I would like to call this meeting of the Narroans at Regional School District School Committee to order. Would you all please rise for the pledge? I aliance to the flag of the United States of America and to the indivisible with liberty and justice for all.
>> As a reminder, this meeting is being live streamed and recorded and is available on YouTube. Moving into some regular business. Um, I would entertain a motion to approve the meeting minutes of March 5th, 2026 as written.
>> So moved. >> Motion by Sean. >> Second. >> Second by Bill. Any questions or comments about those minutes? >> Seeing none, all in favor? >> I opposed. Abstained. And I say yes. So
that is unanimous. Um, do we have bills in payroll this evening? No. Okay. I didn't see anything attached. All right. Then I would officially open the budget hearing for the FY27 budget for the Naransit Regional School
District School Committee. Be final just because >> and I will I will hand it over to you and your >> Okay. >> Trusty, sir. >> Thank you. Uh, Madam Chair. Um, so this would represent probably the well, I
think the fourth time we presented um the budget itself for fifth time. So I thought I heard something back there. Sorry. Um, fourth or fifth. And so it's going to be a little bit different and I'm going to I'll explain it once we get to the point where it becomes different. Um, and again, I think folks will be
able to pick up what do you do. So um as we've as we've discussed we right off the bat we are held harmless again this year we kind of postculate in and out of harmless um the last say five six years just as
um as a reminder we talk about it a lot you know held harmless is the state's promise to all school districts that they're not going to pay anything less than they did the year before even though you may not have the students to generate the chapter 70 funding that you
you once received. So um you know and so like last year we were plus 12 or 13 students give or take and this year we were minus foundationally 56 or 57 students. So instead of taking money
away, the state says, "All right, we're going to give you, you know, the money that we gave you last year, but you're not going to get any additional chapter 78 aid." And that becomes obviously very problematic. So we are in fact in held harmless this year, which simply means
we have less kids this year than we did foundationally than we did last year. Um, when we start talking about held harmless, 229 districts were held harmless this year. That's a lot. um as Darling Mort and um than usual I should
say a lot of times small regionals small districts we kind of come in and out of held harmless uh but this year um many urban districts were held harmless for the very first time and that created um
a buzz now I don't wish we do not wish bad bless you um you know bad tidings on any district but I would that we have been the smaller districts mostly out our way our western mass have
been trying to get a change to this and with very little um in the way of any help now that the urbans these large centers have now gone held harmless people are starting to talk about this more so if nothing else being held harmless from that perspective will has
now risen to the level of people are saying oh my gosh that's that's terrible that's All right. So, last year's this is the last year of student opportunity act increases and um that is something that uh Governor Baker put in well actually
technically six years cuz it was one year was held over but it was supposed to go for 5 years and it was in general adding more money to the areas like special education the multipliers ELLL special um and lowincome students. So this will be the very last year that
those um kind of um multipliers or increases will will be in effect. Next slide please. So this is the you know for us you know especially Henry and I when we
you know almost like Christmas Day but in reverse um this is this is the page we are looking for right off the bat. This is the uh chapter 70 foundation bug page. It it tells us what is our per pupil or foundation uh budget per pupil.
Um and ultimately it tells us how much money that we're going to in essence receive. And I'm going to go through this. I'm going to go through all the circles in a minute, but I want to go over foundation enrollment again as a reminder.
Foundation enrollment. and we receive money for every single student of school age that live in Philip or Templeton that go to a public school in Massachusetts. So if little Johnny is school choice in
some place but he lives here in Templeton, we receive money for that for that to that student. Okay. Generally $5,000 goes out to school choice. We would receive um whatever the difference is. And so that is important
to to know. Okay. So foundationally that is what foundation this is not the number of students that are sitting in the seats in front of you teachers today. Okay. It's foundation. So, the red circles um that we're that we've
identified here is again I have to actually put my glasses on here at this point, but we have 1,2 I can't see 89 foundational students from uh who have been applied to the foundation enrollment that is down. I'll
show you that in a minute. The other red circle to the lower left is our lowincome group. So what that is is that is um the low-inccome group has from 1 to 10 and last year we were
around low income percentage or the percentage of students who are identified as low income were around 42 almost 43%. Give or take and so that was a lowinccome group eight. And so why is that? Well, it's important because you need to know how many low-income students you have. But it also the
higher that u the low income group is the more opportunities you have for grant funding those type of things and in general that means that we talked about those multipliers earlier. Well that means that you're probably going to get more money per student especially
the low income area. We drop down to low income group 7 38.89% which is give or take three three a little over 3%. for a district this size. That's a pretty big jump. That's a pretty big drop, I should say. Not a jump, that's a
pretty big drop. Um, and again, why? Uh, well, lots of folks surmise that maybe it's because that we no longer do the free and reduced lunch forms. If you remember, all the forms would go home regardless. You had to fill them out. they'd come back, you you'd entered them
in and then through the state um through the state system would be identified whether or not um the family or the or the child um was in fact low income because it was based on um free or reduced lunch. That's no longer the case. First off, there's lunch is free,
right, across for in Massachusetts for all students. But in order to re in order to be identified as low income, you need to go through the SNAP process, right? So um the the state is identifi a state has identified you or you have
filled out paperwork or and you have identified that your income is low enough to receive services. If that's the case that's how these numbers are now generated. Okay. The green circle is something that's new cuz it's that's a vocational line. If you can't see it, um
we're you know we're a traditional K through2 district. We generally don't uh we don't generate um any uh I'll I'll call it well funds through the vocation but we have the MVP program in which
12 total students from six juniors six seniors um they are ours they go to school here every day they go one week on one week off and the MVP program is in collaboration with Fitsburg ourselves
and gardener and they receive vocation training, but they are our students. So, they're not Monty Tech students. They go to Monte Tech to receive um training in the fields of carpentry, um electrical, and hopefully plumbing. Uh but plumbing
is not something that's been proved yet what we're working with. And that might increase the number of students that we would send. So, the vocational rate, so the monies that you see there, it's roughly $216,000. um you know a portion of that goes right to Monty Tech because we need to give
them the vocational monies to them uh because they are actually providing the training and they have a a beautiful building and they have they have expenses on the vocation side and we in in in general keep the rest but when you're held harmless sometimes those
monies are not they just kind of end up being what your bottom what your bottom line so if you think about that is if I'm receiving the same amount of money from last here that that might not make a difference. Although I will say that that that wasn't the case um in in this
year. Um I'm going to take a step back and maybe remind folks who may have been here long enough. We used to have a vocational program here at Naragansa. Um it was the horiculture um program. Um it was approved through the state. Um, and
we were well on the it identified that we had monies coming in through the vocational line, but because we were healthless, we didn't receive any of those extra funds, which means that that program was really being uh funded
through um through the general fund. And so we actually had to stop that program because it was cost it was costing way too much money to run when we they folks thought it was uh they were going to receive liquids. Okay. So when somebody says well what's your foundational per
pupil Chris? Well it's 15,000 uh 592. Okay we see that per student. And if you go to the next slide. So this is the summary page. And so if you're looking at the summary page, you see that enrollment went down
by 58 students. Okay. Um the foundation budget went down accordingly. The required district contribution always goes up quite frankly and we can get into that a little bit later. Um the chapter 78, remember I told you chapter 78, you don't receive chapter 78 if you
are held harmless. So they're not going to give you any extra money if you don't have any, you know, extra kids, so to speak. But the state, I don't know about five or six or seven years ago, decided to give um a specific dollar amount per uh student that you did have as kind of
a way of saying, well, you know, here's a little something, although you don't have as many students as you did the year before. And this year, well, at least in the summary page, they gave us $75 per pupil, which equals $96,675.
