WEBVTT

METADATA
Video-Count: 1
Video-1: youtube.com/watch?v=NmRGCzV84Og

NOTE
MEETING SECTIONS:

Part 1 (Video ID: NmRGCzV84Og):
- 00:00:18: Meeting Called to Order: Survey and Budget Schedule
- 00:01:23: Survey Topic Areas: Feedback and Communication Improvements
- 00:03:54: Public Comment: Communication Definition and Warrant Committee Input
- 00:05:07: Public Comment: Forecasting Alignment and Shared Understanding
- 00:07:31: Public Comment: Committee Mandate, Goals and Expense Projections
- 00:11:28: Final Survey Thoughts and Next Topic Introduction
- 00:11:51: Budget Development Schedule: August, Priorities and Scenarios
- 00:15:21: Public Comment: Funding Gap, Level Service, and Revenue
- 00:18:03: Level Service Definition: Town vs School Perspectives
- 00:23:14: Public Comment: Level of Service Vocabulary Refinements
- 00:30:59: Public Comment: More Concerns About Level Service Budgeting
- 00:32:05: Budget Development Schedule: September, October and Logistics
- 00:34:32: Public Comment: Joint Meeting and Forecast Discussions
- 00:36:30: Public Comment: School/Town 93/7 and Stabilization Funds
- 00:38:09: Public Comment: Joint Committee Meeting Intent
- 00:40:14: Public Comment: Forecast Agreement, Political Lens and Deadlines
- 00:44:03: Budget Development Schedule: December and the Bylaws
- 00:45:57: Public Comment: Timeline Concerns and Warrant Committee Priorities
- 00:53:34: Public Comment: Current vs. Projected Budget Reporting
- 00:57:27: October Reconciliations, Working Document Status, Adjournment


Part: 1

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Good morning everyone. Um I would like to call to order the May 4th meeting of the Milton Budget Coordination Committee. Um today we're going to focus on two areas.

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We are going to focus on some survey topics to survey the the team the committee here on how the past year has been working and what future adjustments we can make. And then

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secondly, for the past month or so, we have been do going through a couple of drafts of the budget development schedule that will better align the town budget

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development process and Milton public schools um budget development process. And then after that, we can get to any other business. So I will um I will kick it over to Mr. Walker to

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get us started on the survey topics. sent to the documents and the idea remember on the number of surveys and these are the areas that we thought it to look at as we assess both uh the

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various budget processes said about the process budget process support and and advice from the war community how those three things interact. So, what are the possible areas that we

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could improve upon? See, pull that up. There are host of opportunities. I think budget process improvements,

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policy improvements, training and development recommendations. That would be for for anyone involved in the process. It could be elected officials, it could be appointed officials, it could be staff. Um what are the areas where I think training and development

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could be helpful? Um communication improvements. on various levels um technology and reporting improvements and then other improvement opportunities or ideas and then finally um committee effectiveness

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and that's in the context of the charge how how effective have been. So this is an opportunity for everyone every committee member to weigh in with ideas thoughts ideas and um recommendations.

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Uh so you'll you'll receive first the first first question is in terms of the topic areas have we do you think we've covered everything and then uh within the next week or two you'll be receiving a survey that uh has questions related to these topic areas. I would ask that

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you not reply all since that could constitute deliberation. So, if you respond to me, I'll aggregate all of the responses and then we'll be able to look at all responses and uh next steps once that's done.

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When we say communication number four, are we talking about the communication among the group or are we talking about communication with the public um about the budget? >> All all of the above.

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>> Okay. any any types of communication that would enhance the outcomes that we're trying to accomplish. Uh I think I'm going to run this by all the warrant committee members to get feedback. Um

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not saying you need to wait for all 15 warrant committee members to respond, but uh >> I won't. But um so try to do that quickly. Yeah, because technically it's it's committee members, but I'm happy to if you and and Ryan would like to try to

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aggregate um some ideas to have more more ideas for improvements the better. >> Okay, great. Yeah, so I wasn't paying attention. Remind me timing on this. >> So um I'll have the survey out uh within the next two weeks and then they'll have roughly a week to respond.

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>> Okay. Should we have a I guess I'm wondering where forecasting work falls under here. Is that under policy oration? >> It it could be under um either budget process improvements or or other improvement opportunities. Certainly

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that that's fair game to comment on it. But if if you think we need a specific category, you can add that. >> Yeah, I just think seems like one of the big buckets of work we've done. So I don't have strong feelings on if it

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needs to be some category, but just want to make alignment on where we should >> so consider that forecasting. >> Great. one of the so this isn't a topic area it's more of

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just a general question but one of the questions that I'm interested in unpacking or understanding through this is whether after almost a year of meeting have we

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facilitated a or shared understanding of the budget of the drivers of where just our overall position as a town. Um because that was one of the

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that was one of the main objectives of this group formation was to facilitate better decision making through developing that common understanding. So I I would ask the same question you just asked which is is that among

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committee members or is that with the general public? >> Yeah. Yeah. I don't know. >> I think it's both. I think it's both. I I think it would be a fair question. Um, right now among if we're talking about among

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committee members, I don't think yet I don't think it's a fair question yet for the general whether we effectively communicate with the general public because >> we haven't tried to do that yet. I don't >> Right. Right. >> Nathan's got his hand up. I just want to

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>> that Nathan, do you need to say something? >> Yeah. Can you hear me? Okay, >> you can. I had a I had a comment that's different than the point you were just raising though, Megan. So, if you want to keep exploring that, I'm happy to wait.

