Methuen School Committee 5/21/2025

001[Music] [Applause] [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] Hallelujah. [Music] Hallelujah. [Music] [Applause] [Music] Heat. Heat. Good evening. The public hearing of the fiscal year 26 budget, adoption of the fiscal year 26 budget, and the business session of the Mthuan School Committee posted for Wednesday, May 21st, 2025 will now come to order. Uh, Secretary, can you please call the role? present. Here. We need a motion and a second to accept the amended agenda as presented. So moved. Motion from member Shabilia, second from the vice chair. Discussion. There's no discussion. We'll vote. All those in favor? I opposed. The eyes have it. We'll now rise for the flag salute superintendent. Uh, I will actually you know what? Um, we have the presentation from the superintendent and then we'll do uh wait a second. Public participation, correct? Yeah, let's do

002public participation first. Um, purpose. No, it's kind of purpose after the budget presentation. Okay. All right. Uh, superintendent, thank you. Um, so I just wanted an opportunity tonight because we uh have not had typically in the past we were able to have a proposed budget showing and then we have the hearing. Uh, but with all of our budget workshops, we haven't actually put it all together so that we can kind of see what it looks like. Uh, school committee members, you have all of the detail pages uh, with you from the proposed uh, school committee budget that uh, was agreed upon to move forward from May 12th. Um, so I just want to make a few notes for everybody here so that we can see those who might be watching as well. Some of these

003slides we have seen in the past. Some of the numbers have been adjusted. This is probably the most realtime uh budget I have ever presented at least in my seven years. meaning like we have been working on this until about 5:00 this evening to at least present to you what we feel are the most accurate representations of the numbers tonight. Um but just to make some notes right that that the some major increases notable incre increases from this budget and where they're coming from and why uh we have uh some significant increases in contracted services uh primarily from the following and the those bullets uh are outlined there. out of district tuition increases, required contracted services like evaluations, assisted technology, specialized related services, home services, um utilities, and increase for all other contracted services such

004as technology and maintenance. So that's a large uh line item. Our contractual increases for non-net school spending, which is transportation. Uh that is also an increase from last year to this year. Uh I would I'm going to say 99% due to the fact that we uh have entered into a new contract after going out to bid for transportation. Uh we always have an increase in annual contractual obligations through our collective bargaining agreements and other uh individual contracts. The one thing that uh really still should be noted and this number is actually going up uh right now that our October 1st enrollment for 2024 which is what our foundation budget is based on is actuallyund it's more than 115 100 plus students more today than it was on October 1st. So money that we don't get

005from our October 1 enrollment we won't see right. So, we won't see that money at $18,000 per head. Whatever we are over this year, we just kind of have to be over, right? And that happens every year. There's no way to go back to the state and say, "But we have a enrollment that's 150 more than it was on October 1st." Uh there's no uh second chance to submit your enrollment. It happens the same way. It is a regulation in Massachusetts that it happens that way. But it's worth noting because our enrollment continues to increase at this point. Um, and then the other piece that I have made clear, but I want to make really clear tonight, uh, because I did have some questions asked about this even as as close as last week, that

006in the past we've had, uh, additional circuit breaker, which is special education funds that we are able to carry forward. Right? That's the only account that the school district uh has authority over that is for contractual services primarily for special education out of district transportation and tuitions that we can actually use from one year to the next. This year we don't have the amount of carry forward that we have had in the past. So a lot of people you know are wondering why our contracted services are so high this year. They're actually not uh significantly higher than they have been in the past year overdate. They appear higher in the budget because I don't have the carry forward from circuit breaker to offset that increase. Does that make sense everybody? So, so that I've said

007it a few times, but it's just it's worth saying again sort of the why behind what is happening right now. And again, these all of these bullets, if you looked up any school district in Massachusetts right now, I've listed some that are going through very significant challenges like ourselves. Uh these are the primary reasons that all of districts in Massachusetts are really looking at some challenging times ahead. I could add to that the the unknown with the federal allocations. Uh we won't have those until July. Uh and so there's that a little bit of an unknown on dollar amounts as well that we are um you know we we have to balance. Of course you can with the federal allocations if we're not going to know those until July for certain. Correct. Given the um

008let's call it instability of the federal government. What happens if those come back short? So we are uh expecting them to come back short and we have um appropriated appropriately for that. What if they don't come at all? Uh we have been told they're coming and uh so it would it would be devastating to a lot of school districts in across the country if those don't come at all because we have get been assured that the FY26 monies in the title grants and the idea are coming. It's FY27 that is absolutely unsure because the federal government timeline is diff right their budget is from like October to October. Um so the FY26 federal monies have been allocated to states again the amount is probably going to be decreased by 10 or 20%. We are still

009waiting to confirm whether or not title three, two, and four. I should have done that in order. 2, three, and four uh are going to be uh part of the title package. But we have accounted this what you're looking at tonight. We have accounted for most of that. Okay. So what we are looking at tonight, so the red arrow, the Mthun public schools proposed budget per the school committee as of May 12th uh is in the column with the red arrow under it. This is the budget book that we gave you guys last week. Uh the number however has changed uh going in the right direction in our opinion. Um and again because we're just looking at every possible thing we can. It was at 103 million. That middle number that says school budget net

010school spending operating is now 102,639,745. None of that has come from staff. We have taken every line again uh and gone through every single line to see where we could reduce uh dues and fees, services, where we could use any other revolving accounts. I mean, we've we've we just went through every line one more time. Uh we did take additional funds from Extraordinary Maintenance, so that is out there. Um so it's funds that we are not obligated to, but we're going to have to do without. So we did that exercise again the last two days deep. So the Mthuan public schools proposed budget per the school committee for nonnet school spending uh there is a little bit of a change here as well per the mayor uh this afternoon. So our uh proposed uh number

011for net school non-net school spending which is transportation is 11,61,34. Uh the proposed city budget was actually about 1 six below that. Uh the mayor, there's an asterk there that explains that the mayor uh is willing to go and ask the city for consideration for free cash to make sure that we get our non-net school spending. So we are uh happy to put that in there, but also want to put an asterk in there that that is an ask that we will have to go to city council again just like we did on Monday evening. Questions? What happens? And I I just had the same conversation with the mayor before they started us up, but just for conversation sake, what happens if that bridge gap of 1 1.6, you said, doesn't get through city council?

012It has to come from net school spending, which means we'll be looking at additional layoffs at some point during the year. Correct. So it's might roulette with Okay. Yes, I might be able to explain that as we keep going. But yes, that's that was uh part of our activity today before the mayor did co contact us that we were going to go and figure out how we were going to reduce by that 1.6 which was non-net uh to look at a picture of what that budget would look like with the numbers the city administration gave us which we have. And I just I put the chart there on the right. I think it's important that people see what a bus costs. We talk about it all the time, but sometimes we don't actually display that.

013It was part of the bus bid that we approved in February. Um, but these are these are contractual costs, and as you can see, they've gone up. All of them have gone up. Um, some uh quite more than others uh in the cost per bus uh or van in district, out of district. They're all different prices for all different reasons, which again was part of our bus bid that we went through in February. Other questions? I think it's worth noting on the buses since I was on that subcommittee that did the RFP, this these are increasing, but they by far were the cheapest option. The only other option we had was $4 million more because it would have been for you. You're just pointing at would have been $4 million more. It's hard to hear

014everybody. Thank you, Maxwell. They were a union shop, so that's the increase on pricing. So, while NRT is not um always well liked for some of the service issues they've had over the last few years, the new contract does have delivery standards in it and they have been benchmarked and there's no other bus companies out there that can do what we need them to do because they bought them all up. So that I just wanted to frame that so people have something to rationalize those increases. Um the other thing I want to note is that um new information to me today was that if we were to cut say high school busing to try to reduce that cost, it wouldn't actually reduce the cost because it's a bus the price is per day, not per

015run. So cutting one run from the from the busing doesn't actually help our situation. That is important information for folks, right? Because we have 34 buses and we pay for those buses one tier, two tier three tier. Um so if we get rid of one tier, we're still paying for the 34 buses for elementary and upper school runs. It doesn't change the cost. You're absolutely right. It's the distance. It's the how many bus runs we actually do that would change the cost of the buses which we started to go down and it gets challenging as safety becomes that issue. Okay. So this is uh these are the categories. This is the total for net school spending, non-net school spending uh per the proposed budget um from the school committee. Again, just a chart with numbers.

016Um this proposed budget um per the school committee includes reductions due to change in enrollment and budget reductions as we presented on 512. So there's still, you know, that this budget that is being presented is still going to have some layoffs. Uh not the um dozens that we had previously. Uh but they this would still affect uh staffing. All staff affected by the reduction in force will fill current vacant positions andor new positions needed. Um, and we, you know, our goal when this is all, uh, said and done, we would have to work really closely with the union to determine, uh, you know, positions, making sure we're following the language in each of the collective bargaining agreements to do that appropriately. Um there are some new positions in the budget uh which we've talked about

017also uh that are required for student support services uh health needs uh and some maintenance and I really mean that when I say real-time adjustments as of 521 I probably should have put a time on that which would have been like 510 uh when we printed this uh for everybody. So, the proposed budget that we talked about from 512, this one is a little confusing, so I just want to take a moment and make sure I explain it enough for folks to understand. But the chart on the left is are the budget are the reductions due to the budget. So we have you know part of the uh budget process that all of the principles and directors go through uh every year is looking at their budget reducing because of enrollment adding because of enrollment

018we reduce for service delivery if students don't need oneto ones if we have new students coming in we do that's the exercise we do between February and March every single year so there are going to be reductions uh regardless of the budget situation the financial situation because of that exercise, right? We're not going to have class sizes of 12 in a second grade in one school and class sizes of 22 in the other. We we've always tried to balance that work going into the budget season. So, the chart that you see on the left indicates the positions that um are not because of those enrollment changes or services. those positions would be reduced with the uh 102 million net school spending budget number because of the budget, right? Because of the amount of money we

019are putting on the table. The chart on the right is a total. We presented this chart on May 12th. uh it would be a total in each of those categories what the layoff would be combining budget reductions and the enrollment and service delivery and why those numbers aren't adding up and why they are different is because it is one of the most complicated uh scenarios but this is what uh the HR director Colleen McCarthy myself Mr. Goslin have gone through, right? There are positions that might be eliminated, but there are people that might fill other positions that are not eliminated and we have to go through that process. Are there vacant positions now because of a retirement? That's not something we would eliminate uh that somebody could fill, right? So, we we balance that with

020knowing who's going to fill positions uh that are not being cut uh with positions that are being cut that have people in them. So, that might be a little confusing, but I hope I've been able to explain it a little bit. And the chart on the left, you haven't seen yet. The chart on the right, you have just trying to put it in context, right? That some of there's reductions that are typical on a annual basis that we do as part of the budget process and there are reductions because we don't have enough money. These are here on the left because we didn't we don't have enough money in that line. Questions about that one? That was the one I'm a little worried about. No. Okay. So, now let's flip over because I think it's

021important that we see this as well. So, on the um underneath the red arrow, the city proposed number for net school spending is 99,456,385. Um and so it's important for us to make sure people know what that is and that it's real. And so this is also something else that myself, Colleen, uh Ian, the principles, we all um somebody's watching it behind us. I love that. At least we know it's airing. That's good. It's streaming live. That's great. That was that was awesome. Um so on the on the side underneath the red arrow, that's the city proposed numbers. Uh the bottom is going to be the same but the net school spending operating is 99 million what the city proposed in on April. Are there questions? Did I screw exactly the same? Did I mess

022them up? No, they should be the exactly the same. You're just looking at the second column now. I I'm sorry. One because the first one column is the proposed budget. The numbers are the same. Yes. Looking at a different column. Yes. Okay. Sorry. We're You're looking at the column with the red arrow under it now. Slide eight. Okay. So, the the city proposed budget for NANET wouldn't change. Again, the asterk is still there. That was something that the mayor made an adjustment for today that he would be willing to go to city council and ask them for their consideration for free cash to be able to balance that. Same exact slide. Same exact You're seeing the same exact slide. I'm just trying to I'm trying to show what the school committee proposed budget that is

023was asked to be put in front of you tonight looks like and what the city proposed budget looks like. So, you have both of those. That's all I'm trying to do tonight to make sure because we haven't had that opportunity to put it in a package. So, the city proposed budget, uh, this chart goes with the handout that I gave you with the red and the green. Just want to make sure everybody's all right. Okay. Um, so with the city proposed budget, if we go with 99 million as net school spending, it will result in, and again, as of today, this could change, and we're doing the best that we can, that this is this is the best uh closest accurate estimate we have at this point, as of 5:00 today, would result in 42

024unit A layoffs, three unit B, and five unaffiliated. And the reason for that is because if you look at the chart, which again was hard to get into a slide. So the school committee has the handout and there are people behind me have the handouts as well. The chart has three layers to it. And this is again what gets really complicated. We're talking about movement of 600 to 800 people looking at uh positions, looking at vacancies, looking at professional status. Uh it's it it's going to be um quite the undertaking. But the top of that sheet is in green. Anything that is in green is uh a new request, a vacancy, a retirement that does not have a person in it for FY26. So the position is gone, but that is not resulting in a

