Good evening. Welcome to the warrant committee. Um, we're going to call the role. We do not have uh the assistance of our clerk this evening, so I'm going to give it a go. Um, we have Steven Ry,
Jay Funling. Hello. Thank you, Jay. On Zoom. Okay. Uh, Macy Lee, we have Julia Maxwell on Zoom. We have Judith Steel. We have Brian Maguire. Tom Caldwell, myself,
and one more. Laman. A man. Hello, Aman. Peter. Peter. Did you get Peter? Tom. Thank you. And uh Peter's here. Yeah. Okay. We have 10 members present. We have a quorum.
Let's get started. Uh so, welcome everybody. uh those who are here and uh watching at home. Uh today we have a few items on our agenda. Some of our typical year end of year things. We have um transfer from the school uh transfer to the school committee uh is what we'll be
talking about end of year budget for fiscal year 25. We have several members of the school committee and our acting superintendent Mr. John Failen here to present um for us. We'll also be discussing um the turnbacks to the treasurer uh the end of the year for the
department of revenue and we have some minutes to approve. Um so um what I'd like to do is we have all our guests here. I'd like to have members of school committee and our superintendent whomever would like to come up. See Amy Dexter here. Amy just going to give you
a shout out. I think right out this morning. Yeah. Yeah, I can definitely work. We have to push. Thank you. Um the floor is yours, Madam Chair, Mr.
Superintendent, and other members of the school committee. Start. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you all for um having us tonight. Um, tonight uh we I have um Mark Noring who is the chair of the finance subcommittee. If I start losing my voice, I might ask Mark to jump in,
but I think I'm up for a few slides. We have um interim superintendent uh John Failen. And then we have Nathan Hutau who is also a member of the school finance subcommittee. Um and thank you all for coming tonight. I know it's a hot night and it's you're winding up the end of your term. So we appreciate the time. Um we just wanted to um come
tonight to provide an update with the FY25 budget as we're closing out the year and to come to the um more committee with a request. So just to um back up a little bit and provide a little bit of history. This is something that all of you know and I
think this uh presentation was provided to all of you but um a little bit of budget history for FY24 and 25. Um in May of 24 the fiscal year FY25 budget was approved. Um the school was appropriated 67,225,233,000.
And then in July of in July 1st of that year is when the FY25 school budget um began. In July of 2024 is when there was recognized a fiscal year 24 de uh deficit that was identified and
addressed. And then in January 25 of this, uh, fiscal year, um, uh, superintendent, um, assistant superintendent Katherine Blake, who actually, I'm I should have said couldn't be here tonight. She is, um, she had a pre, she had a, um, prior engagement, so she can't be here. It's
at that time that um, she began that she identified a projected deficit um, as of June 30th, 2025 of $2.3 million. Um the issues that we um that were noted were a continuation of the structural deficit within the school budget that had been
noted also in FY24. In March um and April of FY25 um actions were taken to reduce the projected budget. Uh some of the things that were put in place we'll go into in more detail. Um but this um we were able to
project a deficit of 700,000. Sorry. Is that okay? uh pro uh project a deficit of 7 approximately 700,000, but the school committee asked the um select board for a million dollar reserve fund. Um recognizing that um while we were
still projecting a you know a lesser amount as of March, we recognized that there were still several months through the remainder of the year and we felt that um the million dollars was probably more appropriate for what we needed. However, um the select board allocated
uh $700,000 and then this was approved by the warrant committee and town meeting in May. Um during ongoing budget monitoring, uh the school department noted some unencumbered expenditures which we'll go into in more detail on further slides which pushed this projected deficit back up to a million.
And in June, this additional um this additional uh $300,000 um was allocate was um recommended by both the war committee and the um and the select board and the um town meeting approved the funds transfer uh into the
reserve account. So as I noted with this um we're going to history but also the request. So, the request that we're coming to you tonight with is to allocate the million dollars of the reserve um reserve account funds that were allocated through the use of free cash to the school department to
close this deficit. This money was originally planned to be allocated to the school/town special education reserve fund in FY26 that was approved during uh town meeting. And now you don't have to do that.
If you could go back just one um you were going to Is it okay? Yeah. While we're on it and we go down road too far and we can't remember where we're so
without this you might have had to use money from the 26 to plug the hole this reserve account for FY26. So the million dollars is is free cash that is free of all that. But see money was originally
planned. Yeah. So during the override planning discussions originally the amount was to be set aside to what the town established was a special education town school special education reserve account. Right. That would have oversight from the school committee and select board. And so that and that would
be available starting in FY26. when the deficit was identified, what the school committee requested is that instead of setting that funds aside for FY26, the crisis with, you know, most of the deficit within this year is special education related. So, the request was to use the funding instead of putting in
a reserve account for next year, use it to cover the current year deficit because that also would have no negative effect on uh the school department allocation or any other department allocation next year uh if the override passed, which it did. So do do I if I'm reading this correctly, you do not have
to touch this now for the 25 project. No, please. Yes. So thank you. You're welcome. Appreciate. Sure. Um as we noted uh earlier, there were we had prior requests. So the we had requested originally from the select board that full million dollar allocation. As I
said that we were Katie was working aggressively to really try and close that gap. you know, it had looked like we could get it down to it was looking at about approximately $700,000. Um, we still were uh were hopeful that we
could get it down to that amount. And so given that that was the working number at that time, that was the amount that the select board had approved for allocation. And then similarly following that presentation, we came to the warrant committee um and did a full presentation on the projected deficit.
Uh since that original $2.3 million was projected, um we were able to uh reduce that by as much as uh 56%. So as we said, down from two 2.3 million down to a million dollars. I mean,
oh actually there uh some of the things that we we've gone through this with you guys before, but just to to review uh a number of the actions that were take that took place um earlier in that first in the third quarter were purchase uh order freezes.
There was a hiring freeze. Um there were um allocation of uh we allocated a portion of the custodial services salaries to a first food service account. Excuse me, I can't speak tonight. Um we reduced consolidated facilities purchase orders. Um we addressed there was an issue with the
water bill that that got addressed and that piece was reduced. Um there's a circuit breaker supplemental funding for transportation reimbursement that is moving towards its final approval in the state house. And then we utilized other offsets such as community schools, Medicaid, Medicare and building use. So
those help to reduce them those things and all of those are appropriate uses of those funds. Just want to make sure that that's clear and they they follow they follow all of the guidelines but um we were able to utilize different offsets to reduce that number from that 2.3 million. Just can you take a question? I
have a qu quick question about the water bill. Yes. Were you reimbursed for the um the unanticipated increase or the remember there was an issue with the Yeah, it was like an issue with the water bill where you were overcharged. Did you actually receive the funds from
the state for that overcharge? It's from the town. It's from the town. It was the town. So, uh, part of it was allowed to be reduced within the current year obligation of what the bill we needed from the town. There's some things that were charged in actually prior fiscal years that couldn't go to us, but will
go to free cash for the town um because it was an over a payment due to a meter issue. Okay, that's right. Did they replace the meter for the the reading? I believe so. Uh, okay. Look over here, Amy, because I know the reason I ask is I want to just make sure that next year you're squared away and
not end up with an overcharged water bill and then causing a deficit again in your budget. I mean, not that it's like a big part of it, but it's every penny counts. Counts. So, how much did you get back from the town for the water bill? 60. Yeah, it was around that. Yeah.
60,000. Okay. Sounds like the water bill at my house. That's a lot of water. Okay. So, thank you. I I sorry to interrupt. I was just curious. Okay. Are there any other questions on actions that were taken before we move on to moving forward or
Yeah, I don't understand. What's the offset on Medicare? Oh, yeah. I remember that. Yeah. So, the uh school department receives some funding through Medicare for certain um health related programming uh and costs. Um and so that
is a a separate account similar to the community schools or the building use account that can be drawn down on. Uh and so uh we were drawing down on that more. That was also something I was drawn down on at the end of FY25. So similar to the circuit breaker, there are reserves that can build up if you don't use the full Medicare funding in
order to provide you buffer in future years. That was fully drawn down on at the end of FY24. So there were no reserves left. But then FY25, the original projection was that we weren't going to use as the full 100% of the Medicare allocation to help rebuild
that. and it was determined we had to use the full uh amount to reduce this deficit. And that's the same with community schools and building reserve issue. Yeah, community schools and building use are again funds that are gathered through payments. So building us use is reservations of the um
fieldhouse or field or whatever else for sports and so those are fees that are used and so we can pull into those to charge for some facility use. Community schools is obviously for the like after school programs, break programs. Um and so those those are a little different in that they are they're not funds that
come from the state. They're funds that come from users who you know families that pay into those programs in order to utilize them and they build up a reserve over time. So it's a chargeback between those programs and uh the school department. So Katie Katie uh within her monitors that uses those again those
were also used to close FY24 much more substantially and um you know reduce those significantly and so we are leaning on them again to try and reduce this deficit as as much as possible. Is just another question like the after
school does that pay for itself what you charge? Yeah, right now it's more than paying for itself. We're actually leaning on it and this is an example. were like pulling more from it than we probably uh should be. Uh but yes, no that the community schools program has no impact on like the allocation from
town meeting for the school department. It's self-funded in terms of the fees. I have a question. Yes. Um Medicare reimbursement that you get for certain health um related. What if you use it all and still need
more? Where would you go for that money? It's an annual allocation. Um can't remember if it's a reimbursement or a it's a it's a it's a reimbursement. So every time a student goes to the nurse uh or utilizes maybe a speech service or occupational therapy service within the
schools, we record that and submit it to the federal government and the federal government provides that Medicaid reimbursement over time. So those funds come in and out of the federal as as the student uses the service and as we as a district report that to the Medicaid federal um budget uh folks then that
money comes in over the course of each fiscal year and you're not um limited in any way um do you reach a a level point where they say we're not going to give you any more? They they give you a certain amount per every um I won't I won't call
it transaction. For every service you deliver you get a certain amount of money. So you're not restricted. It's basically uh was a program that was started about 15 16 years ago in Milton where it was services that we were already delivering to our students that Medicaid decided to cover and we just
applied and now our our staff put in the time to actually record it all, put into the computer and submit it monthly and we get reimbursed monthly or quarterly. Hey, they don't shut you off thinking you reached a cap. There's no cap. I don't think there is any cap. Thank you. biblical. I also think there's um it did
you intend to say Medicaid and not Medicare because it says Medicare. It's because Yeah, Medicare is over 65. Medicaid. Yeah. Okay. So, it's Medicaid. That's a good thing. It's my line of work. That's the only reason I know. Thank you.
