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no swearing no right why don't do all right hello everyone I would like to call this meeting of the Naran Regional School J school committee to order
and um should we start with the pledge and then we'll go around and open or should we go around and open open all right uh I'm Mike Curry chair of the select uh Templeton select board and I'd like to open our business meeting uh my name is Noel Francis chair of the advisory committee of the town of Templeton and I'd also like to open this meeting excellent and I would have everyone rise for the pledge I
Al flag of the United States of America and to the rep for it stands Nation God indivisible withy jice for all well thanks so much to everyone for making it out on this snowy evening as a reminder this meeting is being live streamed and recorded um live Streed on YouTube and the footage will be supplied um to
and gles Access TV following the meeting um so the first item of business is just a quick uh FY 25 update if there's anything that anyone needs to go over from this year want any updates anybody wanted to make um it's just something that was on on the agenda but if nobody has any fy2 updates you can certainly move right along seeing n all right um so as a reminder just going over the FY 26 budget process and timeline for Nance at Regional School
District have a meeting this evening our first budget hearing will be on March 6 um so that that's really a summary of what what we think that we need to the community it's we welcome community members to come to that meeting to speak with us and talk with us give any input that they would like um and then the budget vote by the school committee will be held on March 20th 202 right
so Dr C shall I hand this over to you to KCK off our budget presentation awesome okay well thanks for coming out everyone as um said realized the weather we really want this to keep everything on our schedu so the first slide um just go next the what we've done over the last year or so actually only more of a minut more do um point out what
what we've been doing um again there's a lot here that has been mentioned over you know a year or so some of these things takes it takes a couple years or a year and a half to actually come to fruition but the MVP Academy which we had 12 Juniors and seniors um in are enrolled in vocational programming in the fields of Car electrical expansion digital literacy I mean Parton me electrical and we uh I
have to tell you if there's anything we've done here um that we've seen almost an instant um result it's been this program and want to thank both towns for supporting the MVP which is the program that we of course do with mon um it should come to know surprise that our students have from from the actual folks were doing um all of the teaching instruction um they really have identif call our students as being um The Very Best of the group and so so um
one we have an opportunity to BR about we certainly like to do that we've expanded our digital literacy curriculum at the elementary and middle schools which of course is important in today's world we've added the e8th grade World Language and now off of the sealed by literacy that also came about last year um extracurricular we turned to Spring musical um we haven't had a musical in a while we've heard like little I was called and I'm sure I'm not saying that correctly but we are returning to a an
actual spring musical expans middle school music program um and we now have a growing band enrollment to the point where um we hope that we'll be able to actually have the marching band back um again there's you know no promises but I I think that we're trending certainly in that direction that'll be good for both so the budget to close discy
salaries that has been our um always our goal uh you know as compared to neighboring districts we put a lot of emphasis on that last year we talked quite a bit about it last year we did two or three presentations about that across across not only the our school um population but of course the towns um we moved health insurance out of school choice into the general fun that is that is huge that is a that is a real big deal uh quite frankly because it it
really was a weight around the necks of well not only the district but given insurance rates Etc um and with its volatility it could very well have you know obviously cost way too much or cost more than we had actually in school choice itself so that that was a big big uh Financial win last year facilities we've replaced you know carpet in middle school and high school library we've add
H Middle School library and kitchen which is really we're actually starting to notice at least in the very beginning a difference um in regards to um propane use um and just in general we are more balanced across this across this very large building because the pneumatic systems were well they were they were built um and designed in the 1950s um we've had we were having a lot of issues issues with that um across the board we
we're slowly um getting on top of that we switched to an all ebook Library which um has expanded our library tfold and now middle school students can actually access um the library which is important Athletics as you know the expansion the field expansion down um the track um that has been completed um we're set given good weather uh to start using that in fall which is fantastic
because we are we are in Desperate needs of additional playing fields and was something we'll talk about a lot but we'll our increase in Residence can um again we we are three out of four years that we have seen a pretty good increase in our residents and we need to continue to decrease as R TR South so those are really the highlights um and we know g a lot of those are just coming last year so those are the pictures um
some of the um areas that we were talking about Little Mermaid four five and six both and our band the middle school band um right there um for those who may So Gone to the coner check it on YouTube was fantastic and we're making some great strides okay so this is the Chapter 70 this is General how you know tools are
funding and we know that um what's important to understand is that row eight over um our incremental cost above the base so these are multipliers they are special education which we don't have for um English language Learners we doubled the number of English language Learners we had from last year to this year our low income also went up and the lower
I'll start the lower Circle the green circle we incre or we gr to a low income group of eight we were a low income Group of Seven last year and um we've increased because of the increase in low income um we have been designated in low income eight so we have a total of 1,347
students that count towards the foundation enrollment and we'll go over that how is that different a little bit later which you guys have certainly heard this quite a bit over the years um here okay if you go to the next slide sorry so the circle represents an increase to the enrollment our foundation enrollment the second green circle represents the student opportunities act in in motion that is
money we receive Chapter 70 funds this year additional Chapter 70 funds this year whereas when we're not when we're held harmless which means we've either we've either leveled out exactly or as of last year we were we were negative six or eight students from the year before that we did not receive the increase to chapter 78 so but over the last three out of the last four years pardon me we have seen an increase point
where we have received an increase in chapter 78 money that's a good thing okay that's that's a great thing because costs will go up of course but if our if we are increasing this many students we definitely want to be paid for that right we want to receive money so we can provide services okay so I'm I'm going to stop here because I quickly went through you know what we've done over the last year but then I I quickly went over to Chapter 70 funding you know formula and how it's benefited us this
in terms of chapter 7 mons anybody all so we move to the next slide we get asked every year I don't well every year where where how many sta where do you where are they who are they
and so when people have asked me especially in these forms how many staff members do you have I will talk about the general fund because the general fund is where when all the staff who are in the general fund that's that's what folks are paying for okay they're in the general fund Chapter 70 the money is that both towns allocate and so when you look at when you look when I talk about how many staff do you have that's what I need
because these are what you're paying for right this is this is what we Chapter 70 the towns are paying for we actually have 342 staff MERS um who work for the district and I'm going to go through the groups here a little quick so general fund they are in the general fund they are literally the again I just want over this again we um the these are the salaries that folks are paying from combination of chapter 7 and of course the town lments circuit
