--------- I call to order the budget hearing on the FY 26 proposed minut man budget I'd like a motion to adopt remote participation as written in the agenda please so move second very good roll
call vote Pam pamur acting yes Linda Herson Bolt yes Steve Leo conquered yes Maggie Sharon do yes Lancaster yes Sharon MTO Lexington yes
Jeff stulin need him yes Al Lucas sto yes very good without further Ado let's go straight to the reason we're here Heidi Driscoll and Nikki Andre I believe we're going to present our
budget formally so thank you Nikki is going to share our slide me make sure she can okay great um so I I'd like to welcome everybody here um thank you for joining
us for our Public Presentation um of the 2026 um budget recommendation I want to make sure um that I think everyone who's been a part of this process so far um
our teachers our staff our leads our administrators our Capital subcommittee um with work from Michelle rendes our finance committee um with of course Nikki andreid and the entire committee
um for supporting us through this whole process okay next slide so we do have some updates uh since our last budget presentation on January 14th the governor's budget was released so
overall we have an increase of a little o over $47,000 in Chapter 70 state aid in chapter 71 regional transportation we have an overall increase of $3,485 um we the revised numbers will
impact um the town Assessments in a way that I think people will be very pleased from they decreased over overall member Town assessment went from 3.34% to 2.79% and next slide
please yep I also just wanted to jump in and mention that we had updated um based on the Chapter 70 spread sheet the minimum required contribution for each town thank you Nikki absolutely so this is something else we've been um waiting on our
transportation bid um we actually did receive two bids on January 17th a recommendation will be brought to the finance committee on February 3rd and we will have uh discussion and vote from the school committee on February 11th uh
we would we are asking for a five-year contract that's the RP put out um and um the budget impact based on the bids is that we'll be able to reallocate $100,000 from the Transportation budget to the capital stabilization and um
those revised numbers will be reflected of course so these are just a couple couple pictures of um what makes Minute Man Minuteman um you'll see over the next few slides I know many of you have seen this over and over again so thank you
for indulging us um our budget priorities reflect our values our passionate teachers our excited students um no matter if they're in the classroom or on the field or in their trades and um everything that we do is to move
student growth and success forward um and you'll see that in everything in our budget now I'm going to hand it over to Nikki andreid who is going to give us um lots of details that I know you're looking forward to thank you superintendent Drisco uh
moving forward with the overall budget it has remained consistent since the last school committee meeting at 32,4 161,50 which is 2.99% uh increase above the fy2
budget bringing it down a little bit further we have our operating budget um which is now 5.56% above the fy2 budget um just about 25 milon 54,000
$611 um that percent has decreased because we moved and reallocated from the Transportation bid to the capital stabilization our FY 26 operating capital budget is approximately 1.3 million in that decrease is a negative
21% that's due primarily to our Esco lease um being fully paid in fy2 that was an old energy saving lease on the old school building um we'll talk about that further in detail as we
continue and our building project debt um is 5.6 million which is pretty level just under 1% from fy2 um we break this out as it's an important breakout for the seven of our nine member towns that have the debt
exclusion uh we finally closed our msba project in August of 2024 so our debt service payments um should remain consistent going forward no more temporary debt overall our budget summary our FY
26 assessment to Our member towns 26 m467 36 and as superintendent Driscoll mentioned the decrease from our last presentation um of 3.34% is now
2.79% above FY 25's budget and this is the um the most important slide our budget priorities or our budget drivers what you know really impacting the budget um compared to fy2 of course our staffing are 3% as
required for our CBA plus the steps and levels for all of our teachers um we took a look at supplies and materials in particular in the CTE programs to ensure that um they have the IND industry um
standards and all of the um supplies that they need to run their programs um in the best way for the students to really be learning handson and as we've seen there has been inflation um and concern about tariffs
so we really wanted to make sure that this wouldn't affect our vocational programs our insurances is another um Big Driver in this budget um our health insurance we were able to level fund but our our building insurance and our general liability insurance did increase
um due to Prior year claims our transportation as we noted went out to bid in FY 26 but that um budget um those bids did come in in January and that is about a a 5% increase from the prior