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>> We'll bring Jay into this into this topic, then we'll come back to you, Nathan. >> Just real quick, I mean, it's easy to say both. Let's communicate with everybody. But I I think the direct point of this committee was for communication among the committee. So,

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that that was all I was going to say. >> Okay. All right, Nathan, we're ready for you. So, uh I can't I can't recall, but I thought the committee's sort of mandate was for a single year. Um correct me if I'm

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wrong on that. Uh I but when I think about this survey, um I'm thinking about it assuming this committee's work will continue through the next year. Um, and I Loy F first Loy, thank you for

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putting this together. I think it's going to generate some really useful data. Um, I'm also looking at the the categories of questions which I think are all useful in the context not of like to what degree have we

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met the the goals of our charter, the goals we set out as a committee, but how should we evolve next year? and either do what we're doing better or do do different things if that would help

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us achieve our common purpose. Is that fair? >> Yeah, I I think that's a fabulous point, Nathan. So I think I hope under um other improvement opportunities that um we

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would all weigh in and now that Nathan has raised that point with how we could or should evolve as well to be more effective. Um, I'd like to add that I I think the the main purpose of this group, it felt like we picked up a lot of good steam when we talked about projections of

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expenses and revenue. And I really think the idea of starting with revenue first is a great idea, but I think we needed to introduce expenses earlier. And now that we have more of a fundamental structure of what that looks like over the last couple months, I I feel like this group's ability to get ahead of

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that early in the budget season, i.e. August, use the calendar as the facilitating tool to be very upfront about how we're moving those projections into, you know, uh, scenarios where we, you know, we're projecting and then strategizing around it and then getting

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the data and then coming down with what the numbers actually look like in that communication between all the departments, shephering that process a little bit and communicating it to the public in the in a long-term basis, but also in the year-to-year makeup of your budget uh, work, I think would be really

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helpful. And if that structure holds without this group in a few years, then that's great. But I think the structure is um solid enough. Uh so I think the group should stay in place until there's a consistency of time over time with this table of folks changing potentially

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time. >> Okay. Can you scroll down a little bit? come with the survey is the committee charge so that everyone is aligned on exactly what the charge was and so I've added

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suggestion I've added forecasting improvements as number three and then everything else on that stay the Thank you. >> Okay. Any other thoughts, comments?

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Okay. Survey to follow. >> Thank you. Okay. So, next topic is the budget development schedule. As we've um as we mentioned um

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so we have had a schedule kicking around. Um a number of us have made comments on it. I don't know who has the latest draft. Do you have the latest draft? Okay. Um Vice Chair Walker has the latest draft that we can share and

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go through together. And this goes directly to u point that superintendent film just made which is um how do we make sure that all the interested parties and and key players in the budget development

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process have the information they need as early as possible. see that this makes an effort to try to ensure that that happens as early as possible in the process and I can take you through the the steps month by month but that that's

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the key objective making sure everyone has the information that they need is consensus and everyone's operating from the same revenue expense assumption >> I saw the last edit uh that you made an edit after the first presentation of that Loroy and I'm fine with that after

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that. So, thank you. >> So, let me just run through this and then to let any comments would be much appreciated. So, August um the school leadership team uh led by the superintendent

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uh would discuss budget priorities. That's and and that's what uh Superintendent Failen did when he first got here. What what are the key um instructional learning priorities that we have that um we'll we're going to be

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focusing on and we're going to be assessing our performance against. Um so funding priorities, budget priorities and scenarios. Um, again, just starting to think about, we know we're going to

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have a revenue expense gap because the town has a structural deficit. We don't know exactly what that's going to be at this point in August, but thinking about the possibility that you'll need two versions of the budget, a contingent budget and a non-contingent budget, that

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that discussion again starts early in August, late in August, but early in the process where the town administrator and department heads including superintendent start to discuss again budget priorities, the things that as a

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town as a school system and as a town we believe are most important and what are the requirements look like. Um I note there specifically that no public documents. That means we're not generating any documents. We're not generating anything that uh under the

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open meeting considered a public document. We're having discussions um September. >> Well, they're all public documents. >> But but we don't have any documents. >> Okay. Not for in this forum. >> We're we're we're talking it's it's an open meeting. >> Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

