[Music] --------- Red,
two, one. Okay. All right, good evening everybody. So, welcome. Um, this is the um reorganization school committee
organizational meeting. Um, I'm calling to order at 7:05 p.m. I'm calling this meeting to order as the um chair prom the senior member of the school
committee. I'm excited to welcome our returning member Anna Varis, our new member Nathan Huau. Um, congratulations to you both. Thank you. Um and so we have in our folder for this
evening some handy notes for reorganization that um sort of remind us the procedure for this sort of formal first part of the meeting. We'll just conduct this part of the meeting. Um we will then um adjourn
this part and just call to order our regular meeting for this evening. So um the way this works is we have the opportunity all of us to suggest names um for essentially nominations for chair
of the school committee for the coming year. Um and that person has the opportunity to say if they accept the nomination or not. Um and then we can have the opportunity to discuss our
option or options for chair. Um and that will be followed by nominations for vice chair. So um if it's okay with people, I would like to start and then see what others think and may want to add.
Um it has been a real privilege to serve as chair this past year and the year before that. Um, I would like to, um, actually nominate Amanda to be the next chair of the school committee. Um,
I've sort of, well, I don't want to get too far into it. We can discuss it. Um but um had some discussion with um you about
sort of what you've brought to the committee in the past year and the opportunity to um sort of focus on like moving forward as a committee um with this fresh start that we have a really exciting time for Milton Public Schools
right now. Um, and anyway, so I would like to offer that nomination. Um, and I'm wondering what other if any names people would like to add to the
mix. Do we need to see if uh, Amanda will accept the nomination based on the notes? I guess we can. Yeah. Well, if there's if there are no other names. Wow. I would like to nominate you Mark.
I know you have done so much for the board and on the subcommittee as well and you seems to know the whole organization of school committee and the town how how to work with the other town board. So I would like to nominate you
for to be the next chair of our board. if you will accept this nomination. I appreciate that. I respectfully decline the nomination if that's okay. I have some reason. I think I have really enjoyed finance and I would love to
continue on finance and land help land that plane next year if that is we're I know we're not talking about that but also my wife will got it. I promise. I really appreciate that. I appreciate that, Bow. And I didn't
want to I didn't want to put Mark on the spot, but I did he had let me know that um prior to prior to this. Okay. And I think one of the things, Nathan, you'll learn is that we want to try and like
respect people's balance and boundaries in terms of what we're all able to give. Um, and you know, we'll work through that as we go forward. Um, it's a lot to consider. So,
awesome. Any nomination? Amanda, do you accept a nomination? I I do. I do. I would, you know, I had the same thought that Mark would be phenomenal. Um but yes, I accept the nomination. So,
[Music] um thank you for accepting that. Um and at this point, um what happens is we take a roll call vote. Um do we need a motion to close the
nomination? Yes. Sorry. I will ask for a motion to close nominations. So moved. Is there a second? Second. Thanks. Um, it's weird.
Okay. So, we will go. This states it needs to be in alphabetical order. So, I vote yes. Um, Nathan. Oh, yeah. Yes. Mark,
yes. Amanda, yes. Ba, yes. Hannah. Yes. Okay. So, our new chair accepts the election as Milton School Committee Chair. Congratulations, Amanda. Thank you. Thank you. My husband's traveling. That's the only way I'm getting away with this right
now. Hopefully, you would be a surprise this. But there you go. That'd be great. Um, okay. So, now we move on to the vice chair.
Um and you are the chair. So So we have at this point members suggest names for vice chair. I would like to suggest can I suggest a name uh Lizzy Carol if she will accept it. Uh I think having I know trying to
step back being chair is a lot of work but I think having your insight into that especially with the new chair given none of us were vice chairs last year and to have that or chairs before and have that lens of experience would be would be great valuable. I agree. I agree.
Are there any other nominations? Um, so do you accept the nomination, Lizzie? Yes. Yes, I do. Okay. And do we have a motion to close the nominations? Right. Uh, so moved. Okay.
Second. Second. Um, all right. Lizzy, yes. Nathan, yes. Mark, yes. I'm a yes. Bow, yes. Anna, yes. Great.
Um, so I now move to adjourn the reorganization meeting. Second. All in favor? All in favor? This can just be a regular vote. Yeah. Great. So now we close this meeting. Do we reopen?
Okay. Sorry, I need to follow the notes here. Um, so now I open the April 30th uh regular school committee meeting at 7:13. Um, and we stand for the pledge of allegiance.
I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands. One nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Who are the minutes for public
comment? Um, so then we need to approve the uh agenda for the April 30th meeting. Are there any changes or additions? So, are we doing that? One change is that we we are going to postpone um the portion of the
executive session on MEA units B and D. Um those are not quite ready for us to approve. So, we will do those at our next meeting. And um we will though still do the executive session
um per around Dr. Watt's um contract addendum. Okay. We're doing that after this one. That will be so that will be under the chair's report. We'll go into a quick executive session and then we'll come back and vote back into open
session to vote that. So we'll take the contract. Yeah, we'll take the contract approval for MEA off of our open session approvals. We'll postpone that. Yeah. Yeah.
So, then we open public comment. So, we have public comment for 15 minutes. Um, we ask people to limit their comments to three minutes. Um, and we don't respond. um to public comment, but if that topic comes up later during the meeting, we can um address your comments or
questions then if it fits. Are you guys here for public comment? I am. All right, come on up. Yeah. Can you just introduce yourself? Hi. Hi. Yeah, sure. Hi, I'm Kristen Chandler. I am the mom of three Milton High School student athletes. Um, I'm
new to Milton relative. I've been here for three years, but relative to how old Milton is, it feels like I'm brand new, so I am very thankful for um, being here and being in a community that values education so much, especially you guys tonight. So, thank you. Um, they all I
was a little bit late. We were a bit late cuz I was just watching my daughter win first place in the two- mile out in the track meet. Um, all three of my kids are on the outdoor track team. They were also on the indoor track team and they're also cross country runners. They like to run. They also were on the
volleyball team, the lacrosse team, and the soccer team. Um, but I wanted to talk to you about the outdoor track team. Uh, this team is um the biggest athletic team that Milton High School has. It is also the most inclusive. Any
kid that wants to be on an athletic team can come join this team. There's no barring of athletic ability or experience. If you want to come join, come hang out with peers in a safe, healthy, athletic endeavor after school, you're welcome to come. And that is one
of the best things about this team. Uh it's not only inclusive, diverse, and equitable across female and male. They're presented the same. Boys compete, then the girls compete. They're the same. I love that about this team. And the girls get to be right there next to the boys. Um not only are is this
team inclusive, but it's also really good. The uh boys were the D3 indoor champions this year for Milton High, bringing a lot of um I don't know, bringing a lot of um honor to Milton High School. The girls were the runners up in the division
three championship in indoor. Um the boys were also the D3 the division 3 relay championships champions this year. This team has the chance to be the D3 champion again this year. There are a lot of really good kids on this team.
There's also a lot of individual champions including my son. Um they um they have the opportunity to repeat this in the outdoor um track division 3 championship uh which is on
unfortunately June 1st. Um these kids have been put in a bad spot. They have to choose between their high school graduation and the culminating competition which is um the culminating event of their athletic career and they have to choose between that and the
culminating competition sorry they have to choose between academics and athletics. The culminating events for both of these um things are on the same exact day. Um the D3 championship was scheduled by the MIAA um on the same
time and the same day as the Milton High School graduation. This conflict isn't just affecting Milton High School, it's affecting 12 other D3 schools. Um and in fact 56 schools across all of Massachusetts are affected in a similar
way. Um for us this date, June 1st is D3. There are 13 total schools that are affected by this. Um, these kids now have to choose um, in a lose-lose situation. They have to choose between letting their classmates down. Um, there
are 34 seniors on the track team. That's a lot. Um, if they choose competition, their senior class, 275 students, um, will feel the weight of those kids not being there at graduation. There will be empty seats. There will be empty rows.
It's the difference of um Elliot going to high-five his best friend Joshua and Joshua's not there. It's Abby wanting to go take a picture with Zakai after graduation and he's not there. They will be missed. The um they have to choose between that or they could choose
graduation. It is the most important event uh in their academic life and and it should be celebrated above almost anything else in my opinion. Um, but if they do this, they'll let their entire team down. This team has over 120 students on it. It's not just seniors.
