this evening. Uh, Mayor Ora is a little under the weather. He's got some back issues, so he won't be here. So, uh, Scott Wood, the chairman, uh, will help me and, uh, we'll co-chair the meeting tonight. And, uh, guess we'll jump right
in. We've got a couple of, uh, little presentations, but not a lot, uh, tonight. So uh the first uh order of business will be the approval of the December 15th 225 uh minutes. >> Anybody? >> So moved.
>> So moved. Okay. You have a second. Second. >> All in favor? >> I >> Okay. Um the first order of business, we're going to have an update on the rack and uh I'm going to call on um uh Angus Jenning uh Jennings to do it for
us. >> Angus, why don't you sit where Chris should be? Uh, sure. >> Has a microphone. >> Great. >> Thank you very much. Appreciate the opportunity to provide an update. The uh regional agreement amendment committee has been meeting uh monthly since mid
December. I think it's been a really uh good process. I'll just sketch out briefly where we've been and where we're going. Our next meeting is tomorrow morning. Uh so we uh formally organized in December and we've met I think in
January, February, March and uh uh April 1st. So tomorrow will be our our sixth meeting since we organized. And the first thing that we did is we gathered u kind of a universe of existing regional agreements from other uh regional school
districts in Massachusetts. that included some older agreements along the lines of Whittier's existing agreement as well as some more modern uh that had been adopted in the the last five or 10 years. We gathered all those together, put them in a kind of a cloud server and
invited all of the members to review them and give input on what they liked or didn't like about different aspects of them. Um we move from there. one obviously one of the main uh focuses of the work is going to be the cost allocation uh primarily capital cost
allocation. So we looked at what the how the different districts handle that. There's uh a number of different formulas. There's a couple of districts that have common approach to that but there's some with completely unique approach to that. So we looked at all of those scenarios. uh I built out a
financial model uh with uh Excel where uh we basically looked at different scenarios on different capital cost allocation models. If you took the 2024 project cost just for the sake of discussion and fed it through different
ways of allocating capital cost, how would that affect how would that have affected different communities assessments either upward or downward? which was pretty interesting because it was not all linear. There were some interesting results of that in terms of
kind of who wins and who loses. I it's inherently a very challenging process because in any agreement where uh where the potential exists to change the funding formula just by nature, someone will be better off and someone will be
worse off. Um and and that's just part of the inherent uh challenge of what we're what we're up against as well as obviously the need for a unanimous approval for any amendment to the regional agreement. So I I think uh modeling it and kind of having some uh
numbers to attach to that was was important to have um kind of an informed discussion. More recently at the last meeting two weeks ago and at the meeting tomorrow the primary focus at this point is to look at a working draft regional
agreement. So uh from these nine different samples plus Whittier's existing so of 10 uh I I put together a uh basically a complete working draft regional agreement with those things that seem to be um well I won't even say
what's controversial or not because because I think it's too soon to say. I think it's fair to say that among the members of the rack, I don't believe there's been a single issue that has been 11 to nothing support. You know,
even those issues, we did a straw poll a couple of meetings ago just to just as a moment in time to kind of take the temperature. It was not uh we didn't attach community's names to it. It was it was by design. It was anonymous. I handed out a form, had everyone fill it
out. Uh just with the idea of having like as of today, you know, what would you think about for instance, what should be the quantum of vote to approve the operating budget? Should that be a simple majority? Should that be two/3? Should that be unanimous to amend the
agreement? You know, majority 2/3 just like a straw pole. There was not there were some items where there was more than twothirds support for one or another, but there were a number of issues where there was clear division and no clear um majority and there was
not a single issue that I would describe at this point as a consensus issue. So that's okay. You know, that's where we're starting and we've known it was going to be, you know, a a multi-step process. We no one had any expectation. We'd come out in the first two months and say, "Oh yeah, we all agree." So I
think that's been helpful at least from my view in defining what the key areas of disagreement are and what are the areas where there seems to be a basis where we could perhaps try to build consensus. So uh so yeah the next step was to create a draft agreement that was
sent out. I I put it up on the screen about two weeks ago just to kind of show people where we were going, but I didn't want to send it around until I really had had time to kind of read it and reread it and reread it to make, you know, the last thing I want to do is put out a draft that's like got key flaws in
