0016:30 p.m. on Monday, March 9th. Um, I'll take a roll call. William >> here. >> Sarah Bess >> here. >> Uh, Jenny >> here. And Margaret here. Okay. John, do you want to >> I call the finance committee to pel finance committee to order. Um sound off. Uh Cara, >> I'm here. >> Emily >> here. >> David >> here. >> We are in session. >> Okay. Um so the first item is public comment. Um, I do have one voice one voice. >> Um, Rachel says she's in the public link. Can she be let in? >> Oh, Seth. Seth, can you do that? Let it >> There she is. Hi, Rachel. Thank you. Um, all right. I have a public comment voicemail that I will play. Hi, my name is Steven Cigarettes Smith and I am
002the parent of a kindergartner and a fifth grader at Helen Elementary as well as another child who will enter the school in a few more years. Thank you for the opportunity to comment on the cameras recently installed throughout the school. It is slightly surreal to be making this statement because this kind of surveillance of children and staff is so antithetical to what Telm Elementary represents. There are many shocking and worrying aspects of this situation. Starting with the complete lack of transparency or communication. No parents or caregivers were informed of much less involved in the decision. That is not okay. That is not an acceptable way to do things in our town and school community. Since there was no community involvement, nobody knows what the cameras are for. My daughter has been given five different explanations
003from five different staff members about why the cameras are there. And not one of those reasons sit well with me. One staff member told a kid it's because of their shenanigans. Someone else told them they were it's because kids were messing around in the bathroom. Someone else told them they're worried about kids making up stories about staff. Another said it's just for safety. Another said they're not new. If this is what staff are saying, imagine the rumors that are spreading around children and that they are coming up with. If there is a compelling reason to install these cameras now at this point in time, families deserve to know what happened or changed so drastically in the school to create these dire safety concerns that did not exist before. And in that case, families deserve to
004know what else is being done in conjunction with the cameras to address this new dangerous conditions facing our children and staff. Surely, if the issue is big enough to warrant the installation of many cameras throughout the school, there must have been some kind of comprehensive effort to address the problem before landing on cameras being the solution. Was there? What was it? Until, if and when Pelum families get answers that we are satisfied with, these cameras have no place in our school. It is my understanding that the decisions like this fall under the school committee's role and that the school committee was not involved in any part of this process. I'm asking for your attention on this and look forward to receiving an update. Thank you so much. >> Okay. All right. Um, there is a
005written public comment posted on the agenda for people to look at. Um, I need to ask if there are any people listening or watching who want to make public comment at this time. if you could indicate that by raising your hand um that would be helpful and then we will try to call on each of you and let you in so that give you the ability to speak. Um there's at the bottom of your screen there should be a hand icon. I'm I'm not seeing I'm not seeing anything happening there. Um so I guess we will go on if something Yeah. So we will go on with our agenda. Um and the item for tonight is the presentation of a of a 20 fiscal year 27 budget draft. Um, I am going to turn this
006over, I believe, to Shannon to make the presentation, Shannon. >> Yep. Can you hear me? Okay. I Yes. Okay. Okay. So, I'm going to share my screen. The um but Pelum budget book was uploaded to Board Docs and I'm going to present a couple pages from that book. So, just give me one moment while I share. Um, okay. Can everybody see that? Okay. It's um >> It's a little bit small. Shannon, can you make it just a tiny bit bigger? >> Yes, >> I think that's better. Thank you. >> Okay. >> Can you just mention what page number you're on? >> Yep. This is page five. Um, so on this page we have a description of the changes in budget from FY26 versus FY27. And at the top here we have our payroll accounts um
007for regular education, special education, school administration and so on. Um, and so the increases that you see here are mainly due to um staff climbing steps and receiving colas. Um although you do see a decrease within the student services and that's where um the rural school aid and rural reap is applied. Um and so it it decreases that line. Um so that's why the negative is here. It's not necessarily that somebody left or it's being reduced and for the position. It's just that's where the the grant funds are applied. Um and down here uh we have our expense accounts and our expense accounts are nonpayroll related expenses. Um so that could be supplies that is our facilities. Um we have an increase in our regular education and that is due to the I Ready math
008and I Ready literacy um that we had um for curriculum that we had a quote for which was recently updated since the last time I presented the budget to the Pelum school committee. Um so that you do see an increase here to account for that. um in special education that decrease um it actually moved into the other programs and that's where the charter um tuition and choice assessment is is there. So we had a student that is choiced out of the district um and receiving special education services and that um that student will that won't come out of the special education line that'll come out of the other program line. So that's why you see the decrease and then the increase. Um and also part of the increase of other programs is the um charter
