001e e e order order I just want to do that but I'm not I'm just starting the meeting that's all I'm doing so I will hand it off to our superintendent and we'll go from there thanks all right thank you uh so tonight where we have a budget review session uh for the draft of the budget that we've put in and in your packet uh on the agenda uh principal's been working really hard and Jason to pull things together and um I want to walk you through um several of the links that are posted on the website um on the agenda and that are also in paper form for you tonight as a board and highlight um some of the important ones for us um the first two links are just the full budget draft
002of like the 700 pages that you guys have seen uh and again just making that aail available for the public um the second one is the budget um The District budget memo uh and then the presentation that we covered last week at the school committee meeting and then the fourth item is a cost center budget increase um and this will be a guide for you guys throughout the meetings tonight we've broken it down individually by school and on one sheet but what this allows you to do um and allows for the public to see uh very clearly is where the majority of increase is per category when you look at school mine is loading really slow right now so I'm going to turn to the paper and what you'll notice uh as you see in
003each school is that as we talked about in last Finance Comm committee meeting a majority of our increases are related to salary and benefits and you'll see throughout that when you look at the prek school for example the total increase in that budget is is $91,000 with 79 of that being related to salaries and benefits so that means the entire school um kind of growth in budget is down to almost $122,000 and you'll see some schools where we've had some negatives come in and that could be around facilities projects change in staff other things like that that brought that number uh to a lower amount when you're looking at this online on on your computer there's two things that uh you're able to do and one is if you click on what is for an
004example prek if you click on on the prek piece that will give you the major increases in that budget and what makes up those things outside of salary when you look at the detail piece that would bring you up to every page in the big budget with all of the detail uh talking about uh that section so try to do that to make it a little bit easier for you guys and to show the public exactly where um our increases are another item that we will talk more about with the city council that we worked on this afternoon um is just trying to get an idea of the impact of the bond um because we'll be voting on two very important things in the budget um on in June hopefully we'll be voting on H
005successful school budget and hopefully we'll be voting on as a community um the state funding and local projects uh and we're starting to do this work over what we could expect based off the current situation um increases to a $400,000 home based off a 40 and a $45 million Bond question uh as we put those together and so we felt like um since we know that that's upcoming that's something for us that we need to keep in mind mind as we move through the budget uh process uh because that will be something the public will be weighing in on and we want to get that information out as early and as often as we can so that people understand the impacts as I pause right there are there any questions that you currently may have
006just about any of that information summary sh you just referenced got this file I just wanted to ask quickly there other Pages below it have page references yep that it's so that if you if you click on Burn School it would take you to what the major things if there are any it just each page doesn't have a title of where it is but it does have a page number and that's the page number in the book here yes so if you're looking for an item it's on that page number so that you you can you can reference that towards the big book are they are they newer or older are they these new ones or these are from the original budget that we that we drafted only because you introduced the summary right that's
007that's why I'm ask okay yep okay now a couple of things that you know as we continue to refine the budget over the last couple of weeks since we've kind of handed it off to you guys um we have found a couple of items that I think will make our work here as a committee easier the first piece as you know there is a Paid Family Medical Leave Act passed through legislature in the governor's budget last year and we received some guidance um from the Department of Labor and Drummond and woodsom that says if you are in a contract right now if you're in the middle of a contract you do not two things happen employees aren't eligible for uh the benefits and as a district and as an employee you do not have to
008pay into the program until your next contract so in that situation when we go through um our teachers uh and because the only staff that would have that this would support would be teaching staff because they're in the we settled that contract last spring we can decrease $773,000 from the budget that's a pretty good get for us we also had um $19,200 on an item that was supposed to be removed from The Middle school budget for a high jump pit that we can take out of the budget and then we had a double posting for a position um that was just entered twice of $86,000 and so to start off the day we can deduct from the budget 108 178 788 um which is a pretty good chunk of money so what we've done is
009we've created um a new Revenue sheet budget Revenue sheet for you guys that's the cover sheet that lists all the Departments um and we are at a s situation right now where our expense line okay is now up 2.5 565 million or 5.75% as we talked about receiving the additional $1.5 million in subsidy where we are today um for a tax increase is 1. 258 million or 4.16% prior to the the review that you guys will do tonight so that changes things we at 4.75 we've been able to reduce that piece without you know taking anything more um just as we continue to review so we're getting ourselves into what I would say is a much better situation as we move forward any questions about that piece okay so what I'd like to do now
010is you have a memo from each principal which just highlights um their budgets things that we focus on class size is one of them making sure that we have right ratios in there and then also um you know kind of fairly boring um budget requests where they look at the fact that this is about staff and programming um and at the end of the day electricity still needs to be paid heat needs to be paid buses need to run employees need to have reasonable increases um and our principles are are being pretty uh Frugal on some of those requests we also keep in mind that we're hopeful that the community will support the new buildings which I think we all want that and so we are thinking about forward on maintenance Capital repairs what are
011the things that need to be done that are essential what are the things that um we will get get through um and so I'd like to start with uh Fairfield and Young School to come up um kind of talk a little bit about the process that they've gone through uh and the pieces that we need for the budget good afternoon okay that was a little loud sorry U so good afternoon um so I'm Jeff MIRS I'm the young young school principal um just looking at our memo here or my memo here uh our numbers are you know pretty solid you know we have the right amount of teachers um we're going to be a little bit higher in that in in first grade um where it says the average 19.6 we'll be a little bit
012higher in that young um but we did talk about if we have a discrepancy in numbers between young and Fairfield we would ask for volunteers if there was a bigger number to even off the schools the K2 schools at some point I'm not sure if that's needing to happen NE next year but that's something we'll plan for if necessary um so I like where our numbers are at um I certainly wouldn't cut any teachers that's for sure um our overall budget is just a little bit higher um things got more expensive but we did you know we added which I'm thankful for I appreciate you guys adding you know $88,000 to for field trips uh this year that took a lot of um pressure off our PTO who would fund our um field trips and
013now they can do other things and do some more fun things and actually have more influence on our school events and even like some of our you know our teacher and and kid needs you know throughout the year so I'm really excited about that um and also the Su days you added two years ago um we have $3,000 for that which has been a really great thing we've used that money very very well and it's really kind of pretty neat to see like just some of the Su days that are coming um and we have another one a teacher one uh we have our math interventionist she's such a math person that she's going to do a coin drive and where the kids count and have a school store and the kids have to count
014and collect coins and she's so giddy about this in the PTO last night approved it but it was just funny to see Athena's reaction to Counting coins so she's very very excited about that so I just thought that was pretty funny last night um just uh some of the things you know we have our teachers you know really take inventory in their classroom supplies you know we don't give them a number we just say get what you need you know and really just think about you know needs um and I I'm it took a couple years to really kind of get a flow of that because they weren't used to doing it in October November you know but like I think we're getting that flow and getting better at it um you know from the
