001Good evening, everybody. Someone has their speakers on. >> Oh, that's me. Sorry. Everyone muted? Okay. Thanks, guys. Um good evening, everybody. Um so, I have the um privilege as the acting chair pro tem of the school committee to call together uh to order our reorganization meeting, which we're going to do before we um call to order the regular school committee meeting for tonight, April 29th, 2026. Um the process for this is that I will ask the committee for nominations um for the next chair of the Milton School Committee. Um I'd like to welcome our newest member before we get started. Stevie Caldwell, welcome. Um congratulations. Um and with that, um the process is to call for nominations of the Milton School Committee chair. I would like to nominate Mark Lauren for this position cuz he
002has extensive experience with the finance subcommittee, with the school building subcommittee. He's had He's have a extensive knowledge about how the the district runs cuz he himself is also a superintendent himself at the the charter school district. So, I think Mark's experience and expertise will bring us to the next level. Being the chair of the school committee, so Mark, would you accept this um nomination? It's very nice of you to write. Yes, I can accept. Okay. Are there any other nominations? Terrific. So, um you have accepted the nomination, Mark. Um so, I will ask for a motion to close nominations. So Thank you, Anna. Is there a second? Second. Okay. Um all in favor? We'll do a roll call vote for the um election itself. Um okay. Uh roll call vote. Bao? Yes. Anna? Yes.
003Mark? Uh abstain. I'm yes. Stevie? Yes. Nathan? Absolutely. Okay. Congratulations. Mr. Chair. Yeah, I'm going to swap seats and at this point for the process, take it away. Uh thank you all very much. I'll try not to screw this up. Thanks for listening. Uh all right, so now we will uh take nominations for a vice chair of the Milton School Committee. And if I might, I will um like to start making a nomination. I'd like to nominate Anna Verghese for vice chair. Um for the year, see if she accepts the nomination. Are there any other names folks would like to suggest? Seeing none, Anna, would you accept the nomination? Thank you. Great. Uh then, can I ask for a motion to close the nominations? So Is there a second? Second. All in favor? Uh and
004we have to do another roll call vote. Uh Bao? Yes. Anna? I'll abstain. Lizzie? Yes. Stevie? Yes. Nathan? Yes. Great. We have a vice chair. Congratulations. Uh Uh given that we are done with the reorganization, so I will make a motion to adjourn from the reorganization meeting and begin the regular school committee meeting. Is there a second? Second. Second. Thank you very much. Uh all in favor? There we go. We are adjourned. And I will call to order the regular Milton School Committee meeting. Uh we will start with the Pledge of Allegiance. 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. Moving on, we will uh item number two is the approval of
005tonight's agenda. Everybody can take a look. I believe all of these are still on the docket unless there's something we need to remove. We should remove when needed. Great. We will consider the agenda approved. We'll move on now to item number three, which is public comment. Uh We have one member of public comment. If you'd like to come up. Three minutes. Anytime you're ready. Okay. My name is Jay Furlong. I live at 39 Sias Lane and I'm the chair of the Warrant Committee. I would like to congratulate the newly elected member of this body and thank the two members who are starting their second term. Thank you all for your public service. Uh I would also like to thank my former colleague Amanda Serio. Amanda served with me for two years on the Warrant Committee.
