the date is Tuesday May 14th the time is 7:16 p.m. calling this meeting of the Westport school committee to order we can stand for the pledge of the United States of America into the Republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all okay thank you under M law ch the 30A section 20f this meeting is being recorded first entertain comments and statements from the public seeing none we will move to our informational agenda we have our student Representatives here tonight thank you I guess I'll take it first good evening superintendent auin members of the school committee and everyone else in attendance this evening uh and a special welcome to the newest members of the school committee Mr pachico and Mr Thrasher welcome so first off the halfway point for term four was last Friday May 10th uh progress reports for this term will be posted to the portal by tomorrow May 15th there will be an early dismissal this Thursday May 16th for staff training and there will be no school on Monday May 27th in observance for Memorial Day mcast testing concluded today for the middle school students there will be some makeups that will take place through May 24th the 8th grade semi-formal will take place on Friday May 17th at Whit of Westport the Westport Middle High School band concert will be held on Monday May 20th at 6:30 on next Wednesday May 22nd at 6:00 in the Westport Middle High School cafeteria there will be a grade four to grade five trans system transition Forum this is a wonderful opportunity for incoming fifth graders to tour the building meet the faculty and learn about expect expectations as they enter the middle school next year please join us on Thursday May 23rd from 6:00 to 8: to see the incredible talents of our art students at the Westport Middle High High School this will take place in the second floor art rooms and hallways field day will be held on Friday May 24th let's hope for some nice weather and thank you to the middle high school student council and Middle High PTO for sponsoring this event the eighth graders will be heading off to Washington DC on Tuesday uh June 4th and will return home on Friday June 7th and lastly a save the for uh eighth grade families the e8th grade promotion ceremony will be held on Wednesday June 12th at 6m in the Westport Middle High Auditorium now for some sports information the spring Sports season is well underway and we'd like to cheer on all the students who have dedicated the effort and time to participate on a team first the boys Middle School baseball team is working hard and currently has a record of 06 and2 the Girls JV softball team has a strong record of 4 and three the boys JV team is at a record of s and three this year there will be a middle high Middle School Athletics Award night which will be held on May 28th at 5:00 p.m. in the auditorium so save the date and we also have some middle school students on the boys and girls varsity tennis teams but all I will allow Jack to report on that information and that is all good thank you very much all right good evening superintendent auin and all in attendance this evening uh first off I would like to give a big and warm welcome to Mr Pico and Mr Thrasher we look forward to working with you and seeing you at upcoming school committee meetings all right starting off some important dates I know Ryan said some of these already it's hard to believe but term 4 is halfway over and progress reports for this term will be available on the portal by tomorrow May 15th there's an early dismissal this Thursday May 16th for staff training and there will be no school Monday May 27th in observance of Memorial Day the last day of school for students in grades 1 through 11 is Friday June 14th and this will be an early dismissal day the National Honor Society induction ceremony will take place this Wednesday May 15th at 7:00 p.m. in the auditorium congratulations to all the students who will be inducted and honored uh AP exams will wrap up this week for all AP students I do believe the last one is AP Bio this Thursday and the junior senior prom will take place this Saturday May 18th it will be held at the Fall River Country Club and pickup is at 10 p.m. math mcast for all grade 10 students will be Tuesday May 21st and Wednesday May 22nd this past Saturday Westport gathered to Crown this year's Mr Westport all the contestants signed on stage but in the end only one could take home the crown congratulations to Cameron monz for being crowned Mr Westport 2024 we would like to thank the athletic boosters Mr Nunes Tanya quinland and Melissa Lambert for making this event possible as Ryan previously mentioned the Westport Middle School high school will be hosting an art show on Thursday May 23rd from 6:00 to 8:00 p.m. we hope many people visit to enjoy and appreciate the talents of our art students and their amazing Creations Wildcat athletes who played a sport this year will be recognized at the athletic award night which will be held Tuesday May 28th at 6 p.m. and lastly for information the scholarship and award night will be held on Thursday May 30th at 6 p.m. in the auditorium Mrs Rell will be presenting and I would like you all to join us to celebrate students who received scholarships and awards for all of their hard work now for athletics starting off I would like to congratulate Karen Holden for receiving an honorable mention in the Boston Herald girls basketball all Scholastics and League Allstars now for the spring Sports season it's going strong and we're just past the halfway point the boys varsity baseball team is on an eight game win streak with a current record of 9 and3 their next home game will be this Friday against Holbrook at 3:30 p.m. the boys are currently ranked at number seven for the division 5 MIAA power rankings for baseball the girls varsity softball team has been playing hard and they currently stand at 5-8 their next home game will also be this Friday against Tober at 3:30 the girls are currently ranked number 33 for the Mia Power Rankings our developing and dedicated lacrosse team is currently at 2 and 12 and their next home game will be this Wednesday against Blue Hills at 3:30 p.m. our boys varsity tennis team has a current record of five- five and their next match will be away at Diamond this Wednesday and they will also have a home match this Friday against Wham the boys currently rank number 20 in the division 4 Mia Power Rankings lastly the girls varsity tennis team is currently 1 in seven and will be playing a home match against Diamond this Wednesday I would also like to congratulate our Esports team that made the msaa state tournament and competed in the semifinals in Foxboro this past week they had a great season and we can't wait to see what they accomplish next year thank you Jack thank you very much any questions from the committee okay thank you thank you very much thank you guys guys can now go home or or you can stick them around for this run where you can I take go home personally thank you and to reiterate too what our student representative said there's a lot going on at the end of the year here so certainly invite the public to our our games to watch our student athletes and uh some of the events that we have going on so you know we'll love Community involvement there um okay moving along in our informational agenda we we have our superintendent report Mr Robin thank you chair jro uh good evening everyone um just wanted to uh give a heartfelt thank you to our uh town uh residents who showed up to the meeting uh last week and uh actually voted to uh sustain the select Board number uh that was the original number that uh would give us an additional 150 thousand do or so and uh while not solving all of our financial burdens as you're painfully aware of the fact that the town came out and really showed support for the schools was quite heartwarming and uh I don't ever want to take that for granted um you know anytime you're making a uh a vote that hits your pocketbook it's always very tough to look at what's best for everybody but uh the town residents did that uh last meeting and uh I couldn't be more grateful to them uh speaking in in terms of budgeting uh both uh Mrs Raposa and myself have been working uh with our staff uh to try and meet the request from the town select board and the town manager to put together a five-year plan for the schools um the struggle we're facing