I'll second great uh because we are virtual we do have to do roll call voting um Amy yes Karen yes Suzanne yes John yes I will also vote Yes it is unanimous and again to Mr Ford Mr Richie and the Jon Family Foundation a hearty thank you from not only the school committee but the entire School Community thank you very very very much uh can I can I just add to that real quick a special to uh to the robotics
Club I know that uh Mr Ford was particularly impressed when he sat in on a meeting with Mr cohut and his uh whole team uh and particularly um the students about how uh how invested they were and he wanted to make sure that he could look to remove as many barriers to success as possible so I appreciate that and give them the Competitive Edge that other robotics yeah so you know that
this is a group of people that put their money where their mouth is they're doers they don't just talk about things you know it was two weeks ago that he brought a problem and two weeks later we have a portion of it solved and it's the generosity does not go unappreciated right I mean I I do remember when the the coaches were were in talking to the school committee and talking about just their ability to compete and this will go a long way to to help that so um it's exciting and again thank you
very much to all those folks involved appreciate it um reports and discussions Miss Angelus okay um this is the time of year that it it unfortunately falls on the same night as the public hearing but um our high school team of the Director of Finance um the uh Rachel sturma and the principal Mr cohart bring to you the draft of the 2526 program of studies I know we've had a lot of discussions
about them um with Mr kalishman Mr cohut myself about trying to give students opportunities to take more classes and more electives and so I'm excited tonight for um them to present to you uh because in addition we've talked about the competency determination now with no more mcast and so that will be woven into their presentation as well so if somebody can click on the agenda or allow sharing to everybody um there is a presentation besides the program of the
draft of the program of studies um if you allow Mr coat to share I imagine he could share his screen you're muted Glenn or there we go sorry um Mr dad um can you share can you allow Dennis to uh do the program yep hold on one second great thank
you it looks like he has permission oh everybody it might be already set to everybody having permission try Mr do you see a share do you see a share yeah let me um there we go there we go all right let's see please bear with me it's sure by the way been a while since I've had to do this and a big welcome by the way to to Dennis and Rachel thank you very much for uh for joining us thanks for thanks for having us um just want to say thank
you to to Mr Ford Mr Richie Geron foundation for the the donation um like superintendent Angela said I think I met with Mr Ford I want to say it was in December we and he met with some of the robotics kids and we talked about this and he really um worked really hard to to get make this happen so I really appreciate it um and it's I know the kids I know the team I know the coaches really appreciate it as well okay so we are uh very excited to
present our program of studies for the 2526 um school year there aren't a ton of changes or new courses excuse me but as superintendent angelakis pointed out um something that we did have to uh flesh out is What's called the competency determination and that is in the wake of the ballot initiative that passed in November that removed mcast as a graduation
requirement so something that we tried to do is to really increase access to electives we have a lot of great electives running we're we're hopefully adding a few more next year but as we went in and we looked at we looked at course taking patterns last year and we looked at um the schedule there were certain classes that kids could have taken but just didn't have the opportunity for a number of reasons it could be something like when that class is running uh perhaps the
class was a year-long class as opposed to a semester class and students were not enthusiastic about one yearlong elective as opposed to maybe two semester long electives or there were prerequisites that made it challenging for students who are maybe ninth graders or 10th graders to take those electives so what we did myself and and um Rachel sturma the counseling team we really went through and looked at and tried to make sure that we really understood um why those prerequisites
were in there and to try to open up as many electives as possible to as many kids as possible so as I mentioned back in November uh there was the ballot initiative I believe it was questioned to right and the voters voted to no longer require mcast as a graduation requirement so because of that we are now mandated to develop our own what's
called a competency determination to essentially say that these students um have these skills in order to earn a swamp Scott high school diploma we cannot r on mcast anymore however please keep in mind that mcast will still happen so we are required to still uh have students take mcast however a passing score on mcast will not be required by the state to earn a
diploma so here's what this will look like it will essentially be coursework and our courses our program of studies is already aligned with what's called Mass core so Mass core is what the dec recommends that our students take um in order to get a high school diploma there's not there isn't a required succession of courses that kids must take DC does not mandate that that's a local ision with the exception of US
history and kids have to take PE every year but we were already aligned with mass cor so we were feeling good about our progression of courses but this new regulation required that we really spell out okay what is the CD going to be so for a lot of our kids who have already already took mcast before this regulation went into place um they're essentially if they pass mcast they're good they've met the CD so that's our current seniors juniors and for the science test are sophomores because they
took that last year so that's the vast majority of our kids have already passed mcass however there are some students in the classes of 25 26 and 27 who have not passed so the CD that we put in place will be that those students need to take and pass biology or a lab science equivalent course Ela 10 11 Andor 12 and Algebra 1 or an equivalent course like
geometry there are very few students who fit into this category for classes of 27 and Beyond we looked at what mcass has historically assessed in the case of small Scott high school and we essentially made that course work our CD so that's biology or lab science equivalent course Algebra 1 Andor Algebra 2 and geometry and English one so students will have to take and
pass those courses in order to earn the competency determination I have met with the other principles in the the NEC in our conference we meet monthly and for the most part we're all doing a very similar thing um I do have a feeling that deese may come out in the future and and mandate this in in different language but this is the requirement for at least for the time being they did also send out a Q&A back in December because
obviously when the ballot initiative was was passed it created a lot of questions um and so they responded to this in a Q&A that I linked here so if any of you are interested of course I'll answer questions too uh but if any of you are interested in checking out that Q&A it's on the hyperlink there and I think I'll pause here before we get into any new courses or electives to answer any questions about the CD because it's it's it is a lot of I just want to chime in here um Mr Cot
and say that you know Mr kishman you and I had conversations about if we don't stick with the cours workk that is saying that our cours workk is less rigorous than possibly other communities um the other thing that's a little bit frustrating from my perspective is this feels very similar to co it's a local decision right now and then they will come out with some directives down the road I mean we made it through covid with local decisions but everybody was
doing something different so it feels really good to hear Mr kohut say that his colleagues across the state are approaching in this this in a very similar manner that's my all I had to say well at least on the NorthShore I'm not sure about other districts but yeah I can speak to like our our the local ones the round table locally Northshore yeah right right I have a question yeah um this is actually I think Suzanne more for you um
but do we need to codify this with a with a school committee policy yeah I mean we have a polic why am I sorry you guys I'm reverberating I see you on there twice oh oh
yeah there we go I get Joe I think as the host you need to remove one of the suzan's there's actually three of them so I'll do it I can he suzan's oh my goodness you guys are so lucky she won imagine how much we'll get done I know that's what I was saying you you can vote a majority now she's gonna build two more schools oh my God I'm so sorry but you guys are
lucky you have your your volume on something else like your phone or an iPad you're hooked up to two sources you need to turn your volumes down I I don't all right well lat it says there's no there's no option to remove but there's a withdraw co-host permission should I do that first yes okay there's one thanks elty for sticking around there's another
one all right try it now Suzanne can you hear me better smaller Echo it's so weird um yeah Amy you're right we have a policy that has graduation requirements and we just have to update it
great anybody else have any questions about this particular topic L just a quick one for Mr cohut so um Mr cohut what it it doesn't look like these are huge hurdles to overcome but what if the scenario presented where the student didn't meet these requirements what would happen then so they would have to do some sort of Credit Recovery course to to make the
credits up um to to earn that CD so if the student let's say didn't pass the course then they would have to pass it probably over the summer which is typically what we do um with credit recovery okay thank you great uh thank you Mr C you're feel free to continue so we have a few new courses um I think in the past we've presented many more new new courses and and we
definitely have classes that are popular um and we're trying to as I mentioned have more kids in electives but I always like to um try to keep current right and we've had some teachers submit some ideas for new courses for next year now I want to make it clear that it doesn't mean that these courses are definitely going to run right it's all about enrollment if if the kids are interested in them if we have the Staffing then they then they will run um first one here is a a teaching assistant in
chemistry um in engineering and 3D design one course The English Department has always been great in suggesting new courses one is a a modern reading of A Tale of Two Cities I think that is a book that feels very timely right now given everything that's happening in the world uh an advanced composition class now this is not the AP class this is a semester writing class uh that's a little bit more rigorous another course that I don't
know how many Taylor Swift fans we have on the zoom but I know we have many at swamp Scott high school and this is popular art Taylor Swift as literature so this is analyzing Taylor Swift songwriting as poetry there are colleges that run courses uh like this uh for a number of other like pop culture folks as well I think that's going to be a popular one I know as you all know um we have new work happening to the auditorium new sound system being put in
one of the classes suggested by Mr duette is live Sound Engineering so that's using the board and the other um audio equipment to or teaching students to do that while performances are happening and the fizzed department is proposing an open Power Hour fizzed elective in terms of the course selection timeline this is what it will look like beginning on on uh February 10th for the better part of the month of
February students will meet with their core teachers to discuss course recommendations last year we uh made sure to align this so now we have essentially a form that we'd like students and teachers to to use as a springboard for those conversations and we will also open up Aspen on February 10th so that students can choose electives Rachel and I are going to record a selection webinar and share it with all families so that will go out on