year um our opab which is other post employment benefits um is essentially if if everyone that was working at minute man retired how we'd have to help pay for their health insurance and their benefits um we will go into more detail
in a further slides but there is a $300 increase to this line in particular because our Esco lease um was fully paid in fy2 we had a Minuteman um subcommittee that really looked at when the best time to increase um the funding
for this would be and um not financially impact Our member towns too hard and was the year that really seemed to make the most sense we'll talk further about Capital stabilization and other needs and just a reminder that our debt service um for
the athletic fields will continue to be funded with our facilities revolving rental account and um moving forward our Capital stabilization account we were able to reallocate some of the transportation funding to this account um our FY
25 contribution was 850,000 and our FY 26 is 950,000 so that would be $100,000 increase some Capital needs total just around 150,000 include um work to 20 M Street which is where our animal science
program is housed including uh the bulkhead and roof work we also have some sewer pump Wood Bridge repair hbac repair and Gates um that are needs of the building as well and building this Capital stabilization
fund will position the district to maintain the potential use of the campus and really have the funding prepared to mitigate against future assessment increases talking a little bit further about opep um you can see here are
unfunded liability as I mentioned before if everyone were to retire um the benefits and the cost that it would cost the district around 22 million and our trust fund balance just shy of uh 1.5 million so
when the OPB study committee uh got together I believe it was uh the winter of 2021 they really looked and assessed when would be the best time to have this increase and it really made sense in FY 26 as um the Esco lease came off the
book so this will be our new um kind of level or contribution and we will increase by 5% each year to really try to help um close the gap of that unfunded liability overall our um enrollment for
October 1 um is 669 students you can see uh the trend is consistent with prior years Our member towns in red um are the major is the majority of our school whereas our non-member towns in green continues to
decrease um you will see consistency between our October 1 numbers the last two years our incoming um Freshman Class ended up being the exact number of our outcoming senior class and you'll see
the breakout further in the enrollment by town so you'll see um in this slide all of the different towns and the classes so you'll see here our incoming class had 19 freshman students whereas our outgoing senior class had the same our
class of 26 and 27 did not have any member toown um students accepted our class of 2026 did have two transfers come in um you'll see here they were excuse me they were all
member town we had no one from out of District y it's okay it's okay yep um but you'll see as the enrollment um shifts the decrease in the um out of District students is also a decrease in
our our tuition or our Revenue that we receive and our Capital um fees so that does impact what we're able to offset Our member town uh assessments with and our FY 26 preliminary assessments are broken out here these
did change slightly as we mentioned due to the minimum required contribution and the amount we were able to um offset the member Town assessments with so these numbers have changed slightly as our total um assessments to Our member Towns
now is 2.79% increase um from year to year these um numbers correlate um to our four-year rolling average um strongly for our operating budget um so you will see that there is
um a correlation between the four-year rolling average of the number of students that are um enrolled in that town and the preliminary assessments and just to wrap up our budget again we have the operating increase of
5.56% um really driven by the um you know the primary budget drivers in that increase in our OPB our Capital uh line again decreased strongly um due to the Esco lease and our building project debt remaining consistent
giving our overall total operating and capital budget of 2.99% this is our breakout of non-assessment Revenue uh and this helps offset what is required from our member towns so we had an increase um as
superintendent Driscoll mentioned to our Chapter 70 and chapter 71 a based on the governor's budget that came out on January 22nd our prior year tuition and capital fee um has remained consistent due to the fact that um the number of out of
District students year-to year this year had remained the same at 37 in our facilities uh rental Revenue will offset that Debt Service payment we will continue to fund out of our excess and deficiency fund the 650,000
which totals to just about $6 million were able to offset the member Town assessments with which again um is a 2.79% increase from prior year and the assessment components um
broken out this is how we break them out in the budget book by member town uh minimum required contribution which is straight from um des's Chapter 70 formula spreadsheet our transportation budget has increased um not only due to
