if we go to the next slide, this is just emphasizing our our our current budget is 49,120 285 and we've been asked to use the same 49120 285 for next fiscal year. So, just
emphasizing that a little bit and then I'll kind of start turning it over to Mike. This next one is the bullet budget allocation by category um with a level funded budget. It's a pie chart that kind of shows where the monies go. Um Mike, I don't know if you want to fil. >> Sure. >> Thank you, Superintendent. Sure.
>> Uh as you can see, obviously the biggest piece of the pie is salaries. We are a very human environment. Don't cheat with robots. We don't work with outside contractors as much as we work with our own marble head staff.
So about 80% just shy of 80% of our budget is with salaries. Uh, I'm going to just kind of hit the big ones. Um, out of district tuitions, we've talked about that. We've had many conversations over the years, long before I got here. Out of district tuitions are certainly a budget driver for us. Uh, contracted services, those
are the things um, properties, any leases, any um, fire alarm testing and and fire extinguisher text testing and all the things that go into the contracted services bucket. And there there are numerous things uh that we
utilize contracted services. My explanation of contracted services to our staff when they're entering purchase orders into the system is if you can touch it and you can eventually throw it away, it's a supply. If you use it up, it is a supply. If you cannot really touch it, you don't you don't own it
like software. Software is a contracted service where textbooks used to be a supply because you could touch textbooks. So there's still supply. But as stuff has migrated or parts of it have migrated over to be to a a web- based or a softwarebased environment
those become contracted services. So contract services are a big part of our budget. Uh obviously utilities it's one of the ones uh fortunately we are locked in on our supply rates. We are not locked in on our delivery rates but we are locked in on our supply rates for natural gas. Uh so utilities are one of
the ones that could be a budget buster. Fortunately, you know, uh I think we have a good grasp on our on our utilities and uh it's nice to have our own model headlight department to uh keep our lights on. Uh a couple of the other areas, technology certainly we
have moved into a technology age that's you know um understood this is our network, our backbone, our website, uh all of our uh student information systems, uh anything that helps us operate. This does not include salaries.
Salaries for the technology group are in the salaries bucket. Uh supplies, it's it's relatively a small number. It's it's 1 million out of our our 40 million $49 million budget. So supplies really isn't a great big number, but it's imperative. I think it's really important. I think this year
our paper cost went from high $30 a case, $ 38, $39 a case, and we were able to negotiate a price down to $30 a case, which is amazing because that's probably one of our biggest supply dollar items in the district. So, um, we're fortunate to do that and that helped
smooth the edges on the level funded conversation about the supply lines because we did level fund all of our supply lines and principles were concerned how how how can I do the same thing and and we reminded them that the paper cost did come down this year. So, we're hoping that that locks in for next year also. Uh, transportation that is a
in district and out of district transportation. We have uh about six of our own vehicles. We run four or five on a daily basis. And then we have all of our out of district transportation for uh special education, our homeless or minto students and our students who may
be somehow involved with TCF. So uh those are really the big buckets. There's a small little bucket called other expenses. um $181,000 that is really just about um professional development um professional conferences
uh training for all of our staff whether it's our teaching staff or administrative staff or our custodial staff or our food service food service is covered by their own budget but I think you get the idea that that training across the district for all areas uh and there is some travel money in there we do have to pay some staff to
to attend uh training outside the district so that's the pie chart. Um then the next we'll get kind of into the money aspects. So I'll have Mike again go through it. This is the budget budget offsets, the funding sources and he'll walk you through kind of the FY26,
FY27 um with the level service and what the changes and that will kind of get us to the next round of discussions. Mike, >> sure. So this is uh this was presented last Thursday at our finance budget subcommittee meeting. Um it's been tweaked a little bit and as superintendent Robo said during that
meeting is this budget is going to change uh pretty consistently until we get to the vote of the school committee. You know, small amounts up and down certain little areas that we tweak. Um but the reality is is if we were to do everything the same next year as we did
this year, we had no changes. We did level service. Uh the increase to our budget would be about $2.56 million. The next line shows how much of that money comes from the town. This year, 49.12 million came from the town. Next
year on a level service, it would be 50.7 million. And that that so that would be really a $1.6 million increase to the town's uh appropriation to the schools. Um we have been able to make and and you say, well, we didn't come up with $900,000 between
what's level service and what the town appropriation is. We dug deep. We dug into things before we even had started having budget conversations. We knew it was going to be a tough year. We looked at circuit breaker. Um we are only able to keep one year of reserve and circuit breaker. Our circuit breaker did go up this year and that's kind of a testament
to um the claiming that was done by the student services department. They really put the pencil to it and claimed every dollar that they could through circuit breaker. So kudos to um Lisa Marie and Victoria and their team. Um we reduced the retirement savings a little bit and
that's when you're when you're talking about a level funded budget, uh savings that you normally would have with retirement are going to be added areas that needed. So, we're not going to have as much savings in retirement. Uh the biggest one is that we looked at our second biggest one
is we looked at our kindergarten pre-K revolving account. We charge for students to come to our kindergarten full day and we charge our peer models in the pre-K environment to come to our prek programs. Um it's not
um I'll leave my opinions to myself, but um we did almost double what we're taking out of those accounts next year to cover some staffing for those programs dedicated strictly to prek and kindergarten staffing, teachers and instructional systems. Everything else
was pretty much level across the board. um not great changes there, but the bottom line is we needed to make up $1.7 million in additional uh revenue revenue or cuts in order to make the level funded as requested by the town.
Um and then the next the next one's just some more this is some of the federal grant awards and what you'll see here is uh awards for FY26. FY27 is TBD um still getting um squared away at the state and federal level. Um, so if you look on the
on the slide on the left, title one was at 99,000 and change. Title two is 41 and change. Title three is roughly 12,000. Title 4 10,000. It's not huge pockets of money, but money nonetheless that we that we utilize this to help serve our serve our students. The individually individuals
with disabilities education act IDA grant, it's also called grant 240 sat around 747,000 and the early childhood grant. It's another smaller grant, but it's still helps with, you know, some of the early childhood stuff, which is 21,000 for a
total of 932,343. Um, so you see the same same grants in the next chart, but it's uh at the bottom you can see it says planning for level funded grants for the federal governments for next year. So what that generally means is at least level funded, if not less than. Um, so that a
lot of these title grants have been going down incrementally over the years. all these grants that's grant 240 and early childhood grants those ones that kind of go es and flows but it's a small pocket of money but all the title one grants and the 240 grants have generally been going trending downwards we've been
told it's supposed to be level funded so we'll see what comes out but um I don't anticipate ginormous changes but again it's I'm in a $49 million budget talked to $900,000 which is which is great offset um but it's also something we have a little control over um at the
state and federal level So uh this next this next slide u we kind of kind of just encapsulated our efficiencies reductions and then the further reductions. So as I said at the beginning we went through a whole budget process where we met with stakeholders um we met with our admin teams we went
through um each um school with each principal said here's your here's your classrooms here's your staffing you like what does this look like and help us understand what we can look at for efficiencies first and then kind of go through the process. So in that far left column, some of the efficiencies where we look to offsetting the budget, the
mechco and IDA grants which we just kind of talked about some of the stuff Mike just also talked about the circle break or the prek pay tuition um special education education is the money we get from students who come. It's not called foreign exchange anymore but it's students that come to our high school
and there's some money attached to that um in building rental accounts that we help to offset the budget. uh we leveled front of the supplies, PDS and technology lines and Mike alluded to the um reduction for the copier leases and the utility savings. So there was some
decent amount of savings we were able to do there changing overall the copers and we have paper cut in the copers now. It's a program that allows us to kind of monitor andor make sure um we have a better handle on how much the copiers are getting used and by whom. We can uh
you know that'll that'll uh help save some things over over time. But that's the first run. Uh and then the initial reductions we looked at um in these next two boxes. Some of these um positions are uh were vacant and we decided not to fill them.
