without drastic cuts Thanks to your support we can continue to offer educational environments that are supportive welcoming and inclusive to our students and our staff In order to balance the immediate needs of our schools with the long-term
vision of the district this year's budget proposal does not include new school-based positions at this time These thoughtful proposals recommended to our administrative team have been kept to a minimum in next year's budget primarily for two reasons First we want to understand the staffing
needs for the district based on a new high school schedule Additionally given the federal uncertainty surrounding the Department of Education's administering of grants we are closely and carefully monitoring the status of title 1 2 3 and four as well as IDEIDA and other federal
grant funding To conclude I want to thank our finance department and specifically our budget analyst Jerry McHugh for their tremendous work towards creating a stable and responsible budget for our schools I'm appreciative for their
willingness to engage in dialogue that balances both the immediate and long-term needs of Medford Public Schools Creating a budget rooted in transparency is critical to our values here in Medford and I'm very grateful that we have conducted this process with
that goal in mind And so now I think we would welcome up um Mr McHugh and Mr Thank you Um thank you and good evening
Um I'm joined by uh my colleague Mr Noel Valz tonight for part of this presentation um where we will give kind of a recap of information Um many of the school
committee have already received but in recognition that there might be people turning in for the tuning in for the first time we'll uh go over that and then we have some thoughts about u uh opportunities we have to uh bring
more resources uh to the school budget So give it to Mr VeZ to start things off Thank you very much Jerry and thank you everyone for coming out today I greatly appreciate it Um we're here to discuss
our public hearing for a proposed uh budget for Medford Public Schools in fiscal year 26 As mentioned earlier we are proceeding with the law of Massachusetts has for us chapter 71 section 38N in which we believe we've
met all our obligations in which we posted our notice on the Boston Globe on March 13 2025 to have this hearing Part of the process um that we had here for the plinary budget was uh we really
wanted to be inclusive and and and let people in the buildings have a voice So we had a great opportunity to meet with some principles um directors leadership teams and uh other other parts of uh metro public schools the whole team as a
whole over the past four or five months to gather um information that we felt was vital to create uh a more transparent and uh and a very well put together uh budget As we all know school committee has held two public hearings one on March 5th and the other on March
20th regarding this plinary budget We had many requests that came in um that has been mentioned earlier that we could not put in this budget U some of it having to do just with still wanting to see the ramifications of how this new high school schedule will impact the
budget but also trying to figure out what's going on with the federal government understanding our idea and our title grants and we don't want to we understanding if those grants were to go away tomorrow the tough decisions we would have to absorb all those salaries and all that amount Um so we want to try to
keep what we felt was a was a very clear and transparent budget while also having some uncertainties in the future that we hope to have some clarity coming very soon Um this budget we're thankful that um we would does not have what it had last year regarding um staff cuts or anything
of that nature which we're really grateful for that um hearing all the hearing everything that everybody needed We were able to fill it fill it in in a really good um way We have here uh on our next slide just kind of our enrollment trends and kind of what we're projecting to
be for next fiscal year We're projecting to be at approximately 4,235 students This uh takes into regards um 20 more students from the eighth grade graduating class from this fiscal year to last fiscal year It also
takes into account what we felt was our best guess for new kindergarten enrollment which was about uh we projected 34 extra students um just due to the the birth rate of Medford P of the city of Medford over the last six years
While we do have an overall um higher projected enrollment number we're glad to say that the average class size remained very consistent from last fiscal year to this fiscal year We have a slide here showing um all the projected schools and what we predicted
to be the class sizes um for everyone so far going into next year And then our and then on slide number five here we're kind of giving you just a rough idea of based on our foundation
enrollment our foundation budget And um just as important our chapter 70 state aid kind of the increases we got As you can see here um we did not get a significant increase from fiscal year 25 to fiscal year 26 regarding our state
aid which um just came in over $300,000 Do you have another copy or No I didn't get anything I didn't get that Oh I'm sorry No I just I can't see the screen So I Sorry Sorry to interrupt I was looking see if there's another copy It's
not in the email that we got So I I didn't see this one to print I don't get a packet delivered on Fridays We have an extra one right here Sorry about that Thank you Next slide please Yeah
Um we we we're grateful to uh the voters of Medford that um last fall approved two ballot questions to support uh Medford public schools Question seven provided $3 million to stabilize the school
