ready to call the meeting to order with a roll call vote. Um, Jason, >> yes. >> Mark, >> yes. >> Megan, >> here. >> Jeanie, >> yes. >> Mark, >> yes. >> And I am here. >> Um, all right. So, I want to notify everybody this meeting is being
recorded. Anyone intending to make an audio or video recording of this meeting should notify the chair at this time. Okay. Um, first item is any visitors will hold.
Sorry about that. >> Hello. My name is Do I need my address here? I don't think you need to say your address. >> Okay. My name is Will Fishman. I here to possibly discuss the permission to of
pathways being able to join us at Silver Regional High School because of interest of me and the other students in our program. And I feel this will help us become more inclusive and work with the environment better time. and and roo
inclusivity and I think that will very help make that program more inclusive for the civil high school and whole civil school district. Thank you. >> Thank you very much. Thanks. >> Okay. So I will forward that to the chair for next meeting.
>> And I do have a couple people as well to address it. >> Thank you, Will. Um all right. We did not receive any correspondence this month. Um so our next item is the consent agenda. I will entertain a motion to approve the
consent agenda. >> Motion to approve the consent agenda and present. >> Second. >> All those in favor? >> I I posted. >> All right. Uh moving on. So our next item on the agenda, Dr. Cru and the
NAS's order. >> Thank you. I'd like to ask um Sarah Curtain and Hayden Matias uh to please stand. I'm going to first uh talk about Sarah because her last name starts with a C.
And um on behalf of the Mass Association of School Superintendent, I am honored to present two certificates of AC academic excellence to graduating seniors. This award is given to two Silverlake High School students who have distinguished themselves in pursuit of excellence during their high school
careers. Both Sarah Curtain and Hayden Matias have distinguished themselves in terms of their three-year cumulative average. They are both in the top 5% of the class of the graduating class. First, I'm going to talk about Sarah. Sarah uh high school achievement are
notable across academics, leadership, and extracurricular activities. Sarah has received numerous honors and academic excellence awards throughout her school career, including the Dartmouth Book Award, which she describes as an unexpected and humbling recognition for both academic excellence
and important contributions through extracurricular activities. She received the College Board AP Scholar Award, the Dolores Quill Memorial Award for High School Art, and the Academic Excellence Award in AP Environmental Science. She is recognized by the college board
for outstanding academic achievement. Sarah has held various leadership and elected roles throughout high school. She has served as student council class representative all four years, the key club secretary, and as an NHS board member. She has participated in
significant community service, including serving as a junior board member that has helped to build a small school, pay for uniforms, supplies, and tuition for 900 students in Ethiopia. She is an athlete who has participated in soccer and lacrosse all four years, and she has
worked various jobs throughout high school, including being a youth soccer referee and a lifeguard. Sarah is currently undecided on her college major because she genuinely enjoys both the humanities. She is drawn to the creativity of art and English and the
STEM fields because she finds the logic and problem solving in science deeply engaging. She is interested in several different fields including studio art, environmental science, conservation, and psychology. Hayden
Hayden Matias also has maintained a high level of academic success throughout high school, consistently earning high honor role every term from 9th through 11th grade. She received academic excellence awards across various subjects including honors honors
geometry honors English art one honors US history 1 honors biology honors chemistry honors pre-calculus AP US history AP English language composition AP chemistry just to name a
few. Hayden was also named an AP scholar by the college board in 11th grade. She was the recipient of the Wensler Medal in Harvard Book Award in 11th grade and awarded the D good Citizenship Award in 12th grade. She also received the
College Board National Recognition Program Award in 12th grade. Hayden is a scholar athlete who was named a Patriot League Scholar athlete for ice hockey and for field hockey. She is a member of the Varsity Girls ice hockey, varsity girls field hockey, varsity girls track
and field. She was named captain of the girls ice hockey and girls track and field in 12th grade. She has held numerous leadership positions in class and in various clubs, including president of the class of 2026 in both 9th and 10th grade and serving as our
math team captain 10th and 11th grade. She has accumulated over 96 hours of community service and engaged in relevant career shadowing. Hayden stated college goal is to double major in physical therapy the therapy sorry and
athletic training with a career goal of becoming a physical physical therapist in the professional sports field or for kids. Tonight I would like to thank both Sarah and Hayden for their dedication to academic excellence, hard work, and service to others. Please join me in
wishing them continued success. THIS IS FOR SARAH. Thank you. Thank you. This is for Hayden. If you could open them up. Christopher Hill's going to take your picture with me. All right. Let's talk to her. We're going to put you in the middle. >> Okay. Sorry. We're going to stage a few.
