So, I would just offer is there any questions still? Okay. Um then I think what we could do uh is you would be kind enough to pass some of those down. We'll move right to the budget update. And so in the packet that you are receiving now, um were there enough over there or do you need one more? Does Emily need one? >> You sure? >> All right. >> Oh, great. So, um I just wanted to share with the board when we think about and speak about the budget and where we are. Um I did kind of resurrect and and bring forward um I believe the board of education created a question and answers document prior to my arrival. And um the first question on that document had to do with what things never made it to the board. Um, and so that list was provided within that document.
So there there was no decision on the select board to um to quote unquote fight the project and and and push to deny the project. There was never that from the select. So Oh well, we're not going to talk about >> Yeah, >> I believe those were executive sessions. >> Yes. So, all right. Um, thank you, Mr. Winner. Uh, we appreciate you putting together this memo and taking us through this. >> Thank you guys for asking questions. Um, I think it was a good conversation >> and, um, unless anybody else has anything further, we will move on our agenda. >> I'm sorry, I don't mean to step out of my lane. This isn't any of my business, but I see Luke has his hand up again, and I'm just curious if that email came. I just didn't want to leave or or break from this if there was still another question that I could answer.
I did pull that list just so you could just recall and see again um all the items that never even made it to I believe what the interim superintendent presented to you um as a 6%. So these would be all those things before it became 6%. Does that make sense? So, I do want you to have it because sometimes when we talk about having a surplus of money or things that we're looking to still improve the schools by doing if we had funds available, these are priorities. They just didn't make the priorities to come down to you at 6% and then what we brought it back down to. So, so then that's the the first page in the back of that first page. Then when you get to the second page, those are the budget changes that we have gone through that I've shared with you before.
>> I don't see a recent email. I was going to say I'm not seeing an email. >> Okay. Double checking. That's all. >> Okay. >> I would just say one more time, Luke, if you have a question, feel free to send it to selectboard.com. A number of us have it open right now, so if you wanted to send it in, we could answer your question. Okay. All right. I think we're I think we're all set. So, thank you, Attorney Winner. Appreciate it. >> Yes. Thank you. >> Thank you. >> Thanks for being here. >> Um the next item on our agenda is a stabilization fund update. Um I'm going to turn this over to to Michael. Um we had wanted to talk about the stabilization fund as it relates to um where we are with our balance where we are with um you know post town meeting what we're our projected amounts.
This is how we brought it from 6% down to 3.96%. And you can kind of go to the the back of that page and see the rest of it. So those would be all the reductions, but the things that we did keep, right? And then if we had to keep cutting, those things that we would have kept cutting had we uh been required to keep going. Um but we were not. So that is fortunate. So then that leads me to um this next uh page that shows A and B. Um I call these options A and option B. There are definitely possibilities for CDE E and F and we could go down the whole alphabet. So um but if you were to ask me what would I recommend to you, these would be my recommendations. So what does this tell us? This tells us something that we've shared with you previously in other board meetings that we believe we have an estimated right now salary savings of approximately $270,000.
So Michael you want to go ahead. >> Thank you. Randy said, "Make sure you can share your screen when so we can put this on here." So hopefully everybody can see it. Um, so yeah, this is our stabilization fund balance going all the way back to 2004. And I think there was more of a question about what do things look like recently, like you said. So um, if you'll just indulge me a little bit, I'll go back just to 2021 where you see a series of withdrawals, uh, that that were made um, from 21 to 23. That was during the COVID period and that was a planned uh set of withdrawals that we did during u during that period. But over time as we built our balance up um we uh started to get to a point where we had reached our 10% goal meaning that 10% of our uh expenditures um we had enough to fund 10% uh of the expenditures in our stabilization fund.
That's the first number if you're looking up in in in a uh and then underneath that is the anticipated special education uh balance savings which is $291,000 and that's primarily due to transportation. The first one in salaries is primarily due to not filling specific positions uh as well as things like the interim superintendent in in other positions that just weren't filled throughout the year. So we realize right now a surplus of approximately $560,000. Um so with that we have needs uh that we need to consider using these funds for. First and foremost, I think on everyone's top priority is the boiler, right? The high school boiler is the top priority need. I did put in what our initial um bid was for that or quote, I'll call it. Um but we didn't like that one. So, that's why we went out to bid again. I won't have an updated number on that.