breaker revolving is special education okay so it mixes both either both state and and federal monies um we pay uh or we we pay the salaries of two teachers two behavioralists and a psychologist out of those Minds okay you go down to extended day revolving right extended day our after school program the summer program that is self-sufficient we do not
no money's from here right from the general fund go to um the extended day revolving Sal cafeteria revolving again self- support um again I don't keep saying it but obviously the monies that we take in now we don't have folks we don't have kids who pay you know uh lunch fees any longer so the the monies that we receiv received for that still um is enough to of course uh to take care of the the
folks that we need to um serve a lunches in both both buildings grants multiple grants yeah I'm sorry I just say so for ceter revolving just to clarify because the state has funded free school lunches for everyone you get enough out You Get Enough from them to make sure that that's com yes yes sometimes it's close they be very C depending on in it iself absolutely self grants many grants we take in as many
grants as we possibly can um the list was long but we we pay for four teachers 7.3 paers point8 Administrative Assistant nurse academic support coaches 0.5 college career uh person um so that you know that is no cost in sense um to uh to The District Preschool revolving the coordinator. five one teacher and 5.7 parents
this uh the staff from that that are revolving that's is not completely self-sufficient you know in preschool they pay right they pay um for tuition and and really uh reason the reason is that the two wonderful folks who do preschool have been here a very long time um and so their salaries have eclipsed what you would charge for um
preschool tuition now preschool has come up a lot over the last several years ago in terms of what is the value of preschool well first off it's preschool is not mandatory for children but with special needs students it is right so in other words you'll have to pay so no matter where a special needs student who goes to preschool right um probably through early intervention or whatever the case may be the district is responsible to pay so they I don't even
know of a preschool place around here um I can't think of one right now that you would send a special student to but you would be we would be on the um on the hook for transportation and whatever tuition that they were trying so preschool actually ends up saving District's money um if we're just focusing on money but from completely standpoint it we get our eyes on on our kidos as soon as possible
especially students with special needs that's very important to us because they come to you either in kindergarten or first grade and they're there ours and they're here and we don't have any we don't have any real connection with them that's why it's really important to have pre- programs and there's been a lot of talk about having you know Universal pre- programs for all for all these type of reasons because the sooner we get K kiddos into school in general are better the better but um we'll be obviously special needs students who were on IEPs
or on no they're on IEPs by the time years old um we're responsible for them any way school choice we talk about school choice a lot there are nine teachers in school choice we talked we this is not a new revelation um I was asked very recently well why was teacher a where was teacher a where where was this person because now they're here they're now in the general form but how do you just add
this person you know an FY 285 and the answer to that was no because we actually hired that person uh that position for me two years prior but we were able to apply that position based on the job that they were doing at the time this is wrong Co issue but we were able to take it out of extend par me extended dat evolving but once the job evolved and once Co wasn't Co anymore um we we really couldn't justify right you
know having that salary come out of extended day so um I think we actually went to school choice for a while but then it's it's now in the general fund I say I went through that you know um mechanism to say that these nine teachers we filled with them quite a bit because we have to make sure that our lowest nine teachers are there because we have to worry about the impact on salaries on on school choice okay which we'll get to in a bit you
know I'm going to talk about school choice so there is there is movement right so yeah there'll be times that you know um I'll tell you right now it was the Dena students at the elementary school the Dena students at the elementary school when we first hired the position again around Co time there was some things we we were able to take it out of we were able to apply it to extended day revolving okay we were able to do that once Co then kind of waned it didn't wasn't a good justification so we
ultimately moved it over into the general fund we know we still needed it but we just we find different ways to try to pay for the positions that we actually need because otherwise they'd all be into the general fund okay all right I'm gonna stop there because I want to make sure because this is a new slide if you've been watching any of these presentations over the years this is a new we've done this a lot of different ways but never like in one slide like never just one here M okay I do have a question for you Chris sir
this is the third time I've sat in this room and I find it extremely disenchanting that the town of philipson is not here this is supposed to be an all boards meeting a member Community is not here I know having sat on the regional agreement committee as we were amending it they refused to sign it I am aware desie has a mechanism in place and I'm going to ask you and the chair of the school
committee to find out what the next steps are I'm really questioning do we have a regional district in my mind we do not and the reason I'm interjecting it at this point in time school choice if we're having school choice we're receiving students one of the requirements is a town in order to send students has got to be able to receive students philipon right now without a school cannot receive therefore according to to desie they cannot send
and your point is well thing because I was on that committee and aw it was something right yes um there with me as welled it out he's sitting there quiet sry Jeff um please know this that is many invitations that we sent to the town of we sent the equal amount to Phil um we
we only received one one response back and that was simply that they were not going to attempt and so or that person was not going to attempt I'll just put it that um in terms of the regional just being a regional I'll just leave there a SLE event um again I don't I hate going back to the time where we're just in the auditorium and there was those awful meetings honestly just it's the PTSD to
this day off no I mean that was a terrible and the override thing right as everyone knows the override fil okay so the school committee then did vote the the number that um you know that was that we were trying to change so in order for that to happen and again I always want to I do take the opportunity to explain and to remind or some folks didn't go through this you're H you're lucky but um the
the we had to close philipon because of we had to do a lot of things we we uh cut seven elementary teachers we had to close temp we had to close philson part me we had to take those teachers because we it was literally the low low person out took those teachers moved them into the elementary took the kids this happened over two years but took the kids moved them again into into Templeton and that was that was spawned by two things though one yes the the conversation had to happen about those
cuts because of the failed override yes but then when the new building was built we had a we had a conversation about making philipon an Early Childhood Center for the folks who were here if we remember that Carter who was the uh the town manager of the time for Templeton um and and so was yeah again John absolutely who's the chair or definitely on I think you're on the chair John I don't remember that we they yes stepped forward and said okay we
understand because we moved back to fifth grade it was it was going to be a thing and philon refused to have the building become a Early Childhood Cent to the to the extent of that when we because the no building was built um part of it was you people all the teachers packed up their stuff from all the different elementary schools we had one here bville we we kept everything there we kept all of the uh the prek I believe K but it's
