1 p.m. we have a quorum. So, let's call this meeting of the finance committee to order. Um, we are hybrid, so I will do a roll call. Uh, starting on Zoom. Uh, Mark, >> yes. Here. >> Uh, Jeffrey >> here. >> John,
>> here. >> Henry, >> yes. >> Ed, >> yep. Joe here, Emily >> here, >> and Joe Carneahan here. Uh, hold on. I am counting school committee members. I see one in the one in the room and one on the Zoom. So, no need to call to
order. >> Joe, there are two of us on Zoom. So, if anybody else happens to walk in, could you let me know? >> Oh, okay. Tom just joined. Cool. All right. Yeah. Yes, I will try to keep an eye on that. But, um, >> Jax, if anybody else uh >> I got you. >> Yes. Other people, please remind me.
Um, one technical detail someone already noticed. We don't have the gooseeneck microphones that we have had in this room before. Apparently, they were not charged after the select board meeting last night. >> Um, Emily and I talked with uh Kevin and Tim from IT before the meeting. Uh, that
microphone on the ceiling is picking us up and based on our tests seems to be working fine for people on Zoom. And that's supposed to be the same audio as RCTV. I'm getting a thumbs up on Zoom. That's a good sign. So, uh, what it does mean though is there's no in room amplification. So, uh, quiet folks, I'm
looking over my right mostly. Um, uh, you know, please do, uh, you know, share your good questions loudly so that everyone can hear. Uh, and with that, I think we can go into business. Uh, starting with, uh, public comment.
You have any? >> Yeah. >> Karen. Karen Carrick um writing select board. Um I please forgive me. I am just popping in for public comment and I have another engagement this evening but um so last
night the select board and um signed a separation agreement with our town manager and according to our charter we are able to leave you in the capable hands of acting town manager Jane Wellman. So, I want to say that um I personally thank U. Matt Cronis for all
of the service for the town and I wish him well in his next um endeavor. I'm sure um he'll he won't be um looking for long. And um aside from that, I just wanted to let you know there were two things that came up with the select board last night that I wanted to make
you aware of. Um, one was that um, Mater Cabin, the um, select board seems to mostly be on the same page about this and we are very concerned and as our residents who showed up last night that it remains closed. Um, I'll let Jane and Sharon fill you in, but that's going to
require some money one way or another. So, I just wanted to let you know where we discussed it last night and um, the sooner rather than later, it has been closed since September major season and um, yeah. And then the second item was um there was an item on
the warrant uh regarding a stabil creation of a stabilization fund for to be populated with revenue coming lease payments coming from Burbank Ice Arena. And there's some um uh we're not all in agreement on the
select board. Um I would like to um ask finance committee and staff to talk a little bit more about what are our options, what is best practice because um we just I just reviewed the most recent Burbank financials and there is no rent coming and and last year there
wasn't any. So, I'm sorry. And the stabilization fund would could potentially provide funds for unified sports. And I do understand that that is something our residents want. And none of the select board members have any concern with that. We're just concerned about the mechanism. We want it to be
appropriate to our current budgeting um scenarios and for it to be reliable and make sense. And that's it. So, have fun tonight. Thank you. >> Thank you, Karen. Um I uh any other public commenter in
the room? N I don't see any on Zoom. So uh next on our agenda is uh liaison reports. Uh folks on the committee who would like to report on their respective uh
associations with other committees and so forth. Anyone want to go first? Ed. >> Uh sure. Um so um from the Kllum School Building Committee um meeting, we had our last meeting on uh February 9th. Uh and again, apologies for uh last
meeting. I didn't have an update, but um uh hopefully this kind of hits um most of the highlights and I think we we have an agenda item also on here. So I think this we may end up being duplicative here, but um so um uh first part um uh
early package for um um the electrical switch gear and generator. Those bids um were due in January. Um they've come in under um under budget. Um uh under anticipated uh budget. Uh the
construction um uh bids are um going to come out at the end of um of next month, end of uh end of March um with a goal of that's when it opens, I'm sorry. um with the goal of actually having um a
contract awarded uh by the end of May um um and um with building to start um you know this summer. Um uh 90% construction documents have um have been uh submitted
to MSBA as of earlier this month. Um um let's see. Um I earlier this month we also had um uh furniture fit tests for both Rise and for uh Kllum Elementary. Um
uh and I think uh hold on actually one thing here. Sorry. at this page. Um, oh no, I I I actually I mentioned the 90 that um did I mention those we submitted
to SBA too? Did I write that down? We submitted our documents to uh MSBA earlier this month. So um so those were the main um items that I uh that I had from Kell. Um yep. And then uh the one thing that I'll
add just from the select board and this is no disrespect to you Jane um I I I just I I I find um the timing of this uh from um from a select board uh uh uh decision uh
process to be very untimely uh given that we have you know I just gave the uh report on on Kllum um what we have going on another building project um as well. Um I just find that um we need more
transparency on on on the decision-m process that uh that that is made. This puts the town in a u in a in a weaker position. Um I can speak um just specifically on Kllum. Um Matt's
involved um you know um with just about everything that's that that happens on that project. Um, again, he doesn't do it solely. Obviously, there's there's others that that that that uh um that operate on that. Um, the town is facing
and uh a pending override um decision. And uh to to be put in this position now is um unfortunate at best. And I have little um well, I I'll I'll stop there. I
probably over I probably I probably overextended I' I've probably overextended >> not 100% of that was a leazison report. So yeah, you should probably wrap it up. >> Yep. >> All right. Um cool. Uh who'd like to go next? Right.
>> Um so Karen probably gave a lot of the updates that I was going to mention, but one thing I did notice last night probably tied into her updates is that they did not pass the warrant to go to town meeting. I think they're the the v vote is being delayed
>> and I I believe it was because of a dispute with article 14, but I don't know if there were >> I think there were further you were going to look into the snow shoveling. >> Was that was that on the No, I'm sorry that wasn't on the war, but there was something else that was going to be >> the park there was some issues with the
park grant. >> Maybe that was it. >> But they were just previewing it. So they're going to uh close it and and approve it on >> Okay. So that wasn't the time that they were going to vote on it. they were previewing it. But there seems to be and you know as they mentioned with the killan there seems to be this issue
about what is the meaning of um the fund that you know town meeting was trying to be to correct um to have created and I'm getting a sense not that this is our concern but that someone is going to have to resolve what the difference is
between unified sports and adaptive sports and what this fund means. I don't know that it's going to I feel like the terms were getting used interchangeably. >> Sure. >> And I'm not sure going back to what the town meeting intent was. Anyway, I don't know if that it'll all change before it comes to us, but that was just that
update. >> Who wants to go next? >> We're going to hear plenty from the schools. I was going to say we're going to hear plenty from schools. So Jeffrey gets a night off. >> Nothing. So, uh, you know, following on my last report where I said that the CPA study
committee was about to present to the select board. Well, we did. I think it went well. Definitely a lengthy discussion. Um, you know, good comments and questions both from the select board and residents uh who are at the meeting. So, um, I think we might I think we've
discovered a few minor not like content but details to correct in the report. So, we're going to meet again to do that. Um but we submitted a warrant article uh which the SEC board um you know has to put on the warrant any article that's submitted by another
committee. Um so uh yeah so this is coming to town meeting. Anybody else? I try to save myself for last but if anybody thought of something give them a chance. All right. Uh, next on our agenda, uh, the
committee asked last time for updates on the bid process for, uh, Kilum School and Recal, uh, and any other capital projects that might be relevant there. >> Sure. >> Um, so Jane, you want to >> I have some stuff for you, >> please. >> I think I think Ed did a great job on
where we are in Kilum so far. Um, he he nailed all of that. Um, we have the switch gear that came in well. Um the it's the it's now in pre-qualifications, pre-qualified sub bids. All the sub bids have to be vetted. We're using a
platform called bid docs to um get all the the reviews. We have a pre-qualification team. It's actually kind of a bit of a heavy lift for that team to go through and look at all the pre-quall documents and then um those will go all the qualified sub bids will
go to the general contractors who are bidding and they also the generals also get pre-qualified um to make sure they're they're qualified to do a project of this size that they have the capacity to do a project this size that they are experienced in building schools of this
size for this budget etc. And um and then the general contracting bids are due right now on the timeline I think May 19th. And um and then the board will review the bids and uh we'll go from there. So that's where we are with
Kilum. Um recal bids came in on Thursday, February 5th, um at 18.9 million, which is $3 million under the established $21.9 million construction budget. um which is excellent news. Um
the committee, the building committee voted to award uh the contract to J&J Construction at their meeting. Um so that contract has been sent out. They're uh they're doing some contract refinement. We'll be studying we'll be
uh finishing that and I believe the anticipated mobilization date is Monday, March 16th uh on site to start putting shovels in the ground um at Recel and doing a lot
of site work. Um just in case your folks are interested. So the base bid for the low bidder was $18,97,000 with both alternates. So there are two alternates on that project. The first alternate was the completion of Range
Road. So it needs to be widened a little bit. It needs to be repaved, etc. to accommodate. So that'll be it's not the whole road all the way to the range, but it's just a little bit past where the pickle ball courts are. Um so that was included. And then the um the second uh
item was a photovotayic system on the roof, solar that is a fully electric building. Um there will be a generator on site. It will be a shelter. It's it's a place where we can do a shelter. So um but it will be fully electric. And so with solar on the roof, that's great. We
can afford all of it. Uh the full the full bid plus the two alternates was $19,357,000. As a reminder, the construction budget for the project was 9 was $21,947. Um >> million. >> I'm sorry.
