And I know it's not easy work. It's you guys are all volunteer. I appreciate the work you guys are all doing. It's all volunteer work, but this is the reason why. So, let's try to remember that when we're doing this budget conversation. >> does a nice She does a really nice job. This isn't not just a food pantry. She had something set up at the basketball games for Morgan's message. She is very involved. She follows through with things. It's really nice to see a self-starter doing all these stuff at the school. Thank you. Thanks, Bailey. Thank you. Thank you. All right. So, we currently have a motion on the table for the budget number. Al, the committee seems like they want you to revisit the individual line items, but I don't know if anybody wants to go above this budget number, below this budget number.
We don't side deal, we go straight to them and we we talk about those positions. Um and I would have to say that there's still a level of duties that are going to fall back on the school even if outreach is handled by outside organizations. William? I was going to say I don't I don't know if you don't have to answer this if you don't want to, but I was wondering if we could have Marta or and or Mickey comment on the registration and the outreach process as I feel they're probably more um in tune with what the work is cuz it falls underneath Marta's, you know, family engagement stuff and with Mickey having the experience here at the school. If they're comfortable sharing like out of these budgets, one is is in keeping it in Pelham, right? And and and expanding the duties for workers in Pelham, and the other is using a registrar who would be working for all three districts.
So, can I make a recommendation that you vote this budget number that's here with the direction that we will go back and look at this ELA coach with with everybody here and see what that looks like if we were able and I don't necessarily agree with this, but I'm going with the direction. If you had Boston ELA coach at this point at Berlin, right? Just putting it in Berlin and working there. And what that would look like for having a part-time ELA position, right? And there are people that are out there that would do this work supporting us and maybe not be there in Boylston, but be able to revisit whether be the Paris or the adjustment counselor at Boylston based on that FTE and having a 0.5 only of the ELA coach. Does that make sense? And we got to look at those numbers.
Is there a preference between those? For the people who I would see as the experts in that field, which would be Mickey and Marta. No, William, you could have just said Dr. Z. I don't think you know I know I want to hear from you. No, I'm not I'm not saying you don't know. No, that was just a nice way of saying that. I mean, let's let's let's let's >> That's totally not what I was saying. Okay, so I let Marta jump in. Marta, go right ahead. Well, I I think this is a kind of like a tricky question. I mean, the work has to be done, the work is complex. The work entails a lot, and then on top of that, I think there's some folks have the perception, I respect it, but that there needs to be outreach or some special plan of outreach to bring more, you know, school choice students to Pelham.
Let us have a day to look at this. Maybe we can do a a meeting on Friday in a in a quick turnaround so you guys will get it into the drive to you. It shouldn't be hard for us to do even if we do it on Zoom that we can publicly put out there to everybody and we can take a look at that changes we make. They'll only be changes in those two things. See what the numbers look like and therefore then we can really get this thing put to so we can then make decisions and so people can make decisions whether we're going to do some hiring or people going to stop looking elsewhere. Because it's going to be really hard to keep people when they're working 0.5s and 0.6s. They're going to go somewhere else when they come up full-time. So, that's my recommendation to you.
So, we personally have not done the only outreach that we do is in conversations. Um, I mean, in communication with our um with all of the preschools, with the different towns. We do social media, you know, cuz we're in all um Uh, Seth does that. Like, we have the the flyers and the letters and he supports us in in sharing those. But, in terms of And then, we do an ad in the paper. But, in terms of doing specific outreach to attract students, we have not had to do that. I think that historically we have had, you know, more interest than not in the slots that are available, I believe. Um, and through the way we have done it in which And And you discussed that already, in which Pelham was, you know, families would choice in and and check off all of the schools that were available.
Is Yes. I I agree that we should just vote on this number, but this might be the time for me to bring this up. I just have this burning question cuz we keep dancing around maybe not being a one-to-one at the elementary level. And have we considered that and if we did, it seems like it would have a big impact on the budget. Um 30,000 A lot of those costs right now sit in capital. That's the the big device replacement number sit in capital. Um you know, so it would be hard in the short term. I think we could do some long-range planning around that. I don't think it would change anything in the immediate this year budget, but as we go forward, we absolutely could look at that. Didn't we take 20,000 out from operating? How does that that that line I Well, so we we've already So, there's there's only in terms of like replacement and repairs and things like that which happen quite a lot.
