001at Berkeley Regional School Committee at 6:01 p.m. Due notice having been posted. Pursuant to the open meeting law, any person may make an audio or video recording of this public meeting or may transmit the meeting through any medium. Attendees are therefore advised that such recordings or transmissions may be made, whether perceived or unpersceived by those present, and are deemed acknowledged and permissible. We'll do a roll call of members present. Miss Barrera, >> present. >> Miss Ashley, >> present. >> Miss Corville, >> present. >> Miss O'Brien, >> present. >> Mr. Pastnack, >> here. >> Miss Solomon, >> present. >> And the chair is present. Also with us this evening, our superintendent of schools, Dr. Jeffrey Skoonover. Our chief financial officer, Miss Raquel Pelerin. Our director of curriculum, Miss Elizabeth Haskell. Our director of special education, Miss
002Megan Ashton, and our she she left, but she's here. our principal, Dr. Susan Browford. Um, and our recording secretary, Robin Vicaro. If you're able, could you please rise for the pledge? >> I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Thank you everyone. Uh please note that this committee will meet via Zoom on Tuesday, March 31st at 6:00 p.m. for a final vote on the 2026 2027 budget. The next regularly scheduled meeting of this body will be on Tuesday, April 7th, 2026 at 6 PM in person here in the Somerset Berkeley Regional High School Library. And the first item on the agenda this evening is the public hearing. So I would officially move
003to open the public hearing on the 2026 2027 Somerset Berkeley Regional High School budget. >> Second. >> Motion by Miss Fra and seconded by Miss Ashley. All those in favor? I >> I opposed. So voted >> Dr. the floor is yours. >> All right. Thank you. Uh so I will walk us through this and I invite Miss just to jump in whenever uh she feels that she needs to to correct me to uh provide some clarification on something whatever the case may be. All right. Uh so as we typically do um just the process for this we'll start out with our vision our uh goals as a school and as a district. Uh just quickly go through high school enroll involvement so we understand where we are. Uh and then we'll go through the overview
004of the budgeting process, look at the revenues, the expenditures, uh some of the the grants, and then we'll wrap up with just a quick overview of the assessment for any questions relative to that. Uh so as we typically do uh we just need to remind ourselves of our vision of the graduate where our goal is uh to create students who are resilient academic independent digital citizens while uh they are learning to become empathetic and respectful citizens. We usually step into the strategic plan and the school improvement plan at this point. As you know, we are wrapping up the current strategic plan. We've already started the work for the next one, which is really where uh this is the first budget that begins to support some of those newer items. While it's still very much a
005work in progress, uh we have seen a number of emerging themes that not only came out through our uh event January but through the countless surveys to students, families and employees. Uh our faculty have been engaged in similar work uh that we did in January led by our principles here. Uh Dr. Prusser has been meeting with students every Wednesday during blue raider block and gathering additional student information from them and the themes just keep uh the same themes keep emerging. Uh so what we know is regardless of who the stakeholder is uh the things that uh students want uh to be prepared for as they leave service at Berkeley. Uh digital citizenship is something that comes up frequently and that includes increasingly includes emphasis on AI literacy. Uh we've heard over and over again the
006need for financial literacy. Our students uh would like to as as we also do uh expand early college experiences, career and education and career pathways. Uh they very much want to uh not just prepare for college but prepare for life after college. Whatever that uh means for them. uh including with that being prepared is uh having more opportunities for experiential learning. Uh we also uh there's a a pretty frequent need to identify and intervene with struggling sooner uh and also looking at our special education services and continuing. So uh one of the things that families and students can say is uh they love uh the of electives that we offer. They want more of them. Uh but also the strength of uh the community and the sense of belonging that they have here at Sbury
007to continue uh those great things that are happening. All right, so just jumping in and looking at our enrollment. The October 1st enrollment I believe was 896 students. This was the enrollment as of last week. You see the breakdown by grade level and the percentage um that each grade makes up of that total population. And we've we've seen that is we're used to adding about 250 students per grade but over the last few years as you know we began to see a decrease in enrollment. Uh so right now 89 students uh 10 of those are in our transition program. really the 12 plus uh part of the regional school district. >> Isn't that great? Uh my device ran into a problem >> even though we are still seeing that. >> That's great. Now you just
