all right I will call to order this meeting of the somerset Berkeley Regional school committee um at 60 6:00 good us du notice having been posted pursu pursuant to the open meeting law any person may make an audio or video recording of this
public meeting or may transmit the meeting through any medium attendees are therefore advised that such recordings or Transmissions may be made whether perceived or unperceived by those present and are acknowledged and permissible we'll do um a roll call of members present Miss Ferrera present
Miss Ashley present Mr Mado present Miss O'Brien present Miss Solomon present our school uh student reps are not here we're going to introduce Mr Pastor in a moment um also with us this evening our superintendent of schools Mr Jeffrey
schover our Chief Financial Officer Miss Raquel pin our director of curricula Miss Elizabeth hasell our director of special education Miss Megan Ashton I saw Dr bford she's over in the corner oh thank you our principal Dr Susan bford
and our recording secretary miss Robin vakaro I would ask if you're able to please rise for the pledge class of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible
with liberty and justice for all thank you everyone please note that the next regularly scheduled meeting of this committee is on Tuesday March 11th at 6:00 pm. here in the somerset Berkeley Regional High School library and please note that this will include
the public hearing on the FY 26 school budget the first item on the um agenda for this evening on our unfinished business um is we are going to redo our vote from uh The Joint meeting that this committee had with the Su uh Somerset
border selectman to appoint um Michael Pastak to fulfill the seat that was vacated by Mr Richard fener maker at the original meeting we um did a Voice vote not a roll call vote so we're going to correct that error right now I would entertain a motion to appoint Mr Michael
Pac to fulfill the seat vacated by Mr Richard fer maker for the duration of the term second motion by Mr mad and seconded by Miss Ferrera we'll do a roll call vote of members um Miss Ferrera hi
Miss Ashley I Mr Mado I Miss O'Brien I miss Solomon I and the chair votes I officially welcome Mr P and I think we have our town clerk here so I think we we'll swear you in twice just to be doubly short so we'll
take a moment and we'll allow you to get sworn in so you can fully participate in the meeting and we also thank you very much for coming yeah on a rainy appreciate that on a rainy afternoon evening I feel I do I me
thank [Music] [Applause] you okay so the first um item really the primary item on the agenda this evening under budget and financial is to discuss and act on the um FY 26 preliminary
budget um before we um before we turn this over to miss pin and Mr scoon over um to walk us through the budget um the preliminary proposed budget I just wanted to remind folks um it might be helpful to sort of remind folks of the
process that we've gone through um to get to this point so um this committee has a budget subcommittee um composed of myself Miss Ferrera Miss Ashley we've had um several I've lost count meetings with um Administration um to um examine
proposals for to develop the FY 26 budget at our last meeting which was on Tuesday of this week um we voted unanimously um to um move this preliminary budget um to the full committee for
consideration tonight we will um hear the presentation and have discussion um at the end of this meeting um um the committee needs to establish um an FY 26 budget amount that will then be
forwarded um to the um chair people of the finance committees and the boards of selectman for each member Town um they once they receive that we will then proceed to um a um the public
hearing um on the budget um at then following that if there are that um following that we will take a final vote um at a subsequent meeting on the um
annual operating and capital budget um for the FY 26 fiscal year and just note that that final vote needs to be a 2third majority of the committee so just so folks understand the process and that's all included in our regional
agreement um did I forget anything process um and um before I turn over to the presentation I just wanted to thank um my colleagues on the budget subcommittee who put in a lot of uh a
lot of work um and a lot of uh thoughtful work on trying to bring forward to the entire committee a budget um proposal that we feel um meets the needs of our students um in our district and I want to thank um members of the
administration all across the board um but in particular to our new CFO um for all the work that's been done to pull this together um it is not easy to work with one school committee in one District you have the great pleasure of
working with two um and we acknowledge um what a challenge that is and we're grateful for the expertise and good nature that you've brought to this process so so far um so with that being said I would turn it over to you to sort
of walk us through um the proposed preliminary budget okay thank you okay um this is the presentation that we showed at the um budget subcommittee meeting and just to tell the story about um our
presentation looks differently in the in the beginning slide in the end is we've met so many times and we've talked so much about numbers and stats and why does this number look this way and um that we wanted to bring it back to what
we're here for and so every one of these pictures which I found on the internet um a lot of them from the local newspaper um there's a story behind each one of these pictures and they're fascinating stories so we wanted to open
and close the presentation um with pictures that represent um the high school and what we all here for it all right so we will uh step through um sort of a typical process that we um that we've grown accustomed to
presenting um starting off with our just a quick overview of our school and District improve Improvement goals uh just looking at the process that we've followed over the last several months Miss bellerin will uh walk us through uh our local Aid and um and I'll share some
enrollment numbers and then we'll get into the uh the major changes in the budget um and then ending up with the assessments uh to the towns of Berkeley and Somerset all right so uh we have our school Improvement plan items off to the
left some District goals in the middle and just some of the ways that we're trying to measure our growth and success uh so just to kind of focus of of where our attentions uh are and have been uh so improving student writing across all
subjects is something that the high school is focusing on uh as well as improving post-secondary plans really trying to expand early college and early uh career opportunities for students um and uh modifying our
district accommodation plan so that we're really um ensuring that we are addressing the academic social and emotional needs of our students uh similarly for the for the district um District Improvement uh the
district strategy uh delivering engaging relevant and authentic learning experiences creating a culture of belonging to make making sure that we address those social and emotional needs uh maintaining a uh healthy secure and safe school facility and not really
related to our strategic plan but we do have the student Opportunity Act which uh requires us to submit a a different plan to the state and really the focus on that is improving the academic achievement of students with
disabilities uh some of the metrics uh where we're looking at mcast not just for all students but uh also focus on those students with disabilities uh we're looking at our Capstone participation numbers our internship participation our percentage of students who are completing Mass core uh uh our
