001Yeah. All right. Good evening and welcome to the January 7th um meeting of the Milton School Committee. Happy new year to everyone. Um if we could all stand for the pledge of allegiance [clears throat] to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands. One nation under God, >> indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. [clears throat] >> As we do every meeting, I just lost. Um, we will start with public comment. In accordance with school committee policy, we will welcome members of the community to share their perspectives with us during public comment. We've set aside up to 15 minutes for this part of the meeting meeting and individuals may speak for up to three minutes each. While the school committee does not respond directly to public comment
002if there may be opportunities for members to address issues that are raised over the course of the meeting when relevant topics are are on our agenda. We strive to engage in respectful discourse during our meetings and ask that the public comment speakers keep that in mind. Speakers should introduce themselves for the record. We don't seem to have anybody in the audience here for it. Is there anybody online? If [clears throat] you are online and you're interested in participating in public comment, if you could raise your hand, >> looks like looks like there's no one. >> We will continue on. We will begin with the superintendent report. >> Thank you very uh very much uh Chia Serio. Um very happy to be back from uh winter recess and um hope everybody enjoyed a restful uh [cough
003and clears throat] winter break as we get ready for the second half of the school year. I just want to begin with some dates uh that are upcoming for the school district. Uh tomorrow night, January 8th, we have our preschool night. It's a virtual meeting for all of our um upcoming preschool students for the 26 27th school year. Please go on our website. There's a log on um um link there for you to connect if you would like to find out more about our preschool. On January 9, uh Milton High School will be hosting the 2026 MMEA East District Music Festival and we'll be hosting approximately 400 students and I think I'm taking Elias's uh good work away because he's in the crowd. He's probably be part of that. We have 400 students, 50 chaperones
004from surrounding communities of about 30 districts. On January 15th, we have kindergarten information night. This is a great way for us to welcome our new families to Milton public schools. And this is the start of a of a 13-year relationship with families that are entering kindergarten that we hope will stay with Milton public schools from kindergarten all the way through grade 12. Uh again, that will be a virtual night, so please click on uh that link and you will be able to attend that as well. Um, Pierce players will be hosting Anything Goes Thursday, January 22nd, Friday, January 23rd, and Saturday, January 24th. Uh, that will happen at the Pierce auditorium, and we want to make sure that as many folks attend as possible. Our theater program at the high school and our theater program
005at the middle school are outstanding. So, please take advantage of this wonderful event. March 12th uh, is first grade information night. This is for all of our current kindergarten parents and anybody in the community who will be attending first grade next year. We want to make sure that you attend first grade information night. This is an opportunity for everybody to hear about our programs at the elementary level and understand how that process works for being assigned to a program and all about um our wonderful elementary programming in public schools. Um, I also want to let folks know that we have uh seen on the news and probably experienced in our families that it is full-blown flu season. So, we want to make sure that everybody knows that if they are not feeling well to not
006send their child to school, that we will absolutely get to work and make it up over time for our staff and our families to take care of themselves, wash their hands, um, and do what they can to make sure that when they come to school, they're healthy. the healthier we are, uh, the more school days we can have and be productive. And for families who do feel like their child's sick, uh, they can make sure that they keep them home. And we ask staff to do the same thing so we can have a healthy school um, this school year in January, February. Um, we have two student reps um, attending tonight uh, that we'd like to call to the table. We have Elias Caros and Adam. And Adam and Elias, please come up. We are
007veterans here at the school committee meetings. We're so thankful for you to be here as student representatives. Uh Adam is a junior and Elias is a senior at Milton High. So, welcome. Uh you are veterans now, so please tell us what's all the good stuff happening at Milton High. And again, thanks for being here. >> Yeah, thank you so much. Happy New Year. I hope you all enjoyed the holidays. Um some exciting things are ongoing at the high school. Uh we have begun our AP information uh sessions and these will run through the 23rd of January. Uh this is an opportunity for students to learn more about the uh advanced placement course offerings at the high school. Um these information sessions are often you know excitement for both students and teachers as they get to
008meet one another and discuss um some of the expectations and rigor of these courses. Um Ias and I uh we both have experience with them. Um and of course course registration will occur after February break um which will give uh students and their parents um their families an opportunity to decide what course is best uh will you know help them reach their goals both at Milton High School and afterwards. Um, the end of our academic term will be January the 26th, but [snorts] I'm sure you all know that. And, um, you can celebrate by seeing our winter play, which will be hosted, uh, January 30th and 31st. It's a two act series. >> Thank you, Adam. Um, I would like to begin with our music department. Um, you know, it's after the holidays, after our