the 10th so that's overall how to go about the process of enrolling in classes seeing recommendations and choosing electives week of the 24th Miss Sturman and I will go to the middle school and meet with the eighth graders to talk about this process and then answer any questions and for essentially the whole month of March school councils will be meeting with every single student except for our seniors to talk about course selection talk about electives and talk
about schedule building in March uh grade eight course selection will begin at the middle school also in March our Innovation Pathways team will head to SMS to present the uh IP program and encourage students who are interested to enroll in it and the end of the month March 28th uh course placement review forms are due so those are that's paperwork where if a student or family would like does not
agree with uh the course recommendation they can what we used to call it overriding um they can override that it's just a process to follow and we have that on March 28th so that we have enough time to build the schedule and then the schedule building will be April April to May and the goal of course is to have a schedule ready for everyone before we leave for the summer in June right that is that's the presentation
any any questions about the timeline or any of the courses um anyone have any questions for Mr cohat I do uh Mr cohat can you talk a little bit about how you guys um the the this new fed um the power hour I'm curious uh I know that last year there was a you know some restructuring in that department that caused a lot lot of anxiety um and
included uh an unfortunate layoff how did we how did we make this work well we haven't yet so running the courses is always subject to how many kids enroll and Staffing so because we've we're recommending or sorry we're putting this course in the program studies doesn't necessarily mean it will run but I'm hopeful that we can do that but I think there's some things that still have to fall in place before we can definitely do it however um I this might be the sharing of the elementary
PE teachers to make that happen is that um am I missp speaking Mr kohad I mean we have talked to them about um supporting the high school with kind of an open gym or an open power hour so this is where we're going to be doing cross District um assistance to give the kids what they need at the high school it could be that yeah I didn't want to misspeak NOP I I'll missp I'll I'll speak we've been talking about it and we've actually spoken to the elementary
teachers and they're very on board and helping out well I can't imagine that it would not be a course that kids would want to take uh right so I I appreciate the fact that there's some creative thinking to how to make that work because you know what we heard from the uh the teachers in that department last year was very dire so it's sounds like it's on the upswing well it feels like it's um the it is being felt and it is being
missed tremendously and we needed to come up with a creative way to solve it and so um I do think it will happen I do think it will be popular do I think it will be enough nobody it will be something for our kids so we'll we'll work out the details but definitely that is the cross um level support that teachers are giving their colleagues and my other question Mr CAD is about the ad composition writing class which is pretty exciting um is
that going to be something that Juniors can take I'm thinking about having just gone through the whole college process um yeah bear bear bear with me one second Amy because I'd have to go let me look actually I can't do that because I'm sharing my screen I'd have to get back to you because I don't know how it's written but ideally yes uh we would try to open it up to as many kids as we can um that's our that's our goal but I don't know exactly what it says in the program studies I'd have to go look I holds it up we we're proposing grades 9 through 12 oh good oh okay so it's
everybody great that's really exciting very um any other questions for Mr cohut okay um I just have really one comat one um one of my favorite books of wellside all times is a tailor 2 City so it' be really I'm really curious what the the new reading is and then I think it's great that we are trying to stay as current as possible and having a Taylor Swift class I know I think I've shared
before um one of when one of my kids one of the twins was in college he took a Bob Dylan class for credit so I think this is a great thing um I think I I agree with you Mr kohad I think you're gonna have a lot of people who are interested exciting great okay uh anything else from you Mr Kat that is all thank you both for attending appreciate it thank you very
much take care my next I just have a couple of General updates that I didn't put formally in writing tonight um just to update you on the fact that uh Mr kalishman has been looped in on my meetings with Jeff Von and Nia illingworth we continue to roll out um the idea of the mental health after school 10-week program uh that will begin we've targeted April right now I
think I mentioned at the last meeting that we would be hiring uh we would be posting for a stien because this course will be taught by an outside vendor but um we would like to have somebody on staff attending that class as well just to for the safety of our kids and just to kind of oversee it uh additionally we're talking about trauma informed training for our staff one of the PD days before school begins and then probably the first PD day uh in October
so we would be rolling that out uh the story book theater will not no drug story theater story book you can tell I'm an elementary teacher drug story theater was originally intended for the high school but with the auditorium uh rehab it's the timing is not going to work so what they are going to do is um perform at the eighth grade and Mr kalishman has approved that
they've coordinated a date I believe it's March 10th uh and so the eighth graders will benefit from that program and then in the fall we'll try to do uh the high school we'll try to schedule the high school again so that's that update the other update I have for you is it's more to inform you that you know I haven't sent I deliberately have not sent out a communication about ice and coming into the schools because every webinar we've attended every legal brief
i' I've received every guidance I've received have cautioned the superintendent about giving legal advice what I do plan to do is send out a um just a quick parent Square saying that you know your children are safe because everything that we've attended and some of us attended a webinar together yesterday is that they can't get into the school buildings without a judicial warrant and as I've spoken with Mr um
officer Wilson the first thing we're going to do if anybody steps on school property is call the police and call Brian and unless they have a Judicial warrant they are not coming into our schools and I need to check with our attorney that I would go so far to say just like with the media we don't allow them on school property I would imagine it would be the same thing for any ice Department that we're trying to um get on school property but Brian Wilson said
the protocol is you notify the superintendent's office and the superintendent calls the police department and calls me that's that's as far as we go there's been lots of um advice but even this it was the Attorney General's office speaking to us in a webinar the other day and they're like this is not legal advice do not give legal advice all you need to tell the families is the kids are safe they get in without a judici warrant and um call
the police and they will deal with it so I just wanted the committee to know I've been for the last two weeks we've been inundated between competency determination and immigration and every 24 hours the news is changing and the directives are changing so I didn't want you to think that the district was ignoring it and I will get something out very simply to say those things that you know call the superintendent's office just as you do with the media superintendent's going to call the police department and our our resource
officer and they can't I'll clarify with Darren Klein about being on school property but they cannot get in the schools so just wanted to inform you about that that it's not falling on deaf ears um a lot of districts have done different things I think um I've seen some of the communications and they make me cringe a little bit because um I don't know if what they're sending out might change tomorrow so right now that's where it stands I just wanted the committee to know that
great um thank you superintendent I I just want to add that and this is to really the entire Community um we are a safe Zone our school district will continue and always teach each and every child and each and every student and that is our job and we will protect each and every student to the best of our ability so Thank you Pam for sharing that and that's concludes my report
tonight okay Amy um I know it's the same kind of whiplash that everybody is feeling but as there's all sorts of discussion going on about on the national level about the Department of Education what um what kind of conversations are you and your um colleagues having is it just like a just wait and see like the rest of the country it is a wait and see and the perfect example of that and I think this is where we're all what we're all
feeling and I know Cheryl was a big part of this is you know the freeze on the federal funds no sooner was Mella on the phone with the town the decision got overturned now I do know you know there is dismantling at the federal level CIA the FBI and now it's the departmentment of education but um we're all kind of holding on to the table waiting to see what's next um and I think for me after all these years to get distracted by the wh ifs that's one thing that I'm trying
to coach Mr kishman on you can't worry about what's to come you have to face what's in front of you right now and um you know we were on a nor show Consortium meeting yesterday morning and it's a very tight neck group so the minute something breaks we'd all be in touch and work together the same way we did through covid but there have been so many flip-flops it feels like for us worried about our federal funds then we're not worried about our federal
funds then it's 30 days then it's overturned so it's right now we're just white knuckling it and waiting to see what comes okay appreciate it thank you thank you okay um any other questions for the superintendent okay so with that and uh I'm G to ask here Defence if I read these incorrectly um we are now going to jump into the public hearing on school choice for um 20 the years 25 26 um
there will be a public hearing on school choice for the years 2025 2026 according to chapter 76 section 12b of the Massachusetts general laws all interested persons shall be given an opportunity to be heard can someone please make a motion to open the school choice public hearing I'll make the motion can some one second please second
all right um again I have to do a roll call vote um Amy yes Suzanne yes Karen yes John you mut you're muted there John yes thank you and I will vote Yes as well it is unanimous um so the first thing we do need to ask um if anyone in the audience wishes to make a public comment on this particular subject only school choice
can you please raise your hand uh doing a quick chat I I don't see anything I don't see anything okay great um discussion presentations by the school committee of superintendent superintendent y up so we're an interesting juncture for this discussion right now um
historically I have uh recommended to the school committee that they not support school choice for various reasons and that is that with our three elementary schools we had no capacity and then going into the new Elementary School my intent always has been and continues to be tonight to want to build our metco programs and if there are open seats to to uh fill them with um our
students from Boston uh I just lost my train of thought anyway I I maintain that um school choice allows people to pick a school district outside their own District that they would like to attend what I preface this with is that Mr kishman and I have been having a lot of discussions and he has some really great questions and so moving into next year he's going to do a lot of research on that but for for at this point I'm staying the course um I I
have concerns about budgetary implications that I probably need to know more about and Mr kishman and Miss Stella are going to dig into that over the next year uh I have um my commitment to our Boston program and really supporting those students there is I have gain the knowledge that you can limit the seats at each grade level um I just knowing the budget struggles we're going through and challenges this year
