School Committee 2.26.26

001Yes. Yes. No, definitely. >> Yes. And I you saw the agenda, right? First, if you want to offer your thoughts on the budget, >> not me. >> I'm kidding. I was like, I have some Does that make sense? >> That is the probably more than I do. I don't know what you're talking >> for. Holy cow. >> Oops. >> I will let her know. >> Right now. >> 6:31. >> Okay. ready. >> Did it on. >> Okay. Good evening. Um, I call to order the meeting of the Hamilton Regional School Committee at 6:32 p.m. on Thursday, February 12th, 2026. Um, I'd like to remind everyone that this meeting is being recorded and livereamed on HW Cam. Um and um just to let everyone know the first item of business is a public hearing on the

002um our 10 our Hamilton Regional School District FY27 budget. So public hearing is a little bit different than our regular citizens comments. This is an opportunity um for citizens to offer um comment to share your thoughts about their so much. >> Oh, I see we've got joining us on school committee member on Zoom. >> Hi, Julia. >> All right. So, we're just getting the budget hearing started. >> Um so, a little bit different than um citizens comments. it is an opportunity for you to share your thoughts. Um to provide us with um your feedback um but it's also an opportunity to ask a question regarding the budget if you have one. Um and so if that's something that you are interested in and you want to answer ask a question we are here to answer

003>> it updated. So, >> um, all right. >> And if I walk, >> we're going to start with, um, Vinnie is going to give us a little bit of an overview. >> You want to put it up. >> Sorry. >> It's okay. I was trying to talk a bit there. >> I know. Thank you. >> Perform a poem or something. Sight. Julia, can you hear? >> No. >> Oh, hold on. Let's just make sure we can. Our Zoom is working. >> It's me. >> Julia, can you hear me? >> Yes. >> Okay. >> Thank you. I can't hear Dana. >> She doesn't say anything. >> I'm not talking. We're just waiting for Vinnie. >> Wait for just popping his computer on. >> Okay. >> We're seeing what he's watching currently on Netflix. And uh No,

004>> that's not me. >> It was good. I watched it. Um, okay. Thank you guys for joining us tonight. We are here to >> Vinnie, I'm going to make sure that Julia can hear you. >> Of course. >> Can you hear Vinnie? >> Yep. >> Okay, >> she's good. >> Sorry. >> Yep. Uh, so we are here to start our public hearing number two for the superintendent's final FY27 budget request. I'm going to try to keep my portion brief because really this time should be allotted to the citizens for uh any questions they might have. But just to kind of reiterate what Dana said, uh the public hearing really allows uh citizens to voice their support, ask their questions and have dialogue between the school committee and the administration uh to receive answers about some

005of their questions. Unlike our normal school committee meeting uh under the public uh comment period where there is not dialogue between the school committee administration uh and the citizens, it also works in the reverse. It allows the school committee uh to gain the the knowledge and the concerns of taxpayers and of citizens uh and really to take their um questions and recommendations into consideration before you guys go to vote on the budget. So it really works both ways and a public hearing is really an important part of the budget process. Uh so just to jump right in and review the numbers briefly, our FY27 final gross budget, this includes both our operating and our debt service, uh is coming in at just over 51 million. Uh this is an increase of approximately 2.5 million year-over-year.

006Uh which represents a gross increase of 5.23%. From there, we remove all of our offsets in revenues. And for FY27, we are actually uh projecting a decrease in revenues of approximately $283,000. Uh this number would be added into the overall net budget, the net assessment that we um turn on to the two communities. For FY27, our net uh operating and debt service budget is 41.76 million or an increase of 2.8 million year-over-year or 7 and 1/4%. uh presented to you tonight in front of you right now is our desi chart of accounts that breaks down our operating portion into the desi categories. Uh just to briefly talk about our largest year-over-year changes. Uh salaries are our biggest increases year-over-year between our colers uh between the cola our stepping increments uh our salary scale advancements and

007any changes to our longevity. We are seeing an increase year-over-year of 1.38 million which is our largest increase uh that we've seen year-over-year. Uh in addition, we are seeing large increases in our health insurance premium costs. We are estimating an increase uh compared to FY26 of approximately $600,000. Uh we have also enhanced our investments in our maintenance and facilities uh in our requesting an additional $501,000 to take care of our buildings. Um this has led to a lot of difficult decisions and one thing we've incorporated is a reduction of seven staff members uh over FY26. Uh we are realizing savings budget to budget of approximately $418,000 uh with these seven staff members. Um, some other big savings year of a year, we are realizing $212,000 from our natural turnover of staff from FY26 into our

008FY27 budget. Uh, we also have a few retiring staff members where we're realizing another $186,000 savings for FY27. When you factor all these things in uh, and you look at again that $2.8 $8 million uh year-over-year assessment increase and you apply the new three-year uh rolling average of student population. How many students are from Hamilton and how many are from Winnham? Uh we have a new FY27 final budget for Hamilton coming in at 27.3 million uh which is an increase of just under 1.7 million yearoveryear or 6.5%. Uh for the town of Wenham, uh the overall change year-over-year is an increase of 1.1 million or roughly 8.54%. Uh that is just a brief overview of the budget and I will uh give the time to the community for any comments they would like to make

009or any questions they have. >> Thank you, Vinnie. >> Welcome. Well, thank you. Um, I'm Bridget O'Donnell at 105 Main Street in Wenham. Um, so I was wondering I went to the that Beverly Civic Center gathering um trying to learn about things. Um, so a question I was wondering if you had an answer to was if Chapter 70 funding is reformulated, would it impact this school year or the next school year? Um or or is that something that's just like a hope? Is there any answer? >> Yeah, the so the as you know the states working on they're doing their uh due diligence if you will to investigate chapter 70 and some of the impacts that are being reported all over the state and their committee I think isn't due to report until June. >>

010Uh so it really wouldn't impact uh the budget only because they'll they'll put out a report. There'll be I would suspect a year or two of deliberations or maybe at least a year because it'll have to go through um some process of rede developing the formula uh which it's super complex so it wouldn't it wouldn't happen overnight. So what we're hearing from the superintendent's group is that it'll be a while before any realized if any realized changes would occur. Um, we we can continue to rely on little bumps from the state supplemental budget, but in places like regional school districts, last year they gave us the supplemental budget on June 28th, I think it was, and you can't spend it then. So, it drops for us, it drops to access and deficiency. So, it it's

011the state is trying to um use the millionaire's tax as to supplement. And if you look at the governor's budget, there are a number of line items related to education that are related to that supplemental budget. So, I think that's how they're going to try to bridge the gap, but I'm not sure how long it >> Okay. >> it will actually take. >> And about the regional uh transportation funding as well, is that I know that we've never been that's never been fully realized of what was promised. >> Yeah. So, the governor's governor's budget right now is projected to I think 85%. >> Which is which is big. Yeah. uh it was 57% I think last year. Um not sure of the number yet this year but it's it's it's not been fully realized and

012you know as people know the governor's budget is step one. It'll go to the house and go to the senate. They'll bring their versions of the budget and then they'll do some uh cross collaboration to figure out what the final numbers are. But it's it's so far it's transportation is a little bit higher than it was last year. >> Okay. And is there like I mean just for the public to know and um is there is there like a message that you know that we can share with other people about how to advocate for these things with our reps you know like a a message that you know while we're going through this and they obviously heard how many school districts are having districts ac uh districts are having um difficulties across the state. um

013if there was a way that we had a unified message from the school districts. Um I know well I know like the MTA has some um messaging, but I wonder if it if it comes from school committees or if that's just citizens jobs to be aware and just I thought it'd be nice to just to like let other people know cuz that was something I was not educated about. Um just starting to learn about it. So I think it'd be nice to let other people know if that's something we're trying to figure out. just, you know, trying to squeak out a a gym divider. You know, if if there was something we could do in the future, I think hopefully a lot of people would participate in in supporting that. >> Thank you. >> Um,

014so I can answer a little bit about that. Um I I know it's you're all so ready not to have an answer, but um so a little bit um so the committee hasn't voted on the budget yet, so we can't sort of say too much right now, but what I want to let you know is just below the budget agenda item, there is an item regarding communication. >> Okay. So just let you know we that is the following immediately following um because it it is going to be really critically important once we have voted upon an approved budget is going to be critically important that um citizens do have some talking points to ex to understand what this budget provides why a budget was created this way and so please know yes we're thinking about

015that and those are um and that it is that's really helpful to know that people want to be able to accurately communicate what the budget is providing and um yeah does anybody else have anything else to add on that? >> Um I would just add that the you mentioned MTA is you know creating a way for lots of people to sign this fiscal crisis letter that goes to the governor. Um if you if you search MTA fisc fiscal crisis they've invited anybody in a community to sign it. So that's a way to kind of add your name to a list. >> Okay. >> Of names in support of funding these programs better. >> All right. >> Thank you. >> Yeah. >> And that's for everybody. >> Yep. >> Wasn't Eric, didn't you talk about it

016in one of your weekly communicates, too? >> So you if you're not, you should make sure that you're subscribed to Superintendent Tracy's because it was he sent that out. >> She was with us last week at the at the I think that Hannah Bowen did. Can I add one more thing to that? >> So, you asked a good question about citizenry and I think the the hard part is helping uh your average citizen understand the realities of the the budget and how it works in relation to even how the towns work. Um, part of it is as we put things out, we try to educate people. Even when you're looking at chapter 70 and just saying chapter 70 has not changed for our district over a 15-year period more than a percent or two. Right

017now, we're at 10% of our of our total budget in Chapter 78. Um, our budget continues to go up 6 7 8% uh over time, but that money that number never rises. On the other side, the towns are wrestling with unrestricted government aid, which is aid, which is called, you know, slang term UGGA. It's part of the realities of why the towns are having difficulty responding to the needs of the school districts because their their unrestricted government aid has not changed. The number 1.3 billion was the number in 2007. That number has not changed since then by more than a percent or two over over that time period. So you're getting it from multiple sides when you start to look at the the aid and and where it sits and and where it where it

018makes the most impact and you know towns are scrambling to try to do the same thing schools are. So when you get two towns small that are doing that, it's really incumbent on the citizenry to understand the bigger problem and that's you know part of the town meeting process but part of I think the torch that we all hold in the next 8 weeks as we move towards town meeting. >> Hi uh Katie O'Brien 114 Forest Street. Uh so I have two questions. What will happen if the school budget is not passed at town meeting? And then if it the budget is passed, what will happen if the override is not passed? >> Good question. >> Start. You want to start? >> I can do it. >> Don't do it. It's loaded. Yeah, it's a

019loaded question there because it there's a lot of scenarios. >> Yeah. >> Um, so we don't know 100%. The warrants haven't been set yet, so we're not sure how the budget itself would be presented. We have been in conversation with both towns and they both seem to be splitting, which is what they've done in the past, saying, "Here's what fits under the levy, the part of the school budget that fits under the levy, and here's the piece that's the override." Um, and those numbers will be different depending on how much quote fits under the levy. Um, when you go to town meeting and you vote, you vote usually you vote for the town budget, the school budget in one that's under the levy. That's one vote. And then anything outside of the levy is the

020override amount. That would be a second vote. That second vote, well actually all those votes have to pass in both communities. If an override vote doesn't pass in one community and passes in the other, it fails. Um the school committee has by law 30 days to uh determine what to do next. So they have to come back together and decide do we just accept the the amount under the levy? Do we go back to the towns in another special town meeting with an amount of money less than or do we go back and say no, we really need this and we're going to come with the same number. So, so there's a lot of options there. Um, and there's a lot of scenarios because as as people may or may not know, even though you

021vote for an override at town meeting, you still have to go to the ballot and vote. So even though it passes in one place and fails and there's so many votes that need to occur, it's uh that's why it becomes a loaded question because you're now trying to map out all these scenarios that may or may not be true. Um but it's it is uh something complex that I think people really need to get to understand. That help? >> Yeah. >> Thank you. >> Hello. Jen Coughfield, 25 Juniper Street in Winnham. Do we know the number of the overrides for Hamilton and Wenham at this point? Meaning numbers from the towns, excuse me. >> Uh the last number they published was from our quintuple board meeting and at that time it was just under 1.7

022million from their end for Hamilton. Sorry if I said something different. Uh which that would equate to about a $2.3 million reduction from the school district. So, what would that mean for Wenom? >> Uh,00 >> for their override. >> How much would they need for their override? Just under $500,000 was the last number they told us. >> Um, I know you can't probably answer this, but do you believe that's going to come down? >> I believe Hamilton. I'm not sure about Winnhams. >> Okay. Point of history for anybody who hasn't lived here. Um, the largest override that has ever passed in the town of Hamilton was $1.28 million. And that was a heavy lift. I've lived here for 30 years. I've served on those political action committees, all of the overrides. It is not tenable

023to pass a $1.6 or $32 million override in the town of Hamilton. I just think it's irresponsible to try and go for that at this point. Thanks, Can >> I say can I just say one thing? I think it's important for people to know that >> no no nobody's budget is final. The towns um don't finalize their numbers and their warrant until the end of February, early March. And that's when we really hone in on here are the exact numbers. So there will be some movement in in numbers because sometimes we're waiting for an insurance figure. Sometimes they're waiting for uh a payment from uh excuse me a a number for their insurance company or their health insurance. I mean so those are all things that will impact along the way. It might be less.

