WEBVTT

METADATA
Video-Count: 1
Video-1: youtube.com/watch?v=uYNRPEdBbz0

NOTE
MEETING SECTIONS:

Part 1 (Video ID: uYNRPEdBbz0):
- 00:00:00: Meeting Opening: Agenda, Zoom Info, Roll Call
- 00:01:36: Superintendent's Overview: Budget Context & Priorities
- 00:04:08: Initial Budget Proposal Review and Reduction Strategies
- 00:07:16: Reviewing Reduction to Reach $3.3 Million Savings
- 00:15:45: Budget Survivals: Salary Increases and Required Spending
- 00:21:40: School-Based Spending, Facilities & Technology Needs
- 00:26:38: Recap of Savings Identified for Funding Proposals
- 00:28:16: Fiscal Year 2026 and 2027 Budget Comparison
- 00:29:34: Budget Gap and Ongoing Review Considerations
- 00:31:10: Budget Approval Asks for the School Committee
- 00:31:47: Public Comment: Member Graham on Inclusion Specialist
- 00:33:53: Response from Joan Bowen: Difficulty Filling Position
- 00:34:10: Response on Network Director: Re-evaluation Plan
- 00:35:00: Public Comment: Member Russo Budget Appendix Request
- 00:37:31: Follow-up on Athletics and Spending Allocation
- 00:43:18: Public Comment: Member Rinfeld, Transportation & Arts
- 00:47:58: Public Comment: Member Master Bony, Level of Funding
- 01:01:15: Response and Discussion with the Mayor
- 01:03:17: Public Comment: Member Rousel, Student Art Show
- 01:04:40: Public Comment: Member Graham, Budget Vote
- 01:08:50: Motion to Adjourn


Part: 1

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Since the meeting will be held remotely, participants can log or call in by using the following Zoom link which is on the city and school website and the meeting ID is 93151827684. Questions or comments can be submitted during the meeting by emailing medscedford.k12.

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us. Those submitting questions or comments must include the following information. your first and last name, your Medford Street address, your question or comment. And today's agenda is pursuant to general laws 71 section 38N. The Medford School Committee will convene a

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public hearing to members of the community interested in either for or against in whole or in part the superintendent's recommended fiscal year 27 operating budget. I'll turn it over to the finance team. Good evening, uh, Madame Mayor, esteemed

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members of >> We need to call the role first. >> Yes. Roll call, please. >> Member Graham, >> here. >> Uh, member Master Bony >> here. >> Member Olady >> here.

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>> Member Parks >> here. Remember Rinfeld? Not yet. Member Rouso is present. Mary Langokarn. >> Sorry, I'm reading. Sorry, I'm reading this like it's the first time I've ever done it. >> Um, six present, one absent as of right

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now. Um, so we do have a quorum. >> Okay, thank you. Um, can you all hear me? So, good evening. Um we're here to present our fiscical year 27 preliminary operating budget. This presentation is a

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responsible, thoughtful, and authentic representation of the work we have undertaken to support the growth and development of every student in Metro Public Schools. This budget cycle follows a year of significant progress. We continue to successfully

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operationalize our instructional vision through new consolidated schedules districtwide at the elementary, middle, and high school levels. Uh first time seen at the high school level. We've also implemented an additional 15 minutes of instructional time across the

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district K through 12 plus. These changes alongside our commitment to our collective bargaining agreements are deeply rooted in our core value of belonging. However, we also must address and you will see this evening the realities of the current economic landscape. And like many districts

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across the Commonwealth, we are navigating an unavoidable rising costs in special education, transportation, and general operations. To meet these challenges, our leadership team has worked and continues to work

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alongside school and department leaders to ensure that we have intentional alignment with the evolving needs of our students, our staff, and our community. This preliminary proposal this evening is the result of months of critical discussion, public feedback, and a

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collaborative problem-solving stance from our entire administrative team. I want to thank Jerry McHugh, our budget analyst, our finance director Noelz for their continued and long uh efforts.

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This work is iterative and it serves as a testament to our values of consistency and coherence that we are working quite hard to establish as through lines across every level of the district. We're moving toward a unified vision that ensures all resources support our

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shared educational and operational goals. Uh and with that, I'm going to turn it over to Mr. uh McHugh and Mr. Vez to present the preliminary proposal. Thank you.

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>> Thank you, Madam Superintendent. Um good evening. We can go go to the next slide. Um so in our initial uh budget proposal described on April 6 was uh a little

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over $94 million. Um we've been working to uh reduce that budget increase to the extent possible. And tonight um the first uh few minutes of this meeting

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we'll just walk you through um the high points of how that reduction was accomplished and we could go to the next slide. Um, member Master Bony, you know, asked at the last meeting like how are we

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going to approach the um the reductions that we're about to make? And uh I thought that was an excellent idea and we we a number of these things is you know our normal approach to the budget but it's

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good to write them down and share them with people to see um how we um how we um arrive at some of the reductions uh we're uh proposing. And the first of

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course is to minimize direct impacts on students. Um we have to fully fund our collective bargaining agreements. Um align the budget with available funding