006She was an excellent colleague. I was so sorry to see her go from the Warrant Committee except that I knew she was coming here where she could really follow her passions and serve the community. So, Amanda is not in the room, but uh I'd like to thank her. Um but enough about your committee. I'm here to talk about my committee. Next Monday on May the 4th in this room, we're in the fire station room, the Warrant Committee will have an open forum about I'll say it's about the town budget. I'm going to clarify that in a second, but an open forum about the town budget and for financial forecasts. Uh it'll be open to members of the public, whether you're a town meeting member and brand new town meeting member, old one, or just an
007interested member of the public, you can show up. Uh also, if you can't show up, it will be recorded, it will be live on TV and uh you'll be able to watch the recording later. We're going to be I'll be doing a financial presentation at the start of town meeting. That's on Wednesday the 6th. What I'll be doing the previous two nights on Monday the 4th is a longer, sort of more detailed presentation. Maybe that's not appealing to people, but it will be longer and more detailed and also open to more back and forth cuz you know, there's a limit to how much time we want to spend on that at town meeting, so I'm going to go into a little bit more detail on that Monday, give you a little more background and have
008back and forth, have questions or comments from the public. I will say it's it's about the current year budget and about looking forward in the forecasts and much more in the latter. It'll be a little bit on this year's budget and a lot more on what we're seeing in the future. What are we seeing for forecast, what are we seeing for maybe overrides on the horizon. Uh people can come and ask questions about whatever they want. My plan is to spend I don't want to mislead people having them think it's all going to be about FY27 forecast cuz that's that's going to be minor. That is all I have to say and uh thank you all for your service. Thank you. One person online. I'm sure if they hand up. I don't know if you
009Cuz if there's anybody online who would like to uh participate in public comment, if you could please use the uh raise hand button in Zoom. Last call. Seeing no hands and no one else in person, I'll conclude public comments. Move on to Yeah, sorry, they just raised their hand. Oh, sorry, great. Um Allow them to speak. Public comment. Okay. They are um I guess introduce themselves for the record. Hi, may I be heard? Uh yes, we can hear you. Please just uh give us your name and address for the record. Uh Dan Risha, 58 Grinnell Avenue. Great. I'm in Yeah, so I'd like to uh recently the uh French immersion um information just came out um and I'd like to understand what you intend to decide regarding the the program class size. Uh specifically understanding
010um with 10 extra students at Collicot and three extra at Tucker, um why can't three of the students at Tucker be put at Glover and then then have the 10 um accommodated at Collicot and Cunningham so there's three classes so everybody can have a a chance. Great. Is that the conclusion of your public comment? Yeah, I just like to understand the decision is it strictly based on having to hire another teacher when classes were said to be capped at 26. Seems you can have 21, 21, and 20. Just trying to understand why the decision was made the way it was. Thank you very much. Appreciate the public comment. Just to clarify, we don't respond directly to public comment. So, we will take a note of your your comment. If you can send an email, that
011would be probably the easier way that the superintendent would be able to follow up. If you want to send that to either the school committee or superintendent Fallon with with that question directly. Just that way we have a way to respond. But within public comment, we don't directly it's not a question and answer session. So, just Is there ever a question and answer session? Again, if you if you email school committee or superintendent, we can follow up with that information. Yep. Okay, thank you. Thank you very much. Thank you, Dan. I'm just to vote him. position. I'll try to get him back there. All right. Move it along. Um uh next item is the superintendent's report. Uh thank you, uh Mark. First of all, I want to welcome Stevie Caldwell to the school committee. Welcome.
012We're glad that you're here. Um it'll be exciting um time on the school committee, and we're glad that you're going to be with us for this remainder of this year and next year. I also want to congratulate Mark and Anna on the new leadership for the committee as well. Um but the most important person in the room is our friend Elias, student at Milton High. Elias, please come up. Really want to thank this dedicated student representative, Elias Carros. Many of you know him. He's become somewhat of a colleague for us on the school committee and the school administration. Elias has been a faithful student rep for the past 4 years, attending morning meetings with the school committee members and coming to meetings to discuss important issues and participating in several clubs and activities like the
013Tri-M Music Honor Society, playing violin as a concert master of the school orchestra, officer of the Latin Club, and overall being a wonderful student representative person at Milton High School and for the entire Milton community. This will be Elias's last meeting of his 4-year career and we, as he is graduating Milton High School in June. And we just wanted to make sure you had one more meeting to attend with us so we could be with you when you're on your way out to this exciting season of your 12th year in the Milton Public Schools and graduating. So welcome. Thank you for all your work and tell us what's going on. Thank you very much for that very kind introduction. Um First of all, I'd like to thank the new chair and vice chair of the
