but they usually were good. We were 50. >> All right. Good evening everybody. >> So, we are two members short, but we do have a quorum. So, given that tonight can often go for a while, we're going to go ahead and get uh started. So, I will call the uh December 15, 2025 meeting of
the Pip School Committee to order at 7 p.m. Everyone, please join me in the pledge of allegiance. >> I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and
justice for all. >> All right. Next, I will read our land acknowledgement. We acknowledge that we are meeting on the unseated ancestral homeland of indigenous people whose enduring presence we humbly recognize. We honor the Wanoic people as the original stewards and the Herring Pond Wanoic as the surviving tribe indigenous
to these lands and our commitment to lifelong learning. We acknowledge historic injustices to the native people of this land and vow to educate ourselves, our community, and our students on the first peoples and the hardships they endured. We offer this as a small but essential step towards building a culture of respect, truth,
and accountability. All right. Next up, before we get to our um budget uh review, uh we have a feasibility study for our proposed uh MSBA project for Hedge Elementary School. So, Dr. Blazel, >> um so we have good news. Um we've
completed the eligibility period for Hedge Elementary School with the Massachusetts School Building Authority. Um during that time we submitted numerous documents to the MSBA including enrollment maintenance plans um and then current and future townwide housing development plans. Um on Friday the
Massachusetts school board um voted to welcome us into the feasibility period. Um the feasibility period lasts no more than 913 days. Um that's set by MSBA. I did not make that number up. Um during the feasibility study we will along with
our own project manager which is actually one of our first steps that we have to select um during this period. Um we'll also be working with a designer um and the MSBA to document the educational programming of Hedge um generate an initial space summary document existing
conditions of the building and possibly buildings. um in establish design parameters, develop and evaluate alternatives, and recommend the most cost-effective and educationally appropriate preferred solution to the Massachusetts School Building Authority. And part of that solution may include a
consolidation of Hedge and Cold Spring together. Um now that we've been accepted into the feasibility study period, we must sign a feasibility study agreement. Um, the FSA is a funding agreement that establishes a process and parameters by which the district can be reimbursed for eligible expenses
incurred during the study and schematic design phases of the MSBA grant process. As part of as a result of the ED eligibility period study, our initial student enrollment was determined by the MSBA to be approximately 540 students for HEDGE with neighborhood preschool
and 805 students for Hedge consolidated with HEDGE to also include neighborhood preK. The reimbursement rate that we would expect to receive at this time before incentives is 53.32%. With tonight's vote, if you accept, you
are agreeing to sign the FSA and move forward with a feasibility study. Um, the funding for this stage totaling approximately $2 million was approved by town meeting in April. Tomorrow night, the select board will vote to sign the feasibility study agreement and
authorize the town manager to sign all documents on the town's behalf going forward. Um so if you have any questions I can answer but this is an exciting period of time and that we are looking forward to. >> Yeah congratulations on all the you know
on one getting approved all the hard work kind of that went into the past year. Um do we have questions from the committee? Anybody? >> No. >> All right. This is an action item correct Dr. Blazol? >> Yes. >> All right. So if there's no uh questions do I have a motion?
I move that we approve the feasibility study as presented. >> All right. And a second. >> I'll second it. >> All right. Mr. Morgan seconds. You shall vote. Dr. Camp appears to be >> Yeah, I think so. We are having a
problem because um Miss Haywood and Miss still in the system as being present. So, if we could just do a roll call vote. >> Roll call. Yeah, I do I did get confirmation that Miss Haywood was on her way. I'm not sure about Miss Shaw. Okay. >> But we'll do roll call. So, Mr. Smart Dolls, >> yes. >> Miss Jackson, >> yes. >> Mr. Morgan, >> yes.
>> And I vote yes. So, it's unanimous. All right. >> Thank you very much. >> On to the next up. >> Okay. >> All right. With that, we will move into our uh budget overview. So, Dr. Campbell, >> thank you very much. And wait for Mr.
Gravio to put up the presentation. But good evening everyone. Thank you to the advisory and finance committee members for coming and for our administrative team who really didn't have a choice. but I appreciate you being here as well and others in attendance. Um, so in crafting the budget for 27, our focus
has been on aligning with the guidelines set forth by the town. So our proposed budget costs are simply to maintain the core functions and services that contribute to the success of our schools and students as they are this year. There's nothing different in terms of the services. This is a level service
budget. We'll talk about how we got there. Um, which took a a little bit of adjustment. So every line item, when I say every line item, every line item has been scrutinized to ensure efficiency and effectiveness. And this budget reflects a balance between um, you know,
being responsible to the town and our commitment to providing the quality education that we have. Um, so we'll be going this works. This is not working. Can you go to the next slide, please? It's not working.
