001Good evening. I will get started as Quinn approaches the stage. The vice the chair of the Lawrence School Committee will be with us shortly as well. So, good evening. Today is Wednesday, May 27th. I'm calling this meeting of the Lawrence School Committee um school committee to order. This meeting was properly posted in accordance with the requirements of the Massachusetts open meeting law. This meeting is hybrid. It's in person at the South Lawrence East at 165 Crawford Street, Lawrence Mass 01843, and is accessible via the um Lawrence Public Schools YouTube channel. Secretary, can you please call the role? Chair Brian Deña, Vice Chair Jessica Marie Ramirez, >> present. >> Clerk Jonathan Guzman, >> present. >> Committee man, >> present. >> Committeewoman Don Bertoino, Committeeman Jesus Suriel, Committeeman Michael Armano, >> present. >> Forum established. Thank you.
002At this time, if you're able to do so, please rise for the pledge of allegiance. >> 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. At this time, I will open the floor for public participation. We do have one um member from the community that would like to speak. Hmali. So, you have three minutes. Please um state your name and address for the record and address the committee as a whole. Omayun Mali 53 Chester Street. Good evening honorable members. We the citizen are grateful because of all most student focused budget in the history of Lawrence public school. Lawrence public school with the impeccable leadership by honorable director Buu and honorable superintendent Ralph Guerrero.
003Moving forward in this important budget hearing, we must know the best teachers in the nation are teaching in our public school. We must take offer the best compensation to our teachers so the other cities do not take our teachers away. We must no more listen to our teachers and their union. Lawrence teachers, you are number one. We are proud to support your union. Because of you, because of your hard work and dedication, Lawrence Public School has attained the tremendous academic success. the budget with the the teachers who inspire the whole world. The teachers who educate children and of the Lawrence as the genius Ben Franklin said any investment in education has thousands of return because of this student focused budget. Children of the Lawrence going to the most prestigious Ivy League school. Lawrence always strong.
004Lawrence always unite. Lawrence teachers, proud of you and because of you, because of your excellent job, Lawrence will rise again. Thank you. Is there any other member of the public that would like to speak? Secretary, can you call the role for the chair, please? >> Chair Brian Deñena, Vice Chair Jessica Marie Ramirez. It's just for the chair. He can state that he's here. >> Thank you. >> So, we're here today um to go through it's a it's our public hearing for FY27 um fiscal year school budget. I will now hand off this public hearing to our receiver to receiver Woo. >> Good evening everyone. Um as Vice Chair Romero said, we're here for the public hearing on the Lawrence Public Schools FY27 proposed budget. This hearing is an opportunity to hear input from the public
005on the proposed budget. Chief financial officer for the district Jason Cabrera and Superintendent Carrero will be facilitating answers to any questions that are raised during the hearing. Immediately following the public hearing, we will have a school committee meeting um where the chief financial officer will engage in a bud budget presentation to the school committee. And following tonight and after incorporating any of the feedback solicited today, the budget will be presented to the city council on June 8th. During the hearing, school committee members will be in listening mode and questions will be facilitated by the chief financial officer and the superintendent and school committee members will have an opportunity to ask their questions during the budget presentation portion of the agenda. Um, before we begin, I just want to acknowledge and appreciate the entire leadership team
006from the district and especially the finance department for getting all the materials ready for this meeting and the thoughtful planning that goes into developing the budget. I also appreciate that the chief financial officer invited city council members and school committee members to pre meetings to review the budget prior to this hearing today. Without further ado, um we are now going to begin the public portion um the public input part of the meeting. If you are here today to provide public input, you may come to the podium at the front and at the start of your comments, please state your name and address and address for the record. >> Hello Okay. My name is Luis Roblas, uh, 183 Abbott Street. Uh, so I just have some a few questions. Um, short answer is fine. Um, so,
007um, from what I read from the budget, um, the first question I have is, um, what are some examples of, um, professional development for staff? It mentions a focused high quality professional development. So, I'm wondering what does that mean? That's my first question like what does the professional development will look like for next fiscal year? M excuse me madam receiver I don't believe we're in the public hearing here to interact with the public rather to listen to what any statements that they have. Am I not correct on that? >> Uh my understanding is that during the public hearing the public is able to ask questions and that the uh chief financial officer and the superintendent would uh >> okay respond. >> You want to come up Mr. Cabrera? >> Um Mr. Robas um where specifically
008on the budget are you referring to so I can understand the question. um like in the introduction of the budget it says that there will be like a focus in high quality um focused professional development. So I just wonder like what does that actually like translate to? >> Gotcha. >> Some some some examples like >> Yeah. Yeah. So you're referring to one of the priorities, >> right? >> Yeah. Do you do you want to go over those numbers in the budget where it's located? >> Oh, I didn't reference >> No, no, no. I was I'm sorry, Lewis. I was referring to the uh CFO and then I can answer some of those. >> Superintendent, I believe this is a more of an academic uh question as to what uh professional development we are investing in
009as a district uh for next fiscal year. I can I can speak to some of the more uh substantial investments that we're making. >> Yes. For example, we're partnering with uh vendors, with consultants, with with professional development that has to do with our English language learners. So, I know >> so that's one one in in particular that I wanted to mention to uh Lewis. So, when we talk about high quality investment in professional development, it's focused. Uh Mr. Cabrera mentioned one of them which is to the tune of about $2.5 million which is what he what he referred to as QELL which is an acronym for one of the highly professional development activities that all our teachers particularly that teach to English language learners multilingual students will be undertaking to be certified in that particular
010method which is the newest method that they're using that they're seeing uh excellent results results in terms of uh student growth in terms of language. Um that's one of them. There are others that are particularly focused on special education. Okay. And then there are others that are focused to the general population. Um I don't have our one of our assistant superintendent from curriculum here. So I can't spec other than the one that we just specifically mentioned. Usually our professional development budget is probably going to exceed around $7 million because when we contract for professional development through different consulting groups, they specialize in the in those types of uh areas. One of the other areas that we have focused on for the district is the uh school quality reports review that they come in and they
011evaluate all of our schools. uh they randomly uh select classrooms to uh to ensure that um they're adhering to the type of uh strategies that have been worked on throughout the school year. That's that's to the tune of approximately 950 to another million dollars that is finishing off in its uh ninth year. And that's important for us that because those are mandates regarding some of those professional development activities that require us to participate in them in accordance with the turnaround plan for the district. Make sense to you? >> Um, next question is uh the fair share airmark projection was blank. >> Fair share air marks. >> Air marks. >> Yeah. So, I believe uh for next year, those numbers just came out, so it might be a matter a matter of timing. Uh for this
012year, we received some funds that helped us with uh ADA accessibility at at one of our schools, >> federal or state. >> State, that's what we're talking about. State. Um there was an ADA there was one uh there was an earmark uh funds for STEM a STEM program at the high school. >> Okay. I know which >> and I believe there's another one uh another earmark for next year that has to do with STEM at the high school. I believe the health uh the health pathway at the high school and there was one that had to do with uh beautifification of the schools uh murals cultural um >> so one one of the airmarks was ADA compliance that's uh for handicap accessibility >> yes >> for uh the public staff and students the second one
013was relative to a STEM program uh to uh expand on at the high school. Um there was one for uh there was another one for STEM in the middle school and the fourth one was the one that you had mentioned which I believe falls under the arts. That's the beautifification program of uh buildings that they would be uh uh working with students from the arts department to paint murals and some of the different designated schools. That's the fair uh cheer mark. What what is the tune of that money Mr. Cabreraund was that was less than >> I believe I believe it was close to 225 the one that we that we're in the process of getting for this year it's not >> approximately 250,000 >> 225 just 225 >> yes sir >> so Mr. Robins,
014that's an earmark. That's not under the umbrella of chapter 70 that we receive annually. That's through the efforts of our legislators. I I believe that one was particularly through the uh efforts of uh Senator Payano. He was uh able to lobby and in this year's budget, that's what he was able to designate for us in those four programs. That was the amount of money. >> Thank you. We're learning in the process here. Um, for supplies and materials, it looks like there was a deduction of 2.5 million. Um, if I read that correctly, can explain like how would that like affect the schools? >> So, we work the the finance department and and curriculum and instruction and and special education and and the multilingual department, we work closely to make sure that they have the things
015that they need for this upcoming year. Um I'll get a little bit into the details later, but there is less funding now, right? So funding funding has to come from somewhere so we can uh finance some of these things. Um you know, we we're always going to put not always, but you know, things like that are going to go before we talk about personnel or or those kind of benefits, those kind of things. So uh that's uh a call that was made based on the funding that we have right sizing our budget to the children that the enrollment that we have and also in communication with the departments that are affected by those uh by those I don't want to say cuts but those cuts on on those educational supplies. And for sake of time,
016if I have a question that you're going to cover in the presentation, just feel free to say that you'll cover it just for the sake of time. Um, in case anybody else has more questions. The next one is uh 1.7 million increase in administrators. Just to elaborate a little on what that is. I'm not sure the superintendent wants to speak on that, but one thing that that we have been doing for the last couple of years and and more specifically this year, we're trying to equate across the district. So, what do I mean? For example, we had schools where there was only one principal that was the administrator. They didn't have an assistant principal. So, we had multiple schools that only had one principal. um some schools in those uh you know you have um
017uh some deans that that are part of the the school leadership. So we've been that's one of the things that we've done when it comes to administrators. I believe the uh object 511 002 whenever you look at the budget uh says salaries principles that's actually the school administration at the school level. Um we we've uh at the departmental level we've made sure that our vacancies have been filled for to provide services to the whole district. So that's part of it. I don't have the the specifics of you know how much is schoolbased versus departmental base but uh that that is where it's coming from. Sir >> Mr. Robas, if you look into the detailed budget by school, you'll be able to track the differences. So, as Mr. Cabrera said, we've been trying to from last
018year going into this year rightsize each of the schools to make sure that they have the proper supervision that includes each school has a principal, but each school didn't have an assistant principal. And schools didn't have uh curriculum coaches to work with teachers in each other classrooms. So that's where you would probably see the amount the most amount for having administrators in those buildings across the district. >> Uh the next one is uh parent trainers. I saw a line for that. Is that related to parent university or something else? >> Parent trainers or a parent trainer. That's the one. >> It was well I just saw parent trainer. Parent trainers. I'm not sure if that's what do they what exactly do they do? >> Help me out, Mr. Cabrera. Where is he looking at there
019on the parent trainers? Wouldn't that fall under uh Oh, there it is. Okay. >> Parent trainers. Those So, uh those parent trainers I believe uh will fall under um the family resource center. We are required to have um additional staff there that are referred to as professional interpreters to be in compliance for our multilingual population. Um that's a signing from the department of education that we have to have certified trainers and those trainers can go out to any of the schools those interpreters to serve as uh uh assistance for parents during uh IEP meetings or for report card night or for meetings with the principal um for any of our uh our families even though it's it's is a it's designated through the multilingual department um doesn't necessarily have to be for them because almost
020our entire uh district is multilingual. >> Next time I'll include like a page number and or line item just to make it easier as well. Um there will there is a 1.4 million going into diversity, equity, and inclusion. Um what does that consist of and like how will that help the students out? So the budget for that department uh that is under our HR wing. Uh part of it uh uh part of it is uh development of our staff to be culturally um aware, culturally educated, diversified the workforce. For example, uh they take care. We have a number of uh paraprofessionals that are in a program at MAC College. Uh I can't remember the number, but there's a number of them that are at Merry McK College uh getting their education to be teachers. Um,
021so some of those funds go towards things like that, taking our people, developing them, and making sure that we continue to have a diverse uh workforce when it comes to our teachers and and our uh administrators. >> That budget that budget came under the S SOA grant in the past. Um, you hear federally uh with the administration about trying to cut that type of program. That program is intentional to recruit um diverse, multilingual, multicultural staff members. That budget is not for students. It's about trying to create equity opportunity for staff. Uh Mr. Cabera referred to one of our programs that we have where we have a lot of our power professionals happen to be bilingual and and uh bicultural. uh that department through those funds helps provide pathway programs through college to get them certified
022to become teachers. That pa that program also provides some of our other staff and teachers to go into school to become licensed administrators that include uh vice principles, assistant principles and principles. Um that program also is to create opportunities for recruitment of language minority and minority staff in general. So that's why it's referred to as divers diversity and equity programs. That line item will go away, but the services that we're providing won't go away. It's getting wrapped into the human resources department. That is an arm right now specifically of the human resource uh department. But when you see that go away because of what they're trying to do away with, we're wrapping that into HR as a general permanent function. >> Um, if I read it correctly, it looks like the superintendent's office um reduced
023his budget by about 3.6 million. How were if that is accurate, like how how were you guys able to find all that savings? That's a good thing, I would say. That that is a good question because that's a good that's a big variance. So in the beginning of the year we have plans at the beginning of this fiscal year we had plans right that had to do a lot of it had to do with contract negotiations right so one of the things that the superintendent um had proposed was uh compensation for teachers to get their professional license to pay for some professional development etc etc I think uh I can't remember the the max amount, but it was I think it was $ 1.5 million that was set aside for that. Um that money is
024getting moved into HR for things like tuition and if you look at the tuition line in the in that department uh that tuition line increased. So those funds are being distributed across to the departments that actually take care of it. When we first budgeted, it was an initiative of the superintendent and the funds were under the superintendent's office. But so those funds are still there. They're just in the departments that are actually dealing with the intent of of the funds. >> And um I have a son that goes to the south. It was one of the schools that saw a reduction in the budget. Is that related to enrollment or just some other cuts? South Lawrence East. So, it's interesting with a few of the schools and this is a disclaimer that that I'm going
025to put on on the budget book. There is reduction in some of the elementary schools because the we moved fifth grades from the elementary to the middle school. So fifth grade moved from elementary to middle. So that means that you moved whatever many students we had 120 students and the teachers go with those students right. So the teachers go with it the par professionals go with it uh nurses whatever you know whatever uh goes with those children moves move with the children. So that may be that is the case for a number of schools. Um South Lawrence is one of them I believe. Um, Barton. >> Yeah, that's another one. And there is a couple more. >> So, for example, the SLE that you were referring to, Mr. Robles, you would see a reduction in
026the South Florence East, but the other side of the South Florence is spark. You'll see an increase in spark by the minus of those four or five teachers to the increase of those four or five teachers and the movement of those 120 125 students from South Lawrence East to the increase to Spark. So what we've been trying to do is rightsize the district so that we have equity in terms of the number of students in in in especially the big complexes. >> Okay. That was all the questions. Uh thank you for the opportunity. >> Thank you sir. >> Good evening Mali 53 Chester Street. I have a three question basically. My first question is in the era of the competitive advantage as the more affluent cities they try to compensate the teachers and educational staff.