definitely the prek um teachers stuff still at philipon because we were trying to work this out tempton came forward said okay we'll we'll do this and then that you know monetarily it was a it was a it was going to be something that Templeton had to go okay we'll do this part they refused so I actually had to send the Vans down the moving vans down another day a completely different day to pick up the thanks because we left
because we were so well one confident well hopeful how about if I say that hopeful and I didn't want to have to move the stuff back they had to repack they had to pack their stuff up another day basically and we had to move it out that is actually how it happened now to your question because I want to make sure I keep saying this over again because it's that's how it happened are we a regional district yes by the from the simple standpoint that two districts pay in you know to uh to
the to the district itself right I think the real question is do we have a regional elementary school that is the question that I that I I pose not not to be not to incite anyone or anything I say that because if all the students are in one building okay and there is no mechanism plan and whatever you'd like to call it
to to move philipson students say back to right down to the school then it's been it's been my contention quite frankly that that's what we have because that's what the district can afford and I by the district I mean the two member towns right because that's what happened now we all know that there's a lot of politics that you know a lot of things have been said and done there's a lot of lot of umot of churn right you
charm in the water when it comes to this topic but that's what needed to happen if folks remember I had to move the fifth grade back out of tees right that was supposed to be the fifth grade moved them up here brought up all and mve the well what it's now of course prek through four okay so the mechanism just so we're not you know like what is the mechanism the mechanism and we have we have looked at this and we have and we have called and we have talked to folks and said
this Templeton voted it on the voted the regional agreement on the floor school committee voted the changes I'm talking about it's in draft currently again it has not been put on the warrant for for the philson to meeting two years in a row I don't know why why don't I know because they will not they have not shared that with me um and so the mechanism truthfully is
the towns now because the school committee in this in this relationship really is is the academic AR of it you guys are the financial AR obvious we know that but really tlon and philipson need to have I'll just call it a conversation it it it really can't come from the school and you know why is anything that needs to be done right if you have to call for maybe legal advice Etc I can't use templeton's or Philipson's
money right to potentially oh gosh TR between I was trying to think about thank you much better word than I was going to say so I can't use monies right that you know to arbitrate thank you that's I'm G I'm G to write it down so I don't have to say the longer so um that's that has been the advice that the advice that we have received not trying to I'm not you know I'm not trying to just dis sh just associated with it it doesn't make very difficult
we have we have problems in what do we have problems we have a lot of kids I you know no one and there's swing space and then there's a building that potentially could be used for early childhood and you could take in more school choice I'm just saying look just this is just one many things is that it becomes a revenue plus Early Childhood centers are the very best thing for Early Childhood kids I can go on with the research and blah but I don't we have two buildings right now right in
this two physical buildings and every student that lives Nei come to school here um either one of those so that's really the question okay I know that was long long thank you for the answer I didn't mean to put you on the spot we did not pre coordinate on no no we did not no sorry for the PTSD no for those who were not part of this thank you lucky stars but a bunch of my constituents have reached out a bunch of
the families new in town who don't know the history and they asked me to bring this up and I gladly said yes I will bring this up so I hope they watch this later and they can have an understanding and get the history of how we are where we are just so we're also clear and and again it's sitting in it's sitting in a file I guarantee it somewhere at the time because we had a lot of back and forth because the msba was involved and because we had to change basic format of the school in which the
msba paid whatever percentage for I had to literally write I don't know how many page explanation in terms of what was happening and why so it it's actually been you know it's actually on C it's not like you know just we're just you know from handing it down from generation to generation that had to be verifi that had to actually we had to pass mustard with with the msba because they were their money they don't they
don't care about our money right they don't care they care about their money and if we changed all of this how could you do because it wasn't part of the original PFA but we we were able to slog through it thank you um and and we were able to open up the school so again we it is in written format about kind of how it all kind of turns part with them which building is the new building the new building the new Elementary oh
okay Elementary School how many kids are now from philson um I can actually give you the one question um currently at the elementary we
have 95 students from philipon 484 students from templon and only um 95 four school choice out of a grand total of break today or as of last week 588 so that's roughly 16% just I'm just you know giving you yeah 855 Mr want to see what breaks down yeah
just to give you some insight the ad your advisory committee has been doing a lot of research on this and we're going to be presenting something to the templon board of selectman concerning that what Avenue is based on what Des has said to us and what the state has said to us P the 60% of the state school building authorities that paid for the school out of $42 million and we only responsible for the 21 million from count elementary school but um from dialoging in all I can tell you was it is a it is not temp's responsibility it
is not the school's responsibility um and unfortunately uh you know legal Le have to take over and U when you guys will see that soon enough I'm sure understood any have questions thanks okay so F okay I'm sorry so this is the income sheet that we've I don't know is by even for I this this she has
um been really the um the foundation of where of the budget itself I don't like to to through the numbers I mean certainly the folks in this room have seen this already one but two have seen plenty of them if you haven't um so if you you know if you have any questions about you know for example you know whatever well Medicaid right so Medicaid yeah went down Year yes are we get any
other other choices besides just this one choice any other selections of of of what of total amounts like one you gave us like a couple of choices so right now we're really leaning into what's called level service um and what that means is that because we're a growing District um what we've been able to do is to accommodate for all of our needs within the existing staff that we have but in order to fund level service and keep all the services and all of the staff that
we have today this is the am amount that that costs um so if there's any further discussion we can have that but I will tell you right now that we will like without level service we will struggle to continue to provide the services that are essential to this district and we'll go into where these cost increases are coming from so for right now we're leaning into level service because if we cut we're we're taking away from students and your population is continuing to grow so we struggle to see
how we can cut staff and still be able to provide services we need to and it was two years ago I believe might have been three of what we've done exactly what I'm doing now like here's here it is like the ask we did a little bit different last year we kind of like here's L service and this is this and this is do but we've always we've always just generally just put it out firstly as as level service like here's the know service and if we needed you know if it
was asked then we would say you know we' ask protect this this or this or whatever it was like last year in terms of the the staff that we needed at the midd and High School this year we have Inc students but we we look you know there's a there's a fine line by just just keep you know ask we're gonna we're we're full in places we've got some we've got some numbers issues but we you know we're going to work very very very hard hard to make them happen at the