Having technical difficulties. >> Thank you. So, uh we'll go through um just share information regarding Plymouth Public Schools, our current trends, the budget development guidelines. Dr. Blaze, I will get into that. So, sort of our guiding principles in developing that
budget, um the budget that's proposed in its entirety. We'll go through it by category, but not in it won't take too long because it's again it's a very very lean budget. Um give you a a summary of the cost centers. We'll also get into revolving accounts and how we've utilize
those as well as our food service budget. Um concerns for the future and our priorities and then of course answer any questions that you may have. Um, for those following along at home, you can find a copy of this presentation as well as all 219 pages of our financial
reports in electronic schoolboard. If you go to our website, um, you'll find it on uh the school committee page um, under electronic schoolboard and simply go to this evening's calendar date. Once the budget is approved by school committee, it the reports will be
uploaded to Dr. Blaestell's business service page. Um and that we're anticipating that for the 5th of January when we have the budget hearing and vote. But before we move on to the budget details, I think it's um I want to just ground us in who we serve. So
Plymouth Public Schools includes 13 schools plus an alternative high school and we support a diverse student body with a wide range of needs, including more than 100 students experiencing homelessness. Our demographic shows that while our district is predominantly white, we also serve students from a
variety of uh racial backgrounds, multi-racial students. Um, and this growing diversity shapes the support our students need. Um, on the right of this slide, you'll see that nearly half of our students, 46.6% are considered high needs. We also serve English learners,
students whose first language is not English, more than 31% lowincome students, and 23% students with disabilities. These are significant populations and they directly impact staffing services and the resources required which are all reflected in this
budget. This context matters um as we talk about budget, our investments and they must reflect the needs of our students that we serve each and every day. Our October one enrollment um
for last year at this time was 7,038. We're just below 7,000 when we ran our October one enrollment this year. As of December 11th, we had 7,000 students enrolled. However, for budget planning purposes, we always pull our October one
report that goes to the state. So, our per pupils are based on that number. In comparison to last year's October one enrollment, we've seen a decline in enrollment at Cold Spring, Federal Furnace, Hedge, Manmitt, Nathaniel Morton, and North High School. It's important to note that South Elementary
continues to rise with 33 additional students over last year's October one enrollment, and West Elementary also has increased by 27 over the same period in October 1. We talk about average class size. Um,
class size is important to us. We don't want we don't want to be um to see class sizes really going above our soft cap. So this table provides a detailed overview of the average class size by grade level across our eight elementary schools as well as a district-wide
averages. So it also shows a district what we call soft cap uh where we don't want to see the numbers going above um classes of 22 for grades K to two for example and 25 for grades 3 to five. So, if you look near the bottom of each column, you'll see the district's
average class size for each grade. Uh, the far right column highlights the average class size by school. And again, our soft cap is important because it helps to shape um our decisions in terms of maintaining um both equitable and um
appropriate class sizes. And we we aim to stay within that or below that. We also wanted to provide some information regarding staff counts by schools. So this slide shows how our staff is distributed across each school in the district. Staffing, as you know,
is our largest investment. The majority of our budget is made up of people. Um these numbers reflect the different enrollment levels, student needs, and programs in each building. So you see the larger schools have higher staff counts while smaller elementary schools have more modest but still essential
teams of teachers, par profofessionals, custodians and office staff to run the buildings. So the chart highlights the scale of personnel needed to operate our schools every day and underscores how closely our 27 budget is tied to maintaining the staffing required to
support students effectively. So while overall enrollment has declined, the percentage of students rep uh presenting with what the department of education refers to as high needs continues to increase. I mentioned that um in the first slide. So high needs
which includes students that require additional support has steadily increased from 40% in FY21 to 46.6% in 25. This indicates a growing demand for targeted resources and programs to ensure that our students succeed. In
terms of economic challenges, the low-income student population rose significantly from 27% in FY21 to a peak of 34.3% in FY22. Showed a slight decline, stabilizing around 31.3, but again,
still an increase. Um, a consistent portion of our students, you know, face financial hardships. Uh the category of students with disabilities shows the most notable growth increasing from 15% in FY21 to
23% by FY25. English learners also demonstrated a gradual increase moving from 2.8% to 6% over the same period. Uh lastly, the percentage of students um also de excuse me uh whose first
language is not English has grown from 5% to 9% emphasizing again the need for continued language support to support our students uh to fully access the curriculum. This is a lot to see, but this is why we copy the slides for you in front of you
as well if you don't have it electronically. As we look at this table of special education expenditures over time, there's a few key trends I want to highlight. First, our overall special ed spending has grown significantly. I just mentioned that our, you know, the percentage of students requiring
specialized support has grown. So, that would be that would make sense. Um, we've moved, again, this is looking back from FY10 to 25. We've moved from 20.6 million in FY10 to just over 35 million in FY24. That's roughly 71 72% increase.
The largest driver of that increase continues to be staffing. Our teaching costs have nearly doubled over this period, growing from around 9 million to over 17 million, which reflects the reality that special education is a people intensive service. Um, teachers, specialists, related service providers
are essential for uh meeting IEP requirements. We're also seeing growing expenses from out of district uh placements. Uh and when you combine public collaborative placements with private schools, we're now spending over nine million annually in that area. These are mandated placements based
entirely on student needs that arise uh from year to year. Transportation is another area that's growing over time. As we look um both at transportation lines climb, costs have more than doubled since FY10. We're talking about special education transportation here. Uh these shifts
generally reflect changes in student placements, contract pricing, uh and then mid-year IEP decisions that may require specialized transportation. That's something that comes up from time to time, too. It's also important to note that our grants and revolving of funds funding that help offset special
ed costs have declined significantly over time. As those revenues shrink, more of the burden shifts to the operational budget. So taking all that together, the story behind this table is that students um student needs and
mandated service are driven steadily um increases across multiple categories. These are not discretionary costs. These are required supports that ensure that every student to receive services outlined in their IEP. Our goal is always to plan responsibly for these
trends and maintain compliance, but also to provide high quality for our students with disabilities. related uh we talk about circuit breaker. This is reimbursement for extraordinary expenses. So this slide provides sort of an executive summary of
circuit breaker reimbursement FY20 to the initial FY26. Um again high cost special aid services um not keeping pace with the rising expenses. So eligible excuse me eligible
costs have grown over 50% since FY20 from 6.8 million to 10.4 4 million in 26 due to increased student needs and service costs. State reimbursement from 2.9 million to 4.6 million but
consistently covers only 40 to 45% of eligible expenses. So the gap the widening gap now over 5.8 million must be covered by districts general operational funds that which puts pressure on our operational budget and limits resources. So without increased
state support for funding challenges like this, the growing shortfall will continue to challenge um our our our needs. Um over the last five years in terms of state and federal grants over time, these are our federal entitlement grants, our title grants. Um our total
entitlement grants have remained relatively flat. You can see there's very little difference. In fact, it's actually gone down slightly. So the majority of these funds, title one, IDEIDA and other key grants, they go to directly support essential staff and intervention programs that help our
students succeed. So while individual grants um show small fluctuations, the title one and two have seen slight decreases and title three and four have modest challenges changes overall. And the overall picture is clear that
funding has not kept the pace with the rising co costs and the staff needs or inflation. Chapter 70, this is state aid for local education. So, um that has grown from 23 million 23.3 million in 14 to 30.2
million uh in FY26 with a notable uh 6.5% boost in FY18, but that was driven by the implementation of our full day kindergarten. So, before that, we did not have full day kindergarten. We did a feasibility study and because our
kindergarteners were counted twice now because they weren't part-time students, they were full-time students that increased our reimbursement rate from the state. So that's why you see that big jump that year. But when you look at all the other years since FY19, the increases have been more modest. They've
averaged about 1.9% per year u reflecting you know typical incremental growth in the state which really hasn't kept up with inflation. I'm now going to turn over to Dr. Blazedell to talk about revolving accounts.