025layoff. All right. In that same chart, there are positions in there that are yellow. Now, the yellow positions are positions that also are being eliminated. There are people in those positions, but those people will have jobs. So, there are there are positions in the district for those people to fill. That might be a new service delivery need in the special ed department. It might be a vacancy in another school. It might be a vacancy in that school. That is an exercise also that Miss McCarthy and Mr. Goslin and I did today. Again, real time as as real as it can be with resignations, retirements as of today. So, is that that first part? Does everybody understand that? So, the green means there's nobody in it. Those positions are gone. It's a retirement, a vacancy, a

026new request. Nobody's in it, but they're gone. They're not in the budget. yellow. There are definitely people in those yellow positions, but they have jobs. Okay. So, now get to the middle section. So, this is where the number of uh layoffs come from. So, the middle section goes by school position. Those positions mean that there are people in it. the position is gone and that position being eliminated is going to result in a layoff. And it may mean the person currently in the position is laid off or it may mean that pos that person's going to be bumping somebody else. It all depends on the contractual agreement that they're coming out of and their years of service. So the best example I can give of this is if you look at the high school the

027full-time theater teacher position is being reduced. The theater teacher will be able to teach a hybrid of theater classes in English. that position is still going to reduce uh be a layoff because that teacher is going to bump somebody in the English department to do that. So it still re that elimination of that position still results in a layoff, right? But it might not be that person. It might not look like that. Of course you can. Please. So I know um I know you're talking about the theater position. Have have you looked at the visual arts or the music department since they have more than one? Not saying that I want any of those positions cut, but we only have one theater position. So, have we looked in other places to eliminate one of those

028before we eliminate the theater? Yes. So, we we had this conversation I think I don't know how many weeks ago now, like so many different meetings. Um, but the reason that it was the theater position after Mr. Caret and the directors looked at the request, the amount of students that are requesting the course and the courses in the fine arts department. I have probably 25 to 30 students already in all of the fine arts classes. I do not have that in the theater classes. This is why we're saying if we consolidate some of those offerings and have that person be a it's a hybrid position now. Yeah, I understand. So that they can teach theateres, seven visual arts and four music and one theater. I just think that you I mean we couldn't do six

029visual arts. It's it's again those classes are already at capacity. We've Mr. Bonan previous to Mr. Caret and I were trying to get in more visual arts because those classes are full and with the mass core requirements we do need those c we need the pees and we need the fine arts courses in there the art. Yeah, I know we've I don't want to cut any of it. None of us do. I think yeah um quick question also when it comes to these um layoffs is this also with lure as well? Yeah. So thank you for asking that miss member Dazaglio. So the other part of this that could add another level of complication and again we just until we know where this is actually you know lands like falls and lands in the end

030uh there may be people in this group in the red that have dual lensure and if they have if they're a second grade teacher and they have a special education license I have a job for that person in this district right because I have a lot of special ed openings as is so that would be the next layer I'd have to look at if just the timing and the who like we would actually have to know the who at that point to then look at the individual license but yes it's absolutely contingent upon lensure same way too if for some reason their license expires this year they're not going to be employable right we don't have many of those but we certainly have to look at those and make sure that they don't have an

031expiration date before September 1st I I was also uh also like anybody in this like on waiverss right now that are going through their and tells. Yep, that's exactly. Yeah, that would exactly be the group of people that we have to look at next knowing who we're looking at. Yes, absolutely. It's licensed contingent upon lensure as well. Thank you. You're welcome. So, going through this list in the green column for the high school, I see CTE marketing and CTE EEC teacher. Yep. Those positions under chapter 74 are revenue generating. No, it's okay. So for $150,000 worth of salary, we So to forego $150,000 worth of salary, we are giving up two plus million in if my math is wrong, tell me. But two plus million in revenue for the following year if this takes place.

032Yes, because those positions are in the budget that we presented with the right. So, we're we're willing to say forget the $2 million next year. We don't need it because we don't want to spend $150 this year. Every single person in this room, if I said, "Give me $150,000 now and I'll give you two million next year would hand me the money." They would find a way to get it. We're worried on the city side about putting in a grant writer and an economic development person because they're revenue generating. How many other positions in this city in this department are revenue generating anybody? Yeah. Okay. I'll take the silence as not a lot. Those positions we we need to put those in. In my mind, those are one-time expenses because after that they become self-funding.

033I have no problem, and I know it's not me. I know it's the mayor going to the the city and saying, "Listen, we need $150,000 to guarantee an extra 2 million every year going forward under chapter 74." I can't see anybody in their right mind scoffing at that. It becomes a selfunding adventure from here on out. Plus, as I think maybe it was member Wlette said earlier, that may entice kids to stay here because now they're getting that real world experience that they're getting at GLTS. Um, besides that, the executive assistant, unless you can bully her into not retiring, is is on here. And to be I know you're not a department head, but you are in function and in design. To be the only department head in the city without at least one, never

034mind most of them that have two or three is ridiculous. They would never ask that from the chief of police or the fire chief or the DPW director or the mayor or anybody else. Zero. Zero people would we ask that from. But the superintendent is going to do it because it's the schools in Methuan. So have at it. Put it back. Thank [Applause] you. Okay, we'll put those back in. Any other questions about the this budget and the reductions? Yep. Dr. Quan, can you just remind me how many positions were not filled last year or that we cut just to get a sense of 41? Dr. Quan. Yeah, we had we we eliminated sorry 41 positions. I know for I want to hear it though. We did eliminate 41 positions last year and it was

035a combination of new requests, vacant, retiring, all of those things. And there were three that were layoffs that were middle management from central office. All middle management. Okay. Yes. Yes. And I just don't want to pile on, but um you know, it's been something that's really weighed heavily on me. the thought of our superintendent not having someone outside her office to do a variety of important tasks, but in ter in god forbid we have a crisis and I've been involved in those days where people have to communicate quickly and efficiently and not to have someone picking up the phone and expecting you to do it all is one of the most inane insane things I've ever heard. And I appreciate you putting it in there to to make way for a studentf facing position, but

036I think we're putting our teachers, our students in jeopardy by not having that position on the um on the books. So I'm just adding to what um member Shabilia said and again depending on where the budgets right that what's being proposed tonight is not what is being is this right? These are the two different pathways. And again, this I I would I would be remiss if I would say like when I when I tr I truly mean that uh working in a school is like nothing else. No other department uh no other private industry, no other municipal department because it changes day to day, right? So the number we have in here is going to change based on how people are hired, people are resigning, people are leaving, people are going on leave. We get

037new information on a daily, weekly basis. So it is we've learned how to budget. We know how to do it. Uh but it is a fluid process. So I um just have a quick comment. Um we were talking about our students and keeping them safe. I I really am worried about the positions in the um in the slide that you showed us because I know sorry that's okay. This one slide seven. Yeah. Mhm. We have four K through8 counselors and four K through four health positions and two PE positions. And I'm more now more worried now than I was before because there's so much going on in the news. There these kids, they need that support. a 110. Like if anything else, we need to we need to make sure that those positions somehow make

038it make its way back into this because our kids are at a serious um there's a concern for their mental health, for the bullying, for all of it. And if we cut more health positions and we cut K through eight counselors, we're in trouble. the health positions. I mean, they're teaching they're teaching bullying, they're teaching safety, they're teaching self-awareness, they're, you know, like if if if we just need to make sure that those end up back in the budget because as a mom that scares me the most. Um, so just I don't know if we need to go to the city council with that and maybe ask for more. I don't I don't I'm not sure. I'm but I'm scared. So, we need to make sure that those make it way back in. I think

039we can all say this all again, and everybody here is going to agree. I'm not speaking for everybody, but none of us want any of this, but this is where we're at. And I I I'm hearing you loud and clear. Uh I don't want 27 kids in a second grade classroom either. None of us do, right? But we're we're trying to figure out how to navigate this to also again, we have to educate the best we can and we have to function as an organization the best that we can. all aspects of it, right? How how we function, how we feed children, how we uh make sure our state reporting gets done. There's all those aspects that we still have to make sure. So again, none of us want to be in this position. Do

040I agree with you? But but we can't all all the other thing we can't do right now is keep saying put everything back because we've worked right like there's there's going to be a number that we're going to get to and maybe there's some room within the number to start switching things around but I you know there's going to be a number that we are going to have to live with uh and we can fine-tune some of these things. Uh but our job right now is to get to a number and really um again this is a human resource business that we're in with our teachers and our children. And so uh we also have to keep that in mind in the next two weeks. There are people and many of them sitting behind me

041but many of them aren't here because they're tending to their own children and everything else um that are very anxious about whether or not they're going to have a job next year. And so that's a very real part of our job is to make sure that we uh don't miss um that we do this right and we do it do it the right way and make sure that people are aware of what's happening. Uh and the best case scenario would be uh and I'm going to just say it now. I know the mayor and I talked about this today. I'm still very hopeful at the state level that things are going to change and there's going to be some additional dollars coming our way. The problem is the timing. We just won't know any of

042those potential dollars until this process has to end, right? So, I'm still hopeful that whatever our number is that we land on that there will be some additional funds coming in in the summer that we can bring layers of people back, right? Because if that if some of the numbers that I uh hear very loud and clear uh people are talking about now that have never talked about circuit breaker and changing the regulations of circuit breaker the way they're talking about it now. That is a long-term gamecher for us. Not just a one-time supplemental budget, hand us some money. That changes the law and how the money is reimbursed back to cities, right? So that that's what we're looking forward to. Um, and again, I can only be hopeful. I think the mayor and I

043both said that. We agreed a lot on that today. That we have to be hopeful, but we can't count on that, right? We're hopeful that that happens. And if that happens, we're able to say, "Wow, okay, we have a million back. We have two million. Now, what can we bring back?" We bring the school committee back and say, "This is good news, right?" Like, how do we how do we move forward from there? Thank you, Mr. Mayor. So, I'm looking at the greens again and uh and the reds and I see first off the custodians which I've been advocating for. who just did all this cleaning and again our custodians are overwhelmed um constantly and working um so they they need they need that extra support but the most important thing all I keep reading

044on when I'm reading on this list the reading specialists and you just said it best we need to learn to educate educate right properly and operate properly. How can you educate properly when you don't have the reading specialists to help our kids read? How can you clean the buildings when we don't have enough custodians? So, how can we function if we don't have these positions in place, which I know Dr. Kuang, that you're in that position that and you and I both know that that we need them. But how c how can we sit here and say we're going to function and educate properly when our benchmarks are the way they are and we're taking away the sources that's going to move us forward. As a as a as our teachers are going to be

045overwhelmed to teach our kids how to read. I'm taking courses myself now because we don't have reading specialists. So I'm learning how to do it myself. But it is very stressful and I don't know if I can make that decision to put that stress on our teachers and I won't do it. So yeah, that's all I got to say to to member Daglio. Go with me to to get where we need to be. There would have to be layoffs to police and fire. How many is the appropriate number of firefighters to lay off? And how many is the appropriate number of police to lay off? And then what is the appropriate number for teachers to lay off? And clearly I asked that question to you as a sarcastic jab at our system. That's that's what

046it is. And it's I I look at this and I see 50 reduction here. I count 48 on this sheet. I I I I guess before I continue, Dr. Kong, what is the number of pink slips that'll have to go out June 15th? And now, as I asked that, keeping fully aware that the city council moved their budget hearing in votes to after June 15th, without consulting the mayor, correct me if I'm wrong, without consulting your office or this body, completely oblivious or with lack of awareness to the fact that we are contractually obligated to issue notices by June 15th, which is going to increase this the number that you have to give me right what do we have to give out on June 15th so ballpark uh what you're looking at here on this

047grid so it would be it would be close to 50 this this grid here and and Colleen and I did make a phone call to attorney Maro to say are we right in saying that tonight and he uh confirmed that if we do not have a number that is um in effect a a final number, then we would have to go with whatever the mayor is presenting to the city as a number. And if it's 99 million, then we would have to uh go through this exercise again because again, some of this is going to change in the next three weeks um to determine how many we're giving off. So, I'm not going to give an exact number, but it's going to be this chart. It's going to be around this chart depending on if

048we have additional resignations or leaves, but we would have to do that regardless. So, if the school committee votes tonight for the the budget that you have asked us to present tonight, regardless of that, we would have to go with whatever that city number is to the city council because it it's not final. I made some notes today and I didn't have any paper, so I made do with what I had. Okay, I found a paper plate. Okay, in FY24, we were 1.27% over our net school spending. In the same fiscal year, Peabody was 10%, Framingham was 25, Haveril was six, Malden was 2.1, and Salem was 24.3. All cities that we are comparable to that we have the union has compared us to Mthuan 1.27 and except for the proposal that the mayor has

049put forth thus far that is the highest we've been in seven years. I I I want I You could probably say 10 or 15. All right. Well, I didn't go back that far, but I take your word for I'm just saying definitely 10. I I'm I'm concerned and I want to acknowledge the good first because I've been told that I don't acknowledge the good. The mayor's budget that he is presenting is a bigger year-over-year increase than has ever been presented to the school. However, unfortunately, it comes at a time where everything is bigger year-over-year than it has ever been. It's the reality that we face as a society. That being said, our non our net school spending is not indicative of a city our size. I said it the other day, we treat it as

050a benchmark, not we we treat it as a threshold, not not anything else. where these other cities are blowing it out of the water. I I worry that we are cutting 50 people and there is not a single reduction in staff currently in discussion from my perspective. Granted, the city budget has not come out yet, but from my discussion with any anybody in the city proposed for the following fiscal year on the city side. And while I'm not suggesting we decimate police, fire, DPW, senior center, anything else, it's it's another year of the school carrying the burden. And I'm I know that we've talked about this at Nauseium, but I'm I'm not sure how any of us vote on this in good conscience and we send something to the the city council, which the mayor

