All right. Good evening to everyone. Um, calling the public hearing to discuss the FY27 proposed school budget presentation to order. I'll begin this public hearing by reading our mission statement. The Norfol Public Schools offers a safe, joyful, and challenging
learning environment that meets the needs of our diverse students. Through school, family, and community partnerships, we provide an education that inspires lifelong learners and cultivates caring and productive citizens of our everanging world. Can I have a roll call, please? >> Peter Sheldon, >> Lauren Beas,
>> Grace Lockhead, Madora Champagne, Lisa Sheldon, >> Miriam Goodman, Alardi. >> And with that, I will turn it over to Dr. Alardi, and the budget soft. >> Great. All right. So, uh, for tonight we have a presentation to review the, uh,
proposed FY2027 budget. Um, as it's public hearing, uh, we will take questions. Uh, we usually take them at the end, but we don't have a huge public. So, feel free if any of the committee members or public have questions for, um, just pop up and and let us know and we'll take them as we
go. So to start um the as part of our budget process, we always focus our budget decisions on the district vision and mission. Um the Lisa I won't read it again since Lisa just read it, but for
the past several years we've been facing difficult economic times in Norfolk as uh schools across the Commonwealth have been uh as well. when we have to make difficult decisions or budget reductions, we always try to prioritize protecting um classroom and instructional positions and positions
that have the highest yield and impact on our students and on learning and achievement. Um so that mission is the center driving force of our budget decisions. Tonight in the presentation, I'll talk about uh several different things. We'll begin by talking about the budget history and some new challenges the
district is facing. We'll look at our pupil spending comparisons. We will quickly touch on student achievement and the return the town uh receives on their investment in education. We'll talk about the 2027 budget request and our primary budget drivers. Look at enrollment and class size projections
and then talk about some uh unfunded bud budget needs, things that we would like to see the district be able to add back in the future um but we just aren't able to fund at this time. And then we'll jump into questions. Um Miriam, our business consultant, will be helping me with presentation tonight. she's going to talk to more of the um financial and
state funding slides um and I'll talk about some of the district needs. So, budget history uh we've shared this uh information before, we update it annually. Um but the Norfol public schools since 2015 have been facing steady enrollment growth. Um you can see
back in 2015 we had about 824 students in the district in K through uh grade 6. This does not include our preschool number. And that number has been steadily growing. Um we were up about close to 200 students since 2015 across the district. Um between 20 uh last year
and our projected enrollment starting in 2027, we saw a little bit of a plateau. Um but we early registration for kindergarten next year indicates that number is going to continue to climb. When you look at enrollment by building, this is really aligned with what was
projected in the demographic studies that we've done as part of our space analysis. The uh primary growth in Norfolk hit first at the Hol Day as many of our new families moved into the district to begin their kids in kindergarten. So we saw pretty rapid
growth at the H Olive Day uh school first. As those larger class sizes are rolling up, we're now seeing that growth hit the Freeman Kennedy school. So you can see when uh we opened and cut the ribbons uh and brought students into the Freeman Kennedy way back in actually in
2012 um the school had under 500 students about 494 in in 2015. Uh we will be opening in 2027 with the most updated numbers. It's actually up to 610. Um that's a pretty dramatic growth of over 110 students at the Freeman
Kennedy. Um the design for this building was for about 565 students. So we are over what was this building was intended and designed um to accommodate as far as students districtwide that's 191 students. Uh the growing enrollment does not just
cause challenges for the district in terms of space but there's cost associated with that enrollment. So as we have more students entering the district we've had to add positions for classroom teachers. Um you know on average we're seeing about 20 additional students a year. That's a that's a classroom. So classroom teachers to
maintain class sizes within the policy limit. We've also had our special education prop population which is about 18 between 18 and 19% of our total student body has grown proportionate to the the overall enrollment. So we've had to add additional special education teachers and pair professional staff
members um to meet the requirements of student plans. We've also had to increase art increase art, music and wellness as those um specialist teachers are serving more home room classes. We've had to expand our hours for cafeteria staff. We have several grade levels next year that are in the 160s.
We can't accommodate that many students and have our lunch period, not just because of the size of the cafeteria, but because we can't get that many kids to the lunch line and have them actually sit down and eat their meal and then get out. Um, so we've had to uh bring in more staffing for food service, extend
the hours for our lunch monitors. All of these h things have costs that impact the district. up to you on federal funding. >> So, we are anticipating receiving level of funding in most of the grants listed uh on the screen. However, last week we
were notified uh that we are in a warning status to lose our title one funding, which is $21,400. Um we won't know that until final allocations come out from the federal government. Um this came about as a result of the census data that has dropped for the state as a whole uh by
10%. Um and so as a result, Essie has indicated that there was a significant decrease to title one awards um for FY27. Um that funding supports um a.5 paraprofessional um where we are anticipating receiving
the other um federal funds. Title title 2A 10,893 supports curriculum stipens and professional development. Title 4 for $10,000. Uh supports a percentage of our school adjustment counselor. And on the right side, you see our special
education funding. Um IDEIDA and IDA prek. They support PAR professionals in our specialized programs. And our um 274 sped professional development account was not all um professional development funding was not allocated uh this year.
