request $3,500 for next year and I'm just calling it Grant match because um I am we have been tentatively approved for a Wildland Grant it's a matching Grant 50% matching Grant through the state for
$7,000 um and it will probably be signed uh sometime after July I know it'll be won't be signed until after July 1 but it's 50% match so that $3,500 will pay our share of that Grant that's going to be for for um some hose and portable
fire pumps which um based on the weather the last few years something that we really should be investing in my budget's uh roughly pretty close to 50% spent at the moment um we do have some larger items that will be coming up
later on in the fiscal year for us but I'm kind of waiting to see um equipment purchas things like that would rather do toward the end of the fiscal year um we will have some more vehicle maintenance and station maintenance coming up as well so no not quite not quite U you
know half spent we're well on our way to get there any questions about any of the the budget items U but those just one second for those people following along at home our fire department has
requested a budget of $52,800 for $1,050 doar increase at 2.05% just as a reference point okay any questions for chief I have a question Chief about Vehicles certainly um we
have a pumper truck and we have a rescue truck or an ambulance um we have we have um an engine tanker so it's a it's got a large water tank on it and it's got a pump so it's like a fire truck with a large water water tank on it
our newest truck is in typ what we typically classify as a pumper U it's a got a six person cap it's the most modern truck of the fleet um our oldest truck is a 1989 International it's a conventional cap so it we'll see three
people in the front of it that's the one the stuff that the fire service is trying to get away from because they're not as safe um in emergency responses I I haven't looked at the capital planning but are we planning for a purchase of a new vehicle that's
something that um Fred and I will have some conversations about in the um in the in the coming weeks there's a couple different possible directions we can go with um a new purchase um we are going to have to start looking at replacing the oldest one sooner or later
um but it's going to require some more logistical planning as far as um what kind of direction we want to take our our equipment and one of the things that that I and some of the other officers that are considering pursuing is um something that the service calls a mini
pumper so it's it's will be much smaller in size um Carry less water but carry a lot of the same equipment um and be available to respond to broader array of of incid so like something that we could take out on rout
91 carbon extensor respond to um hazardous uh situations power lines down or gas leaks or something like that maybe more storms and things like that yeah I I asked because I I read a very disturbing article about the availability of fire engines you saw
that to in Los Angeles they have like 40 fing laders is sitting there meanwhile the city's burning up yeah and of course we're not going to be in that situation hopefully right but um you know it's uh the increase in price is largely due to
the consolidation of the manufacturing of fire engines correct the driving and price up considerably so I'm I'm hoping we don't get caught with our I think um things are probably going to get worse before they get better but things will get better
because the the way the market is right now for fire apparatus and ambulances um it's really untenable the trajectory that it's on right now is so it's not good is there any chance of sharing a pricey vehicle with neighboring town or
do we just rely on Mutual a um this again this is one of the conversations that Fred and I have been having a little bit of on the side and then we'll sit down and really hash out some more of it but U Nation it's something that's you know everybody every Department Nationwide is dealing with right now and
there are there are certain things that we will you know rely on Mutual aid for um but sharing you know sharing a new fire truck would be problematic on a lot of lot of
fronts probably logistically wouldn't wouldn't work but um one of the things I did want to touch on before we move on to the capital is we had a particularly busy year last year we did 131 emergency calls um our department was able to
cover 100% of those calls um meaning that our Personnel we had somebody from our department on every one of those calls um typically uh smaller towns call departments uh rely on Mutual aid for at least some of their calls for Primary
Response meaning they could they just couldn't get a crew together um so we were very fortunate that our our fire department members last year really stepped up and responded to a lot of calls right um of those calls there was 12 that were medical um
only um the rest of the calls were fire or motor vehicle accidents um there was a total of um 23 26 29 just about 30 motor vehicle accidents that we
responded to um last year um and the uh majority the rest of the calls were either weather related or fire Aline fires we responded to um 12 um fire 12 incidents that were coded
as fires ACC Into the Fire reporting National Fire reporting U there was eight structure fires we responded to U we had three structure fires here in town so our folks were were pretty busy good yes how many people do you have
working um we have 15 people and we have um probably 10 people right now that are very very active they they they're call they're they're classified
as call Firefighters they will get paid for the times that they're responding we pay them for training as well um just got a question J yes uh in the past were firefighters responsible for their own uniforms or turnout gear is
that um they were never responsible for their own turnout gear um in the past the firefighters Association has paid for um some of the uniforms that people have worn like U you know parade dress
things like that okay um I do think that it's that is something that um will be money that will be well spent to to improve the professional professional sure
okay are there any further questions regarding the line items forqui budget we're good no okay you got the capital I do um so the capital project
that we're requesting funding for is replacement of our air packs um we did a presentation last year kind of showing the differences between the new Air packs and what we have now um our air packs are 23 to 25 years old which is
really it's older than pretty much anybody around um most of the departments in the county have gone to uh higher pressure GE bottles in a more modern system it's got more safety features built in they're more reliable and
there's better interoperability between departments right now if we were to go to a fire and um we wanted more that we had on our truck U we wouldn't be able to to get bottles because the bottles aren't compatible with what anybody
around it t right so that can be kind of problematic and of itself right now we have two packs that are out of service um from the last fire that we had things like O-rings are drying out The Regulators aren't as reliable things like that no I apologize
I I saw the packet and I skimm through it sure okay but as I recall from last year okay didn't we have a discussion about a portion of this being paid for through a grant I was hoping to get um a
Federal grant last year uh we had made it to the final round of selection um two pre for the two previous times I submitted grants to what they call peer review yeah so it was it was uh there was a stronger likelihood that we could get the grant
we didn't get it again last year so um none of this would be funded by by Grant but at the same time yeah didn't we put money side in case the grant didn't come through no no r no okay the one one good
piece of news that I have for you is that if you recall last year the request was significantly more money than what we're asking for this year and the market has been pretty volatile um there's the price has been
all over the place uh the last set of quotes I got for last year for Capital the mark Market was still recovering from supply chain issues and one place that we're saving a lot of money on the B last quot that I got is
that the air bottles themselves are 50% less than they were than we reported the previous year um it's a pretty substantial chunk of money the only wild card right now with the quotes that we have is that um if there are significant
tariffs um on on Imports that could affect the price because the manufacturers have said that they're just going to pass the prices on to us um but I think that the amount of $183,000 will um we're in a safe Zone
even if we get some tariffs on things we'll still be able to F project um do we have any questions regarding air bottles and the importance of having these available go
ahead uh it's not regarding the air bottles it's just regarding the quotes that you have here sure uh there's one from a year or two got from 181,000 and the most recent is 155
yeah because the as I stated I think that's why I think we're we're we're in a good spot with $183,000 to be able to cover the cost of the project even if if there is an increase um on this latest quot that we got due to tariffs okay
because a lot of yeah a lot of mean the bottles are aluminum um a lot of the components are imported um they're assembled I believe they're assembled in the United States but depending on how things shake out um the vendors are very
reluctant to get a quote that lasts any more than 30 days for got it so I think that puts us in a in a good spot um while we're talking about quotes I'll throw this out there um we have
um successfully written um and been awarded a grant from the state um for firefighter equipment which we're going to use for its um turnout GE that was $10,400 and there's a second round of Grants which um with the board's approval we're going to apply for as
well and um we can get up to I think it's $5,250 and with that Grant we're going to request command equipment for Fire part so what's what's that Grant
begin the the one that we were just awarded um is the um uh firefighter safety equipment Grant okay and how much is that the 10,400 I believe is what we were awarded
so it's not a matching Grant it's that one is not a match Grant no it's a um it's a deficit spending Grant and the uh round two um is roughly going to be half of that if we if we get we rewarded the
maximum amount for the first round and presuming we're successful with second second round should be able to get $5,000 okay um the we do have turnout here coming up on Capital um further down the road but
I've been chipping away at the amount of GE that we'll need to replace on that Bas utilizing these grants we've got the last three years Terri okay uh what would your estimate be of
the useful life of the air tents either due to obsolescence as our current one are obsolete or due to the equipment just wearing out need to be replaced probably 20 years 20 years Max 15 or 20 years I mean is there chance that they
will be deemed obsolete in five or 10 because no there's so there's so many departments out there there's so much um so much of a need for this equipment that they wouldn't be uh wouldn't be obsolete that that fast but I would realistically I would say probably 15
years um and um you know the uh hopefully we won't go 25 years before before we replace it but yeah certainly be serviceable with 15 plus
years so with this excuse me this come out of the operating budget or is there a capital reserve um request yeah that would be we'll work that out in the long run I mean if you want to bump our budget up
to3 be done tonight that a capital reest not a how many how many incidents do you have where the air tanks are used oh good question um I can
tell you that obviously on all of our structure fires that were used um and you had a strcture fire well well so we we responded to more structured fires than that but there were eight incidents
where we were actually wearing packs at at fires um we've had carbon monoxide incidents um I can tell you that uh three weeks ago um we had an incident where we responded to uh reported carbon
monoxide alarm sounding and there were elevated levels of the building we had Personnel you know on air um with at that incident um so you know carf fires will wear packs um so in the last uh last calendar
