001Good evening. Calling to order the meeting of the Salem School Committee of April 28th, 2025 at 7 p.m. This meeting is taking place in person at 29 Highland Avenue, room 227 in Salem. You can also join via Zoom using the link posted in the meeting agenda. Uh we have a number of members participating remotely. So all votes will be by roll call vote. And the first item on the agenda is approval of the agenda. Move to approve. Second. Motion made by member Campbell, seconded by member Hoffman. Our roll call vote. Member Campbell. Yes. Member Cornell. Yes. Member Cruz. Member Hoffman. Yes. Member Manning. Yes. Member Miranda. Yes. Myself. Yes. Public comment. The Salem School Committee would like to hear from the public on issues that affect the school district and are within the scope of
002the committee's responsibilities. Spanish interpretation is available for anyone who needs it. The members of the school committee would like to remind the public that Salem public school students regularly attend school committee meetings. We encourage all meeting participants to model respectful and productive public discourse for our young learners. Is there any public comment in the room? Any public comment online? Next item on the agenda is approval of the consent agenda. There's the minutes of the school committee meeting of April 7th, the minutes of the budget public hearing of April 14th, the minutes of the special school committee meeting of April 15th, approval of field trip to New York City for Collins and Salt and Install grade 8 in May. Uh donation from the uh donation from fundraising at Horus Man. Uh donation for Salem High School's
003Wicked Wrench Club from the Antique and Classic Boat Festival and approval of warrants of April 3rd, April 10th, April 17th, and April 24th. Move to approve. I'll second. Motion made by member Campbell, seconded by member Miranda. Roll call vote. Member Cornell. Yes. Member Cruz. Member Hoffman. Yes. Member Manning. Yeah. If I could just I think we should mention the amount for the wrench club. That's a generous donation from sort of an outside. Yeah. Would you like to share it? So just Oh, your mic. I'm sorry. Get the mic. Um, just I just want to acknowledge that the donation from the Wicked Wrench Club um for the Antique and Classic Boat Festival is for $10,000. And I vote yes. Member Miranda, yes. Member Campbell, yes. And myself, yes. Yes. Oh, thank you, Mr. Cruz. Cruz. Um,
004the voice from the void. Um and yeah, a special uh gratitude to um uh to the Antique and Classic Bow Festival for that $10,000 donation. That's very generous. Student Representatives report, Mark. So, the advisory council doesn't have too much to report on because of April break, but today we voted in we finally voted in after around like two to three weeks of the election. We voted in our secretary, our press secretary, and our officer at large. Miam was voted in to be secretary. Ela was voted in for press secretary and Cindy was voted in for officer at large. So those will be our secretary, press secretary and officer at large for the coming year and for the remainder of this year. And we'd also like to mention that is that May 29th is going to
005be the last day for seniors. So everyone's in a little bit of uh crunch time for AP tests and just coming up on the end of the year. That's all I have. Yeah, you're up. I do want to just share, Mark, you don't know this because we haven't met yet, but um because of the feedback we received um from um the student advisory group um just before break, we did a lot of work in the bathrooms at Salem High School, particularly the locker room bathrooms, which we heard a lot about. So, I want to thank our facilities team. Um he he was uh Z was there meeting with students and we heard about flies and we heard about toilet seats that were cracked in the very you know old locker room which thankfully we don't
006have to get too you know um we don't have to get too um connected to because we'll have new locker rooms in in hopefully in the future. But I I really appreciate the feedback the students gave and already we've tried to make uh changes based on the input that they shared with Z on that day. So, I we'll I'll circle back with everybody when we meet uh next week. So, thank you, Mark. Um I also want to take a moment um hope everybody had a nice vacation. It's hard to believe that May starts this week and we're in the final stretch of the school year. Um it is um it moves way too quick. I hope people had a chance um to um enjoy break. I do want to just call out a couple things
007before we go into the budget adjustments that we've made um based on feedback we've received. But couple things. I had the pleasure of attending the middle school um uh uh sort of celebration, end of the week celebration at the YMCA for a group of middle schoolers who um came the entire week were trained in CPR, were trained in babysitting. Uh had a chance to be um also uh do swimming. Uh they had a chance to volunteer at the pantry. It was an amazing program. Um and I want to thank we had our educators there. We had Brad Malone. We had Joy Richmond Smith was there. um trying to oh um Dolly was there from Collins. It was it was incredible to see kids who um maybe weren't aren't the haven't been the most engaged uh
008with school and extracurricular activities were super engaged in this program um that was really dedicated to giving them some workplace uh some work um experience and preparing them for life after middle school and giving them some credentials that they can use moving forward. and for each of the students was um very complimentary of the experience. So I want to thank Ellen was involved in putting that together. Taylor McDonald um uh was as well and I think it's a good model for what our uh vacationmies can be. You know it's not just about MCCAST prep. It's got to also be you know how we make you know that's not necessarily what's going to engage kids to come. uh what what got them there every day was the fact that they will get we're getting credentials and
009um certifications and experience that will help them move forward. They all want to work, they want jobs, they want and that's something they can market and put on their resumes that they had those experiences um over break. So I want to thank everybody that made that possible. I also want to call out that uh Tuesday night and Wednesday night, the next two nights, we have a very important community meetings about the new design of the new Salem High School building project. We're calling anybody and everyone to come to give us feedback on four preferred design options for a new Salem High School. Um that the building committee will consider for a vote at its May 8th meeting. U they include the uh renovation of the existing building, renovation of the fieldhouse uh and then a