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um or projected funding. Um adhere to uh the core values of Medford public schools. Use best efforts to avoid layoffs. um comply with uh special education and

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English language learner requirements, manage class sizes, um we want to ensure that immediate capital maintenance needs are addressed. Um and as we've said in the the last

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meeting, we do want to um improve the opportunities for professional development, particularly with our uh largely veteran staff and um to begin to transition to um um

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better um u more rigorous instructional materials. um align with Desi's goals for highquality instruction materials. So that that was kind of our guidance as we entered into this. We can go to the next

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slide. Um this is um I think I think Noel's going to uh take over from here. >> Yes, Jerry. Thank you so much um for that early part. Thank you everyone for

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coming in today. Um, so right now we're going to sort of just give a quick review of where we were on April 6 of 2026 and where we currently are on uh May 12th of 2026.

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So um in our first presentation as we gave um the overall base u budget increase was $7.4 million. In this presentation today, um we'll be showing you how we got to a overall base

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budget increase of $4 million with um with some a identified savings and and b um just being um what I thought was fiscally responsible with some of our revenue accounts and showing how we're going to get um to these

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numbers and and take it from there. So, if we go to the next slide, please. So, um over the next 10 slides, we'll be talking about um how we got to the $3.3 million in net reduction.

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On slide six, um we have uh deferrals proposals to fiscal year 2028. We've um identified alternative sources of revenue, reduced requested um new or increased spending proposals,

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and uh some staff reductions uh which will ultimately bring us to $3.3 million in budget changes. On slide seven here, we refer to first as the deferral proposals of fiscal year 2028.

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Um we had originally were talking about bringing uh removing the last of the paras from uh from before and after school revolving to the general fund. Um we'll be leaving those paras who work for the before and after school program. We'll be leaving them on the revolving fund

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for next fiscal year. We spoke briefly about um the reallocation of our community service director, athletic director and his administrative assistant and moving their salaries over to the to the general fund. Um we'll be keeping those

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in revenue fund. We'll be keeping those in revenue funded accounts. Uh but we'll be dividing them up in a few into a few different revenue accounts um to make sure that those that the specific community schools and athletics don't take too big of a hit. um the position that we've had vacant,

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the technology and network director for fiscal year 27 for fiscal year 26. Uh we will not be adding it to that budget and hopefully we'll be looking to present it in fiscal year 28. We're going to defer the increase in substitute teachers line

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and defer a portion of the increase of our contracted maintenance um for for our facilities department. on slide eight um as we were referring to earlier um alternative um sources of

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revenue which we identified just over 1.5 million. We're going to charge um certain current transportation special education um contracts to our circuit breaker. Remove capital maintenance projects in

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favor of a free cash proposal through the city. Uh we have a revenue homeless transportation reimbursement account in which we'll be we'll be moving all of fiscal year 27 um homeless transportation budget onto that revenue account line.

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Um our vocational transportation will be charged to our vocational tuition revolving fund. funding from the middle school robotics curriculum. Um it will now be state grant funded through earmark funding and uh we'll be shifting general funding

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portion of the cityear program to available um state state and federal grants. On slide nine we have here um some free cash requests we'll be making with the city working with uh myself, Ken Lord and Gerald

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McHugh with the guidance and superintendent. We have the Roberts hot water tank replacement at 250,000. Um extraordinary maintenance funding to address um the facilities condition assessments we did with Habib asking 75,000 the interactive panels for the

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classrooms and the defibrill replacements which came in at just over $500,000. On slide 10 here we have our reduced um increase of spending request.

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So the yellow bus uh that we added in fiscal year 26 which was the late high school bus um due to low ridership will not be budgeted in fiscal year 27. However, we will be looking to see if we will need to add it later on in the year depending on um both the demand and the

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request by the high school students. We uh reduced our proposal for new professional development and professional development supplies um spending by a third of the original request. We're going to hold on adding the art and computer teachers at the high

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school. Um, and also we'll also by not adding a computer teacher, um, we'll also be saving approximately $25,000 and not having to create a third computer lab. With a current, um, vacant custodian position, we'll be shifting that in

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favor of adding um, a maintenance position. So, be a fourth maintenance position. We currently have a custodian who's been out on workers comp, which has been funded through the general fund. Um we believe that that position um next year will be ultimate has been

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filled in and ultimately um the the position the the employee who won workers comp would not be filled in. And then uh the new EL teacher which was requested at the middle school for pull out um won't be funded. We'll be working with the EL director Chelsea to

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reorganize um her staff properly. on slide 11. Um over at the Brook School, we'll be reducing um one kindergarten teacher and a parah uh one um sorry, at the Brook School, we

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we'll be we'll be um reducing one grade four teacher to manage class sizes. And at the Roberts, we'll be we'll be reducing a kindergarten and a parah uh teacher due to enrollment and a grade four teacher again.

