see a lot of space most of ceiling wust I I cannot that's not call this meeting of the net Regional School District school committee to order would you all please rise for the
pledge Al to the flag of the United States of America One Nation God indivisible with liberty and justice for all as a reminder this meeting is being live streamed and recorded will be available on YouTube and on Facebook
following the meeting um our first order of businesses meeting is the approval of the meeting minutes of feu um of our last meeting um I would entertain a motion to approve meeting minutes for February 27th 2025 as written so second motion by Sean
second by Heather any questions or comments on those seeing none all in favor opposed obained and I say yes so that is unanimous and we also have our bills in
payroll um I would entertain a motion to accept the bills and payroll warrants as presented so motion by Sean second second by Heather any questions or comments about those seeing none all in favor I opposed abstained and I say yes so that
is also unanimous and now please apologies for our delays we were having um a bit of an a technical issue but I would now like to call our preliminary budget hearing to order
good who should I hand this off to for the presentation absolutely uh thank you madam chair um so obviously being the preliminary uh budget meeting we
certainly will discuss as many items as we possibly can I'll get into of the clo and Dagger of of what that statement needs as we as we move through that so if we go to the opening slide um we're we're obviously
incredibly pring not only the programs things we off and this year you know these many of these things are just been years u in the making um and we've capitalized or
we've built on a lot of these programs um in offerings but so one of some of the bigger areas is that we have the MVP Academy which 12 Juniors and seniors are enrolled in a vocation program um through uh through mon Tech in the areas
of carpentry electrical expansion Carpenter int elal department and uh we we've uh that program has honestly received u a lot of lot of positive feedback um from not only the
students and their parents but the staff in regards to our how our students are doing um so it's a great way and I think that um we're we're Innovative in the fact that um I think this is where vocational some of it not all of it but
uh vocational structure is going in terms of more collaborative with um the districts and the kids don't actually have to be um they can no they can stay near against students which I think is important to a lot of us we've expanded the digital literacy curriculum in both
the elementary and middle schools talked about adding not only adding a teacher this this part me this FY um but to uh to improve the curriculum as well we've added eighth grade World Language um
teacher which really helps us with now being able to offer a SE by literacy extracurricular activities are very uh not only very important but they're very well attended um you know we we have the return of our spring Musical that will
be soon starting at the beginning of April um we've expanded the middle school music program by adding a uh another music teacher which is really it's adding back we've had that we've had that position you know off of
the past you know several years and it's been met with um great Applause uh We've we definitely have seen a growing band enrollment for those of you lucky enough to see the band concert for the holiday season it was it was it was amazing and
it has it's almost doubled in size Athletics we've had the field Expansion Project which is off to the left of the baseball field um we've re we are done we be completed rebuilding one of the varsity fields which is in the center of the track down at the lower Fields we're
actually be able to uh actually host Varsity level competition down there which we never have before because it wasn't suitable um and that um you know that was done basically with the loan the district bore the cost of all that
through U securing a loan enrollment we we increase we are still seeing increase in our in our residents we know this drive on any road around you see that there are there their houses being built
and so yeah we're getting bigger and that's a good thing we continue to decrease u in school choice out students which is you know one of the one of the benchmarks that one looks at to see if in terms of a district
satisfaction uh because again folks do not will send their children to school that are not preparing them um for the future and aren't safe and um give the feeling of so we we always very proud to point that
out our facilities we've replaced we've done we do things you know when we can but we we constantly are upgrading or trying to um do some pre-maintenance but we've replaced the carpet in the library which was long long long overdue we've added heat pumps to middle and high
school library and kitchen remember some of the presentations last year we had Runway heat St think the district money um we've switched to an ebook system in the middle school high school library we've talked certainly about this at length but now middle school students are able to access the
library although digitally whereas before that wasn't the case um and we have quite a you know a number of you know of offerings now digitally it's a lot easier to of course maintain and to um just well without store but certainly
to keep track of the budget you know continues Contin to close discrepancy teacher and admin Sal um we took a great step this year for this FY in our negotiations with the ndaa um and we are comptable you know
we're getting comptable with the neighboring districts and that's that is very important because we need to be competitive with the folks who want to enter into education and those numbers have decreased over the past say five to
seven years we finally moved health insurance out of school choice and that is fantastic that was a liability uh we were able to do that by um for a lot of things but we were able to move that up because we changed our
vendor that to do that fin so those are all wonderful fantastic things that you know some of the highlights for this year um so this is why we do this obviously
we need a picture of our you know kiddos things that we're offering just a small sample and um and it's always good to go back to these pictures to give you basic on know why you know of all the hard work um you know that we put into and of
course the Educators and staff here the district put in our day to day all right so when we get to the business of the business we talking about Foundation enrollment that's how we're funded that's how Chapter 70 is funded um it's a per pupil expenditure
model um when you look at this this is Chap this is FY 26 obviously some of the things that I can tell you we didn't highlight every single column but what I can tell you is that we doubled the number of elll kits for fy20 uh for this
current FY over last year that was a surprise um that didn't really happened in a trickle fashion it really kind of just Came Upon Us it really happened almost overnight not literally but close um so we have doubled the number of elll
students um we our lowincome has numbers have increased I'll go to the lower green circle to your lower left we um increased a low income group from 7 to8 um and that percentage is it's
that's up from roughly I was I think it was around a little over 40 41 almost just 41% last year so pretty sizable you pretty pretty good jump there which which then catapulted us into low income
