we'll get started we have the um Medford school committee meeting dated Thursday March 20th 2025 at 5:30 p.m it will be a committee of the home Committee of the home meeting um and held remotely via
Zoom only the meeting can be viewed through Medford Community media on Comcast and Verizon participants can log or call in by using the following link or call a number the meeting ID is 9521 1257 848 questions or comments can be submitted
during the meeting by emailing Medford SCC medford.ma us those submitting questions or comments must include the following information your first and last name your med street address your question or comment the committee of the home
meeting is being called to focus on the overview of the fiscal year 26 budget proposal and will be presented by Mr Gerald McHugh our budget analyst and I'll um ask member Russo to call the role before we turn over to you um Mr
M thank you uh member brandley yeah hello present yes hello pres M gram me my button's not working here member
Ana here member I see on soon he just unmuted so say one more time member Ola hi everyone I can't uh my camera won't let me turn it on oh I'll fix that
thank and you're here you're here yes H member rfel present member so pres Maro present seven present zero absent next up we'll just turn it right
over to um Mr mchu our budget analyst thanks thank you thank you Madame M um I have to uh share my screen here um share screen okay uh okay is
this people can see this now okay all right well um we we have you know concluded all our budget meetings at the school department we prepared a a draft budget and this
this is uh what we're going to go over tonight uh kind of the results of um uh a lot of work by um School staff and administrators here at Medford School System
um we um you know we've had our meetings as I said as we talked about at the last Committee of the whole there were a number of um new positions requested by principles and by
directors um we are taking the position that um you know we're going to hold on those positions for now um well certainly there's there's budget considerations with adding a lot of new positions but the two main reasons are
that um we do have uh are we planning on adopting a new schedule for the high school uh and we don't know what implications that might have on Staffing and of course um
the Federal Grant status for next school year is um a bit muddled right now um I suspect that um as we get closer to the summer desie May uh be able to give us
some guidance on uh the status of those grants we are planning as if we're going to receive the grants we have this year uh next year uh but it's something that we're closely monitoring um and I will say as you'll
see is that there you know we we are not uh contemplating any across the board Staffing cuts um that were necessary to balance the fy2 budget uh so you know the basic
basically the the budget is in a lot better shape in fy2 uh so you know the majority of the current Staffing um uh is funded in the budget proposal um the first two categories is
that we have to increase um our current budgets to account for contract labor agreements that expiring uh on June 30 uh and negotiations with those unions are
underway and we also have to adjust line items to take into account uh step increases that um uh many staff are entitled to uh pursuant to their collective bargaining agreements any
salary adjustments that were made during the year have to be uh accounted for in FY 26 and any salary annualization also have to be accounted for um we're going to go through a list
of uh budget adjustments that um are necessary because uh the current budgets are not aligned with their spending uh we have one change we want to make due to uh Food Service
regulations and in a couple of instances we've lost CR funding and um we're going to account for that in FY 26 so the first line is to adjust the athletic budget by 32,500 and this uh some line items
within that budget have been level funded for a number of years um the coaches line and uh Contract Services in particular um are not um you know adjusted for the current
level of spending the number of teams we uh that are competing uh Etc so uh we'll boost for that during the course of this year we had to uh add uh three one-on-one par
positions and this is mainly due to uh new students that entered a entered our district with uh these positions on the IEPs uh so we are required to uh put those on WE they're they're currently
working this year and we're going to adjust the budget next year to make sure there's funding for them um we do right currently um Medford charges its lunch monitors uh to the lunch fund um which
is not uh appropriate uh or not allowed under um the Food Service um regulation so we're proposing the ship those uh positions to the general
fund uh we lost grant funding for two uh important um software uh applications that we use one's called ST Math the other is map assessment uh program um these are
currently funded by grants this year they're not eligible for Grants uh next year so we're going to uh include those in the budget um the it we have an administrative Suite of software
applications Frontline um is one we have a uh internet um service provider uh we have cyber security applications the ticketing system the
