001We will call this meeting to order here at 604. business finance. Um uh we will jump in uh down to old business with the the calendar. We probably need to keep this conversation pretty tight on the budget stuff. I as promised I would threw in some suggested dates uh in that copy of the budget calendar which is in that folder. Um I don't have it pulled up here actually. So that'll take me a second if folks have access through the um your own Google um I tagged you I did two days ago so I don't know if you had a chance to look over it um >> any particular concerns or suggestions obviously big thing here is like just make sure you have enough time between things >> right I think that um Jeb and
002I met earlier there today. And the one thing that I just had a question on um around like the I'm looking at the grid and it should be on it's going to in on that first page of the grid. Um there's just some dates around presentation to school school department or I'm sorry presentation by school department to finance committee on level service [clears throat] expense projections. >> So that's 1029 and then a similar presentation to the full school school committee on 115. Um, and when kind of when I was reading through it when John and I were talking about it, I was wondering if kind of that level service presentation if that is just a part of that initial direct budget presentation which would happen on November 19th. So I think that was my one
003kind of like comment overall to the calendar. Yeah, we talked about this a bit in the trying to blow a bit my brain exact conversation, but we talked about this a bit last week. Uh I think the goal was like from a as you're winnowing it down of sort of with our priorities next week. You know the town administrator will be coming to us talking about their revenue forecasts using that to you know guide and essentially say okay what are the school departments kind of financial forecast based on kind of rolling things over and revenue forecast or getting to like a real conversation on you know what are the cuts or what are the ads within the initial budgets of just having that conversation around like okay this is the town administrator assumes we'll have
004about like 5% for department lo whatever that is based on your work it looks like we're going to be kind of at 5% great that looks good or it looks like a new projection or extensive projections are going to be at 9% based on kind of special education that's not great that means probably need to expect some cuts in some places um like that I think that was like the the steps to try and have an initial conversation before actually then getting list of a we are expecting to need to make some cuts in order to meet the town's revenue projections based upon our expense projections and these are the things we make sense as what they all >> so so the way I explained it to my with the way I recall the meeting
005that we had because Nathan was online was on remote >> was that a general understanding Does the the big picture of our expenses and revenue line up? Are we working with both level service, relative level service to get the kind of high straight >> and then to model the changes against that high of revenue expenses that we assume will be generally a rollover as an initial as a way to kind of speak the same language that we've always talked. The question that I had that we talked was what does that document need to look like? Is that because that feels like a full budget and if it's a full budget then we might as well discuss it when we present the first reading of the draft >> and so I was trying to reconcile because
006we actually modeled I modeled my language of this philosophy and priorities around the discussion from that Wednesday >> but I couldn't really explain to uh Katie how we how we were thinking of those two boxes cuz so I I want we wanted to unpack those two boxes to see if they were >> part of how we wanted to present on 1119 the first reading of the budget to the finest committee >> or I have we have to revisit the purpose of those two boxes in order so we can know what the deliverables are or if they can be condensed and moved down into that first draft. I guess a thought I have here is and I'll I'll say as a caveat >> [clears throat] >> um I don't know what kind of effort goes into
007producing a first a first reading the draft budget and I think what we were trying to do was avoid having to go all the way to the draft budget if there were some choices that we could still make. So for example, let's say revenue projections are 5% lower than anticipated and then we have these budget priorities. Um it seemed like we needed to have a conversation first of like okay if we want to prioritize these things given given a reduction in revenue. That's what an that's what here's what we could expect to spend on these priorities and here's the impact that it might have on potential impact it might have on 10 other areas and I I feel like having an agreement on that is important before we do a draft budget like having an
008agreement on where we might invest or divest in the budget given revenue [clears throat] judgements So >> what the deliverable looks like though I I don't know and maybe a draft maybe all that requires just as much work as a draft budget >> but >> yeah it could I think that the I want to reframe the second part thing because this this might be helpful to inform the discussion first the second and the third draft of the budget is the place where we're explaining what we would like to be doing and we're showing you all the parts so not only the school community can weigh in on that but the community can weigh in on that. here's what we're thinking is this is what so it so so I think there's plenty of time for
