To Alana's left. She's just waiting for a cutter. The cutters are are are being covered now. She puts a dodge on. Alana makes another save. >> Another nice save, yeah. So, once again defense did a good job once they finally got a shot. Alana was there to help out now. Alana clears it out to Ashley Forcer who is trucking up the field pushed out of bounds and stay Ashland's way. And she gets it off to Early and Early gets it into the offensive zone. Early one of our star volleyball players for the season, so >> Okay. Actually, that's where the connection between Early and Vitti is. Both of them are playing volleyball this season, so >> Yeah, makes sense. Got some soccer, field hockey, volleyball players, track, ice hockey, field hockey, a little bit of everything. >> stars, absolutely. Trip lost it momentarily, but able to collect it.
I believe she's the town counselor who is the representative to the board of ed leaison. >> The board of ed liaison on the town council. Exactly. She also uh joined us in Hartford along with others. Okay, we will go on with some committee reports. Uh finances first and you have in your packets the financial report for the 202526 board of education budget reflecting expenditures and incumbrances through March 31st of 2026. And I will pass this report on to Miss Emily Taylor. >> Great. Thank you. Uh so as of March 31st we've spent $85,930,94 which is 92.3% of our budget. That is has been encumbered and expended. That's a slight increase from last month where we had spent 89.4% of our budget. Um what you will see in that first table in the the actual narrative not the not this guy but right here is uh that there is some variance across the major budget categories.
So you basically have a single duplex outlet in each classroom, which is, you know, observably not enough. So, this design money would go towards ren, you know, remediating remediating that and try to get a a little better electrical service into the building. >> Just to be clear, did you just say each room in Highland basically has one outlet? >> It's probably more than that, but I'm just trying to >> I understand what you're saying. The point is is I get it. No, because everything gets plugged in now. >> Well, yeah. You also have Well, yeah. It's just not There's just not enough power in each of the classrooms to meet the technology standards that we have today. >> Sure. Um, the next project is the electrical service replacement for Highland. Um, not to be confused with electrical distribution, but Rich, >> so that's supplemental to uh a generator installation project that currently is approved.
So, I did everything I could to flag that for these for these guys. And so, the the the the the bubbles you're seeing are just like the the next version of that. I mean, I'm drawing attention to that. So, so were those bubble drawings reviewed or So, they were I guess I guess what I'm getting at is >> Those were reviewed as part of the application package. >> They were. As part of the application >> the application. Okay. And and in that review, that still generated the disapproval. So, because uh uh unper- or non-prescriptive fasteners being used, all we're looking for is the report on that specific fastener. Which is this fastener shown in the drawing? Correct. And just uh um reiterate when uh when I spoke about lag bolts, those are those were I was talking about what is in the prescriptive code. Not that, but what the limitations of prescriptive coded attachments would be.
This is when we start seeing the impact of warren steel terminal households. They'll be mid70s by then going to have too. Now a lot of people who move in with kids particularly the young families in the starter homes which these turnover homes will attract have preschoolers. We sometimes don't see the full impact of a family moving in from a household for five, six, seven years. you know, so it's a delayed reaction, but there'll be enough of them, you'll start seeing an increase in the elementary population. Even though the district kind of flattens out, you're going to have growing in the elementary and as that wave you've got now those large cohorts are going out, high school flattening and some slight decline. But the districts as a whole starts growing uh consistently after 2032. That's if the housing market holds up, we don't go into a recession.
Over to Marseglia. She lost it, but able to collect it from right back. Callahan to Hickey. Over to Vitti. Picked up by Maggie McGuinness. Nice shot by yeah. >> into the middle. Great pick, though. You know, that's part of the game over there. Yeah, works in basketball, works in lacrosse. So, Vitti with her number fourth goal, actually. >> Yeah, she's got them all for Ashland. So, that that was the the difference there after a long offensive possession for Dedham. They really got a shot off. Alana made the save. Same thing happened down the other end and Lilly Vining was able to to bury the shot. >> Yeah, find the crease down low. So Here we are. It's a one-goal game the other direction. Just just about four four minutes 15 seconds into the second quarter. So again, won't would be surprised if it's anything different than this the rest of the game.
