good to go uh calling the meeting to order Saturday March 8th uh school committee meeting at Henry yel school this is our budget meeting so this should be a good one we are planning to get out of here by 11:00 so that is that is our goal um first up on
the agenda is discussion and vote oh sorry yeah of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation God indivisible with liberty and justice for
all um first up on the agenda is discussion and vote for a school Committee Member uh to represent the the school committee on the uh Town manager screaming search any uh discussion do we have anybody that was interested
uh we had two people nomin yeah we can just nominate but we had two people who were interested um obviously sher's leaving us uh me and Dan are obviously up for re-election so we kind of came down to Justine and Audrey um and I guess between you two anyone want to
step up and and make the call did you guys like prepare a speech for us nomination I said I would do it all right I will nominate Audrey to be the repres representative for the school committee on the town meting Town
manager screen second all those in favor I moving on uh discussion on the 2026 school department budget I will turn this over to for Jen I guess all righty thank you guys um so number one thank
you to our packed audience who is here this today on a Saturday morning uh we appreciate you all coming out um the Saturday budget Workshop is something that we did in Norton for a very very very long time and this is definitely the most people we've ever
had here um all the years combined in all the years combined um postco uh we switched to uh having more frequent discussions at school committee meetings um but this year we switch back to a Saturday budget Workshop um we find and
those school committee members who have done this before that it's a great opportunity for us to have a continuous ation about the budget in in one sitting and kind of get everything together all at once so um Christine and I will be walking um everyone through our proposal
for this year's uh budget um and then we have um some of our principles and some of our admin team that are here today to also talk about um their department and their school budgets uh and then we have a few of our principles that are going to be joining us on Wednesday evening
instead so um I'm going to start uh quick quickly by just kind of going over um some of what you have in front of you um there should be handouts I believe for the audience as well um what we are proposing this year is a level service
budget um I don't need to tell anyone in the room that last year uh level service was our goal and um unfortunately we ended up with some pretty significant Cuts Pam do we have any more handouts I have not enough for the room I have
but if you sit next to a friend and maybe you can share that's my second grade teacher kicking in share with a friend um last year we had a a budget deficit of $3.4
million um so I think for us this year level Services is really what we're hoping for we are hoping to retain what we currently have as a school Community um level service budget allows us to retain the same level of services and
the same level of programs however it is a financial increase over the previous year um our final fy2 budget is 35,5 35,6 um so our proposal for the upcoming school year is a percentage increase of$
4.96 um I'm actually very happy with this 4.96 considering last year level service was for us was at 12% um Christine has worked incredibly hard um to get through our budget to um find savings where we have them
available and um also this is um cohesive of some of our retirements that we have coming up any that we already know about um as well as any resignations that have already come forward um we are looking at most positions to
be reinstated with other staff members or with new staff members hired at a lower rate so this will allow for some savings a 4.96 percentage increase is a total of 1,762
630 which would bring our FY 26 budget request to 37 m298 231 um also on this first page is something that we try to um pull out in for you each year we talk about mandated
education those things that we don't have a lot of flexibility on um because of things that are mandated by student IEP um also um things like our elll program and homeless Transportation all
of those things are included under mandated Services um the district has very little flexibility or um control over any of these costs um so that is something that I think is really important for us to share with you all
each year um as you can see the uh mandated education budget currently in FY 25 is about 14,500 the request for next year is 15,183 868 with an increase of um
$617,000 uh that is an increase of 4% and it's an increase on the overall budget of 1.74 general education includes everything else that includes all of our central office um costs and needs our
technology Athletics transportation for all of our um our students in town um utilities facilities all of these other things are all included under that general education so it's it's really general education and operations um that
total this year is just under 21 million um and our request for next year is 22114 363 which is an increase of 1.45 million cost increase in the cost center is 4 5.46 which is an overall
increase to the budget of 3.2 is there any questions on this page okay um one of the things that I think is helpful to kind of show because it seems
um challenging sometimes to wrap our head around how do you get a $1.7 million increase how does that number come up and so what we try to do is to show people how those numbers kind of come to fruition um so we what we do is we start with the final budget
appropriation uh from fy2 and then we go through a set of um scenarios here the first thing we do is we look at our increase in salaries due to contractual costs that's everyone's salary so it's my salary it is our custodial Union our
teachers empowered professional Union our administrative assistants um anyone that uh maybe Works in one of our offices those are the increases in salaries due to contractual obligations and as you can see that is the large majority of the increase for this
upcoming year um as I think almost everyone in this room also knows um we are still in negotiations with our teacher and Par professional unit and we are just starting negotiations with our Administrative Assistant unit on Monday so those are unknowns for us at this
time so this number is based on our best projection of what those final numbers will be um as you can see this year we are going to have um a decrease in our um out of District costs due to an an
increase in circuit breaker um as well as a decrease in our special education transportation that doesn't happen very often so we want to take those wins when we can get them um so that's exciting to see the mandated increases to special
education programming those are increases to our programs here within our schools that has nothing to do with sending students to add a district placements or transporting them those are simply um things that we need here
to meet the needs of our students in in District um we have a contracted increase for um in District transportation that is our regular yellow bus um and then we actually have decreases to our supplies testing and
materials as well as our operations and management costs um so I hope it's evident to the committee and to the community that we really have been looking for ways to decrease costs
across all lines um I think the community spoke pretty loud and clear this past summer um with the failed override the margin was um very eye openening and so therefore Christine and I and our admin
team are are very aware that we need to work within the parameters that we have in front of us this year um so we are doing our very best to do that um if you I'm not going to go through this whole book with you guys because I want to give other people the
opportunity to walk walk you through um their budgets if the next page is the mandated education budget and you can see um the cost over several years you can see our
FY 23 actuals our FY 24 actuals what we have budgeted for this current year and then what our proposals are for um FY 26 and at the bottom of this graph
actually it's a second line up from the bottom you'll see a line that says circuit breaker Aid that is money that we receive from the state um to offset our outof district costs um I know I've
shared this before but I will share this again for the audience um both at home and that may be here with us um when we send a student student out of District because we are not able to meet their educational needs here in town the community is responsible for the first
$40,000 anything over and above that 50 50 oh sorry it's 50 now sorry thank you Christine um we are responsible for the first 50,000 anything over and above that is subsidized by the state through the circuit breaker Grant um and that is
reimbursed and the rate fluctuates every year so um there is no guarantee each year what the state is going to reimburse us at um they like to try and say 75% is the
average um one of the big things that my Professional Organization the mass Association of school superintendence is trying to do is to get that Guaranteed Rate up to 85% because ultimately it should be 100% of the reimbursements but that is not what is
happening so um last year we did receive the 75% reimbursement through circuit breaker um additionally they reimburse Transportation so the transportation costs
um again are fluid from year to year in what that reimbursement rate will be um the most recent reimbursement rate that I can recall off the top of my head was 57% so um that money we Ed to offset
those tuition costs so you can see in FY 23 we Ed 1.4 million in FY 24 we use 1.9 and FY 25 we are using 1.5 and we are projecting to use 1.6 next year in FY 26
um so we are utilizing other funds to offset these costs um it's just a little bit of um a roll of the dice as to what those actual reimbursements will so Dr O'Neal when it comes to these reimbursements with circuit breaker we
largely have to just project that in our budget CU we don't get that till we don't get it until July July at the very earliest is when is when we kind of have that information about what these reimbursements will be um So Christine is the expert on this um
but what we do is we make our best projections um and often time what is it it's you're using the reimbursements from the previous year to pay off the next year's balance is am I saying that correct okay great good um so that is
yes but it is a projection any other questions on on this component um and then we have the same type of um overview for the general education piece as well and as you as I said to
you earlier general education includes the transportation piece you can see facilities utilities and maintenance under there um Athletics are also under there you'll notice at the bottom again the second line up from the bottom this is where we use our school
choice fund offset and you can see in FY 23 we use 1.3 million in FY 24 1.8 uh bless you um FY 25 we are planning to use 2.1 million and then our FY 26 budget is projection projecting a
use of $2 million of school choice um we have a lot of conversations about school choice as a community um and I think it's really important that we find that right balance um number one of not overburdening our classrooms but also making sure that we still have this
money coming in because if we had to lose that $2 million um we would be in a much different financial position if we did not have that money to subsidize our budget um and then I'm going to share
with you the next two pages um these are the other Revenue sources that we utilize um and how we utilize them to offset Staffing so as you can see um we have school choice that I've already discussed in circuit breaker circuit