>> Um a couple weeks ago at one of our last school committee meetings you received a budget report with all the current balances in regards to our revolving accounts. Um, we really depend, our schools really depend a lot on our revolving accounts to make sure that the programming is going on correctly for
our students. Um, there's a couple revolving accounts that we use really directly for staff. Um, the early childhood revolving account, cafeteria, bus fees, special education, building use, and athletics. Um, that's for staff and to run some really significant
programs. Um so these are just this the revenue and expenses from last year and currently where we are today. As I t just talked a briefly about food services supporting quite a few of quite a bit of our budget. Um food services is not is like I said a revolving account.
It's not included in the operating budget or voted on by town meeting. Um but we wanted to make you aware of the FY27 budget and where we where we look um for next year. Um, in order to balance our FY25 budget, as you can recall, we split funded many of our
custodians who work during the day supporting the cafeteria to be paid from the cafeteria revolving account. Um, in for FY27, there'll be approximately $445,000 paying custodians from the cafeteria revolving account. Um, when you look at
the revenue versus expenditures of the past couple years, um, you'll notice it it has been um, we've spent more than we've brought in. Um, so as we look in the FY28 budget, so we're not talking about next year, but we're looking at the following year, we're really going to have to look at those expenditures and really start looking at how do we
move some of those expenses um back to the operating budget if the revenue does not increase. So getting into FY27 and how we developed that. Um as you know we meet with the town regularly and really work
with the the town finance director and town manager um to really look at what are the available funds that are going to be available in the next fiscal year. Um we start those meetings in September. Um and the town finance director is is constantly running numbers based upon
what we know in regards to state aid and and local receipts that are coming in. Um, so as you can see here, um, there was a total of available new revenue for FY27, um, just under $13.5 billion. And as we've talked the past couple years,
um, we split that revenue 39% to 61%. Um, so our 61% is just above $8.2 million available for this year. And then we have to subtract any of the fixed costs. We have to subtract um, any increase in debt service. We have to
increase we have to decrease it by the cost of any insurance both liability insurance for the buildings um but also um medical and dental insurance as well workman's comp all the different insuranceances that go along with that. So you'd have to then subtract those
fixed costs. Um so that left us just under $4.4 million to build this year FY27's budget. Um, one thing to note is when we look at this budget, when we propose this FY27 budget, there are no proposed staff
reductions. Um, and so when we developed this year's budget, this is really what we looked at, these four things. Um, making sure that students came first. How do we prevent any reductions in any programming um for students? Um, obviously, we wanted to maintain class
sizes as Dr. Campbell mentioned a while ago and looking at those numbers. um programs and services currently provided that we did not want to reduce those those services at all. And so how do we how do we kind of do that? Um again, we we looking at being collaborative,
transparent, um and making sure that we look at equity across preK through 12. So how did we arrive here? Um, so our our prop initial proposed budget came in about $1.7 million above
the the budget you're seeing tonight. Um, there were staffing requests. Those weren't included in that $1.7 million. So, if we included those those staffing requests, you're probably looking at in the vicinity of about $3 million that we'd be over. Um, but we did not include those. Um, so what we looked at is
looking at no new initiatives. um we literally looked at prior spending for additional lines. So if if we looked at current several years worth of spending in different particular lines and we weren't spending that line, we reduced that line going forward. Um we looked at using revolving funds to try and make
sure that we could kind of make up some of that difference. Um we are using quite a bit of bus fee revolving next year. Um as we talked a as I talked a little bit ago, we're split funding those custodial positions with cafeteria. Um um we have a lot of
curriculum as as you know the days of just having a textbook are no longer um you can't just kind of use that textbook the next year. There are subscriptions that that expire um sub and curriculum is always necess is always being refreshed. Um so we were looking at
different um curriculum contracts that we have and renegotiating them expanding them for longer. um level fund general administrative supplies. Um there's really no increases in the general supplies, curriculum supplies that that are being used in the buildings. Um we
looked at a few non-staff reductions. Um and we're really looking at different projected retirements, both known and ones that we we think are going to happen, projected that are going to possibly happen. So, so this is the list of things of
what we actually did when we kind of tried to look at that $1.7 million. Again, there are still staff requests that people would like to look at and add. Um, but we kind of kept those off to the side. Um, so we're looking at using a total of $600,000 from the bus
fee revolving account. Um, on July 1st, our deductible for any insurance claims went from $50,000 to $100,000. Um, so initially in this budget there were two. So if there were two incidents there were $200,000 in
there. We've reduced that to one. So we hope that there's only one or none would be better um incident that we have to claim against insurance. Um looking at reducing facility supplies and contracted services by 3%. Um BA again basically level funded general supplies.
We really analyzed staff to make sure that we weren't carrying any additional additional positions in the budget. Um, we looked at, like I said, purchasing updates to curriculum materials. Now, um, utilizing retirement savings. Um, and then in there, there's a line for
crossing guard and security services. Our contract is up in June. Um, so we made the security guard portion of the bid as an option. So, this one may not come to fruition, but it was used to help build the budget. So when we look at FY27
um we're looking at a proposed budget of $133,119,875. Um and again the split between salaries and non- salaries is pretty pretty consistent from year-over-year. We're still looking at about 78% salaries and 22% um for non-sary dollars.
