I don't know. Or post to social media. Okay. Are you guys okay if I add that? So, I I have a question. Can Can you hear me? Yeah. Um, so and and I I apologize for coming in late. So, if you already talked about this part, um just let me know. Uh, what about the new Arizona law that was passed, I believe it was last April, that's supposed to restrict um it's it I thought it was supposed to have charter schools and and public schools create rules that limit student cell phone use during the school day. That we're talking specifically after school. No, I understand that, but my my my thought process is that if you're limiting school if you're if if the spirit of the law is based on limiting student cell phone use um and I understand we have to create parameters and stuff.
So I'm happy to address some of those now, Margaret, if you feel or if you wanted to wait and have questions um first or if you wanted me to speak about those things now. >> Um I think maybe first we should ask the committee if they have any clarifying. I what I think we should do is get clarifying questions um hear from the public and then bring that other information forward when the committee has its discussion. So with that um committee members do you have clarifying questions you'd like to ask? Sarah Bess. >> Thanks Margaret. Um my question is uh more general I guess than specific to this budget. Do we know what the town ended up proposing as budgetary increases to the other departments or did everyone stay level funded? The meeting that I attended uh all departments were told to present level funded budgets.
So, we are not alone in that. Um So, we are going to be having this discussion for the next 2 months, and this is I'm glad you guys are all here for this tonight. Um in preparation for town meeting, which is May 6th, and um and a ballot town election on May 19th. And so, the way an operational override works, it must pass both both town meeting and the ballot to move forward. So, um we're going to be having this discussion for the next the next couple months. So, with that, I'm going to stop sharing, and I'm going to turn it over to Michael for for his slides. Hopefully. All right, thank you. Can everybody hear me okay? Okay, we're good. Yeah. That's not where I wanted it. Talk amongst yourselves, folks. Get this done. Okay. Folks, as we're going through this, um Sorry, I just need to share.
I've been throwing out Bob Marley and the Whalers, but what are some songs by them? Well, we have Three Little Birds, No Woman, No Cry, and Peter Tosh wrote Get Up Standup, but he also featured his band as well as Stop that Train. Next stop is the United Kingdom. And in the UK, we'll discover another one of my favorite genres, pop. Pop is broken up into a couple different categories. We have appealing, popular, and finally, a strong melody. Now what makes pop music different? Well, pop music is made to be radio friendly and all the songs are will be made and if necessary be altered to be politically correct as well as radio friendly. There's also the sound aspect of it. Pop music was made to be approachable and not as loud and harsh as other genres could potentially be. Who are some important artists in this genre?
pass it down generation by generation. >> Yeah, exactly. Like my grandma still has her ball and shoes, like stuff like that. Like it's just it's really a bunch of It's really a family sport, honestly. And you can't forget the food. The food is always great at bowling alleys. >> Who cares about anything? Just the food. Food's the best part. >> Right. Right. Right. Like like the funnel sticks. It's just it's basically funnel cake in like stick form. Well, if you want food, try bowling. Um, see you later. Goodbye. Bye.
And I didn't realize that they could not speak English. And so Van was like, "Lily, you sent us to somewhere sketchy." And I was like, "I'm sorry." And so Wyatt uh was like, "Yeah, we did had we just paid them and they fixed our tire." Yeah. >> So, >> not as funny, but >> was it cheap? It was good. >> Yeah. It was like $50. >> It worked. >> Yeah. It was worth it. >> Didn't fall off. >> Yeah. >> And that worked. >> You made it home. Was it so was this like as you got to the convention and then you drove like back home that day or >> so this was I think convention day two and so we still had three days left of our trip. >> How is it staying in the hotels? I I guarantee that's definitely fun, right? >> Oh, I mean it's pretty pretty awesome.
That's the mantra. Let's not compromise the good folks we have in place. And let's not compromise the integrity of the services we provide the students cuz really it's all about the students, all 3,219 of them. So, that's pretty much the overview. I think it's a good budget. I think it's my 13th year here. It's probably our most challenging budget just based on some of the headwinds. But like I said, with the help of Mrs. Calabrese, board, staff, Mr. Reinfuss, business office staff, the public, the mayor and council getting behind us, they really gave us an opportunity to succeed in creating a budget even with all these challenges that we feel is robust and will continue to provide solid services to our students. So, that's pretty much the overview. I know the board's probably tired of hearing me talk about the budget for the last 2 months, but I want to thank them again for all their support.