014school committee and congratulate um the new member. Um I'm really very grateful for um your public service and for all you do for our district and for our community. Um a few things about the high school because things are starting to get very exciting. AP exams are um going to be held from May 4th to May 15th. Um these college level exams are really, although they're a source of stress for all of us they're really a big celebration and a wonderful opportunity for us as students to show our um our scholarship and just really put our best foot forward as we attempt to um dive into college level concepts and content across so many subject areas um and you know just the opportunity to go then to college and maybe get a few genetic classes
015or credits out of the way and accept it that's really such a an incredible opportunity um so that will be very exciting over the next few weeks um and then this Thursday on the the 29th is the so tomorrow that's the MHS theater's presentation of the Drowsy Chaperone um that will be at 7:00 p.m. this as you very well know is a very a very respected and an award-winning theater program we have you know they were state finals for the second year in a row this year um I have many peers who are a part of it and they're all so passionate at what they do and they're so willing to share their craft and um their performance and their gifts and talents for the community so that will be a celebration of their hard
016work um this um this weekend and then similar to that we will also have our um as the MHS music department our spring concert, on Tuesday the 19th of May. As a member of the orchestra for 4 years, it has been such a wonderful opportunity to be a part of that, to share the arts and the joy of music to our community. And I think it's just we're all so we love it so much. It's a break during the school day, but more of a break it's just such a joy to be a part of. And then we're very excited about that. And then our scholastic honors night will be held on the 14th of May. That is also a celebration of our academic excellence and scholarship. It's wonderful it's a wonderful night um for
017our students to be honored in the various ways that they contribute to our wonderful community at the high school. And then finally I just wanted to thank all of you for such a wonderful experience here presenting to you all providing insights so that I can provide you with a face and the student experience while you all are making such crucial decisions for the community. Providing that student voice has been an effort you know across so many levels of government here in Massachusetts and in the nation. It's been a a long time sort of. So having this opportunity to share out and to provide a student perspective has been such a big honor and it's so important. Um So, thank you very much um for that. I It has just been such a wonderful experience to
018serve my peers and um to to learn along the way um and learn something new every day and every time I come here. It's just a such a huge honor. Thank you very much. Um Lieutenant Fallon um member Bow and all all the others who have worked with us, who have come in all the meetings um to meet in the morning and um discuss all of these issues. Thank you very much. Um I am very grateful and um I I hope that someone else um or whoever takes my place the next year and in the following years um will will will continue this wonderful work. So, thank you very much. Yeah. Thank you so much. Thank you. So, I have one favor to ask. Two favors to ask. One favor would be that before you
019leave Milton High that you continue to uh be who you are as a human being and a good person. Encourage other students to take part in Bow's Friday morning group to then come to the meetings that we have here at school committee. Your student voice is valued. Uh and you should let your colleagues and your peers know that. And then now that you are stepping into adulthood, your voice will still matter. So, make sure that you always get involved in your community and in whatever you value and um your voice matters, you matter. And you know, you also your dedication and your work that we have benefited by, we thank you. So, thank you very much. Keep it up. We are so proud of you and we can't wait to hear the good stories about
020you as you move forward. Thank you very much. It's been so wonderful. Goodnight. Goodnight. I'd love for you to like come back and share out like your experiences out in the real world. Thank you very much. Yeah, I'll be back. Don't worry. Thank you, Elias. Um Good luck on your AP exams. Uh as Elias said, uh this weekend on Thursday, Friday, Saturday, and Sunday, uh our award-winning theater department will have The Drowsy Chaperone. So, that's 7:00 p.m. on Thursday and Friday and 2:00 p.m. on Saturday and Sunday this weekend. Um as was part of our um citizen speak, we did send out our kindergarten assignment letters to all families. And uh the numbers were put forward to the entire community. 90 students were assigned to Collicot, 82 students were assigned to Cunningham, 75 students to
021Glover, 47 students to Tucker, and 12 who were uh not fully completed their um registrations. We also want to let you know that in that um document, we also sent folks letters who were requesting transfers. Some folks would like to have you know, they might be in the the uh zone that might go to one school or another, or they might have a reason for going to a different elementary school. We sent a separate email to those families saying that we'd be doing that second after we get everybody settled in K, then we get everybody settled in grade one, then we'll go back and address all the transfer requests. And um and do that as we move through the spring. Uh we also sent out our grade one numbers. Uh the letter sent to every
022current kindergarten family and next year's grade one family had the numbers of every single school's choice. So, the data is there for folks to see. Um the uh speaker on public speak is absolutely right. We do have this um situation as we have had in the past where we're oversubscribed in French by three students in uh at the Tucker and by 10 students at the Collicot. Uh there will be lotteries done at those two individual schools and then there'll also be a lottery district wide in case there's no space available for anybody to access French 1. Uh we believe that um when that process um is executed that there will be space for everybody who registers in this first round to be able to take French. I know the numbers don't work out right now,
