NMRSD School Committee 4/10/2025

001It looks like Kim's in the Okay. Oh, there she is. She's I'll wait until she's she should be joining momentarily. All right. Welcome everybody to the April 10th, 2025 meeting of the North Middle Sex School Committee. It is 6:03 and this meeting is being recorded. Roll call. Randy here. June here. Lisa Bloom here. Will heckler here, Tom Casey here, Kim Craraven here, and myself. And then we have on the call as well with us, we have Brad Morgan, Nancy Haynes, Dr. Ree, um, Miss Olmstead, and Robin Ivy. All right, moving on. We are going to do the consent agenda first and then move to a short executive session to approve some minutes. Um, do I have a motion on the consent agenda? So move. Second. That was June and a second by Will. There are

002several minutes in here. Thank you, Robin, for keeping us up to date on these and moving through approval. Anybody have any questions? All right. Randy, yes. June, yes. Lisa Fine here. Will Hacklin? Yes. Tom Casey? Yes. And Kim Craraven? I'm going to be abstaining. Okay. Thank you. And myself? Yes. All right. May I take a motion for the public? We're just jumping into executive session for a matter of five minutes to approve some minutes that we need to approve. Um, may I get a motion from the floor or someone to move us to executive session? I I can read it if you want. That works. I was going to say is that or I got it. I have it up. Okay. Go ahead, Randy. Um, I move uh that the school committee meet uh in

003executive session pursuant to MGL chapter 30A section 21A for the following purpose. Um to discuss strategy with respect to oh just just seven. So for purpose 7 pursuant to Massachusetts general laws chapter 30A section 22C to review and approve executive session minutes of the North Middle Sex Regional School Committees executive session meetings. Uh January 8th, 2024 finance. January 11th, 2024 negotiations. Uh April 26, 2024 finance. April 29th, 2024 school committee. Uh, June 13, 2024, school committee. June 20th, 2024, school committee. July 3rd, 2024, finance. July 9th, 2024, school committee. July 25th, 2024, school committee. October 15, 2024, finance. Uh, November 6th, 2024, school committee. Uh, February 14th, 2025, school committee. uh March 20th, 2025 finance and March 26, 2025 negotiations. All right, I'll second. And that was seconded by June, right? Randy, yes. June, yes.

004Lisa Bloom, yes. Will Hackler? Yep. Tom Casey, yes. and Kim Craraven. All right. Um, we're going to jump to executive session. Please everyone just shut down your screen and join in a different just to make sure that we're not exposing anything out in open session. Yeah, just make sure they're uh audio is off. Okay. All right, everyone. I'll see you there. All right, we are back. Thank you to the people participating um for your patience as we did our executive session. Uh, Randy, do I have to read anything since we came back in? No. No. All right, we will move to public communications. We have a few. Oh, June. Yes, Tom is in the attendee list now with his hand up. Added back in. All right. Thanks for the teamwork. All right. We're going to

005move to public comment. The first person we have with a public comment tonight is Chelsea Carr. And I'm just going to remind the public that we allow three minutes per speaking. Is she adding Robin? Where's Chelsea? Chelsea, can you hear me? We can hear you. Would you state your name and the town in which you live? Yep. My name is Chelsea Carr and I live in Ashame. Um, so I just want to come on and because I want someone to make this make sense to me. Um, y'all voted to close Ashby in the worst way because our buddy Pat there said that it makes more sense. Um, when you have had res residents from Ashby Towns and Pepper all providing data. Um, I'm not sure if like officially they provided it or not, but that

006proves that it in fact would not be the smartest and most cost cost-saving decision. Um, and then you want to go and charge for full day or possibly full day kindergarten, but have you factored in like the busing from Ashby to Townsen for the kindergarteners on the half day? I'm assuming that that's going to be more cost. Um, and you want to potentially increase preschool tuition once again from last year's increase. Um, so are you trying to price out families from this district? What about the families who can't afford all of this? Um, but then you want to add more administrative jobs. So, pretty much from my point of view, what you're saying is screw these kids, screw their education, um, screw an entire town out of their property values and let's add some more

007admins for what? A district that's slowly going down the toilet. And what about the um, positions in the higherups like the superintendent, assistant superintendent, all of them? Why aren't they getting ra Why are they getting raises and not pay cuts to help save money? Um I'm just extremely confused and I just don't understand how a um group of volunteers which I'm very thankful for um that y'all volunteer to do this and take on all this responsibility. I can't imagine you know the burden that it can create. Um but I don't understand how um volunteers can make the decision to shut down the only school and infect affect an entire town um where in towns in there are four schools and would possibly save more money. Um, from listening to past meetings, I have heard nothing

008but negativity about Ashb and towns and residents throwing complete fits about their kindergarteners have to taking have to take the bus to Ashb and how detrimental it would be for their mental health and whatever else was said. Um, but not even giving any care in the world about Ashby's only school closing and having to bust our kindergarteners. Um, I guess I'm just here to say the things that literally everyone else is thinking. And I know I'm probably going to be ignored except for a very few um, select who are actually thinking about the district and you know, Ashby. Um, so I just had to put my two cents out there because none of this makes sense and none of, in my opinion, none of it is smart and most importantly, absolutely none of it is

009what's best for these kids. Thank you, Chelsea. Our next public comment is Patrick McY. I don't see him in the list. Patrick, if you're here, can you raise your hand, please? Yeah, I don't see him in the list as well. Yeah. All right. Um Carrie Mahoney Battersby batters Battersby I think is Battersby. Yeah. All right. And her hand has risen. Yep. Can everyone hear me? We can hear you. Carrie, please state your name and or tone. My name is Carrie Mahoney Batterdsby and I live in Ashby. Um, I am speaking today to express my disappointment with a few of the agenda items listed for tonight's meeting. On the agenda, an item included was the reduction of middle school athletics. Personally, my daughter Molly Battersby, who is currently in the sixth grade, plays field hockey through

010Hawthorne growth. This is a sport we pay for so she can play, learn, form bonds with her teammates, and learn to work as a team. Sports are very important in a child's education. It creates camaraderie with their peers, cuts down on bullying, and helps children build confidence. This also sets the stage for when our middle school students enter high school. They will have the confidence to try out for the sports they've been participating in as well as a new sport if they so wish. My daughter has played softball for Towns and Ashby youth baseball softball since she was 7 years old. She has played with these girls for almost 5 years and has formed bonds that I am positive will follow her through the rest of her public education career. The second issue I would

011like to address is the proposal for additional administrative positions. That would be the director of operations and facilities and assistant business manager. You must see the terrible optics this is giving to our three communities. We are currently in a budget crisis, working with a roughly $2 million deficit. Adding additional administrative positions while proposing cuts to middle school athletics, increasing prek tuition again, and the possible tuition for full day kindergarten is fiscally irresponsible. It sends a message to the parents in our community that you do not really have the best interest of not only our students but also our parents. Currently 243 school districts throughout the Commonwealth offer full day kindergarten. 234 of them are free. North Middle Sex would be the 39th school district to implement tuition for all for full day kindergarten. How will

012this impact future students and families looking to move into the district? With Ashb already losing its only school and asking parents of incoming students to bust their five and six-year-old children to another town, you now want to add tuition, which directly affects parents. This has the potential to hinder the education of future kindergarten students while underpreparing them for first grade. As someone who is running for school committee this year, I am appalled by this the terrible optics that are presented on tonight's agenda. We need to mend the distrust between our communities and the school committee. I hope we'll be able to deliver on this in the future. Thank you for your time. Thank you, Carrie. Next is Craig Hansen. All right, Craig, just state your name and your talent, please. Yep. Good evening, Craig Hansen

013from PEPL. Um, tonight I just uh wanted to take a brief moment to pass on a simple message to those who uh find themselves most likely in their final meeting as a school committee member. Tom will in June. Thank you. Thank you for your years of service to the district, service on the committee, and camaraderie when we serve together. Nobody will say the journey was easy, but I hope you look back and see the difference you've made for the children of our communities. Your efforts and your time, it's all been appreciated. That's all I had to say. So, thank you very much, Craig. They're not done yet. Close enough, but thank you all. All right. Thank you, Craig. All right. Next on the agenda or not on the agenda, we have Stacy or Robin. Hold

014on one minute. Let me see if I can see it. Stacy, if you Okay, maybe. Hold on. We will ask when she comes in. And then I do have um two comments that were sent in as emails. I just want to remind you. All right. Thank you. All right. Stacy, would you state your name and your tone, please? Stacy Oer from Ashby. How are you? Thank you. I have a really easy last name, but I married into a difficult one. So, um, clearly I'm calling from from Ashby, so you probably have a good idea of why I'm joining the call tonight. Um, I do want to take a quick moment and thank uh a couple of really strong advocates that have been on the school committee that have really um fought the good fight for

015helping maintain Ashby Elementary as a viable school throughout the years. This has been a multi-yearlong process and although a lot of venom tends to head the way of the school committee, um I do want you to know that you are seen and heard and appreciated. So, thank you for your long commitment um as far as helping us to maintain our only school in the district. Um, so I have spent the last month or so re-watching pretty much every school committee meeting that has has been recorded um, just to get a really good sense of the dialogue that's happened throughout the years. Um, and there have been some really strong conversations around uh why maintaining Ashby Elementary as an open operational school with students in the building is necessary and vital to our rural community. Um,

016and I do want to point out that Ashb is the only designated rural community in our district and that is a really important piece um, as part of this conversation. um we are just being that rural uh community means we are really the most vulnerable population in the district and that is something we need to think about very seriously when we have these conversations about whether or not we close the only school. Um as it's been mentioned previously many times throughout the years um closing our school would really impact our property values. Um, I did a little bit of research and across the country the average property value loss would be about 13% and based off of our 2022 numbers in Ashb that would be a loss of about $52 million of wealth for our

017community. Um, but that's an average town. We are a small rural town without um other services. And so that percentage can be up towards 25% of pop property value loss, which again based off of 2022 numbers would put us at about $100 million of wealth lost in our tiny town. Um, so I'm asking the committee to take it very seriously when we consider what we do with our school. I was very hopeful after our last February meeting. Um there was a conversation about whether or not we could maintain Ashby Elementary as an operational school um to buy the district or time to allow the state to get its funding practices um readjusted. Um I think that's a beautiful option. I don't know what the status of that is yet. I'd like to piggyback on that

018option and just say that if that is a route that the district is able to go um that we need to really explore whether or not Ashb is the right school to close for a one-year temporary pause. I would recommend um that the committee take a peek at looking at potentially a Townsson school for multiple reasons and I am so sorry towns and to say that um but for the facts that it would allow us to maintain equitable busing as far as Ashby and Towns and students go. Um and also I know that there was concern about um Ashby Elementary not being large in size. I don't believe that we need that quote unquote room for growth um immediately next year. So, it would actually make more sense fiscally to keep Ashby open and shut

019down one of our larger schools for next year. Um we could m especially if it's Spalding, we could um save more on heat and electricity. And as it was mentioned in our February meeting, Ashby Elementary actually has really large square classrooms. And so it would give our students more space um to learn compared to some of the other classrooms that are kind of funky in the district. And so um I do believe if that's an option, it really could play into the people on the committee that said teachers not buildings. Um, it could help ease the fact of instead of asking just one town to have a 100% of their students bust 100% of their education, um, while the next town over has 0% of their students bust out of town for 0% of their