is that in on numerous occasions um Mr hner had suggested that as part of the fiveyear plan that the schools should not expect any increases in excess of 3.5% uh I would like to point out that uh this is hugely problematic and in speaking with uh superintendent robu from Swansea um in his tenure which started in 2016 uh the lowest that he remembers the budget being his to you know somewhere around 3.8% with typically somewhere over 5% would be the normal uh budget increase uh to give you some perspective in our 2023 24 total budget uh we had an increase of 5.41% and if we go back a year earlier the increase was 5.68% so you can imagine um what depending on a 3.5% um increase from the town each year will do to uh what is already one of the leanest I think budgets in the state of Massachusetts and uh you know I I CH I I keep offering anybody the challenge of Finding Me aena administrative staff and I will defer to that but the fact of the matter is we want to uh comply with the uh request of a 5-year plan because clearly it's always good to plan going forward but we also you know there's a real Poli to a 3.5% increase in in in in a building in in a district where we've tried hard to keep Direct Services as full as we possibly can by keeping people in front of kids a 3.5% budget over the next year and then five four years later is going to be absolutely decimating it will be death by a thousand Razor Cuts so you know um I am painfully aware of you know uh everything from inflation to you know the challenge that amilies face and we have we I think what we have done um quite frankly and I I try not to be bombastic but what this Administration and the school committee has done together over the past four years I think is amazing in terms of being able to provide our students with all of the things that we've provided them under terribly tight Financial consideration 3.5% moving forward is untenable and will lead to legitimate cuts that will increase the quality of Education here in Westport and I just want the public to understand that this is not hyperbolic this is not me begging I don't beg anybody for anything the reality is this is the facts on the ground the past two years we've seen increases of 5.41% in 5.68% and we've still had to cut literally and I don't have the number in front of me but a a ton of positions with 5.4% imagine 3.5% so I'm not here to fight with the with the town I'm just here to report the news that if this is the direction they're going in the committee is going to have a profound challenge moving forward and I just want you to be ready for that and that's all I have and I'm available for any questions thank you Tom questions from the committee okay next we have our bill warrant dated 5324 for 127 87687 and 51724 3689 79 95 committee has received these documents so there any if there are any questions we can refer them to business office um with that being said we'll move to our student and staff attendance report yes is also circulated to the committee are there any specific questions from the committee on the numbers we received or I just wanted to say thank you to the staff and the superintendent for for providing the historical report that I had requested from from the uh the last uh last meeting um I I am a little curious just about the uh uh the Mac uh back in February um just we had an 85% uh student attendance report or student attendance for that particular month um was any idea if there was a particular illness going on that time or do it just happen I I would hate to attorney fashion I'd hate to even like surmise to tell you the truth I know that that Co was you know and you know you're talking about after the holiday people who have traveled um quite frankly I don't know anyone who travels who doesn't come back with the sniffles at the very least so fair enough um so I think that might have played a role I will tell you that I looked at the data over the past couple years and we've been averaging 93% as a district so this this number outside of that outlier um I would suggest is pretty consistent and we will report out an end of year report not only for the district but for all of the school so that you have that available appreciate again that was the that was the outlier there so I was I was very curious holidays thank you know we always holidays even before Co it's always you know understood understood thank you no thank you another questions all right and if I may chair sure uh gendro I we also I I am meeting with uh principal shereet uh in regards to any students who may be close to that like attendance issue that find a way to get them over the hump because in the end we want our kids graduating and um we're close to the finish line so I will rep part out to that as well in next meeting thank you for the update thank you very much can we take C so yes absolutely okay we're going to move on to our act agenda and take item C out of order Mr Monas if you would be willing to I know he loves our meetings and all but by thank you for for being here sticking with us second place huh third third not too bad not too shabby good evening committee thank you oh I don't I can start or you can start I don't know no please go okay so I'm here to present I welcome uh new new members Mr chica Mr Thrasher hi I'm Rick monis I'm the media center specialist uh resident DJ resident Esports coach uh I got to be missing something you International International Exchange Club the the yeah uh anyway um I'm here to present the uh trip itinerary for 2026 um as we have um those of us from the committee previous are in understanding that we have uh um we're we're um ding to kind of change the um a little bit the um um design of the program uh and uh increase accessibility from 8th through uh 12th grade um so with that in mind uh and as and uh offer uh distinctly um unique um experiences that appeal to set of students that may be more um um historically and culturally uh educationally minded and those that might be more Hands-On ecologically uh um environmentally minded so with that uh for the 2026 um trip retinue we' put together um the um discover the Dominican using EF Tours again which we've had great success with so far uh continuing over the last uh years um we're going to offer uh the Dominican Republic um and the itinerary everybody should have great um for February of 2026 open 8th through 12th grade and South Korea um in April of 2026 again open 8 through 12th grade um we intend to um launch these meetings uh this month uh which gives families the longest amount of time to make it financially feasible for them um continuing to work with ef as far as uh keeping pricing down through in in an era of increased travel costs um but I think uh the committee will see and and we've seen um the real um desire and support for the travel program here just over the last weekend for our 2025 trip next year uh enrolled another seven or eight folks for the Portugal and Spain trip um that's coming up next year um so uh I presented these to the committee uh on behalf of myself and Nathaniel who will be running one of these trips um and I am here if anybody has any questions and excited for these questions y yeah so I've got kind of two very different questions one were we going to do both of the trips from 8 to 12 I thought going forward sorry I apologize no no no the idea um what we had discussed in the last um the last time Nathaniel And I presented uh the idea that going forward starting in 26 um from the jump that we will present them as uh the that to the 8th through 12th and everybody knows that coming in that was my understanding was it wouldn't have affected current trips but corre forward so um both trips will be 8th grade to 12th grade and do you have a distinct like how are you going to manage them differently um the the great question um the the I think through our both Nathaniel and my experience um we are able to kind of have that flexibility where um and the other the other benefit too with both of these trips um we have the flexibility of maintaining kind of a a tighter chaperon leash for example on um younger students that need that um but also have the flexibility of um of older students to be able to um have that greater sense of you know develop those kind of more age appropriate skills the um one of the benefits of using EF is that all of these tours are uh according to their um you