010new build for classrooms and CTE spaces. It includes new construction that maintains the Seno building and um demolishes the rest of the building. uh and then entire new construction which demolishes everything and builds new there. Those are four there's four different options that will be considered and we want to hear from people. We we've already heard great feedback on social media about where are the music rooms? Why are they not on the first floor? Um questions about um you know just even the some of the layouts that uh it doesn't mean that that's the final design, but it is input around which of the four um options we um the building committee will move forward, you know, forward with whether it's a Renault Renault ad or new construction. And so we hope to see folks
011there tomorrow night 6:30 to 8:00 at Salem High School in person. And then uh Wednesday evening via Zoom 6:30 to 7:30 and there is a link available. We hope to see as many folks there for those sessions. Um and then I do want to just um note that we celebrated Arbor Day. Uh the mayor showed his planting skills today by planting a tree by himself. No, we were fortunate that we didn't plant it. That fourth graders at Salt and Stall did. It was a great um event. Um but he was quite a celebrity. I mean, nobody cares who the superintendent is. They all care who the mayor is. And he was doing photo shoots, not planting, I want to point out u because people were interested in photo shoots with the mayor. But it was
012it was a beautiful day. Want to thank the tree commission in Salem Darlene uh Melis for her support and work. And uh it's a labor of love for those folks and we appreciate the city uh team also that made it uh made it happens uh today for Arbor Day um at Salt and Stall. I think Arbor Day was officially last Friday. Um but um we celebrated today. All right. Uh with that, I do want to give some updates on the budget. Uh that's the primary agenda item for today. So I don't know if we can cue the slides here. Okay. Um, I do want to first just say we are grateful for the dialogue that we've had with so many people over the last three weeks, four weeks on the budget. We we did um
013have a chance to um over break um while people are hopefully relaxing. While it was a relaxed schedule for us at the central office, there was a lot of discussion about the input that we received from uh the community um and I wanted to share with the school committee some updates updated recommendations that we're making on the budget. It isn't unfortunately money didn't just drop out, new money didn't drop out of the sky since our last meeting. Um, and so if we add anything in adding anything back, it did have to come with taking other things out and making shifts. So, I just want to call that out. Um, while I'm not, you know, done hoping that we will continue to get, um, additional resources for Salem between now and the start of the school
014year, that can happen with the governor's budget um with with with the the final um budget at the state level. We're still waiting on the um on the Senate as well. And tomorrow we do have an important meeting with um the commissioner of early education here in here in Salem. We're meeting with them to talk about additional funding for prek. As we have noted over time that our prek programming um you know we uh we don't feel like we're it's getting fully funded. We we uh while we have access to a lot of additional funding supports a lot of our partner programs which is great. We also serve 190 students here in the Salem public schools in grades three and four. and we want to make sure that we we're getting our fair share at
015as a Salem public school because the chapter 70 uh formula doesn't also fully reimburse for three and four year olds. So we have a meeting um tomorrow and we're hopeful uh with those discussions um uh tomorrow. Um so with that I did want to share um a couple budget reminders um for folks. Remember our budget is uh 4.8% increase. It's a 3,580,4457 increase from the prior prior year. It is a very complicated architecture. I think that's an understatement if I ever heard one. Uh this is a very complicated budget that um you know has a lot of moving parts. We looked really hard for efficiencies. We continued to do that in the last uh week since we had our last meetings um the budget hearing and so forth and and the budget discussion that the
016school committee had. We looked at recurring revenue uh to reduce expenses. Um and the final budget now has recommended includes 57 position reductions um uh to personnel and uh reductions to non-personnel. The appropriation remains at 78,173,61 and Elizabeth will go into that um with greater detail. Um that just gives you an overview again of where we are. Some adjustments that we've made and this I hope people can read this but I know the school committee has a copy of this. I'll just go through this. Um we are recommending returning a position at Horus man. Um that's partially art and partially intervention. We're not going to talk about individual names here. We're going to talk about positions. Um we are uh we are um we heard you know compelling um input through the process around um
017the the need to maintain adults to the extent possible in the building they are in. That's not going to be true universally. Horse man is a school that has had some inconsistency of staff over time. It is a school that has struggled with staffing in uh in the last few years and um and and and uh more recently has been in an uptick of stability of staff and it was compelling to hear what the families and the um and the community had to say. Uh in doing so, we would eliminate uh the floater prek position at Horse Man, which was an oversight because we eliminated that position at Bates. We did not eliminate it at Horus man and and that you know for consistency sake we plan to do that. Um and we also plan
018to eliminate a math specialist a part-time math specialist at Salt and Stall. The reason that those are connected is because we want to try to keep our specialists art music PE and library um more uh we want more of them to be able to remain full-time at their school. That is not going to happen universally. I don't want anybody to think that that's going to happen everywhere, but we're trying to do more try we're trying to um ensure that there is greater continuity of staff um in schools. But in doing so, we are asking elementary specialists to be flexible in providing support in literacy and math intervention and a variety of different coverages at the school, which you all heard about being an issue. Um you know, with elimination of roles across the district, people
019are concerned about that. It is I it is a fact that we have more specialists and by that I mean art, music, PE and library than we have need across the district for next year. And while those folks are very valuable, right, we don't have a need for them to they don't have full-time assignments at every place. So, we're going to ask them to help us in other areas that are necessary. And for that reason, we felt that Salt and Stall because it's very small and will have four full-time specialists next year that those folks would be asked to assist and support with um uh with intervention and um and tutoring supports in schools for the upcoming school year. That's a model that Carlton has used um historically and other schools have done uh effectively.
