this government meeting is brought to you by eastw works and our local cable subscribers all right the time is 6:02 we'll call the regular meeting of the southam school committee to order this is our regular monthly meeting for the month of March four out of five members present including the superintendent and
building principal first item is approv of minutes of February 12th 2025 move that we approve the minutes of uh January 12 2025 is there a second for discussion I'll second for discussion there's a motion made by Dylan seconded
by Kim for discussion I just have one um correction under um ongoing business under under on ongoing business B it says John that you confirmed something but you weren't at the meeting so just just take that sentence
out all right so section six ongoing business letter B bullet point two is to be deleted in its entirety no I wasn't even at this meeting but I can tell you under three epto
report that would be Chuck a puck cuz I'm not sure how how you shuck a puck that's true yeah it was CH I said Chuck a puck I did say Chuck it was Zoom it might have been hard to hear okay it was on Zoom yeah and actually they're not even doing that but they're not but for
the purposes of the minutes yeah purposes of the any other amendments or Corrections hearing none all in favor I I oppos motion car SP any member of the public wish this be heard on an item not on the agenda tonight seeing no member
of the public has attended pass circulation of warrants we're still doing those electronically no announcements or correspondence principes report okay you should have my report in your packet our enrollment is at 484 that's two more
students from last month we got two preschoolers that came in um grade three will be visiting stoon Village um storton Museum early March I know that two out of the three classes have visited already drama club Stacy Ashley and Kevin h son are collaborating on an
opportunity for sixth graders to join the drama club they are meeting weekly on Thursdays and they are going to have a performance in May um grade six will compete in our annual crit tournament on April 17th um under building and grounds we've put in some replacement windows in the
art and music rooms these classrooms had original windows that were not lowy glass and were not tinted in order to keep out the heat they produced an enormous amount of heat we also had cracked windows in the music room we are using Grant funds to to do this this work um we had some Plumbing issues in a
boy bathroom on the first floor the boy's bathroom in the third and fourth grade Wing uh we needed to create an access door for the Plumbers to be able to do the work um the work was done over February vacation um the grant which allowed us to have
electronic controls for heating and cooling in the front office and library and nurses office have been completed the the work has been completed they are currently monitoring it and fine-tuning it for for issues so it's not 100% complete they're still tweaking things but that was done with a grant through I
believe eversource a couple years ago when um Ed Gibson was still here yeah so desie received a letter from a Norris parent regarding conditions in our kitchen or cafeteria uh we are up to date on all of our inspections we had additional inspections due to the
allegations in the letter we forwarded to the Southampton Board of Health and they came out and did an inspection we had a few things that we needed to tweak um then the Regional Board of Health was also called um from the Board of Health in Southampton in order to make sure we were dotting every eye and Crossing
every tea they came in this week um little things that we need to tweak nothing major and they will follow up in 30 days um under faculty and staff Mrs Su Rosa has been announced as our Pioneer Valley excellent and teaching grinspoon winner Sue has been a teacher at Norris
for over 10 years she is currently teaching grade three staff celebrated Sue at a meeting in late February any questions discussion none moving on to superintendent report uh the focus of uh
advocacy right now when um people are concerned about budgets and funding is important and I wanted to share uh and I did share actually an opportunity to join a um a recent project 211 plus 21
which is uh focused on Rural districts and how we can affect change positively in funding and uh I shared the link and the passcode if anybody who's interested in that um in that webinar additionally there's a joint Ways and Means
legislative local Aid hearing schedule for 24th 11:00 a.m. at UMass and um what the people at the project 21121 said is that advocacy is important for letters to be written Etc but it's even more
important for people to show up to be visible to be counted and um engaged in the process so uh I am certainly going to attend that March 24th uh meeting and uh there's a group of superintendents
that are also attending um we are uh I don't think able to speak at that meeting but uh a show of force is something that we really want to do um I included the financial issues document which you've seen before before but
which has become quite comprehensive and so uh working with Dawn she looked at the critical reporting requirements of that I put that in my report because I wanted just to have it available for everybody to read and then um be able to
ask questions that pertain to Southampton specifically um from it uh when Dawn uh arrives and she is coming uh for her the budget section and she'll have some uh some documents and sheets for you to
see any comments or questions none chair's report I don't I don't have anything at that level I wasn't able to attend the last chair's meeting before we jump off sorry yeah um just going some look at the budget stuff real quick
where are we at generally speaking with the budget for next year and Don's going to present on that when she gets here we're going to have a whole half hour on it never mind thank you um Hampshire Regional school committee report is that Margaret yeah okay we'll
pass on that um marg's absence PTO report sorry the only thing I'll mention Hampshire Regional it's it's the chair's understanding that last Monday night or this previous Monday Hampshire Regional did vote and pass their budget and I'm sure that'll be part of our conversation later
PTO hi yes it's okay uh PTO met last night um and they they funded um several teacher um requests uh it's primarily for um so busing to field trips is as we
say in New England wicked expensive and so um some of the requests some of the monetary requests were to help offset the cost of buses so that the cost of families could be lower um so they did a bunch of those um and the other thing
the so one of the fundraisers that they're doing is they're having a Thunderbirds night on Saturday night this Saturday night at 7:05 versus the Syracuse Crunch um they are still selling tickets so if there's anybody who's interested in going um there's a
link to with the QR code on the Southampton Community page and Facebook so if anybody is interested um that is one of their fundraisers they have a couple more coming up um this spring and a couple of um community engagement you know School Community engagement stuff
that will be you know fun for people in free and that's it and the next meeting is I don't know sometime in April it doesn't say on here probably the night before April 15th okay so there you go thank you yeah yep it was a good meeting good good meeting always fun to go
school council that's Margaret oh that's Margaret but uh I was there okay we met yesterday we looked at our school Improvement plan we are tweaking goals one and two and trying to add our work that we're doing for co- teing and inclusionary practices at our school um
it was a great meeting we talked a little bit about um my thoughts on the budget and um and I will update them after we meet tonight to see what happens with the budget or next week on the 19th um and that's about it okay
collaborative for educational services update uh yeah met at the end of January they're actually in dire Financial Straits right now they're actually closing down a couple departments laying off a large number of Staff um seemingly related the kind of
back a house stuff primarily related to a reduction in the amount of grant funding they Reed for indirect costs um which is their you know their grand funding is a primary source of funding for a CES so the indirect cost
proportion went down and as a result they don't have the money to run those kind of backa house oper ations um the meeting was primarily focused around that how they're going to kind of re-evaluate the resources they're providing there was some discussion
about the ending the after school program I wasn't clear if that was the after school programs that are operated and privately funded or if that's some sort of other um educational or related after school program that's directly
being run at the collaborative um they run our after school program the CES does yeah they run that I I didn't I don't think it was the ones that are being run at individual elementary schools I think it I think they were more therapeutic after school programs that are operated by it and I think that
was one that they were looking at um but yeah not there was not a lot of discussion about current uh activity and services being provided in light of the the changes that were going on and the financial problems are running into
they've uh they also said the number of uh districts that are paying in for services is decreasing or the voluntary services that districts are hiring them for whether it be PD or other programming is decreasing I think a lot of that had to do with what what their
statement was was much like a lot uh some school districts who did not plan properly and used Sr and arpa money to directly fund ongoing salaries as that money dried up they were basically adjusting their budgets individual districts were adjusting their budgets in order to try to save as many of those
positions as possible possible and as such they kind of they found areas where they could reduce expenditures and CES programming as one of them so there kind of was a kind of a multi-front uh reduction in income and then with everything else when cost of service is going up it's just been a kind of a
financial hard financial year for them so hopefully they can come out the other side a little leaner and a little more efficient but it's uh it was a tough meeting meeting again in the end of March any questions okay select board update uh select board met with uh the
finance committee last night um to look over the uh Revenue the impact of the revenues versus the budget and as of right now they are using a token placeholder of 4% for Hampshire Regional so we need to find out later what that actual percentage is to Southampton when
Don gets here um whether it's for higher or lower and there's a 2% placeholder for Norris because there there there was no documents put forward that leaves the town right now at a $211,000 um so on the town side we've
already asked for a list of um employees by seniority and those that were funded through arpa that uh will at least get the first pass to say do we want to continue to try and fund these under the general fund knowing that we're a quarter of a million dollar short and we're assuming revenues are going to
continue to drop from the state as they continue to uh work on the issue because I think a lot of things going on at the state level or the federal level were not known when the governor put forward her budget so um I'm
expecting we're going to have some tough challenges to deal with on our side and that's really the the important update from the select board it's 24/7 budgets uh March 22nd is Saturday there's a special annual town meeting at
