MRSD School Committee Meeting | 4/9/2025

001vote. I guess I'll meeting the order at 703 and fix my name tag. Uh, first up on the agenda is public hearing for school choice participation. you wanna yeah have a a deck to go through just to kind of heat things up for this um directly advance. So this is uh part of uh school committee's uh annual responsibilities under the school choice law um that all districts are presumed to participate in choice uh and to admit non-resident students uh through this program. Uh however, a school can a district can withdraw from school choice uh if the school committee holds a public hearing on this issue and then votes to withdraw. That has to be prior to June 1st. Um it says it also must contain the reasons for the withdrawal. Uh just to give uh

002some history on this, these are the years that we have uh ex accepted students for school choice. Um last year this year 2024 at 25 there are 43 students. Uh as you can see we admitted uh and students in grades seven and nine. Uh there were only four uh admitted in grade seven uh and 10 students uh in grade nine which will be cap. Uh and then the last uh bottom rung there shows uh what would look like if uh we were to continue the practice of 10 students in grade seven uh and 10 in grade nine uh which would come to 57 students uh all success. Uh this is an enrollment projection based on our October 1st uh 2024 data. Uh this uh you can see there the October 2024 number uh includes three

003faculty children and the 43 choice students that we have currently. Um for the October of 25 estimate uh we used uh the customary increase of 15 students uh from the Tritown Union sixth grade en enrollment. Uh and we this year kind of up the number. We did a decrease of 65 students uh going from grade 8 to nine. Uh we still don't know exactly what that number is yet. Um it's going to be very dependent on Essex Tech. Uh one of the things I will say is uh I know when um Dr. Mcmanis uh came to present I think the number was around 50. That was on a Wednesday. The following the Friday was when they were all due and there was 72 I think applications on Friday. So it did approach the 80 uh

004that we saw last year uh in applications for Essex Tech. Um we should find out those numbers uh I believe overation is when they come out. Uh but to look at what uh 2025 uh might look like. Uh with 10 school choice students in grade seven, we would be at 307 students. Uh and an additional 10 students in grade nine would be 236. So uh we actually so the public hearing uh part of the part of this will be allowed for public comment. I drafted a motion uh that would uh go along with uh the grade seven and nine for 10 students for each grade for next year. If that's what the committee decides, that's definitely something that you can discuss. discussion. I have a question. Um, I was looking at the out of district

005placement numbers. There was one out of district placement that was a school choice kid. My question is, um, if they're from another district, why do we have to keep paying? We don't pay for them. We don't pay for them. The home district pays. Okay. Mike, can I chime in? Yep. So, um, so we pay and we get reimbursed. Okay. Yes. We go through a very detailed process, Joe, with the state. Uh, my office is involved and Brad's office is involved and we submit uh what's called a uh every quarter we submit a claim form for uh not only students but reimburseable uh special ed costs, including out of district tuition costs. And that's part of that process. Uh so that one student from North Andover was placed out of district. So we claim her as

006a student and we claim her as uh for all of her reimburseable expenses as well. All right. Thank you. Any other discussion? I just want to make sure I understand chart three. So at the bottom of column nine, grade nine, it's 19. Is that 10 plus the nine that were added as when they were seventh graders 2003 2004? Uh which one are you looking at? The bottom of column 9 you get 19. Is that 10 plus 9 nine that were added back in 23 24 and then 10 new ones? Yes. It's Yes. It's the estimated number. There's grade eight. There's nine. Yep. This year. Yep. So you're adding 10 next year. adding 10 to that which would be 19. Okay. Thanks. Yeah. If you just kind of just shifted and to the right. Yep. Any

007further discussion? Would it be wise to maybe not do 10 students in grade nine seeing eight had a large number? There's so I I looked at you know just in general um there are nine currently this year nine sections of nth grade English college prep and three sections of honors. 10 students would be distributed over those you know 13 section or 12 sections. So you know you're going and I think the average in those sections the college prep was around 17. I think the honors was actually a little smaller than that. So you're taking 10 students, you're distributing them across, you know, the, as I said, a dozen sections. It's, you know, one average per less than. So it could go smaller. I mean, it's just however you want to do it. What was the

008assumption in the budget? Jeeoff, do we have an assumption? No, we did. Yeah, Matt, the assumption was 43. So, anything above the 43. So, in this instance, you know, 14 students. So, 14 students is uh $90,000, which would be great. Thought it was 5,000 per student. It's gone up. Isn't 14* 5? No, it's 70.00. Sorry. Yep. 70. Right. Sorry. Oh, good. Yeah. I mean I mean Mike, you were there for the feedback at the Middleton meeting a few weeks ago, right? It I don't know. It uh it seems like to you it feels like the right number. It does. Um, you know, I think we always want to, you know, try to make sure that we're maximizing what we have for capacity, but not having to add things to to take, you know, to take

009care of the the choice students. And I think I think we do with with what we currently have. Um, but that's I think the thing I wrestle with is what happens if things don't go our way next month, but then it's really kind of too late to to make a make a turn on and make a change. So, been trying to figure that out myself and I don't have a great answer because if we wait the next time you could do that after town meetings would be May 28th and I guarantee you won't get anything close to 10 students in either grade if we wait that long. Can you um summarize what the application process is? Is it first come first served or It is um it's first come first serve. Well, it's not first

010come first serve. everybody. Um, so we'll we'll we'll have an application that'll be on the district website. Um, could be as soon as tomorrow, might be Friday, probably. Um, we sign up and then if we receive more students um than 10, then we have a lottery. Um, we do actually do preference for already siblings first. That's part of the law. We're allowed to do that. Um but then if there's more than 10, we do a lottery and those first 10 are, you know, the first that are offered. Um and then if students not accept the offer, we go to number 11 on the list. So, you know, everybody gets ranked that that applies. Okay. Sometimes we go all the way through the list, too. Anything further? public. Somebody want to make a motion? You should

011public comment, too. Oh, public comment. I'm sorry. That's part of what this is. Apologies. Any comments from the public? Okay. So, does someone want to make a motion? Did we want to talk about that number you mentioned? Is 10 too much? Is 10 the right amount? So, looking at I kind of talked myself out of thinking it was too much. Looking at the projected size of grade nine next year, it looks like one of our smaller classes. So, I feel like it would be able to handle it and it wouldn't be adding anything and the plane would still be flying like my analogy. So, I would be okay with him. So, and I'll make a motion. Um, I move that Masanomic Regional District withdraw from participation in the school choice program for the 2025 2026

012school year in grades 8, 10, 11, and 12 due to enrollment. And I move that we limit school choice participation in grades seven and nine to 10 students for each grade for the 2025 2026 school year. Second. We second. Okay. Uh, we have to roll call. Bill. Yes, Adrien. Yes. Uh, Kendra, yes. Lisa, yes. Chris, yes. Jeff, Matt, yes. Trevor, yes. I'm a yes. Unanimous. All set. Yeah. Thank you. All right. Marks from the chair. I apologize, folks. just a little long tonight, but normally there's nothing, so it's good. All right. Tonight's agenda includes two topics of high importance. First, uh we'll have our state reps uh joining us this evening. Secondly, we'll be discussing our communication strategy to our towns in support of passing our recently adopted budget. I believe our budget strikes a

013reasonable balance between addressing an unforeseen and potentially acute spike in educational costs with the longer term needs of the district. That budget includes $833,000 in cuts, which while difficult, are also the sensible step to take given the underlying demographics of our district. And I'd like to highlight what a few of those demographic factors are. Our educators are among the best in the state. They are dedicated. They are passionate. and many of them have been at MASCO for years and years. As a result, many are also at the top step of the salary schedule, which is step 13. They are well compensated and deservedly so. Over the next several years, we expecting a number of these teachers to retire. As they retire, they will be replaced by educators at lower points in the pay scale. The

014net impact of all this will be a slower growth in or even perhaps a reduction in our salary budget. This could reduce future spend by a million dollars, perhaps even more quite easily. Um, secondly, one of the biggest drivers of our budget increase this year is out of district tuition and transportation. These costs have soared by an average annual rate of 10% and 37.6% respectively over the past five years. Overall, our net cost per outplace student has increased by about $20,000 per student over the last several years. Just the increase is $20,000 per student. This is about the same amount of money that we spend for a student that attends here on campus. On top of that, out of district placements have gone up about 50% in that time. Should both trends continue, the situation

015will become simply untenable. I've seen some data which leads me to think that trend in all placements may be reverting back to a more historic norm. Note this is my interpretation uh of the data and no one else's. Um nonetheless the cost per pupil continue to skyrocket. I intend to raise that issue with our state representatives tonight. Um another area of concern is enrollment. We've seen student enrollment decline by about 25% over the past 10 years. It does appear, however, that this decline may be nearing its end. The number of students at Masco is expected to increase next year. It also appears that the number should remain stable for the near future. This will be especially so should we get approval to move ahead with our building and athletic facilities upgrades. Taken altogether, these trends

016argue against making more drastic cuts at this time. I also like to comment on another topic. This week, the committee received several letters related to a recent decree by the US Department of Education. If I understand the situation correctly, that decree demands that states and districts sign a letter declaring DEI has been eliminated in schools. If not signed, then federal funding can be withheld. Given the concerns, I'd like to provide my understanding of things and perhaps afford the community some clarity. There are two major types of federal grants that schools receive. Title One and IDEA. Title One grant money is for districts that have a high percentage of impoverished kids. Unsurprisingly, MASCO receives zero dollars in Title One grants. Idea grant money is for kids with disabilities. MASCO receives $455,000 in IDEA grants. Although both

017grant types are administered by the US Department of Education, from what I've read, what I understand, only Title One grants were subject to being withheld. So I'll repeat myself. Masco receives no money under Title One. Today, DESIE responded to the Department of Education. The gist of their reply is that Massachusetts law already complies with all requirements and that there is no need for any individual districts to respond to the request. They also noted that the original demand from the US Department of Education was sent unsigned and from a generic email address. So, I don't know if someone's trying to avoid a lawsuit and put their name on something, but kind of odd. Uh, given all this, I'll repeat what I've said in previous meetings. We believe that our policies comply with the law and that

018the laws that govern here are primarily state laws. I also re remain convinced that we have no funding that is actually at risk. Therefore, for now, my energy remains elsewhere, and that's on passing this budget because not passing this budget could force between 1.4 and 1.6 million more in cuts. And that is an outcome that would be catastrophic for our students, our school, and our community. So, with that, we'll move on to not Evan. Comments from the audience, Ethan. now. Oh, I'm sorry. Comments from the audience. My apologies. Comments from the audience. Please come on up. Fighting an illness. I can't on things tonight. Cops fields. And I just have a couple. They might be questions. I don't expect the conversation. So, I just wanted to bring this up. All right. In the last meeting

019we were at when you did vote on the budget, um I believe it was Melissa who said if you we up the sports fees to like 25% you could save a job. So I was okay. I guess it's safe to assume that all the money that comes into the school like if you're paying for a sport it's really not going to sports. It's going in a big bucket. So that's a safe assumption I'm going to make. I didn't know that at the time. I thought different pockets, different departments get different amounts of money. So, and then due to the fact that I mean hopefully this budget will pass and has anybody on this committee I know I believe Kendra brought this up during her campaign a couple years or so ago um looked into any

020grant writing because I believe if more of that was done that you know security officer for $35,000 a year would still be here. At least he would be. I think there are a lot of different grants for and I really think this committee needs to look to really look into that. And um finally uh after hearing the chair's um comments, I do think pass this budget, but I do think you just really need to tread lightly and get as much money as we can into this school system because it's it's just like I don't last year when you cut five teachers and then you had administrative position, you couldn't be shocked about what was happening this year. It's just the writing's on the wall. So, thank you for listening. Thank you. Any others? Just wanted

021to revisit a conversation that we had at the March 5th meeting. I took some notes. I wanted to quote people. I didn't want to misquote anyone. So with that March 5th meeting, I got up here and I addressed the this committee's adoption of what I call the Masco Title N and said that it pretty much threw in the face of one of the executive orders that came out of the White House. Now Joe, you said at that time that an executive order was something law. It did state the committee is bound by Massachusetts law. Trevor chimed in kind of reminded everyone that committees bound by state law as well as federal law. At that time you said again an order is not law. Now, when you guys originally discussed adopting what's known as the Biden