008>> hopefully it's not updates. updates. >> Yours has updates. Yeah, I haven't shut it off because >> Okay, >> can you tap dance? >> Um, so anyway, so with that, uh, this is the first budget where we're starting to look at those items that were um that were are being identified and there are a few items in here where expanding uh early uh college opportunities, dual enrollment opportunities. I believe we've talked about this. There's uh one component of of of this uh budget where we are switching away from virtual high school and wanting to offer our students college credits instead. Uh which at this point until we have an early college designation, that is something that we would uh we would pay for the uh reduced tuition that students would have. that program. Uh similar
009uh very similar to what we've been doing all along with virtual high school. One second. Sorry about that. >> They just edit the video. Just kidding. >> I'm sorry. >> They can just edit the video. >> That's right. >> All right. Um I'll pick up where I I was. Uh so getting back to the enrollments uh I'd like to also um remind everyone of what our uh certain student populations are. Uh low income uh we have about 26% of our students students with disabilities is at 17% English learners at 1.6 And we know that uh the combination of those uh any student who qualifies for one or more is considered a high need student and 35.4% of our students in the high school are classified as high. Uh in addition to this and we'll get
010into this with the assessment formula 20 we have 22 students uh currently in our district placements. Uh also just as a reminder of where we are because we know how much salaries uh drive our school budgets in terms of collective bargaining uh some teachers units A and B are entering the third and final year of contract. So this year will be a negotiations year beginning uh a new contract FY28. Our custodians and administrative assistants are currently in negotiations uh for next year and our food service professionals are on the same cycle as our teachers. Uh next year is the third and final year. So the when developing the budget uh we always start as I said earlier with what are what are the district and school improvement goals. We look at our construction plan, our
011school improvement plan just to review uh our what those priorities are. We have held meetings with um between the school and district administration. Uh and certainly uh we're always cognizant of the financial situations of both member communities. Uh we know that right now uh both some are facing uh financial challenges and we are cognizant of that. uh we uh led by Miss Pellerin uh review the anticipated revenue uh working uh as those teams to propose the expenditures and then along with that looking at program studies looking at u our school scheduling information which usually doesn't come in until almost the the tail end of this process uh because the students don't begin that until late January early February so We're not getting that information until usually into late February. Uh and then just reviewing all
012of our uh programs, operations, etc. So going to start from giving the high level overview of this and then we'll work back to the details. So this budget represents a 2.61% in the operating budget. Uh but due to increased revenues, it's a 1.82% 82% debt increase to the assessments and I'll step through the assessment formulas. Uh this budget represents a 2.54% increase to Somerset's assessment, 3.39%. uh for Berkeley. We know that these variations uh these assessments vary from one year to the next. Uh and is based on the town's minimum local contributions. Uh what how the enrollments are shifting in each town just what that percentage is. A small shift in student enrollment can have a significant plays a significant impact in the assessments. But we also look at uh special education on district tuitions,
013transportation and so on. So there are some other factors we will step through those. All right. So first uh beginning with the revenue uh if you look in the sort of the near the bottom right hand corner uh the proposed uh budget is 22,555,875. So we have revenue uh coming um up to that amount. You can see it represents a 570,000 573,78 increase for FY26. You can see how that is broken down by communities as well as uh other sources chapter 70 uh and other re So based on those increases uh to both member communities uh the 120,000 that we saw in that previous slide just under 121 for Berkeley and about 280,000 for uh for Somerset just the historical trend here uh for both of those communities and how they uh compare to some
014of the previous and it's always interesting to Just to note in 2022 where Somerset had a significant increase of 16% Berkeley had a 5% reduction that was the year where the new regional agreement and this alternative assessment form. >> You want to walk us through that one? >> Sure. >> Okay. Thank you. because we throw around a lot of percentages and I know it was confusing last year. What we tried to do is take the assessment formula and break it down by its major components. So it starts out with the student enrollment and percentage which drives the assessment. Start out with our base operating assessment. We back out the track which 70 funding and other revenues. Um we have our net transportation cost and our net audit district gets us to our total operating assessment
015and our capital assessment which gets into factors in the total assessment. To the left hand side you're going to see um the increase of the board 116 which is to the member towns and the percentage um applied to each. Again, this is based on of the increase from year to year just on the assessment per town. That 40116 plays into the total increase in the budget. So the total increase to the expenditures is a 2.61. So revenue needs to increase to balance that out. 78 of the revenue to offset that is from other sources. The chapter 70 tuition and the interest revenue. The remainder of the 61 is where you come up with the 1.82. So we talk about net it is the increase of revenue to offset the expenses backing out the increase in