know their development team are uh designed to be all the ones and all the ones that we use are specifically advertised as age appropriate for 8th through 12th graders so that's kind of the that was kind of the um thinking behind that as well um I I would imagine that you'll see um some trending more towards one and trending more towards other just because of like cohorts of students that are like oh all of my friends want to go on this and and we'll see that but I think like we had discussed in the previous meeting the um the design the the intent was like for example I saw you know students that had um missed out on the opportunity to go to Japan and I know that you can't you can't offer everything to everyone however some of these um you know I think some of these specific trips like going to South Korea for example are really something that you you you want to give the most amount of folks um possible the option the ability and option to go to so I think one of the I guess eight 8 to 12 okay I just I think that's just a concern is that when you look at your eight nine and 10th graders just making sure that they're chaperoned cuz they're going to different than your 11th and 12th graders I know you know that but so I think that's just my concern um the second thing um and the last thing I promise is is there a way to kind of look at this long-term like really longterm because there are some students who aren't going to be able to afford this unless they save for like years so like is there a way to develop some sort of schedule even if it's I don't know tentative or something and engage um the maybe this is going to sound crazy but um engage your Elementary School parents and say listen when your kids get to the eighth grade this is what we're going to be able to offer them and developing some sort of like financial planning for them to be able to go because there are a lot of kids for you know what is the cost like $4 to$ 5,000 y they'll never be able to afford that totally agree I I the earliest uh the earliest the company lets you plan out is three years so like for example if I wanted to run a if I wanted to pre-plan a tour for 20 27 right now we could do that that would um and uh and even with um this these tours that are two years out we are still getting that kind of month they're very good with their like payment options and things like that so right now both of these tours are around the $200 a month like uh area which is what I try to strive to get because you know my what um I I want them to be affordable for a student with a part-time job to be able to pay for them themselves that you know a lot of times that students will get a lot of financial support for that so I think in developing a long-term plan um now with this there's a couple of things that we we definitely want to do um we want to make sure um folks aren't kind of inundated and the other thing too is I do notice that in the younger the younger grades um they don't necess student students don't necessarily know what their particular c l interested in um and until it comes a lot a little bit closer or they kind of they kind of change their minds but um the I think the what we can explain to families that is that every year there will be a trip that is one is kind of culturally focused um on a more traditional um tourism in that sort of experience and one is a little bit more ecological or adventurous focused and that doesn't necessarily mean it's in a warm place for example Nathaniel and I have discussed going like Iceland is another place like that so um I I think we can you know up and down let folks know every year there'll be a trip to there'll be kind of a more culturally focused trip and there'll be a more ecologically focused trip and students have really three three year three year they really would have almost three years to kind of um decide but with with three years I would say once we going forward from this I think we could for example get 2027 on you know on on the books earlier for sure so and then going forward once we like this like already last year the um with beginning with like Spain and Portugal with the committee we started that six months earlier than we had traditionally and we're and that show is in our enrollment and things like that so and that made that trip very very very affordable to those that had signed up uh early so I'm definitely very much interested in getting that um pattern set up as early as possible do we have anything on the website I'm sorry I did lie there was one more question do we have anything on the website like all the pictures from everything because it's soing yeah yeah I send pictures to I send pictures to um our social media team but um now you know thinking about now that we have such a catalog um maybe we could discuss and Mr Robin we could or figure out um having a page having a like a a sub page on the just send me email send email we can just get we can put I mean just okay I was taking we can make a page for Melissa was saying is maybe we talk about financial planning and all the different grades that middle school or you know fourth fifth you start showing the pictures and then maybe meet up with the credit union and have a representative Credit Union let's plan a travel so you can have something to travel a travel club right and so their birthday money whatever so you can start that early enough you know fourth fifth grade talking about financial planning this is what it's going to cost this is how much and that will help them you know because I know my kids would have never been able to afford that but if in fourth grade we had something that we had planned like that then by maybe the time they were seniors they could have sure and but that way you put it into a financial planning program Rick is there ever a minimum uh um number of kids to go on these or you just adjust the amount of chaperons you get a low well you can't run it without there is the minimum is six you have to have six folks to go to have your first chapon got um typically we try to uh try to have a minimum of 12 to have two um but yeah six is six is a minimum but we um the um the company's been very good you know if that if that ever happen happens the trip dissolves and you know nobody's on the hook for anything great thank you how many did you have that went to Germany 30 30 y yep 30 students and a few 30 student but a 30 total including a few par 36 total including staff um a few parents and and students 27 kids I think 26 or thank you for those experiences for our students I mean for anybody who's out there if if you know your your child's thinking of going to Westport just thinking of them being able to travel into nationally I mean my daughter was out of the country before I was you know that's such a tremendous experience and now she wants to study abroad in college it opened up her eyes and the and the possibilities that this world has for her that she wouldn't have had had she not had those trips I mean really and thank not all colleges not all not colle not all schools high schools are doing that I see so many students go out and come back in within 10 days and like there are so many soft skills and being on your own and and um making Cho choices for yourself and and and and um that students don't necessarily always get the opportunity for and like when you're on these you kind you it's a little trial by fire and and they really Step Up um I was and this particular trip I was incredibly impressed with um the students um you know we we saw these incredible historic cities and and and we also went to aitz in birkenau and that was just um what one would expect it was and the the yeah kids um came back very uh very moved so do we need a motion to approve this we do I I make a motion to approve the uh two field trips as listed um to Dominican and to the Dominican and South Korea does the superintendent approve of these what question typically I no I just want I just had a question if it's okay with the chair is there a second first before we discuss second okay GL okay thank you very much and I apologize it just um my God I hate to be the skunk at the lawn party I really do and I try not to be but um you know I'm I'm thinking for example if you were to you know book a trip to Israel prior to October 6th the travel advisory would be significantly different than it is now right now the travel