001Uh I will go ahead and call the meeting to order here. uh the Milton School Committee finance subcommittee at 10:02 p.m. Uh based upon our agenda have a couple things we are going to do. We have a check-in on the budget timeline. Uh discussion of the revolving accounts policies if there's any further movement on that and then we also have the community schools. Um, John, I don't know if you want to start with community schools, um, just to save save her time so she can get out of here. >> Thank you. >> Yeah, we would love to start with community schools. Um, and, uh, have Martha describe the program in the summer and some of the u background information and context for a potential fee increase for the summer programming of community schools, not the
002overall program, but the summer of 20 uh six uh fees that will need to be increased in order for us to balance the budget for that service delivery. >> Great. >> All right. Thank you for having me. >> This before we start, is this in the this in the folder? >> Yes. >> So, we have um we have this on paper mark, but if you could um share the screen, this is in the fold that helps. >> Is that the the Google sheet? >> Yes. >> Okay. and other folks. This is in your sub finance folder. It's labeled prop pro proposal for tuition adjustment Cam Cunningham Cam Tucker 2026. >> Can you all see that? >> Um this in slides is a slide presentation or just >> it's a it's a PDF version of um
003of the Google Sheets. >> Okay. This is this is the sheet. Um, >> yeah. Am I I'm just making sure I'm in the right thing. >> Y you y'all can see my screen, right? >> Yeah. >> Yes. Um, >> do you have PDF into the folder? Is it easier to look at if we Okay, I'll do >> We're going to move the PDF into the folder, Mark, so you can bring up the PDF version, which might be a little easier to access. So, we we're going to upload a PDF to that folder and we can share that in about two minutes. >> Okay, >> thank you. So, while we're while we're waiting and Katie, thank you for doing this. Um, want to welcome Martha to this table. Uh, Martha has worked very hard over the
004last few years to um organize community schools in a very structured, supportive, and uh great way. We're really excited about the programming, the staffing, uh the quality of service delivery that Martha and her team are able to deliver. Um, and we will be asking for presentation from her regarding the next steps of community school that might need a potential increase as well for the following year at another time. But we wanted to start with the summer program fee because we want to be able to and Martha wants to be able to get this information out to our families as soon as possible so they can make their summer plans uh for the upcoming summer season. >> Okay. So the P the PDF should be a copy of it should be in the folder for today.
005Okay. I just [gasps] wrong one. [snorts] >> Perfect. Thank you so much. >> Oh, great. Yeah, let me Okay. Sorry about that, everyone. >> No, this looks good. >> That looks perfect. And we have paper copies here, so we're good. >> All right. Well, um, good afternoon everybody. Thank you for having me. Um, well, I'm here obviously to talk about the summer camp programs in community schools. Uh, as you know, last year was the first year that we launched um, Camp Tucker. U, was a small camp to start with, but uh, was very successful. Um we had a great feedback from families. Um the staff, the kids had a great time. Um so we obviously want to continue offering um Kim Tucker as well as Kim Cunningham. Um but um we were already expecting um
006a loss with the new Kim. Uh however uh our projections uh we didn't meet the numbers uh that we required uh in order for us to not have a huge loss. Um we a lot of the feedback that we received from families too was um that because we start our registration um a little bit late in March um by the time that most summer camps programs open usually in like January, February um they were we were too late in and it was too late for them to get re um refunded from other camps canceled and then um try to join us. So, in order to do this, we want to we want to start early, get the information out to our families at the beginning of January and hopefully start a registration uh mid to
007end of January or or so. Um, so that's why I'm here today. And um in the uh first I wanted to start with some comparisons actually um in the second page um I gathered some information from um different camp uh summer camp programs just so uh we can see where we are in compar in comparison to other um towns and some of them are school-based programs some of them are uh nonprofit or private programs Um, can you see the second uh page? >> Scroll up, Mark. So, the page two could be on the screen. >> This is page two. I thought, sorry, >> graph. >> Yeah, I was just zoomed in so we could read that, but yes, here's the graph. Is this good? >> Could you go to the next page with the graph
008on it? >> We don't see it. We don't see it. >> Oh, why don't you see? >> Yeah. Let me stop and share again. >> Sorry about that. >> No, you're fine. Can you see it now? >> Not yet. Now we can. >> Great. Thank you. >> Sorry, it's a little bit small. Um but yeah, so this is just some of the programs um around and um some of the the colors that you might see the 2025 fees are in blue. So that that means they have not been updated for the upcoming um summer. And uh in pink or light red that is um tuition fees that I was the information that I was able to obtain from programs who are already putting out their information for um this coming summer. So as you can
009see we remain um pretty low when compared to many programs. uh is similar. Um I I did it based on the number of hours and the number of days and and weeks uh run uh as well as uh whether they have uh an extended day option. So both camps are running 8:30 8 sorry 8:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m. with an extended day 3 to 5 which is optional. So many of these programs don't offer that extended day um option. So that's um that's what you can see there in that in that graph um in the chart and the details of how what kind of program they are they are on um on a on the right. >> So our the the first graph is um the f yes the first column in the graph that