Um, and so that's why you see the deposits, the transfers in in 23, 24, and 25 so low because we only had to put in just a little bit to maintain that 10% goal. It wasn't until 2026 um when we needed to dip into that stabilization fund just because of the structural imbalance that we had. Um and so we had transferred out uh last for FY26 we transferred out 2.2 million leaving us a balance of um 8.3 million. Um and then um then that was carried over to this year and so we took we're planning on taking out for FY27 1.8 million. Now, we will transfer money in at town meeting. It'll be substantially more than, you know, the tens of thousands that you see just because we did dip below the 10%. And so, according to our financial policies, we put more in of our free cash into the stabilization fund.
So, you'll see $400,000 just placed, you know, earmarked there. I won't have an update on that until, like I said, June 19th, of which we just scheduled a meeting on June 23rd to go over those bids. I am hopeful that that number goes lower, but we should leave what the last best bid was just in case. Um, so that's kind of where we are there. We do know that there are concerns with uh the development uh students be able to appropriately develop with the playscape options and situations that they have at CLES. Um that is kind of a new need that's evolved but it is one that impacts a lot of students. Um Dr. P was wonderful in not only getting us a quote on that but also what the committee at the school which heavily involved uh the um school physical therapist um recommends.
So, um that $6.5 million ending balance um at the end of Falltown meeting will be a little bit higher, but I won't know that until we have free cash. So that's where we stand with the stabilization fund right now. Um our expenditures, our general fund expenditures are around $90 million. So you know to reach back up to the 10% we would need to get to 9 million. >> So quick well quick question regarding the 2.2 that we transferred out of the stabilization fund for 2026. Mhm. >> So, those are the one-time funds. Some of that was related to, if I'm correct, if if I'm not correct, let me know. Some of the ARPA funds that we had that to be able to use it, we had to put it into a general we, you know, we had to sort of put it someplace and then I thought we had more that we put into stabilization as well in 20 in 20 from 25 to 26.
And so if you go to the next page, you'll see the playscape that the school committee is recommending as well on the very last page, the quote for that playscape which includes installation. >> The the playground is targeted for what age? >> My understanding, but I ask for verification on this from Dr. P is 7 to 12 year olds. Is that accurate? >> Oh, it's the lower. Okay. >> 5 to 8 year olds. There you go. If you were to take a walk right now and go and see the two that exist, they're pretty much identical and they're kind of at the preschool level. So, we needed something that would span above that and beyond. So that way our our students could develop using more appropriate equipment. So uh there's also some thoughts around the finances for these as well. Uh when we think about um capital improvements which a boiler and a playgate would fall under.
>> Nope. So in 25 we did use ARPA funds in that way. That's one of the reasons why we didn't have to go into stabilization. Okay. That year. So it ba basically kicked the can down the road another year. >> And so last year when we did 2026 >> so we are we've already used so for this budget we used onetime funds >> for 2026. >> Yeah. For the current fiscal year. We did use onetime funds, right, which we talked about. And then because we did one-time funds in 2026 is why one of the reasons that the override was so important because we use those onetime funds either to create positions or to do some things that we knew that we'd have to have other revenue to help cover moving forward. >> Yeah. I mean, if I remember correctly, the 2.2 two million. >> I don't know what happened on the school end of things, but I'm think we created anything new.
Um, we would consider working with the town to potentially transfer this money over to the town and request that they use it to for capital improvement to fund these capital improvements. >> Yes. >> Want to make sure the mic actually um this is a question that Aaron had asked me. So, I'm gonna have Erin's still hopefully listening if she could ask it about potentially having funding left in any capital budget around the school for um the playground. >> Go ahead. >> I mean, my my initial question right is when I sat at the municipal building meetings and we heard for you know quite some time during that uh build of that they were constantly under budget. So my question is, is there remaining money in that budget um for the CLE build? Because if there is, I think that's where that playground should come from.