early college uh participation the vocal survey results that's the state survey that our students U complete every year when they take the mcast exam uh attendance and chronic absenteeism and grade nine passing rates those are just some of the measures that
we are tracking so for the uh for the budgeting process we did start uh as we typically do uh working with our central office staff and then working with our uh with Dr bford Who really um embraced this
process this year um and we we'll get into that in a little bit uh meeting with uh our content coordinators uh and just going through the um really looking at the the financial
realities of both of our towns we've heard from uh from both towns uh the financial constraints that um that both are facing I've met with t both Town administrators um more
you know more frequently with Mr yuchi in Somerset uh but uh with the Berkeley Town Administrator as well a couple of weeks ago who would just emphasizing uh to me and other uh superintendents where uh Berkeley students attend uh that they've got some
really significant uh Financial constraints uh and and they're they're um in Berkeley for instance they're uh asking their departments to uh submit budgets of no more than 1.2% just to I just to you know bring it to the reality
of of where they are um and then reviewing just all this other information here students program of studies course selections uh right before vacation the Friday before vacation Dr bford received the course requests for our students entering
grades 10 11 and 12 uh the the incoming freshman numbers were trickling in uh so really looking at those numbers and trying to make some predictions about course sizes for next year and what the appropriate number of sections would be so all of this is part of that uh
preliminary budget process and it's really still is ongoing as we don't have uh final numbers yet for uh next year's classes but with that so looking ahead to next year just some um of what we're
projecting our enrollment to be uh if if we start first with grades 10 11 12 the 12 plus in the a of districts that's really just taking the existing numbers and rolling them forward the out of District placement uh does that doesn't
uh incorporate what we expect uh next year's a of districts um to be the uh the grade n number there's a slight um fluctuation there between 230 and 240 as an estimate and you can see that's uh related to school choice uh for next
year uh but the 235 number that's really uh that comes from looking at our Berkeley eth graders our Somerset eighth graders uh what the current enrollments are what the number of students who tend to uh attend Diamond Bristol Plymouth
and Bristol agie when you take those into account and assume 15 school choice students uh we're projecting to have 235 next year uh I have that 235 to 240 just not knowing if seeing that our
enrollment is overall enrollment is dropping if uh if we want to consider accepting a few more school choice students than what we typically do and that would bring us uh potentially to about 240 and we won't know these numbers until uh really late summer but
uh the projections are usually uh pretty spoton with uh with a range of maybe five or so kids uh and for school choice just so uh we we do understand exactly where we are right now we have 54 students currently attending somerson
Berkeley through school choice uh we have 15 uh seniors who will be leaving uh so even if we just bring in 15 uh freshman next year we'll maintain that current enrollment of 54 and then when we um before I I move
on to the next slide uh I was looking at some of the enrollment Trends as well um when this school opened in 2014 we had 925 students on that October 1st enrollment um I I thought it was more
than that and so I was kind of surprised when I was looking back at the historical data and seeing that we were actually under a thousand then uh the largest October 1st enrollment was 1,37 um in 2018 a 2018 18 uh 1819 school year since
that time we've dropped um we've decrease our enrollment and uh earlier this week I'm not sure I'm assuming it is today 888 students are attending some at Berkle uh in
2122 we uh hired nesdc to give us some enrollment projections so just three years ago uh their projection for this school year was 1,8 students uh usually there are they are
fairly accurate uh but over three years they were off by 120 students uh so the enrollment decrease that we've experienced over the last two years was really not expected um and I
think when when we go through the uh the budgeting and and what that decreased enrollment means in terms of Staffing uh it really was not expected that we would have this significant uh of a loss in enrollment
over such a short time uh we knew that over the next 10 years or so looking at our elementary enrollments in both Berkeley and Somerset uh we were forecasting an enrollment uh drop to be under
800 potentially closer to 700 at some point um but that's still several years away uh but to be under 900 today was uh was really not what we were expecting and by the way the students
are not it's not like we've had a loss of students to other schools we have this consistent number of students attending Diamond consistent number of students attending Bristol agie Bristol Plymouth uh very few students attending Charter Schools it's really just a uh
decrease in uh student age population in our two communities uh getting back to sort of enrollment Trends over the 10 years this is just a a quick review of of our
demographics just so we also understand we've had a a significant loss in students but we've also had some changing demographics uh so the the four uh colors here starting at the bottom uh our English Learners we've gone from we
had Z in 141 158% of our students in the 23 24 school year uh in blue you see those are our uh low-income students and we had under 11% in 1415 when this building opened uh that's up to
28% um as of last year uh our special ed enrollment has increased slightly uh from 13 to 15% and high needs is represent students who belong to any one of those three uh
categories English Learners students with disabilities and low income and 35% of our students at sumerset Berkeley Regional High School are considered to be high needs and you can see that's a pretty significant increase thank you uh from 20.8% in
20145 all right so miss bellerin will walk us through the revenue now yes now it's the fun stuff um so we'll first start off with the estimated Revenue that supports the expenditures within the district so the
majority of the revenue that supports the district comes from town assessments as you can see um 6641 per actually comes from the Two Towns Somerset has a 1.5 increase in the
current budget which equals $163,000 and Berkeley has 7.3 3% increase which equals a little over $234,000 the next major driver in revenue is Chapter
70 and the remaining is a small amount that comes in from Charter School tuitions um miscellaneous Revenue that represents Medicaid reimbursements that's the majority of that um we have some that come in from interest income
because we are a regional district we're able to um keep a healthy balance which allows us to ACR interest and then um this year we do not have any of excess and deficiencies going to support the budget which I'm happy about um so the
total increase is an estimated 1.66 for this fiscal year so before I move on uh and I know usually like the the assessment information we do have we wrap up with the assessment but we're putting some of
that information right up front but since I was just talking about enrollment um I'll just add this we've seen in the past how much due to the assessment calculation how much population between Berkeley and Somerset factors into what the assessments are