010is our current tuition and we are proposing a 10% increase in our tuition of So that will be weekly. We're currently at 373. That will put us at 410 a week. We our tuition is um the structure of the tuition is by is bi-weekly. So we do it in sessions. We run for three sessions um starting at the end of June. So normally will be $820 um per session. Uh the first session we prorrated because we are closed on uh the 4th of July and that you can actually see in the next page the how the tuition fees are broken down into. [snorts] So they they got my session um for regular hours um extended day and what a full day uh if families choose to um they can enroll for the full day and
011it is um at the bottom is broken down by week, by day and by hour. And on the left is our current tuition fees and on the right is what we're proposing um which is the 10% increase fees. So um we how we came up with the 10% number uh we actually did a projection in u based on the financial statements from the last um summer. If you go to the next page please. Yes. So those are um combined and I also provided separate um cam Cunningham and cam talker in a separate sheet. Those are just combined um for visual purposes. So um the first column shows the actual the expenses and the actual um cost and the revenue. And then I'm we're projecting what would happen if we don't increase um the tuition and
012what it looks like and then what it looks like with a 10% increase. So it is still um will be running at a small loss but we are hoping that now with um opening camp taka registration earlier we'll those numbers are going to bump up and and we'll hopefully have um more students coming in and in and revenue coming in to close that gap. Um, >> sorry Martha. It it seems like the information in the no increase column is just a duplicate of the 10% that that was just a maybe a copy paste error. Is that right? Not >> um No. So that is just um so the expenses are um on the the actual 20 2025 and then we added a 6% increase um scenario for both. >> Oh, gotcha. Um >> got so
013the expenses are yes expenses are the same. The 10% increase is only hitting the revenue. >> Yes. I'm sorry >> the things in detail but um yes that is correct. So yeah that and that is assuming that um we will have the same number of campers which we had 221 campers at camp Cunningham and 87 at Tucker in total and obviously we we had some campers who were uh signed up for one session and we have uh campers who did three sessions some of them were extended days some others are current so it kind of varies but so it's this is just utilizing the same scenario of last year. Um and then obviously with with an increase in um in expenses and as obviously our biggest expenses salaries. Um and you can see that and
014then in the next two pages you can see the Kim Cunningham um actual and the production which actually Kim Cunningham we we made some um money there about 63 63,000 and then um Tucker had a big loss of 83. So that was our our loss of um 20 about $20,000. >> So if you go down to the lower page, you can see the breakdown by uh by program by Cunningham programming Tucker program. >> Yes. So that's the Cam Tucker um sheet. Yes. So that was our we like I said that we had a big loss. Um we were projecting to have at least our capacity at Tucker we set it last year with 80 80 campers uh a day. Um when I estimated the um the cost I was estimating a minimum of 60 campers
015but we didn't get to that number. We were in the 40s um and low 40s or like or 30 depending on the sessions. So unfortunately as as I said we were already expecting a loss but it was it was a bigger loss than we thought but we were able to somehow um also compensate that with the Kim Cunningham um revenue uh in profit made from last year. >> So the big picture scenario is the 10% represents a moderate increase in the fee especially when you look at it from a dollar and cents perspective. We're not trying to make money on this. We're trying to break even. And the hope is that with the early registration, the enrollment will go up. Between the increase in enrollment and the increase in fee that's moderate, then we'll be
016able to make this balance for the summer program and bring that loss, that combined loss down to almost even or if we make a few dollars. Uh it should be noted, I know folks know this, but say it out loud. This is uh Milton Community Schools needs to be uh solvent yeartoear. Uh and that only is possible if we do build up reserves over time. Uh in order to um have uh a safety net for when enrollment or whatever happens during a a particular year, during the school year or over the summer that needs to be uh funded. Uh right now the revolving account we we are not necessarily working from a summer perspective. We're showing you that we're working at a deficit level and at the year school program we are also working at
017a deficit level. So there will be a need to increase the fee in the in the year-long program. Um, and we need to support Martha in um, giving her the tools to be successful with providing uh, the service that's so important to our families, but also having it be uh, cost effective in actually uh, right side up in the terms of revenue being more than the expenses. So, um, we we will come back again with the school year program increases and the the methodology for that as well. But for the summer school, we're hoping that this moderate increase uh will do the trick at least for the summer programming and then we will come back for the year round program as well. >> Questions for members? >> Amanda? >> Um a couple [clears throat] questions.
