Um so with that um with this budget to be fully funded it would require Pelum to pay or to to um appropriate 1.9 million um to be level services. However, based on the town's guidance of um not receiving level services budget and instead they are going to level fund this 1.8 8 million that you see here is the same amount in FY25 based on that guidance which leaves a total gap of 109,000. So I'm I'm going to skip over a little bit of this um and I'm going to come down to what we're doing about this gap. So, at the recommendation of the school committee um or guidance, I would say uh they would like to bridge this funding using uh additional school choice money. Um and you'll notice this says 115,000 whereas the other the gap that I presented on the prior page was 109,000.
So, where we did land is that um the the request that we're coming to the community with is an override request of Proposition 2 1/2, and we'll talk a little bit about that, too. Um for Ashland Public Schools of 2.75 million. And where that um it equates to approximately $428 uh of an annual average increase to an average um home price assessed value here in Ashland, which is about $737,000, just to kind of give you an idea of the the cost that we're um estimating. So, it estimates it it's it's approximately $36 a month for your average taxpayer. And then on the municipal side, there's um there's critical need on the municipal side as well. Um specifically for fire, for police, for DPW, for finance. And so, um initially we had planned to have that as part of the um three it it was at one point it was a 3.5 million-dollar budget gap.
Thank you Tabitha for being part of T uh TEDex for the past four years and your wonderful presentation. Our presenter number two, our second presenter for uh for period one is um the route to rhythm by Emma TK. Emma is is a junior here in a D at DHS and she has been a member of TEDex since last year. She is interested in music, performing and traveling. She often sings the national anthem at school sporting events. Emma chose her topic because of her love of music and different cultures. Please welcome Emma TK as she presents. Does anyone want to go on a vacation? Because I do. So, let's go. First, we'll start here. Then, we'll go to Jamaica. then the United Kingdom, South Korea, France, and finally we'll end it in Brazil. First stop, we're staying here. Sorry. And we're going to be discovering the rap genre.
>> Uh, next semester when we're a senior, are you going to come in with giant arms, very strong? >> No, probably not. But I definitely intend to like start working out my arms to um be able to throw a heavier ball. So, most of the uh varsity girls throw 13 to 14 pound balls. Mine's a 10 pound. So >> no, uh 10 pound balls aren't just like like aren't the best for pin action. Pin action being the pins balling, but like a 13 to 14 pound ball, every time the pins at least one pin will fall. Unless you got her ball. >> Uh do you have any funny silly stories? Well, um, so the first time I saw Well, this was Let me restart that. Um, the the funniest thing I had was the time when I accidentally gutter balled, right? Not fun, but it came up and it hit the side of the the gutter thing and it came around and it knocked over like seven pins, but it didn't count because it was in a tournament.
>> Right. Right. >> And so, we're like scraping. We got like mounds of food of our on our plate. We take like the last couple slices of pie and like walk back to our seats and we're chowing down on this and then they're like, "Thank you everybody for" and then it kind of wraps up or it's wrapping up and they're like, "Okay, thank you everybody for coming. All of the extra food is going to go to the Witchaw homeless shelter." >> Uhoh. >> Oh well. Um, well, you can't just put dump it back in the buffet line. And I'm like, and I like turned and like kind of like side eye Trey. Trey didn't hear it. He didn't hear it. I'm like, "Dude, the extra food was going to the homeless." And he's like stuff in his face. And we just like make eye contact.
And we have a new revenue stream thanks to Mrs. Calabrese, Mr. Reinfuss, and staff. It's before and after care, correct, Mr. Reinfuss? That is another tuition-based revenue. So, you can see if we got some unique revenue streams, transportation, Fairview, and now we have this before and after care. Extremely helpful. Right now, we're forecasting that the revenues will exceed the expenses twofold. So, your P&L is positive. And for a guy like me, that's always good. So, and it's in it's in its infancy. I think this is the first go-round, but right now we're forecasting that the revenues will exceed the expenses twofold. So, that's a unique revenue stream that we think we can build on moving forward. State aid is up about 5% year over That's been consistent over the last 2 years. Really which component of state aid that went up the most on a absolute basis, went up twofold, is our preschool education aid.
Could it just be from 7:00 until 4:00? Mhm. Yeah. The one thing I think about is like tricky and I'm not trying to be difficult, I swear. Um is if it's a sporting event and then the kid's trying to get a hold of their parent like, "Oh, no, the game got moved." Or the bus is delayed or I just Or I I I think cuz we are from from this is different than previous policy. Um and so we are strict so we are like a phones could be confiscated before or after school. Um and I kind of like as long as students weren't it for social media or like filming of content, I don't think it honestly would matter if they were using it before or after school because there's so much stuff going on. Um so those would kind of be my that's like my hard line is the filming because you don't know who they're filming and who's in the background and there's like media release.