breaker does not offset Staffing because we use that to offset tuition um but then you can also see we have facilities revolving account where um that is for rentals so people that come in they use our gym they use our fields we use that money to offset some
of our custodial costs including part of our director's salary um the preschool tuition our families pay preschool tuition it is certainly not enough to run our preschool program um but we do use it to offset the costs in the
salaries of of some of our Preschool teachers uh Transportation um again we have a lot of we hear a lot of times from families that um they pay for the bus it is not the entire cost of the bus we take in about
$130,000 each year for transportation fees our transportation costs for the yellow bus overall are over a million dollar so it's definitely a small subset of um of the costs um other tuitions this is um for example if we have uh
right now we have a program that is is very well-run and um we have a student from dayon raob that tuition's in because they don't have a program that is similar to theirs in their home Community um it's a special education program um and they pay us a tuition so
that's what that is um and then Athletics those are athletic fees um that our families pay again that does not um offset the cost as much as what Athletics cost us um and that does not
go to any salaries it goes simply to um coach stiens um transportation for getting to and from games field usage uniforms all of those other things that goes along with Athletics um and then the other Revenue
sources the top of this page I think is important for us to share um because this talks all about Federal entitlement grants there's 's a lot of conversation right now at the federal level about um some of these Federal entitlement grants in the Department of Education and the
role that the Department of Education at the federal level has in local school communities um I think it's really important for you all to know that this is what we receive on an annual basis um the federal sped entitlement Grant is about
$800,000 it is currently paying for 19 and a half power professionals um which that is a huge number of staff and again if we were to lose that funding that would be a huge hit for us as a school Community um The Early Childhood that is
uh for preschool that offsets preschool salaries um title one that is for our reading in math interventionists that's 2.6 staff members um and then title 2A that is all of the money that we dedicate to staff professional
development we do not have staff professional development anywhere else in our budget it only comes from that Federal entitlement Grant um title three that is to support English language Learners um and then title four is student support and enrichment and we
use a lot of that for our seal work um so those are some things that could not be done without those federal dollars um and then last I just want to walk you guys through some school choice numbers before I move on um and kind of
open it up a little bit um as you can see we have school choice numbers from 2019 through 2025 and the funds that we've received as you can see we started off um $780,000 is is a great amount of money
to be taking in uh this current year we're projecting about 1.5 million of Choice Money received and that's what we've also expended over the years and then these are our school choice enrollment numbers um so last so
as you can see those numbers were pretty steadily climbing 141 187 um last year we um cut down on kind of the Open Enrollment that we had going on to be a little bit more strategic in the number
of students that we were going to place we did not take any new school choice enrollment in grades one sorry kindergarten through grade 6 unless they were already a school choice family or it was the Norton staff member that had
someone that had a child that they wanted to choice in um there are very little perks in being an educator these days so we like to retain that one uh for our staff so as you can see we went from 246 school choice students last
year to 231 this current year um and then I always like to show the class size average specifically at JCS and lgn it's very easy for you guys to figure it out at every other school you know you take um the fourth grade divided by eight take the fifth grade divided by
seven um at JCS we kind of in lgn we split them up between the two buildings so you can see that you know the highest class average is about two students so it wouldn't be something that we would be able to close a classroom down if we got rid of school choice um so the next
thing I want to share with the committee is um the overview that you have um it's this page here is the central office budget report um so this central office and
then I'm going to let my my team go through theirs um for you briefly the central office budget report is anything that comes under my office so my salary my um my administrators their salaries
anyone that works in central office so Pam our HR payroll accounts payable um all of those things are there um anything that comes along with office expenses or
travel um and then also things such as um our technicians so um you guys all see Nick and Paul uh and John they are vital to
keeping things going every day um our we we are required to have a district position on on call should we need someone um th those are all in there so um if there's any questions about
anything that comes under this central office budget as you guys can see it's it's pretty straight salary when it comes to um expenses um this is your expenses as well you
guys can see superintendent office expenses school committee it's about 12 $0000 it's it's very minimal um anything that's under there there's very little wiggle room when it comes to things that we do here but I'm happy to answer any questions that you may have about these
particular [Music] lines I don't have any question on the lines can we go back just real quick yes of course to it was my understanding that if something was to happen with Federal funding in terms of like shutting down
the Department of Education so I don't know if this is true or not if you've heard anything in your circles but any of the entitlement grants and sped offsets and all that stuff um was going to be transferred to Health and Human Services so therefore
we wouldn't actually lose funding you haven't heard anything okay no and I I don't know that we fall under Health and Human Services that's what that's what I don't I that's what I heard I heard that everything from a not everything by any means but like a lot of a lot around the stad if the Department of Education was to be
disbanded the funding would then be incorporated into Health and Human Services and then we would get that funding still which again I don't know I can give you a couple examples so like for example for example right now I'm thinking about Medicaid specifically
um one of the things that we do is that there are certain services that students receive that are Medicaid eligible so our office Casey's office and Christine's office they work together um and they do all of the work that goes along with getting Medicaid
reimbursement for the student services that are that they're eligible for the schools do not see any of that money it goes directly into the general fund um so the difference between that
and what we receive right now for like the federal sped entitlement is we get that money directly it's not part of our um 2% 3% budget from the town we receive it and we it's in addition to there's
also a lot of red tape that is going to come along with any federal shutdown of the Department of Education there are um a lot of um federal regulations that include things like Title One or Ida
so there's going to be some sense of preservation I hope um but the only thing the concern I would have Nick is that would that money come directly to the
schools or would we need to now go advocate for it with the town kind of sounds like we need to do that with the Medicaid reement too if it's coming directly from our students I mean yeah so when with the Medicaid reimbursements that goes when you say to
the I think the bottom line go to the general fund to the general fund for the town yes do what does that number look like do we know again I don't need any exact but what's that rough figure give us a second
I have a quick question too Christine um when we are getting the um like we're considered an ability to pay town right in the Chapter 70 yeah right minimum Aid so is that what's projected in this
budget as well like the minimum Aid correct so right now the minimum Aid is projected so we don't really project the minimum eight on our side right that's kind of the town does that so right now the minimum Aid is projected at $75 which is great cuz that's more than
30 yes right um so um what when that happens the town so the town will the the town gets the local Aid and the minimum age should be projected at $75 on their side for us that's the
revenue where this we just project the expenses okay so um we are hopeful that we will get that $75 per student and and honestly I would really love to see more last year we got $104 per student which
was really great and again we won't know that until after town meeting which um you know we probably won't know until July which is why we went back at fall town meeting and asked for the difference between what was projected and what we what we received um so
that's not that's not on our side Tak into consideration here no it's just expensive got it so give us a we we'll keep going and we'll give you guys the med pay number last year it was
113,000 so that goes to the general town that goes to the general funds correct so it becomes part of our receipts got it all right so um I'm going to just go in the order that that I have them so I'm going to
let Wade talk next about facilities and um we'll go from there sry everybody you're just going to have to speak up a little bit sorry it's still quite my cold um as far as the
facilities is concerned just here there's not a a huge increase um facilities has a luxury of of having a revolving account which actually saves our our our um our regular budget um every year so U Christine does a wonderful job on moving the money around
as she needs to move it um as you all know I I think uh facilities is an easy one to explain because the it hits all of us uh the cost of living um the the price
increases of Labor um I think everything that uh has hit you at home if you've been to Home Depot recently you've noticed prices have increased um trying to find products since um 20 uh just trying to get products has been a lot
harder to to find here um for me and the facilities Department I think when you look at the overall numbers um considering that we're running five buildings um and we uh upkeep them uh I'm incredibly proud of how we upkeep our buildings um I think the town people should also be very proud of where our
buildings are at we open them um pretty much 375 now our buildings do not shut down at all uh we're open every holiday we're open throughout the nights we're open during the Summers um we're hosting camps uh enrichment programs uh summer school um Athletics there's just always
something going on in our buildings so our buildings don't show uh energy cost uh we're all seeing on the news uh how high that uh has uh has gone um so I think overall our increase has been pretty modest um we we
tend to do um I believe a lot with uh very little uh in in our department um but I don't think there's any crazy numbers here so if you have any questions I'll be happy to answer them but I'm going to take too much of your time wait do we have any outstanding
projects that are going on like I know the yes the dreaded one that we don't like to talk about is that still that done so the Middle School roof um msda project has been approved um we have the support of the town on this here uh we're in beginning meetings now with the
