School Committee Meeting 06/16/26

001Good evening and welcome to Shawsheen Tech School Committee meeting of June 16th, 2026. All members except Miss Glenn Lawson are present, but everybody please rise for the Pledge of Allegiance. Miss Lawson. >> Please lead us. >> I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America, and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. >> Public comment, nobody signed up. >> Thank you. >> Uh student representative, Mackenzie is absent. We waited. She joins us from Okay, so tonight we are joined by representatives from Clifton, Lawson, and Allen. Do you want to introduce >> Yeah, this is for >> Yep, so um Sean McGoldrick is with us and I honestly don't remember his associate's name. >> Hannah York has joined us. Um I asked

002them and we had talked about this a little bit as a committee. This was one of the four recommendations that came out from our sending communities about doing a reconciliation of some past accounts. Sean and I I believe had a Zoom or Teams meeting to discuss. He did send kind of a little preliminary proposal that I on Ken's suggestion I shared out to everybody for everybody to look at. I'd like to turn it over to Sean and Hannah, let them kind of explain a little bit about what their vision for this is and then I'll open this up for questions from the committee. And if possible, you know, we can have a discussion and maybe make a decision on if this is something we want to move forward Do you want to come up here?

003>> Yep, you can use >> You want to come up here? Whatever you feel comfortable. >> Sure. No, this is [laughter] fine. >> Take the first one. >> No, no, no. >> It's just easier to be a wallflower. >> Okay, thank you. >> So, thank you all for coming this tonight. Just to reiterate, my name is Sheldon Goldrick. I'm a principal at Clifton Larson Allen in our SLG cast practice. State and local government client accounting and advisory services. And this is my boss, Annie York. Also a principal in our industry. She's actually the industry leader for our national practice for SLG. So, um our work mainly consists of special projects like cash reconciliations, bank reconciliations, state reporting, internal collector, town manager, school business manager, grants management, ERP implementations, chart of accounts design, anything financial or

004accounting-wise that a municipality or school district needs, that's what we do. Um we operate here in Massachusetts, even though we're a national practice. Annie and I spend the majority of our time here in the Commonwealth working on our 351 duties along with other vocational regional schools. So, I guess overall, I know when Tony and I talked about cash reconciliations, just so the entire group is aware, um here in Massachusetts, the typical way is that the treasurer collector maintains a cashbook with all the transactions from town receipts, AP, uh payroll, you name it. That is then reconciled to your bank statements. Once that's reconciled, the cashbook is then reconciled to your general ledger, in this case Munis, so that at the end of the day it's that three-way three-way match between the cashbook, your banks, and

005then also your general ledger. So, that's what your auditors are looking for, that's what the DOR is looking for in your state audit. Um and our process is just that. We We dig our We dig in and we start individually reconciling from cashbook to bank accounts, and then back from cashbook to GL. So, I'm happy to take any questions you may have of the group for self or Annie. >> Just if I could just add a couple pieces of information. >> Um >> Why she's so >> We also have We We have 18 team members on our team that are local Massachusetts, work on just Massachusetts state's local government. We do audit, we do consulting. So, so we have a large team with a lot of different abilities and different areas. We do quite a

006bit. We probably 65-70 communities a year that we're working in um whether that's city, town like Sean says, list of schools. We have several regional districts and and both schools that we've worked with in the past, too. Um and I think, you know, the statutory requirement for that treasurer to have a separate set of books is different than a lot of the surrounding states. A lot of the other ones that would like we have um co-workers that work down in Connecticut and from there they they reconcile straight from the bank to the GL. So, it is an extra step that is required here in Mass because of that statutory requirement. Um So, you know, we do a lot of these. We know where the issues tend to reside. Um so, usually it's AP, payroll, and

007your main depository are your problem accounts. Um and so, we've been through a lot of them. We've seen just about everything you can imagine. Um you know, so we're happy to help however we can and you know. Get you guys to a better better place and try and turn turn it over to maintain going forward. >> Thank you. And Sean, just going back to the initial [clears throat] conversation we had, you know, as you as you go through this process, it's my understanding you'll also make recommendations for journal entries and other things like that, too. So, we'll we'll come out of this with these are the things you need to do and this is what puts you back >> 100% >> Correct, Tony. A lot of times, too, we go in and maybe the cash

008book isn't maintained the way we would like to see it, which we sort of think is best practice. So, a lot of times we build a template, we turn over to you guys after building that out. Basically saying, "Great, from this point forward, here's how you maintain it. Here's how you do your reconciliation." I know not to speak for Yana, but I know she goes into one town on a monthly basis just to make sure that, hey, things are going going good. Do you have any questions, any unique reconciling items I can help with? That way, that community is doing 95% of the work. When something comes up that's maybe an oddball situation or something that they're struggling with, she comes in, helps them out, and then, you know, goes on her merry way. >>

009Yeah. >> Just I saw what you had said, but I just I'm just curious, like maybe from a historic perspective of what you've seen. Um this is more of the >> [laughter] >> open-ended. But this is this is not just 2 years. So I'm curious why we would only go back. I understand being a school, cost comes into play, but can you just maybe clarify why only 2 years would be appropriate where this goes back beyond 2 years? >> Sure. So when 2019 met, we sort of talked about it, and then we also ran some of the state Indian reports when you get your free cash certified. So the largest chunks were from the past 2 years. If I have my notes. >> I said 75 and 75. >> That's why she's the boss. So

010fiscal year 75 fiscal year 25 was a 75 green variance, and fiscal year 24 was 575. I did not see one from fiscal year 23. So if something did exist, it had to have been minor to not be picked up on that ED report. So that's why in in our opinion, we want to start 712040, which is fiscal year 24, and walk that thing forward. >> And >> But but to to be fair, if we get in there and we find that like it looks like there's some sort of buried issue from you know, from prior to that, we'll certainly say, "Hey, do you guys want us to go backwards? We're happy to go back. We have a community that we're working with." >> blunt, it's going to be some of this that's why I'm

011asking. >> Well, so I mean, I'll I'll tell you what, there's another community we're working with right now. We're doing we're we're doing 4 years of their cash stuff. So I mean, it certainly does it I mean, honestly, we could probably continue to go back um years beyond that. But what we usually start to do is we'll we'll start where we think it's kind of you know, that starting point. So let's say that we do this and we'll build it out going forward and we can maintain a consistent kind of beginning unknown variance. That's when we'll go to you and say, "Hey, we have a consistent unknown of 50k." Is that immaterial enough? You guys just want to write it off, make it one-time adjustment, it's done, work it out with your auditors, then we'll

012do that. If it's you know, that it's an immaterial amount it needs to be that we need to go back further, you know, so we'll kind of back into it to a certain extent and then, you know, communicate all along with you guys on what you want. But we're I mean, we're happy to go back even further if you need it. >> Um in our case, you're sort of coming in in a in a cleanup mode um because of the history. Um ideally, if there is any sort of typical how often would you be checking in in the future? In your other relationships with other school districts, uh once you've sort of gotten us uh back to square one, so to speak, how typically are you continuing to do a reconciliation of some sort? >>

013Yeah, I mean, that's all obviously preference and it also depends on your, you know, your staffing levels of what you have in there. We have some that just have us do it every month for them. Like we do the, you know, they'll do the maintaining the cash book, they'll do the you know, the journal entries and then they hand it over to us and we do the wreck and we give them the adjustments. There's others where, you know, like Shawn said, we have one community where initially I was doing it all, built out a new thing for them, trained their treasurer to do it. She now is able to get 95% of the way and then there's a few little quirky things will happen and then we'll sit down, like last time I was out

014there for an hour where it used to be, you know, each month was like a two-day thing. Um and so now we just kind of do that. So it just depends on what you're looking for. I would say, you know, you want to stay on top of it monthly. Ideally, you have your your bank to cash book is reconciled within, you know, 30 days of the month end. You know, sometimes it takes a little time to get some of the bank statements in, but you know, you certainly don't want things to be um 9 months, 12 months, a year and a half behind on doing these things. Uh So, we're open to whatever I mean, typically it's some sort of monthly, whether it's reviewing what the treasurer has done. We have another community we do

015that with the treasurer does the entire thing. They just want us to review it, and then like the treasurer is able to document the issues, but doesn't always know how to fix them. And so, we'll come in and say, "Okay, yep, we reviewed it. We agree with your your you know, adjusting items. Here's how you need to fix that." You know, so um whatever level you guys need. >> Okay. You just like So, you we decide to move forward with this, you send somebody to do this, that one person stays with us constantly. We don't You don't give us to somebody else. It's the same person. Do you want >> So, we will assign like a a main person. That doesn't mean uh you'll have one person that you're mainly communicating with. Uh we have

016a team of 18. Half the team does actively does um cash reconciliations. So, it may be that they have And sometimes it also helps to just get it knocked out. So, one person can work on these accounts, somebody else can work on these. So, we're not necessarily having to wait and go in order. Um but you'll have one person you're communicating with that's overseeing the project. >> So, think of it as like a project manager, too, right? Cuz that project manager is typically a >> [clears throat] >> higher up on the food chain. If we can better utilize an associate CPA, hey, it's less cost to you and a better outcome. Better scalability. You don't want to pay us to do it. >> You don't want us You don't want to pay us to do

017it. >> Exactly. >> We want to do as much as is possible, and they only come to us if there's like that last little 1% right to to try and clean up. So, um we try to leverage the different levels and try to um be as cost-effective and time-effective for you guys. >> Thank you. So, if we decide to move forward, when would you start and what's the I realize you haven't looked at our books necessarily very specifically, but [clears throat] what's the general timeline that you'll say, you know, we need X number of time to review what's going to happen and start making the corrections and the recommendations. We've talked about what happens once everything's fixed and we're moving forward. How long does it take to get to everything's fixed and when would you

018start? >> So, realistically, let's say the time we get a let's say we have an MSA and SOW signed by the end of this week. Next week, we can start requesting documentation. I know Tony and I talked where there's about 19 bank accounts and we use Munis all the livelong days, we know how to run the ADHR reports we need from that system. We could probably have some started on at the end of next week. Then it all depends upon how intertwined some of the transactions are. We've been in cases in certain communities where if you're lumping all of your batches together in a deposit and making one entry in the GL, we need to go back to that source document. There's no way we can tell from one transaction what is rolled up into

019there. Same thing for AP and vendor. Are you maintaining your outstanding checklist? Are you maintaining voids within your general ledger? If these [clears throat] things are not done, it makes it more challenging in the audit process. But if things are all or actually clean and you can hit a minute or two. Your main three culprits are your payroll, your your AP and your depository. Those are always the big three. Most of the ones are interest-bearing, you get monthly interest, you move on. Maybe there's some transfer between accounts. Those ones are not the challenging ones. It's how everything else flows in the system. So, we've done some within a matter of I'll say six to eight weeks. We've done other ones where it's taken take because we've you have to dig in so much and send

020people on site to pull literally the actual cords and water cords and everything else. Um we can talk about some >> What what I would say is typically what we'll do is we let us get through a month or two and then we can get a better estimate of what it's going to take. Cuz once we've seen kind of the pattern of how things are done, although I did have a fun one once where the pattern changed like three or four times cuz they hired new people. So that that's always fun. You get the hang of the pattern and then, you know, it changes. But um once we get through a month or two, we'll be able to have a much better idea on what it's going to take. >> And how often do you

021check in and give an update per se? >> That is your preference. If you want a weekly update, [snorts] you want a biweekly update, you know, um that we can like usually we try to do like an email saying this is where we're at, this is what we've completed this week. Um you know, just depends on the scope of the the work and what you what your preference is for the communication. >> Thank you. >> I have two questions, two quick ones. So um there's a variation in terms of the per hour fee for these people that you listed here. So how do you determine who would actually work with us if we go forward? >> Sure. So as I mentioned, the assistant controller is kind of like our project manager. So you can see

022the hourly rate range for them. So depending upon their experience level, where they're at compensation wise within the firm, that's where they fall. Um we have assigned folks assigned to individual um bands, I guess I'll say, if they're public or private. >> Yeah, billing rates, yeah. >> Um and then same thing with our senior associates. So if you just started with the firm, you're that's the the bottom tier. If you're an experienced associate, it's going up in that in that tier. Um but I will tell you this too, you get all of our detailed billings when we bill. So you just don't get an invoice with a an amount on the top. You get our detailed transactions of who worked on it, what date, how many hours, and then a comment in terms of what

023they actually produced. Um some of our folks like to write, so you you can see all the nitty-gritty in terms of what we're doing. >> [clears throat] >> And Shawn and I review every one of those and look at all the detail for those bills as well because if there's like say somebody comes out there and there's like a learning curve or there's some sort of training that has to happen like we'll we review those as well. So, we want to make sure that it makes sense that it's you know, so we'll make adjustments from that point. Um, you know, to to for what's fair. Now, the the one that's easy is the the last one. Him, me. So, that you know, that's and these are our state contract um, we're on a state contract

024rates. We we give this these same rates. These discounted rates to everybody um, whether they go through the state contract or not but we're um, we're we are listed on the state contract for consulting. >> And then my second question is should we go forward with this and things get all cleaned up, does it then get turned over? Can it be turned over to us and to the district treasurer? That's what that's the goal is the district treasurer that takes care of it. >> Yes, because as as much as we love doing this type of work too, we don't we don't want to be your permanent solution necessarily to to do this year. >> Yep. >> Is it Can I ask a question back? >> Yeah. >> When is your typical audit done by CEDA?

