001morning will be available on the YouTube channel after the meeting. Um, I would like to introduce our school committee members and admin in attendance this evening. On my left, I have Mr. Fitzgiven, Mr. Guthro, Superintendent Powers. On my right, Miss Hoy Thomas, Mrs. Conrad Labberto, and Vice Chair Loch. I am Rachel King, school committee chair. Um, members Jessica Davenport and Matt Selenus could not be with us this evening. They had conflicts. Um, and we also have Assistant Superintendent Barry in attendance. Um, our recording secretary this evening will be Miss Mrs. Natalie Smemells. As I stated, um, this will be a public hearing and I am opening the public hearing at 7:02 p.m. In according accordance with the rules of the public forum as defined in Mass General Law Chapter 3A section 20 and school committee
002policy BEDH, these are the guidelines we will follow for the hearing. First, please note this hearing is forformational purposes only and the school committee will not vote on the budget as presented. Instead, we will just take it under advisement at the conclusion of this hearing. Um, as the school committee meeting scheduled on Wednesday, March 25th, 2026 at 7 p.m. here also in the lecture hall, the budget as presented will be considered and a vote will be taken at that time by the full committee. We will need a twothirds vote of the major of the school committee to approve a budget. For the purposes of tonight's hearing, as chair of the budget subcommittee, I will present the budget. I will then ask Superintendent Powers if he wishes to add anything to or comment on the presentation.
003Following that, I will entertain any questions or comments from members of the school committee. After that, I will then ask for any input from the public. In confirmation with the rules of the public forum and our school committee policy, please note any citizen wishing to speak before the committee, please sign in at the sign-in sheet on the podium for the minutes and then please identify yourself by stating your name and address. Our policy requests that each speaker limit themselves to three minutes in accordance with the rules and with the permission of the chair. All citizens shall speak to the full committee through the chair and shall not address individual members of the committee or administrators. Any committee any committee member may direct questions to any speaker through the chair in order to clarify comments of
004the speaker. All questions or comments must be related to the budget presentation. To clarify, this is a public hearing and unlike during regular school committee meetings, members of the public may ask questions through the chair and may receive an answer. Again, at the end of this hearing, the school committee will take a motion to take the budget under adisement. There will be a twoe cooling off period and then as stated, the full committee will require a twothirds vote for approval on Wednesday, March 25th, 2026. Following that, the approved school committee budget will be forwarded to the towns for approval at a May Bridgewater Town Council meeting and at the Rainham Town meeting scheduled for May 18th, 2026. wants to move. We're going to turn on Again, welcome to everyone that is here this evening. I
005see many members of the community um from the public. I see also members of the Rainham Fincom and or Select Board and Bridgewwater Town Council and finance committee. Um also, Representative Gallagher is here, so thank you for that. Um and many of our administrators are here. So, thank you for everyone that is here this evening or that may be watching this from home as well um or watching it after the fact. Um I would like to thank also the members of our budget subcommittee, Mr. Fitzgiven and Mr. Loach. I would also like to thank Mrs. Davenport who recently had to step down due to family reasons last month and Miss Hoy Thomas who was recently appointed to budget subcommittee. Before I begin, I would ask that everyone holds their questions um as stated um until
006I call on you following the meeting. Um, also if there's a certain slide that you have a question of, just mark that down um and write any questions down um to refer to later. Again, this is our school committee budget for the fiscal year of 2027. Um, always starting with the student success plan. Everything we do as a school committee, um, everything Superintendent Powers does, all of his admin, his staff, everything. um goes down to or all the way up to rather our student success plan. Um this is a five-year plan. We are currently in the third year of this plan and the fiscal year 27 will be the fourth year of that plan. Um and I imagine Mr. Powers and his admin team at some point next year will start working on the next
007five-year plan as well. Um again, our pillars for this are safe and supportive schools, curriculum, instruction and assessment, operations, and human capital. So again, everything for this budget is directed at these four pillars um to create successful students from kindergarten all the way through our graduating seniors. Um the first thing I want to talk about cost drivers. The past several years um we have especially last year we talked about um why our budget has been going up so much. What are our major cost drivers? Um year-over-year these have been very similar. Um transportation contract increase um that is at a approximately 4.79%. Um we are currently in a contract um right now. This is something that transportation contracts go out to bid. However, BR like almost every um district within the Commonwealth, we rarely get
008more than one bid. Um, so again, our contract with Lucini is at 4.79. It is not wonderful, but it's not bad. Um, and again, it does go out to bid. Um, but with one bid, it is not highly competitive. Staffing contractual increases, those are always one of our major cost drivers. We provide a service of giving education to students. How do we do that? By staffing. So again, contractual staffing increases. That's one of our largest cost drivers. um health insurance increase. This budget um encompasses a 15% estimate for health insurance increases. Last year it was at 20%. Um last year we had a lot of high claims um which was driving that as well as um our contract when it renewed had gone up to 20%. This was something that both the towns community um
009really spoke to us that this was a huge concern. So, I will say that Superintendent Powers and many members of his admin team um and members of the PEC um public employees committee have been negotiating with our um advisor on this to try and put that out to bid, try and get this down to a reasonable figure. Um so again, it is at 15% estimate within this budget. School choice for out of district students. every student that leaves our district and goes to an outofd district school, a public school, not a private um such as Ben, we pay for those students um to go to that sending the school that they attend. Um as you can imagine with high class sizes and the loss of many electives and courses, we lost a high number of
010students last year. So it is a vicious cycles. The cost for those students then hurts our budget as well. So that is something that we have to look at. Um special education tuition increases. This is set by the state. Um this special education costs rise every year. Um much higher than a two two and a half% um revenue that the towns look at. Um I do also want to note on this slide, yes, we have high cost drivers also complicating this chapter 70 state funding. Um as you know we get funding from the district does put in some funds towards our budget. Um the towns support our budget mostly and the state supports our budget. However this year chapter 70 which is the state funding it has only increased 1.2%. Um and again chapter 71
011transportation which we do get reimbursed by the state um for transporting our students up to 100%. Um it does not always go up that high. It's been between 80 and 90%. Um this was decreased this year because of so many students that have left the district. Our funding went down. Um it is a decrease of 7% this year. Um, also, um, as I stated, we do put some of our own funds, um, called excess deficiency, END, which is similar to the town's free cash. Um, year-over-year, we have been contributing approximately $2 million of district funds towards our budget. Um, this has been increasing as financial strains have been put on the towns um, for their budget. Last year we put in an ex an extra 800,000 on top of what we had already um committed
012at 2.5 million. Um the we are not putting back in that much every year. We are trying to estimate as close as actual. So we're not having excess funds at the end of the year and we're also putting in more than we are potentially having left at the end of the year. So, it is highly unlikely at this time that we will even have that extra $800,000 to put towards that budget. Cost avoidance measures. So, what have we done to try and reduce our major cost drivers? Health insurance was the big one. It went up last year, like I said, 20%. This year, we're estimating 15%. Um due to the competitive bidding which I mentioned um this is estimated to actually come down from the 15% to approximately 10% for this f fiscal year 27.
