Pelham School Committee - April 7, 2026

001And video is alive. Yes, we are live. Seeing presence of a quorum, I'll call the Helen School Committee meeting to order at my computer, I don't know why it's 5:33 p.m. on Tuesday, April 7th. Um, and we are not here at 12, so we will ask everybody to say they're here. Um, so public comment, I will say that there's one written public comment attached. And we have someone here who'd like to give public comment. Sure. Okay. Hi. My name is Glenn Beach. I have two children in Helen School. Um, I was just wanting to be sure I mention a couple of things. One is that I'm hoping that you all can help sort of get to the bottom of the cameras in the school situation. I know it's going to come up later. Um, but

002I think there's a couple of things I'm confused about. One is that in Dr. Z's update, she mentioned this is I just have some quotes from her statement. Um, this is relevant in Helen where the campus is open, has multiple entry points, and is frequently used by the public outside of school hours. So, I wasn't aware that the school is open to the public outside of school hours outside of like scheduled meetings that seems like we know who's here. So, I'm wondering who's using it? Do we not trust them? And what does it mean that the campus is open? That part wasn't clear to me. Um, and then uh, any cameras located in hallways are configured to record only when school is not in session. So, admin have said differently. I've heard directly that admin

003are hoping to use it as a third-party observation tool for resolving conflicting stories that may arise or issues. Um, my child also reported that teachers are saying cameras are in there because of some bathroom vandalism that has happened. So, I'm not sure if we can kind of figure that out. Um, and she also said cameras are motion activated and do not record continuously. So, does this mean that someone then like flips a switch at the end of the day to turn them on to their motion activated on position? And then is this the end of aftercare, the end of the school day? So, um she also said that's not the information is not stored in the cloud. I I find it hard to believe this day and age that it wouldn't be, but I don't

004know. Um I think like my biggest concern is that the the stories are sort of changing and unclear. Um I'm not necessarily totally opposed to it. It just feels weird that if we have a really tight budget right now, we're counting every penny, that these kind of showed up. And I don't know if it was approved by you all or where the money came from. And it just feels sort of weird that it came in under under the radar. So, um uh I just would like to have more transparency around that. Um and also um I want to also make comments about school choice and make sure that it's being advertised properly for Pelham as fast as we can um going into the next uh year for kindergarten so that we can help for the

005sustainability of the school. Um and I know you guys are voting on a budget tonight. I don't have a lot of detail about that, but please like, you know, I'm here to say I would love if you could give the most money so that we can have the most schools. I'm not updated on what's going on, but as a Pelham parent, that is my request. So, thank you. Thank you. Okay. Um I see no one else for public comment, so we will move into the new and continuing business part of the agenda. We have um superintendent's update, the budget vote, school committee goals is on here. That will be reviewed. Um committee updates, and then if there's anything that we didn't anticipate. Um more and then the consent agenda. So, we've turned down a thing.

006So, with that, I'm going to move into the superintendent's update. And, um, Dr. Z, I see you on the screen. Good afternoon, everyone. Um, Can you hear me? Loud and Yes, we can turn it up. Dr. Z, could you try speaking, please? Hi. I think you're >> feel very well today, so I'm I'm not talking much louder than that. I'm going to try. Is that it? >> No, that's fine. The TV was set to all the way at the bottom, so that's you're fine. Okay, awesome. All right, so, um, I think my update was attached to what I knew was attached, and so I don't like to read, um, for people, but what I'll do is I'll walk through. So, um, I'll now walk through central key areas that the chair asked me to provide

007an update on based on current things that are occurring, um, in Pelham and most recent events. Um, so my goal is to provide clarity, context, and transparency as we move to forward as a clear system. So, the first part of the update was how does the, um, central office work? And key thing it's it's a shared service model across three districts. Um, central office there's two things. In the budget, there's a section called central administration, and that does not incorporate all offices that sit within the central office of district administration. So, I need to clarify that. Central administration in the budget really focuses on about five areas. I believe it's a superintendent's office, finance and business, facilities and operation, um, HR, and IT. Our student support offices sit in a different different cost center in

008the budget, as well as our family center and curriculum and instruction. So, when you're talk So, when we're talking about how the budget looks versus how it operates, there's clear things. Um the central office model is interconnected is a small I would say interdependent system where um we operate across different models. Smaller districts like Pelham um usually I I will I've been trying to reach out to other districts that operate the way we are and have not regionalized. Um and may or then they operate within unions. Um we have not found we've been looking in terms of the documentation that outline how the proportions for the allocation or the allocations for the central office have been. Um so, we will be later on recommending that the committees kind of document that. But our central office

009is cost shared. Um some positions are funded solely by Pelham or solely by Amherst or solely by region. Um some positions are shared between two districts in the central office where they might just be Amherst and region. Um and some positions are shared across all three districts. For example, my position um finance um the IT director our CN some of our um curriculum and instruction individuals HR things like that. Those positions that are shared across all three districts are allocated 54% region 42% Amherst 4% Pelham. But this is an FTE in terms of funding only. This is not in how work is allocated. And so, you actually if we were to equate the 4% contribution to work um Pelham does not only receive 4% of services. It would not be. Um and so, therefore the

010it it's hard to equate the level of support that receives is received to the 4% that is allocated to someone's salary because in actuality you're receiving a full-time central office and that is because it's a shared service model. Um the key takeaways for me in terms of that area and I'm just going to rush through them so that I can get to the questions portion is that Pelham has full access to central office. Um for some individuals that are staffed and support the office like I said, we want to ensure that we have clear outline duties, we reduce duplication of roles and costs and we're going to ensure continuity. But as Pelham continues to have conversations about potential separation or how roles are um implemented or or how things or activities move forward, there it

011is important to understand that that may create a standalone model and may increase both financial and operational responsibility for Pelham. So I we can talk more about that in terms of central office. Kindergarten registration, historically prior to me arriving there was always a kindergarten registration night or kindergarten night. This was a combination as again because you had one centralized central office, this was a combined activity where everyone both districts came together. It would be the same thing where you come in parents had a general opening by the superintendent. Last year was my first year, this is my second year. We introduced them to the whatever district resources are available and then they split out and they meet with their principals for the upcoming year. I believe last year Pelham may have had three parents, two

012two parents that showed up, two families. Thank you, Mickey. Two families that showed up. Um it's really not the turnout is not very large when it comes to Pelham, and so but the main crux of the night is really for the central office to kind of do like an introduction of all of the resources that's available, engage with our community partners. And so, I know there was some conversation this year about registration, and we'll talk more about that in the budget, but we shifted the name this year, and it's going to be a We're not calling it registration night, we're calling it kindergarten resource night. Um, and it will be on April 27th, where the central office will will conduct their combined um distribution of resources, and meet the staff, and talk about everyone and

013what it is. And then, they will go ahead and break out in smaller groups. Um, sup- The hiring updates, we did hire a new administrator of mental health and behavioral services. She started, she's hit the ground running. Um, she's been leading the bullying prevention and intervention work. Um, she's been updating some of our grants, she's been working in terms of our policy gaps. I believe she even had was joined in on a Excuse me, on a conversation today with Brim. So, there's a lot of great work that's happening. The director of SSO, um, we're in that hiring process. The screening committee has been identified. That position closed on March 31st. And so, um, give me 1 second. Sorry. Thank you. Um, and so, we will definitely keep you in the loop in as that moves

014forward. In terms of the camera installations, um, this This was brought to my attention, I believe um, there was a uh, public comment that was brought forth, and things happened and the lot and um I released information around the camera installation. Um the request for cameras started um with past based on what I've learned with past administration. Um there was a it originally camera placement originally started in the division of facilities. Um it transitioned over to IT. Um I think last year there was an additional request to install cameras at Pelham. The cameras were installed over February break. Um and like I said, you know, to the school committee, I would have brought it forward um but there was a breakdown in communication until that gap has been addressed. Um key things is that the

015cameras do turn on in the evening um after school is closed. Um the after school program is not a Pelham elementary district program. Um so that's one of the key things I know I heard some of the public coming and tried to jot down some of the questions. Um no cameras in the classrooms, no cameras in the bathrooms, no cameras in private spaces. I was not informed that cameras were going to be used throughout the day throughout the day um to monitor um behaviors but as of right now, based on what I've been told by IT, they do not turn on till in the afternoon. So that we already talked about the approval process. There's no live monitoring. Um no facial recognition. Um our IS director does not believe in um placing things in the

016cloud. I don't either. There is a server that is locally placed um in the school and it is a district server. That is where the recordings and everything go to. The only person has access to that is our director of IS. And I have strict requirements in terms of um requiring or asking for camera footage. Um one of the things is Pelham, the playground, um you can correct me if I'm wrong, the playground is often accessible when the school is closed. Um when school is not in session. Um I also know that from the rear end, like the the library area, there's ways that you can access the campus. All right, when you say when a when I say or an educator says the campus is open, there is no gate. There is no gate

017that is blocking public access to the school. Um so in actuality, you could drive straight onto Pelham's campus and park and have a 20-30 minute conversation with someone right outside of our school, an altercation can take place, different things can happen, and it's on our school grounds. So when you talk about a campus being open, there's actual open access to the campus and the property to the public. It's not as closed not closed off. There's no gate for them to go through that we lock on the weekends or afterwards. Um and I'll answer more questions. I did include a FAQ in there. Um school choice. Oh, I did want to say we will be updating our handbooks um because that is something that we did not do. We'll be updating our handbooks to include for

018the upcoming school year to include the fact that there are cameras and how the cameras um would be used and the footage would be accessed. We will not move forward um with installing additional cameras without informing parents and informing the school committee. Um as the process is supposed to be done. Um school choice. I think that for me I'm going to summarize this to say um we were asked to explain a little bit about the school choice process and um some of the key things to think about or to that I want to highlight outside of what I put in my update is the process that has established when it comes to registration and school choice, especially for Pelham. Pelham has been listed as a um I want to say it's an a school choice

019mandatory option when it came to registering for for school choice in our districts. So, a lot of parents would express interest in Amherst, Percy, and if the space was filled in Amherst, they were automatically kind of guided towards Pelham. So, those are kind of some of the operational things that we're looking at right now as we separate the processes and separate the districts and make sure everything is outlined because we're not sure if that's how it should have been, so we're not going to do that moving forward. Um we also note that seat determination is based upon the amount of seats that we can hold. So, if a classroom, for example, first grade can max out at 20 students. Um but we have maybe currently 10 students going to first grade. And so, we would

020not open 10 school choice seats because we still have to account for the fact that if a child moves into the Pelham Elementary School District, we would want to make sure that we have seats available. So, even with us um determining what that's going to be, we may say, "Okay, for first grade, we may have three seats, four seats." Um we are in conversation and we're working with Mickey in the last two years. Mickey reaches out to figure out the census, how many children are in in the actually live within the Pelham School District. We have that conversation. Um we know that people can move in, can move out. Um and so, we often make sure that we have enough seats to account for the spaces that we could have available, as well as if

021we have someone that moves into the district and we have to make sure that they have a seat because we are their school. We're a public school system. Um critical things that we also think about is Pelham's actual infrastructure. Um Pelham school building is not huge. You know, um and so we would not want to max out the classrooms because we want to think about safety, the amount of desks, chairs, and those types of things. So, you know, those are all things that we take into account when we're sitting on it determining how many seats are available. Of course, school the school committee already voted to approve that. Um we usually have a um application window. Opening up the application window earlier doesn't really help us at this time, but for example, Mickey starts I

022think it's the 19th the 18th the 18th next Saturday the 18th. >> open house. Yes, the 18th. Exactly. So, the 18th um prior to us opening applications, Mickey usually has like an school choice open house where she has parents come in, they do a tour, um she talks to them about the school, and then after that we kind of like within by May or so we open up our application for school choice. Um and we're following our same timeline. We understand what the we what we understand the urgency that the community has come to with, but we've also put some processes in place and these are long-standing processes. Um and so I would encourage like usually Mickey's the person who does this on her own and I think last year she had about four families

023that showed up or five families that showed up. Um I think this year teachers have volunteered or discussed the fact that they would go and help recruit, but then we're also looking at the substitute costs because now again, this hasn't been built into our previous budget. And so there's a cost for substitutes. So, there's there's a lot of great ideas and things that we would want that we want to implement um and we're working with school leadership and our district team to implement them, but we also need to understand that how does this affect our current student population in terms of instruction that's in front of them. How do we make sure that we're not leaning against a already lean budget? I know we're talking about the budget from next year, but our current budget

024did not build in a lot of the things that are we're being asked to implement. Um and then usually in July is when we have the school choice lottery. Um if there are more students than the seats available, we have a random it's a lottery's random minds. So for example, like I said if in first grade, we said we only have five seats, but we have eight first grade school choice applications, we would do a random lottery for the five seats. If we had in second grade seven seats, but we only had six applications, and those six individuals would automatically, I think, get their seats because then we would have closed our process. Um and then Margaret asked for us also to expand on the sixth to seventh grade transition. Um in 2019, DESE issued

