##VIDEO ID:MuNLqirCmTQ## all right started I coming the nor school committee meeting to order for Wednesday January 22nd 2025 for 6m uh just if you are recording please just let us know we do have an an here recording that's well uh first up we will do the before we get started um obviously we have I can't believe again another tragedy here in Norton um just want to take a moment of sment for Josie and her family thank you and uh yet again I would love to mention U how outstanding our superintendent with the Avenue team um you know all of our resources um you know R fire R police obviously you know this is affected the community greatly uh such a tragedy uh you know there really is no words um so moving on um first up on the agenda is public comment period again this is a little new for us uh starting kind of in January um but if anyone out there has any public comments to make we 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 to approve the December 11th executive session meeting all those in favor um next one would be the January 8th Open session meeting I motion to approve all those in favor and the last one was our January 8 joint uh meeting with the select board and the finance committee I will enter entertain a motion to approve alling we got the warrant mred and approve the following warrants the school expense warrant January 8 2025 1,166 53058 and school pay Warr December 26 2024 4,1 147842 55 and January 9th 2025 1,231 19162 I wish to enter those into public record thank you moving on to our student update B and all right so sorry I'm not the yell students are getting super excited for our he PTO Boosterthon Fun Run fundraiser which just beun this week registration start on January 10th the booster th 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 this is a big fundraiser for the Y of year which helps them pay for the new playground structures we purchased a couple of years ago they finally almost done and paying that bill and also any other money raised will go to the student assemblies with re your books and helping to fill the book vending machine and other Student Activities the kids have little incentives each day to earn fun privileges throughout and then the big incen of raising $220,000 would be Mr Mr valow to do something fun and a little crazy in past years they've kissed pigs exotic animals including a Kangoo dueling AS nights and last year we were slim sled and purple goo we can't wait to see we are going to have this year and then at the JCS we celebrated Dr R Luther King Jr's birthday as a school Community with an assembly last Friday morning all PR first 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's life and we watched a short video together that shared information specifically geared towards Elementary students I shared a link to the video of the JCS families in the event that they wanted to watch it together as family and talked about Dr King together third graders also wrote their own poems about Dr King and fifth grade students were were selected to read their poems allowed during the assembly those students poems are displayed on the bulletin board in the main School hway finally the slideshow that we discussed together as a school is being displayed in our lobby TV all week as a reminder of do of the positive impact that of Dr King's message my god um and then from the Middle School the NS boys basketball team is having a terrific season and remains unbeaten at 11 and0 Gold Johson says they're not only very athletic and a great great at defense but they are are also 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 for their parts auditions began yesterday and will continue through Thursday art enrichment classes now taking place at nms our new teacher Miss Julia Larson has done a great job and and students that are taking the class are really enjoying it and have a 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 Seven's halfway point through middle school Friday is day 90 of the school year that's allk you very much any questions comments good uh next up is our student Spotlight series with Deca Regional competition result 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 Chen he is going to be presenting sure um but yeah thank you to Dr for us this opportunity so as most of you know chapter went High a couple weeks ago we had a very successful time got about 70 students um there which has been pretty big in the past years after Co it's been really hard to big kind of aable chapter but this year has been really well and we had some really ex they two my peers we're also Juniors and I work with them very closely in Becca so I'm just going to let them share a little bit um what happen I'm benjam kich I'm the vice president of membership for Deca and like vent about 70 students to districts which is 18 more than we sent last year so a big increase our population uh and even though we had more students we still saw 41 which is about 23 qualifi for stat this competition in March and even though uh 26 13 still uh receive recognition for top s plac in their category which means that they have a lot of future promis and we will hope to see them help by next year uh as a district our district a sends 140 people to States and we as a chapter going DEA are just 8% of those total people however we had 29% of the people qualified so we had a lot of contribution for even how small we are and we also had 10 the 28 first place win and 33 teams or individuals receive a total of 55 mini Awards which are given to reflect scores on exams and role plays is on the Executive Vice President of um N is a historically small chapter for Deca so like we were going againsted 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 Bon was an amazing guy to put together a crazy um plan for all of the Test Prep mplay Prep um and just overall PR that went into creating success as well as Weis throughout the entire process helping kids through what they didn't know um testing role plays helped through their three periods and after school as well as all the students and our 15 Anders um they help people feel comfortable and confident within their role plays because this is a new experience for all these people they're going through an uncomfortable transition with something completely new um at the end of the day a lot of f just had a new experience and the gain the friendships and they just got confidence in themselves so that's what drive you 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 de is so a bunch of schools it's all over Massachusetts so it's an international organization so you compete at the district level the state level and then the international level the N has always sent groups to each