RSU 48 - Great Salt Bay Budget Workshop 3-25-2026

001So, there's not a huge change budget wise in special ed for next year. Um, we do have two new positions that we're hiring for, and that's really one of the main reasons I wanted to talk to you today. um our speech language um pathologist at Rights Hall Bay um is working with more than 50 students which is the legal compliance amount of students you can work with. So um we added prek to our school in the last couple of years and so speech is a common special ed service for our prek kids. We have a few kids with speech services. Um, in addition to that, we've been contracting with a speech language pathologist um for the secondary level for for a number of years now and we pay them an hourly rate for their services

002over at Lincoln Academy to deliver speech services. They deliver that mainly virtually to those students at Lincoln Academy. Occasionally that person um travels and meets them in person a few times a year. Um and then on top of that we have three-year-old students that we're responsible for now that don't come into our building and so they get speech services through or we contract through child development services right now for their services. So everything prekwise is being reimbursed through the main DOE grant. So any preK cost we get reimbursed for the for the costs. But given all of that, those factors, looking at how much we're spending on secondary programming with the hourly rate, looking at Amy Steel's current case load, it totally makes sense to hire another full-time speech language pathologist. And between Amy and

003that new person, we could cover our entire population, age three all the way up to grade 12. Um, so it would involve a little travel. That person, you know, one person would be traveling up to Lim Academy to the Boulevard services and one person would be traveling to some of the local prek programs in our catchment area to deliver services to our three-year-olds. Um, and so a lot of that salary um is going to be covered through our local entitlement grants. We've been using a lot of those um funds towards the secondary program over the years and so we're just reallocating it towards a speech language pathologist. Um >> before you continue, I'm sorry, I forgot. I just got reminded there are up here pens and highlighters. There are magnifying sheets that because I know

004this is a small line. You can hold it above it. It will magnify it. And there are reading guides as well which we use for students that have um site problems or dyslexia or other type things that will, you know, highlight the line you're looking at. There are different three different options there. There's also copies of the budget up here if either of you would like a copy of the budget to follow along. So, please um you know, highlighters and pens, magnifiers, and reading guides to help you. So what I see most in this spreadsheet is that in 2526 we have 88,200 for speech language pathologists um and we're proposing >> oh sorry this is line um page four be on page four and then pathologist is line 30 140 it starts at the very

005bottom sorry I will try to use line numbers in members. >> Yeah, thank you. It would be I have notes here and it would be really hard for me to look at the spreadsheet too at the same time. Um and the proposed budget to add that additional speech language pathologist we're looking at 127,610. Um and again we'll be supplementing that with local entitlement as well. >> And it looks like that increase that we see is offset almost completely by the reduction in the secondary contracting costs. >> Thanks. >> Is the uh is the goal with having sorry would the ideal situation be this position can provide more in-person service to the Lincoln Academy students than virtual services? >> Yes% >> also by the person being an employee they are subject to our policies and our

006regulations as well. So, it's always better to have an employee than a contracted service in terms of working with children. And >> yes, >> thank you for letting me address. >> Will this mean two full-time speech therapists in the district? >> Yes. >> Questions about speech. >> The other um position we're proposing for next year is to have a full-time BCBA. And so currently we have I am I allowed to talk about our current Okay. So we have Easter Connelly who's um serving as a special education teacher. This is her final year serving as a special education teacher under a conditional certification. She's become a BCBA over the last few years. She's very valuable. She's brought a lot of great um positive behavior support plans to our district. um and she would continue as our

007full-time BCBA. Um over these last few years when she's served as a special education teacher, we've been contracting with the BCBA and spending we pay about $150 dollars an hour for our current contracted BCBA at Great Salt Bay. and she's doing upwards of over 30 hours or more a week um providing a lot of valuable um information to our life skills program mainly and also our behavior program. Um the BCBA full-time position would encompass K prek through 12th grade as well. We we hire a different BCBA and contracted currently to to follow our students at Lincoln Academy, but this full-time position would cover preK through 12th grade. Um, and also it would encompass regular ed interventions as well as special ed interventions. And if I can just clarify, um, you'll see on line 138 it

008says BCDA contracted services and that had zero dollars this year, but that just means that we hadn't planned for the amount of money we were spending. Our actuals are higher and the added salary for our own BCBA is actually under the school psych salary amount because it's the same coding for the state. >> They put BCBA services under psychology services as well. So you almost it doesn't go up that much because again Kelly's gonna talk about funding sources in a second. >> Sorry Lindsay to interrupt but do we have the numbers for what that uh contract and services were last year just to compare >> or or like what >> or what was coming this year? What? Yeah. >> Y that up right now 30 hours a week. It's 3,700. >> It's 30 a month,

009isn't it? Is it a month? >> It's about a month. Yeah. And while you're getting those numbers, the intention would be to go back to Easter's current position >> because we still there there is a difference. Well, Lindsay's looking that up. There is a difference between what a special education teacher can do and what um a BCBA can do. If you look at the main regulations for special ed user they call it um a special ed teacher can supervise educational technicians and we have a lot of educational technicians in our behavior program and also in our life skills program and so a BCBA doesn't have that I mean she can give them suggestions and guide them on how to properly work with a student But technically according to the user, she can't supervise, she or

010he cannot supervise um educational technicians. There's also the delivery of specially designed instruction. And so a lot of these students in addition to getting consultation on these cognitive behavior plans require special instruction, explicit instruction that's pro to be provided by special. And so we really still need that special education teacher for the school. We have quite a number of students on that case load. >> We've spent about 44,000 so far this year. >> Okay. Thank you. About 16,000 more than what we're seeing in the budgetary increase. >> Yeah. >> Can we ask a quick question about the BCABA position? Does that position also sort of do consulting with other like regular teachers? >> Yeah. Okay. >> Oh yes. I mentioned that. Um I didn't say a whole lot but yes um it it does a

011lot of times it it totally can help prevent a referral to special education, right? >> Because as soon as a teacher is struggling with some kind of behavior, they can they'll have access to this PCBA for support. Thank you. That's really the two major um kind of additions to special education next year. Um any other questions about special ed in the proposed budget because we're increasing those things and they're not 100% increase. Most of the things that are decreased from last year are things that were like a one time out of pulling out the district sort of. >> Okay. >> We're not missing anything that we really need. >> No. And we had um we we purchased new updated psych testing materials this year which are not cheap. And if I'm recalling, I think our

012budgeted salary increases are equate to more than a 4%. So we're actually the budget is trained beyond. >> Yes. And I would say Kelly has given great attention this year to appropriate staffing levels of edex in our programs, in our resource rooms, and making sure that the needs are met around there. So this does reflect what we believe we'll need. for for many many years we've been using um local entitlement funds um for contracted services um the BCDA is one of them that for many many years now whenever we didn't have a BCBA in our building I was just pulling those funds under the psychological line um so it it's just probably something you've not really seen on paper um and I'm just proposing We have a full-time school psychologist now. Um, part of her

013salary is also being pulled from the local entitlement grants and we don't have the need to contract with another psychologist prek through 12th grade. Um, unless there's an unusual circumstance. Um but with all the funding we have in local entitlement makes sense to focus that funding on the three position psychologist ECBA and speech language pathologist and have folks that are part of our >> you know team rather than contracted. I think too, and I know I've said it already, but I just say I think our continued focus on making sure we're still taking care of our kids at as their bigger kids at Lincoln Academy. Like I personally have experienced that that has been a fantastic thing and it is such good continuity for the kids to, you know, you're not it's like you're not

014starting all over now when you go to Lincoln Academy. And I just, you know, as a nurse and someone who has used speech therapy, it's not really a good modality for tellahalth. Like some things are really good for tellahalth. It's not one I would say it's great for tellahalth, right? >> Um, so I think it'll be really great to have an inperson person doing >> and provided we can find that person. I think, you know, we'd have to do virtual if we can't find that person, but I'm confident we can. So >> will will that part will the other sending towns to Lincoln Academy continue the contract services or whatever they do like there won't be necessarily this position have the >> time or resources to not have the time or resources to support them

015and they so currently this year they're contracting with the same only because I set it all up at the end of last year but they're contracting with the same provider. We are but they're build and we're build separately. We're not together. The only provider we we contract out is our physical therapist right now and that will I think continue next year. >> Another question I had uh the cash and loo contract >> that's uh yes. So the there was a negotiated increase in the cash and new amount per person for support staff next year. So if they choose that and still significantly less than them choosing a health insurance plan. >> Yeah. >> But yes, that's >> and that's a not a necess that is a kind of a placeholder. It depends on who actually

016>> it's based off who we know has it right now this year. Um and we'll continue next year, but it could change a little bit. If somebody leaves and a new person comes, it might change. >> I will adjust as well. My first adjustment of the day, I would change the the line for school site to say school sitebca so that that's clearer to the community as well. >> Wonderful. Um, are there any other questions for Kelly? >> All right, seeing that, thank you, Kelly. >> Thank you. All right. Now, without further ado, we'll go back to the beginning and Wendy can give her free overview. Okay. On the very first cover page here, I've given you the articles, the launch articles that we're required to have by law with the actuals spent in um

017it says budget for FY2425, but I believe those are actuals. probably adjust that before a public meeting as well. Um our FY2526 budget and the proposed. So you can see the differences. Um an important highlight is that on line 7 system administration we continue to go down in our district office costs. That is last year we went down but we still had one-time transition costs a lot of which was software to remove from the AOS93 joint session and set up our own. So those one-time costs that did actually drop off even though you had a slight um you know salary raise for the people in that line the article is still down 7.7%. So we continue to do well I believe in our our structure of system administration. Um I was asked by the finance

018committee or suggested by the finance committee to create a chart of our system administration structure so that everybody can see that I did I send it to all of you. >> Okay. Thank you. Thank you. Yes. So that will be included in the materials going to the public as well so that they can see that and corresponding to the system administration line. It shows how you combined positions in order to make them more attractive to employees and better for you in terms of one set of benefits and less part-time people, more full-time people. Um, the other piece to point out here is the transportation and buses. It looks like it's going up 28 29%. It is not. It is, but it isn't. So, the bus purchase program from the state works in a very convoluted