a and I believe that there are 12 total low income groups uh our special our special needs students also went up um fairly substantially uh and we've again when we
start talking about Chapter 70 we start talking about the foundation those multipliers past the right of the black line those are some of the special uh specialized populations that increase or can increase your chapter 7 uh many
times I I talk about whole Harless you know it's that total number to the right which is the GRE Circle in the upper left hand corner um that number went up this year so three the last four years we have been out of Health harmless
which means that they only the state only funded us whatever the minimum was per per student which ranges anywhere between $60 a student or 110 as it was um this year so all toll when you look
at the bigger picture to the next slide uh you're looking at we had we were plus 17 students in our foundation enrollment um which uh which increased our chapter a chapter 78 pardon by$
561,000 that that loomed large and we'll talk a little bit about that as we move forward but that is the S SOA that folks I'm sure have heard about on the news the student Opportunity Act which to
increase the funding formula um to level the playing field in um areas in certain areas and um especially those marized populations that I addressed elll special education Etc so when you look at this you're saying okay you know
we've increased our enrollment by 17 students that that garnered close to you know a little over you know $561,000 um and the required net School spending um would was that increased by
5% which is a little bit over a million dollars so when you go to the next slide if you were to we start looking at on the ground level so that's like 30,000 foot right foundation enrollment is and every school AG student that is en that
lives in the district in which the uh District serves um that goes to a public school in Massachusetts so if someone is school choic and say to Gardener for example um we receive uh the found a en
lo amount less the $5,000 it is for for school choice which gets paid out in a different mechanism okay does not it does not count students who are homeschooled or go to private
school so I just I just want to make sure that you know folks understand that that's that's what that formulas on the ground level like the students WR the kids that are literally in our schools today they're you know we we we talked about this this slide a
lot and you know we've increased a resident total by 185 students um we've uh we' reduced the number of school choice students purposely by at least 70 so what does
that mean is that we just did not uh replace the students who say graduated a senior Year let say was 12 or 13 we didn't replace those 12 or 13 by taking in those school choice kids somewhere in the district just would
not we actively did that because we were growing and we wanted to keep our fice sizes appropriate so it's roughly a differential over the period of time that I have year about students and that's a lot here and most of them have now are now at the middle of high school
age right when I first out they happen it was roughly Elementary but of course kids much get older and they move up the grade so right now we we're struggling with that is the in high school just a quick graph in terms of your enrolled students versus the foundation
enrollment right the very two very different things Foundation enrollment are kiddos who go to school public school of Massachusetts who live in either ton or philon that's the yellow line and the blue line is of course the the number of the number of
students who are actually in our buildings today um so when you look at this and you're like wow that's that's you know that's that's meaningless to me but why why is this important well it's important because if you look at enroll and you
look at Foundation you know sometimes that blue line is below the yellow line in some districts right because there are more kids being School choices out um except whatever the case may be so this is good good representation of what
we're looking at here of the kids who live in our towns go to ncer school NC um so I I I like to again we talked about one of those uh markers which help us inform our decision about one of the
many about how well we're doing in school choice out is one of those is one of those right we'd like to see um we like to keep track of that um we have to be very Vigilant on these numbers because of school choice revolving but
as as you see that we out of District are 82 and we receive right now was 125 and the differential is 43 that is too low it's too it's too close I should say right so you know I talked about what's
what's a what's a good what's a good you know range like keep 75 we like to keep that around that area um as best as possible because that's really too close for comfort because we do not want to get upside down as they say by sending up too many kids and it would be easy here to do
that because we're taking in so few um school choice students right and so at this point again back in 20 we had over 250 school choice depart right so now you look at that 125 just goes to show me that we've made
this um made this decision we're doing so meaningfully but we're going to have to take more school more children school choice into our district probably at the elementary very candidly because we're going to have to make sure that we replace not only replace but maybe
buffer a little bit to make sure our differential um stays healthy so this is where the money's at so you know when we look at sending we look at receiving it's all money in Money out the blue line is the difference it's differential that's the
important part and so we're you know just we're talking about a three $358,000 um they're com you know to the to the good um when you start looking at receiving dropping Bel million dollars
you know it's the first long time um also you know you're looking that sending you know money dropping as well so that's why the differential is stay fairly El but we can't keep betting on that because some of these students who School CHS out might need special
education services and that gets tacked on to your school choice out um Bill through circuit breaker okay so this is a new slide this is you know we don't some of this is can
we do same type of information year after year but this was a new slide um and and this is confusing sometimes for folks when they look at this because they'll say you have never said that
there are 34 343 where students staff holders in and that's because the general fund is in fact the the the the monies that that we talk about when we're doing our budget presentations right so the general fund
is where we are we are combining Town's money plural the states money Federal whatever we can into the general fund this is and that's the when I say the important number it is because that's that's where here deciding you know know tonight in what town meeting will decide
in May um but this changes a lot and as a just kind of as a point is that the last time I presented this which was a couple weeks ago we've already had to increase sped par professional um and we
have two that are post being posted because those are the type of things that happen quite a bit where we're just not there's no way to anticipate those things because these are that are being provided or need to be provided based on the
iev okay teaching positions not so much that's that's not generally going to happen unless we have a conversation obvious obviously but par professionals are one of those where we have to add them if they are a requirement uh in a student's IEP there are a lot of