018So just for clarification, when you were talking about the 87 at Tucker, is that the capacity? That's the capacity, not what was enrolled [clears throat] last summer. Correct. >> No. So the uh the total uh daily capacity is at 80. Um but we had 87 campers enrolled um in total. So let me just get to my sheet here and I can tell you uh so we had for at Cam Tucker for session one one we had 34 campers. For session two, we had 56 and for session three, we had 50. So, it it was not anywhere near what we were hoping. Um, we were even hoping to get to at least 60. That was my uh when I um did the projection last year and estimated that. Uh but we [clears throat] unfortunately didn't get
019to that uh number. >> And when you mean 60, that's 60 per two week session. >> Correct. Daily daily attendance. >> Daily attendance for each twoe session. So folks can do first the first two weeks and not do the second two weeks and come back on the third two week session. So the three sessions matter when you break it up like that. >> There's a there's a risk there of of in you know from a budgeting perspective there's a risk there for what you're putting out for capacity and expenses and whether you're going to get that back and you have to employ people for the whole summer. For the most part you can't have someone work two weeks not work two weeks and then maybe work two weeks. Correct. >> We're trying to plan for
020the 6 week program, but it is a two week at a time service delivery for families and that that becomes a complicating factor in terms of the business model. >> Yes. >> So So are the revenue projection numbers based on capacity? No, they are um based on the actual numbers from last summer, >> but for the for the for the So the the revenue for for this coming summer is based on the actuals from last summer. >> Correct. >> Okay. >> So, so anything new that's added to that will will attack that $5,000 deficit. >> Correct. >> Um is this might not be a popular thing to say is are we increasing it enough? I just it seems I mean we are so far below. Did I freeze? >> No. >> We are so far
021below. >> I mean there it looks like maybe Quinn the other you know there are people who haven't increased it. But then to your point about having the reserve funds, I just worry that um and you don't want to go too much, but you know 11 $11 [clears throat] an hour for anything involving an activity for kids just seems given that the the amount of staffing and that I I don't know. I just want to be conscious of the fact that we are if we're looking at it, does even a 2% increase over that help? Um, I again I don't want to go too much. I recognize that, but I'm just not sure what else you could do in the summer as a camp for $11 an hour. Um, and I just want to make
022sure we're being realistic about what it costs to run the program. >> You want to say something? Um, so Amanda, you brought a very good point. So for the summer program, um historically we've been um a little bit closer with other or um programs in terms of tuition, >> uh which is not what we where we are with before and after school. So the reason why we just proposed a 10% with the summer program is because we we're already anticipating that the before and the after school program is going to be a significant if not a whole restructure of the tuition fees. So we That's why we want to take a a pretty um you know um safe approach for now. Um and and Katie and I are working on that uh the bigger picture
023of in the future of community schools in what it looks like in the next three years. So being more conservative with the summer knowing that there could be >> more. Yeah. Correct. >> That makes sense. I just I'm just trying to be conscious of the fact that you know the a lot of the discussions we're going to be having is about reserve funds reserve like revolving accounts and making sure that we have that they're fully that they're they're funded appropriately and if um that just that that's the mindset we're looking at this any increase with. So I I appreciate it being conservative. Um, I I just I also want to make sure that we're being realistic to charge what it costs and not to your point, we're not making money, but we also do need
024to have the money in the revolving account. So, um, I appreciate the I appreciate the the thought that's gone into it. I So, thank you. If I can just add to I think a a piece of the complexity with the projections is the fact that it was the first year of um the program at Camp Tucker. So we almost felt like it was difficult to be able to see what the potential revenue would be because we feel like the program isn't even at its potential capacity. And so the hope really is to be that we are letting our community and our families know that this is a program that um is available to them over the summer at a very competitive rate. And we just we want our families to take advantage of it. And
025then I think that once we have year two under our belt with a sense of okay that capacity truly should be around 60 or maybe we are closer to 80 then we can reassess and see what the fees are so that we can eventually get to that point where at we're at break even or making um in excess revenue. Um, but I think I just wanted to add it was kind of we really we talked about kind of a a few different options and we felt that the 10% option was um ultimately the best decision for now knowing that we'll always have to revisit it every single year. >> No, I appreciate that. Thank you. And I do think that decision to move up the timing for enrollment is huge. just, you know, as everybody
026knows with kids, January things start going and you're you're sort of way behind the eightball if you're signing up in March. So, I think that that's I think that's really helpful and it will probably help enrollment as well. >> Bal, >> hi, thank you so much for um thinking about this at this point because I I agree with what Amanda has said. The earlier the better, right? Because parents are already looking at a customer camp to sign up. I also have a suggestion. Um have you looked at cuz right now we have the program is decided for every two weeks. Do you think the enrollment will increase if we do it every week like the family can sign up for any particular week one week at a time instead of two weeks at a time.