Leave me alone. Here. Congratulations. >> Thank you. >> Congratulations, Sarah and Hayden. Um, our next item, um, Halifax. So, the town of Halifax is looking to form an override committee um
to I I guess give input on um if the town of Halifax needs an override in this upcoming budget season. The membership shall consist of one representative from the Halifax Board of Selectmen, one from Halifax Finance Committee, one from Halifax School
Committee, one at large from the Halifax board of uh appointed by the Halifax Board of Selectment, and then one of us. So, um I am I allowed to make a motion myself? >> Yes.
>> Okay. Um you are. So I I would like to make a motion to nominate Mark Halisk to be our representative. Um and I will open it up for a second. >> I will second that. >> Any further discussion? My next question was going to be if it had to be a
Halifax resident. So thank you, Mark. I hope you accept that nomination and thank you for serving. >> I didn't see anything legally that said it had to be, but I feel like it's >> I think that's a good idea. Yeah, probably should be. So Mark, um I just thank you. No problem. >> Really appreciate it. Um, all right. So,
all those in favor? >> I I >> I don't think anybody's opposed. >> Okay. >> Good luck. >> Thank you, Mark. Have fun. >> Um, and next I'm going to turn the floor over to Sarah Hickey to give us an update on the wastewater treatment plant operations.
Thank you. Um the wastewater treatment plant um requires a contract to to to run the facility while our director of maintenance is out on a long-term medical leave. We went out to
bid and the resulting of the bid is that a company named Weston and Samson is the bidder that we discussed at the safer meeting and that's who we would like to go forward with the contract. It will be $5,550
per month through the end of June. Does anybody on the committee have any questions for Sarah? I guess Mark, do you have anything to add? >> No, it u it seems to be our best plan going forward to to solve the issue from
this is a six-month contract to the end of a fiscal year. Correct. >> Yes. >> Um so >> we need a vote on that. >> Yeah, that's a possible vote. So, would the motion be to accept the recommendation and go with Weston and Samson? >> What? >> I'll make that motion.
>> Prior, if you don't mind, um, what happens after the six months is up? Are we rolling this into 2027's budget or how do we continue? >> I think normally the there are two people on staff that have the wastewater
treatment license. We've been working with just one person with that license for quite some time now and he's going out on the medical leave. So we need the coverage in order we need somebody in order to operate the plant and so
through the end of fiscal 26. This is the plan. Ultimately, we would like to hire a second wastewater treatment plant operator as part of the FY27 budget. >> That is still plan A to going forward is
to to have an operator. Um, this is basically a six-month temporary fix. >> Um, I think we should >> continue back to my motion. >> Yeah, I was going to say we should probably get a second and then if there's any other questions like second. Okay. Any further questions
or discussion? Okay. Seeing none. All those in favor? >> I opposed. There's none. Thank you everybody. >> All right. Um so I have nothing on the agenda under unfinish um excuse me
unfinished business. So, uh, looks like we're going to the administrator's reports and, um, >> thank you. Otherwise, middle school. >> Thanks. >> An awesome report.
>> Yeah, we have plenty of other things to talk about tonight. Yes. Um all right, Mrs. Gilly, you're up. >> Um one quick thing that I just want to um share with the school committee is an update from the governor's K through 12 statewide graduation council. Um they have been meeting and have recently sent
some guidance to the districts which is mostly putting us on hold. We don't need to do anything. Um but one thing that I just want to put on everybody's radar um that they will provide some potential guidance on is um they are recommending that students participate in end of
course assessments connected to select courses that are designed administrator administered excuse me and scored by the state. Um so again this is in response to um the election and MCAST test no longer being a requirement for graduation. Um, at this point it sounds
like the goal would be to maybe phase it out and pass, for example, a grade 10. This would not have an impact on a diploma. So, I I don't think they're trying to circumvent the vote. Um, but I'll I'll keep you posted as more information um comes across our desk, but I don't anticipate any further
guidance until these two. and Jason. >> So, I declined I declined the invitation to appear with the governor at the release because I didn't want to give the appearance of endorsing the draft proposal by the governor. Um, I put out
a press release the afternoon after. I was very, very pleased to hear the governor say from the podium that the EOCC's will not be used to determine graduation rates of our students. I still continue to um stick with my my
saying that Commissioner um Martinez said that these EOC should be used if at all to make sure that we're pushing in services to kids to help them graduate to make sure we're taking care of our most needy students. But there's still questions that really need to be
answered and this push to have a final report out by June is as the most polite word I can use. um we have to determine what mass score is going to look like before we can determine what courses we're even going to be assessing if at
all. Right? And and we haven't even had those discussions yet. There's schools in Massachusetts right now who currently do not offer algebra 2 at the high school level. Right? So there's a lot of work to be done. There's a lot of funding that needs to go into place. Um
again, my fear right now is a proposal will be made in June. Uh legislation will be filed that basically hands over the rest of the construction of the graduation requirements to Dusty. And with the track record that Dusty has had
recently with some of their decisions to strip local control, um I'm not very um excited about that proposition. So, uh I continue to be a member of the graduation council. I'm proud to be a member. Um, but there are many concerns.
