We will hold you very strongly to that 10 minutes. Please make sure that you prepare your presentation ahead of time, rehearse it several times and because at 10 minutes, Kate Cany, my assistant town moderator, is not here tonight, she's out of town, will be ringing the bell, and I will ask you to stop at that point regardless of where you are. [snorts] So, very important that you um have rehearsed and be ready to stop at 10 minutes. In terms of the content of the presentation, [snorts] factual presentations are the most persuasive. It's very important that you present your case either for or against, citing facts, uh so that the attendees are able to make an intelligent decision. My job as the moderator is to make sure that the everybody has an opportunity to be heard, that both sides are presented, and that it's done in a way that's respectful and allows people to absorb the information that's being presented.
Maria Akpara. I'm here. Anita Tucker is absent. Rick Raleigh. Here. And Renee Longshore. Here. Um Maria, will you lead us in the pledge of allegiance? Ready? Begin. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America, and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Thank you. All right, the clerk will read out any action taken during closed session. In closed session, the Board of Trustees took action in support of the following: B1, Superintendent's evaluation. On a motion by Raleigh, seconded by Akpara, the Board and the Superintendent agreed to extend the timeline for her evaluation to June 11, 2026. On a vote of um Amanda Buchanan is a yes, and Maria Akpara is a yes, Anita Tucker is absent, Rick Raleigh is a yes, Renee Longshore is a yes. Thank you. Kylie, do we have any public comments regarding a specific item on April 28th, 2026 special meeting agenda?
So I will make that motion. Is there a second? >> Second. >> Thank you. All those in favor of approving that agenda change and approving tonight's agenda say I. >> I. >> Thank you very much. 4.01 Superintendence Recognition Awards. Dr. McCordon. >> Thank you, Mr. President. Governing board members, uh, if you join me in front of the DAS, we obviously we have a lot of recognitions tonight. So, uh, excited to honor all these people in the room. Thank you.
Also seated on the stage to my near right is town council Heather White of Patrini and Associates. Seated on the stage to my far right are the members of the select board. Chair Steven Sai and members Paul Denis, Marian Neutra, Jeff Waldron, and Dan Sitchell. Town administrator Jerry Jeremy Marcett is seated over behind uh behind the desk in that corner. He's waving. Our town clerk, John Doyle, is in the front row of the auditorium facing the stage. To begin our business tonight, select board chair Steve Sai and advisory chair Steve Bonder both have some brief remarks to share. Mr. Sai, would you like to begin, please? >> Is this Michael? Um, so thank you and welcome everybody to the uh town meeting. I want to thank um first of all of course all of my uh select board uh co-members for all of their tireless efforts over the year.
Um, so if Robin wants to introduce our consultants, I think they'll give an overview and then we can provide a little more details and answer any questions. Thank you. >> Yeah. So, um I'd like to introduce Jen Thompson and Heather Lemieux from Capital Strategic Solutions. I have worked very closely with them since last October um to perform a comprehensive uh classification and compensation plan. um they were wonderful to work with and what they did because we had one done back in 21, they didn't need to do all our job descriptions um again and they didn't have to come in to interview everyone. So we provided them with the job descriptions, they reviewed them for um FLSA compliance. they review and they scored them and then they also created went from five grades to 10 grades to uh alleviate the compression that we had with the five grades.
I will not tolerate ad hominemum attacks on individuals or appeals to personalities. It has no place in our town. And as I always say at the beginning of town meeting, many people have died to give us this gift. This is the ultimate form of democracy. So um I want to make sure that we understand where we're coming from uh and where we're going to be going in this meeting.
We do not. All right, adoption of the agenda. The Board may approve the agenda as is or add and or pull items for discussion and or action. Can I get a motion to adopt the agenda? So moved. I'll second that. All right. We'll be taking a vote via roll call. Mrs. Longshore. Aye. Mr. Raleigh. Aye. Ms. Akpara. Aye. Ms. Buchanan, aye. All right, item number one under discussion action is to adopt resolution 2526-20, consideration and possible action concerning April 2nd, 2026 demand to cure or correct board action on April 2nd, 2026 agenda item I2, resolution number 2526-09. Um I'll go ahead and make the motion. I'll second that.