027I know that will increase the workload on the administration side. Um, but it will increase flexibility for family who might wanted to try it out and then decided to sign up for more in the future. So, I'm just curious if we would consider doing that. >> Yes. Um, we have considered that option of doing weekly uh registrations and it's not only the administrative side of things. It's also that we are um a licensed program in the summer. We're licensed by the board of health. So, um, each child we we require an extensive amount of information including health information and and whatnot. And also the the program currently is designed. So, the curriculum and the activities are um in two weeks time. So, so for for our participants to have a good experience, you know, building
028up that uh relationship with the staff and uh and you know, it curriculum based too. Um it's very important and we did we did we used to do it um weekly back in the day. It was actually before my time and then um then he he switched to the two weeks and he h we we have found that the experience from from the kids is the participants lens is it's different and and better. It has improved in that sense. Um that doesn't mean that you know we we don't need to consider it. It's um it's just going to be very very tricky to do. But uh yeah. >> Yeah. Yeah, to to jump in, I I tend to agree with Bow in that like I look at the camps you're comparing to I know the
029Blue Hills Nature Camp is a week camp. Steven Kate's camp is a day camp like you can sign up for a single day I think that camp. Um I'm pretty sure the camp hail is a week camp. Um you know the YMCA are usually week camps. So I think a lot of those comparison camps are are oneweek camps and that is uh I think a lot of from my experience in signing kids up for camps which my wife does most of it. Uh but most most of them are kind of on a single week. Um so I tend to agree with that that might improve enrollment. To get back to some of the like financial points I I tend to agree with Amanda too on just I think conservative is kind of the wrong word.
030I think we're like not quite being conservative enough in that like I you know is it 11% to not project a $5,000 to $6,000 deficit right and project kind of no deficit what would that take I'm a little bit confused on the ex the revenue forecast though for like when I look at the total revenue and I just do the math based on the kind of enrollment numbers you gave and the tuition numbers um that were above I know We do probably some um support of families who can't afford it, but the numbers I get is like that our revenue should have been around $100,000 for I'm sorry, I'm just looking at just Tucker given that seems to be the place where we are losing uh money. Um, and I guess if we are looking
031at our expenses for Tucker being 175,000 and our revenue being 82,000, even if we doubled our enrollment from that math, which I don't believe we can double our enrollment from a capacity standpoint, but even if we doubled it, we are not breaking even on Tucker somehow, right? And so I I wonder there of just, you know, if there's more information on that revenue forecast, like are we just anticipating that we're going to in order to have kind of this geographic diversity of sites that we're just going to have to operate at Tuck at a loss? Is there a way to adjust the programming or staffing in some way? Like what what are your thoughts on on that? because that that seems like a structural there seems to be a structural issue with the Tucker model
032then of how with I'm not Tucker the school but obviously the the Camp Tucker model to like how do we make that financially viable long term because I I don't necessarily think we can run that just at a consistent kind of >> $85,000 deficit. Yeah, I don't think it's a good business model to be $85,000 deficit, but when you think about the different pieces of it, uh this is a p what the first year was a pilot year. >> Yeah, would like to see uh a second year worth of data to see how many students we can enroll in addition to the ones that we have provided capacity for that will be a net uh net revenue to the good. And also uh to what extent do we want to diversify the the the pricing
033for our families at Tuckner that that it's the same as our families across the town but also off of the program within that small community. So that there's a balance here I think that we're trying to strike and I think it might take maybe two or three years of data points in longevity of the program to find out if there's interest, how high that interest is and begin to modify that. Um, basically what you're showing here is that um, you know, the the the price should be higher should be higher for everybody. It's it doesn't need to be higher at the Cunningham side because we get the numbers, but you can't charge something different for the Tucker side than you do the the the Cunningham side. So I do think that we should take this
034one year at a time and collect our thoughts and our experiences from a financial perspective and also from the student experience perspective uh about how this is viable and then what that number might need to go up to. Um so it does look like we'll operate from a deficit at Tucker uh but the combined deficit will be lower and if the enrollment goes up that we'll shrink that and I think at the end of next summer we're going to start to think harder about uh whether that needs to increase again based on our experience. So I I do think that this is an evolving uh programmatic experience for community schools uh given only one year in the in the uh bank right now. >> Yeah. Yeah. I agree with that and I agree with Katie's