>> You said 21,000. I beg your pardon me. >> It's like a project 21,947,967. Um so thank you. That was the the budget. So this the difference um is 2.59 million we came in lower and or
11.8%. Okay. So that's where we are with recal um and that's very exciting to um have that coming forward. And then I just wanted to open
one more document here. I have 152 documents open on um and then pickle ball. I imagine you're interested in the pickle ball project as well. So we received um a fantastic 10 bids for this project. People
>> That's a lot of bids. That's a lot of And most of them were in the room when we opened them. So, it's a good time. I'm telling you, if you if you need a little an excitement, you know, at 1:00 on a Thursday, come to town hall for a bid opening. Um, we have a special
letter. It's fantastic. Um, so pickle ball, it it's like it's like the sword and the stone. I feel like King Arthur. Anyway, um, so we got 10 bids. Uh, the lowest was from Cork, uh, for 1.158 million. um that includes both ad
alternates. So this the seventh court >> it was the remember the base bid was just six courts >> and and base level electrical so that we could do lighting someday. Well anyway that that bid includes um the seventh court and the LED lighting.
Okay. Um the that's that's the full bid. The base was like 967,000 I think. So, um, Quirk just built the post-tension concrete basketball courts at Birch Meadow. The Birch Meadow, they're working on that. They've been fantastic
to work with. So, we are really excited that they actually were the low bidder out of 10 projects. And the the numbers were spot on. The estimates that BH plusa when we all heard them last year and we were kind of like that's too high and you got to lower these prices. They were spot on. We got a lot of 1.5s
um in in these uh in these bids. So Quirk really uh is making it work for us. Um so that's great news. Uh that mobilization is going to also be early next month. So that we are doing some project coordination between both
contractors. J&J construction u for the recal project built the new cal center. So they've built another BH plusa very similar cal design. Um they know they know how this works. Um, and then at our if you're interested, if you come to the
next permanent building committee meeting, the contractor will come in for a visit um, and meet the committee. And you know, these are public meetings, so you're welcome to come down. >> Sure. >> Okay. >> When's when is the next one? >> Why do you ask hard questions? Um, I think it's >> we only have a 100 documents open.
>> I I have and like my meeting schedule's crazy. Uh, one moment. I think it's next week. Next Wednesday. I think it's next Wednesday. Oh, I'm sorry. I'm way in March here. Um yeah, next Wednesday the 4th down at the
um Pleasant Street Center. >> Is that right? >> And you also have finance committee right after. So if you come down first thing >> Oh, we've done that before. Yeah. >> Well, good. Mark's got a hand off. So Mark, please go ahead.
>> Jane, what is the net cost to the town? Because I think the RPPA has money and there was a grant. So what's the net cost now? >> Um well the net construction cost so not the design work that's been done that
kind of thing which has been paid seriously um is $533,000. So it was you check my math finance committee uh it was 100 1,158,000 we had 225,000
from RPPA 200,000 from the Burbank fund and 100,000 from recreation um the recreation operating budget their annual capital operating budget uh not their capital investment that's done
annually. We also um and the park grant is $100,000. So if we if the town just chooses not to accept the park grant, then it would be $633,000 for total total borrowing cost to the
town. >> Your math checks out. >> I mean on the construction cost like do you have any sense on that? Does it feel like it's construction costs? Like it's time to level off a little thinking ahead to the school project.
>> Do I think there's I think that we are they leveling off? We've had other bids come in a little bit high on some projects that was like this was a little higher, but the the the estimates were a little older. And so with our OPM and our designers, these
are aggressively estimated and estimated as we go through the project. and you know you you and you carry less contingency um as you go further and further. So they they've got they're really really good. So I think that the estimates we have for Kilum are going to
be about right. Um and you know we've been concerned about what's going to happen with steel costs and other tariff related things. We knock wood. We seem to be we're okay. I mean we're coming in under budget. I mean my favorite thing
to say and Ed will tell you is on time and under budget on time and under budget all the time and and we we are we are doing that on both of these projects you know pickle ball and recal and so far that is also truly killing. Can I just add something to so Joe just to
just to add one thing to um as Jane was saying um we get refined contingency numbers as we get you know kind of almost every meeting and they've they've they've been tighter and in our favor you know I mean so they they've been heading in the in the in the right
direction. So I think it's we don't know you you never know until you know but I think it's um you know what we're hearing from the OPM is is is exactly that that things are there is a little bit more clarity and as they go through and and and base it on you know kind of other like projects and things that are
happening um you know there we're we're still in a good spot as far as what we have allocated. >> Exactly. And so like as as you get closer and closer to numbers, your escalation costs come down, right? Because you're not you're not going to but bid it out in a year. You're bidding it out in three months. So your
escalation >> more predictable, too. >> Exactly. Yeah. Exactly. And but we've approved the budgets at town meeting and at the ballot for x amount of dollars. So basically, it just gives you more cushion, right, as you go or as we go further with these bigger projects, you
don't have to borrow as much as you when you get there. you can work the cash flows and especially with MSBA reimbursements. Sharon's amazing >> with all of that. >> And how is it like retal approved like I forget the number like 279 or something. If we go over like the non- construction
costs, right? Say if >> I don't want to jinx it. Say that really was was higher than expected, right? Town meaning only approved >> that 27.9. That's it. You have that's the budget. >> So if if a project comes in higher than that budget, you have to do value
engineering. You have to rework your scope. >> But that's that's the plan. >> Yeah, we don't plan on that. >> We're not Yeah, we're not going and we're not coming back to town. >> But if you save 2 and a.5 million, that would come off the 27.9 hopefully. >> Yes. We're not We're not like, "Okay,
great. Let's go spend more money." It's all >> But you never know in a project. We're we're about to embark on all this site work. There there are literally two cars out in the woods that have to be hauled out. Like we've done soil testing, you
know, we have we've done we've done out there. We've done a lot and lot of site work. All of our engineers and our teams have done a lot of work to make sure that there aren't surprises. Nobody likes s unpleasant surprises, pleasant surprises like lower pits. But um yeah,
you don't know. You you don't know until you start, you know, putting putting shovels in the ground. And so it's good to have this contingency. this question was good. >> So, um this might be a Sharon question. If if so, we just I can ask her next week.