015office point of view we're getting better at it I know a goal jod and I have in the office is by the time we leave young school when we become you know hopefully in theory when we become new schools we will not have one box of paper left like so that's the goal we're not going to bring bring anything with us so we're not going to have extra stuff we're going to bring as little over as possible so I'm starting to hone in on what our needs really are for paper and for other things so I cannot wait to see that um teacher room um at when we're leaving school and it's going to be empty and Jee I just want to uh follow up on that to the board is that that's one of
016the things we have started to start think about is that I had some experience where we I I had an opportunity the district to where we closed the school and we and we changed around and that was one of the things at that time we were not prepared to deal with the amount of supplies Stuff Etc that not only maybe had expired or gone bad but the request to like people didn't want to pack it and I can understand that piece and so over the next couple of years I'm hoping that um we can figure that piece out by uh good management of our principles and and staff and pulling things out because at the end of the day no one wants to box up reams of paper and have them then be unboxed in
017a new building to go into a shelf right that's something that we have to manage and to start thinking about because at the same time we as a school committee and the city will have buildings that will be turned hopefully turned over to them um that we'll have a lot of disposal and things to think about so managing that process is something that we've started to look into make sure that we're on top of it um and just you know knowing that at the end everyone there will be a lot of eyes looking on what's left in buildings or what's going in the trash and things like that and we want to be the best stewards um of the tax dollar as we can thank you um also so we're really trying to um be
018purchasing research-based intervention tools just with Meg's help and our literacy team's help um and also our math team help just to really um help be more effective in what and how we teach and just to increase phonics and word study interventions things like that um so we're just trying to hone in and um be a little more thoughtful instead of having many different things we're trying to hone in on what's our best research-based uh curriculum you so things like that we're really trying to hone in on I think we've gotten better at that um we did reduce the technology coach that Fairfield and young shared um as you guys know um just some of the needs um what I'm excited about it looks like we're going to get the installation of the airphone um where
019we will have that exterior door to Young locked like right now you can come in and then the interior that second door is locked um but just I don't feel like our person in the office or really anyone would be as safe um as they could be where if we have a camera on the outside side and that second door is locked we're much safer and then jod or whoever's in the office can Buzz that person in so I'm excited about that I'm also you know talking to Jeremy we've talked a little bit about um maybe doing definitely more swipe cards um what is a challenge when we have Subs in the building and other people in the building we give them keys but they come and go and they'll unlock like the the door
020to the new building or they'll unlock the modular to Franklin Street and sometimes you can't tell if it's locked or not not so I really would love to have like kind of be able to swipe our way in um to every building then every door is locked at all times so you know you talk about safety I think that's you know something I'm hoping to you know for facility needs those kind of things and just you know continue repairs as needed I'm trying to be as Bare Bones as we can as possible I have our PTO it's willing to do some things in that middle hallway they put up some like a Sentry uh wall but also someone's painting a mural to make it as nice as possible which I'm really excited about um but
021we're just not willing to put a lot of money in it because there's no reason for that if we're going to be moving out in the next few years so that's our budget if anyone has any questions just a couple of things about facilities uh the airphone system will be worked on this spring and then when you think about uh young school and uh we'll talk about this at Fairfield school as well um adding some additional do swipes to the Portables um Young's got a lot of different ways to kind of enter or exit that building um and while we made some good um gains last year by getting swipe cards installed on some of our main entrance we're going to start looking at seeing what we can do for the other doors because we
022will be there for another three years um and looking at the portable piece and then when you'll see it on fairfields just replacing the portable doors and looking at um you know the swipe cards um that may be needed to be expanded in those facilities my questions will be after okay nor yeah uh good afternoon everyone Wendy leblank principal at Fairfield school um much uh similar to Jeff's report out um just for the knowledge of anybody listening um our school staff does start considering the budget in October and November of the you know year looking ahead um so as building principles we've really asked staff this year and last year to take a a very close inventory on their supplies as we've talked about um thinking of the future move and teachers submit a budget
023order before thanks or around thanks giving time um in which they uh determine you know their need as in one two or three what they they have to have and what they would love to have and we kind of start there um once they've submitted that is when we as administrators sort of compile the the whole school's budget in general but um as just as last year our budget looks really really similar in terms of you know as Jeff mentioned field trips and um some curriculum needs there's no additions there teacher supplies are all consumables what they would go through in a in a school year and they are also sharing a lot of those supplies uh to help each other out and um yeah and then everything else is reflected in you know contractual
024increases and for example you know in the contract cost of living or however that is turns out in the budget and in future in the moving forward each year and I'm happy to answer any questions that anybody may have I just had a quick one so um teachers submit what they want in October November do they get notified of what's you know accepted or how does that how does that part work they submit so if there's any question once so in my building they submit a spreadsheet that I create that they duplicate and I any reviews or any questions or anything that maybe I'm like we probably aren't going to do that next year I would have a conversation with them so they would know what is being put into the budget or not then
025if we submit that and have a meeting with um the superintendent and review our school budgets and anything we've had to make some adjustments like this year we did make adjustments but anything would be a conversation with the teacher so they would know what's that's how it is in my that's how we've done it yeah same here it's like where that first catch you know if there's some things like I know second grade try to put something through I was like that's not going to happen so I let them know and then they resubmitted it and then we meet with superintendent and then uh superintendent tells us what we need to cut or that he likes the budget you know whatever so and that's our kind of our second thing also there's some requests or
026some items that um might be able to go into a different line so it might not be just general supplies but maybe that's instructional equipment or another place where we can make the appropriate adjustment and be able to to put that through we also rank the uh one through three like most important they need it number two second number three is like I wish I could have it so if Jeremy you know comes back to us and says you got to cut x amount of dollars we go with the number threes first so like that's something that helps us so and then Jeff just for your information what we would do on our end is as we continue to manage the budget throughout the end of the school year as we get around April and
027May as we start to evaluate where our lines are and the things that we have left that could be when I would go back to principles and say hey it looks like I may have some funds available and here I know that we cut this this table from your budget how about we go and order that now because we could get that piece because of you know whether it's shifting in staff or other savings came through the year substitutes were light you know um that gives us a little bit of play in the current cycle to then go back to the things that they may be requesting that didn't make the budget and that's typically a rotational thing is it I didn't hear it electronically yes so in terms of submitting the budget yes and
028it's a great way for links to be dropped and yeah and if you don't get in you're I mean is kind of impossible to not get in whatever requests you might you know teacher might have or whatever ever or is it ever possible that it just doesn't get filled out or it would be possible that in our software like last year there was a couple of there's you have what you build as a requisition you save it ads is not always the best program in the world and sometimes when you um so like a principal would go and let's say that I asked Jeff to edit a requisition and either drop it down or add it up then you save it and Jason reassociates all of those to the budget there are times where things