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>> We don't we're not generating any documents that someone could say I'd like to see. >> Got it. Okay. Can I ask a quick question? So, the 1%, 2%, 3%. >> Those are um Can we unpack those a little bit? What those mean? Is it just

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the the funding gap or the revenue gap? >> Yes. >> Is it is it worth it at this time? So, I'm used to doing for my own purposes um

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a 10% cut and an expansion in a level service even though we're not expecting an expansion. Is it a worthwhile exercise to have those just the inventory of what would

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be the expansion in case revenues come in? higher than anticipated so that folks can be proactive. >> So I think um yes I the answer is yes. I think that's what I'm trying to capture

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in terms of priorities. >> Okay. >> Because the the the the real possibility is we may not the reason we're talking about priorities and prioritization is we may not be able to fund all of these priorities, >> right? >> But nevertheless,

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>> right? >> Um I I think I'm hoping um as and and Jay has his information session tonight. So this is the beginning but I I'm trying to redirect

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the discussion a little bit with regard to level service because I think what what people think when they hear that is and correctly that if we don't add any programs we don't add any staff we simply do what we did last year um again

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this next fiscal year that's level service and it is but the problem is with the current structural deficit we we don't even have enough money to fund level service as service. >> So I I just I I'm hoping that we can >> not use that word. Well, I I want to

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move away from that because because people say, "Well, so level service should be it should be fine to just do what we did last year." And the answer is, well, not exactly because because of the structural deficit, we're even starting from a level where we can't

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fund, >> right? >> S we're growing. >> It's not so it's not like service. It's not service, it's revenue, >> right? >> Right. >> There's a distinction. Double funding. Yeah. Double funding. Um

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there's also just in that level service discussion. I think one of the things we found this past year was maybe that among different parts of town government level service means different things. So,

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um, >> I think Mark and I discussed this, I think, or either Mark and I or Nathan and I, I forget. I discussed this with one of our school committee finance members. Um

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I think one of the questions that we had is there's a difference between how the town treats the level service defines the level service with maybe budget rolling the budget level over. No, do

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rolling the budget to the actual from the budget over into level service in Milton public schools working from the budget number the prior year budget number what was locked in for the budget

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itself and maybe not the actual >> I defer to the time >> sometimes all of our conversations bleed together in my mind but there was something there >> there was something there at one point where I feel like we had an aha moment

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that maybe contributed to part of our being on different pages. >> Yeah, I think aligning >> although if this doesn't line up, I don't want I don't want to take us down a rabbit hole on this particular topic. >> All right. Well, Mark's about to say something.

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>> Go ahead. Go ahead, Mark. >> No, I mean >> Mark and Nathan, >> I I do think it's very important thing that we align on like what we're doing. I think we talked about it a bit when we did our presentation of like what the projections were. It's like we said we take what the staff members are within

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the current year and we push them over to the next year. And I thought in that conversation we like asked and said the town do something similar and the town said yes they do something similar. >> We obviously don't have actuals within the budget cycle. >> We don't have current year actuals >> until you know the following July. So we

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we still don't have budget year actuals. So there's no way for us to take FY26 actuals to inform the FY27 budget. >> Yeah, >> we take FY25 actuals to inform the FY27 budget because we take FY25 actuals and

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we do a recasting to even change the FY26 budget. So I I think we do use actuals. I I don't know if there's some other technical place where the schools in the town differ. I think that's been said a couple times. I'm not sure there is. And so I I would want to align on

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that because I I do think there's been a a sense that somehow the schools do it in a different way in which is designed to kind of you know consolidate resources around the schools. I I don't think that's what happening. I think we're just taking

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again this is what this funding that we had to provide the services. We're going to take those same services over next year. this is what it's going to be the same staff but that that is our I believe definition of level service but there if there is some technicality within or some technical within how our

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staff are doing it that's different than the town I certainly want to >> hear that so that made it up >> you can tell me if I made that up >> there's nuances to it then I think >> we still have it up >> we still have and superintendent

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>> go ahead >> were you were you calling on Yes, I am. >> Okay. Um, well, I had I I raised my hand initially for a different item. I guess I'll just I don't have a lot to add here. I I think um if we can find a more

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clever, precise word to describe what we're doing every year. I think that's that's fine. Level service is imprecise, but maybe the easiest one to understand. I think the reality is, and Mark and John, you know these numbers

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better than I do, um, you know, almost 100% of what we would roll over in what we call level service budget is just continuing to do the same things that we always do. I think where there's some imprecision is if if we had

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received a 5.2% increase to our budget this year, we would have called that level service. But the fact is we would have for example added a new bus um as we did with the budget we we ended up with which would have mean we changed

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some kind of resource allocation within that budget which meant that it wouldn't be exactly a level service budget. It would be something the services would be somehow very modestly different. Um