>> Yeah. >> Um >> uh but so assuming that the total comes in, let's say the non-construction costs are exactly what we estimated and so then total comes in that just um that will lead to less borrowing and hence a
smaller increase to uh the excluded debt part of tax bills, right? Is that how this works? >> Yes. Good. >> That's what I was hoping to hear. >> Great. >> Less tax is much better. >> Yes. >> And I guess following up, right, we had a the fieldhouse floor, right, where the
bids came in under and they found a way to spend the additional money. So, we want to be sure that >> I was going to say, please don't. Thanks. >> Yeah. So, we want to be sure that that in fact that the so and I think maybe we have to then have town meeting resend the the debt authorization because we're
not borrowing as much as we voted to or something like that. >> Don't do that. >> Don't do that. >> No, no, it's already borrowed. So, not all of it's borrowed. >> Yeah. Not always borrowed because she was doing it in multiple trenches is my answer. >> Yes. So, just don't borrow as much if
you don't need to. If would repurpose that tunch, right, to similar type project if you had to wor >> Yeah. I think there'll always be some money left over in the budget, right? Because we're not going to end it on, you know, we're going to pay all the bills and then there's there's still
going to be some money there. We're not going to it perfectly. We do get cash flows. Um, but this these projects have public building committees and the meetings are all public. And so if there are decisions that are made to, you
know, okay, well, we hit ledge and we're going to have to blast that's going to cost more money, those conversations are had in public and and it's different than sort of a smaller project that's managed by staff. Um, and and the language that we use in in town meeting to sort of identify that. I think we had
a really good conversation here last uh fall about making sure that we're able to answer those questions of like, okay, if we're going to if we if we come in under budget, what other things does this project really warrant and what other things would we do? What's the minimum?
You were here because this is the problem we need to solve, but then there are other things that can be done in this area, you know, and and what else would happen? So, Okay, other questions about the update on
capital projects. Thank you very much for the update. That was I mean >> that's my pleasure. >> Good news. Oh, wait. Hold on. Um we got a late breaking hand from Mark. >> Don't we have the uh what's the depot? What's the latest on that? >> The depot
>> High Street Haven and High Well, High Street the High Street construction project, >> right? Not to be confused with construction going on the depot building itself, which is not us. >> Not No, we don't own that building. >> Exactly. >> No, that's privately owned. Um, that bid was opened,
I want to say, late January. Um, and that is handled mainly by the engineer, so I wasn't I didn't prepare that um for tonight. So, I apologize. I can I can get that information back to the board. Um, I believe it came in a little over budget. Um, and so we have to see what
we're going to do about that. we redefine the scope or do we have money left over from other road construction projects we're doing this year. So Ryan Pible is managing that process. All right. Um okay. Anything else on
going once, going twice? All right. Going on to the uh sort of headline uh show which is the school department budget presentation. Uh Tom, I can't. This is Even Tom is not tall enough. Even Tom is not tall enough for me to see him behind the podium. He is back.
We are here hiding behind the podium ready for the headline show. >> Good evening everyone. Nice to see you. Uh Phil and I and Carla and I think Tom is online. I know Sean's online both. >> Uh excited to present the FY27 school committee recommended budget tonight. uh just like to open up as always to thank
this committee and thank the entire community for uh both the financial investment and all the other different types of investment and support partnership of our schools. I think uh everyone here knows that this is a community that deeply values, appreciates and supports uh public education. So just a huge thank you to
all of you for your leadership and uh in supporting our schools. So uh I will start tonight just a high level framing of a few things around the budget. Turn over to Phil who will dive into some of the nitty-gritty uh and then also we'll open up to questions and uh dialogue conversation. You saw on the last slide
says steady as we go. I think if you kind of click on to the next slide after that you'll see what we mean by that kind of the the big headline being uh level funding of non-personnel uh also level service on the personnel side. So you'll see no recommended additions uh
into the budget FY27 budget on the staffing side. Next slide. You'll see kind of a as additional context given we said steady as it goes does not mean that this was an easy budget for uh the administration or for the school committee. What do we mean by that? Uh
budget process started back in October meeting with town leadership. Uh and Sharon, if we were rolling over everything, programming, staffing, services from FY26 and FY27 uh into where we are now of a 2.01%
increase, there was about an $800,000 delta. That was a number that sort of when we worked with town leadership, we knew this year was really tight on the town side. We know the next couple of years are really tight and on the school side, we wanted to be, you know, as strong of
financial stewards as we possibly can and sort of request and ask for what we thought we could do on sort of the tightest and thinnest of margins that we could. So the 2.01% increase, you'll see, you can imagine that that's challenging to have a 2% uh, you know,
increase and maintain level service. And we'll get into sort of how we did that. Um, but I just like to again, especially with teacher contracts next year, 4%. So that's just was a tricky number for us to hit. So you'll be hearing a little bit tonight of sort of how we hit that and how we went about that. Couple of just points I'd like to make as we, you
know, look at that 2 point kind of that 2% increase. Uh, one just like to kind of reassure and emphasize that our district continues to explore all creative sort of thinking around budgets both on the revenue sort of and the expenditure side. On the revenue side,
over the last five years, we brought in over a million dollars for funding for the high school innovation uh pathway programming. Two, we're now up to about $400,000 annually in school choice funding. And you'll see in the budget also an increase, significant increase in tuitioning students in for some of our indistation programming. So, those
are just a few examples of things on the revenue side. Also on the expenditure side, you'll see a few things tonight, but also trying to especially on building up our in-dist special education programming so we can better support uh our students in district uh the best that we can. So uh that's one
point just on that number. Uh the second point we'd like to make is that that 2% increase, it did require us to be creative around a couple of levers that will eventually run dry in the budget. We know that sort of town and schools are looking ahead to some tighter years
and we had to start to make some of those tough decisions in this year's budget. You'll see our uh a biggest one for us this year. We over the last few years have used a sort of one-year lag on school choice funds. You'll see, you know, in the FY27 budget, we're not only
using, you know, funds that we're receiving this year, but also funds we'll be receiving next year. So, we're sort of using two years worth of school choice funding. Not ideal, but again, one of those things that we had to do to sort of close that that gap. Next slide. So, another uh piece as you know, uh
kind of comprising our budget, overall budget, 50 of almost 54 million operating funds. Uh a little under 6 million on the special education accommodated costs. Um I'm going to weave in some of my answers and some of the questions you emailed just so if you if you asked about special ed
accommodated costs. As you know, uh, out of district special education costs, uh, are included in the special ed accommodated costs or makeup special ed accommodated costs. Um, that number is a significant decrease from FRI 26. Why? I think primarily as a there's like two
big factors. One being we are seeing starting to be able to keep more kids in district, which is really encouraging and exciting. Uh and we also, you know, historically have had a couple of contingencies built in the budget for students who we thought we would say are
like strong possibility that they may need sort of an out of district placement. This year we've reduced, you know, those contingencies from the budget knowing that we have a specialed reserve fund that we've built up to over $600,000
now, too. So we think we can be, you know, have a little bit of a backs stop now with the special ed reserve fund that maybe historically we haven't been able to have because we didn't have that there. So that's why that number looks uh, you know, significantly lower than it has in years past. So that's a little
bit just like high level of where we are going into the budget and then Phil will bring you into the uh, a little bit further into the weeds on some of the numbers. Well, apparently Tom, our experiment with your daughters has failed miserably since they've already left. >> They claim they're down doing homework.
We can we'll see after how much is done. >> And I just give you a moment here because I now have like 12 pairs of glasses and I have the wrong ones with me. >> I totally get that. >> They're in my other bag which is in the car. So, I'm gonna have to go off of
this. So, all right. All right. So, this has got our fifth fiscal year 27 budget by our cost centers. There was just a couple things that I want to point out. Um, as I said at the school committee meeting, this is the spending that's
just the general fund spending. So, we don't have the money that we're getting from grants. We don't have the money that we get from circuit breaker and all the other funding sources. The reason why I say that is you look at special ed, it says that the year-over-year change is a negative 3.3%. Well, part of that is the reduction that
was made in the accommodating cost number, but also we shifted some of our expenses out of the general fund into some of our other funding sources. Um, so want to make sure that people are aware of that. And school facilities are up 12.2%.
Again, that's because last year we had shifted some of our for this fiscal year, we shifted some of our expenses to other revenue sources. They're now going back onto the general fund for fiscal year 27. Um, and then finally, technology is showing a bit of a bump.
We had a piece of software that we had paid a three-year um, subscription for it three years ago, and we did not budget for it this year. So, it's like $90,000 a year. So, we had to add that back in for fiscal year 27.