025issued updated guidance around we used to move children who were choiced into a district immediately into our regional school district. 2019, that was updated. Um our former superintendent did issue a letter to families um stating that that that that would not continue. I think they gave a time frame, and this is that year. Um and so every school choice application, it's listed on there, it's a line on there. Um in March of this year, our regist- not March. I had the date, and I and I'm seeing it wrong. But um our registrar did send an email to families reminding them of the guidance and the fact that this is that last year, and they will not automatically go into the region. Um this was sent to all families, all four towns, so that individuals understand

026this and that they know that they would not automatically transition. Um we will work with our middle school and high school to identify choice seats, same process, um and then walk through what is available and not available based on seats. And I am going to stop there so that I can the team and I are available to answer any questions. I don't know if anyone is saying anything cuz I can't hear anything being said, so. I have questions. Okay. Um I'm just conscious of how often I talk first. Um can you all hear me up there? Can you hear me okay, Dr. Z? Yes. Okay. Um I'm just going to go one by one. I think that'll work. Can you share where you are with the commit the hiring committee or the interview committee for

027the director of student services? I know you said that Is that in process? Is that committee developed? Um I'm curious if I'm on the CPAC list and typically they email out when there's a hiring committee and I haven't seen that, so I'm curious if there's involvement from CPAC. So yes, this um I can tell you that they actually sent a name for the screening committee and I think they submitted a name for the inter- I'm not sure, but I know they submitted a name for the screening committee. Um so I don't know what process they use because I I've I've asked, but um Okay. It's also possible I missed it with other updates. I just wanted to understand where you are. Thank you. Mhm. Um I'm going to ask this question and might be told

028this is not a question for this meeting, but I am curious if the region is able to prioritize siblings or to prioritize students who have attended one of the the regional elementary districts. Is that possible? I want to let Alex know that. Answer is no, but Marta can explain. I think Marta, we do not prioritize um when it comes to school choice for the region. It's the same process. We're not supposed to prioritize that. Correct. I thought siblings can be Can I Well, when it comes to Sorry, I'm sorry. I can't I don't have my my camera on. >> No problem, Marta. Go ahead. Yeah. So, yeah. So, we can given you know, given spaces, if there are enough spaces, we clearly could if there was a decision to be made, we could prioritize. That's

029one of the school choice um recommendations by DESE, but it you know, there are very specific ways around it. So, yes. If they can be you know, we can contemplate that, but we have to follow specific instructions. So, yes. >> right. So, it's not as easy as yes, we're going to prioritize that. >> No. No. But, we have like So, yeah. So, I I don't want to put forth the perception that because you have a sibling, you automatically get in. There is suggestions on how to prioritize by DESE, but I just do not also do not want to say that. And I know when I came in last year, there was a situation in um another district that that where they talked about we just transitioned from automatic enrollment. Um where if you had a

030sibling, there was an automatic enrollment. And so, that's why my thing is like I just want to make it clear there is no automatic enrollment. You can There's a priority process, but you can't be automatically enrolled into the regional district. Third best in line. Yeah, I think it was in another district, not here, and they had um so if they had eight choice seats, they would hold a sibling choice seat lottery. And then they would hold a non-sibling choice seat lottery. Is that something that that would come from policy, or is that something that is procedurally up to the superintendent and their designates to decide how that works? My understanding is procedurally because the seats are Again, like Martha was saying, it depends on the number of seats that we have available. Um and so

031that actually would I My understanding is it would not it would be uh the district. Yes. That's my understanding as well. Thank you, Martha. Do you have more? Yeah, I said it all. So, what in I think it I think it was 2019, the Massachusetts changed the law. So, it wasn't a decision like a local decision. Massachusetts changed the law that said, "Once you are in a district, you are just there to the end of that district." And if that district then filters into another one. So, what happened was any kid who was in at 2019 got grandfathered in. So, it's not that they like so That's what this year was. That's what That's what's happening this year is that those kids have transitioned all the way through. Um my understanding is that also you

032cannot So, once So, like so if a kid from Rhinotown great Springfield comes to Pelham, once they're done in sixth grade, they're not Pelham kids anymore, they're back to being a Springfield kid. And so then it's part then they're back in the lottery of choice into the region. Yeah. So there's they're divided now. Um and I think there are there are some like like they said there's you there's like a little bit of ability to have some preference for siblings, but DESE is pretty clear that you can't make That's the only Yeah, and and then it is like the school committee gets to decide if you're going to participate in the A school choice receiving district. And then how that happens is an administration decision. So even if so say for Pelham, we the school

033committee decides that they're going to we are going to receive students, but our our administration decides our classrooms are full, then even though we've decided to be a school choice, we're it doesn't mean we have to take more students or we have or we can take more students. So that's just that's where we're planning this. >> Thank you. And also I want to say like I have been asked um can we open can we just open seats for a sibling like and when we have seats. So that's why I want to be very clear like it's it's not an automatic. Like we've been posed a series of questions when it comes to that. Yeah. Dr. Z, I would also say that uh because of the size of the school, I mean other districts may have

034those kinds of leeway and those opportunities, but given that it's only one classroom per grade, there's that limitation as well. Yeah. Okay, thank you. Okay, I've got a few more and then I'm I'm happy to pass the mic. Um this is less a question and more just uh I want to say it aloud. In in your update Dr. Z, I see the note about central office potentially using a decent amount more staff time from central office than the 4% that we're paying. I am interested in getting real data on what that's on what's really going on and what our billable hours from staff at the central office like really like what is what what that tracking might look like. I know that's not a small ask but especially with the work that you and I

035are going to be talking about separately Dr. Z with the futures committee and the work that you're doing with the with community members in in Pelham. It feels really important for us to have a fuller grasp of what central office time and costs are as a committee here. Can I make a quick comment? Can I accept I looked at that and I did the quick math. So for an 8-hour day it's like 28 minutes. Uh-huh. of their of anybody Sure. So 4% of assuming any hour day is like it was 28 minutes. Uh-huh. Yeah. track Yeah. So I wanted to say that again it's all about intent and purpose, right? This section was to show that there's a cost allocation to it and I know I hear a lot of conversation and we experience a

036lot of conversation around the central office and what's done and and what we pay for and those types of things. I think the total cost of the central office in the Pelham budget is probably less than $10,000. However, you get a fully functional full-time central office. We do not sit down and say like FTE doesn't include hours worked and so that's the purpose of that section. If you're asking us to then if you're asking me to identify split employees and have them cost out or or track out how much they work per per per district that then opens up a different conversation. I don't think any of the three districts want us to go to which is hourly All right, like it would end up being that you would end up paying us hourly and

037it would be more than what it is that is truly allocated. So, the statement was really to bring in to to perspective the fact that the central office especially the split employees actually it's it's a it's a service model. It's a shared service model where we are supporting all three districts. And I think like and and and these and these and this is what the FTE equals, but the FTE does not translate into hours worked and and and what we actually put forward to serve and run the districts. And I think Jenny wants to add to your question, Rachel. That's your hand. Um yeah, I think it's not only would it be like extraordinarily difficult to try to track that down to the hour, but I also think based on my observation and it it's

038the central office has to be extremely responsive. So, it's also not like a snapshot in time answer. Like there are some months where Pelham is going to require significantly more and other months where we may require significantly less and it's very situation dependent. So, I think maybe a way of sort of doing the financial analysis would be to look at if we were to try to have our own administration for Pelham, what positions would we need to have in place and what might that look like? How how might we have to like figure out the costs for having the equivalent positions in place for us. I think that might be an easier and sort of more practical way of thinking about um what we would you know, what we would end up paying if we

039didn't have a shared central administration. William? I was just going to say that I don't think of it as FTE and I think that's looking at it wrong cuz I don't think Pelham saying that Pelham only pays for 4% of your time I think is wrong. So I would look at it as either we have 61 ish students in Pelham or we have 120 28 28 students in Pelham. So when I look at how many kids are in the region, I look at how many kids are in Summit, I look at how many kids are in Amherst, I look at how many kids are at the preschool. We're like 5% of the total population. If we just look at our Pelham kids, we're like 2% of the population. So They're all your kids, sir. They're

040all your kids. >> paying the 4% cuz I mean some students are not going to need district help and some students are going to need more district help. So I don't think looking at an FTE is really a fair uh talk conversation piece because I think it's more what's the whole body of kids that we're servicing and then it should be divided up by the number of kids, which is what we do for the region. It's based more on the rolling average of number of students. And so I think that we should look at it in that way and in that way it's we probably if we're looking at how many choice kids we have, we should be paying 5% of the share. 5% >> at how many town kids we have, it's like two

041two and a half percent. So then four kind of fits in the middle. So I think maybe we should like figure out are we going to include the choice kids in those numbers or not and then maybe we should reevaluate the splits between the three towns. But I don't see that 5% is that drastically different than 4% and even at 5% you're only going to be giving 20 minutes of your time. So like it's like that doesn't work. Like the FTE piece doesn't work. It's my opinion. So again, the FTE is only about how how your salary is broken down in terms of full-time equivalency. It does not account for our time on task, right? Because we're like we're again, we're not hourly employees, we're salaried. We get our salary and this is how it's

042paid across the three districts. What I will also say is that I would strongly advise the chair of Union 26 to have the conversation and bring it forward and probably formalize it between like that and the chair of the like bring it together and formalize this because technically you are correct. First of all, to clarify, the choice children are our students because once we have accepted them, they are ours. So it is 120 plus students. It is about 5. 5 5.6% that would have to pay be paid. I think um region would be 52% and then armor should be 44% if we actually allocated it across the enrollment enrollment. To me that that's that, but again, we would need the districts to come together and formalize and determine how they want central office to operate

043because it's all about the shared cost. So so that that's for me. We don't like Jenny said, we don't turn around and say, oh, it's been 20 minutes of our time, we're done. No, if in from January till now like every day we account for what's happening in in all three districts and we put the same effort towards Pelham that we would put towards anybody else. This is our job is to make sure we support Pelham and it is able to function best. So for me, I serve three committees with the same energy um and each of you have your own different viewpoint of how you want to operate, how you want to do things, what you think is is is expectations and priorities. The communities that we serve all have the same things and

044we don't have the option as a central office to say, "No, we're not going to look into this. No, we're not going to do that." So, in actuality, even if you think about 8-hour days, we do not work. Central office and the the main and the top individuals that would actually be if you were to use what Jenny said and say, "Look at the positions that you have to have." Your finance person, your curriculum person, your superintendent, your HR person. If you were to look across those critical areas and determine who in central office you were supposed to have, none of those individuals are hourly. None of those individuals only work 8 hours a day. None of Like, those individuals have to extend throughout to make sure they could support and do what needs to

045be done. So, I'm not saying like technically, it's not about the time. The the the breakdown in how we are paid will never equate to how we service the district, right? Because we put the same level of service into each district and it is really honestly and truly how we move forward each and every day. Just to add, I think that the the size of and I don't know how this works, but like Amherst preschool or whatever it's called, I think it's the same about the same size as Pelham Elementary as far as students, I think. Who? Amherst The Early Education Center. The Early Education Center. It's about the same size as Pelham for the number of students? They have about 70 >> I thought it was 90. That was like 90 students, sorry. Okay.

046So, then does that roll into Amherst budget? >> Yeah. Yeah. >> where that comes from? Okay, so then those kids would be rolled into that percentage cuz I think the percentage of Pelham students is lower than what you had said cuz I think it's more five or a little bit lower because of the early educate whatever that school is called. The couple kids in the pre-K. That's what you're saying. All the kids in the pre-K is about almost the same size as all the schools all the kids in town. Uh-huh. So, I but I do feel like that's coming >> are we trying to answer? That's what I was going to say. I do think that conversation is for something else. But, I I just I just need to visit I I hear everything you're

047saying and I think particularly um as we're looking to long-term, I don't think this is so much of a conversation for tonight. Um it is not just $10,000 that Pelham pays for central office salaries. I have the salary sheet and it's around 110. Um and I think it is important for us to have a fuller sense of what the real percentage of time that is spent by the central office in terms of costs are so that we can be making informed decisions as we move forward. It's not like with an intention of being over anybody's shoulders and I think we need a fuller understanding of what's really going on. But, are we trying to find out whether the amount of central office that we are paying for is a fair and appropriate amount? I didn't

048have a question. We're not trying to find anything out. She would I don't know. I would like to. I just wanted to point to that as something that that like there was a decent amount of time spent on in the superintendent's update that that stood out to me and that I'd like more information about long-term, not tonight. You might have a question related, but I didn't have a question. It's not a state question. Yeah. I had a question about the percentages and how we got there. And if it's equitable for all towns. Uh-huh. I think I would just add also that I the suggestion that maybe this is something in the future that we need to formalize would be a really good thing to do because I know Amherst has its own concerns about percentages.