budget Question eight provided $4 million to support the implementation of a new high school schedule uh to expand the uh teaching day as well as compensation for teachers and par
profofessionals This resulted in a net um increase to the school budget of five,250,000 The first $1,750,000 was actually um provided to us by the city in
anticipation of those ballot questions uh in order to balance our FY25 budget So next slide please Uh our base budget uh in 25 is now $83 million and we're uh proposing
uh the following changes to the base budget uh in FY26 Of course a lion share of our increases are going towards uh salary adjustments for all our uh bargaining
units uh and non-unit uh personnel Uh it includes um step increases uh that these contracts call for as well as other salary adjustments and annualizations that take place uh when
we compare one year to the next uh in terms of salaries Um we also have um several categories of spending that uh have historically been underfunded We we
actually addressed a lot of these in the FY25 budget but there was still some uh that were we finally got to in FY26 as well as um an instance of a loss of grant funds and we'll go through that list in a minute
Uh in addition we have uh similar needs in the buildings and grounds department uh mostly around maintenance uh costs uh to make sure they're fully budgeted for as well as capital improvements uh that
we want to undertake as part of um just general operations and addressing items that the school committee approved on the capital improve improvement plan earlier this year We'll get to that list in a minute
as well And then we have some proposed new spending uh that we'll identify and some uh savings that are occurring in uh uh FY26
So the total uh proposed budget uh this year is um 87,583,000 Uh the uh accounts that are undefunded Uh we can go through
uh the athletic budget uh is undefunded in the coaches stipens Um not that those stipens have increased but they were just not uh fully funded based on uh the number of teams we're fielding this year Uh we had the
addition of three uh one-on-one par professionals at the MSTuck and these were uh students uh that moved into the district this fiscal year and have uh these services uh identified in their
individual education programs We currently fund lunch monitors on the uh lunch fund um that is not allowed by regulation and we're proposing to
transfer that budget over to the general fund in FY26 There's also two uh important uh software applications that Medford uses One's called STM Math and the other is
called the MAP Assessment Program Um these were previously funded in federal grants uh they're no longer eligible to be funded in those grants and so we're proposing uh to bring those uh two
programs over to the general fund Um we've also done a complete inventory of all the instructional software and administrative software we use in the district Um one of the challenges were that in
prior years these were uh funded in a variety of accounts We've we've been able to organize them and on the instructional side um we it's it's basically uh level
funded uh in terms of um fully funding our software applications But on the administrative side um money was being pulled from different uh accounts to fully fund those applications and to get them all those
applications under the technology department Uh we're have we are having to increase that budget by $92,000 Um we also added a academic lead which is essentially a building substitute at
the high school for the vocational program Um the vocational program had a lot of difficulty um when teachers were absent uh or or have an extended illness there's
certain um student teacher ratios that have to be met in some of the shops So having a regular uh building substitute that's familiar with the vocational program that can step in when a teacher is
absent is um critical to the operations of that program We also uh utilize um daily substitutes in our health services department Uh and although we we didn't really have an
established budget to pay for that Uh so we're doing so in FY26 Uh we also had uh we also have the need to to budget for two additional security monitors that are already uh on our payroll one was simply um a miscount
of how many security monitors we had uh in FY24 So we didn't fully account uh for the number of security monitors we had going into FY25 Uh and this was uncovered as we
were developing the budget this year uh for FY26 And then it was necessary to add a security monitor to the night shift at the high school uh in order to provide um required uh dinner coverage for the
other night shift um security monitor we have But it also allowed us to provide coverage uh on a door that was active at night over on the pool side of the building And then we're also requesting to fund
the city contracts in the two schools that uh receive those services Um we implemented these contracts at the beginning of this year after the budget was uh finalized So we um were able to
transfer money from a reserve a salary reserve account to fund these contracts Uh and um so we're asking for the funding to go to the schools this year and kind of restore that salary reserve Uh there is also this
$130,000 is the amount that is charged to the general fund and there's another $70,000 that's charged to the before and after school program Uh in addition um we have um done a complete inventory
of all the maintenance that's required to be undertaken by the buildings and grounds department And um so each of these maintenance areas uh which are extensive now have uh an
estimated uh expense or budget um that covers all these particular areas So in the past what would happen is we still have all these maintenance needs but elevator maintenance has to compete