051is under no obligation to send forth a budget we put forth tonight because it's his budget, not ours. But how that we do this knowing acting under the assumption that there's no cuts on the city side because firefighters and police and DPW are more important than education. I don't know. looking at the net school spending, looking at the list of people here to lay off, knowing that today I spent four and a half hours at the zoo and sitting on the bus on the way home, I thought, "Oh my god, give the teachers all the money because I know I could never do this." Dude, dude, I It was wild. I almost jumped out of the window. Um, people were crying, Brandy. It was It was I I believe you. I believe you. Um, I

052just I I know we're not going to get to where we want to be, but I want to see the CTE positions back in. I want to see the executive assistant put back in. And I I want to be able to be sure that we have the right to re re I I don't even know the word. retain our right to revisit this at some point later on because if the council has their hearings and it comes to fruition that there's not a single cut being made on the city side, I don't want to play nice. I don't want to send them an easy budget so they can be well the school asked us for 100 and we're going to give them a hundred. But that's not what we wanted. We put forth a wish

053list just like every other department did. to say that we've cut other departments when they haven't had any pain like the school is having ever ever I that happened. So do we have that ability and do we have the ability to revisit this in the future before the budget is approved at some point in June July? Yeah, of course. Thank you. I I believe that whatever number you guys vote on will go up there and they'll probably end up being some kind of a formal compromise. Um hopefully or city council could just turn around and say, you know, you're going to take the mayor's number and then um we'll be coming back here to make sure you guys are okay with how we do that. You know, this is our recommendation if we have to

054go that way, but you know, there will be some changes. And I do want to note that the compromised budget numbers that you do have there at about 510, we did put the CTE positions back in. Okay. So that's included in that 102 number as well as the executive assistant is also back in there. However, we go to the 99 million. That's when those would have to come out. The compromise. We have two different things. That's why I'm saying we have two this this page here with all of those things on it are to get to the 99. I wish I had two. So there we're still having layoffs with the compromise. But what's that? I wish I had two of these for the two budgets that we have in front of us. Well, you

055do. The other one's just smaller on a chart. I'm sorry. It's just a smaller chart because it's less. It ends up being less people. Just to provide some clarification for the budget part of it. just to provide some clarification for our discussion. Um I have not submitted the budget to the city council yet. I' I've been holding off until we have an official determination regarding the schools tonight. Um but nevertheless, uh I can fill you in just on my thought process as it relates to what member Shabilia mentioned. Uh the police chief came in with his request. I trimmed uh $1.2 $.2 million off of the PD requests going into the new fiscal year. We're taking uh two cops and two firefighters out of the budget and funding them using opioid money. So, we're getting

056creative with that. I've been in the process of reorganizing uh DPW uh to achieve uh savings as well. Um the thing that I need to mention just to guide our discussion tonight. So we have the first number the 102. I am required to submit to the city council a balanced budget. I cannot not submit a balanced budget to them. If the 102 number is what the school committee voted in favor of tonight, I would uh not be presenting if I were to put that number forward. That would not be a balanced budget. 99,456,385 in net school spending. That would be a balanced budget. But keep in mind, I also am going to the city council with an ask to take more out of free cash in order to bridge the non-net gap that we have.

057So, the city council approved a $900,000 transfer on Monday night uh to cover one-time special ed costs in fiscal year 25. Part of this understanding is we would need to go to them again in fiscal year 26 to cover onetime special ed costs in fiscal year 26. This isn't counting the 1.6 here. So, um the point that I'm trying to make is that I need to have a balanced budget here and I'm also taking uh extraordinary measures on the free cash side to try to balance us out so that we don't have more than 100 layoffs. If I did not go to the council with an ask for free cash of 1.6, we would have a non-net gap of 1.6. Of course, the superintendent would have no choice but to go deeper into the net

058number for more layoffs. So, if we did not go to to the council for the free cash, we would be looking at, would you say, 100 or more layoffs? I I'd say another 1.6 million in staffing because again, we just I don't know where to take it from. Uh, so we'd have to look at what that would be. So, you know, probably another 2530 people. So, what I'm trying to do here is I'm trying to get us as close as we can to that initial compromised number. Um, I'm not satisfied with literally any of this. If I could, I would give our teachers, our schools, literally every cent that they ask for. Um, but the issue is that I need to find a balance and we need to have a balanced budget. Um, so I

059just wanted to state that to guide the conversation. The vice chair wanted to have Do I No. Okay. Lori, can I finish before we That's fine. Go ahead. So I I fully recognize and understand what you're saying. Mr. Mayor, Dr. Kuang, can you tell me what the number was in our original budget proposal that came forth when we started this? It was 120 and change. Oh, the FET. The one that you put forward back in March. Yes. With every like all the things that Yes. For 120. It was 115 20. I believe it was 120 for non-net for spending. 120 net school spending. Not net hasn't changed. Now we're down to 102. Mhm. So $18 million using that math on how the department for the the PD was cut by 1.2 million. We've been cut

060by 18 million. No, that's not correct. So from the initial wish wish list excuse me with the 108913147 the uh cut from the wish list is 15,557 537,000 roughly uh so overall across the entire city I have cut roughly 19 million alto together off of initial requests across the city. Now does that include the 15 from the school? It does, but here's the thing. Included in the 19. Keep in mind that that that 15 is being adjusted because I'm going up another 1.6 with the additional Alaska free. Okay. But every department, schools included, comes to the mayor with their proposal when we start budget planning and they say, "This is what we'd like." And of course, it's high and it's got all the bells and whistles in it. Every single department, police, fire, school, DPW,

061everybody across the board. Our budget is clearly bigger because we are the biggest department in the city. But to say that the school the the wish list from the PD was cut by 1.2 then to look at what our wish list was and to where it was cut and to where it's ending up and then to say that we're getting creative and moving firefighters from this payline item to that payline item and we're reorging the DPW to make it more efficient. What I hear is we're we're going to make sure we don't have to lay people off on the city side. And I I I I and you know that I have a a visceral problem with that. And I think everyone at the table knows it. I don't understand why we're okay saying all

062the layoffs will come from the school, but we're gonna find ways to keep every single employee. And Mayor Perry created a lot of positions over the last 5 years, some of them 100% justified, just as every one of these is. But we're we we won't even venture to say, okay, we may need to lose three people from this line item. we may need to lose a person from this department and I know some of them are four people departments and it's not comparable and it's not going to be well you're going to lose 23% because you can't have a third of a person but all the bloodshed is from the schools every year every single year. And I I we we need to change that. There needs to be equality in this city. We changed

063the culture in the police department, but we didn't change the entitlement. And we didn't change it in the fire department. and we haven't changed it anywhere else. On the other side of the wall that separates Methuan public schools from Mthuan, we have not changed the entitlement and that is my biggest issue right now. Thank you, Member Shabilia. So, I respectfully member Shabilia, I have been I' I've been in this office officially now. I'm now I think in month number five. There are a lot of institutional changes that our city needs. I'm doing the best I can with what I have here. Um support you and I'm I'm not I'm truly not okay with any of what we're talking about. Um but just as like for an example um the fire department, we have several uh

064folks in the fire department who are out with uh terrible illness and we have a higher number than we've ever had this year. um we have uh several uh folks who are out on uh say military leave. If I were to start to cut deeper into say the fire department, we'd be talking about shutting down ambulances and the like. And so I I just I don't see how I'm trying to get to that point where we're achieving balance and not sacrificing the good in pursuit of the perfect. And I'm not saying that any of this is good. I'm just saying conceptually that this is uh something that we're doing the very best we can. what we have as we pursue additional changes in the future which will take time. Vice Chair, so I've been very

065realistic and I understand that we don't have enough money and I understand that we have to have some cuts on the school sides. I completely understand that and I've been realistic the entire time. I've been very consistent. I'm very rational, very realistic on this. However, your number is going to decimate the schools. We cannot in good conscience vote for this number because it is not okay. And I understand we have to have some cuts. I get it. And I don't love the cuts that we have that we're we're we've asked the superintendent to give us. I I don't love them. I I would like to put all of them back, but I understand we have to have some cuts. So, I'm gonna be okay. Not okay, but I I'm I'm gonna support that. But I

066cannot support this this ridiculousness of completely destroying the schools. It's not okay. We have to teach our kids to read. We have to We have to keep our class sizes down. We have worked so hard. When my oldest was in kindergarten, she had 36 kids in her kindergarten class. We have worked so hard. Dr. Kang has worked so hard to get those numbers down. Do you want your daughter going into kindergarten with 36 kids in her class? It's not okay. It's just not okay. We've worked so hard. We got so much money with for from the S SOA and the state gave us money. We use that money to fill positions to bring class sizes down to get the services that we need. And we're we're doing it. And is it perfect? No. Do we

067need more money to do it? Yes. But we've been doing the best we can. But now you're asking us to cut all those positions that we added because of the S SOA money to make sure that our kids can read. And now you're asking us to cut it all, get rid of it all, and just not educate our kids. It's not okay. I cannot support your number. I'm not asking for any of that. I'm not asking for any of that. I'm not coming to you and saying, "Please do this." I'm not asking for any of this. All I'm saying is that we need to fit within a number that will provide for a balanced budget and will allow me to go to the city council and get six votes to take more out of free

068cash in order to fund the schools. I'm not asking for any of this. None of this is good. I'm doing the best I can. Member Dunovan, I was just hoping that Dr. Kong could finish. There's some really interesting data in here. Oh, oh, sorry. Um, I think there's some very interesting data from Desessie that the team put together that would be important for you to review for us. I'll keep going. Yes. Okay. So the next two slides are some of that data that I think um for me just being in the position that I've been in um more in the past 13 years as assistant superintendent and superintendent having been part of the school committee in the process for that many years under uh four different mayors and many different school committees. Um there's there's

069often a conversation and what people throw out and see if it sticks. And I know we've had this conversation here and I just thought again this is someplace that all of you could point people to as well um when other people who aren't here and understand this information uh start talking about it or making those assumptions. But this is actually this is not me. I did not type this. This is these are images taken directly from the desi um website. They have a financial platform uh that they opened I would in the fall of this year um which has been really helpful for us to see sort of where we stand per pupil expenditure and you can compare it with any district you want. You can look at your own district, you can compare it

070with any other district. So as you can see I pulled out uh six of the districts that either we talk about often or the state considers us comparable to. Um, and just again, all of these numbers are the per pupil expenditure allocation, right? So, they're all based on whatever our per pupil expenditures are. And for me, I just I really want people to see uh there's a lot more information than this. I specifically pulled out this data. The data, you can't even print it. it, you know, goes across a spreadsheet and there's just multiple um columns. But I think the student demographics was important to see. There's a lot of conversation uh spoken about here on English learner headcounts and students with disabilities. And and I think it's important again, I know I say it,

071but sometimes we have to see it from somebody else. um our special education numbers are not out of uh the realm of state um averages. Uh there's a few schools here, one in particular that's a lot higher than ours. Uh but our in district and out of district numbers, the cost of those students may be high and we're experiencing that in a lot of districts. And this is what I've been trying to advocate for because we are trying to educate our kids in district before sending out. And we do a really good job of that. But we also have a capacity limit of space, of expertise, of what actual disabilities and services kids need that we can can provide as a public school. There are some services that we just cannot provide to students that

072an outofd district placement is able to provide to our students which is why they would be there. The next one which this one is close to my heart because this probably this conversation has probably been going on maybe the 20 years I've been 20 plus years I've been here. Uh people keep saying we are topheavy. Uh I keep having to be on the defensive every single year. I feel like I'm on the defensive every single year I present a budget, but more so defending the job that our administrators do and what our administrators do that that are are multiple jobs because in other districts there are multiple administrators covering transportation. There are multiple administrators covering curriculum development. Um, and if you see there per pupil, Mthuan out of those six schools is the absolute lowest

073per pupil for administration costs. So share this with whoever you need to share it with to stop that narrative because it is just not true. I compared this I would say three maybe two or three years ago. I pulled it when we tried to do a reorganization of the central office to show most districts. I should have done it, but most districts on this list have a deputy superintendent, a director of curriculum, an assistant superintendent for student services, finance separate from transportation. So, so the organization of a district with 6 to 7,000 students uh is not typical of what ours looks like. There are five central office administrators uh that do it all and uh the buildings are no different. There are schools that have assistant principles by grade levels. There are uh deans in

074many of the schools that unfortunately got cut years ago because of budget reasons. Uh so I just I feel very strongly about this. This is constantly a conversation that people out in the community uh have that we are topheavy and just get rid of all the principles, get rid of all the APS, get rid of us. I just again I don't know how we function as an organization to support our teachers, our students, our families without all of those pieces of the organization. So again, I feel strongly about that one because that has been a long-standing uh issue in this community. And then the last the last block on the last right there is basically just showing that per pupil uh we are also the lowest our total expenditures in district and as a total

075are the lowest of those six as of 2024 uh that you see. So there's just there's just some facts here. I this isn't stuff that we're making up. Uh this is data that we are submitting to DESIE. They look at our budgets. we have to certify our year-end, you know, budgets and they know how much we spend on our reporting that we do uh every year on staffing. Uh and again, we do reporting multiple times a year. So, we have a pretty good sense that the data we're sending to Desi is accurate. I I only have access to this. So, so I'm I don't need to share it. I'm gonna just ask one person right now. Ian, do you feel like we're topheavy? I would say no. How many jobs do you do in this

