And and I'm >> Right? And I'm hearing different things, right? So, I'm hearing adjustment council .8, bring them back a para. So, I I think we just need a little bit more clear direction if you're going to get that specific with us. What are the priority What's the priority? So, A versus B. Are we going to discuss these things after we vote on this number? Well, we're trying to figure that out, Lisa, cuz it we've got what, less than a month to town meeting, right? >> [clears throat] >> Um what was the number? Is Is this number here, this 13 million 19,682, is that the exact number that Bolston gave you? That's that's The exact number. That's not the number FinCom gave us last night, right? But that was the additional like Aaron said of the transportation money. It was about 31,000 more this morning that came to the table.
All those in favor of public opposition. Okay. Um 6 to2 I can do that. 62. Okay. Uh we're about to move to executive session and uh I'll um I will make the motion camp board of education enter executive session at date 19 p.m. inviting Dr. Gman superintendent of schools John Bishop assistant superintendent schools Robbins business manager Mr. Peter Murphy legal council at shift goodwin and Mr. Dennis Dailo, legal counsel at Carson and Felberg. This is for the purposes of discussing strategy and negotiations concerning pending litigation in the matter of Holland versus Canton Board of Education HHD-C169743 for the purposes of collective bargaining for education association of K and the K Federation of Education Personnel. Questions? All those in favor opposed. We are moving to executive session. We moved across the hallway again. >> I don't think so. Okay. Oh, uh, Alan, we we're going to call you so you can listen in.
>> I don't think we have time unless they call another town meeting. Then that's up to the town to call another town meeting, not us. I'm I I'm going to say that I'm not comfortable doing that. I understand what you're saying about the 1.25 and raising the base. That's what you're talking about is raising the base. But I'm not going to vote for a budget where we're asking for all three of those things. Because we may end up having to fund the charter completely. Mhm. Can we clarify that? Just to clarify question. You said all three things. What? >> To ask for 1.25, 70,000 in charter, and capital. No, capital capital separate. Oh, yeah, that that's totally different thing. No, all two things? I'm I'm not comfortable asking for both for the 1.25 and I'm sorry, the 70,000 in charter. Thank you. Rachel, go ahead.
So, last night it was like 12 million 900 and 90 something. 988. 988. Yeah, that's exactly it. So, what was the what's the official number? That they That's it. It's it's this. It's 13 million. Yeah, it's correct. 13,019,682. Okay. That's exactly it. And just to be clear, the It's exactly their number. That's what we'd be voting on. Yeah, I just wanted to make sure like that we're voting on the corrected number. The like that's the number. >> That ties to what they're they're doing. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. And like maybe there's like 50,000 I don't know. Like 10,000 somewhere. I don't know. In Bolston? No, but I'm just saying like is this like I saw those cuts and I was just clarifying that that is the exact number that the town That's all. So, rather than have another meeting about this, why don't we just figure it out now?
How's that? >> Okay. We'll call you on the phone. >> Okay. I'm gonna close it. >> You can close it out. >> Good. We'll come back.
Um I am wondering, Sarah Best and Margaret, if you can speak to whether in terms of historical precedent. I know we have this one example of the town paying for that 35K for the one student. Has that been the precedent? I have to imagine there were years with more than one student. Has that been the precedent? >> I don't remember there being more than one student in all of my school committee. Okay. I actually remember when the one student was like kind of surprised and we had to like do some The town actually the town for went position and the principal agreed to take >> They took some time off. several months off in order to cover to Yeah. Yeah. Okay. in order to cover the costs because that's the problem. We don't get that information until so late. >> Yeah. It really causes problems now for us.
Sure. But we have a motion on the table for this budget. We can amend it twice. Okay. So, I mean, I would like to amend it I mean to say that But [snorts] Aaron, we have to meet again. I'm not going to make an actual amendment, but we can amend it right now because Aaron just said Here's Here's what's happening. It's not It's the number would be unamended, but it would be an additional clarification of where the Here's the problem that we have, okay? We have 1 2 3 4 5 6 people over there, 7 and 8 people who have spent what, 40 hours since Thursday night on figuring out the best way to use the money that we have to run the school, how their combined Sorry if I'm going to age any of you, but A lot. 100 years of experience >> [laughter] >> He's looking at me.
