And so um they have different levels of different reviews that we can think about. Um but a holistic review I think would be um above any ability to be in our budget. Um but there's smaller organizational cultural surveys um that she was going to forward information about um to me to pass on to the committee as well. Along those same lines, just Mike was asking about that today. So Erin and I are looking into different companies that are out there that can do sort of an independent audit for our teachers, our principles, our school committee, our parents, our students as well too. Um so that's part of that as well too. We'll get some information for you. Jess, you said the holistic is beyond what our budget could handle, but do you have an ballpark range on any? Yeah. So, schoolworks.com apparently works a lot of time with um huge districts.
That's it. We're the captain of the ship. I mean, granted, yes, the the aids do help a lot, but ultimately I'm the captain of the ship, and there's no guarantees in life, but I guarantee you that if they're on one of our buses with one of our drivers, they will be as safe as possible. Thank you. Good job, All right. I didn't come prepared with anything, so I just kind of jotted stuff down into my phone. So, please excuse me for that. Can you just tell us your name and Yes, I will. I'm Janita Shedeker. I'm a bus driver here at Eve Sham. Have been for 23 years. With that being said, I'm one of the four that they're talking about keeping. So, I'm not standing up here tonight for myself. It's for my co-workers, for the the people of the community that work for you that have put time and effort into it.
So, like Springfield will hire them or Province, Rhode Island had hired them. Um and um and it's through the Department of Education. So, right now they actually have a bid through DESIE to do their district reviews for them. Um but for a holistic review which includes um every level. So like you said parents, staff, district, school committee. Um what trends and patterns um they have 10 different indicators that they look at. They come in and look at the curriculum, HR procedures, finances, decisions, how money is invested within the the district. Um, and so to do a holistic review of all those things I just mentioned, it's $1 to $120,000, which would not be something would be coming out of our budget at this time. Um, to do a smaller portion called a program review, which I don't think is exactly what parents are looking for, um, would be $60,000.
So, I wanted to say Dr. Smith mentioned privatization is already working. We strongly disagree with all the talk about how much privatizing will save the district. What the what is the contingency and what is the plan once the transportation employees are gone and they hike it up as it's been proven to be done in many other districts. I would like to give each of the board members something to read right here after after obviously um that proves that privatization does not work. I would also like to add something since transportation department was told at the end of January that almost all the department would be losing their jobs. It has affected the attendance in our department extremely which affects the entire community or families students being picked up being late to school. So that puts the teachers behind as well. So that's that's a huge thing because a lot of the employees have worked here for years and been so uh dedicated.
Um, when I said, "Okay, thank you for that guesstimate." Um, She said that she would forward companies that do more organizational cultural surveys, which I think is also what people are looking for. Um, it's the well-being or what's working well, what's not working, leadership, satisfaction, day-to-day business, and if leaving why, if staying, why. Um, and I think that kind of really encompasses what we need to know to go forward. School Works is the premiere that's out there that a lot of bigger districts use. The one thing that's really good about that company is they protect the information they're getting, right? So, it's not being dispersed out or someone can buy that information from them as well too. Um, for even like the HR piece looking for employments and along that um that's something we we're we're paying close attention to. Janelle and I experience every single time we post a job that we're getting within minutes we're getting companies, private companies emailing us and say we have the people for you.
They have some of them have 160 sick days. They're not going to get paid for all of them, if they get paid for any of them at all. So, they're going to take off as they should because they put a lot of time and effort into being here. So, I just wanted to just say that if you're going to look at it like, oh well, our department is costing a lot of money. It sure is. Look at just recently from I'd say 10 11 drivers being out. We have to get Helmans to come in and cover. That is a huge expense. Huge. We as the drivers calculated and I think one week it was almost $38,000 for one week. One week. Imagine what that's going to cost the district once we're not here and Hillman's hikes it up. Just saying. Thank you so much for your time.
So protecting that information is important but school works is one of the man. What was the price again? I'm sorry. I couldn't hear what John's call now he's laughing. Um 100 to $120,000 for a holistic review. And is it for per our size population? Sorry, she didn't specify. It was a very short. She squeezed me and originally my appointment with her was Thursday to chat with her. I know you usually do by the number of people that are in the community as well. Okay. So, when you were just saying that you get contacts after you post a job, is it are you saying that these comp some of these companies would have identify unhappy um sometimes you look at HR like if you're looking like positions that are unfilled, right? You look at all that stuff. So the minute you're giving that information, you have to be very careful what companies you're using.
