001[Music] Red, two, one. Okay. All right, good evening everybody. So, welcome. Um, this is the um reorganization school committee organizational meeting. Um, I'm calling to order at 7:05 p.m. I'm calling this meeting to order as the um chair prom the senior member of the school committee. I'm excited to welcome our returning member Anna Varis, our new member Nathan Huau. Um, congratulations to you both. Thank you. Um and so we have in our folder for this evening some handy notes for reorganization that um sort of remind us the procedure for this sort of formal first part of the meeting. We'll just conduct this part of the meeting. Um we will then um adjourn this part and just call to order our regular meeting for this evening. So um the way this works is we have the
002opportunity all of us to suggest names um for essentially nominations for chair of the school committee for the coming year. Um and that person has the opportunity to say if they accept the nomination or not. Um and then we can have the opportunity to discuss our option or options for chair. Um and that will be followed by nominations for vice chair. So um if it's okay with people, I would like to start and then see what others think and may want to add. Um it has been a real privilege to serve as chair this past year and the year before that. Um, I would like to, um, actually nominate Amanda to be the next chair of the school committee. Um, I've sort of, well, I don't want to get too far into it. We can
003discuss it. Um but um had some discussion with um you about sort of what you've brought to the committee in the past year and the opportunity to um sort of focus on like moving forward as a committee um with this fresh start that we have a really exciting time for Milton Public Schools right now. Um, and anyway, so I would like to offer that nomination. Um, and I'm wondering what other if any names people would like to add to the mix. Do we need to see if uh, Amanda will accept the nomination based on the notes? I guess we can. Yeah. Well, if there's if there are no other names. Wow. I would like to nominate you Mark. I know you have done so much for the board and on the subcommittee as well and
004you seems to know the whole organization of school committee and the town how how to work with the other town board. So I would like to nominate you for to be the next chair of our board. if you will accept this nomination. I appreciate that. I respectfully decline the nomination if that's okay. I have some reason. I think I have really enjoyed finance and I would love to continue on finance and land help land that plane next year if that is we're I know we're not talking about that but also my wife will got it. I promise. I really appreciate that. I appreciate that, Bow. And I didn't want to I didn't want to put Mark on the spot, but I did he had let me know that um prior to prior to this. Okay.
005And I think one of the things, Nathan, you'll learn is that we want to try and like respect people's balance and boundaries in terms of what we're all able to give. Um, and you know, we'll work through that as we go forward. Um, it's a lot to consider. So, awesome. Any nomination? Amanda, do you accept a nomination? I I do. I do. I would, you know, I had the same thought that Mark would be phenomenal. Um but yes, I accept the nomination. So, [Music] um thank you for accepting that. Um and at this point, um what happens is we take a roll call vote. Um do we need a motion to close the nomination? Yes. Sorry. I will ask for a motion to close nominations. So moved. Is there a second? Second. Thanks. Um, it's
006weird. Okay. So, we will go. This states it needs to be in alphabetical order. So, I vote yes. Um, Nathan. Oh, yeah. Yes. Mark, yes. Amanda, yes. Ba, yes. Hannah. Yes. Okay. So, our new chair accepts the election as Milton School Committee Chair. Congratulations, Amanda. Thank you. Thank you. My husband's traveling. That's the only way I'm getting away with this right now. Hopefully, you would be a surprise this. But there you go. That'd be great. Um, okay. So, now we move on to the vice chair. Um and you are the chair. So So we have at this point members suggest names for vice chair. I would like to suggest can I suggest a name uh Lizzy Carol if she will accept it. Uh I think having I know trying to step back being chair is
007a lot of work but I think having your insight into that especially with the new chair given none of us were vice chairs last year and to have that or chairs before and have that lens of experience would be would be great valuable. I agree. I agree. Are there any other nominations? Um, so do you accept the nomination, Lizzie? Yes. Yes, I do. Okay. And do we have a motion to close the nominations? Right. Uh, so moved. Okay. Second. Second. Um, all right. Lizzy, yes. Nathan, yes. Mark, yes. I'm a yes. Bow, yes. Anna, yes. Great. Um, so I now move to adjourn the reorganization meeting. Second. All in favor? All in favor? This can just be a regular vote. Yeah. Great. So now we close this meeting. Do we reopen? Okay. Sorry, I need
008to follow the notes here. Um, so now I open the April 30th uh regular school committee meeting at 7:13. Um, and we stand for the pledge of allegiance. I pledge allegiance 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. Who are the minutes for public comment? Um, so then we need to approve the uh agenda for the April 30th meeting. Are there any changes or additions? So, are we doing that? One change is that we we are going to postpone um the portion of the executive session on MEA units B and D. Um those are not quite ready for us to approve. So, we will do those at our next meeting. And um we will though
