##VIDEO ID:o5ADZghe5uI## all right we're going to get started I am calling the Norton school committee meeting to order for Wednesday January 22nd 2025 for 6 p.m. um just if you are recording please just let us know we do have the nor media here uh recording as well uh first up we will do the Pledge of Allegiance I to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with liy and justice for all um just before we get started um obviously we had I can't believe we're doing this again but uh another tragedy here in Norton um just want to take a moment of silence for um Josie Pino and and her family thank you and uh yet again I would love to mention um how outstanding our superintendent and the admin team um you know all of our resources um you know Norton fire noron police obviously you know this has affected the community greatly uh such a tragedy um you know there really is no Works um so moving on um first top on the agenda is public comment period uh again this is a little new for us uh starting coming in January uh but if anyone out there has any public comments to make we can do so now seeing none we will be moving on uh vote to approve the minutes uh we got a bunch on here so we'll start with the I will entertain a motion to well everyone got a chance to read the minutes yeah yes um I will entertain a motion to approve the December 11th executive session meeting so second all those in favor I um next one would be the January 8th Open session meeting I motion to approve so moved second all those in favor I I I and the last one was our January joint uh meeting with the select board and the finance committee I will enter entertain a motion to approve so second all those in favor I thank you um moving on we got the warrants uh Mrs Kenan um I have reviewed and approve the following warrants the school expense warrant January 8th 2025 1,166 53058 and the school payroll warrants December 26 2024 1,147 1842 55 in January 9th 2025 1,230 191 162 um I wish to enter those into public record thank you moving on to our student upd bon in andt this is weird all right welcome to the big boy table all right um so starting at the yell students are getting super excited for our hey PTO Boosterthon fund run fundraiser which Just Begun this week free registration started on January 10th the Boosterthon on campus Personnel will be here working with our staff next week to build incentives for our students our big kickoff day was on Tuesday January 21st we have the booster th happening January 21st through the 31st each and every day with activities character lessons and more with our big glow fund run happening in the gym on Thursday the 31st throughout the day um this is a big fundraiser for the Yale um that they do every year which helps them pay for the new playground structures we purchased a couple of years ago um they are finally almost done and paying that bill um and also any other um money's raised will go to student assemblies with g books and helping to fill the book vening machine and other Student Activities the kids have little incentives each day to earn fun privileges throughout and then the big incentive of raising $20,000 will be for Mr Gigan and Mr balawa to do something fun and a little crazy in past years they've kissed pigs exotic animals including a kangaroo dueling as the all nights and last year we were slim slimed in purple goo we can't wait to see what we are going to have this year and then at at the JCS we celebrated Dr M Luther King Jr's birthday as a school Community with an assembly last Friday morning all prek K 1 second and third graders third grade students were invited the assembly included music that was either from the Civil Rights era or written about Dr King we learned more about Dr King using a slideshow with pictures of Dr King throughout his life and we watched a short video together that shared information specifically geared towards Elementary age students I shared a link to the video with the JCS families in the event that they wanted to watch it together as a family and talked about Dr King together third graders also wrote their own poems about Dr King and fifth grade students were select were selected to read their poems allowed during the assembly those students poems are displayed on the bulletin board in the main school hallway finally the slideshow that we discussed together as a school is being displayed in our lobby TV all week as a reminder of of the positive impact that of Dr King's message oh my god um and then from the Middle School the nms boys basketball team is having a terrific season and remains unbeaten at 11 and0 coach Json says they're not only very athletic and a great great at defense but they are are also a very nice group of kids enjoy to coach the nms drama program announced that this year's production will be Annie 94 students are auditioning further Parts auditions began yesterday and will continue through Thursday art enrichment classes now taking place at nms our new teacher Miss Julia lson has done a great job and and students that are taking the class are really enjoying it and have a have very positive things to say the seventh grade Midway Carnival is on Friday night it is fun free event hosted by nms parent board to celebrate grade s's halfway point through middle school Friday is day 90 of the school year that's all we have for today thank you very much any questions comments good uh next up is our student Spotlight series with uh the DECA Regional competition results okay so usually for these student spotlights I do the presentation but since I have the DECA president here with me this evening um Mr Benson Shen he is going to be presenting I'm going to go over there sure come on over very official hi everyone again um yeah thank you to Dr O'Neal for allowing us this opportunity so as most of you know um our um Deca chapter went to hyenas um a couple weeks ago um we had a very successful time um we brought about 60 students 70 students um there which has been pretty big in the past years um after Co it's been really hard to big kind of a sizable chapter um but this year has been really well and we had some really exciting results um but I'm joined with Benny and Talia um they're two of my peers um they're also Juniors and I work with them very closely in Deca so I'm just going to let them share a little bit um would happened I'm Benjamin yevich I'm the vice president of membership for Deca and like Benson said we sent about 70 students to districts uh which is 18 more than we sent last year so a big increase a lot more preparation uh and even though we had more students we still saw 41 which about 2/3 qualify for states the state competition