the um bid that came out but also true truly funding uh homeless foster care and special education Transportation as it's required um as we've had an increased need in our in our district you'll see the Esco lease has fallen off and our
Capital Equipment lease has increased um due to the capital stabilization and some of the other needs that we've discussed and our building project debt has remained uh consistent so that again wraps up our
total assessments at 2.79% over the prior year and we are happy to answer any questions okay very good we'll accept uh questions from the public I'll at Heidi uh since is kind of in charge just remember that if you are called on please uh before you start your comment
mention your name community and your relationship to the m man school so if any questions hi to your um thank you um would ask if anyone has a question if you can go to react and raise your hand so you'll pop up to the top of the zoom
um Nikki would you mind um closing down the screen share so we can see if anyone is waving or um if you're not sure how to raise your hand you could also um let us know that you'd like to speak by sending a
chat or turn your camera on and wave all the options hey at this time it looks like we don't have any questions Jeff okay very good in that case uh I would like a motion to adjourn and remind the members that you have a
second link it's a different link for our meeting which uh school committee meeting which begins at 7 o'clock so could I have a motion to adjourn the public budget hearing please so moved second very good any
discussion ra call vote pam pam Nur Acton yes Linda herbison Bolton yes Steve Leo conquered yes Maggie Sharon Dober yes Charlie cabal Lancaster yes Sharon must Lexington yes Jeff stolen
needen yes Alca St yes okay thank you everybody for attending and commit members uh of course it's a open public meeting so anybody is welcome to attend I'll see you in about 10 minutes thank you all very much Part: 2
I would uh I called the meeting to order with my davl I would like a motion to adopt remote participation as written in our agenda please check it very good uh roll call
vote pam pam nurse act yes Linda herbison Bolton yes Steve wo conquer yes Maggie Sharon over yes Charlene is on mute I know I couldn't unstick myself uh Charing Cal Lancaster yes Sharon must Lexington yes
Jeff St needan yes Al lucao yes very well I think that uh we go straight to finance subcommittee updates the will do the honors this evening okay thank you um so
as we have seen um we now have a budget hopefully we will have a permanent budget at the end of this evening but uh as we've reported all along the finance committee has been uh working very closely with both the superintendent and and Nikki to uh develop a reasonable and
responsible budget and um at our last meeting we um as a as as a finance committee voted to recommend the budget and uh actually voted to do three things so we have to take three votes tonight so um uh Mr chair I don't know how you
want to proceed with the votes uh do you want me to make three separate motions then have discussion or how do you wanna how do you want to run it what I would do uh I would recommend Steve is that you just give a quick description of the purpose of each vote yeah and then we
will take the votes one at a time and ask for discussion on them individually but you can do an overall discussion why we have three votes and what the purpose of each one is I think okay so historically we have we have three votes one obviously we have to set the budget approve the budget uh of
course the other piece which which Nikki wanted a great detail about is we also have to uh vote their preliminary assessments to our to Our member towns and then finally because uh we are uh going to utilize some of our excess and
deficiency funds to uh to reduce member Town assessments we have to take that vote as well so um you know typically we do these three votes every year so um with that I guess I'll make the first motion oh Nick has thank I I just
want to make a clarification as well um our excess and deficiency fund um has not been certified U by the state yet so we will take this vote but we will again once it's certified bring back this vote for the school committee to officially
vote on it's required by the state so I just wanted to to um make that clear if when it comes up again as to the reason why okay Nick Nikki what's the timetable on um you have a timable about the state approving the IND yeah it's it's usually
like um they usually approve it in January where we're always really close they try to make us one of the first ones but they don't really start looking at end until the taxes are done after December 31st so it's it's really tight for them to try to get ours um typically
we're able to voted in the the the following month um but we'll certainly keep you updated okay okay with that I also do you have a question Alice your hand oh I just wanted to comment for any new members that
um we can vote the uh after we take the vote on the assessments we can lower them but we can never raise them so this is like a Line in the Sand right exactly exactly so um I move uh that the
