this government meeting is brought to you by Eastworks and our local cable subscribers We call to order the meeting of the Southampton Select Board for April 3rd 2025 at 6:00 We can stand and say the pledge of allegiance please
I aliance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands One nation under God indivisible liberty and justice for all So we have our agenda Do we have
anybody here for citizen speak tonight that's not on the agenda Yes Okay Nice From here Sure Toward the middle maybe Okay We can hear you better Come on up a little bit Toward the middle There we are Good So uh first of all I'd like
to Glendale Road Southampton I'm the chair of the Council on Aging Board And uh I'd like to make two two points tonight Um I think it came up at a recent meeting where the senior center director was present that the senior center might have to see a a significant
reduction in their staffing hours Um and I'd just like to point out that um hours at the senior center funded through the town over the last year amounted to only 1.1 full-time equivalent The rest was covered with grants We have made a
request to try to get the staff on the town budget so we don't have to rely on perhaps But if that were to occur including uh an unfilled position for the outreach worker which we hope to have approved if we took the current
staff plus our request for the outreach worker right the total number of hours would still be less than two full-time equivalents So like to make the point I don't think that the senior center is is is u is overstaffed okay or flush with
staff what uh two um in terms of what I believe is a very significant request from schools for funds Um I don't believe you can reach those goals by decreasing staffing hours at a very small agency Uh and lastly I'd like to
thank the members on the select board for all of your hours of time It's unbelievable So thank you very much Thank you All right Thank you President Anything else Open time All right So let's go administrator reports Scott um
just two quick things Um so thanks to the efforts of Art Lawrence and the tech committee and uh Colin our novice representative we were able to get $40,000 for our community compact grant for IT supplies which is half of what we wanted but it should at least cover one
of either the library or the fire department or maybe a little bit of both So um that's good news um that's a connection to potent potentially or it could just be from a ground up for the library for a complete new IT system basically wiring
everything So um and that that's it mostly that's it Yeah I mostly budget stuff last week Okay All right uh various uh committee reports Steve from
your end Uh no it's really Dan's domain I was just a member of the public Okay Yeah All right Uh so Dan take it away Yeah So the housing authority um first we we talked a little about 354 College Highway which is parcel of the street
when we were moving along Want to get one house on there Um we're we have to go back to GCA and have them do another assessment to help uh the group Habitat for Humanity is the one we are hoping to partner with to uh make it easier for them So there some more information we
have to gather So Sierra's going to work to get that because they had they had done the in the the analysis when there was a bunch of snow on the ground and they need some information about well what was underneath that snow So hopefully we can get it from them Uh the other thing I which I think uh Steven
has an interest in well he has an interest a lot of things but this is one of them uh the housing trust and I think um maybe we can look at when we're not super busy we can talk about uh how we can uh get that up and running So yeah
Did I say that well enough or is there anything else you wanted to add That's good for now Okay Okay We we won't take that offline Okay No that's got to be another another discussion for sure because I've reached out to the people that we earlier and the planning board was canceled and common is canceled So
all right I'll take care of that All right Cindy So I'm reporting on three Um the open space committee um has uh has transferred a chair chair and the new chair is Mark Casses And uh
we have discovered a ongoing challenge to completely fill um the nine positions which are six are appointed for boards and committees and three are at large And we are making a request to modify our our charge which uh was previously
created about two years ago to um allow for at large members to become appointed by the select board when we're challenged with not being able to we haven't seen a planning board member for many months now and I'm the one that was
the board of assessors member and will no longer be able to serve and and therefore um I I really like a consideration of alteration of charge I I did supply a draft of that for you and you don't have to vote on it now or whenever but that's really something we
need Secondly the board of assessors are our recently elected chair Linda Green has been doing a lot of research on on u um eligibility based on income for uh seniors to uh have an abatement and and
we've discovered that the state allows something we had not been following for ever for many many years So um she has a draft um and will be presenting it maybe she's already emailed it to you of what would appear on the warrant uh obviously for discussion and legal review that
would allow that and especially considering the fact that our town is looking at potentially raising taxes not potentially but definitely raising taxes Consequently we're looking to make sure seniors that are in a category that they are really are you know at at an income level that would allow them to get a
reduction in their taxes That's a very critical point Just a question This is a program that's existed and we have never taken advantage of it Well we form of it Huh What's that We do take Yeah we still have a new line item coming in Yeah but we we haven't been keeping up with the
eligibility for increasing the amount and that's what Yeah and it's all based on the CPI Um we are working on a draft bylaw that would be we think or a charge that would address the function of the uh board of
assessors Um done some research on that that's coming along We are continuing to work on the Hoy Waterworks uh research and uh there's quite a bit involved in that and fortunately Amanda Kim who works for the um uh registry Yeah she's
um gotten permission to do so to help with the research in conjunction with her job Uh and fourthly and very important uh the board of assessors will only have one person running at this uh coming election Uh we did not have any nominations at the recent caucus And I'm
saying this out loud because it's being taped We potentially have the opportunity for somebody to be a writed candidate uh going forward at our election We can't really function with a oneperson board Finally the board of health uh is working um in in recognition of the fact that there's
going to be a transition and management there when uh the current director um does uh retire uh at the end of the month So they've been working very hard on that That's all I have to say All right Good job Nothing new
We'll get to you later Okay [Laughter] Just chairman So okay Not not yet I was going to get there I'll get there I'll get there Okay Yeah
So uh just one thing on my end Um the main thing really is focusing from the grant committee Um grant committee uh Bruce is here tonight Uh thank you and uh Kate Rrooks and I have been working for more than I don't know at least a couple weeks if feels like forever on
the um municipal vulnerability repair grant and we've been working with a consultant from Fussen O'Neal who actually had done our planning project with us uh and they've been very instrumental in giving us some ideas and pointers about what to do and what not to do in terms of MVP and what MVP likes
when they look at applications So an application is due in tomorrow by noon Uh and we're going to be doing our final edits bit later tonight At least I will Um and revising the budget but it's going to be about an around about a
$82,000 request to do basically a feasibility engineering feasibility study of Norris to look at the idea of um a potential cooling center at Norris both for the kids but for the general population especially during the summertime So it'll be taking a look at what what is the structure at Norris now
What can Norris do right now We know how limited it is in terms of the AC that's up there You know what rooms might be able to be cooled Could it be the cafeteria which is this gigantic space which might be possible but costly Uh so could it be other locations within the school that could be combined and
possibly be a just a cooling center And again we're not talking a shelter We're not talking overnight We're talking a few hours of reprieve during super hot days uh also taking a look probably doing some surveys through uh the council on aging or the friends to survey seniors to find out how they
currently cope on uh on super hot days when many of them probably don't have air conditioning maybe don't have fans you know what do they do would they come to a cooling center what are the limitations there uh same with the school trying to work with the school and probably the SYAa to talk about
doing a survey of kids and teachers parents uh just in terms of you know heat risk risks heat illness related risks uh of uh kids that are playing sports and uh taking a look around the backside of the school especially that doesn't have a whole lot of whole lot of shade It's got a fair amount of pavement
and and uh that radiates a certain amount of heat that just increases the problem So in a nutshell it's a it's going to be uh it would be a grant that would be if we get it it would start in October and it would have to end by June So it's a short one but um we'd have to
have this feasibility study done but it' be a lot of community engagement with it too and hopefully some some learnings there So that's what we're working on and hopefully we'll be a little bit successful Who knows at this point in time So that's kind of it Um so I will
jump to uh what Stephen was hinting at for me I'm sure Uh so just to say that this is Cindy's last select board meeting Uh so we gonna go out and you know go out with a bang right Um but uh
we just sincerely I think I'll speak for myself and anybody else can chime in but I just sincerely thank you for stepping up uh when we had a vacancy last year and really had hoped you would be around a little longer I'm not sure that you had planned to not be here Uh and so we really appreciate all the work that you've done and all the volunteering and
all the committees and boards and everything you've been a part of for all my time back here in Southampton Well you know I was trying to figure that out today So it's like am I am I correct in saying that your first foray into town government was the open space committee No it was the library trustees Library
trustes No I missed that one Okay And then I discovered that they had such excellent people and there was Yeah Okay I guess I missed that one on my my list of where I was thinking So anyway but it's been uh since I've known you anyways It's been around that open
space time about six or so years ago and it's been one committee and one board and anytime there's been a need to volunteer Cindy's often been one of the very first ones if not the only one to step up So we really really appreciate all your work and uh wish you the best We know we'll see you around You're still going to be involved in
Southampton This is my town Yeah Yeah So Stephen would you like to say something I could say much Um thank you you know you have inspired me to become involved in town I don't think I inspired you I
think I just nominated That happened later When I was brand new in town I found what YouTube channel and I tuned into the opening space committee It was back in CO days when you were actually
filming these things And I was so inspired I said "This town where I belong." Yeah Good Yeah Yeah I just quick I tug one quick thing I had a reason to talk to this woman today and she uh she had my phone number She didn't know who I was and she said "I
better Google that phone number Was my personal cell phone and it came through as the police department phone number." And then she read the thing and it had to do with some silly volunteering thing I was doing Showed up in a Facebook post or something Yeah You never know Those things follow you
around Signal There we go Anyway so good Well thank you Cindy for for everything that you've done All of you too Anyhow so let's jump into new business Now I gather with the crowd here tonight recognizing a few faces I have a feeling that most of you are here
because of personnel issues Am I assuming correctly on that I see fire police COA All right Cool Um could we have a motion or is anybody object to moving the PCFs up before new business so people don't have to hang out unless
they really want to All right Um everybody okay with that I do Yeah Do you have all the originals I have Scott has the originals maybe in the yellow folder or red folder Yes I've got the copies So So with that let me just say
that I know what I've seen and you can correct me John since you're The first the first three on the agenda was for PP Okay So and PB PPP um ended up they were supposed to have a meeting tonight and they ended up canceling because they didn't have a quorum is my understanding Is that what
happened Correct So we have a first one on here that has gone through PQB which is for the fire department John you want to pick that one up Uh motion to approve PCF for Kyle Vandu fire department employee change the
status to full-time paramedic firefighter hourly rate 2868 40 hours a week effective date as noted on the form which I don't have uh April 1st April 1st so retro April 1st All right
All right Any discussion Is Kyle here Yeah Would you like to just come up say a couple words How bad did you do on your last So my name is Kyle Rondo Meet everybody Um I've been emergency
medicine since 2012 I started my career in Springfield Massachusetts Moved to Holio shortly after that where I've worked uh most of my career I've uh I've been a paramedic since 2017 and since uh coming over to South Fire um in
September I've fallen in love with the town the department have gotten fire trained through the department It's uh it's a blessing uh to have this opportunity Thank you All right Thank you This is one of the two full So this is a position that we've been hoping to to fill for a good good number of months
now So thank you All right If no further discussion could we have a vote All those in favor I I All right So be it Welcome to the department Take the next two up collectively Sure uh accept the resignations of Nathan
Sharet effective 22325 and Jeffrey Sprat uh effective January 29th 2025 Both of the police department Both of the police department Okay All right All right uh chief They both uh were parttime officers and
they they uh have one uh got a part full-time job in Connecticut and the other one um moved to Orington closer to his full-time job Mhm Okay All right So these are both resignations that they've already already departed Okay All right All those in favor of both of these
