NMRSD School Committee 4/29/2026

001Oh, let me start again. Welcome everyone to the North Middle Sex School Committee meeting of April 29th, 2026. It is starting at 5 >> 5:36 p.m. >> Carla's in the waiting room. >> Yeah. >> And we will bring Carla in and Jackie White in. Seems she had dropped as well. All right. This meeting is being recorded and the next meeting of the North Middle Sex Regional School District will be in person May 4th at the Nesissit Middle School at 6:00 p.m. I'm going to take a roll call vote. Um Kim Craraven >> here. Keenan Francois Kenan here. Okay. Uh, Jackie White >> here. >> Michael Lab Bossier Buff >> here. >> Uh, Chris Sloan >> here. >> Alexander Vancoui >> here. >> Lisa Bloom >> here. >> Carla Lima >> here. >> And myself, Lisa

002Martin are here. In um administration attendance we have Robin Ibey Gary Dr. Reese Dr. Kir and Brad Morgan is in here as well. Yeah there. All right. So it's the organizational meeting of the school committee. Um, tonight we need to appoint a chairperson promp. Would someone please make a motion to approve a prompt and second? >> Um, I move to nominate Lisa Martin as chairperson promp. >> Second. >> And that is Alexander Banci with the nomination and then Kim Craraven with a second. All right, we will this will be a roll call vote. Kim Craraven, >> yes. >> Kanan Francois, >> yes. >> Keenan, Jackie White, >> yes. >> Michael Labosier, >> yes. >> Sloan, >> yes. >> Alexander Vancoui, >> yes. >> Lisa Bloom, >> yes. Carla Lima. >> Yes. >> And myself. Yes.

003All right. I've welcome everyone. Um I'm just acting as the promp tonight until we do the election of officers which is up next. But I am going to introduce everyone to Chris Sloan as he was elected this past week um or this week I guess a few days ago to um as an atlarge member along with Lisa Bloom was reelected as an atlarge member and myself were reelected as well. All right, Chris, I'm going to allow you just to do a short introduction as there are things that we need to do. >> Sure. Uh my name is Chris Sloan. Um looking forward to, you know, working with you all, getting to know you all better. Um and just looking forward to uh learning about this process and and how we can make the best choices

004for the district and for our students. >> Thank you, Chris. All right. Now, we're moving on to the election of officers. Um do is there any This is for the chairperson. Um, are there any nominations on the floor for chairperson? >> Um, >> move to nominate Lisa Martin. >> I second. >> Okay, that was Keenan Francois and Alexander Vancoui with the second for Lisa Martin. I'll talk in the third person. All right. Um, any other nominations on the floor? I will accept the nomination and we will have to go through a vote of the committee. Not seeing anyone else want to be chairperson here. All right, let's go through a vote. We'll start with Alexander Vancoui. >> Yes. >> Uh Lisa Bloom. >> Yes. >> Uh Kim Craraven. >> Craven. Yes. Keenan Franis. >> Yes.

005>> Michael Bosier. >> Yes. >> Carla Lima. >> Yes. >> All right. Gotcha. Uh Lisa or >> uh Chris Sloan? >> Yes. >> Jackie White. >> Yes. >> And myself. Yes. All right. Thank you everyone. All right. Moving on to the next um election would be um vice chairperson. Do we have any nomine nom nominations from the floor? Sorry. >> I'd like to nominate Michael. >> Okay, let's take one at a time. Lisa Bloom, you go ahead. >> I'd like to nominate Michael Labosier. >> Okay, we have Michael Labosier. Do I have a second? >> I'll second. Okay, that was Lisa Bloom and with the nomination of Michael Labosier and Carla Lima with a second. All right, we have that nomination. Kim Craraven, >> did you want >> I was nominating Keenan Francois. >> All

006right, Kenan Francois, do I have a second on Kenan Francois? >> I'll second. >> Okay, that is Jackie White with a second for Keenan Francois as vice chair. Kim Craraven made the nomination and Jackie White made the second. All right. So, this is how the process is going to go. I will give both of you a time to give a little speech if you want to accept the nomination or not accept the nomination and then we'll go from there. But make it short because we have a lot to do on this agenda. >> All right. Go ahead, Michael. >> All right. it. So, I've been on the committee now for about five months and you know, I'm getting starting to get a feel for how everything works and you know, I think that I can

007take a role to sort of help help the committee be a as an effective body and a sort of, you know, a a welloiled machine that can do the work that we need to do in a sort of timely and efficient manner. And I think that while I wouldn't be wouldn't have been comfortable accepting a nomination as chair because I don't think I have the the experience yet to to take on that role, I think being vice chair would be a good stepping stone to maybe taking on that role in the future. And having some and also of course filling in whenever Lisa isn't available. I assume that's one of the responsibilities. >> It is. All right. Are you finished, Michael? Yep, I'm all set. >> All set. All right, Kenan Francois. >> Yeah. Uh

008I I'm seeking out the vice chair position because I believe this committee uh is at a vital uh turning point um as we head into FY28. Now, um there's a still a lot of unknowns on the horizons with the Student Opportunity Act, uh entering its final year of funding um in in 27 here. Um so, our budgetary process and how we move forward um is going to start changing and start uh developing in new different unknown ways. Um, and I think it's uh crucial to have effective uh leadership uh at the top of this committee uh to make sure that we're navigating these new uh pathways uh effectively. Um I'm just wrapping up now my first year uh on the committee. Uh prior to this committee, I've been highly engaged uh both in the advocacy

009realm uh and also in collaboration with this body um even whilst I was a student at uh North Middle Sex. Um, I believe I've shown through my actions on this committee um over the past year that I have um uh I am able to or I try my best to move things along um and make sure that we're getting all the work done that we need to um in an effective and efficient manner um without uh entering circular uh motions. That's all I have to say. >> Thank you both. Any questions from the committee? All right. So, I think we go ahead and vote. So, I'm just going to run down the list. >> Um, I think we'll just say who we vote for. Is that correct? Is that what we want to do? >>

010Yep. >> You don't have to vote. >> Okay. >> That's what we've done in the past. So, you can call on the member and they can just um voice who um they gave their vote to and you know and and then we can tally it up. I'm keeping a record, too. >> All right. Alexander Vancoui. >> All right. It's a hard choice between the two of them, but I think I'll go with Michael Abasiard. >> All right. Lisa Bloom. >> Michael Abasier. >> Kim Craraven. >> Mike, this isn't a vote against you. I really want you to be finance chair in France. >> Uh Mike Labosier. >> I mean, honestly, I think Kenan would do a great job, too. Um uh you know what? I'm going to abstain from for my vote. >> Okay, that

011that works as well. Uh Carla Lima. Yeah, I think, you know, they're they're both very, you know, I think they're they've both done a great job in the past year. Um I know Mike is a little newer. Um and uh I know Kenan's been, you know, very involved uh early on, but um nothing against either of you, but I think Michael Abosier's experience might might be very helpful in this committee um as you know, as vice chair. So, >> all right. And since we're going in alphabetical order myself, I am going to go with Keenan. It's not against you, Michael, at any sense. Um, I just know that Keenan and I'm explaining my vote so that everyone else knows. Um, I think he knows some of the process and Robert's rules a little bit and

012so that he can carry the meeting on. All right, going on to Chris Sloan. Um, >> I'll vote for Kenan. All right. And Jackie, wait. >> You guys are both terrific. You know that. Um, I have to lean with Kim on this where Mike, I'd love to see you chairing uh a subcommittee. And so for that, Kenan, I I love your voice and your passion and your advocacy. So, uh, let's take that next step together. I'll vote for you. >> All right. What's the tally? I think I know. But >> uh we have five in favor of Kenan. One, two, three, four, five. And one, two, three in favor of um Mike Labosia. And then of course Mike abstain. So >> Oh, did we did I ask Kenan his vote? >> I did not ask.

013>> I'll I I'll abstain as well. >> Hold on. Hold on. Let me count again. Okay. >> One, two, three, four. Yeah. So, that's four for Kenan and one, two, three for three for Mike. >> Okay. >> Hold on. I have all these scribbles over here. Sorry. >> I think you're correct. I have that as >> Okay. And two abstensions. >> All right. Congratulations. Now, Kenan, do you accept the nomination? >> I do accept the nomination. And um I just want to jump in here and say uh Michael, I'm also team Kim here. Uh I want to see you on chair chairing finance. Uh but I also um absolutely I think you would have been great in this position as well. Um I also want to say for the public and for everybody here on

014this meeting that I'm not just getting out of here immediately after this nomination. Um I had informed Lisa uh beforehand that I only have 15 minutes on this meeting. I have a class to attend and I did not expect this meeting to even exist. uh beforehand. So, I apologize that I'm jumping off so early, but thank you everybody. Um I hope you have a great meeting. >> Great. >> Thank you. >> Good class. >> Thank you, Kenan. All right. Um, moving on. I'm going to ask that we move um this uh public comment to the front before we get into the finance discussion as we had some public comments requested today. >> Do you need a second on that or >> No, if everyone's okay with that. Okay. >> Okay. So, Lisa, we did have

015I'm just going to check again. We had one person sign up to speak, uh, Randy Rush, and then we had, um, two people's emails for their letters to be read. Um, I don't see I don't see Randy in attendance. I think I think I saw Ry's email said that she wasn't going to be speaking and that it was she wanted it to be read out loud. I think I think that's what it said. Let me >> Yeah, I remember. >> Let me check the email. >> No, no, she said that it wouldn't she sent the letter and what she explained was that the letter was had quite a bit of information and she felt that it would go over the three minutes. So, she wanted the committee to have the letter with the information. uh

016but she would be speaking about the subject of the letter. That's how I understood it. If >> I can recheck >> yeah that was my understanding as well. >> I'm I'm sorry. Was that Kala? Was that you had the same understanding Kala or am I misunderstanding? And I think she said she sent a reduced letter. >> Um, no. >> I think it's moot cuz she's not >> Oh, it's Thank you. Yeah, it says thank you for taking the time. Oh, but does that mean >> us reading the letter or >> she wants it? Thank you for taking the time to read and consider. Y >> she sent the letter to the school committee members for you to all to have the letter. Um and then she signed up to speak. So um and in the