020education. It could be more equitable. So, I'm sure I'm just drowning on um, food for thought. So, I ask that the committee uh resend the vote to close Ashby Elementary and then open the dialogue between the towns of which school actually would make the most sense to put on a temporary pause for a year. And that's all I have. Thank you so much. Thank you, Stacy. All right. Uh Robin, you have a few statements from people to read. Would you want to read those for us? Sure. Thank you. The first one is from Carrie Gallagher. Um, to start, I want to say that I realize none of these decisions are easy and it's an unprecedented time to be a member of the school committee. Your job is not an easy one. I've heard about some

021of your agenda items tonight and I would like to weigh in on one area in particular. Though I am passionate about all of these agenda items, the area I would like to focus on is the proposed cut or reduction in middle school sports offerings. I beg you to reconsider removing these programs. I have two children who have actively participated in these programs during their years at Hawthon Brook Middle School and one of them will start will still be in middle school next year. The impact of these programs are extremely beneficial to their middle school experience and truly make them a part of the we arem culture. It allows them to form relationships with more students they may not interact with on a day-to-day basis, helping them on a social level as well. They have had

022dedic dedicated coaching staff who have motivated them to become focused, team-minded, and embrace it's a bigger than you mentality that is so critical in the middle school years. They remind the students the importance of academics and have truly become mentors. The students at Hawtham Brook Middle School embrace the program offerings. They want to be a part of them. I uh I encourage you to at least consider some of these options if you need to make cuts in the area. Can you increase the athletic fees to help offset the cost? Can the teams themselves or the PTO raise funds to cover the their programs? The PTO runs a very successful faculty versus students game that raises huge amounts of money. They also charge $10 per child for school dances. Can we ask the PTO to help

023fund middle school athletics with requested donations by the school department? I realize the PTO is outside of the school budget, but there is funding out there. Lastly, as an option, can you consolidate Hawthon Brook and Nissatis teams in some or all programs? I realize academics are the main focus. However, please remember the importance of the overall student experience. That includes athletics as well as the arts. I'm willing to go out on the line and say that parents who feel athletics are critical will most likely be willing to pay a little more each season for their child to play. I truly appreciate your time, your service, and your commitment to our students. All the best. Carrie Gallagher, mother of two and M students, towns and resident. And I do have another one from uh Joshua Melo.

024Uh he says, "My name is Joshua Melo. I'm the head coach of the middle school girls basketball team at Hawthon Brook Middle School. My wife Tracy volunteers as the assistant coach. I wanted to contribute to the discussion around middle school athletics and possible cuts to those opportunities for our kids. We are obviously in the midst of extremely difficult times for our district and I certainly don't want to downplay the challenges we are facing when it comes to finding a viable path forward. I understand you have to look at all options. With that being said, I encourage you to carefully consider the cost and benefit analysis of making cuts to these opportunities. Middle school athletes. Uh, athletics cost the district a relatively small amount of money. However, the benefit they provide to the district and to

025our kids truly cannot be measured. Many of these students are future leaders in the district. By participating in middle school athletics, these players develop leadership abilities, learn how to be reasonable with their schedules, and to keep their grades up while participating in their sports 5 days a week after school. The kids who participate in middle school athletics develop critical and lifelong habits that benefit them greatly and have a huge effect on the district's performance both athletically and academically. In many cases, these students are your validictorians, your student council members, your scholarship recipients, excuse me, and your school district's biggest advocates and proudest members. Participating in middle school athletics definitely has an impact on where these students choose to attend high school. When these students represent their school in the districts as athletes, they feel more

026connected to and proud to be part of the NM community. This pride is a big component to having a thriving and successful school system. Without this pride and participation, you are opening the door even further for students to choose to attend high school elsewhere, decreasing student population and exacerbating our budget issues. The memories that have been created for so many kids as a result of playing middle school sports cannot be overstated. As an NM graduate and someone who played middle school sports in the district, I can tell you that if I hadn't had those opportunities, my life would likely have taken a very different path. Please consider all these factors in your decision-making. At a time of a huge amount of change and uncertainty, let's try to maintain one of the biggest sources of joy

027and enrichment for these kids. Please do not underestimate the importance of middle school athletics. Thank you, Robin. All right. Um, moving on to the chairperson report. So, I do have a few things. I do want to address that the the things that appear on the agenda, the things under the budget like the full day um payment of kindergarten, elimination of sports, things like that that are listed in that area placeholders or discussion points that our committee may discuss during that time. and I felt that a transparency was needed to the public to know that those things could be discussed during that time. Um, and when we get to that area, we'll discuss those and the committee will have their input. Um, the other thing about the two roles that you're seeing tonight with the operations

028director and the assistant manager, when we get to those areas, those will also be re explained by Randy and by um, Superintendent Morgan. So, everyone just be calm and patient. We will get to that, but I felt that it be important that we have all transparency to the public. All right. Now, Craig Hansen did take some of my thunder here with him thanking some members that this could be their last meeting. So, Tom Casey, Will Hackler, and June McNeel, I thank you for your time serving on the committee. I know that it has not been easy. I will be inviting you back for a more formal thank you when we meet in person. I would like to extend my sincere gratitude to each of you for your dedicated service to the school committee. Your time

029and commitment has played a vital role in shaping the educational experience for our students, families, and staff at NN. Your contributions made a lasting impact and I am grateful for all the t important work that you have done. Thank you for your service and leadership. That's my first thank you. So, thank you. My next one is extended to Superintendent Morgan, Committee Member Kim Craraven, Townsen Administrator Nelson Muie, Pepper Select Board Member Chuck Wakovich. I thank you for your powerful advocacy and for taking the time to testify before the Massachusetts Ways and Means Committee on Tuesday on the behalf of Regional Educational Funding. Your voices, stories, and insights play a critical role in highlighting the real needs of our students, educators, and communities. Speaking up in such a public forum requires both courage and commitment, and

030your dedication to ensuing equitable, adequate funding for our schools and community communities is deeply appreciated. Your testimony helps bring attention to the vital importance of investing in our public education system, not just for today, but for future of every child at North Middle Sex Regional District and our communities. We are truly grateful to your leadership and your continued support of education. Then I have one more area and it's about advocacy. I now turn to our communities and I cannot stress enough how important it is for people to raise their voices all the way to the state house. Hold on. I lost my place for a second. The kids testifying was very emotionable. But the one most powerful moment was when I witnessed on Tuesday was a senator lifting a binder filled with 1300 letters he

031received from his constituents about school funding. Too often I hear from our communities, "My letter won't make a difference." But I assure you, it absolutely can. Think of a snowbank. It began with a single snowflake. One snowflake becomes two, then 10, then hundreds, and soon it's something too large to ignore. That one letter, your voice, is a snowflake. And just like the snowbank, it grows. That binder didn't start with 1300 letters. It started with one. People spoke up and their collective voices became impossible to overlook. So, please write, speak up, share your story. It matters and it makes a difference to our district and our communities. All right, on to Superintendent Morgan's report. Thank you. Um, so I I do want to start just a couple pieces of good news uh this evening. I'd like

032to congratulate Becky Jackson who is the recipient of the Don Salvuchi Award for promoting civic education. We're proud to share that Rebecca Jackson, a high school social studies teacher, department chair, student council co-advisor, wrote Kapper adviser, has been selected as this year's recipient of the Don Salvuchi Award. Lorie Smith, the principal of North Middle Sex Regional High School, nominated Miss Jackson in recognition of her outstanding capabilities and unwavering dedication to fostering civic understanding and student engagement through her leadership both in and out of the classroom. Miss Jackson has inspired students to think critically, lead with purpose, and participate actively in their communities. The Don Salvuchi Award is named in honor of Don Salvuchi, former president of the Massachusetts Council for Social Studies in the late 1970s. It's a tribute to educators who championed democratic ideals.

033Savuchi was a visionary who embraced emerging technologies, producing the first NERK conference early in Apple Computer and who help shape student learning through initiatives like the Constitution bysentennial events that encourage deep dives into local history. The award recognizes classroom educators who bring the principles of citizenship to life, connecting the past with the present and empowering students to become informed, responsible members of society. Rebecca Jackson embodies this mission through her work every day, and we're thrilled to see her efforts honored on this level. Please join us in congratulating Miss Jackson on this exceptional and well-deserved achievement. Moving on, I would also like to thank Miss Lisa Camo um for organizing and running our first family literacy night on Tuesday, March 27th at North Middle Sex Regional High School. It was a very well- attended event by

034families and staff and it was truly a community event that was filled with readalouds, pizza, and other fun activities. So, thank you to Lisa Kimo. And finally, I'd like to thank Dr. Kevin Cormier for organizing NM's second annual credit for life fair, which is scheduled for Monday, May 19th from 8:30 to 10:00 a.m. in the North Middle Sex Regional High School gymnasium. This coupled with our personal finance courses at the high school level is providing our graduates with some muchneeded skills in this area which were a result of students who advocated for this with their civic action project in 2024. So again, this was something some of Miss Jackson's students who I mentioned previously for the Don Salvui award bringing something very important to life and these personal finance courses are very important part of

035what we offer at the high school. I also just want to build on what Miss Martin said with regard to our visit to the joint ways and means committee meeting on Tuesday. I'd like to personally thank our our two students who attended, Keenan Francois and Shannon Kelly. Um, I'd also like to thank community members Kelly Kelly, Jen Fors, and Jackie White, as well as Carla Lima and Rick Bailey. And I'd also like to thank our school committee member, Lisa Martin. I'd like to thank Chuck Walovich, who was one of our board of selectment members, school committee Kim Craraven, and also Mr. Cormier, who also attended um from the school district. All of them took up a significant portion of their day on Tuesday to go to the state house and advocate for NM in regional

036school funding. It was an interesting day for sure and I'm hopeful that the message was heard and that appropriate action will be taken in the very near future. In the meantime, again, just to echo what Miss Martin had said, I highly encourage people to advocate by writing to your legisl legislature whenever possible. We have to maintain this momentum. It is the first time in my seven years in the district where I have seen some I I I feel as though there's there's some potential some some potential momentum to move us towards being funded fairly. As I shared at that meeting, it's it's very difficult when you look back from 2001 to 2024. Um our chapter 7 funding has only increased 2.5% and the state has increased 75%. So we are clearly not being funded properly

037and we definitely need your advocacy in writing to your state legislator. So please reach out. Also like to provide an update on Ashby Elementary. As many of you know NM will be consolidating its physical foot footprint in FY26 due to the budget with AES being taken offline for the year. There were some questions around the overall impact financially as well as whether or not the Mass School Building Authority would require any action of closure to be permanent. That said, we have been advocating for a one-year delay in making any permanent decisions. And I would like to personally thank Secretary and Acting Commissioner of Education Patrick Tutweiler for his advocacy for NM. The MSBA has authorized NM and has given us permission to wait one full year before making any final decisions around Ashb. And I

038would like to again thank Mr. Tutweiler for his support. Without his support and reaching out to MSBA, this would not have occurred. This is not something to my knowledge that MSBA has authorized previously. So again, thank you to Secretary and Acting Commissioner Tutweiler. an update on the on the potential move with the upcoming consolidation process up and running. A team made up of NM staff has been formed. The team is going through initial logistics that require a move to be successful and is weighing between keeping the move in-house or contracting it out. Additionally, DBUS has started examining bus routes and should have a con should have some type of a contract to us or proposal shortly uh for the upcoming school year. Finally, uh I'll speak on some other items later on in the agenda,

