welcome everyone this is the finance committee meeting today is Tuesday February 11th 2025 um it is 6:32 I'd like to call this meeting to order with a pledge of allegiance flag United States of America to The Republic it stands one nation
under God indivisible liberty and justice for all under Mass General law section uh chapter 30A section 20f this meeting is being recorded this meeting is being held in a hybrid meeting in accordance with the governor of Massachusetts March
12 2020 order suspending certain provisions of the open meeting law GLC 30A section 20 and on March 29th 2023 Governor Hy signed a supplemental 2023 budget Bill allowing for remote and hybrid meetings in public spaces through
March 31st 20 25 um I'll introduce the finance committee members that are here tonight so we have Duncan law Al Cindy Brown myself Karen Rouse Christopher Thrasher and remotely we have Hugh Morton um I'd like to to uh let the
school committee open up their their meeting tonight as well so Evan jro is here thank you madam chair I'm calling this uh meeting of the Westport school committee to order Tuesday February 11th 2025 at 6:33 p.m. we do not yet have a quum but we are opening it in the event that we do so thank you madam chair
thank you very much well welcome um we're continuing with our department budget meetings uh and tonight we have the school department here to present the meeting and so um we have Mr General here i' like um we have Mr Auburn is uh
remote so hello Tom nice to see you hell Tom hi Tom and we Christopher Thrasher also from the school committee and and madam just to clarify um uh because the voters of Westport didn't vote me as a school committee member for this particular
meeting uh I am going to be uh acting uh exclusively as a school Committee Member and we'll shall we say join in after uh after this presentation is done okay just to be clear all right well thank you so um I'd like to open the meeting
to Evan so Evan you can um introduce everyone who else is here and then you can start your presentation for us thank you very much and thank you to the members of the finance committee uh we have joining us as well Melissa suer from the business department at Westport Community Schools and also Michelle Raposa our business manager uh who's
also controlling the presentation today uh I just want to first thank them for their efforts and both putting this together and for uh compiling this presentation I think there's a lot of great information in there and I know that the finance committee had received an advanced copy of it uh and I know
that following this we're certainly open to questions and look forward to the discussion discussion thank you okay so um just starting off with the presentation here this is our fiscal year 2026 proposed budget that the
school committee uh approved in January um we had started this process earlier in the fall and met with uh the leaders of different departments in the school district uh met with um building leaders
or building principles identify what needs that that they had and they presented those to us and the committee met over the last few months and went through those and uh decided which were you know they were all important needs
of course uh as we all know but we had to you know knowing the situation that the town's in with our budget and continues to be in um we had to prioritize those and and you know present a budget that we feel reflects the highest priority needs of the district so that's what uh this
committee voted on in January um but just wanted to give background on the the process and and how we got there so um and I know that Melissa and Michelle worked very hard uh on their end as well on that yes so this first uh slide in the presentation here just it's a Globe
article but um just sort of underscores the the issue that not only you know schools but also Municipal services in general are facing as a result of the the cost passed on from inflation and I guess macroeconomic factors uh that are certainly I think Amplified for entities
like a school district that that take in so many different types of materials and we have U food costs that we absorb the the increase of there's Transportation expenses that are passed on to us so we a lot of those are reflected in in our budget line as well as the High um sped
costs as well tuition and transportation that go along with those of the mandated legal requirements that we must provide so going to our next slide here this just gives an overview of where we'll go we have a message from superintendent here uh Financial
overview we'll go through our enrollment uh unfunded and anticipated needs that the district has we'll look at our revolving accounts and also special education I know this was um a topic last year the district had 750,000 of unanticipated expenses in the last
fiscal year um and I know that was a topic of discussion so we'll outline that uh again for this fiscal year and what that looks like uh going FY 26 G I just wanted to let you know Dr Pico has joined the meeting so does now
you do have a quum thank you welcome Melissa okay all right so moving to our blueprint for continuous student Improvement uh Tom do you want to do you want to take this and the uh the message from the
superintendent if you don't mind yeah I can make this very quick thank you one of the things that has become abundantly clear is that there is no one- siiz fits all in terms of educating our kids and this has uh become brutally um aav uh and so what we're trying to do in an
effort to maximize uh the uh quality of the education at Westport is to really personalize the education for our kids whether they want to go and you know hopefully apply and get accepted to our NY League school or whether they want to go directly to into the workforce uh we
need to provide those accommodations because unfortunately by 2030 it's approximated that 50% of the jobs that currently exist will not be around so we have to take this into consideration when we're educating our kids and it requires us to be both Nimble and uh be
able to uh you know move in a moment's notice so uh I think we're doing an excellent job it's credit to our incredible staff and uh uh it's an honor to be called superint this great District thank you Tom and and you know just to know what I mean the the
administration has met and continuously uh meets to go over ways to improve we actually the school committee just met with our building leaders to discuss Improvement plans for for our schools as well and uh you know in addition to that we have a lot of great things happening at Westport schools we have increased
enrollment we have a lot of great acceptances to different universities Tom I don't know if you wanted to mention a couple of those just to highlight yeah I absolutely will we are just had a senior that has received a full ride to Boston University we have another student that got
accepted into New York University which has an acceptance rate of somewhere just about 5% so you know when you take those two students and we have many more I don't want to go through like every one of them obviously but uh if kids are getting into bu for a free ride in uh um
you know the uh University of New York or New York University uh it's just that um we're doing a a bang up job considering the uh situation we have that first page that uh gend U mentioned uh clearly indicates that the school um
Opportunity Act which was passed in place of the original funding uh mechanism that passed in 1993 uh may have helped Gateway communities but it has not done anything for communities like Westport and we're seeing the damages and still managing to move
forward withs that's a credit to everyone that's involved in the schools and our community as well thank you Tom uh so going to slide uh 10 here with the budget Focus areas
so our FY 26 increase is just over 6% from fy2 in our proposed budget um about half of this is our contractual so that's made up of uh both both of our bargaining units increases along with uh
our other administrative staffs increases and we also uh are looking at about $100,000 of contract actual increase for transportation expenses for this fiscal year right so if we take that into account as well that really brings us like 4% of this 6% increase is
really contractual if we take a look at the other 2% are additional which we consider level of service but additional increases right and uh just to highlight some areas here educator support facilities and safety so there are
constant changes with especially with professional development we like to provide opportunities to administrative staff to to better serve our students Community engagement technology is a an important piece a lot of districts are are seeing are struggling with keeping up with their cyber needs uh cyber
security is continuously identified as an area for improvement uh not only for West Corp for a lot of school districts so um trying to make sure that we invest in infrastructure and uh also that our students are able to have access to devices that are keeping up with the
needs of the workforce and that they're prepared for that so that's all of important um we've received earmarks in the past for technology Investments uh through Senator rodri's office I know that our zspace has done very well in terms of providing students
opportunities uh outside of just the core academic fields and allowed them to look into Fields like engineering or the medical uh industry so that has really uh done well for our students and we're looking to sustain that going forward is is Our Hope
um so looking at our uh if you go to page 12 our recommended budget so the final fiscal 25 budget was 22,651 27 proposed FY 26 is 24, 4,788 which is about a 1.4 uh million
dollar increase over FY 25 um so that what that's comprised of if you go to the next page it lists all of those uh the increases that from the FY 25 to FY 26 recommend the budget so
the largest piece is the contractual obligations with our teachers union um so we approved um a new three-year contract earlier this year sorry in uh in 2024 so this is reflective of of that change our
other bargaining unit asme uh their increases are in there as well non-union obligations of about $82,000 the transportation expenses I noted about $100,000 utility um including electric
increases about 65 and $225,000 for custodian and electric increases SRO training 1500 business technology teacher so this was a position that had shifted over from uh the the town was covering that was this this position was
also half uh school teacher so it was teaching courses in the district and that was the town had decided to shift that um solely to the town responsibility so that person was no longer teaching courses so this this
budget figure reflects uh keeping that uh that course there maintenance and custodial of$ 37,7 these are increases uh for those expenses including boiler cleaning the generator costs Z energy and fire alarms districtwide laptops fouryear
replacement so of 153,000 so I think think what the intention here of the of the committee was uh was instead of looking every four or five years to frontload 400 $500,000 of Technology costs to replace student and staff
