Any discussion on that motion? All those in favor? I I Okay, that passes 5-0. Any questions on the motion and if you do, you can reach out to either myself or Susan to have clarification. Okay. And you'll have until the your So, you'll have to renew again in the fall. Um, so the work would need to be done before then. Yeah, we'll get it done as soon as possible. Perfect. Thank you. And Okay. Good luck. Good luck. Welcome to Ashlin for business and yeah, hope we hope it goes well for you. We appreciate you willing to do business here in town. No, thank you. Thank you for and thank you for your patience tonight. Great. Thank you very much. Thank you for your patience. Okay. Thank you all. We have Moving on. The other the clock tower pickle ball has been um pulled. Pulled. Okay.
However, we want them to be able to voice their their feelings. Okay. So, the next steps um finalized surveys. Um we will get to work on that. Um taking your comments tonight into account. Um the plan right now is to launch this survey prior to the end of the school year. Um so that would be sooner rather than later um for that as we have other surveys that we're administering at the end of the year. Um analyzing we'll analyze results um and I'll add to that analyze results like anything that we find as far as usage data out of any of our systems would kind of would be part of that analysis. And then um at the workshop we would pres present findings to you.
Y so that's been withdrawn by the applicant. Okay. Moving on. Another nice big discussion. Moving on to the discussion of the fiscal year 26 budget update vote and accept that budget uh and have it go into the town meeting warrant Michael andor Jen who's taken us through this. Well, I'll start off. I'm sure I'll hand some piece over to to JB over here to to help out with, but um so yeah, it's um yeah, this uh has not necessarily been the the easiest budget year u in a number of different factors and a number of different aspects. Uh but certainly uh one of those has been logistics. So there's been a number of versions of uh this budget that's been floating around. So, um, just for everybody's information, I'm going by, uh, tonight and right now what's in the folder. So, the electronic access. So, um, hopefully everybody is able to see that piece.
Any questions? Any more questions for staff right now from the board? Just to thank you. Yeah, I know this is we've asked all staff to put together a fairly weighty project, a fairly short timeline. I appreciate the the dedication you guys. two young men were wait where um sorry that said I am super you Tina yes um very curious about um the public comment we do have one member of the public who was requested to speak on this so as we're thinking about what the survey looks like and finalizing um let's please take into account what our public has to say absolutely Bradley you want to come on up thank First off, I just want to thank everybody for taking Chromebooks under advisement. Um, I think it's going to really benefit our kids. That's what we're here for. So, um, as I'm learning more and more about the process, I'm finding that it very, first off, let me just say I am really focused on the elementary school level because that's what I know so far.
Um, if not, just I'll be able to explain. So, first I' I just want to turn everybody's attention to the general fund budget overview. So just go through that and I think everybody recalls uh what our tri board discussion was where we um determined that we would uh move forward with an increased appropriation over and above what we were currently looking at at the time which resulted in obviously a larger deficit. Then the plan was to use American Recovery Act funds to um as well as a few other funds to help uh help with that def uh deficit, offset that deficit. And so um there's been really kind of a substantial change since that meeting and the finance director and I Britney so we've discussed and gone back and forth repeatedly on the best way to handle this and the the legal way to handle this.
Um, and what I do know now is that all the elementary schools kind of have a little bit of a different policy. Um, so what I could really speak to is Rosedale and um, also what I know of Chromebook uh, what students are able to access on Chromebooks. Um, so what I would like to to accomplish with this is getting better security on the Chromebooks. I would like to know how many parents know that their kids have access to YouTube and YouTube shorts, Google, uh that their computer has a webcam. These are all things that I think parents have just trusted. I'm not sure that they are aware of that. So, I think that that might be I'm not sure how we would word it word it in a survey, but I think it might be curious to know if if parents know about the accesses and then they might be more interested in learning about securely because securely does give a timestamp of everything that your kid is looking at.