year there was probably um you know probably 15 times 15 calls where people were reading the air but people will be wearing the packs when they're responding to a fire alarm call because we don't know when we get there
if you know even if the owner's there if we go look in the basement if we're going to find something in the basement so the year gets worn whenever somebody's going to a fire alarm I agree it's it's a good investment and there's nothing more costly than a lost life for sure for
sure I'm not trying to bust your chops here no at okay are we good good thank you very much thank you explaining your budget okay we are now moving on to the
uh the Recreation Commission and we have a representative from the recreation they're on 6:35 which means we have five minutes of okay here we have here um hey I'm Chris Williams I'm the
rec director this is Andrew ke with me um he's a member on our R commission wonderful for everybody at home this is our Recreation Commission here in weight Le they are requesting a
2026 budget of 18,36 for an increase of $3,800 Chris why don't you run us through where the that was just the general expenses the total budget is 27148 is why we have a town
administr just a little test see if he's on his toes and he is right well so let me reel that back okay cut that out they are asking for $27,400 for an increase of
66,000 $469 3 that's a significant difference 31% increase and tell us where that money's going and what the increases of for yeah
um so going down um office supplies um we that is an adjustment um that we are actually actually um we discussed and we are going to put the off supplies back to zero as it has been in the past so
that is an adjustment that we have discussed and we are looking to make um we went down in electricity due to moving to One account with the new work that the town did um our building maintenance um we're asking for an
increase in that due to um some additional maintenance that we plan to take on um we've noticed that we need to repair the siding that was just replaced um because birds have worked their way back into it actually in one case back
into one of those bathrooms um that were recently redone um so we need to fix that and then um another thing that we were talking about was um fixing and getting new picnic tables for the Pavilion um those are in pretty rough
shape um so that is the reason for our um for our building maintenance increase as far as hhe goes um having our budget increases at Hurley has been tremendous
I mean you drive by and there's all sorts of new stuff always going on down there um Wayne's great resource for us Recreation commission's awesome always willing to help out um so the reason for our increase this year for moving
forward a couple of projects that we're going to focus on um is installing a parking barrier along the west side of the parking lot um that something we had been discussing and then as some of us probably saw a couple few weeks ago um
it was the field was torn up by a couple of by a couple of probably teenage kids I'm assum but um so we want to get on top of that right away um this summer take care of that um another thing we were talking about
um was getting locks for the barn um we're talking about out a new Outfield fence for the softball field the old PVC fence has that's been around for a while and that's on its last leg um also storage with new fences um you know that
that'll be great for us as well so much more convenient you just roll up that fence we have a little shed at the ba at Frontier baseball field that whole fence goes in there in one little corner and then we have tons of space for other stuff um we're looking to get stone
bases for our sheds both um both sheds were we got those a couple of years ago new and it's time to to get those up um so that we can protect those um and another thing that we were talking about is potentially looking
into a snow blower to get for the ice rink down there there um you know when we have a winter like this it is very challenging to keep that thing clear um so that was something we talked about at our meeting um that if we get the budget
increase that is something that we're looking to purchase as well for next year so that's in here snowblower yep uh no that is actually not on this list I have it asteris and underline on the bottom
hand what's the camera system so we do not have a camera system at Hurley um which also was something that we've been discussing um we obviously did not get it in time it would have
been great to have that resource um currently we uh you know we have some surveillance signs up there to try to deter people um and then also in prep for using some of the remaining budget this year to get a system with weightly
PD we've been collaborating with Chief sine on that did you consider doing some of the snowblower the fence ham system as a capital request through CPC right because they they are
capital items those shouldn't be in one year okay bud um that is something that we had not um really been looking into we've been able to balance our budget um well being able to get these new updates
at Hurley um with our capital projects we have a double a batting cage that we'll be putting in um so that was one of our goals and then for next year our Capital project goal is trees around Hurley um getting those planted and then um potentially we're also going to work
on fence replacement along the Riverside so that that all sounds very good question of how they get funded and if they're Capital Improvements they should go through CPC rather than through the standard budget process first it goes
through them then it would come to us and right and right but it would it it shouldn't go into your operating budget what business because they're essentially oneoff costs they you're not going to you don't replace them every year so you don't want to see your budget you're operating your general do
the 12K that you have in here isn't covering any of those the camera the fencing the um snowblower Etc um we were planning to use that $12,000 yes not for the camera system camera system we plan
on taking out of our current budget that work is that why there's this $3,000 increase in the harly P yes um our B our budget has you know worked for us in um past years and then with the
parking barrier system and also we were discussing the softball fence and the and the snowblower as well and that was why we went up in that increase um I spoke with the CPC committee um last week we had a meeting the parking barrier was
something that they could not help us with um they uh Judy marklin gave a great clear explanation as to why that I can't exactly recite perfectly um but so yeah
we are when we have those capital projects like yeah we are discussing with CPC I'm on the CPC committee yeah yeah not not all of them would even as JY you not all would qualify but they should still be submitted through that process rather
than through your annual budget process okay be an easier Row for you y but also just to to keep things straight like repairing the building to keep the birds out is should be in this that's a repair
um fixing up the field is a repair just to bring it back status quo anything new you want that's going to be a permanent fixture should be in a separate repace here we still have 5,000 pressure or
Capital yeah but there can be a things can be lumped together yeah so they could put the camera system and snow blower together and pick it out one comes in under 5,000 get put together for one one
proposal so Chris uh has weightly Recreation been infected yet by the pickle Bol itis no way has not been affected by that I teach up at Conway so um I I see
them in the see them in the gym and I believe uh we have some pickle ball courts going in uh at Conway grammar so I am pretty excited about that get to run a pickle ball unit so that'll be that'll be pretty cool run five and 10 yeah okay major the other thing that
we've been talking about in regards to pickle ball is something that we are working towards is getting the property south of hery um and and that will be yes it's a big Capital project and all
that good stuff um but just specifically in regards to pickle ball our goal if we were to get that property would be to put up an outdoor basketball court with pickle ball Alliance be great any discussion about acquiring the land between the
dugouts and Ro it's on the list yes that is uh that would be great because then we would technically be able to put dugouts there but right yes I do always get a kick out of that strip of land but I will say we missed uh we missed Ralph uh a couple weeks ago when those people
were tearing it up cuz he would have woke up he would have let us absolutely he had a he had a he have the crosshairs on um well look um before we wrap up I just want to say that um I hear good things about you okay about the program
about uh the commission and uh that's value to us and obviously you are you understand the relationship between what happens on those fields and what happens at that school y absolutely
okay so all we would ask or all I would ask is a per a personal thing is that you continue to drive the good sportsmanship ethic with our kids and I would ask that you make sure no one
Stacks teams no over zealous parent who who wants to coach a team tries to get his kid and his kids friends and we all jump on one team that's not very good for
what happens so I got a good I got a good story about that our grade five six teams the other day y overtime and then the weightly 2 team which I gotta be honest like my money would have been on weightly one and uh
and way 2 got him right the buzzer so that that was like a cool you that was a cool thing kind of like some reassurance that like all right our coaches are doing it well I got to tell you I was really glad they won as well but had they lost we would be having different
comp fair fair well I've got one more Bud question uh you didn't discuss the increase in the coordinator's salary yep 43% increase yep um so that is something
uh that Wayne and I um began talking about last year um right now currently on a relatively regular basis I am when I'm submitting when I'm submitting my time sheet due to our budget I'm leaving
off time that I'm putting in considering it as volunteer work for our rec department um the past three weeks or past three pay periods um this one I'm at 12 hours with two days to go we got some more work to do the most the one
before that 17 hours um and obviously we had the issue at hurlee that Saturday which required some additional attention um that 17 hours did not include a a trip up to the birar for uh for the sake of wreck and then the pay period before
was 12.5 hours so based on our budget it's five hours a week and it's something I consistently go over and that's without really initiative I suppose you know I mean obviously volunteering maybe maybe I can jump in
there so I was suppored of that um that's not an increase Sal that's an increase in hours um and what we're trying to do recommission is number one Benchmark gets our peer right so we have every town has they say similar program this director uh for the amount that
that we do and that Chris does and the amount that the programs that we have um uh we're a fraction of the of the hours allocated versus Rec directors in other towns um so this will still be significally below the the what the other Rec record out I don't mean to
compare other towns but it's we need to Benchmark we need to make sure that we are providing service that is competitive versus what the what the standards are so uh given that the number of teams that we have number of of uh uh programs that that Chris is coordinating I think it's warranted for
the extra hours going from with number is five to seven right Chris five to seven hours a week still well below what what the other towns would are are supporting um the biggest thing that I think I see is is you want to use that
time to drive continue to drive efficiencies um and make sure that we're we're ultimately programs that are that are best in class in terms of cost and and availability for the for the kids and make sure that cost is never a barrier for partip and any of the the town people or
