welcome everybody today is February 5th 2025 calling to the meeting of the Sunderland elementary school committee to order 6m Amanda's not here so I'm going to be cheering and taking notes it'll be a little clunky at times I'm sorry uh the first item on the agenda is
to approve the minutes of January 9th we have a motion to approve the minutes I'll make a motion to approve January minutes thank you Joe are you seconding or I second the motion thank thank you any discussion all right all in favor I
three Z they are approved uh financial statements I have nothing new to report for the current year other than just to get the warrant stated on the record um and when I say that there's been no
major new expense changes since the last meeting I'm not aware of anything crazy in the building that's happened um for the record the signed and reviewed electronically totaled $67,100 Community um at the conclusion of last
year's event the feedback we got was uh to try to cut down on the wait time for food um and so we tried that this year and it was really a huge success so we had two eating areas and kind of two Buffet lines one in the cafeteria like
it has always been and then one down in the West Wing um and so we set up a bunch of tables with in the hallway and it was really really Pleasant um the uh it was a nice atmosphere um following the community
meal we were treated to some Contra dancing led by folk musician and composer Rachel Bell and pianist Karen Axelrod they will actually be returning to the school on Monday for um a performance they're going to be doing some work with our sixth grade students
in music classes and then our sixth graders will perform in front of the whole school on um uh afterwards at the assembly and then also the music educator and dance call caller imagin Mills um uh helped out as well and as
with all of these evening events there's so much collaboration thought planning that get put into them by our dedicated colleagues and it was uh really a wonderful experience um our community meeting second grade lead that was scheduled for
tomorrow is now at 1 o'clock this Friday if you have nothing else to do on Saturday night there is the Snowflake Dance um Darius are you going yeah um weather weather okay yes so we
may have to post one of that as well um and then uh yeah and then Rachel Bell's music assembly next week thank you you're welcome I just want to say the international day is always great it was even better that it really worked well the FL the change and
just so nice to see all the families you know and connect you know you get the open house in the fall where you see families and that change over the last two years really nice and you get to do it again you meet these families you don't usually see all the time so well done and the staff was amazing some
people were there from beginning to end who didn't have to be there the whole time but they wanted to like I saw them set up and I saw them clean up and thank you for getting pizza for them of course yes my my pleasure oh and I also want to um we also reached
out to the high school and we had three NHS members um Josie foso Claire McFarland and Sasha Meo help out and they came at the very end to help with clean up yeah okay thank you yeah we are on to
public comment okay that would be me um so I am Jody Frasier co-president of the Union 38 Ed Educators Association and I have a statement that I am going to read on behalf of the Union so it starts with
a quote from the National Education Association president Becky Pringle and she released the following statement on reported executive actions that have hurt students public schools and communities so it says most Americans
believe that every student deserves opportunity resources and support to reach their full potential no matter where they live the color of their skin or how much their family earns parents and Educators agree our stud students need more learning opportunities not
less they need smaller class sizes to get more individualized attention they need nutritious School meals so they can pay attention to class rather than their stomachs and they need access to mental health supports they need for who they
are no matter their race place ground sexual orientation or gender identity and our students need to learn the good and the bad of our history to be prepared to succeed in our diverse and interdependent world and then the next
statement I'm going to read from comes from the MTA president Max paage and vice president de Deb McCarthy and their statement says we condemn and the strongest possible terms the directive that would allow ice agents to raid and
arrest students in in our Public Schools it is repulsive to our shared common values and this cruel policy shatters the trust that families place in our Educators and our public schools are safe havens as safe havens and inflicts
Lasting TR trauma on innocent children as Educators we stand in solidarity with immigrant applicants Community allies and all who fight for justice and Humanity we will fight against this policy with every tool at our disposal and remain committed to ensuring our
public schools are spaces of learning belonging and safety for all students um our own superintendent Darius Modesto released two statements concerns and revisions to
title N9 or challenges to lgbtq rights Union 30 38 Educators Association fully supports all of these statements that have been made and appreciate that our superintendent sent these out to ensure that our students are supported and
protected we know that not all superintendents have come out with statements supporting these marginalized communities we feel fortunate to be in a district and community that values all of its members thank you for the statement
thank you is there any other public comment this is where I promised I was going to be a little clunky sorry all right moving on to FY 26 budget okay I'm going to share my screen so that everyone can see the live
document all right um so we're going to have a little bit more lengthly discussion tonight than we did at the last meeting um as we're going through the budget process this is going to continue to evolve um and what I want to say since last month when we first talked about this is while we do have
some challenges we're facing this year it feels a little bit easier than some of the prior discussions we've had we have some relief that we can talk about and then a couple of the expenditures uh that we'll get into more detail about um are still sort of things that are up in
the air things that we've talked about in the past but by the end of this budget cycle could potentially have a positive turn um so just to start out the conversation as a general info the 1% budget increase is just shy of
$37,000 uh we faced several challenges in balancing the budget uh we presented a a level service increase in January that included some adjustments off the get-go that put us in deficit so that included um eser Grant and revolving
fund adjustments as well as significant increases to our retirement expense which is the sick buyback based on the contract and then an increase of 22,000 in out of District placement costs those changes alone uh generated a
3.72% increase on level service before we even looked at salary increases or other inflation adjustments in the budget uh the the budget also did include a second kindergarten class teacher in case uh enrollment grows I
think what Ben is anticipating currently is 17 am I remembering that correctly um and if we have any summer movein um or late enrollments that could grow very quickly over 20 and would require potentially a second class so we've accounted for that as well that added uh