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And the missuck will be reducing one kindergarten teacher. Um but teach the the teacher will be moved to a grade one classroom as we will need a grade one classroom due to all the kindergarten students moving up. Um the par the para position that is normally with that

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kindergarten teacher at the muck will not be funded. Um staff reduction will be will be achieved through retirements or transfer to vacant positions as there are a few vacant positions right now in in uh in some of our schools. There is currently a vacant um student

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support assistant which will not be we will not be um funding or hiring anyone in that position. And the same with uh inclusion specialists um which is currently vacant. We're going to um for fiscal year 27 be eliminating that

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position not funding it. So you'll see here on slide 12 um with these reductions in staff, you still see that our uh proposal for the average class sizes through K25 are still very healthy. They still stay under the the

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CBA requirements for the Brooks, the McGlin Elementary, the Missuck, and the Roberts. And then on slide 13 again um just a a very nice clean um summary of what uh will be coming up

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next in which um Jerry will be um speaking about. Okay. Thank you Noel. Uh so we want to tell you what has uh survived and is still in our budget proposal.

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Can go to the next slide. Um well I guess before we do that um well this this is a this is a summary of what's in the budget proposal are salary increases

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are um some required special ed spending that we've discussed uh in prior meetings. Um, a lot of this happened in in FY26 and is uh annualized

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uh in 27 added to the budget. other uh increases in the facilities uh particularly the cleaning contract which um created a $200,000 budget um hit in FY27

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along with uh utilities um some technology uh required spending etc. um our revised um schoolbased spending is now $360,000

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and our facilities um request is uh now $109,000. Um as part of this process from April 6 to to today, we we were able to increase

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uh identified savings by $575,000. And that gets us down to a budget increase of uh almost 4.1 million. Uh and as we said the um CBA and other salary um requirements for

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next year uh cost of that is two 2.784. Um next slide. And then then uh this is um kind of the category of spending that we we uh you know we can't postpone or redirect or eliminate. Uh we had two

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teachers at Curtis Tus that we were charging to a revolving fund um that had become inactive but we were using the fund balance for as long as we could. those teachers have to be transferred to

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the general fund in FY27. Uh we talked about uh eight um 101 PAR professionals that we required to add to the budget in FY26

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uh due to um moveins that had IEPs that uh had that one-on-one requirement. We uh also in FY26, we had to create a second access program uh classroom uh at

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the McGllin Elementary. Um and that has to be uh fixed in the budget in FY27. And then we have to add an FY27 and access program that had previously been combined

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uh with another program at the McGlin Middle uh because enrollment was low, but enrollment is increasing now and we have to go back to uh two separate programs. And um we we have a um about 22 students

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uh projected to be in our project transition group. That's our u uh special needs students that are in postgraduate program until they reach the age 22. Uh there's one teacher in

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that program now, but with 22 students, it's requiring us to add a second teacher. Um we uh be we anticipate that more students will be participating in

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extended year programming uh this year where we're where uh the these that those uh funds will be added in 27. We also had to add two paras, one at the Brooklyn Elementary, one at the Roberts.

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Um, based on the student needs in particular classrooms, um, we are adding a grade one teacher at the MSTuck. uh due to class size considerations. Um we have to fully fund the cleaning

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con contract for the McGlin compacts in the high school. Uh we expect uh heat and electricity cost to increase by close to $200,000. Uh we also know from um the trending of

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the last three years that our custodial supplies uh need to increase uh to meet the needs of our schools. Uh we have to replace a virtualization server that's uh integral to our our network. Um,

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we uh were able to fund a new electronic health record software for our health services uh program uh from a school health grant in 26, but we must um pick that up in 27. It's no longer eligible

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for that grant. And then uh based on uh trend analysis, our unemployment account has increased for the last couple of years, but the expenses have increased uh in that um

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account. uh for school-based um spending. We are still proposing that we create a full-time position uh in the music uh department. Currently, we have a 6 elementary band

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teacher and we're proposing to make that full-time so that teacher can uh provide elective options um in the afternoon at the high school. um a translator at the

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McGlin. Um we we do not have uh a translator for Portuguese uh translations currently. Uh and that's a a high demand and we're recommending that that position be added uh in uh 27.

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Um, it's possible that there could be some savings with contractual translations, but we'll have to um wait and see if we can um make those adjustments next year. Um,

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we do want to fund uh a new middle school ELA curriculum. Uh, one a uh a formal curriculum program does not exist currently in the middle schools. And um it's highly recommended that we

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move in that direction and that will be uh the selection of that um new curriculum will be based on uh a team that will be put together over the summer for next year. Um we talked about the fact that we want to

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increase spending uh for professional development and high quality uh school materials. Um, we also proposing an adjustment to the athletic program. This this has been since I've

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been here, this is um something that um, you know, we we we're not on solid ground with that budget. This proposal right sizes this budget. It also uh fully funds the coaches stipens that

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were negotiated in the new uh CBA. Um the transportation addresses a problem where the middle school sports transportation uh was never in the budget. So that is now with

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some additional funds uh for rate increases next year. and other expenses that just had to be right sized. We also created a budget for the revolving fund uh to make sure

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that um that was being used to you know effectively to support the athletic program. And then um we're providing a little bit of money uh for the Curtis Tus to have a graduation ceremony