009those discussions it's our job to demonstrate what we're doing and why that's different from what it would look like if we just rolled everything over >> to to establish um a set of assumptions about where we are with revenue and expenses as it relates to is that does that equal level service enough >> um so if we were to do this verbally hi Nick how are you great great to see you thank you for coming our revenue venue looks like we can all plan on about a 3 to 5% increase in all town budgets. So, I'm okay to let you know that that's what it looks like. >> Okay. So, then do we just do an aggregate rollover of what we have right now in an effort to give you a baseline, not you, but
010to give a baseline >> and say, "All right, if we rolled everything over, we're about even. We have the same we have the same size group of folks that we could have back next year if we want to have them back in the same form." Mhm. >> With that being the baseline, now we're going to model for you. Uh we have we want to prioritize these three things. So, we're going to introduce them into the budget. Uh and we're prioritizing them higher than these three things that may need to come out of the budget in order for this to be uh to meet the the end number that the town would be providing us. So, that's that's my general verbal kind of way of thinking. um we're assuming a zero sum game at this point
011that we're going to be level service in that we have that we could have the same amount of folks this year as next year and with that said we we we would like to realign some of those resources in order to meet the priorities and demands based on student achievement data and the needs of the district. Mhm. >> Um, but I think that your request to kind of get make sure that that baseline is accurate, what what would that entail? Like if Nick says it's at 3 to 5%, do we assume 5%. We take the aggregate number, we roll it over, we get a gross number like an aggregate number $75 million and we know that that represents everybody moving forward and everything else being held at 3 to 5% and we work within that.
012I guess I guess I assume that those two these two boxes represent the ability to try to establish a baseline from which we would be then comparing and modeling against the changes that we see we would like to make based on the factors that we would present that that's kind of how it should the last one stay away. >> Yeah, I think the and again I didn't have obviously this exact language but I was like this kind of checkpoint in the meeting. I think Katie the thing I was trying to create a step to hedge against was was the like past two years where we've put a lot of work into like a budget and into like a list of like looking down needs or you know whatever that is and then we it's like
013oh the revenue is like not and we like throw that out like that's not >> helpful because the revenue kind of versus expense modeling piece and so like you know mostly again leading on 105 is the town side. Mostly just my thought is just taking that and saying like all right how does that look now now that we we all have that information we've been able to ask the town administrator what does it look like the impact of that's going to be on a again on a level service rollover budget like that doesn't look good or that looks fine or straight like hopefully you know it's probably one of those >> before we start what's the baseline >> yeah and just just so we have a sense of like we're already going we we want
014extra buses but we're already going to need to be cutting a lot of other things like, okay, well, they need to figure out where we're cutting. Just though, it felt like we've almost gotten a step ahead of the town of in past years of spending a lot of work on here are things that would be great for kids getting excited about that and then getting the brick wall of no, none of that's happening. Uh, let's figure out how we're going to just save what we can and like last year, you know, some of the conversation around reorganizing certain expenses to flip into other areas. Again, I think that's the challenge I was seeing and thinking maybe this step would hedge against. But to A's point, maybe that is just something that plays out in the
015first draft. The first draft itself just looked different like when we call the first draft was just like a little bit different. I guess another question I have is just like from a timing standpoint, is that also something you're concerned about there where you just like would like a little bit more time before kind of being able to share even stuff around the level service kind of cost? >> I do think I it I'm just more concerned about that timing. Yeah. When I think about the budget creation process for the upcoming fiscal year, the way that I've always created the budget is always the first step in the process is just to figure out what that level service budget number is. >> And then if it's a 5% but the town is saying we can
016only afford two and a half, then we have to figure out how we're going to make changes to be able to get to that 2 and 1/2 number. And then that's just reflected in the budget documentation. I think always keeping in mind and this will go into the philosophies like what are our priorities because it doesn't mean that we have to just necessarily cut it. Can't mean that we can reallocate. We can shift um staffing levels. There's so much that goes into it. So I think that's a part of my hesitancy with that 1029 date of yes we can say a level service budget number but kind of like the actual mechanism to which we create a level service budget we do it by every single employee we're doing their grade their step how much
017we're projecting they're making next year how many hours they're working which holidays they're getting paid like it is a pretty there's a lot of detail and there's a lot of >> kind of um effort that goes into it and I know sometimes it so I would just hate to come back and say oh level service is going to be like um 4% because I want to make sure that it's a really good solid number and it's based off of actual people. Um, so that's why I don't I just don't want to like wouldn't want to have the conversation and say, "Okay, this is what the we think the level service number is going to be and then have it change significantly when we're presenting draft number one." So I think maybe just a little time