resignations I All right This will be All right And then the next ones up are related to the COA apparently If we have those originals it probably refresh my memory Okay So we have uh three I
believe program coordinator and volunteer coordinator which were increase in hours from these are temporary appointments if I'm understand I've got two things here So I think I've got a emergency twoe appointment
for Andier Baroxis and then a whatever it is beyond the two week appointment but it's still a temporary increase not the permanent increase So whatever is on our agenda was not correct Is that correct Where did you get yours
for I got the two pages They were in my package So um just this I don't have the originals I think they they might be downstairs They may be in the gra Okay So these have gone just through Bradley
They haven't yet Yeah Two Yes There's a motion [Music] So it looks like it was a two week temporary appointment if you just take one So um Andrea for
example find my paper here Hold on Do you need me to clarify some of the Sure cake Yeah Coming up cake So yeah two way direct So um per So Andrea and Pam have been on temporary increase hours honestly since October um for our
temporary increase in January that we had I was told they needed to put in a permanent um PRF request that was submitted to the PPPB board in March Um and then at the March 20th meeting it was tabled pending budget discussions So um after that meeting I was told to put
in an emergency request for a 2 week and then for a 12week as everything um I was told was going to be put on hold of that committee So so that's what we had before us tonight probably Yes Um I don't think you have the permanent paperwork that I had submitted to P I know my Pamela was tabled Okay Um I tell
by looking at this but the Andrea one um continuing temporary extra hours So that was for both of them Um and so the four additional hours that we're requesting are being paid for out of the state formula grant and not town funds
for both positions Yeah So this it looks like let me finish reading this here Um all right So the one for Pamela references the general fund So she's half and half So she's 9 hours out of general fund Um regardless of the increase in hours her increased
hours will be from state formula grant And that's going But that's why that was held Okay And then the um I have a feeling one of these was triggering the 20our mark wasn't it No No But again this isn't what was before the body cuz
my handwritten notes are on the original and why it got t Can you find those downstairs Yeah Let me I'll take a look Yeah cuz these look like So for example on this one So I have one of the original So for Pam it's going from
Pamela it's going from So these were submitted That's what you're referring to 14 to 18 Yep So this was Pam specifically Um Andrea's I could not find it was on my desk and I misplaced it But um hers was going from 10 hours to 14 hours So neither were triggering
benefits right And Pamela's 14 to 18 14 to 18 And she's got 9 hours on the general fund and the rest is out of grant Yes And this would be any increase then would be coming out of Look at this And keep in mind that that particular
committee if if the I isn't dotted and T isn't crossed the general fund is circled there and Bradley signed it so the committee sent it back for clarification was both general fund and grant are both circle what circle they're both are
right so that committee wanted clarification what's in the budget what's not in the budget we've heard it it's it's actually written right here 9 hours town wages and 9 state formula grant Yeah it's written right on the paper I So I don't know what more clarity they want It's
right there I welcome you to attend the meeting I don't think I will enjoy that right away but uh based on whatever Scott comes back it looks like I would say right now we're not going to deal with a permanent one because I think that should still go through PQB at this point in time perhaps but we have the
temporary one So that's what that's what we actually have in our package That was Yeah So that's what the extra paperwork was for is the directive after that meeting to put ite so I can correct So once yes once clarification was s then the director
was on their own they could issue a twoe emergency Okay And then get the regular paperwork into the committee making sure the eyes were dotted and the tees were cross to the clerks Okay Right So we have a request The temporary
two week again is an extension of where they currently are Yes Rapid specifically told me to put in a two week and then the 12 week to get me through till June Okay But that person is going to say number of hours is what she's asking Yes Yeah Yeah Yep
So there's no So it's just an extra extension It's just a signed piece of paper in the payroll file to generate the paycheck right And so the number of hours that are on here are what she's currently working So for Pamela or sorry Yeah
she's currently still working cuz I believe that the um according to Robin the um hours were ending as of April 15th So they're still within their initial 12 week and that's what can get them and this would without a lapse in
So is Pam working 18 now She's working 18 current She's working 18 now So there's no change of hours It's just extending She She's doing 18 under an original 12week emergency order right And the 12 week cycle ends on April 15 Okay All right So is there any reason to
not move forward with this I don't see any myself Would you like a motion I would love a motion Sure I move that we approve both of these um two PCB XYZ's um um for the twoe emergency
and and the extension and the 12week emergency I guess unless I mean do we do the two week and then we come back to the permanent whether you want separate motions whatever matter per so the two weeks the current emergency's running around around April 15th so we need to
at least get them the temporary which would get them to the end of the month at least all right would you motion okay motion made let's have a second okay all right discussion Um so these two emergencies would get
them through the end of the month then it would extend them just by another two weeks Mhm But your intention is to still come for a permanent increase in these hours Yes Yep That's what um the initial paperwork I submitted in March included
was a permanent increase Okay Forward we don't have the second the second 12 week that is on the table right now gets to the end of the fiscal year It's like C or D cuz April 15th two weeks on that gets you to May 1st and you got the day
in June There's only eight weeks So this is until the temporary it would still be called a temporary appointment but through the fiscal year right But meaning then July 1st whatever budget ultimately gets passed was determined Yeah But what was given
to the committee whether it's right wrong or never was given to the committee is the initial was putting more hours in the general fund So the committee questioned the soundness of doing that right now prior to the budget being figured out That might be for one for Pamela but the
other one Andrea has nothing to do with the general fund whatsoever So can I ask a question So Pam was always paid for 9 hours out of the general fund right The increase would only hit our state formula group That's what I'm understanding from what you're saying Yes Yeah So that was apparently not
clear whenever the last meeting happened I don't know Not having been there It was discussed Yeah So is there any downside to not I mean if this is going to get them through the end of the fiscal year
that's the goal that you would like right now And then if we have to pick up permanent hiring we can do that at the end of June or something like that Is that what we're talking about Correct because by by July 1st the budget would have passed and the original ask of the budget whether it's been changed or not
was an increase to the general fund and then if that passes then it's budgeted if not it relies on the on the uh state formula to fund it but okay and you got to go back you
know the time that we met at that committee was prior to all this stuff coming out publicly okay so I think I'll make a motion then we there's one on the table Yeah we've got the motion for just the twoe extension though Is that right Or was it the full I'd be happy to amend it to
however you want to proceed Two and 12 So times two employees neither of them to increase to a benefit level Neither to be granted permanent status Um that's
TBD That's the motion on the table So these are extensions of the temporary status for two people and increased hours which they are currently serving right now Correct Yes Everybody got that Second All right All those in favor I
All right Motion passes All right Next one is a new new hire I believe this would be for the outreach position if I'm reading this right Uh for Michelle Murdoch who is also serving as our veterans service agent
and she's going to be taking on the position of the outreach worker um total of 18 hours a week So what and I don't remember this conversation
but that was what was on the fee tonight No no I mean oh for tonight so we didn't already talk about No Okay So my question is is the 18 hours plus the hours allocated to the veteran spot does that trigger benefits Uh it would in this specific instance the uh candidate
already has benefits as the veteran services officers who try care and VSO Okay Mhm So this would be for that and it would be a for the outreach position which right now anyway is funded out of the
earmark ARPA grant that you all got from Senator Vis's through Senator Vis's earmark That's how that's being funded for this coming year at least Yes Um Scott and I sat down and budgeted it and it should be it should be good through the end of FY So there's no no impact on the general fund whatsoever for this
coming this week Not that we see currently Okay All right I would like to move forward with this Would anybody like to make a motion I move that we authorize the hiring of Michelle Murdoch for the um
outreach worker at uh Council on Aging to become effective on where's the date 32825 and for the number of hours is 18 hours per week Pardon me I'll wait
until second discussion Is she already performing this task So there was an emergency appointment and then permanent appointment request Um yes there was a statemandated training that we had for one of our things last Friday So it's to cover her training So it's so it's retro retroactive specifically last Friday
retroactive to 328 So that you participated in the training Okay So this is not an emergency twoe appointment Where I'm getting what you just read Yeah Where I'm getting confused is these little boxes keep getting checked So either our forming form is getting
confusing here Um so this part says part Yeah So I had submitted two specific ones This is handwritten and that one is not Yeah Yeah So our my initial one because I did not have the corrected form available was handwritten and then the one that you're looking at I believe
is the permanent Got it It's the same information on it It's just the scroll down just a little bit Scott No the other way Sorry The emergency one was my handwritten That's the emergency one A little higher Slowly right there Emergency
Yeah that's what I'm saying Yeah So that's the two week that authorized the training to happen on 20 prior to the morning All right And then this would take on the other one would take take effect as soon as that two weeks is up Well if we voted tonight we're
basically validating or Mhm approving the higher date of 328 Mhm But it's more than the two week emergency It kind of takes over Yeah We don't need two separate motions do we No I would
just state for the record I mean I know the the answer because you already shared it with me but for the record for those watching why we're bypassing the system Mhm Yeah So basically because PQB did not have a quorum and we're was not able to meet tonight and and and the
training is already happening Training is already happening right now So we need to get that underway so that she can get trained and be effective in the new position Great All right Uh you do I do have a motion to have a second All right All right All
those in favor I I All right Motion passes Thank you very much All right Thank you Very excited Oh Michelle Yeah Sorry Say a couple words introduce yourself Sorry I didn't
see you sitting there in the corner over there I'm Michelle Murdoch I want to thank you for the opportunity of being able to work two jobs for the town of Southampton I've been with the town for two years now and I absolutely love what I do I get a little excited So forgive
me if you ever come to one of my functions I'm very bubbly So make sure that everybody knows I'm there So I appreciate you guys and thank you so much I will make you proud Thanks Michelle Much appreciated And thank you already for the work you're
doing with the veterans That's been a big Oh absolutely Noticeable difference All right Very good Okay New business Um I think we have to open the warrant for the annual town meeting So Scott let me turn it over to you to tell us what we're supposed to do here Um so if you
take a vote to open the warrant for the annual town meeting uh it does have to be at least a week in advance of May 6th Um I'd like to get it We're in a little bit of a condensed uh time crunch um with everything but I would like to get it out as soon as possible So uh if we
could open until April 15th uh which would coincide with the uh other um potential ballot questions and I would be able to publish that April 16th Okay And by opening it that's the call for articles Call for articles for the for the uh for the annual town
meeting So any departments anybody else listening here uh who needs to know um there may be a committee or two or board that has an article to put forth Who know I know uh CPC usually has something um so yeah warrant is open until the 15th or 14th 15th Do you need a formal
so let's let's have a motion to open open the warrant uh with a close date of April 15th Okay Second All right All those in favor I All right So be it All right Okay Uh now we get into all the
fun stuff FY26 budget Uh so I was hoping to get a uh final budget meeting between the select board and FINCOM for um next Tuesday and to to take any final votes at least as much as we can Uh there's just still a few question marks out
there Obviously the big one is um the school budget and uh potential override Um the other thing is I'm just waiting for the final uh tuition from uh Crystal over at Smith Vocational um for application on tuition uh line item
That's one thing that uh we have to wait for Um and then obviously on the state level we haven't received the final final final numbers yet from the governor and the legislature So So I guess the question I would have on that is like at we know what we budgeted last
year for is it I mean we've got that in there as a placeholder now Um I increased about I think 10 or 12% Oh from last year Yeah Did did Crystal give you an indication of what the what the per pupil increase is going to be Oh