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so that that's that's my point on that. I have I have a second thing which is where this conversation started but if if others wanted to continue weighing in on the level service I can I can hold that that question back. >> Hold on that Nathan. Um >> so >> yeah so I think the public understands

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level service at least in their in their understanding of what we all think level service is. So using a common vocabulary that the public is used to I think would be helpful maybe help maybe we need to define it better for ourselves internally and make sure we can do that explicitly for the community. Um I think

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that that so when I envision the revenue coming in for next year and certain projections and the expenses coming in somewhere has to be the through line of compared to what and and that's what level service usually means right it lets everybody start with this is how I had last year this is what I want to at

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least keep for next year from police department to fire department to you know DPW to school so I think coming to grips uh coming to terms with a little bit of a what that means for all of us would be helpful I think the schools are a little different than the than the departments within the town. The police

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department doesn't really have revolving accounts. You know, we so we have some townlike accounts that Amy and um Nick have to manage like special education revolving other revolving accounts that make everything work, whereas that might not be the same and at the same scale

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that other departments have. So, uh, but I I but I I like the idea of being very clear that level service means whatever it means. And I think Katie's FY27 5.2 level service was a very detailed document about each major cost center,

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how much it was going up or going down and what it was going to and what that 5.2 was made of given that 82 81% is always staff. Um, so that that's just one general thought that I'd like to put out there. The other part is um to Nathan's point, level service means that

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we're asking for the same resources to provide the same level of service, but we might prioritize different things. So, we did reduce the positions. Uh we did create vacancies or not fill vacancies because we were prioritizing other areas of the budget. So, we didn't ask the town for more resources, but we

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knew internally that we need to shore up certain parts of our budget in order to have a quarter 3 report this year that was $37,000 to the good as opposed to x amount of dollars to the bad. And we'll do the same thing next year, not necessarily for the financial realignment, but for is there anything

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that we want to focus on that's different for student achievement. We might take resources from the you know one level of the district in order to you know support or reinforce something that we feel is important that will enhance our data for students. So we reserve the right for that. So there's a

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budget conversation around level service. Then there's a programmatic version of level service for the school's part right. So what are we focusing on? Um and so just to kind of there are nuances but I think that a common understanding of level service is important. I think that's the through

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line that we all have to kind of carry from year to year and then here's our revenue, here's our expenses, can we approach it? We have to be more realistic about that and then decide where we go from there. That's generally my thoughts. The challenge I'm trying to rec

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say to people that means I'll get everything that I got last year. Problem is everything that you got last year cost more this year potentially.

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and and we may have we the school committee and the superintendent or we the town administrator select board may have decided that the priorities are different. So uh the funding level may be

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close to close to what last year but the actual implementation the FTEES the programs might be. So, I just want to make sure that as to Nathan's point, precision. I I just want to make sure that we we're being precise

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with people that they just need to understand it doesn't necessarily mean that you get everything you got last year. >> Yeah. >> Because I think as we did >> Yes, I did. Go ahead. I mean I think in

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um language matters here and I think when you use the word level service you you incorporate prioritization year to year you know your budget may go up 3% let's say um I mean at the state level we call it it's a maintenance budget which is a

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little fuzzier right and but I think in some ways it's actually more accurate um you know where you're maintaining service and so it's a little fuzzier it's level service I think is maybe a little bit too, you know, unintentionally sort of precise to sort

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of say, "Yes, we're going to maintain the same level of service. I'm going to have the same teacher. I'm going to have the same plow driver, what have you. You're not maintain you're not maintaining the personnel. You're maintaining maintain that position. You may not be back filling position." So, I think maintenance is perhaps a better

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perhaps slightly fuzzier term. It's a little bit less accessible to folks, but I think it's um could be a worthy substitute. Okay. and and this can be remedied just by everything that we do next year. These definitions are just constantly part of

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the presentation. You know, we are using this context of just having it up there articulated be yeah just have it be part of the dialogue by this term. Yeah. Good. >> Everybody will get it. People will move to work to find it.

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>> Okay. Katie >> conversation. Uh Katie, >> um I just want to reiterate in a way what John said and just kind of say from

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a technical perspective when we talk about a level service budget, a level service budget um and the pieces of figuring out and projecting what that level service budget will be for an

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upcoming fiscal year really sets the baseline of what that actual number is and how much it's going to cost the school department to operate. And so I think that that to

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me is a foundational piece of how you would build a budget regardless of what the revenue forecast is. And I think without costing out what a level service budget is, I think it's very difficult

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to be able to communicate and also um figure out how much money you would need to cut and what level of service or what services that you would need to cut without being able to project out how much the the budget will cost you in a

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future fiscal year. And so I think that that is just coming from a very like technical perspective from someone who is primarily like responsible for creating that budget and projecting out that budget. And I do think whatever you

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want to call it is somewhat semantics. But I I think the process of creating the level service budget and knowing what that number is and setting that baseline is foundational to creating a budget on a yearly

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yearly cycle. And so I just wanted to say that because I hope that we don't lose sight of the fact that like you need to know what your level service budget is before you can start talking about additions or cuts. >> Absolutely.