020Um and it will help us to retain these individuals uh and stay connected in their schools more than our initial budget presentation had allowed for. Um I did provide you with uh reading and math support and enrichment allocations and by that I mean specialist allocations across the school. tried to do the best we could um and improve the balance um across the um the ele elementary schools and you had a copy of that um that I sent you um uh at some point in the last few days and so you you're able you know you were able to see the matrix um the additional adjustment that we've made u an additional adjustment that we made is returning the full reading specialist and literacy coach position at Bates um we thought that after the feedback we
021heard we felt that there was inequity um across the schools that Bates being the second largest elementary school did not have what Witchcraft had in terms of reading um and literacy support and so we returned that full-time position. there's an individual who's um supposed to retire and we weren't going to fill that role in the initial proposal, but now we are going to allow them to fill that role midy year um so that they have again um a a an allocation that's similar to witchcraft which has roughly a few more I mean more students but roughly the same amount of students over 400 students there. Um so that was those are the adjustments that I'm recommending. Again, this is for your consideration um as a school committee. Um, additionally, Salem High School had not been
022clear about their final uh budget adjustments and so I I'm here to share what those are. Uh we plan on eliminating um a vacant guidance counselor position to replace with support from an outside partner. Um not fully, but uh extra support. We're going to um we're proposing to eliminate a vacant internship coordinator role. It's not I shouldn't say it's not vacant right now, but that individual is not returning next year. And that work is going to shift to an existing CTE position of somebody that's already started to do some work. There is a a vacant paraprofessional position that will be eliminated and there will be two hall monitor positions that will be eliminated as part of the adjustment. and then we're going to need to shift one existing position TBD uh to a continuing grant.
023So that's a an existing role that we do have a specific grant for Salem High School and their redesign and we would be shifting one of the positions um there. Um and these adjustments reflect the remaining Salem High School budgetary changes. If you looked in the initial budget proposal, there was a placeholder for four positions. In the end, we decided on these recommendations so that Salem High could meet its um the um budget goal that we set for the school. I'm going to turn it over to you, uh Miss Paulie. Um Okay. Um the clicker down. So, we did um we did make changes to our personnel um numbers. So, in the budget book that is posted online, it is it has a date on it so that anyone could easily see it is the
024new version. It says April 28th. You'll see that our new um cuts that we have included total $3.5 million. that was it was $3,585,276.35 and now is 3,559. That reflects some of the changes we made adding positions back, cutting positions and the differences in their salaries. Um, so the new total for our personnel, which includes all of our staff as well as stipens, is $60 million,462,74.36. That is a slight increase over what you would have seen on April 7th when we presented the budget. Now I would note one of the differences is um in the personnel cuts is that one of the positions that we have recommended eliminating is actually not funded on the general fund. So it it doesn't equal one to one in these cuts, but we were trying to make sure we
025could find ways to be equitable in next year's budget and um and still balance. So, um, this slide you've seen before. Um, our appropriation is on the left hand side circle. That's the 78,173,61. That is a 4.8% increase above our current year, which um between last year and this year, our increase was 4.8%. And then for this current year and next year, the recommended increase is also 4.8%. which is historically much higher than um what we have seen in our budget increases. But our actual expenditures before the cuts, before the offsets was above $83 million. So I do think it's important to keep that in mind that when we just rolled everything forward, we were well above our um appropriation even though our appropriation is significantly higher um than it was last year. So, as
026the superintendent mentioned, um we are recommending that we restore two positions. That adds $1159,93641 to the general fund. We're eliminating from the general fund a 0.5 position. So, that is the $35,000. But we are also, as you can see in the asterisk, eliminating a second position that is $30,767.35. So the total additional expenses that we see being added to the general fund in this budget are is about $80,000. Um so as you'll recall from last our last conversation we had planned to get to balance by reducing the uh positions that are included in the budget book was 56.5. It is now 57. And then after that prepaying special education tuition for students who go out of district um which is a practice that we have commonly done um in the last few years at least
027um and maximizing grant revenue revolving revenue. So where we can put staff onto grant dollars or revolving fund that is steady revenue we have recommended doing so. and the total that we had planned to reach was $825,000. Now, we need to find an additional $80,000 um in offsets after the additional eliminations that we've recommended this evening. The way we think we will cover that is um potentially tapping into our reserves if we need to. So, we do have reserves from our school choice revenue that has come in over the years. If we have to, we will turn to that to cover this overage. However, we're entering hiring season and we have some people retiring. They may be replaced with people who make lower salaries. So, we're going to wait to see what our actual hiring
028looks like. That differential in salaries may help us to close that gap. So we may not need to tap into our reserves and we are hoping to not but that won't be clear until we have finished all of the hiring for the vacancies that come up in any any year. So we are anticipating after the cuts that we have recommended an additional set of offsets that is totals $95,36610. So, um, as we look ahead, as we sort of come to a place of, um, finalizing this budget, there have been difficult choices made by every school and department. And we did try to respond with an equitable lens around how we could reduce our costs and still meet student needs. But we knew coming into this year that we faced a structural deficit because we had