norrth um then there's uh several issues on the ballot not so I can't think of any that directly pertain to Norris but to the citizens the public safety complex is going to be on there like whether or not we're so the
the select board did decide to to take the recommendations of the other committees and we are not moving forward with the Council on Aging project simultaneously with the public safety building the public safety building is the first priority now
uh that's it from the select board so let's go out of order and take up new business right now school calendar who wants to lead on this so okay so traditionally all the
principles get together they create a calendar they speak with the unions and they try to get consistency across the board I'm assuming the same thing apply with professional development these days all match up across the district where possible this is a calendar that is aligned with the rest of the district on
half days um professional development days um start day and end day but I did not talk to the union about the calendar did the Union talk to you no okay has the union seen the calendar that you're aware of yeah a
draft yeah not approved draft of the calendar have they seen what we have in front of us that's what they've seen okay did were they given at least 48 hours prior to today they got it Monday okay that's fine well all staff got it
on Monday okay I had a faculty meeting so I shared the draft calendar told them is not approved but this is what is going to the school on Wednesday night so this all right so um you're going to have professional development the date on the August
29th yes is that is that a nor professional development or just it's our one day before the start of school to have meetings with the teachers and that's their rooms ready according to contract and that's required attendance everybody all 94 staff members have to be there or all your
yeah everybody that works on that day on a Friday needs to be there okay and then the children will start coming in on Tuesday the 2nd correct we um what day when do when does kindergarten start because they don't start on the second right yeah they do they start on the
same day preschool starts preschool when does preschool start a week later I didn't even do that calendar yet I do that calendar based on this calendar so I'm waiting for it would be the nth it would be the 9th normally yeah okay
questions happy we get a twoe break for Christmas we don't have a twoe break pretty close we go in on the 22nd but and have to the 23rd who's going to be in school on 23rd I mean Dr veto will be
there I have heard from more than a few people that have seen this that they want it the way we had it this year and have it every other year where it's 3 four five say that again I have heard from a few people who have already seen this
proposed calendar that they don't want to start after Labor Day and want to start with our normal 3 days 4 days 5 days I know without meeting officially with the Union I understand that the teachers prefer coming in 3 days the
first week like starting earlier in August like we have in the past and then 4 days um Labor Day week and then 5 days the following week right but in the go ahead flavor of aligning with the rest of the district this is the calendar that's being
proposed yeah were we the only Elementary School that started 3 days earlier this year I think another one did Williamsburg did too after we decided to I think another we were the trail well we are the rurual people over here the
Trailblazers I just think it makes sense for the kindergarten kids that's where it all stems from the kids that have never been in school for a full day I mean granted some of them maybe did have done daycare and that's not an issue but a lot of the kids that especially come from our North preschool
are used to a 2 and 1/2 day 3 days a week it's a big jump to go from there to a full day of school especially four full days of school right off the bat and even for my own this year son who is on an IEP it's even a bigger adjustment
for kids like that um I understand the need and want for it all to be cohesive cuz we're one District but this is basically Hampshire's contract ruling us to not being able to start before the 28th so that professional development
day though isn't a districtwide professional development day right that is that is your it's in the contract it's in the South right so my my point in saying that Hampshire teachers don't go to professional development on that day Jen Jen you like Kim finish sorry so
my point was just that our teachers could have their one PD day on a different day because because it's not like you're trying to do something districtwide with everybody right there's not a big convocation there isn't a anything like that going on due to the fact that our contract is only
one day prior to the start of school right and half of the day can be a meeting or a convocation if we had it and the other half of the day is for teacher planning prep time it's difficult to align with everybody you know we so there's nothing to say though
that Norris is Norris is P for PD day for the che you know start dat for the teachers has to be the same as everybody else's because we're not trying to coordinate something okay and I know last year when we talked about the calendar I think that it was someone
wanted if we were going to back it up I don't think the Norris teachers wanted to come in like Thursday have Friday off and then start Tuesday right if I recall correctly yeah no I think I would think they would start on Tuesday the kids would start wed they would probably be
happy with starting on Tuesday and having the kids come Wednesday Thursday Friday correct and then getting get the M get the Monday off right so we going rogue again well all for it but let's keep talking
well so if we if so if we were to back that up right that changes the last day from June 16th to June 11th correct M all right if we had five snow days so
right we're at the 18th instead of right um man can I ask another question sure actually I'd like to hear from veto do you have any is there anything you want to say about do you want to
advocate for anything here well the goal that we had when we did this work was to be more cohesive I guess would be the way I would want to frame it um certainly coordinating half days for professional development the full days
for professional development um I was disappointed last year when there was when I learned that there was no convocation um because it's an opportunity for all schools to come together this is an this was this was a new experience for me coming here and
having five separate districts with three calendars that were the same and two that were the same so we had that difference going on um Michael wasn't hired so we weren't able to prepare or plan for professional development for the upcoming year um so the principles
had the onus to do that together or excuse me to do that on their own um our goal this year was to collaborate as uh instructional leaders and to do more things uh across horizontally if you
will across the districts and so that's the Genesis of the this this calendar was an opportunity for Michael and the principles to really think about professional development and how they could be more cohesive how we could have our professionals working together um I
understand the contractual differences between uh having one day at the beginning of the year or two days having uh a prescription again starting before uh Labor Day or after Labor Day I I get that our goal was to do as much as we
could to collaborate and create cohesiveness in our calendar that was accomplished um with the principles working together I I I didn't get any
direction other than that um and to be honest that wasn't my priority and isn't right now um you know what we've been working on so this was an opportunity for me to to empower principles to collaborate and to empower Michael to lead around professional development
that's that's where my head was isn't am I mistaken isn't October 14th and January 20th the two districtwide professional development days yes and so all the other professional development days on this calendar are strictly Norris days all the other half days yeah
usually yes right so including the start but I would like to say that we do want time when the teachers at the other schools could vertically meet and it doesn't necessarily have to be on those full days like say you have a professional development the day after
we call it col Columbus Day on our calendar um and it might be districtwide and you might have a presenter from 9 to 3 and everybody's doing the same thing but on one of those other half days we might be planning with Michael to do crossgrade level meetings from Chesterfield Goan Williamsburg
Westampton Norris for two hours are you currently anticipating or or thinking about doing that on the first day prior to school because that's the only half day that's being that's the only professional development day that would be impacted with this move and to your point I missed the last meeting that's I
feel and I feel like I but but the leadership meeting I missed the last right but on your on that day you only have one day before school starts half of that day contractually has to be classroom setup correct and so the other
half of it usually a faculty meeting building based with you so there wouldn't be no opportunity to your point to collaborate that way horizontally so so the times that you want to do the collaboration with the other schools are
the other days in this calendar it's not that par changing that one day doesn't impact all that other work that you want to do collaboratively from my perspective it it doesn't I don't I don't see how it could right well that was just I the old
handcuffs that we have for the contract y understood so the only the only other thing I would throw out there is if we're if we're going to back it up 3 days um do we do we face accept reality and say December 22nd and 23rd no one's
going to be in school so take those days off right now it's a day and a half just say they're out that's winter break and then that means the last full day would be on on the 12th and the 15th would be a half day assuming we don't get our cuz that
that's the fifth the end date here is as if we don't use five snow days right correct right right I mean statistically Alisa how long have you been the Principal over a decade right this my 11th year over a decade when the calendar Falls this way how many kids are you getting in on a half day just
before Christmas break oh we have a lot of kids that are going to take that off because they're going away yeah right so so if I understand what you're saying then those days become days off and two of them is that what you're saying two of
them go before so you we we we back to start date up three Y and then instead of on the end just backing up three we only back up one and a half because because we're saying those two days are off I think the people of Southampton that have school aged children are going
to love that right and I would argue that that's December and right because I can never get rid of the February break which I think is ludicrous because they say well we started during the oil embargos to save heat well that day and a half we're going to fire up for we're
getting rid of the flu in February oh gosh everybody home so bad yeah I don't know what you guys think about that I think that's fantastic I think if I still had little ones they'd be like woohoo so I mean I'm thinking like from my perspective that sounds great being
able to travel earlier to get where you're going I know where you were on awful silent do you want to consult somebody make a phone call First no I'm good happen that day I'm good so is there