019way. You apply in November, they tell you that you're approved. you buy the bus in that same year, which for us was last year, right? Or sorry, um it was we approved it last year, but we didn't get the bus until September of this year. So, we receive the funding in next year. >> So, you always receive the funding the year after that you get it because they can't plan ahead, you know, they can't do it in the middle of the year that you're in. So we receive an extra 115,000 um >> 750 >> H >> 1157 >> yes 115750 thank you which is shown on line 21 >> we receive that with our state subsidy but we also show it as an expense out to backfill that we front we paid for the bus

020up front. So, we paid for the bus out of our bus reserve and then we moved that money that we received with subsidy back into our reserve so that the state essentially covered the cost of the bus. It just takes a year longer to do it. >> So, it shows that our expenses and our revenue are higher both categories by $115,000 for the pass through. And you have to do that legally so that the state can verify that you used it appropriately in the way that it was intended. So you can't use a 9,000 account and do it as a pass through. They require that it is shown in this regular budget. So if we remove that from our expenses and our revenue or then you'll see that the increase is only 811,000 um for

021the whole budget 6.16%. That's in gray underneath >> and thatual >> that when you look at the budget difference the transportation article is up 178,000. So when you take 115,000 out of that, >> it drops it way down to a much more reasonable increase that's in line with everyone else. And the increase there is not only salary, but we're accounting for fuel and maintenance repairs going up as we need to every year. >> Yeah. So those are really key pieces that I'm going to make sure the public is hearing at our budget meeting um and in the materials we send out. The rest of them I think you'll you'll see as we go through the increase that we have of that 926. The second box on the front page shows how much of that increase

022is due to negotiated staff salaries and benefits. So that means we are locked into the increases and the health insurance as you know is not set by us. It's set by the state. We've planned for a significant increase there because we got hit with the dramatic one this year. Um not sure what's going to happen with that. So that 435 is due to our salaries and benefits. The only option you have to reduce that is to cut staff positions. And last year we did cut a position and this year we've already looked at what is necessary and what isn't. Um so we can discuss that if we needed to, but that's the only thing to reduce that line. >> The line 20, secondary tuition, IVF, and transportation. Again, the state sets the tuition rates. We

023don't know what they are until January of the year that you're in. So you pay last year's rate through December and then in January when they issue the new rate we get an adjustment what we owe extra and then we pay the the new rate for the rest of the year. We tend to budget a 6% increase for that. I did budget the 6% increase but IVF is now 10% of the total. It used to be that we had it was 6% and we budgeted a 6% increase but as you know we were surprised last year with a 10% um increase to IVF with and 6% to tuition. So this plans for the full 6% tuition increase but IVF remaining 10% of the tuition. Um and again Sam and I have done extensive work Sam

024addicts on um tracking students this year. We discovered many that we necessarily weren't aware of in the past. Um they either were homeschooled or at a um particularly like Coastal Christian or some of those other private schools in the area that then go to high school. And when we don't know about them ahead of time, it makes it hard to plan for paying their high school cost. >> So we have been in touch with all the schools that we can to find out about students in the seventh and eighth grade so we're aware of them. And every bill that comes in from a high school this year, Sam and I have tracked every student on it and made a spreadsheet so we know where they are, whether it's private or public, if they're, you know,

025homeschooled or not. So we have an extensive list to monitor our students and next year's tuition is built on those students. We know contingency on the separate one. So of that 926,792 are costs that we must have in there which leaves very little wiggle room for pieces. And then of course the town impact which everybody wants to know is at the bottom there. As you potentially make changes to this budget, that will change at the um at the bottom, but that is each town's impact and the overall percent given the numbers that are in the sheet directly in front of you. >> And I will do the full slideshow again of the budget meeting. >> Okay. But Mark is coming at 10. So we have 20 minutes. But I think that's okay to just start

026at article one and move through. >> Okay. So page two budget meeting. >> So we have I might as well just state the whole the whole thing right now. So today is the workshop where we'll go through and you can't take action but I will take any recommendations that you have and put into a final budget to bring to you at April 8th. 6th 8th. Thank you. April 8th, which is your next regular board meeting. I will um give a quick overview of the budget. If you so wanted me to, I could do the full slideshow then, too. It usually is what, like 10 minutes or so. Um so that it is recorded and and available for people to see in advance. I'm happy to do that. Um and then you will vote to approve

027it and send it forward. At that point I start issuing documents to the town offices to post offices that have the numbers and we have to post that a certain number of days in advance. So the the district budget vote which is where residents of all three towns come hear the presentation and vote article by article to approve or not but hopefully um our budget will be May 13th. >> Correct. >> That is a Wednesday >> the second Wednesday of May. May 13th. And what we usually do is our regular meeting at like 5:30 we a little earlier and then 6:30 have the district budget vote. So they roll right into each other. It will be in the gym at Great Zel Bay. We'll have the people there to check in registered voters from each

028residents of each town and we'll do the slideshow give the information have moderator and go article by article to hopefully approve it. Following that if it is approved it's not approved we have a whole another ball game. If it's approved, then the budget validation referendum happens, which is the at the polls for Newcastle and Damrescotta and at the town meeting for Breamman, you have an article on the ballot that says, "Do you support the budget that was approved at the district meeting?" And people have the last chance to say yay or nay in June. June 9th. June 9th. Yes, I believe. Yeah, Andy's nodding. So that's the the final go. >> That's the problem. >> Thank you. Like one of those people. >> No, that's trust me. I start planning that schedule out based on

029legal. You have to post things for some things seven days in advance. Some days are no more than 45 days and more than 30. So I'd start planning out that schedule from the vote day long in advance. >> Is Breman moving up their town meeting this year? I've heard something about >> they are their Breamman town meeting. I can tell you it's confirmed for the Saturday in either the first or second Saturday in May. I have it here on my calendar. >> My video meeting. >> She checked with the select board. >> June 13th, but that might >> that could be it's either the 13th or the Saturday before because it's directly around that June 9th that the other two towns are doing to give me the best legal time frame. Mhm. >> I was

030at the select board meeting last Thursday and they said it's June 13th >> 2 p.m. the 13th June June 9th and June 13th 13th forman 9th for Newcastle. >> That's nice that >> it helps a lot. >> June May 13th I believe is the Lincoln Academy for Sunday concert. So I will not be there. >> Yeah, I I hear they changed it. Yeah, >> I think that's >> what are you gonna do, >> right? I mean, I I can't say nobody else can have any event. >> I'm probably going to go to my daughter's conf. But >> it's okay. >> It's very hard to plan around all the spring things because there's only so many days and there's spring things. >> All right. >> Okay. >> Start from the beginning >> article one. Um, I

031know that people tend to look at numbers with big ups and downs or numbers that we had nothing before and we do now. I will just highlight that line four ADA accessibility supplies. I receive a question a lot about why that isn't in special ed. Just as a reminder, 504 or medical disability is not special education. Those are different federal laws and we do we are seeing students who have particular needs. We need to buy them um different supports. So, I have a line in there coded for both elementary and high school because those students um we are to make sure they have what they need. >> Um grant funded staff contingency. As you know, we did this last year as well. I put $50,000 in there in case we lose our ESA title one

032federal funding. Um right now, I believe that we're going to be okay to be funded at the same level we are this year, but as you know, the government can be volatile. So, um, just as an carefulness that's in there, that is an area you could look at if you need to consider reducing a little bit, but um, it's a safety net. Our K8 teacher salaries and health insurance, uh, passion, benefits, and retirement are all, excuse me, are all coded in the next section together. Again, that's increases that we have. Um, excuse me. Keep in mind that um, last year's budget is what we think, but as people come and go, do numbers do change. Sometimes somebody's retiring, you don't know what you're going to hire someone new at. So, these are based on actuals

033of people that we know are returning next year. Um, where we had a retirement, you budget middle of the road to refill that position. So, um, the numbers, you know, it looks like there's a 15% increase. The teachers aren't all getting a 15% increase. Please don't meet it that way. It's based on our actual numbers um to our projected numbers for next year. >> Substitute teacher salary. I did look at what we're actually spending. The $111,000 year is an anomaly. Um that is not a typical amount for us. And I do think that everybody who substituted that year was coded into that line instead of into a special ed line or a custodian line or other tight salary lines. Um so that that is 75,000 I think is an appropriate number for us to be

034able to hit. I found that generally we have somebody on maternity leave or somebody with a a health concern. So I've looked at our average number of subs per day and calculated it and then filled in the number. Okay, just moving down through. Pre prek is separate only because it has to be for the state again different funding uh different codes. So prek is not in K8, but it's the same sort of structure. It looks like it's reduced. We weren't sure last year if we were going to have two preks or one. We ended up with one and had three kindergartens. So that other teacher came into the regular K8 line. No staffing changes, just where they were funded from is different. Expecting the same structure this year. >> One other question that the substitute

035retirement >> did you miss that? >> Well, but I can um >> line 19. >> You would like to know? Oh, the line. So, retirement and benefits were sometimes put together. If you look at the line right below it, it's exactly the same down. >> Perfect. >> Yeah. So that's um I tried to >> I tried to consolidate some things last year and then realized why that wasn't a great idea between retirement benefits. So they're separated back out this year. But it is it's a wash rate with the line next to it. >> U secondary tuition is down towards the bottom of this. Oh, I'm sorry. I did build in line 46, the prek partnership site tuition as discussed at the last meeting where we have an option given our numbers of prek which we

036think will pay the same to either continue to partner with Coastal Kids or to do a second classroom ourselves and we felt this was the best community option, family option and economical option um to continue the partnership with Coastal Kids. So that's money to roll in there. can if the grant continues to fund, we wouldn't have those expenses either. We would um we wouldn't have that as money potentially to put into a rollover. Secondary tuition I've explained earlier um in my overview. So that's that's there. There's a contingency just in case. We do pay a separate amount um for students in the alted program at Lincoln. Um it's not significant. So I basically keep the line open, but they have some special costs for that. >> And then gifted and talented is also required to

037be separated out. This is the beginning of page three by the state. Um again, your subsidy has a factor in there for gifted and talented programs. So they take our expenses from the last few years averaged and give us a percent amount as part of our subsidy calculations. So they do require that to be separated out and I think that has become quite a robust structure with our current model. So that's a good a good thing. All in all the line is up 6% which is just about on target with our full budget. So I think that's a solid number. Any questions on article one? >> What can you find out about 3k grant and reference status? No idea. The grant that we're using that is being um reimbured to us right now ends in