it because that could create a lot of confusion or distrust and that was not the goal. The goal was to put out a draft that is a starting point for the committee. So that was sent out on on Sunday uh to everybody on the committee. That may have been further shared with
some of you which is fine. Um at so tomorrow morning's meeting uh we're going to be going through that uh with the intent to try to uh arrive at clarity on what are the issues that are um kind of the we we know what the key
focus issues are going to be is the cost allocation. that's been clear right along. But there's other issues like method of appointment of school committee members or quantum of vote to amend the agreement or quantum of vote to pass budgets that may or may not
there may or may not be a strong majority for that. So I want to identify what are those issues that there's a strong majority if any what are those issues that there's um consensus if any maybe there will maybe the name of the district maybe every everyone can agree
on that uh and what are the issues that really there's kind of two or more clear camps where there's just clear division and uh uh you know the way we've talked about at the meeting is to try to narrow the playing field to get to where ideally over the
two to three RACK meetings which will be tomorrow. Um so April 15th and again May 6th and and I do expect it'll probably go to a third meeting beyond that to come out of that with my hope would be to have a draft regional agreement where
we have twothirds or more support for 80 or 85% of it. There's going to be issues that there's just not agreement on. Uh I think we all know that. But uh if we can get to broad agreement on at least most of it, I think that will have been
significant progress and then you know at some point in the not too distant future. I I spoke to Moren uh recently and I think probably the June time frame is realistic that that at that point I think the committee would be preparing uh its written recommendations to the
school committee. And as as you may recall, in order for the rack to make a recommendation of the school committee, it has to have at least a twothirds support. So if if like it's six to five or seven to four, that's not that
doesn't cut it. It's got to be 8 to three or better. So any issue that we can't get eight or more communities to agree on will end up as essentially stalemate. Uh so at some point in the not too distant future, probably June, we'd be sending a memo to the school
committee on behalf of the committee, uh documenting kind of what we've done, how we've done it. This is what we largely agree on. This is what we don't agree on. And then it really will be up to the at least in my view, it'll be up to the administration and the school committee on how to move forward from there. But
um I think it's been a in my view, it's been a really good process. We've had for the most part very strong attendance at the meetings. There have been a couple of people who haven't been able to make it because of scheduling, but I think we've had really good attendance and really good participation within the meetings. People seem really engaged in
it and uh and I'm keenly aware that people have a um you know, everyone's super busy, of course. So, we want to kind of get to you know, get to a conclusion in the next I'd say
two, you know, 8 to 10 weeks. uh at the outside so that by the end of the fiscal year we have a really good written account of of what seems to be the the situation and and part of what I will be asking committee members tomorrow is
to make sure before we have actual votes because at this point it's all like straw poll kind of soft voting before we have actual votes where it's going to be you know community X thinks this I'm definitely going to be looking to the rack members to affirm that when they
cast those votes, they truly are as representative as can be of what their community thinks. And I think everybody comes to the table knowing that. That's why they were designated the representative. But I but I do think that you know if we're going to be or we
are going to be arriving at a written you know written statement of what community's positions are uh I know for instance in West Newbury you know the the other member and I would bring that back to the select board before those votes. would say these are the
questions, these are kind of what we think, but to get the community aware of that and involved with that conversation. Um so that um those votes that when they are taken we can really rely on as being representative of the
the kind of will of the community to the extent possible. >> Great. Is there any questions? Uh Mr. Jennings Bernie? >> Yeah, I'd just like to um add a couple of words. First of all, to thank Angus
for how much work he's actually done. Um, and it is I mean he this me this group is like a group of cats, whatever you call a group of cats. >> The rack is a group of tigers basically.
This is not um this is not easy to manage. >> I've never been called a cat. >> You're a wild cat. >> You're a wild cat. There you go. >> Not a cat. So Angus has done a tremendous amount of effort to kind of structure the process
that we've gone through um and very constructively pretty objectively um not necessarily as you wouldn't expect not that I would agree with everything but it has been fair it has been open it has been data
driven um and I I would just compliment Angus on the amount of work and the um productivity um that's happened. We're still he's more optimistic than I am in terms of um
getting getting some closure. Um but it's not for the lack of um really the best intentions and skill in kind of bringing bringing this group together. So it's compliments really to Angus.