level service I think I I've said this I've been able to say this the last three out of four years is that what's really difficult because we're growing we're growing and a lot of towns aren't right now like none around us okay okay so 495 I mean at the rate that we're I'm going to get into these numbers in a bit but you know we're plus 186 students since FY fy21 or 22 I got look at my slide and that is just that is when I go
all the way back to the 90s I can't find anything close to that growth we had more kids we had more kids and they kind of peed it out right they moved or did whatever but we haven't had this many this been residents in quite some time and so that has been the that's been the the the issue was that we just can't get a handle on it's been it's been in this in terms of well actually no it's been this in terms of kids coming dist without School choice being a
factor so what have we done so okay the health insurance costs move from school choice to the general fund in FY 25 in order to preserve school choice funds when that's been a big deal because we're afraid that that would just go upside down very quickly depending on whatever the rates may be employee salaries adjusted to be closer to the local averages I have to say this that no one's here tonight you know in terms of I know BL the union of they usually have someone here the negotiations you know when I say
they went very well I I've been in other places that negotiations are just generally about them um and never mind like the bigger picture I this group did a fantastic job um they live here they understand things they understand where they're at um when I presented we have a group that presents once you finalize a budget you present then say well Chris who uh you know on soon with I don't
even know how many superintendant or whatever around State like you you agreed to a 43 what about family leave additional family leave I said they they didn't ask for that well what about increasing the top step by X and Y and Z they didn't ask for that they didn't ask for the things that and by the way I can I can just give you slide upon slide from
districts locally and beyond that it shows a 222 goes a 222 and then it says underneath it um add TOP Step 3% for this FY and then add another TOP Step at 2% for the another FY that isn't a 222 what that is is about roughly well in that in the case I'm thinking of is a 7 82 right because the top step is where
everyone's at and they're the most expensive staff right I mean we understand how this all works this was a very like they understood where they did not ask the things that a lot of these districts are just getting and so um I don't know I have to say that because it's only fair I I I hate to say it and a 3% now is literally folks are like me I'm going to say it in terms of the teacher world like it or not 3% is is
good um we've increased book access for students utilizing electronic library shoing it's over 70,000 bucks that's fantastic and the kids are using these metal because you know never mind check out the real B baby Revenue ebooks and that's what they did and so both the middle school and the high school able to do that we've upgraded um and expanded the athletic fields we talked about that Energy savings from repays We're actually starting to see the very money that John salot got us 50 Grand La a couple years ago to help fix our very outdated pneumatics systems and um we're
we are we are we're starting to actually see differences because now these these heaters are not running 247 because the pneumatic at one point had an air bubble or the or the tomb dried out and rotted you know what I mean the thing was like runaway heat or or not or not even heated and then we now we're dealing with that we've we've made some really great strides in that and we've actually started to see um you know things s to stabilize Chris yes
uh increase the book access for for electronic library is that a cost-saving measure as well or is is it a wash subscription versus buying them and maintain that's a great question I would say this and Jared would would think back in one we really ask us two different libraries so in one sense of yes because you know it's kind of a an e library that is was you know get through schools but on the other end the books
that we had and in the titles the yeah TI of the books we wanted we they were at regular cost but they gave us in some cases like um instead of having the one Huckleberry fin you know that you could pull out they gave us two versions of you know some in a lot of cases so you know I think it's a wash but but but kids are actually able to access the books where they never did got it and and by the way we didn't have a librarian I'm just going to be caned did
we have something in the library IM media specialist yes where kids going into the old cards and looking for no they weren't doing any of that so the fact is that if we were pass to do that we would have to get the library and actually get into all sorting the box so I guess in Wong it might be a little savings but it's really good it's really about improving the access it's going from I'm going to say a wasted resource because we had the library and there were the books in it
but with nobody using it that's not a sustainable investment right when you go from that um and if I recall correctly facilities was able to donate everything that was in there there no cost to us in removing the books or the shelving or any of that um and so that has become a used space again and now we have students who are regularly checking out and using books which I mean what school doesn't want students to be reading access it um they access it
online over their phome books and yeah and I actually asked Jared the other day can my son get that on his Kindle and we were GNA try to figure that out so you know I do think that there's going to be expanding points of access there is a slight cost savings to us actually for some of our curricular materials because some of the cortex that are used and high school are available through this library and where that has an impact for us is for students who are not first language
English speakers and so we have eight different languages represented in our district we have 27 students who are currently El in that population and so this gives us access to books in other languages to support their needs rather than have to go um and purchase those or um or purchase e versions of those as so there are some cost savings with access for crit and if before you go on what would you say is your
um your current teacher to uh student ratio do you have a is there a u what grade I mean yeah I was gonna I mean I could that I mean give or take now in kindergarten it's Elementary High yeah well if in total staff ratio I I'd have to actually calculate that I have this I have an average class size right now I don't have like total you know staff of
student in terms of you know they don't have that kindergarten out of the Paras so we have the number but it's actually now two in those classrooms instead of the one right okay yeah I don't that's something we can eily do class size I think is always uh a metric that may maybe it might not be in this setting like because we're talking about something that that that goes so much deeper but when we start trying to explain to other other audiences that that that is one
that's used quite a bit that's point we can take that as a followup I know that in the Middle School one of our goals last year was specifically to address class size by adding in those specialist teachers so it would be great to to follow up with those metc yeah it's that in between space like I I like this new slide where you show where is the S like where is the source of and then I I know you in the the slide deck you've got uh numbers of the students it's that in in between space to say where where does it
collide and you know what the so what of that yeah you how many staff members are in the elementary total first you know obviously you know by the number of kids so we can yeah we can get I yeah how many eyeballs are looking at one a one teacher or two teachers in Sean I yeah and it's also important to consider that we want to be with accreditation of that number as well so they they provide some of those numbers of where those numbers have that's good and John yeah I think another another great metric would also be uh per student like what would it
cost per student to come to gon like I know like Monte Tech always when they brief they always brief like it cost x th000 per student uh so when where our 90 students are from from freshman to seniors um you know that's how we that's how our budget comes up and that's how we pay our bill I think just that's another simple metric to say okay well it's going to be exra thousands of dollars per suit NE you know that's a good point joh if you well back several slides when we were talking about chapter 7even and I
was showing you you know here yeah oh there you go that it's they're giving us the foundation budget for pupil is 5,235 um what lost the kid you know that that's hard because depends if there's you know honestly if if they're receiving Services right or or the age because in general you know you'd be surprised but