035point of you know it's a pilot year. You need to get your name out there. You need to build some good experiences from kids and then those families speak of that and kind of spread the word and hopefully the enrollment goes up. But even it just seems like even from a best case scenario, we fully fill the enrollment at Tucker that it is going to lose money somehow. And that that to me seems like yeah, just how are we staffing that site? Like what I I guess I'm not clear here on like what are the real cost drivers that make that so much different uh based upon kind of the table here. And so maybe that's something you have greater insight into. Um, but yeah, just, you know, how do we how do we kind
036of turn turn that around kind of in the long term? I generally agree, John, with your point that, you know, we don't have quite enough kind of longitudinal data to understand and, you know, I'm sure Martha's thinking of operational efficiencies just coming out of last year with being the very first year at Tucker and and figure that out next year. So, I think, you know, we need to give it certainly another year and, um, we can look at it next year. So, overall um, I think supportive of this. I think if we were projecting a conservative $6,000 deficit, assumes same staffing um I'm sorry, same enrollment, then you know that that's $6,000 something we should be able to kind of balance. Um and 10% is a lot for families to kind of eat in a
037single year. So maybe that just means next year we're able to do something a bit smaller to kind of get to a a slight surplus into it um and make sure we're not eating into other parts of the budget. >> Yeah, it'd be really nice to have the when we get next year's data to see how the enrollment increase given the uh this being year two impacts the the bottom line of the financial statement and that that will give us a lot of good information about what we do for year three. And may I say also that we're not necessarily uh fixing the capacity at 80 at Tucker. Um we took that approach last year because obviously it was our first year. We didn't know how that was going to go if the building was
038appropriate for um running the activities that we planned and we found that it was and um and so there is definitely um capacity for um to expand the the sorry for the repeating it the capacity um even you know we have a 100 or capacity at Kim Cunningham is is between 130 and 150 a day and there's definitely capacity to to go up at Tucker and and we're even looking at 100 120 uh students per day >> that we could have that we could >> that we could support. Yes. As long as there is no right now there's no other programs in that building so we we could have access to more um classrooms and more space. Um we we found that the Kim Cunningham formula has been working for years. Um how it's structured
039and basically what we did is we applied to Tucker. Um the only difference there was um Kim Cunningham the stu the participants have access to the Cunningham um pool across the street. Um and we we we knew that um trying to get buses down to uh from the camp tucker kits to down um there every day or even on a weekly basis it was it costwise it was just not going to work. So what we decided uh was um at Cam County Dam historically we have uh field trips but they're not included in tuition and they are um optional and at uh Kim Tucker we included the field trips in the tuition. So that's um sort of like how we balance and were able to offer both cams at the same cost. Um also Camt
040talker um we really push for our or the selling point is our our very strong STEM program and which again was very successful. We had um Mrs. um Van Hill was our our summer uh technology teacher and the kids really did amazing projects with her. Uh we're hoping she comes back again. But those are like the strong and the selling points of Cam Tucker. Um that the field trips are included and um it's a strong STEM without getting into the academic but it's that you know that um enrichment um experience for students. Yeah, I I totally hear that, Martha. And again, we you'll need another kind of year for this, but I I think obviously one of the challenges here is is we took the kind of Cunningham model, which has 120 130 student capacity,
041took that to a um a program that is a much lower capacity number. And so that is resulting in the deficit. So might there might need to be just significant kind of differences within the models um from a staffing activity, whatever, just because they are not size-wise, right? you have the the one nurse per site that's just kind of your your standard cost, right? And splitting that over 120 kids versus over 50 kids is obviously very much different. Um you know, you're still going to have a supervisor at each side. They're just some of those things obviously from a staffing that you're not going to be able to get away from from having one. And so um like even the supplies your supplies look like they're based upon this like are pretty similar in terms
042of cost. Tucker supplies are slightly higher, right? And so they're just yeah, some of those things that's splitting across 40 and again hopefully we can drastically increase increase enrollments. It's something we'll need to look at. I I don't know if the lack of a um access to a pool is going to just be something that families aren't aren't ultimately interested in sending their kids to camp that doesn't have outside kind of pool access. I don't know. I I send my kids to plenty of camps that where they don't necessarily go to the pool, but that is something that we probably only will understand with um kind of data over time. So, I think it was a really exciting idea that y'all came up with. I'm glad we're continuing it and I I appreciate you figuring
