School Committee Meeting - 2/25/2026

001All right. Well, um it is just a few minutes after 6. Thank you all for um allowing our our little bit of tardiness. Um we will call this um regular meeting of the class at school committee um to order. Today is Wednesday, February 25th, 2026. It is 6 p.m. and we are fully remote um on Zoom today, but we'll start with a roll call. Um Mr. Dial, >> present. >> Mr. Evans, >> present. >> Mr. Squatrio >> present. >> Mr. Mlen >> present >> and Jen Leleski present. So we have a quorum of five. Um we will not do the pledge of allegiance because well flags and um opening remarks. Just huge thanks to um our entire Cohasset community um from our administration to our department of public works to our departments of public safety

002and emergency response. um to our um teachers um to our parents and um to our kiddos who are um probably actually chomping at the bit um to get back home and to sit around their cafeteria tables and to share stories of power outages and snow tunnels and sledding um and an extra long I think we counted in my house today we might have had a 9day February vacation which is just a few days short of or maybe even 10 day a few days short of um two weeks So, I'm not sure that that has ever happened in um Cohasset um public school history. Um but um not to make light of it, but huge thanks to everyone for their patience and for their hard work to get schools open and running safely. Um with that,

003we will start with public comment. Um please raise your hand um if you are using Zoom. Those of you on Facebook live will not be able to um participate in that way, but um feel free to jump over to Zoom if you have something to say. Okay, not seeing any comments. We will move right along to the superintendent report with Dr. Sarah Shannon. All right, thank you. So, um I don't have a large report today because we haven't been in school for 3 days and the week before was February vacation and we just had a meeting right before we broke for vacation. But I would like to reiterate what Cherleski just said and thank the people who worked tirelessly to get us back up and ready to go to school tomorrow. Um, our custodians, the

004DPW, our bus drivers who were out digging out all of our buses, the facilities team. Um, it was a lot of work to get ready for today. and when you drive around town, the amount of work they've done is visible. Um, I think we are definitely in a place where we can bring everybody back safely. Um, I did put out a message to families to just highlight that there are big snowbanks on corners. Visibility is a little bit different as you're taking turns. Roads are a little bit more narrow. And so if people can make sure that they speak with their children about being a little more cautious in the morning as they're standing at bus stops or walking to school, um teen drivers aren't necessarily used to driving around like this. Um so few

005extra minutes on their end would probably be beneficial. Going to try and get mine out the door a little earlier tomorrow. Um, and you know, we're just asking for some patience tomorrow. I anticipate that the lines pulling into schools will be a little longer than normal. Um, we're sort of letting go of tardies for the morning because we know that that's going to be a little bit of a different scenario as we get used to driving around the way it is. Um, but I feel really fortunate for us to be back in school tomorrow. a lot of our surrounding communities are not um power has been restored to I think at noon today there were only five households without power and that was a while ago. So I'm hoping that they've been restored and I

006know that um not all communities can say that and not all communities can say that they their side streets and their small private ways have been res have been plowed. So, we know that for some of our staff it'll be a little bit of a struggle tomorrow and we're willing, you know, we know that and we're we're accommodating for that, too. Um, so this is our fifth school day, a snow day of the year, which it's been a long time since we have said that. Again, I'm not going to ask you to vote on or or acknowledge a new last day of school because I I I don't want to jinx us and bring on more snow days. But right now, our new last day is June 25th. It's a Thursday. That will be an

007early release half day. Um and you know, for folks who are new to snow days are not necessarily built into the calendar. They extend the calendar. So, our last day of school was scheduled to be on June 17th. For every snow day, we add a day. We really can't go beyond June 30th. So, hopefully we don't have any more days. We have three days of wiggle room right now. There have been years where we've gone to June 30th. Um, but we are really hopeful that that doesn't happen. So I will communicate to families in my newsletter this week that tenatively the last day of school is now June 25th. Um and so other than that I don't have any typical updates but we are going to move to the calendar for next school year. Um

008but questions >> looks like Mr. Dial has his hands up. Yeah, I was using my virtual hand because I think that's so polite. >> Um, so, so, um, Dr. Shannon, one, one question that's come up from people in the community is is whether or not because obviously people don't want the school gear to extend further into the summer. Um, whether or not there's possibility of taking some days from April break and using those instead of tacking them on to the to the end of the year. I'll play my cards and say I'm not a big fan of that, but I have heard it from people. And so I just thought I'd do my civic duty and pass that on as a as as a discussion point. >> Yeah. Um I only think we'd look at

009that if we were extending if we had enough snow days to extend before beyond June 30th. Um because people have plans, our teachers have plans. Um we have administrators that have plans. Um and so that really is a last resort. Thank you. Are there any other questions from the committee or comments? >> All right. Um so Dr. Shannon, would you like to lead us through um what we might need to make a motion for um and vote on tonight in regards to the calendar? >> So you have two draft calendars for the 2627 school year in your packet. Um, we have since the last time added in our early release days. They don't change vacation dates. They don't change last day of school dates. They just are early release dates. They are still continuing to

010be on Fridays. They are approximately once a month. There are some months without them because those are already short months with vacations or with Thanksgiving or with um conference days at both the elementary and the high school. So really the decision in front of you is um around good the good Friday date. Um this year it currently is scheduled to be a half a day of school. In the past, it was a full day of school for the last few years. In years before that, it was a no school day. Many districts rather than um giving the day as a um religious holiday, it's a day of low attendance or an operational day. And so last year we did a lot of research based on the attendance of both staff and students and did a

011survey of families and students or families and staff and the decision was made to try a half day so that um folks could be in the schools and then school would dismiss in time for any religious observation. Um and so unfortunately we h Not unfortunately. The fact of the matter is we have not made it that far in the calendar yet. So we don't know what data we have, but we are looking to set the dates for the 26 27 school year because families and staff do start to make plans. And so the hope is that tonight you would vote on either draft one or draft two of the calendar um so that we can move forward and let our families know what the school year will look like for the 2627 year. >> Thank

012you Dr. Shannon. Um are there comments, questions, um thoughts from the committee? >> I guess Mr. always got his hand. Perfect. >> You set the standard, sir. I I I asked every parent I could that would give me a moment. Uh and kind of the same results in person that we got from the survey, which was a little bit just make a call. Uh so for me, uh I would considering and again this is purely for logistics. uh because of the low attendance of teachers and students, I would be in favor of making the uh 26th of March, not stating why, uh a you know logistical uh day closed um to to accommodate attendance historical attend attendance issues. Uh nobody that I phrase that to had objections to it in in you know in any

013way, shape or form. Uh obviously um you know it's not for Good Friday, it's for the logistics of we need people in the buildings to educate them. Um so that's where I landed out on it based on my conversations with uh everyone I could bother. >> Thank you, Mr. Evans, Mr. Dia. >> So I guess my my view is I'd be in favor of the half day. I I do worry about I mean we can say it's a logistics day but the reality is it's a it's a it's a day where attendance is down because of religious reasons. Um and I think that there's an equity issue with with other holidays and other places where you might have religious observations. Um plus the other advantage of having that as a school day is that you

014know we've got additional buffer from going into June 30th if we have five snow days. So there's a there's a logistical pro for it as well on the low attendance. Uh I think that's you know a sign not of that attendance won't uh the intendance attendance is impossible on Good Friday. I think that's a um a artifact of years and years of of custom. Uh and as new parents and new families come into the schools they would be accustomed to Good Friday being a half day and people would plan accordingly and and and that would become part of the uh part of the culture. So, I still say that um that it's that I I get the logistics for making it a half day. Um and then that actually aligns with, you know, that does