Raptor system uh for visitors so these um all these applications were not fully funded and we're taking money from other areas of the school B budget um and so in 26 we want to get those uh
applications fully funded and um and have the U you know to because they they're critical to the operations of the school department this year we added a AC MC
lead position which is essentially a a building uh full-time building substitute teacher at the high school level we added one to the vocational program uh due to vacancies um some Voca you know some of
the shops uh have a certain adult to student ratio attached to them so uh when one teacher is out it creates a problem and it it really uh became important to have a
regular uh building sub for the vocational program that could learn the students learn the programs that are uh offered there uh to support the um uh the director and the uh the uh the
students um we've we've also you know have a history of um using nurse daily substitutes uh when there's absences uh to the extent that they are available uh and we have never had a budget uh for
that so we're going to propose adding some money uh to the Health Services line to cover substitutes uh for security monitors we had um kind of two separate issues one in the course of putting together this
budget we found that we um did not sufficiently budget uh in fy2 for the number of uh security monitors we had we had budgeted one less than we actually
had uh on the rolls and then uh during the course of FY 25 we added a night shift security monitor uh because we had no way to provide uh uh coverage U
dinner coverage for the other night shift uh security Monitor and in addition there were concerns about a door that was uh unmonitored regularly over on the pool side of the building so that person uh was able to
monitor that door as well so in FY 26 going to um fix those budgets by adding uh enough money to fund 14 uh security monitors districtwide and then at the beginning
of fy2 we [Music] um engage with City year to have two schools receive um city services those services are $100,000 per
school um a portion of that um 100,000 is charged to the before and after school program because their uh their day overlaps into that uh program uh but we essentially took money from our salary reserves to fund that
this year we want to restore that money back to the uh salary um Reserve budget and so the um so we're looking to add the $130,000 to the two schools
that receive those services uh in addition you know we've been working very hard with the U with our buildings and grounds Department to try to rightsize those budgets um this year we have some assistance from Paul riggy
from the city has been very helpful uh in um doing this review of operations but the two main areas that need funding this year are uh to really rightsize our maintenance budget so I
put here a list of just a variety of Maintenance areas that that have to be covered and we've gone through and assigned them um what we think is an appropriate budget and out of that uh uh
$457,000 increase about 122,000 is attributable to um uh more money for maintenance uh you know we're establishing a grounds maintenance account and equipment repair and replacement
account uh and then also to address the uh extraordinary maintenance needs or Capital needs sometimes they're called uh in in the schools and uh looking at the capital
plan that was approved by the school committee and and other uh projects that came up in the course of budget development um essentially uh and so we're looking to increase that uh
extraordinary maintenance line by $330,000 uh in that we would Des desperately need to replace uh the air conditioning systems in our Tech rooms um almost all of them have failed
so we we want to make sure we have enough money to go and begin to replace those um we are anticipating a replacement of a firealarm panel at the mck and then as to
establish uh account uh some budget uh B uh bandwidth to you know replace Shades and blinds in the schools as are needed sometimes dual Replacements needed um you know
minor roof repairs bike rack installations things like that um we're looking to uh accomplish in uh 2026 we do have some new spending um we're going to
recommend um within our uh Network infrastructure I I should preface this by saying that we've we've um captured all of the instructional software that we use administrative
software that we use we've got them into their own accounts in the different programs um that maintain these and um you know it's almost uh $800,000 worth of software that that uh
is operated as necessary uh for um instruction and and school operations so we're proposing a new uh position of director of network and Technology services that can lead uh
that area uh into the future a network technician uh that will work alongside of the um current um position that we have we we have one position descried
right now for for uh Network um um maintenance and um you know really have to build up some capacity in that area and then of course we we we didn't have um money
for replacing equipment that's in the network so we have servers and power supplies that have reached the end of their useful life and we need to begin replacing those likewise in uh special education