017letter, I think she said, "I'm sending the letter because it it's going to go over the three minutes, which which is allowed." I mean, I'm happy to to read the letter, but she she signed up specifically to speak. >> I don't think she's actually here. I don't see her in the >> No, but yeah. So, what happens what the the the process generally what happens is I'll get an actual request that says I'm sending this for public comment. Please read during public comment section. So, I'm happy to read it. I just >> Yeah. >> See, it says, "My intent is to make a public comment on this topic." I don't know. I just need direction. I'll do whatever you would like. >> Um, do you want me to read the other two and see if

018she shows up? If not, then we can read hers. Okay. >> Or do you want me to just read hers and then >> Let's read hers. Let's do this. Let's read hers since hers came first. We'll go by timestamps on these. So go ahead and read hers and that's what we will do. >> Okay. So um this letter was received April 29th or April 28th, excuse me. I'm speaking today about the need to lower town assessments. The towns are finding themselves in a very difficult position with a deficit in petrol and an override for police raises having failed in towns. The district however is looking at a much more favorable position in part from the advocacy on the hill and in part to some very unusual circumstances with a zero% increase in health insurance and

019reduced out of district expenses. If we are to live by our words that the communities and their services are as important as the schools, then now's the time to act. I see two new funding sources. Additional state aid in the house budget and unanticipated revenue from the valley collaborative sped tuition's refund along with favorable developments in the budget in the areas of health insurance and out of district placements. First, I would propose that you look at using the increased funding from the house budget of 260,000 to lower the town assessments. It used to be common practice that if we received more funding from the state after budget adoption that we would pledge that money be money to reducing assessments. This would be uh a good measure that allows not impact that I'm sorry. This would

020be a good measure that does not impact the district budget and helps the towns. The budget's health insurance line with a 0% increase from last year's uh represents a $365 thou,000 reallocate reallocation of funds within the budget, an extra.5% of last year's budget that you have to spend on students and programs allowing you to restore teachers and other services. This is in addition to the 2.9% that the budget actually increased. That is effectively 3.4% 24% increase in spending on students and programs without calculate calculating in extra funds from the reduced outofd district expenses. Having an avenue to increase services from the budget developments, it would be shameful not to share the additional revenues from the state with the towns that so desperately are in need. After all, isn't the point of getting the state to

021pay their share is so that the towns do not have to pay as much? The March finance subcommittee meeting um was announced that you would be receiving around 250,000 in unanticipated revenue from the Valley Collaborative. This is a refund that the collaboratives have been giving to member towns for the past 10 years or so. This is money that was in the budget expenses for FY26 and that the towns paid for. Shouldn't any discounts go back to the towns? The district does not need this money to go back into an already full END account. A quick END recap. At the end of the FY25 budget crisis year, the district closed out $3.5 million to END. At the end of FY26, it looks as if we may close out another $2.2 million. As reported at the April

022finance subcommittee meeting, END is capped at 5% of the budget. 5% of the FY26 budget would be $3.378 million. FY25 certified balance 3,500,000 FY27 current appropriation 2,500,000 balance in FY26 $1 million. If you close out 2.2 plus the 200 the 250 from the collaborative that would equal 2,450,000 which added to the 1 million would be over the 5% and we will have to give money back to the towns anyways. give them the extra money now when they need it most. In closing, I would recommend that the district use the 260,000 state revenue and an additional 250 END equivalent to the collaborative refund to reduce the town assessments by 510,000. >> And Robin, you had more letters, correct? Yep. So the next letter is uh from Don Priest. It was received um today. Once again, thank

023you for allowing and encouraging public participation in your meetings. I am extremely concerned about today's budget discussion with a proposed vote that has not had the necessary time and consideration for such an important decision. Without getting into lengthy facts and figures, this hasty decision has a high probability of leaving both the schools and towns in an extremely compromising financial position for FY28. None of this has been discussed or considered. Additionally, we do not have final figures on state funding yet. We are hopeful that the final figures are favorable, but there is an equal chance that they are not. It is incredibly irresponsible to make this decision without having all of the information. Town meeting does not have to approve a decrease in assessment. There is no valid reason for the rush to get this done

024today. I ask that the committee take no action on this matter until all of the relevant information is obtained and carefully evaluated to determine both the immediate and future ramifications. Frankly, unwillingness to simply delay this discussion until all information is available raises red flags as to motives of those attempting to push this through and is a slap in the face to the community who has rallied around the district to advocate for additional funding. Thank you, Don Priest, Townsen residents. And the last letter is from Jennifer Fors um again received today. Uh, dear school committee and administration, on behalf of those that advocate relentlessly at the state level for increased educational funding for our district, we would like to ask you for your consideration and pausing the motion to lower the town assessments today. The potential

025Senate numbers on increased funding have not been released yet. The governor's and the houses's numbers are far apart. There are too many unknowns at this time and it presents as hasty decision-making trying to fasttrack this through without discussion or careful consideration. The school committee and administration worked extremely hard to come in under the town asks and honor their requests. Please allow more time for town meetings to play out and let the citizens speak to what was developed. Please allow time for the state funding to play out. We simply ask for a pause on lowering any assessments until we have all the vital information. Thank you for your time and consideration, Jennifer Fors and Kelly Kelly. >> All right, before we move on, there is um I want to talk just a second about how the

026budget is um um how many votes the budget needs to process. We need out of the nine members, we need six members. It has to pass by twothirds in any budget. Now, there are parts that both Alexander Banci and Chris Sloan have to abstain from because they have family members and they have to file disclosures with the state um to say that they have family members. at the next at a meeting they will have to say that they have filed these disclosures and will have to dis um talk about them in public. So both you and Alex Alex understands and Chris so it's a conflict of interest. It's a conflict of interest law and so both of you have to contact the state and do the proper um paperwork with them. So I'm just disclosing

027that so that everyone knows. So, that being said, um I'm going to hand it over to Kim Craraven to discuss the financial part. Thank you. Um and I'm going to um rely a bit on Dr. Cormier um to explain some of this with me. I'll do my high level part um and then I'm going to have him um give the more professional business office side. Um, but the number 283 was actually developed by by the business office. And to be clear, none of the funds that would be used as the offset on this um come from any of the state house uh numbers. So, it has nothing to do with the House or Senate numbers that we're talking about this. Um, we've been actually talking about this for some time, so it's not rushed or

028um, you know, being pushed through at the last minute. We've been talking about the amount that would be rolled over for next year for some time now. And if anything, this is actually late in the game um, rather than early in the game. in talking with um the um business office with with Nancy and with Dr. Cormier um really looking at things late in the in the year meaning halfway through the school year is a time when we should be reflecting on the budget similar to how the towns have special town meetings they reassess their budgets and look back. So last year, as we know, there were a lot of moving parts for the administration. Um having um the the schools kind of in flux, not really knowing what's going to happen put our administration

029at a little bit of a disadvantage. Um you know, not really knowing what was going to happen for the next year. But as we started to look at numbers, um and this was public information. It was in the budget message. There's a live link to the different revolving accounts that was in there. in the Keystone account, there's $70,000 and that actually um stopped being operational in 2023 and um talking with past folks, you know, that's something that would have um ideally closed out in FY 2025 that's been sitting there. That's sort of similar on the municipal side to a warrant article. Not exactly apples to apples, but that's, you know, money that's sitting there. Dr. Comey, if you could pull up that revolving account sheet for everybody. Um, committee members might have had a little

030bit of time to look at it. Um, business office has been working to update the numbers. Please everyone don't hold them to this for exact to the end of the year because it is a dynamic document. um as they work through the numbers. >> Sorry, I just needed to get my uh share request through, but it should be coming up now. >> No problem. >> So, if if you look at these different balances of funds that are coming through, and this is good work. This is not um a knock at anybody, you know. This this is good. Um it means that there's some latitude that moving forward the administration and the school committee have to to work towards kind of looking where some of these things can be spent. So athletic revolving account you can

031see from FY25 to looking towards the FY26 there's potential funds there. Um the before and afterare this was handled by a different group. So, if you go back a few years, you can see there's like a starting balance there. Um, and then that funding has been moving forward, but on a year-over-year basis, there's not sort of um an allocation for use of the schools, electricity, janitorial use, things of that nature. Um, donations for all the schools. You can see there's some money used out of that. Um, that can be looked at. There's that Keystone rental account that I had mentioned. Um there the marching band obviously that's a very specific use. Parking lot very specific use there. Um the preschool one did the food one um did I jump over that one? The food service

032revolving obviously there's a specific use for that particular one. Then we have the the preschool and the tuition ones that you can see those are increasing bit by bit. Um those are ones that the administration can look at to see where that can be placed. Um turf rental revolving um we've talked about the potential for spending down on that with um the um the debt service. If you look down to the next one on the circuit breaker, all that can be carried over um is that 2 million. You can see that that's been increasing. If um we were to look back, that's been steadily increasing as a reserve. Again, that's not a a horrible thing, but we can only carry over 2 million. So, the the overage in that has to um offset the operating.