016revenue in chapter 70 gives us that 1.82. I know last year it was confusing so we tried to connect the dots and we are now at the stage of the governor's local budget has to go through its variations to receive what the final numbers are. Um we know that looking at the um regional uh school transportation which we there's a significant increase. We hope that stays as is. Um our budget is is based on the moving a lot of the um expenses into that revolving fund as well as school choice receiving tuition. We have an increase in in that as well. Those are both in revolving funds, but they do offset the expenses within the general operational fund. Um when you look at the 26 cherry sheet, I just want to note that we haven't
017done budget amendments this year. All of that will be captured in the budget amendments that we Okay. Um I think just want to emphasize this. Yeah. I know uh most school districts are are experiencing the same thing and have been for years. Uh I just want just mind if you want or or call out one of the reasons why so many school districts are struggling and so many municipalities are struggling right now with their school budgets. We see the the news every single day. We get the briefs and and how really tough conversations are happening. Uh so in represented by the blue are the net uh operating increases for this year and the previous two. So on average about a 3% increase uh chapter 70 is increasing at uh only.9% this year a little bit
018less than the previous two years of 1.4 and 1.9. Uh so as these gaps continue it's just putting more of a financial burden on the number. So I I just thought it was it's interesting or it's important to just to at least recognize that uh we do need some I I don't want to get on a soap box about chapter 70 and how it needs to change, but this is an impact, a direct negative impact on our school districts and and hopefully the 0.93% that is based on the $75 per student increase. Uh so that Berkeley is receiving it's projected based on the governor's budget to receive $66,900 more in FY27 than in FY26. Uh hopefully we follow the same pattern that we've had for the previous two years where at least uh when as
019the budget goes through the House and the Senate uh they've come up with uh more funding to support our schools and if that's the case then this gap between the 2.9 and the 93 hopefully a bit more. All right. So um drivers for the expenditures in this uh budget and as I alluded to earlier contractual raises the salaries we all know that's a a significant portion usually about 75% of the budget uh is in salaries um there are some contingencies for the ongoing contract negotiations that I just mentioned custodians and assistance we know that our healthare where uh we've been told right now what built into this budget is a 9.7% increase in health. Um that hasn't been finalized yet. The health plan group is meeting in the next week or so >> or this
020week >> next week. >> Uh so we hope to have a final decision as to what that is. Maybe it'll be less than the 9.7%. It'll be something you know positive uh variance here. But um as as of this time 7% increase uh some other uh services transportation out of district tuition are always uh significant drivers to a school budget uh the ongoing uh reliance on technology software and hardware uh insurance utilities uh and and other areas specifically. Uh so one of the things and I I want to acknowledge both Mrs. M. Pellerin and Dr. Pelford uh for their significant work in identifying uh ways that we can reduce the budget uh in FY27 or shift some things uh to FY26 to alleviate the burden in FY27. Uh so they did uh some remarkable work
021in and getting us to the point where we are right now. But shift to other sources just to start us out. Um there is $85,000 uh increase in service breaker reimbursement. Uh as Raquel already showed us, we have a significant increase in regional transportation reimbursement. as she just said, school choice. Um, and we're also shifting some uh some funding to the athletic uh from sorry to the athletic providing funding. Uh at the bottom there are some as we're becoming accustomed to each year there are also some reductions in this budget. Uh some reductions are based on decreasing enrollment as we've uh been experiencing now for several years. Um and others are some tough decisions that are being made. Uh so what this budget represents is uh so first of all reduction of uh reduction of
022one van special education ban uh some supplies and materials uh but two instructional staff. Uh both of those are um positions where uh retirement and uh resignation they will not be um filled based on uh those vacancies. We have some a couple support staff that are reductions uh central office staff and a technology support uh position. Now I I just I know uh everyone has I'm not going to go through this information. I believe everyone has a copy of the more detailed um uh budget by category by line. Uh but some of the highlights here uh we'll see by just maybe halfway down on the school leadership uh 2210 you'll see a reduction of $9,000. Now this is a reduction to last year's approved budget. Last year's approved budget had three assistant principles. We know