devices this would put it on sort of a set schedule so we can cycle devices and uh so we would have a certain portion of student devices that are phased out every four years or so staff devices can last a little longer just because of
some of them are desktops they may be different so this we asked our our technology department to look into essentially the useful life of those devices and and put that into a into a cycle and this is this was the number that was arrived at um so we thought it was a way to put this in the operating
budget that wouldn't impact you know be a larger hit say in four or five years time at at a single you know in a single fiscal year so that was the intention here um districtwide software light speed 57,000
uh this is for uh the student devices this is to maintain compliance I believe with uh Melissa can you provide some more on that yes that's um light speed that was the Cyber making sure that the kids were protected and going into different websites and so forth as well
as our phone um maintenance and also digit digitalizing um our HR and mandated training that we have to do every year for new staff so this was the different softwares to make that happen Mr Robin yes I just want to mention that
the light speed piece um uh part of that was making sure that we were in compliance with laws that involve uh uh you know internet and computer usage by our students when they take their devices home so it's you know this was not something we just wanted to add to
we wanted to make sure we're in legal compliance thank you the next piece teaching assistance that we're new in fiscal 25 so those were funded by in this fiscal year by rural Aid correct we're unsure of what that looks like for next fiscal year the
cuts that we could be facing so we're we're trying to plan for that this year thank goodness that we did receive the rural Aid to be able to because there were three new um teaching consistence that are mandatory based on the students needs so because of that relief funding that Grant funded allow us to at least stay within the budget for this year but
not sure what we're facing next year in Cuts grants thank you and uh the other item on this list is a new therapeutic class so this the net cost here is 111,000 but this cost is uh
the total cost is higher than that this is the net cost after considering age outs from our um our special education so this was out of District placements that have aged out so the Savings in the fiscal year would would cover a portion of this um and this the intention here
of including this is that not only we'll be able to uh keep a couple of students in District but we could also uh our our special ucation directors believe that we could also um uh potentially bring some students back in District which would be
a cost savings as well uh on the out of district line at least right because we know just District placement between tuition and transportation you're talking anywhere 140,000 so with one student be able to bring that and to accommodate for other students is definitely a savings that we would have
to beay you know be paying out right so that is our uh list and that's that arrives at the 24, 4,788 um going to the next
slide these are these break down the contractual obligations um a bit more especially on the again the transportation um below the total contractual staff is 700 100,000 that's
530 of that is from our teachers union the other 87 is from our other bargaining unit asme and non-union 82,000 the others uh the the next two pages break those other items down that we had just
discussed um I don't think there was any more information on those no it's just breaking it down by categories or departments for you everything that was on that previous page right and again this so this next slide just shows the total increase from fy2 and
again that's the 6.1% um I think that was something Karen that you would like to see into those category so it was just another way of just breaking it down to each building and maintenance Support Services um instructional administrative cost so
just the percentages appreciate that thank you the next slide uh is a comparison FY 25 to FY 26 but again by category so this breaks down our special education salaries special education expenses um
transportation expenses those total about $2.1 million regular education about uh just over 16 million um so that's just a comparison through each category so you can see that uh by fiscal year and so slide 18 touches on the
unfunded requests so these are items that were included from our department heads and identified by building leaders as needs and ones that the the school committee after going through them did not include in the proposed budget but we wanted to note here just as as items
for needs going forward curriculum uh curriculum Department we've seen some real I think improvements in curriculum in general especially with literacy our curriculum director Lisa Kaminsky has done a great job especially um at the mcumber and the elementary school with
moving the needle on uh on assessments for reading and getting students up to grade level so and I credit her with implementing programs that have really worked there and and I do have to credit her too she's been fantastic about writing different grants which also gives us that extra funding to be able
to do a lot of these these uh you know the different helping in the reading as you said and math at different levels just so I I understand the tense this says unfunded requests for FY 25 should that be 26 is that okay all right so just so I understand that it's not the
current year budget deserve the prize for that didn't know how many chance we looked through this you didn't notice that good I just want to make sure I understood the tens it's always the stuff in the bold print yeah and just on on the the literacy piece actually we have the the commissioner the Desi commissioner is is
visiting uh Westport this week um and one of the areas that he's interested in is is the literacy programs that that uh the district has implemented so that's a I think a real credit to the district that desie has uh expressed interest in that uh Mr Robin yeah just just for the
advertisement of the group that the commissioner is coming down exactly what Shar General said he's going to be taking time looking at a wildly successful uh literacy program that involved high dosage tutoring during the school year which was paid for through State funding which unfortunately was
reduced but due to our advocacy uh they did manage to put some funding into it for this year and they're looking at NE technical program which I believe is going to be a model for the State uh which will allow comprehensive schools like Westport to train their students in
vocational education uh as we know uh many of us kids are uh not um due to the uh admissions ruls or whatever are not able to access uh the education that they very well need so these are two
very big uh um um very big uh initiatives and I think the commissioner is is it is a recognition of the great work they've done thank you Tom um so just going down this list the the total here is
about just under 1.2 million of unfunded needs that are that have been identified by staff uh in the district that we have met about and I know you know one of these items for example is our summer school that we unfortunately cut in last
year's budget um and didn't make it get in so uh that's another item that I know the the community has expressed interest in bringing back so I'm you know I'm hopeful in the future we can support that um some of these other items include teaching assistance that I know
would alleviate some of our staff we know that especially in our elementary school we have some larger class sizes now that are creeping up towards the 30 number which is difficult for especially in younger grades to to manage that um
and it's certainly helpful to have more staff there so that's uh certainly a need um there are a number of you'll see the Middle High School teachers as well uh that are there uh including our gu a guidance director that hasn't been something the district's had and I think
is a need given again growing enrollment there right now the grades are sort of split between a couple of staff there and it can be difficult to to manage um business teachers media integrated arts teachers math interventionists so that's that's to address a need that
we've identified in our in our math uh curriculum that students might need some more support there so that reflects that um and again these items total just just under 1.2 million and going on to the next slide this looks at our enrollment
Trends so we continue to increase enrollment um and Tom do you want to note the the change um the nine number I know you there was some Nuance to that that you had mentioned on on how it's counted in younger grades yes as a matter of fact I know that
Michelle has worked very closely with Felicia Pico because we were stun that the increase was only nine students so uh if it's okay through the chair if uh Mrs maposa could actually elaborate a little bit more on
that can everybody he me I'm not sure can anybody hear me yes we can hear you so preschool State revised the how they calculate PR school
they no longer will give us Chapter 70 money for paying preschool students so we have about 67 preschool students and we only now can get
reimburse through Chapter 70 for about like 18 students because so many of them are thank you Michelle I don't want you to that's that's that's thank you know that felt so painful so thank you for trying so it it has to do with the way
that Chapter 70 is is calculated for our preschool students but this number see much larger increase and again this is not this is not a one take a look at the data this is an increase year after year important for me to say this because in 2019 when we were
talking about the budget situation that took place in why the schools were suffering financially we were told by our legislative delegation that it was clearly an enrollment problem we had lost 450 students over the last year and now if you take a look at the trends moving forward they've gone up and gone
up significantly yeah thank you Tom and I've noted this in the past but this is a you know it's a good problem to have you know there are certainly programs and it's a credit to the staff again on on uh how our programs have been implemented in the district and it's
been attracting students and retaining students as well uh which is very important uh we used to see a drop off as we get further into you know the middle school and the high school and we're seeing that to a lesser extent now um which I think is because of the programs that have been implemented and
students really a lot of this has been about personalizing education and making sure that we're tailoring it to the needs of of our students and and meeting their needs and I think that you know we able to do that to a large extent despite the resources that that we have um so going ahead to our uh school lunch
