001All right. Now, I'll call the meeting to order here at 8:04 a.m. Nathan will be up and on in just a second. We got a lot to go over. Uh the first item is the quarter 2 budget report which was sent out. So I'll pass this off to you Katie for kind of an overview. Um so there is a copy of the quarter 2 operating budget financial report in the folder for today's um meeting um December 31st 2025 of mark the flows of the second quarter for fiscal year 26. The report is organized in a similar fashion to previous reports where we have included a memo that provides some contextual information in regards to the fiscal year 26 budget and some of the budget realignments that we've talked about at previous meetings. And then after
002the memo, there is a financial exhibit that shows the actual numbers. The financial exhibit is organized as it's been done previously and that's by cost centers and then it's further broken out by salary expenses and general expenses. So the first part of the report um there is information about um the federal grant applications and so that is included in this report because um when the fiscal year 26 budget was originally presented um and then shown in the quarter 1 report, we were allocating those federal grants in a way that we had done previously. ly and that was to pay for a majority of the salary expenses for instructional assistance. After the quarter one report was completed, we finalized um the federal grant submission and in doing so we adjusted [clears throat] the grant so that
003it is primarily now covering the cost for contracted services expenses and not instructional assistant expenses. So um I just really wanted to provide that information because there is a shift there in the budget. it is within the same cost center. So, it doesn't necessarily um it wouldn't necessarily need any action from the school committee to approve that. But I just wanted to acknowledge it because it was a difference just in reallocating expenses from um salary line to a general expense. And so, you have some information in your report about that. And the overall budget impact was a million dollars. And again, that was just a shift between salary and expense under the special education system. Um in November we also discussed some of the um some of [clears throat] the work that was done at
004the Tucker Elementary School um which was a result of the action plan presented by um the principal and assistant principal over at Tucker. And so I just wanted to provide further information on the reallocations that were previously discussed and then memorialized in the Q2 report. So you can see um we did have to allocate some additional funds to the salary line um which was reallocated from a district salary line and then um see so it was Tucker salaries um and then there another piece of that too was increasing the assistant superintendent of teaching and learning from 6 FTE to 1.0. So all of those rate allocations you can see are um at the bottom of the first page of the Q1 report. So those are the updates to the actual budget portion of FY26 and
005then further in the report um there is information on the expense tracking. So, we're about um 30% through um paying out salaries for the fiscal year. Um I tried to provide some information on some of the areas that um we have been over budget historically and one of the um cost centers that we've talked about um frequently in the past was that sub student extra duties cost center. So if you remember substitute substitutes and extra duties had been funded at about 500,000 to 700,000 but uh on the budget side but the expense side it had been running much higher. And so that was one of the areas where historically we had run a structural deficit. And so we worked really hard for fiscal year 26 to address that structural deficit, make sure that the budget
006was reflective of what we were anticipating the expenses were going to be. Um, I wanted to share the information for this year because we're actually at this point running the expenses are coming in under budget which I think is a a good news story. Um and there's been work that was done not only to realign the budget but also to focus on the work of being able to cover the classrooms in the event that teachers are absent in a way that is um being mindful of the budget. So making sure that we're utilizing our resources in a way that we're being mindful of budget and that we're not going [clears throat] as it relates to. So what that means is hiring daily subs trying to make sure that we have kind of a a larger
007pool of daily subs really trying to advertise um that work through the new um time and attendance portal that we have. So [clears throat] making sure that um the work that we're doing throughout the year and recruiting and retaining some of those daily substitute positions is helping um to ensure that we're staying within budget. So you can see that we're projecting to have a little bit of a balance in that account, a bit of a balance in that account um for this fiscal year. that line is it's it's going to change, [clears throat] right? So, that is a projection based off of what we've spent so far this year and then also looking at the history of what we spent last year knowing that it's cold and flu season and may have to take some
008time. So, um, that's something that we'll closely ma monitor as the year progresses, but I just wanted to provide that information because that is something that we've um, historically gone over budget um, in the past. >> Could I pause and just reemphasize that point? >> Of course, you can. when we started together in June, it was very clear that um from the school committee's feedback that that line was one problem that we need to investigate and not only talk about the revenue side of it, but talk about the expense side. So, we actually had meetings the uh the principles and the principal um at the school where it was more um uh of an impact than than the other schools uh came up with a strategy. uh HR we've already done. Uh we had three
009uh hiring F um phases where we brought in building subs in regular subs, daily subs that we hadn't really had in the past um to really attack that problem from an expense side. I think Katie did a nice job using some of the revenue from the override, but also some of the revenue from the nine positions that we did fill in order to backfill the spots of the budget that were that were not fully um funded. Um the uh so that's a I just want to emphasize Katie's good work on not only identifying the challenge and swiftly identifying the challenge but looking at it from a revenue side and an expense side. We attached it we attacked it from both sides. Also the reduction of the positions that were the lack of filling positions has
010really created flexibility in order to align resources this year where we see the need to redirect those resources to things like uh the issues that we want to support at the Tucker School the plan by principal Celeste egg that we already did and also bringing on a full-time assistant superintendent as opposed to six uh which we feel is really important and driving the instruction in the district. So, um, the the ability to make hard decisions in the summer has created flexibility to put the funds where we need them in order to make the the overall budget work. So, I want to just thank Katie because we came off a hard budget year last year. So, fortunate to have an override that supported a lot of this revenue to to fill the holes in the budget,
011but it also took some within the school uh department budget funds. We generated our real money by unemployment decisions in North. Thank you for Katie for the mechanics and the technical parts of all. >> The other thing I want to just mention another piece of this report that's really important um to recognize is the fact that in the quarter one report because it was so early in the year we did not include a projected incumbrance for salaries. So the quarter one report was just included expenses that were incurred up until um September 30th. It did not include any projections for what the salary expenses were going to be for the remaining three quarters. The quarter 2 report includes incumbrances for both the salary expenses and the general expenses. And what that means is in the
012quarter two report we are projecting and including information in those salary accounts. We are factoring in what we're projecting or anticipating our expenses to be in the salary accounts for the remainder of the year. we tried to factor in what the expenses will be for some of those accounts that vary. So, um it includes projections for salaries that are more predictable and easier to calculate, but it also includes expense projections for um athletic stipens, for co-curricular stipens, for the substitute coverage that we just talked about. So all of that information is contained in the report. It will change. So it will vary um over the course of the next couple of months just depending on some of the changes that happen as kind of like typical business operating the school. Um but that information is