just shy of another 2% to the budget so the January level service budget was shown at 9.72% when we last met um Just for information purposes the SR Grant was 35,000 that was our deficit from that to begin with and then I
mentioned revolving funds so our early childhood expenses have been exceeding revenues for the last couple of years um to help preserve some of our fund balance 57,000 in wages was transferred to the general fund however
we have been able to offset some of that with uh special education tuition Revenue we have a student coming in from another District next year so we're bringing in money there that will help offset so I essentially moved um some wages onto that special education fund
and took some off childhood so the net adjustment was 22,000 there were some other level service um general fund growth and non-wage expenditures as well um minor increases you can see Transportation
that's based on the contract of almost 2100 and then uh software and Hardware we had some adjustments that we made they based on actuals primarily in the software categories for things that we are currently contracted for salary
increases included um placeholders for teachers and IAS based on um you know estimated potential endall in negotiations as well as um Cola increases for school-based staff so cafeteria secretaries anyone else in the
building custodians principal and then central office so looking at draft two you can see that we uh have a reduction here we're um proposing the budget today at 6.29% at level Services the biggest
change here is that we have applied rural Aid and then we have which was almost 65,000 so a significant number for Rural Aid to apply to the budget that's about 2% and then uh we remove the 60,000 for sick buyback expenses and
the administration recommends we propose as we have in years past to pay that on a separate warrant article or if the town has free cash or other funding sources um I also pulled back on the adjustment for the software and Hardware lines we have been skirting through the
last couple of years covering those with funds that are not used from other expense codes um a $10,000 increase I think is significant enough that it's something that we should talk about and look at to begin with but if we can't afford it we can't afford it and and we'll continue to find ways to make it
work the one thing that I wanted to point out if you're looking at this chart is you can see the decrease in wages here from budget draft one to budget draft 2 that's not a cut in wages it just means that we supplemented somewhere else so that 65,000 in rural
Aid money was applied toward the wages to help bring that down so we didn't cut anything to to bring that number down so level service at 6.29% is what we're talking about today is there any questions about that before I go on to new initiative
so that's for this year this budget go around what was it what was the historically yeah last year our current budget um for 25 was at 5.05% the year before that it was
6.63 um and prior to that it had been between two and and four um the Aver budget average budget increase in the last budget six budget Cycles was 5.27% which is is high you know compared to to the other schools in our district
we did make some decisions to add Staffing over those years and then that includes 2020 where we had was 2020 the override year yeah we voted in 2019 um that was a big increase so that's obviously driving up what that
average is I also wanted to point out that the 5.05 from last year does include a one% adjustment for growth in the transportation contract if you remember we had to make that big adjustment so we would have been around 4% last year if we hadn't had that
increase well we don't have a big Transportation increase this year it's coming from other areas correct and I know just from Finance Community I mean things are tight at that end too with other are other budgets I know so I know this is we
usually have a couple go rounds with the budget right yep and last year our first go round were we a little high there too and we cut it down we did a lot of cutting so are we going to have to do that again yeah so let's go through the rest of this and and we'll get to some of those points those are really great
great questions Jo um so new initiative so let's talk about things that um building based Ben thinks that we need to add to the budget uh we did talk about this last month um we have a student who we anticipate will need onetoone support based on their IEP um
we are obligated to provide that one toone support we did talk about existing students with oneto ones to see if maybe there's any changes next year maybe an outgoing sixth grader that that staff member could be shuffled into the new
spot that's not a possibility based on what we know for enrollment right now so we are talking about adding a full position um if we cannot do that financially if you know we decided or if the town decided that we just don't have the funds we would go back to the
conversation of adjusting staff um and what that would mean is that it actually is a reduction in resources so um it is a cut per se even though we're not adding the position we'll be cutting from somewhere else to fund it um and I also just wanted to point out much like the sick buyback while
we're taking it out of the budget um the town will still have to fund that in some way so it is still an expense for them and when we add staff it could potentially increase their labor burden as well um I've I've heard that I know Hampshire County Group Insurance trust
rates are going up significantly for health insurance I don't know where Maya's Landing yet I don't think they' voted but it's high like 10% yeah yeah uh the trust went up 20 so I think Maya will be in a better spot um this
particular year but I think it is going to be a big increase so if you were talking about adding a staff member that needs a family plan to the town's benefits you know you could be looking at the Town picking up another $20,000 potentially I did I did ask at the last finance committee you when we we gave a
bigger percent of um 30% from the town paying in for the insurance did that change the number of people that signed up and it did not so just FYI I mean it didn't we were worried about that still about the
same that was a big Wonder yeah um so I think it's good for us to talk about these things and make sure that we are looking at what the whole picture is we're not just asking for you know general fund we could potentially be asking for other things so just to point that out um and then there were
some other minor expense increases that Ben is advocating for which I do support and dar's does support but again it's going to come down to a matter of finances so 5,000 for building General repairs we know we've been trying to increase that budget to keep up UND deferred maintenance and then 3,000 for
General supplies which is primarily related to inflation and cost of supplies and materials being higher so that added another slightly over 1% to the budget while we factor in those pieces looking at the whole picture um the first draft was presented with level
Service Plus new requests at 10.81 draft two is at 7.38 I think that we would all agree that's higher than we're comfortable with um so if there's no questions at this point we can talk about next
steps good okay um so the story is the same at you know all of our small schools the option to reduce are very limited um I could likely go through line by line on the budget and if we have ,000 for an expenditure that for