uh is there urgency to pass it tonight or can can why what new what new evidence is going to come to light oh just looking I mean just looking at I don't know I guess you I just look at what the calendar What's
going to look like so it's you guys are going to start can you just tell me yeah so the school this teachers will report on August 26 which is a Tuesday okay students non prek 27 28 29th 27th 28 29th and then that Monday will be the
stay as the holiday then they're in on this you know then they start following the regular rotation the um the only other change okay everything else stays the same until we get to December December 22nd and 23rd would be
um holiday or vacations yeah which then means our June 12th would be our last full day and June 15th the Monday would be a half day which is the last day of school is a half day I mean I would argue that that's the best opportunity to have a
half day the least amount of education's happening there right I will vote for that so June 15th half day would be the last day of school I don't see a problem with it I I can't imagine that anyone's going to be unhappy with that so who I'll
write it who's who's making the motion hold on I just make sure so we so we back up from the 16 so 16 is one day 15 is one day 12 is one day but then we go that's the three early days right but then we go forward the
12th to the 15th that's so is this looked at the all right all right I think it makes sense to me we have our numbers right yeah I was just considering that myself just making sure the the numbers add up so the time I'm learning is good right that's that's
exactly keeping them full days and half days right we're not there's no change there so that won't affect it you're the absolute value of days is the same you're just kind of Shifting so vacation would be the 20th to the
on the 22nd right so 2 coming back on the 5th 27 are you talking about December yeah so it would be December oh 22nd sorry yeah to the 5th maybe I don't want my kids home that long I'll take okay are you sure we're
not at the 16th be and a half day there three no because if our last day right now is the 16th and we're backing up three so so the 16th is us at the 11th that puts us to the 11th day but then we're saying and
instead of the 11th being the last we we want to take the 22nd of December off so that moves us to the 12th and then we want to take December 23rd off which on this calendar is a half half day so that makes the 15th a half day Monday the 15th and the teachers still come back the day after the last
day right according to the contract yeah correct but they have a chance to possibly get done on the 15th right whatever the contract says you enforce the contract as you see fit oh as I see fit okay until grievance ends up on my table I don't say it well
so what I'm trying but is you're you're counting the 15th is yeah I'm just saying it's the last full day the half day last day of school is the 15th yes the 15th which would be a half day the okay so we don't have to
count the 16th as one of the days that we're backing up from that's what I don't understand well your 16th and half the 15th is a day and a half 22nd and 20 half day on the 23rd is a day and a half that's three total days which is what we've backed up
okay and the teacher last day will be the 16th okay so I'll make a motion that staff professional develop for calendar year 2025 to 2026 that this calendar be adopted with the following modifications that staff professional
development occur on Tuesday August 26 that the first day of students occur on August 27th MH that December 22nd and December 23rd be added be days off for the winter break making winter
vacation December 22nd to January 2nd and that the last official day of school subject to snow days would be June 15th which would be a half day yeah yes is there a second second seconded by
Jen discussion all those in favor I opposed so moved 40 okay um School what's that school choice yeah do we want to just knock out these other
things and then we just spend all the time on budgets so oh school choice okay um we have 60 already possible kindergarteners coming to nor according to the census all you're talking
residents not school choice correct res um they are not all registered and they may not all register but that is the highest number we've ever had at this point we usually have like 40 at this point well can we accommodate what's that how many how many can you accommodate well right now we have 63
okay in kindergarten oh we do we have 63 kindergarteners now so if we're already we're not at 60 we're potentially at 60 it depends on where those kids go to school but that's how many kindergarteners there are in Southampton to school right um we know that they won't all register
but that is a high number so I would like to propose that we only take the two siblings of the school choice students that are already at Norris there's only two coming to kindergarten and then we hold on and wait to see what kind of shakes out in the next couple of
months and if over the next couple of months we find out that these kids are not coming to kindergarten and we have more space and more spots we could open up School of Choice numbers then so your recommendation right now is to authorize two at the kindergarten level right none
at any of the other grades and then re-evaluate potentially in 60 days correct so moved yeah a motion made by Dylan second seconded by Kim discussion hearing none all in favor I
opposed so moved uh Title 9 policy revisions and and reversion reversion yeah it really is reversion because we had Title 9 was changed and then um it
was updated and changed uh this year with the new Administration they rever rting back to the formerly approved Title 9 so what we're doing is reverting back
to the Title Nine that was in place um before we made the last change and that is a purely a function of purely a function of uh the change back to the former title n that we had
adopted but that was changed uh earlier in the year it's now been changed back by the new Administration so do we have to vote on something with this yeah what we have to do is adopt or revert back to the formerly approved
because it was approved by the south hampon school committee the formerly approved version of Title 9 which has different um grievance policies it has different definitions but yet it was already vetted by our you know our attorneys and
the uh attorney um roach just said what the school committee has to do is revert back to the formerly approved Title Nine that was in place so so all we have in the packets is what you want us to revert back to we don't have the current
what we're currently yeah right you don't have to vote to get rid of the current one and go back to the other one you just have to adopt the former Title 9 which is what you have so and so we're required to make this reversion and I just want to be clear who who's
requiring us to do this the the federal government has changed the change title 9 Title 9 back to what was formerly uh approved and sent out in 22 I think it
was Chang is this also one that is a two readings thing because it's a from from Kimberly Ro no it's not cuz we're just adopting what had already been read and and um voted on I really wish I knew
what we currently have I understand what you're saying that this has come down so would the other one be somewhere in our things which the newest version yeah not the old one we're reverting back to but the one is it would that be that we
adopted earlier in the year that one online has been removed okay because that was the direction we received from the attorneys to put the other one back online and that if had any other title N9 cases we are using the former grievance process to investigate
it and I have to be honest I had a title n case that I was investigating when this change happened because I was investigating it at that point I use the one that you approved earlier in the year now we are reverting back to the
one prior and that's if there's any other Title 9 cases that's the one I would use per law all right makes sense I I I don't know no I understand what you're saying I guess I just I wish I knew what the what the changes were right so it's it's
go ahead keevin it's hard to it's hard to vote on reverting back to something I mean if we made a change we had a reason for making a change and I just wonder my understanding is that the only changes made in the policies that we had used
based on uh feedback or input I should receive from uh attorney roach was that um the the definitions the grievance process changed between the two definitions of what of sexual harassment of what what what what is included as
what is called sexual harassment correct Y and the grievance process meaning who can investigate who is the G uh the um the appeal person can they be the same people those things have changed back to
the one that you adopted I believe in 22 that that we were directed to sometime in 2020 correct yep so you've done all the leg work hey um we're starting to rehearse if I close this door it'll be a little
quieter that's fine thank you you're welcome um so you're representing to us that you have vetted this through attorney roach who's legal counsel for the committee and it is her recommendation that tonight we vote to
revert on policy AC non-discrimination file file AC AC non-discrimination file ACA uh which includes uh non-discrimination on basis of sex also
acab sexual harassment file acab that we revert on those four back to the previous versions absolutely okay what happens if we fail to revert back to those I still have to I'm the title n
coordinator for the districts and so the attorney has told me that any investigation I do will be on that former grievance um uh process and so I the policy we have on the books will not
be what I am employing in my investigation so in terms of so you have to use a a different definition of sexual harass I will be using the the definition of sexual harassment that was
formerly adopted here yes so regardless of what we say you have to do what the federal government told you to do yeah and what our lawyer said I should in the in the in the version that we're reverting back to on sexual
harasment is we was approved in 2006 oh no it was 2020 no is that the current one the the current one that we were adopted was read in this
year that's not what we have what's before us acab sexual harassment um the last first reading was January 25th 2006 um I mean it's not the 1970s no that doesn't make sense to me I don't
know if K if the wrong one was included in the packet I mean there is a non-discrimination is 1996 this acab we have too also I has like the second paragraph says because the Hampshire Regional school committee
says I'm not sure this is the right yeah this say 2006 on does the committee want to defer action on this till the next meeting and authorize uh member Kim to work on the committee's behalf to determine what's going on here and what we should be voting on and report back at the next
meeting did I just get volunt told yes is that the will of the committee do you mind just coordinating no I just the only thing I would really like to see is whatever it was that was taken down from the website I'd like to see that you want to see that prior to
the vote well if I don't see that prior to the vote I'm voting no so I guess it depends on if I'm the only no then it still passes but wor worst case scenario if we defer action on this for 30 days you're still going to continue if
if a claim comes in an allegation under Title 9 you're you're going to follow the advice of council regardless of what we vote tonight so I think us delaying 30 days to just get clarification and is okay I I agree I I I would like you know
cuz I wasn't here in 22 so I don't know what happened then um so let me investigate uh it it could be that there wasn't an update done formally then okay yeah so I would just like to see whatever whatever we were using before