024It it might be a little bit less but it is you know it's it's um and it depends on what they move under the levy and what they're willing to move. We've had conversations to try to say to the towns, the schools, um, you know, right now outside the levy, would the towns be within keep some of their asks, if you will, in within the override as well. So, that's also helpful because it moves a little more of the school side money back under the levy. So, there's there's good conversations going on. I have to say the five boards have come together more than we usually do to try to work through some of the process questions on that. So we'll finalize numbers. It will unfortunately be after break when we actually can say this

025is what it's going to be because the warrant book will be finalized at the select board meetings. Okay. Anybody else want to provide us with any budget questions, comments? Okay. All right. Everybody good? >> All right. Um this point we'll close the public hearing portion um of the meeting. Um we are at it's 6:53. Um so we normally start the meeting at 7. Um but just so everyone knows the times on the agenda are always estimates. Um, but we've I hope I'll look to the committee without objection. I'd like to skip over the citizens comments um and do that at 7 o'clock. Um, just because our citizen we do have people that like to offer citizen comments and we do they have come to expect that that happens at 7 o'clock. >> Um, okay. Um,

026would I didn't hand it out. Would someone be willing to read um school committee protocol number 10, which without me having printed it out? Sure. >> I printed this one out in front of you. >> Oh, for sure. I can do number 10. >> Kristen, thank you. >> It's It's loading. Hang on. >> Um, fortunately, I can't scroll down. Here we go. >> Oh, it's up there. >> Okay. Oh, great. Um, members will refer constituent concerns and complaints, including issues relating to district personnel, to the appropriate person within the district chain of communication. >> Thank you. Um, next up, we have a portion of our school committee uh mission statement. Amy, the Hamilton WM Regional School District School Committee's mission is to ensure our schools create graduates with a passion for lifelong learning together with

027the critical skills needed to maximize their potential. The Hamilton Regional School Committee will lead and inspire a district that attracts and retains highquality educators by acknowledging and respecting their expertise and professionalism. Thank you. >> So, I know it's very quiet. Um, next up, uh, is the superintendent report to you, Eric. >> Sure. Thank you. Just a couple of things. Um, I did talk about, um, a couple last week. I was at >> Little >> Oh, sorry. Well, actually, it's Let me take the share off cuz it's you're not going to be able to read it anyway. >> Okay. Um, last week I went to uh I was part of a um panel of local uh educators and uh people within the communities of Beverly and Hamilton went uh to talk about the budget school budget

028stuff uh related to chapter 70 unrestricted government aid all the things we started talking about a little earlier. Um, Representative Hannah Bowen uh hosted. We had a number of uh state reps in the room with us, a number of people from the press and had a good conversation about, you know, some of the things that were all working on. uh people were on the panel that were representatives of local packs uh CPACS which are the special ed parent groups and we had our own union president the Beverly Union president just talking together as one about some of the issues that we're facing and gave us a good opportunity to give uh feedback to uh several state reps and a and a person who represented uh the senator uh Senator Lovely's office as well. So, it

029it's really a good opportunity for us to get out, get information out, get them to hear kind of from the ground what's going on. Um, we had a good conversation with everybody in the room. Um, started out as a panel and broke into small group discussions. So, it was uh I think it was fruitful for everybody and I think it's it's one of the things that we should probably look at doing in in our own community. Um, just just within Hamilton and Wam. uh this year, this week, if I was only able to get to two out of the three this week, but the kindness concerts at the uh elementary schools always amazing. Um want to thank our music staff, Ella Martin, Kate Hashi, who did a wonderful job preparing the kids. Uh the the

030interesting thing we dealt with was everybody was worried if I was going to call a 2-hour delay on the half day, which, you know, wasn't wasn't feasible, but the uh the concerts went off without a hitch. parents were able to get there. Um, and I think everybody I talked to was like just just loved it. So, it's a great way for our community to get into our schools and see some of the things the kids are doing. Um, also in talking to some of the high school and middle school kids, they reminded me that course selections will be getting right after vacation for next year. Uh, fast I was kind of blown away. I caught off guard. As many years as I've been a principal, I forgot that that was the timeline. But um you

031know the middle school has already worked with eighth graders to help them to understand uh what the process is. They do it all electronically and then uh what the course selections are. Teachers will do uh course recommendations over the next few weeks and then right after vacation I think starting on the 26th kids will start to go into the portal and um make their selections. So, kind of a fun thing. And um I think the uh the one thing I do want to mention that people need to pay attention to and I will send this to the to the committee members. Um the statewide graduation standards have been ramped up. They're they're really moving forward at a a fairly quick pace. But uh as you know, I'm on a I work as a sub committee

032member of the legislative uh mass legislative committee working with the graduation council and um we've really decided to push back on some of the issues related to the graduation standards and I think um part of it has to do with some of the logistics. you know, it it generally will come down to money at some point because if you're going to add courses that are required, we got to be able to pay for them. We got to fit them on a budget. So, we're trying to help the state to remind the state that we're all looking at some level of deficit this year. Almost every surrounding community is looking at some level of deficit. And I think it's important to keep that in mind. Um, we also want to make sure that the graduation requirements

033as they come out and get released from the state um are open and available to all of our kids. uh specifically kids with disabilities who tend to get kind of left out when these these lofty goals are set. Um and it also uh really uh gives us an opportunity to say okay what kind of uh outlook or assessment would the state be leaning into to say kids are quote meeting the graduation requirements. I think I've said this before. Many of the schools around this area have worked for years with NEAS in their accreditation process. The the high schools working on developing what what was graduation standards um portrait of the graduate and in our case portrait of the learner. um a lot of the schools around here have done that same thing and now we're

034concerned that the graduation requirements that come out from the state level will push all of that work kind of in a different direction and um we really want to be able to recognize the work that our kids and our staff members do already related to that. So uh I will send out the the paper from MASS to the group. I'll post it in my weekly so people can see it. But I think it's important for people to be aware that there there is a state level push for graduation standards. Um, and we're not against having the graduation standards. I don't think any superintendent is. It's just a matter of making sure that they're tenable for districts and manageable for kids and families. Um, there are a lot of things in there like uh every kid

035has to sign up for FAFSA. Well, that's not realistic because some families know that they won't qualify, so why bother? But those so those are some things that we're working with within there as well. Um the one thing I want to mention about the governor's FY27 budget that was released uh as people know we are a minimum aid district and the governor's uh budget current budget that was released uh it only uh gives us again minimum aid nothing more. Uh we are pushing for she's currently got a $75 per student aid number in there uh in her budget. We're looking for 150 or more. Um, we ended up getting that number last year in the supplemental budget, but as I said, it was too late. So, the the money basically falls for us to eat

036END. It's not usable. Um, so just keep your eyes open. The bud there is a huge budget impact this year. Um, as I think I said earlier in maybe last meeting or the meeting before, 15,000 students are no longer in the state of Massachusetts. That will impact the finances and the resources available for uh schools. We are uh one of a small number of districts that have seen increases. We had 39 student increase. It doesn't sound huge, but when you're looking at 1,700 kids, that's a big increase for us. Um a lot of the bigger city schools have lost a lot of kids. Talking to this the princip the uh superintendent in Lynn the other day, they lost over 400 kids and have a $10 million deficit. So, it's it's uh it's going to be

037interesting because when you your your state aid is based on the number of students you have at the time a year out. So, next year this will cause a problem for several of the schools in our area including, you know, people that are close by. So, just keep our eyes open and I think it's important again to have those budget conversations to help the communities understand the impact of what's happening at the state house. That is all. >> Thank you. People have questions. Is do we still have Julia? She's >> Y um people have questions for superintendent. >> I don't think so. Um I just had a quick question. Even though the on the um graduation requirement even though even though the state has adopted sort of a faster timeline than we had anticipated, this

038is not impacting students who are graduating in 26. Correct. >> Correct. I just want to make sure >> you are correct. >> Students and parents of students graduating in 26 aren't they're not going to get that nothing is going to get changed for them. >> No, earlier in the year we approved the graduation requirements that impact 26. So, we're all set. We uh actually just got approved this week for that. So, um we're good for 26. I I I think you'll start to see it in 28 and 29. >> Y I just Excellent. All right. Anybody else have anything? >> No. Okay. Um, so it is 7:03. Um, so I don't know if we have any citizens on Zoom. Eric, >> oh, that's why I'm looking. >> Okay. Um, so, uh, this is the opportunity

039now for citizens comments. Um, so any citizen who is wishing to speak before the committee can come, um, and offer a comment. I'm going to just before I give my whole spiel, is anybody here interested in giving a citizens comment? Okay. Do we have anyone on Oh, we're waiting to get our visual on Zoom here. >> No one on Zoom. >> And there's no one on Zoom. >> Clear. Yep, we are clear. >> Excellent. Um, so we always do like to hear from citizens, but it doesn't look like there's anyone this evening. Um, so at this point, we'll close citizens comments at 7:04. um and move back down to the consent agenda. Um so the consent agenda is um typically items um that we um don't anticipate would have um discussion um or debate, but

040certainly they are all things that if any member of the committee has any item on the the consent agenda that they would like to discuss, we can do that. Does anyone have anything that they'd like to hold from the consent agenda? >> No. >> Um, all right. Uh, Jen, would you like to do our secretary honors? It's hard to do on Zoom, Julius, on Zoom. >> Sure. >> Is that okay? >> Yeah, no problem. I move that we accept the consent agenda as written. >> Second by Kristen. Um because we uh Kristen Noon because we have a remote member will vote. Um all votes will be roll call votes. Um Kristen >> yes. >> Uh Dana's a yes. Amy >> yes. >> Jen >> yes. >> Julia >> yes. >> And that is unanimous of

041the five members present and the motion passes. >> Thanks to the Ed Fund and New England Bolab. Some awesome donations there. Those were some great donations. Um, and look like some exciting field trip. An an exciting field trip. Um, right. Thank you for that. All right. Next up, uh, >> Curtis White, >> we have a state of the buildings report and I think Curtis Whiteitman is going to give us some information on that. Good evening members of the school committee, Mr. Tracy, Mr. Leone. Um, we uh every year uh facilities department puts together a state of our facilities. Um, so it's a sort of a lengthy uh living document from year to year. We update status on the buildings. I don't think it's a big surprise that the the theme is just aging structures, aging

042buildings, um, insufficient for our needs. Um, but we were busy. We were busy in the last year. Um, you know, notably one of the bigger projects that we completed, the athletic field complex, which uh I'm happy to report uh last night, we received our certificate of compliance from the Hamilton Conservation Committee. So, um that was a it's been a long uphill um to to get that done. We're certainly working on some items that have continued to uh require maintenance, but we're we're shifting into that mode, which is nice. It's a good place to be. Uh the high school still still talking about things there. My first year here uh we had a major failure of the hot water system and so uh quite an extensive uh battle that on that front bringing in temporary boilers

043and getting the new ones in. I'm happy to report we're on the punch list there. Um really just minor issues at this point that that pop up to be expected of a project of that magnitude. But we've had uh warm warm classrooms, maybe too warm in some areas, which is great. Uh it's a good place to be this time of year, especially with an especially cold winter. Um other highlights, so you know, on the on the front of accessibility, we we do have a lot of work to do here. Um over at Winthrop, we had a ramp that was insufficient. Uh it was too much of an angle. Really wasn't great. Uh we were able to replace it with one that was there um which is a lot safer. Um last year we actually had

044a student get injured on the one that was there prior and we had done some repairs on some of the ADA ramps and the new bleachers. Believe it or not, at our first home game, uh we've snapped off one of the ADA railings and uh we were able to get the parts quickly from our vendors and get that repaired. Um, on the mechanical front, again, I talked about the boilers. Uh, that was a quite a quite a a project. Um, one of the other highlights that I'd like to discuss is with working with the town energy manager. We talked about this at our last meeting. We accepted this grant. Um, is through the mass D, we have the grant that's coming our way for the rooftop units. So, we'll have that library. We'll have that

045cooling space. That all started last year. That's been about a eight-month project to get us to this point. Um, and finally, one thing that I've been working on on the back end using the software that we have is our ability to put a PM plan in place. So, what's been really nice about this is that um, through our asset essentials software, we're able to look at each piece of equipment and now track the maintenance on it. So, every six months, for example, we have the reoccurring maintenance comes up on our units, our water fountains, you know, that's the filters, that's what's going to queue us up for that. We've also put all of our inspections that are required in there. So, it's a very visible thing. The work orders get generated and it's a good

046reminder for the team to to jump on these things. On the safety and security front, this was a big goal of ours for the district. Uh we replaced 104 smoke detectors over a Cutler. Uh that was going to happen whether the new school went through or not. They were expired. It was something that we had to do. Uh we put in eight cameras on the new amenities building and one over at Winthrop. Um again, we wanted to be able to capture the spaces and protect them. Um as we were uh you know, new areas, we want to make sure that they're safe. Um we had an issue with signals coming out of the firebox at the middle school and high school. So when I first took this job, I think the first week I was

047here, we had a popped sprinkler head. We could not find it. Um, the worst part was that the signal never went out to the fire department. So, they didn't know. The only reason that we found out is because the flasher outside the building was going off. Police caught it. They called, ended up being in the tunnel underneath where the like language office offices and it was actually best case scenario because it was actually a 12-in pipe there that kept it from leaking out and going into the boiler room. Um, but we worked with our fire alarm vendor. We put in an antenna. So now anything that happens at the high school, middle school, that signal goes right out, goes right to the fire department. Um, so that was a a big win there. Um, on

048our challenge course, so we did go through amount of extensive repairs that needed to be completed. Those have been done. We had security alarm systems that were repaired, including at this building here. Um, the plan is is to put that into uh starting over vacation. So when we come back hopefully after school committee meetings we're not setting it off. Um we should we'll have processes in place for that. Um Cutler's alarm is ready to rock and roll and we still have some work to do over at Winthrop. So right now there currently is no system installed there as part of next year's budget request is the money to put in a very simple system that will at least allow us to arm the building, keep it safe. Um on the roof and structural integrity stuff.

