All right. Um, let's see. All right. Um, >> is anyone here to represent Will from student representation? >> Okay, we'll move on. Thank you. Um, >> so Al, >> yes.
>> Um, I have a um hard stop at 7:30. So, I was wondering if um it would be the will of the committee to consider moving up the FY27 budget discussion to um the beginning of the agenda. >> I'm fine with that.
>> We have screens here tonight. So, maybe we should do the spotlight and then >> Did you hear that, Jen? We can uh if you don't mind, we'll do the high school spotlight first because we have students here and then we can do the fiscal year 27 budget afterwards. Okay, perfect.
>> I'm sorry. We'll move the outside. >> Oh, and the porch. Okay, >> they should. >> All right, so we need the uh Okay, it's fine. Uh, Superintendent Ro. >> Thank you. >> Thank you. Good evening. >> Uh, it's a really busy time for our
district and here are just some of the items I'd like to share this evening. Le Beri and Shirley Huller White have shared some great news about um student artists that were highlighted recently at the Congressional Art Show at Scholastic Art and writing awards. Max Teter earned first place for charcoal
drawing along with a scholarship to Monzerat College of Art summer program. So congratulations to Max in that charcoal drawing really well. It's a picture of it is really neat. Um several other students were featured in the show at the show as well. Noah Jackson feeling the bar, Conor Nunan, Lily
Sanchez, Colin Hart and William Wade. Um, and Leah had Leah had shared all their artwork with us with me anyway. It was really cool. Um, they was different medium like paintings and uh, photographs and different art. So, it was really neat and we're so proud of the talented artists that represented
Mar so well. By English uh had shared that Harry Ki who is a 2011 Mar and high school alum and current co-producer with Broadway show Suffs came and worked with our um MHS women's ensemble to form to perform a show's final number at the
Marblehead little theater. She met with our students to share what it's like to be a Broadway producer and the journey that she took to get there. thought this was a really great opportunity for our students and we're so appreciating that appreciative that Ari took the time um to meet with our students that's right
>> um to meet with our students and share the journey and and all that it was really neat and thank you to Colleen for making that happen. Um on May 4th at 5:00 so before the town meeting participants will get a VIP parking when you come to be here nice and early for
the uh for the meeting. of the high school will be hosting anformational night for senior students and their parents and is sponsored by the Essex County DA's office. This important event features the program drive to stay alive which is put on presented by Kathy and
Chris Sullivan. It highlights the importance of making good choices, discussing substance use and abuse, social hosting, how to be safe during up prom and other things during the spring season and obviously beyond. uh this night is a part of a larger communitywide collaboration. And in
regards to that, um we also have Chief King uh DA Paul Tucker and myself um have um have drafted a joint letter that will be disseminated shortly that demonstrates our collective commitment to helping student keep our students safe here in Mar. The three of us will
also be a part of a panel discussion next Tuesday, April 14th at 7 PM in uh Mary Alley at the board of health meeting to also help spread this important message to our community. Um so all are welcome to attend 7:00 next Tuesday 14. Um our mechco advocacy day
is on Monday uh this coming Monday at the state house. I will be in attendance along with Johnson, our mech director. This event is to highlight the continued need for the program and to advocate for continued funding. I will follow my impressions of the advocacy day. I think um this it's it's at the state house
legislators obviously it's at the state house. um all MECO uh communities are invited uh to part participate and it's important especially not just because MECO program is is so important part of our educational community but also because funding um from the state
obviously we we have issues with that and there's some some thoughts that the funding the medical program may be reduced next year um and in that light I just want to so some what we had talked about is how do we help um mitigate some of those funding um cuts or We're
piloting some transportation collaboration with Swampskit for our our Boston based students. I believe they're piloting that next week to see if the runs work out. Okay. And if not, we'll rethink that. But that will ensure that the funding that we we feel that we are getting will be enough to kind of
continue making sure we don't have any breaks in the program. So this advocacy today is very important on on a lot of fronts. And finally, was asked to participate in a panel discussion at the CIA this morning. It was hosted by the select board and included all of the marble head department heads. This is a great collaboration and helped our COA members and other members of the
community to understand what um what we do as department heads, how we collaborate in ways that we can work together to help the community grow. It was a great opportunity and one that seemed um very well received. I think it was it was the first time they did this and it was kind of kind of neat. All the department heads were there. I think it
was about 30 or so um community members and it was some good good construction that happened. So, I'm really happy with the way it went. Um hopefully we'll continue to do that. So I just want to thank Aaron Nan and Dan Fox for um the hosting that is I'm assuming they put it together as well. Um and then finally our shout outs from Matt Leange,
principal of Vets Middle School. Um he shouts out the um MPS technology department um MVMS administration extends a sincere thanks to MPS technology department for their outstanding support and transitioning to whole school MPASS testing. this year that shifted from administering MC test
to seventh and eighth grades on separate days having all students test simultaneously. This was a large logistical and technical undertaking. The technology department played a critical role in the process preparing all student Chromebooks and providing support throughout the testing days. Thanks to their planning and
responsiveness and transitioning was seamless and both testing days ran smoothly. This success would not have been possible without the expertise and support of MPS technology and forward. And I have to say that's that's a it's a huge undertaking and we used to set up separate test days and by all accounts it went really well. Um very well
received because the kids have to buy at the same time instead of different days without etc. So um I thought that was a great move by Mr. Leandandy. I think we'll continue to do it that way moving forward. So thank you to him. Thank the technology department from Scott
Williams um from Village principal Village School. Um he wants to shout out Mary Davies has been an outstanding tutor and amazing substitute teacher at Village for over a decade. She's dedicated to our students rising up to any challenge she's faced with. She's professional, passionate, caring
engineer of the highest caliber. Very lucky to have her on staff and village and we thank her for her many years of service for our students. From Mary Maxfield, our principal at Brown School, she'd like to shout out our music teacher Deore. music in our schools month is a true celebration of powerful instruments and songs sung at Nebraska
mission this last week but definitely barely repeating so it was really cool during the month of March Mr. Mora coordinates live music in our foy every morning for students and staff to enjoy during arrival time. Simultaneously in March, she organizes, rehearsals, and directs her first, second, and third
graders and their first evening concert for families, which is adorable as was musical. Thanks to Miss Eileen Demor for all your efforts to keep performing arts alive and well at Brown School and that's no mean for second year, so that's uh that's pretty good. um from
Frank Kowski, the principal at Matt Glover. He shouts out to Isabelle Ne. Bear with me. All right. I don't I have a lot of thoughts today. I will I will continue that next week. Sorry about that. I apologize. I printed
out way too many today. So, um that will my shout outs for this evening and I'll I'll reestablish those next week and I apologize to to Frank and Joey. All right. Thank you, Mark. Thank you. >> All right. Since it's the first meeting of the month, we'll have a financial
update from our assistant superintendent, Mike. >> Good morning. Good afternoon. Uh thank you for this opportunity. We uh have to do every month with a little financial update. Uh our unac unexpended
unencumbered balance currently stands just under 2.1 million. Keep in mind we are trying to reserve 1.5 million for C to prepaid tuitions to subsidize our tuition line for next year. That's out of tissue of tuition. Uh so this is
about 614,000 less than I reported last month. We did have a big push in March to get all of our end ofear expenses and covered graduation expenses um other other costs around the district that we have. But with that said, we always have
un unplanned expenses as you'll see in the next bullet. Um, in the month of March, we had some unexpected HVAC costs with blubber and ground schools. Um, as well as we had some bus repairs that needed to be made and uh some elevator
repairs. So, seems like sometimes when it rains it pours. Hopefully, we've gotten through the the April showers and we get into the May flowers. So, uh that's kind of it on that. Uh well, not specifically related to the
budget, just give you a quick update that the roof project at Veterans Middle School should be uh starting back up in about two weeks, within the next two weeks. So, we're hopeful that that will be wrapped up within the next month or month and a half. And the high school roof project over April vacation, which
is about a week and a half away. Students here, how far we got? Week and a half. We got I know you're counting. Um they will be in my memo I put two sections. It's actually three sections. This roof right above us will be will be done over April break. Uh there's a
little section just off down to the left here. A very small section near the concession stand that will get done over April break. And there's a section on the other side of the school. Uh all three of those sections don't really have any um HVAC or exhaust units on them. So they pictured that those would
be the ideal units to get out of the way uh while they had an opportunity. We're just praying for some nice weather. So uh that's kind of my my financial update. I'm sure that we gone through the lines and uh if anything stood out to you, please let me know.
>> All right. Thanks, Mike. >> All right, we'll move to the uh high school spotlight, please. close to the table. >> Uh, hello everybody. Thanks for coming. Uh, my name is Spike Labosier. I'm a junior at Barble High School. >> I'm Max Khan. I'm a junior.
>> I'm D Oi. I'm also a junior. >> I'm Caleb Sidman. I'm also a junior. >> I'm Lucy Lanari and I'm a sophomore. >> And we're not joined here by everybody that's helped us out tonight. Uh but for everyone who is here, we speak on behalf of Marble at High School's Magic Coalition, which was created this year
uh in response to what happened on October 7th where there were reports of a swastika drawn in the men's bathroom on the second floor. Uh so after a lot of discussion with administration as well as fellow students, we decided that um what was in place already for uh
accounts of hate were not really effective in actually dealing with what was happening. And so we want to create something that allow for students uh and teachers and just the whole community in general to feel a little more welcome and to also educate um all those parts
about uh everything that was happening just telling them that hate is not okay. Uh so we created this community. Uh if you guys want to talk more about it. >> Yeah, I mean we held a uh full school we split up the sophomores and the seniors and the juniors and the freshman. We held a whole school assembly with both
of them during magic block and then um we just hung up uh suggestion boxes and we plan on going down to the village school to the sixth grade to teach them about um just why hate is not good um during the end of May, start of June around that time period. Um we don't have that fully cemented yet, but we
really hope to do that soon. >> Yeah. I also think it's really important to highlight the fact this is a studentled coalition because often times people don't take teachers seriously seriously unfortunately but um I think connecting peerto-peer it helps show that it's like a real issue in the
school and it helps show that like everyone around you knows about it and it beats us >> and we decided that going to village first so going to the sixth grade to lead an assembly with them would be the best course of action because we believe that
it is kind of not necessarily in someone's heart, but more in their surroundings and in their environment. So when someone is raised in an environment where they don't know what their words mean, then it leads to things like this with repeated aches, acts of hate happening little.