022Title 9 language 2024 kind of casually brushed off uh the risk of losing federal funding uh as a result result of what is essentially your thumb and your nose at the White House. Uh I said it was troubling to me to think that you didn't seem to care how much money was at stake because at the time you didn't know. And it was particularly troubling because of the budget crisis that we're currently in. At that time, Joe, you said MASCO doesn't really get a lot of federal money, but nobody knew how much it was. Now, it turned out at that March 5th meeting, Jeff Sans said it was a half a million dollars. A federal grant, I thought he called it a special aid grant. I think you referred to it earlier, Joe, in your

023comments, $155,000. I don't see you giving it back, but you don't seem to want to adhere to the executive order that came out of the White House. Now, again, during that that March 5th meeting when I was up here, Joe, you're on Zoom. You reflected on those prior discussions and stated that there wasn't a lot of money at risk overall. We didn't think and I guess the important thing to note is that you had no idea how much money was at stake but you were willing to move forward right and thumb your nose at the White House and negative order. You had no idea how much money was at risk but that didn't stop you. So of course it begs the question now is a half a million dollars a lot of money a half

024a million dollars of our tax dollars. Is it a lot of money you to risk? So, two weeks later at the March 19th school committee meeting, you guys essentially caved. Melissa stated that you're essentially going to have to comply with the executive order, right? She discovered a court decision that she claims came down after you voted. Now, if it's a court decision that I'm aware of, that was a federal court, I believe the Eastern District of Kentucky, and it essentially voided Biden Title 9 language upheld the Trump Title N language as well as the executive order. That federal decision now two months prior, January 9th, was decided. So, it seems to me that this committee either ignored it or wasn't aware of it, which I don't understand since a simple Google search of Title 9

025turns it up. Fast forward a month from there on February 4th, so a month prior to the March 5th meeting when I got up here, the United States Department of Education's acting assistant secretary for civil rights, right? Let me say that again. The United States Department of Education's acting assistant secretary for civil rights drafted a letter discussing that court decision and its impact on Title 9. Nobody here was aware of that either. I'm just curious before I go, you know, almost every president does issue executive orders. Uh, and I'm pretty sure that those presidents all expect immediate compliance, right? There are some famous executive orders and I'm sure everybody here can think of at least one because it's got a name. We're taught it in school called the Emancipation Proclamation. Think of all those people,

026all those groups like you, groups like this. They had the attitude that you're not bound by executive orders. They're exact words, right? All those groups thought that they were above federal law. only bound by state law. We fought one of the bloodiest, costliest wars in the history of the world because there were people that said, "Ah, it's just an executive order. We're not bound by that." I had the thought that this committee doesn't mind taking federal money, but you want to pick and choose which executive orders you listen to. And it made me wonder, is that how you raise your children? You give them money. No expectation that they listen to you or they obey you. It's not how I did it. Anyway, I really only got up here because I wanted to say I

027told you so. Sorry. Thank you. Any other comments, please? All right. No, it's not Evan, it's Ethan. Thank you, Ethan. Um, good evening. I'm Ethan Savano. I'm the current SAB at large from BO. Um, I'm from Boxford and I'm a current freshman. Um, and this is my update for what the student body has been up to since the last meeting of March 19th. Um, some upcoming events are we are working towards a cultural fair um where the high school students will be able to represent their chosen country slash um cultures and the juniors are preparing for the junior prom. They started selling tickets yesterday and they will continue into Friday. The dance will be on the 16th of May at Seaglass. Um some of our past events recently have been um the seniors had their

028senior prom hosted at Danversport last week. I was not able to attend the senior prom, but overall I heard it was great. The location was amazing and the food was amazing and I heard it was a great time. Last Monday we host hosted our baking decorating competition which went well. We had a total of six entries with the winners getting um the student council elections took place with a whole new exec board being put together. Um some of our current events are the seniors have started their internships so they are not so they are out of school currently. The new student council exec board has taken charge with me is the new SAB at large and the juniors took their SATs today. So, let's wish them luck and thank you guys for listening. I hope

029you have a great rest of your day. Any questions for Ethan? What's the culture fair? Um, I don't think we have an exact date. Email. Any others? Ethan, you're welcome to stay here all night if you like or you're welcome to get up and go do something you find more interesting here. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you very much. You're welcome. Okay, so we're going to um skip ahead pass the state legislative update and go to the uh application for state classical academy. Sure. Good evening everyone. I am Juliana Joyce and I was here almost a year ago seeking approval for our prek through grade 8 program. So I thought I would just start by giving you a little bit of an update um around the school and we submitted curriculum to see we're seeking

030approval for 9th through 12th grade. So I'm happy to answer any questions about that. So, we opened our doors in September with 21 students, preK through grade 8. Our goal was 20 students. We have since admitted 10 more. So, we actually sponsored an astronomy night in November. And that event we opened up to the larger public. We had about 150 people. Um, we my husband gave a talk. We had activities for children. And then the local amateur astronomy club set up their telescopes on the back field. So it was a we invite you to come next year. It was a wonderful event and after that it was followed by an open house and so it generated um some visibility etc. We admitted 10 new students so we're just at 30 and um we are enrolling

031for next year. Our goal is between 50 and 60 students. We've already enrolled 44. So we are growing um and reaching within the community as well as beyond. I thought I would highlight we've established a wonderful relationship with the council on aging and they're across the intersection from us. So we have visited today we invited them for we are putting on a performance of Greek gods and goddesses a play as we are studying ancient civilizations this um year. So we did our dress rehearsal for them today. So that's just been a nice way that we've been part of the community. Um we are launching ninth and tth grade next year with a very small cohort and then the following year we will add 11th and 12th grade. So um hoping to expand prek through grade

03212. Um we have submitted our curriculum overview for all of you and um as well as time on learning and um sort of what the week looks like. If you look under time breakdown for the subjects for each of the grade levels. Um so the course of study is included in obviously including math and science, the humanities which integrates the history and writing. Um we started this year with Latin. So students starting in second grade have been studying Latin and next year we're adding Greek. Both are classical languages. So students will have the um opportunity to take Greek as well. um theology and music. Next year we are adding a strings program for students to learn the violin. So there's a lot happening and I don't know if anybody has any questions for me but

033them questions. Yes. Congratulations going really well from in just a year. So nice job. Um I'm curious. So you said you had how many students total this year? 21. We started with 21. We have enrolled 10 more. Wow. Yes. What is the breakdown in grades? So we have six middle schoolers, sixth through 8th grade. We have So basically our classes are multi-age. So I'll actually start at the beginning. So we have three and four year olds. We have eight. Then we have nine students in a K1. And then we have a second, third, and fourth grade mixed with six. And then we have a sixth, seventh, and eighth grade mixed with six students. Yeah, I think that adds up. So, um, and for next year, as you can imagine, people typically enroll K1 is a

034big enrollment. So, we have a lot of kindergarteners and first grade students who have already enrolled next year. So, it will grow heavily from the bottom. Um, but it's also worked really well to have the middle school and we want to expand to accommodate and obviously our vision is through 12th grade. What do you So the I thought the high school curriculum was really interesting. What do you anticipate enrollment for the high school could possibly be? We think we'll have between six and eight. We have four committed and two who we're talking with right now. We're bringing students in for shadow days um and placement exams. So that's kind of part of the process. So we're pretty deep into the process right now. So I'm hope I think between six and eight. Is there any

035physical education that's a part of this at all? There is. We actually have a gymnastics coach who teaches our PE classes. She works them very hard and we have that incorporated into the high school curriculum as an elective. So it is it will be on a rotating basis but you can see it indicated under time areas. Yes. So she'll also teach the high school. We would we aspire to bring in sports. We are going to start with cross country but it will be club um until we have a critical mass of students. Thank you. Yes. Um, I think I know the building you guys are in, but I was just curious what you see like the capacity of the building. If you were to fill out your grades, like what does that look like? So,

036we are in the First Church Congregational, which previously housed um, Boxford Academy, and there are 12 classrooms. We're occupying four of them. In addition to that, there's the family life center next door which we utilize for music, PE, and um theater. And it has an additional two classrooms plus some unfinished space. And then um we're actually starting our high school in the rectory or the parsonage on the far corner of the property, which is the old beautiful historic home. Gotcha. Thank you. So, we have a lot of space to grow. Sounds it. Jeff, hi. Thanks. Nice presentation. Excuse me. Finding a cold. Um, I'm not too familiar with these private schools. So, is your curriculum aligned with state standards or do you are you required to keep that? So, we are required to offer a

037comparable education to the state. um we are not required to teach the common core or the Massachusetts curricular framework. So our curriculum is not the same. What what's comparable mean as good as or better. How's that decided by your I guess you have to approve the curriculum. I mean it's obviously subjective. Ultimately the state puts forward a criteria and we provide all of the appropriate documents which we did last year and we received approval. So a lot of the policies were presented last year and those stand moving forward. So when I um sought approval for this I was asked to submit the high school curriculum and the time on learning. So just anything that was added into what previously existed. Thanks. Yeah, I was here last year. I know a lot of people here weren't

038here. Oh, and last year we actually brought anybody who wanted on a tour of the school. So, I would welcome you all again. We actually have an open house on Saturday, May 3rd. So, if you are in the area and want to drop by between 9:30 and 12, our doors are open, so you're welcome to come see. Yes. Um question I have for you is um with the different classes that you're um teaching or offering. Yes. Um, how many instructors do you have? And and I'm curious how you balance, you know, are there part-time instructors, full-time instructor, how do you handle have some who come in contractually? We have hired two teachers to primarily lead our high school. So, um, my husband is coming on and his background is physics. So, he will teach the

039math and the science. And then we hired another gentleman, Dr. Alex Rogeri, and he's a PhD in English. um and he will teach he'll lead the humanities. So they are kind of working together with that. In addition, our middle school humanities teacher, Tess McKinley is her name. She also teaches theater. Um she will be teaching public speaking and theater at the high school level. And then other teachers will come in in different ways for language and things. So, we have an art teacher who comes on Monday afternoons and you know, things like that. Yeah. Yeah. Trevor, Mike, are you all set with this? I know last time I think we designated you. Yeah, I've reviewed what they have. You know, nothing's changed. That's when Julian and I spoke. Nothing's really changed in terms of policy

040or their operations that that we presented last year. So, I really just asked what, you know, what would the high school curriculum look like? Um, I don't see any issues with it at all. Okay, that's fine. Then I'll move that we approve the St. George Classical Academy Upper School grades 9 through 12. Thank you. Thank you. We have a second. Okay, roll call. Bill, yes. Adrien, yes. Kendra, yes. Melissa, yes. Joined us. Lisa, yes. Chris, yes. Jeff, Matt, yes. Trevor, yes. and I'll vote yes. So that is what are we up to here? 10. So nine one abstension. So you are good. Thank you. Congratulations. Thank you. Thank you. Good luck. Thank you. Do we have everyone yet? Everybody's here. Trying to think. I just Sorry, that was snarky. Traffic. I shouldn't have said that

041to my good friend. How was traffic? I don't know. I think so. I Yeah, Jackie. Bruce time. I told so we skip ahead and cover a couple other topics and wait a little. Maybe someone can text him. Okay. Yes. do revised committee minutes. We got a long night. The revised uh school committee minutes. We're going to skip ahead to the RS topic. I August 28th, 2024 school committee meeting school committee minutes. Sorry, I'm fighting uh something as well. Pull my mask on. Right. We're surrounded. Want to cover this? You want me to cover this? I got to go find it. Actually added the complaint to the finding where something fun. That's the determination. All right. Can you bring that up? Share that. Okay. So, this topic is in response to an open meeting law violation

042complaint regarding our uh retreat from back in August on August 28th um which we responded to and then um have gone back and forth a couple times now and uh there was a I think an appeal basically higher up saying that we hadn't responded appropriately and there was a finding found more or less against us saying that we needed to go back and amend the minutes again. Um, and so amended the minutes one more time to cover everything we could think of that that had been discussed during those minutes during that that meeting. Can add a bit. Go ahead. So, I did get to talk with attorney Lindberg. It took me a while to get in touch with him. Um, started calling in February. uh and we talked about what would actually be a sufficient

043response. He didn't really give me a lot of specifics to go on, but I what I I took what I learned in my conversation with him and put together the uh the edited version of the minutes that you that you have in front of you. So, I hope it's going to be enough. Um but, you know, he had said flesh out some of the areas that he had identified in this letter. um which I tried to do. So now I think that's you know the big question I had seen was you know we gave you everything what we had and this happened now seven eight months ago. So I remembers exactly what was said and so he tried to say you know he said he's he had noted a couple of places in there that

044you see where the the more substantive changes are that I that I this is more documentation issue right just yeah I mean what the the finding on the is that the committee needed to expand the minutes keep up the minutes expand the minutes right and then reapprove them it actually had a deadline of 30 days and he said obviously that's that's out the though because it took him three weeks to get back to me. So, I'll move that we approve the revised August 28, 2024 school committee minutes. Second. Any further discussion? Okay, roll call vote. Bill, yes. Adrien, yes. Melissa, yes. Kendra, yes. Lisa, yes. Chris, yes. Jeff, yes. Matt, yes. Trevor, yes. Emma, yes. 10. Unanimous. Thank you. Yeah. Thank you. Yes. So, I think Bruce is the only one. We're still short. The

045RSVP. Yes. Okay. He said he was coming. Yeah. Um I think this gentleman's from from Tron W's office. Yes. Yes. Okay. Tobin. Yeah. I can introduce I'm staff director from Representative Tronwin's office. I'm here to take notes on our great Yeah. Bruce Car was the only other other legislator that was committed to come or else. Do you guys want to wait for him or this happened last year too? Yeah, they always last to go and then I think we can probably do we start because we we have some the update. Yeah, you guys here or Yeah, come on up. That's where where the mic closer. I see us on No, not really. No, you guys will be they won't. So, that's all right. Sit over here. Sit over there. Or if you want your heads.