009still do the executive session um per around Dr. Watt's um contract addendum. Okay. We're doing that after this one. That will be so that will be under the chair's report. We'll go into a quick executive session and then we'll come back and vote back into open session to vote that. So we'll take the contract. Yeah, we'll take the contract approval for MEA off of our open session approvals. We'll postpone that. Yeah. Yeah. So, then we open public comment. So, we have public comment for 15 minutes. Um, we ask people to limit their comments to three minutes. Um, and we don't respond. um to public comment, but if that topic comes up later during the meeting, we can um address your comments or questions then if it fits. Are you guys here for public comment? I
010am. All right, come on up. Yeah. Can you just introduce yourself? Hi. Hi. Yeah, sure. Hi, I'm Kristen Chandler. I am the mom of three Milton High School student athletes. Um, I'm new to Milton relative. I've been here for three years, but relative to how old Milton is, it feels like I'm brand new, so I am very thankful for um, being here and being in a community that values education so much, especially you guys tonight. So, thank you. Um, they all I was a little bit late. We were a bit late cuz I was just watching my daughter win first place in the two- mile out in the track meet. Um, all three of my kids are on the outdoor track team. They were also on the indoor track team and they're also cross country
011runners. They like to run. They also were on the volleyball team, the lacrosse team, and the soccer team. Um, but I wanted to talk to you about the outdoor track team. Uh, this team is um the biggest athletic team that Milton High School has. It is also the most inclusive. Any kid that wants to be on an athletic team can come join this team. There's no barring of athletic ability or experience. If you want to come join, come hang out with peers in a safe, healthy, athletic endeavor after school, you're welcome to come. And that is one of the best things about this team. Uh it's not only inclusive, diverse, and equitable across female and male. They're presented the same. Boys compete, then the girls compete. They're the same. I love that about this team.
012And the girls get to be right there next to the boys. Um not only are is this team inclusive, but it's also really good. The uh boys were the D3 indoor champions this year for Milton High, bringing a lot of um I don't know, bringing a lot of um honor to Milton High School. The girls were the runners up in the division three championship in indoor. Um the boys were also the D3 the division 3 relay championships champions this year. This team has the chance to be the D3 champion again this year. There are a lot of really good kids on this team. There's also a lot of individual champions including my son. Um they um they have the opportunity to repeat this in the outdoor um track division 3 championship uh which is on
013unfortunately June 1st. Um these kids have been put in a bad spot. They have to choose between their high school graduation and the culminating competition which is um the culminating event of their athletic career and they have to choose between that and the culminating competition sorry they have to choose between academics and athletics. The culminating events for both of these um things are on the same exact day. Um the D3 championship was scheduled by the MIAA um on the same time and the same day as the Milton High School graduation. This conflict isn't just affecting Milton High School, it's affecting 12 other D3 schools. Um and in fact 56 schools across all of Massachusetts are affected in a similar way. Um for us this date, June 1st is D3. There are 13 total schools that
014are affected by this. Um, these kids now have to choose um, in a lose-lose situation. They have to choose between letting their classmates down. Um, there are 34 seniors on the track team. That's a lot. Um, if they choose competition, their senior class, 275 students, um, will feel the weight of those kids not being there at graduation. There will be empty seats. There will be empty rows. It's the difference of um Elliot going to high-five his best friend Joshua and Joshua's not there. It's Abby wanting to go take a picture with Zakai after graduation and he's not there. They will be missed. The um they have to choose between that or they could choose graduation. It is the most important event uh in their academic life and and it should be celebrated above almost anything
015else in my opinion. Um, but if they do this, they'll let their entire team down. This team has over 120 students on it. It's not just seniors. It is all these other classmates as well, and they all have the chance to be champions this year. And if the seniors don't go, they don't stand a chance. So, they have to choose. Do I let my teammates down? Do I let my class down? Um, and to me, this is not um fair that they have to choose. um we as adults and caring members of of the educational community can do something about this. We have two options in my opinion. We can change the time or date of graduation or we can advocate at for the MIAA to find a different time or date for that championship.
