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

NOTE
MEETING SECTIONS:

Part 1 (Video ID: EjtsRlYWvPM):
- 00:00:53: Opening Music and Introduction to Budget Workshop
- 00:15:59: Call to Order, Roll Call, and Agenda Acceptance
- 00:17:24: Public Comment: Kristen Maxwell on Budget Crisis
- 00:20:44: Proposed Budget Discussion: Superintendent's Initial Reductions
- 00:23:31: Detailed Financial Overview and Cost-Saving Challenges
- 00:26:29: Discussion of CTE Supervisor and Broadcasting Teacher Roles
- 00:28:53: Restoring Bookkeeper and Special Ed Secretary Positions
- 00:32:23: Kindergarten Numbers, Consolidation, and Busing Costs
- 00:37:07: Sports Fees, Structural Reforms, and Out-of-District Tuition
- 00:41:20: Chromebooks, Constellations, and Redistricting Conversations
- 00:51:19: Seperate Investments; Sports Fees; Preschool and Kindergarten
- 01:01:59: Athletics Programs; Rangers Club; Structural Health-Care Reforms
- 01:16:11: Preschool, Increased Class Sizes, Virtual Teachers, Options Discussion
- 01:30:55: Virtual Academies, Financial Audit, and Solar Panels
- 01:38:37: Union Concessions, Budget Votes, and Future Negotiations
- 01:40:18: High School Job Fair, Scholarship Foundation, and Adjournment


Part: 1

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[music] [music] [music] [music] [music] [music] [music] [music] [music] [music] [music] [music] [music] [music] [music]

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[music] [music] [music] [music] [music] [music] [music] [music] [music] [music] [music] Heat. Heat. [music] >> [music] >> Good evening. At this time, I'll call

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tonight's budget workshop session of the Mthuman School Committee to order. The date is Thursday, April 30th, 2026. Uh, I'll ask member Donovan to call the role. >> Present. >> Let's start again. Member Keegan present. Member Soy

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>> present. >> Member Wulette. >> Yeah. >> Member Daglio >> here. >> Mayor Borugard >> here. Mayor um mayor I called I gave myself a promotion. Member Donovan is here. >> Member Bayz

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>> present. >> All are accounted for. Uh let's have a motion and a second to accept the agenda. >> Second. >> Motion from the vice chair. Second is from member sus. Any discussion? >> Not we will vote. All those in favor? Opposed?

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>> The eyes have it. And we'll now rise for the flag salute. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, with liberty, with liberty

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and justice for all. [snorts] >> First up on the agenda is public participation. Is there anyone in the audience who wishes to speak? >> All right. Uh we did receive written correspondence that the vice chair will read. >> Yes, this is from Kristen Maxwell, 5

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East uh Prospect Street. Good evening, school committee members. Dr. Gopski, let's stop pretending this budget crisis came out of nowhere because it didn't. I've been raising concerns about spending and money allocation in the district for years. I

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went through warrants line by line, asked questions, and flagged things that didn't add up. Those concerns were dismissed then and now. We're seeing the consequences. I'm going to say the quiet part out loud. The problem isn't just the numbers. It's the culture. When

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someone asks tough questions here, they don't get answers. They get pushed out, ignored, sidelined, or attacked. I experienced that firsthand. I was publicly attacked by a current member of this committee and not one person except Ken and had anything to say about it or

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stepped in. That silence speaks volumes. Now we're here and the reality is you don't have the luxury of protecting everything or everyone anymore. You have to make choices and those choices should be based on what actually matters for

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kids. Right now you have 25 to 30 students in a classroom and call it acceptable. It's not. Students aren't learning. Teachers aren't teaching. They're managing chaos just to get through the day. They're surviving with little to no support. That is not an

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education system. Cut everything before you cut one general education or special education teacher. Preschool and full day kindergarten are not state mandates. Make them tuitionbased if necessary. Make extracurriculars pay to play. And I

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say that as a sports mom and a fine arts mom. I know those programs matter and I support them. But if we're choosing between programs and classroom teachers, the answers should be obvious and not up for debate. If we need to make hard changes, then let's actually do it.

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Streamline leadership. One principal per building with the dean for support, one main secretary. Consolidate departments like payroll, HR, and IT. Bring back Chris Lane for that. Charge appropriately for programs like Rangers Club. Stop renting out school facilities

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for free or at reduced rates to friends. Ask the city to install sidewalks so kids within a mile can safely walk to school. That's a real solution that could reduce transportation costs. I don't claim to have every answer, but I do know this. Before you cut one

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teacher, you need to exhaust every other option. We can't afford to lose them. You've asked for ideas, so there are a few. That's only the beginning. I have more. I've given suggestions every time I've been asked. Stop protecting structures and start protecting

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students. Will it be hard? Yes. Will it require change? Absolutely. But counting down this path is failing our kids. They deserve smaller class sizes. They deserve access to teachers. They deserve adults that put their needs first. They

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deserve safe schools. and they deserve a system that prior prioritizes learning over everything else. Thank you. >> That'll do it for public participation. Uh next on the agenda, we have fiscal year 27 proposed budget discussion. I'll

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pass it off to this acting superintendent. >> Thank you. Since we last met, which was just a few days ago, um our team at at central office has gone through again our proposed budget to

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look for additional areas of reduction and again revisited the the short list of requests that we had made for additional positions. Um so I did share with you a memo this evening that you should have at your seat. um where we

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show that we were able to come down approximately $12 million in reductions from where we had um proposed last workshop. So we are still at class sizes under 26.

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Um with these reductions, we have reduced program assistants, um 10 program assistants, five special education teachers, two school psychologists, two counselors, an Excel teacher, um a tech staff member, and the

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director of of health services. And we also did reduce three ETFs. Those were interim positions at the grammar schools to assist um with the compliance related work that the special education administrator needs to handle at those

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schools. For the additions and these we have calculated into our budget and we'll explain that in a bit. Um, we had added an Excel program assistant, one special education teacher,

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radio and TV broadcasting teacher and CTE supervisor, one BBE for special education, one bilingual liaison, two float nurses, one of whom will be paid through grant funding, and two special education

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administrators. So, I wanted to point out that the ETFs that had been intram the difference in um cost between someone in that position in the SCA is approximately $20,000. Um and we reduced the request for three

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special education administrators to two, figuring that we could house um one at one school and then we have two schools that would be able to share 0.5 for that secondary administrator. So overall, considering the reductions

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that I mentioned and those those listed additions, we have a net reduction of 2.3 million from our original proposed budget. And I'd like to pass it over to Mr. Goslin

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to provide more detail. >> Sure. Um, I do want to point out reducing those three ETFs um down to two seas did save about $100,000 districtwide. Um, we were uh a lot of our we had some

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programming in the special ed department where we're requesting teachers with program assistance. Um, we eliminate eliminated the new ones. We'll just have to shuffle the existing ones we have now. Um, so it's a net reduction of

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about 20 positions, but we'll be shuffling to make sure that those new programs or the programs we need are staffed appropriately. Um, so there's those. Um, we're in a tough situation. We need to know where to go next. Um, we

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can't take the next step and go to 30. Nothing we do is going to be popular, obviously. Um, and our job between now and our next workshop would be to pick away some more. Um, if you want us to go to 30 per class, and I mean that's about