Great. So, I'll talk about um just re going over some of the cost drivers of the deficit that we presented before and some of the newer ones. Um so again just to hit on this kind of solely the primary uh impact uh cost driver of the current year projected deficit is due to
budget issues or the allocation did not reflect prior year expenditures. Hopefully this is not surprise and this uh aligns with kind of what we have said repeatedly at the presentation of the all of the public presentations to meeting etc. Uh so this is a slide we presented before. I'm not going to read
it in detail because I think you all have seen it but again it talks about kind of that structural deficit and some of those examples. uh from just two of the cost drivers, use substitutes and utilities in terms of what the budget was, what were the expenditures for that year. And you can see that over the last three years um just how those two things
were were out of line. Uh and so between these two line items themselves, substitutes and utilities and also this substitute expendure ended up going up even a little bit beyond this um within the most recent projections. Uh you know, that's a million dollars right
there within the deficit. So uh so that is the the largest cost driver of this is really that issue. Uh here it is also with um special education that's the other piece that is a primary cost driver different special education costs related to tuition transportation contracted service you can again see
kind of the difference between what the budget amount what the expense was over the last several years uh and how those two things have been out of line. Those are issues that we have fixed going into FY26. Again, that was a primary part of the conversation with the override of we
need to reset these budgets to reflect what the actual expenditure is. That is what it is costing. That's why the override was uh for us was the 5.7 but did not was not a needsbased budget. It was even less than level service because the goal was to rightsize these and no longer be uh in a situation where we
found ourselves last year or this year. That is the primary kind of issue and the primary action step we have taken to try and address that. um mentioned this but again those specific line items the three biggest cost drivers are special education, transportation, substitute coverage and
utilities. Those are the three biggest ones. So that's that is all information we shared previously. Want to talk about the cost drivers since quarter 3 when we were in quarter 3 had that we had the $700,000 projection that has gone up and
so it's gone up by about $300,000. And so um want to share about like why uh that is. Um so there were kind of unknown costs uh by the finance department uh due to kind of a lack of use of purchase orders in some cases. Um
so you know with the way the finance process works is if you want to spend money typically you will go to the um office they will build a requisition that will get approved that will create a purchase order. That purchase order is then kind of a promisary note that's sent to the the vendor, the person
you're going to buy stuff for to say, "Hey, we want to buy this." They will give it to you. That all happens before a check is cut, right? So, the school department received the goods and the services before they pay them. But the PO is the way the company feels okay about providing those without payment. So, there's a lot of stuff that is
happening, a lot of promises or incumbrances is what is called of money that we know will be spent, but it's not actually out of the bank yet. And so that is the pace that purchase orders allow you to track. Um so when things are not done through the purchase order process, they are not encumbered. So
that money is not known that it is going to be out of the door. And so that was a concern Katie raised and why we had originally asked for the a little bit of a buffer within the projection of the 700 for that million dollar request select board. Uh and some of that has come to pass. Uh where there are things
that have come up that were unencumbered general expenditures. That's the 132,000 line. Um, a couple examples of those are the calculus project and the district pays a physician every year to oversee the um um allow you to provide um overthe-c counter medications to
students like Tylenol or things like that with permissions, translation services. These are some of the things that uh were things that you know we have to pay for we have agreed to but they did not go through the incumbrance process creation of the purchase orders. they were unknown at the time that uh
assistant superintendent Blake did the projections. So these are just things that she did not know and therefore the projections were off by that amount. Uh substitute coverage is another one that's been a cost driver that has continued to be a cost driver. We were hopeful we were able to uh implement
some uh processes to help contain those uh and were not able to contain them as much as possible. homeless foster transportation was just an unexpected situation where a family um uh became homeless or the kids were placed in foster care, one of the two I I can't
remember. Uh and uh that is a mandated transportation service. We are required to provide that. Um in terms of direct home to school transportation in those situations, regardless of where they live, they are obligated to provide them transportation to their kind of school of origin during that kind of um
difficult time. And that is a mandated cost we have to provide. So that was that. Yeah. Would that would that be for more than one family? That amount of money would that that amount of money specifically was for one family, but we would we would be required to do that for any family that was in that
situation. That was just the a new family that came in that was not built into our budget. I see. Okay. Thank you. Is is that for one quarter 12,000? Yes. That that that family does not live in the town. They actually live somewhere else and we we're responsible for the
transportation from the town of from their current homeless facility uh to their school door to door. Mhm. That seems like a lot of money in Iraq for like 3 months. Transportation is dayto-day door to door and I believe the
the other town was at least 3540 mi away. It's $1,000 a week. Yes. 200 a day. Guess it is a lot of money. You do Uber and now cheaper. Has that been um alleviated? This particular
cost for quarter 4 the uh the funding for transportation in general uh for this particular family. Have they found permanent housing? I do not know the question right now. Obviously the cost has ended when the school year ended. Yeah, that makes sense. Yeah. Hopeful that and and there could be another
family. It's it could be an ongoing Exactly. A lot of these are things that again an unexpected foster student is hopefully never happens but it will and those things uh can come up and most budgets again these are things that a budget should be able to kind of flex
and adjust for. The issue is that we were so tight already with trying to create a tight projection and lower costs and with Katie within um what she was doing to trying to control the projected deficits uh that there's just no wiggle room. So even the coaches
typon is another one Katie was projecting that um to see a little bit of savings within that. It ended up being $44,000 over her projection that was still within the athletic department's budget. Um, so it's not like the budget, the department itself went over budget, but she was projecting
some savings that we did not see. And so therefore, there's nowhere else for that to go other than to sit on top of the the deficit cuz that that is where we're at. Yes, please. In a normal um year budget,
you you have this transportation built into a normal year budget, right? you you have buffers still, right? And you may or may not use that, right? Correct. I think and if you don't use it, you carry it over hope to kind of
um have a little reserve for unanticipated situations. There is a transportation revolving account that revolving that is mostly utilized for how we collect fees for for our large school buses and how we pay
those bills. So that revolving account you usually has uh cuz it because it collects money over fiscal years and that that's why it's a revolving account for the funds for special education transportation or for our homeless in foster transportation. That would be in
the special education transportation line. Okay. that that could be that could be utilized for different special education services. Uh if in the end we had more on that that one line item, we might transfer that to another special education service delivery line. So we would utilize that andor would be
brought back to a revolving account. Okay. Thank you. Can I ask a question just u you have the coach's stipens. It's 44k over projection and kind of a smaller question to a bigger issue. Is
that the is that a a uh previous year ever's actual Yeah, I believe what what assistant super Blake did was when she was doing the projection took what we had spent in the fall season and rolled it in and again looking for ways in which we could
high savings where maybe there was again as she's looking through this and we're trying to cut this $2.3 million budget of like maybe there's some additional buffer within this athletic department budget. We only spend x amount in the fall. Maybe we'll spend x amount in the spring. spring came in at Y amount about
$44,000 over. So again, that like fell within the athletic department budget, but it was just greater than what she had assumed within the projected projection as she was going through the and in your spring stipens because there's more sports for both boys and girls teams. That's why the numbers
over. Fall fall has less sports, therefore less coaches stipens. Spring has more sports teams, therefore more coaches types. And that was the when when Katie just rolled over, I'll take the fall number and put it into the projection as a placeholder. The actuals that were actually in there would have
been more because it's just more teams. Okay. In the spring season, I I I I was of the thought going with the numbers that they like everyone just kind of got a bump and and we never saw. No, that I think this is actually that the the fall season always costs a certain amount, winter costs a certain amount, spring's
always a little more because there's just more sports being conducted at that time. Thank you. Let me answer that question. Thanks. Uh last one is the salary incumbrances just to hit on that. So again uh I think we shared previously that our financial system uh does not have an ability to
project uh salary costs for the year uh in cumber salaries and so uh assistant super uh assistant superintendent Blake did that manually uh for salaried uh employees that's fairly easy and accurate process right you know what somebody's annualized salary is um this
adjustment is primarily driven by uh differences within uh assistant super blake's projections for hourly employees and actuals So again, uh overtime or um things like that, just the number of hours that some hourly folks put in can
be um more um variable. And so the projection she had um didn't account for all of them. Another um piece that she shared of why this this that 100,000 piece was around leaves. uh some staff members who uh again just did not have
some information about uh who was on leaves when they're coming back costs associated with that things that are are HR drivers um that has been a pain point for us within this year that um superintendent interim superintendent Failen will talk about in a second um but those are kind of why thousand uh I
will say kind of in Katie's events on these like salary incumbrances we you know her number was off however We have an $67 million budget. 80% of that is salary. That's about $56 million. She's off by $100,000. That is
a lot of money. It's.19%. So it's less than, you know, less than 2%. Um, in terms of what her projection was off, but obviously again our situation we find ourselves in right now, uh, is that this is 100,000 that is
pushing the projected deficit up. Yes. to give an example of um hourly hourly employees in the system. Okay. Custodians are hourly employees. Uh some of our HRS employees who are administrative assistants are hourly.