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uh which is um a great idea and well worth it. Continuing with school-based spending, we do want to increase the amount of money we provide for band transportation so the band can attend more competitions

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next year. We um also are uh need to fully fund our uh NWIA MAP assessment application. Um and then we uh have been utilizing

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this uh student performance management platform from open open architects this year uh on a trial basis. It's very well received by our um administrative staff. Uh

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and um we're proposing that we uh start uh funding that. It's about $21,000 a year. Um and then uh provide a more robust content pro uh

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protection platform for our uh network and that's uh for student safety. And then for um facilities technology um we're um we

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have been funding a uh custodian um who is on a long-term disability uh with no um prospect of returning to work um

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that we can um we will not fund that position. So we can add a fourth carpenter to the um the maintenance crew. Um we we still maintain our um our

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contractual minimums in the custodian contract. Um we've reduced the contracted maintenance requests by $100,000. So, we're still uh looking to increase that those accounts by about

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100 um $80,000. Uh small amount of money for equipment repairs just to rightsize that budget. And then upgrading our cyber security package will cost uh about $41,000.

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So, um, this slide just it kind of is a recap of the savings we had previously identified to get to $490,000 worth of savings. And then in this second exercise, we've been able to

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increase budget savings by $575,000 to get to uh uh a savings of over a million uh to fund some of our proposals. And next slide.

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Next slide. Okay. And I'm going to turn it over to Noel right now. >> Thank you, Jerry, for that. And our last few slides here, we're just going to review over um where we started our budget last year. If you can go to slide 26, please.

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So, in fiscal year 26, we started off with a general fund of 85,490,000. Of course, we have our um stabilization fund that'll be coming in at just over 1 million, which puts our total appropriation base budget for fiscal

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year 26 for Medford public schools at 86,575,549. We are asking we are proposing for an appropriation increase in budget savings of 4,96,649 which comes out to a total U base budget of 90,683,398

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which we're hoping which we're believe will be funded through u through fiscal year 27 appropriation general fund of 89,933,39 98 and our stabilization fund that we would

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then add in at 7 $750,000. On slide 27, um the city's general fund budget target um is 87,750,000. The metro public schools um preliminary budget recommendation for the general

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fund is 89,933,398 which comes out to a variance difference of $2,83,398. Um while we understand this is a budget gap, um here are a few things we will continue to keep reviewing in absence of being fully funded.

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um reviewing staffing needs at for the high school schedule in fiscal year 27. Um there's the special education par profofessional staffing regarding making sure that we are being compliant and

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using our staff um properly and making sure our classrooms have every uh professional professional par that they need par professional they need to meet all the needs of special education. um new spending proposals that Gerald uh just spoke about earlier. We have to

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review those and a base budget for additional saving opportunities. Just reviewing those overall. And then on slide 29, >> oh sorry J. >> Um so um this proposal would require uh

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three votes from the school committee. one to uh for our general fund appropriation. Uh the second for the stabilization fund transfer

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and the third would be uh a request uh from free cash for uh the maintenance and capital improvement needs that that are identified.

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And uh that uh I believe concludes our presentation. So we can open it up to questions. Member Graham and then member Russo. >> Thank you for this. Uh it was super clear and easy to follow. Um I had two

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questions about reductions that have been made since we last talked. One is about the inclusion specialist and the other is about the network director. Um the inclusion specialist is a role that we explicitly added with the

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supplemental um money from the override and specifically was done in conversation with um parents of our special ed our special education students. Um and I think they've been anxiously awaiting for that role to be

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filled. Um so and it's been a very long time but I don't think the need is going away. And I think in fact they would tell you if you asked them today that there's even more need than there's ever been for that kind of a role particularly with the growth in the project transitions um piece and then

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the network um director role that's not being filled. Like I'm super concerned about that because I feel like Ken runs around on roller skates all day long every day and he can't keep doing that if we want him to come to work. So

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every day um and so how are we going to address not filling that role? Ken, I don't know if you want to start. I do know just if to address the um inclusion specialist, it is not that it is not a priority. It 100% is a

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priority. Um Joan Bowen may want to chime in, but I do know it's been tremendously difficult to fill. there have been several kind of iterations of interviews and haven't been successful in finding someone. So part of this was

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maybe taking like a collective thoughtful pause to see if there's a way we could be reooking at the job description and um maybe how we're posting for the position because it's been very

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challenging to try and fill. Um, like I said, there may be more that Joan wants to chime in. And I know Ken can speak to, um, the network position. We're just, um, repurposing a few things this year. >> So, uh, we've just recently hired a new

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network administrator that's going to start July 1. Our network technician has been on a medical leave. So, both of those, um, staff members will be back on board soon and a new person July 1. and we're going to re-evaluate how we're managing the department once we're fully staffed again. Um, part of the roller

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skate routine right now is uh there are a lot of people out of medical leave right now. So, >> member Russo >> and thank you. Um, a few questions, but one is a request. Um, and I don't know

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if we've asked for this before, but we should have, and I don't think we actually have. I I would like the there to be an appendix to the budget that gets published with the budget. It's not a separate document that somebody has to find that lists every single and there's