023but folks will make that decision as to whether they want to leave the Tucker or leave the Collicot in order to take uh the French program at Glover or stay in their home school for English. So, uh that's a decision that they will have to make once they go to the lottery. If they don't get into the lottery first and foremost. Um that process is dictated by our policy and our procedure uh that's been in place for some time. Uh we will have the lottery on Monday. We will have a PTO representative present for the lottery uh at the Collicot um the Collicot names and the Tucker names and then also for the the district wide. Then after that we will call personally call all 13 folks that are in the lottery that did not
024get in place in their home school and let them know how the next step works in terms of making a decision and giving them a timeline. Uh and then we'll have that should be all uh tied up by the end of next week. Um I want to thank Brad Spindle and Serena Burke for their work on uh registering, communicating uh with folks and I want to thank the families that are calling right now about the transfer piece. Um everybody has uh timelines in their own family about whether or not they can uh transfer and you know, child care etc. So, the reason why we do our transfers all at once is because we try to make as many people happy as we can. If I want to go to the Tucker and I'm at Glover
025and I have someone at the Tucker who wants to go to Glover, we just keep doing those switches because it helps both schools and it also supports what our families would like to see uh with the caveat that it does have to be um supported by what the district needs and uh is connected to our class size. We want to see all of our grades class sizes be um relatively the same. We don't want any school overburdened with a 25 or 24 and have schools with 17. So, when doing transfers, we actually keep class size as one of the criteria that we want to pay attention to because that's something that's good for students uh in the classroom. Um we have been getting calls and emails and responding to them. And for Dan, who was
026our speaker, please give me a call tomorrow uh or email me and I can walk Dan through the process. So, gladly we'll do that for him as well as we have for a few other folks who've called uh this past week. Lastly, um not lastly, but next is we um had the chance to visit Laboure College on Adams Street in Milton. Laboure has been in existence for uh a long time, but they are having their nursing program combined with Curry College, which means that their building will be for sale uh over the summer of 2026. Uh as you know, we are currently involved in a potential building project to alleviate the space challenges we have at every level of the district, most acutely at the elementary level of the Cunningham Collicot. And um we are
027uh really looking hard at this Laboure space in order to see if it can be something that we can pursue to alleviate some of that space challenges we have. So, uh Mark and I, along with Nick Milano and uh Shawn O'Rourke, Tom McCarthy and Bob Mayhew of the facilities department visited Laboure last week. Uh we met with the leadership team today to discuss how we could programmatically make this or not make this work. And uh we reached out to the president of Laboure. We'll be visiting uh the school next Wednesday as a leadership team to really space out, uh uh, what we think it might be potential options that we could use that space for to see if it could fit. Um, so it's exciting news to think about. Um, ironically, parallel to that, we've
028had, uh, a meeting, uh, with the building committee, the staff this morning, uh, right on Gile, not on Gile Road, but on on Gile Road and Blue Hill Parkway to, uh, show the space of the potential school site with the future OPM candidates and firms that will be bidding that job. Uh, so we'll definitely be doing a few parallel pathways of, uh, exploring space for the district over the next couple of months. Uh, so if this library issue becomes something that has uh, potential and would serve the town and the schools well, uh, we'll be doing that work over the next 2 months and updating the school committee, um, on that on that topic. So that's really exciting news. Um, the the other big piece of news is that the Celebration for Education is this
029Saturday night at the Blue Hills Country Club. We encourage everybody to get a ticket and attend. Uh, they are giving out uh, several awards, but the new award this year is the Burn Lovely Award. It's a local community leadership award that the uh, the MFE wants to honor someone not in schools, but someone in the community that has done good uh, work, uh, for the town over time. So we're excited to find out who that person is and that will be the annual award given out in Burn Lovely State. Burn Lovely was a former school committee member, uh, and parent of students in the Milton Public Schools and, um, and his grandchildren go to the schools now. So we're very happy and uh, that we can honor him, uh, and I'm glad the MFE is
030doing so. And lastly, as you know, we have town meeting starting on May 6th and May 7th of next week and if needed the following week, uh, May 11th, 12th, 13th. And that's my update. Before we get to the South Shore Collaborative piece, any questions for the superintendent? Comments? We're talking a bit more about Laboure in executive session. I can elaborate a little bit more. Yeah, in executive session, I just want to say before the French stuff, I really appreciated the email you sent with the level of detail and the number of steps that cleared up not just us but the whole community. That's wonderful. key point from prior years and so I know took that on last year of like trying to improve the communication process and make it clear for families and transparent.
