001I will call the meeting to order here at 8:06 a.m. Uh we got a few things to discuss. Um first one is jumping in with the sped stabilization fund policy. Our goal is that we'll have something to share tonight at school committee for the first reading and then we can um uh hopefully do a second reading on the um April 29th meeting in 3 weeks. So, I sent over yesterday cuz I we just hadn't connected with Megan Winston, Katie, John, and me just trying to talk about the draft policy that this group put together previously. I sent over what is essentially a working document that had like a bunch of Winston's comments and edits. I'd already accepted some of those that were pretty like fine and standard. I kept the ones I think we're still
002having conversation on. I sent over that same document to Winston and Megan yesterday cuz Katie, John, and I were just, you know, making sure we were aligned on what we wanted to share with Winston. Um I let Winston and Megan both know we're talking about this today. Um again, Winston's comments aren't here. Megan sent an email. Her only comment was really on the target funding ceiling and like where did the 750 number come from? And so I answer I think I answered that through the comment. Obviously, Winston's I think big comment is thinking we should remove that number and just use the um the kind of um MGL cap of 2%. I think based on what this group talked about last time of like that's a pretty high number and likely not a number that
003A, we're going to be able to get to anytime reasonably and without significant influxes of free cash from the town. Uh and B, that given kind of where we're at with building circuit breaker, we didn't think that was necessary. That was a necessary investment for the town. So, I think I I tried to share that within the comment back to them. Um and so, I think that's a place that we will might might continue to discuss, but I don't assume the um select board will have an issue with us saying we don't need more than 750 and forcing us to have a number higher than that. But maybe maybe he will for other reasons. So, I think that's the one place that we have some ongoing conversation. Uh and disagreement. Um Everything else I think
004is generally fine. Um Again, like they added in something of they wanted a minimum withdrawal amount to be listed is what what I should say they Winston proposed a minimum withdrawal amount of $50,000 that we wouldn't come to them for something less than that. Uh and I thought that seemed fine and reasonable. Um Uh and then that's Uh they changed language to say instead of periodically annually, which again I think it's what we'd already talked about. So, I think that was just an oversight on our our side of not using that phrase. Everything else I think we are pretty aligned on. So, it's just cashing out that target funding ceiling number is my sense. Um Katie, you've been doing some nodding, so I appreciate that. Anything else you think I've missed based on your reading
005of their notes? No, I think you captured it all. Okay. And I think just like the the super important like emphasis on the um reviewing the policy annually. Cuz even if right, cuz we're talking about it, so it's kind of like hypothetical right now because we haven't operationalized it yet here. And so I think having the ability to change it during that annual review is going to be really important because if there's anything if any of the language we feel like is restrictive now, it just gives us that opportunity to make modifications in the future. So. Yeah. Um so Nathan, I know we share this late. I don't know if you've had a chance to look over it. Or if you have any other thoughts, questions. Um not not really. Um I'm I I take
006it you and Winston haven't really chatted about the removal of the target fund ceiling. I was just curious if you had a sense of it was he was he vetoing that out because or strike striking it out because he felt that it was just redundant of what the law is or does he think there needs to be a higher target ceiling? Yeah, I'm I'm not sure. Um so I I had intended to kind of reach back out to him before this meeting and and connect, but um John Katie and I just weren't able to connect to make sure I just want to make sure the three of us were at least aligned before given I I know I couldn't talk to you and Amanda about this until this meeting. Um Um so I again sent
007it over to him yesterday. I expect to be able to get that My hope is that I can talk to him today and I'll just going to send him a text to see if he's available and we can have some information going into the first reading tonight just share with all members. Okay. Here's Amanda. Katie, have you um have you ever seen a situation where the sped stabilization fund is over-funded and what happens in those situations? Like let's say we remove this and just for whatever reason we end up with more than $750,000. We end up with a million dollars in there, which may be more than what we think is useful. Like just Mhm. Have you ever seen that situation come up? So the um districts that I was in, the funding ceiling, we
008did use Mass General Law, the 2% of net school spending, which is typically significantly higher than the $750,000 that we had as a funding ceiling. Um and we were never in a situation where we got to that point where we were at the ceiling. So um but I do know I do believe that we did or there was language that was put into the policy that said um that we would not continue to contribute to the stabilization fund by ways of um the surplus at the end of the year being certified as free cash and then put into the fund if we felt like we were nearing that funding ceiling. So um but I've never I've never had two funding ceilings. It's always just been kind of the um the modification that Winston talked about