state um to move forward on that there the goal was to try to get it done this summer um I'm not sure that timeline is going to be met um so I think um worst case maybe next summer um but that's uh that's that's really our big project going on right now uh as far as the
schools concerned uh in my opinion um we do a we do a 5e capital um so we have a pretty good plan on where we're at um and I I think the only real concerns moving forward will be the roof of the lgn the roof at the yell um and then our our building envelopes are in really
good shape uh we've taken some we were we were ahead of the curb I think on the energy uh we have all brand new uh energy efficient boilers um so we're saving on gas uh we have uh our solar panels have been huge uh with our electrical cost um I think we're ahead
of all that um but the the actual building envelopes themselves uh they're buttoned up really tight right now we have uh we've gone through insulation we've gone through windows and doors um we've done we've done a lot to our buildings um in in the last few years um
so now I think it's it's maintaining but as far as big projects I think those are the three right there the three big groups okay thank Christine I guess this is probably a question for you um obviously you know we have a tentative agreement with the custodian Union I just I'm looking at
these percent differences in terms of like J you know JCS looks like a 21% increase for custodian salaries hey 5.1 5.3 so on and so forth can we just kind of lay out exactly what that looks like and why
those numbers look so high sure um so I'll start with the small ones first um those we do have a ten of agreement but that also includes some of the staff has um go down steps which is um higher than the actual Cola um that goes for any of
Staff or teachers or anything so the percentage will always come off a little bit higher the reason why the 20% in the JCS is because last year we put a um partial custodial salary into the cafeteria revolving account um and then after doing some reviews from the state
they prefer not to do that so I mve that out so that is why that one um particular line is up to 20 thank you very much if I could just conclude with um right now we currently have 20 uh 20 custodians on our roster uh we have five buildings to do the math real quick
that's four custodians cleaning the high school four custodians cleaning the Middle School uh two at the uh grounds Department two at the lgn four here in for at the JCS uh that's a lot of school um to to cover uh and our guys
are not just cleaning anymore our guys are also maintaining uh we have to maintain um so uh anytime that we can do something uh ourselves uh we've been doing the work ourselves um so I'm incredibly proud of our our 20-man staff um they've really stepped up to the plate this year they've done an amazing
job and again uh I think the town people should be incredibly proud of our buildings um everybody in town is using them um they're open all the time um and I'm I'm uh I thank you for your support so I don't know if this is we or
maybe Christine what does our rentals look like I mean how many nights a week are we having folks on ouring months obviously uh basketball are in inside our gyms um but during the uh spring the fall and the summer uh the turf fields have been getting use pretty heavily um
so we um I mean nfc's been out there just about every night uh for the last couple weeks uh using the turf fields High School sports Spring Sports is about to start up so uh we'll be sharing the uh turf fields with our thirdparty rentals High School sports as well as our Norton Youth Baseball Softball um as
well as um um yeah that's it those three thanks and wait I don't want to I'm not trying to cherry pick here but I just kind of looking at a few things can you just kind of explain you know I think it's uh the building contract labor at the JCS is up
178% can you just kind of give us a reason on why that's going up so much let Christine answer that one sure I can answer it um so JCS has whiteboards and they are extremely old and extremely um
marked up which makes it really difficult for the teachers to be able to write on them to use them for instructional purposes so what we were hoping to do is um be able to go over and refinish those um so that is something that's there we put it into the budget um
however we know that we can take it out for and put it into facilities if we needed to or do them in smaller chunks over time um there is also one there for the high school that you'll notice I think it's on the back page under
equipment materials um that is the scoreboard in the in the gym um I don't know I think it's Maybe original um we can no longer get the bulbs for it um so Aaron is actually um actively looking
into some sponsorships to see if we can find some people that will help us replace that cost um but those are the two big items on there and ultimately we can take them out and and try to go about it another way so and then Christine can you just
explain the the general fund is that just an overall area that we can pick money from for whatever thing we may need down the bottom yeah sorry and then general just up 135,000 that's what I'm assuming I just want to make sure so
those are those are just um so the way that it works is these are all different lines so um in order to pull them to pull these departments together for you guys so you could see like all of facilities in one place it comes from the maintenance of equipment and it
comes from the general fund so those are totals uh right yeah and so the reason why that says that is really we we um were doing an update with our software to help be a little more compatible with the town so me and Donna um made the description TOS side general fund to
help with Maran and James just so that they when we give them reports um monthly so that really has nothing to do with that's the main budget yeah yeah so that's why that just it's almost like a total line down at the bottom yeah just housekeeping
okay that makes sense um and did everybody down the end hear Christine on the Medicaid with what that number was yes okay just want to make sure thank you anybody else have questions for w no all right Casey you're up um so our requests this year are
really for um just in increases to mandated services so the number of students that we have and the services that are required through the state so like um legally for a specialized program we were we're supposed to max out our classrooms at 12 um and so with the way that students are moving up and
down in the district we have to kind of we need we have some students moving up to the high school next year that will necessitate more programming to be up there to support their needs as well as um moving power professionals around to meet the needs of students who have onetoone Staffing or that need higher ratios in their classrooms um some of
our other tuitions and things along those lines are really based upon the mandated tuition increases that the schools have we've been working to have to try to centralize more of our students when we out out place them so that's really been one of the um positives that for our transportation lines is that we've got more kids on the
same Vans going places so that's kind of that's helped us to decrease some of those costs there um really everything is is really based upon um like Wade was saying cost of living type things for um increases to to services that we don't have any control over and also the
students coming in in their IEP based needs um um so we did request a couple of new teaching positions um we're hoping to shift some of those from from one building to another so it'll not be a new brand new position but rather a new to the buildings in general so like one at the LG one of our best programs
at the LG will be moving up to the Y to support the student needs here so we won't have to hire a new position but we can we will have to be shifting some of the programming around um and um we're looking at all of our case loads and case loads in comparison to workloads for all of our therapists
and specialists so our OT speech um School psych counselors um to figure out if we are working smarter rather than harder and and using a little like utilizing our resources in the best way possible um but also taking into account that just because one one OT for example
might have 12 kids on their case load which they don't but that's just a number I'm pulling out of the Hat um and another might have 20 the case the workload may be similar due to the amount of services that the students on the 12 person case load receive versus the 20 so really trying to balance those out be as Equitable in terms of our um
of our workload for our staff as we can across the district and utilize our resources as best we possibly can so Casey you might have mentioned this and I might have missed it but when a kiddo moves from one school to another in the same program for consistency do we try and move that par with them for
consistency for the program and for the kiddo so that's really tricky Dan to be perfectly honest um a lot of times there the kids have been with those staff for three 4 years and for the health of and Insanity of everyone um it's really not good to do that because we don't want
anyone to create a learned helplessness Dynamic we don't want people to become too dependent on on one individual person um sometimes it's unavoidable um sometimes we have do D due to certain levels of training that staff might have that is required like a medical certific medical training or on one student or
something along those lines but we really try not to because we want kids to be able to generalize their skills across staff and and locations um another question maybe it's yours maybe it's yours when we look at our collaborative placements last year they went up quite a bit for their tuition
cost what do we know about that for this coming year we have num it's it's yeah it's that 5% currently and how many do we have I know we're a m of we we are a m of and is going through some changes Reeds
is going through some changes in terms of their programming and their um facilities that they're oping to build and move um out of our district into some more sub separate buildings um around town but they're programmatically going through some changes as well they're trying to build up some more transition programming and things along
those lines but we've been able to work with them pretty cooperatively in terms of um our rates based upon their changes and their their needs with us so that's um Christine and Jen and I have been meeting with the reads people to try to work some work some some things out um
along Let's Make a Deal let yes Jen work costume it was great okay than give you guys a minute to look [Applause] and Jen is there a reason why we always know we're going to need
substitutes is there re zero without um I believe that in the sped line we move them more into the general the general line um Christine and I always try so there's a couple different things and that this is sometimes why you might see some
increases too um we try every year not to be as reliant on things like school choice or facilities revolving or and any of these other things so we always try to move some things like Christine talked about
that custodian that we moved out of the cafeteria revolving back into the budget we always try to do those things a little bit here and there and do it so it's not like a big huge chunk but you know do 10,000 here or 5,000 there um so
we're not so reliant on these other funds that we have there um but I believe the um substitutes themselves um are under the building lines Christine for yeah most of the
time that sometimes we separate them out um there's actually fewer um substitute for sped honestly um so sometimes we'll put them in the um just the regular so they kind of go I guess