009concerts, but um, we still have, um, a lot of fun activities and events going on. Um, actually just this weekend um, on the 9th and the 10th of January on Friday and Saturday, we will be hosting the senior districts festival. It is wonderful to engage with the broader um music community in the region um throughout greater Boston. Um and it is overall a celebration of all of our hard work as music students and we seek to bring a lot of joy um to our community through art in music. So, um if you're around on Saturday and you can come to the high school that they're doing a performance there, um it would be wonderful to check out. Also, um upcoming is our um sweetheart dance. It's going to be held um for all four grades
010um at Milton High School in the fieldhouse the week before February break. And that too will be a fun celebration of our hard work as students um before we get to rest again. I know we just rested um but um six weeks of straight school and then um going on to um the break that that will be a fun event that we haven't done um throughout the past few years and it would be a great fundraising opportunity as well. And then um um we try to um meet as a small group um every month and we haven't been doing so um lately or we haven't done it since um our last meeting. Um so we don't have any updates um regarding the issue with the uh phone policy but then we will update you soon
011um at the next meeting after we u will have met as a group. Very good. Thank you very much. You know, I forgot to mention uh that we have um winter sports have started at the high school as well. Uh and some of the highlights are boys basketball is six and two. I was able to get to a game over the break. Girls basketball is 4 and four. I was able to get to one of those games over the break. Boys hockey is 4- one. And our incredible girls hockey team is 6-1. Uh ski team is 0 and zero. They haven't had a match yet. Boys indoor track is 0 and2. girls indoor track is one and one and wrestling is two and four. So there's a lot going on between music, theater, clubs, activities,
012AP, athletics. Uh the high school is a busy place, so we're we're really happy the good stuff is happening at Milton High School. >> Awesome. Yeah, I wouldn't trade it for the world. [laughter] >> You guys the best. >> Any questions for our all-star students at Milton High? >> Thank you. Thank you. Happy new year. >> Thank you. Happy new year as well. >> Have a good night. >> Um the next thing on the superintendent report is the 2627 calendar discussion. Uh this um item was on the agenda in December. Uh first and foremost, we wanted to highlight to the community that the holiday rotation dates will be different in the following school year than they are in the current year. That's a policy that was set in place last year. Uh but one of
013the discussions that we are going to have as a school committee um that will be in executive session is uh with this change in policy comes with the need to impact bargain some of the dates and holidays that that are in our collective bargaining agreements. So uh before we move forward with anything related to the calendar um in this in the upcoming weeks, we will be meeting tonight in executive session connected to this work uh and working on some of the details um with our union. So uh for the public asking questions about when school is going to start, what does the calendar look like? Uh we hope to be able to bring that to you with more detail uh at the upcoming meetings and we will be breaking early tonight um for an executive
014session in order to keep that work moving forward. Um, I would also uh like to present to you, we uh have a presentation that was going to be presented by Dr. FA Shavers, our director of uh DEIB. Uh she had a family emergency. She was with us all day at work today and had to leave early uh for uh an emergency. She's fine. Her family's fine, but she was not able to be here. Um, I did not want to steal her thunder, but I really wanted to express a good news story that she has been working on that she can certainly come back to the um to the school committee and provide this highlight as well as the other work that she's doing this year. [snorts] Um, we are very excited to uh and I
015don't know Mark if you want to put this on the screen if that's okay. I'll go through it quickly but uh just so the community sees the uh the presentation. >> [clears throat] >> Thank you very much. Um, in the next slide, um, uh, Dr. Dr. Shavers and I met back in August and one of her primary goals, not her only goal, but one of her primary goals on slide two uh was to increase the amount of diverse staff in the M public schools um 10% from the previous 24 25 school year. Uh and also decrease the attrition rate of our staff of color who may be leaving the district. uh her strategy uh for that includes um some of the work that she's been doing uh on the next slide which is staff of
016color affinity group um staff book club for all staff to participate in. Uh we have joined uh the teachers lounge job portal uh which is a portal that helps diversify district's teaching staff. Uh it also uh began the work on having equitable hiring practices and training for all of our hiring agents within the Milton public schools. Um that big picture work uh will be supported by a grant that Dr. Shavers applied for and successfully uh received from the department of elementary and secondary education. Um the the grant itself uh is the uh FCO253. Only TESS you can have a a wonderful name for a grant like FCO253 transforming diverse educator pathways grant from DESIE. It was up to $75,000. Uh we were awarded 73 which is a very high amount. Um, this grant will allow
017us to support our unit D staff who currently work in Milton. Those are par profofessionals that we would like to move into the unit A or teaching in professional lensure roles if they have a desire to do so. That could be as a teacher, as a social worker, uh it could just be uh providing them access to coursework etc. uh we feel it's very important to uh not only hire a diverse staff but also cultivate the staff that we have and create a pathway for educators who come in through the paraprofessional unity uh employment. We know their character. We know who they are. We know they're good people. They've been working with us. It's only to our benefit and their benefit to mutually invest in each other and invest in who they are. So we