015give people room for for their observations, but I'd go with half day over over a full day off. >> Any other comments from the committee? >> Sorry. Oh, madam may >> um Superintendent Shannon, do you have the survey results handy? Just where we're making the vote. I know you you uh presented them last time. Um just where we're taking the vote here. It may make sense just to remind everyone because um we had this debate last year made a vote and based on the survey and we don't have any data to contradict that right now. So it doesn't make sense really to depart from that prior decision. Um, so could you just remind everyone what the >> Yep. So 46.4% of the responses were for a half a day of school, 27.9 were for no

016school, and 25.7% were were for a full day of school. >> Thank you, >> Mr. Evans. Did you follow up? >> I just I think the survey results are kind of all I need to hear. That's I mean, but uh I just I don't quite follow the the logic for a half day because, you know, if if we're if it if it's a I don't know why the half day is the right answer. To me, it doesn't really make sense, right? If it's not a religious holiday, it should be a full day. If it's an attendance issue, then making it a half day is not going to encourage better attendance. So, I don't really understand the what we get by doing a half day rather than a full day. Um, >> it's fine, but I'm

017just conf >> Yeah. So, I'll go with that. If there was a third draft that had full day, I'd vote for that. So, >> makes sense. Thank you, >> Mr. Squadrio. I just wanted to say the first time we discussed this I think I really was saying a lot of similar points as Mr. Evans um at this point I just am inclined to support the half day under the condition and I won't be here but under the suggestion that next year we will have the data to look at it and that can inform that decision but I think both the benefit of staying the course but also the arguments around and you know I think we don't we definitely don't want to burn a day of school. I'm 100% in line with that, but I

018think this point for me it makes the most sense. >> Um, my thinking is actually very aligned with Mr. Squidito's as well. Um, I I I would rather be making this decision. It's impossible to do it, but would rather be doing it with the data set of having a year behind us. um this would allow us a year um of of half day um to see what the the result is. It won't be a huge data set, but at least gives us a point of reference. Um, so I think I would just ask that no matter what we do that we um continue to discuss this and not seeing as the half day or the full day off or um full day in school as a set in stone, but continue to monitor attendance of

019both faculty and students um each year and collect that data so that we can get some long-term data on on on what operating school looks like on that Friday. Um, so at this point, unless there are other further comments, I think we do need a a motion to either approve um the um option A, which is the half day with an early release, or option B, which is um a full day off of school on Friday the 26th. >> Motion for operational reasons. >> Motion to approve draft one as presented by the district super uh district superintendent. >> Okay. Do we have a second? >> Second. And for clarity, draft one is the half day. >> Correct. >> Second. >> Okay. So, we have a motion by Mr. Mlen, a um second by Mr. Dial.

020We'll do roll call vote. Mr. Dial, >> I. >> Mr. Evans, >> I >> Mr. Squatrio. >> I >> Mr. Mlen. >> I >> Jen Lelesky. I um please move forward with um the first option and a half day on um Friday the 26th 2027. Thank you. >> Great. Thank you. And we will um start circulating that new calendar on Friday. >> Okay. Teaching and learning um with Dr. Leslie Collins, please. >> Hi everyone. Well, I don't really have much to say because we're on vacation and we've been on snow days. So, um, so we'll be getting back to school tomorrow and getting everybody back on track. Um, so that's really all I had to say for today and we'll be talking more about it next week. >> All right. Thank you, Dr. Solins. Are

021there committee members with any follow-up questions? Just asking in case anyone has something to say. >> Any questions? >> Great. >> Okay. Um then let's move on to block E, budget resources and governance. We have some um gifts to accept. >> Okay, so there are two gifts from the PSO. Um there is one for $715 and one um so sorry, hold on. I'm going to go back to the $715. the $715 which supported a middle school trip to the Strand Theater for the eighth grade class. And then the other one is for $46.25 and that was um I'm just looking for math date materials. Um, so I would ask that you vote to accept both of those gifts. And I would thank the PSO. They are wonderful partners and supporters of so many things um

022from materials for our schools to um enrichment activities like the field trip for the eighth grade English classes. And so I would turn that over to you, Chair Leleski, to move forward to accept vote to accept. Um, and I will seek a motion unless there are other um, comments or questions about these gifts. Um, >> I'll move to um, I'll move to uh, accept the gifts for the PSO with the thanks of the school committee. >> So move I mean seconded. >> Thank you. Motion made by Mr. Dial, seconded by Mr. Mclen. We'll do a roll call vote. Mr. Dial, I >> Mr. Evans. >> Thank you. PSO. >> Mr. Squatrio. Sorry, I didn't hear you. Mr. Squatrio, >> okay, thank you. And Mr. Mlullen. >> Hi. >> Thank you, Jen Leleski. I um thank

023you. Thank you. Thank you um PSO for all that you do um to make our schools wonderful um and for the generosity um of your volunteers and supporters. Um it really is a huge gift um to our community. gift accepted. Thank you. >> Thank you. >> And then we have our monthly update. >> Okay. So, um just sort of given the circumstances, I'm going to share most of this and Miss Owen is available for questions. So, let me share my screen. Okay, can everybody see that? >> Yes. >> Okay, so this is the monthly update um we are still on track to end the year um with a level budget. Um, right now our operating budget approved from the town is just over just under $25 million and that includes a one-time allocation that was

024appropriated over the summer on July 1st of for $150,000 for $150,000 for special education. Um, which gets us quite close to that almost $25 million at this time. You can see that between actual expenditures and our encumbrances, we have committed almost all of that funding. Um, we just have an uncommitted balance of $23,333. Um, we have started a few months back with a budget freeze so that we can make sure that we don't go over that amount. Um, and we know that we are, you know, running the risk of potential overages in utilities, potentially athletics. Um, we had hoped that maybe this year we had over encumbered in utilities and we had hoped that maybe we'd come in a little bit lower. I don't know that that's going to happen with the most recent weather.

025Um, but we do know as well that with those budget freezes and with some shortfalls that can be addressed through transfers to revolving accounts, including kindergarten transportation, facility rentals, and some salary savings that there's approximately an actual amount of $97,000. um that will help us should we come into contact with any additional unexpected shortfalls. Um so we do believe we are still on track to end the year in a way where we have a very had a very balanced budget for FY26. So if you have any questions about the current update either I or Miss Owen can answer them. Are there any questions from committee members? Mr. Evans. >> Yeah, I just noticed that we've got a lot of attendees here. Just top level, could you just give it a little explanation a difference between

026uh an actual expenditure and an encumbrance uh and what that means for the uncommitted balance? >> I can. Sue, do you want to take that question though? um she may not have. So encumbrances are the expected costs that we will have between now and June 30th. So we've encumbered every salary knowing that we're going to have to pay that. We've encumbered what we believe we'll be paying in um utilities. And so sometimes those incumbrances come in higher than what we actually spend. Um and sometimes we know that we can offset some of our actual expenses through our revolving funds or revolving accounts. And so that's where you get more of the actual expected numbers. Um, so we're trying to run both concurrently so that we can see that even with the incumbrances, we are still

027in a very good place with regard to our FY26 budget. And when we look at actuals, we are that we're in a good place there as well and actually can take on a little bit more if need be. um because we kind of expect that potentially utilities may go over even what we encumbered. Does that answer your question? >> Yeah, I think so. Uh yeah, the different encumbrances being uh things that we're projecting and kind of reserving the money for and that way we know where we're going to end up at the end of the year and right now we're going to end up pretty much right exactly on our budget projection which is um good work on the both the budget building side and the operational side. >> Yeah. And it gives us space

