Weymouth School Committee Budget Subcommittee Meeting April 29, 2026

001All right, thank you for everybody for being here tonight. I'm going to call to order the Budget Subcommittee meeting of the Weymouth School Committee for April 29th, 2026. I'm going to first start with a motion to take out of order student transportation update under contracts and procurement. I make that motion. I second it. Thank you. I will turn it over to Brian for the transportation update. Thank you, everyone. So, as we've been discussing since this winter, our 5-year contract with First Student is up this June 30th. As has been done in the past, we do an invitation for bid. Following Mass General Law 30B, regulations. We were talking about during the process that, historically, we have one bidder each year. We had close to 30… 32. 32 interested parties. with…two bidders. So we had two

002bidders in response to the IFB. First Student and NRT. So, we just want to clarify a couple things first. We want to clarify at Budget Subcommittee that this IFB is strictly for our standard home-to-school bus transportation. This does not include our special education vans, our van pool for DCF, McKinney-Vento, student activities, which are handled under a separate process. Alyssa and the procurement review team that she has led are currently in the due diligence phase of the process. While NRT appears to be the responsible and responsive based on their submission. We are conducting a more extensive than usual review. Again, this is the first time we've…[applause] I've been here, I think, in the history of Weymouth, that we've just received more than one bit. Want to be… Be careful and cautious with the process. This includes

003a deep dive into references, operational history, and ensure that the winning company can meet our district-specific standards. We intend to award a contract, as which is in line with our timeline, by May 13th, once the verification process is complete. Again, for the committee and folks here, this process is an invitation for bid following Mass General Law Procurement Laws, Chapter 30B. And it… it awards to the lowest responsive and responsible bidder for the scope of services. Responsive being they followed timelines, submitted everything they needed to submit, and responsible is what we're going through right now. Doing reference checks, due diligence, making sure, operationally, implementation, transition, that there's a plan in place, so… with that, I'm open, to questions from the committee. I know that there was a question related to what school committee's role was in

004this process, and Brian and I discussed it, and I also looked at what the Chapter 30B laws are, and our role really is just ensuring that the… that that law is followed, and it's pretty… it's a pretty strict law, and it's written pretty heavily around the decision of bidding. And as Brian said, it's… it's very regulated. But an example of our oversight would be ensuring that when the contract is awarded, that it is to the person offering the lowest responsive and responsible bidder for the scope of service. So it is very clear on how that is awarded at the end, and what our responsibility would be at the end. I'll open it up to committee members for questions at this time. Go ahead, Cindy. What would fall underneath the umbrella of responsible? Obviously, we were

005looking to say, you know, we want something that's cost-effective, so we looked for the low-end bidder, but what would fall under responsible? So, responsible would be, whatever contract we're entering, if they follow the contract, that there's an implementation transition plan if it's a new vendor, but there's a clearly defined scope of fixed routes, specific vehicle requirements that are followed, schedules, so all those things we're… we're looking into. And then, specifically, we do reference checks. We do a number of reference checks, double-digit... Like checking within other school committee, or, like, school systems and whatnot? Yes, so, Anything you want to add to that? Yep, that's part of the process. And just so folks are aware, you know, now that it's out there of the two, the two bidders, historically, NRT's been represented on the North Shore;

006First Student's been represented on the South Shore. Now, for the first time, we're seeing bidding locally, competitively. Thank you. Any other questions? Questions from the committee? Tradition. Is it something we have to vote on? We vote to accept the contracts, but the contract would be awarded based on that law. Okay, I'm sorry, can you repeat that one more time? We would vote to accept the contract, that's under our purview, but the… the contract is awarded based on that law. Okay, thank you. Yeah, the law is clear. There's a… It's very clear. There's process in the Attorney General's office that, if we don't follow the process, the district and the town can be held liable. Thank you. And I fortunately have been through this in my professional life as well, and, you know, typically when these

007processes happen with contracts in-house, too. contract, or vice versa. You're kind of looking at the folks already doing that job, and you're looking to retain that service level as well. So that's probably something that's going to be explored during this process as well. Yeah. All right. Do you want me to open it up to the public now? Can I just say one thing? I just want to, thank all the drivers that are in attendance today. I've received a lot of messages from the community just really praising the job that you guys do. and how much their children look up to you, and how kind you are to their children. So I just want to acknowledge all of you that are here tonight, and just thank you. Thank you for getting our precious cargo here in

008Weymouth to school safely. Thank you. I'm gonna open it up to the public now related to this agenda item. If you can just come up to the… the podium here, and just speak loud enough so that Mike… Yep, just come right up here so that Mike can pick you up, and if you can say your… I don't think I said clearly. Hi, good evening, everyone. My name is Sewell Basir. I'm not a Weymouth resident, but I do work in Weymouth for First Student. I'm the driver of Weymouth Bus 7. I then… I've been in bus transportation since 1991, which gives me more than 35 years' experience in bus operations. Over the course of my career, I've worked for the META for 23 years, Boston Public Schools for a few years, and first student where I've

009been employed for the past 12 years. It was really concerning to me to hear that NRT may be taking over the Weymouth bus routes and the bus contract. I don't have first-hand experience working with NRT, but I have spoken with several former co-workers, and unfortunately, every response I have heard has been negative. The comments range from, oh no, they're terrible. And you're gonna hate it. And have you seen how old their buses are? And one person even described it as, it's the worst job that they ever had. I have not heard a single positive comment about NRT. On the other hand, my experience working in Weymouth with First Student has always been positive. For a student as a nationally recognized leader in bus transportation. With a strong reputation for safety. Our Weymouth management team is

010supportive and committed to promoting a positive work environment. We operate clean, modern, well-maintained buses, and we participate in training at monthly safety meetings. We have a strong team of dedicated drivers, who a lot of them are here, as you can see. And we have a very low turnover. Almost one-third of our drivers have been with First Student for over 10 years. Many are having… many of the drivers here have over 35 years that I currently have. Some are up to close to 40 years of transportation experience. We work together well as a team. We can always cover a trip, no matter what problem should come up. Many of us are deeply concerned about what our future and what the future for Weymouth would look like working for NRT. Based on what we have heard, we

011would not feel comfortable continuing, and a lot of us, most likely, will just leave. We truly care about the students we transport every day, and it will be really hard to think about leaving them. First Student has many other opportunities available for us, so we prefer to continue working with a company that we know and trust, and a management team that fully supports us, rather than stay behind with a company with a questionable track record. Replacing First Student with a company that has a bad reputation would be doing a huge disservice to the town of Weymouth, the students, and their families. I ask everyone here on the school committee to please review NRT's low bid carefully. What costs have been cut? What services may have been reduced? What could the Town of Weymouth be giving

012up? Will NRT be reliable? Will student safety be affected? I hope the school committee will recognize that approving the NRT contract could potentially have negative consequences. As we all know, choosing the lowest bid doesn't always give the best outcome, especially when student safety and reliability are at stake. So please consider the impact this decision will have, not just on us as drivers, but also on the students that we love, and the families who depend on us every day. So thank you for your time and your consideration. Daniel. I think, Definitely, I appreciate the comments. What I can do is, if there's something I can clarify with it as it relates to the scope of the work and the potential contract, I will certainly do that. I think it's good to get facts out here as

013well. So, in terms of the buses themselves, the scope of work is virtually the same as the scope of work for the previous five years. We made some small adjustments, but in terms of buses, let's say, the 30 buses, like in the last contract, have to be new buses, no older than 5 years. outfitted with cameras for safety, both audio and video is in the last contract, so I think it's important that comments are made here and questions are asked, but I just want to clarify those components to the public as people are digesting this and thinking about going forward. Thank you, Brian. Yeah. Go ahead. Good evening. My name is Steve Hilson. I'm a Weymouth resident. I'm coming to you tonight as a resident of, Taxpayer 2, citizen of the Town of Weymouth. I'm

014here because I'm generally concerned about the transportation decision in front of you, and what it could mean for our town, our kids, and frankly, our wallets. On paper, the low bid looks like a win. Everyone who wants to save money, me too, I understand that. But what worries me is what's behind that number, and what may not be accounted for. Weymouth is not a simple district to run transportation in, as I'm sure you're all aware. It's very complex. There are neighborhoods like Gaslight and others across town where multiple buses serve the same area. But they go to different schools for different tiers, and extremely tight timing. That creates real labor hours, real costs, and real operational challenges that only become obvious once you're actually doing the work, day in and day out. If those realities

015are not fully understand or built into the bid, then what looks like savings today can very quickly turn into losses tomorrow. And when a company starts operating loss, something has to give. Sometimes that means cutting corners. Sometimes that means struggling to hire and retain drivers. I'm sure you've heard all about that on the news, of driver retention issues. Sometimes that means service issues that directly impact students and their families. Look at Boston, right? How many times have they had roofs literally uncovered, and kids not getting to school? And in the worst case, it means a vendor that can't sustain a contract. Another major concern is driver attention. I've spoken directly with current drivers, and as you've heard, a significant number of them have already decided that they will not be transitioning to the new company.

016That means day one of this contract. Could begin with a shortage of experienced drivers who know the routes, the students, and the town. And when you lose experienced drivers in a system like ours, that impact is immediate. And that's the part that should concern every taxpayer in this room. Because if this vendor struggles to perform, or ultimately fails and needs to be replaced. The town will be forced to act quickly, and that next contract will not come at a discount. It will come at a premium. Fannie Wives, pound 4ish. At that point, you're not negotiating from a position of strength, you're reacting to a problem. And when that happens, the risk of overrise, we all love that word, becomes very real. And every resident in Weymouth ends up paying for a decision that originally looked

017like it was a saving money… it was saving money. But you're… In truth, this isn't just about numbers on a spreadsheet. It's about stability. It's about safety. It's about whether we're setting ourselves up for success or for disruption a year or two down the line. Our kids rely on this every system… excuse me, our kids rely on this system every single day. Families rely on it. The town relies on it. I would urge this committee to look beyond the initial price and consider the long-term impact of the decision, as you are doing, and I'm very happy to hear that. I've done 30B stuff when I worked for the City of Boston, so I'm very aware of those regulations. Because the cheapest option up front can sometimes end up being the most expensive one in the

018end. Thank you very much. Have a good evening. Good evening, everyone. My name is Michelle Makrovich. I'm a business representative of Teamsters Local 653, a former school bus driver, and a mom. I'm going to be very direct tonight. Because what you decide here will have real consequences for the safety of Weimus children. Weymouth's bus drivers are not interchangeable. They are local. They live here, they work here, and they've built their lives in this community. Some have been driving these roads for over 30 years, long enough to have driven parents that are here tonight, and now their children. This is not just experience, this is generational trust. They know these streets, they know the dangerous intersections, they know the routines, the families, the kids who need a little extra attention getting on and off the bus.