in March and even though uh 26 didn't qualify 13 still uh received recognition for top 10 placement there category which means that they have a lot of future promise and we will hope to see them qualify next year uh as a district our district 8 sends 140 people to States and we as a chapter at nor and DEA are just 8% of those total people however we had 29% of the people who qualified so we had um a lot of contribution for even how small we are and we also had 10 out the 28 first place winners and 33 teams uh or individuals received a total of 55 mini Awards which are given uh to reflect scores on exams and role plays uh which is just another way that we showed our success in the challer I'm Talia BRS I'm the Executive Vice President of DEA um Norton is a historically small chapter for Deca so like we were going against well funded larger schools um it was incredible to have as much success as we did and that was due to all the training that was put into it from September all the way to December um Ben son was an amazing guy to put together a crazy um plan for all of the uh test prep roleplay prep um and just overall preparation that went into creating that success as well as we had three advisors who were incredible throughout the entire process helping kids through what they didn't know um testing role plays they helped through the free periods and after school as well as all the students and our 15 officers um they helped people feel comfortable and confident within their role plays cuz this is a new experience for all of these people they're going through an uncomfortable transition to something completely new um at the end of the day a lot of kids just had a new experience and they gained new new friendships and they overall just got confidence in themselves so that's what we strive to do yeah thank you both um but yeah it's really um like just a little bit of context if you don't really know what Deca is um so a bunch of schools it's all over Massachusetts it's an international organization so you compete at the district level the state level and then the international level um and Norton has always sent groups to each of those competitions um but you're really you're you're scored on three components which is two role plays um which is just a conversation or a presentation with the judge usually teachers administrators any really volunt um and then an exam which is 100 questions multiple choice and then that averages out and then that's your score um but like Benny was talking about inalia we go against a lot of schools that have Deca as a class and while we do have business classes this is what some kids are doing every single day um through their rotation and this is something that our students and staff are doing when they have the free time when they could be doing a lot of other things um so that's just why our success is really worth you know shedding light to um it took a lot of effort not only only just us um but the other people um that are out here today but thank you guys thank you um thank you um to Benson and Talia and Ben uh for coming and pres presenting to us tonight I think um our DeckOver program has always been successful at Norton High School but to see these numbers and these returns and how many of you qualified to go to States you guys have so much to be proud of I heard a lot about the um the training session that you guys had going on this spring sorry this fall and um awesome awesome job I'm very proud of all of you and I can't wait to see what comes next so seport in March yes seport in March congratulations guys thank you congratulations thank you yeah I mean just highlighting some of the things even that we got in our packet um I mean I know they didn't really think they were a little humble um you know their exam scores over the last three years have gained significant traction uh going up about eight points from last year their role play went up over five points and obviously as we talked about their attendance so you know quite the uh quite the feat and definitely certain you know certainly proud of uh our Decker chapter here in Norton uh next up is our review and vote on proposed 2526 school calendar okay hot off the presses I know this is something that people always are waiting for is to see the school calendar um so this is a very traditional calendar for Norton uh has students returning on the uh Tuesday following Labor Day which this year is uh Tuesday September 2nd um that would be for grades 1 through 12 our kindergarteners always start on the Wednesday and then our little Lancers preschool program always begins on the Friday uh so that is very traditional for us um the December break is actually going be very similar to this current year except the extra day off will be at the end of The Break um where the um New Year's Day is on a Thursday we'll keep school closed on Friday the 2nd doesn't really make a lot of sense to come back for that one day and open the building so students will return on Monday January 5th um and with all if all goes well with minimal snow days we will actually be out on Friday June 12th um which is an incredible day and we very rarely see it happen that soon um so that's what we're proposing here um you will notice that this just as uh the last several years staff comes back in August the Tuesday and Wednesday before Labor Day for our um welcome back and professional development day and then also that um totally lost my train of thought here um there are no other days off in terms of an election or things like that cuz there doesn't seem to be any need for it um it's not a presidential election year so we would uh have school on election day in November so as I was reading this um it'll be my last year with a child in Norton Public Schools but I wanted to specifically address the T the Gap in March for for time off MH so my thought initially if we can work out is the 26th is an elementary early release is it possible to make the 27th a districtwide early release so we actually have not added any of the districtwide early release dates yet um that's something that we're looking at internally um just to kind of see I don't love them on Fridays personally I think it's it's becomes a day where um we end up missing out on people um so I I think think ideally I would love to change those days um but there will absolutely be an early release day in March um we will you know likely continue to do the one a month except for November um we don't do them in November and December Y and June cuz my my concern was from from February to April break is 40 straight days of school with not a half day scheduled and no days off and no holidays so