yeah Because because in theory you're going to have X number of seniors graduating and then that is usually the same amount coming in Now last year there was a big significant increase This isn't it $17,000 per I think it's more than that
It's close probably close to I was looking at the school uh individual pupil cost I think it's closer to 30 30,000 per pupil That's how many do we have over there Um that I
don't have off hand Look that up Scott from the benefit of the public and because you have such excellent commanding subject [Music] So many of these major cost items are
out of our control at the pound level and in some cases not yet known I mean that's what we were just talking about And without being pedantic if you could flag those issues as we go along I think
that would help the public understand that um from what I read from the archives and from the peanut gallery um we're doing better than we used to Ways to go for your statement So I have
a question for the benefit of the public Um why is it we don't know these things I mean and then I know in the newspaper every municip municipality is struggling with these especially school budgets And
what what's going on You don't have an answer But I will say if you don't have an answer we need to say that alone Well by by now the kids that were going to go to vote should have already put in their notice that they that's where they want to go April 1st is the deadline So now we're in the two week cycle One one of the
issues is how being a town we're the first we're generally the first town to the ballot We're the first one to tell me among the Hampshire district Just think about the Hampshire regionals We're the first one Right But the way the budget cycle has to work we can't be
the first one to get our budget because central office has to be done in order to allocate through the regionals The regionals have to have a first read or a preliminary number no later than February I think it's Valentine's Day February 14th somewhere around there So it just starts this whole chain reaction
that all these other pieces need to get done in order to get to the regional budget which then does Norris's budget is one big issue in timing And then on our end we have this April 1st bylaw that says the budgets have to be in all requests have to be in by then but
vocational isn't even couldn't even possibly be figured out The other side of it is traditionally we take the governor's budget which is historically always the lowest this year might be a fluke And we just use that number because then when the final one comes
out there's usually an extra I think last year there was an extra $78,000 in there that that fell out and it just becomes private food cash This year I think Scott's probably right to be concerned There's going to be cuts and I think our final numbers will be less than the governor's number So the delay
as long as possible makes sense Otherwise we're going to be dealing with this issue later And then we have our internal problem that we just can't seem to get our free cash certified which compounds the whole process So with the with the um by holding off and well if
we meet again in in a week or certainly before when do we have to have the budget voted on ourselves uh I would like to get done by April 15th at the latest at the latest and that would allow and that's because we mostly for the citizens to make sure that we can have enough time to actually
send it out people to review it because if there is an override involved for the budget um it'll only give them a couple weeks to really look at it and ask any questions right with town meeting on May 3rd uh six May 6th sorry May sorry May
6th um thank you Lucy um and there there are a number of day requirements Right We we have to give so much time right But the challenge of of knowing the vocational figure are we relatively confident we're going to get that within these two weeks Don Um yeah they should
have it any day now I reached out to Chris if April 1 was the deadline How how long do they have to sort of say I know we a couple times since I've been on select board we've had separate petitions come in after the fact saying "Oh those we don't have to fund My my kiddo changed his mind and he really wants to go to VO after all kind of
thing." So we've had to deal with that We're not talking about that We're talking about people that are committed already to going to Yeah either Westfield or Smith or wherever Yeah It has to be one of those two And really we're looking to see what's the net growth If 10 are expiring and 11
are coming in then we got to go up by 30,000 Or if it's vice versa we can go down by 30,000 Yeah Okay Do we have any prediction of how many are graduating this year Do we know We must have that number Yeah Do you need to know how many kids have applied from the regional Would that be helpful Sure Margaret Why
don't you or somebody Oh Lauren Hi Yeah stand up If you give me one second I can let me sort it But no that's fine That's fine Um I don't know where if you wanted to put that figure on the where you put the um vocational on the budget in terms of how much you budgeted there already
for that Just um show that it's on it's on our list your way Hang on There are 18 students who have applied for Southampton Sorry 18 Yes Have applied for VO And how many are graduating seniors then I don't have that information I only know how many have applied Okay So is that about what
we had last year do you think Or is that um I can try to look back I don't get a lot of the Smith V information but I can try to find what I have Yeah I'm just curious about if we've been kind of steady with a certain number that always go to the vote
We um Thanks Lauren What's the employees name Uh Crystal email address because we went through this exercise last year Crystal Fairman Carman uh Fairman
uh school business administrator Smith folk Oh yeah So there and uh Esp Okay Well we know that there's 18 that have applied So as long as you know whatever we've budgeted so far in our our thinking about that Last year you had um 21
students apply but not all of them went A lot of them actually ended up staying Right Okay So but it's pretty Yeah And I think and John correct me if I'm wrong but I'm I'm remembering that I think whatever we budgeted we tended to or whatever we thought we knew we
didn't we kind usually turn it down lower it by like maybe two usually 90% Just because they apply doesn't Right There's like 90% They don't necessarily all decide to go there Fiscal year 25 they projected 42 55 with 13 graduating So 42
continuing to be enrolled 24 students new applications for 25 at the time Of the 24 that applied and accepted letters went out on Friday This is dated as of April 15th of 24 I've asked how many of the 24 were initially accepted I suspect
it's going to be 13 so that the funding stays flat but it's just a guess And as of last year or what we're paying currently right now Smith tuition is $20,760 and we have 54 students there and we have one student at Westfield at $20,613
Okay This does not include transportation costs correct Correct That's a separate 60 separate that number we know Yep Okay So Scott what you put in here So the book tuition that we had budgeted last year was 1.1 million 1.141 Mhm You've
put in 1.284 So you've put in an increase assuming we've got maybe either more students or extra cost has changed one or the other So we we've got a little bit of a cushion in there by that would you say 12% um something like that 12% that you've already built in there
So that's hopefully at least enough to get us through until we know the the final figures It's not like we haven't taken that into consideration already Okay that's good to know All right So um I'll turn it over to you I I don't
know where we want to go with this but we know that we we had put forth um you know a budget and and we know that Norris has had various school committee meetings Uh they've had their public hearing on the budget and so forth But Scott why don't you pick up where we where we know we are at this point in
time Uh so today I was able to talk to Randall and uh with one of the positions that he has he's okay with not funding half of it for next year Um so the idea is still to move forward with two of the full-time ones for this fiscal year He's he's a little bit concerned about
training cuz he only has two foremen So he can't bring on four employees all at once So he would like to do it in stages Uh so so he has four vacancies now though right Yes And he wants to bring on two right now Yep And we're we're advertising we got a few candidates in Um so he's okay with waiting at least a
year to uh fund one of those positions and that would get us to um just a little uh negative $8,000 for the balance budget and that's assuming the 4% for North School Mhm Okay Is that changing any of the other prior
adjustments that you shared with us Uh there's a few others So I have my my sheet here So my understanding that he would not fill one he'd try to fill two out of the four not fill one until next year
altogether and fill maybe one of them halfway through the year So staggered Mhm Okay Okay Sorry I mean that'll help our cash flow but it's not really going to help in the long run right Yep So I did do the 3.5% for the uh
transportation Um I did put the conservation agent back in at 16 hours rather than 18 uh for 3 months for the upcoming fiscal year And that's for a transition Currently the conservation commission is at three people Yeah three
people Yeah And the planning department is almost at the negative for their consultant um their consultants over the last couple years been funded almost entirely by ARPA money Um so their fees do not cover having uh the amount of time that
Richard spends Um so in order to transition this um the conservation agents uh salary is running out from ARPA as well That's why we zeroed it out Um and then we're looking to hopefully if we can transition from that and use
some of the fees um readjust the fees for at least planning um bringing on the person to take over the planning and conservation um roles that George sort of does right now uh but also that uh the consultant
does So there's that And we just did do a small modification on the conservation commission fees but it's not I don't think they bring in a whole lot of fees really It's more probably more planning board that brings in the bigger amount of fees I would gather And but they planning board has its own
revolving fund does it not Yep It it does Um there's not enough to fund it So they they may be a little bit in the negative right now I talked to Bradley earlier So if it wasn't for the ARPA money they wouldn't be able to have George not George um Richard knew most
of the duties That's because new building is down a lot So applications for um new you know properties um ANRS are just down aren't they compared to years ago This is true So the idea that you're
talking about would be to sort of combine combine I mean we've been asked probably for as long as I've been on select board I think we've been hearing a request from planning board about having a planner Um so you're talking about in le of the consultant and
the comm agent who've both been very part-time and and funded by ARPA Nonetheless you're looking at trying to combine that as one position right How many hours per week are for that one Uh it'd be about well it would be scheduled for 35 but the actual working
hours would be significantly more It won't be an hourly position will be exempted Okay So we I don't think we could afford an hourly cuz they're going to have to go to all the night meetings all of the ZBA of health building um all the meetings So yeah it'll be a very
um very difficult position Um and then I did talk to rep uh so he's actually back up on the highway So that's the how we So there was that $55,000 placeholder for snow removal that we wanted to carry over So I wasn't sure that we could fit
that in uh this year So I So balancing it out I was I had to remove that That's a permanent reduction to the highway department budget Well we we had put in as a placeholder and then we were going to transfer it to we moved it the year before We put $48,000 in there and we put it in as
machinery and for the intent to do that So his budget had stayed consistent If this comes out his budget's going down Yeah this isn't winter wages stuff right But that's what this money would be used for It would be used for that which means it' go to free cash right Which we'd have to have certified time
Yeah that's a that's a question Are we going to I'll wait till the end of this Yeah Yeah I'd rather not spend the ARPA money for the conservation agent into this Well the ARPA money's out I mean I mean by counteracting the AR money that we had flipping it over to general fund
Yeah Yeah And then um the revenue So I talked to Representative Peas He's um having their fair share hearing this week and is meeting with the chairman of ways and means and uh no word yet on what the uh governor's appropriations or legislature is going to be doing
So and then we have the the school um that veto had uh brought over Uh this number had actually decreased a little bit to 7 63,000 63,000 So the numbers are constantly changing And then I also
move the cemetery request to capital I talked to Robert about those so he's okay with that And we're going to hopefully have a capital meeting on Thursday Um and that's the last one So I think we're going to be able to have a forum next Thursday to review things We have about $350,000 in our capital Um one of the
issues is we have $180,000 minimum for a new heating system at highway Uh it's broken and if we don't heat the trucks the trucks don't run in the winter Um so we have a little bit of time but maybe something that we go out to borrow for for five or eight years
rather than taking up all of our capital because I know that the chief has a few cruisers that he needs to have Uh the fire chief has SCBA Um he's got the repair on the ambulance too Repair on the ambulance So we have a lot of large needs that obviously won't be addressed
with the $350,000 So Randall's is probably the most pressing um to get the garage heated for the winter time Um one way or another So it would be great if we could keep it under capital because it would save us on obviously interest if we have to go
out tomorrow borrow But um it is what it is cuz if we spend all of it you know we would be we basically get a Chief's new cruiser and that would be about it for the the rest of the year So there's there's a few other things the small things Um just a few things around here I just
want to replace the the flooring out in front of the chair where the the salt rug is So that should only be a few like a few thousand We have most of that We're getting quotes right now Um library as well There's a boiler door uh that is falling off that Joanna needs to get Uh and then we have the cemetery
request uh that Robert had mentioned before and um potentially the parks um with the AD I'd like to talk to Dylan and he may may not even need it He's rethinking his strategy with the uh funds that he looked at over the budget