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four columns I want on that. Um, the amount position. These are for people that were sticking on revolving accounts that really should be in our actual budget. I want the amount of each position, how much money it is, the position title, which

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revolving is covering it and also where in the budget would it be if it was not in fact being sidelined out of the budget. Um, and then a total at the bottom of that page. Um because you know I know I've been on this, Jenny's been

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on this, Member Grant's been on this for years about the transparency of our budgets and um as we face the un unattractive idea of just getting rid of a whole bunch of staff or putting them onto this secret pile of money, which

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isn't a secret, but it's not in the budget. Um, so when somebody is new, whether they're in the public or the next school committee member, they're going to look at the budget number, and they're going to look at the year-over-year, and they're going to think, "We got a certain percent increase." And

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that's a fiction. That is not what it costs to operate the district. Um, and you know, I've done this for all the budgets going back to the 80s, but do you think I have a clue how much of all of the people that worked in the district were really not even on the budget? Of course I don't. There's no

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way to ever know. Um, and so I think going forward it would make sense that every budget include a very explicit list of every single position we are not including in the budget and how we're paying for them and where they should have been. Also like you know when there's turnover in central office or

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you're every year you don't have to like figure out who's there. You could look at that. Um, so that is that is a request. I don't feel like I need a motion because I feel like you all would do that. Um, >> yeah. We can easily do that.

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>> Thank you. Um and then um I have sort of a question about athletics. So the athletics line item includes things that aren't athletics like band, right? It's >> Yeah. Um

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band is is separate. BA band is is uh budgeted for in the fine arts program. Um, >> and then athletics is strictly athletics. >> Okay. Okay. So, when the band's going

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off to do their competitions and we're paying for buses, that's coming out of the fine arts or is that coming out? >> They have a line item in that budget for band transportation. >> Okay, great. And, um, I know that Rob,

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our new athletics director, has a very large amount of work to do. Um um is there going to be or can we see at some point when it's ready? I'm guessing it's not ready yet, a line item how the athletics

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budget is going to get spent um you know per sport. One of the things I've been asking for since I got elected was I want to know on a per pupil basis, how much are we spending other than academics on a per people basis? Um, and I understand that ask was not possible

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because this stuff wasn't even in spreadsheets and a lot of it wasn't in actual there was no budget. It was just somebody would ask to get reimbursed for something on a support a sport and we would just write them a check. Um, and u so that makes it impossible to get that

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kind of information. So, I'm hoping we're getting closer to the ability to actually see that and then really get a sense of like what sports are we um over prioritizing from a financial perspective at the expense frankly of

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kids in all the other activities. Um because I I find it hard to imagine that without that actually being laid out and well understood, there's no chance that it accidentally comes out to be equitable. like that's not it's not how math works when nobody knows what's

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going on in that area. So, um is there a time when we think we would have a line item budget for how athletics is going to spend their money? >> So, I do I I do know that Rob has been working on that. Um I think the the challenging part of his transition this

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year is the exorbitant amount of time spent on community schools and so that balance is there. But I know this has come up uh throughout the year and so he has been working on those price points. I would also say just in full

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transparency that we're not really collecting a lot of user fees for participation in sports um and clubs. And I know that that can be a double-edged sword. Um, but that is also

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an area that we're kind of looking into to make sure we have accurate recordkeeping and data um that just wasn't there before. >> Great. Thank you. And I have one last question and I'll let my colleagues go. Um,

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without having a I mean in the past and I just mean like last year, not not in the 70s. Um, we have have we been transferring money into cover the athletics going in the red and where do we get that money from? Do we just take

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it from other revolving accounts? No, that um the athletic revolving fund uh has to the best of my recollection has had uh positive balances at the end of the

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year. >> Okay. >> So, um >> yeah. So, usually the the way we run it is um the athletic department first uses all their general fund budget and then once they're down once they've complete their general fund budget, we look and see how much we have in their revolving

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fund and then we kind of um expenditure that out for the rest of the year. >> Okay. So, that just sounds like another area where the actual budget doesn't reflect >> real spending. Yeah, >> that one sounds harder to figure out though.

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>> Yeah. in. But we did change that um mindset in 27 because we had we have specific line items that are going to be attached to the um revolving fund. So

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for instance, we don't have any site workers in our general fund budget because we've budgeted for those uh in the revolving fund and certain equipment. So for instance, what what often comes up is like what happens if

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we go into postseason in certain sports or we're the champion in certain sports. And so there's extra expenses usually attached to that. We're budgeting those in the revolving fund. Um and then of course we don't we try to make an

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estimate of how much we're going to collect and we try to budget less than that um in the revolving fund. So we we want um the accuracy that you're talking about and we don't want the revolving

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fund to be used as kind of a um petty cash account for the athletics and um so that's the direction we're moving in. >> Thank you so much. >> Yeah, >> member Rinfeld.