019That level of awareness is built over years, not handed out with a new contract. Let's be clear about what happens if NRT is awarded this contract without conditions. The current drivers are not guaranteed their jobs. Their wages, their benefits, their security, everything they have earned can be wiped out overnight. The union has reached out to NRT with a signed petition from the drivers asking for one simple, reasonable commitment. Honor the existing contract, terms, conditions, and seniority of these drivers. That is not radical. That is maintaining industry standards for a stable workforce, and there has been no response. If you move forward without requiring these protections, you are not… You are not just changing vendors, you are actively changing, choosing instability. You are choosing higher turnover, less experienced driver, and an unfamiliar workforce that does not

020have the same connection or knowledge to this community. That is a risk, and that is an unnecessary one for the students and families of Weymouth. As someone who has done this job, I can tell you it demands a high level of training and responsibility. And as a parent, I can tell you there is nothing more important than knowing the person driving your child every day is experienced, consistent, and trusted. You already have that in place. This school committee has the authority right now to do what is right for the drivers. I have a memorandum of agreement ready that NRT can sign tonight to commit to the current Teamsters contract. The terms and conditions already in place that these drivers will be respected and carried over, protecting them. If not, then NRT should be required by

021you to commit to the existing Teamsters agreement. Honor the terms, honor the conditions, honor the seniority. This committee can protect the local drivers who have been protecting Weima's children for decades by making it a requirement. You have the ability to give these dedicated drivers a reason to stay. to continue serving the town they already know and care about. Anything less is a step backwards. This is just not a contract decision. This is a decision about whether Weymouth values experience, safety, and its own community. Or whether you are willing to gamble these things away. I urge you, do not take that risk. I am asking the committee to stand by your drivers, keep their contract intact, and keep their trust in your child's safety a top priority in Weymouth. Thank you. I have two questions, Chair,

022and I'm not sure that this can be answered. Can NRT still pull out of their bid at this point? If they decided to… would they be able to drop it? Couldn't. If they can't… if they can't provide the service, they can always withdraw it. So, and then could first students resubmit a new bid? We would… At this point, you'd have to re-bid it. Yes. And if NRT withdrew, we would have to re-bid. The whole process. The whole IFB. Correct. So now that first student knows what NRT's bit is, could they counter it? No, no, they cannot. Because it's animal, too. It's a public process, too. Anybody else from the public that would like to come up and speak? Hi, I'm Marian Jabronsky. I don't actually drive for Weymouth, I drive for Rockland, but it all

023comes out of the same bus shop. And I've been with First Student since 1995. I don't know how that happened, but I'm still here. And I've never had to work with more dedicated drivers than I have here. I'm the shop steward at the lot, so I… shop steward's one thing. I want to protect the drivers. You know, these are not just people in a bus. They, they get up every day, up early. We had a bad winter, had nobody call out because of it. They're hard workers. They love their kids. If I could call them out. Picky here. He gets lots of letters from his kids all the time, how great he is. That's 28, right? But also, you know, for our drivers. Every one of the school buses in Weymouth, Rockford, and Holbrook all

024have stickers on the back of their buses, representing the police officer, Chesney, that was killed. This is our personality, too. It's not just a job for us. We're trying to do the best for the kids. It's… kids grow rapports with different people, the parents, they know what to expect, who to go to, and starting all over again with all new drivers, new buses, which is irrelevant, but it just makes it very hard for the whole community to stick together, because now everything's changed. And like I said, I've been here 32 years, and I've never had enough First one that's never had an other bidder, I know that. You know, and we were just as shocked as everybody else about the NRT bid. And they're cleaning house, obviously. I just want to make sure that you

025guys know that, like I said, we want the kids to be safe, the drivers that know those kids. And that they all have jobs. And that's something else we have to worry about. One of our drivers has already had one complication filling out an application because she worked under 5 years with us, and she couldn't go any further, and was told it was a glitch. So she may not be able to go to work for them over a glitch. If that's what she chooses to do. We have some drivers have kids in the school. That they go through every day. You know, and they're thinking, alright, do I want to stay where my kids are? What do I get? Or do I stay with our students? Those are choices they all have to make. I

026had to make it at one point myself, whatever's the best for them. I just hope that whatever decision you come by. you don't just think of the money. And I know the money is important. Everybody's facing tough times right now. But, you know, safety is important, too. I mean, we all know what happened in Canton this past week. We don't want anything like that happening. But if we know all the parents and the kids, it's very less likely that that will ever happen. And we'll deal with it if we have to. So, that's all I have to say. Thank you. And, just think about it. Thank you very much. Definitely appreciate all these comments. Weymouth's not alone in navigating the coming days with this. We had our invitation for bid opening, public opening, on April

02715th. There's another South Shore town that was a couple days after us that had the same public open bidding, and NRT is the apparent low there, and then there's another district that I think has a bid opening Friday, so we'll see what happens there. So we're, we are talking to the districts about, the idea of transition plans, whatever happens. But I just want to say, Wayne is not alone in this right now. Go ahead, Cindy. First of all, thank you for everyone who has come and made a statement, and I just want everyone to know that I personally appreciate you all coming out, and we… I personally know that this is a huge… community decision. That, as a parent of a child who rides a school bus. I know bus 23. I see you every

028day coming down, and I appreciate you when my husband comes running down the hill, he's yelling at your window, don't worry, I'm not your bus, I appreciate you. Bus 4, I see you every day as we're waiting there, and P's not here, I didn't see her, but we know this is not just affecting our kids, this is a community decision. And we… I just want everyone to know that we all know that. You know, I know working with Brian and working with Mel, this is not something that is just a number on a page. We understand the impact it has, and I just want to say thank you for everybody for coming out. Thank you. Hi, I'm here, supporting our bus drivers. I'm the school nurse at St. Francis, and I can't say enough wonderful

029things about Miss JoJo, Miss Christine, Miss Sandy, and Ms. Tanley's not here. And you talk about community, and safety, and caring, compassion. They know all my kids, they know all about them, they're invested, and to me, that's priceless. And the question I had is, what is the monetary difference? I know you said it was transparent, between NRT and First Student. I can answer that. Thank you. So we do a daily rate, number of buses. Well, we don't do. The bidders provide the daily rate times number of buses times number of school days. They have to honor that rate. So when we look at the 5-year contract and the projected cost over the five years, over the 5-year fan of the contract, it was a difference of roughly $1.5 million for the 5 years. Five years.

030For 5 years. Okay. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Anybody else from the public? Oops. Nope, nope. Hey, there's nobody online that wants to speak. Anybody online that would like to make a comment about the transportation update? Yeah, just type in the chat, We'll have to read your chat. We don't, okay. It's a webinar. We'll just keep an eye on it. Again, as the other committee members said, I appreciate you all being here tonight. We love hearing from the community and, you know, the people that are first impacted by this. Anything else from the committee? Nope, just that we're gonna follow the law. The law, yeah. Alright, I think it… I think we can move on to, do you want to take a minute? I don't know if folks are… Here? Yeah, so we'll go

031to the next agenda item. Yeah, we can go to the… we can just keep an eye on it, and we'll go back if we need to. Yep. Moving on to… was there any prior meeting question and answers that you needed to follow up with? So we're moving on to grants and gifts? Yes. So, grants and gifts, so we'll start with grants, mmm… First item I have is our Title I projection for next year. But we're looking at, we've been talking about a potential deficit created with The federal funding for titles 1, 2, 3, and 4. Yep. The early projection on that number was around $250,000. We've gotten recent information from the feds and through DESE that they are projecting that the Title I impact for FY27 will be potentially a 7% reduction Over FY26. So

032we're now looking at a prudential, shortfall of $52,000. So we have factored that into our calculus when it comes to our budget projection for next year. 52,000 versus $250,000 is quite a bit of a difference, so it's encouraging news, but nonetheless, it's still a cut. federal level for the state for Title I grant funding. Have we updated this? That… spreadsheet to reflect that? That's been, yes, that's part of the… we'll get into that, kind of that down below wins and budgets, so… Any questions? I just had a hard time hearing. I'm sorry, Brian, not to make you repeat yourself, but could you just tell me the… the potential… it's… Correct me if I'm wrong, it's a potential federal… Reduction in Title I funding. Reduction in Title I funding. Yes. Okay, and how much are we

033looking at? 7%, which comes out to… $52,000. $52,000. Okay. $52,000. So, when you say potential… Like, when do you think we'll know for sure? Title I is usually, June, And then when the… when the budget… yeah, and the fact that they had originally said 10%, and then kind of… that it's more like 7%, it makes you feel like that is probably going to be the number. Okay, so originally it was a 10% reduction, but it's come down to 7. Yeah, it was like… you know, an estimate of 10%, you know, projected 10%, but… It could be anywhere. It could be as, like, I don't know. Our Title I Coordinator, Jeremy Angelos, works with the finance department on What our final allocation is. But if you remember back in December when we were talking about this,

034it was a 10% reduction in Title I and an elimination of Title II, three, four. Okay. Title II, 34 is no longer on the table for elimination, and Title I is now a 7%, so that difference is… it's roughly $200,000, the good, the difference. For… okay, yes, okay, thank you. That clarifies it for me, thanks. Is Title I… would that be something we can… Would we… Would it be something we could use the new revolving account? To supplement that, or no? So, Title I is for economically disadvantaged. Yes. Right. So we… we… I get what you're saying. Yeah. So there's ways to fund the operating budget to free up the… That's kind of the approach we were taking with that. Okay. That we… we can… free up operating dollars through that measure to the mayor's

035office to offset the loss of Title I. That's essentially what we'd be doing. Okay, alright, thank you. Any other questions from the committee? Okay. Go ahead. So, I like information, and I like to look for information. I'm just curious, like, where… Where would one find this information if you were just, like, researching it? Does that make sense? On DESE. DESE. DESE? Okay. DESE, the governor's budget, references federal funding. Okay. You go to the, federal website, whichever that one that is now for, Department of Education? Usually, yeah, usually DESE links the… you can keyword search what you're looking for, so if you keyword search Weymouth, you could find what Weymouth would be. historically getting for Title I, and you could… it's not easy read, but… but you could find… you could find it. Okay, thank you.