three to five years we've only spent 500 we could lower that budget down and if I did that to every line I think we could come up with 10 15,000 I personally don't recommend that if we had to we could but it really nickel and dimes the
budget and if we have an emergency or need to make a purchase that we weren't expecting never mind something major like out a district but even just something internally um we need to have a little bit of cushion in those line items especially when it comes to things like
heat and electricity and those kind of things that do change um you know the other thing is is reducing staff you know no one wants to go there and especially since we're talking about adding a staff member that could be really challenging
conversation um one area with possible savings and I think we talk about this every year is the Garten we did include an extra position for a teacher in there as I mentioned in the beginning um but it's early we don't know entirely how
enrollment is going to play out and this is something that we think we're going to have to ride out at least for one more month and see if there's any changes in in enrollments and then possibly make a decision to cut back that position which would save us about
2% and if there is some surge of growth like we had this fall um you know we could have the conversation at that point on how to fund a second section if we needed to we always want to present you with worst case scenario so that we have the whole picture to look at so two quick question
one's back from before you said building expense was five 6,000 that can't go come from Capital because it's not big enough is that it can't be this is just for deferred maintenance kind of things that happen in the building keeping up you know and repairs that come up that
we're not expecting right repairs that come up during the year and trying to get away from seeing what we have you know typically with leftover end of year funds to put towards projects right yeah not Capital items can't be
yeah okay um I just if it's building you think that could be C I think I it's like little like the tile breaks or right and then another question to sell B Choice numbers I know we don't want fun thing the school choice because
but what and did school can we go back to because in your principal report there's a second attachment for school's choice and does that affect it does affect the budget to a degree right it does um you know I think with the tricky spot we're finding oursel in
and you know this was last year where right so we were borderline one one class versus two classes and we last year we had 14 applications for school choice coming in kindergarten right we only accepted um six which were the siblings
of students in Upper grades and you know what we're finding ourselves in now is like we're having more students leave in the you know sixth grade go moving on to seventh um and not replacing the same the same amount because it's borderline one or two classes right and you know as
of today and I know actually this is coming up in our meeting as well we have 11 total applications and that is K through six and all 11 have to be in kindergarten and that thing I saw the on the your school choice numbers it was like greater than or equal to one
greater than equal to two was that yeah so boundary there's no so that you said greater than equal right so you know we either vote to accept school choice or or not and so this is what um the greater than or
equal to relates to if if there is a current Sunderland family um that moves out of town right by is renting in Sunderland moves to Deerfield but wants to continue to have their students at Sunderland um you know since it's not
creating an additional spot in that classroom you know we our practice has been to continue to welcome that family to be here and so that's why it's greater than or or equal to in case we do have that but is there a Max though Would we not go more depends depends you
know it depends on current enrollment um is one factor and then um overall need in that particular grade level right and so numbers don't just tell the entire story and there's some grade levels with lower numbers that we wouldn't necessarily recommend bringing in more more students at that point oh
yeah I know and but um and you guys should know this from a couple years doing this now but when do we have or use the current numbers in terms of looking ahead to next year so I me our budget's got to go the Town in April so so we're looking at
a class that has let's say 16 kids right now and that's one section do we use that number assuming they're all coming back or when do we I'm not sure not sure you okay so so how do we predict how many classes we need for next
year based the ones if a bunch of families leave um when do we know that I mean we don't know right yeah we we don't um we don't ask to sign probably coming back right
right so I basically we are not um changing the number of sections unless um there's direction from the school committee that we have to reduce a section in a particular grade level and combine classes two into one and
that's you know that's obviously not on the table right now um or if it's obvious that you know we have a bunch of students moving out and those families and we have to have a talk administratively as to what what the next step would be and I order numbers are tighter I know like we hear stories
about fifth grade moving up to sixth grade that could be one section or two sections I know we prefer it to be two sections right now and then there's the fourth grade and then there's what second grade is one section right now or uh there's two sections in second grade right now so one section in four currently there's one section in first
and one section in fourth and fifth is two small groups um fifth is to yeah 12 11 and 12 yeah actually 12 and 12 yeah so I think we would have those
conversations um about changing sections if we knew that the town really couldn't afford So based on what we're looking at here if we did not need the Kinder worst case scenario if we need the IIA we approve the 8,000 we're at
7.38 okay back out the potential of a second kindergarten section we're down around around 5 and a half and if we could back out the IIA and hold on that and figure out how to fund that down the road if it
truly is needed that would get us about four and a half and this is my last this comes back to finance committee because I I get my foot in two doors or two two two pools I hear the budgets from these other departments in the town saying 5.8 or 6.2 it seems like the school fights
more to reduce it I mean some of these other where the priorities come I'm sure I know it's the biggest budget so it's got the most number dollars but percentages wise some of these other budgets I see are higher percentage
increases so who helps I mean that's the select board select board Finance is saying okay this budget needs more this one is I I don't understand that part and maybe someone can help me you seem to work we seem to work really hard to reduce the school budget to help the town how about the other
budgets that is the select board you know so we're Department of the Town um you know that we have our own committee as a department but um and as you said it's it's also difficult because if you know police has
5% and it's you know $40,000 and we have 5% is $200,000 it's town it's a you got a look proportion of what they're asking for and why they're asking for you know I mean um you know our our percentage just on just because education takes the amount of Staffing alone right where
Highway departments can be a lot about equipment right and so if it's not capital or repairs and that kind of stuff so um it does you know it is um the one area that is it takes like a harmonious