And so she is is recommending that instead going through ARPA or trying to appropriate free cash in the future to help offset the budget, we go ahead and go directly to the general stabilization fund, do a transfer from there in um at the town meeting in May and then when the free cash number with the ARPA appropriation hits in the fall, transfer um that money back into the the general stabilization fund. So that piece so it's um the mechanics is basically you end up with the same result but the mechanics are basically switched that everybody can follow along with that. So um what we did do then is so we added a line here under the revenue category excuse me for um general stabilization fund. So you'll see the appropriation or excuse me the revenue estimate there to be 1,481,367. Um, again, I just want to point out that this will be backfilled with ARPA funds when free cash certified in the fall.
when they open their computer, it has the tabs that were previously open and those get all timestamped so you know exactly what they were what they were accessing. Um the second thing that I want to accomplish is less usage. Um less unmonitored uses usage especially um it's proven screen time. Uh you know we we have all kinds of um research at our fingertips about screen time. So number one, more security. Number two, less usage, especially non unmonitored time. Three, parent education. I think that's so important. I, as a parent, wasn't educated. Um, and I think a lot of parents, again, going back to my previous point, need more education on on their Chromebooks just generally. And then the fourth thing, um, the fourth thing, running out of time. Oh, just standard usage policies across elementary, middle, and high school. And they can be different, um, but might be something we want to look at, too.
Um, you'll see right up above that, we will have the sped stabilization fund of 300,000 being transferred in. Um, the ARPA of uh funding request for a direct revenue replacement um is listed at 575353. Um and then the other change from the tri board meeting is uh under overlay surplus. And if you recall, we were um anticipating uh getting 300,000 being released from the board of assessors. Uh when they met today, they decided to on a on an amount of 150,000. So that was something that we had to account for. Michael, can I ask why they cut that in half? What was the rationale? Um, I didn't get a chance to really ask them and talk to them or talk to Don about it. I just told him he had to find it now in New Growth. So, okay. Um, but uh but in any case um that is the revenue picture including I think the one time only onetime revenue sources.
Thank you all for your time. I really appreciate it. Thank you. These are all important issues, and I'm really I'm honestly glad that the board and the community is having this discussion. Um, I bet you we've been so gung-ho about improving everything with technology that it's it's wise, I think, to take a step back sometimes and make sure it's doing what we want it to do and which is, of course, educate our students in the best way we possibly can. Um, I'll get off my soap box. Thank you. Um, do we have a motion associated with this item? And again, I have a question. Is this a motion to approve the draft or or is this this is still a work in progress because we've also heard from the public? We have um sorry I see Tim come back up. Do you want to speak to that or sorry I before I do and the motion can be whatever if you want to make a motion it can be whatever you you need it to be right that's your your prerogative if you want to move that we send it all back and do it again we can if you want move that we do it with some edits that's as a board member the language is yours well I guess personally I would like to make a motion to approve but to take into account the input from um the public comment if that makes sense or do I need to reward it?
Um, so that totals 83,882,573. And uh just a quick question and I'm sorry, Madam Chair, just the um the transfer from the U enterprise funds. Um that's that's allow that's allowed to do. We're allowed to do that as long as it's replaced, right? No. So what that that accounts for is like the indirect costs associated with like our enterprise fund employees. So the portions of other costs that are paid by the um more the benefits. Oh benefits. Okay. But salaries we try to do it direct. Okay. All right. Thank you. You're welcome. Um couple of questions. So one um the the circuit breaker reimbursement is that considered is that um under the charter tuition reimbursement or is it somewhere else? Uh that would come under under some that's a different separate yes separate date that doesn't this is basically with the cherry sheet. Gotcha. Okay.
Is does um does that give you enough direction to Yeah. And I think board comment as well. Yes. So I hear a motion to approve. Uh I took notes with the understanding that you will wrap into the questions the comments we've heard from the discussion tonight from the board and the public. Mhm. Is that a reasonable version of your motion? Okay. Yes. Thank you. I second. Now, do we have any uh further debate, deeper discussion on this one? It's plenty to talk about here if you guys want to. So, um I will just simply ask I should have asked as a clarifying question. Uh if we approve this, what's uh what is the next step? I think there was a timeline on there and I want to go look at it again. Um, so if we give you the okay today, then the next thing we'll hear about it is it going out before the end of the school year?
All right. Um and our policy on the stabilization fund was it was there was something about what a 10% reduction in revenue reduction in revenue. Are we do we meet that criteria to be able to do this? No, this would be going outside of the policy. Okay. Do we need to make adjustments to the policy? I think my suggestion um would be and might have talked about this is over the summer, I believe, meet and just do a more comprehensive review of all of our policies, uh, our financial policies, because they do need to to be tweaked. We've got gosh, 12 years, 11 12 years of experience, and they've served us well. So, I think, you know, the the bones of it structure is pretty good, but you might want to look at tweaking when some things are accessed or maybe percentages change or something to that effect.