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another two $1.2 million that we could shave off of this. Um, I do want to point out that the original budget looked like it was I a $9 million increase or whatever. Please remember or a little bit more. It was probably 10. Please remember part of that is $3.2 2

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million less in state aid. So, I always back out the circuit breaker funds before you see your budget. Um, and last year we were able to back out $12 million in circuit breaker funds and this year we're at just under nine. So,

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I mean, we're not spending $12 million more. We're getting $3.2 million less. So, yes, there is a substantial increase, but it's not a $12 million increase in spending. So I just wanted to point that out >> and also Mr. Chairman too. It should be

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noted that the enrollment numbers are down. So that would reflect the chapter 70 monies too. Our enrollment numbers our enrollment numbers are down. So that also even our regular ed uh students. >> Our enrollment numbers are down slightly. Um but we did have an uptick

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in CTE which helped kind of balance off that decrease in chapter 70. So, um, remember CTE, we did a calculation, um, state aid for a CTE student is about

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$3,400 per kid. So, if we increase that program and get say we get another 100 kids into that program, that's $340,000 in added chapter 70 funds for next year. Um, so the CTE program kind of, you

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know, those positions kind of fund themselves and then some. So, I just want to bring some attention to that as well. >> Um, quick question about the CTE supervisor and the and the radio and TV broadcasting. I know that's money is back to us, but could that be part-time

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or could it be the same person doing all three positions? I mean, we're looking at I mean, a supervisor, could they be the one doing the radio and TV broadcasting? Like, >> I can give you my answer. Sure. It may not be

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>> Dr. Golovski who knows the ins and outs. >> Repeat that. >> Uh yeah, if you could repeat it, that'd be great. >> There's the radio and TV broadcasting teacher and the CTE supervisor. I know this is a grant funed uh thing in the long run. It's we're going to get the

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money next year to to fund this uh realistically, but could it be a part-time role and could it be potentially split those two roles into one person? potentially yes if that teacher also had

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the vocational administrator certification. So it's it's difficult to find teachers that have that vocational teaching certification in those specialties alone never mind also having the administrator certification.

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So, we're ideally seeking um a candidate who's administrator, appropriately licensed, but also has an eye for growing the program, adding additional programs, seeking grant funds, overseeing compliance, um bringing up students from the middle

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school. So, there's a lot to that. Um so, currently we have a lead teacher who um is one of our bio uh technology teachers who is also serving in as this oversight. Um, and on the record, I am

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the CTE administrator because I have the vocational lensure for that. So, what we're looking is to kind of grow the program. Is there a way we could also potentially do that as a stipen type of thing for

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for the part like instead of doing a supervisor role could it be a stipen that they are working not in the actual role but leading it and trying to grow it at the same time as a teacher level instead of an administrative role. So, so that

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would be the model we have now. Um, and that person is unable to evaluate the teachers. Um, has limited access to what they're able to view or oversee in terms of um, teacher performance and instruction.

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>> But yes, members So, the positions under the reductions, do those stay in the budget funded with $1 in case we get money and we can fill those positions or they just get wiped out of the budget and you would have to

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come back to school committee for any um >> the vast majority of them are wiped out of the budget. There are a couple like the health dire director of health services. Um I believe school psychologist um

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I believe those are the two that we did save for a dollar. >> Okay. And my other question is under additions at the last meeting. I I was um a little takenback by what we received. So I I didn't even think of it

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at the time. But I would like to see you to add uh see you add the um 0.5 bookkeeper and the 0.5 special ed secretary. Um I know we had asked assistant superintendent Bozac at a

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previous meeting if she could um do a part-time secretary as opposed to a full-time and she said yes she could. I know the busing for the special ed is overwhelming. It she's asked for that position for many many years. Um, and it's one of the ones that we just keep

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cutting, cutting, cutting. And this her secretary who probably does six other jobs does the busing as well. And it's a huge undertaking. Um, I'd like to see that added in. And I know, assistant Superintendent Goslin, you need a

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bookkeeper for your accounts receivable. Correct. >> Correct. >> I mean, that we have to fill that. And I mean, you're paying a sub right now to come in. It's going to cost what a part-time bookkeeper would cost. It's going to be the same amount of money.

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So, I'm not really sure why we're not going to that we can't add either one of those as a.5 instead of a um full position. >> Okay. I'm not going to disagree with you. I just I mean I'll take the we'll take the the council's or the school

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committee's recommendations and we'll go to it. I mean, at the end of the day, none of this is is good. >> No. you know, not I mean, anything on here isn't any more important than my 0.5 or any like >> Right. No, no, no. I understand that. But I'm just saying that those are two positions that if we cut them down to

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0.5s, then I mean, what do a combined maybe 60,000 for the two of them combined? >> Exactly. So, I think it would fill the two very needed positions because you're correct me if I'm wrong, but you're going to continue to have to have a

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substitute >> or I'm going to have to do it myself. >> Oh, yeah. Because we can add that to your plate. Yeah, exactly. That's Yeah, but I just would like the um school committee to think about adding those two positions back into um the

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additions. I think they're important and for what it would cost us, I I think it's worth putting those two back in. >> Is there anyone else who wishes to speak before we have a second round? Vice Chair,

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I think um we really got to get down to what we got to cut first. And um I got to get closer. Apparently, I'm not speaking loud enough in the mic. So, I apologize for those at home. What are the numbers for kindergarten so

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far? Have we looked at that? >> Yeah. Are we down? Are we seeing a spike up? Are we Where are we going right now? We originally had been trying to keep K through two

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um smaller than the than the max of 26. So kindergarten the way we project those numbers because as you know kindergarten enrollment just recently opened a few weeks ago is that we use the figures from this year and just assume it'll

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stay stagnant for next year. Um that is a bit of a risk because sometimes that does eb and flow between schools. Um, so I'm just going to look here. So right now between all four schools,

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we have a range of 17 to 22 >> and how many teachers per school? >> Well, that that's the difference. So, um, at the marsh right now, there would

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be four in K with if the numbers were the same, um, class size of 17. The struggle is there. If you eliminate one classroom, then there's three, and then the numbers shoot up. So when

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there's fewer to to spread the students among, it's sometimes harder to lose a position. >> What if we consolidated to two or three schools instead of all four kindergarten like we did with preschool? We moved it all to Branch Street.

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Is there [clears throat] a way that we could potentially consolidate kindergarten if the numbers are not going in the north? And I say that because the Tiffany and Tenny are busting at the seams. Population is also going to drop again

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at the CGS. Those numbers are going to go down again. And the marsh is still below average as well. Um the CGS right now is at 21. The Tim is at 22.

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The Tenny is at 19, but we've been seeing highest enrollment trends going there. So really, Marsh is the only one that's a bit low. So I don't think it would save too many classrooms. >> If we were to cut high school busing,

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what would that look like? >> It would cost us exactly the same. >> Be the same. >> Yes. Um our pricing for busing, whether it's one tier, two tiers. So say we just bus just lower school. Yeah. That's the same price as if we have them do three routes, lower, middle, and high school.

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So, cutting high school out, I'm still paying the exact same per per bus. Um, the majority of our buses are lower and middle school. 34 buses to be exact. High school only uses 22. So, it wouldn't cost us.

