at 6:30 we're g to get started I'm going to turn to Amy Cohen for a motion to open up the budget hearing sure I move to open the fiscal year 26 budget hearing at 6:31 p.m I will second
that um let's do roll call here uh Shand door what say you yeah Scott yes uh Jackie
yes Robin yes Amy Cohen yes Amy vessels yes Sharon yes and Joe
yes all right I think I got everybody there so welcome everybody to the um March 2025 budget hearing this is an annual event required by by Mass General law and we're happy to hold it to give any members of the community an opportunity to ask questions about the
budget process that has been long underway now in uh the nooba Regional School District so the way that we'll move forward is Kirk and Ross are going to do a brief review of the budget materials and then we'll open the floor
to the public so CK I'll turn it to you um did I skip the pledge of Allegiance you're trying so hard um okay so actually um I'm trying my very best to do this on my phone so we're gonna um start with the Pledge of
Allegiance so if you guys all want to mute and that way you don't have to be heard necessarily and I will recite you can recite with me I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible
with liberty and justice for all all right thank you so much for that reminder Kirk uh and and now we will U move to your brief presentation um helping the public to understand the materials that
have thus far been presented thank you madam chair thank you to the committee and thank you for members of the public who are tuned in and participating this evening uh we are going to give a brief presentation tonight uh don't be alarmed by the number of slides in the presentation this is all information
that has been shown to the committee in previous meetings and so we are going to review this information in a very brisk way so that we can immediately get to members of the public that are here for comment so uh with that brief presentation overview as
we'll go over our why the Mission Vision core values and theory of action talk about equality and equity and budgeting Mr mcaren will then take over theine line share the presentation uh addressing all the fiscal information and then next
steps so in nooba Regional School District we Inspire and challenge all Learners to realize their unique potential and become active contributors to their community that is the mission that we we build a budget and work on every day if we do these things we're going to fulfill our vision of being our best
selves of Paving our path and impacting the world this is our vision that is expressed all throughout the district uh uh from staff and students this is based in the core values of academic achievement and personal growth voice choice and agency lifelong learning a safe caring
inclusive community for collaborative Partnerships Innovation and a sense of belonging for all and when we say all in this trouble we mean each and every person in our district so if we're able to do these things this is our theory of our action through communication systems protocols
clearly line and articulated curricula innovator practices shared leadership Equitable opportunities and outcomes for all and effective resource allocation we will inspire and challenge all Learners to realize that unique potential and becoming active contributors to our
community and so when building a budget we need to build the budget in ways that both reflect equality and Equity so we base many of our budget principles on equality standards and Staffing for administration guidance C counselors
Deans class sizes not to exceed 24 students per classroom and 22 students in the early grades but we also have to build the budget based in our core values around equ what is equity and that is students getting what they need
each and every student getting what they need to reach their potential so we have to adjust our staffing decisions uh for things like specialize programming for students with IEPs 504 plans English Learners we have a title one program and then we also support it through our
multi-tiered systems of support I'll turn to Mr mcaren to go over the timeline thank you superintendent Downey uh obviously the committee is familiar with our budget timeline which we build uh beginning in the summer um we can see where we are tonight uh highlighted in yellow for the
budget hearing and then the meeting uh subsequently right after um our next major step is the budget vote by the school committee uh next week with your approval uh um we would be moving forward to uh the town meetings uh and then attending those meetings and
presenting and answering questions and supporting the budget uh in those settings so we've talked about this several times but of the approximately three and a half million dollars we are still uh increased over fy2 majority of it is built up by special education cost
increases insurance rate increases and factors from the governor's proposed budget um and again on the governor's budg budget um topic we know that's our Chapter 70 while it did come in at $75 per student that is the minimum per student and we receive the minimum this
year um that we could possibly um get so here's a summary of the work we've done uh we presented the first iteration of the budget workshop with all the the wants and asks uh to really move the educational program forward in
terms of you know supplies materials and also more importantly the Staffing um recognizing that a 10% increase would not work for any of our fiscal Partners in the towns we backed that out and removed new positions with the exception of some special education uh added some