039but I did want to touch base on some of the reductions that we are looking at for FY26. And this was shared with the House Ways and Means Committee. In total, um at the elementary level, we are looking at the reduction of seven elementary teachers, one assistant principal, and 2.77 PAR professionals. Um the elementary teachers are from all three buildings. Um par professionals are from Varnham Brook and Squanakook. At the middle school level the reduction of six middle school teachers, four from Nissatissit and two from Hawthorne Brook. Two PA professionals, one from Nissotissit and one from Varnbrook. Even though it's a middle school uh position, a lot of this is based on seniority. as well as a6 registered behavior technician from the middle school. At the high school level, a reduction of three teachers and

040districtwide two custodians. So in total it is 24.37 FTEES. In addition to that we've made reductions in the areas of curriculum programming technology and we'll be um reducing the PR firm from the budget or eliminating the PR firm I should say from the budget for FY26. That is all that I have for now. Um, and we'll speak later on in the meeting on some of the other agenda items. Thank you, Brad. Um, moving on, we are to the FY 2024 audit review. Nancy, hands. Yes. I'm hoping you can promote Rebecca Gamsby from CBIZ. She's going to give us a brief presentation on the FY24 audit. She should be all set. Welcome, Rebecca. Hi. Thank you very much for having me. Go. Rebecca, it's if it's okay with the committee, I'm going to share the the

041presentation and uh Rebecca, just give me a holler when you're ready to move on. Slide by one. I will. Thank you. Are you able to see my screen? Okay. Yes, now I can. Thank you, Nancy. So you can skip to the next slide if you would like. So I will give a brief introduction, an overview of the audit process and then an overview of the 2024 audit results. Next slide. So again, my name is Rebecca Gamsby. I am here with CBiz CPAs. I am a director with CBiz and a shareholder with CBZ CPAs. When we originally began the fiscal year 24 audit process, the district had engaged with Powers and Sullivan, Powers and Sullivan was a small local firm in Massachusetts, which in February of 2024 merged with Markham LLP, a national firm. Then during

042the audit of fiscal year 24 in November of 2024, Markhamm LLP merged with CBiz and CBZ CPAs. I would like to let you know that during that process, there have been no changes to the audit team that has been performing the district's audit for fiscal year 24. It is the same team that performed the audit for fiscal year 23 and we plan to continue that with fiscal year 25. We only have additional assistance behind us behind the scenes. Um the fiscal year 2024 audit was actually issued under Markham LLP. Next slide, Nancy. Um this is just a quick overview but I did want to let you know that CBIZ CPAs is a national CPA firm. We are headquartered in New York. We operate under an alternative practice structure with CBIZ Inc. which is a business

043consulting tax and financial services provider. So together we are one of the top 11 accounting firms in the country. Now there's a little bit more information here on the next couple slides. Um, we did, the other important part of this is we do have a significant government practice now within New England. Prior to our merger, you might be familiar with Meansen, previously known as Meansen Heath, um, CPAs. They also merged with Markham in January of 2023. So, we are one of the largest governmental auditing providers within New England. Now, we can skip to the next slide. So to jump into a little bit of your audit overview, the principal objective of our work during fiscal year 24 is the expression of our audit opinions on the district's financial statements and on the district's compliance with

044uniform federal guidance, which relates to your federal expenditures. Uh we perform our audit in accordance with the generally accepted auditing standards in the United States of America and the standards for financial audits contained in the government auditing standards um issued by the comproller general. It's also referred to as yellow book. Our responsibility is that we plan and perform our audit to obtain reasonable but not absolute assurance that the financial statements are free of material misstatement and that they are fairly presented in accordance with US generally accepted accounting principles. GAP uh management however so Nancy and her team are responsible for the preparation and fair presentation of those financial statements in accordance with GAP. Our audit process takes part over um two fieldwork segments. We started preliminary audit work in May of 2024. During preliminary fieldwork,

045we begin our risk assessment where we document the district's internal controls. We have discussions with management and staff. We start our testing of controls and we do test compliance with laws, regulations, MGL um and grant requirements. We also start to test your census data related to your net pension and your net OP liabilities, which are the biggest liabilities that the district reports on your financial statements. We continue our visit with Nancy in her office during um our year-end visit. So once Nancy has closed the ledgers and provided us with the final audit numbers, the team went back out in August of 2024. We verify your year-end account balances. We take a look at reconciliations. We're testing all of those balances. We make sure that the financial statements are in compliance with GAP, that any new

046standards have been implemented, that there's appropriate cutoff procedures related to your expenditures. We review your budgetary controls and we review your major federal award programs um if they are subject to testing for the year under audit. Part of our process is that we have to review some of the significant risks. Management override of internal controls is always considered a significant risk for all audits. We design our procedures to test and respond to this risk, including reviewing adjusting journal entries, um, significant accounting estimates for potential bias, and evaluating any unusual transactions we may have noted. So, at the result of this audit, we did not report any significant um, findings related to management override of internal control. So, while we're required to report this to you, we did not find any deviations. We further review for

047proper revenue recognition related to your major revenue um streams which would be your member town assessments and then your intergovernmental revenues. So state and federal revenue sources. We also need to consider your IT environment which specifically relates to um the general ledger and some of the other systems used. At the end of the audit, we were able to issue an unmodified audit opinion, which is a clean audit opinion over the financial statements. So, they were fairly materially presented in accordance with GAP. We also were able to issue an unmodified. So, a clean audit opinion with respect to the major federal program that was audited, which this year the significant federal program was the child nutrition cluster. So, we took a look at the school lunch program. We did not note any um instances of non-compliance

048or any other matters that would be required to be reported to you. We did note any material weaknesses or significant deficiencies related to the internal controls either. The financial statements can be broken down into a few segments when you're looking at them. The first uh three pages are the audit opinion. Those are the only pages that we as the auditors own. The rest of the financial statements are a direct reflection of Nancy and taken um NY's office takes accountability for those. They begin with management's discussion and analysis which is just a brief overview of the significant activity for the year and the year end account balances. They transition into the basic financial statements which are the most significant portion. They have the full acrual statements that include your capital, the district's capital assets, the net

049pension liability, the net op liability, all of your debt, and your modified acrruel statements. So, your general fund, which is what you're most familiar with looking at um the budget related to um there's also significant notes to your financial statements. So your for your financial highlights um looking right at the budget for the general fund for the district the final budget was 6 um $63.7 million the budget used 2 million of excess and deficiency END to balance the budget for 20 um 24 revenues did exceed budget by $65,000 and expenditures and incumbrances were under budget by 1.3 million The general fund fund balance at year end was $6.6 million which does include the capital stabilization fund as required by GAP. This can be seen on page 16 of your financials. The general fund fund balance

050it did represent um 9.8% of expenditures and the unassigned fund balance. So of that 6.6 million 2.4 million was available for appropriation. assigned fund balance included $3.5 million, so carry forwards of expenditures to the next year, and then a use of END for the fiscal year 25 budget of 2.7 million. As I noted, oh, go back one slide for me, Nancy. Sorry. Thank you. Um, as I noted before, your capital stabilization fund is included in fund balance of your general fund. At year end, there was $671,000 within the capital stabilization fund, which does represent a $273,000 increase from fiscal year 23. Um, as you may know, the district is part of Middle Sex County Retirement System. So, the net pension liability reported is a direct reflection of the Middle Sex County Retirement Systems financial statements.

051um the liability is allocated by their actuary. At year end, the district reported an unfunded pension liability of 14.6 million related to the system and the proportionate share of that entire system or North Middle Sex is less than 1%. There was a contribution from North Middle Sex to the system of 1.4 million for the year. The district's most significant um liability that's reported on your uh full acrual financial statements relates to your net OPED liability. So your other post-employment benefit liability, it's the unfunded portion of this future liability that's determined by your actuary. At your end, you did have a trust fund that had a balance of 1.1 million. Included in there was preunding of $150,000 for fiscal year 24. The total OPED liability as calculated by the actuary at um June 30 of 2024

052was $90.7 million. So that left an unfunded liability of $89.6 million that's reported on the district's full acral financial statements. Um there's significant note disclosures related to both the pension liability and the net um OPED liability within notes 10 and 11 of the financial statements if you would like to see further information. There's also trend information for the past 10 years within um the back portion of the financials, RSI, the required supplementary information that can show you essentially what the net pension liability and net oped liability have been for the past 10 years along with your contributions to each. The last significant liability the district reports relates to your long-term debt. Long-term debt was 27.7 million while short-term debt was $18.7 million at your end. The majority of the debt that's outstanding does relate to

053your high school project. Um along with the general fund, the district does report a few other um major funds within the governmental fund statements. They mostly relate to some of the capital projects that have been ongoing with the high school. Um Barnbrook, Hawinbrook, and Squanook. Moving on to the town's SIFA. So the schedule of expenditures of federal awards, sorry, the districts, the district's federal expenditures for fiscal year 24 were 3.4 million. as there was over $750,000 spent. That means that the district had to have a single audit, a major program audit of one of the significant um federal expenditures up for a rotation this year was the child nutrition cluster. So, we do review in detail the school lunch program. Specifically, we take a look at the program's expenditures, um all the dispersements, including procurement.

054We review student eligibility for free reduced price meals. We do have to take a look at what students are eligible for um full free meals under state standards and under federal standards and we take a look at the meal reimbursements that are submitted to the state for federal and state reimbursements. During this review, we did not note any comp um non-compliance or internal control exceptions. As I noted before, this also received a clean opinion. The last few slides are really here um for your reference. Excuse me. There's some items here that talk about management's responsibilities for the audit. Essentially, the fair preparation of the financials and reporting um all of the information to us during the audit that's requested um providing information to us. The next slide discusses what our responsibilities are when it comes

055to the audit um as far as expressing an opinion on the financial statements um the standards that we have to audit under and ensuring that we report any of the deficiencies to management and therefore the school committee. The final slides are again just a few areas of reference for you. Just some areas of audit um emphasis that we like to provide. Otherwise, um I believe we covered most of the important aspects of the audit. So if there's any questions, I am happy to try to answer them for you. Okay. Well, this is your line of Thank you. So Rebecca, I'm sorry. I'm the finance chair, so we'll just start with that part of it. So um do you see foresee any changes in the state or federal funding coming forward? That part has been hard

056to say. We've been receiving that question a lot from our clients right now. So unfortunately, we don't have a crystal ball to necessarily help with that situation. Um we tend to come in behind the scenes after your finances are done for the year is really where we stand. Yeah. Um, do you submit a a management letter uh in this process? So, we do if there are significant findings and we did not have any this year. So, we discussed prior management letter recommendations with Nancy um noted that they were resolved and did not issue a management letter for fiscal year 24. Okay. Um is there any way to see anything you know from N&M versus other districts or somewhere we can see that you know like financial results? I mean you mentioned in your first slide

057or something about you know you do 400 other municipalities and districts you know is there any way to see any like where we stand versus some of the others with some of these pieces. So most districts I would say do post their financial statements on their website? Many of them do. There's also a few resources where if they do have a single audit that you are able to search for them within the federal audit clearing house database, their financial statements that have been issued to date. Okay, I can certainly provide that link for Nancy. Um, so we can't hand out other client financials, but I can certainly refer you to areas where you certainly can find them. Okay. Um, and do you guys, you know, publish any like best practices for districts or anything like

058that? We do not specifically publish any best practices. No. Okay. Um, usually that's more of Desessie's area. All right. Mazbos. So, Desi is a good place for those best practices on that side of things. Yes. Okay. Thank you. You're welcome. Anyone else? Thank you, Rebecca. Thank you so much for having me and thank you to Nancy and her team for all the assistance that we've received during the audit. Thank you very much for coming coming out tonight. Of course, happy to be here. All right, we are moving on to Pittney Bose. That is NY's area as well with Pittney Bose's postage meter. All right, Nancy, um we have included in the packet uh a couple of options that we've been looking at. We we need to renew the u the postage meter and the postage

059meter rental. We plan on using a state contract of FF39. And within that contract, we have the option of choosing how many years we would like to go out for um the lease. It's essentially a lease and a reduction in postage cost to use that um the OFF39. Um the one that I'm suggesting is the to continue for the five-year which is 60-month um is the the greater savings if everybody was comfortable with that and anything over 3 years requires it comes to the school committee for approval. Uh right now I'm hoping to um I think it would save approximately um just just around $2,500 to do that over the over the contract. Um, so it will be a savings to go the longer distance. Um, if we think we are not going to need

060postage in five years, it may not be the best, but I'm pretty comfortable going forward with the the 5year 60-month option. And um, I just don't know if there's any specific questions about the lease or or how it works or or if you want to make a motion to authorize the superintendent to enter into the 60-month agreement or Ran Randy, I think you were up first. Sorry, I thought uh Jim was there first. Um just um yeah, just like the potential savings statement from Pittney Bose. Is that our usage or is that um just a general from Pittney Bose? I think ours is in that uh package. I'm not sure where exactly you're Yeah. Oh, North Middle Sex District. Okay. Yeah. Um, so what's the majority of the first class letters that we're sending out?