>> I think that would I don't know. Yeah, that was just around COVID before or after COVID? I think it was before I think it was >> Actually before that? I think it might have been before that. I don't know if I was actually at school when that happened. I don't remember it happening, but it was like Okay, in those years. So So not more than one, but when the one hit the one hit the first time, it was a big deal in those years. Yeah. Okay. Um I am curious if we can move to voting for one of these budgets A and B um as the finance committee has done, I'm curious if we could pull out and separate the well, my proposal would be that we vote in either one A two or three um and that we separate the conversation about this additional choice student um and potentially try Thank you.
You can call Al 75 again. Licensed, yeah. >> [laughter] >> Seriously, 75. Licensed in their fields, right? Not a single one of us here has an educational license. Okay? Not a single one of us here has run a school. Not a single one of us here has has run a district. They're saying this is what we need to run a good school. If we had all the money in the world, we would have all these things back. Right? Who am I to say an ELA coach versus a .2 What what 5 hours of a nurse? I don't know. Nurses are expensive. They are expensive. Let's get rid of the float nurse and just have a nurse at each school. I mean, we could have that conversation. I mean, this is what Lisa, Janelle, John, Rob, Rich, Al, and Aaron have said is the most efficient way to run the school this year.
This potential charter student um and potentially make that an additional warrant aside from our budget. >> We can't do that, I don't think. They have to have They have to have this for tomorrow. We have to have an operating budget that covers our costs. Okay. How we ask for that? can be Like we still have to color it. Does the free cash go on to the warrant too? The request about free cash. >> does. But it so it says separate. It's separate. >> So we would ask we would do our budget and then we would either do a 70,000 ask or not a 70,000 ask from the free cash as a separate warrant. Yep. So we Well, it's part of it's part of a Please remember free cash recommendations come through the finance committee. So we don't even if we ask, we don't get to make that recommendation as to what goes on the warrant.
So, if we want to question them, let's question them and say no to all this and put a number out there. The priorities we gave you, the one, two, and three, we didn't know at that time it was going to be that expensive taking something off. Let's be clear about that, right? We added those options, we were hoping that people were going to go to Boylston and Burlington and fight like heck to say, "You got to give us more money. We need more money. You got to look at us just like I had to have those conversations with John as opposed to Rich as opposed to Rob and say, "This is where we got to make cuts here." We were hoping that when they went to the fire and the police and the highway, they'd say, "Okay, we're going to we're going to shift some money to give more to the schools." But that that didn't happen, right?
So the we only get to send them the budget that we voted. Um they get to determine and again, they could determine they could look at it and said, you know, we we can't afford to do 22 and 35. We can't afford to do any of these things. We can we can we can just do the 22. We can we're not doing the 22. Like I'm going to say this. I understand the need to do what is right for the students, the teachers, and everyone of Pelham. I also understand that this is where the politics hits the road and it would and I would ask that the school committee act from a place of what is presented in front of you. What are the options? What do you know about the current political structure and climate? What do you know about the financial situation of the town?
They they gave us their numbers. Burlington went back and forth with us, gave us a little bit more money, but we wanted those priorities not at the expense of losing the things that we had level. Again, I'm going to go back. We we we didn't just present a level budget to you, we added a fifth grade teacher in there. And I wonder if this conversation in Boylston would be a lot different. What we should have done is put that fifth grade teacher and say, "Okay, that's part of an option in small too because we all decided that you didn't think those class class sizes were good and we don't think so either. But we added that fifth grade position and $90,000 FTE for the most part into that budget. So, that's what makes us have the trickle effect in Boylston as well, too. Right? So, it's not level service in Boylston.
If you've attended town meetings, you're understanding that you don't come even if you ask, there is nothing that puts forth that the finance committee has to move on the recommendation. And so that is why the summary is there. That's why we present the fact that you have to take into account what is going to be the best financially and fiscally responsible decision to make for Pelham Elementary School. Knowing that every vote that you make is going to have a potential impact. So, if you vote 1A, know that you are voting whatever amount of school choice funds because we would have to put that forth. There is no guarantee we're getting it back. And and um the kind of the question was asked of Margaret. Margaret, you were attending the most um town meetings. Do you think Which one do you think would pass? She said 1B because and that's what she That's what she asked for us to pose a scenario.