advisory for Israel West Bank and obviously Gaza is don't go when we take a look at Korea I believe it's level one which is the the lowest level of concern still not something that is I mean you've got the 38th parallel in the the military zone so and things that concern me uh and I don't want to get into the Weeds on this but it's clear that North Korea has been supplying weapons to the Russians and that could have a geopol iCal effect on the part of you know so I guess my question first of all is what happens if there were to be a travel advisory change that would make it almost like to a point where what is the sort of time frame in which you have to be able to adjust to that so uh EF has a very robust policy uh regarding that and they they monitor the the um the department of state's um travel advisories constantly um and they offer what's called their p to mind um policy which is not on the little brochure but is pretty well delineated on their site and um you know in the event of a department of um I just said it State Department uh changing of that um the the nice thing about working with ef is that they have inventory all over the world so um if for example something was unsafe something was unsafe to go to something change even within you know they do mult like for example we were just in four five different countries over the course of 10 days if within that tour Hungary for example became unsafe to travel according to them they would shift to adding time in Czech going to Slovakia for more time so they they have the ability to to to Pivot on a dime like that and that's um embedded in their uh embedded in all the students um things so basically what would happen if in the case of um the entire destination being a place I was unsafe to travel to that would get pushed back to my myself uh we would discuss with the the with everyone with all the Travelers um the an alternative would be proposed or refunds would be given out so I think it's totally obviously with you know it's totally reasonable yeah thank you so much yep my pleasure for the discussion okay we have a motion in a second all in favor I I oppose all right that carries thank you very much I'm sorry was there was there further discussion on that item I I just I want to make sure that the superintendent is approving of these before we do I see the form and and there's no signature here and obviously with the conversation there is it approved by the superintendent before it comes to us ultimately it goes but the committee has to approve we appr you're the orbiters because you know obviously it involves a whole host of different things for for example one of the things that I I wish I had mentioned was the other thing I get a little bit concerned about when we go overseas is um the level of or the quality of Medical Care um you know I can speak to that yep please i' I've I've um I've I've been uh first responder to um two anaphylactic incidents so far in my experience in this uh first on the scene in one I I uh was the person that injected the EpiPen and took the ambulance to the hospital um the uh All The Travelers are uh you know are protected by Insurance including an up to trans ation in in the case of something so severe that uh an expatriating flight needed to happen that is covered by the their um their policies so EXC Mr mon I would think that these are communicated to families prior to right this is important stuff obviously sure but there is there any objection from the superintendent on any of these or um you know again I you know you know the level in the do Dominican is uh is two right now so it's not one it's two uh we know know that part if you look at the advisory part of it is that some of the things that are happening are actually now starting to go actually into the tourist area so I know that Mr monest will take real care in keeping a breast of that I I trust completely the work that he does as the organizer of this I think he's done an amazing job and I want to say that publicly um thank you so I you know again I just these are contingencies I think families have a right to know in the event there um you know when I went to Cancun in 2018 uh you know you know there was a guy that they they pulled out of the drink and uh um they were doing CPR on him for a half hour before and an ambulance still hadn't come so I just I don't want to be like you know it's just these are contingencies that I I think we have a responsibility to prepare for the safety of our kids so I know my understanding is the organization has a policy in place and that you would certainly communicate with the committee and administration should should anything change 100% yeah yep okay so um also according to I don't know if it's our policy or if it's the whenever a field trip is out of state the school committee Comm has to approve it so that's why I think it's coming to us first but I think that that Jason thank you for asking that because that's a very important question I'm just looking at the form in terms of the order for the form um you know the superintendent's approval is before ours so I just and his signature isn't there so I just wanted to make sure and I I do know that um on that side I I know that a nurse doesn't always go but um the nurse has been on all lately on almost all right they have yeah they didn't go on the last one though there was no nurse I mean from and I don't know I don't think that this is a school committee decision but I mean I think that it's it's safer to have nurse yeah recommendation would be to have a nurse there because while you can do that and and I thank you for doing that um you know having the nurse and you there you know I think being airing on the side of caution is always best and if our if the school has to you know flip the bill for it or whatever to have a Nur go I I would prefer to have a nurse go over a not you you have to be there but a nurse go over a teacher because a nurse is going to have more experience than if it's okay with the committee I will definitely work with uh both uh Mrs Raposa and Mr monast on on trying to meet that goal if that's sure yeah let to discuss it I don't disagree with you at all I think you know knowing the healthare system even in this country if you don't have somebody who can advocate for you sometimes it can get really sketchy so I just think that it would be a win-win we'll just have to figure out logistically how we go about doing that when we went to Washington which was not overseas like you know a couple people the travel advis Washington DC is to be honest no joke and uh you know a number of people got sick and had to everybody was taken care of so I can can say you know to the families out there that you know children were brought to the hospital so were some uh uh chaperon but everybody was taken care of and it was only because they had the Nora virus it wasn't like but and the communication was excellent it really was was in communication with me and and the families and uh really I I'm very proud of the work that we do as far as providing our kids a uh opportunity that a lot of other kids don't have and you know it's something that it's an experiential thing again ties in with the Strategic plan of experiential learning so there's there's a lot of reasons why it's a win-win I just get very nervous sure under the geopolitical conditions as they are right now which just really scary did we vote on that we did we took a vote on that and that was approved okay thank thank you committee thank you very much no you're fine please it's all good all good thank you guys have a good one you too thank you thank you to the committee for raising those issues those are important discussions so we appreciate that uh moving on to Item B in our action agenda the FY 25 school budget we have to do a do we have to do the minutes first apologize yes uh review thank you thank you review and act on the school committee meeting minutes Thursday April 18th 2024 and the school committee budget work session dated 5224 I make a motion to approve the minutes I second okay we have motion a second all in favor I I I oppose that carries now going into our discussion on uh an action item on the FY 25 school budget school budget was approved at town meeting at 22,651 27 that was based off of an amendment that was made on the floor of town meeting um that amended the finance committee's