013Um we do have a PEC meeting on Thursday night and hopefully um we'll get some more updates on that as to where we might fall for the following year. If we can come down from 15 to 10% that would be a big cost savings for this budget um or even lower. So hopefully this line might come down as well. Um special education while the tuition has gone up out of district um placements have stabilized um the past several years that had been going up increasingly. Um so this has stabilized. Um another cost avoidance measure that superintendent powers have recommended. We currently have two open positions um admin positions a STEM curriculum coordinator. um Miss Cara Joyce had left the district and we had carried those that position over um as well as a coordinator of
014family and student supports. That position um she left during this year and it has not been refilled. So we are looking to just not fill those admin positions. Um this is enrollment and staffing. Um this is a graph we put in many of our presentations to show um in past years how much our student population has grown year-over-year we were adding approximately 100 students every year. As you can note um for next year or actually this year um 25 to 26 our current year we actually lost 224 students um which I'm assuming is because of high class sizes increased sports fees loss of electives um and courses at the high school. So we actually lost 224 from the prior year and as we have generally been adding 100 that is probably a 300 or more
015loss of students. However, you can also note even though we've lost that many students we are still having class sizes that are extremely high. We are also at 302 teaching positions which is I mean 10 years ago if you look at that we were at 334. So yes, we decrease students, but our staffing levels are lower than they have been in the past 10 years or more. Um, looking at projected class sizes, uh, Mr. Powers created this graph which he gave at his February 4th presentation. Um, this is estimating the current classes moving up to the next grade, um, and what that potentially will look like. Um this budget addresses some of these um hopefully trying to add positions back in um wherever they are at the highest. So looking at some of these, trying
016to keep class sizes under 30, which is still terrible and we do not recommend that as a school committee, but trying to address critical needs in an incremental way is what we are trying to do with these staffing positions. Um, at the Bridgewater third grade, trying to add one staff member there. Bridgewater fifth grade, adding one staff member there. on the RAM side adding a staff member at the fourth grade level. Um at fifth grade you can see that's right now estimated at 37.6 on an average. So adding two staff members at that grade level and in seventh grade on the right hand side adding a staff member at that level as well. So six positions at K through eight to try and somewhat reduce class size to under 30. Again, not ideal. Um, but
017trying to make an incremental decrease in class size that was somewhat reasonable in the budget. Um, this is also addressing the high school. Um, Mr. Powers had recommended four staff members um for the high school to address both high class sizes um at the social studies and also loss of electives. Um, as you may or may not be aware, uh, we were went through our accreditation process at the high school last year. Um, at that time they have put in given us a warning that we may go into a probation um, scenario because of high class sizes, lack of staff, lack of courses, and the high athletic fees. Um, so we do need to take steps to address that. So adding four staff at the high school um are trying to address some of the
018loss of classes and high class sizes there as well. Um in addition to that, Mr. Powers um has also been speaking with Miss Watson and many of the community colleges and local BSU to try and get more dual enrollment classes um and try and think out of the box to multi-prong approach to try and get more classes at the high school level as well. All right. Um, what are the funding implications of not funding the proposed budget? Um, the towns are we're still in negotiations with the towns over where they might be able to fund our budget. Um, our budget cycle is very much earlier than the towns. They have just started doing their preliminary budget right now and trying to assess what their revenue growth and what their funding availability will be. Um at
019this time initially they have proposed a 2.5% increase for Bridgewwater and which would mean a 1.52% rain because of the regional agreement. Um those would be increases for the 27 budget. So Mr. powers and the school committee are still in discussions with the town to see is this where they will fall or are they able to fund this budget or some budget in between. Um a 2.5% for Bridgewwater and a 1.52 for Ranham would not even be a level services budget. Um no classroom sizes would be reduced. No electives or courses would be reinstated at the high school. um to keep current staffing levels right now we would have to look at further cuts to curriculum supplies not feeling other open positions retirements etc. Um, so we are hoping by presenting a reasonable budget, even
020though the towns have very initially indicated a lower percentage, we're hoping that they can see what they can do on their end, whether it's cutting different things, positions, hours, etc. to try and reach us, what this budget will be. The budget subcommittee is bringing superintendent's preliminary budget to the public hearing for consideration. In past years when I had stood up here or prior prior budget subcommittee chairs um the superintendent had usually proposes in January what is their ideal budget? Um how many staff members do they need to be fully successful? what do we they need to add to make every school have a perfect success rate for their students? Um, usually that's a 30% increase. It is not something that the towns have would have any ability to fund. Um, but we as a school
021committee like to see that. What do you need to be fully successful? We want to know that. Is it foreign language at the middle school? Um, is it create many more electives at the high school? Is it an aid or an ESP in every kindergarten and first grade class? We want to know those things. Um, last year with the failed override and significant catastrophic cuts to the district, Mr. Powers did not bring that in at his February 4th um, budget report or budget presentation. He brought something that was reasonable and would make an incremental increase to try and make a step forward. Um we want to be cognizant of the fact that the towns are under a strain financially. Both towns have um projects etc that they're looking at. Um so we want to be
022cognizant of that but we also need the community and the towns and um everyone to know that we need to make a step forward. We cannot make any more cuts. We currently have the lowest per pupil expenditure, well almost the lowest per pupil expenditure in the Commonwealth of Mass right now. And our MCAST scores have been declining. We are not providing the best services to our students. If any other department um was not providing their service or was the lowest in the state providing unsafe services um and declining services, we would address that department and we need our department addressed as well. The school committee's job, our number one job is to approve a budget that provides the school district with the resources to educate the students. Our mission is to provide excellence in education
023for all students in a safe learning environment. I cannot say right now that we're providing excellence in education in a safe learning environment. So we do need to make as I said steps in a positive direction right now. Why do we need to approve this budget? a level services or below that does not ensure that excellence in education. This budget addresses incrementally reinstating critical teaching positions for this year. Um 10 necessary classroom teacher positions to address class size of over 30 at the K through 8. Bringing back electives and courses at the high school to start to address the accreditation issue at the high school. Um so these are preliminarily what every line every series um approved f fiscal year 26 proposed fiscal year 27 what that dollar difference is and percent difference is um
024just to go through these I know it's a lot of numbers and information um the 1000 series is administration um central office IT HR are we are reducing that line by 4.1%. We're deferring technology and licenses um and proposing a reduction in HR which is an admin position. So we're reducing that line. 2,000 instructional services that is a proposed increase of 4.85%. That is the contractual obligations to unions, costs and supplies, Chromebooks, and the 10 positions that we would like to add back to the district that we lost. So, that is that increase by 3000 series is transportation increases. Um, it is a slight is a 2.11% um because we did reduce some things within that budget as well. um 4,000 series which is operations and maintenance reducing supplies and maintenance reducing overtime and reducing