038March. The state had a of right now this month. Uh so we'll have a couple costs the rest of this year. Coastal Kids is doing some fundraising to offset and we'll pay just what we had agreed to at the beginning. We won't be absorbing all of that. Um the state received a grant through DHHS from the federal government and they had several projects that they had done um across the state, not just in education, but preK was a project through that grant and it was supposed to end in December, but the federal grant gave them more money and allowed them to extend the grant, but they could only choose two projects across the entire state and prek is one they chose to continue with. So that grant is ending for them. But if they get

039another widespread DHS grant, I believe they have a priority committed to for preK under this administration. Again, I know there'll be a change coming. So, I won't really know until there's a change in government and federal funding information released, all of which is fall. And has that made it easier to um do this like knowing that we've had that grant has that made it easier to do superintendent agreement with kids from prek because are those sending towns paying anything at this point if they don't have a >> if they do not have a prek? No. If you have a prek in your town, you would go there ideally. If they do not have a prek, then it is very common to do superintendence agreements because we get reimbursed at a much higher rate than we

040do for a student in K8 that comes on a superintendence agreement. And generally educators believe in early education access for all kids. So a town like Noble Brow does not have prek. We have, I believe, two kids that are in our prek program, two or three right now from Noble Burough, so that they have access to it um at, you know, no cost to the family. But yeah, that grant definitely helped with that. >> Has there been any movement from Lincoln in terms of looking at polyillis or special edit? >> There is a >> I believe he when he came he said he would get back to us. >> Yes. Um it it would be nice if they did get back to us and >> maybe we can send a joint email asking for any

041followup. >> That's good. >> There is a Department of Education initiative to create anou a memorandum of understanding between private schools um that accept tuition students and federal and state funding um public funding on special education parameters. It's not based off anything that Lincoln Academy did um by any means, but I believe there were some issues around the state on private schools that didn't necessarily have to follow federal laws on interventions for students or giving them continuing their access to education. And so the state put out a draft memorandum of understanding which was um quickly divided between 6040 schools and non6040 schools um because they had different parameters. And my understanding is that if a after this new draft has come out, if a private school does not sign the memorandum of understanding, Kelly and

042I would not be able to put a student at Lincoln Academy that receives special education education services without the parent waving the right to all services. So the parent would choose between Lincoln Academy or receiving support. They could go to any other schools. We have school choice. They could choose many other schools. Um, but Lincoln Academy, we would not be able to give Lincoln Academy money for special ed because they're not meeting those federal parameters. Now, I don't this is not something Lincoln Academy has had a problem with in the past. I'm be very clear, right? They have not gone against laws or parameters um in that sense. So, but they are it is a statewide initiative. So, I do not know at this point if they'll be signing that or not. If they do

043sign it, I anticipate that they might accept some fewer students that have had concerns earlier because they will be held to different standards of >> So, we'll see how that plays out. >> Okay. >> All right. to you can get through other instruction or the CET. So, page five, line 168, and I'll give my full explanation because the board may know, but the public could watch this later. Uh if a student secondary or high school vocational is um what we used to call votech, it's now called CTE which is college and career and technical um education. So if a student goes to Lincoln Academy, they are part of the catchment area for Bath Tech Center. So them going to Bath Tech Center is included in the tuition rates that we pay to Lincoln anyway, right?

044It's all included there. If a student goes to Madonna, they're in the catchment area for Mid Coast Tech Center over in Rottand. Uh so if you go to a high school and you choose to go to the tech center that they're aligned with, it's all covered within what we pay anyway. If a student goes to Lincoln and Bath does not offer the program they want, but Mid Coast does and Mid Coast has an opening after accepting any of their own catchment area students and allows our student to go. So, they would be a Lincoln Academy student but attend Miko School of Technology. We have a different additional rate to pay. I haven't seen this happen since I've been in this district since 2016. But in case it happened, we do want to make sure, of

045course, that our students have access to that program, right? It only can happen if the program isn't offered where they where they go anyway. So, we keep $100 in this article in order to keep the article open in case it happened and I need to move more money like $1,000 in. If the article is not approved by the voters, I as open with something in it, I can't ever move money in and make an expense out of it. >> So, and it is required by the state to be a separate secondary CTE article. So that $100 is in there as a placeholder to support any student who had a program they wanted to go to in a different catchment area. >> Keep moving. >> Absolutely. >> One hour in. Does anybody need a restroom or

046snack or coffee for water? Mark just texted you'll be just a little bit late. All right. >> Okay. >> On to other instruction. >> Okay. Page five starting with line 171. Um this article in itself does not have it has one significant change. does not have a lot of other significant changes. Um we continue to fund our co-curricular which are things that are directly tied to what is being taught in the classroom. So if a um if the planetarium is a field trip because you're studying astronomy, right? That is co-curricular. It ties to what is taught in the classroom and it's often field trips or people services coming in to do experiences in the classroom. Last year we reorganized these. They were very erratic in what was co-curricular and what was extracurricular. So we really

047did an assessment and put them in the right areas. So that's why 2425 might look a little different. But this year is consistent with what we did last year. Um, so we continue our co-curricular professional services which does include Kiev costs for our seventh grade um and Boston cost for our eighth grade as well. And then and those do tie into things taught in the classroom. Then you'll notice that we have an athletic director salary. In the past the athletic director was a stipened position listed under extracurricular activities along with the other sports and afterchool pieces. Uh it was an amount set through the extra pay committee which the collective bargaining agreement determines meets every year has to meet every year review amounts and um determine appropriateness. It typically was a staff member receiving a

048statement. I think it actually has been until this year. um whether it was Jason or Ian or the office doing it, it has been a staff member that's already hired doing extra work for a stipen. This year we do we have a different person, an outside employee doing it because it's not rolling in with anything any time already in school. The position is definitely a little bit bigger than it was before when say a phys teacher was doing it at the same time they were managing you their classes and and then having some after school hours to be at the events. Um to reflect that it was now created as a position instead. So instead of an employee with a stipen it's a hired position instead. It's a part-time halftime position. We equated it to

049halftime and we set an appropriate um amount. We figured out the approximate amount of time it takes, what an approximate salary would be, did the ballpark math and put it in. Um, it reflects the increased attention and I think resulting success of the current athletic director that we have as well really giving the the program what it needs. >> So, so that is in here separated out. That does mean our other extracurricular line that was pulled out of, you know, as well. So there's a piece down from that. >> You said this was negotiated in one of the collective or >> Yes. In the in the professional staff collective bargaining agreement, it requires the association, the board, and the administration, new business manager to meet and review those pay rates for any of the extracurricular

050activities and associated pieces. So we do that every well, we try for January. It usually ends up February by the time snow cancels it and everything else. So, it's done appropriately for this budget. Um, and then we move down at the beginning of page six to the extracurricular statement >> before you leave a director position against those benefits. >> Correct. If you'd like to change that, there are places like the wagon benefits guide and other places where the board could review that. As of right now, the way your documents read, it says anybody halftime or more receives those benefits. So, that's a spot that the board could consider looking at in the future. Uh, extracurricular stipens, people tend to think that's sports, but it's not. It's any type of afterchool programming that is not directly

051tied to what is being taught in the classroom. So, it is our sports, all of our wonderful sports, but it's also our chess club and some of our band programs after school and art club and Dungeons and Dragons and all kinds of jump rope club, skateboarding, all kinds of activities for students after school. It does not include what we receive through the main health grant. We have a community health improvement fund grant that Jen Wright beautifully manages each year and acquires for us. That's approximately $25,000 we receive for after school programming every year. So that's outside of this. We do have a buffer in here because we never know what staff might come on board or come up with for an idea for a new club that we couldn't plan for or what student might

052request a club um that we would then want to do. So we do have a small buffer couple of thousand dollars for clubs to be responsive to student interests. >> And you say outside of this that Is that funding used to cover these expenses or it's used to >> So if if a community member wondered how much we invested in afterchool opportunities for our students, it would be this plus the $25,000 grant. And for anybody that would like to know, research shows that involvement in afterchool activities is the number one predictor of healthy adults, of adults who are not in jail or have significant um drug and alcohol abuse issues. So the more we can get them involved in middle school or even younger and then they continue that through their high school experience, the

053better we're setting them up in our communities for healthy um adult lives. So it is a strong investment location. I don't think anyone's ever worried about that, but it's nice to have the information out there. So that article about slightly again um reflecting costs of running clubs and additional health insurance is a significant part of the increase. >> That would be the health insurance question would be addressed through the collective bargaining agreement. >> Um currently this is nonaligned. So it's your wage and benefits agreement. Okay. >> And you do review that each year. >> What's the timeline for that review? >> Generally December. so that I have the correct information for the budget. >> It can can be reviewed anytime, but we it states in here will be reviewed once a year. >> Any questions

054on that article? >> Okay, Mark said there's a heater issue, so he'll get here when he can, but he's trying to make sure the heat is set first. So, we will let him do that. >> Yes. >> And his section is towards the end, so Coffee, tea, snacks, anybody. Six directions. >> Please help yourself. Coffee, pastries. Would you be surprised how much This is something we've been working on over the years. It's behind the baseball field. You'll see that ditch line that we had uh know our engineers went ahead and engineered that the all trees if you can remember. We took that out. We've been doing it over the time. We've been getting free fill in there. Now we're at a point where I think we can go ahead and finish that off the way

055it was and then we can grasp the area. That's We know,000 that will be the when we have a vacuation from the school, we use the Y and what there is is a small path over there. So what we can do is Dra Hadwware donates the excavator and we get some work done around the school. This would be one of those that we can do inhouse to widen that path out and then go ahead and put chips in there just to so that when everybody's running through the air get the wheel that there's a picture of that in there too as as I'm going. >> Okay. will be our goal after striking that we're going to do this year. We've had an issue with people coming down into the bus parking area. I think we

056did get some signage, but we're going to go ahead and even stripe that out a little bit until that hope with that. But that would be striping everything out, crosswalks, fire lines, that's all the striping for the whole property. Um, I think we can do it for that. Okay. Um, I didn't count too much out back just because there is some work to be done out there and I just didn't see spending money on it. Right now, we'll buy with it and see the lines. So, we'll see how that goes. The other one, you'll see a picture in there that we started to raise program. Probably not the prettiest picture. That just shows what that $90 a month level payment goes to usually it's one and a half of those a day that comes out