018to be able to um be able to provide some good solid numbers. The my other concern too is um some of the pieces that are not tied to the employees and again remembering this is going to be similar to last year. We're we don't have um contract for next year for every single one of ours. So this is very much going to be um level service budget exercise is pretty straightforward when you have settled contracts. But without that um it's not as it's not kind of like I don't want to say easy but it's not a straightforward exercise. And then um we're still finding or this October is a pretty important month in finding out information um as it relates to special education programs and funding and expenses. And so some of that information is
019coming in now. So, we want to make sure that we're not just making an exam an assumption of what special education tuition is going to be next year. Um, and so we're just finding out that information now. So, making sure some that's incorporated into those numbers is going to be really important. Um, so I just I think my my only hesitancy again with the 1029 number and and we can work towards that number and if it's just a draft and if it's not a full budget presentation then I'm more than happy to work towards that date. Um, but I just want to make sure that it's like a meaningful number and that there is, you know, there's a possibility that it's going to change >> before the first budget presentation. >> I we could hold
020the date as kind of just a an intern checkpoint if there's anything where you want input from the finance committee as you're working. So it sounds like you need you would [clears throat] like to have a couple of weeks. So does the 115 what? So you are you saying by November 5th you feel like or >> 19th you'll need until the 19th to build that first draft of that budget? >> Mhm. >> Yeah. We we were hoping the 19th would be that first draft. >> Okay. in that draft would have the modifications to it that we feel we would need in order to move the district forward based on the district philos budget philosophy very simple and that would give you all a chance to see what those shifts are and the conversation >> of
021why how come what you think of this why do we have to you know that that's what the next three meetings are that's what the three drafts are that's that's the place where all of the the the healthy community talking about this front community is there. >> Yeah. I I mean I can see like pushing the the idea of the modeling and what the impacts of these things like as you are saying being just as part of the budgeting process like having those kind of conversation around I I guess I again I could be pushed on this. I just generally would love like want if we could try and set clarify the the agenda or clarify the narrative around what people can expect for the budget before they just see the first draft budget that
022like this is going to be a we like this going to be just level service or you know it's not looking great. We're going to need to like make I think maybe that's just an update from the finance committee and less of this >> formal presentation. Um but again I just feel like we have been some expectation part of that too of like let's talk about how we're going to add and then like invest for the kids and done work on that and then >> just wasted time. Uh, >> yeah. I I'm trying to think of where we how we position that cuz I understand what you're saying and we want to make sure. So, I guess it really depends on how Nick presents and whether or not >> that revenue expectation is in line
023with a general rollover that that we could do some sort of a not back of the envelope understanding. But you know we think that given all we think that given certain assumptions that 5% will allow us to have a level service budget in in in [clears throat] its uh in its hypothetical form meaning everybody here position wise and expense wise salary non- salary things can be rolled over with with with the same numbers involved >> and the district will now go ahead and start to within that framework start to build a budget with some of the added priorities knowing that if it's level service and we're not getting more than that that whatever we are adding to the budget in order to promote better strategies to address any one of the five priority areas that
024we have that there's going to have to be an in and out to that >> and so we we are preparing a budget memo with the staff yesterday the uh that that will start that by school >> so we're giving that assignments to the principles here's all your staff here's the pertinent expenses that you have. Uh what do you need to make your school work at your own level? Independent exercise that you get to do with your assistant principal and whomever you choose to bring to the table and give us something back that describes how you want to organize your school from a teaching and learning perspective connected to the five areas of priority. Tier one instruction um using data to inform instruction steps towards so and we showed them this graph uh that I
025actually already added. I had to add something to it. But, uh, so we want them to start to build that. That's kind of a modified zerobased. We're not going to go in through every letting them decide, I really think I'd rather have this than that. And then we'll get them to we'll have one hour meetings with each. They fill that out. They'll come back to us and we'll start to build the themes and build across the district budget and talk about also what is needed at different schools to impact student achievement. That looks different in every school. uh or what pockets of students need something different in more than other pockets of students with within our district. Um and that will be the the group discussion that is the service delivery model of that discussion.