016We have um a group of parents and I have advocated already with Miss Cahill to move the time or graduation date. Um that was not um successful. She said that that is not possible. Um she met with us as parents and then met with the seniors last night to give them an option of a Zoom graduation or um another date. These kids also missed their eighth grade graduation. They were um affected by COVID and that so they didn't walk at that point either. Um I am here to ask if you can help us. Um I would like um everybody that can that has any position or power which is all of us as citizens and parents and the students themselves. Um, we have written a letter to the MIAA to the executive director of the
017MIAA asking them to consider literally any change, whether it's moving it earlier in the day, whether it's consolidating it with the first day of competition, or maybe it could be a rain date, or it's something that I don't have any idea about. I don't want to tell them what to do, but we are asking them to not put the children in this situation. Um, the MIAA is an athletic association that should serve our schools in support of their athletic event in support of their athletic ventures. But in my opinion, academics comes first. I would like to be an adult in this situation and let the kids be kids for just a few more weeks before they have to go out and be adults. So, I'm wondering if you can can help us advocate um for
018a change here. Thank you. Did I miss anything? Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Sorry. Um, so now just make sure there's nobody. Is there anybody on? Is there anyone online? There are a couple folks online. Nobody has their hand raised. Is there anybody online who's looking for to speak for public comment? If so, could you raise your hand? No. Okay. Seeing no one, we will move on to the superintendent report. Thank you. You're welcome. Congratulations. Thank you. And thank you to all the Milton voters who went out and supported the schools yesterday and voted. Um we are as a staff immensely grateful um for the immeasurable work, time and resources that so many people provided including the school committee, the Milton United campaign and all the community members who stood holding signs, put lawn
019signs out, even did any small act to support the schools. It's greatly appreciated. um and it will allow us to um continue our work and to work really closely with the school committee. We understand that we need to be mindful um and um transparent about all budgetary matters moving forward to regain the trust of the community. It's really important to us. Um and uh assistant superintendent Blake and I met today with um incoming superintendent um Fallon and he is very um mindful of this goal and I I'm I feel very confident that we will um be able to work together and um make you proud of the schools and um regain the trust of the community. So, thank you. Um, next week on a celebratory note, next week is um teacher and staff appreciation week
020and we have many things to be thankful for, including this opportunity um to celebrate the successful override. Last week we had a road show, celebration road show celebrating the um Milton Foundation um for education teacher of the year awards and it was it was so fun and every school celebrated in a little different way. Um and I was very lucky as well as assistant superintendent Blake to go to all of the awards except we missed the middle school one because we had a conflict. Um, but it was a great celebration. The students were ecstatic and so proud of their teachers. So, I would like to honor them tonight and tell you who they are. You may know some of them. Um, Kate Middleton Rookie of the Year, which is a new award, was given to
021a business teacher here at Milton High School, Mr. Joshua Hammersh. Um, the Dr. Mary Mary Gracio O'Neal leadership award went to a special education teacher at the Tucker School. Um Miss Bonnie Johnson who is lovely. I've worked with her last year. Um paraprofessional of the year also went to a Tucker School staff member. Um Eleanor Jones who's a legend at Tucker. Um the Kyleott teacher of the year was Olivia McGrath. Um, the Cunningham teacher of the year was Anna Marie Quinn. Glover teacher of the year was Alana Craraven. Milton High School teacher of the year was Billy Donovan. The Pierce teacher of the year, Colin Flare. And the Tucker teacher of the year was Amy Pula. Congratulations to all of those um teachers. uh they are fantastic educators and they deserve to be honored and
022awarded um this prestigious um vote of confidence from their colleagues. That's great. Really exciting. Um, please remember that the Milton Foundation for Education has an upcoming celebration, the Celebration for Education on Saturday, May 3rd at the Marriott Boston Quinsey Hotel at 5:30 p.m. and tickets are still available. And I've heard it's really a fun time. It is. It is. Yeah, I'm sure many of you members have been there. um give a special shout out to two of our students that completed the Boston Marathon in honor of um they raised funds for Dana Farber Cancer Institute and as you know to be a marathon runner um you do have to put significant effort into fundraising as well as running and that is Riley Bergen and Lucy Lloyd Farber. Um so congratulations to them. I know they
023were joined on the course by many faculty members. Several people ran. I personally know somebody um who ran from the Tucker School and I'm sure there are many others. So congratulations to all our marathon runners. And don't forget to buy your tickets to um Milton High School's production of Greece which they're working on right now. Um it is Friday May 2nd, Saturday May 3. Two performances on Saturday at May at two and an evening one and Sunday at 2. So um we have two um we have two presentations that we planned to do. The meeting that was cancelled but that we have moved to the May 21st meeting. One of them is with regard to special education here in the Milton schools and um Danielle Witmore will join us on our next meeting which is