046Yeah. Grab those. weird. Just get rid of Yeah. Well, I can't actually. It's easier to see everybody from here. So, just we can say who we are and then the folks at home will know that we're here. How about that? Uh, hi everybody. I'm Sally Karns. I represent um the 13th Essex District. I know you folks know how this is arranged. Um, and I have synced one of Toppsfield. I also have part of Middleton. I have all of Danver West and half of Wenham. So, um, very pleased always to come here to beautiful tops. Um, and I'm Representative Kristen Kasnner representing the second Essex district. Um, I have also I we share Top Shield. Um, I think I have precinct one and Top Shield. Anyway, we both represent Top Shield. Um, uh, anyway, but yes,

047we have, um, and then I I'm Tobin Abraham, staff director for Representative Tom Wyn. Um and she has precinct one of Buckley. So um we uh couple of hours ago um were uh in session today as you know we will we're in the midst of our budget preparation as all of you are and we will unveil our document our budget document next Wednesday. This is now having completed two weeks of hearings around the state. Both Representative Kasner and I serve on the committee on ways and means which has been great to have a front row seat and really take apart the budget department by department and it's been extraordinary. Um, and I'll let you say a little bit about because you're on it's your first term on Ways and Means and so that you might

048have a fresher perspective perhaps. Um, it is my first term on Ways and Means and it has been it's been a lot it's been a lot of hearings. All of the um the um all of the departments of the Commonwealth come before us and talk about their budgets and their reasons and ration and we get to ask questions. Um and so it's we've gone through we've gone through all all we've all of the hearings so far um all across the state um and it's been um it's been extraordinary. It's really I mean really just like coming here to listen to you guys and just understanding um just what the challenges are and there's a lot of similarities but there's also a lot of um unique challenges for communities in terms of um the education which

049we heard out in Amherst um from Secretary Tutweiler and and um their entire staff and the under secretary and commissioners um you know we're definitely seeing um some challenges um across the state but also So, you know, we're in Massachusetts. We are trying to do um extraordinary things number one in education, but we also recognize that there's um we have aging facilities. We have a lot of programs. Transportation costs are going um way way way up. Um and then health insurance costs have just been really erratic um for the last little while. So, just it's really important for us to hear hear from people across the state and hear from you. And really happy to be here today. And um we are just embarking on the budget. The budget forecast and what has been um

050delivered to us is actually very we were pleased with um most of the numbers coming forward um in the budget that we're about to see um or the budget we saw in H1, but also the House budget that we're going to see next Wednesday. Um and we have some um anyway, so it's just been wonderful listening, but no, I just wanted to clarify. So the document that we were listening to input on from every agency under the sun was the governor's house one budget. We'll listen to that. We heard from yesterday was the dayong public hearing and I would say 80% of that was educa maybe 70 30 60 40 education and mental health right far and away far and away uh because the governor has some controversial proposals the worst one and I respect

051the governor greatly But it calls for closing two children's mental health facilities. One in Pocasset, one in um Sandwich, I think Papis. Might have the location wrong. And the other is reducing eliminating 139 case managers through the Department of Mental Health, which so we heard a lot about that. We heard a lot about education and as you all know and have been telling we've been discussing this now for a few years education special education transportation please help with the circuit breaker um so very happy to I don't want to be the only one but so we passed jump the supplemental yeah jump in we've we passed the supplemental budget today that will take the first this is the first time now that we have the revenue from the fair share million so-called millionaires tax the

05223 collection. This is the first time we've been able to see what we're working with and we were conservatively estimating somewhere between 700 million and two billion and it came in at two 2.4 2.4 which is great and tells us that not every very wealthy person left the state because of that policy which I think is a good thing. Please stay here very wealthy people. Um and so the decision has been made be well the voters have made the decision right it goes to education and transportation and that's it and so the way we've broken it out will be because there's been a lot of education spending because of the SOA act sa that's redundant and I know that that's a bit of a raw nerve for districts like ours because we're not big beneficiaries

053of this student opportunity act. Um so that was why there were there was a lot of chapter 70 to the tune of $2 billion over the past several years. Now the recognition has been made. Okay, we're going to take this first trunch of surplus fair share funds and we're going to dedicate $353.5 million to education. and then more than that $800 million to transportation. But with that, I'll let you talk about the really what we'll I'll part. But so in our budget from FY25 from fair share conservatively put a billion dollars of assumed a billion for the fair what we were going to take in for revenue. Um we took in um 2.2.4. We've already put in a billion in the budget for FY25 through hearing from many of you over the last year as

054well as um is and confirmed most recently. Um there's been certainly a cry for help. We only funded circuit breaker transportation at about 44% not this full 75. Um for what was we agreed to the 75 the money that was allocated only covered 44% of that transportation. Um and there were some other shortfalls that were recognized over this year. So what we're happy to report is because of the reporting of all of you hearing from us, hearing from us um as um and allowing us to speak with our colleagues um and um able to use some of the additional fair share funding that has come in to fund those programs that are very much stressing um the local budgets, particularly um circuit breaker reimbursement. Um so I'll just go start with that. So circuit breaker

055reimbursement um the 190 million of the circuit breaker went to circuit breaker and then there's additional 58 million from the S SOA trust fund to go to circuit breaker. So you're over 200 million to cover the costs um for this um FY25 through the fair share to that will go back to the communities that are still waiting on reimbursements for um for circuit breaker reimbursements. So that that want to pause for a second. That is tremendous. I'm looking at you Mike because and you and your colleagues as superintendent I think get a significant amount of the credit for this because you folks have been doggedly well you're all teachers so everything is thorough and it's well presented and it touches all of the important matters and the and the issues and you have nailed it.

056and and it and look it is cumulative. I think you know I'm in my third term back. Um and I this is the ways and means chair Tobin maybe you've been there longer but I think this is Aaron Michaelitz's fifth budget fourth. He started in 2019 as the chair of house. Okay. So I feel as though the message from communities is getting in. We can't keep going on. When I met with I I had my we all have a budget meeting with the chair ways and means I happen to have mine today and having had a conversation with Lisa McGinness. I told him they are in layoff mode. They are there. This is not possible. They've done overrides. It's critical. So, I think that message is getting through and I think that you and your

057fellow superintendent really do deserve a significant amount of the credit for pushing it forward. And as Kristen was saying, you know, the the S SOA the promise was 75% reimbursement and we know that and they know we all are realizing it's not getting you there. So the promise here is um $190 million for FY25. I want to say this surplus for this year. Yeah, I want to clarify. It's um fourth fourth session. Um but seventh budget for chair Michael. Okay, seventh budget. I Okay, that's all right. Um so and also just want to reflect. So, what we're talking about here is supplemental for for this year. But what we did here in H1 um was an attempt to not have to be at the point we're at right now. Um that we didn't put enough

058fund allocation um in the budget. And so we were pleased to hear um for circuit breaker. There is more there is an additional 150 million from last year in the FY26 budget to hopefully not be at the place that we're at now where we we need to supplement additional funds. So in I was we were pleased to hear um chair Mike kind of say you know we are really trying to get this number right. We're trying to forecast what is it going to cost and put the right allocation in for things that were unexpected, especially um special education, transportation, and some other things that just trying our best to try to put as much in. And just we're really happy that we have this opportunity with the fair share funding to be able to capture

059some of that revenue and be able to put it back into the program so we can give you what we've committed to for um the reimbursement percentages. the other part. I don't know if you have questions about the the circuit breaker part, but Okay, because there's more, but go ahead. But I don't know if it's for you or for my Okay. So, the monies you're talking about are for for us would be next year's budget or is this retroactive to this year? Yeah. So um if if I understand um correctly u the these would be additional funds uh that we would receive this year and so we had planned for 75% reimbursement on um circuit breaker transportation in our planning last year and we uh were currently receiving 44% reimbursement which is down from 57%

060last year. So, this is great news. Um, so an increase from 44% to 75% for MASCO would be a little over $238,000 this year, which is helpful. Yeah, it's significant. Um, and that in particular, well, so House one, the plan was we will get you from 44% to 75%. That was explicit in the governor's budget. What we have done is remedy the that we're at 44 to get us to 75 to get us to 75 reimbursement for this year. I think we've got that right. Yeah, that's So you're still working on next year, but the the 44 to 75% is for this year. Yes. This is a supplemental appropriation for fiscal year 25, correct? Yeah. So that that Joe, that's the additional 238,000. So if you think about my forecast Yeah. So, if you think

061about my forecast presentation from January where I talked about the need to use an additional 450,000 from our circuit breaker reserve account, which would essentially deplete it. Uh, now we're in a a better place entering FY26. We'll have a little bit of a reserve account where we wouldn't have prior to this conversation. So, this is great news. Wonderful. Thank you. Absolutely. And then there's more to it. Um the part that I'm really excited about, well I'll let Kristen talk about the regional transportation which is also pretty cool. Um but we are going to task the inspector general and if it's a very impressive guy his name is Jeff I forget what's his name. What's the name of the inspector general? Someone can Google it. He's very impressive. He's It's been a long day. We've been

062We just started today. Very long day. Anyway, what we can report on, right? Asking with figuring out what's with the skyrocketing costs in special education transportation and well, transportation in general. Now, I'm gonna have to Google it because Yeah. Thank you, Jeff Shapiro. Um, so go ahead. What were you gonna say? No, no, just for transportation is just become a cost that is for every across um across all school district. It's just a cost that's just got bonkers, kind of run away with um costs. And so therefore, what is in this supplemental budget is to require the inspector general um to create a report on best practices for providing transportation services including procurement of those services um to contain everinccreasing costs to cities and towns throughout the Commonwealth through this year to figure out how

063can we do this better? what are the different ways communities are doing it is you know and we've even talking like because when we when we had ways and means for this sub budget it was you transportation and education and they're both there and it's like we got to be able to figure this out with those those that are at the table here. Um so with this report trying to figure out what have been the best practices, what can we learn from that and how can we all work together to provide some sort of framework that can contain um contain costs and especially contain the fluctuation of costs and the issues that we're we're seeing. And that report is scheduled to be due in 2026. Um February of 2026 is the full report. But just

064the the fact that the recognition um that it's something really important to do, we were very pleased to see come out come from leadership that it is a huge thing. It needs to be looked at um and not just looked at but um also what we were pleased to vote on today. Do you want drum roll? Drum roll. Well, you don't need I thought we gave it. I thought we gave it. Not yet. Oh, go for it. Um that we um were able to put 15 million into regional school transportation to be for this year to help cover costs. Um so um anyway, we were just again pleased to see things that we have been struggling with and talking with all of you um over and over and over again for the rest of our

065body to say, "Hey, let's try this." We're like, "Yes, thank you. Thank you for um allowing us to um have some funding to help some of these budgets." Um, some of the other things that were in here was um to just make sure we have enough for universal school meals to keep going for the rest of the year. So, there's an additional 10 million there. Um, and then there's some funding for um the green schoolworks program for um capital improvement um for um green initiatives within your schools. So, um there's some other things, but with those are kind of the the big picture. And again, we were just to have a funding source when we're so worried about the uncertainties of at the federal level and to be able to do this today to solve

066some of these really and not solve but alleviate some of the stress that we have been um certainly hearing from you um and other districts um and at a time when just local budgets are just so so tricky. So, so with that, um we're um we've we can talk about other things, but um anyway, just really wanted to give you that good news that we've been working on all day. Chris, thank you. Thank you. Thank you. I know those are long meetings, a lot of advocacy and a lot and so thank you. This is a good day. It is a risk. This is a time when you really want to you can come and say, "Hey, we have news." So, thank you all for your good work in these trying times. And I know the

067federal picture is going like this. Um and um to the extent that we can be, you know, stable, stable is kind of our watch word. And I think that um I have to give credit to Aaron Michlowitz because he has been emphatic about a strong reserve fund about conservative estimates and it's going to help help buffer us through what is ahead. And um but I I also you know we welcome your thoughts, your input. Roughly quiet over there, Bill. What are your thoughts? I'm deep listening here. Sorry. I'm sorry. Go ahead. Sorry. My question was mentioned the uh green funds capital green works. Yep. Have a lot of uh needs. We're trying to do so in as sustainable and green a way as possible. Uh particularly with some of the mandates coming from our towns.