so why we would see a difference is they're generally in the general line most of the time accting okay y um and then counselor at the JCS it's up like
$31,000 34% is there a reason why that's that high I think I can answer that I think it's because we have a long-term sub for this year and next year that won't be the case it will be a full-time physician so I that's my understanding
but Christine correct me if I'm [Music] wrong and then oh I found it go ahead yeah I say that's probably accurate so yes we budgeted someone that was previous um
come comp to perfect what and then what is what is tuition Mass schools for $50,000 so and again just so everyone understands and correct me if I'm wrong we don't really have a say in that they just increase du tuition and we pay it
yes um and and also we're not this is not like tuition to go to Fan correct just to just to like say what everyone's thinking this is not tuition to go to a private like a like a private high school like this is a tuition for a student on a IP to go to a
school that is meeting their needs and now would the collaboratives in schools like that where we could just increase their tuition by 15 20% whatever they're a little more we have no control we have no control whato um and it was a couple years ago um 14% it
was 14% And I was going to say I feel like three of you were on the committee at that time and Joe was still here it was 15% and then the following year was six for a total of 20% over two years for those um those those schools so
um having five much more manageable and I think the flip side of that is we have no control over the tuition we're also legally obligated with that child's IEP to find them the services they need so it's really just yeah and we want make sure that our students are getting are
getting what they need and we make every effort to make sure that we can do that here within our school Community but it is not always possible so all right Brian hi everybody see so for the office of of teaching and
learning um we really try to fulfill two major roles so the first two well in order in your packet the first one is professional development and I want to just be clear that these are contractual obligations so for instance if we have
teachers taking classes in um at colleges and universities this has been part of the collective bargaining and the teaching and that really accounts for a fair amount of of that money this is as well for tuition reimbursement
because we always want our Educators to take additional courses so they can become even better at what they do um and then membership in the district office for professional organizations again to help us be our best to support
all of our students and teachers the second section really focuses on all the curriculum work that we've done over the last couple of years so the main um drivers here are payments for instance to inter reading for for
example and in the past with stepping stones and with mid school math and amplifi and all of the curriculum upgrades that we've had over the last few years um are really driven by by these lines so um that is really where
most of those come from as well as for instance the algebra uh books in the middle school and in the high school as well as the uh science program at at the middle school as well additionally if you go into the
next phase which is the instructional supplies these again are all educational materials and programs that support our students and our teachers in in their learning so these include things like s ST Math and Lexia and other programs
that we use for our students to support their learning along the way and really the last area is testing materials so as we're a district that likes to use data to make decisions and we want to make sure that we assess our students three
times a year and our teachers are regularly looking at that data and driving instruction based upon that data um we use star for kids in grades K through 10 and that is really a big line item budget driver um I will say the
office of teaching and learning budget has been fairly consistent we've tried to be very be advocates for what our students need but also try to be mindful of the larger fiscal context um I also just want to mention that this
is the first place where you really see the utilization of school choice because if you take a look here um just in the um in the text line you see text lgn text
jcss that's school choice so um if you turn to the second page you see instructional supplies and then you see instructional supplies for all but five buildings with the SC next to them so you can see that while in FY
24 we were able to we use the budget for instructional supplies an fy2 and then we are proposing an FY 26 to use school choice so this um you know we don't use school choice when it comes to our special education department we really don't use school choice when it comes to
facilities because we have the facilities revolver this is where you start to see the the role of school choice in in the um in the budget itself and I want to just kind of you know revisit history a little bit with
you know the work you did last year when we we absolutely needed new curriculum uh you were able to work with our vendors in a much tighter budget season hopefully than this year um so I think that's why we see some of these numbers you know level off a little bit because you
worked so hard last year you know we kept kind of saying we got to go back to the vendor we got to go back to the vendor and you were able to do that so it's good to see some of these numbers not really jumping quite a bit because we were able to lock in good contracts under your your leadership to do that so well thank you and and just as a preview
we will be looking to um potentially upgrade the middle school science curriculum not this budget cycle but next year so our current vendor our current program they are sunsetting the program so like we've done throughout the process we will be open with the
vendor about what the fiscal context is and we will be advocates for to the district to be prudent Financial stewards for the work that we're going to do so John just we're reading this right when you see like in what instructional
supplies lgn JCS whatever and then it says SC after it the budget request isn't necessarily coming from the town it's coming from school children it's coming yes we are we are insting school children so when you when you um can I
yes please go ahead um so also um if you look up there you see the zero on the f24 we still use school choice under the instructional supplies um last year but we redid the account code structure to mimic the budget it was easier for reporting wise so we actually did use
funds it's not showing up with this report because it's a different account got but um so I don't want it to seem as though we only spent say 1,600 of the budget for instruction supplies for lgn but we really did use it for school chice as well got it
yeah and so we put it all together for you guys so that way like you could see all of Brian's lines at one time Karen's going to go next we'll see all of her lines at one time the principes have theirs sprinkled throughout um but the school choice budget as Christine said
really mimics the the general budget um and you know we just are you know very fortunate to have that funding so any question the way you guys have done this is so much easier this is probably one the better years this is fantastic yeah it really is so at the end of the day Brian Sav us
so makes way more sense so at the end of the day here Brian saving us 5.64% yeah good job Brian all right Karen and I'm using it all up and the last page we're techn technology department always knows
how to spend money I guess um so that's because technology permeates everything I guess right um so we cover just about everything right Network the infrastructure we have Hardware software um we also oversee the libraries um the
steam stem teched um and also carrying the computer science up at the high school so um our budget typically is a little bit in flux um and that is because with anything there's that
uncertainty with who's going to break what this year what what potentially could fail um we do have some switches um which nobody knows what that is but it's Works behind the scenes well Paul does because he's a former Tech director
um but certain things in the network that you know um kind of run everything in the district and allow us to have you know um infrastructure and you know those are are things that we don't budget for
year after year that's a huge Capital project that we would go to the town for um so we can't anticipate is what I'm saying some of the things that could potentially go wrong we try to build in
some funds and and typically um we build in repair costs we build in because our as um Jen said are are we do have three other members of the technology department um two techn and our network
administrator we basically fully repair all student devices in house and that is one person who takes care of that um which is incredible um so our budget for
um Parts actually went up this year because we anticipated that we were going to have to um repair and I look at Vinnie Hayward because it's his building and those Middle School kiddos um that are that are breaking our our stuff more
often well might be a long day for so but anyway so you know that's a part of it right is that we can't anticipate what's happening you know we have the littles you know who are using devices and we might break a screen and so you know so we have some budget buffer um
for materials and supplies also we don't necessarily know in the state of um with the economy just costs sometimes over over time the technology um prices come down but sometimes there's uncertainty
if there are increased taxes on things so you know we would love to say that technology lasts 10 years that's not always the case um we have extended our life cycle on Goods um that we use we
used to have a cycle of about 3 years or so for our our staff devices we've kind of stretched that to more of like a five or six year cycle um so there are some um I believe a 50 to 70 device I kind of
built in for a lease or purchase for staff devices are are um Elementary and Middle School grade uh prek to to eight devices we did a pilot this year for Chromebooks um for some staff and that's going pretty well um just because we had
a 5year replacement those are some laptops that we have batteries we have anyway some failures that are happening so anyway so we take care of Hardware we take care of software we did cut quite a bit of software last year um so the
software increases that we have primarily we have um cyber security that was a huge increase and that is the majority of our budget um increase for the software line um just because you know we're a Target and um we were you
know unfortunately um we needed to beef up our um our Network and our infrastructure in that particular area because again we're a small department so we don't have someone we don't have the luxury of having someone who can um be a dedicated cyber security person so
being able to kind of Outsource that um you know with the software so that is the primarily when you look at the budget numbers that is basically it um we also have um you know if you you're kind of going down the list here you
know we have increases in um you know some materials we have consumables in our tech ed or consumables in our steam um Labs so I do you know buy materials for them every summer that we get shipped out and then throughout the course of the year I support the
buildings in that regard um and the curriculum so um in the big scheme of things uh we also Christine and I laugh about software they call it an uplift which is basically a price increase um and it's a 3 to 5% every year they say
you can anticipate an uplift in the charge um it's crazy more we're just going to uplift when you know when we can only anticipate a 3% increase from the town