and we've gone through every year in my tenure I hesitate to add in one other outside component not knowing what the needs of these students are and is it going to impact our budget in a particular department or is it going to impact our budget overall I do know you get the money for these students but my concern as we look at special special education costs is just like anybody that comes into the district we don't know their needs and so I I I'm sure there's
advantages to school choice um at this point for next year I am not recommending school choice and that's my recommendation to the school great thank you uh superintendent uh any comments from the school committee I have a question has the do we know uh what is the um what does the state pay us for each incoming student it's um I believe right I believe right
now it's $5,000 and then depending on the level of services that the student receives you can you also get incremental compensation and and that's a formula that they have but I would imagine that like special education that that is also happening a year later than than the money is actually spent based off the IP and the level of services the student has coming in to the right I should also say that it wouldn't impact the Budget Transportation wise because they do need
to provide their own transportation my focus just has been laser focused on my commitment once that new elementary school was built is to build our Boston program and I I still feel very committed to that it's a wild discrepancy between what the government um is willing to to give uh a district versus what it costs per student to educate absolutely do do I understand correctly like the the Meco program has
nothing to do with school choice that that that can expand it doesn't right okay but my my I I go back to the Tara Cisco days when we had we had a substantial program I think at its highest we probably had 70 kids and we are below we started I think at 54 I see Miss Lynch on here and I we've lost a few kids so it is about getting um building that program to build um our school district and diversify it dare I
say that's a it's a great point and uh I I hope we can get as many students from Boston in the Metro Meto program as possible um any other thoughts or comments from the school committee okay hearing none can um someone make a motion to close the
public hearing on school choice I think we have to vote first don't we yeah I think you vote we have to vote not to not to um you're right I was I read the wrong order that's okay thank you very much for that I'll make a motion not to adopt school choice for the 2526 school year great yeah oh my God someone second please I will great thank
you Amy all right can U we have to do a roll call vote again we are we are voting to not participate in school choice for the 2025 2026 school year um Amy yes great uh Suzanne yes John yes Karen yes and I will also vote Yes so it is unanimous we will not the swans school district will not participate in school choice for the year of 2025
2026 now can someone please make a motion to uh close the hearing I'll make a motion to close the hearing on SCH thank you someone second please so okay great thank you uh Amy yes Suzanne yes John Karen yeah and I will also vote Yes it is unanimous
and the me the meeting on school choice public hearing is so closed okay uh thank you very much superintendent all right next um public hearing on the school budget for 2025 2026 uh there will be a public hearing on the school budget for the year 2025 2026 according to chapter 71 section 38 n of the Massachusetts general laws all interested persons shall be given the
opportunity to be heard can someone please make a motion to open the school budget public hearing I'll make the motion thank you can someone second all Second Great thank you um so we're gonna vote again roll call Suzanne yes John yes Karen yes Amy yes I will also vote Yes it is unanimous so we are now open to the public hearing on the
school budget um so now uh pursuant to the law I am going to open up public comment on this subject only um I do ask if anyone has uh a comment again they keep it on this subject open I do ask that they keep their uh comments brief um we will go no longer than 15 minutes of public comment um so if you could keep it to 60 90 seconds I would greatly
appreciate that so if anyone has a comment out in the public can you please raise your hand I care I don't see anybody currently raising their hand but I also wonder if there might be comment afterwards since many have not yet heard any budget discussion I don't know if that's something you want to entertain um I would be willing to entertain that
if um this is one of those things that I I think I can make that decision but I really would like to just get a uh a feeling of how everyone thinks about this so uh I do I do not see any hands whatsoever go ahead Miss Angela I was just gonna say and Miss Stella correct me if I'm wrong after the budget presentation on January 23rd the budget book is made available to everybody um to pick up in the business office and the superintendent's office and the
process being if you're interested in coming to the public hearing and speaking and engaging in a dialogue with the committee about the budget then you pick up the budget book and come with your questions what is on the agenda later is public comment where you would not engage in a conversation the whole difference between a public hearing is we do engage in a conversation and give answers to those questions so my recommendation would be if they have questions about the budget given our other presentations given the uh
questions we've answered for Town committees then they should ask those questions now otherwise they can ask at public comment questions that the committee is not supposed to comment on and that's just my recommendation um thank you superintendent uh again I don't see any hands um I'm gonna uh I'm gonna actually going to agree with um the superintendent on this one um uh I do want to give just everybody one last shot at the Apple here if someone does
want to speak can you please raise your hand um I see I do um all right uh Chris C Crocker robotics he must have missed that oh okay um can see if I can do that oh he just put his hand down he justar that might have been an accident there he is again you're back all right Chris hold on one sec okay I got to find you again and let's
uh a lot of talk all right Chris can you just uh introduce yourself please yes uh my name is Chris Crocker I am the a teacher of Robotics at the high school um I just wanted to say that um I I know that we're talking about budget this evening and I want to just let you guys know that the impact that the budget changes that I believe are going to happen on the robotics team are going
to make an enormous impact and change a lot of students lives um I know that this will go very very far I've seen great things come through the program and I just want to say thank you for what I think is your support I also heard that you were looking for me earlier so I wanted to come on and make sure that my voice is heard great well thank you Chris and and just just to jump back we did uh accept a donation from uh Mr Ford Mr Richie and
the Geron Family Foundation for $5,500 specifically earmarked for the robotics Club so that's we just wanted to do that first and early but I really do appreciate your comments um we all think that the that robotics is just an important part of the school experience so thank you very much for your comment can can I say something Glenn absolutely um um Mr Crocker is highlighting something
that's that's really important in school and that's electives and I know there are superintendent believes the same with the after dark program and and um all the sort of um vocational type of activities that we're trying to promote for kids that aren't always on the track to college or kids that are on the track to college and want to leg up like with the robotics program and I think that this is a really important part of our budget that um you know we need to make a commitment to keep these programs which is really hard to do when when
we're having budget issues because you know I I mean Reading Writing and math sort of takes the front stage and I think we just need to appreciate that that what Mr Crocker saying about this program making a difference in kids life is is really true I would just Echo that and talk about the Innovation Pathways and I know I've said it to anyone who would listen to me to the boards and Committees of the towns that I am not even considering touching those programs
that was done many many years ago in 2005 2006 and I I just I agree with you um Miss right that they make our district special they make it unique they offer a well-rounded um choices for our students and I I'm super proud of that yeah Suzanne I I could not agree with you more and thank you for bringing that up um and we we are in the business of well-rounded students and electives
plays a humongous role in that so thank you Suzanne for bringing that up thank you Chris as well I appreciate it yeah I can I just say that I I agree we have to not look at these types of classes as extras these are these are core basic skills that these kids need to learn they keep the kids in school they keep them interested and um you know we need to look at it that way when we're building budgets which is I what we trying to do exactly thank you Karen um
again thank you Chris you're welcome all right um I do see one more person okay hold on please uh please state your name Catherine Quin Katherine i' would ask you to put your camera on please oh sorry okay be all said all we still do not see you well we didn't see Chris so oh
that's okay all right so go ahead Miss Quinn okay yeah um no I just would like to add in in uh support of what the other people are saying I think an elective um is can be the one reason that'll get a kid who's sort of stressed and not feeling like going to school if it's their band day or their robotics day or their whatever uh their special thing that's working for them at that moment that that's the thing
that'll get them to school so I think it's very important to make sure we're Contin to provide those programs thank you I could could not agree more with you Miss Quinn 100% thank you very much all right all right seeing no other hands raised we will close that part of our discussion and I will turn this part portion over to the superintendent and to
miss okay so we are going to do that follow-up presentation um Mella do you want to share yours so you can be in control of it I'll give a little um introduction that following our January 23rd presentation um Mella was taking note during the meeting of some questions that needed to be clarified or people were asking to be clarified from the boards committees and so I think it was within 24 hours she developed this
presentation trying to answer more of the questions or uh comments that came up at that January 23rd meeting Miss Stella thank you yeah and I just want to say that I do appreciate everyone um with their questions I can really um understand why School Finance can be quite difficult to wrap your hat around um having having worked in private sector and then um town finance um I can
say that school Finance is totally different um there are a lot of things that our hands are tied and we must fund and sometimes that's really difficult to also wrap your head around how quickly things can change um in a given day so I just want to say you know I appreciate all the questions hopefully this helps continue to answer some of those questions um but School Finance is a very complex world and not like um
private sector Finance or um Town Municipal Finance so some of the questions that I wanted to discuss tonight um there's talk about you know the poor people calculation and what's an in District versus out of District student the net School spending calculation net School spending versus per pupil a little bit more information on circuit breaker and then circuit breaker verse what the special education Reserve fund is um there was some comments about our
enrollment and Staffing graph so I want to present that using our IND District enrollment only um there's questions about comparing ourselves or per pupil calculation to um Lindfield and then there was some discussion around if we include Tech in our Capital plan then it's not in our per pupil calculation so um thank you to our wonderful IT director she went out and did a lot of research on this to highlight um what