009school or charter tuition assessment and I'll talk a little bit more about that on a different page. Um we did go through every single line of the budget to see where we could make adjustments. Um and part of that was reducing some of our print materials in the support services, but we also had to increase in school administration for our um copier and printer contract. And then in central administration, we did reduce supplies and travel from there as well. And in uh IT, we reduced some funding for technology equipment. This was in discussion with the IT director of what the needs were going to be for FY27. Um, we had to make an adjustment to our utilities to align with the actual costs that we were seeing. And we have we're in we're going to
010be entering year two of our transportation contract. So, there's an increase to reflect that change. And then, of course, the health insurance which started out really high. It's still high, but it's better than what it was, and it's at an increase of eight and a half percent. So, that's the major amount here. Um, and then I will scroll down to so in the next couple pages in page six and going on, you'll see more detailed of the line by line. I'm not going to walk through that. Um, what I just showed you was a summary of this information, but I want to bring us down to page 10, which says Pelum Elementary funding the budget. Um, so on here on the left hand side, everything in this column will be for FY26 and then everything
011over here is for FY27. So it takes the information from the prior page and and combines it and you you see the same 26 versus 27. What's different down here um is that you then see the budget support. So what does this mean? Um and from the town of Pelum we have originally um there was a go we anticipated a 2 and a half% increase but um at this point we were told it would be level funded uh which means we would receive the same amount from the town that we received last year which is the 1.804. So I'll get to this why this says a different number here. Um and then the town is also contributing to the charter payment um assessment that we must pay. Um so while it's in the budget built
012into our expenses, it also is down here because it becomes a wash because the town is going to support that payment um for the charter. Then chapter 70, we do have an increase in chapter 70 based on the um preliminary estimates that came out and then also support from the Medicaid revenue that we receive. We currently have 500,000 in school choice funds applied to the um applied in the payroll lines right now. And then we have I don't know why this says circuit breaker. I will remove this. Pelum does not actually receive any circuit breaker at this point. But these are it's more just grants which is the rural school aid and the rural reap that Pelum receives. So when you take the total budget and you take the town amount that we're going to
013receive, which is the same amount as FY26, that leaves Pelum in a deficit of $109,000 and $ 10974. Um so the other I have on here page 12 which is our budget um adjustments if there's any adjustments additions or reductions we would list them out on this page. So, at the from what I heard from the last school committee meeting um was that we were going to use additional school choice funds of 109,000 um to support the pelum budget and not take any reductions at this time. Um so I have under budget adjustments, we would use that school choice and it's a change in funding source, not a not a reduction. Um, so that would put our overall school choice supporting the budget to $69,074. Um what's not on here which is I think something
014that we'll be talking about um or that I hope is part of this discussion with the town of Pelum and the Pelum school committee is it was um a conversation that myself and the superintendent and Margaret had with John um that um whatever re the regional assessment is for the town of Pelum which is the regional school district is um >> Shannon. >> Yep. >> That's no longer needed. >> Um John, why don't we let Shannon finish and then if you put your your hand, I'll I'll I'll bring you up next. Okay. Okay. >> So, that's really good. I I do want to just explain just so that everybody on the call knows what we're talking about. And if that's not the case, then that's good news for us to hear. But let's get to
015that in a minute. Um originally it was um brought to our attention that whatever the uh Pelum assessment for the regional school district which is the middle school and high school um whatever their increase in assessment is that increase would need to be um absorbed by Palum meeting. Not only would we just get um level funded of the 1.8 8 million that I was mentioning before. Um, whatever the increase is for the regional school, it would go down further, which would then further increase the deficit for Pelum. But it sounds like there's some new information that I have not heard yet. So, I am interested to hear that. Um, and then just a part of the budget book, I have the enrollment information and I have the school choice information on here and I'm happy
016to answer any questions about this. Um, and and that's kind of where we are in the budget process right now. >> Okay. Thank you, Shannon. John, >> yes. I'm sorry to jump in, but I didn't want people to start to get anxious when it did didn't need to be. Um we have uh completed our our um review of the uh town budgets from all the departments and at this point we believe we'll be able to manage the um uh regional school budget without need any need further help from the elementary school and we thank you for at least considering it. >> Okay, thank you John. That is good news. Um, I guess at this point I I would ask what questions people have and if you would put up your hand. Um, we we will