027What is our strategical goal in order to satisfy our great teachers in our city so the other cities cannot take our teachers? What is the incentive for the teacher for example stay in Lawrence with a low pay or rate of pay than no move to another city in this budget? What is the strategical goal to keep our teachers and excellent staff in Lawrence public school? >> Thank you. Thank you for the question, Mr. Monty. Um so we just we We're finishing up our first year of a contract that that we just enter into with with our teachers. Um I believe is a a contract we believe is a contract that that is fair, equitable. We are on par if you look at for example the Berry Valley with the exception of some of the more
028affluent communities. I think we we're close to being if not on par with those communities. uh we've in invested heavily on uh putting money towards for our teachers towards professional development, getting professional licenses, getting their education, their master's degree, get going back going to school and and uh so that we can have the best qualified teachers in front of our children. So those are some of the investments that go with our teachers that perhaps don't show up in the salary line but are benefits that that our teachers teachers have. So that's uh I don't know, superintendent if you have something else you want to add to that. >> Surely you you hit the nail on the head. Um although it's not shown on the sat salary line item, our uh teachers negotiated a uh uh
029I want to say one of the best contracts they've had in a long time in Lawrence public schools. They have a three-year contract with 3% each year. That's a total of 9%. We've doubled the tuition reimbursement to make sure that the young teachers are able to go to school and to continue their certification process and for us to reimbursement for that to reimburse them for that. The if you recall last year a lot of the teachers union were fighting with their um communities where they reside in over parental leave. That is an area that we were able to reach amicably with our teachers to create a parent leave and expand upon that. Um, so all of our benefits that we've been able to create with our uh teachers union were all ne negotiated in fairness
030and I think that we um were able to negotiate that contract in a record time. We didn't have to wait for a whole year or we have teachers picketing or what have you. So we had a great session I think and we continue to have those type of dialogues. We're in the process and as another um benefits is uh extending uh medical leave through creation of a sick bank when we have teachers that are critically ill. Um we might have folks with cancer. We might have folks that would that have um um situations with their children. So again that's through the benefits package that we have. So I think that we've done pretty good. I also will dare to say because if as I look at other uh teachers contract, Lawrence public schools has one
031of the the most competitive and lucrative contracts with our teachers. Our teachers do not make um actually what I should say our brand new teachers coming in is probably one of the highest paid teachers and that was done purposely so we can recruit teachers. Um, but our teacher salaries are up in the 90s and a good portion of our teachers are up around $100,000 for 186 days, my friend. So, I am proud to say that um we work very well with our teachers and one of the reasons why we make sure that we compensate our teachers adequately is because with the investment that we make for our teachers, we want them to stay. >> Thank you for your response. My second question respectfully is the one of the most important criticism or or uh public
032school has been unfortunate lack of parental or the guardian or the people parent involvement and community involvement in our public education. What is the strategical focus of this budget to empower our parent and community to participate in public education of our children? >> Thank you for that question. Um, each year for the last couple of years, we've seen an increase in parent uh involvement. just my uh um meetings that I have with them on a monthly basis. My parent coffees that are online, uh we have over a 100 parents now that participate. Uh with the WS council that's held at the old Lawrence High School auditorium, we have over a 100 parents that participate in that. We have our ELPAC meetings that happen monthly at the Lawrence Public Library. We've had crowds of upward of
033300 parents participating there. Every one of our schools is mandated to have at least parent engagement programs um after school with their children at the particular schools. We uh have set aside budgets particularly for each school. Each school has an aotment of approximately $3,500 to uh make sure that they have the funds to host activities at their schools. And all of it is about engaging parents and bringing parents into the schools. So, our parent engagement um and we know that the programs that are working because of our surveys that we send to our parents uh asking them for what type of services that they need. I failed to mention also our um special ed pack for our special ed parents that meet on a regular basis to have conversations and have conversations regarding services and
034what type of programs um they want their children to be involved in involved with and what they offer them. So our parent engagement program is strong and it continue we continue to build on that. Um, let's not forget also we have our family resource center that provides uh many of our programs. You heard one of the uh one of our uh citizens mentioned um parent university. We started a parent university program for parents out of our high school and we started a parent academy for parents in our grammar schools. Those have to do with taking ESL classes, uh, opportunities to be trained to become employees of Lawrence public schools as par professionals. Um, we've also created opportunities for them to work and partner with the work enforcement and enforcement board to provide training and job
035trainings for them. So our family resource center also reaches out to our parent base and offers every kind of program that you can imagine that we believe that they need. Our adult learning center offers citizenship classes um testing through our partnership with the state for uh for um certification at the par profofessional level also. So we have a host of tiered level uh opportunities of training for our parents that not just include engagement engagement with our schools but also engagement with our staff to help them um seeking gainful employment and working within the district. >> Thank you so much for your response. Thank you. Uh, vice chair, I think we'll practice some wait time to see if anybody else is would like to come to the podium and then we may close this portion of
036the meeting. Okay, seeing as no one is coming up, I just want to thank the community for participating in this public hearing today. And vice chair, I'll turn it back over to you. So at this time um we will close public participation through the public hearing and I will entertain a motion to adjourn this portion of the meeting. >> Motion to adjurnn. >> So could I get a second? Second by the mayor that can you call the role? >> Um chair brand. >> Yes. Vice Chair Ramirez, >> yes. >> Clerk Jonathan Guzman, >> yes. >> Committeeman Quinn Gonell, >> yes. >> Um, Committeeman Michael Armano, >> yes. >> Motion carries. So, we will adjourn this portion of the meeting and there are motions to recess. So, we will now go into um the FY27 budget
037um presentation and I will be handing this over to Mr. Cabera, the CFO of the Lawrence Public Schools. Secretary, you can call the RO. Chair Brand Pñena. >> Yes. >> Vice Chair Merz, >> present. >> Cler Jonathan Guzman, >> present. >> Um, Committeeman Quinn Gonell, >> present. >> Committee woman Donna Bolino, Committee Man Jesus, Committee Michael Armano, >> present. Form >> established. Thank you. It's all yours, Mr. Cabera. >> All right. Good evening, um, Madame Receiver, Madame Vice Chair, uh, chair, Mr. Depa, honorable members of the Lawrence School Committee. Before I start, the question was asked about about uh the investment on our teachers and I was part of of the contract negotiations for for our teachers and I see that we have uh members of the Lawrence teachers union here. So I want to
038thank them for their collaboration in making this work. We we were able to to get through negotiations without any major major issues uh which was not the case in a lot of the communities around us. So, thank you for for the collaboration and the partnership. All right, let's uh All right, so we have a PowerPoint up. Uh I'm going to go through this. You can ask questions uh as we go through it or um we can talk about it at the end. For the upcoming fiscal year, the district is proposing a budget designed to sustain core instructional programs while making targeted investments. uh in areas that support student achievement. Uh fiscally, our responsibilities uh include our priorities include student center resource allocation that is prioritizing core instruction, special education, English language support and mental health
039services. Uh number two, we have staffing and compensation, maintaining appropriate uh student teacher ratios and funding competitive salaries and benefits to recruit and retain high quality teachers and staff. Uh three, academic programs and curriculum invested in programs like STEM, arts, uh career, uh technical education, and early childhood, which we've been doing for uh for the last couple of years heavily. facilities, safety and operations. Making sure that our budget that we budget for a safe uh for safe well-maintained buildings, maintenance, repairs, and uh utilities. And then financial sustainability and transparency uh planning for long-term financial stability and made enrollment uh and funding ch uh challenges. Like it's no secret like many other school districts we have our you know we face financial challenges including the rising operational cost uncertainty in some uh funding sources like federal
040grants is one of them uh enrollment in our schools but our financial teaming continues to work closely with the district leadership and the school uh with the school leadership to ensure that resources are used responsibly and strategically. Transparency and collaboration are central to this process and we encourage families uh to families, staff and community members to review the proposed budget and participate in the upcoming discussions will be in front of city council on June 8th. I want to thank you ahead of time for your collaboration and and partnership also. So I wanted to start by bringing up our our vision and our mission. Everything we do, everything we do is uh center around this, right? Our our funding has to align with our our our strategies uh which have to align with our mission and
041have to align with our vision. Our mission, we're committed to empowering every student to excel. Our vision as a Lawrence public schools uh district, we believe that all students are full of purpose, power, and promise through transformative teaching, high expectation, engaging learning, and strong family partnerships. Lawrence public schools is united in our commitment to prepare every student drive to drive change in their communities and build a better world. So, I wanted to start with that. Um, as we go through this, we can refer back to this and as we think about the budget. Um, I hope I hope you can see some of this stuff. But the budget development process starts in October, September, October. October 1st, uh, we have to uh, well, the end of October, we certify our numbers for the state as
042far as enrollment. those the number of students that we have on October 1st of of the prior fiscal year in this case is 2025 is what dictates how how much we're getting in funds from the state for the next fiscal year. So in October of 2025 that tells us how much funding we have uh for the school year that starts in August of the next year. In November and December, we meet with the departments and the school to take requests from the departments and look at their initiatives and how uh they feel that they can be best uh serve our students. Then January, February, we >> No, that's fine. In January, we get the uh governor's budget, proposed budget uh for the next fiscal year. And that's when we start meeting with the departments and
043the schools uh the school principles to talk about what it is that they need uh what is working what is not working how can we best invest in in our children so that happens for a whole two months that's about February March in April um the budget is presented to the superintendent and the receiver in May this is where we're at getting input from the community uh we'll go in front of uh city council to get our budget hopefully passed through and July we start the new fiscal year. How do we how do our schools get funded? As I mentioned, school districts are funded based on the October 1st enrollment of the prior year. For this year, that includes 12,955 students as of October 1st of 2025. So the funding that we get for next
044year is based on the students that we had October 1st of last year. Additional funds are allocated for higher needs students including English language learners, students below the poverty threshold, and those requiring special education. Uh for fiscal year 2027, Lawrence public schools funding funding sources include uh the following. We we are expected to receive about 332 million in chapter 70 state aid that comes straight from the state and the t the state's taxpayers. 17.1 million in city contributions, 21.6 million in state and federal grants, and 13 million in school lunch reimbursements. the formula for u getting to where we need to get for the appropriation that we'll be asking for or we are asking for it starts with chapter 78 that adds the uh minimum local contribution of 17 million which gives us a total
045total of 349 million 349.3 million uh net school spending whenever we talk about net school spending in in education finance those are the dollars that count towards the education of our children. Right? The state sets a number that we have to spend to meet net school spending. The money they give us, that money plus the city contribution is to be spent on the children in a way that that is to the benefit of the children and their education. Um if you look at it, uh there there are some things that are net school uh spending eligible. Um, for example, charter tuition is on here, school choice, special education assessment, non-resident vocational tuition, and some municipal administrative costs. Uh, that adds up to about 56 million. And then there are things that are added back to
046uh to the budget or to the appropriation like charter tuition reimbursement, transportation, adult education leases and for this year the appropriation that we are uh seeking uh it is 319,642,948. Now, this requested appropriation differs from the city's proposed budget on two items. And I I I don't have the the city proposed budget here, but I'm I'm sure that the public has has seen it has uh it's on their website. Um two items. Number one is transportation which the city is funding at 11,762,755 instead of the 13,448110 that we're asking for. Number two is the leases which the city is funding at 543,245 instead of the requested uh 1,9776 and $675. There's a total variance of about 2,191,785. The city's recommended budget is 317,451,163. >> Can you re >> Hello? >> Yes. >> Can you restate
047those numbers again? >> Yes, ma'am. Yes, ma'am. So the appropriation that we're seeking is 319,642,948. The city's recommended budget is 317,45163. That is a variance of about 2,191,000 and and some change. So the s the the school department is asking for leases. Well, that was 1 >> 1.976, ma'am. >> And the city is proposing >> 543,245 >> and these are leases that are approaching that have that are exceeding the three years. >> Correct. The next slide, if I can go to the next slide, please. The next slide. uh C uh 603 CMR that's the code of Massachusetts regulation. >> Before you move on, I think committee man Guzman has a question. >> Yeah, I'm sorry. I just um if you can clarify something. >> Yes. >> Real quick before you move on, um just because