049Mhm. Um so, I would just add that for the future. When that sounds stuck as you made a suggestion that you need 20 seconds. >> And the region I think would have to look at me. >> Yeah, yeah. And I think that would be a a good way to do it. Okay. I agree. What else? I've got two more. Go ahead. Okay. Um, I know we keep hearing that the school choice timeline is the same as last year. I've seen a couple of parents share one one by email. I believe it's the school committee. Um, but I I have seen that last year's school choice opened around March 20th. And I'm curious why it's a month and a half later this year. I'm curious why it's a month and a half later this year. That's

050the question. So why don't I have an email if you can forward that that concern to me? Um, I can't investigate concerns. Sure, yeah. Um, second of all, one I I don't think I don't know if we started advertising like our um our Pelham open house earlier. Um, I know that there's different things that we're doing different this year to include the registration, um, to include splitting out our forms, um and making sure that Pelham has everything for its own district. Um, so I would say that there's a there's critical things that we're doing this year to separate the processes, um, but we're still to me on track with our spring enrollment and numbers. Really? Um, just for myself, I did not see I don't see anything wrong with the forms being combined. Um, I

051don't think the the forms that I saw in the beginning were confusing and were not aligned that it was two separate districts. But I'm I'm to sharing that service if it's communicated and the posters and flyers are done in a way that it's not confusing to families. You're talking about the kindergarten registration or our forms for >> The kindergarten registration. >> Okay. So, under >> we had talked about separating that out and I don't know if that is like that's not necessarily direction I think we need to go. Um but and and I know you have made the comment before that we would get the rollover of the choice kids who didn't get into Amherst. And so, I think that it has a benefit. Um but the forms that I saw were just confusing in

052that it had like dual enrollment and it had different things on them. So, I don't want to get I don't I hope that the message that I was trying to send is not that I want it to be separate. I want it to work the most effectively that it can. So, it wasn't it wasn't your >> in the beginning was effective. So, it wasn't your choice. It wasn't your So, first off, we received feedback from multiple school committee members um around the kindergarten flyer. But what I'm talking about is our forms, our actual forms as crafted as as they currently are, right? What people complete and different things. We are working to update those and make sure that they outline clear like this is Amherst, this is Pelham, this is So, it is we're not

053talking I'm not talking about the flyers. We did update the flyers and correct them. Um like I said, there were just some things um and we um between myself and Martha, we agreed that there were things I needed to to shift and change. We knew that it was um one central office doing this this thing and opportunities for individuals to to experience both districts and it wasn't clear, but we cleared those up and we resent them. Um so, it's not the flyers. I'm not talking about the flyers. I'm talking about the actual forms that individuals and families fill out um and updating our entire process. Um you know, looking at we have a new website now. Um, we wanted to make sure that the correct things are up on the website. Um, I think we

054still have some other things to finalize around this and make sure it's clear. And for me, I I just want us to make sure and the team agrees that we had rich conversation around making sure that we identify Pelham as its own district. Um, and I think that's the one thing the school committee has expressed like making sure that Pelham operates as as its own district. Um, and so we want to make sure that we whatever past practice or practice that we had we look into it, we vet it before we implement it, but we vet it from the standpoint of what's going to be the impact to Pelham and what's going to be the impact overall because some things um are going to are not just costs. They have a operational impact like you're

055talking about. So, we're we're moving intentional um in what we do. Okay, I'm coming back to what I just forwarded um I thought I sent an email to everyone but it wasn't and I apologize about that but I just forwarded it to the school committee and It's not attached. It just said this is a school Oh, yeah. Sorry. Um You can send it after. It's next You had one more question. Yeah, no, I just want to emphasize the reason I'm asking so much about choice and timing is like for everyone to be really transparent because we got pressing that the school may be closing. I think the more public facing we are about that the school is here and that choice is open and that like the the doors are open, not for security issues,

056but um that we're here and open, I think is really important for the longevity of the school assuming there's longevity of the school. Um, so I did attach it this time. Um, it's a screenshot from Parent Square from last March. So, you can see the date at the very top. I would love if you could look into why the change and when the school choice applications might have opened and I did not Dr. Z mean to have that as a surprise question for you. So, if you could look into that and share with us when you find out that would be helpful information. Okay, like I just said I know part of us what we're doing right now is we're trying to make sure that we're outlining our processes and make sure that things are

057not There's some things that we need to address to make sure that we clearly do an impact Pelham in the way that that we may need to. So, I'll look into this. I'm sending it to Mickey and I'm working on it right now. And I think the sooner that it can be advertised publicly that like choice is opening on my my May 1st even though that's still a bit off that the the more that can be shared publicly the better, personally. Okay, this is my actual last question. And uh and obviously everybody. Um, security cameras, you heard the input from a couple community members. My my biggest question I I do not think there is a lot of frequent community use outside of hours as aside from the after-school program. The cameras are almost exclusively

058in the opposite hallway from where after-school and outside of S3 take place. They're almost exclusively in the older grade class hallway for those familiar with the building. Um, and there there quite a few of them for that little hallway. It was like a little bit alarming the first time I walked in and saw them, but there's only um, one at the front door, one in the cafeteria, one in the gym. Anyone correct me if you're if you know differently, but I'm confused about like really what's the intention there Because if it is around what's going on in the after-school or outside hours, it doesn't seem like you're getting eyes on that. Um so, I'm a little bit confused and interested to know more. That's the question. I just also want to repeat um lots of

059kids were told that the cameras were there because of things they did wrong and I and that is concerning to hear as a committee member, especially if that's not the case. Um so, I just like really want to emphasize that we be telling the kids what's really going on and that might mean equipping teachers with more information. I don't I don't know why and how that happened, but that's a concern. So, what I'm going to say is that after this um because that I don't know I I want to ask some follow-up questions to the statements that you just made before I look into it. So, after this I'll reach out so that I can adequately work with Mickey to determine what was said and who said what. Um I will work with my IS

060team. Um I think part of it was if there's a camera facing the front door, they could can see straight down that hallway and it can also possibly, but I need to confirm, also see straight down the other hallway. So, placing a camera in between like in the inside of there wouldn't make much sense because we already have a range of sight based on the cameras that are there. If that makes sense. So, if there's a camera facing the front door, it probably and I haven't seen it, so I'll work with my IS to to give you that confirmation. But based on what I've seen so far like the other schools and the cameras that have been used, they have a range of sight straight down the hallway. So, if it's not it's not just

061pointed at the door, it's going straight down. So, I need to ask what was the intention and get clarity, but to my knowledge it should not be to my knowledge, that's the front entrance, it should not be being used to monitor students during the day. So, I will confirm and find out where that came from and have that cleared cleared up. That all makes sense. I'm confused about the cameras in the other hallway. That's That's what would be helpful So, for me line of sight and security, right? If If we're If we're trying to make sure that things are safe and we want all all possible angles of what could occur. So, for me those hallways and I always get turned around, right? But that I think that's the we come down the the front

062and then That's the It's the first hallway when you're from the office. Right. >> They're like every 8 to 10 ft down that hallway. Okay. So, I will say that I will check in with my IS team um and then I will have a update for the school committee. Okay. I I have not been able to put my own eyes on it. It was my intention when I returned physically to put my eyes on it. So, until then I have to depend on what my team tells me. So, I'll get an update and I'll reach back out to you. I think a parent also asked and now I'm remembering, can you share where the budget where what budget this came out of? Is it central IS or is it from a Pelham budget line that

063we're Can you find that out for us as well? Sure. Um Shannon, I believe um it came from central IS. Uh yes. Thank you. It came from central IS. IS had um They have their own account lines in Pelham, Amherst, and Region. So, it's under the IT budget in Pelham. Thank you. >> So, it came from the Pelham IT budget. Right, under central IS. Okay. William? Yeah, I was going to So, just so clarity for some parents that or someone in the public made a statement tonight. So, the cameras the school gets dismissed at What time? At 2:40. So then the camera's going at like 2:41? Or are they coming on after after school? I have to confirm the time. Okay. Um I >> Would that be nice to be able to the public >>

064Yeah, I was looking at my email to see if I had the time. Um but I am also trying to present here. So I'll I'll make sure I get that clarified. Okay. And then the you said that it's being on a server that's here in the building. So In the other building, in the school building. So here in Pelham, right? Yes. So then if there was an incident your designee would have to come to Pelham to review the footage. I believe so. Okay. That's what I thought you said. I just wanted to clarify that. Yeah. Um And I guess that's all. Oh yeah, I would also add to what um my mind's gone blank. >> I'm reaching out for clarity. For clarity, It is that I I I had a couple interactions with children and

065children are children. So they all have wonderful stories, right? I used to teach kindergarten and they have magnificent stories they come up with and they're sometimes truth and sometimes not and who knows what. Um but it did seem like that the children believe that the cameras are there to monitor them. And it would be I would hate to I I would want to make sure that our school community is not misrepresenting what the cameras are. And that the kids know that the cameras are only on after school hours and they're not on during the regular hours. Like I think we should be up front and honest with the kids of what the plan is. And I'm not saying that adults weren't involved in that conversation. It could have just been kids being kids and there's

066new cameras and so the assumption is that they're watching their friend who's lying. Now, who knows, right? Um but I I do think it would be nice to be able to tell the parents and or the kids the cameras are not on during the day. They're not there to monitor your behavior. They're not there to make sure you're in line in the hall. Um and just that we're up front and honest with the kids about why the cameras are there. So, I did not know that that was what was being told to the students. So, I will definitely have >> don't know if it's being told to the students. >> I know, but I know that that was the conversation amongst the children. And so, I would need some time to go back. I will

067say that two things, um our IS director, we sent out a call to confirm, but he can he can access the server from his laptop. Um so, he may not necessarily need to be on campus, but it's not cloud-based where all of the stuff is stored to the cloud. It's stored on the server, but he can access the server from from his devices. Um and then you you said something prior to him accessing the server. You asked about the time. Um I'm definitely going to confirm the time. I believe it's around 3:00, but I asked them to to things I could say this to ask the team to clarify for me. I'm trying to get the information. Um So, yes, okay. So, he can connect via VPN, um that only he can connect to. Um

068and it's available from the network, not the internet. So, he has to be tapped into our network, which the server is connected to. Um and he and also through the the VPN and the networking. So, it's not cloud-based, and I believe it's after 3:00 p.m., but I want to confirm it's not after 3:05 p.m., but I think it's after 3:00 p.m. when our staff and everyone else leaves. Um but I will confirm that time for the school committee. And I will also work on the other issue in determining what the students were told or or telling themselves. Right, yeah, yeah, I know. I'm not like saying it was adults. Kids kids are like they come up with their own thing if they're not told the message, right? Correct. There are no. Okay. I do have

069one question about choice. Um >> Mhm. For choice the choice this is kind of it's affecting our current Pelham students. So the kids that are currently in sixth grade are I guess I I want to advocate for them to make sure that the region really understands that there's going to be more choice seats possibly because we're not going to have kids who are automatically rolled in. So like if we had choice seats normally the region would have say three for the grade, but they had like 12 kids that automatically rolled in from the towns, they would just need to be reflective of this is the first year that we've had kids not automatically rolled in. So what you may have to open up more choice seats than you would have in the past. Martha already

070be So Martha began that conversation with all principals. Um she's been deep in that conversation. I believe that she has already like she shared with me that she already started telling them to account for their seats. Um and so once she tells me it's time to step in and and deal with we'll deal with it on a different level I will, but she's been taking the bull by the horns to first Dr. Z, I would also say if I may Yes. that there are not that many. When we did the outreach for the individual letters which we did on February 5th Thank you. >> Um yeah, we uh there there were not that many and I'm happy to provide the specific numbers. I just don't have them with me, but it's probably about four or

071five at Pelham and at between Leverett and Shutesbury they're less than 10. So, we're not talking about a large number, but I'm happy to provide those numbers. Thank you, Marta. Okay. I think we're ready to move on to the budget vote. Awesome. Do we we present first? One more comment, sorry. I apologize. Um I on the choice thing that we had asked you had mentioned the teachers might be going out and we would need need subs. Have we thought about tasking the I don't know if it's called the P I had PTA. The PTO, have we thought about tasking parents that could take materials and go out to other preschools or other determined locations and do it instead of the teachers? So, I believe that um I've asked Mickey said yes, and I will also

072say that I um my team is going to reach out to the PTO um to set up a meeting with my office and them. Um I think that there's some misconceptions that need to be clarified, as well as um probably talking about how do we adequately partner. I think a lot of initiatives sound really great. Some of them as a district we're able to support quickly, and some of them take additional time, clearances, and resources. And in and not because we have to walk within the lines of guidance and compliance means that we don't want to do it. So, Mickey said yes, she's saying yes, and um we definitely we're going to reach out to the PTO to kind of have a conversation. And I would say reach out to the school committee, too, if

073you need volunteers for that. Awesome sauce. To reach out to different venues or if you tell us where to go, we can do that. Okay. I think one of the first things that we'll do is share with you our um April 18th flyer. Um it should be If it's not in our social media It should be in our social media pages. And so, one of the key things, too, is everybody has their own followings. Like, please share it. Um, and then we'll definitely send that over to you so that you guys can share that, too, as well cuz it will help for the open house. And Dr. Z, we sent the Pelham and the Amherst flyer to every single preschool, every single in our listserv. So, we sent both to all Amherst and in surrounding

074towns. So, just wanted people to know that we did send both. And reach out to real estate agent offices, too. Or people that are relocating that are going to a different town that they may not like the schools. Got it. Didn't think about that. So, we definitely will send it to you then. Kids sent us the difference. Okay. We will move on to the budget now. Um, so, we have to have a vote tonight. We have to send something to the town for tomorrow. So, we need to proceed with that. So, I guess Shannon, I'm going to ask you to start out. One second. Just for a clarifying statement, cameras that aren't viewing the exterior doors are off from 7:30 to 4:00 Monday to Friday. So, they do not come on until the internal cameras