different again revolving funds that we use or grants the circuit breaker revolving I talked about that a little bit that's um generally sped related we take we pay for two teachers two BC and one psychologist out of circuit breaker
revolving which is you know that's thank God the C breaker revolving exists um cafeteria revolving how much money you know people you know for for lunch and for breakfast well that is self support
cafeteria pays for itself grants we have four teachers centering 23 pairs my this is where generally through grants we're cutting a lot of not cutting we're we're splitting a lot of salaries where it's appropriate or actually taking teachers paying for
them out of the grants in some case um because we wanted to list those that's something that's not in the general fund preschool revolving almost also um it's not to be very candid because the two wonderful folks there are three wonderful folks but two of
them have been you're amount of time and um what we take in in terms of preschool tuition doesn't completely cover their salaries but um preschool saves the district a lot of money because the law you don't have to have preschool but the
laws clear that you're going to have to provide services for a preschool student who needs services and of course if you're driving them someplace and there that's money right that's those are so preschool in a district is a great um service and allows us to get um get
acquainted with our weable friends who might need services or not um and uh we're able to of course uh prepare for them as they uh as they get older and they go up for the grades school choice um we talk about this a lot there's nine
teachers in school choice um revolving account that's why that account needs to stay healthy uh viable um and we'll go a little bit more into that later extended day evolving um again self- support we don't you know
through the through the monies of the tuition however you want to call it that um that the extended day charges we're able to provide those staff Etc so there you know so I want to go over that you know again because I think it's important and I don't think people
really realize by the way every District does this every every municipality if you have opportunities to Grant your revolving funds you're going to do these type of things you know to lessen the load on the general fund this is our really it's the chart
of accounts as we call it uh for Desi or for um just in terms of the business office these are categories um General so we do like our line item budgets and we were into VI reporting it all has to have a nor
clature it has to fit so you know thousand ser raises advertising school school commity expenses central office administration see that and so you know where you see some of the bigger Char you know increases in other school
Services because we're talking about nursing Transportation was a big increase this year and in athletics benefits fixed charges is generally one of the larger ones as well because it's Insurance um instructional you I'm John
all over the place but instructional the 2000 series we talking about salaries mostly principles teachers counselors structural supplies related service providers um so we're all told when you look at this I think what you should be telling is that there are two
interesting things I at one is um is the uh maintenance line um it's only a 1.14% increase right prevented maintenance is an important thing we do a lot of it we do a lot of that through our our revolving or we do that through um the
the rur a grant um people have ask why don't we just put teachers in rural a our staff and R well you know for the last four years we've received R A it changes we always worry about it going away and you should and you should never
put um educator or any type of staff member in a revolving you know easily cut um you know monies because then there is no you have no B so generally You' like to do one- time um projects and those type of things to help lower
the cost to the districts to the district and to its member towns but overall you know we're seeing a 6.89% increase you know all all total okay oh the other one was tuitions out a district school choice and Char tuitions were NE you know I think a lot
of that has to do with the fact that we're we're trying very hard to keep kiddo provide programs and services inhouse that is going to be the that's what everyone is trying to do that's what everyone should be trying to do is trying to do because if you can if you
can keep them here one they're part of our they're part of our school they're part of our team part of our that is the most important thing but yes there's a financial benefit too right because um it is not uncom I don't know how many we
have at this point if someone were to go to a residential they go over a quar of a million dollars for one student it's one student for million so if we can again there are a level of service ORS that we cannot provide here in District
we cannot that's why we work very hard with the collaborators caps as an example there are good savings to us but we try very hard not to send students out of district for a lot of good reasons and one of them is is financial um budget drivers so you know
every year we try to sometimes they stay the same right the budget drivers stay the same but not always um we're always surprised to see what is you know some of the things that you know year to year but you knowbly like everybody else in town I don't know but our water and
sewer cost up 20% Transportation would have big right 31,000 30% increase these are increases that the our neighboring districts like districts that are bordering us are seeing as
well when High rate about it's a monopoly because it is conv AIT but I mean apparently that's slander so I won't say that um but the fact is that we're not you know it's not really bidding at its best um quite frankly and
again I'm about ready to do it again Sor one special education Transportation cost again that that's why we want to keep uh we want to keep these numbers down um these go up exponentially every year um and and we try to again if we're
not if you have increase of about of District placements you're going to definitely have an increase in um you social education Transportation where's the regional retirement we're gonna we're probably going to see you know these type of
increases for retirement I think um it's hard to it's hard to you know ballpark that but that was a fairly large increase our insurance and commissions assessment have insurance I went up 12% liability went up 10% health insurance
um went up a grand total of of 14% 9% was the um was the increase to the the actual um plan for itself and our cost of living increase of 3% across the district was $600,000 that was 3
3% challenges it's hard it's hard one minute for me to save you more kids are good because they are um but increased enrollment has you know given us a few headaches over the last couple
years we caught up last year in terms of the number of staff that we needed certainly here at the Midland High School um it you know we've it's increased our curriculum cost of course we needed more buses we had to add two buses get to that during another
presentation we need more space we're full we are full here at the game there was just you know no place left uh we you know more kids needan more staff we're staff intensive that's what it means that's what education is let they AI can figure it out we will always be
