Like Kathleen said, we've done our due diligence. Mr. Kylie did a superb job and um but I think we need to put this one to bed and then go on to the next one right away. Thank you. 26 and 27's around the corner. Exactly. So, I agree with everything that's said up there and and yes, I would like to see an HR director. Um, I would also like to not forget the unfunded um requests. Um, and acknowledge, yes, we are losing staff by uh retirements and whatnot. Um, so it's not really a level budget. I appreciate all the comments that we have gotten from the public. I wish more people would speak up. Um, I think that this is a responsible budget, but it certainly does not reflect how I view education or how I believe our community values it or I hope they do.
She's been a huge help this year. So, um, I think I would really like to explore that option this summer and see what it what it looks like and see if it works before adding that whole daycare executive director expense. I want some feedback from you guys on that side of it. Um, you know, that would alleviate some of the, you know, $40,000 salary at least this year for that executive director side of it. See how it works this summer and make a decision going in next next year. Have you talked to her about it? Yeah. Okay. Uh, she would start back, Josh. She would start back as the daycare director at her room when school started. So, do you guys have any thoughts on that? I think that's a good solution. Okay. Okay. And then on the Wilson side of it, uh, Miss Moore talked about a little bit, we're looking at the additions to bathroom to one of the spaces.
How do you handle conflict situations within the school district? So, we have a district of 1,116 students. We have a district of 238 employees. We are a human resourced job, right? We deal with humans all day long. If you don't think for a second we have conflict every single day, you're mistaken. Some are here, some are here. My very first day, as Nicole will attest to, I had parents lining up on my door saying, "We want to talk about this, this, this, this this negotiations meeting, there's dealing with conflict over there." Again, swamps. 99.9% of the time, you don't know what's going You don't know about those conflicts because I'm resolving them by listening and learning from them, right? That's my job as part of that as well too to handle those conflicts and be able to get them resolved so that people walk away happily.
Um, so yes, as uh Nate Silva said, this only solves one problem. It doesn't solve the whole issue. Um, we do need to ask the community for more money. And it does occur to me that there is never a good time to do that. Hindsight says last year or the year before was the time to do it. Um, but just because it's not the good time doesn't mean that yes, we need to jump on it and we need to do it. And if the community says no, the community says no. But hopefully the silent majority agrees. Um, so if there's no more discussion, are we ready to take a vote? Do I hear a motion? We need to do it in several parts. Do I hear a motion to start this? Madam Chair, make a motion to approve the FY26 budget appropriation for part of school classroom teachers in the amount of $2,50,283.14.
Um, and then moving forward with the air conditioning in both those rooms at the second daycare and the first daycare room. And we'll send also with the fencing, too. So, moving that direction. And, um, I'm a little concerned that we might not need that second room. I mean, there's only six and really the way I understood it is a couple of them are infants, so they're going to take up the two slots or whatever. And I don't I don't know. I'd hate to just spend a whole lot of time and effort on a second room when we could maybe finish the first room, the playground, the resurfacing, everything like that that's kind of just been pushed off. And I had a few people kind of comment to me the same thing that they really don't know if there's really a need right now for that second room, right?
Again, most of them you don't know about at all, but there are whether it be a parent with a teacher, a parent with a principal, a principal with a principal, teacher with a teacher, student, all of them working with the union, working with all those parties involved to make sure we resolve those conflicts the best we can. But one of the things you're going to hear me say is we need some sort of HR. We have Patty Spunberg who's incredible work, but she's also payroll trying to get everyone paid, trying to figure out our bills for the past, but we add on HR to her title as well, too. But I'll be presenting school later on after hopefully we see where our budget's going to be and what needs to be at that meeting May 5th. But we need to be able to get maybe some sort of consult consult with each, right?