024May 21st to present on that. So I just didn't want you to think that we had forgotten about that but we do plan to um present about the special education issues on that. And we also have um another presentation about performance matters which we'll explain when we get there. Uh but tonight there are two agenda items which we do need school committee votes on and one is on the power school mass action lawsuit and Bob Patterson and AJ are online as panelists here and they are going to um briefly summarize this lawsuit and um give you an opportunity to um make a motion if you'd like to vote on that. So AJ and Bob, are you there? Hi. Hi everybody. Um, thanks for having me. Um, I just want to give you a brief overview
025of the mass action lawsuit that is being proposed uh against Power School and we are recommending that the school committee vote to join that lawsuit because it it serves a couple of purposes. It would indemnify the school district in case of any future litigation. And there's no cost to the school district. The only cost would be incurred is if there was a monetary settlement that we were seeking to gain from P school, the attorneys would take 30% of that. But we are not trying to do that. We are just looking for protection uh for the future. And um I mean that that's essentially it. There's there was a lot of information that was sent to you with summarizing the the lawsuit and the purpose. And there was a video of a webinar that I attended
026that explained everything that was pretty thorough. So um that's essentially it unless AJ wants to add any more. We are recommending that uh and it's a requirement this school committee vote to join and fill out a form and then there's a long questionnaire that we probably handle. Thank you. Bob AJ Malansen is also with us. Did you have anything to add to that or are you No. Does anyone have any questions for us? Have we had any I assume the answer is no, but have we had any prior work with this law firm before or this is just one of the and I also assume there are a couple like law firms doing these things, but this is the one that we we've been connected with through the the power school. This one is connected
027through the Massachusetts Data Privacy Alliance. They have they have somehow they are connected with this law firm and there are hundreds of school districts that are joining in on this. Any other questions? [Applause] Um, I'm Nathan Hu. I'm a new member here and I'm just reading this now for the first time, but can you just describe how like what the indignification mechanism is? Is this through does participating in this work through an insurance mechanism? Like how does indemnification actually come up? I believe that powers school would be responsible for any action. Okay. So if if there is an action taken by say a family me a family in Milton that feels like their data was exposed against us, the liability transfers to power school if this lawsuit is successful. That will be one of the
028correct. Okay. Any other questions? Well, my experience with these class action, the risk is somewhat low. Yeah. payoff is if there is any years and years down the line then probably minimal but the risk to your organization didn't appear to be great by joining this so do we have a um should I make the motion somebody motion for the um to approve the um Milton I will join Yeah, I can make a motion to for the Milton public schools to join a mass action lawsuit against Power School in response to their cyber security incident and related issues. Second. All in favor. Great. Thank you, AJ. And um I appreciate your time. Thank you. Thank you very much. Thank you all. And the o the the only other item on um the this agenda for for
029me is with reference to the Southshore Educational Collaborative. And the Southshore Educational Collaborative, for those who don't know, is a group of um school districts here on the Southshore, which provides um special education services and to supports um for some of our students who require specialized settings. and every year they request that we you as a school committee vote on a representative who will sit on their board. Over the course of this year, Dr. Burrows has been the member. Um other years, I believe the superintendent is also appointed one of the either perhaps assistant superintendent or another representative of the faculty. But um there's a motion in your folder and there's a little bit of information about um the Southshore Educational Collaborative for you to to vote about appointing someone for that position. And the
030deadline's coming up for this. So yes, I believe it's May 15th. Yeah. Okay. Which is prior to our next meeting which is May 21st. So and it would be effective for next school year. So my only my confusion about the motion is it's the super are we moving to appoint the superintendent says or the design. So how does that I think the language of the motion is just and or a designate so the superintendent can determine himself or okay someone else I think Dr. Bros um had it um uh participated in it as a way to network with other districts too. Um you know depends upon who it would work best for in terms of their schedules. Also yeah I'll make a motion to appoint the superintendent of Milton Public Schools andor a design to
031be Milton's representative to the Southshore Educational Collaborative. Second. So that means for the month of May it will be Dr. Watts and then after that it will be um the interim superintendent Dr. or or a designate or if they choose to somebody else attend. Okay. All those in favor the end of my Great. Thank you. Thank you. You're welcome. First one down. Sorry. Get back to the agenda. All right. So, do we now have to close this meeting? Do we have to Yes. So, yeah. To move. So um um a motion to close the meeting and then do it. Is there special language? Yeah. Sorry. Um sorry. Um the motion um would be to I I'll just go ahead and make the motion. Um the motion would be to adjourn to executive session to return