033And then the school choice with the 2.1 um again that has been going up. That is something that can be used for educational needs. The next two that are in red um cannot be used um for you know general operating. They're in there for very specific reasons. And then the bottom one, the regional transportation reimbursement fund, that was a fund that was set up um some time ago that has a very um specific need and that if it's not used has to be used to offset the transportation assessment. So for the very specific reason that we're talking about. So, we were reimbursed from the collaborative $220,000. So, if you put that $220,000 in the re regional transportation reimbursement fund, which is to offset the assessment, that's a little bit over uh 250,000. And then when

034you look at the uh Keystone rental of the 70,000 which was supposed to be expended a while ago, you put that together, it's well over the 283 that Miss Haynes came up with. Again, doesn't even affect anything that we're talking about with the House budget. Um nothing that we're waiting for on hearing. These are funds in the way Nancy explained it to me was to take it off of END because those funds would then be replenishing the END. So, we're still writing about um little over 3 million in the END. Um that's my layman's explanation of it. Um I will rely on Dr. Cormier to do a much better job of the professional lens um of how he can explain it to you um that it will still preserve the 3 million in END and

035not touch the budget that the superintendent has to work with for FY27. >> Uh but thank you uh Kim. So I guess uh let me start with a sort of disclaimer. Um, this was just sort of my own internal worksheet. This was never actually meant to be a public document. That's why it's a little bit kind of ugly and unwieldy. Um, so I apologize for that. I I didn't realize that everyone was going to see. So, if you're looking at this at a later date to try and parse things and something doesn't make sense, that's why it it's this is sort of like 1.0 version of what I was uh hoping to do. Um, so what we have in this G column here is this. These are the current balances, but some of this money

036is going to get spent down. We just haven't gotten to the part of the year where those either POS have come up or, you know, we we've made that move yet. Like so like for example, the Keystone rental account, like we're using that to help pay for custodians. So that will be zeroed out by the end of the year. The turf rental, again, that whatever we get at the end of the year will get paid towards the turf field. that will be zero at the end of the year. So, right off the bat, those two um we we actually don't have um but as as far as as the the general description of all that Why is my hand up? Sorry. Um I get that later. Uh these are places where we do have uh

037some some funds available, but most of them have I don't want to say specific uses, but there's a there's a ballpark of uses. idea to somewhat be explained like you know so for example building use revolving we use that to help pay for staff who run audiovisisual for uh you know um community events and things like that. So, you know, it's it's using the building, so we can use this money to pay for that that sort of operations part of the building, but we couldn't use, you know, the building use revolving to go um you know, hire an assistant principal somewhere, you know. So, so there's there's some limitations to it. So, I kind just wanted to be cautious about that. Um, a as for the the 220 versus the 33, um, again, Kim's explanation

038is is pretty pretty close to what it should be is, um, if we were to use additional END this year to return some of that money to towns. Um, we're basically just using an advance on next year's END. So, it's a it's it's a weird I don't want to say accounting trick because it's not a trick. just a lot of what we run into with a lot of this this budgeting really has to do with the misalignment of calendars. You know, we have to get a budget out to the towns no later than, you know, February so they can have the time to have town meetings and all that. You know, as you've heard, you know, we're getting hints of what the governor um has proposed. We know what the house has proposed. We know

039that there are there were 1,400 house amendments. Um some got through, some didn't. Some have to do with with um you know additional funding you know some have to do with additional funding that we don't get. So it's so once that happens you know there are other things but you know for example the um extra uh money we got from value last year we didn't actually get it till July so we couldn't have used it before the June 30th. And so all of these things are are really sort of in place. So to one of the earlier statements about, you know, do we want to look at this again in October when we've had five or six months and can really get a good handle on, you know, what remains for the rest of the

040year, that's probably the best um best tactic to take. Um, so you know, adjusting the actual budget is probably not something I would recommend, but if we if we feel comfortable, you know, if the if the committee feels like using a little more END, using that $33,000 from the transportation fund, which again, we're projecting. We don't we're not sure it's there, but we believe it will be there based on the first half payment. If we get the same amount of money in the second half payment, this is the amount that will be over. And we think that's because they went from the 85 to 87%. we think that's the 2% um that has a little bit of the overage based on what we we budgeted. Um so there's there's ways that we can do this.

041Uh it's just a matter of what do what do people feel comfortable with and you know what are the what are the ramifications down the road. Um because we we had a lot of things fall our way. Um to to come in where we did um is is I mean NY's not here but I would say you mean kind of deserves a parade for it. I mean, she did an unbelievable job to get us where we what got to, you know, with the help of of some of these um, you know, the fortunate breaks that we got and and is highly highly unlikely we're going to have the situation next year. Um, so as long as we're keeping all that in mind and people are just aware of that, like I'm fine to do whatever

042the uh the committee, you know, decides, but that's um that's where we are. And then Oh, go to Brad. I just wanted to further explain uh something that Miss Craraven had mentioned just so if there are people from the public on the call which I believe there are um when there are certain things that that we um that are kind of spoken for food service revolving is generally for equipment in the kitchens uh which is very very costly and that can swing up or down pretty quickly just so people are aware of that we have been questioned in the past about the parking lot revolving um that is through um parking fees at the high school and that money $250,000 um would be designated for uh parking lot repairs. We're in the almost the ninth

043year I believe of the high school being open. I'm sure um everyone realizes that $250,000 would not touch the parking lot at the high school. It would take care of a very small section. So the plan is to get that up to a point where when the parking lot does need to be repaved that it gets done and we're able to do that without impacting the budget in a negative way. Uh circuit breaker a significant amount of money is generally used for special education uh out of district placements. Uh that's something that again is a great assistance to the school district. But there certainly one thing that we we are going to be looking at moving forward um is the use of school choice funds to help with the budget but also the use of

044the before and after school revolving for some of the before and after school programs that the district is planning on putting into place in the next um year or so. Um, so those are things what we do try to stay away from um and something I've always tried to stay away from is hiring um an exorbitant number of staff through these revolving funds. So for instance school choice you could argue you know you could bring in easily 10 teachers with that money. um in about a year and a half we would be out of that school choice money or two years and then we would be adding those 10 teachers to the operating budget once that money was exhausted and that would be a significant impact. Um in general we always try to be very

045very careful with spending which is why we end up with a surplus at the end of the year. Um and that is really due in part to the fact that the towns have asked us repeatedly to come in at with a less than 3% increase and the reality that we are told year after year that an override is is really out of the question. So we do try to carry money so that it can positively impact the next year which in turn could positively impact the towns. And unfortunately, we're using END to do so, which is not a great mechanism or or vehicle to do that, but it is what we have right now. And that's the way that that we're saving when we save money. Um, the money that we save generally makes up

046anywhere from 45 to 65% of that fund on an annual basis. I don't know if that's if if you have anything to add to that, Dr. Cormier, or >> No, no, I think I think that that does it. um justice in that in that explanation. So, and you know, we've talked a little bit and I know it came up in the finance committee and we actually even met more today about you know, spending down some of the money so we didn't carry as much. One of the issues we run into and we're actually I'm actually dealing with this literally on another screen um is when you get uh items over a certain amount, you have to go through a procurement process. That's the the legal um you know process to make sure that there's fair

047bidding and and you know open competition and all that. I mean that's a three to five week process per purchase. And so because we're we're using some of the earmark grant to do some paving to actually as uh Brad was saying that like the 250 is going to get us um basically Varnum Circle and part of Hawthorne. So to think about something as expansive as the high school parking lot like you're probably four times that. We're probably going to need to get to a million before that's that's a a viable thing. So, you know, but so going through open bids, going through the process, you know, and chair Martin, you know, she just went through it with the the um the food service, like it's a it's a process to get that done. So, it's

048really hard in most cases for us to be able to say, "Okay, bang, we can spend $150,000 on X in order to help bring down some of that excess uh you know, this the money we didn't spend." And so, it won't go into END. You know, it's April 29th, we've got eight weeks. we can get a good chunk um and we might have to encumber some of it into into July to to take care of that. But it's not there aren't very many things that we can pick up a phone tomorrow and say let's just buy this and you know help offset some of the budget costs for next year in prepaying things. It's it is a a legal process that we do need to go through. >> Yeah. I think the the important thing

049to think about here is that we all have a really unfortunate process of having to budget before we really know what the budget is and and we understand that. But we do know some things that you know have kind of fallen into our lap and we had the luck of being able to sort of reallocate or shift some of the budget. What was it? A little over 350,000. I don't remember the exact number from the change of the insurance, not having the insurance go up. That was, you know, kind of shifted into the the teacher um salary side. So, there's been some great things for the benefit of the education process. Um, and I certainly wouldn't go out on a limb um, if I thought that the superintendent's ability to run the district in an

050effect an effective and efficient manner um, would be um, altered in any way. Right. We've had a lot of meetings on the fincom side. We've looked at these budgets a lot. Um the the business office has taken a lot of time to go over things um and over things again looking at these numbers. Um it's not been rushed. Um you know it it gives us the opportunity um to allow the municipalities a little bit of breathing room. you know, combined with the the regular budget that everybody sees on an ongoing basis and these numbers that have the link through through the the budget message um to to give these municipalities just a little bit breathing room. Um I feel like we have um done well through the advocacy of which I am a part as

051well. Um we've all put a lot of blood, sweat, and tears in it. um some of our advocates that are on the the call have done yman's work um but there's been some you know good fortune that have come along the way um I think that we can take this small amount out of um the total of about 80 million um to the benefit of the municipalities before town meeting and and still be in in goodstead um with the school budget moving forward Did you need any else or >> Sorry, my printer is waking up in the background. >> Do we move to vote? We would need the motion in a second. Actually, I have some some comments maybe. Um, so this is a hard vote for me because I know that we as a

052committee are delivering a budget that the towns said they wanted. They wanted us to come to below a 3% for them or to a 3% and we have I mean if you look at what their town assessment is um we've delivered I think hang on let me find so Ashby has a a negative percentage for their um assessment so Uh, Townsen is at uh below a 1% and Prol sits about a 3%. I know that Ashby did send in a letter that they would like it even to be low dropped down lower. Um, Pepper has not sent in any indication that they wanted it to be lowered, though I do know that they their budget is um too high right now and they're trying to figure that out for themselves. And I've heard rumblings from

053Townsen, but nothing was formally submitted to the committee. So, I just have um It's just hard for me and I understand that we should drop the budget, but not knowing necessarily what the Senate is coming through with. >> Can I make a correction, Lisa? >> Yeah. >> Sorry to interrupt you, but we're not dropping the budget. We're not >> I know we're not dropping budget. I mean >> assessments. >> I know the assessments. >> Um but not knowing that true number from the Senate. Um because and everyone says it hasn't happened before that the Senate has always come out maybe a little higher. There's always a time when it can go lower. Um that's not my hope. But at a time when we need to play it safe, I think we need to play it

054safe. Um, and again, we don't need to give a lowered budget to the towns before town meeting. I mean, I always if the town's people do not agree, they can send us back the budget and say, "We don't agree with this." I mean there's mechanisms out there that say like the police override in townsen that was a mechanism to say their towns people do not agree with that and they want the select board and the police department to go back and rediscover things. This has happened to the school committee several times where our overrides have not been approved and they've sent it back to us and we've gone through that process several times and it's hard for me because there's a select few that make the decision but we're not really asking the town's people