It's a longwinded compliment. >> Thank you Bernie. That means a lot. Thank you. I guess I'd like to second what Bernie just said. This has been a volunteer gig for Angus and the amount of work and time that he has spent getting us to this place. I'm truly grateful. So, thank you. Um because I'm
not sure we would have gotten here this quickly um without your your um expertise. So, um thank you. And and I think Bernie's right. Not everybody has agreed about everything. Uh, but I think everybody agrees that we're going to keep working and, you know, hopefully get us to some final point where we can
just either say this is the best we can do or even better, you know, we have a new agreement. So, um, I'm really I am optimistic. I feel like that's we have to be. We have I say all the time here at Whitty, we have people counting on us and we have people counting on us to
figure this out. Um, so um, just thank you. Thank you, Angus. And if anyone didn't know, Angus is was just appointed our new business manager for Whittier Tech um starting in August. So Cara is retiring. We're going to miss her terribly. Um but Angus is is been
appointed our new business manager starting August 1. So congratulations for that, too. I look forward to working with you. >> Thank you. >> Good. U Okay. Okay, the next item on the agenda is going to be the MSBA enrollment information and I'm going to turn it over to the superintendent and
she'll uh go through the document that we had in our agenda. >> Thank you, Mr. Chairman, um committee. Thank you for um let giving me the opportunity to talk about the enrollment. I know the last meeting we spent a lot of time looking at data, looking at enrollment um and then you
know we met with MSBA. MSBA has their own kind of system to look at data. Um I believe you've all received that information as well. Um at this point they are letting us look at a building of between 1280 and 1500. So we will look at both options. Uh if we look at
building a new building um we would look at both options and then before you move into schematic design you would choose or the team here would choose are we going with 1280 or are we going with 1500 and there would be numbers attached to both of those um those enrollment
numbers. So, um I'm excited that, you know, there was a lot of talk at the last building project that they wanted more enrollment, um and more students, but with more enrollment comes more money. So, um you know, we'll work through that process just like we've done everything else to this point um
with with our school building committee and along with our um school committee. Um they also looked at um us opening up some chap new chapter 74 programs and our viability programs. Um, we are looking at possibly opening up criminal
justice, um, environmental science, um, ISSN, which is computer, help me, information support, networking, uh, robotics and vet tech. Those are programs we're thinking about opening. We would start the process of, um,
opening up the chapter 74 program and the application process, which is, um, a pretty intense um, process. I will say um the ISSN um we're looking with Northern Essex about hoping hoping to get a capital skills grant for that to
get that program up and going and the the two of us two institutions working together to make that happen. So um there's a lot of work that's been happening. I'm excited about um where that work is going and you know the opportunities that are available um for
our kids. So that's sort of it in a nutshell. Does anybody have any uh questions for the superintendent comments? >> Yes, go right ahead. >> Thank you. Um so just for my own information, um I remember reading the the letter from MSVA and I saw the note
about the six potential new um programs. >> You also noted the two might be going away. >> Do you know what those two are? >> So we have closed design and visual. So it's a process to close those programs. Design and visual and early education and care. >> Okay. All right. So those are related to those that were taken previously. All
right. Great. Because I I remember when the discussion was happening that those were going to be going away. I thought there were two more. >> There's you can't just close the programs. You have to have a >> phase out. Thank you. >> Got um and then the other question I had um so on the enrollment numbers the 1280 versus the 1500.
>> Is it an either or? Are we allowed to go anywhere in between if we wanted to? Okay. >> I mean I think so, right? I mean I I guess when we have our OPM we can kind of go through that process. um they generally say like look at this option to look at this option but I think if if the committee says well we don't like either one we'd like to go in between I
think that they will make that work but um >> great thank you >> well really related to that question I guess was like how would you compare this letter in response to the past one it seems fairly similar >> it is
>> okay >> yes >> any other questions or comments on enrollment. >> Okay, >> the next item on our agenda is the uh the timeline and I'll uh let the superintendent again speak on that. I'm
sure everyone get a chance to look at it. >> I think Mr. Leanus has been dying to talk about Mr. >> This is his thing. >> I apologize. >> So, um in your packet site, so we have two timelines. They're both the same.