That number could change. That's usually one of those political footballs that we see quite a bit. Um they talk about it a lot during budget, you know, budget time at the state level. Will it be 90? Will will they raise it to 100? Will they drop it down to 60? So, we'll see ultimately what that number ends up
being. I don't see it going below at all 75. Generally speaking, it won't go below that number. Um but could it go up? Sure it could. Um next this slide I know people have seen this
slide in front but so in order to kind of show the contracts between enrolled students which are the students that are sitting in front of you um and the foundation enrollment students which are the students who live in town and go to a public school somewhere here in Massachusetts. Um it just you know we
want to always you know show where where we're at in both of those areas and we've seen our biggest decline you know with FY21 during CO we don't really even count that those numbers we try not to remember CO so we don't matter of fact I like to erase it if we could at some
point but um we saw our largest drop um in a very long time u in the uh enrolled category obviously we saw a slight decline in our foundation number of students next slide. Okay, so
talk a lot about school choice. Um and so we'll start off with the basic facts is that back in uh well probably about FY20 FY18 19 we were somewhere around 250 students
in right so we were we were taking in 250 um school choice students in we were probably sending out I don't know maybe maybe 80 maybe I'd have to go back So as
we started as we started to grow as a community um and it was obviously after co people started to move west for a lot of reasons um we we started to fill um we saw some of the largest gains probably you know I I could tell you in
the 10 years I've been here but um in speaking with Ann Marie you know we were plus 175 kids year over you know at one point And so we could not take in as many school choice students as we had in
the past. Okay. So that decline that you see of receiving is not because folks they don't want to send their their their children here school choice. As a matter of fact, we have a signup sheet. We do well. It's a it's a form. It's on
the website. Um we just now open it because we cannot handle the number of calls that we receive about school choice. So, we just simply say just fill out the form, you know, just put yourself on the Google sheet. We have over 50. Yeah, we have over 50 kids
right now. Um, you know, all ages, all grades, and I would expect that to uh to climb. So, it isn't a matter of, you know, not wanting to go here or to school choice here is that we've had to make decisions not to um taking as many
school choices by far um you know, as we have in the past. Um I think this year at the elementary school we have 11 school choice students that you know out of you know 5 600 kids. So you you know last year we had seven school choice kids you know at the elementary not that people don't want to put their children
here we just can't take so when you look at the sending I'm happy to say and I've been able to say this well since FY22 we have seen a steady decline um in the number of students who school choice out of the district. That is a a a point of
pride for me quite frankly because parents will not keep their children in a place they do not feel either physically or emotionally safe. And if we're not doing a very good job, they will move their children. They will put them in the car and they will put they will drive them to whatever district um
of their choosing because everyone has school choice around us. Um and every single year we reduce the number of students who do that. That's that is an absolute um you know a shout out to the to the educators of this district um and
the staff. Um we we have if this was a business we have an excellent product. People know that and so they're lucky to be here if you ask me. The differential is is really something that I keep we keep um track of because so that's the delta right between
students coming in and students leaving. That number needs to be around 88 or 90. Um because because when we receive school choice monies in it goes into a revolving account and those school choice monies pay for very important
things um professional development one-time um you know projects etc. But most importantly nine teaching positions I say this if I've been here 10 years I've said it 10 times or more that actually every year is that we did not
put nine teachers into school choice. That was a decision that was made roughly around 2011. And another decision that was made roughly around 2011 was that they put um the district's portion of the insurance into school choice. And that is just not good fiscal
management. Um why? Because insurance goes up and sometimes um school choice revolving can go down and that is not something that you you know you can't pay so to speak. So on one of those years we received, you know, 70 or 80 kids more than we did the
year before. We saw an increase in our chapter 70 around $1.1 million and we used a large portion of that money to take insurance out of of school choice. And it's a very good thing that we did because if we were there now, we'd be in
trouble. we'd be upside down by a lot in terms of not kids coming in, kids coming out, but in terms of what the monies were in school choice. Okay. So, we actively are always trying to uh take those nine teaching positions out of school choice and bring them to the
general the general side, the general fund side of things. Um, and we haven't been able to we have not been successful yet to do that. That is, you know, kind of on certainly number one priority other than balancing the budget every single year. Um when I show you another
slide here in a minute, you can again you'll understand that the teachers that we put into school choice revolving are generally our lowest paid teachers because I do not want to affect that um that revolving count, you know,
>> right? We're trying to we're trying to minimize um the the effect of what monies we're taking um out of school choice. So we move people in and out of quite regularly. So, our challenges um which we'll get to in a bit, but our fixed costs, which are costs that we
really generally do not have any control, insurance, um transportation, um special education, you know, outplacement, etc. Um we I I have never seen an increase like we had this year.