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Maggie. >> Oh, hi. Thanks. So, um I agree that setting a baseline is important because you really do need to start somewhere. But I do think um using the term level

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service budgeting um is problematic because I think it sets up um different expectations for people. And so when people then hear, "Oh, this is getting cut or that's getting cut." In their mind, they're like, "Oh, I was expecting the same thing." You know, it doesn't if

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you spend $100, you know, last year on something and um you know, another $100 is needed next year, that's it's not going to cover it because of inflation. So, I just think we have to use a better term. That term always kind of bothered

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me. um just as an average resident, maybe it's something like a 0% increase budget. Um but I do understand we need to have a baseline, but I think a um a different term might be helpful for the

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average resident who isn't in this all the time. Thanks. >> Thanks. Okay. September committee appoints the subcommittee leads. Subcommittee needs reach out to department heads of the large

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departments that have been discussed priorities. Please reach out to subcommittee chairs, finance subcommittee chair, town administrator and select board finance committee chair to talk about how they can get involved in the

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budget discussions that each of those bodies of entities are having. and the coordination committee discusses some of the processations that happens in September October. The town administrator and the finance

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directorate revenue expense projections in detail and the required budget targets and the department heads including the school superintendent for the school. So this is to superintendent's point is to

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when everybody is crystal clear on exactly what the budget targets are and the implications that that has for their respective departments. The coordination committee discusses those projections, logistics, communication strategies and

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implementation challenges that there might be. The budget coordination committee plans, develops and holds budget 101 meetings. This is a pitch for that Amy and Johanna did last year and the

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year before I think that well last the year before I think it was supposed to happen this year but we had a blizzard um but anyway the budget 101 briefings are an excellent um

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presentation discussion for anyone I'd recommend it for every elected official whether you think you know about how the budget works or Um, but the idea is working in concert with Nick and Amy that we would do those

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briefings for the general public. This is along the same idea that that I think Jay and our committee are trying to establish with their information session this evening. But >> can I ask a question? Um, one thing that

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we had kind of briefly talked about was some kind of big joint meeting of select board, school committee, warrant committee. Is that what you mean in this first bullet? Is what you mean in the third bullet or are you not really contemplating that? >> Oh, that is that's the first bullet. >> All right. So, I think then it probably

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would be if that's something that we have buy in for everybody to do, we should probably just book a day at a time as you know as the summer goes away and then we come back and that's our best grade. If we should probably just lock in a date. >> Absolutely. Well, and if we can get consensus on this schedule, then we

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would try to start to attach dates within each month. >> Uh subcommittees, the law committee >> sub when you're done talking through October. >> Okay. Um committee subcommittees would

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begin their research and preliminary reviews. The respective finance committees um would call planning session number one. You can call it where you want, but it's kind of okay. Now that we've gotten this information that was provided in the

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first bullets, >> so a couple things u the select board finance comm I mean uh planning session one if the first meeting is like the first session where we're getting the information that's happening in the beginning of October. I could see us

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having a joint meeting at the by the end of October. I just foresee that first thing being kind of more middle of October and then just naming we're gonna need we get like revenue projections at that point. The department's going to need a little bit of time to put that together to then bring back to the finance committee who's going to need a

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meeting to talk about it before we're going to have anything productive really to talk about with the select board. Just just naming that. So like I almost see that last line as kind of being pushed into >> November. this gets a bit to my my concern broadly with just how tight this

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is and if some of this can lead into January. Um but I can delay that comment. >> Um and then the other thing I just want to name on here is like I I continue to strongly disagree with that based on school towns 931 ratio. Yes. Wouldn't agree with including that within this

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document because I don't think that's a a ratio that we've >> It's not a calendar issue. >> Yeah. >> It's not a calendar issue. It's not a ratio agreed on. It's not anything like that. That seems to be a potentially a budgetary goal of the select board of the town administrator but not not

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within the county as saying move that to the parking lot navigated that hand up >> and then Winston

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>> oh go ahead um a a key point of you know what you're talking about in October will be how much money are we taking out of the operating budget stabilization fund and you know I'm going to strongly I I think the actor on that is the select board. I'm going to strongly

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suggest the select board make a decision on that by let's say September 1st, October 1st. Um, but this drives home even more that that needs to be done not next January, not next March, but

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I'd love it by October 1st, if not September 1st. >> Now, we've got multiple hands up. >> Hello, Mr. Dailyaly. >> Uh, yes. on the October schedule.