076label? Wait, first initiate what what are you supposed to be doing? Your first real job. He's the assistant superintendent for finance and operations. So I I know, but what else do you do? Well, I I am the transportation department. I oversee facilities, food services, budget, finance, payroll. Thank you. You just answer You just answered the question. We're not topheavy. I'll give you a bigger list tomorrow. Forgot half of them. All right. And so the next one I have uh this one I'm putting out there just so that there's data out there. This isn't this isn't um I'm maybe not as uh burned by this information as I was the the previous but we thought this one was good and a lot of other districts around us are starting to use this data as well to

077show um but as of uh this school year you know there's com conversations too about teachers leaving in droves and what are we doing and um I also just want to show the people who are here want to be here uh I see it I live in this community, my neighbors are teachers. Um, you know, I certainly am concerned about this conversation that we're having about the budget because people have left districts that have been there for 20 years because they've wanted to be in Methuan and now they're first or second year teachers here because this is where they wanted to be. And so, uh, it it does concern me that it's going to be really challenging for us to recruit and retain teachers after a year like this year. And again, not not uncommon

078happening right in our neighborhood right next in towns next to us as well going through some really challenging times. But just some interesting information about that retention. Um I did put an asteric because the six to three for principles um on a normal day could be concerning, but those were all accounted for obviously from um the tenny principal retired. the high school uh principal did resign and we have to um at Branch Street because it is a school designation by Desi, the special ed administrator also has to be designated the principal. Uh and she is now teaching at Branch Street. Who's the principal at Branch Street? So the special ed administrator, so right now it would be Kelly Blanchett is the special ed administrator that runs the preschool. She has to have a designation of

079special ed administrator and principal. We have to designate a person as the contact. Gina actually is the second contact for Branch Street as an administrator. So again, just thought I would throw that out there to compare to some of our um other communities. You know, Taton is a little bit higher than us, but an 88% retention rate is is pretty good. Uh it's higher than the state average. Uh, obviously we want it to be higher than that, but it's a pretty good retention rate when you're talking about the number of teachers that we have. Again, my goal would be to retain all of them, and I'm very worried about this um this uh budget cycle uh not not helping our retention rate of of teachers. And then just some context. This is conversation that we've

080had, but again, I'm trying to sum this up for the conversation today and the hearing and the vote. Um, you know, how did this experience that we're having is certainly not unique. I've been saying this. I really do hope people are seeing and reading and understanding what's happening across the state. It is uh the four things here. If I pulled up I I just recently did, but like Salem, Massachusetts is going through it. It's the same four reasons that are landing school districts in this position at this time and it's only going to continue over time. Um the chapter 70 formula, everybody knows it's not adequate, it's not equitable, it needs to be changed. Uh there's legislation to move forward with a commission again to change that formula. That's not going to happen overnight, right?

081that will be if the commission is created to change the formula and look more at equity um it's probably going to be a few years out before that formula actually changes that we see a difference for that the rising out of district tuitions uh I think the conversation about circuit breaker and the bills in the house and the senate right now that are really pushing for a change in reimbursements for those out of district tuitions and transportation is real uh I've never been so involved in conversations with my colleagues, legislators, everybody is going to benefit from that change. So the drive to push that change is very real and that's that change uh if some of those bills do get passed uh with this budget that will we will see immediate change and an immediate

082benefit from that. So we are pushing hard. I would continue to ask everybody to push our legislation who has been outstanding. Uh Rep. Hamilton and uh Senator Pano. Uh they have been absolutely responsive and fantastic when it comes to education funding. Um they're seeing the need for it in Haveril and Lawrence here in Mthuan. Um and again, I've never had more conversations with legislators as I have this year. And so I really am hopeful that that passes. I think it's worth noting that the out of district tuition rates have gone up almost 18% in two years. Yes, that is correct. Increased faster than the price of eggs. Yes. So, just I think that's just important for people to know and those are set by our friends up at Ashbertton Place at OSD. Yes. And we

083have zero negotiation power on any of that. Right. And there's a there's a link on the state website that actually uh shows what those uh tuitions are. That's what we plug in as the the day programs and residential programs for FY26. Member will. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Just to add to what the superintendent indicated, Senator Pyeno had signed on to two major amendments. One dealing with the circuit breaker and also dealing with an infusion of $200 million that was withdrawn from the house to add to chapter 70 to add for uh to account for inflation. Yeah. Um, so I just wanted to say that for the record. Thank you. Yep. Perfect. So the question I also uh and I and I was wondering what would be the number um to bring us to resource level

084funding meaning no additions but no cuts everything remains the same. So level services level services. Uh I don't have that number readily available. Okay. It would be more than what we're asking for. Oh, I know that. But it's not the 120. No, it it would be I I would think it would be close to like one and I'm throwing an estimated like 112, maybe 113. Probably less than that. It would be it would be if the 102 we're still having 20 layoffs or so, you're you're looking at maybe a 105 would be level services, I'm guessing. And I mean, you know, I'm I'm I'm estimating right now, but it's it's not going to be 115 or 120. You're talking about one level service, right? So level service is just carry forward what you have. Still

085a higher number out there. So when it comes back better, level funded is we get the same amount of money as last year. And that is, you know, catastrophic um reductions. No, no. That's why I'm saying level of services, right? Could we get that number? Because I'd rather support that budget than have cuts. We can. I just I don't I don't know. We We have We have three different uh workbooks going right now with three different scenarios, right? We have we have I don't even know what they are anymore, but we have the getting to the 99. We have a workbook ready to go. Uh we have adjustments that we made for tonight. What's the third one? The one you posted in the trivia. Oh, we have the one we posted in the trivia, which

086is a little different than tonight's. And the fourth one's the original. The original. So, we we can It also makes it challenging because on this chart that you see, and I'm sorry it printed a little darker than I wanted to, but I just wanted to make the colors different. The bottom chart there in green, those are the only positions left that are new and they're for services, right? So there's a lot of and again it's hard to see and I'm so sorry um but a lot of those are oneto ons uh onetoone for medical uh speech OT uh you know their service delivery positions that if we don't have those we absolutely are not going to be uh servicing our students. So those are the only ones that are left. So level services is hard

087for a school but it you know would be these plus the current staff that we have in addition to these like if you had to add those like start from there but we've also reduced some of the services by whatever program assistance or whatever too. So you know the service deliveries but often where it's a little bit unbalanced but I think that that would be something I mean we can give a number. I'm just not sure, you know, might not be perfectly accurate, but we can give an estimated amount of what a level service budget would be. I don't think I could do it right now. I need a balanced budget here and I need to also go to the council to get more timing. Yeah. So, the timing of live within doing more realistic

088uh boundaries here. So, so that's the last SL. I I I hope that is helpful to all of you just to put it into a package that we haven't been able to do yet. So, you can see what it looks like with the proposal that you asked me to prepare for tonight and post what the city proposal looks like and that we're prepared for that if it should go that way. Um and I would just continue to remind all of you um I am here to advocate for the school department and doing the best that I can to service students and families and staff. The decision I am here to recommend a budget to you. The decision of the budget falls into your hands. It is at the will of the school committee. Um, it's

089a huge uh decision. Uh, but it is one of the most important uh parts of being on this school committee. I know I said it last time, but I will say it again. Uh, I am here to recommend. I have to advocate for what I believe in. I know that we have to balance a budget. I know that we have to uh continue to move our kids forward in this community. Uh, and I know that we are facing challenging times. And I don't see that ending. Meaning I don't think this is it. So, so I, you know, like we we were prepared, you know, I knew this was going to be a challenging budget and uh started conversations internally with our department in January as soon as the governor's budget came out. So again, I

090don't see the challenges that we might be facing. They might change uh over the course of a year, but the FY27 budget I do not see being any less challenging. Um and so we just we need to be prepared for that. We don't know what it's going to look like. Um but we have to get through FY26 first and do everything that we can within our power and our authority to do that. And just to stay for the record, we're going to be doing things differently for fiscal year 27. Preparations for that budget are going to begin immediately after we adopt this one. Member Maxwell, just a question. Um why do we have to compromise on our um balanced budget when 19 million is what you're saying and we're 15 million out of that 19?

091Why can't that come from other departments? So the schools are more than half of the overall budget. So that's why if you look at it proportionally um overall the school department were going up 4% year-over-year on the city side. Otherwise across the board it's going up roughly three. So we're trying to just balance that out. That's a n I mean that's that's that's it's not even comparable. 15 million to 4 million that's not even comparable. We have to think of it like a percentage. Member will I I just want to emphasize because I I served on the city council. I served on the school committee. There's absolutely no one in this room that voted for or justified the superior officers contract. It became a national laughingstock on those contracts. We're still living with the legacy

092of those contracts. So, I don't want to be grouped in with that bunch of people that on their watch, again, excluding the mayor, excluding many people, but you had a group of individuals that fell asleep and approved an outrageous superior officers contract that became a laughingtock of the nation. that we're still dealing with that legacy. So, as a fiscal conservative, I am outraged that we still have that process, but we're subject to contract negotiations. Now, we might have future retirements. Um, and again, I'm so happy that the superintendent because I've been talking about it for two years. I've had the Pioneer Institute and now we have Desi. We are not a topheavy administration. So, I just want to talk about those two major points. Now, there'll have to be revenue uh enhances to this community,

093and that might be uh pot dispensaries, that might be us joining the GIC, that might be solar energy with the schools. We're going to have to think outside the box as a community. It's very challenging as a as a new mayor that wants to reform the system, wants to add more money to the schools, right, to deal with the legacy of massive mistakes in the past. And it was comical that there was a husband of a former mayor that was critical of you about repairing a wall at the Sles building when she purposely drained accounts under her watch. Okay, the cash reserves have been outstanding over the last few years and now we're going to attempt a balance and restore uh maintenance needs to the schools to replace boilers to replace a roof at the

094Timony to do all these enhancements and to also backfill on special education but it's an interesting dynamic of people have like collective amnesia that a former mayor drained all these accounts, right? And then she is a fiscal conservative. Absolutely not. You had a person that fell asleep regarding the superior office's contract. So when membershelia is mentioning items, right? I'm on the same page with him, but I'm also trying to find a compromise. And I absolutely understand what the mayor's trying to say. If we pass an inflated budget, it's going to be a massive reduction or we're going to have layoffs. If we can do partially through the cash reserves, and I'm not a big fan of that. We can sell the surplus schools, have it revert back to the city, build up the cash reserves,

095sell the sur building under certain parameters, right, and refocus our energies on the schools going forward. But it also has to be a give and take of reform measures and some of them are not going to be comfortable. Some of them might be opposed by the unions. We're going to have retirements. We're going to have uh consolidation. We're going to really look at the city side and the the school side. We're going to wait the results of the audit. Okay. So, I don't want to put everything on your page, uh, Mr. the mayor because I don't think it's fair to you for the the past sins of this community. I just want to say that for the record and I you know member Shabilia, I appreciate your energy. You know, I really do and I

096respect the members of the school committee and I've had disagreements with the superintendent and we've had open dialogue and open communication and again I know I understand member Dagalio but the reality is we have to get closer to a balanced budget or at least some semblance of a balanced budget and fight for those cash reserves. And that's what we have to do. We have a responsibility as a school committee to do those things. But I just there was a lot of uh misinformation not from the the current school committee or from the current ar o occupant of the mayor's office or a lot of the city councilors. It was a previous mayor's and a previous city council that dropped the ball for this community and we're cleaning up the mess. So I just want to

097say that for the record. Thank you. Member Shabilia. Uh f first and foremost I'd like to go back to what member Maxwell had to say about the percentage. This is this is not a percentage issue. The school is 100% the biggest department quite literally bigger cumulatively than all of the other departments put together. Is that accurate? And out of all of the other departments, DPW is not getting new roads and new pipes. The fire department does not have people out there creating new issues short of a new COVID type event. And all I mean the same can be said for every department. I said it before, I'll say it again and everyone knows it. We are the only department that can't control our expenses. Not because we can't, but because we are not allowed to,

098because we take what shows up at our door. So to say it as a percentage and to say, "Well, you're the biggest, you have to lose this the most." is stupid. It is. There's no two ways around it. And not to mince words. And I I I also feel the need to to to to say it out loud like when Mayor Bora took office, I was thrilled. And he you know this better than anybody. I want to support you a thousand%. And the fact that we have to be at odds over the budget gives me a pit in my stomach. But it's it's not it's not a percentage. And it's not our job to present a balanced budget. To the six of us around the table, excluding the mayor, it is not our job to

099present a balanced budget. It is our job to advocate for the schools. We we have a a a high but shrinking free cash account right now for two major reasons. We had a free fall of money during COVID. We had Esser, we had um ARPA, we had CARES money and it was a kind of a perfect storm of chaos that gave us a lot. We got a lot done with it, don't get me wrong, but we were also able to stick a lot of it in free cash. We also have been perpetually underfunding this city for decades. And not just the schools. The DPW still has a building that they can't go into because it doesn't have a roof. And not like the day that the tenny didn't have a roof, but like this roof