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>> Thank you. Sorry, first of all, I'm sorry I was late. I have this in my calendar for 6 PM. Um, so I apologize because I did miss uh some of the beginning. So I had a similar question to member Russo about the transportation

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um particularly through the arts program. I know our band has a lot of high needs in that area, but I know we're also trying to grow our theater program and send those folks to competitions and such. So, making sure that we're budgeting for that

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transportation on par with what we're doing for athletics. Um, and then my question was around the addition, the added art and computer teachers. Sounds like some of that computing is going to get rolled into the computer computing

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lab. But I just wanted to ask whether we're going to see be seeing a problem in not growing the arts program as we're trying to make the case with our new high school that now that we've made room in our schedule for arts, we need the facilities for the arts. And I know theater in particular was something that

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we've been looking at for as long as I've been on school committee and saying, "Yeah, someday we're going to we're going to get that theater teacher. We're going to build up the arts program." particularly once there's room for students to take this. And I know MSVA does not look kindly on a space for a program that isn't built up. And I think we've just kind of barely started

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rebuilding the theater program. And so I'm concerned about making that I guess it's not a cut, but not continuing that promise to grow the arts programs at the high school. So can you speak to that?

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>> Yes. Please know it's not a reflection of not promising to grow a program and what it is is just pausing as the high school is still continuing their student course selection work and the principal is having ongoing conversations with

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each department leader. I would say the preliminary um data does show that we don't need an additional computer tech teacher in order to fulfill the students course selections.

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Um that is not necessarily the case for the art teacher, but we are waiting just to finish I believe it's this week where students have to have their final selections in. And so we're just going to have a little bit more data for our

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for the next iteration of work. >> Okay? Because I know I know it can be a slow process to grow some of these programs and looking at what's what's being met by an afterchool need and what's being met by inschool need. And I know we experimented with some of the music programs and music electives and

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we saw some some really increased enrollments and some low enrollments. So, I just want to make sure we're we're keeping that at the forefront knowing that we are actively trying to build that program as we make the case for facilities that we need in a new high

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school. >> 100%. And I think this year with the new schedule, we saw a 300% increase in arts in course enrollments for both music and fine arts. As you know, we've had a

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little bit of a stumbling block trying to grow. to your point the drama program. So one of the things that principal cabraw has been trying to do is be creative in like a grassroots effort to tr with the of course the partnership with director Suzanne Fee in

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trying to grow that base um through the humanities department and in collaboration with Dr. Kaza. So that I know they were looking at um a dramatic literature class to try and hopefully kind of build numbers that way um so

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that we would have a little bit more success in fiscal year 28 really bringing in a dedicated uh theater position because that >> Yeah, that's something that that that was going to be one of my suggestions for and then also doing things like that around the challenge courses at the

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middle school to build the pipeline, not just wait till high school to get Um, and also even looking creatively at things like our athletics department and do we offer dance class? You could see a m I could see a musical theater class or just movement in general. So I think

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that that's a really important case to make. So thank you for laying that out. >> Thank you. >> Member Master Bony. >> Thank you. Um, a couple quick questions. First, uh, thank you for the hard work,

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um, to the SPS team. Um, you identified, uh, just over half a million dollars of capital projects to send, um, to the mayor and city council for, uh, free cash, uh, appropriation. Has there been discussion with um, the administration

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um, and agreement on on getting that in and approved? >> Um, there's been no discussion to date. Um this kind of evolved out of our effort to reduce the budget as much as

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we could. Um in the past um the city has um provided us with u some free cash appropriations. Um you know in in in return for kind of not

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funding fully uh what our request has been. So, we thought it might be good for us to um specifically lay out what we might want to um see in that free cash proposal. Um and that um you know

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that that helped us um get our overall spending increase down by shifting those expenses on to a alternative revenue source. >> Thank you. I guess um for me the the risk of that free cash approval

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getting submitted by submitted by the mayor and approved by the city council, you know, the risk of that going through or not going through is very low, but it's not zero. So, I would love to know that, you know, that's something that we can count on. >> Yeah. >> Um

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so, second of three, is there anything you can share? Um and maybe this is I think this is probably for Superintendent Kooi. Is there anything you can share for us about the approach? Um this I mean this budget to me is um you know well below level service um

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which is is is not not great. Um but you've made reductions in staffing and in supplies and services ordinary maintenance alliance. Um like my understanding is the most important driver for student success is like having adults in the room with them and and keeping our staffing high. like what

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was the philosophy that you had in choosing which of these reductions? I think like there was mention of it a little bit at the beginning but like specifically in terms of why positions uh why a combination of positions and ordinary maintenance and not one or the other. Um

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I'll I'll stop there. >> Yep. No, that's a great question. First of all, I do want to say we really have not um I don't want to say like cut positions every year at the elementary level. We do look at enrollment and as we know

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from year to year enrollment shifts and so you have bubbles that kind of move through grade levels. So that what you see there is just the same work that we do every year following enrollment trends. And so

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ironically what we saw last year was every single school needed an additional kindergarten. And some of those quite frankly did not necessarily materialize in terms of a need and we did see a lot of low

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enrollment at kindergarten. Right now our enrollment for the incoming class of kindergarten is much lower than we have typically seen um in the past couple years. And so looking at

