>> Any questions? >> I'm sure the school committee has a bunch of questions. Maybe you'll answer those tomorrow. Anybody from the board of income? >> I just have one thing. Uh Mike, can you hear me? >> Yep. >> Yeah. So, it's John. Um, so one thing I I know has come up is is people have uh had questions about the stabilization fund and you know how that could be utilized to help us uh you know smooth out volatility that could come in the event that this um override doesn't pass. And um I I know we have some policies with regard to funding free cash if it drops below a certain level of um operating uh budget that we have to kind of force free cash back into it. U I'm probably not saying it as eloquently as I could, but do you offhand just kind of know how that works just for the record?
Both of those are definitely on our list. It's just how and when. Um pavement tends to hold up a little better than the bathroom in terms of you know just the on our priority level. I think the bathroom, there's some sanitation issues and things like that. We want to make sure we don't fall behind. That I think is is the big thing. Um I I would agree that the parking lot should be done at some point, but you know, pavement pavement can can be okay for a year, I think. Anything else? And I'm trying to get forward. Um and this would be the motion we'd be looking for in this moment. And again, if the school committee at some point decides that they they want to amend that, we can go ahead and do that. >> All right. Thanks, Aaron. Um, yeah, we should probably open up to public comment first.
So, that would allow them to get out on June 18th. And um we would have to figure out and and this would be something that we would have to talk to Mr. Daniels. you would have to talk to the teachers union and the um parent non-certified union because they are contracted to be 186 days as administrators are working 220 days. Um there's nothing to contract to negotiate with them. Uh so tonight I would like to make it a recommendation to you of instead of our children going to school to June 22nd that we bring it down to 180 days because we have that flexibility and that their last day would be uh June 18th and then I would make the recommendation that Mr. Daniels you don't have to vote on this yet that Mr. has the flexibility to talk to the teachers union and the non-certified to see how we want to handle um the teachers on Friday.
I was going to put all the years on here to see if it was your birthday, but it was too many. Um, and uh, the first grade do do immersion, the Mandarin they sang and spoke in Chinese. I was really impressed how quick first graders picks up the language, the dialect and the pronunciation in Chinese perfectly. And they had the lion dance, the performance. It's a key part of Luna New Year. The the lion dance is telling a story without words. I did my homework and I read about that. And um I also went to the Isuza High School. You forgot to say that, Mr. Ramos, because he was there. Isuza High School girls soccer team, their semi-finals, the last two games. I'm not too familiar with soccer, but Superintendent Ortega was giving me the playbyplay, you know, like, you know, how long are they going to be out?
We if it's my understanding we almost didn't we had to extend out the registration for two weeks because we didn't have enough registers. Am I correct? for it was extended out an extra week because we didn't have enough. I got the email. We did. We did. We extended it for a week because we didn't have enough. That was my That's my my one and only concern. I'm going to say yes and I'm I'm hoping it's going to work because I want it to work. >> M. >> Yes. Mr. McIn. >> Yes. >> Mr. Ash. >> Yes. And report item. School District spending analysis. All right. Waiting all day. >> Yeah. Good. Close, John. Yeah, >> I think it is too because I had it on my phone. >> So, what I will do is I will make sure each and every one of you get the link to this.
Hopefully, not a fifth time, but we did incur it uh the first two times with no uh qualified biders. So, >> yeah. And >> I thought you wanted to go last. >> I am. I didn't know you was going to go ahead. What did what did the contract say if they put down the 10,000 any and they back out at that point it the contract reads it's ours correct and they signed that >> I have to verify that it's non-refundable I can put that in the FYI for you >> I say isn't there I mean I wouldn't do a contract that says that you keep my cons my earnest money if I don't even if I don't uh secure financing because typically if You don't secure financing. If they then you don't not like if they just back out then we keep it. Am I right?
um you know kind of what that that what that would do to our our potential free cash in the event that we really like hit the stabilization fund hard. >> Yeah. So the way our our policy reads now is that um depending on what percentage the stabilization fund is as a percentage of our overall budget um a percentage of a certain percentage of free cash goes into the general stabilization fund. So if the stabilization fund balance is over 10% of our budget, we only put in enough that just keeps it at 10%. 10% our goal. Um I don't remember the exact percentages but if uh if it drops in between five to 10% believe we do 60% of free cash goes to um goes to u rebuild the stabilization fund. Long story short is that um what would happen is if you start taking more out of the stabilization fund um >> you you end up if if you're not generating free cash, you know, substantive substantive free cash, you're not going to be able to refill it at the same pace, Right.