025subs. 5,000 series fixed costs. Again, this is one of our highest ones. Um, this is the proposed insurance increases. Um, 9,000 series programs with other districts. Again, another high cost driver, which is out of district programs for special education students. Um, leaving an overall budget increase for the operational for that is 5.27% increase. Um, we do have debt in there. The debt is slightly decreasing this year. We do have a couple of projects that are at the end of term and will be coming off debt. Um, so that's a slight decrease this year of 3.5%. Um, for an overall total budget increase of 4.92%. Which is reasonable. Um what this is the breakdown for the town of Bridgewwater uh fiscal 27 to 20 fiscal 26 to 27 um assessment increases 11.2%. Um their debt slightly
026down um some debt is coming off um for a total increase to Bridgewater 9.87%. Again I do want to point out um the reasoning for these percentages being so high. Our chapter 70 aid and chapter 71 aid again the state funding for regional transportation reimbursement and funds from the state are either decreasing or at a 1.52%. It's a 1.32%. It's a very small increase from the state um which puts that burden on the towns breakdown for member town. The change from fiscal 26 to 27 um assessment is an 8.1% um for the assessment their debt again slightly decreasing um as projects come to end of life and for a total increase of 7.8%. Um and just as we know Bridgewater and Ranham have their regional agreement as Bridgewater has a higher population there it's approximately
027a 6040 split. So that is the the difference in the percentages and assessments. Um total funding breakdown Bridgewater assessment and debt um fiscal 2742,899,4826 for a percent increase overall for assessment and debt 9.87%. Rangham assessment and debt um for fiscal 27 24,630,935.37 for an increase overall of 7.8%. Uh total town assessments are an increase overall of 9.11 for both towns. um state aid for chapter 70 and 71 with a slight increase for chapter 70 funds from the state and a decrease in transportation chapter 71 um is only a.58% increase from the state uh local aid which is any miscellaneous receipts um that we want to add to the budget um END which is again our free cash um decreasing that this year prior year we had added in 3.7 million. Um we are only estimated
028to add 2.9 million approximately this year for a grand total of um $17,730,227 and an overall budget increase of 4.92%. Upcoming key budget dates to take note of um for both towns, community members, parents, etc. Um March 25th, 2026 at 700 p.m. um the school committee will vote to accept the fiscal year 27 budget. And in May, both the Bridgewater Town Council will meet to approve a budget and the Rainham Town meeting will vote to approve a budget as well. Um if the committee members want to come back, um oh, before I do that, I apologize. I do want to acknowledge the following. Uh Mr. Brian Powers, superintendent. Um, all of these people I want to acknowledge for helping to create the budget and working with us during budget season. Um, Miss Elizabeth Barry, our
029assistant superintendent. Um, Miss Modilani Babalola, director of business services. Miss Natasha Robashelle, district treasurer. Miss Judith McDougall, executive assistant and our reporting secretary. Um, the Bridgewater Rainham Regional School District admin team, the town of Bridgewwater Town Council, Mr. Justin Kasanova Davis, Bridgewater Town Manager. Um I do want to note um Mr. Kasanova Davis has met many many times with Mr. Powers over this budget. He has been accessible as much as possible. Um he also attended one of our budget sub meetings. So I really appreciate him working with us so much this year. Um both towns um especially since last year have been very much open and trying to work with us. Um even though we're on different budget cycles, really trying to work with us and be accessible. So, thank you. Uh, Miss Lori Garvini,
030finance director, town accountant for Bridgewater, the Bridgewater Town Finance Committee, the Town of Rainham Board of Selecmen, Mr. Gregory Barnes, the Rainham Town Administrator, Miss Chris Levlet, finance director, town Accountant, and the Rainham Finance Rainham Town Finance Committee. Um, so again, I want to thank everyone from both towns working with us on this um, and continuing to as we finish out this budget cycle as well. So, thank you. All right. Fantastic. All right. Um, in closing for that, um, I do also want to point out again the burden of funding our school districts has really fallen on the town the past several years. Um and you can see that with only the 0.58% increase from the state this year. Um that almost entire burden is falling on the towns of Rainham and Bridgewater to fund
031us. Um and I understand that the budget may not be fi financially attainable to the towns right now due to poor revenue output. Um but we also appreciate you listening to us and working with us as one of your critical town departments. At this time, I will open the floor to Superintendent Powers to add anything to the presentation or to clarify anything here. Can you just >> Thank you, Mrs. King, members of the school committee, members of the public. I do want to acknowledge all of our guests in attendance and and our community members and parents and our stakeholders. Obviously, your presence here tonight shows that you are interested and committed to our district. So, that I do appreciate. Um, just to, you know, expand upon some of the points that Mrs. King made, I
032go back to the slide, uh, where she showed our enrollment over time. And if you were to go back and and look at our district 10 years ago, as she pointed out, we did have more staff members. We have had less students 10 years ago. Uh and the needs of our students was not as great as it is today. So fast forward to this current school year, we have less staff. Uh we have more students and yet the needs of our students are even greater. Uh so it is becoming more of a challenge to provide that excellence in education to all our students. I think the other thing uh that's important to expand upon is our chapter 70 state aid. It's very difficult to plan year-over-year for a consistent budget that meets the needs of
033our students. When you look at uh our historical, even just looking at over the last five years, our percentage increases. As Mrs. King mentioned, this year's Chapter 7 increase is projected to be at 1.2% over last year. However, last year was 8.5% over the previous year. The year before that was only 1.9. So you can see already the roller coaster that we're on. A 1.9% increase up to an 8.5 down to a 1.2. But I think it's important to note um you know four and 5 years ago we were also looking at 18 and 12% increases respectively. So you go from an 18 to a 12 and then you drop to a 1.9. So, you can see again how it's very difficult for us to plan consistent budgets uh year-over-year uh when we're on this
034uh roller coaster of funding. Uh and as Mrs. King mentioned, the the burden does unfortunately fall back to the towns. Uh we know that the towns are both in uh different financial situations. Um and that, you know, there's only so much funding to go around. However, uh we also know that, you know, the heart of any community really is the education of the community and we want to make sure that we are providing that excellence in education to all of our students uh because it's what our students need and deserve and our staff need uh to feel supported. They need to have the resources uh at their disposal in order to educate our students and they need to be in classrooms where they can make those connections with the students. And you saw projected class
035size enrollment uh and that's obviously very similar to what we're faced with this year. It's very hard for a teacher to make a connection when he or she has 40 students in uh their class. Some of the feedback we actually heard from our students and staff uh when we surveyed them in the fall, what are some of the challenges that you're experiencing this year and I think it speaks to it that our our students and staff both pointed and highlighted that they feel as though there's a loss of connection uh between the two uh as compared to years prior. And so I I just think those those are important uh points to make. Um you know, as we go through this budget season, these are not 10 new positions. I just want to be clear
036about that. These are restoring 10 of the 72 positions that we've lost over the last two years. We're down 48 positions from last year and 24 from the year before. So this is a a small very very small attempt to start to make progress in the right direction by restoring those 10 positions again not 10 new positions were focusing all of our efforts. Um you know we obviously had to at some point draw the line in the sand and for us it was really looking at making sure that we didn't have any K5 classes over 30 which is as Mrs. King said, um, you know, it's not something that we would even really, uh, entertain on any other year because when you looked at the projected, uh, projected class sizes, you're still looking at classes