other communities do fund this through Capital so just to dive into the actual per pupil calculation just a little bit more and I won't read everything here on the screen um to everyone but you know it is the average FTE throughout the school year for the pupils that we do have enrolled in our school um they do two different calculations one is just an IND District per pup and one is a total per pupil calculation um the only difference is is
that the per the total U per pupil calculation includes all of the auto District expenditures and as I mentioned um previously there are only a few categories that are excluded from this calculation which is community services our fixed assets debt and Debt Service um one thing I did want to make clear because I'm not sure if it was clear is that when we talk about out of District students it's not students that attend private schools um the only students that get
counted in this um calculation that attend private schools are those that attend specifically special education schools so these are our students that we bear the cost of educating and then the net School spending calculation um the basis for that is what they call our F Foundation budget which is the state has this mandate every school district should have adequate funding based off that
specific districts or communities um size and overall student population and they base that on the community's ability to raise tax revenue the um property values within that town income values um there's two components of it it's the um the required local contribution and then the Chapter 70 and between the two of them when you add them together that is the School spending requirement every city in town has what the state determines as their
target local share that they must contribute to this calculation the maximum is 82.5% swamp Scott's local contribution is 80% and again it's based off when they look at this what is that Town's ability contribute to educating their students to provide what they consider adequate education and so there is some debate on whether you should look at net School spending
or per pupil um I'm of the mindset generally that you look at all of the data points I wouldn't look at anyone in isolation um to see if they they overall tell a story um but this was actually something I presented last year to the committee and I also did want to highlight again that there is significant discussion on what is the better measure and according to some it's actually the net School spending versus the per pupil um because they
feel that it's a more meaningful way to determine how much a district is spending or a community is spending on their students above what is called the foundation budget and that's because it's looking at how does this community how much should they be spending based on their peers and one of the big things that this article specifically that I linked at the bottom talked about is that the districts that are ranked high in some of those best School lists they
typically have the highest percent above net School spending uh next I just want to talk a little bit about special education cost and and circuit breaker and I know that uh Miss Raymond also did go over this um the other night but I just thought it might be another good little refresher here um and this is all information direct from desie anyone can pull this up themselves but one out of every five student has some kind of disability that
impacts their ability to make educational progress and so there's a wide range of settings with which you service these students some um it's just services within the general education classroom some are in substantially separate programs um and as we talked a lot about the other night some with real significant disabilities attend um outside placements in a private special education program um and the most expensive of them being residential
programs um you know desie recognizes that special education costs are substantial and growing significantly and they provide support to districts through different funding streams one being the Chapter 70 the other being circuit breaker the Ida Grant which we talked about the other night and then munim Med which is effectively Medicaid our Medicaid reimbursements um desie and DLS both
have put out guidance on this um as far as what community should try to hold as a circuit breaker balance and DLS does advise communities to try and build balances up in circuit breaker when they can um so that when they have those down turns or they have really high costs that they just um didn't expect they have that as the buffer to cover unforeseen costs um and they view that
basically as a good fiscal management practice for any Community or district and so what is the difference between a special education Reserve ver versus uh circuit breaker balance for the district so the circuit breaker um allows increased flexibility for us as a district we can handle those really unexpected swings and any cost very easily nimbly um if there's volatility
uh within the state budget this really helps um the district guard against those it's there's no additional authorizations that we need to access that money uh we are able to build up a oneyear worth of reimbursements um it is always subject to appropriation at the state level Al though I don't know of any time with which the state has not funded circuit breaker at least to some degree um and like I mentioned before Desi and DLS both do support building up this
account balance is an overall good management practice uh one thing it does do which we have not done in many many years in this District but other districts do do and it is allowable is you can prepay tuition um for three months um for the next fiscal year which helps soften uh the budget burden if you have some additional funds in your circuit breaker can I just ask a quick question do you know the last time that the district had the funds to prepay some uh
payments of tuition I think it was fy22 okay great thank you very much appreciate that um and then I do remember that um when Martha cybert was here that we there was um prepayment uh happening I do remember that discussion during our budget meetings so that was that that would J with 2022 yes great thank you
Amy and so then a special education Reserve fund can be used for the same types of expenses but does differ from circuit breaker and that um it is another Reserve fund so that looks great for the town and overall looks good um to have some good additional savings there um it does provide an additional stop gap for us if we have some real out of the norm costs in the district um as I mentioned the other night we are limited in the balance and it's 2% of
net School spending which for us is a little over $700,000 um it it doesn't have a direct Revenue Source except for our Medicaid reimbursements so to build that balance up in that fund it needs other sources besides just U Medicaid reimbursements like free cash it is subject to which is subject to appropriation at the local level so then we're going to town meeting looking for those the vote for the free cash and
then the way we access that is a bit different we don't have readily available access to a special education Reserve fund it requires the majority Bo of the school committee um as well as the select board or their designate so Miss D can you remind us um if if if the if swamp Scott as a town does not vote to add money to our special education Reserve fund it is
funded otherwise by our Medicaid reimbursements and that totals out to be about what per year about 70 to 80,000 so really we're talking about uh 10 years of of T of adding to that with Medicaid of never touching it in order to reach a 2 % safety net cor yeah that's okay um to
say dependent on the town in town meeting agreeing year-over-year to fund that yes right and I just want to ductail off that Karen is what would happen if the select board or their jazzing kn denies access to the funds then we can't access
them all right thank you then we take from our then we make Cuts in order to pay for things that happen great okay just just clarifying that for the audience thank you I don't but to be to be fair I don't I wouldn't imagine that that would be a position that we would be in I wouldn't imagine that either Amy I'm just throwing that out there for public
consumption I will say we um did access this fund last year about $109,000 it was a fairly seamless U process um so I will say that the process that we have followed um last fiscal year what was relatively easy to follow great thank you sh welcome and so there was a discussion about we had shown this similar graph but it was
our IND district and our district enrollment U mapped against our FTE and so I adjusted this graph just to show the IND District enrollment as well as um softened our FTE uh decline um while the line perhaps does not look as severe as the other one I think it still does highlight that our enrollment is increasing and rfts are
decreasing yeah I I mean I I I appreciate because I know that there was some criticism last week uh from the audience about this number but it doesn't change the fact that we still have lost 40 FTE since 2023 no matter what the bar looks like it's 40 FTS and that's I feel like I I appreciate Mella that you did this but it doesn't take away the
pain and then um there's a question about U why is lindfields per pupil so much lower than swamp Scots even though their average teacher salary is much higher than swamp Scots and at the time having not dove into their per P um calculation my initial answer was they had 30 less um teacher f F tees which when you actually do compare each category you can see that um they 30
less FTE does um play a significant impact in um the fact that they overall uh per pupil um is less than ours um I will say that if anyone has been watching what's going on in lynfield I don't anticipate that they'll be this um level of differential between lindfields per pupil and swamp Scots as
we look at 25 and 26 um I do know that they have talked about how they cut many positions in their core subject areas and are having to add those back this year to the tune of an incredibly large um overall budget increase um the second piece of the calculation um that it plays into why lindfield's per puil is so much less than swamp
Scot's um is the insurance retirement bucket and what's actually really driving this when I looked into it is the uh retirement obligation or the portion of retirement that's part of the lynfield per pupil calculation overall lynfield um is paying a million dollars Less in retirement than swamp Scott Public School uh they are part of the Essex retirement system versus um we have swanscott
system I'm not sure why their allocation for retirement overall is so much less but if you do look in compare their Town's um pension obligation vers swamp Scots it's significantly less as well so um because ours is much higher that also factors into the differential between the the two per pupil calculations Insurance plays a small piece of this um
insurance was about $288,000 less in total for lynfield versus Swampscott Which is far less than the million dollars but again it's probably likely due to the fact that in 2023 their FTE were um lower can I just uh I just want to before you go any further Cheryl um I do want to thank you and the superintendent and to um several members of the school committee including myself who really
started to dig into these numbers after this was mentioned at um our Tri committee meeting uh a week or so ago and I know there were some follow-up questions from both um the select board and the finance committee that took uh a lot of time um a lot of effort for us to to find uh I remind everybody that one town is very different than another town which is very different from the city
which is very different from really anything else and that's what makes as um Mella said earlier um coming to a school budget is is a challenge it's there are some numbers we just don't know but I just want to publicly thank you m Stella for all the hard work that you did digging into the this particular Slide Can I can I add to that of course Amy so um there are a number of people I
know who are uh already familiar with some of the data that I'd like to share um as I shared this with our select board and with members of our finance committee but I think that um people who tuned in last week to our um to our our group meeting uh may not be familiar with this um the I know I speak for everybody on this panel in
saying that it uh to compare us to cherry pick one town to compare us to um is really not best practice uh however in this case despite the fact that there were a few people who would like to point at us and say well why aren't you more like uh lynfield why aren't you more like lynfield um I'd like to call out a couple of things um we're very happy to be compared to