Some are actual positions that are filled that we're reducing. So and I'll share those. So this initial round of reductions round one. We have summer technology position. There's a it's a small it's a small amount of money but it's a position in the summer that we had in the budget. We decided to reduce that. Um, we talked to Steve and he was
he said, you know, we he can make things work um without that position um as best he can over the summertime, even though it's really busy in the summertime doing all the technology we have to do in the in the um in the district. But, uh we had a an HR assistant position when we when we revamped central office a little
bit. we uh you know we hired a HR manager at a lower cost than the previous HR manager and we also had an HR assistant um that uh was vacated and we have decided not to fill that position. Um so that's that's a that's a decent savings there and not not
rehiring for that. Uh there's a teacher in charge stipen at Glover. Uh Glover does not have an assistant principal. Um unfortunately and uh but there was a teacher in charge stipen that kind of got put in the bud last year the year before. I didn't remember before we got here but last year. Um but the thought
process being you know if the principal felt that um you know this is a model a lot of a lot of districts maybe a teacher that that's in a more of a leadership role wants to step up. We pay him a little extra stipen to be the coverage in the building. So, if the principal is not there for, you know, the conference, they're all sick, they're at a at a meeting outside the
building, there's that person that's the go-to person. Um, it hadn't really materialized and, you know, so we we were able to kind of move forward without having that in budget, the 1.75 full-time equivalent EL teachers at Village. Um, based upon our census
there, we were able to not um plan on not filling that 1.75 FT there. Uh similarly with the FTA math intervention at VET decided that we were not going to fill that as well. And then the 0.2 FTE art teacher we had a 1.0 art teacher. We reduced that position to point8 starting
this year. So that savings already started and that's carrying over to next year. So those are the reductions. So there's um some full-time equivalents there and there's some partial equ equivalents and then the further reductions when so that was that first um we still had about 800,000 I think
that we needed to figure out. Um, so we went further to get to level funded. And so the second round of reductions include a full-time equivalent of an elementary teacher, one uh teacher at veterans, three high school teachers, um
point4 of an e teacher, Glover, um 1.0 a gened um elementary, point4 of a FT of speech and language. Um there was a FT there was a um ABA coordinator. It's a supervisory position. Um we decided not to uh fill
that position either. So that had been vacant, but we decided not to fill it as we had planned to do. Um you know, special education uh environment is very uh you know robust and we we had hoped to be able to fill that position going into the next year, but the budget cut that was one of the ones that ended up
on the cut floor unfortunately. Um and one special teacher village um is also vacant. We're not going to fill. Um and then lastly, we're looking at reducing a one maintenance staff. So that's a total of nine um nine staff um and we're
positions and another 5.7 that we're not not rehiring plus the stipen. So it's a total of 14.75 FTS plus the stipen. So um you know I I'll talk a little bit more about that. um if we want to get to a further slide. So, I'll leave it at there for now and I'll turn it back over
to Mike. He can kind of walk through some of the the efficiencies reductions moneywise um that got us, you know, to where we are at this point. So, Mike, it's the the next couple slides are the the round one efficiencies I talk about, but this is the specifics of that. Great. Thank
you. Um so, a couple of these weren't mentioned because they did not impact um staffing so much. The first one is uh we had Lisa Marie in in her IDA grant last year had put two fellows. Fellows are um
a step above a student teacher. Is that good explanation layman terms? I'm a layman. So uh you know graduate level student teacher. Um typically we pay the university and they send us the bodies. Um that was in the IDA grant. The idea is to not we didn't
we didn't fill those positions or didn't contract with the universal this year to do that. The idea is not to do that again next year and move something else that's in our LEA budget, our town budget into the grant. So because we'll have $81,000 in the bill grant. So uh
it's it's kind of a cut through a a move. Um we talked about the technology help. We talked about the HRV. So we talked about a lot of this. I'm just going to browse down here. Um there are two positions that we are talking that we are proposing that we move from the
LEA grant I'm sorry the LEA budget the town budget uh to FTE teachers at the high school level into the educations for evolving account. I think you mentioned that but not sure. Um and in addition to that, our assistant business manager
is intricately involved with our preK and K program, especially around tuitions and enrollments and also with our grants. She is the one who does uh probably about 25% of all the heavy lifting on the grants, which is really drawing down the money and doing the
reports and and making sure that we're spending the money the way we said we're going to. Uh so moving 10% of her salary uh into the prekk revolving and 10% of her salary into the LEA grants. Um both of which are well especially the grants the grants have restrictions on them and that is one of the areas that you are
allowed to um to to use the grants for uh move our assistant student services director uh from the LEA into the special education revolving account. I will caution that is probably a one-year move because
right now we don't have uh a large number of students being brought into Marblehead into our specialized program. So I would just caution that that's a probably a one-year move. Uh and we probably would be able to sub, you know, continue that
process unless we had more students tuition into Marvel. Uh, and then to move our facilities, administrative assistant, uh, she she does so much work with our building rentals as far as booking them and making sure the custodial staff is there, making sure the technology staff is there, making
sure everything's unlocked and locked and secured. So, we're talking about moving half of her salary into the building rental account. We talk about copier savings. Uh we did level fund all pretty much all supply lines uh if from the administration to
the classrooms uh our guidance you know everybody had some some of them are very small uh supply lines or contracted services lines for the most part we level funded the majority of them there were some that we couldn't because they have escalators in them and we certainly needed to cover our we have a three-year
agreement with the company to cover those escalations Um, again, mostly supplies here. Supplies. Um, you you'll notice curriculum. Last year, we did add curriculum into our budget so that we had a curriculum cycle in place and we weren't waiting until the end of the
year to see how much money was left over in our budget before we purchased curriculum. Uh, we were making that investment. Uh, we are for the most part level funding that. Um, there's there's two big buckets. There's I'm sorry, there's two bucks. one large bucket and one smaller bucket. We are leaving the
large bucket alone and the smaller bucket is more manip manipulatives um supplies, you know, things that we send out to the to the buildings or Julia sends out to the buildings. Uh that's the one that's showing that $6,000 reduction. Um we're going to level fund vehicle
fuel right now. Gas prices are holding steady. We're going we're going to try and you know hope that things don't escalate. Um contract services, maintenance, vehicle repairs. Fortunately, we do have some we'll call them new, but newer model vehicles in our inventory, a couple of them. So,
hopefully our repairs bills will come down a little bit. Uh again, supplies, PD, contracted services for security, instructional software. We talked with Stephen and Julia on that just to make sure that we could we could make that cut. And uh and then just cutting uh the
technology supply line, that's hardware and contracted services. So Stephen has done a good job negotiating with done a great job negotiating some of our vendors to get us uh better pricing forward. That was round one. Those were those are
the ones that I'm not going to call easy, but they were the the the less painful cuts to make. These are the ones that they didn't affect any uh field positions or any uh
it didn't drastically impact the instructional core. It's going to be an impact to their principles and we understand that but we think that having the humans in the classroom is more important than maybe having some of the supply and contract services. >> Next,
we're these are the ones that hurt and I I said that on Thursday. These are the ones that are going to hurt. These are the ones that we everybody should be paying attention to. Um we are being somewhat vague in our descriptions of these because these are real people. These are real positions.