037of 28, 29. Uh, and that's just simply unacceptable. Uh, our middle school, obviously, we want to try to be able to reduce those high class sizes where we can. I I I don't think anyone would want to be sitting in a class size of 37 at the middle school level. I know some of our elected officials had the opportunity to tour some of our classrooms and I appreciate them coming out and I think they can attest uh that those conditions were not optimal for learning. Uh as much as our teachers were doing uh the the the best that they can given the conditions, it's just not ideal. Uh and then obviously uh looking to bring back some of our electives at the high school. Being down 40 plus electives uh has created um a lot
038of challenges for Miss Watson uh just from a scheduling standpoint and really finding uh a home for all of our students and being able to provide students with options that they actually are interested in. Uh we heard from one student again as we've kind of listened to our probably most important stakeholder group. our students. I think one of our students shared that he's in four of the six classes that he did not choose to be in, but there was no place else for him to go. And so he had to take those four classes. And obviously, he's a good student and doing well. Uh but again, if you look at engagement, interest, that's obviously not going to be as high as if he was in classes that he could actually choose to take, especially as
039a senior where you have a lot more flexibility. Um so I think that's also uh important to note. um you know many of our seniors are in I think almost all of our seniors are in two study halls and although I know our seniors are not complaining about that um it certainly does present challenges to make sure that they're one getting the required education that they need and one that's as you said meeting our mission of excellence in education so we are having to look at creative ways how can we provide more opportunities for our students not at the expense of hiring additional staff uh because last year we we did expand our dual enrollment offerings but our students had to pay for those courses and that's not something that we want to put the
040burden back on our students. We've already put the burden on our students and families by increasing sports fees. Uh again, there doesn't seem to be any light at the end of the tunnel as far as that goes. Um so, you know, we're facing those high fees again for next year. Um and and that's just that's our reality. We really need to over time uh continue to work with the towns and and obviously uh you know, we continue to advocate. I appreciate Representative Gallagher being here because we do advocate at the state level uh for a change in the chapter 70 formula. Again, even if it was just a it doesn't have to be an 18% increase every year, but if it was just a consistent increase year-over-year, it would allow us to better forecast a
041better plan for the future. But I'm happy to answer any questions or if there's something else you'd like me to expand upon, please let me know. >> Does any committee member have questions for Mr. Powers? Thank you, Mr. >> Just in looking at the presentation um and then comparison uh between FY26 and 27. I mean, wouldn't you would it be safe to say that the district cuts are really are really what's already going to cover these 10 positions that are being proposed? >> Say that one more time, Mr. Lush. I'm sorry, I didn't hear the first part. >> That's okay. the the in comparing this year and last year or sorry next year uh in looking at the district cuts that we're making line by line here, wouldn't we say that these cuts are what
042are actually covering the 10 new positions? Unfortunately, when we do look at um what we're trying to do, you know, we did make reductions initially in that proposed budget so that we would be able to support any type of um you know, restoration of classroom positions. Um what we're fearful of is that um just based on initial forecasts any savings that we've already generated is really going to be for I hate to say for not uh because we're going to have to make additional cuts and when we have to make additional cuts uh you know it's going to be looking at those 10 proposed positions um you know if we're really looking at a two and a half and one and a half% increases from our towns uh really you know we can consider those
043positions uh gone already even though we were able to make some additional cuts in our preliminary budget uh to try to afford uh the option of of bringing some of those positions back. >> So, you know, in looking at some of these, right, we're cutting an HR position, which we know uh kudos to Miss Healey, who just did a fantastic job in and really the the insurance process, right? But now once again we're you know we're cutting where our people are doing some of our great work and supporting the rest of the staff here and I and I think that's that's important to note. Obviously we want to put our focus and all of our resources in the classroom. Uh but it comes at an expense and um you know unfortunately our business department uh
044has an open position right now. Human resource has a position that we we haven't filled. Um obviously I know Mr. Chaka and his department uh have lost positions. Um I'm sure he would like to have all those positions back given the blizzard we just had um because it would have made a difference. And you know just the day-to-day operations we realize that uh you know payroll for example we used to have two people in payroll now we only have one. Uh what is more important uh to our teachers every other week than getting an accurate paycheck? We run the risk because we we don't um have a second set of eyes. uh you know we we've had to bring other individuals in from other departments from the business department uh that's not in payroll to
045to do some of that crosschecking uh because we we realize how accurate that needs to be. Um you know we have um Mrs. Smelts working in in multiple departments. She's trying to pick up some of the slack in human resources. She's uh you know dabbling in transportation as well and and and also supporting the superintendent's office and the assistant superintendent in teaching and learning. Um so it it you know we have a lot of people doing a multitude of of uh functions. So it has been a challenge and I do um you know just one last point and then I'll certainly uh turn it back over. But Mrs. King did mention you know the the fact that we don't fund ourselves. Obviously the district does contribute um you know what we can to the budget
046but it's it's certainly a small amount when when you're looking at a hund00 million budget. Um, you mentioned the per pupil expenditure and I know that question comes up a lot of times about why don't we just raise it and so I I did want to just shed some light on that. We don't as a district have the ability to raise our per pupil uh expenditure that really is based on the funding that we receive. So either the funding from the state or funding from the towns the only way to actually increase that is to receive additional funding. Um, you know, and again, I know I shared this information during the preliminary budget, but I also think it's important to to share again tonight. Um, you know, when you look at the 395 uh schools
047that were reported for per pupil expenditures, uh, the highest was $51,000 per student. That's what that district was spending per student. The state average is currently $23,000 per student. Our per pupil in Bridgewater Rainham is $16,700. The lowest uh per pupil across the state is is 9,000. Unfortunately, we ranked 384 out of 395. Uh we actually dropped six by six in the rankings over last year when I shared this information. Uh there are five public school districts below us in the state. Uh there are four charter schools and two virtual schools. uh of the public schools uh only one is a K to2 district uh one is a K to8 district two are K to sixes and one K to5 so there's only one other K to2 district that has a lower per pupil uh
048expenditure than than Virginia we're drawing I think that's important to highlight and note the only way to change that to provide a better education for our students is to increase the funding that we receive >> thank you >> any other questions from Mr. commerce. >> Thank you, Mr. >> Thank you. >> I will now open the floor to the school committee for questions and comments. Mr. Given. >> Uh, thank you, Madam Chair. Um, I just want to give folks a quick um overview of how the budget works because a lot of people are going to look at it and say, "Well, Bridgewater is picking up 2.5% more and rain's picking up 1 and a.5% more. Why don't they have the same increase?" Right? So basically what happens is the way the state decides, oh, it's
049called a foundation budget, folks. This is what the state calls it, the foundation budget. And they're going to give you the minimum possible to like put concrete in a hole on the floor and then you have to build the whole building. So that's why it's called foundation in my mind anyway. So um so it it decides in that okay the town of Bridgewater can afford this. The town of Rainham can afford that of the foundation budget. They go through a couple other different things. Here's how much the money is. Okay. Chapter 70 is going to give you the balance of that money. That's all we get from the state and their contribution and and the towns have to fund that contribution, right? But then the regional agreement that we have between the two towns says