relationship and I say it's with some sincerity because there are a lot of districts was you know col with some superintendents and they know sharing budgets and there's a lot of towns where no they want the they're setting numbers to come in at devastating to the school
and it is what it is right they're not having the conversation about going back and forth and that is kind of the gray area where it's like what is the percentage point that we're we're kind of making that up is it is four and a half can we go five and we're having these kind of side conversations with
the select board like how are you feeling and you know that kind of thing and they're saying bring forward this year what you want what you need not want what you need and then we're going to see how the other departments come forward and then we may have to go to either all departments or you have to say you know what more can you do and
that's kind of what puts us in the weird spot because are we asking for are we doing all the work of cutting when we I want say work but our job but you know are we doing are we doing more cutting than we need to um versus other departments you know is the town flush
with money this year because of something you know we don't know those things year to year and so that's where um you know you know communication and Jessica has been in communication with um the select board just to get this General behind the scenes before we go to our formal you know they may ask us to do a
formal especially the higher we're the more we're asking the more the information they're going to walk we come in at three: usually they're like thank you we're gon to go meet with the other departments you know um but there'll be probably more conversations this year um because also no remember that there's 6
60,000 on top of this you know I mean and that's going to be the uh the sickly buyback you know that we pulled out it's still an expense for the town so I don't know what their free cash capacity is that that would come out of yes um in some years it's not a problem at all some years they're going to
say well we're also the last budget to come in so that's challenge too because all these other people put their but so it's hard to go back to this other department say school budg a little bit higher this year can you go back and cut that extra police officer and and with our town being more
aging Sometimes some of those budgets in the town are important for the elderly support so and again we know who come shows up the meeting who shows up to the voting you know it's so I just I'm seen a lot of numbers flying around that are higher in the other departments and I'm
just hoping we can we don't have to cut as many corners in the school yeah um one of the other options for reduction that we didn't talk about is that Darius and I just been throwing around too is um soft freeze as Darius likes to refer to it on the current
Year's budget which some of you have been through before during Co we did that um you know there are expense accounts for example the hardware account which would be to buy new Chromebooks or laptops or smartboards that still has a significant amount of
money in it in the current year um obviously we don't want to do that unless it's worst case scenario but I think if we looked at expense lines we could save possibly close to one percentage point in the current year that would help us bring down our number
so it's just another thing for us to be thinking about um all right so the other thing with next steps that I just wanted to point out are upcoming meetings so we do have our next meeting on uh March 11th which is our public
hearing and then March 27th we would vote on the budget and I think the town meeting is April 25th but do that I think that's the last Friday in April is that what their day is which I think is that school vacation
week it is yeah is it vation week yeah happened before it's happened well not for me yeah I know know who want for me because the first Saturday is like the 4th of April so there I think there's five five
weekends that's late I just had a quick question you called that a soft freeze is that what you called that soft like um the idea is that you're not freezing all accounts and you're giving discretion to the principal and you're kind of going after
a few of them I made up that term okay so because it it's kind of it's talking about this freeze and the idea that we're being more conscious of our spending you know if you know if there's you know the Smartboard breaks in the classroom we're g to get that repaired where if you had a hard freeze
it mean mean you're not buying El you're not doing anything inless sense of emergency um safety issue you know what I mean that that's you don't see that actually happen a whole lot anymore District um but the software is kind of like looking at okay so um we could look at professional development funds that
have not been requested and you know or you know something like that where you know we're going to give a certain date if you don't get in by the date we're going to take all the remaining funds and use it towards savings for the following year you know stuff like it's not no one no one would even notice that you're not
doing that you know um for the most part um and you said that was up to the principal's discretion that's not voted through this that's all money that's well we would discuss that um we would yeah we would want the direction from the committee to do this offer of to crew savings this year and also it also
means any of year savings you're not going to spend on or we're not going to paint that room that we would use with the end of year savings which is you know usually you know a deferred maintenance kind of thing painting and you know that kind of stuff um you know we wouldn't say oh you know B you have $20,000 to go up to for you know you
know those kind of things we're going to use all that SA Ro that with a majority of that sa asoft would be the majority hard would be with the all that would be roll right in the past we've used end of year funds um to help support the following Year's budget or support school choice student programming and
Building Maintenance and falls into those three buckets where you would see a hard freeze actually be done because it just came to me is that if if there were nine c cuts which means that you have to cut midyear and um you no longer can fund your budget you're doing then you would
do you would do everything you could to be able to save Staffing positions freeze everything else that you wouldn't have to you have to cut as minimal as possible in order to continue to make it through to make it through the school year until the next budget that would be an example of like why would you do a hard free that would be that would be
the the perfect example of that and when you decide if there was going to be a s freeze that's after the budget we're already looking at the budget being approved in a month yeah so we didn't want to put that with that come later after approved or it would be
no we would try to figure out where our ending point is and how we would get to it so as we have a conversation with the town and they talk about right now they just just as we got our revenues at the end of January they got theirs and so they know right now their finance committee they should be at least um
kind of going through this is what we're going to have these are the demands you know does our request combined with you know combined with Frontiers request um you know does that make you know is it doable um do they say you need to sharpen your pencil in a certain area