Those EOCC's could be used also to put schools into receiverhip depending on how their students do. Um, it could push all the way into the classrooms and be part of the grade for the class instead of graduation requirement. That's what they're calling midlevel stakes instead
of high stakes. They're trying to change the definition. Um, they're also proposing a my cap, which is a great idea. would take students in eth and nth grade and come up with a four-year plan to help them prepare for their career or their college um readiness. But again,
um is the state going to dictate to us exactly what plan we have to use? Are they going to micromanage that? What about districts who already have a very robust process in place to help their students plan their futures? um they're talking about putting into place and I know we already have to a certain extent
some financial literacy concepts but again they're not delineating in what classes those would take place or if they would be their separate class in themselves. There is a ton of work to be done. The high-fiving that went on last week at the state house was wonderful.
Um but it is extremely preliminary at this point. uh we are examining whether or not lawsuits may need to be levied against the state if they move forward in a way that we don't feel is in the accordance with MGO and CR.
>> Thank you. Does anybody else have anything to add? I have a lot of thoughts but I don't think I'll be able to articulate them politely. So I will defer back to you Mrs. Gil. Why don't >> I hand it over to our student Carly Hoppy to give more updates about high
school. Hello, my name is Karly Hawking. I'm a senior at Silver Lake and I'm the school and community liaison of the student council. Thank you so much for having me and allowing me to the opportunity to speak at tonight's meeting. I'd also like to thank Miss Gill for trusting me
to represent my school and share the great things happening with our student community. While I'll be focusing on our current activities and plans, I also want to highlight two major successes from earlier last month. Our incredible su our incredibly successful Labor Day
before Thanksgiving break and the implementation of the no place for hate program. One of student council's main goals for the Labor Day pep rally was to bring back true school spirit and genuine excitement. After comparing pep rallies from decades past to those of
recent years, we realized that some of the fun and energy had been lost. We wanted to take the spirit we see at football games where students are loud, proud, and passionate and bring that same energy energy to our schools. Our
clash with the classes competition turned out to be a huge success with a DJ exciting class competitions, hike theaters in the crowd, and a $2,000 prize for the winning class treasury. Students were motivated, involved, and fully engaged. We hope to continue
hosting pep rallies that are just as spirited and memorable in the future. During the pep rally, we also introduced our no place for hate chain where students pledged to create a school environment that rejects discrimination, bullying, and bias while promoting
inclusion, respect, and diversity. We've already seen a very positive response from the student body and look forward to continuing to strengthen this culture of acceptance. More recently, student council began a community service project collecting
nonp perishable food items and monetary donations for the Plymouth area coalition for the homeless. We are also preparing for our annual Duck the Halls event which was a huge hit last year on the holidays.