So of if we have about 350 capital that we know of right now Mhm But you're saying about 180 would be for the heating at highway right So maybe instead of capital we look at borrowing for it over the next couple years but is 180 is that a pretty recent quote uh a
year and that's probably at a minimum probably be closer to 190 Thoughts Well it's kind of patching together the same basic antiques that we have there No it would be a complete reinstall So Randall um Randall thinks
the current one's about 100 years old Okay Uh from probably 1930sish So um isn't pretty would be what in waste oil right now to make it
through Um I think waste waste oil Yeah Um so I think this would continue to be o oil or gas I have to I can double check for you And this doesn't qualify under the ever source I don't think so Green efficiencies Probably not Probably
because it's still fossil fuel stuff Yeah You'd have to probably convert straight to electric Has that been looked at I'm I'm sure it has I we I seem to remember that the highway department was in there when we went through this last round and for
some reason it got cut at the end for the green committee's group Yeah When we did the the boiler switches at Norris and we did the all the other lighting through here We take a look again in terms of the the eligibility of it I I have a kind of doubt kind of have a hard
time supporting $200,000 oil belch oil Wait till you learn about the oil thing buried over there Well he knows about that already We talked about that last year but but this would be in the not in the office This would be for the garage right So that the trucks don't freeze up in the winter time basically is what it is Is
that what headbolt heaters do So So John no Mike I mean again this this is just the reoccurring theme It's right let's defer maintenance all the way down the road and then it shows its head in the potential override But really you know
we just heard that we this recommendation is we go out to the citizens again to fund a capital project and are we really going to do just say it's 200,000 I mean why aren't we doing a comprehensive plan and saying you know
here's everything that we need to do and we got to fund it at a million bucks a year going for and I know that's what we're talking about public yet but true We've got a a major capital improvement plan in process but we've got to once we can get through
this part we've got to really focus on the capital planning and and make that I mean we've got inventories from the various departments so we know where their priorities are And we really need to work on the education When Proposition 2 and a half passed it was never meant that it would be two and a half for life and set It's designed to
make adjustments as time goes on and cost changes and needs change Well and obviously the 2 and 12% never keeps up with labor costs or anything else It doesn't but I wasn't around or at least I wasn't paying tax bills back in the day when it happened but you could turn around and get an 18% increase in one
year We don't say So it made sense to put the two and a half in Now if you want to go more we just have to build the case and go to the public and educate them Mhm They either voted up or they voted down right But um so right now all the these what is the pro
because this is new this is a new way on how we're doing it You know Scott has his recommendations for cuts yet at some point when when do we weigh in and is it better to do it with finance here to have a conversation whether yeah I'm okay with this one no I'm not okay with that and then we build consensus on the
cuts or possibly look at other areas Yeah I think we were hoping to get a finance meeting they were most of them were not around this tonight Uh we're hoping to get them maybe on even next Tuesday night if we can Three of them have already said they're good for Tuesday Okay that might be good So in terms of the cuts that you just had up there for a second Scott you want to
look at those briefly Let me just uh they were at the bottom of that page you had up a minute ago I closed my eyes Let's see here Yeah down at the bottom just further down So there we go All right So this is what you've already proposed and have you built that
into the figures that we're seeing Mhm Okay Y So this is these would be the potential cuts to get us to this minus 8,000 that you have right now Yep And there's no increases for salaries or anything like that step increases or
percentage colons So it's just straight whatever's there now for personnel And that's because that compensation fund the first one we had done mid-year adjustments to salaries based on a new classification plan that we had worked on but we were hoping to do another midyear adjustment or end of fiscal year
whatever we wanted to call it adjustment And we had put was it 20,000 in there I think And so you're saying that we need to take 15,000 back out as a possibility a suggested cut anyway to get us to even the the balanced budget that we're at
would be 4% So the non union staff members i.e the the non-elected town hall employees their budget year over year doesn't include a markup Not for July 1st No No step increase and no cola
Nothing For non-UN members Mhm What's that number That it would be Yeah Um I didn't do the step increases cuz it's not 15,000 No No no this was um when we redo the job descriptions if there were were any
changes in grading we would be able No I got that part Yeah Yeah No that that would be what that this was another temporary adjustment that we were trying to do Right I just want to be crystal clear that the non-union people are being frozen Mhm And we don't know what
that number is We don't know if that's a $1,000 problem or a $5,000 problem and the fair and equitable to all concern I'd rather cut paper supplies if we need to find $5,000 No it wouldn't be It would be probably about $75,000 75,000
for non-union I'm just guessing with the total increases So I'm not talking about the highly highly paid people I'm not talking about the or the fire Well the fire is non-union The highway department So I mean I don't even think you have 12
people Well no we have more than that So 2% is about 25,000 in the police department So we have double the employees So it might be they're going to do step increases right But step increases are more than just cola So the real But I'm talking about the non union
people the assistant town treasurer the assistant city clerk town clerk those people are being frozen And if they took their existing wherever they are now and they went up to that next step on the scale you're I think you're only talking about 12 people the the PD contract's
going to happen right So I I don't want that number I don't all the others support staff here in town hall Well when we did the adjustment in mid year that was what did we have aside from that Was it that was like 20,000 or something percentage but we also had
people jump to be corrected Yeah And when did that take effect You uh yeah not earlier than January right It took effect So whatever the annual number is going forward wouldn't we hold off adjusting
until January 26 That wasn't the intent It was to have it be effective at the beginning We're trying to get people and even even if we did that Stephen we'd need a 50% number in this budget to do it Yeah Yeah But
I think Chris is undercutting the point that we did level people up January we got them a first correct first leveling but we had frozen them for 2 years while we did the study Right Exactly So So there was catchup
and now we don't want to fall behind with an annual increase But if it's only 6 months let's put in the 6 month thing you're not 12 month or let's at least know what that number is Certainly He's
doing it right now So total non-contractual non-elected is 912,000 per year Who who are they So that that half a million that 456 is everybody in that lower section Mhm
And then excluding the highway and water superintendent we have these salaries and well now the treasur collector and the town clerk are elected So they get their adjustments handled differently You're right Sorry Delete that Next one Not that I would make the same
argument but you're in a different so and so percentage Um and what is 2% of that number So here right here Get rid of the 40 That's great No pressure on my Excel skills
So J48 go through just multiply by 02 Yes Oh I'm sorry 47 Let's take that by 2% 7,000 It's got to be Why do you do one
point total 15,000 Got a lot of cooks in the kitchen here I'm just going to get 15,000 15 16,000 Okay So that's way off with some So
that's we're wishing huh So that Okay So that's but that right now we one of the proposed cuts is to take that back and not have that available It wasn't built in yet It wasn't even plus that 15 that is up there it wasn't able to accomplish
that piece Right So normally what would happen is um every year with the increases I just bring up one really quick here Oops So with um let's just say building So every year with the personnel
services um they would move up a step based on performance review every year until he reached the top and then it would be merit based after that Um so like Ron would move up to F6 next year whatever that would be and that would be budgeted within their regular
compensation And then the the chart would also move with the cola So if we say it's 16,000 round the numbers and to Steven's point their new anniversary date is January for comp Mhm We're looking for 8,000 Mhm
Uh I would try to tie it in for July 1st to get back on that Well I don't disagree with you I mean I would I would advocate and I will advocate we need to find $15,739 but okay where is a different question Yep Okay Well let's go back to your your cut
list just to just clear the parameters That would be first step increase And what we were previously looking for is an ability to in the face of revised job descriptions
further level people up That's that's the step after this Yeah Right Yeah Well we don't anticipate having to revised job descriptions by July 1st No No So I don't any I'm not going to put that on If next year is our perfect year and we get free cash certified immediately in
September there's an available revenue source Mhm If we don't wait 10 months well if we could control our schedule to do that that would be good I have every faith in you Chris That's why I'm voting for you for re-election Five minute special meeting
So this this is the FI25 chart that we use So in regular years it would move up by a cola So the entire chart would move by 1 2 whatever 3% And then if you're lower in the scale you would move up
each year as you get more experience until you hit the merit based Right But but just to be sorry Well yeah you did Um what I was going to say is what I was going to repeat what you just said and that was that these
positions had had a freeze on their increases for two years during that calm study period right And we need to acknowledge and I'll just repeat what you all believe is we need to acknowledge the hard work these people put in and go above and beyond and
waiting And that's what I hear anyway in town hall So sorry John I just want to I just want to confirm So if we have an employee right now who is a G2 making 3331 and I have no idea what that job is the current proposed budget
does not account for them to become a G3 That's correct Okay Mhm Okay Or increase the G2 Correct The 2% Yeah Mhm Okay All right So we have a a question mark in our heads Anyway about
the wisdom of reducing that one line 15K That's that's clear We're we're hearing that I think from the floor Um just just to expand on that a little bit I I would like to see the scenario where I'm okay if we hold everybody in their
steps Mhm But if we can apply the 2% adjustment to the scale keep the scale alive keep the scale going Yeah Mhm Mhm And you know obviously everything has a reaction What would be the upside of that Right I would like to try to include elected officials as well and
just trying to get to that pattern of having a base kind of support them on Right Okay You want to go back to your other cut list for a minute and then we jump into the school here before we get going So these are proposed cuts but again
they they don't they are reflected in your budget They they are already right now Okay So question is do we maybe add back potentially on number one maybe question mark Okay So other things just want to run down real quick Uh the IT capital
the $4,500 we can with the new grant that we got we won't need to invest too much in that for this year Um so most of it'll just be minor stuff Um the health department we were going to do the three hours for that they requested in the uh general budget but we're going to go
back to the septic betterment system Um as well as readjust the potential pay for a new person coming in Um concom agent salary uh was deleted Um we moved 17,000 from the cemetery request to capital costs Uh same thing with the
parks to capital cost Um the tree boarding was a $6,000 reduction Um just on that line Scott if you know so last year we again that's a line item that we deliberately I think doubled So and I know our ex well expense
reports are up to date Are we actually spending that money Like we we bumped that I think we added an extra We added money to it last year We've often had to come back at mid year and add add money to it But I'm thinking we added eight So we're cutting six We're still up two I I
thought we went from 15 to 12 last year We were there I think So I can I can check [Music] right there You scroll way too fast There you
go Level three Oh We did go down Mhm Yeah Ron didn't use the 12,000 the year before either So we're in essence cutting it in half down to 6,000 It'll Yeah it'll get us until hopefully free cash or something
We I don't plan I wouldn't plan spending the whole 12,000 early in the year Oh do we ever use consultants or outside firms to do tree work 100% of it And so use it I mean with all the wind storms we've had and everything we
haven't used Well Randall would do some of it as well on the public property like the um right now Conan Park he's doing some that that blown down over the I think the uh the brook Mhm So he we try to do as much internally Okay I also think we we only tap in emergencies
We're not proactive Like that tree we took down we did it internally with I think we had a I forget who helped with that though but it's a combination We took that one down a couple months ago in front of town hall Okay Moving on Um waste manage management reduction Um
Randall had built this is again we're putting everything into one line Randall had built some extra hours to clean up all the different buildings Um so we're trying to do it now Um Dave you you can see the pile of chairs out there that used to be in here Um so that's all out there now They're going to take it and
we're going to try to do as much as we can on a weekly basis now instead of doing any designated hours Dave's just going to have to you know I'll help them out We'll just kind of get as much out of the basement and here as possible So um we can afford to reduce that Um building security that was the $20,000