before this change that we that this most change I would like to see what have we been using up until now right because in West West Springfield um when I was there we updated it with the new
um the newly approved Title 9 uh in 2020 MH all right so if I could see if I could see what the 2024 was that has been taken down yep I'd like to you know whatever that was I'd like to see that and then it looks like we may
not have the right document here if there was something in 2020 and this is showing 2006 is the last time or and I don't want to speak out of turn but or the new version of uh of Title 9
was never right adopted here right which is quite possible and if that's the case then you would have to do a first reading and a second reading of the new version cuz you've never or the older the version that the other District said used
yeah it's it's so yes to answer your question I am going to follow the guidance of councel but it waiting to affect the policy isn't good enough isn't good enough as long as we're following the law all right so uh is there a motion to lay this on the table
for 30 days yeah motion made by Jen to lay it on the table for 30 days is there a second second seconded by Kim all in favor I iOS so move security upgrades and updates
has the training and all that forgot that take that off the list yes the training um has been done we have practiced several times I need to um our I'm not sure what I can say it's public you state general just just for safety
reasons um we practiced on and off with the alarm system several times we've figured out which doors are a little more sensitive to than others and I will be sending out communication to families about the blue lights and then we will be going live
okay good anybody have any concerns on that or can we close the matter out on the agenda so close it out close it out okay we're currently using it we're going back okay we are going to um return now to budget Budget Finance team
update and um Don I'm sure you have a lot to go over we've we've all gotten your notes already um we're very interested in the noris budget I don't know where you want to go but um I'd like to have a sideb all
[Music] right yeah I'd like to distribute some um like to distribute I'll do that for you budget well thank you do you want me to stand up there or it's um as long if Alisa could slide her
microphone over so that we can get a Kim's not present tonight she's going to do the minutes off the recording so okay [Music] absolutely thank you for jumping around accommodating my schedule sure thank
you there really only two things I wanted to report on today one is has to do with FY 2024 and one has to do with the FY 2026 budget you have the 26 budget in front of you do you want to start with that so that you're not
distra you want to go okay then then um if I have everybody's full attention let me talk about FY 2024 yep as we've discussed in previous uh school committee meetings and as is detailed and has been detailed on my
report that I update regarding the various and numerous um issues the previous administration did not invoice the Municipal Elementary schools for the central office FY
2024 expenditures those expenditures were included in the FY 2024 budget were approved by the school committee and appropriated by the town they were not invoiced by the central office and therefore they were
not paid we are about to invoice them but now we're in FY 2025 as a result by Statute you are not allowed to pay a prior year expense in the current year unless one it has been encumbered
as part of the accounting process or two the town meeting votes on it in your next special town meeting or annual town meeting so what would happen now is there would be a a warrant article on
the on this annual town meeting warrant and it would identify um the amount of the prior year bill this is um a standard process what is unusual is that the amount of money
in a prior year bill is going to be very large um the amount for central office costs that were in the 2024 budget was 4 $92,000 And1 492001 there was only one invoice that
um was an expense that was budgeted in central office that was actually invoiced to the town and that was in the amount of 37,43 7.77 when you do that math the remaining
to be invoiced is 4 5 4, 56323 and the details of this will be sent to the town accountant it's been discussed with him already but it will be sent to the town accountant and to the select board and to the school committee um what we've been doing since
we discovered this in late January early February is accumulating all of the invoices that would support this amount so um Don so that was the invo voicing as a release central office did the town
pay well did somebody send an invoice to the town for the Hampshire Regional portion yes and the's no issues there yes the difference there is by Statute after the a regional budget is approved the district Treasurer must send to the
municipal treasurers the amount of what the annual um invoice would be with the annual requirement the annual assessment and then that is just automatic paid quarterly by the by the municipal treasurers to the um regionals in this
particular um situation it's not it's not by Statute and because of the haphazard complicated situation last year uh it did it got overlooked and it
didn't get invoiced and that I mean it's not fine but I understand that piece but unless there was wild misspending at Norse is level that $454,000 should be falling out as Ser as unspent funds from the budget which
intrig it should be and it is not and that's what further complicates things why isn't it um that is something that Bradley and I are trying to figure out we knew it would only it should only be as a result of three things number one
so our books and Bradley's books should first of all be reconciled orderly and they were not last year but they should be reconciled and they should be the same when Bradley and I started the reconciliation process they were not the same and two things
would account for them being different one if in processing the warrants Bradley didn't pick something up which is unlikely or um if something
was transmitted to Bradley as a school expense that was actually on on the town's the municipal budget for example vocational tuition vocational transportation that last year was
funneled through the central office paid on the warrant but it was budgeted for at the municipality but something would still be falling out I mean you I mean unless there were unless somebody over spent $454,000
at Norris mhm I agree with that and still very hard to do I agree with that and um right now Bradley is in the midst of identifying how much under budget you really are he started out over budget um over the budget and now we've had some
reconciling items because of this at the end of the year and throughout the year periodically there are grants that are to be charged for certain expenses so when they develop the budget there are all these offsets and if those offsets didn't get processed or communicated
then at the end of the year the central office would do journal entries that would move money around Bradley wouldn't get a copy of or should get a copy of those but did not get a copies of of those journal entries up front so we have worked with him to ensure that he
knows what was moved off the general fund onto grants so that part has been done um I still don't know why we not under budget by 5 492,000 or 44,000 yet Bradley and I still have to
work on that so that's so that further complicates things because you if we are not under budget because you can go to the town and say this just didn't get invoiced it was budgeted we're under here we're we just have to pay that bill
and everything will be fine um so if we are able to reconcile to the point where we indeed are under that 44,000 things would be fine and if not then a source has to be identified a
source of funds has to be identified to cover that invoice but I I guess I would look at it the other way if we budgeted x amount of millions of dollars and we show on our book on the town's books that we spent x amount of millions yes then I would
say that 454 is not our problem we we allocated a to I mean it's almost like $11 million Al together for the two School allocation and we can show what I'm hearing is on Bradley side he believes he can show that we've spent the $1
million how well what I would say to that a deeper problem pardon me it's a bigger problem I believe so that's why I say it's fairly complicated and we'll have to um talk with attorneys and others to rectify it so you would have it would
still be a warrant article and your town could voted down and then right now the regional school has paid for it the regional school has paid for it and it needs to be reimbursed and we'll have to figure out what happens from there but
that's what I know up to this point I would expect that you would be under your budget by that amount right okay so that's the 24 problem that's the 24 problem now let's talk about 26 problem y I'm sorry I'm sorry does anybody else have a question I don't want to
when do you expect to have that reconciliation done on the we're back on 24 24 I I will have to talk to Bradley um I'm going to say in the next two weeks um your your annual town meeting
is May 2nd are you the first one trying to remember when is your annual town meeting it's the second Tuesday we're moving to the first Saturday are you moving to first but not this year okay I think it's the second second Tuesday so does anybody have a calendar that would
be the second Tuesday is the second Tuesday of May um 13 13 13 okay Lucky 13 so May 13th is when um and then you would be posting your warrant the
beginning of May yeah and so we I'm hoping by April 1st we will know what's happening but but um there's a lot to be done to rec reconcile a year since it
wasn't done so just for clarification cuz I wasn't part of the budget process last year this is what Norris's portion of the budget for Central offices um this is all yes that's correct the whole 492 is Norris's portion um and just to give you some
perspective um williamsburg's portion is 163,000 roughly um West Hampton's is roughly 94,000 94,000 now the Westampton accountant had
encumbered funds um and so there the amount that they will have to bring to their town meeting will be significantly less because they had already encumbered a bunch of funds which you can then pay a prior year Bill if they had been
encumbered if it had been encumbered so this is the result of the squishy um accounting and central office procedures last year this is one small but very critical
and with large impacts problem that we're working on a lot so anyway that's the situation there I'm sorry to be the bearer of bad news on that and fiscal year 2025 the one thing I
want to say about that is um the sped costs were budgeted at $88,000 which is what they had been budgeted at the contract Services portion of sped um had been budgeted at $8,000 last year which it also had been the previous year um
the cost for sped this year FY 2025 are um up around 280,000 so you are going to be over the budget by that amount and we are looking at how is that going to be covered you do not have
circuit breaker which is where we would normally put it you're pretty much out of your circuit breaker funds um so you do have some you do have some for this year for 2025 yeah for 26 you've got like 5,000 but for 2025 you
have some and we're looking at applying all of those to the that 25 expense but I mention it only because when you look at the increase between 25 and 26 because because 25 was budgeted at 8,000 and now we're up at 300 and something th000 you're going to see a large