025I think you guys have that. >> It's kind of a >> [laughter] >> kind of an ongoing conversation. >> When is the fieldwork typically performed for you? >> So, fiscal year 26, right? June 30th books close. When do they typically come out of the month? >> They they still haven't presented at this point in time. So, which is similar to our experience last year. >> It's a little ahead of where we were the year before. >> And I asked you because we talked about timing and and what that might be so that usually plays a factor too just, you know, when it's needed. Um, is there a typical time you want to get your E&D certified too? Like is there a cadence to that? In terms of the year. >> You're going down a dirty

026road. >> [laughter] >> Yeah, we need to What's your What do What's your target for closing the books for the year? >> I know you're you're I know you're new to but we're going to educate you really quickly. >> I target moving forward that we need to have before the end of the calendar year. We we have not been able to pull that off to date, but that would definitely be our target cuz then we can use that to help plan budget season and what that's going to look like and if there's any offsets or anything that we want to incorporate, we can we can do that. [clears throat] >> And the auditors they need that basically to >> Sure. >> finalize their books for the record. >> Yeah, if cash is not reconciled, they

027don't like to start because cash could affect so many different things, you know. Um so, I mean it's understandable. They want to see that. >> I just want to understand when you put the contract together, this is very different like say if you did like the external audit where they're saying this is your 3-year contract, this is the rate and it's going to be adjusted by inflation. This is basically like >> It's an annual SOW. Yep, it's an hourly SOW because we don't know what it's going to be. Um and we just renew it on an annual basis with whatever the the state contract rates are the next year. >> Would there be language in there that per year it's not going to exceed a certain amount or you're not going to go over the

028limit? You have to You have to know that cuz >> It's only a 12-month I mean our contracts our SOWs have a 12-month limit. So, um we can put not to exceed in. We prefer not to only because if, you know, you guys end up needing to add scope to it or whatever, it makes it more difficult. But what we can do is you guys can provide us with PO and say this is our kind of first budget. We can monitor to that as we're getting close to it, we can say, "Hey, I think you guys need to have more budget." You know, whatever the preference is for the community. But we can put in there a not to exceed if you want. It's just then we'll have to do a new contract if it

029If if we hit that number. >> Right. And we do bill on a monthly basis, too. So, there's plenty of scenarios where we do a project with a certain community and we say, "Hey, we're coming in far under scope. You know, you have an extra 20 grand. [clears throat] You can be done or is there something else you want to add on? Do you want to add add on some different additional training, additional resource, whatever you may need? Or, on occasion, when it we start to get involved and get the leads to, we know off the bat where it's like, that original price we talked about budgeting for is not going to cover it. Let's have the conversation now, so that there's no surprises at the 12th hour where, you know, hey, we need this

030done, but oh, by the way, there's there's no money available >> So, if we do move forward, it would be for a 3-year agreement? >> [snorts] >> No, 20. >> This is as needed. >> So, the way that we do it, it's um the master service agreement will cover 3 years, but our statement of work is only 1 year. >> Got you. >> So, if you don't have another statement of work, it's just the MSA is just kind of all the legalities. Right? And then the SOW is the actual tasks you're asking us to complete along with the hours and the rates. >> Okay. So, it'll be as year of work. >> Okay. >> Yep. >> I got it. Yeah. This was in a email. I was digging through it and I Tony reminded us

031that >> Yeah, we sent we sent it to the committee. >> It wasn't a It was sent to us a email this year, but not in the packet. I was digging for it. So, in that uh email Tony said you could see everything that has been discussed here and and the rates. So, um any other further discussion? >> And one last question, not related to what this audit is, but you guys are in the space. So, can you just maybe talk about if you do some of regional schools you've gotten into or municipalities, as you've looked into their policies and procedures, does your firm do like a policy and procedure review as a separate statement of work? Is that something you guys do? >> I was I was out of town yesterday helping build their

032financial policies and procedures because they've had a lot of turnover and they had sort of a mishmash of I've got some documents here, I've got some documents here. They wanted to a full full consolidated suite of their financial policy procedures. Yeah. >> We've also done assessments where we come in and say, you know, how well are the these various departments working together? And look, part of that will be how are they utilizing the system? How are they Do they have policies, procedures? We've done those kind of assessments as well. >> Is that something you guys can put together? Can I ask a W for that? >> Anybody else? >> All right, so we're looking for I would be looking for a motion for me to move forward and sign a service agreement and statement of

033work similar to what Shawn has scoped out in the email that he sent to >> [clears throat] >> May 26th. >> Is there a motion to move forward with Clifton Larson and Allen? >> So moved. >> Is there a second? >> Second. >> I have a question. >> Is there a discussion? Please do it. >> I have a question on this. Um So we don't need to go out to bid because they're already >> This is this is and correct me if I'm wrong, but this is exempt from 30B as a >> Well, we're on the state contract. >> You're on the state contract. >> Yeah. Well, I know people some people are on the state contract, but that does not mean >> Okay. >> Yes, I was I was told we did not have

034to go to bid. >> Ron, is there a a dollar amount that we're being asked for at the moment? I mean, I see something down here, but it says for a 2-year Not to exceed 35K? I mean, I I honestly I'm just asking. I have no [clears throat] idea. >> Is that a reasonable number for that? Is that Is that >> I [clears throat] don't know what's reasonable. >> Reasonable number? >> I mean, we can As Shawn had said, we can start there. We can monitor the PO and if for some reason we get close to that, then I can come back to this group and say, you know, they're they're 85% of the way done. Here's what Here's what the prediction is or they're >> And as we get into it, we should know

035pretty quickly, you know, what that's going to be. And we only bill the actual hours we work. So, to Sean's point, we have, you know, at times gone back to the client and said, "Hey, we're done. You know, you got 10 grand back." Um and then they might say, "Oh, well, can we also now, you know, do this with that?" Um but we'll we actually only bill the the hours we work. It's it's not fixed fee. >> So, I'll amend the motion not to exceed 35,000. I want to amend the motion, please. >> I amend the motion to not exceed 35,000. >> Second. Mr. Stacy, any other discussion? Hearing none, all those in favor? >> Aye. >> Thank you, folks. >> Thank you. >> All right. Changing gears. Uh we have tonight in our presence,

036for his third appearance, live from Vegas, >> [laughter] >> Coach Glass bill, and um believe it or not, the school year is just about done, coach, and uh so, uh how did our spring athletes do, sir? >> All right, we'll do a little wrap-up. How's that? >> You're on. >> Hi, everybody. >> Hello. >> A pleasure to be here. Good to see you all. Hopefully, I'll bring some happiness. >> In the room. >> But good to see you all, and thank you for inviting me. It's a pleasure to wrap up our our season, wrap up a very successful season, and I just want to say our student athletes and our coaches worked so hard at making this a success. I'm finishing my 21st year as athletic director, and I'm so proud of our student athletes.

037I'm so proud of our coaches. I mean, they they go above and beyond, and >> [cough] >> they're they're the reason for the success. I'm just here for the ride. Okay? But, um let me wrap it up for you because it was a a year that was were very, very, very successful. Starting with boys lacrosse, our record for the year, counting playoffs, all these records count playoffs, was 21 and one. We were the CAC league champions, and we were the state vocational champions. Uh one of our players reached the milestone, Josh Vegas scored his 100th career goal, and we we, um, advanced to the Elite Eight in the state. Our girls lacrosse, very successful season. 11 and six, CAC league champs, and also we had a girls player that reached a milestone herself, Sarah Salter

038scored her 100th goal, career goal. So, we had two two, uh, student athletes that that reached that plateau, which is a special plateau. I'm sporting baseball tonight, and I want to say they were 17 and four on the season. CAC league champs, state vocational champs, and, um, certainly a very successful season. Softball, well, coach Hines promised me they'll do better next year. They were, um, six and 11, and, uh, they tried real hard, and believe me, they're heading in the right direction. I have total faith in them and the staff, and and they work very, very hard to turn this around, and I have complete confidence that they'll be able to in the future. Uh tennis, Coach Tilsley, once again, finished the very successful year 10 and 0, CAC League Champs. If you notice, I

039keep saying that. Um tennis tennis I think that's the third year in a row undefeated. Okay, track. Uh record, the boys were three and five, the girls The girls struggled a little, but they're going to get better. They're going to get better. They promised. Um on a on a really positive note, one of our multi-sport athletes, Haddy Saway, uh broke the school record for the 400 meter, broke the school record for the 400 hurdles, qualified for the Meet of Champions, where he placed sixth in the hurdles, and qualified for the New England Meet in Maine. Uh very successful season for junior Haddy. Haddy had a great year. Nobody works harder than Haddy. Um to sum it up, we had nine league champions this year. We had four state folk champions, one state champion, and we

040had a senior signing and photo day. We had 23 student athletes, 22 were able to come that day, one did an individual one the next day, but 23 student athletes participated in the senior signing, and um, I'll tell you, 21 years, the high water mark was seven or eight before this. To have 23 athletes that are going on to compete in college athletics, NCAA athletics, I'm so proud of them, and I'm so proud that they they wanted to reach their potential and take it to the next level. And, it was really a great mood down in the gym when we had the signing day. The kids were very excited. Mr. Carlson, thank you for your help. Um, down there helping with the backgrounds, I knew backgrounds, and the kids were all excited. And, they felt

041special, and they should feel special. And, um, that that wraps it up for the year. Thank you for your support. Thank you very much for your support. I I see some of you at the games, and believe me, it doesn't go unnoticed. And, we appreciate you taking the time to come and and root our athletes on. And, we're proud to wear the Sha-Sheen uniform. We're proud to represent the school. We're proud to represent the community, and a lot of good stuff comes out of it. But, at the real basis of what we try to teach as a coaching staff is life's lessons through athletics. It goes above and beyond championships. It goes above and beyond any individual recognition. The more life's lessons we can teach, and the more we can prepare these student athletes for

042adult life, that's our success. That that's what marks our success. And, we're going to continue to do that, and [clears throat] I appreciate your support. I look forward to your continued support and seeing you at games and I know you got a lot to do tonight. So, I don't want to take any more of your time. >> Coach, I just want to say that it was all over social media. It's amazing. You know when you got here, how many kids went on to college. >> All four or five. >> Look how Look how we've grown. And now we're on the map. And these kids are out here competing at the next level. But so don't ever say oh if you go to Sachem, you're not going to play in college. >> And we still hear

043that. >> And when you first got on board, they look at you and now look at us and it's awesome. >> Right. >> It's good. >> Thank you. >> And and some of these kids have done well. You know, you're sending kids on to decent colleges after you. So, anyway, thank you for your work and >> Thank you for the athletes. >> Thank you for the kind words. >> Thank you all for giving me a chance to come in and say hello. >> Yeah. >> And all of you have a great summer. >> You too. >> All right. >> Thanks, coach. >> Thank you very much. Thank you. >> Okay, next up on our agenda, we asked James Colson, Jimmy Colson to come in tonight. He's the chairperson. Guys, upon Jimmy before he Sorry, I

044just wanted to say I saw the backdrop. It's amazing. I don't know if you was all you or we talked about it that this is something that you did at a previous school. Long overdue. I mean, we used to have little ceremonies here, but now we're we're big time. >> Yeah. >> Thank you. >> Now, that was a great event and a tough act to follow with Al coming up, but I think when you talk about those student athletes signing on, we you know, as guidance department, we know why they go to school, but the other part is the academic side. And a lot of those kids, I know what they're going to major in. So, they not only have to play sports there, they have to go to school, get a major, get a

045career as part of that. So, it's the whole package, right? So, thank you everybody. Good evening. Thank you for inviting me here tonight. I I just want to talk a little bit about our post secondary outcomes and at the same time about 2026 graduates. Just provide an overview of our guidance curriculum. You know, last Thursday was a hot one, but it certainly was a combination of four years of hard work not only from our graduates but also from our teachers, administrators, vocational instructors, counselors, coaches and the families, right? They've been through a lot from freshman year all the way through their senior year. And before I go into the post secondary outcomes is like I said I like to just talk a little bit about our guidance curriculum. And one part of our guidance curriculum

046is aligned with our school's mission. We're here to support our students in reaching their full potential, developing a strong work ethic and preparing for success success in a competitive world. That's vocational education. I think when we have conversations with kids, we say, "Hey, would you do that in the workplace, right? Is that the behavior you want to see in the workplace?" It makes sense for kids when you talk that way and they understand how they need to prepare themselves, act, behavior, education, how it's all connected. It's very real for kids. So, this is our guidance curriculum. It's based on a lot of things. Our MyCAP is a big thing you'll see probably at your school committee trainings. My Career and Academic Plan is a big push by DESE. The MASCA model is the Massachusetts School

047Counselor model, the ASCA model is the American School Counselor model and the collaboration with teachers. All those build the foundation of our guidance curriculum. It's interconnected freshman year to sophomore year to junior year and it's developmental. And we developed it by just needs assessment, collaborating, planning, designing, measuring it. Is it effective? Is it working? Is it good for kids? And then we have goals for our kids. Yearly smart goals. I think everybody here knows smart goals. We teach the freshman what a smart goal is. First, what does the acronym mean and how you can write effective, achievable goals. Career life exploration and post-secondary goals, which later on my slide I'll talk about where our our kids are going. Grade nine is building the foundation, right? We have these kids coming from middle school. The concept

048of vocational education is new to them. Um we looked at eight different categories. We do this all year round. Everywhere from self-exploration to self-awareness. Setting goals, the whole explo- exploratory program experience. From changing a tire to taking blood pressure to working on a computer to design things that's totally different what these kids have seen in the middle school experience. Support them socially, emotionally transitioning to high school, right? The academic expectations, managing four or five different teachers, managing week on, week off. Um identifying skills, transferable skills. Customer service skills, problem-solving skills, adaptability, leadership, understanding those skills. And then we had we had a nice drug and alcohol awareness. We do an SBRIT screening. We also had the second act play, which is great. Kids get to see um how the effects of alcohol and drugs can

049affect the family and affect you. And that's that that road all the way to selecting a shop. So that's our freshman uh component. And we spent a lot of time last summer on this. We identified three goals for our students. One, do they know how to set a goal? Two, their self-knowledge. And three, are they making informed shop selections? Are they flexible in understanding I just want electrical, but understanding what are the skills you need in electrical that can be transferable with HVAC, for example, with very much transferable skills. And we said, how do we measure that? We do pre and post surveys. For smart goals, we ask students, what does the acronym mean? Um what do those things mean? Pre, a lot of kids didn't have no idea what it meant. Afterwards, we saw

050a huge 80% increase of they know what the acronym means to set goals. So, we did a lot of indicators and a lot of work with our grade nine uh last summer. And this is our grade 10 through 12 curriculum. Um the focus of sophomore year is connecting kids to the technical skills to the career pathways. And those are all the activities we do for grade 10. Grade 11, now you're really developing that post-secondary plan. Um you have co-op coming your junior year. Interviewing for a job, going to that job, getting your license, driving to that job, managing all that. And then grade 12, the outcome is finalizing that and implementing that that post-secondary plan. And everything you see there is guided towards a career. And these are career paths that are leaving us at

051Shawsheen, and it's all centered on that career. And many all of our kids are taking very different paths. And those are some of the percentages from employment, two-year school, four-year school, and taking the military or apprenticeship and training program, and supporting the kids there. And what does that look like over three years? Pretty stable over three years. Employment, generally a third of our kids are entering entering the workforce. Two-year school is pretty stable except for this year, you see an uptick of 7%. We think that's part of free college, community college in Massachusetts. Also, we're expanding our concurrent enrollment program. Kids are getting more exposed to it. Four-year school is pretty stable. Military stable and apprenticeship program. So, we just wanted to get a look over the last three years of where we are um

052with those those outcomes. And some other things we we take a look at where our kids going. Uh 32% of our college bound kids are at Middlesex. We looked at okay, what are we doing private schools? Merrimack, Colby Sawyer, Roger Williams, St. A's. We saw a huge jump in Roger Williams and St. A's. Last 3 years it was like zero or one. We went to four, five, and six. And we have these colleges come and visit during the spring. So we're seeing the benefit of that of these college admissions people coming in the spring. Our four-year public, UMass Lowell of course. Doc Seed is a great resource for us. He's an admissions director at UMass Lowell. Developed a good relationship with him. He loves our kids. He knows our program. Bridgewater State, UMass Amherst, Mass

053Maritime has a great program for our kids in our construction uh cluster. UMass Amherst is a big one. We had not a you know, I I talked to UMass Amherst uh admissions person and I said, "Why don't you like our kids? We apply and they don't get in. What's going on?" And I had her here in October. I said, "Come down." We walked through the shops and I showed her around. Uh didn't really know us. And we saw them take up five kids this year get accepted. So it's all about knowledge and getting to know us and what our program is like. Uh we have 59 kids with single league going to colleges in 13 states. So we have kids going to Carolina, Louisiana, Mississippi, Arizona. So kids are really looking to y'all kind of