So we're not anticipating it next year. terms of chapter 70 aid. Uh chapter 70 impacts all communities very differently. Um it's a formula ba the the funding is formula based and the the funds received are sent directly to the
town of Norfolk to offset the cost of education. Currently 23.4% of the FY27 recommended budget is being funded through chapter 70. Um the formula uh the foundation budget key factors are enrollment, wage adjustment
factor and inflation. Then um our local contribution is based on uh local effort from property wealth and effort from income and municipal revenue growth factor. So once you take the foundation and deduct the local contribution, you
end up with the chapter 70 backfilled from the state. Um, and so based on the relative wealth of Norfolk, we are designated as a minimum aid community. And so as a result there, there really shouldn't be any expectation that our chapter 70 funding will be any more than
the minimum aid, which the student opportunity act says is $30 per pupil uh increase per year. However, this year the governor the governor's budget um allocates $75 per pupil. that we anticipate that to be the floor. Um, and that through the legislative process
that amount will go up. Um, could be as high as $150 per student, but we don't know, could be higher. Uh, so we'll see how that um moves through the process. So, and um in terms of um chapter 78 for FY
11 through 24, um you could see how the percentage has increased over time. However, it hasn't necessarily kept up with with inflation because the formula um doesn't necessarily support all of the expenses that we have uh in terms of
um the inflation factor. So the the inflation factor has increased over the past couple of years because of the foundation budget review commission and their recommendations uh to increase some of the percentages like for healthcare for example which
was I believe 8% this year um estimated uh and I think our increase is probably somewhere in the 10% range so it's not perfect yet but it's at least a little bit better based on the um the um foundation the recommendations of the
Foundation budget review commission. So that is where our state um chapter 70 falls. Per pupil spending comparisons. I've shared this data in the past with the school committee. Um the per pupil spending calculation is based on the end
ofear reports that all districts are required to file with the department of ed. It's an all-in amount. So, it considers your um your local budget and what as well as anything you receive in federal and state uh aid and grants and that's divided by the number of students that your district serves. It's a really
good uh apples to apples comparison. Um when you look at the average per people spending in the state, if you look back in 2017, Norfolk was pretty close to closing the gap between Norfolk per people and the state aid. um it was, you
know, less than $1,000 um or maybe just over, sorry, just over about $1,000 difference um in 17 and 18. Uh again, in 19 following 2019, you can see that the gap grew significantly um between what Norfol is able to spend for people and
what the state is spending. There's I think two factors that really drove that gap uh growing. One is growing enrollment in Norfolk. So we are serving more students uh than we have in the past. So we have a larger number, a larger student body. And in addition, most of the new federal funds and state
grants and competitive grants that are available to support educational systems have been directed to gate gateway cities or districts that have high poverty or low achievement and um are identified as requiring intervention.
So, a lot more funding has um uh has been funneled into those more urban districts um and smaller suburban districts have not been able to access that revenue. So, the gap has continued to grow. Um the most recently available fiscal data from the Department of Ed is
is fiscal 2024. So, we're behind a couple of years. That's partly because some grant funding carries over into the next fiscal year. By the time people have finalized their end of year reports and everything's certified, um that data is is later in and being released.
We also show our per people comparisons against the benchmark districts. Uh the department of ed identifies uh 10 districts that are considered our benchmark, our dart comparison districts. They are like districts in terms of uh structure, grades served. Uh
again, these primary districts do not have uh middle and high schools. They're either K6 or K8 grades. Um the benchmark communities were updated for Norfolk a couple of years ago. Um and we updated them this year in our benchmark report. So the new communities that are
identified as like communities are Ammerst, Brewster, um and Kingston. Several of the old benchmark communities are no longer considered to be like communities. The school committee chose to keep Southboro and conquered which are no longer dark uh communities by
Desi standard but our aspirational goal communities that help us with our um goal setting and direction. So when you look at this uh how Norfolk spending compares to the the regional um or the benchmark communities we continue to be in the lower um in the bottom in as far
as per people's spending. Used to be Berkeley that was below us. Now it's Kingston. Um, but we are falling under rent them in Plainville in some of our local neighborhood communities. What you see shaded in green, um, if you were to go back further and you were looking at
2019 and 2022, you would only see two or three of these communities shaded in green. What's happening, all those the districts shaded in green are now spending under the state average per pupil. So more and more of these benchmark communities and suburban um smaller suburban districts are starting
to fall under the state which is what we just talked about in the prior slide. As far as charter schools, um we always include this information for the public. We have two local charter schools in our catchment area. There's the Benjamin Franklin Charter School, which serves about 900 students from kindergarten