061Because it looks like it's uh over 4,000 um I'm assuming per year um that we're sending out. It's really varies. We we do have obviously we have um checks that go out every single week. We've got letters to families. Uh there's a fair amount of special education flats that go out. Okay. Uh it does change different times of the year. There are letters that might go out or food service notifications, things of that nature. Okay. And the price uh that we're quoted for the 5-year contract, that's just a steady no matter how much we uh mail or uh we also have to purchase the um the mail the postage as well. It's it's a discounted rate though. It's a discounted rate. Yeah. Okay. All right. Uh, has our usage gone up or down over the

062years or is it pretty steady right now? Uh, you know, honestly, I hadn't looked at that. I think it's very steady. We don't I don't know of any. In fact, it might have gone down slightly because we had uh there's a lot of things in the district that were no longer um mailing hard copies, but you know, we're ma we're doing it electronically. So, there's quite a bit of that. There's still some reliance on, you know, giving people a hard copy of specific documents. I did look at the smaller um mailing system. There's two options. Um the different the main difference is the feeding. So when you feed the letters in on the the lower cost one, you have to manually literally feed them in one at a time. Um so if you have 60

063letters or 60 checks every single week, you're manually feeding it. I I felt like that might be might not be the best approach. and and the manpower to do that would be kind of painful. I I wouldn't suggest that with the with the volume that we have, but thank you. Yep. I did look at it though. Thank you, Nancy. Um June, did you have a question? Um well, I I was just looking at the form that shows our current monthly was 24732. Um, so what's being proposed is almost $100 less as far as the um machine renewal. Is that am I reading that correctly? Yeah, it will be less money um for the renewal and it'll be regardless of the even the um the length of perm that we select. But I think that is

064the fact u that that pitney bows themselves have come down in the state contract and re you know after a certain number of years they do rebid these things. So, we were able they were able to lower that that lease rate. Okay. That's great. Thank you. All right. Anyone else have any questions? I will move uh that we approve the fiveyear lease um for $159.15 monthly payment. I second. All right. So, that is Randy and Lisa Bloom. Just a question. Anyone have a question? The mo the motion was saying that we authorized the superintendent to execute the contracts for this. Okay. Do we need to do that? Randy, I apologize. I was I I wasn't looking at the agenda when I did that. So, okay. I will move that the school committee author uh vote

065to authorize the superintendent to approve and execute all necessary contracts and documents for up to a 60-month lease with the Pittney Bose for posted services for state contract of 339. Second. So we have Brandy Rous or Randy and Will. All right. June. Yes. Lisa Bloom. Yes. Randy, yes. Kim, Kim, that's okay. Uh, she'll abstain. Will he? Yes. Tom Casey? Yes. And myself? Yes. All right. Moving on to the next topic. out of state trip requests. We have Miss Olmstead. Would you make the presentation? Sure. We have two outofstate field trip requests. One is for our choir to go to Delta Dental Stadium. They will perform the national anthem there. Um that field trip is taking place on June 7th. Um it does not require any buses. There are parents who are bringing the students there.

066Um, and we have funds in reserve in case anybody cannot afford the cost of the ticket, which is about $12. [Music] Any questions for the field trip? Randy, um, how many students do we have in the uh, choir these days? We have um, if we're looking at both the choirs put together, probably around 75. Oh, that's fantastic. Congratulations to all of them and good luck with that. Thank you. All right. Anyone else have any questions? Can we just put these two together? Sure. We'll go now. We'll go to the next one. Okay. Yep. The second field trip um is to bring choir and our band students to Mystic Aquarium um or to Mystic Seapport rather. They will do an outdoor performance there. um they'll attend a presentation and then they have an opportunity to explore

067the exhibits that the Seapport has to offer. Um they'll also visit the aquarium and learn about the animals there. Um see a sea lion show and you know experience the touch tanks. That is another opportunity for both our band um and choir students to be able to perform in public. Um, similar to the other field trip, um, there were fundraisers that were optional for students and families who wanted to participate in order to be able to afford this opportunity. Um, but our band is very much looking forward to attending. Are they going on buses? Yes. Okay. Any other questions? All right. I will take a motion to approve both of the field trips. All right. So, we have June and Lisa Bloom. We'll get the second. All right. June. Yeah. Randy, yes. Lisa Bloom. Yes.

068Will he Hackler? Will. Yes. Tom Casey. Yes. Kim. Everyone else. Yes. Kim, just shake your head. Yes. All right. And myself. Yes. I hope the kids have a lovely time on the field trips. Thank you. I appreciate it. All right. We are moving right along and we have Dr. Reese who has the next four presentations for us. Yes. Good evening everyone. Uh Miss Martin, do you want me to just briefly go through all four since they're all four grant approvals and then answer any questions? Would that be easier? Yes, that would. But before you do that, I want to congratulate you on your and you're going to have to get me right on this what you were appointed to. So, can you explain to everyone? Yes, thank you very much for bringing it up. Um,

069I am uh was appointed to the executive board for Nafipa, which is the National Association of Federal Education Program Administrators. Currently, I represent Massachusetts as one of two members on the the general board. And so now I will serve as an ATL large member for the executive board. and we provide support and advocacy for federal education programs, Title One, Title 2A, Title 3, um, nationally. All right. Thank you and congratulations. Thank you. Um, so we have four grants for approval uh this evening. The first, as doc, uh, Mr. Morgan mentioned earlier, is the credit for life fair. Uh, thanks to the work of Dr. Cormier, we were able to get an an grant for the second year in a row through the state treasur treasurer's financial education innovation fund and essentially this will provide funding

070for us to be able to just implement the credit for life fair uh which is currently planned for May um for our senior students and it gives them an opportunity to explore what it's like after high school after college. Um, they get to pick a career. They get to decide, make decisions around whether they want to rent, live with their family, buy a house, and kind of learn what the implications are as they make those decisions, even down to whether or not they want to have a pet when they and what the costs are associated with having a pet. Um, so it's a it's a great opportunity for our students. uh they really enjoyed it last year and we are happy to be able to offer it again to them this year. Um the second

071grant is through the um again it's through the through the uh Commonwealth Massachusetts. It's the mass farming reinforces education in student health grant and um this grant came to my attention thank you through um Carl Edmonds uh up at the high school and really what we're going to be using the funds from this grant for is to um enhance um the greenhouse. He wanted to do some work on the windows and provide some automatic um ventilation systems through that as well as elevating our garden club and giving students in the garden club an opportunity to create some lessons for our middle school students and elementary school students um around just what it means to uh farm locally and uh getting a better understanding of eating healthy. Um they'll also um be working to do some

072food tasting at the schools as well. So we're we're happy to be able to to offer that and again thanks to Carl Edmonds. Um and then the final two grants which are actually pretty substantial, but they're both um over three years. uh the 18 foundation which is a local or nonprofit organization that supports schools across Massachusetts in implementing highquality instructional programs. Uh they had two grant programs or they had a number of them. We applied for two this year. One was for the uh open sieed program which is a curriculum for uh science instruction. Um, our middle school teachers had an opportunity to visit Fitchburg High or Fitchburg uh to learn how they've been implementing the 1A program or the open sed program, I'm sorry. Um, and we're really impressed with both the curriculum as

073well as the alignment with the high quality instructional practices that the students have currently been using through our ELA and math program. So this grant um that was received for both uh Nissitet and Hawthorne Brookke will provide three years of professional development and materials for our teachers to be able to implement the program um with integrity. Um and then finally, we also got a second grant through the 1A Foundation to upgrade or um enhance our eighth grade civics education program by using the DKP program, which is the dem democratic knowledge project curriculum. Um and again our teachers had an opportunity to meet with the staff that um have an understanding and implementing the program and selected this as a real strong program that's in alignment with the practices we're currently using across all content areas.

074So again, this will be a three-year grant that will cover the professional development costs for our staff. Thank you, Gary. Um any questions about these grants? Uh Randy first uh um as usual thank you very much for going after these grants. I think uh it's a great opportunity for our um students um and for the staff for a lot of these uh grants. Uh my question is do any of these have um funds that we need to lay out um either uh matching funds to go with the grant or future funds for um uh non-renewable uh materials or anything like that for these programs? Sure. So um with with the science program, there is some consumable items that we would have to purchase each year. Both middle schools have line items in their budget that

075this wouldn't exceed the cost that we're currently covering through those. Um the DKP civics program does have a $300 annual fee that we need to pay through um for both middle schools to participate. Again, those funds are currently allocated within our our local budget. So, it's not adding anything more to our local budget. Um and both programs are online open- source curriculum materials. So there wouldn't be any additional curriculum costs beyond the three years. And are these replacing uh certain curriculum or programs that we have in place now? Yes. So we have been using for science um probably about six years ago our teachers worked with other districts across the state to develop kind of our local statewide grown curriculum. um with changes to the curriculum standards and expectations that work that was great and

076that the teachers you know worked hard on it just needed to be updated because it wasn't wasn't reflective of the current standards. So this this replaces that and they had been using for civics in grade 8 um loosely the I civics program um but at the time that we had implemented that there wasn't an extensive amount of training so the teachers were kind of using that as well as building in their own practices so this will just provide greater consistency across the two buildings. Thank you. Welcome. All right. Any other questions? All right. I am going to ask that each statement be read but can be read as a group because it does involve money amounts. Does that make sense to everyone? All right. Who wants to have the I move. Okay. Go ahead. We

077vote to accept the $3,125 credit for the LifeFare grant from the state treasures financial education innovation fund. I also move that we vote to accept the $6,500 Mass Farming Reinforced Education Student Health Grant as well as accepting the $33,600 for the HBMS and $44,100 for the North Middle uh Nissan Middle School open science ed grant from the 18 Foundation. And lastly, to accept the $7,70 for the HBMS and $12,840 for NMS Democratic Knowledge Project DKP grant from the 18 Foundation. Do I have a second? I second. That was Will Hackler and Lisa Bloom. Any more discussion? All right, then we will vote. June, yes. Randy, yes. Lisa Bloom, yes. Kim Craraven. Okay. Uh Tom Casey, yes. Will Hacklin. Yes. And myself. Yes. All right, moving on. Thank you everyone. Yes. Thank you, Dr. Moving on,