It is all these other classmates as well, and they all have the chance to be champions this year. And if the seniors don't go, they don't stand a chance. So, they have to choose. Do I let my teammates down? Do I let my class down? Um, and to me, this is not um fair that
they have to choose. um we as adults and caring members of of the educational community can do something about this. We have two options in my opinion. We can change the time or date of graduation or we can advocate at for the
MIAA to find a different time or date for that championship. We have um a group of parents and I have advocated already with Miss Cahill to move the time or graduation date. Um that was not um successful. She said
that that is not possible. Um she met with us as parents and then met with the seniors last night to give them an option of a Zoom graduation or um another date. These kids also missed their eighth
grade graduation. They were um affected by COVID and that so they didn't walk at that point either. Um I am here to ask if you can help us. Um I would like um everybody that can that has any position or power which is
all of us as citizens and parents and the students themselves. Um, we have written a letter to the MIAA to the executive director of the MIAA asking them to consider literally any change, whether it's moving it earlier in the day, whether it's consolidating it with
the first day of competition, or maybe it could be a rain date, or it's something that I don't have any idea about. I don't want to tell them what to do, but we are asking them to not put the children in this situation. Um, the MIAA is an athletic association that should serve our schools in support
of their athletic event in support of their athletic ventures. But in my opinion, academics comes first. I would like to be an adult in this situation and let the kids be kids for just a few more weeks before they have to go out and be adults. So, I'm wondering if you can can
help us advocate um for a change here. Thank you. Did I miss anything? Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Sorry. Um, so now just make sure there's nobody. Is there anybody on? Is there
anyone online? There are a couple folks online. Nobody has their hand raised. Is there anybody online who's looking for to speak for public comment? If so, could you raise your hand? No. Okay. Seeing no one, we will move on
to the superintendent report. Thank you. You're welcome. Congratulations. Thank you. And thank you to all the Milton voters who went out and supported the schools yesterday and voted. Um we are as a
staff immensely grateful um for the immeasurable work, time and resources that so many people provided including the school committee, the Milton United campaign and all the community members who stood holding signs, put lawn signs
out, even did any small act to support the schools. It's greatly appreciated. um and it will allow us to um continue our work and to work really closely with the school committee. We understand that
we need to be mindful um and um transparent about all budgetary matters moving forward to regain the trust of the community. It's really important to us. Um and
uh assistant superintendent Blake and I met today with um incoming superintendent um Fallon and he is very um mindful of this goal and I I'm I feel
very confident that we will um be able to work together and um make you proud of the schools and um regain the trust of the community. So, thank you. Um, next week on a celebratory
note, next week is um teacher and staff appreciation week and we have many things to be thankful for, including this opportunity um to celebrate the successful override.
Last week we had a road show, celebration road show celebrating the um Milton Foundation um for education teacher of the year awards and it was it was so fun and every school celebrated
in a little different way. Um and I was very lucky as well as assistant superintendent Blake to go to all of the awards except we missed the middle school one because we had a conflict. Um, but it was a great celebration. The
students were ecstatic and so proud of their teachers. So, I would like to honor them tonight and tell you who they are. You may know some of them. Um, Kate Middleton Rookie of the Year, which is a new award, was given to a business
teacher here at Milton High School, Mr. Joshua Hammersh. Um, the Dr. Mary Mary Gracio O'Neal leadership award went to a special education teacher at the Tucker
School. Um Miss Bonnie Johnson who is lovely. I've worked with her last year. Um paraprofessional of the year also went to a Tucker School staff member. Um Eleanor Jones who's a legend at Tucker. Um the Kyleott teacher of the year was
Olivia McGrath. Um, the Cunningham teacher of the year was Anna Marie Quinn. Glover teacher of the year was Alana Craraven. Milton High School teacher of the year was Billy
Donovan. The Pierce teacher of the year, Colin Flare. And the Tucker teacher of the year was Amy Pula. Congratulations to all of those um teachers. uh they are fantastic educators and they deserve to be honored
and awarded um this prestigious um vote of confidence from their colleagues. That's great. Really exciting. Um, please remember that the Milton
Foundation for Education has an upcoming celebration, the Celebration for Education on Saturday, May 3rd at the Marriott Boston Quinsey Hotel at 5:30 p.m. and tickets are still available. And I've heard it's really a fun time.
It is. It is. Yeah, I'm sure many of you members have been there. um give a special shout out to two of our students that completed the Boston Marathon in honor of um they raised funds for Dana Farber Cancer Institute
and as you know to be a marathon runner um you do have to put significant effort into fundraising as well as running and that is Riley Bergen and Lucy Lloyd Farber. Um so congratulations to them. I
know they were joined on the course by many faculty members. Several people ran. I personally know somebody um who ran from the Tucker School and I'm sure there are many others. So congratulations to all our marathon runners. And don't forget to buy your
tickets to um Milton High School's production of Greece which they're working on right now. Um it is Friday May 2nd, Saturday May 3. Two performances on Saturday at May at two
and an evening one and Sunday at 2. So um we have two um we have two presentations that we planned to do. The meeting that was cancelled but that we have moved to the May 21st meeting. One of them is with regard to special
education here in the Milton schools and um Danielle Witmore will join us on our next meeting which is May 21st to present on that. So I just didn't want you to think that we had forgotten about that but we do plan to um present about
the special education issues on that. And we also have um another presentation about performance matters which we'll explain when we get there. Uh but tonight there are two agenda items which we do need school committee votes on and
one is on the power school mass action lawsuit and Bob Patterson and AJ are online as panelists here and they are going to um briefly summarize this lawsuit and um give you an
opportunity to um make a motion if you'd like to vote on that. So AJ and Bob, are you there? Hi. Hi everybody. Um, thanks for having me. Um, I just want to give you a brief overview of the
mass action lawsuit that is being proposed uh against Power School and we are recommending that the school committee vote to join that lawsuit because it it serves a couple of
purposes. It would indemnify the school district in case of any future litigation. And there's no cost to the school district. The only cost would be incurred is if there was a monetary
settlement that we were seeking to gain from P school, the attorneys would take 30% of that. But we are not trying to do that. We are just looking for protection uh for the future. And
um I mean that that's essentially it. There's there was a lot of information that was sent to you with summarizing the the lawsuit and the purpose. And there was a video of a webinar that I attended that explained everything that was pretty thorough. So um that's
essentially it unless AJ wants to add any more. We are recommending that uh and it's a requirement this school committee vote to join and fill out a form and then there's a long questionnaire that we probably handle.
Thank you. Bob AJ Malansen is also with us. Did you have anything to add to that or are you No. Does anyone have any questions for us? Have we had any I assume the answer is no, but have we had any prior work with this law firm before or this is just one
of the and I also assume there are a couple like law firms doing these things, but this is the one that we we've been connected with through the the power school. This one is connected through the Massachusetts Data Privacy Alliance. They have they have somehow
they are connected with this law firm and there are hundreds of school districts that are joining in on this. Any other questions? [Applause] Um, I'm Nathan Hu. I'm a new member here
and I'm just reading this now for the first time, but can you just describe how like what the indignification mechanism is? Is this through does participating in this work through an insurance mechanism? Like how
does indemnification actually come up? I believe that powers school would be responsible for any action. Okay. So if if there is an action taken by say a family me a family in Milton
that feels like their data was exposed against us, the liability transfers to power school if this lawsuit is successful. That will be one of the correct. Okay. Any other questions? Well, my experience with these class
action, the risk is somewhat low. Yeah. payoff is if there is any years and years down the line then probably minimal but the risk to your organization didn't appear to be great by joining this so do we have a um should I make the
motion somebody motion for the um to approve the um Milton I will join Yeah, I can make a motion to for the Milton public schools to join a mass action lawsuit against Power School in response to their cyber security
incident and related issues. Second. All in favor. Great. Thank you, AJ. And um I appreciate your time. Thank you. Thank you very much. Thank you all. And the o the the only other
item on um the this agenda for for me is with reference to the Southshore Educational Collaborative. And the Southshore Educational Collaborative, for those who don't know, is a group of um school districts here on the
Southshore, which provides um special education services and to supports um for some of our students who require specialized settings. and every year they request that we you as a school
committee vote on a representative who will sit on their board. Over the course of this year, Dr. Burrows has been the member. Um other years, I believe the superintendent is also appointed one of the either perhaps assistant superintendent or another representative
of the faculty. But um there's a motion in your folder and there's a little bit of information about um the Southshore Educational Collaborative for you to to vote about appointing someone for that position. And the deadline's coming up for this.
So yes, I believe it's May 15th. Yeah. Okay. Which is prior to our next meeting which is May 21st. So and it would be effective for next school year. So my only my confusion about the motion
is it's the super are we moving to appoint the superintendent says or the design. So how does that I think the language of the motion is just and or a designate so the superintendent can determine himself or
okay someone else I think Dr. Bros um had it um uh participated in it as a way to network with other districts too. Um you know depends upon who it would work best for
in terms of their schedules. Also yeah I'll make a motion to appoint the superintendent of Milton Public Schools andor a design to be Milton's representative to the Southshore Educational Collaborative. Second. So that means for the month of May it
will be Dr. Watts and then after that it will be um the interim superintendent Dr. or or a designate or if they choose to somebody else attend. Okay. All those in favor the end of my Great. Thank you.