013projecting out um and does give us a better sense of where we'll close the fiscal year. So I thought that was a really important to mention because that is just a change in an update in the first quarter report. Um so along with encumbering and projecting out the salaries, we also encumber and project out what some of the general expenses will be for the remainder of the year. That includes transportation. We included an incumbrance for utilities. So utilities we typically don't encumber. We typically don't do a projection in the reports. We didn't in the quarter one report. So that it is something that is included in this quarter 2 report. And I think that that's important because that's a huge piece of um it's a huge piece of the budget and it's a huge piece
014of the facilities expense. >> And so in order to do that, we looked at um what we've paid so far. So with utilities it typically runs in a rears. Um and then we looked at how much we spent last year to get a sense of the comparison. And then we also looked at what are our outstanding expenses um and what are we anticipating that we'll have to spend um over the course of the next several months leading up to the close of the fiscal year. So that information is contained in the report. Um, we're also encumbering and tracking any out of district tuitions that we need to pay. We've done projections for any graduation expenses. We know that there are certain expenses that may come up that are just contracted services expenses at the end
015of the year. um just based off of some of the um history of seeing kind of the timing of when those expenses hit the books last year. And so all of that information we tried to cover as much as we [clears throat] we could in this report. Um so you can see information for incumbances too. On the general expense side, one of the areas that I just wanted to um call attention to is there is an incumbrance right now on general expenses for the ELA curriculum. So, we're currently in that review period looking at different options for the new ELA curriculum. We haven't received any of the cost information yet. So that incumbrance or that projection is really just a hold to say we know that we will have an expense. Um we don't have
016the exact number what that expense will be but we know that that is something that's going to come up in the last couple months of the fiscal year and we want to make sure that we have that money be marked so that it's available to us that we can move forward with that purchase. There's been so much work that has gone into the um ELA curriculum review and that entire team has been working on this I think for you know a pretty significant period of time. So it's really important that we do our part from the budget perspective saying okay this money was um that line was created in the budget in fiscal year 26 and that money is going to be spent in fiscal year 26. So that's included in here too. Um and
017then we'll just continue. There are on the general expense side of course areas that we have to track closely. We've had a few different um expenses for facilities that hit for this fiscal year that were unanticipated and unbudgeted. Um and all of that information from a finance perspective is included in the financial reports. We had um I think it was in July um a pretty significant expense tied to the elevator at Tucker and then we also had um a significant expense for the hot water heater over at Pennington Poly. So, those are just examples of things happen and we don't know that they're going to happen, but we need to make sure that we can make those adjustments and um just be able to uh make sure that we have the funding available to react
018to any of the um issues that may come up from a facilities perspective. Um so right now the total projected balance for the operating budget is $26,000 around 26 I think 277. Um and that is projecting pretty minimal utilization of the revolving funds. um we are taking into account any federal grants that we are allocating for this year and then that is using a piece of the reimbursement that we're using for this year but it is not um using any significant revenue for many of the revolving accounts which we had done in um fiscal year 24. So that will continue again continue to change as the fiscal year progresses. Um but right now we're just trying to use minimal amounts of those full involving funds in an effort to kind of keep those balances full
019so that um those accounts can remain installed in. And the next quarterly report will be the Q3 report. It will be similar to the Q2 report. um in the way that we'll continue to project out salaries and any general expenses. Um we'll have any updates for some of the shifts that may have happened in the months of January or March and we'll present that report um during them in April. >> Thank you Kate very much. >> Questions from members. Stop sharing just so I can see Nathan. No, Nathan. You're on mute. >> Thanks. Good morning, everyone. Um, I have Katie. Thank you for that overview and for the report is really useful. Um, I have two questions and a comment. Is it okay if I just kind of run through those, Mark, real quick? >>
020Yeah. Um Katie, a just a clarifying question on the tables at the end. There's a column called FY26 funds committed and I'm interpreting that as like the remaining amount that's encumbered for the rest of the year for those lines. Is that correct? So the funds committed is um the total of what we've spent in the expender direct column and then what we've encumbered or what we're uh projecting that we're going to spend. So it's just the >> Okay, that makes sense. And then um just you made the point that we have about $26,000 kind of unallocated left in the budget for the rest of the year. Putting aside um I don't know all I guess all things being equal, do you as a general practice try to drive that number that funds remaining number for
021the grand total as close to zero as possible as a general practice? like, do you want to see most dollars allocated or would it be nice to have that number be more than $26,000? I can't tell if it if it being $26,000 is the goal or if if that is a if that is an indicator that things are very very tight. I know things are very tight, but >> so the as a practice and what I've done historically, the report is representative of the expenses that we've already paid for and then the expenses that we know that we will need to operate the school district for the remainder of the year. And it's those expenses that are projected are reflective of um the expenses that we had built into the budget when we built the
022budget last year when it was approved by town meeting. And then when we looked at it this summer to say, okay, you know, we had a few people retire, we hired a few positions, we had to m move a couple things around, we had a few people that left and we didn't fill those positions and we reallocated. So, as a practice, what I try to do is just reflect that in the report, see what the ending number is, and then if we have $26,000 left at the end of the year, I typically don't just spend that down for the sake of spending it down. I would return that money back to the town to say that's funding that we didn't need for a number of different reasons and that money can go back to the
023town. It will be certified as free cash and then the free cash in a way will come back to us through capital funding through being able to go into potentially a stabilization account to be reallocated to the school department. So that's kind of the practice that I've always used. Um >> I just I think clarifying A's question I don't want to speak for him but the similar question which is I understand all of that. I think the question is like if let's say another hot water >> Yeah. bus and you have to spend $70,000 that that's an unanticipated cost because you've encumbered all of your anticipated costs. That's obviously more than 26,000. Is are there And is there some anticipation of those unexpected costs in there or is at that point is the the mechanism
024for supporting school budget uh to start to utilize um you know some of the chargebacks for the revolving accounts like what what is that? >> Yep. So um originally in the budget we had put a utilization from the building rental account to be able to offset the cost of utilities. right now we're not using that whole utilization. So we could potentially use that money in building rental to cover one of those expenses. So I think the um there is some flexibility having those accounts because if you need to you could use them but it [clears throat] just impacts there's always going to be an impact to what funds you have available to you for next year. >> Yeah. So if something does come up that's something that I think we'd have to it would be
025appropriate to talk about it at these meetings to say like okay something came up it wasn't anticipated we know we have to pay for it what is the mechanism to do so and what is the impact going to be for next year got it that's helpful so what I'm interpreting from that $26,000 number is it's a signal of two things one is we you all have accurately like the fact that it is basically zero as a fraction of our budget. You've accurately budgeted and allocated the funds to the things we've budgeted for. That's one signal. It's an also a signal that there is zero flexibility. The fact that it is zero means there is zero flexibility in that budget. So not not if but when something happens um we'll have to make some hard choices.