028just um which I think is important for people to understand. It gives us a little bit space because there are some things we will have to actually purchase between now and the end of the school year. But we've also tried to encumber for those purchases. Um but things like, you know, some of our science supplies in the spring, some of our art supplies, things that you can't buy ahead of time, um we need to make sure that we provide. And then you know we also often have to purchase some additional paper towards the end of the school year and we we have this we have the ability to do that. >> Thank you. >> Any other questions from the committee or comments? >> Okay. Um thank you Dr. Shannon. Um if you would like to

029move into your um budget presentation. We're at Y27. Oh, >> I'm going to share my screen again. Can everybody see that? >> Yes. >> Okay. Um, so something I've said at the beginning of each of these presentations is that if you go into the resources, you'll see that this is a very lengthy presentation. It's because I have built upon each presentation. I am not going to represent everything that has been presented throughout this budget cycle. I am going to be presenting new information though um so that everybody knows where we are almost as of today really as of um Monday. Um and I say that because things do change regularly. Um, there are shifts that could potentially happen between now and the end of June, which impact a lot of what I'm going to share

030with you today, and I will continue to keep people updated as those changes happen. So, since I last presented, there have been some decisions made and some things that have been um finalized. So, one of the things that we've been doing as a leadership team over the last couple of weeks, including over vacation, we had a day when all of the administration was in working on this. Um, we've been fine-tuning this budget so that we could try and minimize the impact on the district and on our staff. And so, we have found a way to go from 11.88% 88% requested to be level service to 8.82% and I'll explain how that happened um as I present tonight. We also have confirmed with the town manager that we can expect a 3.62% 62% increase over FY26

031and that that is the equivalent of $898,95 for 500 for FY27. Um that increase will leave us with a almost a $1.3 million deficit from level service funding from that 8.82% 82% ask. Um, and then this presentation is going to offer you updated recommendations for how we can close that financial gap. Before I get into that, I wanted to talk about this resource and it's a resource that we talked about when we had the joint meeting with school commi or school committee select board and advisory. It's a resource that was put out by the Massachusetts Municipal Association and it talks about how cities, towns, schools receive funding. And what it does, I think very well, is it lays out the structures that were implemented across the state of Massachusetts that were designed to help fund

032cities and towns. It then talks about why those structures no longer work. And so I think it's a great resource for anyone who's wondering why Cohasset, why almost all of the towns surrounding us and across the street state are facing financial shortfalls. Um and it's not just the schools, it's the towns themselves, the municipalities. Um and it's not because of operational challenges necessarily. um it's really because of structural shortfalls and we need as a state to come up with some different ways of addressing those. I think our legislators, our representatives are are working towards that, but it's going to take some time. And so there are some levers that we can pull over the next couple years that will help us in in between the current structures and any new systems that the government creates.

033Um and so that's a great resource for anyone who's looking to learn more. So this slide shows our initial FY27 recommended budget that I presented earlier in the winter. It is the budget request where we were asking for 11.88%. Um, and I want to show this because I'm going to show you what we're going to do differently this time. Um, and I want people to be able to see the difference. It's not that we're taking things away. It's that we're actually able to look at how we approach the budget differently. And part before I go to the next slide, part of the reason we felt comfortable making this shift is because we have actually done so much work in the last year and a half to ensure that when we're budgeting, we are truly accounting

034for every expense that we have and we are accounting for those expenses based on actual numbers. So, not those projected numbers that I was talking about, not numbers we wish they were, the actual spending that has happened for each individual line item. Because we feel like we have done such a better job budgeting upfront, we feel more comfortable offsetting some of our costs at the onset of the budgeting process rather than at the conclusion of the bud budgeting process. If you listened to when I just spoke about the um this year's budget and the monthly budget, we talked about offsetting some of those costs at the end of the year. And that's how we were going to make up some of that difference. With this budget cycle for FY27, we're actually going to account for

035some of those offsets from the get-go. Some of that offset comes from grants. Um, when I go into the slide where I show where we're account where we're offsetting some of the grant money, you'll notice we're not offsetting for with all of our grant money. The reason for that is that not all of our grant money is guaranteed. Anyone who was paying attention to the news earlier this school year knows that um federal funding almost didn't come through to schools. And for a district like Cohasset, whether we get some of that federal funding is different every year. Last year, we didn't get any Title One grant money. So, for us to count on getting that money would do a disservice to our budgeting process. Additionally, many of our state grants rather than going up have

036been going down. And so we again don't want to rely on something that we don't know what the number is going to be. So we try to rely on what we feel is a guaranteed amount from some of those grants rather than what we fully received this year because what we received this year is actually less in almost every category than what we received last year. We also try to use some of our revolving account balances and do some of that offset work at again at the start. Um the big area we really looked at was that athletics revolving account. It is still in the negative. Um, that's true. But with spring sports coming up, we anticipate that that will end up the year in a positive, not a big positive, very small, but that

037in the fall, we're going to start to take on new fees and build that account back up. And we felt comfortable offsetting about $100,000 of the current operating budget with the revolving account. We also tried to do some offsetting of kindergarten. Um, again, we didn't account for like this year, I think we have 104 kindergarteners or 109 kindergarteners. We didn't account for that number because we don't know how many kindergarteners we'll get. Registration has just begun. Um, so we accounted for about 75. We felt comfortable going with that number. Um, and it will continue to change as as families register. So where we are right now, this is how we got to um an increase of 8.82% being level service. Um again, it's through those offsets at the onset of the budgeting cycle versus the

038end of the budgeting cycle. However, that does mean that we are still short um a significant amount of funding. The amount that we are short is just under $1.3 million. And so tonight, I'm going to share with you how we anticipate making up that shortfall. Um we've looked at everything. We have relooked at every um every line item, every department budget. And if you think back to the pie, right, the pie of what our school budget is made of, the majority of our pie does come from salary. And so while we looked at every line item and have made reductions where we can, there's a reality to in order to get to almost $1.3 million, we have to reduce in the salary line items as well. And that's really hard because when you talk about

039reducing in a salary light item, you're talking about positions, but really we're talking about people. And we have really great people in Cohasset. And so every one of these reductions that is not a supply or something like that is a person that cares about our kids and is a person that we care about. And so we have had conversations with all of these people because this is hard and we've had conversations with others because it it's hard. Um but there's a reality to there's there's absolutely no other way we can close this gap without doing this work. And so when we were making decisions about how to make reductions, we really tried to first and foremost look at positions that were non- studententf facing. And then we really looked at data um and where we

040had room with class sizes to make some adjustments. Um and while that rationally makes sense, it doesn't make the actual reduction any easier. Um so I'm going to talk about what the reductions actually are and the impact of those reductions. And the hope is that should we be able to be in a better financial place in the future, many of these would come back. So, um the first thing that we're looking to reduce is about $25,000 in our technology budget. That really is going to um lead to less contingency funding should replacements be needed. And we think we can do that. And there may be times where we have to say we can't replace something until the following school year. I've talked about, you know, for a few presentations now reducing supplies, PD curriculum and

041instruction. We feel comfortable, you know, with the about $160,000 of reduction. Um through some conversations there were a few things that directly impact kids that we felt like we actually couldn't reduce. Um but again it's it's it's teachers living with fewer supplies, fewer access to to resources and almost no if not any professional development for next year. We are looking to do a central office reorganization. Um that will allow us to save a salary in the central office. Um the impact is less support for myself, for Dr. Collins, andor whoever takes her place in um school committee a little bit, but we'll shift some responsibilities there to make sure that you have the support that you need. Um also looking to reduce a school front office administrative assistant and that will reduce um front office