055and that's the mechanism of town meetings in Massachusetts is you ask the people if they agree to the budget and then they send it back if they don't anyway. Anyway, that's my piece. All right, Kim. >> Um, so to to be clear and fair, I would suppose um you know, last year money was taken out of free cash from the town of Townsen to keep the school out of the override debacle. This is an opportunity to try to write that, right? because in the end we didn't need that. And these funds are coming out of funds that were nothing to do with what we're talking about right now. These funds were from the collaborative, 220 of it from the collaborative and the transportation assessment um is funds that are supposed to go back to reduce

056the assessment for the town. you know, if you read that from a few years ago, it's supposed to go back for an offset. Um, and there's there's plenty of money in those revolving accounts. So, to to say that the towns of towns in because they didn't vote for the override shouldn't get some of that money back. Like the whole point of us advocating at the state level is to try to switch back that whole curve and to flatten it out. And we still are a district and we're sitting on a good 7 million of flexible revolving account funds. And you know, I don't know what Ashby has in free cash. I don't know what PPL has in free cash. It's not a lot. And Townsen has 19,000. Um, I think that if we're gonna start

057to kind of put to bed that school versus town, us versus them, like it's got to start with us. We have to start to say, okay, we can do a little bit better here. And when Mike is finance chair, I'm going to push him to um you know, start looking at that midyear budget um and saying we've we've got to make these changes here. Um you know, we are not going to hurt the teachers. We're not going to hurt the process, but if our towns don't go into town meeting knowing this, like I'm hearing what's happening to our non-UN personnel. I see what's happening to the, you know, our are our the cuts are being made. Is it as drastic to the school numbers? No, because the numbers aren't as big, but last year personnel

058changes were made. This year, personnel changes are starting to be made. Um, if if it doesn't happen, it doesn't happen. But I know that I'm voting my conscience and I feel that I'm doing what's ethical given our basically $80 million that we're sitting on. 283 is a drop in the bucket. I've said my piece. >> All right, Carla. >> I will just say, wow, Kim, that was an amazing speech. Um, and I I' I'd have to agree with Kim that I think this is our opportunity as a district to just turn the mentality around between district versus towns. And I think the towns have done their part in helping the district when we were short of, you know, funding. And if we're sitting on a surplus per se, um then this and it's not going

059to affect the operating budget that Kim um mentioned that she's confident that it will not affect Brad's uh Mr. Morgan's apology um operating budget. And um I think this is our opportunity to give back and just do the right thing. >> All right. And I want to be clear. I'm not saying that we should not give back money right now. I'm saying that we should hold and do a pause on it. That's my feeling because there may be more that we do get and to help alleviate the towns more. And to be clear, the whole process of doing this is backwards to me because town meetings like going into town meeting and us not having a final budget from the state is tough and it just it doesn't make sense in this way. I'm sorry.

060All right, Michael Abosier. >> Yeah. Uh so I think basically you know we we we have our budget that we passed which is the which was the best budget that we could do with the information we had at the time and now we have a little more information and we know that we have this little bit of extra money that we could send back to the towns but we as we don't know the final budget from the state and I feel like rather than make this sort of peacemeal adjustment adjustment adjustment adjustment every time we get a little bit more information like let's wait a little longer. Let's wait until we have all well not all the information because we never have all of it but like wait until we have at least the final

061passed and signed budget from the go from the state and then make adjustments which will include any additional funds that we've received, you know, beyond just what we already have or any additional funding we receive from the state. And then we can roll it all into one one adjustment to the to the assessment based on everything that we know and do it at that time. And then and save having to do this thing where like we keep changing the assessment over and over and over again as we get little bits of more information. And it's like very sort of it it makes it hard for people to keep track because we'll have, you know, we'll have the like what's the assessment now? Like they lowered it. Well, how much did they lower it by? What,

062you know, did they lower it again? You know, like that I think just doing it one time like late like again later in the year like what October time frame I think was I I think I heard said is like a good time to make these adjustments cuz by then you have enough of the information to really sort of evaluate like where where do we expect to be? Um, but again that's that's my thought on it. I'm I'm a sort of a careful person, so I tend to think of things like let's wait until we have as much information as we can get before we start making changes. >> Uh yeah, >> thank you. Um, Mike, I hear what you're saying, but if you look at it on the way that municipal budgeting goes, we

063do we have our town meeting and then we have our special town meeting in the, you know, late summer, early fall, but before town meeting, we have another special town meeting because of these situations. So for us to say that we're peacemealing it, well that's kind of how we do it on the town side too, so that there's the opportunity to allocate things as we know what's happening. Um, so I see it as actually positive to do it incrementally so that we're doing it with knowledge that we have. Waiting till after town meeting means that towns have to make decisions about what they keep and what they don't keep. And if they make the cuts now, then they have to scurry to put things back after when we know we have these funds now that

064they can work with. >> Carla, >> yeah. Um, I hear what you're saying, Mike, as well, and and and thank you, Kim, for clarifying that as well. I I think I I'd have to side with Kim on this where um we recall last year where we were sitting at the edge of our seats as a district. I wasn't involved at that point, but I was I was a spectator um as a parent, where the district had been waiting from the state, how much are we getting? Are we getting any of this? Are we getting any of that? So the district had to start planning certain cuts um in advance and at the end of the day there were other things that we got but at that point the cuts had already been made so you

065can't really backtrack at that point. So I think if we have the bucket uh available I think if we get more or if you know there's more funding coming in then then at that point we can reallocate those funds or you know see where it's needed. But I think if we have it sitting and the and our towns are asking for it, um I'm sure you guys have gotten the same emails that I've gotten, not just from the um the town of Ashb, but also from residents as well from the towns. Um I think this is our opportunity to say, "Hey, we we've already filled our buckets. We're good right now. We have a little extra. We would love to use it, but if we can share back and reallocate this, then I think this

066is our opportunity to do it. And if we get, you know, more further down, then we can reconvene and redisuss it. But I think where the towns are really just sitting at the edge of their seat right now waiting to say where are we going to make cuts right now? You know, do we really need to make cuts or, you know, are we going to have some of that funding shared back with us so that we don't have to spend as much spending up front? So, um, again, I I think I would have to side with Kim on this one. Um, and I think it would be the conscious thing to do as a district knowing that we have that pool just sitting there and that it's not going to affect our current budget. Anyone

067have any questions? Superintendent Morgan, anything to add or Dr. Coringer? >> Yeah, it it's not that I have anything to add. I I guess I I I just have some concerns. I I would say that um you know obviously if we get the money from the state um that that would be a great situation and I'm not sure everyone that's that that again that's even on the committee would be aware that the money that we're getting back from Valley cannot be used for staffing next year. It cannot be used for that. Um, so the number one concern that I have is making sure that I'm able to address the class size issues in the district and making sure that our students and staff are put in a position to be successful. Um, from my perspective,

068and again, this is a school committee decision, I would be amendable to the $283,000. Um, you know, that's something that myself, Dr. Cormier, Miss Hayne spoke about today at length going back to the towns provided I I had some asurances and again I can ask for it. I can't demand it that any additional monies that we get from the state I can push towards staffing because there are already indications that we are that we may have under predicted what we needed in next year's um budget. We're already seeing a couple class- size shifts that could change things a little bit due to inclusion. Um, so that is obviously um a concern that I have because I want to make sure that the money that I have at my disposal that I can use for staff

069um and that would be appropriately used for staff um would be accessible to me in that um we would not be coming back saying there was 283,000 and then you know we get there's a potential for 243,000 from the house maybe more if the senate votes. maybe less and the governor can make they can make her decision. Um but that money um and any other money that we get that could be used for staffing I I I I would appreciate some some assurances um that we would be able to um fill in those gaps again to um put students and staff in the position for success. 100% superintendent and while Mike will be chair. I I keep saying that tongue and cheek, but I hope he will be. Um because I think you know that

070there's other things that I want to be able to help you with. And I just want to repeat what you said so everyone hears it loud and clear. This 220 can't be used for staffing, but other things can. And in finance, we have been trying to help you kind of move the deck chairs so that you can free up money using things creatively so that you have more money in next year's budget for just that very reason, right? We've been working on that in finance. We're trying to do that with you. You're working on it. Jeremy's working on it so that there's more flexibility in next year's budget for that. And we've we've talked about, you know, with the revolving account and the student choice, just as you said, not hiring full-time positions because you

071can't always rely on that, but that you have the flexibility if you need paras out of that fund, that there's that flexibility and that we know the new money coming in is for your your teaching staff. We also know that that transportation money that is being reimbursed has to go to lower the assessments. We know these things now. That money is here now. So like we're on the same page. >> 100%. >> Thank you, >> Carla. >> So just to clarify, Kim, you said those funds cannot be used for staffing currently, >> right? >> Okay. >> The collaborative way. >> It's not collaborative. >> The collaborative addition. >> Yeah. So and and and Mr. Morgan, just to clarify, when you say staffing, you mean teacher staffing, not administrative staffing? >> Um, as far as what

072my priorities are, >> yes, it would be teachers, par professionals. >> Perfect. >> Um, again, setting setting our classrooms up and students up for success. >> Sounds great. Thank you. >> And I just want What was the um Kevin or Dr. Kir? What was the collaborative money that was back that came back from Valley? Um, I want to say it was like 208 and change was the final number. >> Okay. 208. >> I thought it was 220. >> We've been we've been kind of just saying 220, but it's actually it's it's a little bit less than that. >> Okay. >> That that was the original projection that the valley shared. Okay. >> With me. >> All right. Thank you. because I know I just want to clarify because I know it's been stated like it

073was 250 220 and then when I did read a letter from Nancy it was said it was 208. So I just wanted to make sure that that's known in the public that it was 208 back from the collaborative. All right. Um you had your hand up Dr. Pier. Yeah, I just wanted to provide just kind of a little breaking news slash contextualization because I know we we hear this a lot about people saying, you know, maybe money will come from the state and all this stuff. Well, we just got an email. I don't know, uh, Mr. Morgan, if you saw your email. >> Yes. >> That two of the amendments that were strongly supported and co-sponsored, they don't affect us. They were for rural aid, but they failed. So even things that we might have