100is gone perpetually. We have underfunded everything and we have put money into free cash. And while I agree, you ready for this? I agree with me Wulette. I am not a fan of taking from free cash. But the fact that we have built free cash on the backs of our budget by neglecting things in previous administrations is something we need to correct. But I I I am not voting tonight whenever it is on this agenda to pass a budget at the number that we're being asked to. I I I don't like it, but I will agree to the compromised budget as long as it includes those CTEs and the executive assistant, which I think I think it does. It does because it is not our job to present a balanced budget. It's our job to

101advocate for the kids. And most of us around this table have to send our kids to school in August. It's going to suck regardless. It is. And I know that you don't like that and I know that it's go and figure it out, but we have that there's no good cuts. I will be agreeable to the the compromised budget and let it fall where it may. Member Daglio. Member Donovan. I member Dagio. Thank you. I'm just wondering, we have people here um who obviously we want to hear from. I'm wondering if we can hear from them and then continue the debate. I do have a couple of questions, but I'd certainly be willing to wait until we hear from members of our audience and we're going to have further discussion opportunity when we actually go

102to I think that might be that's fine. We can do that. You okay with that? Yep, that's fine. So, at this point, what we'll do is we're moving on from the superintendent's presentation to the public hearing portion. Uh, I'm going to share um we have some people who have signed up. Uh, we've had some folks submit comments in writing. So, we'll begin with the people in the room. Uh, Ben Thompson. Green. Good evening. You guys all know me at this point. P the marsh. So the numbers of the numbers in my speech are based on numbers I had from the 12 southern there may be a few differences but um just the the overall just theme is the same. So good evening mayor Borgard Muan school committee and city of Muin. I want to start

103by thanking Mayor Borgard Dr. Kong and for working with the food education association to go to the speech state house and speak on chapter 7 to advocate for more chapter 70 funding which should bring almost $3 million additional dollars into the city and help us in our current budget crisis because that's what it is. I remain deeply concerned about the loss of almost 80 teachers plus or minus. I know it's a little different from the numbers present tonight across the district. This is specifically targeted primarily targeted towards upper elementary and middle school positions which are critical of stated student development. The departments include grade level teachers, um, lower school bonus, Spanish, physical education, and um, um, many more positions, including including in special education. the the marshalone who was kindergarten, first grade, third grade, fourth

104grade, fifth grade, seventh grade teacher, and two eighth grade teachers, one of whom which is here tonight. Her Jenna Gagnon, she um is a dedicated educator of the district and she actually honor Lynch Street yesterday performed a him maneuver on a choking student and without her being there, he may not have made it. They may not have made it. Overall, these budget cuts are going to have significant negative impacts on our students and the and the staff members that remain because the class size will be larger and it's going to be harder for the teachers in those classrooms to meet their needs. Well, previously on on April 16th, I went into depth on the negative impact and cuts to physical education, the arts, literacy instruction, and English as a second language instruction. But having students

105today, I'm going to touch upon areas in my speech that areas I was not able to touch upon on the 16th, including the nursing staff, lower schoolness, middle school Spanish, and the importance of having enough substitute teachers, which I think is often overlooked. At the beginning of the school year, Mahoon public school was critically understaffed of nursing nursing nurses. In fact, the marsh was the only school that had fully staffed nurses at the beginning of the school year and and was very shocked to find out that Stephanie Sors our medical was at risk of losing her job. She's been a consistent face in the marsh for many years. Um, and she's hardworking and she's very she is friendly with the students. Nurses play a lot of important roles at a school. They they help students

106when they're when they if they're feeling sick, if they get hurt at recess or in physical education. They keep spare clothes students who have accidents and provide feminine hygiene products to students who need them. Without them, we will have a harder nurses will have a harder time meeting the needs of those students at the marsh, which currently has,00 students. On a related note, I am deeply disturbed by the proposed elimination of the LPN nurse disturbs the students in the medically fragile program at the CGS. This puts the students in the medically fragile program at in danger as they have complex medical needs that go beyond the training and skills of your average school nurse. According to the Massachusetts Organization for Medical Collaboratives, these needs can include but aren't limited to feeding tubes, seizures, and respiratory

107challenges. Without dedicated nursing medically fra students, CGS's busy nurses who have to take time away from serving the general education students to focus on the needs of these students, not to mention have to take the aesthetic training to do the serve them. I'm also concerned with the lower school wellness program being lost at the elementary school level. Again, we we typically think of health as a as something you see in middle and high school, but early intervention helps. It was developed to help and to integrate um into the general curriculum that scale critical life skills such as how to express their emotions in a helpful way and identify them. how um how to the importance of treating your respect and why bullying is wrong and how to handle situations when bullying is involved. um basic

108nutrition and um and the importance of exercise and how to know what whether when whether an adult is a safe person you can trust this and students then take what they learned in lower school wellness and bring in upper school help as found as a foundational level I'm also very concerned about the potential loss of middle school Spanish in the city as I said as ours with a diverse population it is especially with a large Latino population. This hurts both our Latino students and our English speaking students. The to the hard work of our culturally in of our c of their spool Spanish teachers. Students receiving engage receive engaging culturally relevant and highquality lessons that prepare them to have conversations in Spanish with people in the real world and they will be able to skip

109Spanish to one in high school. This brings English- speaking students closer to their Spanish-sp speaking peers and bilingual students closer to their Spanish speaking families. This is an incredible opportunity for middle school, middle schoolers that I was never able to get and it would be a shame if it was lost. The last issue I want to touch upon is the importance of having enough voting based educators or substitute teachers. Since I joined the district in 2022, we have struggled to have enough substitute teachers. As a result, when multiple teachers are out, it is very common was very common practice to put more than one class at once under one substitute teacher in the auditorium or at the media center also known as the library. This is very ch problematic for students because it throws them

110off the routine as they have not only have a new teacher different teacher but they are in a different environment and it is a very loud is becomes a very loud environment very quickly and very disorganized. and that one teacher now has to want at least four usually at least around 40 students and so those students those 40 students don't get the individual help and attention they need this is actually very was actually very challenging for the autistic students that I work with so a lot of times when this when there was a case there was sub and the students were displaced we would decide to keep them in the classroom because they because they were concerned they wouldn't be able to fun be um comfortable in that environment and learn in that environment which

111means that students lost they lost critical inclusion time with their typically able peers. Fortunately, this year we have had enough we have have enough BBEs to to that they had this hasn't really been a problem at our school and we've we've been able to keep we'll have one B one BBE to watch each class and they've been able to stay in the regular classroom and I feared that if we lost the BBEs we'd be back to we'd be back to multiple classes at once in the media center and and the auditorium there are many more areas potentially facing cuts that would have devastating consequences on the health safety and education of students that I did not have time to elaborate on tonight. In conclusion, in conclusion, I implore you to vote no on this budget

112as presented and work with city council to ensure that our schools get the funding they need to keep them fully staffed. Thank you. [Applause] I neglected to mention whenever anybody comes to the podium, just if you could state your name and address for the record. Thank you. Uh Jay Jalbert Good evening, Mr. Mayor and School Committee. I'm Jalbert, Six Lady Slipper Lane. I'll keep this short. First, notice my shirt. It's about seven years old. We've been here before. At the last meeting, Mr. Mayor told the members that you would have to consider other departments when submitting your budget. I'm asking you now which other departments faced that same question, that same ask. I don't purport to speak for anybody other than myself, though I do believe my sentiments are echoed both in this room and

113beyond. I simply ask that you vote a resounding no on a budget that short changes our schools yet again. Thank you. Melissa Current. Yeah. Okay. So, Melissa Curran, 16 Milk Street. Um, good evening members of the school committee, mayor, superintendent. My name is Melissa Kurin and I'm here to speak to you today as a special education teacher. So I come with data and a factoriented statement and I will try to remain there because otherwise things get emotional and this is a budget which thrives on fact. Emotions make things personal and budgets are not personal. They're reality. I teach preschool at Branch Street. This is my fifth year as a teacher. my 10th year in the preschool program. Something I have noticed more and more in the city is that this preschool program is not completely

114understood. We do more than just provide, you know, free daycare and play with the little ones. So, I just wanted to give you some perspective into our world. Preschool at Branch Street is provided because of state mandates. We service children ages 3 to five. most times once they age out of early intervention and right up until they're eligible for kindergarten in Mu Mthuan public schools. These students are primarily children with IEPs. So this means that they have been identified with a disability ranging from developmental, autism, physical communication, or something other that maybe hasn't even been noted yet. Most students here on IEPs receive much more than just educational services. They get speech, physical therapy, occupational therapy, vision services, and so many more than I'm probably not even aware of. We also have a growing number

115of students that are actually utilizing communication devices because they are non-verbal and we are helping them find their voice. In addition to services, these students thrive and need structure, routine, and consistency. This allows them to be successful in their own little way, and they can build expectations when they know what is expected of them. They form connections to staff, and this helps with their ultimate success. Here at Branch Street, we have three types of preschool programs. We have an integrated program, a partial inclusion and a substantially separate. The integrated program runs two half-day sessions 5 days a week. These classrooms are made up of one teacher and one program assistant. The students in this this program require less support from the adults, hence the one teacher and one program assistant. These classes will house typically

116up to seven students on IEPs and up to eight peer models. This year we had three of these classrooms and due to enrollment numbers and the needs of the students, one of these classes has already been deemed closed for the next school year because the level isn't there for the students. Partial inclusion. I'm a little biased because this is my realm. We run four and a half days a week. It is full day, four days. Wednesdays we're there, half day with the kids. We are one teacher with two program assistants. We are a mid-range level of support. We run up to eight students on IEPs. This year, all of us went to nine students on IEPs and we can have up to six peer models. The level in this classroom, the level of need in

117this classroom does run a little bit higher than the integrateds, but not as severe as the sub substantially separates. We have seven partial inclusion classrooms this year. One was actually opened midyear because of the number of students requiring services. Five of these seven classrooms right now also utilize support from a BCBA due to the level of need and IEP requirements. Substantially separate classrooms. Again, a 4 and a half day week program with one teacher and three program assistants. This program, as it sounds, provides the highest level support to our kids. There are typically eight students on IEPs in these classrooms. Again, this year we they went to nine students. We have eight classrooms. Again, all between eight and nine students on IEPs. And again, one was opened midyear because of the increased enrollment. Again, many

118of these classrooms also receive support from a BCBA. And in addition to all that, many if not most of the students in these classrooms require toileting, etc. um average daily tasks, they need the additional support of those staff members. So, now giving a glimpse into our world and what our programs look like, I just want to discuss the budgeting impacts that came to light last week, at least for me. Um, so already mentioned, we've already been notified that one integrated class will close and that's because of numbers and that makes perfect sense. However, I did notice that in the proposed budget that I noticed last week that three partial inclusion PAs will be slated to be cut, for lack of better words, leaving one program assistant in every partial inclusion classroom and providing what could

119be a floater as necessary. Yes, there are not actual people in these roles currently because to my understanding they are contractual employees, but it's still a position that is needed. Um, I cannot stress how much this is going to put students and staff in possibly unsafe situations, unfair situations. Um, the way partial inclusion classrooms run at times if a speech therapist takes a few students out of the room for services, that leaves the remaining students. If a teacher is in a meeting or gets called to do something else, that leaves a remaining PA with the remaining class. And if there is only one PA available, we're kind of struggling to find a place to put the kids. There are also times in which there are behavioral episodes that require support. And if we don't have

120the adequate staff within the room, it just prolongs what is happening. Not to mention who decides and how would it be decided who gets a floater that day. Um because right now we have days that Sorry, I skipped a sentence. This is why I usually wing it, but I knew I would go off. So I am also curious how it would be decided and guaranteed that these floaters would be in fact in the partial inclusion classroom when even to this day with the amount of absences that we have on any given day at Branch Street. PAS are pulled from any classroom. If we are down students and we can spare some staff or, you know, some of us are jumping between classrooms just to kind of help out, maintain numbers, maintaina safety, help run kids

121to the bathroom or bring lunches downstairs. How can we guarantee that these partial PA floaters will not just be used to cover other classrooms as necessary? Um, and that's not a dig at anybody. It's just reality. It's what we've lived for many years. And again based on my description of the classrooms you can it's not an accident with the different levels of programming come the different levels of staffing. Our highest need has the most staff. We dwindle down a little bit with a little less need. We cut back to the staff and then we go to integrated with the less amount of need and they had the least amount of staff. That is not by accident. That is very intentional. Additionally, I would like to draw attention to the fact and I believe and it

122was noted today. I believe Dr. Kong mentioned it in the packet that we've never run the same as any other grade level or program in the district. We have a preschool special education administrator. We don't have a principal. She does both. So everything that every other school says their principal is required to do and then their special education administrator is required to do. Ours does both personally. So this year we had a stipen position for an SEA support person. That was me. It's been a great position. I will be very honest and I have learned a great deal. But to put it in perspective, I have put in and logged over 400 hours since September assisting the SEA in preschool. That's 400 hours that I took off her plate that is going to go right

123back on because she does all of it. The principling, if that's even a word, the her administrative duties. She also is consist consistently helping parents help the staff in the building because we don't have a PTO. So we have parents just trying to help and recognize and support the staff and our sea is doing that as well. So to think that we are the only building that has this one person wearing all of those hats, those administrative hats. I know Mr. Goslin demonstrated and told us how many hats he wears and I see this being in Bridge Street. There are a lot of hats being worn. The ETF position was originally proposed across the board in the district. Um I was disappointed to see that it was removed from Branch Street. Um, as a point