075do not come on until after 4:00 p.m. And then I'll get the additional information for you. Thank you, Dr. Z. Clarify something. Yes. The So, we got the budget document and then we got this this memo about it. I felt it. Yes. Are those two separate >> Yes. So, >> two separate things. So, the school budget is going to go to the town and this request for capital support is separate from that? >> Yes, but they both go to the town. >> go to the town but we're but one is not wrapped holding into the other. >> That was always a separate thing from the operating budget. Got you. Okay. Okay, Shannon. Okay, good evening. I will share my screen and I'm going to talk through this. I don't know where I can't see oh,

076I don't know where everybody went. I know you're still here. We're here Shannon. Keep talking. We can see you smile. I know but I like to see you all when I'm when I'm talking. Show webinar. There we go. Okay, so where we left off at the end of our last meeting was a request of three scenarios. And in all three scenarios, there was a request to increase the share of the funds from the town by 1.25% and there was a request that in one scenario, we include the addition of additional days for the clerical person within Pelham now. That was presented at the budget hearing. There in another scenario, it was asked to remove that from it and then a third scenario was requested the current person at Amherst being split to do a portion

077of the registration work and what that would look like. So, it got a little complicated from then to now. One of the major changes that I want to share with you tonight is the second charter student that is enrolled at a charter school, which is also a sibling to the current charter student um in FY26. And so this information normally we get uh an estimate it comes out on the cherry sheet by the department or the DOR. And then we get pre-enrollment numbers based off of that cherry sheet that we could use to build the budget. I don't use those numbers because they're just estimates and one student has a major impact. And so normally I wait until January to find out the actual enrollment. That's when those numbers are normally out for the current

078year and that's what I would use for the projection of the following or the upcoming year. So those that information, like I said, is normally in January. It was not posted in January. I reached out to the charter contact at DESE for this information. She was hopeful that it would be end of January. They changed their system from the DESE security portal to champ. I had to wait for that to roll out and she did add me as a test person, but I could not see all three districts. And so needless to say it just took a long time before I was able to see the actual enrollment for FY26 to know that there's a second person, which I did receive that information from the last meeting to now. And also they rolled out the

079pre-enrollment April 1st for FY27. So we do have two charter students that are attending charter for FY26. The first year that a student goes to charter, the tuition is 100% reimbursed. The second year it is only 60% reimbursed and the third year 40% and then after that you have to cover the full cost and there is no reimbursement. So for FY26, it ends up being a wash because we're getting 100% reimbursement. However, for FY27, we would only receive um, 60% reimbursement. So, with this information, um, knowing that there's a second student, I updated the other programs line within the budget to ensure that we're accounting for that moving forward. So, that's the change from what I presented last time to now. So, now I just want to walk through the different scenarios that are outlined

080here, um, and they get a little confusing. So, I'm going to start Oh. Can I just Shanna, is there a place where the charter reimbursement shows up on the budgets? No, because it goes directly to the town and it does not come to directly to the school. And so then the the town gets it and then they can allocate it the school. Can is the key word. We see the amounts of spending. As as we go through, can you help us understand I I we can see the amounts of spending, so it seems really critical to know the amounts of reimbursement. So, I I'm going to ask that if we could walk through and then each one and if we could just write the questions down because I think that we'll end up I don't

081want to say end up through a rabbit hole and not and and not intentionally. But, when it comes to charter and funding, we might end up off in different areas. So, if we could write down all of our questions, get through the budget scenarios, and then come back, um, because the in terms of the charter reimbursement, that's a different form that DESE sends out. So, we can talk about that process, but I think we for the intent of right now to go through the budget scenarios, um, write down our questions, and then we can get back to them and and determine how we do it best. That's my assumption. And I could talk a a little bit about how charter is billed and assessed at that point, too. Um so, the first scenario is budget

082scenario 1A, and this is a 1.25% increase over FY26, and it includes the additional days for the clerical position that we discussed at the budget hearing. Um and I had accounted for in other programs the increase for the charter student. So, this budget would mean um an additional 128,000 of uh school choice funds would need to be used in order to bridge the gap. And so, I left that um choice highlighted here. It's um it's a total of $628,824. We were already planning to use $500,000 to support the budget, and then at the request to use additional choice funds to bridge the gap, it would be 128,000 and some change more. Um you see down here, this is what when I had spoken um with the town previously last year, they said they would cover

083some of the charter reimbursement, and in FY27, as presented in the budget hearing and prior budget arguments, we still have the 35,000 to cover charter here. So, that's budget scenario 1A, and there's a 1B, and I want to let you know down here at the bottom, this 2.8 million, actually I should say the full number, 2,880,851 is going to be the same bottom number for budget scenario 1B. That's why they're labeled 1A and 1B. So, um I'd like to come back to this one after I finish what was originally requested to present and move to budget scenario two, which was to not include the $6,000 for the clerical support, um still have the 1.25% increase over FY26, and it has the accounted for increase in charter under other programs, and still the same charter amount

084that the town um could allocate in free cash. Um this budget would require an additional $122,445 in school choice to bridge that gap. It's less than budget scenario 1A because the there is no registration um happening within this budget or being paid for from this budget. In budget scenario three, this is um a 1.25% increase over FY26. It accounts for the charter again, and it accounts um for a $132,445 of school choice. I was asked to put together the scenario of how much the current person at Amherst um salary would be to do the Pelham registration. Um and after it it sounded simple um in the meeting, but then when we come back and we start doing the work, that we have to account for the fringe of that person, um like we do with

085all split split district staff, but also the charge of this of the clerical position for the additional days was not just registration. It was also to work on outreach, and um it it was a larger scope than just the registration. Um, so with that, we would have to um, either utilize the the current person in that role, which right now um, does not do outreach for school. Actually, we don't have a person that does outreach. So, in order to account for that, we have to add that role to someone's job. And if it's a unionized person or a committee action person, it has to be negotiated and some additional pay would be associated with that. So, we used an estimate of 6,900 to 10,000 depending on how that would land, which it's just a placeholder

086at this moment. Um, we used the high end to be cautious. It could end up lower depending on how that would roll out. And so, that's why this budget requires $132,445 additional in school choice in order to bridge that gap accounting for a potential up to $10,000 um, for the for that clerical split role. So, those that's where we landed with what we discussed at the last meeting. I want to bring us back up to budget scenario 1B. And this one is different and um, was not requested at the school committee meeting, but it was something um, that Margaret and I had spoken about was to knowing that this charter um, additional charter student was enrolled, would the town increase the amount for the reimbursement? Um, we would not have the increase of the 1.25%.

087Um, but and the original clerical position of additional hours um, that was presented at the budget hearing is accounted for and of course the additional charter expense is accounted for in this budget. So, the bottom line is 2.8 million. It's still the same amount um as the uh budget scenario 1A, um but it only accounts for $116,375 additional in school choice funds when you look at the funding sources in this format as opposed to 1 budget scenario 1A, if you're following me. I know it gets a little confusing. Um so, that's where we are, and if I will take questions on this, I'm sure there's some clarifying things. Yeah, I I would like to see those numbers, can you stop sharing? Yes. Jenny has a question. I'm just trying to understand, so budget 1B would

088be instead of asking for the 1.25% increase, we would be asking for more reimbursement of the charter students, that's what that free cash from the town. So, we'd be asking for free cash from the town. And at 70. At 70,000, and then that would mean that we didn't spend as much out of the school choice funds. Correct. Okay. So, with these other scenarios where Uh so, if we do ask for the 1.25% increase, is that coming from the town, or is that increasing the amount of school choice funds we're having to use? The one question. Um the 1.25 would be an increase from the town, um but at that we we only had 35,000 that was going to be applied from the town for from free cash for charter. Um and I'm not sure that

089they would um consider the 1.25 and the 70,000 for free cash and if that's something that they'd be able to do. So, it's one or the other is what we're looking at. Well, it's whatever we vote but that's I asked to have that additional option when we found out about the second school choice student. Got you. Okay. Cuz I thought if we didn't present something tonight, we had no option to consider. So But I I want to I want to expand that it gives a tone of flexibility of where comes from in terms of the 1.25 versus the the the 70 and this is under an assumption, right? The assumption is that that if they gave if they gave the if we if we voted the 1.25 that the assumption is that they would give

090the 35 because they did it last year um from free cash. The this now gives them the flexibility of giving us the 70 from free cash. It reduces our um the amount of school choice we would be expending which is really good for us to keep our contingency behind and a great part is the way how it's it's laid out here 1A and 1B really is the same and the the same bottom line. So, what ends up happening is it gives the town also some flexibility in in how we get how they apply the funding to us but we still get to have a level of savings on our end. Other people from the personal Service. So Okay. I I'm sorry. I don't have a computer. I think it's So, well, it's somewhere not with

091me. So, I um Okay. So, in one does is number three the budget budget is number three, the only one that keeps the registration joint with Amherst. All right. I didn't read it. Yeah, that's my read now. Yes. Three has everything in it. Yes. Two. Two is the one that has the clerical taken out of, I believe. But three is the only one that keeps registration separate from us. So, budget number three and and Shannon explained it. Budget number three is the one where we were asked to have the registrar, the current Amherst Amherst registrar, split the role of registration and outreach. And do outreach, which is not currently part of their Would that outreach It's not currently part of anyone's duty. What? It's not cur- It's outreach is not currently part of anyone's specific

092duty. Right. So, number three has is the only budget option that keeps the registration together with Amherst. And then also adds outreach to it. Budgets 1A, 1B, and 2 have Pelham doing its own registration or none. 1A Budget 1 has Pelham doing its own registration and So, budget 1, which is 1A, 1B, right? >> Okay. So, that's I'm looking at a budget That's what I'm doing in own registration and outreach. And so, what and and by itself, and then that's it. Budget two, Shannon correct me, does not because we were asked to present a scenario where it's not there. So, budget two, no one is doing registration or outreach in budget two. Okay. That feels Okay. Like, we probably need some registration. Well, it is a scenario that the team was asked to to pose.

093So, budget two has no one. That's fine. Well, since it would be absorbed by current staffing. Right. Right. Mickey's doing it. No new Okay. 1A, sorry. I just want to make sure I'm understanding this correctly. 1A, 1 and 0.25 1.25% increase from the towns. $628,000 from choice. $38,000 $35,000 assuming from charter reimbursement from the town. And Pelham continues to do its own outreach as it currently stands. Question mark. Pelham will start doing their own outreach and their own registration. 1A, yes. That with a That has the $6,000 to do it. Roughly. But there's nothing that's happening now, though. I Yeah, yeah. I'm just No, I understand that. Okay. And then 1B has 1B is exactly the same. It's just different funding in terms of the 1.25% in the charter. But they both include >> money

094from choice. Yes, we'll Yes, less money from choice. >> Like a a significant amount from choice. And then 1 fringe benefits. And then 1B has Pelum doing it's $6,000 of out registration. Yes. Okay. And then two has no registration no registration 1.25% increase from the town $35,000 from Charter and $622,000 used from Choice. Yes. Remembering that the $35,000 is an assumption but yes. Yes because that's what's been done for many years right right and then three has the most expensive budget because it has increased and more from like 1.25% increase $630,000 in Choice and 35% Charter $35,000 in Charter and $10,000 to do outreach and keep the registration. Okay. All right. Thank you. You're welcome and we were posed a question as a Margaret sent us a question around this I think it became it

095came from Rachel around the calculations. One of the things is when we pull salaries the fringe was not included but also there's other back end fringe for example longevity or seniority that we have to take into account in these numbers. We also have to take into account that it becomes negotiable because we're adding additional duties. So whereas we would have negotiated in in budget scenario one with the 6,000 and added these two additional duties are now expanding someone else's additional duty that's on a higher end of the scale. So there's different things that we have to take into account when we actually presented these numbers. Okay. Thank you. William. So Mhm. in January or February, I remember when it was, Shannon, we were looking at taking out an additional 87,000 from It was like 587

096from the revolving fund. And then I know in the next iteration that we saw, it it included like a 20,000 22,000 i-Ready piece. And so then that number went up. And then the next time we saw it, it included the um yearly expense expensive of the one position in Pelham. So, that was like 6,800 more. Um Now, I understand that we have this additional charter kid, but I still feel like there's like an additional like 12,000 from the last time we saw the budget. Could you point me to where what was added? Um the only thing I changed was the charter. So, I will go and pull up the last meeting to get the bottom line dollar really quick. >> Because and then I guess I I wanted to clarify that the 1.25% increase was

097not increasing our budget, it was increasing the town allocation. Correct. Yeah. Okay. I just wanted to clarify that. Um and then I guess I another question I have is currently this year or what we had anticipated for next year was it was going to be 35,000 for the charter expenses. And the town had kind of talked about doing that in free cash if like I had I heard that conversation. Um now the cost is going to be 70,000 for the two kids or is it more than that? Um it's estimated at $70,922. Okay. Can I pick up there? >> Yeah, I think that's all I have for right now. I So, I spent some time looking at a couple of the links in the memo that that that Shannon sent about school choice and learned