reductions and offsets to the budget and then we proposed um 18 unspecified Staffing reductions at that point um with those 18 redu uh unspecified reductions we're estimating we could get the budget to essentially a 5.15% increase after specifying those
reductions um and also getting the information about our health insurance increase of 19.9 2% um we had to do further reductions and um did some Revenue adjustments um but again as I've expressed to the committee we feel like
we're at the extent that we can push um those estimates and those those expectations while being responsible in our projections um we had a small um just correction to make uh before the last meeting so where we sit right now is just over 70 million
uh and again with a 5.25% increase over fy2 in the operating budget I'm just going to quickly walk through the details of these things um again trying to be brief so we can give as much time for the public to comment and ask questions um these are the
reductions presented at number one um typically we do look at teaching and learning technology and facilities and then across our buildings um and again at the first iteration we came in um and reduced approximately $5,000 off the
budget we look to our revolving accounts um and some of the other things as far as what the balances were and what would be coming in for next year and we were able to offset uh the budget another 500,000 again the this doesn't drive down the cost of it it just offsets it
someplace else versus offsetting it or being assessed to the towns um this is the extent of the new positions that we had asked for that came back out of the budget somewhere enrollment base where we felt like the enrollment wasn't quite there um and
others were more related to our strategic plan superintendent Downing did you want to add anything in here I think what's important on these positions to understand this is these were the new asks so I had you explain that and it's based on our standards um that we had before
yeah uh we also made some administrative salary updates at that point um with a 0% increase for anyone within the Leadership Council which is essentially our administrative team uh superintendent Downey want to speak to the administrative position that's right we reduce the curriculum director
position as well as taking a 0% increase for uh the entire Administration team uh that essentially bounces out to coin Bel would be about two positions um reducing our administrative team from 24 administrators in the district to 23 uh and then at that time in order to
get as close as we could to that uh potential 5% increase over fy2 we estimated it would take another 18 unspecified position reductions um and didn't an estimate on what their insurance reduction would be within the budget um which pulled another 1.9
million out of uh the operating budget this is where we estimated it would put us at that time in the associated assessments to the towns uh then we brought forward a second budget update um in the uh in
February uh again we made some reductions we heard the good news out of the prism Grant we're able to make some shifts um if the prism Grant's going to help out with the offset to teaching and learning the built-in offset from Extended Learning that was in teaching and learning was able to shift over to
technology um we did some other scheduled uh maintenance reductions for facilities and built in a transportation offset from the athletic revolving into uh the transportation cost for for teams superintendent dowy yeah for our
staffing reductions and budget update 2 we were able to reduce some extracurricular stiens for after school activities in our unit a we were consolidating our team chair work and so there's a reduction of a position there along with two occupational therapists in exchange for another occupational two
occupational therapist assistants reduced uh being replaced by one occupational therapist uh including two positions in our custodial unit in addition uh we had the make the difficult decision of looking at our related arts model at the middle school
level this will provide um this is a result of Shifting our Spanish program out of the eth grade as a dedicated class in the eth grade into the related arts rotation for sixth seventh and eth grade we'll be coming to the committee on that uh later this spring for details
uh but we need to reduce an additional 3.4 teachers at the high school uh KDA guidance counselor third grade teacher at M based upon where we are with class size standards as well as 1.2 uh points in nrsd math coaches uh for our uny
employee reductions we reduced the secretary in our high school as well as the three Middle School library assistants um so with those Staffing reductions um and then the actual placeholder on those positions and then we did those other reductions and
offsets we were able to meet that 1.9 million doll uh goal to get us as close as we could to the 5% increase over fy2 uh and this is where we sort of landed as of 3:00 on the 11th of February um
and then we had our meeting with our insurance representative and we received the news that we're in the 19.9 2% um increase on our health insurance over last year which immediately you know the calculations put us at a
$528,000 um increase which we had not um necessarily hoped we would be getting um and that made a Major Impact um as I've expressed to the committee and what we've heard from our reps and this is what we're hearing across really the the region of uh ABC which I meet with the
round table and then also any any business person I speak to um this is what we're hearing across the state right now so the market with uh Rising health care costs with prescription usage is really driving things and then for us specifically nishoba um that