042support for that school. Looking also at reducing administrative stipens. This is a hard one because part of the work that we've been doing is to build teacher leadership. It's also to move the goals we laid out in the strategic plan forward. And to do that, we need instructional leadership. Um, and so this will reduce the instructional leadership in our district. We hope for a very small amount of time. Um and then the principles, assistant principles, assistant superintendent, myself will pick up some of that difference as much as we can. We are looking to make some reductions in athletics. Um we've been looking at some of our smaller teams sunsetting some of our co-ops. That does not mean that our students who are currently engaged in some of those co-ops can't continue to participate. Um, suns

043setting means that those who are currently involved will be able to continue to be involved until they graduate. Um, we also in working with athletic director Rotundi have identified some teams where we can potentially reduce a coach. Um, and so we think we can save about $25,000 there. So here you see um reducing a prek classroom. the numbers that came in cuz we've already done prek enrollment do not support more than one prek classroom. Um so we are going to be instead of running 1.5 prek classrooms, we are going to run only one classroom. The reason that you see zero savings there is because that's actually accounted for on the on the um I'm going to show you on this page in retirement savings. Um one of our preschool teachers is actually retiring and so

044we can reduce that additional prek position that our enrollment doesn't support. But we don't have to um do a reduction in force to do that because the teacher is retiring and so the savings from that position part of it is um already identified in this overview. So just sort of another note on this we have at the moment approximately four teachers who have expressed interest in retirement. two are captured on this front side on this line item overview and two are captured actually in the savings here um because they they were looking at it a little bit differently as we reduce that prek classroom. It also means that we would be reducing an ESP position which is a savings of about $25,000 um at our elementary schools. Some of our specialists like our fizzed, art,

045music, library positions, their teaching load has not been equal to a excuse me a 1.0 position. And so the principles have looked very closely at what percentage of a fulltime FTE those teachers are teaching and we are adapting their um FTE status. FTE stands for full-time equivalency, their FTE status based on what they're actually teaching. Um that means that many of those teachers will go from a 1.0 0 teacher to a 0.93 teacher or 0.92 or a 87 teacher. Um and because many of them have a lot of seniority in the district, it also means that they will have to teach between buildings. So teachers who were only in one building may have to teach in two buildings currently or next year. Um, and so the impact is that their FTE will match their current

046teaching load, but it also means that teachers are going to have to travel between buildings and some teachers won't be a 1.0 teacher anymore. Um, it also means that there's a loss of instructional technology support for staff. Students will still receive their instructional technology classes, but the staff component will be lost. Um, with some of this shift, we also believe that Deer Hill students can take chorus as part of their general music class while still also having the opportunity to choose to take band or band and an instrument in fourth and fifth grade. And in making that shift, we can reduce a 0.5 music teacher. Um, we have a potential retirement at Ozgood. Um, this is a position that because of the seniority of the staff member and who we believe we can hire in,

047there's about a $51,000 savings. Um, there won't be any impact here really other than the savings because we'll still be replacing this position as long as enrollment in kindergarten ends up being what it has been in the past. um and it won't have any impact on students. Um at the middle school when we started the budget process and I shared what average class sizes were, average class sizes at the middle school in both ELA and math were around 14 or 15. And so looking at that data, there is room to reduce both an ELA position and a math position at the middle school. It will bring the class sizes up to about 2122 which is very much aligned to other class sizes at the middle school. Um, so there's a savings there. Um, that is

048a little bit bigger than what's expected at the ELA position because we also had a teacher in the ELA department who is retiring. Um, and so this savings represents that retirement. Um, the math position is a savings of $63,000. Um and again similar to the ELA story that those class sizes will go from 14 to 15 to 2122. Um and this is one of those areas where the impact is losing one a great person. Actually many of the rest of these is we're losing just a really great educator. Um middle school again special education position. We're going to restructure some case loads at the middle school level. Um it will also reduce the therapeutic learning center framework a bit. We will still be able to provide services to our students as written in their IEPs.

049Um this position though actually um a teacher has resigned and so that is going to be how this position ends up um becoming eliminated. Um the middle school also we looked at the technology position. This reduces programming for students in consumer science and coding but also really reduces technology support for staff. But again, when we looked at positions and where we could have an impact that had less of an impact on students, positions where um it was teacher support versus student support was an area that we looked at. Um similarly at the high school, um when we looked at class sizes, there were some departments where we had room to to make some shifts. One of those departments was math and technology. Um, there will be larger class sizes at math. Again, they'll go from

050about they'll range from 17 to 26 versus smaller than that, which many currently are. And there'll be some reduced programming in the computer science. Um, in the art department, again, um, we currently have three teachers in the art department at the high school. Based on class sizes, we believe that there's room to increase those class sizes without um them being so big that they they can't run. Even though art sizes um, traditionally are kept a little bit smaller, we still have some room there. World language. This is a position we talked about last year. Um we were able to bring it back with some hiring, some really good hiring. Um but we are back with this being on the table. Um given the amount of money that we have to reduce. Um, and so this

051will result in larger class sizes for language courses and potentially um some mixed level courses like we saw in some of the other subject areas. And then in social studies, again, there was room based on class sizes to make a reduction in this department. It does still actually allow us to maintain many of our social studies electives. However, one that we're considering may not be a scheduled elective is APsych, but that could be a a course that students are able to access in a different way. And the last thing on our list is actually electrical savings. And while this seems sort of small potatoes, it actually has a a big impact. Um, many classrooms, and I understand why because I actually am in the same boat and will be having to make this shift. um

052we have a a microwave or a small refrigerator so that we can just grab what we need if we're if we have 10 minutes between a meeting or a class to eat or whatever the case might be. But in talking with districts who have truly truly made the shift to only using um the appliances available in common spaces, they estimate that in utilities they are able to save close to $100 per classroom. So we are going to make that shift. I think some schools actually have made that shift. we are going to be far more um diligent about making sure that anything that is plugged in that is not actually school related um is unplugged and removed. Um and we think we can see some significant savings there as well. So these are the reductions

053that we're recommending at this point. Again, things could shift um over time between now and when I ask you to vote the budget. Um and you know, while I mentioned the impact for each of those reductions, there's an overall impact on the district. I think the first impact that actually isn't written here because I just wanted to speak to it is the the impact of morale. Um and when we see our teachers, our colleagues, our friends losing their positions, that's hard. Um so I think that's the first and probably the biggest impact. Um, you know, there is a positive impact in that there are some general efficiencies that we have found as we've gone through this process, but we're also going to have less contingency funding, fewer supplies, materials, and instructional resources. minimal if any

054professional development which leads to less movement towards our goals, larger but reasonable class sizes and loss of support for administrators. And for our teachers, we're going to have far more teachers who are just having to make do to maintain the student experience, more staff supporting students in more than one building, so they're going to have to travel. and a loss of some really talented and committed committed educators and staff members. So, this does not come without pain and I think some of those losses will be felt for a long time and the hope is that as we look to find more sustainable financial solutions, we can bring many of these positions and hopefully people back. I did want to take a moment and talk about what was not impacted because there are some things that

055have been talked about in the past. Um, and one of those things is reading and math specialists K through 8. Um, we've done a lot of work with regard to MTSS and to providing intervention so students early on can build strong foundations in reading and math. And we have seen great results for our students in those areas. And it serves all of us well to be able to provide those supports through intervention rather than the IEP process and possible increases in special education evaluations and subsequent IEPs. In addition, similarly, we felt strongly about maintaining class sizes right now at Ozgood and Deer Hill. um those class sizes are very much on par with where the secondary class sizes are going to be next year. Um and so we felt like maintaining those right now is

056the right choice. They support student engagement, social emotional learning, and academic achievement. And again, they are creating the foundation in all areas that allow for greater success for our students when they get to middle school and high school. And so all of this, as I've said, has an impact on morale and on our our staff. And so we're trying to do the best we can to support them. Though this is hard, we are following we have very structured reduction enforce protocols outlined in our contracts. So, we're being very cautious to follow those and to make sure that our staff knows what those protocols are. We're trying to give timely notification. I want to um thank all of the staff and the administrators who even though we were out this week had some conversations that weren't