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>> It wouldn't change anything. >> Keep it. So, let's put that room to bed. We're not cutting buses >> and it doesn't Right. But we could charge >> high school. >> Yes. And um students who are free and

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reduced would >> would not pay um which reduces what we would collect and we really don't would have to add positions to the budget to facilitate chasing people down, collecting the money, monitoring who's paid, who's not

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paid. Um, I have reached out to, it was a couple years ago, I I reached out to Draco, who I know at the time, I don't know what they do now, but at the time they were charging $400 a student for busing. And I I think they said they brought in about $400,000 at the end of

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the day, and they had to have two full-time staff to collect it >> at at the be a starting job, though. That could be a clerk, >> right? The business administrator said, "If I were you, I'd stay away from it." Is what he said. at the time. Um, so

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yeah, it would bring in and Draco has way less low income than we do. >> They're also in a tight squeeze right now, too, if you've been paying attention. Anyone else? Um, and then what if we were to do sports?

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>> We're talking the same situation. >> Yeah, but we could put that on the coaches. We could put that that as a stipen for them. They would have to be in charge of making sure and and unfortunately the athletic director would have to figure it out too >> and only half of them would pay.

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>> We think only half would pay because of the free reduced lunch. You think we >> we're about 50% low income. I don't know the exact numbers off the top my head but >> um >> high school is more >> in my head are about 50 51%. So, we can't charge for sports and we

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can't charge for busing, but if we did do that, we would have to chase the money down and the effort might not be worth it because of the type of income we have in the community. Should we start putting tolls up around Methuan then? I mean, is that the other option? I mean, like I I just don't know

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what I'm throwing out ideas and it's not even worth the squeeze. So I I think something that would be helpful and and this is um an area that member Bayas has referenced. We've all I think been talking about I know this has been a part of the conversation at the finance

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subcommittee level. Uh we talk about the need for some structural reforms because the current way things are going is simply not sustainable. And so I want to dive a little bit into the conversation about constellations because we talk about these areas of the budget that are

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the main drivers of cost. And so of course there are contractual obligations that we have with the unions, but beyond that I guess the larger uh drivers are we talk about transportation but also special ed. and uh I reached out to uh

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Miss Bozac and I'm grateful to her for sending me the information about outofdist tuitions that we're looking at for fiscal year 27. Uh and as we saw last year, as we see every year, some of these outofd tuitions are outrageous.

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Absolutely outrageous. And so, uh, I want to, uh, throw the constellations topic out there because I think that that could be potentially if, let's say, it were to be followed through with the the logic where it'll

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bring some of these students back inhouse and not have to pay some of these tuitions. that could be an area where we are able to develop a little bit more of a sustainable situation in the context of special ed potentially. Now, there are some unknowns. Uh there's

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unknowns by way of uh whether we would be able to actually bring those students back in because this is a decision that would be made, correct me if I'm wrong, by the parents, >> right? It would be decisions made at team meetings,

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but again, we would have to build the program before we can work that. So, the the you're not going to see that benefit >> this this coming year. It's not going to offset this. >> We wouldn't see the benefit this year, but it it could potentially be yes, a

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benefit in the long run. And I I know that we're having a >> short-term conversation, which is important. We want to get through this budget process. We have difficult decisions to make, but I also think that we need to be looking ahead as well uh over the long term. Member Bayas,

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>> thank you, Mr. Mayor. Through you, um I am in full support of this. I know other school committee members expressed their support uh as well. Um member Keegan, member Soy. So um we're grateful for Miss BozA and and her efforts to do

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this. So whatever it takes. Um I think that we also need to make sure that the conversation um revolves around the prevention of students going out of placement more so than bringing a lot of students back as well. Um, so it's a

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it's it's it's it's preventative of cost and it might also bring students back. So it's double benefit there. Um, so again, I just wanted to express my full support for this. Furthermore, um, looking at other costs, um, something

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that was brought to my attention was Chromebooks, for example. um how missionritical for uh upper and lower schools are the Chromebooks. If we eliminate the use of Chromebooks, how

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much would that save us? Um notwithstanding, I don't think I would support getting rid of iPads for high schoolers, but the conversation around Chromebooks just to just to throw just throwing that out there. >> I'll I'll speak to the uses and maybe Mr. Gosling can speak to the um the way

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we go about purchasing them. Um so it it would be problematic if our students didn't have access um to onetoone devices because with HQIM the high quality instructional materials

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that we use um the the programs that we use for practice for enrichment they all come with an online component. So very rarely is it the case that you'll see a student with a an anthology of the days of old or a textbook to carry around.

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Most of what they're needing to access even for a portion of the class or portion of the week at least is on the Chromebook. Um and so it's a necessary device for learning. uh we are in a pretty good system of um purchasing and

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having the the devices go up through the grades with students and then backfilling um similar to how we do with the iPads at the high school. So I don't think that that would be necessarily what we're looking for in terms of the Chromebooks. We do use the the leasing

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and the rate to purchase those at a discounted price. So say more on that. Um, when Sean Cronin was working with us, he stressed, you know, trying to make sure you had a stable budget number year to year. Um, if we were to just buy, say, you know, a whole district-wide set of Chromebooks in one

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year would be astronomical. Um, and in in about four years, every single one of them is going to be obsolete or broken. So, what we've decided to do is in first grade as well as fifth grade, you we lease just for those grade levels. And

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then those kids keep them from fifth grade to sixth grade to 7th grade and they take care of their own Chromebook and they're responsible for their Chromebook. And so when they reach 8th grade at the end of the eighth grade that that machine's pretty much obsolete. Um we do keep some of the ones

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that are still okay for use to use as replacements if kids lose one or if they leave it at home. But we take we purchase it for grade five. But what we do is we we get we go out to we go out to bid we get a bid for um the number of

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Chromebooks we need. We get that price and then we go out to financing and finance it over the four years. So it's it's an even amount every year for those four years while those kids are using it. And then the next year we do the same thing. So it's the same amount

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every year until that Chromebook is no longer usable. So that's I mean we could stop doing it. we would save us, you know, I think um this past year was $105,000 for that one year lease.

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>> We have gotten pretty adept with our CTE students, too, um through externship and summer work they do with our tech department. They'll take apart older Chromebooks and salvage the parts and then we'll recycle um the remainder and we do get some compensation for that as

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well. Um so that system has been working well for us. And we do a similar thing with the iPads at the high school. They come in as a freshman. We lease a freshman set. They keep it until senior year and each freshman gets a new one that is leased for four years.

