001While the committee and or administrators will not typically respond during public comment, the chair as presiding officer of the meeting may choose to if uh if he deems it expeditious. Further, should the chair believe that an issue falls outside the purview of the school committee, he may request that the citizens direct it to their appropriate person or body that is that the matter is given proper consideration. So with that, you just sign in on your way up and then uh get rolling. Good evening everyone. Uh I'll keep my comments short. I know that you have a busy agenda ahead of you. Um Nico Zortsis, I represent the union as the president. Um I just wanted to say kind of out loud at the at the outset of this. Uh one, I like I said last
002year, I do not envy the position any of you are in. Um [clears throat] I would have hoped that the state would have provided a little bit more uh guidance and support for local school committees um over the last 12 months that they have not so far. Um so I'm sorry for that and I'm sorry for the work you have to do. Having said that, I had a chance to briefly look at the um at the uh plan that's been that's going to be uh you know discussed tonight and uh my hope is that this is a rough draft. this is the first conversation about this and that as you move forward there will be significantly more creativity in regards to how potential uh money can be saved. It looks like it was just a
003teachers are expensive. Let's let's cut nine of those and then we'll then we'll be be done with it. So our hope is that over the course of this process there's significantly more uh thought and asks of creativity uh in how how money can be saved to make sure that we do so in a way that does not uh you know strip my hour program. So that's all for me. I appreciate your time. Go. [clears throat] >> Hello. >> I am Christa Hoey. I teach in the science department. This is my 10th year here at Masco. I'm going to stay pretty close to my script because I have a tendency to wander sometimes. [laughter] Uh so during hard financial times, most of us has had to tighten our belts to provide the best for our families.
004We focus on what is essential to keep our functioning, making sure everyone is fed and clothed while letting go of extras that are nice to have, not the best use of our limited resources. We need to apply that same mindset at Masco during this budget season. We must determine what is crucial and critical to provide a high-quality education for our students and what we can make do without. We are a district of two schools with under 1500 students. Yet, we pay a superintendent salary comparable to districts like North Andover, which oversees seven schools, approximately 3,000 students in grades K through 12. Historically, the responsibilities of the current director of teaching and learning position were handled by the superintendent. Given the size of our district, those responsibilities had been managed successfully in the past by the
005superintendent. If they needed additional support, our department heads were always there to help. Many are already doing this work, have done it before, or are willing to step up to retain their teaching staff. At this time, in my opinion, the DTL position represents a want, not a need. In the 10 years since I was hired, student enrollment has declined from 1927 to 1477, a decline of 450 students. During that same time period, central office staff has increased from four to eight positions. In addition to an assistant superintendent of finance, we employ a director of accounting, a business office analyst, and an outofd district treasurer. This raises the important question of why administrative positions are increasing while student enrollment is decreasing. Positions and services contracted outside the district should be the first to look at to
006reduce our budget. For example, if we are paying a public relations firm to communicate district news, we should explore ways to bring that inhouse. We have talented staff and even students like in the journalism class who can meaningfully contribute while saving money. I know many other teachers and staff members have thoughtful, creative ideas for cost savings. I hope others feel encouraged to share those ideas and I ask that the school committee give serious consideration to solutions coming from the people working most closely with our students every day. >> Thank you. >> You all right? Uh just remarks from the chair. So first I want to thank Mike and Jeff for the hard work that they put into the budget as we do kick off budget season tonight. I want to remind everybody that we are
007not approving a budget tonight, right? We're here to listen, [clears throat] understand what's in the presentation. We're here to ask questions tonight to make sure we understand the details. Um then we're going to go off. We're going to go do our homework. We're going to understand the scenarios in more the the proposed um I wouldn't say proposed. I'll say um enumerated enumerated uh cuts better um the impact of those cuts other options that we can consider and then we're going to come back in two weeks and we're going to deliberate on the scenarios presented. So, um, Nico, when you suggest you hope that there's more, uh, more work and consideration to be done, more thought to be put into this, there certainly is, right? So, I just want to make sure we all understand we're
008all on the same page in terms of the objective tonight and the process going forward. I also just want to say that I'm excited to have our student advisory um, board member representative back at the table with us tonight. It's been a a few meetings. We missed you guys and we're happy to have you here. With that, I will transition it to you. >> Thank you. Hi. For those who don't know me, I'm Genevie Clap. I'm the class SAB for the class of 2026. Like he said, happy to be back. Um on behalf of all the SABs, we apologize for the delay in attendance, but everyone's happy to be back. I'm excited for everyone to also meet the new SABS coming in this year. Everyone's super kind and lovely. um for each grade. So for
009our freshman, everyone's done their merchandise sales and fundraisers. The freshmen are also organizing a Valentine Graham fundraiser, which will be great. Sophomores and freshmen have sold semiformal tickets, which is happening February 6th at the Double Tree, I believe. And then juniors have started planning for their prom in April, as well as seniors who recently just had the snowball dance, which was a big success. We had many attendees and I think seniors are really excited for all the events we have planned this year and are planning along with many preparing for internship which will happen at the end of the next quarter which is super exciting. I think it's always students love the opportunity to be able to gain that experience before college and also give them an opportunity to see what they want to do
010as well. Uh in student council we've started group projects. These include the blood drive, a student teacher basketball game, a bakeoff, food drive, battle of the classes, and a charity fundraiser. All of them are still being brainstormed. We just started planning them today and separated into groups. Um, I think the true goals of this project, we want to bring our community together and just give people to the chance to interact with others or give back to the community as well. >> That's all. >> And maybe I'll just I'm sure I'll speak for the board here, right? Um, you're you and the SAB are always welcome at our table and when you can't make it, there's absolutely no reason to apologize. >> Thank you. >> Love having you guys here. Um, other than that, do you
011guys have any questions or comments for Genevie? >> Thank you very much. Always the highlight of our of our meetings. >> Appreciate that. >> Thank you. >> As always, you're welcome to stick around for the other discussions or if you have homework you'd like to do, [laughter] Um, okay. Uh, turf field plan discussion. I know we have quite a bit of time allocated for this. I also know at the same time we received an update at the last minute from Stantech. Thank you Stantech for putting some work into this and um I don't know if we'll need the full 45 minutes. Let's jump into it. Great. So we have uh Ananda Berseron and George Ryan here from Santech and uh Crystal Huff who's our council here tonight. Um so I'm actually going to ask Ananda
012to take us through the proposal that uh we received yesterday, the revised proposal from Stantech. I'm gonna >> Great. Thanks, Mike. [clears throat] Can you hear me? Okay. Yeah. Yanda, actually real quick, is everybody familiar with the baseline that we saw back in early December? Is there anybody who's not familiar with the baseline we saw in early December? I wonder if we just want to go through any changes since since that as opposed to the whole thing. Anand, is that okay with you? >> Yeah, that's that's fine with me. Um, yeah. So this this proposal is for the plan B approach which eliminates the field two and this um it it adds the um RDA step uh before we get to um the actual plan revision and update. Um this was a a recommendation that
013we had received um from from Crystal to add the step to uh to the process. Um I think I think that's about it. It also includes um the the withdrawal of the uh existing NOI how it is uh as as submitted. Does anybody have any questions? >> And the filing of an RDA and then the withdrawal of the current NOI was discussed with the town and that's the best way to proceed. >> Yeah, that's what we understand. And and let me clarify, it's the it's the withdrawal under the WPA and the wetlands bylaw. So we would we would continue the under the NOI under the the storm water bylaw only. Um Crystal can I think maybe can you talk more to to the approach and I guess what was what was discussed or what was
014>> Yeah. >> recommended. >> Absolutely. I'm happy to chime in here. Um hey it's great to see everyone. Um again um my name is Crystal Huff. I'm council for uh the school committee. um been working on this uh with our experts here over at Stantech to to get this uh project um permitted. Um so you know the the purpose behind um an RDA which is a request for determination of applicability is to be able to go before the conservation commission um show them um you know those the plan B project and get a determination from them that there that it's not going to um you know impact and and that the Wetlands Protection Act isn't going to apply to this project. Um, you know, and part of the reason why that's important is just so,
015you know, we don't get into a situation, you know, later on, you know, when we're talking to the commission and then the commission's like, well, wait, you know, we think that in this instance, you know, the Wetlands Protection Act is going to apply. So, so we want to kind of head that off and make sure um that the project doesn't imp implicate the Wetlands Protection Act um and any jurisdictional areas. you know, we believe very firmly that this project has been designed um you know, to not do so. Um and we want to make sure that the conservation commission is going to agree. And this is this is the the the most straightforward way to do that. Um it's going to help it's going to help kind of ease the rest of the permitting process.