026Right? So then you have oh by the way we decided that we feel it's really important from a financial stewardship model to actually identify revolving accounts within the Belmont Mil school and actually build back balances. So now because we're we're we're meeting when we know that we need to begin the the true exercise of making deposits in those revolving accounts over a period of time to get them to be in a position to be a healthy budget by FY28 or FY29. >> Yeah. So, if we're if we're only talking about the same size pizza that we're buying, >> just by the bus and just by making revolving accounts, at least making a deposit in that, we already know that there'll be some ins and outs, which that means that someone's going to be an out
027>> or something's going to be an out. >> If that makes sense. >> It does make sense. And I think that's why and I understand the rationale for the the earlier question, but it's it's a little bit I feel like the budget approach is different this year. And so, um, I feel a little bit like that checkpoint would be important if we were approaching it the same way from the standpoint of like, you know, even thinking level service versus needs based like coming at it from that, but it it almost the way that you just explained it was perfect and sort of where my head was, which is um we're the approach is not a rollover necessarily. And that's where it was like, well, if we were rolling over all of these positions, we're kind
028of in this percentage, but if we're looking at it sort of holistically, um, even thinking about, for example, there are positions that didn't get filled this year, right? So those were already starting in a different place because you're looking at those positions and saying, okay, what was the pain point? Does that need to be filled? If do we fill it differently? like it there's almost like a different strategic approach. And so my question would be does that initial check-in tell us as much or tell us tell us what we're what we need to know because it's it sort of is like a check-in for the the way that that the budget was previously built. Does that make sense? What do I mean? >> I think there's there's a there's a real um there's a real
029there's an importance in knowing how big the pizza's going to be. >> Yes. So we don't want um the town to come back and say in two weeks after we do this work or oh health insurance went up by 18% we can only give you now it's now it's more like two and a half not five >> lock's trying to prevent us from doing all this work and then having all of a sudden the revenue be significantly different if it was significantly more then we could easily adjust up right but it's harder to adjust down so I think a baseline and sometimes we just start the budget process by just listing our assumptions We're assuming the following things. >> Yeah, >> we're assuming state aid will be relatively flat. We're assuming federal grants will be
030relatively flat. We're assuming that, you know, given our conversation with the town administrator that um the town's uh town based operating budget number will be 3 to 5%. So, we're assuming those things and we spell them out up front. Um and then with those things being true, hopefully this is how we're going to build our budget. this is how we're going to proceed in that way. >> Then we can go into our work from there. Um and that that's one way to do it. Um I guess my >> address your [clears throat] question >> I think so I like I'm wondering if the word just presentation is the piece that like is also going up like I guess you might it's just like we have a check in like just make sure we're absolutely >>
031same page about how we're thinking this is going based upon like what you think the expenses are need to be next year and we're >> versus like some need some formal slideshow presentation all that stuff but I guess you'll The one more I think trying to understand the difference between the the 115 deliverable and the 1119 is when we talk about modeling that's where I'm the modeling impact on funding priorities is >> the 115 was the 115 was connected to the 1029 which I just changed the language to say instead of a presentation from this but I I think we're saying we're not going to do the modeling until the the budget item was moving the modeling discussion down 1119 to say all right that's first reading the budget made your point which I think