057easy. Um, but we felt like it was really important that nobody that this meeting tonight didn't happen without anyone being impacted not knowing. We're going to continue to provide ongoing updates to individual staff members as well as you um as they become available. And as we work through this process, we'll make sure that any staff member impacted receives formal notification as well. and wherever possible, many of us are very well connected and so support staff um with our networking and helping them to find new positions in other districts. And so our work as we move forward is to continue to refine as more information's available to continue to provide updates. We have two meetings before a budget vote. one is actually next Wednesday. So, this is not for people watching. Normally, we have a week

058in between meetings. That is not the case here. We meet today, we meet next Wednesday. Um, and then again on the 18th. The 18th is going to be the night where at 5:00 we have a full budget hearing and then we'll have our regular meeting at 6. And then we'll have a it's really um an additional meeting on March 25th where the only but only agenda item will be to vote on the proposed FY27 budget. And then following that vote um the next time anything happens with the budget will be at the annual town meeting on May 1st where the town approves the budget. And so at this point, I'm going to stop sharing and take any questions. >> All right. Um I will I do see that a question has come in um from

059our virtual audience. Um but I will start with um committee members comments or questions and then we'll get to um any other comments or questions from the public. Um we'll just do alphabetical order. Mr. Dial, >> thank you. Um Dr. Shan, thank you for the for the um detailed presentation. I I mean, you you covered a lot of the angles. I mean, all the angles really. You know, we the impact on our why we why we're here. Um what we need to do, what the impact is going to be and how we're going to mitigate that. And that's that's really all we can ask of an administration. That's all that community can ask of a school. We are in a not great to put it lightly situation where we don't have the means to do

060the services we need to do and so it's requiring some some realignment and as a school we don't have a lot of options. We are funded by a tax base uh and it is kind of a fixed eye that uh that is allocated among the schools and the town and there's only so much we can we can do. Uh last year we did what we could as far as raising revenues and and raising fees and cutting um free programs. Uh and you know that obviously was not ideal. This is even less ideal but it is the reality and and I think your point uh that you made earlier that I want to underscore is that we're not alone in this. This is a statewide thing. I would feel extremely bad if we were the district

061that was struggling financially, but there are districts who are struggling much mightier than we are. Um, but this is just the reality of several things that have happened uh across the state. Uh, the some of which are we've talked about, but the rapid increase in special education costs, the rapid increase in energy costs, the rapid increase in transportation costs, these three alone are budget busters. um much less the other the other in uh issues that we've had. Um so I guess my point is one of thanks uh I I do feel like you know having been at this committee for these meetings and on the subcommittee uh that I am I'm very convinced that we've tried to lift up every possible rock we could that we've tried to mitigate the impact of our budget shortfall

062on our teachers on our students and on our community at large. Uh, and so I think that we are in as good a situation as we can possibly be in, although it's hard to call it good. Um, but I um I thank you for this. I I don't have any questions. It was very thorough. Uh, so thank you for uh for for giving that all uh giving it your all. >> Thank you, Mr. Dial. Mr. Evans. >> Yeah. Um, just to build off what Mr. Dial said the the one of the takeaways and listening to I've listened to dozens of meetings around other towns to see exactly how they are navigating this and and the reality is the way that districts are funded is broken. It's structurally broken with the way that we collect tax

063revenue, especially in a residential town like we have. the way that we're limited by Prop Two and a half, which even prevents citizens from themselves creating a petition to raise tax revenue. So, even if the school district got together and got a bunch of votes, we can't do that by ourselves. It's structurally broken. I want to thank Dr. Shannon for spending the time on that on that list because I think when you've got FTEEs or people, they're numbers. Every line is not only a story of a service that our kids aren't getting, but it's a friend, a colleague, a mentor that isn't in the building anymore. And I see all those things and it's it's shocking. And shocking is not the right word. It's humbling. It's worrying. It's it's it's heartbreaking um to to to

064hear the stories, but we have to we have to hear the stories because we have to understand what we're here for and what we're fighting for. So, I want to thank especially all the teachers in our district. Um the outcomes in this district are phenomenal. My kids come home happy. We've got the between the attendance and and really what they do every day. uh it's beyond commendable. Uh and so anyone who is with us, I thank anyone who we can't keep, I I I send my my my my gratitude and and my sympathy to. So that being said, I turn my my attention to the the bigger fight, which is how we continue the next five years, maintaining, sustaining what we've built here. Uh, and these are some of the stories we have to remember

065and retell because the rest of town is going to have to be convinced to give us the funding we need to keep doing what we're doing. That fight started a couple weeks ago. Uh, and every every week we need to build momentum. Uh, and this is a part of that. So, thank you everybody who's ever been part of this district. Thank you, Dr. Shannon. Uh, and uh, that's all I've got. Thank you. >> Thank you, Mr. Evans, Mr. Squadrio. Um, of course I also want to thank Dr. Shannon. Um, and just a small point that you made that I want to emphasize was that you and the principles have had conversations with these individuals before tonight. So that slide going up was not the moment that they are finding out. And I think it's really

066important that we point that out and thank all of you for doing that and make sure that the community is aware of that. Um but overall it you know that slide is burned in my brain and um I thought back to the first time we met after I joined the committee and we talked about you know budgeting in general and the idea this isn't a phrase that you use but kind of having a zero some game philosophy where you know if we increase something in schools or in some other department, then it's a sidewalk that doesn't get repaired or, you know, it's something the police or fire department doesn't receive. Um, and with that being said, it's important that we do run a lean and efficient district, that we focus on having what we need

067and not having more than that. And that is absolutely a delicate balance. It's something that I think everybody on this committee is committed to. We are not here to just do whatever feels nice and you know um wantingly spend on the district as beneficial as that might be to the students. We take really close looks at all of these all of these line items and we are very careful but there does come a breaking point where we cannot do that anymore and that's where we are and you know unfortunately I I think that this is something everybody has discussed but I will just reiterate that I think you know as much as we have limited these cuts I I think they are going to cause a substantial amount of harm to the district, to students,

068to community members, and to staff members. And I I I just I know I've said this before, but I want people to be aware of that and to understand these impacts. Um, looking at English and math in middle school and class sizes increasing by up to 50% there, it has so many impacts. It's less direct attention for students and those are subjects where you can really benefit from direct attention the most. It's impacts on of course the teachers who are leaving us but it's also a major impact on the teachers who are staying with us. So there's all of these ripple effects to these cuts that we have to make and they are causing very serious impacts that we as a committee, you know, cannot overcome on our own and it's a challenge and I

069think it's really a question of what do we as a community value and how much we are willing to support this district and as I said there's a difference between healthy and unhealthy spending and we are not I do not believe we are in the realm of unhealthy spending you know and the challenge is last year the committee was able to make non- studententf facing cuts they were able they still had to make cuts but they weren't student facing and now we are in a place where we do have to make studentf facing cuts and what makes me the most nervous As devastating as this year's cuts are, is what what happens if the school committee next year has to do another round of this? Do we take ELA classes to 30 30 students a

070class? I don't think that's what the community wants. I don't think that benefits anybody. So, as hard as this is and as devastating as it is, um we we we absolutely do have to make sure we that we are not in a similar place um next year. So, I I just overall it's it's just it's it's just devastating. >> Thank you, Mr. Squatrio. Uh Mr. Mclen. >> Thank you, Madam Chair. Um, so, uh, first of all, I I hate that we're in virtual format for this meeting and, um, there's nothing that anyone could do about that. Uh, that was the weather. um the school closure, but um and I want to acknowledge that there's no one in this committee or in the administration that is excited about any of these cuts, but I'm going to

071speak my mind um because I feel very strongly about this. I um I think that we're all kind of talking in the past tense already. I refuse to accept this. Um, I understand that, uh, you know, you need to be objective and not emotional about something like this. However, um, you know, I I in the seven years that I've been intimately involved with this school district, I have seen it um evolve into something very, very special. I'm extremely protective of it. Um, and um, our teachers are what make they're the heart, right? They're the lifeblood of of of this district. And um, I I personally feel that, you know, we we owe it to to them to to do everything possible and and and Dr. Shannon, I'm not suggesting that you haven't from your end.