the high school students probably cost more than in your Elementary because again taking in a lot of things into account but um but that bu Foundation budget that's again what's important is with this opportunities at is that when you get more kids these multipliers that we're getting the money for the kiddos that we need that are going to in general cost us more okay special education e um well not necessarily low income but
especially those two periods that thank you to capture everyone's question want yeah I think I think I interrupted energy you're and so you know last year we met you know we had we added positions you know to make it grow mostly at the middle of high school because that's where we're seeing the the growth at this point in time NE challenges oh up um of course
everything goes on but you know we know um we know that we have hard to fill positions that isn't necessarily um just just a narrogin issue um in itself but honestly the way that we've you know we've worked to you know to get our teachers more closer to the center of the average of our locals that that that we're hope and and positive that'll go go a long
way in terms of attracting teachers to the district um many many again this is GNA sound you know s but it's not we have a lot of teachers who are you know who come through you know interviews and they want to come here they just can't they just can't afford it because they're going to go to x now I I've said it 100 times if they're going to go anywhere down 495 I say it though God speak really honestly drive safe because we could never compete with name of town doesn't matter W Wester
Littleton it's not going to happen not going to happen con carile a average teacher $100,000s 180 days $100,000 average teacher salary we are not competing with that ever okay but around here we have to be very very you know we have to keep an eye on so I think we've made some good strides so I'm not there's you know not whining we've done a good job and we continue to do that we're going to do what we can I want to talk about buses because that came up a lot in in conversation like oh my God
how in the world did you go up 300,000 b in a bus bid and where is your bus Bid And I want to see all the bus bits and okay this is how it works in busing and if you paid attention to the news last year it was last year there seems to be a well I got to be careful I don't want to say something that would put me you know Jey of reserching the the good name of the transportation industry but there there
is you know a thought that things are pretty much um carved out here in the state in terms of busing there are about five bus companies in the state unless you're buying your own buses that that we're not even talking about and they seem to kind of almost stay in the same type of place so I'll give you an example we had our pre-bid how many came in three in a Salesman to sell for them three in a Salesman them wow we're going to get a competitive bit emry how many people gave us one how
many people came to the bid though two so the other person didn't want a bid they just wanted to hear what that number wants because they're going to go back to where their area might be and to see if they're going to be competitive I Shar basketball superintendent it's public record anyway um Ash West um there by the way that's a 30% increase over the last cont M um Ash West is a 20% increase okay they had two bus
companies who who gave them Gardener I don't I don't know I didn't I honestly didn't ask what their increase was there was an increase they had one it just so happens that the bus company uh that won Naran I pardon me no Ash West and Garner same one it's weird how no one big for those two districts except for that one one
right take that as you will but in terms of busing and the state is looking into this by the way the state is looking into how is this just happening right why is this just happening because it seems to be a little bit remoted but we had that two buses over the last time years we have we have too many kids for the old for whatever we're Run 10 buses and 11
hours you're running 13 buses and a van whereas before in the beginning of the cont last previous contract we had 10 buses I think maybe they that van does some of the philson groups and it does over 60 miles a day it's 60 miles a day yes um I and it doesn't have to necessarily be right now I heard a community question about this community question about this with all the parents
that um transport their children to school how many people are on each bus you have the bus numbers the law is that we have to account for anybody a mile and a half outside of the the school Circle understood so it doesn't even matter what you got to give them a seat you got to provide them a seat or at least allocate the seat how about I put that way you're right sometimes you see buses roll in there's not many students on it absolutely then there
arees just just really full especially last year no I'm sorry I just your hand yeah I just you know related to the plus contract one better is U why why did you uh reopen the B better second round and Marina are old enough and been around long enough where I was the business manager in Garden she
was the business manager here we Gardener only got one I know this is weird right one bid bunch of people came we got one bid we went out the bid again they all came back same people we only got one bid emry and I know each other very well at the time but we were sitting next to a gentleman who looked
at the then the purchasing agent for gner and said take the deal it's a good one and it's better than the one that youd probably get otherwise and that back down we reported it or govern did that's I mean that's that's on them because the state the town didn't also if we were to put off the bid we wouldn't have this number for you we'd be still waiting for the number it was clear that they were not going people were not going to bid because they were all there in the beginning and then they
only one person put in well this leads my next question is why did it have to be for a period of five years and we are in inflationary environment I've been on the other side where I've had to do and when I did bids you know I had offers to do three year four year five year bids and I always confuse them because it's so unpredictable and if I did do those bids I always packed it so there was a whole bunch more margin than
I would for a one-year bid or a two-year bid so I why is five it seem to be the magic number most of the school districts do ay years because the bus companies have to purchase the equipment and a lot of them won't even B on a threeyear so they need to make sure they're going to get the return on investment for the vehicle they're purchasing to fulfill the need I gu quite handly I find that a specious kind of argument because they
could go and they might have multiple bids and multiple municipalities last bid we made out because we had a five because everything that went in never walked into the price fuel went up all this stuff went up you know everything went out right everything went out there's a there's now Fu provisions and stuff in these things in but they were walked into what we need and they wanted to renegotiate because they were losing
their sh um now the the five year actually saved us month right previous contract the one yeah the one before one right so so you know you know again in doing this we have seen better savings or better results from districts who I I don't know of a district who does a three any longer because they again the ones that we that we associate
with they're all five year and by the way they're all the same companies they're coming table so we know that Caron up their their territor yeah you have to remember that if we go to bid and we only get one bid back the original bid that they gave us is dead and so they could come back at a higher number too so that's also another risk in going out to bid again is that the one comp that b before comes back at a higher number exactly what which which
happening there so the same bus company came back but it was high now again yeah it's new ones we were really excited this time we saw three people come in three or three companies come in and only then two came back and one refused a bid the other don't want to label this to death um but I I really would like to ask this
is you know when I was a child the municipality owned the buses you know many many moons ago um is is there has there been any comparison done in your bidding process between you know owning your own Fleet with your own drivers and the like it probably is not a savings but you at least gone through that exercise we've done that sorry we have not done us never answer
um districts I know districts who have um and mid to Mid to I would say mid to small districts um they there there's absolutely The Upfront costs are because you have to provide them a call a garage you know you have to provide them you're B your now now you're in the busing business what's just going through it right now now bred they third largest school district you know I think second or third largest in Boston or in the