050okay any overage beyond the required contribution by the towns and whatever the state gives us is going to be divided up evenly per pupil across as you said the 6040. So if there's if there's a discrepancy in the percent difference, it's because the town of br the state believes the town of Bridgewater can increase its contribution more than the town of Rainham can can because at that point once we get once we get that foundation budget and we managed to put a little slab of concrete down in the bottom of our hole where um we we turned to the towns and say, "Okay, to build the rest of the house, we need this much, and we're just going to divide it out per student." So, that part, if you look into the budget deeply, is
051equal per pupil. It's just the way the state comes up with the uh what each town can afford and then what they're going to give you creates these discrepancies sometimes. And sometimes it's the opposite. Sometimes the town of Rainham pays more as a percent increase than the town of Bridgewater does. So, um, you know, there's no rhyme or reason to it necessarily, but um I I just wanted to make sure folks understood that. So, it wasn't, you know, like, oh well, they they tried to sock it to Bridgewater, they tried to help bring it. No, this is the way the this is the way the state tells you it's going to work and this is the way our regional agreement works. Very simple. Thank you. >> Thank you, Mr. Gothor. Do you have any questions
052or comments? >> Uh, I'm still not sure I understand the 2 and a half% and the 1.52%. Mr. Fitzger, if you could elaborate a little bit further, is is because Bridgewwater said, and we all understand the situation going on through Bridgewwater. We can afford 2.5% this year because it's a 6040 split. Is that where that 1.52% uh percentage from Rainham comes from or is that separate? And maybe it's a question for Mr. hours. >> No, it is >> or did come to us and say, "No, we we're going to just do 1.52% because of our finances." >> They and and if you given Did you want to answer or do you want to have >> I I'll I'll answer it cuz I hope I'm going to be quicker. Um no, it because the the state
053says Bridgewwater can afford this, Rainham can afford this, they have to pay that. Each town has to pay that and they those go at bit different rates every year. Okay? So that's what the towns have to pay. Then the state says, "Okay, you need a foundation budget of X million. So we'll give you the difference. Now we need to add beyond that. We need to add beyond that X million. That X million we add beyond it is divided by number of students in the district. and it's just assigned to the two towns. So this what where where the where the difference in the increase comes is the state said the town of Bridgewater this year could afford a bigger increase than the town of Ringham could afford based on their calculation that has to be
054funded. the state gives you the difference to get to the foundation and then beyond the foundation we divide everything per pupil. So it's really the state telling you that that that difference has to be invoked. >> Mr. Gro to clarify I think your question was slightly different than that. >> Um Bridgewwater and Rain. So the state does give us the base foundation that each town has to pay. They have always paid more than that. I do want to put that out there. I have not seen a budget that they pay the minimum. Um both Bridgewwater and Rainham year over year pay more than they are required to. >> Absolutely. >> Um the 2 and a half% from Bridgewater, which would be a 1.52% is really the base number that they're looking at right now. As
055we know, which from the override last year, towns can only increase their taxes two and a half%. Um over and above that, it would need an override. Um right now potentially initially with talks um Bridgewater potentially can only go up to a 2.5%. Obviously we'll have more talks between now and the end of the month um and see if that will be increased especially after we have feedback from committee members and the town and towns and the public. Um but because of the regional agreement since Bridgewater is has the largest population if they are at a two and a half% the regional agreement calculates it that RAM would then be at a 1.52 they have to like based on the calculations. >> Okay that that answers my question. >> They're intertwined based on the agreement
056>> because of the agreement the reum amount because we're make up a smaller portion of the assessment is sort of lo it's connected. >> Yes. >> Right. It's connected to that foundation enrollment as well. So, you know, when the state puts out what the percentages would be, that's also applied to that as well. >> That's my only question at this time. >> Like in reverse, if Bridgewwater was suddenly like we can afford a 10% and Ringham could not meet their whatever that would be an eight or 9% it would have to go down to whatever they could afford then. So, they are they are locked in together because of the agreement. >> Thank you. Miss Hoy Thomas, do you have any questions or comments? >> Um, no, not at the moment. Um, I'm generally disappointed.
057I think a lot of people are going to be. Um, these 10 positions don't feel like enough initially. I see the thoughtful u respect to what the towns can afford, but I think the community has long um you know benefited from an education that we necessarily couldn't afford because of the teachers. We have great educators, the staff and um it's kind of time that we have to, you know, pay up and we'll see how it unfolds. I hope it's nothing like last year. Um, I find myself in rooms counting to 37 and there's 41 of you. So, imagine you all in fifth grade in a classroom. It's it's sad. So, >> can I ask a clarifying question there? >> Uh, Mr. Fitzgibens. >> So, we're we're not we're not looking at the 2 and 1/2
058and one and a half. We're looking at nine and seven or whatever it is. Right. That that's what the budget that you just presented said. Correct. >> The assessments going up nine and seven or whatever the numbers were, >> right? >> The the 2 and 1/2 and the one and a half are what was what the town of Bridgewwater suggested it could afford and therefore based on the way the calculation in the district agreement works. It would be one and a half for Rainham as you said. So, you know, we're getting the 10 positions back by that nine and seven. We're not getting We're not going to get it by a two and a half and a one and a half, right? >> No. >> Okay. Thank you, >> Mrs. Carter on that. I have
059lots of thoughts and comments, but um as always, but um I'll just say is and I know Mr. Fitzg, thanks for clarifying. you know, we we what we are presenting and asking for here is the nine and the seven minutes, whatever that comes out to. >> Um, and I would just like to say is even going back to the towns because I particular bridge order wants um significantly less than that is um personally I will not accept anything less than that. We cannot afford less than the nine and the seven. We we cannot afford to make any more cuts. um you know I have plenty of friends in this district or in the towns that their kids are going to private schools and from having conversations with them about what they are seeing as the
060difference and why they have made that choice to go to private schools I will say is you know everybody I've talked to who's basically says the teachers in VR are top-notch they are equal to those in private schools there is no or better um but where we are falling down is our class sizes our um our options for classes and our support, our social emotional support. And I'll just say is I think because of those challenges now we are at risk of losing our phenomenal teachers because they are overwhelmed. They are overburdened with the number of kids and the needs in our classes. So I um I just don't know how as a town either town that we can accept being the bottom of the barrel and our per people spend. Just don't know how
061that is digestible to people. So again, um I think I I'm thankful for the towns and the increases and going above and beyond, but um going up two and a half% is sorry, it's pathetic in my eyes. Um when towns, the two towns are giving, you know, again, Reams got a 10% increase, the police chief their salary. Bridgewwater talented admin staff have some higher salaries and some more robust benefits. Um I I just don't know how it can be asked of us to continue to make additional cuts and how we cannot again support our kids and our families, our students um where there is need. >> Thank you Mr. Lunch. >> Uh Miss Conto just said it perfectly. I mean we can't accept less than this. So, >> um, no, I agree. And to clarify,