we would hope to kept on on tap in case um seems like a lot of stuff has been going on with problem properties in case something had happened boarding up a building getting special legal counsel things like that That was used a lot this year but maybe we've kind of gotten to a point where that can kind of cool down a little bit Maybe we've dealt with
a lot of our problem properties Um and then fin Reserve Fund reduced by 25 Uh the health department lower salary for a new person and uh deleted the 2% placeholder for the CBA for uh please We're not going to get a deal before
July 1st anyway So you're not trying hard enough Um well if it was up to me the other side of the table I think would disagree with my proposal Okay So that's kind of what we're talking about right now in
terms of what what you're proposing So we'll go back when we have a meeting with F incom we'd probably go back over this and just agree or not agree or discuss and figure out something else Okay So I guess a challenge would be to see you know if we were to say we want to restore that 15,000 in compensation
where else can we still dig and find 15,000 more And so to that point the next paragraph there um where he's talking about the health insurance is specifically why I was asking for that detail information so that I could
identify on the other side what that impact might be or positive impacts but yeah can't do it about the data and then I I did look at the things and basic it would relatively offset our our
workers comp costs hypothetically Yeah There's um Well there's a formula Yeah Okay All right So but where's I'm sorry We're selfunded Mhm Workers comp I mean not
workers comp You're talking unemployment Unemployment I'm sorry Uh right And you only And you get 75 cents on the dollar So okay All right So back to your budget again So right now we're showing a a
minus 8 to get to a level to to get to a balanced budget but that's getting us only at the the 4% for Norris built in right now Yeah So and it might be 23 by the time we get back there that we're still short on that stuff Um and I think you know I
mean I think our challenge on this side I mean it's you know you kind of cut one position kind of hobbling together two two roles into another position But I mean when you look at our departments around here there's not a whole place a lot of places to cut I mean we've got a
you know we got a twoerson town clerk we've got a threeerson treasurer office we got a two person accountant office Like I think historic not a lot of stuff historically we've cut and at some point we need to stop coming Yeah can only be so lean But I don't think we've I don't think we've gotten rid of people that
I'm No but good or bad how many years or a decade have we gone with four open positions at the highway department That's the only reason that we're able to fund the winter roads and now we're going to actively fill them which is
right for all the right reasons But that's less money and we're cutting the 55,000 that we needed to balance the budget So it's just shifting the burden over to the um it it whether we need the money now or we're going to need the money in a year because free cash isn't
going to be able to afford these because to your point free cash is only what we budget and we don't spend Mhm And if we fill all the open positions eventually whether it takes 2 years right There's not going to be any more free cash The 50 bucks here that you saved on paper
Yeah isn't going to solve our what's the world is 107,000 negative right 107 exactly all right so where should we go should we take a look at the um what Norris is trying to Yeah um based on
what their their voting has done so I um and that leads up so I distributed the the budget that was given out a couple days ago which it's right here it's also online too um so this is the revised level service as a floor one I'm not an expert in their budget So
um I would defer to the school chair in case So that that preliminary budget for them though is now 763 rather than the 8th that we had on our side 763137 is the request for the override
No Well actually no 76 That might be a coincidence but the this number right here right would be the override for level This is total downtown revenue We start
with So the preliminary the budget approved for Norris you start at the top 7,291,712 Yes of which there are offsets from the state of 180,000 um 038 and that is the school choice
tuition and that's the number on the governor's budget coming in and then you have um the Southampton school committee additional 160,000 and I believe that is a combination of the found utilizing 100%
of the foundation reserve we're at 120 depleting Yeah And what does it go for school committee Huh What does it go for for the school committee So for reference point that was awarded during CO when we had the massive exit of students going home dropping out and
then it created a one-year spike in the formula grant So the legislators went out and did a one-time award to um hold harmless in those communities So in theory that next year we should have gotten 125,000 in in chapter 70 money and we didn't So when they did the
special award it came in 125 It's onetime money We used 25,000 to fund this year's budget We originally had print 50,000 up to for the security enhancements but then we were able to get the grant so we didn't have to spend that Um so that's just onetime money to
print the full 120 in and it's going to be gone It won't be there next year or the year after So it's 160 though right No no Cuz then the next line the the if you look under number two in the detail section here it tells you it's 120 and 40 40,000 is coming from the preschool
revolving fund which will zero out the preschool fund So um which is fine That's the intent because the revolving fund comes uh preschool receipts come in and they build that back up next year So that's
160 for that and then the other offsets of 423,000 So the total non-town revenue that the school committee is putting in collectively is 763,137,000 Mhm Okay Which gets us
to um a general revenue ask of 6,528575 which whatever the expiring which is so that's the 897,000 difference from last year 15 almost a 16% increase from last year
So it would be this right here That 8.97 would be the request Correct There you go Let me update that And that's what the school says they need as level funded amount level services Right Right Correct This ask is level service We we
remove the districtwide ask for a student position in all schools So Norris will go without that The other schools will do what they need to do And then it does increase salaries by I
think it's 47,000 but the offset is a reduction in contractual services by $150,000 and that's the BCBA where it is right that's the BCBA right so right now we're currently paying for that under contracted
services and that's 150 grand a year we're saying we can hire a BCBA in-house at on the teacher sc salary of like $85,000 So we're going to get rid of the $150,000 expense but we're going to add 85 So we're only seeing a $47,000
savings So other than that this is a level and and just for anybody watching too to remind us that you know we had done again the funding through ARPA this is where we're we're getting ourselves a little bit caught up because we had the BCBA person and we had a special ed teacher We had some paras five positions
five positions altogether right Most of which were paras I'm thinking three three or four pair or something Anyway there are two full-time positions right Two They're all full time Well okay But two teachers two four non-certified one certified Okay Okay I believe Well
anyway but the idea was right when we when we decided to fund this for like a couple years of ARA money The idea was that the school was going to be building that program and being able to attract and offer those services so that it could be self- sustaining Right Correct Where are we in that Obviously we're not there yet Well we are So I would argue
we are and we met our goal and I think that is not what is causing this problem 2023 closing of the books Mhm is what's causing our problem Okay There was a change on the town side There was a change at the regional side and for some reason nobody realized that we need to
do an acrruel to pay out wages for $700,000 I agree that that's not in this budget That's not even in the ask here We we've taken care of that Chris the cost is still there We didn't eliminate the cost it rolled forward So when 24's budget came in that was less of an ask because it had fallen out to free cash
but we've got it in free cash that we're going to we're going to pay that That's not that's not holding that's not making the override But when when the money wasn't there because it fell to the bottom line it fell a free it didn't get acred It didn't get held Those paychecks still had to be issued and paid So that money came out of next year's budget It
was an unbudgeted expense which eroded the available funds in there and it's just been concurring going forward And Bradley says he's going to do the correction now to stop that bleed but he's you still got to restore that 700,000 to the general budget
I I guess I thought that you know that wasn't even part of the reason why we were getting to the the number for the override that that I mean the 700,000 is going to be taken from free cash right For this year's free cash like it's going to be subtracted from the 1.2 two
Yeah that we have scheduled It's only 1.2 because of that 700,000 So that's going to be taken off when you look at the second page And the reason I mean how you get well that's what I'm trying to figure out The second page is I don't see the numbers that match on that So do
you have this electronically or so we agree on the approved amount preliminary We got that 7291 Okay change here 71 11% Okay we see that So then where the increases are the changes
are in that last column Oh next page Scott Yeah second page There we go You make that a little bigger Get rid of your thing on the left there The $311,000 Yeah So you're contractual increases So that's what I'm that's what I just want to go through So we've got
contractual increases for salaries We've got 2 28 I So 311 is the contractual increases per the contract 284 Last year's budget had 8,000 in that buying item That's for spend right Out of disc replacement and cost or to avoid it out of dis replacements So that's a $284,000
increase But is that not one of the programs that we built into to Norris Now that should be covering some of its costs The special ed isn't that it It should be the objective of the program was to limit andor reduce out of
district placement But I thought also to attract kids Well that that second piece has an addit and that's specifically Williamsburg Meaning that within the district Norris has a program designed So instead of Williamsburg going out of district at 117,000
they could get the services at Norris in theory for less than the ones And that was the argument for funding some through our not yet because we currently have nine children at Norris that are in that program Oh I see Look you be able to draw from the outside Well potentially
I don't know I I don't know what the cap number is I just know that there are definitely nine students at Norris participating in this program at a cost of whatever the the 231,000 for the sport staff that if the sport staff wasn't there I got it But I looking at
that page again I don't know where you are Would you go back here So what I'm trying to understand just scroll over to the left a little more There you go So that is your biggest chunk It's 82% of what you're asking for is the sped cost Yep That's the hugest request And then some for the central office 20% for the
central office What contribution from Norris to the central office Is that what that is Correct So that's 92,000 of which is for the forensic study uh work to continue to go That should fall off And was that doing a a percentage among all the school all the districts I mean all the towns Yeah
55% Southampton How come that's in the Norris budget though Wouldn't it just be our central office cost Central office gets divided down to the It's in the Nor It's in the elementary piece Okay But they it wouldn't just be in our regular assessment
[Music] All right So that's where the change is coming from is 300,000 in contractual increases so staff salaries basically and then the whole sped um tuition as your biggest chunk of this right And
that increase in in services is required is what the existing IEPs that are in force that were required to provide Mhm Yeah Chris it it looks so dramatic because it it it was budgeted
at 8,000 last year and we spent more than that Mhm And so that's it's kind of the nature of Now now one of the one of the positives is we'll be avail we will be able to
apply for a circuit breaker which is extraordinary cost associated to special education that is above and beyond what the they say our threshold is However it's a year in a rears coming to us which is reflected on the first page If you look under the circuit breaker not
one year we got 183 um 2025 there's a there's a balance in that account left which is why we're using that and then this year we're we're anticipated we believe our subject it's got to be audited right now our
placeholder is sitting at 155 that we're going to get but it's subject to audit in FY2 24 there was nothing sorry no 20 sorry 183 in FY24 Yep And 25 you're waiting on right now cuz it's got to be audited and you're
estimating 153 Is that what you said 150 It's like the port line from the bottom Okay 26 That's for 26 So 25 is what 20 A portion of 25 got got allocated into the 24 budget into that 183 So
there was a balance because you're supposed to you you have one year to use it That's the balance in that account after they reconciled So it's it's being applied to the budget because you can't carry it forward If we don't apply it we got to write a check and turn it back in So the historically the the Norris
school budget was 5.4 and but you're looking at the general number You need to look at the total ask Okay Because because in other years we've been in like last year or this year we're in right now we put in just about a million dollars in other revenue So it drives down the if you're only
looking at the general fund number you know as funding dries up the general fund number is going to creep back up to that 7.2 Yeah Last year this current budget we're in we put 931,000 of other sources Now we're down to
763 Mhm And that's because you've gotten new revenue estimates from state or other grants Federal funds the title one are being restricted may be there next year may not be I mean these these numbers we have award
letters for so as long as the award letters are honored Yeah Okay You understand I think it's very dire situation whether the commitments will be
over So I don't we keep looking for places to cut because I think that we will be pushed towards 7.3 I guess I guess my question is you said this is the level funding which is holding to my words like bare bones
level services level services not being funed right okay thank you so they've they've looked at this budget and said this is as low as they can possibly go and function is that the same term or no yeah so level