program so our lunches are our meals are done through revolving accounts and this and students no longer pay for uh for lunch um but this just shows the the enrollment Trend
there um and again I'll credit Michelle with this our lunch program has really received a lot of great attention over the last last year we've partnered with a lot of uh houselight organizations on this the Maran Institute being one of them uh farmed a table uh you know to
help bring Local Foods in the district and also teach children about the way that that works which I think isil really NE yeah the different programs that's great next slide looks at uh per pupil
expenditures so I know this can be difficult metric to to compare to uh when you get into per pupil but uh you know Westport is sort of in the middle of the pack there uh but below the state middle of the pack with the list but below the state average um of
21377 the next slide looks at uh free cash over the last few fiscal years since fy21 to fy2 um you know last year as a result of the town meeting vote that this was uh increased um so that was the obviously
the jump from FY 24 to 25 and the next two go over the budget process and our timeline that we've that we've had uh starting with our July end of fiscal year meeting and uh following through to when we began having budget
sessions back in September to identify some of those needs uh that we talked about earlier and federal and state grants on the next page I know there's been discussion on these and what will happen particularly with Federal funding so
that's been a large uncertainty Tom I know you were you had been talking with other districts and what they were expecting in terms of uh reductions there can you elaborate on that Mr Robin absolutely y um absolutely the um Massachusetts Association of
school superintendents have told schools Bas on you know what's going on to uh possibly expect a 25% in the title is one uh uh two 3 a or something like that for our purposes and we show you don't
have to just shake yes or no um that would be somewhere around1 133 $160,000 that we were looking at if I remember correctly yes that is right Tom that is correct okay additionally um just across the uh wire today the uh Trump Administration
has made significant cuts to the Department of Education we are trying and we're we're gracing for the possibility that uh this would include Grant so again everything's up in the air right now as far as Federal funding and it it really is concerning because we are a district that always is on the
margin So to that type of funding would be devastating thank you chair thank you and just to highlight I mean that's a a considerable uncertainty uh going into the next fiscal year a hit of 130,000 for a district of this size is pretty
significant um as I'm I know you all understand but that's I know was on the minds of Michelle Melissa yes looking at the budget so especially that you know we offset the budget over 207,000 with teaching salaries for both
the west and the middle high school so that would be not much more funds that we're needing to to find in the operating right and these are all laid out on the the following page slide 26 as well uh the the state and federal grants that have been received uh since
fy21 are all laid out there so in FY 25 these total just under a million dollars um so we have a a significant Reliance on on grant funding yes and and the decrease a lot of it too was to do with
the um the Essa funds being right no longer being available but I think we did a great job in making sure that we didn't structurally you know deficit and oppositions that were funded by Esser so I have a question there's no question that the um
um grants and pardon me Federal funding State funding whatever is is going to change I mean here we my question though is that since 2019 2020 how much of a buildup has the town
had in programs personnel whatever it might be that were a direct result of the grants and were was there a sunset on on these or are we expecting
the town to pay for something that was initiated by a grant now the grants are going but the the the department the Personnel whatever it might be um is not going and I don't know the I I'm asking
the question I don't know the answer I'm not making a value judgment yeah I can tell Esser was not used for those expenses uh recurring salary expenses um so when that Sunset it we weren't as concerned with that because we we hadn't
baked that into our into our budget okay now I know that do you want to touch on some of the other well I know that the title The Essa which are the title one title two and title four a lot of those are entitlement so we have been fortunate to be getting those they're not competitive so basically what we
relied on those for salaries have been consistent over the years okay in helping funding as well as the sped entitlement in early childhood sped entitlement as we said that's one of the um offsets of the budget we rely on that over 300,000 to offset our tuition costs
so those we've been fortunate being entitling grants that we and we've been able to carry those over the past few years okay they've only been formula grants that were ones that we not competitive so we're not we're not unsure fiscally year to fiscal year which ones are y okay being included
this is probably what we're facing possibly for next year and cuts 25% and my years that I've been here is the highest that on those entitlement grants that we've been right having to face so okay and what percentage I'm sorry Karen please I think in just to answer I think in your one of your previous slides
there was a $90,000 rural grant that that's I think potentially that's that's potentially that was funded by a grant that would then roll off whatever and that was because that was a need within the fiscal year
so normally that wouldn't be the case but that was one that was those were needs within the that we hadn't planned for uh in the last cycle I think two years ago there were positions that were funded by Esser funds that then did come into the operating budget so I think
that was two years ago there may there may have one but it was only temporary I believe few I don't think it was a permanent one I think it was Mr Robin yes that might have been a science one science you correct it might have
been a science position I believe that one of them was a response to the mental health issues that was caused by the co uh situation and I believe we it was a uh um a sack that we actually was it I
just want to make sure Melissa there was a sack as well yes right I apologize if I misspoke there that's okay if I could but in other words but I I want to note that that there were some districts that were relying significantly on eser funds I mean I
believe Brockton may have been one of them there were other districts that that were relying you know in the millions of dollars on you know funding their full-time teaching positions through uh these Esser funds which was known that they had a right you know an
end date if I could follow up with Mr Lee's question regarding the the title one title two and title four if those prog if you funding for those programs were cut significantly what would be the impact would you decrease that program
or look to the town to absorb the program I think is is that kind of what you were exactly that's an incredibly complex question so I can tell you certainly that you know there are mandated um you know through special education we
would have no alternative to hire whomever it was decided was needed uh based on team meetings that take place that drive the determination of Staffing so that is one that we really have no uh jurisdiction over relative to you know
just being able to cut we can't do that so what we would have to do is we have to make up those cut somewhere else okay so it it would be um it would be pretty profound okay and just to your point I think the town as a whole including the school has
have really done a terrific job using essr funds and arper funds to really try to look at and using them for onetime funds and not baking them in because it's just like using free cash where and once those funds go away you keep funding it so um no it was just a
comment it was I think everyone's done a terrific job and we've been conscious and watching that too so right and what's unique about you know just to get back to the federal funding is those were you know again formula based so we we had a
a somewhat good idea of what that would look like coming in year to year um and it wasn't a you know significant question on it's not the same as applying for a third party Grant and and wondering whether or not you can support a position or whether you'll get it in
the next year uh so that's I think what makes that unique um but sending to your point I think that would be significant for the district because we would I I mean the school committee would certainly look at every
option uh but I mean you'd you'd have to look at staff Cuts you'd have to look at program cuts um none of which are are ideal um fortunately so is Tom I think Tom has a tom tom yeah just a quick
statement I am extremely proud of how we used our ESA funds and our Opa funds and I can tell you that um uh every one of our schools uh currently has uh UV lighting uh in it to try and mitigate uh
all of the different respiratory uh diseases so when we came together as a team we looked at this money as a one shot deal and how could we maximize it not just for today and tomorrow but into the future so I'm really proud of what we've done and we have safe abilities
and I think we've seen um um a mitigation of what could have been AB on the part of staff and students have we not had that and if you take a look at all the research in terms of the learning loss it's clear that getting students back into school is is
critical and I'm just so proud that we have done the things to try and make that happen uh especially being a district that never has any money and it would have been easy for us to rationalize spending foolishly and we just chose not
to thank you Tom okay thank you there any more questions on that piece or okay so looking next at our revolving accounts uh this lays at all of our revolving accounts we have a use of school property uh
preschool uh supplies of materials student Athletics our out of school time program which still operates out of the old high school um in one of the corridors there uh Insurance claim school choice scholarship transportation
and school launch those are our revolving uh well so is there anything of note in those that want to point out or you can see we you showed the balances of last year initiate to see the pretty consistent you know use of those those revolving funds
yeah okay moving to our next section here on special education um I apologize I'm just getting my slide okay so this looks at the claim threshold through every fiscal year the
reimbursement percentage uh this is passed by the legislature each fiscal year um and the reimbursement percentage for out of District transportation uh these are the yearend claims so if we look at fiscal 24 uh inance fiscal uh 20 the