yet soft software companies are telling us you can anticipate a 3 to 5% increase in costs and this is not like this is software that we depend on this is the operational software that our business
office uses this is the you know the student information system um you know this is the what our teachers are using on a daily basis our curriculum software like these are non-negotiables this is what we how we run our business of
school right um it's just a part of doing business so we do get a lot of Grants um you know I do over the last um you know 10 12 years that I've been here you know we have gotten eate funds that
um pay 50% of our internet um bills every year um so that has been a plus so that has saved us um funding um but if you have any questions for me um the majority of of my budget is truly school
choice school choice has been um The Sole Provider for funds for the technology department we would not be where we are without school choice funds um we are a onetoone district because of
school choice funds um we are able to provide um sixth grade students and ninth grade students with a device when they enter the middle school and when they enter the high school because of school choice funds we are able to
provide um devices for our you know iPads for our first um kindergarten first grade and and preschool students as needed you know because of school choice funds so um we we have very little it's our
networking line that comes from the school I mean from the um Town budget that is basically it can you okay no I was just I mean I think like the technology budget you know everything that's in here is obviously the day-to-day but you know
it's when something bad happens to our technology department it's not just a simple fix as we've learned over the last couple of years uh with outside forces kind of acting against us so Karen's done a very good job um you know utilizing the the funds that she's been
given um you know it you kind of think back to a few years back where if we weren't one to one um you know when when our kiddos weren't in school that you know there was districts that you had to go and get you know packet of paperwork for your kid to work on when you leave
home so uh I think Karen has consistently done a very good job with you know trying to get these devices stretching the life and then unfortunately out of Karen's control is these outside events so but she's also done a very good job mitigating those as
well can you just give us a highlight on like we don't need a total number by any means but like what do we get what do the kids get per grade level for devices how do faculty and staff factor into that you know I guess you know what is
you know kid at JCS gets X Y and Z do they get a Chromebook that they bring home so on and so forth and and move all the way up through the high school sure so um we're completely one to one in the district so that means every student has the ability to use a device on their own
and that's Prim primarily to support teaching and learning right um we as as Brian said we have curriculum that requires assessment pieces so we're using um iPads in preschool as needed
under the direction of the teachers right they're not on those devices all day every day they're available as needed um our kindergarten and our first grade also have iPads available when they move to second grade is when they have Chromebooks available and they're
on carts in the classroom again they don't go home in second and third grade they're available for use in the classroom and that is primarily for STAR testing um when they get here at the yell we have fourth and fifth grade also
using Chromebooks and they are on cart in the classrooms and again under the direction of the teacher some of the the classrooms um you know will ask if they can have the students take the devices home and that is under the direction of
the teacher but all students do have a device available to them it is when we get to the middle school that they actually um take them home and from sixth grade up through the high school um I don't think we have many students
at the middle school actually that don't take a device um the high school is when they might choose to have a what we call a BYOD and again that is very very very limited um but the BYOD is when they bring their
own device so they might have a laptop that they prefer to use than the Chromebook and that could just be because of screen size or operating system or whatever but um sixth grade what happens is we either
purchase or lease to own those devices leasing has worked really well for us because that is a manage you know it's basically a an amount or a figure that we can manage um and and that's set you know for 3 years or in the case of the high school for four years then we take
those devices because Chromebooks I hate to say this but they're reasonably disposable devices we take them and rotate them down so when we get to the eighth grade um student they go up to the high school and they get a new device in ninth grade that lasts for
four years we take that eighth grade device and we move it down to third grade or fourth grade or fifth grade on the carts so so we have some of the Chromebooks that the third fourth or second through fifth grade are using they're pretty old um you know we try to
rotate them out um so they're you know the keyboards are decent and the uh screens are decent but they're definitely recycled does that answer your question can we probably would kick this back to Brian maybe and possibly the principles
like I'll I'll just say k through three so K and one you have iPads for every single student second and third grade you have a Chromebook for every single student if we're using them limitedly why do we have one for every single student why and I'm going to show my age a little
bit here but you used to be cool when we were in elementary school to have the TV on the rolling cart and it used to go you know hey science needed it for this for some you know program and then it moved over and it got shared between units and teachers and so on and so forth if we're limiting our devices in school which I think a lot of us want to
do uh especially at the at the you know early Ed levels there's a piece of that obviously comes in that's great my kids love the ST math stuff but I also think some of that ST math stuff can be done at home you know so if if we're limiting the use why do we need one to one when we do the STAR
testing can't we I mean they're not STAR testing all day long couldn't we just say hey you know Miss Parish Miss whoever you're you guys are doing STAR testing 8 to9 the next group you're going to move those Chrome books over to you know second grade and second grade's going to use them there so I'm going to
answer first and then everyone else can jump in because when we went um initially that you know everybody went home um we did not have every preschool student every
kindergarten student you know they did not all have devices because we had to do something and provide we were required to provide devices for all students that was when we purchased them that was the initial
purchase for all elementary students but as these devices are faded up we are not necessarily replacing them all to continue the onetoone what we're doing Like Preschool we have not necessarily purchased any new ones for them to have
they're available so when you think about this Co was 2020 we're in 2 so those iPads are 5 years old and then go ahead Brian sorry no I I I would I would I would concur with with Karen
you know the value of these is that particularly um especially with some of our newer curriculum adoptions there are online components that do support student learning so it would be
advantageous to be positioned to be able to have every student have a Chromebook um you know when you look at you know inter reading for example and when you look at Stepping Stones which are the the programs though there are options
there and opportunities for kids to utilize the online piece could could I just add one other if you if it's okay um and I'm I'm going to talk specifically about second and third grade at JCS but I think it's probably very similar at
um second and third grade they actually use their Chromebooks for a lot more than just STAR testing or SD math so for example I was in the you know some of the classrooms this week and they use it for writing and you know and I'm sitting
here with my laptop doing the JCS journal for this week so forgive me but we all like that's a skill we have we have to teach kids on how to use technology to write how to edit their work all those things and believe or not and it's really interesting on how they
do it and what they learn by doing it they use it a lot to create presentations and the presentations are for a variety of different uses some are academic some it's about you know this is a book that I read here are things I want to I want to talk about like things
that I learned in the book um they do it in a shared way sometimes so you know it might be a Google slideshow and I've got a group of three kids and we share it the other thing they do is they use it for the seal lessons um and it's really interesting to see what the kids do when they're talking
about some of the monthly traits that we do in character strong so I think for second and third grade I think they use them for a lot more than just those purposes I think prek K And1 I would agree with Karen that we probably don't
necessarily need to replace those for one to one we can share them and we could be more strategic and then the last thing I would say and I know that this is not a reason necessary to buy Tech technology but it is a reality is we have mcast that you know every third grader
has to test and we can't necessarily rotate that because it really shuts down portions of the building because you know kids are testing for a couple hours we don't want K1 and two to be you
know have to be quiet and being careful over multiple days for the kids rotating the special schedules all that so I would just add that from a principal's perspective for second and third grade and I'm sure Marty's kids in fourth and fifth grade are probably doing more amazing things with the Chrome cook
particularly in ela and I actually think just to jump on with the testing component is that often times the curriculum materials like Brian was mentioning like inter reading or Stepping Stones they mimic the way the assess that mcast looks in some of their
own assessments so that way when kids are seeing it for the first time they're actually not seeing it for the first time because it looks just like the unit test they took last week um and also you know typing they have to type they have to type full paragraphs and written written responses to prompts and so
getting them comfortable on a device is really important as well but I agree I think the the PK to one is probably something that cuz weit different certainly can't afford to buy brand new you know 300 brand new iPads so we'll
have to probably see how that goes over time and then obviously as we get into you know middle school high school I think Dan just kind of said it like the way of the world if you will you know they kind of have to have one I would assume um have we ever looked
at if they had their own device or would we ever try to ask ask families to potentially pay for devices so what the concern that I have with that and and we have we have talked about this is bringing them on the
network and because as with anything security is a is a concern um even with Chromebooks um you know we we have learned pretty quickly
um the state of devices um and the state of just the world and fishing it's happening to our our students um you know our
staff you can get fooled pretty easily um and if you have your own device and you're bringing it on our Network when we allow students in the BYOD we limit um what they have