029the same conversation last year and we had offset this budget with one-time money and reserves. We're currently doing that this year. We also made the intentional choice as part of advancing our values and advancing our strategic plan to increase salaries this year as a way of um retaining recruiting and retaining our um high-quality educators. So we knew based on the structural deficit we saw this year and the choices that we have intentionally made that FY26 would be a complicated year and would require this level of cutting. We also though estimated that that would not be a one-year problem and that there would likely be a similar challenge in FY27. It's too soon to know for sure because as I mentioned on the previous slide, some of this will be dictated by the staff we bring
030in and the choices that we make about how best to educate students in the coming year. However, I know this committee is planning to almost immediately starting in May, take up conversations about how do we look systemically at what our expenses are and how can we build uh a budget for FY27 that allows us to educate our students and live within our budget. So, it's too soon for me to give you a number about what size our deficit may or may not be in FY27, but I appreciate this committee committee's willingness to just take up this hard conversation um as soon as next month. So, I flag that just to say we've made some hard choices and I think it will help us in FY27, but I don't think it will solve our FY27 challenge
031by adopting this budget. And superintendent, I don't know if you want to add anything to that. Well, I think you did a a really good job of laying the groundwork. I mean, I think we have to start immediately talking about um you know, next year. Uh we know we're I mean, we we don't exactly know what that's going to be because there's been adjustments. There's been elimination of a lot of roles and personnel and non-personnel, but I do think there's advocacy work that needs to be done and I'm sure others will have comments on this as well. But, you know, we we want to work closely with the unions. um because we are not getting our fair share. That's problematic. Uh the pace of public education is not uh you know it's outpacing uh what
032the need is, the legitimate need is in front of um children. And so we we've got work to do. I and this is something we all can come together, parents, the unions, um school committee, city officials. Um and I I do think um that's something we we need to do otherwise we're going to be facing this every single year. uh we you know there are some significant structural issues. We have more to fix internally, but it's not just about that. I mean the the cost of um of educating children in the Commonwealth is is obviously increasing every year and we we need to um we need to work collaboratively to address that. So I hope that we can do that with our partners. Um I think we all have the right interests and as we
033said like this none of these are all bad choices. Every choice that we've had to make is not a good choice. Um, and uh, while I do think we're, you know, the the integrity of our work is preserved for next school year, there will come a point where I I personally will have questions about whether we're our abil our our ability to do that without substantially impacting the student experience. I'm not saying the student experience won't be impacted next year, but it but not to the uh the tune of what it could be over the next two to three years unless there are changes in the way that uh schools are funded and how Salem is funded in Massachusetts. So this evening um we will be asking you to approve our budget. This is the
034total budget 78,173,61. I think the vote will actually be approving our personnel and non-personnel separately. Um, and so I have those uh numbers for you as well. They're also in the new budget book. Um, the non-personnel number is $18,615,959 and the personnel is 60,462,74.36. So that is what we will be asking you to approve this evening. Thank you. [Music] Any further on in your report? I know that that's my uh that's my report. I'll turn it back over to you, mayor. Thanks. Are there any subcommittee reports? Oh. Uh oh, I thought you were uh No, I do have one other thing. Go for it. Um unless you want Do you want the committee to comment on the budget now or later? We'll get to it. We'll get to Okay. Sorry. Uh no, I just I
035would just add on the the item related to the building committee. Um, I did want to call out that uh I obviously mentioned the um the the forums scheduled for the next two nights and I hope to see people there. But over uh over the last week and a half, really over break, we had the chance to visit multiple high schools and I want to thank the members of the school committee and the members of the building committee that attended, we got a chance to visit Somerville High School on um the Friday that we head off before break. Uh and that was important because they do have CTE programs there and we had a chance to see their um high school. Um and then we uh last Thursday uh we I spent the day visiting
036Belmont High School and Bill Ricka High School which are both designed by our architect and designer. So we had a chance to see the spaces. These are brand brand new buildings. It's it it really is quite impressive. um and is a is it gets it's exciting that that's something we potentially could have here in Salem in the next couple of years. But I want to thank all the people who gave of their time to visit. It does help better inform what these schools what our school can look like and what will fit in our context and not. So I really encourage anybody there will be other visits scheduled along the way um that more and more people do try to get to see some of those these schools. really interested in um visiting Waltham High
037School, which is a brand new high school that has CTE programs as well. Not designed by our designer, but a local high school that's about our size, if not a little bigger, but also has brand new CTE spaces as well. So, for us to get a sense of what that could look like. So, um a lot of a lot of good movement here and excitement around the new building. We hope to see people there tomorrow night uh to give us their thoughts and to learn more about uh the design options that are moving forward. Thanks. And I'll just uh to add to that on the high school project. So the meetings some people have reached out about it. The this is not the a final design process. This is selecting the preferred alternatives amongst the