032to open session. Um, pursuant to Mass General Law C3A21A2 to discuss strategy and preparation for negotiations and contract negotiations with non-UN personnel. Dr. Regina Watts, acting superintendent. Second. All those in favor? Great. So, we know we'll So, now this meeting is paused. Yeah. and then we'll return to open session. Okay. All right, we have returned to open session and so now we are we need to have a motion on approving the uh contract for acting superintendent Re Dr. Regina Watts. Do I have a motion? I can make the motion um to approve the addendum to the contract for Dr. Regina Watts appointing her as the acting superintendent of the Milton public schools for the period of May 1st, 2025 through June 1st, 2025. Second. Okay. All in favor? Congratulations. Are you getting worried? No. All
033right. We will now move on to the finance subcommittee report from Mark. Great. Uh thank you everyone. I think the um first thing to name is just the was discussed a little bit before but the override the overwhelming uh success of the override vote. So uh want to take a moment to just thank all the voters in town um who came out and voted period. There was an enormous turnout which was fantastic. Uh, also want to highlight this the the overwhelming support for the override. I mean almost twothirds of residents of voters I should say voted in favor which is remarkable um much higher than at least the last override. I'm not sure where that ranks kind of historically, but given the size of it, uh, and all the other things around, that just showed
034a lot of trust and faith and and support that the residents showed for for our kids and for our staff and and for all the other departments within the town that were affected. So, I think that's that's phenomenal. I do want to take a moment personally just thank I think we all do um thank all the volunteers who helped just so many people uh talking to neighbors, handing out flyers, knocking on doors, standing out uh connecting with fellow residents get out the word just so many people put in so much time. It is impossible to thank them all. There are um too many too many to name but I do just want to name three individuals. uh Ralph Parent, Lindseay Bigby, and Louisa Pena Lions. These were the uh kind of primary organizers around Milton
035United. And again, there many other people involved who deserve a shout out, but those three in particular uh were kind of the the organizers around that that group. I think that group ran an outstanding campaign around kind of uniting a town. And the the proof is in the pudding, so to speak, of kind of residents really responded to that message. And uh again, I I think our staff and our students would be in a much worse place if those three residents hadn't stepped up and really taken that on uh for our town. So, thank you to uh Ralph, Lindsay, and Lisa. Uh and overall, just excited for what this means for our staff, our students, and and our town as a whole. So, thank you to everybody who who voted. Um great. Uh move on
036now to uh FY25 budget updates. Um we have two things there. Uh we have a fee schedule and so we'll start with that. This is um technically actually related to FY26 but uh essentially we at the finance committee have been working to look over the fee schedule uh and look at adjustments for next year. Um some of this is related to the override work of um you know looking at revenues and expenses things like that. Um and Katie has made kind of a number of proposals that we've uh talked through regarding the fee schedules. Most of them again the fee schedules in your folder. Most of them are highlighted in yellow. There are some I just want to name are not highlighted uh which is the high school athletics fees. Those are also being adjusted
037in the current year. Uh and to kind of go through it broadly speaking, we're making adjustments to the peer student activities fees, the high school student activities fees, the middle school athletics fee, the high school athletics fee, the music program fee, uh and the um community schools fees. Uh we already approved as a committee some of these fees related to like summer um the summer school um but there the rest of the fees are outstanding. This is one of the kind of looking at the history here fee changes one of the more um holistic approaches to the fee changes that the committee has done in quite a while. So we are touching a lot of different areas here not every area. So, there are some other things we'll be looking at next year, but um
038anything to add, Amanda, on the fee schedule? No. May I ask clarifying questions, please? Um, some of it mention about like per hours or per section, but some of them did not mention. So, I don't know like short-term rental for park and wreck, for example. But, what is it supposed to mean? and they stay for the whole whole year for a se a season. Yeah, that's great. We're not changing any of the rental uh rates, but those rentals are um on an hourly basis. It's the hourly cost and it it differs by who is renting and obviously what is being rented. Uh but none of those fees are changing. None of the rental fees affect the operating budgets as that hits the uh facility kind of revolving fund uh rental revolving fund. But those are