009is using that 2% of net school spending, which for our purposes would be closer to $1.5 million and not the $750,000. Well, so maybe we should just cuz I mean, would your recommendation Katie be that the policy the the funding ceiling be the the legal limit? I got I think we landed on 750 through some sort of calculations on our part. Mhm. Mhm. But is that like I don't I don't know I don't know how to feel about this, I guess. Yeah, I think it's totally reasonable to just have one, to not have like a number, um, not have a number that we are determining and just and let it be kind of that legal limit. I think that's totally reasonable. I know, you know, it seems like the thought process was just being like
010really mindful of, um, the fact that we also have the circuit breaker fund that we're trying to build up the balance. Um, but I think to just streamline it and operationally just having that one funding ceiling, um, it ties to Mass General Law and then you're only really monitoring like that one number. Um, again, I think that that totally makes sense. Okay. I guess my concern with with the higher number is you know, ultimately what that'll mean is we want to have about about 3 million, like 2.7 million dollars within circuit breaker. We're going to have 1.5, like to rebuild this up and actually reach 1.5, which I don't know if we will. It's just that's just a lot of, you know, that at that point you're at what, you know, four over four million
011dollars um, kind of sitting in in some reserve accounts for the the schools, which based on the current school is like about what, 5% of the, you know, it's a 70 million dollar budget. Um, so four million dollars of if we were fully funded kind of proportionally to our current budget, that that that to me feels feels a little high, especially given that those are not those are not like general reserve funds. Those are funds that both in both cases can only be used for special education, which is in of itself 40% of that 70 million dollars, right? And so now you're becomes a a very big fund. Um, and I think that in my mind the benefit of the lower number was really from, um, kind of savings goal perspective as we were talking
012about like we you know, if the school department is under budget uh at the end of the year like right now we're projected to be about $28,000 under budget, 26,000. That money would automatically kind of be, you know, uh certified as free cash and then it'd be allocated to this account through the kind of normal processes. Um and so is that something we just want to have it annually in perpetuity until we hit that $1.5 million number which in and of itself is going to continue to grow at whatever rate the school budget grows. So, if the school budget's going at 4%, that means that has to grow at 4%. Um which means we need to invest more than 4% into the account in order to grow it at a similar rate. It just it
013becomes a I think a math issue in my mind of getting to a place where it's a really large number. Um and then we don't really have a sense of you know, are are we actually trying to fill the fund to the to the ceiling? Is that is that the goal? And maybe that's not the goal and we just named that of like we're not anticipating, but if so, the only other number we stated is the floor and I think we know we we definitely want need to be above the floor cuz $100,000 is not much of an account. Um so, I don't know if that means we should actually raise the floor and the floor is like really the number we're trying to target to and anything above the floor is like gravy. But
014then I I don't know if the those are the challenges that are kind of in my mind is it just feels like slightly unreasonable number that we're going to be able to get to. I think that it does feel like a big number, but I think that that's okay. Like I truly do. Um and I think that um when we think about it having fully funded stabilization, fully funded circuit breaker, like that's the goal, right? That's the financial stability. That's That truly is the goal of um of where I think ultimately I would love to see us be. Um I think in reality, if we looked at the percentage increase of how much our special education costs are increasing year over year, um that becomes the goal because those costs increase so much, and I
015just don't think I mean, I think that we could get to that funding ceiling and have fully funded circuit breaker, but it's going to take time. And um like I hear all of the those concerns, but I think that there are I have so many concerns kind of on the other side of saying there is the real situation where we we may have to use that money because we don't we aren't fully funded in circuit breaker. We know our costs the special education costs are growing exponentially more so than inflation and some of the other um cost increases that we see in the school department. So, um I totally like I like I hear those concerns, but I just think from kind of like uh when I look think about the history of the expenses
016and kind of like the um ultimately the goal of having those two accounts, I think it's okay to really shoot for that higher number knowing that in reality, we may not get there for a number of years if ever because our our um overall spending number as a school department is going to continue to grow year over year as well. So, that target, that 2% is going to continue to increase. Yeah, I think my um it feels a little better like I hear what you're saying, Mark, and I think it is a big number, but the 750 sort of to Katie's point, if if costs increase, the 750 feels sort of our not arbitrary. I mean, I know how we got there, but then does that become does that number become less relevant in future
017years or do you re like is it then that you're revisiting that number year over year versus if that that cap is that um that percentage um then you don't have to do that. Like you don't have to revisit what the number is and does it is it a relevant number? So, um I think I'm okay with having just that one and then knowing and then it's also not it's not necessarily up for discussion every year if that's the right number as opposed to like that's sort of the set number that's the ceiling already based on you know, Mass General Law. So, I'm but I don't feel like I don't feel passionately about it one way or the other. It just seems like a good measure it's a good it's a good number just because