048it was huge context probably for the rest of this meeting. Um, when you look at E, total FY27 school committee appropriation, you see that it says school committee appropriation 9 + 15. I believe that what that's saying to us is that you look at line nine, which is total NSS eligible municipal expenditure, which is 56, right? 56 million. 56 million. And then you look at line 15 which has 26 million. >> So good. >> So I think we're missing >> No, no. The the the committeeman Guzman has has a good point. The school committee appropriation is nine. I'm sorry. 10 + 15. 10 + 15. >> 10 + 15. >> Correct. >> Nine. >> So that's a typo. >> Correct. Okay. We we'll >> So with that said, um can you also explain a little
049further your net sue spending which is you know you're looking at chapter 73 332.2 2 million plus the contribution of local level which gives you the 17.1 um bringing us to the 349.3 on net school spending which for me that that that reads as that's the that's the funding that is coming in from those two sources but then we get that 319 >> correct so so the the chapter 78 and the minimum contribution is for every child in the city of Lawrence not necessarily uh in Lawrence public schools as you know we have children that are in charter schools and children that are in in in other schools. Um we have partnerships also with you know with private schools but those are funds that go to education in the city of Lawrence whatever whatever that
050may look like. We just happen because of our size uh we get 319 million uh 642. The the rest of the funds are distributed amongst like it says that you know charter tuition um and and other programs across the city. Sir, >> Thank you. And thank you for noting that that that typo. So going back to to CMR 603 CMR 10.00 uh that is the regulation for funding of of education in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. Um it talks about sections talk about non net school spending uh things like funding for transportation services are the city's responsibility. Support for adult education program is also a city's responsibility leases that exceed three years in duration as you were referring to uh madame vice chair. Uh and also funding for chapter 74 education which are vocational programs. All
051those are non net school spending eligible and the responsibility of of the city of Lawrence per CMR 603 CMR 10.0. All right. I explained earlier that that enrollment is the source of of 95% of our of our of the funds that we receive. Why is that important? Not only in Lawrence, but across the Commonwealth and and really across the country, uh, enrollment is is declining. This past year, this year from fiscal year 25 to fiscal year 26, we lost 358 students. That is about and if you want to monetize that, that's close to somewhere between seven and a half and $8 million. That's money that we would have had for for next year had we kept the the enrollment. Um we were sized for that amount of students. Now we don't have those funds for
052next year. This is a very very very conservative um uh projection. Uh has us losing about 83 students. Um that would be that would that wouldn't be all so bad if it was 83 students. But uh we'll see what what where we end up. Like like I said, like most cities, towns, and municipalities in the Commonwealth, this is a problem. This year out of the 350 60 plus uh cities, towns and municipalities in the commonwealth about 80 of them saw an increase in enrollment and when I say increase I'm talking handful of handful of children. So um that is the state of of the enrollment uh and funding in the Commonwealth and in the city of Lawrence. Based on our October 1st numbers, uh LPS is expecting revenue or this is what we're asking um
053so we can cover our expenses 319,642,948 245,000 uh I'm sorry 245,433,000 and some change comes from chapter 78. 8 S so S SOA which stands for student opportunity act is $57.1 million is also chapter 70 funds but they they have a special purpose the the reason why I divided uh student opportunity act from the rest of the money is because the student opportunity act was a uh has a expiration date. So it had it was a seven-year plan. We're in the third year of the last the the S SOA2 um and as of right now there is no plan as to how that is going to get replaced right that there is there there are task forces that are looking at in the legislature looking at um how we uh calculate chapter 70 funds and
054and the formula for it. So, we expect that there's going to be um some type of funding that would cover some of these. Uh for the city of Lawrence not to have $57 million with the high need high needs of our students would be um will be a real problem. So, I just wanted to highlight that uh separate from the chapter 78. >> Just to be clear, Mr. Cabrera. >> Yes, sir. in our funding for this coming new fiscal year. >> Yes, sir. >> We will be receiving that 57,100 as part of the Student Opportunity Act. >> That is correct. Yes, sir. >> And this is the last year >> as of right now. Yes, sir. >> Of the Student Opportunity Act. That's not just for Lawrence. That's for all public schools in Massachusetts, which
055is an issue that the state is dealing with. And just for the record, uh, members of the school board, uh, Lawrence public schools receives the largest amount of the student opportunity opportunity act funding. Um, if we are not able to work with the legislature to lobby about changing um the funding formula, that is that would be a tremendous tremendous impact for us negatively. Just so that you're aware. Thank you. >> Yes, uh, superintendent. And that is correct. No one benefits more from student opportunity act dollars than than the city of Lawrence. Um, the next slide has our projected expenses which uh amount to 319,642 and some change. That is uh the the balanced budget that that we're presenting. our expenses just like in in most uh school districts uh most of it is salaries and
056benefits. So 767 probably 78 by next year is going to be salaries and benefits. Uh that is 239,549,000. Goods and services. Those are some of the contracts that we have. We talked about uh educational supplies, uh professional development, um consulting, those kind of things. Um that's part of the contracts that we have. 20.9 million, almost 21 million is for operations, keep keep the lights on, keep our facilities going, those kind of things. And then 14.5 uh says other charges. That that is the the money that we send to the retirement board um at the beginning of the year when the school year starts. We receive our funds and that money is put aside uh on day one. Some of the challenges that we have, we we talked a little bit about it. Uh 358 students
057lost 7.5 million. uh that left us with a variance uh between the loss of students and the increase in costs and and contractual obligations. That left us with a with a negative variance of about 12.6 million. Uh challenges again 1.9 million to cover for leases older than three years. Our salaries uh increased by $10.8 million and we still have one major collective unit uh left. Uh I believe that's the par of professionals with about almost 600 members. So that's uh u something to watch. Um tuition when I say tuition we're talking about out of district tuition for our special education students. So for our students that are that have uh students with disabilities that have uh conditions that we cannot take care of in the city, we pay to send them to a school that
058can take care of their needs. So that's uh uh high cost again not only here in Lawrence but across the Commonwealth. Health insurance, it continues to increase. transportation. Uh we have uh contractual schedule expenses of three and a half million 13.5 million just about um for like I said earlier the city budgeted uh a little bit over 11 million and then utility increase in the double digits uh for things like oil, electricity, um those kind of things. Even with the challenges, I wanna I want to put this out here just uh as I take a quick breath. Even with the challenges, we're still hiring. So, if this is on video somewhere, there's a QR code you can you can put up there. Someone here needs a job. I checked today, we had 122 vacancies today.
059So, if you know someone, a teacher, uh, par professional, school, uh, someone who wants to works in the school, tell them to go check out our job postings. And, uh, we're still hiring. Every dollar we spend is uh, around this right here. I'll go real quick through this. These are the priorities that are set in the strategic plan which was uh uh we came we got to that strategic plan through getting uh input from stakeholders across the community. Our priorities uh like the superintendent and the receiver mentioned in their uh statement, accelerated learning, staff excellence, data informed decisions, student well-being, family partnerships, and responsive leadership. Those are the things that uh if we invest in, we're hoping that uh we have our learners grow and achieve diversify uh effective staff, strong evidence-based uh decisions, and
060uh grounded and holistic student supports. Also, just to highlight some of the things that that we as a as a district are proud of are some key investments that we've made. Um, and for example, if you look at this year's budget for the multilingual department, English language learners, we're spending, this is at the departmental level. This is not taking into consideration ESL teachers uh uh that we have at the schools, but our allocation is $5.1 million. That is up uh from fiscal year 25. Just one year ago, it was $1.6 million. Today, that investment is 5.1 million for next year. So, that's something that that we're proud of. Same thing, funding for inclusive education within special learning services. If you look at the budget in line in fiscal year 25 actual we spend 29.7 million
061for next year that budget is going to 38.3 million. So we continue to invest on our high regardless of whatever challenges we we may be facing we continue to invest on our high needs uh populations. uh 59.1 that's uh a big variance in the budget that is operational foundation budget for central oversight and fiscal integrity across all all uh categories. Um I have this uh just uh fiscal accountability uh educational excellence that's what we're trying to achieve here. Uh, and if you if this budget is is approved, that's what exactly what we're going to deliver. Thank you for your leadership and commitment to the students of the city of Lawrence. Um, there's going to be a QR code posted up there. It was in the beginning. It's going to be uh here shortly. Um, that
062has the budget book. We we work hard, the finance team has worked hard in putting this budget book together. Um, we're we're trying to do something different. In the past, our budgets were P, you know, white pages with uh uh spreadsheets. We're trying to show our kids' faces, what they're doing, uh how much fun they're having at school, uh how uh much our sports teams are achieving on our arts and those kind of things. So, um you can go online and and look at the budget. Uh here I put some of the more bread and butter I don't I don't mean bread and butter uh spreadsheets in case anyone has any questions. This is more the the the um uh you know high level uh uh uh view of of the budget. Uh, I'll entertain
063uh whatever questions anyone may have and thank you again. >> So, I just want to say thank you for taking the time one to meet with us ahead of time to go through some of these line items and ask our questions and for putting this detailed report. I know when we met I mentioned that one column that's missing um that is fiscal year-to- date spending. So that's a variance column that I would like to see in the future just so I understand if the variance year over year. So budget over budget makes sense compared to what we're spending fiscal year to date. >> Yes. And that will be in our volume two uh budget book that is we have that down don't worry. >> Okay. And so when the reason why I'm asking or I
064I bring that up is so when I look at when I look at the variances when I look at spending yes >> at like the supply level uh the repairs of buildings and there's there's variances negative variances there to me that's favorable because we're spending but then I have questions why right and then so when we look at when I look at Lawrence High School they're going down compared fiscical year 26 budget by 2.4 million. What is the consequence of that? >> So, one of the things that that that we're doing in order to to remain fiscally transparent is making sure that the money is allocated in the right spot. Right. So, um, you know, for for a while we were kind of budgeting the same thing year over year over year over year. Um,
065without really looking at, do we actually spend that or do we put that money in there and move it somewhere else where we needed it, that kind of thing. So, now we're trying to stay true to the budget. So, you asked for the high school. So, the high school had about I'm going to look back here. it was about 1 point about 1.2 million uh that actually belonged to the facilities department. So the the that money was taken from the high school. They still have all the custodians if not more uh all the supplies, all the uh things that they need for for uh custodial work. But that was moved out of that uh the high school line to the um uh facilities department. Then we had one new line that we have this year
066that we didn't have in the past is the LPS athletics. So that was another thing uh that we wanted to make sure that we know exactly how much money we're investing in athletics at our high school. So we created a dedicated line for it. So the money came from the high school to fund for that because the high school was paying for it. So that's a new line that doesn't have it has zeros in 25 and 26 is going to have a number for next year. Next year we'll be investing $1.1 million on LPS athletics. >> So essentially we're saying that we removed 2 million from the Lawrence High School line down to LPS athletics and to facilities. But then I see facilities going down year over year. 4 million. >> We have our facilities
067director here. He'll tell you he he's not short anything. Uh >> so I guess what I'm I guess the question is if we remove funding from or the that dollar amount from the Lawrence High School line item >> Yes. >> into facilities, there's still unfavorable variance when you're looking at the facilities line. So that that money went uh somewhere where where it was needed where we had to cover where we had to cover the that $12 million variance that I talked about negative. >> Some money had to come from some places to go in there, right? >> And then I see that the adult learning um dollar dollars are flat year-over-year. There's no growth in the budget. Is that intentional? The the city dictates how much money we spend on adult education. >> Not based
068on enrollment. I guess that's a question. >> No, it's not based on enrollment, Madam Chair. The adult education falls aside out of chapter $70. Okay. That is uh dedicated by the city. And the way the funding formula works for adult education is that the city has to match 5050 what the adult learning center requests from the department of education. >> But that is that is um controlled by the city. That's why on on our side unless the city decides to increase their funding it stays level funded. >> Okay. I know these are adult outcomes, but I guess my I the reason why I'm saying it's flat is if we compare it to FY25 actuals, it's going down. So, I'm just wondering if there's a reason for that. >> If I can tell you that if
069um so in FY25 if the adult learn adult education was level funded, correct? The next year when we set the budget, we have to make sure that we cover costs like uh contractual obligations. So remember we talked about teachers and a 3% increase per year. We still have the obligation of that 3% increase to make sure that we cover those salaries. So it would it it if it shows a reduction, it wouldn't be in the salary line item. It would be in some of the other line items. So we can cover that. >> So So M madame vice chair if I if I may say we I we cannot spend one of our dollars on adult education. I can I can if adult education is 1.3 I cannot take $1 and put it towards that.