you know can they give us a target number um so back we didn't have the revenue last week but we'll have it this week next week we'll have the revenue numbers so and we can present the 7 point I forget what it is 7.38 at the
public hearing and then we can reduce it from there with any or all of the ideas or other ideas thata make come up so we'll have to communicate with the town if they that's what they they would like to come to our public hearing um or
we're going to them it's always been um it's always there's been a kind of a back there been a shift where they've been coming to us lately which has been nice but um unless they have other questions on top of that we'll go to them um I mean we have to officially have a public hearing but do they want that to be the discussion we have with
finance and select board about where things stand or do they want to have a separate meeting that's up to we kind of left it up to them yeah we been joined meeting coming Monday and then a finance meeting only the week after I'll go back to them and talk
about some of this thanks are you looking for any guidance from us tonight are we looking to looking I guess if if other than I don't think we're ready to make any changes to what
we presented for level Service Plus new initiative so if you all are comfortable with the 7.38 as we presented it which includes the new IIA the kindergarten position and the other adjustments that we discussed then that's what we go to public hearing with I just I think well
this is where I kind of go I think that the we're putting you know the kindergarten classes with two school choice siblings um is at 17 right and I think that's still that's a healthy spot to be in to think that we're going to get five
five new kindergarteners I know what happened this year but the think it's lightning is going to strike twice that way in a small school I would I would recommend pulling that out and getting to the number that's really what our need is not on um the i a is a little bit different like
that is a real need and we would like to see that funded where this is we're kind of holding out of the space waiting for enrollment to come in should en Roll come in we're going to come back to the table anyway but um I just don't think I think it's kind of a f false placeholder so I would say I would
recommend asking us to remove that and then that number will be at five and change and that's a really uh that's I think it's a good it's also an honest number not just an honest number but it's a good number and I'm seeing in the around us a lot of other school districts I know that they're ranging in
the size of the districts but they are much higher they're they're between five and seven um it happens to be kind of the growth rate we seeing a lot of other districts so I think we're kind of on the lower end of that range I think getting lower than that is a great budget where it used to be you know people were talking about two and a half
you can't do two a half we just can't vote a higher budget than presented at public hearing correct so if we're going to make that change the conversation will have to come later as to how we fund it should we need that class which we did this year I me yes we survived
good things to you and you and knew you know but we worked so we vote on that we I mean I support that I think that's a good idea D what's your good on I wouldn't want to split 17 kindergarteners into two sections because then they get too small
right right and I think it's hope to keep our fingers crossed but right and if you go to the town meetings or town that the presentation say five point something a lot better than the year in seven point something right and and if we did find out late like like this year that we did need a second kindergarten
section by then we'll know about rural Aid which is sort of the big wild card that just the timing we are never going to know it in time to form our own budget it's not a reliable source but we are advocating very hard at the state level I'll talk about that later with reports so I hear what you conern what
was saying that you can't raise it after public hearing or you can use public hear right um I don't see any reason that we would have to raise it so I mean I would recommend putting the number remove the kindergarten teacher and come in with the and have that number brought forward
to public he if everyone's comfortable with I I am do need a formal vote no I just discussion as if your discussion would had controversy you could vote or whatever but if everybody's kind of comfortable not gonna comfortable with
planning personing kindergarten of 17 so um I obviously to do a formal V after go public here all right that's what we'll move forward with thank you thank you U moving on to school choice
discussion um so we've covered this a little bit but we've received um 11 applications all for kindergarten next year two of those 11 are siblings younger siblings of students already at SCS um so I'm recommending uh that we
have uh two uh two spots open up for kindergarten and then on an as needed or um as need the basis in the other grades um just depending on the class size and makeup I like to call principal's discretion any other grades princip
discretion just officially that's what it is in sense because the other question I have like for kindergarten if we hold at 17 we takeing 19 are we going to take two school choice and do a and do a lottery you know what I mean like it's
one of those questions like you know if people are still holding on you know um it's just a question like or do you hold that 17 decision not today I'm just saying it's something to be considering in the sense of you know it's an extra $110,000 a year where the nine coming from
roughly all over or I tell all of our elementary schools have double digigit waiting list for Kindergarten wow so I don't know the one thing we haven't kind of done is look at
are the same people playing to all four districts okay to get into our district I'm I'm sure there are definitely some crossovers because people do um try we we'll go there and we'll see which one we get into then choose so it's kind of like you know um it may not be a true 11
we open up a section we need all 11 to come you might be fighting among St Green Fields pum Warwick Greenfield Greenfield Greenfield South Deerfield more Greenfield mainly from Greenfield yeah makes sense and it is a balance because you
had asked about budget you know the current year we're able to cover the expenses that we pay on school choice but if we cannot replace the outgoing sixth grade students with incoming students it's automatically a loss of Revenue which hurts us next year so it's
a ripple effect I think we need a motion to approve this recommendation I'll make a motion to approve I'll second the motion to approve recation which is that for the
five um Jessica you say you're being a motion to continue school choice that's she moved because I actually have to submit this to the state because they make us submit the P the vote that you continue to be a school choice school and then um and follow the principal's recommendation
for members or something like that so that it's clear that you made AOL thank you say make a motion to continue to be a school choice school or yeah school choice school and follow the principal's recommendations for school choice laws
seconded by Joe any discussion all in favor yes three Z passes thank you um the order of the agenda has approval of new contract for Director of Business Administration followed by immigration
enforcement in schools if there's no objection I think it would make sense to switch the order talk about immigration first and then do our executive session and the contract vote sure okay talk about immigration