staff um you know intensive you know we've we've seen a direct need for increased need for specialized services and transportation special ucation oting deing Beach we've seen quite an increase in those specialized services and
they're not easy to find they are very expensive when you have to farm in P hard to fill positions uh special education we currently have five five open when I say open we are we have five positions that
are not currently people are not currently employed by the narog regional we have wonderful retirees we have stayed on who delay retirement retirement um and also people who working collaboratively to fill holes
right so two specification are picking over for seventh grade position some of these positions we have without exaggeration we have posted them back to St who does this but we we had a post for almost 14 months with zero
applicants I think it's 14 months it has to be over so and and we just had another special education teacher leave this week without notice in essence because the case load was too much and she had just honestly had it and she just left so we're seeing that we're
we're trying to Pivot we're trying to do those type of things to but we're gonna this is becoming just becoming crazy right now with so many positions that we have so we're gonna have to either think differently or do something or do something I I I don't know it's we're um
the Consultants folks that we've reached out to were not only unbelievably expensive because they know that you are they have you because we're fely mandated to have these type of services and teachers but um they're not the quality of people that I would hire so
and I'll just leave it at that so we're not having great experiences with these vendors at all um and we're talking about some of our most um you know sensitive students that we have and we need to be you know we need to be cous
making sure that they have the very best and the folks we do have our that school choice we've discre we've decreased the numbers in over the past five years on purpose that's going to stop that's going to stop it has to or we're going to be in a situation we're going to be playing catchup and
you should never play catchup with the choice you need to we need to we going to need to replace if nothing else the graduating seniors I believe it's 13 or 14 this year maybe a Touch Above that that's going to that's starting right off the bat and we're going to have to
look at the at the Elementary um and I've already talked to the elementary I've talked to the union I've talked their their to do that but we're going to have to start re uh yeah looking at that start putting kids at the elementary level as well because
we're so full of here so what have we done right what do we do every day what do we try to do so the health insurance cost we move school choice uh to the general fund I probably will say that every year until I leave um I never thought that would happen I never thought honestly deep down inside
that we would be able to do that that was such a large number it was such a weight around our neck um and we did and Marie did a wonderful job and her group in terms of the insurance um and we were able to do that and that is great it should never ever ever ever be put there
again ever here don't do it again it won't happen my watch I'm just simply saying long after God can never go on a revolving account that's ruled by four in terms of these type of you know business finance it's just unbelievable um general fund in the fy20
in order to preserve a school choice fun employees salaries we adjusted to be closer to the local averages we're going to have to do that everyone is doing it every every every uh everybody around here whether it be the dpws from various towns or just stores people are having
to increase their um their pay because we we are not getting we're not getting folks to even apply and so and we've done that we've done a nice job of it like they like to we've increased the book access for students utiliz the elect Library sharing over 70,000 books
now right um no longer do we have just books scattered about the library with no one to tend to them um you know the stacks are gone Etc and now they have much easier access to the book and they have far more to access which ising um upgrade and expand the athletic
fields to provide our students with Equitable and Sav planings yep we need to do that uh we can't have one athletic we're going to have to keep doing that we have over 300 kids who play sports you know say what about the track I don't know what to say about the track I
I wasn't here when the track was built um no one did anything pre-maintenance now now you have a track that can't be used so that's going to have we're going to have to address it we have to we're going to have to expand practice SCH so we have to make them safe kids play sports right kids come to school for a
lot of reasons a lot of those a lot of reasons have nothing to do with academics shocker but it's true Athletics Arts friends activities safety fun not so much food but I would hope
food right uh that that matters that matters people don't like to think it matters because back when I went to school yada yada yada yada we are now in a market where we are trying to attract and key kids look at colleges some of you are definitely old enough to remember how colleges used to be and
they can tell you that they're nothing that way 25 28 30 years later because it is marketing now the largest the largest office in most colleges you take away the instructors are what
admissions Admissions and many of them are just doing marketing well schools have to do that too we don't have the ability to do that necessarily how do we do that through our program you want to go to college you don't have to go anywh they us have to go to Gardener school choice to Gardener just to go to the
Mount right to do the the early college program no you can do that now from here I want to learn to trade I'm G to go to Monte Tech mon is great not GNA hear me bad M mon Tech but you don't have to go to mon Tech you can stay right here be one of the 12 Juniors and seniors you know do everything you want to do here and now get vocation right you want to
get training I want to go into stem i g to go to wherever you don't have to do that you can stay right here why because we're one of the 11 schools in the state that has um Project Lead the Way K to K to 12 that's how you get people here by the way parents be like I don't know what any of that stuff is I just know
what cost me money well if you stay here your kids go here and they want to go to college and they go to and they take an early college program they take whatever how many courses Mike F it's going to graduate by God's good grace and he's taken I don't know eight nine mountain horses and he has and he's passed them
by God's good Grace I'm going to right now that's going to go into college he's going to he's going to get three of those probably accepted or you know what that's going to save Mr and Mrs caban money I want more of that so if they take in three and by the way if you go into a state school uh from from the
college program they just take it all and they transfer it how much is that going to save you I don't even know but it's a lot so what we have right what we have I see I'm already on hand you said don't want hand I do my best but I'm
gonna I'm gonna tell you you need to do that if you do if you could care less about schools and you only care about money then you should want these it's going to cost you more money folks for the 12 or 13 people maybe listening live