So, we are at a point in the school year where we are offsetting certain expenses where we're going over such as outplacements and student transportation with other line items. So, we have variances across accounts. Um, I would say that's unusual for this time of year, but we do have to be conscious of the areas where we're overexpending uh because we have to make up for that by underexpending in other areas. We still have a 60% hold for our accounts, including our school expenditures. Um, for any non salary transportation accounts, we still have a 60% hold in place. Uh, and that is certainly helping making sure that we're accounting for those line items that are over budget. In the narrative, there is a second table. Um, there were some questions last meeting about like where did we compare with this overexpended line item last year. So I just took the line items where we have the largest uh like over expenditures the tuition outplaced textbook software transportation and capital equipment.
Um, we're short that amount of money in order to complete the project. >> So, and then every time we delay, it costs more. Dare I ask how much the original allocation was? >> So the original allocation was 275,000 to install a generator, but in the design phase and doing the due diligence, it was discovered that the switchboard, the preferred switchboard, which is no longer manufactured, needs to be replaced. So it's not just the generator, it's also the entire electrical service that needs to be replaced. And that's a 480 volt service. So, we I actually just repriced it um late last year and um yeah, we're short we're short about 150,000 in order to put the generator and a new switchboard in place. So, if the generator would if we elected not to put the generator as a board of ed, the switchboard would definitely have to be replaced.
And I just can't understand how the diff- the definitional differences between static and dynamic how that just keeps happening over and over here. That's That's kind of what why I brought in [clears throat] show and tell just because it just seems like that something is being missed there. Um And those things are like $300 a piece, too. They're not cheap. I have a question for staff. Are there other tree houses in town in the city and how do those get you know, this has come up before in this So, if the structure meets the um uh exemption for requiring permits, they're not an issue. If it's a play play structure, if it doesn't have a deck, you know, under uh 120 square feet, not within 3 feet of a structure, um not more than 30 inches above grade. So, those things don't require permits, so they don't become an issue.
Error ratio plus or minus 2% the life of the forecast. So just put it confidence interval for life. Just put 2% around this number here and that's where we should be [clears throat] normally about a half%. Uh some years ago I did a forecast with Pen Harris Madison and I went back did an evaluation three years later for their board and I had 12,248 students and that year they had 12,248 students and it was the worst thing that ever happened to me because ever since then the board has expected that same vote backwards in all substances. [laughter] Next year I was off by nine. You just gave me all kinds of grief. [clears throat] [sighs] >> Questions? >> Can we go back to um we were talking about the existing home sales and struggling to 530. One of the things I've watched in our area >> our our NAB, you know, over the last three years prior to CA taking effect, property taxes >> has been on fire.
>> Agree. One, two goals. It's really again, as you mentioned, eliminating the turn turnovers as best you can and play good defense and get some shots on. Going up the middle over there. Good defensive play. Was that trip, I think? >> Yeah, I think she got her stick on it. Uh the the draw controls have been become a little bit of an issue. Dedham has has been winning the the majority of them of late. You know, what's nice for now is just Ashland sun, which in some of these games you can't see. It's actually doable right now. >> Yeah. I'm not quite sure if that was another one of the same type of thing that it bounced over or if Alana got her stick on it. I get I I get I'm obviously a little biased, but just the way I think Duffy plays her position, the team when they're shooting, they're it's it's it's tough.
I took the information from the the table above but what you can see is in the column at the way right it has the projected year end balance in 2025. So you'll see there is a variance within 2026 and 2025 but it just kind of gives you an overview of what it looks like. I would say the landscape is a little bit different where we've um where we've spent. You can see the tuition outpaced. We had a projected year-end balance March of last year at negative 37. It's negative 526,000 this year. Um costs are rising. And like I said, that's being offset in other areas. If you're wondering where that's being offset, that's where you can get the detail on this report. And if you're looking at those bold double lines where you have the positive account is where we're projecting having uh more in our accounts.
That's that's just a there's no avoiding that. we can we can make a decision on whether Highland, you know, if a generator is really required. Um, that's got to be a board of ed decision. Again, as with air conditioning, all of our other schools will have emergency backup power, and I don't think we want to leave Highland in alerts in the event that would happen. >> Did we ever get the interval demand meter for Highland? Because I thought you said we have a demand meter there. Maybe we don't, but >> well, we did a demand study, but we don't have a meter there full time. >> Was it? So, the demand the demand in the study, how did that match up with the generator that you're >> Yeah, that's what helped the size the generator. >> So, the generators it's it's appropriately sized for the demand.
