Okay, if not, members, any questions? Okay. Um maybe we could see with decision-making. >> Yeah, you can we'll wait to see if we can get a quorum. If not, then we will roll over to another to a one of our other gents, but you can go ahead. Yes, because we have um EDU next. Okay, thank you. We have we have we have quorum. You have quorum, good. So, for um decision-making for 1541, HB 1541, chair's recommendation is to move this along pass with a defective date a different effective date of January 1, 2050. Um I urge um HTA to give us proposed language to move these exempt positions to civil service, hopefully by conference. Uh because we we do see the need for it. Um other than that, pass with amendments, any comments, questions, concerns? I'll leave it on this one because of the waiver.
Uh tonight, I'll be presenting on the results of a year-long study on elementary tier three behavior. Uh we've partnered with New Solutions K-12, and I'm going to walk you through what we've learned, um some areas where they um have identified they are working great well, where we have some gaps, and the system changes that um we are um looking at for next steps to move forward. The goal of all this is to reduce repeat incidents, to strengthen classroom environments, and to support staff and students. So, the study began when our partnership with New Solutions K-12 began in approximately January of 2025. This research group examined MUSD systems, employee engagements, and impacts on work-life harmony. Through this work, several recommendations emerged, and in a partnership with NSK12 and with leader MUSD leaders, we made the decision to focus more deeply on elementary student behavior management. In October of this year, we continued the partnership with New Solutions K-12.
Uh and then the next bullet kind of describes that uh what we have been doing. We don't just sit it back and say, "Wow, things are really expensive." Um we believe uh very much in keeping our students in district both from what it means to the services they're going to provide. We we we think they should be here and think that's the best place for them, but it's also happens to be fiscally responsible. So, um then the bottom bullet there, I want to make sure it's it's framed correctly. Uh we're not saying that we would have done nothing and be $10.7 million. dollars. It's somewhere between zero and 10.7 million dollars. What Jim did to for that approximation is take the ones all of our students that are in the programs we have built, take the average out of district cost, do the math, and say if we hadn't built these programs, rough estimate that's what they would be.
We're the third highest tax in the whole state of Massachusetts. Our taxes, I know mine went up a thousand bucks. We have are the lowest city in town for money coming in for businesses. The whole state. We're the bottom. Um, I didn't know that till the election process, but I I mean I wave at Starbucks and all these with happiness because without businesses coming in here, Greenfield is >> I agree with you. >> It's just tanky. And I found this out, you know, the in the city's charter like by there's the the requirement that whatever is used out of stabilization a prior year has to be replenished in the subsequent year. So that and I'm not saying that that's um in perfect times absolutely understand that but just like went back to like that was $2.1 million right off the top. So, you know, I would say maybe is it the possibility to look at amending your the town charter, the bylaws to sit there and say, you know, would it allow the city council to maybe use half to restore half of it back?
>> Um, so my opinion is we could talk about anything because because it's a public we talk about anything. I don't think >> I don't have the knowledge to know if we can avoid or not. That's all I was saying. >> Okay. So, >> I can speak louder. Um, so I think we could talk about anything. I that is not something that I'm hanging my hat on is the an override because I don't think that that would pass in this part of the time, but that's just my opinion. But um, when you said what we said we're putting something forward, I feel like we did that last year without looking at things one at a time. And I think that's part of our job. So that's why I spent some time on it. So, um I I have the floor, so I'm going to talk for a minute.
One of the questions that I heard was, well, some of our Cherry Brook learners in the middle of the winter get off the bus that it could possibly be dark. We're going to have to account for that. Whether and I don't know what we can do for outside the buses, if the buses um if it's dark when the children get off, if it affects our our uh late arrival home, we're really going to have to analyze that. Do we need to put spotlights or things on the buses? These are all things that we're going to have to factor in. But we won't know this until we really get the opt in and opt out. And I can share with you there there's plenty of parents right now just when you're looking at the the schools and we're at the schools every day and see drop off and pick off.
So we appreciate your consideration of this bill and support of literacy in our state. Mahalo. Thank you. I know I'm all. >> [clears throat] >> Hello chair and members. I am I know I'm all executive director of Friends of the Library of Hawaii and we currently run this program in a few rural pockets of the state. We operate the entire island of Molokai, Lanai. We cover the Kau region of the Big Island, the Hana town of Hana and Maui and we cover the north and west sides of Kauai. And we cover those 500 some odd kids that Stacy was mentioning. This bill would expand that program statewide and it's through Dolly Parton's Imagination Library and she is a huge supporter of literacy. She has gotten the cost per book down to $2.60 per book mailed to homes every month. So that's about $31 per child.