lynfield because consistently we receive much less money uh budget- wise than they do and they have grown by between uh 3 and a half to 4% over the over the Last 5 Years whereas our budget has grown by 2 and 1/2 to 3 and A2 so we also have lost 30 FTE to your point um 40 sorry 40 FTE to your point also miss
Stella we know that this is changing we know for example that their Administration is changing they've already hired a senior technology uh admiss uh um administrator so we know that that's going to change uh well we've cut some of ours so that's going to change um but I'm I would like to point out that as some of our select board members and finance committee members are happy to point to us and wonder why
our budget isn't as efficient as it is and points to uh lynfield that Swampscott actually outspends lynfield Swampscott fire outspends lynfield fire by $2 million a year or 100% that Swampscott police outspends lynfield police by $400,000 or 11% you mean lynfield I'm sorry sorry Amy lynfield out spend no no SW Scott out Spence oh okay okay sorry so swamp Scott
outspends us and but the criticism is coming but swamp Scott outspends lynfield in all other capacities Fire by 100% police by 11% General government by 27% and those fixed cost that Mella just talked about by 17% so while the eyes are on us and saying maybe the maybe we should have maybe we need to dig into this budget a little bit more it's interesting to me that the places that
they actually do control are they're outspending this quote unquote uh better managed town uh and and spending you can't tell me that spending 100% more on fire uh is not something that should be looked into so the one place where lynfield outspends us is on schools so go ahead and and compare us to that town because I would like their
budget all right thank you and they include $650,000 per year in their Capital spending for technology so so the idea of picking and choosing and saying well it doesn't include this and it doesn't include that it's pretty comparable they outspend us on schools we outspend them on everything else so this myth of swamp Scott uh you know this story that has
been told for The Last 5 Years by our former Town manager is really uh erroneous and I would like to push people to knock it off I I think also Amy I just want to add like I appreciate you um diving into lynfield because because we have been hearing about about that town for a while but also I just want I just want to remind everyone that we're we're bargaining with um um a couple different
units right and and as a as an agreement we've we've a we've agreed to what our Pure communities are you know we've been looking at communities based on incomes and um average median households and size of the student population and the town population and and um so so we we do have we actually do compare ourselves to comparable communities and we're smack dab in the middle and I think like that's that's um I mean that's an
important data point too you know we're not high we're not high against our peer communities or I mean I I just think I think that um you know I think everyone's suffering right now because because times are tough and you know yeah I you know I I think that's an important thing to point out Suzanne especially because we do have to compare ourselves to other communities in order to make sure that we are being uh that we're being smart and that we're
spending money smartly so yeah this is you know to your point and that we can retain good teachers and um but to choose one town over another um is really not a game that I think that we should be playing but you know I I watched the lynfield school committee meeting uh from a week ago and they anticipate that their budget if they were going to stay flat is going to grow by 4.6% this year so that's about where
we anticipate our budget to grow but they also anticipate that in order to satisfy their contractual obligations with their teachers and all of their Educators that their budget is actually going to grow by 7.8% which is wildly above what we're looking for so I would like to again say if we would like to use um lynfield as the goalpost I'm happy to take that
number yeah I agree I I I feel like we've been pushed into this conversation we use comparables because it informs us it allows us to um to talk to the various units with with you know information it allows us to show to the town where we fall so that we can show that we're not at the we're not at the high and that we're not at the low but again then it's seems like it's always
sort of used against us and one is picked to say well why aren't you here and then you know when you dig into it you find out you know Amy what found out and I think it is this myth that the townside is extremely efficient and the schools are somehow not or bloated um you know and just because we're the largest piece of the budget doesn't mean that it's overinflated it's not at all so I think that's just an important
point to make I remember I remember about six years ago maybe even longer now town meeting um created the article six committee to look at efficiencies in town and um and and the outcome of part one of the outcomes of that was was joint facilities um which which was great right but the whole point of the whole point of that committee was because we're speeding towards a brick
wall and we need to slow it down because this is this is a small town we don't have land we don't have you know commercial we it's just it's just we're speeding towards a brick wall and and I appreciate I appreciate the fiscal responsibility and I appreciate the two plus New Growth I mean that that's important and especially as someone who was on the school building committee you know that that got us the school and that's all great but but in the last
five years I think all of us have at different points been chair of this committee and we've sat with the other chairs and and we said this is happening this is coming you know we can't we can't sustain ourselves with this and and we appreciate every single dime that they have sort of absorbed into their budget like like the special ed Reserve or like helping us with um you know capital capital requests like technology
or helping us with um electrical you know we appreciate that but we have been saying we're we're we're closing in on the brick wall and we've also been asking to have a financial Summit with with everyone because we need to do a reset like we can't keep doing 2% for New Growth even if the town is giving us literally more than 2% is sort of how it's working out but we we can't do it and we've been asking to have a summit and really talk about how do you reset
like every three years every five years every 10 years you know I mean and and it's tough without a Town Administrator but you know I was really encouraged last year um you know Eric Hartman was great Dave grishman was great when I was meeting with them and and they really sort of understood that we need to do this and and I know that other chairs felt like it was coming too and then and then it didn't and it didn't for a lot of different reasons but but it didn't and now we're now we're really close to the brick
wall so so and I wish we had had this conversation when we wanted to have it before before budget season but we didn't so so here we are and and we're we're at a Crossroads where where we've cut what we can cut or we've I mean I guess we haven't cut because we're zero based budget but we built programs and and we have stuff that we don't want to that we need and and I guess I'm just
ranting butan I think that was what well said um that this this has been a wall that we've seen coming for a long time and um you know Karen and I were talking about this offline and and she said it really well when she said you know what's happening is that for the last couple of years by by Tak out like oh let's take $200,000 and put it into this Reserve fund knowing full well that it was going
to be used or let's take this money and move it here and take this money and move it there it it's it's a basically a shell game and and for some reason a way to pretend that the the budget isn't growing the way that it is growing and every year we've agreed to it but what happens is that every year we come back and then it it causes us to beg again and again and again again for the same money that we've been begging for yeah the
town it seems to be that the that the thought process is that we we cannot increase our base budget we cannot increase our run rate um that they're you know we're going to give you access to $2,000 over here and it's it's essentially onetime money or you know we'll help you over here and then something comes into Capital comes out of capital goes back into capital on based on the whim of you know whatever's going on that year um but at the end of
the day the base budget has to increase and we it has to increase and has to be there next year and on and on and on it cannot be the these one-time creative ideas to just get us through the current year that we're budgeting for and that's just not working it it just Digs at the hole deeper and deeper every year we I feel like we're just starting over every year when we we begin our talks and and at the end of the day I mean it's not it's not honest
it's it's not truthfully telling what the what our budget is and needs to be and so you know the 4.79 that we're at is the number and you know in my mind as a school Committee Member but also as a citizen that is what the town needs to fund for the school district I just want to add one thing um and I know I've repeated this million times to the committee is that on top of those 40 reductions that we did we were also
using Esser funds to subsidize our allocation so it was I I think that's been lost on a lot of people we were lucky to have Sr funds through FY 24 I believe r24 which I believe and if you look back historically Mella has produced for all of us how much how many how much how many dollars in Sr funds we used why while still reducing our force and so you those are it's kind of a compounded thing we can't ignore that do
the dollar amount that we were using from eser funds superintendent I think that plays a really important part of the story because you know the the reality was that during covid because of those e Sr funds the town you know anticipating a lack of income asked us to reduce our budget which we did because we knew that the federal govern government was supporting us in doing that but then the even though the the
the the um th those dollars came back in terms of what the the town was able to uh the income that the town was able to raise didn't come back to us so it was like all of a sudden those Esser funds went and it like oh well those Sr funds are gone you knew they were go you knew they were running out without having acknowledged the fact that that our budget was slimmed down knowing that those monies came
in right John just add on um Amy I just thank you for that information on the comparison to lynfield um coming out of that meeting a couple weeks ago I was a little disappointed um I don't I don't know if I'd go so far as to say it was a distraction by introducing lynfield into the discussion like this but it felt like that that and you know I think your your data provided some clarity to to
this discussion which I think you know is very very helpful so thank you for that oh the Kudos are to Mella doar as well so um you know and just in the time I've been on the school committee it it's I've never known anything other than our our base seems to go down every year we never are able to increase it I think Ken touched on this but um you know you know like
Suzanne said we're at that point now we can't uh that that's not the way forward and you know this budget does reflect that so I just wanted to make those couple of points thank you John thank you everybody so I'm gonna add a couple things as well um Karen Karen speaks the truth the the 4.79% is is what we need what we're asking for um I think there are several of us who think that number should be
higher but as I have said at Tri chair meetings now for the last several months and the first one that we had uh prior to the Town Administrator leaving was we need a reset and everybody in that room kind of shook their head and said yes we needed the school department needs a reset and I know I've been asked many many different times many many different ways the last several weeks is there any room to reduce cut
