So, when you are on a board, you can't really represent any other groups but the board. You can be involved in CPAC, you can be involved in other groups, you know, PTA, township rec commission, athletic organizations, any of those, but don't ever use your board email to communicate about those groups. Uh if you are on a separate volunteer group, use your personal your personal email or whatever email you have for that. Keep it separate from your board. This is just a board member using their board email for CPAC. And there was a recommendation for a reprimand then. Reprimand there. And then there are just some more uh code of ethics cases. Top one is a board member read another board member's text messages aloud at a public meeting providing information about a school official. You never want to do anything like that. They had a recommendation for a reprimand.
So, it can give us really good information especially for students who may need some additional you know, attention and support. And you know, doing all of these things is actually at a cost savings to the district. You know, we have been very focused on trying to find savings. There are certain tools that we have cast aside that we don't think for a school of our size is worth the cost. One of those being a component in LinkIt was called intervention manager and we used it for our IRS process. We just didn't feel like the cost was worth it. You know, so we are always looking for ways to continue to be efficient and you know, again Mr. Greenfield's had a big hand in this, Ms. Pearson's had a big hand in this, Ms. Pennetti, Ms. Quigley. We're always looking for ways that we can try to be cost effective with our technology tools.
I hope you enjoy the beach. Um because I know your dad was a workaholic though he loved to sing. >> He did. >> He loved to sing. So he had he always had enjoyment doing that. I hope you find time to spend with your family and enjoy your your your years of uh retirement. >> Well, I'm not retiring. Okay, good. I hope not. You're too young to retire. >> Crazy. [laughter] >> All right. >> But thank you, Joe. I appreciate >> Thank you. Well, we appreciate what you've done for Ashon and keeping the store up as as nice as you have over the years. Thank you. >> My pleasure. Thank you. >> Appreciate it. >> Yeah. I just want to add that. Thank you. We often we talk about historic buildings sometimes, but um you know, this is uh more than a historic building really.
So um but you need to have a properly um equipped department to do that. Cemetery, parks, and trees, I mentioned that is to help make up for the loss of the revenue from the fields enterprise fund and paying for a staff member associated with that. And so those are the major increases within the town departments. Um where we find most of the pressure in our budgets these days are in the non-personnel um or the non-departmental expenditures. So things like health insurance. I'm sure everybody at home is seeing an increase in their insurance premiums. And the ironic thing about government is that when we when when residents start feeling pressure from inflation, um we feel it too. So our health insurance costs are going up significantly. So we did a very good thing a few years ago in the fact that we switched health insurance plans.
Yeah, and their losses I want to say are only like a goal or two deficit. Let me see. >> games so Let me double-check on their losses. Take it away. One was on Medfield. I do know that. >> Oh yeah, that's true. >> they lost by one. The other one I'm not sure about as Raiders just lose that ball out of bounds. It's going to be the Bears with it. Molly Oh, it's It's the Bears. Ursuline Bears. Yeah, is that the first one we're dropping? I thought it was the Mermaids. That's Ursuline. >> [laughter] >> I was just kidding. You know what's funny on their Arbiter Live it just has a big question mark. That's why I'm like huh. Well, if you look at the coach on the sideline where the play is not right now, he has a Bears on the back of his jacket.
Not to sell them on a college, but more to expose them to what a campus life looks like. What are the opportunities afforded to you if you decide you want to go to college? This is a picture from our reveal day this year. We had a great time. It we um planned it kind of pep rally style. We put all our students in the gym and we played lots of games. They did not know that they were grouped in with students of their new academy until the end it was revealed to them. Um for the third year 94% of our students are get um got one of their top three choices. Um, currently for quarter 3, 80% of our students are on track and for the month of March, we surpassed our expectations for chronic absenteeism in our academy where um, we look we got that as low as 16.5% for the month of March.
Um the bottom one was a 60-day suspension and that was a 15-year board member that got very involved in a a personnel matter. So, the action of the board member usurped the authority of the superintendent who's responsible for making disciplinary recommendations. The board member took it upon themselves to go to the employee's home, pick up a letter, presented on behalf of the employee directed to the BA to give to not give a copy of the letter to the superintendent, and then instead of recusing themselves from the matter in which he had a personal interest and personal involvement, the board member advocated on behalf of the employee in question the superintendent's recommendation of the employee. And that one was serious. Again, it was a 15-year board member and they actually um had a 60-day suspension. So, be cautious of getting involved in personnel matters. Yeah. I believe it had it was information about school officials.