Um we still have some have some conversations around uh exactly what what level whether it's a grade or a a program or what type of position it is. But we've identified areas that we do have um that we can we that we're going
to have to make deductions in. One is an elementary teacher. So that is we have three elementary schools. We have grade level teachers. We have special education teachers. We have art music PE teachers. We have all different types of teachers. So we're cutting one teacher.
Uh and quite honestly with our track history there's a like there is a likelihood that a elementary teacher will retire or will resign. We'll move on to somewhere else. Um so we have to plan for it. We have to budget for it if we had to get the level service. The
hope is that it will not result in an immediate layoff. uh one teacher at the veterans, three teachers at the uh at the high school, a point four teacher at lover for e and again that goes back to census. Uh a
general ed instructional assistant at the elementary level. I think John mentioned most of these an SLP reducing it to LP position speech and language pathologist from 1 to6. Um specialized teacher that's vacant
coordinator that's vacant. Um, Miss Murray went through her lines and um, restructured some things and feels like that we can make a cut in her contractor services line. Uh, you know, one that's going to hurt again is a a maintenance worker that is a field
position. And um you know, one of the things that I think we've done a better job of, certainly there's there's more always room for improvement, but I think our our buildings are cleaner and I think we're doing a better job uh being reactive to problems. Great if we got to
the point where we were actually proactive to problems before they become problems. But um this one I think this one's going to hurt our district from a buildings and facilities standpoint. uh and if if exposed long enough then it
then takes an impact on the educational uh environment for our students. So that's one uh and then we did look at our um heating and electricity. Uh I explained this in this in the subcommittee meeting. There was a practice before any of us arrived where
electricity and heat heating fuel were intentionally underbudgeted because there was a not going to call it to my mind it's a stabilization fund but I'm sure that's what they called it where when town lines on utilities went over there was a
money set aside to cover that. help. Um, a couple years ago they eliminated that fund or that practice and told the the school department to to fund their own electricity and heating fuel. Um, as I said, we we did have a savings in
heating fuel because we locked in a lower price for the supply. And um, I just felt like in and I'm going to whenever you bring a new building online and I'm going to use the brown as an example. uh when it's fully air
conditioned, you tend to be very cautious when you're budgeting for the electricity. So, I know this building came online what three or four years ago. Uh I'm not sure that the electricity lines were ever adjusted to actual usage. Um it's a $100,000 cut to that line. Uh
it's probably about 8%. Um we're going to have to watch that very closely. It's a it's a big cut to one line. Uh but historically we've been able to that's what we've been expecting. >> Yep. Is that it you? >> Great. Thank you.
Right. So we're kind of wrapping up here. So I just want to go through uh the executive summary and just share a little bit more about um some some of the items. Um so the district is being asked to operate with the same funding as the current year. This equates to significant staffing cuts and operational efficiencies that place constraints on our ability to provide
highquality rigorous education to our students. Already said that several times but I think it bears. Um there has been a decline in student enrollment as is the case in most Massachusetts towns but reduction FTAs has also taken place with similar trajectories. There's a you know we've had conversations about the
enrollment. Um I'm just going to share this this with you and I I'm sure this is something we can um we can do better at sharing this this this data out but I just wanted to share this at this moment. So if you look back in six the year 1617
and this is desi reporting data FTEES which means licensed teachers 263.9 we had in 201617 in 2024 25 we had 225.1 FTEES so that was a reduction of 37.9
FTEES over that 10ear period from this year to next year we're proposing 12.7 75 FTEES for the teacher the teacher side of things. So if you look at that um when people say are the schools doing their job are they looking at at
staffing are they looking at what we need I I contend that over 10 years we reduce 3 37.9 FTEES and from this year to next we're proposing to reduce another 12.75 teaching positions that's a third of the total amount um and I
think that's important to understand the other piece to understand is the enrollment in 1617 17 was 3,144 students. The enrollment as of Monday was 2435.
That's minus 709 students. You do the percentage on the decrease there, it's 8%. teachers FTEES 263.9 and 1617 to our proposed 212.35
and 2627 is also 8%. Decrease >> 8% >> 88 minus 50.65 65 teachers >> I'm sorry% >> that's 8%
>> sorry 4% sorry so >> we're we're minus 50.65 65 teachers in that period time. >> So we reduce it by that >> but that's not >> the remaining is8. >> So it's a a 20% reduction in in staffing.