When you break it down by object code, um again it's just showing 63% of our salaries are certificated salaries. Um whereas the next largest is 19% which is contracted services. Includes our bus
fee, our bus contracts, um our vampool contracts. Um any of our maintenance contracts um a lot of our softwares are here too. Um we talk a lot about transportation. and our yellow bus contract is only increasing 2.75% next
year. Um, nobody else around is really seeing those type of percentages. Um, as you know, we are going out to bid right now to see what those percentages will come in for next year or in the future years. Um, our special ed transportation that actually went up 10%. That was our
contract that we had negotiated. Um, so when you compare the two, that kind of gives you a what what other districts are seeing um, just even on their yellow bus contracts. When you look at when you look at supplies and materials, you're looking at a 2% increase. So, you're really not
looking at much, but it's basically level funded when you look at it as a whole. Um, a lot of the conversations that we've had over the past couple years is what does the town carry, what does the school carry on on their budget. Um, so when you look at when you
incorporate all the amount of money that the town is carrying for the schools as well, um, that comes out to be just over 191,678,000. So that's when you incorporate all of the insuranceances, all the liability insuranceances, um, out of out of
district transportation for our VOTE schools, um, and all the assessments for special education, assessments for charter schools. Um, so it brings in everything. So when you look when the select board had presented their budget, they're going to be looking at this $191
million too of all school expenses completely. Um when you look at this is just another way to look at it. All of the items in blue are what what are held on the town side of the budget and all the items in white are what what's held
in on the school side. So the white portion is the $133 million that that you're going to be voting on and discussing as well. So that's the portion the 191 is in completion. So the t the town meeting will be voting on really the 191
and then when you break it down when you're just looking at that $133 million um this is the breakdown um just so you can see it numerically year-over-year. Our salaries is where you're seeing the increase to be honest with you. Um it's a 14.2% increase for salaries. our non-s
salary increases are just under a percent. So, you're really not looking at at that huge of an increase. Um, and when you look at overall, um, we're looking at a 3.4% increase, and again, it's just under three, uh, $4.4 million as an
increase. >> We've had a lot of questions regarding uh unfunded and unfunded underfunded mandates. So, there was a report you may recall me mentioning a couple years ago by the former state auditor uh Suzanne Bump titled unfilled promises and a
variety of state laws. Um this slide shows the growing impact of unfunded and underfunded mandates. Tried to quantify some of those for you. We don't have numbers on all of them but um so special education is the most significant. So last year we had over 10.4 million in
eligible costs under circuit breaker but received only 4.6 6 million IDA service total more than 33 million far beyond what federal funding supports. Uh we also absorb substantial costs for student transportation required by law foster care McKenney Vento for students
experiencing homelessness. So combined these costs reach you know well over a million dollars. Uh in addition new mandates such as extensive state reporting systems add workloads and costs without additional funding. So
these are essential services um but significantly limit our financial flexibility. So just to kind of give you a sense of some of the when we talk about unfunded and under underfunded mandates this is just a small list of those. Another thing that we we're not
certain of but we feel cautiously optimistic is uh federal education dollars. Um there's been a lot of talks about reorganization. So in recent weeks, the US Department of Ed has announced a major restructuring of how federal ed programs will be managed. So
several large K to2 programs that districts rely on, especially the title programs that I mentioned pre earlier are expected to shift from the department of ed to other federal agencies uh with the department of labor playing the biggest role. So the state
the stated goal of the federal government is to reduce bureaucracy and give states more control. However, at this point, there are very few operational details that have been released to us. So, there's no timeline, no guidelines about how this will affect reporting or funding cycles, no clarity
about what the transition process will look like. So, this means we're in a period um where we know major changes may be coming, but we don't know yet how they'll be implemented. So, it's just another uncertainty. We were uncertain up until very recently this year with
some of the federal dollars that were held back. Um they were released ultimately. Um so there are some uncertainties. So some of the things that may be shifting to the department of labor, the title grants that I mentioned, McKenna Vento homeless
education, uh things that are supposedly remaining in the US Department of Education, IDA for special education and the office for civil rights. Um but you know what this means for districts is you know still emerging but we can anticipate several areas of of
uncertainty I would say as we go into the next fiscal year. First oversight um you know the new agencies may develop new reporting requirements monitoring processes or expectations for how districts demonstrate compliance. So those shifts may take time to roll out
but could affect workload and central office uh teams. second funding. Um, we may see delays or adjustments in the timing of title grants allocations or reimbursements depending on how that transition is structured. Again, we don't know yet. It's too early to tell.
Um, so for us, this could complicate planning in FY27. And then third is operations. Any change of this scale can temporarily increase administrative burdens um as districts try to adjust to the new federal system. So, um, there
may be some shifts in program priorities, especially with the Department of Labor's emphasis on workforce development. So, we'll see. Time will tell. Um, we also want to talk about some of the things we do to kind of curb our costs
and cost avoidance. So, we've we've been a a solar district, as you know, we've had a solar leasing agreement for many many years going back to 2016. um this has really had a significant impact on um our energy consumption and cost avoidance. So just to give kind of
give you a sense of the the funds that we've avoided spending in terms of utilities over $8 million over this period of time. So this is something that we're certainly continued uh you know we're committed to and you know we're trying to again not only reduce
our carbon footprint but find ways to to mitigate and reduce costs as well and we continue to do that this year looking for ways to become uh more efficient. >> Can I add to that? >> Yep. Um, one thing to note, if you remember, um, I believe it was back in
the spring, um, Mike Cahill had come and done a did a presentation about, um, some solar canopies. Um, just actually this afternoon, I did receive some documents, um, from him with with plans, um, to add solar canopies to several of our schools. Um, and it looks like there
probably will be a a motion at TA meeting um, to kind of see that that project move forward. Um, and one of the other things that we have been doing is that we've been looking at some cost-saving measures even in this building, um, to move more and more of these lights to LED and updating some of
them. Um, even though some of them are LED with the new advancements, um, and technology, we can still save money by upgrading um, some of our lights, too. So, um, we're still we're working on the solar canopies and we're still working on um, saving electrical savings within our buildings currently, as well.