032is a good one on you know we can review the first half the budget you have to share kind of these are estate kind of um assumptions that you're using within that model is kind of just they all have foundation and then we can start the process like looking at what the the different modeling impacts of based on this like we included the buses because of this or didn't include because of this this is what we see obviously that's the iterative process through the budget process. And then just to push us forward, like I I put in there there four check-ins on kind of the budget and stuff. And so maybe that is too much. Um just wanted to name that like I I did two and then wanted to have at least kind of
033two check-ins and then present back to the full school committee the idea of getting that out before the winter break. Um that's 12:17. That is our last meeting for winter break. said they're kind of looped in and then we'll have surate based upon feedback from them uh and more conversations when we get back in January uh and then have you know a public budget presentation. I think it would be nice this year if we did that not on the same night we voted on the budget. >> Yeah. Uh and then another check in from this group coming out of the public budget presentation. I mean the vote timeline was trying to hit that kind of 131 but thinking that was >> and and I think that those dates match up with the second part of
034conversation match up with what the expectation was at Friday's meeting that we're matching up with the towns. >> Yeah, >> that's fine as well. >> That's what we had shared. And so if this feels good, share this uh PDF version of the schedule and Megan to share with the committee. But then we can we have a couple put in a couple checkpoints with the war committee subcommittee and obviously we'll have more of that once we have a finalized school budget committee some presentations. So also I think maybe share this with Jay as well just to make sure that wicked 2.3 timelines some obviously there >> Mark you said you put in four checkins along the way is this the first through fourth reading is that Yeah, no reason. [clears throat] Obviously, we'll change dates if
035it Okay, >> great. Anything else on this timeline or anything you think we're missing? So I don't have really anything here on budget coordination exactly what we need from them or want from them at certain points. It's part of the question maybe just sharing with budget coordination committee and >> I kind of hit one thing. I I think that um and uh did you want to present the Q1 at the next meeting at 10:15? >> Yes. >> So you could present it at the 10:22 school meeting. >> Correct. Yes. You know, we worried that the timing of having Nick in in presenting Q1 would be problematic because I think that that's the best place you have to sit if you want to be at the 10:22 school meeting. Yeah, that was that gets into a
036bit of the like next meeting dates and calendars because I agree with I I guess my proposal there was going to be should we meet on 1022 for finance um because I agree I don't see any way in which maybe I'm totally wrong but administrator report we fit that in with one in 1029 we were going to do revolving counts discussion This based on this like a check in the express projection too. >> Yeah. So we can do that in the morning and then present in the afternoon. >> Yeah. >> We'll do a morning meeting. >> Yes. Okay. So kind of jump down to >> Can I just ask a question? So if we are doing a cubarm report on 1022 for finance subcommittee and full school committee it so I think we had also
037talked about being able to share that with the budget coordination committee but I think that meeting is before >> and so we will not share the Q1 report with budget coordination until the >> November >> maybe another I don't when the next >> so we'll probably start meeting every two weeks with that group and it important for Katie and I to make sure just from a kind of hierarchical school committee should be seeing the Q1 before another body see the Q1 I mean I know that you guys would be there but the other four members wouldn't so that kind of a protocol thing >> yeah I had a I mean budget coordination stuff a little bit but I had a followup meeting with um after that with me and uh shared shared that just >>
038yeah I feel like That's been feedback we've gotten from other members of not not wanting a bunch of coordination committee like >> navigate [clears throat] >> school committee stuff and yes that just practice we want everything to make sure it's school committee eyes but that gets set up. >> So we'll at that at that next meeting we'll let them know that after we present it on the 22nd we'll present it to the budget group at the next scheduled meeting after the 22nd. Yeah. So the idea is you would present the like it would be a share out of the Q1 report to the budget coordinating committee >> after the tour >> that I'm not 100% feels scope that committee but except it does have within that like first budget point the review of this stuff.