036It's not very, user-friendly, also, but you could… you could find it. All right, any other questions from the committee? So, still under grants and gifts. The other, good news we want to share… Paul, and in your packet, if you recall, received a very generous gift from the William Allison Trust. Earlier in the year. It established a fund, a scholarship fund. at the discretion of the high school for, students continuing education beyond high school for CT. And who, had an interest in music. But Principal Monahan is looking to award some scholarship funds this year. Now that the trust is completely settled, we learned that an additional distribution of $50,000 was made to Weymouth, so that is the total $150,000 now? $150,000 now we've received from the William Allison Trust, so… Huge thank you, to the family.

037Principal Monahan, we're gonna arrange for a call. Superintendent, I spoke with the trustee early in the year, and Principal Monaghan's gonna have a phone call with the trustee in the coming weeks, just to talk about, what she's using the money for now, and what she may potentially use it for in the future. That was my question. Would these scholarships be awarded just this year, or would this continue year after year? Yeah, it should be over time. The other thing that we're talking about is, this… for the college work that we're doing with Quincy College, so there is a piece to that, once we're approved by the Department of Ed. So if we have students at Weymouth High School taking college credits for Quincy, it's like that opportunity, so we'll talk to the trustee to see

038if there is maybe some incentive to support the kids in taking those classes while they're in high school, because I thought that is somewhat of the vision that, we had talked about before. Yeah. I've talked to Karen a lot about that program, and every time… every person that I talk to about it, they're like. That's huge, coming out of those. You would come out of… high school with 22 credits of already college, or so much beyond dual enrollment, which everybody's kind of dual enrollment. Yeah, and it's, you know, in a supportive environment as well. You know, sometimes you go off to college and transitions are not great. That support kind of falls off. This would be really, really huge for kids that need some support. Yeah, we really… we've worked closely with Quincy High School.

039Because they were… they've already one of the first, and so it's great to have… also have another district that, you know… Right. And kind of working in Quincy. So we have some great peers to kind of help us through the process, which… and, Quincy College is phenomenal, too. Great. Keep us posted if that's… that's something that's… look at in the future. Any questions from the committee? Do you… I'm sorry, I don't… it's fine. It's fine that, a lot of us have been up since 5 this morning, so… Oh, yeah, absolutely. Well, I'm gonna leave. I appreciate you guys to listen to us. Thank you very much. And we'll be… Thank you for coming. And we'll see what happens. Okay. Thanks again. Thank you very much. Any questions related to that? I'm just curious. I just

040don't know too much about the, the Allison Trust, So if people… is it, like, a scholarship that the kids apply for, and there's a process, and… That's what we're saying, so we'll reach back out to the trustee to clarify how we want to use that money. Oh, okay, so is this a new… is this new? Additional funding. Additional funding. We've already talked about the Allison Trust Fund, but there's an additional check that just came in. I see, okay. But we don't know if there's stipulations on that additional. That's basically… I see. Yeah. Anybody else? Is that it for grants and gifts? Oh, I got… Yep. Yeah? Audits and reports. Moving on to audits and reports. All right, That's all we do, is audits and reports. Food service audit, we'll have more… information. We'll have a

041full report for you, for the committee, but we did meet with the auditors a couple weeks ago, And I think some good things came out of the audit. You know, they always have findings, whether it's around, you know, how we, manage, like, Buy America provision's a big thing right now. There's other operational things that they… DESE has ideas and thoughts on. But for us, we always focus… we focus on the financial audit piece of it, so the operational side of the audit is, Chatwell's and Lissar, and they do an amazing job. And you'll see that in the audit, when the audit comes out. But one recommendation that came out of the audit is, So, for years. Prior to preschool, lunch, and breakfast. food service revolving funds were always generating enough revenue that you couldn't… you

042couldn't hold in your funds more than a certain dollar amount. You couldn't carry more than 3 months of operating costs. Before the pandemic, You know, those funds were just… very low, almost a negative. Now what's happened since the free school lunch program, those funds have built up again to significant amounts, but you can only use it for school food service, right? So we've purchased all the new equipment we can purchase. So, one… one finding was that we're carrying more than 3 months' worth, okay? Well, that's… I guess that's a good problem to have. So in talking with the audit… I assume a lot of people are with the free lunch. Everyone across the state, yes, dealing with this. So one thing we talked with the auditors about is… so we've done an indirect cost rate

043for Utilities, right? Not huge dollars, but enough that's helped us balance our budget the last couple years. The recommendation is that we go to a direct cost model, where… and we went back to, Mike Manning and Alyssa went back, you know, 20 years in files to find out that we used to do a direct cost calculation of custodial costs. Utilities, and then supplies. So we're gonna start doing that again. So the easiest way to explain it is if we buy, you know, supplies that are directly for the cafeteria, that's not through First Student. That's a… that's a food service. charge or expense that we can charge to the Food Service Revolving Fund, right? Custodial costs. So if our custodians are working X amount of hours a day, if an hour is that is focused on

044the cafeteria, that's a direct charge. So that… And when we get into balancing the budget, this is one of the mechanisms that we think we can now utilize going forward. So we'll talk about it more when we talk about the budget. Okay. But that's, to me, that's the big win out of the audit. So would that include… Then we have a vehicle that drives the lunches around, so would that include the cost to maintain and use that vehicle? So we bought, right. We have bought, we have maintained, and we've actually paid that employee through this. Okay. So it's a great question. That was very easy to quantify, and it wasn't huge dollars in terms of what we had available over the years. But now it's that same idea, Maryland. We're buying stuff that's specific to

045the cafeterias, if staff is specific to the cafeteria. Can we use the funds towards CTE equipment? Ask that question. So we can't… so I… even though OCT has a food program, it's… it's literally based on the National School Lunch Program. And it's… so it's federal funds coming to the state to us, so again, we were audited, very strict regulations, so we talked with the high school and the middle school about, meal counts and… and students using IDs to get… to get, meals to make sure that, for the feds, the meal counts are accurate. So it is… it's federal dollars, so I would love to, but we unfortunately can't. Does this apply for breakfast as well? Any… any school food service, so breakfast or lunch. Fun lunch. What about the Wildcat Cafe? No. No? Still no?

046Okay. I mean, it is, but when… yeah. Try to find a way. I just try to find a way. Any other questions for the Canadian government? Oops. Any other… From maintenance projects? Yeah. Yeah. We're gonna provide a more comprehensive list, But the superintendent part of MEL goals, will be reporting more about these projects we've done, improvements. But we've done a number, and I think it's more an opportunity for me just to thank the maintenance staff, the audio staff. We do a lot of the work out here, and it's amazing, so in addition to taking care of buildings, 100,000 square feet, under the acreage. We've done things this year that, again. We'll have a more comprehensive report, but, at the high school field, you know, new sound system, when it comes to graduation, will be a

047new sound system for the high school field. West August, we just finished that fencing project that was all internal. We've partnered with the town on things like the Pingree Playground. That area is beat up during the winter, so we would put fencing. Removed that story walk that was old and beat up there. We've put the modulars in this year and done a lot of work with the modulars in terms of, like, additional, FF&E within the modulars, protection, gating, fencing. We also reached a tentative agreement with them as well, and they were a great group to work with. Oh, Tracy was a closer for me, but… to work with. Equipment you mentioned, and then there's other projects we partnered with town on, this is, Albert projects coming up. Road work at Pleasant and Talbot. We got

048a recent update that the state MassDOT is still planning to move forward with the work and the improvements they're going to do over at Cal. Yep, and then, and then just, you know, CTE, the amount of equipment changes, I mean, those are major changes. When you buy a new piece of equipment, it's not just delivering the thing, it's installing, make sure the wiring's appropriate, the amperage, so our electricians do all that work. funded through earmarks, through, Jamie Murphy and Pat O'Conn, so we… we appreciate all of this, because in addition to educating students every day, we are… we're literally running, you know, multiple buildings, but again, we'll have a more through… through Superintendents, you guys, a more comprehensive list of projects. Great. Thank you. Any questions related to management? On to fiscal year 27 budget

049plan. A couple more in contracts. I just wanted to skip that. Do you want to hear about more contracts? So the other two noteworthy are, the town, entered into a 5-year contract, same process we do for five-year contracts, with OpenGov. I just want to share with the committee, a lot of… we get a lot of questions on, does this benefit schools? It does benefit schools, in particular, it benefits Finance and the procurement Office, really standardized. It opens up a whole network of, collaboration with… see what other cities and towns do around procurement. So we're excited about that. And then the other we're exploring is, our phone system is up this year. And so we're working with the town, partnering with them, looking at vendors, and potentially a new phone system for the new school year,

050but we'll report out when we have more information, but Unlike what we talked about here, tonight, utilities are a different sort of procurement, so we're working with the town. With things like phone systems, any sort of utility like that, it's nice to work with the town and be on the same page and the same systems. It just makes doing business easier. It's usually more cost-effective. For contracts, but those are the only other contracts that I had updates on tonight. Anything… anything else, Alyssa? No. No. Just, yeah. And when is the… when is the phone contract up? June 10th. June 30th? Yep. And do they handle that entire process of procurement, or do you… That's a joint effort. It's a joint effort. So do you… do they… do you handle it? That's really the part. No,

051it's truly a joint effort. Okay. Town procurement and sales procurement, I think to your left. Does that have to be bid out as well? Or is that… yeah. Three, three quotes. Well… I'm not sure about that. Okay. Yeah, it's a utility, it's a little different, yeah. Any questions from the committee on that? Now, can I move on to budget? Certainly can. Fiscal year 27, budget planning. Okay, just state updates briefly, you know, we've heard a lot of news about, the governance budget, the House Waiban budget. They'll go into the process, but it seems like, we may be seeing a $160 per pupil minimum this year. Which is, for Chapter 70. Yep. Which, originally, I think the governor's budget had $150. It's now at $160. We've accounted for that increased Chapter 70 in our presentation here.