Huh? Um, so public comment, Howard, if you want to come up first, but what we're going to do for public comment, ask whatever you want. Say whatever you want. If we can answer your question on the spot, we'll try. Otherwise, give us your thoughts.
>> Thoughts? Not going to vote. Thoughts on this? >> Well, you're going to have to vote on the calendar. >> Yes. >> Even though we could get a storm in March. Well, so as I'm right to the families tomorrow, if you get a storm and we go June 19th, if we get another one, we go June 22nd. I don't anticipate, look, we we've been in the camp public schools till June 30th, I believe. Um I don't anticipate from March until um June 30th that we're going to have another eight um snow days. Something drastic would have to happen. Um you know, so I'm not I'm not even concerned that we would have to take from April break. But yes, if we had another snow day, a winter related day or something happened to power, we would have to extend. But what I would like to let families know if you want to vote on it is that and it would say in the letter is that the board of education has changed the the calendar to 180 days and that school will end on June 18th.
Is it an inning or is it a you know a quarter? What are these what are they doing? Right. I'm serious. That's how much I know about it. But as I seen them, you know, he's telling me 40 minutes on this side, 40 minutes. Oh my god, their endurance. These girls, they did such a fantastic job. They did a home run. So I I I'm really not familiar to be honest with you, but but it was really good. I I kind of began to like it after the second game, right? So, um I I want to um congratulate the girls and coach Nadine and coach Miranda. They all did such a great job. I went to Murray Elementary and Dalton at the school site visit with Superintendent Ortega and Deputy Superintendent of Education Dr. Erica Torres. Murray cheer team had a welcoming cheer. CH CH CH CH CH CH CH CH CH CH CHAMP Pro They spoke about the CHAMP program, the PAL program.
I think you should have already had it emailed out to you. Um what it boils down to is that roughly twothirds of our funding is spent in the classroom in one way or another and a third of the funding is spent on ancillary areas. So like food service transportation um grounds maintenance. So that's where the auditor general saying our money is going. Um it said that we are it is high according to our peer districts that we have high administrative costs but we also have very low transportation costs. We also have very low food service costs. Um so I'm I'm spitballing here. I'm trying to go from memory. >> Do you have it up? >> Yeah. >> Oh wait, hold on. She's getting there. Go to the next page. Just show that to you. >> Craig, can you um elaborate on who is under the administration percentage who they look at for that?
>> I've seen it work both ways and but my own experience has been >> residential contract. >> I know I I prefer to give you an opinion in writing that's not in public. I love that. >> Okay. >> Yeah. Because this is contract. That's a good point. >> Mr. Mr. >> I would just my legal advice on this particular topic to the board. I'd like to maintain the privilege on it. I'm happy to give it to you for what it is. >> Yeah. And I definitely would like the personal reason why this person was not able to obtain funds from a contractual point of view because it's not a open it's not black and white. It's not an open and closed case with earnest money because I believe I told a story with me when I looked to seek my first home and I was a young Maurice way back then and I put up earnest money on a house and unbeknownst to me I lost my job and the realtor wanted to keep my earn earnest money, but at the end of the day, I was able to get it back for those reasons.
And as a follow-up to that, um I know that you know, one of the things that we're all real proud of is that the town has a pretty impressive um credit rating >> and you know, when we do have to access capital markets, that's really helped us to um be able to borrow at you know, very competitive rates. Um just again, for the record, how does stabilization fund fold into that? Most of the bond rating agencies like to see it at 10%. Um that that was, you know, bond rating agencies like to see that you have policies and that you're that that have been well thought out in times of calm um when everybody's not, you know, thriving on emotion and and they like to see that you stick with them. And so usually policies outline most of the time like your long-term um obligations.
We'll try to keep each individual comment to about three minutes, but uh anyone So, we have uh several people signed up. If additional people want to speak, feel free. Just put your name on the list. That's fine. Um all right, Howard, how you doing? >> I'm good. I'm Howard Groer. I'm Ter Boilston. I'm the finance committee, also known as Fincom Chairperson. Uh I shared with Al, Erin and Michael uh just before this meeting started some changes uh on our side. They are positive changes and I was going want to fill you in a little bit about them. Okay. So we've come last night uh to look through and start our work. Uh we did uh make a recommendation that we would have free cash article for the bathroom that you that's here. But we are basically tapped out free cash. So, Boilston has approximately 1.1 million of free cash that was certified by the state.