that's just it's the longest stretch we have through the school year and it's been historically a problem for many years but I think we just have to get in a half day or if we had an in school you know in year PD day if we go back to that model at some point then it should be that March day or something but um that's a long stretch um for our students so I think that's something that needs to be looked at in some way shape or form to get something off in March pill checks said no days off so um Jen it's the only question I would have is with with the district early release days and anything else would there any be anything held up in teacher negotiations that may affect this um at this time I don't see anything that would be an issue um if we as of right now um it schedules the students for 180 days as required and our staff contract at this time is 182 um so I don't see any issues but this at least gives families a rough idea of when we return um and what those vacation weeks will look like CU I know people start planning we get phone calls and questions right and then I mean in terms of voting um is it something we can vote on as is and then as we possibly add early release days yeah we'll just what we'll do is I I mean I would recommend voting on the calendar as a um and then we would come back and bring you guys the um early release dates and it would be just we would vote to add themo because depending on the midterm schedu and you'll notice those midterm days are already built in that was what I forgot I was going to say earlier those midterm days are so that way it just just build a in it makes sense did we used to just kind of a side note on that talk did we used to have three half days for midterms and we changed it at some point cuz I I thought I remember we had three we used to have three and then and we had zero for maybe a very short period of time and then we went to two [Music] Okay Okay um and then do you have a estimated time on when we would look to have the early release day and schedule completely finalized oh yeah um I would say no later than March perfect and how many do we typically have to add in you said you're aiming for one a month uh we do so the way that we've done it is I believe there's seven we do September October November no September October January February March April and May so seven we skip the month of no November because at the end of the month with Thanksgiving you also typically have Veterans Day in there and then with the holiday break in December it it it's too much time so we just we skip those months yeah because if we can would it be too much of an issue to say have two half days in March versus cuz I'm just thinking like um you know some of the ons that have you know multiple holidays or it's coming off a break or something like that where I I just I find I struggle with this every year when we look at the calendar that it's just a long stretch for for the kids um as the school committee you guys can choose to do whatever you'd like you might have some Elementary parents picking it outside your home but um well I was just going to add personally um those Friday half days I think are tricky and I'm not yes personally but also I feel like as an ele Collective um I've heard that those are a challenge and then on behalf of the little Lancer families those Friday half days for those students that are in the PM preschool they're paying the same tuition and losing a significant amount of teaching days so um I I don't know anybody else's thoughts on full day PD days instead of once a month half days if that's something to consider or if we want to keep the half days I don't know I just so if we were to transition and add full day PD days that would increase the teacher day so we would go from teachers working 182 to working 183 or 184 so that has a financial impact that's has um a contractual impact um unfortunately we can't swap two half day PDS for a full day just because students need to attend for the 180 and they are real sticklers about that at the um at the department um but it's something that I think what we'll do Brian and I will sit down and take a look at what our recommendations are for those early release days and share them with you all um and we can you decide how we want to proceed is is there anything that says it has to be a Friday for an early release no okay and ideally I would love to get rid of the Fridays yeah I mean I think everyone I think the Fridays have a lot of issues um even from the PD side I just know very much working exactly working and you work all week with you know kids and then all of a sudden you have to try to go to PD on a Friday afternoon sounds like a complete nightmare I feel like attendance and everything else paying attention I I just feel like that's a very tricky subject and I think I mean Dan you're the probably the only one that was here when we move they used to be Thursdays and then we moved them to Fridays and they and our thought was like if you put them on a long weekend or if you put them the Friday before a break maybe families will be able to take off earlier but it it really just it it chall it's we have attendance issues um with that and um you know as you said Nick people aren't super motivated on the Friday afternoon before a long weekend or before a vacation and I totally understand that is there I know we always have done traditional early release days have we ever looked at late start days yes we have done late start days at the high school um I have to think about this how long ago maybe we stopped doing them I'm going to say probably 10 years ago not since I've been here so definitely um I'd say probably about 10 years ago [Music] um there were different beliefs and opinions on you know how ready for learning students came in at 10:00 um [Music] and we eliminated them for that reason so and then if the high school is only the only one that's available it's hard to do vertical alignment with curriculum if you you know if you wanted 6 to 12 to do something together um but that's that was the reason we did away with those a number of years ago any other questions no are we good to vote on this with the to finalize the schedule before March all right cool so I feel like I'm reading the room I right I entertain a motion to approve so second all those in favor I I uh next up is the first reading on the entrance age policy update okay so um 2018 the school committee was was approached by a member of the community to um revise our entrance age policy for kindergarten to give a little bit of wiggle room for students that may not be five by the August 31st date so what we did at that time was we uh we implemented