variance and we don't have the same funds available for 26 that we had for 25 that's exactly right so then if we get into 26 um what I wanted to say about that is well will we once they do the circuit
Breer it didn't appear that way um we I have to continue to work with Amy on that because even though you had large expenses it has to hit a certain threshold and then over that threshold you get reimbursed for certain things that needs to be determined still
all right so with all the good the bad and IND differenter that's in here yes we just go to page eight of 8 you the administration is proposing an 11.46% increase year-over-year budget am I reading that correctly yes okay and 18% at the
elementary school oh so 18 for Norris yes 4.74 is the Hampshire Regional that's correct okay I will tell you I shared with other people before the meeting started um the town has budgeted a 4% for Hampshire Regional so we'll have to figure out
where that 74 is there's only 2% for Norris in here so I guess before we have our meeting next week which probably we should cancel now um we're going to we we're going to have to work on this budget but this is the first the committee's actually seeing this yes and
this is the first that we've had it um we met most recently with the Leisa earlier this week and um this is and we've gotten all the sped costs in etc etc the one thing that I will say is um the thing where I think we could focus some efforts have to do on the offsets
and the revenues um and again we'll need to work with Bradley on those is this budget not does this budget these numbers this 18% doeses that include zero in Chapter 70 I mean like I'm looking at this front page
and well Chapter 70 is typically um with the municipality that would that would flow to um the municipal budget so the reason that these are in here is because this is the standard template for the Regionals and the municipalities we use the Chapter 70 in our budget
don't we yeah but we we have to adopt now so again I I only have one another question and then and then we we're going to have to have a subcommittee Mee we're going to have to meet again just to deal with this because it's a new format it's missing what we traditionally are seeing which is
causing these numbers to I mean in 18 we got cut 16% from this budget is what this is saying to me right here which there's no way we're doing that without going into staff so what I would say in this budget what's new what are you cuz I'm assuming again correct me if I'm
wrong you started off with this is last year Year's budget I need everything I had last year here are my ask are there any ask in here and do they equal 16% the only asks are $5,000 increase in the substitute line because at this
point in the year we're already at I believe 47,000 out of 60 so I feel like we need to increase that line um and a districtwide initiative where we're trying to increase science technology engineering and math so I'm asking for a position for that at so that our
students can integrate those skills of low Tech and high-tech and use Eng engineering design um processes communicate being able to do all these wonderful things um sorry sorrya that is that ask to for
a halftime because you already have a0 five are are you thinking to don't a five what isn't there a0 five this is not a technology um computer person full FTE a teacher and you'll see that on page six of eight that's where the explanations for the increases
are so is this not the case oh I'm sorry about that yeah so there's so two additions well we are also asking for a full-time bcba because currently we are Contracting out with Quantum Behavioral Services and it is costing us an
enormous amount of money so we are using grants to fund the bcba special ed grants money and so instead of Contracting out for a bcba we were asking for bcba which would cost us significantly less didn't we start the year with a bcba and that person left
and then we switched to the contract that that was with arpa money and that was a couple years ago but but that position is already in the budget it was arpa right which we agreed was going to convert over to the general funds which is why we where we structured the contract increases the way we did I
don't know if it's in the budget I mean it was it was in this current Year's FTE count that position's there okay you then they left we were I'm assuming we were unable to was hired this we were unable to back fill so we switched to Contract Services so therefore it should
be a reallocation of money between those lines and but so I'm so that that FTE count should still be there sounds like it makes sense so we we have to investigate that and um I know that the special ed
director prior to leaving used the contract and 240 to pay for it or contracted services and it's an enormous amount of money so we were thinking you know get a bcba in the budget but you're right John at one point we did move that
Aram funded bcba position into the general budget I don't see it but it must be there so that position should already be in there so it's not really so it's not really a new ask we need to validate that now it's possible that the money will get
eroded but in theory right somebody who we a position that we fund fed exited and it it it doesn't matter what step they were on but they were on a step yeah we didn't backfill that right and so that money we switched the contract however it might get eroded because we
have had hires and even though they might have been budgeted I don't know step two they came in a step four so you'd see so what yeah I think no I just want to I consciously every single time I hire someone I'm trying to get them in the budget where we budgeted and I haven't really gone over so that should
not be the case but the stem teacher would be an additional 78875 and is that a step one for the cont I believe it's a step uh Masters plus uh Master step four just to get the best person but it
doesn't mean that that's what I'm going to choose so Don I just heard you say that there's no revenues applied was that was that no it's not that there aren't any it's that um I think we need to look for example your foundation Grant you have a balance in there but I don't know what
you historically use that for and if we could move some um money from there onto um onto the um you know it's it's only 25,000 but um you you have over 100,000
did you want to use some of that um who holds that money I have to look I don't know that okay I believe you hold that at the town I do so I guess that would be the other piece because I know like uh school
choice and what's the other fund but that's the preschool fund right preschool fund preschool revolving yeah that's in 50,000 yeah but we need to know what the Bal what the existing balances are because there should there should be reserves in those two lines
plus I think in those two lines there are plus we still have the hund and something in reserves for the one time extraordinary Aid that we got that we've pledged for certain things but no one's ever invoiced us so that period of getting that money's gone we're sitting on in the bank we can use it and then go
ahead sorry I I was just uh the the um excess in deficiency of course is is free cash yes yeah but we don't that would be zero for us okay it Norris doesn't get that okay um
so your foundation um Reserve Grant I don't know what else gets spent out of there but when I look when I talked with Bradley his as of the end of 24 you had about 120,000 so I don't know if there has been more I know that this 25,000
here is going to be spent on the 25 budget so you'd have you know less than that so we need to look at that I'm going to say you'd have around a 100 so legal question can we move forward with the legal meet with the public hearing if we don't have a Perman
uh final budget to propose to them say that again can we we've already we've already advertised that next Wednesday we're going to have the public hearing on the budget but we don't have a budget to give them cuz what would normally happen is again we we would have already been
working on this for two weeks I get it you came into a cluster and we're behind the everyone's behind the eall I get that but normally what would happen at this meeting is we would have already pre at a previous meeting covered the ask knew roughly where we were going to
be run down it one last time approved it and moved it to the public hearing have the public hearing close the public hearing vote to approve or deny the budget all next Wednesday knowing that the bylaw says we have to have this done
by April 1st or or or we're out of luck right so can we can we oh yours say April 1st M yeah can we still work on this and still have and because this is not what the Public's going to see right so
we can't post this right now right no you have to post it 48 hours in advance so could we get the work done between now and 48 hours before the meeting I mean I guess we have no choice I don't think we'd have a choice I'd be glad to do that
322 that's POS by the nothing's possible that we've had to do but we found a way to get it done and and what's the date next week the 19th yeah Wednesday the same night as William so it would have right have to have it by the 17th so we would have to have it done by the 17th which is Monday Monday
so tomorrow's Thursday yeah give me and are you meeting with Bradley to get any of those numbers you're looking for I can I mean I was hoping to but he was working on something else so he's under the gun to get free cash I know yeah I know and just and to balance out well we
we again if I pr my select had on yeah we're being told free cash is being held up because because of the reconciliation between central office and Bradley on the grants and all that I think that's in part quite true in part I don't care who's the blame but when's it going to get
resolved and and if it's not it's not but I don't think it is myself but um we continue to move forward on that I mean we would just have to change the the hearing to
another day the next week post again M we'd have to cancel it and post again yeah I think that is the more realistic view because then it gives us the time for for for Bradley and and this the selectboard to do what they
need to do for Bradley and Dawn to do what they need to do and to populate the data that we need to make informed decisions M um your budget is being driven 9 9 1% of your increase is in salaries and in
sped sped we can't do anything about no but that doesn't sped lag meaning we'll have a high number this year and then next year we'll make it up in circuit breaker that's what the that's the theory that is the theory that's how the claims work yes but you'd have to have
some money to apply to it for next year I'm confused about the sped increase though I I mean I'm looking at out of District placement increasing by 18 ,000 so that's at least one if not do we have we have one student go a
district MH um and this contract Services what are the sped Contract Services that's the bcva quantum right so but we already had a full FTE budg so where does that you know so I don't know if that's true about that the full FTE
that I have to validate um that was the thinking that you had that so I want to validate that that's not what um the rationale is that contract Service is how much it's 160 that's on page um so you would hire
a bcba did you talk to Amy about the the rate for hiring a bcba what was that it's in here so 78 but it's not a huge difference so in
the sense of if we're looking at this the way the staff lines are written currently and and this is what I'm trying to figure out i' like to have you know I understand this is a format we're using but the benefit of having like significantly more broken down lines for line item totals is that we can see where these things are going so we have