016Um hopefully just so we won't run into any wrinkles later on down the road. Thanks, Crystal. >> Yes. >> Um, do we think that one written response to their comments is enough? Um, so the the storm water design has already been reviewed very thoroughly and we've gone through several rounds of comments and responses with them. Um, this is an anticipation of a new review with the with the updated plans um and calculations. Um our thought is it will be enough with you know the assuming the peer reviewer is the same peer reviewer that's already been involved. I think that would be the direction. Um George I don't know if you want to talk more to that since you were kind of more involved um you've been more involved with the exact comments that we've received.
017Um yeah, I think the answer to the the specific question is that um you know we do expect to be able to get through this with one round of peerreview comments. Not to mention this project has been reviewed. Uh what we are considering here for this alternative is a kind of reduction of of scope certainly of land disturbance. Um and it would be reviewed under the stormwater bylaw rather than um the protection act. So we expect that uh the commission if they want to have this be reviewed again which we kind of said expect that they will um we'll retain the same consultant and um we think we uh can do it in one in one shot. >> Thank you Adrian. Um, so if I'm looking at this as a revised version of plan B,
018um, I'm noticing that under task five for hearings and meetings, there's a clause that's no longer there around the hours assumption. I would presume it would still be in bounds for you guys to let us know if additional meetings are required and kind of update us as we go. I'm just noticing that the cost on this line item is less in the revision, but that call out isn't there anymore. So, >> yeah, it's we have 60 a limit of 65 hours for this task. I think it's on this I'm looking at it on the screen. >> So, do we think that's going to cover it? Like, do you guys previously it looked like there was maybe a significant amount more anticipated? >> Yeah, we had we had assumed more before. I think we're just going
019to take a more streamlined approach and have less folks attending those meetings and less less coordination. So, we will, you know, my job is to stay in communication if we start to get close to that to let um let Mike know. Um we think we can do it in this amount. >> Um and then I mean it's not a prohibitive amount in line seven, but um previously it was 500 for expenses that are associated with like printing and documentation and things and now it's 1,800. Can you help me understand? >> Yeah, we just moved all the expenses. I I believe the the filing expenses previously we just had under the the RDA line and we've just consolidated to put all the expenses together. So, it was just they were just moved. Got >> it. Thank
020you. Okay. Any other deliberation? I think that >> a question. >> Oh, sorry. J [laughter] stuff around. Um, I just didn't hear the answer when Melissa asked you. Have you done any outreach to the Boxford Conscom and got any feedback on this path? Since the last time we've come >> since the last meeting or since >> last right since I guess the last time we had a closed session and whatnot. Been a bit of time. I was wondering if there's any since this new plan has been put in place. Have you had any conversation with Ross or the Contom? They provide any feedback? >> We have not. We at Stantech have not had that conversation with Ross. No. >> No, I haven't had any further conversations with Ross or any member of the Conservation Commission
021um since my last conversation with them. >> So, just clarify, when was the last conversation with uh with him? I don't recall off the top of my head, but it was it was it was the subject of our executive session in part. So, >> okay. So, after that, >> one one of the things I keep hearing from our Com is lack of outreach, lack of collaboration. I just feel like, you know, we could be doing more to get them on board, you know, unofficially. [clears throat] Hey, we're always welcome to go to their meetings or invite them here, >> right? But we're not the, you know, key stakeholders. So, I mean, I can go, but represent myself, right? >> Right. >> You would be stakeholder, >> right? But I I'm not the administration. I'm not
022the engineers. I can only have a conversation. I I'm not informed enough to have a customer, you know, to take much from besides misinterpreting everything, please. Um, since we tabled the acceptance of the gift from MF on the 17th of December and it's not on this agenda, what's the process if we decide to approve this? >> We'll have to do it in two weeks. Okay. >> And that won't should. >> Okay. Yeah. >> No, at this point we're looking at not being back before the cons until March. >> Okay. >> The soonest. All right. It seemed like the last time it was very um pressing to approve it. So, and I didn't see it, so I just didn't know. >> Yeah. When you kind of talk through what the timeline would look like before, you
023know, for Stantech to do their work, it's going to be in two months roughly. >> Yeah. And and just so the the team knows, we have um continued the the hearing until March 5th. So, we are planning on presenting something something to them by by March 5th. >> And we'd like to have all the votes on the agenda. Is it required to have the votes on the >> Yeah, I think we should we should have we should have it on the agenda if you're going to vote on it. Yes. >> Okay, fair enough. Especially if it's not pressing. >> Isn't Is it in the consent agenda? >> It's not this week. >> That's a miss. Well, when we when we talked about it, well, when we talked about it two weeks ago, we didn't know
024that there was going to be this proposal from Sante. So, >> that's fair. Or even a week ago, >> right? >> Well, we set the agenda, >> right? >> Y Okay. All right. Uh, yes. >> Super minor point. I know with Conscom, if you don't submit materials to them a week in advance, they won't vote on the matter at the meeting. That's right. >> We'll be okay in two minutes. >> Yeah, we're gonna do that. >> Thanks, Chris. >> All right. So, we'll put on the agenda for next meeting a vote on the school sports foundation donation. >> So, do we make a motion to based on this since we're discussing it now? >> I motion. So, I will make a motion to accept this proposal pending um uh receipt of or >> acceptance of
025funds and discussion about that at the the next meeting on February 4th. >> Except the proposal meeting, we're going to go execute on it. >> Yes. >> Additional I guess condition funding. Right. >> So that would be I think the donation was 65,000 and the remaining 5,000 would come out of operating budget. >> Yep. So okay, Billy, did you second that? Is that what I heard? >> Sure did. [laughter] >> Any discussion before we vote? >> All right. I got one. >> Oh, sorry, Chuck. I just want to say I'm going to be voting against this just because I think that the consom is going to deny us going this route because of their same concerns regarding PAS and their unwillingness to be open to this type of project on this campus. So I I