of those competitions um but you really you're you're scored on three components which is two role plays um which is just a conversation our presentation with the judge usually teachers administrators any really volunteers 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 Andia we go against a lot of schools that have de has 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 [Music] time so that's just why our success is really worth you know shredding light to it took a lot of effort not only just us but the other people [Music] that thank you to bensonia and Ben for coming president presenting to us tonight I think um our deck program has always been successful at Norton High School but to see these numbers and these returns and how many we qualified to go States you guys have so much to be proud of I heard a lot about the um the training session that you guys have going on this spring I'm 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 congratulations guys just highl some of the things even that we got in our packet um I I know they didn't really think you're a little humble um the 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 we talked about their attendance so you know quite quite defeat definitely certain you know certainly proud of our decer chapter here uh next up is our review and vote on proposed 2526 SCH calendar okay cut off the presence I know this is something that people always are waiting for through the school calendar um so this is a very traditional calendar for Norton uh it has students returning on the uh Tuesday following Labor Day which this year is uh Tuesday September 2nd um that will be for grades 1 through 12 our kindergarteners always start on the Wednesday and then our little dancers preschool program always begins on the Friday uh so that is very traditional for um the December break is actually going to be very similar to the current year except the extra day off will be at the end of theak 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 which is incredible day and very rarely see it happen that soon um so that's what we're proposing here um you will notice that this just as the last several years staff comes back in August the Tuesday and Wednesday before Labor Days for our um welcome back in professional development day and then also that um anybody else my um there are no other days off in terms of an election or there doesn't seem to be need for it it's notal election year so we would have school so as I was reading this um it'll be my last year with a child in schools but I wanted to specifically address the the Gap in March time off so my thought initially if we can work out is the 26th as an elementary early release is it possible to make the 27th a districtwide early release so we actually have not added any of the district early release dates yet um that's something that we're looking at internally um just to kind of see you 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 ideally I would love to change those days um but there will absolutely be an early release day in March um we'll you know likely continue to do the one a month except for November um we don't do in November and December and June because 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 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 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 at in some ways you ever want to get something off no um J the only question I would have is with with the district or release days and anything else would there any be anything held up in teacher negotiations on 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 and I know people start planning we get phone calls and questions and then in terms of voting um is something we can vote on as is and then as we Poss add early release St what we'll do is I mean I would recommend voting on the calendar as a whole um and then we would come back and bring you guys the early release dates and it would be just we would V to have them and and you'll notice those midterm days are already built in that was what I thought I was going to say earlier those midterm days so that just just build that it makes sense did we used to kind of a side note on that do we used to have three half for Ms and we Chang at some point had we used to have three and then estim time have day in schedule completely I saying no later than much uh we do so the way that we've done it is I believe there's seven we do September October November from September October January February March April and May so seven we skip the month of no November because at the end of the month of 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 monthes yeah because if we can would it be too much of an issue to say have two half days in versus because I'm just thinking like um you know some of the ones that have you know multiple holidays or coming off a break or something like that where I just I find I struggle with this every year when we calendar it's just a long stretch for the kids um as the school committee you guys can choose to do whatever you'd like you might have some parents picking it outside your home but 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 elementary 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 that's 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 meeting 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 that's um a contractual impact um unfortunately we can't swap to half PDS for a whole day just because students need to attend for the Eventing 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 St and share them with you all then we can decide how we want to proceed is there anything that says it has to be a prject fores no and ideally I would love to get rid of I mean I think everyone I think the fres have a lot of issues even from the PD side I just know working exactly working and you work all week with you know kids and then all a sudden on a Friday afternoon like and everything else feel that's a very tricky subject and I think I mean Dan you're probably the only one that was here we we used to be Thursdays and then we moved into Fridays and May and our thought was if you put them on a one weekend or you put them the Friday before a break maybe families will be able to take off earlier but it it really just it CH 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 long weekend or before communication 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 we have to think about this how long ago maybe we stopped doing them I'm gonna say probably 10 years ago years definitely say probably about 10 years ago um there were different beliefs and opinions on you know how for learning students came in at and