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>> Member Keegan. >> Um I'd like to piggyback on the constellations conversation. Um, if we were to move forward with constellations and we moved the autism subsparate into

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the day program at the CGS and we closed the CGS as a gened school that would open up about 20 classrooms at the marsh. We could move kids over to the marsh from the CGS. Um, and that

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could potentially save a lot of um [sighs] a lot of positions because we can now disperse the CGS kids to the other three schools, but a bulk of them

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could go to the Marsh because we would be opening up all those classrooms as well as the Marsh has the uh the first graders that are is the low classroom for next year. So, I just want to toss that out there

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that that could be a way that we could do some significant cost savings um because we wouldn't need all of the administration at the CGS. We would just need an SEA. We wouldn't need a principal. Um so, we would be able to

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get rid of that. Um it's just a thought. I don't know how much it's going to save us, but it it's I'm just throwing it out there. It's an idea. So, member Bayz and I were talking today and

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to piggyback off you were saying, Member Keegan, we're not going to do the committee uh the redistricting committee as a subcommittee. I think we should bring that to the full body here and have a conversation because having three people talk about it and then trying to sell it

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to another four doesn't make sense. This needs to be an open conversation to the group. What you are saying is exactly what we need to do from a redistricting and realignment of our schools. The constellation program, I am on board. If

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I haven't given my support to that, I'll throw my name into it. I I support this, but that doesn't solve this year's problem. And changing the schools now, I don't think that is even an option for going into 2027 school year. This would have to be a

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year of planning, if not more. to get there. And to be fair, I would probably say the tenny line needs to be drawn closer to the marsh and tenny students going to the marsh versus CGS where the CGS would be closer to the tenny. And so again, this is

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conversation we need to have that I wish we started in January, which wouldn't have solved the problem still, but I wish this conversation happened right after the budget happened in June and July of last year when we all had

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inklings that this possibly could happen. Instead, it was all about policy, which it was important. Policy was important. Don't get me wrong. what we are circling around here. Your idea, great idea, 2728. That's that is when we need to do that. But that's not

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going to fix the problem this year. Moving a school definitely not in the cards. I'm assuming assistant madam superintendent. That would be a tough pill to swallow in six months. >> I'm not a proponent of that. No. I think um we would have to do a real deep

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analysis to see exactly what the cost savings would be, whether it would be worth disrupting um >> the whole city, >> the whole city. Um and if we're thinking about redistricting, there's many different ways to go about that and many different ways that you could redistrict. So, I think being really

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thoughtful um if that is the direction the committee choose chooses to go in um would be the best decision and taking the time to do that because as you know I think once that decision is made we live in that for at least a decade or so traditionally. So we'd want to make sure we are doing it the right way.

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>> Yeah. It's it's it hasn't been touched in 20 years. It needs to the way we operate our schools, the grammar schools. I don't know many cities that keep up with this K through eight. I I don't know a lot and so I do think we need to to bring it to the

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whole committee and and have it as a committee agenda item going forward at the next business meeting and we just continue to do a 20 minute roundt and spitball and and have conversations with the administration about it and go forward. But when we talk about the

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constellation, it's an investment this year. And again, does that does that create jobs? Does it save jobs? Mata superintendent, I mean, what what what happens here? Like if we were to invest in this, could some of these positions

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be saved from a special ed perspective and and have true impact into this decision and the development of it? So initially adding the constellations part in we haven't we haven't touched that program at this

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point in terms of cuts >> any positions that we currently have could we [snorts] adopt with the with whatever investment we could bring in here and take whatever money we have already for some of those positions and allocate it over here somewhere. I think

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the the idea with constellations is that we'd be bringing them in to train our staff so that eventually they would peel off. So if we were to replace our staff with constellations, it would be counterproductive to the the goal of how that program is drafted.

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>> Makes sense. But none of our staff currently could take on some of these roles. >> Okay. >> Could I just uh intersect really quickly? Um so I would just say that before we keep having this conversation on on the constellations showing our support for

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it. Yes. But we will be uh receiving an indepth explanation and proposal from the administration. So I would just I would just say that um we we hold our thoughts on that until the

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administration has a chance to propose it and perhaps all of our questions could be answered. so that we don't confuse the public or even each other on on what's going on because I know they're still they're still working on that. >> Yeah. And a big and just to piggyback off that because of the the dialogue

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here, it's exactly what I said the last meeting. It's an investment. It should be separate from the budget. It should be a separate line item. It shouldn't be impacted. So that's why I asked the question if any of that money could shift and and support any of our current positions versus be net new

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if we were to then to to go to the back to the main question here and we can't we can't charge for for sports. We can't charge for busing. If we do there's a project to it. >> I I was going to say I'm not telling you can't >> but

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>> I'm just telling you it may be counterproductive. I I get that. Yeah. And that because then if 40% is being charged and 60% isn't being charged, it's not fair for the 40%. I I get it. >> What about then preschool? What about

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kindergarten? What are we looking there? I mean, is there is there where where is income streams that we could implement here? >> Do you want to talk to preschool >> in terms of peer model tuitions? Well, we do have we have >> we have the tuition now for preschool.

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>> Well, we have tuition here at the high school for Little Rangers, I believe it's called. Um >> peer model program. We tuition the regular peer models. The other students are we're required to do by law. >> Um >> correct.

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>> That's pretty much our preschools. So, we do tuition those kids we can tuition. But I will say that not all pure model um open openings have been filled because of either financial constraints of

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families or they're seeking a longer day program. >> I feel like I'm just throwing a grenade into a hole and seeing if it blows up at this point, guys. So really all I have is to work off the document we have here to cut potentially.

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>> All good questions. Just we we we've we've had them ourselves. You know, we've we've spitballled just about everything you can think of. Um I I don't want to feel like a downer because you could do all of those things. I just don't know if it' be productive.

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>> Okay. May I >> Okay. So, you know, on top of this, we're still waiting for our numbers from the state. I know I say that every meeting, but we're waiting. >> Correct. I did get a document. I don't know if it was yesterday or the day

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before, which was um from MASBO. >> Okay. >> It was um it was a bunch of information. I don't know if it's anything different than we've gotten previously. Um, but I am gonna I couldn't open it on my laptop for some reason. But, um, tomorrow morning I'll forward it to you guys so that you can at least see what

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information I do have. I'm not hiding any information from you. Okay? I don't have to see I don't have the crystal ball for the state house. Um, but um, I'll get that to you. And again, speaking to the state representative, he says that there's money coming. How much? Nobody knows. Um, but with

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anything with the state, I'll believe it when I see it. and it probably won't come till we've made some terrible decisions. Okay. Um, so I just have a few things. I just want to I I don't know if the body is aware like our subcommittee we have had discussions

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about any ways to generate revenue which is really not the function of a school district to find make money but we have we talked about um creating a remote school um and our initial research found it's

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won't work because of the con you know restrictions of the the laws around it. We talked about school choice, which would, you know, we probably mayor should put on the agenda and go to our city council for the um opportunity to

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move forward. Will it bring us money? I'm I'm thinking how would anyone want to come to Methooan when we're going to have giant class sizes? We couldn't accommodate, but maybe it's something to consider down the road. Uh we talked about using MEVA for transportation

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and and the mayor and um member Keegan did a little research and not for everybody. Um so it's a little concerning. I mean we have been looking um and I just wanted everyone to be

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aware of that. I'm wondering as we focus on what we need to decide because we have to make some decisions is I know Mr. Gosling, I always ask you the impossible, right? Is there any way to reopen the contract with the bus company

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and say, I know, I know I we've had such joy working with that anyway, but like to cut the high school routes, so we're down to two tiers. >> The cost for two tiers and three tiers are the same. >> It's all but it's we can't change that right now. I'm just looking at ways to

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say it. We There's no way we could >> I mean, I I can reach out to solicitor or or or other legal counsel to see if there's even a shot of doing that. Um >> yeah, I know. >> I imagine that if I mean