018it's it's already established, I guess is the way. Mhm. And we will revisit it every year anyway, cuz the policy is that we have to revisit it every year. And so, I think and that's to me this is the most important part of this policy, so if we feel like the target funding ceiling is not right or or we need a different number, we can we can always do that. Okay. Right. Yeah, I guess I just meant more in the sense of revisiting it every year, but it just doesn't I think if you have sort of that number, it's less um a little bit less not up for debate, but sort of like you don't have to get into the all of the weeds about the Y 750 versus 500 versus 900. Do you know
019what I mean? I mean, you can still do that, but I just feel like it gives you a good ceiling, but again, definitely needs to be revisited. Um ch- Okay. Well, then it sounds like the the group agrees with kind of Winston's note here. So, I can make that change to say the target funding ceiling for this bunch shall not exceed 2% of the annual or should I say shall be 2%? And we should talk about it at school committee tonight, too. Mhm. Yeah. Yeah, well, I've obviously noted that, but I think bringing this forward um what the current language is. I think the do we still want to Oh, this is another piece that Winston added was he the if the fund balance drops below the TF the floor, the town and school shall
020formulate a plan to restore the fund to the identified target funding See, this is where he says target funding ceiling within two budget cycles, which again, it's just if the target funding ceiling is 1.5, that's not possible. It sounds like we all do that. Um Would it be above the target funding floor within two budget cycles? Uh yes, we can do that. And the two Okay. Um The other one is do we want to make the language here more explicit that what we're saying is that the standard practice is the town would allocate again that what we are proposing I think this is what we talked about but what we are proposing is that the standard practice is any leftover funds any surplus within the school budget the standard practice followed by schools select board
021and therefore you know we have to talk to the warrant committee and town meeting because it goes through those pieces but that that would transfer from into free cash and from free cash into this account. Yeah. Okay. So I think maybe I might make this more I mean I don't we can't mandate it within the policy obviously it's going to be you know select board discretion I guess but we can I can try and write something that just makes that slightly more clear. I left that in a note to Winston over here but I will clean that up. We agreed on Okay. So I will clean up this language a little bit I'll send an updated version I'll drop it in the committee folder tonight for everybody for our first reading and I'll email out
022to the group to let them know that I've done that and then I'll also send it back over to Winston Megan with the updates and just highlight kind of the one piece that we just want to make sure we finish aligning on. Great. Thanks Mark. Thanks Katie. Thank you. Okay. Yeah. Any other questions folks have on this? Thanks Katie. Next up circuit breaker reserve fund policy. So this has been in the folder for a little bit it was drafted just to somewhat mimic the state stabilization fund. So hopefully the formatting looks pretty similar. Um So I don't know if folks have had the opportunity to kind of read this over or if it'd be helpful to kind of read through this collectively right now. I Yeah, Katie. I did a brief guide. I looked good,
023Katie. Sorry. Um I just wanted to if it's okay just provide a quick update on circuit breaker just kind of the circuit breaker reimbursement program to Mark. Is that okay? Uh yeah, sure we can do that now. Okay. So um there is um a supplemental budget for fiscal year 26 that is working its way um through the state um And so they are there's an additional $32 million that is being allocated to the fiscal year 26 budget for circuit breaker and the goal of that is to increase the transportation reimbursement. So right now it's at 61% for this year and um the goal is to be at 75%. So the supplemental budget is just $32 million that um would allow the state to increase that reimbursement to be essentially fully funded at the 75% percent.
024What that means for us is that we could potentially be receiving $259,000 additional in circuit breaker reimbursement for fiscal year 26. That's similar to the process that happened last year, too, if you remember. There was a supplemental um budget at the state level that worked its way through and that payment came to us in July and that actually that payment was larger last year is closer to our 450,000 and that um enabled us to close a portion of the deficit that we had for last year. So, that was really important to us. Um so, I just wanted to let you all know that there I kind of just found out about that recently and it seems to be kind of moving its way similar um with a similar timeline as last year. So, I think
025it's just important cuz it's just more money that we could potentially have um and then there's also just some advocacy to increase the circuit breaker reimbursement to 90% for next year. So, again that would just increase the amount of money um that we would be reimbursed and that would be coming back to us to help offset some of those costs. So, that Sorry, Mark. That's just kind of a high level. I just wanted to mention that to you because I know we've talked about circuit breaker and the circuit breaker utilization so much this year. Um and so, anytime there's any changes, I just want to make sure that everyone is totally aware of it so that if we do receive the $260,000 in July, that that it's not a surprise. It's great. Yeah, great news.