then 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 know if you wanted six to 12 to do something together um but that's that was the reason we did wayed those a number of years ago any other questions good to vote on this with the so motion to approve next up is the first reading of the entrance AG okay so um 2018 the school committee 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 in 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 the consideration of of their chronological age as well as they're writing this 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 to basically reinstate the previous with the addition of what was GRS in 2018 so it's a comprehensive entrance agent I think unfortunately it was replaced by an accident instead of being add to I'm curious on number two that' be if if a child doesn't attend kindergarten Here we would still take a look at that that's kind of GE towards 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 and looking to come into first grade um we also will find that families will send their child to where they October or November and then they want to 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 those are the types of situations that come up 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 goal um you know I have in my role as a ass super interent I had conversations with parents all the time that were interested in sending their child early I explained I had 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 something um and we've you know assess students in the past and given our recommendations and in some cases said yes they're Wun in other cases we said no really really recommended every year and that decision is final and so that has been beneficial I think over the years I think for both families and from the district yeah I was a September birthday as an October child but you and I grew up in a very different generation them right now so I'm not saying we're old I'm just saying 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 you can only vote at the second time any other questions on this one just for number two so when consideration chronological reach and Readiness does that mean that if a student um is there like a screening kind of process before yeah so what we typically do and it's a little bit different like if you're coming into kindergarten we give you with your pres um but we use we typically use star which is something that's really easy for us to be able to do um early on student we would do the pron based measures with them as well just to kind of see where they're fing and um if that Happ seems to be there just that have to be like explicitly written in here like a I don't know I don't know if I would want to put the assessments we get no or just just like a will come in for a or will participate in um we could say that they would be screened um I don't know I don't know if that's that's absolutely what we do 100% um and then that's the process we explain to the parent and unfortunately we really haven't had this to back us up which has been a little bit triy but that is 100% the I just point clarification I guess so right now this policy has is what you're proposing right now this policy is written as just number three just number three so you're adding the first two now we're trying to get them back oness all good all right moving on to take action on that uh would be the discussion here we go again uh the discussion on the fy2 school budget all right so what you have sorry um so what you have in front of you is um a level service budget for 26 we have asked um every Department um principal admin to to us their level service budget would be very to last year um on our first round we at an increase of 2,2 7,329 that to 6.21% 25 um at the bottom of this page you'll see that we separated it as we have done in years past um the first section is the mandated educ education which is our special education services in staff um this it also includes all the out of District placement and the specialed um transportation in District and out that increase for the spend Services is 7441 145 um with a 5.1 1% increase um the next is for the general education budget also all of our other operation pieces that includes um the transp general transportation our utilities in our other operations so that increase over 25 is 1,463 184 which is an almost 7% increase um what we also have done on the following page is pretty much summarize the all the increases into um easier categories um so the very first and the most dominant one is the salaries due to the all the contract obligations and that is every single Department um whether it is the teachers the Paris custodian admin admin assistance um and that is 27156 um the next is our added 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 added a little bit in the last two weeks so that number could change um along with the number below it which is why it has an expert which is the out District special education cerification 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 special decreas programming decreases for 84,000 that's to contct service L and other services that required um 400 I mean $449,000 for our um in District um transportation with our room contract and then we also had a decrease in supplies um this is predominantly sped supplies and um other testing material and travel of a 14,000 and the last piece is our operations this is typically our utilities our facilities um and it's 69480 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 proper prehensive budget finder as well this year where you are able to go through and 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 this broken down by school 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 on J working with our community is you know trying to make it acceptable 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 and programs that we have right now um so that's 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 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 6% number down a little bit more one of the biggest challenges of 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 fining 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 for a number of years the school committee has seen has been the mandated educational cost um of against General expenses and operations I also think it's important for us to know that our elll services are included under that mandated educ movement as well as our homeless services um those are important I never want buiness special education verus general education conversation is our 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 were 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 