018have already contacted those folks. uh FA has a meeting on Friday to follow up. Uh but what this grant does is it allows us to provide funding for different pathways for them to access higher education, lenture, test taking, lensure courses. Uh the cost reimbursement uh towards becoming a professional educator would include uh course tuition, professional development costs, books and pertinent resources, certification um expenses, Pentel prep courses, exam fees, lensure fees, anything that gets in the way monetarily of uh someone who was working with us that might be able to if we can break down that barrier, they can access a an additional pathway to becoming a licensed educator. Uh we have about I think 18 people who are taking part in this work. Um Katie Blake, our assistant superintendent for finance has been working with
019FA to organize the approach of making sure that we have an approval process for how this works and that the costs of reimbursement and that the funds are are are and provided in a way that's uh ensuring that the work has been taking place. And all the things on the screen that you see as ways that we're going to provide pathway opportunities and cost support to our employees are um part of the DESIE expectations. This is all approved by Desi and we'll find our way to make sure we do it the customized way in Hilton. Uh this is a great new story. Uh we have been talking with Desi for a long time as superintendents to try to create pathways for students in high school uh to undergrad to becoming teachers in the barriers and
020I think that this grant opportunity for all districts across the straight state is Desi's way of listening to superintendents and school districts that this might be a good way to diversify staff. So we're thankful to the Department of Elementary secondary ed uh but we're more importantly thankful to Dr. shavers for applying for the grant, taking the time to do so, and not taking the time to meet. Um, this work will also come with some u mentoring funds so we can have licensed professionals in the area that our unit members are seeking to take uh a pathway towards. We'll have support of a licensed professional in that field. So, if I want to become a a guidance counselor, we'll hire a mentor guidance counselor within the year to help them gather some information, walk them through
021the process. If it's an English teacher, uh if it's whatever role, we want to be able to provide support to them. So part of the funds will be expended on existing licensed professionals and built in supporting that unity member uh with that pathway to his lensure. So uh this is all uh really really good news for our staff uh in securing the grant. We will be able to continue uh investing um inhouse and showing the commitment to our current staff. This not only creates a new way to diversify staff, but it also retains our staff of color who are not in the licensed area of our work, but in the in the par profofessional um FA has been working in different ways with our staff of color and also our our our staff who are
022not non- minority in order to show the book club is a great example. The the book club is uh across all groups uh and it's focusing on how we support children. and they're working on a novel, reading through it, asking questions. And again, these are great activities that our staff are doing voluntarily to to learn together to make sure that we're creating a place in the public schools that all staff want to stay, especially our staff of color, which we're trying to increase uh every year and we'll continue to do so. So, very much thank you to Dr. A Shavers and she will come back at another point in time and talk about the other work that she's doing this year as well. Any questions about the grant? >> I don't have questions about the
023grant, but I just um I really appreciate the the focus and this um kind of an effort that that is taking here. I'd be interested in seeing some data just um what our current demographics are within unit A. Um also you mentioned kind of attrition and like what are those metrics just assuming that this is kind of our baseline. kind of improving by whatever that metric was just kind of yeah some some data about kind of current state let's be able to see is this great >> yeah her she had in the the slides earlier that her goal is 10% increase from the 25 2425 school year that's her baseline so we can provide that data any other kind of data for sure >> the grant is for the current fiscal year, right? So, the
024this the work that's being stipended and so forth and reimbured is taking place this winter spring to be paid out by June 30th, correctly? >> Um, and so then it's the 10% goal. So if you have 18 people so far participating in this, then would the idea be that some of those folks might be ready to kind of move into hiring like applying for open positions for next year for example where others might be on a pathway that's like perhaps more extended. Is that >> I I think um most of the folks will be on pathways that are more extended. >> Okay. Uh we'd like to see all these folks take the communicational literacy MTEL just to get on the get there get on Eli get plugged in with Tessie uh to begin that. So
025that that that actually is very helpful. Uh but some of these folks are on longer pathways. This is a uh a shot in the arm >> to get people up and running and feeling appreciated and valued, but this is probably only part of what they need in order to continue their work. And so uh if there is a 2.0 of this grant, we would obviously apply. we could demonstrate some of my data, show what we did with the the funds that were given to us, and hopefully be if there was a successor grant, we would apply for it and try to continue the work. Um the the timing is really hard. The grant came out late. >> So now we're trying to expend $73,000 in five months, so that's not a timing that we were