026And great surprise. Katie, can you remind me? I just don't have it right in front. What's the What's the current circuit breaker? Is it 75%? Um currently the goal is 75%. Yeah. Uh tuition this year is funded at 75% but transportation was only 61% and that's what that extra 32 million dollars will allow the state to get to the 75%. Yeah, but they want they're trying to get to 90% from 75. Yes, for next Yep. Great. Any other questions folks have on that update? Nope. Great. Um thank you, Katie. Sure. Uh Uh Amanda, I think you were going to jump in with a a question. Um No. No. Okay, sorry. I Uh I think my my question was uh would it be helpful to kind of walk through this um collectively or did folks read
027over it and they just have specific things they wanted to talk about? Um we could do do it collectively. I wouldn't mind. I didn't have a ton of time to go over it. Yeah. No problem. So, um the obviously again this tries to really mimic in terms of the sections uh what you all already saw in the Fed stabilization fund. The objective of the uh account is um and then what is our goal? Uh minimum rollover balance within the circuit breaker fund to provide financial assistance. So, we talk about like why why we are developing this kind of um fund funding reserve funding within the circuit breaker account. We talk about the target funding ceiling shall be 100% of the reimbursements based upon master law. Um it might be helpful, Katie, to take the master
028law like we did in the other ones. Um Yep. And then we talk about in this case the floor is the 75% number that uh John and Katie had previously kind of um presented to us. The minimum level we want to keep the circuit breaker at. Um transfers out. So, we talk about like the restrictions around what the funds can be used for. Uh again, based upon master law. And the reporting process, which is pretty similar to the other account. And then this is the withdrawal procedure. The school department determines the need to withdraw funds. It will be beyond what was originally presented during the budget process. They must receive authorization through a vote of the finance subcommittee and the full school committee. If the request of withdrawal pulls the funding level below the floor,
029the school department must present a plan showing how they will get the funding level above the floor in future years. And then also each year the school department will report on the circuit breaker utilization and projections to the finance committee and the full school committee school committee as part of the annual budget process. Just trying to institutionalize those those norms, which we have started to do. And then this is just some more kind of confidentiality note, given that this is still similar to the other account relates to special education. Yes, Nathan. So, I know I know this is a hypothetical in at least in the near term, but I can imagine a scenario in which through a confluence of circumstances, we have let's say in a few years we've we've hit our target funding floor
030and maybe we're somewhere in between the floor and the ceiling. And through a confluence of circumstances, we are somehow on track to like exceed the ceiling. Like expenditures are lower than expected, I guess, in a in a given year. Mhm. Um like how how likely is that? Is that is that is that an absurd scenario? And do we um do we I I know we try to probably manage against that during the budgeting process, but if there are lower than expected costs in a given year, um it's not exactly clear to me how we how we how we manage around that. Is that question clear? Yeah, you're asking just what if we again what what is the process if we're projecting that we're going to go above the ceiling? Right, cuz if we go above
031the ceiling, my understanding is we have to give money back to the state, right? The state will not allow us to carry it over for an additional fiscal year, so we have to kind of reimburse them. I my reading of this in this scenario is that in that case, we would want to withdraw if there are funds available to kind of pull because circuit breaker is only a reimbursement of a certain amount, right? That we there's usually within a given year more than what we got reimbursed from circuit breaker the prior year. So, my sense would be that the school department in that case would come to the school committee say, "Hey, here's the scenario. We might be above the ceiling target, and so we need to that, which would be a boon that we
032haven't had the luxury of having recently. Uh this is we want to withdraw an extra 200,000 to stay below that ceiling, and then based on this, again, because that's an allocation beyond what was presented within the budget process, finance and school department need vote on that to approve that, which I assume they would um because otherwise we're just losing that money. That That is my read of that of that scenario. I mean, there could be a situation where the our reimbursement last year and our expenditures within the current year are so disconnected that we and we're already at that 100% kind of cap that we just can't find the costs associated, and in that really unlikely scenario, we would just have to send money back. But we would still be at the 100% um cap
033for the circuit breaker account and there would not be no negative effects to the school budgets in that scenario. It's just that it would be funding that the town didn't utilize in other ways. But Katie, please correct me and jump in your thoughts. So if we go over the one year, if we carry more than one year of reimbursement in circuit breaker, the whatever the excess is that we're carrying gets closed out to the general fund of the town. So it doesn't go back to the state. We keep the money within the town. It just gets closed out to the general fund budget. So it essentially would be it becomes like it would go to free cash. And then the town would certify it as free cash. So the town would essentially record it as
034miscellaneous revenue on their side. And then it just So it almost acts as if we had a we had a turn back in our operating budget. That's what would happen on the circuit breaker side if you had more revenue at the end of the year more than the one year of the carryover. And that's something where I actually had that happen and then that it was like $30,000. It just gets um turned back to the general fund of the town. So it's um The other way that we could handle it is if we knew that we were going to have more than the one year of reimbursement, you can just use whatever you need to for circuit breaker and then you would be carrying that balance in your operating budget and then that essentially would
035get rolled back to to town as the of year surplus and then because we have this sped stabilization fund policy, if that is memorialized, then that end of year surplus would be certified as free cash and then that would go into our our sped stabilization fund. So, it's a good pro it would be like a good thing to have. The money would just go back to the town and then it would go into another stabilization fund, which would be special ed stabilization in accordance to our other policy. Got it. Okay. And that is all very that should all be very predictable and that should all be something that you would know by you should know by March. Um hey, our expenses are trending lower than anticipated. We have the we're fully funded in circuit breaker.