124of interest, as of right now, almost every day in September, we have an initial eligibility meeting for possible incoming preschoolers. That is a meeting that our SEA will have to attend. Every day there's at least one scheduled so far. So again, we have amazing teachers, we have amazing PAs, we have wonderful administrators. This is not an easy job. The budget is not personal. I worry having so much work putting added to teachers is going to burn them out faster than ever. I don't want to see them leave. I just I also want to make note that I thank Miss Bozac and I thank Dr. Kuang because on those lists you you see the director of special education that spot had not been filled after a retirement midyear. Miss Bozac never pushed to fill it. It's

125not even on the budget. She's willing to take on that added responsibility and I respect that greatly and I thank you. Dr. Kuang was willing to add her executive assistant to the cut list and and take that and run with it to try to keep money in the classrooms and with the staff. And again, I thank you and I respect you greatly for that. It's these situations that we really need to look at. People are willing to make the tough choices and I thank you for that. I think we need to be creative and really take a look at things and I know we we don't have the time and we don't have the options but again I think Dr. Kuang, Miss McCarthy, Miss Bozac, Mr. Goslin, everybody else on the team that has just

126been going above and beyond day after day. I'm at Branch Street. I see it. Doors are closed. Meetings are happening. People are running around and I don't want you guys to think that it's not noticed. So I will end it there. I have gone on long enough. I thank you very much for your time. [Applause] Carrie Dudley. It's green. I think it's green. Thank you. Uh good evening and uh thank you for the chance to speak tonight. Um, my name is Carrie Dudley and I've been a physical educ education teacher um at the upper school level at the Marsh Grammar School for 25 years. Um, I'm here because I'm deeply concerned about the safety and the future of our physical education program. Sorry, I'm a little nervous. Um, some of my core concerns um is

127about student safety. Um, when one teacher is expected to manage a large PE class, especially with students who have special needs, it puts everyone at risk. We need proper staffing to ensure student safety. Injury response. Over the years, I've managed countless student injuries. Responding quickly and appropriately, especially in emergencies, requires more than one adult present in the gym. Emergency procedures. Our lockdown protocols rely on splitting students by gender into locker rooms. Without two teachers, the system breaks down and compromises safety. Equity and supervision. As a female teacher, I am unable to monitor the boys's locker room. Without a male counterpart, there's a clear gap in safety and equity. Um, program quality and student engagement. Our PE program thrives on offering students choice. One teacher means one activity and that leads to disengagement. We've built a

128strong program at the middle school level. Students experience consistency, variety, and meaningful engagement, community, and culture. Our annual American Heart Association fundraiser is a highlight for our school um and a source of pride. The kids talk about it all year. It's fun. It cannot run safely or successfully without the support of both teachers. Liability. Um reducing staff might save money, but it increases the risk of injury and liability, especially in situations that could have been better managed with adequate supervision. Why keep the current model? the current structure uh two teachers working together at the middle school level. It works. It allows us to offer choice, provide proper supervision, respond to emergencies, and support students of all genders fairly. It's a model that keeps students safe, engaged, and active. Changing it risks unraveling all that we've

129built. staff. In comparison, we have six physical educators at the high school and two physical educators for each lower school. Having just one PE teacher at the middle school level is neither equitable, in my opinion, or safe. In closing, this isn't just about budget. It's about knowingly putting students and staff in harm's way. When one teacher is left to manage a large class, including students with special needs, it's not a matter of if something goes wrong, it's when. That's not staffing. It's gambling with safety. And I worry about who's going to be held responsible. I love my job so much and the students I serve. I'm not here to resist change. I'm here to make sure that any changes truly support our students and the professionals who work with them. Please don't make decisions that

130compromise student safety, excuse me, teacher effectiveness or program quality. I urge you to continue supporting the teachers and students of Mthuan by presenting to the city council a budget that protects the integrity, structure, and safety of our schools. Thank you. Megan Lefer Okay, I probably have to put it down. Um, good evening, um, mayor, superintendent, members. Uh, my name is Megan Lefarer and I've been a Methuan resident for most of my life, a teacher at the Marsh Grammar School since 2007, and a parent of two children in Mthuan public schools. Tonight, I speak not only as an educator, but as a mother and someone deeply invested in the future of this city. My husband and I chose Mthuan as our forever home because we believe in this community. As a teacher in the district, I

131couldn't imagine sending my children anywhere else. But I'm growing increasingly concerned about that decision and where we're headed if we continue to underfund our schools. Sorry. My daughter is a fourth grader at the Marsh and for months she's been excitedly talking about all the new opportunities that upper school will bring, especially the chance to learn Spanish. But now we're being told that program may no longer exist by the time she gets there. And what else will fall by the wayside throughout her time here. The transition to fifth grade is already a major leap academically, emotionally, and socially. It comes with more responsibility, higher expectations, and a whole new environment for her. Starting that critical year in a classroom of 27 students in counting makes it incredibly difficult for teachers to support students through that transition,

132ease their anxieties, and give them the foundation they need to thrive as future high school students. And with everything that Miss Dudley said, I'm actually quite concerned with her safety and health and well-being throughout that transition. My son is a kindergarter at the Marsh and he is a struggling reader who currently works with our reading specialist. That specialist alongside his dedicated classroom teacher have changed the trae trajectory of his education in only a few short months. Just weeks ago, he asked to bring a book to school for show and tell. He read it to his class proudly and confidently. That moment would not have happened without her support. What will happen when he enters first grade with larger class sizes and the supports he desperately needs gone? What will happen to future kindergarters like my

133son, many of them entering school for the first time when they are overwhelmed with larger class sizes and reduced support? I don't think any of us want to find out. As a teacher, I see this from every angle. Larger class sizes make it harder to build the relationships that allow us to help each student meet their potential. More than half of the students I teach daily are are on are considered high needs or have accommodations. Others are dealing with social and emotional needs, need extra help to keep up, or quite simply just learning to navigate this world, a difficult task in itself. And they deserve more support, not less. As member Shabilia said, these are not the classrooms of 1992. And that's absolutely right. And it's something to be celebrated. My students are vibrant, diverse,

134and full of potential. We talk, collaborate, and make deep connections. I learn from them every day. But establishing the norms that allow those voices to be heard, it's not easy. And as you increase class sizes and reduce our lessen our resources, it becomes almost impossible. These things cannot be accomplished without all the supports to keep a school system running. Every cut we make reverts us backward. I would like to speak to you now about another ripple effects of these cuts and layoffs. Not only are you jeopardizing the livelihoods of the dedicated educators that will be laid off, but you're also forcing the dismantling of every school in the district. The teachers whose positions are cut but have professional status will be shuffled from schools they've made their homes for 10, 15, 20 plus years and

135most likely into new grade levels. While we are all certified professionals and understand that changes can happen, the truth is your vote will determine whether our school system faces immense disruption. And I just feel like I need to make this clear to you. I've taught fifth grade math for 13 years. I can confidently tell you I'm an expert in the subject. I can tell you the misconceptions that will be made, the most common mistakes I see, and exactly how to intervene. A first grade reading teacher of 20 plus years is the exact same with her students and has poured countless hours, time, and money into our classroom. And a fourth grade general education teacher of over a decade knows exactly the unique needs of those students on the cusp of their tween years and how

136to guide them through it, all while keeping them engaged in learning. I could go on and on. Moving a grade level and or school is not as easy as handing someone a piece of paper and packing up a few boxes. We have proven that we are resilient educators in Mthuan. And I know that every single one of us will step up to make sure that their students succeed. But I want you to know what this means. This means teachers staying after school later than they already do to plan and copy. This means instead of getting a small moment to themselves after attending to their own families, they will stay up to pour over their new curriculum so their students will succeed. This means weekends studying new standards while juggling soccer games, dance competitions, and sacrificing

137time with their families. Between larger class sizes and picking up the pieces from the many unnecessary position cuts, you will burn out the amazing, talented, and dedicated educators you have left. And in the end, we all lose. What is most upsetting about all of this is it could be avoided with the proper funding that we know Mthuan, the city of Methuan could provide. This year, we fought hard to uh for a contract to retain and attract teachers. Now, you're pulling the rug out from under us. You're decimating our schools, draining our staff, and jeopardizing the future of every student who walks through the doors. In my 17 years here, I've watched as kindergarten par professionals were erased from classrooms. Title One and reading specialists disappeared from schools, and library books were packed up and forgotten

138about. I've seen more cuts than I can count, but far too few investments. What's needed now is leadership. Leadership that protects our students, supports our schools, and invests in the future of Mthuan. You must pass a budget that does not tear our school system apart. Thank you. Erica Sullivan Good evening. My name is Erica Sullivan. I have been an upper school counselor at the CGS since 2019. I'm here to speak out against the proposed layoffs and to particularly highlight the impact the loss of four proposed counselor positions would have on each of the city's grammar schools. I do not live in the Methun area. When originally applying to counseling jobs, I chose to work in Methuan because of the commitment and thoughtfulness that this district approached supporting students mental health. During my time here, I've

139been able to see and feel the positive impact that my work has had on students. I'm able to have this impact because of this community's investment in hiring and supporting counselors. Several of my colleagues have spoken and shared important quantitative data about the alarming mental health trends and why maintaining school counselors is critical. Tonight, I want to support those statements by providing some more qualitative data that highlights the importance of school counselors. As a school counselor, it's not uncommon for people to ask me, "What do you do each day?" School counseling looks different than it did a generation ago, and it looks different across grade levels and in different districts. However, at the CGS, being a school counselor looks like this. Greeting and supporting a student who's struggling with school avoidance and anxiety enter the

140school building each morning. Administering our twice a year schoolwide mental health screening, meeting with all students with elevated scores, and creating individualized intervention plans as needed. Facilitating social skills groups for students struggling with social pragmatics. Students engage in creative activities where they practice skills such as initiating conversations, asking a friend to play at recess or solving conflicts, facilitating therapeutic counseling groups for students with anxiety and depression symptoms. Providing clinical support and case management for students in the Bright and Choices program, two of our indist programs that provide increased supports for students with identified mental health or emotional needs. supporting students and families when they are facing incredibly challenging circumstances outside of school. This can include a death of a family member, homelessness, being in the custody of the Department of Children's and Families, living in

141a residential setting such as St. An's or other group homes within Methuan, and the numerous other traumatic events that too many students come to school with each day. providing IEP mandated counseling services, providing referrals, recommendations, and guidance to families who are trying to access community-based counseling, communicating with those mental health providers to ensure services are coordinated, providing support and referrals for families who need necessities such as clothing or food, responding to students in crisis. This includes assessing risk of suicidality and self harm. responding to students when there are concerns of abuse and neglect. Filing 51A reports with the Department of Children and Families, tracking attendance data and delivering interventions for students struggling with chronic absenteeism. Working collaboratively with teachers and families to come up with evidence-based behavior plans. responding to students who are too disregulated

142to remain in class, regularly attending IEP meetings, acting as a case manager for students on section 504 plans, facilitating mediations to solve student conflict, administering and supporting the implementation of IDEID, a substance use intervention, teaching classroom lessons on topics such as internet safety, mental health awareness, bullying, and respecting differences. That's a long list and it doesn't even include everything we do. As school counselors, we never turn students away or put them on a wait list. Even when our schedule's packed, we find creative ways to see students and address their needs. We're there for students problems, big and small, and help them build skills so that they can enter the classrooms ready to learn. There are no extraneous positions in our current school staffing structure. Each position is critical and has a role to play in

143supporting and educating our students. Each position is interconnected and a loss in one department has a cascading effect across a whole school building. I urge the city council and the school committee to work together and think of creative ways to fund our schools without these proposed layoffs. Thank you for your time. [Applause] That's the end of the list of people who signed up. Uh is there before we have the written correspondence, is there anyone in the audience who didn't sign up but would like to speak? Sharon, do I press this on or is it on? Okay. Hi, I'm Sharon Lelant. Um, I am a teacher here in Methuan, but why I'm here tonight is safety. Huge concern clearly just from the people who spoke tonight. Just to put it all into perspective for you, because

144of these budget cuts, we're about to lose an amazing teacher. Jenna Gagnan, an eighth grade teacher at the Marsh, my former fourth grade student, performed the Heimlick maneuver, saving a kid's life the other day in the hallway. If she had not been in that hallway, who knows what would have happened to that child. Having one one less staff member is going to jeopardize student safety. and having that one less staff member could recog realize it couldn't have been done like Jenna did it. We need to keep that in mind safety and just remember we can't afford to risk going back. We must keep Mthuan moving forward. Thank you. Would anyone else in the audience like to speak? If not, I'll invite the vice chair to share the written correspondence. Dear school committee members, my name

145is Melissa and Sarah Burns and I am the proud parent of a Methuan High School class of 2024 graduate and a current kindergartener at the Marsh Grammar School. When my youngest son was just one month old, he was diagnos diagnosed with AML leukemia. Doctors told my husband and I that he likely wouldn't make it through the night, but he defied the odds. When he was three, he faced another battle that landed him back in the hospital. And once again, he pulled through. Today, he is a strong, thriving six-year-old boy. He continues to need extra support and currently has an IEP to help him succeed in school. I'm asking this council to help him defy the odds once more. And not just him, but every child in Mthuan. Our children are full of potential, strength, and