039not being changed. They are something we've flagged within the finance committee that we're looking at potentially for next year. Anything else I missed in the fee overview, Katie? No, I was just going to mention um that the rental section was something if you look at the last increase column, those are some of the fees that have um been in place for the longest. But we when we talked this morning during finance subcommittee, we talked about um just wanting to take some time to be able to pull in the comparable data um and then also look at the structure of the rentals. Um just we had mentioned this morning, but I'll just mention again. Um, I think an important part for me is not only the fee that's listed, but also the administration of being able
040to actually when we're saying that we're charging the fee that we can follow through on that. And I think in some instances when we look at this, it can be a little confusing and convoluted. And so I think if there's an ability for us to look at it to potentially pull in some um comp data and then just look at the overall structure of the fee schedule as it relates to rentals. then um that is will probably be work that we can do um in the upcoming you know over the summer and have that prepared for you to be able to discuss uh and potentially update um next school year. Yeah, just want to highlight too that that's been helpful work that um Katie has brought in as we looked at the feeds is the
041kind of some in certain places bringing in comparison to other also some places looking at again what are the costs associated with some of these programs versus what the the revenue that's coming in from these um these fees and how do we better align there's still costs outside of the fees that are being paid by the district that do hit our operating budget for clubs and sports right There are some things these fees do not fully cover 100% of those and that does our operational budget as we saw from the override um discussions but sorry Mark just what you're I just want to make sure I understood what you were just saying is the is the goal to be able to understand what the margin is on all of these fees. Is that what you
042were just saying? The goal is to uh these fees are intended to offset the operational costs so that the users are paying something. They're not they are not paying 100% of the costs associated with the things. And so uh this was looking at as our costs overall have been increasing right related to inflation. How are we adjusting the fees slightly? Uh how are we adjusting the fees somewhat to help cover and offset the fact that the the burden on the operational budget is growing? Yeah. How do we grow the the revenue as well? Okay. Some of the programs, if I can just add, some of the programs listed on the fee schedule are um for programs that are intended to be self- sustaining. So, when we talked about the community schools program, community schools is
043not funded, they don't have operational costs that are funded through the Milton public schools operating budget. It's intended to be a self- sustaining program based off of just um the expenses are covered by the fees that are listed in this fee schedule. So there is a differentiation in some of the categories for transportation. The fees we collect only offset a portion of the expense but in the instance of community schools that is intended to be a self- sustaining. So in this this year, our proposal and the fee increase was increased in order so that we can continue to be self- sustaining and that we do not have to cover any costs from the operating budget. The music the programs for the the high school um the private lessons is not actually for high school students,
044it's for elementary school students, but uh that's also a self sustaining program. Any other questions on the fees? Okay. Well, again, really appreciate Katie all your work in uh helping kind of guide us through this uh this year. Um and I will make a motion to uh approve the FY26 fee schedule dated April 14th, 2025. Is there a second? Second. Great. All in favor. So that's the fees. I didn't know we have adult education like driver's education. Driver's ed. Yeah. Which is a good price for that. Yeah. Paid for. Looking at me. Uh slowly looking at all of them. Um all right. The next thing was uh the quarter 3 report. So, this is something we discussed briefly at the last school committee meeting. No one could hear me. Um, so I apologize for that.
045Uh, but again, appreciate Katie putting together the quarter 3 report. We at that time hadn't had a chance to talk about ED finance. We were able to talk about that um this morning. Um, and so just wanted to bring it back in case there were any um questions. I don't think there's any any additional updates or information kind of gained at finance this morning that we want to make sure to share. But I think the highlight here remains that you know we are currently projecting kind of in line with where we have been projecting in terms of that number just south of 700,000 in terms of the projected deficit at the end of the year. Um that has not increased uh which is great. it has also not shrunk significantly. Um, which is obviously not
046not great, but that is where we're trending. And so depending on town meeting and the warn article associated with kind of the allocation of the 700,000 for FY25 that will be voted on at some point during town meeting, um, you know, that additional revenue into the current year fiscal budget should help at this point kind of sustain us. I know at some points we were talking about whether or not we needed the full million. Um at this point it doesn't look like we're projecting that. Uh but obviously there is some unknowns related to the um state um budget. The I forget what it's called. Supplemental supplemental. Thank you. That's the word I was looking for. The supplemental FY25 uh budget from the state that still is moving forward the expected revenue from that. But again,
