Sorry, I did we mention a for I the 401k. >> No, no, just he he me he mentioned Fidelity and so I'm like well that >> Oh, no. Fidelity is just a financial company. >> Yeah, they just produce an article every year and do the research on Yeah. Yeah. We're not talking about 401ks. They just >> they just do like an estimated um healthcare cost research every year and they just it's about $60,000 that you'll end up paying from 65 and on. Um so going to special pay here. So let's talk a little bit. So, this would be for the person, you know, we go through the exit interview, we talk to them, maybe they have Triricare, you know, maybe they're just really not worried about medical costs. They have a lot um of money saved up for that or they're looking to pay off some debt.
I know Julie, less is better. Um and then so that would kind of break that out over a couple of years and help us as we stabilize as a district. Um the second vendor HMH's into reading was a cost of about 511. Um, how that payment plan could work with them if this is your selection is we would have an initial payment of 21199. Um, that's higher the first year because that includes all of the print materials. Um, and then we would have from years 2 to 8 the digital materials only at 50,000 a year. Um, so a little bit of a heavier hit. I pop back to the previous slide. So you're talking um 200,000 there, 211 there, but then smaller payments spread out over the eight years of the loan. I feel like I'm helping buy a car. Yes, you can. We can prepay early.
So uh priorities. Um >> yes indeed. But uh very much looking forward to raising money for the town of Ashlin and uh all that is supported through the BAA grant fund. Um especially knowing that my kids will grow up uh in this town and uh this will be my fifth Boston Marathon Boston Marathon. Um >> Wow. Wow. >> Nice. >> So yeah, just uh really thankful for the opportunity and and to give back to the community. Well, we thank you for all your efforts and uh and the pain that all of you are going to go through. I mean, the happiness you're all going to go through the joy. That's what I miss. Not the pain. Not Not this one. No. >> So, thank you very much. We appreciate that. >> Thank you, Nick. >> Um, it's actually 7:45 and I have to hold off for one second.
Um we would not want to put a program in place uh that wouldn't be able to do that. Um so so we would want to build them at a level that we feel highly confident and comfortable that they're going to meet the student needs. um to do that. I personally am still going to share that I can test a 4.86% budget that was adopted is a budget that allows for us to be able to do that. Um so I would wholly recommend that we we hopefully get that budget back uh intact so we can invest in our students here in Brookfield. Um if if we don't uh we will just have to look at maybe which which of those can we invest in that would make most sense with the finances that we get. Um that said um on February 26th I believe uh you all were provided with the electronic workbook uh that did provide greater detail into the budget.
Other than that, everything else is the same. Uh the school staff shall assist in an effort to um secure representation that reflects the demographics of the student body. It listed prior um particular demographics uh uh referring to racial demographics and so we wanted to make it a little bit more global um that there is appropriate uh student body representation on uh student government. Other than that, there's no other substant- there's no other change period to this policy. Questions from the committee. Okay. In that case, I'm looking for a motion to recommend to the board for a first read policy 5145.21 student government. I'll make a motion that we go to get this policy 5145.21 and submit it to the board for first read. Thank you, Gladys. Is there a second, please? Second. Thank you, Minnie. All those in favor, please signify by saying I. I.
>> The only thing that catches my eye is maintenance and operations transportation. So, if there's an opportunity to see what is actual field trips, what is sports, what is actual drive time that's being reported. And in maintenance operations, I understand because they are short staffed, but I feel like transportation should have a much better handle in my opinion on how they're going, how they how does that work? How does that how is that justifiable, I guess, is how I should say it as a board member. >> Thank you. That's it. Anything else? >> Just another Miss Hendricks, >> just another question. So the um overtime is uh for classified only or is it oh employees? >> So only only classified okay >> are our hourly. So if they exceed their >> the 40 hours then they get overtime >> anyone else's contract. Okay. >> Yes.