070That is 100% the responsibility of the of the city. So I I guess this question is more appropriate for the city then I can definitely >> correct the superintendent is right in the matching and and and what the agreement is they're heavily funded by grants. Um but I cannot spend the money the funds that we get for our children. I cannot spend it on adult education. That is 100% the city's responsibility. >> So I think what's would be helpful is that column that I'm missing so I understand just what it looks like fiscal year to date what your spending is. Yes, ma'am. >> And then I'll open up the floor for questions for my colleagues. The last thing I want to just ask is regarding the three-year leases. It looks like you're asking the city
071for 1.9 million to cover leases and they're only allocating 45 $543,000 for those expenses. How are you covering or what will happen to those leases that are not covered? >> So, those are the conversations that we will have on on June 8th. >> Okay. >> Right. uh that that that's for the city, you know, the city administration and the city council to to come up with with the solution, right? We we we have what we have. We have the leases that we have uh we have uh four four leases uh that we've been in for over three years. So, those are the conversations that we will have on June 8th uh in talking to the city council and and uh the administration. So for the record, hypothetically, if we're not able to cover those expenses
072because we're not able to get those funds from the city, I would say that in order for us to not go over the three years, if you can't use chapter 70 funds, you would ask actually have be moving people out of buildings that are approaching that time frame. Is that >> is one >> of the options >> correct? I'm sorry that I answered the question, but I'm just thinking like of what this may look like and >> I think what questions we need to bring forward to the council when we're before them. >> Yes, that that is again same thing if you're going to ask about transportation is the same thing, right? Is >> that was my next question is who is going to which student population which I can already assume who it is
073is going to be directly impacted due to the lack of funding for transportation from the city. I'm I'm assuming it's the high school students that will either go with or without transportation. >> Yeah. And those are conversations that again we'll we'll start on on okay on June 8th with the city council. Um and again we cannot take chapter 70 funds to fund that. >> Understood. Yeah. Yeah. No. So those that's the dialogue that that we need to have and and determine, you know, what it is that that we can that the city can or cannot put forth. So, I'm just stating it for the record for our community to understand what is at stake here um with in some of these categories and as a school department decisions that you all have to make to
074ensure that we are up and if that mean I mean and given the lack of uh funding for these specific categories that I just mentioned. Any other member that would like to ask questions? >> Committee man Armano. Thank you. Just have a couple questions. Yes, sir. The first one is it looks like in 2029 the enrollment projections show that enrollment continues to slide. >> Just wondering if that how did how did we come up with that >> that is that what whatever uh algorithm uh that is that is the trend. I I don't know that for the next five years there is one um algorithm or or projection that is going to tell you that the student enrollment is going to increase. That that is I've done two or three of this with different methods
075and and they all um this is the most conservative one. >> Is this a Lawrence trend in Massachusetts trend? that is a nationwide but but in Massachusetts in Massachusetts it's uh last year the Commonwealth lost 84,000 residents. So 84,000 people left the Commonwealth last year. This year I don't know how many more are but that that is uh uh that is the trend. Um you you can you can point at a number of things and speculate as to why that is but that that is a trend ac across the Commonwealth. Everyone is is feeling the same the same pinch. And my second question, could you explain if there if there's any what equitable strategies we use determine where funding goes from school to school, different districts? How does that work? >> Yeah. So, one something
076that we've done in the last couple of years is is equalizing across the board, right? I remember uh a couple of years back um and and I'll take this is ELLL English language learners example right um we get extra funding for those children we get extra funding because of their high need uh same thing with special education we will get the money we distribute to the schools and you know people can tell me to the penny how much money we spend on our special education students no one could tell me how much we spend on are an actual English language learn learner at a school. Right? So, some of the things that the the things that we're doing now is centralizing that so that we make sure if you are the Arlington Elementary and you
077have 72% of your students are English language learners that we give you that money so you use it for that purpose, right? Um, a lot of it comes in the form of of staffing. So depending on in the budget book when you get a chance to look at it um it has you know how many students with an IEP we have and how many English language learners we have. So when you dig deeper into that we have a number of teachers that serve those students uh in relation to the number that the school has. So, you know, the the Arlington Elementary uh will have more English uh ESL teachers uh than pick a school, right? They got they got the most out of out of out of anybody. So, that's how we equate and and
078make sure that we're funding the things where our high needs are. Does that answer your question? >> Yeah, it does. I guess what I'm wondering that's it's great to hear that it's it's going to um you know, that money is allocated for that purpose. Even with that, are we finding that there's still more need in certain areas and are we doing anything specific? Just curious any equitable strategies above and beyond the dollar for dollar allocation for that student in that category. >> You want to speak to that, superintendent? Uh uh financially I can tell you again we I I think we we we are getting we're getting there where folks are in one asking for the funds and then we follow up and make sure that the funds are actually doing something right by producing
079a result. So I think we're doing better on that. Uh I don't know if the superintendent wants to speak. Uh >> sure. Additional addition funds Mr. Armano would include after school programming, summer school programming, and any specialized programming that are earmarked specifically for example for our ELLL students, our special ed students. Um, summer school, for example, there although we have general summer school, there's also earmark dollars specifically to combat learning loss from our ELLL students and obviously for our special ed populations. those dollars comes from those increase amounts that Jason has showed you that we've gone from $ 1.5 to $5 million for our ELELLL students. So, when principles um uh submit for additional programming, they have to justify to us uh how they're going to use those dollars specifically for those special populations. Um
080are we fully equitable? No. Are we satisfied? No. Have we done uh much better job? Yes. Um and we feel strongly that um we need to make sure that as we're de uh developing the budget, we can show uh each of the schools why they're getting the type of monies that they're getting. Um so when it's broken down, you'll see those dollars and then when you total them up, that's the school's budget. Um and within there they have to develop the special programs plus plus the general program for uh their student body. >> Thank you so much. >> Thank you for the question >> madame vice chair. >> Committee man go. >> Thank you madame vice chair. Uh my question is directed to the the uh school choice line item. we see an increase of
081about $370,000. Uh does that is is that uh representing a a significant increase of families opting to to have their children educated outside of Lawrence public schools. in the grand scheme of things. Um that that that is a number that is increasing. It's not, you know, we're talking uh one, you know, $1 million. Th those are the families that choose to go to communities that that opted into accepting kids from from other districts. Um uh committee man, I don't I don't know the number of students that that represents that $1 million. So I can I can find that out for you. I don't know how many families that that is. Um so I don't know if I can answer the question of of does the 370,000 represent uh large number of families or or or
082students leaving. So that's the difference I'm seeing between fiscal year 26 and fiscal year 27. >> Yeah. >> Okay. So let me let me try to explain that in layman's term. Um school choice is a program that every public school in Massachusetts can opt to uh support or not. When school opens, automatically you will become a school choice, a school of choice. If you don't opt out of it, that means that the governing b the governing body by June 1st going into the following year has to vote to yes, participate. And if you vote yes to participate, that means you allow for other students from other communities to enroll in Lawrence public schools. If we opt out of it, that means that we don't allow for other students in other communities to enroll in Lawrence
083public school. We got that so far. So when it comes to parents, however, our parents can seek out any other school public school district that is participating in school choice and they can seek to enroll their children there. We can't stop them from doing so. If they get accepted into the other public school district, Lawrence public schools loses $5,000 for that child in the first year. The following year, they are picked up for their entire enrollment at the school district that they are. We still lose money. >> So, if if I may add, I'm sorry to interrupt real quick. If I may add, just based on the state of the enrollment across the Commonwealth, I if I was going to project, I would project that more schools because they need the funding because they're losing
084students would open up to have more kids come. I don't you know, we're talking about towns and places around here. So, that that is if I was going to project something, I would say because people are losing students, they want to they want to bring students. Um, let me finish up my second part of where a lot of the dollars are going that have been going recently. Our families have been trying to opt in to go to the Greater Lawrence Regional Technical School and because they're overcrowded um, and they enroll they used to enroll all the students that they can, but you still had students that uh, wanted to go there but they couldn't. So now they look for the next uh regional vocational technical school that might have space and in this particular case
085it's Essex Haggi. So we've we have the tune of about 35 um choice students that are going to that particular school district to the tune of about almost a million dollars Mr. Car now that we're losing because they're not being able to go to our regional vocational school. And um if I'm if I could just ask this clarifying question, would that that question of whether we as a district want to opt into that choice program, would that be coming uh would that be presented to this board eventually to the school committee this year? >> So that not this year. >> Yep. Not this year, but in the future it would be part of the school committee's decision-m. >> Yeah. And and I and I would say I don't know um Councilman Dell if as long
086as we have students in lease spaces because we have students that are in le spaces and not in buildings that are our buildings that we can fit them in. Um I would you know I would caution you know that either either we find a place for those students in our physical space now before we start bringing other children other students uh from out of district but as of right now we have children's uh we have one two we have you know three three schools that that are on lease uh space. >> All right thank you. I have an additional question about the operational foundation um line item 59.1 million. Uh it says for for central oversight and fiscal integrity across all pillars. >> Yes, >> that does seem like an increase and I saw that
087the other two pillars one is representing um a significant increase in multilingual learners. another significant increase in special uh inclusive education within special learning services. I am as as a as an educator, I'm very clear on the need for increased investment in multilingual learners and special learning services. >> Yes. >> But I'm a little um I'm at I'm at a I'm I think I'm at a disadvantage. I'm not sure why we need so much investment in operational foundation budget. And this is just out of ignorance. I'm I'm not trying to imply anything. >> No, no, no. I hear you. So when I'm talking about operational foundation, it's it's operations, right? So if you look at uh location, it's going to be department 0072, which is budget and finance. We have things in there that like
088health insurance for example, which our health insurance is to the tune of about $28 million. So, you know, right off the top of the 59 million, 28 million is is insurance. Uh we pay uh other benefits. We pay uh what else do we pay out of that? We pay utilities utilities out of there. Um, so in all reality, uh, Councilman Gell, when you look at the variance of $11 million, that is, when you go into the budget and you look, that is going to be an substantial increase in health insurance and a substantial increase in um, utilities. Sorry. >> And I did see that in the fiscal challenges page. That's what you're pointing to, right? >> Yes. Yes. So those are the things that that we we centralize, you know, those are things that are
089centralized. So utilities, we pay for them centrally. We don't we don't let the bruise or the tar or the frost pay for their bills. We have everything in there. So I think for for next year, I believe uh for gas for electric, I think we're up to four million. And >> what was the increase in electric from last year to this year based on these times right now? It's a lot. Superintendent. Give me one second. >> All right. >> Yep. Right. So, electric uh well, yeah, heating and fuel is up uh $1.5 million. >> It's up $1.5 million. >> 1.5 million. Yes. Okay, >> just in in in hing. >> Um, let's not forget Mr. Cabera to uh Mr. Gonau um and school committee members. We have two brand new schools that we just got
090online. So that adds up also to the operational factors also. Yeah. >> Thank you. >> Yes, sir. Thank you. Committee man. >> Thank you, Vice Chair. Um, I guess some clarifications for the public. Um, Mr. Cabera, if that's fine. The the first one is um that the adult education budget a 1.3 appears in our budget >> because we administer the funds but they come from the city of Lawrence to our accounts. Correct. >> 100%. Yes. >> Okay. So it that's why it's in our budget. It's it's not that we're funding such things chapter 7. >> Yes, sir. Just like transportation for example >> is >> even even though is is the responsibility of the city we is still the money is still allocated appropriated to to the school uh department and we pay we pay
091those bills. Yes. Okay. So, so a a teacher at the adult learning center gets paid from us, you know, from through the department, uh, school department and and not necessarily the city. >> Okay. And the for leases, I saw a presentation that gave me 3.3 million. I see 1.9 million. Was that a hiccup that appear on that presentation? I was >> That was your That was the original That was the original uh amount. This is the amount that we have uh contractually well you know we have for next year. >> Okay. >> So >> it says here city provided 385k in fiscal year 26. >> Correct. >> Okay. Um >> okay so that's correct as well. >> That is correct. Yeah. If you look at if you look at the budget book from last year
092that is the that is the amount the 385. remember, you know, for a while we were we were being allowed to uh pay for some of these spaces uh when the construction was going on of the two schools. So, some of those things were being uh you know, we were being allowed to to pay for it. Uh that is not the case uh today or for next year rather. Um and vice sure stop me at any moment because I have many. Um the other piece is that in one of your slides you say I think a decrease of 83 students but then you have another one that says a decrease of 358 students. So I'm trying to understand which one is correct. >> So 358 was for this fiscal year. >> Okay. So for from
093from fiscal year 25 to 26 it was 358 students from fiscal year 26 which we are in now to 27 which is next year that projection has 83. Sir >> just a clarifying question we're saying that those 83 students will be will be down 83 students October 1st of 2026. Yes, ma'am. Yes, ma'am. For the next that's when the count for the school year happens >> based on the calculation and the enrollment that we're seeing now. Okay. >> Yes, ma'am. Yes, ma'am. >> I I want to I want to definitely start by uh thanking you all for for this opportunity. Um, I think the community, our community, there's an apology overall because the lack of meaningful engagement around this budget. The budget was first posted online quietly on May 12th. And since then, uh, there
094wasn't a single public post flyer from LPS. Right? So, here we are in an empty room. We had two speakers today. Um, and overall then we saw that on May 23rd, 2026, an email was sent out to families with district-wide updates that included this budget information, but it did not provide the essential details that people needed in order to participate in a meaningful way to come here and voice their concerns. The email didn't even include a direct link to the budget, nor was the document attached, nor did we tell families that language assets was available. And now today, we're holding this public hearing that only allows inperson participation. Nonetheless, we show acknowledge and thank receiver Woo for providing this opportunity to us because uh honestly she doesn't have to provide us this opportunity. From the
095very page, you can see how dramatically the budget has changed since fiscal year 2020 and where I want to submit to the record in our minutes with if there's no objection a copy of what it looks like from the city. It resembles the city's budget and where it's detail by detail broken down school by school. And this was from fiscal year and the intents and details of budget from 130 pages. Then in later in in later days it got reduced to 62 pages. And now we are seeing 20 pages. We were able to see school by school breakdown of spenders, information of FTEES, projected direct and indirect costs and other essential details. And it's concerning that, you know, we don't have principles and department heads here today for particular questions that are being led to
096the superintendent and to the financial officer to answer. And again, a 20page booklet. And honestly, I cannot imagine how the city council will react when they receive this. The public has the right to know where the funds and their investments are going. And this literally does not provide that. So families also the search transparency when it comes to what the superintendent is getting paid if there is any compensation being provided to the receiver to the Lawrence public school system and also understanding all the fundamental um information that we're asking about today. Um I wanted just to say that into the public in hopes that we can do better when it comes to opening up these opportunities for the public. the public needs to know that it's happening and we need to utilize every avenue that
097we have in order to notify them. Um, I will stop there, but I have other questions I share. >> I guess I don't know if anyone wants to react to that. Anything further, Mr. Cabrera, in the budget or are we all set? >> I don't have anything else to present unless there are any more questions. Sorry. >> So, I believe committee manusman has more questions and I I also have a few questions, but I'll let my colleague go first. Go ahead. I'll go. >> Um, and if we don't have the answer, that's fine, right? You can just let me know we don't have the answer and or you can follow up later. It's okay. >> Yes, sir. >> Um, thank you. Uh, thank you again. This is not easy. I know. And thank you for
098the work that you guys are doing to put this together. Um, I think the first question that I'm trying to figure out is that um, we we see a budget contribution that is coming from the city of Lawrence that is 17.1. But um I wanted you to emphasize that that dollar amount doesn't come directly to the Lawrence public schools because they have other educational obligations. Is that correct? >> Correct. So the three Yes. So that fits into the 349 349 million. So that a portion of that comes to us. Uh what that is as I'll be honest as as long as you know I have to meet net school spending for Lawrence public schools and that's my that's my prior my priority um and the funds that we asked for are to meet our net
099school spending. Okay. So we we've been having a conversation on enrollment decrease. >> Yes sir. but then a budget increase. Um is there anything that you can provide to us or to the public of understanding why if your main vehicle of getting funding is per pupil you are losing student projecting to losing students but you're still gaining within your budget because from fiscal year 26 you were at 305 and now you're looking at the 319. >> Yes sir. um is that normal uh to to see like what are where are you seeing these increases coming from? So, so that's one of the reasons why I thank God every day that I live in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts because the state does fund education in a way that we don't have, you know, we'll have challenges.