this third paragraph that you're seeing in front of you that students who are born after August 31st but before the first day of school for Norton could be screened at the request of their parents so we've been doing this for a number of years unfortunately what Pam and I recently discovered is that the previous policy on entrance age was actually the paragraph at the top and then numbers one and two and when the policy was changed number three just replaced the entire piece and so ultimately we want to update the policy now to now include the information about children that are five honor before August 31st are eligible for kindergarten and also this piece for number two the initial admission of children to first grade will will involve a consideration of of their chronological age as well as their Readiness for the academic work right now all we have is number three and it really doesn't give us any guidelines for any other circumstances so what we're asking you to do is to basically reinstate the previous with with the addition of what was approved in 2018 so it's a comprehensive entrance age policy I think unfortunately it was replaced by accident instead of being added to yeah yeah I remember when we went through this because the the parents were in front of us with the slideshow and and everything else but I'm curious on number two from the first grade would that be if if a child doesn't attend kindergarten Here we would still take a look at is that what's that's kind of geared towards on number two it it certainly could be um kindergarten is still not mandated by law um so we do on occasion find a child that has not had a school experience be and looking to come into first grade um we also will find that families will send their child to a private kindergarten setting where they may have an October or November birthday and then they want to enroll their child in first grade but they're technically not eligible by Age based on our policy and I think that was one of the things that came up when we looked at our policy and said oh wait a minute our policy actually doesn't say that so um this those are the types of situations that come up Y and and I'm sure we may have a handful here and there but this isn't something that's pressing every year right no it it's it's certainly the exception more than the rule um you know I have in my role as assistant superintendent I had conversations with parents all the time that were interested in sending their child early I explained that I have two July babies and I sent one and I kept one and you'll never regret the more time but you might regret sending too soon um and usually they just kind of need to talk it through with somebody um and we've you know assessed students in the past and given our recommendations and in some cases said yes they're ready in other cases we said no we really we really recommend another year and that decision is final and so that has has been beneficial I think over the years I think for both families and for the district yeah I mean I I was a September birth date so as an October child but you and I grew up in a very different generation right now so I'm not saying we're old yet I'm just saying sure and again this is just a first reading so it does not need any action tonight because it's policy we have to present it twice publicly and you can only vote at the second time okay any other questions on this one no just for number two do so when you when it says um consideration of both chronolog chronological age and Readiness does that mean that if a student um is there like a screening kind of process before yes okay yep so what we typically do and it's a little bit different like if you're coming into kindergarten we give you a different assessment um but we use we typically use star which is something that's really easy for us to be able to do um an early Elementary student we would do the curriculum based measures with them as well just to kind of see where they're falling and um if that academic wri seems to be there do does that have to be like explicitly written in here like a I don't know I don't know that I would want to put the assessments we give no or just just like a we'll come in for a or we'll participate in um we could say that they would be screened um I don't know well I just don't know if that's helpful for you I mean that's absolutely what we do 100% um and then that's the process we explained to the parent and and unfortunately we really haven't had this to back us up which has been a little bit tricky but that is 100% the process yeah okay can I just point of clarification I guess so right now this policy as written is what you're proposing the right now this policy is written is just number three just number three so you're adding the first two got it okay first two were there but got bumped out but then got bumped out now we're trying to get them back in to give us more y got it a little more clarity on the process perfect um all good all right moving on then since we don't have to take action on that uh would be the discussion here we go again uh discussion on the FY 26 school budget all right I'm GNA let Mrs Hatfield take the lead on this [Applause] um all right so what you have sorry nice and close um so what you have in front of you is um a level service budget for fway 26 we have asked um every Department um building principal and admin to submit to us their level um service budget which is very similar to last year um so on our first round we um are looking at at an increase of um 2,273 29 um that will bring us to a 6.21% over fy2 um at the bottom of this page you'll see that we separated it as we have done in years pass um the first section is the mandated educ education which is our special education services and staff um this also includes all the added District placement and special ed um transportation in District and out that increase for the spend Services is 7441 45 um with a 5.1 1% increase um the next is for the general education budget and also all of our other operation pieces that includes um the transport the general transportation our Athletics all of our utilities and our other um operations so that increase over 25 is 1, 463,000 the salaries due to the all the um contract obligations and that is every single Department um whether it is the teachers the Paris custodians admin admin assistants um and that is 2 Milli 7156 um the next is our out of District costs for tuition um it's a little bit lower this year at this moment only which is $102,000 um that has already ebed and flowed a little bit in the last 2 weeks so that number could change um along with the number below it which is