But overall, you know, as we had put at the beginning, and I will take full responsibility for the title of the um, presentation. I try to come up with titles just to start off. So, it is a steady as we go. It's level funded for
the non-personnel and that is probably about year 27 that we've been level funding our non-personnel expenses leaving out special ed tuition. So, we're talking paper, pencils, and things like that. And it's level service in terms of the staffing which means if you
go through the reconciliation of the staffing there's a shift of I think we're down one FTE overall and that's just because we took a couple of paraprofessional positions and turned it into a different type of position. So we took two and made it into one
but again we're not asking for any ads to staff um for next year. All right, the next one. Who's who's controlling this? So, okay. Um, so this is the budget is showing up by percentages. And again, historically, we're still floating along, but where we
are again, special ed looks like it's down from 33 to 31. But again, that's just because we're shifting some of those expenses off of the general fund onto other revenue sources for that. But overall, we're staying consistent in terms of uh what the percentage make up
for each of the costages to the overall general fund budget. And the next one, this is the one that you need a magnifying glass for. Uh this is just something that we added last year. It reconciles the FTEES just so you can see what's going on. Um one of
the things that we did is that we moved uh four PAR positions off of the general fund budget down to the special ed budget. And so that's why overall it looks like the general fund is down by three positions, which it is because we've
moved four positions down to the special ed budget. Um I don't want to go into too much of the weeds of this, but you know, all in all, at the end of the day, it looks like we're up one FTE over this year, but that's because you go down to the very bottom where it says says
special ed tuition. As uh superintendent said, we are gaining revenue by having students come in from other districts utilize some of our special ed programs. We had stu two students come in this year, each of whom required a onetoone par profofessional aid. So we added
those in. We don't pay for it. We charge that back to the sending district and they pay us for that. But that's why overall the FTEES that's the way it looks. All right. The next one is just the the pie chart showing again if you add up what we spend on special ed regular day
that's just about 90% of the overall budget in terms of the general fund expenditures. Okay. All right. On to the next one. Other funding sources. Just want to make sure that I leave any of the questions out so far.
>> Okay. So, first one we have here are the offset summary. Uh we did get one question about uh whether or not the usage of both um athletics and um other F school programs have recovered from
the pre pandemic numbers. Athletics have for last year we had 1294 students who participated and I went back as far as fiscal year 16 and that year was 1285. So you know we had a slight dip and it came back up. um we do see a drop is in
the other programs particularly in the um plays that are put on. The number of students involved in those has gone down but a lot of that's being driven by the type of shows that they're putting on. Don't need quite as large a cast or quite the number of um workers to work
on them. So overall those have gone down from about 450 back in fiscal year 18 to about 275 last year. Again, it's mostly being driven by the shows going here in terms of our offsets. Um, the first one I want to talk about is
the full day kindergarten tuition for fiscal year 26. We're using 430,000 of what was left in our full year kindergarten uh fund to offset expenses for this year and the remaining 128,000 will be used up next year. So, at the
end of fiscal year 27, there will be nothing left in the kindergarten kindergarten tuition fund. that will be gone. Um, you can also see you get on a special ed tuition line. You'll see that for this year we weren't anticipating having any tuition to use as an offset.
We are anticipating about 140,000 for fiscal year 27. And then for school choice, um, we're anticipating using 252,500 for this year, which is actually fiscical year 25 money. Um, for next year, you can see that number looks way
out of alignment. It's up to 984,000. That's because we're anticipating using the money that we're going to get this year, which will be at least a half million, as well as what we're going to get next year, which would be about another half million at least to uh help uh fill in the gap that the
superintendent talked about. It does leave a challenge for us as we look at fiscal year 28 because what are we going to do to make that up? Now, as I like to say, I try to be very conservative and I show worst case scenario budget. So,
this should be the worst case. Hopefully, we won't have to use quite so much. And as we get to the end of fiscal year 27, we'll see what we've got left in terms of our various um balances. But, you know, as we start in the fall looking at 28, that's one of the things we're going to need to look at is um
where are we going to be able to find some replacements at least for the school choice for that one year bubble that we're using that for. >> Just one comment on the school choice funds as well. as you may know, it's $5,000 per student, but we're also reimbursed 100% of all special education costs as well. So, that's why that
number isn't, you know, a multiple of $5,000 there as well. So, um that and you know, and that varies by sort of the level of service that a student's receiving when they come into our district as well. >> And just to put it in context, about 5 years ago, we had no students coming
into reading and this year we have 79, I think it is, and we're anticipating 100 for next year. So that's another area in terms of trying to find other revenue sources where we can bring revenue into the district. >> Phil on um just a quick one on that. So
the the what you have from FY27 that's based on the hundred number you just mentioned, right? >> Yeah. >> Gotcha. Okay. >> Um >> and that 100 number and I'll share because I see some school committee members here too. So school committee each year school committee to can choose
to opt out of the school choice program. Every student who's already in the program is guaranteed to roll forward. But uh you know I you we're hoping we'll give a proposal to the school committee that will likely have some new seats for this year based off of spots where we know we can take on some students where
it's actually advantageous for us where we have some open seats. Uh that process usually takes place sometime in the spring as well. So that's just more on that to come. But that 100 number hasn't been settled yet. The only number that we know for sure is that 79. >> Yeah. And the last one I'll point out is the school lunch program. Um we had
anticipated being able to charge off some of our expenses for some of our um Harris and custodial staff to the school lunch program, but it turns out we're not going to be able to do that. Um we're the program is running very tight in terms of being able to break even. So
we're not So the 273 that we'd hope to be able to do this year, we're not going to be able to do. Um but we were able to cover that and we're not planning on doing anything for fiscal year 27. Um food service is getting hammered primarily in the grocery costs. If you
look at the cost for groceries, it's they've gone up a considerable amount year-over-year. Um and that's even with uh we participate in a couple different um cooperative buying programs and even with the power of that again you're
seeing the price go up. And so I've been working very closely with uh Katie to make sure that we can do what we can to um get it so that we will break even for this year. >> And as you can imagine for those of you kids in the schools, you know that one of the things we've been really proud of
is just the in the improvement in the quality of our food and the the pretty significant jump in the level of participation. And we know that, you know, with the grocery cost being one of the primary drivers of sort of the increase, but also something that's we think making our program work well. It's
just, you can imagine some of the trade-offs and the harder conversations we're having to make sure we can maintain the level of programming while also making sure the the program is in a good financial position. >> Yeah. So, we're going to have to cut back on the filt of the lobster, >> but you know, I mean, there there will
be, you know, some slight modifications to the rest of the year in terms of what we're offering. If I could just get the high school to like sloppy Joe, I'd be a happy me. The high school doesn't like it. So, I have to go I have to go to one of the elementary schools to get it. >> Just a question on like the school of
choice related to like classroom size. Like what's the current um guidelines on the classroom size? >> Yeah. So, and I don't know if the camera can pick it up if I sit down too. So, there are no uh in our in the teacher unit contract. There's no set uh numbers around what we have to have for
classroom size or classroom cap. The school committee has issued guidelines around some of the class size, but it's generally like a looser cap. Uh that number for K1 is is 21. Uh the number for uh 23 is 23 and the number for four, grade four, five is 25. Uh and that gets
even a little bit looser as the grades go up. So in terms of like strategy on school choice, I'll use like woodend as an as an easy example. Say we have, you know, uh projected, you know, second grade class of 28 kids. that's too large for one class, you
know, in our guidelines, but also that's probably too small for two class of 14. So that's probably that's those are the spots that we look at for those available seats. >> Good. Tom, if I could just add, we don't we don't um open up school choice seats to
take us to the max uh in those class size guidelines. It's, you know, take advantage of some of those opportunities, but without um running right up against those totals. The other strategy on school choice as you know is that if we uh is around enabling staff members children to be able to come into the district as well
in a way that we also then receive funding for that. Some districts will put that in their teachers union contract. They don't then they won't receive the funds for that and then those districts will also be on the you know responsible for any additional special education costs that may come in unexpectedly as well. So, we found that
this is not only a way as a, you know, a revenue generator to fill seats, but also something that many of our staff members now have their children in our schools, and we think it's a great retention and recruitment strategy for us. >> Hi. So, um, I'm probably going to get into some nitty-gritty numbers here, but
an overall theme I'm trying to understand. You mentioned you want to have a 0% level funded, and I see that in a lot of categories that I wonder given some of the other things you said and just what we see in the townside budget would would be realistic. For