Thank you. You're welcome. First one down. Sorry. Get back to the agenda. All right. So, do we now have to close this meeting? Do we have to Yes. So,
yeah. To move. So um um a motion to close the meeting and then do it. Is there special language? Yeah. Sorry. Um sorry. Um the motion um would be to I I'll just
go ahead and make the motion. Um the motion would be to adjourn to executive session to return to open session. Um, pursuant to Mass General Law C3A21A2 to discuss strategy and
preparation for negotiations and contract negotiations with non-UN personnel. Dr. Regina Watts, acting superintendent. Second. All those in favor? Great.
So, we know we'll So, now this meeting is paused. Yeah. and then we'll return to open session. Okay. All right, we have returned to open session and so now we are we need to
have a motion on approving the uh contract for acting superintendent Re Dr. Regina Watts. Do I have a motion? I can make the motion um to approve the addendum to the contract for Dr. Regina Watts appointing her as the acting
superintendent of the Milton public schools for the period of May 1st, 2025 through June 1st, 2025. Second. Okay. All in favor? Congratulations. Are you getting worried? No.
All right. We will now move on to the finance subcommittee report from Mark. Great. Uh thank you everyone. I think the um first thing to name is just the was discussed a little bit before but the override the overwhelming uh success of
the override vote. So uh want to take a moment to just thank all the voters in town um who came out and voted period. There was an enormous turnout which was fantastic. Uh, also want to highlight this the the overwhelming support for the override. I mean almost twothirds of
residents of voters I should say voted in favor which is remarkable um much higher than at least the last override. I'm not sure where that ranks kind of historically, but given the size of it, uh, and all the other things around, that just showed a lot of trust and
faith and and support that the residents showed for for our kids and for our staff and and for all the other departments within the town that were affected. So, I think that's that's phenomenal. I do want to take a moment personally just thank I think we all do um thank all the volunteers who helped
just so many people uh talking to neighbors, handing out flyers, knocking on doors, standing out uh connecting with fellow residents get out the word just so many people put in so much time. It is impossible to thank them all. There are um too many too many to name
but I do just want to name three individuals. uh Ralph Parent, Lindseay Bigby, and Louisa Pena Lions. These were the uh kind of primary organizers around Milton United. And again, there many other people involved who deserve a shout out, but those three in particular
uh were kind of the the organizers around that that group. I think that group ran an outstanding campaign around kind of uniting a town. And the the proof is in the pudding, so to speak, of kind of residents really responded to that message. And uh again, I I think our staff and our students would be in a
much worse place if those three residents hadn't stepped up and really taken that on uh for our town. So, thank you to uh Ralph, Lindsay, and Lisa. Uh and overall, just excited for what this means for our staff, our students, and and our town as a whole. So, thank you
to everybody who who voted. Um great. Uh move on now to uh FY25 budget updates. Um we have two things there. Uh we have a fee schedule and so
we'll start with that. This is um technically actually related to FY26 but uh essentially we at the finance committee have been working to look over the fee schedule uh and look at adjustments for next year. Um some of this is related to the override work of
um you know looking at revenues and expenses things like that. Um and Katie has made kind of a number of proposals that we've uh talked through regarding the fee schedules. Most of them again the fee schedules in your folder. Most of them are highlighted in yellow. There are some I just want to name are not
highlighted uh which is the high school athletics fees. Those are also being adjusted in the current year. Uh and to kind of go through it broadly speaking, we're making adjustments to the peer student activities fees, the high school student activities fees, the middle
school athletics fee, the high school athletics fee, the music program fee, uh and the um community schools fees. Uh we already approved as a committee some of these fees related to like
summer um the summer school um but there the rest of the fees are outstanding. This is one of the kind of looking at the history here fee changes one of the more um holistic approaches to the fee changes that the
committee has done in quite a while. So we are touching a lot of different areas here not every area. So, there are some other things we'll be looking at next year, but um anything to add, Amanda, on the fee schedule?
No. May I ask clarifying questions, please? Um, some of it mention about like per hours or per section, but some of them did not mention. So, I don't know like short-term rental for park and wreck,
for example. But, what is it supposed to mean? and they stay for the whole whole year for a se a season. Yeah, that's great. We're not changing any of the rental uh rates, but those rentals are um on an hourly basis. It's the hourly cost and it it differs by who
is renting and obviously what is being rented. Uh but none of those fees are changing. None of the rental fees affect the operating budgets as that hits the uh facility kind of revolving fund uh rental revolving fund. But those are not being changed. They are something we've
flagged within the finance committee that we're looking at potentially for next year. Anything else I missed in the fee overview, Katie? No, I was just going to mention um that the rental section was something if you look at the last increase column, those
are some of the fees that have um been in place for the longest. But we when we talked this morning during finance subcommittee, we talked about um just wanting to take some time to be able to pull in the comparable data um and then
also look at the structure of the rentals. Um just we had mentioned this morning, but I'll just mention again. Um, I think an important part for me is not only the fee that's listed, but also the administration of being able to
actually when we're saying that we're charging the fee that we can follow through on that. And I think in some instances when we look at this, it can be a little confusing and convoluted. And so I think if there's an ability for us to look at it to
potentially pull in some um comp data and then just look at the overall structure of the fee schedule as it relates to rentals. then um that is will probably be work that we can do um in the upcoming you know over the summer
and have that prepared for you to be able to discuss uh and potentially update um next school year. Yeah, just want to highlight too that that's been helpful work that um Katie has brought in as we looked at the feeds is the kind of some in certain places
bringing in comparison to other also some places looking at again what are the costs associated with some of these programs versus what the the revenue that's coming in from these um these fees and how do we better align there's still costs outside of the
fees that are being paid by the district that do hit our operating budget for clubs and sports right There are some things these fees do not fully cover 100% of those and that does our operational budget as we saw from the override um discussions but
sorry Mark just what you're I just want to make sure I understood what you were just saying is the is the goal to be able to understand what the margin is on all of these fees. Is that what you were just saying? The goal is to uh these fees are intended to offset the
operational costs so that the users are paying something. They're not they are not paying 100% of the costs associated with the things. And so uh this was looking at as our costs overall have been increasing right related to inflation. How are we adjusting the fees
slightly? Uh how are we adjusting the fees somewhat to help cover and offset the fact that the the burden on the operational budget is growing? Yeah. How do we grow the the revenue as well? Okay. Some of the programs, if I can just add, some of the programs listed on
the fee schedule are um for programs that are intended to be self- sustaining. So, when we talked about the community schools program, community schools is not funded, they don't have operational costs that are funded through the Milton public schools
operating budget. It's intended to be a self- sustaining program based off of just um the expenses are covered by the fees that are listed in this fee schedule. So there is a differentiation in some of the categories for
transportation. The fees we collect only offset a portion of the expense but in the instance of community schools that is intended to be a self- sustaining. So in this this year, our proposal and the fee increase was increased in order so
that we can continue to be self- sustaining and that we do not have to cover any costs from the operating budget. The music the programs for the the high school um the private lessons is not actually for high school students, it's for elementary school students, but uh
that's also a self sustaining program. Any other questions on the fees? Okay. Well, again, really appreciate Katie all your work in uh helping kind of guide us through this uh this year. Um and I will make a motion
to uh approve the FY26 fee schedule dated April 14th, 2025. Is there a second? Second. Great. All in favor. So that's the fees. I didn't know we
have adult education like driver's education. Driver's ed. Yeah. Which is a good price for that. Yeah. Paid for. Looking at me. Uh slowly looking at all of them. Um all right.