017try to go through those. Do you all see the little symbol for the hand at the bottom? Okay. Cuz I'm not seeing anybody putting their hand. Oh, there's two hands. >> There's two. Margaret. Rachel and then David and John. >> Okay. All right. Um, Rachel, >> is it is it easier on your end if we raise our hands like this? I'm happy to. >> No, I was not looking in the right place. Sorry. >> No, no problem. Um, I've got a bunch. I know that's not surprising for folks who spend time with me. Um, as uh Shannon, I think all of this is directed to you. Some of this is questions I asked you and I appreciate you getting back to me, but I just want to also ask some of them here so that
018everybody gets the information. Um, one relatively small question. I had heard in an Ammerst meeting that the um, insurance increase was 8.3, but I see it's listed as 8.5. I know that is not a significant amount of money, but I'm curious if you can just clarify that percentage. >> Um, I'm not sure where the 8.3 comes from. I know the different plans there are a range and we settled that the overall is 8.5. Um, so I I think that's might be the difference depending on which plan. >> Thank you. And then another relatively small thing, I think on page 15 of the budget book with the choice revenue and budget support, it's showing the budget support for 27 as um based on that previous conversation that you were just >> Oh, correct. No, I changed
019the graph and I forgot to update the chart. So, yes, thank you. I will make sure that's fixed. >> Yeah, absolutely. The numbers elsewhere are all aligned. I just wanted to bring attention to that one. Um, and you said this somewhat in your explanation, but I think a lot of us were a lot of us listening and on school committee might have remembered that the deficit we were looking at in February was 87K and now it's up to 109. Can you just point for us to where that increase is coming from? >> Yes. So the majority of that increase is coming from the I Ready um math and literacy curriculum. Um, and Tanya unfortunately could not make it. Who could ex talk more in depth to that? Um, which was, if I recall, um, just
020going back to my page, that brought an increase of $19,3 to that. Um, and so I'm I'm not sure the difference of what you had just said, but I know that that's the major contributing factor. And then we had gone through line by line. So if if it's not that exact number, it's >> Yeah, I think it was a 22K overall, but it sounds like the large majority was from that curriculum. Um, thank you. The one place just in the school building that I noticed a proposed decrease, I don't know who here might be able to speak to this or if it might need to wait till Dr. Z's back. um is I saw a significant increase in the counseling line and I'm wondering if we could get an explanation on what that's based on,
021what's anticipated to look different next year. >> Um can you tell me which page you're referring to? >> Yeah, let me find it again. >> Oh, is it page six? >> Yes. So that is nothing's changing in terms of staffing on here at this point. You see um in FY23 to FY25 that we typically apply the rural school aid and the rural re grants to those sections. So we make an estimated guess of how much we think we we will receive and then what actually happens we don't know until sometime in the late fall. Um, and that's where we apply because guidance and we assume at the counselors, you know, they're working with most if not all students. So, that's why we picked that line to apply the grant to. So, it's not that anything's
022actually changed. It's just how much grant money did we receive and how much is is supporting in that area. >> Okay, great. Thank you. Um, okay, those were the simpler ones. Here are the less simple ones. Um the this is I think going to be just really a question that I'm interested in exploring that may or may not be for this year. Um I had emailed Shannon asking some about busing. Um my understanding is that we have about 15 students ride on each of the two school buses that come and go from Palm Elementary. there is about there's 25 to 30 students that are that seats are held for. Um I am curious I think in terms of questions that maybe can be answered here. Um one thing I've learned is that there while there
023are different policies for at the region level in Palum we're not required to hold seats for students. We we can if we chose to if the school chose to um pull families to find out who is planning to actually ride the bus and only hold seats for those children for example. Um and I am curious if the bus contract as it stands right now would allow Pelum to only have one bus if you know that. >> So yes. Oh, was there another part to that question? >> I think you answering that will be great. Yeah. >> Okay. Um, so Pelum has two. So it's not a matter of will the contract allow us. We can increase the bus a bus or we can decrease the bus if that's what our needs say. So we're not
024bound to the contract to say Pelum has to have two buses. Um, but what is the tricky thing for Pelum is that how where the students live that if they were all combined onto one bus, the bus ride would be well over an hour. And we typically don't like the bus to be over an hour. That's a really long time for the students. And also the first pickup is extremely early for those kids that get on first. So that's the main like Pelum only has two buses right now. And if if they were combined, it would be a extremely long bus ride for them. Um so that's why we do split it up into two. >> Okay. I would be interested in us digging a little bit more there because from the bits I've been