accessible to them so they don't necessarily love that um so that's an encouraging way for them to use like a Chromebook or or use is like a um the high school does have in their Library some some desktop computers um my fear
is that if we were to require students to do BYOD just the management of that would be difficult very challenging for our small department and then what about teacher staff in terms of
devices um that I would say the same thing um if we provide the devices no we current we currently provide the device yes it is why we are moving to Chromebooks as an option
um they are a little bit cheaper um but we are also looking at you know everything's in the cloud and can we get away with um using maybe a higher quality Chromebook not like the
student level Chromebook um a higher quality Chromebook for teachers that is just a little bit cheaper and let you say I'm hired as a nth grade teacher I can and I get a whatever Chromebook y do I keep that Chromebook and typically it just kind of goes into
the end of life we try to repair it as needed whatever and then when it runs out we buy a new one and it's the same thing we do like at least to own for the most part I'm sure they as and I'm not saying our kiddos aren't safe but our staff members are probably a little more
cautious with their devices than yes that that we're going to extend that life for the most part I mean you know we've had some interesting the stff members we've had some interesting situations with staff members and
devices but you know accidents happened and and we deal with them but for the most part staff are very very responsible with devices um and it's usually not an issue at all and their whole lives are on there
yeah everything we do and I mean the nature of things let's be honest like we are requiring them to be able to do their job so we need to provide them with a device well I mean think back to end of last year you know
like oh my God it couldn't function days they they the network wasn't working at the school so they were able to not really miss a beat and work from home and get their grades done cuz of course I remember one particular high schooler kept checking because grades are supposed to be done
um okay so anything else for Karen no I don't think all right and um thinking about time I'm going to move right into the school stuff here um so as you guys can see in your packet there are these um great
adorable school-based um oversights um and then each of the school line budgets are in the in the budget book as well so I'm actually going to ask Mr Hayward to start um and the middle school budget with you and then we'll go from
there okay um well my interaction with budget the budget process is a lot different during times of surplus versus scarcity which has been many many years now um be a very robust process where teachers would meet with their
department heads prior to them being cut and every request that we had had to be tied directly to either a school Improvement goal or how it would it improve our mcast scores um having done that in the past few years because I'm respectful of teachers time and I don't
want to put them through an exercise that's going to ultimately end in the same result of more cuts for the most part I've tried to um over lines that I have control of much of what's on these budget Pages related to the Middle School don't necessarily fall into my Direct Control there actually a very
small amount of lines but I've tried to look um reflectively at what was spent in the PRI years make cut um or reductions where I could uh and for the most part I've just tried to make actionable and execute the budget
realities that have been poed upon uh myself as the principal in order to um you know get it all and find Silver Linings where we can I will say some of the uh middle school stuff that uh I'll
say is kind of in soft areas as far as when you're looking at Cuts Like clubs and Sports when I look at our school day our offerings are very limited we've cut in my time 11 years we've cut Health we've cut language and specials we've
cut the Dina students we've cut uh additional math and Ela time at the middle school languages uh band and chorus art potentially steam as we're coming into that um so when I look at our school day
offerings they're not that much but when I look at a student experience throughout the course of the day what really is making us vibrant and exceptional at this time are our clubs and our Sports I mean those are the things that I say okay we're better than
most if I met had a meeting with our masso league principles the other day where I say okay we're excelling we're ahead of the curve so those soft areas you know and things like that I'll talk to Jan and central office about what I think is um sometimes it's not always cost a
lot of numbers being thrown around here a lot of times it's value what's the value of the money you're spending not simply the the cost so I try to explain to them value of everything that's on the budget line um and obviously cost and how it fits within the five schools and the various
departments is uh you know the tough decisions that are made but I can answer any questions that you have about particular lines or I'll try to V can you just give us I'm probably going to ask this question all the principles So you you're the guine I
guess first um that's why I made him go first can like when you guys you know central office is like all right we're going to have budgets for next year what is like the mindset from a principal standpoint of like do you put in do you get a committee together do you kind of
just be like all right what do we need what are our wants you know how do we do this like we I would just think from a school committee standpoint it's like what is the Insight of how do you actually go about this knowing the limited funding we essentially do have
and call it whatever 95% of your budgets is tied up in salaries how do you kind of get to that point of all right you know this is this is absolutely non-negotiable we absolutely have to do this you know to this is a need and you know and or this is a want and how do you prioritize those well obviously we
start with all of our um you know non-negotiables I have to teach math English social study science those are non-negotiables then we have the special ed and our programming there and then we get into softare is well do we have to have odd are we required by contract or
by law to have these things and those become areas where we say well that's where the knife might have to go or like I just mentioned with clubs and sports and so on under Surplus times or typical times you would involve teachers and everything typically especially I'll say
the last four to five years between Co I spend much of May figuring out how the heck I'm going to open up the school and meet all the contraction prep times for teachers those type of things for Paris and teachers teach all of the cool classes um you know and then I'm trying
to figure out how to put that into an operational master schedule for 600 students 550 students so yeah that's usually it's a very busy mon month of uh May and June trying to figure that out and master into July and August um
ideally again you're meeting you have department heads you're meeting with departments they're putting together the vision of what they would need to you know best teach the students and you know be able to do certain labs and have access and their kind of Prior prioritizing that then giving submitting
that to me as the principal and then we go up and again all those things tied back to a school Improvement goal or how it's going to increase um assessment scores I'm respectful I've teacher time I did not do that to them I have not done that in the past two cycles because
I'm not going to have them get together with the obvious reality that there's going to be Cuts mhm with that we know what we need we need quality materials we need Staffing we need programs I mean we need programs I I don't need to buy language books and music instruments I
don't even have those programs so those are easy cuts just right off um but you know for the most part lately it's um these are the realities how can we do this in the best way possible and that's where I try to figure out the master schedule and then prioritizing again
explain value versus cost the cost of something something could be hey that's really cheap but it gives you no value so why even spend a penny so I really try to look at what's the value of stuff uh and I look at it from contractual obligations legal obligations um and
then also um with just a students uh perspective like a student's day when I look at a students day they have hourong classes now they only have four core classes they go off to a mid selection of uh specials but it's really our after school programming and stuff that I that
makes it a vibrant place that's why should drive by the middle school my C there at 5:00 5:30 because there's always kids in the building doing stuff and I think you know for the committee itself my direction to the principles was we want to retain what we have this
year we want to make sure we are able to keep a level service budget um especially after you know needing to cut so significantly last year yeah we would be thrilled to keep what we have for the upcoming school year so it's um yeah so the process is like Jen
tells me and I put a SE up in a helmet so it's like okay and I know that sounds like kind of sad and pathetic but but it's the reality of the work that we do um we we want to
retain what we have because this year has been challenging as it is and you know we're fortunate enough that we were able to bring back a few things this fall but it it it we we want to be able to keep moving forward we don't want to be we don't want to have to make any additional cuts um and then if we can
continue to maintain what we have then we have the ability through retirements and resignations potentially to add other things back in down the down the line and so that's that's the tough part and thankfully for like all the challenges and different things that
come up even when we have like surpluses and stuff uh you know teachers don't have access for that money all the time we have we spend a lot of time and I'm very fortunate to have a staff that when we have a challenge or a problem we look at things other than money Solutions like what are some other solutions to
the problem or the thing that we have going on here and uh you know even in best times we're not a wash in cash so we spend a lot of time just what are solutions or how can we address challenges and usually money isn't part of what we're talking about it's all all these other things so then from like a
club and Athletics standpoint point you know obviously you know I don't know every 3 five seven years you know you're probably doing some type of eval on those like how do you guys decide on hey I'm making these things up obviously but you know the recycling Club is a big
thing right now and we have 25 kids in it you know but the crochet Club has only got five you know like how do you balance that and like what's that process yeah often times the student interest or or staff want to share some type of a passion we've had we have a lot of people that just do pilot clubs
and they just pilot a club teachers not getting paid but they'll just do it and they'll collect membership and prove to me that there's an interest in the club we've had uh the uh Spanish dance club uh retro movies Club retro video game club a crochet Club this year we have
all different things that kind of come on and then they kind of Catch Fire and then we try to work through the contract to get them in we have contract proposals right now being discussed to kind of streamline that process so it can be more responsive to student interest for the most po or just if you