Target of using 88% of your paid premium and we're exceeding that um by over 97% uh which is driving a big part of our increase on the formulas that um Maya uses to to work across uh the hundreds
of of groups that they work with in the state so in order to address that impact um we had to make some other um decisions superintendent Dow sorry this is where we had to make the difficult decisions of of reducing an additional
0.5 Secret AR position as well as the four Deans at our three middle schools and our High School uh this is a deep cut this is a to the Bone cut for us uh our Dean positions are critically important in my listening sessions that I've had since that budget update uh
both parent well parents staff and even uh some students have expressed their concerns and as I expressed to the committee as we continue to work with our legislators look at other Solutions and Lobby for additional Revenue to the district the dean positions are the
positions which we are will uh attempt to reinstitute uh into the budget knowing we have to do so within the constraints of the numbers in this budget uh that we're looking for a vot on we also looked at our um our
investment income which is a revenue source for the district and based on our numbers now this year uh we felt like we could comfortably increase that estimate for next year by another ,000 um so what that did was we were able to meet the threshold of that amount uh not
necessarily all of it came out but uh $432,000 was reduced as well as an increase in Revenue so the full impact on the assessments was $532,000 uh so what you can see here actually if you do the look back um is while we're at 5.28% at that point uh
those operating budget assessments the towns uh do stay low enough as they were close close to what they were when it was 5.15% of an increase um we made a quick uh just sort of Correction uh on
uh some siped pieces uh that found uh almost like a duplication um when I was looking back through the budget um pulled that apart and dug deep and and it was another 27,000 reduced from the budget so uh this is essentially where we are today um with the 5.25% increase
in the operating budget uh the flush out to the assessments is essentially uh what is essentially what you saw last week um so this is where we are today um another piece on this is just showing the math on where we've been over the last five years with regards to
FTE and you can see the difference between FY 25 to FY 26 and what really shows is at the FY 26 budget what we really felt like we needed to do to increase our our fdes to drive forward the instructional plan and the Strategic work um was that orange band of the 492
but obviously we're further reduced from that uh superintendent Downing anything further on this yeah I think it's important for our community for this community to understand that in the past five years you see a 99.1% reduction in total um FTE in the school system while
we've experienced a 3% reduction in enrollment so our reduction our staffing is actually outpaced any out reduction enrollment and that is an indicator of these non-salary costs that uh have been been escalating and have caught up to us at this
time uh another important piece of information that we want to share and we continue to share is that um yes the cost of insurance has gone up significantly uh but you can see by the yellow bar on top of the blue bar uh We've Inc increased our offsets significantly for next year and are
pulling as many levers as we can um to lessen the impact of the health insurance increase on the operating budget um so again we're doing what we can within our constraints within the within the the books of the budget with regards to offsets uh to do what we can
to to keep that as low as it it can be on the operating budget another piece that I've shared with the committee and we shared uh last week um with regards to uh the impact on special education
Transportation um and placements increasing over the last five fiscal years uh really within the sort of you look at the graph it's the combination of the circuit breaker reimbursement that comes in and the uh money that we receive through the Ida Grant um we
could increase these a little bit with the Ida Grant but we'd be then sacrificing other money within the Ida Grant to Transportation so I think this is a relatively good model um and it matches what we've done so as you can see over time um the impact and that
increase of the blue band on the operating budget as these C costs have increased uh the reimbursement and Grant increases are really just not as as much as we need them to be or hope them to be um to to decrease the impact on the
operating budget and therefore the assessments uh so you can see where we are right now relative to uh previous fiscal years um you know coming out of the covid and with the SOA um really were able to keep that assessment low at
that time uh but since then um we're sort of in a a relatively similar place if you look at the average between 23 to 25 um these are the drivers I covered last week with the uh fincom the joint fincom and advisory
boards and just a quick overview again of the Town assessments where we are today and again here's the the important part on that $3.5 million increase and how much of it's coming due to Special Education Service increase this is not salaries of our staff the total of our
insurance and benefit increases and obviously we're being charged more for school choice out and chared tuitions um that go to those schools just want to remind the public um they can click on these if they're just looking at this uh slide deck that's posted is you can go directly to