049So, we obviously are entered into the ARP program for the high school roof. We'll be talking about that a little bit later tonight. Um, right now, long of the short of that is that the next thing that comes up we have to discuss is at the April 11th vote. We'll talk about the vote language tonight. Repairs were made for the middle school roof awning. Believe it or not, I know that's our newest school, but yes, it does require maintenance just like the rest of them. The awning was drooping and we had actually marked it on the wall with some ch uh chalk and over the past month the couple months that had gone by I noticed that the marking had actually disappeared because I thought I was losing my mind one day. Anyway, we had

050that come in that's been replaced on the same time there was some roof leaks that were actually causing that. We were able to repair that roof as well. 72 windows were replaced over last summer at the middle school complex. That's pretty much all the windows there. Uh we think there might be a couple remaining on the end towards the basketball court that we've got to address and we replaced some locker room doors at the um on the high school. Couple things that are in this report that I'd be remiss in not mentioning is we did two abatements over the summer. Uh we did one over a color. We removed 1400 square ft of asbesus containing material going out to the modular wing. We replaced it with an epoxy poured floor and we removed 1,200 feet

051from one of the high school classrooms and replaced with an LXT tile. Um the beauty of that that was the type of material that is used in new schools does not require waxing. So it uh very simple to clean, very um good on maintenance. So it's it's something that I'm hoping lasts for a long time. All right. Um so looking forward, so this year we have a number of areas that we're looking at. This is what I'm focusing on right now. Um obviously with the direction of Vinnie and Eric as things come up. First thing is looking for grants. Right. So we are engaged with MSBA core program. Um right now we're I should back that up. We're submitting a statement of interest for the three elementary schools. Um which we will talk about at

052a future school committee meeting. But we are going through the groundwork now of getting those applications ready for approval by the committee. Um there's a uh school water improvement grant. It's called Swig. Uh it gives up to $10,000 for improvements for water testing, water fixtures. Um that is a grant that uh I've jumped through the first hurdle of and now it's the process of filling out the paperwork. Uh so we'll be we'll be pursuing that. Um, we're going to continue to work with the MSBA for the high school roof and I do have a meeting on some energy management grants um, coming up during vacation over at Cutler. So, we're going to look to do some work at some of the fixtures there that are dated. Again, we weren't at the time when we were

053moving forward with a new school. We weren't going to look at replacing those fixtures, but we're going to take a a closer look at that now. From a safety standpoint, um, we're going to continue to monitor our Hera, our speestus in the schools. That's an every six-month inspection. Our three-year report uh was actually due is due um last month. Uh our uh vendor is working on that. They'll have it in hand for us. Every year we tend to do an abatement or two. We're going to continue on that pace to continue to remove it from the schools. Um the indoor air quality report. So, this is something when I first joined uh the school district, there were two big things that came out of the committee. One was water testing and that was from Trent.

054The other was indoor air quality from um Dave. And so we've been gathering data. We've been doing indoor quality indoor air quality sampling. We have enough data now where we can start to generate um some usable data in my opinion. And so I want to get that put together and I'll work that with Vinnie with Eric and uh see if we can help guide some of our maintenance activities based on that. Um, we have some critical repairs and inspections of our sprinkler systems that need to occur. I think we talked about that at the last school committee meeting I was at. Um, one thing that I think that we need to address is the chairlift of color. So, again, this would be something we probably wouldn't pursue due to the cost, but now that the

055school's not moving forward, I think we ought to look at that chairlift and uh look at replacing that. It's been locked out by the state. I'm pretty sure that thing's over 20 years old. So we'll we'll work that through the capital committee and um see what we can do there. The third is green initiatives. So a lot of the projects that we do um we usually have Vicki not too far away um talking with us and so I want to continue to bring the green initiatives to this into the school. Um, one thing that we, Eric is working on long before I started and it seems to just it's something that's just going to continue and hopefully we'll have it at some point is the solar canopy at the middle school. And so, um, the

056cost savings on that are I mean Eric knows better than I do. Um, but that's something that we want to work on. U, we have a new vir um vendor for environmental controls. Uh, I'm meeting I've met with them a couple times now looking at the high school for some opportunities. Right now, uh, we're on a a primarily pneumatic driven system there. And if you spend any time in the boiler room where the air compressor is located, you'll notice that that air compressor fires off about every 30 seconds. Huge, huge, huge energy waste. And so, I'm working with BCM right now to try and figure out if there's a way that we can electrify our thermostats, our equipment that's pneumatic driven, and trying to figure out an ROI on that type of stuff. Um, on

057the same note, there are also grants available for that that they're going to help me with. And again, anything that I move forward with there, I will present to the committee. Um, and then finally, we did talk about the fluorescent fixtures over Cutler. And really, that is kind of the highlights and kind of what I'm looking at over the next year. Um, by no means am I tied to any of of the things that I'm focusing on, um, per se. Obviously, there's a whole lot of other things like that pesky snow that keeps falling that uh seems to railroad some of this really quickly, but um you know, I I'm open to suggestions and I hope that at least this plan is in alignment with what the school committee, Eric and Vinnie are trying to

058do. >> Thank you. Um does anybody have any questions? >> No. Um >> I will I I will just say um thank you for that. >> It's good report. >> Yeah. Yeah. Say it. What was that? >> Well, I just said it's really thorough report. I always appreciate it. a lot. So, I know I took the time and made myself read it really slowly because it really takes some time to see like each one of the bullet points is big and important and it it's easy I think to if you don't really read it like I guess I'm sort of encouraging anyone who's listening to take the time to read it because we get asked a lot about maintenance and the state of the schools and it and this report was really comprehensive and helpful.

059Um and also a little overwhelming. >> It's it is a lot. It there's a lot uh going on, but I' I've had good support. We've got a great team here and um fortunately, you know, we can take the good that came out of the bad, right? So we did have a very thorough report on the Cutler site um as part of the school project which is referenced in this report as well also on our website. So anybody listening you know the state of the school report will be there all the information from the school um vote in all that information that was generated is there. Highly recommend people take a take time to read it. >> Um and I and I can't I can't tell if Julia is trying to say something. Nope. >> Nope.

060You're ve you're very far away for me to see, so it's hard for me to tell. >> Um, >> if you see me undoing anything, I'm coughing. >> The thing that I think is important for everybody to understand is this is what's known with the age of our buildings. There are a lot of unknowns. I mean, there there we know that there is a a water pipe at Cutler that was temporarily repaired in the middle of the night last year that needs to be fully replaced. Um, we know that there are lots of um, opportunities for failure given the life cycles of our current equipment both in our buildings and on top of our buildings, including our roofs, our HVAC systems, our ventilator units. Um, and and Curtis is really trying to do that dayto

061day, every day. Something new. You know, we talked about um ice dams and Curtis and his guys have been mopping water for it seems like 3 weeks straight because we can't beat the ice dams. They just keep coming. Uh it's been cold and crazy. But um there's just so many other things that this report does not highlight and does not bring out. And I think it's important to know like Curtis is the only guy that I talked to at 4:30 in the morning because we're trying to figure out if snow is going to get moved enough, if we're going to be able to get ready for school. and I appreciate the work he's done. I told him when he got hired, you're going to be drinking out of a fire hose. I'm pretty sure he

062still is. Um, and it's been more than a year. So, I think uh, you know, it's important to note that he has gotten a lot done. He's organized a lot of things. This is just, I think, a snapshot of of some of those things. Uh, there are a lot of things going on behind the scenes like looking into using our our Brightley system to manage our rental fees. as I talked about last last meeting that's part of you know kind of Curtis behind the the scenes dealing with this usually transportation and operations also fall into this so this is a small piece of what he does even though it's it's extremely comprehensive there there's still other ways he's running around um so I just wanted to note that thank him for his work and his

063team for keeping us up and running and keeping us um moving forward as much as we can and we'll just continue to pursue options we talk about grants all the We talk about finding ways to come up with different ways to do things. Um Curtis has been able to just investigate and willing to turn and look a different way to say, "Hey, maybe there's a different way to do this." So, we'll continue to do that and continue to help move this whole process and problem along. >> Thank you. I appreciate that. There was no way I was missing my son playing the drums yesterday. >> I hear you. >> So, schools were opening. >> Oh, thank you. Um, okay. Anybody else have anything? >> Thank you. >> Um, next up is uh the high school

064roof. I'm guessing you may be just staying here. >> Yeah, I'm just going to I'm just going to hang here. >> All right. So, one of the exhibits um that was on tonight's agenda is a a letter from the MSBA. And this is the um letter giving us or letting us know the grant amounts. So you'll notice in paragraph two um the board approved an estimated maximal maximum total facilities grant of 4 million445,185 um which does not include any funds potential for eligible eligible owners and construction contingency expenditures. Um they also reference a number of $4,675 uh 933 and um so that that really based off the cost of the roof um which I think is around 10.2 right now. >> 10.26. Yeah, 10.2 million. >> So maybe I should back up. So, what we're

065doing for people that are listening in and who may not know is we're engaged with the MSBA ARP program to replace 128,000 square ft of high school roof. This includes all of the high school and the athletic hallway and locker rooms. Uh it's important to note that those if you look on an aerial you'll see that the high school roof is mostly a white material PVC material and those were done u at some point during the middle school renovation. Um where those are part of the high school we were able to include them in this project. Um the history of this is actually Tom Giri started this statement of interest and um this was back in uh 2024. The statement of interest was accepted. Um, we got assigned, I finished that statement of interest. He

066started it, I finished it. We were signed an OPM. So, the MSPA is part of the ARP program. Works a little bit differently than the core program. They assign you an OPM. They assign you a designer. The OPM we were designed is a company called P3 and we've been dealing with a gentleman named Rob took to the designer is actually the same designing firm that did our high school field project. Obviously, different engineers. I don't know if we'd want a high school field on top of our roof, although that would be kind of cool. Um, and the gentleman running that name is Brian Neely. So, um, we met back in June of 2025. We did our kickoff meeting. We met on site. We took a walk around. We showed them the roof. Um, I have

067to admit between that time in in October, there was a few moments I was up there and I was doing covering my eyes as they were cutting into our roof for test cuts and pulling it up like a nice piece of wedding cake. And so they do that for cross-sectioning. It's a little nerve-wracking, especially when you're already dealing with roof leaks, but they're professionals. They had roofers there. They patched them. Patches have not leaked. Um, so this activity went on in September, we were um told by the MSBA our reimbursement rate was 45.52%. October, we received our estimate cost um total estimated cost of 10.6. The numbers were massaged a little. That's how it came back down to 10.2. We submitted to the MSBA on October 23rd and then we received this letter on the

06812th saying they were we were accepted in. I'm making this sound like there wasn't a lot of work by a lot of people. There was a lot of things, a lot of activity going on in between there. Uh but that's basically the highlights of it. Moving forward, what we need to do is um now that we've been accepted in is we're entering this the phase of the project for the construction documents and bid documents to be generated. So that's what they're working on now. They're finalizing drawings. They're getting bid documentation ready and we're kind of getting this ready in the parallel effort to April 11th, which is a town vote. Um once we're approved funding, those bid docks will hit the street and then away we're going to go. That's I think I have that