029will just get stuck or don't get picked up or someone didn't click a box so you'll have some misses from time to time we had that last year on you know 30 or $40,000 worth of supplies but that's where we manage it throughout the year and get them back in it's uh it's not a perfect program thank you um I had some of the same curiosity that Jeff had around um you know his question about uh supplies um I think it's a it's a question that in my experience has gone back years and years and years because you want teachers to have the adequate supplies that they need there's always sort of this ambiguity around well what do they really need or are we over spending are we putting too much and and now the
030whole conversation today about not having too much in the schools when we go to make a move is is very interesting to me um my question is kind of an a odd one I guess but when you have new employees new teachers in the district um is there sort of a a learning curve for them around how do we manage this whole question of supplies are are your whole procedures around filling out the forms you know as if you will I just wonder if a new teacher coming in whether or not that means they're new to the district or just a new teacher if if that's sort of a something that you have to kind of pay attention to and make sure they understand the process the wonderful thing is we have each grade level
031has a team and they do a lot of this process together uh in addition I've had a a few new teachers um when they come in new let's say we hire someone new and they we let them create a budget rate then and and some of that can come from the previous teacher we didn't end up purchasing all of those items or you know we can find it within our office supply line ourselves to help them with that but also um all new teachers are connected to a mentor so that's part of a mentor you know relationship and responsibility that they would work through that it's another reason I know all of us principles make sure we check off that we've gotten one in our administrative assistants who are amazing and do so much of
032this work with us and um go through and make sure we have exactly what we need from everybody along the process along the way thank you I appreciate that answer Jeff anything else no just our team leaders really pay attention to that and we kind of talk through that process when it's budget season and making sure our newer teachers have what they need and you know some like when we ask teachers what they need we actually want them to put in what they need so it's not like they have a certain dollar amount like one teacher might get more you know materials you spend a little bit more money because there's greater need so it's not fair is not always equal kind of what we how we kind of operate thank you all right um
033is this on okay y um so thank you for the presentation um so I'm not picking on Fairfield it's only because fairfield's first in the book and I was trying to get the formatting down so a lot of these questions are probably for all the schools but I'll get them out now there is some some examples plus uh Jeff's probably sick of hearing from me over the years any no I'm not no it's it's it's it's overall though um so so um I believe it was in Fairfield too but it was one position it might be a newer person that has come into it and that therefore their salary is lower than the prior person in budgeting does that is that take into account of potential retirements of longer term teachers employees and then and
034then that new blood coming in is is that accounted for in budgeting for teachers position at all so I typically do not do that uh several reasons One hiring has changed over the last 10 or 12 years um where our you know colleges just aren't pushing out the same number of applicants that they have the other piece is um that can come in through that and while we use that as an anticipated Savings in the other year is because many of our our current staff have changes over the year which could impact your health insurance like getting married having a child um and those things sometimes you know again if when Jason's building this budget and the staff budget is probably built around early December there's just so many of those openings so if you
035had a swing from an employee who you could be a very veteran staff member high on the scale but you may only be taking a single health insurance which is around $10,000 person retires you may replace that individual with someone whose salary is $20,000 lower but they also may be at the point in their life where they have their children on their health care and so over time and my experience tell tells me never to mess M with that piece and you just readjust the next year um unless you're in a really tight spot um that's something I just haven't recommend because you just never know uh what's going to come through that door the other piece that um is helpful as that and we track this we'll track this over the summertime of last
036year's you know Personnel cost replacement Personnel cost replacement and try to have an idea of where we go for several reasons could have one of those um you know like a couple years ago when as we had an influx of students we needed to hire elll teachers that's one of the pots that you we would be examining to say can I assure you that we have some money in this pot and that's one of the things I would ask Jason to do is Jason goes to that list we look through it and we say okay yeah there were some savings and hirings over the summertime so that tends to be that would be my recommendation to you guys um on that piece just because there's so much unknown and the health insurance policy can change
037things so drastically I ask for a couple things because I can't find it quick enough but there was one position in this situation that I think that's the case that it was a a newer person uh within the Fairfield I want to get person's names of the position at all just want know if it was done for that um and then also it was from our last meeting but knowing that of course whatever cast reserves we have we can't use that necessarily in the in the budget process but you mentioned Jeremy that um you can go over budget by 10% so between line you can yeah um anything more than that typically you would come back to a school committee or Council based off what your local historical pieces have been uh and ask for
038a move in between those um typically that would be done typically that would be done on a major population shift or a major Capital Improvement that would be necessarily throughout now in this situation you guys have a Jason our Reserve dollar is about a million and a half so currently in our carryover you have about a million a half dollars from the PRI couple of years yeah you will I'm sure I have a carryover this year you'll use right now we have 400,000 as Revenue into next year's budget if it's more than that that would add to that total you guys would have the ability to go up or down um you know if like we said hey we needed to get the tax rate a little bit more one strategy maybe look at either
039additional Cuts or additional Revenue um in that scenario um with the amount of money that you guys have on hand um my advice is would be to that if you chose to use that use that on an item that you know is a one-time cost so that you can handle something get rid of the expense use the revenue at the same time um and don't create a future budget hole for yourselves um all right on um expenses outside of Staff teachers um uh even supplies you know it's not for three or four years but the schools will be combined with Burns um has there been budgeting Talk Amongst first with you you guys Burns about going to some of these uh Vending ERS that Supply the schools and and try to talk to them about
040you know be ready for this and see if there's savings now that they can adjust to that they would service together the schools or we we haven't started that process yet we're starting to like align our staffs more together we' been focused on that where we're trying to do some more things together because we want staff to get used to each other um but we are starting to streamline just like some curriculum type of things and like just where we're headed just like philosophically to make sure our schools are together but that's certainly a conversation we will be having as we get closer because we're closing in on you know what is it three years from you know this summer will break ground hopefully you know that's you know the the goal yeah there was
041a uh like clean was local there was a piece of equipment in Fairfield for nine grand is that could that be used for both schools I do know what page I can look it up but I'm not quite sure it's a floor machine 25 page page of the big book I don't know what on your page but um I think that um operations and um maintenance would probably be able to answer that a little bit better than me I would hate to say something yeah after this meeting I was going to sort this by not particularly by school but but by that okay and then uh back to Staffing um young is okay with Ed Ed teexs but barefield needs two more based on like population of the schools and that seems to be the