036We may not necessarily need to use it if the state has another supplemental budget and we are already fully funded and we said like, oh, we may not need that money. Um it can either be turned back to the town and it becomes free cash or you use it you leave the balance in operating, that money gets turned back to the town and then that money goes into stabilization. Got it. Mhm. Right. That's better than I thought. Great. Perfect. Thank you, both. Any other questions or feedback on this policy? Um I just have a couple Oh, go ahead, Amanda. I sorry, I just wanted to say one thing. I do appreciate um sort of memorializing the policy. Like having it written, you know, I know that in the past maybe there's been less clarity around
037the process for for this and I think or maybe not maybe that's not the right way to put it, but I do think that having it established that if money is being used from from it that um I think just having this vote in place, talking about the process by which the school committee gets involved. Um I think it adds a greater level of transparency uh which I think, you know, everyone would appreciate. Um so I'm glad that we're doing this and that it's it's um that we have a a written policy around it. I think that's really helpful. Sorry, that was on. Go ahead, David. No, I I I think that's great. I agree with that. I have two just persnickety editorial comments. Um One and take them or leave them, Mark and Katie,
038like whatever you want to do. The second paragraph under objective uh I just think like this should we should just eliminate all that extra language and just say this policy establishes requirements, blah blah blah. Mhm. Um I agree that it's in alignment with best practices, but I don't know if we really need to say that. And then um transfers out I think only be used could be all just regular case. Um unless we feel like we need to say it out loud unl- unless we feel like we need to yell it. Um those are those are it. Otherwise, I think I think this is this is great and extremely useful. I'm glad we have it. Great. Those sound like reasonable edits to me, so thank you. Um All right. Um those were um the two
039policies we want to look over. Um Mark, is the idea we talk about this tonight as well? Yeah, the idea would be that we I will add this one also to the folder it's already in obviously and then I'll email everybody policies and we'll do I think they're both listed as first readings for tonight. Is that right Amanda? Yes. Okay. Can I ask a question about that and and you guys might have talked about this and sorry I I I couldn't my my Google stuff wasn't connecting so I couldn't connect to the meeting earlier but with respect to the special ed stabilization fund policy how so is this a I want to make sure I'm asking right is this a um policy for both the school committee and the select board or is this a
040select board policy that we have taken the initiative to develop and they need to adopt it? It's a joint policy so it's both both of us because we also have to vote on this. Okay. So given that there is purview for this work under school committee I think it is also a school committee policy it's not something that is solely held at the select board level so both but the could because the fund is jointly managed it needs to be a joint policy. So we'll again present it we'll talk about it tonight. I'm still not clear from the emails and I don't think I asked directly so that's more on me of like what they're anticipating timeline is there's no way they're going to have this developed by um you know that the turnover in
041their board and they're obviously having more turnover in their board with two members not not returning um so I'm not sure what the timeline is on this. Obviously Winston and Megan are who we've worked with they are coming back so I think the goal is that they will continue to drive towards getting something both what What needs to be the same policy which is why we're working with them on the development of it. Um voted on and institutionalized within the select board relatively soon into the next term. But that that's another piece I got to work with them on. Could there be a recommendation that this be done prior to the fall like if there's a fall town meeting? Just knowing that in that case like I I just think in in in obviously it
042will happen in the timeline that it happens, but I just think recognizing that um we're talking about funding it and just I don't know not having it I don't know if there is a town meeting or if there's a special town meeting in the fall. I know often times there is, but um just so that it doesn't fall to the wayside and recognizing that we're talking about for the next fiscal how it would imply you know, how free cash would be impacted by it. So doubtful that they would have it done prior to this town meeting. Um Yeah, I mean I can talk to them about what what their timeline is. I I I don't actually know what their policy development time like if they also need two readings like we do and so if
043it could be done quicker. Um my hope is they could get something done before they leave for a summer break. But >> Um certainly agree with you I like trying to help nail them down and support them in in getting this done at by a certain date and you know, work with them to identify what is that reasonable date for them. Um cuz it definitely won't be that helpful of a policy. I mean it'll help us still, but it it doesn't really help the process if they don't have something if we're not aligned on exactly what this is going to look like once it leaves us and then goes to them for any withdrawal requests. And does something like this typically go to Nick as well or do they share it with Nick? I I