Uh, if if if if we choose to kind of embrace the spirit of that, I would say that it that that having having a policy that does not encourage cell phone use during school day before or after, for whatever reason, is probably a good idea. That's my thought. Cuz I I mean I I mean I can tell you that uh especially for cell phone use, I we've had more problems with cell phone usage before and after school and games and everything else than uh than than anything else. And I know once they're off campus, there's not a whole lot we can do uh to enforce that. Um but on campus and on school events and and field trips and things, um uh I I mean I feel like there's at least some should be addressed in some capacity. Um and I I I mean I I So I I and I guess I'm I'm curious and I and I think about this I I kind of relate this to uh like the staff uh staff dress code policy where like years ago we had a staff dress code policy, but then it was recommended that since it was something that was difficult to uh enforce or have there was a lot of parameters that are around it, was easier it would I think the lawyer recommended at the time to just not have a policy.
I do not know ultimately what was presented by departments, but that was the instruction for all departments. >> Okay. Um I guess and then as a process question, we're not voting tonight on the budget. We're voting on the 7th. Correct. >> Correct. >> If we could have that information for the 7th, I would really appreciate that. If if so if all um departments in Pelum ended up being level funded >> or if after that initial presentation there was um a different recommendation if we could know what those percentages were that would be really super helpful. I would appreciate that. >> Okay. >> All right. >> Great. Thank you. And thank you Shannon and the team for working on this. It's great to see um some more meat with the budget. Well, these are opinions, so I'll just wait. Never mind. >> William, >> I was just going to ask so that uh on the next budget that we'd be voting on, the 115 would be worked into the budget and not be parcled out because right now it's 109 and then it's 115 actually for the revolving.
All right. Uh let's see. This doesn't seem to be working the way exactly the way I wanted it to. That's okay. Things hardly do do do they, folks? Not today's day and age, but um it's as Brandi said, I'd really like to welcome you here and thank you for coming here um and listening and participating in um this very, very important discussion for our community. For once, I have got the easiest job in the night. Um because I only have to do two things. First of all, I have to convince you that we are good stewards of your tax dollars, and we have been good stewards of of your taxpayer dollars. The second thing um is that I have to show you that this is a math problem, not a management problem. And so, I figured the best way to do this was not to take it from my words and take it from my staff's words or the elected officials.
Well, we have Elton John as well as Duual Lia. Now, some popular songs that Elton John wrote were Benny and the Jets, Rocket Man, and Dual Lia wrote Levitating as well as Training Season. Those are just a couple of their songs. Next stop is South Korea where we will discover the genre of K-pop. K-pop has a couple different categories. First we have the fashion, the bands and finally we have the electro dance pop. Well, what is electro dance pop? Electro dance pop is where the song utilizes synthop or techno elements to create hooks as well as a catchy beat and or rhythm. So, a lot of the songs that you hear that are K-pop often times have a very catchy beat or catchy rhythm. Now, what makes K-pop music different? First, we have the artists. A lot of the artists are seen as models for popular Korean beauty brands.
They we got pretty lucky last year. We got one of the nicest hotels I've ever been in. We got our little mini fridge, a whole kitchen, whole couch, pull out couch, like a whole seating area, TV, big living area. >> Yeah. Two king-siz beds. And you get to the lobby's pretty full. I mean, we were playing some card games in the lobby and just talking to some people. So, it was cool. >> That sounds great. That sounds like a really great time. Um, so Landon, um, being a senior and all and being in a leader role with FFA and doing it for so long, I'd assume, um, that you do have a future plan at continuing FFA or like something to do with agriculture in college. Is that true? >> Uh, not as true as I'd like it to be. I'm trying to find my path currently.
Um there wasn't a lot of good news the first few weeks, but uh we took it as a challenge, everyone, and uh I think we're in a pretty good place for uh '26-'27. Thank you, Mr. Alfano. I'll make a motion to adopt it. I'll second it.
Um uh and I was just curious how people felt about that. And the thought process behind that is that it could be um it doesn't necessarily need to be uh something spelled out exactly um that it could be left to the sites to go and um and make decisions about what's best for their school cuz I I feel like each school has unique um unique um situations that what could be acceptable at one school may not be acceptable at another school. And I don't know if there's uh we've had this conversation before about standardizing versus autonomy. Um and I don't know how people feel about those things, um, but, um, I can tell you like at in in general, um, cell phone use for me anyway should be limited as much as possible. But, I'm coming from a biased perspective, so I could be wrong.