042only difference between the increases I mean yeah we you talking about for going into next year yeah yeah as of right now yeah okay yeah just the needs it's hard to really know can they jump to either school okay yep we've done that quite often actually J has adjusted that Kevin I would love want answer your question about companies uh 100% Meg and I at this point have started that process of one getting approached by them yeah um and we had a conversation uh with the doe um was it last meeting or the meeting before Meg where we talked about okay so how do we bring vendors in and create that um almost like convention like opportunity for us to look at equipment look at Specialized pieces um we have um a system right now
043that we're working on that's going to be piloted in a couple of uh in three rooms at Sako Middle School um a speaker system for voice amplification which would be something that we would probably love to have and we're going to try it there first um you've got your alarm companies they're they're they're coming our way and once you have a positive vote it will be full steam ahead on those pieces okay so um the next group to come up would be April and Marie thank you everyone thank you hello everyone April Noble principal at Burns I think that Jeff and um Wendy kind of paved the way we have we've been working really hard like um they had said around curriculum and um just building our staffs together and so I think um when
044you look at our programming considerations they come across very similarly from all of the elementary schools I think you'll see some of that at the middle school as well um so some of the considerations for us are the same really just continuing that support for both students and staff to have some days um like Wendy explained the teachers in October take a very close look at their inventory and um what I'm finding with staff now is that they're not ordering you know as much as they might have ordered in the past but they're putting out a message on a Monday morning like I'm in need of 25 popsicle sticks and in you know 20 seconds they're taking care of because they're sharing amongst one another so that we're not overstocking our supply closets but we
045have everything we need to kind of make sure all activities are able to take place something we are really focusing our attention on are those research-based intervention tools um um Jeff talked a little bit about that specifically for reading and math um and um really taking a focus on word study and phonics in the area of literacy and that's that's for classroom intervention as well as um pull out supports from our Specialists um just Replacements and updates for classroom libraries um Jeff explained that we don't give teachers a number we don't do that at CK Burns either we say what is it that you want we prioritize um we didn't have to go back and make a lot of cuts with teachers because I think they're accustomed to tell me what you need prioritize it
046and then we do go back and have conversations um after we met with the superintendent there was some adjustments that needed to be made one example is um a few teachers have ordered like whiteboards in my building if you don't know what a whiteboard costs it's pretty astronomical um and we have a membership to Roots reusables I have a pretty good relationship with them there I write to them they save me two whiteboards and I go pick them up in the truck and someone else installs them saves us a couple thousand so those are the kinds of cuts and um programming decisions we can make based on um can we find those materials elsewhere um there were a few as Jeremy Ray explained there were a few schoolwide supplies that were not budgeted for last
047year that got stuck in our budget system um so when you go to our breakdown there are really two line it items that look larger um than they did in the past and so we're looking to make sure we get the right amount of paper so if Mr MIRS has extra paper in his building we'll gladly take it over at CK Burns um but we're we got stuck with some of that so we had to make some internal adjustments this year um and we want to be able to support the paper that we do need which we're really cognizant of um you know not printing out too much um and to continue our sum days um but overall the increases are reflected mostly of salaries benefits and facility upkeeps I'm happy to answer any questions
048I'll wait same yeah great good afternoon Marie Susi principal at the middle school um so as the other principles mentioned uh some of the items for consideration or the continued support for field trips uh through the budget process instead of relying on PTO or students fundraising and asking parents for money that's really been a great addition this year uh continued support for some days um as you will as superintendent Ry had mentioned we did have an we do have an additional 19,200 that will be made cut out of the athletic supplies we had put in for a high jump um mat and then after going through the process That was supposed to be removed and realized it didn't get out um so the increases really only reflect operation salaries and benefits the position reductions we
049are reducing two class positions as you know one in seventh grade and one eth grade this will bring our numbers comparable to the rest of the district with 10 teachers at each grade level and still our numbers are only at class sizes are only at 18 and 19 um and then we are continue to work on the facility it's been really great to have the improvements that we've had the last few years um we'll have continuation of painting throughout the building replacement of floor tiles throughout classrooms so we did a lot of that last few Summers pulling out carpets and replacing with tiles and that's made a huge difference um enhanced security in the entrance area excuse me um we are replacing the portable classroom out Outback with a permanent structure and then renovating what
050we call the H Wing so that was the wing upstairs where they currently have some walls for classrooms but not any ceilings and just going to do some renovations to improve upon the effectiveness of that space and that's it for me I have a a question I know it's too extreme to ask but I think a lot of progress has been made at Sak Middle School in terms terms of the physical plant um I'm just wondering if you have one or two things that you're thinking are the next best the the goals that you want to see happen on the earlier side rather than later I know that's a terrible question to ask you oh gosh but I'm thinking in terms of I'm thinking in terms of what the kids are getting for um Educational
051Services you know all spectrums of the kids is there anything in particular that you find really should be a priority for the next year or two or three so you're saying in terms of curriculum yes not the physical plan no okay um I think some work needs to be done around interventions and I know I I heard the elementary school principls mention uh programs for interventions and I think that's sort of our next step as we see the the span of what we're having for students in our classroom um is widening I think and so providing teachers with some professional development and supplies around differentiation um and interventions I think would be helpful okay thank you um I think we all we all want the the physical plants to be the best that we can
052possibly have them obviously that's why we're thinking about building a new school but I know that at the middle school level it's a really pivotal time in a student's life so that's why I asked you the question I hope I didn't put you on the spot too much not at all a couple one specific question for burns uh April um Subs teachers just straight up $60,000 increase is there issue with Subs going on this year that you're realizing you go to no we have I mean I think Jason um kind of worked on looking at average over time and we we really don't have anything substantial that we're planning for we currently have a couple maternity leaves that are taking place this year but that's pretty typical that we might have one or two per
053year um and I think we've just over budgeted in the past if if I'm wrong Jason correct me but really it was looking at over time I think we had over budgeted for um too much in that substitute line and and looked at um an average so you think you were over but sorry is that correct Jason we had increase this time so this this for this budget districtwide was an increase okay it just seemed to hit Burns a little bit heavier then is that correct does it okay I wouldn't say there's anything substantial though like where teachers have been out long term it's been pretty typical for a you know a medical leave or a maternity leave but nothing abnormal the building healthy I know it's old yeah healthy okay yeah we're doing great
054I think you know we're again trying to be really mindful of our spending knowing that our building may not be ours in the next couple years but I've been really thankful to to um you know be able to earmark some of the facilities we repainted the entryway and we repainted the cafeteria two areas where our kids spend a majority of time or guests come in and I think you know I don't want to spend that kind of money doing the entire building like um at the middle school but just those common areas have really uplifted just the look of the school the face of the school and I think um the overall effect of how it feels when you're in the cafeteria feels a little more calm a little more um relaxing and and subtle
055so um we we added um some speakers that was part of our budget last year but they most recently got installed and so just soft music playing in the background but those things can carry with us those are long-term purchases that you know won't don't necessarily have to stay with the building but we're being very mindful of large building projects and um just trying to do what we need to do to make kids feel welcomed and safe um but yeah I think the building's in pretty good shape considerably um um thinking about the age we had um a guest in yesterday and um remarked on how beautiful the school is so that always feels good at 103-year-old building when someone's talking about how beautiful it is that's a nice bu it's a nice nice building