if they start to leave if they start to leave people leave and it's going to cost you money so there you go for that the added phans to meet a growing need of enrollment we're going to be talking about that in a set so that's what we try to do to order be sustainable I'm
going to turn this over uh I did a pretty good job I did I did I gave myself a SE so I'm GNA let and Marie take it from here and we'll just kind of tag team from the for the finance so what we did is this year we tried to be respectful of Our
member towns and we put together a budget level service no new positions just the stuff that we have right now um so like Dr C said we are founding home
gr so that translated into in Chapter 70 of $561,000 which extremely helpful and really helped the numbers work um I'm just going to quickly sort of run down the line items and then we can get into
detail later if you have questions so we had an increase in Chapter 70 of 561,000 chatter school that's always touch and go that's that addition of 28,000 is one student
that is going now versus last year transportation is down a little bit that's always a moving Target with the state it's I plan 80% really don't know because it's they
base a number of estimate on a future number they don't have it so they plan on last year's but as we all know prices go up so um by the time they get the real number from the end of the year we report it's always higher than one day
estimate and we're just trying to stay status quo with our 500,000 I increased it a little bit this year only because our Medicaid receipts are going down we have not been able to collect what we've anticipated for probably the last three years so I'm
trying to even it out and take into consideration so that we don't end up upside down if Medicade goes away um both towns saw some pretty large increases in their minimum local contributions which is to be expected
because of all of the increase in students that we know have come into the district and all of the houses that we see as we drive around town um the transportation as we mentioned we have a new bus contract and
that's gone up 300,000 so that really hurts as you can see in the transportation differentials for Templeton they're seeing an increase of 354,000 philipon seeing an increase of 64,000 so when you put all those minimum
local contributions and the increase in transportation together and what we consider the additional appropriation is what both towns give us over what they're required to um Templeton is seeing an increase of 9659
77 which is an 11 and a qu% increase over last year philipon is seeing an increase of 65,8 194 which is almost an 8 and a qu% increase for them as well um so overall
it's giving our general fund budget we're asking for an increase of 1.6 million which is almost a 7% increase and that I want to remind you again that that's level service that's
not anything new that's not anything where ask before with just trying to maintain what we have and I would just point out um school choice as Dr casm mentioned our numbers are going down so therefore our
income is going down as well in Grants in revolving they are up a little because that number hasn't been updated for a few years years um but that is in a very volatile position um at the
moment so um we're hoping things work out but we're hoping level service will work for us it's pretty big increases all around but have big increases in students that
caused this so um okay so while that is absolutely the budget that we feel is necessary foring of our school district though we though we felt that level service was the best way to
support our towns um Templeton specifically has come back to say that they have concerns about being able to fund the full school budget along with everything else that the town needs to fund and so we've had a couple of
different chairs meetings to better understand what what does Templeton have um what does Templeton feel they have the funds for what do they feel that Town's folks have we advate
for um what are the numbers that in an Ideal World we'd be planning towards and so we agreed to do an exercise whereby we would reduce um we would look at what reductions
would do for the FY 26 budget um such that there's only a two and a half% increase for Templeton um and we also took a look at what would that mean if we projected Out
Future years so the first thing we're going to look at is what the numbers would look like for FY 26 and then we'll talk a little bit more about about how we approach those projections now what I want to be clear about here is that we are not saying that this is definitely
the budget we're all going to vote on yet we're still trying to get some more information from the town to better understand what is their planning for FY 26 budget additionally we would love to have additional input from philipson
however um they have been unavailable to attend either of the chairs meetings that we planned though certainly have included on the invites um so you know we're there is no go on this just yet there's still a lot of conversations
happening around what we need to do and yet is also our responsibility as good partners um with with Templeton you know hopefully with with philipson as well to take a look at you know what is needed in order to provide
effective Fay so any correspondence with Phil back multiple no WR them back um so for the first chair's meeting um we received a a
no from one select board member and a second select board member uh did reach out the date of the meeting um to ex his regret it not being able to to attend
okay um for the second meeting um I don't specifically know if we received any rsvs we didn't we did not okay you y should let you walk through the
numbers um yeah so this B this slide here is basically the same slide we had a little bit further up when we went through all of the expenses and the increases on the different lines what we did this bottom number of 25 million
represents a 2 and a half% increase to Templeton so I I have to sort of work backwards when I'm figuring this out um what does that mean if their number is going to be x what does that mean to the
district so for the district that means in order to to hit that number and make it work for both towns District needs to reduce our budget by $882,000 um what exactly that's going to be is
still work in progress basically this was an exercise they asked us to do of hitting the numbers what what does it look like if you hit that number then I'm going to go right right into the next two years because
um anticipating that the reductions happen in this year and nothing else changes for the next few years what do those numbers look like so when I did it out it was pretty
eye openening that the million dollars that we have roughly been asking for we keep seeing in again so FY 27 this is just salary increases that we
know of based on our contracts it's anticipating a 10% increase to all of our like fixed charges like our insurances and stuff like that um it's a little increase to our special ed but not much because I don't I don't know it
changes all the time um so the numbers you see here is level service based on if we have to reduce our budget in FY 26 we're seeing 1.5 million increase for FY
27 um if we go to FY 28 all the same considerations as far as um staff increases because we know what their percentag is in their contracts again we're going to be looking at at least a
one point .3 million increase and this is just the bare minimum this this is not like it it's only going to go up from here because there's a lot of other things that are unknown at this time so um and this is based on already cutting