069right, Eric. >> Got it. Yep. >> Um and I think tonight what we're here to discuss is the vote language. >> Yeah. Essentially the process uh is initiated MSBA to the towns. We work with our OPM uh to to formal kind of formalize everything, get our numbers. Right now we're looking at $10.2 million for a total roof project, 128,000 square ft. That will take approximately 6 months to complete. So, we want to start it in the summer because it's going to overlap into the school year. Unfortunately, it's just a big it's a lot of roof. Um, so this this letter determined that that we'll get approximately $4.6 million between 4.4 and 4.6 million. There is a comment in there. It says it could be less and it's only because if the price of the if

070the cost of the roof comes in, if we come in at 9.3, they would adjust their numbers. Um, but that that's this is where we sit now. What we need to to move forward from here is uh we tonight we have a motion that I'll put on the screen in a second to approve the the funding for the 10 the total $10.2 million. We have to uh at the MSBA request at the request of our attorneys at the request of our bond council has to have the whole amount on there so that everything's transparent. So, we were to approve the borrowing tonight. That would move to the warrant. We would send to the towns uh the warrant language, the warrant motion, and uh the ballot vote because it would be a debt exclusion in in

071both towns. So, the the um the the vote tonight is to secure the funding and then we'll move it on to the towns for the addition to the warrants. There'll be two votes in each town. There'll be one at town meeting on the floor and then there's one at the ballot because it's because it's a data. >> Um, can you speak a little bit about just I guess I'm modeling this after the questions we got regarding the elementary school building. We have one number. Is was there a place to gather I know we bid out to the construction later but like is this number um were we able to get other estimates I guess is the question. >> Yeah. So what will happen is the the number is the not to exceed number just like

072the field project. So the 10.296345 that number 10,296,345 becomes a not to exceed number. >> Got it. As Curtis said, we'll put this out to bid and that bid process could come in at 9.4, you know. So, um, we just we just have to have a number transparent enough for the towns to know they're voting on this number and we're not going to there's no intention to to exceed it. >> There is, however, I want to be very transparent and clear. Vicky Mason and Curtis have worked together to get a grant for the rooftop unit which you you've already approved $148,000 grant for two approximately $200,000 $300,000 $300,000 unit. Um we are trying to push that off to the same time the roof gets done. So if the roof gets approved, they're going to take

073the old unit off anyway and we're hoping they can just replace it with the new unit to save us some more money. So, um, those are that's the only thing that that is different than this $10.2 million. >> Thank you. >> Anybody else questions? Um, so the Oh, here it is. It's up already. Um, >> she's Amy's got it. >> I'm going to read it. >> Oh, you're going to read it. >> But I have a question about it. >> Yeah. >> Uh, it says voted. Should I say voting or should I say move? >> You should say you started with Yep. >> Just checking. >> Are we ready? >> Gota not because I have to read. >> Okay. >> One. >> I move that the Hamilton Regional School District. The district hereby appropriates the

074amount of 10,296,345 for the purpose of paying costs of the roof system replacement at the Hamilton Regional High School located at 775 Bay Road in Hamilton, Massachusetts, including the payment of all costs incidental or related thereto the project which proposed repair project would materially extend the useful life of the school and preserve an asset that otherwise is capable of supporting the required educational program and for which the district may be eligible for a school construction grant from the Massachusetts School Building Authority, MSBA, set amount to be expended at the direction of the district's director of facilities, operations, and transportation. To meet this appropriation, the district is authorized to borrow set amount under and pursuant to chapter 71 section 16D of the general laws and the district agreement as amended or pursuant to any other enabling

075authority. The district acknowledges that the MSBA's grant program is a non-entitlement discretionary program based on need as determined by the MSBA and any project cost the district incurs in excess of any grant approved by and received from the MSBA shall be the sole responsibility of the district provided further that any grant that the district may receive from the MSBA shall not exceed the lesser of 145 and 52 hundredths% 45.52% % of eligible approved project costs as determined by the MSBA or two the total maximum grant amount determined by the MSBA and that the total amount of borrowing authorized pursuant to this vote shall be reduced by any grant amount set forth in the project funding agreement that may be executed between the district and the MSBA. Further, I further move that within 7 days from

076the date on which this vote is adopted, the secretary be and hereby is instructed to notify the select board and the finance committee of each of the member towns of this district as to the amount and general purpose purposes of the debt hearing authorized as required by the district agreement and by chapter 71 section 16D of the general laws. Do we have a second? >> Second. Second by Kristen Noon. Thank you, Amy. Um, are there questions or further discussion? I >> think so. >> No. All right. Looks like we're ready to vote. Um, we'll start with you, Julia. >> Yes. >> Kristen, >> yes. >> Amy, >> yes. Jen, >> yes. >> Dane is a yes. Uh, that is unanimous of the five members present. And the motion passes. >> Thanks for all of that

077work. >> We still got a lot of work to do. >> Yes. >> Thank you. >> Well, we'll see. Okay. Um, next up we have uh back to you Eric for the some formative evidence. >> Thank you. Um I think every everybody Kristen's familiar with the process. So just so everybody understands the process is twofold for me as superintendent. I have evaluated yearly on the superintendent uh evaluation instrument and rubric that is um offered by the state. We've used the same process for this my fifth year here. So we will we continue to use that. My evidence submission is at two points. midcycle which is what you see here and then at the end of the year it'll be in May so that there can be some discussion about the final evaluation which is generally

078presented by the committee in June. Um this is really the some of the information not all of it. It is intended to be that way purposefully we're only halfway through the year. So when you look at some of the the the things that are on here, it's set up initially uh about my goals that I set that were approved back in October by the committee. Uh there were a number of uh goals including uh improving excuse me improving instructional leadership. Uh completing the strategic plan, examining start time changes and active advocacy and networking on behalf of the district. And that's both in within our local communities and at the state house. And then the the next part is broken down by the four standards that are required as part of the evaluation uh required by

079the state. I'll use standard one as an example. Um standard one and instructional leadership. under each of the the overarching umbrella of the standards this in this case instructional leadership there are indicators for different segments or sections. Um so the the information under each of the segment is is for you to to look at as evidence. Again this is a partial submission uh about to the point of where we are at the school year now. There are things still ongoing. There are things that will be added between now and then and this document will probably double if not triple in size by the time we get to the uh end of year mark in in which the committee will use that to determine uh among other things to determine u my final evaluation in June.

080So, um, just wanted to make it available to you, make sure you had it is start to start reviewing and start looking at now because the process is a bit daunting and, uh, it does come up all at once and and certainly I am available at any time to answer questions about this or about anything else that we're working on in the district. So, I just wanted to make sure people had it now to start looking at it. >> Thank you. >> People have questions. Um well I have a question that's not really it's more about the rubric. I think in the past couple years we thought that the rubric was changing. Do you happen to know whether it's the same or not? >> The current rubric that is on the link >> is the

081same. >> This is the one they're using. >> Excuse me. Sorry. This is the one they're using this year. I had to double check myself because I I think you and I had that conversation about the rubric, but this is the one >> um that they are using this year. >> Okay. Um >> thanks. >> Just in case. Um and I guess um I don't know if anybody else has any questions. I just want to say I I just made a note um soon maybe at our next meeting we should just talk about the schedule for the evaluation. It's um we usually make sure we and like Eric said the final evaluation will likely be in May. Um and um we should just have that as a discussion about the timing. Um, but this is

082helpful to have now so that you can start reading it and get asking questions and it's a good opportunity that you know you can ask Eric directly if you have questions about under goal three on page two uh the fourth bullet point down um is that done the review existing survey data and current data from previous submissions. It see was that wasn't worked marked. >> Yeah. Oh, sorry. I didn't mark it. But yes, it is done. We we did that at the beginning of the process for the school start times. >> Okay. >> Thank you. >> Great. Thank you for that. And it is a lot to go through. >> Yeah. >> A lot to put it together. Um okay. Uh, next up, we had discussed um we still had a couple of vacancies on

083our school committee liaison. Um, I don't know if Eric, if you can put it up there. Um, but um, so we talked about filling this. So when I looked at this list here before we get started, one of the things I realized at the bottom too, I think we actually discussed but we just didn't actually remove it that Hamilton master planning and when I'm master planning um have been were on were going on when we created this and it was I was the representative to Hamilton and David Frankle was the representative but both of those processes are complete. So, >> right, >> we should have removed those but we didn't. Um so the other positions that are currently vacant for liaison are the WUNM select board um the wellness committee CPAC um and I believe

084those were all previously um filled by David Franle um >> so I would say >> oh Dana y Dana this Julia >> I'm on the wellness committee Oh, okay. >> I've been going to their meetings either via Zoom or >> Excellent. I think I now that you say that, I think we knew that. Um, all right. So, we really just have two. Is anyone want to pipe up and say they've actually been going to CPAC? >> No, but we can remove athletics facilities improvement building committee. >> Oh, yes. It's still we're going to leave it just because the project's not fully complete. >> Okay. >> Just so we can finalize it and say everybody's in bit in the loop. >> Okay. But that's good to think about in >> after the election in the spring

085when we revisit this. That will be something we can um so I guess when I look at this now, good to know about the wellness committee. So really we're looking at Wenom select board and CPAC. Um I don't know if anyone is interested in either one of those. >> I'm only a liaison to one committee, so I'm happy to do another one. So, I I don't mind doing either of them or um I mean, I live in one. I could do one select board. I could do CPAC, you know, whatever seems excellent. So, I heard Kristen being open to doing one or both of those. I do think I obviously could be anyone, but I do think it does make some sense to have a Winnham resident be the Wenom >> select board representative. Um,

086anybody else have any other thoughts that they want to jump in or a nomination? >> I'm on three. I'm a I have three lays on relationships. >> Yeah. Well, again, these were Yeah, these were all held by these were I think that three is kind of >> I think >> I'm happy to keep my three. >> I only have I don't I only have one at this point. Um and is that true? I only have the final I think. Yeah. >> Um Oh, yeah. Because I was on master planning. Um, so you know I, you know, I think three is plenty. Um, yeah. So I think everyone should I'm happy to if nobody else wants to do CPAC, I could jump in. I'd rather I don't I don't think I'd be the right person for

087the Wenom select board. I think >> Yeah, I'm happy to do that one. Um, >> how many are there altogether? I'm trying to think if we sort of divide them up, you know. >> Well, like like Jen just mentioned, they do sort of some of them change. >> Yeah. >> You know, and some of them are more um busier than others. >> It's just the select board and CPAC if Julia's taken. >> Yeah, that's all that's left. Um, all right. So, at this point, somebody make a nomination. We'll see how this goes. I nominate Kristen Noon for the position of liaison to the Wenham Select Board. >> Second. >> Okay. I heard a nomination in a second. Kristen, is that something that you would accept the nomination? >> Yes. >> All right. Are there any

088other nominations for the Wenom Select Board liaison? Is there any discussion? Okay. Looks like we're ready to vote. Um Jen, >> yes. >> Amy, >> yes. Dana is yes. Kristen, >> yes. >> Julia, >> yes. >> All right. Um and is unanimous of the five members present. And congratulations, Kristen. >> Thank you. >> Um does anyone have a nomination for CPAC? >> Sound I mean Kristen and I could fight it out. You have an interest in being on CPAC? >> I can I can do it. I have a a child that was previously a special ed student, so I've never been to a meeting. I'm not sure what I mean I think as a liaison >> right as a liaison it's great if you can attend some meetings you're certainly not required to attend all

089of the meetings um but also could just reach out to find out what's going on >> okay >> um >> All right >> it's also helpful for them to know hey I have somebody I can reach out to the school committee to ask questions >> okay sure I'm happy to do it and >> not that I wouldn't but >> all right does anyone have a nomination I nominate Kristen Non to as the leazison to CPAC. >> Second by Jen Carr. And that is something that you would accept? >> Yes. >> Okay. Um, is there any further discussion? >> Nope. >> All right. Uh, Julia, >> yes. >> Kristen, >> yes. >> Bane is a yes. Amy, >> yes. >> Jen, >> yes. >> And that is unanimous of the five members present. >> Um, and

090Kristen, thank you very much. You're putting more work on your plate. >> Okay. >> Excellent. >> Figure it out. >> Thank you. Um Okay. Um and I I mean I'll just say I have you already paying quite a bit of attention I think to the select board and the fincom over there in >> I do. Yeah. That won't be >> I know from conversations. >> Yes. >> Um okay. Um thank you all for that. And uh next up is a report as um we knew was coming, a report on the community conversations um that took place. Eric Teio, >> thank you. Um the actually I'm going to back this up to give a little context. The uh community conversations, as many of you know, were um in in the month of January. We did two

091different dates. Um one related to uh a daytime event, which it snowed and rained and iced and everything, and we still had more than 50 people in the room. Uh the second one was done uh on the January 29th which was at night at the high school and it was a little smaller crowd. Um couple of people that came to both but it was a good opportunity to collect data and get uh information from different types of people within our community. It wasn't just school side, it wasn't just town side. It was a it was a really I thought a really nice mix of people who had uh varying degrees of like or dislike for the process of the school building construction, the school building consolidation idea, etc. So for for me um I had