the FY 26 budget development page um for all our budget work Miss Hanigan still needs to post the last one and I'm sure she'll post today too um in the morning she's been off at Deca um and has been busy while she's been back um and then obviously we have the ongoing finance
and operation Center um which really is there for education for the public it's there to be clear and to provide information and not just be transparent and show the show the information but to explain it as well our next steps are the budget vote next week and then we go to the town
meetings and that's the end of the presentation uh for the public hearing I would like to take this moment to offer some gratitude um and is the hard work of all of our team our administrators our employees and both the human
resources the finance office for the work that they put into building this budget I also want to thank um our town officials our uh uh the the town um Tas in all three of our towns as well as the
two fincom from Lancaster and Stow the advisory committee from Bolton as well as the three select boards Mr K and I have engaged in many public meetings in recent weeks and had conversations both in our office um and also in those public settings to work with our town
officials and I I just want to thank them as we had an opportunity uh recently in a in a a joint meeting with those those select boards um learn that they understand uh that the what we've done in the school system this year um
has been very difficult and and gets us to a place where hopefully we can thread that needle of providing a an outstanding educational program with our students while also putting forward a budget for which our towns can afford so thank you and Madam chair we'll turn it to
you all right thanks Kirk and thanks Ross and Kirk I will extend the same gratitude to you for all the work that you've done in leading your team so we really appreciate all the many many hours days weeks months uh that you've put into this so uh the purpose of the public hearing is to give the public an
opportunity to ask questions in a less rigid environment that than what is our public meeting we will have a public meeting after this a brief one for the school committee to deliberate uh but for now let's invite our colle to in I think I
see a couple of neighbors here and if either of you guys want to ask a question or comment please feel free to jump in just explain to us who you are and as a teacher I have no problem with wait time okay so last call for public
comment any anybody wants to jump in please feel free all right so um Kirk over the last few years the budget hearing has had kind of low attendance but honestly I attribute that to the
extensive groundwork that is done in the months that lead up to the budget hearing I feel like no stone is left unturned that I know of and all of the meetings that you've gone to and and Partnerships you've built and channels that you've opened I think that this is a testament
to that that everybody kind of understands and knows where we are right now and and I hope is comfortable with it so thank you for that all right everybody so at this point I'm going to turn to Amy Cohen for
a motion to close the budget hearing I move to close the budget hearing at 6:54 pm I'll second that thank you Amy and Amy uh what say you yes yes or no all right and I'll say
yes uh Lindsay yes Joe yes Sharon yes Robin yes Jackie yes Amy vessels yes Scott yes and shondor
yes all right everybody that closes the budget hearing for 2025 thank you very much for your attendance we'll take a quick pause and as you guys know uh I am G to Now call to order a regular meeting of
the nooba regional school committee at 6:55 pm. uh I just actually want to make sure that Bolton yeah Bolton access is still here so here we go I'm sorry there's construction happening in the school can you hear it
terribly no okay it's loud um all right so Bolton access is still here recording uh we will move on now to um basically what is a finance and operations report Kirk and uh Ross do not have any plans to present uh any
more materials to you I think that we have a full understanding but I want to give the committee any chance to weigh in is there anything else that you would like to say or ask everybody go ahead Scott two things actually first I just want to reiterate my appreciation to the administration for doing such an
excellent job and putting together a budget that both shows us what it would cost us to do everything they think would be appropriate to achieve our educational goals as well as cutting it back appropriately to get it within the town's constraints for their budget needs so again I appreciate all the
efforts you guys put in to get us there um the other thing is I just want to remind anyone who's watching this meeting on replay that the budget and Warren committee is having a meeting tomorrow March 6th at 7M specifically with the intent of answering any
questions that people in the public in our community might have about the budget but who were unable to attend the meeting tonight wonderful thanks Scott appreciate that uh members anything else we have always like to open the
public meeting after the hearing just in case I'm seeing any Golden Hands and as always everybody I really do appreciate your um attention and your attendance and your dedication throughout all of this I know that there are many other meetings that are happening beyond the
regular school committee meetings so thank you everybody for everything at this time I'm going to move to adjourn do I have a second second thank you uh let's see I will vote Yes shandor yes Scott yes Amy
vessels yes Robin yes Jackie yes uh Sharon yes Joe yes Amy Cohen yes and Lindsay yes wonderful everybody 20 how much was that 27 minutes good job proud
thank you everyone all right see ya