Do I hear a second? Second. Uh motion by Mr. Noun, second by Miss Beckwith. Uh any further discussion? Uh all in favor? I I I will abstain. I any opposed? No. Um so four yeses and one abstension and we need a second motion. Madam Chair, make a motion to approve the FY26 budget appropriation for the total budget excluding the item voted individually in the previous motion in the amount of 53,428,227.87. Second motion by Mr. Non, second by Mr. Oliver. Um, all in favor? I I I I motion carries unanimously. Good job. Um, thank you, Mr. Good job. Good job, everybody. We appreciate your support. Um, and on to new business. I believe I pass this along to Mr. Kylie. Oh, well, thank you. So um we have a list of um surplus equipment. So we're seeking authorization to dispose of this equipment and materials uh that have surpassed their useful life.
You know, the need for the second room. We have a daycare helper that helps in the daycare that we have now that gives us a few more numbers in there. So, that's nice to have as well. So, we're really going to have to explore exactly what that number looks like because we kind of heard some different numbers the past month and a half, two months. So, we need to sit down and look at that and see exactly what that waiting list looks like to make a good decision moving forward. So, I think Macy has a pretty good handle on, you know, what kids she's looking at and stuff. So, definitely include her in your job. We had some conversations today about that. So, Okay, that's all I have on the daycare side. So, item number 12, the one day senior trip. So, the seniors go on there, they call it senior skip day, but is a one-day senior trip that they plan.
We have that many people that walk through this building, their buildings every single day, right? We need a system in place that we could just check on and get some help. We're having Katie Mol come in and give us some professional winning as well too with all our principles and directors as well too. We need to make sure because we make big mistakes that can get us in some trouble sometimes. But please know there's conflict every day and that's part of my job of dealing with it. The other part about it is after it leaves the principles building then it's me. There's no assistant superintendent. There's no other people that are there. So it goes directly to me. So that's part of my job that I do that every day, but majority of the time you're just not aware of them because we handle them.
The condition varies. Some are not operational, some are barely operational. All are not serving serving the purpose that um they were intended to at this point. This will allow us to dispose of the surplus according to the town's policy for doing so. Um we actually the town of Dartmouth has a policy for disposal of surplus equipment and we follow that. We we the school committee actually doesn't have its own policy. Um but we could consider one. Uh so first um as part of that policy we would ask other town departments if they are interested in any of it. I would love it if they would take it. I don't think they will. Uh the stuff that I'm going to list is like rotting away and not in great shape. So I don't think anybody's going to take it off our hands. Um, but we will attempt to auction it off and some of the things might be bought for parts or the value of the metal or something.
Um, that itinerary is uploaded to the board site. So, you can take a look at that if you'd like. Um, in the past, we have approved that senior day. So, I wanted you guys to have the opportunity to look at that itinerary and give us some feedback on that. But I think in the past, didn't the senior class pay for the bus driver under their funds? Yes. But I don't know. I mean, I can't say they've done every year because technically it's like a field trip. We don't have students pay for the driver, but they have in the past pay for the driver. I will say in being in education for as long as I've been in education, I really like the idea of this being structured as it is rather than the seniors just deciding a day and going and you don't know where they're at.
But I try my very best to listen and learn and learn every single day. Hopefully come a way that we're all feeling okay about this conflict and we can move on. We're human who are a human resource environment. We have this many people working here each. Uh thank you. So could you speak to your skills and experiences in the budget process? Please address your experience with regional school budgets if applicable. So I not sorry it's not time to put a joke there. Sorry about that. So I was superintendent in Hannah Wil for six years with a regional school district very similar to Wilson. Um I as I've come on board here I've certainly that has probably been my priority is getting our our district and trade in place. We have a regional school district that's very complicated. The formula is very complicated. I think people still understanding it.
Um, so hopefully if that happens, if if it does, the funds that we would receive, there'll be an online auction. Um, and the funds that we receive will go to the town.
So, it's a really good idea. Any questions? Not. I would entertain a motion to approve senior skip day as it presented. So moved. Motion by Allison. Second. Second by Josh. All those in favor say I. I. Any oppose? Same sign. Motion passes. 70. And summer school. The proposals for the summer school at Central Plains Elementary in Wilson. You'll find those attached. Last year, we were able to use part of our ESRE funds for the summer school um salaries. We won't be able to do that this year, but we're in a pretty good spot with our general fund to be able to move forward that direction. So, I would recommend a proven summer school at Central Plains Elementary in Wilson for this coming summer. Is there any further questions or comments on that? And this is the center at the central plate also. There's a motion by Kayla.