054see the country, go to different schools. Our majors range from business administration down to illustration. We had an uptick in construction management. I think a lot of our construction kids are seeing the ability to be a manager in construction is a great well-paying job. And 82 out of 198 of our students on co-op. So almost half of our co-op kids are staying and we did a vocational signing day to just recognize those kids that they're staying on with their co-op employers. So, almost half of our kids are staying there. So, I rushed a little bit, but there's a lot of different good stuff out there. We try to measure where our kids are going, seeing trends, talking to kids. This year's focus is going to be the sophomore year. We're going to get some data

055points for them and just continually improve and and measure how we're doing. >> Questions, anybody? >> Okay. I was curious, do you see a trend in when kids make and stick with the decision that they're going to go into college right away as opposed to the workforce full-time? Either way, does that tend to be something that emerges senior year, junior year? >> Um it emerges we're seeing late. And what I'm seeing is the confidence, like I can do this. I think they're looking at their academic record after junior year, maybe sports is blooming for them. And maybe they're looking around at some of their peers in comprehensive schools like and they're doing the research. We're setting them up and I think they're getting the confidence that um you know, I can and they're very focused

056on the the colleges love us cuz they say, "Your kids know what what majors to pick. They're not taking 2 years of, you know, undeclared majors." Right? We had eight. Right? We had eight out of about 297 that went in undeclared. Most of our kids know exactly what major, but we're seeing this a little bit late. Uh you don't have those kids like junior year, I'm going here, but we we do see kids a little bit late, but I think they're late cuz they're making good decisions and they're really trying to find it out, but it's a little bit later than than most, but it's the right decision, I think, for them. Yeah, it's a great question. Thank you. >> I was wondering um and this obviously is dependent on the kids, but do you

057follow up with the alumni, you know, do the kids that go to 2-year school graduate? Do the kids that go to 4-year school graduate? Do the kids that are in their co-op, do they stay at that career? Do they Do they stay company? Do they go to another company? Are you able to follow any of that? >> Yeah, it's uh not as good as we have a 6-month follow-up that we do anyways for the state. We collect all their their emails, their personal emails, and phone numbers. We're about a third we put back to us. Um we can consistently see that they are staying employed. Naviance, [clears throat] the platform we use, has a great alumni tracker piece. But we generally can't measure that cuz it's only 4 years out or 3 years out they

058go to community and college and it's the schools report to them. They're They're good. They're in the 60%. I I look and I can see that in their semi-reports, they're good. Our kids stick. That's the word to use. They're there. Um I think there's some things we're going to talk about of the 6-month outreach to get kids where they are at 6 months out. I think there's a little We're going to use some social platforms and others. We did some texting. Kids hate, you know, filling out all these forms, so we're trying to do quick and easy things through text. But I think most schools struggle with that, but we're going to you know, take a look at it and we'll try to get as many as we can back. Yeah, you're welcome. >> Me?

059>> I just couldn't tell if you were like behind. >> So I have two questions. >> Yes. >> First of all, um great job. >> I'm just a comment. You know, I'm impressed and can you send that out to us? >> Yes. >> Okay, because that Okay, that'd be really good. I'm so very curious about >> I have some other stuff too I can give uh Tony. I have kind of all our majors for our kids and all our majors and have all the colleges. >> be I can send you that >> Yes. >> I would love to see that. But um so my questions, first one, um when kids come in as freshmen, they get assigned a counselor. Does that counselor stay with that student all the way through 12th grade or do they

060switch every year? >> They switch once. >> Yeah. >> So once they uh pick their shop fourth quarter, we then have guidance counselors that are assigned different classes. I I thought about putting it there and I probably should have. And that counselor really gets We have one, Kelly McFadden does the construction class. >> So they know what >> Knows the unions, knows the apprenticeship programs, has that knowledge base for them and it's just one transition. We have them Was it last month we had them come in and all the freshmen were introduced to their counselors for next year. So sophomore, junior, senior year they have that one. >> Okay. So that's smart actually. Yeah, nice way of doing it. Um secondly, you talk about curriculum for each of the grade levels. How how do you

061do that with is it individually with kids? Do you have classes or >> So freshman year we use the exploratory piece. We see that as a you know 15 credit year long exploratory course. So we will push in with those. This year we made it a point to get those groups smaller. We used to do like 100 kids. >> Yeah, that's too many >> Too many. So our goal was 25, 26. So we really kind of got the exploratory teachers are awesome. They're right there with us. We do it so we put push in so we have it by by exploratory course so they come down we do it that way. We push into related sophomore, junior, senior. Um we work with the related teachers. Um junior and senior year works because they're looking at

062colleges, resumes. Um So we push in with them. >> And so how many times during the year do you try to touch base with the kids? >> Depends on the grade level. So we we pushed in eight times and eight different things that we do with the freshmen. We have four then we try to do spring, winter, spring you you know what I mean? We try to do fall, winter, and spring at least three times a season for all the kids. >> Yeah. >> The seniors they're right at our doorstep September of this year we'll have all the seniors right at our doorstep. >> Do you have enough counselors? Do you have enough counselors for the kids that we have? >> Yes. I would say so. I love the ratio for our freshmen. You know

063we're at 350, we're at 175. I think that's great. It's with alphabetical it was one We said that we needed that one but I think the other ones were good. I think we're pretty solid about the other ones. >> Thank you. >> Yeah. All right, thank you. Any questions? >> Do you have any questions? >> Thank you, Jim. >> Yeah, thank you guys. >> [cough] [clears throat] >> Oh, thank you. >> Yeah, I did. >> I had fun time doing it. >> Yeah, it looked good. It was I thought it was easy to understand and follow and >> I'm a visual learner, so this helps. Thank you, guys. >> Thank you. >> Okay. >> Uh next up is our consent agenda. It includes a treasurer's report that everybody had in the in the packet. It

064includes a um the approval of payroll and vendor warrants. I don't think we put that in. No, we decided not to include all that, Nicole, am I correct? >> Is it in the electronic >> Yes, I got it. It was a point and and it was um I don't I maybe I I did one of you made the comment or whatever. Nicole asked us, I know it's a repetition of all the stuff that we see electronically, they get signed. So, everybody's approved that um electronically. The legal bills from [clears throat] um from attorney Greenspan, his bill is included I included here. >> Is it attorney my own? >> Yeah, attorney yes. Um from uh attorney >> John, can I ask one question? >> Yeah, education. >> getting any feedback from the business office that we

065are not responding to the DocuSign's quick enough or are are they >> I have not heard a word about that. So, I can ask. >> No, I mean if they're not complaining, then they're >> I know he hasn't complained to me about that. >> Excellent. I know sometimes she sends it and it's like urgent or you know, needed today or whatever. So, we appreciate I appreciate that she sends that. >> Everybody has different schedules. She's getting it back in a timely fashion and uh things are being taken care of. And the minutes are attached from uh May 26th. So, is there a motion to approve the consent agenda? >> So moved. >> Seconded by the report. Any further discussions? All those in favor? >> Aye. >> Opposed? Thank you. Thank you so much. Okay. All

066right. Next up, Superintendent McIntosh. >> I didn't even have to really shut my computer off. >> You're you're >> All right. This is this is an abbreviated one one It's only been a couple weeks since our last meeting and it's our last meeting of the year. So, I will go through this. A lot of the same information we've seen. Update on enrollment. Um you'll you'll notice that there is a little movement after the April 15th deadline as kids dropped off the list. We went to the combined wait list. Um but again, Billerica's numbers ticked up a little bit. Burlington and Bedford's have gone down a little bit. But again, as of um it was last Friday I was given this report. We are holding steady with the 330. We still have 97 kids on our

067wait list. And we have 93 students at this point that have declined. So, we're we're probably about halfway through the wait list when you look at those numbers. I still think we're in a really good spot. Jim's already left but we've had conversations with guidance and admissions. We're going to look at trying to backfill a handful of sophomore openings as well. And we can try to keep that sophomore group at three as close to 350 as we can. You know, we're we're only going to have I think four maybe five programs that have seats available in them. So, a lot of that's going to be driven by student interest. We will continue to reach out to families that applied last year and we'll start with them to see, you know, if if if they're interested

068in any one of the programs we have space available in. Once we work our way through our wait list from last year, we would then we may do a social media push or something like that to say, "Hey, you know, if if you if you live in one of our five sending communities or and your student is interested in one of the following programs, please contact us." So, I believe we're only looking at about six or seven kids to backfill that group. Actually, you can look at the next slide. Uh so, grade nine currently sits at 344. So, we're looking at about six kids. Um so, we don't we don't have a lot of students to go out and kind of recruit. Uh enrollment here has held steady. Like I said, it's only been a

069couple weeks since I made meeting. Um and typically this type this time of year we don't see a lot of student movement. Um so, again, uh this year's we we just graduated 297 the other night last Thursday. Um next year's senior class will be small. Uh that they're they're currently at 286. I think that's one of the smaller ones that we've seen since I've been here. Um and then we're going to get into those those 350 number 350 330 numbers. And hopefully we hold steady there moving forward. Um again, I think we all know that the the better our student enrollment is, the easier it is to kind of justify the budget and figure things out. And uh we >> We were at 286. We lost We did not start with a lot of kids.

070>> We didn't start with a lot of kids. We we had two years there where there was we had some down. And then we made some changes and we did for a couple of years. Actually, Mr. Carlson stepped up and and kind of took over the the road show and and kind of reinvigorated some things. But yeah, we did have a couple years there where we did have a >> They held around that number. >> Yep. Yeah, they've been they've been about 300. Uh maybe 310 when we started. So, >> Wasn't that about when we started, you know, increasing our outreach into the schools and and having the having the kids come to us and >> Yep. The road show and the >> Yeah, so again, all of those efforts that we've made are are

071starting to show up in our student enrollment numbers. And and we've we've seen that. We've definitely seen an increase over the last three years. >> Yeah. Sure. >> Yeah. Just clarify uh going back to the uh the wait list and also the projected enrollments. For fall, we we have talked about how we might, as a result of the um lottery process, have a little bit change in matriculation rates and and retention rates in the fall. Um So, to clarify, when does the wait list become not not used anymore? I mean, or in other words, saying how late into the beginning of the next school year, if at all, would we still use the wait list if one or more kids are dropping out, say, in September? >> We would continue to use that right, Drew.

072Um and we still have the wait list from the class of '29, which is what will drive our initial re- outreach to families to say, "You're on our wait list from for the class of '29. Are you interested in one of these openings that we have?" >> For 10th grade? >> Yeah, for 10th grade. Um so, we do we do maintain that. It'll maintain throughout the school year. Um we have we Again, we haven't brought in kids the last 2 years because we we've had such a big group to begin with, but um in the past we try to be strategic and like do it at the end of a quarter or do it halfway through the school year cuz it again it gets If you start just dropping students in at random times, um

073especially our academic staff, it it it makes it very difficult for them to acclimate that student and get that student up to speed. So, when we do do that, we try to be strategic, but that combined wait list is is kind of our guide at this point in time. Um and then again, if if we have any seats to to to fill for the 10th grade, we'll do that first quarter. Try to, you know, make get as close to that 330 number, you know, maybe go a few over, you know, I mean, it's I don't think it'll kill us to have 335. Um and then then that wait list just kind of then it goes away after we place >> All right. Thank you. >> We did have some conversations and and I I know

074we're talking about committee assignments here coming up or subcommittee assignments coming up. Um I do think that we want to look at at the policy subcommittee level maybe changing that date as we we we did hear with the change in the lottery, some people thought that that might be a little bit early. Um and I I that's definitely a conversation we should have for next year. >> I think there was also um some talk of having a a point that stated of when the um waitlist does sort of expire. You know, that you know, and to make it clear to parents, yeah, for example, it's used into first semester sophomore year or whatever, you know, the the right phrasing is. >> Yep. >> Could Could we hear at some point from um Andy in terms

075of this whole process? I mean, sort of a review of this whole lottery system at some point. So, probably in the fall or >> we'll we'll be here in September to get We have to resubmit that admissions policy annually. So, um I mean, we can definitely plan on having Andy cuz Andy will be part of the conversation about updates and changes. Um so, it may make sense to have him come to that September meeting and kind of present that information and talk about it cuz cuz of his experience. >> Policy may want to meet. >> Yeah, so in instead of instead of the April 15th or whatever deadline it was, we were talking about maybe doing June June 15th, just to give again with the with some of the the Okay. turnover or whatever you

076want to call it on those waitlists, that would give each community longer to hold on to their cap numbers. So. I'm sure there's other things that Andy's going to have from from working this process that he wants to try to update as well. >> Uh yeah, we talked about enrollment already. Uh class of 2026, this is this is the last one for the seniors. Um 116,962 hours worked. Uh we had 67% of the senior class, 200 students participate. Supported 159 local employers, and the senior class earned $1,889,789 uh during their co-op career. So, I believe those are all records above what we did last year. Um I'll be honest, I didn't go back and compare them, but I think I think every year we continue to build on this. And as Mr. Carlson said when

077he was here, uh we had a bunch of students that had, for lack of a better term, signed on to stay with their co-op employers. We had an assembly to recognize all of them. We talked about, you know, that's our mission, that's what we're here for. We're supposed to be supporting our sending communities and in helping, you know, small, mid-size, and large companies within our within our catchment area. So, we're proud of the fact that a lot of those kids decided to stay on with their employers. Um, and these numbers haven't changed much since the last time we talked. And I'll I think I'll send the presentation to people, but, you know, Billerica was our obviously our largest number, so our largest community, followed by Wilmington, and then closely behind them Tewksbury. Class of 2027,

078which is our juniors, to date, we have 3,774 hours worked. 60 kids out as of the date this information was shared, about 21% of the juniors, they say juniors, excuse me, not seniors participating in co-op, that's a typo. 64 employers, and they've already earned $63,646. And again, they went out fourth quarter. Juniors are eligible last quarter, and then they can work the summer as well, so we'll probably see those numbers jump significantly by the time we meet in September. Uh, again, five five Bedford students, 24 Billerica, four Burlington, 22 from Tewksbury, and five from Wilmington. So, again, I think those numbers will will continue to climb as we work our way through the fall Uh, quick update on MSBA. >> I'll just put in one other thing that's related to admissions, if you don't mind

079if I ask. We talked a little bit, I think, at the last meeting about whether the district had any interest in the sibling preference policy put out >> [clears throat] >> rather late in the game by by DESE. Has there been any more consideration of that or >> My sense from the last time we talked about it here is that really wasn't a popular sentiment. I didn't >> It didn't affect me personally, but I didn't know if >> I >> that had been looked at in terms of any impact. >> I've had some conversations with some other vocational superintendents from from different schools and the consensus that I got from everybody was I think we're staying away from that because this was such a polarized issue to begin with. This didn't really feel right. I

080mean obviously I haven't talked to every superintendent, but the eight or 10 of us that were on we were on a meeting or a call together and that topic came up. You know, and people were like you know, they wanted to have a conversation with the commissioner about you know, thank you for you know, listening and and and being proactive around this, but you know, there was a lot of questions and similar to some of the ones we got here, you know, if the kid's a senior, does that mean that you know, that their younger sibling still gets preference if the kid graduated last, you know, what about step siblings? What about people that cohabitate? You know, it brought up all of these complications that I just don't think people have through, but the the

081the general vibe that I got was that everybody was staying away. I I didn't hear anybody that was going to pursue >> Right. >> um, that city hall exemption but but but whatever whatever they call it in the district. >> Didn't it also not cover if two >> [clears throat] >> students applied, yeah. >> The twin situation it doesn't cover. >> Twins applied for whatever it is, right? >> Yeah, I think it does. It didn't address the twins so that's Oxford's. >> Thank you. >> We have that next slide, the twin rule's coming up. >> So more I'm sure there'll be more to come on that as the summer plays on and I'm sure we'll get some more guidance around what that looks like as >> Is there another topic about staff and their children?