through grade 8. And then the Foxboro Regional Charter School that serves 1,400 students um kindergarten through grade 12. Um charter schools are public schools. They're free. Um families in Norfolk can opt to send their child to a charter school if they choose to. It's
really critical that the town continue to invest in our local public schools. We need to keep our programs strong and competitive, not just because that's what Norfolk students deserve, but also um families have choice. If if a child leaves our district to attend one of the
charter schools, state aid follows that child. The town has assessed a tuition and um a facilities cost for each student. It's about 21,000 now um in next year's numbers for every student that leaves the district. So if you have four students that leave the district,
that's the financial equivalent of a a full-time teacher. Um so there's uh an obligation of the town to maintain strong programs, but there's also a financial impact um if we don't do that. Student achievement, we um we share this
because I think it's important for the town to know they do receive a strong return on investment in educational dollars. If you look, these are our ELA MCAST scores. Um the this shows you the percentage of students at each grade level that are earning needing or
exceeding in the MCCAST. Um you can see in 2021 right following the uh school closures we did see an initial drop in some grades. It was more pronounced in 2022 after a year being um uh in a hybrid learning model and we've been
working since then towards recovery. We also know that our core curriculum needed to be updated. We had to delay that because of financial um reasons within the town, but we're now in the second year of our new curriculum program and we are starting to see the results of that. So in third grade, you
can see we are um increased since 2021 by about 10%. Um grade four and five we are still working to in improve our student scores there. One area that's a focus area for us is strengthening student writing. Um that is an area that has been a challenge. um grade six we
are back to about where we were pre- pandemic when you look at this in comparison to the other communities though I think it's a really important story um so again conquered and Southboro are no longer our uh considered comparison districts we keep them in for goal setting when you look
at how our students perform across the board against all of our comparison Norfol achievement is in the higher um in the higher range there's only two of our comparison districts that outperform Norfolk in ELA um we expect to see Norfol will continue to climb as we strengthen our practices around writing
and we get further into the ELA adoption. Um when we presented our baseline and benchmark report which is available on the website, we also looked at subgroup analysis and it was really exciting to see our special education students in Norfolk outperform almost
universally all of our uh neighboring districts in both ELA and math. Math achievement, we've seen really strong gains u pretty much across the board. fifth grade across the state um in ELA and in math is is a more
challenging test. You get into more abstract concepts in fifth grade, more pre-alggebraic thinking. Um students scores across the state drop a little bit in fifth grade and then recover. Um so this is not unique to um Norfolk. Um but we are continuing to work on that and across all the grades you can see
growth from 2021. We are in the first year of our new math adoption. Uh we have already seen some really positive results in our early uh benchmark assessments uh and we are looking forward to see how our students do uh as we enter the spring math. When you look
at our regional comparisons, Norfolk is the top performing of all of our comparison districts um and very close to our uh two aspirational uh districts that we keep for for goal setting. So, jumping into the 2027 budget
request, the budget request is 4.08% or 662,382 over last year's fiscal budget. What this request would allow the district to do is first meet all of our contractual obligations for staffing. Um, we are seeing a district uh an increase, this
is again not unique to Norfolk, but across the state in costs for special education. These are uh contract-driven costs uh for our special education transportation as well as our general education transportation. Um it will also allow us to restore special education teaching position. Uh
last year we talked about when we had uh had to make some further budget cuts. We have always had uh or at least for the past probably five or six years we've had two programs at the Hol Day um for our global developmental delays. We had a decline in population last year and so
we reduced that to one classroom. We are expecting we're going to need to restore that based on our our current demographics uh for next year. We also made some challenging cuts last year to the secretary and clerical positions in both school offices. We cut those positions uh we have one full-time
secretary and then we we used to have two. We cut the second position down to 0.5. um with with offices again next year um 610 students coming and going all day um with the Freeman and the Hilda Day. We have a preschool that um
as students leave midday, new students come in just verifying attendance, calling families of students are absent. It's a huge demand on that office and and we need to bring those positions back. So, we're looking to increase them um by two uh part-time each. Um, this
also allows us to maintain all of our class sizes within the school committee policy limits. So, this is just a financial breakdown of what those changes mean in numbers. Um, so teachers uh uh cost of living steps and lane changes. We are estimating at 360,000.
Um, this is building in an estimated 2 and a half% cola. Uh, we are currently in negotiations with the Norfol Teachers Association. So this is an estimated um placeholder in the budget. Uh but that contract is we're just beginning that process. Retirements and resignations.