052Time? One time, right? Just fiscal year 2017? It is, yes, yes. So… it varies year to year, but for this year, right now, the budget's at $160 per pupil, minimum aid. But we're still waiting on other things, like any… any circuit breaker supplement, any changes to circuit breaker law, and some other provisions, or the other, legislation at the state level that we're waiting on, so… Not much of an update. I think it's positive, though, that it's, you know, $10… 10 more dollars per student, you know? Any questions on that before we go into the school stuff? Oh, I can't see you, Gus, I'm sorry. Alright. Sorry. You need to hit the… oh, sorry. Yeah, no, you want to hit the… You want to hit the mic? The mic. That's fine. It's just a quick question.

053Brian, I thought I read something that Housing Ways' version of the budget did have 100% reimbursement for Circuit Breaker. Have you seen that? They are proposing that, Gus, yes. That's legislation, but I don't think it's passed. An increase of 5% a year, they're asking, too? So, two separate, So, the law is 75%, and they try to hit that. The last few years, they've hit at least that. This would fund it, at least for this year, 100%, but there's also, through Senator O'Connor, box of legislation to increase it over time to make that a permanent 100%. Gotcha. We try not to get our hopes up. Not until we absolutely know. In the checking accounts. Yes, right? Any questions from the committee on that? So I'm just gonna share my screen here. Okay. in the packet, But

054now, nice. Pretended. 15 members We're gonna talk through this slide. Yeah. Before Brian gets into the numbers, I just want to thank everybody. This process, like we talked about… Yeah, that's fine. We've been doing this since November. We want to thank school committee for supporting us, all of our staff and families that have been showing up, routinely for us. Mayor Melis, Chief of Staff Lacey, Acting CFO Langell, all of Town Council that has, welcomed us and brought us over for, some… collaborating and helping people understand the process, Senator O'Connor, just… it really has been a collaborative process, and I know we all want what we can… the very most that we can possibly get, but I think through all of this collaboration, we're in a better place today than I know we were in November.

055I want to thank Assistant Superintendent Smith and Alyssa Bossie for their expertise, and their professionalism and patience and educating everybody, right? That transparency process of truly walking through everybody in this process, and it's not an easy process, but hopefully people recognize and appreciate the work that they've been doing to help people understand everything. Apologize for unhinged Texas. Yes. Because it has been a long process, and we're trying to be as transparent as we can. And we've talked about, since November, the reality, the stock reality at the state level, at the federal level, let's start there. Federal level, state level, municipal level, all the way down to the school level. And I think Brian and Alyssa have done a very good job helping us truly understand where those numbers come from, why the numbers are smaller,

056the costs that are increasing on us. So that everybody can, truly be a part of the conversation. And just to add to that, I do, again, we want to thank, specifically in addition to Alyssa, Meg Verleico, Lindsay Friedolillo, Christy Edelman, and Jeremy Berm. Mel has built an executive team that We talk about this stuff literally every day. We meet every Tuesday morning for hours, and we talk about this stuff. So, numbers are numbers, but without these folks here, helping us navigate and understand the impacts of the decisions we're making, we couldn't do it without them, so thank you guys. Yeah, I mean, when Brian says every day, we truly mean every day. And I thank you all for being patient, because it has been a long process. We have tried really hard to be thoughtful

057and intentional about the information that we put out, because like I've said before, this is people's livelihoods, right? And they affect your children, every day in school, so we've really tried to just let the process happen, and not trying to kind of create additional chaos in our classrooms. We're getting to the end of the process, as we'll kind of talk through a little bit tonight. The other thing that's going on that I've talked a little bit about is the strategic planning, right? So we have a lot of working groups, we're collecting a lot of data, so all while, like, when we talk about a budget, that's why I like the idea of a, it's more about our funding plan, right? Because… The budget is a snapshot in time a lot of… a lot of times.

058The funding plan is… changes all the time, right? We have needs that arise all the time. We're constantly, like Brian was saying, our whole team is talking about what is a priority, and what was a priority 3 weeks ago might be, like, two down on the priority list because of something that's going on. So that's that process that we're constantly working through. And that strategic plan is helping us, so as we look at our priorities, which is a good thing that the process has been kind of slow, because it's letting us understand what are people's priorities, and what direction does our district need to move in as we're looking at all of these numbers. I think sometimes in the past, you have a budget, you just kind of keep doing the same thing over and

059over again, but it's really allowed us to have these conversations over and over again. We listen to all of you every week, whether we're meeting for, you know, budget or a school committee. We listen to everybody, whether it's through surveys. What do people want to see happening in this district? And Brian will get a little bit into the numbers, but, as we talk through the funding plan, so you're going to start to hear more and more about some of the things that are happening. One of the things that we're pushing out this week, and part of it is timing, is you're going to hear, like, Chapman is moving from a 7-period schedule to a 6-period schedule, the Chapman Middle School. The reason why you're starting to hear about that now is there's a lot of

060process that had to happen with that. There was scheduling committees under the principal, there was union involvement, there was a lot of things that had to happen before we can actually start to talk about, is this going to happen? So, Chapman will be moving from a 7 period to a 6 period. A lot of that, like, people are saying, you know, that… supports our budget, but it wasn't decided because of our budget. When you have 7 periods a day, the amount of learning time in your core classrooms is very limited. A lot of our programming is based on 60-minute classrooms. That's not happening when you're moving through 7 periods of a middle school. So that's a lot of the pieces behind that. the reason why Chapman was out with 7 periods is we changed it

061to 7 periods when the middle schools closed to rebuild Chapman, and they went up to the high school. Eighth graders took on the 7th period a day schedule as the high school. We never really changed it back to a true middle school model. The other thing that we're… you'll hear about this week is, limiting the world languages at the middle school. So when Chapman was built, world language was a mandatory core classroom. Again, this… we're finding some programming issues with that. We find that our kids need a little bit support in other areas, or have interests in other areas. So we're leaving world language as an option, not as a mandatory core class. with that, we're eliminating French as an option at the middle school, at this moment. So, next year, there will be an

062option to take Spanish. in the 7th and 8th grade, French will still be an option at the high school, as well as the other languages. But for the middle school, for next year, Spanish will be the option for students. And doing that. somewhat of a little bit of a budget. Part of it's exploratory, part of it's learning time. Part of it is also that, when we have to make some choices, we want to make sure languages are offered as much as they possibly can at the high school level, because that's where they need to be offered for college credits, and that kind of thing. So those are, as we kind of roll through these things, like recently transparent, those are the things that, the middle school is kind of learning about, this week, and I

063wanted to make sure everybody here is understanding that as well. And we thank, Principal Jones and his whole team for kind of really working through a difficult thing, which is trying to, support his teachers in understanding and changing their schedule, which has been great. And that's it. That's kind of it for right this minute when we talk about the funding. We're still ironing through what Brian's gonna talk about, and what that looks like, and It is a, a great surprise to us in a lot of ways. I know it's not, what people want, but it is a surprise from what we were hearing in November. So, all of our scenarios, as we were going through, again, we talked about we were preparing for the worst, right? So, in our minds, I know it it seems

064maybe disappointing to some people, but in our minds, what we were picturing all along, it's giving us quite a bit of breathing room in our sense of where we thought we were going to be. So we still have to kind of work through that, as well as, like I was saying, working through the priorities that everybody has talked through. So that will become a little bit more apparent in the next few weeks as well. But the… if people want to know the cuts to our Staff are going to be very, very minimal at this point. I did want to… can I… can I just… while we're on the thank you talk? I just want to say thank you to Mayor Malise, Chief of Staff, Lacey. and the Town Council. This is the most collaboration I've

065ever seen between the Town Council and the school committee. We have a complete, open… open communication. I've talked to five of them today. I had a coffee hour with Councillor Outlodge Donovan this morning. it's just been a really good collaborative effort between the two of us, and I think it's been really… and we've never seen that pushback from Town Council on a budget, I don't think ever. I mean, I've been paying attention to budget for almost 15 years, and that was the most I've ever seen Town Council ask questions about the budget, and I just want to say I really, truly appreciate that collaboration with them. And we'll be presenting, May 12th to, Budget Management at Town Hall. So to the infamous slide, so this slide, we just want to continue to talk about this

066slide, because it does tell the story of a funding plan that, Superintendent, myself, Danielle, we talked a lot about. We can stand behind this funding plan, 100%. So, as Mel mentioned, you know, we started with a level service request of $94.8 million. Pleasantly surprised by BAM Release's operating budget increase of 3.5%. which, gets us to about… just over 98% of the funding needs. In addition to a 3.5%, if you think about the range we've talked about, everything from a 1 to a 5.27. So 3.5%, is our operating budget. That's not one-time money, that is our operating budget for FY27, should this pass through Council. The next line is an additional appropriation of half a million dollars from free cash, and that's really for, the unexpected positions that come up after a budget's been voted. A