recommended figure and gave a school district roughly $150,000 above what was printed on the warrant article um and I would like to thank the parents and staff and Folks at this table who showed up the town meeting to support uh our budget we had pretty significant support from the community on that so we'd like to thank the voters at town meeting as well um while this doesn't solve all of our issues as a superintendent mentioned before this certainly puts us in a better position than we were in going into town meeting so um you know there are still cuts that are sustained with this number um and those are included in the packet and the figure that sorry the the difference between the school committee's recommended budget and the budget approved at town meeting amounted to $446,000 so that is the amount that has to be resolved as part of our budget going into fy2 so that's what this discussion is around so I would like to open it up to our business manager Michelle Rosa to walk us through some of the items here sure so as you can see as we met during our um budget subcommittee meeting that we had gone through all the different options prior to town meeting happening so that we could have an idea of which direction the committee and um Mr auin wanted to go so I think we had narrowed it down to the gray section at the bottom you would see that we had after meeting with department heads um we've had many meetings this year all the way working up to this point so we tried to make this as least impactful on our student learning as we possibly could and we we think that we kind of did a good job getting down to where we needed to be um the new three-year Transportation contract came in 14 $445,000 less than what we had anticipated we had anticipated a 15% increase we were fortunate enough that it came back I mean we made some modifications within the contract that helped to get this number down so we we're pleased with this and it also has the ability it's a threee contract but then it has an ability to do two one-year rollovers at the same amount that we end the third year in so that is a huge will be a huge um not necessary savings but will be a savings at the end for for the district at that point and if I may I want you know I personally thank uh Mr rro for that because that is a huge uh opportunity to save some money um listening to other districts and superintendents uh they they were facing much more Draconian I know I've heard other districts coming in significantly higher than what they had budget I mean Mrs Vos I hate to give her any credit but she did a really great job so you know he moved over a little more so that I wouldn't KCK him you know um so then as we go down the list um we talked about the closure of the old high school that there would be $903 se3 savings um we've spent a lot of time speaking of this probably for the last few years since we've closed the middle school at the high school being over there with students in there um then we moved down to uh charging one of our custodians to our food service department because the middle school high school is as busy as it is and they spend a good 2 and 1 half to three hours in that kitchen there and between the other ones that I could look at taking one of the charges for one of the one custodian and charging it off to the revolving account we've been fortunate with the school lunch revolving account since covid that the funding having free meals has helped to kind of build that revolving account up so um based on that this would buyas a couple of years time we've been we've been notified already that next year there's going to be free meals again so this helps also to keep that account you have to so in the school lunch revolving account so everybody understands at the end of the school year before you get to the end you are never supposed to have more than three months of what your typical revolving has in it so basically if my net profit is $30,000 a month for three months and that gets to 990,000 at the end of the school year I shouldn't have more than the 90,000 sitting in that account I am supposed to spend that money down not necessarily on buying stuff for the school it has to be school lunch re you know um assat thank you um so like last year we did a lot of equipment at the new middle at the new elementary school we spent a lot of time redoing they did painting putting new ceiling tiles we put a brand new serving line in we talked about changing over at the maum they would like a steamer over there that's on the ticket for this year um one of the conversations again was CH charging off one of the custodians which would helps the school budget it helps decrease what that number is under the custodial line and they do spend a lot of time just as the new school again they're three hours there in at one time um so there's some conversations around that but that just gives you an idea of how that money has to be spent before the end of the year and our Auditors make me write a letter saying that by a certain date I will spend down that money to you know more or less and the on that item as well the state decides on free and reduce on an annual basis right okay correct and I want to thank the legislative delegation Oz did support the free lunch once again which is an absolute huge help I was sharing with uh Mrs Raposa an article about uh Rhode Island and there are districts that have over $100,000 of uh student lunch debt um so this is something that obviously and it allows for uh you know kids to have hot meals whether they can afford it or not so and we don't have that debt in Westport we only have probably we don't even have I would say right now about $800 in school debt and and that student and we keep it with the students come through the lunch line they cannot purchase any additional items unless they have money in their account and the other one of the other things that school lunch does participate in we are part of the farm to school initiative here in Westport um the maber school is getting a um garden over there as well we will have a student intern that will come in from the Maran Institute that is going to be participating they will live in our school district three days a week um what they do is they come in they intern and they work together with Marin Institute and the staff that comes in from Mar Institute to be visible in the schools to work together with the classrooms bring them outside do some further education so one of the hopes moving forward is is that we have a food service director at some point besides myself that can spend time with the kids in the schools which I would prefer to do that but again this is where I need to be um is to have that food service director work with a school Chef that not doesn't come in and and people look at Chef very differently like a chef can be somebody behind a cter that's being a chef the type of school lunch Chef that they have is someone that works together with the food service director works on the school lunch menus initiates and works together with the the farm to school project that's happening to make sure that the requirements for school lunch are implemented in into the menus that they're having and then they follow up with the staff to make sure they're following how it's cooked for the quality so the hope is that we stop the kids young at macumber start getting it in their brains about you know Farm to school cooking involving our our local farmers involved getting them in the elementary school where they start to get more local produce and then moving on so that when the chef would start at the middle school high school so that they now have it's come to full tuition and then we've taught them a better way of living so part of that is also in their evolvement so I know that went off topic but because we were talking about it and we getting the end of year I didn't want to fail to talk about that can I ask a question about the line item before closure closure of the old high school yes that is moving all of us out of that old high school and moving us into other buildings here okay what about the the school the after school that would be as well move over to the Mamer school okay so the move isn't simply just to get this is not an ideal situation we're going to be bifa our district offices the reality is due to the continual cuts that are happening we don't have the