We have quite a few retirements this year which is helping us from a financial perspective. Um we are losing some incredible talent um and we celebrate the teachers that have been here um and are leaving. Uh but it will generate a savings uh we anticipate of
close to $180,000 in salary revenue. the implementation of a new contract for our PAR professional staff members. We are anticipating 120,772 in cost. Um there is some additional cost to that that's carried in some of the grants as some of our PAR
professionals are funded through grants. 2 and a half% um uh budget for all other staff at 38,000 and then um other contractual benefits are uh sickly buyback and other contract benefits that retiring teachers are paid out in the
following fiscal year. So the teachers retiring this year, they get their contractual benefits in budgeted into the next fiscal year. So staffing is about 396. Um the only staffing changes we are recommending is restoring that uh global
developmental delays teacher at the Holoca. We are going from six to seven sessions of kindergarten and we are watching those numbers really closely. Um we have 142 students registered with seven sessions. we can take 147 and be
within the class size policy limit. Um we do pick up enrollment over the spring and summer. Uh so there is potential that we may have to make some changes to uh teacher assignments and and think about adding an additional session of kindergarten. Um but with the seventh session, we only have six this year. We
do have to add a kindergarten par profofessional. And again the 0.25 increase to the two secretarial positions at one at HOD and one at FK. There is really only one new position we are looking to add in the budget. Last year we restructured our HR and business
office. Instead of having an HR director, we now have an HR specialist. And then instead of having an assistant business manager, we have a business office specialist. That generated some savings. Um the business office specialist is uh responsible for accounts payable and receivable and
payroll. In most offices, that's two jobs. Um, we also cut the clerical support to the business office last year. It is not sustainable and it it's not good practice. We really need to address that. So, we are recommending a 0.5 payroll clerk um to take over the
data entry and some of the preparation for the payroll. Um, I think that's given we're an employer of over 240 people, it's it's unrealistic to have an office without a little bit of additional staff. We have a.3 counselor position uh that it's not a new position. It was funded last year
through a competitive part of the salary was funded through a competitive grant that expires in June. So we are looking to keep that position at the same current rate it is now, but we have to move part of the cost into the operating budget. So the total is 200,000 there, 2019.
On the expense side, we've made significant uh reductions. Uh curriculum adoption, we are uh we had funding budgeted for the math adoption. We are hoping to use some one-time funds to pay that off this fiscal year. And so we are
reducing what was budgeted for curriculum, new curriculum adoption by almost 90,000. We have a science curriculum review next year. We will not be able to purchase any new science materials out of next year's budget. We'll have to delay that until fiscal 2028.
Um the FK supplies, HOD supplies are up marginally. Um, HOD, again, we're adding another classroom of kindergarten, so we need additional supplies and materials. Um, some curriculum materials uh that are not part of the new new adoption to
outfit that new class. Um, special ed instructional services is up by about 86,000. We do have um funding and reimbursement from the state for uh a portion of our students that are considered um high
cost or whose programs are significantly exceed the foundation budget. And so through circuit breaker, we're applying uh close to 50,000 to offset the additional uh cost increases in special education. You can see both special education transportation and general ed
transportation have contractual increases about 46,000 and 25,000. District offices and supplies is up by 5,900 and our technology network costs are up by about 30 13,000. Those are primarily um you know contract service contracts Verizon other things like
that. Um just a note on the expense side, this is a lean budget. We've cut and cut and cut and um level funded expenses for probably 8 to 10 years. So this is lean. We have reduced supplementary technology programs and
other curriculum resources um to keep these numbers where they are. But overall expenses are up by about 63,000 in order to um balance our budget. A level service our first attempt at a level service budget that came in close to 7%. Um so you can see we've made cuts
on the expense side. Um we are um holding tight on the staffing side. Um but we are also applying in next year's budget sometime funds. We were reimbursed on a per pupil per day basis for students that enrolled
in the Norfolk Public Schools last year from the Bay State Respit Shelter. In August we received a payment of almost half a million dollars. Uh a good portion of that was spent this year to fund part of the math program. And we're funding a teacher salary and a paraprofessional salary this year. Um
and we are applying the balance of the remaining funds next year. Um we will fund one of our L teachers positions and a paraprofessional again through one-time funds next year. Um and and then uh we have to replace some of our Chromebooks. We have aging Chromebooks.
We expect because the town is facing some very challenging financial times. Typically, Chromebook replacement would be a capital request we brought forward to the town to be considered as part of the capital budget. Um, we don't anticipate there's going to be significant funding for capital next
year. So, we are using the one-time funds for this. We cannot defer this tech purchase. We've done that in the past and deferred it a year because the Chromebooks that we currently have um in third grade will not run the MCCAST platform. Um, they're too old and so we don't have enough devices for students
to uh complete that testing. So, we're looking to use close to 170,000 of one-time non-recurring revenue funds here. Cost savings. We have really worked collaboratively with our regional partners as well as with the town to identify areas for potential cost
savings. Um, we have worked on uh and we are sharing now the cost of a full-time facilities director and an assistant director with the town. Um, we just looked at that. will be saving 40,000 by continuing with that model next year. Um, we do have a a a custodial staff
position now that is split between schools in town and we staggered that schedule. So, that person works Tuesday through Saturday, which reduces the need for custodial overtime. Um, two or three years ago, we also regionalized our school lunch program. We used to have a full-time food service director for the Norfolk public schools.