067budget gets voted in June, and we have the whole next school year to spend the budget, and from September to June, things change, things happen, very fluid. You'll hear that term a couple times here. And so this allows us… think of it almost like Circuit Breaker in Weymouth here for us, so it does give us flexibility. The next one, the shifting, the reallocating. This is the work Mel mentioned that we've been doing since November. A lot of natural attrition happens here. Retirements. Designations. That's the shifting of resources. Retirements, for example, Jeremy, that's… I mean, we're seeing an increase, decrease, about the same. Yeah, we've definitely got an increase in the numbers. I want to say 16 to 17, retirements this year, which is certainly up. You guys had heard about the early retirement incentive. We

068didn't get to that number. We didn't? No, but, we were looking for 25 to make it cost-effective, to find that balance between trying to incentivize people who were maybe on the cusp of thinking about retirement and making it financially worthwhile for us. We really needed to hit that number. We were shy from that, so… A lot of the people who are retiring are going to retire anyway, so… We're just fortunate that we… saw a larger number, so this certainly, as Brian said, through attrition, we can limit the amount of positions that we need to… That we would maybe have to eliminate otherwise, so that's worked out really well. As Mel mentioned, there's very few Positions being… I don't even want to say that? And and so that's part of that reallocation. So that brings us

069to, a total funding amount of $94.49 million, which is almost there, right? Almost to that 100%. So again, a plan. So again, there's still a lot of fluidity in the coming months. So this… this funding plan is still contingent upon some one-time funding and some unknown factors that we still have a few months here to get more information on. So the variance is just under $400,000 now, after these items above. But we've identified close to a million dollars in, you know, kind of… Estimations, you call it, assumptions, we're hoping for some wins here. And that, it will hopefully offset this, and then potentially there'll be some funds to, as things come up, or we need… or we need to add things back, or we're looking to build up reserves again, gives us some ability, but

070I don't think we'll get all these wins, but we're looking to get some of them in the remaining months of the budget process. So the first one, budget control through administration. it's simply that we identified some things, over time that have cost money that have a very variable component to it. So through our, you know, we have, currently bargaining with 8 bargaining units right now, so we're hopeful that as we go through those negotiations, we'll be able to, Make more predictable some of those costs and alleviate the variance that we've seen the last few years that's equaling this amount. How many are we at tentative, Jeremy? Say that again? How many, bargaining units are we tentative agreement? Three? Three. Out of that 8? Correct. Yep. School fee increases, so this will be on the May

0714th agenda. We've always been able to… so the… The programs that are supported by fees, we've always been able to supplement with the operating budget those programs. Now, based in a time where we have to look to not only increase the fees as we normally do for programmatic increases, you know, the cost of staff increases, the cost of supplies increasing, services increasing. But we also look to increase to offset To get to this, again, get to this number. So we've, we've put 100,000 placeholder. We'll talk more about this at the next meeting, what that number means. School shifts, this is exactly what we're talking about with the food service audit. We're hopeful that a number like this is something that not only one time, but could be an ongoing, supplement to the operating budget from

072the food service account. Jerry mentioned the retirement potentials. Earmarks we talked about, this is literally, Senator O'Connor has committed $200,000 in a supplemental this year, so we know that number. There may be more. And the final one is truly an unknown circuit breaker, so… All said, you know, we get some wins here. This… this remaining variance, which is, you know, 0.4% of our… our ask here, eliminated. So that's the… that's the funding plan as it stands on, you know, April 29th, 2026. Could change tomorrow. we could win the Mega Millions. Any questions from the committee? No, it's very clear, and I appreciate all the work that goes into it. I do have to thank your commitment to building those relationships with, the mayor's committees, the town council, Nope. Coming at it with a collaborative mindset

073makes a difference. And having those conversations, instead of screaming and demanding and… throwing a fit, that never seemed to work in the past, and the way that you've come across and had those conversations and, had many, many meetings and coffee hours, like you said, has made a difference, and I appreciate it. Yeah, I agree. Yeah. Okay, so I'm just looking at the numbers here, so… so can we cross off the increased savings from school retirement, then, based off of what Jeremy just said? We may have one, we don't know. Oh, okay, because that… okay, because that wouldn't include, like, the 16 to 17. We factored it in. Oh, okay. But we don't know. There could still be more. Okay. Yep. Yeah, I just want to be upfront and honest about just, like, I had some

074concerns about the letter that, was sent out by Mayor Melisse. and the town council meeting. Ted Langell at one point said that we haven't cut a single position in 11 years, and that was… not true. And so when I see words like reallocate, that concerns me as far as, like, does reallocating mean cutting? And I did reach out to downtown and had a great conversation. About this, and, you know, I think… We're all in new positions, and we're trying to navigate that transition, and you know, I was told that… there's room for improvement in communication, and that's something that we're going to work on, so I'm grateful for that. I am grateful for the 3.5% and the $500,000, but I just want to be transparent about that and my feelings on the letter and the

075meeting. I had a really tough time watching the town council meeting on Tuesday. I did appreciate, Rebecca's Rebecca's questions. She had some good questions, but… I think that the letter was misleading, and the town council presentation was misleading, and yeah, I've been pretty upfront and honest about that, but I'm hopeful that in the future that there will be more direct, communication there. with the public. Yeah, I think the language chosen probably wasn't the best language, right? I think the… I guess that's our job, too, is to educate the community on what our purview is. You know, you know, maybe the… the town hall doesn't understand our constituent base, you know, and maybe we take on that role as educating our families as to what that means for us, you know? Some don't understand what it

076means in the schools. Yeah, I just get nervous sometimes, because sometimes this is the only place where other people in the city are learning about what, is happening in the district. Like, obviously, we know, everybody in this room knows, right? Like, we live it, we breathe it, this is what we do. while I've been on school committee, I've… when I do have conversations with people from downtown, I'm truly trying to understand what's on their plate, and hoping that they will try to understand what's on our plate. But, like, for example, the… the, Sorry, I'm blanking. The North Waynex Civic Association had a town of, state of the address, and you know, there was no one from the school department there, and I did send out an email just saying, like, hey, you know, you said

077all departments were here, but the school department wasn't there. I didn't see Melanie or Brian. I said, I would love to see them there next year, because that could be the only time where, like, if you don't have kids in the district. if you don't have grandkids, like, if you don't have teachers in your life, or educators in your life, like, this could be the one time that you're getting an update about the schools, right? So, I just think it's, you know. I think getting the message out there, to… everybody, not just… we live it, we breathe it. The goal is to get it to everybody else so that they can understand what we're going through, you know what I mean? I do. Yeah. And I think… I agree, I think somebody from the school

078should have been sitting out front, but we were representing the schools that night, too. We were all… we were all, you know, going around the community members, speaking with community members, speaking with department heads, so we, you know, we can take that role, too. you know, getting that word out. I think that's… that's kind of… one of our biggest roles is constituent bases, you know? Did you have something, Trace? When you say downtown, what does that mean? Does that mean… them? Oh, okay. Town Hall. Town Hall. Town Hall. The people that work over there. Okay. Yeah. I was, like, not sure what downtown is. Sorry, that's what I call it. me, because I have a lot of chicken sweat, so I apologize. First, I just want to acknowledge that, obviously, we're not in as severe

079a hole as some of the other districts. I do want to acknowledge that. However, I agree with Ashley. I was extremely disappointed, with the delivery and the presentation, of the school budget funding plan. I was in a policy meeting, I came out, and my phone was blowing up, that there was a letter posted online. And, you know, parents thinking about the one… oh, I'm sorry, there was a letter that came out in November. About the most recent. Yeah, okay. I was too, I was referencing. Okay. It went… this was attached to it, so… And I think that's what started a lot of confusion, because parents saw that letter, they were celebrating, they thought we were getting level service, and then as people dug a little further, people are scratching their heads, saying, something's not adding

080up. Last week, we were irresponsible. for, voting-level service budget, what's going on here? So… For me, I think families deserve clarity. And the letter released alongside the FY27 budget plan felt misleading to many constituents, and many of them have reached out to me. I have some questions, I guess, regarding this $500,000 free cash. I'm gonna say what I think it means, and then please correct me if I'm wrong. So it's kind of like a pool of money that is not used during the budget year, but then it has to be certified by the state, correct? Yes. Would you know when that would even happen, I guess, is a question that I have, right? Is that time sent, like… So the free… the $500,000 was pulled from free cash. Free cash is basically funds that they

081underestimated expenses or overestimated revenues. Okay. Other way around. Underestimated revenues over to estimate expenses. So every department, so if we, you know, we don't spend, every penny. that what we don't spend goes to free cash. So each year, it's certified. Usually, like, in the wintertime, it's certified for the prior fiscal year. That creates a pool of money, and so the $500 is coming from that, the 500 doesn't need to be certified, it's already coming from free cash that's been certified. Okay. The 500 goes into, call them O2 accounts, they're capital accounts. It's funds that we don't have to spend in FY27. don't spend F28. We… that… the funds carry over, so if we… if we only spent… Revolving. Revolving, yep. So if we only spent $100,000 of it next fiscal year, that $400 would then

082carry over to fiscal 28. Certify of the funds is… what's in that account. Okay. Not this account, the free cash account. Correct. And that's already in a process to be certified each year. Yep. So I guess… My question, I hope this makes sense, is right now you have it labeled as for unfunded ESPs. So can it only be used for ESPs, if that's how we're labeling it? No, that's, so should the wording be changed? I'm just… So the measure itself will mention that, but it's really… it's for the school department to use for special ed purposes. This wasn't your language, correct? This was… cheapest. I don't know exactly. I'll have to see the exact measure, but I don't think it's as specific, and it could be clarified through the, the process of council. Okay. But

083essentially, the spirit of the $500,000 is for the school department to determine special education needs, which is typically adding to that throughout the year. But it is important to note that it's one-time funding, which, that's why it's delineated here. below the $93.2 million. But it is a… it's a… it's certainly something we weren't expecting, and I think it's a, it's a creative way to give the schools additional funding, to get through the next budget year. This was, I mean, Brian and I, as well as Rebecca, had talked about a revolving fund for special education for the past decade, I think. You probably, even before that. this is kind of… a lot of districts do this already, so it was nice to see that we were moving towards that direction. I'm really grateful for it, I