We're also trying to provide like hope in the students minds that there is they have a place to go if they feeling they have a resource where they can talk to someone if they feel like they're being discriminated against or they have a place to go or at least they can see the light at the end of the tunnel that we're really trying to do something to
fix this issue. Um not just in Marblehead High School and like I said village and the town of Marblehead too hopefully um that's what we're trying to accomplish. So, we really we really just want to make people feel comfortable um for who they are and that they actually are able to go to people if they're feeling discriminated against or they're
feeling like they're having issues like where they go five times a week. >> Can can you um one of you guys um magic? What does it stand for again? We we've talked about school. I think it's important for everybody. >> Uh it's the Marvel Headers Alliance for Growth, Inclusion, and Connection.
>> Awesome. >> That's awesome. >> Thank you. Um, so yeah, thank you guys for hearing us out. >> Thank you so much. All right. Next up, um, >> um, Portugal field trip request. Hey, Kelly gonna share uh the Portugal
illustrator request that she's put forward to the committee. Okay. >> All right. You can sit right there. There you go. >> Everybody, I'm Kelly. I am the lead world language teacher at the high school and I teach Spanish as well. I
also helped coordinate the trip that happens this year. I kind of stepped in and took over when the teacher who initiated the trip left and um they're back. took the wild.
Um so with that in mind, we are asking to host another international field trip um to Portugal this time and in April this time. Um so this would be a trip from April 15th to 24th which starts a little before April break and let's then
come back and recuperate for a day before coming back to school. Um, again, we're we want to go to Portugal and we would stay in two main base cities, Lisbon and Porto, which also reduces the amount of hotels, which if you think about the trip we took this year, there
were a lot there's a lot of bouncing around from hotels. Um, so there would only be two main ones, and then they would do day trips from there. Um, we feel that this is an important um historical, cultural, and linguistic um experience for our fates. We don't offer
Portuguese, but it is a romance language, so they will be able to exercise those um those skills still. Um I know whenever I was traveling um in that area, I could always get by their English or Spanish. So, I'm excited to see those skills. And of course, making connections between the different
languages work as well. Um we do have a sample itinerary for the listen at Porto trip. It highlights amazing things from day trips to places like CRA and Pongra. Um it also gives them really really nice um experiences. There are some that are
more historical, some seeing um like ancient ruins or castles or fortresses and some are things like a Portuguese cooking class and going to the most beautiful bookstore in the world. Um it's a really nice trip that they put together. We're looking to work with or
we are working with the same uh company from last year. We would also be looking to uh use the same tour guide that traveled with them as last year who was an amazing asset to us when we had a blizzard and we needed to really be
thinking on our feet. Um his name is Haime Crystal and he was really really awesome. So he was a really big asset to us and helping us out. Um you have any questions? I don't have a question, but I'd just
like to say how much I appreciated the shifts you made sort of in light of what happened this year. I think it's great that, you know, there were lessons learned and changes made, >> you know, in order to address those issues. So, thank you. >> It was a real team effort. It was awesome. Um, every, you know, from my
job is really in communication. So, um, I was pushing all that information out to parents to everyone on the ground, they were the same. So this is >> that I I just want I just want to say um I appreciate uh uh experiential learning. I would say this every time uh because I think it's great experience
for kids and I know there's there's always some hesitancy like oh we're sending kids off to Europe or wherever but I think you know um you we have chaperrons that go that you know and a lot of times it's repeat uh folks. We sent administrator in last time and I think we're plan on doing that again which is helpful. Um, but for the
students, there's nothing that replaces that experiential learning. So, I appreciate when folks come come to school committee with these kind of trips because it's it's it's something that these children may not get may not get to experience public, right? And I think that's that's always that's always
great being there with adults that are educators and know, you know, kind of know the ins and outs of where they're going. And I just I just think it's great. So, I I always support the experience. I just want to say thank you for uh coming back and for the school committees especially so quickly after
that last trip. So >> absolutely you're right. We are looking to repeats. Um it would be Dan Richards as the admin again. It would be um Erin Bark who was on this trip, Jay Gudara who's on this trip and then I would be traveling with them again this time. Um
my son's a little older now so his dad can. >> So I'm looking for a motion to approve of this request. So moved. >> A second. I'll second. >> All right. Motion made by Kate, second
to by Henry. Any further discussion? >> All right. Well, we'll go to a roll call. Uh Jen >> in favor. >> Henry. >> Favor. >> Wilson >> in favor. >> Deep. >> Al in favor. The motion passes five to zero.
>> Thank you so much. >> Thank you. Thank you. >> Anybody want their item ready? They have it all. >> All right. Thank you everybody. >> Thank you. >> Yeah. The rest is just I think I'm going to do the rest of those episodes. >> Okay. Thank you. >> All right. We will then move to the
fiscal year 27 budget. I believe John, you want to kick us kick this off for us? >> Yes. Um we have we have a just one slide to kind of do the overview and then just Yeah. So, thank you, Mr. Chairman. Um, so I
just, you know, this has been a long um budget process as everyone knows and I I just want to say again, uh, you know, I'm really proud of the work that we've done. I'm proud of, you know, Mike and his team and our and our team here. Um, they've just put their heads together and just kind of crunch the numbers,
been very thoughtful about how we how we get to the budget that's been requested of us um, in in a relatively short amount of time. And I think it's it's needs to be underscored that uh the work that's been done is is been the own's work for uh for the for the amount of
time we've had to to do that. So in this slide it kind of gives the overview our fiscal year 2026 budget. Our current year is 49,120287. Um while the initial request was a level services budget for FY27 mobile head
schools is now at reduced service budget with cuts and use of revolving accounts for a total budget reduction of 3.15746 million. So if you look at that middle C middle line on the left hand side level services for the fiscal year 27 which was not approved would have been 50
million73633 and then the fiscal year um reduced budget that's why sorry 2027 is now 47620 287. So um that that budget has been approved tonight we'll go through the uh
the reductions where those reductions were made. Um but again the total reductions have been $3.1 million um which land primary in the areas primarily in the areas personnel including teachers and support staff is 22 positions that have been reduced.
Classroom supplies and materials um were level level funded. So no increase to any of those areas. Curriculum copers and maintenance and supplies were also level funded. Um you know we did some uh work around that they've talked about the copy of leases and how that saved us
some money which is good but um that was part of the reductions um and our increase in cost primarily in there is out of district tuition and transportation and that's that's driven mainly um through OSD which is the operational service division who sets the rates across the states. We have no
control over those increases. Um, and the rates, you know, have varied. This one year, a couple years ago, it was 14% increase. Just boom, 14% increase. Deal with it, schools. Um, and it it's always the increase is always in the four, five, 6% range. Um, so that's that's
always not helpful. Um, our educational consortium just last week let us know that they had an overall average increase of 9.4% in their tuitions. um the high-end for the higherend um uh programs that they run
was actually 12%. Which unfortunately is where the all of if not most of our students attending the consortium land in that in that bucket. So um so the 12% increase that we didn't know about until a week ago. Um it's these are things
that are beyond our control but obviously drive um some of the shifting um things that we talk about and I've always talked about since since we were started a conversation about budget back in October, November, special education is is is a force that drives a lot of
the budget. Transportation is hugely expensive these days. Uh tuitions like I just said rise exponentially every year and we have no control over it. Um the one thing that we will we we are working on and controlling and we'll talk more about this over the years is like how do
we bring students back into our district um not just to reduce the cost of the tuition although that's an added benefit but to make sure that they're being educated with their like age peers. That's a huge philosophy of mine. I know it is so Lisa Marie and her team. Um so we're working on that but that's that's a multi-year approach. So when people
say oh bring the kids back and save the tuition it's not that simple. It's really really not that simple but we're working on it. So I just I just share that and obviously fuel costs. Fuel costs have driven everything from what you're buying at the grocery store to the gas pumps to your electricity, you know, delivery of electricity, oil.
Yeah, I'm not telling you anything. You don't already know, but that's kind of the overall school budget. That's how we got to where we are. The $3.1 million in reductions. So, um there's the uh the budget sheets that were in there. I
think um I'll let Mike kind of talk a little bit to um where the where the extra reductions landed on on the overall uh the budget sheets that we that we shared. I think um you know the biggest part of the discussion is the prepayment of the tuition to 1.5. So
when we were asked to reduce another 1.5 from our budget um that's mainly where that that reduction will be. So I'm like your guy talk about that a little bit. >> Yeah. Um, so in your packet you did have the line by line budget and we've already talked about many of these
reductions. So if if you please direct me if you'd like to go through them one at a time or if you'd just like the highlights of where we're making additional reductions on that one. >> I think Mike at the very least I mean we approved this budget but this is the first time where I'm actually seeing
where those are coming from. >> Okay. So we can go we can go >> I mean that's just me. I don't know if everybody else wants to see it, but and maybe there are members of this committee who have seen these numbers, but this is the first time I'm seeing them. >> Understood. I will let me also preface this with we met with our principles
early this week, give them kind of a a preview of some of the the cuts or all the cuts. Um, and I and I got to say there there there'll be trying to be a lot of a lot of creativity as far as when we say maybe it's a position, maybe it's not the position that they had originally intended. Maybe there's a way
that we can um shift positions around the district. Julie has been instrumental in looking at where holes are, where staff could fill those holes from within our cuts. Um so you know when we talk about 22 vacancies 22
positions and 11 of them are vacant uh some of those there are some other vacancies you know through attrition that maybe will be the flip back filling from people so it may not be a total reduction force it will be a reduction in positions but the reduction force right now that we've talked about it
being 11 u may not be 11 it may be something should it be more than 11 ideally it will be less than that through the efforts of the principles Julia at least Marine uh they've really done some some great work around that while we're running the numbers on the other side. >> I'm just going to jump there for a
second. So, um what folks need to understand a lot a lot of the conversations are like, "Oh, you know, it's we have to we have to reduce the budget by this much just make that happen, right?" Well, it's it's all the conversations that need to happen that we have to get to of figure out where those positions are. So, some of some of
the some of where we are right now and the time constraints we're under is there's contractual, you know, there's things in the in the unit contracts we have to buy by. So, right now, April 15th is a day that we need to let folks know if they're getting transferred into
another position. I've requested a change that date from the union and and hopefully they'll, you know, they'll let me know shortly if that's amendable to them. And that will be helpful because for planning it's, you know, it's okay, we, you know, this this position is getting reduced, but we have, you know, a professional status teacher over here
that maybe sliding them into that position makes sense. So, it's it's not as simple as just cutting these positions see by. It's how can we how can we move the pieces around so that um the positions fall off, but the maybe some of the staff um can we can move into different positions, but they're
qualified. So, it's it's a licensing thing. It's a grade level um thing. It's a content area thing. It's a special ed thing. It's it's a lot of moving parts. So, you know, it's not as simple as saying, "Oh, I'm just going to introduce these two people and these 12 people." It's where those people what are their
positions. How can we um you know, mitigate some of the some of the um things as we move forward. So, it's it's a lot lot. >> Can you um put the document up on the screen, Mike? Um >> I probably can.