know I have a staff member with a particular skill or something that they they want to share how can we turn that into a club we've had clubs evolve uh we used to have a math team that evolved into the Drone Club it's just it's like an evolution how do you get from here to there but so those change a lot um but
the process is a bit cumbersome because of the contract and the specificity of how we do that so we're looking to streamline that right now great so I a question this year's um budget this includes the Middle School like keeping what we have brought back yes mid year
last year so this includes keeping well you guys know we weren't able to find a music teacher we have Mr jrin from the Y going over and doing music with sixth graders that he worked with last year and hoping we'll be able to continue to build that club um But it includes art it includes and the
elementary budgets as well includes the positions that we brought back in the fall so the reading interventionist the math interventionist um art it includes all the teacher leadership roles yes so that 32,000 whatever is already already
included in all this so I just want to point out then um with saying that and bringing back some of the things that were cut so drastically last year the work that all of you have put
in to get us to an increase of 4.96 is like a miracle yeah I I just really want to point that out for people because there's not many times in my 90 years and and you can assest to it as well that we see you know s the amount of savings that you guys have come up with
so I just really think it's important to acknowledge all of our admin here today the couple of principles that aren't here the amount of work that you have put into this the way that it's been presented the way that you guys are doing this today is just it really is unbelievable that you have come in at
under 5% I was pretty excited when got to that number I know that we were asked at the Joint meeting to come in with with a 3% budget which no that's not how we do things here um but I just really want to acknowledge each and every one
of you for the amount of work that you guys have all put in I mean it is absolutely astonishing what you guys have done so thank you I think with Vinnie I'm pretty sure we started doing it the same time and I think the first time I ever saw him I was like oh by the way we're going to add soccer to your plate uh and then in
the spring I was like hey you know what we're going to have baseball and softball too um and just seeing the evolution of middle school cuz cuz to Vinnie's point it's it's lean within the walls but when you get outside the walls it's a very Dynamic and you know I remember you know coaching that uh
helping coach that soccer team and there was kids out there watching their friends and there was you know 45 kids that showed up for triy outs it was a phenomenal program and cross country too you know when that was added the the following year um it becomes a a mini
Community event once you go outside the the walls so um you know kudos to keeping you know you keeping going what you can outside the walls and then adding more programs uh and I still think unfortunately I'd like to say this room to add more but we can't keep stretching ourselves thin outside the
walls any other questions for Mr h no thanks thanks all right Marty G you're up um I don't think I have much more to say than what Vinnie said um we basically the lines that you see there are
95% salary so there's really not much that we that we really play with or do anything with we haven't added anything we've cut in the last few years and uh we have class sizes that are 27 28 in
fifth grade and we have class sizes that are for fourth graders 24 and 25 so so it's uh we're making it work and uh would have been nice to continue to have Esser funds to help support the learning that I don't want to like I don't like
to say learning loss that went on during uh Co but uh definitely the reading and math support that our kids need would be phenomenal to have back but we we piece it together and make it work the best way we possibly can um I think it's
important for um the committee and the public to know that Mr gagan did request a fifth grade additional fifth grade teacher for the upcoming year just because of the class size that is not currently in this budget so that is an unfunded request um but I do think it's
important for us to not there's actually a page of unfunded requests within the budget book um we were able to get through it for a couple years because we had like a smaller group that was coming that's currently the sixth grade at um Norton
Middle School um but those numbers have risen again so um I think it's important for people to know that that is out there Jen just to go off of that a little bit obviously if we have a larger classes at the you know K through five obviously we know our kindergarten class
right now is smaller than it has been in years past would that be an ability for next year to like possibly take a first grade teacher move them to fifth grade to balance out so we're not having 28 29 and we're trying to stay with that call it 22 23 potentially yeah so we actually
um we cut a kindergarten position last year um and so therefore um we may need to move that first grade somewhere else we may to move that first grade down to kindergarten depending on what those numbers look like we actually are just opening the kindergarten registration
process um so we always do look at those things and the principles are really good about looking at their sizes within their own building to see uh you know do we need to move one grid level over here um that's always something that we're looking at yes Nick this probably maybe I should
probably know this but what does the licensing look like so like is it is your license like K to six so like sixth grade teacher come down for like Marty's fifth grade the majority of our teachers either have a Early Childhood license which is pre- to 2 okay or a 1 to six an
elementary license which is 1 to six okay so hypothetically from a licensing standpoint a first not that doesn't probably happen but a first grade teacher could easily move up to fifth or sixth grade correct got it I mean I wouldn't recommend
it I'm sure the word easily but but Legally Legally Legally sure um that could be a big difference this probably is a discussion for another day and you can just say it just like that I know we were talking about um obviously the reading at the
elementary school levels and trying to get those you know more of our kids can read out a grade level basis or whatever um and I know you and Brian were working on what does that look like coaching standpoint how does that all kind of tie in um have we gotten anywhere on what looking at we are going
to have um some staff changes next year so um we are looking at how that will impact our flexibility so not yet perfect cool any other questions from
Marty Paul bar sure so um obviously I'm new to Norton this year so the process is is a little bit different than you know what I was involved with in Smithfield in the past however um to build on what both Vinnie and Marty said
in terms of getting teacher participation and voice um we did it a couple different ways and I believe that Tom Higgins did it very similarly preschool obviously we're the only school that has an Early Childhood Program and so Mrs Blackburn worked with her preschool staff to talk about
preschool needs um what they think they need for next year based on what they know based on you know referrals that have come in they work with Casey on that as well and so the preschool budget requests were Mrs black wearing with her staff in cooperation with Casey so that
is a little bit different for us um what we did and I know that JCS did something similar to this in the past I tweaked it a little bit just based on what my prior experience is and I'll just I'll hold it up not that you can read it but each grade level submitted a list of requests
and we did priorities like essentially have to have you know nice to have pie in the sky right exactly and so that's what we use to generate that very small percentage of the budget that's not salaries in terms
of what grade levels need and they work together on that and then I looked at it talked to them um special Educators work with Casey and our team chairs on what their needs are um and then in terms of Staffing and you know Jen made a great
point about Marty's request there are a couple requests that I had put forward that I don't think are in the in the budget but I do think it's important to talk about in terms of need what we should have so both Tom Higgins and I um talked about a 0.5 power professional
for each kindergarten classroom and here's here's the reasoning why um young young kids coming into kindergarten particularly the first half of the year they if they've never been to preschool schol um they don't know school they
don't know how to manage school a lot of them don't know how to tie their shoes um the routines of school they need a lot of hand overhand help on just zipping things and getting things you know so we don't have that in in Norton
and so we talked about how that would be an important need for both of the kindergart and programs both at J JCS and lgm um we were not under the um assumption that we would get it but we thought it was an important need to
discuss and so we put it in our request the other thing that I would say and and I and I'm not doing this in a selfish way but just you know that JCS in the past had an assistant principal and we don't this year and I knew that fully coming so that was not a surprise no
there was no bait and switch Brian didn't trick me um or Jen so but I do think one of the challenges is we're we're a much bigger School than Al and so I would prefer to spend my time like I think Marty does an excellent job
of this in classrooms with kids and not sitting in my office doing paperwork or other things but that stuff still has to get done and so what I had put in the budget was for not an assistent principal but like a a lower level like
dean of students type position to help with some of the things like for example I'm in the cafeteria for 2 and 1/2 hours a day during lunches that would be helpful for that you know arrival dismissal things like that I'm outside at arrival and dismissal every single day which is wonderful cuz I get to
greet and wave to families and I get to know people um I don't want to give that up but it'd be nice also to have somebody on the bus side to do those types of things so I just wanted to let you know those were things that um I I think are important going forward to continue having those conversations but
I wasn't under the illusion that we would be able to do that this year um so that was essentially our process there's one other thing I would like to just mention um I know that and I really appreciate the the district looking at schedules and you know that JCS has the
latest schedule of all the schools one of the challenges that that brings up is we have a a very difficult time getting substitutes because if you're a parent and you have children at any of the other schools you can't stay to 350 at
JCS because you've got to get home for your other kids and I will say there is an impact to not getting substitutes and I just I I would be remiss if I didn't bring that up um when we don't have enough substitutes and it happens
often we have to pull people to cover classes and the people that we pull are and we try and rotate it so that we're not depending on like Mrs Farley's here and you know she she's an excellent sport but we shouldn't punish people for
being comp competent and for being team players right we should spread that so but we have to pull special Educators we have to pull interventionists we have to pull par professionals we have to pull principles um and that is a that is a real impact because then if Mrs Farley