>> Yeah. Sorry. Sorry. >> Yeah. So but what I'm saying is there's this there's a narrative that says that it's not there's a reduction of whole size is what I'm trying to is what I'm trying to get there. So you know we're we're moving in the right direction with the with the reduction. We're moving
towards making sure that um not just level funded but making sure that we're still um uh ensuring that students get what they need while being mindful of the enrollment discussion and enrollment decline and the staffing decline over
the same period of time. So I just I think it's important um to have that part of the discussion. The other piece is um continue down the current financial path. Our ability to enhance teaching and learning, increase academic rigor and provide appropriate supports to students and staff will not be
possible and our educational environment will be decimated if we follow the current path. So right now level funded next year we know our contractual obligations. We know what those obligations are. Um if we do level funded this year into next year and we
there's no change in our um ability to to bring more money into the district, our educational environments will absolutely start being decimated. The classroom size staffing will continue to go down, classroom sizes will continue to go up. Um so we we just have to continue to understand that as we have
conversations with the town around where we are fiscally and where we are at the school side fiscally and work together to try to address some of the areas that need to be addressed. um that have been longstanding there behind us. In order to compete with the other Northshore districts, our budget not only needs to be restored, they'll need to be
increased accordingly in order to meet the goals of providing highquality education to our students. And again, that's important. We always talk about how we how do we compare with other Northshore districts? How do we do assess wise, MCCAST wise, graduation, AP, etc., etc. um that we need funding
to make sure that we have resources, supports, staffing in place for for us to be able to compete to enhance our students achievements and growth and um and to and to make sure that we're providing rigorous academics here in Mohead. People move this town for the
schools in the view and the in lovely town that it is. And uh I just have to bang the gong on we have to be we have to be aware of where we are and what's going to happen moving forward if we if we don't do something as a town. Uh we're working really hard to do our part
and I think we've done a pretty good job so far. We'll continue to work hard to to meet the goals. Um but it's going to take a village to to to get us in this town to where we need to be. Um and then the very last the last slide is just um next steps and timeline. So we do a
proposed budget tonight. Um and then we had the public hearing on the 26th and then in March uh school uh March school committee meeting to vote on well do the vote on the proposed budget and then we'll meet with the budget and finance subcommittees if needed. Uh we'll have the finance committee budget hearing.
Hopefully that'll happen in March. April is the finance committee warrant hearing and if we need to meet again we will. And then the town meetings in May and I think we're down to 12 weeks of town meeting I think. Um, so it's imperative that we continue to do the work.
Um, that's the presentation. Happy to take any comments, questions from the committee. >> Um, John, >> yes, >> you talked about student enrollment decreasing and, you know, also staffing decreasing.
>> Is there a reason we don't have that data in this this deck? I think it would be very very, you know, it's something that people appropriately ask. And I think I think um so so what when realistically what happens we we did have the we did we have had the conversations and then we were moving towards that it's part of how we got to
where we are with the the um with the level funded but realistically when when things kind of shifted and said level funded we we have to do the work to get the level funded. So the the um the work that was being done was really looking at what what positions make the most sense least impact and we really focused
on that. So, um, we can certainly we can certainly draft something that makes a little more sense and and add it into the book for the, you know, prior to the public hearing. I think that's, um, you're not the only one that's asked for that. So, uh, you know, retrospect, probably should add a little bit more in there about that, but um, we we will
certainly add that information in so it's it's it's clearer um, to folks. Mr. Chairman, >> thank you. >> Yep. Can >> you provide links also to the Desi site? Will you do that, John? To visit? >> Yes. John, can you talk a little bit about
and maybe it's worth adding in here for the public to understand, but there's definitely a complexity shift in terms of the special needs and how that's evolved over time as well that I think just looking at the number of FTEEs doesn't tell the true story because the
needs of the population has grown while we've been declining the number of students and like any context you can share around that or information put together I think will be helpful for >> Yeah. And I think um you know I'll start if if Lisa Marie wants to jump in. So in general generally speaking you know
students um needs of students have increased social emotional academic needs etc etc over the years. It's happened not just at Marblehead across the district. There's a reason for that that'll get into a whole lot of philosophical but it has to do with something that the state did probably 15 years ago where residential student uh
you know hospital level care students ended up going residential residential went to um collaborives and collaborators pushed down into the schools. So that was a that was a shift in across the state and it was kind of a quiet shift unless you were doing the doing in special ed at the time and
realized it which I did and I worked a lot with the state to try to like what are we doing? Um but that's that's kind of behind the scenes stuff. What what's really happened is so for instance if we have a you know you might look at a classroom setting that has say 17 students in it and it might have a gened
teacher might have a special ed teacher and you might have another classroom next door that has 23 students and has a gen teacher and you say well gosh there's only 17 kids in that classroom so why do we need well the reason is because maybe that classroom 17 is smaller because it has several students that have that are on IEPs and have
other levels of needs and we're providing resources in that classroom and that's hard to it's actually hard to quantify because those things uh shift and and change. So for instance, we could have a co-op classroom. We have a gened ed teacher and a special ed teacher goes in and say this I'm use
round numbers 20 20 students in there. That doesn't necessarily mean the gendered teacher has 10 students and the special ed teacher has 10 students. It means that for part of the day they're co-eing for part of the day they might be working in small groups. They might be and then they might only go in there for ELA and math go to another class. So
that's that's kind of the challenge of trying to follow that balancing ball. But what I can say in general is overall our our our students with higher needs. Um students with autism, students with developmental delays has has increased
over the years here and in other places. And it's just really it's one of those things where special education is not you know you have to provide it to mandate. So, it's not like we don't get to pick and choose. If if you know half of us have special needs that we need, we have to we have to provide it. We
can't pick and choose and say, "Hey, I'm going to give um some services to Henry, but not to Katie." You know, we we have to provide it. And that's what public education is. And that's really special education is the biggest driver of any budget just across the board. um our our our programming um and working with Lisa
Marie and her team. Um I'm confident that within the next, you know, year or two, we're going to have our our our special ed programming kind of back to where I think it was several years before we got here where we were getting tuition in kids. And that's why that that special education fund is there.
You know, it's there, but it's it's it's been dwindling because we haven't had students coming into programs. But we're working on recreating and recalibrating that. and um really looking at this awesome staff that we have and where can they where can they um where where can we use them to the best of the needs of
the students. So there's a lot of moving parts of special ed and I I don't know if that answers all your questions but that's really kind of the the backbone of um how we you know why the why the numbers are so high and then how we have to kind of manage that. Um I don't know if you want to add anything to that. I
mean I don't want to put you on the spot but um doing the do it now or >> now um you know we're we're working towards at least environment for our students right so um providing programming within district as well as
more inclusion of our high need populations within our own classrooms which is best by kids. So with that um to meet the needs of the students you need to have that specialized staff uh to work with the students including
whether it's special education teachers or instructional assistants or for example this year in our language based program um as we continue to build it to have a high functioning language based program you need to have a designated speech language pathologist. So that is
a move that we made this current school year. When you're looking at our therapeutic program, we'll be looking to have um some other specialized staff involved in that program. And that is how students are going to be supported.
The staff will be supported and we'll be able to have that worldclass um programming for our special needs students. >> I just want to put a couple of like point like specific data points to what you guys are describing from Desi. So between 2016 and 2025, the high needs
population grew from 27% to 32% of the total student body. This is straight from Desi in Marble in Marblehead. Since 2016, the district has seen a 34% increase in students with autism and a 48% increase in neurological or health
related disabilities. So, I do think it's just really important from a data standpoint for folks to understand we're decreasing the number of teachers. Needs of our students are increasing and like those two things are going to come to a tipping point um at some point.
