So there there's obviously and and yeah, there's obviously a issue and and I think that's just the point. I mean this sign does not seem unreasonable. I I will not vote for it. I will be abstaining because we need to clean up our bylaws are we cannot it doesn't say or as the planning board decides I get what you're saying but we can't we can't do anything on with the three board member and one person abstaining right this evening. So um that's that's vote to abstain right but that means that there's a no that we can't do anything with it because we only have two members. No, because it's present and that's a vote. Yeah, we have a ships pass. Yeah, I don't see I don't see why not. I think, you know, we do have a quorum and we can vote. I also would suggest this should be a quick fix next.
And that was that 15 16 school year is when we had the reduction over 140 teachers. We reduced a lot of our special programs, music, arts, athletics. you saw started seeing a lot of those programs were collapsed and or not offered and then we went to full day kindergarten and it only lasted a year. We went back out to the voters in November of 15 and it was approved and so those programs and funding was brought back starting 1617 and so the district has consistently had that funding since then. Um I will say was it in 2020? I I know we gave you guys the election history. We did go out in year four just in advance just in case it failed. We went back out in year five and it and it did pass. And so that's where we're at now. We're on year five now with this new upcoming on on year five of this new override um cycle.
Yes. So, I agree. Yeah, I agree. I if we I would suggest we send a memo over to I don't know if we want to give this design review. Someone should be delegated to investigate a better way. I mean I I would agree and I I appreciate Beth's letter and I don't think that sign is I just in conscience am not if it said planning board can decide that's a different story. So I think the economic development group would probably be appropriate to be part of that. But I think when things are black and white, we wrong or not, that the expectation is we follow them. So why don't we create an do we need a decision on this? What do we do? I think so. Why don't we why don't we put in the decision that I think it's going to be approval by the you know approved with approval by the building commissioner.
If I recall, the last time we we try to f a bond and an override, they both went down. The next year we just did an override, right? Correct. So when they both went, I still remember the amount that the bond failed by 365 votes. Um, and then the override failed by a little bit of a larger margin, but then when we went back out, the override alone, it it passed. Yes. But I'm going to say I I think with the real issues that people are actually feeling now, I think that that's a different time, what they were looking at then versus now. I think the needs are there. I think they can be justified. I think it's going to be really about communicating that because these conversations are happening out there and that everybody wants something done and they're fe everyone's feel every neighborhood is feeling these effects.
Sure. Yeah. Contingent on that. contingent upon that. And we could also put in there that we're going to prioritize amending the bylaw if we wanted to to kind of make it cleaner for the future is weird that we're just sort of doing whatever it is we want to do. Oh, that's one of those things where the bylaws is just it's Yeah, it's glitchy. Yeah. I mean, I think we talk a lot about like let's clean up the bylaws, but we don't necessarily have time. So this would be a great way to kind of do it like hey we have comes up let's let's approve this but also let's get this on our agenda for the next round for the fall. Do you have a do you um have in front of you how big the other sign is across the way that we approved? I can uh I'm just curious like what what it's about it's about 5 by seven feet.
So I don't I personally as a mom of one of those and living in those neighborhoods having those conversations I I don't I I think there's a need for it. This is not just asking for a superintendent to get a raise. this is this is very well justified and they're seeing the results of not doing it. Thank you for that. And really just to also kind of put that out there and clarify, anything that we spend on the override really has to be embedded into classroom operations and instructional related. So you can't issue an override and now increase capacity and spend it on administration. It really has to be focused specifically for classroom programs. So thank you for that comment. Yep. So yeah, all directly related to the classroom. That's what we're here for. Pat's full of opinions tonight and I and I'm helping educate people.
Yeah. And it's interesting because this question was brought up at that time and there was something relative to the I think it was the length of the frontage and something else where we more than qualified. I'll give you an example over Cirrus the sign over there is 6 by 7 and 1/2 ft. Oh 44 44 square feet. Yeah. I I have no doubt about anything like that. What I'm what I This was actually a design question like I'm wondering okay if this this one's five feet high. is the one across the other one. You said five by seven. So, they're similar height, right? That's what I was asking. Similar height and half the width. Yeah. Yeah, that's all I was asking. This is it's a design question. So, the matters of the bylaws um are someone else's mistake in the past and our task to clean them up.