We now have one food service director and an assistant for Norfol, Planeville, and Rentham. So we we save about 50 uh about 36,000 um by regionalizing. We also cost share. There's a lot of mandated professional development uh that we are required to provide annually
as well as some specialty to support new curriculum initiatives or for some of our special providers speech and language occupational therapy. We now partner with the region. We have several uh days within the calendar that are shared PD days so that we can bring in professional development and cost share the cost of presenters with the other
three um communities. Um, we have three grants that we are in the process of finalizing and we anticipate that we will receive for fiscal 2027. There's an opiate settlement grant, Metro West mental health grant, and a Care Solace grant.
Care Solace is a program that provides um families with support in accessing outside uh counseling. It's a referral service. Um, so those are grants that we are writing. uhpearl is uh the lead on those our regional wellness director and we anticipate those we coming in at the
rates identified in the slide. So about 152,000 uh are areas that we have found additional cost savings. So another way to think about our budget is to look at some of the larger fixed some of the fixed costs that we have. Um that would include our salaries. Um we
have contracts for we have transportation contracts, we have out of district tuition contracts and utilities. Um, all of that comprises 94% of our budget. Only 6% of the budget is really allocated towards discretionary spending, including costs for curriculum
materials, supplies, textbooks, general classroom supplies, paper, and other expenses. Uh, and in terms of a breakdown of our budget allocation as a whole, uh, you can it's it's important to note that 80 just under 87% of our total budget is
committed towards salaries. 70.8% goes to professional salaries for teachers and administrators. 3.7% funds go to clerical salaries. Uh and 12.4 uh% goes to other salaries such as substitutes, um assistance, food service workers,
facilities, etc. Uh actually I misspoke because food service is not funded by our operating budget. It's funded um self-funded through our food service revolving account. Uh and uh 9% of our budget goes towards contracted services, the majority of which is our um
transportation contract. 2.3% of the budget funds curriculum materials and supplies and 7% goes to other expenses that are uh contractual contractual obligations for retirement. Um and 1.1% of our budget goes to fund our out of
district out of district tuitions uh which is dramatically lower than um most other communities within this commonwealth. Enrollment projections for 2627. So um at this time we are expecting seven sessions of kindergarten. It'll be an increase of one. Um, so the numbers in
black are the number of sessions we'll have and the change is noted in in the numbers to the right. So seven sessions of kindergarten, we were projecting an enrollment of 147. I think that's going to be an underestimate because we're at 142 now. We typically pick up about 10
between now and the opening of school. Um, so we are watching that closely. Uh, if we come in at 147, it would be class sizes of 21. That's the maximum for the school committee policy. If we exceed that, we will have to um make some adjustments to the budget. Uh we are
expecting six sessions of grade 1 with class sizes of 18.2, seven sessions for grade two with class sizes of 18.9. Three uh in grade three we will be increasing to eight. We actually have nine second grades. Um now they will filter up to eight third grades uh with
class sizes of 20.5. That's a large class, 164 students in the entering third grade. Um, fourth grade will go down to six uh with class sizes of 20 and 21. Grade five will have seven class sizes of 21 and 22. And grade six will
have eight with class sizes of 21. At this point, we are not expecting any changes to the overall FTE positions for classroom teachers. Just a quick snapshot of our class sizes in comparison to our uh again our
comparison districts. Um at the elementary level, you can see Norfolk class sizes. They're not low anymore. They used we used to be on the lower end. We're now in the middle to the upper end of class size. Um with most of our comparison communities 17, 18, 19 um
and then the bottom four 2021. So we're not far off, but we're not. Um, we used to pride ourselves on really having small classes and now we're we're closer to the average unfunded budget needs. Um, so there are several things that we had hoped to be able to reconsider in this budget. Uh, a
couple of years ago we cut the technology integration teacher. I think it's really important to note that the technology integration teacher, it is not all um, technology and devices. Primarily that position brings STEM, science, and engineering into the classroom. Um, we're piloting units from
the Museum of Science. Uh, we talked about at the citizens academy when we were talking about the budget, students in third grade designing magnetic dog doors. So, it's really looking at technology um um broadly as engineering and innovation. Uh, we now have one tech
integration teacher for the district. We used to have one for building. Um, but we are not in a position that we can consider restoring that at this time. We would like the school secretaries to both be full-time as they were uh a few years back, especially with the growing population of students we have in both
buildings. And we also had to reduce library assistance from both libraries a couple of years ago. We would like to bring those back, but we are not asking for that at this time. Um again, we are not asking to restore the clerical support that we lost from the HR
business office. Um we have a a pretty significant number of students receiving special education services. When you look at like districts, most have a special ed director and an a full-time assistant or a full-time team chair. We had to reduce our team chair position to point8. We'd like that to be full-time