026Um the comment I had just going back to this the discussion around the substitutes. Um I'm really I'm really glad to to see progress there. You know it's basically generating a right now forecasting a a surplus in that line. Um you know if we go back to you know basically before the school year started when John and John you and Katie were thinking about what roles to hold back on where to where to invest. One of those investments was in an HR manager. Um, and I think it would have been reasonable and maybe you got this feedback to say, "Hey, at a time of tight budgets, why are we spending money on a role we don't currently have?" Um, uh, we should just like put that toward the bottom line. Um, I think Milton has
027long needed an HR manager. It's got sever Milton public schools has several hundred employees. It's um it's you you have to have a role you have to have a professional like that on your team. Um and it actually shows where I'm sure there were I think John I heard you tick through multiple factors that have led to better performance on the subline. One of them is having someone in charge of staffing. Um and so I think that that is an illustration of of sort of making a smart investment that that pays dividends. And just I I think it's u instructive for the work that's in front of us as we have to make a bunch of hard choices. Uh there may be times where spending money over the long term uh has um has positive
028has financial upsides for us like in this case. I just want us to keep thinking creatively around that and grateful that that you push for that role. Um I had a question about the when we're looking at the sub u sorry the expenses where does the the statements come for the coaching the extracurricular because that was a place where yes >> there was sort of a big >> jump and I guess so the question is where is that and then how are we looking at looking how has that been looked at differently this year in in order to not have surprising. So kind of what's been >> so the um all of the stipens for the clubs and activities extracurricular um and also for the athletic coaches is in the athletics and student activities class
029center. Um so we which is under high school. >> Um so in that account we had looked at making adjustments um to the extracurricular line to make sure that um we would be able to cover all the clubs and activities. We also are working closely with um the principal at Paris Middle School and also the principal high school just so that they're aware of what the budget is and that they know that we can really only run the clubs and activities that we can support um those type in payments with the budget that's already established. So I think it's been a work it is a work in progress but I'm definitely making that they're aware of the budget and that there's only so many clubs and activities that we can potentially set the the budget.
030Similar with um athletics and the coaching statements, we have more historical or I have more historical information to say, okay, what is the history of the um the sports that we've run each season? and then making sure that we have good visibility into that so that we can um project out what those payments will will be fed to us that the year. Um the one area that um looks to be um over under athletics and student activities is under the general expense line. But that is um somewhat of a result of just trying to figure out which expenses will hit the operating budget first, which expenses are hidden account. And so we're still making sure that we're working through um figuring out kind of what goes where. Um [clears throat] so there may potentially be
031an opportunity to shift some of the general expense. um expenditures from the operating budget to the >> those [clears throat] those um those meetings are really important. Uh Katie and I sat with the couple times uh in August and September to get ready for what fall season meant, what the winter season meant, and what the spring season meant uh to really be sure. But these are the stipens that you have available. This is the amount this is the budget uh very clearly pointing out that we will you know that that this is all the money we have to spend on this there should be no surprises the only surprises from athletics should be any equipment needs that we didn't anticipate or fortunately if we have a lot of teams make the tournament which we do
032there transportation costs that will pop up but there should be no surprises about the statements part of that >> um they were thankful to be able to sit down and actually have a conversation about the parameters of their budget they spend they couldn't spit that didn't seem to be happening prior And also the same with clubs. These are all the clubs that we offer. This is what the the children the students want to do. But there's a there's a fence around that. This is what we have to collect. This is how much we spend. This is what we're going to communicate to the teachers who run the clubs and this is the agreement with how we run the club. So, uh really being clear about the budgeting part of that which I think it's been
033very very helpful. So all that has been openly discussed and planned for back in the fall. is a big piece too is the transportation expense for athletics is shown under the athletics cost center. Transportation, we have a multi-year contract with first students. Um the contract we're in year one of a multi-year contract. Um and I believe next year that contract is going up by 8%. it why not um a significant expense this a a significant amount this year and so that was a large part of looking at the two um and just there's some when the teams do well it does add an extens or didn't necessarily some some volatility that we see in that but the transportation for athletics is under that athletics >> [clears throat] >> questions. >> Um, yeah, I want to
034be mindful of time, so I'll try and keep my comments short here because I know we have only 27 things to discuss, but overall appreciate go forward and glad for the good news. I think to Nathan's point, this makes me appreciative of the work that was done with the recasting that y'all did August around 25 expenses where we're going to the 26 budget deciding not to fill some vacant positions by flexibility from the $26,377 number. we heated that flexibility and that that big use to make sure we're strengthen our main year. So that's great. Um appreciate you finding the substitute line to Nathan's point. Again, I also glad that number has gone up and up and up over the last several years. It's see that petering off not dipping is is great. So thank you
035all for your work on that to try and control those costs. Seeing us continue to do that in future years and for the rest of this year. Um, uh, other areas that I think we raised as concerns previously, transportation, we raised concern, but have been concerns, uh, transportation, that line looks pretty close, right? $9,000, um, deficit currently at a 800,000. So, that's essentially right on target. That is great. Special education has been a place that continued to go up year year over year. And we uh were over budget the past two years. that appears to be kind of slightly under budget objective for this year. Those guess are the areas that my eyes went to uh given those historical talking places and all much better places. So credit to K. I'm sure many developed this
036budget last year. We talked about how we are adjusting budget lines to reflect expenditure um showing here. So appreciate uh three places that just seems like we're slightly over and again the overall budget we are in a good place with just questions. Uh operating maintenance I think that was related to the things you hit on which would be unanticipated elevator and oiler expenses. Is that is that generally fair? Is there anything else to discuss >> on that one? Um the other one was uh the MHS. >> Um looks like the salary line on MHS with the professional line was significantly a good bit kind of higher than what was budget. Anything $474,000 over on the $9 million budget? Anything in particular that's driving that? So, we have a num um a handful of employees that
037are currently being charged to the MHS professional line that when we created the budget, the budget or the funding [snorts] for those employees were allocated to other areas. Um, one of them being special education. So if you look at the special education professional salary line, there's a surplus player. So that is um I think it's 200,000. So there's one employee that it's a matter of just shifting from one one class center to another. Um and then there are two employees that are in the instructional leadership line. Their budget is in instructional leadership, but they're based at the high school. And so their expense is hitting the high school lines. Um so I think that that is more reflective of clean up of almost where the employees live as a matter of like an accounting exercise
038rather than we didn't we haven't hired anyone new. Um the budget was pretty much on target with what we were projecting out. So I think that is a matter of just kind of going through saying saying okay the budget when we originally created it had these employees assigned to instructional leadership and we just need to do do a little clean up there. So that that stood out pretty significantly to me as well. My concern was of course for this year, but my concern is always for next year too because our budgets should always be building >> on each other. Um, and so that's something I can look into more and make sure that we clean it up and verify for next year. But I think again that's just more of a >> internal accounting exercise