our transportation line is increasing uh in FY 26 and uh by about $114,000 and I'm going to give a separate um um there's going to be separate
slides for for special education tuition and and Transportation uh a little bit later um some uh students qualify for extended year program programming and those roles are increasing so
$53,000 of this uh uh amount is to uh accommodate those new students in extended year program and then we have a project transition that you might know about uh
this is a program for uh 18 to 22 special needs um students it's you know primarily focuses on life skills and um to this date they did not have a budget they kind of cobbled
together budget uh uh funding from different sources so $112,000 I think is money well spent U for this uh group of students uh the high school's also requesting to expand or uh to increase
the amount of money they uh have for the summer program actually there's this no um general fund budget for the summer program it it at at one point it was um I guess it was contemplated that it
would be strictly fee based um but over the years um students qualif students that need to attend the summer program uh sometimes qualify for fee reduction or a waiver of the
fee uh in that um so so this 30,000 will provide the school with an opportunity to get more students into the program um and properly fund it I I don't know if you
remember last at the last uh Committee of whole meeting the summer uh School revolving fund was in deficit and this is going to go um ways to correct that
uh and then we also have in the security monitor contract the ability to hire daily substitutes um we haven't done so yet but we should you know if we intend to do that we should establish a small
budget in the security uh program to um fund daily subs and then the um guidance Department would like to expand uh eligibility for PSA uh at
exams uh trying to get more uh Juniors and and sophomores to be able to take that program and the World Language Department would also like to expand uh their assessments down to eth
grade so students entering high school can be uh properly placed in the right um uh level for uh whatever language they're they're signing up for so each of those U categories was a
$2,000 increase to their existing budgets we do have a little bit of savings to put towards this to offset we have um a student we don't anticipate right now needing a um tuition and
transportation allotment for out of District vocational student we have one student now who we expect to graduate this year um we currently have five student supervisory assistant positions one of
them a vacant we would not fund the vacant position and that would leave four positions one each for each of the elementary schools uh and then to fund the
$330,000 summer program we're going to reduce the supply budget at the High School principal's office which I have discussed with the principal that still leaves her with a healthy um budget of
about $93,000 U after that so we have a total Savings of $101,000 so for special education um there were couple of couple of things happening in transportation and tuition that aren't
going to be readily called out in the budget one is that uh for our new specialed Transportation contract the rates went up um significantly in
fy2 uh it increased what we budgeted by 500 almost 500 57,000 um we had balances in our circuit breaker funds which we use to close that Gap this year uh next year we will need
to continue um to use circuit breaker funds towards the transportation budget uh in the same amount and then in our uh budget request we're looking to add $104,000
uh to the general fund budget to cover the projected spending in FY 26 uh likewise in tuition uh in in fy2 we had $5.5 million budget for
tuition and the tuition budget is um funded from three sources one the general fund two uh Ida Grant and three circuit breaker funds the all the tuitions were
increased by the state by 3.87% um we also adjusted the budget for graduating students uh students that are aging out of the system movein that happen this year that are responsibility
of Medford now and new placements from within our district uh we did get a little bit lucky with this budget in that um some of the uh students aging out are in residential programs which are very
expensive uh so we actually had a drop in our uh overall tuition right now of course you know next year may bring uh new out of District placements um at
some point but for now we were able to level f the general fund budget and we'll continue to charge about $850,000 to ID and then the remainder would be funded
uh by Circuit Breaker so between we feel uh confident that U the circuit breaker funds will receive and FY 26 will cover uh the 1.6 in tuition and the 5 57,000
transportation and there should still be some left over in case we have any new uh tuitions uh to deal with in 26 so this is just a summary of the the the uh grouping uh that we did our
increase comes up to over $45 million and we know that you know that's uh not going to be the budget that we get but it's the budget that you know we uh would like to
have based on uh the work we've done with staff [Music] um you know it's a 5.5% increase uh it's about 2.8% more than