031So, we appreciate you continue to improve and improve for families. Thank you. If there's nothing else, move on to the chair's report. Um so >> Yeah, South Shore Collaborative. I'm sorry, you're right. Thank you. I knew I was going to screw up something. Uh all right, so we have the South Shore Educational Collaborative. Uh for those who might not remember, this is just something I know Milton is a part of. We get a one seat on their kind of collaborative board and historically we've appointed the superintendent to be the town's designee to that. Uh so, John has I think graciously been voluntold to do it again and so we appreciate that. Um Uh for the purpose of discussion, I'll go ahead and make a motion to appoint the superintendent of Milton Public Schools uh to
032be Milton's representative uh to the South Shore Educational Collaborative. Is there a second? Second. Any questions folks have about that? If not, then I'll In the language of the motion, should we include and or designee in case you end up deciding to do that? I take that friendly amendment. Do we still have a second? Second. >> Thanks. add those words. Uh if there's further discussion, then I will take a a vote. All in favor? Great. It has passed. Good job. Thank you. Now, we'll get to the chair's report. Um keep it short and sweet. First of all, just thank you all for the nomination to chair. I'll do my best not to screw it up. Uh so, really appreciate it. Um thank you to Hannah for taking on vice chair. Uh I want to echo
033the sentiments at public meeting of just thanking I mean Sterio. Uh I I think I speak on behalf of all board members like she was fantastic chair, great colleague. Really appreciate how much time, effort, care, thoughtfulness she put into everything she did on this committee. She will be missed uh greatly and so really appreciate uh her her time and service to to our town and our kids. At the same time, very excited again, I'll echo all the other sentiments, Stevie. Very excited for you to participate and be here and for putting your hand up and running a election, which is never easy. Uh and Hannah, all that time and effort to to now volunteer your time uh and spend a lot of nights with us. So, hopefully you won't regret it anytime soon. Uh and
034then I want to just also take a moment to thank Dan O'Neill for running uh for school committee. Uh running for town wide offices is hard and so um we should be grateful for anybody who's willing to raise their hand and try and take that on and spend that time to volunteer. So, thanks to Dan. Congratulations again, Stevie. Um couple of smaller things. Um Lizzie will bring this up, but uh MASC, there's some items around budget advocacy that uh have just been coming up with uh supplemental budget that the governor and the house is looking at, as well as kind of the FY27 budget. A lot of things that are in schools related in terms of appropriations around Chapter 70. Um the MASC is looking for kind of advocacy of school committee members. They'll reach
035out. I don't think we're not going to take a vote and decide anything formally within the committee as a whole, but I thought maybe it would be helpful would be to send out kind of the information. We can send out a link to the webpage of the MASC which says the things that they're looking to advocate on. They also have like easy links of language that can be used by school committee members to share that with elected representatives. So, we'll just want to put that on your radar as members, share that and share that out and choose to do with that as you wish if you want to reach out to our our elected it's it's for our town. Um anything else you want to say? Uh next is kind of committee assignments. That's next
036step in the reorganization. So, um I to gather that information, I put together kind of I I think a Google form is something that I think would be helpful to kind of get people's interest. We're obviously trying to balance uh splitting up people across experience, uh interest, and then numbers, and also kind of workload cuz obviously different committees have different workloads. So, I think most members know that. Most of this is for you, Steve, to kind of share how we as we think about this, but I'll send out that Google Google form for you all to just share what your interest is and we'll take that and try and figure out from there. Um maybe it often talk about that at a future school committee meeting. So, just want to put that on your agenda
037that that is coming. And obviously again, if you have any questions about that or strong feelings, please just reach out. Uh Another thing we should start thinking about is a governance retreat. Just putting that on your radar so everybody can look at their calendars. I'll probably send an email out. I'm going to think about if we want to try and do it before the summer break or kind of right as before we as we get into the summer. So, I'll communicate that kind of start on email and then maybe try and schedule something at our next meeting. We just want to put that on your radar. And I don't have anything else I'd elaborate. Walker is welcome. I think John summed that up well. That is it for my chairs report. I'm going to move
038on to finance sub committee. Unfortunately, I'm got to keep speaking on this but we're not for much longer. Special education stabilization funds policy. So this is the second reading of this policy. There was a slight tweak to the language. I think we talked about we were waiting on the town administrator to kind of get back to us with some information on how funds can be allocated to this account. I forwarded that over to all of you just a little bit earlier today. We heard back from the town administrator who said essentially it is allowed that the school committee member can um members can adjust uh budget spending similar to how we move money from one line to another. You know, we do some reallocations. We can do that and reallocate funds that have been appropriated