is subbing for half a day or Mrs fuchi I've got to I've got to pull her to do something the kids that they normally work with and the services that they provide which are incredibly important we've got to figure out a way to make that up so I just wanted to throw that out there just I don't think it's just
the JCS problem I know Marty and I were talking he has a similar challenge at his school but I think our school it's Unique because of the schedule so I just wanted to throw that out there in terms of budgeting just overall thank you any other questions for the
principles no um Jen I want to say thank you too because I think this is like I think Sher said earlier like it's all listed we can see exactly what's going on we can kind of run this now and compare and contrast and determine kind of where we need to go in the future obviously having the wants and needs
we've had before um you know but line item by line item by school has been extremely helpful just kind of laying out exactly where you know where there is some some potential to possibly grow or slice back and and kind of go from there so great job on that Dr Doan and Mr Higgins will be at
our Wednesday evening meeting to do the same thing for you guys they were unfortunately unable to join us this morning um so uh the only other thing I just want kind of talk through with you guys is this unfunded requests sheet um as you know we mentioned a few things
here uh the kindergarten assistants you see there's a reading interventionist there for the uh Yale School um we've been looking to add a library media specialist to the middle school for years and years and years um digital media Specialists a return of one of those positions and
then the night custodian as um Mr lazat said we have a huge amount of buildings and um we are down so none of these are included in our budget but as I said last year it doesn't mean they're not needs um so we want to make sure that we're including them for you as a
committee and for um the other boards in town so that they can see this is not a budget where we put all of our wants and wishes into it um that this is you know we there are things in here that we are not funding um and then the last page of
this packet that we're sharing with you ask quick question yes please refresh my memory if you have the number of years I want to say this is going back to when Vinnie started with I me and him 10 years ago this library media specialist at the middle school
has that been on there for 10 years yes yes it has because I had been asking for it and I believe you started with us right I started same year 2014 and it was actually we were very fortunate to be able to because we didn't have an
elementary library media specialist um just shared between the JCS and the LG and if you remember this beautiful Library um this was not like this and we can thank the the yel PTO or the the
parent group supporting um Julie dermis um who had the vision but it was we were able to um get her hired part-time between the two buildings but it makes absolutely no sense that we have you know one person covering three buildings
then we have no one at the middle school and then the high school I biger with what you answer that question I appreciate remember so Dan and and I just say this because I'm just passionate about this because our kids deserve better um that's why I wanted to
put it's been 10 years you asked me Dan you asked me where do we stand on AI yeah library media Specialists library media teachers are at the Forefront of artificial intelligence they are who is helping our
classroom teachers along with our digital learning Specialists along with our uh stem teachers or computer science they're the ones who are able to help students determine what is authentic and real and you know
misinformation and unfortunately our middle school students who are so easily steered in the wrong direction do not have access to that I think that's a it's an important time for those kids at those ages right they're getting ready to go to high school that the pressure
on these kids nowadays is so different like when when my kids were in elementary school it was us parents yes I worked in this Library I worked at JCS Library like on a regular schedule it was us parents that that were the ones in the libraries so people I think maybe
the newer generation doesn't realize how it was not too my kids are only 21 and 18 I like that's a long time ago right and that it was all parents doing it so we have come a long way but I think it's so important for the middle school that their ages and the way that the world is
using technology so much for them not to have that is a real disservice to to that age group you know going into high school and trying to prepare for college or whatever the next steps may be for them and this I mean this is a probably
a far-fetched question but like obviously we cut the DEA students at the middle school like is there a way to combine those two roles potentially where like our schools I mean you know we cut the dean I'm not saying obviously very valuable to what
we're trying to do but like is there a way that we can also cross those jobs that like if we were to figure out you know hey we have $100,000 for a position here let's get it to the middle school is there like would that be something that would be awes yeah shared like hey
you have you know I know I know but you have like the Dina students role but again and I'm not saying we haven't put on more on on Ronnie and Vinnie you know by cutting that role but we've absorbed that our schools are still running we're still open kids are still you know thriving in and out of the classroom if you will is there a way to also maybe
make 30% of that job a media specialist and to help out at the libraries and stuff like that again we we obviously understand that request there's different levels like when Karen's talking about media especially someone like with special training certification going to delve into that AI stuff the
best in the best of times what we've had is a consistent volunteer to allow book lending book lending as a function of a library is great and it's important but it's far different than library media Specialists the're two different things so could a Dean possibly make themselves
available so we have consistent ability to take in and out books you know once per week you know sixth grade this is your hour where we do the exchange of books but you know there's also a lot of peripheral time and we've talked about maybe having stew cow kids being able to restock the shelves cuz you have to like
put the books in the same locations and things like that so book lending is like one level and that's kind of what we've been able to do with volunteers Karen's talking about a totally different person and job which couldn't really be combined with a Dean so it's kind of like two different I'll say level or
tiers of of that space in in the position but yeah we we do consider everything like I've considered like you know we've had we've had years where we've had a volunteer and if they could be consistent across all grade levels we've done up to book lending uh but
that that's been the extent so far uh and just the final page is a school salary budget comparison between FY 26 and fy2 um this is something that I think the finance committee was kind of asking for as well um so this is you know so
you can see kind of where our money is going obviously the high school has the largest staff lgn has the smallest staff so they get the you know smallest piece of the pie but this is just the comparison of one year over the other
so um any questions that the committee has or do we know what is the for total budget if you will and again Christine you might not have the right pop your head by any means but on average what is our 100% of our budget how much of it is
in tied up in salaries um I forget last and then maybe this a question for Wednesday that if we can whatever hypothetically let's just say it's 90% that's tied up in salaries whatever is that
comparable around State averages is that like are we way under in Staffing are we right on Pace with Staffing are we you know over sta I don't I don't think that's the case but are we overstaffed you know kind of where is that fine line of you know how much money cuz I just
feel like and again this probably happens across everywhere but when you're you're putting together a budget and 95% of your Sal your your lines are tied up in salaries I mean there's no real room to do anything you know so it's just okay move the the number from one column to
the next exactly so like where does I I guess kind of I would like to see kind of where we fall in terms of like you know are we the same are we are we facing the same problems you know other schools are facing so on and so forth um we can definitely get you the percentage of our total budget that's tied up in
Staffing um I'll back do some research and see what we can do um in terms of getting like where we fall compared to other people um but I I don't know that off the top of my head um so my recommendation for the committee um
would be on Wednesday evening to approve um the budget at 4.96 which um is our level services for this year um if there's any questions or changes that you would like to see uh we can certainly make those between now and
then um Christine and I will you know present on Wednesday evening because it's our budget um our budget hearing so um that the community is open what we'll do Nick is we'll open the budget hearing we'll go through the budget we'll do the questions on the budget
hearing and then we'll close the budget hearing and open the regular meeting um so that's just the a process thing for us um but if there are any changes that the committee would like to see between now and Wednesday evening um just let us know and we can certainly do
that um I want to make something clear that I think I've made clear for 9 10 years the the budget we vote on is for lack of a better term largely symbolic um we as elected members of the school committee doing what's best for
all of our students um put forth what we think is the best budget for our schools and our students um then it goes through the process goes to the town manager goes to the finance committee and they give us a recommendation that recommendation is
what we present at town meeting that is what is presented at town meeting is a number that's recommended by all those involved as members of this community someone could very well say I would like to make the school budget changes however the money's going to come from
somewhere so there's always this discussion of living within our means when we get the number that town hall says this is whether that's 3% 4% we always live within our means every year so the vote we will take on Thursday is
what is best for Norton Public Schools sorry Wednesday um and it's really up to the people at at town meeting if they would like to see a change and they would like to have an increase the caveat is you got to take it from somewhere else to give it to the schools
every year that I've been here Mrs Cohen and you know some of the newer members every year the number we vote on changes and more than likely goes down I think maybe one year it might have slightly gone up um slightly meaning like 7% um
so we do what is best for who we are elected to serve which is essentially the students so this number will change this was our initial proposal um this number is down from what we got 3 4 weeks ago um so the the school and Dr
ril and her staff have done a tremendous job bringing this number down every year the number comes down so that in mind um what we vote on again is symbolic of what we feel is our needs every year it starts at level services
so but thank you to Dr O'Neal and your staff for this has in my 10 years been one of the easier ones to follow along and clearly laid out and thanks for my team for giving up a Saturday morning very much appreciated any other things questions
concerns comments good to go and 10 motion to adjourn so move second all those in favor thanks everyone