039rather than an expense issue. >> Yeah. Yeah, I mean total salaries, you're right right on it. >> Um yeah, moving surplus. So >> yeah, it's great. >> Yeah. >> Excellent. Uh Nathan, >> thanks Mark. I just had two clarifying questions. First, um well, maybe I'll start with with Katie. The point you just made, I just want to make sure I'm following. So there's the overage at the high school is at least in part attributable to essentially a couple of staff who are who are based geographically based at the high school but their duties are districtwide. Is that right? and you're gonna you're gonna sort of at some point go in and clean up that that allocation. And then they they would they're so if if they were properly classified, they would go into the uh
040one of either the district or the district administration lines. >> Correct. >> Do you know do you know where they would go? I'm just curious like if we took a couple hundred thousand bucks from the high school and moved it into one of those lines, what it would do to those actual lines. I believe it's the instructional leadership line >> 57,000. I mean, I think all if we're moving the stuff between salary lines for any of them, you know, that's why I went to the bottom line. >> Yeah. totals like the total salary there's some reallocation between cost centers at least the total salary is currently under budget projected for on the year um but yeah I think yeah has a >> is definitely special >> a savings district administr I mean instructional leadership has
041savings and then district also has a a savings >> all right that that's it seems like it I mean, the the the bottom line salary number wouldn't be affected. It seems like potentially even if you smooth out that overage in one line and push it into a couple of other lines, it might create or exasperate overages in those lines. So, something I'm noticing. Um, and then Mark, I wanted to make sure I was following. You were talking about maintenance and repair being over. Are you talking about the were you were you referencing the contracted services line? >> No. So I was the operations and maintenance which is below nursing and above special education on the last page. >> Yeah. >> That line is overall about $271,000 over budget. Most of that being in the contracted
042services. >> Okay. Great. >> No other questions there. I just want to make sure I was tracking the data you were looking at. in that contracted services line. That's where we have expenses for utilities um any of the expenses for some of the work that happens for any of the facilities. So that is where we would pay for the um service for the elevator. And then the consolidated facilities team always encumbers the expenses for the entire fiscal year. So we work pretty closely with um Tom McCrae and his assistant Diane just on an ongoing basis to look at those kind of open purchase orders that they have for the remainder of the year to see did those look like they're appropriate? Do we need to adjust them? Typically we end up adjusting them down a
043little bit based off um what we think the need is for the remainder of the year. Um but that process usually will happen kind of in February and March and April. So that number um that overage or deficit in the contracted services line will definitely be adjusted as we look at kind of those pending payments that we'll make. In our discussions with uh Nick generically, we talk about potentially talking about cons consolidating facilities needing some sort of a emergency account that would be for the town and the schools in order to respond to uh significant repairs that come up in the middle a year that aren't budgeted for, you know. Um and so like, you know, it just might just might help that that department. uh move forward without impacting anybody's budget. Why he went
044at the police station or or an elevator went in another building, you want to be able to have some way to grab that money that didn't impact the the annual operating budget for the facility department. So, just something to think about moving forward. Anything else on quarter two? Not let's move it along. Uh thank you for that. Oh uh last thing on court we need to obviously vote on our agenda today. So we can't do we need to vote on anything related to I thought we need a formal vote for any reallocations coming out of quarter two is that something we have an upcoming finance meeting to have on upcoming it would it would be great to put a vote next to the court to report that's reflective of those changes. I'm going to try
045to use this report as that mechanism to be able to do both at the same time so we can put vote on it for next week and we can put vote on the next committee meeting. So it's both that for our next um uh old business uh discussion of budget timeline. There's a lot here on budget stuff. Uh, one thing I wanted to try and address quickly. Um, I'm not sure about folks availability after 9 o'clock. Thanks. But, um, we got an email from the warrant committee uh, school reps just yesterday asking tomorrow night. So, obviously posting issue with that if all three or even two of us wanted to attend that with them. So, we can't do that. One thing we could do given this is kind of a initial meeting would be to
046have one of us attempt that share with them kind of the information that we discuss here um and um take any initial questions they have to bring back to the group. Uh I also late notice so I wouldn't want to commit John or Katie to that either. So I assume it really would just be kind of one of us kind of one on three with those members just to have the initial hello you know what what are the questions you have uh coming out of because we shared the committee recordings and folks said hopefully they watched it by but that that is a strategy I just don't want to and I'm I'm happy to to take that time and do that but um don't want to have that if folks would like to be at
047that meeting if so we'll need to email them and try and schedule that for a future I'm fine if that's one I mean if it's easier to get this scheduled now and have an initial meeting to have scheduled any kind of followup so that we can get it on agenda there you feel >> yeah same I I would not be able to make it tomorrow night anyway so Mark if you're if you're available and willing to take that meeting with them I definitely appreciate appreciate that. If if you got other stuff going on, happy to look at a different date, but it would help keep things moving along. >> Okay. If >> two, can two of us attend? >> It's a quorum of this, right? >> Yeah. No, I'm fine. You if you if you
048have the time, if not, then we can schedule. >> Okay. I will I'll let them know. Again, my goal of that will just be to mostly kind of gather questions, try and then schedule some future meeting times where all of us can be there. Um uh but gather at least some initial questions maybe action items that they they're looking for us so we can as you say keep pushing this process along given we are we are behind our calendar um great uh so that's kind of coordination with the war committee uh want to have a discussion of our ongoing coordination with the select board we've been multiple conversations we've been having members of the select board as well as the town administrator around FY27 budget uh some of that came out coordination committee like yesterday
049some been ongoing in terms of one-off conversations. Um we want to start with kind of what what you are hearing. I think like the things we talked about last week in this of the advocacy with trying to reduce the $2.1 million worth of service cuts that the SL board and administrator has asked of schools. We talked about uh increasing use of the operating stabilization fund. Is that something they would be open to in order to reduce? We talked about conversation with them about changing the vision of the the impact of the revenue gap that the town has, the $2.5 million revenue gap the town has. They're currently allocating 84% of that 16% to the town. Those are the two things we talked about last week to try to advocate for maybe moving on one of
050those, not moving on the other. But, uh, John, do you want to provide any update on the >> Sure. Um, last week, uh, Katie and I met with Nick and Amy amount of time to talk about some strategies in to support the school budget for FY27. Uh, it was a very good discussion. I think we we all kind of creatively took the issue, challenges of schools. Um that was followed up by a discussion with with uh Nick as he was ready to present at the select board's finance meeting on Friday morning of last week. Um a lot of this was unpacked yesterday at our u um budget meeting on Milton uh the name of that >> budget coordination committee meeting where uh the FY27 discussion came up. Uh basically uh the work that we're doing
051with Nick is he's trying to support uh some insurance work. Uh he has some debt to that he feels he can re uh realign uh to save money and uh how how in fact can we provide or can the town provide uh an influx of resources to the schools in order to uh support FY27. So on our plate is we are talking with our internal folks about charging our insurance for food service to the food service account which has a uh a balance that could withstand that kind of cost. Uh that is a revolving account that we cannot use uh for any other purpose but food service uh unless we support that account. So having them pay their insurance um would allow the insurance number for the town to go down which would be an