Um, so with the risk of sounding political, uh, election elections have consequences, good or bad. They have things that, you know, that happen. We've seen the history, and it's important to understand our history, where we've been, what happens when we do certain things. Overrides, not having that ability, having the effect having to lay off, what was the number, Mary, like 134 staff members. Am I close? Something like that. Okay. But it's the these are effects that and then immediately once the community sees that they, oh, we need it. And it's like, so let's not get to that point. We're in year five. We made a really hard decision at our last bond override session committee if you will about bond seemed like more important because we had more time with the with the override because of we were going into year five or we could have that year five the buffer if you will.
So, um, so yeah, I I I'm comfortable with that, like because that's what we've been doing all up till now is sending it to the building commissioner and, um, and another thing we'll have to fix. We'll get on that one right away. Okay. We want to do we need a motion. Sure. So I'll make a motion to approve pasture development proposal for the sign contingent on building commission and inclusion in our decision that will prioritize by change. Next not the one second. All right. I Katherine Jersey abstain. Commissioner Kendall. I So all right. So make sure we have those couple notes in the decision. Yep. Is that a decision or is that a memo? It's a memo. A memo in the memo. Okay. It just it will val it just uh validate. That's an should be an easy one to clean up. If not actually looking at the signage would take longer.
News flash buffer is gone. We have next school year but we've got to get this out to the public. So again we're at a situation where no fault of our own but we're being responsible but now we we have those things. It's I think it's safe to say just as a parent, we've become accustomed to having a certain level of service and a certain level of programs and things within Daert which are phenomenal and living it firsthand as a parent, as a coach, seeing it, being on the campuses is incredible and I think most families would agree with that. We want to see that continue. To continue that, we need these things and again I like I reiterated earlier, we don't I don't think we enjoy this. We don't we don't enjoy. We don't realize, oh, we get to go out for an override again.
Cleaning up those little things will take a little bit more time but um needs to be done. Okay. All right. Thank you. Uh, thank you, Roy. Thank you, board. Thank you. Why don't we Okay, so the res sorry the resigning number eight and I'll get back to that in a minute, but the resigning of the approval not required. Is that behind me right now? Yeah, that's behind us. Um, and and that can wait till the end of the meeting. Um if we want to I kind of in a way want to get it done so that we don't get distracted. Yeah. And we can go up there sign it. Okay. Um get it done because this discussion then we can just focus on we're signing now. Yeah. We're going to sign now just get out of the way. Yeah. Just to to tell everybody what happened is I wrote the wrong date on the plan that we all signed at the last meeting.
Oh, we get to go out for a bond. It's just a fact of doing business and doing business the right way. It's a fact of life. So, we need to go approach this now. So, again, Kelly, I'm with you. These are things I think people are starting to see it and there is starting to be a lot more discussions. We need to capitalize on that and let's get those discussions out there so we can make these things happen and keep this train moving forward, if you will. I'm going to piggy I'm going to piggyback off of both of these um and ask some questions. Um, do we know from the last round of polling that we had done? Um, if uh I can't recall if there were issues that resonated more with people that participated in the polls, if it was the bond issues like the funding of the bonds, you know, do do community members care more about air conditioning units working or retention of of of teachers?
So I wrote May 13th instead of March 13th. And so, um, so we do not re, uh, record a plan with the with the with the wrong date. Um, the applicant has submitted a new ANR plan that we can sign right now. Set it up and we'll come sign it and then we'll get on with our agenda. Lowanging fruit, you know, this feels good. While Peter's setting it up, do you want to talk about other item or you just want to Oh, good. How was it? Oh, yeah. So, Okay. And do you need more than three on there? Are you going to have to chase anyone down? Okay. All right. So, you should put it on there so it's all complete. March Otherwise, you'll get distracted and put a different date on it. Okay. All right. So, that's done. That's done. All right. So, we can uh Yes.