last year if you recall Berkeley's assessment dropped by about 7% uh and suet increased by about 7% That's because when you look at the percentage of students from Somerset and Berkeley who were attending the high school last in Fall of 23 that affected
the 20 fiscal 25 budget uh there was about a 1 and a half% swing in attendance in in enrollment summer sets increased by 1 and a half% berkes dropped by 1 and a half% therefore we had this this large
fluctuation in assessments this year somerset's uh enrollment is dropping one uh one percentage Point while Berkeley's is increasing by 1% uh so that that little swing which you
think 1% wouldn't really affect things that much results in Berkeley's assessment being seven uh just over 7% whereas sumers sets is 1.5 and we'll show that in more detail later but just to emphasize how that um
how enrollment really does Drive the assessment formula and here is is historical this came from a recommendation from our subcommittee a few days ago this what does it look like over the past few fiscal years so you as you can see um
you see the variations of what Somerset has increased or decreased in that one year in what Berkeley has so that you have the total assessments and you see that hiccup year that you have so that's an anomaly when they when the total assessment increased about over a
million for the remainder it kind of stays similar um but it as as Jeff pointed out even when you look at Berkeley it it seems to be really close there was a decrease of 7% and now the increase so um when we were doing the
variations even when we were reducing the budget and Jeff had told me he's like this you think it's going to drop and it's going to drop you know the way it should it it doesn't it all depends on so many factors that it go into the
formula and so there tonight this is what we're presenting and we just we did want to give some historical on this and just as um if you recall to in fy22 that huge swing that was the year
the the regional agreement was modified where it factored special education tuition in and really took that portion of the budget and attributed uh actual cost to both towns uh since Somerset had
a a really the significant portion of a of District tuition it was about 90% 91% uh we saw Somerset really pick up uh fairly um a larger share of the cost whereas Berkeley's decreased so now we're looking at it on
based on the calculation that we talked about the assessment calcul calculation so we have a student enrollment and you're comparing 25 to 26 and as the superintendent had said we do we are seeing a drop in enrollment these
enrollment numbers are um from our October 1 enrollment uh they are subject to change and actually will change along with Chapter 70 um so we have our base operating assessment chapter 70 as we just said will change as it goes through
its variations we're deducting out our other Revenue sources our transportation out of District tuition to get to to um the operating assessment cost adding in the capital assessment gets us to our total assessment as we
talked about a little bit before the total assessment increase is $397,000 with 163 a portion increase to Somerset and 234 to Berkeley now looking at Chapter 70 which
at this point is at the governor's local Aid proposal and as you see it still has to go through the house the Senate and the conference committee um within the general operational budget Chapter 70 you'll see will come in as well as charter school tuitions and when we look
at the expenditure side you'll see um the expenditures for school choice and Charter School what you won't see in the general operational budget is school choice um and Regional Transportation those are in separate funds and as we
went through through the um budgeting process we really focused on funds that were outside of the general fund and how we could maximize those funds um so those two are subject to change so what are the other funds that
support um the district we have our entitlement grants so those are grants that we are entitled to as we know right now um we not really sure what will change at the federal level um we just did get some an email very I mean like
an hour ago about preliminary numbers for FY 26 and uh the the change is like $8 $40 so they're flat we're not seeing any increase but it's very positive that we're not seeing a decrease at this
point either um we have our state reimbursement funds that were that come from the governor's budget estimate to come from the Chapter 70 we just talked about and we also have circuit breaker which is our reimbursement for special education then we have our local
revolving funds right now they're they're flat except for athletic revolving fund when we looked at the trends we were able to add a little more dollars to um our assessment for Revenue which means that we have we can apply
more expenses to that fund um looking at the fee schedules they've remained stable or they they've decreased um so when we look at Athletics um they were in previous years 150 uh for one sport and then 100 for
future sport now they're 150 for one sport and zero for future sport so if they're paying playing three Sports they're not getting the additional cost and it's capped at 450 um so you might not see the revenue that's coming in but it's it's a benefit to the families that
you have kept it flat or decreased so what are these um especially the grants what do they support so they support instructional staff and professional development our titles are restricted funds um to apply
for them we have to submit an application to the Department of Education but they also come from um the guidance of in the federal world uh supplement and supplant so those funds are meant to supplement the general op
operational fund not to supplant then we have our entitlement for idab which is special education those do not have those restrictions so we have a lot more flexibility to be able to move expenditures from the general fund to that Grant um so for this year it will
be supporting out of District tuition at this point as well as extended school year expenses our state reimbursement f funds will support circuit breaker will offset our tuition cost our regional transportation reimbursement will
support our transportation cost and our school choice funds offset some of the cost for guidance and adjustment counselors our local revolving funds same thing revolving funds are supposed to be self-supporting self- sustaining so the use of school property will
support the additional cost for custodial and maintenance um Tech fees are repair replacement of the computers performing art fees of the cost of the performance and our athletic fees support various athletic expenditures now we're going on to the
expenses so what are the major drivers um the biggest driver in in the budget is a contractual increase for staff um but that makes sense we're a service organization um the majority of budget is is Staffing so it does make sense
said our our largest increase would be contractual salaries uh with the increase in salaries we'd also have the increase to our retirement and applicable payroll taxes and um health benefits we projected health benefits 16% on the
actual staff that are on benefits right now so budget to budget may look different but when we pulled the last latest Bill we uh projected 16% uh we were on a call uh A team's U meeting today um with the consultants
for healthc care and it was frightening we were texting because you're looking at it and and the ceiling is 30% and they were saying that some districts that they represent are seeing a 50% increase and it has to do with various um medications and and the
rising cost of Health Care um they did present some um a plan change and different options that we can do but it was hard for uh the committee to digest so much information um but we do feel