068The the three town some of the Boxford in particular is very focused on any new changes we're making here. Uh keep that in mind. How do we access those funds, apply for them? Um, so as we just just passed this today, these still needs to go to the Senate, then it needs to go to the governor to sign. Um, and then from there, um, well then from there it would be under the opaces of administration and finance, I would think, to you've kind of gone down this road before, Mike, where you have to we'll pass the money, but then you guys, it's like we buy a gift card and you guys have to go and cash it. Um, so and I don't know the parameters exactly. They'll probably be getting input from from your group

069and others, but I you're talking about like shovel ready like things in the literally in the works. Have two statements of interest that we submitted last month to MSBA for roofs and HVAC. Oh, right. The roof. The roof. Yeah. remember last last year at town meeting don't I so so now we're we're you know going the MSBA route so those are in you know and we're you know obviously going to wait to hear back from them in the fall okay all right then we will we will because and Kristen was really interested in that as well and and um so we'll keep an eye on that put it make sure that we yeah and I we don't I'm not sure exactly when the um the Senate's going to take this up but with with this

070funding and this revenue source it's very tight as to what it can be used for um in terms of um education and transportation whereas it's you know the whole budget we could there's a lot of discussion so um we're hoping that this um well we're hoping that what we what we discussed today and voted today will stay intact um I don't I don't have reason to think it it won't it might change a little bit um as we move through this process but as as I said it is a narrow the revenue source isn't it narrowly structured to be for only uses. So, um hoping it will move through fairly quickly. We also have, you know, the the big budget going on at the same time. So, I think it's the the thought hopefully is

071to get this through. Thank you. Oh, okay. Get this through as it is the supplemental for this. Great. Great. So, so yeah. Oh, Kendrick, you have a question quick. Go ahead. Not quick. Go ahead. Oh, no. Well, my question's a little bit longer. So, if you have something that you want to do first, that's okay. It's probably going to be longer than your question. Well, my question, and first of all, thank you for for being here. I'm apologize that I couldn't be there. I had no babysitters tonight. Um, but my question um my question is about and I and I don't expect you to have an answer. It's just more of a of a of a feeling and I think a lot of our community members are wondering the same thing. You know, as school

072committee members, one of our three pillars obviously is budget and money and accountability, and we have to sort of show for everything that we're asking for. Every line item, every every dollar has to be shown and explained. I guess I'm wondering at the state level, why the hesitation for doing the state audit to reveal, I don't know, anything where we're talking about spending, we're talking about money. I guess I'm just wondering why there's such a a roadblock for doing a state audit when a lot of the Massachusetts voters wanted it just to see what we're spending money on, where it's going. Um I think it just for me kind of goes into accountability at a bigger level which you know filters down into us if there's money that's being spent somewhere that we could be

073using which you know you were talking about a little bit there. Um, but I think for me that's my question is what what what is the reason for that for the not wanting to do that and sort of show where our money is going. And again, I don't expect you to have a detailed answer tonight. It's Oh, I do. I do through you, Mr. Chairman. Um, so we do have a financial audit uh every year. You can find it on the um mass.gov House of Representatives House Clerk website. It's done yearly. I think this is a misconception that and I'm happy to clear it up. Um there is a financial audit done of the house of the legislature every year and it looks at the books. It's a standard audit that any of us would

074when you hear the word audit that is what we think about. Can we see where the money is going? Can we see revenue expenditures etc. um the ballot initiative that you're referring to uh that was um passed by the voters. I think voters thought they were voting to have financial audits. And as much as I like Diana Daglio, she's a very sweet person. Um, I'm afraid she's mistaken on this because uh her what what was passed um and this is why the attorney general has pointed out several constitutional problems with it. It's not looking at just the finances. It's looking at committee assignments. It's looking at uh non-disclosure type things. It's it would be the equivalent of the House of Representatives reaching in to the judiciary and saying, "We'd like to see how you uh

075arrived at certain decisions. We want to know how many court personnel have you hired, how many uh were dismissed deep into the inner workings." And that is not what a financial audit encompasses. And our constitution is clear. We have three separate co-equal branches. You can't have one reaching in to another. So we are all fine with having a financial audit. But the problem is that is not what is behind uh the the what was passed. And we fully respect I mean this is what the public voted for. So now we have to kind of figure out how to honor honor the will of the voters, but we also always have to honor our constitution. I don't know if you want to chime in on that. Um well, just to add in terms of the question

076of um just the transparency question that we the house has adopted um uh we voted on rules. we're still working through them, but to make sure committee um attendance is reported that the timeline for bills to be reported out. Um and some other things so advocates as well as all of you can better follow a bill and legislation as it's moving through. Um so separate from the audit, but in terms of this question of how can we do a better job of communicating what we're doing um and how that you and everyone can follow what what we're doing and be involved in the process. um we're working separately to look at that measure of it again separate from the audit but I just agree with Rep. turns on on just the kind of the the

077pillars of it. And one of the issues is there isn't even a there really hasn't been a defined scope of what that is um delivered. And I know that attorney general is looking for that to finally weigh in. Um but that's the question we've had is what is it that is actually wanting to be looked at because we do do a financial audit every every year and we have taken separate measures um to try to make it easier to be involved and get our information out as to um the process of legislation. And I you reminded me that the attorney general Andrea Campbell said recently when she gives me the information to define the scope of this we can we can get to work on it but she has not provided that. And so you

078know there's an element of political um posturing. I mean I'll I will say that again. I I like her personally. Um, but I think she's way off on this and I think it's a great issue if you're looking to run for something. But anyway, that but but also what I've also said to people is that, you know, I've it's only my second term and um there's there's many that I rely on and if I have a question or if any of you have a question, I'm able to get an answer if there's some mystery. And thank you to um to Rep. Karns and others that have been um those that I've I've relied on as well as others in the House. Thank you. Okay. So, I'd like to get us more back on things that

079are more immediate for the committee to talk about. Go to slide four, please. So, what I gave you is this slide. And right, you know, we've been I would say we've been pulling our hair out except I don't have much hair to pull out. Um trying to figure out how do we um get our budget pass this year. And right now we have overrides in all three towns. Uh this is after making $833,000 worth cuts and eliminating eight positions. If our overrides don't pass, we have to find 1.4 to 1.6 million more in cuts. And there's two charts here that I just want to kind of show that highlights where what our problem looks like. And before I even go in here, I want to say that you guys are focused on the right areas

080because the chart on the left, the pie chart shows um the amount of spending in our budget above a 2.5% increase. 2.5% being the magical number that we all know about for different parts of the budget. And out of district placements is an additional 919K for us this year, above a 2.5% increase. Insurance and benefits is 365. And then transportation for special education is another $190,000. Those are three budget line items we have zero control over. And they just happen to be about the amount of money we're going to have to cut if we don't get our override passed. So it's, you know, just trying to emphasize the areas that are kind of killing us that we can't do anything about. What can we handle? The chart on the right, the bar chart, um shows

081two things. There's some um the yellow bars are just reference bars for things that um for inflation over the past five years. So you can see eggs have gone up 28% roughly over the last five years. These are these are annual increases in inflation. This is not total. Every year up 27% annualized rate of inflation. Actual inflation is 4.2%. 2% over the last 5 years. Gasoline's gone up 3.6%. Now look at what transportation or special education looks like. We're looking at 37.6% increase per year over the last 5 years. It is absolutely destroying us. And then um out of district placements, the tuition for that has gone up 10% a year as well over the last five years. We can't maintain that if we're being held to 2.5% a year. And no one is arguing

082that we want to increase budgets by five, six, 7% a year. This is just an area that that is out of our control and we're looking for help. What can we control? Basically, salaries. We can cut positions. There's not a whole lot else we can do. And look where salaries is. It's the furthest thing to the right. It's lower than inflation. It's lower than everything else. Over the past 5 years, we've increased our salary budget by an average of 2.5% perom. So, we're we're being fiscally responsible, but no one believes us because of all these other things popping up and driving us well past the overall 2.5% 2.5% increase. So, I I just want to say thank you for focusing on the things you're focusing on because I think they're the right things. Um, personally,

083I'd love to see something done with out of district reimbursement, uh, tuition reimbursement. We spend about $20,000 per student here at Masco. It might be more like 21,000. And then anything that goes out of district, we have to spend the first $60,000 on it before we even get the circuit breaker kicking in, I believe. It would be great if that 60K number could come down somehow. Um, future ideas for you, but I just wanted to share that with you so you had a picture of of what we've been dealing with. Do do you have a percentage of the increase of health insurance? 14. 14. Thank you. Dental and and it was generally around five a year prior. I know it's heard a lot about that over the past two weeks as well. Just healthc care

084just a lot on pharmacy side and uh cost drivers. Um we've been joined by the illustrious senator for the welcome second and middle sex. What are you first at the millisecond? Sorry. Um anyway, so we're a half hour in so use your 30 seconds wise. I am sure that you have covered all there is to be covered but um I was coming from another event and but I'm glad to be able to be here. I would say with regard to the um circuit breaker for the last number of years I've been filing legislation to reduce that threshold. Um the historic measurement has been four times foundation budget. A few years ago, that was actually replaced by a number that represents four times the foundation budget. And we have been working to try to reduce that

085to three times the foundation budget. There have also been some attempts over the years to have a split threshold so that a higher threshold would apply if there was an outplacement and a lower threshold if the student was included in the school programming in the district. to try to get at the rather perverse incentive uh that we have right now which provides remuneration generally if you outplace a student. And so a major subject that we've been trying to look at is what support can we provide for students that whose IEPs don't reach four times the foundation budget, but who represent very real costs in terms of developing specialized instruction and maybe specialized spaces and equipment. though that we could begin to look at that population of special education students which arguably are much greater than

086the ones that reach four times foundation budget. And I hope I said that in 30 seconds. Close enough. Other folks chapter the 15 million that was passed in the supplemental house in the house today in the supplemental package. How is that distributed? Do we know yet? Um, school districts. Yep. Um, so I'll let you I'm actually I don't have a very good It's just in terms of the how regional school transportation the formula that um that chapter in terms of the um not not the not regional school regional school transportation the what was passed today was a number to add to the existing number. Um, so I would assume it would also be distributed the way um, but it still needs to go to the Senate and as well as the governor. So it's all

087So how do you anticipate the Senate will resp So we're having a lot of discussions about how we can try to unlock some of the uh so-called millionaires tax money to assist K through2 school districts. As you know, we can't use the money to supplant existing spending, which creates a bit of a challenge because the authors of the question wanted to make sure that we didn't cut a program and then backfill it with millionaires tax money. The idea was to have a net gain. So, the mechanism that was adopted by the House today is a way to try to get around that to be able to get at some of those surplus dollars because the millionaire's tax is outperforming its u anticipated revenue. And so the Senate is very much engaged in that conversation. And

088I had a meeting yesterday with the chairman of ways and means about very subject. And I think there is a tremendous consensus in the legislature in both houses to be able to try to help with some of these basic costs in this fiscal year. So the Senate is very receptive to the ideas that the House has adopted. Um and if we don't do something that mirrors what the house does, I think we'll do something similar. And with regard to the earlier question, the dollars that were added um would flow through the existing regional transportation formula. The good news is that that's a much fairer formula than the chapter 70 formula. And in past meetings, we've talked to you a lot about the fact that we focus on regional school transportation and the special education circuit