026in control of, but we certainly didn't want to not apply because >> gez, that's going [clears throat] to be a quick turnaround. Let's get the funds. Let's help as many people as we can. Let's get them up and running. And then we'll take this as a step one and try to continue and extend the work um uh moving forward. >> And then meanwhile like the um teachers lounge sort of is another [clears throat] strategy that might be more directly impactful for next year bringing folks in. >> So the teachers lounge is a uh does two things. It provides a great affinity space for folks. You can log in. It can be remote and you can go downtown to to meet folks in person. >> [clears throat] >> uh they we will post all we have
027been and will continue to post all of our jobs including the teachers lounge which has an extensive diverse community of active job seekers. Um, so we're hoping that that is the uh the major lever that we [cough and clears throat] have in increasing our percentage of student of of our staff of color combined with the [clears throat] um the training for our hiring agents and just really thinking about how we post [clears throat] jobs, where we post them, what kind of questions are we asking in interviews, how are we representing ourselves to job seekers of color to make sure that they know that we're a place that's friendly to work, that we [snorts] have efforts being made to retain staff of color that were involved in things. Um, so that the two biggest levers I
028think that will influence our hiring next year, the teachers lounge and the training that we provide, our in-house staff in order to have a more uh, you know, clear and open and intentful uh, targeted work in hiring next year. >> Thank you. >> You're welcome. >> Um, a couple of couple of things. First of all, congrats on the grant and Dr. Shaverstone. Congratulations as well. Um, one so one one specific question is it does all of the so the funds have to be expended this year but does all of the things that it is funding have to be done this year? For example, could someone sign up for a test and pay for a test and be reimbured for a test if the test doesn't happen until next year? Or do all of the tests
029and courses and everything have to be done this calendar year? That might just be a way to it's former that might be a way to smooth out the expenditure so that you're not this compressed thing where I would just hate for to rush [clears throat] to take tests that they're not prepared to take yet. >> Um so it's just a a thought and then the other one is um I I I agree with Mark. I'd appreciate some numbers here. Um but in increasing retention can be a long and winding road. Um and it strikes me that these two goals of increasing the amount of diverse staff and decreasing overall attrition are in tension with each other. Right? If you were to drive attrition down to zero, there would be no space left to increase diverse
030staff. And I think it's okay to have both of those goals. Um but they are there's like a little bit of a of a thing that they're they're kind of bumping up against each other and um depending on what the attrition rate is and where it exists. It is also possible that these 18 folks could be trained as teachers and they go off to be amazing teachers not in our district which is okay too because we need to we all collectively need to get better teachers out there. That's what the state's interested in doing. Um, so that's just like a a thought on the design of the goals. Um, but that said, I think, you know, from my experience, I think there's research on this that employees who who believe that their employers are invested
031in their career growth are going to be better at their jobs. They're going to be higher performing, more engaged. So, I'm really glad that we're doing this just even even if and I don't think this is true, but even if all of the benefits occur to us in the short term just through higher performance and more engagement, it's worth it. >> Um, but I think I think it'll it'll extend beyond that, of course. >> I agree. I will uh relay the feedback to FA when she returns and um we'll work on that data that is probably an enclosure for folks at a future meeting. >> You're welcome. >> Um so for the chair's report, I just wanted to follow up. Excuse me. Thank you, Lizzie, for covering for me um last time. Um I wanted
032to follow up on the community engagement discussion. So, I know there was conversation around the idea of a PTO liaison. Um, and I went back and I connected a little bit with Lizzie and read through the minutes. And um I think one of the things to be clear is it's the goal is not necessarily to add more um meetings to our calendar recognizing that everybody has them, but really finding the opportunity, you know, to have another touch point with the community in a way that allows us to kind of hear what's going on with the schools, have the PTO um know that there's somebody that they can reach out to about, you know, if they have questions about what the school committee is doing or things that they want to share. So, it's really um
033providing for that communication and then at the appropriate time if there's a meeting that seems that works with their calendar or that there's an important one that they think that we should go to then then to have somebody attend. So, the the goal is definitely not to um you know further fill up people's calendars, but really just to provide that that opportunity. Um, I think one of the comments as well have been that maybe having people be a leazison to a school that's not their child's is a good idea too. I think it I think we probably know a lot about the schools that our kids are in, but also I think maybe it removes any kind of perceived conflict, but it also just gives you the opportunity to learn more about what is going
034on within the district. So, um I don't know if there was further discussion that you guys wanted to have about that if that's something that we want to talk about moving forward with and if so, you know, determining we can then sort of almost like randomly assign people to the committees. Um so, if there was more thought around it, >> happy to try it out. aside. >> Yeah. >> Or can we just move forward with that as a machine? I think we need to vote on how about we just so we'll agree moving forward that that if everybody is everybody comfortable with that. Is there any concerns? So, we can just um find a way to randomly assign people. If you would just maybe because I don't know if you want to send to me