again. Um again with the growing demand and the growing numbers of students we are serving. Um but we are not bringing that forward. We had also used to have a health education program. We would like to restore that. That would require at least 1.5 teachers. Um we are not
bringing that forward either. Um, and then last, we used to have a special education building substitute that would cover when teachers had team meetings or um, uh, you know, we're testing for students um, across the district. We have not been able to fund that position for several years. It it creates
challenges because there's a a shortage of subs available to cover classrooms. So, there are often mornings we are shuffling personnel and trying to um, you know, put people in just so that we have a body in the classroom. Um, so ideally we would like to reconsider that, but we don't have uh funding
available at this time. On the expense side, I think since I've been here, we have been trying to eliminate band fees so that the band program is universally accessible to all families and students at no cost. Um, we have not been able to do that. The band
fees that families pay fund a portion of the band teacher salary. Um we are again zeroing out our curriculum adoption line um dramatically cutting that next year um and delaying the science purchase. Science curriculum is a pretty significant review. Um as you know both
the ELA and the math review um to adopt new materials. We're well over 200,000. Um so we are deferring this expense, but we will not be able to defer long term. So we'll need to think about restoring funding for that. Um, we have some really excellent technology subscriptions that help students master
and practice math facts and some basic skills that we've had to eliminate. Uh, we would like to look at we used to carry uh capital funding for technology replacement whether it was copiers, laptops, um, Chromebooks as they broke. We had a a line a maintenance line in
each building budget. um we are not able to restore that and the tech when we've brought requests to the town they've been partially funded. So now we we don't have equipment when equipment breaks for sub laptops. We are shoveling uh shuffling Chromebooks around and
trying to find equipment for people. Um we really should have a an emergency maintenance plan. Uh would like to bring bring that back. And then professional development funding. Um the quality of instruction in classrooms is what drives student achievement and the more we can support and develop our staff the better
we return we have. Um but at this point we are not asking for additional revenue there. So that's the budget overview again at 4.08%. Um the town is still working on the
budget on the town side. there is a a significant shortfall and they are working on looking at strategies to try to close that gap. Um we have been uh you know collaborating talking with the town. Um one thing that we have done at
this time we did put a a a budget freeze in place yesterday um for expenses and for hiring. Uh we are hoping with that budget freeze if we are able to generate any additional savings between now and the end of the year we may be able to prepay some expenses maybe take care of
the Chromebooks or something like that. If we are able to make those reductions we may be able to help the town in in addressing this uh shortfall. Um we are waiting to see how that kind of develops but as far as the overall budget um it's pretty lean other than other than that.
So happy to take any questions people might have. our vast public comments from the committee at all. >> I think it's just important to reiterate the significant use of one-time funds that will not exist a year from now. So, I
just for the droves of people that couldn't make it in today, but are enraptured watching this on YouTube, I'm sure um you know, it's it it would be a critical deficit if we didn't have those funds. So, I'm certainly grateful that we received them. I'm happy that the
state was able to provide some degree of compensation given um the you know relative burden that the district underwent last year in absorbing additional students. you know, that's more than fair, but um I just think it's really important to bear in mind as we
move forward into the next budget cycle that that's a huge amount of money that won't be there. Um and understanding the tight budget constraints the town will be experiencing in the coming years. I think that that will become a topic of discussion. So that's all.
>> Yeah. So I mean it's almost a half a million dollars over two fiscal years that were onetime funds. So, um, we were able to reduce curriculum because we are purchasing the math out of the shelter funds this year. So, we're we're using about 250,000 um this year and then the balance next year. So, it's a
significant uh it will lead to a significant shortfall um as we enter fiscal, >> but we're grateful that we have we have it for now. Right. >> Exactly. Yeah. And really really hoping the magic number of 147 holds firm in
kindergarten. So, here we are. All right. >> So, if we don't have public comment, we could adjourn and then discuss it further in. >> Okay. So, I'm looking for a motion to adjourn this meeting and commence our regularly scheduled school committee meeting. >> So, moved. >> Second.
>> Any discussion? All those in favor? >> I. >> All right. Calling the March 3rd Norfol School Committee meeting to order. I will not read the mission statement again because I just did. However, we do need to do another roll call.
>> Peter Schwan, >> Grace Lockhead, Madora Champagne, >> Lisa Sheldon, >> Goodman, Anger Delardi. >> First on the agenda is public comments, which we have none, followed by correspondence, which we also have none. For the school committee chair report,
teachers negotiation update. We have met twice and our next meeting is >> next Wednesday. >> Yeah. It's going well. Right. That was all I had. So, I will hand it over. There's not much. All right. All right. So, we have a lot to
share as far as school and district highlights tonight. Um, first, at the district level, we are continuing to move forward with the search for our new director of student services. Um, we hosted focus group sessions for staff at each school uh over the last couple of weeks as well as a parent session.