>> And I appreciate you pointing that out. Um Lois, I know we had that we've had those conversations and it's important for folks to understand. Thank you. >> Uh can I just ask a question? Um well two two things might I think one thing at the beginning we might want to just
go back and you talk about the you the two you know 49.1 million 49.1 million that is the ch that was the town appropriation to the schools that's not our budget our budget is above that because we have the funding sources so I think that's probably >> yeah our total budget is going up it was
going up by 26 2.6 6 million. >> Some of that is going to be cut up covered by cuts and some of that is going to be covered by tapping out. >> It always has been, right? So, the appropriation has always been less than what our total budget is. I mean, it's 90% of it, but it's still um and then
you had you had to have a line earlier last week about be paying out a district tuition. I don't see that any >> So, that seemed to have caused a little stir in the community. Um, and I think that we were trying to be as transparent as we possibly could in saying that there has been a past practice for at
least 5 years that at the end of every year we have some money was left over in our in our appropriation from the town and that money historically since there was a big issue in 2019 or 2020 I wasn't
here. Um, at the end of the year when we have a a a surplus of funds, we use that money to prepay tuitions. That money when you when you budget for what you know for special ed tuitions, when you budget for that
and then you prepay against that, you're going to have a surplus the following year unless something disastrously goes wrong in special education or maybe it's another area, but traditionally special education. My my thought process is that at the end of next year, because we're going to
prepay a million dollars at the end of this year for next year's tuitions, we're going to have a million dollars left over at the end of next year in our budget. And instead of prepaying a million dollars towards FY28, we'll only prepay $800,000.
That was the $200,000 that we are instead of carrying a million every year from now on, we'd cut it down to 800,000. So what I did was I just reduced especially tuition lines by $200,000, which is to me less transparent, but it
seemed to upset some people in the community that that line was in there. >> Okay. So, you're budgeting for the full out of district tuition >> less about I just want to add >> for some reason don't prepay
>> that in and that practice has been that practice of prepaying tuitions has been in place for five years. >> Yeah. No. And there's no question, listen, I live through it. >> No question. Um that we need to do that because >> and it was 900,000 before I arrived. It went up to a million last year. So going
back down to $800,000 really isn't a $200,000 cut. It's it's 100,000 from where where it was when I arrived. >> And we still have the special education reserve fund uh reserve fund from the town side. And >> there is a special education
stabilization fund. Uh that is not our money to >> No, it's town meeting. >> We we we would be required to go to town meeting and get a twothirds vote to spend that money. Um and we would not get that opportunity until May, which is probably too late. The school years
>> and there's also a circuit right there. >> There is circuit right there. >> So So can I just can I just chime in too? So um yes, that practice been going on here, but that the practice of prepaying tuitions is is something that happens. It's it's it's allowed. It's done. It's it's it's actually being
planful. It's actually being, hey, we know we know we're going to have this money. So, if we have money to repay it, it helps it helps in case something else catastrophic. You know, you have one out of, you know, one residential student and you're, you know, million plus dollars, right? So, there's that. And
then, um, circuit breaker just I mean, people need to if you don't understand, I just want to say it's a reimbursement mechanism. It's not, you know, you have to you have to claim for it, which is what Mike was talking about before. We did, you know, we did some really good job, really good job of claiming, but
it's it's it's in the rears. So, we have to pay that stuff up front and then it's generally funded if it goes to the state. That's 75% but 75% over the threshold. And I think the threshold is what 56,000 somewhere. So that so for instance a student has an
$100,000 tuition after I think the threshold is around 56 58,000 that circuit breaker only counts for 75% of the money over the 58,000 to the thing. So it's not 75% of 100,000 75% of you know whatever the overage is
>> the district's on the hook for the first pay the whole thing and then we get reimbured for that portion. So it's helpful >> for three years or two years or >> it's for it's for the life of the as long as a student hits a threshold. If once a student hits a threshold of 56 $58,000
>> anything above that will be reimbured as 75% in a rears. So what we spend this year will get reimbursed next year. >> Oh I thought there was a limit. >> No you can no it's it's you just have to claim it every year. You have to go through the it's an arduous process. you have to go through the IP and you have
to this this equals that amount of minutes and that equals so it's a hard to process but it's helpful it's not it doesn't solve the problem but and you you're supposed to keep like a year's worth of of surf breaker there so that helps in case we get a catastrophic hit
um the stabilization fund would help but like Mike said we we wouldn't realize that you know we'd have to do something else to it's so it's not a good place to be I don't love the fact that um you know are prepaying what we were planning on paying, but we're going to do what we need to do to meet the goal that the
town has set for us. So that's that's kind of where that changed. So >> um I had a couple questions. First, thank you. I know that a lot of time and energy and work on the part of John and Mike and the whole administrative team went into this exercise. Thank you
presentation tonight. Um, I'll start with actually a follow-up question, I suppose, on special education. In the past several years, we've heard a lot about out of district tuition and transportation costs as really being significant budget drivers. Um, and I
went back and looked and in FY25, um, we were increasing transportation costs at 49% in the budget and in FY26 it was at 39%. um and you have it at 6% for next year
and then there's a sort of similar disconnect in previous year's increase in tuition versus the 4% that you're assuming for next year and I'm just curious about that and about your confidence in that number. So, um I
think transportation was one of those that really spiked and is now coming back into realistic numbers. I think there was an opportunity for the transportation world to take advantage of school districts
and public education. Um, I know that Northshore Education Collaborative and Seam Collaborative have both bid transportation contracts for their member districts and we are a member of NEC and we are a bidding partner with
Seam Collaborative. So, um I think we we walked into a a kind of a we didn't know where kids were going administration team. Uh other than Julia who you know wasn't involved with out of district placements even you know before we
arrived. Um last year was kind of a what do we have what was actually budgeted what was really needed. Um we right sized it in the FY26 budget that we're in right now and I feel like we've reviewed the numbers of students that are out. the numbers are holding, the
transportation is holding. um we feel comfortable with those numbers. But again, we still have that circuit breaker and we have million dollars in prepaid tuitions that if something you know that we can come to the school community and say we'd like to transfer money out of
transportation to tuition and tuition to transportation because we know we likely would be with transferring budget funds out of tuition to transportation because that's really the one that we're not prepaying transportation because we're not allowed to statutory. The only thing
that the only there is one thing that statutoily we can prepay and that is out of district tuitions. So that's the only thing we can prepay. So that's the only thing we do. Um unfortunately we can't but you can't prepay the special ed transportation. Um and and I think
that's a ball. So, it's a good decision that you can because especially schools are typically not um going to fold where maybe a transportation company depending on the size could certainly experience some
difficulties. So, uh I'm good with that. I'm sorry. That was your first question. >> That was my first question. >> Got you. >> Um so, my second question similarly sort of looking at assumptions a little bit. Um, I appreciate the reliance on revolving funds and grants in order to try and make up some of this. And you
mentioned um that you don't think a special ed revolving fund is something we'll be able to use sort of for more than one year. Do you have similar concerns about other revolving funds that you're relying on or do you think they'll replenish themselves such that
we aren't going to need to look elsewhere for that funding a year or two down the road? So, I'll give you an example of my on the special conversation. Um, that fund has a little over $300,000 in it. We are taking four $25,000 of four salaries next year.