035the school that your child goes to so then you can figure it out and from there that would be probably helpful to do or and if you have a a school that you want to you have a preference for feel free to raise your hand. They don't, but they have an active site council. Um, and maybe just being a on that group could be helpful. Just letting them know that if they have any questions. >> Uh, excellent. Um, and then the second thing, I know that we talked a bit about process for doing the um sort of the the meeting the meeting recap that will go into the the newsletters. Um, this is just my feeling. people can weigh in separately. I'm not sure that it's something that requires everybody to sort of approve before
036it goes out. If we're really just kind of recapping decisions, votes, discussions, and then providing the community with where they can find that discussion, um I think that might take some of the sort of the burden out of the the effort. So, if people are comfortable with that, um, and right now we talked about maybe, you know, possibly having it go to different people, I'm happy to just do it if, you know, kind of do it after the meetings and then if it seems like a lot, I can raise my hand and say, you know, could somebody else take it a week or we rotate it? But I'm I'm fine to do that if if it's I I just think that trying to find a way to rotate it might be also more difficult. But
037so if people are okay with that and rec and that we can just move forward and say recognize that that's what it's going to be. It's just that recap facts not editorializing really anything and then just sharing it with the community. I think that that might expedite the process >> thoughts concerns on that >> signs of relief that they don't have to do it. Well I'm not do I was thinking about it like you know for the others of you who are chairs for other meetings you're doing the meeting minutes all that and I'm not doing that. So this is I think this is my version of that until it seems like a lot and needs to but otherwise I'm I'm happy to do it. >> Thank you. Yeah, let us know if >> Yeah,
038yeah, I will I'll um so that was it for the chair's report. Um we will move on to the finance committee uh subcommittee report. >> Great. Um finance subcommittee met this morning. Um we met with the town administrator, the director of finance for the town. Um and [snorts] two members of the select board are on the select board finance committee. They share the town administrator shared some slides what we talked about in December. We're not going to present town administrator slides because they're not our slides, but I did put them in the they're in the finance meeting folder and then also in the school committee holder tonight. Um, sorry, they were added late. We received them late. Um, so the >> people watching the meeting now could watch the recording of this morning's meeting if
039they want to see those slides too. >> Yes. Yeah. Um, yes, the meeting is uh recorded and uh available online posted. Um, the overall picture is not a positive one. revenue forecasts are um low um and expense forecasts are coming in above revenue forecast kind of across the town. Uh the current gap that the town administrator has has identified is about $2.5 million. Um in terms of the the gap between the revenue forecasts are and what the level service expense forecasts are. We obviously as a committee provided our level service u budget to the town uh which is the 5.2% that we discussed previously towns um consils all those things did as well. One slight driver of this is health insurance. It was driver last year. It's driver this year. Right now they're estimating around
040a 10% increase. Um, but honestly, one of the takeaways we had out of the meeting this morning is that without that, there just continues to be a disconnect between I think what the town was projecting would be uh reasonable kind of percent increases and what they're able to what what they're able to fund kind of on an annual basis based on prop and other projected revenue increases and what kind of the more traditional school budget increase is. I think Katie and John shared that Milton's budget numbers over the past 10 yearsish and they're come in about 5% a year as pretty standard building over the last 10 years. Um so our current budget is not out of line of that. It's obviously significantly less the last two years for various reasons. Uh so that is
041that's disappointing. Um currently the town administrator has shared with us that they are proposing a 2.34% increase across all town departments and departments which is obviously almost 3% less than the um our level service budget and that would represent about a $2 million cut um to our level service budget. Conversations are still ongoing. They were again it was positive is the right word but um open dialogue and kind of back and forth and answering questions uh and just trying to get a sense of where where they're at where we're at. Uh so appreciate the time minister's time select board member's time. Um certainly doors not closed on kind of those discussions that was initial direction from the town to find those cuts. John scheduling meetings with members of the school department, principles, other team members
042to start that work of finding cuts and working through that to bring back to us um for further discussion. And you know, from the town side, they said they will look at their revenue projections and um there is discussion on just the override stabilization fund. right now they are the current numbers include using $700,000 of that there's a conversation more should be used less should be used just like that so there's just ongoing kind of conversations um it was raised at the meeting I think rightly that we don't have a lot of time both within the budget cycle and within we need to reduce roles we need to notify staff um the opportunity to find additional positions elsewhere So those are things we need to coordinate through with some urgency. Those are the overall highlights.