098something that was interesting. So, school choice is three pieces, the way they decide. So, it is based on your foundation budget, your above foundation spending, and a set amount facilities fee that all schools get charged the same thing. So, every district is different and potentially every year can be different because all of those things change. >> Wait, do you mean charter? Yes, I'm sorry. I said schools, I'm sorry. Yes, now I meant charter. So, I just throwing that out there because I found that very interesting. I wasn't hadn't really delved that far into what's involved in charter. So. So, I was able to find on DESI the anticipated charter tuition payments and anticipated reimbursement. I'm I'm pointing to this cuz we're talking about potentially asking the town for more money in different buckets. Um, and

099I want to point out as of last week we were talking about asking the town for what I understood to be 35K, but I I believe it was actually only around 18 16K cuz this link, which I I can share with folks, but is the it's the DOE site, not DESI, sorry. Um, but it's the DOE site that gives a charter summary. It's Talbots charter summary for projected fiscal year 27 tuition payments and reimbursements. Um and it says that the anticipated reimbursement is 41,508. Um so that means that actually with these two students, that which they list as 2.2 FTE, I don't know how they put this. I don't know how they come up with that number, but that's what they got. Based on that number, they're saying that we'd actually be the net district

100cost is just under 35K. I'm pointing this out because as of last week, I was understanding that the free cash request to the town would be for 35K. I was assuming that was with whatever reimbursement was coming, um with which I understand now is not the full picture. Well, with this 70K request, it's actually a request for 35K from the town because they will get back 41 of it. Is that understanding correct, Shannon? Um I'm not sure I'm following completely. So originally we had 35,000 and now we have 70,000 in budget scenario 1B. So are you saying that increases only 35? I'm saying it's a 70 70K request, but they'd get back almost 42 of it. Yes. So I will say this. I will So the first 6 months of reimbursement is an estimate based

101off of the cherry sheet information. And then once um the charter school submits enrollment to the state, uh they then adjust um the students FTE and adjust what that billing is to accurate numbers. So depending on when the student starts, um you know, how many days have they attended? That changes. So, we're getting very specific because it's only two students. Normally, we don't look at it that specific because there's normally more students. Um, so, yeah, there is a slight variation from what's on there versus here. And Well, it's not a slight variation. It's half of its cost. Like, the amount you have back is Oh, so are you saying that in budget scenario 1A, two, and three should have 70,000 and not and not 35,000. Is that what you're >> I'm saying that of that

102I I I'm saying that I think it would be valuable for us to see what that reimbursement line is so that we we see what the true cost is because if it's 70,000 and they're getting back 40, I think it's important for us like when we're looking at these totals that Sarah has read out, we're talking about increasing our request to the town by or increasing our school choice application by X dollar amount, but there's actually a big gap in that that that number is 35K less, which is a really significant number less. So, Shannon, ex- explain this to me and and and I know and and just clarifying, the free fund for charter goes to the town, correct? Correct. Okay. It is not a- but as a school district, we would pay the charter

103expense. So, that's why it's built into our expense. Correct. >> When the when the reimbursement goes back to the town, it is up to the town to determine how that funding is applied moving forward, correct? Yes. So, for me, it is not the same as school choice where school choice funds come back to to district, correct? And the school committee then determines how to apply school choice funds. Correct? Okay. So, in the end, even if we see what that reimbursement is, it is still in the responsibility of the town to determine whether or not they want to apply that toward to us. And so, I get the conversation, but I also think that applying anything outside of our purview to our budget gives us false numbers. That's why they're That's why the conversation is around

104the assumption of of of what they they did this last year in FY26 and applied free cash. My guessing is because that is probably where the free free cash went. But not I don't know. I don't know town finances. But what I can say is if they've appropriated 30 they last year they did 35 and that's where we did the assumption and we're saying, "Okay, now we know our updated numbers that we have to pay 70,992. We're asking them to appropriate at least 70,000, which helps us to to at least retain the funds that we do have control over, right? Cuz we do have control how we spend our school choice funds. And we need to ensure that cuz there's a warning on each one of these things. Like there there there's something that we

105have clearly outlined in each one of these scenarios from the beginning. Being mindful that we are applying more school choice than we actually re get reimbursed and receive this year than we've done any other That is on every one of our bullets and scenarios from the beginning. And so, what we are proposing is how do we adequately ensure that we have some level of fiscal sustainability for things that we actually have control of versus what we don't. And I get and I get where you're coming from, Rachel, in terms of understanding the pictures, but I also want to put us back into what do we control in terms of our funding streams? Yeah, I >> Can I just say something to maybe clarify? Sure. So, I think what Rachel's trying to say is that if

106we sit here tonight and we ask the town, if we decide to go with 1B, and so we're asking the town to come up with the 70,000 out of their free cash, after they get reimbursed, the town the town will actually have maybe spent under 35. under 35,000 because they anticipated reimbursement that the town would receive would be 41,000. We're just trying to figure out if that is a a I don't know. Yeah, I'm I'm sorry. I really want to understand the question, but I feel like we're like in parallel and I'm just not getting it yet. So, the assessment charge comes to the school's budget. The revenue goes to the town. So, the town would receive whatever reimbursement they're entitled to, they receive it. But I I I guess I'm not understanding the 35,

10741 difference. >> So, I think what cuz I'm trying to follow along. So, I think what they're saying, Shannon, is that we're only at we're asking for 70, but the town is going to get 41 thousand back. And so, And if we're effectively billing the town, if we're adding our to our request the cost of the charter students, which I believe is closer to 76K, um but if we're asking the town for that money, then understanding what of that money they're reimbursed for seems very relevant to the conversation about how much money we're asking the town for. Right. So, the second year they would be reimbursed for 60%. Oh, is everything okay? I don't know. I don't know what's happening. >> Sorry, there's someone at the door. Go ahead. Okay. Um So the this this

108student one student would be in their second year of charter. They'd be going into first grade next year. So the town would receive 60% reimbursement of the cost. The other student, I believe, is entering the last year of reimbursement. So they would receive 40% of that cost reimbursed. But the school district pays the full cost, correct? Correct. So But we're talking about like effectively where we're where we're charging that amount to. That's why I'm No, no, I get it, but I wanted to like she didn't state that fact. I wanted to state that fact. The fact that the school district pays the full cost. So even like understanding what they get back, we're still paying we're still going to pay out the full amount even if they get back less of it. So I I'm

109just grateful that we're even willing to pose the 70,000. The bottom line becomes the same in terms of what we're going to receive as a school district. I'm sending the two of you, Shannon and Dr. Z, the thing that the stuff from the spreadsheet that Rachel was talking about cuz I actually downloaded the same thing today. Just I don't know if it'll change. I think I know what it is. I I know what you're looking at. Is part Dr. Z, I think I just just one thing you were just saying clicked. Part of what you're saying Is part of what you're saying also that So let's say the town gets back half, like 35 for cleaner numbers for a minute. The town we we charge that charter num- number 70 to the town. They have

110agreed to pay it. They get back 35. They get they allocate that 35 to the Pelham elementary school, we cannot then put it in our choice budget. We've still eaten that amount out of our choice budget. Is that one of the things you're saying? Can you repeat that a little bit slower for me? Let me walk through these numbers for you. Yeah. Let me see if I can repeat that more slowly. Okay, Sarah Beth nodded her head, so maybe you can. Okay. What? Choice and charter are two separate entities. Choice money, we decide how like we get our students, we decide how much to use. Charter, we are charged by the charter schools, and then the school pays it, and then because of some other situation that happens over here, the towns are reimbursed to

111help offset that cost. How much the town gets is dependent on what year of charter school that child is in. That is a separate situation from how high and low the uh choice revolving fund is. The only people who have any decision making over choice is us. The town could say, we can help support your So, the last few years, Pelham has helped defray the operating budget of the school by paying for the charter students outside of our operating budget. So, they're separate things. So, however much we choose to use of our choice funds is Right, I under- I understood that, but the like where it comes back to is the piece that I think just clicked for me. Okay. So, I have a question. So, isn't the case that the town could decide not

112to give us any of the charter reimbursement. Yes. Okay. Yes, I think so. >> And that's why we're asking That's how what what how we posed budget one is that we posed budget one in a way that the end number it the the bottom line cuz Pelham votes a bottom line. We both posed a bottom budget one in a way that it the bottom line is the same. And then we it it depends on how the town they giving the town that opportunity to to also the school committee got opportunity to work with the town. But I think that budget one scenario one A or one B comes back to the same bottom number. Mhm. Yes, I I Um Jen I I saw Sarah raise her hand first. >> Yes, Sarah. Yes, and then Jen.

113So, okay. In each of these budget scenarios, we are funding our budget slightly differently. Our budget our Google Oh, it's right here. You know I can switch which one you want to see. The the today. Is this the one page? Yeah. No, the the overall, the one with the grid. Oh, this this one up here. Yeah. Okay. So, our number that goes to the town is It's not in there. It's not It's not listed in here what we're asking for as our town appropriations. Question. No, that is in there. Like the total Not on the top page. I'm I'm looking at the top page. It says budget scenario summary. Like one A school choice No. No, it's not listed there, but it is listed in below in this. Okay. Um Can you scroll? Which one

114you you have? So, if we're looking at them So, I the moral of my question is going to be which of these budgets, right? Because we're asking for roughly the same amount of money. I mean, our For us, it's roughly the same amount of money. But, the town appropriation is going to be different for them. And then, when we build our budget next year for FY '28, I want us to be thoughtful of how we ask for the money because I don't want to set us up in a position for FY '28 that we're then like behind from where we could be, which is probably a thing I only worry about because I sit at the region. And I know last year's Last year's You know, next year's budget is built off of this year's

115with an increase. So, I want to be thoughtful about um the the numbers we're asking to the town. I guess I'm not understanding so Okay. Can you point us to the town number? Town number increase. So, on this with Right? 1,826,000 is this budget one? Yeah, it's budget one. Yep. That's >> Yeah, the the 1.25% is an increase of $22,551 in budget scenario 1A, 2, and 3. Okay. No, hold on. I I have to do a second of research before I can So, Sarah Bess, if you're asking about which Are you asking about which second from the bottom number in the budget. I make Can it be heard? Like in the actual This is what I mean. Yeah. Okay. Yeah, this is what we Yeah, that's one. Okay, it's the bottom of the Mhm. Right

116above the yellow. 826 >> 182 Gotcha, Adrienne. Okay. What's this? I'm I'm writing out what each of the total town appropriation numbers are on my screen. So, Therese, if you look at it, it says budget support. Can you >> Yeah, I found it. Okay. So, but if you're asking, and in my opinion, if you're asking which one of these budgets has the least impact to the town finances year over year, is that what you're asking? Mhm. No. I mean, sorry, but I am more thinking about how it will affect our finances for next year. So, next year when we're going to build our budget right, they're based on the appropriations from the town from previous year. Correct. So, I want to make sure that we're when we're discussing and thinking these budget scenarios through that

117that is another piece that we're taking into consideration. So, when we go to build our budget next year, that we're not you know, because we were able to pull extra from our choice our choice funds this year, that we're not having to double down on that next year in order to build next year's budget in a way that can be sustainable. So, it looks like 181 182 and three are identical. bottom bottom 631 Right. Yeah. Yeah, but for the town. Yes. And so scenario B is the only one B is the only one that is significantly less that we're asking from the town. And it's because we'd be asking for more charter coverage. Right. Can This is the Yeah. It's the one three Uh you have 500 spreadsheets. I'm so happy I'm not sharing your

118spreadsheets. Oh, no. I also keep flashing you type downloads and Um I don't have to talk about I typed downloads. Jenny Jenny passed the quiz. >> I have a question, too. But my question was Okay, so I'm now understanding like scenario 1B, we're asking for less of an increase from the town, but but what's not showing up in that number is the 70,000 out of free cash that we'd be asking for. So, it essentially This is not that different in terms of what the town is at or the schools. If they If they agree to the 70K, my my question is and this you nobody may be able to answer this, but I'm wondering like historically in terms of how the town looks at these sorts of budgets. Yeah, I have a I have a

119historical a historical question. that maybe you and Margaret can answer. Um I'm just wondering like if we were to present So, 1A and 1B, bottom line's the same. The town ends up paying roughly the same amount. Is it an easier sell to the town to say give us 70K, that's reimbursing us for two charter kids, as opposed to saying we want a 1.25% increase, which is somewhat arbitrary? Like do we think that there is a higher likelihood of them accepting 1B over 1A based on what they have historically done, or do we not really have any way of knowing that? I think we do. I'm going to say probably. Probably they would be more likely to accept 1B? Yes. That's why That's right. We both said it. It's nothing. I mean, so I would So,

120when you were going to you're like, "Hey." Hey, friends. Hey, friends. You know, it is what it is, you know? So, I the warrants are broken down by different items, right? So, we will So, for the sake of argument, right? So, say we're going to put forth one B, which I'm not suggesting, just using it as an example. We'll have one warrant article that says, blah blah blah blah blah, legal legal, $1,804,000 for Town Elementary School for operating. And then, there'll be other articles, blah blah blah blah blah, and then they'll get free cash, and one of the items listed under free cash will say $70,000 to fund charter student outside of the operating budget, which is not really how it says, but that's what it will do, right? And so, those things are they