They're um medical salaries um OTPT. So, just say somebody salary is 50,000. We're taking 25,000 out of the out of the revolving fund and 25,000 out of our LEA fund. So, that's 100. And then we talked about moving the assistant director about 50
something,000 into the revolving fund. So it's about $150,000 for committing to that revolving fund. If it's got a little over $300,000, I can do it next year. I can't do it the year after. So um because actually I'm already paying some out of this year, too. So we'll be
able to pay something in FY28, but it won't be the full 150 that we're budgeting or we're taking now. So that's that's the first one. The other one that um that really we we've tapped a little heavier is DK 3K. Um
I think we can probably do that for two years, maybe three. That one's, you know, um that's one that I feel a little bit more comfortable with. And and again, I felt comfortable enough with it that I actually move salaries into that before
we even started talking about reductions. That was when I started building this budget last September. That was already in my plan because I knew that the revolving economic growing a little higher than it probably should have. >> Okay. >> But it we're taking more. We are planning to take more than we plan to bring in.
>> So that's >> so it will spend down. It will spend down but but not at a dangerous rate. >> Um and then the circuit breaker we're >> using more and then it's really just sort of dependent for next year on
whether we get a comparably March. But with circuit breaker, you're allowed to keep one full year in reserve. So this year we received $2 million in circuit breaker reimbursement. We can keep $2 million. Um just looking at I mean they've done a great job. I I don't
see that number that reimbursement number coming down unless the state has a statutory obligation to fund it at 75%. They budget for that. So if the claims go up across the state, there's no money to fund it at 7. There's been a few years when they have not funded it at
75%. There was one year was funded at like 60%. >> It to go back to your first question um tuitions that's in my head. Um there were a couple of years where the state allowed our private tuition. They they
set the rates private schools uh and they let them hit what was it 14% 14% two years ago. >> Um and then it was still a high number 6% last year. We're hoping that that's now come back into reality. Um, and this this goes into the override
conversation. If the state's allowing a private or you know, I don't want to say override, but if the state's identifying that the private schools costs have gone up by 14%. How are we supposed to live within and
>> the tax money? And you know I sat at N the other day they've done the they did the budget they're getting ready to do their budget and you know a lot of times the collaborives they're gonna say oh you know plan on three to 5% or five to 6%. There was a conversation they might end up being at like 10 which that's a
huge increase and you know I sit on the board but I'm on the board of 20 other superintendents who may not necessarily understand all the special ed stuff andor the ramifications that a 10% versus a 5% increase in tuitions have. So, we have to look at that closely, too. I didn't even have that
conversation with with um Lisa Mar yet cuz we haven't they haven't finalized it. We're doing our budget there in March, so I won't know that until then, which is way after this. So, it's not helpful. But just you always try to plan for, you know, I always try to like plan more than what we think it's going to be. But sets a huge
>> Does he set those rates or not? >> Uh they I think they have to get um they don't set them, but they have to I think they have to approve them on the back if I'm not mistaken. Yeah, they have to say like we're going to re we're going to raise our rates for this reason and they very rarely say no. So, is there is
there a way to reflect that we are using funds that really aren't ongoing for ongoing positions. So, I think that helps educate the public around, you know, this isn't probably a best business practice. And it it is just
kind of something we're going to have to you know in some in some cases it might be a year in some cases it might be two or three years but if there was a way that we can kind of help folks understand that I think that would be >> so I think the bigger concern is 150 out of the special education revolving a and
Lisa Mar and her team have done a great job rebuilding the programs here and hopefully we'll get some kids tuition back in and that won't be a problem and we continue to fund positions out of it but right now we don't have the kids coming in so you can't plan on them coming if they're not already here, right? Um and then the kindergarten one
causes me a little bit of a little bit of concern, but I think we can buy three four years out of that. So, um and you know, think superintendent and I have had conversation. We both when we arrived here kind of scratched our head and said, "Wow, Marblehead still charges for kindergarten. They're one of like five communities in the state that still
charges for kindergarten." Um it was our intention to if you look at the budget, I think, and I'll give you the page really quick. It's going to be the last one of the last pages. Um, you look at page 43 at the bottom.
There's additions and reductions. I originally had 3day three full day kindergartens in there. I originally had a number in there, but once we got to level funded, that was the directive. Obviously, that number got blanked out. And on the next page, uh, the third item down was a technology refresh lease. We
talked about that with FINCOM in the select board last year about starting um the idea is you put you fund it with $100,000 in year one. You go out and you lease equipment on a three-year lease. So you get about 250 $280,000 worth of equipment. In year two of the budget, you add another $100,000. So it's a
$200,000 line. You go out lease another three-year lease for equipment. Year three, you do the same thing. In year four, your first lease is paid off. So you already have the money. So it's a three-year investment, $100,000 additional each year. Uh unfortunately with the level funded we had to cut that and everybody nodded their heads and said that's a great idea Mike glad
you're thinking about that we should do that and then the sky is falling there's you know eight what say 8 million I heard the other day from the town side u of a potential deficit for next year so certainly that was the other line we quickly cut out of our level of bonding
budget question um I've heard a lot of I And I appreciate you doing such a thorough job and and really doing surgical cuts where needed to try to preserve positions where possible. Um, but there are some
things that sound like variables that I'm wondering how nervous you are. I mean, it goes from small things like vehicle fuel and electricity you mentioned, uh, maintenance costs and then kind of the expected rates you're expecting to pay and then the federal
grant money. Um, what are you going to be watching most closely to ensure that this budget? Um, yeah, it's going to be the utilities, going to be special education, tuitions, and transportation. Um, and it's going to be
the idea grant as much as the the ESSER ESSA grant. There's one part of the ESSA grant that scares me and that's the teacher quality grant. That's the title two part of the grant that funds our mentors and mentees mentors. Mentors, mentor coordinator. If that grant did
not come in, that's not something we can cut. It's mandated by the state. >> Yep. >> Correct. And it's contractual object. >> Title one is a bigger number, >> but that's done to supplant supplement. I'm a supplement existing
programs. So maybe we would not be able to supplement some supplement something. Um, we've been very cautious not to put salaries in the grants. And there's there's a reason behind it. It's a selfish reason. When you put a salary into a grant, um there's a some silly call silly. I was going to say stupid,
but some silly law that says that 9% that when you put a salary into the grant, the employee pays into their retirement. The grant also has to pay into their retirement. So MTRS is getting 11% from the employee and 9% from the grant. So we lose 9% of the
grant to retirement right away. So we don't put sal we at all cost avoid putting salaries into a grant. It's easy thing to do, but you lose part of your grand. So, unfortunately, we don't have any saling grants except for the mentor that the mentor program.