100Today, we have challenges, but we're not going to go without, right? So, for example, from fiscal year 25 to 26, our budget increased by 26 26 million. last year, just last year, it increased by 26 million dollars. Next year, it's increasing by 12 million. That's great, but it's not 26 million, right? So, so it's not, you know, hopefully we never find ourselves in a situation where we're remaining flat. Uh because if we do, that's going to be a a bigger problem. But that is the funding that that the state gives us based on on our high needs. Um and and we're getting $12 million. It's not the 26 million that we received. So if we would have kept the 358 students that we don't have now, we would have been up up there. We would
101have had we would have been talking about a 334 million budget um for the Lawrence public schools. So that is, you know, is is it relates to the number of students, yes, but we we we're fortunate that we have a a funding formula that still keeps us uh without having to go without. >> So I have many questions just because when I look at a budget, I dissect it and rip it apart, but I know I can't do that at this point. But I would So looking at the line item that says municipal related cost, where does that funding come from? Because I suppose it's not part of that 17 million. >> So that 3.9 million. Yes. Who provides that funding or where what what does that mean? >> So municipal related costs. So that
102is uh there is a memorandum of understanding between the the schools and and the city from uh I believe it's 2013. It's it's it's a few years uh old uh where we I um pay for certain services that the city provides. Right. Some some of those things have to do with DPW. Some of those things have to do with administrative costs um finance uh HR etc etc. So there is a in the in the uhou memor of understanding there is a a formula that is used which takes into consideration the municipal growth rate factor of the year prior last this year and then the next year and then it comes up with a number that number happens to be uh 3.9 million as as of now >> and when we look at receipts do we
103have $3.9 million of expenses provided by the city. >> That is something that we we you know we started a dialogue on that. We still need to to continue the dialogue and and and and in talking about are the circumstances from 2013 still the circumstances uh in 2027, right? I I don't I don't know. Uh I don't think so but you know we need to we need to look at that and and and see if um you know how that fits into our situation now. >> So just thinking of opportunity where we are down like we're the the our expense for transportation is at 13 million. City is allocating 11 million for transportation and I'm rounding probably the wrong way at this point. Um, I'm just looking for opportunity if that funding. So, I guess
104I don't think I got the answer on where does that 3.9 million come from? >> Who gives that money to the state? >> The the Commonwealth of Massachusetts taxpayers. So, that that comes from the state. Yes. >> Okay. So, let's say you guys re we reconcile. There is not $3.9 million of funding of services or expenses provided to the LPS from the city of Lawrence. Is there opportunity for the delta of that to be allocated to transportation? And I'm I'm the new kid on the block, so I'm asking. I'm sorry for the dumb question. >> Yeah. And I I don't know that I want to talk, you know, outside of my my my scope. It's a it's a bigger conversation than than the CFO with the superintendent or the CFO with the mayor or the
105CFO with with with the cafo in the city. Th those are conversations that that I believe we we can have um with with the administration, with the school uh department, with the receiver and look at at what we can do so that is mutually beneficial in in a way that is proportionate to everyone. So I ask also like where what's is there expiration dates on theseUS or is there any mechanism in place to re-evaluate these at any point or do we just continue to to live by those MIUS based on what happened in the past not really taking into consideration where we're at in the >> No, I believe we can talk about it. I believe we can we can talk about it and and find uh >> so I guess my question really is
106why haven't we done it before this year? We're talking about we're talking about 13 years ago, right? So I guess that's my question is why does it take us 13 years to look at anou for evaluation? And I don't know who can answer that question. Is that an LPS question? Is that a city qu like and teach me educate me? I can talk to you about you know since the time that we've been here uh that is a conversation that has been started right so we we started that last year uh there's a lot of you know there's a lot of moving parts uh with it but it is a conversation that that we've talked about and that that we're visiting now with with the administration and and and the city >> and I guess
107I'll open this a last question how many others are in place that are are are that the the time frame exceeds 10 years or or 15 years or even five >> that I'm aware >> that's within LP the relationship between LPS and the city or LPS and any other vendor >> no none to my knowledge man go So, uh we've heard uh several times from the administration that if folks are being if staff are being uh non-renewed, it has it's not about budgetary concerns. It's more about uh certifications, licensing. Uh so then my question would be if someone is non-renewed uh or a number of people are non-renewed uh is the intention to fill those vacancies or are there going to be some schools that are going to have less staff as a result? So
108it depends right keep in mind we we need to rightsize our district to our budget to the classroom right 358 students you can say is between 18 and 20 classrooms right you just put it u let's say it's 20 classrooms right that's 20 classrooms worth of uh staff that would would have been in those classrooms but we don't have the students right So one of the what we're doing is uh first through attrition if it's a position of course the high need positions and I know you know there was not we've been hiring sped and elelll ESL teachers we haven't stopped that um but at so in right sizing the district it depends right it depends is the teacher in a school that lost one classroom or two classrooms and how do we readjust and
109reallocate the resources so that we can fill that void. Uh if they lost 30 students, I'm pretty sure they going to be there is one position somewhere that is going to be lost through attrition because we don't have the children uh for it. So um that is the way that we're going about it. Uh making sure that again the high needs population are are going to take be taken care of. if I guarantee you if a uh special education teacher gets a non-renewal letter that that position is going to stay right then and there. Same thing with the with the ESL. If is a teacher where we can uh in another content area that we can um take and and fill that gap then that's probably what's going to happen. Um, and again, it's about
110right sizing the district through attrition first so that no one gets affected and we don't have to to cut positions and go into those type of things. >> Does that answer your question? Mr. >> It does. And I I have a followup if Yes, sir. If I can um if I may. If that if that attrition uh plays out and let's say the vacancy remains, does that mean that that salary then gets shifted back into the budget and then this becomes like a it's a it's a budgetary uh condition where something changes where maybe the budget increases because now there's a vacancy of someone who's not being receiving a salary. >> So So let me let me let me let me repeat that back to you. So, if I'm a if a teacher gets a
111non-renew letter and there happens to be a vacancy, let's let's say uh let's say it's a ELA teacher, fourth grade ELA teacher and there is a vacancy. If we need a fourth grade ELA teacher, that position cannot go anywhere. We cannot take we cannot take that from the school. The there's a core content uh subject that we have to have a teacher in there. So those positions that position cannot go anywhere. We got to have so many ELA, so many math, so many science, so many SPE, so many ELELLLs to serve the students that we have. So those positions now, if you lose 30 students and and you had five ELA teachers and now you need four, then that's a different conversation. Mr. I I think what I'm trying to get at and I appreciate
112your your responses. Uh there have been some concerns shared in the community about the parah professionals uh the number of paraprofessionals being reduced in the city in the district. Um I know I'm not sure I haven't spoken with the administration about this yet. Uh but this is uh this is one of the areas that I'm that I'm looking at and this is one of the reasons I'm asking these questions. Yeah. um to see whether this is something that we need to look at. >> So we have uh again about right in rising the district right there is a number of positions that are going to you know through attrition. I know that I can tell you and this is probably what you've heard also uh and other members of the committee have heard that you
113know there's certain certifications that come with it. I think I believe that uh those folks are being given the opportunity to provide to provide their documentation of of completion right of of of certification and those folks will be um you know we'll move on you know we'll uh potentially remain with the district right but at the end of the day we have to to rightsize uh you know if we know if we lost 20 classrooms I don't know how many parents that equate to I'm not I'm not an educator, but um we we that that is where we're at in re re uh um allocating resources based on the number of students that we have. And again, when it comes to those crisis aids and and uh paraprofessionals that deal with special education, uh those
114ones are not th those ones are those positions are not going anywhere. If I if you know, if it if it came to it. >> Thank you, >> Mr. Cabrera. >> Yes, sir. >> How many power professionals did we increase the school district by over the course of the last two years? >> Right now, we have about 576. uh back in if I went back and looked at July of uh 2024 uh we probably had about 400 and 30 maybe maybe a little less than that. So aboutund and we probably up 150 conservatively uh in pair of professionals. >> Yes. >> Compared to FY24. Yes ma'am. Correct. >> Is that all paraprofessionals not specific to like that number includes those allocated to special needs? >> Yes, that yes that is every everyone who's in that
115bargaining unit. >> When I say when I say par professionals, I'm talking about the bargaining unit par professionals. So does that increase based on the number of special needs students in the district? >> We I I'll >> No, that includes special ed and general education. >> General education. Yeah, >> understood. I think my Well, my question is we're saying there was an increase of PAR professionals from fiscal year 24 compared to fiscal year 26. If our district increased special needs, we would naturally expect paraprofessional increases >> for those that need onetoone. >> That is correct. >> So I guess my qu the question really is if we saw an increase of special needs students, >> yes, >> from fiscal year 24 to 26, >> yes, >> we are n we will naturally see an increase
116of pair of professionals for those students. So the increase in pair of professionals is not because we increase pair of professionals to increase. We increase because our special or the demand of the students that have increased from 24 to 26. >> So madame vice chair so still 358 students are not in classrooms. Right. So so to to your point we did in from last year to this year the one population that grew was the special education population byund 150 or so. Right. So our special population, our special needs population grew. You know, we lost 358, right? So there is a a subset of Paris, right, that go with that 358, but you're correct that we grew by 150 in SPE and we continue to hire crisis aids and and special uh par educators that um
117you know, every day every day they come they come across and and the schools get funding for them to hire those Wait, committee man go now. Go ahead. >> Thank you, Madam Chair. Just a quick clarifying question. Um, is are culture specialists included in the line item for um instructional support? I believe par profofessionals are >> no culture specialists. No, culture. We have uh let me see specialists are not in the uh par professionals, >> right? I know they're not in the union. Um, >> so are they funded are they funded part as part of the school budget or is where do those salaries come from? >> So each each school this year we increased those culture specialists to make sure that um they provide support from schools that have fifth grade through 8th. >>
118Okay. And I guess I'll I'll finish my line of questioning just with a quick statement around uh these uh what I would consider instructional support. Culture specialists I think provide an extremely essential role. Um, I used to work with the culture team at Lawrence High School. Um, and as much as we uh want to emphasize the importance of paying teachers fairly and uh competitively and administrators and special education and multilingual learners, uh, I don't want to lose sight of the important role that folks such as par professionals and culture specialists and other support staff play. as a former teacher, having that assistance in the classroom is extremely important, especially in in schools s that in our schools. Um, we're talking about people who are from the community, people who speak the language, people who understand
119the culture. It's a it's a entry uh it's a it's a it's a way for a lot of people to get their foot in the door in terms of young people who want to become educators, immigrants who want to become educators in Lawrence. And I just hope that we are not losing sight of the importance of supporting supporting these these positions. >> That that's a good point, Mr. Gau. The superintendent is right. The school school culture specialists, we have them every middle school and we have multiple at the high school. We we have like we make sure and that's one of those equity things that that Mr. Romano was asking about. We make sure that every school has one of those because it is that important. you're you're 100% correct. It is that important. So,
120we make sure that there were middle schools that didn't have them. Um, and we make sure that every middle school has them now. The high school has them and is part of the support that that our kids get at the school level. >> Thank you. >> Yes, sir. >> Committ um uh I wanted just to get some uh clarification from the receiver. receiver. Um 95% of this budget comes from chapter 70. 5% comes from the city. What power does the city council have on voting this down? And if they vote it down is the consequences could be financial receiverhip. Do you know that answer? >> I'm not going to speak to the potential consequences uh because that would not be my under my authority. Um, but the city needs to appropriate the necessary costs in
121order to fund the necessary services for the students, including the things that can't be charged against Chapter 70. And so, we would have ongoing conversations if the city didn't appropriate that for how th those services would be funded. and one and no. >> Does this work? >> There we go. I think so. I'm going keep going. Um, >> so you mentioned that it's not within your role. Um, because you're on the Department of Education is an agency, not a prosecutor or a legal, right? So, like if something like that might happen, the Department of Education would need to refer that to the Attorney General's office. >> I I'm not comfortable speculating what the course of action would be for the city if they were not to appropriate the necessary funds. Yeah, that's not within my
122purview and I'm not going to speak on that. >> Okay. Thank you. I I thought it was under because as a receiver um maybe you would have been involved in those discussions but because it never has happened maybe at this moment it's not appropriate. Um okay and then the other particular question for you is you know we um the student opportunity yeah but the student choice on April 9 the LE voted it out right to not participate. We are not going to be able to have that conversation. Are you looking into continuing to not participate and opting out in this fiscal year? >> That's correct. The Lawrence public schools will not participate in school choice in the upcoming school year. Um, do we So, we essentially have a 1 believe it's 1.3 that we have