anybody wants to to join way the r um and I think Chris has done a really good job with not only the youth engagement but Community engagement just for example we have first and second grade basketball right de for has one team that's all they get at for coaches we have two teams and each team has three coaches so continue to drive that
Community engagement look for for uh talk with local businesses they would like to support way W finding other ways to support wait uh early he is one of the greatest uh Billboards that we have in in the whole region and um uh different different business I want to try to support try to uh Foster those
relationships and look for better better uh communic that way so I think that two hours a week is well War he's already doing it so uh just com for well we thank you for your support of what Chris is is doing um I just wonder why this doesn't go through the Personnel
committee it will okay so this is going to we're jumping ahead the Personnel any adjustments and Personnel will go to through personel but my um that was good absolutely my recommendation is that um that emotion and that kind of support uh
is all anecdotal yeah okay so I would recommend that all of that be put in black and white so that they can be a comparative so that when the argument is made for this increase you just go here it is yeah yeah
okay sorry wrap up um about building repair um because wer is going to pick um are you looking at deterrent in addition to I I think that's something we're g to we're going to have to do a little
research and maybe reach out some uh reach out to some people I do not have an answer that that's to stand we just can't do this every three years right we need to figure out there there's some way somehow we all you're doing is entertain yeah I think you can hang
reflective tape okay of the wall I you can also hang common bird netting three or four in away from the wall so they can't get to the wall but do some research on okay cool abely go ahead just a quick one it's
carpenter bees at the woodpeckers are after you got a pine siding down there it's under own handang you get rid of the carpenter bees you get a carbon of beef trap but is wor there's different ones out there they're not that and stuff but if you get rid of get rid of
the carpenter be you won't have the wood that goes with anybody's house you got I if you got Carpenter one more thing about um Recreation coordinator expenses for 23 and 24 it's a very low zero for both
years why why was that we didn't have one we didn't have one well we had one before oh no we didn't before no Christmas Tire taken on in Jonathan Ed is responsible for those
years that's that's where we'll put it yeah okay great right just kidding Jonathan if you I have a quick process question Y where is the revenue that the other towns pay to use Hur here inside of the
operating budget where's that picked up is that somewhere else we'll eventually see um could you just repeat that question so if a team from Deerfield from Frontier rents the they rent the field
from what I'm told where is that money going paid to the town or outside towns are pay to rent out field time yeah where is that Revenue get picked up you have a revolting account yes we do have
revolving account but like with um with Frontier um we have a contract with them I believe they use our fields and then Main and then maintain the fields as
well I believe um there if there is money that wey wck is getting we have not gotten it so perhaps that's going directly to the town or it goes into town yeah and yeah and I don't I don't
um actually from a conflict of interests um I cannot uh be part of those uh contract discussions I spoke with somebody I'm assuming was from the state um a couple of years ago just that's question thect collect treasure we see
it last time but it goes into the general I just PE my interest and then when we have um like men's league baseball um uses the field then we'll send them a bill they'll send us a check and that goes into our revolving account
thank you we have a list of um those those accounts that we used pass we have received that list and um how much was in each of those they're in your
monthly uh the monthly actual the budget the accountant y so it's available go ahead is the just to double check the numbers that you did submit are you saying you just want to modify that office supplies to
zero yes we are going to and then the rest of the numbers uh would stay the same so our budget request yeah would go down to yeah okay okay anything
further thank you very much for coming in and explaining the budget thank you thank you for having us appreciate it I think we've got the best facility in the four towns I I don't know if there's one better in Frank
County absolutely okay so we are uh now we getting to school and we will start with Frontier region which
was at 6:45 and I apologize we are at 6 minutes over and Bob you thank you good evening everyone so um my colleague Shel K
director business finances at here in 38 it's unw it's not well this evening so I found out that up this afternoon so I'm gonna pitch in for her and try to get everything off tonight but if there are detailed questions I may have to say
have to get back to in a second so I apologize I hope she's doing yeah glad to hear she's staying yeah so anyway um we're going to start with Frontier and then in between the two I'll give
you a presentation on stuff that's going on the school so how would I present folks join the zoom session join the zoom session I'm not doing with my computer audio ready yeah yeah
okay back was our save time off use just cancel that but how do I get the bar off the top so I can access my test did
launch can we project on scen behind you yeah see so that will be I think it should that's why our administrator assistant she's
the okay all right so starting off with the frontier budget so where we are in the process there is we haven't had our public public hearing on the budget yet so this would the budget approved on the 11th to move forward to public hearing so they still
receiving he oh he's asking to he's in a separate act separ so because yeah he wants the yeah screen it's he's he's got it in br you can all right screen
okay Paul can you see it on the TV here I can I can see it up there the same thing so okay does what we're SE on the screen correspond to anything in the handout it should have been exactly hand [Music] good language is different I think we're
good the numbers are yeah the numbers are the same it's not okay you guys all set yes you may have yeah okay she may have yeah had a couple the subtraction of the two or something like that didn't equal the
real numbers right right there all right that's yeah I didn't buday okay all right um so basically the budget presented um
before youday is a 3 32 increase over fy2 um and the 300,000 3,888 growth includes a placeholder for wage increases for teachers and instructural assistance who we are
currently in negotiations with um and also including central office staff so in outside of that the major um changes in the budget are in those four categories you can see health insurance um is a big hit of close to
175,000 um as I don't I believe you new towns are also part of the frankman trust um which is an 18% increase in health insurance so that's what you're seeing that big um Chunk in health insurance other insurance is $30,000 retirement contribution
$27,000 and um I'm going to be grounding numbers J on you have the do in front of you and then an out dist placement um cost increases of $12,000 so those are the major changes in the budget that brings you to um the 3.32 there are no
new initiatives in the budget um and there are no um there are no Capital requests this year from we going to hold those in house as well yes have this out of district is that students who go to
other schools so those are students that are placed in other schools by our district not students that choose it's not choice or Charter it's students who are um so if students have special education needs that we can't oh I can't
um okay service at the school they will be offset they'll be sent out and those can be um those can round from 50,000 to $300,000 in place a what $50,000 to $300,000 a placement each single student
so going up to $12,000 is very small it's just adjusting the budget as it's growing and those keep on going up and up as well that cost those placements so again these are students that um need either um services that we can't provide
or such intense Serv services and even Residential Services um that place and how much did you say the range is again it could range from $50,000 to $300,000
St student per year per year yeah and day students could be $300 a day in transportation you have to transport them as well say we after
um so um this budget is brought down by two funding sources um to bring it down to 3.32 we're using $100,000 a rural AE and $100,000 a school chice we have just over $200,000 in rule Aid We're choosing
use 50% of that our beliefs um that the rural a is the kind of the state's attempt to um give districts like ours some funding that's not going be through Chapter 70 um however it's not guaranteed year toe
so we're trying to be conservative in how we're using it um we're 50% toward the budget and then we're to use 50% toward the capital expenses it's already been kind of year marked to go toward the fire panel system that we're already
um have already bid it out that's gone up and up in price each phase of that so and then using school choice additional school choice monies there's already school choice in the budget off setting costs um but using
$100,000 there as well to lower that budget so again if you can read you know reading it to you with um El people go at home you know basically we'd be at 1 Point 1.54 higher um P3 386 over FY 25
if we did not do that again as I said there are no new requests for FY 26 um and there are the numbers for the um total budget with general fund grant funding revolving funds of you know 15,5 41,000
looking it gets in more detail the way she has a set up is it having get some overview then it goes into the specifics of how the budget got so um the historic the historic data of this budget of what we've seen in past years you can kind of see there we 34 year
before 2.92 364 your current enrollment residents have stayed pretty consistent the last three years you can see we're you know just under 430 students with a fluctuation of choice um
it's down from 189 to 167 that number is going to continue to go down we have [Music] less um I the my eyes um so uh Choice number is going down and that number will continue to go down as Bron county
is shrinking and also our sending schools are shrinking and so the number of school choic are sending schools of the four towns which the majority of our choice students um continue on in our system from is getting smaller um the B main cul of that would be Deerfield they used to have three sections of um three
sections three classes per grade level they're now down to two um and you know they were um one of the major beaters of school choice into Frontier um and weight a little bit later darus at that number what's what's the what's our cost
for pupil any have you with that number well 420 uh total 596 we're around 20,000 yes and of school school choice how much
do you have to pay school choice so we will get um $5,000 flat fee and then any special edit increments on top of that so if you're a student that let's say receiv speech services there's a billing rate for those Services back if you were
a student that had more intense needs and had a one to one that would be fully reimbursed by the C School District so it's more than it's more than $5,000 because about just about 20 21% little bit higher than
here are special receive special education so 21% of you know that number in front of you is receiving more than the $5,000 the choice that students have is it just within this these three schools or could they for example go to
North so talking about Frontier Regional the four sending towns are all members of Frontier Regional so they would have to be from outside those towns so if they went if a student went to JFK if they left us to go to another District we' pay out yes and how much is that is
that $10,000 it's $5,000 a student and plus any special increment if they go to Charter School is $20,000 you have any sense of what the exposure is relative to that sorry any sense of what the exposure how many people are impacted so um you know what