Students will once again be able to search for hidden ducks and win prizes. With the holiday season approaching, preparations for holidays in Halifax are well underway. The National Honor Society has been working hard to gather volunteers for both the setup and the
event itself. Key Club is also contributing to help with fundraising for Kingston Lum luminaries and holidays in Halifax. In addition, they have been doing fantastic work collecting donations for
the animal shelter and organizing a teacher lunchon. The drama club recently performed Katie Town last Thursday, Saturday, and Sunday, earning tremendous support from the community. The show is outstanding in every way and has been
and has even been entered into a state competition due to its exceptional potential. We are incredibly proud of the cast crew and production team and hope they receive the recognition they deserve. Finally, winter sports triyouts have
wrapped up and many teams including hockey, basketball, and track have begun preseason scrimmages. We're looking forward to an exciting season ahead. Thank you again for having me tonight and giving you the chance to share everything our students have been working hard on. We appreciate your
ongoing support and we're excited for all that still to come. That's it. All right. Thank you, High School. Um All right, Sarah, you are up for the financial report. Thank you, Madam Chair. I do not have anything in addition to what was in the consent
agenda. Thank you very much. Okay, Dr. Clipper. Okay, I just have a few things. I'll be brief. The first is um math implementation. HMH is continued to be implemented at the middle school. Today, we had a second visit from a consultant that worked with the middle
school team is implementing the new math program. Um and the illustrative math continues to be implemented at the high school. um at in the ELA. Um this is our first year of the curriculum review and um the middle school continues to work
um on reviewing programs and they will continue to do that this spring. Um those are really the two main pieces going on um for curriculum. >> Thank you. Anyone have any questions? >> Okay, thank you very much. And Dr. Pru,
thank you. So, I'm going to kind of try to position myself for the presentation. Um, we are happy to present our preliminary budget this evening. As you know, we every fall we work with our principles. Uh, the principles work with
their staff. We work with central office um to create a budget that meets our goals. And uh our goals focus on supporting student needs, maintaining class sizes and structures necessary for effective
instruction, considering and responding to fiscal conditions, and supporting the strategy for district improvement. This year, you will recall that we promised a votable budget by December, and I would like to extend a sincere thank you uh to Sarah Hickeyi for making this a
possibility and a priority uh this financial season. and it has really been quite helpful. So, one of the things that I want to point out is that um because it is earlier than usual and even if it had been in January, we still may be waiting
on some estimates and assumptions. Um but the numbers contained in the presentation are built upon assumptions and estimates and that these numbers are subject to change. Some of the things um that you'll notice in your financial uh packet this evening
is that the utilities were updated based on a 4-year average. The shared costs have been included but have not been voted. There are no known retirement savings at this time. Homeless and foster transportation has been adjusted based
on prior year's expenses. So if we look at the FY27 budget as a level service budget, you'll see that it's projected at 45,621,692. After the following offsets, revolving accounts, grants, the Silver
Lake Regional School District appropriation for FY27 would be 42,160,72. This represents a 3.73 increase over FY26. That is for level services. Each of our um schools has summarized
increases and decreases in a format that you're familiar with from the past. So you'll notice, for example, increases at integrated preschool in technology, which our uh technology director went over some of those needs in November. uh specialized student evaluations and the
rental of the Silver Lake instructional preschool space from Kingston Elementary School. Um at the middle school, you'll notice increases in the areas of facility costs, maintenance, repairs, the cost of teaching supplies and materials.
At the high school, you'll notice increases in the area of teaching supplies, new AP psychology textbooks, facility costs and repairs, and athletics expenses related to rentals, transportations, officials, etc.
You recall that we wanted to provide you with a votable budget, so we considered two additional scenarios for you this evening. One is a 2.5 increase which is less than the level services budget that was just presented and a level funded budget and what that would look like. So
a 2.5% budget increase for Silver Lake after offsets would be 41,660,551. This would require about $500,000 be cut from the level service budget. So we worked with our principles to
identify areas where this um where they would first make reductions and uh they would they would be uh forced to reduce four SLEA unit A positions, two SLEA aid positions, one
SLAA position and various stipen positions to meet this number. Should the budget be adopted that would result in a level funded budget after offsets the cost would be $40,644,440.