The next thing was uh the quarter 3 report. So, this is something we discussed briefly at the last school committee meeting. No one could hear me. Um, so I apologize for that. Uh, but again, appreciate Katie putting together the quarter 3 report. We at that time hadn't had a chance to talk about ED
finance. We were able to talk about that um this morning. Um, and so just wanted to bring it back in case there were any um questions. I don't think there's any any additional updates or information kind of gained at finance this morning that we want to make sure to share. But
I think the highlight here remains that you know we are currently projecting kind of in line with where we have been projecting in terms of that number just south of 700,000 in terms of the projected deficit at the end of the year. Um that has not increased uh which
is great. it has also not shrunk significantly. Um, which is obviously not not great, but that is where we're trending. And so depending on town meeting and the warn article associated with kind of the allocation of the 700,000 for FY25 that will be voted on
at some point during town meeting, um, you know, that additional revenue into the current year fiscal budget should help at this point kind of sustain us. I know at some points we were talking about whether or not we needed the full million. Um at this point it doesn't look like we're projecting that. Uh but
obviously there is some unknowns related to the um state um budget. The I forget what it's called. Supplemental supplemental. Thank you. That's the word I was looking for. The supplemental FY25 uh budget from the state that still is moving forward the expected revenue from
that. But again, it's it's not within our control. So it is still somewhat up in the air. Do we have any more info on that? Nothing. Nothing. Okay. So then I know at our last meeting we talked about the large group sub
coverage. Does that still work within the 700 that we're looking at? Okay. to clarify that we're not the assumption to stay under the 700 is still even if we're not implementing correct large scale sub coverage at Pierce um school
that we can still stay under even without doing that we can still stay under the $700,000 number. Any other questions? Um you know this obviously is a number we're going to need to continue to pay close attention to. Uh so we will be um
obviously there's quarter three reports. The next one's quarter four which is July. We'll be having some interim reports that Katie is putting together just to make sure we are continuing to track this so that there's any anything that is unexpected at this point that pops up. Luckily the window is shrinking and shrinking so the number
of unexpected things are shrinking with it. But um it's just something we'll continue to monitor and finance and bring back here and let keep the committee apprised. I know that the date is that was July, end of July or June 30. Like June 30th is the end of the fiscal year. So would we have a meeting
to kind of go through that because I know last year we didn't have one until like July 30th I think it was or sometime sometime later when we had that meeting. So I don't know if it makes sense to kind of walk us like have a meeting to close. Not that we want to
have an additional meeting in the summer, but just so that everybody's on the same page about like where we are and You know, I don't know if there's a way to provide an update just because we didn't Yeah. Well, the other piece that we're is we're going to need to determine what the number is that we
need to ask the warrant committee for. Um because the money is not the 700,000 is not coming to us. It's going to the town, right? Uh account and warrant committee controls that. And so we'll need to the goal is that we're not looking
for a penny more than we need, but we won't technically know that exact number until the budget is closed out in July. And so um the timing work. Yeah. So, I'm never
quite done this before, but uh I assume I mean you can still go back and allocate the funds past July 1st back to cover the FY25 because that's what the uh town meeting boat was for was to allocate an FY25. So, that covers that and you have some time within after the
fiscal year to like clean up the fiscal year and get those things. So, but we would need probably a vote, I would assume, from school committee to make the request um of the warrant committee. I'm not 100% sure since we already voted to ask for them, but probably would u
defer to the chair on that. And um and then we'd need to go in front of the warrant committee and they'd have to have a special meeting. So, that is something we could do technically, I guess, before July or June 30th if we felt really good about what the number is. Um, and if we're not 100% sure, then we
could we could hold off. But yeah, those are I think our two avenues either. Yeah, I just think like again, I think just as we talk about process and you know, improving like what we learned from last year, just, you know, there needs to be something where we can all
get together and kind of really understand it, make sure like everybody's good with it, you I think it'll be I think it'll be helpful for us, you know, just so uh even if it's like a a Zoom meeting or something, you know, over the I know it's tough like Yeah. But
but but yeah, I think I think that would be helpful. I mean, I think that's the one thing that we were even talking about meeting like you're talking about pulling a report. Um what were you saying that the a lot of the like the stipens and everything hit in May? So even then like pulling a report then to
know sort of where we are given that May is probably the last big salary month and then and having a sense of that. And one other question so the only you know the other big area where surprises can happen would be with
special ed. So is there I assume there's like ongoing communication with you and Danielle or if something's coming up or you see something you know cuz she sort of would know if things are on the horizon she that communication is coming to you guys so that you're that there's sort of a hey
this child could be going out of district or we have a child moving in or something along those lines. Okay. Mhm. So we and there are flagged like do you have like a I don't know how else to ask is there a mechanism almost like for flagging it for you in your budget and
um so we have been meeting collectively um kind of uh with the business office and special education um to talk about the budget on a monthly basis. we just met um not obviously not last week it was
the school vacation week but the week before and so at this point in the year although it is a really busy time of year um because we're we're getting towards the end of the school year even
if we were to have some potential student that um could potentially be going out of district it's just the window is that much because we'd only be paying for a certain number of days. So I think as we progress to the end of the
fiscal year, we're we're still monitoring it very closely. And we do have different situations where there may be expenses that come up that we weren't anticipating, but those expenses should
be smaller in nature than they would than they could potentially be in January or um yes earlier in this school year. So um still really monitoring it closely, but as as I said, as each kind
of day goes by, we know that that's one more day that we potentially are not paying for Yeah. that cost. Many of the big surprise moveins occur over the summer. Yeah. Yeah. Versus more logical time for families to move. Yeah. Yeah.
Okay. coming out of probably a town meeting. Once that votes are done, it probably it's going to make sense for us to meet with the town administrator and the head of the warrant committee, uh the chair of the warrant committee just to align on kind of that that process because we know we're going to need to
go back to warrant committee. And so we we'll need to figure out to your point, Anna, like the exact timing of like is that just before June 30th? Is that just after June 30th? Um and just what what makes sense um because obviously some of the funds also the gap is also being
closed through the use of reserve accounts too um which is what not we don't have to go to them for control. Do we have the opportunity to go to Warren Committee and recommend because I'm just wanting to be mindful of the timing to
ask for the 700,000 say before the end of the fiscal year. But then if we do not have to utilize it cuz we only want to utilize what we we're just utilizing what we need once the books are closed. Um yeah,
I think I think we should just have meet with Nick and uh Tom and see what they see what the Yeah. what they feel comfortable with after we get through. Okay. To know if town meeting even approves the plan in general, right? And that we're still tracking to under that
number and that that's we're not going to need to go back to warrant or town meeting or select board for anything else. So good questions. Anything else on the Q3
reports? Okay. Um, then I have one more. Uh, I we only have the vendor warrant two here. 42 here, Katie, but we had that adjustment to 40. That was on your desk. We'll just we can loop back with Gail on that and do
it next time. Is that right? I just want to flag that for the Please. Yeah. Um All right. We I will make a motion um to approve vendor warrant 42 in the amount of $243,41424 payable on 5125. Uh that is a one I sent out today
for all. Uh is there a second sign? Any discussion? All those in favor approved. That's the end of finance update. All right. Right. This is me. Um so approval
and then so we have minutes in the folder. Um we have minutes for this is correct. April 2nd. Mhm. April
23rd. Yeah. April 2nd and April 23rd. Does anybody need So if we can take them separately because I wasn't here for this second. Okay. Right. So for April 2nd, I can make a motion. Great. Chair is
ready. I'll make a motion to approve the minutes from April 2nd, 2025 Milton School Committee meeting. Second. All in favor? and great.
And then I'll make another motion to approve the minutes from April 23rd, 2025 Milton School Committee meeting. Second. All those in favor? Extensions. Any extensions? Thank you. Sorry. Oh, this is gonna be fun.
Um, patience, please. Yeah. All right, moving along. All right. Um, and I just closed out the agenda. So, I think that was the next meeting. The next meeting. Um, any agenda items?
So we have so we have the special Danielle's going to do her presentation special education presentation and we're also going to do a brief presentation about performance matters uh electronic platform that we're opening for families with more information about their um
students scores on um various testing. Oh okay. And then I think we'll also have our school choice hearing. Okay. That has to be approved by June 1st. And then next week is town meeting, right? And town meeting. Monday, Monday,
Monday, Tuesday. Um they're not skipping this time, didn't they? They're doing Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday next week. Yeah. And the following week, too. We got the following week. Write your Monday. Hopefully we don't. Oh, is that why our
school committee meeting is pushed to? Yeah. That's why it's three weeks from now is because of town meeting. Okay. And then would there be um the normal would it be like finance report then is there um facilities or
policy policy? Is there anything going on with either of those? I think we'd have to do the reorg, right? I mean like figure that out. How does that work? Policy is scheduled for May 20th. So I think my sense of how
this tends to work is that we try to do the reorganization of subcommittees by the end of June like Okay. Um and so I think between now and June, those of us who are on subcommittees are
sticking with our assignments and Nathan will be um we'll send out the list of Yeah. Amanda can Yeah. Amanda, you can send that out to everybody. Um, like the information and people can have the opportunity to Yeah.
share preferences for assignments for next year. Um, and I'll help you work through that process. And I said the student but so student reps are coming on May 21st to
just oh to unra summary on the projects they have worked on this year and the next steps. Great. Do we need to meet before town meeting?
Uh, I don't believe we need to meet as a full committee before town meeting because there's nothing um there's nothing for us to weigh in on that we haven't apart from our budget and the
um this the $700,000 request which we've already obviously voted to request. So, I don't believe we need to um have a special meeting. I think, you know, we'll work together
to get our pre our information ready to share Mark and [Music] um we'll learn more tomorrow from Nick about the expected plan for the meeting.