I don't have that number and Shelly would um the good news is that number's gone way down and so our um in two years ago that number number dropped so significantly over the last going into last year that that's how we were able
to pay off the um that was one of the major factors that we were able to pay off the loan for the track and the major improvements for $1.8 million is because we we applied school choice a big hey chunk of school choice because the number of students going out went down
um and that was Major one of the major components of why School Revenue went up because we we didn't have to spend as much out that year so so um so things are going in the right direction students going out I think Charter's lost some of his charm it's not as
popular from our district um as it was for a while um I think it's also because our schools have been in healthy shape so when schools become unhealthy sort of look for other options but we've been kind of running running well for the last 10 years that 5,000 B been that
much way for like 10 15 years it has never changed so it's never been adjusted for no in in Easter Mass Easter Mass has doesn't really participate in school choice um most schools are either don't opt in or if they do it there very
little movement um and it's really western Mass and the cape that are school choice um where there's a lot of school choice moving and we are probably one of the biggest winners in school choice in Massachusetts and of course the flip side of that is places like Turner or bruer
right correct so I say we're winners there's got to be a loser right so we're taking those kids from somewhere um and we we basically um take the majority of our students from the northern County so your Greenfield monu and then a smattering of you know
Mohawk um Pioneer then we get a few from South and a few from ammer but sometimes it has to do with people either working in the district or working this direction um worlders school but the understanding is that was why was
created to begin with it was created to have to create an environment where you have the Haves and the Have Nots because they couldn't control the unions yes so they would put choice now into the
system and if you can't control you then either do well or we're going to put you out of business and that's kind of what's Happening you know here I don't think you know you look at choice and if you were looking in a you know kind of a
city where you have multiple high schools and you know the idea of or you know schools that were failing and you know you want to choose your child to have a better education it is kind of you know in western Mass you know a lot of these schools you start getting an exodus and then you start losing
programs and then people start leaving the schools to chase programs so if you want to be le you know Athletics is easy so I'll put something a little bit more you know drama program how many how many area schools are putting on three or four Productions a year we are but
others you can't keep up you don't have the the base and then you can go into the academics you know how many AP offerings can you offer with more than five students in the classroom you just don't have the the the mass to do that and then also we also build Special on the other end of the spectrum we have
special ed programs where we Choice students in um so that you know we build our own programs um so that our students don't have to leave but you have to have a critical mass if you only educating one kid can build a program you have three or five you can build a program you know so you know we've done those
things so we're fortunate to where we are we're in 91 we're an easy location to go to we're a little bit further south um and so you know we kind of won early on in the school choice game and and now we're kind of bigger winners because it's it's continued after World
um shouldn't be stopped it's going to have to come up from the outside just playing the game you know you set um just one quick question
not our education in Massachusetts in secondary elementary is funded by property tax correct are there any states that don't fund their school systems with property tax because it's inherently agressive um it's a good question I I
assume there are states that do it differently and I mean I know that there are different funding models and Massachusetts is very complicated because there's you know it's you know we start we haven't got the assessments yet when I start talking about the assessment you'll be like I understand you only G your budget as much your assessment says
this right um so let's get to that then we can talk about that but it is the funding formula has been Band-Aid on top of Band-Aid rather than retrofitting the whole thing because the amount of politics to retrofitting the whole thing and they're talking about opening up Chapter 70 right now um there's a couple of bills out there just to have a
discussion about changing the funding formula but um Everybody if you change it some there's winners and losers and so it's where the politics are and all that so know they yeah so let yeah let me get the assessments because that's kind of the can I do a quick followup question about
funding so I might understand that there is nothing coming from the federal government at lung our schools I'm curious if we are in any kind of a vulnerable position that could changes are going on yeah so Federal funding yeah it's a good question the federal
funding um mostly is Title One um there is no right now uh talk about changing that that would that would decimate the cities and whatnot and what is title one guess Title One um is uh for Math and English for students low
basically based on low energy okay um and so we do get some Title One monies um it pays for I think a teacher and a half mostly goes to salaries um and that was a guess we're at but it's not a ton it's probably around
$100,000 um and then for the elementary is even less you that kind of if we qualify at all really um so that's kind of a lot of federal funding does go into the Department of Education and then gets to us in other grants so sometimes we don't know that it's connected to a
federal funding thing y um so um you know like we had a safe and supportive schools Grant it's like for $10,000 some of that's federally funded but to what percentage we don't know so if they were to cut that there's going to be there will be a ripple effect but it's not as cut and dry as saying oh that's Federal money and then that's State money
sometimes it goes into State institutions and then distribute it right um the one thing is that if they you know I went to a conference because we were talking about this about the federal funding and you know they they shut down the Department of Education they're going to have to figure out the funding somehow or else none of the
Senators are or representes are going to get rep and they're going to lose control of the House and Senate so because their constituents are not going to allow them to figure to pick up the bill of everything shutting down so there's going to be a ripple effect of Correction at some point of those
concerns so just I'm not saying that's the way it's going to happen but I want there is a check and balance that the writing that those folks have to get elected into those positions and if you cut all their school's money they're not going to get elect well we would hope they would not get elected um so um I just want people to kind of think of
that as like where's the checks and balance of where the federal government is heading when it comes to education um I'm hoping that's going to be it I'm POS speak I could be wrong surprising me quite a bit are you working at all I'm sorry I keep interrupting you are you working at all
in Massachusetts uh to look at well if you say it's complicated where the money comes from to look at where you might have vulnerabilities to follow the trail back uh so that you have some idea of what might be coming if the yeah I mean we're looking at it's like I said um
Title One and IA um are the two major funding ideas so it's just not it's not they don't do the major funding if it comes from the state and local contribution is what funds your schools so it will have an effect if they give nothing but yeah
um it wouldn't shut us down it would you know yeah thank you appreciate that all right so um basically the number times assessment are um state required contribution based
on what the town can afford um additional funding to cover the budget after the revenue sources are applied Capital project and Debt Service so the three and four there are no um there is no debt and there is no Capital project so we paid off that debt last year can just interrupt for some people
haven't been committee the state required contribution takes into account a lot of things including our assessments so as our assessments go up if we keep the same tax rate we get more money money but it goes into it makes it look makes look like a wealthier town
and our school assessment gets bigger just it's complicated right and it's a 13-step assessment Pro they figure basically if you have more money the state comes in and says of the four towns who has more money who has less money so Conway
you'll see I'll jump down to it um we're talking about assessment have a Flor conversation here's your the assessment of this budget to the four Ps so Conway is at negative 11% deerfields 4.5%
sunland's 9.3% in weight Le 5.86% for $ 6,42 um and so when we we get the numbers from the state we don't know if this is money in Money out for the towns we don't know in Conway's case they've lost
um which they believe they've lost some because it also goes on income and members in town went back to there they lost a couple millionaires um moved out of town and a town that size it has that effect and so these are things that they're talking about you're talking about state level small towns can't make
the adjustment you know if you have um somebody famous moving in town buys a big house and then decides to move three years later the adjustment that hits you in the state war is one person sometimes um so that is the that's the so I jumped
had to the assessments I know you guys I sorry interrupt but I yeah you and please thank you Fred for helping me out there um so yeah basically that is the assessment of Frontier to the towns
um and how that is set is also by The Rolling average and so here's the rolling average with percentage for um town you can see weight Le dropped a uh dropped 13 students in the five-year
roolling average however dein Cony also dropped students so that's why s took a big jump because they're plus 18 so that also is a factor iness how does the future look for enrollment running into running from the
town in froner um didn't we stop to have here in weight Le like a we just call it a population Bo but we have you know a robust um kindergarten 3K or second
grade uh my understanding so the the numbers coming up should they all come to fr Frontier we have um next year's sixth grade class takes a dip and is probably
20 students we usually range between 100 and 120 students in middle school and then um the tech school take about 15 of those students we get so we get around 115 and we're down we get to about back to 100 private schools takes a handful
or so um going into ninth grade as well so your graduating class ends up between 90 and 100 that's been the running Trend there is a dip in two classes the current sophomore class has a dip in it and the current six grade class going in
has a dip in it where those classes are going be closer to 75 um it does then bounce back up and you'll see that we actually have another kind of Boom in town for your um your Elementary School um prek and um kindergart prek R um you
know has 16 um it's a few there's a little bit of baby coming coming through from Co I don't know kids or as I said maybe the masks didn't protect child birth
any do you have any concerns or there any um relative to the kids that are currently in weatley elementary that will eventually attrition into funer actually yeah into funer um that there could be special needs that will become
even more expensive to the frontier budget down the road as the kids begin the age is there any of that so once they enter Frontier we as a for toown together um own them and and care for