123on 1.1 on school choice, but we have a cap of 5,000. Um, >> I think it would be great to understand how many students does that cover, right? because that's just a projection. Um, and there could be more and I wanted just to figure out like how does that look in the physical year before? Um, and do we actually spend that down going back to the vice shares piece of having a physical spending line to understand you're allocating this amount of money into a a line into a bucket. Are you actually utilizing it? And if there is a sort of mityou review uh who's involved in that process permit your reviews to move and alloc and reallocate funding to ensure that it gets spent down would that come back to the school committee or would
124it be under the authorization of the receiver alone? >> Yeah, Mr. Carrera, do you want to talk about the process of spending down funds throughout the school year? And >> are we talking about the are we talking about school choice exclusively or we're talking about funding in general? >> So, uh let's do it for funding in general. Um the school choice particular is to understand how many students go into that. >> Uh if you have that great >> I don't I don't have that but I wrote it down so I can get it for you. >> Okay. And then the other piece was um on spending right if you every every department should go or agency or entity should go through a major review of understanding where are you on your cause spending um how
125do you go about that in that process and who's involved and I guess the particular question uh of authorization and approval goes back to the receiver if the school committee will be uh involved. So, so in the past we pro in the past governing body um you know we had reports quarterly reports that come from from budget and finance right so uh that that's the same uh system that we have uh you know superintendent and and the receiver and looking at our budget and and making sure that that we're spending uh accordingly. I cannot speak as to what what that would look like under uh this governing body but in the past it was through uh subcommittees with the past governing body giving a report on finance and giving them a chance to ask whatever
126questions uh there was about about funding. Yeah, I think as part of the capacity building plan, there's ongoing training on the budget and I think eventually the school committee will be establishing subcommittees. I'm assuming a budget subcommittee would be one of those committees and they through training would be able to then be involved in the ongoing process of the budget throughout the school year. >> Okay. Um so do you uh receive do you anticipate that if there are some may review pro process and where we don't have a subcommittee we do through our rules but currently we're not acting on it um if that goes before you would you consider now that we're sort of going through this process with you um have the opportunity to sort of understand why dollars are being moved midy
127year of the school district. >> Yeah, I think with conversations with the superintendent and with Mr. Carrer, we could talk about ongoing updates to the school committee throughout the year as the budget process unfolds. >> Thank you. Um I think the other piece is understanding school choice is that you go onto the Lawrence public school website, you look up school choice, nothing. So as a parent, if I'm looking for this option, who's telling me this is an option, right? I'm not being informed as a parent. Uh who within our district in the administration has that hat of making sure that parents understand there is a option for them uh and where provides them a cap of 5,000 if there's they decide that their student wants to go to a district that has opt in to
128accepting students from other district. um you might maybe not know that. >> So, so I know half of the answer. >> Okay, >> some of the answer, right? So, one way that that Well, I don't know any of the answer actually, but let me go back. One of the ways that we lose students, for example, to the chapter 74 school in Danvers, the Essex uh North Essex Agricultural and Technical School, is, you know, when they're doing 8th grade, they're about to go to high school. So, they meet with with I'm assuming there's a process where they meet with the uh counselor and then they tell them, "Okay, what's your plan for next year?" And they, you know, they I'm assuming they get informed through that process. A lot of our students that go to that
129school start freshman year. So they go from 8th grade to freshman year to go to that technical school. I know that's one of the ways that that folks get informed about that particular school. The rest I have no idea who in the district u informs people about what choices they may or may not have with surrounding districts. Um >> a lot of the private schools they they they promote out of district placement for their students. >> But this line is only for public institutions. Correct. Stu uh school choice is only from public to public not public to private. >> That is correct. >> Okay. But maybe you can give us a little bit more insight about your question because I don't know that we would want to be promoting school choice. I think the onus
130is on the district to keep our children >> educated here. >> Yeah. >> So I don't I don't know if you there was >> I >> Yeah, >> I agree. I just >> I was just going to chime in and say this is not promoted in eighth grade or seventh grade within our schools. It's not it's not promoted. Um, >> I just want to make a distinction though between our chap the chapter 74 programs and school choice. There's a very clear difference here and the process for chapter 74 application um timeline and um options for high school is very different than the conversation of cho school choice which is you know families can decide to um if they wanted to we we don't want families to do that. We would love them to stay in
131Lawrence. Um but to you know educate at any grade level outside of the district to another um school department that is accepting out of district students. >> Yeah, thank you for that clarification because that was actually one of my question because I keep hearing it. I keep hearing like every time that the question of school choice comes in, we go back to chapter 74 and talk about as a saggy which are completely two different things. um and and uh understanding right I'm mentioning this because it's like this is just an example of multiple things in our district and where we talk about it but then our parents don't know it's happening or it's available you know regardless if we like it or not is a right it's an option and it should be provided to
132parents do I like it no right I think both uh Cabrera and the superintendent heard a lot of questions about school choice to understand what we were doing as a district um to ensure that we were not promoting promoting it in a way that uh you know going into private school systems right rather than just keeping it within the public education systems and um I guess the other particular question that I have um or a question and then I'm I'm going to go to a statement and then question I hope that the the city of Lawrence the executive branch the mayor mayor Brian Pñena and also the city council uh get to hear what is going on within the transportation deficit that is happening. Um that is a city uh responsibility uh and where it
133it has been introduced on a decrease. the same with the leases. And now um uh thinking about how we need to advocate within the S SOA funding and getting that um chapter 70 formula to in some way somehow be adopted to reflect those resources um that come to our district. And the other particular thing that I'm noticing is that the chapter 7 74 cost for the SS Aggie the SS tech is coming out of our budget. Why not chapter 74 of the vocational owns budget? Is there a regulation that does not allow the city of Lawrence to put that request directly on the budget for the greater Lawrence? Because isn't that considered school choice between two vocational high school? Do we know that answer? Why is it in our budget and not on the chapter
13474 budget for the city of Lawrence for the Greater Lawrence Tech School? >> Yeah. So, so the assessment for for the vogue for the for for the Greater Lawrence vocational school is on on the city's uh cherry sheet, right? So, when the funds come in for that uh for that school is on that cherry sheet uh because it is a greater Lawrence and Lawrence is part of of that, you know, the communal the the communities that that participate in it. That is not the case with with the North Essex. Um, believe me, I've had many conversations with with experts, you know, with folks in Desi, uh, the finance folks in Desi, uh, in trying to understand, uh, that very same thing. Why is chapter 74 not in the same bucket as that? Um, it is
135they're not part of of the community and and they charge us differently. They charge us full price. It's not school choice. charges the per pupil allocation for for each child goes to that school. And that's the way that that the uh um the regulation reads. So, let me let me see if I get this. A vocational high school is not providing a class, right? A a particular program. >> Yes. >> And where it allows students from Lawrence to go to as a based on chapter 74. But somehow we are getting charged for those students to go to as a Zagi rather than the vocational high school who is not looking into providing these these courses. And what I understand from you is that there is some regulation within chapter 74 that does not allow SSA
136aggie to essentially charge the vocational for those students or pupil because they're attending their school. Like is that what I'm understanding that there's some regulation that does not allow the vocational high school to ch u to send funding per pupil funding over to the SSI >> because for some reason the Lawrence public schools receives the funding directly. >> Those students would otherwise be Lawrence public school students. So it's considered an outofd district tuition for the Essex Aggie and because we're not within region the regional agreement as part of Essex Agie the dis the uh aggregation agricultural school charges an out of district tuition which is set by the school. So the funding that goes from chapter 70 or the investments that the city of provides in any moment does it touch Lawrence public schools >>
137directly? >> No. Right. >> No. >> Okay. Um Okay. >> Unless the district carried its own chapter 74 programs is when we would receive chapter 74 funding, >> which is an option. >> We have chap We could have Yes. Chapter 74 designated programs within the high school. In the same way we have early college designated programs within the high school, there could be programs designated and in which the district would receive and does receive, right? Um some chapter 74 >> through your ICP pathways. >> Yes. >> For your innovators college. Yeah. Career pathways. >> Do you mean um because we're a that through that funding we're able to do like the afterdart program. >> Correct. There's some funding that comes through through some career connected learning through other and and the district could explore other
138>> chapter 74 designated programs which is a intensive process um but could explore that. Were you going to jump in superintendent? >> I'm >> Oh, sorry. I thought you were never Well, I was going to I was going to mention in that conversation, I believe I read that uh Governor Healey was providing funding or expanding chapter 74 programs, which includes allowing chapter 70 comprehensive schools to also apply to create um programs within the chapter 74, which then would allow us to receive funding for that. >> Do I I guess a followup is does the Lawrence public school receives reimbursement from the Department of Education from school choice in chapter 74, right? Cuz we we receive sort of a reimbursement through the charter schools, right? Charter tuition. There's a reimbursement process for that. whatever whatever uh
139enrollment data is there, the department of education will give us the money and then we will give it to the department of the charter tuition um institutions. But it looks like that does not happen for school choice or chapter 74 for the SSAI. >> Correct. That does not happen. >> Okay. Um but I have more questions. I don't know if you want to. >> I know. Um maybe two more questions. >> How many How many questions do you have? >> Okay, cool. >> Okay. Um >> the uh for title one, title two, and title three. you know, during a conversation with the superintendent and the voice to console, the administration came in and and mentioned the pieces of >> being level funded. Uh, but there's clearly a decrease happening. Um, what programs is that going
140to impact? And is that a resemblance of why there's decreases on like multilingual? Um, there's a short decrease of 37,000. >> Yes. Um, so there is clearly in the budget on >> Yes, there is >> on page 11. >> Yes. >> Um, and where there's huge decreases, how are those resembling to your budget? >> So, grant funds uh grant funds are for to supplement what we're required to do, right? So we're required to provide the services that we provide to to our children, right? So I cannot supplant I cannot take a dollar of chapter 70 and replace it with a dollar of grants. I have to spend the chapter 70 on the child anyways, right? The the things that we do with the grant money are the things that that supplement our our investment. Um
141and Let let me give you an example and and uh beginning of this fiscal year, the Washington administration uh you know there was talks about immigration and not funding uh title three which uh is the grant that goes towards u uh English language learners and immigrant uh families. And the one thing that we did was we moved positions because we had a number of Paris that were grantf funded and and there were some teachers in there also that had to do with English language learners. We took the people and we moved them into our local money. So if the day came that we didn't have that title three funds, we didn't lose the people. we we kept the people in our locals and then we move some of the goods and services into that category
142of of title three. But um when it comes to to title one uh title two, the the IDA and and those special education um uh grants, we always try to make sure that if there is a chance that we are going to lose a a a teacher that we move that teacher into a local fund. is if we can and then talk about well how how do we go without some of the goods and services that uh were being covered by by our money. Does that answer your question >> partially? Uh in some point if we're able to understand mostly your decreases are happening right within the title one title two and I'm I'm focusing more on the federal government funding that is coming in >> um >> and seeing how does that resemble your
143cuts like what are those essential programs that are going to impact inter intervention programs in the district staffing and student support. um like if there's particular programs or positions being cut, I think that would be good to know. Yeah. >> You know, maybe in in a in a more defined budget that would have been captured and and I wouldn't not have all these particular questions. Um so if you're you know, if you guys are able to look at that and provide it, by all means, I will appreciate that. Sure. just to understand like what are the resources that the community are are hoping to see because they're happening and not now because of cuts that are now within your decision or my decision. there's going to be essential programming being um staff or individuals being
144let go which can go back to the particular question that committee member Gonal mentioned of non-renewals um that could be happening in the district and uh a follow up on the non-renewal question that I've been having is uh when a staff receives a non-renewal right uh under the federal law that is um authorized if they're within one year of the district. But there was a particular conversation here about if it's an essential role that uh can be tied to particular mandatory academics that uh there is a possibility that it it would not be cut if there sort of not a somebody to f to fill the position. Does that mean that that person that has received a now renewal receives communication that their job is reactivated or does it mean that they're able to reapply