Okay. Our unity par professionals and aids and BCBAs that work with our students and they're not unit A teachers but they're par professionals would be hourly employees. Okay. Thank you. You're welcome. Any other questions on these? Anybody
online have any questions? Ron needs to be promoted. Ron needs to be promoted to panelist. You uh promote Ron. So, please question. Are we waiting for Oh, you can
ask. Yeah. Um the coaches I don't know if you answered this already. I'm sorry. I apologize if I did. Coaches statements the 44,000 was that over what was it to act last year? Did you know was it the same amount or was it over last year? So I I would suggest that the well the
hourly the stipens for coaches are in the contract so they're known numbers and what we explained a little earlier was that Katie just rolled in the placeholder for fall. So that they are known stipens are known figures. They're right in the contract. So they they have I don't think they have changed. So it
was the same. So you it was the same last year. It should be about the same as last year. They don't go up every year with the contract. They they stay stagnant unless they're altered by the negotiation process. Okay, thanks. Ron, did you have a question?
No, I I was trying to get promoted, but uh thank you. Okay. All right. Um and then we'll uh quickly uh share this uh textheavy slide which I apologize for. We've shared I just pulled this one because we've shared
this one previously. These are uh best practices, implemented, strengthen things we've highlighted. I put again that top line in bold just to emphasize again we think that the work that um assists superintendent Blake and others did on the FY26 budget uh is the thing that most sets us up for success to not
be in front of you uh next year uh but there are other things that we have talked about that that will be implemented are being implemented have been implemented uh and they're on this list. One thing I want to highlight that we really haven't talked about as much um previously, but kind of as an update
is this hiring of 6 FT HR director. This year we had a point4 FT HR director um um Glenn Pavloch who left us in in the February I believe January around that time. And so just the the lack of that role has really resulted in some cost
drivers some that you see within the um salary incumbrances related to kind of some some HR functions that it's been really challenging with with not having kind of staff there. So uh John has has plans for that and we'll speak on that for a second. Um just last point is this
again slide we've shared previously on just some of the initiatives um with the the town with the select board um that are moving forward. I know on the joint town finance committee um that has been discussed kind of several times at the board meeting. So uh that ball is in
their court in terms of establishing. I think they'll do that at a upcoming meeting. Uh and then the consultant um is something that the RFQ went out. They've been getting some proposals back. We're waiting on that to close and we'll review uh soon. We'll try and give
some feedback with the town administrator uh and his team to to select a good consultant. So that that is moving forward and um we're excited about that. I'll turn it over to John. I'll speak more. Um so thank you uh Mark. Just wanted to say aloud that the
uh the work that's already happening uh in the month of June in preparation to close out FY25, but more importantly, what are we doing moving forward to ensure that best practices are put in place to uh reassure uh the confidence in how we expended the the taxpayers
dollars is already happening. Uh there are budget issues in uh um strategies that uh assistant superintendent Blake has already taken um that I appreciate. I want to say out loud uh uh super assistant superintendent Blake could not make it with a family commitment. She
has worked tirelessly for the last you know 6 months to identify this gap um look to shrink this gap and has done a fantastic job. So I I really want to applaud her for this. Uh we have already met with every major spender within the school department. i.e. who has a budget
and who has the ability to encumber funds and signpos. We've already showed them their budget for FY26. We have already talked to them about encumbering all the appropriate expenses so we know exactly where we are um in that budget line. That's includes athletic director
uh special education and uh our facilities department who are the the bigger folks. We've also met with building principles and our curriculum directors uh to also set the tone for this is the budget for FY26. Here's what you have to spend. We want you to
allocate resources uh appropriately. You can't go over this amount. Uh we have every curriculum director notifying everyone through memos about every single purchase that they make that hits all different schools budgets. So everything is recorded actively in memo form so Katie can have an archived
document to go to to ensure that she knows where that money went and why it was pulled out of say a high school account or a middle school account for math or for English. This is all going to be paper driven so it's all um recorded and codified so we know exactly where every dollar goes. The other part
of this, and we spoke to a little bit, is that the lack of a human resource um position being filled full-time last year and only part-time for half the time this year has really created um communication gaps around how it
interacts with budget. So when we look at things like adjustments to salary incumbrances $100,000 or uh why is subs uh uh so high um what is overtime look like and why is it being expended in the way it is. We will look at all of those and we've already met with the
principles. I had a leadership meeting this morning. Um all of those things will have to be done with approval and in memo form. So again, we're codifying everything and we know where every dollar is going. There's no, oh, I had someone work two days over the summer. Now I want to pay them sometime in
September. You will write the memo in August when they work. I will approve the work, then the person will work, and then we'll pay them afterwards. So, we'll be encumbering as much as we can. We will be codifying everything with paper memo. Um, and we are really
looking forward to uh the year being very tight from a financial perspective. Secondly, we uh did review every single opening for staff this year uh that came about from the end of uh the school year to now. We are only approving filling
positions that we feel are essential that are student facing. And we're actually having the principles and the curriculum directors look at whether or not some position should be filled or could be positive for one year because we do know that we want to make sure that we have any leeway we can that uh
even though a school has bottom line authority to expend money from a different line. If we can hold off on a few positions this year, we'll only build a few dollars that we can use for unintended expenses and and create that buffer. So, we are doing that analysis now and we will be deciding to probably
not fill a few positions um in order to be able to have those funds available for any kind of emergency through the year. So, I as I said in my first school committee meeting, if you voted for the override, thank you. We appreciate it and we will uh absolutely uh uh shepherd the money well. And if you did not vote
for the override, we appreciate it that you know that we heard you and we will be shephering your dollar uh appropriately. We will be expending the taxpayers dollar in the appropriate way. We take this very seriously and we will come in on budget in FY26. There's no doubt in my mind.
Um, can I follow up the question? Um, this was a subject from the Warren Committee even going back to last year. Are there any, and I think you you very briefly touched on it, uh, just in terms of kind of that summer work, get paid later. Um are there any other changes in
the hiring practices that you can outline for us just generally across the department? Sure. So every hire um in the last two years has been more of a building based hire. Uh so I'm pulling that back that all hires will be approved by me and the salary line will
be approved by me. So what we do is we have teams of people interview a pool of candidates. Then there's one or two finalists that the principal will have and then those two candidates or one candidate will come to me. I literally did it yesterday and I would show them the chart. I would see where they sat on the
salary scale. I would sign that initially and I would put that in the personnel file. So I will be doing all of those uh for this this hiring season. That's something that the HR director would do with me uh in the future years. But because that position is vacant right now, I've taken on that role. But
that that's a dual position that you'll be working. Yeah, I mean in a lot of this work, we're a small office, so HR really interacts with my role obviously and Katie's role and the assistant superintendent who's uh will be a new one will be in place this year as well.
Uh when they're doing things like professional development and all those things, they also overlap with personnel and that overlaps the budget. So, it's a pretty tight office and we have to be able to work well together and communicate well uh and then codify things in writing so everybody's on the same page with what the expenditures
are. Thank you. Excellent. Any questions from at home? Um, you you got anticipated money from the state. We haven't received it yet, but I mean,
it's not in your hands, but it's as good as it's coming. Y they're not going to pull it back. Can you um tell us the amount that you got from the estate please? It's around 470 something around that. So essentially uh
the state was funding about 40% of transportation reimbursement. Um and the state should be reimbursing districts 75%. They the original FY25 budget didn't allocate enough to cover the 75%
and so that's why it was 40%. So this supplemental funding is additional funds within the FY25 to increase the reimbursement for all districts around the state to the 75% reimbursement amount. And so the 470 is just Katie's calculation. That is what the difference
is between a 40% reimbursement and a 75% reimbursement for um for Milton Whippy. Okay. So this really isn't um yippy. I can do anything I want with this money. It is reimbursement money for a specific
purpose. Now, what will you do with it when you get it? You've already paid out the money. Now, they're giving you it back. Yes, the money's already been paid out. So, it is reimbursement. The the money is coming to fill the $2.3 million. It's part of that is the big puzzle piece
that fills the $2.3 million. It'll Okay. Right. FY25. Just plug in that hole. Just plug in that hole. Yeah. That was when we came back in in March. That was one of the things we talked about, the things we're doing, PO freeze, hiring freeze, uh the circuit breaker supplemental reserve. At that point,
that was known that that was the goal of the legislature. We weren't 100% that it would go through. Uh but we've been monitoring that throughout the time. As you said, it's now uh been approved by the Senate, the um House. It was in the governor's budget. The conference committee approved it. And so, just I
think there's a couple more things, but it will come through. Uh, and when it comes back to you, um, where are you going to put it? We're going to put it to Phil. I I kind of think like when money comes back to me that I spent out, um, I, you know, I
don't go out and buy a new car or something. Yeah. No, it it is just to balance the it will be used to balance the FY25 books as is the same as this million dollar allocation, right, between those two things. Those are two big pieces. bill was the original $2.3
million projected deficit. Right. So, it's the combination of the additional revenue and the shrinking of costs are the two two things to kind of close that deficit. Thank you. Of course. So, Mark, I have a question. So, just running some math. I could be wrong. So,
if we approve the 300, you'd have the 700 which select board already it's already been approved for you. No, no, no. The 700 and the 300 have both been approved by town meeting to the reserve account which is under your we moved the 30 Right. So, y'all haven't moved any
money to our department because we didn't ask you we didn't want you to until we kind of knew where we were getting into. Thank you. So, it could net out at a million and then with the the money's coming back from the state for the transportation, you'll still have a net loss of what about 900? You said 2.3. Isn't that 14 you'd have?