039So I don't know how much time we need to spend on it. feedback I had was like we can just at least >> Yeah. Yeah. We like can figure it out in advance and be questions and we can like say we'll answer them quickly or say we'll get back to you on those questions. >> I mean I I do think it was part of the charge, right? And and I think we the first meeting uh discussed was when the printouts by week or by month don't mean anything. The Q1 has value because of the narrative. It's all about the the framing in the context of the numbers. So if we wanted to send that out on the 23rd to that whole group in an effort to give it to them early to review so before
040the next meeting that given time to do it that might mean it's not a presentation at that meeting. It might just be a series of a couple of questions. But the the Q1 right now looks like we're spending all things in the way that they would be appropriately expended. They're all about onetenth of everything onetenth of the year except for our supplies. that are a higher percentage because we buy a lot of our things first because we want to use them all year. So it it is a relatively uh routine document in Q1. Q2 could always be different but Q1's pretty standard. >> Okay. >> Anything else on that? >> Yeah. the meat of the meeting. Budget philosophy priorities audience meeting. Yeah. >> So, uh after listening to our meeting last week, I kind of
041uh came in on that Thursday and just my thought on my whiteboard and um so this is the draft. You can see some crossouts are still there. basically tried to create a philosophy rooted in our strategy for this year's instructional model that we're anchoring our work on not only from this budgeting perspective but we unpacked all of our data today from MCCAST with every single teacher they all had the same slides from central office we all had the same we had these five expectations and focus areas on so this is the through line for the district uh so we want to not only conduct our PD and look at our teaching and learning and our rimcast through this model. We're also going to look at our budgeting through this model. Um and then from that
042uh specifically what are we what are we going to prioritize and we're just again using words and not numbers at this level of the presentation from what I gathered from the last time we met. And so I was actively trying to connect the priority to the priority number of the leadership team uh focus areas to the the budget priorities below. Um and so this is that's generally was my thinking. Connect everything to what we're focusing on. Let that be the through line for all that we're doing. Uh, one of the things that I did not put on this that uh, I can update this is um, we need to reflect that budget priorities will also be um, setting forward a pathway for our revolving accounts and making those incremental deposits. Because when we sit in
043front of the principles, and we've already said this twice, we are we are prioritizing at the district level, the the the revolving accounts, the prioritized revolving accounts to be, you know, a part of building a three-year plan with that, which may mean if we're in an in and out budget year, meaning we're not getting more, something may have to be deleted in order to fill those revolving accounts with at least an initial deposit. Um, so that would need to be added. But, um, I gave some examples on the second page of what that could actually look like from a, uh, financial non- salary item or FTE view. Uh, and then again connecting them back to the things that we're focusing. These are just examples. So, I gave the principles and commander, I think you said
044it might be nice to have a couple of examples to use so people could kind of get some what that in and out look like. Uh, this is certainly just the the ads. It's not it's not what would be this is not budgeted against what we would potentially remove in order to be able to pay for these. How um these I think these examples are useful. How in your mind and I'm not gonna hold you any minute obviously but like how illustrative are these examples like >> we so very >> theoretical >> yeah know these things that we will need to take money uh and prepare for the curriculum review cycle early literacy work that we're doing uh that has been budgeted for this year that you'll hear about on the 22nd of October more
045money will be needed in order for us to capitalize in the work that we want to do over the summer and next year for professional development that's targeted to uh tier one instruction. How do we target uh positions andor resources to uh you know reducing the the gap in our achievement that we see? So I think professional development money would be there. I'd also will say that that also might mean what we want to focus on a budget discussions I'm sorry negotiations discussions that could also have a financial impact right we're asking for more PD time or restructuring professional development time within the negotiations uh that would have some sort of a um an impact on financial uh and then the the easy example is doing this work without a full-time teaching and learning assistance
046retented is uh to say the word challenge ing is a is an understatement. So, um and then priority two addressing uh learning gaps. I'm really thinking of the work that we're trying to, you know, think about and shift at Tucker and in some aspects of our work across the entire district where students are not making we're averaging about 22% of our students below grade level. That's to me that that's not a this is just a Tucker challenge. This is the district's challenge to make sure that we identify every student who's not meeting grade level. Where are they? Who are they? What do they need? And how do we address those challenges? It just so happens that that that number of students is more of the population at Tucker. And Tucker is a smaller school. So