I think it would be helpful for the public to see um you talk through the specific cuts that were made to the level funded budget. So is it worth just stepping through the incremental how we got the incremental 1.5? >> Um probably. Yeah.
>> Yeah. Okay. >> All right. So I'll try and be as brief as possible on these. Um I know we have a long meeting tonight. Uh so just at the prom school uh we talked about level funding supplies. That was a savings of about $800. $1,800. Uh not savings, a reduction of about $1,800. Uh we talked
about reducing, we haven't talked about this, maybe we did. Um reducing uh a full year clerical position at Brown School year being 195 days versus 261 days. Uh reduce one custodian um that hasn't been zeroed in at Brown, but potentially could be. We currently have
a vacancy at Brown. So, as with any positions, sometimes custodial positions, we shift them around. Sometimes they're split. Um, this has cut 1.24 FTE general general ed constructional assistance. That's actually not a cut into soft part of the 22. It's actually we're shifting that
into some grant money up there. >> Yeah. >> Okay. Um, >> it's a reduction position. So, the the actual position will be fun, >> right? That's not a cut in position. It's it will be funded out of a a grant.
So those two positions moving on to Glover. Um there was a stipen in the budget teacher in charge that's been vacant that's not part of an FTE count or or whatnot. Um there's a a point4 teacher and dealing right now. If
there's extra questions I it's it's I believe it's vacant. >> It's a it's based off of our members are out. So that's your >> the census for the reduction. >> There you go. Thank you. >> Uh level funding supplies at Glover
$1,600 and sit in reductions. Uh here's the second custodian. Again, just a Glover for now. May not land a Glover, but it will be a custodian. Um so for our Oh, I think I skipped this on the on the on the Brown one. Both Brown and Glover have prek and on Wednesday is an
early release day for all prek. So uh in the past they've stuck around for professional development or to assist their teacher in planning. Um unfortunately in tough times tough measures um we reduce their 2 hours a week on Wednesdays. Um that's it for Glover getting into
village. Um there was a vacancy of um EL teachers and again that was due to censuses. Uh so that 1.75 is truly cut. um a vegan and special ed teacher position. Uh there's an elementary teacher position. Right now I have under village. It could be village glove or
brown just for to not stress anybody out. Um and one they have three uh full-time instructional assistants general ed at at village. The intention would be to reduce one of those three. Uh there are savings on supplies,
contract, service, professional development about $2,600 and uh there is discussion to cut a part-time um powerful position. Moving on to veterans. Um we talked
about this before, math interventionist. Um one teacher content area to be determined. um level fund their supplies was about $1,600 savings and uh cutting the um
power clical position at veterans also. We have two power clericals in the district and uh unfortunately they both those positions are currently um out there. So as well kind of preface is that there's there's a lot of horse training going on and conversations of
if I give up this can I save that? So this you know there are some of these positions that that may be in that situation. Uh moving on to the high school um we did previously um had already accounted for we we had
gone from a 1.0 art teacher to a point 8 art teacher. She was hired as 8. We had a 2 vacancy in the budget. It was already uh that was eliminated before all these conversations started happening that was decided before but it it is an FT cut from previous year. So just let you know. um move two of our
teachers from the general fund to educious which is a uh revolving account. Um that will need to be restored. Uh that is not a long-term solution. Uh cut three um the classroom teachers at the high school and level
funding their supply lines was a savings of about I'm sorry. Yeah, level funding supply lines was a savings of about $4,000. uh athletics and related right there is level funding their supply lines uh a savings of about $30 full.
Moving on to district. Now the when we say district, these are not necessarily all district. A lot of these resources are out in the schools, but they're they're district resources. Allows us the flexibility to move them where we need them, different days of the week, different months of the year. Um so
quickly to cover those, uh cutting two fellow vacancy positions. Um those were funded in a grant. So we're going to take those two positions out of the grant, not fill them. They are fellows of not positions. They don't get benefits. So, not counted in our FTE. Uh, but we would then move something
else into the grant to be identified, you know, at some point in the future. Um, but that opened up $81,000 in our general fund for for to to reduce the amount of cuts we need to make. Um, there was a a vacant ABA coordinator
position in the budget that's been cut. Uh, we we did have some money in there for summer IT help. summer is is critical to us to get our technology back into spec and ready to go for the spring. So, it's a it's a hurt, but it's it's a cut that, you know, trying to save us other places. We had a an HR
vacancy. Uh it was a a generalist or an assistant. Um so, we uh got that and uh there was a vacant special education PTA or physical therapy assistant. That position has been
removed. Um these next couple here um assistant business manager moving 20% of her salary 10% to the prekk revolving fund and 10% to uh various grants
IDA early childhood um we'll spread it out over all those grants of different proportions. Um, we're moving the uh facilities assistant uh half of her salary to the building rental fund. I don't know uh
it's hard to project exactly how long we we'll be able to do that for. Uh it it may be longer than a year or two, but but for right now, we know we can cover it for a year or two. Whether that that that's driven by how much we rent out our facilities. Um
uh this is kind of in the middle here. um prepaying tuition at the end of FY26. So, we are reducing our tuition lines which are just up above. You'll see that the tuition lines up here. I'm waiting to see my mouse moving, but these tuition lines up here have not been reduced uh from one year to the next.
So, um this is where we're showing the reduction here. When we actually load the budget into Munis, they'll be reflected in the right area. Um reduce uh a speech and language pathologist from 1.0 We know it has6 FTE.
Um we are pausing the curriculum refresh cycle. Uh that's a reduction in supplies and training and professional development and u summer work to get ready for the for the new year. Pretty good. Good.
>> Thank you. She has so much over there. I don't know what all I don't know what all the sides. Um we we we studied our daily sublines and we don't know if it's because we it it's multiffold. Um we now have building subs which is reducing our our need for having daily subs or as
many daily subs. Um it's hard to find subs and um so and and just the lack of the lack of a need for subs some situations. So we had we had an amount budgeted I think
was 25,000. We reduced that by 137,000 almost 138,000. So uh we feel really comfortable that we can we can do that. Um cut a 1.0 maintenance employee. We reduced our heating fuel budget. That
was primarily due to the new contract we signed. Reduced our electricity budget. Uh that was primarily due to just me usage. Um cut a little tight, but we'll we'll get through. um reduce our student services
contract services level fund supplies level fund supplies contract service professional development a lot of the the supplies from the district around central office you know u Marie and Julard especially sometimes they'll
they'll buy our materials and distri them out to the school so that they're all using the same materials and it's under district plan so we are it's not that we had big large budgets in central office. Um and then you know um
we haven't talked much about this but when we built the budget we built it on a percentage 6% uh over the previous year's budget not the previous year's actual and through some additional research and um and whatnot. We did have a couple of
moveins. We had a couple of uh students in district who who needed to who needed to go out. So we need that additional 540,000 above the 6% that we already put in. So we had to add that in. So when we said we cut 1.5, we actually had to cut deeper than 1.5. Uh
>> so yeah. Yeah. And this is not all tuition, tuition and transportation, right? >> Yes. >> With the kids, they have their tuition and their transportation. Uh Lisa Marie and I will work on that break up how much is tuition, how much is transportation, so I can adjust the lines appropriately.
Um, and that is pretty much your summary. So, bottom line, uh, our ending our budget for fiscal year 27 would be $47,620, 287,
which is $1.5 million reduction from 49998, which is a 3.05 05 with dark sheet in our show. Assuming that for those at home, >> can I stop sharing?
>> Any questions for Mike? Well, I have a few questions. Does any no one else has any questions? >> Not from the room. Go ahead, Ken. >> Okay. Um, so, um, Mike or John, I think it was Mike said at the beginning that you you let the, um, principles know
where these cuts were. just want to I mean I'm a little concerned to make sure that they our administrators were part of this discussion um as to where these cuts were going in their buildings. I mean was this sort of an iterative process or collaborative process with them?