056and uh if we want a good condition if we end up selling it I have a preference that I'd like a like a health like a medical health office building being in our downtown and that would be has good good bones for that the Park and overall health concept of it but in the meantime we have it hopefully there's nothing goes further wrong in that basement is no flooding this year or no flooding so far today we were keeping a close eye on it with the rain but no we're doing really great and if we do have issues they're very small and um our facilities crew is great about you know coming right in and helping us fix things or or get things patched up appropriately I I do think that the one of the
057bigger challenges so uh and for that building that we you know you'll see that the front door is in here and we may as we look at Capital spending and and where it's at exterior doors in that building are in tough shape um just one from just heating standpoint um but that may be something Uh Kevin that over you know as we look at spending at the end of this year or something or next year doors at at burn school would be probably a top of the priority list yeah I just I think um yeah you always want to up keep your buildings up until of course when it's done but I I feel like Burns should don't don't skim on that on burns because that has you know potential to get more money back
058when the when it goes for sale and it's had other other issues over over time I remember so so always try to you know keep it up and and be ready for the interest that we should get for that for a good bone building okay on um Middle School um we're about to enter into the Thorton Academy negotiations and it's just my preference having kids go through eight years I just finished up TA um two kids through through it four years uh one of my issues is that um that the transition just I just didn't feel like it was that great and a lot of it was on the TA side so it's not a criticism middle school but I'd like a little to see a little bit more alignment when we have this um
059when we start talking the contract and U and making sure that whatever resources they're given I mean it should there should be an I just feel like it's there's not much difference between eth and nth grade besides a new building going in and I know maybe because of student counts there's two teachers that two classrooms that aren't needed because of the fifth the sixth through eth student count is just is just down so aside from that is there regular conversations with um um dorton um Personnel specific to the Middle School outside of what happens at the superintendent level I I know they have their own middle school but you know it's not of course anywhere near as big as as our Middle School it's just has that has there been any increases in that Outreach
060this past year going into this year I I just have been out of the loop for couple years on that so there has been um in the last year or two some some more conversations I know our guidance department is definitely working closer with the TA guidance Department as I understand it has happened in the past I know um par oneoff teachers are having conversation I know um Meg Parkers is also involved with you know particularly they've had conversations around the superint uh sorry the social studies curriculum so they are happening and it would be great to see that happen more as you said to just improve the transition for students because from their side I would like them to be put some resources back to you you know if we're going to fund them
061X then I'd like to see a little bit you know the Aon more or something that there's there's a little bit more interaction uh from their side I think one of the things Kevin that we've started to have conversation on is that one of the things that's a little bit tough and we hope to have some proposals for the school committee is calendar alignment um and a lot of that is there's a big difference between currently the prek through 8 system has the Wednesday one hour every week that does not line up or provide us with much opportunity to have those vertical level conversations uh and so superintendents in the area uh and with Thorton Academy are you know talking about ways of putting proposals together that might allow us some opportunities to maybe if
062it wasn't every week but every other week with a little bit of longer time it would give us at least a structure to start more vertical conversations because quite frankly if our fifth grade teachers want to go over and have a conversation with sixth grade teachers by the time her two hour and 45 minutes is done in Marise is just starting and buses are leaving it leaves like 30 minutes and that's not we need to just think about that a little bit more of how do you even put that structure in place's um how how do how's the later School times working for you guys over these last couple years it's been it's been a while it's been more than probably five years now but I mean I think it works really well for students
063at this age to have the leader time because because at the time I'll give ta credit that they they did align with us on that that was I thought that might have been more problematic but but they did that and I don't know if there's data coming back from that fiveyear difference of I know we had Co in between so that screws it screws everything up but I think Kevin we're we're actually like nine years in on that nine is that nine now yeah it's it's been that long I know it was more than five so um I think if we probably whether no matter what the data said right now I think if we asked our teenagers where they were at uh is a pretty different thing in the in their lives um it's
064just it's it's it's been nine years it's been that long that was just my number one example of ta aligning up like they they came through or I didn't know if they were going to I think I think all the communities who took that charge today together did a really nice job collaborating on something that uh put the best interest in health of our kiddos uh first and it was pretty remarkable uh last question um if we had put the new school on the Sako Middle School campus what was what would be your number one worry on that what number one worry number what would be number one worry of that traffic traffic traffic traffic yes traffic TR okay I just kind of spread that word around in case that bubbles up again okay all
065right so seem to be answering that same question all time Kevin that's actually a pretty good point that's a pretty good reasonable because as we step into the future and we think about other pieces that we have to deal with as a group we've had a lot of support from the Police Department Public Works Rec like trying to to manage a situation that is very tough to manage with that traffic and that probably does need to at some point come back to the front of the table to say is there a different design that would change that situation because quite frankly Marie and the teachers and the staff they're out there managing that every single day and it complicates it with bus driver shortages and things coming in but we haven't solved that piece of
066one way in one way out and a loop that you know just it's hard back we back up out onto the road no matter what um and that's not safe so that's still that's still a problem that you know as we move through things we got to have some solutions for I certainly pity Burns now I drive by that it's just amazing the 10e difference on that one that's been 10 years so let's talk about special education in prek hello everybody I'm J Walker I'm the coordinator for prek um in looking at my memo for prek um the class sizes and ratios we have to adhere to an 8:1 ratio um in prek so we um have budgeted for the correct amount of teachers and edex to make that happen moving into our um increases
067section if you look at the prek detail report you'll see that part of our increase is the total in um rent increase that's out of our control and and supplies we were one of those um schools that got caught up in that ads glitch last year so essentially um we're just putting that supply line back into the prek budget where it was previously um and then for programming considerations um like other schools our teachers inventory their classroom supplies and prioritize their needs um that helps to assist with cost management um we also asked for support for field trips um not in solely on the PTO um it helps to reduce the burden on the external funding sources um schoolwide shared supplies that helps to maintain cost efficiencies as well helps to streamline the ordering process
068and like Jeff alluded to earlier I have a visual of how much paint I have left how much paper is left so that I can work that stuff down and get through the year but not have extra stuff that we're going to have to pack up and move at the end of the school year next year year um and as always we're always updating our classroom libraries as well and that's it for me I'm Jessica Clark here representing special services um so the thing that I started to share I linked the anticipated special education assignments and case management with Specialists to give you an idea of how our services are alloc ated across the school district um to give you an idea of the case management limits that we're looking at um resource teachers can