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I'm not sure what we would do. I mean >> I know I'm just thinking of where we could cut without impacting the >> I I am going to reach out and see if the bus company will take our students and promote them, rerun the bus routes. Maybe we can save

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one route, one bus. >> Um, that's about $65,000 on the transportation side. Um, I I'm going to have them do it anyways, but I I'd hate to eliminate one only to have to add it back. >> I you know, I think we're all just kind

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of scratching. Um, the only other things I could I could think of if we cut I can't believe this is coming out of my mouth. Don't I don't want to do it. We look at our sports program which would destroy so much in our community. That would be a million

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maybe. Who wants to do that? The only thing left I think help me out Dr. Gopsky is the class sizes, right? What's left? And the sad part is if we go to 30 plus, I don't think people realize,

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you'd have to reorganize the schools because a lot of those rooms will not accommodate that big a class. As you all know, if you've been like the grammar schools won't accommodate 30 plus kids. I think of the eighth the

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eighth graders. It's hard to fit 25 kids in a class. But I don't know what's left to do except something horribly drastic. And I are we at that point tonight and constellations. I'm totally open to it. I got a million questions though. I don't want us to get all hyped up

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without getting all the information. So, I'm in. But questions first. The only thing left really is class size. Right. That's one of the options. Um I was sharing I was sharing with someone

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in a conversation. I think I was at the school council at Tim actually this week. We're talk I was talking about how the expectation of the state >> and we're we're legally obligated to provide students with an adequate >> education and that's just simply not

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good enough. We we we aim above that. Um, so I worry that, you know, we might be in a place where we're needing to to think about the class size, also think about some of the supports and that we have in the classrooms to help our

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learners with diverse learning needs. Um, and also maybe even scratching into those opportunities or elective opportunities that are outside of the core curriculum which we're obligated to teach.

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So I'm thinking at the high school level is that where you would when you think of those first eliminations and then what do we have like a study hall? >> I don't we don't have study hall >> but now what would replace >> uh well that's just the thing. So, um,

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when you're looking at the the class size and the grammar schools, we're able to predict that, um, more easily than we are the high school because there's simply so many choices, um, and options and pathways for students. Um, so when we think about losing a teacher in a

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department at the high school, first to go go would be the elective courses to make sure that our mandated core courses are available. And then that's the question is that we do have uh elective courses that students need to engage in. So if there's fewer options and the

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options that remain will be fuller and and so it's it's kind of a slippery slope. So we do try to protect that. Um we've projected out um core class sizes for for next year and have identified a couple of areas we may be able to give a

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teacher. Um, but I do want to point out the high school was the only school that didn't regain any of the positions that were cut in last year's budget. So, they're already they're already down. And there's just simply some categories, for instance, in the science department

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to teach science, you need a very specific license at the high school level. So, it's either chemistry or biology or physics. And so, um, those are the niche, um, courses which are not able to have as much flexibility in if

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we're shifting staff around. >> Thank you. Um, following up with member Donovan Graassy's remarks again, crazy to even mention this. Um, but what would be the cost savings if we cut the

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athletics program at the high school level. Furthermore, um, Rangers Club after school, before school, save cost savings there if it comes to it. The before and after school program

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is um generates its own funds. So parents pay for that which pays for the staff. That is cost our budget nothing. So that's that's cost neutral as far as our budget's concerned. member will

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>> I mean the only thing I can add is the first meeting in in going back in previous years my theme has been the absolute necessity for structural reforms joining the GIC

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that is something that unfortunately our unions will not entertain that could save us millions of dollars So when you run up a health care deficit, that's a huge factor. Now the state would shore up the deficit if you joined

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the GIC. Malden, which is comparable to Mthuan, is joining the GIC this year, but yet we won't. Haver is part of the GIC, North Andover, Quinzy, all kinds of different uh communities and they garner

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millions of dollars in savings. So, I understand I appreciate the uh the fiscal committee looking into means of saving money. I even personally was going to sacrifice on the school choice

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front, but I also realized that the state limits how we review those individuals that would come in on school choice. It would be similar to the vocational schools. It would be strictly based on the lottery. So your worst

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students hypothetically could be coming into Mthoan and becoming our problem. I don't want to do that in the context if we have to go up to 26 and 30 students per classroom, but I'm not going to sacrifice my principles anymore because

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I did it last year partially with the rainy day fund. Okay? And I took heat for that because I thought we going to have honest brokers on the other side coming to the table and offering concessions and working with us. they

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simply want to do is drain the rainy day account, the free cash in one year or two and that would completely put us in dire straits. And if we ever hit a recession, um you're going to absolutely be laying off police and fire because

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the state is usually the first thing they will do is engage in what's called 9C cuts. They will cut your local aid and your school aid. It happened during the great recession of 2008. It happened during the dotcom boom and bust, excuse

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me. It happened after 911. Okay, it's cyclical. We're not in a recession, but we've had to lay off people the last few years. So, the mere fact that there's nobody at that podium tonight from the teachers

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union to speak or any outreach to me, I've been in the business for decades. I worked at the state house for 24 years. I was an elected official. I served on the city council and then returned back to the school committee for 15 years.

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Okay? I'm there to listen and work with you. But if you go to that podium and all you intimate is that absolutely drain the rainy day account, that is a complete non-starter with me. And I have

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to commend the mayor for at least working on on some type of compromise middle ground. Now again, even with the collective biding agreements, even if they gave some concessions on that, right? But

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tonight, I might be forced to uh agree with an increase to 30 kids per class because I'm getting no guidance from the unions. I've had one email from a constituent. I'm not sure. Again, the

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state is all is forecasting. Uh the Senate is uncertain. I'm putting a lot of my stakes into what the Senate might do with the circuit breaker with the supplemental budget and chapter 70. The reimbursement rate should be up to 90%.

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Uh but I'm I'm done. I was a always been a fiscal conservative, but I also last year bought us some time. Um and again even in that context of uh having a drain of the rainy day account because

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we also had to do emergency provisions to to clean up our schools plus the the rainy day uh draw down to shore up a a budget deficit and we also still laid off people the last couple of years.

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So, uh, the the vice chair when he asked questions about user fees, I commend him for asking questions. I commend the secretary for asking questions and and member Keegan, right? But what's happening is what I'm the the window is getting smaller and smaller. The the

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remote learning is not really a factor. Um, bus fees is not really a factor. User fees is not a factor. Um, constellations is going to be a long-term project. If we even if we sell the schools, that's a a one-time

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band-aid application for personnel, which you should never do. Sell buildings and then recoup that just to add the personnel. Um, but I'm at the breaking point right now because like if you do like a rally and you do a protest and you wear a red

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shirt and you have a sign, right, that's that's great. But remember that the taxpayers of Mthan pay the ultimate bill and you're dealing with affordability of their homes, gas prices, energy prices,

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and then they they're raising uh multiple kids. I don't think it's fair to them where you don't meet us halfway at the bargaining table. So, I'm not sure if the mayor can elucidate the process, if

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he's received any guidance. I've told him uh personally, I will absolutely vote for his final budget because I I'm tired of doing the structural deficits. Like if you told me uh tomorrow that they would

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do concessions on the collective buying agreements and join the GIC, okay, and we did other modest reforms, I would gladly fight at the city council and I even go to with loggerheads with council marzan. I would just say please, I'm I'm

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done begging for money where the other side just automatically assumes that that there's some type of entitlement um that we're going to just deliver the day again. It's not according to reality. If you look at the Massachusetts economy

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is above the unemployment rate nationally. Commercial properties in Boston are are collapsing. Okay. there's an out migration and and people are like leaving Massachusetts. The the school enrollment

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is going down across the state and other communities are laying off teachers. So, if you're willing to sacrifice your own members in order to accomplish something, congratulations. You're not going to win long term.