why it has an aster next to it which is the it District special education transportation we have had a lot of students this year that we were able to um ride together going to the same location so that has had significant savings um the next is other add um special education programming increases for $84,000 um that's typically our contract Service lines and other services that are required um 400 I mean sorry $49,000 for our um in District um transportation with our Bloom contract and then we also had a decrease in supplies um this is predominantly sped supplies and um other testing material in travel of a umga 14,000 and the last piece is our operations this is typically our utilities our facilities um and it's 6,480 which gives our grand total for FY 26 um 37 37 m742 so I think um Christine and I shared with you um a little bit more of a comprehensive budget binder as well this year where you are able to go through in look and see um every single line item so it is broken out number one first as the entire budget uh for the district then it is broken down by school U by Department um and then you also have all of our school school choice funds at the back so you can see how those lines are are developed year-over-year we wanted to give you these two cover pages too um because number one it's a little bit of a more of a user friendly work working document um I know one of the things that I found last year and working with our community is you know trying to make it accessible for them um so um as I've shared with you all here and as I shared at the Joint meeting um our goal for next year is a level service we want to make sure that we are maintaining the current levels of Staff in programs that we have right now um so that is 6.2% if you recall and I'm sure um the public does as well last year that number was 12% so I I feel I think we both feel pretty good that you know we're able to bring that level service number to you this year and and a place that is is more reasonable um as Christine mentioned there are still changing targets um on a daily basis however um we are still continued and committed to looking at ways that we can save um and ways that we can do things in a more creative manner to get that six %c number down a little bit more one of the biggest challenges us for us this year as we are preparing the budget is the fact that we are in contract negotiations with all three of our unions so we are making projections but we are not able to really tie down any of that until those contracts are finalized um so it's not that we don't have the information or we're not willing to share the information or we're not prepared it is simply that we don't know what those numbers will be um as you know one of the things that we've all we always have you know or for a number of years the school committee has seen has been the mandated educational costs um up against General expenses and operations I also think it's important for us to know that our elll services are included under that mandated education as well as our homeless Services um those are all really important I never want to make this a special education versus a general education conversation it is Our obligation and our duty to service every single student that walks in our doors um so but I know that's something that we always talk about and we always look at um and then the other the budget action item that we're sharing with you it's it's helpful I think for people to see how you get there how do you start with one number and then up at another um so hopefully those lines will give you a little bit of clarity around um exactly why um we are asking for that 6% again this is just a first draft we have um a lot of opportunity to work with you work with the committee um if there are questions um within the budget documents that you receiv received it's a lot um there is significant like there's a million line items to go through um and what I always do and when every time Christine gives me the packet is I go almost all the way over to the are right and I look at the percentage increases on lines and then I'll say okay talk to me about this one or talk to me about this one and I think it's important for people to know too that often times we will move items between school choice and the regular budget and that's how we end up balancing our budget at the end of the year as using more in school choice so um I'll open up to questions or conversation with the committee and we can go from there thank you Christine any questions um I think this is one of the easier easier on the eyes presentations I've had in in a long time um you know this really and I I pride myself knowing the ins and outs of our budget I've been doing this for for quite a while um and unfortunately we see a lot of the same things every year year over year we talk about them every year is the mandated funding for special education which we can't do anything about um you know but I think you know the the one concern which we can't really do anything about is that those contract negotiations are are really going to play a big part in this budget and you know I I hope we can you know come to come to those agreements before we're submitting our budgets um you know this is a good starting point um in an Ideal World this would be a great ending point it's not going to be an Ideal World um so I think this this really kind of does put everything in a good way to to view it so um I think as you mentioned Dr O'Neal that we have to Now put on our creative GS and see what we can do to um possibly bring this number down I also want to mention that you guys did receive a list of Staffing requests at the front those are not included in the budget those are simply robs um I guess my first question is so basically obviously with the contract negotiations and I just kind of want to make this more publicly this increase in salaries due to contractual obligations is a a shot in the dark placeholder than more than anything sub you change correct I like that um perfect any other questions um I just want to say I thoroughly appreciate this presentation because the budget is definitely the area that I struggle with understanding and from last year to this year like I just thank you thank you to the team I really appreciate this and I also think the community will as well CU you do make it very easy to to read and understand so thank you thank you um and I and I want to mention that um Christine and I are available to meet with you oneon-one if you have questions or you know want us to walk you through um a little bit more we did give Dan Nick a preview as the chair and vice chair before our meeting and I