089breaker because they don't run through that chapter 70 formula which disadvantages us. So my understanding is that both of those things that the house set aside today from the surplus will run through the existing formulas for circuit breaker and for regional school transportation. And the good news is that gives us a much fairer allocation of that funding. I think the Senate will follow suit um in some way, Chris. I'm not exactly sure. Um but we we will respond to this in some way in our version uh of this supplemental budget. And the question now is one of timing. I originally thought we were going to take it up next Thursday. Um it may take a little longer than that. this up for the original the big budget up next Wednesday. Yeah. Well, we have to

090give you guys time. So, so you guys did that. Um and we um and we're hoping to do the SUP and then take up the budget after that. So, things fall in sequence. But um I will say just because there's been an opening here that I want to take advantage of and that is that what we should be doing in my humble opinion and I think there's consensus around it is trying to reconstitute the foundation budget review commission so that we can get recommendations to change chapter 70 but that will take a few years. So if we can use some of these interim measures to try to come to the aid of K through2 districts, then hopefully by the time we get the foundation budget review commission done and we change chapter 70, we will

091have use those things to build a bridge to get us to a different place because student opportunity act will be fully implemented in another fiscal year after the coming one. And so we will have available funding because those installments will then be built into the budget. So new revenue into something new and hopefully it will be addressing some of this. So we're trying to staircase to that and what you saw the House do today is the first step in the staircase and and I commend my colleagues in the House. I think this is very important and hopefully we'll be able to follow through and we'll have a short conference committee to reconcile the two bills and and uh and be able to get it done. Thank you. Yeah, just to follow up on something. It

092it seems like um year after year after year we talk about the issues with the chapter 70 funding. Um but you know there just doesn't seem to be the the the will um to actually get after that and make some meaningful changes to that. Um, you just said, Senator Tar, that it's probably going to be a couple of years or so before before we see meaningful movement there. What can we do to move that needle a bit because that, you know, it always seems to be a couple of years down the road and and we're it just doesn't seem like we're making a lot of progress. So if you indulge me just a moment to back in history a little bit. So when the um Education Reform Act of 1993 created the foundation budget formula,

093it was supposed to be reviewed roughly every three years. That didn't happen. However, roughly 2015 2016, we did get the foundation budget review commission reestablished. it did make recommendations and the result of that was the student opportunity act in roughly 2019. So we did make progress in that installment proving that it's not impossible. Now thank you. Well, you're welcome. So when we did the student opportunity act, I amended it to require the foundation budget to be reviewed every 10 years and we're coming up on those 10 years now. One of the impediments has been to doing it sooner is folks have said,"Well, we're still doing the Student Opportunity Act, so until it's fully implemented, we shouldn't think about having another Foundation Budget Review Commission." The flaw in that logic is that you need to have

094the commission started and working before the end of the Student Opportunity Act implementation. And the good news is that we have a lot of momentum toward doing that right now to wit. I've been filing the bill and a lot of my colleagues have supported it. But in this session, the chair of the education committee has filed a similar bill and I've co-sponsored it. So we we do see a path to maybe get this done. But it the way that I try to say it is we're going to fight to increase minimum per pupil because that's the tool we have right now. And approximately 232 or so out of 312 districts get minimum aid. Right? So to really move the needle, we need to change the formula so that they're not in that minimum aid category.

095But until that happens, what we can do, again, trying to build a bridge, is to increase minimum per pupil aid again in this budget. And the governor has a $75 per pupil number in her budget proposal. And some look at that and say, well, we're at 104 now. But the flip side to that is governors usually start at $30. So the governor started at a higher number than governors usually start at and we're going to work really hard to drive that number up. So I am more optimistic than I have been in the past that we can get these wheels turning. But I I wouldn't want anyone to think it's a quick fix because it's not right. But the difference is increasing minimum per pupil aid is a I hate to use this term but

096it's a bit of a band-aid. What moves the needle is a change to the formula and and but right now we can't leave you without additional support. So we're going to use the tools we have regional school transportation sped circuit breaker minimum per pupil but ultimately the foundation budget review commission may not get us where we want to go but if we don't do it we definitely won't get where we want to go. Thank you. You're welcome. So, is the Foundation Budget Review Commission the vehicle that would be used to change crack open the formula and change it? Because I feel like that be that's a much more tangible thing for the legislature to do when it's in your control. And I appreciate the focus on transportation, but I feel like there's a lot of

097outside forces kind of influencing those costs. And last year we were pretty frank in calling the industry a monopoly because we spend one one uh we get one bid in return and that's the contract we're stuck with for three years. So I feel like that avenue of crack five years. Yeah. Um trying to change the formula and crack that open would be a much more tangible thing for the legislature to do because she kind of Well, I think Sorry. No, go ahead. Well, just what's important is the piece that we had was discussed about um having the IG task with looking at what is really driving these transportation costs and best practices and procurement and that we're not looking to create a formula to go after these conc fluctuations happening and driving up and why

098are there only why is there monopoly and what what to really get at the cause of some of these things um at the same time as looking at um the formula looking at what we can do with fair share funding. But I think what at least what we've been hearing in ways and means hearings and especially yesterday and when it was open and open anyone can come in and talk to anything about anything and about 60% of it or more was education in chapter 70 and the rural schools which you know that's not what you're concerned with. You're concerned with what's in front of you. But we're we still have these equations of small towns small we're not but we're not in the same you know we're not Chester no you know we're not go

099we're not go there is a bit of a common denominator though and that is the one of the most significant things affecting the rural school districts is declining enrollment. Yeah and and we are in a lot of districts dealing with that. So, in a way, the rural school districts have been on the point of the spear here, saying, "Look, we're really facing this. We've got increased cost, decreasing enrollment. The formula doesn't pick that up." And they have been able to navigate to get a special aid category of additional aid to to rural schools. And there may be a lesson in that for us. And and so with regard, I just want to make the other point about regional school transportation, right? We fight for that because it does go through a fairer formula and the

100law says 100%. Now to her credit, the governor's budget says 95%. Which is really a high watermark and hopefully we'll be able to hold that. But the other thing is if we look at a lot of these things on the chart, they're all affected. I think you're making this point by inflation and one of the things that the foundation budget does do is underrecognize the inflation factor. So that change alone would be responsive to some of these things in a way that the current formula isn't. I know everyone that hears me talk about this thinks I say it in my sleep. We got to change the foundation budget formula, but we it it was really truly the only thing that moves the needle. And the challenge is that if you ask 200 legislators how to

101change the formula, you'll get 201 answers. So there needs to be a structured approach to try to figure out what the combination of things would be and what's equitable and what's fair. Oh and now it's a concert. So but I am really encouraged by the conversations that that came to what we voted on today and really the recognition that some of the things such that we're dealing with these challenges and that there is a recognition and and actions that we're taking to try to figure that out with with this revenue source. and then hopefully will inform the discussions in um the foundation formula to what what's actually happening. So I think I'm encouraged that there's more broader understanding of kind of these challenges. So So I I just have one last question for me and

102that's um you said that you were expecting a top end I think of two billion and you end up getting $2.4 four billion dollars from the millionaires tax if I the revenue projections projections right is that driven by I mean was that capital gains that you didn't expect would be as high this year because I'm just curious because this is going to be a weird year this we're in a weird year right now we agree with that right do we have any idea if is going to look like this at all when it comes when you're here mass taxpayers foundation was one of the presenters at the teenth ways and means hearing or I guess the ways and means hearing on the sub on the fair share supplemental budget and he talked about it's been

103difficult and and the ways and means chair asked said to him we have not been able to pinpoint this number no one has gotten it right why and he talked about you know larger factors like the economy and trying to predict predict what will come our way. Um inflation um they're just going to have to continue to monitor um and do the best. And that's where the conservative budgeting and these revert reserve funds become important. And we set up in the House version of this, we did set up a rainy day fund for the fair share tax revenue. Do I have that right? Well, 15% of the revenue goes into a a sub rainy day account, but a separate rainy day account. It's a rainy day account to be used for the fair share to

104be used for education and transportation. So, I mean, that's the best you can do. I know I'm sure you have additional thoughts, but it's be conservative, be responsible. I would say this, it's a highly volatile revenue source, which is why we try to be careful. Came in much higher than we thought. Yeah. But but it could also because of cap gains could also go the other way. So because of that volatility, that's why we've been conservative in budgeting and we also have resisted doing things with those funds that get built into the budget over the long term because we don't know how reliable this source will be. Right now it's performing very well. That could change else. Thank you. Thank you for your for having us and giving us a chance to about what's going

105on. um you know you have more meeting I have think we all have stuff my husband yeah probably 8:15 8:30 I will say um just and and thank you for having us here um it's always good to go to the superintendent's breakfast or lunch or was it breakfast lunch lunch last week um lunch um but just really hear from all of you I know health insurance is a question mark and if there's different ways or um pilot programs or just anything that we can help have these discussions or if there's just a group I actually missed put together and there were some interesting conversations. So did I miss last week's superintendent Trump and I should have coffee with this group talking about communications for town meeting we're in that kind of I hate you know

106crisis mode in a lot of ways to how we get this done and not have to reduce another 1.4 four six million in addition to the 800 already that we've cut. Um you know and I think I read the article about the the uh hearing at Ammerst Palum and it's our story. It's the exact same themes that were coming through that that we're dealing with here too. And you know the towns are are not really you know they're not they don't they're not sitting on a pile of cash either. And so that's the that's the problem. It just comes down to, you know, we, as Joe said, these these costs are uncontrollable for us. Um, and the one thing we can control is the staff that's here. And that's unfortunate because that's where our kids

107are really going to miss out. Yeah. And at the lunch, we talked about setting up a kind of a a more consistent communication channel just so we as superintendent across Essex County can talk about these issues. And are there out of the box? Are there are there anything that we can talk about as to try to figure this out together? So, and I I would say too as you prepare for town meeting, which is part of what you're doing tonight, do keep in mind as we've said, this is step one has to go over yonder. Then it will into the to the Senate either it will go. I didn't I wasn't sure. I wasn't sure. I just want to be um it will take time. So, if you were wanting to be sure of having

108a stable situation and you have an override plan, as uh as hard as it is and and unpleasant as it is to have to do it, um you know, I I would advise you to go forward with it and hope that people will support it and hope that this revenue materializes is we see it and hope it will it passes both branches. The governor signs it and then there there's there's a better picture for you sooner rather than later. But it like I would not go and scrap an override. Um I don't think that would that I if I don't want to sorry what about 25% of our staff we'd have to when it was in order awful and yeah um and I know how hard everyone here at this meeting whether you're sitting around

109the table or online or what have you I know how hard you're all working and um we I hope that we can be helpful in time and um so just to add on yeah this is not a mascot specific iss This is a regional issue and the state really is, you know, needs needs to step up to this. Sorry to be blunt, but no, every every town in this region is having very similar conversations, devastating customs. Yep. Identical at Hamilton. It's hard to hear that this is step one in the process. This is not a new issue. So just a I know the only new part of it is that this is the first year of collecting the revenue from that fair share amendment. So that that is the new part that we have this

110new source of revenue from the um sir tax and now we've across all towns or is that how is that is there a formula for that similar to chapter 70? Yes. Yes. which no it's not used the chap it's it doesn't have anything to do with the fair share doesn't have anything to do with chapter 70 is it distributed just education across town so let's back up so fair share can be used for transportation and education it gets put into a separate fund right that fund gets appropriated by us generally 5050 but not exactly 5050% education 50% to transportation this is the first time what the house did today the first time some of those funds are going to flow to school districts and the mechanism that's being used is special education circuit breaker and

111regional school transportation right so those two things I'm sure you're familiar with the spread circuit breaker formula it's a reimbursement situation right and regional school transportation has its own formula as well so not chapter 70 but the two existing formulas for those two things. Okay, I stand corrected. Which which are much better for us than if they went through chapter 70, right? Yeah. Makes a lot of criticisms chapter 70 is that a lot of towns put a lot of money in, don't get a lot back and that's why we need I mean that's why we certainly understand and agree that we need to look at how that is. So one of the frustrating sorry just to hear we need to look at that very vague statement. It's not time bound by anything, right? So it