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But if you were willing to compromise with me, as I've done in the past, like I even raised taxes in order to save jobs because I got massive concessions from the unions. That was a very difficult period in time. I'm not doing this

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again. And again, the the vice chair in his capacity as a city councelor coming back to the school committee, he raised absolutely valid points. But I can talk to an empty uh audience tonight and the only one here is council

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mazan. It's a very uh shameful thing. But definitely come with your red shirts next time. >> Member Sice >> member will kind of hit on what I was going to going to ask. Have you met with any of the union superintendent to ask

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if they would have any ideas, any concessions with their contracts? concessions with their contracts? No. >> As far as um >> the main conversations that are being had currently relate to the PEC and health insurance

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right now, those other conversations are likely to follow. >> And I I just want to just echo what I done in the past, Mr. Chairman. Right. even a a modest reduction in in giving back to us would help us with the

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greater picture. Not even a total I mean give us something please we're scrambling and then like again the secretary and again I don't always agree with her but she has been dedicated to looking at financial savings.

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Yeah. You know what I'm saying? I would just uh you know they've been dedicated looking at financial savings and they've received feedback that really you're not going to garner savings. It's ends up being the the structural uh reforms in conjunction with

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they have to mobilize at the state house. You don't mobilize at the school committee meeting. You don't mobilize at the city council meeting. You mobilize at the state house and you vote in numbers. You send emails and numbers. So

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I've said that year after year after year. Thank you. >> Other discussion, member Donovan. >> Okay. So a couple other things. I do know in our conversations in committee

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the uh charter school cost this year is going up $600,000 which is you know and that's something we will discuss, something we need to look at. In terms of accountability after the budget, we're I don't even know what Oh,

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I do know you did share that the voke what our contribution to the voke has gone up significantly as well. >> Um so that's >> well I know but you know what guys we got to focus we got to get something done tonight because I know we're all going down that rabbit hole. I agree

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member Daglio but in the meantime so and I looked into some schools are doing four day weeks across the country mainly in the Midwest I'm not four yeah four day weeks did you know this you look surprised yes there's a movement with the effort to save money but it's only 1

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to 2% I I I I've been thinking of ways like do we we still have to meet our requirements from the state I mean they extended the days but that one day off saved some money, but not as much as anyone thought. I don't think

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we can come up with anything in this moment that will get us to where we need to get except something really distasteful and horrible that will impact how we educate our kids. And we all know this is very

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sad. I don't know what's left to give except to make a really horrible decision tonight because we have to let our leadership team know what to do. So, I'm asking what is it? What poison do we want?

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And I'm as a former principal, it kills me as a former teacher in class sizes of 28 big kids. Do we have to move now to say bigger class sizes? And that is devastating to me. But I

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think we need to give our team something to go on as unpalatable as it is. And I'm really sorry for everybody in this community. >> You want to put that as a motion? I'll second it. >> We don't have anything on the agenda. >> Right.

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>> Specific measures. Um, this is going to I I think that I've referenced previously that this is similar in context to 2008, 2009.

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>> Um, and so, you know, I think obviously something that is going to have to be done is we're going to have to have some conversations with the unions >> without a doubt. And so I know that um you know we're having this conversation

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tonight about some very drastic measures in order to rein in the spending in terms of our schools and and government broadly speaking. And the council's going to see that when I present the budget on May 8th and there's already several

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department heads uh who are just uh completely horrified by the measures that we're having to take. um and one of them reached out to the city council tonight uh expressing their frustration. But this is the point that we're at. We have to make difficult decisions and uh

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we're going to have to continue to do that. But I think that's going to have to happen uh in >> parallel with uh discussions with the unions. We'll hear from member Bayz, member. >> Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Um, preschool. I know it was mentioned

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earlier, but it's not required. >> Yes, it is. >> It is >> for students with IEPs, >> right? We have to provide the service. >> Oh. increasing

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tonight with the options that we have on the table. Um, increasing the class size, it just it it's heartbreaking to know that we will be doing this to a community that has been through this time and time again.

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Um, but difficult choices have to be made. And I could I I couldn't agree more with member Wlette in terms of it needs to be a community a communitywide effort, city government, school committee, but

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also our our unions. And um I know I I receive the support of our of our of of the unions, but that means their their support means that I will always be truthful in what needs to be done and real and transparent and this is something that's

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a conversation that needs to be had. >> Member Soy and then member I believe member Keegan. Um, if it's okay, I just had a a question for um, Assistant Superintendent Goslin. So, looking at

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the numbers you gave us at the previous meeting, if we increased our class sizes to 30, we would save $1.256 million. >> I believe that's correct. And if we take the reductions that you have given us

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the list of tonight, that's $3 million. >> Correct? >> I just wanted to double check those numbers before I I I like the rest of you, I can't even believe I'm saying it, but I think

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raising our class sizes is is going to be the way we have to go. that's going to um eliminate another 16 teaching positions. So that'll that'll be 32 teachers that we'll have to lay off

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along with um all these other positions that are listed. But I like the committee is saying I I don't know what else to do and we haven't really heard from the unions. No one has

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come to the podium. Um, and I think we have to make some hard decisions and it's going to be sad but true what we have to do. Thank you. >> We'll hear from me Keegan and the vice chair. >> Um,

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there are unfilled positions that we see every month that are in the budget and they've been unfilled all year. Can we just cut those out of the budget and at least that would save some jobs? I I don't know how much money it's going to be. I mean, there's at least 15

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positions there that have been unfilled all year. Um >> that's that's a strategy. I was thinking of that, too. Um and some of those positions that we're calling vacant, we have filled with contracted services in order to get the job done and support

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the kids that with the services they need. But those wouldn't be people would be giving layoff notices, too. Um, so if we went with a strategy like that, assuming that we would have some money

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back from the state late, then we could reinstate those positions and then fill, but we would maybe eliminate that middle step of having to disrupt our own employees. You say it's largely true.

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>> It's true for certain positions, but when we talk about to the point of we have contracted services filling those roles right now because we have to provide that service. So cutting that position is wouldn't make sense because in the end I still need to provide the

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service and it would cost us more money in the end. >> Right? But that we have some that are filled, right? But then we have the whole list that just keep saying vacant. Those positions aren't filled by contracted services, are they? the the ones that say contracted services filled

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with contracted services. Those are the ones that you're talking about, but there's a whole list at the top of that page that we got last last meeting. Um that it just says vacant at this point >> and so my question is can we just get

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rid of those positions? I did question a couple of those myself and I think we we do actually have finally some candidates in the process for those needed positions, >> but I I don't necessarily oppose that strategy.