057of a solid waste sheet and then that gets recycled in return composting about 7500 parts This year he had a moldy go for 5,300 which we're still waiting on the insurance company from that. Um, I get another I put a call in yesterday. I'll remember about that because what that was was a power surge that caused that and um so it was one of our big circulation pumps that go around. So, they should get rebrs. Um, we've got two of them in there. Um, the reason being we had two of them under warrant is we did get some pots in that said should take care of these other things, but I left the money in there just in case that doesn't come to it. We did have an area that it did flood. went into

058a classroom, looked at a few tiles we had fixed. But >> those water fountains are how old? >> How many? >> How old are the water fountains? >> Oh, they were bottled on >> and they're the ones that are filtered and have the water bottle station for everybody. >> What I'm doing too is we were always taking the lead out, but now we have Past. I'm I'm going to the filters that will take Past out, too. That's what they say. Even though we've always been acceptable level, we've never been in danger of that. Exactly. >> We're still being cautious and preventing it even >> further. Because we get a result from a lot of units for painting, whatever the garage to look at. Um recommend sometimes they need questions on pretty standard supplies. I did

059cut it back from 10,000 to 5,000 on replacement of the equipment because we did upgrade a piece of equipment. So we carry 5,000 in there just in case we get to a lot of lot of pieces of equipment on ground names five service they get here last summer to do the test. I have a threeear a fiveyear and actually a 10 year test that need to be done. Um we asked them to make sure that my school gets out over first on the list so that we can get um that done so that we can get on this year's budget because we had it in the budget. If not, it's right there. At least we carry all carry number one roof as a preventative maintenance. When we did the last move, what we did is

060um I had them do the preventative maintenance at the time. We went away from our current contractor that we've been using because they were getting out close to 9,000. So we got uh then they came back after we used that company and we got them back down five grand. So we kill him just in case we got to do things here. We on the side of the hook on the side and crank it up and down. It's got a little skip into it. So it's got a safety mechanism so it won't fall. But when you're cranking that down, >> let's talk about that. >> Yeah. Yeah. You know, >> are we all set with repairing the hoops or the I'm sorry, the lights structure that didn't fall this year during a basketball game? Right, David?

061It was during the game. >> We took all that was right before >> right before the game started. Does this budget include any work on that or are we all set? >> Took them down. They're just so old we could use them. So, next morning we jumped on it so that they could have a game the next day. And >> that was quite a scary thing. More on to the next project. >> Okay. Just wanted to make sure that was covered. >> That's the thing is those lights. I guess while we're talking about lights, >> it's sort of like the stage lights that are in there, the oldfashioned ones. They get hot. They have asbestous lines on them. We don't touch. We just don't even go near them. Try to get efficiency main to take

062care of it. they didn't want to do with it. So because of the cost they just said um we put in our report on the spec we report it no change we don't clean in that area we just stay right away from it but at some point we will have to deal with that then there's a couple of hallways that we will have to take care of um so what I'm trying to do is looking at things what do we need right now and then as we move on as projects that the school infrastructure is getting old and If you don't stay with it, >> it's going to come up. So, right now, there's these projects that are kicking down the road that will put it all into one one project and then do a

063bunch because you have to take care of the asbestous once you spend x amount of dollars. >> Mark, while you're talking about lights, would you fill the board in and the the public? This is being recorded on the parking lot lights the the system this year because I'm sure people drive by and see them flickering or off. Yep. They were off again and then it was the middle of the winter when this was happening down below one of the lights. They fixed them once but I knew because it being so wet and stopped working underground some moisture got into it. They started flickering again. So we just said okay can't do anything until it dries out a little bit. So soon as all the frost is out we should be able to jump on that.

064It felt a little like an alien abduction was going to happen sometimes walking out there at night. >> And then we get an extra conduit there too in case something happens. >> Yeah. We have ditches open. So now we're looking at improvements. So, as you all know, we've got KJ worked hard to get a grant for after the Homeland Security did their evaluation what we needed there and wanted to upgrade this um safety wise, they didn't spend a lot of time on that that ran. Now, what we're doing is now that we've got the obvious, there's some uh doors on the inside that aren't working properly that need to be taken care of safety wise. Uh the first one we found the money for last year. I don't think was in the budget, but we

065were able to put it together so that we could be the one that goes on the stage because that was anybody could just come in and get into the stage area. and maybe being on the stage is pretty, you know, bless her to be on that stage. Um, she's pretty open right there. She's got a lot of kids that are in there. You'll see in that packet there. Um, there will be a new double hallway down the junior hub that hasn't been replaced. The one on the other end has. And what this will allow to do so that we can actually block uh close off certain sections of the building that are actually locked. I did notice like there's one door that we do have to replace. I had three on it was three then

066went to then you added back in one. Yeah, we had to put that one back in because you'll see the picture of it. Yeah. >> Um I did >> I did build some highway around it. It's just so dried out old. You know, we expect the teachers to close their doors all locked up. One of the things I got a question on after we did this was um if we're looking to come back anywhere um we did buy a stock wall system because of the space by bringing in central office personnel. So we had to take one room and divide it up. So we went and bought the stock system and what it is. I need to divide the room. Um and depends on the quality of it. You can put them in sound pool

067some of them. But they use these hospital place to keep the dust and everything out. We bought this for one room because we had three learning stations maybe four in this particular room. So we still have that that staff system may become available depends on how the room started. So that money that I put in there was the possibility that if we were really up against it for room um I was thinking as you go into the library there was an area we could session off if we needed it because we haven't used that. as you first went to the library. There's two tables, one on the left, one on the right, and there's a B wall that we could section off. But now that we've free up a little bit of space, I think

068what we could do is let us potentially take that 15,000 out of that. That's one area you could >> mean freed up space by renting those offices additional. >> Correct. Yes. Which is in a different article but and it's 10,000 total. >> Yes. So we should have that as a part of this discussion as well. >> Yeah. Do you want to discuss that now while we're talking about I say we can just if we have a set available that have been used and we don't need them with their current states on this I think we can easily take it out because it doesn't seem like there's a situation with our increased space access now that central office is moving to that other space that won't need them. So, >> okay. >> Seems like an unnecessary

069contingency to me, but >> to have right whereas if we >> we got push back on >> renting an additional space outside the school. So, well, we could 15,000 and divide our current space up even more. >> Yeah. To be able to have that concrete example of what it costs to try to stay in accommodate our current space versus having that optional site going through. The other thing is when I was went back through this budget looking at it is it would be nice to have it but where are you going to put it? >> Yeah. >> I mean spaces in the school that we have custodial supplies that are being stored in the locker rooms that they can't freeze and you know and then it's always well what are you going to do with

070this stuff? You know, there's pictures in there of the J space. So, there's part of it that said, "Okay, well, if we need to find the money, we can find the money, but it's stored right now." And as it is now, we have to find room for this one wall that we have to store some of it. It's definitely a challenge. In terms of that office lease, how long is the contract for it? >> Um, three years with the option to extend two after that >> or is it two to the three option? >> Negotiated at that point. You have an option of two, but then it would be negotiated on the price. But right now it's 1,600 for from now until July 1st there's a contract and then from July 1 years out which

071is automatic it's already got but it's worded to a point where it goes to July 1st the new fiscal year for some reason if something changed we picked it up from July 1st two years old that will take care with a with an option of two years beyond that. But you won't get 1600. >> Oh, everything included. 1,600 everything included for the space. The space is 1,400 square f feet. >> Um, >> no. Yes. >> Yeah. >> Sorry. remembering and it's not only going to be district office which will have myself um Bradley who does payroll and accounts payable and Kelly Stokes none of us work with children so we would be you know directly so would be the ones to go over there will also house adult ed which is facing some funding challenges

072of their own um both state and local as well and so Maine um really can't afford to stay where they are and so they're going to double up with us it actually works out pretty well for us because we're there more in the mornings and early afternoons and they do some classes later in the evening. >> Space. >> Yes. Um and then they actually are going to have some access to the Masonic Hall kitchen and space as well for some of their cooking classes or some of their neat features. So um functionally instead of them paying quite a bit more um where they are, it will reduce their expenses as well and we split the cost with them. So we're each paying the 10 that covers the cost of the year. no other added expenses

073and we use that space better by having double use. There'll be one day a week when we're all there at the same time and frankly we're looking forward to seeing each other and it still fit us in our the way we've decided to configure that. >> And the nice thing is we get that rent for a for a nonprofit that could hold that price of 1,600 including all the water, the sewer, the electric. Um so >> and there's a path. It's actually closer than the students who walk to the Y. Those students have to come by my window, what will be my window, in order to get to their Y class for the gym. So, I'm actually closer than the students when they do their class next door. >> Um, then there's the other one.

074Um, we go to the digital >> Yes. >> emergency notification system. And that's formula and that will be a sign of and you'll see that um put that together and pretty much get it all set to necessary paperwork if we get a little plan or whatever neighbors to let them know what's going on ahead of time. Um if the budget's approved then u jump on let the neighbors know ahead of time what's going on in case there's any questions or at the same time as >> there's information in your packet with pictures and um >> and Mark that does you you have this good neighbor policy in here so that it's dims at night and right respects the place where it is blinking Right. >> It's got pictures. The first picture there, it's turned the

075wrong way. If you look at the page, there's a little better picture of it. And that would be running anywhere because they'll be running from the office when they weren't locked down if Kansas put that whatever it may be. Okay. Um, I put the table in there and 2014 condo and we were replacing all the power lines for the school. So, we put those in there to a certain point. Then we did the construction on the parking lot. Then they extended it from there over to that one year. So, you should be good. If not, if something happened to that over that many years, there is another line that I ran up through and doubled back so that we could actually come across if you just sh >> But yeah, >> it should be everything

076the town of Um and then the earth. So the earth the river wall in on the floor on the south side. So that's a little bit of punky floor going on there that we would have to replace. And then the floor itself that was put down there is lifting in the whole area. It's just that was put down in you know years old. And then um then we were reaching out to it. I think I talked to the board before Betsy had some leftovers from a project. So what we did is punch it down a price for that. So that saves us money so that we can go ahead and get it at this price and the quality of it is a lot better than what was here before. So thank you. >> And she