And the majority of the the families who come to us wanting school choice opt for Amherst. I'm not putting it out there as a competition. I'm not saying once the schools are better or not. It's just how it is. And so, historically Pelham has benefited from that arrangement because a lot more families who had initially just wanted Amherst, through our conversations, through our meetings, and through our explanation of how indeed how great Pelham is, right? Uh, they've benefited from excess slots. So, when we talk about outreach, I just don't you know, I I just don't see a scenario of how we can gather a lot more slots through doing this comprehensive outreach. Okay. I have to say, Martha, I think y'all have done a great job with the outreach to the schools over the years. Um and so I I don't want to I don't want to Like I don't know how that process works and I don't want to derail the process if the people that are doing the work feels like it's working.
Um we've stripped that down from 25,000 to 5,000 at at Boylston Elementary. I I'd be really hesitant to cut that further. Um so, I there's not really much to give there. Um you know, Again, we I I try to go through every line, you know, trying to do that needs-based approach. What have we used every year? What you know, what makes sense for for coming years? Um you know, and then we we had to do this with with cuts in mind, right? And that's what we did. We we doubled down on that cut. We originally pulled 10,000 out of Berlin Memorial, 10,000 out of Boylston Elementary, and 10,000 out of Tahanto. Um And then [clears throat] because of these cuts, we said, "Let's just double down on Boylston Elementary." And if that means they can't be one-to-one, that may be the nature of the beast.
And I'm hearing from you, Martha, that you feel like it's working for the best of Pelham the way it's been over the years. Is what I'm hearing. I believe that that Pelham has greatly benefit from this from this partnership. I mean, people were talking about percentage of each of us and you know, who get paid percentage from Pelham etc. It is all The intersectionality of this has been a beautiful thing in in the ways we've done it. The issue is that we've done some changes, right? We used to have this one registrar. We used to have an elementary registrar. We've combined both positions. And and as it pertains to the work that how it's been done, right? We have continued to do the work for Pelham without any compensation, but we do it equally with the same effort and the same enthusiasm. I I said to Margaret the other day when we spoke, "I have a very special place in my heart for Pelham.
The other reality is the nature of our district. We operate as three districts, not one. If in a normal regional district, we would share devices across the district. Because of the way we operate and and sort of the financials of our regional agreement, we don't share devices across the district. So, you know, we have to plan for I've talked about the law of big numbers, the law of small numbers, right? When you're operating as one big district, I would put all that money into a pool and we might be able to cut that a little bit more as a pooled number, but if we're having to do those individually, it's really hard for us to say we're going to cut those. And right now, as we talk about this, right? Berlin's not going to give up that number to to to to take care of Boylston, right?
I My granddaughter went to Pelham preschool. I love everything about Pelham. I have some of my best friends there. So, you know, we treat Pelham just like we do all the other schools. So, for me, it's what the school committee what I have heard is that you all wanted a bigger plan for outreach, you know, and I that's what I wasn't understanding, you know, because I just don't see what else can be done. I mean, would a visit to a preschool rather than a flyer and conversations or the invitation for people to come over be better? It could be. I don't know the numbers of people that would that would benefit, you know? Um the other aspect is, you know, opening the The thing I wanted to share was opening the slot, you know, opening the the application date, you know, the date to to open applications may be something that we can contemplate, you know?
There's always those conversations about we don't want our tax dollars going to pay kids from here or here. And that's where we end up stuck a lot is instead of treating this like a true region where we could be looking at some of those efficiencies of scale, we can't because of the way that's interpreted, right? I I I wish it were other and there there there can be conversations about looking at the regional agreement and conversations about how people see things as well, right? Like we've decided collectively that we are one regional school district and we educate our kids together collectively. That but but the choices we've made through the regional agreement that we're not really doing that. Al Al says it a lot. We're we're not one district, we're a collection of of districts. We're a district of schools, and not a school district.
Uh it doesn't mean that we will be able to make decisions, but you know, if there is anxiety about perhaps we should begin taking um requests and applications for school choice earlier for Pelham, you know, or not, that's something that we can engage. We can have that conversation. Um but it is the case that we only have one IS group and the different portals, right? that we open and the their the way they support us is is complicated as well. So, I just want to say that it isn't as simple as we open it up and we accept it. No, because we we are we're storing grades currently at the end of the year. We're enrolling new students. We're enrolling kindergarten students and we open choice. So, there is a lot at play here. And I appreciate bringing the conversation, but um I I can't tell you what the preference is.