think it was helpful for the four of us to have a conversation about um you know our goals and what our you know hopes and dreams are for this year um but it's you know please let us know we're always happy to sit with you and have a conversation um obviously I think the we can talk about the elephant in the room you know based on the joint meeting and obviously seeing uh the town manager budget or proposed type budget today that we got in our emails you know um obviously I think 6.21 is never happening to be quite to be to be honest um so I think yeah definitely getting creative and I think from the school Community standpoint you know we got to figure out you know do some homework on your own ask those questions and we got to figure out how to get creative for for [Music] sure um how did we any we have homework before our next meeting that's exactly what I'm saying D the how did do what did we factor in for uh the state funding where we doing back to 30 or we had 104 based on this budget the perfect vote no um it was based on the 30 but it's looking like it could be up to 75 from the state okay but so so we don't factor that into our numbers because that will factor into what the town receives as part of their local Aid so um if you looked at U Mr unit's proposals earlier today um he has some there's a line there and I'll be honest I have it right here with me um there's a line here that projects local AIDS so um but that's not until the state finalizes their budget not until the state finalizes it won't be until roughly um July um maybe but we can't so that really comes this is all costs versus the revenue piece that that will come from them so we this is just what it's going to cost us to run the district I mean I guess obviously you know going back you know to $30 or $70 or you know this past year we got4 or um you know has your Association and maybe what can the school committee do um to hopefully try to somewhat increase that number you know we obviously know n Norton is a district that you know has the the ability to pay or whatever the state defines us as um you know but you go down the road whether you go to adabor or Taunton or you know anywhere else kind of it's either you know you're we're lumped in with the Westwoods you know and in their ability to pay but we're the exact same and we all know they're not the exact same so I mean is that something that we can bring up with our representatives and try to I mean that is the number that is where you can get some significant amount of money um you know to be a little bit more fair across the board absolutely so um a few weeks ago or maybe last week I was able to present to um the Norton Republican Town Council and one of the things that I shared with them is um a few a few key areas where we really could use people to reach out to their elected officials and and and advate for the schools um number one is all around the minimum minimum Aid per District so that's what Nick mentioned was the $30 last year we were fortunate to get 104 um and that money immediately goes to the general fund on the town side so as the committee knows we advocated at fall town meeting to get that extra $74 per student um allocated to the schools it is a per pupil but the way that it works is it go goes to the general fund so what we number one need to do is Advocate at the state level and say that you know $30 per people of additional chapter 78 is not sufficient and that the funding formula is broken and that they need to put together a group who look at the student Opportunity Act and look looked at look at the equity as you know as you mentioned like Norton is not wealthy we are not going to be able to support our schools in the way that a community like Welsley is able to and and it's honest not fair to ask us to do that either and so number one look at that look at the equity in that but also number two is once it comes to the general fund the per pupil allocation should come directly to the schools and so whether we get $100 or we get $1,200 per student especially if we're doing the advocacy we want to make sure that money is going to the needs of our students in our community um the other thing that is really important for people to advocate for to their elected officials is um circuit circuit breaker reimbursement which is circuit breaker reimbursement is for um students who attend a special education program outside of the district so any student that goes to a collaborative or private private placement to best meet their educational needs Norton is responsible for the first $40,000 of that placement anything over and above is supposed to be reimbursed through the circuit breaker fund um that number fluctuates year over- year um sometimes it's 65% reimbursement sometimes it's 75% reimbursement right now my organization um mass is advocating that it should be no less than 90% reimbursement um so that's something I mean theoretically it's supposed to be 100% reimbursement but it's not so real quickly on that point when it comes to out of District placements When you mention reimbursement like that mhm most of the out of district schools are not I don't want to say not monitored but they charge what they charge and you pay what you pay like there's no you know what I think 10% increase is too high there is State white group that sets the rate um how or can set the range didn't it go up yes so initially all of the increases were like 3 to 5 or 1 to three or something like that and two a few years ago it was 14 % um and then the following year was seven so you had a 20% increase in a very short period of time which was debilitating for districts um so the reimbursement process like that's what circuit breaker is for and you'll notice on some of the documents that Christina shared with you it says net of circuit breaker so we take that money we turn around and take that money and pay tuitions for the following year um the other piece that goes right along with it is special education transportation we are supposed to to get reimbursed last year we were promised 75% we were only given 57% that's a big difference I'm going to reverse their numbers yes but they revers them really publicly and so um that is what I ask all of you to do an advocate for um and tell your friends so do we know speaking of increases do we know if the our audit District partners are proposing increases this year or do we have a time frame and when that might be um we do not have for the collaboratives but for the private forway 26 it's 3.67 okay and again like this is exactly what we said you know just doing that that's 3.67 if we only get a 2 and a half% budget where someone's got a that's