Yeah. So again, it's a combination of additional revenue that we're getting through we're trying requesting through the reserve account, additional revenue from the state and shrinking costs through PO freezes, the water bill issue, right? The um hiring freeze. So
it it's the combination of those two elements. It's summary of those those areas you're trying to cut. I saw the the list you had up there, but I was I'm looking for what is that list going to be, right? So if you're going to cut from 23 down to as low as you can go
right and then balance it out with the state returning money. So I'm just wondering what are you going to cut? I mean you've got POS now the end of the fiscal year is done what in a month. So is that about right? I'm just trying to understand. Yeah. So the the sorry no so the the that 23 has been cut. So I think
the 23 through all of those efforts that we talked about have brought that down to a million to a million with that. So yes and so the the deficit that we now have is a million and that's okay that's what I was trying to understand where that 23 was I was trying to understand
that thank you and the transfer the trans the circuit breaker funding is that that additional piece that's that and then the million is the got it so all of those other pieces have been accounted for that helps me thank you so the transfer of the seven and three will
clear the deficit essentially that's I mean that's right And then the the action the seven actions rate actions they have there offset it down from the 23 to get it to the million. Correct. Correct. Yeah. Thank you. That's what I thought I was trying to connect that. Thanks. And that's and you're going to
exercise these actions in the new fiscal year as well, right? To ensure that there is no deficit order freeze uh and again the hire done. We are we are uh analyzing every new hire. We're not adding any FTEEs to the budget. We're
only analyzing the current FTDEs that were moved into the FY26 budget and if we if any vacancies occur due to folks resigning uh or retiring, uh we are looking at every single one of them. Um and we have up to 35 positions right now that are quote open in the district,
which is a the traditional um movement in a in a school district the size. We've already identified at least two positions that we think that we could pause. doesn't mean that we don't need them, but we're asking ourselves the question, could we pause those services because they're not direct to students.
Uh, and could we use those dollars just to hold in FY26 to make sure that we can get through the year without coming back to the wiring committee. We'd like to leave those positions in the budget while we start to reflect on what FY27 could look like, but we want to be we're going to be very conservative in our
approach to the FY26 school year. Are you going to prioritize the positions such as um those that are teachers versus administrative positions? We have the actual two positions that were in mind uh one's a an administrator and one is a um a position that goes from to
many schools for professional development and support of teachers. Okay. Those are the two examples that we have now. Okay. I just make a comment. Sure. I love that you have a strategy. Uh I've been on the war committee for three years. This is the best strategy I've
heard from the superintendent and I just want to say thank you. Um it's exciting that see you're laying this out. It's a vision how you're going to go about it and you've got milestones to get there. It's pretty awesome. So thank you. Thank you. Appreciate it. Agree. It's awesome.
I mean one year but yeah. Um can I ask some questions? Um thank you. It's not. So the principles, one of the things you said was the principles are going to be responsible for the budget of their schools, individual schools, right? So that's huge. Thank you. Um it looks like you went through from the comments on
the war committee last time, you went through the um you added all those items that were in the um April time meeting May time meeting. I'm sorry. May time meeting. It looks like you added all those, right?
Like you seem like you acted on No. in terms of the pra best practices implemented, right? So, sounds like you addressed it because that was one of the questions at the town meeting, right? The this list was uh this was this list existed prior to
that town meeting. So, some of these we had gone through. I think there were additional things that we talked about um as far as possibly what the tri that tribe board looks like. Um I'm trying to see if there's some other things. There were some there were some
areas that we did address, but I think that there was I think we were working on a parallel path and some of the things that we had discussed that you had brought up. we had been working along along the parallel path but definitely went back and reviewed it and and you know took additional things into consideration and some of those things
came up in conversations with the war committee school subcommittee right which we were we talked with back in December talked in January had you know Lori obviously was at many many many many so these are yeah I I think we've tried to have ongoing conversation with with
this body and appreciated any and all input and questions and uh support that y'all given us. So, I certainly think that the work of the war committee has improved. It looks like you did do most of them, but I was wondering if there's any that you missed because it's like 12 items here. Okay. But if there was any that you said no,
we didn't want to do that, but if you've addressed it at any like they talked about um engage a CPA firm to conduct periodic review. They talked uh the other one was like uh HI human resource personnel system that accurately tracks
employees by location, position and funding source like that's one of the recommendations. I don't know if you talked about these. So again we we talked about them severely in the conversation and some of these things like the the issue of the you know HR systems and things those are things that
are we are expecting will come up within the conversation with the the consultant the best practices consultant because some of those systems need to make sure they talk between the town and the schools. Yeah. So the schools kind of going off on their own doing something is not going to be that helpful. So, um, yeah. So, I think there's still more
that we're hoping, uh, to learn and implement with in collaboration with the town, uh, and that consultant and with the the work of the tribe board in terms of just how we think about reporting and, um, engagement with the public and each other and just make sure we are
again just strengthening these practices throughout the year. Yeah, that's great. Actually, thank you for that. Um, I just had some other questions. Um, special education You said that last year, the last meeting you said the population went
down. Special ed students went down. I don't know if it's gone down, but it's been the actual is actually going up. It looks like the actual expenditures actual expenditures, right? Like it's population's going down, but the expenditures went up. Mhm. I guess that
my question is, do you know why? Yeah. Is there a way to put student numbers or something? So, so the question is if the numbers are going down, why is the budget going up, right? Um,
I think there are some things where I'm not I don't I'm not clear on the numbers to be honest with you if how much they've gone down. I know there are some things that that still go towards special education costs that don't necessarily reflect a student being in special education, and that would be
around that evaluation process. So if a student is referred for special education or somebody a parent or a teacher or whomever refers them, they have to go through an evaluation process which then brings into account contracted services. So a school psychologist or a speech therapist or an occupational therapist, they have to go
through all of those um evaluations. And in some cases we have people um inhouse who can do that. If the um if there are a higher number of students referred at a particular time, we might have to contract those services out which
increase our costs. And so say there are 30 students who were referred for special education. Maybe 10 of those only maybe only 10 of those qualify for special education, you still have to evaluate all 30. Does that make sense? So those costs still go towards special education. So they might be different
levels of special education that Absolutely. So yeah, I mean there some can you could have a student who's medically complex and that can be a much higher cost because you have medical expenses involved with it. Um there could be students who um are in special education but they're you know they're getting reading instruction and that
could be it or just um speech and OT. So there the the the needs vary by every student. So not there's not a sort of a cookie cutter um service plan per student. So everybody is so each student some student might have one service some
might have multiple services and that would that would contribute to the cost. I think the one other thing to note is um I think it was 3 years ago. So I don't know if you're looking specifically at in um district students in special education. So we have students who are in district and then we
have students who are out of district. So they go to special education schools outside of the district. Those costs I think 3 years ago increased by 14%. the tuition alone increased by 14%. So out of district tuition, so the the state sets the the um the rates for the um the
state approved schools and so their tuition increased so substantially. So that was a big hit to a number of budgets. So um it wouldn't necessarily reflect this year versus last, but if you looked at the costs from this year versus 3 years ago and those out of district costs would be substantially
higher. I don't know if there's more you wanted to add to that. It is a very um it's not a dollar for-doll uh special education student per cost ratio. Uh it's a each child has its own IEP where they get services that
uh they deserve and some of them as uh Amanda said could be just limited to uh one or two services and some students could have four or five. So the number of students doesn't really always determine the number of services and the expenditures associated with that cost in that department.
Okay. Probably hard to budget. Correct. Um Okay. Um I remember this from a previous meeting, but uh and I think Katie might have brought it up at one of the finance meetings about um substitute teachers
went way up this year, last year. Is that accurate? And I guess that was one of my questions. I don't recall what the reason was, but why did that work? Do you know why? Yeah. And you're 100% right. substitutes as a primary cost driver. Uh one of the reasons um that's
been shared is that um it is harder to find um external subs to cover. That has been something that's been very challenging for my for most districts. External subs are actually cheaper than uh paying staff who are in district,
right? paying teachers to cover, right? And give up a prep period and cover uh or a building subs to to take on, you know, whatever those kind of uh agreements are. Uh typically those are more expensive to use in staff. A lot of times, from my experience, the the
impact on kids is better because those are staff who are ingrained in your building, know the kids better, know the curriculum better, things like that. So from the student learning perspective, that can often be better, but from a financial perspective, it can be more uh expensive. Uh and so the other is just so they were in-house teachers. That's
the reason. Yeah. So what uh when you can't get an external substitute teacher to come in, you would basically if a teacher has a seven period schedule, they teach five periods. They have one planning period and they have one uh period off. We would actually take one
of those periods that they were supposed to be doing their prep and there's a contractual amount of money for that period, $27 or $32 that we would pay them. So if you multiply that by the seven periods of what that teacher would teach, that's more than the cost of a daily sub. So when that happens over
time, that accumulates to a higher amount of money that would be expended on that. So to to limit that, the district has hired building subs. So every school has a sub every day, no matter what, because they'll cover the first teacher out. Um and uh that has
helped to a certain degree. Uh but the I would say that the amount that I'm looking at on slide 11 of you know the variance so the expenditure in 25 was about a million dollars. Uh it would be nice to get that back down around $900,000 or so. Um so we we're going to
work with a couple of the with our principles to find out if there's any way we can reduce that uh in some way. Okay. Um I had another question. Um, so last year in the town, this doesn't
sound like it affects your budget, but it kind of does. Uh, but the health class went way up in the town. And, um, we pay, the town pays health benefits based on 20 hours a week. And my recollection was the school
department had a lot more part- timerrs. I think I I did ask this last meeting, but I'm wondering if there's like a way. So, we're paying more like you have two part- timers, but you're paying full health benefits for both at 20 hours a week. Is there a way to have one full-time at 40 hours a week? Is that
could that be like considered so that we only pay like one health cost? We don't we save like 20 something thousand a year. I Yes, certain jobs could be combined if that was the case. I think a lot of the part-time people and I can look into this further are more like 08 or which
means they're 4 days a week. Uh we don't have any job sharing going on. So some districts would job share. So I would teach third grade with you. We would share the class and we would both 50% so we could both be eligible for insurance. We don't do that in Milton. It's not a it's not a very good practice for a lot
of different reasons. So one of which is you only have one health insurance if you have one employee. Uh, but we can review what part-time folks uh that we could combine for FY27 to see if we could reduce all the cost. Oh, yep. Absolutely. That'd be great. Thanks. Um,
thank you. Um, that's all I have for questions, but I appreciate it. Thank you. You're welcome. Anybody online? Any hands? Fine. Nope. No. All quiet. Okay. Anybody have any questions? No.