We'll get to that in a bit. Um but, you know, retirement increased above 10%. Uh our health insurance of course has gone up, skyrocketed everywhere, not just here. Um so our fixed costs were rough around $1.5 million. For a districts
this size to have $1.5 million is just honestly unthinkable. The Ballingill apartments um we don't know. So So this becomes and I I I need to make a I want to make a statement about the problem. It's our
challenge, okay? Because we just don't know the number of students that the Ballingville apartments will will generate. It just we don't know, right? We don't and I'm not assigning a number to it, nor am I going to guess. I want to say though that whatever students
come from the Bhole apartments, we're going to love them as much as we love the kids who are not in those apartments. Okay? Because I think that sometimes what I hear is that, oh, you know, oh boy, that's going to be a that's going to be a real drain on the budget. That is not the right tact. People they
they've built them. The town made a decision to build them. People are going to move into them. And so whatever issues come because of what financial issues, we are not blaming the people who live in the Bville apartments. Nor are we going to hold them responsible
when they they come to this district. And I want to make sure I say that because I think sometimes it can be construed that we're just going to go ahead and lay this on the backs of x amount of people who move into those apartments, not the district. That's that is not that is not the sentiment whatsoever. And I do not want to I don't
want to hear it quite frankly. Health harmless. We've talked about health harmless a lot. We now know what a health harmless is. Um every time we kind of oscillate in and out of health harmless, um it's, you know, it's problematic, right? So some years we have more kids than we did the year before and we're like yay chapter 7 um
aid and then next year like oh we don't oh so we don't you know it's hard to predict um school choice yeah we've seen decrease over the past 5 years um talked about this a lot you know the philosophy is that we replace one of the thing we
always replace the number of seniors who are school choice right so that's the number one thing I look so I have n if I have 10 seniors I try to replace 10, you know, 10 school choice somewhere in the district. They don't have to be high school. We're trying to replace
also those eighth graders who are school choice with us here who belong to another district. If they go to Monty Tech, we try to replace them as well. So, let's say there's five and you know, so then and then we look for opportunities um where there's where there's room, but um we haven't been
able to do that quite frankly because we've been we've been full, right, in in certain areas. But we're going, here's the thing. I know that we're going to be full and we might get a word fuller or not the right word. Um, we're going to have to do it anyway. We're going to
have to do it anyway because you're going to have to that that uh that differential in in this um revoling account has got to stay in the positive one way or another. And by the way, you don't balance a district's budget on school choice students. No one has ever said that. But when you have nine
salaries coming out of school choice, I'm I'm going to have to do that because that's just what fiscally we're going to have to do. Otherwise, it's coming to the local side and Philips and Temple are going to be responsible for nine salaries. Okay. So, pick your poison quite frankly. Um and so, okay, so we do
curriculum, we do athletic supplies, we do everything that we don't want to put into the budget quite frankly. And it saves money for both towns at the same time. we don't have to have to basically put it on a budget. Okay. So, budget drivers talk a lot about that. We have already this is the
hard costs. You know, we to, you know, spend there's been tuition, you know, we saw a $287,000 increase. That's ridiculous. A lot of the sped up placements get to honestly increase their um tuition rates without
parameters, right? So if if a local like a town can only go up to two and a half percent, right? Right. Then then you can't you got can't expect districts and towns to pay a 12% increase to a residential that's already in the hundreds of
thousands of dollars. Not saying that they're not doing fantastic work. I'm not saying that the work they do is expensive. It's not I'm not saying it's not needed, but there has to be something put in place where there is some type of ceiling cuz this is something that we have no idea until it's too late. And there is legislation
where people have actually sounded the call there because we're talking 12 or 13% sometimes in these very expensive programs and we're not budgeting. We don't know what to budget for. Okay. Spread transportation. So we're transporting kids. But mostly this transportation that we're looking
at here, a lot of it, most of it is um in district, right? Students who need specialized transportation to get to us, not necessarily to to wherever. Tuition in, tuition out, you see that school choice, pardon me, uh choice out. Um you
you you understand that that's money out and we receive obviously money in. We pay out um charter school tuition. It went up $55,000 this year. Rates went up. MVP book assessment, it's $102,000. We talked about what that MVP program was. Remember, you know, the line with
the it was the green circle. Um, health insurance, that just ridiculous, right? $455,000. It just for And by the way, you can talk to any any school district. You can talk to any town. That's the kind of numbers that they're seeing. You know, we were
happy to get it from 20% increase down to 16, which we'll get to in a minute. to think that we'd be happy with a 16 or 15% increase on insurance that that that's just ludicrous, right? So, we're we're working hard to try to minimize
those um those type of future. Um retirey health insurance, the GIC retirement assessment, these are all retirements uh for our retirement folks. And of course, kind of retirement assessment. So, it was a grand total of
$1.5 million. That is a tremendous number. And I don't mean tremendous in a great way at all. It is absolutely just backbreaking quite frankly. Next. So when you look at right so um
the chart of accounts that Ann Marie absolutely almost see you know exclusively you know manages this is what the budget is when we have the breakthroughs down into the accounts um this is how everything falls um you know we call them the 5,000
series or 4,000 series or 3000 series but you look at when you look at the total okay and there's debt in there which we generally don't ever we generally don't have a big number there, but there is this year because we're going to at least this building 75% of
this roof will be new. Um, and it's it's past time. So, we're Thank you uh from both towns for realizing that we do have some pretty serious issues with our roof, but that's going to be taken care of this summer. Okay. Okay. So that's but anyway when you look at it the total
or an increase over year over year is um a $3 million increase which is just a number that is mindbl this one. >> So this is a slide that we we actually
brought forward last year. Um it it seemed to get rave reviews. Um you know we try a little something new every year because it it lots lots of folks and I appreciate folks who will say I don't understand what it means between
general fund and everything else. And I I I those are the kind of questions we want to answer because because the general fund is what the towns are pay or what they're supporting, right? But we we pay through we pay for our staff all kinds of staff through multiple
ways. um circuit rev uh breaker revolving that's stead for example extended day revolving extended day is is self-supportive right money in money out they are they're own um cafeteria revolving is also self-supporting
through the monies that we receive well now through the state for lunches um grants preschool revolving pays for a a large portion of preschool it is not self-supportive Um, and school choice,
which we've talked about a lot, is nine teachers. So, when you look at it all, we are a staff of 334 strong. I think people are like, "Oh my god, I had no idea that's how many people work in this district." We have the second largest employer in Templeton, um, behind the paper mill, which I'm told has over 400. I'm going
to take their word for it. I didn't know that, but that's what I was told. Um, so, um, but anyway, that's that's where every single position is funded. And so we it for transparency sake we post them. Okay.