026think we'd just be going in circles going this route, but I just wanted to provide context for my vote. I would also like some assurances that we've at least had a conversation with them and make sure that they know what's coming and that they're not able to tell us. No go. >> Do we want to we can still vote on it or we could >> that's a different motion. >> We could vote on it in two weeks and we do some homework for a couple weeks. >> Motion. Another thing to keep in mind is that that at >> I mean I don't think anyone around this table is going to be surprised if they deny this or come up with some other cockamame reason why they don't want to move forward with this. It doesn't
027make it right. It doesn't make it legal. And and when they do that um then then you know we have we have remedies for that as well. So, you know, just because they want to jerk us around for for, you know, another, you know, set of, you know, period of time doesn't mean we have to accept it. And it's certainly not right. >> I just want to say, you know, I think Trevor's point is valid. That's [clears throat] not the entire concom I've definitely a willingness to find a path forward on this. There's a few that are going to be probably known regardless, but, you know, it's definitely not a monolith over there. And I think a little bit of outreach, a little bit of, you know, maybe fall on stores a little bit, but
028it'll, you know, it'll pay dividends. >> Maybe um maybe Jeff offline, we can talk about Sure. >> what sort of outreach you might recommend. >> Great. Good. >> Okay. Melissa, you withdraw your emotion, so we won't vote tonight. Um Unless there's anything else, I'm gonna wrap things up with Stantech and and uh Crystal. Okay. Um folks, thank you guys for joining us via Zoom. Um you were forcing us to come in person tonight. I suspected this was going to be a faster discussion than was was budgeted on the agenda, so I didn't want to have you guys come all the way out here for a 105 minute discussion if it wasn't necessary. But uh thank you guys for your time tonight and uh for your work on this. >> Thank you. We appreciate the consideration
029and um you know I I would have loved to always love to come uh meet with you guys but um you know appreciate the brevity of the meeting tonight. So thank you. >> Thanks everybody. Appreciate it. >> All right next topic budget presentation. Thank you everybody for keeping that succinct. I appreciate it. Always appreciate it. >> Always appreciate it. We're not always the same. It's the best challenge to drag it out, right? [laughter] >> Right. So Jeff sends his regrets. He is under the weather, >> but he might try and dial in, which means he's really under the weather and he hasn't. So um so I will shoulder on. Um so tonight uh we're presenting uh our first run through the FY27 budget. Uh there's two topics that we're going to talk about tonight. First
030off, just a overview of what level service looks like um and the details about what's behind that. Uh and then we're going to present uh I'm going to present the overview of leadership's response to the school committee's request uh for level service budget cuts that would result in a between 5% increase for the FY27 assessment. Um and you see that that would have been between 820,000 and just short of 1.2 million uh necessary to do that. So as we always talk about this level service is what would continue mean to continue what we currently have in this year. Uh to flip the calendar from FY26 to FY27. Uh in in this case for FY27 level service uh is an operating expense increase of $2.1 million or 4.8%. Uh and that translates into an increase of
031$2.6 $6 million or 7.3% in our operating assessment versus uh the current year FY26 budget. And so we have our uh profit and loss uh sheet that we go through here. Uh, and so you can see up at the top, uh, for, um, FY27 proposed general operating expenses after offsets, that's the third line down off the top, uh, would be $45.9 million. And as I just said, it's an increase of $2.12 million over FY26. And you see there, it's 4.8%. Um, and that gives you, you know, we have a small amount of capital cost proposed in there, 393,000. Uh, so that would give us a total expenditures budget of 46.3 million, uh, which is a $1.8 million increase or 4.1% over the current year. Uh, when we look at funding sources, um, the big one
032is down just about a little less little lower than halfway down the list. uh they're under local receipts where you see excess and deficiency. Uh in the current uh year FY26, we have $712,000 that we're using from our excess and deficiency to fund the FY26 budget. Uh we do not anticipate having that amount available. Uh as Jeff talked about earlier when he talked um we talked about submitting our excess and deficiency to the department of revenue. Um and they would they normally tell us how much we have over 5%. Uh the the school committee has a policy of using everything over 4% of as a source of revenue for next year's budget and we are not over 4% uh on the uh on the on our excess and deficiency. So with a level service budget,
033we would be looking at a zero there. Um there's some some increases in state aid that we're looking at and a few other areas, but that nets out to the revenue side, the funding sources as a decrease of $4.8 million, not 4.8, sorry, $484,000 over the the current year. Which is why when you look at this because you say why so our expenditures are only a 4.1% increase, which seems kind of manageable. Why does that translate down at the bottom to an assessment increase of 6%. And that's the that's the difference. Our revenue is not uh as high uh as it is as it is in the current year for that we're looking at for FY27. Um so then when you get down to that bottom of that that page, you look at our total
034expenditures budget. I said 46.3 million. Uh we subtract our funding sources, which is that center section, which is $7.6 $6 million. Uh, as I said, $484,000 less than the current year. And then that gives us our net assessment number of 38.7 million uh, which is an increase of 2.3 million over the current year or a 6.3% increase. And that's the number that then gets aortioned uh, to our three towns. So when we look at the level services are the assumptions that we make as we go into this. Uh first off uh the governor is not uh scheduled to release uh her FY27 state budget plan until um the 28th. So a week from tonight, uh we use the FY uh 27 cherry sheets and the preliminary net school spending and local minimum contribution figures. Those
035are all part of the governor's uh house one budget. Um, and we use those to actually do our aortionment calculations. So, that's why you're not going to see this all divided up between the three towns yet because we're just not ready. Uh, we don't have the a good enough good enough numbers. Um, and so we'll update that for everyone uh for the February 4th meeting once once we get those numbers. Um, and it just says the aortionment calculation relies heavily on those uh minimum local minimum contribution numbers from the towns. Uh and then the estimates for the cherry sheets in including chapter 70 uh regional transportation reimbursement uh those have been incorporated um as a placeholder. Um so we don't know exactly what those numbers are going to be. So you know stay tuned these
036so these bottom line numbers will change as we as we keep moving through the process. So some of the uh again key assumptions that we're looking at. So, we're looking at revenues budgeted to decrease by 484,000 or 6% as compared to this year's budget. Um, chapter 70, uh, we're looking at the student opportunity act minimum of $104 per student for FY27. Our regional transportation reimbursement, uh, we're estimating an 80% uh, for FY27. Our interest income is 152,000 and we're assuming that the interest rates on district bank accounts will continue to trend downward for the next year. Uh and that's a rec a decrease of 91,000 versus the uh FY26 budget and a decrease of 152,000 versus the high highest mark we had of FY24 which was $34,000. The A andd feature uh figure as I