with plumbing sprinkler maintenance has to compete compete with you know fixing bleaches and uh so it was like you know whatever can be put off to a later date gets put off and this uh really I think
kind of fixes the the maintenance needs uh going forward as well The uh extraordinary maintenance is u you know the capital improvements that we need to undertake provides us with
sufficient funds u to undertake projects like uh air conditioning for all the technology rooms Um uh fire alarm plan panels expected to be replaced at the missuck next year uh
provides us some money to do some uh repair uh replacement for shades um bike racks things like that Um are you know would be part of the normal operating budget of buildings and
grounds going forward Can I ask a couple questions from the chair on that one or do you want to wait till the end um I think clarifying questions makes sense and then you know there'll be time at the end as well Thank you Um the grounds maintenance do
is that landscaping yes Okay I am glad that's in here Um be because it seems that we always have an issue come July August where complaints are coming in on the especially at the matuck and just
the overgrowth So it would be really great to be proactive and do that before the kids enter school Um and then number two my other question is just how much of this 457 is you know recurring uh that you'd see year after year and how
much of it is just one-time funding spending the the um the breakout is to increase the the maintenance budgets by about 122,000 And then there's or
uh and then there's about 330,000 in extraordinary maintenance But as we go forward we're developing kind of a five-year look ahead for extraordinary maintenance So even though
a lot of these are one-time expenses there'll be new one-time expenses in the following years So I don't expect the budget to go up or down um significantly but you know uh hot
water replacement is a is a good example you know we can plan out when we have to replace hot water system in each school and we should be um looking at a number of those
and using our best efforts to make sure that's done in a timely manner over a period of time Not so we're you know having to address two or three emergencies uh all at once from the chair I This was big for me
with the with the override questions just making sure we built in a a good amount of money similar to this for yearly yearly maintenance So I just want to make sure that I understand what's recurring and what is one-time funding in hopes that we can always keep it at
at or about this number and it can be routine maintenance throughout throughout each fiscal year moving forward But in order to do that we just have to make sure we budget accordingly and other line items as far as like adding additional personnel because you only want to add so much that you can
maintain and not have to eventually pull from something like this which is what they've done in the past So I'm just I'm going to point that out every time Um I think routine maintenance is is just so important because we see what is going on with the HVAC and now you know the
MSBA um submitts we did um on Friday for roofs at our other elementary schools It's just it it's um catches up to you when you don't do routine maintenance right i think that this slide is a good
example of what the voters were expecting us to do stabilize the budget and this stabilizes the building ground budget You wouldn't see this type of increase year after year after year The
budget is essentially sound and then you'd have to deal with inflation and and sometimes there's going to be um you know emergencies that that pop up But essentially I think this budget going
forward would be in very good shape if we uh can add uh this amount of money to that budget Thank you On this slide here we're also identifying some other new spending we believe is very important and vital to
Medford public schools Part of that new spending is u strengthening our network and infrastructure capabilities in all the schools Part of that means um funding a director of network and a network technician Um these two
positions um could really help us in the long run identifying uh as we're noticing aging servers and power supplies that have uh were luckily are still functioning but have definitely passed their date of service to uh to
continue to provide service for public schools other areas just regarding um the increase of spending and special education um special education regarding our transportation line We believe we'll need about another hundred to
$104,000 to cover um increases in transportation We're thankful that um we do have we we we are going to be carrying over some circuit breaker funding from fiscal year 25 to subsidize some of that cost but we believe um we should take some of that cost on in the
general liability Our extended year programming uh for the summertime for um the students um who are needed these services we want to increase that by about $53,000 to fully level fund it this fiscal year the past previous years
we've been funding it through um through other areas and this would fully fund that summer program and and make sure that the the special education department has everything it needs Uh another thing we another area we identified was PO project transition It
is a program that we have for um certain students in the 18 to 22 year old demographic department Um this department has never actually been funded before through the budget So this would actually be the first year they will have their own budget line of appro of approximately um $12,000 to support
that program throughout the fiscal year Another area was um the high school principal wanted to increase summer programming and offer um other areas for summer teaching and for our summer school students Um so she she believes