038options and then whatever is the selected preferred alternative. There will be many many more weeks of more granular and detailed design discussions that will be conducted in public in the the building committee meetings uh and have opportunities for more public engagement in whatever the configuration of the building is any uh you have no finance and operations report I assume you've already made. I have no any subcommittee reports. No subcommittee submit. Okay. Um we'll move on to uh section 8 motions and resolutions. Our first item is the adoption of the FY2026 proposed sale public school budget. And I I'll open it up to comments and discussion from the members before entertaining any motions if there are any. Member Manning. Yeah. I could just um I have one question. Um maybe to Elizabeth, I guess. Could you
039just go into a little more explanation of when you say salary differences, hiring to budget? What does hiring to budget in your mind mean? Because in mine, I have some thoughts of that. And I'm sure that maybe we're the same, but I'm not I don't know. I hope so. Um so it is possible that the retirees will or people who are leaving will make more than the average salary for whatever that position is. And it is also possible that if we replaced that departing employee with someone who's brand brand new that that would be a significant savings to our personnel budget. I think it is unlikely. I do not think we should assume that we would replace every retiree with a firstear teacher and therefore realize a large savings. However, if we're having staff leave
040who make more than the average, if we assume that the person who replaces them will make around the average, then we can assume that there would be some savings achieved. So when I say hiring to budget, what we've budgeted for any known vacancy, we've budgeted the average salary. So if they are below that or at that, then I think we'll be we'll recoup some funds. So if I were a hiring principal though, what is the what are the rules that you imagine that I would have to go by? Because I I'll tell you the backdrop on this. I mean, through a lot of years of hiring, principles in Salem, I think, were very um proud of the fact in a way or but grateful probably is a better word, that we were never given the
041the uh guidance that we should hire um to save money, right? Um ever. That was never a contention. and and I many many times would be in a situation with leaders from other school districts and that would come up and people would be astounded that you know that was not the guidance. So this term hiring to budget makes me nervous. I get the idea that if I retire and I've had like you know 40 years and you know I have uh four masters and whatever, right? But I don't I want to know if there's if the direction is, you know, okay, it's good if we save some money on this new hire, but I don't think you get really a lot of bang for your buck in general looking in the in the bigger picture
042if you hire um people with no experience, right? um because then you're sort of paying out in a different way to get more training and to bring them along and blah blah blah blah blah. Um but I also don't want to have people in the position that okay, you don't have to hire brand new people, but you have to hire you can't go above this average amount. Yeah. You know, and that's what I don't want to do to people. And I just this term just really caught my eye tonight listening. Um, I don't want to be putting our folks in a position where they are either given a total that they can't go over or they're given a guideline for each position, you know. Um, I think we need to be looking for the the
043best people that we can that we that want to come here and work in our community. Um, and we have to be realistic that that we can afford, but I don't think there's any need to put an exact plan or quota or, you know, any reason that, you know, Susie Superstar has come down from wherever to drop into Salem and I cannot hire her because she's $2,000 over my limit and I Oh, sorry. So, so just tell me like calm me down. Let me calm you down. Um I I struggled with how to word that slide. Um and it didn't work. So that's uh that's a good note. Um they um so it is not our plan and I think the superintendent would um double down on this to say you cannot hire someone who
044makes above X. That is not our plan. And our plan continues to be that we'll hire the best fit person for each position. Um we will tell people like here's what this position is budgeted at, but if Susie Superstar comes and wants to come to Salem, then we'll figure out how to make that work. That's part of why I was a little opaque about whether we'll be dipping into our reserves or not. If it works out that we hire people who make less than the people they're replacing, we may not need to. But if we hire people who make exactly what the people who they were replacing or maybe even more, then we'll uh then we'll need to dip into our reserves. I do hope that our new um salary schedule and our new collective
045bargaining agreement with teachers allows us to plan for and budget for, you know, and recruit uh the teachers that we want here. Um and similarly with our PSRP contract and our SAA contract. So, we're hopeful that our new collective bargaining agreements will put us in a position to be competitive recruiting the best candidates and that our average, which is higher, will we'll be able to find good candidates, but our guiding mantra is going to continue to be to find the best candidate for the positions. So, you're saying there aren't going to be specific rules that a principal has to hire by that you can't exceed X or you know whatever? No. No, you're not saying that or no, there won't be. Oh, uh, I am saying that no, there won't be. Okay, just checking. All
046right. All right. Okay. Because I mean ser being serious, it is a a troubling concept to me that I I was very grateful that Y didn't have to do But Mary, can I just also jump in? I mean, I think um I also think that principles shouldn't have to be um jumping through hoops as they've had to before. I think our new SCA salary schedule um does uh help a lot in this area. And I think we were, you know, I I don't necessarily think uh that you're going to we're going to be faced with as much of this with a new schedule as we did in the past. I don't want principles to be hamstrung but I want also principles to be thoughtful right like you know when you have um an average salary
047right that we've set which is a good healthy average salary now then wasn't as healthy a year ago that um I I would expect though that the majority of salaries are going to fall in below average because you know not as many people move and shift around who are like you know at the top of the the scale um and um in the past we were having to pay people you you know count more years of experience and um it didn't feel exactly the it didn't feel right because we weren't as competitive as we are now. I don't know why there would have to be many situations where people would have to go above the average because you're not going to have many candidates who um are going to be need to you know we're