047it seems to stick out and it needs more every single child may need some children may need more than other than the aggregate. Uh so we we're very aware the budget could look a little different for different schools based on how many students they need to address that achievement cap in. Um and uh and then we just gave examples of uh how we can prioritize culture and climate. I think the bus is a big a very good example of we we need to get students to school safely in order for them to be able to access their school day and like that. So that that's generally however approach and the PD will actually address not only the achievement gap like issues we have we need uh we need to invest in tier one instruction in
048really really and that's every student every teacher all the time excuse me and I think we have really good partners of good tier one instruction but we need to to do that tier one instruction systematic We're all understanding and growing in the same direction of both districts because that impacts every child to school every day that their teacher is the main uh driver of their success. So we want to make sure as well. >> I don't I think this is great. I think it's I think it helps ground everything kind of filter which you recognize to understand the decisions. I did have a question. I don't know if it fits here, just sort of thinking out loud, but when I think about the budget and I think about the last couple of years and then
049your the comment that you had about prioritizing revolving accounts, is there a a budget philosophy as well in the sense of like right now there's the the philosophy is around these um priorities, but similarly >> like a culture of like a culture of fiscal stability like that's the piece. And so because I do think that then that >> justifies >> it justifies some of these things but it also says we're not ask like right we're not we don't have right we don't we came off of an override [snorts] this is the budget the goal is to replenish the revolving caps it's to be in a place where we're stable we have you know this needs um fund etc. So I just think that's the one piece of I can work that into that. >> Yeah,
050I I agree like adding adding you said adding revolving funds like strengthening budget accounts >> as to me I mean number ones. Yeah. uh just just from the standpoint of like you have to have that in order to have any sustainability. So like you know a calm um environment for kids where they know what they can expect on a year basis and staff aren't threatened with losing employment and jobs. That's justational to work in place. It's not fiscally stable. That could actually start that could start the discussion that could start the paragraph typically >> and you know all this is predicated on a healthy >> wellunded budget that we need to incrementally bring back over time >> and then then at the bottom or at the top then have that be the we need a
051healthy budget. We can't start next year. You can't keep starting next year. You have to start this year. We need to put deposits into them. So yeah, I can work that in. Thanks for that. >> And this is and and I'm and I'm um no part of authorship here. Whatever you were thinking when you were giving me these ideas, Nathan, if you were thinking something different or can if you want to edit this so I can share the school, I I'm just trying to really provide that big picture. Where are we going with this and why are we going in this direction? Uh if there's not enough through uh you know, I'm thinking of the different stakeholders we have, right? So the people who are who have worries about our lowest achieving students are they
052will they see themselves in this priority in this philosophy. The folks in the town meeting who want us to be fiscally responsible see themselves in this you know people should see themselves somewhere in here. You mean I think tier one instruction is everybody. Uh and I think rigor is everybody. Uh but I want to I'm just that's how I think of these things when I put them in front of public. make sure people can see themselves as a document in some way. Um I I mean I think this document is great and a great start but I have a couple of thoughts no [clears throat] need to have fully formed answers to these at this moment. Um, in no particular order, one thing it seems like you have invested a lot in this year at
053a at a what I assume is basically a budget cost neutral way is investing in your leadership team. It seems like you've been bringing a lot of people together. You agreed on these five priorities together. Um, and that seems to be working. And I wonder if just, you know, this assumes there's there's there is excess funding for something like this, but are there additional investments you want to make in leadership beyond beyond this important one, which is converting assistance super from time to full-time? Maybe what you're doing, which isn't costing anything, is totally fine, but maybe there's other areas where you want to deepen investment in um school leadership. mastery with um central office stuff. I I don't really know what the means are. Um I once we get further along or once you all
054have a chance to think about this more I I'd be interested in knowing how these are weighted against each other. Like take the revolving account question first. Like do we want to get to and I I don't know enough about the math here, but like do we want to get to 50% of our goal next year in terms of making deposits there before we consider additional investments anywhere else? Like is there any kind of gatekeep investments you want to make? Um and then last comment on budget priority two which is using student achievement data to reallocate staff and targeted programming. Um I I completely agree with this and will just note that there's something in this current climate that feels radical about that. um like this is a this is a commitment to equity at