>> Yeah. Um yes, they've been part of that conversation all along. Um back in starting back in October, November we started the conversations and they've evolved um since then through the reductions that we've been talking about. So the do the 1.7 and 1.5 they've been part of that discussion. Um it
hasn't been they've been told it's been we've been uh we've had them give us feedback as to where those reductions would be least impactful in their buildings and what ways they could help um with the adjustment and the reduction. So they've been very very
much a part of the conversation. I think some of this last iteration was really um quick turnaround. So this there's some further discussion. So, a lot of the positions and stuff that Mike talked about, you know, um yeah, you know, it's it's positions we had to put them in in certain, you know, schools and certain
buck I said may not pan out exactly how was outlined. So, you know, I think people we haven't notified staff of a lot of it. So some of the specificity tonight you may it's going to cause some extra inks but I think it's also um you know until we until we say exactly what
those positions are the principal principal you pull out to the the dollar mouth they they may shift slightly just because um of the discussions with the principal. So the principles have been very involved and they are they are the ones driving a lot of the discussions at the schoolbased level um with guidance
from from Julia and Lisa Marie around special ed and you know teaching learning. So I I'm very comfortable with um how this process has unfolded. I've also been meeting, you know, I meet the union um presidents every other week. So we've been having conversations. So I
don't think any most of this isn't a surprise to them. I mean other than some of the specifics that we're starting to get into, but uh you know they're they're well aware of how we've been reduction. So a great >> I I think one of the things that we should I would ask John and you know
Mike and the team to be thinking about is I haven't heard a lot of um push back from the community. So maybe there isn't going to be but you know we definitely have had in this you've you've had stu some student facing cuts um and I think
there's one technically one person considered an administrator which I think may be the ABA coordinator um so I think that's just something to be thinking about and be prepared if there are if there's any um push back from the
community or concern um around not you know you know did we take a hard look on the administrative side as well. >> So I I'll answer that question right now so in case there's any community questions. Um I think you know when we look at right sizing a district right typically that is a a multi-year planful
process right um and you know typically we've been having these conversations in an ongoing way to say you know where the where there's some reductions where there's some efficiencies what can we look at and do that in a planful manner um which which would be the hope um for most superintendents be able to do it
that way obviously and it's generally done through attrition through you know retirements resignations and then we look at do those positions need to be refilled or be reallocated, etc., etc. Um, so I think I've given this example before. So I came in 2024 and if it weren't for all the budget stuff here
by, you know, if I looked at like a 10-year look forward, I I can guarantee you that some of these reductions would be most of these reductions would be made regardless of the budget thing. So So the reason I'm saying that is because one of the charges I had when I walked in the door was we need to look at the right sizing of the district. We need to
look at our staffing closely. We need to look at what's what's right for what we need in Marblehead and looking at it fiscally responsible way. I would never have done this level of cuts this quickly if if not for the fiscal um crisis that we're in because it's not
good for kids. It's not good for staff. It's not good for the community. However, we find ourselves in this position. I've said all along that we'll do what we need to do. Um so I think that that's that's important to understand. um as far as administrative that everyone every position in the district was looked at um many different
ways from many different sides. So um you know it's it's administration was looked at, custodial was looked at, teachers looked at IIA's looked at looked at maintenance looked at you know we we looked at everything and you know we we made that we made the reductions the best we could that um helps to
rightsize the district and I think some of the conversation is well why you why you you know you're not looking to restore I know this will be probably more of the override conversation but like you're not looking to restore all these positions. Well the question is is I don't want to well there's two things. one
um I think the conversation about the enrollment decline has been been a big piece we've talked about the reduction over the over the years kind of follow the same trajectory these reductions will bring us closer in line with that with that trajectory one two it establishes a new baseline not that
again not not my drugs I would rather not be doing it this way but I'm trying to look at the positives I always think positive so the positive is which we're we're um establishing a baseline by which to start rebuilding right as we need forward as we get through this budget crisis. It allows us to say, "Okay, I think we're I think we're right
size." And there could be areas we say, "Oh, you know, we cut that position. Maybe that was in the best position to cut. So, how do we how do we either get it back into the budget or move some stuff wrong?" That's just normal course of events. It's just everything's fasttracked right now. It doesn't feel good for me as the superintendent. I've
been doing this for 10 years and this is the first time that I've been put in this position. We've all been put in this position, but it's where we find ourselves. So, I'm not that's not a way of complaining. It's a way of explaining. So I think um you know without any restoration of the funding you know our our our you know our cuts
would be much deeper. So I think we have to look at where are we right now? what what are the customs made and why and you know when we get to those rights especially I think we'll talk a little bit more about you know what it would mean if we had if we didn't get store what does that look like that's a much different conversation I guess right so
um that probably doesn't answer your question all the way Jim but I think again as an opportunity to kind of share some of my thoughts so >> thank you >> um I have a question around the the 22 positions versus labs So you said that
there were 22 positions removed but out of those only 11 are are actual reductions as opposed to not filling unfilled positions. Did I understand you correctly? >> So 11 are currently filled and 11 are
currently unfilled. >> Okay. Thank you. >> Yeah. >> And and again some of those are not full positions. you know they're they're 2.5 that's why so it's 22 position but it's 18. >> Yeah. So if you were to look at at it on
an FTE basis it would be less than the 22 18 and change. Yeah. >> And just just to kind of jump on that too like just because it was unfilled doesn't mean that we weren't nec like in a in a level services budget. I'm not saying all those positions be filled
because I would be contracting right about on right sizing. However, some of those positions may have stayed in the budget. We look at other areas, but you know, when you're in this position, this there's there's cuts that you need to make that don't feel good, that aren't 100% where you want to make them. But,
um, so some of those 11 positions, you know, good place, we probably would look to, you know, fill them because there's a need for some of them, but you we just have to ship to somewhere else. I think, you know, I I don't want people say like, oh, they're in a fitted position, so doesn't matter. they were budgeted
positioned for a reason and just the these are some of the ways we're going to move forward and get to a get to a better um size and I just you know it's it's a hard conversation to have and so we can say oh and funding not really making cuts well it's it's it's not it's not
providing positions and jobs for people and so it's it's >> the other thing is that this is a balance seems to be a balance of cutting positions and level funding supplies, which is going to be a challenge, but
also kind of moving moving money from places where from sort of our safety accounts to to sort of make this as as painless as
they possibly can be. Does that sound >> so so if we didn't if we there's always this revolving cost that we have right for you know our high school tuition you know etc. Um there's always some parts of the budget that comes out of that. We we just went a lot deeper than we we
typically would and quite frankly they comfortable but if we didn't if we didn't get those you know accounts people say why have all this money not doing anything one two it would mean that we'd have that many more cuts. So you know that's where good fiscal
management and good fiscal um you know looking at ways in a good fiscal way is looking at those things and say what opportunities are here for us to tap into so that instead of 22 position you know instead of having 42 position we only need 22 because but part of the
conversation is those things that we're tapping into needs to be they're not going to last forever. this a couple that you know we we get a year maybe a year and a half out of couple that maybe two but those have to be reinstated at some point. So you know when we look at you start talking about you know
override and how do we rebuild this budget with with uh with the monies from from the town um that that has to be part of the conversation. So it can't be oh well you took it out of the revolving account before why don't you keep just taking let's reduce your budget by that amount. It can't work that way. It's
it's it's a way that because some of the accounts are healthy, we're able to tap into it for a little bit. Um, but I think some of the conversation is some of them are probably a little more healthy than they should have been anyway. So, I think that's also this is also part of the right size. I mean, what do we really need to have in some
of those accounts? Um, one of the costs for instance is uh special ed, you know, uh, for back in the day when we were able to pull, you know, tuition kids in to the district has some special ed program which we got to get back to. Um, but we don't have that right now. We
don't have people coming in. So that that that's going to drive up those so things like that. So it's it's a way to manage some of this, stop some of the bleed, I guess. Um, >> so John, I know we're talking about override in a moment, but for the positions that you said we don't want
the position to go away. It's not part of right sizing, but we found a different way, you know, grant or whatever. It's funded for this year in the override in the tiers. Is that money then asked for in subsequent years because we we know we needed? Okay.
>> Yeah. for the um pulling back out the the positions we have in the volumes. Is that being made? Yes. As >> everybody needs to keep in mind that that will be a decision of a future committee, >> right? That'll be a budget decision by some future committee. We cannot compel
a future committee to some future general fund appropriation. >> Yes. Would be highly suggested that. So in other words, I mean it may be highly suggested, but there is no way you can
compel a future committee to anything. >> Yeah. I wasn't looking to to say that that we should continue to to cover that through a a fund like that. It was more to have it be part of the fiscal year 28 budget,
>> right? But even if you were to get an override passed, number one, there's no uh guarantee that the funds after FY28 would go to the school anyway. Number one. And number two, um you this committee or an override vote, it
cannot compel that those portions of general funds to be allocated to specifically reinstating something. That may be the intent, right? That may be what John chooses to um talk about for intent, but there's nothing to compel that.
at all. >> I have one. So when um when you presented the the level services budget, uh John, you had a very compelling letter in the review about cuts that were being made in the impact
of those. And I I'd like to give you a chance to kind of explain a little more about the impact on students with this reduced budget. Um because I I encouraged everyone to that
and I I know we were working we were working so fast to get this done. It would be good to sort of at least start to help people understand the the impact that these additions does. >> Yeah. So I think um anytime there's cuts to educators like the education you know
realm teaching learning there's impacts right so part of the convers it's it's morphed a little bit since I wrote that that letter um to be honest with you because we've we've come up with some a little bit different efficiencies so when when we first started talking about this um a lot of the cuts were really um
focused on you know true teacher reductions true IIA reductions and through the conversation through the principles and stuff as I just said some of those positions changing. So, it's it may be a little less impactful than I initially um um indicated, but it's
still going to be impactful as we move forward. So, when you look at this this this coming year in the reductions, um it hurts across the board, but I I feel okay as I can about where we've where we made the cuts. where that letter will
100% be on the front page of the paper is when we're in in the following year and there is no override and we're looking at humongous amounts of cuts that that's when there will be impacts. The impacts will be increased classroom sizes,
reduced resources for students, um likely more out of district tuitions because we don't have the programming that's properly in place um because of the staffing issues uh you know all those things. So, you know, that was a little nostradamus kind of stuff. Um,
and I'm hoping it doesn't worship just yet, but it will. It will if we continue down this path, you know, right into FY28 will absolutely be there. We'll have huge impacts. So, you know, you have to look at it this way. If if we reduce teachers to the point where we
have to increase classroom sizes, right? Um, that starts affecting um how stu students are in the classroom. Um, social emotional learning becomes affected. classroom teachers, they're already dealing with a lot of lot of stuff in the classrooms and now you got
to put four, five, six more kids in the classroom that that wears on the teachers and the IAS and then student achievement starts dropping you know it all affects it's a trickle down effect and then you know people say well you know Marble heads up here with you know
achieve student achievement and ability to get into good schools etc etc you know that starts leaning a little bit and then you know uh that's when people start I bring my kid to private schools. I can put them in the classroom of 18 instead of 26. I can, you know, etc., etc. So, it's it's not as simple as just
okay, we're going to reduce it. I'm going to hope hope for them best. Like, when I when I talked to all the PTO's when I went around 12 PTO's initially, this was before the last 1.5 reduction. Um, a lot of what the conversation was like that's great that you're working to
figure out that first initial 1.7 reduction, but we're looking for how do we enhance what's going on in the classroom, right? How do we we don't want to just maintain, we want we want to grow our that's an impossibility right now. When when we're cutting like
$4 million from the budget, everything starts to impact. So maybe not the classroom sizes yet, but overall um you know staff staff morale, parents getting you know what's happening you know there's all there's just so many different factors um that come into play
and it affects the teaching and learning affects the social emotional learning it affects students first and then you know definitely staff and parents start seeing seeing that too. Kids kids coming home it's like oh my god you know this is happening in my classroom which happens anyway but it'll happen at a
higher degree for sure. Um, so that's that's kind of where that's kind of where that ladder was born from. And I I feel okay that we're not maybe as as in in the dire stra initially wrote, but we will be there next year if things don't
change 100%. >> I think part of why we're not in those dire straits is because we have the ability to prepay 1.5 in district tuition. But can you talk a little bit about how that impacts
our budget going forward that we're making that prepayment and reflecting it in balancing budget? >> Yeah, you might think can speak to this a little bit better than I can. I think you know when we talk about prepaid it's not just oh like oh we just have a sexual pay. It it has a different um
I'll call that back in question. I think Mike can explain a little bit better than I can in terms of what that means for the fiscal bottom line. you. So, absolutely. So, next year for our out of district expenses just for tuitions, it's about $5.3 million.