048going to be able to compete with other districts for people that have three to five years seven years I mean and that's the place we were losing people is at like seven years we hope to take people you know who have that level of experience and that we can bring in and will still be you know at or below the average salary. So, I you know, while I want people to be thoughtful, I don't want people to be reckless about uh about it because we do have to be thoughtful about how we, you know, and they if they're going to bring somebody in at the top of the scale, I think they'd have to explain exactly why that person is the right candidate. And I think it's only fair, you know, if that's the case,
049um that we have that conversation. But in the end of the day, I've been in that position as a principal, as have you. you want what the best, you know, if if that's the only certified and the best candidate, then we're not going to get in the way of the person hiring them. I think the term hiring to budget Yeah. is problematic. I hear that. I hear that. It doesn't say what you're saying now. So, note to ourselves that we're not going to ever use that term again. How about that? That that works, right? Because I I um I I do appreciate doesn't It sounds It sounds worse than what we were planning on doing. Yeah. I I hadn't heard that up until, but I just saw that. Okay. Um I I had one other
050question if um I guess not a question so much as just more of a comment. Mhm. Um I think when you were talking about uh the hard choices that you know that that we had to make and we did have to make some hard choices um you know everybody here um but I think let me think of I think that we made we were able to make those hard choices this year without compromise on where we are as a system as far as our values. I don't think that we made hard choices that went against those. Maybe tightened the belts a little on some on some areas. um you know had some big decisions to make in other areas. But I believe I I really feel that anytime I was involved in any discussions and
051anything I heard from anybody up here always the the behind the the the back of in the back of our minds was what does this do for kids? The kids the whole thing about kids have to be first. you know, we're still trying to put here um you know, is it good for kids to come before? Is it good for teachers? Is it good for parents? Is it good for the community? And I think we were able to do that this year in this budget even with the cuts that are involved in it. Um I guess I just want to make the comment that I don't know if we would be able to do that another year the same way that we are right now this year. And I just want to be very honest
052about folks. I'm gonna vote for this budget. Um but I want I just want folks to be to be thinking that we when we say we have some hard choices ahead. Um we we do um as far as where the system is is, you know, going to going to head and what direction we're taking. Not as far as again not as far as anything that we say we stand for, but how we're going to organize to do that. And I think that um as soon as this budget calms down and is passed and we're into putting it in place, then we do need to start very quickly looking at the bigger picture for the next several years. [Music] Um, I would I would sort of remind folks that some of the discussion for when um
053we brought the middle school over from Salt and Soul, some of the discussions on those meetings where we talked about the delivery of service um and and and the resources available um to provide the best possible service um and in one face just for economy of even having you know the certain number of positions etc. I think we need to be looking ahead and thinking we need to look we looked at it in at that level of schools we need to look at it as a system in the in the time ahead and I just want to put that out there that we are voting for a budget that I'm wondering you know I'm anticipating we may need to have a different look on it in the future that that um I think we're ready
054as as a system to tackle that and it's time we really look at it. So to me, this budget does what we want for this year, and we need to hang on to the values that we're saying that we're we stand for under this budget, but then maintain those same values as we look ahead to the future, which I think um is going to be even more complicated certainly than this than this year was. But I guess that that I just want to lay that out there. Thank you, Member Cruz. Thank you, Mayor. Really appreciate the opportunity to um see these budget updates and uh I want to thank the superintendent um assistant superintendent Polly and the whole team uh for really listening to the feedback that was brought forward um at the the last
055um budget hearing. I'll say for for my part, I am planning on voting in favor of this budget. And much like member Manning, um I do put that stake in the ground that this is um the first of a series of really difficult budgets uh which are going to require us to have even more difficult conversations about how we're offering education to our children here within the district. Um I just want to double down on the emphasis uh that on the advocacy. Um we know that we're being shortchanged by the chapter 70 formula that we've been negatively impacted by inflationary issues. um in addition to the the rising costs of um different services within the district. Um and so I I really just want to call on members of our community, uh we are going
056to start this conversation following the the budget uh hopefully being passed this evening. Uh and I I I just like to ask that we continue to have really deep engagement with various stakeholders. So our unions, our students, uh our parents as we have an even more difficult fiscal situation next year. Um, we're really going to need everyone to raise up their voices uh up to my colleagues here on the Hill about how communities like Salem uh and many others are in a position where uh the chapter 70 formula uh brought a lot of promise but quite frankly hasn't kept up with student need and in the face of a federal government that's withdrawing its support from public education, it's really going to be necessary for the Commonwealth to to stand by its values of providing
057a quality education to all students. So, I recognize that um this is probably the most difficult budget I've had to vote for. Uh next year's will be even more difficult. Um and I just continue to ask that um our our partners uh in the union. I know that we're lucky in Salem to have the vice president of AF of Mass work with us to ensure that we make it the strongest possible case for why next year is the time to revisit the entire funding formula uh so that communities like ours that face these tremendous uh structural deficits that are only going to have negative impact on our children uh can be addressed in short order. So I I thank you all uh for your engagement, all the members of the public that have been in