So I I don't Yeah, I guess if we learn something other and we need to meet, we can Okay. Right. Like set that up. Nathan, we sit in the in the front row. Oh, yeah. Oh, I
know. I'll be there. And I in that row. Is there anything else for the next meeting? policy policy will have met the day before so we could policy just
sorry I'm just looking I'm not I don't know about facility doesn't meet till the 26th okay what about school building committee Mark is that you can I don't I don't think we're meeting before the
21st I find out different I'll okay let you know anything else all right if not then do I have a motion to adjurnn motion Second. Second. All in
favor. Thanks. Congratulations. [Music] Part: 2
[Music] Rip
it. Any all right we are uh going to call the meeting to order here at 8:08 uh a.m. Um I will for the record Selena Miranda finance committee member is no longer on school committee. term ended
yesterday and so uh it's just Amanda and I as well as other members here. Um the jump down to we obviously got the good news about the override. I'm sure we'll talk about that a little bit more attended full school committee, but thank you everybody for all of your work
on that. Uh we have the FY25 budget report. We have the fee schedule which I think we should talk about first just because we need to vote on that tonight. Uh and then we have kind of discussion of presentations I think for the town meeting just to make sure we're on the
same page about those. Um it's all right with everybody. We can start with the fee schedule which there is a copy in the finance folder for today. Um we cannot project this but I assume
everybody can pull it up. Do you want to just do a recap of where we stand? Sure. So, um, at the last meeting we or at previous meetings, we've talked about changes to a number of the fees in the fee schedule. Um, so
the feed schedule that is in the folder, I tried to go through and update that last increased column to reflect the appropriate fiscal years of when we had um when the the increase was most
recently approved. So you should be able to see that reflected in the chart. Um, for today, the one change that is reflected on the fee schedule, but we haven't previously discussed is an
update to the music program fee. Um, and it says music program. There's a reference to the high school because the program is held here at the high school. Um, and so I worked with the applied music lesson program director, Rebecca
Damiani. um to take a look at the fees and go through the process of saying um if we were going to increase the fees, kind of what is an appropriate rate to increase it to. The lesson fees hadn't been
increased since September of 2022. Um and because the lesson fees hadn't been increased, the rate that we are paying the um instructors also had not increased. And so we just felt like
it was an appropriate time to increase the fees so that we could also um provide a corresponding rate increase for the or um corresponding pay increase for the um music lesson providers. And
so, um, Rebecca went through, um, and pulled some comparisons to other schools, um, in our district, um, in the MMEA Eastern District, which
is the district that the music program participates in, um, to look at the rates. And she built the rates for the 30 minute lessons for the 24-25 school year. And so we are
um and I didn't provide this. I absolutely can provide this information, but we are well within the comparable districts. Our rates are actually um on the lower side compared to some of the
other districts in the MMEA Eastern District. So, we felt like it was appropriate to um you know, we wouldn't be either the most expensive or the least expensive district. Um so, the proposed change is the current lesson
rate is $30 per 30 minute lesson and that's for a private lesson, $19 for a 30 minute lesson for a semi-private lesson. And so, the lesson rate increase would be $33 for a 30 minute lesson. And
that's for the private lessons, so a $3 increase. And then it would be um $22 for a 30 minute semi-private lesson. And that is also an increase of $3.
Um so there is also in addition to the um the lesson charge, there's also a registration fee. What the registration fee does is it covers um some of the overhead for the program, but then it
also covers um for some of the students that may um not be able to afford to pay for the lessons. It does cover funding for a number of scholarships for those students so that they're able to participate even if um they aren't able
to afford the lesson fee. And so Um, that registration fee is currently $45 and that's per session. So, if you participate, you have to pay the $45 registration fee for each one of the
sessions. We're proposing to increase it to $50 per session. And again, that gives us the ability to cover our overhead. That's the stipen for the program director and those scholarships. Um and um the $50 fee has not similar to
the lesson fee. It hasn't been increased since 2022. Um so all of those changes, all of that information is reflected in the new proposed um fee schedule. And then some of the
other changes um that we had talked about briefly before were just updates to the community schools um before school program, after school program. Um and those rates are in the fee
schedule and then just changes to student activities at both your middle school and at um Milton High School. When we look at things like the music program or some of those when we're
thinking about the costs is it so that it is uh like cost so it's not costing us anything is that the that's the goal for I mean and is that something that we meet for all of those okay so for some of the programs um for the music program
for example there there is not any funding for these music lessons in the operating budget. So these the fees that the students are paying or the families are paying um are covering all of the costs. So it's a self- sustaining
program for the student activities. It's not self- sustaining and so the fees that we're collecting or the revenue that we collect is only offsetting a portion of the expense. So for middle school and high school student
activities, it's only a portion. The remainder of the expense is covered um by the state and budget in the operating budget. And is that something you know I think we talked about this before,
but looking at that like across all of the clubs and activities and determining like is there almost like a tiered or however you want to look at it stipened a way that the stipens are determined based on maybe the level of involvement
or expertise needed to run that club. So, right now the stipens are determined um the payment for the stipens or the amount that the instructor or the teacher or whomever is um leading the
extracurriculars that's all driven by the collective bargaining agreement. And so, um, in the collective bargaining agreement, it just has a list of all of the clubs and activities that have ever run. It doesn't necessarily mean that they're all funded, okay, in the budget.
And I think the work that needs to be done is um and this is work that we can do kind of leading up to contract negotiations is just to look at the stipens that we're currently paying. Look and see if the you know the rates are appropriate given what the club or
activity kind of the frequency um how many students are participating. So I um and then of course just making sure that we're staying within that club and activity budget because we can't I think
that that really is going to be so important for us moving forward making sure that we regardless of um if it's listed in the contract or not if we don't have the funding available and there are more there are other clubs
that um almost need to run when we talked about the budget and kind of like the funding that was available to us. There are some clubs and activities at the high school that we essentially almost have to run to keep our NEAS accreditation. Um and I think
it's just kind of like weighing um the availability of funds and then what is actually running any other questions on the fees? [Music] Um, I think did we talk about work we
did before? I'm sorry I'm a little rank cramp today. For community schools, did we talk about sharing or presenting um comparable or like where we where lo where other
communities are with respect to their did we do that before did we present that there is information so I can put a copy of that in the folder for today but we are when we looked at the comps we're low yeah our community I just think if we're as we're having the discussion that it would be helpful to know where
we fall so I think there were what's the chart I thought there was a chart I better remember that I had shared um I'm not sure if it was in a presentation or if it was actually like just in um a Google sheet, but I can find that it
was like in a school. I can't remember if it was the December one when we first first talked about this and we tabled this until you know what, February. I think it was the most recent conversation that we had which would have been maybe earlier in April or at the end of March but there was
um we had a number of yeah I recall that that I can't so I think that's right to also just put in for the other um school committee members for tonight. Thank you. And then the the last
thing I we had talked about but then I think it was talking about not changing everything at once. Were we looking at the rentals like the shortterm and longterm? I don't think we were looking at them this year. They were um things. Yeah,
because they I agree with you. It's been so long since we increased them. We talked about looking at that next year. I think the other piece though is that those are not operation don't impact the operational budget. Um actually it's just yeah revolving fund and building that back
up. Um which is something that probably will need to happen because we're going to be we're running it down over the last two fiscal years. Yeah. And it just it looks like you know it's been a long time 14 15. Yeah. Absolutely. Those are six been the most consistent ones. Yep. It's been um
saying we got a the rental of the auditorium or town 100,000 gap I think with the um rental schedule sometimes um the schedule has everything kind of broken down um and so
as we do that work it will be interesting to look at how other school districts text format their rentals. um and if there's a way for us to potentially either simplify it or
um so that's that is definitely some of the work that needs to happen before we I think instead of just kind of rolling over and just updating each individual fee because a piece of it too when it comes to the fees is it's one thing to
have a fee schedule listed but we need to it's the administration of it right and so um if we're not actually charging the fees and administering the programs in the way that it is listed and designed then it won't matter what we
charge because there's no you know we're not bringing that revenue in and so I think if there's a way to kind of look at that the rental the overall rental program kind of holistically to say is this making sense are we actually covering our costs are we bringing in
appropriate revenue to be able to invest into these facilities that we're they're they're community spaces um and there are so many people that are accessing them on a daily and annual basis. So, we want to make sure that we can keep um
that revenue that's coming in, we're really investing in those facilities to keep them up to date and maintained well. Um so, I think that can be a part of it too, but yeah, maybe not this year. Maybe we can um that could be a a
focus for next year. And are these hourly? Is that an hourly rate? I believe so. Okay. Yes. Thank you. Thank you for putting together all the changes in this um document.