One is a little bit wordier. Um and uh one of the meetings um I I believe um I don't know if it was Mayor Rurak or uh he had just said he likes the wordy one. So I kept two of the timelines. The one uh in your packet is the less wordy. Uh
and what I'm doing is just this is a working document. Uh whenever someone has suggestions if you notice I put a link the the link in 2026 there there's the link to MSBA. Uh and then the other add-on uh was uh which date was it? The
feasibility uh June 24th date that hopefully we're going to be ready to rock and roll for that. So this is a working document. Um I have two documents and and whichever one you prefer. Uh the other one is a little bit more wordy. Uh but other than that, it's
just a road map that will continuously change, but it just kind of keeps us on course. >> So can I jump in? Go ahead. Um June 24th, MSBA will be having their board meeting and that's when we will officially know if we are invited into the feasibility study. Things are looking good, but we won't know until
the exact date of June 24th at their board meeting. >> Yeah, Mr. Chair, if you have any if anybody has any questions uh or add-ons, I'm I'm certainly capable of doing that. >> Good. Thank you, Mr. Leanis. Uh any questions for him, comments?
Okay. Um the next item is uh little total capital assessment and there was a couple of figures we'll put in there. >> Uh so I'm going to start uh our capital assessment went up $30,000 um over last year for total for all 11 cities and
towns. Um those costs are based on school age children within the district. I'm going to turn it over to Cara to discuss a little bit more about what the what we will be doing next year for capital improvements. Thank you. We have four projects um on the docket for our capital assessment
next year. The first one is electrical plant panel replacements and we have that at $80,000. We have original to the building electrical panels and it is very difficult to uh run this building sometimes with the old systems and uh
Mr. Hardy's here if you have any specific questions. But it's not like you can change the role of the building at once because the building has to be able to be run. So we can only do one at a time and try to do it at a time in a place where at least interrupts what's going on in the building. So you're
going to see this on our capital plan probably for the next few years as we go through the school and try to get these done. >> Um >> can we make a comment on that? Um >> sure. >> I think Mr. Hottie was nice enough to give us a tour and we got a chance to kind of walk through and see that. I
just thought it was important everybody that took the time to come and he did a great presentation that day. Very appreciative. >> Thank you. Yeah, he is great. He knows what he did. He he knows his stuff and he knows this building. >> Yeah. We have another question. Mr.
>> What's the 80,000 for one year? >> Just for next year. That's the anticipated of what we think we can do next >> without any problem. >> Yeah. Yeah. You know what? It can go up and it can go down as can any of these >> out much. >> No. meaning something else may not be
done or may be done differently. So, you just, you know, it's kind of a, as Chris said, it's a working document, the capital assessment. Um, similar to what we talked about with, um, electrical panels. The same thing with the classroom heating and cooling units. We have $75,000 assigned to that. That was
also in this year's capital budget. And that's because, again, we have heaters in the classroom original to the building. And often our maintenance staff will have to go into a classroom, turn the heat on. Middle of the day, they might get a call, it's too hot,
they have to go back to the classroom, turn the heat off. Um, they're not automatic because they are 53 years old. And so that takes a lot of time from our maintenance staff. But again, as we can get the units, as we can put them in
classrooms without interrupting the class flow and as time permits with the maintenance staff, we will continue to do that this year and you'll probably see that again. Uh the other is chiller repair. We have that as 210,000. The chiller is what keeps the parts of this
building cold and um it has not been upgraded or repaired. I know I can see Mr. Mr. Early laughing. chiller. It's kind of >> the chiller account. >> The chiller account. Um, and he has told me that it's time for us to do some sort of a repair for the chiller in order to
keep it running well for the next, you know, 5 to seven to 10 years, whatever, you know, we will be here. Uh, and finally, we continue to do upgrades and repairs to the wastewater treatment plant. And, uh, that is scheduled for
$360,000 this year. And that is based on the OPM study that we had on the wastewater treatment plant last year and they had a timeline and so we looked at the timeline and said okay that's what we feel we need to do next year based on
what they suggested. Just another note even though these are the things in next year's um capital budget there are still things that we are working on this year and sometimes they are things that we did not necessarily expect. We are in the process of having a trench dug um to
the wastewater plant because we have to put in a new >> alarm system >> alarm system. So that was something that you know we have money in this year's budget for wastewater improvements that would be something that uh we would be doing this year. So it's an ongoing
process. We will continue to have a capital assessment because while we hope to be in a new building in five to seven years, we still have to make sure that this building runs so that we can teach our children here um interruptions as best as we can. We
don't want any catastrophic issues and we're trying to do everything that we can to make sure that that does not happen and that is primarily because of Bob and his team who I cannot thank enough for what they do every day. >> Great. Are there any questions at all?