whatever word you'd like to put in there and every time every time I say there is nowhere to go we have reduced to the point that we are I don't want to say a shell of the district we were six seven years ago but we're we're different and I I will say I thought the Linfield discussion was a distraction uh it caused a lot of work needless work
now it's interesting work especially when you look at the police and fire numbers and the school numbers compare one Community to another and you know lynfield has a major mall and Commercial sector that we don't have um but the budget is what the budget is there's nowhere there's no way this me there's no where for us to go other than Draconian classroom Cuts increase
class sizes less electives and that hurts the students the superintendent and you and her team over the last several years have met the challenges that we have been forced to deal with and try to keep as many Cuts as possible away from the students that is no longer a possibility so while I respect anyone or everyone who has an opinion and has a
thought the budget is what the budget is and our preference is to be funded how we need to be funded and to call it a day with that so I I do hope that as we go through this um everyone's hearing what we're saying there's no more funds from the federal government there's no more places to
cut and when we ask for 4.79% I can guarantee anyone who's listening is that we not only has Miss Stella and miss angelakis and her and their team gone through this with a fine too comb I can guarantee you that the school committee has also gone through it with a fine tooth comb and asked questions and have accepted answers that we may or may not be happy with we have we've not funded positions that a majority of the
committee has wanted to fund at the end of the day this is a community issue and the community needs to realize that the school department is up against it as Suzanne said we we started with this several years ago I remember one of my first meetings that circuit breaker was drawn down to zero and since that time we literally have been beating our head against the
wall so if there were some place to cut I can guarantee you one of the five of us would have made that point to miss Stalla and the superintendent there's really nowhere else to go and you know there's been some questions about uh as we as we are embarking on contract negotiations and there's a question about language on steps and lanes and all that and I can tell you I spent countless
hours trying to answer that question throwing it out to the list serve of school committees school committee members in the Commonwealth and of the literal 20 odd 25 responses I got to my question um there were some really interesting comments about our ability to work with the town so I am hoping that cooler heads prevail we're trying to be as transparent as
transparent as possible but I I do remind everyone out there that state law just dictates we give one number take the number accept the number don't accept the number it's one number and I know when I was first on this school committee way back a while ago that's all we did that's all we said to the town that's all we said to the finance committee that's all we said select board here's the number take it or leave it we don't do that anymore Glen I want to jump in here because I know C
Chuckles the other night when you said we only provide one number and in fact it was more because I know I made a I made the uh the motion to add more it's not one number but it's the bottom line number job our job is to bring the bottom line number of what it is that the schools need and you know correct Mary Ellen spoke the other night and said that you know the select board and the finance committee are the fiduciaries of the Town budget and that their job is to make sure that the
monies are spent well but I will counter that and say that our job is to make sure that our students get what they need and frankly when a town raises money to be a town what do they do they take care of the roads they take care of the infrastructure they take care of the schools and you know I I I for one am tired of hearing people say oh well back in my day it was you know the schools
were rated as X Y and Z but you know as Miss Stella said a few moments ago that correlation between net School spending and school rankings it's real so if we're if we're content to be to be in the bottom with our net School spending then I think we need content to be in the bottom period yeah glad can add on to that dis you mentioned Community um a moment ago and I think you know with the vote for
the new school and you know all of suzan's work on that I I think there was a pretty serious demonstration that you know education is a top priority in swamp Scott and you know I I've viewed this budget process as aligning with that Community sentiment uh I guess that's one thought and I guess the other thought I've had just as you know listening to all of all of these you know over over the various few months here you know I I have not looked at this as a process where we're spending
more in this budget I don't look at it as a spending more process I look at it as you know making sure that the students have what they need to thrive uh that our Educators feel value um and the opportunity is just there for you know creating successful outcomes for everyone that's that's really how I look at this not as a well we're spending more it's it's really creating that that environment to thrive and succeed great great Point Sean Glenn I I
have one thing to say um sure I I don't want I don't want it I don't want us to lose sight of I I don't want everyone to lose sight of our appreciation for for the efforts the town has made to to to try to make it I mean I know what Karen's saying about about it's not really giving a true sense of what our budget actually is but but there have been a lot of efforts to try to help us and I think that you know we have to be
we also have to be cognizant of of what the other departments need and I think that was part of the resetting discussion you know like you reset the school one year and then you know you reset the library in the DPW the next year and then you reset and you just sort of like sort of go through the different departments so that so that we're not cutting services other places we're just um helping each other out but I just I I I I there are so many people
that have tried to to that do support the schools and I and I and I just I want to express the appreciation for for the people that are trying and I and I appreciate um members of the different committees asking questions I mean at some point at some point you know I'm sort of done with that because because we hired this unbelievable business administrator right we have um a a seasoned superintendent we have an
unbelievable special ed director and assistant superintendent and we H we have these professionals and we trust them and and it's hard to hear them being questioned in all sorts of ways and and people I I mean I appreciate the questions but but you guys got this and and we are we're at but I don't know what I'm trying to say other than no I know what you're trying toks for the help the people that are
helping like thank you for the help right you know you know Suzanne that's a great point and I you and I would be remiss if I didn't say that you know we've had multiple Tri chair meetings we have another one coming up on Monday and and and everyone I do believe that everyone has their heart in their right in the right spot sure because everyone has the same to fight for right exactly so I do very much appreciate what you said and I and I agree you know
sometimes we have to just agree to disagree and and I I do believe that we're gonna we'll get to the finish line and I know sometimes it's frustrating but that's a really great Point Suzanne thank you so much I I think I just want to add to Suzanne I think that you're absolutely right there have been some really uh good Advocates who have worked with the School along the way um what's disappointing to me is that there has to be this um this way to work it out and
let's put the money money here and let's put the money there rather than a direct this is what it costs and and put it in the budget so that they don't have to fight every single year Well back on what you said Suzanne because you kind of said me up I was debating here for the last five minutes whether or not to see this but this is my last public hearing and this is my last budget SW Scott and for 11 years I
can't believe you're not standing up and dancing when you say that but go ahead we have well I have mixed emotions but we have been put through this same ringer I'm going to start by saying I appreciate all the people that do support us I appreciate that this community as John said did build that school we didn't do it it was a Town project but I this budget process for the last 11 years where you've had a
stable superintendent feels the questions that come in and the suggestions that are made without an education degree feel like there's no trust in the superintendent who's leading this District when we know that dis uh superintendent shelf life is 2 to three years there is no trust there there is a little bit of a lack of respect for the professionals that are making these decisions and I've got to tell you I've had it it's 11 years of
this every year we've demonstrated our our transparency and some of the questions that came in in the last couple of weeks were definitely were questions trying to get us get us on something asking about the uh almost 10 million dollars that's coming in does the msba know about it that we are more transparent than ever and yet the more transparent We Are The More We Get
prodded and quite frankly I I'm done I am done I'm done with this and if it I'll say what I want to say if it needs to go to town meeting floor then I'm on town meeting floor enough is enough the more information we give the more we get prodded the more we get these I gotta questions there's nothing to get us on we're about kids if we didn't explain as well as we could how our budget is fluid and how it can change and how there's
unknowns I don't know how else we say it I just want to say it feels like a lack of trust and I personally I've tried to put up a shell over the years am disappointed that people don't trust me to be a good team player with the town which I have done for 11 years Thank you Pam I mean I think what's a little bit
different this year at least seems to me is that we see that there is opportunity for additional funds we see this msba money coming in that is reducing the debt that the town is going to have to pay year over-year we see additional funds coming in we know that we have excess Levy capacity because we have been under taxing so there are there are ways to not only fund our budget but to go a step further and help us to reset
with our circuit breaker and and other things that we could do and I think the money is there and I think the town people or anybody watching or the word needs to get out that that it is possible and it doesn't have to be on the backs of the other Town departments um can I jump in here and ask you a question Glenn um Of course Karen raises a really good point so two weeks ago um Max uh reported in about
almost $10 million that of unanticipated funds coming to swamp Scott um we knew we knew 5 million of it was coming as of September I think it was um and and know that there is you know some of this money that has to be directly used to pay down debt which is terrific and the and what that means is when you have that money coming in to pay down debt that means the money
that was supposed to go to pay down debt is not paying down debt it's now uh great am you're a tiny bit mistaken so like you're you're just I mean I mean in in theory in theory you're right but it just meant borrowing less so it's not like yeah but I'm but I'm just saying it's like sort of it's different the money's already been borrowed and no the the the
the um cherl maybe Cheryl can explain yes but yes so there was a one permanent borrowing that was done quite some time ago when the the favorable interest rates had come out but there was going to be subsequent borrowings and so as part of The Debt Service modeling for this project it included all of those borrowings but when we got the msba
money and they did not have to do any more borrowing beyond that permanent borrowing and I don't um I I'm not clear Patrick ly of the treasur did send um us at TR chair how it impacts their debt principal payments um so I'm not sure um how like what he factored in there but it is saving for the town about $200,000 in debt expense every fiscal