023that we did not fill uh one of those positions became open. Um so this represents a $90,000 reduction from last year's approved budget. But on the next page, uh there is here there was an increase of 72,760 over the fourth line down from the bottom. Um it's under power professional because that's really where the monitors play wrong level cafeteria supervision uh and school suspensions. Uh so some of those positions that were brought back once that uh assistant principal position was lost. So there's a reduction in one area um an increase in another. But you'll see that there are a lot of um there are many of those situations where something might be reduced in one area and um shifted over to something else. But obviously um about just below halfway u page there's a $338,000
024increase in salaries. teachers. We know that again. So first I want to say it is a significant driver budget and that does include the reduction of two positions as I just said. If those two positions were eliminated um then that would be significantly higher uh transportation services. Uh there's also a significant reduction but that's also because of the uh increased reimbursement that we are receiving this year uh which is 90% I don't know I can't recall us being reimbured at the 90% level in the past. Usually regional school districts are asking for levels of around 90 to 100% would be ideal. Um it's usually more like 60 to 70% in a good year. Uh so this year we were very pleased to see that regional transportation aid and was able to um reflect that in
025this large savings here. And then uh at the end of all of this, we see that same uh 2.61% increase uh over FY26 of 573,000 to a proposed budget of 22,555,75. Uh so some expenditures are supported by other grants. Uh so uh circuit breaker uh is uh budgeted here for $1.14 million in out of district tuitions. We are utilizing uh the $448,000 for regional transport for the transportation for the regional transportation reimbursement. Uh Miss Peller mentioned uh school choice. Uh historically our school choice revenue helps to offset our uh counseling some of our counseling salary. So that is uh 390,000 and as I mentioned the athletic revolving that's $97,000 uh shift from the operating budget to that. So in addition to that 22,555,000, there's also a significant amount that's uh that's outside of that or
026in addition to that. Uh looking at our uh fund balances, END we know it has a 5% cap. Um the current balance is just over 900,000. Uh we had stabilization because of the projects uh that we had last year. the turf replacement. Uh we saw in the baseball field work uh we saw those two other funds, the capital fund and stabilization um get wiped out. So uh we currently don't have those and we do for this summer have the uh the track resurfacing project which was estimated to be 340,000. We haven't received uh the bids yet. Um but that that will be happening relatively soon. But that will uh further reduce the excess efficiency fund uh to below $600,000. As I said, we'll just Raquel gave us that overview of the assessment formula early on.
027uh if you look at the detail of it, it actually has to uh have it on three different slides here just to to show how um the assessments are created in the end and it starts out with the enrollment. So if we look at the upper right corner and uh again acknowledge that this is based on the alternative formula. So you can see FY27 compared to FY26. Uh we have 892 students, 662 from Berkeley, 230 for um 662 from Somerset, 230 for Berkeley. There's a slight shift uh of of45%. Uh Berkeley's enrollment is increasing by.5% of the total assesses decreasing by 0.545 as I said earlier those enrollment shifts play a part in these assessments. Uh so once we start with the 22,555,000 we back our ation cost, the capital assessments, uh, and special education
028out of district tuitions, uh, to come up with the, uh, adjusted base operating budget. It's just under 18 million 179 uh 29 and then going through uh figure out plug in minimum workable contributions which tells us what those figures are um and then factoring in chapter 78 we end up uh and other revenue sources which are based on um uh percentage of students from each community. Uh we keep working through this until we get uh the total operating step assessment step seven. You can see it's uh 10,372,000. And you can see to the right of that the uh the amounts to Berkeley. And then uh uh factoring in transportation uh transportation aid we have that transportation cost the sorry the uh uh special education tuitions and we end up having a uh total operating assessment
029of 3.1% for some 3.7% for Berkeley. We include the capital assessments which you can see about halfway down uh 2,185,000 and then we get the total assessments. uh internal assessment assessment is just under $15 million 11.3 million for Somerset uh 3.7 roughly for Berkeley and you see the 2.54% the 3.39% that I referenced earlier and uh the bottom of that page is just how the special edition is calculated and then end with uh some highlights from uh from some of their work and we know that we've talked about this uh our innovation pathways program in biomedical sciences continue uh to just explode in students. Uh three or four years ago we had 64 students in the program. Now at the beginning earlier this year we had 169. Um we've recently talked about our advanced placement