044have Nick has been CC'd on every version of this that I've sent to them. So yeah, So, he's been He has looked at this. Okay. Perfect. Thanks. >> So, okay. This is helpful to know. So, the warrant committee is recommending $500,000 go into the stabilization account. There's going to be an article for that, and we're going to ask town meeting They're going to ask town meeting to vote on it at the end of the month or in May. Yeah. We won't have a policy in place. Well, the goal is the school committee will. Okay. Well, what does that mean? Like So, we'll we'll vote on a policy uh if select board hasn't adopted the policy, the policy sort of isn't Again, it guides our work. It's been It's that handoff piece that then becomes muddled,
045which having a joint policy makes it clear. But, at a certain point, we again, we have to separately as separate boards vote on the policy Yeah. in any scenario. And so, I think we're just trying to do it at a little bit more rapid pace because we can, and we have some urgency on this. Um And then also, I think us passing it and from my perspective should hopefully push put some emphasis on them to say, "Okay, the school committee's done their part. We got to finish wrapping this up on our side." Uh and hopefully gives them some momentum. Katie? So, with this, I believe if this um if the warrant article is going to town meeting, and it is in regular town meeting, I believe that the funds aren't appropriated until July 1st. Mhm.
046>> And so, that gives you time at least because the funds aren't appropriated until July. So, it's not like the funds are going to be available to us in May. If it was if there was a special town meeting where the funds were appropriated in the special, then they become available to you immediately. So, in future years, if there's a situation where our expenses have gotten crazy, right? And we need we need that money and we need another appropriation to the fund, it can be put in the special because then the funds become immediately available and you can use them right away, right after a town meeting. Um but in this scenario, it's a July 1 effective date. So, you would essentially have the time until July 1 to have the policy finalized. Okay. Right.
047Um okay, other questions on that process. Mhm. All right. Um I'll jump back real quick on the budget development uh on the FY27 budget stuff. Um we obviously are basically wrapped with that with the exception of a presentation at town meeting on May 7th. May 6th? Is that the first day? Whatever those first days are, I can't remember if it's a Wednesday or Thursday this year. Um the I think what we'd like to do is put together a draft of some slides similar to maybe what we presented to Warrant Committee, but um especially as it relates to like the stuff Nathan suggested, which was or maybe it was Jay actually, suggested like the highlights at the start. And then kind of hit on it at a high level. Um so, I can start trying to
048pull some stuff together. I don't know if there are other things that again, Nathan, Amanda, you have thoughts on that we should like definitely hit on or you think we definitely shouldn't hit on because it's too in the weeds based on kind of what we've shared previously like it just a a general thoughts on goals for the presentation to town meeting on the school budget. I don't have a thought initial I just wanted to share one thing. I know in the past and I have to remember to what what level of detail Mhm. you make available. So, you know, I think I'm thinking about questions that have come up at prior town meetings. Um there've been like way past where it's so high level and people are sort of like where can I get into
049the weeds of it? Um and so are will we share that maybe on the website or some place where or to town meeting like is there a place where people prior to it can access the the the the budget um beyond like I remember questions here maybe around like how many students do we have out of district and it might not be like that level of detail but it's like they can go and see the like there's a page where they could see the out of district tuition etc. cuz I don't know I'm just and I don't think it was last year that we did it but I know like a year or two before that a couple years before that it was so high level and people are like wait I need a little
050bit more. So, I think trying to find that balance of um maybe it's not in the meeting but also being able to point to town meeting where they can go prior to it if to kind of dig into it. Does that Am I making sense? Yeah, it does. I mean we obviously have the the budget page on the website which has a lot. Uh again Katie and John really appreciate all you all have done for that. I look at the the town side and I don't think they've updated it recently. Um but again I I what you all have done with the school budget page. It's been such a huge improvement. I think the point is a good one, Amanda. I wonder if that's something that we should flag for the moderator. Yeah. And if
051that can be sent within the moderators like email to say, you know, as she like or her letter or whatever it is to say, if you have questions about town budget stuff, here's the town page. School budget stuff, here's the school page. Lots of resources to look into these things. Yeah. And maybe even like specifically FY, you know, if there's if there's like specific links that we want, you know, because you can also sort of if there is a lot of great information, but like specifically look here because I I think that that would also um help it would facilitate the conversation as the budget is coming up that people people have had the opportunity to do a deeper dive into it more so than you could get necessarily in the warrant. Yeah. You know,