072However, um I am committed to public service because I'm a big believer in community and Mr. Scatrredo was I think alluding to this point that I'm going to bring up and um I I I think that you know um we should test what our community's values are in this situation. Um I understand that you know Mr. Scorito's point that you know what happens next year if we're in the same position. Well, I mean, I think next year, as I think Mr. Evans um addressed, we're going to be thinking about different financial solutions and we're going to be, you know, formulating a potential override for consideration. We don't have the time to do that this year. That does not, in my opinion, uh I don't think that necessitates rolling up the white flag at this point.

073I know that the clock is ticking. I know that we have to vote on the the budget next month, at the end of the month. Um, I I am I am just telling everyone I am going to I'm going to initiate some sort of campaign to try and get uh the families to independently contribute um to the schools. It may not be something that resonates with everyone. You might be sitting here listening to me and saying, you know, that Mclen guy is crazy and this is a public school and I'm not throwing any money at it. It's not a private school. But, you know, from where I sit, uh, it is it is the the largest public asset in our community. Uh, we produce amazing graduates. Um, Mr. Scotto just metriculated from our school district

074not too long ago. Look at him. He's here doing an amazing job. He's the type of young adult we want to create. We are creating. I feel strongly about this. I think that the CMS reductions um are are very concerning because that is a critical pipeline to our high school and I think class size there small class sizes uh go a long way in um in in towards student achievement. Uh we have you know the ninth best middle school public middle school in Massachusetts that we were just ranked. I mean these things we we do not retain that level of service if we are jettisoning talent and I'm not suggesting Dr. Shannon wants to do that. She is giving an objective sort of articulation of our current state of affairs and some very rational reasonable

075um approaches to alleviate those problems. Um, I I just I am I'm very concerned about this and and what it will do to the future of our school district. So, I am I'm I'm going to do something and and and you know and maybe you know the CTA can collaborate with me. I don't know. I feel very strongly about this. I do not want to see some of the assets that we were the human resources that we were talking about here are exceptional educators are immense talent. It's it's just not something that we want to lose. we will be the worst for it. And um I I want to do more. I want to do everything. I want to be surprised. I want to be satisfied that we did. Mr. Dial, you you indicated that

076we're, you know, we we've we've lifted every stone or however you put it. I I I just I don't personally feel that way right now. I feel like we have not done that. I know the district administration has done a ton of work on this behind the scenes. there's been a lot of of of calculations and strategy and and and they've done everything they can to avoid losing student facing positions and teachers uh and staff. But but I just I I I what we haven't done yet. What we have not done is just candidly and and and expressly ask the community to contribute and and I'm prepared to do it. I'm going to do it. And I don't care if people think it's ridiculous. I I think it's I think it's what we owe these

077people that educate uh the next generation of Cohasset residents and our children and and I'm going to do it. So, I'm just letting everyone know that I think we're talking in the past tense too early. I know it's it's it's close to the time that we have to make a decision, but you know, I I I I think where there's a will, there's a way and and and I I I feel like we shouldn't go down without a fight. And I thank you, Madam Chairperson, for the time. >> Thank you, Mr. Mlen. Um, and I I will just add um very simply that I think we're talking about we've talked about people, we've talked about assets, we've talked about talent, but I'm looking at the attendees here tonight um and your names, many of which

078I recognize because you have helped to teach my two children um and my friend's children and my friend's friends and you are our house you are household names um and that's why they're so recognizable as I'm sitting here on this Zoom stream uh screen. Um and I just want to to recognize that um that this this is beyond um talent or roles. Um that that I I want you to know that you are seen here tonight. I wish we were in person um in learning commons. Um, I wish we were gathered together um so that you could receive um in person our appreciation um a reflection of um the hard work that the administration has put into this, but also Mr. Mlullen's call for some unconventional um solutions. I think that's that's where we're at.

079We are at the point of of going a little unconventional here um to um retain all of you wonderful people um who are a part of our community. Um so um thank you committee members for your your thoughtfulness and your hard work. Thank you administration for your thoughtfulness and hard work um to our principles um and to our teachers um and our teaching educator community who is here with us um as well. Um, Mr. Squatrio, I'm going to hand the floor back over to you and once we have our committee members have said their piece. Um, I will turn to um, our open questions that are coming from the public. Yeah, I don't want to speak for much longer, but similar to the point you made, I have also been looking at the attendees and

080also looking at a lot of familiar names. And I do not know specifically who the individuals are that are impacted by this slide, but as I mentioned, everybody's impacted. And I don't think it is appropriate to name names or call anybody out specifically, but I just, you know, jotted down some some notes. I have a teacher who comforted me when I lost a family member and didn't sleep at all the night before. I have two of the well, I guess three of the most amazing English teachers I have who have taught me how to write and made sure I was always a successful writer in college. And I know that that is something Dr. Shannon always hears about Cohasset students. Um, I have a teacher. This is off topic. I did not go to prom,

081but I had a teacher who made sure I didn't go to prom for the right reasons. Um, I saw a lot of history teachers who got me really interested and I guess at this point involved in politics and grew that interest in me and made me an active person. Um, I have the teacher, this one will know who she is, who taught me how to research and gave me skills that I absolutely used both in high school and in college in 8th grade. Just wanting to emphasize that these individuals in this district for the most part go so far above and beyond a job description or a job title or even just the classroom. Teachers who go so far above what they need to do to support students to such a degree and just how

082how difficult it is to have to make these. Um, as I said, I don't want to take up much more time, but there is a question I have been meaning to ask Dr. Shannon that I admittedly should have asked before. Um, but specifically on the um the athletics increase and I see that we have earmarked $100,000 for the revolving fund. I just wanted to hear more about the benefits of doing so, whether they're more operational, if there are any financial benefits to having a more stable revolving fund. And I know that we've said, you know, we've looked through as much as we can, but whether we think this is kind of the smallest amount we could really get by with, I just I'm not trying to cast doubt on you. I just wanted to have

083more clarification on that. >> No, I think that's a great question. So, um, we put in there an offset that we think we can manage while still building the revolving account because right now part of part of the issue is that our revolving account was down so low that we had to start picking so much more up on the operating side. We don't want to keep doing that. We want to continue to grow that revolving account. That's gonna what that's going to be part of what allows us to um be financially sustainable moving forward in the future. So, we really tried to figure out what amount we thought we could offset while still building that balance. >> Okay. Thank you. >> All right. Um, we will turn to public comment unless committee members have any

084further comments. Okay. Um, and I will just ask that those of you who have put questions in the comments, if you would not, if you could kindly put your um, your full name and your address if it's not part of your um, screen name um, just so that we have that for the record. Thank you. Um, so we have a comment from Will Ashton, 125 Down Street. Um, or it's a question I think perhaps it's been answered a bit um through the committee discussion. Um, but let us know, Mr. Ashton. Um, while I appreciate the hard work Dr. Shannon has put in to meet the budget she was provided, what is the school committee going to do to increase the top line that will prevent all or some of these cuts? Um, I think we've