030participation and our not just the participation but also the achievement and every year seems like we are surpassing the previous year's high mark uh or record setting mark. Uh so more students than ever taking advanced placement classes and they are achieving at all times. Um which means that they are better prepared for college. They are saving money. in college tuition by earning those credits. Uh we have a broadly internship experience and we know we had just some other highlights. Our drama program continues to uh receive so many accolades each year. This year I think we had more nominations than ever before. Uh multiple nominations just about every single category. Our capstone and civics projects continue to improve. Our capstone numbers are growing. Um and we know how wonderful our fine performance programs are. In addition
031to those uh the academics uh so we have the budget um despite reductions in the past, we continue to make sure that our students are given every opportunity that we can and that they are continuing to excel and uh just a few of the the highlights from over the past year. Our students from Chicago civics projects uh may and Emily last year at the civic showcase uh some of our phenomenal students and uh what they're creating in the art classes and music. Our championship field hockey team and two of our outstanding students who graduated last year but they uh they went to the HOSA International Conference. So we just have so much um so many wonderful things uh to celebrate here and certainly this budget uh helps us helps them to achieve those. So with
032that any questions? Thank you Dr. Anyone on the committee have questions or feedback. Well, >> I don't know if it's pertinent to this year's budget, but you mentioned back um try to read my right or not. You talk about like the historical net budgets um versus that it's out basically outpaced the chapter 70 increases. Has that historically been that way or I mean you listed the last three years and it seems to be an increase. Has it always been that you know the net operating budget has outpaced chapter 70 increase or is that something of a more recent phenomenal? >> No, it is uh in fact I probably have a few more years. Uh but yeah, so chapter 7 is not keeping up with what inflation and interest what our budgets have been increasing. just
033seems to to be of some concern and maybe even more concern because I thought a couple of years ago they passed some type of millionaires tax on a ballot question that was supposed to that money was supposed to go specifically towards >> I will say the first year of the student opportunity act we did receive the regional school district did receive a uh a larger increase than all uh typically had I think that was it was either the first or the second year of SOA. This represents the last year of the student we had. So now um that changing of the formula, that extra date that came in, um I I don't know how the state's going to respond in the future, you know, how they're going to look at chapter 70, but we did
034have I know at least one >> possible. >> Yeah. >> Okay. Thank you. >> Questions. I'm um I'm I know no one knows the answer to this, but I'm just knowing what's going on in the world now, especially when we think about utilities and those types of costs. I'm wondering, you know, we made a projection in this budget. um but just based even on the last two weeks or a week. Um is that obviously not something we monitor, but is that something that we still feel comfortable with in terms of those projected costs? Um or do we worry that we might need to adjust that? Well, we've been emailing the director of facilities to watch this consistently and constantly. Um, it's never changing the situation. It is a concern and we discussed that there are
035contingencies within the facilities budget, but that may have to go up towards continues to go in this direction. So it is a concerning the current budget and as well as >> I I think too I just share um concern. I think for good reason. Um the spending down of capital and stabilization, those were for projects that you know needed to be done and been done successfully. Um but I think as a committee we need to keep our eyes on that. Um there's nothing other than the track um project there's no major planned for right now. But obviously um as the building continues to age and I think folks have done a tremendous job you know sort of maintaining it um that balance is something to um be mindful of and at the same time while
036we've contributed you know what we need to to OPED in terms of like we meet our policy obligation that's another place where um if we had the resources it would be wise to contribute more, but we're sort of doing the bare, it's correct me if I'm wrong, but we're kind of doing the bare minimum there. Um, and I think that we just have to be mindful that the budget process is not just yeartoear, but we really need to be thinking about just like we think about a fiveyear strategic plan, we really need to think about a fiveyear budget cycle that it's going to support that. And unfortunately, I don't feel like the trend is toward good news. So um but I want to just um echo what Dr. Scoover said too. I think the leadership
037team has done a tremendous work to try to deliver a budget that first of all supports our students needs and students families and their educational needs but is also mindful of um the challenges facing both communities. Um, and that's going to be a refrain until or unless there are changes to chapter 70. Those are from the reductions in some of the title grants, which is a good thing. If fewer students qualify, um, you know, fewer of our students are meet the definition of poverty. That's great. But they also may still be high need students, right? Because of the other categories. And um you know if you're right on the cusp there, it doesn't mean that the the needs maybe evaporate, right? But some of the resources to support those additional programs aren't um supported the