074a good idea about passing as amendments for the budget um may not actually come to fruition. So that's kind of one of temper expectations because I do I kind of hear this ethereal like more money will come more money will come and I think that was one where going into the voting they thought that they that had a pretty good chance of passing and it didn't. So, just wanted to let everybody know that just came I don't know 15 minutes ago in an email. >> And and just to add to that, I I don't believe it was close the vote. I I quickly looked, it did not appear close. Um and that those were two amendments that they thought had the support to pass. >> Yeah, one of them lost 134 to 43. No, sorry,

075143 to 34. You get that wrong. So, any more comments or anything from anyone? Any questions? Uh Jackie White, >> just really basic. How would the allocation like distribution work between the the three towns? >> Um I will pull that up. That was on the uh some of the documents sent out, but I know there's been some >> Yeah, I saw I saw that, but I can't remember which document it was in. >> Yeah. No, no, no worries. Uh so Ashby's assessment would be lowered by $34,99. Peprols would be lowered by $138,945 and towns would be lowered by 109,99. It would be an overall uh assessment increase of the three towns combined to 98%. So less than 1%. >> Sorry. Do you mean assessment decrease or or or you mean >> No, it's still an

076increase, but it's it's a lower increase than before. From 172 to 0.98. So if you am I still So if you look at the draft if you look at the draft revenue sheet that's in the packet that has the information. So Ashb would be getting a percentage of the 1.93% drop. Um Pepil is a 227. Townsen is a 21 or 21%. It's on the draft. Correct. >> Correct. Each town will stand to lower their assessment by about 7/10 of a percent give or take. >> Okay. I know every little bit helps, but like >> that seems like a very very small drop in the bucket >> for the town's perspective versus if we keep that for paving the parking lots at various schools or whatever it is like that money goes a little bit further.

077I don't know. Someone help me reconcile that perspective a little bit. >> Sorry. Go ahead. Well, there's the the school's budget with everything we're sitting on about $80 million and I don't know when we would have to repave, but it's in a while. If you think of the perspective, like what they needed to fund the police in Townsen was 197. So 109 is pretty meaningful. And when you have $19,000 in free cash in a town versus we're looking at $3 million next year we'll have in END and these revolving accounts that we're looking at without the um the OPEB money. It's about 10 million sitting there. So I think that's the perspective Jackie. >> Yeah. And we know that these funds would definitely get earmarked marked in that kind of way. Well, we can't say

078exactly where they I mean, we can't say where the towns would use them, >> but you know, there's they're they're tight margins in the towns as compared not not that it's not tight with the schools cuz there's more personnel obviously within the schools, but those numbers become really meaningful when there's not a lot of money to distribute. Okay. So, I keep raising my hand to talk, but um just because I want to be clear to who's what order everyone goes in. Kim, the towns have revolving funds as well, correct? And they have money in those funds that they use for certain things as well, like our revolving funds, >> right? So, like the recreation part-time staff for the summer is on a revolving fund. Trash has a revolving fund. I could bring them all up,

079but the most of the staff are not on revolving funds. >> Yeah. And so, like those revolving funds have certain criteria, right, in the towns like our revolving funds have the certain criteria. So, and they retain some money in those funds. Correct. And I don't know what they have in their revolving funds. Um, and each town has these revolving funds that they use towards their budget and similar to what we do with ours. Correct. And they can use money out of there to pay certain things, too. So it's not like they're just left with 19,000 in free cash. Correct. They can use their funds for different things, too. So there's one for like the old dump for the like engineer person that goes out there, but there's small money for like the dump. I can

080bring it up. Yeah. >> It's okay because like the the job of this committee I don't think is town budgeting. as much as it is the school committee budgeting. And so the responsibility for us as a committee is the school budget and not looking at town budgets necessarily. >> I think it's in its totality, Lisa. It is. And we know >> I I understand in its totality. I do I understand, Kim, in its totality. But in and over the years, Brad or the superintendent shows a slide of how much more and more and more the municipalities have had to pay because the state hasn't. And now we have an opportunity because as NY's letter to us stated, there was $250,000 in additional unanticipated revenue. Right? That's what her letter to us stated 250,000 and she

081gave us the figure to give back in the assessments of 283 part of it the collaborative money can't be used on on teachers and the 33 anticipated come getting back um for the transportation assessment if not used has to go back for the transportation assessment that's the intended use for it anyhow is to reduce the transportation assessment so two legitimate uses to go back to the town. We know the burden has shifted to the town side of the district budget over the years and so this is an opportunity to start flattening that X which I think is the intent >> and I understand a really long time for 283,000 out of an $80 million budget. >> Yeah. But I do want it to be understood by the public that the towns sit on revolving funds

082as well and we as a school committee have revolving funds as well. That's that's my point is that it's not that the only fund they have is their free cash. It's not our only fund either. So that was just my point to make that towns have revolving funds as well and have cash in there as well. All right, Superintendent Morgan, >> I just wanted to add again and again I do believe that the majority of the school committee knows this. Um, but with regard to our revolving accounts, um, we do have a good amount of money in those revolving accounts, but there are restrictions on how that money can be used. So, it's not as if, just to be clear, that that we have, you know, say 5 million to just put out there and

083do something significant for the district. We don't. Um, you know, again, some of those are very clear as to where that money has to go for the most part. Um, and if we use those revolving funds for something other than one-time expenses, it is a dangerous practice to get into. I so I just wanted to be clear on that so that everyone especially the people that are on the call and not on the committee that um you know we will we certainly use a good amount of that money every year. Circuit break is a good example. Um you know END is also free cash. We use more than we should with END. Um, but things such as food service, parking lot, which are sizable accounts are are things that real that have a designated place

084where that money should be spent and really has to be spent. >> Carla, >> yeah, I I I think I hear where you're coming from as well, Lisa, and I I can understand some of that concern. I think if I were sitting here in this committee uh this time last year, I would be saying like no, let's not spend, you know, that money and give back to the towns because we are in a tight budget and I think the district has been for a while. Um and I think this is probably one of the first time in a while that we actually are sitting on unexpected funds that are putting us at a at a somewhat surplus. I I I wouldn't call it surplus, but you know, money that wasn't expected to come in. And

085I think as Kim mentioned, you know, so many times the town has uh given overrides for us where we were short. We were coming in short, helping us keep our staffing, helping us keep the programs. Um and the one time that we have that fund sitting there, the entire town, I mean, that's all the residents that are paying for this as well, tax money. um they're like well the district's sitting on extra money so I think the right thing to do would be to reallocate that back um and it's not as you know um some mentioned it's not paying back but it's it's we're just sitting there and we don't have we can't use that in staffing so um I think it would be the right ethical thing to do personally um and again if

086we were sitting here at a different scenario last I wouldn't be saying the same thing. >> Alexander. >> Yeah, I I got to say I'm at this point I'm sort of on the same page as Kim and Carla. Um uh even though I it I I'm a little wary about this because I know like unexpected things could happen and we might need more money for teachers and whatnot. Um I do think it's a the towns have been there for us. um when we really needed it most um you know not every single time but some when we've needed it most the towns have come through for us um a lot of the time and you know I I don't want this district versus town dynamic either um I think you know I think um it

087would be I don't want them I don't want it to be that you know the one time we had extra money we held back, but we're always asking them for money. And like I don't begrudge anyone to vote either way because I again I'm not fully I'm uh you know it's just I I I think it would be a good gesture towards the towns. Um and I might be foolish in that assumption, but uh that's that's how I'm leaning. >> Thank you, Alexander. >> Um anyone else? >> Yes. >> All right. So I if if I may um seeing you brought up the revolving accounts, Townsen's revolving accounts in the last annual report was a total of $296,000. 80,000 of which was for the school resource officer. So, of the remaining 200,000, a h 100,000

088in the revolving account was for the part-time recreation staff, which is self-funding. So, that brings us down to what? A little bit more than 100,000. 20,000 of that is for the cemetery plots. So, I can keep drilling down, but so now we're with what 80 a little more than $80,000. So, there's not a lot of money in the revolving accounts. Um, part of that is for the uh details for the cruiser fees for when the cops get hired for extra details. Um, the next highest one is the recycling revolving account. So, then it's bits and pieces. Um, the fire alarms. Um, and then some for conservation. No idea what that is. So, just you brought it up. I just want to be clear. >> I realize that's what it's for. So again, you wanted to

089bring it up. I wanted to bring out what it is for. >> Yeah. And the resource officer, we do pay the town of Towns and for the resource officer. >> So it comes out of our district. >> Yep. >> Okay, Carla, sorry. Just one final comment because I know there's teachers out there as well that are probably sitting listening to this. I think if these funds could be used towards um hiring teachers, I think I would be probably citing in a different way right now. But since Kim clarified that the funds that the this extra fund that we received that was unexpected cannot be used towards um hiring teacher staff, which is why I agree that we should give back. So, I just wanted to clarify that because I know there's probably a lot of

090teachers sitting out there or staffing listening to it and I just wanted them to understand my personal opinion on it is that if the funds could be used toward teaching, I would I would probably be citing differently saying let's use it to hire more staff and teaching. So, that's my last two cents that I have to say. Anyone else? It is getting to be about 7 o'clock and we do have more of the meeting but it this is an important discussion I think given that it does pertain to our students. >> Would you accept a motion >> if you'd like to make a motion >> or comments? whatever whatever direction the committee would like to go. >> I'll just go ahead and make the motion then if nobody else has any comments. It doesn't seem

091like anyone's jumping in. So, and this is this this is the long one, right? The the the one under FY27 budget. >> This is if you're reading the one from the agenda, correct? >> From the agenda. Yes. >> With the operational >> operational transportation, debt service, all that stuff. And to be clear, the only line that would be changing in this is the END line. >> Yeah. >> The budget, the overall budget is not changing >> and the operational transportation line is not changing. Is that right, Dr. Ku? It's just the END. >> This is just for the this is this is if the vote is for strictly using more END. >> Yeah. Yeah. I see that the the the number that number went to 2.75 million from END. Correct. That's That's the change. >>