comfortable with the variations that coming in with a projected 16% increase I is is good um so we were worried going into this that it could be 30% and we'd have to reduce more but we are feeling comfortable all of us that 16% is a good
number uh to go with so I'm very pleased about that um we also increase in substitute cost um we also have contractual increases that are outside um salary benefits and that's Transportation uh facilities and
maintenance administrative software and tech software and our second biggest driver is our out of District tuition cost but we are able to proportion the cost over different funds which does help mitigate the cost that goes into
the general fund um and then we have the rising cost of U out of school um school choice tuition and Charter so what are the major decreases um to offset these expenditures so as we briefly talked
about we really started the process looking at the alternative funding sources um what we could utilize them and we had talked about in the sub subcommittee that um using the grants as
an example sometimes they span over 26 27 months we're now looking at shortening and not having so much carryover but really maximizing it within um one fiscal year the drawback
is the unknowns and when you're operating over historically over multiple years with carryover we're not going to see that carryover anymore um so we'll be diligent in looking at every expenditure um we also looked at
instructional materials and Equipment um and I will say that coming new to the district um working with Dr BR bford we've worked countless hours nights and weekends and her
dedication is truly amazing I would be on the computer at night looking at a line item and she' be saying why did you change that like she's on it too so we really really did look at every single line item and um it would she's an
amazing partner in this process um so we looked at technology we looked at extracurricular co-curricular um our rotation plans could we um span it over multiple years can we accelerate the
plan what can we do um we looked at textbooks and and and summer supports could we use that utilize that out of the grant could we get creative with stuff that we already have and we had to reduce the furniture and Equipment requests that are new because at this
point we really didn't have the funds to support it and lastly there are reductions to our staffing levels um yeah I'll I'll talk about the Staffing um so there were um it's always it's easy to cut a piece of
technology away from the budget or uh reduce how much paper we expect to use um when it comes to people as Raquel said we're a service organization we're a people organization and um when you
have to start looking at staff and we know the the bulk of our budget is related to staff um so one of the uh you hear you see here several different um proposals in this budget
uh one is to reduce the number of days that our assistant principles are working uh down from their current level to uh 200 days per year um there is a reduction of some support staff including uh one from
central office uh and some positions uh uh here within the high school um one based on uh a a retirement uh there's some supervision support as well that includes in school suspension
it includes the hallway monitors it includes cafeteria monitors um so with and we've uh we've talked about in uh fortunately not really this year uh
really the was the previous two uh even our students who attend uh these meetings uh would talk about the supervision and and what was happening and in the hallways and the bathrooms and um so we would we would be taking away the person or people who are
responsible for that and really um shifting that responsibility to our assistant principles and um and and really all of our uh school-based administrators um in school suspension I
I referenced um that is also something is really not um it's still relatively new position here at the high school if you recall uh this is something that the state came in several years ago and said you don't have an in school suspension
you really need one so we uh we created one uh it's been several days per week um and and that one is is now well that one kind of grew over time but now that one would be scaled back and also would fall on our school administrators uh to
provide that supervision uh and and uh there's a reduction in instructional staff uh this is as I said earlier looking at course numbers um really
looking at our course sizes currently our current Staffing and then what the requests are for next year um as I said we We Grew From 925 students to 1,037 in fact in fact we reached a peak
of about 1,50 or so uh and we've we've um drop back down to under 9900 uh when we grew we uh added staff in some areas we were also cutting staff in some areas but we did grow and expand um and now
it's um the the budget sub committee used the term right sizee um when when talking to us about what uh what should happen right sizing the ship uh so there is a reduction of several positions uh
one in math one one in science uh one in technology uh one in um uh a half of of a position in a related arts and uh one guidance counselor uh so those um they're based
on course requests they're based on class sizes uh you know when we looked at those right now if you for instance look at our freshman classes in in physics we have aage class sizes of about 15 16 students obviously those
kids are moving on to chemistry next year uh so offering classes uh with sizes that are comparable to everything that exists in our in the elementary schools and the middle schools of both Somerset and
Berkeley which tend to be more in the 22 to 26 range sometimes a little bit higher uh so it would be a class size of of something comparable to um to what we seen pre to eight and so we're at the Su level so
this just really captures um the revenue that we discussed and just really high level what our operating expenses are our three years's actual budget and proposed and our Capital assessments gets us again to an increase of
$358,000 702 and it equals a budgetary increase of 1.66% yeah so want to just highlight some of the things I I started out um with our school goals so just just to
bring back some of the things that the positive things that are happening and and happened in recent years for those of you who have attended the Civic showcase that happens every uh January in I guess June you see
that our Juniors who are completing these courses um they are uh completing some really great projects standing there in front of strangers um presenting defending the work that they did uh communicating what
their goals were uh maybe what their challenges were and what the outcomes were of their projects uh it's always a great um a great event to go see and and talk to kids and just see the great things that are that
they're learning which is a result of what's happening in the classroom and not just in the civics class but it's the skills that they're gaining from all of their teachers uh we've talked about Project Lead the Way and uh our biomedical uh classes uh even even
though there there's um biomedical um Innovations what's the the four the the fourth class Dr prer is it biomed Innovations medical innov medical Innovations thank you um the the class sizes are growing
there's one uh the fourth one has a had a lower size I'm not sure what it currently is right now we have like 125 plus kids in Project Lead the way it's like 13 14% or or more of our students are involved in this Innovation pathway where they're taking these uh three to
four courses over their careers and really being prepared for uh either college or career whatever it is where their intentions are after they graduate from Somerset Berkeley um our ADV advanced placement numbers continue to