Um there have been other structures in the city that have exceeded the 120 square feet or the 200 square feet um and that have required permits. Um similar situations where because it's not prescriptive, engineering was required for the um uh the structural stability and elements used to um uh make the structure safe. So, for contrast, I mean, I do have I don't know if it's worth sharing a screen here. Um some photographs. And there there are a lot of other tree houses in Ann Arbor. I mean, this is Tree City USA. Um I actually went out around my neighborhood this morning. I took some photographs of several tree houses that were clearly visible from the public right-of-way within a within a mile of my house. Um And I don't know if it's worth sharing the photos that are not because I've got them on my computer, but it basically shows all of these things and uh that um they're just attached with like a 2 by 10 and a lag bolt.
We've we've increased property values according to the SS value over 35% in that span from 2022 to 2025. I worry greatly that we're outpricing our area for families to be able to move in. It's tied directly to obviously interest rate which I'm hopeful in the next year is going to drop. I don't know if it's going to be enough to entice people. I mean obviously people are not selling >> at the rate we're used to because of interest rates. No, >> they they block themselves into those two 3%s and they're not going to they're not going to get out till we see rates come down. But even then, our our incomes in our area have not even remotely come close to to keeping pace with home values. [clears throat] So, the real estate industry has got people convinced their homes are worth far far far more than they really are.
You know, she's getting down low. They got it They're They're trying to be strategic, but having a strong goalie like that It certainly makes it challenging. It makes the offense think that they have to be perfect on their shots when they know that there's a a keeper of her her ability there. And that means they're they're more likely to to go wide because they're trying to pick a a spot that may not be there. That one >> Just Well, you It's almost like you saw that coming over there. You You prepped that up right there. Yeah, well, I saw this game already. This is a [laughter] repeat. It's the whole Spaceballs. When will then be now? Soon. >> [snorts] >> Again, since I'm alone, well, they're they're starting to shoot more and they are um um I don't want to say they're being impatient, but they're they're certainly trying to get more shots and you know, whether that's a reflection of what they think they need to do to get one past Alana, I'm not sure.
And if it's negative, that's where we have the overexpendures. So, I realize I've not like necessarily walked you through this uh actual table if you're you're unfamiliar, but wanted to provide some information. This is a bit of a lengthier uh financial report than I've I've done in the past, but there are some some updates. Um, one I want to talk about is energy procurement. So, this is something we talk about with price locks. There was a conversation last board meeting uh about our prices. I wanted to give you an update that our fuel oil price lock expired at the end of last month. Our rates are protected through June 2026 or if we use all of the gallons that we've allocated. So at the end of last month we did that. We had an anticipated 35,000 gallons of heating oil use. And so the rate lock of 2.2509 per gallon expired.
>> Yeah. So, the two big drives are obviously the air conditioning system, >> the rooftop units, and then the government freezer, which is the primary freezer for the entire district. So those three were the biggest draws and then you have you know some internal appliances that make so it can run it can run the whole school air conditioning >> just like the new elementary schools. Yeah. >> Yeah. The generator we want that's what our intent was is to >> okay >> be able to operate the school you know as if nothing happened. >> So you know major hurricane comes through we've got a cooling center. >> Is Highland one of our critical facilities? uh that that's actually defined. >> Was it I'm gonna say it is because I have not heard that it has come off that list. >> Okay. >> But it was used as a cooling center for Hurricane Iis.
Um there is one that I'm looking at here that kind of has a provision for movement, but not really, but it's certainly not nearly as substantial as that. Um I don't know if you guys need to see those or not. I don't think so. Maybe they need to see it, but I mean, [laughter] I actually I I printed these out and left them on the printer. Um So, but I've got them right here. But yeah, this is I mean, this is all stuff There's a lot of these out there and they're all visible from the public right-of-way. So, how many square feet is it? It was kind of a square footage issue or the size issue. This is what How many square feet? This interior part of structure is like one What did I put on here? Um and then like a a deck 79 square foot deck.
As my dad used to always say, it's only worth something if someone's going to pay you for it. And right now they either can't or won't. And um now and this is problematic for the new home construction too. I hate to say anything nice about developers, but I'm going to have to um developers kind of corner right now because you know labor cost. Anybody go out price plywood lately or copper wire those we're talking about is do the roof. Okay. They actually work on a pretty thin profit margin. When a developer was told me that building 50 homes, he makes nothing on house zero or one through 10. He makes his profit on house 40 through50. Okay? But they can't drop their prices. You know, if they're putting building up, we're going to list them at [clears throat] 350 or something. They don't have a luxury to drop it.