058attendance writing into us. I I think we've heard you um in some areas that we were able to make adjustments, but that road only gets more difficult as we go on. Um and then I just think that the last piece uh that I would just name is that um you know, I do think from an engagement standpoint, I was really pleased that at the last budget hearing, we did have some folks um that were non uh English-speaking parents who had made their way uh to um uh the budget hearing. I I would love to make sure that next year uh we think about how we can be more intentionable about reaching out to uh families where English is not their first language to talk about how these decisions are going to impact them. I think
059we put out some hypothetical situations around everything from school choice to transportation etc. Um, and I do have the concern that the information lag about the about the impacts of this budget and the future ones uh for members of our uh community that again English is not their first language. Um, that lag is uh incredibly uh difficult uh for families to navigate. They're going to get caught by surprise by some of the services that may shift. Um so you know to the extent possible that we can really think about uh how we reach more deeply uh and to um uh and and engage our families uh that would be I think on my part greatly appreciated. So I look forward to um taking this vote and appreciate uh all the work that's gone into making
060some of these adjustments this evening. Thank you. Any other comments for members? Yeah, member Campbell. Thanks. Um, I just wanted to thank um the superintendent and um his team for um such a thoughtful conversation. I feel like we've spent a lot of time having conversations around this budget um for many months now and I feel like there's been a lot of transparency regarding um you know the the challenging situation that we're in um and having really transparent conversations with um all those who could be impacted by it and for your thoughtful revisions to the budget based on the feedback from committee members and from the community. So, it's all just very much appreciated. I know it's not um easy. And then also, thank you to all of the community members who've come out and been
061good advocates for their schools and the services and the kids in their community as well. Thanks. That's it. Um so, I I just want to echo that. Thanks to everybody that came out to provide comment at the public hearing and share their feedback uh in writing as well. It's certainly a a challenging budget year. Um, setting aside the uncertainty of federal funding and the hostility of this administration in Washington towards public education, the pressure of rising cost centers on our schools, uh, up against the limited revenue options that cities and towns have has been a tremendous challenge for us. And while the cost for personnel has certainly been going up, uh I want to echo what what member Cruz said and that the contract that we reach with our educators at the start of the
062school year uh is appropriate. Educators need fair compensation, not only so they can afford to live in our community, but to to stem the churn of turnover that disrupts kids education. But we also have to be mindful when we're talking about affordability to to think about how people can afford to live in Salem by mitigating the increases in property taxes as well. Um the contract that we reached um strikes a fair and thoughtful balance and now the budget that we need to put forward in order to pay for it does as well. But wages alone are not what's putting pressure on this budget. I want to be very clear. Next year the average teacher salary is going to go up about 9% in Salem. But electricity costs as we heard for the district are going
063to go up 30%. Uh natural gas by 10%. Health insurance costs will go up by 11% which is almost $1.2 million more than last year. Out of district tuition will go up 47%, an increase of $1.4 million despite a projection of only one more out of district placement. Homeless student transportation will go up 46% despite a 9% increase in homeless students. Any increase in that number is too many kids. Of course, we need homes for these kids or at a minimum we need to find space for them here in Salem until they can find permanent housing. It's the moral thing to do, but it's also the fiscally responsible thing to do. So there are a lot of cost centers that are out of the control of this committee and out of the control of the
064city that are bearing on the FY26 budget. And on the other side of the ledger, what do we have? We do not have revenue streams that are going up by 46 or 47% or 30% or 11% or even 10%. Proposition 2 and a half caps the property tax levy increase at 2.5%. And we certainly don't want to push this burden overly onto property taxpayers. Chapter 70, as member Cruz mentioned, our state aid for schools is also limited. The state law caps consideration of inflation in chapter 70 at 4.5%. Doesn't matter if CPI is 7% or if costs are going up by double-digit percentage increases. Once it's over 4.5%, the state says it's on the district to deal with. Chapter 70 is broken in many ways. As this committee discussed at our finance retreat earlier this
065year, and as I shared in testimony to the legislature as far back as September of 2023, shortly after first coming into this office, we know what's flawed, and we need the state to act. Even though the share of Salem students is becoming increasingly low income, the Chapter 7 formula is driving our local contribution up and the states down. Over the last three years, Salem's target aid share from the state dropped by 10%, more than any other gateway city. In 2022, we are classified as a minimum aid community despite growing high need student population and our own per pupil local spending in which exceeded all other gateway cities. The reason for this is not a mystery. Desi and do predicted this problem in a local contribution study that they published as far back as 2020 pointing
066rightly to the cap on required local contributions as one of the leading culprits. That cap says that no community, no matter how affluent, is required to pay more than 82.5% of their school foundation budget. As more communities hit that cap, and as foundation budgets increase overall, it results in a significant and unevenly distributed increase in local contribution requirements for communities not subject to the cap, communities like Salem. And what's worse, to make up for what the formula sees as a deficiency in our city's ability towards meeting that local contribution target, the law adds an added increment, effectively a penalty. And last year, that increment was almost a million dollars. Distribution of the ever growing required local contribution burden across uncapped communities like Salem lessens aid that would otherwise be available to the very populations the