All right. So when we did the tri board meeting, one of the it really just is a conversation quite frankly, but one of the things that we we put up was like what is what is possible for the district just to kind of put a kind of you know some weight behind it is that
we we understood that given the numbers that I've just presented that there were some things that were just not going to be doable. They're just not going to be fixable. We we understood that, you know, so when you're looking at a $3 million deficit, you're looking at what the town has to both towns, by the way, that we knew that, you know, we wanted
to add step that wasn't going to be possible. So, we really wanted to frame it as what is possible for the district to work collaboratively. We've done that. Um, and so one of the things that we did is, oh gosh, now it's two weeks ago. I think time is starting to melt um
into one day it seems but we were given a number of $1.8 8 million over 2 and a.5% which would be um level five I mean level serviced level surfs I'm sorry bit
less >> little bit less but but in general in general level service how many adults we have today working in this in this district come July 1 that's that's how many adults we have working in this district okay so that's levels but you're right a little
about and so we we started We started from this perspective because we had to start somewhere. It was it was it was obvious or it was well stated that that was not going to be a number that may you know come to fruition but
we had to start somewhere because we just had needed a place to start. So when we did that and I felt I felt it important to talk about this briefly about what does that mean? Well, if we were just to go with $1.8 $8 million
over 2.5% from last year. That means that three staff positions would need to be eliminated, cut it, but they were open, right? So, you have a UFCW PAR position that was open. We just wouldn't fill that. There's a one NDA teacher position up here at the middle high
school that's vacant. Wouldn't have filled that. And then there's a independent contract from the central office that mean that does exist, but we just wouldn't fill it. The health insurance rates would have to be reduced from 19 from 19.94% to 15.94%
in order to to to hit this. >> Do we know that that's official yet? It is. I just don't have it back from then. No, that's what it is. >> Okay. So, we are hearing a because I know that last time we were speaking about this that we were still waiting >> right
>> for that to be confirmed. So, it's been confirmed but not ready. >> Yes. Okay. >> So, we're not going to Yeah. Yes. We want the inline. >> I mean, we do. So when we looked at this, we felt, okay, what's possible for the district? And this is really the income sheet. I'm
gonna let Ann Marie speak to the income sheet. >> Yeah. And it's wrong. >> And it's wrong. Yeah. Right. >> The income sheet's right on the left hand side. I think that's wrong. >> Um, so this is what we presented a couple of weeks ago. It represents that $300,000
of those couple of positions and it reflects the chapter 70 increase of $96,000. That's the $75 per pupil based on foundation enrollment. there was a little bit of um an increase with the
charter school. The chapter 71, which is regional transportation, that number of 733 is based on an 80% reimbursement. We're hoping that by the time it's all settled by the state during the summer, it will be higher
than that. Um, END, we were hoping to use more, but we got a very large health insurance bill from a FY25 deficit that we had to use some of our END towards, so we had to only go with the 500 that
we normally do. And Medicaid receipts are um income that we get when we bill for the services that some of our special ed kids have if they're on Medicare, but it's not guaranteed. So
each year we seem to be getting less and less. So I'm trying to reduce that out because we can't really count on it. And each year I have a deficit in that line. Um, so then we go into what the towns pay and the towns have basically three
different things. They have a minimum local contribution number which comes from the state. They have the transportation piece that they're responsible for and then what we call an additional appropriation is an amount that they give us over what they have
to. Um so for Templeton based on the number we were given of 1.8 million over 2 1/2% there's an addition additional increase for Templeton of 2,19,682
which represents almost a 23% increase. Um this year because of the roof you're going to see there's capital debt. We haven't had that on the income sheet for quite a while. Um but that gets split the same as transportation based on per
pupil from each town. So Philipston has the same numbers. Their overall increase for their operating assessment is 418,763 which is just over a 20% increase.
So it gives the district a increase to the general fund of 2,772,226 which is almost an 11% increase. Um everything on the left is correct except for the top because I forgot to change that part when I reduced the debt. the
debt actually was, if you've seen previous versions of this for the roof, it was quite a lot higher for the towns, but as the bond is coming to fruition where the actual the bidding was today, um we're getting closer to the actual
interest that the towns will have to pay next year. So, it's still just estimates, but as soon as they get the bidding results in and we get the paperwork, that will probably change again for the debts. >> In terms of the debt, as as Amry just we we've had a couple of numbers as as
we've gone through that. So, but we're hopeful to have that all tightened up in the next week or so, I would imagine. But still, >> yes. Okay. Okay. So, I'll leave this here for a sec. So,
let's help us. And um Dan Brian administrator over in T. I'm gonna stop saying new. He's a hundred. He's been he's been there for a long so that um you know we we talk almost daily quite frankly about a lot of things but
obviously this time of the year about the budget and so he proposed which I actually I loved um is to go through a financial exercise and I I worry because I just said the word financial exercise. I'm going to show information based on
this financial exercise. The information I'm going to show you is not real in a sense. It's a financial exercise. Okay? And I I'm I'm going to pause for a minute because I just know that someone is going to say Casan said that they're going to cut tax. Casan is
not saying anything like that. What we needed to do is to see really to do um a stress test on the budget to see what would it be if if we had to cut whatever X is. So we had to come up with X. That was a hard thing to do. And so what what
we did is we we both decided on a number of $1 million. Let's cut a million dollars million from the uh from the school budget. And he was going to do the exercise to cut a million dollars from the town budget. Okay. Going to say before we go to the
next slide is that we're going to present this. Well, I'm going to present it now because you're at the school meeting. Of course, that's who I work for. But on Monday, I'm going to be at the at the meeting on Monday night in which James is going to present
that his portion of it and I will and I will present this again, not the stuff I just presented, but moving forward is in terms of a financial exercise, right? A stress test, however you want to do. So, just sort of kind of give you an idea of what we're doing. So, in order to cut a million dollars,
go to the next We have to cut 15 positions when we tried to decide where they would come from. Well, we kind of have to look back into the past and go where did we cut from before? Last year we cut five or six positions from the middle school. So that was middle school is they were out.