039to us to the special ed stabilization fund. It does not need to go through a town meeting votes. Does not need further approval because the funds have already been allocated to us. And that is a school committee as well as like all of the school committee accounts. We can just move the funds over there if we have extra funds at the end of year. So that's obviously less hurdles to jump through. That's good information. The first bullet point under transfers in was updated ever so slightly just to make that language slightly more general. Um take out the reference to like a town meeting vote. That's what it said previously. That is the only change that has occurred since the last um meeting. I just wanted to highlight that change. Otherwise any questions folks have about
040what I just shared or anything else about the policy? If there's not then I will Sorry, can you um Is the bullet which Sorry, it's the very first bullet. The The funding source will be derived from year-end surpluses from the appropriated school budget. Such fund exists. Please note. Special stabilization policy. Okay, thanks. Uh if there are no questions, I will take a motion to approve the policy. I'll make a motion um to approve the second reading of the special education stabilization fund policy. Is there a second? Second. Any further discussion? Not. Uh all in favor? Uh all opposed? All abstaining? Okay. All right. Uh great. So, that is the special ed stabilization fund. Uh that's great. The next policy is a circuit breaker policy. There have been no changes to that policy since the first
041reading. Um So, if there are any questions, please reach out. Otherwise, I'd also take a motion. I'll make a motion to approve the second reading of the circuit breaker policy. Is there a second? Second. Excellent. Any further discussion? And all >> really appreciate all the work that has gone into what, you know, us approving these two policies. And I think it's a significant um accomplishment, honestly, for this team. So, thank you. Thank you, Katie, for leading us through that work. Uh all right. All in favor? All opposed? And all abstaining? Okay. Sounds good. We're moving right along. Um, third quarter reports. I'll turn over Katie here in a sec, but the report was is in the agenda. Just to reorient folks, remember we had the quarter one report, second quarter report, this is now the
042third quarter report. Next one will be the end of year report, so it'll be kind of after Katie, um, unfortunately it won't be Katie, but uh, whoever closes out our books. Um, so this is kind of our last check-in on where we're at with the budget before the end of the fiscal year. Um, so the highlights are within the memo, but anything in particular you want to add? Um, I just have a few notes. Um, so the third quarter report, similar to the other reports, you have a memo that provides just some high-level context around the expenditures that we've experienced so far this fiscal year, and some of the expenses that we're anticipating throughout the remainder of the fiscal year and the school year. Um, just some of the notes that weren't included in the
043memo, but I just wanted to call attention to in case there were any questions um, with the financial exhibit. So again, the report contains a memo with a high-level overview, and then there is a financial exhibit that provides the expense and the pending expenditure um, summaries, and that is reported out by cost center, so that is um, summarized with some of the salary expenses, and then the general expenses, and that is for our operating budget, and then I also included a year-to-date um, revolving funds summary, too, which was included as a part of the packet. Um, to sum the notes for the third quarter report for the operating budget. I just wanted to call attention and hopefully answer some questions about some of the cost center overages. So for the for Milton High School, the
044salary line was over expended. So that includes some expenses for positions that were actually budgeted within the instructional leadership line, which is carrying a surplus balance. I believe we had mentioned that during the second quarter report, but I just wanted to help clarify that. Athletics and student activities, which is also um one of the cost center areas. Um those that cost center has revolving funds that typically offset the cost contained within this cost center. And so we are currently retaining balances in the revolving funds unless they're absolutely necessary to use. So that's why you see that deficit position in in operating budget because there are funds available in the revolving funds to offset those expenses if necessary. Um similarly, the operations and maintenance budget is over expended and that is partially due again to the
045underutilization of the revolving fund offsets that were built into the budget. Um And for operations and maintenance, we also have a number of outstanding encumbrances, which just um essentially means we have purchase orders for different vendors um that are currently open. And so over the next several weeks, we'll go through a pretty thorough process to look at those balances and to um either reduce or to completely close out those balances. So, that should shift that deficit position in operations and maintenance. Um we did have several high-cost unanticipated expenses in operations and maintenance, but we had discussed those at previous meetings. Um and that was due to an issue with the Tucker elevator for the Tucker elevator that happened last summer, and also the Cunningham water heater. Um and those expenses were in excess of $100,000.