052indirect and positive impact to the schools. Um they also offered uh can we support you with any one-time funding for some of your revolving accounts that have been um uh reduced significantly over the last several fiscal years. We obviously said yes, we'd be open to that. Uh that would mean that money would come from the town in a one-time manner to the circuit breaker account which uh remember is recommended to be at about $3.1 million and it currently has about 44 $4,000 in >> um so any any infusion into that account to build that revolving account moving forward would be very helpful. Uh however uh those those uh that does not translate in in and of itself to be supporting reducing the FTEES for FY27. So if we were to take that kind of one-time
053financial support from the town, we may be able to spend less of our own school department operating budget on circuit breaker and move it over to FTE. So there was an indirect way to support the uh the impact uh in lowering the impact on how many staff we have to reduce. Um and then there was also a discussion at the table. yesterday about just providing $1.5 million of free cash that's appears to be remaining in the town's budget to put into the uh operation stabilization account and then use that as the mechanism to provide more than the $700,000 allocated to operating and increase that number to a higher amount. Uh that amount would go to the schools in the town. So there's there's different ways that the money could be coming to the schools for
054support. We we appreciate the creativity in the uh partnership with Nick and his team. Uh both of those mechanisms result in relief for the school department's budget that we've been advocating for for 27. Um and I think that we I know that we're trying to get a meeting with Nick tomorrow to kind of that. Uh it's really important for us to make sure that whatever we're doing, we're saying it out loud. That this is how we're going to approach relief uh to the school department's budget either through a one-time uh support for a circuit breaker, which could reduce our need to fill that in line, and we could support staff or have it come right through the stabilization operating account, which to me seems the most transparent way to do it. the town can actually
055see the free cash go into that account and the town administrator can physically show how much of that account he's using for uh supporting the operating budget for town and schools next year. Um and where we want to continually unpack both of those options and we want the school committee's kind of um guidance on which one you would prefer and the pros and cons of that. Uh the the pros [clears throat] and cons of the one-time money is that it supports very needed line that needs to be um uh improved. Again, 3.1 is the guidance, 3.1 million. We have $4,000 in the so that's a very very big help that we're welcoming because we're trying to do that on our own, but that would not be any sustainable increase in our budget over time. That
056would be one time inclusion. If the money came through the stabilization operating account, uh that will be part of our increase of our operating budget moving forward, but the amounts might be different. So there's going to be some decision making about, you know, what's best for the town, what's best for the schools, and how do we want that forward for the schools. We feel confident that we are moving our revolving accounts forward in in the way that we as a team of financial finance subcommittee school committee members have been working. So we feel confident that we are trying to keep away from spending in the transportation revolving account, the athletic revolving account and the special education revolving accounts the best we can but any help in that direction will be better for our um uh
057balance sheet as a school department. We have to keep in mind all lines of budget. Uh but we accept and we're advocating for either one of those to be helpful and we'll continue to advocate but your guidance on that would be helpful uh from a town perspective more important from a school perspective. >> What might be a basic basic question and this is not saying I don't agree with it. I just want to understand ramifications. So [clears throat] anytime we take free cash or that's that comes in and it goes towards the operating budget that then carries forward the next year. Does it like sort of does it artificially grow the budget? Am I asking? So because then next year that's money that we got >> that we need to then budget for and if
058the amount is less say the town finances are different next year and and if it was I'm going to pick a number of $500,000 that was allocated but next year they don't have that 500 we build the budget based on that 500. So I just >> So >> it's a it's a it's definitely um uh in a very direct way was we're indirectly using one time money to support ongoing operational costs. So that that's the negative uh side of that story. The positive side of the story, this is just John Failen's opinion, is that when you the the the uh creativity and the uh experience to put that account into place, gives the town administrator and the town the lever to decide if it's 1 million in one year because it's going to be challenging
059in that year and maybe it's only 500,000 another year. So, it allows a really healthy lever in order to balance the operational needs of the schools in the town forward. Uh, one of the suggestions at the meeting was to say if that 1.5 is from free cash is dedicated to that account, we should actually space out the payments for the next four years. If we plan on having an override four years from now, we put that 1.5 million into that account. The balance would be 3.5 plus 1.5 is 5 million total. How do we want to allocate that over the next four fiscal years? And so we know what that revenue, what that source looks like. And that way uh we would be looking at a four-year stability uh viewpoint strategically but then we would
060have a really big mountain to climb at the end of those four years which we will regardless. So u I think both of those options are really flexible and good thinking for us to do as a town and it's good for the schools. >> Can I ask a followup question? So I guess the followup question is and and keeping in mind uh town select board policy around the use of it is that enough could more go towards it recognizing that case with a budget built on 3%. And so do we feel like we actually need more of that to carry us through the four years and do they have flexibility to go or is that >> well the 1.5 is just what they currently have not allocated towards capital towards their free cash policy where
061they have to maintain 10% of it. Yeah. So I think with the town administrator told us that is that is all the free cash that is like not already kind of allocated. that is the 1.5 million. Uh yeah, it's unclear how much that 1.5 over four years would change the long-term projection or um revenue of the schools or town departments would receive how much that would allow us to change it from 3% to something higher, more reflective of these short school department increases. it help is better than zero out. >> Absolutely. But it's not it doesn't solve it. >> And I don't think just to be clear to all these are great developments and how we're cutting. We don't at this point have a an updated figure of what the town is asking schools to
062cut from the 2.1 million. We're we're hoping that some of these things will shrink that, but we do not have an updated number at this point that we're working towards. >> Is that meeting is that is there time when today? >> We hope to have that meeting. We hope to have that meeting tomorrow if not Monday because of scheduling conflicts. But we think it's really important for a lot of reasons that we come to closure on what that those amounts might be and the canics of that um for FY27 so we can actually build a budget uh and finalize the budget for that. Uh we don't want to put out reductions until we actually have a hard number because we don't want to put out positions that might not be reduced. Uh so but we
063it might have to get to that point where we need to put the budget out with more names than needed. uh we would prefer to reduce the budget impact on our staff as much as we can the football public and and just to say out loud that this is an FY27 conversation. It's melting into a 27 and beyond question. Um I think we really need to take a hard look at whether or not the school department can be uh adequately funded with a 3% expense projection over time. I don't think that framework works for schools. I don't think that it will um result in good things for the schools moving forward. And I think that that's a bigger question that we need to have a hard discussion about with the town committee about what is
064a framework or revenue expenses for the town side of the schools and is 3% an appropriate amount. We did some discussion here last week at this table kind of at a high level modeling what that would mean. that would be the reduction this year and also about 11 pupil a year for the next four years. Uh again, high high level that that's not a that's not sustainable from a teaching and learning perspective for our school department. So I think that we need to figure out a way to calibrate for FY27 and advocate as best we can and we need to then stop the longer conversation about what 3% uh is an appropriate expense year-over-year expectation. Uh, and I would assume from the school side my answer would be that's not sufficient. >> Nathan, >> yeah,
065thank you. Totally agree with you, John. I I don't think a 3% increase to our expenditures would would be a school district that our town would be terribly proud of or one that would sustain our property values. I um I have a question about the um nutrition uh revolving account using some some some of that funding to pay for health insurance costs. I am assuming just wanted to test my assumptions here. I'm assuming that the that the budget impact from doing that is relatively modest. Um, and I am assuming that this is a one-time uh solution because we have because the revolving account has excess funding, not a long-term solution. Um, could you could you just tell me if I'm right on those assumptions? >> The the uh the balance in the food service account