year this year 26 and that and that is the five million not the additional monies that are coming in correct theoretically more yes so I so I guess I come back to my question to you Glenn which is is this conversation that's happen happening in the tri chair meetings um we have raised that but we will continue to raise that and I'll
bring that to the tri chair on Monday awesome great thank you Amy good point um Cheryl got to you all right so I just have wait minute are we done with the presentation no there's one one more slide and I certainly don't want to miss this one because um our wonderful IT director um was pivotal in gathering this information so I want to thank Miss Mackie nolles for this um and this was
interesting uh you know I you have a sense of what other districts are doing but actually getting the data is always really helpful so as you can see when we look at what our comparable districts are um almost all of them are funding technology through their Capital um fund we did have one District that we didn't hear back from in time um but um and then Stone up had been using actually
the town arpa funds to fund their technology so um just wanted to highlight this because it was raised about how that could possibly impact our Pure pupil and make us look better or worse versus all the other comparable communities um but it does appear to be a common practice to fund uh one to one devices through the town capital and that that is the last slide thank you
Sheron will you just remind us what the bottom line is for the U what we're asking for what's our for Capital no for our our school budget um your total budget is I have it I have it charer um just correct me if I'm wrong the total is 33 mil 9919 th
33,98927 n 4.79 479 thank you great you're welcome um does anyone have any questions additional questions um for Cheryl for Pam for uh Martha I did have a question um as I was looking through and um was I was looking
at the page that points to outside funding sources and what they um the different staff that we hire because of that and I was just curious how Meco fits in there I I did look through this um couldn't see anywhere particularly where it's identified how much the state um how much we get through the metco program um in terms of support so the metco program um it is on the total dollar that we get that we had
initially put in the budget was 419,000 because that's that's kind of been where we've been hovering but this year we actually ended up getting some incremental funds from Meco and I believe we our allocation went up into like 435,000 or so um this year so hopefully that actually continues into next year as well I know that Meco has a very active
um uh advocacy program to uh work on getting more money through the state so I just want to you know anytime anybody here is asked about it hopefully we'll all Advocate since it's such an important part of our school great thank you Amy um John any final questions before we go vote no more questions CL thank you great uh Karen uh no questions about the actual budget but I did want to ask my fellow
members um and I'm not sure this is the time but when we should discuss Beyond this budget sort of step two which is potentially asking for additional funds in the reserve fund and circuit breaker maybe in at town meeting whether we need an article I just want to investigate what that would look like who we need to talk to and how that would work yeah I think I need to interject here it happened I think it was just
yesterday Jason and Cheryl that um the um interim Town Administrator and uh the Director of Finance asked to meet with us to review the reserve fund uh agreement because I had mentioned on the 23rd that it needed to be visited it was supposed to be Revisited annually so we met and we have drafted a new agreement actually signed it that this for FY 26 it will go up to 600,000 um from 450 and we looked at it
as incremental um we did not put in writing a multi-year plan but everyone in that room discussed that this needed to be uh Revisited every year in fact we added to the agreement by November 15th it needs to be Revisited so the 600,000 would be for FY 26 but that agreement has been signed and and knowing that we have a commitment and a date within the agreement to meet annually um sets us up for more success I believe that's good
thank you for thank you for Mak is there a is there a way like our agreement was for us to spend down circuit breaker before using Reserve right like is is there a way we can use the reserve before we spend down circuit breaker so we can start does it doesn't help us build it up right no it just means we don't have to go low to that 450 we're just going to the 600 and then um in circuit breaker funds and then we can dip into the special ed Reserve stabilization oh
oh oh I misunderstood you I thought that they were adding 650 to the no no no they were increasing our goal was our so Karen's original point of you know adding funds to the reserve fund just triggered for me that I needed to fill the committee on the fact that we met and that the Delta for circuit breaker is no longer at 450 we upped it to 600 and continue to um look forward to discussions because as Mella pointed out
typically it's 74% of your circuit break of reimbursement and we're not there that would be over $800,000 at this point but um we felt that it was a good win to at least nudge it up for FY 26 knowing they have to meet again before November 15th and talk about FY 27 and so the conversation will continue but Karen you just triggered that that I hadn't shared that that's fantastic because you know that means that means we'll draw down to 600 instead of 450 and then we'll be taking more from the
reserve fund and then that can continue to be replenished and built up and that is ultimately what we need which also means that when we go to the town and ask for money that we need less money right that's correct okay thank you superintendent for that um kind of lost track War thank Karen anything else I'm sorry nope nope great um Suzanne any last thoughts comments nope okay Amy any last thoughts comments believe it or not no all right
um so the only thing I again the only thing I'll add and if I'm repeating I apologize um we appreciate as Suzanne said every the hard work of the other Town dep departments and you know looking at numbers and this and that and I certainly appreciate what our team has done and not only the professional team as the superintendent will call them but our own school committee and we are here
and asking for the budget we need not the budget we want so I'm going to leave it with that so um how this is going to work we have six motions and votes to do we have uh we're going to vote on each line item and then vote on uh the total budget and then we'll vote to close the school budget public hearing so let's start with um Can someone please make a motion on the cost center Administration for
2,518 1833 I'll make the motion can someone second please I'll I'll second great thank you all right uh again we have to do this roll call style John yes yes Suzanne yes Amy yes and I vote Yes so the it is unanimous that the cost
center ad Administration has passed for two 2,518 1833 next um Can someone please make a motion to vote on the cost center the general education budget which a line item which is6 m323 554 can someone make a motion I'll make the motion can someone second please a second okay thank you uh John yes Suzanne yes Karen yes Amy yes
and I will also vote Yes it is unanimous um the cost center for general education passes unanimously 16, 32355 next um Can someone please make a motion on the cost center for special education that total line item is 10, 923,50
ly 10,923 72 next can someone please make a motion for the cost center school facilities
that budget line item is $2,452 147 can someone make a motion please I will okay someone second please I I'll second thank you uh Karen yes Suzanne yep John yes Amy yes and I will also vote Yes it passes unanimously the cost center school facilities um
2,452 107 $147 excuse me and then the last cost center is uh can someone please make a motion for the cost Center District districtwide programs 17319 someone make a motion please I'll make the motion thank you someone second I'll second great uh Karen yes suanne yes John yes Amy yes and I will
also vote Yes it passes unanimously the cost center districtwide programs 1,731 93 so that all rolls up to um the total budget the school budget for FY 26 is $33 m919 $69 can someone please make a motion to
approve the school budget for FY 26 I'll do that thank you can someone second please a second thank you uh Karen yes John yes Suzanne yes Amy yes and I will vote Yes as well so is unanimous vote for the total FY 26 school budget at $33 m919
$69 um thank you very much um the one last thing I do want to add before we uh close the school budget public hearing um in years past I have felt and others have said that there have been some on Administration side on the town side that have talked about superintendent budget school committee budget um to the the the town
community there is no superintendent budget there is no school committee budget there is a one budget this year and that budget has been approved by your elected school committee at $ 33,976 n so with that consum pleas make a motion to close the school budget public hearing I'll make the motion and someone second please I'll second all right great John yes Karen yes Suzanne yes Amy
yes and I will also vote Yes the school budget public hearing is closed thank you everybody thank you Cheryl ham and Martha all right um taking a deep breath and moving right along um assistant superintendent of finance and operations okay we're back to you back a lot of me lately um so I just
wanted to give the committee a quick update on where we stand for Q2 for fy2 um this is a little bit delayed just because we were working on the budget process but I did you know this is important to go over with all of you uh if you do recall the first quarter projection had us effectively ending pretty much on budget the second quarter project projection at this point were
going to be over budget by $9,600 here so the administration cost center had very little change since the last projection um as did the districtwide
cost center the general education cost center is is right now as of Q2 projected to finish under budget by 202,000 and that was mainly our daily substitute costs and our long-term substitute cost when I did this projection that being said just this week I signed a status change form for a long-term sub that's coming into Phill for a long-term medical leave so um we do tend to see quite a bit of variability um in those lines um so I do
anticipate by Q3 that this will likely change uh probably downward a bit the school facilities cost center had very little change um since our last projection and then you know as has become quite uh a topic of discussion and we all know this um the special education cost center did see variability and that's where we um we anticipate U being under budget for the
year uh we did have an additional a district tuition we had a settlement agreement for a student and we did add a 1.0 special education teacher at SCS which we also we talked about during our budget process so you know Martha talks about this a lot you know she sets her budget we set a we set a end date um but that number keeps changing um and so the number that she gave me in December um
to today um has changed um dramatically so um that's the Q2 projection happy to take any questions but um nothing surprising at least from my standpoint I just have a question and Martha if you can just weigh and this is just for the folks in the audience um either both the a a and those from other Town committees you just explain what a settlement is as far as special education goes um yes so if there's a disagreement
about what a free and appropriate public education is between the district and a family that is another way to come to a um an agreement so it's outside of the IEP process um but there that is another mechanism to get to an agreement that's all thank you thank you Martha appreciate that's it great thank you Cheryl back to you if we have a if we continue to have that under spending on or the below Budget on the
facilities is it possible to take that money and either um like like use it as capital money or you know to do something that is facilities related like what I don't know the window at the new school I mean the windows at school no you're you you you're not really I mean if you know I'm just going to make this up but if there