092to try to figure out a way to organize uh this whole process. So, I dipped back into uh the 1980s and dug up um something called Dono Six Hats. And this really gives us an opportunity to focus in six different areas with a group uh that is specifically divided in in a lot of ways and try to uh maintain order and keep things uh moving kind of pointed in a positive direction. The way I framed it for people was that we would start kind of before the project and walk through the steps before the project to the project after the project and looking forward because ideally we need to look forward. Um so this process was specifically d designed to dig into those uh different segments of the school consolidation project and and looking far

093forward to see what happened. Uh we had over 90 people attend both sessions. Um the process was really specifically around hats. So I use an example of the white hat. That's how we opened it. The white hot hat was dedicated to grounding the conversation in objective reality. We were looking at neutral data. um trying to take away the speculation, the speculative stuff and try to figure out uh how what what influenced what are the facts around what influenced the vote around the school project. Uh I spent about 15 minutes between 10 and 15 minutes on each hat in this process. uh moved into the Red Hat and that really had to do with emotion and that was really just give me one word that describes how you felt during that that voting process or during

094that that school process. That was that was pretty powerful. Uh the third one was the black hat. That's really the the things that we have to look out for. What do we need to what do we need to be cautious about? Um and also talking about some some critical thinking uh along the way. After that black hat segment, we moved to yellow hat and said started to look towards the future and exploring some of the benefits and the shared values in the room. As I said before we started this, there is one shared value that our our schools uh need some care and attention and I think that's one shared value that came out very clearly here. Once the yellow hat was completest, excuse me, and completed moved on to the green hat and trying

095to figure out creative new solutions. what types of things have might we have not thought of? What types of things um may be beneficial to this process? And I'll give some examples. People said, "What about Penguin Hall? Why didn't you know, why don't we look at Penguin Hall?" So, those those types of things came up. We were trying to push people to think out of the box uh and look beyond some of the obvious things that were out there. And then we brought it all around with the blue hat. And the blue hat was really how to synthesize it all, but really put uh the question in front of people that the question that I think drove that whole uh segment. I could support a future plan if um and that was something that we

096got some amazing answers. Amazing. People really took some time to think about it and it was just a writing exercise. is I gave them a half sheet of paper with that question on it and they wrote out um the things that they were thinking about what could I support and it was um lots of great information. I think um as you go into this uh report you'll see that the hats come up as organizational pieces of the report as well. So kind of what happened under the white hat conversation, what are the facts there? What were the information gaps? Uh, Red Hat, what were the dominant sentiments? I mean, you know, you can you can see in the report the community feels the process was predetermined, manipulated, disingenuous. Um, and then what are some of

097the emerging positives? People were more hopeful. People want to be included and they think it needs to be student focused. Moving further into the black hat, people were really concerned about unsustainable tax burden. We heard that a lot. um particularly the impact on our seniors and middle class. Uh as we said throughout the process, your house isn't paying your taxes. And what that means is you might have a million- dollar house, but you might not have the money to pay the taxes on the million-dollar house because of lots of factors. You bought it 50 years ago for $35,000 and it's gained a lot over time. um things like that where people's people's uh value house value has outpaced their uh income. Uh they talked a lot about the mega school concern and what happened with

098larger facilities and how they imperson they can be so imp so much more impersonable excuse me impersonal. Um and then back through the yellow hat really looking at highquality education. High quality education we want to be top in the state. uh that came out very clearly as part of this report. And then uh we dug into kind of inclusion and special education as a separate and they there was a real good consensus across the board of we should have uh inclusive improved spaces for special education students across the district to ensure equitable education. um green hat looking at alternatives. There were uh proposals included a lot of renovation uh conversations around renovation, different different phases of renovation like do a little bit here, a little bit here, a little bit here, replace one whole school,

099remodel two others. So there were there were different suggestions um throughout the information that we got got. And I talked about uh Penguin Hall as one of the suggestion, Gordon Conwell property and Iron Rail. Um finishing up with the blue hat, we really started to say, you know, what a safety and modernization look like. People talked about uh air quality, heating, security, and 24 as 21st century educational layouts. Um and then really what was their what was their driving force and transparency and integrity came up a lot. Uh really people are looking for an independent architectural design assessments of all buildings. Uh when you look at the data it really pokes out to say let's look at all of our schools school buildings. We have six including central office. let's get somebody to give us

100an idea of the different levels of renovation that are available and then let's decide within our communities of how to attack that. Um and that that seemed to be the sentiment across the data set as we as we dug into it. Um we looked a little bit about what is the cost of inaction. So that whole section is is fairly uh straightforward. We've talked about this a lot. escalating operation and maintenance costs, um legal compliance and liabilities. You heard Curtis tonight talk about ADA compliance, um educational and specialized service costs, out of district tuition. Are there opportunities for us to bring some of these kids back in if we have uh specific program program spaces available? And then equitable access for all of our kids. and talks about special needs students in this report, which

101is really what got highlighted in a lot of the data, but really equitable for for all of our our kids. And then uh the big one is community and real estate impact. What does that look like? And um we talked about it through the process, but it came out again in this data set. Substandard school spaces are recognized as having a negative impact on the town's overall property values. Um outdated facilities make it difficult for us to compete and with private schools or to maintain top school in the state status. Um then we we pushed in a in a different direction and tried to say okay what does all this data tell us about moving forward which was ultimately why we did this. We wanted to know where people are at. We wanted to get

102a foundation or baseline but we also wanted to understand um the path forward. Uh, one of the things that was very clear was that students will always be at the center and uh, I kind of said thank you for that because I wasn't sure how that would come out but um, it was really clear in the data looking at safety, accessibility and inclusivity. Um, really looking at the ideas of how to approach it I think is is uh, open for further conversation. There were a couple of different uh angles if you will mostly pointed to a hybrid phase plan. So looking at either doing a a larger scale renovation on and I'll just use this as an example. It's not in the report on the Cutler school, excuse me, it is in the report on

103the Cutler school or looking at it from the perspective of all five schools doing a little bit a little bit a little bit. So that hybrid approach rather than saying let's build one giant school and and uh consolidate our schools. There was a lot of call for pri what are what is our need priority um to to be able to modernize our schools and then what is the most critical site we've identified Cutler as a critical site. The state has identified Cutler as a critical site. So um I I put that in there. It's likely Cutler. Um then respecting the town identity entity identity and this is really talking about the community small school preference. We heard it uh kind of way out throughout the process and it was really part of the beginning information

104when people said you know when we were digging into it and said what why did you vote the way you did and it was you know I don't want a big school I want to keep the small town value of a small school and then um proving the value like what's the value to the community and how do we deliver results while looking at still other projects because we know there are others Um, truth and cost. There was a lot of emotion around the process. Um, and again, there was a call uh throughout this data set about looking at independent architecture designers uh to determine the cost of renovation versus new build for all five schools and then present this as different stages to the community so that the communities can decide. Um what was

105interesting was a lot of opposition uh statements within the data set were about the fact that they felt the costs are being inflated uh cost of repairs were being inflated to cost to to force a new build and then um the regional collaboration there were there were a lot of suggestions about looking at different properties. We have looked at a lot of them as people remember through the process we can dig deeper and and try to figure out um some different approaches and then um the conclusions are really around the middle path. We really want to prioritize safety, special education, inclusion as non-negotiables for moving forwards. Um framing the project around needs versus want and offering a plan that keeps a household tax impact within a clearly defined threshold of support. The key here is

106how do we find that threshold of support? Where are people comfortable in spending in relation to keeping up their schools and their school buildings? Um there's some some trust factors that came up quite a bit in the in the data and I think part of that is continuing to uh work to build trust and rebuild trust. That was part of my reasoning for doing these community conversations. Um the door was wide open for anybody that wanted to come. Say what you got to say. Put everything on the table. And that all is part of the data that's held here and here. And I think it's important to look at the last paragraph where it says we're not just looking for a yes vote. We're looking for a project we can all take pride in. We're

107committed to a process that's honest and inclusive. By focusing on our shared values, educational excellence, fiscal responsibility, and community care, we will build schools that serve our children today and protect our town's values for the next 50 years. I think that really sums it up. Um, and people might say, "Well, that's not really a direction." I think there is a direction. look at um creating um putting out the uh requests for studies on the buildings, gathering the information, outlining the requests for proposals so that it shows different levels of renovation or repair uh for each of the buildings versus a new build at each of the buildings. Um as well as some other ideas. architects and designers may come up with other ideas, but I think then put it all out to the communities um

108both of the communities and let people weigh in on that and then at the same time try to figure out a way to figure out how what that balance is. What's the balance point for where people would buy into renovating, updating or upgrading our schools and I think there are some things that are clearly non-negotiable in this report and other things that that we can look at. And I think that's uh gives us at least somewhat of a direction forward. It's not crystal clear, but I I never thought it would be because there are still a lot of factors like the kind of the threshold factor of where people are comfortable. Just so people are aware, if you scroll down into the appendix, all the data that was collected in all the sessions is the

109next 20some pages. It's everybody's response. Everybody's sticky that they wrote out. Everything we took down on paper is in the appendix and available. Um, and just so people aren't worried that we interpreted made our own interpretations, we also have a website on our site that has all the original pictures of all of the the data that was collected. So, there are pictures of the posters with the the actual stickies on there, so people can look at those as well. And um certainly wanted to put it out there too to give people an opportunity to come to some conclusion as well and maybe weigh in on this report and give us some idea. I'll release it tomorrow to the to the the general public through my email, send it to the towns and see if they

110can get it out as well. Um and then start to get some feedback from various groups. >> All right. Thank you for that. anybody? >> I appreciate this. I'm glad you included the like raw data in here. It's helpful, too. >> Yeah, it's actually very interesting to read. >> Yeah, >> you got time just kind of go through it. It's it's it's pretty telling. >> There's a lot to unpack here. >> Yeah. I wish I could say I was more like there was an answer that just was like yes, this will work. >> Yeah. >> But there's not. >> There's not. >> Yeah. Even in dipping through the data, I spent hours and hours digging in through to try to figure out like is there is there a direction that absolutely glows and you know

111is our northstar in this data. It's not it's not perfect, but I think we do have some good steps that we can take. uh those steps takes time. So if you you know say okay let's do an RFP on all of our buildings that still has to go to a town meeting and it's not going to be ready for the next town meeting. So there's there's some time factor involved here too which buys us that some time to do some other work. Um I think it's important to try to to work within the community to figure out where that threshold lies. you know, we were coming out, if you remember, uh the average cost, I think in Hamilton was approximately $2,000 a h a household on an $860,000 house. Uh that was a lot of

112money. That's beyond the threshold, clearly cuz that excited people to come and vote uh against the project. Where is the line, I guess, is is the question. And I think in looking even when you look at tonight's budget, if you take the the debt that we're already paying, we're looking at, you know, a million dollars here and a million dollars there, that's starting to add up for the towns. So trying to find that threshold over a 20-year period is going to be of primary importance to to move anything forward, anything at all. Um, and I'm I'm not 100% sure what that number is. And I I certainly welcome the opportunity to have conversations with people about what that might look like to figure out a process cuz you still have people on all all sides.