reimbursement percentage has been 75% but as a result of the claim threshold the re the actual re percentage continues to decrease so uh you know we saw a larger percentage in the last fiscal year actually if you go to the the next slide this lays it out in some
more uh detail for the two fiscal years so the refunds received in FY 24 were 47% after you reduced the net claim for the reimbursement uh if you compare that to the funds received in FY 25 that
was only 43% of those costs so that's after you hit the Foundation limit and then you correct the percentage the 75% only applies to the amount that's above that so the district is only reimbursed for those expenses above that that claim threshold so the net is after you factor
in the amount that was expended on the the claim threshold uh so that has has yeah I think that's confusing when you hear we reimburse 70 to 75% of the of the sped claims basically the first so if you look at 100,000 or 140,000 the
first 52 is 52,000 is the cap so what happens is you get reimbursed above the 52% at 75% of that so we're not even at the point when once you exceed the 52 which is the cap we're not even reimbursed at 100% or reimbursed at the
SE anywhere between 70 to 75% so the net effect of that is if you look at the total claims we really don't we receive about 40 about 45% of the cost of that right thank you and that slide also looks at the the number of students there the
total eligible claim expenses and the net reimbursement uh claim as well are all outline there and just to point out too we it's always the year after so it's the claims that we receive in this year would be the claims for last year is what we receive so that's why earlier
when I was alluding to the the age outs uh from those those were age outs in the last school year that are received those are those aren't those savings aren't realized until the the next fiscal year so once those age outs happen that's not a really a savings
until following following yeah uh this looks at the process so every July the circuit breaker report is filed uh September October is when the first quarter payment is received um and then invoices are processed through the
bill warrant and charged to that to that account uh the total tuition cost FY 25 $1.4 million uh estimated circuit breaker reimbursement $810,000 uh the entitlement grant for FY 25 340,000 so the total fy2 budget amount
was uh 284,000 yeah so to clarify if we didn't have this circuit breaker reimbursement at the 800 and sped entitlement we would be budget budgeting in operating budget at 1.4 to is but in since we're we're budgeting the 284 so those funding source definitely you can
see how that helps us to fund our budget right the next slide looks at uh Chapter 70 uh which is the funding that we received from the state and if you look at the fy2 comparison FY 26 it's under
$200,000 uh of an increase and you know that the I guess the the level of increase has not kept up with the needs that we've experienced and that again is not unique to Westport but that's a a problem or or inflation
for that matter exactly right and it hasn't it it it hasn't at least in my estimation and I won't go on a rant and 2008 if I am correct was the last time that there was a
real dollar to-dollar match between what the state was reimbursing us for it and then after that it took a major dip during the financial crisis and then has never kept up with um inflation so we're in the position that we're in right now as well as many other
cities and towns this goes back 15 years right or more but and there's a there's also on that point there's a statutory cap on the inflation adjustments in Chapter 70 as well that's included in Mass General
law so that that cap stays sort of a change from the legislature um and we know how inflation has been over the last few years uh so that's one of the many reasons why this this funding has not kept up with and we know how the legislature is as well so we'll leave it
to that there have been several bills just to adjust the the inflation cap alone that haven't been touched in at least two sessions so yes is there anything else you want to add on chapter
7 all right I think that concludes the presentation i' be happy to answer questions can you talk about the $100,000 for transportation that seems like a big increase I mean is that typical or atypical or what's what you
want um I I mean is that a new contract is that yes there was a new contract yes so so that's reflective of their charges to the district and so that's why it's also it kind of jumped out of Athletics as well it's solely athletic it's solely the athletic part right that when
100,000 that's that's a majority of that portion of it yes so it's not the the yellow buses that think about maybe 30,000 of it is the increase but the rest of it yes and also there's been more Sports and More right right that
also also that you know I've received some uh questions from members of the community that ask you know about bus routes why can't we consolidate why can't we take some off the road there are certain requirements with um not only Capac but also how long those buses
can be on the road um so that's a a consideration when looking at those so you can you can only reduce them to to a certain extent right I wasn't I wasn't even thinking I I just want to know why it was a big number yeah there was a there was a new contract as well so that yes um and I know Michelle works very
hard to looking at those routes and and uh making sure that we we get the most for our and I believe we brought in the consultant to even to look at that and reduce change some things within the contract to be able to see what we could save on that years the buses there's a few you know quite a few things within
the contract that they did change Hugh you have your hand up yeah I just to I don't want to introduce reality into discussion excellent presentation Etc but this is
6% as required questioned we all know the L of the town is restricted at 22% maybe a little bit from excise taxes or this and that to generously 3% and there's no way to make a 6% increase go
into overall Revenue to account 3% I know there are other AR out there we all know about it very unfortunately I have no negative say about the presentation of the analysis Etc excellent we just all the
money thank you Mr Morton uh just to comment on that I I felt that it was important for the committee to present a budget that reflects the needs of of the students uh in the town I know that we continue to it it's not it I think it would be somewhat different uh if we
were seeing a steady enrollment or no change or a decrease in enrollment but that's not the case and we have certain static expenses that that you know are are the same whether you're a district of you know a larger District or a
district like Westport that we have to incur um and on top of that the additional expenses that come with just an increase in enrollment right you have greater use of facilities so that means you have greater maintenance costs you have uh more students so you have to uh fund more
classrooms if you're doing what you need to do surveying the universe need to do go for it I'm just saying it's a very nice presentation I had no negative about it of course would go the money yeah I'd like I'd like to I'm
sorry I'm probably the only person sitting here that spends two days a week in the school in front of students and you know as a community we have no greater responsibility than to educate our children and I get it you but the
point is we have a revenue problem in this town and you know we're sitting here nickel and diming the school committee and we are just absolving ourselves of that responsibility I mean at some point we got to figure out how to increase
revenues and put the programs in place that Tom and Evan are advocating I mean I'm just tired of this I mean you know you say 30 you shouldn't have with a brand new school that's 3 years old you shouldn't have more than 20 kids in a
class and I'm in classrooms with 25 26 27 all the time and I don't care how good a teacher you are you can't deliver the goods in with that many kids and most of them that way so we need more
teachers we need more staff I mean we need more of everything and I I realize I'm I'm this is poana but but at some point we got to stop this you know blocking of prop two and a half overrides or whatever it is and we've
got to deal with with our children and I I can't emphasize that enough and I am just sick and tired of this it is it is yeah I know but okay so we need to be creative I mean I'm sorry Hugh we need to be creative I mean there's a voting
block there's a voting block that will not allow an override and we need to figure out how to get around that voting block I mean Al went to to the mat you know last time and you know I mean I raised my kids in in the town of Westwood and yeah we we invested in our
schools invest in our kids and you know you can look at the difference and I Duncan I I appreciate your comments and to that point um you know I I think that the the town certainly values uh our schools I mean last year the there was a motion made at
town meeting uh to allocate additional funding to the school department and um you know I would I would characterize it as almost unanimous judging by the the The Voice vote that it was a Voice vote but it it was significant support at Town meetings so clearly Our Community
Values uh the schools and the service that we provide our students and uh sees us as an important part of our of our town unfortunately it's not enough people that's the problem I mean I think the the parents appreciate the support that the school system provides for the
community but when it came to an override vote I was with on those weekly calls I mean we met for several weeks trying to come up with several months uh to come up with a way to try to enhance revenues through an override uh and it
it failed miserably um two to one we don't get the same support when it comes to The Ballot Box we didn't get the same support uh overall to to increase those revenues the the part that everyone has to remember absent of that Revenue increase it's a pile
it is one piie and the schools right now take up 54% of that Pi 20% comes from Public Safety so you're at 74% another 15% comes from um goes to uh required
payments pension payments insurance payments for the town for the buildings for the employees and whatnot those are payments that have to be made that used to be 7% of the budget it's now 15% of the budget due to increased costs just like everything else that that you
experience the towns side faces that those same issues so if you add those numbers up that's 90% we have $52 million roughly that we get from taxes that leaves 10% that has wiggle room that's $5
million if we were to fund the requested amounts and I'm not saying that they are not justified I agree it was an excellent presentation we certainly understand the needs and the desires to be able to provide a topnotch level um
level of service for uh for the schools I I came through the public schools here in town I I want to see them continue to to excel but that $5.2 million that I left given the request here 20% of that would have what which