Have any questions for anything we missed? >> Thank you very much for presentation. >> You're welcome. Okay, the next thing on our agenda is new business. Um, does anybody have any new
business or comments or questions? >> An idea when the next one is going to be after this or >> I would think closer to the June 24th date when we know that we're definitely getting into the feasibility study. >> So, early
>> I think Once I'm sorry, once we start um once we're invited into the feasibility study, there'll have to be a subcommittee of this committee to um hire an OPM. So, we'll have to send out a RFS request for services. Um we'll have to send that out. Um that's Tammy
loves doing those. That's kind of Tammy's uh wheelhouse. Um we will send something like that out. I think one of the things that I feel is important um is that we were left on our heels for the last building project and we want to make that the first thing we do is look
at what repairing this building would look like and how much that would be and have a plan for that. Um then move on to um in addition then move on to building new here at Whittier or or andor building new at Northern Essex Community College. But I think first thing we need
to do is is have a really hard look of what we need to do here um to fix this building. not only for if that's what what the people end up wanting but also for what we need to do over the next five to seven years as well. So
>> Mr. Jennings >> I had forgotten to mention uh about the the uh legislators meeting. Do you want to >> show where we're going with that? >> So I mean part of the rack is we really do feel like we need to have some legisl legislators um and have them understand
what we're doing and the work that we're doing um and that if we do into um an issue where we're we're unable to move forward with a a new agreement. How can they help us? How can we work together? Um because this really will be a regional issue um that we really need to to take care of. Um anything else you
want to add to that, Angus? >> I just we're we're trying to hone in on on a date toward the end of May or early June. I think the second to last Friday in May or the first Friday in June are the two. And I I think that the goal is that that wouldn't just be Iraq. that
would really be with school school building committee, school committee members kind of and and one of the clear takeaways from one of the RACK meetings I think two or three meetings ago with the financial model is um
in order for there to be a realistic political path to either a new building or a major renovation, there's going to need to be a major infusion of state money. Obviously, that's no surprise to anybody, but I think the the thought is that's going to
need to go beyond MSBA reimbursement and that's where political will and you know, we had a very promising meeting that the lieutenant governor hosted in I think March of 2024 that was very good, but but to get to try to gauge what's
the path to to a lot of a lot of state money, >> but but also looking at foundation money and trying to look at all possible avenues that we could possibly do to support the project. >> I'm sorry. >> Just to piggyback on uh S Jennet's
comment, probably possible make it easy for legislators like a Friday morning early probably be the best time and you know before the Senate gets into their budget process. So I think sooner than later it would probably be good.
Sorry. Okay. Are there any other comments or suggestions for this evening? >> Um, just one more. In front of you today is a newsletter. Um, I put it in poster boards behind you if you want to take a look at it. Um, this is something we
would are thinking that maybe would be a good thing to have at city council meetings and town meetings so that when people are picking up information, this is one of the things they're picking up so they everyone has access to information. um the most up-to-date information. So, take a look through. Um
this has been drafted about a hundred times and every time we find something else that we think we should add or take out. So, um if there's anything else, please let me know as soon as possible because I think we are just about ready to go to print with this. Um and again, we have poster boards, too. So, I'll talk to the municipal leaders to say
which would you rather, the the paper copies or the poster boards or both. So, um we'll make it happen. >> Trying to get out as much information possibly can for people. >> One good point, the uh boys lacrosse was out raising money. So I got a phone call
about that >> student from Hil. So a lot of positive things happened. I don't know if you put them up to call me or you gave my number. Maybe the principal did, but they got >> trying to mix it up. >> Yep. Good. >> Now we know who to call. >> Get some money. >> They got me. I was on vacation so I
young man got me. >> Okay. >> What's that number again? >> Call again. yourself. >> Um, anyways, uh, we have a motion for adjournment. >> Second. >> All in favor?
>> Guys, get some sandwiches and cookies. Please eat them.