052I just think that that would be helpful. I think you're right. I almost wonder if then what we're asking the moderator share is like a the recording of cuz the most recent budget presentation is the one we did in the warrant committee, right? And so that that is at the top of the FY27 budget documents on there on the town school's page. Um so maybe it's a matter of also like asking the moderator share the recording of the recent warrant committee meeting cuz then folks can watch that full presentation with the questions on it. I mean, that's as detailed as kind of gets as relates to our budget information. Um Maybe we just look at the budget page and like just with fresh eyes as people who assuming you're looking at it for the first
053time. Right? And figuring out what would be most helpful to ask the moderator to share. Um it might be that link. Is there like even just specifically pointing to I don't have the page up, but uh you know, the proposed FY27 budget, you know, that Like I just I'm just thinking of past presentations where it's like literally a screen with with top lines, but if they want to get more into it. Um I just just a a contribution here. I I think at the meeting um at town meeting, I think we should share a good chunk of what was at what what was at warrant committee. Um the highlights, the Yeah, okay. Um I don't know if the budget maybe I I forget what's in every slide, but you know, I don't think we want
054to I don't think we we we obviously don't need to do all of this, but we could condense like the highlights down to a slide or two. Um Probably people don't need an orientation to like school finances. But then in Katie, I forget the words, but like basically the sort of break down the 78 million into big chunks including like labor um operating expenses, out of district tuition, transportation, you know, whatever, you know, few things so that we can break it down for people. Um talk about circuit breaker. I think that's important. Um And then maybe be prepared and another thing, Mark, like what about just I should a district profile. Like how many students do we have? How many staff do we have? Um like remind people of the scale of the district. It's
055not like the biggest district in Massachusetts, but like we're not we're not some little rural district either. Mhm. Um Mhm. Like we have hundreds of employees and thousands of students and um I think that that's just a helpful reminder for folks who are less tied to the school system on a day-to-day basis. Um and then yeah, I don't those are some initial thoughts and I can I can think more about it as well. I think that would be helpful. Maybe some like in an appendix be I don't know how easy this data is to pull, but like you know, if we just had our had an had an appendix slide with like per pupil expenditure across all the dark district all of our dark districts. Um that might be a question we get. Um you
056know, how do we compare to benchmark districts in terms of expenditures? Yeah, I think we'll have a need to have a very robust appendix as I typically love love to have. Okay. All right. It's just a I know you have your data set that you're always questions. Uh no, but that's I I I think that type of stuff is is helpful like what what are the possible questions we can anticipate? Because let's throw it in there and if we don't need it, we don't need it. Great. Um Yeah, I do think there was a minute you had the question you mentioned before. I think it was Linda Lee last year asked like how many out of district placement students. Maybe I'll have to watch that again, but then she was It was somebody else, but
057they there was question about the number. Yeah. There was a question about the percentage of special education students and potentially percentages of I don't know if it was expenditures or students or um >> Yeah. I definitely I think that there were a lot of questions about like percentage of potential different student demographics. Yeah. And I think that number I you know, again not not creating a lot of extra work, but I think we do have it that I think there was there have been numbers in the past that talk about sort of the the percentage change and growth of um students on an IEP or a 504. Yeah. Probably more so the IEP because I think that's more where you're getting the services as opposed to the 504, but >> Yeah. but sort of knowing
058that there was like pre pre-COVID COVID then they kind of have come down a bit and tapered off, but they're still you know, it's right around I think it's like 18 to 20% of the students in the district are on an IEP and I think that's a helpful number to think about when you're talking about as you're considering a big portion of that percentage portion of the budget. So again, don't need to go into the weeds of it, but if some but having that accessible to say, "Yeah, 18 to 20% of the students in the district are on an IEP." That points to why the special education you know, even in district costs are what they are. Um >> Yeah. Yeah, no, I think that that we definitely have those charts. So cuz we shared
059those at the warrant committee. So that's that's good. Um Mark, can I share one other thought just highlights? Um it's it's it's sort of a a blend between highlights and district impact. What is there uh what what what post secondary impact data could we include? Like college enrollment, um you know, percentage of students going to IVs. Um but I don't know I don't know what's available, but I think like we obviously um have strong performance in those areas and I think it would be great to highlight that. It's a big human capital impact of the of the district. Yeah, I think like a a graduating class highlight kind of Yeah. where our yeah. Where our current seniors going because it's really about like we have what has happened in the last year at the schools.