staff to support for example Mr ragia has been by himself at the elementary school with 500 students our proposal next year is to move an additional administrator from the Middle High over to the uh West to provide sport there moving from the central office into the schools proper will allow people like uh curriculum director Kaminsky to have an office in the new building and they be able to service um many of the you know supervisory things that we need um and and this is going to be very disruptive uh you know the last thing we need in another summer is to have a disruption but this is the this is the reality that we face right now and so it's not just a matter of getting out of the building it's that the budget cuts have resulted in so many cuts to Personnel especially at the administrative level that we need to sort of combine and try and for example Michelle will be going in in a a terribly small office um in the in the cafeteria area to provide support because part of her job besides being Transportation Gess and uh business manager is also Food Service so she will be able to provide supports in in the area that there may be some shortages there we're running into a real challenge in that there are more and more demands and and we have less and less money so we've got to come up with a creative way to try and support our staff and I think this is the best of what is really a really tough situation that's one more question um can some of that and I know it's not ideal but can some of our employees Go Remote or hybrid I'm thinking like our business office can we I mean I don't know if they'd want to but I think as a district we we if there's an interest to do that for those who can do some work I think that we should be open because we have some incredibly hardworking employees and sometimes it's easier for them easier for us we might not have space they can have shared space too you know Monday Wednesday Friday Michelle's here and you know whatever no but we can certainly talk about that and and take a look at each of the jobs at the district level um but you you know I can tell you that Lori is coming in whether she likes it or not exactly I was looking at her telling her no that's not happening I was going to perhaps we can schedule a separate session where the administration can detail what that would look like for the committee Yeah we actually have a breakdown and I apologize we don't have it right now but we didn't want to go over our skis without the committee approving the move so I think Jason got yeah just um do we know what happens to the grounds in the building itself I know the rumor in the past is it turns over to the town and then it's now out of our hands do we have any the building is currently in the possession of the town we maintain the building so for example we've met with uh our athletic people it looks as though the fields will not be needed until the spring of 25 but we're still going to have to maintain those fields so that our kids are not playing on an uneven surface that could cause them uh injury with the idea too that we're also looking obviously we would have to work something with the town on the use of the fields and the maintenance right and then who would take over the use of rent like if they're going to rent out the gym over there on the inside during the winter who's going to handle that so there's like some Logistics some Logistics again this is not ideal just uh I think the concern there is if at any point that gets pulled out from the rug gets pulled out from under us we cannot I don't believe us as a school district can um operate without that space in terms of field right for the fields for outside in spring so uh just just to uh for the committee and superintendent uh information I I am going to be having a meeting with uh Jim hartnet tomorrow uh kind of in my dual role as the chair of the long-term building committee as well as school committee uh to uh discuss uh quite a few things regarding regarding the school or regarding the old high school um I know in our in Mr superintendent our previous conversations had mentioned that the fields or you know maintaining the fields and making sure that those are available uh in the spring are are Paramount and and we and we did keep that to maintain those fields as well we we made sure that we did not remove that so that maintaining mowing lining would all remain in there so that could help with pario conversation there so this figure reflects continuing to maintain correct correct which is cutting and and fertilizing so cutting fertilizing lining right because the the correct me if I'm wrong I believe the total cost is somewhere around 150,000 on the on the on the schol on but on the school side Beyond this this is just a cut no so the the original agreement I believe was 50,000 right right the school department pays the first 50 then the town kicks over for the remainder this was over and above this is like additional cost to the direct direct to the the school department for continuing to keep that building open so this is where this savings is coming into play on our in by us vacating that building and moving out the town will still remain I don't know how they will maintain the remainder of their cost they they budget a certain amount on the town's end for that building each year again how much they will like they're I think there's different concerns that you might run into when you speak to them tomorrow but feel free to reach out tomorrow if you need I can't make this clear enough this is not ideal you know this is not we're not doing this because we we want to you know have another summer of reconfiguring things we've been through this now with the opening of this new building the pandemic we're exhausted but we don't have a choice we're we're we're looking at a $400,000 plus deficit right now and and we've got to educate kids and and it's it's unfortunate but it's where we're at and I got to tell you it's saving my soul a little bit because I just left dery high school for a dedication and and and if you haven't seen their fields wow haven't seen the school wow so so you know this is not ideal I I'll just and if you could attorney Thrasher if you could this is not like a Guta this is we're trying to survive oh yeah no you know that's it no personalities here this is business so some so again we went through every possible dime item we could um max secretary we have a long-term secretary that is retiring at the Mac um Judy Olivera who is our executive secretary there she's been there she has been is acting as nurse as principal as executive secretary for her entire career here so she will be greatly missed um we have adjusted that new position her replacement coming in to not work all summer long to help be able so the district would have a small amount of savings and also she typically does the enrollment for the PRK and kindergarten students we're going to move that over to our registar right now and she will take over you know registering the new incoming kindergarten students just for one second I want to make it clear again this is you know because there are some people out there who are uninformed and I understand it but they'll say things like you see we they they you know you cut the budget and yet they're able to continue doing what we're doing yeah that means now the the regist who's already maxed out has got another Duty keeping people in District who you're maxing out all the time is a challenge and so to underscore that too this is not a level service it is not not evened at town meeting this was not level service so no that's where these Cuts come in so I mean can we make them I mean we we don't have a choice right frankly but this is where we're at so then we have 12 27,000 which is a teacher and teacher two teacher assistance then we move where is that right here no I know I know on the paper like what school we don't we don't have ited yet like we just know that we have to cut one teacher two teacher assistants so again we have some staff out right now so we're trying to sit down again and then relook at all this we have all the numbers coming in to try to see like where can we make those cut you have a timeline before you don't you have to do that for a certain we try and do it as quickly as possible we have to let um the uh I think the federation's by May yeah I believe the the Federation