112it is hard to hear when we're in crisis and we we hear that you're in crisis and we're we're happy to we're happy that our colleagues are understanding what we've been kept saying that of where the pinch points are and that when we do have this revenue source in front of us right now that we are trying to alleviate some of that. Um and but certainly understand that times are hard, local budgets are hard, overrides are hard. Um, and you know, certainly we want to help all of our communities get through these this process. Yeah. And and I would just follow up on the point that we only have roughly two years of experience with the fair share amendment. So the fact that very early on in its life, we're pushing money into schools is

113significant. The other thing is as it was intended, as the law requires, but yes, but we're moving quickly. Yes, we are. Right. And there have been there have been gains, but they've been very incremental. So in other words, minimum pupil aid had for years been at $30 per pupil. We finally got to $104 per pupil last year. And the challenge with that is, okay, it's a huge increase by percentage, but it doesn't move your needle that much, right? And so we have been working at the tools that we have, but they haven't been keeping pace. So, we're going to continue to stay on it and continue to fight to do it. Again, I and I really look at this as there's a set of short-term tools and a long-term tool. And the long-term tool takes

114time. I'm just relaying what I'm hearing. You know, the talents what I'm hearing is that towns are stepping up every year all day long and the state's not there. That's a concern and I don't know if it's true or not. I said that to the Ways and Means chair in my meeting today and do you know what he said? He said, 'We have funneled $2 billion into chapter 70 over the past few years. So I said, 'Well, then we have a distribution problem. That's 29 gateways, right? Say it again. Because of the huge amount of districts that are hold harmless, right? So, you know, is Boston having override issues? Is Fall River? Is Lawrence, you know, they're not, right? You know, because they're seeing all the that those extra funds from I think the towns

115are breaking points. They're not happy hearing this and you should hear that. So yeah. No, I mean I think um every one of our community is either having an override that was a massive overrides or like one centimeter to having an override. So the frustrating part is to break it down a little bit differently. So if you look at the governor's budget proposal, it increases funding for chapter 70 by $420 million. And by the time it gets to you, it's about 113,000. Right. So, so it it's the problem is not that big numbers aren't going in at the top. Yeah. It's hard to hear. When they work their way through, they're not getting us where we need to be. Yes. It goes to Kendra's audit question. Well, it's the whole harmless issue that the the

116districts that received X amount can't get that going, right? Yeah. So that doesn't change, right? Yeah. And and it's also important to remember that without that provision, a lot of those should be receiving cuts. Go down, right? So this I've described this and I did it. Um Mike, I'm sorry you went this was a wonderful discussion um in Havil, but I I described it as a train wreck. You get declining enrollment, increasing cost, and a formula that's based on enrollment. and then and those yeah three factors are combining to create the situation that we're in. And so we have been trying to do this for a long time. And I think the end of the implementation of S SOA gives us some hope that now we're ready for the next chapter. I think but there's

117going to be work to do with that too because the Foundation Budget Review Commission when it last met only addressed half the equation and it didn't address the contribution side and the measurement of ability to pay and some of those other things. So if we're lucky enough to get it reconstituted, we're all going to have to work really hard to get that message across. Yeah. to get the results that we need and the recommendations that we need. And I've said it before, but it bears repeating. If it wasn't for the Northshore Superintendent's round table, we would not have gotten transportation included in the circuit breaker. And that was the the the one really silver lining in S SOA. if you were a suburban school district was that it was these folks really working hard to

118get it done. So the question is what's the next frontier for us to work together on health insurance? Yeah. Sorry. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you very much. I know it's not always the the first part was what you wanted to hear. second part. It's not always the what people want to hear and it's it's you have a chamber of 160 people, different districts, but I feel like it's getting through to a greater degree. So, we'll see about the chapter 7 review commission. Anyway, good luck. Please, you know where to find us. Just reach out anytime. Thank you very much. Thank you very much. Very much very keep pushing. Yeah. We will in our country. And if there's anything we can do on our ends in terms of advocacy to your peers and colleagues again,

119there's anything on our end in terms of advocacy to your colleagues, please feel free to ask us and we'd be more than happy. Excellent. We will. We will. I'm sure you're probably already aware of it, but project 211, which is a really important factor in all of this, and giving support to that would be very important. Yes. All right. If you need any more info, let us know about that. Okay. Thank you. Thank you. Right. Thank you. Thank you. Yes. Only like 20 minutes behind. Pretty good. Town meeting communication plan. On the agenda, we have Okay. Okay. Town meeting communication plans. Adrian, you've been very quiet tonight. Just waiting. Only so much energy. I, you know, my chapter 7 formula is off right now. Blar looks great. I was working on all this stuff before

120today, so I think I used my energy there. That's great. Thank you. So, the idea here is this is something we're going to pass out at town meeting or is this going to be we looking at here? I think what we discussed was that we need a flyer and there was a lot of information that we wanted to put in the flyer. So, I did my best to create a flyer that has as much of that as possible in it. And I think now we need to decide what are the use cases for it. Do we want it to go on the new web page? Probably. Do we want it to be something that goes out at town meeting? Maybe. I think that needs to be discussed. Do we, you know, this also looks a

121little different than maybe because it's in I had to print as a PDF because Oh, okay. Yeah. So, the formatting looks a little bit different, but it's not, you know, not too far off. Um, but you know, like what do we want to do with it? We have it. Are we all okay with it? That's probably the first question. Is there anything we want to add, take away? I mean, maybe just to add, right, when we met as a school committee 28th, it was like a week and a half ago. Maybe Friday. Yeah. A week and a half ago. No. Um here I I thought we had decided we were going to put this up on the website the color as a color version. We were going to print it out, mail it out as

122a black and white or maybe town town meeting a black and white. Yes, I recall. Remember there being a discussion about if you're gonna send out paper, make it black and white. Yes, I remember that too. Um, yeah. So, I don't I mean I mean what I'll say is in Middleton we're getting quite the the elementary school put out literature on what's going to happen if if the override doesn't pass. Y I've been hearing questions about why hasn't Masco done that? And so I think we certainly owe it in some capacity, some formal capacity to inform constituents of this information. Yes. I think the only thing that might be missing here is an explanation or a graph similar to the one that Joe showed earlier that these costs really are out of our hands and

123they're in the categories of special ed transportation. Yep. That's where we're seeing our big increases. So, that wasn't a specific ask for the flyer. We can certainly put it in there, but something has to go. What would you take off to put that in? I I don't think they need to know the reps. Maybe that might be You don't think if people have questions or maybe our mission? I was going to say our mission mission stuff. Okay. It was on It was in the notes to connect it to the mission somehow. Just seeing it. I agree. on paper might have a different and the way Joe said it too as far as as far as this is uncontrollable, this is uncontrollable, it's uncontrollable, and the piece that is controllable has only seen two and a

124half% increases over the last five years. Do we have the right chart to put in here? Is it that one? Well, it could be the bar chart because it's got the eggs on there which people can figure. I don't think the eggs one other question I had. can we say to support us at the ballot? Question. I stayed away from as much as I could, but maybe something snuck in there. I tried to be as neutral as possible, like make sure your voice is heard. We we can't say anything um with respect to a specific question. Can't spend we can't spend school committee funds on that. Put it that way. Maybe one different way we could put it is like be sure to support Masco period and like colon and then just the town meeting

125date and the town election day and not say specified as ballot that might be we might need council to weigh in maybe I don't know yeah and that's the question there's always the using funds for a ballot question the sticky part so the ballot has to go. Yeah. Yeah. So, you can I'm I'm fully coachable and there's no part of authorship. So, the be specific. I'll make changes. Definitely spend money to influence town meeting, but we cannot to influence a ballot question. So, we can't talk can we talk about town election? That's always why don't we just leave it at town meeting? Yeah, I would say or just Masco's budget still requires overrides or additional cuts will be required. Okay. The interesting thing then does that mean you can't even list the dates of the

126ballot? That's one I'm going to have to go check on. So the elementary school really did I think we can list the date. Oh wait, no. I think it's been pulled down. Maybe they take it down because complain about the dates. I don't know. The lower school's doing nice, but it it I think it previously said ballot and maybe they realized it didn't. Yeah, fine. Look. That's always the question. I I can Yeah, I can get get it sent around to people who know better than I do. Yeah. Are there like guidelines somewhere that are buried in our archives or something that we can There are like this is like killing there are cases all over the which which department it's not the attorney general's office but it's there's there's a branch of the Massachusetts

127government. It's not ethics. It's either it's like the election commission. All right. Oh, so they they have case findings and opinions about this, but they're always ambiguous. They don't tell Yeah. They don't tell you exactly what you want to know. So, it's always like, "All right, so to be on the safe side, pull anything related to the town election ballot." And then we want to add a chart, right? Who has the chart that needs to be vetted? You You have it now. You got the pie chart. You get the bar chart. Did you guys like the bridge chart I sent to you the other day? I love the bridge chart. I like the bridge chart a lot. Yeah, that was great. Really good with that one. Yeah, it's not bad. Sorry, I couldn't send it

128to everybody. A narrative around it. I think I don't know that I saw the Yeah, you would. I I couldn't send it to everybody because it was on the is in response to Joe's. I don't think so. Um send it to you. Yeah. Well, you can you can send it bring it up if you want. I don't know. See, but I can't show it on there. So, I'll send it to me and I can follow it up. By the way, it doesn't have the real numbers in it. It was just an example of a format to communicate the information. So, still had his hand up like 15. I'm sorry, Bill. Go ahead. Thank you. Um, my only I guess major concern with this document is that it leaves out a a a another possible outcome,

129which is if the overrides fail, then we have the the the power to submit a different budget uh to whatever town where it didn't pass and we don't have the power the next school committee has the power to do that. Yeah. Well, okay. But that is a possibility. I mean so so when we say and I and I don't want to over complicate this but if we say if the overrides fail then additional cuts would be required isn't 100% accurate because if the the subsequent school committee the you know that's formed in May uh chose to submit a different budget but it's the truth. No, but then if if that failed again, the ultimate outcome is I I I understand that, but it's not this. The reality is that and I I don't want to

130make this more complicated, but I also don't want to say something that's going to be proved false in two months time. Um that that is another option that if it fails then then the the newly constituted school committee could do it again. We could face additional cuts up to 1.6 say cuts up to that covers to right but say that it's required is right is I have a problem with that. All right. So, remove required. Get it. And we're saying if fail additional cuts totaling. There it is. Lisa could be maybe two. Yeah, I wasn't at the planning meeting. Why did we decide just black and white? And then also complain. Complaint. Um, could we submit this to an if we're kind of weird about like I didn't realize we couldn't say town meeting or

131fal. Could we attorney to take a quick peek at it and say are we running a foul of something? Yes. Okay. Yes. I can have council look at what's what's the turnaround time on that usually. Uh I can ask for a quick one because we're going to need to get this out. Yeah. Um, like I'll I'll go home tonight and make these changes and get it out if if I know that quick turnaround from legal. Yeah, I don't want to stay up till all hours to do it and then it sits for a week. But think it'll take a week. Should I should not? When do we want to have that? I got it from like mailed out. Like if it if we say this is great, it could go on the website tomorrow. And

132then we could start putting stuff out on social media and then figure out mailing. That's what we want to do. I mean, hopefully we would get things ready to go by Monday. Um Jackie and I kind of mapped it out. We could get it to Vista Print and back pretty quickly um and then get it in the mail. This might be a nice time by the by the last week of this month so that we be in houses by town meeting and time. Okay. Okay. So, you know, but it's we got to get it going next. We got to get it out next week or or it won't be won't be back in time. I think maybe so we don't have to wait till another meeting. designate Joe and Matt to approve with the comments

133that it came out of tonight. Oh, well, we already did that. Yeah, we we voted. So, I think I think this was just out of an abundance of making sure everyone had an opportunity to weigh in because hi. I think that we brought it here tonight because there was a lot of bifurcation in the conversation with towns and we wanted to make sure everybody got to see everything and know what was going out and make sure that we're all thinking the same things because if these are our talking points, we should be aligned on them. Yep. And that was incredibly important. That's why we did it. No, I agree. I just don't want you to have to wait a couple weeks to Yeah. No. So that's why I get it. Yeah, we did that knowingly

134tonight for sure. The only thing with this graph, we might want to make level service a little smaller. Are we getting blah blah? I appreciate like the blah too. Yes, that's good. You know, the other question, Matt, is how how quickly can we get this? What's that? How quickly can we get the blah blah out and the real numbers in so that we can get it into the fire? Uh, tomorrow night I can probably work on it. Okay. I can't I can't not work tomorrow. Yeah, I know. Same. Same game. What the hell are you doing tonight? I mean, we can give the language to legal counsel tomorrow just on Yeah, that's really just a question right there. That ball rolling. What can we say? Yep. And then if you get that, that'll still meet