This would require a $1.5 million be cut from the level service budget. If you recall, this is close to the amount 1.3 million that we used last year to offset the budget using excess and deficiency. our levels funded budget would would
result in additional reductions in staffing. And just to keep in mind that we did work with all of our um departments, we worked with our principles and we first cut and were assured that nothing else could be cut from the things before looking at
staffing. It would require seven additional SLEA unit members, three additional aid positions, two additional SLA positions, two SLEA support staff positions, late buses before and after school
supervision, freshman sports and technology. So that would be a much more drastic reduction than a 2.5 um budget. So, our principles at the middle school and high school have highlighted some of
the uh the impact to those types of reductions and they've bothered to to provide you with two scenarios. The impact if it was a 2 only a 2.5% increase and the impact if it was a level funded increase. So, at 2.5%
at the middle school you would be looking at the possible elimination of exploratory classes in grade 7. students wouldn't be exposed to every elective before choosing an in grade 8. Some core teachers would teach four courses and possibly run an elective. And in these
cases, class sizes would increase from 13 to 21 to 21 to 24. At the level funded level at the middle school, the FTE teacher reductions would require a new schedule. It would have to go to a seven period schedule. They
would reduce course offerings possibly world language um and one elective other than fizzed. Uh there would be cuts in the arts or teched or um because both and both of these feed into the high school programming and class sizes would
increase from 25 to 32. So, your class range would now move up to 25 to 32 as your class averages. At the high school, a 2.5% increase. You would be looking at fewer elective offerings, lower instructional capacity
for teachers, potential delays in services and response time, including academic interventions, attendance, behavior, follow-up, and family communication. Whereas level funded, you would be looking at larger class sizes across multiple departments. Um, for example,
uh, averages of 18 to 22 would now range from 25 to 30 plus. There would be less flexibility in scheduling. There would be reduced course offerings and we may need to change the local graduation requirements depending upon what students were able to take in any given
year, particularly uh, juniors and seniors. varsity and junior varsity access only in sports with the if there was an elimination of freshman team sports. The other things that um we're asking
the school committee to consider are the um uh the capital funding needs. As you know, we had a um an assessment done in 2025, a facility condition assessment with multiple scopes and um scope one
necessary and critical is at 6.9 million. We've talked before about the um over $70 million identified as possible needs in in the Silver Lake campus alone. In addition, we have technology
infrastructure needs. 52,000 is already in the capital technology line that's already in the level service budget because we're maintaining our current phone system. Um server is the server infrastructure is
reaching its end of life in March of 2027. That's about 125,000. Uh the switching infrastructure end of life um will need replacement in FY29. That's about 225,000.
Um, and also you'll recall that uh Steve Pello also mentioned the aging technology, infrastructure, access points and wiring and things of that nature as potential future needs. School committee also asked us to provide um a summary of potential costs
beyond level services and um I am asking you to please consider the funding of our shared cost needs in the area of finance and operations. We are we have been cited continually as being underresourced uh for the the districts and the amount of um oversight
that we have with regards to finance and operations. uh the addition of an accountant, a grants transportation manager, a budget analyst, a full-time treasurer have all been cited as um needs. And we've also highlighted um the impacts of
underststaffing and what that has on the system of schools and what that means uh not only to staff but to students as well. So all of these things can have a detrimental effect if not properly um
addressed. So, our next steps, school committee budget review of this um presentation. We promised you a vot votable budget. I wouldn't necessarily recommend voting tonight. We can certainly give you language if the
moment so moves you. Uh but the reality is is that there are still too many um estimates and assumptions built into this budget. We just wanted to give you a a um insight as to where we are at this time. Um we also uh had met with safer this
evening and later this evening we'll be presenting some safer capital plan priorities and some ideas for you to consider and our next phase is engagement with community stakeholders and considering uh what you want to do next.
Thank you. >> Well done. So, I guess I would open it up to the committee for questions and comments. Jeez, I didn't want to go first. Um, as I said with Kingston's meeting uh
last week, I think that these numbers are a surprise in a good way um at least for our communities to begin to digest. Um I know that we had had a an earlier budget meeting with the town of Kingston, the board of selectman um
finance committee as well as um the board of selectman and uh we were talking essentially worst case scenario like what happens if the budget were to come in 15 to 20% um which is what they were last year. Um, so to see a 3.73
um, level service budget, that would essentially mean not adding anything and we're still able to present a pretty, I think, respectful um, figure to the town to start to consider. Um, I don't know, um, that it's been determined exactly
what the levy is for any of the three towns. on what would push an override, what would not push an override, um how much room the schools have as opposed to like I know for town of Kingston, the police department um is also um asking for um they have quite a few needs this
year as well. So, um I just think that I would um uh respect the superintendent's recommendation not to try to vote a budget tonight, but certainly to um bring these numbers back to our towns
and um be able to say, "Hey, this is where we're currently at. We're hopeful that the um state figures that probably will not be out till the end of January are a little bit better than anticipated." Hopefully Jason's got some better news for us in the legislative report. Um, but also that
maybe if circuit breaker is funded a little bit higher than perhaps what's included that we might have a little bit of room to bring back to our towns. So those are my preliminary thoughts on the budget. Not as bad as it could have been. At the at the risk of cutting in I that
was kind of my reaction when I saw the 3.7. I was like, "Oh, that's not what I was expecting." And I meant that in a good way. Um, other comments or questions, Mark? >> Yeah, I I think it's a palatable number
that obviously we should uh give our towns a heads up, but there still is a a bit of work to do, not just for the assumptions, but the fact that there may be some refocusing on on what we're we're looking at, particularly when we get to the capital discussion on on some
of that. But um at this point I want to thank the administration for getting this done that month early now because I feel a lot more prepared to go forward at budget discussions. Um and I know it took a lot of work away from what else you were doing and thank you very much.