$883,000 so we're not going in with a level service that I have today this is cutting $883,000 worth of services right salaries whatever way may be and that is what the increase is and we also factored in that will be
held harmless because we don't want to assume that I'm going to get 22 kids if I get 32 kids next year well we're gonna that's a lot of money that we would get in SLA right so we got 17 more kids than the year before and that garnered
$536,000 right so if I got another 17 kids well give or t it be probably more because it's supposed to increase over the six years or seven years or whatever and so so what we did is we said oh we're not going to grow because I don't
want to I don't want to factor in that it could we sure um but I I don't know that because we haven't done it yet so it's important to know with grow yes we get additional monies from the state that also increases the local minimums for both of our member towns so you know
I I completely agree those things are not you know we intentionally not factored in here because it would be a g and what we wanted to do was create these projections based on things that are I'm saying known but when I say
known what I mean is things for which we have either contracts that tell us exactly what those increases will be or longtime experience with increase averages like in the case of insurance
where we can set more predictable amounts and then you know I will say that the one I'm gonna say guesstimate at this point is related to special education because that is a strong variable move and yet it would
have been irresponsible for us not to put something into the budget because you know as we reviewed earlier one residential placement could cost $250,000 one out of District placement um for you know a daytime School be
around $70,000 and so you know we we had to put something in there um to the best of our ability to do so now what I want to emphasize here is I believe that there this the story that is out there today
is that if git makes major cuts to our budget so that we do not have this million dooll increase this year is that that will then result in savings in future years what these projections
show us is that that is not the case even with those cuts we are absolutely looking at a million dollars or more in most cases for the coming years I understand that that's not what
folks want to hear what I will say is that if we move forward with making these Cuts we struggle to in Vision a situation where we could possibly make any additional Cuts in coming years
without extreme negative impacts to the district to our students to these programs that Dr cassan rightly and passionately spent some time on and so this is very much an area of concern for
us because while we certainly do not wish to the town or residents with the cost increases we are all experiencing the results of inflation in our homes in our
businesses um and when towns are limited to a 2.5% increase year toe but the inflation rate just from last year alone was 3.4% in Massachusetts we we come to a space
where it becomes impossible to keep up and that pounds year to year and every year that inflation outpaces the increases for the towns and so you know I I want to make sure that this information is out there because I I've
heard several times that people felt blindsided by the million doll increase this year I am not certain why that is because I can go back to the recording from last year where we projected that this year's increase would be $1 million
and yet I also o think there is a very understandable though erroneous logic out there that if folks agree to an increase in year one then in year two they're not going to see an increase of the same amount however in this time of
inflation and this timer it is not only necessary but critical for us to make sure that our staff can make um a salary that is competitive with our surrounding districts without putting our district at risk of additional losses to our
staff you know we're in this very tough position um and you know it's a it's a struggle because you know Dr C is right you don't have that many folks um who attend our school committee meetings
this is the place to hear from us about what's happening with the budget I understand that the vote you know doesn't happen until the town however you know this this is not a problem that is just going to impact the school this is going to impact all the services in
our town because there is no service in our in our towns that is is going to be able to keep up when there's a 2.5% increase allowed at the Town level but the state is increasing inflation rates
at a 3.4% it's a really tough situation um and you know what we're what we're keep pushing town for is what's the plan here how how are we going to get to a point
where there is a sustainable budgeting plan across all of our towns um because that's certainly our goal is never to be a burden to our taxpayers our goal is to be a benefit to our taxpayers but we no money's tight for
everybody we get that so I'm sure that school committee members um have questions um that's you know so I'd welcome anyone
to speak up you have questions about the projections um if you have questions about uh the level service budget I know there was a lot of discussion during the multi-board meeting um but certainly if you've had additional things come up
since then um we welcome to bring yeah okay questions Transportation contract I forget what was the yes what was the contract signed for years it is a 5e contct l remain is actually so it's a
5year contract uh does it increase doeses step increase throughout the years what is it it increases every year it does increase every year we a percentage or we know was doing the map was about 55,000 a year the above increase it depends on how many buses
we're actually running but based on what we currently have or are projecting to have is if we added L the existing CRA could go up as well
yeah yeah BS is well for next year next year's price is about it's $90,000 of us okay toward the year thank you your questions Jan has a question yeah no and on the same topic
because there is is as diligent as a job as I tried to to explain it could we also reiterate the reason why we didn't look for a second contract and I know we talked about it all these meetings uh could we revisit that conversation because that has been asked
several times why we didn't go out and get a second bid well there's a couple reasons one um first off during the pre bid there were all the major bus companies were at the pre pre I think he's at
five um when we finally had the bid in there were two bus companies who came in and only one offered a contract by that point we already knew that Garder and Ash West had already going through the same thing
and they they were also receiving only they only received one or two bids at the same time the the fear was that we've gone through inory and I went through this um as business managers years ago um
we guard there was collab with bus bid multiple districts Etc um all the bus companies came to the bid um the pre bid they follow and only one gave us a bid actual bid so we played hard ball
through the city of Garber and they we actually got a worse bid we actually got a higher bid amount it was in only we only got one b so given all given that information um
we were one it wasn't as if arance it was the only District that was only getting this one bid we've if you again you'd have to go back you have to you have to Google it but um I think it's the state attorney's office has been
looking into this this phenomena whereas uh that there seems to be I don't want you know I want get in trouble but something about illusion that you know people have kind of staked out their territories um and there's only some you know certain buz companies