055a resource allocation level. Um, and I think I guess the devil is in the details, but reallocating financial resources, potential human resources to students who need it most um is both important and necessary and maybe something that will require um require bringing people along with you. Um, and I also wonder whether there's any um exposure legal exposure on something like that >> given the current federal. >> Yeah. Yeah. And so the way I look at this and we talk a lot about this at our MASS work and uh framing and so forth, but our job is to make sure first and foremost that all students have access to quality and rigorous tier one instruction. Everybody gets that. It's also our job to look at who we're not serving from a student achievement output perspective. Um
056and so we can see that our resources are heavily invested in some of the students who are not meeting benchmark and they actually have um a legal right to it. That's our special education students, right? So we can actually you can show how much money you're dedicating to that. Uh we might want to think about what we want to dedicate for our EL students who aren't achieving because some of our EL students are achieving but we want to make sure. And then there then there's just students who aren't achieving it. Whoever they are need to be scaffolded in a more targeted way in order to reach benchmark. And and I think that we that's a that's an essential foundation of what every superintendent should be uh building towards is everybody needs to be a benchmark
057or above or have access to benchmark or above and have a trajectory to reach benchmark uh over a certain continuum if if they struggle to get there. So, uh I I think that uh uh that it's very important to address the all in rigor which I hear over time sometimes people feel like that's at expense of trying to expend resources on some students going out to benchmark. It's a it's a if the end question it's not a one or the other. We need tier one instruction to be uh at a high level of quality for all students. And we need to make sure that we're looking at our students who aren't achieving, asking why, and then implementing things that might be more different from uh what other students are getting in order to get them
058into that big buck. Um and I actually think we're doing a lot of it. You know what I mean? We're already doing it. Uh the question becomes what's working and what's not. You know, I think we're doing a lot of this well with the district, but it really comes down to organize it and systematize it and actually check in with whether we're doing it well or not uh from a data perspective. So, yeah, I'm I'm I'm not worried about standing up to that and making sure it works. [clears throat] >> It's great. >> And to your point on accounts, I expect that's part of the discussion. >> Yeah. too, right? But time what I think having that conversation before then we see the drop budget too and it might be something that we adjust so
059five years but that means or as it relates to things we need to not fun to we can't get this position to a fulltime unfortunately and times strain financial strain thanks for conversations but yeah I think This this will be different I think for the school committee and the community to actually have to have a level of friction that we just assume is going to be there. We shouldn't anticipate this to go smoothly. There should be a healthy friction debate of what we think is prior what we should prioritize what we have to make the list in order to only only spend X. And um and that's where you really start to sort out what you really need and why you really want to do it. And [clears throat] uh those those those are hard
060to have because we we struggled in July to do that here at this table with the principles. So uh so that's why we're letting this time start by themselves. What does your school need? What would you like to change? What would you see differently? But at the end of the day that the number stays the same. So that it's an easy exercise when it's just what do you need to add? It's a harder exercise and has some accountability to it. So, and they understand that that that's ahead of you. >> Well, when you're saying no to things, that's when you you actually have strategy. >> Right. >> Yeah. It's healthy. >> Yeah, it is healthy. That's what I mean. We should anticipate that healthy debate and discussion. I think it's good for the community to
061to hear us talking about it, Jimmy. And I think that's a good thing. >> The the one question I would have is looking at number three. Um I just [snorts] as we think through it is the absentee I think the thing that jumps out at me is the absentee rate. I know that we're not comparatively high if I remember correctly to other districts. So, um, improvement district school, um, and classroom climate and culture because I think a little bit of Nathan what you brought up earlier about maybe is it about professional development doors or are there other things beyond um, I just don't know if absentee rate limits this a lot when we're talking about the culture and are there other things is is by having that word in there does it exclude other things
062that might impact? >> Yes, exactly. Yeah, let me massage that a little. There's other things that are needed on top of that, right? It's really about having having connections with families that we need to reach farther out to connect with like like we did with reestablishing residency. We we brought my kind of back. Yeah. >> She got out of her old rolodex and we can remember what that is. And she looked through every family that she had been working with over the last eight years. What do you need, honey? You better bring this in. I'll buy the house and pick it up. Can I do I'll help you log on. Those are the real kind of extensions that we need to make for some families in order for them not only to feel welcome but
063to access school. So it's not just absentee it's there's a lot of things I can cover. So I I'll I'll get that be mindful time 655 probably. Okay. So then uh our next meeting is the 15th with the town administr uh and then at 10:22 reports discussion and short check on anything else that I'm missing over the next weeks. All right. Well, then I will leave us to uh I'll take a motion to adjourn. Is there a second? All in favor? >> Uh that is it. Thank you everybody. Thank you.