department should we close there is no other funding there is no other funding now there's free cash but we know that that is living on borrowed time I defy any one of you here to tell me that every year when you sp when you do your allocation of budgeting expenses in your
own budget that you are not taking money out of your savings account every year to make ends meet and if you do it's not sustainable that there's an end run that all of a sudden you go oh what happened I don't have any that savings account is
empty how am I going to now provide for what I've built up up that is not sustainable to keep compounding those numbers creates a very dangerous problem in the future we do have ample free cash
this year that does not mean that we should use that for programs that we can't sustain going forward I would love to be able to fund all of those things but you're really looking at $5 million that's left and that's it so if you take a million of that an additional million
that's not even counting the free cash a lot an additional million out of that I don't know whose budget we're going to cut we'd have to either cut the library cut the Council on Aging budget perhaps cut even if we cut the um the
landfill the transfer station that's pretty much self-sufficient that only costs the town probably less than $100,000 a year in total so I don't know what we'd cut Recreation we'd cut Council on Aging we'd cut Library we have to cut something else because even those things don't even add up to a
million so I don't know where else the money would come from that's that's the problem as Duncan explained we have a revenue problem and right now we can't solve that absent of an override we tried an override and it failed miserably 17 have failed 17 have failed
and I guess what I'm saying is I I I get it I mean it's a ma it's a math thing you can do it in a spreadsheet and there's 5 million bucks I mean you're right but the point is I think as a finance committee and I think as a town we've got to be beat the drum I mean this has got to stop we beat it every
year but we got to figure out different ways or or more and I just want it on the record that you know that you know we want to fund all of those things and more I mean it should be you know 15% not six but you know I I just think I think just we all just acques that you
know we got we got the highway department down here fixing their own trucks and that's not that's not good either so something's wrong and I just want it on the record that something is radically wrong we held we held public forums we held uh I I know what you did
I was part I was part of it I was part of it it got whooped two to one yeah no it was two to one but you know very interesting how they it's a different group in the that comes to town meeting and they all are silent and then they show up so corre somehow we got to figure out how to how to win that battle
Yeah there's so many fundamental excuse me Karen please we have a couple of people left go for um so um there's a couple of people remote that uh have some questions and I then I want to turn it back a little bit to the school budget a little bit we migrated off very
importantly to how this fits into the fiscal budget but we might have a couple more questions on the school budget I certainly have a couple of questions to ask um so Melissa you have your hand up so go ahead Melissa Pico Melissa Pico Vice chair of the school committee um I just want to say uh a few comments um
this is a a systematic um systemic problem that has existed for many years and it starts from way back when I was on the school committee the first time and I can remember being at a finance committee and someone who I think is still on here asked us how we could have
a mediocre school department and it started back then with the underfunding of the schools and just has continued this whole idea of putting in for an override was you know banded against you know we included this the school so that in hopes of it would you know it would
uh it would pass but but it didn't work because it it it didn't but it's not about it's not about you know we're in this place because all of a sudden there's not enough funding no the town and the finance committee has not funded the schools the way it should have for
years and now we're at a place where we are finally starting to bring up our numbers in our high school and we're getting more money from the state which we should get the schools should get every additional penny that comes from the state for our students it shouldn't be split up 50 whatever enough that it's
split up 100% of what comes from the state because we have more students in our district should come to our district should come to our schools to fund what it needs to fund and this whole you know idea of of and I don't even know why we're talking about this because we're here to to share the budget what are
these are our needs you know when when you create a budget at home you're not going to take out the food you're going to put exactly what you need and then do everything to be able to try to fund it and that's what we need to do that's what we need to figure out what is the funding coming from from the state specifically because we have students in
our school and what percentage of that is going to our district because not 100% is and I I think that needs to be looked at and I also think what needs to be looked at is the free cash and how much funding when you talk about taking from the library and the rec we don't want to do that that's an important
aspect of our town but what we need to do is look at the funds that are available again that come from our school and I'd like to thank Evan for doing a fantastic job Administration for for working on a sh string budget thank you thank you chair could could I just
comment on and I'd like to comment too so so we we do that every year so the finance committee the Town Administrator along with the select board again it there is a pie and it it gets split as it can so um there's been discussion of
you know certain aspects of Revenue maybe should be 100% to the school but then that would mean that other Revenue would be 0% or something so overall 54% is kind of the average split that we try to sustain consistently so again if more
funds go to the school that means less funds go to a different department so there's only a certain amount of dollars that the town has um and so we try to consistently apply that uh percentage to keep both the town and the school uh
above water as or or or barely above water as best possible um go ahead Evan thank you Melissa thank you mam chair uh just to just wanted to touch briefly on the the override I just wanted to note that I I in my opinion the and I supported the override but I don't think
that that was a referendum on the school department necessarily if that was a a general override that included other line items I'm not saying that the town made a a value judgment about other departments versus the school department I just don't think that it was a a referendum on on the school department especially when you look at the result
of town meeting um the other part that I just wanted to to note was you know I I know we've had a you know there were about $3.5 million in free cash that was certified um last year so you know I normally wouldn't be
obviously going into free cash is not ideal um but I think when we've had a consistent relatively consistent amount over a certain dollar figure for a number of years and I think that that's you know been a I don't think that myself at least
wouldn't be as comfortable supporting that if that weren't the case um so I think when I look at that and see that there was that there's been a consistent amount in free cash over the last number of fiscal years that that's you know where some of that support came from in the the town
meeting Mr alurn you have your hand up thank you and U and Tom if I if I could just before that I just wanted to not one last thing sorry um that you know there's also like a notion in town C I'm not saying that that you I'm just saying in general um that the there's
sort of a school versus Town Department uh you know competition for for dollars in the in the in the budget and you know that's certainly not the impression that I want to give I I fully support you know the the great work that our police and fire department do our Highway Department our other Town departments um
so I I certainly wouldn't be advocating for a cut in those because I understand their needs as well so right and you know and I I also want to say that that that sometimes the tone is the finance committee won't support the school and that's just not accurate the the finance
committee is looking at all of the dollars and try to spend it in its best way to be uh fair and and allcable to everybody so uh it's not the finance committee doesn't want to support the school that is not the case I think there's everybody certainly is not my
intent everybody here wants to support this budget right uh as best they can and so there's not a person here that has criticized a single thing that that the school has has asked to spend the money on uh there's nothing critical
it's it's really the the overall fiscal dollars is what what we uh CH have challenged with go ahead Tom Tom no thank you um I I have to say that uh
when I was Superintendent at Diamond realize how easy I had it in the budget pay because we have no control over it the inequities between the vocational and the comprehensives are phenomenally gross and I won't get into
it today because all I can tell you is that I was looking to recruit a teacher from one of the vocals and I was only short about $155,000 in salary to fact that we have some departments that are working on really subsistent wages and I
I will look for the cafeteria workers in particular who I'm almost embarrassed to talk to them because I feel awful that their lives are the way they are as this is now my last Finance um um meeting uh I can tell you that this is one of the
most unpleasant um experiences I've ever had in my in my 41 years in education most communities find a way to support their schools because they understand that the quality of life in the town definitely Coates with quality of life
in the schools we are burning people out in a manner that you just can't understand unless you're in that building two years from now M proposer is going to be retiring you're going to need to hire two people to do what Michelle does and she's not the only one this is happening throughout the
buildings throughout the district and you know it's easy to talk numbers and that but these are human watching them kill themselves is brutal and I'm going to tell you that it's one of the things that I am not going to miss at all in that having to tell people they have to
do more and more and more with less and less and less so whatever you decide is is is whatever you decide this school department made a commitment that we will never go one Department against another we have all in this together but I can assure you that you know I think