is in May um uh statutorily I think it's June but the contracts is May for our people we want to let people know as soon as possible and again you know there's going to be a little bit when people hear about this oh but you know compared to where we were six months ago I would say that you know this committee has done Yan's work in trying to you know keep people in front of kids so I want to thank you for that so we also have decre we have this summer we are not doing the summer program for the middle school students Elementary School students and Mum students but we just want to be clear what that means that is not our extended school year for any of our special eded students it is not also anything for our high school students that need credit recovery those programs will continue what these are this is something that usually is typically done and Mr auin probably can explain a little bit better than I can enrichment it's more of an enrichment that we offer to to students it's nothing that we have to have but it's something that we just choose to have so again unfortunately it's an impact on some of those students but it's again was a way to cut make some cuts that don't impact like the daily classroom or having a classroom go for 25 students to 28 students that was our goal is this for students struggling or is this for like gardening like you know like what is that during the what are the sum of programs typically go I mean typically they will invite students who are who are having some challenges but in reality um you know it's hard for people to understand that these are trade-offs I know they're tradeoffs they're not they're not Solutions they're trade-offs and um I've always been of the school that every minute a child spends in our school district if we're doing what we're supposed to uh we're enriching their lives and so this is painful this is not being done this it's so I I would say that um out of everything that's listed here and I don't like any of it but out of everything that's listed here the summer school for our students is to me the the biggest impact that I'm I'm I want to say I'm not in agreement because but then I'm going to have to say okay where am I going to take it from like town meeting but I feel like something like this needs to be done and if there's is there anything we can do take from any other area because our students really or can we utilize our our uh what is is our after school care is there any way to do something or can we have it a paid program it's just you know we have students who are struggling and the summertime they they have that summer slide and if those individuals can have something more like can we work with our summer program um and maybe get the teachers that typically would do that in there and have parents pay I mean can we just think about that how we could we we can we'd like to cons we we've thought long and H about it and and that's the the challenge we face you know again um you know prior to uh chair gendro taking the chair as you know uh chair Stanton cross gave us the directive that anything that is not mandated is the first to go and so this is part of that that so I hate to say it but Sports isn't mandated no right there are certain Sports I mean uh and I love sports but neither is you know ban banned are are other activities which I don't want to get rid of any of them but you know I may be able to help with that many of these students that would attend this other than Middle School based I believe on the enrollment speaking to our out of school coordinator um Mrs shavs many of the mac and West students will be participating in her program what they typically do is they attend this program in the morning they get busted over to her program in the afternoon they usually will have lunch over at the school here and then they're shipped over so many of them will be attending some schooling receiving some type of service based on whatever curriculum she puts into her program for the summer I don't know exactly what that is but I don't know if that helps you at all knowing that many of them she just mentioned a couple of days ago because we mentioned about feeding them can the committee get a report at some point before the end of the school year on that program and projections for the summer okay perfect thank you any other thing chair jro was that we can actually um give you what the numbers that we served over the past couple of years in these programs so that yeah the committee can have a that would be helpful uh perspective thank you and I know that these were really difficult choices and and I I know that it wasn't like it just it's awful it's just awful it's it's awful I'm not going to candy coat it's awful I well I want to thank to the business department for going through these items and minim or Trying to minimize the impact on student learning during the day because it's you know the bulk of our salaries are I mean of our budget are salaries right so a lot of cuts would have to come from salaries so I appreciate the effort in reducing the classroom impact I mean this year alone the uh percentage of the budget is 80% uh salaries so you know and which has come down over the last right because it was 82 the year before but it's it's a it fluctuates it's it's a fluid situation and you know again um so we did look at the sum slide there there are Myriad you know arguments on both ends um some say that it's that you can identify a guide but within a matter of time in me engaging in school that that sky is is mitigated but for those who are struggling I I get what you saying completely that they can't afford that so we we looked at all of this and and again the summer being is it usually five weeks Michelle I mean I'm not yes you know so we had to sort of look at the whole you know to what degree right you know with Sports is usually a semester you know and sports is incredibly important I'm not saying that it's not but do you know what I mean like it's I just feel for those students who who are struggling we I want to provide them with every opport just like you do every opportunity to be successful and um you know having that little extra in the summer might make a difference to someone I I I don't disagree by the same token um and this is really hard but these are trade-offs I can't I can't stress that enough this is a trade-off no it's not a resolution but they will most of these students will likely be participating in some sort of we'll get you we'll get you that information because that's important information we that you know we did look at the OST program because we didn't want to leave the kids hanging we didn't want to leave the families hanging it's just you know you start you get to a like I said you know we went a year with an elementary school of 500 you know the year before we had um you know Miss duat bouncing back and forth and that's why you know the loss of Mrs ala if that happened a year earlier would have been untenable we would have never presented that but with the movement of Administrators that we're going to do it the move we think that we can save some money on that so I I do appreciate you know that there I hope you understand we've really thought long and hard about this this is not this is not good stuff thank you and I want to I want to the budget process used to start sometime around December it now starts in August and this is probably without exaggeration the 12th iteration of this budget and this is an incredibly uh human cap from a human capital perspective painful for the district and I I do want to give a shout out to Michelle and her people for this is this is and you because it it ends up being back and forth all the time about this and it's just very challenging CH us but so they did a great job do that's our job no this is not an ideal situation by any stretch so you know these are difficult conversations regardless I mean this is not level service so unfortunately this is the situation that we're in we are so we have to make the best of the resources that we have in the district um and minimize the impact on students that's why we all serve here is to help our students in the best way we can with the resources that we have so uh we appreciate the work of administration bu that and if I may um the budget process for next year will probably we start in July and it's not even a joke because