082>> I am. >> The state has not come up with any position on that. I know there was a lot of superintendents that were saying that staff should have priority. Um I have not heard anything from the Department of Ed. I think they've kind of been silent on that. Um and I I don't really know that they're going to get behind and support that. We'll see. So just a quick update, uh next Wednesday, June 24th, um we are we're we we have a There's actually a vote tonight on one of these items. Um we are trying to finalize all of the the last bit of documentation and get everything in. Um the Board of Directors uh the meeting starts at 10:00 on the 24th. Um and based on what we've been told to date, that

083is when they will vote on moving us into the feasibility phase. Um and then we're off and running. We we have a whole process to follow with uh Iron Mountain OPM and the project designer all of the other fun stuff that goes along with that. So, um we [clears throat] uh the first part of this that we had that that May 28th deadline, uh we met and we got everything in. All the documentation's been accepted. We got an email from our representative saying, you know, we have everything that you need to date. Uh there are a couple more documents that we'll talk about later on in the meeting um that that have to be and there's a the some specific vote language that we have to have read in and then voted on. Um but

084we are continuing to move forward with that process and uh I believe the committee chair may have an update on that later on. I'm not sure or not. >> Yeah, I have I'll bring that up on that so >> One thing I got to bring up or what you guys think of that. >> Uh quick update on SkillsUSA. We did have five students and advisors attend the national conference the first week in June. Uh Will Track, uh who is a senior from Wilmington, um won a national bronze uh for masonry. Um I believe they said that this was the first time in 22 years that Massachusetts has won a a medal in the masonry competition. I know Mr. Benito has he has kids compete almost on an annual basis down there. This was his first

085national medalist, so I know he was he was very stoked to have a student go back and be successful. And to Will's credit, this was actually his second year in a row. He won the state gold medal last year when he competed and he went back this year. And congratulations to him and I know everybody here is super happy and proud of his accomplishments. >> Do we have pictures of any of the stuff that they do in the dome? >> I don't I can ask the advisors. >> I'm just curious cuz when they go to those competitions, I know they do some pretty cool stuff. >> Yeah, there's some awesome projects. >> Yeah. >> That um Let me let me see what I can pull together for maybe we could do something in the fall.

086>> Yeah. Maybe the skills advisors could come to the fall meeting. >> Yep. >> Ooh, that'd be fun. >> Yep. Yep. Hiring update, sports services paraprofessional, admin assistant for academic programming, advanced manufacturing and circuit science instructor. We have we've moved through most of these. I do believe we have candidates for I believe at least two of those, maybe three of those. Um we We're again we're continuing to work through this and we'll we'll wrap those up as as quickly as we can. Filled positions Again, there's not much change to this since the last time and like I said, it was only a couple weeks ago. We we've hired director of sports services, business manager, HVAC, school psychologist, dental assistant, automotive, marketing science, advanced manufacturing, metal fab, and we have a current admin assistant that is

087switching roles and will be working in the co-op office [clears throat] starting in the fall. So again, we have like I said, I think there's there's four outstanding positions and we'll get those filled as soon as we can. Quick update, we're going to talk more about the FY27 budget later on. I just wanted to make sure that there is there is some more stuff that that goes along with that, which I'll explain later. The MSBA feasibility study I talked about earlier, there's there's the Board of Directors vote on that. The E&D certification we'll also talk about. We have to make a decision about the money that we need to return to the communities and how we're going to do that, so that's on the agenda later. And then I did want to give people an

088update. I had a conversation with our account representative, what whatever his whatever his title is for Cbiz. He had promised me that they would be here to present tonight's meeting. Obviously they are not. I talked to him last week. What I asked him to be ready for was to come in on the 13th. Is it the 13th? [laughter] On the 13th when we do our admin our admin team and our school committee retreat. He has told me that that is a very workable date for them and that he should have all the stuff ready for us. If something changes, I will update people. >> [clears throat] >> The student activities audit is completed and it has been it has been shared. Um I in my conversation with him and and I think I actually think

089Mr. Fiorina I talked about this as well. To have him come out and present once and do both of them kind of made more sense. Again, if if for some reason this thing gets way late for an extended period of time, we may just have him come out and do the student activities one and get that off the books, but that is the latest and greatest update from them. And then just a just a quick update, just a reminder on this. We had talked about this. The clear budget document we're going to we're going to review later. The budget subcommittee and the capital subcommittee looked at it last week. I think we've done a good job of pulling things together, uh really really honing in and and fixing and fine-tuning the the numbers and and

090making some adjustments to that. Obviously, the business management hire, the contract was approved, signed by the chair. Uh it was signed by our business manager, um Mr. Livingston and and the other representatives with TMS have given us kind of a draft of standard operating procedures. Um I've gone through it, kind of marked up some things and and uh made a few changes to it. I know Ms. Dowdy is also working her way through it, just to make sure we get a couple sets of eyes on it. And then uh we had Clifton Larson Allen here earlier. Um the committee's already voted to move forward with the plan to recommend to the House and County. So that that would address those four uh requests for bullet points, whatever you want to say it, we received from

091the the the finance committees. And then that's it for me. >> Questions? Okay. Thank you. >> [clears throat] >> Thank you, Tony. >> You're welcome. Excuse me. >> [snorts] >> Okay, we're on to subcommittee reports tonight. Uh the school building committee, chaired by Dr. Gore. >> Yeah, first of all, we have a vacancy. Ken Tedder is stepping down because of his work schedule. He's in a work changing environment there, so we'll be looking to uh have you know, someone else um fill in his place here on the board. What I will say on that is that Brian has he's not on the committee, but he's sent all of it, most if not all of them, so he's pretty up to speed on it. And I've asked him and he has said he'd be willing to

092serve. I don't know if there's anybody else on the board. I don't want to step on anybody else that may want also that position, but I just did want to throw that out there when we get out of this one. We got to put it before the board to decide how they want to play that. >> They can see and can >> I thank you Ken. I appreciate your time and effort Ken. I know your work schedule has changed. Um so Brian are you willing to uh >> Sure. >> step up? Thank you Brian. You're coming off the bench. You're doing a good job. >> I had Shaw on the thing but I wanted to get back uh >> Thank you Chuck. >> Just think one thing I did talk to Stacy just to make

093sure I do appreciate but I think it I think they do need like only having one person from Burlington. I think we need to maybe look to find somebody else. >> I mean we can but one of the original conversations we had was you also don't want to have 30 people on this committee because of this and it's unwieldy to schedule meetings and and do the other things that >> No, I hear that. >> I'm just saying we don't want to get in a situation where >> And I did think about that with Burlington but >> Is there a way >> to get back to either? >> No, there were we >> We have one we have >> We have a representative I didn't even know if it was in the >> No, no, no.

094>> No, we don't have a we don't have >> No, no, yeah, it doesn't look like we have a >> We have two we have >> I'm talking about >> Let me tell you this from the outside. >> I know Nina is from this. >> No, she's Christine is from >> Christine Kimble is from Burlington. >> I think you'll do just fine. >> Thank you Nina. Thank you too. >> Thank you very much. >> But that was flexible. I know there's the outside representation but we have Christine Kimble from Burlington and they have so that's fine. >> That's good. I know that's a large group and I know >> I I do have >> See your point Jeff. We have different things going on but people have different Some communities are more difficult than others

095so it might be >> With that many people Chuck I know you >> different ways. >> Um I >> Don't believe our new director of support services is a Burlington resident. So again maybe serve multiple roles because again it's she's going to be an important part of that and convene in those conversations moving forward as well. >> I think if we're talking about town representation we might want to at some point not necessarily right now consider do we have enough representation from Touch Valley. Wilmington we have committee members and school and and school school employees who are working with committee members and town employees. Burlington we talked about Bedford we talked about we Touch Valley is the only time we have mentioned. I'm not sure we >> Chris Wood we have Chris Wood we just

096got an email if you saw that he was been traveling so we had to put him in place >> I don't know if I can get in touch with >> I know he was on the board >> He wasn't at the meeting. >> He's on the town meeting right now. >> Yeah he he did a nice job speaking at >> So he he is an ex >> Just sort of >> He had the spot >> On the back burner. Like you said we don't want to make the big announcement. >> So Charlie what else you have to add? >> I need to know for sure if the state seat was something out there I don't know if he's looking to do the do it as well I I don't want to slight you or anybody

097else if you were looking to get on the board. >> I appreciate it I think Brian is a good choice. >> [laughter] >> All right. >> I appreciate it. >> Okay so I don't think we need to take a vote on that we just you know I don't think so we just need to so but you will obviously have to let Robin know that for the vacancy because that's part of the agreement and make sure that they do that. Okay that um >> If if everybody's okay with that I was going to wait until both Ian and Amy are on board as well and then just kind of add >> Right I know you're just doing everybody at once. >> Everybody know we talked about I mean we have a time frame and within the

098agreement but I think we can fit them all we would not be in violation to get the state on it. >> Yes. >> I'm not sure what you're saying but Debbie is a good business manager so we'll have to put her on the agenda. >> Jeff Albert was placed in my mind. >> Yep. >> So yeah he can do it all but we just got to make sure we >> Uh the finance committee they did meet on June 1st had some pretty good discussions on different things um A couple things that were brought up um was we I also after the meeting I had a firm come in to explain the OPM how that all works and the the selection you know and things of that nature. And so there's going to be a selection

099committee appointed by the chair which will be me. We're meeting tomorrow which I will make those appointments. Uh we did a poll on everybody that was on the committee to see who was interest. We didn't want to slide anybody so we so I got a pretty general idea and I'm trying to keep it even on who from you know within the school administration from the outside people and within the board. So we'll be doing that and they they'll be the ones um that kind of put the Is it called an RFP or RFQ? So that subcommittee of building committee will be the ones that will review that. There's a the state has a template and then the committee will kind of modify some things that might address Shawsheen directly that that might not be in

100the the template that the template template that the state puts out so we will review that. And uh and then they will also which will eventually go out and they they will be the ones that will decide who they want to recommend to the board for it to be the OPM. So that's [clears throat] coming in in the >> It's ultimately MSBA's decision, correct? We just have an opinion. >> no um >> [snorts] >> from what I gather is the OPM uh is pretty strongly what we I mean they do what they could do anything they want but usually that from what we're hearing is the OPM if like we're all on board with whoever it is, they will go along with it. But now there's another part of the OPM is the designer and

101they have more control or decisions on cuz they have more votes on that part of the puzzle. It's kind of a couple kind of unique thing. But all at that meeting on the 24th it's it's I want to say it's a Zoom meeting. It's going to be some kind of an online meeting. You're going to be all the members are going to be able to link in whether it's a team meeting like I said I don't know which kind of an online meeting it is and do that and then after that there's another She she wrote there's there's another orientation. There's another meeting that's going to be an orientation that we'll get really super in-depth on what she explained to me about the OPM process and all that it has to do with. So >>

102And that date hadn't been set yet as of what? >> I don't I tried to get it from her if it would be like be after that that meeting on the same day but she didn't really answer so I don't know but I I believe it'll be soon because once they vote on it on the 24th we have to have everything ready in 45 days if I remember correctly we have to have the bid put out there and everything else so not quite permanent. It shouldn't have any problems but I'm going to wait till the email is written it will be shortly thereafter cuz it's not on that day. After the 24th that they will have a similar online meeting to for those people that were involved that we involved in that people over there

103and I will um if any of you is that online on the committee want to sit in on that Zoom that keep saying Zoom but it might not be a Zoom on that online forum that I'm sure just give Tony your name and I'm sure that Robin will be more than happy to add you to link to be able to log in and watch the meeting. I guess we don't we don't have a lot of conversation on it it's it sounds like it's more like a formality process because as Tony mentioned we've done everything that they've asked us so it's more like a stamp of approval because we've met all the goals but once again anything can happen but I'm pretty confident hopefully that it will and so that's what I like I said is

104once I um once after tomorrow's meeting I will let all you guys who I have appointed on the uh sub committee for >> [snorts] >> And that's all I have on that committee. Anything else coming up? >> Charlie, will you let us in the those of us that aren't on the meeting, will you let us know what the decision is? >> Yes, absolutely. Absolutely. >> I guess if anyone else has any questions. >> [snorts] >> Charlie, thank you for >> Yeah. >> Superintendent Charge, yeah. >> I know there's some other stuff that has to kind of do with the later in the agenda we can get to it there. [clears throat] I have a little >> We shall. >> one of them that we'll have some discussion with you on, but >> Okay. >> But

105yeah, so I'm set for that. We can move on to the >> Let's keep going forward. >> I know. All right, the budget sub committee. We met last Wednesday um and we talked about the uh fiscal 26 end of the year transfers and that'll be discussed tonight. Fiscal 27 budget divisions updated and uh we'll move that forward tonight. So uh Tony will have recommendations and the amounts to be returned to the town. We will be talking about that also. So the committee decided obviously to after uh discussion to move the to further the discussion tonight to the full committee. Um at that point via Tony. >> Which is later in the agenda. Yep. >> Sounds good. Anything else? We're good. We covered that. >> Excellent. Okay. Um old business >> Audit Audit sub committee. >>

106I know I talked a lot. >> I apologize. >> We're looking at two different >> That's right. I apologize. Sorry, I'm I got Thank you, Charlie, for You asked me to put that on and I'm getting my agendas mixed up here. I have just put the current agenda and I'm moving that agenda out of the way. All right, I'm good. Check. All right, redo. Uh audit audit subcommittee. >> Well, after tonight I'm passing the torch on, so somebody else can >> You have a pretty big smile about that, Mr. Fury. >> too many things going on. I have to get rid of some of it. But, um Well, it's not all that bad. So, as as all of you are aware, we had put out a bid for you know for the four-year audit. We

107did that with Cvis currently housed in the civic for years, and and we put that out in um there was three people that replied to uh asked for received as Was Ali Clark and Associates and a Clifton Larson out who were presented here earlier today. And um Julie Ventrosa, is that how I pronounce her name correctly? Your office that does this stuff. And uh she kind of gave us a little outline, and then she said that the Cvis submitted the complete and responsible proposal including both including both the non-price technical proposal and the pricing proposal. Was Ali Clark and Associates submitted a cost data sheet, but did not provide a non-price technical proposal. And uh CLA, they did not submit a proposal, and just so everybody knows, I believe they didn't do it because they

108thought it was going to be a conflict. So, I don't want anybody to have any negativity that they didn't submit something. I don't want to get into that or anything. Just thought I'd say you know, they just dropped the ball, and I believe they just decided it would be a conflict with with what they other stuff they were doing for the city. So, I wanted to bring to the board, I mean, she also goes on Julie goes on to say Cvis proposal was evaluated in accordance with the RFP. The criteria received a rating of highly advantageous across all comprehensive civil categories based on the evaluation. Cvis CPAs would be considered the most responsible bidders. And that's, like I said, that's because of I know what talked about Cbiz and things of that nature. We do