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Um I'm not I'm not sure of the purpose of the complete but we're saying that all the committees will be meeting in October because I'm assuming here that you know if we continue our cadence where the budget coordination committee continuing to meet I'm assuming after

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August then all of our committees are already represented. So holding everyone together seems a bit like a lot to ask. Also, if we are we expecting to

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update the forecast um along in this in the budget um calendar because if uh Jay's given this presentation with the forecast uh what where does that now map into this calendar in terms of are we

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updating and presenting that because that would to me be more important than the budget 101 briefing. or or would replace it. >> No, I don't think they I don't think they replace each other, but let me start where you started. I think that

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the we we've agreed that the forecast document is developed and is administered by the town administrator and the finance

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director. Um with input from uh with primary input from the war committee and potentially some input from from this committee as well. uh certainly from the superintendent and and the school committee. So I I agree that the

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there should be a checkin and and this would probably be I think Jay's right that the select board would need to weigh in on the operating budget stabilization fund and early that early in October before the this summit

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meeting you're calling it. And you're right that there's got to be some agreement on the forecast which is driving these revenue expense projections. So, two things that I I propose that we add in early October

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before the summit meeting which was was the first bullet is agreement on the forecast because that's obviously driving um these decisions and I think Jay's correct that as part of the budget

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targets we would need to know what the select board is and deciding on the use of the operating budget stabilization plan. So I I would add those two. I can give you the exact language in the moment. I think those

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those become the first two bullets in October. >> I would just maybe it's clear for everybody else to just say like I think the uh October um sharing of whatever we think budget stabilization fund is would be a draft,

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right? not a final decision like it be based upon the projections that allit are using like it's like hey this is what we're initially thinking based upon what we see projections on and then obviously there's conversations on what are the cuts to town or school or lack of cuts and so we use more or less of it

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just making >> yes absolutely >> yeah so to piggyback on that >> in my head I'm like how would we even know I don't even have budgets back from department to put it it all together so all of this at this point is based upon

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the forecast because we don't really know any of that yet, right? >> Yeah. >> And there's two parts of that. I think we just want to make sure that we give ourselves permission to let people know that this is a big chunk of clay that we're slowly going >> until around January where decisions need to be made like coming out of

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holiday break and winter break. January I think is where we get together and say that this is we know about as much as we're going to know. There's going to be some chapter 70 stuff with the governor's budget coming out after this one, etc. But we're pretty we're pretty solid that this is either the gap or the even or the plus parts of the expense.

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That's one part. And I think that we really need to take our time when we're in the middle of this to overlay the political lens, which is framing. When we're talking about gaps in October, that's different than what the gap might be in January because it might not be as

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drastic as folks think. So, it's really about a political framing as we go along because our families deserve >> Yeah. >> the right to be part of the sausage making if they want to watch it, but they shouldn't have to worry about things in October as much as they might need to worry or be happy about things in February.

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>> January be surprised in January. >> Correct. So, it's part of but that comes with a communication piece, right? You want to be clear, but you we also need to be thoughtful about this. This is a process that we're working through. uh just to be as explicit as we can so people know that we're we're trying to show you how this is done and how this

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works from beginning to end and there's an arc to it. Um and you know most people won't pay attention until January but it should be explicit. We should be talking about it October, November and December. >> To that point, should we also build in the schedule, a communication schedule?

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>> Um >> yes. How >> the schools >> like when the when do the schools intend to start talking about the budget? So we're all aware uh the schools I think right now are the only department that sends out um in any dispatches

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discussions of the budget. Um are we expecting that other departments or perhaps the town dispatches one of those? Now we does not need to be ad if not necessary but I think the communication piece of when we're sending items out and why um should also

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be added to this. >> Agreed. Okay. December school committee votes draft contingent non contingent budgets board draft contingent and non contingent budgets

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accept. I just want to be um careful with the December schedule because the bylaws have some specific dates in them, >> right? That and that's that's exactly why um I'm going I'm trying to go back to what the bylaw.

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>> So it's December 1st for town budgets I believe in to Nick and I. >> Great. So maybe just change that to December 1st. I think the school is >> December 1st is delivered to the warrant

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committee >> draft preliminary budget submitted to the war committee by December 1st >> which which would require that um both the school changed the order but both bodies had voted some sort of draft

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budget in order to get it to the market. >> No. >> No. What is that? How can that be? No. I mean, the library can give their budget request to Nick, who gives it to us before the select board ever has anything to do with it. >> So,

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>> so great. >> This is what the bylaw says. On or before December 1st of each year, each board committee or officer of the town shall file with the select board who shall transmit the same to the warrant committee a preliminary budget by

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December 1st. >> I'm wrong. final budget by January 31st to this war committee. >> I apologize. You're right. >> Thank you. >> So that might not include schools though. >> And that does change what our practice has been because we certainly haven't

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had the select board voting to submit it. I've submitted I've shared the all the information and I know the schools I think likewise. I don't know that you're necessarily voting on a budget, but you're submitting your budget information around that time. >> Pre pre- strong town administrator

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budget that's still in our bylaws. >> Yes. So maybe it's something we consider >> changing >> once we finalize the think calendar.