043>> I I I would say um from from uh the administrative team's work and I'll also let Katie uh you know weigh in as well. Uh the the town has been a good partners to the schools over time. Uh we really value the dialogue today. Uh there is a concern that if 3% is the annual growth of the school district over time that that's not a very sustainable percentage increase. Um but that's a discussion that we can have in the long term. We have a long-term group meeting now that this will now be part of that conversation which I think is really going to be really important as it relates to uh the process that the school department will take in order to uh complete the task of reducing up to $2 million worth of
044positions. We already [clears throat] met with our principles staff this morning from 11 to almost uh 1:30 uh identifying positions talking about different roles that we can realign uh how we can support some reductions and what kind of services we can redeliver and how that would work in order to try to keep our um service delivery to students at at a high level. Um this will be about a month's worth of work. uh given the time frame that we have uh we want to be thoughtful and uh reflective about the reductions that we make uh to try to reduce the impact on students. Uh but this will be I consider this task to be a two-year task. The FY27 budget will have to be looked at in a very close way and a thoughtful way
045and reduced. Um, and we want to make sure that we're structuring the FY28 budget in a very constructive way given the potential that we may have some uh revenue concerns next year. Uh, as well, uh, we want to position the district as best we can to serve the students that we have. Um, we will be sending out um a notification to all staff tomorrow morning at 10 a.m. to let them know. Uh we will also be sending out an email to all of our families tomorrow at uh 2 pm to let them know. Um it's not lost on me that last year was a very challenging year for the school community in the town related to budget and worries and concerns and layoffs. So we want to be very thoughtful about how we manage this
046process. uh the work that needs to be done, the communication that needs to be done, uh the understanding, the human the human part of this, the human element of this with our staff and also with our with our families who went out and voted for an override in the spring and and are now facing uh reductions uh just a year just within a year later, which is going to be a real um there'll be a good effort from to make sure that we're communicating well, being transparent. So, given this information was cemented this morning at 8:00 a.m., we've already met once with our leadership team. We've already communicated with our uh union uh leaders, we will communicate with all staff tomorrow. We will communicate with all families. We will be proactively making sure that we
047are transparent with everything that we're doing. For instance, what did you know and when did you know it? We knew today that that $2 million is is actually the number that folks are focusing on. So, we are getting that information out the following day. uh we want to make sure that despite the fact that this might be a challenging environment that we do it in a way that you feel informed uh respected and valued but uh more importantly that they have voice in some of these this work and that uh they're not caught by surprise because I think this this in and of itself will feel like they're caught by surprise. So now that we know where our situation stands um and if there's any reduction in that gap of 2 million to something lower
048than that, we'll be prepared to go up to two if we need to. But we gladly see a reduction uh as a uh a very favorable thing that we would be able to maybe take two years to to begin this process instead of doing everything in one year. So, uh, I appreciate the town administrator, uh, the town accountant and the select board listening today, partnering today. Uh, and I'm hoping that that [clears throat] discussion can continue and we can round that 2 million down to a lower number. But we will be communicating. I encourage everybody in the community to go to the building public schools web page where we have a budget, an FY277 bud budget page already up and running. It has all of our meetings. It holds all the broadcasts. all the agenda
049items, all the material that's there from our meetings at Saturday September. We will continue to populate that actively for every meeting that we have and we want to make sure that the town is aware and the members are aware that we'll be kind of I will be providing a role of advocate for the schools but also fiscally responsible to the town. And um that's going to be a hard line to walk for all of us on the administrative side, but we will continue to advocate but also be good fiscal partners. Um the difference between this year and last year is there is no override at the end of this year to shoot for in order to change the outcome of the situation. Uh the revenue is the revenue, the expenses are the expenses and we
050need to begin to rightsize the district that fits the revenue um capacity of the town. Uh I'd like to be able to do that over time. Uh but we will continue to work with our town partners to create flexibility around that moving forward. >> Yeah, I just to echo that the takeway like a 2.34% budget increase in any year as a cut budget just no way of us operating with cost of special education, transportation, uh collective bargaining agreements, things like that. There's no way the school department to kind of sustain that. Um so it's a short-term issue and also a longterm issue for the town of how do we not um that was discussed partly at the meeting is just how do we create sustainable expectation around available program for students and families and staff
051um year over year have jumps and cuts year out year until the next override That's not a sustainable way to to run a system. And so we need to be able to do better on the those long-term projections. I will planning this out to John's over time. Um being able to see down the road. It's not something that thus far started the conversations. I'll say a couple of things just while we're talking to each other and talking to the public. Um [clears throat] u just to go back to What were we talking about? MCCAST data. We're comparing ourselves to our peer districts. I think it's just important to remind Milton that we stand apart from our peer districts in the level of finances that our town has chosen to allocate to our schools. It is