>> Thank you. Um so as we talk about our budget I also want to give a quick overview of how the spending data the the data that we use in terms of spending. So the state um releases what's called per pupil spending numbers about a year after the
fiscal year. So most of the recent comparisons we have are for FY23 and 24. It takes them a full year to kind of analyze that. But this will show you sort of the the 10 overarching categories that spending falls into that is reported out of Dr. Blazeell's office
and ultimately analyzed looking at our operational budget and where we spend our monies in comparison to other districts and the state at large. So um you know this this sort of kind of gives you a picture of how we run our schools.
So when you look at the the most recent state comparisons, you'll see that our per pupil spending has started to fall slightly below the state average. Um that's important to to to point out because as you all know that um a good
portion of our operational costs that are above state average typically fall within transportation and um those fixed costs in terms of insurance. So we see that we tend to be above the state in those two areas which means that we're you know even more below in some cases
in the other categories. So um we are slightly below the state in comparison to the last um publication of per pupil spending and that's not a trend that we want but um I think it speaks to the fact that our budget is is is pretty lean.
And now I'm going to turn it back to Dr. Dr. Blazdell just to explain there's not again a lot to say about um our cost center summaries but I'm going to ask Dr. Blazeell to just speak to this slide. >> Sure. Um in when you look at the agenda
there are six reports that are attached um you'll see report 331 um which is which is on this screen um which is the cost center summary. So here you can see the variance um between last year the 26
budget and the 27 budget. Um you'll see in there an overall budget report um with a pigraph showing a breakdown on of salary and non- salaries. Um report 340 you'll see an object code summary um which breaks it down into certificated salaries, non-sertific uh clerical
salaries, um other salaries and then it gets into contracted services um supplies and materials and other expenses. Um you'll also see um again another cost center summary with object codes and you'll see the budget the detailed budget report budget 352 report
352. When you look at all of those numbers really what you're going to see um and when you look at all the variances here most of the variances that you look at are really salaries. Um that's that's really the the major increases in in the the budgets this
year. The other thing that we did is what we did is we tried to move we had to move some of the salaries that were paid from grants to the budget. So some of the areas you'll see a you say why is that such a high p high increase in some of these salaries? Well, we we moved
quite a few salaries from budget from grants to budget. um for special ed, one of the things that we did is um when you pay salaries from grants, you also have to pay um MTRS towards the teachers retirement. Um so you we ended up losing
about $100,000. Um we lost about $100,000 in some of our grants because we were paying teacher salaries. So what we did is we kind of did a flip-flop to kind of gain $100,000. um we moved a lot of teacher salaries into the budget and then what we did is we moved some
tuitions from the special ed department to IDA grants. So we gained about $100,000 by doing that that flip. Um so that that's one of the other things. The other major really only other major increase you might see is if you look at Plymouth South High School's budget. Um
what you'll see is they are coming up for a NEAS visit um the decentennial visit in September 2026. um and the last time that they were evaluated was back in 2024. So that might be the only other increase that you might see. But everything else that
you see um is really honestly and truly just any contracted services increases in um different different contracts that we have um software supply contracts that we have some maintenance contracts and like I said transportation but other
than those contracts it's really salaries and that one increase that you'll see at South High and really honestly and truly that's it's not even that big of an increase when you look at in the grand scheme of Um, and then like I said, this is just breaking it down and this is one of the
reports. Um, and this overall is, like I said, is a 3.4% increase for the whole budget. >> Yeah. So, as as Adam said, this is a a very lean budget. Um, we're where the majority of our increases are in in
salaries. Um, understandably, um, while we feel okay with the budget that we're presenting to you for next year, you know, granted that there are some uncertainties, I think we do have future concerns as we go think about 20 FY28 as
well. You know, um, transportation contracts, we've talked a lot about that. Um, we certainly don't want to take over yellow buses. Um it would have to be a substantial savings for us to assume
um that because it's a huge operations to take over to be quite frank. Um it would have to be a significant um cost savings for us to consider that. where we do feel that we could get uh a larger impact is looking at our vans and our in district transportation, some of our
outdo swoop um we can do a slow investment, reduce our operational costs for contracted services, um as well as cost share with other districts. It's much more likely in that in in that um that area. Um expanding needs of early
education. I talked about this last year. We saw, you know, we had a 5-year average with 41% increase in referrals for special education in our preschool programs. The state was above five or 6% I believe in that same period of time. So, we're seeing um you know an increase
there which comes with an increased need for services and supports. We are expanding our early childhood program for next year which we're very proud of um and feel confident about that but that's something that I feel that we are going to continue to need to invest in. So obviously dollars will be associated
with that too. Um Dr. Blazedell and I have talked about this before just the you know maintaining our facilities. Our facilities are very wellmaintained. We have an outstanding uh team and staff uh maintenance staff, custodians, and um others that that keep our buildings
looking remarkable. Um and maintain things, you know, when things break down, they're the first ones to respond. But we do have old facilities. We we're very fortunate to have some newer buildings, but we have a lot of older buildings, too. Um we're we're hopeful
of a new building, but that will take some time. But in the meantime, we need to invest wisely, really stretch our capital dollars and write try to um um maintain our buildings in a way that's not going to cost us more money in the
end by not doing so. Um I already mentioned the uncertainty of state and federal funding. This is something that we continue to we continue to follow. I am concerned about the state budget to be quite honest. We were very fortunate to receive additional chapter 70 funds um which we um
received this last October town meeting. Um the state projected revenue is down this year. So that's a concern for me um next year in terms of what we may receive from the state. Uh our town finance director does level funds state
aid. So um always take a cautious approach there. And then contract negotiations. will begin contract negotiations again next fiscal year and we want to make sure that we do right our staff and that's going to require funding as well. So these are things that we consider as we move forward and
things that we prioritize and concerns as we you know build our budgets. Um happy to answer any questions go through any of particular cost centers but as Dr. Blazeell said this budget is very lean um it's a 3.4% 4% increase
considering the fact that our contract uh cost of living adjustment was 3%. Um it's it's very very lean. >> Happy to answer any questions. >> All right. Thank you, Dr. Campbell. All right. We have questions share with you.