And so we're increasing it slightly because we would like to have this budget addition. And this budget addition is um to increase the clerical staff at Pelum to 241 days. So it's not fully full year um but it moves them up from school year to partially full year I would say and allow work for over the summer. So right now Pelum um does not have a register and they currently um that registration process happens with the Amherst register and that person that historically has never been charged to am uh to Pelum. So that would be a 4% of their salary which has not happened and being that um the request has been to separate uh Pelum's um registration process separate from Amherst um we thought that increasing the number of days for this clerical person and allowing work over the summer and actually take on the task of being that registar that was needed for Pelum to separate that piece of Amherst.
And when we had talked to the community, we knew that it was confusing the way that we were planning to Sorry, everything's blowing. Um move that we were going to utilize the money that was in our operating budget that initially um was set aside for the public safety building um debt, and we were going to move it out of our operating debt our operating expenses and our operating budget, that would be that would be right, and move it into excluded debt, which was going to add money to um everyone's It was going to impact everyone's taxes by another $100 approximately. Um instead this year, we decided that to simplify it and to um minimize the tax impact, we were going to utilize um our stabilization fund, which is our rainy day fund. And so, the 750,000 will will be um taken out of the the stabilization fund for just this year only, and then we will find a mechanism for um go on a go-forward basis.
Rap is broken up into a couple different parts: break dancing, graffiti, turntableism, and rapping. Well, you might be asking yourself, what is turntableism? Well, the official definition of turntableism is the art of manipulating vinyl records and turntables to create original compositions. Now, what makes rap different than all of the other genres? First, we have rhythm and we also have breakbeat. The rhythm of rap is always going to be different because it often times consists of disco sounds and oftentimes breakbeat is really used. Now, what is breakbeat? Breakbeat is the technique of isolating, looping, and sampling drumheavy rhythmic beats. Now, who are some important artists in this genre? I'm sure you know them. First, we have Kendra Lamar, and we also have Cardi B. Now, some popular songs that I'm sure you all know are Kendra Kamar, Not Like Us, Luther featuring Siza, I Like It featuring Bad Bunny and Jay Balvin, and Cardi B was also featured on Maroon 5, Girls Like You.
So, it was not tournament, but in a meet. It was kind of annoying that it didn't count, but it was really funny >> that. And we also all have our own chance. So, um, >> my ch I I yell when I get a strike, I yell Kentucky Fried and my teammates will yell chicken. Or when we get a spare, we all go sp a r e spare, spare. And then one of my other friends, uh, her her chant is apple bottom jeans. And then we all say boots with the fur. Um, yeah, that's that's like kind of the fun part because like the team the team aspects there was like a boys team that were when we were at a tournament and one of their uh strike chants was thank you, thank you, thank you and I was like, "Oh my gosh, not again." But it was quite funny in the moment.
And they're still like an important business meeting. Like they're trying to discuss like the the final version of their um balance and budget for the next year. And me and Trey are about to bust out laughing as loud as I ever have. And then I make contact with Broen and he's looking at us like we're dumb. And I like look at Broen. I'm like the food. It was for the homeless. And he goes I've never seen his eyes go so wide, bro. It was crazy. And then we're all sitting there turning purple sweating so hard trying not to laugh. It was that was great. >> Did anyone come up and talk to you like I hope you enjoyed all that food or? >> Uh no. Thank you. >> But you finished your plates, right? >> Oh. Oh well. I could >> I mean you could not.
We've expanded that. We've opened up the new classroom, I believe, in number three school August back in January, I believe, January 20th, plus or minus. So, we're using that to continue to expand preschool. So, we've used that money to to expand. So, it's not like we got incremental dollars and we put it in our pocket. We spent it on on the students. We've continued expanding services, more classrooms, and then federal aid, which uh we were concerned with because of the new regime in in Washington, we were concerned that it may be compromised some of our federal aid. The good news is we're not hearing that. We're hearing that the allotment that we usually get historically, we will continue to get in our Title I, Title II, Title III, Title IV, and IDEA money, and also our Medicaid, which essentially is special education-driven aid. It's going to be it's going to be funded.