Good evening everyone. >> Good evening everyone. >> Good evening. >> Oh, thank you. appreciate everybody being here. As I stated a few minutes ago, we uh we have a lot of recognitions and and all welldeserved. So, we'll kick them off. If I could have the following, and this is a big test for me because I met just some of you a few seconds ago. We're going to honor and say some nice things about the Gilbert Rotary. So, if George, Dave, Pat, Jim, and >> Kurt I almost had it. Four out of five. Come on up. Sorry. For 15 years. You got that? Don't go through anything else in his phone. All right. That's That's not appropriate. >> Go for it. For 15 years, the Rotary supported all of Gilbert Public Schools third graders with a dictionary to keep up for their own for their own personal use.
Um I'm not not sure about tireless. I'm quite tired I guess but um thank you nonetheless. Um I also would um like to again uh thank our longtime town clerk Jackie Morris for the many years of service that she has dedicated to the town. Um, and also to welcome our new town clerk, John Doyle, to his very first uh, Sherburn town meeting. So, welcome, Mr. Doyle. Um, I also would like to thank uh, the advisory committee for all of their work uh, especially chair Steven Bonder who has been placed in the unenviable position of being uh, the chair in his uh, second year on the committee. Uh the advisory committee's work is generally quite uh underappreciated and I think often invisible to the uh average Sherburn town resident. Uh but this year in particular, which has been probably the most difficult budget season uh that I have experienced in the 10 years that I've been involved in um Sherburn Town, they have been uh working quite hard.
Um >> and and is that consistent with what most towns have more than five grades? >> The towns that I've worked for have more than five grades. Um Heather and Jen could probably um they work with many municipalities and they could probably um answer that question, but um yeah, I'd like to introduce them and you can do your presentation. >> That sounds great. I'm so sorry. I didn't hear the question answer now. So, so my question was Robin had mentioned that um we used to have five grades and we we increased it to 10 and I was asking if that was more standard than the five grades. >> Okay, great question. Um and we'll have to get into the details of why we did it, but yes, that is more common. I would say five is definitely less common. um we we typically get more closer attention about we'll talk about that a little bit too um when we get to that I do have a few slides I won't worry too much with poweroint because you have a report which is much more comprehensive but I just figured if there is you know anyone there in the audience or anyone at home that's watching the broadcast or me watching the broadcast I just wanted to give a brief overview um the work that we did and then Heather um I'll do a quick introduction and a few things and then um I will take a word.
Any questions about this? Now I know some people haven't had a chance to present. Uh they've just decided that they wanted to present and they haven't had a chance to uh to provide a PowerPoint yet. Felicia, when would you like uh powerpoints to be invited for new groups? >> Well, I think we need them by Thursday at the latest, right? Because you've got to get some time to format onto slides, Suzanne. Yeah. >> Okay. So, Thursday is the drop deadad date for uh providing any powerpoints that you might want to present. Okay. Uh now what I'm going to do is proceed through the articles and uh talking about who's going to be making the presentation, who's uh who's going to be making a motion, who's going to be seconding the motion, and whether we're going to be having presentations from the town board. So let me start first with um which deals with a rule for the conduct of the meeting.
Okay, any discussion? I do have some discussion. Um I would just like to say in light of our uh repeated cure and corrects that we've been receiving as a district, I believe it's essential that we formally acknowledge and adopt some rules of order. I ask this board to consider Robert's Rules of Order or Rosenberg's Rules of Order. And if this board feels like there should be any additional consideration, I think we should bring that forward and look at a way to effectively conduct the business of this district. Uh and I believe we can do that within structure, uh a way of moving through a meeting, and by all of us understanding what that should look like. It also protects the district any against any potential liability um future current cracks. Were there any other comments? All right, I'm going to call for the vote. Mrs.
This year, the Rotary has partnered with GPS in other ways, including working with Burke Elementary by providing necessity kits for families and working on a grant for Burke's sensory room. We are thrilled to have their continued support as they truly make a difference in assisting our students. We're extremely grateful for their continued commitment and generosity throughout the years. Please give them a hand. This is Mr. George Pettit. I've known George for 30 30 >> 30 probably two or three years. Uh his son is the principal of Patterson Elementary. His son-in-law is the AD over at Mosquite High. uh his children and his grandchildren are students here in Gilbert public schools and um George used to be the town manager of Gilbert. George like to say a few words. >> Oh boy. >> Oh yeah. >> Not about the 30-year part of it. Um but do I appreciate the board taking the time to give us an opportunity to as a Rotary Club um to to recognize a very special person in this community.