047it's it's not within our control. So it is still somewhat up in the air. Do we have any more info on that? Nothing. Nothing. Okay. So then I know at our last meeting we talked about the large group sub coverage. Does that still work within the 700 that we're looking at? Okay. to clarify that we're not the assumption to stay under the 700 is still even if we're not implementing correct large scale sub coverage at Pierce um school that we can still stay under even without doing that we can still stay under the $700,000 number. Any other questions? Um you know this obviously is a number we're going to need to continue to pay close attention to. Uh so we will be um obviously there's quarter three reports. The next one's quarter four which is
048July. We'll be having some interim reports that Katie is putting together just to make sure we are continuing to track this so that there's any anything that is unexpected at this point that pops up. Luckily the window is shrinking and shrinking so the number of unexpected things are shrinking with it. But um it's just something we'll continue to monitor and finance and bring back here and let keep the committee apprised. I know that the date is that was July, end of July or June 30. Like June 30th is the end of the fiscal year. So would we have a meeting to kind of go through that because I know last year we didn't have one until like July 30th I think it was or sometime sometime later when we had that meeting. So I don't
049know if it makes sense to kind of walk us like have a meeting to close. Not that we want to have an additional meeting in the summer, but just so that everybody's on the same page about like where we are and You know, I don't know if there's a way to provide an update just because we didn't Yeah. Well, the other piece that we're is we're going to need to determine what the number is that we need to ask the warrant committee for. Um because the money is not the 700,000 is not coming to us. It's going to the town, right? Uh account and warrant committee controls that. And so we'll need to the goal is that we're not looking for a penny more than we need, but we won't technically know that exact number
050until the budget is closed out in July. And so um the timing work. Yeah. So, I'm never quite done this before, but uh I assume I mean you can still go back and allocate the funds past July 1st back to cover the FY25 because that's what the uh town meeting boat was for was to allocate an FY25. So, that covers that and you have some time within after the fiscal year to like clean up the fiscal year and get those things. So, but we would need probably a vote, I would assume, from school committee to make the request um of the warrant committee. I'm not 100% sure since we already voted to ask for them, but probably would u defer to the chair on that. And um and then we'd need to go in front
051of the warrant committee and they'd have to have a special meeting. So, that is something we could do technically, I guess, before July or June 30th if we felt really good about what the number is. Um, and if we're not 100% sure, then we could we could hold off. But yeah, those are I think our two avenues either. Yeah, I just think like again, I think just as we talk about process and you know, improving like what we learned from last year, just, you know, there needs to be something where we can all get together and kind of really understand it, make sure like everybody's good with it, you I think it'll be I think it'll be helpful for us, you know, just so uh even if it's like a a Zoom meeting or something,
052you know, over the I know it's tough like Yeah. But but but yeah, I think I think that would be helpful. I mean, I think that's the one thing that we were even talking about meeting like you're talking about pulling a report. Um what were you saying that the a lot of the like the stipens and everything hit in May? So even then like pulling a report then to know sort of where we are given that May is probably the last big salary month and then and having a sense of that. And one other question so the only you know the other big area where surprises can happen would be with special ed. So is there I assume there's like ongoing communication with you and Danielle or if something's coming up or you see something
053you know cuz she sort of would know if things are on the horizon she that communication is coming to you guys so that you're that there's sort of a hey this child could be going out of district or we have a child moving in or something along those lines. Okay. Mhm. So we and there are flagged like do you have like a I don't know how else to ask is there a mechanism almost like for flagging it for you in your budget and um so we have been meeting collectively um kind of uh with the business office and special education um to talk about the budget on a monthly basis. we just met um not obviously not last week it was the school vacation week but the week before and so at this point in
054the year although it is a really busy time of year um because we're we're getting towards the end of the school year even if we were to have some potential student that um could potentially be going out of district it's just the window is that much because we'd only be paying for a certain number of days. So I think as we progress to the end of the fiscal year, we're we're still monitoring it very closely. And we do have different situations where there may be expenses that come up that we weren't anticipating, but those expenses should be smaller in nature than they would than they could potentially be in January or um yes earlier in this school year. So um still really monitoring it closely, but as as I said, as each kind of day