078we are moving to the flag pole and plaque dedication. All right, everyone could see in the packet uh the pictures of a flag pole and plaque that were installed on the on the campus of the the high school. And they also did wind wraps around the dugouts. Um, this was done by the Arshambo family donated these. And I have a letter from Lynn Arshambo that I'm Lin Arshambo Dawson that I'm going to read. After my dad's death in 2023, our family decided to ask for contributions in lie of flowers to the NM booster club. My dad was a founder of the boosters in the 80s which has raised many thousands of dollars over the years for the sports teams in the district. According to the according to Hall of Fame football coach Sandy Rugles, the

079NM Boosters would not exist without Frank Arshambo. He was also very involved, proud parent and grandparent and an avid supporter of N&M sports watching his children and grandchildren play in 13 North Middle Sex sports. He was the president of the Pil Youth Little League which oversaw softball at the time and also was the PPL recreation committee was on the Peral Recreation Committee. So he was an integral part of athletics and developing athletes from an early young age. In his death, he raised about 4,000 from his services and our family met with Matt Dawson, the athletic director, to discuss where these funds were mostly needed. The boosters and Matt agreed that the school needed a flag pole at the softball field with a flag and coverings and wrappings for the dugouts. Mike's daughter Emily plays for

080the softball team. So, it seemed very fitting that we could help in this way. Through several meetings with stakeholders such as the booster club members Brad, Tim McMahon, Dave Amari, and Nancy Haynes, we were able to get these things implemented for the beginning of the season last year. And that was from Lynn, our Shambo Dawson, who is Frank's [Music] daughter. Um, any questions or comments? And so we pulled this out as a as a dedication since it is a dedication to someone who has brought um many memories and things to our community and made a great contribution to our um sports athletics teams. Any questions? Randy? Uh first off, I'd like to thank the Ash Bolt family. Um and it's always uh great to hear about uh you know people before my time um but

081giving to this uh community, giving to the school um community and and the greater community. Uh so thank you very much and thank you for honoring him uh with this flag pole. Um not to take away from the dedication, very much in favor of it. Um just so that everyone understands uh this should have come to the school committee before it was erected. Uh we are um approving this or we're going to vote to approve this uh hopefully um in retrospect um to when that happened. Um but for anybody who wants to dedicate going forward anything, this does need to come through the school committee before any funds are donated and before um anything is erected. Uh we do appreciate uh all of the um the sentiment. Uh we have a number of different things

082in the district that have been dedicated. Um we are open to dedications. Um but state law says that the school committee does need to accept beforehand all donations. So thank you Randy. Anyone else? All right. Can I would somebody make a motion to accept the the donation from the Frank Archbo family? I will move that the school committee vote to approve the dedication of a flagpole and plaque in honor of Frank Archinol. Second. A second. And that was seconded by June. So we have Randy and a second by June. Sorry, Lisa. All right, but I'll let you vote first, Lisa. Lisa, yes. Yes. All right. Randy, yes. Uh June, yes. Will, yes. Kim, yes. And Tom, yes. And myself is Yes. And I thank the Arshambo family for their donation to the district. All right,

083moving on to the tennis courts. Can we add Robin? Will you add Alan Leo? Yeah, please call should be all right. Can you hear me? Yes. So, Alan, I'm gonna only give you about three minutes to explain this. All right. All right. All right. Thank you Mouse Sex Regional School District School Committee members for the opportunity to present this situation here. Um I am the chairman of the Pero Recreation Commission over in the town of Pero and we have been looking at the site where the former tennis courts were at Barnum Brook that are in disarray. The pavement's been scrapped, the the fences have been scrapped, and it's in pretty tough shape. Um, unfortunately, well, the preparable itself takes care of this area usually and takes care of the fields and in terms of mowing

084the lawn, seating, and whatnot. So what we've done is we we're looking at we have a master plan that want that's that has directed us to look at creating softball fields here because what we have right above that area which is what we call lower varnum there's there's three leagues that v for that space annually and it's a big fight every year between softball softball lacrosse and um soccer. So part of the effort of getting rid of the congestion on lower VOM is putting softball fields where the tennis courts are and then also decommissioning the softball field on town field so that we could hopefully put pickle ball courts on there or tennis courts because one of the one of the idea is get anything the public would use during the day off of property

085that's near the school i.e. where the tennis courts where it would never make sense to put those tennis courts back there. So, I come before you today to see if we could get your approval to have a a an engineering, architectural, and site plan study done for this area to see if it would work um and how much it would cost to do that. So, it's two this would be a two-step process. This is merely for the for the engineering firm to do those three things to this area. So, it's not to go forward with it. uh we would definitely approach your body, this body again if if it comes that the town would want to go forward with this. Um but right now we have money and just to give you a quick background,

086the uh community preservation committee has awarded us $15,700 to get this study done. But we need it's contingent on the school committee approving it uh saying that's okay to get the study done and then we get a written letter maybe from Nancy that says everyone says this is okay. Um and then we have to go to a town meeting and a town meeting will need approval there as well. So there's a lot of different processes and you have no clue of how many people had to be involved in this before you even got here. So that's it. Um, and I'm happy to answer any questions. All right. Thank you, Alan. Um, so I do want to say that if a study is conducted, it will be off school hours or it will be conducted and

087they will give us notification if there are going to be people on school grounds just so that the public is aware if people are looking at the property. Yep. 100%. All right. We should Let's Let's make sure we clarify that too. any letter provided the this body approves this. Thank you. And again, this is just a study. I know that it's in listed on the agenda as use and development, but it's just a study to see what the use and development would be. Yes, correct. All right. Anyone else? Do we need to modify the motion then? Yes. Yes, we will modify the motion. So, I move the school committee approve the study uh whatever the filing of the study for the uh Barnum Brook tennis courts by the Prol Recreation Department. Randy, I will second

088Lisa. Okay. So, we have the motion on the floor. All right. Any questions? Randy. Um Nancy, um all of the land over there I'm always confused with. Is this land that we are leasing from the town and we'd have to change our lease if we gave it over? Is this something that we own that we have to uh give back? Um what is where where does that piece of land lie as far as the school committee's ownership? The Barnabrook parcel in land that goes directly behind including the tennis courts and the back fields is owned by the school district. There's no lease here. Uh, I think what would likely happen is if there's we were to move forward with a project, we would need to have some kind of agreement with the town of Pero

089um laying laying that out uh like a facility use agreement or some type of least lease trans um contract. Okay. Um is that piece of land just as far as to think about it is it kind of like right in the middle of everything that we own? Um, is that the far end of something that we own? It's it's past if you if you're looking in you're in the back parking lot of Varnbrook and you keep walking straight, it's that back piece. It just goes is that the end of our property or is do we have property beyond that? Uh, no. That's that would be the end of the property other than Nissatisset which is to the right, but Nissat is actually owned by the town of Peral. So, they do own some fields to

090the right of that. Yeah. I was just trying to think about how it was going to if it was abudding their land, you know, or in the middle of ours and how we were going to parcel that out if it came to um actually giving that over to them. Yeah, it's right at the end there before like the soccer fields and I know physically where they are, but I just don't know where our boundaries are. All right, any other questions? Tom Casey, sorry. I know the motion's already um been made, but I'm wondering if we wanted to add something um just in the language in terms of like at at no cost to the district. We probably do want to amend the motion. Will you amend your motion? Of course. I don't even know what

091I said. Uh, I move to approve the study at the cost of the pep pole recreation department for the tennis courts or former tennis courts at Varnum Brook Elementary School. And you put the money in there, right? like not contingent on us providing money. I think so. Just re start again. Robin, did we get it? Yeah, he said at the cost of the pepper rec. Okay, got it. Y I'll second the amendment. Okay, thank you. June. So, that was Will amending and then June. All right. So, let's vote on the amendment. Correct. I have the order correct. All right. June, yes. Randy, yes. Lisa Bloom, yes. Will Hackler, yes. Tom Casey, yes. Kim Craraven, yes. And myself is yes. So, that was the amendment. Now, let's move back to the original motion. I'll start with

092June. Yes. Randy, yes. Lisa Bloom, yes. Will Hackler, yes. Kim Craraven, yes. Tom Casey, yes. And myself is yes. All right. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you, Alan. All right. Thank you. Now, moving on to the preschool tuition, we have Miss Upton here to present. Hi. Um, would you like me or present the proposal that is in the agenda or is that not necessary? Do we have a copy, right? You have a copy in the agenda. Yes. Okay. if you want to. Yes. Um, no, that's okay. So, in in um preparing this proposal for you tonight, we took a look at nine area districts um including um some single districts as well as some um regional districts to compare our rates to other districts to make to um make sure that we were not proposing

093um too much of an increase. And in looking at um what other districts are charging, we felt as though a 4% increase. I believe in the agenda it accidentally says we were proposing a 5% increase to the tuition rates. I don't know if if that was a mistake or not. I am sure we would be happy to go with 4%. Okay. So, we calculated a 4% increase, which is um a a small increase across the board. We also are proposing some fees um that are in alignment with the current extended day fees. Um so, the registration fee exists currently. Um but an insufficient funds fee of $30, a late payment fee if a payment is made more than 10 days after the first of the month. Um, currently we do have a wait list for

094tuition paying paying districts. How many I have a question. How many um students do we have participating in preschool in our tuition paying students? How many are there? Uh, sure. and like all and overall tuition paying and then how many students overall in our all of our program. I don't have that number up. I'm sorry. That's okay. I can look that up. Anyone else have any questions? Randy say I know you're new in the role. Do you happen to know or maybe uh Brad or Nancy would know when was the last time we raised these and how often are we raising these prices? Brad or Nancy, do you want me to answer or do you have the date? I I have it in the uh fee schedule. I can pull it. I think it was

095might have been last year or the year before. I I believe it was last year, too. I'm trying to find it. Last year there was a 5% increase approved. I don't know about the year before. I was going to say there was a 5% increase. I remember voting on it last year. And and that's really a lot of this is in line with um increase in special education costs as well. Yeah, it was definitely last year. Anyone else have any questions? Sorry, one more. Um, the insufficient funds and the late payment fees, are those new this year or Okay. So yes, that those are new proposed fees and the um the cost aligns with the extended day program. So we took a look at the the fees that they have. There are have been some

096situations where um there have been consistent late payments. Um and we wanted to also um you know include the insufficient funds which is also part of the extended day um fees just to bring districtwide alignment with that program. All right. June Oops, you're on mute, Sh. That's okay. Sorry. Um, do we have any families with multiple children um in this program? I'm just wondering if um if it it's possible to offer any kind of discounted rate when when you have multiple students. just to to me these rates already seem high and I think that every year I'm a little removed from preschool age at this point. Um so I understand everything has gone up. Um I would be interested in actually seeing the list of the comparisons of the other schools too. Um, I don't

097know if that's something that that you have handy if you can kind of reference like what the um other towns are that you looked at and what their rates were. Um, but like I said, it's a little bit of sticker shock every time I see this and every time we go up on it. Um but I keep thinking for for parents that have multiple children in the program that you know could be become a hardship as it has increased um quite a few times in the past few years. So um yeah do you want me to add to that Aaron a little bit? I can if you'd like. Uh so I just wanted to add again this although it is a preschool it's an integrated preschool um and that comes with certain requirements as far

098as the way the population and how the population for each classroom is made up um so it it's not a traditional preschool. It is something that um comes at a significant cost to the school district um just again through um the the special education teachers service providers and there really is a very limited number of general education seats in the district um that are available. So that's why um that's essentially the reasoning behind the annual cost because we're trying to keep up with the increased costs elsewhere so that it does not come it it too much of a loss to the district. It's it's not a program that is operating um operating for profit. Uh June, uh do we frequently have a wait list? Uh because it seems like we have students or or families

099willing to pay these prices um that we're turning away. Would it make sense to expand this program at all? Is that possible or is it just too cost prohibitive? I I mean I think if we could get more paying families in that that may help. So the percentages have to work out. um so that there's a certain number of um special education qualifying students in the program. So we can't expand the program unless we have the students who qualify for the program, not the paying students, but the um qualifying students in numbers in order to warrant the increase. Is that fair to say, Erin? Yes, that's correct. Randy, interesting. I I always thought I I I I thought there was a maximum of um percentage of uh the need students with the general ed students.