It was a great presentation. >> Thank you. >> I agree. Thank you. >> It's a great team. >> Um Jason Marker Megan, anything else to add? If I could just add kind of more as a reminder, um, one of the things that I
know Dr. Cru mentioned in the presentation was that we were currently floating $1.3 million in END to fund the FY26 budget. And these numbers are not including that figure. So, this is a pretty, I think,
reasonable increase being that we essentially borrowed $1.3 million from um, END. It's a onetime fund. That money is not given in the FY27 budget. So, I think that that's important to acknowledge that this number is actually
like if that number was applied, we'd be looking at a decrease in our budget this year. So, something to consider. Yeah, I don't right now. know it always takes me a little bit of time to digest. So, I personally don't have any questions, but um it was a really great
presentation and um the attention to detail really is very much appreciated. >> Thank you. And our public budget is in February, right? >> Uh yes, the hearing is usually in February. >> February 6, I think, would be better. >> Yeah. So, I feel like we definitely
don't want to go right now. Um Okay. So, if there's no other >> What? Let's not rule out, >> right? Let's not rule out January. Um, and that's not my call anyway. Um, so thank you, Dr. Pru. Um, so I think we
can move on to the subcommittee reports. SLEAS, SLA wants to thank central office and building admin for the continued work and collaboration. We appreciate the team mentality. As we continue to work through negotiations for all units, we ask that the committee put forth as much
as possible to all groups, but especially to our paras whose wages are not as comparable as we'd hope to surrounding areas. We recognize the district's financial situation, just budget. We we recognize that. We appreciate that. Um and we hope to continue to meet each other with creative and collaborative solutions
that help meet the needs of our fantastic staff as well as those in the district. Thank you. >> Thank you. Okay. Um, admin review. >> I put out a request um to see if um we can get a quorum uh to to discuss uh in
particular the uh shared cost uh contracts that are um ending their cycle in June. So we typically meet with admin review first before presenting to the joint committee. Just a reminder that we'll be in reorg meeting as our
previous chair is no longer on the committee. >> And yes, so check your email folks. I've already responded. Thank you. >> Thank you, Dr. P. Uh CTE. >> Yeah, I might be the longest staring chair chair prompt ever, but we did have not had
>> Well, we had a an event. >> We did. We had the CTE dinner. Thank you, Mark, for reminding me. Uh glorious event as always transforming the lobby of the high school into a Parisian landscape with bliss. Um the kids did a great job put out great spread. Um the
teachers of our different shops put on great presentations for our cooperating partners from the business community. But I really think that the star of the show are those business partners from our community who bring in uh current technologies and needs within the fields
the kids are studying and and to keep our programs current and relevant to the real world. So thank you very much to everyone from the communities who participate in supporting all of our shops and our CT program. >> Thank you. And um you still have the floor Jason because it's legislative
agents report. >> Okay. So I'll keep it as brief as I can. Uh, no. I don't think we're going to have good news in uh the governor's budget, which will come out at the end of February, end of January, I'm sorry,
post two. Um, the state is shaking in their boots. They actually did realize a loss in revenue from federal funding um from about $16 billion annually to about $15 billion annually. Um, so I put a
request in for an ear mark um for all four school districts for Kingston, Plton, Halifax, and Silver Lake to address our phone issue. Uh, collectively it's about a $98,000 ask. Um, Rep. Lenatra got back to me within
45 minutes and uh the next morning I also had one from our state senator saying they would put the earmark in, but they think that's probably one of the first areas that's going to suffer in the state budget uh in FY27. Yeah, things aren't looking rosy. So, I don't want us to get ahead of ourselves
thinking that state aid is going to go through the roof, regional transportation's going to go too high. Um, circuit breaker, uh, I think would be the last line that they would really hold at 75% reimbursement for tuition and transportation. Um, but I don't know
if we'd see anything above and beyond that. And obviously, we're going to push for every penny we can get. Um, but it's going to be a tough budget season. >> Thank you. Um, negotiations. >> Yes. Uh, for staff, we're I think we're
really close on, as we just heard, we're still working through some things with our pair of professionals. Um, we have meetings scheduled again for the 6th of January. Um, and I think we may be trying to schedule another one there. And then the teachers contracts. Uh, we just exchanged first proposals and our
next meeting is on 22nd. Thank you. And we're beginning SLA and beginning SLA. >> Yes. Thank you. All right. So, I'm next with PAC. Um, so PAC recently underwent an audit and um, one of the items they
really wanted to stress was consistency among our members reporting back to our committees. Um, I usually do try to give a report and I know my predecessors always did, but that wasn't happening everywhere. So, moving forward, um Becky Haw, who is our recording secretary, is
sharing summaries post meeting. We've had two meetings since our last Silverlake meeting. So, I have two to share with you. I just want to put them in the right order. Um okay so from the November meeting um we
had the auditor's report for um FY25 um and then we took a vote on it in December. Um amended budget was approved in the amount of 11,291,69926. um wasn't wasn't much of a change from the spring budget, but student
enrollment was lower than initially predicted. Um there was a cumulative surplus. Um and following state law, it's kind of a long legal um it was voted to give back $146,700
of the surplus to member towns allocated in proportion to how much we had paid in. So, oh no, Silver Lake is the one page Okay, Silverlake is getting $25,254
back. Um, and then we transferred an additional $160,000 to the pack building facilities fund with the intention of funding a playground. Um, and we did a first read on the policies. That was all in November. In December, we did our second read and vote on the policies.