Correct. Okay. Okay. I have another clarifying question. Will will the board see the final draft before it goes out? I can absolutely share it. We can share it, but what we can't do unless we bring it back to the next board meeting is have the board approve it. So, that's just something for the board to consider. We can bring it back at the May board meeting for the board to approve the final draft, but then it won't be able to go out until after that date. Yeah, I I like the idea of getting the the survey um rolling just to keep keep this moving in the the right direction. Um, I see the survey is um just a piece of the puzzle and I think um as a board we all have um opinions on this and convictions as it comes to um the use of Chromebooks.
So, my just to I think when we vote before we vote this budget. Yep. We may want to vote to say we are going to allow that allow that based because the policies are just policies. They're not bylaws. They're not anything. You know, it's it was an agreement between select board finance committee and school committee. Yep. So, I think we just may want to say we're going to allow the use of these funds because of these uh circumstances and then to Michael's point, have a discussion in the summer about reviewing those financial policies that we have. Okay. And with the understanding that as Michael said, when those ARPA funds come out as free cash, rather than using our regular policy for free cash, we put this back to these extra these funds back to the stabilization fund and then use the rest of our policy for free cash.
So um not that I'm going to take the survey lightly, but it's going to be just a piece of the puzzle for me and just help kind of guide our direction moving forward. So with that um even if the survey isn't in perfect form I think we need to go go forward. Yeah and the survey I think will give us usable data even if it's not you know the world's perfect perfectest survey. Um yeah I appreciate that. Thank you. Yeah. I agree with everything that the uh that has been said and appreciate the presentation. Excellent. Is there any further Oh, well are is is there any further comment or debate? If not, we'll uh we'll vote. Anything else you want to say before we do? Are we making a motion to approve this survey? The motion is on the table. Yep. Yep. I I believe you moved and uh member Haye seconded it.
Okay. Because remember, it's not free and it's not cash, right? And is there a time I'm sorry. Oh, no. I just Is there is there a time uh table as to when that money has to be put back into the uh enterprise? Well, no, not to no mean the stabilization stabilization again because it's our policies. It's not again not Yeah, I mean I think we'd want to put it back as soon as we can, right? But it would be in the fall with when we review town meeting. Yeah. At fall town meeting. Okay. So in the ARPA funds, the way that it's structured, we have up until what? End of 2026 to use those funds or no they had to be allocated by the end of 2024. So that's that is why we we did the treatment that we did with the capital last year appropriation.
And then we had discussion. So, okay. All those in favor, please signify by saying I. I. Are there any opposed? It is unanimous. Thank you again, gentlemen. appreciate your help. Thank you. Everybody up here doing okay? We're just going to power through. Yep. All right. Uh we are on to business services. Uh section 9.2 of the agenda. Item 9.2.1 isformational only. It is regarding the preliminary preliminary design development update for Citrus Elementary. Hi Julie. Hi everybody. Thank you for having us here tonight. We have some really exciting information to share with you. We are going to start with Citrus Elementary School. Um we do have behind me here um parents from uh some of the elementary schools. We have the administrators from all four of the schools we're going to talk about tonight.
Okay. So that way we met the met the requirements for both the reporting and the expenditure. So that falls to free cash that is basically that is I don't want to say free money but it's it means it's unencumbered is what I and if it you know after the conversation with Karen and Jack I would expect there to be some changes in our budget at some point in time where we have to adapt and possibly make some other um decisions. That's a good way to put it. So, you know, I know we we we consider the the stabilization fund like our rainy day fund. If there is a situation where things change, are we able to like I'm I'm just trying to think through sort of logically what what that would look like? What um if we would need to make cuts, if we could use more of the stabilization fund, if we could utilize other one-time funds to be able to cover those gaps.
And they are here to answer any questions that you might have about the process that has occurred so far. because they were present and also our facilities committee members are present as well. Our board representatives and um staff representatives from the district office. Um so Citrus Elementary School is funded with remaining bond dollars from measure K. In the facilities master plan, Citrus Elementary School was to get a light touch because of its uh historical nature, right? Um we it's not really a historical building, but to us it's historical and we want to um keep it that way. Um when we went to meet with the school and the community of the school to start the programming process, um we were informed that their biggest priority was a TK complex, transitional kindergarten complex for the school, which they do not have currently. So, it kind of slowed us down because we thought we knew what we were doing and uh we took a little detour and we had to go find some more money because we can't we couldn't afford to do all of the upgrades to the existing building and add the TKK building um with the current budget.