Um thanks for spending all the time walking us through. Sure. uh in given the missing the meeting from a couple we don't have vote on the finance agenda for this item. This item actually is
fits under FY26 budget. It's not specifically listed with a vote. So I for sake I think we can just skip a vote and just have the full conversation at school committee. And I think there is a vote on the agenda for school
committee tonight. So, uh, great. That's it for fee schedule. Uh, jumping back to FY25 budget and the Q3 report. We had the very high level
overview at school committee. Um, last week, nobody could hear me. Uh, and guess are there any any questions or anything you want to highlight again here or that we weren't able to get into
last week? Um I think the format of this it may have been converted from PD let me see the Google doc format is I will update that when it was converted
from a PDF to a Google doc the formatting um so I'll update that so it is shared kind of in a way that um is easier to read so that way when we post it to the website that's kind of um
again it's just easier to read. I don't have any further updates other than I think for the quarterly report. The quarterly reports are always done kind of like um with a specific end date and
it really is just going to be from this point forward consistently updating the projection. So, at this point, um it's not as much of the general expense projections, although we still will have some transportation expenses for out of
district students that may come up. Um, a few different things. Certainly not at the volume as the beginning of the school year and as we're kind of progressing through the fall and the winter. Um, the big thing at this point in the year is going to be the salary
expenses. And so in this pay period that we're currently frosting that will hit the books. Um I believe it's a May pay period date because it's effective on Thursday. Um so it will be May 1st.
We're paying a number of stipens. So we pay the stipens out um twice a year in November, in December, and then in May. And so that truly gives us the ability to see what that overall expense line is
going to be because there are some fluctuations in the stipens. So that information is coming in. I'll be able to update. It won't be a projection anymore. It will be an actual expense. And so that helps us to kind of firm up
that um ending balance number as we continue to make those payments throughout the end of the fiscal year. Um I think we'll just continue to do updated projections even though it may not be a quarterly report, but we can
just continue to provide kind of those year-end projections as um we get closer to the end of the year. And then the um in June we have those really important pay cycles of we do the lump sum
payments. So anyone that is a 26 pay employee meaning they get paid throughout the fiscal year um they will get paid the lumpsum. So they'll get that total payment for the summer and that will happen in June. And so it's a
lot of those salary expenses will start to get paid out. just making sure that our projections are reflecting what those expenses will be so that way we have a really strong understanding um of where we'll land at the end of the year.
I haven't heard any updates on the circuit breaker funding from the state, but I know that that had um it is still potentially going to be funded for this fiscal year. So I think there is, you know, we're still very closely tracking
that. Um, but again, no updates since our last meeting and since the report um was shared with you kind of at the book community meeting. Um, we should probably just double check
with Nick on the drop dead date for the June town meeting. Sure. Just as like when if if we need to in the event. Yeah. In the event it's over 700. What is that? And have that okay? Again, hopefully that's completely
unnecessary, but good to know. Uh, any questions on any particular line items? Again, Anna, if you're I'm looking at the spreadsheet, so if you are raising your hand, I'm not seeing you. Please just jump in. The only thing on the spreadsheet
on the Sorry, I'm trying to figure out which page it is by doing it this way. Some of them I think it's towards the end. The formulas are funky on the white. Okay, they're coming up. It just comes up. It's only for like where did it just go?
Sorry. Yeah, I see it. I'll go back to You said towards the end. Yeah, it was towards the end. This was looking at it. Are you looking in the in the doc in the
Google doc? No, I'm looking Okay, I'm looking at the PDF. Uh, yeah. And first, now I don't see it. Oh, wait. All right. I'll come back to it because I'm not seeing it now. Did you say one? Um the last
page I guess start with a broader question. Each of these line items is they're hundreds and hundreds of line items. Are all of these created by the school district just over time or these are all of these mandated by the
state? Because I know our line items are a bit different although there's certain reporting rates to report them within very specific ones for the state. Yes. But it Yeah. Anyways, just I guess that was one question I had just as I continue to read through line items. So each one of the account numbers, the
school department has the ability to create account number and account number if one doesn't already exist where the expenses would fall under a certain C category. So this state the department of education
provides us with they're called fun different it's different account codes and each one of the account codes creates an account string which creates that account number and it has the corresponding account name and so desi
gives us very defined kind of function codes object codes like different codes that we have to use and the combination of them is what is representative of what the expense is. And so if we have an expense, if something different comes
up or if it may be something that we haven't um had to spend money on previously, we may potentially have to set up a new account, we do it based off of the information that's provided us to from Desi. And it's a combination of
different characteristics that make up the account number. I think in looking at this um it's really important to make sure that um our accounts are are clean and updated because that's the information that we report to the state
and that information is what makes up our per pupil expenditures. And when the state breaks down each one of those category areas, the one that breaks down what we're spending in transportation or what we're spending in our instructional
costs, that is very much driven by these these accounts and the way that we're setting up our chart of accounts. Yep. Can I piggy back on that for a second? So when I look at like there so there's some
where there are no costs. Mhm. Um so for example some of it was in say um instructional materials um you know like it lists it out um and then similarly like for special ed
transportation that just is the page I happen to stop on um there's a line but then there are four lines under it that aren't. So are those diff like what's the difference between the line where between that and the others and is that something that that those need to be
there and like or is that is it just that that's a different is it a different code of tuition to a special ed school. So it's it's determining the type of they're they're like they're subate categories within the category. Okay. And the state
very much wants us to report out our expenditures based on the school and the location. And they do that and that information creates um the district report card. And so the report card is information and that really is in an
effort to provide financial transparency to communities. So they can look and they can see, well, what is what is the district spending money on or how much are they spending on specific schools and is there equity in that? Are they um
making sure that each one of the schools is funded appropriately based off of the demographics, all of that information. And so in some areas instead of just having one broad c one like overall category you may see it multiple times
because it's broken down by the school and the state very much wants us to break that information down by the school. In some instances it's hard to do that because it may be an expense that we just purchase it and then we distribute it. Um, but that that can
create some of the redundancy when you see the account names and the account numbers in there too because it won't be listed multiple times because it's broken out by the school. I think the important thing when I look at the chart, when I look at their reporting is sometimes what it happens is when you
have a budget and you are um and it's assigned to an account number. Sometimes what happens in schools um not just specific to Melton but just kind of like it you know broadly is that um people will spend
money where the budget is and I have really tried very hard and I feel very strongly about saying no we have to spend we have to reflect the expenses and the accounts that the expenses incurred regardless if there's a budget
or not because that's what helps drive the budgeting process to say last year there was although there may not have been an assigned appropriation, there was an expense assigned to this account number, we're going to reflect it
accordingly. That way we can budget appropriately in the future. And so that's in some instances where you'll you'll see a line that's blank. There isn't a budget assigned, but then there is an expense. it's okay because we kind of categorize or we'll sum up by major
um class center areas. Um but it's it's really important to do that so that then we can update the budget moving forward. I hope that makes sense. It's just kind of more of I think sometimes the um when you look at the line level detail it can kind of be like oh why are they spending
there? There's no money. But it's really important to make sure that we're reflecting the expenses in the correct accounts because it's rolling up correctly. Yes. Right. And you might have a budget a roll up you have a budget for that category but not necessarily for that code at that point.
Okay. And even for the high school I think at the high school level when you talk like a good example would be instructional materials at the um at the elementary schools we have one line for each one of the schools. At the high school, we may fund the instructional
materials at the high school level, but it's then the budget further breaks it down by the content area. So it will say high school music, high school English, high school math and assigning the expenses to each appropriate department
helps us track to see what are we focusing which area have we spent money on. Which area may we need to focus on in the future knowing that the fund funding really is at kind of like that top high school level. But it can be
further broken down into the content area. I just feel like this um approach is such a shift that it's given me is so helpful to continue explaining this,
right? You know, um so that people will move towards absorbing that this is a totally different way of doing it. Yeah. I also wonder though like for you Katie like this is the first year you're doing you're sort of taking the way that it
was and doing it this way. So I almost feel like the budget was built right with that in mind but then this is going to it's almost like just keep getting more refined and more better as you change those as those practices change. There is definitely some cleanup that
can happen I think to make it um to make sure that we are charging to the right places. And I also think that in breaking down each one of the budget lines into the specific content areas or at the school level that that really
does help create that shared ownership of everyone is tracking the budget. It's not just me tracking it. It's the directors are tracking their lines and the principles are tracking their lines and everyone has an eye on the budget so that they know how much what the budget
has been appropriated, how much they can spend um and so that they can truly focus on spending the money on what we actually need instead instead of everything kind of being funneled through one mechanism or one person. Um,
and so everyone has been really I think that is a a big shift too and I think there's been a lot of work that has happened. There's a lot of work that needs to continue to happen to make sure that that's a continuous process. Um, and that also helps with the engagement
when we're talking about creating a budget because it's hard to say what you'll need if you don't even know what you have, right? Um, so that's just more more work to continue to improve upon. So I think that will continue
certainly into the future. So I'm thinking about I remember at citizen speak um in citizen got up and asked about the budget and I think they were asking about sort of even at a more granular level sort of in the sense of like
copers or do you know what I mean like some I think and so I think is that is what you're saying like that will then this change in practice would then almost like populate the budget in that way so that it is on a more granular
level so that you know that at Glover this is for copers or copy paper or whatever the case may be whereas it might have been going to a different line item so which is where they were used to putting it. Yep. Because that's where the budget was right and it's like we don't just assign it to where the
budget is. You put it in the appropriate line and then the budget should you know we need to make sure that the budget is reflected. Yeah. So it's a change in process across it. Yeah it is. It's a shift. It's a shift. Yeah. I think it's helpful. needed.