060Right. Can I say that one with a caveat? I just conscious of the fact that there are we do get a lot of feedback about making sure that we're representing or sharing that college is not necessarily the path for all and so that we aren't so that we are recognizing the different paths that different students take. So if there is a if it's they're going and they're going on to a trade school, they're going on into the service, they're going on to just they're moving on to just a vocation or a professional career, you know, a job right after. So I think just I recognize like a big goal is to to help the goal is to help the kids move on to their next path. I'm not disregarding it. I just want to be
061conscious of the way that it's presented. Totally. We can talk about it as like you know, I I assume the data will prove this out but you know, Milton is preparing students for college and career. Making them college and career ready. Here's some data points around that and we can sort of look at it holistically. I'm going to move us along. I know Katie has to go in just a a second here. So just want to make sure Katie any other thoughts or things you want to add? We can actually vote and wrap up after you depart but can can you talk to I think that's a a great idea Nathan and Amanda. Katie, can you talk to John and I assume Stephanie as well who helped put together those other slides. Although Charlene did
062a lot of that work too. But if Stephanie can re-look over those at least those like warm committee highlight slides as a starting point and then also looking for is there some highlights overview some of the data uh on the graduating class and what what they're going to be doing. Um I agree I think that would be great. Sure. And I can start pulling together just a draft for everything else. Um Um our next meeting, I think we have we're back on the weekly cadence. I don't think we have a conflict with next week finance. We have the 15th, the 22nd is school break, so we won't do that. And then the 29th is we'll just have an election. And so I think we we'll have to do a reorganization meeting. We'll be losing Amanda
063on the 29th, so 15th will be our last meeting with Amanda, unfortunately. Although you can keep coming in the Zoom, Amanda. I'll Zoom in. Yeah. Um uh but yeah, so the 15th is our next meeting, so I think my hope would be I'll put together some draft slides. Maybe we can just talk through those slides next week. Another goal we had was the revolve like the other revolving funds account policy. I just think we're we're going to have to push that to the next um the finance finance board um committee will have to keep carrying that forward. But we can on the agenda just talk about the town meeting slides and we can talk about the uh any updates from the first reading, the feedback we've gotten from other school committee members on the two
064policies, as well as if there's anything that comes back on special ed from um the select board. Does that sound right? Katie, quarter three budget. Uh quarter three budget report. Yep. So um I believe John and I talked about potentially just doing a quick update. I know that 29th is the reorg meeting, but we said maybe we could just do just a quick review on the 29th, so And just have the full school committee? Um. When we talked about it was for a full school committee. We didn't talk about that finance subcommittee piece, so. Well, if you're not going to have it by the 15th and we're not going to have a meeting till the 29th. So, again, as assuming that it's all fine news and we're still on for the 20 um, you know,
065right on budget, I should say. Yeah. To me that makes sense. We can just pull it to the full school committee and that conversation there. And then if there are any questions, we could obviously um the whoever's on the finance committee uh in May could bring it back and have further discussion of it. It wouldn't stop them from doing that. Sounds good. Does that make sense, Nathan and Amanda to you all? It does, yep. Okay. All right. Uh I think those are Oh, the last thing on the 15th I will be sending y'all over a bunch of meeting minutes here in the next week uh just so we are caught up and kind of done. Um so, Amanda can help vote on these meeting minutes and we can all close out before the board turns
066over. So, that is on my list to do before next Well, by the weekend, so that you'll have some time to look over it before next Wednesday and we can vote on it. Um. I think that is everything on the agenda. Anything else folks wanted to discuss or have questions on? All right. If not, I will take a motion to adjourn. So moved. Is there a second? Second. Uh we'll do a roll call votes. Amanda? Yes. Nathan? Yes. Naomi, yes. Thank you all so much. Appreciate it. Thank you. Thank you. Bye. >> I love you.