anything else you'd like to add? Just really appreciate all the time um that y'all have given us. We've been a part of you a lot. Uh and so thank you very much. Appreciate all the questions, all the partnership brought and see from school stuff. Just really appreciate how much y'all done this year, three town
meetings and still going here with us today. Um it's a lot. So thank you very much. Thank you. Thank you. School. Sorry I question. Sorry. Um this is Julia. Hi. Um, it feels like a stupid question, but I'm going to ask it for
everyone's knowledge. What happens if the warrant committee does not agree to transfer this money to the school department? What happens to that million gap? Uh, yeah, we have no uh we have no other method of closing the gap. So, if there
weren't committee um you know declines to allocate the million dollars, we would um I'm sure John and Katie would go talk to Nick and Amy and see if there's something to do. I I know the town has you know other uh rainy day funds. I think those need approval from
town meeting and so potentially a special town meeting would have to be but that's getting a bit beyond my um my level of expertise of exactly. So, I think we've just we'd have to go to Amy and Nick and and ask them what what would it be, but I I think that would be the the only other strategy.
Thank you. All good. Well, I just uh Julia, thank you for asking that question. I knew it was going to be a lot of work if we said no, but I just like to thank the school committee um all the time you spent with
us like like you just said, um we had a great time. with you coming down your flexibility. Some of the other boards did the same. We had some joint meetings. Thought they worked very well. And I know that everything that you presented here, at least from my shoes,
I've seen we've discussed and we kind of anticipated frankly in the contingent budget that this was going to be um part of that um to make sure you broke even at 25. So, but I just wanted to thank you for
all the work that you've done and um superintendent family, I want to welcome you back to Melton. Thank you very much and you know everything that you said with with the new members of the school committee and the older members of the school committee extremely refreshing to to this finicky board of citizens. Um,
so I I I appreciate that and I uh I think a big concern at this board and people can correct me was some of the hiring practices and just some of the the things and you know we understood why you know certain moves had to be made but I think you know what you've presented today specifically in terms of
a plan moving forward I think is great news for us. Very good. So thank you. So I just wanted to thank you again and I'm sure you're going to sure have a busy summer ahead. Thank you very much. Thanks for meeting us.
Nice to meet you. You too. Okay. Um I don't know if um you know we have we have a lot of members on online here. Uh does anybody want to uh mention anything? Anything you'd like to discuss? Raise
providence. Julia. Oh, thanks. Um, yeah, I think just reiterating what what you were um just sort of alluding to, Tom, which is that to remind us all that it's really nice
that this isn't a surprise to us. Of course, it, you know, is unwelcome news, was unwelcome news when we learned about it this winter. You know, rural town, but I really appreciate the school committee and the finance subcommittee's
transparency, uh, both with us and the college in general. Um, so, you know, we we know this is coming. Um, and I, as weird as that is to say, I appreciate that we've known this is coming. Um, and
we we I think uh have had the opportunity to really understand why how we got here, the fixes that are in place to um hopefully ensure we don't end up here again. So, um yeah, just I guess kind of remind us that this is not new
information to us and that's really nice. Thank you, Julia. Um, not to interrupt our discussion, but the town administrator just came in the the room and I just didn't know if there's any information he'd like to
share with the committee or is just spectator. Uh, we're here to chat about our own budget when the committee is ready. Perfect. Okay. Thank you. Sure. Didn't mean to call you. No, I was upstairs. I got a text that the schools
had wrapped. So, I need that. There's another meeting upstairs. Thank you. Um, does anybody from the committee have any other comments, Brian? I think it's been said, but no, I do I appreciate the actions that they've taken. I know last year was quagmire,
but um I think it's great that they um the last couple slides I think is great that they have taken they seem to be proactively taking actions on things to address it. So, I think that's good to see. Yeah, I I know they're going to hire
somebody. Jay, ask a question. Jay, something you like to say? Sure. Just quickly, it was it was said earlier tonight, but I wanted to sort of make sure it was out there that this million dollar we back in like February,
this million dollar is a million dollar going to go into the special ed reserve account. And now after all said and done, we prove it going into the schools. So, you know, just just emphasizing the point that this moving from school money to school money is not
schools dipping into the pocket of the other town. Um, just uh wanted to be clear about that. Thank you. Thank you, Jay. Anyone else? No.
You want to vote? Yep. Okay. Anyone online? We're going to call the roll. Steve. Yes. Okay. So, um I need a motion first time. Oh, made me nervous.
300. We're going to make a motion to transfer 300. The 1 million. Okay. So, make a motion to transfer 1 million to the reserve fund. uh reserve fund from the reserve fund for FY25 for the school department for the school department budget. Okay. Steve has a motion to
transfer $1 million to the reserve fund to the school department budget for fiscal year 25. Do I have a second on that? Second. Second. I'll give it to you, Brian. Can I go to that? No, but you can hear. Okay. So, I have a second on that motion. I'm going to call the
role for vote for the approval of the $1 million transfer from the reserve fund to the school department. Steve, yes. Um, Brian, yes. Julia, yes. Macy, yes.
Jay, yes. Judith, it's not here. Ron, stay. Stain. Thank you. This is to move the seven and the 300.
Yes. Yes. Yes. JD, thank you. Am I on? Yes. Yes. Okay, that's it. Transfer complete.
Oh, Peter. Peter. I didn't know you were here. Thanks. Uh, yes. Thank you, Peter. My apologies. Okay. One extension.
So, are you going to vote? Oh, yes. Tom Cable. Sorry. I don't usually call the role. Usually, it's the secretary. Um, so, uh, we voted to approve the million dollar transfer to the schools. Um, good luck in the next year. I know you
have a lot of work ahead of you. Um and um we wish you all the future success that you presentation today and a lot of good information. Thank you all. Do you want me to do this? Thank you very much. Have a good summer.
Good luck. Okay. Uh, you want to come up? Hey, come on up. You used to come here way more often. I know. Than you like never team effort. Yeah. Yeah. You like Dave better.