109have and I don't even have board the way the bid is set up or the way this type of a hiring, I guess, for lack of a better word, we can with a selection, we could reach out to people if we don't feel we want to go with with Peer or we could go with Peer, but I didn't want to make that decision. Um I figured I'd let the the board maybe have a little conversation and decide. They have their own ideas [cough] on how they want to move forward from here. And with that, I'll leave it open to whatever you want to do. >> Just for a word of clarification, Julie indicated that the second firm >> What was that name? >> Revelli did not actually submit both components of the >> They did

110not submit either the price technical >> So they didn't Basically, they had a non-responsive bid. Right. So really, we only have one >> one >> Right. We only have one one that meets the full bid. >> And that's Cbiz. >> And that's Cbiz with the strange history. I think it's the same one >> that have been that are delayed in reporting. This year's not it, correct? >> You don't That's why I I don't possibility that we go in a different direction, but I don't want to It's obvious dealing with this going on with everything else. I thought you'd I don't know if we want to get that involved in trying to find somebody else or just go >> The only the only word of caution I would put out there is, um you know, switching

111to a new firm there's a lot of time and energy involved in that. So if that's something that's going to happen, this is something that's going to happen rather quickly because if we wait till September to start reviewing these things and then hiring somebody and signing on with them um they are going to be significantly delayed. Um Again, I I'm not I'm I'm not advocating for Cbiz cuz we've all talked about our frustrations and and and some of the timeliness and the responses. Um I will say I throughout this process I've been talking to a lot of people at the Department of Ed. I've been talking to people at the Department of Revenue. Um talking to people at other schools. Uh we are not alone in our experience and what everybody has told me is

112Cbiz is really bought up. They bought up Marcum, they bought up Powers and Sullivan, they bought up the they came in. Um they are a national firm and they came in and they bought up a lot of stuff in New England um and really didn't have the the feet on the ground or the boots on the ground um to understand like like the the representative earlier said Massachusetts has different laws, different regulations. So, when they came in they were trying to run everything like they did in out of Maryland, they're out of Virginia, or wherever were. So, there's there's been some learning curve with them. Um and then again, you know, when you when you merge five, six, seven, eight different companies under one umbrella, um it doesn't always go smooth. >> If you look

113at their own proposal, the timeline that they're proposing is what we just talked about with them about the overall on it, which kind of goes against what we seen in the last 2 years. >> But I agree like if you onboard a new firm >> What's interesting what the other firm did have a proposal was they were like 60, 70,000 dollars less than Cbiz over 3 years. >> [sighs] >> What's the length of this contract? >> It's 3 years, but I and don't I'd I'd have to go back and talk to Julia, but I believe that it's written so that we can opt out. Um it's it was a three-year bid, but I believe um, after the first year, I believe there's a there's a notification clause in there that if we wanted to >>

114So, this is the beginning of another three years. >> Yeah. >> I mean, I think hearing what everybody said, would it make sense to sign them now, but during next year, not wait till next spring. Talk to Clifton Larson Allen, especially after we've worked with them for a few months, see if we if they're they're we like what we see. The Scots with them is, you know, yes, there's a risk of a conflict of interest, is your firm big enough that you could do both? Talk to Roselli Rosetti, and do put our cards on maybe not necessarily put our cards on the table, but say to them, you didn't complete your submission, why? See what they said, if they just thought they had no chance, if they had some staffing issues, like try to get

115some more details, but maybe there are reasons that they could be encouraged to put in a submission, and then next year, when we're not rushed, when we we're not already behind the eight ball, we can say, you know, we're going to switch, you know, that we're not tied to C Biz for the next three years, but >> This this is >> Please from this point. >> This is definitely conversation to have with Ms. Ventrice, because again, she's this is this is her day in and day out existence, and she would know all of the nuances and caveats that go along with that that we would have to be aware of. >> Does she work over the summer? >> Yeah. Yeah, she's year-round. Yeah. >> Would it be worth having her come to the July meeting

116just to get her thoughts, even if we're not doing anything, or wait till the fall I don't want to push everything off till the fall. Sign with C Biz, but have Julia come in over the summer and the fall. >> So, do you I mean, I don't I don't think there's any expiration date on that proposal. >> Okay. So, we don't have to >> I don't I don't think we have to make a decision today. >> Okay. All right, we're not under the gun. >> Well, we want you to get things moving forward so they realize >> [sighs and gasps] >> I'm going to defer to you guys. >> Well, I don't like I said, I don't want to I know there was some displeasure from several members. So, I didn't >> Oh, yeah. >>

117Even though they were doing a good job. >> I know Charlie, but I didn't want to say that. >> This is the last This is the last year, right? And fiscal year '25 is the last year of this 3-year contract, right? >> Yes. This is This is the last year of this >> I guess is there any inherent risk in the fact you're going in I mean, it's kind of a catch-22 where we're only finishing '25 when we should be starting '26 >> Well, that's why I said there could be some significant delays to this. So, if you know, if that's the case, then you know, I I think you're realistically probably looking at October or November before people start the process. >> Um They are They qualify as a CPA firm, correct? >> CBI?

118>> I believe so. >> I mean technically I think you could not hire CBI's as a result of this process. There is an exemption under 30B for CPA firms. You could then say we're going to go approach CBI's [snorts] and uh the second firm even though that they didn't respond appropriately in the process, you could still negotiate directly with them. >> Roselli. >> The risk with that is that then we're not locked. So, CBI's could come back and say, "Yes, we'll be your CPA firm, but instead of the $67,000, now it's $150,000." >> [sighs and gasps] >> Absolutely. I know it there is a risk. There is a risk. >> Well, maybe they're learning. >> I mean, I >> I [laughter] can't take a third >> growth mindset that they're, you know, learning how to

119do this. >> In Massachusetts, right? Well, my opinion, doing tons of bids in my life, I'd scrap that bid right now. We only had one person. We can re-bid it, go out to re-bid. It takes 2 weeks to re-bid. And someone has to do a lot of searching to find companies. You go on, you know, different things and you >> We did. We found three. >> That's [laughter] it. That was the three we found. And that's >> That's what we got. >> Did you talk to all like all the schools around? >> I know I know Julia has a network of people that did not just towns but municipalities and everything else. I mean, we were on we were on websites. I mean, CliftonLarsonAllen does great at walls. Um so, we, you know, we were

120perusing other school websites and and trying I mean, unfortunately, there's there's not a lot of providers out there. And I I I don't think this is something that you want to go to, you know, like like like Johnson & Johnson CPAs, which is, you know, three guys in a in a strip mall somewhere and ask them to step up and do something like this. >> It [laughter] might not be a bad >> Is there anything to be said for reaching out to Clifton >> It could be way worse. >> reaching out to [laughter] CliftonLarson and discussing further the conflict of interest concern, reaching out to Roselli, etc. and asking why they didn't complete? >> We could, but I mean >> I know. I'm >> But, I think the other point is what he raised, which

121is a valid one, which is also when you go like worked on audits for many years, you go into the first year of an audit or exchange. >> It takes forever. >> That is a huge amount of time you have to bake into that process. So, I I agree with Tony that it's maybe finding out what the opt-out clause is for these guys for 1 year and then getting >> AC this for this year and talk to the other two and have a more relaxed timeline. >> I know Todd, it's frustrating. I know. I Yeah, I wish it was 20 20 to choose from. >> It shouldn't have been a relaxed timeframe because we should have started last year because we didn't like them for the last three years. >> Yeah. >> [laughter] >> That

122being said, let's let's improve for next year. >> When did we say that we'd bring them in? When When was he going to come in? >> July. He was supposed to come in today. >> Wait. Okay. He was supposed to come today. >> Come in July. >> Do we know what the opt-out clause is? Like if you >> I'd have to ask Julia. >> Okay. >> Yeah. Again, I didn't I didn't write the good specs. Um and I just I looked at her summary. I didn't see him didn't see him in her summary. Yes, I So, let me I mean, if people are our people are okay waiting till the July meeting, which is about a month away at this point in time, I can I can follow up with Julia. >> So, we don't

123have to jump on this. We don't have to. >> Well, I still have the right. >> No, it shouldn't. We have an issue to contract. We won't We won't issue a contract. I mean, this is this is a This is a a subcommittee or a committee decision as to where they want to go. So, nothing will happen >> But this way, Terrance, they haven't presented the results for fiscal year 25. They haven't even started fiscal year 26. So, if their proposal said they're going to start in July, early July, they hadn't formally presented all their other crap. That has to get approved and then all these subsequent subsequent approvals >> do like a management letter. >> We talk in like probably like six months. So, we're already in April anyway. >> Yeah, okay. So, >>

124I'll talk to Julia. >> And she should find out when >> Yeah, we don't have to tonight. So, they're still under contract to give us a fiscal 25 audit. >> Yep. >> That's still on the >> Which is not late. They promised it in July. >> How late is that? >> Maybe not late. Maybe. >> Late last fall. >> Well, wait. They told originally they told us March. >> All right. >> March >> Um so I Well, let's let's further this discussion in in the in the July meeting. If everybody is okay with that. >> I would say if you cannot arrange to do all this stuff in July. >> That's a problem. >> I know. It's it's been it's been Some of these issues have been really difficult. So, anyway, moving on. Um the

125uh some committees will start in September and we and Nicole we printed it because I when I when I went over this um I want I uh the organizational development one I looked at that and I forgot to change it. It said this new committee and it's not new. It's been around a few years. So, it reads now this subcommittee examines administrative structure, roles and responsibilities, reporting structure, personal development, and other topics. That's why you received a other copy tonight. So, everybody uh thank you for responding to me and try to make this work. I appreciate all your work and time and effort and we'll we'll kick this off in September. I know policy is jumping in on that and some things are coming up. So, that's for your FYIs. Thank you so much. Okay.

126Um Subcommittees make this engine run. We know that. So, under new business. Okay. We have First thing, something something positive, something nice, something good. So, news. >> Uh Ms. Johnston asked me to express to everybody um she she had a desire to be here. One of one of her children is graduating from middle school tonight. So, I told her that that should be her priority. Um with all due respect to all of you, I I thought that that was something that she should attend to instead of >> Absolutely. To to Danica's credit uh Danica and I I think probably maybe not like right off when I started here, but not too long after I started here, Danica and I have been working on trying to find ways to pay for concurrent enrollment classes. Our concurrent

127enrollment classes are taught by our Shawsheen Tech staff, so we pay salary and benefits. And what we've struggled with is we still have to pay for the credits to be transcripted at the community college. We explored some some options around early college. We went down that road. We were hoping that that would kind of get us where we needed to be. That really didn't bear fruit the way we wanted it to. But to Danica's credit, she found out about this the Cummings Foundation grant. Did all did all the legwork, submitted it. We were notified that they are going to grant us $75,000 a year for 3 years. That will not completely pay for all of the concurrent enrollment fees or whatever you want to call them, but it's going to put a big dent in

128it. And what that'll do, I think probably we have to have some further discussions about about how we want to do it. You know, do we do we do we do it by income level? Do we just lower the cost for everybody and say, you know, it's it's $75 a class or whatever it is. So there are some discussions around that. But just like any grant, I told her that she couldn't move forward with accepting this and and she couldn't do the electronic transfer cuz the committee has to vote to accept this. That's in our policy. I don't believe it's a page of public state law. I don't know. Even if I probably find it somewhere. So I'm here tonight. This is an excellent opportunity. As Jim hit earlier, our student student interest in concurrent

129enrollment has gone up. We have more and more kids that are opting into this. One of the dynamics that we've been navigating is with free community college, a lot of parents are a little put off that they have to pay for concurrent enrollment credits where if they waited till they had graduated from high school, they'd be free. So we're we're trying to find a way to support this program and and keep it going here cuz we think it's a great thing to expose the kids to college course work, get them used to the idea. And like Jim said, it it kind of builds that sense of um ability um >> confidence that they need to move on to the next step. So I would I would ask that that uh committee will support >> No,

130there's a motion >> Yeah, just one quick question. So this is for 3 years, I see that. After the 3 years, is there a chance of getting this again? >> Cummings gives out a lot of money. So I I would anticipate that this is probably something that we could renew if we wanted to. >> I just wanted to say that my daughter, class of 2021, did concurrent enrollment. It meant that when she was a freshman at UMass Lowell, she didn't have to take math. She skipped a math class and an English class. And I think it helped her out when she changed her major twice. >> [laughter] >> She she she didn't change it very far. She went from biology to public health to applied biomedical science, but it didn't She didn't get delayed, you

131know, her graduation didn't get delayed. And I think the fact that she had two less classes to respond to to respond before helped her out. >> It's a great program. >> program. >> Brian, do you have something? I'm sorry. >> Question just when in in the course of the day do the classes get offered to the students? Are they in the >> right into the schedule. >> Within the schedule, they're not after school. >> take them here. >> Right, they don't go to >> So again, an an English class would run the the typical double block with the English unit. So it's it's a it's really a self-contained honors class that runs within our schedule. >> So we're doing it English, math >> Yeah, there's a whole bunch of Yeah, there's I think Yeah, I

132I think there's I saw the students in psychology I think we're up to 12 or 13 classes at this time. >> I just like to say that I am directly affected by this cuz my daughter, as a junior, is taking two two dual enrollment classes and that was a very highly asked question of myself and other parents. Like how come you can go to Middlesex for free but we have to pay for it? Um and I know there was like some tough like you had to actually have a diploma something that was very there was some kind of yeah. So I just like I appreciate >> So we're going to try to get you some money here. >> Yeah I >> [laughter] >> It's a lot it actually >> No I know listen >> Cuz

133it goes per credit so you don't realize that it's $500 a class. So So this is I think this is great. >> Parents have been paying it yeah. You've been putting it up to to save credits down the road but now Thank you Jennifer. >> You did a really good job. >> I do have a question. Who currently pays for this? >> Students pay for it. >> Students and families pay direct. >> Yeah. Okay. >> They pay directly to Middlesex. >> Okay and then it's it's like you separate bill you get >> Yes. When they register for the class. >> Yeah. Yeah you get a bill. >> And what is the financial commitment right now? Like how many like if you looked at all the kids that take these classes like how much are we

134spending or how much are the parents spending? >> It depends how many like it's around $500 a class. So if you're paying for it then >> Yeah like total. So a class is how many credits? Like a few >> I'm spitballing here but it's probably 85 90,000 dollars a year that we're spending. >> Okay. >> Or not we're spending it excuse me the families are spending >> are spending >> paying for this. >> But so that will help pretty significantly for the >> Yeah it should put a big dent in that. >> Yeah. >> And I just had a question because of the um when you applied for early college and they refused you >> Yep. >> What about regular high school? Are they also refused? >> There was not a single vocational school that

135was accepted into the early college pipeline when we applied. >> But were there other high schools? There were. >> Yes. There was a significant number of them that were accepted. >> It is discrimination and I think when >> you put this out that we got this thing, you should have that right there. Do people understand that they are discriminating against us? >> They ain't quoted in the paper. >> Frank Quigley. >> [laughter] >> So I I'll make a motion that Shawsheen Valley Regional [clears throat] Vocational Technical School District approve the Cummings Foundation grant of $75,000 per year for 3 years totaling $225,000 beginning in fiscal year '27 with the funds to be used to pay the cost of the concurrent enrollment courses. >> I'll second. >> We'll give it to Taryn. >> I'll give you