rise both in terms of the number of students well the number of students who are taking courses uh the number of tests that we are uh that our students are taking and their achievement level on those tests uh and because of that uh
suers at Berkeley for the second year in a row has received that silver medal from the AP uh from the college board for the honor role uh we have as as Dr bford has shared with you a couple of times now A growing internship program
we had I think it was three or four students last year seven this year nine this year um and along with that couple Bulls down Capstone projects with it's our L
largest um number of students seniors who are completing Capstone projects as well uh we are uh building programs to keep our students our special education students who historically would have been in out
of District programs they are now uh getting their education here either through their high school diploma or until they turn 22 depending on the situation uh and 88% of our students are going on to higher
education uh so we we have um a lot to celebrate um and we we also want to make sure that we continue the great things that have happened with this budget uh um and some
of the talks that we've some of the plans that we have in place we've talked about Mass core as a graduation requirement particularly with recent changes in mcass uh if that happens and we uh are are requiring all of our students to
take four years of math at the same time we're reducing a math class you we'll have to see we how that affects our students but if that also if that is something that we do and we we bring in to let's say next year's freshman class
if that's their their graduation requirement well we've got three years um to get to that point where students are actually taking that fourth year and we also know at the same time that our enrollment is dropping further over those three years so maybe that's
something that even though we're eliminating a math class now maybe that's something that will balance out uh by the time that larger um uh number of students taking math would actually uh begin
um the the supervision and and those other aspects of the jobs that I was talking about uh and shifting those to our assistant principles uh you our assistant principles uh do a phenomenal job of
meeting kids' needs uh having a lot of face t- face time with them and these other duties there'll be an impact there where they might not be able to have uh as quick of of a response but
then more presence in the cafeteria maybe the maybe a positive for Silver Lining will be more connections uh there as well so um with this there are some concerns but there's also a lot of uh
unknowns and we'll have to see what what would happen and what the impact would be and and as promised as we started with students and staff we will end with students and staff because great things are happening at Somerset Berkeley and
the quote to end the presentation um is by Nelson Mandela so education is the most powerful weapon which we can use to change the world and in trying budget times and trying times with our country um it's good to know
that we're here for students and they will be our future thank you I will open it up for questions from the
committee more comments I I'll start quickly uh first of all to all of you to present this budget U obviously I've seen how many meetings you been and it's a lot of work and I appreciate you gotten the number
to the point where it's fair to both communities because I understand you know it's really difficult um the only thing that I um you know I love the idea that we're writing we're
writing well we're right sizing the ship I think that is necessary I think those were the words you said uh but um I just want to make sure sure that the service the kids services are still going to be met and it seems like they are
um you had mentioned that removing one math teacher and I think this committee has spoken multiple times about how we really would like to see four years um either for the upcoming freshman or maybe even this sophomore class or
whatever the case may be um but I do agree with you I still I think it was either at this meeting or uh K8 meeting where I said I can actually see in 5 years our school only having 800 kids in this building so um it's a change so so
that that's good to know that you're I did see AP is increasing I would like to see it increase more I'll be honest with you um I'm I would like to see it really but I think this budget right now will make it difficult but I
think it's doable still the only questions I have more about well first of all as Miss Pelin mentioned about the insurance unfortunately at 30% it would affect all of our employees
about $80 a pay cycle so that's about $2,000 more a year that they may be looking at paying for health insurance so that's why we're trying to get it lower and we're going to be working real hard with the board on that piece the
special a lot of our savings or we've taken a lot of the services inhouse like for instance the special needs buses and things like that I'm just qu curious about um transportation um when we use our own
buses are we still also receiving the state reimbursement for even though we're using our own buses or are we better off leasing our buses I was just curious about that I know mag you might want to speak
to this too the reimbursement for circuit breaker is about 40% but that it would be 40% above the threshold okay um so when you're comparing doing a cost benefit analysis I think personally the
money that the money that we save and the flexibility that we have with in-house Vans outweigh the cost and the the reimburse we would get over that amount um it's
really we're effective the way we're and we've seen it we've seen it obviously as we've been adding on but my question is more about the special need reimbursement you know I like for instance our assessment tools we when we went back in
2000 wherever it was that year that we did the Readjustment of the um of the assess M tool the special needs um costs stay with the the community who are sending how do we work
with that with the Vans like if it's a student from Somerset are we picking up those costs of the Vans or and vice versa with Berkeley or is that being split on the assessment I'm I'm just trying to figure out all the ways that
we you know when I see a 7% increase in Berkeley's assessment you know and I understand it flipped last year we were the opposite but when I see those little moves like that um special meat costs usually stick with the child and I
just want to soften the blow with both districts when it happens the the trans my understanding is the transportation cost is split equally it's the tuition costs that are proportioned to each district same with the reimbursement
that you get back is split based on the calculation and the percentage not the district okay all right that's perfect that's good to know um also one of the things that I've noticed uh in our
sports teams I noticed that they're decreasing participation like for instance I'm going to pick on the hockey team um I see that we have four districts four schools now in our one team um unfortunately they P they lost
last night um but I was just wondering like do we see any of our clubs Sports being affected by numbers because there was a lot of seniors that retired I mean that uh are graduating this year from uh
the sports and I don't even know if they're going to be able to fill a team so I'm just wondering if there are any clubs or sports that may be impacted not only by obviously I'm not looking to remove them off the budget but I'm just trying to figure out how we even going
to be able to fill these teams before we stop losing player I mean St before we lose positions are we better off with looking at that also because I would hate to have Surplus money at the end of the year because we didn't allocate a sport or activity or something like that