I bet I won't come. Good evening. Good evening. The floor the floor is yours. Thank you, Miss Lon, for being here and Amy. Thank you. Also, thank you for having us. Um, and I appreciate the ongoing work of the warrant committee and the committee's members service. Um, I know we're as we
approach the end of the fiscal year, we'd also approach some folks's terms on the warrant committee. So, um, it's always a pleasure to come join you for your meetings and appreciate working with all of you. So, um, look forward to continuing to work with those who are continuing and appreciate the service of
those who are, um, moving on from their time on the committee. But anyway, just wanted to note that um we are here just to provide an overall kind of big picture update on fiscal 25 as we approach fiscal year end next week. Um we do have um some year end transfers
and reserve and those reserve fund transfer requests that we'll um we're working to submit. Um typically the warrant committee would designate um the chair um to approve these as we um wrap up and close the books out in the first
15 days of the new fiscal year. So before July 15th um so you know deter defer to the warrant committee's um perspective on how to manage that. But we um also have this year request to increase a revolving fund spending limit. And I'll
explain that in a little bit more detail in a moment. But uh first in terms of good news um about bad news, but in terms of the good news on the revenue side, as of um today really or probably last week to be realistic, we're
approaching a projected $3 million above our revenue forecast in terms of revenues this year across property taxes, local receipts, and state aid. Um that's driven um by a couple of key factors. As we've talked about a lot with this committee, our interest income
continues to be strong as interest rate rates have remained high. Um we're expecting um we're right now at about um $800,000 over our budget on interest income. Motor vehicle excise tax. Again, as cars are um more expensive, that
means excise bills taxes are are more expensive. People are uh buying and leasing cars at a higher clip. That's um again about $700,000 above forecast. Building permits a few hundred,000 above forecast. Um penalties and interest on
taxes is also um about a half a million dollars above forecast. Um, and that's more due to closing out um some longer unpaid um property taxes through continuing to reach out and um you know
have the treasurer continue to work through some of those delinquent um property tax owners. So whether through sales as a as a homeless sale, they come and clear the tax title on that property. So that is generating some additional income as well. Um, so again, overall projecting about a $3 million
above forecasts. That is still subject to change. We're not quite there yet, but uh I'll caveat it with that, but um you know, that has been where we like to see things and and remain with our conservative budgeting on our on our revenues um so we don't get um too far
in front of where um those monies are coming in. So that's just first I just want to explain on the revenue side. Um, in terms of expenditures, a bunch of departments do expect to have turnbacks and underpend their budgets, whether it's the legal budget, police department budget, um, select board budget, uh, the
veterans budget, um, as well as the DPW setting aside snow and ice. Uh, this is largely due to vacancies. Um, our budget has the director of planning, community development. That position obviously has been vacant since now it's been vacant since the end of November. So, there are
savings in our budget through that. Um, police department has been continuing to deal with staff turnover and new employees coming in. Um, couple and legal we just haven't spent as much in legal fees um as the budget would allow. And DPW does um across its
general fund budget has savings. Uh, we're under staffed at DPW currently and have um curtailed some spending in DPW. So broadly there are a number of uh budgets as with every year that have turnbacks. Where we're seeing the pressure this year are the two places
we've talked about the most uh primarily health insurance and the group insurance budget. Um as we talked about a lot in building out the fiscal 26 budget. We had seen and continue to see or continue had experienced enrollment increases. um
you know, at a $20,000 annual cost for a family plan, 10 people more on a family plan across the 700 employees the town has, that's $200,000 right there. So, it doesn't take a lot for um these budgets to come under pressure. So, health insurance, we're looking or employee
benefits broadly, we're looking at about a $300,000 overspend in that budget. Um and then snow and ice. This has been um one of our more expensive snow and ice seasons um through a number of factors. Just the type and frequency of the
events that required mobilization, the timing of those events. We had a lot of um weekend storms, which means now um our employees are automatically starting at either time and a half or potentially double time. Um, and as if you're driving around any city or town in the
fall, you see the postage signs, everybody's looking for plow drivers. And that market has gotten more and more competitive, which means every year we have to raise our rates just to keep up with those around us. And when we're uh surrounded by Boston and Quinsey on two sides, it makes it challenging uh to
compete. So, uh, our budget was under pressure largely through the snow and ice and the health insurance. Um a few other places have smaller um requests for reserve fund transfers or year uh appropriations transfer which includes unemployment which is a few thousand. Um
and I think the audit department is projected to be over by 1500. Um so that is the big picture is that what we would be looking to do is is the schools have requested a million from the reserve fund that leaves $265,000. So what I we expect what we would be looking for is
to take the remainder of the 265 and apply that to employee benefits and insurance. And then um once um everything kind of settles on the fiscal year, we would seek to offset our snow and ice deficit by um transferring
monies from other departments um including the ones I listed such as police, legal, um select board, wage set aside. So we haven't finalized that list of transfers. Um, so right now just to put kind question. Yes. Is there a summary of all this? I haven't prepared
it. I will and I'll distribute it. It's just everything kind of moving. I have a draft. Um, so I can distribute something to the committee after. Um, so anyways, just to kind of repeat, so um, we'd be looking for the remainder of the reserve fund to go to employee benefits. Um, and
then snow and ice, uh, we're looking at it's in deficit. So the snow ice budget is $160,000 a year. We've never spent just $160,000. So this year the total expense was $811,20,
which means it's overspent by 651,000. Um the DPW budget will be underspent. So that will offset a lot of that deficit, but not entirely. Um we're looking at needing anywhere between 200 and $250,000 to pull from other departments
to offset the remainder of that snow and ice deficit. and between police, select board, um legal, our wage set aside, and other budgets. Um we have the funding to do so. We would just need um ultimately an appropriations transfer which is
approved by both this uh the warrant committee or the warrant committee's design and the select board. Uh the reserve fund transfer to the employee benefits if fits would just require the warrant committee's approval. Um, so that's kind of the lay of the land in terms of um, the town big picture
revenue is really strong. In terms of expenses, the deficits that we're seeing and have been tracking all along have been health insurance and snow and ice. Thank you, Nick. Does anybody have a question on the committee on how this works? If you don't know, just how the
turnovers work and how the money is basically moving it between just reallocated to cover all the other deficits. But do you do we under is everyone comfortable? Because I'm going to ask for a vote for a designate to sign. So I just want to make sure whomever ends up going there has a full
understanding of the purpose of the exercise. I just have a question on the amounts cuz I'm not sure like how much maybe you don't know yet but how much are the expenditures over you said revenues 3 million and plus correct and how much
are expenditures total? So right now, um, we're projecting the group insurance employee benefits to be over by $300,000. We're projecting again projecting DPW as a whole, including snow and ice and
everything else to be over by I'll say $210,000 including snow and ice. That's inclusive of snow and ice, which was 651. Yeah. The snow and ice itself is overspent by 651. Yeah. And then there are a couple of small two other small ones. Right now
unemployment is over by 5,500 and the audit budget is over by 1,500 which is not the snow and ice is like interesting cuz I think a lot of people think it wasn't a bad winter. You know ice and it really
was salt. Yeah. A lot of salts and a lot if you look at the more detailed expenses it's the overtime expense is much higher than it normally is. And then the a contractor fee is much higher. So that just shows that the number of mobilizations and the hours that they had to work and when those
calls were being made and you mentioned that to us I remember like previously. Can I ask you this is on topic but not really. How much do they get an hour now? So like 70. Who's that? Excuse me. Cloud drivers. Um our employees are private. Just like private, if you have
to start dipping into the private sector, it's close to it can go up to $175 $200 an hour for the for assault equipped vehicle. I'm in the wrong. I know. I'm That's unbelievable. Almost 200 could be $200. Wow. That's Yeah. I
mean, we're talking about when we're contracting with like the Feny brothers and the large utilities. That's because you see them going around town. So that's Yep. Okay. And that's the truck and driver, correct? That's an all-in cost. It's an hourly rate at usually upwards $100 an hour. And it cost
effectively, you know, to pay DPW employees time and half or double time. It's it's more cost effective. Um, yeah. And they have to keep it in house where possible. Oh, in house. Wow. Yeah. And they have to drive slow and carefully.
Yeah. So go wild to plow those. Our contractors are doing that as well. I'm sure they are. Steve, you had a question. Oh, Ron does. Ron, Ron, question. Hi, thanks for sharing this update. Very helpful. Um, I just had a general question about the the snow and ice. I
feel like this winter reminded me of what winters felt like years ago when it actually snowed. Mhm. I know we've been really lucky the last like five winters where it snowed like three times and it was minimal. Is this should we expect that the cost should be more in line
with what we saw this year as opposed to to the other winters or maybe a little later? It's a good question. I wish I had an answer. I I think um I'll just just to give you the numbers
and so starting in fiscal 20 the total snow and ice expense was 265 557 687 469 314 and then this year is the outlier at 811. Um so it's definitely last year was
more expensive. I think the trend has been um you know lighter, but it's it's really about even if we don't get the 24-in storm, if we're getting five 4 in storms that require everybody to mobilize, that can just be even more
costly because of the repeated durations of that. If equipment's breaking down now, that costs us money to repair. If um you know, every time we have to go get more salt. So, it just can it can compound even if they're lighter events. um if they're if they're freent and on
the weekends. Yeah. Our DPW director also explained the uh icing procedures and why a lot of times the trucks will be out even if it's not snowing. They'll be icing beforehand, you know, all those types of things that that could be driving costs
and you don't realize that it's not, you know, not inches of snow, but they can still be out working. So, that makes sense. and staffing remains um obviously a key component to helping mitigate some of these costs. Through much of last winter, not only was DPW understaffed,
but a number of employees were going through a CDL training program through the winter. A lot of them got their CDL license actually in mid January. Um, but now, you know, that's, you know, they got their license, they passed the tests, but it doesn't mean they're ready
to go out and start driving um, you know, big vehicles um, for 12 hours at a time. So, you know, as we continue to um, you know, develop our workforce, hopefully retain that talent, retain those licensed individuals, we'll be in a better position at the start of next
winter than we were at the start of this winter. Got it. Thank you. I have a question on how this how some stuff works. So you want to I apologize but you want to move money which I get because but um so you're $3 million
greater in revenues. You're roughly half a million higher in expenditures which is 2.5 million over. Right. So what do you do with that 2 and a half million? Like we just had an override. Do you
what do do you go back and say, "Well, we're not going to raise property taxes this much this year. We're gonna like give everybody a little bit of a break within budget." If if it were possible to just say we're over on our revenue, so we're okay like a business might.
That would be great. But unfortunately, we can't that revenue can't be spent unless it's appropriated by town meeting. So because so when we set the budget, we said um appropriations are tied to our revenue projections. So what we're saying is here's good news that we
can't do anything about quite yet in terms of the revenues. This this will start to form the basis for free cash that's certified in the fall of this year for next year. So we'll take that revenue as the the first factor in free cash in order to account for deficits in
various accounts on our approved budgets we have to make up within what has been appropriated and approved by town meeting. So, um, that is that's the if if everybody spent all of their budget and we had Z turnbacks on the dollar, then what would form the basis of free
cash is just our revenues um over what was budgeted. However, for this year, even though we're going to have some deficits in some accounts, we still expect to spend less than was appropriated. So, we're going to take all of our revenue, we're
going to add in all of our savings from our fiscal 25 budgets, and then that'll start to form the basis of free cash. So, I probably did a little more detail there. I was talking about how the year closes out. But for purposes of how the budget is managed is we can only spend what has been appropriated by town
meeting even if our revenue look good. So, what that I understand? Yeah, I apologize. Yeah. No, but I I meant like at what point if you say that accumulates, at what point would you say, well, we don't need to raise property taxes so much this year? Sure.
Is that a is that doable? Is that ever h is that? Well, I think so. We just had what did we end the year with? 4 and what was free cash this year? 4.4, I believe. So, so we had 4.4 and free cash at the end of fiscal 24.