school committee approve the FY 26 budget of 32,4 61,500 uh roll call vote PM P Nur actt yes Linda herbison Bolton yes D du coner yes
Sharon do yes yes Sharon must Lexington yes Jeff Stan Eden yes a Lucas Joe yes okay thank you um I move uh that the
school committee approve the FY 26 preliminary assessments of 26 milon 46,000 46 4673 as presented second any discussion on the motion made
by Mr Leo very well then roll call ah Pam has a question just just very not a question just a comment um um I guess I just want to acknowledge that I have been a broken record for many many many years about
being s sensitive to the financial needs of our towns and it's just really nice I think to see a budget that meets the needs of the school but also doesn't put a big burden on our towns so thank you
Pam it doesn't mean the act and fincom will be happy I we're but you know what that's then on now it is on them right exactly exactly
moved in second uh no further discussion roll call vote Pam Hamner act yes Linda herbison Bolton yes Steve Leo conquered yes Maggie Shar over
yes yes Sharon must Lexington yes ELCA sto yes whoops sorry need to the punch Jeff stol need him yes it still counts it's so exciting always going last okay and finally I I move that the
school committee authorized $650,000 from the excess and deficiency fund to reduce member Town assessments for the FY 26 budget with obviously the caveat Nikki has already put out that it's not certified yet
second discussion on end or questions on end very well then roll call vote Pam oh well we got one Sharon just I just appreciate the um the effort of the finance committee and everybody to be able to decrease in any way the
assessments to the towns so thank you no one else roll call vote pam pam nurse acting yes Lind Heron Bolton yes Steve Leo conquered yes Magie Sharon do
yes yes Sharon must Lexing yes Jeff stulin need him yes Al Lucas Joe yes include the uh Finance subcommittee update Steve that concludes it very well so before I call for motion
journ I just have a couple brief comments uh first this this process went extremely smoothly especially for superintendent first budget I must say uh the budget that Nikki and Heidi came out with from the very beginning the very first one we
looked at we looked at and we said Gee this is almost you know done um and yet there were like another two or three versions to tweak it and to take uh take into account events that have transpired so uh um a strong and
professional effort by um IDI and Nikki and the administration brought to the made our job on the Finance subcommittee um pretty much a breeze this year let me also point out that one of the reasons that um this process runs smoothly is
the way that we arrange it with the finance subcommittee going over the budget and refining it with the administration a number of times before we bring it to the uh school committee despite the very tight tight time frame we have to do the work we saw it like I don't know as
Nikki mentioned we did see your president presentation or a flavor of it at least four four four times at least yeah including tonight so so although it seems may seem to the public like why are they all agreeing on this we've seen it again and again and again refined it
again and again and again and my final comment was we had some breaks this year that allowed us to come up with a little um bit of conservative thinking with a very um uh Town friendly budget but that's not the case every year because
every year is different and we have some issues what may be coming down the pike in the federal government plus um we have to deal with the um our repair schedule we have to deal with and maybe some other things coming
up it's not as clear that next year's budget which I'm not going to you know we don't have to think about that for quite a while is going to be as as easy and happy as this year's just let you know that every year is different some years are easy and some years are not
um and that's really all I had to say any other comments any other comments if you would like to make before I call for motion to adjourn iy Driscoll I just have one more time I want to thank everybody um for contributing to the process um from the
very first version um I appreciate that Minuteman already had a procedure where the expectation is that it's an inclusive process from staff to administrators to finance committee and I really feel like that's something that Nikki had already established and one of
the things that I could jump into so thank thank you thank you thank you well then I call for a I make a motion to adjourn the meeting so moved second second yep very well any
discussion no no discussion on a motion to adjourn roll call vote Pam nurse Hamner sa yes Linda herbon Bolton yes Steve Leo conquered yes Maggie sh over
yes Sharon must Lexington yes deff stolin needen yes El luas Joe yes so thank you all very much uh we have uh finished accomplished one of our most important uh tasks of the
year we have stuff coming up you'll see in our meeting February so thank you all very much have a great night thank you Linda enjoy your trip bye Everybody by thank you thank you Linda for coming up from from the
sea bye bye everybody thank you bye