084just want to say that, but I just want to make sure that I'm understanding that this is a one-time deal, because in the past, the fiscal practice was that we don't use one-time funds associated to payroll, and obviously I understand the times, but I just want to make sure that that is Very clear to families. And, you know, obviously the funding plan has many variables that may or may not happen. I think… for me, personally, what I would have liked to have seen was maybe in bold writing, big. maybe this would have helped with families saying just that, that it has many variables that may or may not happen. Because, you know, a fully funded budget, as I said before, isn't based on assumptions. And unfortunately, 3 years in a row, we have not been

085fully funded level service, and that has lasting impacts, you know, that we struggle to recover from, you know? there were some quotes made during the presentation to Town Council, by the mayor, and I went back to watch, and I wrote them down, that I think are what made many constituents, feel like they were being misled. The first was I'm able to fund all departments while keeping level service. It will keep everything we have in place, including meeting the goals of 100% school funding plan. It was important to me to fully fund the schools. It did not come at the expense of other departments or services. I didn't want that to happen. And so, I think that's why people feel confused. Like, even when I looked at the sheet. school fee increases as a school committee

086vote, like, I just… Again, like, that's… That's a school committee vote. So, you know, and Mr. Langell made a comment, while he did acknowledge that things are very fluid, very time-sensitive measures, if you will, but we have no doubt Through all of this, we can get to the 100% of the school request of 5.3% increase over FY26. So we know we're getting there, we just don't know exactly how yet. But it will be from the sheet that you see here. I… I don't understand how we don't have any doubt. So… again, like, I just… I want us to be transparent with families. I think any win that we have beyond is… I think families will accept that better. I just want us to be… transparent with families, they deserve that, so… Yeah, and I agree

087with… I agree, I completely agree with you, and I have… you know, since that last meeting, have talked to many constituents and explained what this really means. And, again, I don't think the language used was completely transparent, and I think we, you know, part of our job is to educate folks that… I've tried. I'm trying, still trying. Yep. Did you add to something? I just wanted to say that the measure actually says free cash for special education reserves, so that for unfunded ESPs, isn't in the measure. Thank you. Yeah, that's the words that they put in, yeah. Anything else from the committee? When it says the committed, committed state earmarks, from Senator Patrick O'Connor, and I probably should have asked this a little earlier, but I know we talked there was a potential for snow-ice

088removal. Is that part of that? No, there hasn't been any… any movement that's a supplemental earmark, $235,000, $35,000 has to go to a specific, need in Weymouth, that Pat put forward, so that the snow… the snow conversation reimbursement is not part of this conversation. The supplemental budget has already gone through. It's in-house, I think, right now. That would be part of FEMA. funds that have to go through this state. Okay, so we'll know more on that. Bye. When FEMA responds, I don't… Yeah, hopefully before, hopefully. Yeah. Okay. And I, I wanted, I want to say thanks to Alyssa and Brian in particular, just for always answering questions and working so hard. I know that, like, as a new member and going through the warrants and everything, you know, I know that Alyssa and Brian are

089working really hard, and I just wanted to say that I'm grateful for them. I'm… you know, and this… this is really a learning process for everybody, and, you know, we have, like, a new town council, a new mayor. I know TJ Lacey has worked for the town before, but he's in a… we're all, like. Even though we've… some of us have been around, we're all in new roles and trying to navigate it together, so I'm hopeful that the communication moving forward will be more straightforward, and we won't have to backtrack. Because, like, my biggest concern when I saw the letter was I didn't want an empty room, because there's still work to be done, and there's still advocacy work to be done, so I didn't want people to think, oh, we're all set, we've got

090the money, we can stop showing up now, we did it, yay! That's… that's not the reality. The reality of the situation is there's still work that needs to be done, and people still need to be paying attention. And people still need to be asking questions and advocating for the things that they… don't want to see reallocated, aka cut. So, I just want that message to be loud and clear. Yeah, I think that the social media post had already started. I'm sure you saw I commented on several. Of them saying, like, let's pump the brakes a little bit. We're not there yet. I think it is important, though, for people to not spiral on social media, and then… and then really understand where we are in the process before those, you know, posts are made. And

091come to the people that know. You know, I don't know everything. I go to Brian and Alyssa every day. We don't know anything. We appreciate the comment. I give a nod to prior committee member Kathy Curran. The questions make us better. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Patrick, yep. Anybody? Is it Gov? No? Oh, go ahead. Question. Hi, my name's Jen Fulton. I've been in Weymouth about 10 years, I'm new to this. So, forgive me if I sound a little, naive on this, that's why I'm asking questions. So, I have, a daughter who is in her first year at Weymouth High. She went to St. Francis Xavier, kindergarten through eighth grade, and my, my second. My youngest daughter, I should say, is still at St. Francis, so very involved. I'm very involved in both schools right now. As

092a matter of fact, my oldest daughter's at her track meet right now. She's killing it. So, sorry, just gotta brag on that. So my question to you, I don't wanna… I don't wanna waste your time, and I really appreciate the transparency. That's a big reason that I'm here, and I'm new to this, since, like I just said, I have a, a child in the public school now. So, I'm very, I'm, I'm, I'm concerned about a lot of things, but my, my question is, about the, the, Special Education Reserve for unfunded ESPs, the free cash, is that guaranteed? Yes, okay, so that was my main question. So, because I know, because it's a little confusing, because you were talking about the language, and that's a big thing with me, is, like, I'm really big on communication,

093I'm a first responder, I've been a paramedic a long time, I work in the community, I'm also, a disabled veteran, so all this stuff is very, very important to me. My kid's dad is also a veteran as well, and, he's a Weymouth, firefighter, fire officer. He's been in the community his entire life. And so I just want to make sure that this language is clear. So that's really, really important to me, and to him, for our children going forward in the public school system. Does that make sense? Yes, sir. Thank you for the question. And as Committee Member Devine just mentioned, there's a… so this still technically has to get approved through Town Council. Okay, that's what I wanted to know, okay. So, as we report, as the Superintendent mentioned, we'll… we'll present on May

09412th to the Town Council. Okay. It's a measure that goes for the Council for a vote. But in my years of doing this, I haven't seen it not go through. Not go forward. Okay, so you're confident in this going forward. They're completely in support of it. Yep. Okay. All right, yeah. And I am… I am very involved in the community, just so you all know. Haven't made the town… council meetings as much as I'd like recently. I've been so busy with kids and my work and stuff, but I'm… I plan to, and I plan to be here a lot more, so thank you for your time. I appreciate it and your answers. Thank you. Anybody else? I will open it up to public comment now. Thank you. Alright, guys. Thanks. I gotta switch that. Yeah.

095I know. Thank you, Madam Chair. I've said it at every meeting, thank you all, but thank you in particular to Mel and her team, but especially to Brian, Alyssa, the rest of the finance team. This district would be in a in dire straits if it wasn't for their involvement, their expertise, their professionalism, their intervention, their transparency and reporting. This has been probably the most transparent budget, process yet, and I've been participating in these as a community member for 12 years. So thank you for that. Having said that, in that same 12 years, I have never seen more misleading and inaccurate statements being made at Town Hall or through a mayoral communication than the mayor's letter that came out. Not only was it erroneous in terms of making it appear to the community that not only

096was he meeting level service, which he's not, but it was $4 million above the level service request. I've not seen a verbal clarification or a clarification posted. I'm told I'm not on Facebook, I'm not a fan of social media, but I've been told that a corrected letter was posted without commentary. That doesn't suffice, and I would suggest that the mayor needs to explain and apologize for such an egregious error, particularly around such a sensitive and important topic as the budget in general, but in particular the school budget. In addition, the other comments that were made during the Town Council's… the presentation to Town Council, not by Town Council, but the presentation to Town Council by the Mayor and Mr. Langell. included a whole series of disingenuous, inaccurate, misleading statements that do a disservice to the

097community and do a disservice to this mayor in his first year of his inaugural administration, and he should issue clarifications relating to that. The reason is that I don't know about all of you. When I was in school, granted it was a while ago, 94.8 is not the same as 93.2. That is a $1.6 million shortfall to level service. It is in nowhere near addressing the level service request that school committee voted at the meeting when they voted the budget request. And it is now on top of the last two years, similar shortfalls of $1.6 and $1.9 million. This year is no different than fiscal year 26 and fiscal year 25 in terms of the funding shortfall, and that is what it is. A $1.6 million shortfall because $93.2 million is not $94.8 million. The

098additional $500,000 is also obviously not included in the operating appropriation, because it is not a permanent part of the appropriation operating budget. It is a one-time $500,000 allocation for whatever it is, special education in general, but it is not included in the operating budget, and while it may be guaranteed, once it's voted on by Town Council, for fiscal year 27, it is not guaranteed for fiscal year 28 or 29, or in years going forward, because who knows what the fiscal situation is going to be then. It is only a one-time funding allocation for fiscal year 27, that's it. the chart in terms of the budget plan. Let's be clear about that also. The funding sources are $93.2 million, by the way, $31.2 million of which is from Chapter 78 that Wayne is getting from the

099state. The $500,000 is a one-time allocation. The $745,000 belongs below the line. That is a recovery exercise, just like all the other items that are listed below the line. It is not a funding source, it is not a funding allocation that's coming to Weymouth Public Schools from the town. correct me if I'm wrong, but that 745 is existing money from the existing WPS fiscal environment that is being tapped in order to help make up the $1.6 million, along with the other list of things that are going to be tapped in order to make up the $1.6 million. I just want to be clear. Am I correct in that? So the variance from the original request is not $383,000, it's $1.6 million, because I'm not counting the $500,000. And so, as a result, you're doing the

100same… you're stuck doing the same exercise that you've done over the last two years, looking at this, that, savings from retirements, savings from resource allocations, cutting this, addressing that, shifting money from here to there. The reality is, this budget allocation from the town repeats fiscal year 25, fiscal year 26, $1.6 million shortfall. There is no lack of clarity around that. That is the reality of the numbers. The numbers tell the story completely by themselves. No matter how much Mayor Melis or Mr. Lacey or Mr. Langelo want to spin it some other way, it is a $1.6 million shortfall to level service, and I would expect that this committee, at every junction, at every opportunity, not just here, but the subcommittee, but at Thursday's school committee. Make a statement to that effect, and to clearly point

101that out to the community, because the kudos that are being posted on Facebook, to the mayor's Facebook page about, thank you for rescuing the school system, thank you for fully funding the budget for fiscal year 27, are wrong, because people have been misled, and you need to make sure, as Ms. Graziano just said, inform and clarify for the public the reality of what has actually happened. And I would suggest that you need to do that starting a Thursday school committee meeting. the… If I may, Madam Chair, thanks. So, just some questions. What is the $745,000? That is… right now, it's mostly just natural attrition that occurs, so it's the reallocation of funding that we have in our budget. Attrition of staff? Attrition of staff. So why is that not included in the other staff attrition?