055goes by, we know that that's one more day that we potentially are not paying for Yeah. that cost. Many of the big surprise moveins occur over the summer. Yeah. Yeah. Versus more logical time for families to move. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. coming out of probably a town meeting. Once that votes are done, it probably it's going to make sense for us to meet with the town administrator and the head of the warrant committee, uh the chair of the warrant committee just to align on kind of that that process because we know we're going to need to go back to warrant committee. And so we we'll need to figure out to your point, Anna, like the exact timing of like is that just before June 30th? Is that just after June 30th? Um and just what what
056makes sense um because obviously some of the funds also the gap is also being closed through the use of reserve accounts too um which is what not we don't have to go to them for control. Do we have the opportunity to go to Warren Committee and recommend because I'm just wanting to be mindful of the timing to ask for the 700,000 say before the end of the fiscal year. But then if we do not have to utilize it cuz we only want to utilize what we we're just utilizing what we need once the books are closed. Um yeah, I think I think we should just have meet with Nick and uh Tom and see what they see what the Yeah. what they feel comfortable with after we get through. Okay. To know if town meeting
057even approves the plan in general, right? And that we're still tracking to under that number and that that's we're not going to need to go back to warrant or town meeting or select board for anything else. So good questions. Anything else on the Q3 reports? Okay. Um, then I have one more. Uh, I we only have the vendor warrant two here. 42 here, Katie, but we had that adjustment to 40. That was on your desk. We'll just we can loop back with Gail on that and do it next time. Is that right? I just want to flag that for the Please. Yeah. Um All right. We I will make a motion um to approve vendor warrant 42 in the amount of $243,41424 payable on 5125. Uh that is a one I sent out today for
058all. Uh is there a second sign? Any discussion? All those in favor approved. That's the end of finance update. All right. Right. This is me. Um so approval and then so we have minutes in the folder. Um we have minutes for this is correct. April 2nd. Mhm. April 23rd. Yeah. April 2nd and April 23rd. Does anybody need So if we can take them separately because I wasn't here for this second. Okay. Right. So for April 2nd, I can make a motion. Great. Chair is ready. I'll make a motion to approve the minutes from April 2nd, 2025 Milton School Committee meeting. Second. All in favor? and great. And then I'll make another motion to approve the minutes from April 23rd, 2025 Milton School Committee meeting. Second. All those in favor? Extensions. Any extensions? Thank you. Sorry.
059Oh, this is gonna be fun. Um, patience, please. Yeah. All right, moving along. All right. Um, and I just closed out the agenda. So, I think that was the next meeting. The next meeting. Um, any agenda items? So we have so we have the special Danielle's going to do her presentation special education presentation and we're also going to do a brief presentation about performance matters uh electronic platform that we're opening for families with more information about their um students scores on um various testing. Oh okay. And then I think we'll also have our school choice hearing. Okay. That has to be approved by June 1st. And then next week is town meeting, right? And town meeting. Monday, Monday, Monday, Tuesday. Um they're not skipping this time, didn't they? They're doing Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday next week.
060Yeah. And the following week, too. We got the following week. Write your Monday. Hopefully we don't. Oh, is that why our school committee meeting is pushed to? Yeah. That's why it's three weeks from now is because of town meeting. Okay. And then would there be um the normal would it be like finance report then is there um facilities or policy policy? Is there anything going on with either of those? I think we'd have to do the reorg, right? I mean like figure that out. How does that work? Policy is scheduled for May 20th. So I think my sense of how this tends to work is that we try to do the reorganization of subcommittees by the end of June like Okay. Um and so I think between now and June, those of us who are
061on subcommittees are sticking with our assignments and Nathan will be um we'll send out the list of Yeah. Amanda can Yeah. Amanda, you can send that out to everybody. Um, like the information and people can have the opportunity to Yeah. share preferences for assignments for next year. Um, and I'll help you work through that process. And I said the student but so student reps are coming on May 21st to just oh to unra summary on the projects they have worked on this year and the next steps. Great. Do we need to meet before town meeting? Uh, I don't believe we need to meet as a full committee before town meeting because there's nothing um there's nothing for us to weigh in on that we haven't apart from our budget and the um this the $700,000
062request which we've already obviously voted to request. So, I don't believe we need to um have a special meeting. I think, you know, we'll work together to get our pre our information ready to share Mark and [Music] um we'll learn more tomorrow from Nick about the expected plan for the meeting. So I I don't Yeah, I guess if we learn something other and we need to meet, we can Okay. Right. Like set that up. Nathan, we sit in the in the front row. Oh, yeah. Oh, I know. I'll be there. And I in that row. Is there anything else for the next meeting? policy policy will have met the day before so we could policy just sorry I'm just looking I'm not I don't know about facility doesn't meet till the 26th okay what about
063school building committee Mark is that you can I don't I don't think we're meeting before the 21st I find out different I'll okay let you know anything else all right if not then do I have a motion to adjurnn motion Second. Second. All in favor. Thanks. Congratulations. [Music]