037I alluded to earlier uh is zero and it reple reflects the amount that was certified by the department of revenue uh for FY25 which exceeds 4% of the district's operating and capital budget uh and that's per school committee policy and as said earlier the decrease of $713,000 as compared to the FY26 budget. Uh we have an increase of $10,000 in fees collected. Um, and that's an annual increase of uh represents an increase of $50 uh in the student parking fee. Um, where fund transfers um are going to increase by $19,000 uh which reflects an increase of 4% across the board in all user fees, which are things that we have the user fees we've definitely talked about um before. So, our expenses are currently budgeted to increase by 2.12 million or 4.8% 8% as compared
038to FY26. Salary costs are set to increase by just over just over a million dollars or 4.3%. Um the COLA we have a 4% C cola increase on salaries and stipens for all personnel except for our par prof professionals for this year. Uh we have step increases for 36 uh Masanomic Teachers Association staff. that's $137,000 and salary advancements for 18 uh teachers association staff which is $187,000. We have a combined uh cost of living increase step and longevity increase of 10% for our par professionals. Um this does not include replacing the world language department head uh which would be a minimum of $121,000. does not include two of the power professional positions that we actually had added for this year and are currently not filled. Um total operating costs on the non-sary side are assumed
039to increase by just over a million dollars or 5.6% uh versus FY26 budget. Uh this includes an increase of 16% for health care premiums and 5% for dental. Uh that's total of $816,000 or 14.3% uh versus the budget. And we've seen this uh all around right now. Uh last year was pretty similar number and 14% honestly is actually on the lower side of some of the numbers that I've heard um from surrounding districts. Uh we're going to in incorporate an increase of $140,000 or 6.8% for regular transportation and special ed transportation combined. Uh there's an increase of 73,000 in retirement costs uh which includes $60,000 or 5.9% in the annual appropriation to the Essex Regional Retirement Board. And we have out of district placements that are flat to FY26 budget at 69. Um one of
040the good things that came out of the end of last year, we had a 5 $550,000 increase in the circuit breaker offset. um that's going to negate any cost increase in our special ed uh out of district placements for FY27. The millionaires tax which we talked about uh at the end of last year uh we had uh revenues from that uh given given to us by the state and that significantly increased our circuit breaker revenues uh for FY25 and FY26. So something the state did do. Mike, do you know anything more about uh the 6.8% of the transportation special ed transportation? Like we don't have a is that part of >> So we have a contract for um for our regular ed transportation. I'll have to find out what what the split out is there
041between the two. So we would we have an annual contract with escalators in it for regular transportation. Um special ed is always um fluctuates. It depends be you know even we probably we're as it says the number of placements is flat but it depends on where they go in the distance that's always the >> the piece that one that one is contracted by student Brad's Brad can kind of >> anything else I could you want to add to that >> those go out to bid individually >> every year based upon situations [clears throat and snorts] >> I think for a regular transportation contract In fact, we I think we're in year three of five. >> Five. Yeah. >> And so it was gradually going down. It started at 10% I think. >> And then gradually
042it's decreased again. >> Let's see to 5%. Is that what you're saying? >> No. So it's a 5-year contract and I think we're on year three. >> We're on year three. >> Got it. It started at 10%. >> And then I think it gradually goes to 10. >> It did come down as as the years went on. I do know that, but I have to check the >> I mean I assume I assume regular transportation costs far outweigh special education transportation costs. >> Yes. >> So it the regular transportation increase must be somewhere around 6 to 7 and a half% something like that. >> Okay, >> sounds right. Jeff could really give you this that level of detail. >> I'm good. Thanks. Um and the other assumptions that capital costs uh including debt service are
043recommended at 393,000 for FY27. Uh which is a decrease of just about $300,000 as compared to the 26 budget. Uh we have to replace 900 Chromebooks. Uh that's $342,000. They are at their end of life and we purchased those during the pandemic. Uh those are the and going along with those are 30 Chromebook carts at $33,000. Um these are mostly used in the middle school, but uh the Chromebooks are used for our uh advanced placement testing and our SAT testing. Um you know, there's these they're well used. Um and unfortunately that's the way Chromebooks go. They after a while Chrome stops updating. Um Google stops updating. So, allowing them to to be updated. So, that's uh something we we do need to do. Uh we're also looking at $18,000 for the front sidewalk. Um it's
044actually right on Endicott Street in front of the middle school. There's a there's a crosswalk that goes to the sidewalk that's on the other side of Endicott Street. There is no curb cut on that curb. Um, and so the Boxford building inspector and the ADA coordinator have asked us to install a curb cut there >> on that sidewalk. >> Um, I have a question on the slide before that. They're not numbered. >> The one that was talking about the split on salary cost, operating costs, the footnote in there, not included in the level service to discusses an additional 743K in new staffing programs and project cost requests. Yes. >> Submitted by the team. Were there any creative cost savings submitted as part of the budget process? Was there a mechanism for that? >> Um so
045we did uh ask the department heads to submit um savings >> opportunities >> repres uh yeah opportunities. Um so um we do have those um it was you know staffing and supplies. I mean it was >> okay >> the usual the usual places we would go. Right, that one. Um, yeah, actually in the footnote on this one for the uh capital piece, >> um, just to call that out. Um, the accelerated repair project for roof and heat pumps, uh, we would not expect the first principal and interest payment on that to uh, be due until the fall of 2027. Um, so that means the debt service expense would not show up until the FY28 budget, even though we're going to go at the I think the intent right now is to go ask the towns
046for the um the um schematic design money, right? OPM and design money. This town meeting, there won't be it won't show up on the budget in FY27 or it'll be FY28. But remember so remind me why that's not listed on this terms of capital expense >> because it's not it's FY28 why >> it's not actually in the >> as I said we would borrow the money to do that. >> So what we're going to do is ask >> yeah we're going to have the pounds request got it that's why >> for authority to borrow. >> Yeah. >> We'll borrow the money. It'll be a short-term ban most likely. >> Got it. And then um the >> the payments on that would not start until FY28. >> Y Chris, >> I had a question. I didn't