Unfortunately, our parent focus group session was the Wednesday after the mega storm. So, and I think everybody was thrown off. We had no school Monday and Tuesday. So, we didn't have any parents at the parent session. It was just me and Jill. Um, so we decided to send a survey out instead. Um, and we did get a
decent response. So, parents did contribute their feedback. We use that all of the data from the focus groups as well as the parent survey to form a candidate profile as well as to de develop a rubric for evaluating candidate resumes. Um the search committee is going to be meeting uh
beginning tomorrow. They expect to uh tomorrow we have some training for the search committee. They'll be receiving packets of applicants. Um at this time you have about 13 candidates for the position that have applied. Um the committee will screen resumeums. um they will make decisions on which candidates
to bring in for interviews. We expect the week of the 23rd and 24th they'll be doing interviews. Um hopefully uh second round interviews the week following, potentially some site visits. Um and then we hope to have a a a new director named by the uh Friday prior to April
vacation if all goes well. Last month at both buildings we had parent leaders, parent volunteers come in as part of the IARE program. I think CPAC, the Norfolk CPAC talked a little bit about that. Um they share stories from the IARE collection which talk
about different abilities and different experiences student have with the goal of creating um and celebrating um difference and creating inclusive school communities. So that took place at both schools. Um we also recently heard from MSBA. So we are getting ready for moving
forward with the next steps in the process. Um we the eligibility period for Norfolk starts on April 1st. Um so the first two things that we have to do as part of that um I have to draft the educational program plan. So I'm working on that and then uh we will be working
with the select board and the town because we have to appoint a full building committee. Those are the next two steps. And then I think at town meeting we will provide a committee update and and just talk about the process and where we are. Um at HOD this
month both schools celebrated random acts of kindness week. So at HOD they had themed spirit days with the daily focus on kindness. They had manners Monday together Tuesday. What can I do to help Wednesday, thank you Thursday,
and friendship feelgood Friday. Um they did a collection of supplies for the local pet shelter. Um they did an art supply collection for the safe coalition and um uh shared different books and lessons throughout the week with students. Uh grade 2 also had their
annual skating trip which we I think talked about at our last meeting. Kindergarten information night was held on Thursday, March 5th and Miss Kafoon presented information about the kindergarten program to families with new entering kindergarteners. Um and her presentation ended this year with a
video showing a day in the life of a kindergarten student. So if anybody wants a little cheer to the day, you should watch that video. Um Ziti with my sweetie for grade two took place. Uh they had a special presentation for grade 1 on sound. Um so it was a science
workshop and then students celebrated the hundth day of school with a hundreds day assembly and classrooms engaged in a variety of different activities recognizing um some the math around the milestone day. Um, at Freeman Kennedy School again,
they also celebrated random acts of kindness week. They had a um chance, they did a mix it up lunch where children had a chance to sit at new tables and have lunch with peers that they don't regularly um sit with. Administrators and uh teachers and adjustment counselors joined different tables um to support those
conversations. On March 6th, they uh were blue to celebrate kindness week. Um, a grade three student, Madison McManus and Miss McGra's home room won a poster contest for submitting a poster to the Mass Partnership for Youth um, uh, agency. They had a theme poster
contest for kind people are the best kind of people. Um, her poster won a recognition and the executive direct director, Marge Daniels from the Mass Partnerships for Youth came on Thursday, March 5th to present her award to her her in her classroom. Um, our new art
teacher at the Freeman Kennedy, Caroline Sheay, promoted the art contest among her students. So, that was really fun to see. Um, FK is preparing for the MCCAST test administration coming up later this month. There's a new platform that the department has um purchased or new
contract, new vendor providing the testing this year. So, there's been a lot of time and effort gone into getting that set up and in infrastructure trials. Um on uh at the end of February, there was the first beginner band concert. Um it was the first concert of the year for fourth and fifth grade
students and for some of the students the first time they've ever played an instrument or performed in an ensemble. They did an outstanding job and it was a a huge thank you to Mr. Foracer who um leads our advanced and beginner band. And then at all grade levels at the Freeman Kennedy students in third,
fourth, fifth, and sixth participated in grade level assemblies focusing on what it means to be a good digital citizen um in school and community. Um so they talk about the appropriate use of technology and the importance of digital safety um uh to help uh our students again be safe
as they are using the internet and engaged in learning. So that's a quick highlight of what's been happening around the district. So from there, uh, if there are no questions, I think we move on to the FY27 budget request and vote.