a grouping well it's your you're so for example but hang on hang on we've got sped contracted services and you'd like to see special education teacher salaries we have neurodiversity program Teachers neurodiversity Program Paras
but no breakdowns of the Ft ft or what's going onity Grand peras okay but like is so is the bcba is the bcba of the sped contracted Services is that already included in one of those lines somewhere else where are we current I mean we're
paying this contract out of somewhere I mean we we built this program three years ago last year we moved a whole program into the general ledger at the full Staffing levels that's what was done in last year's budget so I understand the difference for next year budget at the municipal level or at the school level here Norris's level Norris
level correct that whole thing was built into this because as far as the municipal side goes the only the municipal side pays directly I believe is for transportation otherwise we are solely in the Norris budget so there's nothing none of that's pushed over to the municipal side it's all in this budget that entire Program full Staffing
at was built into that so what I'm saying is I think we've got additions in here that are duplicated elsewhere in this budget that would be great and because labor is the number one driver right right what again what we're used to seeing and I I have no idea what the other committees do what what we're used
to seeing is a tab behind the scenes that isn't released to the public only the committee gets it that shows all of the position yes we have that here's the first grade teachers here's so we can see okay there's three there's three there's four we do have I'm just trying to see if that if I have but that's where the bcbas would be if I have that
with me then what I will do and if I don't have it with me I'll just send it tomorrow with all the detail because I do know it's it's position by position last year that we right here and that's what you're referring to because all of these lines
are what was used last year but then there's another level of detail breaks down yes okay we have that nobody else has asked for it so I didn't bring it that's the summary form is perfect after it leaves this committee yes finance committee and select board but but not
here a question the school aid Chapter 70 money that the town of Southampton receives yes how how is any of that applied to the Hampshire Regional budget I think the answer is no
no the answer is for the Hampshire Regional budget the money that the town gets that comes into our town treasury then the answer is no but but in terms of the Hampshire Regional budget itself they get their separate pot Chapter 70 they have their separate pot the money that flows from the cherry sheet to the
treasurer's office here in town yes that is not strictly noris it's it's strictly Red by the municip IP ality but right and the calculations are based on the on the prek through six that's correct right because that's seven correct that
okay so the good news is our Chapter 70 money right now is 2.7 million yes so you'll have that in your budget oh see you'll have that in your Revenue side but it usually doesn't get put on here yeah it does yeah it it does for us it shows it shows as another funding source
yeah okay like an alterator funding source so that actually means instead of having to come with a million dollars we're actually under budget now well I don't know I you say that it's there it's not there in West Hampton it's not there in any other community but if you do it Southampton does things
differently and so if if we do you if that's how you do it then we're glad to put it in but I would never put that in without speaking to you because Chapter 70 is a municipally is a municipal Revenue source and the municipality uses
it the way it wants to if Southampton uses it and I think it should be used that way but I would never impose my view we we take the position in town that Chapter 70 money 100% belongs we fund the difference then we put that in there that's perfect so I didn't that
wasn't the case last year reflected on here but I'll definitely reflect that that makes total sense to me and that's why I asked the question about revenues CU When I saw Chapter 70 I saw Zero for 26 I just didn't understand why it was a zero yeah the
same reason it's a zero in Westampton well no here it sounds like it's a mistake there it sounds like it's intentional they use their Chapter 70 money the way they want to in their Municipal budget and it may offset other expenses right so and in my experience
in West Springfield the mayor did similar but what I'm hearing is that the cherry sheet for Southampton you can actually go to here Prada the entire Sou that's going to be applied to this 26
yeah the governor's budget right now is 2, 7798 which is a 1.3% increase year-over-year well the AA that I had when I sat down is gone so mine isn't so John is the is the putting your s board
hat on for a minute so you're like 100% sure that South the entrance position is Chapter 70 funds nor period yeah I mean yeah and we can we yes I am cuz I've I've got pulled up right here then so you don't see that offsetting your other Municipal lines we
put we we put here's the town here's the budget which includes Norris and includes the Hampshire region one line all our pieces one line locational well we've got in four lines right so oh yes right because we vote on Norris and Hampshire separately yes and
then we have vocational and we have school transportation right and we pay the school transportation we don't tag that onto Norris's budget right and we pay vocational we don't tag that on to Hampshire Regional right because that that's our responsibility yeah so the two lines that make up so that all gets
put into this what is I don't know a little over $22 million budget and then we start applying here's the here's the cherry sheet money coming in yes that all reduces reduces reduces to where we get down to here's the taxes that are needed and if we ever had a
time when Chapter 70 money exceeded the budget request from North we may have a conversation what to do with the extra but I don't think that day is ever going to happen no no right so so um let's say okay so then I would I mean the flip
side of that is instead of using all our reserves I would look not to necessarily use reserves correct here's your budget from last year this looks familiar um show me where that is scr down so perhaps Elementary School school choice
tuition out du so here's all your Revenue non non- toown Revenue sources so I would love to put that in the only thing I saw that's on the cherry sheet is this tuition in which is on there mhm so I just want to be clear since I'm new
yeah I don't want to I just don't want it to look like I'm a slacker no you're not no I know I'm not SC um oh never mind I just all this detail that was previously put in there I just want to see where it is because I'm glad to mimic
it but rather than mimicking I'll do some analysis so yeah I wish I I had that now here's the thing I know we have this I understand we have this there's another budget sheet that came out that actually had are you talking this one this tap the position no no it's a
different it was I can remember looks I remember it had yellow titles on it but I can I can picture it in my head it came out of central office last year I'll dig through I unfor I might have shredded it it would have been last year's yeah and it was it had basically the breakdowns of here's your total
expenses here's your all your Revenue sources here's all your you know balances and then the second page that had all of the annual uh apportionments for the regional and and the central office but I don't I it's either in a giant pile at home or I'm afraid I might
have Shredder well I mean we tried to find what and I can dig through the drive I can dig through the drive later it's there somewhere I'm sure either way if the if Chapter 70 money you put on onto this template then that will make a huge
difference of course okay and and that your at your direction any of the foundation what it what was it called The Reserve grants any of those other um reserves would come out of it you know we would still have to use
rural Aid because rural Aid has to be used in that year yep um and so you you know I think this might be what you're talking about for you know the per per salary thing and we have this as well yep you know so it has
yep so we do have that so I can give that to you some other things that in here but this is pretty much what you're seeing distributed today no I got to find another there's another one I believe you I'm not I'm not challenging what you
have I know just it's just we're all in it together trying to dig out of last year yeah understood understood you have an advantage cuz you were here yeah no I guess um so in any event um I I just want to get you what you need in order
to approve it but I can't make three and three equal two right I think what we need to do is we need to uh vote to cancel the public meeting from a week and schedule it look to do it week further out uh after checking schedules and make sure we're not conflicting with somebody
else okay and then um in the meantime because I'm show I'm showing that the noris placeholder is 7.3 million um on the town side but I'm only but I'm only I'm looking at the summary so I need
to my guess is um transportation in uh vul is in that number so I need to get the I don't have the detail right here I will get that tomorrow your total is 7.3 with transportation and Vocational I believe what that number is okay so so John
just as a as a placeholder for our conversation right now y the 25th or the 27th there are no other meetings that we are responsive to on the 26th we do have a meeting and that's the
Westampton uh finance committee but the 25th and the 27th are not what's Tuesday 25th at 5:00 or 530 or 5:30 no it doesn't matter I could do
that Kim Kim's probably watching taking minutes so she'll hear this but um I'll make sure I follow up with her tomorrow yeah 25th yeah what what time whatever is fine it doesn't matter 4:30 I can after 5 5:30 do 5:30 I can do
okay so let's do 5:30 Tuesday March 25th is there a do is this room available uh uh yes if not we can go upstairs okay no it's something upstairs Community preservations upstairs all right this
this meeting this room is upate so 3:25 at 5:30 so that would be the budget hearing the public hearing public sorry yeah heing so we have to cancel does the cancellation also have to go in the paper of the the
19th we will we will investigate that tomorrow do you want a motion CH uh move to cancel the budget public budget hearing scheduled for March 19th 2025 at 6 p.m. and schedule a
new public me budget hearing on Tuesday March 25th 2025 at 5:30 p.m. to be posted with all required legal notices second motion made second any discussion oh all in favor okay
now there is another topic I got one more thing on this one one more piece of bad news Okay does the committee want to look to get together prior to that public meeting to take another look at this with once maybe we
can get some clarifications I mean I feel like that would be and we obviously we' need 48 hour notice but we can kind of play this by ear if we're able to fit and I can send you an email right away regarding that bcba position uh because that would
be you know that's an $80,000 number um and I what I will do is send you the actual template so that you can go through and compare you know person by person um we'll do that of course but can I just just for clarification
purpose on that line I understand we're looking into it but just just so I understand if that bcba position does exist in a line item elsewhere in this budget yes right we can completely cut that $2 29,5 increase because we will not be