069manage up to 25 students so those are um are where it says strides and resource inclusion and Blended and then the programs paths and Coast do have a significant limit on the uh program numbers due to the fact that they're specialized treatment programs um so that's our day treatment and our functional Life program but this gives you a good picture of how Services look across the district um if you look at Specialty Services we do support Thorton Academy in all of the Specialty Services um so uh we do at some point speech and language occupational therapy school psychologist um and bcba we are this year required to contract above and beyond what we had on our own staff to uh support the needs that came in um going into next year we've taken a look
070at those uh the numbers and the anticipated needs and we think that with the moves that we're anticipating we'll be able to maintain the Staffing um but we do you know we're always cautious because we do have students that move in and needs that are unanticipated um so that's a general overview of our anticipated case load um some of our increases in our budget drivers um I wanted to show you the out of District costs and go through this just for a little bit um we as a Sako school department have sweetzer residential in our district so when students are assigned to sweetzer they become state agency clients and therefore become sako's responsibility um we're reimbursed for those costs but Sako is responsible uh to provide those um monthly and so I've split up across
071the different grade levels what each um fiduciary responsibility is across the agency and the non-st agency clients um there is a potential uh substantial increase in the 6th to 8th grade and if that does occur that would be something that would be explained to the Schoolboard because it is um above and beyond what we would normally do for an outof District placement I did want to indicate that because that's something uh more than we would do for any placement um 9 to 12 so again um we as the Sako school department are responsible for special ed pre-k through 22 so um we do manage all of the IEPs at Thorton Academy and all of the IEPs that are state agency clients as well as all of the out of district and out of state um
072clients so we do have a list of those as well um and then I just shared what some on the last line uh the total out of District costs for us are 1, 49726 we estimate um reimbursement from state agency clients students and uh reimbursable service of $845,000 so our out of District total costs are $6 $5 1,499 most of that fortunately we've been able to uh assign to our local entitlement um that we get every year and so most of that does um go towards that and we're trying to not put that on the local budget um see salaries and benefits again is the biggest driver um we do have two things that were uh a little bit more uh and that's what was indicated in the special ed detail and that's esy costs
073um again just looking at our expected needs what we did last year um last year the services that we provided um were shorter than we're used to so we're trying to see if this year we can provide more of a a more esy program for the kids that need something more than just a 4-week program um so as we work through that and estimated the cost that's about what we're looking at for an increase um and then we do have a contracted psychologist that Does the clinical um clinical and uh psychology supervision for all of our day treatment and functional life programming so we do need uh that level of clinical supervisor and so we contract with somebody separately for that and that's the $10,000 increase um some programming considerations I mentioned a little bit
074about the substantial increase in out of District cost those out of District costs aren't managed or not um given by The Entity or the school it's done by the State there's a rate that they assign and then we're uh given a letter every year when those rates are increased and we just have to adjust our um our budget based on what they say the cost is so as they're starting to look for more staff and not able to provide the services those increases are going to be passed on to us um something else we want to be cautious of moving forward is out of District placements that typically provided related services such as OT speech and Psychological Services are now requiring Sako school department to go and do that for them because they can't provide
075it and we're the sending District so thinking about how the services are allocated all of our Specialists are responsible for absorbing all of these extra um evaluations and assessments so we do want to be mindful of that as well um we do want to continue to expand our curriculum our curricular offers for students with intensive needs we've uh been really successful successful in implementing an Orton Gillingham program uh that called snde that teachers been very invested in it and um we do have a reading specialist That's investing in more programming and trying to research more ways that we can provide interventions for our more intensive reading special uh special needs um the budget process uh all the principles talked about how we go through it um this year we're doing a lot of Supply alignment
076a lot of curriculum alignment and then we do have a lot of online online software and um lure so we've been able to tag a a lot of groups together and save money um by doing longer term subscriptions and having certain passwords and C or certain people um housing the passwords and then being able to allocate accordingly um we also uh have had teachers not budget anything so you know some teachers do just say oh I don't need anything and we do actually look at those and go back and say you know we suggest these are the basics that you provide so when you're saying um you know making sure that there's a syst system Beth we do we want to make sure that everyone at least has something that they've turned in and even
077if it's pens and pencils just to reserve some kind of Fund in case something needs to be changed um position and reductions or addition the only thing that we're looking at is again with us trying to um look at the next couple years and how we can better streamline what we're doing and who can absorb UH responsibilities we did contract with somebody for our state agency Client Services they were reimbursable um but but we don't need to do that anymore and our administrative team has figured out how to be able to do that and so we can be reimbursed for those services and not being paid an extra contractor so that's a savings of about $60,000 that's what I have thank you is that is that the reduction in of contracted IEP okay thanks actually
078quick question for Jeremy too I know you had mentioned um the state their state legis legislature uh up for possibly getting having us cover prek has there been any more information on that or so I believe they had a hearing yesterday they have a or a work session and they have a hearing next week um I I think for us next year um I think that we would not be a pilot site and for one of the one of the major reasons is that we don't necessarily know what's going to happen with the building that our prek is in and we need to probably solve that solution first doesn't mean that we still wouldn't have the CDs teacher involved or edex or receive some of those support um or probably taking that all on full
079force is a little tough for us just because of space limitation we don't have another class we don't have another room in that building that we can use that hamstrings us a little bit I do think that's going to move forward uh and I think that you know probably sako's response would be in a two to threee mode of taking that on um and a lot of it's just cuz we building in spacewise we're in such flux um that will be a challenge for us or we'll need to find or we'll have to approach it with a very fractured type system one of the other pieces I would want to just you know make sure that we understand uh in the back of our our minds on the special ed uh side of things is
080that we are seeing many more kids coming with IEPs into our system um year-over-year and kids who are not getting enough service prior to which complicates the challenges that we have once they enter school um and so that percentage of kiddos who are coming in with IEPs or special services is closer to 25% um when that number probably used to be 15% uh or greater and so that's something as we think about whether it's CDs services and making sure that we have uh you know kids that actually receive them once they qualify in place or that we have space or that we have staff um those are important issues for us U to deal with as we move into the future and try to sort out that whole um switch in organizations because it it
081will happen I am proud to share though that we serve uh right now in the prek all of the related Services except for speech right now come from Sako and we just started doing the social work this year and I think that's been really helpful for that transition for families too so we do I mean even though we're not a pilot program next year I think we do a lot of the same things just to keep that communication and just the transition a little bit more comfortable all um Jessica if um you mentioned about sweetzer and reimbursements I know it's hugely complex but in the budget process everything what do you feel like are some obstacles of trying to match up those you know getting reimbursed um because you you're going to be netting some
082of this to the you know it's not your own expense but I mean is there is there time gaps are you thinking you're catching everything to to get is is there maybe holdups from the state or what do you what do you see any any issues with that that would either streamline or actually maybe reduce some of the costs that that we incur I think it'll I mean honestly I think it's not a system we can rely on and everything is very delayed I mean we we'll be in reimburse but I believe it's a year out before we actually see that money or you know there's there's a time period so it's hard for us to estimate and then be sure we're going to recoup exactly what we want so I think it's it depends