077sto And then what I did is I stuck the kitchen steamer in there just to let you know as we talked about this for a while. We've been able to find paths for it but it's been iffy. We're still chugging along. It's a 30,000 $35,000 piece. But I really feel like as the school is growing and the flow uh we need to really look at the whole kitchen. So what I did is I just identified it. So it's on our radar to think about right now we're limping along painting time a little bit to keep it going. I've gone to descaling it twice a year instead of once seems to help a little bit. Um but it's just not a job. >> And the money for that is not in this proposal. Correct. I was

078in the >> Okay. >> I didn't carry the ball field um softball field that really needs some drainage. We've been talking about it for some time fields that it is for the amount of children in sports. That's something we need to look at because that field is struggling. >> So then the struggle tells asking for help and see what we can look at doing. You know, everybody needs the fields at the same time. It would be nice to find a place to put another computer just because of the number of kids that it >> So, can I just say um I think the digital sign is like a really neat idea. I think just given some of the other needs like my personal opinion would be that $30,000 a lot of money goes into like

079ADA structure and um just other means that it's just such a big chunk of money but that's just sharing. >> Can you speak the basketball court? Where are we at? Oh, the basketball courts are should be done later in May. I know that we push it out to there bids donation for some hoops. We should be able to by the end of May have that up and going so that at least the kids can use them for a little while this summer basketball court. >> So, there's no money needed for this coming year budget towards that or we're all done. There's 20,000 in there for playground improvements because we talked about handicap. >> Yeah. >> The basketball piece is in this year's budget. So then the handicap is in next year's. >> Okay. I'll just

080I very much appreciate that comment Meredith and I think this is a good lens for us to bring to this budget and say where are the investments in facilities that help us ensure a more robust educational experience for our students versus what are the nice to have and I'm kind of aligning on the sign like if that $30,000 could be spent to improve some of the athletic facilities or prevent further degradation and kind of like deferred maintenance on those things that kids actually I would have a preference in investing in those things over a sign which is again it it will be nice to have someday. Um but I don't know if it raises in my mind to the same level of priority as others. It's been discussed for a while as well. assigned as

081>> yeah that's kind of my feeling of like yes but last time we looked at it was 20,000 >> couple years ago and it's kind of just keep getting kicked down the road and at one point you know when it gets to 50,000 is that when you decide that but um >> a hard >> is there more of a story behind the need for a digital sign >> there is no sign out there right now they used to the wooden sign with the letters of someone to be digital. >> Um because it can be controlled easily in an emergency from anywhere and not someone having to go stand in the middle of a crisis out there with signs. Um it could be parking is now full for the concert, please park next door. So that

082one yes, that's something that came up with the fire department after we had the large event that was not school-based at the school but had parking lanes and fire blocks um that we could signify some of those things. So, it's um it's really about the ability to control it in a crisis or fast. >> Maybe just going to play devil's advocate. >> Yeah. >> Like, you're sending me a text with my kid there telling me that schools in lockdown. I don't necessarily want the dude on the street to know or the woman on the street to know the school's in lockdown. Like, that seems like why are we telling them that? >> It might be more snow day closed. Not, you know, >> again, I'm not getting that. I'm not going to worry about the

083sign in a lockdown crisis. I'm gonna worry more about it parking lot full or you know school closed today but not >> but a lot of those things you're pushing you're doing push notification to parents local citizens you can do it just as easily >> I would say and I don't have again I serve at your direction you'll tell me what to do here but the board did have a goal in communication as well and one of the pieces you did talk about was notifying about budget votes or upcoming meetings or events that the community may want to know about that as they're driving down that strip every day they can see you know we advertise things coming up as well. That was a piece that you mentioned. >> I guess I'm only asking because

084I think because it has been kicked down the road for so long. I am trust trying to remember back to the original and I I I do think we need some sort of sign. I mean like I missed the sign and I do recall that the sign used to be like winter concert still in May. So I get that you know I mean that was a pain and you know then there were bees out there. I remember these things. So you couldn't actually go change anything in the sign. But I just wonder I I just I think it is important like May was saying just to think back to what are the reasons and make sure we all have a solid understanding of is it worth $30,000. >> And the other thing is looking at

085I put in some of those pictures of students. You'll see the gym floor gap that's selling on one side. Um we also have a locker room issue. We also have the unit vents that are in all the rooms that we use for heating and fresh air. Those were put in se the new section was 1998. But what we did is we counted up how many we got put them in 1978 in that area. There's 20 of those. That's the way we're going. Those are probably anywhere from 12 to$15,000. When did they last? >> We did have one of those. What they do is they so that's something long term >> as we talk about long term and we talked publicly at recent new meetings about our space study. I think it might be good again

086where this is posted for the public to see and hear not just this year and next year. There is $25,000 in next year's budget towards any particular space study needs, you know, in the research part of that, but maybe it'd be good to get some sort of update now and a reminder that April 9th we're going to have a um more robust presentation at our board meeting as well. You want to >> I'm looking at you as chair. You want Mark to talk about that? >> Uh yeah, I think as well. Yeah. >> Yeah. Uh Haley Ward has been working on that open. What we did is on the first days of it to find out you know what are we missing? Is there any rules and regulations which we found out that the updates

087to the number of people we can have in the gym been identified. So we cut that back um quite a bit. Captain cafeteria as well. So what they did is they gave us a you know okay you guys uh following the laws here's what the rules and regulations are this is what we see in areas that we could improve on. So now they gave us a contract for the second phase of that which will be taking laser shots of all the building to see where the loadbearing areas are add on. you can't add on to the school outside towards the gym um towards the baseball field, excuse me, because that's federal money got put into that. And we don't want to run into a situation um where other schools what they've done is they made

088parking lots on um dealing with the educational plant maintenance association. We hear that a lot where towns end up helping to pay that money back to the citizens. So, we got to make sure we stay away from that side. So, if we do anything for space, we're going to have to go out. So, they got some ideas on something like that to help us with storage, help us with daylight, um stuff like that. So, that's the second phase they're working on and they're gonna um come see you on the April 8th because they want to get some input on what your thoughts are and then they're going to give you some input on things that we should be looking at and they want to meet with the public. They'll help us with all that. So

089if there if we as a board, you as a board are looking at this in a few years, are some of these projects that you've talked about in here better to hold off until then or hold off if we know if that's going to once we know if that is ever going to happen or whether that gets completely cancelled or some of them more urgent than that >> and that will that project include and obviously you and I I've discussed these I'm So you can hear the information. Um, will that project include remodeling some of these areas that on the existing building that need it as well as the >> addition? >> And how does parking play into that get bigger? >> The parking plan's going to be into that. We're going to have to

090look for more space. There's no doubt about that. >> Can you talk about the 10 acres that needed? >> That'll be up to the town to sell it to the school and then working with other neighbors as well. even looking at the possibility of if we could buy a little bit from what used to be the pawn shop, maybe even look to get some packing, some joint packing. I'm not sure. We haven't approached that. Um the just all ideas that I've been throwing out, we definitely got to do something down the road to take care of our needs moving forward. And I don't I hate seeing us like have something take place and then we have to deal with it. I'd like to see us be a little more proactive on things so that we're

091staying with it. As it is, the state of Maine um would like to see us pay 10% of our budget and puts into the building every year. So what happens though is as soon as you get a new building the >> 10% beyond our regular expenses or 10% total >> 10% of what your budget is >> should be directed to facilities >> or side put in reserves >> or put in reserve okay so separate than our like regular annual inspections and separate from >> that's correct >> I don't think that's not a lot doing there are some but they're being proactive so that they don't have a situation because what happens is the state ends up putting money into projects and what happens is six years down the road so you can go six years

092you don't have to go >> but after that six years you start having things go wrong so what they want that money being put aside right from the beginning that you build a budget so you have your capital reserves so you can go ahead and do that so you keep that line flat for Yeah, that's I I really appreciated the inclusion of this picture in the patch mark because for me that's that's where I think we are in the defensing of the poor is how do we stop being reactive and really start thinking about the long-term investments that are needed into either this facility or whatever facilities need to be there to support our growing population, the different needs that we've seen emerge educationally over the last decade in particular. So, I I very much

093appreciated the inclusion of that because I I agree. I think that's what we all need to be thinking about as board members is less about some of these specific investments in budget lines on the facility side of things and more about what those are telling us. Um, and what we need to be thinking about long term. You >> mentioning pictures, the pictures of the strengths. Did you all see that? I mean, we have him back in there. >> That's using a stage as a classroom. Yeah. >> I mean, that's >> we don't have >> sometimes she's not in the room. She's on the outside by the rail. >> Yeah. >> Because >> And I personally never been inside. >> And the law says >> really shows the issue to school. >> We're also spending money

094every year to rent space at the YMCA for a gym class to go over because we have more. We have one gym and we have middle school and elementary can't fit all their classes in. So we have middle school classes go to use the Y gym. We rent from them as well for space. >> And this is really a band-aid approach and it's time to move beyond that and think you know at a higher level looking at it. I mean how do you prioritize which of these band-aids we use? I mean that's you know is there is there an actual method for assigning points to something that allows us to determine what needs to happen and what >> well I think too is I think of the kitchen and we the steamer is always an

095issue and not always most of the time so what happens is we're constantly going down messing with it we get some we spend a little bit of money on it to keep it going but what happens is you have to look at the whole project of your school is How do we do retention? How do we keep teachers here? How do you keep kitchen healthy? We do it by upgrading the facility so you can feel good about where they're going. And it's good for student learning. We have bathrooms right now that they do things in the bathroom they probably shouldn't, but >> such as sit on the sink and cause them to fall off the wall. >> Right. So, we just need to upgrade. It's been so long. We need to look at that upgrade.