121are they are separate line items. Yeah. Um so, in a year where the school budgets, I mean, they're always under very tight scrutiny at floor town meetings, um it might be slightly easier to have it be less scrutinized, especially because um when we're having the conversation, it is um I mean, I don't know what the what the budget was from last year, but there's no percent increase if you're talking about it, right? Um not that I'm advocating for that. Um I think I actually hurting start having those discussions and probably adding slightly to that chance to that because I worry about our FY28 budget. And um, so you think we're better off asking for an increase and having that be Do we >> setting that precedent? Well, do we know This is a terrible question,

122Shannon, and I'm sorry. And if you don't know the answer, that's also totally fine. Do you happen to know, um, what we asked for appropriations for last year? For the operating budget? That 2 and 1/2% is normal what Pelham normally does year over year. It's Right. No, I know that. Do you know what the dollar number was from last year? >> yeah, it's on It's on the sheet. So, there's the FY26 budget. So, it's 1. Uh, 1,804 4 or 1,800 and 4. >> So, it's exactly the same. Right. >> And 1B is the exact same as last year. Correct. Yes. Okay. Dollar for dollars. So, I don't want to set that precedent at town meeting. That is, I feel pretty strongly against that, especially, I mean, Pelham school is fantastic and I don't want there

123to be, I'll speak for myself, any confusion that I think we should do anything besides continuing to have our fantastic little school. And I don't want there to be able to be conversation that says, "We didn't give you any more money last year. You figured it out. Do it again." Really? So, I'm going to go back to my 87,000 and I don't know how we got to the number we're at today. I feel like there's 12,000 that I still don't quite understand, but what I myself, kind of piggybacking on what Sarah Best was saying, when we had this conversation the last time, I was an advocate for advocating for like 1% 1.1, 1.25. I'm still comfortable with that. I'm also comfortable with advocating for the town to pay for all the costs of the charter

124kids out of free cash. So, I would be advocating for not what we have presented here, but a a 1.25% increase on the ask. And asking them to pay the 70,000 or the 76,000, whatever the that that that is, I guess, 70,000. Asking them to pay the 70,000 of revolving I mean of the charter. And in my head, knowing that they're probably going to get 40,000 back, so we're really asking them to pay like 35 at the end of the day cuz we wouldn't expect to get that reimbursed from back, they would keep it. And asking them for the 1.25. I would be comfortable with that. And I think I think the town people would vote for that. And just as I said the last time we were at the meeting, that we shouldn't present

125a a flat budget because I think the town would support us in asking. I think the town will support the 70, and I think the town will support the 1.25. And if the town votes and they don't, we come back to a level service budget, which is 1/12, which is where we would be anyway if we asked them for no more money. So, why not ask? I I I just want to say 1/12 is not level. Level services or level spending? Level 3. It's the same because we're asking for the same amount of money this year that we got last year, so it'd be the same even if it's the same 12. It's not level services, that's level spending. But that's what we're asking for. We're asking for level spending. >> 1B is level. So,

126I I I would I would >> speak on one thing? I would not agree with that. I think wait, hold on. All right, I'm not sure but Sharon is right to give us information. Sharon. Oh, well, no, I wanted to talk about the first piece, and I know I figured it out, William. So, I add So, the there's the ad for the charter, but in the budget hearing, we did not have the actual ad of clerical in the salaries line yet. That was an ad outside, so that's the difference that you're seeing. Okay. So, I'm I'm okay with I I'm still not okay with the year-round plan. I'm not quite sure where I land on that, but to pass a budget, the budget I would be willing to stand for would be to ask the

127town for 1.25 more than we asked them for last year, and ask them to do the 70,000. I also want to clarify 1/12 budget is not a level service budget. So, I I I I just I do I do not I do not want that conversation that that that statement to go out there and everybody's like It's level funded. It's level funded, but 1 1 1/12 >> We're asking for 1/12 is is is asking for you would get the same amount of money you got last year, which is the same ask we're asking the town for. To operate on a 1/12? If we ask for them to give us the same amount of money that they gave us last year, that's the same budget the state would give us, the 1/12. Sharon, explain a 1/12

128for me cuz I my understanding is completely different. charter school to pay for. So, I think you have to take into consideration what the response may be in terms of recommendation to town meeting. >> Oh, I get that. I think the town people will vote for it and then we come back into a budget. We still have time to come back and do another budget. If the town voted it down, we don't have to go to the state budget till June. >> I don't think we have time unless they call another town meeting. Then that's up to the town to call another town meeting, not us. I'm I I'm going to say that I'm not comfortable doing that. I understand what you're saying about the 1.25 and raising the base. That's what you're talking about

129is raising the base. But I'm not going to vote for a budget where we're asking for all three of those things. Because we may end up having to fund the charter completely. Mhm. Can we clarify that? Just to clarify question. You said all three things. What? >> To ask for 1.25, 70,000 in charter, and capital. No, capital capital separate. Oh, yeah, that that's totally different thing. No, all two things? I'm I'm not comfortable asking for both for the 1.25 and I'm sorry, the 70,000 in charter. Thank you. Rachel, go ahead. Um I am wondering, Sarah Best and Margaret, if you can speak to whether in terms of historical precedent. I know we have this one example of the town paying for that 35K for the one student. Has that been the precedent? I have to

130imagine there were years with more than one student. Has that been the precedent? >> I don't remember there being more than one student in all of my school committee. Okay. I actually remember when the one student was like kind of surprised and we had to like do some The town actually the town for went position and the principal agreed to take >> They took some time off. several months off in order to cover to Yeah. Yeah. Okay. in order to cover the costs because that's the problem. We don't get that information until so late. >> Yeah. It really causes problems now for us. >> I think that would I don't know. Yeah, that was just around COVID before or after COVID? I think it was before I think it was >> Actually before that? I

131think it might have been before that. I don't know if I was actually at school when that happened. I don't remember it happening, but it was like Okay, in those years. So So not more than one, but when the one hit the one hit the first time, it was a big deal in those years. Yeah. Okay. Um I am curious if we can move to voting for one of these budgets A and B um as the finance committee has done, I'm curious if we could pull out and separate the well, my proposal would be that we vote in either one A two or three um and that we separate the conversation about this additional choice student um and potentially try Thank you. This potential charter student um and potentially make that an additional warrant aside

132from our budget. >> We can't do that, I don't think. They have to have They have to have this for tomorrow. We have to have an operating budget that covers our costs. Okay. How we ask for that? can be Like we still have to color it. Does the free cash go on to the warrant too? The request about free cash. >> does. But it so it says separate. It's separate. >> So we would ask we would do our budget and then we would either do a 70,000 ask or not a 70,000 ask from the free cash as a separate warrant. Yep. So we Well, it's part of it's part of a Please remember free cash recommendations come through the finance committee. So we don't even if we ask, we don't get to make that recommendation

133as to what goes on the warrant. So the we only get to send them the budget that we voted. Um they get to determine and again, they could determine they could look at it and said, you know, we we can't afford to do 22 and 35. We can't afford to do any of these things. We can we can we can just do the 22. We can we're not doing the 22. Like I'm going to say this. I understand the need to do what is right for the students, the teachers, and everyone of Pelham. I also understand that this is where the politics hits the road and it would and I would ask that the school committee act from a place of what is presented in front of you. What are the options? What do you

134know about the current political structure and climate? What do you know about the financial situation of the town? If you've attended town meetings, you're understanding that you don't come even if you ask, there is nothing that puts forth that the finance committee has to move on the recommendation. And so that is why the summary is there. That's why we present the fact that you have to take into account what is going to be the best financially and fiscally responsible decision to make for Pelham Elementary School. Knowing that every vote that you make is going to have a potential impact. So, if you vote 1A, know that you are voting whatever amount of school choice funds because we would have to put that forth. There is no guarantee we're getting it back. And and um the

135kind of the question was asked of Margaret. Margaret, you were attending the most um town meetings. Do you think Which one do you think would pass? She said 1B because and that's what she That's what she asked for us to pose a scenario. I get what we need to do and what we need to do is right. I do not want to be back in a 112 situation. That is not an amicable That's not a very good workable situation. It does not look good for the for the district or the school committee, but I do feel like let's not make a rash decision. Let's take our time and really work the numbers and determine what will be best for the fiscal sustainability of Pelham Elementary School. I'll ask a question. Yes. So, if we passed

136a budget and it wasn't passed to town, how how much time would we have then to present another budget to town? Prior You have until June 30th to vote for the full budget to be approved by the town. And they'd have to hold another town meeting. >> Yes, they have to hold >> But what would our time commitment be? Like do we have the time to do another budget? No. >> The town has to call another town meeting and it has to be approved before June 30th. Yeah, and Okay. And just saying does the school committee have the ability to present another budget? No. No. No, because they need 40 days after our presented budget to then pass it. Here's another place where you got to think about what's going on in town. It is

137not inexpensive to call another town meeting. And there typically is a town meeting in October. The second town meeting. Um the likelihood in my personal opinion, the likelihood of the town being willing to call another town meeting just to deal with are not getting a budget in place that the town will vote for. It's not going to happen. I mean, that's my personal opinion. Uh and just like another I'm just thinking from uh operation standpoint, we normally load the budgets once they're voted in Mounis ahead of time, and a lot of clerical staff across all of the elementary schools do the ordering for the teachers before the teachers leave. And if that budget isn't within Mounis and our clerical person in Pelham right now is not working during the summer, that means their supplies won't

138be ordered until they come back with in August. Do your best. So Okay. I think I would like to advocate for budget scenario two. Because it is the lowest amount from our choice fund. It assumes uh $35,000 charter, which the towns already have that information. It does have an increase over last year, so it is not setting a precedent of um level funding, which I have some great concerns about. And it it's uh and there's no it includes no additional registration and outreach. However, it has sounded from the other conversations that we've had today that the committee and is willing to do outreach and that the PTO and the central offices either has or plans to connect with the PTO to coordinate um some outreach about choice. So, I think that is the budget that

139satisfies the most needs in the least terribly. Are you making a motion? I'm just asking. If we're ready to make motions, I don't want to jump the gun if people feel like they still need to talk about it. Who's doing the registration? registration So, I I just I have a question. >> I just didn't hear what you just said, Dr. Ziem said. Who? Who's supposed to do the registration? Who's doing the registration? And because outreach and registration are separate and at our last meeting, Nikki said if we don't put some money towards that responsibility, that it essentially falls to her. So, is that what's in this That's budget two. Yeah. Okay. Can I ask, is there a world in which we say budget two but we like and well, it's it's not on this sheet,

140but essentially we do the 1.25. We we do the school choice at 122, but instead of asking a one-time support from the town of 35, we ask a one-time support of 40, which would cover the charter student and some money towards more days for people for admin to do some of that registration work. So, instead of asking for 35, we ask for 41. Is that what you're saying? I don't think that's a one-time fee, and I heard from John Chaffee that free cash is for one-time fee. >> Mhm. Okay. I would >> But they do the charter school as a one-time fee. But that's because the money comes Because that one-time money comes that one-time money. That's always the same. Okay. Um I know you listed a range for budget three. I'm trying not to

141scroll so I don't get lost in the document, but I think of 6,800 to 10K um for that central office individual. Similar lines to what Sarah Beth was explaining, I think we have a a quite activated community here. I am curious if we could drop down budget three by that $3,000 difference, but keep to the plan for central office holding registration. Um so that we are looking at a budget of 629,445. Um so that Mickey is not individually holding registration and perhaps the negotiation for that individual doing outreach can be minimized so that the outreach falls on the school. Shannon, it looks like you're saying something. I'm sorry. >> Um, I might defer to Dr. Z as ultimately she'd be the one working with finding the employee to do X, Y, and Z and uh

142any negotiations. Can you expand on falling on the school because I mean what what does that mean? Wait, say it say the beginning of what you said again. Sorry. >> before I respond you you made a you said a part of your statement and you need to expand or or or illustrate it for me. What does falling on the school mean? Um I think I said falling on Mickey. No, you said the outreach would fall on the school. Ah, I meant fall on the PTO and the school committee. So your your question for scenario three is what would happen if we reduce to the 6,900? That's a preliminary discussion and like I said earlier, we would be going in and renegotiating with the union um around the registration and you're saying do not include outreach.