052lower. Um, and so, [clears throat] you know, we can we can have an override every few years, but we're we are we are choosing as a town to put less money than we probably should into the education of our kids. And that connects to, you know, we talked about we submitted a level services budget, which we did, and, you know, we The school district delivers an amazing education to our kids, but level services means 28, 30 kids in first grade classrooms. Um, it means part-time interim [clears throat] assistant superintendent leading the academics of our district. That's what level services is in Milton. And I don't I am not satisfied with that and I don't think the town should be. So, you know, I don't know. I I I just I don't want to we we
053have to accept the reality of this year, but I personally don't accept that this has to be our future indefinitely. I think we can choose as a town to fund our school district properly. Um, so just, you know, and it might be, it might be four years, seven years till we have the next override. I don't know if we're going down this path of, you know, two to 3% increases every year. Um, you know, that's that's a not not that's a not very good news outlook for our district. Um, but I think we have to have if the override is five years away, we need to have conversations about the financial position of the district today so that we so that we and the people who come after us and the town continue to recognize
054like what we're sacrificing. So anyway, a little bit of a soap box, but I just I think it's an important I feel I feel passionate about that. Any questions from members? I just had a question about the free cash number for the 426 because usually like I feel like that kind of comes in a little bit later >> they have the free cash is estimated or certified I think at 4.5 so that number is um is there free cash will go towards capital some other things it's already select has new free cash policy where they're going to retain 10% of It's not allocated to being over. So policy we're not using free cash for um the to fund the operating budget but they could use it to invest in certain reserve accounts or other things
055that then kind of pressures from the operating budget but um so there are ways in which free cash could be allocated. The current projections don't essentially assume any of free cash to address any of those. So that's as like meeting >> some of the work that the town administrator um was going to look into of how could that help to kind of smooth some of the rough edges here, but that is likely there's no world in which kind of the $2 million gap um that they're asking schools to cut is going to be funded by free cash allocation here or there might reduce the impacts to our amount Um, yeah. So, a lot more work to do. We have another finance committee meeting uh next week and as John said I think John and Katie
056will be talking to the town more but we're also trying to get back with the um town administrator this morning here and a couple weeks since they had time just to do some of our work here put heads back to see how we we address this challenge very much agree John with your point of this disappointing I'm sure for for many people have spent a lot of time kind of working to save positions uh provide [snorts] schools the financial resource they need through the override process last spring and then for us to be here it's not great >> I say one thing I disappointing is mild >> this point is mild >> I would I just would like to say too though I appreciate John um the transparency um and not waiting to share any
057of this information not waiting to see if there's a better picture or a better scenario. This is what we know today. Um the reality is, you know, if it's a few hundred,000 less, it's not, you know, is there something within that? That's a possibility. There are, you know, discussing options to kind of, as you said, dull the the edges of it if we can get some free cash can be allocated to some kind of expenses. Um, but I think recognizing the reality of the situation and just moving forward and trying to address it sooner rather than later. Um, and being transparent with the community about it, I think is really important and I appreciate you doing that. >> Thank you. Yeah, we we want to make sure that we're uh open with our our staff
058first and foremost and and obviously the community who voted and and uh invested in the town and um and we're we're well aware that this is going to be hard for folks to hear uh especially from the staff side of things. So, we we want to just be open, honest, and and get the work done, but also be sensitive to the fact that this will be something that we're going to have to work with folks with. But, but having the information in hands is exactly what they need. That's the right of the the community and the voters and um and our staff, the information know what we know. We keep the work moving. >> Questions or comments on the budget? Okay. All right. Uh then I will just provide a notice that vendor warrant number
05927 in amount of $846,610 55 cents was signed and approved uh today. I don't think I yet though so I won't. Um and then also just as an update next meeting is the quarter two report >> 21st. So um potentially at our next school committee meeting then we'll have the quarter two finance report to share. >> Thanks >> uh school building committee update. >> Uh yes we have meeting [clears throat] >> I I do have an update though. Um uh the school building committee met briefly to discuss how we wanted to approach the MSBA with an alternative set of enrollment numbers. Uh created some questions from the group that were um sent over to the MSBA. Uh and then a subsequent sub subsequent meeting was set up that uh Sean attended on behalf of the