Um the high school had already kind of gone through the year before. So if we looked at it, you know, in a sense that what could we what could possibly we get away with literally is that the this is how we came up with these positions just so you know. Okay. So it would be that
these 15 positions would represent three pair of professionals from the UFCW that would be across the district. um f uh pardon me, four elementary teachers, four high school teachers and four individual contract which we put in parenthesis the throttle program. There
of course would be reductions in supply lines no computer leases reduction in district software reductions in stipens. Okay, here's so what the difference is between what the town and the district is this when we cut from one place. So, so it's
when we cut periods and if you say to me you need to cut a million dollars, well 85% of that give or take comes from and then of course the remaining comes from. So it doesn't always just equal it's it's really a very difficult math game
to play. So we we were able to get to >> 900,000 >> like like 900 and some change, right? you know, without completely going any further because they would be it just because they both have to balance out 8515. So that's that's how far we were
able to get. Okay, just to put that in perspective. So that's how we came up with this $1 million scenario. I will say to you that if I we were to do this, it's not 1 million, so I'm going to use my my quotes. That's that was the goal. That that was the, you know, at least the target is that we still would be
short roughly around 50 or $60,000 to to to balance. We'd have to figure that out. But again, it was as close as I could come without actually doing something, right? So, so you know, I'm I'm short of I'm short by that amount,
give or take. Um the if Oh, go. Sorry. The next slide. So, as we talked about Oh, I'm >> This is This is total reduction. >> Sorry. Right. Okay. That's the total
production >> that that's based off of level service 1.3 is off of level service. >> So in order to to get to level service, right? Based off the number of level service between that's 1.3 million and then you you see the cuts there and the rest of
the stuff really stays the same, right? In terms of number no computers, production district siphons, supply lines, etc. So we get to the situation where we're like, well that's a lot. And so, but it's a it's a it's an exercise
because we we have to see it's getting late so to speak in terms of in the budget timelines of things. We we need to see what where I don't know I don't have a number. So, remember I still do not have a number
um again from the towns because we're still working towards it. No one is no one is keeping it a secret. It's just that we're we're working towards this together and that's that's been the that's been the process. Um and so when you look at the if you go to the next
slide, I'll let Amory talk about the >> So this this is what we call an income sheet and this is what it looks like for the towns after this exercise. So for Templeton cutting um we were able to get
up to 900,000 which from 23% increase for them we were able to drop it down to a 12.74% and Philipston is a 12.54%. I've never actually seen them that close
together before. Um, so that gives the district an overall budget of a 6.78% increase versus the increases that we had on the other sheet. So this cuts it down quite a bit. Um, but we like Dr.
Casmand said, this is just an exercise. We don't know if this will be the number, if this will be what sticks or if we'll need more or we can go higher and won't have to reduce as much. This is just an estimate,
>> right? And and so my recommendation of course a big deal decision is that you know when you certify thinking about certifying your number obviously and you've talked about this quite a bit for those who might be new to this
the the number can be reertified x amount of times um I guess not as many times as you want can it can be reertified just never be reertified going It always be resert. It can be reertified at low. So in other words, we can't say oh next week we want three,
you know, we want five 500 million. You can't do that. But you can always go with me, right? So my recommendation is to stay with the 1.8 over 2 and a half knowing fully well that it's a place market number um because I don't know what the ultimate number is. I don't want to go to I don't want to go then we
can't go up or whatever the case is. So I think that would be my recommendation um to to the uh to the committee. Um the other thing is that we what we when we've practiced this you know again we've do this a lot and we've we've done
presentations quite a bit. We decided very candidly to get through them to keep it as short as possible which it's pretty short in terms of number of slides but to get through it and then ask questions because we were afraid that we might get too bogged down in
some areas and that we might lose I don't want to use the word momentum but we might lose momentum getting through the rest of the uh through the uh the PowerPoint. So that is the that's what we have at this point in time and of course would answer
any questions that any >> so I'll first open question up to the school committee. Um, you know, I think I think the tough thing is is that because we're waiting on we're the good thing is we're very
collaboratively trying to work on this budget in consideration of the very significant increases that towns and the school district are facing with these fixed costs. And that is that is a true story in towns and in the school
committee as in the school district as well. The the struggle is it means that we know we're going to certify a budget tonight that likely will not end up being our final budget. Um but that will give us the flexibility to make the
changes we need to make as the scenario becomes clearer. Go ahead, Sean. >> Well, I'm good. You just said we're certifying budgets tonight. We are c we have to we have to certify about everybody to know. So yeah questions though
with the expenses the uh let's see what slide this is number nine it's the uh naransa expense increases level services um level services does that mean that
you have level funded this budget or is this just an estimated budget for FY217 for some service requests that 3 million. >> So level service and level funded are two different things. >> Yeah.