113Like, yes, let's build a new school. I want, you know, I had a guy approach me at the event and say, I just moved to town and I moved to town because I thought you were building a new school. You know, and I I get that. And then uh we also had a person in our second night who's been in the community for 50 years, is fixed income, and is like, "Please don't blow me out of my community by raising my taxes." So there's there's I understand it. I see it. And I think the process for me gave me uh some good perspective as well as talking to people from the various sides of uh the the whole debate, if you will. Can I add something? >> Yeah, Julia. >> Can you hear me? >>

114Yeah, we got you. >> Um, I I like that we have sort of our non-negotiables, which is safety and special education inclusion. I think that will help guide any decision that we make and also having um a framework around needs versus wants. Um, I really do I I think that because there's so many variables and opinions and things that need to be considered in this project, having at least one or two things that we can sort of all agree on, I think is very very important. Um, moving forward, but this this is fantastic work. It's certainly a lot of like food for thought. Would it be worthwhile to also look at switching our three schools? So like one school is kindergarten and first grade and prek. Then we got second and third and fourth and

115fifth because that way everybody in the town has a piece invested in each of the schools and it's not going to end up be being like well when won't vote for anything in Hamilton and Hamilton won't vote for anything in Wenham. Uh because every town is going to have skin in the game for all three schools. >> Yeah. I mean I think that and other things are worth investigating. The restructuring piece has been a conversation for many years within the administration and teachers and talking with even teacher leadership about what types of ideas do you have as we enter these stages of uh budget difficulty? Are there some things we can do to to save money? And that's part of looking at what does restructuring look like? what is what is kind of rejiggering the

116way schools are set up look like? How do we approach um different aspects of you know the how schools run? >> So there's there's there's definitely opportunity. There's lots of opportunity. I think we're at a blank a blank slate state where we're here. We have some ideas. We have a little bit of direction. We can start in that direction and build on it as we move forward. I also saw a lot on knowing the costs of different options in detail. It would be it would behoove us to communicate to the community that if that is truly what you want, it ain't going to be cheap, >> right? um you know just doing one school in detail was $7 million or several million dollars. >> Yeah. If you do if you do if you do a

117study um I was talking to our former OPM now in the school building process but they we've uh stayed connected and had some good conversation but they were able to get me copies of uh requests that other communities have done. So other communities have done some similar things. They've they've hired architects and designers to do that thing. Okay, we want to be able to look at each building, give us some different levels of approach, and then take all that and bring it forward to the community and get an idea of what direction to go in. So there are other communities that that have done that and are currently doing that. Um, and those studies range from $300 to $500,000. And you know it it it gets expensive, more expensive depending on what what you want

118to include, how much information you want to include, how deep do you want to go with the data. What do you what do you really want to know? I mean the advantage we have is there is so much information that's already been dug up on the Cutler school. That one's almost done. But all the other schools will will take some time to be able to figure out that direction. And again, it's going back to the towns and saying we, you know, we're going to do this, but right now we don't have MSBA support. So, it's on 100% on the communities. And we will bring SOIS, Curtis alluded to earlier. We will bring statements of interest forward uh on the elementaryaries because I think those are where our greatest needs lie right now. Um to vote

119because the window has opened and will be open until about midappril. what we have to submit and we'll submit again and we may or may not get selected but I think it's incumbent on us to continue to to try to get some state funding to offset some of these the costs. >> Okay, that was great. I'm glad we have that information and And it were good sessions and I was I yeah I mean I it was it was great to see the number of people that were willing to come out especially on that crazy day >> um and really engage and I don't know about every I think all of you everybody I I don't know I I sat at a very diverse group of people got to meet >> people with lots of different

120ideas it was really >> it's good to have those conversations. >> I I do think a key piece of this will be I don't want I don't want to say better numbers but just that piece of the cost of renovations that I I feel like that just has come up so many times that no matter what happens next I feel like answering that question will be an just a like a keystone to going thereafter. So I I think for next year's budget planning or whatever we have to do trying to kind of fund some of those studies I think will be important but I also think it'll be the process for how we do that because I feel like for me one of the things that seemed challenging for the community was the long committee

121nature of this where it seemed to all of a sudden come out of nowhere that we were voting for a new school for some people not for other people but for some. So how do we have those studies and share that information with folks in a way that they are believing the results of those studies that those are real numbers that they understand the process they understand the need for OPMs and designers and prevailing wage and all of the detail of this and I don't know how we do that if we need a subcommittee or a different kind of grouping of people more community conversations throughout a process I don't know what they that it looks like, but I think that kind of process I think will be key to that those numbers being accepted

122>> as re as real numbers. >> Agree. >> And I think working closely with the paper to get that out because that goes to everybody and it's pretty much our only way of making sure that we're communicating with everybody. Um, which we didn't have last time. >> No, that's true. >> Yep. Yep. Yeah. And to somehow to have some ability earlier on in the process. I think that's what you're talking about to have not just people be aware but become sort of invested if there were some way to be like, you know, I don't know what that is. whether there's some way to have a straw poll or have a non-binding question at a town meeting or something where people could be actively chiming in on yes, this is the direction we want. Um, but

123I think it's after or hopefully with the information, you know, that Eric's kind of talking about having this framework of, you know, these are basic renovation cost or basic ideas of what the renovations would cost. I mean, for lack of a better term, I think we need some sort of like ranked choice process of like this is my first choice, this is my second choice, so that we can kind of see where the most consensus lies. Um, I also am going to be really curious to see how the overrides go this year because I feel like that is going to be kind of a litmus test for the investment that people are willing to make in the schools cuz I'm having a hard time in my own mind trying to wrap around the sort of

124feedback that we're getting that we need to invest more in maintenance. And so we're making some investments in that regard and it's it's going to be one factor in a two communitywide override and similarly also being told that that override is at risk of not passing because it's too large. So I think kind of to Eric's point like we're we're trying to sort of also triangulate in on what can the taxpayer bear >> you know and and I think yes we should apply for grants we should do all these things but you know those are applications not guarantees like you know so I think yes explore every possibility of course but also knowing that there's no guarantee that a grant application is granted favorably and and things like that so I think trying to hone

125in on what can the tax base really actually pay for is sort the other I think answer here >> you know >> I mean I think there was the way the process worked there it wasn't really a possibility to but I think every everyone if you want if you could have it everyone would have wanted here are five completely fleshed out choices >> right >> like everyone would want that it's just that >> sounds like reading through here that that's what people want. >> Well, and and and like I think me too if we could have afforded to come up with five completely flesh fleshed out choices. But I understand that and so somehow we need to get some information so that people have choices that they can give indications about. Okay, this is the

126level that I'm >> right >> the level that I'm able to invest and what direction that would look like, >> you know, like is it this level and I want we want to put it all in one school or is it this level and we spread it out or >> Right. So, but it sounds like people definitely are interested in doing something >> in having uh in pursuing information about what it would look like to do. I mean, it we didn't get a message that the answer is just forget it. We want to let our schools fall down. That's not the answer that we got. So, >> right. >> Okay. Thank you. Are we ready to move on? Yeah, >> we are. >> Okay. Um, and now >> to the budget. >> That's it. Well,

127tonight is the Tonight, we've been building up to this for the past four or five months. Uh we are here to uh take a final vote on the superintendent's final FY27 debt service and operating budget request. Uh just as a brief overview, there are a lot of exhibits on the agenda. I just want to take a minute to go over them. There are seven of them. Uh then we're going to do a brief review of the FY27 uh budget, take our vote, and then look at next steps. Uh just kind of like the public hearing. I'm not going into a full depth of the budget. Uh we've all gone through it in the past four months. Uh this is really just a formality uh to take a vote on it. Uh we do have one

128minor update that I will get to in one second. Uh before I go over, I just want to say thank you to a whole bunch of people. Obviously you guys, the entire school committee, uh, Eric Tracy, our superintendent, our entire leadership team, and my business office, uh, both town administrators, managers, and their whole finance team, uh, both town select boards and fincoms, uh, for working through the budget cycle with us. Obviously, both our communities and all of our, uh, teachers, ESPs, admins, custodians, and food service workers uh, who help keep our buildings running during the year. Uh so in terms of our exhibit uh our exhibits tonight, the first exhibit is this presentation that you're looking at now. Uh the second exhibit is the full account detail and assessment calculations. This is the list of

129all 450 of our active accounts. uh the FTEES and all of the budgets for each line item, their changes year-over-year uh and some historical data of the budgets uh that were set prior and their actuals uh and also how we come up with our assessment calculations. Uh exhibit number three is the full detail of all of our year-over-year operating changes uh broke out by school and by desi category. Uh, exhibit number four is a summary of all of those major operating changes, uh, just summarized into categories over $5,000 or under $5,000. If I had to direct, uh, members of the committee or members of the public on which exhibits to look over, I would really stress to look at exhibit three and four. That's where you're really going to find most of your data, uh,

130most of that detail on what our changes are year-over-year. Uh but moving on, I did include exhibit number five, which is a summary of all of our staffing changes broken down by schools. So you can see where all of the movement is from FY uh 26 to 27. Uh exhibit number six is our is our operating budgettobudget desi expense summary. Uh it's another way to look at our budget. I realize everyone absorbs things different. Everyone learns different ways. I just tried to present it in a different format. Uh maybe those that helps click to somebody on how the budget works. Uh last, our exhibit number seven is a budgettobudget revenue and assessment summary. Again, just another way to view our budget. Uh so just from a real highlevel view, our FY27 budget cycle really was

131a difficult year. Uh this is the 14th budget cycle I've been involved with in Hamilton Wenham and I can say that this probably has been the most difficult budget year. Uh and that really relates to what's going on with our salaries, how our colas, our step increases um have formulated this year as well as the use of END last year. Uh but just in terms of expenditures, just our colas, our step increases in our columns, uh amounted to over $1.3 million, which really makes up more than half of our overall increase year-over-year. Uh when you combine that with our insurance increase of approximately $600,000, you're almost entirely at our budget increase year-over-year. Uh but we do have increases to maintenance outside of salaries, uh increasing $588,000. Uh this does incorporate changes to our utilities uh

132as well as new investments uh in some uh capital projects uh and additional funds for preventative maintenance during the year. Uh because of these larger than normal increases. Uh it's led us to make a lot of difficult decisions this year. uh one of them and the main one being to reduce our overall staffing by seven uh instructional staff members lowering our budget to budget by 418,000. We have also reduced or deferred purchasing a lot of our new technology. Uh this has reduced our overall budget by 153,000. Uh and last, we've reduced our athletic user fees by 5% or roughly $35,000. These are not all of our reductions or all of our increases obviously just our top uh three in each category. Uh what you see here is our operating budget broken down by Desi category.

133Uh this is the way the school district approves our operating budget during the budget cycle. This is the this is the same numbers broken out by school or department. When you roll all these numbers together, our ultimate town assessment is coming in at a 5.25% 25% increase uh which broken down by town is a 6.58 inc uh% increase to Hamilton and a 8.54% increase to Wenham. Um now this is the uh budget vote but there is one update I have for you before we take this vote. Um yesterday uh sorry last week I had my final meeting with Harvard Pilgrim in regards to our premium rate increase for next year. I uh posted this exhibit uh Friday or Monday morning and then just yesterday we met with our PE group uh and within that meeting

134uh they voted in a ceiling a premium not to exceed amount. Uh that percentage increase that they voted in uh correlates with what Harvard Pilgrim has quoted us. There is still more work to be done. I'm still in negotiations but what we've done is established a ceiling from both sides. that premium rate increase is three percentage points lower than what is placed in this budget and what and is what is incorporated in that number here. Um so what I'm recommending tonight is that we actually change our overall budget and change the motion to reduce our health insurance ultimately by that 3 percentage points. Uh that reduction accumulates about just over $150,000. Um, I I had a whole thing to say that a budget is your budget up until the point where it's your actuals. We

135have a $51 million budget and even just yesterday numbers are changing. Tomorrow, more numbers are going to change all the way up until 17 months from now when the budget we're planning on now, some of these expenses will come to fruition in June of 2027. Um, so a lot of these numbers do move around during the year. Uh, it will be final until you guys vote on it. Uh, but tonight I am recommending that we realize that 3% decrease and do anything we can to try to lower our overall assessments to the district. I have included a corrected motion at the end of the slide uh that I can go into, but I really wanted to stop and give you guys the opportunity to ask any questions about that or if you agree with lowering

136the budget. Uh we don't have to like I mentioned a lot of things move between now and the end of the year. Um something could increase between now and then but I do recommend that we decrease the overall amount by those savings and health insurance costs. I can answer any question if you have it. Yep. >> I have a question. Um would that um affect anybody's coverage? >> It does not. >> Okay. >> Nope. It's just a change in the year-over-year premium rate increase that I projected. Okay, thank you. >> Um, if no one does object to it, I can pull up the new motion that I prepared just in case you want to do it or we can go over the other slides. >> I mean, we >> I had a question. I'm just

137looking. >> Of course, >> can we are >> I can give you a second. I can kind of just go to my next steps if you want just to give you a minute to >> this exhibit or one of the other exhibits. No, it was on one of the detailed exhibits. >> Yep. Yep. I can just review the next steps just to give you a second to do it. Um, so if we do vote on the final budget tonight, the next step will be Kevin Murs, our district treasurer. Uh, we'll review all of our documents tonight and certify the budget. On Monday, I will drop off that certification to the town administrators, the select boards, and their fincoms. And then at that point, it really sits with them. They're going to determine how the warrants

138presented. They're going to determine how it's funded. Uh so they're the ones that set how much might be needed for an override or how much might not be. That decision lies with them. We won't know that number until it's final until they close their warrant uh towards the end of February, beginning of March. I could come up with a lot of scenarios on what might happen, but I really think it'd be better serve our time to wait to see what that warrant looks like. uh wait to see how it's worded and wait to see what those final numbers are. Once we get those uh as long as it's okay with you, I plan on presenting some scenarios on what some of the outcomes might be and what some of our options might be uh depending

139on those results. Uh but I really don't want to develop that until we see what the warrant looks like, until we see what the numbers are. Uh in the meantime, the biggest thing is we need to prepare obviously for town meeting and educate the public on what this budget does. Uh what the consequences of maybe a levy only budget might be depending on how that warrant is worded. Uh that's why we really need to wait and see how they present it uh before we move forward. Um but that would be the next steps is to prepare for town meeting and wait till the end of February to see what the warrant looks like. I will go back to that amended uh changed motion. >> Okay. So, I found it. It's on the one that shows