043out how we can kind of make this financially viable for for next year. Certainly. Um now, >> I I have a question. Um I remember the the cunning the Tucker PTO have came to our meeting and presenting about the the Tucker playground renovation. Is that starting this summer or is it No. Okay. So it's not going to affect the the camp. Okay. >> Not this summer. >> No. >> All right. And um like instead of having a pool, I think having a slip and slide could be a feasible alternative perhaps at Tucker. Um, I don't remember. I I think there's a quite a big field right there, but it's not grass. It's It's pave, so it might be a little bit hard. So, I don't know. >> We did have outdoor water games and that
044was like every day. So, the kids will bring their bathing suit and cuz, you know, it's there's no AC in the buildings and so they really needed that. So, we took advantage of that. We had the whole playground to ourselves and uh purchase different, you know, water station sort of uh toys, games and whatnot. And the kids love that. But um >> Yeah. And and we have to be careful too because we even thought about um anything that contains water that uh kind of like a small pool that is subject to license and it just it's a whole another level of you know in safety and and whatnot. So we we just kept the games and the kids were pretty happy with that. Um I I think it was definitely a bit of a shock
045last year uh because we found more than more than a need is a preference in our our sessions at Cam Cunningham at le um typically session two and three go pretty quickly. Um sold right away and and there was a weight list and we kept encouraging people please you know sign up for Kim Tucker. It's a great program. you're going to love it. Uh, and we had about 17 participants who um did both camps. So, because they can you can combine sessions as well, okay, camps and they found um that it it was definitely worth it and many families were like, "Oh, we're definitely signing up uh next year for Camp Tucker." So we're >> we hope that that that you know again first year um we learned a lot and obviously we want to
046continue improving the programs and we want to continue offering both um sites. >> Yeah. Thank you so much for all your hard work in like creating this great opportunity for the Tucker side of the family so that they don't have to send the kids all across town. You know, we all know the mutant commute is not not very pleasant from one side of town to another side takes half hour sometimes. So, yeah, thank you so much for all your hard work. >> Oh, absolutely. And it was born because of that because we knew there were some families that um because we don't provide transportation during the summer. Um it was a need that uh we needed to fulfill because some families don't have transportation and they're closer to um the Tucker school. Um and and
047we took that initiative also with our vacation camps. So we last year also we brought back the February and April vacation camps. We run them at both um sites and Cunningham. Um normally the December we just keep Cunningham because it's very very low enrollment. Um but it's it's been successful. >> I I just think of this um it's probably not feasible. Um because you know Tucker and Cunningham camp you know summer camps a lot of parents want to try different kind of camps. Um so other than just maybe offering one week camps which creates more flexibility for families. Is it possible to open it up for people who are outside of Milton? Do you think that would like draw in more interest from the neighbor who live closer like in the Quincy side or maybe
048the Madapan side? Um it might be >> is it >> Yeah. Is it resident restricted? >> Actually I assume most people were Milton but not that it was resident restricted. >> No it is uh only students from Milton public schools. >> Gotcha. [clears throat] >> Yes. So, oh, not even other nonmps students can't enroll. >> Correct. Yes. And normally and again because we historically camp always has a wait list. >> So, we we wanted to first offer it to our students in in the district. Uh now obviously yes that that could be a possibility where if we don't have if we or I should say we still have the capacity um yes that's something that we can explore. Yeah, that's an interesting idea of like having a second round, you know, a deadline for EPS
049students and then it's more publicly opened if their seats are not filled in order to get the tuition dollars. >> It's an interesting idea. Bel, >> uh, any other questions on this for Mara? I'll echo what Bal said. Thank you so much for all of your work on this and everything you do. And my kids love community schools. They just absolutely are there all the time and uh really enjoy it. So, thank you. You got a great team. Appreciate all you're doing, Martha. >> Thank you. >> So, is that a uh do we want to take a motion and a vote for the fee increase? >> Uh yeah, we can do that. Uh I will make a motion to approve the um Milton Community Schools summer camp fee increase. Second. >> Uh, all in favor?
050This will be a roll call vote with just Amanda and I. Sher, not on the finance committee, pal. So, you'll vote on the committee. [laughter] >> Uh, Amanda, >> yes. >> And I'm a yes. >> So, we will bring that to the put that on the agenda for the next school committee meeting. >> Thank you very much. We appreciate that. >> Thank you very much. >> You didn't close that. Uh, we'll do that. Thank you everybody. Have a good evening. >> Um, I know Amanda has a hard stop at two o'clock uh, which I can also benefit from. So, we have about 15 minutes left. The budget timeline. I wanted to talk about that briefly just because I think um, I wasn't able to connect with Charlene and I saw one of her emails late.