145for that position? Meaning that a non-renew is not a bad record. >> So, so I don't want to I don't want to speak for HR, but I'll tell you what I know. Uh the letter the reason for the non-renewal has to do something with some type of uh uh lensure certification uh something related to that. If the person if the teacher did have the certification or the lensure yes that person is is is welcome to apply welcome to to come back. Yes 100%. and that that has been that has been communicated. Um, you know, and at the end of the day, our goal is to make sure that we have the most qualified person in front of our kids, right? And and and um that's where the the this non-renewals kind of, you know, we
146have folks that are good people that that are with our kids and understand our kids, but we need we're required to have kids that of teachers that are, you know, we need to put the best qualified teacher in front of our kids and and that requires lensure and and certifications. >> So, just to tie it back to the budget, we're not we're not distributing non-renewals because of budgetary reasons. >> Correct. As I said, we're hiring probably going to a lot of we're hiring a lot of teachers. So um um just that is not yeah that is not >> that is not the uh the case uh when it comes to to teachers and maintaining our student teach our student teacher ratios where they're at now >> because LPS is hiring. >> Yes, we're hiring. >>
147Okay, >> we're hiring. >> Can you expand on the instructional support? So instruction I think during the uh these particular conversations and questioning it looks like it it was talking about parents. >> Yes 51 >> under that. >> Yeah 511004 it's uh our par professionals. That's the object. All that has to do with with our paras. And when I say paras are folks that are our employees that are in that particular bargaining unit. Yes. So seeing that this is mostly salaries, a 1 million decrease could mean people uh and what I'm hearing is that they're not let being let go because of budgetary needs. They're being let go because of potential lensure that they're not they don't have or have not acquired. Right? Is that what I'm hearing? >> Correct. and and and and and
148I think I believe that we looked at it at some point maybe we didn't and the projector for next year is you know a lot of times we budget for something and then we don't get to that point and then we adjust based on the actual uh on the number of folks that we have. >> That's why I want that. >> Yeah, that's why I'm looking that's why I'm looking at you. Uh so I think that would answer that question. I think I think that may have been the case in this one here. Uh but I I'll get you I'll get you that. >> So what he's saying is fiscal year to date we're not at the expense or at the at we're not at budget FY26 budget. So hence the decrease for FY27. >>
149Correct. >> Okay, that makes sense. >> And again some of it now when you talk about attrition uh and right sizing the district some of it is going to be part of it, right? I have some clarifying yeah questions. Sorry guys, I'm keeping you here beyond time. Um I think just a budget hearing, right? This is the only opportunity the school committee gets to ask questions like this and get some good answers and where the public can hear them as well. Um so the the the increase in health for teachers uh that came because of the contract ratification. Correct. What you talking about? The health insurance? >> Yeah, the 4.86 million. >> No, the health insurance. Let me see. We're We're looking at health insurance. >> Yeah. Or is that just common? >> No. No.
150Health insurance. Everyone gets the same health insurance, >> right? It comes It comes It's actually the city's plan, right? So, everyone is under the city's plan. A teacher doesn't pay less than you would pay or I would pay or any any employee would pay. is the city's uh policy and everyone uh is charged the same. >> So I'm asking that particular question for the reason if bec to to clarify that if within that contract that got ratified between the Lawrence public schools and the Lawrence teacher union >> if there was benefits tied to that it it looks like no this is just an increase on rates based on the process that happens within the city of Lawrence for health insurance. So benefits. So when I say benefits that are non- salary benefits, I'm talking about
151professional development reimbursement, which they didn't have before. And we >> we're putting that I can it's it's a substantial amount doubling uh uh school tuition reimbursement. Got it. >> Right. uh other benefits uh you know we we went uh I believe we shortened the year by 40 hours or something like that >> sickly sick leave benefit paid family leave benefit >> paid family leave you know those are the non salaries that are benefits and >> but they cost money like they cost money at the end >> of the they translate into dollars even though they're not a salary uh benefit >> uh you do have a legal legal service double. >> Yes. >> You know it went to 550. Is that because of what we are acquiring the school committee and those legal services? >>
152No. That is let me see if I find if you look at as I said earlier we we we are consolidating where we need to consolidate and making sure that when we pay something it reflects what we're actually paying. So that that attorney's fees where with you know in a in a place where um they're is better we are better served if they are put under this category here uh for this department instead of having um one legal fee in the superintendence, one legal fee in HR, one legal fee with the school committee. Got it. just making sure that we have one place where if I pay a bill to an attorney, we know that it's coming from that one place and I can tell you exactly how much money we spend on legal fees
153yearly. >> So, our attorney that we just voted on will be essentially under this line. Um, >> correct. >> Okay. Um, >> yes, sir. >> Great. Yeah, I hope Thank you for clarifying that because I was trying to figure out if it's just better to hire somebody >> Yeah. than rather paying because if we had if that was paying only for like the attorney of Lawrence public schools >> then >> no that's all legal fees for the district for the district and again if you look at when you look at the spending by department uh I I don't know if you look at the spending by department when you get to the bottom you see the last three had an amount for example in 2025 the last three uh departments they had an amount in
1542025 they don't have anything in 2026 they don't have anything 2027. That doesn't mean that we're not spending those dollars on those things. We just move them somewhere where we can be accountable for those funds rather than having uh you know talent services when it's really HR, but you have a line that that is out there and and not being uh not being kept uh kept tracked of. >> Okay. Uh for the special education out of district tuition, we got 9.9. It looks like a huge increase there. >> Yes. >> Um if you can I think understanding what is that student number uh that will be great for that outer district. So uh you can probably get that information and then hopefully get it back to us for the transportation costs continue to increase this
155particular year. Um I just want to understand like um particularly the lack of competitive bidding that is happening probably on this and hopefully and hopefully legislators are seeing this. It's quote unquote monopoly. Um but we invested in a way to this company through electric buses infrastructure but still and and I'm I'm by investing I mean we helped them through the EPA process right in order we were the school that supported them to get that infrastructure uh for the betterment of our students right uh high asthma rate district uh now has electric process is amazing but we don't own them but for some reason we continue to see this sort of increase um and I was hoping to understand in some point if Lawrence in general is exploring to own their own school buses um and
156hopefully electric I will always um in some point advocate for that and then on line 042 for curriculum and instruction construction. >> Yes. >> You you know you're there's a cut of 3.4. >> Yes. >> That one can assume is coming from educational supply which is being cut by 2 million. >> Yes. >> Um I think that was a particular conversation that happened a few minutes ago. understanding what exactly is getting cut because this can be essential things that are in classrooms that are facing that are uh with our to support our teachers to support our students to support uh support staff. Um so seeing an immense cut there is is really alarming and then operating supplies cuts also. Um, I've been hearing a lot I actually have there's been conversations of connecting teachers to
157resources out there for just paper. So seeing that we're cutting even more there is um concerning and then testbooks uh understanding why we're cutting 11,000 on testbook. Maybe it's because we're going electronic um but understanding that I think that will be great. Um and even though we see that central office um you know there's a decrease from 2.4 Lawrence High School which I think what you explained was that some of those cuts are happening because there's like the athletic department is getting created uh or at least a line for them is getting created. >> Yeah. It's not cutting it's reallocating reallocating. So yeah, so that location for LPS athletics was created and then the facilities uh aspect of the high school was transferred to the facilities uh department. >> Okay. Um yeah, I think that's
158great because I was really concerned about about that. And what I'm noticing too is that we're moving away from a self- autonomy district uh by moving the the amount of money to the budget and finance um 11 million right so what I'm noticing is that we're sort of going into this phase of you know creating an extra step so rather than saying hey schools what do you want what do you need what are your uh envisioning to happen in the next fiscal year with your student population here's the funding throughout the summer here go ahead and do the resources to ensure that when we start the school year you have them looks like is that we're now following a process in where the school starts, we have actual numbers, requests are going to be submitted
159to the budget and finance office and then resources will be allocated and available for those schools. I see a lot of impact happening >> for our schools, for our students, for supports that are available for like how how do we explain this to the community? So, so if I may, if I may say that is not how it happens, right? We we sit down with the schools for two months through the school planning process >> and this is we we spend >> we weeks talking to these schools as to what it is that they need. Um, >> believe it or not, most of our schools need people. That's what they come and ask for. They they come ask for people. No, very few folks are asking now nowadays for more of anything because they have
160the supplies and the the curriculum department for example provides uh the materials and multilingual department provides the materials and special education is providing the materials. So there's very very little in that sense that the school needs. Um the one what we are trying to do is taking some of those things that are not educational related out of the school. And and one I can tell you in the past we had um three principles come in and this one asks for A B C D. Then principal B comes in and he just asks for A. And then the other one comes and doesn't ask for anything. The one that asks for everything gets everything. The one that asked for two gets two and the one that didn't ask didn't get. Right. And and I think that
161in order for us to make sure that going back to your point, Mr. amount of equity and and being equitable across the board. There has to be some sense of okay, you get what you need, but we have to make it equitable for every school. It's the same, you know, the kid that lives in Tower Hill and and and Prospect Hill and and South Lawrence, you know, it's the same kid. They may have different different, you know, necessities, but it's the same kid. So, we're making sure that schools have what they need. So, are there some schools that have, if you go back and you look at the budget for the last eight years, are there schools that have less money today than they did eight years ago? Uh, yeah, probably. But there are some
162that have there are probably more that have more money today than they did, you know, proportionately. I'm talking about of course every year it increases but you know that that have more resources today than they did eight years ago >> but some of this data right by looking at the department of education's data for each school when I look at the spending by department >> yes sir >> some of these schools you can say like the the the I might say school for exceptional study is on 100% of students with high needs yes >> but then it's a huge cut I think explaining where these cuts are coming from will Great. Because when you look at all this, I I did anization for each of these schools. The schools that are at 85% within high
163needs are getting increases dramatically. Well, the ones that are getting are are getting a population of students that need other resources and inter intervention programs are getting cut dramatically within this budget. So um I think that's something that should be explained at any point just for the community to understand us um where those particular cuts are happening and when you look at your nutrition services is blank within this budget. Uh but then I see the 13.1 million um that is being presented to us. So I just wanted to clarify if if the 13.1 for school lunches expenditure is connected to the nutritional services on this budget that is playing. >> So because it is a grant it doesn't show on the local funds. Okay. Right. So it is a grant. Uh that is the the
164reason why you see an amount of money there in 25. there were some uh um incentives that were paid out that did not qualify for the grant purpose and it was paid out of out of u that particular line but because it is a grant uh I'm showing it there because you know there is a department for it and we paid uh on it three years ago but we shouldn't have an amount of money of local funds going towards nutrition because the state and and the federal government take care of it 100%. >> Okay, that makes sense. That's why it's not >> Yes, sir. Thank you. >> That's why it's not here. Um >> just to add to what committee man Guzman is saying is I think this just is going to go based off
165of capacity building and understanding every school individually and the volume of students that we have from one school and how it compares to others so that we understand some of these numbers as well. So, like to his point, we do have districts that have higher needs, but they may be a a school district that has lower senses of students. Reason why they're not at the same rate increase year-over-year. So, I'll give an example. I'm looking at the Arlington and the Bar and the Baram School. So, it's a million dollar differential there. I'm looking at FY25 actuals because I I love actuals because it's a story. It's actually what happened. So, is it because the census from one school to the other differ? >> Let me uh >> this on let me find myself. >> Yeah.
166So, I'm looking at FY FY25 actuals, right? So, param 6.1 million um Arlington 5.6 million. So I guess to his point regarding needs and and it also another factor would be census or patient um sorry student population. So I guess for us to understand how these numbers are be being put together and understanding the number of students per school and number of teachers per school. I know that's a lot of data but it would put into context some of these numbers. >> Yes. So, and and are you referring to Parton Meadow or Parton? >> Parton school. >> The Parton School. >> I'm comparing the wrong thing. >> Yeah, maybe I'm comparing the wrong schools, I guess. But the the the uh the idea is the same. We I we need more numbers to these numbers.