062yes, our the budget I presented was this. It's 11 9.87% increase to Bridgewater, 7.8% increase to Ranian. That is what we what Mr. Powers presented at February and that is the budget we as a subcommittee have brought today um to present at public hearing. Generally, as I stated, that budget from Mr. Powers changes significantly. We don't present a 30% increase like we present something reasonable, but his budget was reasonable. We still believe it's reasonable. It is not going to make huge significant changes. Um, I agree, Miss White Thomas. Um, but it's also trying to be mindful that the towns are in financial constraints right now. They probably will not even be able to afford these increases. But it is the very lowest that we feel confident that we can put forward right now. We need
063to make some steps forward in a positive direction. Not going back and not even level services. the this year with the class sizes, the lack of offerings, um everything else, um we cannot even stay level services for one more year. As Miss Connor and Labberto stated, um I know many teachers may leave after this year um because of that. Um, I am an eighth grade mom and the amount of eighth graders that parents that have already stated they would be leaving the district for out of district um, school choice or private is very significant. We lost a lot this year already and I imagine next year we're going to lose even more after this year has gone by. Um, so again, we're presenting this as a budget that we find reasonable, not making huge strides,
064but a step positive. Um, and not not going backwards. We cannot, just putting that out there. Um, so when we talk about 2 and a half% increase for Bridgewater and a 1.52, those are because of initial talks with towns. They have not been sent this budget. I mean, we've been talking about it since February. Um, but as I stated, they are at the beginning of their budget cycle showing us um preliminary forecasts. So, will they be able to meet this? We don't know right now. And as we've stated, we don't fund our budget. We create a budget that we feel will help and make our students successful and we send that to the towns to fund and either they fund it or they do not and they send it back. So that is where where
065we are at right now. Um at this time I will now open the floor to any members of the public that would like to come to the podium with any questions or comments regarding the budget presentation. Please sign in. There is a sign-in sheet on there for your name and address um for Miss Smelts. Um and please also state your name and address for the record and limit your comments to three minutes, please. >> So, um man, um my name is Dennis Galler, the state rep for the 8th district and resident of Bridgewater 160 South Drive. I I'll write that on there. So, >> thank you very much. Um anyway, I was here maybe a month ago when we talked about these numbers a little bit more and um as I said then and I'll
066say it again tonight, I am disappointed with what the state has funded the schools at this year particularly with the governor's budget. I mean these numbers are reflective of the governor's house two budget and it's really a starting point for the budget process. It's not. Um, and I understand you have a a a schedule, a time frame that you have to go by to to to vote on the budget, which will be probably the end of March in a few weeks. Um, what I and many of my colleagues have been doing over the past month or are meeting with the chairman of Ways and Means because the House has the budget right now and we're we have not debated it. Um the joint committee on um ways and means are doing their hearings around the
067state and they're listening to people regarding the budget um and having public hearings about it. Um when I met with the chairman because we have a meeting every year with chairman Michael Witz about our priorities I say you know chapter 70 is a priority in my district. I'm disappointed with what the governor had put in for chapter 70 monies, particularly with the $75 peral expenditure when it was at 150 this current fiscal year. Um I said I hope we can get that back and he's like we're crunching the numbers. So I do think the house will increase the chap to 70 monies. Um, I do think your transportation reimbursement will go from 87% up to somewhere in the high 90s. So, I do think that's not going to solve the problem. So, I'm just saying
068that that's what I think the House is going to do. Um, but it doesn't solve the long-term the short-term problem for this year. will help the numbers and I would encourage you that if that is the case just still hold the towns accountable for what you you've asked them to uh to appropriate um because you could make additional progress if that's the case. The other thing too is the school funding formula as as uh my good friend Tim has given those in inside and out is not fair, it's not right and it doesn't help. um what needs to be added to the funding formula is an inflationary factor because that's what's missing. Like you say, the numbers go all over the place. So, I'm hoping that it's not going to help for fiscal 27, but
069Desi is looking at all the comments and I know many people in this community went to Desi over in Lakeville last fall um when they did their public public hearings and concerns about the school funding. So, I do think there'll be some changes down the road, but not for this year. Um the other thing to take into consideration is you got to understand you did lose 250 students. So that affects your chapter 70 and you are sending more money under school tuition reimbursement to other districts. That affects your your one your five that's why you have a 0.58% because you're losing a lot of those monies. If transportation gets back to putting up into the 90s and you get this 150 per people expenditure, that'll bring that number up a little bit, but not but
070not too much. So, I will continue to argue as many of my colleagues have said the same thing. Many towns are in the same same position, same situation as we are. It seems like we're in a little bit worse than some are. But um I'll entertain anybody to to to contact me, contact the House Ways and Means as they we deliberate the budget which won't take place till the end of April. So we won't know the House budget till the end of April. So um and then it goes to the Senate. So I'm hoping there's a little open hope that you leave the the possibilities open after March 25th because things could even change after the end of April. So I know my time's up. I'll write my name on the sheet here. >> Thank
071you. >> Do we have other members of the community would like to come up with questions and comments? How are we going? Madam Chair, members of the committee, residents in attendance, good evening. MJ Spagon, 5 Lakeshore Center, Unit 1128, Bridgewater, acting in the capacity as chair of the finance committee. Um, Madam Chair, I just wanted to um express to you uh the finance committee uh recently met and gave me direction to um ask that the school committee look at opportunities where we can collaborate further. We're looking to try to enhance our ability to give advice and consent to the town council in their budgetary matters. And we're looking to integrate our discussions of the budget with how your um committee operates in the budget process. Recognizing the school committee operates in an earlier part of
072the budgetary cycle than the town of Bridgewater does and the town of Rainham does, we want to try to capitalize on where we could probably best optimize working together and have conversations where at least our paths will cross more um earlier in the process. And so the the finance committee is looking to try to do because they want to be able to give advice when matters of this nature come to the town council and we have to you know make some sort of deliberation on to give them the best guidance. So what I want to just basically say is that the fincom wants to work closely with the school committee and the school district to try to find solutions to the budgetary issues that you face but also the town of Bridgewater faces on our
073side of the town border. And I I don't necessarily speak for my colleague counterparts in Rain, but I suspect that that would might be something that they might want to do as well. So maybe it might be a um initiative that we could probably all work together on. I would look forward to having that conversation with you, Madam Chair, uh Superintendent Powers, and also um residents in town. If there's any input that you would like to give to us, we'd certainly appreciate it as well. So I will leave you with that, Madam Chair. Thank you. >> Thank you. I agree. um chair spone that is something that we tried to work on this year having joint meetings with the two towns and inviting fincom. So I think if we do that even more just especially
074with budget sub and fincoms that might be even more helpful rather than having 40 people in a room. Um so I will definitely reach out and we'll try and work with Rainham as well. >> Thank you. >> Uh do we have other members of the community that would like to ask questions or have comments? So, I'm Ashley Dodd. Um 76 on the trail in Bridgewater. Um I have four children. Um currently, three remaining in the district. Um I do have um I will put my information on here. I have um first of all, I had no intention to speak, so I apologize if this is out of order because it's all notes I jotted down during the presentation. Um I have two points of clarification that I don't expect today, but I'd love to see.