067Student Opportunity Act is intended to serve. Despite all the good the S SOA did, the legislation did not include any changes to how the required local contribution or municipalities ability to pay is calculated. I will continue to push for a state review of that formula to address this inequity and for the state to give cities and towns more revenue options to meet our growing costs without needing to overburden our property taxpayers. And I hope the district, our partners in the teachers union and our legislators will work together to stand up for this. Um, I'll just close with with this last thought. The adjustments that the district has put forward uh are not ideal, but they're what's necessary, and I appreciate that we've been able to take these last few weeks uh to modify them based
068on the public feedback that we've received. The work of this committee for this year and for the years ahead is going to be to try to find ways to strengthen the foundation for our district to meet the goals of our strategic plan and to provide our kids with the best education possible. Yes, we need more partnership from the state to address the formula issues I mentioned. And yes, we should anticipate and are already seeing a breathtaking abandonment at the federal level of our public schools and our kids. So, it falls to us here on the ground to do as much as we can with what we have to support every child whose future is entrusted to us. The proposed budget, I believe, meets that trust to the very best of its ability. And I will
069also be voting for it. Is there a motion? I'll make a motion to approve or adopt the FY26 proposed budget. We're going to Are you So, we're going to vote on the non-personnel and the personnel number. So, is there a motion to approve the proposed FY26 personnel budget in the amount of 60,462,74.36? I'll make that motion. I'll second it. Thank you. Motion made by member Miranda, seconded by member Campbell. Uh, roll call vote. Member Cruz. Under discussion, any further discussion? Seeing none. Member Cruz, yes. Member Hoffman, yes. Member Manning, yes. Member Miranda, yes. Member Campbell, yes. Member Cornell, yes. And myself, yes. The matter carries. Is there a motion to approve the FY2026 non-personnel budget in the amount of $18,615,959? I'll second. Motion made by member Manning, seconded by member Miranda. A roll call vote.
070Member Hoffman, yes. Member Manning, yes. Member Miranda, yes. Member Campbell, yes. Member Cornell, yes. Member Cruz, yes. And myself, yes. The matter carries. Dr. Can I just uh Thank you. Um I just want to note that the this now moves to the city council. Um, and I should have said this earlier and we're scheduled for May 27th in the evening and the city council will hear the pre, you know, similar presentation from us. It does it does need to be approved by the city council following um, your approval tonight. So, I just want to let folks know and we'll publicize that as well. So, May 27th, I believe six o'clock. That's great. Okay. We I love I love being first mayor. All right. Why don't you just explain um the the process the rights like
071sort of that what the council can do and can't do with the budget just so folks know that might be going to the meeting or just Thank you. the the council can um you know can vote to provide more funding or less funding but they don't have line item authority. uh only the school committee has the authority of deciding which lines get how much funding, but they can send it back to the school committee um if they um if they choose to increase or decrease our budget. Hopefully that I mean that typically doesn't happen. It could happen um but they can't tell the school committee how to use um the the funds. They can just send it back with less money or more money. Did I answer that? Yeah, I just wanted folks to know
072that. Sure. All right. Uh, the next matter under motions and resolutions is policy 5103, control choice student assignment. Second reading. Move to approve. I'll second. Motion made by member Campbell, seconded by member Miranda. Under discussion. Seeing none, a roll call vote. Member Manning. Yep. Member Miranda. Yes. Member Campbell. Yes. Member Cornell. Yes. Member Cruz, yes. Member Hoffman, yes. And myself, yes. Matter carries policy 5501, responsible use policy and media. Second reading. Motion to approve. Seconded. Motion made by member Miranda, seconded by member Campbell. Roll call vote. Member Miranda. Yes. Member Campbell. Yes. Member Cornell. Yes. Member Cruz. Yes. Member Hoffman. Yes. Member Manning. Yes. And myself. Yes. The matter carries. Announcements. Any announcements for members? Yeah. Member Hoffman. Um, Saturday night at the community life center. There's going to be a pro a Nagi prom
073and all students are welcome ages 14 to 23. You can register at at Nagley's Facebook page. There's a QR code as well I can give you. Um it goes they say it goes 85 to 8. So and there's some dresses at Nagley too free if anyone needs one and would like to join in. Um AA do you mind forwarding that to Chris? Yeah Oddonnell so we can make sure that that gets out um to our community because I don't know if I've seen that yet on our social media but I want to make sure kids and families know about that. Um I just want to share that um we've been working with the city clerk's office on voting in the schools and have been able to identify locations at Bates and Salem High School that
074are um se have separate entrances to the outside uh so voters don't have to enter the building and go through where there are students. So starting with this fall's elections at those two schools, the voting will be moved to a different location in the building uh with the access directly to the outside from the public. So whether or not school is in session with students um it will be a more secure environment. Any other announcements? Any final motion? Oh, there's one other Yeah, sorry. Uh, I there is um I I I know the Salem Children's Alliance is hosting a free drop in on Wednesday night from 5:00 to 6:30 about local camps and summer programs in the community at the uh community life center. Uh and family and caregivers can stop by to register their
075children for any of those programs uh on Wednesday evening, April 30th from 5:00 to 6:30. So, I think that's an important thing for our families to know. And I Chris, I think you've advertised that already. Put it out there. All right. Thank you. Move to adjourn. Second. Motion by member Cruz, second by member Campbell. Roll call vote. Member Campbell? Yes. Member Cornell? Yes. Member Cruz? Yes. Member Hoffman? Yes. Member Manning? Yes. Member Miranda? Yes. Myself? Yes. We are journed. Thank you everyone.