Um, does that did that question make sense? Um, I don't remember if it was part of that um part of that polling. Um, I'm pull I'm pulling it up right now just to see the question. My second question while you're looking that up is um and I know I came in here a little late. Um, I was looking at the five-year history of multiple question elections. There are labels on here about questions and MOS's and DAAS and bonds. Was that covered? What what those mean? Yes. So the um the bond well the bonds just been itself the M um is an override excuse me and so then some of those I thought it was kind of odd because some of them say M and some are 15% so unless they specified they're going up to the full amount but basically M and the 15% are both overrides.
So, um the things on the agenda left are is this discussion of 61 Waverly, which is important but not um doesn't have a deadline and um we obviously need to do the meeting minutes and then under administrative a there's a little bit of discussion about um the the search for a new town planner and the information I have on that. So okay um if you want to take care of the easy stuff and go back to 61 Waverly. Sure. Um we can I had no changes to the minutes. We want to talk about the minutes. Get that out of the way. Frankly, I didn't even look at them. So, give me just a minute here. Too busy reading bylaws. Is this now on a different uh letter head and stuff? Is it Did it officially change? Yeah, it should officially change its letter head. Are you sure you want to leave?
Okay. Um and then district additional assistance at the DAA that's if districts have the ability to go for a capital override. So it's a it's also just for a short a certain amount of time I believe it's also seven seven years don't quote me but um it's uh also all of these are tax on property but yes so the ones you see on here are going to be bond m overrides or a capital override which is the da um property again if they have any sale of property that has to go to the voters so those are what you'll see there for property um and I'm not sure what Gilbert had in 24 related to other have to look that up Does that answer your question? Yeah, part of it. And are these like multiple things that show up on a ballot? Like the question one, question two, question three.
We got new letterhead here. Tempting. I know. Okay, good. Make a motion to accept the minutes from the March 13, 2025 planning board meeting as presented. I'll second that. Roll call vote. I Jersey and Trisha Kendall search. Yes. So, um, okay. So, um, Jen Ball contacted me last week, I think on Tuesday, um, to, um, talk about the process for finding a town planner. They were planning they're following the same process that they did um when they went through finding Peter and also for a recent member of the oh I guess um of the board of health. So that would have been for the board of health director position director position. Okay. Um so and that is that the position will be posted. Do we did you put that posting in the um in the binders? Okay. I think I have it. Um, I printed it with me.
So, if I'm looking at this correctly, the Catalina Foothills Unified School District in 2022, do they have three things on the ballot? Correct. What that means? Yes. So, Catalina Foothills in 25, they requested a bond, they requested a capital override, and an MO override. Okay. Thank you. Th those were good questions. uh you know there's there's been a um I'm getting into the uh my political science background here a little bit but when you start to look at trends over time it's very interesting what you guys brought up and I'm kind of summarizing here is that uh you know when when you looked at the historical element of of putting two items on a ballot generally what would happen is that you saw you would hear and then you would see I because of the data, it was showing that voters would lean towards one and maybe not the other.
Um, did you get Did you get it? Okay, I have it. Just we can we can see it. It's the same It's the same one that went in last time. Um, so it is already on the town website. It's on Indeed, which is where I saw it. It's on um let's see here posted on the town website indeed.com mmma which is the Massachusetts Municipal Association uh website mass AMA the American um planners association um so or sorry APA mass APA Mass APA which is the Massachusetts chapter the American Play Association. Thank you. I can't get that one right. Yeah, it's a it's a MMA is the Massachusetts Municipal Association. That is where typically all municipal jobs are posted. I told you you know anywhere from a um you know a uh DPW to a town manager job. Uh that's where typical stuff uh municipal jobs are posted.
You would get one to pass or one to fail or both would fail. It was very difficult when you did that because it just it didn't go over well. Um, and I'm not saying it worked. You got to look at you got to study the community a little bit too. So, what we've started to notice is we just looked at some of the trend recently. we started to see that it was it was um some of it was either you're for what's happening out there what the district is doing or you're not. I mean, and I'm not saying it's in every case, but uh you you did see some trees. You look at that data that either they they both passed or they both failed. It was very interesting when you saw the data on there and and uh I I can't say it's going to be in every case.