So, the the through this budget presentation, we are going to reduce that from 5.3 down to 3.8, taking it down by $1.5 million because we have the prepaids. And that's from
the years of um end of year surpluses that have broke. When I got here was 900,000. Last year it was 1.1 million. This year we we tightened our belt in March. We told everybody to stop spending. We we for foresaw this coming. Um we're targeting
to get that to 1.5 million which one way or another we will get there. Um we will then prepay 1.5 next year towards next year's bills, next year's costs, and that will reduce our need next year by 1.5 million. And we've been doing that for multiple years. This is
something that's been in practice uh since back to probably the early 2020s. Uh I wasn't here so I can't speak to exactly when we begin. Finance committee asked us if we could do that back in September and October when we met and we we did not feel comfortable doing that. They said why
not? I agree because once we take it out of our budget we will never get it back unless there is a a substantial influx of revenues into the town. So we we could not risk giving that out. Um, so dire times, dire consequences.
It was, and I'm going to say this the best way I can. In my opinion, either we cut the staff next year and hold the reserve or we spend the reserve and and and if we don't get an override, it will mean dramatic.
But I'd rather risk that one more year than have any impact. If we can reduce the impact on education for another year, hopefully forever, but for another year, I think it's more critical than us holding something in reserve. Uh, and we had we had three safety nets. We had
circuit breaker, which we will continue to have. That's our biggest safety net for special education. We had this prepaid tuition, which was a second safety net. We are eliminating that safety net now. And the third safety net is a special education stabilization fund, which is much
smaller. It requires us to go back to town meeting in May to use it. By that time, it's too late, but it's there. Uh, you know, it's it's there. Um, the finance committee did let us know that they also had a finance committee stabilization or I don't know what the
name of it is officially, but there is a a finance committee fund for all departments if there's something blows up. It could be snow and ice, it could be special education, it could be whatever it is. Um so you know that's not directly available to us without a
lot of you know explanation and and begging probably but um you know if we didn't have a full year circuit breaker and we didn't have a stabilization fund I would be a lot less likely to offer up the prepaid uh at this time but again
saving positions was having teachers and instructional assistants and counselors in front of students was more important than having a year of reserve. >> Can we um move on to the override?
>> Do um I think we have to we voted on the total amount for the budget but we did not vote on the line item details. So I believe we need to do that before we move on. >> I'll make a motion to approve the line item budget as presented by the administration tonight.
>> I'll second. So the motion was made by Kate, seconded by Henry. >> Yeah. Yeah. >> Any further discussion? >> All right, we got a vote. Uh Jen >> in favor. >> Henry >> favor. Alison
>> in favor. >> Keith >> in favor. >> All in favor. The motion passes five to zero. Are you going to start with vehicle right? Oh, is that me? Um, sure. I can res that. Yeah, please. Um, this probably
going to be a joint collective uh discussion. So, a lot of folks working on this. Yeah. Um, all right. So, school department override request. So, we were we were tasked basically um the the discussion was what would a tier one
override look like? What would a tier two override look like? what a tier three override looked like. Uh all the departments in the town were tasked kind of um coming up with numbers. I know there was some select board meeting last night when this was discussed a little bit. Um I've continued to say that our board hasn't really had had a discussion
about what this what what these numbers are in terms of you know voting the numbers or anything. So all my conversations with people have been you know this is these proposed uh proposed discussions proposed um numbers. So I just wanted to share that first. Um,
so I'm going to share share some slides that were developed um collaboratively today and I appreciate the extra assistance. Um, it's been it's been a little bit kofy last couple weeks. So I think uh this was this was definitely um um collaboration. So why are we here? The structural gap between what
Marblehead receives in revenue, what it costs toward our schools. Um the budget problem and and this is like broken down into what's the budget problem? what what's cut from the schools in FY27. We've talked a little bit about this, so I'll run through it quickly, but um revenue cap Proposition 2 and a half
limits. Um our revenue growth 2.5% per year, far below actual cost growth, which is why the you know why we're in this problem in the town and schools. Um benefit cost to health insurance rose 11 um% this cycle. Pension contributions rose over 8%. Especially at out of
district tuition, um cost of surge, we just talked about those numbers. Um, and that's not something that we have a ton of control over as far as what the tuition costs are. Uh, salary obligations, obviously, we have contractual obligations for cost of living and step increases and they
create mandatory gap every year. Uh, shrinking cushion and one time free cash has been used to fill gaps historically that we never felt. So, I think yeah, the town's been very clear that they've used uh the pretty patch over the last several years to kind of fill some of these funding gaps and they're no longer
in a position to do that, which is also um part of the reason we're where where we are. So, those cut from >> John just can I ask you a question? >> Yeah. Who who created this document? >> Um we had it we it was it was it was a collaboration between Mike, myself,
Melissa, and Kate. >> Okay. because I I mean we'll go through this fine, but I have to tell you, you know, I mean, it's fine if that's the administration and you're presenting this. I mean, I I have a little bit of a concern. You've got school committee members. I mean, this statement at the
bottom, without an override, these shortfalls compounded cannot be resolved within the levy limit. Um, we can resolve it by reducing our costs and our expenses. And I think we need I mean what I'm hearing loud and clear in the in the community is um that we need to
be cognizant of the fact that people are asking I think townwide um officials to be looking at all costs which of course we're doing but I think you know I think there's some you know opining in here and I think we just need to be careful about that because
the it will be the will of this entire committee to decide you know how we want to go forward with this and so it It's a little concerning that we've got um committee members involved in this when this was not the directive. >> It was it was really just um it was just
more putting the slides together because it was like a time constraint for Mike and I to be able to do that. So all the information in here is is from the administration. >> Okay. So it's not committee members. Okay. Great. Thanks for the clarification. >> I'm sorry. What was cut from the schools in FY27? Uh $3.2 million total reduction
to reach your balance FY27 budget. So the 1.7 to level and the 1.5 to additional talent requested cut. So that's what was cut. Uh we talked about this already 18.25 FTEES uh 1.5 million in special ed tuitions covered by free payment um which cannot be a repeat um
thing but we do have to do that this year. It might just um aptly discussed revolving funded positions shift off the general fund supplies uh professional development reduce technology investments devices and software they're aging. So um that's all been
um cut out. So a tier to post three choices for voters. Um this is basically so there was folks um from the town saying like we have to look at a tier one, tier two, tier three. So this just kind of clearly indicates um one would
be to prevent further damage. So fund contractual salary increases for all school staff, restore special education on a district tuition to its full required level, move positions from revolving accounts into the general fund and um so that tier one would be a $6.2 million increase over the 3 years. Um a
tier two, but everything back everything from tier one plus fund the technology lease for the student devices and software and eliminate the full day kindergarten fee. So that's so the kind of what they're what they're looking at is what's the tier 2 we would put put in
the 1.5 plus we'd look for um our technology refresh refresh to start in FY28 as well as a full day kindergarten not being um a fee based program anymore and that will be in that tier 2 the three-year total will be 7.2 2 million. And then some of some of what we look
to, and this is kind of really hard to project, but some of what we talked about doing uh for future investments is everything obviously from tier one tier 2 that builds on two tiers. Uh restore the curriculum, professional development um that we reduced. Um and then we started talking about uh um creating in
district 18 to 22 special education program um which is we know that's a need and it's one there's a lot of areas that we need um some extra special ed programming in but that was one that was you know right now kiddos that um you know are 18 to 22. We you know we we are responsible for educating them till 22.
don't have that program anymore in district and um we're sending students out and paying a tuition there and there's a huge need for that programming and I think establishing um a program in district again bring those children back into our program and it's an opportunity for potentially um tuitioning other
students in because this is a high need everywhere. So that that was a kind of low hanging fruit so to speak and in in some of the special ed program that we could put in place. Um, so that was part of that and then establishing dedicated school building capital fund and that three year total for the tier three
would be 18.5 million. >> 8.5 definitely not 18.5 million. Thank you. >> Okay. Um, sorry. And then two
oh sorry to prevent further damages. Um so across the top of this you can see um you can see the three-ear totals. So um six >> tier one >> tier one. >> Yeah. Um so across the top it's FY27
would be uh zero FY22 3 million FY29 3.2 coverage. >> How would we be out of in breach of agreements with our staff? We would never do that. We are not in a position to not meet our contractual obligations. No. Where
>> ever? Well, you may have I mean positions may have to be cut in order to be able to do that. >> Which part? >> I'm looking at FY28 and 29 contractual obligation. Without this, the district is in breach of its agreements with staff. >> We would never do that. How? I mean,
>> yeah. Well, I haven't got that yet, but yes. I mean, that's just that's just outlining the fact that we have contractive obligations in FY2829. So, we would need to be able to restore the money to be able to meet the contractual obligations. Maybe the way it's worded is is it clear? >> But I don't think that a tier one is
going to cover that. Or is it Mike? >> Yes. Tier one covers contractual obligations >> through FY28. Well, first of all, you don't know what your FY29 contractual obligation is, but you do know your FY28, >> right? >> FY29 is a little bit conjecture. We were asking >> an estimate. Yeah,
>> there was some. So again, tier one, um, we would restore the 1.5 million removed from the FY27 budget. Students value have federally protected rights to this service. Um, we just put that in there to make sure everyone knows that that's, you know, we don't have really a choice there. Our
revolving fund positions, um, move the 59 699 from FY28, 29 to 2009 positions from revolving accounts back into the general fund where they belong. So that's part of what I just talked about. was, you know, um, pull those back out of the revoling costs into the local
budget. >> Sorry, just before you continue, because I think I want to underscore the point, you might have skipped over it. So, the three-year total is 6.2 million, that kind of first line at the top. But in FY27, we would be asking for 0 from the override in tier 1. In FY28, it jumps to
4.3 million largely because we're restoring the special ed prepayment. Then FY29, it's 1.9 million. So, we wouldn't be effectively contributing to the increase in the tax levy in FY27 on the school side under the tier one scenario.