them so um in a way if weatley had a a higher need Student and they went to Frontier then becomes frontier's problem you get to share the cost with all the other towns it does come back we don't say you know ymo here came from weightly
you own that cost of that student once they get the front go the FR inside the budget divided up right still inside the budget right so I guess my question is is there any um potential for that to increase on that side of it you we're talking about
how expensive it was to take care of kids that you sent them out just wondering is there any potential need inside the elementary school to elri into the regional system at a higher cost level it's not uh no
nothing that's because um we have students leaving at the same time as well so you know Frontier has a pretty robust special education program we service many students to the age of 22 and state law is very firm on your 22nd birthday you you move on R
transition services to other to other networks and that kind of thing so students are also leaving as students are coming in and there's no big and every now and then Frontier may lose a let's say a bumper student as student it's very expensive um but same time it
kind of evens out so far um thank you yeah it's a good question since are we monitoring how that flows through um given that negotiations are going on both the frontier and 38 how do
you arrive at the placeholder figures without giving away any negotiate and put one in what I take an educated guest I gamble so I gambled with your budget right so so you know we Gamble
and and we I up put something in there to make a budget no I know but do you make it a relatively conservative in terms of the budget I would answer that question public TR me trust me that number should should work right and if it doesn't then
depending on how much it's over um depending on how much is over depending you know we will have to adjust budgets with you know um you know you know it m only affected and Elementary um it may
it would be a smaller amount a smaller percentage but um you know it all depends and it also is the realistic um espe when we look at the weekly budget it's the realistic constrictions of the budget so we not only can't afford it but
there's no way that you know looking at the elementary school budget and looking at what the projected increase is we don't have that breakdown for front here just looking at that we here okay how is that arrived at and answer is educated
guest right yeah it is very educated guest wait hope it's right um the only P I skipped over real quick which was important is just basically your general fund budget
and you know we're where those increases are going and the decrease lines note that they you're not cutting we reducing it by using school choice and prior to so again this is you feel great is sweet
spash these numbers inside so you do have you know you have questions on this and you walk away later on and you're like you know what he didn't answer this or like to see this please just shoot us an email and we'll get you that information or shoot us an email then if it's something you
want to discuss at the public hearing um and as I said that's at the bottom here the public hearing is coming up um is the 4th March 4th is the public hearing so we'll have that at six o'clock and then called by Reser session
and then we vote the budget later that week so we no longer do it on the same night as we as to people's uh board finance committee asked for some PA there um but we do have to do it that week because our regional agreement says
we have to do it how many 45 days before first town meeting okay and that first town meeting is sundland then um yeah yeah sunland's on Friday and deerfield's
on and our town meeting is ail so you guys moving back moving back to the early spring hopefully is that be IND I think that means we're gonna be inside this year it's
April Showers I miss outside that May or June I think June wasn't working either and you have to have this set by the six correct and so um I mean all the um Town committees have gotten a copy of it
and so we'll be you you know as you can see it's a while the assessments are can go up and down based on that the actual growth the budget is I think certainly been acceptable ranges
persp so our increase here for those working on at home who may or may not be able to see this um our um the cost to our
town um P of weightly has increased 5.86% for $6,400 um and your total budget here is what number 15 million 15,
541000 4 15 M 54144 and we will be responsible for one point0 31 no 9 109 1.09 for those following at home
um that was kind of uh you know good overview good you know let us see what's you know what are the uh what the challenges are and obviously what we're going to be up
um okay um questions any further questions regarding Frontier Regional High School or superintendent thees um I want to thank you for putting together very comprehensive
presentation please thank sh for okay let's uh let's move on to something um and de it to our heart uh which would be in the wle elementary school so I give you guys a mental Break by giving a little slideshow presentation because I was asked to say
kind of bring to life what's happening at the schools y um and kind of give some data about what what's going on so starting with a couple slides from Frontier um you know I think I called it report card you know what's happening with our Frontier graduating class um
and you as you can see right there 49 52% of our students attended a four-year College coming out of the class of 2024 23% attended a two-year College 1% locational 90% enter 18 students were 90% enter the labor market before enter
the military 94 graduates last year what does that look like over the last five years um we have the data going all the way back but last five years kind of give a snapshot it's got of a little drop where we were within four-year College um I think we have more students entering the labor market from that particular class but if you look at the
comparison to what's happening in um compared to massachusett State average um you know we're sending more students on um as a college preparatory school um than the state's doing I just think that's an interesting report card yeah
absolutely um I also have um I didn't make copies of it for um everyone but you can pass it around just kind of flip through this is also a listing of all the Stu all the schools that students are planning to
attend and where they got into so you can kind of flip through and you can see all the schools where the students are going was kind of hard to put on the slide just right a list of um 40 something schools at here we also introduced
something called Frontier Pathways um that to introduce real world experiences to prepare them for the Post uh Workforce um and it's called Pathways and if you go to our website here um basically we have manufacturing
engineering healthc care and social assistance criminal justice Global Studies and computer science and business these are all these are Pathways to drive student interests at the high school level to kind of direct them um to kind of like take a little M
major kind of put it in L like a major while you're at high school so for example if you want to go we have interest in going into Healthcare um we basically they kind we give a background of all the different healthare places and so forth and then we give a
recommended cours workk we have to take 10 credits you know live introduction of healthcare but you are offering new courses such as health trainer Sports Medicine CPR first aid then Advanced courses and you can look at those APS um biology chemistry physics so that you
could even go from just General Health Care or even Prem and so you can kind of look through the whole um you know each one individually I don't want to you know this a finance community meeting meeting but we also are doing partnership internships with
area business um and you can sign to see cestro on waitley and other um businesses in the area that are doing internship for high school students going from these Pathways and so we're always looking for more so if you know connections out there they're interested in um One have
one of these Pathways and have connections to it um we do have a Pathways director that would be happy to reach out and introduce people more that um new electives over the past three years long list of them we've been kind of shaking things up and keeping with
the student interests um as well as um feeding into our Pathways program so um dropping off some things and adding some things and many of these programs rotate so what we do is we do them every other year so that way um you know if you have
a sports medicine you know with the number of students that we have maybe you don't have enough to run that every year so you run it every other year so that um people who have um interest in doing that that especially is important with our a classes rotate our AP classes every other year so we do two um you
know for Sciences we do two natural science disal science um and and then swap them year to year so that you can take all ones that you want to take as you go through right so then so that was just kind of the quick overview in front you okay life at wheatly a lot of pictures
because it's an elementary school and U that's a that drives a Smiles um basically the overview um we do daily instruction of ela Math Science Social Studies we do have a strong social emotional instruction through second step um physical education is
kindergarten through grade six musical General music PK through grade six Visual Arts um kindergarten to six technology grade 1 through grade six and library prek to six all once per week with physical education twice per week um we have Global Studies uh extension
from the classroom as well kindergarten through grade six once per week we have stringed instruments and band instruments that are available as you can see there from grades 3 through six and 4 through six for band instruments um and then we also have an obstacle course with a
physical therapist um you know working with prek to grade three once per week so working with those students there I'm going to kind of go quickly through these these are just things that are happening at weightly um Chrissy Curt your principal put this together
and um she's in Florida with one your Finance not with her but they are both down there which so she can't be all right so we have family dancing and arts can see some people doing
things slideshow um see kids uh on their campus we do have a well very good have a very nice campus nice site um she's taken in Eclipse slower Eclipse rather there's a
lot of cross great collaboration and learning activities across the in a smaller School you do a lot of reading buddies and those kind of things happening um we also have Humanity members coming in and leading activities and I didn't place this person in there
just happened to be there nice touch though if I was I knew what I was doing I'd do it that way um they do an annual March um they join Monty's March and do their own March um to look at uh food in Security in the
the valley and learn more about that and really looking at each grade level learning more and more intensity as they you know from fifth and sixth grade really understanding what that means they also do their own food drive um they work with the police department the pack BRS are full of food um you know
which is a real draw teaching staff um we do have a pretty veteran staff with the 21 of the bachelor D9 with the master's degree and two with doctorates with 434 years of teaching experience
it I'm going bring an outside presentation here's the tang with Marinette we've introduced yoga um to support self-regulation and students keep their control of their bodies and minds they are hyperactive to be monthly all school
meetings are back those lost during covid um where each grade level presents and controls the meeting and oops and um and look out see bases may not we do a lot of IND support and I'm
going to talk about that in the next part um the needs of students are changing um as you can see here the number of students with disabilities Is On The Rise um in weightly and this is according to our Jesse profile um and