this is the this is the ongoing unfortunate problem that we're having um and obviously at the state level the state's telling us up to $40,000 we do our part and then they're supposed to reimburse us and they don't so like that needs to be a huge you know piece and you know what I'm going to try to look to do here is try to you know reach out to area school committees and try to get a a little bit more numbers in action here because you know the state telling us 75% and then cutting us 133% yet again it it goes back to the taxpayers box to try to figure out how do you do this you know Andor the budget's already set and now you're trying to find out you know where you can pull from to make up the difference so it's it to me it's a never ending cycle and until the state actually does what they're going what they say they're going to do we're just going to be in this revolving door you know for for years to come you know and I think we all know how the override vote went I don't think that that's not going to be even on the table you know for years to come here that we're going to keep seeing an issue until we can actually get the state to you know do what they say they're going to do and as far as the reimbursement rate goes for out of District if that's across all towns right it's not like oh you're in ability to pay districts so cons consistent it's something that they will set as part of the governor's budget um and that fre will be consistent do we I know it's early in the the year um do we anticipate any changes from the federal level with grant funding or anything like that like when are we going to see do we anticipate seeing increases or anything new or so ultimately the states are almost a year behind when it comes to federal funds um so this we will get excuse me we will get our allocations in July for our federal entitlement grants um so those are the title grants our special education idea Grant so that should be fairly consistent um we are seeing some Rumblings that 2A which is our professional development Grant might be going away um but those should be fairly consistent for this up for FY 26 um down the road I don't really know um I I do know that the Department of Education as it stands as a federal entity is actually um very much built into policy and law at the federal level so to actually make a change to the federal department of Education would require a lot of red tape and other things whether they don't just don't fund it I I I don't know but um this year we should be okay yeah I'll forward you I actually sat on a seminar thing um two Fridays ago from the Massachusetts associations of school committees they did like a 1 hour lunch webinar and I turned it on about like what the department of education does at the federal level and what it kind of all means but actually sent me a recording of it and I it was actually pretty interesting to see you know kind of what how that all shakes out and like Jen kind of talked about the laws around it and kind of what they actually do um you know from a from a federal standpoint on education so I'll I'll for that on to you guys so you guys can take a look CU like you know for an hour inste turn on the background it's kind of you kind of learn some crazy things yes okay any other questions concerns what was um when are we doing a budget seminar at some point too is that in our meeting dates or we can schedule one we need to schedule one yeah yeah I honestly have never done when I remember when I first got on we we talked about doing a Saturday um you know at the high school and do a breakfast and sit down for 4 hours and bang it out um I think one of the big things that I would like to see is if we can actually bring that I would rather sit and knock some of the out in a one- day thing everyone knows what we're doing rather than doing it across multiple meetings I feel like we got so bogged down with the budget last year that not that we forgot all what other things going on but it was just like budget after budget after budget after you know meetings I would rather try to get a lot of the budget stuff done come to a good spot make changes as we kind of need to need to and then you know do it that way that's what we did historically right up through it's honestly much better I I think maybe you disagree with me D but no no no I was just saying you know historically we did it that way um I don't think we ever took 4 hours no um because I mean it's there's only so many things you can do and change I mean you can go line by line but um we did we did that right up through Co and then we I think we tried to do like two birds one stone with our public hearing and our budget in a regular meeting but that's not going to work out um and I think last year was we all know was a challenging budget year but it was a very unique budget year like in all of my time here I don't think there it's ever been that much budget discussion and there was a lot of outside factors from the schools and towns and things like that but um I know we had like I said we used to do it historically um on a Saturday morning at central office but I mean to your point if we get everything on the right page and that is our we used to do it the Saturday before a meeting so then that that that meeting we voted on what we had just gone through there was yeah I just for me it seemed like and this is to no one's fault whatsoever but it's like you know you get stuck on one topic whatever it may be on the budget session you know and then it's like 45 minutes an hour in an hour and 40 minutes in you know and I feel like you just kind of got peace meal together in a way over multiple meetings where like if we can just sit down and hash some of that stuff out I think that would be you know largely beneficial to bring that back I've never done that before so I don't exactly know what that looks like but I would rather sit at 8:00 on a Saturday morning and and do it you know and get it done and hopefully get it done correctly and then when we come to meetings it's more of you know this is what we're looking at this is what we're looking to do and keep these things you know to a not that we're going until 10 o' at night yeah I mean a lot of it you know is our our process is has remained relatively the same as we we look to do its best for our students we know I I don't think we've ever had a fully funded budget since I've been here from from our initial draft to our end draft I don't think it's ever been the same um but I think that you know to to just lay everything out have our different scenarios cuz I think that was what we was unique about last year is we could get to a certain place and then oh