046Um so, one thing I think is very important, and we've talked about it previously, but when we look at these reports, it's when we look at the budget, when we talk about the operating budget, it's really important always look at the history of the operating budget. So, looking at the FY27 actual expenditures, look at the expenditures that we're currently experiencing, and then to think and consider what the expenditures will be for future fiscal years for operations and maintenance as a part of the budget process. We do have an extraordinary maintenance fund that we had to unfortunately reduce as a part of the FY27 budget process. And that's just something that I just wanted to um remind that committee of, because that's something that we just need to be mindful of. Although we reduced the budget
047in that area, we know that there are um unanticipated expenses that can occur at any time throughout the district in our buildings. And so, that's something that we just need to be mindful of um that we may not have that funding to be able to offset those expenses next year. And that's why we tried to really measure how much of the revolving funds we were using for FY26 so that if we needed to, we could build in um, a buffer for FY27. Um, as we had previously discussed, a number of positions were left unfilled in this fiscal year and this has allowed us to reduce our revolving fund utilization for these specific cost centers so that we can continue to reestablish the strong balances in the revolving funds. Um, and so at the end of
048the year, although some of the areas are over expended, we are projecting that we will have um, an operating budget surplus of just about $34,000, which is actually slightly higher than the budget surplus that we were projecting for the second quarter report. Um, I anticipate that that number will continue to change as we move through the months of May and June. Um, but we'll continue to fine-tune that number and that surplus um, amount as we get closer to the end of the fiscal year. Um, some of the highlights of the report is just we talked a lot in the past about the substitute and extra duty expense lines. Those historically, those lines, um, had been over expended and I think it it really is um, good news to report that we are actually tracking under
049budget in those lines. Um, so that is a highlight of the report. And then also, um, as was previously mentioned, but at the state level and I put this under the revolving fund section in your memo, but I think it's just important. We've talked a lot about circuit breaker funding. Um there is currently a supplemental budget that's under consideration that could provide some additional circuit breaker funding um for FY26. If approved, our um transportation reimbursement could increase from a 61% reimbursement to a 75% reimbursement. So, for Milton, that would be an additional $260,000 in circuit breaker reimbursement for this year. Um and that would allow us to carry that funding over into fiscal year 27. So, um I think that is positive news and again speaks to the advocacy that the community can do at
050the state level um to bring resources into our town. I think that is Those are the highlights. Questions? So, for anyone listening, these reports get posted to the budget page following the approval that will be going tonight. So, then it would be there and anyone could who's wanting to review the memo can go there. So, um first of all, I want to thank uh Katie. Uh when I'm thinking about what these detailed quarterly reports look like, to your point, Lizzie, every single cost center uh is detailed on this for all three quarters of this fiscal year. Uh the summary is a really great way to shine light on the different pieces of that people might have misunderstanding about or want more information about. The transparency is really, really ringing loud and clear around how our
051budget works this year. So, thank you, Katie, very much for that. Also, the work for the policies that we just voted. Those policies will go a long way in assuring that we continue to have um budgets each year that are in line with the funds that we have available and there's uh checkpoints that we're all going to have to address and discuss at this table in front of the community if we need to change anything, uh which I think is really exciting news for the community. So, when we start to think about where we are in, you know, May of uh '26 versus where we were in May of '25, uh we have a budget that is meeting expectations, that has a surplus, small at this point, but it's a surplus. Uh we have policies
052in place to make sure that the checkpoints are in place for the community to know that we won't go over in certain areas without discussing it in the public on TV. Um and uh really thankful uh for Katie's ability to navigate the policy side and the number side. Um and at the beginning of the year, we left some positions vacant. You can actually see right now where those dollars went and why it was important to do that. Despite the incredible generosity of the town's override, we still needed to be uh conservative a little bit this year to make sure we knew where we would land. And we're very thankful that we're landing in a good spot. Uh for a belts and suspenders approach, uh Katie and I have already spoke to the leadership team. We
053have already frozen POs, so no one's buying anything new unless they really need it. There's plenty of money to do it, but what we're trying to do is get all the POs that are outstanding to be collected, reimbursed, and held uh in accounts, so we know exactly what our end of the year report will look like. Uh and um that's traditionally something that I think is really important because it gives a you know, a good 4 weeks of time for Katie to be able to see what we still owe and where the money's coming from and where it needs to go. We did a Katie did a great job of encumbering a lot of expenses this year. So, we know where all our money is. And uh and we know the bills that we have