you could say what are the factors on that um certainly you think Co has a factor on that we are seeing more students um diagnosed earlier with disabilities and that's a good thing because it allows us to get earlier interventions um but it does have a major impact on our budget
and I'll be talking about that shortly um there are more students with higher needs staying in school districts um being identified earlier uh and we're just kind of seeing that across the board special education costs are um Rising faster than
other um we still they're doing Field Trips Trips to New York you see there in the back background Theater Arts nights so we performing we are Performing Arts with be um and visual arts out of our
classrooms presentations and then individual interests sewing and great projects there also lock in Civic responsibilities including Memorial Day and vet day assemblies great photos there
get connections with the town and our veterans I their service they also are doing a fundraiser with Mom sales as they have a they're working with the school tanzia tanzia with a former teacher who
happens to be there so they actually did a zoom thing last week where they saw a former teacher we connected both sides they actually see their money um that they raised at work and so really kind of uh Pals to the next level zoom and
that kind of thing it's not a USA project yeah and then you know obviously here's our Miss statement big grp all right all right so that all cost money so let's let's dive into that let's go
we're talking money yeah right pict you know what I buttered you up with pictures of children there is no there is no shame School administrator you know you're absolutely right about that um that we're here to
look at the money but if you step back and you say you're going to put your name on the line at an annual town meeting to tell the residents of our town that they should vote one way or another what are they
voting for they're not voting for just numbers they're voting for value and what does that school represent what do those two schools represent they represent more than a dollar sign and if you're going to put your name behind the dollar sign you should
know why and that's the why thank you so I'm gonna go quickly through the narrative part you folks all have this copy correct and you can kind of read through it um but basically we have approximately 130 students um about 8%
already of the students the rest of 20% school choice we get those numbers we get down below um have a little bit about the staff um and obviously we pride ourselves and all that good stuff um I just want to again
me today um so right now um we do have a public hearing on March 6 for this as well so we're still getting feedback on this budget and this budget does need feedback from you folks do have some conversations with folks get at the
table um talk about the difficulties of this budget this is a difficult budget we knew it coming um based off of last year um it'll explain what that means in so this is um level service budget with
some add-ons um and level service does not mean level funded as you know conts in such go um we review all the different funding Staffing program initiatives and building this budget sh does a much
better job explaining it how get right from in our budget the expenditures so when you look at the budget sheets that were handed that were sent out to you the line items we categorize not by choice but where the Department of Education says we have to categorize
things so um as you looked at the different areas of where things are budgeted you know why did you put you know school psychologist in that line and not the other line it's because um the Department of Education says that you have to code them under certain function go and she likes to explain
that every year as they look through the budget on and go through that to understand why there's certain grows in certain areas um so that's what that whole kind of page is about talking about those different the enrollment in the elementary school you can see in this
graph here um um you can see the total enrollment gone up slightly residents have gone up slightly in school choice is is hanging about the same spot um that's kind of a funky thing that
we'll talk about because when residents take the seats and we can't build them with school choice we actually lose money coming in from funding source so you you need it look like a question so if we have let's say we believe the optimum class size which I
believe is is between 18 and 22 for an elementary school maybe a lot smaller for the earlier grades but to say fourth grade um and we have 18 residents only can take a few school choice students before we start to get too too large if we had 14 residents we could then take
six school choice students and that would be an instant $30,000 increase from outside Revenue Force to your to your budget not including um special education reimbursement so it's one of those things we'll talk about when we um
um Chapter 70 funding um while weightly has gone up in the number of residents it's not enough to affect us to leave both harmless which means we will only get the per pupil minimum Aid which in this case right now the governor's
budget is $75 per student so the the state is only going to increase its funding to the town for weightly just under $7,000 um and that's where it's it's broken and where they're going to have to open back up and look at that so in
looking at the history of Chapter 70 if you go back 2003 I think it was they went into Chapter 70 and they fixed the town side where the towns kind of won the smaller districts won um and receiving more
funding then again in most recent um student Opportunity Act from the from the state the cities are winning the they're getting all the money the millions and millions of dollars that are going in in the town in the smaller towns are you're going to see the next
legislation kind of flux bring that back so it goes back to towns but we're kind of in that waiting period until that happens so um talking with the taxpayers association who did a um they an independent group that looks at the budgets of the state they did a presentation they kind of explain that
there a lot of superintendents in this area are upset about the funding formula and when are they going to dive in and how are they going to change that and they understand that the correction has to haveen they they're saying the state understands the correction has to happen just no matter of how we get there um is
there a timetable on that say so is right now so our local legislators are very are trying to pass bills to get that opened up and get it looked at there are too many districts that aren't getting more money um and um
the rural Aid isn't enough and so either you know they can if they ful fund for a rural Aid they don't have to went chapter 7 um but we'll talk about a little later all right so the level service budget going into the beat now the level service budget reflects a 6.9% increase
over fy2 um and that's driven by wage and non-wage expenses um but no new initiatives there um and the primary reason it's up 6.9 is that we're starting in a deficit of just about 3%
at 2.92 okay last year we used Esser funds to offset the budget of $40,000 just about 2% and we did that because the transportation contract came in at 2% higher so it immediately put us around
5% and we had to get that down to 3% to be palatable um and we had the money to do it but we knew when we did that we were setting up this year to start in deficit yes Darren when when you use an acronym like Esser would you explain it
for sure audience yeah Esser is um um the emergency School Relief Fund um sort of the education side of arpa it's the arpa funding so basically it's co money that the federal government put out to the states and Esser money went
to um was the Federal money that went to desie that then went to the schools and so it was Sesser one two and three and we it was we used the we had to use the last of it up by September of last year and so we used the last of um we Le's money to offset the budget if you could
use it for anything so thank you for the clarified question and any and any terminologies I use that are confusing feel free to ask School budgets are complicated and there's a lot of moving Parts revenues in and revenues out not revenues out but my expenses so um
additionally child Early Childhood Revenue um is is hitting a shortfall we have 16 resident Creed K students um in preschool um that's up than than we've had in recent years usually there's been
we've been able to take some um people from out of town and such and the factor is there's the number of students who are special needs in prek um is high okay which means and when you for
preschool if you are if you have special needs you go to school free so we pick up that cost there's no the rest of so preschool is funded by usually tuition except for students who are again special needs um when that number goes up our Revenue
goes down question about that the tuition for the special education student in the prek um is it free for the entire
program or is it just free for services for special ed services it's free for the entire program um how much is that how much the is the program um I
think tuition's around $8,000 a student so your earlier tart at 25% one and four kids are in that program and there families aren't paying correct correct so if you when
you add more students when you have so and we wouldn't be taking tuition three students from school choice so that's why we're saying these are these are our students that we have to care for so um if you were even I'm just saying L for other viewers like if you're in Deerfield and you school choice to
weightly and you have special needs you can't attend here for free right so only residents attend for free that's the idea is to get inur early interventions which make a huge difference um in the long-term successful students so just to clarify on that so if there's no if
there's payment for the tuition there's no cost inside the operating budget but for the 25 % of the population the enrolled population that cost is reflected inside the operating budget
the operating budget for preschool is funded by the revenue from the tuition paying students Okay so until can't does the revenue for the 75% increase I'm sorry the cost for the
75% that aren't going for free increase correct so let me just say it a whole different way so in a good year the revenues by tuition in parents into preschool cover the cost of preschool okay outside of um perhaps
benefits are still being paid by the town teachers and such so there are still other costs outside of that that AR on paper but um aren't on our paper but um as the increase of students with special needs in preschool that that the amount of Revenue we're bringing in goes
down the school then has to come from General budget to cover those costs and we're seeing that shift now $220,000 to um to less than that cost and that could have sometimes we and this is where I need Shelly again but we
build up revenues and we can build up savings and we slowly been working down some of that savings but we want to leave some buffer in there because collecting tuition isn't always a smooth it's just like collecting taxes um you know I mean everybody is is is needle to
pay their their taxes but they don't always do it um and so we have to have a small buffer in there so we don't go over budget um if we don't collect it in all our tuition or there's a shift from one year an additional student moves to town right now you know that kind of
thing that makes sense but as special education becomes more a part of our Budget moving forward this prek environment that these students are coming into they are in the general population correct correct okay so in
the course of a day those students will be receiving education programming something as along with all of the other students correct their special education
portion is now separate from like they're pulled out of the general classroom and uh like a remedial session they could be they could be so um they could also um you there's a full range
of disabilities um yeah sure that um that one could may could be from simple you could have it could be relatively straightforward um you know speech services you're working on speaking language acquisition you know that kind