066can can support the expense of health insurance. Uh we have not discussed whether that's a an expectation moving forward or not. My assumption is that it is an expense that will be part of that moving forward. And part of the reason why we can do that is because of Katie's ability. If we do that for one federal revolving account, we have to do that for all federal revolving accounts. So that's why we took our unit D members out of the federal um uh grant that we got and we added contracted service and tuitions expenses to that so we don't have to do that for all people coming out of that account. That that would be a revolving account. So the answer is yes, it has the balance that can sustain it and yes, it is
067our expectation in terms of our discussions with Nick that it would be something that would be in place um uh in the in the in the all future years. Is that is that your [clears throat] >> Yes. >> I just we we've sort of modeled that out over in in perpetuity and feel comfortable with that. >> Yes. the food service account is a healthy account and it's challenging to access it in any other way to support other functions of the school. >> This is one way that that could happen. >> Okay. And then if if we put that in place, uh where do the savings from that acrue? Do those sort of go back to the town and are then allocated proportionally based on whatever we think or do they do they do they acrew
068to the school district? they they go back to the big bucket of insurance and come back to us in the proportionate way that the budget's done. >> Yes, health insurance is a shared cost. So, it would essentially reduce that shared cost line that is shown under the town budget and then that reduction would just be parsed out. >> So, in the short sense, it doesn't feel like it's adequate that it's not the same proportional. we don't get the proportional increase back to us, but it does reduce the sheared cost of the town. Uh Nick states that they're doing the same on their side. If there's any insurance cost based on federal grants, they're going to reduce those as well. I don't think he has like one employee. For us, it's more like 10. Um the
069the other account that they would ask they asked us to explore is community schools. Um and when we do the same exercise for community schools, the answer is no. we don't have a sufficient balance to have insurance charged to that and no we don't feel like we can move it forward in the same way. So we'll be writing a memo to Nick just to codify this in writing that this is the insurance request that he asked. This is what we believe we can do in order to reduce health insurance costs uh with food service and we do not feel we can do it at this time with community schools. >> Okay. Thank you. um to address your question of which strategy to move forward with I think having some information on what the two to
070your point like the dollar scenarios are in those the one-time you know funds then could be used to support a one-time increase in the building of the super big reserve which is obviously stated priority of ours to then reduce the building within the budget to help do that on a slower basis over time. Um that you know the ability to still address that while and decreasing the impact on um funding gap for FY27 would be great. I probably prefer theoretically again without numbers to moving the stuff to the operating reserve accounts just because I think to your point that it's a a cleaner process. I think it's also to create more sustainability. This is what we do through a budget scenario on an annual basis. Recash we can the point you made that was made
071in the budget coordination committee by Aoy Walker like spacing that out over time that it is a sustainable and not use of free cash [clears throat] that is a a good practice and how we should be thinking about that. So theoretically that that idea and plan and I think it's probably the better one for the town as a whole. Um >> it's more transparent right in front of everybody. This is where the money goes from free cash to account and back to the >> it just ultimately they're going to give us $100,000 from that scenario that they give us a million dollar reserve. That's obviously a huge difference and a huge difference in the impact by 27. So that I don't anticipate the the scenarios being that um diverse but um divergent but that that
072is my only hesitation with like having some numbers from the town administrator on what could this be >> yes >> for the circuit breaker account I think putting money um into that account to reestablish that balance we've talked about that a lot that's um what we really have been working towards if the town was coming into the account. I think the intent was to relieve some of that pressure of the work that we're doing in the school department. But my only hesitation is it truly is one time done. It's a one time process. And so if we make a corresponding adjustment on the school department side to say, okay, the town has put X amount of money into this breaker account. So that will essentially lessen how much money we as a school department are
073putting into that account. That is going to have an impact >> on our ability to build up that account in future fiscal years because if we want to restart that cycle of trying to um build up that balance that's going to have an impact on the operating budget that is going to increase our apps. Yeah. >> to the town. So, I just worry about the mechanics of that in future fiscal years. And I think we just need to be mindful of that as we talk about kind of like um what goal are we trying to achieve? We're trying to achieve building up that account. And I think that work can still continue, but instead of it being a three to five year process, it's going to have to be a, you know, five to sevenyear
074process. Well, I think that uh appreciate that that would be a concern of mine, right? Then that's that we and some of the information I'd like to see. I mean, I think if we are building it up quicker on the front end with this allocation and that slows what we need to do on the back end to still kind of need our fiveyear time horizon to get there, there's nothing the town is going to do that's going to prevent us from needing to retain some ongoing funding to build that account because you said it's a $3 million gap right now. Town does not have $3 million cash, right? >> They're not even going to give us the full 1.5 million >> to go into this account, but we're not going to get halfway there. So
075yes, to your point, we we are still going to need a mechanism that allows us to build this up within that time horizon. So I think that's part of the analysis that as you get firmer numbers from the town administrator be helpful for us so that we still meet that budget priority. >> And I want to say because and I know these meetings are taped. Why, you know, the question might be why is that important now? Why are we worrying about that? Right? We're worrying about that because we are a $74 million organization that has a unbalanced balance sheet. our balance sheet even after the override was that we had reserves that should be at 3.1 just in this one account and we had $4,000 in it. Uh we have revolving accounts in other parts
076of our our organization that also had those revolving accounts depleted. So we are internally trying to uh increase and better the position of the school department's overall balance sheet so we can know fiscally that we can plan moving forward to be able to spend things on teachers and curriculum and professional development and not have to worry about these parts of our balance sheet because they're important to the other pieces of our work of teaching and learning professional development staffing because if any of those expenses and those revolving accounts spike in any one year, which they do. That's why they're in place and that's why the government says you should have them. >> These are the shock absorber that allows you to pay those bills and not impact the the general budget for teaching and learning
077time. It is essential for us to be a healthy organization from a balance sheet perspective and the override was an incredibly helpful tool in order to get most of our budget in place. These pieces were not in place. So, we are trying to do that internally. would also anytime a free cash comes up that's tie if if the town wants to support that by putting deposits into that we'll accept it but we also want to balance this our ability to do this movement for it we will not be a healthy organization until we have a full balance sheet in place that is sustainable and has the amounts in place that support the the functioning of the public schools more important >> yeah that's a behind thescenes conversation that's hard for a parent of a third
078grader or a parent of a eighth grader but it's the reality we are here in this year because that balance sheet wasn't balanced for the last four or five years and we're trying to re reallocate and reset. >> It creates a lot of risk for us as Morgans but not just for the schools for now because schools can't balance our budget like last year. We need to go through the town and that has the ability to negatively impact other departments. Correct. We cannot do that. Um and so we and we saw what the impact was in terms of teachers not having paper and like couldn't couldn't do all kinds of things last year and the concern that raised just because the situation. So that that level of risk is in my mind not not acceptable.