>> We're not we're not contributing to the increase of the levy at all. Like, let's just like that. I don't know what that comment meant, but I think so. >> This override passes, we are not going to draw down on any of the increased capacity from that override. >> Again, you can't compel a future committee on anything. So, let's just
remember that. Um, and >> FY27, John, >> for FY20. >> For FY27, I'm talking about. >> Yeah. So, I don't understand like I just don't understand where these like who gave the direction for these numbers. Was this Melissa and Kate?
>> This this came from the town finance committee, select board, and town administration. >> So, there Okay. >> We've got a working group. We've had a working group with FINCOM, the select board, That Thatcher, Kate, and I. >> Okay. At least for the committee agreed
that FY27 would be zero in an override to the schools. >> No one from the committee agreed to anything. John and Mike brought forward what they were recommending for the schools for these tiers and they were discussed in the working group in the context of what the town was also
>> discussing and Melissa in the working group. >> Yes. >> Okay. So you so you you're I guess you're agreeing with this. >> Yes. >> Okay. So have zero for FY27. Okay. Um, the other thing I think you we need to
be very careful of in talking about FY29 is we, you know, we can't, you know, for budgeting purposes and for forecasting purposes, we often will put in a quote unquote place marker um for what, you
know, which is appropriate um for what costs may be. But we have to be very careful that we're not, you know, this can be considered bad faith bargaining because this has to be bargained. So, we have no idea what FY29's going to be. Um, and when we start allocating funds
towards what FY29 contractual obligations are going to be, um, without having bargained it, you just we need you need to be careful. I'm not going to be there, but you need to be careful with this. >> Again, it was, uh, the conversation that I was a part of was we don't know what FY29 would bring, and we were asked to
put place for for the discussion. So, that's that's what we that's what we did. I I would agree with you. I mean that's we don't we don't know what the contractual obligations will be. So that number is it's that is definitely conjecture um to some degree and you know I mean we know what some we know
what the fixed cost will be. So that that drives some of that but yes you're absolutely correct. The contract obligations are not all debt. >> And just clarification on 28 talked about the 1.5 million. It is it's also slightly higher um because it's the
third year of the contract and through negotiations it was discussed disclosed that the back end of the contract would be way heavier because it would give us time to plan for Yes. >> So yes. Yeah. >> Right. So a little bit about why the
override is needed. Um school spending excluding share benefits is growing at a 3% um per year on average over um throughout the next three years. um um as an estimated for that FY29. The override is not about uploaded school
spending. It's about costs um the district cannot control. And then there's a chart that basically outlines um the school department you know percentage increases 27 20 proposed 29 um and you know what that looks like and then that's excluding benefits and then
the town from their numbers excluding benefits outline there. So add that to share costs F29's positive 11 F28 will be + 5.6 and proposed our conjecture about plus 6% on the F29
um every single month and then tier two um so tier two is kind of where will we be um you know after after if tier one's restored. So uh getting back to basics is basically how we term this. So three year three three-year total will be 7.2
in in the tier 2 model. Um again it outlines FY27 and zero proposed 3.5 on FI28 and FI29. >> Oh I'm sorry we adjusted. Sorry >> it's 0 4.98 and 2.2.2. I apologize. Um
so 4.9 and then 2.2 and FY20. Sorry. Um, school technology lease would be like I mentioned, we we would add that back in. That would be 150 per year starting in FY28 and then carrying over to FY29 and you know beyond. Um, the way Mike's explained it I think has been pretty
good. So put the 150 in, put the 150, put the 150 in and then after you go 3 years it kind of just it um serves itself for when you buy that 150 worth of instru technology and leases it actually buying four years out. So it's it's um but it's needed because we have
um aging infrastructure. We have you know Chromebooks only last a certain amount of time. So we decided to put that in in FY28 because it's going to give us next year really audit our our our situation in terms of technology. So it's nice to say oh yeah we need all this technology but I I I'm going to
work with Stephen and his team um around what is it we actually need? Do we need to buy Chromebooks that in that year or second year or third year? we need to buy laptops for teachers and access points and any combination of that. So that'll give us next year to plan for that. So we just want to share that. Um
that's basically seven left hand column. And then we're also looking at free the full AK um FY28 would um it would uh run approximately 671,000 um to run uh full AK without um paying
tuition folks paying tuition and then that balloons to 710 17 and FY29 we we do that. So that's that's those are are more actual numbers. Um so that eliminates out of pocket tuition for full day um where families currently
pay. It removes equity barrier barrier for families and alliance head in the direction of the state the practice of peer communities. We're one of very few communities that charge for kindergarten. So this would be and I want to mention that this is part of our plan for success that was created. is
coming, you know, sun setting as as you all know or doing the district improvement plan, but that's been in the plan for success for several years and it hasn't been addressed. And this is an this would be an opportunity to address it through through a hopeful over.
Okay. And then the tier three is kind of what what we look forward to invest in Marblehead's future. And we've talked about this already, but um the totals would be uh FY28 5.2, two FY29 proposed 3.3 million that includes everything in
tier 1 and two. Did I get that right that time? Yeah. Um curriculum and professional development will be added back in um the refresh. So that starts at 100,000 a year and similar to the technology. It kind of adds to it adds to it. So we can we can do it. we were comfortable pushing that out because
Julia and her team done such a great job of doing the curriculum um refresh over the last several years. So, we're at a good place to do that so we can start over again um when the funding is there. So, we're pretty happy about, you know, being able to push that out a little bit. Um the 18 to 22 year old program I
already talked about, we um it'll cost about $500,000 to set that program up and that would include staffing, would include um a van for travel. So, so an 18 to 20 year program is generally staffed by a teacher, some IIA, school
adjustment counselors, maybe a job coach, um, and staff would bring the kids out into the community for for community based programming. So, a band for that would be um would be needed. And then generally when you create a program like that, you do, you know, kind of in an apartment living situation
where you would be put in a, you know, a stove and a bed and um a washer dryer kids on their ADLs and their um, you know, things that they need to learn when they're, you know, outside of our educational realm. I've done this my previous district and it's 500,000. I feel pretty comfortable being the number
that would allow us to start the program. Some of that's onetime costs obviously um or mostly onetime costs like the build out of like you know in our apartment thing you know we need updates like we all do in our homes um van would be it would probably do the
lease so um it would uh kind of obligate itself and then the staff needs the staffing. So um so roughly $500,000 would get us to that point. Um so that would be really um that would be a great way to um start rebuild it. some of our specialized programming, but um it's no
longer in the Oh, I'm sorry. The capital fund. Um and then the uh capital fund would be the $500,000 dedicated um establishing dedicated capital fund for extraordinary maintenance across school buildings. Um this is one of those things where we're not always sure what we're going to get
from capital um and and but we need capital to be able to maintain our buildings um for extraordinary situations too. Um but to put that into the budget so that we have that um be able to fix all things we need to fix
outside of our giant capital projects like moves and stuff. Thank you. >> Okay. What happens if voters say no? So these are just some of the things like so if we don't get an override, we don't get extra funding. Um we know that special ed um out of district costs
continue to rise. We know that benefit costs outpace the revenue each year. Um we're just sharing again 11 rose 11.1 717% this cycle the pension contributions lower than 8% and revenue growth was just 2 and a half. So there's
a mismatch there. Clearly technology falls further behind. Um as we know technology has short shelf life and uh you know getting licenses and the firewalls and the all the programming that we need to have in in schools um that needs to be um refreshed and looked
at in an ongoing way. uh staff salaries, you know, we we won't be able to meet our contractual obligations without huge um cuts to staffing um without without extra funding. Um education quality declines like I already said a little bit um a little while ago, so I won't
get back to my soap box there, but um I think it's important to phrase again. And then the problem obviously compounds each year. So every time we get extra funding, this just problem just keeps growing growing. And I think, you know, quite frankly, we're at a point here, you know, I've been here a short time,
but in the short time, I've seen um some really good positive growth, some good collaboration between the town departments. And I'm hopeful that as we move forward and um you know, you know, however, the committee uh votes when we get to override stuff um and with the
town, hopefully we can get to a point where we'll get some more funding back in place. and um some of the conversations about stat cuts and programs will continue to have to be had um moving forward. So that would be great. Um and then this is just a
comparison at a glance. So I've gone over this already, but if you just look at you know what's included, colas and step increases, special ed tuition revolving positions, technology, full day K, curriculum and professional development, the 18 to 22-year program,
and the school building capital fund. Um if there's no override, none of that gets put back in tier one. Um we look at the co step increase obviously that will replace the 1.5 reducing or um and help fund uh district tuitions and revolving
um funds would be intact and then tier two is all that plus um school technology lease and the free full AK. And then tier three would be all those things you' be able to um in it's under enhanced but it's really not enhanced. It's it's getting it like if we have all
those things back in, that's kind of where we need to be. We need to be fully funded. We need to have the resources available for our students. We need to have our special education um programs in place. We need to have capital funds. We need to make sure we're not killing our revolving accounts. We need to make sure full AK is available to everybody.
Um and it's all it's all important. So, I think this is a way to kind of share what what we feel the schools need um as we move through the next couple years. And then um you know why we're stabilizing not expanding. Um if you look at the enrollment, we talked a little bit about this already, but um
the enrollment increased 24% um since 2016. Uh staff econom 14.7 for the same uh uh period of time. Enrollment has fallen 3.8% since year 2019. Um it's driven primarily by Marvel's aging
population. We talked about that the census kindergarten um incoming students are lower. um overall uh residents 65 and uh older that have grown um that's roughly 1100 more senior residents than um that have no children's schools.