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But the idea is well as a as a school board or a select board I don't I don't think that either body is going to would want something submitted to the warrant committee that they have talking about whether they have to vote

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or not. >> Yeah. Just the timeline as it as it worked this past year was we Katie put together a level service budget by she and John presented that to finance. We shared that with the full school committee. when he was able to see that. Uh and then from there we started

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working through kind of a draft version one of the budgets. Um first time we did that I think was just right before winter break uh for full school committee. Um we did not vote on anything until I mean but we only voted

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one time on a budget. We didn't even change it. So that wasn't until February um whenever it was or maybe March. I can't remember whenever we got up for you. So, it was late. I mean, we wanted to be earlier, but I I do So, I I totally agree with that. I'm wondering I

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if there are bylaws, we have follow their bylaws I have to follow. This this does feel very tight and early. It feels like we're going to be voting on something we know is just not it's not going to be a budget that we're actually going to move forward on. And so, why are we going to waste time kind of voting on it other than just

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a box? And so I I might but I might ask the warrant committee to say like when based on them needing to have the warrant closed by exit date, >> when do they need the budget information front of them to have the time available to review everything and then let's work

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backwards from that timeline which I assume is going to be more like February than it is December which in that time I think would be really helpful for I assume I know the schools to like get more information data have more just time with the school committee have convers conversation. I assume it'd be

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helpful for the town, too. But that's that that was the biggest difference between kind of my budget timeline draft and and yours is really that like December versus February. >> Yeah. And this is, as you might guess, this is intentional. I'm

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two. One is to three things. One is to make the process more consistent to our requirements. The second thing is to that meet I think the important requirement and and the superintendent's

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former previous concern that some of the information was wasn't clear or wasn't provided early enough >> and then third to be transparent u with the general public about what the possible implications are and what the

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thinking is and this is why to to superintendent's point this is why I think it's important to start with not what are the cuts But what are the priorities? Here are the things that we think are the most important for this coming upcoming fiscal year's budget.

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and then slowly but surely but deliberately work through various drafts. And as you said that we know that we're not going to have real clarity until probably sometime in February, but

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we we would hope that most of those clarifications would be upside surprises, not downside surprises. and we've been clear with the general public about exactly what our thinking was all along. So we can we

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can as I said I'll I'll try to work with Nick and Amy about exactly what the bylaw requires. But the the clear objective here was to to move things back to complying with the bylaw and and getting this information

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to ourselves and then then uh for subsequently to the general public we have. >> So and I I would agree with that just framing it differently that that the drafts one of the budget certainly isn't going to be the final draft of the budget. So, as we look at it, we're really trying to look at it conceptually at first, looking at the gaps, and then

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we're deciding as we move along, the priorities really shouldn't change as much as how we can fund those priorities, and then we'll see where the gaps are. So, what we present as a draft one for the school committee to to vote or move forward as a draft one in December, it could be a very different

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budget by the time we hit February uh based on narrowing down the resources that are connected to what those priorities or philosophy is. Um, so it it is I I just want to say that a lot because I I feel the pressure that Mark feels like welcome back to school. Here we go. Right. And so that that is what

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it looks like on a school perspective. But as long as we're talking conceptual to putting detail around a couple of options that we think might be the reality of what we're going to face come January, February, then applying the reality of that budget in terms of what the revenue is versus the expenses

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sometime in January, February. Then then that's where the that's where we hand it over to >> I don't just to explain. So what we provide just so you know in terms of enabling the warrant committee to do its review is like we submit we send out our budget templates. We have a detailed budget template that comes back from every single department with every

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single employee with what their raise will be what their salary will be every single line item accounted for. So that's the information that we transmit to the warrant committee and we get that usually in mid November because it's it's not necessarily a consolidated budget that I'm recommending. It's more

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just like this is truly kind of keeping the like for like rolling over within within the level of detail that the warrant committee can commence its review. So it's not saying from a policy perspective we're recommending this budget. It's more just like here are just what the numbers are. >> Yeah. >> So I I think that if the schools could

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hit a metric that's similar to that but not necessarily saying here is our budget I think is what what might be helpful from the work maybe but I'll >> Yeah. give like a level service budget, not to use the term that we don't like anymore, but like that that is easy enough. I think >> rollover rather >> roll over. That's easy enough to provide. I just like if we have to vote

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on something by December 1st, we have Thanksgiving break the week before. So there's no nobody's going to be meeting that school committee can't meet that day. So we're talking about November 18th this year. We would have to vote on a budget if we're not having the like