example, you talked just a minute ago about the increasing costs in food, but yet I see um 0% level fund for facility supplies. Why wouldn't you think that there would be inflation costs there as well? And in some other categories and
throughout the budget, I've seen a 0% increase in subs. And I guess that I don't know whether you whether we think each year there's going to be more or fewer subs, but that's just like one part of my question is
I appreciate that you're trying to keep things 0%, but what's the what's the fallback position when some of these categories which we see on town side are going up? Like you have you don't have 0% in tech. You have a lot of you know what I would say realistic increases for
licensing costs in tech. So, I'm just wondering and then I have more questions, but I'd like you just to address the optimistic 0% I see in a lot of categories. >> Well, zero 0% obviously is not ideal. So, one of the things that we've been doing since I got here is going through
what we've actually been spending on those lines the last couple years to see if it makes sense. So, one of the things that we did for this year is I had all of the principles go through the budgets and because we were just rolling the budget numbers over for the last couple
years, I said, "Go through and actually put realistic numbers for what you've been spending." And so, we went through and looked at what they had spent the year before and put it in. So, for the most part, most of the schools have not been quite spending all of their
non-personnel money. Whether it's because they're very good managers or husbandry their money, I I don't have an answer for that one. But I'm comfortable that we still have enough money to cover those types of expenses. As for the facilities, um, well, that was the
number that was given to us by uh Joe and Kevin. I mean, we did make a couple of slight adjustments on a couple of the lines. >> No, I I know Joe can be a miracle worker with finding money, but >> All right. And it's there's another number that just didn't make sense to me, and maybe this is I'm
misunderstanding it. We have a 35.7%, if I've written it down right, decrease in out of district tuition, yet a 29% in 29.8% increase in special ed transportation. Now, is that out of district
transportation? >> That is. >> Is it indistrict? So, we have fewer kids and we're spending like a third more money to transport them. >> It's both. >> Okay. >> And I would direct you towards and if you can't find it, I'll be happy to send it to you. The inspector general just
came out with a study on transportation costs within the Commonwealth of Massachusetts because the the costs have just been blowing through the roof. And it's very interesting to read. Um there's a word that I had said to them that they did not put into the study and
I won't say it here but there's there is very little competition in terms of >> Yes. >> Yeah. Now I understand it's just just so the picture really is we're sending a lot fewer kids and still spending much more money to transport even fewer kids. >> Not only we having fewer kids going out,
but the programs are going in may not be the same programs. I could have a student who's costing us $400,000 leave and then have a student come in who's only $200,000. So my overall budget's going down, but I still have to transport those kids. So we got to look
at both sides. You know, where are the where are the students being sent as well as the transportation? I mean, alto together for fiscal year 25, we transported um out of district was about and I know I'm going to be slightly off. I think it
was around 53 students. That cost us almost a million and a half. And in district we had um it was 61 including rides and that cost us about a little short of a half million dollars. I think I've got my numbers right, but
I'll >> that's bringing a kid who lives like the south part of town to a program at a different school. Like >> if their IEP calls for it, we have to provide them the transportation. >> Okay. And I guess the last question, there were just some random items that jumped out at me. You know, I could see
elementary curriculum up and high school down and such, but I saw a 40% increase in furnishings. So, and I but yet I always see us getting rid of stuff like is that isn't for the new Kllum school. I mean, what is that? One of the I'll call complaints that I
get from the principles is they don't think that if they need to buy chairs for one of their classrooms, it shouldn't be coming out of the operating budget. It should be coming out of a capital budget. So again, I've asked them to reshuffle their money to what
they plan on using it for for next year. I know one of the schools is planning on buying I think new tables for the cafeteria if I remember off the top of my head. So that's where you're seeing some of that going on in terms >> that's not a capital expense because they last a long time. Now
>> they do but we've I what was explained to me and I could be totally wrong. We haven't really done it that way in terms of these because they're really not necessarily a big expense. you know, buying 20 tables for a ca for a cafeteria
might only cost us, I don't know, I'm going to throw a number out there, $50,000. That's not going to make it that's not going to make the capital threshold, >> okay? >> Because it's not enough. >> So, furniture is one of those things that's on my hit list to go over to try to understand what it is that we're
doing and how we're doing it. I asked all the principles during our budget meetings to let me know if they had anything that they needed right now to let me know so we could figure out how we were going to find the funding for it. And I got a few of them. Um, excuse
me. But, um, that's one of the challenges that we have is in terms of furniture replacement that's not on an ongoing basis. It's the one-offs. >> Okay. Yeah. No, just certain numbers like large numbers like that jumped up. You know, unlike we, we know, we know
that we have to replace our 1 to1 machines every four to 5 years. So, we're building that schedule up. You know, furniture can last 20 years, it could last 10. You know, all depends. So, that's a hard one to budget. >> Thank you. >> And also, it's pretty small. I mean,
it's interesting that same number was 66,000 a few years ago, uh, and 11 last year and 16 this year. So, going from 11 to 16 is still a heck of a lot smaller than 66. um and not obviously much in the scope of 50 odd million >> but I am concerned that overall in terms
of the nonpersonnel at some point we need to really sit down and be able to figure out a way to get some more money for some of those lines. >> No one doesn't Yes. getting at some point you are you either weren't spending all the money before which it sounds you weren't at some point you will be spending all the money
and then at some point you'll be getting less for the same amount of money and when is less too little >> you know as the superintendent said earlier we're using some of the resources we have available to get us through 27 and probably 28 but then my magic pots of money are going to be
pretty much gone at that point and it's going to put us in a position that I don't like to in terms of flexibility. Okay. Sorry. Any other questions on before I go on?
Okay. Um I think the next one is grants. Oh, that's the offset. Just showing you um where we're using the money. So for athletics, the money that we're bringing in, we're using to offset the athletic budget and all the other ones that are on there. All right. All right. So, if we can go
down to grants, you know, this is a good story in that I commend the staff for really working hard. I don't know what my phone is doing. Excuse me. Okay. Really working hard to find new grant opportunities. They're doing a great job
bringing those in. Um, in terms of the current political environment, I don't see I don't have a high level concern in terms of the entitlement grants, which would be title one, title two, title three, title four, and IDA. Um, of course, the problem is title one
continues to shrink. um idea goes up ever so slowly um year-over-year and title three and title four are for us very small grants but all in all um you know the grants are coming in about what
they've been coming in at so you know again I commend the staff for what they've been doing in terms of a lot of the other um I'll call not the typical grants the one-offs and things like that they do a great job all right the Okay. Um,
>> so going out my my bad puns for presentations that I create. >> Oh, just that quick quickly on metco, right? Where does that stand? Is that >> um >> I'm going to let Tom >> like relative involvement that we've had in the past or >> Yeah. Yeah. Good. >> It's a challenge. >> Yeah. Good question. So, I think we have
to go back uh I think it was four years ago. Uh so, MECO we have historically got about a little over $8,000 per student. Four years ago, uh, DESIE in partnership with METCO had a sort of a one-time opportunity to expand programming to in addition to getting
the per pupil uh, of 8,000 plus per student, there was also a $5,000 per student if you're to open up new seats and expand your programming. And that was, many of you may remember, I think we're a part of that. Uh, we had approval from our school committee from Desi to expand by uh, close to 50 seats.
So that gave us what was a you see like a one-time sort of you know chunk of money as well in addition to the ongoing uh per pupil uh funding through METCO. So we've called that our that big chunk of money our carryover which we knew would allow us to do some things to get
our program in a really good position. There's one example, moving from one staff member in our MECO program now to nine staff members, which I think if any of you are connected with the schools and our mechco program, I think we're in a a wildly different place than where we were before as a result of the work of our amazing counselors and those
programs. With that said, since the, you know, MECO per pupil has been generally, you know, level funded over the last couple of years, that's that's becoming trickier for us to figure out as our carryover every year is decreasing because of our increase in costs both on
the transportation side and on the staffing side and we're not receiving the support from the state and uh increasing the MECO budget. that's made that metco becoming more and more of a challenge for us in terms of making it sort of
keeping us in good financial position. So you see next year we're actually going to we're expecting an estimated end of year balance of zero for our carryover which we enter the year at around $100,000 to. So we're you know we have some idea you know we're going to continue to advocate at the state level which we have been. Uh, I think we have
a a a really strong CEO of the MECO program in her first year who I'm confident can help put some pressure on legislators to increase the budget, but if not, I think we have some other ideas of how we can continue to support our program. But that is something that, you know, is is is a challenge. Um, you
know, we've talked about having to, you know, spots we may have to reduce some aspects of of, you know, programming or services, which is not ideal, but until we get some more support from the state, we're going to be, you know, continue to have to think really creatively to keep the level of service that we have.