state they bought electric buses with all of their Co money they're having some problems to say the least but regardless um running your own bus you you're busing syst regardless if it's only 14 buses or whatever you got to hire someone who's the busing manager you got a bus drivers it you know we've never been it here because the the MSP not the MP masbo um back you know when I was a gain Gardener really said you're
gonna have to be a large district and you're gonna have to have upfront costs you're gonna have I mean pardon me upfront money to to to start this off you have to buy buses more that probably now I don't know but no we've never looked at it as answer uh what I'm sorry 30% increase yeah um increase Services transition ination again when SP when lots of times
when the sped um budget goes up a lot of that sometimes is we're having to find other dis other places to provide those type of services you know with our Thrive program that we started a couple years ago we've we've we've seen you know a lot of great kiddos coming back um actually being part of our community um graduating from narro at they Naran students you're they are ours no matter where they are um and so
you know we're trying to always think ahead and trying to think of different ways that we can provide more services especially not only as a cost savings we've talked about this before but get our kids back here in the district because they are ours and some of these some of the kids that we had in the Thrive program they theyve never stepped foot of this dist right and so that's important that they are for a lot of reasons um the hard we school choice the numbers have decreased
because we have done that we have manfactured it isn't that there's no there's there is a want to come to this District um we have to be very we do not replace the number of students that graduate hor school choice we've heard you guys have heard me say this a lot are worried about the numbers in general um and also really one of the bigger things that came out of the town meeting back in 2020 or 19 it's that why do we have all these kids only at $5,000 per
that they're costing us more to educate you're filling up classrooms I there's a whole thing everybody remembers that and so we immediately started to reduce the number of um of school choice students because yeah once we had to move everybody into the one Elementary School um there was a lot of school choice students um in this District um and of course relying on funds to cover the U the salaries for you know the nine teachers so you know that's why school choice becomes so important and we go to
the next slide um I could cherry pick and actually put it like 20 because some of those those years we we received the most kids to be quite Frank I'm not not interested in like just providing baseless numbers I can go back like to 196 I only generally do about you know four or five you know you know FY we are 18 additional residents that is a lot I
don't know that people really grasp that in the district this size when up till 2016 2017 we were losing anywhere between I don't know 10 or 11 you know residents or I forgot what the number is now and you know they were just moving out and doing different things Co happened and everybody moved West I don't need to tell the town CU you stand with the building school choice we have tried to keep that number reduce that number as best as we can keep our you
know completely overwhelming the space but we can only do that so much and so even if you you know it's a simp it's a simple differential you know we're still plus 116 kids you know F Point month when when you use this these data points that's that's that's still a lot of kids and right now they're up here right they're up in the middle of high school you know you see a big bubble um up through so the slide that I show all the time is their J roles and there your
foundation Your Foundation students right are every or any school aid student living in either templon or philon goes to a public school whether it be a Charter Public School charter otherwise that does not include kids who are Mone te you have a whole different mechanism for um for funding nor does it couch um school choic that hom school kids so you will see that the foundation just keeps Rising rising Rising we're
taking roughly 80 we're going to figure this number out we have to it's believe it or not it's quite a math issue not a math problem you have to gather a bunch of information from we're probably taking 90% of our kids that are even eligible school age eligible in both towns we're we're educating them that's a great thing that's a good thing people should be happy about that because if you're spending a lot of money on education you don't want them going someplace else to get an education okay
because if I can round for a minute $115,000 right foundation for every one of these kids that's what they that's what they say right even the kids who are school choiced out that's 5,000 bucks so what do I get I get 10 grand we get 10 grand for that kid who school choice out to Ash West so get 10 grand right it's pretty good it can go it's easy to say that and then all but if all of a sudden those numbers increase those fives and six you know they start adding up and and so you definitely want to
keep all of your kiddos here it's that's the best bang for your B we're trying very hard to do that and we're doing a pretty good job you're you know so your enrollment you're sending with this is honestly going to save the slide and probably retiring honestly because I want to remember this because we have we have reduced the receiving school choice on purpose we haven't replaced them like we did in the past right somebody would be concerned if they thought if you were trying to if
you were wide open they any school choice do you could that would be concerning because they're not coming to our add but that's not the case we we're purposefully not accepting them the sending has gone down again I think it's like eight years in a row I have to go back to find out that's wonderful why is that wonderful because they like to here their parents think they're getting a good edge of it's they're not sending them kids anywhere else that is wonderful that is a great thing to have
in their Community it's a for this community this is excellent what a good thing to say hey look at us you know we we've got a lot of things going here not a lot of kids leave us there isn't many districts around us who can say that I'll say that very canly that differential folks is is where that is critical I am now going to not I'm now I need to add school choice kids to places I wouldn't normally because cannot have a differential of 43 that's I'm Plus
43 that is too close I have nine teachers in school choice I cannot go upside down if the blue line goes over the green line we're in trouble yes what is your optimal 75 I like in general 75 so basically where we were at 21 22 23 that kind of range somewhere that Mark back in 20 the year before or this slide shows we had 250 school
students right but as I reduced I was still we're still our population was still going up because it was I could not they could not graduate quick enough and we're getting so many residents um oh another question in that respect so you say so right now you say that the the bubble really is here mil school okay is that projected to maintain based on what's coming in from the elementary school or you are we going to be seeing are we going to be seeing a are we going to seeing that
drop off over the next couple of years or what what's the projection I thought so I've got tell you I okay they're done building they're not done building that I know and we have 110 k y for us that's one the biggest class that we have which is 136 I think grade they they they didn't have the parents
by the way there's only six school choice kids out of that okay so so I don't know until I know right three years is a trend generally speaking right um but the numbers are being up kindergarten up so 109 110 98 106 199 okay so now 99 now is well 99 is the
new new normal it was only 78 x amount of years you know like five years ago right I'm going to need to add I'm going to need to add school choice to the elementary I'm going to have to be done in order because that number right there I it was 18 school choice students to Gra uation right class of 2025 Michael C is a scho choice student
has been since the fourth grade Michael cin will no longer you know be here next year along with seven or 18 17 of his buddies okay and I I'm GNA have to replace them and I'm gonna have to do it all over the place where which I have not because I've been afraid of these numbers right because they've you know they've been so large so next so there's a differential in real