100I didn't realize that you couldn't go lower. I thought that was better for the for the special uh ed students to have be with more gened. So the can I answer that? Yeah, sure. Go ahead. So um so the the cap on the classroom is 15 students altogether. The ratio of students with disabilities to students who are not identified is um 5149%. So we can have up to eight students who um do not require specialized services and we can have up to seven students who do require specialized services. Any more questions. Is there a motion on the floor or does somebody want to make a motion? I move the school committee approve the proposed 4% increase in the NMRSD Squan Cookook Early Childhood Center preschool tuition for fiscal year 26. Do I have a second?

101No. Second. I'll second. Randy second. All right. So, we have Will and Randy. All right. Any questions? All right, Will. Whoops. Hang on, Will. Don't answer that. Uh, June, I'm sorry. Was there an answer on the um the families with multiple children's in the program as far as any sort of discounted rate? I I I don't believe it's something the district can can afford just because of the cost of the program. Okay. All right. All right. We have a motion on the floor. Will, yes. Randy, yes. Kim, yes. Lisa Bloom, yes. Uh, June McNeel, yes. Tom Casey, yes. myself. Yes. All right. Thank you, Aaron. All right. Moving on. We have the Valley Collaborative Board of Directors. Brad, do you want to speak to this? This is just a motion that we make yearly. Sure.

102So, so this is for uh both Valley and Keystone. Uh I sit on the on both boards. So, they're agenda items 11 and 12. I sit on both boards with other members. Um, as a board member, I am able to attend monthly board meetings, um, review the budget, look at potential tuition increases for our students, um, and have voting rights as a board member. Uh, generally speaking, um, Valley is made up of all superintendent in Keystone. um you would have the option of having the um either myself or a school committee member attend the meetings but um generally speaking it has been me in the past. Um I I have had some schedule conflicts with them. They tend to pick the same dates to meet once a month which tends to be a problem but

103they have been working with me as of late because I'm the only member that belongs to both. Um so it's been less of an issue in the past um past two years. So it is something I believe I can continue doing. I do have to attend um 60% of the meetings at both. Can we like appoint Gary as a sub in these alternate in these cases? No. So um so Valley it has to be um the superintendent and Keystone allows for the superintendent or a school committee member. It's in their bylaws. Okay. All right. I move that we appoint Brad to the Valley Collaborative Board of Directors and Keystone Educational Collaborative for the terms July 1st, 2025 to June 30th, 2026. All right. And Randy has a second. So that was Will and Randy. Any

104discussion? Any questions? All right. Thank you, Brad, for for serving. Oh, you're welcome. All right, we'll start with you, Randy. Yes, June. Yes. Will, yes. Kim, yes. Lisa Bloom, yes. Tom Casey, yes. and myself is yes. All right, moving on. The next request is um maybe or a request to change our organizational meeting to April 30th. That is right after the elections, but it's right before town meetings. If people would be open to changing that date, it's on a Wednesday, April 30th. Any questions, concerns? Randy, I I would be very concerned that any new members uh that get elected will not have an opportunity to either get sworn in um or even to get an email and get access to anything or be able to uh speak with anybody about what the organizational meeting is.

105I typically have been meeting the last few years going over the policy manual um for the board of governance. kind of just going over the actual policies on what the school committee is, what the organizational um com, you know, meeting is for, what the different um subcommittees that we typically have. Um in this kind of time frame, I probably wouldn't even be able to get in touch with them um with that short of notice. All right, June. Um I agree. I was going to essentially say the same thing that it's very short notice. Um, and I'm wondering again why why did you want to move it up because typically we do have the election and then town meeting and then the organizational meeting. Um, because it changed a few years ago because Ashb I think

106Ashb moved their date to the first Saturday always first Saturday of May. So how it so how it's happened because it was usually where it was the pilro meeting and we'd have the organizational meeting and then that following Saturday it would fall. So just getting people in before the town meetings because then it was pepper and towns in because PEP's a Monday, Townsen's the Tuesday. Yeah. I I honestly don't think that there's any reason why we need to um as far as uh Ashby now being for a few years before uh the PEPAL meeting. I think that just has to do with how the dates fall as far as the first Saturday of the month. Um so I it hasn't been an issue before as far as I know. We don't do you know typically

107haven't in the past had except for the last two years had actual business. Usually it's just the organizational meeting and then we're done. Um then that doesn't have to happen um you know before the town meetings. It really is just organizational can happen at any time. Oh, anyone else? Uh June, um honestly, I don't think it is important to have them um in their place or before the town meetings anyway because um it they're not going to be able to speak to the conversations that we've had where they're brand new members and haven't participated in these meetings anyway. Um and if they want to speak, they can speak, you know, anyhow. But I don't think there it matters if the organizational meeting is before the town meetings or not. I think it's better to let

108them come on, get their feet wet, make sure that they can access their email, access the packet, um, and get a feel for what subcommittees they might want to be on, and just have time to transition into the role before being thrown into a meeting. Anyone else? Randy, I'd be open to moving it to the Wednesday since um I know I don't know about anybody else, but I know Patrick uh now cannot make Thursday meetings. So, yeah, April 7th, I think it is on that Wednesday. Um I'd be open to moving it uh you know, till then or anytime that week, but give them at least a week uh to to kind of get everything settled. Anyone else? Uh, Robin, is there anything happening or do we know the um schedule of the high school

109because it is an in-person meeting? Uh, I don't I don't have that in front of me. Um, are you planning to hold it at the at the high school? Yes. Yes, it's an inerson. Usually, we'll do the organizational in person. So, we'll look at the date and we'll figure out if it's the 7th or the 8th. I think that's the best. All right. Is everyone good? Moving on. Jim has her hand up. Yeah. Okay. Thank you. Thank you, Will. Um Madam Chair, I don't think you could see my hand in the light. Okay. Um that is uh May 6th is the town meeting night for Townsen. And depending on the cadence, um they may go to the seventh. Yeah. Right. I'm just suspecting that it might go to a second night. So then we'll probably

110we'll have to keep the ETH because I know how Pil has already scheduled two days for theirs. So theirs is going Monday and Tuesday and then Townsen will probably go Mon or Tuesday and Wednesday. So we'll probably keep the eight and and and I'll check in on that for you just to confirm, but I'm I'm guessing that we're going to go two nights. Okay. All right. So, we will probably keep it to May 8th. All right. Um, MSBA response, which um, Brad touched on when he spoke earlier. Do you want to touch on it more, Brad? Um, so I think I pretty much shared everything again. Secretary Totteeiler, who's also now the acting commissioner, um was instrumental in um working with us and working with the MSBA on giving us a one-year pause on any

111decisions uh permanent decisions around Ashby Elementary. So again, I certainly want to publicly thank him again for his advocacy in this area. Um he's come out and he's met with me twice. Um, so you know, he's certainly invested, uh, very willing to listen and the fact that, you know, he's he's one of the few people, uh, that I've reached out to that has that has come out to meet with me. So, um, it's it's it it's been it's been great and I appreciate everything he's doing for us. All right. And thank you, Brad, for reaching out to Tutiler. And I know that you talked to John Cronin, Kennedy, and Margaret as well. Yes. So, thank you for your advocacy at that level. All right, moving on. Let's go to the director of operations and facilities,

112Brad. Sure. Um, so before I go there, I I I actually just got some some good news uh from the state that um I was hoping I could share before I go over that. Something I think people might be interested in and again really push for some advocacy. Yes, because I am getting my phone is ringing off like other people are texting me about this good news. So, okay. So, um so just wanted to let everyone know that House Bill uh 4005 has now been finalized is House Bill 401 4010. It's an act making appropriations for fiscal year 2025 to provide supplemental certain existing appropriations and for certain other activities and projects. So, what it basically means is the House has passed this bill which allocates um up up to 1.3 billion in one-time funds

113from the FY24 millionaires tax surplus and it has now been referred to the Senate. Some of the um things that this bill include is 100% reimbursement for regional school transportation um which is up from 80 to 82% 75% reimbursement for FY25 for out of district uh special education students uh transportation cost through circuit breaker and that's an increase from 44% 75% reimbursement from FY26 for out of district special education transportation costs. And finally, a much needed uh directive for the Office of the Inspector General to review school transportation and provide recommendations by February 2nd, 2026 to reduce costs, enhance purchasing power, and streamline services. So, um, again, this is $1.3 billion from the millionaires tax surplus from FY24 that, um, the House is recommending be streamed, um, towards the school districts, um, that are in

114need. So, this is great news. Um, so it sounds like our message was heard. Um but certainly I would encourage anyone that's on the call to um continue advocating and make sure that um the advocacy now switches from um representatives to senators because it's going on to the Senate now. Um that's all I have on that which is again some great news. So hopefully we are being heard and we are moving in the right direction. Um can I move on to the director of operations at this point? Randy, you want to Randy? Yeah, that is fantastic news. And Nancy, um, when you have time to sit down and absorb what that is in that bill, is there a way that at some point you can just kind of send out to the school committee an

115approximate amount of money that we might receive from this? Thank you. No problem. And it does look like portions of it may have to be used for FY25, which is um seems to always be the case, but um it would be nice if all of it could be used for FY26, but may maybe we can find some uh some ways for it to benefit FY26 as well. And Kim has her hand up if you can't see. Yeah, Kim, I was just gonna say that there's um it's still subject to a little bit of movement in the Senate, so we might want to wait for Nancy to do um her magic so she doesn't have to do it twice while we're excited, we might want to wait. Um what I what I did um think was

116wonderful and um superintendent might just not have had a chance to see it yet. Um it was 140 um in favor and 14 against. So it was pretty overwhelmingly passed in the House. Um but I think it's incumbent upon everybody that is in the audience tonight to u refocus efforts on the Senate and make sure that this does get passed. Um halfway there. More advocacy. Yes. More advocacy and education. Yes. All right, June. Whoops, you're on mute. June last meeting, you know. It's okay. It's okay. I'd have this. Um, so two questions. Do we have an idea when this would come before the Senate? like when we would get any sort of final answer on, you know, whether the schools actually will be getting this funding and and how much it may be. And my

117second statement is if our district does receive funds that um exceed the amount from the elementary school consolidation. I'm asking the members that will still be on the committee at the next meeting to please reconsider Ashby Elementary keeping it open. We've already had the amount of young families I've seen put their house on the market in the past few weeks is awesome. So, please reconsider. Any anyone else? All right. Um Brad, director of operations. Yes. Correct. Okay. I just wanted to make sure. So, just to clarify, um I I know there was some public comments made tonight that this is not a new position. Um it's it's a position that has evolved uh from a pre-existing position, but in years past um we've not always been consistent in following all SP policy specifics when creating