136the next one, Sarah. Thank you, Frank. >> Any discussion? Hearing none, all those in favor. >> Aye. >> My vote is not unanimous. Thank you so much. All right. That is a very good thing. Um Tory indicated to me that we um had some good news trying to save some more money. Um had a solar energy contract. >> So I'm going I'm going to make this short and sweet. I was I was thinking that this was a little bit more of a timely response was needed um than actually was. I did have the chance to meet with them virtually this afternoon. Um we do have a little bit of a window to work through this. Um essentially what this is is uh there's a bunch of incentives um that the state put out there to

137try to encourage uh clean energy. Um we can sign on, buy in, whatever term you want to use to a community solar farm. Um we would be committed uh they they look for uh the proposal they sent us was 20 years. On the call that I had with them today, he also talked 15, uh which is part of the reason why I wasn't comfortable moving forward with this on my own without again bringing this to the committee. Um After the call today, he said that he was going to send me some information about communities and schools and and you know, hospitals and other things like that that they work with so we can get actually get a list of where they're doing this now. The one thing that he was he was going to dig

138a little bit further into and get back to me on we are only allowed to access so many of these energy credits. In the conversation that we had today was with a lot of unknowns around a building project, if we if we if we renovate this building or if we build a new facility, would we want to do some type of rooftop solar array to generate our own power. There are only so many credits that you can access under this program. So he said that and and he's again he's going to do a little bit more research for us. He said you want to kind of balance that out. We don't want to max out 100% of your credits and then not really be able to do any any rooftop solar. But he says you

139also don't really want to undersell yourself because you might not be able to build enough capacity in your own facility. So he said this it's a it's a little bit of a a Jenga game there. So they're working on some more information around that. Basically what happens is we would get a 10% discount on our energy rates if we sign on to this thing. There was a projection that went out. Again, those those are just them kind of extrapolating out where they see utility rates going in the future. So at this point in time, I I just I instead of having a vote here, I just want to give people an update. I will come back with some more information. He told me that you know, there's there's a 5 to a 6-month window here

140for us to sign on for this project. He did tell me that in the past like the legislature authorizes so many credits and basically it's first come first serve for people. So he's like there have been times in the past where that window has closed. But he did also share with me that with the very aggressive clean energy goals that the state of Massachusetts has, They also anticipate that more credits will be added to this in future years. Um so it it's not I was thinking that this was a real timely thing that we had to we had to move on, uh you know, in the next few weeks. It is not. So at this point um this is more of an informational update and I will bring more more back when I get more

141from uh this company that we've been working with. >> Did they give you any information about the solar farm partnership? Like is it is it on our property? >> No. So the the way that this works is um when Boston Solar Farms LLC has a chunk of land in way out in western Mass somewhere, you want to build a solar farm. In order for you to access credits, you have to have so many of these municipal uh customers sign on to buy the credits that you're going to produce. So they're not they're not on site. It is a it is a completely off-site kind of thing. And basically we agree to buy X number of credits every year, which then gets the financing and the state backing and and the incentives um for the company

142that would then build and operate and run the the solar farm. >> Okay. And then I mean I saw that she Howard put that in there. So there's obviously some some substantial savings, but in um in my world with residential these these credits like this gets really complicated with a lease agreement and the lease um some of them aren't as favorable as you might think. So I would really want like an attorney to review it and >> I I did ask him to send me the draft thing and I was I was going to I was going to have Howard also review that as part of the process. >> Okay, because it's um unless you like own them which we wouldn't if this was a solar farm partnership. Um it there can be some like

143other implications that we might not be thinking about. And also I mean I know this is all that to get to that that green standard that everyone's looking for, but there are people that talk in the circles I'm in that um solar energy, like the farms themselves where the panels go, [clears throat] destroy the earth like underneath them. So, like I just don't want to like put us in I'm glad to hear it's not on this property because with the new building potentially >> Yeah. Yeah. >> I mean, we I don't think we should do it because we would might have to move them. >> Right. >> Um and then I also worry about the um you know, what it it could potentially do to the uh the earth. >> And then just one one

144other thing that things went for [laughter] that good reason. >> you should see what happens up on the roofs. >> Yeah, one other thing that he did bring up in the conversation today was that again moving into a new building project, there are a lot of like like there's there's electrification qualifi- qualifications for new buildings. Like we use natural gas here to heat. Um MSBA puts their money on the table, you have to electrify. >> Mhm. >> And whether it's whether it's ground source or it's air source heat pumps. So, what they were saying is that you know, as we move into a building project, whether it's a renovation or it's it's a new building, um he said you should anticipate your electricity costs doubling or even tripling based on what they're seeing in other

145places. >> So, would you also ask at least does it have to be a 15-year? Could we do a 5-year? >> I think >> They have to be long term cuz again it goes back to the financing of the community solar farm. So, in order for them to get investors and in the state incentives, it has to be a sustainable time period. >> And for the same reason, we can't say right now we want 80% of the credits, but it might go down. Like we have to set a certain amount of credits and live with it for the 15 years. All right. >> So, again, there's there's some nuances to this that we have to explore. >> All right. So, we're not voting. We're not going to give her a vote. Basically >> Based on

146the information I got today, this this was >> You got new information today. >> Yep. >> And you would like to discuss this this summer or fall. >> Let me see how quickly they get back to me. I'll have to get Howard to review the draft contract. >> want to do it in July, I've no no September. Okay. So, what is something that definitely >> Yeah. And this is this is something that I'm not I mean, based on the just the time frame alone, this is something I'm not comfortable committing to unless the committee votes. >> Excuse me. We're hoping it's a good thing in terms of cost savings. >> The way to factor in the new electrical building as well. Possibly. I don't think that's going to be connected to the grid. I think

147it's going to generate its own. I think we have a battery. Oh, it's going to be its own battery powered. >> All the better. >> I believe so. >> Okay. Next step on the new business, the feasibility study agreement. And the purpose um the Massachusetts MSBA requires all districts invited into the feasibility study phase to formally enter into a feasibility study agreement. This agreement outlines outlines the responsibilities, procedural steps, deliverables, etc. that district must complete in collaboration with the MSBA to advance a school building project. Um the recommended by the superintendent that the school committee vote to authorize the district to enter into and be bound by the feasibility study agreement with MSBA. Doing so will allow the district to continue to advance in the project in partnership with the MSBA and maintain eligibility for

148state reimbursement. >> So, there's a there's a lovely little 18-page document that goes along with this. And once we hit submitted everything uh to the MSBA for our May deadline, they sent this out to us. Um again, this is um it's kind of a boilerplate thing that they have. Um the motion language here came directly from MSBA's um I want to call him a staff attorney. I don't know if that's his associate general counsel. Um and again, um our representatives Robin had said that the committee needs to vote uh to be bound uh to be to to bind into this feasibility study agreement. Um so again, we're asking we're asking for um the committee to vote to commit us to this, basically authorizing that we fill this out and submit it to MSBA. Um I

149believe I would be the one signing off on this. Um >> I think we have to designate you, right? >> Well, that's that's another that's the other vote. But yes, yeah. I mean, this this this one we can vote specifically for this document and the other one would be for anything moving forward of of potential in the future. >> Any discussion on this before I ask for a motion? >> I don't have any. No, no, I yeah, for this particular document, I didn't have this >> Sharon, would you be kind enough to read the proposed motion, please? >> You're asking me? >> Please. >> I'm trying to find it. >> I have it. If you want me to read it. >> No, no, I had it just a minute ago and then I was flipping

150around. Thank you. >> [laughter] >> Okay. So, I just I'm reading the motion. >> Please do. >> I make a motion that the Shawsheen Valley Regional Vocational Technical School District enter into and be bound by the feasibility study agreement between the district and the Massachusetts School Building Authority and any amendments thereto. >> Second. >> Any discussion? Hearing none, all those in favor? >> Aye. >> Those in favor are unanimous. Okay. I don't piece >> puzzle. So, the next one here >> Superintendent authorization of MSBA documents. >> In conversations with our legal counsel Mr. Greenspan who also represents Northeast Metro Tech who is just finishing up a building project and will be moving into their new facility in the fall. >> [snorts] >> I sent Howard some of the documents. There is there is a document

151here that Howard also has to fill out and send it on his letterhead and send in. During the conversation I had with him, Howard made the recommendation to me to have the committee vote to allow me to be authorized to execute MSBA required documents on behalf of the district. What he was saying is as you get into the nitty-gritty of this, you know, having a meeting once a month, sometimes there's stuff that has has to be signed and submitted and sent back in a more timely fashion. Sometimes they reach out and say, "Hey, we need this back next week." So, again, based on his personal experience with Northeast, he said that that this strategy had actually kind of saved their bacon on a couple of occasions with some documentation, some paperwork that MSBA was looking

152for from the community. So, based on that that's why I asked when when we were on and I discussed the agenda, I asked for this to be put on there. He made this recommendation to me I'd say late last week, I don't know, maybe last Thursday. >> So, the purpose and background as Tony says is part of the MSBA process the district's required to submit a series of formal documents, certifications, agreement, etc. at various points in time necessary to advance the project through the MSBA pipeline in order to ensure timely submission and avoid delays in the MSBA process. We discussed this with legal counsel. He has recommended that the superintendent be authorized by the school committee, this committee, to execute the documents on behalf of the district. Standard standard procedure step. Okay. And this project

153is to maintain compliance with MSBA guidelines and requirements. Stacy, would you please read the motion? >> Wait, wait, wait. The guy has a question. >> You can read the motion and second it first. >> [clears throat] >> I apologize. >> Can I read it now? >> Please. >> I make a motion that the superintendent director be authorized by the school committee to execute MSBA required documents on behalf of the district. >> Second. >> Question. >> I fully support this. I just ask Tony, if you're signing something, can you just send us a quick email? >> How do you sign it? >> I mean, the other thing too is and I I didn't put this in here, but I'm taking this through. I mean, this can also be something that's done in tandem with the whole

154of the building committee chair as well if if people are more comfortable with. >> So, that's This is You know how I have a blanket of things. This might stick. The big thing is nothing against anyone when it comes to that. It's like just the way this reads is like you could sign and then away on your own without even having to talk to anybody. And that's that's where I have a That's where I have a I'm not saying you will, but that don't That's the problem I have. The way this reads, if I'm reading it right. So, that's my concern. >> And being the building committee chair, would you um would you like to amend the motion to include >> If it's going to be me, maybe somebody else should amend the motion. >>

155[laughter] >> I'd like to make a suggestion to amend the motion. >> I'd be more than willing to If they want to add my name to it, I'd accept that. How's that? Or if somebody else is on the committee, yeah. But I mean, it would make sense that it'd be the chair, I guess. >> How do you want to read this? >> I would not name Charlie specifically the chair of the chair of the building committee. >> Yeah, the chair Yeah, right. Exactly. Yeah. >> Just in case. >> You can take over for me then. >> God, you're going to push me out? God, no. It's all yours. >> Consultation or something. Okay. >> Hold on a second. So, how about this? I I make a motion that the superintendent director be authorized by the

156school committee to execute MSBA required documents on behalf of the district with the written approval of the school building committee chair. >> Again, superintendent, I mean it's a little >> I'm fine with it if the chair approves. >> And by written approval, I mean I'm I'm going to I'm going to say email. I mean >> Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, that's it. >> I mean Charlie doesn't have to come in and sign it. >> Trust me, I do totally agree with that. There's going to be a lot of last minute things. Hey, we needed this signed yesterday. So, I'm more than understanding the motion and why why it needs to be done. I just >> You just have to answer your phone. >> You call us, we got it handled. >> I'm not good at my

157emails, but my family will tell you I'm good at answering my phone. >> Please read the amended motion if you can. >> Do you want me to print it clear? >> No, it's all set. >> I think it's a number. >> Sorry, Stace. >> Um just add this at the end. >> Please do. >> So, I make the motion that the superintendent director be authorized by the school committee to execute the MSBA required documents on behalf of the school district on behalf of the district with the written approval of the school building chair committee of school building committee chair. >> Second. >> It was Dr. N >> All set. Any discussion? None. All those in favor? >> Aye. >> Opposed? None. The motion >> Thank you, Stace. >> Thank you. Charlie's speaking on how to

158read my handwriting. >> It's not always easy. It's always easy. Good. Okay. Um all right. We are now want to under new business fiscal 27 budget June version. >> Um again, I think I think everybody has the background behind this. We had three amended votes, um, which again this necessitated >> necessitated, yes, thank you. I'm not going to try again. >> necessitated us revising this and sending it back out to the communities. Um, we also did update so any of the positions that we hired for, we updated salaries. So I again not all of them are up to date and at this point, um, we're not I'm not chasing my tail on that one to update them every time we hire somebody, but we did we did does reflect what the committee voted for the

159non-union salaries the upcoming fiscal year. It reflects any any hires that we had made to date. Um, again, uh, Ms. Stoudt and I are working on finalizing a form a new format for the book to go well with this. Um, I think we're pretty close. We had a draft today that we went through and made a few small changes to. Um, we're getting there. Um, I did go through this this morning and try to, uh, cross-check or reference to make sure that when numbers showed up in the budget section it would match what was in the salary section which matched which was in the the department summary stuff. So we are working our way through that. Um, I did not put the exact number on this, but, um, it does get reduced by about $435,000.