So So, I'm going to [clears throat] appreciate Lisa I'm My direction, I think, I want to make sure I'm going to be looking at the ELA coach, maybe going from a 1.0 to a 0.5, where the 0.5 would possibly just be at Berlin, working obviously with my curriculum director, and our new our new superintendent. I'm looking taking risk there to John's point, educationally, looking at that nurse that was a 1.0, and possibly when it was a 0.4 before, we brought it to a 1.0, there's a risk there that we'll maybe add one more day or two more days. And then looking at the adjustment counselor, maybe we can add some time in there as well, too. So, if we have that sort of narrow down, look at the ELA coach, nurse, the adjustment counselor, we can work on that in the next day or so.
I'm willing to have a conversation, but anything would entail more money, I would say. Okay. Mickey, were you going to say say anything? Did you say me? Mark, do you think Martha said said anything? I think what Martha said, I agree with a lot of it. I will say when um we last met, there was a lot of pressure uh outside pressure to do more outreach and my brain didn't know what that meant. And so like yeah, if someone else had ideas and everything, I would be open to them. Um because as Dr. Z and Martha has said a lot of it does fall on us to do the outreach, like the open house, we're advertising, I put it together. I dedicate a Saturday morning to it. Um and I get uh what do we call them? Anyways, we get students to come in and um have them tour around the families and stuff like that.
And one more kindergarten para, I think, in Boylston. Do you want to number these? Do you want to number those three things? And cuz I feel like that's that number is not going to get you there, but if you want to order them what your priority is, and then give him direction so he can You're cutting the the ELA coach, which we put in there at 90, you're cutting to 0.5, so that's you're saving 45, right? >> But wait a minute, but what's in there for Boylston now is probably like 0.6. Yeah, so you're Yeah, so it's it's right now it's 0.6, 0.4. So, you're looking at saving >> 54,000, 36,000. Probably right? Yeah, roughly 30. >> Yeah, 0.6. 0.6 in Boylston, so you're saving And you're eliminating that 0.6 from Boylston, right? So, that's Yeah. Whatever the number is. What's the It's like 48,000.
But um I too am flexible with how you'd how it moves forward and want to make sure that we're doing it in the right way. Yes. Uh I have Sarah Bess and then Jenny. Okay. All right. So uh Thank you, Dr. Z, for that before. I my comment wasn't about um no registration. I actually think registration should stay where it is. I think it is good for Pelham to be um have registration and for kindergarten and for choice with Amherst because Amherst is a much bigger name that people recognize as opposed to Pelham. So, I think we get some residual benefit um there. So, it wasn't a no, no, we don't want any registration or outreach anymore. It was more I don't want it to change. I I want it to stay with Amhers. So, if I'm looking at these budget scenarios, right? I 1B doesn't work for me because there's no increase over our base number from last year.
So, I I really want to be careful doing it this way publicly, right? But we're not we're not looking at Yeah, you're you're talking about 54,000 of savings for that. I don't know what the The adjustment counselor number that's on this budget right now is 47. All right? The nurse is I don't know what the nurse was. 0.2 from that, and you want to add in One K para. Which is what, 25, 30? Roughly. Not giving you exact numbers, right? Should we get back at least one K para, and the And so, to Beth's point, can we just prioritize this for me? So, the first thing would be looking at making the adjustments with the ELA coach, right? But the hopes of and making the adjustment for the nurses, and that would be looking at the para or the adjustment counselors. What are we looking at for you, Beth?
Two sounds like it does not work logistically for the districts because of the choice and kindergarten registration and outreach district fees. Um So, that leaves us with 1A and three. So, 1A has Pelham doing its own registration and outreach, which I think um is not This is not a comment about anybody who would do the Pelham registration and outreach, um but I think it is better left with um Amhers, which leaves us with three. And while it is most expensive, um not that Not by a Right. Not by a ton, and I think that is one per student, and that feels like something I That feels like money well spent to keep it there. And if when we're um having the conversations, Dr. Z, and you're going back to have the conversation with um the union and the person who would do the registration for Pelham, it sounds like there could potentially be less of the outreach part because it sounds like the outreach is I I think perhaps the I'll speak for myself that we didn't understand how the outreach worked.