end up at another um so hopefully those lines will give you a little bit of clarity around um exactly why um if there are questions um within the budget document that you received it's a lot um there is significant like there 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 far right and I look at the percentage increases on lines and then I'll say okay talk to me about this one we're talking about this one and I think it's important for people to know too that oftentimes 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 is using more school choice so um I'll open up to questions or conversation with the committee and you any questions um I think this is one of the easier easier on the eyes presentations I've had in a long time um you know this really and I I find myself knowing the ins and outs of our budget I've been doing this un fortunately we see a lot of the same things every year talk about them every year as mandated funding for special education which we can't do anything about you know but I think you know the one concern which we can't really do anything about is that those contract negotiations really G 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 budgets um you know this is a good starting point um IDE be a great end point it's not going to be so I think this this really kind of does put everything in a good way to to beew it so um I think as you mentioned Dr Rome that we have to Now put on our creative gaps and see what we can do to um possibly bring this number down I Al 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 [Music] simply um I just first question basicly with contract negotiations public this increase in salar due to contractual obligations is a sharp in the- dark placeholder then more than anything how do you change um perfect any other questions um I just want to say I appreciate 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 really appreciate this and I also think the as well because you do make it very easy to to read and understand so thank you um I want to mention that Christine and are available to meet with you one on 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 dreams are for this year um but it's you know please let us know we're always happy sit with you and have a conversation um obviously I think you talk about the other the you know based on the joint meeting and obviously seeing uh the town manager budget or proposed by budget today that we got in our emails you know um obviously I think 6.21 is never happening will be quite to be to be honest um so I think yeah definitely getting creative and I think from the school committee standpoint you know you got to figure out you know do some homework on your own ask those questions you got figure out how to get Crea fish um how do we have that's exactly what I'm saying the how did what we factoring for uh State funding we doing back to 30 before State f it was based on the 30 but [Music] it's 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 there's a line there and we don't have it right here with me um there's a line here that projects local AIDS so um it let not until the state finalizes that budget not until the state finalizes it won't be until roughly um July um 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'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 had 104 um you know has your Association and maybe what can the school committee do um to Hopeful some increase that number you we obviously know distri nor is a district that you know has the ability to pay or whatever the state defines us as um you know but you go down the road whether you go to Ador or Taun or you know anywhere else kind of it's either you know your world bumped in the Westwoods you know in their ability to pay we're the exact same and we all know whether 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 advocate for schools um number one is all around the minimum minimum a 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 s so as the committee knows we advocated that 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 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 pupil of additional chapter 7 to8 is not sufficient and that the funding formula is broken that they need to put together a group who look at the student Opportunity Act and look look at look at the equity as you know as you mentioned Norton is not well we are not going to be able to a community like is able to and and it's honestly 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 school 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 C the fund um that number fluctuates year over here um sometimes it's 65% reimbursements right now my organization NS is allocating that it should be no less than 90% reimbursement 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 Auto District placements When you mention reimbursement and things like that most of the auto 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 Stateway group that sets the rate um how or can set the range yes so initially all of the increases were like 3 to five or one to three or something like that two a few years ago 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 share with you it says net of circuit Breer so we take that money we turn around and take that money and pay tuitions for the following year um the other another piece that goes right along with it is special education transportation we are supposed to get reimbursed last year we were promised 75% we were only given 57 that's a big difference someone reverse that numbers yeah but they reverse them really publicly and so um that is what I ask all of you to do and advocate for um and tell your friends so do we know speaking of increases do we know if the our water district partners are proposing increases this year or do we have a time frame on when that might be um we do not have for the collaboratives but for the private prence six 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 two and a half% budget someone's got that's this this is the ongoing unfortunate problem we're having um and obviously 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 goes back to the taxpayers boxes to try to figure out how you do this you know in or the budgets are already said and now you're trying to find out you know where you can pull from to make up the difference so it's 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 don't to do 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 inability to pay districts y it's something that they will set as part of the governor's budget um and that freed 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 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 