092Yes, that that's correct change. >> Okay. All right. All right. I move that the school committee adopt the following budgets for fiscal year 2027. Operational budget 60,565,96. Transportation budget 500 or 5,256,842. Debt service $3,713,812. Furthermore, I propose that these budgets be utilized to calculate the fiscal year 2027 school assessments for member towns in accordance with statutory requirements. Additionally, I recommend the authorization of the use of 2,750,000 from the excess and deficiency account to offset the fiscal year 2027 operational budget. This motion is made with the understanding that these budget allocations are in the best interest of our schools and the communities we serve, aiming to provide quality education while being fiscally responsible. I seek a second to this motion for further discussion and a subsequent vote. Second. That is Michael Labosier with a motion and

093Kim Craraven with a second. It will be a roll call vote. All right. I am going to start with Michael Labosier. >> Yes. >> Um Lisa Bloom. >> I'm sorry. Yes. Kim Craraven, yes. Keenan is not here. Uh Carla Lima, >> yes. >> Uh Chris Sloan. >> My understanding is I need to abstain, right? >> You do not on the overall budget tonight. >> Okay. Um I'll vote yes then. >> Jackie White. >> Yes. I'm going to be a No, I'm just uncomfortable doing it this way. >> All right, moving on. >> Miss me. >> You're muted, Lisa. >> Sorry, Alexander. Um, I vote yes. >> Okay, you vote yes. All right. And I got everyone else. Hang on one second. I have to step away for one second. I'll be right back. Sorry, I'm

094back. Um, all right. Moving on to the budget transfer. >> Um, I don't think you completed the vote. >> I did, didn't I? Everyone voted. >> Yeah, I completed the vote. >> All right. Usually you have Robin do the total numbers. >> It was Yeah, sorry. >> Oh, >> um, it was seven. Seven yes and one yes. No. And >> and we did have Keenan. >> So it did pass by twothirds. So >> yes, because you need six. Yes. Correct. >> Yes. >> We need six out of the complete nine. All right. Now moving on to the budget transfer. I think we are going to skip over this tonight. Dr. Kier, is that correct? Uh yeah, because we if we're going to um address some of the spending asks of uh well, we we'd have

095to do a second one anyway, so we're just going to wrap it into one. So >> yeah, >> and there Yeah. And it may involve parts that Chris Sloan cannot be involved in and Alexander Vancoui cannot vote on certain line items. That's my understanding. >> I believe they would have to sit down tonight. Yeah. >> Yeah. And so we're going to um until we get the ethics known on that come back to that at a later date. All right. Um moving on more of the organizational meeting is now continued. So we have an appointment of treasurer and secretary and I think Mr. Morgan, you make the recommendation to reappoint Michael Hartnett as our treasurer. As a district treasurer? >> Yes, I do. >> All right. Any questions on the district treasurer? These are things that

096are responsible to the school committee to approve every year so that everyone knows >> the right the suggested motions just have blanks for the salaries. Do those need to be filled in when we make the actual motions? >> No. Because I think last year we gave him an increase. And so that's why we did it at the organizational meeting. All you have to do is make a motion to reappoint Michael Hartnett as a district treasurer. >> Okay. So, they just leave out that salary bit. >> Okay. All right. I move to reappoint Michael Hartnett as district treasurer for the 2627 school year. >> I second the motion. >> That is Michael Robasier and Alexander Vancoui with the motion or with the second. Michael made the motion. Roll call vote. Michael Abasier. >> Yes. >> Alexander

097Vancoui, >> yes. >> Lisa Bloom, >> yes. >> Jackie White, >> yes. >> Chris Sloan, >> yes. >> Carla Lima, >> yes. >> Kim Craraven, >> yes. >> And myself, yes. Moving on to the next appointment would be the district or the um school committee secretary. And it is recommended that we appoint by um Superintendent Morgan that Robin Ivy be reappointed. >> I'll make a motion to move to reappoint Robin Ivy as secretary to the school committee for the 2026 to 2027 school year. That was >> I second that motion. >> Okay, we got Jackie White with the motion and um Alexander Vancoui with a second. Again, it is a roll call vote. We will go through the list. Jackie White, >> yes. >> Chris Sloan, >> yes. >> Carla Lima, >> yes. >> Michael

098Labosier, >> yes. >> Craraven, >> yes. Lisa Blooming, >> yes. >> Uh, Alexander Vancoui, >> yes. >> And myself, yes. All right. Then we have two uh the next moving to number four, the appointment of district council. Um, Superintendent Brad Morgan recommends the committee reappoint Thomas J. Nuttle of Nuttle Makavoy, Joyce PC as district council for special education related issues and Bel >> Miss Martin. >> Yes, >> I I I actually missed this at the very bottom. Um, so the the firm name has changed. >> Okay. >> Um, so it's no longer uh Thomas Nuttle. It's still the same law firm, but Thomas Nuttle has retired. Um, so we we're still using um we're using Michael Joyce. >> Okay. >> Who was part of that part of that firm, but now it's called Makavoy Joyce

099and Kowalsski because Tom Nuttle is gone and Kowalsski has joined the firm. Apologies. >> Okay, that's okay. That's okay. Um, >> do you want to read all of that out loud? again. >> Sure. >> So, we use um Michael Makavoy is his name. It's Mac Ay. And he was in the he's in the firm name previous firm name as well. And the firm name is Makavoy Joyce J O Y C and Kowalsski K O W A L S K I and then PC. >> Okay. So, Superintendent Morgan recommends that the committee reappoint Michael Makavoy from Michael or Makavoy Joyce and Kowalsski firm as the district health council for special education related issues and Valerio or I'm gonna mess. >> Yep, that's right. Valerio. >> Valario. Valerio, Dominelloo, and Hillman LLC as district council for labor

100labor public education related matters for the 2026 2027 school year. And somebody can say so moved. That's what I was going to say. >> So moved. >> Yeah. And I'll second. >> So that was Jackie White and Michael Labosier with the second. It is a roll call vote. Um, Chris Sloan, >> yes. >> Carla Lima, >> yes. >> Jackie White, >> yes. >> Alexander Vancoui, >> yes. >> Kim Craraven, >> yes. >> Lisa Bloom, >> yes. >> Michael Labosier, >> yes. >> Myself, yes. All right, that one's done. Now moving on, we're going to do subcommittees and liaison appointments. The first one is our accelerated repairs and building committee. This is one that I have served on for a while. We do need to change out um two positions. We need to change out Randy

101Rush's position and Nancy Haynes because Dr. Kier will step on um in in um in NY's position. Is there a committee member that would like to be on this as well, Carla? >> I would like to be on that. >> Okay. It's it's just the final approval, Carla, but that would be great if you want to be on it. There's not much to do on this. We're just waiting to close out. just to make sure. All right. All right. I will take a motion. So on the committee, we will have Lisa Martin, we will have Carla Lima, uh Kevin Kmir, Jeremy Hammond, and Brad Morgan. Somebody can say so. Moved. >> So moved. >> Second. Right. So that is who said the so moved. >> Lisa Bloom. >> Alex. >> Okay. Got the second. All

102right. Roll call vote. Michael Labosier. >> Yes. >> Chris Lo. >> Yes. >> Isa Bloom. >> Yes. >> Uh Kim Kim Craraven. >> Yes. >> Jackie White. >> Yes. >> Carla Lima. >> Yes. Alexander Vancoui. >> Yes. >> All right. Moving on to finance committee. >> I I was on the finance committee for several years. I am going to be stepping away from finance. Um is there somebody else that would like to step in that position? Uh Jackie White, you would like to take that position? >> I would like to. Yes. >> All right. Um, Michael Abasier, would you like to stay on as well? >> Yes. >> Um, Keenan did reach out to me before he left. He said he would like to be on the committee as well. >> And is there any

103And Kim Craraven, is there anyone else? >> Yes, I'd like I'd like to stay on. >> All right. Anybody else want finance? All right. And then it is also comprised of um Superintendent Morgan, Kevin Comier, and Jeremy Hammond. All right. Do you guys want to take this as one motion that we do all committee and then we'll step back and so we'll take one vote at the end so we have finance done. Can I I'd prefer I'd prefer for the minutes if we could just do individual because in the actual motion it will be list every person. So if it's one motion it will be like Santa's naughty list. It will just Okay. >> We'll make it easy for you. Robin, >> if you want if you wanted me to read it, I'm happy to

104read it. Um and then >> we're good to go. >> Some of Okay. Someone could say so moved. >> Yes. >> Yep. So moved. >> Okay. and second. >> Oh, whoops. I can't say so moved. >> Oh, you can't say it. All right, I'll say it. So moved. >> Okay, >> second. >> And so we have >> Michael Labosier, and Lisa Bloom on the second. This is for the finance committee of 2026 2027 comprised of the members of Kim Craraven, Michael Labosiier, Jackie White, Keenan Francois, Brad Morgan, Kevin Kier, and Jeremy Hammonds. All right. All right, here we go. Michael Abasier, >> yes. >> Chris Sloan, >> yes. >> Lisa Bloom, >> yes. >> Tim Craraven, >> yes. >> Jackie White, >> yes. >> Carla Lima, >> yes. >> Alexander Cudi, >> yes. Sorry. And

105myself, yes. Congratulations, finance committee. All right. Policy committee. I know that Lisa Bloom was on the policy committee. I'd >> like to stay on. >> Okay. Michael Abosier, you were on the policy committee. Jackie White, you were on the policy committee as well. And is there someone else? Any of the other new members would like to be on the policy committee? This is one that I would like to step on to. I've been on it in the past. And just to clarify, if I don't join now, I can still join later, right? Or no, >> you can be an observer, Chris. >> Okay. >> You can't um join the committee because we can only have up to four members. >> Um >> so I'm committ I'm stepping back off policy. I'm just going to do