please excellent um I just wanted to give um as presentation I let me get reset myself here so I sent out a letter talking about how schools our you know our school district is going to um you know recognize that you know immigration
status is not required um to be enrolled in public school and in fact you cannot use immigration status as a a deterior to stop students from coming to school and that was a out of a um that was coming out of a ruling in 1982 and ever since that we've said you know we will
take any students who are in our district and will educate them and um to agree agree wholeheartedly with the um statement that Jody had read that the fact that that that the government would start to look at using the schools as
places to do any immigration enforcement is I think um kind of disgusting um you know you know educating all the students um that are in our district no matter where um no matter where they're coming from benefits everyone they benefits
those who are staying here it benefits those who may return to other countries it's you know it's it's making it better future so um I'm disappointed that um the federal government feels that they can't uphold to their old standards of staying away from the school um wasn't
the sensitive locations memo rescinded what's that the the sensitive locations memo was rescinded so now schools are sensitive locations again where they won't be doing immigration enforcement no understanding is they rescinded the sense of unless backwards
give it backwards they rescinded an old memo that made them okay right so there was a right there was a memo that came out the former actually I think I'm not sure was the former Administration before that is that they wouldn't conduct immigration business on school
grounds or um in places of worship you know um there may have been other places as well in that list and so the first thing that they did in the new ad Administration is resend that mem that they could do that um now and so I just want to kind of explain this so you know I've tended a few trainings on this and
so um just to get a full understanding of it so in order for right now um schools are not a public place you know we call it a public school but it's not a public place people can't just wander in and out of the building there's the same level of privacy that um a home has
um they kind of said under law so any kind of legal business that has to happen in in a school building by Outside Agency needs to have a warrant and it needs to have a Judicial warrant now um the Department of Immigration does have um have their own warrants you
know if someone is in um you know lose change of status and they to be picked up by um a nice agent um you know they have their own warrants but those do not apply in school and so and that concern was that these warrants
were going to be then be brought to school and students were going to be taken um as they follow through on that so right so we got a training on that I trained the um the uh administrative staff on this and they've trained their front office staff but we've created a procedure following we'll talk about the
a policy and a minute but I created a procedure to immediately have in place that all um agents requests must be processed through the central through the superintendent's office so if they were to show up at the front door um with a warrant of either kind um it would have to reviewed by the
superintendent's office and I have myself shelle as a backup and Karen fandino as a backup at central office with our attorney number on on speed dial um to review any warrants um that would take place in the school um we are also for a compliant which means we
can't share information about students that are in the building as well I'm saying this as more informational for people who are listening we can't share the information so if um if if a an enforcement officer was to show up and say we are here to pick up um Ben rfy a
student at your school we don't even know if Ben rashki goes to the school because we can't share that with you um without a warrant that is signed by a judge which is a which that level is a much higher um even in this in this a of
chaos when you hear about ice raids and stuff I mean the judges are ones that are signing off on you know there's you know Gang Related activities where there's you know weapons or drugs or that kind of stuff um you I do not believe in the current way things are currently that you're going to see any
judicial sign offs on picking up a student out of a school um unless that student is a criminal um with ongoing criminal activity when I don't we're going to see that at an elementary school um so basically the procedure I
put in place um you know basically um you know explains that you know you first of all explains the access to the schools to the people working in the school um explains what you know furpa is it also talks about um you know
professionalism respect I mean the immigration officers you know while um they are um a lot of people are disagreeing with what their agency's doing their their role as enforcement officers are you know treat them with respect and just try to let them understand that we have policies that we need to follow and that they need to
have legal documentation that's the number one thing is what I'm saying is that we will be protecting our students by making sure that the legal documentation is in place if any action is going to happen in the school if someone was to show up with a Judicial order it's the same thing with a warrant for arrest um you know it's happened
before not in elementary school but in high school um you know you have to you you work with the law enforcement on that but um you know we're putting in that that safety line that you know we're families who who immigration status may be in question um whose
students are here you're not going to be um Hing children over to anybody um unless they have a Judicial warrant and wouldn't we also have to uh get informed written consent from the parents um we if anybody shows up
looking we will be calling the parents that's part of the that's part of the letting the parents know that what's happening at the school um and if they have a Judicial warrant and they can prove they have a Judicial warrant as approved by our attorney the they it goes
beyond I wouldn't understand why minor I wouldn't know how a Judicial warrant would be served to a minor right without the parent they' probably be going to the parent so it's kind of weird that that would happen in school could happen in high school um but um the desie webinar made a big deal of the parental
consent and that it needs to be informed and that this sort of builds in time and gives the parents the opportunity to seek judicial relief okay so and that it would slow everything down right as a benefit to for the 18y olds
18yar olds would be a different thing right yeah which we well we don't here not sure so um again that's the procedure um that we put in place now um I I was given a
Miss Novak the chair a frontier um got both a PO and I emailed these to you both a policy example and um a letter of what's the all that a letter of
um someone give me the title because I can't come off my top my head um of assurance resolution resolution passing a resolution so that Frontier is going to be talking about um I would recommend that um the the
committee look at passing the policy um that you know Frontier will'll talk about it maybe it'll go to a policy subcommittee to kind of put together this procedures are in place in this in we're following them but over time if I was to suddenly leave your policy would