135the deadline for you guys for Monday. Yeah. As long as legal gets back to us. Okay. So, are you gonna squeeze this in? What's that? Are you gonna lose to squeeze that in? I don't know yet, but it'll happen. My feedback is I like it, but it's it's dense in general. So, I I totally agree. And if someone wants to tell me more things to take out, I will make it less dense, but it started out a lot more dense than that. Sure. So, just a couple things. And Kendra, I see you'll be next. Um, we can't spend money, but we've created this on our own. And anything we distribute via social media is not spending any money either, right? So, we can put whatever we want into things we post on social media that

136we're not spending any budget on. Can you check that with them? Your personal your personal social media. Absolutely. Okay. But it can't be as can't go on the district. It can't go on the district website. It can't go on the uh community relations working groups, social, but on your personal stuff. Yes. What do you So, the flyer can't What are you saying? If if you're talking about ballot questions, I think Okay. Yeah. So, yeah. Okay. So, we want a ballot version and a no ballot version. Kind of wondering about that, Kendra. So my my question was um for that is it just the word ballot or can we write you know town meetings Boxford Toppsfield Middleton with the date and then election day with the dates? Is that I I might have missed that. Is

137it the word ballot on that flyer that's the problem? Because if that's the case, then can we just do like cuz I think we we might I'll have to look through the flyers from last year at that that top um bar to just say, you know, uh you don't even have to say get your voice out, but town um town meetings, Middleton, this date, you know, date, date, then election days for the towns, just so that it's factual information and it has nothing to do with the ballot. Is that that's what I that's what I want to get clarification on Kendra because I'm not okay. Okay, Melissa. Melissa, this Yes, I'm here. This doesn't preclude us from tailoring something to our individual towns, correct? Which we've done in the past in Toppsfield. It doesn't. But

138we're trying to all speak from the same playbook and trying to make sure we have consistency and talking points. I think if we're going to tailor messages, maybe we apprise each other of how we might be doing that. I understand that, but it's a little tricky in Toppsfield because of our warrant. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, my take on this is that there's a common set of information that everybody should be sharing and then what you have to do beyond that is up to you and your town. Um, as long as it's, you know, consistent with what everyone's telling everyone else, you know, everywhere else, we're good, right? The only time I can think of this being coming up as in retrospect an issue I think would be the turf field um question. I think there

139were like different things set at different towns and I keep hearing from different people that oh wait, you know, you said that there was going to be a guaranteed $4 million or something. It's like no we didn't. Someone else might have. I don't think anyone ever said that, but I I fully believe someone heard that. Um, so last year our mailer only had the town meeting, I think, because I know we talked about it and I we pulled it at the last minute. You'll clarify either way. You'll clarify tomorrow. Yeah. Um, so you want Go ahead. Sorry. I know you said you can't spend um but is if we finish this and figure it out, can I print out my own paper copies? We have a public forum on Monday that I can print out

140and bring for my own personal Yeah, you can spend whatever money you want yourself. Yeah, personal's fine. It's you can't spend public money on it. But so if we were to make a mailer out of it, that's or that's public money. or if Jackie or I were to work on it, that's public money. So, oh, that's the that's where we're trying to make sure we we stay we stay on the right side of the law. But it but it's more than just the law. It's the public perception. And the the case last year was the fact that there was this extremely inexpensively produced color copy outraged some people because they concluded that the district was spending lots of money on color copies for this thing. Even though that was the whole thing with the with

141$3,000. So even if you're doing it on your own and cranking them out at your own house, it still could lead to someone having So if you're going to print them out at home, just don't do it too nicely. You got a mograph sign machine. And are the anyone in the other towns meeting with any specific groups like the COA or um some like apartment? Put a list together. Um shared it. Well, aren't we meeting are we meeting Friday to discuss this again? Was there a followup? Not this Friday. This Friday. We have a listening session this Friday. We don't have anything on the agenda yet. Thought we had we were planning to get that together. No, at the minute I don't think we picked a date. There wasn't anything set to volunteer and just

142sign up for stuff. I encourage that. I think we should get moved on that. Another thing, one of my tasks out of that meeting was to coordinate with um I talked to the chair of the elementary school committee who then had a meeting and sent me to and I'm working with the pack director of the elementary schools. I don't or Middleton elementary, I don't know what the title is. Um about providing child care and they're open to that and helping to organize that. So, if we can provide students, I'm just going to need to start figuring email the advisors and see how many students would be able to be provided and then figure out how many then kids we could then accommodate. Um, we should Ethan start organizing, right? Yeah. Um, uh, Ethan and then,

143uh, maybe National Honor Society. Well, that's I I asked Katie Dinardo to work with National Honor Society and Student Government, but we were specifically talking about doing it here for Topfield Town Meeting and Boxford. That's going to be the challenge is Oxford and Middleton on the same night. So, it's the same kids, but we'll take half and let's talk to the band and all the kids who've been coming and Here's a good way to help. We did not have anything in the minutes for followup meeting. So, I might propose next Friday. Mike, can you just have Katie keep me in the loop on that? Yeah, because I know Middle I can circle back with her since that's the last time we talked with her was probably last Monday. I know there is definitely an appetite

144to do that in Middleton and collaborate between these schools. So, so my feedback to you was going to be that I think we need a little more detail, but this is that really incorporate something like that into it and then we make it legal. I think we're good with the flyer. Oh, uh, who was first? You know, was first Melissa. Um, as a followup to our the meeting that we had a couple Fridays ago, are we is this the flyer that also can be the information that teachers are looking for? The MTA who is willing to help and I don't know if I can I should say that could be. Yeah. Okay. Thank you. I missed the question. You guys looking at me? The uh the union reps. You're the one who took 20 pages

145of notes that lesson. Would the flyer be something we would share with Nico? Yeah. Yeah. Absolutely. Yeah. They were one of the partners in crime, right? Kendra. Okay. I just wanted to get one final followup. So, we're waiting for is it going to be Monday that the flyer the flyer that is going out as communication on even social and on our school committee blog is Monday the date that we're looking to get that out there because we need to wait for approval on those on the wording and the language or was it sooner than Monday? Hopefully, this will be done Friday, right? What I have is I'll make some revisions. Matt will make the chart. Um, I'll make my revisions tonight, get it over so we can have legal approval. I'm hoping by Friday or

146Monday at the latest. Okay. Um, once we have legal approval, I think it can go out to whatever digital sources we want. So, that's hopefully Friday, maybe Monday. Okay. No. Awesome. Yeah, Friday would be perfect. But yeah, that was I just wanted to make sure I was getting my days ready for getting the nuts. And all the numbers are in the latest budget presentation that I would hope, right? Yes. Yeah. Because Joe, your numbers were only things above 2 and a half%. Correct. I I subtracted a two and a half% increase from Right. Right. I just took the increase and I subtracted two and a half% of what? What? Of what? I have to subtract what would have been a two and a half% increase from that's what that was showing. Okay. Yeah. I'll go

147back to the budget presentation. Okay. It's going to be harder to make it look like this though because you're going to start I know I'll make it logarithmic just to reiterate. Um so the meeting that you were not here for Joe, the committee voted for operating budget expense communications um are authorized by the chair and vice chair of the committee. So we don't have to meet as a whole. It's us two approving those. Y and then capital um it's chair and chair. It's the chair and the DCI chair. You two are in charge of communicating those. Okay. Okay. So, we'll get we'll get the material done. Adrian will send it to you guys. Perfect. And we have there's another two-pager that I asked you about and I asked you about. So, I'll send that to

148you guys when it's final final for approval. We want to meet again next Friday. I don't think it would hurt to be honest. Might hurt. That's Good Friday and Easter weekend. That's tough. We're open. I do you virtual one earlier? Is that I know I won't be around so don't plan on me. I might be able to join on Zoom technical conference in Boston Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday. Yeah. So, um let's think about it. How about that? We've got until next Tuesday to declare a meeting, right? So, see who's available. Maybe just check who's available and then we can either make it as whichever subcommittee has a has a quorum or a full committee meeting depending right for get together and get together it can't hurt right are you doing a Monday too soon you're at

149a conference and it's Easter weekend Monday we have negotiations and we're meeting to prep for next meeting it's Monday evening we I think even when you don't mind Monday when is April vacation your job 21st there anyway you roll off of Easter hence the Easter Friday on that other fun stuff I'll collect input from everybody on a meeting next Friday like I did last time sounds like a plan Okay. Any further discussion? All right. Moving on to approving amendments to the Crest Charter. Okay, this is a fun one. Um, so Crest is one of the two special education collaborives that we belong to. Um, Crest is located actually up in Muin. um they uh had to do wanted to the board of directors of which I'm a member uh wanted to make a change actually

150shows up on page 11 of this thing that I've sent to you um that deal that dealt so the the uh prior articles of agreement uh had a cap on on non-member tuitions and so what The collaborative charges two different rates. So if you're a member, you get you get one rate. If you're not a member, you get a higher rate. The old articles of agreement set had a 20% cap on how much they could charge to non-members. Could no be no higher than 20% more than the member rate. So they um so we wanted to change that and take it out and so that there's proposed language to change it. Of course, when you propose these changes, Dart, these things are also governed by Desi and so they got a hold of this and

151so that's why you've got this 20page document kinds of updates that uh DESIE has proposed uh over and above what we just wanted to do which was charged non-members more than 20% higher than rates. Um it does have to have uh I believe the majority of the member school committees to approve the changes so that they can uh go into effect. So I can try to answer any other questions on them. I've tried to read through all the other ones but um the real real thing we were looking for was that 20% to be taken. I move that we approve the amendment. Uh, roll call. Bill, yes. Adrien, yes. Andra, yes. Melissa, yes. Lisa, yes. Chris, yes. Jeff, yes. Matt, yes. Trevor, yes. Yes. Unanimous 10 nothing and zero. Thank you. Happy to hear. Superintendent

152report. Haven't done one of these in a while, so got some catching up to do. Uh first up, we want to make sure uh we don't miss the March 1st, the girls gymnastics team won the state championship at a team score of 149.05, which was two points ahead of uh the runnerup of Newton North. Sarah Aldrich finished third in the all-around, and Jenny Young scored a scored a 9.65 on the vault to secure the victory. Um, amazing program. This is the fifth state championship for the girls gymnastics program since 2019. Uh, and they celebrated their victory with the rolling rally through the high school on March 3rd. We had the band gets to lead them through the building. It's a it's a you know, and all the kids come out during block to to cheer

153them on. So, it's a it's a great celebration uh for that team. So, congratulations. Uh, also back on March 1st, uh, our DECA chapter returned home triumphant from the 66th annual Massachusetts DECA State Career Development Con conference. Uh, that was at the Western Seapport and Boston Convention and Exhibition Center. Uh, we had 10 students qualify for the International Career Development Conference uh, which is held in Orlando, Florida. Uh we had 115 students from Masanomit joined over 4,000 students, advisers, and business professionals uh for this 3-day conference where students competed in over 50 categories of marketing, hospitality, finance, and entrepreneurship. Uh, Masco Deca earned two medallions for a top score in their role play. Uh, 25 top 12 finalist medallions and 10 top six placements uh, which again put them at a shot for the uh,

154competition, the international competition in April. So, good luck to them. Uh we're also uh happy to announce want to congratulate our middle school science department uh which recently received a $44,700 grant uh courtesy of the 18 foundation. Uh this is for over the next three years uh to support the implementation of our new open sigh ed curriculum. Uh the grant will provide valuable resources, professional development and hands-on learning opportunities to enrich enrich our students science education. OpenSIED is an innovative research-based science curriculum uh that engages students in authentic inquirydriven learning uh using real real world phenomena. Students ask questions, investigate through hands-on experiments, analyze data, and construct explanations just like real scientists and engineers. Uh furthermore, the curriculum aligns well with our strategic plan and portrait of a learner competencies as it reinforces the skills

155we foster across disciplines, critical thinking, collaboration, communication, perseverance, and social emotional learning. Uh special thanks to Tammy Fay uh who is our science department head uh and for securing this grant and for our educators and administrators whose commitment to teaching and learning and innovation makes this all possible. So, it's great. It's awesome news. Great uh great win for us. Uh we want to uh the the art department is proud to announce that Anakah Rogers, who's our current eighth grader, won a national silver medal this year in the Scholastic Art and Writing National Awards for her cyanotype print, Rapsidity and Blues. Hang on a second. See if I can get this up for you. That is really cool. Come on. It's really cool. Oh, wow. It's a print. Um, back. Sorry, I got jump around. Yeah,