075Um and then I'll go into um the other pieces. Um the first thing is um in working as an educator I will say that um I have supported a statistics class and one of the things that I'd love to see with the class size for clarification is we have the mean class size but what we don't have is the median and for anybody who is a nerd who likes stats like me. Um the median t um will take the outliers into account. So if you have a class of 14 um but you have another class of 37, that class of 14 is going to bring down your mean. So it may say 30, but we may know that most class sizes are in fact 37. So I just like to see a median in addition
076to the mean. Um, and then the other question that I would have in terms of um, special education is the outof district has leveled off, but what I'd be curious about is um, what do our BSEA hearings look like? Have they gone up? Um, have mediations gone up and have our attorney costs gone up? Because yes, the out of districts have leveled off, but at what cost? So, are we truly saving money? Because I think that there's missing information there. Um, and I think the other piece that I will say is, um, I'll take a moment to say that I have a sixth grader, a fifth grader, a second grader, and a first grader. Um, for those of you who know me, my my children run the gamut of everything from a straight A student
077to a non-verbal child with autism. So, um, I'm going to give a story, very brief story about my 11-year-old daughter who I had sent to private school this year, and it actually only happened a couple of days ago. She got her reenrollment packet for her private school and she happened to flip through it and saw the cost of the school. She came home, she was hesitant to ask me the question and then said, "Mom, is that how much you pay for my school?" And I said, "Yes." And I said, "I told you your brain is worth the investment." That's what I told her when she asked me, "Why do you send me to school where you pay money when you can send me to school for free?" And then I explained to her, she goes,
078"But mom, we're not rich, right?" I said, "Nope, not in close." And she said um to me that, "Well, then how do you do that? And aren't you planning to send her sister next year?" I'll leave their names out of it for their benefit because they're middle school girls. Um, and I said, "Yes, we are." And she said, "But how?" And I said, "Well, everything's a trade-off." Um, we're a family of six. We've never been to Disney World. Um, I said, "But we decided that this was more important because everything in life is full of choices." And my 11-year-old daughter looked at me and said, "Mom, I would rather go to this school than ever go to Disney World. If my 11year-old can make a hard choice. If my 11year-old can look at me and
079she can weigh that, then the district needs to do better. The towns need to do better. My 11year-old knows what her brain is worth. We need to know what kids' brains are worth. >> Thank you, Miss D. Do we have other community members that would like to come up and have questions or comments? Elizabeth Sharp, 1000 South Street. Um, I also didn't plan on speaking and hate speaking in front of adults. Second graders all day, adults not so much. Um, but there was a a great deal of talk about the foundational budget and um, that's why I wanted to just quickly talk because last year um, as I started to understand the budget and research it, I was I kept hearing about the foundational budget and I was like, okay, so how are we doing
080with that? because I feel like um sometimes it might be presented as maybe a little too nice up here when we talk about the foundational budget. It's been stated a few times that in in Bridgewater and Rainham they give more. We're very thankful. Thank you for giving more than than the foundational budget. I'm like, "Okay, good. All right. I guess they're doing more than they need to. Like we can't really blame them." So then I started looking to see like, well, how much more do we give? What do other towns give? Um, I pulled up an email that I sent, this is from last year before like the new Desi data from this year came up. So, it's a couple years lagging in data, but it's an email that I sent to maybe some of
081you people, maybe some of you people last year just to kind of put it in perspective of how are we doing because we're getting more. Thank you, Bridgewater. Thank you, Rainham. But where where is that comparison? Um the last year that the data was available, Bridgewater and Ringham gave 14% above the foundational budget. So I was like, okay, that sounds good. 14, you don't have to do that. Thank you. The state average was 32%. So most towns, if you average all the other towns and districts, they're getting 32% above that bottom foundational budget. Then I just looked at some other towns around us. Um, just towns that like were meaningful to me. Eastston gives 32% above the foundational budget. Halifax gives 30% above the foundational budget. Middleboro 23% above the foundational budget. And I was
082like, well, how about how about those Ritzy towns? Cohasset is giving 75% above the foundational budget. Weston 124% above the foundational budget. It's it's pretty clear. I mean, you know what kind of education they're getting in Weston? And here we are at 14% above the foundational budget. Yeah, they didn't have to give us the extra 14%. But I mean, it's the numbers the numbers don't lie. It's it's nothing compared to everything else. And it's a clear indicator of what kind of education we're able to provide. Like Mr. Mr. Fitz Gibbons had said that that foundational budget is basically like, "Okay, you can open your doors. Good luck." So, we're basically doing that. We're opening our doors. Good luck. And here's a few extra pencils. Um, and I also have three daughters. My second grade daughter's
083teacher on Friday, um, went on a leave for the rest of the year, not on a maternity leave. I don't I won't speak for other reasons like I can't speak for her but I know she has 30 kids in her class not rounding up she has 30 kids in her class lots of high needs and she is out for the rest of the year. Thank you. Thank you, Miss Sh. And I agree to reiterate that the as we stated that mental toll of having all of those children in a classroom, um we know that it's taken a toll on our staff this year. Um do we have other members of the community to come speak? Um, hi Ashley Mard 27 Graange Park. I just did want to um touch base on that mental toll uh
084specifically. I know um the amount of phone calls that I get my um other colleagues in the union get to ask for support. Uh it's not a lack of support necessarily from administration in the district. We're just talking about what do I do? You know, I am overwhelmed. I need to see my doctor. I'm talking to my doctor. These are all things that teachers are talking about. and the toll that we take when you have, you know, for me speaking personally, like I think of how much I enjoy getting to know my students. I teach 9th grade and a cool thing is I get to know them for four years and I have like 170 plus, if you include my study, students in front of me in a day. I don't get to know every
085kid's need every day. I don't know when their dog died every day. I don't know when their grandmother is sick. I don't get to know those little details because I don't get to the time to have those conversations. So, that's something that I think is intrinsically being depleted from the experience of Bridgewater Rainia um school districts. There are so many of us who come to Teacher who grew up here because there's something about this community that hooks us, you know, whether it means 50 people are showing up to a town meeting because they're mad about something or not or they're showing up, but like the bodies are lost here right now after everything we went through last year. This this is one classroom, right? This is just one class of people for a teacher right
086now. And we don't have as many people here in the community because they're dragging. They don't see much hope. Okay, if you're watching what's happening in at least Bridgewater, you just don't you don't know where this is going to come from. At some point, that needs to break and it needs to break before you lose all the staff before you lose a significant amount of staff or you continue to lose so many students that the money's flowing to another town anyway because that's that's what we just saw happen. I know some town counselors thought that if if um there was less students coming to the district that the town would be paying less in the long run, but that money is still coming out of our budget. We might as well have it be infused
087into a community where a kid wants to grow up, buy property back in our town, and raise our kids back in our town. And we've had that for so long, but it's going to be less and less. Thank you. >> Thank you, Miss Maller. All right. Good evening everyone. Madam chair, school committee. Kevin Perry, town up front court, Bridgewwater, member of the Bridgewater Comp. Um, I'm also proud to be our grad. Two kids that graduated recently from from the high school, but I'm very sad to see the school system in the shape that it's in. Um, I know VR is comparable to Active Boxboro and Wusk Regionals, similar size. Their budgets are 20 to $30 million more than ours. Um, Bridgewwater is a town compared to other towns of similar size, 20 to $30 million
088behind those towns of similar size. Um, the fact is unfortunately, you know, we're in a a difficult financial time where again the math is just not equating. um as you're proposing nine and 7% increases um when the towns themselves are limited to 2 and a half% increases based on prop 2 and a half it just doesn't add up to keep up with the cost of of doing business within with uh you know contracts with insuranceances with transportation it's very sad to see that the state is not keeping up with their share of the of the situation and I'll implore Mr. Gallagher, who I'm very friendly with, to work as hard as he can at the state level to try and get as much money back down to our our schools as we can because without
089it, I don't know what our solution is going to be. Um, I've had conversations with our town manager, fiscal FY26 to FY27, we're looking at a $ 1.7 million increase as far as total budget number. that is not nearly enough to help sustain not only the schools but police, fire, and everything else that the town needs. Um, I don't know where this is unfortunately going to go. Uh, and I'm very sad to see if we don't have the funds what this is going to lead to as far as, you know, potential additional cuts. And I don't want to see loss of of uh of accreditation, things of that nature. Like I said, I went to school here and I, you know, I'm proud of this community. I that's why I'm on the town council. It's