are going to work in one area that area they they go because they want to hear what the bid amounts are going to be to see if they're going to be competitive in whatever town that they want go to so given all of that I understand that there was like you should have went out you should have Reid you should have went on that given our our experience
given what we know has happened in other towns not only across the state but locally we were actually afraid that could have you know they're looking for bids so that bus company said look I need to make sure that I have something they they they'll go bid someplace else
and if they don't have the buses to do districts we're out and so we we became those are the kind of things that run through our mind ran through our mind when we did that and um I wouldn't I don't second guess that decision it it's
it is what it is this is not um it's just not a fair playing field length and I believe the state is looking into that type of stuff the two things I'd add to that based on um our discussions correct me if I get this wrong but
um if we had gone to rebid we would not have had these numbers for uh budgeting purposes we would have been unable to know what our amounts would have been for budgeting for this year which would have left us in a really tough place because we would have been projecting
buing increases not basing on what it actually was the other issue was that if we've gone to rebid what we were seeing as a pattern in other towns including local towns is that when they did make that decision to rebid that even their
single bidder was coming back at a higher amount so the issue is that is is not just related to the number of bids that towns are receiving is that when they try to I'm gonna say play the
system they're getting hurt because even the bid they received from that single bidder is coming in higher the second time because when you go back up to rebid you give up that first round bid that you received give it up it's gone
it they were no longer contractually obligated to continue to give you that amount they are allowed to give you a new number and what the pattern that has been observed is that new number is higher so not only do you still only get
that one bid now it's even higher than the first time you went out so those were risks that we were unable or unwilling to gamble with um knowing what is happening in the towns around us and having access to
that information so I know that everyone would really like us to agre bid however we you know Dr casaban and amarie are having active conversations with the towns around us to stay aware of what is
happening um and they use that information to help us as a school committee to make decisions and that really weighed heavily into us saying okay then as much as we do not like this increase we feel that we must vote for
it and not put our district at further risk of even higher increases yeah can I just follow as just as a long shot you mentioned that there were other districts that were going the same process this year do we happen to know what any of their contracts came back
with they any similar do do you know what I mean like that way there you can at least look at theun but but while you're pulling that up you know I mean the easy answer without while Dr Cass is pulling up numbers is yes and we do have those
specific numbers and yes their increases were in alignment with ours ours is slightly different in that we wanted to add an additional bus route however the increase percentages were very much in alignment so and this was when we were
at the nasc meeting in the fall this was I mean the Hot Topic um amongst different school committee members from districts top across the entire state of
Massachusetts was the absolute shock at the amounts that these busing contracts were coming in because what we have to remember is that those busing companies are trying to make up for their losses that they incurred over covid and so they're coming in with these very high
amounts to try to make up for those losses yeah I just think it would be a favorable argument if we could prove a similar rate of change yeah do you have Happ to Able pull that up had one bid a 20% increase
and I couldn't see because there's a shared spreadsheet that the state sort of puts out like from our um business manager group and our buses for next year between us and Gardner it's $10 difference so the
numbers are in line it's like our company versus whichever one they have so as West also ashwest I think it was I'm trying to find it because I spoke to him about it but I believe was 20% and I don't remember what bus
per cost was they only had two people bit but one was way like didn't fill the Sur fill okay I'll find it in a second I just try yeah no no it's just you know again it's just trying to explain to you know residents and community that questions
why do this I get it and and it's fair you know but but if you can prove that the rate of change is is the same then right what what did you want at that point right I I mean I can talk to it from my business perspective my business won't let me move forward with let any
less than three bids however what I'll also say is that in that business World there is a very different Dynamic than what there is in terms of servicing schools um and so however the state is
choosing to move forward with that I will Reserve commentary um but competitive you know we should be able to get competitive bids however what I am seeing in every
conversation that I've had with districts across the state um is that that dyamic does not exist um and so it really puts school districts into a corner in terms of making
decisions I will I will get that information to you I just can't seem to locate yeah maybe that's something we can specifically add in time for the next meeting is you know pull those numbers into a slide so that folks can see them as part of the transportations and Marie we are we
required is the transportation of com those to state state trans contract nothing is on the on the on the no especially Transportation because of the law you know we not for bid it but there's no companies for that even when you play
out B you all get the same one you so but great questions because it's a very real issue the district is facing and I totally agree when I put on my you know daytime job hat um it's difficult to understand because of what happens in
a business environment and yet one of the things I've learned over the past four years that I've sat in this seat is just how very different my business world is from you know the public education World um so it's been very iting in terms of how things are done
you know how things work um so they're not comparable States any other questions comments are welcome as well I don't want to just restrict it go ahead Sean so uh can we and I'm just hitting on the you know the three big ones that I see on here I mean
you're not going to do a lot about benefits we're talking about we just talked about the bus situation can we speak uh a little bit about the instructural increase in you know is it you know some of it's their percentage RS I'm assuming some of it's
what's that yeah so instructional increases are all based on um the union negotiated Cola increases cost of living increases as well as step increases um for our staff as they move through their
years of experience um and so those are contractually obligated understood very minimal in to like their supply lines honestly in that category their supply lines they they equal probably maybe