085talked about moving towards um some more unconventional um independent fundraising um and um looking towards long-term solutions um to the way in which um schools are funding and being a part of that um any committee members want to add to that answer please will thank you. Um we have a question too from Jen Madden. um how many sections will each CMS ELA and math teacher um have? What will be what will their total number of students be? So, I don't know, Dr. Shannon, if you have an answer to that. >> So, they'll each have five sections, which they currently have. Um class sizes instead of being 14 to 15 will be 20 to 21. >> Okay. >> Thank you. Um uh from um Kathy Seruti um 65 Brook Street Situit Mass. Um Dr. Shannon, can

086you explain the budgeting uh the bumping of positions that may also happen and how that will will affect the district? >> So I can answer that at a very high level because many of these situations are very situational. Um so when you look at the reduction enforce process as outlined in the contract um teachers who are in years 1 through three are typically based on position the folks who um if there are if that position goes those are the teachers who would be reduced First teachers though who have been here longer and their position has been reduced um if they are a teacher who has seniority over other teachers um and their position is being either being reduced in full or reduced in part. their seniority allows them to the word is bump um but

087bump another teacher who has less seniority. And so what that means is that we may as a result of this process have teachers who are working in different schools than they are currently working in now. Um but still have positions and are still working within their cert certification areas. um a teacher in one certification area cannot bump a teacher in a different certification area unless they also have that cert certificate um or certification. Um so that's the very high level picture of what that is. But truly having looked at every single um every single piece of this puzzle um to get into that in any more detail it it's very um it's very situational for each and every position that is on that list. Thank you, Dr. Shannon. We have um another question um from

088um Jen Madden of 64 A, but I also noticed um or actually Mr. Mclenos that Miss uh Chapman has her hand up. Miss Chapman, if you could just send me a note if you would like to be promoted to a panelist to speak rather than um typing in your question or if that was just a little bump of your mouse or something. Um so, Ms. Madden um asks, "Does opening our district to school choice for CHS bring in more funds?" >> So, the short answer could be yes, and the long answer could be it could also cost us money. Um, part of why the district has voted in the past to not open us up to school choices because there's a possibility that that would um open us up to greater special ed out of

089district tuition costs. So, it's not as easy as just voting to bring in school choice. Um, there are a lot of other factors that need to be considered. when that is on the table >> and and if I can just chime in on that um because we do consider school choice every year >> and every year I have in prior years I've asked the same question and the response that I've I've gotten is that >> you know we're running a district that's fairly close to capacity as far as where we want to be versus students versus uh resources both you know faculty and staff as we're talking about now but also um physical resources and an influx of new students could end up requiring additional investment that would exceed any sort of revenue gains that

090we would that we would achieve from school choice. So that that's that's been the the prior decisions on that for the past you know three or so years. >> Thank you Mr. Dial. And then Miss Madden has a follow-up question for the total student load for CMS ELA and math. Did you say five sections? Will this take the number of students above 80 students? So the current if I go back and look um I mean it will um and those are average class sizes so some sections may be closer to 23 24 others may be like 17 18 um and that's due to the way middle schools are scheduled um but if I look currently like the current Sixth grade I think has 100 students. Current seventh grade has 105 students. So it would bump

091up to that those numbers would be seventh and eighth grade. So yes, those would be the you know they would have 100 to 105. I don't know off the top of my head what the fifth grade classes. Um, but that's typically typically middle school teachers have case load I'm not going to say a case load, but a student load of 100ish students per grade level in Cohasset. >> That's what the science and social studies teachers are teaching right now. >> Thank you. Um, we have a question or a comment from um, Abby Erin Stam, 142 Old Forge Road, Situit. If Mr. Mlen's plan comes to fruition and there are funds that do come to the district whether through donations, changes in funding from the state or future override funds, is there a plan on who

092will keep positions and further in what order teachers will be returned to their positions? >> So, we're we're working on that prioritization list in terms of what would be recalled first, second, third, and so on. Um, we don't have that at the moment. >> Thank you. Um, a follow-up question um from Will Ashton regarding school choice response. If we're at capacity, how are we eliminating positions? >> So, since that was based on my comment, I can I'll field that one. We don't have a choice. Nobody wants to limit these positions. It's not like we're say, "Hey, we got a capacity. Let's eliminate positions." Um, so I guess my point was that uh echoing Dr. Shannon's point on school choice, school choice could ironically make the budget situation worse by creating increased demands on decreasing staff.

093So yes, we are we we do not want to and if I agree with Mr. McCullen, we we've got a great thing here. We don't want to be we don't have excess capacity that we're we're just saying, oh, you've got some extra extra capacity and staff. We can we can cut this is this is cutting into our services. This is cutting into the these stories that that Mr. Scorchito just raised. This is not a decision that this committee takes takes lightly. And I hate that we're in this position. So yeah, I still say we're at capacity. I say we have to make these cuts cuz we don't have any money. And if we had the money, we wouldn't be making them. Um so you know, we're we making the cuts because we're forced to do

094them. >> Thank you, Mr. Dial. Okay, there are no further questions. Um, and I see no hands from the committee at the moment. So, we will move to um our next block with our thanks to um faculty and staff members who are here tonight um with us, to our public who's here with us um and um to the administration. Oh, one question popped in. Um Chris Lui, 20 Brewster Road. Um I appreciate Mr. from Mlen's perspective and regarding an override, I don't see the harm in putting it to the community for a vote. This seems like the sensible path forward and as a parent in a in district and a proud proud CHS teacher, I support. Um, thank you, Mr. Levis. >> And Mr. Levis, I think you'd find broad support amongst this committee and

095hopefully amongst the community as a whole. Uh, and I think when Mr. Evans was speaking earlier about planning for the future, we we need to we need to do that. we need to structurally figure out how our district can be funded. We just cannot do that in the time period we have right now. Um so we will we will be actively working on exactly that point. >> Okay. And a final Okay. So we have a few more comments coming in. Um um Mr. Ashton um comments if there's so much support why not do it this year? I I think there's some action moving for this year and for override um next year. Um uh Miss Rudy, um if Mr. Mlen's plan comes to fruition and there are funds that do come to the district, whether

096through um donations, changes in funding from the state or future override funds, with the elementary specialist go back to full-time versus a reduced role. So um there are two parts to that answer. The first is that the current reductions reflect their actual teaching load at the moment. So while it was a reduction in FTE, it wasn't necessarily a reduction in teaching. Um so it currently the new iteration will match what's really happening. Um, and the other part of that is like I said, we're working on in what order would we bring some of these positions back. >> And um, sorry, Mr. Mlullen, >> chime in just because I I feel like I've ignited a fire here without being completely clear. I my suggestion was not an override. That is something that we do not have

097time to fashion for this year. Right. So the override would be something that I think the town is considering for many departments a sort of comprehensive solution for that for next annual town meeting for the community to consider. My plan is a not much of a plan. It's simply going and asking the community for cash for the schools so we can mitigate the amount of money that we need to um mitigate the amount of reductions that we need to make. Um, and that's I I just I think it's an important measure to at least attempt before um before reducing all the positions that Dr. Shannon just presented. And by the way, um Dr. Shannon is presenting a very rational and and logical list based on a lot of work. It is not her job to

098speculate upon whether or not we can get, you know, random contributions from the community. I am a representative of the family stakeholders um as a member of this committee and that is why I am suggesting it. So I want to make it clear that I I I believe in our community. I I know how important education is to our community and that's why I'm suggesting it because I think it is a reality. But Dr. Shannon as superintendent of schools cannot consider that as a solution when she's putting together the the the the budget um uh considerations and and potential reductions. I just feel strongly that we should at least explore this. So, I just want to make it clear to everyone what it is I'm saying. I am saying I am literally going to have