140the increases and decreases over $5,000. >> Yep. >> There's a line. There's the cola base, but then towards the end there, there are cola stipens. What I know those obviously, but what is the difference? >> Yeah. So sometimes you can have uh one colar for your base salaries and one colar for your stipens. Um when I break out a budget I try to be as detailed as I can and give you what the colar is based on just your base salaries. Um so if you think of the teacher salary schedule uh the you know a master step five what is the cola on that uh compared to what's the difference on the cola on a stipen uh or on your longevity. It's just a different way to look at it. I certainly could have added

141both together uh and just called it our COLA overall. I was just trying to be more detailed and show you how much COLA is generated from base salaries versus how much is generated from stipens. >> Then the additional uh FY26 cola, that's stipens, right? >> Um the additional FY26 cola would be colas that were issued in FY26 that were over our budget in FY26. Um, so think of it this way. Even if your COLA was zero in 27, you would still have FY26 COLA presented in that budget because we have to make up the gap from 26 to 27. Does that make sense? >> Mhm. >> Again, it's just trying to be as detailed as possible telling you where all these different numbers are coming from. Uh, it's not just, you know, cola on your

142base salaries. you have kind of three different categories of colar at least from what I consider it wouldn't be wrong to lump all those together and just call it one big number >> it was three it was there three times so I just wanted to understand the difference >> yep >> um that was my only question >> um so uh if anyone unless anyone and questions. My thought is may we have a motion and then an opportunity for discussion. >> Yeah. Um I'll read this motion. >> Yes. >> Yeah. >> I move that the Hamilton Regional School Committee approve the final fiscal year 27 general fund expenditures budget of 47,251,917. This includes general fund operating expenses after offsets in the amount of $45,290,653 and general fund debt service expenses in the amount of $1,961,264. Furthermore,

143the gross operating expenses of the district before offsets have been allocated by the DESIE defined chart of accounts according to the summary by Desi category chart included in this budget presentation and is detailed in the exhibits with the exclusion of $153,983 from the benefits and fixed charges desi category. >> Second by Jen Carr. Okay. um their discussion. >> So, two concerns. Uh one is what Jen talked about during the hearing, fact that she's concerned that it won't pass in Hamilton. Um and the other one is can you explain exactly how the towns are thinking about presenting this? like are they seriously committed to doing under the levy limit and then over the limited levy limit? >> Um that is what I have been told again which is why I wouldn't why I don't want to

144make a presentation on what scenarios we could have until they finalize it. Uh but what we have been told is there will be two votes at town meeting. Uh one for the budget at the levy limit and then one for everything over. Um, so we really need to uh educate you on what a levyonly budget implications are. But again, I really think it'd be wise to see what that number is. Uh, the last number I was told, uh, like I believe we mentioned earlier, uh, Wam was talking about 1.7 million. I believe that number has changed drastically, which will change our conversation drastically. So >> I think we should wait until uh, we see the final numbers. >> That was that was Hamilton. >> I keep saying that. Sorry. >> Yeah. >> The other thing

145underneath that is is there a way to make sure that it's not just school committee costs that are going in the part that's over the levy limit levy limit. >> Can you say that again? I'm sorry. >> Right. If they're going to put money, right, they're going to do a budget for under the levy limit and then a budget for over the levy limit. that budget that is over the levy limit. I don't want it to just include school committee costs. Like I don't want us to be the only one with skin in the game. >> I don't disagree. Unfortunately, that is not our decision. >> That is that's up to the towns. >> But >> we should do everything we can do after to educate the community on uh what those amounts actually equate

146to. And but I would wait to see what it is. Um, so I'm just saying if they matched what they were at our quintuple meeting, uh, it would mean that Hamilton allowed us, uh, growth of 0.36% well under the Prop 2 and a half. That would be up to us to educate the community on what that number means. But again, I wouldn't do any of that until we see the number. Um, because maybe that's not how the final number looks. Maybe they share in the >> Right. And I'm just going to jump in and say >> we don't know and we do know that both towns are still working and and it's >> correct. All three of us >> expected that both towns are still working. >> All three of us received updated health insurance

147numbers this week. So I'm sure they're even going to be updating their budget based on what they got. It could go up. It could go down based on what they what they've been told. So, >> I guess my concern with how they're suggesting that they do this is that if it's just school committee school district prices in the over the levy limit, then if that fails, we're the only ones that get smacked around. >> I agree. I would just wait to see because I don't think that's how the final result will look. I think they are going to share in the burden, but that's why I would wait until we see what the warrant looks like. >> Yep. >> Um, anybody have I I don't know if anybody wants to disc I mean, it didn't

148sound like there was a lot of discussion about the lowering due to the insurance. >> Yep. it this >> I'm in agreement. I just wanted to put it out there like I understand that I >> I feel like that's the right thing to do even though I heard your I guess I'm just putting that out. I think that's the right thing to do even though I you know we don't know a million things could go >> up or down in the budget. It's all an estimate, right? >> An excellent estimate, but um I think it's the right thing to do. And I I think, you know, in talking about the way that the towns are looking at their budgets and the work that the towns are doing, my hope is that like this is what

149we would want everyone to do is when you make your best estimate and then you discover that it's actually going to be lower or you know to do this kind of thing even though there is some risk. I guess that's just like that's part of the work that the towns are also doing right now and I hope I hope they experience something similar where they're able to find some so um >> yeah I mean did >> I guess I'm confused. So we're we're looking to vote on this final budget as presented. >> Correct. with the caveat that everyone's going to get their health care expenses updated this week. >> Um, we got our numbers updated and I'm requesting that we incorporate that update into our final budget. I'm not sure if the towns will do

150the same, but I do know they received uh updated health insurance numbers. Now whether that increases their budget or lowers it, I'm not entirely sure. Does that answer your question? >> Well, just what So you're looking But you are looking for us to vote on this budget tonight. >> Uh that's correct. >> Correct. >> Yes. >> I wasn't sure if it was waiting for more numbers, but >> No, just so you know, Vinnie has on the screen he had an original number but changed it uh yes yesterday afternoon. >> I was literally >> this morning maybe. Yeah, this morning reduced the, you know, we had a final budget presentation that he had posted that was coming forward. He has reduced that number by $153,983 because of a lower cost of insurance than was uh originally

151budgeted. So, it's in our favor. >> And in theory, we could say we don't want to vote to lower the budget. We want to keep that 153983 in the budget. and reallocate it to some other category. >> Of course you can. >> Just for the sake of clarity, I don't sort of bring I'm not advocating that, but just to be clear like that. >> Of course you can. Or you don't even have to reallocate it now. You can leave it in that desi category and allocate it at some point next year. >> Okay. >> Um you do have that option. >> I do not recommend doing that. I do recommend lowering it, but you have that option. I think it's important to to use that money to lower the budget because if there is an

152issue with the lackman override vote that plays into our favor >> down the road where you know cuts are reduced by that amount. >> So I don't know if other I mean I guess I I feel like it's important to discuss I mean we haven't gotten a ton of feedback from the public We've gotten very little. We got a little bit tonight. We've gotten maybe two emails, maybe three over >> over the whole budget, right process. >> I I guess I'm really worried because I sort of I'm sort of I don't know whether other people I think this that we're doing the right thing. I hear the concern that it isn't going to pass. I guess I'm sort of unsure about I I think that's real. I'm very worried that it won't pass, >> but

153I'm sort of unsure about whether that means that people think we shouldn't bring it forward because I feel like we have to bring it forward to say this is the budget that would be appropriate. It's certainly not the dream budget. No. I guess I hear people saying I'm concerned it's not going to pass, but I'm not really sure whether I'm not really heard anyone say I I don't know. I I I don't know if someone can help me out on what I'm trying to say. >> No, I I agree with you. Like I am very worried that it may not pass and I don't see any way to not bring this forward and bring it to the people to say this is what I think this is what we need. >> Yeah. I don't know.

154You know I I have heard again very limited but I did hear a couple of you know that it's too much. You've cut too much. >> Mhm. >> So, I don't know. >> I feel I feeling a little a drift. I really had hoped and dreamed for lots and lots and lots of people coming given all kinds of visions about the budget in the past two >> hearings. Well, I think to maybe repeat like a phrase I said before, I think I think this should go forth as it is as somewhat of a litmus test to see where the taxpayer is in saying that they want to support the schools. They want to support teachers. They want to support teacher retention. They want to support maintenance. and they want three elementary schools by and large.

155>> This is what that budget accomplishes with minimal impacts to, you know, the delivery of our educational program. Yes, we are losing seven FTEEs. And I don't mean to make light of that, but I think Eric and Vinnie have gone back and forth on this at our direction a number of times to try to find savings. And I think short of us saying the cuts need to total 2 million, 3 million, which we decided pretty early on in the process was too much, um, I think we have to put this budget forward and to Vinnie's point, see where the town warrants end up and then, you know, weigh what the scenarios could be if the overrides do not pass. I I don't think we should. It's hard to know how much time we should devote

156to spending on that. I think I'd almost rather spend my energy trying to encourage people to dive into the detail behind this budget request and to understand why they should really think about supporting the override if they can as opposed to like, well, we did this, but we also have this other plan over here that we can just do, >> you know, because I I don't think that is the right message either. I think it's >> this override supports a number of things in the community. I agree with Jen's comments that it's difficult when these things are positioned just for the schools because as we've said many time and times in this meeting everything that we choose to budget for is a choice and I think that applies to the municipalities as well and that

157there can be prioritization as communicated through you know the override that we want to maintain you know trash service, schools, public safety, all of the things that people expect and that that will require ire additional levy capacity this year, you know. So, >> right. >> And somebody remind me the part of the budget that's under the levy limit, does that need a 2/3 majority or is that a simple majority? >> I think it's simple. >> at town meetings simple majority, >> but above the levy limit is 2/3. uh not a town meeting. The two/3 only applies to debt exclusions. >> Exclusions. >> Okay. >> But it also has to go to the ballot. >> The ballot. >> It also has to go to the ballot. So >> two votes instead of two3. >> Two votes.

158>> Um and yeah, and there's a lot of ifs. I mean, Vinnie was sort of, you know, somebody asked a a great question that I've asked a whole bunch of times. What happens if this fails in one town and this and like there's just so many permutations of what could happen. Yeah, I think Vinnie's been good about being clear about let's let's see what the numbers are and then strategize from there about how to approach that, you know, because there are a lot of different scenarios and and there's a lot of different ways to approach them depending on what happens both at the ballot and in the town meetings. >> Okay. Other people have other discussion. This is your opportunity. >> Questions? >> Sure. >> I mean, I speak only for myself. I feel like

159we've been >> well prepared. >> This is the same number from last meeting, just minus the 158, which is total separate thing that happened. >> Right. I want to make sure everybody's ready. Can we see Julia? >> Julia's there. Yeah. You ready to vote? >> Yep. >> Okay. All right. Again, it has to be a roll call vote. Um, >> Jen, >> yes. >> Amy, >> yes. >> Is a yes. Julia, >> yes. >> Kristen, >> yes. >> Okay. And that is unanimous of the five members present. And the motion passes. >> Thank you guys. >> Thank you. appropriate to clap for you. I would, but >> thank you. Thank you for all of that work. >> That did might seem like that was the hard part, but I think the hard part is now

160educating everyone. >> It's the next agenda item. >> So, >> um, >> thank you guys. >> Thank you. Um so um as promised when we had the question during the budget hearing, the next um sort of step forward is to start talking about um communication regarding the budget. Um, we still there's a lot of information we still like don't have because we need to talk about and we need to hear from the towns and talk about what it's going to look like. Um, and well, I don't >> I actually have a question. >> Sure. Let's say the part of the budget that's over the levy limit passes in Wenham. Y >> but it fails in Hamilton. >> It fails. >> Aren't we then in violation of the regional agreement? >> It fails. uh you would

161have the opportunity to reconvene and either vote in the levy budget and then you have an approved budget or you would have to >> bring back >> bring it back to whatever town failed it or not um and accept >> you're saying because it would be two se two different numbers. Right. >> Right. And and I do think part of that is a question about how it would be structured like could it be structured so that these are questions I've been asking these like could it be structured so that like first the towns would pass the levy limit budget then they so that you'd actually have a budget passed in both towns but it would have to get we voted on this budget now so if any different budget gets passed past it would have

162to come back here for approval here or for this committee to choose to do take any other action. >> So if the piece of the budget that's over the levy limit fails in one town, it basically fails in both. >> Correct. >> Mhm. >> It's >> so can't approve or Hamilton can't approve the extra money in >> Okay. >> No. >> Right. And it's Yeah, >> I just needed clarification on that. >> Yep. >> And remember, if you go back to the the committee comes back together and says, "Okay, we're going to reduce from, you know, say I'm just going to use a round number 2 million down to 1 million." That still changes both numbers. >> So, you're going to need a special in both places. >> Yep. Um, but ideally you wouldn't have