118new administrative positions. While they've been included in budget discussions in the budget approval process, the job descriptions themselves have not always been approved. This was the case with the director of operations position. However, this position was created outside the budget process as the FY24 budget had already been approved at the time it was created. This was a position that was essentially created, I believe, thinking back now in in May or June of that year. Um, and the position came into existence after the retirement of our former director of building and grounds which occurred at the end of FY 2023. This position was created through the reallocation of some responsibilities between the director of technology and the new director of building and grounds. Through this process, the director of technology became the director of operations as

119the role became responsible for some crossover items between technology buildings building and grounds as well as assuming some direct responsibility for facility use, student registration and state reporting. The position along with some other additional shifts that occurred in FY 2024 resulted in a savings of just over $60,000 and excuse me resulted in a savings of just over $60,000 for FY2024. Um so again, this is not a new position. It was formerly the director of technology. Um it was changed because the job description of the director of technology changed again due to some buildings and grounds being uh brought on board. Uh primarily security um security cameras, things of that nature as well as um building entry uh student registration uh facility use and state reporting. So this um it's it's really again it's it's not

120a new position. It's just a new title. So, I would like to formally have the school committee approve the position and job description uh through a vote. All right. Thank you, Brad. Randy, um I would like uh the school committee and uh the community members who are on to understand um this is something that I asked for. I I came upon uh the director of operations title. Um, I knew about the um the responsibility changes um and realized that the job description was not approved by the school committee when this job uh was transformed uh for the director of technology to go into this position. It is the um the right of the school committee and we are the only uh entity within the district that can that can create a new position and a

121new job description. And so looking back, I want to make sure that we are following our policies and I asked the superintendent to bring this forward so that we can approve this. It may be retro um but I still want to try and follow our policy. So again, this is not a new position. Uh this has been in place. It's been working. Um it didn't cost the district any more money. Uh but I'd like to try and just follow up with our policies and make sure that we are following them. All right, any more questions? I do. I have a motion for the director of operations and facilities. I move the school committee approve the position of director of op operations and facilities as outlined in the job description. I second. Sorry, Lisa. That Bloom

122got that. I'm going to give it to Will and Lisa Bloom. All right, any questions? All right, let's take a vote. Uh Randy, yes. Kim Whoops. Yes. Lisa Lisa Bloom. Yes. Will Hackler? Yes. June. Yes. Tom. Tom. Did you? I'm Yes. He said yes. All right. Yeah. And myself is yes. All right. The director of operations and facilities is approved. Right. Moving to the assistant business manager, Brad. Yes. So, the assistant school business administrator. Um, so again, this is something that is new. Um, as many of you are aware, our business manager, Nancy Haynes, will be partially retiring at the end of the school year, but she's agreed to stay on as a 6. I think all of you have already heard this evening through through the through the audit process how valuable she is.

123Um just with the way that whole audit process went. Um Nancy is invaluable. Um you know being a regional school business administrator is far more complex than being a business manager in a comprehensive school district. funding formula, the way towns are assessed, END, um everything that goes with it is is just extremely complex and she is invaluable and I'm thrilled that she's um staying on as a point 6 uh for next year. That said, business managers are one of the three positions um that are appointed by the school committee. They are also among the most difficult positions to fill in the state for comprehensive districts, never mind regionals, which are more complex. As I said, the position was posted on Schoolring, which resulted in seven applicants. There were eight in total. One of them withdrew.

124None of the eight who applied were licensed. With that, I'm recommending the creation of a new position, assistant school business administrator. Once appointed, this individual will be coached by Nancy Haynes and enroll in the Massachusetts Association of School Business Officials, MASBO, one-year lure program. While other districts are also in the market for the for this role, this is our best course of action to ensure that we maintain a licensed business manager of record while also training a successor. It's very important to point out that the state of Massachusetts requires that the business manager be licensed. Having an unlicensed business manager is not permitted in the state of Massachusetts. And as I said, we did not have any applicants who were licensed. And there are several districts out there who are looking for a business manager

125as well. Um, so this position along with some other minor shifts will result in a savings for FY 2026 in just over $58,000. So it is not coming at an increased cost. um it's coming at an actual savings um in part due to um the reduction from a point 6 from a 1.0 to a point 6 for Miss Haynes. So I would like to have uh this position in job description formally approved by the school committee as right now it is our only course of action to ensure that we have a licensed school business manager in place when Nancy does retire. Thank you. All right. I move the school committee approve the position of assistant business manager as outlined in the job description. Hang on. Well, we have to change the name on that because

126I think it's a business administrator. All right. What is the title? It's assistant school business administrator. Okay. Also, I would like to um have this temporary. I don't want this to go forward. This is um strictly for training the next um school business manager. Um, so when uh so I do not want two positions going forward once we have a full-time person back in place um when Nancy leaves, although I'm not sure Nancy can be fully replaced, but thank you for all of your service and everything you have done for this district, Nancy. She's not gone yet. No. And I'm very very happy about that. Thank you so much for helping the district out and staying. and you know um you know we've been together for quite a long time you and I in this

127in this district. So um very very sad to see you leave but um happy to see you going on and and doing uh what what you need to do for yourself. No and and thank you for clarifying that. Um Randy, I'm only asking for a temporary position at this point, not a permanent. So a temporary being one year. Yes. Is that what we're assuming for the FY26 Mhm. school year? All right. Okay. Will, can you modify your We didn't get a second on it. Okay. I'll ask Lisa her question first and then you work on your wording. All right. Lisa Bloom. Um, so is this um just clarify is this position full-time and then Nancy will be part-time or will Nancy be full-time and the position be full-time? Um Nancy will be part Nancy will

128be part-time. The position uh will be a 215 day position, so close to full-time. Um but we still have to maintain um Nancy again as the business manager of record as required by the state because she maintains the license. Um also the the actual MASBO program the lensure program requires a licensed coach. Um so that Nancy would also be serving in that capacity. Okay. All right. Thank you. All right. uh June. Okay. So, to be crystal clear, the savings would be 58,000 between the two positions. That includes adding in this second position between Nandy NY's partial part-time position and the new trainee. Yes. Okay. And Okay. And we're Will's going to make a new motion with it being a one-year a temporary and that it's a business administrator, assistant business administrator. Is that the correct

129title, Brad? That's a correct title that we want. Yes, the assistant school business administrator. All right. The job description in the packet says assistant school business manager. Okay. You know what? Um, it's I I I will change it to uh manager on my part too. It's a administrator and manager are I'm fine to go with manager. I did not realize that. I apologize. Okay. All right. June, did you have a question? U I changed my mind. Okay. All right. Are you ready, Will? He's not ready yet. Going back to the motion, I move that the school committee vote to approve the position of assistant school business manager as outlined in the job description for one year. All right. Do I have a second? Second. That is Randy. Will and Randy. All right. Kim, I'll start

130with you. Yes. And if I may add, thank you for the creativity for Oh, I thought it's hard to hear when you talk. So, so I'll say it now, but I I don't have any questions. I just very much appreciate um the effort and the creativity to make this happen because we would be in a really difficult position. So, thank you, Nancy. Um, thank you, Brad, for for um thinking this through and and making this happen because without it, we would be in a really tough spot. All right. Anyone else have any comments before we go? Randy, since you Yeah, we haven't voted yet. One thing I didn't add before was um so everyone understands the importance of this business manager position. Um Nancy in her position controls all of the money in the district.

131So anything that we can that we are doing everything for the students for the programs that we have um is all controlled by Nancy as far as the funding. If something were to not be done correctly on a grant, we might have to pay grant money back. If uh we are not paying per some contracts uh or uh loans and that money is not uh properly accounted for and paid, we could have penalties. So there's a lot of responsibilities fiscally with this position. It is extremely important that we have somebody very very qualified coming in after Nancy. Um and I think the um the superintendent uh seeing that there are nobody that there is nobody that is coming to us with the experience that we need in this position especially for a regional school district

132that we are looking to develop somebody and I appreciate you looking for a way for us to do that. Thank you. Thank you. All right. Okay. C can I just add one more piece that I did forget to mention? Again, I don't mean to muddy the waters, but I do think it's important that the people on the call here. Um, essentially, if we don't have licensed licensed candidates, the only real option that we would have would be to look to bring someone in who's retired. um in bringing in someone who's retired would likely mean again we get someone that has the qualifications, but business managers um and superintendent often find their way um into the news um when mistakes are made. Um and it is something that happens unfortunately fairly regularly. And just because we

133bring in someone that's retired and someone that may possess a license does not mean that they're going to be proficient in handling the budget of a regional school district. And if we were to do that, keeping our business our current business manager on at a point 6 would result in a budget increase. um because we would have to in essence hire a retired full-time school business administrator and maintain the 6 or risk going without the 6 in our current business administrator and really taking a calculated risk uh that whoever we bring in could handle North Middle Sex's budget. So I just wanted to put that out there. It's it is a very very important role and it's it's very important that we have the right person in the position um and be trained by the

134right person and I feel very strongly that Nancy is that right person and I am going to add to that because several times Brad has commented that Nancy has kept our district together and has helped us financially and that he rates you among the best business managers he has ever worked with. So, so thank you, Nancy. Thank you. That's very nice. All right. Now, we're ready for a vote. Any other anybody else? All right. I will start with Will. Yes. Lisa Bloom. Yes. June McNeel. Yes. Tom Casey. Tom, I'll come back to Tom. Uh Kim, yes, I did hear Tom. Tom gave a yes. Yes. And then Randy, yes. And myself is Yes. Thank you. All right. Thank you. All right. Moving on. We are on to the FY26 budget. I am handing this over

135to Will. You are the finance chair. Sure. I I'm gonna hand it to Brad. Where are we going from here? And it's FY26. Yes. Um so is it okay if at this point I talk about um fees and things of that nature? Yes. Does that make sense? Yes. Those are Okay. So, so I I I did, you know, certainly there was some public comment made tonight around kindergarten, middle school sports, increased fees. Um, increased user fees are something that we look at annually. Um, again, staying in line with what some of some of the um other districts are doing. Uh we don't have any formal recommendations at this point in time, but when we were talking about potentially the elimination of middle school sports um and potentially um having a fee for full day kindergarten,

136that is based in if the 2.25 budget does not pass. So the current budget that is before you, which is again that 2.25% increase, um all the reductions that we've discussed and have been shared with you are the reductions Um, what's going to be really difficult, and that's why the advocacy is so important to your state senators now, is that if the 2.25 budget does not pass, we go from potentially reducing 24 teaching positions to somewhere in the low to mid40s. So, it will double um because we've basically cut our budget by 2 million at this point. we'd have to cut by close to another 2 million to get us um to zero, which is what um we will be at if the 2.25 does not pass. Um so at this point in time, again,

137still looking at athletic user fees, activity card fees, things of that nature, um that were all discussed last year. Um but as far as um fees for full day kindergarten um and in in cutting programs um athletic programs programs in in the arts that is not on the table. But it is something all of those things would have to be considered if we don't get this budget approved. That's again why it's so important um that we get the money from the state but also that we get the support that we need um from the towns um so that we can get this through. Does that answer does that does that address the issues on the agenda? Yes, I believe so. Is everyone satisfied with that response? Any questions? Oh, Randy, I was waiting for your