Uh the initial budgets that were presented uh at the end of December put the town's overall operating budget nearly a million dollars over the levy limit. Uh and essentially the advisory committee meets every week uh since the beginning of January going over everybody's budgets, all of the capital items, all of the warrant articles. uh and through their efforts along with our town administrator Jeremy Marcett as well as the finance team directed by uh Deb Seaffring and as well all of the department heads and budget makers, we have managed to uh reduce the budget to basically just a hair underneath the levy limit to avoid a budget override this year. Um, so thank you for all of those efforts, but I do want to warn everybody that next year very likely the budget uh picture is going to be much more difficult. Um, it will very be it will be very likely that the town is going to be facing the real choice between a budget override uh or significant cuts to the schools, to public safety, to public works.
She really did the the work of the project. I think I have to someone let me share. Um >> while you're sharing I have a quick uh clarification if you could just explain to the public what a step and a lane what they are and what they do. >> Oh sure. So >> can you see that? Okay. >> Um not yet. There we go. Perfect. >> Okay, great. Perfect. So, just a little bit about uh who we are. Those of you that don't know us, many of our companies have strategies and solutions. Uh a lot of folks refer to us as CSS and we're a small municipal consulting firm based out of Hudson. Um most of us, including Heather and I, worked the majority of our careers in the public sector um for government or state government. And then uh retired I say that I retired but um or semi-retired or um I do this but in the field so our staff were very fortunate are a lot of former town administrators HR directors CFOs um DPW directors and fire chiefs police chiefs um so it's wonderful because we have extensive experience in doing things like class um on both sides Yes.
Uh Woody, is Woody here? Oh, there you are. Okay, Woody, you'll be making the motion and Gavin will be seconding. Any questions or comments about the first? And by the way, there's u is everybody have a copy of the Okay, fine. Good. All right. So, then we'll proceed to the main article uh for the acceptance of the committee reports. Again, Woody, you'll be making a motion. Gavin will be seconding. That's pro- former. I'm not expecting that there's going to be much of a discussion on that. I'm moving to article three. Uh well, first let me stop there. After article one, Robin, you will state the uh give us a state of the union presentation. Okay, good. Moving to article three. Um for the revolving funds, are we going to try to do these as consent votes, uh Michael, or are we going to have them as separate motions?
Longshore. No. Mr. Ollie. I. Ms. Alpara. I. And Ms. Buchanan. I. Motion passes. All right. Board comments. Renee. I have none at this time. Rick. >> No. Maria. None. And I have none. Superintendent comments. None. All right, future items. Do any members of the board have any future items? Yes, I do. Okay. I would like to have some information on the last um um the some feedback from the company that um did the um um the evaluation of of the district culture, the district uh that came and spoke to us and I know that the board four board members met with them. Members of the union did meet and some staff in the district also met with them. Just I don't know what they're called. Um just to get some feedback on that um Okay, so we can take a consensus on this, but I do believe um it had already actually been requested.
For those of you who aren't familiar, Rotary is a little over 120 years old. Founded in Chicago by a group of businessmen who wanted to figure out how to give back to their community and be an essential part of the community in addition to their being in business. Gilbert Rotary has been around since 1984. Um, I joined in 1985 and so I guess as ranking member, that's why I get to talk and and do this this evening. But one of the things that the founder of Rotary uh was a gentleman named Paul Harris and he wanted to recognize those members who participated uh in a very strong way and practiced the Rotary motto of service above self in a demonstrable way. not just being able to recite it at the meeting like you do the pledge and the prayer and everything else, but to ex actually exemplify um and demonstrate uh service above self as the commitment to the community.
Um, this is something if anybody has been paying any attention that's been happening to many municipalities across the Commonwealth. Uh, many towns are facing an override this year. Some had one last year, the year before. It really looks like Sherbornne is going to be facing that next year. Um, and I do want to underscore the fact that this is not due to proflegate spending or uh bad budgeting by the department heads. When you track the town's overall budget against inflation over the past 5 years, generally speaking, it's just been tracking with inflation. We're all aware that inflation has been um quite uh historically high post pandemic. Uh but we are limited by the inflexible 2.5% increases that are dictated by Proposition 2 and a half. Um and so we the cost of running the town goes up with inflation, but we can only increase the levy limit by two and a half percent.
So, we've done several like that as consultants, but we've also done them as um in many roles as your HR director. We've experienced other consultants coming in and doing them um as I can tell you for myself um as a town manager. I've had them done and most importantly probably I had them done as an employee um you know coming up through the ranks. So, I've seen them done well and I've seen them done not so well. So when we kind of build our model, we um really tried to customize it and and learn from the examples we've seen throughout our career. Um so thank for their next contest at the beginning. I would just say they have been such a joy to work with as well as the person on board. So it's a very collaborative process and we've absolutely loved working with just a quick introduction.