079And then from a business, that's the business view. But from a from a teaching and learning view, when we hire a new superintendent, we want to be able to say to them, uh, we want you to learn what works in Milton, what needs to improve, what what the next steps are, and you want to be able to give them the tools to be able to go out and do that because you don't want them to have to worry about the money and whether we have enough money in those accounts to do that work. So this is really about stabilizing the balance sheet in order to provide the flexibility for a new superintendent to come in and begin that next process of how they want to move the district forward and have the funding to be
080thinking forward. It's hard to plan for the next three to five years when you don't have enough money for next year. >> So this is a real that's it impacts strategy for teaching and learning and it impacts students uh when it's not done well. And um I think we've already learned that the hard way. And I think we're trying to re reset that whole process. >> Nathan, >> I don't have anything. Sorry, I didn't mean to. Did I make noise or something? >> Oh, no. I think it was raised from before. I'm >> I'm in agreement with this with this conversation. Don't have anything to add. >> Great. Okay. So our ongoing next steps with the town administrator yellow meeting with them tomorrow will continue. I I guess the one of the things I just
081wanted to name that we talked about last time which was the division of the funding uh the revenue gap >> the town has the 84 to 16% school district saying >> we've raised that with a select board and the town administrator >> this point at least hearing their one meeting on it and having some conversations I haven't heard traction gained on that that path is that I assume is that something we can continue to just raise with the town administrator of the next conversation when >> yeah that's that's disappointing because that would obviously help um as we're trying to do this these other pieces help too and so appreciate their collaboration these other groups but >> yeah I I mean I think so the areas of the influx areas I think we should continue to
082ask about and talk about and push on and partner on is uh how how the infusion can come back to the schools whether it's through the stabilization account but through uh one-time support for a circuit breaker it is the breakdown of whatever the gap is uh the 80% versus the 20% we're taking 80% of that hit and why uh I think the town administrator has been very clear about that and also um are we always going to be able to you know is the town's budget moving forward always going to be the exact same percent increase given the scale of the school department I think the school department has always had a larger percentage of the budget moving forward if we're 66% of the budget in the town's 33 we're taking an 80% hit this
083year as opposed to a 60% 66% hit and when the money comes back in how does it come back in is so what's the what's the proportional agreement that we have around how these influxes of money come to us and how these reductions in funds impact us just want you know I think it's just an open conversation to have >> one of the other pieces I think that has been um something that we're waiting on information that we're waiting on to be able to figure out what the final um deficit number is is the state funding. And I think one of the lines, one of the big funding lines from the state is chapter 70, which is funding um for the schools. Um right now, as an estimate, the town has built in $30 per
084pupil as an increase for the chapter 7 funding. Um, but I know with the student opportunity act and in previous fiscal years that funding has been has come in closer to $150 per student. Um, so if that funding comes in at $75 per student in the governor's initial budget, um, that would be almost an extra $200,000 for the school. And so I think that that's information. Again, we're waiting for that to make a final decision, but a huge piece of that is the chapter 70 funding and um that's intended for our schools. So, I think that's something that we should just keep an eye on and if that helps, maybe if there's some additional money that's coming in from the state that that can help kind of shift what the allocation of the cuts are
085um to reduce the cuts that we're having to make from the school department. I think that that's something that we just need to consider as well. So I would um just kind of bring that up with the town administrator during our conversation >> and he's obviously aware of it. We talked about it. We spoke at our meeting yesterday that that you know maybe next Wednesday. So that'll be part of the bigger conversation. But in terms of the public knowing what are the areas of >> of discussion that we're trying to have and solidify that's definitely the next one as well. And um and that we we uh we all the town and the schools want to solidify every revenue source, the mechanics of it so we can actually understand exactly what our end number is
086so we can actually formalize the the formal budget request proposal for >> for town meeting and for the warrant committee and for everybody in the next few weeks. So it's really important for us to have that bottom line. It did go down from a certain number to a lower number that Nick announced yesterday. But um we all and I know Nick is uh feels the same way. We just need to come to a decision uh have these hard conversations and come to a decision so we can provide at least have our major draft one full detailed budget for everybody to review and consider for this is the time of year that needs to be ready. >> Yeah, we're we're well past our budget calendar. So all of this is very late and I think came
087out of the budget coordination committee. We just we got to figure out how to do this better next year. Um >> and we might we might just so I could say the last week we went through the methodology that we're going through internally at the school department in order to how we going to address whatever the gap is first. we talked about uh in the gap um discussion would be to uh we'll have a conversation at these at meetings like this to increase fees for athletics, transportation, facilities, rental um community schools uh in um I believe there might be one other area that we could increase. So that's the first area that we could do uh some work on in order to reduce the impact on teachers. The next one is that Katie and I,
088Kosa, went through the non salary lines and to see where we could callull some dollars there. We came up with about $200,000 worth of reductions that we can make there, but remember those those lines have meaning. So, some of those dollar amounts in some of those categories. I think we're concerning to members of the school committee, rightly so. If we don't have this much money for um this need, if it arises, what will happen? We're going to just have to take it out somewhere else. So they are real reductions. They're not um they're not placeholders by any means. It's real it's real uh expenses that we could incur. And then we will begin to address the the FTE count uh in whatever that number looks like. So anything we can do to reduce that 2.1
089number that we've been given uh to a lesser number allows us to restrategize that process and we will posit that as part of it. So again, having the end number uh in the next week or so, we could begin to uh have this conversation more concretely and public about what would be impacted, what would that mean to the school district and to what we can do and what we can't do moving forward for next year. Uh and the reason why I can reconcept so strongly into next year uh despite these concerns is that we have a really solid FY26 budget and I just don't want to um uh have it be lost on folks. We are in very good fiscal shape this year. You just saw the Q2. It's very different Q2 than was presented
090to you last year. At this time, uh we are gaining fiscal stability uh every week and every month. This is a very good fiscal year for the U Milton schools and um we want to build on this and for uh for the district. >> Could I um as we talk about the process and this is the right place to say it. Um I appreciate the reason for the budget board issue coming up last year. I my concern is a little bit that we missed an opportunity to have made it forward committee here. think that there's a lot of focus on that and I just would hope next year maybe we could that they could come to our meetings early we're having these initial budget discussions. I think that that might have helped some of this.