in would um enforce the administration to follow the same and the policy that the example policy exactly what we're doing in our procedure and so um and I can put it on the next meeting agenda um where we could have a draft you could also wave
your double readings we're having a double conversation about it and there's a time is of the essence in the sense of getting um getting it getting it on the books while um people the public is listening and concerned um and wants to know that what where you stand and
taking action so um anyway that's my recommendation I don't know if people want to talk about but you had a chance to read them over the resolution is making a statement you can do that as well um from a pragmatic point of view I kind of look at like the policy but you're making the law it's it's your passion one's got the teeth where the
other one is more of a statement I think we've made statements already um okay right so um yeah I just had a couple questions like the resolution statement towards the end is a place that you know teachers could discuss is we're age appropriate is there a definition of age
appropria and especially since we're Elementary School does that come from leadership so this is the resolution yeah resol the resolution I don't have I'll be honest with you it's it's it was taken from I think that one was taken from the National Association um and so
it's just I haven't gone through it as a you it's a template we're not accept that's we would accept this later with modification second reads and things is that I'm actually proposing that you go and do the policy and the resolution um
and not do the resolution and the policy is going to um it's going to make the statement alone about you're setting the ground rules for how immigration enforcement will be done in in your schools and now was another question on the on the policy um I guess it's assume the
definition of what a student is I mean it a lot of times in a legal document it'll say defin you know say student comma what that means close common that our this would go into our policy handbook where we often um refers to students as
students I mean so this the definition of wherever student is throughout our policy handbook right so I don't think you have to define a student as a someone who's on our Ro currently ened in school okay and then what's and again a lot of statements in the policy talk about without not to disrupt the school
atmosphere the learning environment what about summer activities I think there's there is a statement there about after school does that count after our our policies are for any school activities on and off campus um any time of year
any time of year you know when we are um in the role of a local parenes and um you know students yeah okay good thanks I am interested in the policy for next next month if there's no
objection the only problem next month if our meeting is the town it's the town meeting right the budget hearing we separate we have we basically open and close two meetings in one evening okay so we'll have a regular
business meeting the same evening okay yeah yeah the first half hour or so we do the budget and then we close that and then we open the regular business yeah um have have school staff been filled in on this on these protocols does everybody in the building know that if a
law enforcement agent came they would need to be sent to central office um and not admitted to the bill I would have this been we have you know administratively we we talked about this and our and our first step was to share it with the
front office staff and um counselors right so um Leela school school secretary Administrative Assistant school nurse who also sometimes buzzes people in and then our two counselors who are are supporting some of our
families um this right now yeah I think the other staff might appreciate hearing about it too yeah just as reassurance did you have one from Tina because Tina was sending it out to her group I'm sorry Tina was sending out an example email she's going to share VI today so it came up yesterday in the uh at
weightly school commit meeting if we're going to share this all the staff only reason was only reason the main reason I was holding back is I didn't want to cause more stress on teachers that this is something that they need to do and what kind of training any adult who comes to the building or anybody who comes to the building needs to go to the office to be
because they're a visitor in the building and be processed that way so that really is what the instructions are for staff they don't need to know how to do this other than all visitors wearing a uniform or not need to go to be sent to the office Front um office as visitors and so forth is it pretty
similar to again I might be drawn a tangent but with it similar teacher would deal with Hipp a law and you want someone you're not going to say anything about someone's medical condition they're not going to say anything about their immigration correct well technically we don't collect that information right so you would only know
through hearsay or um if someone shared that outside of school documents but um again it's you can't even say a student attends a school right I think there maybe some misunderstandings among staff about what could potentially happen in the building
they might just find it reassuring to know that not just would would an agent be processed at the office but they'd be sent to central office before they were admitted into the the rest of the building correct and also the information that it would be a warrant that would even get them Clos and the
warrant because in minor would still have to go through their adult supervis adult care before they even get close to the kid d right is that I think that be reassuring for a lot of parents um the other thing I was wondering about is um bus protocols and what training is being
offered to the bus drivers um I have not done bus protocols or training the bus drivers um we in the in the uh thing I was on they they talked about um whether or not um you train bus drivers to keep driving and then there was discussion of whether or
not at that point would they then be you know because they once they go onto a sidewalk they are on they're no longer on the school bus stops are no longer they're not Sanctuary place um and are you are they obstructing justice and
then you know what is the protocol they see an officer they give driving do they know it's it's a lot to kind of and then the attorney um that was presenting from the U attorney uh I can't remember which office she was
from it was not sure if it was from um the immigration and uh what's name immigration whatever of off out of massachus said the likelihood of people waiting at bus stops if they're waiting at bus stops they're waiting at houses and that's
where they have the ability if they have to have a warrant to again um in kind of say there's a lot of what ifs you need to really concentrate where you have the students most because the other question was like let's say there's a football game that's a public event police officers could go to a public event at a
football game and they could try to attempt to um you know do business immigration business in such a place right right because a football game unlike a it gets a little bit different because the public is welcome to a football game where they aren't welcome to a PE class on the same place you know
I mean and so they go it gets very tricky there and you have to work with and say that the students under your care versus not under your care so if they're dressed up in a football uniform they're still part of a school event if they came as a fan you know what I mean or are they a visiting team you know a