$30,000 added to that line would really support that team and that program as a whole We want to also um budget aside some money for what is in our CBA for the security monitors We believe um having on call daily substitutes can really um
help us in the long run in our budget regarding um anytime there is a monitor who is out and having to fill that need either with a custodian or having or asking a security monitor to come in and fill in Um this helps us a lot in that area and just budgeting a little bit can go a long way And there were two other
small areas we really loved hearing about um regarding just more opportunity for our students We had u PSAT exams We want to increase that line item by another $2,000 to give more students opportunities to take the PSAT exams And
another area we really wanted to support was the language department There is a eighth grade proficiency assessment test which costs approximately about $2,000 every fiscal year And uh this would really help a lot of the eighth grade students know exactly where they are in their uh in their second language that
they're learning and would really help the language department um continue to support these students Next slide please Um other areas that we identified in savings um we have a student who is graduating who is currently attending an out of
district vocational school So we will no longer be responsible for that salary for for their tuition or transportation Uh we currently have a vacant position uh for the SSA position and uh we feel it's best to
to not budget for that vacant position also to fund the summer program that the principal at the high school had recommended Um she was willing to slash her supply budget by $30,000 to um to support her summer
program which she really um believes in Okay So um what I did promise that we would look for areas that we could um bring some additional resources to help fund this
budget Uh a big one uh for us is to utilize um the transporta homeless transportation reimbursement uh that the city receives um as a result of the uh spending that we do on an
annual basis We were allowed to do this um to balance our FY24 budget and we current there's currently $391,000 uh in that reimbursement line if we could use that uh in FY26 we could
reduce our appropriation uh by that amount Um we would we would reduce the the homeless transportation uh budget in the general fund and we would utilize um this reimbursement for the balance
Um we could also um utilize $170,000 in circuit breaker funds to offset the increases we're requesting for special education uh under new spending
Um we also have good uh fund balances in our culinary arts program and our MEAP funds that could support four positions
uh and allow us to reduce the request by $400,000 Um we also realized that we h we have a uh teacher salary in our title two
grant assuming we have title grants next year but um we could uh shift the salary onto the title two grant um and save $80,000 And we're also
um we you may recall that there was this idea about surround care paras um back in trying to um be creative in in getting the the
FY24 budget approved And um the idea was that 26 p professionals would um you know work part-time come in on a later shift work
part-time during the day uh at the school and then did the balance of the day They did work in the before and after school program and then then the idea was that these positions could be fund funded from the before and after school budget Well um it turned out that
only one um person actually applied for that schedule Um it it doesn't really work for school principles because those you know those
paras are utilized in kindergarten and special needs classes So they really need to be there for the full day um paras can you know earn some extra pay if they work in the afterchool program
but we'd propose to eliminate that u srankia parah position in FY26 and that would provide an additional savings of $30,000 u so so far that's um a little
over a million dollar that we could reduce our request by I think Um we're looking at some possibilities of uh looking at the spending side So this
this proposal doesn't really cut into the spending that we're requesting but um we would we would have to begin to look at either existing um budgets or uh looking at some of the
increases we're asking for Um to trim those back if we had to continue to go further with uh reducing this request And that that's really the extent of our presentation If you you have any
questions or if there's any questions from the public we'll be happy to answer those Does the council want to ask questions first you want me to handle the public hearing first member
Graham Thank you Um last year you talked a little bit about some of the cleanup work that you were doing across the budget to align people into the departments they actually belong in versus sort of being
scattered all about And um I know that last year that raised some questions um among the public about sort of the appearance that things got much bigger when in fact they really didn't It was just like a movement issue Um has that all like settled down now where we could
look at the number of positions from 24 to 25 apples to apples or are we not quite there yet well not from 24 to 25 but certainly from 25 to 26 So there was still this uh So for example in the
budget all the par profofessional salaries were listed in their own line item even though None of those par professionals were actually charged to there The a line item for par professional salaries did
not exist as a separate budget entity So when you're trying to compare um what you budgeted to your actual spending it's difficulty that the the central office is a good example You know you you'll see in your budget book