047know if we were waiting to the end. So could I ask about revenue a second? >> Sure. >> The um and forgive me if this has already been asked and answered already, but the excess and deficiency funds, we've never had a situation where that was at zero. And I was can you remind me why we are at zero right now? So >> So the so the fund is not zero itself. There's um we're going to talk about this a little later. >> Okay. >> In in the the recommendation. So there I have to go look I'm pretty sure the number is in in this deck later on. So I don't want to say it and be wrong. Um so there's there's money in the excess efficiency. I can't it's zero. It's the amount that's over
048>> the amount and what we're what we're talking about is yeah the amount over 4% is zero. >> Okay. >> 4% of our total >> got it >> budget >> and we use amount here right >> we used so at the end 12 months ago when department of revenue certified our excess and deficiency the number over 4% was $72,882. >> Right. So, we use that. Now, we're at flat at four and it's not available. >> Right. Right. >> Yeah. Okay. >> Thank you. My second question was um how the interest income like how those funds are managed that were down $90,000. I know there's a downward. It kind of goes up and down, but this is down more than I've seen five years. >> It's just the interest rates that are prevailing is what what
049the banks are paying them. >> It's a money market account. money market account. That was my question. Thank >> it has to be liquid. We have because it's coming in and out. >> So, it's a money market account and you know it's generally good interest rate because we have a pretty high balance but the rate that the banks are paying is lower than >> Got it. Thank you. >> than in past years when interest rates were higher. >> Okay. >> I answer [clears throat] I answer my own question. Thank >> a quick question. Sorry. Um, can you just walk through uh the out of district that last bullet point? So, because a lot of people just don't get that. So, if we kind of So, we're flat for out of district year-over-year. >> Yes. >>
050Great. In the circuit breaker, um, how's a millionaire's tax, how those two work together? So, um, at the end of last year, the, um, legislature looked at how to use the millionaire's tax, which was supposed to be used on education and transportation. So, big collection was actually the first year they had a balance on, >> right? >> And so, one of the things they did was um, with this educational part was give it to the schools as additional money towards the special ed circuit breaker. So, special ed circuit breaker is a reimbursement for the money that you've spent in the prior year at um for everything over basically $3,000 tuition on on a single student, the state would rep would reimburse at a percentage of that amount. Um so they increase the percentage basically. >>
051That's so yeah, it was we weren't expecting it. It came in at the end of last year. It's fantastic that you're able to plug that $550,000 in there and our special ed cost basic at a district cost basically be flat. >> I think it's a real nice bon you know that's definitely gets a lot of eyes. So it's nice to guess kind of repeating that. Yeah, >> because even though the tuitions go up every year as said our our headcounts stay consistent, right? >> But there's always an increase of the tuitions year over year. So, >> exactly >> that $500,000 is a you a huge piece of this that um is, you know, helping us make it make it through this. >> Yeah, that's great. >> Thank you. >> Um I have a question about
052the Chromebooks. Is that something that we still need to continue supplying a onetoone Chromebook for each student? >> So, we don't think behind that. >> So, we don't do a onetoone. Um what we what we did um for the middle school was uh carts for classrooms. Um I think six years ago there was maybe one cart per team which just wasn't wasn't working. You know people you know there was more demand for those carts than we you know than we actually had um you know carts available. So the ide, you know, so the thing is now most of the middle school classrooms have their own cart in the room with a supply of Chromebooks. And so the teacher doesn't have to think a week ahead and say, "I'm going to want the Chromebooks a week
053from Tuesday." And I got to sign up for them and make sure nobody else wants them on the same day. They're always there in the room to be used, you know, at at any point in time. And as and as I said when we wind up doing things like MCCast testing >> those things are deployed all over the building too. >> Yeah that's what we use to do our testing and then as I said we also use them for uh SAT testing and AP testing >> and how many are kept in the high school >> I don't know the exact number of Chromebooks that are high school specific. I don't think we have a lot. Okay, because the students high school be bring your own device environment. I know there's a chrome there's a card
054in here somewhere and students borrow them um as as loaners when they forget their own devices. >> Yeah. >> Um but most of those Chromebooks are in middle school >> and they're used regularly. >> Yeah. >> You guys ever contemplated like a rolling replacement so you're not doing it all at once? >> It would it would make sense to do that. It's just the way we bought them, you know, five years ago. >> I mean, are they nonfunctional right now or are they >> they're at end of life? >> Technically, right now they're functional. I don't know how long how much longer Google's going to support them. Let's find out. >> Yeah, that's I mean, you know, I think the implications are usually around like security. I mean, making sure that they're >> well, the
055software just doesn't get updated and >> those kinds of things. So, >> and and I also think it it matters that we had to ramp up very quickly due to the pandemic. >> Yeah, that's I was pandemic money that bought them in the first place. >> So, it wasn't like we bought them over time, bought a budget once, right? >> Yeah. I mean, that's why Yeah, it would make sense to have it would definitely make sense to replace, you know, 75 a year and do that do it that way, but uh that's just not the way we bought them. We we bought them because we had money to buy them, right? Not >> all that was that was from the coronairus. >> Yeah. But not because we needed to provide them during >> Oh, we
056handed them out during CO. They went home. >> Oh, yeah. They were to use. >> They went home. That's why we had them, >> right? Blank. >> Middle school students. [laughter] Middle school students got them. >> Yeah. >> To take home. >> I remember that. That's >> I just thought we used the funds. We're like, "Oh, great. We have money." >> Nope. We had we had a Chromebook distribution >> set up in calf. >> All right. >> Maybe I picked yours up given them out. [laughter] >> I don't remember. >> Again, it was for middle school students because you didn't they don't have their own we didn't expect them to have their own device and so we're doing >> all those awful hybrid and >> okay >> remote learning stuff. That's how we did it