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>> Okay. I mean, that would just I mean, it's it's not going to get us the 6.8 million that we need, but it might get us closer, right? Um and I mean, even bringing the class sizes up to 30, you know, that's 1.2 more million. So we're

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still 4.6 away. Now I know the projected numbers from the state is around 4 million that we might be getting. That's our hope. So if we can get down to being 4 million above, and I understand that, you know, we have to play these shell

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games at this point, right? But if we can at least get down to 4 million that we're above the mayor's number, [snorts] then perhaps we don't have to disrupt people because the state is going to come through. And I know it's hard to

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count on something we don't have. But it's hard to be cutting four more million dollars after we put the class sizes at 30. And to me, we are just tearing apart everything that's been done in the past 20 years because when

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my kids entered the this district back in 2008, my my oldest kindergarten class was above 30. And so we're just going back to that. We've come so far and it is

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devastating to me that we're going back to that. But I think that's where we're at. Vice Chair, >> Mayor, >> I just want to correct it. It would be 5.6, not 4.6 if you back out the one point. So, I just don't want it in the

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press as a million dollars less than it is. >> I know there's, and I'm piggybacking off the crazy idea of four day weeks. Um, 26 states in the United States are currently doing it. over 4,000 schools

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across the nation are doing it. It's it's it's an actually growing trend and you guys are probably aware of that. Massachusetts isn't doing it yet. But what Massachusetts has been doing in certain school districts is virtual teachers.

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Have we thought about that in the classroom and have a class facilitator in a classroom while a teacher is virtual? And we are and and ultimately we're running into situations where we have to lay off teachers. But again, we also

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can't get teachers to fill some of these positions too because they don't want to stay here because they know they're first to go if we they continue to have this trend. Have we looked at partnering and they're non-affffiliated and I can't believe I'm saying this because I'm all pro union

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here but they're non-affffiliated some of these programs with virtual teachers and they are unfortunately filling gaps with teacher shortages across not just the Commonwealth but also the nation

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and they're in the classroom. They they they're virtually set up in classrooms. And even if we didn't want to do it, maybe the classroom next door is a teacher and they're teaching three classrooms. I hate to say it that way, but you're not going to be able to fit 30 kids in a classroom. You're going to have to be creative and either have a

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wall taken down to expand classrooms or you're going to need to have some other alternative. It will be very tight. And it's also, in my opinion, probably a safety hazard, just having all those desks in the classroom. Have we thought about virtual teachers

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at all? Has it come up? We've used virtual teachers um in world language at the high school. We had difficulty finding Spanish teachers or specific language teachers. Um it was a last resort. the the person

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that was that was virtually teaching was highly skilled and experienced and it still it was a disconnect for the students in the room. Um so we didn't continue with that. It wasn't providing an optimal learning experience. I'm not sure how much that would save

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>> post that position and and we did it or did we outsource it to a company because there are companies out there that have >> it was a company. This was a few years ago. we weren't weren't able to find any any candidates at all and we had students who needed to take the class.

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Um, but it did come at a cost. It wasn't necessarily a savings. >> No, if I if I remember correctly, it wasn't very cheap at all. I'm not sure we saved anything on that >> because you're adding a teacher. We're not subtracting teachers. That's another

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thing. I'm not trying to and believe me, the last thing I want to do is >> I understand where you're coming from, but with a virtual teacher, you can teach 100 kids with one person >> as opposed to, you know, 25 or 30 and you're not really reliant on a specific space.

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>> Um, but what's the quality of the education and and the cost? Is it, you know, if we're if we're paying per kid, are we paying the same amount as if we had four teachers teaching those hundred kids? No, that's >> I haven't looked into I I haven't looked

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into it deeply. I don't know much about it, but I understand where you're coming from. >> For for the younger students, it it does move away from where we're trying to go with instruction. >> I'm actually not thinking about the the lower schools and upper school. I'm actually thinking about the high school the most right now. It's just I I think

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the the population of the high school is dropping. We're seeing that trend. The numbers are are going down, right? the freshman class is a bit smaller. >> I mean, and in all due respect, going back to the sports idea, we'll we'll completely gut the school if we got rid

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of sports. >> The the charter schools, you're talking about other tuition. Boom. We're done. I just if we get rid of it. So, I don't even want that out there that we're cutting. So, I I just if we if we can combat or

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look at how we're going to combat the 30 kids in a classroom, I just don't know how these rooms would fit it. I I just don't know how. Um and I I think we need to find out what the alternative is where some of these have the connecting door like the teacher

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can't sit in the middle of the door and teach two classes with the combining classrooms. So, I I don't how 30 kids in a classroom is even feasible. >> We and with that with that figure we

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were working up to 30. So right now we're working up to 26. So really it could be the case where we're looking at 28s >> or 27s which is what we're calling the up to 30. >> Are we saying that for gened classes or

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are we saying that for maybe a special? It would it would likely be all. There's occasionally, you know, some fizzed classes, for instance, at the high school, depending on the offering, you may see above 30, as is typical now. It's we're not we wouldn't expect an

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increase in those. We've been trying to be very creative with the scheduling for the upper school specialists to make sure we didn't have um abnormally large bubbles. We'll have to continue to look at that. Do we still have some specialists jump

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in between schools? Did didn't we have a few specials jump? >> At one point we did, but we don't know. >> Bias. >> Thank you. I just I just want to acknowledge and hope that the community

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and our decision makers are aware of the conversation that we're having to have right now. It is absolutely crazy. And I'm happy that councelor Marson is here to hear the conversation that we're having in person and I appreciate his presence

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because I mean I have to I I sit back and I hear member Daglio, member Keegan, Secretary Donovan Grassi give out these ideas that seem crazy within itself but that we're actually having to talk about. Um,

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and I don't mean to just go out on a on a rant in a speech, but it I I sit back and I reflect on just how ridiculous this conversation is that we're having. And but we have to have we have to have.

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So, I hope that there is no narrative out there that the school department isn't doing their part in this budget crisis. I hope that there's no narrative out there that we haven't exhausted all of our options.

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I hope that there's no narrative out there that we are some that we are the ones that that are hoarding that are and and I know I just said that our educators need to come need to come in and and work with us but at the same

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time we are putting them through stress that I hope that not just them but their families have to go through as well. So, I just hope that the narrative isn't that we haven't exhausted all of our options because look at the conversation that we're having now. Thank you,

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>> member Keegan. >> So, um member Daglio um when looking into the virtualmies, there's two types of virtualmies that are allowed in the state. One is when you can bring kids in

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from anywhere um and it's actually its own charter school district. The other one is that you can create a virtual academy within your district but you can only have students from your district in it. So to

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your point, we could potentially offer one virtual class per grade to try to offset the overcrowding in the classrooms. That's a thought we could do that. Just want to mention too, we we have

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egeneuity courses at the high school which are not virtual teaching, but they're asynchronous courses which we do use for um credit recovery or some alternative options for students and those have come in handy in a number of of ways. Um, occasionally we've had

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students who are interested in an AP class that's um unique to them uh and we don't have anyone else interested, we'll do a virtual offering that way. Um, so we have egeneuity available, but it's

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certainly not a first option for us. >> Member will >> I just want to emphasize too for the record, hopefully people will not misinterpret my remarks at home. I am still in favor of having a financial audit of the school department. I am

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still advocating for consolidation of departments including the IT department. So, if we want to do it through the vehicle of a feasibility study or to have um again the city council explore in conjunction with the mayor uh the necessity of a financial audit, I am

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also in favor of that. I want us to be as open and transparent with our books as possible, but I'm exploring every option on the table, but I also need to have uh partners

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to work with us at the negotiating table. Thank you. >> Just in response, Member will. So, uh couple things. So, um the last time we went out to bid for a financial audit of the school department, we received no bids. Uh so we would have to go out to

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bid. And the other aspect of that too is uh the only available funding source for a financial audit because it was not included in the budget uh would be free cash and we seem to be having a hard time uh using that. Uh so I just wanted

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to share that. But also um you know when it comes to other conversations about opportunities for consolidation uh my commitment has been that that would be something that we would hypothetically if we were to discuss that do that with the committee uh going forward. Um and

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uh my recommendation if there is an appetite among uh members of the school committee uh if we wanted to pursue at least uh you know the prospect of feasibility studies and the like uh that's something that we would need to go out to bid for. Um but nevertheless

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uh those are things that we uh can certainly talk about as part of broader conversations about structural reforms. And I would be remiss also in terms of the uh solar panels if we've had any further traction on that because we're getting close to a very sensitive timeline.