there was uh a little over half a million dollars in salaries uh spent in the central office budget but then in 25 the budget's over a million dollars And that's because there were 15 people presented in the FY24
budget charged to that central office uh program one Um but only 10 of them were actually accounted for in the actual spending There were five All assistant uh superintendent were charged
to other programs in the payroll operation Um a couple were charged to the districtwide So um the what we did in 25 and we
continued in 26 is to get make sure that the um the budget is aligned with how we're spending the money so we can do those uh comparisons It's really important when we're putting together a budget to kind of look at the historical
trends uh spending trends and really you can't um you can't do that unless there's alignment between the budget and the spending So would it be possible then for for in
the the budget list to show us um you know like I'm looking at well school committee is sort of a bad example but central office office of the superintendent it says eight So for FY20 sorry six we're planning to have six people for FY26 Would it be possible to like add a
column there to say for FY25 it was six or it was eight or it was 10 or some way to be able to see that like department to department Yep Okay That would be really helpful I did also notice or actually a resident pointed out to me that at the Brooks and the Missuck there
appear to be two Nexus teachers Is that correct versus just one um We'd have to check I mean that's that information comes from Frontline So it's possible that they're mclassified or something They could be
two under one school and there might be none under another school but there are two definitely two two people So we can take a look at that Okay It looks like there's two in two at the Brooks two at the Mituck I see one at
Roberts Um I don't know Trying to find the miglin number to see if there was one there too So there's just may be a mclassification there potentially Um oh here's m uh one So there's
something strange at Brooks and Mr Tuck Yeah there if you could check into that Um and then the other thing um that I think would be helpful for us to be able to see on this
um on this page or something like it this like overall department is for the upcoming budget year of this number like how much is staff and how much is everything else And yeah there is there is a a page on that I think it's it's
towards the end Um it's on page 16 Oh thank you Yeah So okay great And that was that was you know part of the 84 budget So I
wanted to keep some of those okay pages that you were used to And so the you know the the uh if this budget was adopted the ratio between um salaries and expenses is still around
in the 80 81 range to to you know 19% which um you want to make sure there's there's a little bit of a balance salary is always going to be the largest share but you can't um starve expenses you know for the sake
of salary so um I think it's good it's you know solid proposal based on that perfect thank you Um if there's no questions right now I can um open up the public
hearing So the public hearing is now open Anybody in favor that wants to um speak on Zoom or in person anybody in favor of the fiscal year 26
budget member Russo are you on Zoom like usual okay So will you let me know if anybody raises their hand thank you Thank you Hearing in seeing none I'll um call that portion of the public hearing as closed And now we'll open it up on
the floor um via Zoom or in person for anybody who is opposed to fiscal year 26 budget as proposed I'll open it up to anybody that's opposed We good members hearing and seeing none I will
close the public hearing um and open it up for any further questions from the committee hearing and seeing none Oh member Russo Thank you It's actually not a question It's just a a something I said last year as well I appreciate that we're getting
closer or maybe we are achieving it with this budget The ability to go Hello the ability to move yeartoear and actually do comparisons um you know this having staff that work in one department paid for out of
another department's funds It's it's the opposite of transparency and um it's really um it does a disservice to the community to be able to read our budget and know which ends what's going on It
also does a disservice to this body and future iterations of this body to be able to look and you know I graph all of the city's line items and um you know the city is is different but
um within the schools I really have never been able to do that because maintenance is used when I first came on maintenance budget was shockingly little not what it is now but we actually did do emergency maintenance Then we just didn't hire a pair of professional or we
didn't hire this staff member or we you know delayed paying raises or all the other shenanigans to make it so that we could actually get the work done But there's no way to ever understand historically what happened in Medford
financially Um and I'm excited that this might be the beginning of that ability um is as long as there's no more people miscat not mis they're not miscatategorized but they're being paid out of accounts that any person who's
not actively working in the finance department would understand that oh there are not there are five fewer people in administration well no there really aren't there never were those five people in administration so I'm I'm looking forward to the future when we can look at our budget understand our
budget and um make decisions about what's the right way to spend our money Um I think that's a major responsibility of this body and um it shouldn't require dozens of hours of meetings to
figure out We should be able to look at the budget So thank you very much to the finance department for your very hard work the last couple of years to to make that right Thank you member Russo Member Reinfeld Yes thank you I'll echo