we should be thinking at least in terms of the free cash about the fact that there's a good deal of leg that could directly impact some of these deficits that we're seeing right now and there's a big push in terms of circuit breaker and funding it at 90% if we funded
circuit breaker at 90% a lot of our our problems would go away am I right about that Melissa that definitely would help us for for sure time correct but but when you are talking to people in in in schools where we can't even get into the
stratosphere that means our kids are not getting the the brightest and and you know say whatever you want you got to pay for quality and and if you don't you're going to get mediocrity and you know what um while we're not where we need to be uh I'm extremely proud of
where we've come especially in of the devastation that this this country and the world fac during the time of Co so I thank you for indulging me in my long narrative and I apologize about being overly passionate about it but I see these people every day killing themselves
my heart that I can't do more for them Madam chair just a few comments and thank you thank you superintendent Alin for your comments I I uh I want to be really clear on a couple of things it's been said repeatedly here that the town has a revenue problem that is true but
as as uh superintendent Alin mentioned the unfunded mandates the the the the reimbursement formulas that come from the state have have crippled school systems around the Commonwealth it's not just a Westport Revenue problem it's a
problem with a a uh a a failure to prioritize what really needs to be prioritized at the state level uh and it's not just not just school funding I mean in general Municipal funding coming from the state level is it is abysmal and it has there seems to be no
political will to tackle what is a what is a problem that is that is crippling cities and towns across the state now a couple things I just I want to note on this on this budget here when we talk about priorities the things that you're seeing
as as proposed additionals these aren't these aren't this isn't a list of wants right you know we're talking for example I just want to make make a a a pitch here for the we talk about the new therapeutic class now what's not in this is the fact
that with a new therapeutic class that could likely keep us from losing children to out of District placements there was a a single student that was nearly $800,000 on on uh budget uh a couple years ago uh and and that's just
you know the average is usually around 100 thou 100,000 or so but I mean those outliers are there so you're talking about a a net cost of 111,000 and the possibility of saving hundreds of thousands of dollars over the next few years uh there there's you know things
like the we're talking about the replacing the the the districtwide laptops and Chromebooks so we're not we we the school committee and the school department worked very hard to figure out a way how can we make make this work and pinching pennies as much as
possible so you're talking about equipment that's already five years old we're not even talking about replacing it all in one in in one Fell Swoop here we're talking about uh staggering it out to a point where it won't affect the operating budget uh uh sign any more
than it already is uh for uh for you know instead of an allinone you're parsing it out over a few years here so you know we're talking about maintenance and and custodial supplies like that's these aren't you know that's going to go up everywhere so I I understand the idea
of of a a pie that is that is finite uh but I think we really have to look as a town at what our priorities are and I think that when you're talking about a situation as Miss Brown
mentioned it you know the money's got to come from somewhere we're not talking about taking money away from from any other Town departments I mean I I think I think we really have to fundamentally look at how uh how we end up with the amount of free cash that we're ending up with I think I think there's you know there's no
question that things are tight and that uh you know there is a revenue certainly a revenue shortfall shall shall we call it and it is systematic but we also need to look at are we manufacturing crises by by how we calc Cal these things so I
you know those are just my thoughts on on I'd like to keep us back on our school budget if we can and we're we're Jim had point we're kind of going off a little bit to the fiscal budget but so I just like to do a couple of comments one on the school funding the state aid from
that Chapter 70 that comes to the town is about $5.5 million school budget is up over $20 million um that we do this 54 46% split of new Revenue um every year whether that should be 56 or 60 I mean that can always be debated right
but the Chapter 70 the school side has benefited I shouldn't say benefited because we haven't got a chapter 7 but based on the formula for 10 years we were getting 30 $40,000 in new Revenue with Chapter 70
and the school budgets were increasing substantially more because of 54% split was actually benefiting them two years ago we got a bump up which was about $500,000 in Chapter 7 that kind of benefited the town side a little bit right because we split that new Revenue last year we dropped down to
$250 $60,000 so it's probably an even split this year the new revenue for Chapter 70 is only 116,000 so the 5446 split is actually going to benefit the school this year with the new Revenue um and the other thing I just want to say on the and Jim and that's a great point and and that's
kind of what I was trying to say keeping the 54% split keeps it an even Keel and just keeps the level of consistency so this way the school or the town aren't facing when those highs or lows come aren't getting any drastic change from it so
there's a level of consistency so thank you for putting that and overall everybody else's point out 70 new Revenue each year is minimal compared to most communities and that is probably the key factor that has hurt Westport over the years I mean you're talking
Millions over like an 8ye 10 year period for Swansea secon you need like 18820 million more in new Revenue just on that Chapter 70 formula than Westport has so that's one of the reasons why we're struggling the other thing is is free cash right we're finally got to a point
with the free cash that we got this year 3.5 is consistent with other communities in our area we've just become so accustomed to not having free cash or that it being so low that it's become the norm free cash was certified for FY 24 we've already made adjustments to
that number in fy2 which we're doing now so we've kind of reduced the we increased our Revenue projections that should eat into that free cash for fy2 and again this year with the budget we're going to bump that up a little bit more so you know I don't think you're going to see three I'd love to see 3.5
in a couple of years um but I don't think you're going to see that again um it's also onetime funding right and it's cumulative if we use free cash at town meeting or we use free cash to balance a budget it gets us through for a few months or a year but it's cumulative you know we're going in the wrong direction
we were 400,000 300,000 we went up 400 500 last year with 652 it's not sustainable and it's it's while it will help the department the town department and the school department for one year the following year if we do not have that free cash allocation it's going to
be devastating uh you know you're talking about Cuts now to get your budget down a little bit if you have to cut5 $600,000 from where you were the previous year it's going to be devastating right so that's that's one of the reasons why that's the main reason why we're cautious about using this free
cash I'm sorry I got that's okay that's okay I mean it all it all plays in so this is this is all an element of it so I wanted to ask a question really strategically for the school's point of view so um last year the Town
Administrator and we all met and had talked about A Five-Year Plan and that Five-Year Plan tried to lay out exactly what were you saying that the the school's budget should be able to sustain an increase of three to three and a half per per year and based on the
new revenue and the growth and clearly this budget right now is at 6% so that's outside of the norm outside of sustainability my question is it and we my question for the school and we didn't really talk about this specifically in
the past but you're you you've continued to talk about your enrollment is increasing which is a great thing but at what point do you reach maximum capacity and at what point does
strategically this become a bigger challenge for for the town to be able to support increased enrollment levels where where are you at capacity and do you have a fiveyear plan in terms of where you're anticipating the school
needs are and at what point will the school need more capacity well sir I think the the near term concern there is St especially in our younger grades because that's where you know if there's more families living in town you know they're starting if they're starting a family they're
starting their children in the younger grades right so the mcumber and the the elementary school are really where a lot of the classes are stretched I know there are certainly high school and middle school classes that are at that level as well so the I think the near-term issue is a is a staffing issue
um I mean space is always an issue as well uh but that's I'm not I'm certainly not asking for a for a building um uh but I think in the Neo term especially if you're looking at five years it's a it's really a staffing question I mean because we're seeing the the return on that larger class size and you know
that'll reflect in whether it's test scores or whether it's student performance right if you have larger classes you know you may not be able to to personalize as much I have full confidence in our staff of course that they can meet the need but it just makes it more difficult when you have that so you know it's a it's a problem that
compounds I think over time so that's that's the I guess the Within fiveyear concern is a is a staff issue especially if we're if there's more housing being built if there's you know that's that's certainly something that's on the the radar of the administration I think it needs to be asked you know what's the alternative
because I mean we're we're not seeing huge numbers of of of out of of placements coming in from out of District I mean this is we're talking about growth within the town so if you start uh even if the trajectory is is uh sustained I mean we start losing
students replacement I mean that's going to that's going to affect the cost and the revenue as well so you know that Revenue problem then it becomes a revenue problem when you're when you're right well you know and that's the you know it's the bigger picture here so you
know we all do what we can for this year to try to get through the budget but trying to do that Five-Year Plan we know next year we're going to be faced with that same three three and a half% change and if the school right now is a 6%