you know again with that 3.5% uh we know what that's going to look like and it's going to so anyway I will say going forward we will have to have difficult conversations around what free cash will look like going forward there's already been discussions with the finance committee on you know escalating that figure down in in subsequent years so that's that will certainly be part of our conversation going into FY 26 I think we have to really take a long and hard look at that with that looks like um and also balancing that at the same time with Community Support that we're getting the voters are the ones who approve our budget at town meeting um and I think that's an important thing to consider as part of these conversations is you know these numbers are ultimately before the town and the town is supported the school's budget and the increase the amended increase that we had last Tuesday so those are points to bring up going I can't thank them enough really by 26 but just wanted to raise that as an issue for the committee to look for going forward um are there any further questions from the committee on this budget I don't have a question I just want to make a comment that if if you look at the amounts for the summer school program and then I just can picture a slide on a town meeting that had you know the town officials and amounts that they make and and if you if anybody noticed out there school committee is not on there because school committee makes zero so if we added that amount to here that's almost the amount of our summer school the amount that we don't get and I'm not saying that I want money but um I'm not sure if the town knows that the school committee volunteers all of its time um for the amount of hours and some of us are also on multiple subcommittees um so yeah that's all thank you thank you for that i' just like to go back a couple of meetings and um you know a statement that was made and again seeing here um with the cuts and they're ugly and none of us want see any of them um but I do struggle with a statement that was made about none of them coming from um The District employees or the superintendent's office um and I really struggle with that where I see everything here that um Can impact students um and in looking at you know the the proposal um I see some opportunities there um of some savings and some money that could hopefully um go back towards things like summer school which I think are very very valuable um to the students okay hear so uh can I just follow up so are you saying that you find something in in the budget that can be be because I think that we should have a a budget subcommittee and and discuss those things if that's something that you think absolutely okay um I will say though that um the closure of the old high school is going to impact our Administration sub substantially and that's $90,000 but if if there's other things if if I think any of us members have any questions about the budget especially our new members who maybe you know weren't here prior to this with the budget subcommittees then um I think we should do that um when do you need this decision to be probably by next week okay um maybe we wait till next meeting weich show I I don't think so I don't not I think I think for your Staffing purposes I think you have Beau four too late so if we could could we do like a zoom meeting or something and just be able to ask questions do you think next week would that be something that you'd be Ava available for Jason yes okay I think it's important um how about I I would certainly be open to depending on depending on what day um are are we talking a full full committee meeting or school committee meeting here again or we session okay like a remote work session yeah what might be beneficial to would we need an action item on that or are we approving the overall figure tonight we're approving the figure tonight you can approve the figure tonight because that's not changing that was approved at town meeting the budget subcommittee would just be to discuss like someplace else for cuts what might be beneficial too if somebody could just like if any of the committee members send me an email and say these may be some of the line items that I'd be looking at just to have so that night I'm not scrambling saying I don't have that information if I get it ahead of time I can have like the breakdown for those line items and then at least the discussion can happen then it'll just like save on time to be able to get right I was just going to say just to clarify the action item that is required tonight is just approving the uh the the 4 46 in just no just you're going to just approve the new budget fy2 approved budget which is the 22,651 207 oh so just okay so that is the only because needs to have okay because of the change that happened at town meeting that wasn't the original number that we had all right so I um did you want to say something I was no I was just going to add if we can get something on the calendar for next week sometime um to discuss this I think if we coordinate that now maybe easier than I think we need to because you know m m has to post it and it can get tricky um I'm unavailable Monday um I have Tuesday Thursday Friday Tuesday would be the only day that I would be available next week for this I'm available virtually I'm available Tuesday like uh later in the afternoon maybe like 3 or 4 I could probably do 4 p.m. 4 on Tuesday would work and we're talking to zo we're talking about an online virtual virtual four on Tuesday that be okay with you Jason Tuesday the 21st Tuesday Tuesday the 21st at 4M mrco can I ask you would you be interested in is there specific items that or or data that you would like to look at to send to miss Rosa beforehand yes absolutely yes my question is what would what would you need um in order to to give a list of of you know line items for what do I need well my question is so ideally you would have something ahead of time right like if I like if so say you have some different recommendations that you'd like to look at the the my line item like you know the business manager's line item like you know what does you know how much you get paid how much comes out of revolving how much comes out of the budget can that be adjusted all then it gives me just an idea of making sure that I have like the right backup or the just the right breakdown because I Pro I'm at a school lunch conference next Tuesday which is fine but I may be doing it either from my car or traffic which is fine again I don't mind it either way so believe me I would rather do this members could give Mr proposa an advaned number preferably this week so she has time to review it ideas or areas that you may see could be possible other Cuts than what you see here that I can have that documentation ready y does does everybody have the budget book did you get a budget book did you did you get one Jason I have one are you able to stop in like Chris doesn't have next couple of days yes okay just I have the proposed budget that I just printed myself off the website but I don't have a budget I have yeah just the what was submitted to the finance committee which is so if if so it's available if I stop by to get okay gotcha thank you okay good good there's nothing further on that um do you need a motion to approve the budget need a motion to approve okay I make a motion to approve the total amount of the budget which is where is it 22 22,651 27 for fy2 I make second all in favor I I I that carries all right we've gone to our action items and we have meet on Tuesday to discuss Cuts routine matters correspondence and notices the only thing I wanted to note is um just pulling up the dates to make sure I get it correct the Memorial Day ceremonies in town will be happening on Saturday May 25th beginning at 9:00 a.m. and those will be at different places along town for wreath Langs the parade will take place on Monday May 27th at 9:30 a.m. and the district participates in that um our band is there and the veteran service office does a great job of putting that together every year so certainly encourage the community to uh show up to that and participate topics the chair could not reasonably anticipate 48 hours in advance of the meeting I don't have any items and with that I would entertain a motion to adjourn I'll make a motion to adjourn second okay all in favor I that carries thank you