150,000 across like the whole district for their instructional stuff um so they don't have a lot of money in those yeah um W any advance do we know um we talked a little bit about the child's schools
do we know that in advance or is that does that just come up I mean do we know I guess what it will be know the enrollment we know who's coming in and may to child school well they they it off of when all the schools report for their October one numbers so
like if we have kids that are going like the school choice numbers and the charter school we usually get that sometime in early December this year it was late we didn't get till mid January but the state will send out like a roster of what kids you have where they
accepted okay um in the um I know the um the Lev service we're talking about is you reduction of the 882 there um that we still have the two additional
pars that we're talking about did requir right that before we even start right we've added two additional Paras oh it's posted we hav we have so before we before we even start those two additional positions they're not even in
so there just it's just something else we're going to have to figure out when when we get into it all right anybody else checking my my usual suspects all right um so seeing no more questions or comments um from school committee I
would open it to public input um however we do not have any this evening um so that will Mark the close of our preliminary budget hearing continue with regular school committee business um so in terms of appearances
our student rep has um the music practice for the musical this evening um so we let her uh we let her off the hook so that she can go and sing and dance and get ready for the musical um and
ndea was not able to be here this even and I'm assuming you don't have any regular public input about um the uh school committee right um so moving along Amry I know you just went through
a lot of different details related to FY 26 but is there anything you needed to report just trying to make it through to June 30th okay as a reminder we continue to have a school committee vacancy in Templeton um as a secondary reminder um
please uh keep your eyes open for postings about open positions generally as um you know voting seon is about to be upon us so there are certainly um members who will be rerunning for their
seats as well as potentially open seats um so please keep your eyes open um we're excited um to uh continue to work with folks um who want to vot with us um I
don't computer oh we've lost internet um do we have any um Surplus items this evening no okay excellent and I know um there's no curriculum and instruction update tonight so Dr cadant I would hand it
back over to you although I'm gonna pause for a moment because if we've lost internet have we lost still can we double check mine says connected did you says connected
but why I not secure that might be why did you have a I'm looking on YouTube and we there we're all okay we're good so apparently it's a board dos issue not a um we'll assume it's a board Do's issue um if everyone has confirmed that we're
live thank you um so Dr C um anything for your superintendent report this evening well yeah it could have actually could have spoke about it at the pre budget but I just I just again
this will be kind of under the normal agenda the fact that um when we start talking about 800 $83,000 worth cut right you know I have to do my due diligence and I have to prepare for that whether or not it becomes reality
um they' been here nine years I think n and and the way we I've always handled that is that uh before I lay out a plan which I'm I'm going to assume that the school committee is going to want to see what $883,000 looks like um that I meet with
the you know with the the folks that it affects first um and I've always and that's that's why I didn't really offer out anything at that point in time I've had we haven't had a chance to do that um but I would be doing so and I've already I've already communicated with
the the union um about deficit or what what we're looking at in that I would like to have a conversation with them either tomorrow or Monday um to go over whom mining to speak to um and I try to
keep it very limited because it's it's it's it has techical so it's it's multireach but I will be prepared on uh March 20th to outline the plan what the district will look like $883,000
short but I again I don't want anyone to hear um about their position we never use names but a position we're so small that positions have names as they say so um and so that's that's why I want to be able to reach out to them first
individually personally to do and that's really honestly short of my wonderful cheerleaders going to be hly state champions again and this was a down year I love how you that off yeah
like a down year okay my girls basketball team made to the Sweet 16 to the Sweet 16 they lost the Douglas last night um they had a great great showing um I'm just trying to think of some other wonderful things the snow is melting which is
awesome but other than you know with the business of it is that um I'll be taking care of that business next week um so I would fully imagine that that information start to seat into not only the it will most definitely seep into
the school committee uh School Community but it probably will seep outside of it um so you know we'll address it I will address it formally of course here when U yeah when it's what that down I'm sure people going involved you can yell at me
later if I'm putting you on the spot but I know we've also been talking about doing a timeline of the regional agreement and that we're hoping to review that in our next meeting as well and it's not specific to the budget it certainly has a budget impact but uh it's a lot of conversations I'm sorry
yeah that was sorry it was just so no no no time is best because that way it's posted you know folks who have been asking questions can have an opportunity to attend to hear all that information um and we can run through it together
but I did want to I did want to mention that that is something that's been actively being worked on um to try to figure out how is that we move forward there um and really what what also is the history of what happened um because there's a lot of information going
around online so how can we bring that back share share you know meeting minutes and whatnot where things were specifically discussed and you know offer some clarity uh to the community um and you know start to
Fig all right we do not have any items um not reasonably anticipated um are there any school committee comments this evening um we just met last week um and did our subcommittee reports and I don't think there has been uh so if anyone
needs to speak up for either their lay on assignments or for their um subcommittee assignments please speak up but I don't believe that there were any meetings uh within the last week there okay
okay thank basically told me thata help te and did a presentation um and they're working with them to see what the I don't really know what that is um but to see what they can provide for the
school okay uh there was no correspondence this evening um as we were just discussing our next regular meeting is Wednesday March 20th 2025 at 5:30 p.m. and it will be a budget hearing um so that will be
our official budget hearing where we will vote on um the School District budget for FY 26 we do not need Executive session this evening and so I would entertain a motion to adjourn so
Move Motion by Sean second by Heather all in favor thanks very much um for tuning in this evening