There was two elementary schools had already um consolidated into Brown School which is major right sizing previously. Um the district projects 23 49 students um next fall which is 86 um fewer students than current enrollment. We're hopeful that that's not the real
dip but that's what's projected this time. Um and due to our current projected enrollment, the school department is not recommending the restoration of 18.25 full full-time uh full-time equivalent positions in any of the override tiers. 8.95 positions are
vacant and 9.9 three. Um why the costs um why cost one enrollment with enrollment? So Marble has has already has a lean district teacher ratio is 11.4 4 to1 which matches the state average. Per people
spending is 20972 which is 4% below the state average and Marblehead schools ranks top 20% in Massachusetts. Enrollment decline is spread thinly across grades. Fewer students rarely meets fewer classes or teachers. So when you look at I mean that's that's the point that needs to be made. So you know
our our decline enrollment spread out. It's not like oh we have like 100 less first graders you know. So it's it makes it difficult to say well oh you can reduce this classroom teacher and it's not going to make that big of a difference. So um that that's that's real and that's why we have to have all the conversations with the principles.
Special education needs have grown significantly. We've talked about this several times. I need students require additional staff regardless of enrollment. Out of district tuition's growth is 12.6 for FY27 on top of double digit increases in prior years. Um the
salaries are at 8% in the school budget and contractual raises apply to every employee every year. So you know our contractual obligations are for what they are. Um and we we don't need that fun. That's uh we don't have a choice on that. And then um the only way to mitigate that is by cutting staff and
programming. Um and obviously Marblehead has not passed a general ride since 2005. Um and the district has absorbed 20 years of structural underfunding. Um which I think is a point to to share. Um, these last slides, I'll just skip over it because it's it's more.
>> Um, I'm just going to jump in here because I had a hard stop at 7:30. I have a family obligation I need to run to and I'm going to try to come back, but I I can't miss this. I'm just going to make one statement before I hop. Um, well, the first is I have a question. I have a I I would like a direct answer.
Did anyone outside of the administration help prepare this document? Did anyone from for Marblehead or any other person outside have anything to do with this document? >> No. >> Okay. All right. Um because what I'm
concerned about, John, um and Mike, in your preparation of this document is that there are potential finance violations here with some of the things you're saying. We cannot as an as a as a school department be
you know we can provide information but making any kind of value statements or recommendations on how people should support this or not support this is beyond the um purview and the um and is a potential violation. I think you need
to really be very careful with this document and it definitely concerns me. Can can you can you point to where where the concerns are then? Because I I >> the override isn't about growing a district about keeping pace with costs that rise whether enrollment does or not. I mean these are you know spread
the word. Um you know um these are things where you're it's like we are promoting people to approve this override which we cannot do. So I mean there's there are some you know there are opinion you know or value statements
through here. um that go beyond just providing information. I'm just going to suggest that we relook at this document and maybe consider um this because we just need to be very very careful about this this >> Yeah, that's why I asked you to kind of point that piece out because I can I can
I can definitely see the perception on that and >> no vote is not quote saving money. It's ch it's choosing lot larger problems tomorrow over smaller investments today on page well it's not pageionated but >> I gotcha yeah I gotcha what happens if the voters say no yeah all right I
appreciate that feedback thank you >> um and so as I said I do have to hop because I have um an obligation I need to go to but um I I will say this I'm going to try and get back on but um what I was was unclear to me um in terms of a vote because it did say on the agenda al
that this would be a vote um tonight. So what I don't understand is what it is we'd be voting for. In other words, we we have a place marker on the warrant for this year for a we have two well we have two. One is for debt exclusion
override and one is for permanent general override. Um if the DEC it is the will of this committee, which it appears to be, um to want to um go in or you know combine with the select board to do a townwide
um um override vote to town meeting. Um then what we would be tasked with is is voting to um indefinitely postpone our warrant article and then we're done. There's no other vote. This is clear clearly squarely in the hands of the
select board at that point. um you know this is a presentation I guess of what this so-called working group did um and what the you know but this is ultimately the vote of the select board not the school committee unless unless this committee decides to want to go forward with our I don't know what article it is
but with our own but I don't believe that's the case so I wasn't sure what the vote was for tonight >> so so I think we're well I mean we can have a motion if we if you want to know Jen the intent of the or the will of the
committee around doing something separately on an existing MAR or with the town. >> Well, yeah. I mean, I think we >> that sounds like it was important to understand that first, right? >> Yeah. >> Yeah. >> Well, I understood that from our last meeting, but maybe I
>> I thought we did. Yeah. >> So, there shouldn't be any question around that, >> right? So, I'm not sure what the vote is for we we're not in a position to vote what the select board's warrant article is going to be. That's their vote. >> So, >> so there >> that is their vote, but I do think that
this committee should vote on what the schools would like included on behalf of the schools in that war. It has been this has been an incredibly collaborative process. Um, you know, John and Mike have advocated for what they think the district needs to have in
that override. And I think that it should have the backing of a committee vote. you know, whether it's required or not, it's, you know, how we show our support. >> Yeah. No, that that's fine. I just wasn't I mean, because we we don't have any authority to to compel the select
board to do anything with there. So, I guess that's what I I just that wasn't that was what was not clear to me. Um is what we would because again, we can we can vote this, but it doesn't mean I don't imagine that that's going to be part of their maybe maybe it will be
part of their article. I mean they're warn I don't know that it would be broken out. I think that was not the intent though to break it out by division that it was going to be just one total number. >> That's how it was presented at select board last night is one total number but
then it was discussed as you know this is the amount that is anticipated to be needed for school costs and this is the amount that's anticipated would be needed for municipal costs. So you know it is a number that is based on the articulated
needs of various departments >> and the potential vote will be beyond the numbers that we discussed not necessarily the verbiage but the numbers associated with this framework following the town. >> Okay.
I'll make a motion to approve the three tiers of the override as presented by John was my only backup so we can skip the dollar amounts tier one was six >> 62.2
>> 6.2 7 >> tier one 6.2 two >> 627285 >> tier one at 62 tier 2 at 72 tier tier 3 at 85 >> I'll second that so motion has been made
by Melissa seconded by Al any further discussion >> Jenny you still with us >> no Okay. Um, so we'll vote. Henry >> in favor. >> Melissa >> in favor. >> Kate >> in favor. >> Pal in favor. The motion passes four to
zero. >> Can I just make a quick comment? >> Sure. The chair. Um, I want to just once again, this has been a really difficult process to go through. Um but I do want to say I I appreciate the collaboration
with fin and with select board and um folks I think it's all it's important for the overall discussion that um it was important for me as a superintendent to even though this is way reduced budget and you know since not what I
what I want but in collaboration with the town I think it's important to say that I appreciate that this conversations, uh, collaborative conversations, everyone's trying to work towards the same common goal. Uh, we've
committed, um, even though we can't commit for product made, we committed to having ongoing collaborative conversations for that, which I think is really important, um, as we move forward. So, I just want to publicly thank people for that because as frustrating as this has been, um, again,
trying to look at the positive the positive pieces that came out, I swear that there's been some really solid good conversations that it sounds to me may not have always been the case at the moment. So, I feel good about that piece. I feel good that we set the stage to move forward in a much more um
collaborative way. So, I just I just want to say that. >> All right. So we we do have an update item potentially around the the joint memorandum. Is that something we want to address tonight or is it
okay? >> Yeah. Okay. Thank you. >> It's sort of in the spirit of collaboration. Um one of the things that the working group spent a fair amount of time on was developing a draft memorandum of understanding um that is going to be put before the select board
incom um and the school committee. Um and the intention is that each board or committee will vote um to support theou. There's a um slide deck that was shown at select board last night. I'm not going to go through it, but if people are interested in looking at the slide
deck um that is there and the draft memo was shared with the full school committee by John um over the weekend so that people hopefully had an opportunity to look at it. Um the theou is written from a place of
understanding that current city boards cannot bind future boards but the intention is to lay out the thought process underpinning a multi-year multi-tier override. Um it spells out the levy increase that
would be imposed at each tier. um and how it is intended that those funds would be allocated to the schools in the town in each year. Um so it's a lot of what Thatcher went through in his presentation last night, but really sort of spelled out in the document. Um it
includes a commitment that there will not be another general override requested until at least FY30 if any one of those tiers passes. Um, and you know, it's sort of a recognition by town leaders that the budgetary limits
that are imposed by the tier that is selected by the voters are the ones we're going to have to live with for the next 3 years. Um it articulates the 6238 revenue split that we worked through um
with select board and fin this year um applies it in future years and it addresses there's there will be a revenue and expense forecast um spreadsheet attached as an exhibit to theou that sets out you
know the the numbers that we looked at to drive the numbers that John and Mike post. So these are not theoretical numbers. They're based on, you know, a three-year forecast. And the MOU attempts to address sort of the major drivers in there, namely free
cash and health insurance benefits. Um, and to make a commitment that if you know, if those projections are not correct and more money comes in as a result than we are anticipating, those funds would be allocated to the stabilization fund. um perhaps capital
needs if we have a lot of free cash, other um obligations like OPAP and um pension and if the numbers come in lower, we will absorb that deficit in our operating budgets. We will not seek
to use more of the overhead funds than we had, you know, committed to. And the also sets up a few different metrics for reporting. So there will be annual annual reporting by the town administrator and superintendent
um on override funds that have been used, what they were allocated to um reporting on remaining levy capacity for the town. Um and it establishes a a process of quarterly reporting um to the
chairs of the select boards committee and income on the town's fiscal position. So hopefully some of the hiccups we had this year um aren't occurring and everyone is really sort of on the same page as we go through the budget process. And then it also
includes further commitments um to work to publicize tax abatement and relief programs especially people may remember from town meeting last year town meeting approved a new means tested senior citizen property tax exemption to help with tax burden. So
presuming that that's approved by the legislature, you know, it would be implemented for FY27 to continue to work to find efficiencies and new revenue sources to grow existing revenue sources um and to work to build a stabilization fund to 5% the
sort of the general terms of the agreement. um the select board discussion last night I didn't hear any you know within the board objection to it um but the thought process was you know we can talk about whether people
are comfortable with this and you and then you know we vote it or we can hold off and we can allow some more time >> I mean I would sort of like slap board meetings and
It's a good idea. >> I agree. I think it's a it's a document that gives the community the accountability they're looking for. Um, and that's necessary, honestly. So, I don't have any changes. I'm strong
support. >> Yeah, I feel the same. So to vote on motion yeah >> we don't have so we can hold off >> but I I did check with council that at the time wasn't sure right at the time
this agenda was put but um there's nothing against the open meeting law that if you know as you're discussing things the motion is decided to make sense you are allowed to do that. No, I appreciate make sure we're following, you know, following all of >> the the draft that we've all seen does
not have the numbers in it. It just had placeholders cuz the numbers had been finalized. So, we can vote it subject to not, you know, the numbers being added or we can wait.