They need access to this money. Um maybe like Ben said, you know, they're going to go on a nice vacation, put a down payment on RV. So, they would go into the special pay um 401A, 403b deferred plan. What this is is the money goes into the account. It's going to be tax deferred. you're not going to pay taxes on it until you decide it's time to use it. Um, what that means is when you take it out, you're going to pay federal and state taxes, but you won't pay the Social Security and Medicare taxes on that. So, that 7.65% you're not going to have to owe. Now, the question is, why do we set the age limit at 55? Does anybody know the age that you can take from a 403b without penalty? It is 55. So, it's usually 59 and a half. So, it's usually 59 and a half unless you're retiring or separating from your employer.
Um, that's an option for us, but it does give a little bit of flexibility on the payment options long term. Then on Sorry, I should pause there. Any questions on the ELA side of things? For the world languages, just a reminder, these were our scores for the world languages. From the materials review, vendor presentations, that was Spanish, materials review, and vendor presentations for French. We brought you forward these two um possibilities last month. In a similar vein, reached out to KL and asked them about some pricing options. The total adoption eight years, it would be 96,629, an average yearly cost of a little over $12,000. Um they would work out a similar payment plan with us if this is the direction you want us to go where we would make an initial payment of about $20,000 in the first year. That gets us the teacher editions, the classroom sets, um, and then the yearly digital access.
>> Um, I have a legal notice that I have to read >> and then we'll come back to you guys >> and then we'll come back to we'll come back. All right. So, notice is hereby given that the select board will conduct a hearing regarding application for livery uh license Smooth Ride Premium Car Service LLC 42 Sudbury Road, Ashland, Mass 01721. A public hearing will be held on this matter on Wednesday, March 4th, 2026 at 7:45 p.m. Parties wishing to be heard on this matter are invited to attend the public hearing by logging into the Zoom meeting. Interested parties who are unable to attend the meeting may submit written uh comments to the select boards office town of Ashland 101 Main Street Ashland Mass01721 or by emailing Susan Roby at srobyashlandmass.com signed by Joseph Manani Jr. the chair I'll ask that we can suspend this meeting.
When I did arrive, I did hear that um there were some details that people were wondering more about or if it was available to get even more details than what you had. Uh and Casey does an amazing job with those details and I think those were shared with you then.
I. Any opposed? Okay, motion carries. Um before we uh adjourn, I just want to see if there's anybody else uh who is attending the meeting. I want to um thank those board members who are on here listening. Uh this is important for all of us at the board level.
There if they're salary there is no such thing as over time. >> And then in those specific instances like for instance after school we have to approve those prior as in what? and what's presented for like summer school, those hours are extra >> from their contract. So, they are shown. >> Okay. >> But they're not necessarily overtime because >> Right. Right. It's just additional to the contract. Yes. >> Okay. >> Still me >> questions to spur some more questions, but obviously uh as a board member um it's important. So if that's it, Miss uh Carlo, >> I'm on the next one, too. Sorry. >> There's another one. Oh, you are on the next. I'm so sorry. Number four is our Barberun High School District financial risk analysis. Miss Clementina Carlo. >> All righty. Okay. So, um, every board member should have received an email from the AG's office.
So, if it's uh if you retire or separate from your employer, it goes from 59 a half to 55. So, that same person who says, you know, I'm just looking for a payout. I just want my money. We say, all right, awesome. The 403b or 401A, depending what your district puts in, is going to be the best bet for you. That way, you can still save the 7.65% 65%. You don't have to pay the Social Security and Medicare tax, but you can still get that payout right away. Is it going to take longer than payroll? Yes, it's going to take a little bit longer than payroll. The reason is is that you're going to have to fill out a distribution form to our third party administrator. Um, your account has to be funded. The district has to pay your money or send your money over to our third party administrator.
We did bring this quote down from last month. Um, the original proposal had 200 student texts. Um, so a text for every student. At the advisement of those teachers, they said a class set is just fine. So we just built this around three class sets. Two at the high school, one at the middle school. um makes that a little bit easier on our pocket and still gives them what they need. But they did really want um the I think it's KWL is the digital base. Um that was their preference over having more textbooks. And so that's that annual cost of a little over 10,000. So it primarily keeps that digital subscription going. The advantage obviously is that's cheaper for us. The disadvantage is whoever is standing at this podium seven years from now um it gets turned off on by July 1 and we would still have those classroom sets of books but the digital access is gone.