change and already cutting out so many things from that that 6% next year is going to be what six s% and the town can still manage the 3% so the problem just
continues to escalate and how we need to understand that to I don't have an answer right we've been through this we've had all these conversations um year after year year after year so this is nothing new but um just to add to
that I think you know important consideration there is as Melissa mentioned 4% of that alone are are contract contractual so the bulk of this you know are are not items that and even the largest cost items on top of the contractual are ones that in in my
opinion opinion of the committee are responsible to include in an operating budget because these are you look at the therapeutic class for example that could be a uh bringing potentially saving the district money in in placements uh something like the devices that we know we'll need um you know that's not
something that we we wouldn't just in one fiscal year say well the devices don't work anymore so we have to cease you know our our technology use in classrooms um because that's just the way learning has has gone um so I think that would put our district behind so I
think on top of the the 4% the items that are included there at least the the bulk of them are ones that you know I feel are are responsible to you know these aren't these aren't just things that we're adding in I think these are are needs that you know are are conscious of of our fiscal position uh
looking at looking at that fiveyear period and that's why you know I I thought it was a priority for us to include items like the device replacement and looking at our special education costs and what that age out would look like in the next few years and what the needs are so we can say you know in this fiscal year if we Implement
a therapeutic class that means we could potentially not only retain students but uh bring a couple back into the district and and looking at our four-year device plan so in five years we're not faced with a we're not asking you know cipc or trying to put it in the budget $500
$600,000 for devices so I think we were trying to you know in this budget reflect the be conscious of that in this excuse me sure than I sympathize with everything you've said and and I think we've said it
around this table many times there are many many needs and there is sympathy for everybody at every level of town government so you know I don't need to belabor that point um and I'm the oldest one in the room I think and I went
through the school system and I got a damn good education and I love the education but having said that I'll give you a two second story I was having lunch today with Russ har
former Highway surveyor when he he was Highway surveyor we had 12 people working for the highway department we now have what three or four uh five with the clerk five okay so we five with the clerk right five with the
clerk we probably have twice as many miles of Roads or at least 40% whatever the number is as it was when he was uh we go down the list of every department and the schools and to Karen
point to Cindy's point we're not negative as a finance committee but the pie is only so damned big we couldn't get an override we can't get the the our state legislation to
advocate for a a realistic um uh income stream redoing the formulas whatever it might be so that we you know we we bring ourselves up into thing so you know as my father would say you have to play the
cards your dealt not you one has to I should I should say and it's sad and I don't know how to I don't know how to reconcile it but everybody's taking 2 and a half% increases in Pay which is not a sustainable wage
increase everybody is is in this town is working their tails off working with old equipment my God we've got a a a fire truck that is 31 years old and
there a hand me- down and we're putting Bubble Gum and rubber bands on problems at every single level and I am not upset with you you need guys need to advocate for your department all right I
mean that's the way it goes and I'm I'm I'm I and I think he did an excellent presentation but at some point we got to figure out is the what gives or the people in the town have got to say we've got to step up to the
plate and I'm not getting on a soap box I'm simply saying that we've got revenue we've got expenses and they've got a match and it's just really sad it's
really sad I mean I I feel for this I I I'll say it and then I'm going to going to get off my soap box I feel for this town I have been here for almost 71 years now and I've never seen it as divisive and
as not as Community oriented when things need to be funded people used to fund it so I'll leave it at that but I don't have any answers Evan I or or Christopher I I don't I I just I just
don't know what to tell you but that circle is only so big go ahead I Mr leis appreciate your comments and your your points are are well taken um I would know both to to your points and and Mr RoR is that you
know looking at our budget the the largest portion is certainly salaries so the cuts unfortunately are either salary related or they're program related and program related may have a negative return in terms of not retaining students which results in less Chapter
70 funding whatever it may be so there's a as we said in the past there's not a great answer right if you cut staff you have larger class sizes and you deal with that if you cut programming you you risk losing students I know there are some students who go to other districts simply because they offer uh broader
Sports options broader athletic opportunities for them so they we we simply don't offer it because the because of the cost so um so that's a consideration I would thank you Mr Mr Alin has his Mr Alin thank you um I apologize for
exiting the meeting uh before we were done a trick of the hand I apologize anyway um what does does increasing increased school um the increase in the amount of money we've got as a result of increased
involment what role does that play in Free reason I asked that is I understand being conservative I absolutely get it completely um but I also know that it's not really sustainable to suggest that if
you're starving that you're just that's just the way it goes and hopefully next year will be better it it's it's it's it's kind of empty to be honest with you especially when the fre cash is sitting there that could all set some of this
what Jim to address it yeah so just could you clarify what your question is yes I did but I'll say it again though please do what does what did the school increase in enrollment
play in the increase in free C because on a very curity level it seems to me that there seems to be a correlation between the increase in the town's free cash and the increase in our enrollment now if they have nothing to do with each other fair enough I'm just an
asking so so there is some benefits um but the Chapter 70 like I said I I new Revenue went down this year we're back to 116,000 for the P four years and one of those increases was the result of the resulted in 550 something thousand more
into the town corus I'm not looking at having fights with anybody you know what bothers me more than anything is I've worked assiduously to bring the town together a point where today I spoke with Chris Gonzalez from the highway department and we both are desperately trying to get a a heavy equipment
simulator that wouldn't just benefit the students at West but the cemetery department and the highway department in terms of training so we have a symbiotic relationship understanding that we're all in this this together but it was just a simple question that there seems to be a correlation in the free cash
growth and the increase in involment now if it doesn't exist then that's fine that doesn't exist that the correlation with Chapter 70 and increase in students it's it's not there right we've gone up in students but our increase in new revenue is going down we went up two
years ago in Chapter 70 um significantly because we were considered a minimum Aid Community prior to that so we were getting $30 per student or $60 per student depending on the year once we got out of that or we we were no longer classified as minimum Aid we actually
got bumped up quite a bit the number of students plays in the formula but it's only a small variable in the Chapter 70 formula um but what does help with the students is that on the other side the assessments and I think this is to your point as well Tom that the charter
school the number of students going to Charter Schools and the number of students going uh taking school choice has decreased so our assessments on the state side have decreased um they were going up1 $200,000 a year um five six years ago those have leveled off and
actually gone down a bit so that's been that's been a significant bonus and I think that's where you see the increase in students in Westport really showing up in our state aid but it doesn't I think his question was does it show up in free cash does it trickle it does not
trickle down to free cash only if the estimates come in higher than what we're budgeting right um and you know what we found out over the years is a slight variation in the final budget that comes out in July maybe 20 $30,000 overall in state
assessments but there's really nothing what we get now what they've been showing in the governor's budget for Chapter 70 is pretty much what we get at the end I think Jim's point is is is well taken that when when we had our group together and we were doing all this stuff it isn't just about the
revenue it isn't just about the formula on the revenue side it's also about the assessments and from it doesn't matter exactly but 2015 to 2020 2021 the assessments for charter schools and for
out of districts uh students they were they were off the chart I mean we went from zero maybe 10 or 12 years ago to it was over a million dollars so yeah
you know we can talk about revenue for the schools but we have to balance that at the same time now things have gone down which means that the net effect even even even if the revenue assessment never changed not assessment but the the the
revenue instream yeah deliverable from the state never changed the assessment going down increases you know what what's left in the Pod but to Karen's Point even those years where the assessments were very
high compared to what we were receiving in Chapter 70 money and the enrollment in schools had had dropped significantly at one point it was down 25% below what it is today the percentage allocation
5446 never changed so the schools never um in in the allocation and the pi allocation even though the impact was significant because enrollment was down assessments were up that allocation always remained the same so that the
school budget was never um penalized because enrollment was down during those years during those years so that's why you know as as she addressed it it has you know it has a a factor of equalizing itself over a period of time because we