167>> Yeah. So, so on the budget book that that I believe it was emailed to you, the the budget book in there has the details of of the schools. Just let me back up to to how schools are funded, right? It's based on the number of students. One, right? Based on the number of students, one, and two, based on the needs of the students in that school. So the I can tell you the Arlington uh the Partam I don't I don't have it with me here but um the Parth the Arlington may have less students than the Partam >> but higher needs and they would get comparably more if they had the same amount of students they would get more money but in this case I think it's it's uh 6.7 and 6.4 four the
168two that you're talking about. Um I'm you know the Arlington has less than the Parton. Parton has 650 odd students. Um but the but the Arlington has higher needs. So that fits into the uh how much money goes into there because in all honesty like I said 80% of the budget of that school if not probably at the school level is higher goes towards teachers uh parents uh for staff and salaries. And the way this was organized is it is there a specific way this was organized? Like usually it's like Kaya's budget, but I can't figure out how we um sorted the line items. There's no rhyme or reason to how they're sorted, right? >> The line items. Are you talking about the department? The departments. >> I'm looking at the departments. >> The departments
169go by the highest. What's my, you know, what's the >> from what? What is it? the variance or >> no the highest uh budget >> a projected yeah projected budget. So it starts with the with the total and then we go to you know what departments and and and schools uh have the highest percentage of our of our >> alpha of FI27 budget. >> Correct. >> Okay. So I don't see that. So for example I see Lawrence High School 9.2 and then the upper school 6.8 8 and then curriculum instruction 6.9. So it's not in dollar figure order. Not that it matters. I just need to wrap my I want to that's how I typically look at things. So I just was asking if there's a specific >> is there. >> Are we looking are
170we looking at 2027 projected? >> Correct. >> So Lawrence High School has 9.2. Then uh below that you have upper school which has 6.8. >> Yeah, something is >> and then you have curriculum instruction 6.9. >> Then 6.3 6.7 7 million 6.4. So it's not in dollar figure order. >> Yep, I see what you're saying. Can I get a um shar um go ahead uh for clarification because this the you have spoken about uh prop not proposal tuition for teachers right for PD >> yes >> um are we still within the five-year requirement um that was introduced a while back under the CIA Paris administration that if we pay for them to go to school, they have to give us give the district a five-year commitment. Is that still a thing? Has that been removed?
171>> Again, I don't want to speak for HR, but I don't believe that is the case. >> That's not part of the collective bargain agreement, so I'm not sure where that came from. >> Okay. Maybe yeah somebody should look at that because I know there was a huge it was one year commitment right and then it increased to five years and I remember this because I was part of those conversations because we had and I must say why why we had Bostononians coming and getting their amazing year in Lawrence because Boston public schools you need a year within in admin in a school district in order to apply there right so we saw a lot of that happening and I remember there was some conversations with the HR department to make some agreements that there
172has to be sort of commitments if we're paying for you to go to get your higher education because we require it within the two years that you're here but you finish that within one year they would have left so there was sort of a agreement or conversation for for your commitment so I see that and getting that clarification that would be great because I think that shows commitment that if we're paying for you to have your education uh for the betterment of our student in our population. There's a commitment there and if you leave, you should pay us back those taxpaying dollars, right? Um and then the other piece is I see that it's blank on fiscal year 25 actuals uh for tuition teacher PD uh uh tuition teacher reimbursement chapter 74 tuition. But we
173know that these been happening. So, why are there empty on this booklet? Um, I don't know if it's on the new booklet that you gave us today, but at least on the publicly posted one, which is the one that I'm looking at. >> What What were the categories? I'm sorry. >> Uh, if you look at page 13 Oh, wait. You don't have Are you looking at the one that you give us today or are you looking at the one post publicly posted? >> No, I have the I I'm looking at the uh uh presentation one here. But for the one that was given to us today. Um so for this one I uh yeah I found it. It's on page 34. You can see that an actual 2025 and 2026 uh it is it was
174not broken down. Was this because these are new line items? Um because throughout this entire conversation we have said that we have been spending Um, and if you don't have the answer, that's fine. I just want to call it out to ensure that >> I'm looking I'm looking to see what where I'm at on it. >> Page 34 down the middle it says tuition. Is that right, Mr. Guzman? >> Yeah. >> Oh, 34. Okay. >> 34. Page 34. >> 34. Tuition. Uh so that tuition that tuition is not uh staff tuition on page 34. That's tuition for uh out of district placements, out of district kids. So that's the tuition. So for example, it says uh >> those are for special ed student. >> Are you talking about the reimbursement? >> Yes, I'm talking about
175>> Okay. The reimbursement for the tuition. Okay. So I I I'm we've been having conversation on all of these, right? >> Correct. >> Um and I know the only one that is fairly new is the afterdark tuition, >> right? Which I'm I'm I'm I think everybody's happy that that's happening. Uh as particularly people that been through that process at GLTS, but >> um yeah, I I think if there is an understanding of actual spending that we have done. >> Yeah. So, so if I may say, so for some of these uh so let me let me talk about the the chapter 74 tuition, right? It wasn't it was being paid it was not being paid out of a tuition account. So when you see tuition is not in the 25 and the 26, we have
176it in the 27. Uh the other ones, the uh teachers PD, that's a brand new that's a new uh uh item that came out of the contractual agreement. That's 750. I see we have 250 there. I think there's another 500,000 somewhere in in HR in an HR line. So I got to check on that, but I believe it was 750 and 750 um uh for teachers reimbursement for tuition uh and PD. um after dark, same thing. The high school was paying for it out of out of an account that uh did not reflect tuition. So, we're putting uh these tuitions uh into a into a place where I can tell you when you ask me, you know, how much money did we pay in tuition, I can go and look and find it in one
177place and tell you I spent this much money on tuition rather than it was in a professional services line because someone thought that it was a professional service to send our kids to the vote, for example, and and getting paid out of there. >> Okay. Um if you look there's also the superintendent step away. Um there is a deputy superintendent position here for 450,000. Can you clarify if 450,000 was covering two or was this the actual payment that the former deputy superintendent was getting paid? >> I can tell you the second one is not the case. Let me find where where are we looking at sir real quick? Uh uh I'm looking at this line if you look at 0041 from the spending by department. >> Oh and the departments. Okay. >> Yep. >> So
178in FY25 it was a million. >> Yep. >> Budget for 26 was 450 and for 27 you have zero. >> Correct. So that uh deputy so there there has always been a location with a deputy uh for deputy superintendent. So the 1 million in in 20 you know 2025 that was budgeted before you know it was budgeted before. Um and that included salary for the deputy not the last deputy we had but the deputy before that that and whatever programs the deputy was uh responsible for. So you know deputy superintendent so and that's the same thing with the 450. So dependent have uh you know whatever priorities the superintendent gives them and uh if it is diversification of staff I'm just put throwing that out there then they'll get funds so that they can implement
179that priority that is being assigned to them. So in that line in the past we had uh salary and we had whatever initiatives uh those deputies were responsible for and that amount would go in that line for ne for um you know for next year I have a zero there. >> So that makes sense it is it's not salary only salary based it was salary and operations and other things. >> Correct. Correct. Yes sir. Yes sir. This is why it's so important to have these broken down and like line by line of understanding because like that we can avoid these questions. Um and uh particularly in the DEI because I you mentioned that particular thing that could have been one of the operations under this thinking about um that budget. I think the superintendent mentioned
180that is now on the HR department. I hope that there's a reconsideration that when the anti-racist committee got formalized on the superintendent Paris and that report was finalized, it created an e and a ed for DEI in the district and it was not only teachers like it's not it was not only to do pathways of teachers uh committee man right a particular position that was under that and restorative justice practice ices and there was so much in order to allow our students to belong within our district. And through this report, which I will always be everybody to please read it, there was real conversations happening with teachers, with students, with families of concerns within our district. And we sort of took that position and the values of that and moved it to, oh, we're just
181going to hire people, right? We're going to create pathways. Well, there was way more. That's good and that's essential and important and I appreciate the UMass the UMass global pathway program that's for power professionals to become teachers or get licensed uh got licensed within our district but there was essential pieces under that that have been sort of left out. Um and I just want to make sure that to advocate for that because it it it did a lot of good work in Lawrence High School when it was established and operating. And with that I um right now no more questions. >> Thank you sir. >> Any other committee member that has any additional questions? >> Hearing none. Uh yes. >> I just want to say thank you all again for for your time uh for
182meeting with me uh prior to this to talk about this. My door is always open. Uh you got my email. um you can come up uh and come see me if you need to see me and uh I'll be more than happy to answer whatever questions you you may have. My door is always open and I really mean that. >> Thank you. And then to echo what um committee mann just said earlier on behalf of our of the Lawrence school committee I'll speak for all members here is we really appreciate the time receiver wu for allowing us to sit in superintendent asking answering our difficult questions maybe they're not that difficult and then speaking to the community as well um for those that did show up and those that are watching via live stream I
183think it's important it's an important step moving forward to where we're going and I look forward to sitting with you all at the council on June 8th. >> Thank you very much. Appreciate it. Have a good evening. >> One of clarification, Madam Chair, >> superintendent. >> Yeah. I just want to get back to one of Mr. Guzman's questions um because I wanted to reinforce um his comment that he made that um and it's regarding school choice that although we shouldn't be advocating for that because it goes against we don't want to lose students because it goes with funding. We still have an obligation to uh answer families concerns or questions. Um, and although we don't have it on our website, I've directed our family resource center that, for example, we get questions about charter schools
184at the family resource center and how they can apply. Uh, we get questions about the vocational school. We get questions about Essex Aggie. Um, and although we don't post that we don't have uh we don't participate in school choice, when they call us at our family resource center, we let them know where to get that information. So, the school choice program uh the state publicizes it. Parents can go onto the Department of Education website and see what school districts are participating in school choice in the entire Commonwealth. One of the reasons that I don't support school choice is because it's not an equitable program. The reason it's not an equitable program is because school choice doesn't provide public transportation. So let's take a a poor family, single family wants their child to be able to
185go to one of these affluent school districts. They are responsible to provide their own transportation. So those that have that are that are well off and might have two cars, two two uh two individuals can participate in school choice and bring their child there and pick them back up. But not all families can do that. So the system the way it was created it was from the beginning it wasn't equitable. So many many urban families and poor families that would have wanted to participate in school choice and some of the suburban school districts didn't have that opportunity because they couldn't transport their kids. Whereas if you had affluent families inside of urban districts, they would go and participate in all of these other uh communities because they had the opportunity to, you know, provide transportation
186for the children. >> Okay. >> Sense. >> Thank you. >> I'll entertain a motion to adjurnn. >> Motion to adjurnn with discussion. >> All those in favor say I. um hi discussion. Go ahead. >> Um I just want to have a few quick uh remarks about this because I I think this is the only opportunity that I hope that the receiver under the record can hear about some of these priorities and these conversations that happened today. This been a long night. Um, but thank you again for the opportunity to be able to advocate uh for all of this and um I hope that we can you know think about prioritizing funding programs that you know strengthen student student well well-being and ensure multi uh learners receive their services they need. I hope that teachers, you
187know, are able to be supported throughout the system just to ensure that they can continue to influence student outcomes and invest uh mostly on protecting our students. And I hope that we can champion policies that improve pay, working conditions within our district and that we're able to increase the retention for long term rather than um doing, you know, yearbyear. and that the community has a clear understanding of the stable, wellsupported educators and the essentials that are providing to them to in order for them to ensure that we have student success. And that while we're doing compensation that we're looking at surrounding communities and preventing the turnover and strengthening our instructional qualities within the district and that we can establish a clear structure publicly shared spending rationale of this particular budget and going back to a
188well-explained budget that one reduces administrative overhead and the families, educators and students consistently identify uh during a publicly survey that I did um that the first thing that we need to look at is central office, right, and moving resources to the schools directly um rather than cutting their own budget. Um, and I want to continue to advocate for the city council, the city mayor, the PA and legislators to really look into uh the other particular costs that are happening um like transportation leases, S SOA. Um I I will even throw in chapter 74 because I think there there could be some support there. Um and then overall uh ensuring that when we are looking into other particular broader assets like guidance, counseling, internships, dual enrollment, uh career pathways that we continue to uh invest on
189those because you know our students deserve an equitable opportunity to pursue post-secary education uh vocational training and workforce entry uh with confidence if they want to go into that. And overall, we need to protect the arts. We need to protect extracurricular activities. Uh after school programs uh by safeguarding funding and staffing uh that are doing enrichment programming uh unfortunately I've been hearing that we do not provide enrichment program in our district anymore. Something that was brought by the receiver, the former receiver. Uh so I want to I hope to hear that our families and our students are being provided that because that only helps child development but also supports the teacher to get some time to do less uh lesson planning right um and overall continue to advocate for programs that build belonging motivation and
190engagement within our district particularly for our highne students. Thank you. Your turn. >> Secretary, can you please call the role? >> Chair Lea, Vice Chair Ramirez, >> yes. >> Jonathan Guzman, clerk. >> Yes. >> Committee Quinnell. >> Yes. >> Committee Michael Armano. >> Yes. meeting a journ. >> Thank you everyone.