038way they have been in the past. So lots of challenges. I just want to thank everyone for I think doing a a really responsible, thoughtful job in developing this budget. Does anyone It's open public hearing. So, is there anyone who has questions or >> anybody? >> Yeah, sure. If it's for the budget, if it's for something else, we'll have an opportunity at the end as well for other items on the agenda. So, Mr. Dupon, >> would you like to address you you can just state your name and affiliation and I know it's a little bit of an awkward setup but if you're comfortable there that works. >> I don't want to break any rules here. I'm kind of outnumbered and I'm from out of town. So u for the minutes and I have a copy
039of the remarks I'm going to make here. with the secretary James Dupont 118 Home Street East in Rainham. Just by way of context, I was an 18-year member of the Bridgewater Rainham Regional School Committee and was selected for a number of years thereafter. And I have been tracking chapter 70 and chapter 71 since 1973. And I'll just uh begin by saying never once in every one of those years was it was either one of those chapters fully funded. the district treasurer is here somewhere but you get that letter that says your pro rata share is was never 100% was it let me just do this like I I know you're having a business meeting here and it's unaccustomed to public speaking as I am uh good evening madam chairman members of ther Berkeley regional school
040committee this is sort of combination Paul River Doniote I come tonight to deliver a message regarding a matter of grave and immediate importance to students of Somerset Regional School District, their school committee, and the administration staff of Somerset Burke. The issue is twofold. First, it concerns the decadesl long practice of underfunding by the Massachusetts State Legislature with various categories of so-called local aid, which is all of you know is a significant factor in setting the rate of the local property tax and hence how much the property owners are asked by you to pay. Prior to fiscal year 81, the first year in which Proposition 2 and a half was in effect, the cities and towns simply put another nickel on the local tax rate to make up any shortfall in local aid and went on
041with things. After Proposition 2 and a half took effect, the cities and towns were limited in how much they could raise the prior year's levy. Consequently, many local services, mostly education, were annually paired back due to the annual recurring shortfalls in state money being returned to the local governments. This brings me to my second point. Where does so-called state revenue come from? Answer. It comes from every resident and business in every city in town, including the town of Somerset. Why isn't that money being returned to you, the people who actually need it for things like day-to-day things like police, fire, seniors, and most importantly, and yes, I said most importantly, schools. It's been my experience that our state legislators have not made full funding of local aid a priority. Members of the majority party bemoan
042how tough things are on Beacon Hill. We're already here. The minority party elected representatives shrug their shoulders and say there isn't much I can do about it. Last year, Rainham's annual budget process resulted in a failure to pay the regional school districts assessment. After a failed Proposition two and a half override, a large layoff of school employees then followed. 40 and we're looking at another 30 this year. I think I can say that in this room and nobody's going to smile and say, "Are you sure?" The resident I discussed this with said, "It sounds like bad management." I responded that it wasn't bad management, but rather a shortfall caused by our state legislators not fully funding chapter 70 and chapter 71. His response, here these words, sounds like our local government mismanaged their relationships with
043our state legislators. Madam Chair, this leads me to the conclusion that the time has come for all local elected officials, all to demand that the respective state legislators change their vote on local aid from the current here's what's left to here's what Somerset Regional, Somerset Berkeley Regional, and its member towns are entitled to by law from chapter 70 and chapter 71. As long as our state reps and state senators can get lauded for getting us half a loaf and the residents and the businesses will be told to make up the difference and you will bear the brunt of the public's eye. You'll do that when taxes go up and leg and educational opportunities go down. Bridgewwater Rainham is on academic probation right now. I'm the first person to graduate from Bridgewater Rainham to serve on
044the Bridgewater Rainham School Board. And I served there 18 years. So this is very personal to me. After that, if the state then has a shortfall, let them raise taxes. Let them do massive layoffs to make up the difference. Want to thank you, Madam Chairman, and member of the Somerset Berkeley Region School Committee. I leave a copy of my remarks to the secretary. Thank you for your time. >> Thank you. Thank you. You're welcome anytime. I'm a candidate for the regional school committee for the first time in 30 years. We'll see how welcome I am. I want to thank the committee very much. Thank you. >> Is there any additional public input? Okay. Then I would um a motion to close the public hearing. >> Second motion by Miss Ferrer and seconded by Miss Ashley.