160Um, a lot of that came from capital. Uh, the budget in the capital subcommittee we had a joint meeting, we talked about this. Uh, there was a lot of things that we put off. Um, the revolving funded stuff, the Perkins funding stuff we left we didn't we didn't touch. We did look at some there's some athletic stuff in there that was safety related. Uh, there was some building maintenance stuff in there that we prioritized. Um, so we are down I believe it's just under a million dollars for the capital budget now it's at 900 Um, it's at 9 955 something like that. Um, I don't have the exact number in front of me. Um, so what I'm looking for at this point is for and and I the subcommittee also moved this forward. Uh, the

161subcommittee also moved us forward to the full [clears throat] committee. We're looking for a vote from the from the committee to amend the original FY27 budget proposal to follow what was shared with everybody with these updated numbers, with these departments, with the budget adjustments, with all the things that are in this. And then what Mr. Dowdy and I will do is we will finalize the format of the book. We'll get it out to the committee members, but we'll also get it out to our sending communities as well. We've done or I'll say we cuz all of us are involved in this. My original understanding was that if we sent this back to our sending communities and they didn't act on it in 45 days, it was considered an automatic approval. That is actually not It's

162it the the law and the section in that that actually refers to something different within that. I had Howard look at it. We called the Department of Ed. We've talked to a whole bunch of different people. So, essentially making these reductions, Burlington's vote will now count because the dollar figure that they voted at their town meeting will actually come in below that with these with these reductions. Bedford's vote still counts to Excuse me, Wilmington's vote still counts because all of these assessments will be lower than was voted on at those town meetings. We do need either to Tewksbury or Billerica to vote. They have to have a town meeting. I do not anticipate any of them holding a special town meeting over the summer. The law does say that they shall hold a meeting in

16345 days, but there's no repercussions for them not to. And there's nothing that says we have any recourse. I know Tewksbury's fall town meeting's already scheduled. It's like October 6th or 7th, something like that. And I know Billerica had a tentative date of October, but we didn't see what it was. So, this this is going to be a little bit more delayed than we had initially thought. I I I was under the impression that by the end of the summer this would be finalized unless one of those two communities decides that they want to hold a special town meeting. I I'm not anticipating that being the case. So, at this point in time we need to get we need approval for this first of all that the committee has to vote that this is a

164new budget to submit to the sending communities and we'll get that out. I know we got we have some letters drafted for the the treasurer to sign notifying the town managers what what took place and and what there's there's actually three different versions of it for towns that voted yes, towns that will now be a yes vote and then towns that still need to meet and I will I will do my best uh tomorrow and Thursday to also reach out to the town managers directly and have and have a full conversation with them and let them know kind of where we stand and see if I can gather some more information from them as to uh what their thoughts are on this and and what their plans are um the fall. So, >> Has anything

165been shared with like any town managers, any finance committees? >> No, I haven't shared anything yet. >> And how do we know it's how do we know if we submit this and sign it they're not going to punt it back over the wall? >> We don't. >> Is there any way to share any preliminary information with them before we sign this? >> Well, I I'm not I'm not comfortable sharing preliminary information till this committee votes on it because the last thing I want is these 10 the 10 people sitting around this table to say, "Why did you give this to them? We didn't vote on it." That's not that's not what we want to do. That's not what we agreed upon. So, I know that some of them probably want it and probably want a

166preview to it, but unfortunately this kind of a little there's a process here that has to take place. The committee has to vote it first and then and then it'll be shared out. >> We also had a deadline that we had to come up with a new budget that we had to vote on. >> Yeah. >> And we're banging up against that deadline. >> Yeah. Yeah, [clears throat] I I think it's early next maybe next Monday, next Tuesday. Yeah. [clears throat] Yeah. >> The only problem that I have is that contract that we were going to do for Clifton Larson, that's in >> That's still pending on that. Yeah. Yeah. >> Yeah. >> [snorts] >> Did you My question was the retirees, are they taken out of the >> Most of them are. >> I

167saw a few still in there. >> um any anybody that was hired to replace I I think we have one machine shop >> So there's a few still in there. >> Yeah. Yeah. So the most most of them were replaced. Yeah. >> And I think that one was a Is that an instructor? Should be out. >> We'll We'll fix that. Yeah, we'll fix that. >> I just want to >> Yeah, there's there's a there's a few revisions that have to be done. >> Could you um just explain to us the committee like what we'll do for spending plan between now and October? >> So the other the other fun thing that I've been I've been learning a ton about that I never wanted to know is what's called the 1/12 budget, um which is which

168is another um another item here that that I need the committee to vote on here tonight. So um we had to file with the commissioner's office to tell and basically we had to tell them that we weren't going to have an approved budget by July 1st. Um what they do is they look at all of the information that's submitted um and essentially we can spend up to 1/12 of our FY26 budget each month until this gets approved. So they don't shut us down. It's not like we're not going to have money to make payroll or anything like that in July, but they limit the amount that you can spend from month to month. Um the Kevin Mahoney, who was the gentleman that's been that was helping kind of retool the budget is also the one

169that's been working on the 1/12 submission. Um and again, um once we once well, hopefully the committee votes for the FY26 budget amendment tonight, uh I'll send that information to Kevin and he will submit all of that stuff to the state. Um and again, we we've had some conversations and I know um Nicole Wood from TMS and I were talking earlier today about it's going to have to be set up in in minutes a little bit differently and and how do we do that and and how does that get built for us to start the you know, again, a lot of times with the whole two year will get bumped in. We encumber a lot of salaries. We encumber a lot of stuff like that. So, we're going to have to have a little bit

170of a different strategy for the start of this year. Um if for some reason neither Tuohy or Eureka vote to approve our budget, what ends up happening the commissioner has the discretion. It won't go we won't go past December 1st. The commissioner has the authority to set our FY27 budget based on any slew of factors that he wants to consider. He can give us what's proposed. He can give us the original that we went out to the towns with. He can increase it and say, "Oh, you guys need you know, you need more money than that." So, there is there is a little bit of a unknown there for the towns. So, if if this is this is palatable to them, it does make sense for them to vote to approve it because it is

171a little bit of a wild card when the commissioner decides what the budget's going to be. >> So, the commissioner decides he's going back just say back to the first budget we set. The towns have no choice. They have to pay. >> Yeah. He has [snorts] he has the he has the authority. >> Could he lower it? Could he >> I mean he he has discretion to set the budget as to what he thinks is appropriate. So, >> Just a lot along the lines of Kim's question. Um having a lot of confidence in the majority of the town managers that you'll be reaching out to this week. Um would it be I it seems like it would be advisable to make some direct communications with one or more of the FinCom folks as well. So,

172just so we got them on board as quickly because as we found out sometimes they're communicating directly with their town manager, sometimes they're not. Um, but and hopefully to get is so that we would get a sense of any pushback >> Yeah. >> as early in the process as possible. Um, so as and also to keeping in mind that they probably have their end of the end of the fiscal year meetings or lack of summer meetings and if >> Yeah. >> anybody's pushback on us would like to hear from them soon. >> Yeah. >> So, we actually one of the things we had to pull together for the 112 budget was a list of of the town managers and the finance committee chairs. Um, I do not have phone numbers for finance committee chairs, but

173I will I will definitely email all of them. Same thing and just say, you know, this is where we are. Love to have a conversation with you. Um, and we'll we'll try to follow up. >> It's also saying the message that this amended budget may not be what it looks like in the fall. >> Right. >> Cuz this is this template here is this >> going to be the one that's going to be >> This is what's going to go to the committee. >> Yeah, so the committee will vote tonight. This won't change. >> No, no, I meant more for next for fiscal year like going into next year's budget. >> Oh, the 208. >> Yeah, I mean I could see that. >> Yeah, it could be based on the feedback from them. >> Yeah.

174>> This is just really addressing the issues that were brought up but it potentially change based on the feedback from them. >> Well, I mean ideally, you know, with with our new business manager coming on board in mid-July, it would be nice to to set up meetings with town managers and finance committee you know, maybe maybe one town at a time so that and and again introducing it to them, ask them for feedback, have those conversations. I mean I know one of the things that I'm often frustrated with is we don't hear about what the the increase the targeted increase in the community is until we go out to present our budget. Um, you know, when the town managers are in here in October, November every year, we start talking about things, but I there

175and again this this is on on me on us as well. There needs to be more communication. So, like if Burlington says we're fine with you going up 4% but Billerica says you can only go up 2.5% we have to have some kind of conversation about, okay, we serve five towns, you know, what is what is that balance point? What you know, what what can we kind of agree is our target and then, you know, then we know where to start and then if we're above it for one community or below it for another community, we can have those conversations. Um but I I definitely think there's there's a lot of room there to to make some >> Yeah, I mean so pairing people if you know that a K through 12 is going to

176be, you know, four and a quarter but pre-K can be six because of the additional cost to run a program. >> [snorts] >> Yeah. >> And we decided and I know Pat and I had discussions about you know, I know we had we felt we made a good faith adjustments for this budget. You know, we couldn't just say, Tony, >> Yeah. >> Um >> And just >> going down that road. >> I I know I know a lot of the people here are on the committee but just just for the people that weren't involved in those. So, um what we target we targeted the capital budget. We made some significant reductions there. Um we reduced the district level and the school level PD budgets. Um and then we also did like an across the board

177supplies cut for every department. And again, the the thought [clears throat] process behind that was, you know, we didn't we didn't want to have conversations about eliminating programs or cutting staffing levels or other things like that. So, we again, we tried to find something that was um you know, I mean I don't I don't think it's insignificant. I mean we cut about 1% um off off our budget um of what we had proposed. So, uh it's it's nothing to sneeze at but um I think it also lets us continue to do the things that we do well. Um and and hopefully everybody, you know, everybody can get behind the compromise that that we've we've put together out there. >> And you'll send out um information to the staff. >> Yep. >> If when and if

178we approve this, they'll get an update. >> Thank you. >> Actually, the vast majority was like 370 from the staff budget. Out of this 455, so you got the vast majority of the capital. >> Yeah, most of it was capital. Yeah, most of it was capital. >> Yeah, we we wouldn't we felt that there's different things we put on hold. >> And again, we looked at I mean, a lot of the a lot of the programs have gotten stalled either through grant funding or through capital expenditures the last couple of years. And then like I said, we prioritize things >> [clears throat] >> you know, if it was a safety related issue or it was something that you know, it was a was a building or maintenance related thing. We tried to prioritize those things

179as much as we could. >> [clears throat] >> And we try to provide the best equipment Yeah. at all the times with our kids and all right, so some of the stuff >> [snorts] >> we decided to push back a little bit. Okay, all right. All right. Um >> And the guy from the guy you mentioned from uh Did he Did he interview Did he interview of the the race submission, right? >> Yes. >> Okay. >> Gotcha. >> Okay, so There was no other discussion about that. >> Yeah, the retired business manager for a minute, man, helped helped kind of Again, we were up we were up against a time crunch here and we really needed to get stuff submitted. We were running out of time, so Kevin is the one that did help before

180we submitted. >> Okay, so if everybody feels comfortable with this time, can you read the motion, please? >> I make a motion that the school committee approve the revised fiscal year 2017 budget as presented. >> Is there a second? >> Seconded by Sam. Any further discussion? All those in favor? >> I. [snorts] >> All those against? Okay, cool. >> Any help I can give with contacts over any historical stuff. >> I'll try [clears throat] emailing first, but I may take you up on that. >> Uh there's an update to the your main driving fund from Valentine who's been the chair >> Yeah. >> [laughter] >> He told me he was going to be the chair. >> So they did change it to chance >> Uh >> Ed Parris. >> Yeah, and then one of the

181emails came out that he's the chair. >> Ed Parris is the >> Okay, next up under new business, amounts [clears throat] should be returned to the towns. >> I am going to defer to Mr. Livingston as our interim business manager. Paul, I know you would you would put some stuff together here. Do you want to speak to uh >> Hi, you want you can come up here so we can join us. Yeah, come join us. >> It's okay. Paul was here in the fall and uh I know I mean he was He was at the committee meeting in the fall. I know you've been here all year. Who do you bring along? >> Nicole >> I brought you all Dave. Thank you for >> The great behind you operator. >> Thank you for coming guys.

182>> The the recommendation is that you look at returning that money throughout the year [snorts] and we sent it to your assessment. The cash flow always at the end of the year is unusual because you have a big balloon payment for teachers, you don't know what's going to you know, unencumbered and make money available. You have a huge health payment. You have all kinds of things happening. Um, and there's really some better advantages to you over the course of the year especially during the the difference of the 1/12 budgets through the year doing it this way. So, um, pretty straightforward. A lot of the problems that have been with the E&D were because of cash. Uh Uh, you know, Nicole and Andy and others did an awful lot of work on reconciling that cash. It

183it it put off for at least 3 years and finally the So, guy in charge of the commissioner or whatever >> DOR >> the DOR uh, said to Tony's contact Bobby that this just can't go on any longer. >> [clears throat] >> And that's why it took so long and hopefully, you know, the new folks there might find cash sitting in better shape than people may think it is. Um and as a result of looking at that and then establishing the capital stabilization fund that you had, we've also uh created a couple of accounts that will make things cleaner. So, that was a recommendation actually from 3 years ago in your audit that was never completed. Uh that all those funds, like she had said, were sort of tied together and by having them separated,

184hopefully you know to know where the revolving accounts are, where the capital stabilization is, what you use for payroll, what you use, you know, for each of the various pieces, your health costs and all that. So, um recommendation pretty straightforward. Uh the numbers were calculated. Tony reviewed them, Cole reviewed them, I looked at them. Um it's the way you've done it before, if I understand, where you've done the the calculation with the 10% number. Uh and we would recommend that you do it throughout the year. >> So, in in this this information that's all sent out, just so everybody's aware, um we're returning $558,403.55. Um and again, though, the returns are based on our FY um our our FY25 enrollment numbers, um which is why those are um Bedford and Burlington are both still at

18510%. And I believe Burlington is above that now, but again, these have to be based on the dates when that when those funds were were collected from the or or um assessed to the communities. Um you can see the break I I I don't think I need to read the breakdown for each one of the communities, but they're listed there um and in the assessment by town piece. Um so again, with this, um my understanding of this is that we actually have have wait until our FY27 budget is finalized and then apply these reimbursements to the finalized budget. I do not [clears throat] believe that we can do this under the 112 budget. Um so some of our communities that um still have to vote. Um I mean that's also something that may motivate may

186may motivate them as well because we can't we can't move forward with the returns until we finalize the 27 budget. And again, please correct me if I'm wrong but that was that was my >> none of these assessments will be returned until after till mid-October. >> Potentially. >> Okay. >> And at that point you may look at your cash and decide that you want to pay them out with a one one chunk. But right now being in lowering their assessment makes a little bit more sense. >> That's probably I I go with what you said. The cash position could be affected. >> Yeah. >> Um in terms of the E&D I thank you for I didn't think it would ever happen. When we got that email in May I said, "Oh my god." >> It

187was quite a feat. >> Because I'm sorry. We went to more Tyron and I from Eureka. We got absolutely hammered. Where's the E&D? They're working on it. I don't know. And I understand it's like Paul told us it's a ball of string. So I understand I hopefully you feel comfortable where we're at now. >> Absolutely. >> when our new business manager comes in >> And and the treasurer's position is critical. >> Yeah. >> You didn't have that. And you had somebody on the board that was called the treasurer you didn't somebody in the offices was called the assistant treasurer. But you didn't have a treasurer. >> For years. >> Right. >> And >> that So that's good. >> That's why I said, "So where's the treasurer?" >> That's one of the first things you said

188to me after all. >> So um I'm glad that position is in place and that um we've got some rules and regulations around it. >> Yeah. >> Um as Tony did say uh we did create a a standard operating procedure. Um it I mean those kinds of things aren't done in a vacuum necessarily. They're done with with what I think is best practice, but it's still those still need to be looked at by the the local folks and refined to actually reflect the actual conditions right here. But overall, I think they meet the muster of of what you need. Uh, we created some workflows. We created, you know, a few different things. Budget calendar, retention documents, all kinds of things that I think will be a step forward. Hopefully. >> Did they give you a

189date? >> And then and then when you got to get the ball up >> You said you had a meeting with DOR. What was the outcome of that? What did they mention about any recommended changes or >> So, they they came in. Um, we we had a very frank conversation about, um, you know, the the fact that we we had brought in an inter-business manager this year. >> [snorts] >> Um, we talked about having the treasurer come on board. Um, I did discuss with them the recommendation from our sending communities to have cash reconciled. Um, they were very happy with the the the district treasurer coming on board. In their opinion was, again, a a big piece of kind of uh, streamlining, whatever you want to whatever term you want to use. Um, in their

190opinion, what you know, I believe the phrase that that, uh, he used was cash is king. And in their opinion, cleaning up the cash reconciliations would go a long way. Um, you know, both, uh, Andy and Bobby were were very honest. They're like, you know, this isn't something that's going to be fixed in in a couple of months. You're going to have to go through a couple of cycles with this and there's probably going to be some other stuff that pops up as you go through it. Um, but they were they were very encouraged. Um, both of them said, you know, that there there are places that they go up four, five, six years in a row and have the same exact conversation and nothing changes. Um, and from the time that they were here

191last July to now, the fact that we've done these things, that we've kind of acknowledged that we have these issues and that we're trying to resolve them. Um they you know, I I won't say he was happy, but he left here in a good spot. Um we've also set up a time um later in the fall so when Ian comes on board, um they plan on sitting down with the both of us and having a conversation right away about, you know, here's the things we've seen in the past, here's the things we need to be aware of. Um you know, these are the things that we see need to be reconciled or or adjusted or um so it was I think it was a positive conversation. Um and you know, hopefully when they're back here

192and I think I think it's late August. Um I'd have to look, it might be early September. Um hopefully we get off on the right track and everything is good moving forward. >> The standard operating procedure manual, I don't know whether Tony shared it with you or >> I haven't yet. >> It's about 158 pages of different things. The one thing that I did not include in it and I have available just if you want to just send them out cuz it's in the same format as the rest of the manual basically, all the responsibilities for the treasurer. So that is sort of an addition to what is there. >> And and just so people are Nicole and I I I went through it and I marked some stuff up and made some changes to

193it again just like Paul said based on, you know, our terminology and what we do here and and and try to try to update some things and then I also asked Miss Stout to to kind of take a dive through it from her from her perspective and and put her eyes on it and make the recommendations that she saw as well. >> [laughter] >> So that that can be shared out with the people once you know, once we kind of sign to it, I guess is the term. >> Um so my recommendation would be to have the committee vote on the return numbers, but then Paul also has a recommendation on end of year transfers. Um, I don't know >> Okay, so we'll first >> I think we want to maybe do it in order.