visitor from the public watching the event you know I mean it can get very very um but they also said that not a likely place where ice would be would be looking to do the apprehension because
how would they know the person's going to be there at that particular place in time and so on and so forth and um did you in a place that is they they don't want well maybe I could be wrong give the political thing normally they aren't looking for a big
disruption in their apprehension of people people um but that might be changing I I don't want to be quoted on that just was but quoted on that anymore in the sense that um there seems to be a flare for The Dramatics right now your policy covered because there's not a dis
disruption in the education I forget the exactly education opportunity or curriculum but outside Sports band those are part of the curriculum so A disruption that occurred at one of those events is against the policy that's already there and understand that
the policy gives us as administrators some teeth to hold on to if you have you know several ice agents who said they're going to take you know we can only do so much um
before we're arrested and and so on and so forth so I'm just kind of saying that in the sense of like in reality of sorts um but they also um if they don't have a Judicial warrant they're not going really be able to process it on school grounds that kind of thing so um and I hear what you're
saying about bus drivers and I'm going to say there are some um if they're waiting at the person's house in which case it's the majority of house or you know residential area um you know it's going to it's going to be
tough it's going to be tough to enforce that as a school you know also isn't an employee of the school employee of an outsourced company right true and so but can we have at least some training or talk to them say about the
confidentiality part like I don't know if that kid rides this bus if they get spoken to outside of the bus the driver I don't know that could be done know where they live I don't know I don't know if that kids I don't know what their parents are because we have some really great bus drivers but they
are talkative which is great I just don't want them to be talking about certain things and just so they know that yeah yeah uh I also wanted to share for anybody who might not know this that um in 20121 at our annual town meeting Sunderland
passed a new bylaw that made us uh in our language a safe Community other other um people might know it as a sanctuary City where sunderland's law enforcement is prohibited from um from supporting ice or immigration activity
at all including in the sharing of information Conway also did that in 2019 we followed Conway's model as well is it right Greenfield also I think is just I think so yes yeah than for discussion um let's see here let's go on
to reports this list school committee chair report first um let's see uh I've been continuing my work with the rural schools committee um we are uh the there are 24 members of the
masc rural schools committee we are trying to contact meet with every one of the 31 legislators who represents a town that receives rural Aid to ask them to uh support the full funding of rural Aid in the FY 26 budget which would be about
four times as much um as as it was funded in fy2 um so last year in fy2 the the governor recommended level funding of rural Aid the house cut it in half the Senate brought it back to a little above
level funding and then the conference committee that sort of reconciles all the different budget models went somewhere in between the Senate's recommendation and level funding it was a very small increase this year um we are really trying to pull out all the stops to get our legislators um and our
legislators for for Sunderland are outstanding they are they are the leaders on this topic um but we're trying to get all of the legislators to put their weight behind fully funding rural Aid to in the amount that was recommended by the commission on the fiscal health of rural schools in 2022
um yeah so we don't but we won't know about the level that it's funded at until long after our local school budgets have been passed for the year so it's not useful in the formation of this budget um I also wanted to make sure that people know that the town caucus Town nominating caucus is on Monday
March 3rd at 6 6 PM um I am up for re-election I am planning to run again um but they have trouble making Quorum at the sometimes we need 25 people so a registered Sunderland voter please
consider coming um any other committee members have updates to share I do it from the collaborate it's not good but the collaborative I'm also on the finance committee there is really short on budget they're
cutting they've cut employees um which is unusual they're they had to cut was it 15 20% out of the budget that they're over budgeted a lot of it comes from less grants um think a lot of schools that were
using or groups that were using them um had used eer funds so that D dried up and so they've had to do a lot of tough decisions in terms of cuts and there Contin I think was close to $800,000 they had to find to cut now
they have a huge budget it's $4 million they had a lot they had to do so that's the update if you know Todd G or checking whether I know you you know he's going through a tough time down there but it's you know they've got a plan they get through it but there is a
lot of cuts and that's the update thanks anything else I can do a little update on the Capital Improvements committee um got to be a little more familiar with Becky the new
administrator and uh I shared our list of goals for this year um it sounds like they're working through a lot of information to organize um financials and and where all the Departments are at um and they've
requested are be curious to know a little bit more about the status of last year's projects and any information on uh um the rebates for the mini splits and and any details that can be offered on any of that stuff just to see where
those projects are currently at um and there's nothing really to report on the requests that we made for this year they've just taken them into consideration thank you for the updates superintendence report
I have none um and then we're going to go into executive session thank you for coming thank you have a good night enjoy your snow you too nice early
H um so the the minutes template says enter executive session not to return to public session but I think we need to have executive session then return to vote on the contract yes yep okay so um I will make a motion that we enter
executive session and return later to public session second yeah goodbye all right roll call vote Jessica yes Megan yes Jo thank you so we will
come back online I'm GNA mute and turn off the camera for executive session so we'll still be on the same link when we come back okay we can do that um oh and turn off the recording all right you're back in a we need to
hold on sorry um I need a motion to return to public session I'll make a motion to return the public session I second motion to return public session Mr Elias all right uh all in favor yes three Z we are returning at 7:21 p.m.
you just copy and paste that every time just change T right right okay so uh I will make a motion to approve the new contract for Shelley Pera as Director of Business Administration any discuss any further
discussion all in favor I three Z thank you thank you and then we just need a motion to adjourn motion to adjourn just to throw it off a little bit second all in favor yes 30 Z passes we
are adjourned at 7:22 p.m thank you everybody