045All those in favor? >> I opposed. So voted. The next um item on the agenda, and I'll just remind folks, so this process will continue until um there will be a final vote on Tuesday the 31st at 6. That's a Zoom meeting, and that will be for the final vote. It's the last day we're allowed to do it. So, we're trying to give as much time as possible for the numbers to become clearer. Um and that meeting will of course be um posted accordingly. Um the next item on the agenda under new business is to discuss and act on approval of the 2026 2027 school calendar. Um you should have copy in your folder. Dr. Just go over. All right. So, unlike the past uh number of teachers, by contract, the earliest we can bring
046teachers back is August 25th. And just as a reminder, any Friday before Labor Day is automatically a non-school day. Uh so what we typically do is the week before Labor Day, we we've been having uh typically a 4 day week. We bring teachers in our employees in Monday, Tuesday, students in Wednesday, Thursday, and then we have a 48. It's been a nice transition, I think, for everyone to ease back in uh build up their stamina for uh sort of a successful school year. U this year that was the original plan. Uh but uh September 1st is a primary election day. We know that uh the high school is the voting location and we need to operate uh that voting uh that voting needs to happen all day long. Uh so it doesn't make sense to
047automatically start the school year and then have uh a day off for our students at the high school and then continue to operate um from the somerset schools because we always we're always wearing those two hats here. Uh so uh what I'm proposing is starting off with our two professional development days on Monday, August 31st and September 1st and bringing our students in on the second and third which is still before because that is uh September 7th this year is late. Uh so still following that same general uh process but just a week after we typically do. Uh so with that we have uh just stepping through we have the same uh early release days for professional development purposes as we typically do in September. Um some uh full day professional development in November and
048uh everyone always wants to know what's happening with the Christmas New Year's uh break. Uh Wednesday, December 23rd will be release date for students. Uh beginning that winter break and returning on uh Monday, January 4th, we have our second day uh for professional development, the end of January on Friday uh for the for the high school that coincides with the last day of your exams. Uh so typically students uh after they complete or what we saw this past year uh well this year is back students reach that uh that time they completed their bigger exams in the morning. We had mass exits students in the afternoon. So we figured we would uh shift professional development day around take advantage of our students leaving and we'll just say okay you're all leaving and then we'll have
049our professional development um after that happens. Uh >> I'm sorry. Can I just just to clarify just to make sure I followed. So in this version um midyear exams would be like January 19 >> 19 20 21 >> 22. Yes. >> Okay. >> Uh they're they're always uh that week of March. >> Uh in March we would have uh another early release day for professional development. uh in April on uh the 12th that is the town election. Uh again we use uh the vote for that. So that's releasing for students. Uh May 21st another release day that is the day as we've typically done and then we have our five early release days for exams. uh the week of June 14th and our five scheduled snow days uh would be the week of June 21st.
050And I just want to say even though we have five snow days, don't book any vacations until July 1 because we know that we can go uh very easily on those other two days. And I do see I think we have just a minor correction. I think that Monday is actually June 28. So it's 28 29 30 that anyway. So it's the same uh typical calendar that we've had with the exception of being just a slightly delayed beginning uh school which after this long school year I think a little bit of extra time. >> Any questions for the committee? I assume this was um sort of developed in consultation with the STA. >> Yes. Uh we uh the last piece of the puzzle every year is meeting with the teachers association uh specifically with the
051review and evaluation committee where we uh finalize when parent teaching conferences will be that's usually the last >> there are no questions I would entertain a motion to approve the 2026 2027 school calendar as proposed with the one correction to the last few days of June. So moved second motion by Miss Breer and seconded by Miss Corbell. Anything further on discussion hearing? None. All those in favor? Opposed? So voted like one more call for um public input. There any other items? Seeing none, I would entertain a motion to adjurnn. Second motion by Miss and second by Miss. All those in favor? >> Opposed? So voted. Thank you everyone.