057at the middle school specifically. >> Response to things like that. times. >> Yes. [laughter] Right. Um so I'm on to the uh the major expense category analysis uh slide here. So you can look at um so that's center column the FY27 budget. Um you see the the expense categories and then the FY27 budgeted number and what the percentage that number is of the total budget. Um as you can see there um you know the the biggest is salaries at $26.2 million and that's 57% of our um budget uh out of district tuitions at $4 million and 8.8%. Uh insurance benefits $6.5 million at 14.2%. Um maintenance $1.8 million or 3.9%. you know, transportation and so have you um as you can see the bigger drivers that we're looking at that special ed transport matt that
058kind of goes to your question is it's a increase of $74,000 or um 10% and transportation regular ed is $65,000 increase um which is a 3% increase but the transportation special ed is 3% of our entire budget. Uh, and the special ed transportation is 1.8% of our budget. Um, see if there's anything else. Hey, John. If you look at s, you know, the three line items that are really personnel, salaries, insurance, and retirement, that's 75% of our budget. And that's we're a human intensive uh organization. That's how we that's that's where our you know as I said threequarters of our budget goes. >> Yeah. >> Yep. >> What's the large increase in high school athletics? >> Uh let's see. I think as we said there was um 10% that we're looking at. So I also
059talked about 10% increase to the fee uh 4% increase to the fees. We'll have to go through what the >> But wouldn't that be revenue? What? >> That's a revenue piece, but we'll have to go through it. Um the $52,000 that we'll we'll be able to itemize for you. >> Good job. We ready to move on? >> All right. So, the as just kind of said earlier, the level service expenses um 29.7% of the $2.12 million is four cost categories. Now, salaries, benefits, transportation, and retirement. That's >> the, you know, the lion share of the 2.12 and in increases there. >> Okay. So this is the response um from uh executive leadership >> um for from the school committee's request uh for reductions. Let's see. So what we're looking at um and we're going to
060go deeper into these uh you know starting in two weeks on the February 4th meeting. Um but we're looking at um reductions um of around 10 positions to get there. That would be uh one, two, three, four teachers in the high school. Um and then five teachers in the middle school, which would represent a team reduction has has been asked to see what that would look like. uh we we're going to take a look at what it would take to consolidate uh two principles to one between and share that between the the middle and high school. We have $100,000 in non-salary operating requ to to um include in there. And then one of the other things to look at is uh reducing the contracted share uh we share buses with the tritown union. If we
061reduce one route to 24 routes down from 25, that's a $54,000 savings. That's something we've actually already broached with the TTU and they're on board with doing it as well. So, um, one thing we can probably hang our hat on here. Um all of those total up to uh just short of $1.1 million. Uh which is a um 3% reduction. Um one of the other things we talked about >> 3% reduction from what? From which percentage? >> That's what I'm trying to remember here. >> It's minus 3%. I'm going to get it'll we have we redid the whole sheet. the uh so let's let's wait till we get to that one and you see the whole thing. Um the other thing we um put in into this is uh changing the END threshold from 4%
062to 3%. Which would free up another $443,000. Um, one of the things we've, you know, have talked about holding the reserve from END is in case there was, you know, some issues with the HVAC system. Um, now that we're in the pipeline for MSBA, having that, you know, the amount that we've got in there is probably not as, you know, does not need to be as high. We're [clears throat] moving forward on that. So, uh, we felt it was, uh, prudent to, uh, you know, go to recommend to go to 3%. So, if I do my math right, 3% would be 1.3 million. >> Yeah, sure. Um, so this I think goes back to your question, Matt. So, if you know with all of those reductions back to the general operating expense after offsets, it
063becomes a uh $1.04 04 million uh increase, which is a 2.4% increase. Again, you know, if you look in the re funding sources, we've included that 443,000, which um makes it only a decrease of $40,000 in revenue for for current year. Um which then pulls the operating assessment down to 3% increase uh year-over-year. And got to make this smaller because too small. Can't see the whole slide. But so it's a, as I said, 3% increase in our uh operating assessment. Um, [clears throat] which isn't the 2% that towns were looking for, but it's still a lot better. >> 2.5 was close to three. >> Definitely close. Same two. 2.5 was somebody was asking for it too. So it's closer. >> So without the END it's an additional 1.3% I think. >> Yeah. Okay. So without
064the END then we are 4.3%. >> Which is what we asked you guys to target. >> Okay. Got it. >> All right. Everybody clear on that? Good. I think I'm the only one tired at the end of the day. Yeah, [clears throat] that's been as helpful. >> So yeah, so the plan was as you said earlier is really on February 4th to go into you know the rationale and impacts on on those uh scenario one presentations from the high school, from the middle school and principal consolidation. [clears throat] Uh we'll hear from both principles on you know what they what they feel um the impacts will be. Okay. >> Well, thank you very much. easy to do. >> It's not fun. It's not something we want to do. >> Oh, I know. >> I understand.
065>> But let's go do our homework. >> Right. I know people had homework assignments from December and um [clears throat] you know, I'd like to talk to those who did and make sure I understand what you guys have learned before we headed to our next meeting. >> Melissa, a process question. Um like I have a number of questions that may not be answered next week. Um but I think that probably they're worthy of discussions in a public forum and presented. Um for instance on the night the uh priority request was um bringing back the world language um department head and I want to know when we're going to discuss that because I want to know like the pros and cons and what's happened what's the status how are the teachers um how are the world
066language teachers doing without a department head to guide them etc. Um, and like the nurse, too, because I know we've had emails about nurses. So, those stuck out to me on the priority list. >> Um, and I thought they were I Anyway, I had to go back to that. And then a couple of things that may come up is that I noticed that the athletic budget has increased by $100,000 over the past two years. Um but and we committed to reducing athletic fees in the past five years and we did increase them last year but um or we brought some of it back. However, how has anyone in the school like the data that I want and I don't know how to get this is how do we know that we are charging the right