the city has given us in a preliminary uh projected school budget um we do have uh we included in in the the budget it's already baked in that we will continue to
uh Implement chargebacks to certain programs that use our um facilities and our uh administrative Services um and what we're working on now for the
public hearing is looking to see see uh what opportunities we have to kind of close uh the funding Gap and get as close as we can to um what the city
might uh is is uh projecting so what we're looking at right now is um you know balances that are in our revolving funds that might be able to take on some
positions um where looking making sure we have all our uh positions that are funded in Grants properly allocated to those grants um we do think we have this um
the question 8 funds that uh the VOE is approved that provided uh $4 million for High School uh new schedule implementation for Teacher um
salaries and for par professional salaries there uh because those contracts were um in place for fy2 and the money was available in
fy2 um to the extent that it and we won't really know um this for certain until negotiations conclude but
I'm thinking that there'll be a balance in that $4 million that uh we should figure out a way to carry that into FY 26 to make sure that first $4 million
gets paid out the way the voters approved it so I'm going to um um I think we can anticipate using question a funds in 26 help with those uh
collective bargaining agreements that get uh uh approved either uh before this year or or early next year um there's also $391,000 in
homeless uh Transportation reimbursement um that the state provides and and we would like to use that uh to offset our homeless Transportation account and kind of get us closer to that that City number so that at the
public hearing on Monday we'll be able to uh provide a list of um other opportunities uh that we identify to help fund uh the budget
we're presenting tonight let's see if I may from the chair ask a question sure because 5.5% in increase over fiscal year 25 um and and then and then you mentioned
the $4 million carry carryover because yes we need to spend that the way the voters expect us to spend it yeah but also can use some of that money for things we outlined in the questions which I think would cover a
lot of what you had in that $500,000 range for maintenance so is that is that being included to be paid for out of the 4 million or is that included in the 5.5% increase because we obviously don't want to use the 4 million to extenuate a situation where we're
keeping Personnel um that we can't afford down the line and just getting in another hole Yeah so can if you may explain that will that bring us down to 5% so the yep the um the
the the the $4 million um we're not going to know until negotiations are are settled but we expect that a portion of that will be paid out in fy2 specifically uh particularly for the
the schedule implementation and um it could be that some you know in the final settlement that some monies get paid out in 25 so I don't anticipate we'll have the whole
four million uh but there'll be um there there might be a balance to tap um and as far as the the question seven money that's already kind of baked in into the bottom line it was used to we we you
know we we submitted a supplemental budget so a lot of those uh positions in spending that got covered in the supplemental budget are being carried into FY 26 so that that money's basically accounted for um yes I know
the three million is accounted for it's the it's the 4 million so are we reserving a certain portion for the contracts which aren't up until June 30th I I guess what what onetime cost
can we use so it's not a 5.5% increase because we've been adding things um yeah we're gonna We this this is our job uh tomorrow and over the weekend is
to see you know what are the resources we can bring to beer to get that five .5% down um so that's you know that will be our job to work on that but
um the there there will be some portion of the 4 million that I think will still be available for teacher and Par professional contracts in 26 and then of course the other thing we
have to uh be cognizant of is that eventually um when that money runs out it has to be replaced in the budget or or positions have to be cut but um the
the you know so we we should be intentional about how we want to kind of wind down from whatever money out of question 8 uh gets rolled into 26 yeah and hopefully there's more
rogress before just next week because with a75 million override you wouldn't we were I think we were all hoping maybe not to be in a position where we had to cut anything if we if we planned correctly so hopefully there there's more work that will be done um so we're
not in seeing this picture um is as a 5.5% um increase and it's a little bit more manageable yeah yeah okay we're on the same page okay thank you um member Graham thank you um so I just wanted to
add a few things so Monday night our budget hearing is simply to frame our request to the municipal budget right to the municipal government so this is where we're saying to everyone including the the council and the mayor and I know
you're here um but this is what we believe that we need um that 5.5% increase is actually not different than what our increase was outlined in Chapter 70 so when I looked at the