146resilience, but they need the resources, support, and commitment from their community to help them rise. Let's invest in their futures because every child deserves a chance to beat the odds. Thank you, Melissa and Sarah Burns. To the Mthuan School Committee, my name is John Drew. I am the father of two children in Methuan public schools, a homeowner and a voter. I am writing tonight because what is happening with this proposed school budget is nothing short of outrageous. Cutting more than 80 school positions, teachers, paraprofessionals, support staff is not just a numbers game. It's a direct hit to the heart of our community. And frankly, it's a disgrace. Let's be clear. This is not about budgets. This is about values. It is about whether or not we choose to invest in our kids, in our educators,

147and in the long-term strength of our city. Because if we do not fight for our schools now, we will all pay the price later in overcrowded classrooms, in struggling students, and weakened community. Public safety is essential. No one is questioning that. But why is the school department being asked to shoulder the entire burden? No other department is seeing layoffs of this magnitude. Where is the balance? Where is the fairness? And where is the leadership? The mayor and our city leaders must act now. Not tomorrow. Not next fiscal year, but now. Use the stabilization fund, use free cash, fund the schools for the next two years, and use that time to build a bridge to a real, responsible, long-term plan to generate new revenue, and invest in our city's future. This is what those funds are

148for, aren't they? They're for critical moments like this when our children's education is on the line. Our e educators are not excess. They are essential. They are the ones who show up every day for our children, mentoring them, guiding them, believing in them. And now they're being told they're expendable. That is unacceptable. The truth is this budget crisis is a test of priorities. And Methuan needs to decide what kind of community it wants to be. The people of Methuan are proud, hardworking, and resilient. We believe in our city and we want to see it thrive. But that begins with education. That begins with protecting the people who serve our children every day. And it begins with leadership that has the courage to do what's right, not just what's easy or politically safe. So to the

149school committee, the city council, and the mayor, this is your moment. Stand up for our schools. Pass a properly funded budget. Stop these devastating cuts. Show this city what you're willing to fight for its future. Because the people of Mthuan will remember who stood up for our schools and our children and who did not. Respectfully, John R. Drew Jr. Mthuan resident and parent. [Applause] All right, that's it for written correspondence. We're now going to move on to uh the adoption of the fiscal year 2026 budget. Uh we're going to begin with operating net school spending uh not including chargebacks. I uh frankly I I'm just going to state this. I fully expect this to fail, but uh we need to begin with a motion and a second to adopt uh the city number. Uh this

150is a 4% year-over-year increase to 99,456,385. This is before going for additional free cash. Um we need a motion and a second to at least vote on that number. So moved. Second that. Motion from member Daglio. The second is from member Shabilia. Discussion uh discussion. Just to begin, um this is the number that uh will be going to the city council. If assuming the committee votes against it, um it will be presented as a negative recommendation from the school committee and then we'll move on to uh the uh higher number uh just for the purpose of this exercise. But nevertheless, uh this is what we have for the city number. Member Shibilia. Uh Dr. Kang first a formal request uh for more data that we've now scrubbed a whole bunch away. If we could get

151at our monthly regular meeting a report as to how many classrooms we have in the auditoriums every month. Do you I assume you guys track that somewhere somehow? Yes. Okay. just especially as if we lose BBEs to see how that number is going to increase. And I think parents would be interested to know when they drop their kids off at school whether they're in their class learning or if they're in the auditorium doing other things. I don't know what happens in there. You're you're asking I mean we only have one more business meeting. You're asking forward in the next school year. Okay. Um, beyond that, in your opinion, the budget, either budget as presented, be it the the the mayor's number or the compromised budget, with the reduced services, do you anticipate a reasonable risk

152of increased out of district placements as a result of the decreased services in our buildings? I don't I don't know if I could answer that. I I'm not going to hold you to it. This is this is not a Yeah. No, I don't know if I can answer that because I think there's a either budget. The second budget would be more challenging with more students in a classroom. Uh I think there might be uh an increase in uh testing and evaluations because of that. And we've seen that. I've seen that in my career that when teachers don't have the ability to actually have small groups or individual time with kids, sometimes those gaps look bigger or may become bigger. And so there may be more evaluations not always ending up in eligibility, but that in

153and of itself obviously will put a burden on staff because the more evaluation staff has to do, the less time they have student facing. So, I don't know if I could say that it could lead to that. I guess it could lead to that. I don't I certainly don't want to say it's a cause and effect, but there will be repercussions for that. Um, I think there will be a burden also put on uh our English learner staff because again, the more students that are in a classroom and the less individual time that a teacher can actually spend with students or not have multiple eyes on a student. So, if that student isn't going to a specialist or an LT teacher, again, those gaps could grow. I think that's a fair statement. You know, the

154outcome of that where it goes, hard to actually say cause and effect, but it's a fair statement to say the larger classes would certainly end up in just less specificity for our teachers to be able to determine what the child needs. Is that Miss Bozac? Yes, that's a fair statement. as well as reducing services or our programming around social emotional because I will say as a district that is not um the population of students that we may see going to out of district placements at a high rate because of the programs and services that we have within the district. So reducing the SEAL program that may have an that is more likely to have an impact on increase of our auto district. Correct. And that'll send our best case scenario send our per pupil rate

155from about 18,000 now to at minimum 5060 depending on the program. Like what do we pay for crest per? Oh you mean for out of district tuition? Yeah, it depends on the Yeah, it depends on the level of the program, but for for that type of program for SEAL, you're looking at just under 50,000. So, we're we're at Crest if I have to look at a non-member district collaborative, then it's higher. Okay. So, we're we're we're gambling. Okay. My my next question, and I want to thank the PE teacher whose name I don't remember who spoke a little while ago because it never even dawned on me. Thanks, Carrie. Um, we have the two PE positions in the compromised budget that would be eliminated and it never dawned on me about the the lockdowns in

156the gyms and the fact that every one of our gyms has a male and female teacher. Correct. Um, at the upper level right now, I believe so. And that's where the locker rooms are. Correct. Because the lower school kids are not using a locker room. Correct. I I grew up in a different community. We had locker rooms in middle school. These guys grew up here. To have to lose a teacher and to have a group of seventh, eighth graders in a locker room unsupervised. That's some channel 7 kind of stuff. Yeah. I think we're just we're making assumptions though, I think, a little bit with that because I wouldn't expect that. If I had a classroom of kids that a staff was supervising, I would expect that expect a space to be designated and the

157teacher to supervise students in that space. Boy, girl, locker room, doesn't matter. They're not they're not in there unsupervised. So, just like a classroom teacher is tucking themselves into a corner with 20 kids, boys and girls, and keeping them safe and and proceeding with lockdown procedures. I would expect the same in a cafeteria, in a gym, in an auditorium, in the library. Uh they need to know what space that is that they're going to keep the kids safe. Are they are the upper school kids? And I don't know because I don't have kids there. Again, the system, I'm sorry, the system would have to sh like right now. That's how it's, you know, we'd have to redefine the system. But are the kids changing for Jim in the upper school? They are. So still you're

158going to have a group of students in a locker room unsupervised. So if using Carrie as the example, oh you mean outside of a safety lock outside of the safety lockdowns. So using Carrie as the example, her counterpart, assuming that person is male, is no longer here, that locker room has kids going in and out of it and getting changed unsupervised all day long potentially depending on the school. Yeah. I mean, systems are going to have to change. I'm not Right. I think I think the the idea behind some of these things, we have to know that we're going to have it and then we have to look at the system and the schedule and change, right? Because there was a there was an assumption made that everything would stay the same and we would

159put one PE teacher in front of two classrooms. That's not the system we're looking at. We're looking at three teachers, right, dividing into K through 8 class, PE classes, right? So, the whole system is going to have to change. Can we cover that system? We believe we can, but it has to change. We have to we have to reschedu. But no amount of rescheduling is gonna make No, you're absolutely right. Dual gendered locker room. You're absolutely right. But that has to be decided at some point. And I don't have supervision in every male bathroom. I don't I mean, we're just going to have to figure out what that looks like if if and when push comes to shove. I'm not saying it's awesome. Please don't misunderstand me. Trust me, I know. And I I don't

160nothing about any of this anyone's position here. We would have to redefine but we don't have children getting changed in bathrooms and I mean I'll defer to member Daglio. He was most recently there. I can only look back on my days in high school and know the inappropriate stupidness that young boys do in a locker room. We were dumb. Yeah. And I was a football player, too. Yeah. And so yeah, like just I'm going to take away Yeah, I think that's just Yeah, just and you hear that term boys will be boys, but in this day and age, you can't let that happen. So to refer back to membershelia, yeah, I just see this is spiraling out of control when we go through the layers. And I want parents to hear this at home where

161we're now having to change our own gym system. It we've never me and DJ went I'm sorry Mr. Mayor but we went to school together and we never had to worry about that. I don't remember one time we didn't have Mr. James in at the Timony or then when he went to the high school, Coach Mo, we had all these people supervising us and now we're saying that we might not even have a male gym teacher to supervise the boys. How can we go from where we were when we had like what four male teachers at the high school we recall to now that possibly filling maybe one? I just feel like that's just something unheard of in in our time. Vice Chair, so when my kids were in middle school just and it wasn't

162all that long ago, um there were two male gym teachers and my kids were females. And so there was nobody going in the locker rooms at all. And I was told when I asked because my kids do have special needs, um I was told that gym teachers don't go in the locker rooms while the kids are changing because it's an issue. And so I don't think that this is actually an issue that is needs to be made. I'm not saying that we should not be concerned about how the gym classes are going to be and the supervision, etc., but I think we're making a an issue out of something that doesn't exist right now. And so I I don't think having, you know, we don't mandate male and female gym teachers. We we hire people

163based on their credentials. And so we don't necessarily have a male and a female gym teacher in every school in every grade level. And it just wasn't the way. And so, you know, um my kids didn't go in the the locker room because of my own concerns because there was no supervision. But I mean, we're talking it's been years, right? And so I mean my kids don't go in the high school locker room because I have concerns because there's no supervision. So I I think we're making a mountain out of a molehill here that because this issue already exists and we're not making it worse right now. Do we have any other discussion regarding the proposed 4% increase to 99,456,385? If we don't, we'll take a roll call vote. Member Daglio. No. Member Dunovan, no.

164Member Keegan, no. Member Maxwell, no. Member Shabilia, nope. Member Wlette, no. Mayor Borgod, yes. Six. Yes. One, no. Passes. It'll be presented with a negative. Sorry. Six. No. Six. No. I'm sorry. 6 no one. Yes. I It fails and it'll be presented to the council with a negative recommendation. For the sake of this exercise tonight, we do need to adopt a school committee version of the budget. Uh so I'll entertain a motion in a second to adopt the $12,639,745 number. So moved. Second. Motion from member Daglio, second from the vice chair to adopt a school committee recommended number. Discussion. Member Donovan. Hi. Um I I just feel it's important that um I just shared very briefly why I think this we're calling it the compromise budget and um and I think that's probably an app

165term for it. I'm supporting it not because it's ideal but I think it's the most responsible as responsible as we can be under the most difficult current conditions. Um this budget allows for some of the key positions that we have been talking about I think since January when Dr. Kuang started the conversation and concerns were raised our reading specialists like we started a reading literacy initiative a few years ago and saw some great progress and to think that we would lose the people who have really been the heart and soul of this is is painful. um the medical assistants which were initially like in and out in and out of the budget but we know that there are hundreds of kids who go to the nurs's office every day at all our schools and not

166to have them there supporting the nurses during critical times caring for kids with chronic illnesses um some of our fragile students is is just something that I cannot live with. Um there's still too many cuts and I'm really concerned about the impact of student safety. Um many of our speakers spoke about that today, but I mean before we can educate, we have to keep our kids safe and I'm not sure even if this budget will accomplish that. Um as we've talked about, Mayor, and I know you're in a tough situation and I need to acknowledge that. Um and I don't think it's anyone's fault. I I do think this process for 30 years, the budget process has been chaotic and disruptive to the work of our central staff. Um we would be remiss if we

167didn't acknowledge the work being done by our our leadership team here. I've never seen anything like it. It's been like a moving target and um I don't know if there's been any rest and I so respect the work they have done as I know you do. Um, and I also think we need as a team to thank our um, colleagues on the city council and you for um, providing us with that transfer of funds uh, Monday night. That was pretty significant and I think we were all holding our breath. I hope we can have that continued support and somehow find a solution here. Um, but I have to say I know residents are wondering as am I. Like it it's so hard to to bring it all together knowing that we have free cash and

168I do acknowledge there are rules around that and we talked about it and I think the free cash fund is starting to shrink a little but I'm also I read today about our our bond rating and how that has improved. So, it's really hard to reconcile the good economic news while we're cutting core services and some dedicated wonderful teachers. Um, and I did I went down memory lane and started to research when we had layoffs of public service um employees. We all value them. I could not find in my research the last time we laid off any fire or police. I know, and I could be wrong. I know during COVID there was a little reshuffleling of how they were paid um but I couldn't find any significant layoffs in the last 10 years and

169I if someone wants to correct me please do and I reflect on the last 10 years in Methuan public schools um we've had moments where the light did come when we had some extra money and we're able to start a literacy initiative and we hired humanity supervisors to help us learn teach our kids to read even better. Um, we lost our deans of students. Um, and there just is such a disparity. Um, I'm not quite sure where this is going to go, but there's no way I I'm unhappy that I'm supporting this budget, but I think it is the best possible scenario right now. So, that's I just felt the need to say that. So, thank you. Any other discussion regarding the other proposal? No. Thank you. If not, we'll take a roll call vote

170on the uh motion to adopt 102,639,745. Mayor, I apologize. I missed the motion and the second. Uh it was from member Daglio and the second was from the vice chair. Thank you so much. Member Daglio. No member Donovan. Yes. Member Keegan. Yes. Member Maxwell. No. Member Shabilia. Yes. Member Wlette. Yes. Mayor Boragod. No. The school committee has adopted $12,639,745. Uh next we're going to move on to total non-met school spending. Um, I'm going to propose a motion in a second to adopt uh the number 11,81,34. This uh would include uh the uh next free cash transfer to bridge the non-net gap. Do we have a motion in a second? Excuse me, mayor. Can we just double check that amount, please? Mayor, we've since cut another $20,000 from that. So, we should read uh 11,61,304. Okay.