067amount given the 10% increases each year um or close to 10% in athletic fees and I know we sort of started to have the conversation during the last budget season but um trying to make sure that like is that an area where I I value athletics, but if we are asking towns who not everybody in the town who's paying taxes has students and athletics, but values education, like is that something we can look at? Um, are there other areas like that where we're taking in fees for things but are not but have an increase in um expenses that aren't offset. So that that those were just two big things that I that may be good things to discuss publicly. >> Great. Um I think your question is about process though. >> Yeah. So like when
068are we going to get to start to have how do you want us to ask those questions and because we are meeting every two weeks, right? And we want to allow the um Yeah. So sorry, thank you for bringing me back because it's also very late. Um, so we need to make sure that we're hearing from the right people on those things. So how are we going to do that? I guess is my >> So what has >> I would be in favor of like get it on the table tonight or in the next meeting and make sure that we can do followup work. What I was going to get, >> can can folks maybe go through this, document their questions, send them to me, and Adrian and I will work with the administration next
069week, something like that, end of next week to, you know, not going to say prioritize them, but I will say, you know, figure out which ones we have data for at the tips of our fingers. figure out which ones uh Mike and Jeff might need some time to go do some homework and then we can start to knock them off as we as we approach the February 4th meeting and then the subsequent meetings. That sound like a reasonable plan? >> Yes. >> So, yeah. So, maybe I'll ask um by next Wednesday. Is that a timeline people can support? >> Yes. >> Yeah. Okay. What are you looking for? just questions or data that you'd like um in advance like what I don't want to have happen Traffic is I want to have us bring questions
070to a meeting and then >> two weeks later I think >> two weeks later and get answered for us to come back with another round of questions and two weeks later to get answered so instead I'm asking can we pose some questions now the next seven days to give to the administration so they are prepared to answer some of them on the fourth >> so like if we have identified personally in position that we think we could do without and we say what is this going to do to case load or classroom size if we want that at the table at the end of it we need to get you that by next week I would say that data >> I'd say this is a roll I would say it's probably a rolling process right
071this next week isn't the end of the opportunities to get requests on the table but I would say >> next Wednesday >> let me let me just finish this off one second So, next Wednesday, let's get inputs to Adrian and myself on data that or discussions you'd like to have on February 2nd and February 4th, sorry. Um, and the administration will do the best they can to gather data for those questions and some may have to be deferred to the following meeting and then we'll set another date for additional questions. I just want to make sure we're doing work offline because going meeting to meeting to meeting is just painful process. >> Does that make sense? >> Yes. >> So the date to adopt the budget is that in line with I know I think
072Middleton and Toppsfield might have asked us to a week earlier. Is that within that [clears throat] >> week prior? I don't know what's documented here, but that's what we're seeing for usually. >> Used to be on spring break and that was like March 10th, I think. >> Targeting the 11th try to get there by then, which >> by the way, we probably won't get there if we don't do this, >> right? Homework. >> So, >> I guess just to reiterate, so I'm showing Crystal. So, you're you're soliciting questions to allow for some pre-work, not binding, but it's a good plan to start the conversation, right? >> Adrian and myself. >> Y >> and then we'll gather them middle of the week next week and we'll meet with Mike and Jeff. >> Post one on Facebook.
073You guys can meet [laughter] Jeff. >> Um, and I had a question. Mike, you alluded to the scenario one details might be discussed in the next meeting. So like folks will come up and kind of detail the rationale behind these selections, what the impact is going to look like for next year for like the typical things. Okay. >> Yeah. Yeah. You don't have to ask those questions. >> Yeah. >> I like that process. I think it it's >> it's really hard and sort of unfair to just start lobbing questions. They take thought. >> Yeah. >> And then one last the the non- salary operating cost reductions. Is that the details that you to the budget um the department heads kind of proposing that they should Okay, >> thank you. >> That's a big number. >>
074There's I mean there's there's more than just that, >> right? >> But but yeah, we asked people to look at some substantial reductions to program budgets. >> There's just not a lot of supplies. I mean, that's that's the issue. >> Yeah. Yeah. >> [laughter] >> It's, you know, I think it's program supplies. Yeah. >> A lot of pencils. You guys definitely did some hard work there. >> Yep. >> All right, folks. >> Oh, maybe just one more quick comment right about the END. Just remember if you go to 3% this year and decide to go back to 4% next year, it's going to be a increased cost of $443,000 or something like that >> for next year. So it would be painful if we ever want to go back to 4% >> possibly. And one
075of the things one of the things we're looking at, you know, that we felt okay about was that we're trending this year of Jeff's last projection from beginning of January that that amount maybe um what we what we at the year positive is roughly about $400,000. So, so it would then that money would go to END and replenish [clears throat] the the 400 the extra 400 that we took. >> Probably don't hang our hat on that one, but no, it might be an option to >> Yeah. >> play with if the numbers in >> Yeah. Yeah. The forecast from like Jeff's last forecast was 446,000 to the good. >> Cool. So >> is that like what are some sources of >> mostly it turns out with revenue. So when we we bud we start with
076this whole piece of you know working with the governor's recommended budget and then you know as the legislature takes its time to go through these things they usually change that number from from the governor's original recommendation and we try to update it as we go along but the state budget doesn't get finalized until July and so the towns have already voted at that point. Um, so that's so we we go with what's in the uh in the you know budget that we that we finish up with in March um as the revenue numbers. So and then it does you know even though there's excess revenue there it does go to back to the towns through the excess and deficiency. >> Yep. >> So but yeah that's people always say why do you have all this
077extra money and it's it's because the revenue number is a moving target all the time. It'd be such a shame to, you know, the governor's budget comes out and there's hundreds of thousands of dollars to be saved and we've cut positions. >> You can't get back, >> right? But it's just if if they're going not going to get their budget done before July, we just don't know. That's the problem. >> Yeah. All right, folks. I'm gonna actually excuse myself. I have a 12-y old 12-year-old at home whose birthday it is who I haven't seen yet today. So, as much as I want to talk about the calendar for next year [laughter] with her. >> Thank you, Matt. Happy >> Adrian. >> See everybody in two weeks. I'll hear from everybody in one week. [laughter] Okay.