Thank you. Guess a couple things on that. Is there a way to within these reports as I'm approaching this and thinking about public looking at these documents like it is not an easy to read document. No. And so like what are the ways in which
we can make this report better for us and our own understanding but also the public. And so it's all the blank like the second to last page is essentially just like blank. And so like is there a way in which we can just filter out like any accounts that are essentially inactive like that historically were
used? I'm not sure if they can be closed period but at least filter them off this. I think the other thing I've wondered is the organization in terms of like what what is where I assume is linked to account numbers which we're not seeing and so it's like the lowest
account number to highest. Uh but there's not actually a like it's not actually in my mind clear as to like okay we're talking about custodial salaries here and then later on it's like custodial overtime or custodial supplies and like salaries are
kind of mixed throughout um even the different like schools are somewhat close together and things but sometimes they jump. Um so yeah I I don't know if there's something we can do or or discuss around like how do we think about the grouping or ordering to
make it feel like it's clear to say hey here are the you know facilities related expenses here are the like materials operating supplies related expenses here the salary related expenses um I also got to imagine it's very conf because the way we structure it at our
place is like we have a line item but then we have a program the program is what connects it to the school, not the like there's not we don't have a separate line item for every school. Is that how it works here too? And it just when you print the report, it it
consolidates those two into separates or I don't know if this is a limitation of the system, but it seems like we have again a separate line item for Tucker heating buildings, Cunningham heat of buildings, oil helicop like you have. So
then you have and then you have a network or districtwide So you have what's that seven different accounts all for one line item. So the way it was Okay. So just to start with the the reporting. Yeah. Yeah. Sorry. So
the first financial report was done with a memo that just kind of provides context. Yeah. And then it was all of this information but it was broken into um cost centers and then it was broken out by general expense and salary. Yeah.
So that was more of that's how when um I've shared quarterly reports in the past, that's typically the format. It's a higher level kind of um summary of all of this information
because of the financial status in December and because of the questions that had arisen from well, you're in a deficit, what's going to happen next year? Yeah, that's when I shifted or changed the report from being that more
of like that summary data report to this is everything. You're seeing everything. Yeah. So, and this is the everything report that we shared the budget in. However, with the budget presentation, there's also exhibits that do just what
you were talking about, like kind of that summary. And so all of the information is is here. I think it's just a matter of what is appropriate to share in a quarterly report, what is appropriate to share as our budget
presentation. And I can do anything like I can do any of or a combination. It's just whatever is kind of helpful. And I think what it what is like kind of um what makes information consumable for
the public for us here because it it truly was like the intent was just to show this is the information. nothing is this is everything right and um you can see what
the expenditures are and what the projection is for this year but that this file also shows what the budget is for next year and so um but I think when I've always presented the quarterly reports as that summary information
because it's because that was appropriate at the time that was being in the scenario of not have not projecting a budget deficit. So, being able to roll up the information was was, you know, providing um the information
on an appropriate level. And so, again, I'm happy to provide the information whatever format makes sense. And I think as we kind of like just in moving forward if there's a change or if there's something where we say you know maybe it's not a quarterly report maybe
it's a quarterly report but it looks different then I'm happy to do whatever kind of works the best. Yeah I mean I think it's the balance is you know what is the system limitations and obviously like not creating some type of report that is very manual that's not uses
time. Um, so yeah, but maybe this in my mind this gets back a little bit to what you had like previously. Yeah, like looking at other just yeah finance committees and what are the types of and also even just what you've found help like what you've done in the past and found helpful like sort of what you were
just saying like are there ways that you've done it historically that are helpful? There is definitely some work too. I think I had mentioned it maybe at the warrant committee meeting that we attended um earlier, but um there is
work that is being shared for my business officials association just around best practice of what other business officials are sharing with the school committee and they're sharing with their communities in regards to the quarterly reporting. Um and so in a
couple of weeks we have our we have a conference for the business officials. So that's more that's more information that if it's helpful I can try to kind of get samples of how the information is shared in other communities if that
would be helpful to you all too. Um so that you can just kind of see and whatever um is kind of the best way to summarize the information we can do that. Yeah, they can share it. Um that's something we can
look at this year into next year. [Music] Um great. Any other questions on the quarter three
report? Okay. And I just have a general question about going forward. You mentioned Mark about checking the deadline for him. So, do we is there a plan or maybe that can be like outlined tonight for
what our process over the next few weeks to make sure that um if it hopefully unlikely event we need to do something that there's a plan for like
um tracking this enough in the real you know to be ready to not to do that if necessary. Um, you mean like if it doesn't the are you talking about like state funding doesn't come? Yeah, basically. Or if some other
like huge unexpected I don't know like Yes. mainly the tracking. Yeah. State funding didn't come in. That's a big problem. Yeah. That's the that's the big I mean it's almost $500,000. That really is a well we won't
if that's we're going to have to do like having what's our plan B to make sure that we would not miss the opportunity to go to the June town meeting if we have to if the circuit record doesn't come in we'll have to
yeah we'll have to figure it out with the town what we do to close that um yeah yeah I think that starts with like just what is the drop dead date for the June Yeah. Piece. And then uh you said
when were we looking at you're doing like a end of April report or like May middle middle I guess we could do a report kind of around that time whatever that drop dead date is. If it's May 15th we try and have 21st
for school committee. Yeah. Yeah. So like if there's action that we need to take it would probably need to be at that meeting. Okay. Um so the for the reporting from now until the end of the year it really is partial it it will partially be
driven by processing payroll. Yeah. Yeah. Um so payroll will post I think it's the May we have three pay periods. Um, so I'm just trying to look at the calendar to see if it makes sense to um
if we press payroll on the 15th, it's then waiting for that to be posted. So it may just make more sense to do maybe a run a report at the end of next week which will include this first cycle. Um but it regardless I
think that if we're saying we have a meeting on the 21st then we'll have um projections ready so that we can talk about what the okay next steps with the right in the Yeah. And just also you know even if
stuff comes through if we are projecting at $71,000 that's still like a $1,000 that deficit we're going to have to go back to the town for. So we are and hopefully all that is not an issue.
Um how much time do you get like from the standpoint of the state saying yes it's going to happen? Is it sort of um are there set meetings where it's
discussed? Are there just is it do you know do you know what I like is it sort of like okay they're having the finance meeting the governor's meeting around such and such and so at that date it will be discussed or is it just sort of arbitrary I'm going to go with arbitrary right it so I don't have I don't have
enough experience because it's part of a supplemental budget I think the supplemental budget doesn't follow the defined kind of because with the state budget for the upcoming fiscal year it's the governor's budget and then it falls kind of like the hearing schedule of the
Senate and the House um with the the intent of having everything finalized so that we can so the budget is appropriated and voted and approved as of July 1st. but with a supplemental budget. This supplemental budget that is specific that has a circuit breaker
funding um seems to be following a similar timeline, but with previous supplement bills that I've seen it um it there's a quicker timeline to kind of go back and be appropriated because it's
forc a specific fiscal year. And so I just don't I don't have good clarity which is making me really uneasy about saying like okay this is the date that we're going to know right. Um, I do know though in the past what has happened was
when there was supplemental funding that the Department of Education has put that funding in the last quarterly payment that is made for circuit breaker and we usually receive that on like June 30th. So it's at the very end of the fiscal
year. So it doesn't give us much time. All right. Thank you for all your work tracking this and doing what we can. Um, anything else on the Q3 report? All right, then we'll jump
to the town meeting presentations. So, it seems to me there are two presentations we need. We need to do our normal budget presentation, which I assume we'll just pull from combination of committee public presentations. We've done the
select board. So, that one we've got lots of slides on. And then the other one is related to the $700,000 movement that's how many will need to do. And that to me seems like again that's essentially just select board presentation we did when we asked them to move the million. They chose to
do the 700,000. So, it's just that and then obviously using updated numbers within the projections but doesn't seem like the two. Is that right? Anything else finance-wise or anything else we haven't shared previously that we think we need
to put some slides together on for our meeting? I think so. Look at the 700 again. Um I I do about override nonoverride since we took
the path of townwide vote first. Um and obviously got that great result. Are we still needing to present the non-override budget um to town meeting since town meeting has to also approve the override? Yeah, I mean technically
town meeting could vote not to allocate the full 9.5 million colleability taxes, but town meeting cannot allocate it to the schools and the way they they choose to. Um, but I would assume that override the
townwide vote like that's the part where I get confused on the timing of this. The townwide vote is not to fund the schools. Oh, it's about these positions. It's Yeah, it's that about the big numbers that the town Yeah, they voted to allow the town to levy taxes in this additional amount.