I understand. Any comments other than comments other than Other than the waiver. the waiver. Okay, seeing none, vice chair, put the vote. Chair votes aye. First time first time for everything, right? Okay, recommendation on 1541 House Draft 2 is a Senate Draft 1. Um let's see, noting the uh presence of all members except for Senator Keohokalole. Are there any EWRS besides myself or none? Seeing none, your recommendation has been adopted. Okay, thank you. For for the Committee on Labor and Technology, same recommendation as HHS to pass with amendments. Any further discussion? If not, uh Vice Chair Llamaso for the vote, chair votes aye. Okay, members, we're voting on HB 1541 HD2. Recommendation of the chair is to pass with amendments uh noting the excused absence of Senator Ihara and also Moriwaki. Senator Moriwaki. Anyone present wanting to vote with reservations or no?
They did conduct a comprehensive review that included staff interviews, focus groups, a deep dive into our discipline data, and they also looked at some staffing reports. That analysis of the qualitative and quantitative data led to a set of findings, and I'll be sharing those findings with you this evening. We um pulled together a guiding coalition that's met a few times. This is a group of about 20. It consists of administrators and some teachers and some classified, and uh we worked together to um solidify the the findings and to also prioritize some of our areas of need. So, before discussing opportunities for improvement, I think it's important to recognize the systems that are working well across the district as recognized by this national firm. So, one of their findings was that as they spoke to different staff, they said that our tier two and tier three behavior staff are highly available and responsive.
Clearly we wouldn't probably hopefully no district would have sat out sat on their hands and done nothing, but I I would I would think that we have really gone above and beyond in trying to build as many programs as we can. So it would be somewhere, you know, I would imagine in the middle of that. Yeah, our programs are roughly between 20 and 30,000 dollars savings per student based on out of district cost and in district cost. You start, you know, extrapolating cost of paraprofessionals teaching and and the number of kids, obviously it's a small group within some of these programs that we've created, so there's a higher cost associated, but you know, it's it's certainly 20 25,000 dollars of savings. Paul, does this is this just out of district expenses or it's it's the full special ed programming for the entirety of the >> education for that come out of the general fund.
And then, you know, because >> yeah, there's lots of questions about the charter. The the challenge I have is like one of the things if you look at the trends and it's the thing that even statewide this discussion >> u when they say that stabilization of free cash at one time nonreoccurring funds I challenge you to look at Greenfield any other community grant look at their trends and stabilization of free cash it's up one year because whether they were conservative without no political connotations conservative on the revenue they got more revenue than they expected that goes into the free cash they use it the next year so it goes down same with stabilization subsequent years the same thing it goes up down so for the the claim and I say this without any negative connotation the claim that it's one time non-reoccurring to some extent an argument could be made you know so that being said the challenge is even you know it's raining for us internally so when you look at those slides regarding the revolving accounts we are using you know we are reducing the availability of those fund for different >> we may have to if we don't want to close a school I mean >> well we are he's saying we are right >> right so we are reducing that amount and I think you're mentioning on the city side if they use that then they have to replenish so the checkbook never goes down right our checkbook's going down >> in a twoear span of those those major >> those twoear span we are reducing the funds available if all things go according to plan by just under 31% available 51% in school choice, 76.57% in the sped tuition, and just under 32% in transportation revolved.
I would take the um uh the $525,000 from the uh prek revolving and use that. We have had that increase and increase and increase and it's poor. Um I that's one of my suggestions. Um, I also would take an extra $200,000 out of transportation because I actually don't believe that we're going to be up to the total transportation level um that is predicted this year because the incumbrances are larger than what we've already spent right now. We've done seven, no, six payments already because Mascus, so there's only four more. So, um, I thought I'm looking at the numbers and I thought I would use 200,000 more out of transportation revolving to put into this year's budget. That's what I'm going to have to do on the city side. I'm going to have to take things from things to make it whole because the way I'm looking at it right now, we're $2.5 million short.
There's a lot of cars at Chairbrook and CIS and high school that are dropping off and picking up. So, I'm sure we can generate a list really quickly to see and analyze that. And some of those buses are going right by and they might not have to go down those streets. Um, but I appreciate what people are saying or what a question that I heard. What about our youngest runners that it could be dark if the buses are are running a little bit late in the room? We're going to have to take that into consideration as we're developing the routes. And of course, we keep safety and security in mind. And it may be that our vans are running differently. So I'm very confident in Mrs. Robbins and Mr. Bishop and working with Martell Transportation. I believe that you have a committee too that looks at them.