>> Yeah. So it would be 115. So yes, when you get to actually voting the budget, it would be worked in, but at some point um like we don't want to make any more changes. If there is any additions, adjustments, or reductions, we want to make sure it calls it out and and that's what we did. So if there was something different, um between now and the next one, I would add it to the ads and cuts and make the decision. But if we're just moving forward with this plan for the April 7th meeting, then yes, it'll be woven in at that point. Rachel. >> Um I I think this maybe is also a process question. I just wanted to understand if we're voting by call center or total number by cost center is the word I meant to say. Um like how how are we voting on the budget?
Um why don't we go to the independent audits? Why don't we go to agencies like S&P? Who come in and take a look at our books on behalf of other folks, other interested parties in our finances, and let's see what they have to say. Not what I have to say. You might have some issues with what I say. You might not necessarily believe it, and you know, that's your that's your prerogative. But it's going to be really, really hard, I think, to argue with people who are charged with making sure that we're not doing anything wrong on behalf of other folks who are investing tens of millions of dollars into this community. And so, I'm just going to give you a snapshot of that. Um we have saved the taxpayers millions of dollars, tens of millions of dollars over the years since we've been here.
And not only that, they also started on social media. K-pop originally started on social media during co and once they eventually started to gain lots of views, they became an actual genre. Now, who are some important artists in this genre? Well, first we have Cat's Eye and we also have BTS. Popular songs from Cat's Eye include Gnarly, Gabriella, and BTS. Yes, They're Coming Back wrote Butter as well as Dynamite. Next stop is France where we will discover French classical. French classical is broken up into a couple different parts. First, we have the atmosphere. We also have the emotion. And finally, we have the dramatic extremes. A lot of times, what the composer of French classical aims to do is trying to get a reaction and some kind of emotion out of you when you're listening to their music. Now, who are some important artists? First, we have Carla Brunie and we also have Emma Cook.
I think what I really uh aspire to do is something with uh mechanical engineering kind of like I want to be a NASCAR engineer or like an F1 engineer or a trophy truck engineer, you know, something along those lines because I mean everything that goes onto your vehicle comes from those higher level competitions. The suspension on your truck comes from a trophy truck. The aerodynamics >> from your car come from F1. I mean everything everything about your car comes from those higher level competitions. >> Yeah. I mean being a part of that would just be extremely fun. being able to travel and have uh your own drivers and just be able to build that relationship and then help them with their car. That just sounds great. Honestly, that does sound like a really fun job. I've never thought about that, but like if I was into that, I think that was in FFA and into a I think that would definitely be something I'd look at too cuz >> that that is that'd be really cool, especially F1 because you could travel over the around the world.
Are there any Any questions? Okay. Okay, with those That was a motion from Mr. Terabokia and Mr. Garciga. Okay, just let me put that down here. >> [snorts] >> Mr. Terabokia, Mr. Garciga. Okay, we are now voting on the final budget that will be submitted tonight to the county and the state. Mrs. Abreu? Yes. Mr. Capano? Yes. Mrs. Freda? Yes. Mr. Garciga? Yes. Mr. Nadreau? Yes. Dr. Pontiliano? Yes. And I forgot to sign here. Terabokia? Yes. Okay, that is so moved. Thank you again. So, we are going to close this portion of the meeting and we are going to open up the our usual public consent agenda. I have to ask again, since we're closing this meeting, I have to do another roll, if that's okay with the with the board. Is this all right? We are closing the budget hearing and we are going to open the public consent agenda.
Well, and I think we're trying to systematize as much as possible. So, in terms of of this because it is policy that like I would like it to be as consistent as possible. So, that's why I'm um I mean, Loma Linda had a pretty harsh policy. If you were caught using your phone, we didn't even send it home with you. We made your parents come and pick it up that day that day or we kept it until they did. Right. No, I I guess I I'm not really I mean, I I feel like we could systematize the the expectations and the rules as much as possible, um, but I I guess I question whether or not it's necessary to uh define uh the school day. So, I I believe that was that was kind of my point as well in bringing it when I brought that up.