171I just want to state that um we have in in this uh publication on page 9 it's 11,81,34. We confirm. Are we sure? I'm positive that changed at 520. Okay. So it'll be 11,61,34. So moved. Second. Motion uh is from member Shabilia. The second is for member Daglio. Any discussion? We'll take a roll call vote on the motion to member Maxwell. Any other discussion? If not, we'll vote on the number for the total net school spending. That's $11,61,34. Member Daglio. Yes. Member Dunovan. Yes. Member Keegan. Yes. Member Maxwell. No. Member Shabilia? Yes. Member Wlette? Yes. Mayor Boride? Yes. That's adopted. We now need a motion and a second to adopt uh the total uh operating fiscal year 26 budget. This would be the school committee's uh proposed number um numbers $113,71,049. So moved. Second. Motion's

172from member Daglio. Second is from the vice chair. Discussion. member Dagio. Um I just want to just finish um and I I thought like I said last year when we were in the same spot, I said if we vote yes, we're just kicking the can down the road and we'll be right back here with either bigger problems and we ju we just keep doing that. And I looked at Mayor Perry and I said, "All respect and I'm going to say that to you. I know you have a tough job." As I said to Mayor Perry, and he looked at me and he said, "I agree." And I said, "But I can't support it. I can't support." As you could look at me, I'm tired tonight because I deal with 28 kids per class. And then

173every teacher that's left here tonight knows at the end of May the kids hype goes from five to about 15. And I can't sit here knowing what that does to me and vote yes on a budget that possibly will do that to you guys. That's unfair. I know what it does and I cannot put that stress on you. Um, I've lived here for 25 years. I've gone through the Methan public schools. Um, and I I as I said last year, I cannot vote on a budget that is going to set us back, especially when Dr. Kang and I went through CO together and we managed that storm and we we did everything right because we said now and Dr. Quin could correct me on this. When we got to a point where we needed the

174city's help, we can always say during co we did everything right. We didn't use the ess of funds to support salaries. We didn't do those things that other communities did. We did everything right. So when we got to a moment like this, we can look out to our mayor or our city council and said we have done everything right. We've moved the district forward when we didn't have that much and now you want us to set us back. I can't vote on a budget that does that. That's not my job. My job is to make sure that the Mthuan public schools and I've said that for 5 years as I sat in this chair. I will never vote on a budget that sets Bethuan public schools back and hurts our students education. So I I

175I cannot vote on this budget. Thank you. Member Shabilia. Uh question. I don't know if it's for you, Mr. Mayor, or Dr. Kuang or anybody else. If the budget does not pass at this vote, what happens next? Because I'll tell you right now, I already regret voting yes because I I you you you have to send our kids to school in August. And I in my mind I rationally know that as a community we're broke because we are horrible at economic development. We always have been. But I can't I I don't I don't think I can vote yes on a budget knowing I'm setting ourselves up for failure. So I guess I need to know what happens. I need to understand the consequence. So member Shibelia, I have to present a budget to the city

176council that is balanced. So, um, we have that number and we have, uh, a plan that was worked on over the course of the day, factoring in additional use of free cash, drawing that down, uh, which is not a best practice. I'm going to be violating a fiscal best practice to do that in order to fund our schools. So, we have a number that will be sent to the council. Uh, this is an exercise to produce a school committee recommendation. uh but nevertheless I have to present a budget that is balanced to the council. So that is uh really the long and short of it. So um that's where we are. Dr. Kang, your perspective from your from your side of the table. Um the school committee's job is to control the budget. You have

177the authority to vote on a budget. Uh if you come out of this without a budget vote, I'd have to consult with Attorney Macaro. I mean the school committee has to decide a budget. So you have to go through this exercise to do this. The mayor has already said regardless of what you decide the number is this number. Yes. And I this is an exercise as an elected body that I believe you have to do. So, if you vote no and we come out of this with no uh school committee voted budget, I would say that I I would be calling attorney Macaro tomorrow and say, is there a f further implication or do I as the superintendent have no direction from the school committee as a body and am I just going forward with

178the money the chairs what city council is going to do? Either way on this motion, we'll simply have to take a vote. Mr. Chairman, member will I just want to emphasize like this is a miserable vote. Again, this is a compromised package that is just going to be decimating our school system. The administration is going to have deeper cuts. Everybody who spoke tonight had a validated story. I've said that from the beginning. We have limited resources and the bulk of our money is coming from the state and over the last two years and it was mass budget it was 12 at least $12 million if not more was reduced because of inflation. Naming a school district that's not going to suffer like LOL public schools. They just had a recent announcement from the the city

179manager. They're reducing again $4 million from the budget they thought was just finalized. North Andover, right? They went to the voters. They're still doing layoffs because it's going into a special education account. So, I thought this was a reasonable compromise package that no one is happy with and I reflected that in my prior remarks. I wish I could go pie in the sky and do what member Daglio indicated. We would absolutely totally drain the reserves and you would I wouldn't even imagine the tax bill for the following year. I can't do that. I have an obligation to the taxpayers. I also have an obligation as a dulyeleed member of the school committee. I'm prepared to take a vote. I'm going to vote in the affirmative on a compromised package, but there's no illusion, please, that

180I'm happy about this budget. I want that reflected for the record. I said it last year was barebones. This is worse. Okay. So, all the platitudes, absolutely, I'm there with you, but the financial responsibility is still the school committee. And I I understand what the mayor is saying. And again, even though I disagree with him, he's been fighting to tap into the cash reserves and he's tried to clean up these schools and he's done everything possible and I will continue to work with him. So, I don't begrudgingly I had to vote against the other one. I was this close. Okay. This is a compromise and I want to go finalize this tonight. If not, I don't know what the other alternative is. I'm not going beyond the number that is the compromise. Thank you, Ian.

181Yeah, I just want to clarify. Um, you've already voted on the operating budget. Uh, the operating net and the operating non-net. This number you're voting on now is simply adding those together. Um, both the first two passed. I don't know why adding them together would make them fail. Well, I I'm I'm telling you this this literally this entire night is killing me. And we're we're all I feel like we're all in the same exact boat. Um but uh we we'll have to take we'll have to take a vote on this number. Roll call. Member Daglio. No. Member Dunovan? Yes. Member Keegan? Yes. Member Maxwell? No. Member Shabilia? Yes. Member Wlette? Yes. Mayor Borgot? Based on my initial vote, I I'm voting no on this. I I can't uh can't put forward a budget that's not

182in balance. 43 four yeses, three no. Right. So, it's been adopted. Uh we now need a motion in the second to adopt the number estimated chargebacks. Uh 23,471,71. So moved. Second. Motion from member Daglio, second from the vice chair. discussion. Vice Chair, um I understand that health insurance costs have gone up and so I understand that we need to increase the chargebacks, but why could we not level fund the rest of them and why are we paying for the increase in like extra um uh positions, etc. Um why can't the city level fund that for us and give us that extra money? So ultimately uh for instance uh this was brought up to me offline by member Shabilia with similar questions um had some questions about for example the finance office on the city side.

183There's a portion of that uh that's involved here. That's because per statute chapter 278 that is a function that serves both city and schools. So that's a reason for that. Um otherwise you know the main bulk of this increase is the increase in health insurance and that is significant. Uh but nevertheless uh this is how it's set up per uh various arrangements and for instance in that example uh that's relative to statute. Any other discussion? We'll take a vote on the 23,471,71 in chargebacks. Member Daglio, yes. Member Donovan, yes. Member Keegan, no. Member Maxwell, no. Member Shabilia, yes. Member Wlette, yes. Mayor Boragod, yes. Yes. No. That's adopted. Uh we now need a motion in a second to adopt the total uh school fiscal year 26 budget 137 million172,120. This is operating budget net and

184non-net plus chargeback simply a reflection of the math up to this point. Motion in a second. So moved. Second. Motion for member Daglio. The second's from the vice chair. Discussion. Roll call. Member Daglio, no. Member Donovan, yes. Member Keegan, yes. Member Maxwell, no. Member Shabilia, the most disappointing yes of my life. Member Wlette, yes. Mayor Boride, no. It's adopted. I had that number. Uh, we need a motion and a second to close the budget adoption and go into the workshop session portion of the meeting. So move. Second. Motion from the vice chair, second from member Daglio. All those in favor? I I opposed. We now need a motion and a second to approve the school choice program for the 2025 2026 school year. So moved. Second. Motion from the vice chair, second from member Daglio.

185uh vote and the affirmative is not recommended by any means, but I just wanted to make sure that everybody if you if you're voting yes, it's for uh the to not participate in school choice, which I would not recommend at this point. I know this one's hard. If you vote yes, my recommendation is that we are not participating in school choice. Do not have seats to participate. Yes. So the yes vote agrees with the not to participate. Member Daglio. Yes. Member Donovan. Yes. Member Keegan. No. Member Maxwell. Yes to not. Correct. Okay. Yes. Member Shabilia. Yes. Member Wlette. Yes. Mayor Borggon. Yes. So just to clarify for the record, uh this is ultimate ultimately a decision to not participate in school choice program for the uh upcoming school year. Correct. Thank you. Uh at this

186point on the agenda, uh is there any other uh business from the uh committee, vice chair? Um, so after the budget that you're putting forth goes to the city council, which is the 99 number, that's what's being presented to the city council for the school budget. If that were to pass, we then need another meeting to approve the cuts that are on that paper. I think we have I think we would I believe we'd have to come back and do each section by section once we settled the whole thing. Okay. And the second question I want to I just want to make sure that this is clear is that because the city council is after uh June 15th, you need to send out layoff notices to everyone on the mayor's list, not the one that

187we just approved. Correct. So that means that there's going to be 50 plus layoffs notices sent to staff and that's just our reality right now because that's what's going to it's going to take to get to this mayor's number. We will confirm one more time with attorney Maro, but that is what his recommendation was this evening. Okay. So, I just don't want it to be surprised when it hits the paper that we had 50 plus layoffs because that's what we h that's the mayor's number and that's the one that's going to the city council even and we will not know, right? We will not know it until after June. We did not vote that number. Yes. And that is a that is a regulation. That is not a desire for us to do that by

188June 15th. That is a Massachusetts regulation that we have to submit. So, we would we wouldn't take that chance. Yeah. I just want to make sure that that's very clear to everyone so it's not a surprise to anyone when those layoff slips go out. Member Shabilia. Hey Colleen, for you. Those layoff slips go out on June 15th. We're laying off hopefully more people than we have to. What is the fiscal impact of that? because now we have to pay unemployment insurance to all of those people that we laid off starting the next day. And I guess you can share the spotlight with Ian. Are we prepared to to make those payments? I know that we're not exactly swimming in extra funds here. So I asked the city council to transfer funds out of free cash

189on Monday to cover that to help to cover any any expenses that we have. So legally they can start collecting the day school gets out. So school gets out on the 16th, they can start collecting on the 17th. And the way unemployment works is that if you recalled the person to Methan public schools, then the collection would stop. If they went and found a job someplace else, they collect all summer until they start their new job. Interesting. Thank you, Maxwell. So, I'm just confused with that question because in the budget that we got with the yellow papers, we took 425,000 off of the budget for this year in unemployment. And now we're going to have more unemployment than that 425,000. Oh, sorry. I misunderstood that. I may member Donovan is I don't we petition the

190council is there any way we could avoid this? Is there any way we could ask them to change their dates because I what a what a terrible dilemma we're in. So the uh city council did not request my feedback or have a discussion with me about changing the dates. They just went ahead and did that. Okay. Um and that is unfortunately their call to make as a legislative call of the chair. Correct. Member Donovan. I had a conversation with Chair Mousin. Um advised him the impact that was going to have on the events that need to are required to happen on the school side. Um I got the canned I'll I don't have my budget. I'll vote on what's in the best interest of the community, which to me was a nonresponsive response given our

191particular issue we have. Um my my hope and it's something that I will I will have the conversation with the mayor about um if if we can get together him as chair one or two of us with chair Marsen and have a conversation see if we can get them to come to a schedule that is reasonable and is not going to cause an utter ruckus in the community and recognizing that they have their own responsibilities to our community. Okay. And uh just also for the record, I uh we had those dates, the original dates published right two months ago. Thank you. Any other discussion or any other business from the committee? All right. Uh we need a motion and a second to adjourn the workshop uh session of this uh meeting of May 21st, 2025.

192So moved. Second. Motion's from member Shabilia. The second is from member Daglio. All those in favor? I opposed. The time is 8:57 and our meeting is adjourned. Good night, Mthuan.