096Not only is that upgrade, but where are we heading in the future? >> Sometimes we don't like this change. Reality is it's going to change and either we or not. >> Um Julie made us some amazing food. Like is this steamer causing her headaches? You know, like just thinking about our food program and that 30,000 assign >> I know as a student like congratulations math team, right? that the ability to put some positive messages on the sign feels really valuable to me, but not as important as being with her or you know keep feeding our kids. uh having yeah having those systems run smoothly. That's uh so yeah thinking about that but then also this question of will an addition or big plans in the future be close enough in the future that that steamer

097that $30,000 steamer could or couldn't be moved over if that ends up in a new space. Like I think the questions of like are does purchasing something like that is it movable to a new kitchen? How long does it last? I guess question >> and I think that's where building would meet with your kitchen staff. What's working well? What's not? This is what we've seen in other kitchens of this size with schools and what have you. Because right now you're all branding in each other that you know and they're moving all the time because they got these different classes and they don't have very long in those classes by the time that last class gets through to you. They don't have a lot of time. >> As you can see, a lot of that's in

098place. >> They don't have time to eat. >> Yeah. >> So, >> the lunch schedule is being looked at by school level administration as well for next year. >> Always every year it gets adjusted. I think retention is important keep you know you know traffic >> I guess just back to the question of triage like what are there specific things in here that pose a any type of safety risk to students staff administrators that should be at the top of the list and then beyond that where are there opportunities to prevent uh decreases in educational experience and then invest to increase educational experience are kind of the three top levels of filters that I think I would be putting to something like this. >> As far as what happened is we used to be um

099pneumatics the whole school pneumatics. So what happened is two years before um we went with the upgrade and the boiler room so all digital we had had to buy a compressor. So there's a compressor down there right now that the sprinkler company would rather sell us a new one. So I'm going back and forth with them right now because we had a compressor down compressor that would take care of our needs right now. So we go back and forth with them because we have extra work with them and say look we know we got so much money we should be able to bring our compulsory here but you have to understand too those are rules and regulations where we can't touch whatsoever. They have to get that would be one that we're working on right

100now, but it's not even listed anymore. As far as the uh stage, pretty concerned about that been for a long time because if you look at that picture and we really had emergency, you had to get those ST out of there. >> That is definitely an area. Yeah, >> that's why we did put in the new doors there. At least if we had the lockdown in place, at least we're there. If they had to leave here. >> Yeah, that's unacceptable. >> Yeah. space. >> Very good. And I think the study will help too is identify, you know, the real stuff that people really got to look at >> and then down, you know, this could get a set of eyes. Somebody just does it all the time. >> Like you said, someone Miss Katie, she

101retired, right? Nope. >> No, she's still there. >> But if a new teacher ever came to that special >> Yeah. >> How long have they been there though? It hasn't been that long because it used to be like OTP used to be there. >> Used to be probably back and >> um Then we kept moving her have to get an engineer to certify where you put those swings down there. So what we started doing is we take them down and just put them somewhere. Now we leave them up because we changed it so many times if we go back to that room we've already got. >> Okay. Well, uh, thank you Mark for all that information. Um, any other questions for >> just because I spent some time at the school last summer. Um, I

102was looking at your 100 hours of high school help. It's in here. I saw it. Do you think you could use school help? Just I mean you guys are so and I just like you gave me some tours and just like being around it hard not to notice how many different projects are going on and just a lot and I thought wow like this crew to be a bigger career you know but um what's your opinion and $17 I have no record but is $17 competitive? Well, no. No. Um, uh, McDonald's has banned 15 something for one individual that we use. We'll ban this individual $17 just as a sub to work whenever we need it. But the problem is he's already working 35 hours at McDonald's. So, we're trying to help us. Now, if

103we needed a custodial sub, someone that's got a little experience has got the their expenses from the state would $20 an hour. I think that was put into budget last year that we needed to pay $20 an hour. Even that it's it's I find people to work. We could go up to Lincoln to see if we can try to see if there's some more available, but what we do too is your edex who aren't working or your kitchen staff if they're looking to work this summer, we definitely can use that. So that 100 hours isn't just my understanding prep is not just summer hours. It's turning throughout the year whenever you meet somebody. >> And so far it's been pretty good. >> And I didn't bring the piece of paper um that I had written

104down. I shared it with Lindsay about when we changed over from going to bus drivers standalone custodial stand alone. And then I brought the idea to you about having custodial bus driver as a position. So what we did was we had three bus drivers SOU and pay them more money but they give us 40 hours plus instead of having because we are one person short but it's more effective just to pay a little bit of overtime and what it is I ran back for the last six months from July 1 on and regular hours they're coming in about 38 39 hours and then they're all getting two or three hours over time. So if you added that all up, it's well worth doing it that way the way we're doing it because now what you

105got, you can't have a bus driver that's just got a quick go somewhere because now you have a driver custodial who's counting on 40 hours. And that was the whole idea behind this, too. You got to make positions that are 40 hours because they can't live around you. >> And it's very hard to be a bus driver when you work two hours in the morning and two hours in the middle of the afternoon. >> Yeah. So making that position attractive to candidates was helpful >> and the responsibilities that go with moving most precious cargo that we have it's tough lot of responsibility. So I guess the question of the back to the sign thing, do you want to take it out of the budget or you know if do you have you obviously have use

106for that other money. Is there do you feel that there's a better place for it? >> Well, I think after this study it's going to take what was it eight weeks that they're saying? >> Yeah. >> So we're going to know more >> at the end of eight weeks. The only thing that jumps out at me is that one. We have one uh unit that we passed it a few times because it leaks. And that was the one that I was going to try with that new system with a um you know, gives us a lot more readings, you know. Um but that was 15,000 by standard if we need that. But if we don't need that and someone comes in and says, you know, you got a room, boil the room, you know, we

107can do this, that's more energy efficient, which is going to be tough because that's why we turn down the efficiency anyway because the money that we were going to put in to go with that heat pump system to take care of those five rooms was like $115,000. We had to come up with I'm going to use the number of 50. I think it was a little less than that. But even at that 50,000, it took us 26 years to pay back on that because we've been so efficient with the building and the new board just didn't even make sense. So that's why we're going to just still work. >> So after we go through the whole thing, if you want to look at the overall thoughts for reductions or I mean because you can discuss

108taking it out, but you also can discuss leaving it in and then deciding later whether it's a safety issue or a sign. >> Yeah. Well, I think this comes down to capital investments and that would be a capital investment project. So and we don't vote necessarily on the specifics. We're we'll be presenting the budget line and the article. So >> what how how the 92,000 that or the 135,000 that's sitting in capital enhancement improvement now >> which is already down 120 because we moved to the idea of the wall. >> Yeah. >> Breaking down wall. >> So I think like we we have the flexibility. I think we have a functional enough relationship with administrators and and with Mark in particular to have a conversation around where that money can best be spent to improve

109the c the facilities um for the benefit of institutions. >> Great. You know, one of those things we really should be looking at is reaching long term because I'm more longterm is a generator at the school. that we really needed a shelter place. You know, I'm not going to go to the Y just because there it's built out of 10. I'm going to go to something like we have. But the key there is let's find a grant for that or let's see if we can get uh the Red Cross involved to help us with those costs. The only thing is when we bring the Red Cross in, you have to remember you turn the building over to them. So if the you have an event that takes a week, 10 days and then we're ready

110to open up school and it's only seven days basically still their college because it's there. So if you're going to take those monies, you have to be ready for that >> and you have to have space to store their 200 pots and supplies so that they are not transporting them in a moment. >> So you do have to have an ability to >> need a lot of storage space, >> right? But the good thing is now is like we have all propane. We built up an extra tank with that. So as far as the food situation went pretty good. It's just the generator that would actually finish that off down the road. Be nice if and actually the town when Matt was there um put five towns together and to do something like that so

111that um and it was formed. We voted on it and there was no dollar attached to it but they said they would work together with Grace Bay School those five pounds so that we can deal with something like that for emergency situation. >> Can you just refresh my memory when the when's the study supposed to actually be done? phase two is underway right now. >> Yeah, >> he's going to meet with you all in April 9th, but he that's part of phase two and 8 to 10 weeks or so. >> April 9th. >> Yeah. Did I say the wrong date? I'm sorry. Thursday. >> Is he presenting findings or asking questions? >> He won't be presenting findings because he hasn't done the re all of the research yet. is going to um have community meeting

112at some point to get input from towns people, parents, etc. and meet the staff um the board. So, he's gathering all the information to to look at what might solve space needs and meet requests needs of other people. And that was one of the questions he had too is he said, "I can come and shed some light on this, but do I am I going to be fielding a whole bunch of questions from the public or is this just for the board to talk about?" And I said I would find out, you know, what what's expected from the board at that time. It's more of aformational the way I look at it for the board itself to hire this contractor. We're going to have to let him know what we're really looking for. Um, and

113he's going to shed some light on some things that he sees where the first game is going. >> That's where I see it. >> Yeah, I think it'll mostly just be us talking about things like this $30,000 steamer, but is that for a new kitchen? >> $80,000 steamer. >> Oh, >> yeah. 30 or 80. >> Well, I know it's right on the line. >> It's not a side like question. But >> yeah, I think any sort of public input would have to do a separate thing. I think >> and that's Yes. has one more thing. Sorry. >> I don't know if this but just because you always trigger this in my mind and I know that the eighth grade had the chance to do some both experience and I don't know if it's in this

114budget or if we even have like the space for the both experience but is that something you want to speak to until everyone's there? Well, I I really see our school has students that um I'm not going to say left out, but they come to school. Sometimes they come to school, sometimes they don't come to school, but those are the ones that we actually got to find something to help them use their hands to these trades. And there is schools out there that are fairly prolonged as far as um south. No, I'm sorry. Fre, >> St. George, >> Brunswick. Well, there's three towns over way. So, they have a program now that if you're an eighth grader and you want to apply for to go to a trade school that they support, it used to

115be that they couldn't get 35 people out of each town to go, but now that this last year they there's such a interest like60 that they have, but they only take 35 from each town. Um, so it's quite a little process, but what they're doing, they're introducing them at a younger age to get them in it because they know that they're not gonna do anything different to other trades. So, and I I've talked to students before too, working with them and said, "Look, you got to show up to school. You got to know your math. You got to know your reading. Don't be difficult with the teacher. you just show up and just this is what you're going to do for a living this particular trade then at least learn >> in the spirit of

116that could we invite Mike Felton to come speak to the board now that he's the director of degrees I think this is >> absolutely there may be a cost as he now does that nationally >> okay >> that St. George is leading the nation in elementary program and so he does >> he does do national >> his presentation is different. I'll find out if he would charge us or not >> and maybe a local neighbor he won't. >> I I I think it's just worth as we're thinking long term about these types of capital investments and the plan like what the plant really needs to support for the educational experience. And I think you're spot on, Mark, to identify that that engaging kids from as early as possible into the hands-on component of education is