163a situation in which one town or both towns didn't pass a budget at all. Like that would be really not ideal because then you wouldn't have a budget at all. So >> um, okay. Um, so I don't really know how we want to structure this conversation. I about communication. Um, I'm open to what the committee is looking for. I'm just going to offer my thoughts and say in the past when we've talked about this, what we've talked about is the sort of the one pager that's been created. Um, I will shout out to Amy has done really nice work in the past creating that visually so that there's a one-page document that can be circulated ahead. Um, and then produce a town meeting. Um, I want to give another shout out that when I when

164we um Eric and Vinnie and I were ahead of we were going to um talk with the five chairs meetings um and we were looking for input and Kristen sent some I will just say some really helpful talking points um that we shared with the um the other chairs and talked about and those talking points were really about messaging moving forward and how to create sort of unified um messaging to and let me and forgive me if I don't get the but basically to convey to the citizens of both communities that these budgets which are com you know the town two town budgets and school budget that these have been thoughtfully created to provide what is needed for the citizens. Um, and that is a wide array of things. It's education, but it's also all

165the other things we just talked about, you know, police and fire and um, DPW and trash collection and all of that. Um, so that was a long-winded way of saying that I think we have some resources here on the committee of people that have excellent abilities to communicate. I don't I'll stop talking, but like I I have thoughts about what moving forward, but we can't create some we're not going to be able to create a plan right now, but I think we should create in the past we've designated a committee member or two. >> Um, so I'll stop. Thoughts? >> I'm happy to make whatever visuals we need to help help teach everyone about the budget. Um, I don't know if this time around it would make sense to like hold a couple of info

166sessions. um either maybe like partnering with other community groups, senior centers, friends groups, things like that. Um I'd definitely be willing to do a couple of those. >> Well, and we did our liaison earlier today. It might >> make some sense >> to, you know, to have to whatever extent possible to have people thinking about maybe going to some of those groups >> that whatever groups you're a liaison to or other people could do. You know, I know in the past we've done certainly gone to friends groups to present or ask or just be there for questions. Um, I don't know. Is that the kind of thing you were thinking of or you were thinking? >> Yes. >> Yeah. >> I also think it'd be helpful if we could to record one so that it

167could be shared. >> Yeah. >> For folks that can't make it to something like that. I think the organic questions that come out of things like that are important rather than us just deciding, you know, all of the information that needs to be shared. Like answering questions for people is important, too. So, and I will say as part of the I can't remember whe that that came up in the chairs or was that in the quintuple board where there was >> chairs me >> in the chairs. So, I don't know if anyone had a chance to see it, but Hamilton at one point put out um a video about it was not question and answer. It was just um I think it was just the chair of the Hamilton Select Board put out or maybe

168it was a couple of people. Anyway, they put out a nice video about explaining the Gordon Conwell >> um situation and the vote and explaining and it was I think a little bit about what you were saying. It was just sort of informational. It was short and um and it was something that people could share like if you're it was kind of ahead of the Gordon Conwell vote and people could share it and just say like are you wanting to know information about the Gordon? So, I'm thinking it could be something like that. We did the um we talked a little bit about was there an opportunity to do something like that um to jointly. >> Yes, I was just going to say that >> um you know but I like the idea too of

169I mean maybe you do it somehow with questions or I don't know how that works but >> you could ask people to provide them ahead of time maybe. Yeah, provide questions >> or just maybe use one of the events that we hold if it's, you know, not too long, record that and then record like the question answer part, but maybe sending questions ahead of time is more. >> Yeah, because I do think that a recording needs to be super >> concise so that people can, you know, I I don't know how long the one on Gordon Conwell was, but it wasn't long and I didn't, you know, it was quick. you could watch it and you didn't. Yeah. You know, it was like >> um I think before we produce something like that, I'd like

170to get a better sense of what questions people have too. So, I think it, >> you know, we're so deep into this budget process, it's kind of hard to guess at what key points are. And I and I'm not sure how to get those because like I said, we haven't gotten and I know like I know Eric has you know alerted people in the newsletter that the budget is underway and we haven't gotten a ton of feedback. It would be good to get >> Well, I'm I'm happy to work with Amy on like, you know, some of the um messaging and things we could put out there and to talk about how we could put together that kind of a video or videos maybe of like short, you know, FAQs or something like that. Um,

171>> I do wonder how we distribute that because I know we don't have our own like social media channel >> and I'm not necessarily saying that we should. That could be a bigger discussion. Um, but I just if we can how how like what is the best way of getting that content out there? We could certainly ask the Hamilton Select Board what they did, how they I mean >> yeah, >> how you know what they >> how they pushed it out. >> Yeah. >> Um I don't know the answer to that question. Um >> yeah, I I think >> we have school level socials. We could I mean we can put on school level socials. We we have quite a >> pretty I mean one of one of the things we've gotten with all the

172attention over the school project is >> a lot more people have signed up for the newsletter who are not school people which is what we were trying to do. We were trying to get more people >> so there are more people getting information rather than just the school people. So >> y >> it's helpful that way. >> Um >> so I think this was helpful. I mean, so I guess what I'm wondering I don't I don't know if do you have more? >> I think we need to think and brainstorm a way to clearly communicate what happens if the part of the override budget doesn't pass. >> And I I do too. And I think that Vinnie was sort of indicating that part of what we need first is the towns to give us more.

173But yes, then yeah. Yeah, I think >> I'm just saying this we've never done it this way before. So like >> Right. >> No, it'll need to be clear about what what's provided under the levy limit and what's provided over the levy or in the override. Um, >> it might be it might be good just to have Kristen and Amy brainstorm and come to the next meeting that we'll have it on the agenda that >> all right, here's here's the brainstorm. Let's start the conversation >> and that way we can do what we we've done in the past, assign people things to do because then you'll have four meetings. >> You have Yeah. And I I mean I do I mean I think other people can chime in, but I do think two people is

174a nice because then you're a working group. You're not a subcommittee. You're not >> Mhm. >> just talk to each other >> normally. >> Regular people. >> Um, so, >> yep. >> Um, and yeah, we I mean I don't I mean I guess we should vote on that, but does that seem like something you >> Yeah, I was going to say we usually like appoint >> Yeah, I mean a working I I would say it's a working we a working group or we would just appoint you to come back to us. So >> that's fine. I don't even know if it's called a working group. I think we just task you. >> I think we just I think the key would be to just task you with doing that, the two of you. >> Okay.

175>> Um rather than even calling it anything. Um I don't know if anyone has the motion to that effect or if you want me to try to do it. Jen's got it. I can see. I move that Amy Kunberger and Kristen Non establish a working group to determine and implement the best communication practices to the people of Hamilton and Winnham before and during town meeting. >> Second. All right. I heard a second by Amy. Are we are we comfortable with working group? I'm not really the reason I'm hesitating is I don't know whether working group because of that formal >> have any legal legal requirements >> exactly like >> then maybe just maybe maybe retract that motion and maybe make another one to say the school committee designates the two of us to >> oh

176designated friendly amendment >> just a friendly amendment you can friendly amendment >> okay >> I move to amend Jen's motion now we have two motions to act um >> no you can it's a friendly amendment so you can >> a friendly amendment Okay. So, just say maybe um I move that the school committee designates Amy and Kristen to develop a recommended communications plan for the school committee's budget and override something to that nature. >> And my my second stands. >> All right. Yep. Looks like that was accepted as a friendly amendment and Okay. >> Um All right. Any further discussion on that? Uh, I just questions. Um, should Eric be involved? And >> I was trying to get Yeah. >> Feel like I'm always involved. That's >> a nice way that the nice way that

177this is >> worked is that Yeah, you guys can work with Vinnie and I um you could consult with Vinnie, you can work with Definitely. >> Yes. And well, I just wanted to put that out there. And also um in the board's meeting, the quintuple board's meeting, we talked about select board members and potentially fin members teaming up with school committee members to have this communication. So is this something they should be involved with? Do we just provide them with this communication? Should we reach out to some key members? >> That's a great question. Um I mean I I mean we we did a little bit of that in the chair's meeting. There was some discussion. I think because we go first. >> Mhm. >> We're probably ahead just because we have to we go

178first. So I think it could be I think open and like the more we can share the better like if we can share it with them as we >> Mhm. Um but we can ask whether they have a designated person that they want or whether it's just but yeah I don't think it could hurt to run things by them and >> okay >> I think that I mean perfect opportunity for liaison >> right >> you guys bring it forward to say okay here's a suggestions this looks like a good suggestion to invite >> some select board members or pincom members to do a video or whatever then you can just as a leazison liaison reach out and make that connection >> right I mean I think you know. Um, well, you I was going to

179say it's perfect because you're the I just looked it up. You're whiteboard and you're the one >> and when FinCom >> and you're and I'm actually I'm actually Hamilton fin but um >> in the CPAC and whatever whatever >> um >> we're electing new people soon. >> Yeah, I'll get reshuffled in. Um okay. Um, did we vote? >> Um, >> No, it's not. >> Um, all right. And, uh, is Julia? >> Julia's off. >> She's gone. Okay. Um, all right. Kristen, >> Yes. Amy, >> yes. >> And is, >> yes. >> And yes. And we that is unanimous of the four members present, which is enough for this, but would not have been for the >> for the budget. So, um, excellent. Um, thank you all, both of you. Um, all right. Next up, committee

180reports. Uh, capital Finance. >> We did not meet. We had too many people out of town, so we're going to reschedu for after sometime after February vacation. >> Okay. And it sounds like you guys have a lot on your plate. >> We do. We really do need to meet. Yeah, you do. Um, okay. Um, and do you meet on Zoom or in person? >> In person. >> Yeah, >> but I'd be fine swapping. >> We've been hybrid. We've been >> Yeah, >> we've been hybrid cuz one member's had to come in on Zoom. So, >> Yeah. I mean, we >> No, I'm just done it hybrid. >> It wasn't a criticism. It was just a curiosity. >> Um, okay. Thank you. um policy. >> We have a meeting scheduled for March 16th um with no

181agenda yet. >> Okay. And you had something that didn't make it to that was didn't make it on this agenda. >> That was my fault. >> That wasn't my fault. >> Well, I reviewed the in reviewing the agenda this morning, I didn't >> I realized that under policy, I didn't bring one of the policies that they approved. It was actually an update, so we're fine. It just it was an annual update. Um, there'll be a couple more coming as well. >> All right. Well, >> I'll still go to the committee. >> Full disclosure, Eric and I already Yeah, he told me he forgot that. And I did not add an executive session on today either, which I was supposed to do, but I did already add it to the ne our next meeting. >> It

182was a big agenda. >> Um, yes. Um, and you guys have I'm sorry, you're meeting when policy. >> I'm sorry. March 16th at 2:30. um >> in a month. >> Okay. Um negotiations. Um we met this afternoon. Um we're continuing to negotiate with the ESP uh union. We met this afternoon. Um we're moving along and um we'll have some updates for you guys um at in executive session at the next meeting. and my apologies for not putting that on this one. And our next meeting is on 26th. >> Um and yeah, everyone is working both the association and we are working hard to be collaborative and um negotiations when you do them sort of thoughtfully and methodically are not quick. Um, so there we go. Um, anybody have any questions about that? Okay. Uh, our

183secretary is not here, so we'll look for a secretary report soon, but we are, I think, in general, doing a better job at keeping up and we're in better shape in terms of minutes. Um, and I would just remind everybody on your sub commmittees that um, right after your meeting, you can go ahead and submit a draft to Janelle of the minutes. Um, always better to have a draft that at least is waiting there with Janelle. Um, you know, a quick draft is better than nothing. >> Yeah, she said she would format them. If that's what's holding you up, >> if that's exactly if if formatting is holding you up, then >> worry not. Send it right over to Janelle. >> Um, okay. Uh, Amy, do you have anything in your in our inboxes? >>

184Inbox has been very quiet. >> Has been quiet. Okay. Um, all right. I think I have exhausted everything I wanted to say. I think already I don't have more to say. um on the chair's report unless anyone has questions for me. >> Okay. Um topics for future meetings. >> I do have to do a uh 26 forecast. >> Hopefully I'll have it on the next >> Okay. >> The year end. >> Yeah. >> Y >> um that policy >> and the forgotten policy. I know our policy. I'll find the >> That's a Is that's a first reading or that's something that you guys have already reviewed? >> That is a first reading for this group. >> Yeah, but you guys have Yeah. >> Okay. Okay. Um, anybody have anything else? >> No. No. I would

185entertain a motion if someone has one. I move to adjurnn. >> Second by Jen. Uh discussion. >> No discussion. >> All those in favor? We are nobody on remote and that is unanimous. >> 9:09 p.m. >> at 9:09 p.m. And we are adjourned. >> Yes. >> Thank you everybody. Thank you everyone. Thank you Vinnie. I have a smile when somebody said motion to adjourn. >> I don't know why are you so tired. >> You didn't have your cough drop. I didn't use my tissues either.