001I would uh I called the meeting to order with my davl I would like a motion to adopt remote participation as written in our agenda please check it very good uh roll call vote pam pam nurse act yes Linda herbison Bolton yes Steve wo conquer yes Maggie Sharon over yes Charlene is on mute I know I couldn't unstick myself uh Charing Cal Lancaster yes Sharon must Lexington yes Jeff St needan yes Al lucao yes very well I think that uh we go straight to finance subcommittee updates the will do the honors this evening okay thank you um so as we have seen um we now have a budget hopefully we will have a permanent budget at the end of this evening but uh as we've reported all along the finance committee has been uh working
002very closely with both the superintendent and and Nikki to uh develop a reasonable and responsible budget and um at our last meeting we um as a as as a finance committee voted to recommend the budget and uh actually voted to do three things so we have to take three votes tonight so um uh Mr chair I don't know how you want to proceed with the votes uh do you want me to make three separate motions then have discussion or how do you wanna how do you want to run it what I would do uh I would recommend Steve is that you just give a quick description of the purpose of each vote yeah and then we will take the votes one at a time and ask for discussion on them individually but you can do
003an overall discussion why we have three votes and what the purpose of each one is I think okay so historically we have we have three votes one obviously we have to set the budget approve the budget uh of course the other piece which which Nikki wanted a great detail about is we also have to uh vote their preliminary assessments to our to Our member towns and then finally because uh we are uh going to utilize some of our excess and deficiency funds to uh to reduce member Town assessments we have to take that vote as well so um you know typically we do these three votes every year so um with that I guess I'll make the first motion oh Nick has thank I I just want to make a clarification as well um our
004excess and deficiency fund um has not been certified U by the state yet so we will take this vote but we will again once it's certified bring back this vote for the school committee to officially vote on it's required by the state so I just wanted to to um make that clear if when it comes up again as to the reason why okay Nick Nikki what's the timetable on um you have a timable about the state approving the IND yeah it's it's usually like um they usually approve it in January where we're always really close they try to make us one of the first ones but they don't really start looking at end until the taxes are done after December 31st so it's it's really tight for them to try to get ours um typically
005we're able to voted in the the the following month um but we'll certainly keep you updated okay okay with that I also do you have a question Alice your hand oh I just wanted to comment for any new members that um we can vote the uh after we take the vote on the assessments we can lower them but we can never raise them so this is like a Line in the Sand right exactly exactly so um I move uh that the school committee approve the FY 26 budget of 32,4 61,500 uh roll call vote PM P Nur actt yes Linda herbison Bolton yes D du coner yes Sharon do yes yes Sharon must Lexington yes Jeff Stan Eden yes a Lucas Joe yes okay thank you um I move uh that the school committee approve
006the FY 26 preliminary assessments of 26 milon 46,000 46 4673 as presented second any discussion on the motion made by Mr Leo very well then roll call ah Pam has a question just just very not a question just a comment um um I guess I just want to acknowledge that I have been a broken record for many many many years about being s sensitive to the financial needs of our towns and it's just really nice I think to see a budget that meets the needs of the school but also doesn't put a big burden on our towns so thank you Pam it doesn't mean the act and fincom will be happy I we're but you know what that's then on now it is on them right exactly exactly moved in second uh no further discussion
007roll call vote Pam Hamner act yes Linda herbison Bolton yes Steve Leo conquered yes Maggie Shar over yes yes Sharon must Lexington yes ELCA sto yes whoops sorry need to the punch Jeff stol need him yes it still counts it's so exciting always going last okay and finally I I move that the school committee authorized $650,000 from the excess and deficiency fund to reduce member Town assessments for the FY 26 budget with obviously the caveat Nikki has already put out that it's not certified yet second discussion on end or questions on end very well then roll call vote Pam oh well we got one Sharon just I just appreciate the um the effort of the finance committee and everybody to be able to decrease in any way the assessments to the towns so thank you
008no one else roll call vote pam pam nurse acting yes Lind Heron Bolton yes Steve Leo conquered yes Magie Sharon do yes yes Sharon must Lexing yes Jeff stulin need him yes Al Lucas Joe yes include the uh Finance subcommittee update Steve that concludes it very well so before I call for motion journ I just have a couple brief comments uh first this this process went extremely smoothly especially for superintendent first budget I must say uh the budget that Nikki and Heidi came out with from the very beginning the very first one we looked at we looked at and we said Gee this is almost you know done um and yet there were like another two or three versions to tweak it and to take uh take into account events that have transpired so uh
009um a strong and professional effort by um IDI and Nikki and the administration brought to the made our job on the Finance subcommittee um pretty much a breeze this year let me also point out that one of the reasons that um this process runs smoothly is the way that we arrange it with the finance subcommittee going over the budget and refining it with the administration a number of times before we bring it to the uh school committee despite the very tight tight time frame we have to do the work we saw it like I don't know as Nikki mentioned we did see your president presentation or a flavor of it at least four four four times at least yeah including tonight so so although it seems may seem to the public like why are they
010all agreeing on this we've seen it again and again and again refined it again and again and again and my final comment was we had some breaks this year that allowed us to come up with a little um bit of conservative thinking with a very um uh Town friendly budget but that's not the case every year because every year is different and we have some issues what may be coming down the pike in the federal government plus um we have to deal with the um our repair schedule we have to deal with and maybe some other things coming up it's not as clear that next year's budget which I'm not going to you know we don't have to think about that for quite a while is going to be as as easy and happy as
011this year's just let you know that every year is different some years are easy and some years are not um and that's really all I had to say any other comments any other comments if you would like to make before I call for motion to adjourn iy Driscoll I just have one more time I want to thank everybody um for contributing to the process um from the very first version um I appreciate that Minuteman already had a procedure where the expectation is that it's an inclusive process from staff to administrators to finance committee and I really feel like that's something that Nikki had already established and one of the things that I could jump into so thank thank you thank you thank you well then I call for a I make a motion to adjourn
012the meeting so moved second second yep very well any discussion no no discussion on a motion to adjourn roll call vote Pam nurse Hamner sa yes Linda herbon Bolton yes Steve Leo conquered yes Maggie sh over yes Sharon must Lexington yes deff stolin needen yes El luas Joe yes so thank you all very much uh we have uh finished accomplished one of our most important uh tasks of the year we have stuff coming up you'll see in our meeting February so thank you all very much have a great night thank you Linda enjoy your trip bye Everybody by thank you thank you Linda for coming up from from the sea bye bye everybody thank you bye