117critical. Cheaper Yeah. >> Is that something that we we wouldn't be looking at needing to do in April or May, which are rather busy with our space study and our budget, something we could do in June or the fall? >> Yeah, I think this I think I think if for my opinion, it would be something to carry us forward in kind of our >> Okay. >> our strategic planning around plant needs and things like that >> over the next year or so. >> Thank you. you know, in a project that you're looking at right here, what you're planning and anything you would do school, you're still two or three years up. >> Yeah. >> So, that's what we have to look at is where we're going to be. >> We're really I think we're really

118heavily invested in technology and technology salaries. We don't have anyone specifically, you know, for hands-on. So, it just would be a nice balance at some point. >> Yeah. >> Right. >> All right. Thank you, Mark. >> One last question about the 17 an hour. I'm curious if we have anyone in the area doing the mean career exploration program that reimbures 17 an hour for kids to have work experiences just that amount is consistent with main career exploration program. I I can look into that because I know that um somebody running the program in Watson County basically any a job like that could get reimbured. We could be getting reimbured um through that program >> and I think you yeah connect with that utilizing the cable program at Lincoln as a feeder to this. They I

119mean I hear great things from businesses that are tapping into that and there's experiences that kids can can have with the school in that vein and keeping that connection. I think that's >> Yes. It's a junior and senior that goes a half dead and then they follow that career if they like it which is nice but it'll be nice to start giving and prep. I'm gonna pause the recording. through this. >> Yes. >> Okay. Next up is student and other staff support. >> Nope. We just did that. >> Okay. So, administration, >> correct? This starts on page seven. There's only three lines at the very bottom, but it's mostly page eight for anybody that is looking um just because it stands out where it's on page seven. The RSU film stipen is the stipen of

120um 30 bucks a month to the staff that you require to have a cell phone to be available such as myself and Mark. Um you know, people that need to have the cell phone as part of their job. Um so that's up there. Then moving to page eight, this is the system administration cost where you can see we are down about $39,000 or just under eight%. It includes the schoolboard costs which is not really you and cost but your liability insurance, your legal fees should we have them. Um salaries for the superintendent, the business manager and the finance um staff so that all staff can be paid and bills can be paid and we can charge up what we need to. and it does include the $10,000 as you'll see on line 304 for district

121office rent. Um again, that space cost 20,000 for a year, everything included nonprofit to nonprofit, but doubling up with adult dead saves them and us um and is an efficient use, more efficient use of that space. So, that's all that's in this category is the district overhead. Um, at $467,000, you are in a great position compared to the overhead in some other areas. Your moves have done well. >> I would just like to commend our business manager who predicted that transitioning to RSU in RSU would save our district roughly $40,000 um based on kind of cost savings. So, great job business manager. I I don't recall us um setting a salary for the superintendent for next year yet. >> So your wages and benefits guide says any non-aligned personnel have a 3% salary increase unless

122directed otherwise by the board. So anybody that's not just the superintendent, it's also the finance clerk, it's the principal, the assistant principal, the school psychologist, eventually the BCBA should you have them. Um, so anybody who's not covered under one of the collective bargaining agreements, this is based on a 3% increase. So that could be adjusted up or down for award. >> And I the other folks are under your jurisdiction. You as our sole employee. I just we we need to have that conversation at some point >> before we go aboard a budget throw. >> Two cents. meeting the executive session. The next meeting, right? Yeah. >> Yes. You would need to have one. Yes. >> A long meeting. >> We won't do anything else. >> Yes, we will. I heard a presentation. >> We're having

123behaving. >> Yes. spending just that in the budget. >> And Linda, did you want to just speak super quickly about how this budget is built? It would cost centers that are kind of laid out by state statute. >> Yes. So the state does require that we have a system administration piece, a school administration piece, a regular instruction, a special instruction, um student and staff support, debt service, facilities, transportation, nutrition. Those are all um indicated categories that we have to have by state coding in order to be in compliance. All information that goes to the state in order to figure out subsidy, to figure out reimbursements, to figure out grants, everything is in that common format. When we were a part of the AOS, what you saw for some of these was a cost called assessment

124for administration or assessment for fiscal services. And that was paying the AOS your cost and then the AOS submitted a budget with these articles for their pieces as well. So um we are required to have this structure this set up. So now you see RSU office or RSU admin through here. We didn't have two years ago but it is the appropriate legal structure to combine it. If we had five school high school and four elementary schools you would see different codes at the end of each line for each school. You only have 040 because that's the only school you have, but it would be the same structure with those pieces separated by building. So, and district offices in 900. >> Great. Thank you. >> All right. >> Next. >> So, school administration is the next

125line. Again, just a couple of lines at the bottom of page eight. I'll do some spacing on our final um budget that goes out to to the public. So that it has, you know, each piece starts in a nice clean spot. But this has the principal salary and the assistant principal salary. It also has the admin assistant. Just as a reminder, in our structure to be efficient, you used to have when you were just the grades based CSD, three admin assistants in the office. You still do. They were all coded under this line. you still do, but half of one of them is um supporting me and is in the district line, and half of one of them is supporting Kelly, the special ed director, and is in the special ed line. So, instead of

126hiring two other assistants, we job combined, and Kelly and I are both um pretty self-sufficient anyway, so we can do some of our own pieces, but we maintained those three added assistants, but they're moved around to be effective use of resources. This also includes like the copy or lease, the supplies, like when we mail things out to parents, postage, you know, that was all. It's up $20,000. Again, we weren't sure necessarily when we built the budget last year what salaries we would have. We were hiring administrator and um she and I have gone through and looked at the pieces that we felt needed to be adjusted, but it's it's fairly close. Um health insurance is the >> I just can't get over can't go on those health insurance >> a family plan for health insurance

127a little more is now is right is about 30,000 just over $31,000 total cost for an employee. So your collective bargaining agreements indicate that the board will pay typically 85% of the cost for a family plan. For single plan which is about 11,000 it varies. It's either 100% 99% or um 90%. So depending on the agreement, but you you pay anywhere from 9,000 to 27,000 for insurance per employee based on what they need. >> It's significant and that's what we are seeing >> anywhere from 9,000 for a single plan, that would be the the lowest you would pay to 27,000 for a family plan, your share, board share. Um those numbers when they jump 14% every year are significant in the budget with almost 100 employees and those amounts that is a large part of

128your budget >> in the state insurance plan. >> Correct. >> So we have no ability to >> No. And we have looked in the past couple of years at going out from that plan onto our own and we are not big enough to have an amount of savings that would help. This is by far the best rates we're going to get. And Grades Bay is just big enough to be in their um their most beneficial category. Some of the smaller schools are are um we're in the community rate today. So some of the other schools are not in a community rate and have to pay based on how many of their employees are using health insurance at different times. >> That's not right for >> Yeah. Yeah. It's different. Yeah. So we Yeah, we're in

129a decent position with the state plan. last time we checked. >> But yeah, health insurance. So when when you replace an an employee and they go from a single person plan to a health to a family plan, it's a big benefit and a big to them and a big cost to you. >> Okay. Transportation. >> Yes. And again, this almost directly shows the increase. Um if you look at the on page 10 the increase is 178,000 115 of that 750 is that bus purchase that is the in and out wash um purchase and the rest is salary and benefits looking again at actuals to projected and one of the ways that we made that combined position the transportation driver and the custodian one um palatable as we figured out if you have different experience in

130those two jobs then you were different on the scale before and we were it's hard to know which hour they're doing which work when they're really doing everything at once. So, um they get paid a single rate which is the higher of the two they would have fallen into. So, a little bit of an increase for them plus the negotiated um increase but well worth it as Mark said to transport and keep safe our greatest resource. >> I'd be worried about the fuel costs. >> Yeah, I know. >> I I would bump that up frankly because they say he's going to extend through this year. I mean, it's gonna be a lot >> longer for our numbers to come down. >> Yeah. >> Yep. I can certainly >> And the 16,000 actually just next to

131that on line 373, the 16,200 for transportation software, that's the bus ride software that parents have given us nothing but positive feedback on where you can track where the bus is and where your kid is getting there. Um, and we do receive by having that on its separate line. The state receives it in with their subsidy coding. So that there is a portion of that that comes back to us as our calculated subsolute. >> That's um that's good to add. >> Yeah. So our just back to the fuel our actual is 50 grand. >> Yes. >> And we're only budgeting 45 for this. >> You know, >> I'm happy to increase it. We looked at past use. Um it's I mean it's hard to tell you know what it's going to do. It may go

132up for half the year and down for half the year. >> Um but happy to the 45 was sufficient based on several years history not just um >> the past history but certainly could go. >> Are they gas or fuel? Are they gas or >> mix? >> And we do submit the fuel reimbursement. Um, as a school district, we we pay at the pump for the taxes, but the road tax that state of Maine charges to work on road repair, we submit every gallon that we get to the that we buy to the state and we get that money back. Um, because nonprofit schools are not expected to pay that tax. So, >> um, Bradley and I just did six months and had 2,000 bucks back or so. So, and facilities. >> You've done facilities.