That was >> I don't think on the general government side, but I think there might have been some >> Okay. >> Yeah, I think I could be wrong, but Okay. >> So, hopefully this answers the questions that you know anybody might have. >> Just one followup. So it looks like even though we're doing the override for 2027, we are using money from our stabilization fund. And there's that. So we need to address that moving forward, right? If we're keep because if we keep using one-time funds to support our budget to support what we're trying to do in town, we're going to keep eventually down the road having this issue again. >> Yeah. So, I would ask that we spend time in the next six months understanding what we're doing with those one-time funds and having a conversation with our community to say, "Look, a a number of people didn't like the override.
>> So that's a that's a really um great question, Erin, and I think I think the answer um to that at this point in time is that we are just not sure because of where um you know, everything is with you know mediation and things like that. Um it has been brought up um with the NBC, you know, are there additional, you know, will there be any money left in that budget? But I I don't know that um that's something that we can we can count on, but we can certainly follow up with um the NBC and see if they have any more information. >> So, I do recall though when I did attend one of the meetings, I did stay after and I spoke uh with some of the folks um and they did say that these now are our responsibilities. So, we would have to to both fund it, manage it, and all of that.
We had to do it to support our schools, but as a community, we need to think about what we're doing and whether or not we want to continue using one-time funds for either new opportunities or new programs because otherwise down the road, we're going to continue having to do this and we're going to have to look for more money. >> Yeah. And part of that 1.8 8 million is 750,000 that we decided to take out of the not pursue with an override or any of the debt exclusion stuff and we went with the stabilization fund this year basically because things were getting so confusing. >> Right. Right. >> Just was >> but that's >> was going to >> that's the because we had talked about because I think when we voted the budget wasn't it like 1.6 that we voted for the stabilization fund. >> Yeah.
There was no um there was no discussion that we might have monies available to help support that. So, but that being said, I would have no problem at all going back and or emailing and asking if there are. Um that's a great thought. So, thank you so much and I will ask directly and get a direct answer. >> Thank you. I just think, you know, just for transparency that we just ask and if it's there and they can fund it before we ask for capital on it. That's just my thought process. >> Before we fund it, we should explore all avenues to possibly not have to fund it. >> I agree. Thank you so much. I appreciate that. I will uh work on that and I'll let give a board an update when I get a response. >> There any grant options? >> I am.
And then we amended it because we added 200,000 more for the schools and their fields take over. And remember, we couldn't we couldn't just take the um enterprise fund and just transfer it over. We got to unwind. >> So that'll go back in once once that gets unwound. >> Correct. >> And generally speaking, like so, you know, we talked about the 750 on the municipal side. The rest of that um was money that we typically I mean as you can see like there's there's transfers out pretty much you know the majority of the years where we have small amounts and that's to balance the budget. >> Yeah. >> So if you can talk a little bit about the >> 2024 and 2025 we didn't have to take anything out. >> Yeah. We didn't we didn't have to where you know we got into a place um in 2013 2014 where we were taking money out but we were putting more money in >> and then 2017 is when we created the special education stabilization fund and we were able to pivot away from that strategy because that's not a good strategy.
You know, that is a great And I looked into that. Right now, I don't see anything that we would um qualify for for that. >> But that that was great, too. And I did research that. Um >> I looked down. >> Yeah. Yeah. Came up short on that one. So, yay preschool. >> Know that. >> So, all the images are those options or those are the four or five. That's actually a custom playscape that was um designed by this company uh that they would install. So, it's all the same playscape, just different um angles of the playscape. So, you can see the different apparati, if you call it that, that the students can play on. >> Would it replace what we have already? >> No, it would go in a location um where there's a a space for it. So we would keep the one because we um yeah like we we even asked that could would you take this one and give us like credit or it's no that's not an option.
Um and so it's it worked for a few years until you know COVID came around and we were very cautious about that and just the lack of revenue or loss of revenue. Um and we did a structured draw down. We said we'll do 1.4 this year but we got to cut it down to 900 and we got to cut it down to 450 and we ourselves off. And then for the next couple years, we were well except 25 when we used ARPA money, which doesn't show on here, but in 2024, we were good. Um 2025 is when we started skiing into wet snow again. >> And obviously funds to do things. Yeah. >> And obviously at a big level because the numbers that we're taking out are the largest that we've ever taken out. >> Fortunately, we're prepared um and we were in a position to do that.