Hello, my name is Donna. I started working here 10 years ago after my husband passed away. I thought this would be help would help pass the time away. But boy was I wrong. This job became so rewarding seeing how some children grew and progressed. They look to see us every day. Many wanting to tell you about their night, weekends, family, questions, etc. If they see us at a local store, which most of us live in the town, they run up and give us a hug. Just last week, Blung gave us a piece of his foria bush and asked us every day how it was going. Friday to take a picture showing how it would be growing. Another left a sticky note saying how much she liked when I came back to the back of the bus and talked with her. Plus asked that I never forget her.
Sorry. Oh, they they have bots. I mean, all of those companies have bots that scour um school spraying or indeed or whatever. And I mean, a lot of those are automated messages, right? But that's nature the nature of the internet nowadays. Yeah, we're competing with them, right? So that's the hard part. So we just really want to be careful. We all agree we need to do that from what we heard. Just we want to be careful. Come to use you pay a lot for it, but they're also the ones that are protecting information too and not selling making double money. Yes. Yeah. So um so schoolworks.org the person I was talking with said that she was going to forward me some of the information for the organizational cultural surveys um which might be more of our in our range. All right. uh budget facility subcommittee.
All of my children went to this school here. Now my grandchildren go. I have lived in for 47 years. Watch the town grow. Something's good, some things not so good. But I really would like to stay and work here everywhere. I have a special rapport with both parents and children. We work as a team, drivers, aids, parents, and kids. We know each We know each other and they trust us with their children. Please don't take this away. Free some money to be found to keep transportation and let us continue to do our job. Thank you. Hi, Wendy Beach. I am a bus driver in Eve Sham. I'm also a resident of Marlton for 23 years. Um, you want to raise these taxes. Um, and and that's I I I don't have kids in the the schools anymore. Um, but I'm all for raising taxes for the kids education, but yet, you know, you want to kick me to the curb with my job in this township.
Megan had a personal issue. She had to leave, but uh anybody else I don't know if we have an update from that subcommittee for right now. Uh superintendent search subcommittee, we just had a blog about that, but anything just to review that next Tuesday at 5:00 pm, we'll be interviewing four candidates to fulfill the interim position for the 202526 year. And unfortunately, that is in direct competition with Family Pew. They know that. Yeah. So, we have 6:30. So there will be an open meeting in the public. Yep. Uh no update from the policy subcom either. So that brings us to our business items. Um so Aaron, is that the payment schedule is that you like? So you've got uh you have two memos. The first is has to do with the assessment payment schedule. So as you can see when I shared those initial assessments um from that sort of first round of budget I got a response from the town of oil saying this is the wrong schedule like the payments are so I looked at it I compared it to the regional agreement I said well it looks like what's in the regional agreement um so they sent back what they've received in the past um if you look at the little gra chart I have down at the sort of towards the bottom Um to the left hand side is what is in the regional agreement.
Um there's no rhyme or reason as to why you're getting rid of transportation. We really haven't gotten a straight answer on that. You keep saying it's about the money, but yet you're going to save the aids because it's more money to outsource. How is it not more money to outsource the bus drivers as well? It doesn't make any sense to me. Um and and Janine explained it well that you know like these kids um we do this for the kids. We don't we don't do you know it's it's all about them their safety. I I drove 16 years with a private company and I'll tell you you're not going to get the same service. I will tell you that right now. You will not get the same service. Um I love working here and uh you know it was great because my kids were in the schools so it worked out great for me.
To the right hand side is what has um previously been given to Boilston as you just hang on one second. I think Joe's going to get it up as an assessment schedule. Sure. Yep. Um so you know I you know my response was well you know the the regional agreement governs governs my work. I don't govern the regional agreement. So in order for me to make a variance, I think I really need to come to the school committee um you know and ask for that. Okay. Uh currently uh Berlin pays according to the regional agreement um while Boilston pays to this historical percentage. Um thinking about and looking at cash flow um either of these is fine. Um obviously you can see the historical boilston uh is lags a month and starts at a lower percentage so it builds up. Um this is a cash flow apparently a cash flow issue for Boilston in terms of their tax receipts.