090why I have a business in the community taking care of the people that I grew up with. Um, and it it saddens me. I I think about it at night trying to figure out what can we do? Either number one, we need more funding from the state or number two, as communities, we need to come up with more funding to to pay for everything. As president of the council last year, I I tried to put forth the the uh an override vote to try and get the funding that the schools need, that the towns need. Unfortunately, didn't go through. Um at the same time, again, contracts came out for the teachers here at BR. I think that was somewhat problematic at the time. You know, two to 3% increases in cola plus step increases. I
091don't know if that's a sustainable contract. Um, I might ask that the school committee maybe go back and take a look at that, maybe bring the teachers union back to the table and see if some changes could be made, maybe pulling back a percent or percent and a half. I know the town manager Bridgewater has gone back to some of the contracts that were already negotiated into similar situations as one of the members of the school committee might have made about increases or putting down raises. Nobody in Bridgewater is really getting raises. You know, we're trying to stay afloat, trying to prevent overall closures of of the library, which is already being slated to close on Saturdays. Um, senior center might be restricted in hours there. We're going to have to find other places to
092potentially make devastating cuts in order to meet a 9% increase for what the schools need. And again, that's just a level fund and add 10 teachers. It's a no-win situation. If we give the schools what they need, there's other services that are going to be lost in other areas of town. And I'm sure that could be the same said in Rainia. So, we still have a lot of work to do. My heart is is breaking with the situation. I desperately still support and want to see an override. Hopefully, we'll put maybe one out in November when we do this state election. Um, but I would certainly say if the school committee and the teachers union could get together and make some sort of concession that the public could see, I think that would buy some
093very good with the voters and then potentially have a better and greater chance for an override maybe in November. >> Thank you. >> Yes, Mr. Lo, do you have a followup? You know, council Perry, I very much appreciate you coming up and, you know, showing transparency what you said, but I don't know how you would expect we would bring the union to the table and then send them back to classrooms of more than 30 kids. >> I I I don't know how that's a feasible thing that you're going to ask those people, hey, we're going to make your job even harder next year, yet take less money. And please note, the year before, right, in that contract, they also took a zero. So, how does that conversation go? Because there's trade-offs in this scenario. Our
094teachers make what they do because we have class sizes this large. >> I understand. And this is across the board and we're looking at our police and fire doing so. I don't know if I should discuss back and forth, but um it's it's across the board. It's a it's a difficult situation and until we can get to a potential override situation, these are the the hard decisions that need to be made in my opinion. But thank you, Dr. Thank you. >> Thank you, Mr. L. Do we have any other members of the public that would like to come up? Seeing none, um as stated earlier, um I will entertain a motion to take the fiscal year 2027 budget as presented under advisement. Um do I have a motion? >> So moved. >> Second. >> Motion
095made by Mr. Lo and a second by Mr. Fitzkiens. Do we have other discussion um by committee members on this? >> Mr. Chris Gibbons. >> Uh this this just means we're going to work on it. We're going to take all the input from today. We're still welcoming input. We're going to have another two um budget subcommittee meetings at least I believe before we get to uh the end of March and vote on a final budget. So this may not be exactly what's presented at the end of March. Might be more, might be less. >> Correct. Um what happens now is we take any and all feedback that we received tonight from committee members, from the public, um from anyone that spoke. Um, we do have a budget subcommittee meeting on Monday, March 16th, um, and
096March 23rd, um, as well as if we have any other meetings, um, that superintendent powers might have with towns, etc. for their administrator or manager. Um, and then we will bring back that budget to the March 25th meeting for approval by the full committee. And we, like I said, we do need a twothirds majority, a twothirds vote at that time. episode six of the full committee um need to approve a budget. Um do we have other questions or comments? >> Yes, I have a question. >> Miss Hoy Thomas, >> if we don't have full attendance still two, >> that specific vote is 2/3 of the full committee. So we need six out of eight to vote yes whether or not they are here. >> Thank you. >> So I hope they will all be here.
097>> Um Mr. Guthra, >> just before you Oh, my one last comment. I just I remain very concerned that I I've heard throughout this process that we've wanted to take the needs of the towns and the requests of the town and being sympathetic to the towns uh in developing the budget that madam chair yourself and Mr. Powers presented asking for a nine and seven for right to restore those 10 positions. But everything I also hear is that as as modest as we've tried to be in doing the bare minimum the bare minimum 10 out of 72 the signals are that's not even possible. And you know, I I just I I struggle to say we're going to continue to be reasonable when the signals are that we're we're not even going to do that and
098we can't do anything because 2 and a half% and this that and the other thing. Uh there's other towns that obviously are having budget problems, but I would say they also have sort of figured it out. It's it's no secret that again to go back to the fact as Mr. Power stated, we're one of the lowest funded K through2 districts in the entire state. That doesn't happen overnight. That doesn't happen by accident. That doesn't happen because of the decisions being made in this budget in front of us. We don't want that. That happens all because of things that are outside of our control. And I just I we I think we need to continue as we go through these last couple of budget meetings uh to the parents, to the families, to the children in
099our community. I think we need to be a little bit more aggressive in in what we're asking for, especially when the early signals are that we're not even going to get the bare minimum. So we need to show that we understand what it takes to put forward a quality education. Unfortunately, right, even 10 positions does not restore that. Um and and it's it's up to others to to now rise and you know figure out how to make that happen. whether it be through fixing other structural problems that happen outside of the district or rather to maybe get serious about economic development and not just argue about how do we spend this little pie but as towns how do we without raising taxes on residents grow that pie through actual commercial development or other type of
100development instead of just building residential. Um there's there's much more that has to be done and I just I'm very disheartened. Uh and there's just there there I think we need to be more aggressive in what we're asking for even though the fact that it's been made clear that we're not even going to get the bare minimum which is which is pretty unacceptable. >> I'm wrong. Thank you. >> Thank you. No, and I understand I mean we it's a precarious situation where we're putting forward potentially at the end of the month a budget that is reasonable. Is it what we would prefer? No. Um, but can they even afford this? Probably not. So, but at the same time, if we put something, we saw what happened last year. The override did not pass. Um, but
101do we stop trying? I don't think we do. But on the other end of that, do we put forward another aggressive budget for people to say, why are you asking for so much again? Um, I don't know what the right answer is, but I do know we need to go forward. Um, I just don't know what that looks like, but at the very least, it cannot be less than what we're approving right now. And like I said, we don't approve our we don't fund our budget. So, if we send this to the towns and they cannot figure out how to fund it, then we will go forward as we need to. And we have tried to get out more in the community. We've been having joint meetings. Mr. Powers and Mr. Lo and I did
102go to Rainham Vinc last night and the Rainham Select Board meeting um trying to get out in the community in different ways to let people know to update on the school district. We are a town department. Even though we're a separate entity to let people know things didn't just go away last year because you voted no to the override. Things are actually still terrible. Um, so trying to get out there and let people know like what this looked like because of the failed drove arrive right now. So, um, do we have other discussion, questions, comments? All right. Um, seeing none, I will put this to a vote. All those in favor? >> I. >> Any opposed? >> Uh, nay. >> So, uh, one one no Mr. Gunthrow. Um motion passes. Um as I said, the
103final vote at the end of the month is a twothirds vote. Um this is to take that under advisement and we will make more revisions if necessary. Um thank you to everyone who attended and gave input on the fiscal 27 budget as well as our budget subcommittee and members of the admin team. um and members of the select board, fincoms and town council and our state representative that are here this evening. Um our next regular school committee meeting is Wednesday, March 25th at 7 here at the high school and we will have the budget item on that agenda. Um at this time, I will entertain a motion to conclude the hearing of the fiscal 27 budget at 8:31 p.m. um and adjourn the budget hearing. So move second. >> Um motion by Mr. Los, second
104by Mr. Fitz Simmons. All those in favor? Any opposed? Motion passes. Thank you.