102Like, maybe the… No. I'm sorry? Known. Because it's known. It's known, it's done. Below the line is not yet… been realized. Okay. But you agree with me, Brian, that that $745 is not a revenue funding allocation that's coming from the town, that is you doing your usual yeoman's work finding options for making up the $1.6 million difference. It is… and I'll say the team. All of you. It's the reallocate… it says it there, the reallocation of… But you agree that this chart is misleading in that it makes it appear that there's a $745,000 additional funding source being made available by, let's say, the town, when it is not. It's part of the rest of the list below the line that says, plus a combination of the following, because that's, in fact, what it is. I'll

103belabor that point, because it needs to be crystal clear that that $745 should not be at the top. in a calculation that then results in a minimal variance of $383,000. No. The variance from the funding from Town Hall is $1.6 million. That's the shortage to level service for fiscal year 27. I guess my only comment would be. above the line is known, realized revenue and cut… and reallocating of resources, but I… You can interpret either way, like… Well, it's not funding from the town. No, it says… right, and it's not a fund… and it's not a funding source. Right. It's not an increase to revenue, right? So, I'm belaboring that point because it's an important point to make from my perspective. The term that was used was ships. Yeah. By shift. Okay, so shift is…

104yeah, we're all on the same page. I think we're all on the same page, I get it. We're all on the same page, right? I get that. The $500,000 for… the special… for special education. The measure, as Mrs. Devine pointed out, I was looking it up as well, doesn't say ESPs, it just says special education costs. Is the entire amount going into that OT account, and are you at full 100% discretion to use it as you see fit within that special education language? It's more of a, It's actually less restrictive than… so what was mentioned was the, Special Ed Stabilization funds, that's Mass General Law. Special Ed Stabilization's a Mass General Law. This is the same intent. But the restrictions are far less where Once it's in the O2 account, it's the discretion of the

105school committee administration to spend. Those specialized stabilization accounts require additional votes of the governing bodies of the town or city, which would be town council and school… Right, I'm aware of that, Brian. The point that the stabilization account has legal requirements to it, that any money within a stabilization account can only be used 100% specifically for the purposes of that special stabilization account. My question here is, you have more freedom in that this is just a a receptacle account. More flexibility with… as it's… as it's proposed to… Okay, and… Actually, I like it. Yeah, I would agree. Granted, it's restricted to special education, but if you have a… more of a free hand in terms of how to use it, and I don't know how you would, I'm surmising maybe… maybe it is ESPs that

106are only necessary for not the full year, 3 months, 6 months, because… I think that, you look at things, right? Things that we… or there are mandates that we need to provide. My caution… my caution is that this money is not… repeatable, guaranteed repeatable for fiscal year 28. So if you're using it for staffing purposes, it's a violation of what has been a long-standing set of statements from the town in terms of fiscal practice and warnings about not using free cash and one-time funding allocations for payroll purposes, so I would caution you in terms of being careful about how you decide to use that money, because It'll just add to the shortages when we start talking about the fiscal year 28 budget on July 1st. We're gonna use it. We're gonna use it. Thank you,

107Gus. One-time funding, we're very well aware. The approach we're going to take is we are treating this in concert with circuit breaker funds. We're treating it as we would circuit breaker funds, which we know is one time to get us through a year, for sure. That's fine. That's a good point to make good clarification. Brian, does the money get deposited, quote-unquote, on July 1st? Yes. Our appropriation is voted, the run reports, and we see our operating… we see our… any capital measures Right, just one final question, Madam Chair. As it relates to… I know your plan will, you know, the things below the line will evolve as things happen. The one observation about fees, I know we all know that athletics fees is near and dear to me, the conversation around fees includes potential increases

108to athletic fees. I just want to point out that The case for the need for increasing fees has yet to be made. This is now… this is now a 2-plus-year-old hanging out there item. There has not yet been a full athletics revenue fiscal presentation, that would be a requisite before you make any decisions about whether you're going to increase athletic fees, because I will just remind you, the case has not yet been made. That's it, Madam Chair. Thank you. Thank you, Gus. Financial Cool. Gus, you're always so inspiring. You give me lots of ideas when you're up here. I have other questions that I could ask, so thank you. So, as we're talking about reallocations and cuts that may be com- or cuts that may be coming up. I'm thinking of the good little shifts.

109Shift. I'm just kidding. Shifts. The 234 document. Like, remember that thing? The 2-3-4 document, right? So when I was looking at the numbers, I kind of went back to that 234 document, like, okay, this is where we're gonna be, this is what we're looking at. Are we gonna go off of that document to help guide the decision-making process for reallocations? So… Yeah, I mean, for the most part, it's… at 3.5%, Gus just gave us a rundown of it's 3.5%, so if you look at that guide, that's part of what we're doing, but there's also, like we said, through attrition. Then, like I said, there's also the thought process of the needs throughout the district. So that visual is just to give people a general idea of, like, if we're getting 1%, it kind of looks

110like this. If we're getting 3%, it could be this many cuts. I think if… I don't have it right in front of me, but I think if you look at between 3% and 4%, we're not going to have the cuts that were on that chart. Okay. It'll be much less than… Mel outlined at the beginning of her presentation here is the impact of the middle school. Yeah, and you guys didn't do a chart like that last year. That was new, right? Everything's new this year. Okay. That chat was… I like that chat. To get more transparent, I don't know how we get much more transparent after this. Just out wearing, like, cams all day. We'll see what we do. The chat itself… the chat's great. Like, 10 out of 10 on the chat. I really

111like it. I looked at it a lot. My other question would be, what is the school committee at… because there's some new folks here, what is the school committee's role when it comes to deciding the funds? So will we be involved in deciding what needs to be reallocated? Because at one point, we had a… Committee of the Whole workshop with Glenn Kutcher, and he said that the school committee's role is to decide… help decide what gets cut. Like, we… we can help decide what we fund and what we don't fund, so I just want some clarification. I think he misspoke. That is definitely misspoke. Okay, that's what he said, though. I just want some clarification while we're all here in this room together to know what… What did we do? March 26th. March 26th. You

112guys voted a budget. And you'll vote again. So it's important to note. I think, actually, if I can jump into timeline, I think it's good. Let me clarify. We… We wrote the budget. We do not talk about people. So, that is… their jobs. There is another opportunity, so you voted the budget on March 6th? That was your… that was, like, your… your role of the… so vote the budget. Now, depending on what's cut, you have to vote the budget again. So once Council votes the budget, you have to vote a budget again. Yep. Line by line this time, right? I wouldn't recommend it, but… No. We fund it, or department by department, I don't know. Her view is the budget, just like we did in March. That's… that's our job. Our job is not people.

113We don't decide what we're people. Okay, so we can't decide or anything. We don't have any input. You do. You do. That's part of, like, planning, input, every, you know, when we go through the needs list with all the principals, we discuss it at the table. When we get input from any of you here at the table, those things are all considered. Okay. We just don't make the final decision. I see. Okay, that's… we just… we just vote the budget. I see. Okay, yeah, I'm just trying, like, is always on the table. We can always advocate for what we… What we think is, you know, important, and what we think our constituents are… Yeah. …are important to them. It's… it's the… the people's… is their job. Yeah. Well, kind of, like, first student coming, and

114the bus stuff, and the MGL30, I just want… sometimes I think… people, including myself, want clarity on what… what's my job? What's this person in the seat? What's my job, right? Because a lot of people are looking at us saying, we want you to do this, but sometimes sometimes we can't, right? I think the understanding from some constituents is they don't… I don't think any of us sitting at this table knew what our job was when we got elected, right? I think… I think that's a… it's a learning process for all of us, and I think… and part of… again, part of our job is to educate the community on what we can and we can't do. Okay. We do, and we don't have control over. You know, advocacy is always our number one priority,

115but I'm just… we don't have control of things, too. Okay, yeah, I just wanted clarity on that, because what Glenn Couture said, and what… you know what I'm saying? I do. Okay, okay. Can I ask just one question? Sorry. I was just thinking, there's been a handful of families that have reached out to me, from the charter school, speaking about transferring their kids here, and I know a lot of the cuts that we saw on that chart were kind of, like, more at the middle and the high school level, correct me if I'm wrong. So, I'm just curious, like, do we have any idea what those numbers may look like? Like, an estimate? Because I'm just… I think that's something that we probably obviously want to take in consideration, because… I think it would be

116early, because I do… do they do a rolling admission at the Chatham? The numbers of enrollment? Sorry. I was just wondering, like, if you haven't asked for that, like, from you hearing from families, like, you know maybe… an estimate of how many families might transfer back to Weymouth next year? Like, do you have any idea? There may be an influx coming. I know, personally, I expect hard families today who have not submitted paperwork. Go ahead, sorry. I'm sorry. There is a letter of intent, so what does go out is, administration at Charter will send out a letter of intent. Do you intend on coming back? But it does not. Hold you accountable to it. So many people, because it is a lottery system, they do just say, yeah, I'm gonna say. Like, who knows what's