So, I want to talk about some proposed changes for next year. That's That's some of the things that this budget allows us to do. One of the big things that we will be doing is currently here as everybody knows band and choir is offered as an outside of school time. We will be building band and choir back in as a specific course for our middle school students who choose to take it. You know, I think that will definitely get more students involved in music. I think we you all really value the arts and would like to see the enrollment in those programs increase and we really feel strongly that one way to do it is to offer it as a class. So, our 6th, 7th, and 8th grade students will have the option to join band and choir. It will replace their 10 specials periods per week.
It's a historic um family that familyrun business for 109 years. Um, [clears throat] and that's that's pretty powerful. And I know uh Mr. Manyani, I believe, worked in the store for quite a while. I know that my husband as a young man worked there. Um, and and my my brother-in-law. So, there's a lot of history for and and feelings for people who have live in this community even still today. Um, about your store and your family. Um, and so I I too just want to say thank you for being such a great part of the community for so many years. And um, and uh, and you know, we uh, we entrusted to that you've you've chosen a family that will uh, you know, do do well by the town and well for them as also. So, thank you very much. >> You're very welcome. >> Thank you.
Um and kind of changed the design around, which has saved us over $15 million over the last 10 years. But still it eventually it catches up when you have these increases of 10 and 12% each year. And again, your revenue is only going up 2 and 1/2%. So just to put this in very stark terms, that 2 and 1/2% increase that I talked about before that we're limited to um our ability to increase under proposition 2 and 1/2. So that total amount is 1.4 million. Um and benefits and insurance goes up 1.2 million. And just to be clear, folks, that is stuff that we're obligated to pay. Um these are not discretionary costs. These are things which we have to pay. Um and I think that's the main stuff with the budget.
Oh, look at you. Oh yeah, so the girls lost to Foxboro Um on the 17th It's a >> final of 12 to 13 so Raiders just get denied nice opportunity. And then when they lost against Medfield it was 13 to 14 so they've only lost by one goal. >> Yeah. And when they win they win Yeah, they pretty dominantly actually. Great effort here by number 21 Lubov. Passing it off to Bertie. Oh wait, that wasn't Bertie. That was number seven. Number seven? >> Number seven, Rowan. Rowan. Nice shot. That's an answer right there. Quieting the Raiders for now. So it is 10 to 3 with 5:07 left in the first half. It's a it's a pretty good game right now. I mean if you're a Raider fan. Well, the fact that the Bears haven't given up it's like you know they they do keep answering.
So, we're really proud of that. Um, without further ado, I'm going to pass it on because I think I've spoken way too long. Um, I think there's a lot to brag about. Um, but I'm gonna pass it on to John Lar Roza. >> Hi. So, my name is John Larrosa. If you noticed in Karina's last picture, I was the fool wearing a shirt that was two different colors because currently I run two differenties. So, the first academy that I'm running is here at West and it's the Academy of Emerging Technologies and Entrepreneurship. So just a little bit about some of the stuff we're doing in classrooms to bring the theme of the academy which is um business and and innovation into the classroom. We recently had our stock market challenge. We had JA come into the building about 20 members of JA volunteered to come in and they run a fake kind of stock market day.
They were reading private text about school officials. But we do if you you can look it up and you can see the read the entire story. Yeah. Yeah, because you can share information and communicate with each other as long as you're not violating uh open public meetings act with your text messages or anything like that. I think I believe it was this information about the school official. Yes. This is something we get a lot of questions on, too. It's when to recuse versus when to abstain. So, when a conflicted board member votes, there's a distinction between recusal and abstention. So, abstention is really if you don't have enough information to feel that you should be voting on something, in those pieces it may be appropriate to abstain. Recusal is really when you have a conflict of interest, and in that case you say you're not going to vote, you're not even going to be part of the discussion, you're just going to completely recuse yourself from the issue.