Chapter 70 numbers they outlined that our portion would be going up by 5.5% or something like roughly there so that number is consistent with even what the state outlined that our number would
look like right now it's more complicated than that but I think directionally that number is not like sort of out of bounds um the budget process that we've laid out has another step later in
probably May and into June to like get to full reconciliation um of what the municipal government is able to provide um which may require changes to what we outline and approve as our
request right so this is our request there's a step two that says if our request is different than what the city ultimately can provide based on what the mayor recommends based on what the council approves then we have to like take another vote to approve like a a
balanced budget right um the other thing that I'll mention because we do have so many new members is anytime that we are in like active negotiations with the teachers union in particular this time in the budget is like as uncertain as it
can possibly be because out of our 800ish staff like almost 500 of them sit in the teachers union so without Clarity on that just yet um there's a lot of uncertainty that
between now and June hopefully fingers crossed we will like get to certainty on and like put you know have a path forward that will ow us to refine this number with facts instead of you know just like we heard from Bob last night like we're we're planning but these
numbers are sort of always changing so I think that when I remember going through this process a few years back where we were at the end of a teacher contract it was the same sort of way uncertain feeling about like what was going to
happen and where it was going to land so I guess like overall I just want to make sure that the people who are listening understand that a this is a request B like there is a Reconciliation process and see like the uncertainty
that Jerry's having to deal with right now um is likely to continue to change between between request and and balanced budget um and come into Focus um so I I
all of that to say um thank you Jerry for putting this together because it allows us to see what the totality of the situation is and I think for a really really long time the school committee never got to see what the totality of the situation was and it led
to things like underfunded maintenance budgets chronically that we're now trying to peel out of so this I don't I don't think this is a like a a wild budget in any way and I also don't think that it's like a final
like catastrophic number um I just think like this is where we are in the process and um I'm glad that we're talking in plain language about what we believe that the district needs um to serve students
because that is a piece that was so missing for so long and now we can together make the decisions that we need to make between now and the end of June to get where we need to go and to get to to that balanced budget so um I just want to say thanks to Jerry he did a a
really great job especially with like all the uncertainty that exists for us right now and it's not it's not just the teachers contract we have five contracts renewing on July one so there's a lot there's a lot of moving parts that he
can't his crystal ball is probably as broken as mine so um it's really hard to know like where all of those things will land but we're trying to work through all that so I just wanted to like lay that out there both from a process perspective and from a like yes this is uncertain um yes this
looks maybe alarming but I I I do think like it's like the right place to be in March which is by the way earlier than we've ever been in this place so um all things considered like I I'm calling tonight a
win even if it's not like a a perfect slam dunk right like I think we're I think we're on the right track thank you thank you thank you Graham I'll keep the faith I
guess um if there's no other questions um thank you for your presentation Jerry I look forward to your continued work and maybe some adjustments in uh on Monday and because of course you all know the this body and this city council
on myself um really have prioritized our public schools and I agree with member Graham we've defer have deferred maintenance for far too long so there's great progress that has been made um just would be great to balance us a little better so the ask is something
that you know maybe the city can can really get get to reason you know reasonable ask and I know um M reinfeld asked last night you know some of the city services that have been put on hold because of us trying to really fund the school as best we can the last several
years so you know there's work to do on on on in the city and the schools and hopefully we'll we'll get there within the next you know month or so is there a motion to adjourn if there's no further questions motion to adjourn member
brenley seconded by second member in tapa I'm going by Voices hope I'm doing okay um roll call please member branley yes member gram one more time yes sorry can you
hear I got you there slow but good member Anapa yes member olapa yes member reinfeld yes memb say yes may Longo yes seven the affirmative zero the negative meeting is a