so so regarding ice hockey that's an interesting one because as as you noted we do have the co-op with seeon case dayon rovi our numbers some said Berkeley's numbers on that team are so healthy that that Co-op might not exist in a few years
because Somerset Berkeley won't need those other school districts to run a team so it actually might be working the other way okay um because we get reimbursed by the other communities right do they yeah it's it's it varies by sport I forget exactly what's happening for
hockey if it's um Mr Francis is not here is he no uh I I don't know if it's something where they contribute sometimes a co-op team they'll pay for one of the assistant coaches rather than M coming in so it's each one is different so I don't want to uh guess
for any particular one um but that's actually what's been happening for some perkley I'm not aware of any sports that or or clubs that have low such low participation that it's on the verge of not uh in fact even just a few years ago
we couldn't field our own wrestling team and we had to co-op with dery and our the few wrestlers who we had were wearing dery uniforms now our wrestling program is thriving and um it's not a concern so I don't really see that as a problem right now and Dr bford if
there's something that I'm missing that um I think our freshman programs go up and down um there are many times that I'm told we can't feel the Freshman leam because we don't know the numbers entire program like I don't know that are
unhealthy but there it goes by year but there are some years when we don't feel fresh te yeah it's mostly baseball and softball where that happens okay basketball uh maybe girls basketball is one of those where it's difficult to feel the freshman team
uh freshman boys basketball uh freshman volleyball are very healthy usually uh requiring some cuts um all right so I haven't seen that as as really a major concern at all all right and the
only other um I'm happy to hear that we are revamping our assistant principles more into the cafeteria monitoring the halls and things like that because that is
probably what is in my opinion keeping me from targeting one of those positions because you know in our Middle School we have you know 600 students or close to 600 students and we have one VP you know
and I'm I'm happy that you've looked at that and restructure so we don't have to lose that because I know how valuable it is to have that extra support for our Administration evaluation and things like that so I I give you a lot of kudos for the administration team to uh be
able to Savage that position uh because because originally when I saw how tight the budget was going to be I was looking at a lot of those uh management pieces but um I with this budget I also would
ask you to not wait until the very last minute if serious changes need to be made like hey you know what enrollment on this we can't REM lose the math start looking at other options when those because I don't think we're going to be able to come up with more money but I
think we may have to stop shifing things as well so that so I really don't have any other than just I'm I'm really pleased with the work that you all especially the committee members and came in because I felt this was
um it's it's an easier budget to support but I also understand that our Berkeley individual friends across are looking at a 7% increase so if I could just one comment on one of the things that you said about AP
enrollment and I think we're always striving to get more students involved in advanced placement courses um but I I will highlight and I know Mr Lawrence is here uh last year we introduced the a pre-calculus course which allowed us to
offer another Math course uh primarily to Juniors before that it was AP Calculus and AP Statistics which was predominantly um the enrolled by Sen years but that has really allowed us to offer AP to even more students and Mr
Lawrence about how many students do we have in that this year 44 40 44 44 uh so that was one change that was added last year we were able to get more kids um taking me courses as well so we're we're
looking at that always looking to see how we can uh increase that because the the expectations and the rigor in the classes just benefit kids um and really prepares them well for college thank you Mr Mich anyone else well i' just like to quickly say
that you know very new to the committee here but as new as you can be and um looking at this from really bird eye view but I think generally speaking like all Town departments you know they're
um salaries and benefits usually constitute around 60 to 70% of the budget right and I'm looking at what was presented you know you had 2 to 4% salary increase plus steps you know um increase retirement payroll so you know
we're having increased salaries everywhere which is obviously going to increase our plan liabilities and you know have to put more towards the appropriation and um I did on that meeting today with the healthc care and you know there are some
significant concerns there and but I kind of think quickly looking at it there was some faulty numbers but I guess they'll have to look into that maybe Mr Luchi but given all that and that there's a 1.6% increase I mean I would have to
commend the budget subcommittee and all of you and doing a good job of keeping this budget pretty pretty tight so you know I really you so um the instructional staff are any of those do now those actual cuts the tech
is is and Mr can address it but I believe the AR would be a a through midye retri I just that I'm sorry she was asking about instructional I'm sorry that's cor um the instructional staff I was asking
if any of those are they actual proposed Cuts or any of them not are they vacant they said Tech is vacant and something potentially with one of the other ones with the retir the yes and then uh the the math and the science um that would be a reduction in a current staff
member same guidance and guidance as well yes questions and miss Andrew I was just asking Miss P I know uh one of the comments that was made on Tuesday night was about end and stabilization uh so we have between the
two it's about 1.8 million right now between those two accounts but we know that uh this year uh the baseball field bids um came in where that'll be an item on an upcoming meeting but that um that that's
about $800,000 and uh we don't have the cost for the turf replacement which we expect to happen this summer but that'll probably be in on the the order of 700 or so thousand so 1.5 million is going
to take a fairly significant piece of this Indian stabilization away anyone else I just want to say I I must say I want to say thank you to everyone and Miss Andrews I know she said to the rest
of us but she had a big part in this also with her background uh Miss Ashley also was great working with everybody I think we knew this had to come in there were going to be Cuts but I think we did our best to try to make sure that we
weren't taking anything away from the students I would just I would just add um more for the Public's benefit to highlight just a few other things that we although this is a FY 26 budget so zoom out a little bit and sort of highlight a few
other things that we sort of keep in mind because I think it's our responsibility to not just draft um and approve a budget for a particular fiscal year but to to look at projections and that's why we're having conversations about enrollment and other Trends so
that we can um be responsible moving forward because these things are not discreet budgets but obviously what you do in one year affects what you do in the next I wanted to highlight a couple of um I think achievements of um the district and the committee financially I