>> Level service means that you have that even with cost in increases all services you provide are maintained. Level funded means that you stay at the exact same budget that you had to exactly. Um so
this this presentation represents if we were to keep all services intact on the slide nine then this is what the budget increase would be. However we already know that if you go down to slide 13
that there was already an initial discussion of a $300,000 cut that this is what was presented to the towns ultimately. But then in the exercise, if you go down
to uh slide 15, you can see we then took that initial cut of $300,000 and did an additional approximately $1 million, which the total reductions are represented on slide 16. And then that
budget sheet is on slide 17. And so we are not I would say um we know we're not going to do a level service budget nor a level funded budget. The question mark is I I I believe what we're going to
vote my my suggestion along with Dr. Cavan is to vote on the budget less than $300,000 tonight. Um and then before we make those additional cuts, we get we work to get that additional clarity from the
towns. Um which we know that there will be at least an initial meeting on March 23rd on this topic. Um so that's where we are. >> Any other questions? because I have a question that I might conf. >> So, I'm gonna ask my question and my
question is even with the $1.3 million in in potential exercise cuts, this is still a pretty significant increase for our towns at
12% each. What happens in a scenario where they come back and say >> I still have yes um 1 million is great but we need to cut even more. What what
is that's that is the the ajida that I'm having knowing >> hearing what I'm hearing and knowing what I'm knowing as to where budgets sit and the financial
difficulties that I know everyone is feeling with cost increases. So, madam chair to that. Um, of course, you know, when we spec these out, we of course do the same thing. We don't just sit on this and go, "Well, that's it.
That's all we got." There is, you would literally at that point, you would have no extracurricular activities, which includes sports. No one in this district has ever heard me say those words. You've never heard me. I have never said them out loud. I
have never uh dangled them. Uh because what I know is that is that is not that's not smart. Um and um so there is not there will they could not be any further staff for that because you you
still have to still have kids um and we still have to teach them. We still have to keep them safe etc etc etc. you'd be looking at things such as as um the extracurriculars. Absolutely. And then and go ahead. I >> I don't know what the end is cuz that
isn't even enough to get us down to a 2 and 1/2%. >> Yeah, we we've we've and and not to certainly this not this not said with arrogance at all. We we never contemplated just a simple two and a half% increase over last year because
it's just not doable. There's just not enough human beings. Honest, it just we you could not open these buildings. You couldn't. Okay. So, we never considered the two and a half just a simple two and a half increase. Um James and I talked
about that quite a bit. It was never it was never proposed. It's I I do not want to put anything out there like oh that has never really been discussed because we just it just would not be possible, right? Um, so you you would start
talking things of that nature and that and that would be I think drastic along the other things that we're doing. Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying one thing is more dressed than the other, but then you you really have
you really can't put that back. >> The other part of it is I and I again I went on my little soap box there earlier about the apartments. I don't apologize because I meant it. But I will say that
one of the one of the variables here that it just we just won't know. And and we won't know until like September or October, which is past the time we would actually receive the money suits, right?
Because October one is when we say to the state, "Hey, this is how many kids we Okay. Um, and again, not their fault. It just won't be written. Okay. But that is what concerns me the most. We just
cannot get a a handle on what even the projected numbers may be. However, we do have a meeting coming up >> next week, >> next week with I'll call it the company that uh >> accepts the applications for the housing.
>> Yes. to see if we can >> they want to rent some space for both sessions. So, we're meeting with a woman next week. >> So, we're trying to get with them to because we're going to literally say this is our this is our issue. How
quickly I don't even need to know zaps. I we need to know like ballpark and you know what I mean? So, I think Mr. May said it was 99 bedrooms. I I that stuck to my head from the last meeting and it's made me sweat a little bit. It just hadn't thought about it that way. I was
thinking about it in units. But when he said there was 99 bedrooms, I think that's how I think that's what he said. I'm like, "Oh my god." You know, they're all filled. I mean, I share a bedroom. I don't know. Does that mean, you know, 99 times, whatever. So, those are the things that are running through our head. We don't know how old they're
going to be, but if you start making cuts, then what what have we done, so to speak. Um, so that's why we're trying to get ahead of that information. We're trying to get any insight to that as as soon as possible and we don't know when
that will be. Rachel >> questions. >> All right. So, I will open it up for public input um on the FY27 budget. I know we were all running up here earlier, but I'm going to give you another chance if
anyone would like to speak. There are people here tonight just for the camera so that they know we do have people here tonight. Okay, then I will close our budget hearing.
Second motion by Hank, second by Sean. All in favor opposed abstain and I say yes. All right. So we'll move into our FY27 budget actions.
Um we do not need to invoke the rule of necessity for those who are not familiar with the rule of necessity. Essentially what that does is if for some reason someone would have to abstain from voting due to a conflict of interest, you can vote the rule of
necessity if if their abstinence from voting would result in not being able to um get a final full vote for the school district. So you did not have the right forum for the vote.
Um but we don't need that. So we will move on but I do like to explain things that are listed in the agenda. Okay. So I'm I'm going to move forward with reading these under the assumption that
we are moving forward with a vote on the um budget propo the level of service less $300,000. Is anyone opposed to that before before I start reading these numbers or does everyone feel like that's the place to start and then we will have additional
conversations things become clear? >> All right. Um just cuz that number is agreed. I would entertain a motion that the Naransa Regional School District School Committee vote and certify the amount of
28,57,429 for the FY27 budget. >> Motion by Sean, second by Heather. And we'll do roll call vote just for clarity. Hank, >> hi. >> Silia, >> Sean, >> hi. >> Heather, >> hi. >> Bill,
>> hi. and I say yes. So that is unanimous. Now we'll move into the estimated income votes. Um I would entertain a motion that the Naraganset Regional School District School Committee vote the estimated
income of 13,137,592 for the FY27 budget which is based on the chapter 7 aid from the governor's house one budget submission. Motion by Sean, second by Hank. Any questions or comments? Seeing none,
Hank. >> Hi, >> Sylvia. >> Hi, >> Sean. >> Hi, >> Heather. >> Hi, >> Bill. >> Hi. >> And I say yes. So, that is unanimous. I would entertain a motion that the Narroans Regional School District School Committee votes vote the estimated
income of 733,882 for the FY27 budget which is based on the chapter 71 aid from the governor's house one budget submission. >> Motion by Heather, second by Sean. Any questions or comments? >> Seeing none. Hey.
>> Hi. >> Sylvia. >> Sean. >> Hi. Heather. >> Hi. >> Bill. >> Hi. >> And I say yes. So that is unanimous. I would entertain a motion that the Naragansship Regional School District School Committee vote the estimated income of 62,14
for the FY27 budget which is based on the charter school reimbursement from the FY27 Cherish Cherry sheet estimates. >> So moved. >> Motion by Sean. Sec. Second by Heather. Any questions or comments? Hang.