138hand, Randy. Um, took me a moment there. Um, just uh so we're going to go down the list and discuss these uh because there's two of them at least uh that say update on. Um, or is this just, you know, I'm not sure how are we going to be having conversations on these now or not? So, the um are you looking at the two potential revenue ones? Yes. The opt out and so the the early retirement incentive um that is not something um that we'll be pursuing. Again, that's primarily in our discussions um with the teachers association. That is not something that we will be pursuing. Um we're not able to get agreement there. And the health insurance opt out is still a work in progress. So, we are still working on that. Um we're

139working on that with um again with the collective bargaining unit and seeing if we can get any interest there on potential savings for the district. So that is something that is still in prog in progress. So on this list and as I said earlier I for we are reducing the PR firm for FY26 as well and the activity card. Um I know we went we were going to implement that last year. Um you decided uh you tried a fundraising campaign instead. It was unsuccessful. Yes. Um is there any opportunity to talk about the cost? Um you know I know it was quite steep uh for what we were talking about at least in my opinion. Uh the committee voted uh for the higher rate, which is fine, but I would like an opportunity for the

140school committee to maybe discuss what is needed um and whether we can lower that down and they'd be willing to lower that down um going forward. Sure. And I do think that there's there's certainly opportunity to to discuss it at the school committee uh would that's something that the uh school committee would would like to do. Um just keeping in mind that the other thing that's difficult with some aspects of the activity card is that we do have several service learning um organizations who are working to um raise funds, make people's lives better um and they could be charged a fee. Um which is that's certainly something we need to talk about because you started coming in as we wouldn't do the service learning but what qualifies as service learning. So that the whole program

141really kind of needs to be detailed out and discussed on exactly how it's going to work uh more detailed than we did last year. Um but I'd like to, you know, if it comes to having to do activity cards, I'd like to have it in the context of exactly how much money do we need to reduce by and have that conversation again as far as the level of what it's needed. Can I bring something to the um committee of mayor around activity cards and user fees? That that would work. Does that work for everybody? Yeah. Thank you. You're welcome. Anyone else have any comments or want to talk about any of the topics listed in the list? Uh June I'm just going to throw in my two cents now while I can. Um that we

142did discuss the kindergarten fees before and um there are very few school districts in the state that have um kindergarten fees for full day um for a reason. We it really puts one set of kids far behind another if one set of kids are in half day kindergarten and one set are in full day which will cause a lot of problems for our first grade teachers and um potential more special needs uh more IEPs. Um I think it will actually cost the district in the long run. Um, and the other point I want to say is with Ashb students currently planned to go to Townsen, um, the I I know the longest bus ride mentioned was 80 minutes each way. That's nearly 3 hours on a bus for a 5-year-old that we're asking parents to

143to do. Um, we're asking parents to send send their kids out of a town that they grew up in and then to ask them to pay money on top of that is just really insult to injury and I really really hope you do not explore that route. Um, I have a feeling we will lose even more families. Um, and it really is going to kind of flip our district upside down um, with the decrease in Ashb enrollment. So, I just want to speak against that at this time. When you have that future conversation, please keep that in mind. Thank you, Jim. Just a point of order. Um, Robin, uh, Kim Craraven had gotten bounced and now she's, uh, in the with the participants or the attendees rather. if she can be let in as a

144panelist, please. Thank you, Randy. All right. Any anyone else any questions about the budget FY26? All right, seeing none, we will move on to the subcommittee reports. Um, Ashby Elementary, June. Um, we haven't met for a while with everything kind of up in the air. Um, and with me stepping out of the committee at this point, I'm not sure what if you want that group to continue or not. I know at one point there was um talked about having an overall maintenance committee for all the buildings combined. Um, if Ashb is on a pause and there's certain projects to be done, I don't know if we will still if we will want that committee going forward or or what the general feel is of this committee. Um, I'm not sure if I would want to

145continue chairing it. I may or may not, but if there is a committee going forward, I I would certainly want to participate in that um in whatever degree is needed. So, we have we haven't met for a while, but um you maybe at the time of your organizational meeting if you want me to attend that meeting or if you just want to let me know what you decide at that meeting. Um either way, but it's it's something to start thinking about. All right. Thank you, Jim. And at the organizational meeting, we'll figure it out with the members and figure out where this committee stands and if it needs to be dissolved and recreated in a different form, we'll figure that out out at that time as well. All right. Accelerated repairs in building. Um, we

146are close to getting this, but it's still going to be until October of next year. So this committee will be around just a little longer. All right. Then we are on to Will and there are some transfers will in your finance area. All right. So we have a budget transfer. It's in the packet. Therefore I move the school committee approve the FY25-1 budget transfer as follows. reducing the appropriation categories of the budget operations maintenance technology by $15,3622 instructional support by $754,12585 insurance and retirement funds by $35,540 and adding to the appropriation category payment to out of district tuition transportation and school assessment $84,972 $2.7. Do I have a second? Second. That's a second. All right. Any discussion? And Nancy, do you want to explain first before can Nancy explain before I take your question, Randy?

147Um, it actually is on um the motion on and it being made. I kind of touched with Will and I think Nancy heard about it is looking a little bit more into this. Um I'm not sure if the motions that we've been making are fully covering all of the um transfers. Uh so the school committee is responsible for approving all line item not just the large buckets going back and forth. The information is presented here. So it is being given to us in the budget detail but in certain um larger buckets it it's a net zero. So there's just money moving around within that bucket and so it doesn't show up. Uh you can see in the motion uh one second um you have administration uh legal audit salary and then there's a zero there.

148That actually means that there there were transfers but it was a net zero within that category. And we're since we're not reading that as zero, um I'm not sure if we're legally actually approving that like we should be. The intent is there, but I'm not sure if the motion is covering it. So, um I'm not sure if there needs to be another line or what, just to make sure that we are covering all of the transfers that are happening. Does that make sense? I mean, you could um if you have a minute, you could just add the language as as as all detailed transactions or all detailed transfers as provided in the detailed budget report. Yeah, something like that would would would uh would cover something. Yeah. A April 3rd I think it's April 3rd

149budget report so that it's linked. Yep. Okay. Yeah. Um that should work. If everybody looks in there in in the on the detail budget there, the 43 detail budget, everything in the yellow line, the requested budget transfer, those are the transfer line item transfers that we are being asked to uh approve. All right. So, to technically do this, did I get a second on it or not a second? Robin, yes. June seconded. Okay. So, we have to amend the motion and then we'll mo we'll vote on the amended motion and then we'll take the entire motion. So, Nancy, did you have the wording or Randy? Uh, yes. So, I would like to amend the motion to get here. [Music] Um, one second. Just looking up. uh want to get it right. Yes. So, um I

150move uh to vote the school committee approve the FY25-1 budget transfer as follows. Reducing the appropriation categories. Budget operations, maintenance, technology $15,3622. Instructional support $754,125.85. Insurance retirement funds 35,540. Adding to the appropriation category, payments to outof district tuition, transportation, and school assessments, 804,972, uh7 cents um including all uh tra um all other transfers within the 43 uh 2025 detail budget as presented. Second. All right. So that was Randy and Will and this is on the amended motion. Any questions? All right. Randy, yes. Will, yes. Lisa Bloom, yes. June, yes. Tom Casey, yes. And myself is Yes. Kim, that was on ament. You forgot Kim. Oh, Kim, sorry. Yes, we're in the middle of my screen kind of. Okay, Kim said yes as well. All right, that was on the amendment. Now we'll go back to

151the motion. Randy, yes. Will, yes. Lisa Bloom, yes. June McNeel, yes. Kim, yes. Tom Casey, thanks. and myself. Yes. So that is the transfer is approved. Thank you. All right. Back. Okay. We're almost done. All right. Policy. Randy, anything in policy? No, not not at this time. Warrants. Patrick is not on the call. Negotiations. We had our negotiations meeting and it's moved forward and Brad has answered. We've done the opt out, opt in. Those were all done. All right. Uh Randy, anything with non-teers? Nope. Um community outreach and towns June. Anything? Um yes, actually. Um I did speak during a couple um town meetings from since our last meeting to not town meetings, excuse me, select board meetings. Um but I also wanted to share the experience at the special town meeting. Um Randy and

152I were both there in Ashb. There was only um one article on the warrant and the meeting was um about an hour long. Um and so all we talked about was the school and pretty much every single person that got up to speak, which was a lot of people. And we actually had a pretty packed house. We had people sitting all on the sides of um there weren't enough chairs anyway. It was it was a a highly attended special town meeting. Um and every person said they're not against giving more money to the schools, but they would never vote yes for that approving a budget that included closing Ashby Elementary. Um, so the optics were very very clear and I just wanted to relay that to the rest of you. Um, since you didn't hear

153what they were saying. Um, and the, you know, like I said, a lot of people spoke and they said a lot of the things that we've heard during public comment here and that has been emailed to us. Um, but I just want to reiterate how important the school is to the town and that town support really does um hinge on having our own elementary school. Um, so that was the message that that the town's people really wanted to convey and I just wanted to make sure that that was very clearly conveyed because um it was a resounding no. But that was why um it's not that they're not supporting the district. It's just that they want to keep our one asset in town, our hub of our community in town. So I wanted to make

154sure that you all understood that. That's all. All right. Thank you, J. and I I am Pepples and I attended their town meeting. It is going to an override on the 28th. It's um a 380,000 approximately. I think that was the amount that they are seeking for an override to support North Middle Sex and Nishop Techch. So that's the update that I have from Peril. All right. Will do you have an update from Townsen or Kim can help you out with with it as well if you'd like or however we had a very confusing meeting and um not sure where we stand. So So I'm pretty clear on what it was. Not confused at all. If you would like me to give any clarity. Sure. Okay. Yeah. Go ahead, Kim. So, there was a budget

155summit on um March 1st where there was a statement that there would be an override for 1.3 million. Clearly, the school did not have that. It's also on record um that there would be extra about 250,000 and that it would be okay it would be kept which we know is not possible or practical. Um we know that sometimes when meetings are long, people might misspeak. So we waited until town meeting. Um at town meeting that same figure came up and the special town meeting turned into a discussion about a bit of the town's budget. Um luckily um there's some very smart women that were in the room and understood things that have happened. And so to preserve um the the town's budget and the school's budget, there was a motion on the floor to put

156an override in for the school. And we amended that motion to put $200,000 into the free cash, which has precedent in town and town meeting. This was not the first time that the school budget has been paid out of free cash and for clarity it is not the lowest that Townsman's free cash has gone. So any of that um discussion is um conjecture. So 200 out of free cash in the balance direct out of the operating budget so that there wouldn't be an override. Um certainly um the town is the town and the school is part of it. Um the the town is choosing to go for an override um of 625. Um it did list that the schools are included. Um not sure why because it's explicit that the schools are not. So there

157is advocacy work of folks doing that um to make folks understand it is not uh required for the school and um there will be a budget meeting um the board of suckman has yet to give a budget to the fincom and there's yet to be a budget that shows the override amount so to Will's point there is some confusion but the school's budget is clear um 200 out of free cash the balance out of the operating budget for the next fiscal year. Um so not not sure what what the chips will fall for towns in itself but the schools was out of um general operating in free cash. All right. Any questions? Any other business? We are not I do not believe that we need the executive session as we did approval of the minutes

158and we had the discussion about adding the assistant business manager. All right. I make a motion to adjourn. This will is this going to be your last motion as a member? Okay. As my motion as your last and then I will go with Tom to answer first. Tom, no. No, I'm kidding. Yes. All right. Thank you guys for your service before we continue. So, okay. Tom June. Yes. Will, yes. Kim, yes. Lisa Bloom, yes. Randy, yes. And myself, yes. Thank you everyone. Have a good night.