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that as well as the census data, what we see right now is the Brooks would need to maintain that additional fifth grade kindergarten. The other three elementary schools would not. One of the conversations we did have and I have

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been watching um the population of the missuck is also ever changing um with each year and they are kind of growing a more farther apart um

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from the socioeconomic um area that they were in. And so that is one thing that we are watching in terms of the eligibility quite honestly for title one. Um I did mention it at a meeting before the um president has also

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changed there's a shift in how we're qualifying the poverty level and so we are starting to see that that is impacting um the community of the Mesatuck. it is not impacting the community of the McGllin

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and that continues to be our neediest um school, our neediest population. And as such, that is a school where we prioritized having lower class sizes maybe than we

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have at like the Brooks um or the Roberts. However, all of our class sizes, as you could see on the slide that Mr. Q um projected are still well below CBA limits. Um all of them are below an average of 20 students per

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class and our CBA limits are um 21 or 22 24 25 as you go up in the grades. So it's really not that we are cutting teachers. We're just looking at enrollment. And that is also what is

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happening at every level as we're looking at um student selection and student assignment from level to level. Did that answer your question, Folio? Were there other positions that you were curious about? >> That helps. I mean, there was the

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inclusion specialist and the student support assistant, right? But, you know, I I hear I hear what you're saying. Um my last question and and something I said a minute ago is um you know I I want to hear or I want I I was wondering what the like trying to ask about the

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plan um because in in terms of getting getting us fully funded um we still have a gap of $2 million between um the budget that that is being shared with us and the um the resources that we've been assigned from um from

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the mayor uh at this time. Um I want to understand what work is being done to either identify additional re general fund revenue or get um uh additional resources to meet this um so we don't get into um you know an even further cut

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situation. Um you know this all you know there's sort of three levels. There's there's the lowest amount of resources right now which is what what's been provided to us. um this this reduced version of a budget, but there's also, you know, the budget that we envision um for the district, right,

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which is something that we can't even conceive of at this point because we're we're really limited. Um just trying to understand, you know, how we get from where we're at tonight to um the resources we need to fund at least this budget. >> I do want

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um Jerry to to kind of chime in on that, but I do want to just address two pieces. one, I think it is important, especially for people listening, the SSA position, the student support position, was a position that was put in during the pandemic,

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during COVID, and it was a position, correct me if I'm wrong, what is it, 19 hours a week? >> It's it was one of those positions that was put in as almost like a flexible position to support with lunch, maybe to

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support in classrooms. It was 19 hours. >> Yes. During COVID, 19 hours a week >> and we've just phased them out. We did not cut them. The last SSA has moved on from the district and we're not filling

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those positions anymore. As we move away from COVID, we still have um instructional leads almost like what you would refer to as like a building sub positions in every building. We have par profofessional positions in every building. We just aren't filling those

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COVID positions that were created. And the other piece that I would just um what was the second piece he had asked? Oh, I forgot. I'm so sorry. What was the other piece you had asked? Because I did want to comment on that. I think I think

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the important question for me is, you know, what what work have you done with the mayor and and her team um to to to identify how we're going to deal with this last $2 million? I would I'm really not interested in that coming from further reductions to the school budget.

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>> Yeah. Uh well um on once the uh budget gets finalized, it will be sent to the mayor's office and we're certainly open to um discussions on how to get um this

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gap closed. Um I would note that the new charter um requires such a discussion much earlier in the process which I think is a great uh improvement to the current process. Um so that we can kind

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of collaboratively so so we we have an opportunity to kind of to have the the city folks understand some of the things we're up against. Um and and the big thing for me this year is that we just have all this um

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special education and facility spending that is just locked in almost $2 million. And um you know if it wasn't for that we'd be we'd be right where we needed to be. But um hopefully this is kind of a aberration and not uh a

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regular feature of the budget. Um, I will say that, you know, we we have had um a few discussions with the city and of course they have their own uh financial pressures that they're dealing with. um

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what we're recommending tonight, we believe is, you know, our um best efforts to kind of recognize those limitations as well as making sure that, you know, we're meeting the needs of our

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students. Um, we do still have uh some work to do with the high school schedule that might not result in any savings, but it it could allow us to go forward

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with that arts position that we want or uh it could provide some other savings um once we understand uh the number of teachers we're going to need to meet the needs of the high school students next Yeah, same thing

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with the par professionals. Um that the that staff um really has to be managed every every year in terms of budget. uh because um as we've talked

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about for this budget uh sometimes we add uh staff to support the particular needs of a a a student or groups of students but then uh those needs could change in the subsequent year. you have

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to kind of look uh at each year separately to make sure you have uh the number of staff that that you really need to to support our students. Um there's really not that much more wiggle

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room we have um to shift positions around. I think what we did um this goround is we we kind of did a combination of reducing our requests that we got from uh

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principles and directors by a little bit but still tried to maintain uh some of what they asked. And then we we looked at the base budget um and we were able to um mi with managing uh class sizes we

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were able to uh squeeze out some positions there. Um but you know most you know and I I think the city is also um

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has has indicated although I don't know what the number is that they might be in a position to increase their um appropriation uh by a certain amount. Um, but I think

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whatever gap that's left over, um, to be honest, is is going to, um, have to come from the base budget. >> Yeah, that's what I'm really worried about. >> So, thank you.