>> And and I don't the quickest say we bought a little over about 103 students uh in the program and that's our cap for DESIE. uh we're not allowed to go over 103 unless we get uh sort of approval from Desi and from METCO and right now they're not allowing districts to apply for additional seats. >> So you say the expansion was 50 students
so we doubled the number. >> Yeah. So well it >> up to 100 >> correct. It's the number's tricky. You can hear different numbers because it's we got our cap technically then was it was 50 something although we had only at that
point had 40 something students enrolled 40 students enrolled when I had started and that was July but if you look back in the numbers it was 60 because that was the October 1 number from the year before so you'll hear all these different numbers I'd say generally it was about a 50 student expansion from the students who were in before the
expansion to in after we got approval to the, you know, kind of up to our 103. >> Tom, what what what did um was there an like an expectation from this like from the state as far as what you would typically see it grow by
year-over-year? Was there some, you know, some anticipation as far as what it' be and and and where it's fallen short? >> It is. It's really frustrating. I think that every year it's just a total tossup. like every year we there's there's nothing there's no commitment there's no sort of like minimum
guarantee every year it's just sort of a this is what it is and there's a lot of efforts from metco you know they have you know different like advocacy platforms I think our legislators have been you know champions of metco and for but it just hasn't moved the needle so I wish you could say it was guaranteed
that it'll move but we had several of the last years have been level funded so gotcha And Mechco is another example of very expensive transportation and we only get one bid. >> All right. So quickly, >> I'm sorry. Do do we manage that bid or
does METCO manage like >> No, we are responsible for the transportation and we have to pay for it out of the METCO um grant. >> Got it. Okay. >> All right. So, continue on quickly. my bad puns. Um, I've done two
presentations to the CPAC folks um, since I got here and trying to give them some background in terms of special ed funding and things like that. So, I called it the rest of the story. So, those of us who are old enough know to whom I'm referring. If you don't, you're
much younger than I am. Um, we can just go on to the next one. And this was just one that I was showing them what makes up our overall spend on special ed between the general fund um circuit breaker and grants and things like that. So because you know if you
just look at the general fund which is what we're talking about for the most part here when you see those strange fluctuations in what we're spending we have to bring in those other funding sources to be able to show what the overall spend is. So that was a big part of what I was talking about with them.
And we can skip the rest of that and just quickly go to the capital plan which is about two more slide. Yeah, one more. And so here's the capital plan. Um there's nothing major on here. A couple things that have been on here. We
originally had 90 or 95,000 on here to purchase a new van for the food service program. uh we took that off and paid for that out of the um balance that we had in the uh food service program and that was taken care of. Um and I know
everybody always asks about what those barriers are. The barriers are I believe just the stones they want to put in front of a building so you can't drive your vehicle into the building. Um and then for the district-wide technology projects uh we have been getting 150,000
in capital. Now we're going up to 250 and that's good because our needs for capital, you know, capital I mean our needs for technology constantly are always there. I mean right now we're trying to do a wiring project in the
the pack. Yep. >> Yeah. I'm going to get it straight one of these days. And that's a challenge in in and of itself. So that's just what's on here in terms of what we had presented for um capital items. Obviously, the Kilm School project is
not on here. That's a whole different one. >> Phil, I can Phil dropped a little teaser around the pack. Just so I may I know a point of frustration for many town meeting members is the limited Wi-Fi in the pack. So, that's us is trying to get uh you know, stronger Wi-Fi, not only for big larger events like town meeting,
but also for sort of our own internal school programming, too. So, that should be in place uh sometime over the next six months, not for upcoming spring town meeting, unfortunately. So, there were two other questions. >> You got a couple questions. >> Yeah. From from Mr. Mcdana that I did
want to address. One was uh what do salary increases look like for fiscal year 28? We haven't even started yet >> for that one. You know, we've got one more year in the current contract. So, next year will be the uh negotiating year. And then finally, um what keeps you up
at night or other areas of opportunity? Well, I think we've both have talked about some of the areas of opportunity in terms of additional revenue that we're trying to generate. What keeps me up at night is having two students move in the district that have to go out of district and it's going to cost, you know, a considerable sum of money. I
mean, that is the one thing that keeps I think most business managers up at night is you can't control who moves into your district and once they move in, we're required to provide, you know, their faith and that's what we got to do. I think on that just to give another example I think we mentioned you know
school choice is one you know we had talked about you know tuitioning students you know in someone had mentioned advertising so I think in the spring we're talk about sort of the current policy school policy around no advertisements on school you know for athletic on athletic property or athletic fields I think there's some
things that we can look at I think one example I just like to bring to the you know the community's attention is also within the special ed tuition in you you may be familiar we have a 18 to 22 year old program called Lyft. This is a newer program for us in the last couple of years. Uh as we built up the program, we
were really fortunate to get a state earmark uh from uh well from the state which allowed us to purchase a uh you know a handicap accessible van which will allow our students to be able to be out in the community uh for job
opportunities, you know, engagement with sort of like recreational activities that are sort of that are at the cornerstone of the of the program. This is something that you know our right now we have one van that's shared amongst programs amongst different groups and it's just it's inconsistent in allowing
our students the lift program to be able to be out in the community consistently. when this van arrives, which we are sort of finding the final stages here, that will allow us to get our students out more frequently and also we think is a differentiator between our program and a lot of our neighboring communities who
are thinking about either folding their program just they don't have enough students or whether they think their program is, you know, sort of the of the quality they would want it to be. Uh I think that us having that, you know, the transportation, I think is a is a gamecher and an opportunity for us to also bring more students in. a couple of
students in that program open some you know some doors for us financially too. So that's just an example of what we mean when we say like tuition students into a program uh and maybe something that's giving us a competitive edge as a result of the support and the collaboration of our of our of the state.
>> So just two things along those lines as you most of you are probably aware u if a student doesn't take the diploma when they turn 18 we are responsible for continuing to educate them until they're 22. And so that's the program that the superintendent was referring to. And I'm
also happy to say that the lead time for the uh uh handicap van is a little bit shorter than it is for a firet truck. We should have that uh probably I hope in about another month or so. The body's in now. They just got to put all the uh
requirements onto it. Oh, I'm getting ready to leave, but you got some questions. >> Some questions. All right, I'll just circle around circle. So Jeffrey, >> um, you mentioned the pack. I think also Parker has some lighting, a light panel that needs replacement. Is that in the
current fiscal year and that's why we don't see it on the >> correct? Okay. Correct. >> Is that going to get done? Is it >> It's Yeah, it is. And unfortunately, none of the timing is ideal because we're trying it's a it's a loud project and the project right now the timing has either matched up with MCCAST or other
school events. So, we are trying to sort of fit things in and be creative. But right now, uh, it looks like that will be done by May. >> Okay. And, uh, Jackie, if you could back up three slides to the first bar chart. >> Um, yeah, this one. So, the title says
2008 to 2024, but it actually starts at 2010. But the other the real question I have is why don't we see 2025 on here? >> Because these are the numbers that come from the end of year report. So the fiscal year 25 and if your report is still in the process of being reviewed
by the auditing firm and so desi hasn't published those you like the student enrollment numbers you know you're always a lagging a year >> you're going to lag almost a year on this as well >> I thought we would have seen at least 25 >> I would like to I mean I could take it right off the end of year report but um
when I did this I actually did this for a presentation that I did last March so that's why it was through there So, the 25 number should be coming out soon. >> Okay. Okay. >> And then I'll update it because I I happen to like this one. I think I like
pictures and I think this does a pretty good job. >> Thanks, >> Andrew. Um, so going back to the capital slide, you had software uh about 250K there. And then my
question was this is a district-wide technology project and also on the budget for the technology there's a line that says software and it's about 126k in FY27. So combined together these
lines are like 370k together. >> This is not for software this is for hardware. >> So that's so you're pushing hardware. >> That's hardware. So software that sounds like a big jump. It's a 37.5% increase.