Two of them if they join band and choir will be band and choir. All right, so what that starts to look like is if I'm a sixth grade student and I'm not enrolled in band or choir, all right? In the In place of those two periods, I will have one music course and a study skills course. Um we are exploring options for, you know, what that curriculum is actually going to look like. Um and we think it's really important in middle school to start to introduce students to practices that are going to help them academically, but also help them with certain executive functioning skills like how to collaborate with positively in a group, how to do some goal setting. Um so, we're going to do that with sixth, seventh, and eighth grade students who are not enrolled in band or choir will have two sections of study skills.
Well, thank you, Billy. Appreciate it. >> And I'll just add thanks to I I don't have as quite of a history as these two. Um, but I know like my husband's in your store all the time. So, [laughter] >> he has a little history with >> Medfield. >> Yes. >> So, yeah. So, it's it's it it's all it's all related. So, good stuff. Bullard's Market. >> Yeah. My my husband lived across the street from Bullard's Market. >> Really? >> I'll be >> Which was your uncle's? >> Yeah. Was your uncle's Allen? >> Right. Yeah. So, so >> and I and I can say too that stories still come to the Thanksgiving table when when uh my extend my in-laws are [laughter] there. >> So, but but thank you and I'm glad that that um it seems like the new owners are going to be um picking up, you know, picking up where you left off and bringing their own vision to to uh to the store and >> look forward to it.
Does anybody have any questions? Yes, ma'am. No, no apologies. So when the state overrides some of these perfect example. Totally overrode town's putting the extra >> That would depend on who you're asking. No surprise, if you ask the state, they'll be like, well, you're getting additional tax revenue through that. Um and so that should help pay for the expended expenditures. Um what uh the state would also say, and I would agree with, is that we would get additional state money for any students that would come in. The thing is is the amount of money that they give us, it does not pay for each student, does not pay for the cost of educating each student. So it's still it still wouldn't be enough to cover those costs exactly from the state. It should once it gets built. We don't see that revenue though until it gets built.
>> [laughter] >> Somebody's laughed at your joke there, Cam. That's hilarious. Well, I mean if you think about it it's like both teams are six and two. So it's like you would you would have thought it would have been a real little bit closer. But I mean good good call, Cam. Yeah. Let's let's see if they Let's see if these Bears have anything to say about it. You know what I like to say? It's a learning experience. It's always a learning experience. Oh, here we go. Coming in. And look at that. What a save from Moral. Let's say no matter what age you are you shouldn't be scared of failure cuz it as long as you keep going >> True. leads to success. Good point. All right. They're working Oh, just goes through the stick and now working it. Good speed there from Katie Mayhew.
So there's screens up that have um current stock numbers that are trailing. The students get a set of money and they have to decide what are they going to do with that money? how are they going to make the most out of it? And they they call over a buyer, they tell them how much stock they want to buy or sell. Um and then they race up to the board to see kind of what's happening over time with that stock. So it was a great experience and brought kind of the traditional investment in stock market alive to kids. Um and we actually had students move on to the state competition in the stock market challenge. So it was excellent. In our innovation lab, um we have a beautiful, beautiful big engineering room. Uh Mr. consult recently had the students just practice the engineering process. So they talk a lot about the process of engineering which is planning number one figuring out a problem then making a plan for it and trying to execute that plan.
So, again, that's another thing we say, if you are wondering if you are conflicted from something, contact your board attorney. We're in CSA evaluation season. A common reason board members are conflicted from that is because they have a relative working in the district. So, if But there are other reasons that you may be conflicted from an issue or something that comes pops up on your board agenda. Maybe you're voting on uh something that you're involved in outside of the board. So, your board's voting on it, so you may have maybe a conflict and you may need to recuse yourself. Contact your board attorney. Always get those opinions from your board attorney. Relationship definitions. I did give you a chart of who a relative is cuz it does get confusing. A question we always get asked is yes, you can see there I know, yes, and you you also have your chart.
So, while we're building that out, you know, what we would also like to see is by eighth grade, you know, a a course that kind of prepares them for high school, maybe does some career exploration with them, allows them to become familiar with the platform that's used at Vance One High School, which is different from the platform that is used here. They are They use Microsoft, we use Google. Um so, we're working on building that out. And the other change is that currently we do financial literacy in grades six and seven and eight. The state requirement is that they have it one time in middle school, so we will do financial literacy only in eighth grade um to to meet that mandate. Will the kids who are in band or choir have the opportunity to still do the study skills? No, it will be in place of that.