>> We have to open it first. >> Open it first. >> Meeting is open. >> I'll make a motion to open the hearing. Second. >> All those in favor? >> I. >> Now I ask that we suspend. >> Suspended. >> Is there a second? >> Yep. Second. >> All those in favor? >> I. >> That's 5 as well. Uh we will come back to this, but we still want to continue talking with the marathon runners who are supporting the town of Ashon. Uh are there any additional uh members out there, runners out there that we would like to acknowledge and speak with? Are they all able to unmute? >> Put their hands up. >> Yeah. Put your hand up. So maybe Ari >> Okay, >> there we go. I didn't have the hand raised. >> There you go, Ari. >> You're clapping. >> That's even better.
So I guess um me and my team would welcome any questions that you might have about any of the details that you've had an opportunity to look at since that time till now and answer any questions that you might have not only about that but about some of the things that I shared with you from Monday night as well. >> Thank you. I mean I get I guess looking at the budget have you found any areas of potential cost savings like with you know like we were talking about after school activities like you know are there areas without severely impacting programs that can't be done outside of Brookfield schools but there are some that are duplicated. So, you know, are there cost savings? And I know that that's not what we were initially looking at, right? Because we're looking at $1,700 stipens, but $1,700, you know, times 15 of them can cover a parah.
Um are there any questions or uh concerns that you wanted to raise? All right, I don't see any. So uh I just want to thank the committee and uh Kelly for your time this evening. We're finishing at 7:50 and uh 50 Oh, hang on just a second. There's a message here from Shawn. Uh are these policies shared with the adult ed administrators and staff as well as the coaches? Uh yeah, so these policies are shared with the entire administrative team um and then I know that the applicable policies are shared with the coaches um through the athletics department um and then all of the revised policies, once they're approved by our board of education, are posted on our website uh for public review or anyone within the larger school community to uh look at. Good question. Thank you very much. All right, um appreciate everybody's time this evening.
And I don't know if you had an opportunity to go to the actual website and click on the link. Um it's very extensive. It goes down to a lot of details. Um there's a state overview and then there you can go by district. Um go ahead and go to the next slide please. Um so they compared last year uh to January of 20 26 and there was a significant increase in schools that are approaching the high-risisk categories. Um, and they did change their way of scoring their matrix. So, I I don't always necessarily agree with what they're doing because they have a way to manipulate the data, but it is what it is. So if you go to the next slide, please um you can see all the school districts that are at high risk and there's nine and there's 10 categories. And if you look closely, you can see that probably almost I'm going to say 90% probably had um high risk in financial position due to the fact that ESER funds went away.
It's going to take maybe, let's say, two or three extra weeks, but you're saving an additional 7.65%. 65%. I have yet to run into a retiree if they're getting a $10,000 payout who doesn't want another 750 bucks in their check. Most people are willing to wait 3 weeks to get that extra amount of money. Um, will it count as taxable income in the year that it's taken? Of course. Um, there's no way around those federal and state taxes. It will count as taxable income, but they will get that immediate 7.65%. So, when we do these exit interviews, Ben, if someone expresses that they want the money taken out right away, what do we usually tell them? Well, we tell them how quick of a process it is, but we also once the exit interview is determined, we send them and they uh complete their account setup paperwork all via an an enrollment platform.
The cost for for the French component is built into that 96,000. Um we've had a pretty steady decline in French. So, we built that out to provide support for next year so that our French two and three students can finish out. So, they have the two years of language for college if they are collegebound. Um, but we're not offering French one next year. So, we didn't we didn't include in that uh any sort of a long-term plan for French. Um, should you approve this, which is our recommendation, it still at least gives us the approval for the adoption. If the high school goes up in numbers and French comes back, you've already approved the adoption and it's just a matter of buying those materials. If you look at it all together, here's where it gets super fun and confusing. Um, so the eight-year adoption all inclusive for these components is somewhere between 607 and 697 depending on which combination you might want to go with.