service is you're providing you're you're meeting all your contractual obligations of what you currently have level funded is you're getting the same dollar amount now you got to cut something because you can't and then you got the reductions So yeah it sounds like what we're going to I think we're
going to end up doing is have two requests from the T from the school right We'll have one where we're going to bring forward some type of override to help them or to to meet their needs or and then also we need if the if the override doesn't pass what what does
that look like or do they Well from what they said is the reduction in in person right So this is the only budget coming forward Yeah Because if if if this doesn't pass then it's okay What's the select going to put up And I believe the token placeholder right now is a 4.05%
Right I mean we don't think we can cut any more than that I don't disagree So I think but at a 4.05 that's a that's a 10 FTE reduction Norris of which how many are full-time Six and a half are certified which means teacher
credential teachers and then three and a half are non-certified Well they're or they may not be paras other support staff Yeah Which may or may not include paras or Got it custodians or Yeah I mean I think when when we put this
together I mean Scott and I were looking at figures I mean we were saying that the most we could think about would be another percent or two You know maybe we could get up to 6% but there's no way we can we can possibly meet 15% You have to scrape by to find the 15,000 Yeah
you can't find 900,000 So I mean I you know there is there isn't 800,000 on the town side on the on the non school departments There's not $870,000 balances No I don't So what is the going
to be the effect if you have to cut those positions those certified and other positions increase classroom size or well for the first year we'll be well we'll as soon as they're cut we'll be in
violation of the union contracts that have have stated uh levels of children in the classroom So we will exceed per age per we can we can get by that for one year because it
wasn't planned or anticipated The second year oh by the way we're up for negotiations Um the second year we we can't argue that it wasn't planned because we put forward this is one of the reasons why this is the budget that came forward The school committee has put forward a budget that meets the
needs of the existing school staff and contracts So school committee can't put forward another budget that's less than this There's no fact Can I say something Yeah So um according to our contract we are not to exceed 30 students in a
classroom and well we can't go by 25 unless there's a reason and then 30 is the drop that number So this would put us between those two numbers and in the future it's possible that we would get
further above 30 What's what's our average size classes now Right now uh it's in the 18 18 to 22 that's the other there's more children fifth and sixth grade class average is higher That is a
simple and also we have we have a huge bubble of students coming in as well There are 48 kindergarten children coming in right now It's the largest inbound class we've ever had We have there's two kindergarten classes
Wow So on top of that the the 25 to 30 right So we're going to be above the 25 it will be under the 30 Mhm One of these new houses being developed Mhm if there's twin third graders coming in shoots that classroom right away I mean it's and we have to take it We can't say
no Yeah We can shut down school choice but that has to be phased out over time because all existing children in there right now have to be able to It's not like we can send it back to their community And under school choice if there's a sibling you got to bring them in too And how many do we know how many we have in school choice 48 38 48 48 in
school choice at $5,000 a piece That gets you that gets you your school your school choice revolving account right And it cost us more than $5,000 to educate a kid right So well it does but in theory we're only bringing in school choice children to fill out the existing classroom and there shouldn't be
additional expense In theory who pays the sending school The sending school So if the student comes from East Hampton then that school pays for it And they are also supposed to be build for special ed costs associated with that
particular child So we we are not on the hook for special ed costs when a student comes in Can those costs go Can those invoices go up Can you charge set statewide Statewide Yeah Does that include Excuse me Chris Does that include transportation They have to provide They provide their own
transportation and that 5,000 hasn't been adjusted in Oh no forever Forever So and what is what is there But John's point is accurate that if you have 20 students in a classroom and you're adding three school choice students you
are not we're not adding a teacher additional cost associated with that Right The school choice coming in are not necessarily all those that might need an IEP though right No No So they could be just somebody moved and they like this school better than the other one or something So is there a limit on
the number of school choice that Norris has set that they will not exceed Yes we vote on it every year Okay Okay By grade By grade So the total though right now is 48 or 48 So divide that by seven grades to come out with the average
impact per grade So does that mean that we actually have a little more buffer in the number of towns people that we can have in town if we can we push the school choice people out if we need our stuff Can't push them out We can shut it down and then eventually it'll phase itself out So
maybe that's something we should talk about because we're at we're feeling I feel like we're getting a capacity for our school It's a whole another subject but uh that may be a way to alleviate a around I don't say 10% pick the sevenyear cycle Yeah I mean
the towns opt into the whole school choice because they're getting some revenue right The $5,000 But in reality we know that's what a third of the cost to educate that same student But the there's no extra cost Mhm It's marginal cost because if
you have if we have 15 towns children in first grade we're providing a teacher and a pair already So to add two more students and pull in $10,000 we're not adding another pair of teacher again Okay In in theory is there more supplies
Yeah Yeah If we get to a point where it it appears as if we're getting above that 25 mark then we absolutely would look at future which is why we're we will be very cautious about our incoming kindergarten class We're seeing this
bubble and that bubble follows them and then goes to the high school and they have the same calculation at high school And this year we're only allowing two to come in and it's because their siblings are already in the school right So our hands are tied but there's no additional school choice coming in And there's more
than two graduate transferring up to middle school right Sixth grade moving up to seventh Um and I would I would say this is the com we have this conversation every year that our legislature tends to ignore what happens
in the western part of the state So there was just a big ways and needs committee meeting at UMass Monday before last and they said well we we will increase circuit breaker and that will help with everything but it doesn't first of all that is delayed by a year
and then it doesn't assist us with other issues that we have We're not getting rural aid increased dramatically are not getting our transportation increased dramatically you know so that helps a population but not the school as well
Well it's a tough one I mean you know I don't know at this point in time So tell us what our next steps are We at some point we've got to vote on what we're putting forth on the warrant Right Right So so there's a couple different steps Um the more pressing issue is the ballot
questions uh going on the uh May 20th municipal election Uh the select board has to vote on that and only the select board can approve it for special elections to go before the vote special questions to go before the voters Um so that gives us um at the latest April
15th uh to vote on it the actual language that's going to be going forward So I can give that to the town clerk and that would be the question about the override in particular uh either the override or the public safety right So there would have been originally based on our town meeting where we had gotten that level of
approval and determining whether that passes at the ballot box right But the intent had been to put the 3.2 million as a debt exclusion on the ballot Yep In May So for the override it's kind of the back the opposite of how we did the public safety So we went to town meeting
first got the approval for the debt exclusion and then the select board would have to vote to put on the ballot Now it would be the opposite where the select board is essentially putting a placeholder on the ballot and then going before town meeting Town meeting would have to approve the original budget and
then any additional uh prop 2 and a half increases and then it would go to the voters So do you see us presenting two budgets at town meeting then Um the budget that we're working on and then the override budget There's a couple different ways to do it Um you can present two budgets
one with and one without the override Uh if one passes then you can over the fire department didn't I think a couple years ago when we did the fire that was the regional school budget when we voted it don't no no the one that passed where we we had a single issue
for the fire fire I think we had two budgets on there if I'm not mistaken the the other way that I was talking to Michelle town council the other way that you can do it is you can do the base budget and then the next uh article would be the asking for the money for the override So the difference that you
would ask for the override for the additional 897,000 I I would argue that we do it we don't do it that way because we've never done it that way It's always been here's the override first and then if that doesn't pass then we've got to work on this We've got to go to the next
one versus let's try and pass something without the override and then it it doesn't make any sense and it's not how we've been transparent in the past But what you were saying was you wouldn't present on the second question you wouldn't present the entire budget again You'd only present the 897,000 as the
override is as article two or whatever Is that what you're saying Right I know it's a tough one I mean you know I John I've said this to you before that you know you know having been on both committees on both the building and uh building committees for public safety
and senior center and you know we've already pushed senior center back a bit because public safety's come along with their needs um and feel that those are ones that we wanted to keep on moving and if we don't put that on the ballot now then that pushes them to another at
least 6 months beyond And there's been a you know a whole lot of expectation and work done on that too So I feel very torn in terms of where to go with this um state and do better education But I want to circle
back to the override number My understanding is that in our draft budget we provide 4% increase right Mhm But we're carrying the total increase year-over-year
as the number for the override Why wouldn't it be reduced Because we had already anticipated for looking for 16 or whatever I think well correct me if I'm wrong but I mean unlike the public safety or where we
might go for a debt exclusion that's that was our intent to go for a debt exclusion which is meaning that that increase is only on the tax rules until the until it's paid off So it' be a longer borrowing completely But the for the school this would be a permanent tax increase to your taxes I understand Okay
Not the issue when I raise Go ahead Let me start over How did you derive the number from school override Uh that's from the school department So you take on different Yeah Yeah
Okay How does that total number compare to the number you're already carrying in your budget It's 15% Sure I think the difference 897 $897,000 So 15 16 the number he's carrying on the
budget is is Norris plus vocational plus transportation No no no On on this Yes that's what I'm addressing This is a compound number This number for Norris here is that Norris number plus 385,000 transportation plus 60,000 for
vocational transportation plus the million1 for Smith You got to add all four of those numbers to get to uh Scott's number You're not going to find the other numbers on the budget because they're not part of Norris's budget per
se So the actual uh town school budget is this right here The fact that it doesn't foot is challenging So his number on his summary sheet is matching this here So that's showing that instead
of instead of a 5.6 which is the expiring budget right for the general fund right Yeah A 4.05% increase gets you to 5.8 eight but the school needs the 6.5 to get there So if you if you change
Yeah So 6 528 575 and that brings the 897 And does that does that automatically feed to your summary sheet Uh it should% I had a problem with some of the formulas with the request Well that's why I wanted to
go over it Yeah opaque about what I was saying No no that's fine It's all the questions are good Yeah that's what all gets built into it Yeah I'm While you're looking for that I'm I'm just looking at the um just to refresh our brains uh the
warrant for May 23 town meeting and we presented the regular budget first annual operating budget then the override for the operating budget was the article right after that So we did do that and that was the one
that did pass I believe pass for the firefighters I'm just checking the language on that right now Um it was a 19 million7 budget for um our basic budget all municipal apartments and schools And then the supplemental operating budget general override
article was 332,555 for um basically fire department EMS Yep So that was an article after the after the main budget Yeah So it's a little different where it was discretionary to increase the
EMS staffing as compared to contractual obligation of the school That over that override was to add services This override is prevent the cuts When was the last time we did an override on the school It had to be two
years before that cuz there was one It was before I got on cuz there was one that failed in between Last ride was 2021 It failed for 718,000 But that was the commodity That was 21 2018 To me it makes sense to put this as the
first and foremost question in front of them Do they want to fund this extra money for the school I'm also in favor of printing both questions up I mean I understand your logic I'm not doing it Go ahead The I understand your logic for not putting all the questions up at the same time
but to me they're two separate arguments One one is you know the school and again depending on how we do it in process Do we want to maintain the level service that we have This is the number in order to do it Boom Boom The debt and and that's an override The debt exclusion is