never look at well it went up it went down and went this and with that it's a it's a good split it's a split that has pretty much survived the test of time overall in good times and in bad times and you know no one wants to go back to
that type of level of enrollment but and I know it doesn't matter you need a teacher whether there are three kids in the class or 30 I understand that but from from a funding standpoint from the state regarding Chapter 70 the the the town supported the
schools no matter what and we continue to do so but our capacity is limited see if anybody has anything else so you know I want to thank everybody in the school I think this presentation was terrific was excellent excellent you did
a terrific job it's really nice to see um not so much the numbers but really more the operations of what's doing and so I think this presentation is terrific so I thank you again um for for doing this the second year in a row
and I know it's a lot of work and it's greatly appreciated um I don't have any other specific questions on the budget I again I I think you did a terrific job you laid out um where last year's numbers were and then you itemized in very nice
detail all of the increases to get to to to where you are so it's very transparent I think it's very obvious so I think you did a terrific job so thank you for that I appreciate that Madam chair and I'm always available for further questions should the uh any
committee members have them um happy to to discuss and answer them and if I don't have the answer I can certainly direct it to the right person no no and I want to thank you as well and I do have so on on the same on the conversation that we have been having on
the fiscal nature right so um I know I know numbers are are still in the works with the Town Administrator and the select board has not uh is scheduled at the next meeting to approve the budget so just to kind of give a little framework for where we currently are
right now and I stole these numbers Jim from your meeting last night I took some detailed notes um so the again this is a draft budget uh it's not approved by the select board finance committee hasn't even seen any of it yet
we haven't seen free cash needs for other articles yet so we haven't seen anything yet so there's no uh we have no basis for uh for for anything at this point but um looking at your the fiscal 25 budget was
21,999 982 if you factor in the traditional 54% split of the net revenue that is to be gener estimated to be generated that comes to 9271 which would make the school number
on the town budget 22 mil 92683 the current school budget is 24 milon 4788 that means means there's a current gap of 1,114
115,000 so that's where putting all of that discussion into what we're talking about now is is a pretty significant that's removing free cash that's without free cash right even from the current year right so there's without any any level of free cash in there
so um so of course there's the narrowing of the Gap in some capacity right so for some amount of free cash I don't think anybody here would disagree that there needs to be some amount how much that would be those are discussions we need to have but um Jim I
don't want to O I don't want to present your numbers but you did present them last night so you're you're trying to narrow the Gap yeah a bit almost to split it I'm trying to get up to 23,5 15,000 um and to do that that would
still be 400,000 Plus in free cash and then we would have to pay off the campground and um use some oped money um to get to that number it's either that or it's cuts on the other side which that's an addition of 400 plus how
much two another 250 400 plus yeah about um 140 175 so okay 215 which is effectively changing the split from 54% to 59% is what that does
yeah I don't have that no sounds about you know I do yeah so by by and I'm not disagreeing in concept of the number um but but that what you're proposing really changes the split from 54% to 59% and then giving
400,000 in free cash so a total of $617,000 essentially to the to the school so Karen if I can just interrupt for a second so I can understand you're you're talking about the the the increase in the split from 54 to 59 includes the pay down of the campground
right so with Jim's proposal on is to pay down the savings from the pay down in the campground would go 100% to the school and zero% to the town so that effectively adds to the split but you pardon me but you had the town paid for
the camp ground I'm not disputing no no no I'm yeah I'm just I'm just again trying to trying to trying to understand in either in either way right so what Jim's trying to do is give as much Jim's coming up with a way to try to come up with a way to give his bring his much
closer to to the school number to to narrow that Gap but should that even be uh part of the operating budget the pay down for the campground I mean that's a capital that's a capital expenditure we get to that yeah without
getting into the Nuance okay some of that really the goal the goal of what I'm trying to do is to try to stay a little bit of a high level we we'll have those conversations once once Jim presents the budget then we can kind of look through but just on the surface so
Jim coming up with ways to bring another 616,000 to the school to narrow that $1.1 million gap is where currently what was discussed at the select board meeting last night so that still leaves even with that which is significant so
that's $600,000 so that still leaves a half million dollars where where we're off so as a school committee have you come up with an alternative budget that if if you're if the budget is this do you have a
secondary budget that you've been going through and what you would do for cuts if you're asking if we will make it work I mean the answer of course is we have to yeah um we had to do it last year we had to meet and decide what we were going to do to meet that that number um
so the answer is you know we'll do what we have to to give in the resources we have yes um the other thing I I I wanted to note on that and Mr Le to your point on uh the campground pay down and I appreciate
Jim's efforts on getting the number uh trying to get closer on that um I know last year that was included as a proposal in free cash I believe if I remember correctly so I I'm not sure to your point if it was an operating budget I know last year they it was proposed to
come out of free cash so I don't know how that was accounted for I just wanted to yeah last year it was proposed to pay off the debt but when the town floor increased the free cash to go to the school we didn't have the free cash so it had to get pulled back yeah I was I
was just pointing it out so it was yeah and again this this we our committee hasn't seen the budget we have so there's we're not there's no decisions right we're not you know there's there's no judgement here just I'm just trying to lay out where the numbers are today and what the challenges are um with with
the numbers as presented give a little framework for some of the discussion that we're having but the short answer is yes we'll I mean we'll make it work because we have to yes and I think Jim your the numbers for the overall fiscal budget you've pretty much got a lot of the
numbers as yeah we're pretty close which is good and bad right so you know not going to get any good surpris going something falling from the sky probably real bad surprise I think I had a recent discussion with um The Diamond business manager and it looks like that may come a little bit under what I had in the
preliminary budget so it could be you know 20 30,000 maybe a little bit more in there but um the one number that I'm well there two numbers the property insurance and the health insurance um health insurance we should have this
week or next week um property insurance is always tough um to get that early well that's all the news I wanted to share just you know couple of numbers um that's where we're around so that's that's the you know this is the
difficult part where you know where does this come from thank you thank you very much and appreciate it very much again you know I'm always always available for additional questions um hope I we were able to put together a presentation that
lays out the uh the proposal that we have and the the reasons that the the committee is supporting it um you know we went through a pretty robust process I think in this um and unfortunately left out a lot of the needs but we felt that these reflected the highest priority so we wanted to make sure that
these were presented to the finance committee and uh thank you again thank you Jim for thank you your work on the was terrific thank you if you have any questions to can through Mr all right thank you so much do we have anything any other items on our agenda I think I I uh let me look
I think I just kept our uh discussion of the budget 26 but I think we've discussed that think we have um I have been reluctant or not I don't I shouldn't use the word reluctant I have not scheduled the joint meeting
that I was intending to try to to to do with the finance committee the school committee and the select board which in part was to discuss some of these things but with the select board in the full school um I can try to send out um an email to everyone maybe we can find a
date and maybe we can do it in in the next week as a hybrid to just have some discussion but I'm not sure um if that works for everybody I would be open to that um I know timeline wise it's difficult with where we're at in the budget process I know the the select will be voting on they
recommend the budget um I wanted to wait until you presented this budget before we had the meeting for the select board to present because we really should see your numbers but now we I should have just scheduled it in advance
but I I I would say I'm not sure if there is is going there would be a great benefit to a joint meeting at this point in the process um I think the last time that joint meetings were were happening last budget it was a little it was a
little earlier and I know we had one even in the previous year too so I'm just I'm not you know certainly if it's scheduled I I'll I'll be there but uh I I'm just not sure if it if it had would have the same value as it did last year this lated the process but that's just
my my thoughts there thank you thank you thank you for coming all right well I'll motions are you ready to re or me it's tough yeah we can certainly uh we can approve the minutes and at the next meeting I have no
correspondents um we'll talk I'll send an email talking about our next meeting date in our agenda so um want a motion want to um I'll let the school committee adjourn their meeting first motion to adjourn although we lost a quorum about
oh did you made no decision by we adjourn by default and yes all right you adjourned all right then I will take a motion to uh adjourn the final so moved yep second all right U we can do roll
call here oh that's right oh and Hugh Hugh are you uh up for adjourning I'm still here that's fine all right can you vote Yes to adjourn are you uh approving the
adjournment of the meeting you no I a motion okay all right all in favor I no opposed Thank you very