>> When do you find out about the >> typically June or July? >> And that's if the federal government's playing nice together. >> Well, the two parties can come together and it's >> been indicated it'll be level funding,
but we'll wait and see. >> Yeah. Thank you. I have a question around class size. That seems to be an important metric that people focus on. Um, you know, and I think, uh, in the deck somewhere, you know, you talk about academic
implications being larger class size and I think that's part of how you, you know, you use decimate, >> right? >> Yes. >> Is there a way to quantify that in a way that you could show? I know there have to be some assumptions, right? But if we don't properly fund certain things,
right? our class size, you know, was this today, it could go to this, you know, and I think that'd be kind of an important thing to just help people understand in a very real way what some of the implications are of >> Yeah. >> some of these reductions. >> I started me I met I met with PTO's and PCOS and SACE's and stuff the last
several weeks and part of the conversations I had was we have four, you know, fourth grade classrooms and they're all at 21 and you cut it down to three classrooms like you just figure out the math. Okay, now they got to go up. But from 216 or whatever it is. So
that that's like the reality. Have we have we done that actual math across the board? No, not not specifically in those areas. But what we've done is we've looked at the areas that would be least impact. So when you look at that, it says three high school teachers. That's um mainly because when you look at
classroom sizes, it's a it's a much different animal. If you say the classroom size went from 19 to 23 at the high school level than it is um 19 to 23 at a first grade, it's it's a whole different animal. Um so that's that's kind of how we how we how we did that
way. And when we met with the principles, we went through that each each um each classroom each grade and that's how we got to the >> right. Anyone else had any comments or questions?
>> Um so the only comment I would make to the committee is that you know we um have done our job. Um we worked with FINCON. We were asked to um consider a level funed budget. of the administration on that side.
Um then hopefully folks are, you know, keeping an eye on what's going on on the town side with the, you know, the finance department and the finance committee. Um they are a little bit um behind us in terms of time and they haven't presented a level funded budget
yet. I think that's forthcoming in the next couple of weeks. Um so the deficit that they're talking about from the town side is probably a bit of a moving target. Um once we get that though um or once the you know sort of the town is
aware of that um I expect that we may be approached again possibly by the finance committee to to reconsider our level funded budget. I don't know that. I just you know from my experience I in just the legality of it you know maybe um uh
realistically you know the town entire town may be looking at um you know the budget. So my question to the committee and well on most but you know maybe for both of us is you know if that's the case if we're so we've done what we've been asked to do we're ready to go we go
through our budget hearing we'll go through our vote then come when we arrive at town meeting if anything changes between now and then and we are asked to make any changes to this uh my question to the committee is you know we need direction from the committee um well as as the administration rightly
as to you know because it's really committee um decision as to where we we would want to where we would want to say make movement or what sort of what are the overarching what goals and drives drivers and
assumptions um to go forward. I think that's consideration once we know better from I think stand I definitely think that's I didn't mean to jump in I just you know um >> yeah for sure because you're going to need direction like I mean I think not direction by I
think it needs that we're going to need to have >> I think it'd be helpful to hear from hey you know if we have to cut X dollars um you've already showed us where where you've done these efficiencies and reductions um and maybe you know say we think this or we think that and then we we go back to drawing or if that's a
thing and say, "Well, that's nice, but this is where it makes more sense." And we have that conversation. I think it would just be you have to have I'm hoping that hoping that the town will see the value of the fact that we we gone to a level fun budget. We basically
reduced our budget by 2.6 um already. Um, you know, but I understand the the the diet states the town is in and we're going to do our part to the extent that we can without I mean, I'm an educator. I'm the educational leader of the district. I am
really concerned about students and and their ability to be taught in environments that are safe. I'm I'm concerned about the staff they having the resources. It's not as simple as, oh well, we need to reduce by x amount of dollars that equals this many teachers.
like it's it's not that simple. So, I just want to we'll do what we have to do. Like I said from the very beginning, and I think we've done that since since we met this subcommittee. I'm proud of the work that's been done. I don't love having to do any kind of conversation about reducing staff, but that's where
we are. So, we're going to continue to do that and we'll we'll do whatever we need to do to move forward in and hope get this town where we need to be. >> Yeah, Jen, I you know, we'll provide the guidance if needed. Absolutely. Um, but I'm if there has to be some significant
further work, I hope that the budget subcommittee still exists and we continue as they did here. they did a a great job of doing this for us and I'd like for them to, you know, if we do have to do some things to work with John and we'll, you know, as a subcommittee and we'll provide guidance as Neo,
>> I think what we should do because, you know, we're we're, you know, we're where we are, uh, we need to keep an eye on, you know, on the town side on, you know, talk to the finance committee, hearing what's going on on the, um, on the town government side, uh, and be prepared, um, for for what we need to do. I think
um that being said, we ought to maybe have this as another standing agenda item throughout spring um throughout the next few months. we can always you know table if they don't have meeting but if if there's information you know real time um at a meeting you know we have
the agenda items just as maybe as an FY27 budget and we can share whatever is being presented to us or communicated to us and the committee can weigh in because that can just make one comment um please thank you um so we have the
budget hearing on the 26th that's an opportunity for folks to have their input. Um, happy to hear thoughts, happy to hear. I'm sure I'm going to hear concerns, thoughts, um, pluses and minuses, but realistically, that's this
budget for this line already. It'll be there definitely tomorrow so people can look at it, sift through it, come to the 26 meeting. I encourage it to come and ask the question. If you don't understand something, we're going to do our best to explain it. If there's something that, you know, doesn't look right or whatever, we can explain it.