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>> Um, I just from me, um, this is Mayor Brianna. I think Jerry's right. Um, our city staff has had a meeting with the school department. I think it was early last week to see where we at. We were at and we have checked in. Um,

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myself and my chief of staff are working through line item by line item, one department at a time. We're probably halfway through and we're trying to cut cityside budgets as much as we can. Um, but I think in the end there's going to

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be some more money we can give to the schools. We also have the Medford Family Network that we everybody's very worried about and that's not inexpensive. That's 240,000 in itself. So, I think you're going to

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have some pot of money, but it's not going to be anywhere close to the 2 million. So, I think there's going to be some work that my chief of staff and I continue to do. um some work based on the new the new data and enrollment trends and whatever the school department can do to reduce that $2

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million gap. Um but there's going to have the cuts on the city side. I'm going to have to make cuts on the city side and I'm assuming we're going to be in the same boat on the school side as every city and town and district is is going through this because on the city side we do have the health insurance

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that went up approximately 10% and we are covering the new debt that has come online for the HVAC work being done at the Andrews and McGlin. So costs are rising and cities and towns are struggling. Um I know I know um

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Brookline just did a 24 million override I think the biggest in state's history. So this is not uncommon all over and I just hope we can work together school and city side to continue to whittle that down um so we can close that gap.

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Member Rousel I just wanted to um comment on how amazing the student art show was at the arts collaborative. It was incredible. Um and um not for the first time. The arts collaborative is

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entirely too small um for our needs. Um, the business in the back had to tow people because they were taking up their parking and I look forward to having a much bigger space to showcase our students. Um, but it was

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incredible. I've been to this event before and this year was a shocking increase in the volume of art. I I don't want to say it was better art because I mean I first of all I'm not a critic but

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also I wouldn't want to compare it to last year's art but there was so much more art. It was really amazing and I wanted to congratulate the district and the students and and um also the voters for passing the override cuz that new

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schedule allowed for there to be so many more people participating. So that's what our and it's still I believe open if you want to go see it. Um, I think it's running for a week or two and it's definitely worth your time. Thank you.

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>> Thank you. >> Is it okay if I ask a couple questions and make a motion? >> Yes, member Graham. Um I also went to the art show and um the one of the teachers said this is

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what the override did. It's true when you invest it's visible in schools. And so it was like really just lovely and nice to hear that the community understands that the investment that they made is visible in

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lots of ways across the district. Um and it's also like incredible to hear that from teachers. Like I know we had lots and lots of negotiations with our teachers last year and we asked them to step up and do more than they've ever done before. And um the art show was a

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good example of what happens when you invest. So I couldn't agree more that that was um just a really nice way to end what was otherwise kind of a rough week for me last week and busy. So uh it it was delightful. Um Jerry, I was

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hoping you could pull up this slide with your three asks on it >> so that we can all see it. >> Yeah. Um Will is controlling the slides and uh it was it's the last slide Will

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>> and then I guess I would say for those people watching and for um Mike and Jessica because they're new like it's it's not unusual for like part of our process by design is to tell the community what we need. I would call

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this like hybrid of what we need. So we we laid out what we needed before, but our request to the m municipality is really intended to be about what Medford public schools needs. And then if there is um a difference between that number

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and the allocation that the city is able to provide to education, then we take a second vote that presents like a balanced budget. But in in the past, all of that happened in one fell swoop. And what we lost was all the

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conversation about what we need and cannot fund. And so I I would agree with the characterization that this is like not quite level service. It's pretty close, I guess. Um but it certainly isn't um it isn't what anybody is

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particularly happy with. So um having said that, like I fully support what the superintendent has put forward. Um, and I would like to make a motion that we accept all three of these recommendations. Um, and that if um, funding allows that

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we will reinstate that inclusion specialist position ASAP. Um, I am expecting upset phone calls already because I know that that position and what its potential is means a lot to our

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families. So, um, the motion is to accept these three recommendations and to prioritize the reinstatement of the inclusion specialist as soon as the budget allows. >> Second. >> I'm going to abstain from the vote. Um, I'm sure you all understand why as I

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struggle to try to balance the full overall city and school budget. Um, but please call the role. >> Member Graham. Yes. >> Member Master Bony. >> Yes. >> Member Oliv. >> Yes. >> Member Park.

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>> Yes. >> Member Rankinfel. >> Yes. >> Member Russo. Yes. Marilyn Gokern abstaining. >> Six in the affirmative. One abstaining. Is there a motion to adjurnn? >> Motion to adjurnn.

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>> Or second. >> Roll call, please. >> Who Who was the two? I'm sorry. It was me and Erica. >> Okay. Thank you. Member Graham. >> Yes. >> Member Maserbone. >> Yes. >> Member Olady.

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>> Yes. >> Member Parks. >> Yes. >> Member Radfeld. >> Yes. >> Member Russo. Yes. expand.