was a refrigerator that was on the fritz or something and the facilities had been wanting to replace it and then had some extra money in the operating budget to replace that then they they would do that but nothing you would never take um an operating budget and be funding form of capital expenses through the operating budget I'm sorry if it stays unspent where does that money go it's covering
our over budget and special education okay great thank you for the question am thank you Cheryl for answering back to you m Stella I'm done let's excellent excellent um any other questions for Miss Stella all right fantastic um on this special education I do want people to remember too it can also um we have students who move in and out of the district and so those are not we we
don't know when someone's going to move in as well so that can also cause the volatility and I would not know that in December of the previous fiscal year right I can't believe you would know that Miss Raymond I can't believe you would know that all right um with that um the school committee chair again as I think I mentioned um there is a TR CH meeting on Monday morning at 8: am and uh miss angelakis Mr kalishman and Mella will be
joining me for that uh meeting uh subcommittee policy are you are you free to talk kind of in a broad way about what the topic is um I received a phone call from uh the chair of the finance committee Eric Cartman uh just again regarding our budget and we had very actually a really good conversation about um how do we get to where the school needs to be and you know while watching the rest of the
budget and you we had uh again I thought it was a good conversation we had a um Eric had a couple ideas and we just agreed that um it would just be best to talk about that in just a a setting that everybody hears the same thing from the tri chair um once it once the tri chair meeting is done I will as I've done in the past um make sure that everybody gets minutes of that meeting okay great thank you am you're welcome sure uh
subcommittees policy update John and Suzanne Suzanne kick um we myself and Suzanne and Mr kalishman and who's I'm not sure who the other the other folks were Mr coh Mr cohat thank you um we met last week to talk about updates to section A of the policy
section which is basically the found oh and Miss wait and and and Miss Raymond and Miss um and and Lisa um correct yeah all of us yeah it it was I I should have had the list of attendees in front of me but thank you for that so we went through um suzan and I had made suggested updates Suzanne had added some new policies and there were some policies that were um up for for
deletion and we we discussed all of those and you know I think suzan we're going to bring these to the committee in the not too distant future correct yeah I think what where we where we landed was um there was a bunch of policies that that we can just go ahead and easily approve and then there's some that um are impacted by our federal um government and rolling back some Title 9
issues that we just have to um make sure we're doing that right and I have a call into our MC rep I was actually supposed to talk to her today but I never connected with her but um to just talk about sort of some of the policies we had questions on so yeah we're going to get them to so I Glenn I think for now more to come but um we are making progress and I think um you know as we've said
previously you know suzan and I will be plugging away through the other sections and going through a similar process with um with those same stakeholders and coming back um to the committee to approve them you're on M Glen again I've never done a zoom call ever thank you very much Susanne and Sean um the other part is a bargaining update
and um so Amy are you there you yes yes you want to you want to just give a incredibly brief just overview of kind of how we're doing right now all right sorry for the uh sorry for the no um no video my my computer is starting starting to die so I figured I'd use as little as possible um we are uh moving forward we've had some really terrific meetings with um
essentially two three SE three bargaining groups but really into two sections uh one being our largest uh the teachers and the second being our esps and tutors uh and you know over the years that has become such a similar role um that it just makes sense to be doing those two things together um as as always I'll give a shout out to all of the people who are sitting around the table uh in this very unique um bargaining format very unlike all other
towns uh which is essentially just all of us um so I you know it takes a lot of dedication and time and it takes a lot of trust in the process so I want to just say thank you to everybody from our superintendent and her staff to the leadership of the great thank thank you Amy um does anyone have any anything else to add regarding the bargaining because I know we're all
there while doing it okay great thank you all righty um public comment um if anyone out there has a comment please feel free to raise your hand um we'll give this again a total of 15 minutes and please keep your comments brief um Eric Schneider I see you so hold on one sec please uh again just as a remind everybody um public comment um feel free
to comment as you'd like but the school committee will not reply to your comment uh Eric I think you're there if you can just uh uh just tell everybody who you are Etc hi you can hear me yes Eric you're all set yeah hi um Eric Schneider B Pon Road uh also on the finance committee um and um parent of I guess three kids now in public schools so wanted to um say a
couple things one thing I realized I should have said at our last uh joint meeting um which I thought was very helpful uh and that relates to the financial Summit um I know um the finance committee chair Eric Harman was at town meeting and stood up and said that that's something that would happen but um just to clarify it's not necessarily the finance committee to
schedule that it's something that the Town Administrator was working on and then you know when um you know for reasons I don't know the Town Administrator um had to leave then um you know that didn't happen and I just as you am disappointed that that didn't happen um and then um the other point was um you know the school committee has over I
guess the past 10 years it's been you know there's only been seven different members I think on fi on the school committee but finance committee we're I think we're nine and there's been a lot of turnover so miss angelakis sorry for all the repeated questions and I understand it feels like you're explaining it again and again um but it is a steep learning curve for new people and uh I'm sure it seems like you're explaining the same thing again but unfortunately it is to somewhat to new
people so I appreciate that Eric I've got a comment I do appreciate that I think it's more about the lack of trust because I think I've done nothing in my superintendency to not let people trust me but I appreciate your you bringing that up and and then just generally sort of the budget discussion you know sometimes it it feels like you know we're in an eer painting where like the water is going around and around and then down the waterfall and you know everyone is looking out for um for them
and I think for us um you know for my perspective on the finance committee you know it's it's not um you know in as you know in swamp Scott you know there is a um a large portion of people who are on a fixed income there are I think it's like between 10 and 15% who are under 200% of the federal poverty line right and there's you you see that in your title
one students so you know increasing the budget is great um but it does have an effect and it has an outsize effect on people with limited income and fixed income and um you know as a parent I'd love to double the school budget but um we we can't do that but I hope um you know um personally that you know we something will get worked out um but
it's not it's not out of ill will that we're trying to you know look tight at the numbers it's because there are people other people that we have to look out for too so I just wanted to say that thank you thank thank you Eric appreciate the words thank you very much um hold on one sec just okay um thank you Eric appreciate it uh any other public comment please raise your hand we'd love to hear from
you uh okay uh Miss cobett hold on for one sec let me just get over to you and uh give you the mic okay Gina go ahead just please introduce yourself hi I'm Gina kobit I'm a parent of two through the High School 57 wellnut as well as a teacher at the middle school um thank you for letting me speak tonight I just want to thank
all of you for all the hard work you're doing and I wanted to say I appreciate the fact that you're looking at the numbers as hard as you are and hopefully people on the finance committee will be able to search hard and help out because I have seen the difference between my daughter who's a 12th grader and my son who's a 10th grader and the offerings from middle school to high school and they do change and it's unfortunate so I'm hoping hoping for the kids behind them and for my son who still has two more years that there will be the same
offerings and more so thanks again and I appreciate the time keep up the good work you're you're so welcome you're so welcome J I can't believe you haven't seen here in high school wow gosh well congratulations on that thank you very much um sure okay um anyone else want to address the school
committee going up and down one last time I do not see anyone thank you for uh to Gina and Eric the your comments much appreciated all right um actions and votes uh we already voted on the budget we already voted on the donation so um we don't really have one more donation oh do y okay so that didn't print off so miss Angel is G I just asked you to I don't I
I think it's it's linked to the agenda if somebody can the agenda sorry let me go over here oops Rong hold on sorry two computers go at the same time here here uh agenda oh you're right I do apologize um okay um talked about that so let me just open it up
here okay um this was submitted by uh Linda o'i um uh High School athletics and it is it was donated by there's multiple people on here I don't think I have that oh I do um okay so I'm going to just because I have to look sideways on here so hold on one sec all right so let me start again here hold on let me just go to the top of the page um
so the following donors um Ros Nadler Susan O'Brien the Shapiro family these are um the Shapiro family and Miss Nadler from swampkat um Sue O'Brien is from from uh Rockland um Maryanne and I'm sorry I'm going to butcher your name uh mesman from AUB Dale and uh Virginia Dodge from
swampit and they are donating a total of $455 uh to the athletic department in the memory let me just do this there you go in the memory of uh coach D fiz um um as we we gave Mr deis a moment of silence last last meeting to those donors again it is so appreciative
that anyone thinks of the school department when they want to make a donation so on behalf of the school committee I do appreciate um the donation of $455 um we will just have a vote to accept the donation can someone please make a motion I'll make the motion thank you can someone second please I'll second thank you Suzanne yes Karen yes
John uh Amy yes and I will vote Yes again thank you to those donors um who made the donation in memory of Coach uh D Fise $455 again it's very generous of you and I know the athletic department will uh use that money wisely so thank you thank you very much um thank you superintendent for pointing that out I just it didn't print off on my page all right um as I was saying so we don't really have a consent agenda because there's only one item on there that's
the regular session minutes of J uh January 23rd 2025 and someone please make a motion to accept those minutes I'll make the motion great someone second please I'll second great thank you uh John yes okay Suzanne yes Karen yes Amy yes and I will also vote Yes on that minute so we come to the time of the program uh before we do a journ I do want to thank everybody for their
discussions this evening those um my fellow school committee members the uh The District administration those folks who have stayed on the line um we had a total of about 6065 at its apex uh and that's just on the zoom that's not counting YouTube or Facebook B and I think that just goes to show uh everybody how important this budget is but how everybody views our school department so with that can someone
please make a motion to adjourn I'll make the motion someone second please I'll second all right Suzanne yes Karen John yes Amy yes I will also vote Yes we are adjourned thank you everybody see you thank you all right Glenn I'm gonna end the streams great thank you so much for
hanging with us I appreciate all your work