a one time Yes it'll run 30 years but we're not going to borrow that money we can't borrow that money the way the wording is until 2027 2028 at the earliest because for public safety right Because we said to them we want to get approval but we're not going to touch this 3.2 until we come back with the
whole number and that gets approved which we were hoping to do in the fall so that our borrowing would be in the middle of calendar But to me approve my vote to approve the 3.2 million is just green light I know as a taxpayer it's not going to cost me a cent to to vote for that because
you're not allowed to borrow until you come back with the full ask and that's when my vote is going to be important as to whether or not I want to a yes vote on the 3.2 is a ceremony So you're saying that you wouldn't object to having both questions on the map I personally wouldn't but it's all in
messaging I think it's too fully I mean do you follow me where even even if even if we get a 100% vote for the 3.2 to it still doesn't mean the public safety complex is going to happen because and it's not going to happen But we come back and it's a $98 million ask That's
going to get shot down and then we're done Versus the 897 is this is going to happen immediately If this doesn't pass these 10 spots are gone Here's the impact The more pressing issue is the the school override If we didn't vote
for the public safety in in May we would still have to wait till the um the fall anyways for the full amount I'm just wondering what would the perception be if it were to fail the 3.2 were to fail That's the that's the risk Now the we we had already heard at the
town meeting special town meeting there was a portion a minority after the vote but of the vote there was a portion that wanted to see the whole thing before they were asked to vote on it Mhm So can I ask a question Certainly Why
not You've been sitting here very attentively Could you just give us your name Oh and covering that road Has anything like this happened No I was happened before
Um and and what what was the vote What was how did people react How did Well when there was an override that for like the entire town that got shot down because every in theory everybody had
one piece they didn't like Yeah Prior which I think Lucen thinks it was sometime around 2018 There was an override just for the school and that passed Based on it was like 23 people that voted against the about 23 people that voted voted against on the public safety
That's true And I forget what the number was that voted for it How does that compare to when something like that happened in the past and actually went to vote Well that percentage stay or it's it's hard to say I think because there's a lower turnout at a town
meeting or and so then you know you don't know who's going to come and vote at the ballot box that would be the closest Yeah And we had a pretty good good turnout for that and that was you know and were the percentages about the same or were they what the ballot was
6040 Yeah The town meeting was almost unanimous with the ballot around40 I think Yeah So that tells you maybe this would be the same I don't know Can I ask a question Yeah Is it is say we got this was approved for 3.2 million Do we get
we wouldn't get any the town would get any funding for anything at that point Right So it's kind of ceremonial like for the public safety just for the way it was worded Right We told people that we were only going to go for we needed to put it on the ballot but the
actual borrowing was not going to happen until we had the full cost And the the purpose of that was to spend these six months with this without the money we could still get all the preparatory work done for the architectural stuff and then go out to that in in late in late fall after we
have a special town meeting where we would hopefully you got what we wanted to learn from it which is the town supports enough for us to continue on not pulling any funds and then go to the next meeting and do the real vote that matters like well you shouldn't waste our anybody's time with this one because
it doesn't matter right we already we already as a town voted or made a choice or talked about this so you would recommend not putting it on this ballot for 3.2 million It doesn't it doesn't have any meaning So waiting until the fall to put the entire cost though not
just the 3.2 million but the but we do have we have the town has through vote said that they want to continue working on this project in the meantime which is what we will do Yeah But Scott where
does that leave you in procurement world So it would take us probably about 30 to 60 days anyways after the May 20th vote to start getting the RFPs together to get everything ready together It's going to take Jen you know a couple weeks 30 to 60 days before she can start
borrowing So that's going to bring us until September anyways for the big town meeting uh vote So we we we would start with the RFPs regardless whether or not we would do the May 20th um question on the ballot for the 3.2 Well we can do there's a lot of work that we can do to
get ready for it We couldn't put the RFP out on the street Um we we could even we could put a clause there subject subject to availability of fun So really it doesn't matter if it's not on the May ballot and it's just the override What one of the things that we split it up
that I didn't mention was we we literally just got the plans and the numbers weeks ahead of special town meeting So we had to schedule a special town meeting in the hopes of actually receiving the new cost estimate the new designs and thankfully we did Um so I it
really wouldn't have been enough time those couple weeks to put a $28 million question before the voters of educational Um and we just wouldn't I mean it's a little bit you know 3.2 is a little bit more understanding It's soft cost It's architectural It's engineering We have to do it by the state We have to do these things to have the bigger
question It just would have been impossible And that's why there's not enough time to do this the education you need for that larger request between now and this vote we're talking about So that that will mean a huge educational effort between now and the fall to which we would push for the whatever it is cuz it's a large 28,000 or whatever for the
full 28,000 public 28 million I wish 28 millionish there for for the safety and then figure out what we're doing on the senior center True True Um yes sir
The last override yes was in 2017 for the school only Okay For 110,000 Did it pass I'm looking to see if it pass So either way didn't whe whether we put the 3.2 on now
or we wait till the fall public safety is going to be on the fall ballot It's either the cumulative or it's the second portion Mhm Right Right And then when were you ant Scott when are you anticipating putting on the ballot your million-doll
capital raise question Last year Well everything I mean because in the initial but remember that the initial public safety came in closer to 40 So this uh special town meeting was supposed to be like 6 months I'm talking about earlier you were talking about infrastructure
right Trucks and cruisers and fire trucks capital I'd be doing it right now for a fall vote probably Yeah So but that was be that was if the public safety complex went 6 to 9 months ago like it was scheduled to with the initial feasibility study The
feasibility study came in too much So we had to spend the next and then you have the COA in there So we're talking about the the next three town meetings are all going to have override questions on and not all over additional ask for Yeah Yeah And I mean
the the um the senior center one is going to be more like what 10 to 12 million or something It's half the cost About 10.9 10 11 11 million Mhm So I mean comparatively it's less obviously because of the building When do you expect that ballot to be Is it a
November ballot Um if we had um I mean I think it would be difficult to have any special town meeting or vote in the summertime Everyone's no one's really paying attention September It would be nice if we could get the working backwards from the election So most people expect an election in early
November So if you were going to work backwards 35 days we'd have to have it at no later than midseptember So you have a special meeting and then you have the vote in November Yeah There's no regular election in this November right So So Lucy you said that
that one in 2017 did not pass I have to look in my notes I do know which was it a special or time meeting or an annual or um it was a special special Okay I think sorry that's fine So I guess that
you know I don't know do we need to decide that tonight or we still need to think about it for another week or so Um no I mean you can if you wanted to you can just let the 3.2 million expire and just never call for it Um but if you are to put something on the ballot you do have to take the affirmative So you have
to vote on it by April 15 By April 15th we've got to vote to put the override question on Do we have the wording already from KP Law We do So there's not going to be any additional expense Which one about the 3.2 3.2 That 3.2
There won't be any additional expense if we get way if we wait till Tuesday night and get weigh in from finance I mean it's not like there's more work that needs to be done If we're going to put on the ballot we're ready to go We have the documentation and the affirmative vote that we need to take
Yeah Um that was a special time of election for the override So okay check that out later So were you talking about a I don't know what else you were going to show us Scott but one of the things I wanted to
um clarify and I asked Scott to clarify this John because I was confused about why people were thinking on social media that the money we get from the school is not going to the school because all of our state aid chapter 70 money definitely goes to the school It does
How Because we only get 2.7 million and that's not even the cost of the vocational transportation All the money goes to the Well transportation doesn't count It's a No it I mean yes it it of the school huh I mean the 2.7 million
chapter 7 funding is is part of the net school spending calculation which does include vocational It does not include any transportation and it does not include include adult uh educational services which wouldn't apply here anyway So there's a few things it
doesn't So you take the general fund ask plus the 2.7 in this particular budget coming up and that number combined has to get to the net school spending We don't know what our net school spending is because we can't file our reports But net school
spending you also need to calculate out the cost of the health insurance for the teachers which need that sheet in order to do it Um you do not count retirement contributions I mean there's a there's there is a whole list in there that gets
there Um now you won't find chapter 7 fund comments related under my name on social media And some of those other individuals I have no idea who they are or what their background is or what they're posting Those same people believe we're already on the hook for 3.2 million right And so
until we've come together tonight that's this is the first public sort of notification about having to make a choice on that right Um you know but I think you know the I just don't want to have the assumption out there that all the money coming in from chapter 70 doesn't go to the school that it gets
siphoned off to highway or police or whatever No you have to do that You have to show the calculation and that's what I'm trying to get if I can get the data out of this town hall But in this case you need to wipe you need to zero out transportation Okay So take out the 481 because the
Yeah because then the uh Well you take out Hampshire Regional as well because again when when you're trying to you take the chapter 70 funds for Southampton that's strictly prek through six Hampshire Regional gets its own chapter 70 funds which uses offset
the the ultimate ask of Southampton to do it So it's the north school expenses minus transportation plus vocational minus vocational transportation minus uh benefits related to
retirement for certified positions So those that are actually on the county retirement like the paras and support staff those would be added And then the health insurance costs and once you add we pay anyway right We pay Yeah
but you you need to add you need to add those numbers up minus out the the general fund at appropriation and then if that number is greater than the school the chapter 7
number you're good If it's less then there's there's a funding issue Mhm Because you have to spend your you have to meet that net school spending number right and we need we need to part of our work that we need to do is we need to calculate that number
But we do meet our net school spending don't we Historically we always have It's not on file right now because we haven't done any reports So to to prove this to the public we go to the deadly It's not there Last year was there So who where did the reports come from
Who initiated Town So it's just a matter of timing and all in all previous cases we've we've met that I I I won't swear to that because I haven't gone back and done the math myself So I I guess it all comes down to you know we don't want to be conducting town business through social media and these people are our
friends and our neighbors in this town and we invite them to come to this meeting have these discussions openly where we can look at the data so you know I just want we have the people here there's a perception there that you know money is going all over the place and I don't think that's quite honest so I
think doing the exercising exercise create the document and then shine the light on the truth versus I think in reality you know we know that you I as with most towns I mean I think our school budget is you know easily 60% of our total town monies I mean that that's the reality for just about everybody And
in most cities or towns you know the transportation all that stuff is usually built into the other side of the school budget Usually the city or town may or may not necessarily pay for that part I don't know about that but So okay
Well again the reason why school transportation was pulled out of schools in Southampton was because at some point in the early '90s Southampton did not meet its net school spending and they didn't want to make that mistake again So they pulled out that number So they
knew that not to count it Okay So out of this list here we'd have to take out you're saying take out Norris and I'm sorry take out regional and transportation and then a portion I mean benefits is a broad term I that's including the
retirement contributions that's got to be thinned down John it seems we've expanded beyond the agenda item and I think between the town administrator and the accountant maybe with some reinforcement from you we get the right