of stuff to um you know full behavioral where you need a onetoone with somebody because without constant redirection um they can't operate in a normal classroom um and so they're teaching those skills um you know at that level so um but they
all you know especially the earlier grades um if someone is developmentally delayed or um in any of those range things the um they're going to need those Services throughout very little is it like just one small thing it's like
you need the full day of services um to acquire the skills you know for the next and it's not going to be solved in one year it's something that's going to go on but sure um the progress you make in the earlier years um gets these students really back on track where they're not
going to go outplaced and um receive less and less Services out they get old that's the whole thing you may have said this before but how many students do you have in a preschool program preschool program this year 16 residents oh yes no
non-residents right and how how many of those will be will need special needs do you know you know I have that number but not in front of me we
have need two aids for two right next year right we're going to talk about that in a minute um so there isn't he's bringing up the fact that we're asking for an additional support for incoming students that's a little bit further in the thing um and I don't have the uh I
don't have the number of the total number of students in is that that par professional line item yeah so um let me kind of go into that we can talk about that and then so um so we're shifting
funds $22,000 of the cost of the preschool onto the general budget so that's 1 percentage point right there okay um all right and then um some smaller growth of um salary
increases instruction system School based staff um minor um uh adjustments of $3,046 and then we have a six sickly buyback obligation of $58,000 so does everybody understand
what the cway buyback the teachers contract is so um we have since negotiated it out of the contract um since I've arrived but um it is uh basically a buyout of years of service
in C days two per year for the number of years of service that um Can average around $25,000 per retiree when they choose to retire their sickly so they didn't use it at
they get paid for yeah and so that that's why so you have mulp both retirees retiring here that gives a bill a one-time bill of $58,000 um it has been it's it's been a good practice to pull that out of the budget
and pay for that using something other um either revolving funds or in this case we're asking the town to pull it out of the budget um and pay for it separately how would we keep track of that as you prepare the budget is there a
placeholder for that if it's not in the school budget there's going to be a 48k hit correct it be War so it's basically a warrant article on top floor on top floor for to pay off Fe and we would indicate how that would be paid for
prior to that happening thank you um and it is um Deerfield has a placeholder because they're larger it's com size where they have um you know they have a sickly buyback you $30,000 in their
budget because they you know they have about one per year due to their size of school weightly is just too small in the sense of very similar to Conway and even sundland where we've done this in both those schools where we pulled it out um and paid for it separately so if we pay
for this separately at a town meeting or put it up for vote what if it gets voted down people don't want to for correct d I don't know i' have to call you still are legally obligated to
pay so we would you would have to go back and either reduce the budget to pay for it it's obligated that's all that's basically the start where you the budget and come back
Eventing it' be a mess it would be it'd be a mess that's why we really I can't remember the last time we had push back at a town meeting in regards to uh the budget there are questions but we've
really had to deal with that all right so the new requests are for two instructional assistance for $666,000 for 3 21% increase um these are positions to meet the needs
of IEP requirements so basically when for those who understand what is an i an individual education plan for student with special needs there's a process to be identified to be put to be someone who needs an IEP so there's a process of
full team meeting with school officials parents um outside consultants if necessary um sometimes even phys um recommendations and those kind of things they all kind of go together to build an IEP in an IEP you could have something
saying that this child needs a one: one meaning that the in many cases Behavior it's usually behaviors or redirection that's needed um or if someone was U let's say uh Mobility uh it was in a
wheelchair you need a one to one IA or you know depending on age and that kind of thing those kind of things change as the goes on IEPs are reviewed every three years and those things do change but when then something like that is put in and it's put in carefully we aren't quick to just say oh just throw on that
um we are obligated to do that one one sport so we have two students entering um that require one to on so it increase the budget we don't have two sixth graders leaving that require window once so if you had rotating now we would just rotate that staff person so either we
add two staff people for these two positions or we cut within to do those two positions so that's kind of the that's kind of the difficult spot um the school's in um and so therefore the
request is to add to the budget 3 where would your Cuts come from we would transfer from other classrooms so we we can't take away from other one: one required by I APS in the
building so you would go to classroom assistants um to be blunt you would start with the older kids and and you would rotate you rotate support differently um and I mean you to get
creative um and things will be miss you know you're gonna you're reduce you're going to reduce Services that's what that a full-time position yes so that's two is it going to stay there now once we if we approve it it's going to stay
just relax or is this a onee no it's a full-time position that student gets that one to one for the six years they're at weight okay so the job's there for six years correct two jobs there for six two jobs and unless they
unless the student changes residence what happens when they matriculate into the high school it follow it follows but the hope the hope the plan not just hope but the plan is that you get those services
early that there's less and less need there's also um those Services early it also evolves the other way where early on used to kind of and I'm not talking about any cases in weightly this is in general in fact I don't know the
intimate details of those cases but um early intervention you are trying to put that in so that they do stay in your District after a few years a developmental level a 5-year-old to a 10-year-old you then see at that point
are they able to continue in um you know supported mainstream education of our elementary schools or do they need a program and then that educational team's going to decide if they need a program now the first thing we'll do is what do we have inh house or what do we have in our district that we can do and then on
top of that it could mean that that student has to go out and be placed out and that's what you're talking about you're going to go from $33,000 to $100,000 and that could happen in second and third grade that's when you start to realize that's when you start you know reading and that's when everything kind
of picks up and you you know you're hoping that um the interventions you did there because that's the need is that you're able to keep them in school in your building so it is the idea within special education is you want to keep them in your District not only
financially but you know parents and kids want to stay in their toown they don't want to going to West Springfield van but also as you indicated in the frontier discuss when they get into Frontier then it has divided among four
towns is no longer solely our responsibility corre but the needs could be higher and more needs be more expensive they'll get more expensive but they're getting divided in out of a bigger pool yeah but but some
of these children yeah but some of these children could improve too sorry some of these children could improve absolutely will yes no absolutely will and that's why we that's why we do it um but the needs are also higher so it's
not um it's it's in a small school it's time and place it's it's what your community um is giving you for students that particular year you know so you get these bumps that can offset your budget I mean you could it it's happened in
communities they there is bailout for the first year if someone was to move into our community the state helps you for the first year because you can have people that move into your community just talk about the politics of it where how it works is that costs over $150,000 and that student never steps foot in weight Elementary but you're
paying the cost of it that the family lives in your District you know so those things do happen too I won't get into it but it is the realistic it is the thing about special education and how to tax budget wow this is sh at least is a lot
more the same to um so um putting this all together um the level service budget with new request outline results and a general fund of $2.2
million um and an increase of 10% um or 27,7 185 over last year and so that's the that doesn't include the sick Le buback on top of that and we recognize that as well we're
not hiding that we're funding that a different way so you're really talking about um you know you know 3% is more you're really at 133% total ask by the elementary y um uh the visual breakdown of operating
um costs um we kind that Sil moment where that that number is um you can see the majority of our cost is going to instruction as it should um and to break down the other ones benefits is very small because the
town gives it benefits and it doesn't come up this gra see I have just a general well not very specific question um when you look at section 2305 this is on the line item
feates classroom and I um total is a increase of 7 76,5 97 right alongside that is the School of Choice number
165 how does that play into is that what we're getting from school of choice and will that be will that offset that cost no that's not I don't know where you're looking
at Paul that's on top of what we the bued number that's so in that line you're talking about it's 466 that would be plus 160 165 additional will be paid out of school
choice month I understand the that's what I wanted yeah it it does not offset that 466 no that's the revenue rate that's the revenue side of that of that line that's where school choice that's where you're seeing the school choice money coming in okay all right and then
we decide where to apply that school choice right right and the reason why you don't apply it dollar for dollar in year for year is because that can go up and down if it goes down that school Trace number goes down and you start your school year off um then you're in a
deficit and you're cutting and day one because you get how much advanced notice schools expect to get from perspective uh special ed students like can somebody just show up the day
school opens and say they they show up the year um and it changes it so you you have sa a child okay you know been struggling you got a third grader he's been struggling um the new reading units are coming out everything kind of you know beeps up in third grade and you're like there's something going on here I
need the school to take a look so you ask for an evaluation we evaluate we say yeah other sexia okay and so we need to put them on an edge plan and start doing interventions to help them read now now right there in third grade you know we're going to meet the you know but now
there's an additional cost now there's we got to schedule that student for additional resources and that would just be in real that's that does happen that's what it's there for right um and hopefully we're screening and we're trying to screen that earlier and earlier so you're not waiting to third grade to realize that there's something