083on who you get and who's processing what it is and I mean how is that about a year Jeremy yeah I mean it seems to me like state agency client money is typically a little bit more reliable um than when you talk about main care or CDs payments um that piece just my history is has told me that's a more reliable piece what can be challenging is that sometimes the kiddo moves in and you know you have to make sure that the state knows that they're a state agency client and I think that's a unique challenge that Sako faces with sweets are here in town um that other districts um you know we used to have the same thing in Westbrook when I was there with Spring Harbor Hospital of how you you know become
084the educational agency and so you have a lot of you have additional meetings and you have a lot of kids that you're managing that that are inning out for shorter periods of time um and I think that's one of the you know if you look at um the Sako special education office the additional you know secretarial support that we have here have here is is just to manage kind of that situation uh because if if you're not watching it Kevin it could have a a huge impact and so you know that's a challenge that some you know when you think at $850,000 almost of making sure you're keeping track of that that's a pretty important piece um I think when we look at our other revenues that come in on the special ed side uh
085the main care one we need to continue to refine our ability to collect that piece and some some of it is not a local issue as much as like the state will change their rate and things get held up for a while um and whether that happens in Sak or happens in bford I'll go like four months and like nothing and then we call in it's like hey where is it and then you'll get like an influx in like over three weeks and again sometimes I think it's like who's processing your claim um on those pieces is a hard part um I do think that you know we we're relying on about $400,000 in main care dollars last year I think we get to like the 350 level there are some challenges on again if
086you don't have um a filled position because you haven't been able to hire you're not allowed able to build so um while your Revenue may be short your expense side is not getting hit because you don't have somebody in that position to do that and you know obviously having a full staff as we go through contract negotiations and look at salaries and whatnot that impacts the revenue that you get and the expense that you put out yeah certainly not trying to say make money on the other side saving money is make but is that balance of getting that position in there could get you just a little bit more correct on the um the kids on the the Asylum kids that are in uh is that reimbursement broken up between special services and the schools
087that they're going to or So Silent sing kids would uh all fall under um is regular instruction that would fall under each school budget okay um the reimbursement that we would get from the states on page two on the 279 which is the additional weight um I think we feel Meg that there's probably at least a couple more years is that um at least I I'm not even sure there's plans outside of that to not do anything different um I think that the you know the challenging piece uh with that is not so much um having additional students or or those pieces is there is a lot of movement um we can have kiddos who um you know there was a point in time this year Meg where we went like it was like 20
088kids left and 20 new came in that becomes the the more of the I would say the strain on us is that as people find housing that's more permanent in nature and they move that we've get a different population of kids that we don't know yet um and that happens on a fairly consistent basis quick accounting question for you maybe for Jason too but that whole timing issue of getting reimbursed um is that like is that like put in a receivable and that's follow followed up or is it booked when it's only comes in so it be booked when it's come when it comes in and we actually get it um and again one of the pieces that's a little bit different like a an account like so main care would not be in your
089general fund that would be a revenue in our state agency clients um for some revenue does come in but it's just a transition off into those paid facilities that we have so it's it's a revolving situation um that you'd have because again that number could increase you know for student students could drive that another quarter of a million dollars or you have a situation where four students don't come in and it goes down and you know some of the challenges that you know szer has the same challenges with staff as well uh and at one point I know that some of the facilities were looking at decreasing the number of beds that they have in impatient pieces so that's inlux a lot another question you had Thorton Academy on here how does that that piece
090confuses me to be honest so we're responsible for special education through high school is that are those is that money just sort of how does that work as far as the budget goes and aect you know ultimately affect us in the lower you know lower so we pay um to regular tuition uh to thoron Academy which Chason 14 million is is and then we have special education tuition that's around $2.2 million that gets paid to Thorton Academy and then we have the outof district cost that would be what you saw on that sheet so so really when you look at regular Ed and special ed instruction it's it's those three numbers added together um Jess and her office are responsible for IEP meetings programming um responsible for any disputes um that could come lawyers fees
091those things from any students in the special services prek through 12 uh realm and that's even changing now where we're we have to program for up to 20 up to 22 um and those costs our school department costs oversight by gu and her team with instruction with Thorton Academy teachers we do provide those services on top of that tuition though correct the special ed tuition so the services that are moving up our staff is in addition to both tuitions correct like we wouldn't have even though that like Jess is responsible for special education it's kind of in our budget and parts of her time are spent uh with that age group of population who who has to actually like submit for say if it's a main care type thing who's submitting these claims or whatever
092if you will and then how does that whole piece work so that would be submitted through Jess's office um I think that one of the discussions Jess and I have been having is whether we would use a little bit more mainstate billing take that out of the hands here hand that over to um a company that are the experts that probably have a way better connection and when I say connection I mean they know how to pick up they have the ability to pick up and talk to somebody in the in the main Care office when they're billing problems whereas we probably they be like yeah we don't know that we're not so we're examining that piece uh and I do think that we will probably head down the road in the future with a
093recommendation to do a little bit more through a company you you lose a little bit of of the revenue but at the same time I think you protect yourself from audit situations you protect yourself um I don't want to say protect yourself you probably they enhance probably the billing of what you can bill for they know the ins and the outs um um and I think that may be a service that we want to use more in the future yeah I mean I just envisioned that being quite burdensome so yeah yeah this good idea yeah we do have sorry guys which again you know in this budget we're asking Jess and her team not to have a contracted service for IEPs that was saying hey look in order to save money we're going to do
094that here but that that may be an area where there's some relief uh on her team um from doing the billing I I think this is a connected I think this is a connected question um just when you were talking you mentioned the contracted Psy contracted psychologist and that was going to be an increase of about $110,000 I'm don't remember well but I know in the past we have both had contracted psychologists and then in houses well well so do we have in-house psychologists at this time we do have one full-time uh psychologist scheduled are signed at the middle school and we go we had two full-time through the southern main administrative collaborative um one had to leave for uh emergency reasons and so we're Contracting to make that that other spot um but next
095year we will post for that opening and if we can't fill it we would anticipate to continue to contract okay um and and I'm sorry but I I'm sure I didn't catch it exactly so the reason for this contracted psychologist this coming budget season is because I'm sorry I didn't catch your re for our day treatment all of the main care abailable services require an extensive evaluation done by a clinical psychologist so we contract with this specific individual because she has the credentials to do those types of evaluations that make us eligible to receive reimbursement okay I think it's coming together thank you sure in my mind I mean so is that that is there an extra credential you're getting that is the cost difference well no it's her time it's the it's her services