143That's what I Yes, that is what I'm saying. Okay. I My question comes in, right? This This seem This was a charge from the full committee. So, for me right now, there are a couple of things that I need to take into consideration regardless of what we have to negotiate. It may exceed your range of 6,900 because we're not knowing what the additional hours and costs are. Um, I also would like to say that the school committee would then have to ensure that they are not asking us. And and I'm going to be operating real different with school committees cuz school committee needs to speak in one voice and not individual voices. So, that's that's that's my thing. My commitment moving forward. I'm not coming with these individual voices and concerns anymore. And I really

144plan to to ensure that for the sake and health and well-being of the staff and the individuals that we move in our in a way that makes sense um for them and for what the school committee goals are. I would say if you are willing to do that at 6900, why aren't you willing to do 1E? Right? That's one. Two, regardless of what it depends on the negotiated and and the intended um scenario for uh any of these I have to go back and negotiate with the union. If they say no, then I have to negotiate with someone else. So, if we are removing outreach and you're saying that the PTO and the school committee is completely committed to handling outreach on their own, my concern would be the commitment of two levels of individuals

145and organizations that have not clarified or state. So, the school committee you're saying yes, you're willing to do outreach. And I also know the how how what does that look like based on what you've asked us to to put forth and to do. Right? Cuz majority of you have full-time working jobs and do different things. What's that's going to look like? How is it going to be within any semblance of and I don't know. Maybe you're going to have your own initiative and you work with the school to get it done. I think about currently since this has happened since January, the impact that it's had on the school in terms of various organizations pushing forward to the school leadership and and um around what they feel initiatives are. And a lot of those initiatives

146fall back on Mickey and the school to get done, to push forward, to send out information, to to oh, I need to choose parents where I need to It still comes back to the school. It's still So, even when you're talking about these organizations want to get it done, the work still filters back through to additional tasks on Mickey, additional tasks on our secretary, additional tasks on central office to research and make sure. So, I just want to I I I hear what you're asking, but I also want to put the reality of the scope in place that there's still going to be tasks assigned to current members of staff to get certain things done that is outside of the reach or purview or operation of these organizations. So, let's just take that into account.

147Um but Okay, I just want to raise that one of the reasons I'm not in favor of 1A is because one thing we heard from Mickey just a week ago is concern about having someone with expertise in registration continuing to hold registration. And that that is not an expertise set that is held within the school. I think I That That was something I I heard and and kind of repeated back at the end when I was asking for that scenario to be set up. Okay, hold on. I wasn't here, so I'm going to ask Mickey to verify for me and I'll expand on it. Um I know that we don't have the expertise right now, but I don't know what it entails to get that expertise. Um I am assuming it's just training from the

148person who's doing the registration right now. If I'm understanding your question correctly. You are understanding my question correctly. Yeah. Okay. So, so for me that that is training, that is controlling the school the school choice registration and lottery, that is making sure if tomorrow let's just see if tomorrow Pelham decides that they want to do certain things separately and and apart, um they have the expertise in their district to get it done. And so for me it's it's a task, but it's one that we could better track and and align that way. In actuality, I think the conversation here and just my suggestion is really looking at the bottom number and and and what it's going to ca- task in to get to to do it. So we would be adding in our negotiations with

149the union, we would be saying that we want to increase this person's number of days to add these two additional tasks to their duties, right? We want to add registration. It's not a large It's It's not a large school district. Usually like we would probably end up registering what 30 20 30 students? Right? So it's not that we're It's we're doing the and we want to add outreach. This is some This is This is a task where this person is already working throughout the school year on certain things. They're already developing those flyers. They're already reaching out. They're working closely with the administration to do those certain things. So in all analytical logic, you would want to if we are now adding these two tasks, we would negotiate with the union to add these days

150to the person the clerical at the site to expand on their time frame so they could add the additional load of registering about 30 students, about doing those, you know, um sending out these flyers, working on outreach, making additional phone calls. I I I I want to honor the depth and breadth of what the school committee as well as the community has expressed in terms of advertising and pushing for it Pelham, and that's why we put forth these things in a way that we think makes sense. Um instead of having to split out because if you're adding registration to to the registrar and we're still have to go back and just negotiate because we can't do anything with the union. We don't side deal, we go straight to them and we we talk about those

151positions. Um and I would have to say that there's still a level of duties that are going to fall back on the school even if outreach is handled by outside organizations. William? I was going to say I don't I don't know if you don't have to answer this if you don't want to, but I was wondering if we could have Marta or and or Mickey comment on the registration and the outreach process as I feel they're probably more um in tune with what the work is cuz it falls underneath Marta's, you know, family engagement stuff and with Mickey having the experience here at the school. If they're comfortable sharing like out of these budgets, one is is in keeping it in Pelham, right? And and and expanding the duties for workers in Pelham, and the

152other is using a registrar who would be working for all three districts. Is there a preference between those? For the people who I would see as the experts in that field, which would be Mickey and Marta. No, William, you could have just said Dr. Z. I don't think you know I know I want to hear from you. No, I'm not I'm not saying you don't know. No, that was just a nice way of saying that. I mean, let's let's let's let's >> That's totally not what I was saying. Okay, so I let Marta jump in. Marta, go right ahead. Well, I I think this is a kind of like a tricky question. I mean, the work has to be done, the work is complex. The work entails a lot, and then on top of that,

153I think there's some folks have the perception, I respect it, but that there needs to be outreach or some special plan of outreach to bring more, you know, school choice students to Pelham. So, we personally have not done the only outreach that we do is in conversations. Um, I mean, in communication with our um with all of the preschools, with the different towns. We do social media, you know, cuz we're in all um Uh, Seth does that. Like, we have the the flyers and the letters and he supports us in in sharing those. But, in terms of And then, we do an ad in the paper. But, in terms of doing specific outreach to attract students, we have not had to do that. I think that historically we have had, you know, more interest than

154not in the slots that are available, I believe. Um, and through the way we have done it in which And And you discussed that already, in which Pelham was, you know, families would choice in and and check off all of the schools that were available. And the majority of the the families who come to us wanting school choice opt for Amherst. I'm not putting it out there as a competition. I'm not saying once the schools are better or not. It's just how it is. And so, historically Pelham has benefited from that arrangement because a lot more families who had initially just wanted Amherst, through our conversations, through our meetings, and through our explanation of how indeed how great Pelham is, right? Uh, they've benefited from excess slots. So, when we talk about outreach, I just

155don't you know, I I just don't see a scenario of how we can gather a lot more slots through doing this comprehensive outreach. Okay. I have to say, Martha, I think y'all have done a great job with the outreach to the schools over the years. Um and so I I don't want to I don't want to Like I don't know how that process works and I don't want to derail the process if the people that are doing the work feels like it's working. And I'm hearing from you, Martha, that you feel like it's working for the best of Pelham the way it's been over the years. Is what I'm hearing. I believe that that Pelham has greatly benefit from this from this partnership. I mean, people were talking about percentage of each of us and

156you know, who get paid percentage from Pelham etc. It is all The intersectionality of this has been a beautiful thing in in the ways we've done it. The issue is that we've done some changes, right? We used to have this one registrar. We used to have an elementary registrar. We've combined both positions. And and as it pertains to the work that how it's been done, right? We have continued to do the work for Pelham without any compensation, but we do it equally with the same effort and the same enthusiasm. I I said to Margaret the other day when we spoke, "I have a very special place in my heart for Pelham. I My granddaughter went to Pelham preschool. I love everything about Pelham. I have some of my best friends there. So, you know, we

157treat Pelham just like we do all the other schools. So, for me, it's what the school committee what I have heard is that you all wanted a bigger plan for outreach, you know, and I that's what I wasn't understanding, you know, because I just don't see what else can be done. I mean, would a visit to a preschool rather than a flyer and conversations or the invitation for people to come over be better? It could be. I don't know the numbers of people that would that would benefit, you know? Um the other aspect is, you know, opening the The thing I wanted to share was opening the slot, you know, opening the the application date, you know, the date to to open applications may be something that we can contemplate, you know? Uh it doesn't

158mean that we will be able to make decisions, but you know, if there is anxiety about perhaps we should begin taking um requests and applications for school choice earlier for Pelham, you know, or not, that's something that we can engage. We can have that conversation. Um but it is the case that we only have one IS group and the different portals, right? that we open and the their the way they support us is is complicated as well. So, I just want to say that it isn't as simple as we open it up and we accept it. No, because we we are we're storing grades currently at the end of the year. We're enrolling new students. We're enrolling kindergarten students and we open choice. So, there is a lot at play here. And I appreciate bringing

159the conversation, but um I I can't tell you what the preference is. I'm willing to have a conversation, but anything would entail more money, I would say. Okay. Mickey, were you going to say say anything? Did you say me? Mark, do you think Martha said said anything? I think what Martha said, I agree with a lot of it. I will say when um we last met, there was a lot of pressure uh outside pressure to do more outreach and my brain didn't know what that meant. And so like yeah, if someone else had ideas and everything, I would be open to them. Um because as Dr. Z and Martha has said a lot of it does fall on us to do the outreach, like the open house, we're advertising, I put it together. I dedicate

160a Saturday morning to it. Um and I get uh what do we call them? Anyways, we get students to come in and um have them tour around the families and stuff like that. But um I too am flexible with how you'd how it moves forward and want to make sure that we're doing it in the right way. Yes. Uh I have Sarah Bess and then Jenny. Okay. All right. So uh Thank you, Dr. Z, for that before. I my comment wasn't about um no registration. I actually think registration should stay where it is. I think it is good for Pelham to be um have registration and for kindergarten and for choice with Amherst because Amherst is a much bigger name that people recognize as opposed to Pelham. So, I think we get some residual benefit

161um there. So, it wasn't a no, no, we don't want any registration or outreach anymore. It was more I don't want it to change. I I want it to stay with Amhers. So, if I'm looking at these budget scenarios, right? I 1B doesn't work for me because there's no increase over our base number from last year. Two sounds like it does not work logistically for the districts because of the choice and kindergarten registration and outreach district fees. Um So, that leaves us with 1A and three. So, 1A has Pelham doing its own registration and outreach, which I think um is not This is not a comment about anybody who would do the Pelham registration and outreach, um but I think it is better left with um Amhers, which leaves us with three. And while it

162is most expensive, um not that Not by a Right. Not by a ton, and I think that is one per student, and that feels like something I That feels like money well spent to keep it there. And if when we're um having the conversations, Dr. Z, and you're going back to have the conversation with um the union and the person who would do the registration for Pelham, it sounds like there could potentially be less of the outreach part because it sounds like the outreach is I I think perhaps the I'll speak for myself that we didn't understand how the outreach worked. So, it felt like because we didn't understand it, maybe it wasn't happening, which sounds like we were just wrong. I was wrong. Um So, I I think I am in support of budget

163number three, which I know is not what I said before, but after having this conversation and hearing some more information, which I am really glad that we have been able to have such a long conversation about all of this. That feels like the the best the best budget to me and that $10,000, what I'm understanding, sounds like a placeholder and not necessarily a final number. So, could potentially be $4,000 less. But a placeholder and a maximum. A placeholder at the max. Right, that's how that's being presented max placeholder. So So, may I ask you a question? Sure. So, I'm confused now because you said you feel like registration and school choice ought to stay where they are, right? And yet budget three has that in it. Yes, but that is for Amherst to continue doing

164that registration. That's Amherst. So, it stays where But it it now Pelham is now paying for it as we should have been. All right. That's how I That's how I see that. It's It's a service that we And we ask for $35,000 in free cash from the town. And and 1.25 1.25 >> of that 1.25 we pay the additional Amherst school expense. Yes. Because it increases our base budget. So, next year So, we don't have to have someone say to us when we're building our FY28 budget, you figured it out last year without any more money from the town, do it again. Because I feel like that could be a real Yeah. conversation and I don't want to set a precedent that says we'll do it ourselves. Right? Like we are educating all of our

165students and children, we should you know, we do a good job. Let's help support doing a good job. I um I also would support three because I think it is kind of splitting the difference. I think we are in fact we have to pay more for these registration services one way or the other and so we are accounting for that. But we're also not saying and we want you to pay the full freight of the second charter student. The one thing I would hope could happen is that if it turns out that we don't end up paying that $10,000 we end up paying closer to like the 6800 that that difference could be applied to like using less of our school choice money. Okay. I mean that would be a decision that would be made

166later. I mean yeah. But I mean like if we ask the school for the town for the whole amount and the town says, "Yeah, you can have the whole amount." Then we're not giving them back the money if it costs less than 10,000, but we could end up like pulling less from our school choice. >> Right. If the board wanted to say I was wrong. No, you're fine. So on budget three on the idea of keeping it or moving it to Pelham, the registration and how we tell that or keeping it at a district office my perception would be that like if I'm going to have my hip replaced, I'm going to go to someone who does it 70 times a year and not someone who does it 20 times a year. So, I think

167that if we house it in Pelham, the person's going to be registering someone 20 times a year, where if we move it to the district office or keep it at the district office, they're going to be doing it 100 times a year. Um so, I I don't think it's because I don't think Pelham can do the work. I think it was just smarter to have it fall underneath someone who does it a lot more often. So, they get better at the process. Um so, I don't think it's a reflection of of Pelham not being able to do it. I think it it it just makes more sense to have someone do it more often, which is why we have a bigger central office and why we have shared services is it gets done. I wouldn't

168say better, but I think better anyway. It's you know, you get stuff done better. >> over effect to you like >> So, I'm in favor of budget three. I guess I want to ask You we had maybe this was Shannon or maybe it was Dr. Z, I can't remember, but our request for the town to pull the 35,000 out of free cash. How was that request presented? Because we I heard tonight that that request may not be honored or might be honored. So, how is there a possibility for us to present budget three, but or to pass it budget three, but also ask for 70,000 in a separate request. And could those be are those two different warrant items or one can be voted up and one can be voted down? So, you're asking you're

169saying we could ask the town for two different things. We could either ask them we could ask them for 35 and then we could also ask them for 70. Well, I just I don't understand how we're asking If I don't understand how the request for free cash gets made because in all these other budgets, it's assumed that they're going to pay the 35,000. And if we don't like how are we actually putting that request in versus the 70,000? I'm just asking for process. So last year, and I'll just hand it over to Shannon, it happened, you know, we consult with the town and the finance committee around different things. And so one of the things that comes up is the cost for um charter. Shannon, you want to explain? Yeah, so so last year we