>> Hi. >> Sylvia. >> Hi. >> Sean. >> Hi. >> Heather. >> Hi. >> Bill. >> Hi. >> And I say yes. So that is unanimous. >> I would entertain a motion that the Naragans Regional School District School Committee vote the estimated income of
$500,000 for the FY27 budget which is based on the FY25 certified excess and deficiency. >> Motion by Sean. >> Second. >> Second by Heather. Any questions or comments? >> Seeing none. H. Hi, >> Sylvia. >> Hi, >> Sean. >> Hi,
>> Heather. >> Hi, >> Bill. >> Hi. >> And I say yes. So, that is unanimous. >> All right. Now, we're moving on to the town assessments. I would entertain a motion that the Naraganset Regional School District School Committee vote the assessment
amount of Templeton in the amount of two 2,19,682. >> Motion by Sean. Second. Second by Heather. Any questions or comments? Seeing none. Hang >> I. >> Sylvia. >> Hi. >> Sean. >> Hi. >> Heather. >> Hi. >> Bill. >> Hi.
>> And I say yes. So that is unanimous. And now Philipsson. I would entertain a motion that the Narroance Regional School District School Committee vote the assessment amount to Philipsson in the amount of $418,763. >> Motion by Sean. Second. >> Second by Hank. Any questions or
comments? >> Seeing none. Hey, >> hi. >> Sylvia. No. >> Sean. >> Hi. >> Heather. >> Hi. >> Bill. >> Hi. >> And I say yes. So that is unanimous. And finally, I would enter interrupt. Oh, I
was going to say the top one. Thank you. >> Did I? >> That wasn't again. She said no. >> Which one did you say no to? Philip. So that would be problematic. So we'd have to redo all the votes um if it
didn't pass or be all good. They've all passed. Well, because it should be fine because we're still 2/3 vote. We have two/3 vote with one off with >> Yeah. But the reason that I'm saying is because if you vote the full amount but
then don't vote another amount then the full amount would have to be revoted if we don't have 2/3 >> because it has to change >> right do we have 2/3 if one person out of six Adult
60. >> So you have 85% which is >> Yeah. Okay. >> Okay. Well, sorry. I have to reverse because apparently I missed the Medicaid one.
Um, so we're good on that. I would entertain a motion that the Narroansit Regional School District School Committee vote the estimated income of 145,000 for the FY27 budget which is based on the FY27 Medicaid receipts. Motion by Sean.
>> Second by Heather. Any questions or comments? >> Which is which one are we voting? >> The Medicaid one which is part of the estimated income vote. >> Sorry, I just missed one.
There were five or many. There were many in there. >> Six. Yeah. See, no. Any other questions? Apologies. That was my fault. Hey, >> Sylvia. Hi, >> Sean. >> Hi,
>> Heather. Sean, >> doing great. Doing great, folks. I say yes. So, that is unanimous. All right. And then there's just one left. Um because we have to do the debt service. Yeah. Number nine.
I am hesitating because where did we represent this? on the income sheet. Um the slides so just two seconds even so the reason I'm hesitating is because
we need to list this as an individual agenda item but it is in the attached I don't it's on the income just on the slides. I'm sorry.
It's part of the overall vote. Hank, this particular isn't this particular vote for the debt service was not added to the agenda as an individual line item, but it is in the attachment for the total budget. Do you think we're
going to proceed? >> We have assessment vote down here. It's a capital assessment. So, I think that >> it covers that. Okay. >> It just isn't listed individually. >> Yeah. All right. So, we're good to move forward. Um, this is so this isn't
something we typically have to vote on just so that people have clarity. It's not something we typically have to vote on within the budget because we going forward for the next 20 years. >> Yeah. >> For the next 20 years, it will be included. Yeah. >> And we would be very consistent.
>> I won't be for 20. >> Yeah. So it it is clearly included in all the budget sheets that are attached to the agenda. It just wasn't called out as an individual line item when I was ghosting out the votes within the agenda. But because it is clearly included and clearly included by the
time of the posting of the meeting, we will move forward. I would entertain a motion the Maragans Regional School District School Committee bone the debt service of $182,160 of which $154,818
be Templeton's assessment and 27,342 be Philip's assessment. >> Motion by second. >> Second by Hank. >> Any questions or comments? Is there any chance that these numbers will change?
>> Yes. press. Yes. >> Thank you. >> Any other questions or comments? Seeing none. Hey. >> Hi. >> Sylvia. >> Hi. >> Sean. >> Hi. >> Hi. >> Bill. >> Hi. >> And I say yes.
So that is unanimous. And just as a recall, the Philips vote was not unanimous. We had one chance. Thank you everyone. So I have we did schedule just as a side note we did
schedule a meeting on impulse 2nd in anticipation or hope that by then we will have additional clarity on the budgets um and can have further discussion about what that will mean. Um if we do not have the clarity by then
there is another meeting um April 16th. Thank you. um for for discussion again. Um so thank you to school committee members for accommodating an additional meeting but working we knew
we anticipated that we would have need to have additional conversation time is delayed. Um, we will let our student representative take the floor and walk us through what's been happening with the schools.