life right it's always estimated because school choice doesn't really it doesn't settle until June constant flow in and out you know two three here one you know actually no not in we don't take any in on I saying generally it's out out out but but in the end it's you know this is a number that we have to keep an eye on um because you know we're estimated 358 in terms of our differentials in terms of terms of money fell below a million dollars um in terms of reeding
for the first time I absolutely since I've been since 2016 not a doubt um and so that might be the new normal too but we're going to have to we're going to I don't know we're going to have to make sure that the differential stays healthier or we're going to be because those nine teachers are Absol by the way they're SP across the district I mean so I mean they're Essen okay we thr this you always give this
this is a new Sly is three years ago someone said what are these function go and so how chart of accounts this is it this is the desie chart of accounts Essence so thousand Series right Administration advertising schol Choice expense very
important instructural obviously I mean you guys can see Transportation yeah so the largest so the largest incre maintenance no one ever talks about maintenance people should because you know but we do a lot of we do a lot thank you I'm going to say it again okay so the aror money's that provided a couple years back would have been money that
would have fallen on the maintenance if we would had to figure it out we use we use our rule aid for maintenance you know we do as much as we can John zot please give us $50,000 because we need to fix you know we do a lot there we try to keep doing that but you know it's important of course to do preventive maintenance and keep things up and running um benefits fix charges obviously insurance and benefits oh okay so question was asked
do the grants pay for the insurance of all the people you don't you know that District isn't pay for not in general do you pay their insurance yes the ones who are eligible for insurance obviously so the cafeteria a lot of our C staff are they don't work enough hours to you know have benefits our um extended day you know kid you know folks so know that long these brands not as you as you not allow you to pay um you know their
insurance cost so that was asked of me I guess a couple days ago and so yes if they're from a grant then yeah we are paying their their insurance um before you jump through that slide um under instructional increase of yes okay um can you explain what some of
that other increase is I'm assuming it's not all contract obiously but is I know some of it is for sure five six call it 6% over their last year 2000 because I can also understand like under under other school Services 436 758 300 something thousand of that in the buses I get that oh I know big
the it's slowly loading special education oh is under that like increases it's yeah it's it's staing like if your child comes in contact with that staff member they're in that c Paris
Paris did you increase staff you know VI year and and the answer of that is we had to add half ell person because we were cited by the department of that because we're not not servicing the elll students because we doubled in one year and by the way it be know to us but they um but the other part is especially these pairs
they in my long email explanation they when I say they come and go it's never Flow of them when they're needed we have to hire them because that's one to one it's well sometimes yeah but most most of the time most of the times we're hiring pair of professionals we're hiring because it's a onetoone situation due to an I mostly just salary pces and the biggest thing is one of our
psychologists left mid year and it was replaced and that person's in a different category which ends up here on the JN phone increases right the drivers to you know the El bus transportation we talked about that specializ in transportation
retirement Insurance health insurance um and cost tough to see it's really tough to see when you look at these percentages from I mean 73 to 5.96 to 18 11 where are you I'm on the slide before that one that one there and um you know then you know the
towns with our hands are tied at 2 and a half% because the two and a half so it's like you look at where where our new growth is going to come from to exercise where we're going to get money from utilization of um you know funds last year from stabilization account which I was I was for I thought it was very important to move forward for that 430,000 um but like I was trying to explain to my my brother was here and sisters uh at the end of the day whenever percentage
goes up you have to keep in mind about with 400,000 and we didn't have at all that we took from stabilization yeah so if it even goes up a half million dollars I mean taking account of 430 that we came out with that we didn't have to begin with because we didn't have there wasn't budgeted in there and our new growth doesn't capture that so I just you know keep that in mind well I and if I could so every year it's been an uncomfortable percentage increase for the Templeton cut
yeah the way that I explained it when we were we weren't even at this point last year and it was another year of a large percentage at where we're not funding consistently we've got to rebaseline we we have to not think about it and not put the school district in a well you only you know are you going to be okay with the $100 that we're giving you this year they're like we need two 200 what are you talking about it's it's a it's a baseline understanding like they said
level service right but it costs more yeah because our Baseline is all screwed up right and a lot of that was not this to say it wasn't supposed to happen that the survey that you know when they built the new school you have to go out and do a a student where the kids how many kids are going to they reject 10 years right they you know of course it's older now because it was the building took so long to build right but
but this wasn't we weren't supposed to have this many residents kids it's only kids they only tell you how many kids that they Project based on all these things and we were we were trending down we were we did not have as many residents in this District at just Co there were almost more school choice kids in philipson elementary school than there were philipson kids it was close it was close enough to actually save them okay we're trying push as many school choice kids down there because we had to B right we had to balance this
because they were just coming up in small classes um it was happening here too but we're full B was like to the to the brim right because you know it closed the other school but it wasn't supposed to happen the fact that you have 187 kids new in these buildings right now in the P since 21 I think my slide said and Beyond is more than that but go back that makes you have to add people right Rob du shain's great RS he's awesome I use this example now Rob
duan's had to be hold held over because it was a staffing conflict with the police I don't know what happened whatever so they had to hold him over like okay you're now working not working now and they took a 301 guy made do which they which they do chief over there I'm sure they do this from fire schools don't have shifts we're staff intensive if you add 186 kids across the bo now granted you're able to sprinkle two here two here two here okay but we can't when they're when they're
like this you have to add staff you have to because we don't have any other mechanism the elementary school had four Elementary Schools elementary teachers they had a class size of 25 okay averaging roughly 10 eight or nine school choice kids okay after Co next thing you know those school choice get you guard you sto that now I've got the same almost class sizes they 23 and 2 yeah they've gone down but they've
come they they're here that's if I could just in one simple move tell you there's the difference if you have a 100 more eight sixth graders than you normally or not 80 more um sixth graders than you normally have where you putting them where where are you going to put 80 kids that that's my point behind the whole thing thing if the if the uh if it goes down again of course you shed staff
right of course you do I I I hate to say it some teachers like what did he say yeah yeah Services go down you probably won't provide as many services at that point because you don't have that many kids you have all almost all residents here now these people pay taxes that's a problem right because when you had a bunch of school choice kids here 250 of them they were lucky to be here they happy to be here because there are a lot of there manys around I'm happy to say
that right but that's that's how I P it down I don't know Johan I don't know what happens but if these kids don't start if houses don't keep but houses are being built hate to bring it out you got Apartments coming 55 units two three bedroom whatever how many kids are going to come then you better hope they kids from templon who move into those somebody's going to move into that house we got a problem and it's coming soon and we're here now I don't want to Che