Um but because it wasn't sustainable, we went ahead with, you know, the override and and the increases to property taxes. So, while this is good and it's good to have these numbers, um it's important also to think about how many of them are one time and not sustainable like
penalties and interest. That's half a million over budget because we had a bunch of delinquent taxpayers that have we've caught up on interest income. You know, it's been high the last couple of years, but interest rates crash, that money's gone. So, now we can't really count on that. So, I wouldn't want to increase our revenue estimate to the
$1.3 million that we brought in because who's to say where interest rates will be. Um, you know, some of them are more sustainable than others. Motor vehicle excise tax, it it'll it'll go down, but it it won't necessarily plummet, but again, trying to be conservative. So,
where we can revise those revenue forecasts as we move forward to fiscal 27, we will. Um, but in terms of foregoing property tax increases, I I wouldn't see that as very likely. You mentioned um unemployment.
Is that the money everyone pays just to have unemployment available if you need it? I actually Yeah, we don't. We're not part of the unemployment insurance system. So,
municipalities pay for claims directly. Um, directly. Yeah. So, that is that that amount is the amount of claims that we paid out this year. How did we um have those claims? If positions are not funded, um employees are let go through
mutual you know agreement separate. um there might be different occasions where that comes up. So um if an employee files a claim and it's valid, then we owe that um throughout the year. Would you say your experience has been
that's been somewhat level or does it fluctuate a lot? It's been typically around where we appropriate it, maybe a little bit over where we appropriate it. Okay. if I'm missing. Yeah, it historically we've kept it around 100,000.
Um I have a history somewhere, but it's it's hard to predict. I think during CO it was a little bit different. Um right. Everything was correct. Yeah. Yeah. So it it's really hard to predict. So,
that's one of those that if it does go over and we can't transfer from another department, we would seek a reserve fund transfer for because it's definitely one that's um unanticipated, extraordinary.
I didn't realize there was that much um I'll just use the word turnover in employment in the So if you think about it the 100,000 compared to the amount of wages in the overall budget isn't
very much very much. Yeah. Yeah. You know like 80% of the school's budget or the town's budget is salaries. Whatever that percentage is, a 100,000 is isn't a lot of people. Okay, I'm understanding that. Yeah, it's not a ton
of people. It just seems like it. It's a It's a big number. It is, but big number to me. Yeah. But an organization with 700 employ 700 plus employees. That's really not. If I look at a bill, it
could possibly be I if I saw 10 to 15 people on there, that would be really high. Okay, thank you. And it fluctuates like once school gets once we get through the bumps of the beginning of the school year and
that kind of stuff. It kind of um the staff gets in place and thank you. Anybody have any further questions from Nick and Amy concerning the year-end transfers?
Um, understand how it works? Anything you'd like to add that maybe you think you should know or can I add? Yeah, please. Well, so Nick mentioned that there'll be some transfers from some town departments to
other town departments, but there will also be transfers within departments because the way the money is appropriated is how you see it in the town meeting warrant. So if a department has a line for salary and wages and a
line for general, we can manage within those two. So if for example there's a vacancy in salary and wages and general goes over we have to request a year-end transfer to go from salary and wages down to general or vice versa. So
there'll be a you know there'll be a few of those that will also come um that we'll be seeking approval for net net overall on that budget is zero but it's just more of a housekeeping matter makes sense. Does does anybody have questions to what Amy just spoke
about the interdep departmental transfers? Anybody online? Thank you. [Music] Um I don't think we have any further any other questions. Okay. The other um item on that we wanted to come down about was
we have a number of revolving funds that are approved with expenditure limits each year. Um and um the the department or board or committee that handles those revolving funds has an expenditure limit that they
can't go above um in that fiscal year without the approval of the warrant committee and the select board. So, in addition to the two year the reserve fund um design transfer approval designate, the year-end appropriation transfer designate, we'd also request that um somebody be designated to
approve an increase for the revolving fund expenditure limit for our um a revolving fund related to um the electric vehicle charging chargers. So, the solar energy conservation that's
under the consolidated facilities that was approved at the May 2017 annual town meeting. It the expenditure limit on that is $10,000. Um, we bring in revenue well over that. The department is expecting to land closer to the $15,000
range. Um, but we're requesting an approval to increase that um for this year to close out this year. Um, and then we'll revisit that uh where that expenditure limit should be um going forward uh for next year's town meeting. But that would be a one-year increase
only allowed for uh fiscal 25 and that's because of electric vehicle increase use. Correct. And and electricity costs have increased. Thank you. And that those funds are used at different energy conservation efforts at
the built town building. So, okay, the consolidated facilities director might choose to do some improvements to a building that are related to energy efficiency and we can use those funds from that revolving fund. So, he has had
more than anticipated therefore asking for the increase in the limit for this year only for 25 fc 25. Oh, just $5,000. Um, it would be10,000. We're asking for the 10 for an increase from 10,000 20,000 just to protect us.
We think it'll come in at around 15 or so. So, okay. Just to be safe. So, what does and you leave that extra say you used expected to come in at 15. So, you would leave the 2,000 in that revolving fund
for future use. Correct. It all it'll stay in the fund. Yep. Anything that's not spent stays in that in these funds specifically. But but what we're we're what we are asking for isn't to put money or anything. The money is already in there. It's just to for us to allow
them to spend more than they're limited. Otherwise, I have a deficit in there. It's like a credit card, you know. Yeah. You have to if you approve, it doesn't mean he's going to spend up to that limit, right?
Okay. Thank you. Awesome. Can I ask a a related question? Um, Milton has a pretty um I think pretty good sustainability committee and um they have a lot of great ideas,
but I don't get off of it. But um do they ever get involved with the town like on things with buildings or anything? And I meant to ask this previously, but um are you referring to sustainable milit? Yes. So yeah, so they're a separate non town body. It was
a town committee. There's a climate action planning committee of which a couple of those folks are involved in. But sustainable Milton is a separate I think they're even organized as a 501c3 committ. So the climate action planning committee um yes we they have a draft
report of what they're looking for us to focus on um for and related to town buildings. Um so that's been part of kind of our dialogue as we're as we're mapping out investments over the next few years. Okay. And like do they do the energy s program? Do they recommend
that? Do you know? Um we have taken advantage basic we've done a lot of green commu the big grant program for us is green communities which is funded um through the state. Um mass save has some
programs for municipalities. Um a lot of their electric vehicle programs have kind of phased out. Um we did apply and partnered with Randolph through a massive energy manager program. So, we have received a three-year grant with the rand town of Randolph to split an
energy manager um for three years funded through Mass Safe. So, that will help again focus our efforts around around these issues. Thank you. It's a little unrelated, but I when you said the town of Randolph, so I'm kind of going off
off road for a second. is that do you anticipate um because we shared a veterans um agent agent with Randolph, do you anticipate um
doing that again as soon as you and Rand Milton and Randolph find a way to do that for a veterans district? You mean? Yes. Yes, we are still our veterans district is still up and active. It's still and the new veterans service officer um a vet named Alex Ortiz starts
on July 7th in Randolph and Milton. So he um he was finishing a law degree. So we made the hire I want to say at the end of May. Um but he'll be starting he he graduated at the end of June. So he'll be starting in July. And we'll uh
yep be sure to introduce him around town and he'll be at the COA um in that office there. when they in the closet in the space at the COA. Okay. Anything else? Nope.
Okay. Any questions as to uh the reserve fund transfer request from town departments or approval of the revolving funds uh limit increase? Do you want to vote? Okay. Can I have a uh can someone give me a motion for the
um the reserve fund transfer request for a proxy to go in my place and sign over the errand transfers. A move as exactly what you just said. Okay. And uh would anybody like to nominate anybody? Well, I'll second your
motion then. Thank you. So, I I'm looking for nominations to go in my place to be my proxy to go up and meet with me at town hall in the Cronin Room. When is it? July 15th, probably.
Saturday, 9 a.m. So, you're going to have to make some time in the morning to meet with Amy and Nick. And you have to sign your own name. And you're going to sign your name and that you own it. No. Yeah. Can I do you want me to just explain how we did it last year? Sure.
So, we had everything ready to go, all the forms. We put together a list summarizing exactly what each one represented. We sat down. At the time, there was a designate from the warrant committee that would sign off. Um, we invited anybody from the warrant committee that wanted to come that was
interested and we sat in the Cronin and we went through them one by one and approved them one by one. probably took an hour, hour and a half maybe. Most not a lot. An hour I would say. Yeah, it's pretty straightforward. I'll have it all
organized and summarized so that it's easy to understand. You'll have one list that summarizes everything and then just each one will have an individual form that just needs a signature on the 15th. You said well any anytime between July
1st and July 15th in that twoe period. That's the last possible day that it can be approved by Mass General laws. And I just say the 15th cuz I have to close the books and know what the exact numbers are in order to put it all
together. So in theory it you probably don't need to decide on the day right now, but it would be on or around no later than the 15th of July. Yeah. Um so committee, we're going to need two motions. a motion to I guess approve the reserve fund transfer request for town
departments and then a proxy. Okay. To go up and sign. So, do I have a motion for reserve fund transfer request approval for town departments? I did that motion. You have a second. Seconded. Y. Okay. We're going to um go through the role for a vote. Sure. Okay.
Steve, yes. Jay, yes. Jason said, "Yes." Am I on mute? I'm sorry. I meant to say yes. Yes. Julia, yes. Peter,
Ryan, yes. Aman, yes. Thank you. Uh, Ron, yes. Judith, yes. Tom Caldwell, yes. Unanimous. Um, would anybody like to nominate to go up to town hall? They have a great
breakfast spread up there on omelet bar. Not this year. Not like that. Secretary on the on the spot, but yeah, I don't know. Secretary is our other elected officer. I'll do it. You're lad.