But just like before or after school communication, I don't think that that it's it's more difficult to police than it is a problem. I would agree with that. That it's it's more about the filming and the social media. Um can those things be added to this? Cuz even if they're at a basketball game and they're they're filming, isn't that also an issue? If it's like they don't have kids' permission or they put something up that makes the school look bad. Like wouldn't that still be an issue then? I would tend to agree. I do have to step away, but I I agree, Justin, and I would I think that would remedy if we could put something like that in. Um, but I am going to step away for just a moment, everyone. So, I'm looking at the highlighted part here. Students may use their wireless communication devices before after school for personal use use but do um including on school transportation, but may not film other students.
Um so that is with that included that brings us to the amount of school choice needed would be 115,000. Um and then this was just a little bit about what I spoke about before was aligning this with the school committee priorities um for both the increase in clerical and the um additional school f uh school choice funding. Um so that's what I have in terms of the um main operating budget. I will just touch really quick on our capital. So this is actually if you if this is posted on board docs um which is the more detailed information on the budget book. Um but if we scroll down here um we have the uh proposed FY27 capital projects which would be um refinishing the stage um a tree removal, repairing the front door, um repainting the cafeteria space and ongoing ADA needs. Um, so with that, I know there were um some other questions that came in uh in preparation for this.
So, where are we? So, we are in the process of these community discussions. Um tonight's a really important night for this, and I'm really glad you are all here. Um because, you know, this is this is not just a discussion that is happening in Ashland. I don't know if you guys There was an article in the Boston Globe 2 days ago that is interesting. Um that there's like a record number of communities that are having these really tough discussions about overrides and about um the the budget challenges because everyone is facing, you know, there's there's 351 communities towns and towns and cities in in Massachusetts, and I guarantee all 351 are having the exact same conversations we are tonight. Um and challenges and how they how they manage those because the fixed costs have risen to the point of not being able to financially take on the burden that um >> [snorts] >> uh basically it's a it's it's creating a deficit for all communities.
Next stop is Jamaica. We will be discovering the um genre of reae, which is one of my favorite genres. Reae has a couple different categories to it. First we have that a lot of the music cons has a lot of rock in it as well as rap and finally oftentimes dance. Now what makes reae music different? Well first we have the environment. Reae music was made to be played outdoors because of how loud a lot of the instruments are. There's also the instruments. Aside from the vocalist, the bass guitarist is often the leading instrument. And not only that, they often times tend to be the leader of the band. Now, some very popular instrument in instruments that you will hear are the bongos, the talking drum, and finally the goblet. Now, some important artists are Bob Marley and the Whalers and Peter Tosh. Don't get me wrong, Peter Tosh was a part of Bob Marley and the Whalers, but not only that, he wrote his own music, too.
And then if we get if we leave a few after our first ball, we'll go pick it up up. on fire. It's really fun to do in the moment. >> Uh before we leave, uh do you have anything else you would like to add? Um definitely try out for bowling. It may not be your thing, but you know, there's a bunch of awesome girls on there and the more people who do it, like just adds on to the legacy for the future generations. So like I'm the second girl to ever bowl for Clear Water. Um Ellie Weekes was the first and she literally got a scholarship and went to Barton and is or did bowl. I don't know if she's graduated or not, but like she's like a really great bowler and I wanted to try something new like she did. So, not only is it kind of cool to be like the second girl ever to like bowl for Clear Water, but it's also just like something new and a new skill that you can continue on into like your old like like golf.
Yeah. >> Yeah. Exactly. I know some of our table members were less than pleased with us because we were trying so hard not to laugh. >> I had no idea what was going on. >> Yeah. >> What about you, Lily? >> Um, my story's not as funny, but uh my first national convention was my sophomore year and so >> we got a flat tire in the parking garage. And so Wyatt strips down to his white shirt and his black pants and he gets his shirt all dirty and he's under the car and those suburbans do not have like good jacks. So he has to hand crank it all the way up and then realized it was in the wrong spot. So he cranks it all the way down and all the way back up again, gets the tire off, gets the spare back on, and then they asked me to find a a tire shop like genuinely cheap, you know.
So again, those those are the dynamics. It's really the the tax levy drove the incremental revenue increase along with tuition-based opportunities. But given all of that, we still had to be very very creative in regard to >> [snorts] >> managing our expenses where we can get a zero-sum budget where our revenues can equal our expenses. Because the expenses, unfortunately, are growing at a far greater rate than our revenues. I wish we had better news looking forward for this time next year based on what we're hearing about medical and prescription costs, but we are not hearing that. To be open, honest, and direct, we could be in the very very same position that we are in this year. So, we'll continue to keep everyone posted, continue to try creative ways to save money without compromising staff and the services we provide to the students. That's really the bottom line, right?