051Uh, given we're meeting finance today means I did not create a 1210 agenda. and uh city hall is closed. So that means we are not able to meet next Wednesday. I know John you sent the email about kind of some of the um new information around uh from the town around uh costs uh for health insurance that you're going to talk to Nick and Amy about next week. And I assume we'll need that information because what we were going to do on the 10th, sorry, is was the like second round of kind of the budget review, right? That was what was on the schedule for the 10th. Is that something given kind of that additional information that you're not expecting to get until Monday? Seems like maybe it's helpful to push that conversation till the
05217th anyways or do we want to try and find time next Thursday or Friday to meet? >> I think the 17th is works. the the 17th might give us more time to also digest what's being said. We can communicate what the results are of that meeting to you all. >> Yeah. >> Um and it also will give us time to have uh some of the meetings with the principles that we're having in adjusting the timeline for that as well to talk with them about whatever that adjustment is. So the 17th might just make more sense. It won't it won't rush anything and it will provide us the time to provide you an update that might have more substance. >> Okay. That make sense to you, Amanda? >> Yep. >> Okay. So, we'll change that. We'll
053meet on the 17th. Uh again, currently we will not a we are not able to meet on the 10th because uh of me. Um the other piece we had in terms of on the agenda today was the discussion of the revolving accounts. I think where we left that was I had the draft. We talked that through and then I thought John, you and Katie were gonna chat about um that draft and kind of make updates to it. Did that was that able to happen? Um or is that something we need to talk about at a different date? >> We should talk about that on a different date. I did not uh I was not able to meet with Katie to to discuss that. >> Okay. Uh is there any other help we can provide or
054information you'll use from us? I know you all got tons on your plate. >> I don't think so. >> No, I had done some just preliminary edits in that document that you had shared that is a um similar format to the format that the town uses. >> Um but I they were very preliminary and I think we just need more time to be able to go through and populate the information. Um, [clears throat] so I think if we could just keep that on the agenda and maybe discuss probably not at the 17th, but certainly um in January. >> Uh, okay. That great. It's a good transition. That brings us to January meetings. Do we want to meet on the 7th? That's like the first Wednesday we get back or that's, you know, obviously there's been
055there's been a break. Might be a lot uh on y'all's end. >> I think we have a we already are in a meeting on the 8th. Mark, you're also >> 7:30. >> On the 7th, we have negotiation prep. >> You're right. >> Yes. We decided not that we wouldn't meet on the 7th. >> Oh, okay. >> So, our [clears throat] next Yeah, because of the negotiation prep. Uh, you're right, Katie. >> Um, okay. So, 14th we will talk and we can maybe put the I just want to make sure we meet in enough time to give y'all any feedback um on the kind of reserve account, the revolving funds stuff. >> Uh, if so, we're not holding you up, but we'll assume >> no meeting on the 10th, no meeting on the 7th, or we'll
056meet on the December 17th for the second reading of the SY27 draft. And then we'll meet on January 17th for the revolving funds. >> 14th. >> I'm sorry, you're right. 14th um for the revolving funds. And then what was the other date? We also had that date as the third reading of the overall budget because then we were going to do the public presentation of the school department draft budget on the 21st. Okay. >> So, so meetings. >> Yeah. So, I think that means that if if we keep following that, which I think makes sense, then we would not be able to talk about the revolving funds again until the probably the 21st. I just want to make sure those that timeline for the work is okay or if we need to find another meeting
057to squeeze in sometime. >> I think that that right now that seems to work and if we get if we get um jammed up on our side, we'll let you know if we need another meeting. [clears throat] >> Okay, great. Uh so just to again recap one more time, 1217 we're going to talk about the budget. January 14th we'll be back talk about the budget. Uh January 21st we'll talk about revolving funds and then January 1 school committee we'll do the budget present the public budget presentation. Then we the goal is to kind of have a a vote on the budget by that first school committee in February. So, do you have the revolving funds? I had the revolving funds on the 14th and then So, we're not doing that on the 14th. >> Revolving
058funds on the 21st. Okay. >> That will push that. >> Okay. >> So, we can keep our budget timeline. >> Perfect. [clears throat] >> Oh, we had we had one more item that we would like to discuss today, which was the FY 26 realignment discussion. >> Yep. Is it okay to go with that before Amanda has to leave? >> Yes, let's do that. So, >> um Katie has some numbers, but we were looking to increase uh the assistant superintendent for teaching and learning role from a 6, which is 3 days a week, to a 1.0, which is 5 days a week. Uh so Katie worked at netting out what the actual cost would be to the uh the increase would be with that increase in FTE. And we're also asking to uh with the um
059with us not filling the fine arts and performing the fine and performing arts director unit position this year as the year has unfolded. We watched to see what service delivery needed to be uh in place and what we could do without for the year. And we're finding that if we had a lead teacher role uh to support some of the the activities that the art in our music staff are involved in would be very helpful to them. Uh I think you all know that our music program is pretty active outside of the school day at night and on weekends. We're also hosting the state um festival this year. Uh so putting that on someone without reimbursing them we felt would be disrespectful to their to the group. Um, so Katie has the the numbers. The