Okay, I'll do it. Okay. Well, I have it. Jay Funling nominates Steven Ryan, secretary of the 2025 warrant committee. 2025 425 warrant I expect scones and omelets anybody if you have any Moses somebody Macy Macy
just seconded the motion to appoint Steven Rimes I'm going to go through the role I don't think you can vote no abstain I guess abstain from Steve uh Jay
yes thank you Jay um Macy yes Julia yes Peter Yes, Brian. Yes, Aman. Yes, Ron.
I guess so. Yes. Ron, I was shocked. Uh, Judith, yes. And Tom, yes. Unanimous. Steve, you're our guy. So, um, Amy, can you, um, practice your signature? You're out of time. It has to be in
cursive, right? Palmer method. Oh, boy. You do an X. Yeah. Um, okay. So, uh, reserve fund, the transfers are approved. You're approved. Now, we just have to move on to, uh, approval of the revolving fund spending limit increase
for the electric vehicle charging stations behind town hall. And maybe some other minor things to do, right? No, that's what's all of that. What's the agenda? That's everything. 10 to 20, right? Swan, I have an email from you. Would that be the appropriate
uh you looking for like the verbiage? Just the verbiage to increase the spending limit for the revolving fund for consolidated facilities from 10,000 to 20,000. What was previous for environmental things for energy conservation energy? Thank you. Okay. as to that verbid
language stated by the town administrator. I'll make anyone want to make that motion exact um verbiage that we just heard. You want to second it? Second. Second by Steve.
I'm going to call the role as to that transfer. Steve, yes. Jay, yes. Nice. Macy, yes. Julia,
yes. Peter, yes. Ryan, yes. Aman, yes. Ron, yes. Judith, yes. Tom, yes. Unanimous. Okay. Okay. I think that's it. It's been quite a year. Been quite a
year. and apologize for my part in it. It's been it's been it's been quite a three years. I don't think there's been a collection of decisions that we've had to make. Uh at least this committee, which means you
and everyone else. Um but Nick, I I I I want to say this. I may have said this to you before, but uh as a member of the Warner Committee and especially now as chair, I really want to thank you so much and Amy for all the help. And like I said, tell me I'm so sincere. You
really gave us guidance. Uh you were there for advice. You put up with us. Um and you just you come down here at a moment's notice when I call. It's so appreciate. You know, I appreciate it as the chair and I know everyone here does too. So, thank you for all that you do
for Milton. Next, my second. No, thank you. I appreciate it. But that's what we're here for. and the volunteer hours that you folks put in. It doesn't go unrecognized. And we we appreciate it cuz we wouldn't be able to get this work done without the work you put in. So, thank you. And thank you, Amy, for everything you do, everything for the
town, the budget, previous roles, schools, everything. Thank you. Have a good summer, both of you. I know. You will. Okay. Thank you. Okay. Well, thank you, Amy. We I'll take give this piece of paper to you. This is just the reserve fund.
Yeah. Perfect. Okay. That was the reserve fund transfer to the school department paperwork that Amy needed. I had to sign. Um, okay. Morning committee. Thank you. Make everyone stay cool. Uh, we have minutes to approve. Okay. We have minutes to approve and I
said 9:00. We'll get there. Um, okay. So, Karen sent a series of minutes. Did starting on Friday. She on Friday. She sent five on Friday.
And then she sent us some on Monday. Yep. Oh, she did. I have those on Monday. Yeah, yesterday. Cuz today's Tuesday, right? Yeah. She sent five yesterday and then she sent five on Friday. Yesterday.
So, we have 10, right? Maybe. I counted 10. Okay. Oh, wow. Okay. So 620. Uh this is an email from 620 where she sent minutes and please correct me if
I'm wrong from July 9th. Mhm. August 26th, September 16th, October 21st, and October 28th of 24. All of 24. Yes. Thank you, Judy. All of
this. Um, anybody have any questions or concern about these five sets of minutes from July to the end of October? I don't have any um I didn't have any issues with them. No. Um,
so I I'd like to do what I did last time, approve these in a block if there's no one objects to it. Um the email dated uh I I'll make the motion as the chairs Friday um to approve minutes
from uh July 9th 2024 August 26th 2024 September 16th 2024 102124 and 102824. Uh do I have a second? Second. Judy second. I'm gonna call the role as to
those minutes. Steve, yes, Jay. I think he dropped. I'll come back to Jay. Um, Macy, yes. Julia,
abstain. Abstain. Peter, yes. Thank you. Yes. Brian, yes. Aman, yes. Ron, yes. Judith, yes. Tom, yes. The motion carries. Uh, the minutes
from, uh, July to October 2024, the Warner Committee have been approved. Um, second set of minutes. Uh these would be from again in Friday.
I'm sorry. Yep. That's Friday. These are the Monday ones, right? Starting on October 30th. Yes. I have to find them. Yes. Um okay. So, we received again from the the secretary um morning committee
clerk Karen Bosworth uh minutes uh on Monday, July 23rd via email. Uh as Macy indicated, October 30th, 2024, November 13th, 2024, January 8th, 2025,
113, 2025, and 115, 2025. Wow, that was a busy week. Um so that again another five sets of minutes covering our meeting dates from October 30 through 11525.
Um I will again make a motion as chair to approve these uh blocks of 5 minutes from 10:30 24 11324 1825 11325 and 11525. Do I have a second? Second. Macy, we call the roll.
Steve, yes. Jay, I think you dropped. Macy, yes. Julia, abstain. Abstain. Peter, yes. Brian, yes. Aman,
yes. Ron, yes. Judith, yes. Tom is a yes. Okay. Hey, there we go. No Wi-Fi down here. Okay. Anybody else? Anybody have anything you
want to talk about? What's everyone doing for summer? It's the last meeting. I was just being silly. Sorry. Where are you going? Is this it? This is it. This This will be Okay, everybody. Even those online, this will be our last meeting.
Um this until June 30th for the warrant committee 2425 unless by some type of emergency, we're called back for whatever. I don't know. I highly doubt it and will probably will not happen. But um remember, we sip
through the 30th. If you've reapplied, you'll be contacted by the moderator at some point. and you'll have to go through the whole swearing in ceremony with our new moderator, Liz Dylan, filling out the paperwork, Sue Galbin, and all that stuff. So, I'd like to say
something. Sure. Judy. Judy, you're a thirdyear senior member. Please. It's just been a really nice year. I've en enjoyed meeting new people, reconnecting
with others, and I thought we had a very vibrant um warrant committee this year. A lot of good discussion and debate and um we voted well, I believe, on so many
issues and to the town at large that may be listening to me. It does seem that I'm going to put pat on the back to the warrant committee, but
um we do put in a tremendous amount of hours in the endeavor of the warrant and the town issues. And um
I saw you um Tom um on a connect Milton. Um no, can I say this? Connect Milton and because all the departments were describing what they
do, the committees and um you know if you want to get involved and I could hear somebody in the audience gasp when you said well yeah at least 100 hours a year and I could I mean I could hear
hear it like a year you know and but I think that Um, it does come down to that because it isn't just sitting at the table or on Zoom if that's what you had to um do if
your tooth fell out. And um it's the research that you do to be prepared for the presentations, the follow-ups you do when you hear presentations. Did I hear this right?
Going to the various department heads to confirm um make sure you understand exactly what you're voting on. and um I thought it was a good year. Sure. So to all my
committee friends, thanks for the good role. Thank you. Thank you, Judy. Julia, uh yeah, just echoing what Judy said. You know, this was uh a grueling year in
terms of our schedule, but I um nearly enjoyed every minute and I really appreciate this group. Uh, I've learned a lot from all of you. Um, and I just specifically wanted to say thank you to Tom, our fearless leader who I think um
has chaired this committee um with fairness and respect and I really appreciate your leadership and what an active role you took in a crazy busy year with also coordinating amongst everyone and their mother. So, um, just
want to give you a special shout out because, uh, all the work you in particular put in has not got on this. So, thank you. Thank you. Thank you, Julia. That's really nice. No, thank you everybody. And like to what Julia said and and Judy, um, this was really a good year.
It's a different year. I thought we all got along well. You know, we disagreed, which we have to and we should do, but I really like the group. I appreciate you putting up with me. the amount of time, the meetings, some of the things we did, some of the things we wanted to do that
I didn't get to. It really was a lot this year. I mean, I don't know. Like, I found that this year was maybe we went and met just as much in the earlier years, but I found maybe just because of the seat I was sitting at, but I appreciate everybody and thank you. Well, the budget was harder this year
because we had to look at two different scenarios. Yeah. without any it's a lot easier if you're only looking at one playbook instead of looking at two playbooks that you have no control over
and so it was extra I think there were some extras was extra extra meeting you know but I I just want to say this I I I really appreciate you and and I know especially from after the town meetings
um people who came up to me and thanked me and you know thanked you all through me. um you know and they some even said you know we didn't really agree with you but we can't argue with your your reasoning and and the work that you put
in and you know um you know that's that's it was a great just hearing some of those accolades you know for all of you um and the town appreciates and this is a very unique board in Massachusetts only a few towns have them and I've spoken to some other people I know in
other towns and they said we should have a committee like that too that kind of goes over everything unelected citizens and kind of give their first take to town meeting what they think about these things. So, but I guess the biggest thing is thank you for all putting your hat in the ring and getting appointed
and and being here every night. So, that's all I have to say. Thank you. Um, if no one else has anything more to say Oh, no. Don't. Uh, I'm going to say thank you, Milton. Thank you, Warren
Committee. Have a great summer. Make a motion. Motion to adjurnn. To adjourn. Seconded. All in favor? I have a great summer everybody. Have a good summer everybody. Take care.