078Plan is um next agenda item is the school calendar for next year. >> Call it up there. So here is a proposed school calendar for um FY27 the 2627 school year. >> I think it's pretty straightforward self-explanatory. >> No, I mean it's there's only you only get so many levers to pull on this thing. >> Yeah. >> Um you know got to have 180 days. So that that's what we do and you know making sure that we have um two days with faculty before school starts, one day with faculty after school gets out. Uh that middle the mid semester day in January the 25th. Um you know and then typical February, April vacations and then just regular good old federal holidays. So, um, >> you guys collaborated a little bit. >> Tritown, >> the tritown
079union has seen this and said, "Yep, we're online with it." So, well, we line up our dates. >> Any questions or motion? >> I move that we approve the school calendar for the years 2026 and 2027. >> Second. Any discussion? We don't have anybody online, right? >> No. >> Okay, we do not. >> All in favor? >> Any opposed? Extensions passes unanimously. >> Thank you very much. >> Too many windows open. >> We're well ahead of schedule, so we'll allow it. >> [laughter] >> much better than a mask. >> All right. Uh got some good news from the college board. Um Masan has earned a bronze recognition on the 2025 advanced placement school honor role. Uh the AP school honor role recognizes schools whose AP programs are delivering results and broadening participation for students. uh
080schools can earn the honor role recognition annually based on criteria that reflect a commitment to increasing their school's collegegoing culture, providing opportunities for students to earn college credit and for maximizing college readiness. Um during the 2425 academic year, uh MASCO offered 19 advanced placement courses uh in 32 sections uh who then those were taught by 16 advanced placement teachers. As a result, we are in the bronze recognition uh for meeting the following criteria. Um and these are the college board's terms. Uh they first one is corporate culture. Uh 60% of our seniors took at least one AP exam. And so what they do is not it's not necessarily limited to seniors but they take the number of seniors that you have in your senior class 217 and then um have that um compared to the
081number of students who took uh AP AP tests which was 131. So 131 students took at least one AP exam which would be 60% of our senior class represent representative. >> Y um second one is for college credit. So 52% of our students so 113 uh out of 217 scored a three or higher on at least one AP exam. and the college optimization 3% of Masco students or seven out of the 217 took five or more AP exams. So five's a lot. >> So good stuff. Congratulations to all. Uh and we also had on January 9th six of our students who represented the ACE Club, the GSA, and the Model UN attending the ideas student leadership conference at Lincoln Subbury High School. Uh the all-day conference invited students to become leaders in their school uh
082as they discussed building community within racial groups, recognizing stereotypes and other forms of discrimination, exploring the many aspects of identity and recognizing the importance of advoc advocacy and allyship. Uh our six students were amazing. Uh they were insightful, they were informed, they were inclusive and they were willing to share and and contribute. um the two facilitator two facilitators um who uh recognized early in the day that the Mascow students were committed and relied almost solely on them uh to guide the room full of students and this is from Mashe. She says she was impressed uh and proud of our kids. Uh many many thanks uh to the Masanama Education Foundation for their generous support of this important conference. Uh the ACE students plan to conduct several trainings with uh the ACE Club at large uh
083as well as introduce one training at their annual multicultural multicub potluck event uh this spring. So great event. Thank you to Mashi and the Ace Club. Uh coming up tomorrow night, uh we have the uh Mascan Regional High School documentary short film festival. Uh that'll be here right here in the library and media center uh at 6:00 p.m. So come on down and see some student uh directed and produced uh documentaries. And then our parent coffee schedule for January and February um they'll be held the next one at the high school will be February 13th. Uh and our next uh middle school parent coffees will be January 23rd which will be this Friday and then again on February 27th. >> Thank you. >> I got a question. The broad award the AP >> is that
084one we've gotten before or is that the first time? >> First time I've been notified of it. So [clears throat] >> the gold >> Julie before >> we received it before. >> I think I would think so. >> Made a big deal. Andrew sent it out which was great. >> All right. Uh superintendent search update. That's me. Um we are um speaking to our preliminary candidates um and we are on track to give our recommendation at the February 4th meeting. Um so we'll likely have an executive session at the beginning of that to kind of walk you guys through everything so we can kind of give you the download. um because we won't be ready to like make everything public at that point. Um but um we will have some details and recommendations for you
085at that point. Um if for any reason that changes, we'll let you know. We did have another candidate uh drop just today actually. So we are down to four. Any question? Trevor has like seven. I can see them all in his head. He knows he can't. >> I will hold on to them for now. >> Okay. >> Subcommittee reports, community relations. >> So, we had our community dialogue uh tonight. It was focused on the superintendent search. So, we had, you know, some questions about the process and we just went over updates similar [clears throat] to what Adrian has already discussed um and how they are, you know, winding down in the process. And we had a lot of questions about, you know, sort of maintaining a template and a format moving forward with a lot
086of things that we do with superintendent searches, budget related um things and also communication. So, um a lot of good questions on that. Uh, and we also had a few questions on the budget, the schedule of when we're going to do deliberations, and we just sort of went over that um, briefly with everybody. Uh, and for the most part, um, you know, it was good. It was good dialogue. We have another one scheduled for February 4th, uh, here at 6:00 in the library. Um, that's going to probably be more budget focused than this one was superintendent search focused. Um, our next working meeting will be Monday, February 9th at 11:30 via Zoom and um, yeah, we're just trying to rotate through a lot of the good news things that Melissa had shared that. Thank you
087for sending that AP article about the great things that Masco is doing and we're trying to highlight, you know, everything from academics to athletics to performances, anything cool and interesting to to highlight the good because, you know, we can get bogged down with a lot of the bad and the negative, especially around budget season. So, um, just trying to rotate through good news for Masco and the did you know to keep everybody updated on what's going on in the school. >> That's it. >> Thanks for doing that. >> Thank you. >> BCI budget. Anybody sitting in those meetings that can speak to anything? I don't want to have Joe and that's >> our next meeting is January. [laughter] That is helpful. Um, hey, >> we have we're going to schedule a meeting with the master
088ACE Club for second of February. Get that sorted out finally, which is nice. And we're planning a March meeting with >> GST. GST. Yes. >> Yes. >> Get it wrong. So, um, we skip those back together. Should be good. >> Yep. >> There more be listening sessions, but, uh, everybody's welcome. They'll be during the day. >> Okay. Policy. >> Um, nothing new to report. Um, I independently still need to meet with Jeff about that END policy. That was my one one of my um, tasks to do. So, I will get on that. >> Thank you very much. >> Um, let's see. Liaison updates. [clears throat] Middleton Oxford. I got it. >> You got it. >> Thank you. Uh, so this Sunday at 1:30 at the Flint Library, we're going to have Middleton representatives from here
089along with the FinCom and Select Board. It's at the Flint Library meeting room A. It's at 1:30. Patriots game is at 3. The meeting is supposed to last till 2:30. Please come by. Um, yeah. >> Okay. Any updates from box? Is Joe the year? Yeah. Okay. Um, Toppsfield, you went to the latest listening session. >> Yeah, >> we have another one planned in February. Um, I can't remember the date off the top of my head, but they are posted and updated. >> Did you meet with people at Zooies the other day? >> Did that not happen? >> We did. I I I connected with Heidi and Raphael. Heidi has been doing a lot of like digging into um to better understand it. So, she's had a lot of questions and um has [clears throat] kind
090of been walking us through her work. Um, >> so no real like ahas or anything, just more, you know, helping the town really understand >> public education funding and help with some of the follow-up questions that they have right now. >> Um, but doing lots of work in those spreadsheets, she's digging hard and trying to understand everything. So, um, Topsfield will be very informed heading into this budget season. Um, and conversations are positive. >> Good. >> Yeah. >> Um, anything from CPAC? >> Um, I was just looking it up. They have a meeting next Wednesday at 7 o'clock at the middle school. >> 700 p.m. >> 7 p.m. >> And we have we had someone connected to CPAP. any dialogue tonight, too. So, good to see them there. Uh, negotiations. >> Nothing up >> so
091far. >> Work soon. [laughter] >> I have no doubt. >> Um, okay. Consent agenda. >> I move that we approve the meeting minutes of 17206. E uh warrants in the amount of $2,159,691.77 and approve and thank Mia for the five grants seconded. All >> in favorions passes unanimously. Have another motion >> to adjourn. I'll >> second. >> Bye. >> Thank you very much.