096for those evaluations above and beyond the others yep yep and if we weren't able to bill then we wouldn't have that contracted provider a couple quick ones on prek um uh it's not being televised is it just give the landlord the best for me okay you like that one I had to I had to so I'm back anyway um but you guys are doing a great job don't it just um supplies um this whole kind of conversation about overall supplies uh prek you're having a reduction alone of says $11,000 what what's going on there a reduction of 11,000 was on here and then I was under the impression that it was showing as an increase it's it's an increase it's it's just highlighted red no on this p on the I can't go all through
097well after this Jason knows I'm going to ask for the supplies Al together but I swear there was a reduction for you guys like spefic not that I'm aware of I I read it as an increase of 11,000 I'll burn it up if I FP here okay down oh on that yeah I saw that on that page but it was on in this binder it was a different I think it was flat 11 in this binder it said supplies and I'm like why is 3K getting hit more with the reduction than maybe as a percent but I don't know I'll look I'll I'll getc were hung up last year so we're putting it back into the budget this year was it I think I'm good okay thank you so I think the The Next Step
098steps for us is to you know first I guess the piece would be is that we had come up with $178,000 in items that were either duplicates or payroll tax and our my assumption would be that you would guys would want us to reduce those from the budget um that are just kind of mistakes which kind of puts us at a 4.16% um we would kind of have have get an idea by the end of the month on health insurance um and there're you know as we just yesterday we just yesterday got our um kind of special Leed um kind of estimates from Thorton Academy for next year so we've got to kind of look through those pieces you know a little bit but I guess just looking from you guys of um as we
099move towards next meeting uh school committee meeting what your comfort level is are the areas that you want us to look at examine um more or less or you know overall Comfort level of where you see us sitting today just because I'm sitting in this chair I mean I don't I know you got the city Side I don't I don't have like a magic tax percent of course the lower the better um talked about this already before about you know the cash carryover and doing Special you know things that come up you would do a special request I guess on that um I would really like to make sure that the budget is has enough supplies for everyone and and um I don't I don't want to see necessarily any positions cut and if it's
100a position then you know can it be reallocated somewhere else within the schools um um so I don't I again just the only ideas to reduce would be you know about the length of service look if that there anything there um and then the contingency um probably going to look back five years on that um now we're in the in the black in terms of money coming in you know I'm not the type to go zero out contingency and and have and have a savings but nor than the type to celebrate if uh the student count for ta is lower too want to get away from that as well um but uh but yeah maybe if there was 100,000 say in contingency you know is that that gets under 4% tax increase or and and
101we don't have any additional money in contingency the only thing that's sitting in contingency is that would be a placeholder for uh negotiated increases so i' we've got a big zero in that one um and I don't think that we necessarily need to plan for contingency only because we do have a positive cash Reserve so if something came up that required us to come forward to the council or whatever we have a positive cash Reserve that we could draw from I mean there's a reduction in contingency already of 225 but what's to say that's not 325 plus if you're over budget you're okay in that 10% range again I'm G just from my point of view I know that we don't want to you know eliminate positions but I think that you know we do
102have some concerns about budget votes and where we are and you know I think some of them are very backed up by just their unfilled we look at ratios when we need something we need to be able to go to the city council and say we need this because of this um I actually I'm feeling pretty decent about the overall piece of where this is coming together at this point in time um you know if we want to talk about supplies and making sure that we have enough our supplies I think we could have an account that principles could draw on if we really wanted to get serious about supplies we'd figure out how we never send out any lists at the beginning of the school year for parents to fill that would be my
103perfect thing is to say don't send those out if you have back to school supplies you order them um when kids need things we order them um Mar and I have had conversations about that over time that we have um we have to remember that our community is becoming more diverse and that one and four of our children live in poverty and that when we set those things out there to the public to pay for this or to pay for that to parents that many kids experience uh a very different response from home and so if we wanted to do anything on supplies I would ask you guys to consider what it would cost to say let's be done with asking for Kleenex asking for paper towels asking for three rulers a pack of crayons
104and two notebooks because I bet that if we took all of our schools and looked at that number my guess is that's under $15,000 probably total and every parent on a nice night at the last week of August is not running to Walmart or Target um you know I I would like us to continue to support things that don't Place burdens on families in any particular way and create a situation that that's um that student X has a $10 notebook and student y has a $2 notebook to start the school year or back in my days growing up you knew the kids and families that were doing okay because they had the 64 box of crayons and the others had the eight box of crayons why have that why have that in in in our
105schools there's there's no need for it this might be off the budget well it's an off budget but um uh but in terms of supplies getting money in and we talking about traffic before and you know it's just amazing how how many kids are now driven to school I know I know covid happened I know working parents and and all that but but the volume is just incredible yet we got to pay we're paying for bus drivers and the buses to provide that service maybe there's a way that if you're driving your kid to school and using our roads and clogging in the traffic could there be some sort of voluntary contribution to make to the schools and it will go to supplies it will go to these supplies and and and talk and have
106this talk with parents have a have a real talk about uh you know that Pro you know maybe the pral bucket is out there you're dropping off a kid put put a buck in for their supplies but it's just incredible I I'm disappointed in my own fellow I know teachers themselves ourselves do the drop offs but it is just 10 year from 10 years ago the burn situation of course the middle school is is ter is that traffic going I don't know if the exits really help that much there but all all I can say is that uh yesterday morning I was one of those parents that took my kid to middle school because I had oh I've caught you I know I had ski gear that I needed to get and it was my
107son's birth that's fine that's and the one thing that they wanted to do was to stop at Hillview market um and I thought to I thought to myself okay yeah not a big deal went to Hillview market did the birthday meal for breakfast and then I realized I had to turn out of Hillview market good one and I was like what was I thinking the night before because it was kind of scary and it wasn't like anyone's doing anything B it's just there's so much traffic on that road um or going to burn school or I think one of the things that you know when we talked about emergencies and we talked about all the things that we would do different and traffic at burn school and and the response from families on a day
108like that of how we are so responsible as schools for the traffic situation that occurs right here before and after school every day um and certainly could be something that would be interesting to explore the why on some of that um and you know I think in some of those wise situations is that parents who are both working um having the opportunity to have your kid in the car for 20 minutes and have a conversation with them where you're maybe not on their phone uh and you're talking to them is actually in some pieces Kevin a pretty valuable part of the day because you don't get many of those opportunities anymore um and I do think that's a cultural shift as well that's occurred yeah but it's just the volume of it and if it's
109every day we're providing these bus services I think I think if we explain it in some way is like hey look we spending money for half empty bus that these parents are using so then you know we have shortage of this Supply we do something volunteering wise that feels like they're contributing for what they're not using to say the buses we talk that piece over with the principles and see what we can do but I think there are several things that we can consider we do have another meeting at uh they need this room at 5:15 and so um we'll come back with something and if there's any pieces that you want to talk to me about please reach out and we'll talk at school committee next week just one thing Mr superintendent um I
110feel like you are our guideline as to how you would like to see monies distributed or redistributed so I am I'm very anxious to see what you have to say the next meeting round thank you thank you I get to slam this we need journ