>> I got a couple questions. Um if anyone just has one, do you want to go before me? >> Yeah. >> Okay, great. So can you break down the uh so when you say the high needs category can you give me just a little more insight um what does that category
make up because the increase I know from fiscal 21 it's been about 6% but just so I can understand a little more >> so you're going to see students that fall into either special education um low income or students with um English
learners so it could be a combination of students that are considered high needs So if they require additional assistance, they're they could be in multiple categories, but >> okay. So the the chart isn't the the chart could have some crossover. When you see a trend line that says low
income and a trend line uh for sped, those >> combined could be in high needs, too. >> Yes. So So high needs is one or more of those categories. So you have students that will fall in multiple categories sometimes. >> Okay. Yeah.
>> Um but that that helps me out. Um, now the the retirement savings of 428,000. I get it when someone maybe at a top step retires and we replace them. >> How did you calculate that? Is that just
the savings in between or are we because there, you know, with if you're looking for someone in science, you're not going to be able to hire someone entry level. So, how did you get that 428? >> Thank you for asking that question. It's a very good question. So, um, we have a we use a threshold in terms of like
education and and years of experience for the average position. For some of those high needs positions are hard to fill like science, we budget a little bit higher. >> Is that like an M7? >> Typically, we do about a master step five. And then for some of those others,
um, we looked at like a master step seven or a master step eight when we calculated those. Um, there are a couple others that involve some AP classes that in talking to the high school principles to try and figure out, okay, what what could be what's a reasonable number to look at,
>> right? So, that's a conservative number. We're not thinking we're going to lose veterans and hire rookies. >> No, lose what? Sorry. >> Lose veterans and hire all rookies. >> No, no, we we used a very conservative number so that we could
>> Nothing wrong with rookies. Okay. I mean, Brady was a rookie once. >> Nothing wrong with rookies, but we want to make sure that if we're >> But the number is a safe number for you to calculate and Okay, >> that's all I needed to know. Now, the state of supplies, >> how were they last year when I hear
there's no increase this year and you had requests from building principles and you say, you know, we're we're we're not going to do any other initiatives. Were our supplies funded adequately the past year? like if we're not going to put anything in that line item to
increase, where do we stand? Like where are we going from to, >> you know, with some of the additional funds that we received this year in the fall town meeting, those go towards purchasing of supplies. So, we're we've we've kind of been in a year behind and also using end of year funds to do that
when things um but we we certainly want to make sure that our buildings have the supplies and materials that the students and the staff need and have I think we've managed that pretty responsibly. >> Okay. So, I mean I I get it. The salary
component is a huge portion, but I think our narrative when we're talking about this budget in front of folks who who pay taxes and in the entire community is that we have to keep talking about how far behind we were in our salaries. All
right, at one I think we're 10% behind Kingston. So when we say salaries, they traditionally make up a big portion of the budget, but you might be a little higher here too because of that increase. And that didn't happen overnight. That happened over. >> It certainly didn't, Mr. Smartella. So
the not too long ago, the last contract negotiations, I at a joint meeting, I highlighted that specifically to let the community know, how underfunded our underpaid our teachers
were in comparison to local districts. Okay. >> So, we we made a concerted effort that year to find the funds within our operational budget to help
offset the shortfall that we knew we weren't getting from the town because the money wasn't there in order to try to make a correction with our contracts that year. And we we reduced 27 or 28 like almost 30 positions that
year. Remarkably, the way that we did it, we did it very collectively and collaboratively so that that there were all but a couple that we were able to reassign to other positions or people found jobs someplace else. So, we did that in the spring that year so that we
could give people an opportunity to have another option for employment, but also to re to sort of reduce those free up those funds so that we can make that correction. But you're absolutely right. We were and we were we were behind. >> Yeah. And and that doesn't get cured in
one fiscal year. Right. >> Right. When you're way behind and you got to make up that gap, that narrative, that's why I'm saying has to be talked about because that'll present itself in following years. >> Absolutely. That's why I mentioned contracts in that that last line of
concerns. So, we don't want to say, well, we you know, we we want to do right by our staff and be able to be competitive. For sure. And when we we get grants and we use them for salaries, you're whether you like it or not, you're creating a structural deficit because if that grant runs out and you
still have that person even if you move them into another category. Um have we done anything to double down on possible grant writing or you know are we just looking at it? I mean, if there are some shifts in how, you know, federal funding
is is going to be doled out, are we taking any steps to maybe go after some grants we traditionally don't go after? >> We're going after as many grants as we possibly can. >> Okay. Could I get a list of the grants we're going after >> that we've gone after? >> Sure. Yeah.
>> Okay. So, and um >> you know, I when we we say it's a lean budget, I'm not okay with that. Kids don't get second grade back, right? So if we're lean one year and then we say, "Well, we can offset the next year." I mean, our cost per pupil being lower
isn't something that that as a sitting committee member, you know, I take joy in. I mean, cost per pupil can mean a lot of things. Um, but because of the type of district we are, and you presented that correctly, our cost per pupil, even though it's low, is actually
lower because of some of the other commitments we have that other districts don't have. So, you know, th this process of putting a number that falls within what we're going to get from the town is great, but I think it's just important to say that if your request
was 3 million more and you're not getting that, it's important to understand that when when you do a first pass budget, you're supposed to define the numbers to align with the vision, right? and deliver the most, you know, uh, the most you can for educational
value in your community. And that $3 million wasn't just stuff people made up because they were looking for, you know, something that was uh, gluttonous. It was neat. So I I think it's um it's important you know when you go in with a
number you have to live within your means but I think it's important to state that always this number is below what we originally would put out there because you know at some point point you might need to justify when someone says well you've been doing with this number
for so many years well it should have been higher right so I think that's important but um if I another question I'll I'll yield to another member Let me think. Thanks. Thanks, >> Mr. Martin.
>> What was the increase from the last budget? >> That number. >> I know. This one we're 3 >> This one is 3.4. >> 3.4. >> This one is 3.4% over our current financial our operational budget. >> Okay. I was just curious what our
increase was over the >> and and that our current budget includes the additional 1.5 that were received at fall town meeting just to be clear. I can get past any done.