>> What type of software are you purchasing for 126k? >> We had to move a few things around in the budget. What I'm trying to do is consolidate IT expenses in IT because we had software, a little bit of software here, a little bit of software there. Had to
pull that back in. Plus, we also had to add almost 90,000 to the overall software budget in the district because of the software license that was a three-year one that we bought four years ago, and then we had to add that back into the budget for 27 because we didn't
have it in 26. So, you know, we've got licenses for Microsoft. Uh we use Microsoft for a lot of our security stuff. Um, every time we add a user, that's another Microsoft license. you got to use all the Microsoft products
and things like that. Um there's a whole slew of software to go through it. >> It just that's why I wanted to ask because I see there is a big jump. It's 37.5%. And then the other that goes with it is you you have contracted services for
software licensing and support that's unchanged. It's about 87K. So that the way that I see it, you have you purchasing three-ear contracts which you did and then you're maintaining that. So if you are purchasing new software that
software licensing and support should go up if it's a new software just curiosity but it sounds it's a big jump. So I might I want to look into that. That's all. It's >> I I will chat with Julian to give you a better answer than I can give you at the moment. >> That's fine. I just wanted to point it
out, but it's something that you want to look into it because it's it's like one of the biggest jump in the technology uh budget. That's all. >> So, I thought um >> and I had one more on the enrollment. Sorry. Well, this is on the te the technology budget in particular where uh
what I thought I heard was and part of why I picked on up on this is we see the same thing on the town side um that you get three-year licenses for software and then so that makes technology lines bumpy um because so it's not $90,000 for software we don't currently have and
support. It's $9,000 for software that we last made a payment on three years ago if that makes sense. But that should be under the software licensing and support line. They have they so they have separated out the lines. Equipment is separate, software is separate and
software licensing and support is separate under the other expenses. That's why but I do see that was the logic that I was following to but then I saw that it's all separated out into line items. Um just out of curiosity, but that's fine.
>> I again I will get you a better answer for that. Uh and then there is a graph in here on page uh it's an enrollment graph and I wanted to just maybe this is more um it sounds like the overall trend on the enrollment
numbers compared to like 20 2013 it was the highest one. I'm I'm on page uh 48 by the way. >> Yeah. >> Yeah. We're back where we were in 94. normal study I was >> yeah it it's gone sort of like this and then flattened back out over the last five years.
>> So I see that there is a trend like a downward trend is that do you expect that trend to like end by the following cuz it sounds like the enrollment numbers are going down but as we all know service cost is going up. So what's
like the overall like big picture that you were looking at? >> Yeah couple of things. I think that's a good point. Um, one, if you look at the demographic study that we had completed a couple of years ago, you'll see there's actually a projected bump coming the next couple of years. Now, you know,
who knows if that will still hold, but I think from everything that we're we're seeing, the the projections so far that we've got from the demographic study over the last year or two have been pretty accurate. self. Uh two, what's interesting is while numbers are dropping, we're also seeing if you follow along on uh you can look on on
Desessie's website uh and some of the attrition rates, we had historically uh had a little bit higher attrition rates of that 8th to 9th grade year as well. And we've actually seen a decrease in the attrition from 8th to 9th grade students, which is interesting. We're sort of seeing an enrollment decline,
but we're also seeing lower attrition. So, I don't really know exactly what's what's happening there. So there's some things that sort of don't seem to add up there as well. So um we you know so I think we look at the demographic study and the projections
and then we also like quickly closely follow attrition rates. We've been positively encouraged by the attrition rates and we look at them historically. But I have no way to know whether or not sort of over the next couple years what this will what this will look like. I think since we're not if we were losing
a lot of kids if the attrition rates were higher I would be worried saying like there's something happening where we're losing and it's actually the attrition rates are heading in the other other direction and it's also odd because if you look at the percentage of students who attend who live in reading who attend school in reading it's still really high so I just
it's tough to know but I we seem to be keep we seem to be getting most kids in reading into the reading public schools and most kids staying in the reading public schools compared to historically yet the numbers are still a little lower than where uh they were back as you said, you know, a decade ago. So,
>> John, >> uh do these numbers include the other district kids? >> Great question. >> They should. It should be all the students technically. Yes. Considered, you know, a Freddy public school
student. So, I would imagine they would >> and are those kids kind of distributed throughout even relatively evenly throughout the 12th grades? >> More or less. Yeah, it's not like a bump that's going to come when all of them graduate and start metriculating >> there. You know, there's a there's, you know, we always closely monitor too.
There's a, you know, a couple of students who we know will, you know, sort of age out at a certain point to a week, but it's not any that's going to give a significant shift to the budget one way or the other. I mean, I was talking to another district today that had, you know, sort of a maybe if a student ages out at a cost several
hundred,000, like that's a big impact on on the budget. We're not seeing sort of as in our projections here that we are anticipating a big bubble one way or the other for better or worse. >> This is more of a comment than a question. One interesting metrics to see
probably is uh cost per student or per 100 student and to see kind of compare it from 20 2014 how much was the cost per student back then or per 100 student compare it to now and see how much of a
veance you get. uh just you could give some insight, but it's kind of >> Can I interrupt for a moment? I I think Well, that's an interesting thing to do. I'm not a big fan of averages. If you go through, there's another graph in there that shows you the demographics of our
students. And you'll see that the demographics of our students are changing in terms of the needs that the students have. So while enrollment may be down 100 or two, the needs of the students that we still have are increasing.
>> Just two more slides down. You'll see it's the it's the blue and purple one I think that Phil's referring to around that's the one that >> Yeah. >> needs. So, as you can see, so trying to compare a student from fiscal year 26 to a student from fiscal
year 16, they're not the same student, so to speak. And so, that's why it's difficult to to do that. There are other things we could try to, you know, make adjustments for in doing that. But I like to look at the demographics. What
does my typical student look like now? And I know that our typical student now has more needs in terms of the services both you know like our EL students um special ed costs continue to rise. Um and also uh students for whom English is
not their first language. And so both of those have gone up even though relatively speaking compared to other districts they're not that high compared to what it has been here they've gone up you know from 2% to 12%. I forget which one that was. So, so that's one of the things we try to make these comparisons.
You've got to keep that in mind. Am I comparing a typical student to a typical student 10 years apart? And that's kind of hard to do because it's not the same student, >> right? I understand. >> So, >> it's just a matrix. I I think it's
>> But if you go out to Desi, Desi does have um cost per student out on one of their websites. >> Yes, sir. Go >> or you want to keep going? >> I I Well, I saw Yeah, I mean,
it's Yeah, just really quickly, this a I'm assuming the capital plan is up to date like in um Jackie's, you know, capital plan. Yeah, these are >> Well, that's where I got that from. >> Okay, so for the fiscal 29, what's the HVAC? I'm just trying to understand like
the priority or how important some of these would be. I know they're in 29. I believe that one's been kicked out now I think twice in the last two years in terms of um the Koolage HVAC. Um I'd have to go back and refresh my
memory as to exactly what that is. >> Let me do that and I will send you that information. >> And is and is the carpet is that more just like a placeholder for >> I believe that's a placeholder. Yeah. >> Okay. And then the the vehicle barriers, are those like Jersey barriers around
all the buildings or are they like concrete pylons or something? >> I I think it's more big boulders rather than the Jersey barriers because the boulders look better than the Jersey barriers. >> Okay. >> But, you know, that thing's been g been kicked out every year for the two years that I've been here as well.