going on in the processing of reading and and you know acquisition there and learning um but that's how it works and so you it does change from year to year you also and this is also does happen um
middle of the year the team decides that the student can no longer be in this building and needs to go to another setting um we can't either control the behaviors or um their students regressing um and then they get placed out middle of the year and that's where
you know we would in an emergency situation apply would what we have for schol Choice any remaining special education funds that have so there's been no rationale then when it comes to the
prek special I student who who requires this special attention throughout an entire day versus another
student who requires special attention for an hour and a half because we want to bring somebody in and when you again so there's no delineation between those two these parents don't have to pay the eight grand and these parents don't have to
pay the 8 Grand that's how it is correct wow correct there's no needs based within the identification of special education however at the preschool level
um those in an IEP there are going to be more students in preschool that are going to be on an IEP than that you get the original snapshot what three-year-old so if you're taking a you know you know the snapshot of a three-year-old going into preschool
three and a half going to preschool um you're seeing you know they the even before that because they already get interventions prior to that now those are those are the positive things um that are having in education normally wait until they're five or six and all they drop it they come the first day of
school and you go you're already behind you know um you that kind but um it's a different kind of intervention than you know the example I just use your child suddenly to diagnosed with suxia there's other it's a much higher um you know
they're see they're not just seeing problem with reading they're seeing behaviors they're seeing self-control that kind of stuff which is more likely to be a onetoone kind of service um and not everybody who's on nip needs a one to one there's other class IAS that can help support right so you
know you know getting someone settled you can get two kids settled you know you know there's a you know there's a range there I know there's but the range but the but the we want that child in school and that's kind of the number one thing like we should be doing Universal
we were a perfect world with no economy we'd be saying we should be doing Universal free fre school for all we want all your kids in school as soon as they are able because we want to start that process um but this is kind of the react the the fix to that saying it I can't afford it I don't send my child
School those actually cost School more in the long run if we don't get that interven early so but I hear there is a I hear what you're saying that's a good question got how many special needs students percentage wise tend to require one to
one very low very low percentage I would say where I'm coming from is looking down the road at how we're going to fund this if we fund it essentially as a capital thing in that we're going to have this for six years for six years no no I I know we'll have it for six years
what are the chances chances we will have it beyond that I mean Frontier will oh but you're saying more students coming in right so you do have other students with one ones in the building already so they will graduate out and free up that okay thing and so
what we try to do is on those you know we'll reduce Staffing usually within the instructural assistant positions there's another turnover you don't blast them the go I don't what fire anybody but um but there will be the reduction there um I'm just trying to get a feel for how
many one to On's is it unusual to have to hire it is unusual to have to hire two in one year one year in a school this size with none going out normally you have a few and turnover and that kind of
thing this is um you know you have a large resident class with some needs in it yeah I'm just trying this is something we should be but you know putting in the regular budget because we will always have these too or after six years is are they going to disappear
it's tough It's I couldn't tell you I know you can't predict the future I'm just trying to get an idea you say the number that need one to ones are is quite a lot yeah but if a quarter of the kids in Frontier have some sort of special need and I think that answers your question
what's going to happen to population well so special needs and one to ones are not the same thing correct so like in the let's say this look at this like seventh or eighth grade class you're correct about 25 students of the 115 on an ed
plan one or two have a one to one and um and we have some we have some significant programming there where we're taking students you know who are completely um they possible but they're receiving substantially separate program
um for their education so there's some intense needs yeah there lot lots of students that have IEPs and right have IAS attached to them but they're not one to ones correct very very different again where kind of Paul was saying earlier that that full spectrum
of need um we should to let window y though just you know math disability you know at three and a half and last question well are we are we hanging on to our
half time math interventionist from last year it is in the budget and that was discussed at the last school committee meeting um the administration at that meeting proposed to pull it um the uh
the uh school committee asked to keep it in um and asked for us to give some information on what's going on there um and I have some of that information I and spooky hasn't seen this yet um but we are seeing significant Improvement in
math scores I um and the question is is it causation what's the causation we also introduce a new math curriculum that's much more you may have heard about we there's a new math curriculum and a new Ela curriculum
coming out of covid um and this is the year this the first year real last year they started implement the math program is the first year of real implementation the growth scores um at weatley um were they went from the 55 percentile
nationally normed in September to the 71st percentile um this means that the um School growth is in the 90 the 79th percentile overall meaning um above average Improvement and achievement scores we actually wrote the company
because we didn't in our saying is this are we reading this correctly and she says please send me what you're doing with your students because that is a significant grow that's across all the grades um with you know third grade doesn't have a benchmark score so they don't have the growth but they are all
the grades have have seen whatever but is it the interventionist who's working with 20 students got to be helping is it um the new curriculum I can't peel that apart with this so I'm being honest about that in the sense of whatever but we are seeing sign Improvement in those
scores so it has made an impact um we're going to share that with school committee and it's going to be discussed at the uh at the uh um the public hearing on the budget and remember at the hearing at the hearing the budget can come down so um we just can't bring it up so they asked
us to stick it in there let's have that conversation and they asked us to give that information so again that's a $30,000 position so um it would it lower your budget that budget by one and a half% okay very good and
um don't want to answer to this now but it's coming at the public hearing so it might be something that if Frontier Regional High School student to educate that student is $20,000 a
year why would we take a student for 5,000 School School of Choice don't you don't have to answer that now but that's that's you know the math isn't there
right or if the math is there then somewhere along the line we're fooling ourselves right so I will be prepared to answer that question okay I'll be there all right
thank you very much I have a question I know I don't speak up you are up you are up while while the man is still here where do our six graders rate scholastically when they enter the
seventh grade at the uh FR I know that we have four towns right where did they rap Scholastic weight Le students yes you cannot we so what we've done in
our district um is that we have a curcum coordinator and even though we're four separate districts we act as one so a if there is um there is grade level meetings it wait it be the third grade teacher they actually all go and meet
with all the third grade teachers from all four towns so they make sure that the curriculum is streamlined the same in all four towns and so um we are I would say weight is at if not above scholastically the other four so it's coming in I have experienced through
Hampshire region and also found out that willburg had the highest budget but the lowest scholastically approved children Hampshire Regional um is set up the same way we are but they do not have that
Central organization where the school schs have to work together they will when they want to but they have to work together and a graduate told me the other day that she was scooped by the grade SCH that they were teaching in the grade schools so I'm
just hoping that our kids were R up on top doing great thank you thank you are we good D thank you very much for uh giving us a Peak at 63%
budget is it that much now no it's close 62 62 okay again questions or that follow please let us know looking for your thoughts on that too so thank you school committee members
for coming in and being part of the so you guys just get based on tuition you get the got two more is g to do we got to reserve fund transfer and we disc are we done if you
select board motion to the select board meeting second all roll call Joyce hi yes jie yes thank you everybody thank
you for coming another great meeting right we just uh two minor we got two minor things you'll remember the special town meeting that we just had in the fall we had a prior year bill from the board of
assessors at $450 my request my request was to on that with your back I'm take this home thank you not the holds up really
nice the request was to fund that from free cash right the been um however during that meeting changed that to a reserve fund use of funds yes under Municipal Finance the town meeting is
not the authority to appropriate out of Reserve funds only you guys are so essentially it's coming back to you since you wanted to do it out of Reserve funds that's fine but you need to make the vote not town getting so it's just to go and say yes take the 450 you already did kind of do this but I need
it vote yeah and you need us to sign yeah yeah I have it here all right so um we have a uh a motion yes do we have a motion second I move Mo the motion has been moved that
we um the amount requested $450 um transfer from the reserve fund to me the needs of uh the board of assessors roll call
yes yes yes yes yes so you just each one of you will find ON LINE are we done here then the last item is um the 2024 annual report every committee has to provide an annual
report the annual report needs to go and uh recollect what you did over that last calendar year it's based on the calendar year not the fiscal year and so I did draft that um and I based on your your
previous structure provided what was recommended last year for the fy2 what budget uh what capital projects you had proposed to move forward recommendations on um stabilization usage basically it's just a confirmation
of what you voted on I saw it I read it it makes sense um and um do we need to vote that it would yeah I wrote it but I'd like you to say you're okay with it do we have a motion
I move that checked out the finance committee report from 2024 do I have a second second second okay we need to vote R yes yes Paul Paul yes we weren here I wasn't here you
weren't here so how can I go that's right then you have we still we still have a qu 1 2 3 four as long as still going to be voting that's right I wasn't here you wer I I
don't you don't have to be on the committee you're just saying that yes the committee did those things now I did them you're saying that the committee did do this work we did it so okay I know that yeah technically you don't need a vote I would
just was a good year to a Jour yes we're all in