156it's really neat. Um, so Anakus piece was selected by some of the foremost leaders in the visual arts for excellence in originality, technical skill, and the emergence of of a personal voice. Uh, there are more than 310,000 works of art and writing that were submitted for this year's uh scholastic arts, and less than 1% of the awards received the national medal. So congratulations. Uh the art department is also pleased to announce that Narali Patel uh was awarded the best in school award in the 2025 uh sixth congressional district high school visual art competition uh for peacock feather. Uh the congressional art competition which was initiated by Congress in 1982 is a nationwide high school arts competition sponsored by members of the US House of Representatives. uh Nurali's work was displayed with the other contest winners

157uh at at the Monzerat College of Art. Uh the winning work and honorable mentions were presented with a citation from Congressman Seth Molton. Uh additionally, Monzerat provides the awardees and honorable mentions uh varying amounts of scholarships to the colleg's summer uh to Monzerat's summer preol program. That one cool also. Very nice. That is cool. Congratulations there. It's not an American flag behind it. Yeah. Congressional award for the congressional award to the committee. Yes. Uh we want to uh congratulate our model UN team for on Saturday, March 29th. Uh the members of the masculinity modeled UN team collaborated with hundreds of students from around New England at their second to last conference of the year uh which was hosted at Clark University. Uh delegates negotiated resolutions to a variety of unique problems including current real world

158issues uh such as humanitarian crisis in Afghanistan uh and conflicts of the past s like the Salem witch trial. Uh congratulations to all of our attendees on their achievements. We had Arjun uh Shereikar uh who was the outstanding delegate as James Vickery, the captain of the Clark University baseball team. Kind of interesting. Uh outstanding delegate Landon Bouier as Robin B. right uh who's of the New Yorker and Woodro Wilson Center uh in the committee to protect journalists and honorable mention uh Charlotte Guido as Maitius in the historical Dutch East India Company committee. Uh we also want to congratulate the middle school math team. They ended their season in historic fashion. Uh both of the regular teams completely dominated their uh last meet with scores well above average and significantly higher than their nearest competitors. Uh

159in addition, the team finished the year with an undefeated record. Uh every team member was at their best and deserves a big deserves big congratulations for their accomplishments. Uh there were many near-perfect scores and once again Masco took the top awards for the meet with five perfect scores uh earned by eighth graders Managa Kari, Damian Towns, Anavi Baga, Jackson Yesbie, and seventh grader Sonia Patel. Uh this meet was extra special for team adviser Miss Afro who's retiring this spring. Um she she's quoted to have said, "I've been so inspired by the level of talent, enthusiasm, and collaboration displayed by these middle school mathletes. Uh the love is ma their love of math is contagious and their potential is limitless." So congratulations to the team and Miss A. And let's see, last up, our next uh

160high school parent coffee will be held on Friday, April 18th, uh in the high school library at 8:30. Uh parents are asked to begin again check in the main office and sign into the building and we'll escort them to the parent coffee. Yeah. All right. Subcommittee reports, community relations. Um yeah, so we um we were going to have our working meeting um next Thursday. we can still do that or depending on if we're going to meet on Friday together, um we can do both or one or the other. We have a community dialogue meeting scheduled for April 30th at 6:00. Um we also and thanks to Mike for working and dealing with my thousands of emails for the the website organization to get mascanomic.org/mascoplanning up and running. Um, I think it's great and hopefully we'll

161be able to get some great visuals up there and and information up there and it's a nice easy link to cohesively have all of our information um up there. So, that's what that's what we got and we'll keep working on getting this information out via social media and to our towns and um thank you everybody I guess for for the collaborative effort for a lot of it. It's a lot of lot of graphs, a lot of flyers. Thank you so much. Thanks, Kendra. Uh, DCI budget, nothing more vocal. Um, we're going to meet uh I dropped the ball, so we're going to reschedle for next week. Um, well, we actually in our last meeting, we we did talk about a couple of things and, um, one of the things that I had, but I'm not

162going to pull it up. I'm late. We're tired. I'll do it the next meeting. Um, but I I thought about the budget conversations and, you know, thinking about being more data driven. That was one of our kind of pillars for the subcommittee. Just pulling I pulled some like MCCAST trends from the Desi site and I pulled some trends on student wellness and looked at like what are the MASCO trends versus the state? Are we trending similarly, differently? Um, you know, just to share something and to preview for you guys what the committee is about. And if you have specific asks like, hey, we're going to have a conversation about this in two meetings. Can you guys look see if we have any easy information to pull from Desi or other public resources that can inform

163the conversation because I think it'd be incredibly helpful. Um, the MCAT trends are super interesting. Um, seventh graders come to us, it's downward trend. They get to eighth grade, it's more upward trends. They get to 10th grade, it's downward trends again. And there's lots of differences in the special ed um or student with disability population versus all students. And then student wellness, we're actually trending downward in most of the areas and we're following two of the trends. We're not actually going up as compared to the rest of the state. So those are the main takeaways, but I can share the slides and you know, we just wanted you guys to really understand what vocal was about. Um, so if we're hearing things anecdotally in our communities, on social media, from the students, from organizations, and

164it's anecdotal and we can't back it up, task us as a subcommittee. We'll work with administrations, see if they can get data, see if we can get data, and put some things to bed one way or another and be more data driven. So, that was the that was the intent of tonight's update. But I already put my laptop down today. So, okay. Maybe to put me next year to put some time on the agenda. So, 10 minutes. Yeah. Five minute, 10 minutes. I don't know. If you guys want me to walk through those slides, I'm happy to. Or I can um we can just put them on the next agenda so they're public or whatever. I don't know. I love this. Yeah, we actually have a pretty um robust to list just uh by just

165using kind tickets by surprise. So yeah, policy Melissa. Uh no updates here. So um hopefully we'll be presenting the final policy at the next meeting. Maybe when we're talking about Yeah. the whole thing. Yeah. So, just so everyone knows, that's going to be the whole policy manual. So, carve out some time for your review. Thank you for the heads up. We need to start earlier next uh next time. I mean, hopefully we all come in prepared and we can approve of the work that the policy subcommittee has done over the past already approved them all. I was going to say it's a formality because we've already approved them individually but we're combining them except one section maybe. Yeah, it's going to be one big document. I don't the essentially we're just re we're just approving

166it so that our whole policy manual has one adoption date. Yeah. Right. Okay. Leaons, anything from anywhere? Yes. Um, so Middleton late last week we were kind of chas supposed to be early last week. We there was a lot of back and forth and I'll use the word collaboration between us and the towns to hammer down our warrant language. Um, but that is all set off to print. The Middleton members, there's the budget forum on on Monday, April 14th, um, from 6:00 to 7 where we're expected. And then there's pre-town meeting April 28th. I will do not think I'll be able to attend. So hopefully someone else can attend um that from 6:00 to 7:00 also in the library. And then I spoke about connecting with our elementary school um peers, but I'm also working

167on collaborating with them and going to the Middleton COA. And I reached out to their director and got two dates of April 30th, which is a Wednesday, and we meet on that day, or May 7th at 11:30 a.m. Those were tough for me and Matt. Um I know Mike, you had gone previously. I don't know if that's something you don't have to answer right now. Um, but if you'd be interested, um, I know the elementary school said they'd rather the 7th. I personally think that might be a little late in the process, but you can always you can vote early, right? And get mail and ballots, right? That population, I think, right? So, and Lisa, um, I mentioned to Trevor a few minutes ago, I was wondering if we could get together this weekend just

168in preparation for Monday. So, you guys look at your calendars. Let me know. Yeah. Yeah. Better for me. Kendra looks like Jesus with that thing. Hello. Oh, the thing behind me. Yes. Oh, it's my it's my mirror. Yeah. You look like one of the Saint cards. Sorry, St. Kra. Anything from Tom Field? Um, well, I think we are going to be speaking at the moderators forum as well as town meeting. Is that what what do you call the date of the moderators forum? I have it in my calendar. March it's April 29th at 7 p.m. I think we also have a community listening session on Saturday. Yes. Yeah. Uh Boxford, anyone have anything they want to I've been in communication with various reps. One thing that that uh came up is the uh out of

169district placement question. Um, so Boxford has gone from 14 out of district placements to 33 in the last six years, which is a crazy increase. Is that K through 12? No. Just seven through postgrad. Okay. And yeah, I was looking at the data and uh the big spikes were in 2021 and 2022. So the two years after CO so you start thinking okay well maybe this is explainable and I I then went and talked to the director of special services for Tritown and asked him you know what did the history look like uh in the elementary levels and he couldn't give any specific information out and I understand that fully. What he did say was that there really haven't been any spikes. It's been consistent year to year. there might be a one student difference

170from year to year, right? And I don't know how far back his data goes, but it doesn't sync with what's going on here, right? So, there's a mystery out there that that we need to somehow solve. Um, but if you look at the data, and Jeff gave me the data for all towns. If you look at the data, the last two years for seventh and eighth grade have settled back down to where they were traditionally before 2020. So maybe this whole thing is going to settle out again in in another it's going to take three to four years for those 2021 and 2022 7th grade classes to get all the way through the system but there's a possibility that's kind of settling back to where it was which I mean it's not an either here

171nor there. You don't root for or root against it because you want the kids to get what they what they need, right? But demographically, it looks like something happened and maybe it's potentially confined to a couple of years for some reason, which is I would not count on it, you know. Yeah. Guess I would just be a little hesitant because my daughter, so she was kindergarten when CO hit. She's fifth grade now. I guess I would kind of keep an eye because those kids in the next couple of years are the ones that are not that they weren't all affected, but like those early beginning years I they're the ones that are going to start coming in in the next couple years. I hear you. But again the the guy with the ele from the

172elementary level Matt Lacaba was saying that there's no in fact he said if anything is happening right now at the elementary level it is weighted towards the lower grades not the upcoming grades. So we'll see we'll see what the numbers look like but been interesting. One more date that I wanted to give the Middleton reps. So again in trying to work with our elementary school Well, committee members, I scheduled a May 1st meeting at 6:30 um to 7:30 to go over the overrides. Police and fire, the police and fire chiefs had a very similar meeting that they teamed up for yesterday. So, something similar to that. It wouldn't have to be anything new necessarily. We're just open ourselves up to the community to come and ask us specific questions. Um, sorry, where would that be?

173May 1st at the library. Okay. 6:30. Just send a note. Yep. I will send all those dates out and then note. Thanks. Yeah. Okay. Negotiations. Oh, sorry. Oh, it's okay. I just wanted to shout out one more date while we're talking about dates. Um, the Mass Association of School Committees hosts a day on the Hill and meet with legislation. It's the same day as Topsfield Town meeting, so it might be tricky for us to show up. Um, it's a Tuesday. Um, but if anybody was interested in attending, just putting it out there. I might date is that Tuesday, May 6th. 6. I might try to go. I think it the full agenda is not out yet, but I think it typically wraps up early afternoon, so there should be plenty of time to like get

174home and whatever, but it's a great opportunity to sit down with your legislators in a small environment and have very direct conversation if you need to. Oh, do you have to register for that? You do have to register and there is a small cost. I think we do that if you want to do Oh, we we paid for that. Oh. Oh, I was gonna pay for it myself. Go up. Call Jackie. She'll register you. Okay. Pay for it. That's my That'll be my contract for the budget. You can handle that. All right. Negotiations. Uh, we're meeting with the administrators union on Monday at 3:00 I believe in this space or at the No, we'll be over in central office. Central office. 3:00 on Monday the 14th. We're meeting Jeff and I are meeting with the

175support staff and the MPF the support staff on Wednesday afternoon and the MPFTs on Thursday. Those are the first parting sessions for those unions as well. Okay. Consent agenda. I move that we approve the consent agenda which includes the approval of March 12th, 17th, n and the 19th um meeting minutes warrants in the amount of $1,863,497.71 and that we accept three MEF grants. Thank you again to them. and accept the annual report that was produced and by Joe and the department heads. You have a second. Second. So, we do roll call, right? Roll call. Bill, yes. Adrien, yes. Melissa, yes. Kendra, yes. Lisa, yes. Chris, yes. Jeff, yes. Matt, yes. Trevor, yes. Yes. unanimous consent. With that, the meeting is ajourned. 9:41. Pretty close. And