Um, we voted to approve the audit and the annual report. and um the cumulative surplus that was all reported in November as well. So that's all I've got. Um we usually do not have
a January meeting so I will not have anything to report until February. >> So all right and up next is our policy second reading. So um we've all read and
I believe please correct me if I'm wrong. Okay, Jason, take it away. >> Yeah. Um, I make a motion to wave the actual readout. >> Second. >> Okay, I think both marks which Mark wants to take the second. Okay, Mark H with a second. All those in favor? >> I >> Okay,
>> so this is the second reading of the policies. Um, does anybody want to discuss them before I read through them? I just want to note that I did receive um a couple of emails that it is going to be very difficult for all
of the booster clubs at the high school to get um a 501c3 status. Um it'll be costly and it's very timeconuming for volunteers. So that is something to consider um whether those groups start to co-mingle funds with
each other or um go under one number. But it is something that um has been brought to at least my attention over the last few weeks um since we had reviewed it in November that several groups do not have statuses and they're all volunteers and no one wants to be
the one to go get the status. So, it's just something to >> I fielded similar similar calls um from directly from some of our organizations here and because of those questions and those concerns, I reached it back directly out to Russ and Russ said to
proceed with the policy as written to protect the district. What is the um I guess repercussion if there were to be an issue of like I guess I think the biggest thing is is that they cannot use the school's number
because the school itself is not a tax ID like not a taxexempt organization. So what is like what's the repercussion there? I think the biggest thing is is people that are making donations will not be able to write it off because they're not giving it to the
correct entity. >> So, I don't want to get into the legal repercussions of not being fully established right now because that might say things that are currently practices that we don't want to acknowledge
publicly. >> So, I'm not going to say any more than that. >> All right. So, I asked some difficult questions. I was contacted by some very intelligent volunteers of organizations who've run organizations for years um
for our kids and our communities. And I asked every single one of those questions directly to Russ. And then I reported back to everyone who reached out to me with Russ's language. Um so they knew it was coming directly from our district legal counsel. Um Russ told
me some horror stories from other districts. Um, tens of thousands of dollars in donated funds meant for students disappearing overnight. And with no legal
pathway to trace the dollars, there was no recourse for the school district nor the families to recuperate those funds. So, not only are we putting the district potentially in jeopardy, we're putting those kids who these funds
are supposed to be supporting at jeopardy of not realizing um the benefits of those dollars for their activities. Um, so I would never suspect any of our people to do that, but Russ did go into some detail with some other districts
very close to home who've had some major issues with large sums of money disappearing and there being no way to get back those dollars. If >> I can also add um kind of more on the practical side about you mentioned Genie
maybe combining into one legal entity coordinating better. Okay. I don't think everyone was able but fewer that fewer that coordinated. I know um >> my day job I serve on our school council and that's been a big push to try to get
all those different parent support groups to coordinate more with each other and it's resulted in a better overall like down the line. It took a little there were little growing pains and a little bit of adjustment, but ultimately having the different groups
communicating more with each other and talking to each other ends up like avoiding some redundancy and helping the kids in the long run and kind of having kids get involved across clicks and parents seeing what other activities are doing. So that is one
potential positive to consider. Yeah, I feel there's going to be some major bumps in the road, especially initially, right? But long term, it will put us on better footing. So, I didn't create the laws. I didn't create the policies, >> but you're enforcing,
>> but I I do I do believe that it would be in the best interest of the the district to adopt these. Regardless if we adopt them, we're still bound by the laws that these policies. So, any other conversation? I knew that we probably should have had that
conversation. So, I appreciate that. >> Thanks. >> That did seem the biggest change when I >> seeing no further, I make a motion to accept policy A DA E C A B E F B A G B E
B C JJ E KB E K BG. That's funny. Okay. I >> And I think did we already have the motion in the second and we're just >> we had the motion to wave the actual reading. This is the motion to accept the policy. >> Okay. And >> secondly second. All right. Um
>> friendly amendment. I think JJ was maybe not said. >> I thought I heard him say JJ. >> He might have he to my eyes. I appreciate it. Okay. >> Um so we got a motion and a second. All those in favor?