133Yes. >> My next question is there isn't a transfer to a reserve. >> So there's not in the facilities. No, which you could build into here or you can wait until approximately May this year when I or June. you could do it in June when I um can bring you where we stand with the current year's budget and see what's left and you can authorize a transfer which then the public would then be you know able to have on their into that reserve okay based on what we have that year available >> so you have two options two ways to do that and then of course the the long-term loans and principles the maintenance million dollar loan we did two years ago so we have 10 payments on that this will be payment number three

134I believe in next year's budget Yeah. >> Do you have any idea how much where we're at with the >> facilities budget this year? >> Of course. Let me the most recent finance committee document >> with that conversation about maintenance and that million dollar loan is all trying to make up for and prevent preventative maintenance not getting done because there isn't any money. And the thing that we were warned about is not setting aside reserves especially for capital improvements >> which and as a reminder we had a very healthy reserve not too many years ago and we were able to use it um to fully fund the roof. Yes. And so we do need to rebuild that but great does have a history of funding and using that money to not ask taxpayers for a

135larger >> increase facilities. Facilities I'm getting my So the very end of February, it appeared we had $250,000 left. All salaries are already encumbered in that. You know, we account what's going to pay out. So any other funds in that line. >> Okay. So there's a good chance that there will be >> Yes. funds to Yes, >> I would think that that would be a good move >> if folks agree to wait and see what's left in June and allocate that if we see prudent. >> Yeah. >> So, do you have do you do you have a sense back? >> Sure. Um, is that something you want to move forward with or is that something you want to consider further down the road? I mean, >> personally, my opinion, >> I mean, that's not really

136our decision to make. I don't think >> I reserving the money. >> There's the opportunity to make the purchase. Again, looking at the budget this year in June, if you told me to, if we looked at the funds and had the money to make it out of this year, >> order it, pay for it, and have it installed over the summer, there's a way to do it that way. I think that there is value to it for sure. I I think that it's very valuable. I would again prioritize safety, a student safety issue over the sign, but I do think that there is community connection and communication that really does need an increase. >> And you could argue there's a safety component to the scient. But um I do think that there are I think

137the communication piece that it will provide is important as we build ourselves as a transparent communicative district. >> I would be full supportive if you find the funds in existing budget lines for this year to encumber that and then not pass it on to next year and free up that space. And maybe I mean to the point you raised Meredith, maybe we think about maintaining that level of capital investments and then figure out where we want that invested to best serve the students. >> So I would work with the finance committee at probably their May meeting in order to review where we stand to bring a recommendation to the June meeting for the full board from the finance committee. >> Perfect. And I will say, I guess I just get a little bit more nervous

138about a $50,000 item like doors. And I guess if there a safety issue right now, that's something different. But depending on what happens with the building down the road, that could be uh flushed down the toilet $50,000. >> Yeah. >> I guess the sign I feel like >> use it still. >> So Mark is here. He would call you guys answer that position. But the doors to the c that's the big expense, right? >> Yeah. Right. Closing it off, locking it. >> Security magnetic doors, >> which is a safety thing for lockdowns. >> I think we mentioned that came along with a homeland security. >> Yeah. >> Yes. >> Yeah. And the junior high. >> Yeah. And it would be hard to say exactly, but I think something like that, those big ticket items because

139they're specialized is something that would able to be used. I you know I don't think we would necessarily think those would be able to be I don't think they would just be left over the side of the road for someone to pick up and >> I would be surprised if the cafeteria disappeared. >> Exactly. >> It might be expanded. Yeah. >> But I would be surprised if it disappeared and it main connection to the building probably remains. >> Yeah. Well, if it was moved to a different, you know, to a new >> and again, I think we're realistically >> probably several iterations of this board away from large scale capital revamping. >> I thought you signed a lifetime commitment. >> Um, all right. So, we've gone through all the cost centers. Yeah. >> All the

140articles. So back on page one shows you the overview if you want to give recommendations because no action can be taken in this meeting but you can give recommendations or go around and give your opinions so I can get majority sense um of keeping it as is increase decreases etc. >> And the food service subsidy is the last thing on page 11 we increase that because of lack of loss of potentially loss of state budget. Well, potentially, yes, but also where Julie became a part-time director, they needed a little bit more consistency helping in the in the kitchen. So, right now there's three people, but it works out to about two and a half. Um, and then and Julie. So, um, we did make we made a a slight staffing adjustment that should still be

141covered by our reimbursement, but we do worry about funding. Yes, completely. That adjustment was done last year. >> Well, we we've increased it though this year. >> Yeah. I just I just nervous. >> No, I understand. >> So, we have about $135,000. That's >> right. Within our discretionary control. >> Yes. To go further than that would require cutting positions >> and keeping in mind that those newly created positions are mostly funded by what we're already paying to contracted services and our local entitlement amounts. So reducing those would give us the ability to spend the money somewhere else. But if you're not putting it back on the staff, it >> No. >> And I think it it goes without saying, but I think it should be said uh it is the recommendation by you and principal

142Den that the staffing levels are where they should be. Correct. >> Correct. Yes. >> Okay. >> With two two additions, but they're being offset by >> contract cost. And that includes beyond Principal Don's suggestion, it includes the pre-K and the high school services as well. >> Yeah, >> which Kelly agrees it's fully necessary. I mean, my only question is what within those facilities investments are the critical ones versus what we can I hate to keep kicking the can down the road, but now I think it's time to be strategic on those investments and think about what can really wait until we are making deeper investments in the facility. But >> but that may be three to five years down the road, too. >> Yeah. Yeah. So, we're in this strange period. >> Yeah. And I

143mean, we all know Mark. He's not >> Yeah. >> really the kind of person to just kind of fluff things up because >> we want to paint on here. He thinks it's important. >> He's pretty pretty diligent about necessity versus we have that recommendation to pull those walls off there. >> Yeah. >> Yes. But also to add back on I'm not sure if that total line had that 4500 for the classroom door that was taken out and put back in. >> Oh yeah, that was >> the math. >> I mean my My only question is the test basin and back stop of the baseball field. I don't I haven't spent much time on that field. I don't know if it is causing an issue with drainage on the field or if this is kind of

144the final step in turning that area into something grassy and more accessible. >> You don't grass it and finish it. It's just going to >> roll down. >> Yeah, things running across the gravel slide down. So, I think it definitely seated what I saw. I haven't seen it since last. >> It looks unfinished and it's unsighted. I think for the runoff it does run. see >> I think our business manager has done an extraordinarily good job and you've done a good job at presenting presenting the business manager's findings. >> Thank you. Do you think your superintendent should know the budget inside and out? >> I don't have the ability to say I don't have the answer, but I will get it. >> Yeah. >> Back to the strings um space of a stage. Is there

145any way I'm not sure if March is there any way to alleviate that with money or is that just a spacious suit? >> You would have to combine two other rooms to give her a room. Um, right now they are trying to figure out if there's any way to restructure the current band room to have if his classes are more in the morning and hers are in the afternoon or something to try and use that space better. But there's still be times when it just won't won't quite work right. Um there definitely needs to be a new larger than a regular classroom space. >> Is there a creative scheduling? >> In terms of only part of the strings strains are one time and you bring it together. >> I've left that to Darcy and Cammy.

146I know they were trying to look at one point about lessons, small group lessons on the stage, but whole group practice in the big classroom that is available. But the problem they had is they'd have to move equipment every time to where the lesson is >> versus leaving it where the whole band needs it. Um, and I'm not sure beyond that, that was the last I heard they were looking at how to solve that. >> I just feel like they've looked at all the options over and over again. It's it's just there's no room. >> Yeah. And a band room requires a certain structure and layout. You can't use a choppy classroom or a small one. You have to be able to put them in a certain formation and the music to sound right as

147well. >> So I think it kind of requires them not to be like between two other classrooms. I mean >> yes it is. >> Some of my kids have a hard time focusing. >> Yes. No. That's that's true. >> You know like it will be hard. There's always certain places you can put them like you can't >> Yes. >> back in the middle of >> Yeah. two kindergartens. >> You don't want them during nap time for prek the drums for them when they're more likely to be closer together. Just exactly >> what did they do during co there's no way that would >> there was so many instruments they couldn't play during co >> yeah they had to put covers over certain >> ones they had to do different like they do like a lot

148of percussion and they did >> I don't know they did a lot of percussion for a while they could do some things outside at one point um but there were for the first part of co especially there were a lot of instruments they couldn't play So I'm not to answer your question, I'm not sure there's a solution in this budget fund for it, but they are trying to look at creative scheduling at least somewhat. >> Yeah. >> So this budget, it seems like we're leaning towards, you know, with that knowing the law funding um would be in agreement with what is in here. I'll help you get it. That seems fair. I mean, the only question would be if we're able to find the signed funding in this year's budget, if we want to consider

149reducing capital expenditures next year. But that's that's the only area where I think needs will change. >> You could make that an even 100,000 instead of 135 or 120 without the wall. If you're looking to do that level amount every year towards projects, if the sign can come out of this year, the sign would eat up such a good chunk of that. Eat up a third of that. >> We wouldn't have any really anything I mean for reserve I guess consider that >> could fit in. >> So keep in mind too that the reserve doesn't necessarily have to come from that article. >> Okay. >> Yes. So if we have like a contingency for, you know, secondary tuition and regular instruction that we didn't end up using, you can put that in the reserve and

150you just have to designate the purpose. So we can move money around with approval. We can move money into different areas >> with approval >> to lower I mean how much is that going to lower? >> Entire budget >> if we made that number 100,000. But it's not really five. >> It would be 6.78 with the bus increase and 5.9 in that gray area. >> I have live spreadsheets here. >> 5.9 sounds good. >> And that's really only losing that 35 15 of which is the wall and 20 of which is towards that sign. You're leaving in 10 for >> so that Yeah. And then if we're very clear about explaining to the public the pass through of the bus reimbursement, it bring our actual budget is a 5.9% increase which is really great. Um

151had neighbors with 20%. We've had neighbors try to hold at zero which involves cutting staff. >> The only way you can do that is to cut staff. So >> we're in a nice 5% is not a bad position. Five or six%. >> Okay. Are there any other questions, comments? >> I would just say that we had lunch brought in. >> Yeah. Could you um just for the record if if there's a citizen from Raymond watching this and sees that 12.63%. >> Sure. >> Could you just say why >> Raymond is a minimum receiver? uh they do not receive as much allocation from the state for their education services as Dan Rscotta and Newcastle does. By joining in the RSU, their share did increase a little bit of what gets contributed for subsidy. But uh the

152current state funding formula basically says that Breamman has too much waterfront property and believes that the residents can therefore afford to fund almost 100% the education of their children. Um there is a bill right now being moved through the legislature to completely rework the funding formula. It's time um there's an adjustment for instance an economic adjustment in there that is close to a hundred years old I think or 80 years old that takes the cost of living in the most expensive part of the state and adjusts everyone else compared to it. It uses the current formula uses Rockland and Scow Heaggan from Miltowns. >> They're not Miltowns anymore and quaries. So that's not where the highest value of living is anymore. So they're making adjustments for that, making adjustments for actual ability of residents to

153pay, which would show more of that um elderly population on a fixed income rather than just assuming everybody there can pay the full cost. It would not go into effect for the budget we're looking at right now for next year, but the new formula would go into effect for the following year for FY28 should it pass. Um, and it just did move from the I believe the legislative committee forward. >> Thank you. >> You're welcome. >> Okay. >> Well, thank you Lindsay for this presentation and thank you everyone. Uh, I will declare this meeting adjourned at the workshop adjourned at 11:58. I miss my boys back. Put there.