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>> Right. So um that uh is um advancing out of legal and should be posted actually imminently. So that's going to allow us to take advantage of potential savings before uh this deadline that we've been discussing. >> Other discussion, questions from the

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committee, comments? member Donovan. >> And I know this might be putting you on the spot, mayor, and that is not my intent, but I just want to make sure I have a good understanding. I'm thinking of last year. So, and over the next few meetings, we're going to have to vote on a budget. In the end, you will present

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your budget with your numbers. You want to I know you still have some maneuvering to do. I know there's talk of just as serious cuts on the city side. Do you want to share with us like should we I I don't know where we're headed and

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I want last year was so tough on everybody. Do you have an idea of where you're going to land? Will there be a surprise like we had last year? >> So at this point um we are at the number that I provided to the superintendent.

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Um, however, if there are creative conversations to be had with perhaps the unions as we've stated, um, then that's something that could potentially change the current situation. Um, actually, no doubt, but that would depend on the

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progress of those conversations. Right now, the focus has been on health insurance. >> I know. And that may may I ask I just want to fully understand that decision won't impact what we're doing now or will it? So that decision on health

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insurance uh could certainly impact where we're at now budget. >> It could. It certainly could. >> Um now ultimately though uh it's important to keep in mind that the city uh this and this just boggles my mind. There are things that I find out about

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the city. Um seems like on a daily basis, things that have been broken for so long and unressed for so long that now, you know, we're finally getting after it. But one example, and we've been discussing this with the PEC regarding health insurance, >> uh the city's agreement with the PEC has

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been expired since 2013. >> And so here we are attempting to correct that. Uh but there are just so many long-standing issues in this city that have gone unressed, uncorrected for such a long period of time. And uh as part of

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these difficult conversations, we're having to correct them. Uh so you know we're in the process of doing that but no doubt um any savings we're able to achieve in the context of health insurance will absolutely have uh nothing but a positive impact on where we're at now

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>> if it happens >> if we're able to achieve >> to bring everyone to the table >> right member bias >> uh thank you uh to the point about uh financial feasibility or forensic financial audit um of course as a

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constituent I've always been in support of that. I just wanted to ask the administration if the state or DESIE has given us um any recommendations on on on their end or because I know that sometimes they they themselves do um

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audits of differenti of of different school uh school districts. So has that been a conversation uh with the state with Desi at all? >> I can't tell you. Um, by law, we need to have a an end of the year audit every

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year. Um, that an auditing uh, private auditing firm comes out, audits our books based on what was spent in the fiscal year. I actually was talking to them this morning, the coming Monday to pick up all the backup material for the uh, FY25 end of year report. Um, we

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should have that by the end of June uh, which I can share with you. Um, we do it every year. I also know that the city does uh an audit every year which includes certain portions of the school department, usually federal grants and that kind of stuff. Um so I know that they were finishing that up and they're

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they're waiting for some um absence reports from the school department to finish that up as well. >> Thank you. Those will be critical for us when looking forward for structural reform not just for this budget season but for the future as well. >> Anything else from the committee?

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Keegan, >> so we say go to 30. That doesn't get us there. So I feel like they need more direction and I don't know where to get it from. I I I'm

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just at a loss. Um where else do we go? I mean, we can't go higher than 30. What else is there to cut? Mr. Chair, I'll say

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there's no more cutting at this point. We need a freeze. That's that's the that's it. And if the union come and we've said it now a few times now, if the union comes to the table across the board,

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that saves jobs. Unfortunately, in 2008, it didn't happen. It might have to happen now. And we really need to all take a look in the mirror and see what we're going to do next year to change this. And then once or or [clears throat]

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may even any negotiating, it might not even be a freeze. Maybe it's a cut in the cola increases. Whatever it is, something to negotiate, there's going to have to be conversations. So, I'll say it. I'll be that guy that says it. Unfortunately,

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>> that's the only other place That that's not just here, that's everywhere. That's everywhere across the city. >> Any other questions, comments, discussion? Is there any other business from the committee? >> Ribbias.

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>> After this pretty awful conversation, I just want to end on a good note and report to the community that the first annual Methulin uh high school job fair was a success. Uh we were able to have

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at least 50 to 70 students uh many of whom applied to city internships and jobs such as uh lifeguards for parks and recreations uh HR intern, city council intern, health and uh human services

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intern um senior center. So we had a lot of opportunities there for students on the city side. hoping to increase our efforts and expand in the coming years to private organizations and firms to really give our students um

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top-notch opportunities. Um and I'm very grateful for all of the support from from everyone. Um but after this horrible conversation, I just wanted to end on a on a good and positive note on some good things that are happening in this city, this great city.

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Thank you, Member Bay, and thank you again for your leadership on this job fair. It's a great thing. Member Bayas, I'm excuse me, Member Donovan. >> Um, while we're worrying about money, so are the members of the Mthuan Scholarship Foundation who are the unsung heroes

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of our community. Uh, they continue to raise money. Tomorrow's the deadline for our seniors to apply for the scholarships. And on they're not stopping. On Saturday is the spring craft fair and kidsfest 11 to 3 at the high school. You can buy some great

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crafts and um while you're browsing some of your kids can um take part in all sorts of activities, games and entertainment. Um I can't say enough about the work that these people do very quietly and all year long. Um and they make a big difference in the lives of

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our kids. So hope to see you all there on Saturday 11 to 3. Maybe we'll all get our faces painted or something. Thank you. >> Member s Royce. >> Mayor, I just wanted to let you know that next Tuesday I'll be out of town. I'll do my best to join the meeting at

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6. I'm wondering if Dr. Gowski can maybe just before the meeting time email me any information she has. Um I had planned a vacation thinking our time was till May 20th. So I'm actually cutting my vacation four days short. I'll be

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here Thursday for the vote, but I will be virtual for Tuesday's meeting. I just wanted to let you know that. Thank you. >> Thank you, Member Sice. >> Is there any other business from the committee? >> I make a motion to adjurnn. >> Motion to adjurnn from member Sus. Is there a second? Second.

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>> Seconds from member Keegan. Uh all those in favor? >> Opposed? The eyes have it. Our meeting is adjourned. >> [music] >> Heat. Heat. [music] [music]