106finance. I don't know if that was clear. >> So if that opens up a space, >> that opens up a space, Chris. >> Yeah. if you'd like to be on policy and you are allowed to be on policy because it does not have a conflict of interest. >> Sure. Okay. Yeah, I can put my name there. >> All right. So, the policy committee for the 2026 2027 school year, Lisa Bloom, Lisa Martin, Chris Sloan, Michael Labosier. All right. And then it is attended by whoever the policies apply to in the district. So, Superintendent Morgan will come in, Dr. Kir will come in if he's on, and other members from the administration. >> Can someone give me a so moved? >> So moved. >> Oh, >> okay. That is Michael Laborier. >> Seconded >> and a

107second by Alexander Vancoui. Roll call vote. Chris Sloan, >> yes. >> Alexander Vancoui, >> yes. >> Carla Lima, >> yes. >> Jackie White, >> yes. >> Kim Craraven, >> yes. >> Isa Bloom, >> yes. >> Michael Abosier, >> yes. >> And myself, yes. Congratulations. Policy committee. Now, warrant committee. Um, Alexander, I know that you have been signing it. >> Yep. >> But to be full disclosure, we can't have you sign the payroll because you have a family member that is um >> Oh, really? >> Yeah. So, it's a com. So, just to be above bar, it's been okay. I checked everything with the lawyer. It's been okay. But going forward just for perception out in the public. >> All right. So I shouldn't be I shouldn't continue as a warrant officer then. >> Yes. You

108should not. >> Yeah. I I didn't know that. I would have thrown in for something else if I had known that that happen. >> That's okay. >> I don't think we have some other committees. >> Yeah. So and the warrants are so that Chris you know it's just and Chris you can't participate in warrants. And there is also the rule possibly that when we do the payroll warrant that you guys are not allowed to vote. That is something that we need to check with the ethics commission to make sure what that rule is. All right. Just to be transparent to everyone. All right. Um but we need somebody to sign be a primary signer and a secondary signer. Do I have someone that will step forward? >> It's not that hard of a task. >>

109No, it's not hard. You get emailed the the the the documents and you read through them and you sign them. Um, you know, it's not it doesn't take too much of your time. >> Yeah. All handled electronically. >> Yeah. Carla Lima, >> I'll be one of >> I see her. >> Okay. as a primary signer. Does somebody want >> secondary? I don't really >> um primary signer and they send a few a week, Carla, so that you know the frequency and then you know it is paying out the vendors. So they do like them like >> to be sent signed right? >> Yes. Yes. Um secondary >> I will Lisa Bloom. >> All right. Do I have to sign them all as well? >> You don't have to unless Carla's unable to. >> Okay. >>

110All right. >> You'll just be the secondary backup to Carla. >> Okay. >> All right. So, our primary warrant signature um will be Carla Lima. Secondary will be Lisa Bloom. Do I have a so moved? >> So moved. >> Jackie White. >> Second. and and a second by Alexander Vancoui. All right, it's a roll call vote. Michael Labosier, >> yes. >> Chris Sloan, >> yes. >> Lisa Bloom, >> yes. >> Kim Craraven, >> yes. >> Becky White, >> yes. >> Alexander Vancoui, >> yes. >> Carla Lima, >> yes. >> And myself, yes. Moving on to negotiations and personnel um yeah personnel uh for teachers. Now this is another committee that Chris and Alexander that you cannot be part of. >> I thought mine was a non-eing unit because my my relative doesn't my relative is

111not a teacher. Although I I personally think being a teacher and a member of the MTA, I think that would probably not be the best place for me to begin with. But just clarifying. >> Okay. And that's fine, Alexander. It's your decision. So >> yeah. >> And um Chris, you want to be able to be on the teachers union one. >> So we can take this as a committee. We can split it into two or we can have one group do all of them. What would the committee like to do? >> Can you walk through like what the commitments are as we're looking at this next school year? Like when do they meet? What is that whole situation? >> So there are five union contracts this next next year. The meetings are going to be

112a lot with these unions. And so Brad, you can fill in on the teachers union as it involves the teachers union >> as far as a time commitment. >> Time commitment. >> Uh so depending upon how the negotiations go. Uh yeah, I mean it could be anywhere I would say 20 to 30 hours >> a week over the time. Um, I I'm thinking I'm thinking a meeting, two to three-hour long meetings, possibly longer. Again, it depends how it goes. We'll probably begin I would I would expect we would likely commence because the the contract ends June 30th of 2027. So, I'm thinking we would commence negotiations probably uh late summer, early fall, maybe even earlier than that. Um and then again depending on how the how the negotiations go um and how long they are

113you know in in the past we've had um you know the last two have been have run relatively smooth um and I don't have any reason to feel that they wouldn't run smoothly again but it is a it's it's a significant time commitment. Um, in the past I I know that we've had um, you know, school committee members be involved with the teachers and then myself and the HR director would handle the other four units with um, the appropriate central office heads. Um, but that is completely up to the school committee as to how you want to handle that. Um there have oftentimes been requests to have a school committee member on those bargaining units as well. But again that it it's time and um the flexibility of those meetings is not always um an

114easy thing to do. Um you know the teachers are generally the afternoon and then some of the other ones are early afternoon right after school. Um, for instance, par professionals, custodians, and nurses tend to be um, you know, 3, four o'clock. Teachers tend to be a little bit later. Um, but those also go later. They're definitely longer. Um, and we usually start first with the teachers historically. >> And some of the meetings are virtual and some of them are not. It depends on um the teachers themselves. like with I was on the teachers contract or the teachers negotiation and we had in-person ones. >> How many committee members are required on that? >> On that >> we can have up to four committee members >> but we don't have four. We could have >> you

115don't have to have four. I recommend more than two. Um but what happens is they will meet and then we will go into executive session as a committee. Nothing gets done without a committee vote of everyone. So they're just tasked with negotiating, coming back to the committee, talking about it, then going back and negotiating back and forth between the committee and the unions. I can tell you it is a time commitment. Um, I know that Kenan would like to be on this. I too would be on this one. Are there other members that would like to join us? >> You know what? I'm a glutton for punishment. I'll join in. >> Michael Bossier. And then we have Kim Craraven as well >> On the teachers one or are we splitting or not splitting? I mean,

116for me, me thinking out loud here, it's easier if it's just one group together, and that makes it easier for um Robin to communicate with us, Brad or Morgan to communicate with us, and the unions know who is the right contact. >> And I think it's more consistent, too. >> Yeah. Great. So that's my feeling, but others may have a different view as well. >> I wouldn't plan to join either. So if if that was a reason to split, you can not, you know, count that, right? Um so I just wanted to throw that out there. I know it would be required if I joined one, they would need to be split. Um >> yeah, >> the only the only recommendation that I would have um is that that we're just cautious with um what

117we're going to need for a quorum if that's going to be a large if it's going to be um a school committee group meeting with each unit because it could be challenging scheduling meetings. Yeah. Again, I feel like the teachers tend to happen later um as far as later in the day. Um, but the other ones tend to happen like right after school. That that has been the past practice. So, I just don't I don't want to be in a situation where we can't put together a quorum um and scheduling meetings becomes problematic. Um, unless unless many of them are virtual, then things are can be a little bit more flexible with that. That's all. That has not always been the case. For instance, um custodians, I don't believe we've ever had a virtual meeting

118with them. I don't believe we've um we've had some virtual meetings with the nurses, par professionals, some uh meetings have been virtual. Teachers have been a balance over the past couple years because oftentimes the attorneys are involved in the you're dealing with travel and things like that as well. And I think in some sense um before on except for the teachers, we have given power to Brad and Nancy and or in this case it would be Kevin Comir and um HR >> and Marie to do the negotiation in those. We still they still have to bring things back to us and we have to approve. we give them the guidelines. So there is some flexibility in that as well. And I mean once the subcommittee is formed, the subcommittee can decide but then bring that

119back to the committee to vote to give Brad, Dr. Kir, and um the HR and and Marie that directive. All right. So am I hearing and with a committee of four I believe that the quorum has to be three is that correct >> Robin so three members out of four would have to attend the meeting >> all right so on the committee we have Michael Abosier Lisa Martin Kim Craraven Kenan Francois to be the negotiations committee for the district. May I have a so moved? >> So moved. So moved. >> That is Lisa Bloom. And I think I'll take Jackie White for the second. Did you do a second, Jackie? >> I did. >> Oh, it wasn't your vote. There are so many voices. >> I said second at one point. >> Okay. So it's

120Lisa Bloom and Alexander Vancludi. >> It's a roll call. Lisa Bloom. >> Yes. >> Kim Craven. Raven. >> Yes. >> White. >> Yes. >> Carla Lima. >> Yes. >> Alex Alexander Vancoui. >> Yes. >> Michael Labosier. >> Yes. >> And myself. Yes. Congratulations. Negotiation committee. Moving on to legislative advocacy. If people want to continue this or not continue this committee, I know it's an extra committee. If we want to think about it and revisit it at another time, that is fine as well. I Everyone's thought >> I'm I'm fine with holding off on it for now. >> Everyone is? >> Yeah, I'm I'm fine with holding off on it for now, too. All right, moving on. And if we think that we need other subcommittees, we can come back and revisit those as well and

121figure out if the committee wants more subcommittees. Um, doing community outreach. This is like a liaison person that usually talks to their select board members, attends um their town meetings at different times. Is Carla, are you interested for Ashby? >> Yes, I'm the only one for Ashby. >> Yeah. >> All right. Um, anyone interested in Pepil? >> I I I think considering everyone else from PEPL is on 600 committees, I think I it's best if I do it. >> All right, Alex. And we can appoint more than one. Yeah, but it's I think I think I would have gone for a committee earlier if I had known my uh I couldn't do warrants anymore, but yeah, I'll I'll I'll go for pepper leazison on. >> All right, sounds great. Um, anyone for Townsen? >> Canon

122is still going to do it. >> Um, we can tell he's going to do it. We can appoint him. >> Yeah. Or we can wait, see if he wants to do it and then see if Lisa wants to do it and just wait. >> Yeah. >> What would you guys like to do? Lisa, would you like the position to and we can appoint Keenan at another time as well? >> Um, if he wants to continue, he he can. If if he doesn't want to, I'll take it. >> Okay. We'll bring that back for another vote then. >> Okay. So we'll just appoint two people uh right now. One for Ashby Carla Lima and for PPL Alexander Banci. These are the liaison to the select boards as we call it community outreach. >> Michael move for