think that you know we've settled um all of our um contracts with our collective bargaining units and I think that we feel um good about um the terms that we were able to reach with with our staff they're obviously our most valuable resource in delivering you know services
to our students and um if you pay a little bit of attention to the news you see that there has been actually a lot of turmoil um and sort of there have been strikes there been there districts in um uh mediation and so weren't able
to settle so I think that's a testament to our our bargaining units and you know coming to the table to do what's best for our kids and we want to be a district that attracts and retains staff um high quality staff um so we can deliver high quality services to our
kids because there's a cost and turnover right and um and that's something that we want to avoid so that's one thing I think also to touch on the conversation a little bit about e and and stabilization the committee's made um uh deliberate attempts to um contribute
more to stabilization we've made um deliberate attempts over the past last few budget Cycles to increase our contributions to OPB um and we still have that still a significant unfunded liability um but that is in that's
significant because we need to think longterm about our Financial Health um we have a new Treasurer um who is doing great work in terms of trying to um invest in capture for some you saw some of the interest income so I wanted to um
recognize her um and I think also that we we know that um the investment that was made in this building this building is getting um older I think if you look around it is it looks fabulous I think for the age of the building I think that
our custodial and maintenance staff has done a tremendous job taking care of this building I also think the staff who were in here every day to a tremendous job taking care of the building and frankly the kids um because we want to have safe and comfortable learning environment for our students and
everybody who's in here everyday contributes to that um we know that there are um projects that are coming up we're working on the baseball and softball fields and those projects being able to fund those with some of the leftover funds from the building project
means we don't have to go to town meeting um we are looking we just um unsealed some bids for um work and we are looking to um move forward with replacing the turf and the repairing the
track cuz that's also a safety issue um and it's also just sort of taking care of what we've got so I think that I commend the committee current members and former members who made that a priority and being able to um replace
the turf and repair the track without having to go back to other town for additional funds I think is significant so I think um that's just to compliment everyone I think everyone's working hard and trying to be very thoughtful um not just for this particular operating
budget but really the whole Financial Health um of the district and the only other thing I would add to that is that we obviously have folks who sit on this committee who who sit on the K to8 Committees of of both of the member towns and we are I think we acknowledge
that the financial um situation for K to8 in both member towns is more difficult than it is for the region member towns don't benefit from Regional transport ation um just for one example and so I think that we have a
responsibility and I'm I'm I think we're we're taking it seriously to obviously do what is in the best interest of the students here at the high school but we recognize that those students all come from the K to8 and that we have to make
sure that when we look at the the education of our students in Somerset and Berkeley that we look at it holistically and across the board in both communities pre I should say pre that to eight because those students end up here and if we and we don't want to
get into a situation where we rob from Peter to pay paal to use an overused but apt cliche um so I think that it's difficult to make reductions because reductions are people in many cases and
we acknowledge that but I also want to acknowledge that things are in some cases a lot tougher at the k to8 and they often do with less and they often carry higher case loads in class sizes and so I think that that's just it's worth acknowledging that because we
never want to be a district that just sort of hands a bill which in theory we could do right and as a region we could hand a bill to Somerset and we could hand a bill to brookley and we could say you need to pay it but that's not how we
operate um and I think that's important to just sort of say that explicitly um because we care about all the kids in both communities and everyone is a taxpayer and there's only so much money to go around and we want it to support education across the board um and we
want it to support our kids across the board um but we need to at least I think even though I don't sit on a k to8 it's important I want those K to8 students and faculty and staff and schools to have what they need so they can prepare the kids so when they got here they can
be successful um that's kind of longwinded but I think you know it's it's tough because we can never just think Although our mandate is to think about the high school we can never just think about the high school um so I want to thank everyone for sort of having
that wider lens as we come to make you know really difficult um decisions I have we wanted to share some OPB numbers with the presentation and we I forgot to include that so I apologize uh but since you mentioned it uh just
for everyone's reference uh we currently have um 1 point so our total liability is 14.3 million uh we have just under 1 a. half million in our net position so the net liability is about $12.8
million uh so it's we have about 10% just over 10% of our um opab liability right now um and this budget does include a very minimal $40,000 contribution to opv again next
year as we did this year um so it just doesn't add a lot to it uh but it's still a a small contribution so that we can try to bring that uh that liability down from one year to the
next thank you wow okay great um so I think with that then um I think I would first I think this would be the appropriate time to first I would entertain a
motion um that um the district utilize the alternative assessment formula as outlined in the regional agreement as opposed to the statutory one if memory serves La stream you made a motion first before we talk number so move second
motion by Mr Mado and seconded by Miss Barrera I'm doing roll calls all day today love it um Miss Solomon hi Mr Mado hi Miss fera Miss Ashley I Miss O'Brien hi Mr Pastak and the chair votes
I next I would entertain a motion to approve a preliminary net operating budget for FY 26 in the amount of 21 m982 797 so moved
um motion by Mr Mado seconded by Miss Ashley no oh sorry Miss O'Brien sorry the hearing goes among other things um um and on roll call U Miss Solomon hi Mr M I miss Ferrera Miss Ashley I Miss
O'Brien hi Mr pastet I and the chair votes I thank you every so the next step will be for us to forward that to the town side um and then um use this information to
craft the public hearing which is on the 11th of March at 6 um next on the agenda other matters I have none does anyone on the committee have anything um just one quick thing um
at the K8 uh meeting we may be requesting the town to purchase two yellow buses um and we're hoping if it's successful and we meet the needs of our K8 we may
also extend it to the region instead of paying you know the the high prices of you know transportation we may since we're the towns we may be able to supply a lesser alternative for the uh region