117gonna happen over the spring or over the summer? And I'm sure Mel will tell you that, you know, come July or August, and all of a sudden, then there's, like, then it's the influx. I did that to you. You know, I know that… Which we welcome, yeah. So, but, There is, and I know, like, I think you and I may have talked to some of the same people, maybe, but Because I think that there is… there is going to be an influx. So if everyone came, if everyone came back, I think it's… I think it's 280, I'll get the exact number. I think, you said it was, like, 280-something last time you were… in the savings then! That would be another question. Well, and that's the other thing, we tend to get a lot of

118people, Enrolling, not just from the charter school, but from inside the town that move into the town in August. Right. And so, that number… It's always fluent. Yeah, we haven't seen, any sort of, like. major incline at the secondary. So, in fact, the middle school and the high school are at record low enrollment right now. So that's where, like, I know when people are saying, like, the attrition and the loss of staffing, the enrollment numbers at the middle and the high school are the lowest that they've been in a very long time. We used to average about 500 students per grade. We're down at, like, 410, 420, somewhere in those numbers. And, you know, the biggest class size right now I was in kindergarten. Tell me if I'm wrong. I'm hearing more and more from

119elementary school families, not The middle. Middle and high school. I've also heard from middle, but they're also gonna bring back the elementary if they bring in the middle, so… Like, older elementary, like fourth… 4th grade. I've heard 4th grade, so there'll be 5th graders next year. I have information on charter school, if anybody wants it. At the time when this information was collected, we had 267 students at the charter school, but there's other information in this chart as well, if anybody wants to look at it. Same influx of mostly 4th grade. Yeah, that's what I've heard. Yeah, go ahead. Thanks. I won't go there. I'm curious about Melanie's comment about the… we've seen the enrollment numbers changing at the high school and the middle school. Do you have any sense what's happening when folks, you

120know. I think we're… if you remember too, Gus, when we were doing the Chapman studies, all, what's the name of the, not me ask, NESDAQ, was projecting enrollment way down in the town of Weymouth, and then we saw this shifting of a lot of people moving to the town of Weymouth. So, we did see that bubble go through of, you know, they have, like, childbirthing ages and all of those things, but then we're now seeing an influx of, you know, families moving into the town with, younger children. Kindergarten was at 490, we don't know if that's the COVID bubble, you know, so there's a lot of those factors that kind of come in, but like I said, we have for a for a while, seen lower numbers. I remember when I first started teaching at

121the new high school, we were close to 2,200 at the high school. Right, so that was over 500 kids per class. Yeah, so is it… families were opting to private schools? No, I don't think it's… I don't think it's enrollment in other places. I think there's just… there was a pocket of not many kids living in the town at that age group. Yeah, yeah, I think it's… there's definitely a smaller… We're seeing… and that's kind of what we were planning for, and now we're starting to see a bigger uptick at the elementaries. Yes. Anybody else? Go ahead. So, Eric Bresser, I'm a 15-year resident of the town, father of a 7th grader. and a third grader at Ralph Talbot. I hadn't really planned necessarily to speak tonight, but I do just want to echo the,

122kind of some of the general sentiment that I've heard about the budget process. A, really transparent, really cooperative, and I appreciate the creativity that I've seen, but also. from other offices, as was said by others here, confusing, if not misleading. Also, if I can add to that, the fact that that letter came out right before Able Vacation. you got me. I turned my back, and while my back was turned, the situation changed. Well, here I am, but there's not enough of us here. I really hope we can still see that level of services like we were frankly promised. But that's actually not entirely the only reason I got up here. I wanted to also speak to the discussion of cutting French. As the father of a 7th grader currently in French, I think I'm right

123in the crosshairs of where that's going to impact the most. And I would just really encourage you guys to take a three-dimensional look at that, in terms of options. Because I think that stunting a 7th grader who's currently started down that path And not taking an equitable look at all the foreign languages, maybe breaking them out of the team approach, and my wife's a teacher in Pembroke, and that's what they do, is that it's handled, they can do larger class sizes that way. Maybe waiting on launching all foreign languages until 8th grade, and taking all of them off at 7th grade, instead of going after French only. I just… I think that there's some additional collateral to that that I would just encourage you to take into account. Thank you. So, I have a 7th

124grader who is also in French, and is actually devastated, and now we can't do the Montreal trip next year. The whole class measure, and, like, what he had… I'm sorry, Mr. Dresser, that was what Mr. Dresser just said. you know. is that something that we could do? Like, where it was only offered to, say, 8th graders, or is it that the staffing changes, is that just complicate things? No, no, no, I don't care for the trip. She just cares about the trip. But I worry about the core education, like, you know, like you said, we are, and she isn't different, and she is, you know, doing this, and so… Is there a possibility to continue that for the 8th graders who are in it, and not offering it to 7th graders, who, in, like, holding

125this process off to continue the momentum for those kids, Some of them may not want to, you know? Not all of the, you know, the kids may have signed up for French and said, you know, no wee bee, like, I'm not for me. Sorry. Wait, I think I just… No, and I truly appreciate the comments. As we just kind of went through the budget, there are necessary cuts that have to happen. Some of, like I said, there is going to be very minimal, but that is the area that some of the cuts were made at, is the middle school languages. Last Hail Mary. Yeah. Possibly an after-school enrichment? We talked about an after-school French enrichment, and then possibly a trip coming out of that. Nothing is off the table on that sense, but as far

126as staffing, yes. I also, I just, to put my opinion in, the French and the Montreal trip was… absolutely so impactful to my son, so it hit me hard, too, to hear this. So, I'm gonna, I guess, tag on to that. So I remember when I was in school, and in that grade, when you started with the foreign language, you did… you did half. When produced last year? Like, last year. So you did half and half, so, I mean, is there a chance that there could be teacher that… or an educator that is dual, because I remember we did, like, one semester, like, one term was Spanish, then one was French, and one was Spanish, and that's how you determined which language you wanted to go to. That's how we did it. I think it's

127also back in the licensing of the language. Yeah, I'm just saying, if there's a chance, we could certainly look at that, but I do think it had a lot to do with the licensing of the… I do like eating Ms. Quaylee. I mean, with going down to the six periods and trying to fit it in, if we could still, like, if… the kids who really wanted to do it could still go after school, like, that's… I think it's hard, because I think if you looked at all of the things that were going to be cut, it's like there was never going to be someone that was like, that's a great cut! Like, and if I can offer any of that, you know, consolation, is that we are maintaining our languages at the high school, where

128they're super important. If your child's in 7th grade French, at least they'll get 8th grade Spanish, and then they get to decide when they get to the high school, do I do Spanish, or do I do French? Now, say if they didn't want to do 8th grade Spanish. They don't have to. They could just wait and take French when they get started. One more, and I had to… my source is 13, so… I heard, that there may be possible sign language next year? Yes, that is in… I… oh, you're gonna… there's… it's offered. But I feel like it's, that you'll hear that tomorrow night, the program of studies. I don't want you to speak. It's a little late in my brain, so… No, like I said, my score's been 13, and, like, yeah. But Kara

129Monagh will be there tomorrow night. Okay. I don't want him to speak. I just came back over to add one thing that I had forgotten, but was jogging my memory, is I also understand that two years of… middle school language count as one year of high school. So I was just curious about the mechanics of the .5. Does that round up or down in that scenario? That could be a question. Yeah, and that was actually part of the process, too, is why would it take two years of the language at the middle school to equal one at the high school? So that was part of the issue as well. Okay, so perhaps if that does happen, there will at least be a policy change about the one year, perhaps counting as one instead of a

130.5? Right. Is that… will that be added to the program of studies? For the high school, not for next year, right? So, because we would have to talk about, the curriculum across the board of, like, so… for the middle school to fit a true curriculum in that the high school does, they'd have to assess. Anybody else from the public? Comments? No. Anybody from… Zoom that wants to comment? Raise your hand? Or chat? Chat. Chat? I do have, just timeline left. Oh, I'm sorry. That's okay. Go ahead. I'm not rushing at all. Okay, so next meeting, but it's, May 6th. We're presenting to Town Council Budget Management on May 12th, Annual Town Meeting on May 18th. Council will hopefully vote our budget June 15th, and then we'll have a final budget subcommittee meeting on June… I

131do… so May 12th is the same night this time my parent council? Yes. Ben is… what? to think about what… on that. So, more chicken wolves. Anything else from the committee? Oh, I'm gonna text that's disabled, I don't know if that… Nope. It doesn't look disabled. Doesn't look disabled. Yeah. Can they raise their hand? Yeah, can you raise your hand if the chat's disabled? Are you… Allison's fine. Oh, yeah. Oh, there we go, there's Ray. There we go. Okay. What did you see? What did you say? The panelists, I think. Oh, okay. Yeah, it was, I'm not sure why. British, how much? Aye. Oh, whoever is trying to… Okay, there we go. Oh, he's got it now. So, Kim, I just don't know if it… I don't know, Kim… Kim wanted to chat, I believe.

132We should be a Netflix show. I know. Keep it in French. I don't see you… If you click on the… Kim, if you want to try to reply to that? Like, the whole, like, text. The famous dot. No? Okay. It's the beep browser, sorry, she said. No, because she is so malware. That's what the chat looks like. Oh. Oh. Okay, well… If anybody has any… Oh, wait, oh! I think I have to use Q&A, the chat is disabled. All right, there we go. Thank you, Lori. T. All right. So, if you want to put anything… There we go. All right. Now we see them all. Thank you, Andrew Donovan. Hi, Andy. Oh, do you want to open it up for public? Yeah, I will open it up to public on Zoom if, Through the Q&A.

133Through the Q&A. I was wondering that. open to. At the bottom. You learn something new every… This is… this is… No, that's those, okay. Okay, one more minute? But thank you. Thank you, Andrew, yeah. Alright, again, if anyone has public comment, just use the Q&A function on your device. Hmm. I am seeing nothing. I'm going to close public comments, and I will make a motion to adjourn. Second. Not sure. Thank you. Excuse me. Thank you, everybody.