054to pay and we know that we'll be in good shape by the end of this year. So, Katie's leadership on this work in its totality uh has been fantastic and the finance team meeting weekly and posting everything online and having its own webpage and recording all the meetings I I just think it's it's a really uh good start for moving forward in a really thoughtful and um open way for our community to understand just how our finances work and how important it is to what we do in the schools every year. So, Katie, thank you very much. And thank you to the finance folks as well for all that work. That's that's a lot of good work this year. May I ask one question? Katie, you mentioned about the substitute line is like more under
055control this year compared to last year. What did we do differently this year for the substitute positions? Um so, uh some of the funds that we had from the vacancies, we made sure that that line was funded at the level of expenditure that we had experienced over the last 3 years. Some of those lines were not funded at the actual expense amount over years. So, that was one one part. Um and we right at the beginning of the year, we met with all the principals. We talked about substitutes, how they work, what coverage looks like, what we can do to reduce that, and just brought it to everybody's attention. And and I think all of our building principals and all the administrative assistants in all the buildings for really being clear with how those things
056work. So, I think the combination of looking at the expense side and then adding the adding the revenue to the expense line to adjust it to the actuals that we saw historically uh worked well. Just to follow up on that, we're on track to be 15 or 20% below what we budgeted. Do we think the actuals for that line are what the budget should be, or did we sort of just happen to spend less than what we budgeted this year for any number of reasons? I I think that we're working on that issue related to how we organize our coverages moving forward. Generally speaking. Kitty, I'd have a follow up on something else you said. Um and just want to second everything John said about the professionalism and just technical acumen you bring to this
057work. It's really a pleasure to work with you on it. Um Sorry. So, right. So, the transportation reimbursement rate went from 61 to 75%. Is this Is that a um I don't really know how those decisions are made. Is that a Is that a sort of permanent change to the reimbursement rate, or does that level set every single year? So, the 75% is the target, and that is consistent with tuition and transportation, and the state sets the budget. The reimbursement happens The timing of it is tricky. So, the state sets the budget in July, and then we submit all of the expenses that we want to that we're eligible to be reimbursed for in October. And so, historically the past several years, because the expenses have been higher than the budget, the state has only
058been able to reimburse us not at the target of 75, but in fiscal year 25 it was 40%, and then this year it was 60%. So, I think the state is having to do a number of projections, almost guesswork, trying to figure out what we as municipalities are going to submit as eligible expenses. In the past several years, they haven't funded um those budget lines high enough, and so that's where the supplementals are coming in throughout the course of the year. They are saying, "Okay, well, our target is 75%, but unfortunately, because the expenses were so uh we could only as numerous districts under that amount, but we have some extra revenue that we can allocate within that current year, and that brings it up to the target of 75%." So, the goal has always
059been consistent at the 75. It's just that the state has been underfunded, so they haven't had enough money to to reimburse us fully to that target. That's helpful. Can I just clarify that point, though? 75 hasn't been funded yet. Yeah, we're working through the supplemental budget process as part of the Questions? Uh well, Katie, appreciate the good news that we are again um projected to be under budget in and that maintains. Thanks for all your attention, and I'll go like Nathan did and give Johnson to suggest all the work you put in for the entities. We're going to have to figure out make up a another report for you to give us before you get out of here. Just so I can get a little more time with you, but thank you for all that
060you do. Uh given that, we want to take we want to vote on this to approve the third quarter report, so I will take a motion. Make a motion to approve the third quarter report. Great. Is there a second? Second. Any further discussion? All in favor? All opposed? All abstaining? Excellent. Thank you very much. Uh next piece with the agenda is the approval of vendor warrants. So, um my final act as the uh finance chair uh for the prior term, I did um sign and and approve the following vendor warrants. Vendor warrant 41 dated 4/16/26 in the amount of $774,536.40 as well as vendor warrant 43 dated 4/30/26 in the amount of $852,667.73. Both of those were sent out to members. Any questions about those warrants? If not, we will move right along. Um the
061approval of meeting minutes. So, we had in the folder uh meeting minutes for the meeting on the 8th. Did anybody have any edits, questions, concerns about those minutes? If not, I will take a motion at some point. Is there a motion? I'll make a motion to approve the April 8th, 2026 meeting minutes. Is there a second? Second. Further discussion? If not, all in favor? All opposed? Abstentions? Great. Um uh up next is the uh next meeting agenda items. Uh so we will have at the next meeting school choice presentation. Uh district curriculum and PD updates. Subcommittee reports per usual. School subcommittees conversation coming out of the Google form. Google form. Other items that we should make sure is on the agenda. Two minutes. Yes. All right. And then that and that will be it. Uh
062uh We will now have executive session. So we are going to um motion to return from here into executive session not to return. Uh we're going to move into executive session uh in compliance with chapter 30A section 21A6 to consider purchase, exchange, lease or value of real estate if open discussion would hurt committee's negotiating position. Uh so I will make a motion um to again um enter into executive session um in compliance with what I just said uh and return directly from executive session not to return to open session. Second. Thanks. Any discussion? Call the Yes, thank you for applying that. Uh and so it will be a roll call vote. Uh Anna? Yes. Val? Yes. What is it? Yes. Stevie? Yes. Nathan? Yes. I am a yes. We are adjourned. Thank you very much.