Okay. Um, next on the agenda is the regionalization study and I'm not sure Genie uh nothing's happened since the November meeting. We are meeting on January 21st at 5:30 and uh the Colin Center is still in the initial stages of their efforts
including with um central office in collecting the data. >> Thank you so much. All right. Safer Mark. I think we had a meeting right prior to this uh meeting and uh we've already addressed and discussed the uh wastewater treatment operating and
permit and uh uh bid and I appreciate your support on that. Um additionally, we got into the uh capital plan um discussion on what we're looking at this year for the capital plan. As many of you remember,
we've got a little less than $7 million to address in phase one of the comprehensive study that was done on our facilities. These are the three most valuable the most valuable two most assets that the uh three towns have to
know uh own and we're dedicated to continuing to maintain them. And we're looking at uh using funds that will become available from debt payments to to uh get more involved with uh funding
properly. Um we are proposing a 1.2 million capital budget. Um and that's just in the rough outline. Um we have some significant uh HVAC issues that need to be addressed in a timely manner that will impact whether or not
we can actually conduct school. Um particularly we have several units that are bandaged together right now with partially failed systems within them that are u uh vulnerable so that we need to get to and unfortunately HVAC units
are are in the hundreds of thousands of dollars to replace. So, um specifically, um they've identified middle school um rooftop unit for the auditorium. The CTE um garage doors are on the list here,
too. A high school rooftop unit. Um middle school. Um and these are all subject to bid. These are just estimates on the um a new uh loop to help communications in the middle school. They've got sealants and uh weather type
weather proofing that must continue on both the high school and middle school which is an ongoing uh event. So that was a pretty much a capital plan discussion. We're going to revisit that and and try to uh tweak that and finalize that but that's the scope of what we're looking at for capital this
year. And um my my personal opinion is that we're not going to be funding that out of END anymore. So, we're going to be looking for another funding source um going down the line. We discussed a u
a policy and a process for getting waiverss for athletic fees and other fees uh based on need. And uh Michaela gave us an outline. They're going to be pursuing that through the student councils uh school councils rather to uh
get ideas on how to to shape a process so that it's not a um there so that there is a process and try to be fair and equitable and make sure that everybody that has the need they can get a fee waiver uh available but also not
to have an abuse of the system. We also talked about wheelchair accessibility for the visitors side of our u field. Um there are some issues that need to be addressed and we're looking at the best ways to make
progress towards uh financially uh to make that area more uh wheelchair accessible. So I think that was pretty much it for the safer report. >> You guys got a lot done in one meeting. >> Yeah, we did. >> Thank you. Um does anyone have any
questions for Mark? All right, Union 31 again. All right, uh we have a meeting. Um you all should have received the invite from Karen. It's going to be on December 17th at 5:30. Um just to remind everyone, this is not just a joint union
31 and Silverlake meeting is going to encompass all four of the committees, five with Union 31. Um everyone's going to I believe be called to order. Um votes taken for all the committees. We are going to revisit the discussion for the um incoming finance director's
contract. It's very important that everyone attend please. Thank you. Okay. Um other matters unforeseen. Kind of covered all of it. Um okay. So I don't feel like I was talking too fast
this time, but we are at the end of our agenda. Um, so I just want to again thank you all from central office for all the work you put into the budget presentation. Um, I personally found it very helpful and I think the other members did too. Um, I will entertain a
motion to adjurnn. >> So moved. >> Second. All right. All those in favor? >> I I Great job. Thank you. 657. Good job. Love it.