123me. Y >> All right. And a second. >> I second. >> And Lisa Bloom. >> Michael with the motion. Uh, Lisa Bloom with a second. Um, it's a roll call vote. Chris Sloan, >> yes. >> Alexander Vancoui, >> yes. For the liaison. Alexander. >> Uh, yes. Yes. Sorry. >> Carla Lima. >> Yes. >> Jackie White. >> Yes. >> Kim Craraven. >> Yes. Lisa Bloom. >> Yes. Yes. >> So um yes. All right. That is the appointments of the um committees as of now and they can change up during the year so that everyone's aware if someone feels that they cannot fulfill their position, it can come back for a revote. All right, moving on to the school committee calendar. I'm going to hand it over to Robin as she had sent out a survey to

124people and finding the correct amount. Now, we do not have to vote on the calendar tonight. Um, but we should have a date or a day that we want to meet. >> Yeah. >> And so that we so Robin can put together a calendar and we can meet on it and discuss. >> Yeah. >> At another time. So, we thought it would be a good idea this year to poll the committee before um you know, in the past what we've done is I've put together a couple of different um schedules and um and then the committee would review it and it didn't make sense to put all that work into it until we pulled everyone to see what dates were, you know, people were available. We also felt um or I felt personally that when

125we're putting you all on the spot, I I know it's hard for me to think about, oh, what's my schedule? What you know, so um the um survey would give you uh an opportunity to look at your availability. So um I'll just go over real quickly um the responses that we had. Um it was interesting. Um you know, you had the option of inerson only, virtual only, or hybrid. And it really was almost 50/50. uh 50% prefer virtual only. Um the 40% in wanted a hybrid and there was one participant who preferred to have in-person only. Um and then um looking at the the days offered um Tuesday was the most preferred um by mostly everybody um and um and then Tuesday was also the second uh available but not preferred. So, um, Tuesday was

126by far, uh, the overall pick. Um, there was Wednesday was the next day that the most people were available, but we did have members that said they were not available. So, Tuesday, everybody is available and it was the most preferred um, and it was also the most available but not preferred. Um and then next we offered um different times for the committee to meet and it it it was almost a 40% well let's see just was 36% um for um for 6:00 um 27% for 5:30. So that was the majority 5:30 6:00. Um and um subcommittee meetings are generally held um during the day but subcommittees when once they meet um they'll elect their chair and they'll decide on their schedule. So if you all um are in agreement I can put together um a

127calendar for you. You know once you discuss it tonight I can put together a calendar. The committee is um a gentle reminder, you all are scheduled to meet on Monday in person um at the um Nissatis Middle School at 6 PM uh from 6:00 to 7:00. It is a hard stop because it's uh the Peraltown meeting. So you're scheduled to meet again on Monday and then um you know obviously the committee can call another meeting if you need it, but the next regularly scheduled meeting is June 16th. So uh I'm happy to put the calendar and you all can review it and um and vote on it. And this is for next year the you know the 26th year. >> Uh Lisa Bloom. >> Yeah. Um where we're having tonight the organizational meeting. What's Monday's

128meeting about? >> Um Monday has a few items because there is a bunch going on that we need to get approved before the June 16th meeting. There's some um what do we have on that? >> The agenda is published. >> The agenda's published out there. It is out there >> the other day and I didn't find it. >> Yeah. Okay. >> So, it is out there. So, there are some items that we do need to get through. There's an approval that um >> Yeah, there's some reconstruction projects that are on there. Um there are um yeah, so there's some reconstruction projects that need to be voted on. Um there's um yeah, there's a few a few different things on there. >> Okay. Um originally you said that I might be a I might not be

129able to get there right at six, but I'll try my best. >> Yeah. And it's when Robin and I put it together because we like the 29th, this one was set before we shifted some things around to give us time. Um Okay. And so that's why. All right. So, is everybody interested in Tuesday meetings? And we'll allow Robin to go forward and come up with a schedule for Tuesday meetings. Kim, >> are we still doing Monday in person? >> We are still doing a Monday one in person because there's things that we need to move through, especially the resurfacing project. We are doing a meeting. Yeah, it has to be >> Yeah. only because it's right before the the um it's right before the um Prolletown meeting and so there's really not an ability for

130the district to do um a hybrid meeting from that location >> with >> so yeah we talked about the logistics >> it would make it easier for for um Lisa to have it remotely >> no because it's a town meeting Yeah, I'll be I'll be going straight from the school committee meeting to the town meeting. >> The nice thing is it's a hard stop. >> Yes. >> Uh Jackie, wait. >> Oh, questioning. >> Sorry. Um >> I I was one who voted for hybrid and uh just because I like seeing people in person at different times throughout the year. Uh, is that totally off the table now? We've all We've decided virtual >> it. No, it's not off the table. What we can have is Robin put together a calendar if we just get a

131date and we can do a variety of things and that can be discussed at a future meeting. >> Okay. >> It's not going to be discussed necessarily or we don't have it on the agenda for Monday. I think that's a little soon. >> Sure. to do it, but people can start looking at their calendars and really determining like if a hybrid works there or things like that. Okay. >> Yeah. So, generally what I do is I kind of follow the previous years. So, I'll I'll draft something and I can send it all out for your consideration and then it, you know, it will be up for discussion um at the the June 16th meeting. And then at that time, you all can decide, you know, we're going to have this month is in person. This

132this is, you know, there are certain ones that I I know that uh they prefer to be in person. So, um >> like the budget ones. >> Yeah. >> We Yeah. >> Yep. But as long as we give Robin a date of a Tuesday meeting, then she can go ahead and make that schedule for us and we can take a look at it. >> All right, Carla, >> is the June 16th one is that inerson meeting? Is that >> No, I thought it was a virtual meeting. >> I think it's a virtual one right now. >> I just wanted to clarify just cuz with the move I got confused. I didn't I thought this meeting was in lie of the one from for Monday. So, um I just need to move a couple of things

133around. So, I wanted to just clarify that I put it on my calendar. Correct. >> Yeah. On your calendars, you know that it's always going to be on your calendar and and I I'm begging all of you to accept or decline. Um I I'm constantly in there checking because we need to know that we have a quorum. So, um, if I could just ask one one thing of you, it it really is to check your calendars and to either accept or decline. Um, so if you have any questions, too, you can always just shoot me an email or call me. Carla, I'm here to help. >> All right. Any questions? So, the task that we're putting ahead to uh Miss Ivy is to create the calendars on a Tuesday. Um the time was 5:30 uh

134or 6. >> Can we do six? >> I think six is flexible. >> Yeah, I I I said 5:30, but like six is fine with me as well. I just prefer earlier rather than later. But, you know, six if six is fine for for me as well. So, you know, >> I'm in the same boat as Mike. I'd prefer earlier, but I can do six. No problem. >> I was going to say 5:45. >> I think it's also easier for um like other people in the community to attend the six. >> All right. So, I think we're in agreement that the calendar will be put together at for six o'clock. >> Mhm. >> All right. >> And are we going to try to do non select board nights, which I know we can't always predict,

135but >> we can try. We can try. >> Um cuz who has the select board? Is it um Townsen has select board on Tuesdays? >> Yes. All right. Do they have their their stuff is published online? Correct. Yes. Okay. >> And I'll find out what the cadence is going to be. >> Okay. Because they have a new board as well, right? They don't or do Okay. All right. Moving on to the consent agenda. Is that all the information you needed, Robin? >> Yes. Thank you. >> All right. Moving on to the consent agenda. >> I just I'm sorry to interrupt. um just need to take the April 14th minutes off of the consent agenda and it just leaves one one um accounts payable warrant, one payroll warrant and then one donation. So you can >>

136All right. I move that the school committee approve the consent agenda as presented without the April 14th, 2026 minutes. Thank you. >> I have a second. >> Kim, did you second? >> You did. >> Okay. So, that was Michael Labosier and Kim Craraven with a second. >> This is a roll call vote. It does Robin. It does include payroll warrants. Correct. >> Yes, it does. So, um, Chris and Alexander, you may want to abstain until we find out from legal. Just >> All right. Uh, Michael Abasier, >> yes. >> Uh, Lisa Bloom, >> yes. >> And Craraven, >> yes. >> Jackie White, >> yes. >> Lima, >> yes. Alexander Vancoui >> abstain. >> Uh Chris Long >> abstain >> and myself is yes. Consent agenda has passed. And then we have new business. >> I

137I just wanted to make sure I provided you a template, Lisa, but I think I may have >> inadvertently left that one off. >> But you did. You did. >> I'm sorry. I know that was th throwing throwing a monkey wrench in it for you. Um it new business. I mean it's just housekeeping. Um every year um Brad is um appointed to the Valley uh collaborative board of directors as well as the Keystone Educational Collaborative Board of Directors. Um so it's just housekeeping. >> Okay. Not >> and and they don't have to be separate votes. You can combine the vote. That's fine. Does somebody Okay. >> Can I move to vote that the school committee appoint Morgan to the Valley Collaborative Board of Directors for the term July 1st, 2026 through June 30th, 2027. Uh

138as well as the Keystone Educational Collaborative Board of Directors for the term July 1st, 2026 through June 30th, 2027. I second the motion. >> Oh, sorry. >> Is uh Jackie White with a motion and Lisa Bloom with a second. >> It is a roll call vote. Um any discussion? >> Thank you both. >> Michael, Michaelier, >> yes. >> Uh Chris Sloan, >> yes. >> Alexander Vancou, >> yes. Lima, >> yes. >> White, >> yes. >> Raven, >> yes. >> Lisa Bloom, >> yes. >> Myself, yes. All right, though. That is finished under new business. That's it. >> And that is it for this evening. So, all right. I will take a motion to adjurnn. >> I move to adjurnn. I >> and Lisa Bloom with a second roll call vote. Michael Labosier. >> Yes. >>

139Flo, >> yes. >> Lisa Bloom, >> yes. >> Kim Craraven, >> yes. >> Jackie White, >> yes. >> Alexander Vancou, >> yes. >> Carla Lima, >> yes. and myself. Yes. Thank you everyone.