uh we needed to be this percentage or oh this or you know those different things and we may still need to do that this year because we don't know what the you know as we saw in that initial email today um you know we're going to there's going to be changes along the ways I always I always look at our budget it's a very living document and it we've seen changes right up until town meeting in years past probably going to do it again so but I think you know to to have that isn't necessarily A Bad Thing to just put everything you know on a whiteboard or whatever it is and just start from the top and you know I mean or we got to go through thousands of line items probably not but if we look at the big hitters and um you know again think creatively then maybe we make some changes yeah I mean I'm I'll say this publicly right now too I think moving forward with especially when we go into negotiation negotiation years I think we need to look at possibly starting them a little sooner um we know our budgets due you know around March 24th every year um you know my fear here is you know negotiations might not be wrapped up for all three unions potentially um you know hopefully they all are um but I think that's going to be a huge factor and again to build a transparency and trust and everything else people aren't going to follow along and pay attention and when that number or if that number has to change by the millions um you know that to me that's an issue so I would like to see you know as we go through negotiations and again maybe it's not any of us on this board um you know but I think it would be a nice thing to you know maybe push those negotiations a little earlier and have it be the goal that we're in locked in ready to go um you know from Collective mindset because you know just like for the teachers it's easier once everything's done and over with it's that less stress and no one's worrying about going into the summer you know not having a contract whatever it may be so I would like to kind of maybe see if we could push those negotiations a little sooner if if possible when we when we have those years so if we would like to do a Saturday Workshop our budget is due to town hall on U Monday March 24th I would recommend maybe Saturday March 1st if that date works for the committee um I think we have a t tely schedule for February 8th but that might be few early what are your thoughts Christine I feel like we might want to play around with it and get a little bit more creative before we do the full budget Workshop um I'm sorry Jim what was that dat it I was saying perhaps um Saturday March 1st because then we do have a meeting on the 5th where you guys could approve it um oh it looks oh actually I'm sorry we have it on the 12th so I apologize we have the 12 so we could do either the March 1st or March 8th I mean honestly if it all depends on timing for me I mean I can do if if we went in the morning whatever be we we would it'll be another missed soccer practice or something but other than that you know I should be pretty good for the morning if we did Saturday morning the eth is better for me e yeah I don't see a see an issue with the E either for from my standpoint I mean do you think just with that work for you yeah M sure do you think we should I mean again I just know how these let's sorry let's watch to March 8th first do you think we should tentatively schedule another meeting on the 19th before we get this budget squared away for now as well I know we'd be back to that meet meetings for the week what be because what happens if we don't have something squared away for the 12th and now we have a long question anything I think that would be the goal is to get everything squared away by the eth because otherwise it kind of going back to what you just said we're dragging out the budget for another session mhm or if there's maybe things out like if we have questions on the eth well I guess what I'm saying is it should we schedule it now tentatively and then if we get to the eth and we're all comfortable and we know we can vote on it on the on the 12th we can just cancel the meeting on the 19th that's my only concern the 12th to the 19th and not have to have a separate meeting well we also have the have enough notice you can add it that we advance I mean I guess I would just kind of look at the committee to possibly thinking in case maybe leave that 19th open on your calendars and then as we kind of go through this process again you know because like I said I don't my my goal here is I don't want to be sitting here talking about the budget and doing what I felt like was nothing else but the budget for the next three four five months whatever maybe J what was that definitely doe in two so what was that due date yes sorry we have a we have a school committee meeting on March 12th due to town hall it is due the 24th so my recommendation is that we're going to meet on the 8th for our budget Workshop that we schedule ourselves to do our budget hearing and the budget vote on the 12th and worst case if we're not ready we could cancel it and reschedule for the 19th but that would be my recommendation to do budget form budget hearing and budget vote on the 12th y be ready what time on the 8th um on the 8th uh a.m. is that too early serious the only problem I I'm going to have some type of game that will probably be at one or two which is fine we won't be doing this till on yeah that's what I'm saying so I just don't want to push it back to 11: I would rather just get get in there and get out of there 9 9:00 7 a.m. no 9 is f what time do Scher kids get up they're up Ear I like sleep too but when you have something to do just get get in there and get out we're up by like 6:15 so whatever you need all right so 9:00 a.m. March 8 okay perfect cool all right any other questions concerns suggestions good on that where will it be last question um it will likely be in the yellow library because uh the conference room isn't big enough so we'll probably do in libr public meeting right it all of our meetings are public meetings well I'm just announcing it's a public meeting yes yeah that makes sense yeah not an executive session uh anything else on the budget for the public if they want to join if they want to come and join us throwing stuff um all right moving on then other business any topics not anticipated in 48 hours um just Christine shared some information with you guys earlier this afternoon um that was at the request of the finance committee so we wanted you all to be able to see that before we sent that out tomorrow um and that's it all good yep all right I have motion toour so all those in favor thank you nice job guys