Um but you know it's very heartbreaking that you know in in in an instant you somebody comes in uh gets hired in this township and all of a sudden we're going you know it's just very heartbreaking. Thank you. [Applause] Good afternoon. My name is Michael Thompson and I'm a resident here in town and a business owner here in town. And uh I would first like to thank the board for you guys for everything that you do. I understand that this is a volunteer position and that you guys do not get paid a dime to be here and spend your hard time uh to get beat up by us. I would also like to thank all of the teachers and all of the staff for everything that you've done. Uh I moved my daughter here many many years ago uh to go to school because the schools here in Eastam were a 10 out of 10.
Um but it also means we get less money up front. Um now realistically are we doing all of our capital projects day one and starting them and paying vendors by August 1? No. We're probably starting them in the summer. Um there's probably, you know, we're probably getting invoices and doing work throughout the year. Um you know, do we have money in the bank that can can fund this? Yes. Um so at least for this year, it does not it certainly doesn't prevent present either an operational or a cash flow issue. I don't know if I could say the same in future years. So, I'd want to, you know, and and I think it also, I think, puts the impetus on um towns and and us to review that regional agreement. If this regional agreement doesn't work, let's have these conversations. So, um I would I would be completely comfortable adjusting um this payment schedule for 2026 and then, you know, see where things go.
My daughter is now a freshman at Rowan College. So, I thank you guys for everything that you've poured into her. But as a business owner here in town, I pay taxes twice as a resident and as a business owner, and I wouldn't mind paying taxes or um a bond to help the children and the teachers here in Eveam. However, I would like to do that for something where I see the vision or something where I see a plan. Here, I don't see a plan. I don't know if we're doing three million. I don't know if we're doing seven. I don't know if we're doing 10. I don't know if we're doing 15. I don't know what we're doing to be honest with you. And I honestly don't think the border is pretty sure what they're doing. That's why they have so many questions as well.
If if we're looking at other things in the regional agreement, maybe we can have a conversation with the towns about what this would look like to, you know, cover their cash flow, but also preserve our cash flow, right? That's important to us that our cash flow isn't impacted by this. Um, from an operational perspective, the operational side of things, Boilston is paying in accordance with that percentage. There isn't a separate percentage in the regional agreement for operations and capital. And that does flow with how we typically spend our money, right? We have payroll, things like that. We, you know, on a on a monthly basis, we pay out roughly, you know, a sixth of our our expenses every two months. There's, you know, some peaks and valleys and periods where there's higher spending and lower, but but that works um regardless. So, I guess my recommendation would be to for uh fiscal 2026 to allow me to afford both towns the option of the alternate assessment model.
So, if there was a plan or something long-term that we were doing, I have no problems or no qualms paying taxes twice in this town to help support our teachers, our staff, our bus drivers. But what I see is us taking band-aids and spitting a band-aid on a open gash that's need stitches, right? That's hemorrhaging blood that continually hemorrhaging blood every year, year after year after year. So if you raise my taxes $2,000 a year this year, you're going to come back to me again next year and you're going to raise me $300 or 400. Then you're going to come back to me the year after that and you're going to raise it another three or 400. I need to see a plan of what you're going to do with those taxes, what they're going to do. I need to see a plan. I need to see action.
I'd hate to provide it to Boilston and not provide it to Berlin as well. So, I I would reach out to the towns. I would let them know that you could prove this. I'm assuming Boilston would want to go with their historical method, but Berlin may want to take that take us up on that as well depending on their cash flow. Yeah. The only question I would have is that Berlin question and we we had earlier this year. Berlin had, you know, late tax bills going out. They came to us because they had potential need to push out their assessment payment date. Um it didn't end up happening, but we told them at the time like we're probably okay with that, but we got to talk to Boilston first. So, have you actually talked to Berlin yet? I have I have talked to both uh Berlin and Boilston uh town administers and treasurers.
And this is not unfortunately the board's problem. This is a problem that our governor up in Trenton and Miss Katz who thought that S2 was going to be beneficial to everybody and help and support everybody. It is not, it will not, and it has not. We need to take a stand. And as this young lady here said when they were up in Trenton, actually I think it was Tracy when they were up in Trenton, there was only two or three people there. We need everybody up in Trenton letting them know S2 is not working. They need to find a new way to help us. One of the things or one of the principles that we go by in Rotary is is it fair to all concerned? What I would ask Miss Katz and what I would ask Mr. Murphy is is S2 fair to all concerned that we're here struggling in Eve sham because you feel that we make enough that we can afford to pay for everybody else when they're spending $1.2 million in Trenton and we are losing money.