>> Thank you. Um I just want to say thank you to everyone here and to the school department for putting this um together. I think some of my concerns are also some of your concerns especially around state and federal funding and we saw um a lot of that state funding in the beginning of last year be decreased and
then um with federal money decreasing as well to the state too that's going to affect how the state budgets their money and what they provide to municipalities. So, um I just appreciate all the work that everyone's put in here to make sure that we are
able to service the needs of the students and to take care of our staff as much as possible. Um and I appreciate all the extra information that you've already provided to us on um some of these revolving funds and some of the um other issues and I'm looking forward to um having more conversations. And so I don't have any questions right now, but
I'm looking forward to the process and um getting a budget that can really educate the students here in Plymouth and um that we can be proud of. So appreciate all the work everyone's put into this point. >> Thank you. M you're talking. Do you have
everything with Michelle? >> Um it's not it's not really a question um so much as a comment, but I think that going forward when we're presenting this, I think we focus a lot on um the cost of special education and the cost that that's obviously an unfunded um or
underfunded mandate. But I think that highlighting the cost of not funding our special education um is just as important because you know it we're going to be paying the money one way or another whether it's hiring qualified
staff to serve our students in the way that they deserve or legal fees for settling lawsuits. Um I think that it's important to highlight for people that are seeing those extraordinary costs and saying well why don't we just cut something there? Why do we need so much personnel? Why do we need this? Why do
we need that? And um just getting people to understand that there is another side of that that is that is just as costly if not much more costly if we don't put that money into that into that need in our community. >> No, you're absolutely right and thank
you. And I hope that that came across in some of my comments regarding that these are essential services that our students need. I think that I think that we understand like as a as a committee because we're familiar with it and obviously the teachers here understand it as well, but I think that like when
we're going forward talking to other town committees and talking to our town meeting members, I think that we maybe need to make it a little more clear that there is an alternative side to that which which will cost us just as much money if not more exponential. Um
because I think that you're right when you do say those things, we understand what you mean by that. But I do think that we may have some town meeting members that aren't familiar with special education cuz you don't know until you know. Um and I think that highlighting the the cost of not um
putting our our means and and putting our money into that um need is is important. >> Great. Just to add on to that, um, last year, one of the things that we talked about is I know under Dr. Rogers, um, they really tried to build our indist
programs over the years. And one of the things that we talked about, um, and a lot of other staff, and it was just wasn't just Dr. Rogers, but, um, one of the high heights that we brought up was if we were sending those kids out of district and we didn't create those programs, >> um, the number we used last year was
almost $9.6 million more than what we're currently spending. So yeah, good point. >> And it keeps those kids in district. >> Yeah. And I think that also I know that we've had discussions in our um subcommittee meeting um highlighting like how we look at creating programs in
district and what goes into that. So like you know we have x amount of kids that we're sending out of district for whatever need it is and and just talking about the fact that we're constantly looking or you're constantly looking at um can we bring these kids back in district? would that be more fiscally
responsible for us to build a program and kind of laying out like because we've talked about it's at least three years before you see kids come back be once you start building a program um that meets a need. So I think that kind of highlighting some of those things might be worthwhile when we're talking
to like town meeting members or people outside of of the people in this room. Jackson, >> um I'm glad that you brought up the um future budget concerns because I think, you know, I'm glad that you presented a
budget that we can live with with the numbers, but I think Mr. Smartellis makes a really good point that um we're not necessarily funding the schools to what we would like. We're funding the schools to what we have. And we have things like transportation contract
coming up in a year, which I know Dr. Blaze Dell has made like significant efforts in trying to manage those costs and is working really hard. Um but there are definitely conversations that are happening in the background between the budget committee, the town, the
administration that um that are real concerns that we need to be having those conversations and people need to be aware that you know this is these are real things that are happening and that we're not funding our students to the best of our abilities, but we're funding
them to what we have available. And I know all and that's not to say that the teachers and the administrators don't do a great job with what we have. They do an amazing job with what we have. It would just be nice if we could fund them to what people are asking for.
Yeah, we have a we have a a fantastic district um that does amazing things for kids and it's because of the people that we have um and the programs and opportunities that we have here in Plymouth which really I think um
there's no comparison to neighboring districts. They don't have the the wonderful programs and we don't want that to um we don't want to jeopardize that. We have wonderful programs. we have um our class sizes are appropriate and they're they're in we're in good
shape there. Um but you know as things get leaner and leaner um we run the risk of that you know being jeopardized and that's one thing that we certainly don't want to Right. >> We we we don't want to jeopardize. >> Yeah. And that's exactly my point
because it's it's because of the amazing people that we have that we're doing this, but you stretch things leaner and leaner and leaner and you know at some point everybody has their breaking point. >> So to pull on that thread a little more
Mr. Smartel kind of start on it saying hey our original we started out a few million dollars higher. M Jackson went into it. You know, if I look at what you presented on slides, what's it? Uh 13, 14 or so, 18 and uh 19. Is this budget
really level services? I feel like we're um you know, we've found other, you know, we're we're not cutting staff and you know, uh educational services, but the areas you are cutting from there's we're got to be down to the bottom of the Well, so how close can you
>> We We're not cutting the curriculum. So when you see >> Yeah, those are like contract. Yeah, I think that's >> Yes, we've been able to make some some adjustments so that we could stretch that and and and actually invest in it this year and and and reduce the need to to financially invest in it as much in
subsequent years. >> What I'm asking though is if every year we're getting two three million less than we would really want, there's only so like if you've cut this much this year, there's only so much you're going to be able to cut next year and the year beyond. How close are we to that point where you really can't say we're still
level service with the budgets with the amount of money we're getting from the town? >> I feel like that can't go on forever. >> No, no, I think we're right there. I mean, I think what we've done, and this is why we wanted to wait. Originally, this meeting was going to be on the 1st
of December, right? We didn't have a final a final guideline from the town, but we wanted to make sure we had enough time to really think about this strategically so that we could preserve everything that we value in terms of our curriculum, our programs, our staffing. So all those priorities
that Dr. Blazeell, we wanted to make sure that those were sacred in whatever we presented here. And we did that with the support of a lot of people in this room um and elsewhere to really think about how can we uh change our approach to some of these
purchases. Um and then some additional retirements came in. Um we also got some additional funds um that were that that weren't factored into the original guideline which helped us a little bit. So that you know that that 1.5 1.7
really wasn't as much as it was. So the shortfall wasn't as much as it initially we thought prior to December one. Um but we're right there. Getting back to your your question like if we had to cut any further we would be we would be looking at um jeopardizing what we have.