170just voted the total bottom line budget with the understanding that I had the conversation with um people from the town and and hey, could do you think you could cover this from charter? They said yes, we built it into the budget, we voted the budget, they see the sheet. But it wasn't formally written out in specific language. And this is the first time in a few years in '26 that we had to budget for charter. So did our budget that we voted last year, did it the budget that we approved, did it have the town paying for the 35,000 within the budget? 26,742, yeah. So that was baked into the numbers already. That was So if you look at any of any scenario um on there in FY26, you can see exactly how it was

171presented, the total budget and then the budget support. Um and it was broken out just like that. >> So the town to cover charter. Yeah. Okay. And so that would be how we would request what we want to request for charter. Yeah, I guess there's the option to make it I mean, this year feels a little bit different than last year. Um so I I guess there's the option to formalize it in the voting language that you choose to use. And not just be here's we're voting the bottom line budget of 2.8 million um for FY27. It could be um moved to approve a budget of 2.8 million with XYZ coming from charter. Oh, go ahead. I don't think we can tell someone else how to plan but it we can't hear them with the

172technical mumbo. Yeah. I I was going to say that and and I the the thing that I wanted to say is again what Shannon said was the 26,742 came from again in our consultations and conversations around the charter cost and and those things and it was a simple ask from the district like do you think like this is our budget? We can't push any more. Do you think you can cover this? And you know, it became a recommendation on the warrant for free cash. The same conversation um kind of happened this year. We asked, "Hey, can you cover the 70?" Like that was the push. Like the push was like, "Can you cover the 70?" We were not giving any guarantees that we could cover the 70 or not cover the 70. We didn't go

173in on the 35. That's why that's why everything says this is an assumption. We went in asking, "Can you Do you think you can cover the 70?" We were not say said yes, no, I don't cuz the FinCom the whole FinCom has to vote on what that is. For us, we created you know, based on the knowledge and what we were asked to do, we created the scenarios where the assumption is there. When we send forth this budget, they'll see just like they saw last year where we have the assumption of what they may or may not cost. They may not even cover the 35. Right? Like they may say they may say, "Well, if we're if we're going to appropriate this to the full budget and looking long longevity, why is they may not

174do the 35? Free cash is a one-time cost and it it doesn't affect on the operating the way it does and so for me the school what I'm hearing from the school committee is we don't want to level. Right? We don't want to walk in there and and level off. Um but now we also want to be able to tell them like to say we want this additional request knowing that it's coming from the same town and we may end up losing all together. So I would be very mindful of how we put forth that request. Um and to in my for me I look at it as 57 versus 70. Right? Like am I asking for the 1.25 which is 22,000 and 35 versus 70 which 70 it's all about the pot of money

175that the town pays out of. That's what we're asking for and the pot of money is the is is is there. So Good morning. Rachel Field. Um okay, coming back to some of my initial questions. Um if we are to pay this 35 who might discuss with the town um when they receive back money for charter students would they allot half of that to the elementary school? Is everyone following my question? Yeah, so who would go to the town and say, "Hey, if you if we pay the 70,000, can you give us back if you get back 80, can you give us 40?" Yeah. Or if we pay the 35 this year which is what I think these budgets are showing, them paying 35, us paying 35. Yes? The three of the scenarios, one scenario

176has them paying 70 and we them $192. Yes. Right. So, it sounds like a lot of us are settling on scenario three, which has the the um us paying 35, town paying 35. Let's say they get back 20 for each of those two students. Hey town, will you reallocate 20k back to Palo Alto intro school? Can that conversation be had? That seems significant to me in this scenario. Well, it can't be had, unfortunately. >> I understand. I understand. Uh you blowing in the wind. Um that seems like a reasonable assumption, perhaps, for us to be running on when we're looking at these numbers that potentially we're looking at a slightly lower total for our budget after that comes in. I'm going to put another thought in here, which is there are, you know, they're asking

177level spending for all the departments. And the departments all reduced their budgets to incorporate the Cola and step increases. And the town is now onto the free cash warrant to put back that money in some of the departments. So, some of the departments are going to stay level funded. And that total comes to 18,000, just over $18,000. So, I feel like then going back later to the town and saying, "Oh, by the way, could, you know, would you give us back some more of that money that came into free cash?" When they've given us the 1.25 is I don't know. I I it They're going to get back more money than they spend. Like they're going to get out 48, 46, but only spend 35. Oh, okay. But they're going to get back more money

178than they spend. So, it seems like a $6,000. Okay. So, you're saying split the $6,000 give up No, I'm saying split the like they're getting they'd be getting that because that's a stu- because that's the amount for two students, but they're only covering the cost of one student. Which is >> Right. So, let's let's make that even numbers. They're covering 35, they're getting back 20 for that one student. I know it's not exactly even numbers, but >> it's not. I mean, you know, it isn't, but Okay, I I don't think we can vote on a budget with this like totally hypothetical scenario, though. No, I agree. Okay. I think I also think we need to sort of see how things play out at the town meeting and we'll like and with this like committee work

179and I I feel like that's something we can discuss maybe down the road. >> the committee work is for like 10 years down. The reason I'm harping on this number, though, is because we're looking at a difference between 1B and the rest of them of 26 of 20 22K, which is like that number that I'm talking about. And so, it seems like as we make this vote to to have a plan for that conversation of how the town will plan to use this money that they know is coming back. Like this is guaranteed money that is coming back to the town. What's their plan for using that? Seems like very good information for us as we move forward. I know it will not impact the vote tonight, but seems like an important conversation. That's fair,

180I guess. So, I think to to be fair, this like our our town has since we've had in my history since we've had a charter student, they have funded it outside of the and so, to me, it feels like they do that already. They have a charter student We have a charter student. The reimbursement goes back to them and then they fund it again through there. So, I feel like they're doing that cycle already. I'll also say that if you go into town meeting with a written amendment, you can change whatever you want on the warrant. So, if we vote to pass the budget that says whatever number three and which requests like a 1.2 for 1.25% increase and a request for $35,000 to cover attorney's fees, if we get to town meeting and we

181can say, I have an amendment that says you know, to change that request for free cash from 35 to 70. Like that is a thing that you can any, not just us, like any member of the town can can do on on the floor of town meeting. So, I hear what that like we need a budget and we need a budget that will not only pass for us, but we need a budget that will pass at town meeting. And um I I want to be cautious about part of, you know, one of the points that Shannon brought up, that a lot of what happens in that So, when we look at our quarter one um budget, we have that conversation. A lot of things in there are very heavy. So, like the facilities number is

182really heavy. There's a lot of supplies numbers that are really heavy because all of those funds are encumbered as in in quarter one, which if we don't have a budget, we don't have money to do that in quarter one. So, all of those you know, it it it pushes things off. It makes it makes things a lot harder. Um so, if we're ready and my neighbor here doesn't mind sharing his computer, I am ready to make a motion for budget scenario three. Okay, but see the motion at the top, the motion language is there. >> yes, I just don't have computer today for that. Do you have a piece of paper? >> Could we change it? >> If we thought that the 70,000 wouldn't go, could we change it to 35? It is 35. >>

183No, but could we Oh, oh, I know. >> Could we pass a motion to Could we pass a budget tonight that includes scenario three and asking to have it for 70,000 and then we could change it on the floor if need be? I will not vote for that. I only feel comfortable saying that. Okay. Where is the motion? I think that's what I said. All right. I Well, it's just just this first line. I will move uh propose motion for a We will propose to approve budget scenario three and move for that a total budget of $2,884,472 for FY 27 for the column elementary school budget. I don't need to read any of this other stuff, direction. Okay. I second that. Discussion? More discussion? Any more? Going once. All those in favor? I'll vote according

184to your mind when I'm on the floor. All those opposed? Okay, it passes four in favor, one nay. Okay. I do support budget three. It's just the allocation of 70,000. >> I got it. Yeah, I do support it. I do support budget three. I support budget three. Is that William? >> I support it. William. Okay. Um so, there is another item on here which has committee goals. Oh, where are the capital Capital I No, I lost my internet. >> Okay. All right. So, I am just going I don't have motion language for that. Is it in the There is no such motion language. There is a now. Yeah, I didn't add motion language to this. Um I think the motion would be moved to approve the memo as presented. Okay. Um I move to approve

185the memo of April 7th asking for I believe $19,000 in capital spending. Second. 19,000. Um any discussion about that? No. Okay. All those in favor? That passes 5 to nothing. Thank you. Thank you for keeping me on track. I always seem to get lost. Um you know last night My internet committee goals. I can't Yeah, so I have nothing under committee goals. I have spent so much time this month on other things that I have nothing. I will say that I hope at our May meeting we'll Let's keep going. Let's do the consent agenda. Can I just share those? The school futures? Yeah. Um which is not a sub not quite a sub committee but a relevant committee so As co-chair, the Palom Elementary School Futures Committee had our first meeting. I will be sharing

186I will get there. Um but we have um meetings scheduled through the end of May. You are all welcome. They're public meetings. They're on my town government. Um Dr. Z was voted in as vice chair. I was voted in as chair. We're rotating secretarial duties but Sarah Segura is holding the responsibility there. Um It's a great group. Everybody's really excited. The other people on the committee are Ann Nugent. Mhm. Who's a long time pediatrician and I think chairs the Democratic Committee um and Cara Castaneda from I have a question. Can you set up a YouTube to stream those and record them? Dr. Z, if you're still there, I think you said that you'd be able to work with me on getting it on our screen next time. Is that true? It did. Yeah, he did.

187>> Okay, great. Yeah, we'll try we'll we'll work on that and um I can just share an update once once we're there. Um the next meeting the next meeting's not till the end of April. We should I think we'll be able to get there. It is it's in April, but I think I just saw your email. So, I will put Megan to set that up. I don't know which ones you wrote down. I have Sarah and you and Dr. Z. Um Sarah Segura and Cara Castaneda. >> Yeah, yeah. I have a question. Yeah. You You said to me tonight about a 10-year timeline. Yeah, so we have a one-year or not even a one-year, we have till the end of December to We're doing research for the next 10 years of Pelham Elementary School and

188that me This is relevant for everyone to understand. This is a research committee between now and the end of December, the committee is charged with doing research on four topics that that the Select Board presented. I've been going since 6:00 a.m. I'm sorry. Yes. Um but four topics from the Select Board and we started populating a list of I think we're going to land on five others, so it's a total of eight to nine topics that we're trying to do a full scope of research on, but the research is on the next 10 years of cost projections for those things. It's not going to do a whole lot for um like the immediate future of the school. My understanding is that the select board's vision is that next after this research is put together, there

189will be another committee or perhaps this committee would extend to make recommendations based on that. Okay, but the research is have is due in December, not 10 years. >> Yes, yes, yes. Okay. I'll blame that on 6:00 a.m. for you all. Oh, it's like 10 years. Like >> Yeah. But it's But like Yes, I just wanted to clarify that Well, of course the next one to 10 years will be included in there, but it's really a long-term vision. Right? Got you. >> Right. Yeah. Um, okay. Subcommittee consent agenda. I move to approve the school budget agenda. Second. All those in favor? It's unanimous, five. All those in favor unanimous. Okay, and then future agenda planning. Um, Sarah does I Well, I just wanted to mention we are going to have some joint meetings between now

190and sometime in June. And some dates will be forthcoming. Yes. We're looking like one in April, one in May, one in June. Um, there are a bunch of policies, first and second readings that will need to happen. We are looking at um trying to let the new superintendent evaluation tool for this year. They're in the um historically in uh we will we have a joint meeting to uh for the superintendent to present discuss the um artifacts. And then also uh I think in May we I'm not sure if say. Um to discuss the superintendent's goals for the following school year. So, we are not planning any of it. Um so, there will be the chairs are working on coordinating all those things. They will be an additional meeting outside of the regular meeting schedule cuz

191there will be that too much stuff already. Sorry. The evaluation is May or June? Like we do the evaluation in June? Yeah. I think Yeah. This We're working on having the tool approved and then I think I think the way we have it discussed set up is the tool to be approved in April. Start the discussions about next year's superintendency goals in May and then the presentation for the current school year um in June. It's June. And then June we'll have to have a subsequent meeting for Phelan. Will each of the districts need have to have a subsequent meeting to present the findings present the findings from the evaluation. Yeah. So, um I I would hope for May that we can spend some time looking at the school committee goals. Um Yeah. So, I mean

192that is goals. Um for future though, I know last summer it became impossible, but I would love it if we could schedule a retreat. Oh, we will definitely have a retreat. Um my hope is we might get some assistance Yeah. From MAS C. But I just just if we could start the scheduling in April or May. So, I think that he knows when it's going to be and that makes a lot of sense. So, let's talk about that next. Great. Um Or I guess in my next meeting. Yeah. Yeah. Cuz our next meeting will be in May. Okay. All right. Okay. Thank you, everybody. I move we adjourn. Second. All those in favor? I. We're adjourned. Thank you, everyone. >> Thanks. Everyone have a