Um, if there's something we can't explain, then that's shame on us. And I think we need to do a better job. But I honestly think, you know, Mike's been doing this a long time. School business manager, he knows he knows the stuff. We, you know, between between us, there's many, many years of education
oversight, and I think we're in a I feel like we're in a much better place this year than last year when we got here. Um, and I and I really, even though we're in the dire straits in the town, I still for some crazy reason still feel like we're moving in the right direction
overall. And I'm proud of that work. But not just so much that we need to hear from the we need to hear from the town. And when the town decides what they're going to do in terms of the overall budget, but whatever that decision becomes, we need folks to come out and and bang the gong. You know, we can't do
same old same old and marble head. It's not going to work. And the quicker people realize the the better we're better off we're all going to be. My bunch is advocating. I have to advocate to schools. That's my job. It's my it's my passion. It's my career. It's my life. But, you know, there's other stuff
in common. It has to happen. People need to step up and just say, "Oh, same old same old. They always find the money somewhere." Like that's that's not happening anymore. And you most of you have been here way longer than I have. And I and I learned that really quickly. So, so we'll get we'll get this, you
know, on the website as quickly as possible. Now, there were some suggestions made right from us tonight. If those are made, but we find the committee find that those will just we could just update those to the website as needed. And I know we can do that up to I believe a week before
>> February 26. >> So, we'll we'll we'll do some work around some of the things we talked about. There was also a page in there with the enrollments. We'll total make sure some of those >> those areas that were kind of maybe needed a little bit more attention will get done. Um >> um and we'll make those changes as soon
as I'm fine you know making the changes and and getting them on there. I mean we got to come back for public hearing anyway and hope you know I when I'm how about this we'll make the changes we'll share them see them we'll post it that makes sense. It's the budget that I
think presentation is can change. It's the actual budget >> has to be right. It's 10 days or 7 days. >> We'll make sure. >> All right. Um,
>> thank you. >> No, thank you. I appreciate the support. >> The budget subcommittee. Um um are there any subcommittee further subcommittee and less on updates? >> Uh yeah the communications we met this
morning u Melissa and I and we are sending out the newsletter we work on sending Friday but we're sending it Monday so that doesn't conflict with newsletters. Um it is obviously very budget focused including an update to that road map. Um, and we will link to
the budget docin and I think we should link to this presentation. I think we can link to the timestamp in the video so that people can just get right into it with a single plug. Um, and then >> can you do a favor and I almost felt
include my email around that question. >> Yeah, I think that's a good change we can add. Yeah. Yeah. um subscribe to my computer will definitely do that. Um but that way
you know if anyone has any questions >> I'm happy talk people. >> Yeah change for sure. Um the other thing that we're doing which I guess we'll be working or I'll be working on tomorrow is we have just some a a short you know
couple sentences talking about how the budget is available here presentation that we distribute to uh you know through the PTOS if they're willing to do it on social med
>> yeah and the day of the hearing. But the the goal is to really help >> informed and ready to give us feedback. So we were sort of very focused on that this morning and and that should go out on on Monday. >> Have you had a roof committee meeting?
Is there anything? >> No, but we it's something I know we have some updates that I saw from um from so um they've been asking me. So we will be having I was going to sort of address that. There was a working group meeting today. It was not committee meeting. It
was construction meeting today. All the HBAC units that were concerned about back order or long not back order but long delivery uh have been ordered and have been uh assured that they will be on site by June. So that was a yes you
know that was that was a big concern. That was a big concern. So yeah, it was a good meeting. thing we're hearing too is just and maybe the committee can talk about this is um you know get what what if any impact the actual project will have on student staff in the building
both during the school year and in the summer buildings do >> I could I can speak to the summer sorry go >> um because it was concerned whether or not um Hyperfield was going to be able to be utilized by Rex Park and whether um the students get in to do um their weight
training and stuff is because there's really no other place for them to go. So, the special education program that we generally have at the high school is being moved to the veterans. Um, so those students will be out thankfully. Um, what I'm allowing the the weight lifting or weight training to happen and
what I've instructed Kent to instruct his folks are is they may have to come in a different door on different days depending on where crane and setup are, but that's on the roof and they're in the base in the, you know, first floor. So they might have to go back door, they may have to go into the fieldhouse, wherever the staging is, they have to obviously be safe and work on that.
Piper Field will be able to be utilized um with the possible exceptions not putting a crane on the field, but it's not happening, but they maybe they have, you know, they might be in that area where they're swinging stuff around. So um I've told Rex and Parker they have to make sure that they're a little bit
flexible there. So that's the summer, but we won't know the start of the school year. I mean hopefully that the plan is for everything to be done. Um and hopefully if there's anything that's residual it will not we will make sure it's not as effective. >> What about the this spring? There's nothing.
>> Oh, so we still come to the April >> there's so this in February vacation they're going to go up on the roof where they do a pre pre-insspection where they check every piece of equipment that's going to come off the roof if it's going back on. There are some things that are going to go back on. They do an inspection of them. They make sure
they're operational. They make notes on everything. Um so basically if they damage something we focus back on they're responsible for it. That's what they're doing this for. It's an insurance for them and an insurance for us. Uh that's happening in February vacation week. And then uh in April vacation week there is talk based on the
weather of doing uh one to two small sections of the roof that don't have HVAs equipment on them. Um don't have a lot of other things other than roof drains. So there'd be smaller sections that they feel like they can bang them out in the week. And um and so that that would happen in April vacation
>> weather depend weather dependent how much snow still on the roof at that point hopefully zero. >> And then does any of this affect the office staff? >> So the office staff should be good because they're all um I should say the first floor office staff everything in that in that main office suite will be
good. I know that there are a couple of assistant principles who are on the second floor. They may need to and there's an assistant principal who's on the second floor. uh >> school. >> Yeah, they're both uh they first floor for the time being. Uh guidance is already on the first floor. Uh they have
10 days built into their contract for summer work. Um so other than that, there should be no staff in the building. That was they were pretty strict about they needed to know when we did this what staff was going to be on site or what students were going to be on site.
So we let them know that there would be uh some students allowed in the wait room. there will be some students allowed uh into the building to see a guidance counselor, to get transcripts, to get uh final grades or whatever done. Um the office staff would still be in the building. So, they know that they'll
be limited, but um there will be no programs, no scheduled programs in the building, inside the building um during that time. >> Mike, do you know when they will decide whether they can do work over April break? I mean, will it really be >> I'm going to say it's probably we'll
probably get a one to two week notice. I don't think it's going to be a you know, we're showing up tomorrow. I don't think so. But I think it's also going to depend on they may say we plan on doing, you know, the the snow's melted, the weather's broke, and we plan on doing something over April vacation. But if
they get to Friday and the forecast is a really wet and rainy April vacation, they may just say, "You know what? We're not going to do this." >> Okay. >> Do you have any other updates? Everything's all done. >> Anybody else? Okay, we will move on to the closing
business is the correspondence. Correspondence. >> All right. Looking for a motion to adjurnn. >> So, I'll second. >> All right. So, a motion to adjurnn made by Kate, seconded by Melissa. I'm sorry.
I couldn't heard it from over here. Sorry, Melissa. So motion made by Melissa, seconded by Henry. All in favor? Okay, the motion passes 5 to zero. We are adjourned.
>> Thank you.