>> So I would be looking for a motion to approve the FY27 budget request as presented to me. >> So moved. >> Second. >> Further discussion? No, just thank you to Ingred and Miriam and everybody
because it's been a process. So, >> you guys did a great job. >> Yeah, >> it seems like each year has been tough recently. >> We did a normal job in what appears to be a normal year. >> All right. Any further discussion on
that? All those in favor? I >> um next annually the school committee has to vote on whether or not to um participate in the interd district school choice. Um policy uh the policy is to admit non-resident students under
the terms and conditions of the interd district school choice law but the committee has a right to withdraw from partic participating annually and we have to have a vote prior to June 1st. Um we have historically opted not to participate. It would be my recommendation again that we opt not to
participate. Um school choice for a couple of reasons. One, we are overcrowded as it is. We don't have a lot of space in many grade levels. Um the bigger issue is that the the funding for school choice if we take students in from another district, you have to
identify the number of seats you have. Then you bring students in, you get a reimbursement from the state, but those students are also guaranteed that they are able to remain in the district through the culmination of grade 6. The tuition payment we would receive from the state for fiscal 2026 was 5,000 per
student. As you can see, when we talk about perled expenditures, it costs significantly more um to educate students than we would bring in in revenue. Um so unless people have further questions, there's more information in the memo as well as our um a copy of our policy. It would be my
recommendation the school committee vote to withdraw from the provisions of uh the interd district school choice law for fiscal 2027. >> I'd be looking for a motion to withdraw from the provisions of the school choice law for this year. >> I move to withdraw from the provisions
of school choice for this year. >> I'll second. >> All those in favor? And that's all I have for tonight. So we're on to committee reports. Moving to policy subcommittee. We have two
policies for you. These are final review. The third reading. The first one is gifts to and solicitations on staff. Uh, policy GB EBC. I'd be looking for a motion to accept
the policy as written. >> So moved. >> Second. >> Any final questions or further discussion on it? >> All those in favor? I I >> And then the next policy also in its
final and third reading is policy ECAB, access to buildings and grounds. So I'd be looking for a motion to accept policy ECAB, access to buildings and grounds as written. >> So move
second. Any final questions, edits, further discussion on this? All those in favor? >> I >> budget. I'm assuming >> we're good. >> Exhausted.
>> All done. >> Uh yeah, so we met last night. Um it was a pretty quick meeting. We did Dr. Dlay's um review as well as more discussion around the budget. Um I think the story is relatively similar across
most towns particularly Northwork and Planeville trying to figure out how to ease the burden um along with you know the the towns. So um a lot of discussion around that and we meet again in two weeks to approve the budget. Um and I will say the the most exciting news is
the KP girls hockey team made it to the finals in states and they'll play at TD Garden on Sunday. So, it was really a amazing wild year for them and it's really awesome. So, I urge people to go although it is at 9:00 a.m. which
>> no traffic. Yeah, no. Yeah, true. No traffic. Thank you. Moving on to liaison reports for the CPAC. This Thursday night at 700 p.m. they are hosting an engaging and supportive workshop for parents focused
on the intersection of mental health, well-being, and art therapy. The workshop aims to introduce parents to the therapeutic benefits of creative creative expression as a tool for stress relief, mental and physical well-being, and self-discovery. Then they had the um workshop that they
had scheduled that really looked at social development in a post-pandemic world. That was the night of the snowstorm. So that has been rescheduled to April 7th. And you can go to the CPAC website, CPAC Facebook site to find more
information on both these events. Anything from PTO? I do not have a PTO update. Um, but I'm sure they have a whole slew of end of year activities. They just did trivia. Just a trivia.
>> Are you in charge of the snacks? No, I'm not this year. You used to be the treasurer. >> I know. >> Um, so I will uh I will touch base with them and have a better update next time. >> Any others? >> Um, North Community League has their um Easter breakfast, Easter buddy breakfast
coming up at the end of the month. So, get your tickets. Super fun. All right, moving on to new items. You have the minutes in your packet from our February 10th meeting. Looking for a motion to approve the February 10th
minutes as written. >> Second. >> Further discussion. >> All those in favor? >> I. >> Our next school committee meeting is scheduled for April 14th.
Don't know if the 13th is possible for people or the following week. >> That day is tough. >> The following week is April vacation. No, isn't it? >> Yeah, that is. So the following the last week of April >> two following. Okay. >> I could do the 13th. I can't do the
following. >> I can do the >> 13th 21st. >> What day of the week? >> That is on Monday. >> Um it I don't have it. It could be KP, but if it's not >> Okay, >> I could do that and that would actually
be better because then that would spread out because we have a negotiation. So tenly April 13th. If not, we'll we'll figure it out. >> Yeah, I won't I won't be able to do that. >> All right. Next, we have an agenda item
to discuss negotiations with the paraprofessional unit of the Norfick Teachers Association. So, I'm looking for a motion that the school committee enter executive session under purpose 3 pursuant to Massachusetts General Laws chapter 3A section 21 A3 to discuss
strategy with respect to collective bargaining with the Norfick Teachers Association as discussion in open session may have a detrimental effect on the bargaining position of the school committee. Discussion will include a review of the tenative agreement and potential ratification. The committee will not return to open session. So
again, the motion I'm looking for is to the school committee enter executive session. >> I move the school committee enter executive session as >> stated. Second. >> So this requires a roll call vote. So I'll just start at the end and down
here. >> I mean yes. >> Lauren Vivas. >> Lauren Viva is yes. >> Grace Lockhead. Yes. Madora Champagne. >> Lisa Sheldon. Yes. Right. >> Bye everybody.