During the month of the month of March, Temple Elementary School continued to foster strong community connections and immediate learning experiences for their students. They were excited to welcome trash railers who visited CES to build enthusiasm on their upcoming Nerans
Night and promote school spirit across our community. That game is tomorrow night at GCU Center. Buy your tickets. Additionally, representatives from Templeton Municipal Light and Water Plant visited to provide students with important real world lessons on electrical safety, helping them
understand how to stay safe at home and in their community. These experiences continue to enrich our students learning while strengthening partnerships with local organizations. Next week, we are looking forward to a visit from Prismatic Magic, a laser lie that celebrates the character virtues we work to instill in our students every
day. We've also ended our second trimester report cards will be sent home next Wednesday and parent teacher conferences will be taking place on Thursday and Friday. We excited to finish the year off strong as we hopefully move into nicer weather at the middle school. This past month students
have continued doing LOL and using their star MOI scale scores and quarter three interm reports. We also look forward to our student of the month assembly where grades five, six, and seven will be competing in the minute to win it challenge to be this month's prior to Riley State. At the high school, turn
three is almost over. The deadline has been pushed to April 6th due to all the snow days. Tomorrow, bicyclist Chris Polos will be visiting to discuss anti-bullying and bicycle safety. This coming Wednesday is a half day. Last Friday, there was a confidence concert
for the high schoolers where Kaye Rose came to sing us songs about being confident and being yourself. There was also a pie eating contest which I wasn't really anywhere close to winning. The MU Alpha Theta members were inducted after school using a roast session and the
class of 2027 held a very successful meat raffle at the PDC to raise money through their senior year. In support of GAP day, which live arrives alive at prom, there will be a fundraiser dinner on April 9th at the Templeton Cafe. There will be two seedings, 5 and 7:00
p.m. And there will be a 50/50 ambassador raffle. Any questions for our student? All right. Does anyone from the NDEA wish to speak tonight? Double guard speaks up.
Uh calendar. Yes, we're going to put that up against vote on that. Okay. Yeah, I think we're ready for people. >> So, um
Okay. Usually we present two calendars. One that starts for school starts before um Labor Day and one that starts after we do we present. Um it's never I've never seen one past that going after
Labor Day, mind you, but that's you know generally we only have one issue. Uh and the reason being is that we have a new roof coming and given that we're going to probably need as much time as possible to um you know to to complete
that project. We we did not want to well we're thinking about starting after Labor Day and but Labor Day is very late this year. Um and so given that we are presenting just one calendar to you >> and um well do you want to take it from
here you harve you? Um, sure. There there aren't The only major change that the committee had um talked about was relocating our full day professional development day that has typically been
in November to be on Good Friday so that it would remain um a work day for NDEA members. Um, we are able to do that because we currently don't have that as a workday for our UFCW members and in our PAR contract. Our PAR professionals don't attend that full day PE day in
November typically. So, it doesn't have an impact contractually, but it would allow us to utilize that day as a day for our staff to serve their PD day and allow that November day to be a day for students. So, it kind of gives us back a
day in the calendar uh in that sense. So the unanimously the team was pretty excited about that. Um and then there's some slight adjustments to where the dates fall for parent teacher conferences. Um the committee felt strongly that we should be aligning
parent teacher conferences for all three buildings. Um because then if parents have children in multiple buildings, it's less it's schedule-wise it's a little bit easier. And then all of our students will have those half days um at the same time essentially with the
exception of the um third day for tees conferences that's needed in November where the other two buildings have two days. Um so the committee was unanimous about the calendar but those are the the changes that you'll see outside of just date changes. >> Now thank you for running through those.
>> I would entertain a motion to accept the 2026 to 2027 school year calendar as presented. So moved. >> Motion by Sean. >> Second by Heather. Any questions or comments about that calendar as it was presented to you. All right.
>> Oh, sorry. Hey, made a motion. >> Seconded by Heather. I heard a male voice and I just >> We both made it. Give it to Hank. That's right. For another 20 years. Thanks. All right. Y'all are gonna start raising your hands
and Bill's just gonna have to change his name. A lot going on here. >> Any questions? >> Just cuz I'm curious. It's a process question. So there's a there's essentially a calendar committee that gets together and obviously votes on this prior to bringing it for us. So
therefore, I'm assuming the faculty are happy with this calendar. >> Oh, absolutely. So, our calendar committee includes administrators um and teachers from just about every building. So, every building is represented. Uh we have teachers from just see the name beer on it. Uh teachers from the
elementary, middle, and high um are on that committee. And so, we did something a little different this year. That committee met, drafted it, and then we asked them to bring it back to their schools for any additional feedback because we did make some changes as a committee on terms of the parent teacher conference days um and that PD day. So,
we put it out there. We sent it as a draft to all members of the committee. We got a little bit of feedback back from one building. So, we made those adjustments. We sent it back out to the committee again. Um, and the committee was unanimous on the vote for this calendar. >> Thank you. I'm glad I asked. >> Yes.
Any other questions? >> Seeing none, all in favor? >> Opposed? Abstained. And I say yes. So, that is unanimous. Any school committee comments this evening?
Oh, please Philipston, March 30th, I'm pleading. Um, if anyone is interested from either town, um, the elections, town elections are coming up
and in Philipston, it is the deadline to reach the the town clerk to get papers is um March 30th. and the papers need to be turned in by April 2nd. And um then we have the town election on Monday, May
18th. So if you don't make that, there could be a writing. So please any town begging you to consider these are wonderful people. They're working very hard. Um
we have did absolutely 100%. I was just going to add that Susan had had raised this up. Thank you for emailing Susan and your concern that as of this time we don't have any Phil anyone from Philip
um anticipating a run for the next school year. me. Um, and Susan and I chatted and she did write something up that will go out in school newsletters to alert folks. It will also
go out in the Philipsson newsletter. >> We had in March. >> Yeah, there was something in here in March. >> Wonderful. Um, and we will additionally be posting to Facebook, but if you know someone from Philipson, um, please reach out to them and let
them know that we really do want to make sure that Philips is represented at this table. That is very important to us. Um, I'm more than happy to answer any questions so you know who I am. Um, I'm
Jith 3. J Smith one up there somewhere. >> Um I'm J Smith 3 uh on my email address, but we did also last year published an entire guide about what it's like to be on school committee. Um which is really
useful to read. It's up on the website um so it can let folks know what to expect because I know that lots of people just don't don't go into um so that's a couple of spaces you can send people. But um I know folks out in the
crowd know people from Philipsson. So um I hear peer pressure is great. So let's make sure we have some Philipsson folks at the table. Uh we do not have any correspondents this evening. As I already mentioned,
our next scheduled meeting is April 2nd um at 5:30 p.m. And I did put executive session on here in case we want to >> catch up, but no need. Okay. Um then I would entertain a motion to adjurnn.
>> So move second. >> Motion by Sean, second by all. >> And I say yes. desert here.