the thanks to the finance department and to everyone who contributed to this budget My question is when is there an anticipated time frame for looking i know you said we're not adding any building based positions and I understand that in the sense of how much
uncertainty there is and not wanting to make promises that we can't keep in terms of the funding Um I know there are adjustments that get made as enrollment This is projected enrollment We'll see what the enrollment actually looks like I know we have been trying very hard to get the message out around kindergarten
Um but we often see an influx later And then of course you knew I was going to say this I have concerns about the guidance levels at the middle schools Like I said I understand the not adding positions this time but is there a time frame when we would look at that and see
if that is really needed and be able to add those positions especially as contract as we understand what the collective bargaining um comes to comes to be
I would think that um closer to June July would be the time for that I believe that we will get some clarity from Desi on federal grants by then hopefully Um
and then of course the collective bargaining um agreements have to be um settled and then the new schedule will have to be developed But I you know I think that will all kind of start to become clearer as we get towards the end
of June and then we can look to see if we have opportunities to to add some of the requested positions At that time we look at new schedules I could imagine needing staff to support those different Yeah those changes
or ongoing uncertainty Agree Thank you Graham Thank you Um since the public hearing is now closed and I'm not hearing any like potential changes to what has been put in front of us I did just want to again
outline this is we're at the point in the process where we're making a request to the municipal government Ideally that request would come before the mayor's number coming to us We're a little bit out of order there again because of the supplemental appropriation Um but I
think it does make sense for this body to tonight um take a vote to approve this as our municipal request so that we can sort of begin turning all the wheels um in getting this over to the mayor and ultimately to the council Um we do have
pro processes in our budget process that um allow us to make changes to this um once we hear a little bit better from the mayor uh what the numbers look like and can can be sort of relied on to be um as we head into like May and June Um
but I do think it makes sense for us to vote on this tonight Um so that we can move that forward and then if there is change that has to happen that's part just part of the process and we can come back and revise that Whether that is to to your point member Einfeld to add
positions um when all of the uncertainty becomes certain I'm looking forward to that day myself Um but really figuring out like you know what are those things that would um make a difference here i know there were many many things on the spreadsheet that we saw that could be done and I appreciate with all the
uncertainty um sort of striking the balance between continuing on until there's a reason not to and also sort of starting to hedge a little bit about the uncertainty So I think like this budget does a nice job dancing between those
two lines and um you know we this won't be the last time that we talk about the budget I don't think this year Um but I'm super excited that we have a chance to take this vote and it is still March Um which is pretty amazing So um I'd
like to make a motion to approve the school committee's municipal request Sure Oh do you have a do you have something written out i do Oh okay If I might just uh fill that in for you Uh the motion is to approve the budget presented as our budget request for snow
to policy DBC phase 3 school committee review and approval of budget request That sounds amazing And and before I call the role um since I'm sitting here and you're making the request to me I just want to say that I think we are in a decent
decent okay spot and we're usually um in a much more difficult spot than we are today We just do have to keep in mind and I will on the city side as I'm reviewing um each department's budget on the city side especially there's 20 25
of them that there is this funding gap of 2.8% 28% that we have to work together um to close and I know that will take um several weeks if not a couple months to do so but and we can work towards doing that but just want to want to point that out because it is it
is a gap and um we'll see what we can do on the city side to provide more than um the initial proposal which is always conservative um giving especially giving the state of the federal government um but also that the governor is the only one that has released her budget to date
um that we do still have that gap So I just want to point that out as you take your vote um tonight I'll second the vote that member Grahams motion by member Graham seconded by member Rouso All those in favor i I
I'm just going to abstain I guess Um do we need to take a roll call i think we have to roll call that one Roll call has been requested Member Branley Yes Member Graham Yes Member Intapa Yes Member Yes Member Ryan Yes Member Yes Mayor Lingok
I'm just going to abstain while I work through that funding gap So six in the affirmative one abstaining Motion passes Is there a motion to adjurnn if there's no further questions or comments our regular meeting Motion to adjourn
the hearing Enter our regular meeting Motion to adjurnn by member Reinfeld Seconded by second Member Pad All those in favor all those opposed Meeting is adjourned