carrying contracted for services next year uh or are there other contracted services in there that other contracted services are in there then that's we'll clarify that with Amy because I don't know I don't know she does all of the budgeting and she gives me that budget
number so I'll I'll look into that um and maybe we can have her come the next time I was talking to her today and we definitely need to have a fade out plan from the current people that are working there and some support for uh some transition for the new bcba if we were to have that so I know that it's not
going to totally go away mhm but and the line that was budgeted last year at $88,000 is a huge impact I don't know where that ever came from $88,000 it came from the previous year right and that's what somebody did
who was here but how could it only be $8,000 but I thought there was a rationale for that cuz everything went on 240 I mean I I don't I don't I'm I don't know because some of it some of it was being with the with the arpa money and that and I think it was arpa yeah and and we're doing other things but
also remember last year's budget was Kim myself you and was there anybody else yeah sitting in your office right yeah one other person one other person sitting in your office and just hammering it up doing what we had to do to get it done I can
relate to that yeah um um so what okay so the qu we're going to work on this we'll communicate details in FYI only and then if we get close enough where we think we can fit in a 48 hour notice we could even just
do a zoom just to make sure the committee members have a general understanding before we go to the public get everybody on the same page we'll play that you going to further investigate the whole school choice the the Chapter 70 thing about where that I've got that going are there
any other cherry sheet items that um besides school choice and in and and Chapter 70 that you include in here well the tuition out right because there's an in and an out right no the to Norris to the reserve account yes and that's so we
don't know what those balances are the balance of that and the balance of so the choice in is in here as it was last year the choice in off the cherry sheet there should be like a $300,000 Reserve built up on the town books and
yeah that's what you have to reconcile with Bradley yeah so as of the end of 24 as of June it was around 226 and so now you're getting another uh and something 280 and you would have spent you know
what wouldn't be reflected in that balance is whatever we've spent this year on tuition out in 25 yeah out in 25 and yeah and what would be projected to be spent in 26 tuition out is in here tuition
out choicing out of Norris is paid for by the town because it's a garnishment on the cherry sheet right choicing into Norris goes into the reserve account at Norris for the school committee yeah yeah okay that's correct yeah okay let's see what's the other
piece of bad news um you're not leaving are you that's exactly what I was oh my God I I'm not at the moment no I'm not leaving I have a I'm I'm nothing but pers if I'm not persevering or what however that
expression goes um no what I wanted to say is we did have an opportunity to present the Hampshire Regional budget to them on Monday yes and it was passed after some extensive discussion and um
one of the um discussion items was well first of all we knew that the increases were going to be significant to all of the schools and so when we got together with the fincom of the Hampshire
Regional School we said what can we do to lower the allocations to each of the towns and what can we do in central office because central office gets allocated to all of the
schools and um we we had such extensive sped costs within the high school as well there are 24 outof District placements and so at 200,000 it's it's over it's like 2.6 million um
and so we said well where are those out of out of District placements and 20 of of the 24 were in the high school so so one of the ideas that was floated was to take circuit breaker for the high school
which is a fair large number and to put the sped director's salary and the and the administrative um assistance salary for the sped director both right up against circuit breaker so when we presented it
to the um school committee that's how we presented it correct with removing that from the central office which lowered the allocation especially to Southampton and and to all of the schools and and um there was there were questions about
that on Monday night so since Monday what is today Wednesday so since Monday night um meaning yesterday and today we did some investigation into that and we cannot do what we had planned to do we cannot put the sped director's salary
against the circuit breaker um it's not allowable so the budget passed but um the got to be higher than what it was but the all if the if the budget passed based on
an inappropriate or illegal action doesn't that n void the vote and don't you have to have a new because folks may have may have legal council um weighed in and Kimberly's on vacation so it was Russell dupe weighed in and met with um
uh chair chairperson clear to discuss it they don't have to revote it but the um the the uh circuit Breer funds uh can't be applied to those two salaries so the two salaries are going to go back into the central office budget yeah they're
going to be allocated as the uh um the allocations are apportioned and um it's going to affect each of the towns so does this budget reflect that change yes okay yes yes so you go first talk over
no I was just going to say what you me talk over here no I just H how is it possible that an attorney says that what you did was illegal and the chair if their sole discretion is able to say yep you're right but we're not going to vote it how does that now
go back to the members cuz depending I don't know but depending if if I'm representing Southampton who's paying 56 cents on the dollar that may have changed my vote had it not been that way so now so my understanding and I haven't
we're meeting with we haven't spoken to him yet is that tomorrow is that happening meeting tomorrow yeah um and he's going to tell us what has to be done I he Tom the chair the chair who met with uh the attorney and he's going
to say what has to happen at the uh um at the a the Hampshire Regional committee level to make it right so yeah I was going to say I mean my understanding would be the the the central office costs are
allocated across the districts the same way the central that the Hampshire Regional budget is so if you take that mean the central office budget allocated amongst the towns at a percent at a proportioned rate based upon population student enrollment so is a high school why can't we take that circuit money breaker money that we were going to put
up against those salaries apply that to the Hampshire Regional budget to reduce Sal to reduce special education costs by the same amount or a similar amount which would ultimately create the apportionment to the town to be the same even though they're to the same but that is what I think
we're going to do that that that's what the that's what the attorney said is that they they the um circuit breaker funds can certainly be used and applied the way you just said at the Hampshire Regional level which would lower the Hampshire Regional budget and therefore
the allocations correct but the central office budget is right it tends to be a little different because Hampshire Regional pays into the central office Budget on their own so you got kind of per an offset bounc going on so that's the dynamic think you can get it pretty
close even if you got to adjust that number a little bit I would agree I I just don't I I can't say exactly what what happened in that conversation other than that we don't have to hold a whole another meeting because it was approved and it's really just a matter of moving
the the revenues as you articulated or alternatively I know in years past we've also moved that not every central office expense was was equally a portioned amongst the towns based upon those percentages certain certain central office budget items lived in specific
budgets would another option be to move I might require R Vio but to move certain line items into a different budget to balance those numbers out to make the other the other piece to that and that this is what was the sticking
point is the contract for that employee was approved by all districts just like mine was just like Dawn's was and in that contract it articulates what you just said that each school has a
percentage of the the sped director so that contract would have to be amended that would also have to go to I understand that but I mean the the central office budget is not limited to one or two salaries I mean there's another absolutely there's another let
me speak to that because I think I think that's a good point and and one of the things that I mentioned um at the Hampshire regional meeting is that there are several items that really needed need to be addressed by all of the school committees relative to central office costs so for example if the
central office budget is over spent who gets that how does that deficit so to speak get allocated out right now what's happening is if there's a deficit it's a hit to the
regions the regionals e d if there's if they are under budget which really happens but let's just say they're under budget then that would be that would flow to end as well is that the affirmative decision of all the school
committees as to how it's going to be handled what the current agreement says the current agreement doesn't seem to speak to that so silent it's silent on that so there are several things that's right there are several things that it's silent on and so there has been a
practice and a procedure for various things for example one of the questions that came up at the Hampshire Regional school committee was well you're pulling this one person's salary out it didn't have to be salaries it could be anything like Dylan was saying but you're pulling
a portion of it out and that's not the agreement the agreement is it's supposed to go to everybody um when when I looked at what happened to the there was mass munin that was hired a consulting company that was hired and that didn't
go out in that way it went out 85% to the to the high school and 15% to the other Regional so it went to just the two regionals alone there's a reason for that and the rationale was it was as I understood it is because that their
their work was supposed to be focused on E and no no the reason was is that that was a unbudgeted expense that came up after all the budgets were done and there was no way to get more money from the towns I see and then the decision was made by the superintendent at the time that that work had to be done and
that was the only available money available hence forth the next budget that we did we have that placeholder well the budget before this one and it may be in here I didn't look at the whole thing where there's that temporary money yeah and that that was
supposed to over the 2ear make everybody whole and everything get straightened up and take out but that's good to know so well so I I appreciate you bringing that up Don and and the the questions that were raised by committee members obligated us
to follow up and become informed and put it back the way it was so that's why uh what you see on the documents that were shared today those salaries are indeed back in the central office yes so what we did is just redid everybody's budget
since since Monday night so based on this so if I seem a little cranky you can please appreciate that so in any event in any event um what you have is I believe including the Hampshire
Regional section on page8 is reflects the the most current um appro approach and I hate to throw more on you Don pour more pour more on you but if you have it or isn't a huge lift if you