We added that fifth grade teacher at the expense of taking these things out. And we're adding an ELA coach and a float nurse [clears throat] and a bio teacher. All right, and then we're adding some stuff at Tahanto as well. And and I I think maybe there's some confusion. We would certainly like if if you ask us to reconsider things, right? We would still have to come back to you to demonstrate that swap we made. We're not just going to arbitrarily do it based on this. We would have to come back to you and say, "We're making the following changes but within this construct, right?" You're you're providing us with the barriers that we have to work within. So, I'm you know, assuming that that the two things I've heard is the ELA coach and some of the float nurse, right? We would then go back, work with the administrative team, and talk about what that would look like, right?
I get what we need to do and what we need to do is right. I do not want to be back in a 112 situation. That is not an amicable That's not a very good workable situation. It does not look good for the for the district or the school committee, but I do feel like let's not make a rash decision. Let's take our time and really work the numbers and determine what will be best for the fiscal sustainability of Pelham Elementary School. I'll ask a question. Yes. So, if we passed a budget and it wasn't passed to town, how how much time would we have then to present another budget to town? Prior You have until June 30th to vote for the full budget to be approved by the town. And they'd have to hold another town meeting. >> Yes, they have to hold >> But what would our time commitment be?
We talked about this is one path to get to this destination. We're still going to the same destination but we would look at whether what's an alternative path that adjusts a few things, right? And and that's, you know, as much as our experienced district priorities come into into to play, too, right? It's not just about what we think is the most efficient use, but there are priorities. If something's a priority for the community, we want to be able to push for that. We want to be able to to work within the construct we're given and make that happen. So, it's not it's not just about like, "Okay, we're going to come to this number and we're going to run off and disappear with a bunch of money. We're going to come back to you and say, "Here's the plan to get to the same destination, but it's just a different path." Does that make Is that right for the word maybe missing?
Like do we have the time to do another budget? No. >> The town has to call another town meeting and it has to be approved before June 30th. Yeah, and Okay. And just saying does the school committee have the ability to present another budget? No. No. No, because they need 40 days after our presented budget to then pass it. Here's another place where you got to think about what's going on in town. It is not inexpensive to call another town meeting. And there typically is a town meeting in October. The second town meeting. Um the likelihood in my personal opinion, the likelihood of the town being willing to call another town meeting just to deal with are not getting a budget in place that the town will vote for. It's not going to happen. I mean, that's my personal opinion. Uh and just like another I'm just thinking from uh operation standpoint, we normally load the budgets once they're voted in Mounis ahead of time, and a lot of clerical staff across all of the elementary schools do the ordering for the teachers before the teachers leave.
on the number that's presented tonight, right? That gives a clear message to the communities what this looks like with that number that we're presenting to you tonight and then come back and have a meeting because these are might just be some small adjustments that we're making, whether it be the ELA coach, we'll go back and revisit that, looking at the adjustment counselor, looking at the paras, see where that can fit. And that might be a a quicker meeting that we have. And we've had those meetings. Sometimes we're say, "Okay, you voted on this budget number, but here's what it looks like with the changes the changes we took place here." And we've done some of those meetings sometimes at noon, right? Where we had a run that by people as well. And hopefully hopefully you would have a presentation in the drive. Everyone looks at it.
And if that budget isn't within Mounis and our clerical person in Pelham right now is not working during the summer, that means their supplies won't be ordered until they come back with in August. Do your best. So Okay. I think I would like to advocate for budget scenario two. Because it is the lowest amount from our choice fund. It assumes uh $35,000 charter, which the towns already have that information. It does have an increase over last year, so it is not setting a precedent of um level funding, which I have some great concerns about. And it it's uh and there's no it includes no additional registration and outreach. However, it has sounded from the other conversations that we've had today that the committee and is willing to do outreach and that the PTO and the central offices either has or plans to connect with the PTO to coordinate um some outreach about choice.