>> Okay. And that's for all schools, so it could be cut up into pieces if necessary and spread out. So, okay. Thank you. Sorry. Um uh I see Sean has a hand up on Zoom and I'm guessing it's probably in response to something that's already been said. >> Yeah, just just a couple comments. Thanks Joe on on um Andrew your
question. I I totally agree. I think looking so Desi calls that per pupil expenditure and it it is certainly a a metric that's available out there. Um I think Phil addressed well you know some of the dynamics over time. I think the other things you have to think about are um in addition to the you know student
you know do students today look like students 10 years ago? um just some of the dynamics like special education expense, transportation expense that we talked about, you know, the labor market for for staff is competitive, you know, both at the administration level and and you know, at the at the building staff
level as well. Um so those are certainly factors. I think one of the ways that we've always liked to look at it is um look at our per per pupil expenditure comp uh compared to our um to the fincom comparable communities. And it's been probably a couple years since I've, you
know, dug all that data out. But, um, a couple or three years ago when I last looked at it, you know, we were somewhere around the 30th percentile, uh, from a per pupil expenditure perspective relative to the to Fincom's pure set of communities. So, we've always felt pretty good about the, you know, the results and the outcomes we
get relative to the level of expenditure when we look at at like communities out there. >> Cool. >> All right. Thank you, Sean. Um I believe it's answer. >> Yep. Uh so uh not uh any questions but just um uh comment uh for um didn't mean
to bury the lead but thanks so much for the efforts. I mean this um this result is amazing. Uh there's a lot of uh um I know a lot of hard decisions um and some creativity that was uh that was used. So uh Phil Tom, thank you so much. School
committee, thank you so much. If I interrupt, I I also need to give credit to the principles and the other staff's members as well. >> They should have showed up. No. Well, fine. Um no. Um and so so the one thing that I would say is that um you know
there obviously a lot of um again some um some creativity and a lot of you know kind of tough decisions. Um and you know um so you know kind of one point is is that you know again for FY28
um I think it's going to be imperative for you know Phil and school committee um to um overcommunicate where you're seeing some strain um and where you have to make tougher decisions. Um I I think
that's um that'll help us um you know kind of inform guidelines as far as what we set for um for uh for that. Um but then also you know kind of anticipating where we might be you know kind of financially as a as as a town. Um the other point that I was going to make is
that again um you know highlighting and and still cherishing the priorities that you know that we that you've set out you know for the last couple years around full day kindergarten. around um around um uh staffing and
being able to kind of adjust and we talked a lot about special ed but um addressing a lot of those uh challenges. This is you know um um you know kind of an amazing accomplishment to be able to kind of put this type of a budget together. Um and then also um adhering
to the results that we've seen in the community too which I which can't be you know kind of uh understated or overlooked. Um, so I I I again I I applaud it and really appreciate all of the efforts. >> And one last thing, um, I'd be remiss if
I don't um acknowledge Kate uh Finnegan, my my assistant business manager. >> That one I'll give you a pass on Phil the president principles. No, but but Kate, absolutely. >> Anything else? Looking around for more hands
and I'm going to back away slowly. >> Exactly. Slowly, slowly is the right way. >> We were promised a presentation by the other guests in the audience. >> You girls ready? >> If you did your homework, >> we want to know if you really did your homework.
>> You did. >> You're on the line. Show it up. >> We We can check it, but All right. >> They passed your test. >> Like when the math like when the math team comes and gives this >> Exactly right. Exactly right. >> Did too.
>> Oh, Liby. Emily, did you you have a >> I have a I'm channeling my inner Bill Brown and going like way into the weeds on one salary. >> Um, in health services, are the health services professional staff are they governed by a collective bargaining
agreement or are they in their own? >> Yes, theory. >> Uh, the only staff member who is not uh part of the collective bargaining unit is the director of health services. >> Okay. So, I I just noticed that there was a 20% increase from last year to this year. and the director was that a change in staff?
>> So the challenge is and this is this you're pulling out a tricky one that is uh that's that's coming up for us is that uh in that department you you know given that a couple of or that our our nurses are on the teachers contract those salaries have now started to move
ahead I'd say significantly ahead our director of health services. So that accounts for an adjustment to make sure that she may not know yet, but there's a way that we're trying to make sure that we have >> No, no one watches. >> No one watches this meeting.
>> Thanks, Emily. Yeah, they that they u No, that just to be congratulations. No, just just to be really thoughtful too that that's you know making sure that we can continue to make that salary as competitive in relation to the other salaries and also not only in comparison to the nurses but also in comparison to
the other directors as well too. So that's what that that one sticks out. >> Perfect. >> Thank you. Thumbs up. >> Good eye. All right. Okay. Um finding my way back to the agenda. I have I don't have 150 tabs,
but I've got enough that it takes me a second. Um, oh, and I went and scrolled into the budget two different places. That's part of my thing here. All right, so um, thank you very much Tom and Phil. Um, for the presentation as well as the work to put the budget together as I was
saying. Um, this has gotten, you know, gets harder every year and it's going to get harder every year until we have an override, I think. And so, um, uh, yeah. Um, so appreciate the work and the finding the savings and all the place
you could. All right. Uh, we now have future agenda discussion. Uh, that's kind of a freebie because we're we are in the part of our calendar where we are marching through the budget. Um, so next week we are reviewing the town budget. In fact, we're already posted for next
week, I think. >> Um, so you're not actually there's still more than two business days. So, you are in fact allowed to, you know, make Jackie repost if you got something else to add. But it's the town budget. It's going to be a whole night. Um, in fact, if we get through it in a
whole night, I think everybody uh uh, you know, gets a prize or something. >> Are we posted for uh for two weeks or we just posted for >> We're only posted one week in advance. >> I mean, I anticip anticipated. Yeah. From a planning perspective, are we looking do we have the fourth and the
11th >> or whatever the cadence is? >> Current current plan is to try to get through this and get through >> town budget in in one and >> warrant and anything else and perfect. Okay. Okay. So, we need them both anyways
>> for war purposes. We're not all the way out to the 25th though too, right? >> No. >> No, just >> just the next the first two Wednesdays in March. >> Yes. Okay. Thank you. Hopefully, I mean, there's some, you know, it has been brought to our attention that there
are articles in the towning warrant that may be discussed. Um, I expect further discussion about CPA and myself, which because that's on the warrant. Um, but, uh, yeah. All right. Um, is there anything besides those two elephants of,
you know, the budget and the warrant um that we need to be putting on the agenda? I know we have, you know, there's things that we'd like to follow up on policy-wise after the seminar, but we're not in a hurry to do that before we get let's get the FY27 budget sorted
and then come back to that. So, >> agree. >> All right. Um, in that case, let's move on to approving minutes. >> Motion to approve the finance committee meeting minutes from February 4th 6 as presented.
>> Second. Okay. I was going to say like point of order. I don't think we can second a motion that hasn't been made yet. Um but yes, thank you Emily and uh uh thank you Ed. Um any uh comments or
probably doesn't need to be updated in the minutes. I did want to um make sure that uh um when uh when Maryanne mentioned that uh Jeffrey is running for school committee, Jeffrey did not bring up the fact that he's running for school committee. It's a little amig it's a little ambiguous who the speaker was.
But um um >> thanks Bill. >> Thank you guys. >> Yeah, that I I think I think it was more that I announced that Carla wasn't running in Zitto. He's running. >> Yes. >> And there was another candidate in the audience tonight. I think I think it's implied that the speaker each of these paragraphs has one speaker roughly.
>> Yeah. >> Um so but uh >> but that's not even meaning it is it >> what's that? >> I don't that's not >> I mean it's pertinent to us because if he's elected we need to get in the mail. >> Yeah, she mentioned it. No, I was just I was just wanted to make sure that nobody
accused Jeffrey of campaigning and at a meeting or something cuz he didn't. Um >> yeah, maybe I shouldn't have mentioned it but it's just more that it'll create an opening on our >> You can mention it all day long. I think that's fine. >> Yeah. >> Um as long as it's pertinent to your leazison report, which it was.
>> So I think it's legit. Yeah. >> Other n All right, then. Not seeing any discussion. Uh we are doing a roll call vote because we are hybrid. So I will start on Zoom. Uh Mark,
>> yes. >> Yes. >> John, >> yes. >> Henry, >> yes. >> Ed, >> yes. Uh, Joe Mcdana, >> yes. >> Marian, >> yes. >> Emily, >> yes. >> Joe Carneahan, yes. >> Motion to adjourn. >> Second. >> Thank you, Emily. Thank you, Ed. Uh, voting. Mark,
>> yes. >> Yes. >> John, >> yes. >> Andre, >> yes. >> Ed, >> yes. >> John Mcdana, >> yes. >> Yes. >> Emily, >> yep. >> Joe Bahan, yes. Thank you very much.