can send us for fiscal year 26 the apportionments by Town percentages and change from year over year yes I do have that central office in Hampshire Regional yes because if you if you read um the sections where there's narrative description it will say the impact of
the um change in the allocation methodology yes so I do think that um I think that your your percentage up and so you're going to get even if it were level funded you your budget would be going up as a result of that but I
understand what you're asking it's more just seeing the enrollment number seeing the total size of the schools of proportion mins and then the year-over-year changes I just it's just nice to be able to have that in one right and I think we had it somewhere but I I yeah I'll definitely get that cuz that is
helpful um the other thing that I'll distribute because this because because there are no secrets is um the central office budget I don't oh yeah right thank you I so this is the C you do this is the central office budget down to
what I'll call almost the Nats eyeball it's it shows you know everyone's salary and all of the various vendors Etc mhm and that one reflects the back in yes so it's the oh in fact this this reflects both in and out so when you look at this
green column this is what the sped salaries in uh out in circuit breaker and over here the sped salaries are in so she's yes so she's cap done has captured ultimately what was identified as
problematic and then the the blue on the right yes the one on the the real deal yeah but this is what we had shown Hampshire Monday on Monday but which members questioned so we're supposed to look at the far right column far right
yes that is the one that is factored in to um the all budgets now and did you um my understanding was the technology stuff that we talked about at ADC has changed and I've only heard like
cuz other committees have heard about it but we haven't yeah okay and that was part of the reports for them um and that's that's part of what uh Alisa was talking about with that position okay so when are we going to hear about the central office changes let me talk about
one thing and then veto you can talk about the other but the the one thing that in this version is not immediately obvious because I had to squeeze something out um but if you will remember the far right column at the ADC had
$189,000 in it for the technology solution which was a uh bring it all in house Y and so that's on page 5 of8 where you see District information technology now it's a hybrid approach where there's a contract Service so
there's an external service and then there's a stien for an internal technology person so that's on P page 5 of8 that's over to the right and so together um that adds up to 135 5,000 roughly and so it was
180 what I say 189 and now it's 108 it's come down about 55,000 is that Contract Services there based on knowing that that's what we're going to pay somebody or is that antim that well that was developed based
on that's okay that was developed based on what we we we didn't have all of the bids in at that point so um it it may be a little bit lower so you have had so you did put it out to bid yes we got four okay four bids and we're that's
we're currently communicating with the uh the biders okay all right and so that was just for the network security piece M and then the the uh director role is going to be a um we're going to open the
position for internally and we're going to have a um uh extra hours during the school week and on the summer and the um stipend for a candidate to do that role of overseeing everything and then at
each School we're going to have a shared position between um Westampton and um new Hingham ATD is going to continue with their position that they've had in place for a few years and the position that Alisa talked
about was the position that she is going to bring and it's really focused on Steam science technology engineering and art and math and integrating interdisciplinary and Project based
s oh well mine's just stem it's oh really you're not going the art route really so so that's a teaching position but that's not a technology like support position correct correct yeah teaching position EXC and this technology support
you already have we already have correct so this 92,000 is for just security of I don't understand what's what is that contracted Services cover um that would be for network security so it's all your cyber security it's I'm doing the
backups every day or periodically to your what I'll call a hard drive which isn't really a hard drive but your server basically yeah and um and uh just Myriad things a very important network
security component and what we're paying well because we can talk more about that more openly next time in terms of what the final outcome of the bids and not only that but the range of the bids this
one was there was another one that was 100% more than than this um it was it was from a reputable um organization that some of our towns use they're very very expensive they were bidding on the same
scope of work exactly the same scope of work and it was at least well at least twice as much so yeah timately we had a very very
expensive bid um we had someone that uh put in for it based on the the scope of work but then determined that wasn't interested and then we had two that were pretty close and those two are where we did our
our our due diligence called called um references called references did an analysis of of a comparison of the two and and uh we have we have to make a decision
okay so we went away from to answer your question in the longest way possible we went away from that initial ADC presentation to a hybrid approach where we're going to contract for network security use an internal candidate and
uh save 55,000 schools to um develop a plan collaboratively to ensure that they have the tech support they need but also um look at stem in Southampton and steam in the other three schools so southampton's portion of central office is going up
almost 21% MH yeah and and a lot of that is well a portion of that is driven by the change in the allocation because you have more students now than you did last year we need the other communities in the
district to start growing it is true it is completely just it it goes back and Advocates a lot of this may some of it probably still would have happened but a lot of this would have been avoided if we were one complete system it but there
is never I know but the there are two other communities that for the life of me aren't even willing to entertain that notion so that leaves South amp with the only option the only other option if because just doing this year after year is just a definition of insanity yeah um
is at some point is Southampton going to grow to the point where we just need to get away yeah and we need to stand on our own and you know I would argue there's over a thousand kids when you put South together just what's up at the high school and what's here you know and if the population's growing by x amount
if we're thinking about putting in 50 more housing units with an average of 2.3 children per unit noris is going to be overc capacity if we all of a sudden throw 100 more kids in there yep so if that's if that's the conversation we really start well I think it needs I
think it's a 3 to 5 year conversation but I think there needs to be a conversation because absolutely year after year after year we're coming down to this and again Don this has nothing to do with you but we are the last take
offense we are the Caboose every single time when it's coming in here and we're paying the the most for this and then it it just it just seems like we come down to the last hour and now we've got 3 weeks to figure this out and you know we're doing our side our part on the other side trying to balance our
budget and then out you know whether it's an 18% increase for noris or not after we apply we chter 70 money it just you know we're we're constantly in reactive mode yes and and at some point before the current superintendent
retires i' like to get past this phase well and and the goal that we have right now we're looking at this this three-year goal to clean up and get rid of the the anchor that's holding us back so that we can put processes in place so you don't feel like it's really frustrating for me who's you know
charged with doing this to be working on 23 24 25 and 26 I know that it takes a woman to do that kind of work but to get four years to get four years nobody else in this
room that said that I know I know I I'm let that one slide okay thank you I appreciate that as I said I'm I'm I'm operating on little sleep but um no to be to have to spread your resources so thin to do four years and then each
little thing be that you have to look at the 20 that that 20 FY 24 invoice thing invoice thing was honestly a last minute catch and we had plenty to do before that and now that's turned into a really
big complicated thing and if I could just piggy back on that I'm sorry the the um the the uh packet includes that kind of updated cover sheet of those issues that you've been seeing all
year that has grown to 35 or so things is the updated one in there the cover sheet yes it okay and not all of it is pertains to Southampton though some of it does and so that really captures the work and we're sharing that very broadly so that we can bring everybody up to
speaked yeah and and it may that directly impact Southampton but it's it's utilizing resources that we would otherwise be deploying in a different way I get it and it does it impacts you only to the extent that you are as you said you know 56 cents to a dollar of
the high school and so um it's the high school's end I mean there's pressure from each school committee to get their work done but you haven't seen the pressure until you've dealt with desie and they want their stuff done now yesterday and so we just you know that's
why we brought on an additional resource it just is it's physically impossible I I'm no but I would also say at some point Desi needs to come off Beacon Hill and come out here to the trenches nothing against Who's down there now but it's easy to sit in an office on the other side of the state who may or may
not even be able to find the Hamptons of Massachusetts right to have a conversation with us you know the fact that you know they sign off on the business administrators they know who they are they know that for 3 years we had you know barely had anybody make 18 months there that should be a sign but
you know these these people are going to work in other districts those other districts are you know there's other issues going on but uh so it's not just our problem I know you know and they hold the credentials in the licensing so I would argue MH perhaps they have some blame for credentialing certain people
that clearly couldn't do the work who remain nameless yeah but today I missed my credentialing thing I told you okay going be okay okay good so anyway I appreciate your um understanding and I will one day come
with really good news I'm sure it's happening John gave us excellent news because Chapter 70 was a zero now it's no longer a zero I didn't bring that news going to clarify that tomorrow but yes excellent love it I could swear that we always use it though we did but I'm just wondering how where we did the
offsets because the more I'm thinking about it something's still not lining up but yeah we got to look at all the pieces together is there anything else no is there any other business that cannot wait until our next regularly scheduled
meeting uh so there being no other business come before this body we are adjourned at 7:55 thank you thank you thank you thanks Don Don you doing a great job thank you don't don't take our frustration
personally e