Like Stacy state librarian had requested we also as the probable non-profit partner we are not at the this moment ready to satisfy that 50% provision that's written into the current bill and so we do ask that the state does provide full funding until we are able to find private partnerships. Thank you. Thank you. Scott Eric On zoom Scott are you Not in person on zoom chair. Okay, we did have six in supportive testimonies and one opposed and zero comments. Anyone else wishing to testify on this measure?
Hearing none, chair, your measure is adopted. Thank you. So, for HB 2315, chair's recommendation is to pass with only one amendment and that is to change the defective date into an effective date of upon approval. Any comments, questions, concerns? Seeing none, vice chair, put the vote. Chair votes aye. This is 2315. 2315. Yes. Okay. All righty. Anyway, go. Uh okay, recommendation on 2315 House Draft 1 is a Senate Draft uh noting the excused members Moriwaki. Any other EWRS or no? Seeing none, recommendation has been adopted. Okay, for the Committee on Labor and Technology, same recommendation as HHS to pass with amendments. Any further discussion? If not, Vice Chair Llamaso for the vote, chair votes aye. For the same measure, um anyone present um from uh Labor and Technology wanting to vote with reservations or no?
And they also noted that the district has made a clear investment to prioritizing behavioral staffing and resources. So, we have a strong foundation in place. It centers not only on the trained staff, but they also recognize that we as a system um make a habit of continuous improvement through data-driven decisions. We look at discipline data, for example, frequently. So, we're not starting from scratch. We have these key systems in place. The work ahead is about strengthening and aligning these systems. So, then they also um gave us some areas of opportunity, and these areas of opportunity, there were seven in total, they were not given us given to us in any rank order. The guided coalition was facilitated by NSK12 to help prioritize these so that we could narrow narrow our focus. So, when we did that, those two blue bullets that you see up there are what rose to the top.
Obviously if we the reason why we stuck the general fund I'll just preface this is because one, it's the thing that ties most closely to the taxes and and the override information, and particularly when it comes to special education costs, it would get very complicated with circuit breaker circuit breaker reimbursement and really trying to tie that to a yearly cost because we get reimbursement in arrears and then we spend it in one more year in arrears. So it's it's So keeping it within the general fund is what all of these are doing. Um an observation and I don't know if anybody's willing to do all this cuz No. 14° over my pay grade. Um the one thing that I I sort of looked at this chart visually, it looks very similar to the one the first one. But the percentage where you've got the dotted orange line is different, right?
I exclude circuit breaker because that's driven by statute. >> That's slide 19. >> So that does lead to the next question about how much trouble will we be in for 28 for the revolving funds. >> It it's not looking good. No, I think at that point, I mean, you're looking at, you know, it's really nice that all our buildings are we're we're still status quo. The reality is we need to take this year and I hate to say this, but really we're lucky that that Esser money is lingering around >> the results of it, right? >> Right. that that whole thing happened because but the reality of this is yes, we'd all like to build a new elementary school. There is not a person who wouldn't like to do that. But the reality of Greenfield right now, we owe 1.8 million on the high school every year because we built a $66 million high school which has maybe half of the population it was built for.
So, I will be wiping some things out. And I think the suggestion should kind of come from us. Um, I had a couple more. There were a couple of transportation things that weren't full uh positions that we've had. Um and we're getting everybody to school. This isn't about education. We are getting people back and forth to school and we've had have two open positions from my understanding if I'm correct. Um maybe a couple of extra CDL drivers that we haven't filled those positions. I feel like that is a thing for us that might be a good thing for us to talk about while we're all together. I that's what I'm trying to do on the city side more is not filling some places where they're you know you've held a vacancy all year long. Those are in my those are in my cuts or in my you know in my little dream in my head because we did get a figure from insurance and it was 19.4%.
>> Oh, great. We are starting this year started. >> Yeah. So it it's great. Um it's not ideal, but I think we've spoken about this before. So, I hope this is not a like ah a surprise cut, but it's not the ideal cut, but it's an opportunity when we are losing enrollment and losing children and in some buses. I I'm just drawing out a number. I'm not saying it's true that they may have 15 kids on the bus. Is there a way to move that around and look at that by this opt out?