It's only been a period of time. I know it's not a favorable response, but I'd say we need to revisit the regional agreement. The complications of budgetarily is sort of confusing, right? People want to give money for capital. People want to give money for different areas of the budget, but how does that impact the relationship where it's hot as well to the chair, right? The regional agreement is very very complicated. Um, but it involves the budget. And I I will say all day long, I am very fortunate to have a director of finance that is great. I have a great finance world, but it's also my responsibility as a superintendent to make sure I understand that and know that to be able to have those conversations when I'm walking through the parking lot today and April stops and talks to me, right? When I'm when I'm at the town meetings, when I'm at different events, when when I'm going to get my coffee at Dunkin Donuts and the gentleman says to me, "Hey, talk to me about this budget right now." Superintendent again, you know, it's a cursive.
So, I'm going to just talk a little bit about the equipment um and be happy to answer any questions you might have. So, it's equipment and some and some uh educational materials. So, various Dartmouth Middle School weight room equipment. Um I can talk a lot about No, I can talk a little bit at least about the items if you'd like. Um but I'll leave that to your discretion whether you want me to do that or not. Plexiglass of various sizes. I can't imagine where we got all this plexiglass, but um we have tons of plexiglass. Like I'm storing it in storage containers that we're renting. That's not good. So, no, it isn't. And we're never going to use it again. And I can't do anything with it. So, and it's costing us money. It's costing us money every month. And I'm Yeah. So, anyway, please declare that surplus.
Second and a second by Allison. All those in favor say I. I. Any opposed? Same sign. Motion passes. 70. Item number 14. Mr. Cooks. I am here to represent the um Refnik reinforcers. Um they had the idea to um offer a gift to the high school junior high teachers for items that they um could use in their classroom or um to enhance student um accessibility to you know equipment or things like that. they were um wondering if there would be a possibility of the board maybe matching some funds. Um so the idea was to have the teachers apply. Um, I think we set up to $250 from the the rough neck reinforcers and then um to see if the board would be interested in matching because that's a pretty good amount, $250 from both entities to be able to purchase, you know, something equipment wise or something for their classroom.
wearing a bow tie as well cuz I think they identify me more with that. But I need to be able to have that conversation. But I also need to have that conversation when the towns come back and say you got to cut a million dollars, right? That's not a numbers game. That's the job of the superintendent needs to know that budget. So I can sit down and say instead of just saying I'm cutting my cutting music, I'm cutting phys and that's done with it. You need to know a budget, understand it, and be able to really dissect it and make sure you're doing the right cuts because it's getting you're affecting people's it's HR, right? You're affecting people's livelihoods. So, you not only be need to be able to understand that budget the numbers wise, but you got to understand the overall impact of it, the curriculum that goes along with that, making reductions, right?
um o old classroom desks and chairs. Also things that we stored at the time of the pandemic when we were trying to social distance and all that put in put in storage containers and in nooks and crannies and needs to go um a Donaldson toret dust collector which is at the Dartmouth High School. It's actually attached to the building. It's around the back side of the building, the back uh north side of the building. Um, it's never operated in my tenure. So, I'm in year 15. So, um, I don't know. It It's not operational. It's not going to be operational. We don't have a use for it, even if it was operational. So, um, I'd recommend we declare that surplus and get rid of it. A Grove Scissor Lift that is not operational. That's out near the track. It's It's rotting away um, as we speak.
Um, for that $500 mark, um, I've seen this before and so I just thought I would bring the idea to you to see if that was a possibility. Um, we do have funds for CTE already kind of in the works, so it wouldn't necessarily have to be with any of those programs. Um, but for example, um, we had our science teacher filled out a $1,000 grant to get new microscopes for the science lab this last year. So, just things like that, um, that maybe we could help with, um, throughout the school. uh the stu the teachers would apply um and the the reference reinforcers would go through those grants and um kind of weed out, you know, what was um things that we could maybe work on and um maybe just pick one or two projects. Um so all in from the board would maybe be like $500.