060the fine performing arts role is by contract with the MEA 5% of the person's salary who's applying. So we did post the job. Uh, we do have only one person on our staff that would like to do it and Katie has calculated what 5% of their salary would be starting on October 1. And the reason why we're starting in our well actually it's just 5% of the salary period um for this year uh we have that number uh and then we also have a number that would bring kala from uh 3 days a week to 5 days a week uh which would also be um uh money that we would have to uh um seek in order to supply provide that increase as well. So the increase for the fine and performing arts team uh
061lead teacher is >> so um the full increase for the entire year would be $5,667. Um but because it is starting later in the year we would prate that. So, it would be $5,139. >> And just to keep in mind, this is also our pilot program to see if this actually works for the staff. This may be what we continue in FY27 in place of hiring a $130,000 director. we think that we might be able to provide this type of support, see if it's enough during this fiscal year, and then that would inform our decision to budget this position in a similar way for next year, which would be at a a substantial savings to the district in FY27. >> Yep. What is the what's the cost of the assistant superintendent? So for um the
062cost of the increase from 6 to 1.0 would be $32,53851. >> And Katie, you feel confident based upon kind of current budget forecasting projections back not filled positions and stuff we kind of did at the start of the year that covering kind of that $40,000 overall. >> Yes. going to be fine. >> Yes. >> Okay. If if you feel comfortable with it, I'm ecstatic we can have an assistant superintendent of teaching and learning five days a week. That feels like a very low bar um for any district, especially one of our size. Uh so really appreciate all that Carla has done. Probably working more than three days a week uh right now um to bring that full-time that she's willing to do that. Um, and then I I yeah, love John the idea of being
063able to kind of pilot the other role this year and see if that fulfills kind of programmatic needs given how much of a difference that is and cost to the district. >> Um, any questions other members have? >> Do we have to vote on that? >> You don't you don't have to, but we would reflect this in the Q update. >> Yes. formally that's where the alignment would be realized and that's where it would be reported out. Uh but the support of that in a vote form is nice. Uh but again the the the physical journal entry will be done in time for our Q2. So it would be that's where the vote would take place similar to what we did when we did not fill the vacancies over the summer. Uh the formal vote
064was taken at the Q1 time period. >> Yeah. So, if you would like a vote, I'm happy to make a vote to kind of support this direction. I think that was like the language we used last time. >> Yeah, that would be great. Uh, and I will make a motion to support the direction of the school department to reallocate um monies to fill a lead teaching position for direct for the work uh that was previously under the director of fine arts and to bring the assistant superintendent of curriculum uh and learning and teaching to um five days a week uh from three days a week. >> I second. Uh all in favor roll call vote. Amanda, >> yes. >> And I am a Yes. >> Thank you all for putting that together. Appreciate you all
065uh your continued responsiveness to district needs and bringing that to our attention so that we can keep adjusting even if the best budgeters can't anticipate everything. So, I'm glad we're having those conversations and y'all are adjusting mid year to >> reflect kind of what you're seeing. >> It's great. >> Yeah. No, we appreciate it, too. Uh I think the teachers will be ecstatic for the lead teacher role. I think it's not only the support of someone doing the work, but the teachers feel supported by having someone physically represent them. So, from a morale standpoint, in a in a um a workload standpoint, it makes sense. And I think in terms of tier one instruction, I think that the uh the principles and the leadership team will be ecstatic to know that they don't have to
066wait to see collar on certain days and have her there 5 days a week to to support the tier one instruction of the entire district moving forward. So, uh, real districts have real people in those roles for real full-time roles. So, we're happy to be able to come up to that that scale up to that level and, uh, it'll be all good stuff. So, thank you very much. >> Yes. Um, great. Anything else on the budget realignment? If not, we got, I think, 90 seconds to spare here, Amanda. So, um, >> uh, budget coordination committee report. There's nothing on that. We haven't really we have not had a meeting. I'm not even sure when the next one is, but no nothing on that. Meeting minutes I still owe. Um I'll send those out before we
067go on break. Uh and then as I said, we will meet not next Wednesday, but on the 17th will be our next meeting. I will get that together for Charlene. Uh is there anything else folks want to bring up? >> Yep. >> If not, uh I will take a motion to adjurnn. >> So moved. Uh, I will second it. Uh, all in favor, roll call vote. Amanda, >> yes. And >> I am a yes. Now, I'm sorry you were left out of all the votes, but really appreciate you being here. >> Thanks for coming back. >> Hey, John. Thank you so much. >> Thank you everyone. >> Have a great weekend. Bye. >> Have a great weekend. >> Bye. >> [music]