060committee uh where he explained the rationale behind our thinking that the enrollment should be higher than what the MSBA has provided. Um we got an email back from the MSBA that they would receive that and discuss it. They did. We uh were very quickly given a response that their numbers is what they're going to stick with. That's not a surprise. The MSBA has an extensive enrollment department where they kind of uh cultivate what they think is an appropriate enrollment number for every district with all the elements that we provided them. Uh we knew that we were probably going to be not shut down but that that that MSBA number would be the one that that um uh was chosen in the end. So it was uh we got a formal enrollment document that will be
061signed by the chair of the select board and then that document will then be given to uh Amanda and I to be signed by the superintendent the chair of the school committee. We will vote that number at our next meeting. Uh that has to be a vote of the selected to vote of the school committee. that will be on our agenda for the next week or for the next meeting of the 21st and it'll be submitted by uh the Friday the 23rd um to the MBA which puts us on schedule for our module and our next meeting at the MSBA being on time. So our our kind of challenging of the number didn't cost us any time because it was within within the window to do so. Uh so we will move to our first
062meeting with the MSBA I think in February um to talk about module module one and two and what the next steps are for the district moving forward with the uh the building project process. So we will have another update on that next meeting on uh school meeting. Just a little additional context just to remind folks that the importance of the enrollment number is that is the reimbursement number but that's tied into how much funding we get from MSBA for the project. So once it's locked in it is not something that is like been discussed further which is why it require focus. So that is why why the number was discussed why we weren't far off on the number but we discussed trying to push back and gain any ground we could because their financial implications
063were able to a higher enrollment for the building then we can cover the cost. So that was >> is that sort of a common I mean it would make sense that pretty much every district then would try to revise up the number for that reason. Is this a common? >> So the history was that districts would really amp up and get their own demographer and come with a plan and and engage the MSBA in high level debate about the number and over time the MSBA is just invested in their own demography department and do their own enrollment. So whatever the town they ask the town for certain information which we all provided building permits uh how many streets we have how many families what's the exit you know how old is the person when they
064sell their house how old are they buys a house there's a a lot of different uh metrics for that uh so they pretty much know after we provide our data what the the uh their enrollment will be. Uh so it used to be a much more challenged subject but right now they they have all their work done in house and so but we decided to push back just in case. To Mark's point, it's money and it's square footage. Every every enrollment uh every student needs more square footage and more money in reimbursement. So it was worth the push back. We didn't lose any time, didn't lose any ground. um were in the same spot before questions. Do those um I think I've asked this before. Do those take into account building do they project out?
065So if there's something going in in East Milton Square >> Yes. >> They have a calculation for like one two is that the way they gave them all the building permits for all the projects that are going on in the town and all the one bedroom, two bedrooms, three bedrooms, how many are going in. Uh all those permits were given to us by uh the the town side and the planning department. So they had all the information. >> So once it's permitted, they can count it. >> They counted everything that we gave them, >> right? >> There was an adjustment for those building projects that were coming online and they show the adjustment actually in the data providers. >> Just to name the the number is um 66. That's what they got. We were we
066were working with a street injection number was 670 that was tense what we were going through around the margins but we thought it was discuss great. Um the next item is approval of the minutes. um we could take them separately um because I was I was here on one but not the other. Um so we had two sets of minutes in the folder to approve. I believe they were 1119 and 1217. Um take a motion to approve motion to approve the minutes of November 19th, 2025. >> Second. All in favor motion to approve the minutes of December 17th, 2025 for the school. Second. All in favor? I'm going to abstain. Great. The next um item is the meeting draft agenda items for the next meeting. So I have the um would we have 2026 discuss
067the calendar next meeting? >> Uh I think we should have it there just in case. >> Um I have committee reports. I have the Q2 finance report will be part of the finance meeting. We have the enrollment data to be voted on um as part of the school building committee update. Um we'll have so committee updates will be finance um facilities policy capital MF you can get back to me. after >> after. Okay. >> I don't have your >> So I I have uh for the 21st uh Q2 update uh budget um [cough and clears throat] the vote to the school committee, the school building committee MSBA enrollment. Um we we have um we have a curriculum uh update that we may give on the 21st but four. We have some heavy meetings coming up
068for program studies, community schools, student services update, a curriculum update from Kala, lit early literacy updates coming up in February. uh our data our meteor district data review is coming up in February. So we have some meteor meteor meetings coming up forward. >> So the light works fully happen. Is there anything else? So if uh we have to adjourn this meeting then open manager to executive session. Correct. >> Not to return. Right. So could I have a motion to adjourn? Correct. >> Um so I think it's a mot um the motion to enter into executive session for the purpose of discussing collective bargaining strategy with film educators association and ask me and to adjourn directly from the executive session not to return to open session. >> Second roll call second. >> Yes. Yes. >> Yes.
069>> And I'm Yes. Great. Close to executive session. [music]