091Um and again I recognize they need to have these conversations happening at the townwide level. Um, I think we could do better next year, have them sooner, a smaller focused group to discuss some of these things earlier. Um, and that I'm not >> No, I think that was shared a little bit on the election coordination actual school committee committee earlier. >> Yeah. how we have revenue projections earlier assumptions on the point repeatedly like how we convert to mitigating funding gaps this year >> I think overcoming leaders be involved >> um one thing I and I know we're getting um very beyond time and to the end. Um I'm mindful of just like the update we want to provide tonight at school committee and like answering concerns that have come up from community members and just
092like how we continue trying to be clear within our messaging around what is happening has happened is happening now what's going to happen. Uh so I did put together these draft slides that I I shared with y'all in advance. Um >> just I believe six I have >> six. >> Um so I I don't know if again we want to delay this for a future school committee meeting. I'm again a bit mindful of this being kind of focus people's attention but I tried to put together just some questions. Again given we have six minutes I don't don't know if we have enough time to kind of talk this through. Um but at least maybe just to align on like are these helpful questions to answer and is there a general agreement sharing this at if
093not tonight an upcoming school committee meeting >> because again I I just think about the my role of providing finance and the update and obviously I'll I'll all support with that of just like how to do that in more >> visually clear manner and making sure we're kind of hitting on things um that people have questions about. Uh so these are like some questions I feel like I had heard that we had received um and then I tried to go through them slide for each one. I just want to answer them. So I uh fortunately I've been able I had I have uh prescheduled PTO meetings. So I've had one at Pierce the Glover and at the Cunningham over the last uh you know seven school days and uh these are the questions that I
094think people are asking. So I think it will be really helpful to go through the Q2 tonight, talk about the big picture, replicate this conversation in a very condensed way, but I think in terms of what families and and community members want to know, I think an FAQ asking the question that we've been hearing and then answering it and having it on the screen is actually helpful for folks. I think it really is a concrete way to kind of give information. Um, so maybe we could walk through the ones that we can get very clear answers to um, and to try to acknowledge and represent the conversations that we're having off camera, meaning we have PTO meetings and u when people ask us in the community what's going on to to to best address and
095then we can actually formalize these and put them in FAQ form, put them on our FY27 website that we've already created um, within our school website in our in our finding subcommittee folder uh, for people to view these meetings and everything else. So, it might be helpful to just to maybe isolate some of these, Mark, that we have really clear answers to that we can then we don't have to do that now, but I think I think we put the slides up. I think it's a really nice way to give people a very clear insight into uh oh, that's the question I ask and here's the answer because folks are answering asking the questions and we want to make sure it's clear. So, however, whatever ones we think are are the easiest to translate at
096this point because we haven't had all the time to have the information gathered that might be helpful to more complex questions, but whatever ones we can knock off and talk about tonight, I think. >> Yeah. I mean, obviously the three of us, the school committee members can't work on this outside of this meeting collectively, but if you two can Yeah. take a look and if there are ones that can leave us on the table because we don't feel like relying on the answer on that or whatever I'm providing is not clear. Um I think that's fine. I do think yeah going through some of this if at least starting that tonight's meeting and we think in future school committee meetings >> she just may jump so they have questions. >> Yeah, that's what I tried
097to do. Um did do just together these Excel documents. Um, you know, we have two minutes. Um, and just the again the projected issue of this being a long term. I I want to make sure that anytime we're talking publicly to select board, town administrator, whoever about this, the FY27 is an issue. It's a real issue. It is also an issue for FY28 and beyond. Just again what our projected revenue is for FY27. If we only hit a 3% increase shot to your point, that's how much money we can expect for FY28. Uh we are talking about just what standard growth is for the schools. Non-override year it is about 5.2% uh which is what we're asking for this year. That is right in line with kind of the mean and median. We say 5%
098that is the gap and that's 20 positions. So again I said last time you know if it's 4% obviously that cuts it down to 10. But historically, if you look at all the years of funding and take out FY26 and 18 as outlier years, in the last 15 years, going back to 2013, the average higher 2012 and 2011 bring that number down significantly because they were like at 0% and then 0.92% increase. So, they are also outliers. Um, but again, just go back the last 15 years, this is the average and the median. So, 52 is kind of right in line. So I just remain very concerned about uh how we we change this because 3 3% is not the right. It's just it can't be the right number. Um so um wanted to flag
099that at least. Uh I know we need to move on. Uh our next meeting is next week. We will on the agenda right now have a vote on these two reports. Uh we will continue the conversation on FY27 budgets. It's kind of be on every meeting. We're not expecting number updates from you all in terms of a new proposed budget, but the next draft would be still for February 11th have on the agenda. Um but things to talk about. The only other thing I'm wondering is next week if you think you might have time to go over the revolving account policy. have lots of other things to foc 27 I mean but like the Google doc we created of course with some initial numbers I don't know Katie and John if you'll have the opportunity
100to talk about that or if not next week at least like that we talk about on the fork so we try move that policy um creation financial policy creation along that make sense >> yeah we also will have to add here at some point in the near future the presentation of B increases that we propose. >> Yeah. >> As well. >> Yeah. Do you want to do that next week or the second? >> I might have a conflict on the fourth. So, we can maybe think about a different day that week. I guess that that weekend we have to also include given the conversation we had at the um uh the the larger meeting on Tuesday morning time for the all of us to meet with select board and modern committee. Either that be a
101morning meeting, doesn't have to be in our time slot, it could be at night. It could be being at the time, but we just get everybody part of the community to have this conversation. So, some we're gonna have to work that into the converation as well. >> And then you got to run. So, >> um were you I I thought the town administrator was going to work that. >> Yeah. Yeah. So, but there's no action step for us around he is coordinating schedule that happy to help do that if that's helpful but um yeah so Q2 FY27 budget uh keep in mind the conversation about policy and fee increases those are all pieces that >> uh great uh I will take a motion to unless there's anything else I take a motion to adjurnn. >>
102Second. >> I do a roll call cuz remote. All in favor? Nathan? >> Yes. >> Amanda? >> Yes. >> And yes. Thank you. >> Thank you very much. >> Long meetings.