Um, yeah, but I'd assume, Lizzie, like the the point of the presentation really should probably just focus on the override budget and then we can have information on the non-override budget. Okay. But you're right, it is somewhat uncharted territory for Milton given
that maybe Nick, maybe there needs to be like a meeting with Nick to just clear up who's presenting what you know. Um yeah, it seems like a waste of town meetings time. If really the discussion
now is on the override numbers like that's what we should discuss and obviously if questions come up from town meeting members related to the non-override budget for some reason we can have some stuff. Yeah. Like appendix slides might have to be done technically though. Do you know what I mean? Seems
like a waste of time but it's That's what I'm working on that meeting. That's what I'm wondering. Yeah. And I know there's a meeting for the meeting tomorrow at 9. There's a meeting. Why is this May? Okay. Annual
town meeting prep call. So, um, Peter and I were invited to this. Okay. Peter will be there. Nick Milano organized this meeting. Great.
I I was obviously included as the current chair, you know, not that I tomorrow is like a new day, but I can attend this meeting, you know, because I'm now I'm sorry I'm looking at this. Nobody has accepted the invit. I think
nobody knew like what's going to be going on. Yeah, it's from 9 to 11 tomorrow annual town meeting hall. So, you want me to ask
for like Regina and Katie for you to be invited to that at least? I think that probably makes sense to see if I'm able to. I have a curriculum coordinators meeting. I will work on rescheduling that I
um but I think if if Katie can are from 9 to 11 our agenda too. Well, we are organizing the work moving forward for the the remainder of the year now that we've had a successful outcome. But I'm happy to um I'm going to email Nick
the two of you. I'm going to copy you and I'm just going to say don't know who the chair is going to be tomorrow. I'm available to attend if I even if I'm not the chair, but like someone has to be there to
conduit the information back so that we can prepare. Y has I mean has obvious on it but he's yeah I think connecting with to your general point I think connecting with Nick on the the structure of the
presentations for town meeting to make sure they're aligned and yeah probably looping in the new moderator probably makes sense too She's gonna have a lot on her plate. I'm asking a more basic question too is when and which night is this? Do we know yet
or that meeting planning? No, I go in the town meetings the presentation well it it is usually typically in this meeting we would walk through the agenda identify what well typically uh the moderator has prepared the consent
agenda which pulls the anticipated less controversial articles into a consent agenda that would be presented at the beginning of town meeting if town meeting town meeting members can like pull things out if they want the opportunity to discuss separately, but
whatever stays in the consent agenda gets approved. And that just kind of so the uh of the non-consent agenda items as far as what night they'll be happening on, it really depends like how much is on the consent agenda. Okay?
Because then the whole order of the articles, which usually goes from like front to back, gets reshuffled though, okay? because of the consent agenda. Yeah, because things that were before your thing
may need to be done might be done all in one. Yeah, I'd assume it's probably a Tuesday. I mean, usually probably Yeah, Tuesday or Wednesday like the school budget is not on the first day. Yeah, the first day. But I can't think of what else is
[Music] and there's no special before the regular town meeting. Correct. There's no special town meeting. There's a special one in June, but not before this. Well, I think Are you think of the because the allocation
for the 700,000? Yeah, actually. But I think Nick had said that that wasn't going to require a special town meeting. It was just able to be incorporated within this town meeting and therefore because otherwise that would be the first and that be like the first presentation essentially.
But that's another thing ultimately a lot of these things come back to we need to like check with Nick and figure out what the I won't even I have my warrant article book honestly and I have not cracked it yet. That's working on the override stuff. So,
uh, Anita, it's usually the it's usually the operating budget article is usually like six or seven in the Lori, but it may be different here. Yeah, it's on the website. We can pull it up, but we should we'll check with
Nick and yeah, be clear. Go from there. Okay. Okay. So Lizzie, you're gonna can try and connect with them on school committee's behalf. Yes, I'm reaching out to him right now. I'm asking him to add Katie to the invitation and I'm just going to explain where the conflict will
be updating her and I Well, I can join too. Oh, okay. I don't know where I don't know if it's remote or it's remote. I don't see any link.
Another question Zoom link to follow. Okay. And then are you going to reach out to him about the warrant drop dead date or would that be helpful to CC me? I can ask her. Sure. I'm asking Amy.
It would be the deadline for warrant article. Yeah. Like if we needed a article for the June, when would we need to get that? Yeah. to him by honestly I assume it probably is going
to need to be before May 20. How do you do that with some of these changes? Yeah, maybe. Do you know what I mean? No, I really don't know. And yet tomorrow's Thursday and it's Monday. So, Right. Great. Uh, all right.
Anything else on that? Lots of questions, but thank you for reaching out to Nick, Lizzy. Um, the only thing I was going to say is, and I don't have it in front of me, but um, just looking again
at the 700 um, questions or, you know, preemptively addressing any concerns or questions that people have about the cuts. I mean, I'm just thinking about some of that special ed. Do you know what I mean? Like they were Is there
anything that needs context? Oh, within You're talking about within the override budget within the this because isn't it the when we're going back for the additional 700? Well, now that the override has passed, that 700,000's coming out of the the special ed reserve
fund. Oh, right, right, right. That million dollar allocation doesn't is not happening. Actually, technically it's all they pulled the full million out even though they're only allocating 300 700,000 right within the warrant article test. So the special ed reserve fund is not happening. Well, I think the special
ed reserve fund is with a zero allocation. Okay. I think there's a question of whether or not we can amend the warrant article to say, you know, allocate the 300,000. I think they pulled it out. Sure. Because we weren't sure what the number was be.
Um, and so if the 300 is remaining, is the town willing to put that into the special ed reserve account as they originally planned or not? Um, so I think the other piece though to the 700,000 that you were talking about is um the our operating budget is actually
reflective of that $700,000 cut because the operating budget originally for level service was 6.4 4 million but it was it's only it is funded at the point. So that is that was the shift
with the changes that we had proposed right um and discussed that. Yeah. Okay. Yeah. And all that would be covered within the override budget. It's
confusing the same. So I think sometimes it gets confusing for um even when we have some of our leadership team conversations just when we talk about the 700,000 are we talking about because that is the operating budget stabilization fund on
the town side that's the amount that that will be funded at then our budget was cut by 700,000 but there's also that additional 700,000 that we need to close again for this year so it's the same number and I think it in multiple
contexts it can get a little confusing. So I think if we can just provide the clarification and um in terms of kind of preparing for Monday, can you pull the select board presentation for the that we did for the
$700,000 um allocation for the to cover the current year projected deficit. you look at those slides and any updates related to that kind of projected numbers. So I think that was
um you and Lizzie and I went to that. So did you share that with we put it did we you and I put together thought we all put that together just okay I can look maybe all right I can send that to you. Okay, perfect. I just as it relates to
Yeah. like any updated projected numbers and then the um I can pull the presentations on the FY26 override budget uh and just create a new deck with that. It'll be too many slides. It
will be too long and then you'll help me to cut all these things. We're always too long. Okay. So, that's how we'll break too much. That's what I would be saying. Um, okay. Anything else on the
town meeting or budget presentations? All right. Uh, discussion next meeting um dates and the agenda. You obviously got to have the reorg meeting and then figure out if the finance committee
structure people are changing. Um but until that point, Lizzie, we'll just continue to operate because the reorg tonight is not even selecting boards. Reord for tonight is just chair, vice chair. Our subcommittees will continue
to until function especially finance so the two of you I think can kind of keep finance going. We'll keep cross-osting it so that um whomever wants to attend can attend. But
meanwhile, the typically the um timing of the shuffling of subcommittees doesn't happen until the end of you know it happens by June. We have to accomplish that by the end of uh this
school year so that we know coming back you know for the next year everybody's where they're great I just wanted to confirm that. Um so next meetings I don't think we should meet next week
given we have unless we want to meet on Monday morning to look at the presentations but otherwise like yeah then I guess my proposal would be that we don't do anything next week we'll have the town meeting presentations
and then we can meet that following Monday or Wednesday. So the following week, the week of the 12th, I am at the um business association conference on Wednesday.
I'm free that I can meet on that Monday the 12th or I could always meet remotely too. I could just dial into anything. I could do Monday. You could do Monday the 12th. Yeah. Okay. I could pick. Great. Monday the 12th that way because then after the after the town meeting the
after town meeting you'll have the potentially maybe some updated refined numbers and hopefully we'll have the information from the town administrator on timeline for warn articles. Yes. Seems like the the goal for our committee kind of between now and the end of the year is just the moni after
town meeting is just the monitoring of the projected deficits into next year. any work we want to start doing around like report structures governance kind of things within the committee. Yeah. All right.
So the 12th at 8 a.m. Uh great. Anything else? If not, I will make a motion to adjourn the meeting at 9:10 a.m. All in favor?
We are adjourned. Thank you so much. Sorry for everybody on Zoom for having to just look at my face and apologize if you couldn't hear well. [Music]
Rip it. Rip it.