Let's vote it while being. Yeah, I'll make the motion to approve the draftou subject to the numbers being added to the override structure section. >> Second. >> All right. Motion's been made by Kate, seconded by Melissa. Is there any
further discussion? >> All right. Uh, we'll go to a vote. Um, Henry >> in favor. >> Melissa >> in favor. Okay. >> In favor motion passes 4 Z. >> All right. Um, so I think it was a good
idea to to do some engagement after the fiscal year budget. Um, so is there anyone that would like to have that or ask a question or have a comment? Sarah. Mhm. Um,
so the idea was that it was your feedback from the public before you took your vote, but it seems like you weren't really that interested in public feedback. Here we go. Um, to your point about asking council if you can take the vote. If you had some time to restart
council, I I do think it would have been best practice to amend the agenda so that you would be transparent that you were going to take a vote that takes less time to amend the agenda and put that out to the public. I think people may have intended and think you were
doing that. Um I have some concern. It's I don't know if it's milestone here who someone else may be declarative. It sounds like our collaborative tuitions went up very unexpectedly this week and we had some transportation for that. My
understanding from what you said is that then triggered you need you needing to cut more position and correct me I'm hoping I'm wrong. It triggered you having to cut more positions to kind of stay at that level number because that was an unanticipated significant rise.
Am I wrong in that the numbers we were looking at a week two weeks ago the numbers the same but that there was additional positions programs supplies whatever cut in order to allocate for that unanticipated increase in the cloud
it's tuition and transfer >> I just want to make sure I was okay the dialogue um yes that's correct >> that's and do you mind just saying what those additional cuts were that we were because it was really startling that no on on this committee bothered to ask or
discuss what those additional cuts were that were not part of anything that that's >> well so we we've we've always had kind of um you know we went through the we went through the exercise of the first round of cuts second round of cuts then
we had um uh there was a there's a group of cuts that we had like slated to in case we needed to take deeper cuts or in case Tom came back and said more and then that's where we had to those are the ones we had to look at. Um in addition they were all they were all incorporated in one might
shared out today. I think that the PTA I I have to find. >> So they there were more not just actual more people that she slip and that you wanted to >> so I what I would say is that when we had the last conversation we're at 14.75
FTES we're now at 18.25 FTEs position. So that's delta >> increased by roughly 28 your numbers look back here 28% additional actual living cost. None of you none of you has
a single question. >> Thank you. >> All right. Um see if anyone can see any point. Is there anyone online that would ask like to ask a question make a comment? All right, seeing no hands, we'll we'll
move on. So, back to the consent action and agenda items. I'm asking for a motion to approve the following. the identified schedule schedules of bills totaling $443,690.77 and the meeting minutes from March 12th,
2026 and March 27th of 2026. >> So move second. >> All right. Motion's been made by Kate, seconded by Melissa. Is there any discussion? All right. All those in favor? The motion passes 4 to zero.
Um I believe Superintendent Romano, you'll address the surplus request from the athletic department, please. >> Yes. So, uh Ken Ken, our ad sent over um you know, every year, you know, if there's things that we have that are, you know, not functioning or broken or
or whatever, we have to have to bring it to us hopefully just to declare them declare them surplus. Um, the was in your pack there. We saw some portable basketball nets, some sweepers for the field that were antiquated. Um, a whole whole mess of things in there. I I must
say I think the total was somewhere around $1,100 $100 for that. Um, but it's just really just we have to declare a surplus. We can spoil it. So that's that's >> I'll make a motion to declare the athletic equipment outlined in Ken's
memo as surplus. >> Made by Kate, seconded by >> Henry. >> Henry. >> Henry. Any further discussion? All right. Uh all those in favor? The motion passes 40. Thank you.
I think Mr. Superintendent uh a donation for the Bourdale. >> Yes. So uh the Borndale trip as we know is going off um in in a number of weeks and Tommo Tackle which is located at 104 W Street in Salem has been very uh generous in their donations over the
years. And this year we were able to secure Steve Vulpi um was able to work with them to secure a nice say but nice rotten reel combination dial rod and reel combination which is valued
at $140. Um and as well as a $50 gift certificate $25 gift certificate. So the total donation is $215 each year which is great. Um as I talked about before we talked about born the kids love the fishing. These are they I put it in your pack the raft you how they got to wrap
this stuff off biggest fish and all that stuff. Um so I appreciate Steve and his engaging of the students in their in their activities and I appreciate Tomo Tommo's tackle for uh you know continuing to support us and they provide the donations to students. It just makes it that much more exciting
and I can't win any of the prizes apparently what I've been told. So, I'm a little bummed out about that, but I'll do my best to be on the table. >> All right, there we go. Cool. So, that that's that's the donation. I'm going to just say thank
you to Stephen for tommo tackle. >> I'll make a motion to approve the tommo tackle donation. >> I'll second. >> Motion's been made by Henry, seconded by Melissa. Any further discussion? Post. All those in favor?
The motion passes for >> I can get into my >> Yes. Thank you very much. >> Okay. Um, on March 19th, 2026, the school committee reviewed minutes from two different executive sessions in
order to determine if the executive session purposes from those sessions still apply. On that date, the school committee determined that the executive session purposes cited for the executive sessions on September 12th, 2025
and October 10th, 2025 warranted non-disclosure of the executive session dates. So that needs to be uh publicly uh stated in this meeting. Okay. Um so um I I did solicit some uh through
email around calendaring which I I believe I'm allowed to do around moving our 6 June 18th uh school committee meeting to June 11th. And it really just coincides better with the election cycle that we're going through so that we can quickly thereafter uh you know
understand who our our members our memberships are and then start to discuss and fill in committee and lay on positions. So that's the the purpose behind that. I just wanted to to raise it up. There's no reason to vote on this tonight. Um one item that that did come
up that just happened to me this afternoon is that I will not be able to make next week's meeting. And I believe Melissa is not available either. So I know we have a lot of budget things going on, but um so I guess I'm asking,
do we continue on with three members present um or do we look to potentially moving that need? protection. >> So yes, the options are we move it or we eliminate and we we can do both, right?
Eliminate and then if we find a need for a school committee meeting, we can put one on the calendar for maybe the following Thursday. >> Yeah. So the the following week is school vacation week, but then I'm looking at the calendar, but I think there's another week then in April of
town meeting. So we could either just move the meeting out so that we're meeting again between now and town meeting >> on the 30th >> or we could all just hold that even meeting in case there's a need for
meeting. I guess my preference would be to plan that we're more meeting and then we can cancel it if we don't have for the 30th >> for the 30th. >> All right. So they >> assuming that works for us. Let me just let me just look cuz I have things planned already and I fine. I'm sure
life we start with our school events and stuff on the 16th but I'm sure we can do it so smoothly. >> But he's hosting a third grade parent night at another school on the 30th. So just >> I'm sorry. April 13th I'm sorry the 16th
to the 30th. >> Yeah. just we'll have to adjust our >> Yeah, I'll just have to adjust the the presentation so that that's all we can find about going to be a huge issue. >> Okay. All right. So, it sounds like
we'll we moved uh we ended up moving just the uh the 618 meeting to 611, >> right? >> Yeah, that's correct. >> So far so good. and then the 4:16
meeting to 4:30, April 3rd. Okay, thank you all for that. All right, do we have any subcommittee leison on updates? We have two um and I'll be quick about them. The roof
subcommittee did meet um after some scheduling hiccups, but like Mike said, they're starting work on the room for April break. It's exciting to finally get this project under the way. Um, and other than that, we were really just
discussing some of the long lead time items, making sure those were on track. Um, the committee members are are very engaged with that, staying on top of that. Um, it's great because they have a ton of expertise. Uh, and then, you know, uh, Corey,
uh, approval is underway for the contractor. All anybody working on site has to have have CO. So that's going as well. So the project is rolling along and excited about that. >> Let me just specific question about I think you answered it and I didn't see
much about this in the paper but I know one time we were very concerned about the lead times for some of the HBAC equipment and then see that come in a little bit. So it's it's still tracking that we shouldn't have any problems with delivery of that equipment. >> Yes, it's we we are on track with with
all of that stuff and um and keeping a close eye on sort of you know, steel fabrication and all these other things that are are a little more complicated just are the is are things going to show up on site. So, everything is remote.
>> Good. Good. Thank you. >> Um the other update is that we had a CPAC meeting today. Um not a lot to talk about. And a lot of questions were mostly about what's the budget look like, what does the override look like,
and just had to say please hold. Um, but again, I would love to put in a plug for anybody who's interested in joining CPAC or leading CPAC. Um, again, they are a fantastic group. They are all rowing in
the same direction. If anybody's interested, I would encourage you to reach out. >> Thank you, Eric. Anybody else? Um no policy committee updates but the wellness committee wellness advisory committee
met I think it was last >> wellness. >> Yeah last a long time ago um >> was a long time ago. So, and you know that committee sort of done the bulk of its task for this year, which means what
I see well policy, but we had some really good conversations about some of the new things that have come out from Jessie and maybe some things that need to happen policy wise and implementation wise. It's a great and a really helpful
many. >> Yeah, that was it was good because we get a lot of time and wellness policy. is a long process. As you guys know, you voted on it, but I was like, "Oh, what do we do now?" You know, but everyone just kind of came to the table. We had good discussions and then, you know, um Kate had some good thoughts after
meeting about distracted driving and I saw like it was a lot of good conversation. I think uh you know, we work with Megan mostly who's a lead a nurse just have discussion. And we did
talk about um protocol for measles. God forbid if that comes around. She's already d she has drafted that. We should she should know me today. Yesterday it was just that was one of the big things.
I think it's great committee. >> Anything else? All right. Thank you. Um is there anybody have any correspondence? Okay, I'm looking for a motion to encouragement. >> Second.
>> Okay. Motion. Can't wait to check the first motion made by Melissa. Seconded by Henry. All those in favor? We are journ. >> Thank you all. We might still on
second. Yes. My name