>> Okay. That's what I was looking for. >> I can to add on to that just to give you some specific examples. >> Next year when we look at FY28 I will not be able to fund $600,000 out of bus revolving. That will not be able to be that high. So that will not happen. Um,
the other thing is, like I said, the custodians, um, we will not be able to fund $445,000 out of the cafeteria revolving for custodians. We have to bring them back into the to the local budget. Um, there are other things that are getting to the
point where Chromebooks are starting to going to need to be replaced. um we've looked at leasing them over the years and kind of looking at a as a at a flat line in the budget to basically kind of get that replacement cycle that doesn't exist in the budget. So that's kind of a
risk. So if we're going to maintain one to one in the district, we need a line to to kind of to balance that. So not necessarily even looking at people looking at things >> no service >> is a risk. >> All right. Well, you haven't sufficiently worried.
>> I don't. there. >> Another question I got in here. Is there any I know you explained to me in the subcommittee that the circuit breaker that we use, we're actually in good shape because we don't wait for the offset because it rolls the year before. What percentage are you using for
circuit breakers like 75% that we did? >> What we do in Plymouth is we don't do a prediction. Um so we actually are not trying to figure out what our number is going to be for the next year. Um, so the number that you see here in this
year's budget that that's helping us pay for FY27 is the money that we're taking in in FY26, >> right? Because it rolls, you actually get the benefit of seeing it early than most districts. I don't know how that's pretty good.
>> So we are using FY25's money this year. And then so the money that we're taking in in FY26 sits there and we use it next year. So we are actually using that >> know what we're dealing with, >> right? We know the number we're dealing
with. >> Yeah. Um and I think >> not there aren't there are a couple districts that are in the point where they're using this year's money. So it's a risk. So if the money doesn't come in then or if there's an if things change
then it's a risk for them. So they may be short. Um I was talking to a business administrator from another town the other day and they said that they are in lifetime um when they use their money. Um so we're in good shape there once we start using this year's the current year
money to pay for circuit break to pay for special ed tuitions. We're we're getting that that's a risk. That's a cons major concern. We're not there yet and we're not planning on being there, but >> and you would know earlier than another district if we had an issue because
you'd see them, okay, the money wouldn't acrue. So, yeah, I think it it's this discussion is great. I I think going through the budget uh essentially to let the town know, but I I just want to go back to something I think we all reiterated. I think talking points and
quotes, lean is not okay, right? I I don't want to say we're you living within your means is responsible, right? But there's no other choice, but I just think as a group when we talk about the budget and we've said this that, you know, we just got to stay home and I
know there's behind the scenes discussions with other town entities and that's great. God bless everyone, right? But I want front-facing reiterating this is not the number that we desire, right? But we'll we'll deal with it right now. And I think that's important
to a little more fired up about hey this is the number it's it's not okay but I think it's responsible for the committee because it's it's taxpayer dollars. All right so um I I I one other thing can people at home see on these screens are
those numbers that small when they're viewing >> the PowerPoint in its entirety is uploaded electronic schoolboard so they can actually download the whole thing. >> Okay. So they can see. All right. Cuz >> and all the and all the financial documents that you have are up there available as well. Yep. >> Okay. That's important. Thanks.
>> M. Anybody else? Any other additional thoughts? >> All right. I think I'm good as well. >> The only thing I wanted to highlight is that we'll have our public hearing on January 5th. There any questions? Any
other information that you want before then? Please let Dr. Blazell or I know. Um we'll have that meeting here obviously at 7 p.m. and then we have our joint meeting with the select board and advisory and finance committee on the 13th that starts at 6 p.m. at town hall.
The the only thing I'll uh open up since we have all of our senior administrators uh here if anyone has any specific questions for any particular you know anything school specific you know here here's your chance not to put anybody on the spot but you know so we all right
you guys are off the hook then all right >> all right well I think that's the end of our agenda today >> this is the conclusion of our agenda >> all right >> thank you all >> right well with that I will call the meeting then at what's it 8:07 p.m. >> Oh, do we need a vote to go in executive
session? >> We will we'll reopen us at 10 actually. Are we going to >> Good job. >> Is there another
>> Harvard promo >> um to go through the Harvard training program? No. So, I'm going to be living. >> Yeah, >> they're on their own. >> I'm going to be back on the weekends, but >> what I'm going to give people a few
minutes to clear out 10th, February 14th. >> Ah, okay. My husband did that. >> Our master planning. >> We could see Right. >> Exactly. >> Right. Yes. Yeah.
>> Yes. Exactly. >> Thanks for coming you guys. >> Great discussion. >> Thanks for Zoom. Zoom. You feel like you meet people zooming. I know there's a lot of meet you.
>> Guys, drive slow. It's icy. >> Yeah, it is. >> All right, welcome back. Well, I'm going to call us back into session because we need to go into executive session. So, I will call us back in at 8 8:10. Uh, we have a motion to go into executive session.
I move >> I move that we go into executive s executive session for the purpose of uh negotiations with non-UN personnel to conduct collective bargaining sessions or contract negotiations.
>> All right. Do we have a second? >> I'll second it. >> Mr. Morgan seconds and I'll do a roll call. Mr. Smart Dallas? >> Yes. >> Miss Shaw? >> Yes. >> Miss Haywood? >> Yes. >> Miss Jackson? >> Yes. >> Mr. Morgan? >> Yes. >> And I vote yes. We are now in executive session at 811.