you think I want to stand here and have to you know charge this I I don't I am missing three special education teachers folks three I am not filled them right now one I have two special education teachers filling a position the wonderful Terry down at the elementary school I I can't joke that I normally because it would be inappropriate she should retire she was going to retire she stayed on for for us because we don't have any Mone I got another retiree who retired last year she came
back and filled the third space those jobs have been posted for a year I am mandated federally mandated to fill those they don't the St the feds don't care art don't care sped they care I that's the kind of thing I'm talking about I wish John I didn't have to I don't have to sit in front of town meeting and take a beating right for is what it is I got the kids walk around see it you see the buses you see the
kids pour out of here so there there is my dilemma I'm frustrated too I can't fill positions I'm the state is all over me all over me about some of this stuff elll we're in trouble I'm G to tell you that right now uh because we don't have enough of them didn't even ask we're going to figure it out I guess sped we're in trouble right I've got to fill them so and and kids still keep coming in so there is my dilemma and I don't
like it either so the last sline should be a smiley face but what it is is basically what are we going to do we're going to take we're not said we're not adding any this we're going to go into next year and go okay see what happens forgo op stabilization contributions look in the real world here I got to we got to do what we got to do because I need need here your buildings 25 rule a the rule a that we get that generally do that stuff that we
need to fix we don't you know we're not going out to the town saying hey we need extra wirers J we're taking all that off we we got enough money from rule a to redo the parking lot in the inner circles there the inner you know the drop off with the drains whatever we've cancel we're going to put that money towards buying a head for next whatever oil supply whatever whatever we can do okay because that because that is the That's The Prudent thing to do it's the right thing to do
because the driveway okay dri slow drive slow I don't know you I mean honest to go I don't I don't you know well we can fix it another day okay and the ventilation work we're going to we're going to stop that for a while we're going to put the 25 Grand of course into buying a head with something I think on the or the C and I want to make sure you understand he's buying a head supplies not buying a head like buying a staff person no M go there right so you know of course this is why we all look at speak to the choir
I don't throw this slide up here thinking that we don't love PLS they're your kids your kids are in these schools right there they are this is why we're trying to do it but they're increasing I said it last time they're kids and we're getting more of them we are we're getting more of them and I there right do have a question so you emailed out the the draft and put uh
slide that yeah and Town Administrator uh reply all asked a question about insurance Surplus approximately 300K could you just explain that so in Ence the sheet that was that that you can pull up we can off we all have right right like a DLS my email okay I refer I just want to make sure we're
walking through the structure of yeah um what I say because what do you do when you see an 11% increase you start looking at where where can you where can you where can you go where can you understand things and then look for very first thing I of course you know what I said um obviously in the email as I said to Adam um is that that can't be
a surplus if we don't have July um I have I come from the training of from a very parochial just non nonsense business manager you never you never touched Insurance because you never knew what was coming okay but with that I'm like that's $300,000 so what I did do is Amory and I had a um had a zoom call whatever and said look when what would you do here like why is
this money why do we have the surplus of money and he looked at me and he looked at both and said you don't you don't have this Surplus as a matter of fact you're you know you're negative 1,100 which is perfect by the way that's like one extra you know what I'm saying that's not nobody that wasn't a bad thing and and so he go you don't that shoot should not use that actually because it's just like your bank account let's say you're in a business and you know I took a snapshot of your bank
account youve got well check's still outstanding this that that that money is up and down that's not what that's not the the report you should be looking at the report you should be looking at is is another one I and I forgot oh I don't have my notes but but um it's really kind of the best thing is uh that you can possibly have an insurance where it's like money and money out so in other words oh got another claim and off off off it comes that's the bank account but then there's a real there's a there's a basically a real Ledger of of
sorts in terms of what your claims are doing I asked them Point Blank if okay if I had three thou 300,000 400,000 when would you let me know like everything was great what could we do here what could we do he said I said because there are some say that we should lower the rates he goes no he goes first off you're opening up Pan's box he says because you drop okay your rates are nine let's say a nine okay you drop them
down to five okay and now rates go up to 12 then the following year you're going to have your people now go from a 5% to a 12% increase he says matter of fact this I'm only saying this because it's all public record everything that's said to me is public record he say as a matter of fact we would we would we would go to the board and say they want to lower the rates don't and they're not going to let you because they are worried about obviously these huge
spikes he said now what you could do if if you had all this money he says you could in fact do a um was a holiday premium holiday premium holiday so like I don't know in December you tell your staff hey you're not paying insurance is you know this month you that's how you because it's their money right F me it's their money they it it's going to need to benefit them so that's how you would
do it and I said okay I said I just wanted to make sure because I have never looked at a balance sheet and been able to say this isn't over this is this is extra especially when we're only only kind of account you can look at it's just a snap of and you need to look at the report that shows your fol with everything that still needs to come and it's only December January what February but but January was only like
left where are these other where are no I mean on the on the form itself it's always in the rears right still there was zeros for December and there was zeros for July and so that $300,000 didn't actually reflect where we were currently so I was you know again some of it was just how brain but we we did contact them the next day because I'm like look I've never how would this work and they said we would not allow you meaning they would go to the board is what he said because we can't have you
do things I know they were talking about the insurances and they set the rates and they set you know the parameters of the rates that's that's well beyond my honestly my expertise um I just simply said okay how good are we because you're perfect you're $1,000 you know under right now which is like an extra you're right where you need to be like okay so that's that's that's how it was explained to me and he said he was going to reach out to the town Min gr about
all of this that's what he said to me on it Friday or why yeah Chris I'm GNA ask it's gonna sound like a I don't want to make it sound like a doom and gloom question but I do want to I do want to ask it have you gone through with your staff and done a real honest take a look
through the entire budget and said depending on what templon and philon come back with what can we do have you gone through the entire thing and said is there anywhere we can is there anywhere we can trim is there any because and the reason I say it is because we go back to the two and a half okay we as we as a town can only increase 2 and a half% over the previous years's Levy and we understand that okay
um and this year I mean we are having to make some very difficult decisions on the municipal government side okay and we're really tightening our belts on that side in order to do the same thing that you are attempting to do which is a level service budget to maintain the services that the town of Templeton is expecting and
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