194>> Just on the return number since you say we can't give it back until everything's resolved, so we're not sure which way we want to do it yet. So, is that going to be incorporated in the motion? How does that work? >> I would vote I would vote on Paul's my recommendation would be to vote on Paul's recommendation now, and then if something changes, we can always come back and amend it at a later time. It's all But that was my recommendation. >> Charlie, can you can you make that recommendation with the motion, please? You have it in front of you. >> Yeah, okay. I make a motion that the school committee authorize the return of excess funds based on the certification of fiscal year 20 25 E&D to the towns as applied adjustments for

195the fiscal year 207 assessments and presented and are recommended by Mr. Livingston in current business plan. >> Second it. >> Let's see what Charlie second on that. Any discussion? Hearing none, all those in favor? >> Aye. >> All those unanimous. >> Thank you. >> All right. >> It's always great basically to have gone through a cycle or two also. >> [laughter] >> To know how a year is normally end. Been in the place for a couple of years. >> I think the end result you want to get to with the E&D is you're not constantly returning money. >> be returning money. >> That doesn't send a good message to your towns. >> We have a budget. >> Half a million dollars that that goes back to the reconciliation. >> Exactly, Ken. And I learned about

196this now after being a teacher all these years. Okay, [clears throat] and you okay, it's not you shouldn't and and then I I'm used to working in business offices. This is what we don't want to run out of money. But if you end up with a couple hundred thousand, that's not a bad thing, right? You shouldn't end up with 2 million. I mean, that makes it they say, "Well, why'd you rather spend it?" So, that's what they say, you know, what it is. Okay, >> If we cut the budget by 435,000 this year, we should be okay. >> Yeah, we shouldn't have any problems. >> Yeah, no problem this year. >> So, anyway. >> Um, the second piece is just the end of the year ins and outs. The >> This is the 2016 budget

197year. >> will be a decrease. Uh, this will bring all of the departments into whole. >> Into the Into the Yes, into the the black. >> Into the black. It's just a typical end of the year balance. >> And then those were Those are the ones that were listed on those. >> Yes, those were listed on the memo. >> Yeah, just uh just so people are aware in that in that information was sent out in the packet. There's a whole list of different accounts, which is what they're talking about, which is to balance out stuff, um to move money around, um to increase, decrease, um to get to that end of year balance. And then Paul, I think you had a recommendation there um any excess funds as well. >> Um >> Any remaining funds?

198I shouldn't call them excess. Remaining funds. >> Yeah, I I The recommendation would be that in the in the future meeting that you would probably if we had excess funds, we would recommend put it into the health fund most likely unless we were to see were to see something else. >> Do you think that um we'll have a a little bit better picture on for that July 13th meeting or is that is it kind of pushing it a little bit? >> be a little late. >> Okay. On your on the note you had uh year-end tasks, is that something Is like I mean Is that recommended transfer from the health insurance fund to the prior years but then it also had the establish the capitalization stabilization fund and scholarship feasibility fund? >> What we typically

199do at the end of the year is you would use the health trust fund to pay the final Blue Cross Blue Shield money. That is all of the staff input during the payroll during the year payroll that they pay the portion of. Um so, that would be used hopefully. And if we had other additional funds that would be available from other sources we would replenish them. >> Right. Okay. >> And and those those were just uh clarify on those funds so Paul and I and Jim Williams who's our treasurer had a had a conference call yesterday I think with MMD which is the Mass Municipal Depository Trust I believe. And again we we got the information from them to segregate segregate but to separate those accounts out so now we'll have a capital stabilization MMD

200account. We'll have What was the other one we were going to establish? Feasibility study one. >> Yeah. >> We haven't paid that out yet. >> We still have that. >> So we're breaking those things out and then also what we found is there was an earlier audit recommendation I don't remember which year it was from. There's about $10,000 sitting there for an old account it had been closed out. So we also are in the process of there's a there's a one time transfer form so that money will now be transferred to Prem. So we are cleaning up some of the stuff that that for whatever reason didn't get taken care of. >> Again it's no different than revolving accounts and all that. It's all one >> What was the other one we were going to

201establish? >> It all comes into this and it was never separated if you if you get money from a vocation auto you know money comes in you put it in that account if money goes out from a revolving comes out of there. If a grant comes in it goes in it goes out because when it's all just mixed together it's not clear. >> And that might be a vocational school thing from one point because I used to work at Northeast too and we did have one account and we had a new treasurer in like 2013 and when she came in she opened up a bunch of accounts and moved their funds. The funds >> the old approach of the year. >> And laws changed like some year. >> If you want to get to the

20221st century before the 22nd. >> Now you're asking a lot, Paul. >> Yes. >> Okay. [clears throat] >> Um yeah. >> But the other >> Paul, the the original recommendation here was to authorize transfer funds uh into the district's Do [clears throat] you want to hold off on that or >> You can vote that and then that pending available funds. >> Yeah, which is which I think would be a safe bet. >> I didn't have a solid answer. >> Okay. >> It's tremendous. >> No, I don't think so. >> I don't think we do. >> I think I think we're good with that. >> Is that sufficient for the next item to move? >> No. No, that's >> Okay, cool. All right. So, uh under the fiscal 26 budget transfer, okay? Um Patty, would you

203read that, please? >> Is this the one that has it changed? >> Yeah, yeah, tell us. >> Okay. [laughter] >> I make a motion to authorize the transfer of any remaining FY26 funds at after all year end obligations are met into the district's health insurance trust. >> Second. >> Give it to Glenn. >> [laughter] >> Okay, get her in the game here. Any discussion? Hearing none. Okay, all those [clears throat] in favor, say aye. Opposed, not unanimous. Abstentions. >> What's in this inbox? >> Thank you, Paul. Good time. >> Thank you. Good time. >> Turn it down. >> Is this still you talking? >> I do not have that. I believe that >> I'm a >> This is you already have the 2016 budget >> Okay. >> I still have the bottom one. >> It

204has the number at the bottom. >> Yes. >> Oh, thank you. >> I don't have it, sir. >> Um >> I have it. >> Yeah. >> I have it. >> It was on the table as we came >> It was on the table, yeah. >> Yeah, so I again, this was this was uh hot off the press >> Good night. Thank you. >> This was hot off the press and and again, in working to get things cleaned up and get our 112 budget submitted, um this this came to light that, um um, the committee had never, um, voted to amend the budget. Um, I think we're all aware in the conversations that we've had, uh, train the transportation and the transportation revolving was kind of sitting off to the side. Um, some of the grant

205funded salaries that we were paying for were kind of sitting off to the side. Um, so again, as as we went through this, we did take a vote to increase the FY26 budget by 1.9 million. We never actually voted on a dollar figure, we just voted on an increase. So, as we were working through the process to submit this to the Department of, um, to the Department of Ed and the Commissioner for the approval of the 112 budget, um, it was recommended to me to have the committee tonight vote on the specific dollar amount. Um, so when you add those that the transportation and transportation revolving numbers back in, and you add the 1.9 million that the committee voted on back in May, um, you can see, you know, down at the bottom that that

206amounts to 44 million 242,842 uh, would be the total budget, um, for our the total amended budget for FY26. So, um, again, this will help us clean up, um, and and properly document, um, you know, again, the the committee's going to take action on this. We'll have a recorded vote from the committee saying, "This is the number for FY26." So, that will be submitted to the state. Um, they're on board with it. They can use it for our our budget calculations. >> So, I'm working on this. So, the voted number for the original number, the difference between the one that was originally approved and this number is, of course, the 1.9. So, what what what are >> If you think back to last spring when we voted on the budget, it was 30 million uh,

20739 million dollars. You know, so there's there's a couple of things that had happened since then. We came back in the fall, and the committee voted, uh, Chapter 78 came in about 90 96. So, we voted to incorporate that money into it. Then, as we went into the budget season, it was it it became kind of became clear to us that transportation was accounted for differently in the FY26 budget than it had been before. >> Yeah. >> So, we really need to add that that should have been added to the total. >> Yeah, got you. >> And it wasn't. So, >> change anything. >> Right. It doesn't change the So, none of this will change any of the assess- The assessments were correct. >> Yeah. >> This is just kind of cleaning up um just

208the way that it was presented in the book. And I know um there was a conversation when we looked at it at the time like you have to add this number to that total, but not this number. And this number was already included, but not that number. Um so, again, just in in to be clear and to have you know, a real specific piece um this is what was recommended um that we have the committee vote on. And again, and then we also came back and voted to use feasibility study money. So, just to have a nice clean number for us to submit and put in the report. Um I I like to have the committee vote to um to give their approval. I hope that I hope that answered your question. >> No, I

209didn't. >> Do you want me to read it again? I'll read it. >> Um wow. >> [laughter] >> I make a motion to amend the fiscal year 26 budget to uh 44,242,842 so that it includes all associated transportation, grant-funded, and capital stabilization fund requests. >> Second that. >> Any discussion? All those in favor? >> Aye. >> Motion passes. Thank you. >> Thank you very much. >> I know it's a lot of this stuff is procedural procedural. I appreciate your time and effort and your patience. Um anybody have any agenda items that could not be originally anticipated 48 hours in advance? >> I don't really want to go back to our our building plan. I just want to let everybody know I wanted to mention that it was highly suggested that all the building committee who's

210on there are some students. So we have Jessica. We left the last meeting. We talked about it and she's going in September. You know, the first students with the younger ones and the older ones to put them in on the board. You know, they all look and think differently and they're the ones that are going to be So So you're aware that at some point students are also going to be We haven't decided how many. >> You're going to Oh, you're going to appoint students? >> Yeah. Yeah, we're going to be We'll bring that back to you, but in case you hear it between now and then >> I didn't realize that they were >> Yeah, they've been on there. They've been on there. The older ones and so and Jessica has a plan on

211how to approach it. Get that Get them chosen in September. >> Okay. Anybody have any >> They won't be voting members. >> Yeah, they won't be voting, but they'll be sitting in, you know, putting their >> All right, thank you. I appreciate that. >> One quick thing, if you don't mind. >> All right, go ahead. >> So this is from the graduation the other night. I was looking over reading over. If I'm not mistaken, the numbers here at the school of people that go into the service are growing every year, more and more. Um on this I noticed they put a little They have a key and it tells you what they're doing and they also For those who are going in the service, I think it'd be nice if they put a flag beside

212their name, so it recognizes them. Either that, you know, the flag or or put the branch of the military they're going into. Just to give them the recognition. >> Excellent. >> That's great. >> Okay. >> Let's see what we're going >> Okay. Um So I just want to make sure, please, uh we all have busy lives, different Some of Some of us have more time than others. Uh just keep checking your email from Tony and Nicole. And if anybody has anything to tell me for agenda items, please get them to my attention. We're going to meet on um July 13th. Um and uh I have some ideas about things. And if you have any ideas, um it'd would nice if we had that MASCA, Chris MS, MASCA, Chris MS in town. Well, when she comes

213in October, we're working on the calls. She's giving me the dirty look. But anyway, thank you for that. That's October 17th. Put that in your calendar. It's a Tuesday, October 17th. We'll work on that. So, that's happening. So, we'll be here 9:00 a.m. on the July 13th. And we did about 2:00 and we'll have some uh stuff to eat in the morning and lunch is going to be uh we do a nice job with that. So, um I don't know, maybe we should go out and look at the building again and everything. Like you want to show off the Yeah, we kind of killed some time. She was kind of showing us around. >> was a nice section. >> I knew I know I know I probably walked by this stack a number of times

214and this is the finished product. So, >> Metal studs pretty much >> Anybody else have anything on your mind? I just hope that things go smoothly in the next couple of months, Mr. Muff. >> I just had a general note about sub-committee meetings. If a person's not at the previous sub-committee, can we reach out to the people cuz like frankly like many of us still work. So, if there's times that maybe people didn't attend the last meeting >> Yeah, can check in. >> to check in would be really helpful cuz it kind of does a disservice to those people and those towns. >> Sure. >> Miss Downey, now I'm going to be honest, I usually defer to the sub-committee chairs, but let's look at let's see if we can come up with something >> We

215get the word and we started, I believe. I don't know if we we followed back on that to let everybody know when these sub-committees are meeting. >> Yeah, that was >> I can I can drop up a calendar >> That was something that was brought up a few years ago. >> Yeah, we did have a calendar at the beginning of the year, but then sometimes it changes or I know, exactly. >> I understand. So, I mean, if we get a committee sub-committee list of meetings out there and we all should know what's going on. >> No, you don't send us enough emails. >> Okay, folks, anybody else on your mind? >> So, Ron, we there was um we got mail from MASCA, is that what it is about their fall conference? >> Yes. >> And

216so, I think there's a pre-registration. >> We'll all be taking the reservation for the conference for those who can attend in Danvers this year. Change of venue. Um >> And we are not staying there, right? >> We're not staying, yeah. No, Tony was getting one room, we're not staying in it, but no, that's not >> [laughter] >> He's driving home. He can have >> No, no, that's that's a that's a change, and it wasn't us wasn't us because the venue was convention center is closed down. Anyway, but anyway, um so, it's in the the Doubletree in Danvers. So, we're all getting you know, emails and mailings from them. >> Yeah, yeah. >> They're already they already get the agenda out, they get the speakers out. Wednesday, Thursday, Friday. What? Um two, five, six Is that

217what it was? >> Yeah, I figured that. >> We'll talk about it. We'll talk about it. So, that's what's going on. Okay, motion to adjourn. >> So moved. >> Second. >> All those in favor? >> Aye. >> Thank you. Thank you. >> Enjoy your hopefully with the July and we'll see you in July. Enjoy your holiday. >> Thanks, John.