099t-shirts made and go to the dump and ask people to give money to this public school system so that we can reduce the amount of positions that are that are being reduced for this fis for this for this upcoming fiscal year. It's not much of a plan and I don't know. I'm going to I'm I'm going to reach out to various stakeholders that I think might be helpful with this and you know if the CTA wants or can even participate. I don't know what the legalities are around that. I I really don't know. I just sort of hatched this as I'm sitting here looking at this being very productive what I think is an excellent school district and I do not want to lose these resources that we're talking about losing because I think that

100it'll put us in a worse position um from an academic and and and from a student teaching and you know from a teaching and learning and student achievement perspective for next year. So that's all and I'm sure that everyone here agrees with me. I don't think everyone is excited about these like I said at the beginning. So I just want to be clear about what my quote unquote plan is because it's not much of a plan. Um it's it's it's basically, you know, uh a glorified version of me standing around, you know, places in town with a with a with a folders cup asking for people to put money into it. Um but I I I I think people will and you know, I I I I know that we'll have at least one contribution

101and that's from me. I don't know what how that I I I think it ends up being a gift or something that we'd have to accept and then the district superintendent in collaboration with the school committee would probably have to, as Dr. Shannon was just articulating decide how that is best applied to the district's budget. There's there's any any any conversation or or specifics about which positions would not be reduced or what had would have priority is completely speculative because we don't know what amount of money if any we'd be able to raise. And um you know and this is all sort of an evolving thing. So, I I just think I don't want to I think I unfairly put the superintendent on the spot and that's because I am somewhat emotional about this. Um,

102our superintendent is not she's being very object well, she's not not emotional about it, but she's being very objective about it. Um, and so I just feel like I unfairly put her in a position to sort of like, you know, articulate the details of some plan that I plan that I just hatched. And I don't think that's fair, but I do feel strongly about it and I'm going to try to do it. I I think we owe it to the teachers. So, that's just it's it's me independently. No one knew about this until, you know, whatever it was a half an hour ago before I I I I said that I was going to do this. So, um I just wanted to mention it publicly because I am going to do it and I want

103to tell everyone. >> Thank you, Mr. Mlen. Um I see committee member hands. Um we'll have Mr. Evans um followed by Mr. Squatrio and then Miss Madden has a follow-up question. I can uh attest that Craig has not talked to me about this and but what I was going to say is Mr. Mullen why don't I think to put some structure around your effort and and I think both your effort is is is excellent. Um why I think the first step is for us to meet with the uh probably the town manager and the town treasurer collector to see exactly what format uh and in what what's the mechanism for it. we should have a teacher t-shirt you can make him but you let's figure out exactly what that means. Uh I do also think

104that we have to answer questions about well you know if someone's donating to the district what can that money be used for right some some funds are restricted so I think I'm happy to help you try to put some uh put some structure around that effort um if you're around uh anytime during the next couple days >> thank you Mr. Evans Mr. Squatrio, >> I would also be interested in helping. I don't know exactly how open meeting law plays into that, but that is something that I would be very interested in helping with, but I actually just had a small point and Mr. Evans, I want to defer to your knowledge on this, but I think it might be important to mention that we don't have the ability to start an override in the the

105budget that Dr. Shannon has presented. We don't have the option of putting a vote on the agenda for an override. I think that's something you've mentioned before and >> correct. As a school committee, we have complete authority over our school budget, but as the town budget, we're just five five members of the town. We have no more authority as a school committee over over the tax rate or anything like that. We also can't get a bunch of parents together and put force something on the warrant. It it's literally it's it's the law prevents us from doing that. Uh so we have to go through select board, then advisory, and go through the structure that's set up for us. Um, and that's why we've started that work already because it's important that we do it for

106the next five years. Uh, and um, you know, get a good plan. I think Mr. Mlulla's plan is a way to try to uh, you know, triage some of the wounds, but uh, it's certainly something we can't plan for, he just said. Uh so we have to unfortunately work through this structure that was set up way before most of us were alive and um uh you know do our best to secure the future through that structure. >> Yeah. So >> sorry speech there. No, no, no. I don't I don't want to give a civics lesson and I don't want to pass the buck, but I would just say for specifically on the point of an override. I think a lot of these comments are >> um much better placed in the context of a select

107board meeting because that is exclusively their power. Obviously, we have some degree of bully pulpit as school committee members, but it's just not something that we could put on the agenda and vote for. And I just we have a large audience. So, I just wanted to point that out. >> Thank you um both Mr. Squatrio and Mr. Evans. I think that that that point um cannot be made often enough. We are not sitting here ignoring that opportunity. It is just not an opportunity for available to us as a school committee. Um Dr. Shannon, >> um I was just going to actually answer Miss Madden's question, but I don't think you asked it yet. Oh. Um, what funds do we have in the spe special education stabilization fund? >> Yeah. No, that's a great question. So,

108a couple things with that. So, I've had some really good conversation with the town manager and the town accountant about this. So, right now there's just over $99,000 in a special ed account. the I'm not going to say issue, but the the the fact is that right now it's sitting in a special education um stabilization fund. And so in order to get it out, what we actually are going to be doing in at the Springtown meeting is we're going to be voting there's going to be a warrant to create a special education stabilization fund which is based on Mass General law. So, we need to do that. And then what we can do is vote to transfer the money from the special ed stabilization fund to the special ed um oh my goodness, I just

109lost my word that I've already used >> not revolving the special ed um >> reserve fund. Um thank you. Sorry. Um, and then we can vote to take that out and use it towards special education. So, because that's a process that may take us through November, I actually can't count on that money, but we know in the background that that may be there. So, we're kind of factoring that in as well. So when you saw the slide that listed the positions and the other things that we were counting on for reduction, the top number was a little bit higher than that bottom number. And part of that is because we know that that 99,000 can come in and support the special ed um line items, which would then offset some of our other line items.

110So, it's I want to say $99,200 and something dollars. And at some point, we then need to have a conversation about how we then continue to fund that special ed reserve so that it's there should we need it in case of extraordinary circumstances. >> Thank you, Dr. Shannon. All right. Um it looks like everyone has had the opportunity to speak that would like to speak and so we will move on to community relations um communications report from school committee subcommittees and liaison. Um do we have any reports? Mr. Evans either you or I could report on our nice meeting this afternoon. All right I will do that. Um this the uh communication subcommittee met this afternoon um with Dr. Dr. Shannon and Dr. Scholins um came away with a few action items of um how

111we might um better present the agenda and getting people engaged in our meetings um uh going forward. And so you will see the fruits of that labor and those ideas coming forward as well as um Mr. Evans and myself joining um the broader communications committee um that is working um that is made up of parents and other stakeholders in the community um working on general communications um for the district. Um anything you'd like to add to that Mr. Evans? Okay. Any other subcommittees or leaison reports? Okay. Seeing none, we will move on. We do not have any topics not reasonably anticipated by the chair. We do not have any minutes to approve. We have >> I will have minutes for the next meeting. >> Thank you, Mr. >> I'm way behind, I know, but I

112I actually have some done. I just need to get them in in time. >> Okay. Thank you very much for all of your work. You do a beautiful job with those. Um and Miss Bach, I know, continues to help us with that. So, thank you to Miss Bach. Um so, at this point, we can take a um motion to adjurnn. So moved. >> Thank you. Do I have a second? >> Second. >> Thank you. Roll call vote. Mr. Dial. >> I. >> Mr. Evans. >> Hi. >> Mr. Squatrio. >> I. >> Mr. Mlen. >> Hi. >> Jen Lelesky. I The meeting is adjourned. Um, thank you all for being here. Um, and for engaging um, in the work. >> Good night everyone. >> Good night.