but that's just something that we're thinking in the ka8 level so just want to give you guys a heads up would that be primarily for like extracurricular or athletic Transportation or my rather the contract yeah a good example that I used at the meeting last night was um show
choir when we send the bus out for a day it's usually $800,000 uh by owning it we're now looking at potential you know reducing that cost for you know obviously it'll be a savings for the ka8 it's a reimbursement to the ka8 but just I'm
looking at it as a whole picture how to get our students where they need and opportunities for field trips and things like that fa any other matters Mr SC over did you want to say something no oh you
just um the next time my agenda is then is public input is there anyone who' like to offer public input if you can just state your name and St 180 Yankee ped the drive and um I wasn't going to come tonight because I've already seen presentation stff but I felt need to
come because I know this is um on on a public whatever um I think the general public needs to hear and I Echo what Mike said this team worked very very hard I wasn't at the first meeting but I was at pretty much every other meeting
and I saw the diligence and the hard work to keep great programming here at Somerset but also to recognize that we taxpayers in Sam and berley can't continue to raise our taxes um like they were last year and years prior so I I
just need the general public to just they worked very very hot they did a great job this did not happen overnight this was many many many meetings and before you go to a town meeting and stand up and oppose any of it and don't
agree to it do your research do your due diligence and don't just go up there and say ah I'm not giving them any more money they got enough money I just I ask the towns to to recognize the hard work and what you guys put together and I applaud you and Echo all the compliments
that you all gave to them great job thank you so much thank you thank you is there anyone else for public input so I do I'm Amy Lawrence 49 Washington f um I do have the benefit of working in town and obviously I have
children in the district so I do think it's appropriate for me to talk um I know that there was tons of research done um in considering cutting math and science positions I'm not doubting that I don't disagree with increased enrollment um my only concern is that we
currently are supporting the special education department um one of my teachers is co- teing two classes because we do not have any dual certified math and special Educators in our in our other than my math teacher that currently is like employed in the
math department um under my supervision um and so because we offer so many Cod talk classes to meet the needs of the 504 IEP students we have been supplementing her to the special like to serve as the co- teer for math
SL special ed to meet those students needs to for compliance um my concern is that in order to continue to meet the needs of our bottom 25 % of students we need to continue to offer those smaller
size coota classes because if we're saying like it's not a big deal to go from say 18 to 24 um I I open my classroom to anybody please come in my door is always open the difference between 18 and 24 students who are at
risk have a lengthy list of accommodations that are required and to now have to take Mrs Eldridge out of there replace her with a regular special educator who is not math certified so that she can Now cover her regular math
classes that now will be vacated by a loss of a staff member um that is a huge concern for me um and for my children coming up as someone who has a sixth grader and a third grader um I I do worry about that um it's not all
children are equal and unfortunately with the system that we use Aspen when you hit the button it doesn't go 18 18 18 it goes 26 14 17 30 and then it's like well this is what we got so like
you might have a class of 30 you might have a class of 14 we can't make it 2020 2020 I'm sure you've heard that before I'm sure it's not news to anybody um but I'm very concerned that we're going to have some sections with students who need more individualized attention that
we're not going to be able to service them the same way that we have been previously um for Math and Science I think that is we're trying to now add a fourth year math and I know that's down the road but then you're adding 20% of the population is not currently taking a fourth year and like we'd be losing a
tremendous staff number and like we're saying we want to retain staff but what message are we sending saying well we're going to cut them out t-shir maybe we'll bring them back in a few years um how am I going to recruit and say I'm not sure we're still going to need you in a year or two that's a really tough sales pitch and like I know for me
personally my staff number would be under four it's four years so this is a bottom end step teacher this is and I know that we had 2.5% to work with and we're at 1.6 so like why are we taking the hit why and nothing against fire
department police I love them all but why are we taking the hit at the high school for everybody like I think we're biting the bullet for math like especially Math and Science like those are two core classes that are without the mcast requirement are going to be at the Forefront we have all these wonderful program we offer and that's
where we're looking to cut um I I would implore you to come into our classes now and then next year if this does go through and see if you're seeing like the students getting the same individualized attention with not having a math person to teach with another math
person um so I I just would love as we move forward if money is found I would love for it to be considered um to reinstate that those math and science positions for at least a year um because I know there were students who signed up
for math that were not in Aspen under their AP Cal because they were blocked because it said they didn't meet the requirement yet then there were kids who want those are elected classes so I I did not get to see the numbers yet um so I would just love to verify that those are accurate I'm not doubting all the
work that was put in but I I just I like I'm a data guy I'd love to see it with my own hands and make sure that every kid who's on cotor is in the section already every an AP is in those sections already cuz the first thing to go will be AP cuz that's that's an elective um
we have to service the bottom 25 the kids who are struggling so I just would hate to like all this progress we've made math is to blame for the silver I'm going to take it for us like we did that um we've added like we started out when I was a department head with 25 kids
taking AP um Dr brother we have 120 kids 12 something kids we have about 125 kids so that's a 400% increase in EP and now like we're saying well we don't really need a math teacher so I'm just so concerned that that we're going to go backwards and say what happened Mr lence
why is our a en Rome in town we c a ma teacher like I I think that's like the last place we should start like as a parents as a town person I'd rather pay user fees for my kid for three seasons I'd rather pay for their parking pass I'd rather pay for their school lunch
and take that out of my salary then lose a core education teacher so so thank you for your time um but I just wanted to share that as a parent and as the math content coordinator thank you thank you are there any other public
input okay um in that case then I would entertain a motion did you have no no I keep thinking you want to say something stop looking at um in that case I would entertain a motion to adj mov second all right we have a motion by
Miss barer and seconded by Miss O'Brien I think we can do this one all at once all those in favor I opposed so voted thank you everyone