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revenue projection, revenue expense kind of conversation until second week in October, let's say, which still would be way earlier than we got it this year. That that does not leave much time other than just a level service budget because the level service budget, you know, as

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soon as we kind of get into next year and do the reallocation, Katie can have that ready in October and I think it has in past years. Well, just one caveat. So, >> oh, let me get to Brian. Brian, go ahead. >> Yeah, one of my thoughts is that what I

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think would be helpful is to look at current year projections against budget and then you kind of have a road map as to where you are. And I think that would help with next year's budget if you could see how you're doing this year. And I think that's something that's

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missing and we talked about that a few times. But I even think the warrant committee and this committee should look at it on a monthly basis and even just a topline thing. But if you could say, "Hey, we're on track or we're not on track. What's going on?" You know, I think that would be really helpful and I

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and I think that would help. >> Brian, just to name we we do that at the schools. We just did the quarter three budget report, >> right? But you're doing it on a quarterly basis. So you just did >> but if you did you did it through March, so now it's May 6th. But if you could do

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it on a monthly basis >> and if you did it started it every month, >> you need new software. But >> yeah, I think we just I mean again software might make it easier, but I just disagree that that that level of consistency is >> helpful. The the the to try to put this

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to rest, the the the quarterly is done in a quarterly manner. Uh, and Katie can jump in because it's not the data, it's actually the memo that's attached to the data that explains the nuances of how the money moves through at this point in time of the budget cycle. So, you you could have a print out of the data every

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other day, but it wouldn't be as helpful to anybody unless the the person in charge of it, in this case, Katie, provides a thoughtful memo that describes the movement and where we are in the part of the fiscal year, what's moving up and down. There's just a lot of moving parts. So, I understand that

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monthly thing is something that uh you think is important, Brian, but I just respectfully think that the quarterly is how uh municipalities and schools traditionally provide that outlook and it's a very detailed one. We just provided it and it has many many data points in it for you to review.

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>> If I can just and we're looking at it like I'm looking at it monthly. If there's an issue, >> Yeah. Right. >> I will inform Nick and he will inform the select board. So to present that publicly every month is a bit excessive, but we're we're looking at it internally

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>> and I know the as well. So >> from reviewing budgets, I find it really difficult to try to figure that out and a lot of the >> issues that we've seen is we're comparing like the budget for next year

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from the budget for this year, which is just a budget but not an actual. And that's usually what we're seeing at this time of year and it's only six months in, but we don't really see the projections. >> I think it would be really helpful. And by the way, as far as extra work, if you

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had proper software, it wouldn't be it shouldn't be any extra work. It >> It's not extra work from my end. It's there's things that I only book quarterly that I only do quarterly that if you looked at it monthly, it's not going to make sense, right? things like

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like insurance rates. >> No, just certain journal entries and certain um >> Well, you would budget it that way. If that's the case, >> you just budget it that way, but you're all agreeing that it's too

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early to look at some of this stuff, which I agree with, too. But at least you could have some idea as to where you're at. But if you budgeted something on a quarterly basis, you pay it on a quarterly basis, that would still show as a proper projection. That wouldn't be that would be fine.

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>> Okay. Well, we made it through December. So, I'm going to try to incorporate some of the feedback we've gotten and send out a revised version that we can pick up at our next um can I bring

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us back to October real sorry I I'm thinking a little slowly but I think some of the items in October I just want to clarify that the October things we're talking about I would want to reconcile to the forecast we call my forecast the forecast. Maybe that's implied. It's >> probably the forecast.

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>> Okay. Yeah. Whoever is forecast, yeah, reconciled to the forecast. I mean, we'll know a lot more about state aid in October than we do now. We'll have six months more of healthcare claims. >> Yeah. Okay. Maybe that's implied, but

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>> uh before we adjourn, can I add uh just my thoughts on this and some of the conversation uh with us putting this calendar out there? This is not uh I don't think this is not this is not the law. This is our what I'm looking at this now is our goal and best efforts.

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And if some of these bullet points get moved and adjusted as we become better at working together and really institutionalizing this moving forward, I expect that this may change um especially in the execution. So I think even that the level of reporting and coordination we're talking about now is

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is more than we have had in recent years. So to leave some space in there for this to all change, for us to know what actually works. I know the tendency right now is to us to get all the information as often as possible all together and that may not be the most effective way. So I would hope that in

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what we're creating here in this budget, we understand a lot of this will be different perhaps by the end of the year as we learn to work together and what actually works in execution instead of what we're just laying out and saying this can absolutely be done every year.

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I I think um we certainly consider this a working document. So I expect it will evolve and will change. That said, at any given time, I think it's important to have a schedule for how

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we're going to proceed on the next budget process. So more to come and being respectful of everyone's time, I like to take a motion to adjourn. We have a date for the next meeting. >> Not yet. >> So that will be

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>> Is there a second? >> Second. >> Hey