report on file We are not going to be responding to Facebook comments Great Yeah I I would request that if they want that information they request it through the town not request it through a post on any social media site We don't just respond to social media Well we're
confident that we have an appropriate answer but we can't provide it Right That's and we're not allowed to talk outside of meeting Mhm But I think it's it really is a staff issue at this point We've identified it
as policy issue and we move on But if we as a board agree that the that the education of our of our students cannot tolerate the the co of the staff if we are accepting that we don't have
much of a choice than to fund this $897,000 And that's kind of a question Yeah As much as anything Are are we as a board accepting this We do we think they did their due diligence There's no fact on
that at all There's no other way to make it less We don't have her deal with that Well no I know But if I'm going to agree to vote to say we should put this on the ballot and I have to feel comfortable with that That's just me One vote right
Well I mean the question comes down do you trust the other five elected officials that have oversight on this that put it forward Do I trust any of Yes actually Yes The school board and y well and I think at this point in time I think we decided right that we want to wait and have a joint meeting with
finance and board and see what they have guaranteed Yeah So we will so that we won't we won't take any more finance have any new I will be any more reports new reports coming out that give up will be available when they meet with the finance committee next Tuesday or not
necessarily there won't be anything new Um I sent out the email I think Doug had replied but I haven't heard back from Becky repli Okay So Becky and Doug but in terms of any new information the
only thing we know we might have Oh yeah Doug's able to make it We might have would be the educational um on that Right Right now there's an 8,000 buffer in there right Okay 12% in there already So that would mean Right
I'm sorry but they can't just raise the rate If they haven't taken a vote to increase the rate it's the rate that it was last year if there's not a token placeholder in there which they they should be able to answer that question quickly because they have to go through local process But on the other hand that
means say that's true that means we can increase the roles by four and still be within that budget number And I don't think there's going to be that big of a swing Mhm between you know exiting students and incoming students process-wise
Is the school budget going to be revised even if it needs to be corrected in small part Well if there if there's a calculation error that's different Okay But it it's it's not for us to question it It's what contractually the town's
obligated to but for the need for an override Correct It's it's civil services with that one exception that we're dro we're dropping So we're 100% behind this We're going to bring the override question to the voters It's
part of our job I think it's up to those people the town's people to make such a large decision Certainly Okay Is that what everybody agrees to that we should say my opinion I I think yes I I think if you're if we're considering the
alternative would be not put through Yeah And for this board to sanction a reduction of 10 FTEEs at Norris I would say that that is not our purview That we were not elected to make that decision on behalf of the whole town So therefore
we should put it on the ballot and allow the town to vote But we put both budgets on the ballot Yes Because right because if the override doesn't pass there needs to be something And I think we still have some question on if we want to put the the public safety building on there or not
Yeah So I think that can be our part of our topic when we get together with finance and that can be on Tuesday But we've got a couple more agenda items unless there's anything else on the budget Let's let's move on and see if we can finish up on our couple agenda items Oh and there was the error on the this uh sorry I said this is actually the
lesser number So I'll redo it Yeah So it's um actually 355 So so 355 would be the tax impact on the average household for the override $355 per year over $80
over your average single family assess value per day Yes So Scott and so All right Well this is you know it's a tough spot We're in a you know it's not going to get any easier in
terms of budget wise here but um I think it would be helpful John I know you've got this formula in your head in terms of how to get to the net school spending but if we can just be sure that both Bradley and and Scott have that in writing somehow so we know what so they
know what they're doing There there is a form that Bradley fills out and sends him to get certified but these other forms need to be done in order for him to get to that They've got kind of close to books right And so where are we We were list we were waiting on one grant for reconciliation No from Norris So Don
this morning confirmed that the 717 was the correct number So we able to write that off and then um there's just that one question on the grant that we're going to probably resolve write it off potentially I don't know We're meeting on Monday to go over everything So we're
going to we're going to we're erasing 77 It's done to your You mean by done It's completed Yeah Yeah So that number is the right number So we were waiting to make sure the number didn't change So that that number's been confirmed It's a closed CFO It's a closed issue No I'm writing it off the list
Checking off the list Off the list And then we we just have one grant we got to do Push him about 95,000 on a grant that needed reconciliation And that's all we've been still waiting for And with that Bradley can finish doing his thing But he can't you know as much as we say
you know we're behind we can't move on certain things I agree For the record I completely agree Bradley is moving as fast as he can Um there are just outside forces that it could seem to come up every year And every year we seem to get a lot of money Well and try to you know
disentangle some of this this grant money from the school But I I think on Monday when they meet one of the one of the options on that 95 negative 59 95,000 because it's reimburseable they have to ask for it is that we just take the credit on the arars that's owed and then when they get it they'll clear it up on their end instead of us having to
front the money which if they issue that invoice they that's what the proposal of money is going to be to close that issue Okay And then the really the only other thing that we had was just the um the enterprise funds that we closed out and we're all set with those So just the indirect cost and that's really about it
on the town side Okay All right Okay Well let's let's move ahead on the last couple issues on the agenda here because we do have one small thing I think we have to deal with and uh be very short in executive session Um capital committee you've already talked about
that Um we're trying to get a Zoom meeting I think everyone's been confirmed for Thursday at 4:00 I'm going to get all the applications ready uh to send out probably tomorrow Um we'll we'll have to talk about the the heating system thing a little bit more
next week Yeah with probably Rand bringing Randall but um yeah so like I mentioned before it'll be a few cruisers a truck for the fire department a few I guess the middle capital stuff small and middle nothing major Okay Water department have any capital requests Um
they are enterprise so they would be able to raise it themselves with no coordination Not well technically yeah town meeting votes on their budget but uh yeah no they they're they have a lot more
flexibility Let's just put it that way As much as our transfer station they can collect receipts Well yeah it's a little bit few more zeros in the transfer station So all right Land planning update Have we had another meeting since the I don't know when No
since our last No I think there should be another public forum coming up soon or Well it's coming up in several weeks but we're um relaxing the schedule a little bit because we don't have to put articles on real time meeting to the extent we
anticipated We had the contract contact meeting with the planners know that they've u been brainstorming based on the input from the community meeting as well as all the committee meetings prior to that Do we have a sense of what we got in for surveys at all yet How much
Yeah Uh the survey closes the end of the week Thank you for your advertising And um so there is a project team meeting trying to get scheduled for early next week probably April 14th I just got the email from Kyle Right I was seeing that
come through Now that would include some of our committee chairs the committee of the willing that's eight or so people Mhm Okay Um but um did you get slides did you slide Oh yeah That's right
That's why I think I for you to board the uh the slides that we met over Yeah Um just as a um zero Mhm Yes Just some you know rough drafts that Peter had done So just 30 slides about half of them were still analysis and housing
brought forward from previously a little bit new but then a very rich almost too rich set of possible scenarios Um and from that then Randol Scott Knight and I
again give feedback Yep What they liked Okay And then we also forwarded the um the synopsis of the um the visioning uh thing too So and so the public the next public workshop would be after town
meeting Yeah We're going to delay it till after town meeting a lot to try and pull it at the same time Right Or six weeks Yeah Yeah I mean you could do it between town meeting and election too You could do it Yeah I think we're going to wait till May for at the very least particular reason
I mean that would be a time for you Yeah Okay sounds good All right Uh just very briefly on the agenda 250th Uh things are moving along Had a great pancake breakfast Had a great time I think we talked about that Um the next one is actually Saturday over at the library cod pavilion Actually uh the third
Massachusetts regiment is coming to visit and do a little demonstration not really a reenactment but some things around the Revolutionary War So Johanna's been coordinating that And uh we've got a schedule up on the town website There'll be another hike at Clearwater Woodland on the 12th I think
it is And on the 22nd we're aiming to do a U Earth Day litter pickup And we're waiting on Randall just to give us a definitive location He wanted to be sure that we had a a good place to park so that we were not you know having kids running around all over the place So we may
um may do that around the school area and go up Palmer Meadow or somewhere there just to check that out But we're still working on that one Um minutes to approve We have two or any other business that can't wait Uh I don't know of any assuming that approval of minutes
of February 25th and January 20 There's there's one of 25 Yeah there's one or not Got a little question mark February 25th and January 23rd 24 I don't know where that one got lost in the shovel but that was when Ed was still here Was
that an error Nope No apparently not That's my motion Hang on here Okay for discussion there's one I can't find it The one not the uh January one but the February one There's something in there about the highway about eight
positions which isn't right But it said something like eight filled positions Uh he's calling him up right now Um it's the January one The old one That one's okay The I think 24th So is this
one So under the highway section So right in there somewhere Um somewhere eight budgeted positions There are eight second Yeah maybe somewhere there Second size Eight budgeted positions that are filled That is not
true Oh no Definitely not Okay Eight The one right above you Scott Bottom of right there Right there Name correction Yeah Yeah Yeah So so that are not filled or what Eight budgeted positions Four
are filled Four need to be filled So that that just needs some revision there Okay What's the name correction My first name is misspelled Oh where abouts Yeah Where in the motion at the end Okay
So maybe just I don't know if you can highlight any of that Scott Um if not we can just circle it on the hard copy or something Yeah Um where I'm sorry I don't see your name Stephen Further scrolling down to adjourn maybe
or Yeah right there Stephen Oh yeah Right there Okay I see it Very good Okay So with those two corrections I think we had a motion to approve from vote and second All those in favor I All right With those corrections I think that's good Uh anything else Are we Are we doing the
January one Oh I'm sorry Well I I took them two together actually Oh Stephen made the motion for them both together That one seemed to be okay I didn't pick up anything there That was just great That was so long ago Frank I can't remember Sort of do but not really That was when we had our first meeting about
um getting the land use I mean getting everybody together but it was right around Scott's first arrival Read that more closely Yep Um old business Uh any updates on the railway sewer HMP ADA door came in 3 hours ago What It's off
the truck What the door openers Oh right What And you ended up ordering one just to try it out Okay Make sure it works Yeah Great All right All right Uh HMP nothing's happening there They're working on the final report I assume Mhm
Okay Uh railway sewer where we at Nothing new Okay All right Um and I think you had a meeting set up for stormwater enterprise fund or uh yeah I got to reach back out to Ty Bond
Um and that was I think it's midappril Okay All right Anything else We still know we need to figure out the broadband committee charge And Dan you were talking about a different idea about that one Maybe when after the budget settled down we can kind of go back to that a little and that is a subject to a meeting Talk about how we want to go
about that I think that'd be a good idea Cool That'd be fine Yep Okay All right Capital asset planning Uh you've already talked about that I don't think there's anything new on the uh East Street Tip No this reported Yeah So all right Um select board meeting So are we having an
April 7th one then Six Sorry Could be 6 p.m Oh April 8th I'm sorry Okay Uh yeah it looks like we will I just got to hear back from Reggie hopefully tonight Yeah Okay April 8th at 6 p.m joint with
Fincom Yeah Okay All right So that will be a plan All right So with that um I think that's the end of our regular meeting So what we would do is just turn briefly and go into executive session Um so the purpose of the executive session
is for MGL per chapter per MGL chapter 38 section 21A3 to discuss strategy with respect to collective bargaining or litigation if an open meeting may have a detrimental effect on the bargaining or litigating positioning of the public body and the sher players and this is
related to the cannabis host community agreement So have a motion to second All in favor roll call please Lower Ill Jones eye's eye Okay So with that we are going
to adjourn our public meeting We will not be returning to public session This government meeting is brought to you by Eastworks and our local cable subscribers