But if there's any other voter related dates, we would just add them on after June 18. >> So with that comments, questions >> and this would just affect this calendar year. We go back to 182 for the next calendar year. >> Next calendar year is 181. >> Okay. >> Yeah. Next year. So you have another built in flexibility day if you choose it. The 180 it was 183 and then it it came down. So you know teachers coming in for professional development on the Friday. You know goes back to um Kim's point. I think you would get a great from the teachers union on that day to come on the Friday to professional involvement. But I think the the media attention would be to let families know um what you all are think there is a lot of chatter about people. >> Yeah. >> It' be great to get a indication.
Um, it's the parent ambassador leaders. The pump program empowers parents and caregivers to become inactive to become active in their school and community. Dton Elementary highlighted their garden club, after school think Together, Horsey Lab, just to name a few. Um, and it was it was great going to Marie and Dalton. So, I want to thank Principal Aosta and Estrada and community schools again. I know they've worked together to make all this happen. Isuza High School uh expo great turnout. They highlighted again they had 10 tables highlighted the students and staff had information academics, clubs, sports organizations and what they offer at Isuza High School and the Isuza uh high school the uh East D Gallery faculty art show where portraits, drawings, ceramics, sculptures, the art teachers they did a really nice job. Thank you. Uh, moving on to item 9.1, comments and reports by the student board member, superintendent, and cabinet.
>> So under the administrative percentage, it'll be anybody basically anybody that's making a salary that does not teach in a classroom. So would parapros be on there? >> So if you look, so now that she's got it up here, >> if you look at the orange piece of the pie and a purple piece of the pie, student support and instructional support, that's where you'll find your paraps. >> What about the classified staff, which would be like position? >> Okay, so again, classified staff is going to depend. So, if you're talking food service workers, they're going to be in their own category. They're in the green. If you're talking custodians, they'll be underneath plant operations. If you're talking parapros, they'll be over here in orange. So, it really depends on the classified person that you're talking. If you're talking about front office, those will also fall underneath plant operation or no, believe it or not, they actually fall underneath administration because they are assigned to the principal.
There was something that was out of my control. I never knew at that point that I was going to lose my job. And she wanted to move forward with the deal. Still, I can't get the loan. I don't have a job. And she's trying to do some shenanigans behind closed doors. No, give me my money back. So, if there's cases that we could justify giving this person their money back, by all means, let's give it back. But if they knew some things that could have prevented them upfront that they was not going to get this loan and they went forward anyway, we took the building off the market. I would not want to give any of it back. and minimum two if there's expenses occur from our council whatever out of that $10,000 I think we should recoup that that's my >> that was part of what I what I meant is >> sure >> I think a couple weeks ago or last month we asked Mr.
And so, you know, they want to see that we have a plan for OPED. They want to see that we have a plan in case the bottom falls out. They want to see if the community supports um supports the government. Um, I can tell you if the override does not pass, I mean, I can't say whether they would downgrade us or not, but it wouldn't help us. It wouldn't work in our favor. >> Thank you. >> Great. >> I have a question while while you're getting all that together, Jim. Um, so question. So, if you know the the two scenarios that you presented, the 3.25 25 scenario if the override doesn't pass. Um given given the impacts to sort of like the longer term budget, um could you talk a little bit about if the override doesn't pass? Like what our what our situation will be like next year?
We're using 500K as down payment for the Boils Elementary School roof. Uh, and if you recall, two years ago, we also saved 500K. So, we have about a almost a million dollars. We spent probably close to 80,000 on studies and the owner project manager and all the work to get through the mass accelerated school repair program here. And that overall budget is projected to be what 5.7 now or something like that. >> Right around there. >> Yeah. And the state does reimbursement of 51%. So our town share is going to be in that two and a half mil range >> in in not until the summer of 2027 is they're looking at doing that point. Okay. Uh so we're putting some money aside. Uh our goal at the town is not to have to do a debt exclusion article because one is I'm concerned that it would pass and that we would lose the opportunity for the matching grant from the state repair program.