gring titl grants um so those are the title grants our special education Ida 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 fy2 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 tee and other things whether they don't just don't find it I I I don't know but um this year we should be okay I'll forward you I got actually sat on a seminar I think um two Fridays ago from the Massachusetts associations of school committees do like a one hour bunch of turn on what the department of education does at the level they actually sent actuallyy intered to see kind of what how that all shakes out 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 forward that well on to you guys so you guys can take a look like you know for an hour turn on the background it's kind of you kind of learn some crazy things any other questions concerns what was um when are we doing a budget seminar at Point meeting yeah I hly never done first you know school and do breakfast and sit down for four 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 this 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 to the budget last year that not that we forgot other things going on but it was just a budget after budget after budget after you know meetings I would rather try to get a lot of the budget stuff done to come to a good spot make changes as we kind of need to need to and then so you know do it that way that's what we did historically right up through it's honestly better I think maybe disagree with me but no no no I was just saying you know historically we did it that way um I don't think we ever took four hours yeah um because I mean there 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 two birds one stone with our public hearing and our budget ining meeting but that's not going to work out um and I think last year was we all know it was a challenging budget year but it was a very unique budget year like in all of my time here I don't think that it's ever been that much SP 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 gone through those yeah I just for me it seemed like and this is no 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 and an hour and 40 minutes you know and I felt like you just kind of got PEC meal together in a way over multiple meetings we're like if we can just sit down and haveh some of that stuff on I think that would be you know largely beneficial 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 going until 10 o'clock at night yeah I mean a lot of it you know is our process has remained relatively the same as we we look to do what best for our students we know I I don't think we've ever had a fully funded budget since I here from from our initial draft to our R draft I don't think it's ever been the same but I think that you know to to just lay everything out have our different scenarios because I think that was what we was unique about last year is we could get to a certain place and then oh 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 there's going to be changes along the way as I I always look at our budget it's a very living document and we've seen changes right up until town meeting years past so but I think you know to have that isn't necessarily A Bad Thing to just put everything you know light board or whatever it is and just start from the top and you know I mean are we going to go through thousands of light items probably not but we look at the bers um you know again creative yeah I mean all right now too I think moving forward with especially going to 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 the transparency and trust and everything else people aren't going to follow 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 a 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 can push those negotiations all if possible we only have those years so if we would like to do a Saturday Workshop our budget is due to town hall on on Monday March 24th I would recommend maybe Saturday March 1st if that date works for the committee um I think we have a t temp schedule for February 8th but that might be too early what thought 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 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 on 12 so we could do either the March 1st or March 8th um obviously it all depends on timing for me and I can do if we went in the morning this practice or something but that you I should be PR for the morning if we did Saturday yeah I don't see see an issue with the either for my I mean do you think for yeah do you think we should I mean again I just know these let's sorry let's watch and March 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 it'd be back to that me meetings for the week or because what happens if we don't have something squared away for the 12th and now we have a long question I think that would be the goal is to get everything if because otherwise it kind of going back in ag or if there's maybe things like if we have questions on the eth well I guess what I'm saying is it should be schedule now tentatively and then if we we know vote on it on the on the 12 meeting on the 19th that's my only concern you know we also have 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 it has we kind of go through this process again you know because like I said I don't my my goal here is 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 it may be definitely do in two so what was that du dat yes you I'm sorry we have it we have a school committee meeting on March 12 it is to 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 19 but that would be my recommendation to do budget form budget hearing and budget vote on the 12 and we'll just be [Music] ready um on the E not ear the only problem I do to have some type of game that will probably be at one or two which is fine we won't be doing this till long yeah that's what I'm saying so I just don't want to push it back to 11 get in there 9 n o' 7 A.M no 9's F your kids get up they're up I sleep too but when you have something to do get get in there and get out all right so 9:00 amm March 8 cool any other questions concerns suggestions on that it will likely be in the y Library this uh the conference room isn't big enough we'll probably do libr it all of our meetings are public meetings well I'm just it's a public meeting yes yeah not an executive session uh anything else on the budget if they want to come thr stuff um all right moving on then other business any not anticipated in 48 hours um just Christine shared some information with you guys earlier this afternoon that would request committee so we wanted you all to be able to see that before we that up tomorrow um and that's it thank you