025able to hear the last student on each bus is on for 35 to 40 minutes for 30 to 40 minutes which then it looks to me like would be a combined 70ish minutes which I know is over that hour mark but not so significantly. Um, and since that's a guideline and not a policy, it's a signific it would be significant in the frame of our budget to explore that. Um, so I would love if we could explore I don't know exactly how I imagine the school knows which students are actually riding the bus um and map out what that bus route would look like in the way that the buses do that. >> Yep. I can um for our next meeting if that's something you'd like to see I can um check with our transportation
026coordinator and and put something um and then I think this is my last one and I'll let David take the floor. Thank you all for waiting. Um, I want to just point I I think the public comment we got speaks to some of this, but a a trend that I'm seeing in the way Pelum Elementary's costs are shifting is that we're seeing a significant increase in our central office spending. Um, I don't know that there's anything to do about that in in this year in particular, but really wanted to point that out and particularly as we're looking at increasing reliance on choice funding. My my understanding is that choice funding is meant to be used for inbuilding needs. So, I want to just as a committee have that on our minds as we're looking to
027the budget and considering spending. Um, and I did have one more. Um, I noticed Shannon, the numbers you estimated for I'm trying to find the page, but I'll say it and then find the page. The numbers you estimated for choice for next year 13 um are down from last year. Um, and I know we had some conversation about about that in the last school committee meeting in February. Can you just share what that's based on? Yeah. where where you >> it's just an average of the numbers above. Um and I believe it's it's either three or fiveyear average, but it there's a formula in there and that's where the 59 comes into play. >> Okay. And if we wanted to I don't know how I don't know how significant it is, but if we wanted
028to see that increased for next year rather than decreased, is that something easy? >> Yeah, it it doesn't matter in terms of dollars at this point. It's it's just a projection um based on an average. That's it. >> Okay. Thank you. That's all >> David. >> Thanks. Um thanks a lot Shannon for your presentation and for the all the work you've done here on the budget. Um I had a couple questions just looking through. I guess my main question looking through I was wondering if you could just help clarify. Um, I believe Rachel just asked part of this, but on page six, one of the things that jumped out to me was just the almost doubling on the teacher line between fiscal year 25 and 26. It was like a 90% increase. And then uh
029I also had a similar question about the counselor increase. That was I think >> Yeah, there's a good It's quite >> Oh, go ahead. >> No, no, that's great. I'm just trying to figure out where like if it's possible to see what the change in actual spending is versus just like moving line items around and I didn't know if you could clarify that. >> Yeah, so it Palum Pelum's budget was set up interestingly. Um I inherited it this way. So if we I I'll explain why this happens and then if we did want to change it in the future what it would look like. Um, so when we apply or have school choice or grants that support the budget, it increases we increase the budget line. So for teachers, say it's 100,000, but we're using
030200,000 for school choice, the budget now shows up as a total of 300,000. Whereas in other districts that I work with, um, they don't increase. What they do is they decrease the budget line. and and so you see it that a number what it is after school choice has already been reduced from there but in Pelum's case when you have the budget we increase the account line for what's going to be spent on school choice and then when the actuals come in after we've applied the school choice in the general ledger the number is much smaller so in teachers you'll see for FY25 4325 that's at the actual numbers after we applied school choice. But in FY26, it's $811,000 budget, and that's because when the budget's been presented, it's been added back in. Um, so
031I've continued to add it in as it has been. However, if that's something that the committee would like to see differently, uh, I'd be more than happy to do that because I find this way quite complicated. Um, but then it will, you know, it'll just be a few years before it's when you look at this and it all makes sense where it's not these big jumps or big decreases. If that makes sense. >> Yeah, that's helpful. I think I mean for me personally, I think it would be helpful just to be able to compare trends and spending across the different categories over time just so that you can have kind of a decent idea as to what the budget is relative to like what we've actually spent in different categories. Thanks a lot. >> No
032problem, >> John. >> Yeah. Uh, first of all, back to page five. Under the regular education, we have this um increase of 19,000. My question is, is that a one-time expense to buy a program or is that like books and so forth or is that an ongoing expense? I believe it's partly um training and also some some of the curriculum supplies. It's a mixture between the two. Um and I know at Amherst originally, just I wish Tanya was here to answer this question. Um but I know originally for Amherst there was a big piece that had to be paid up front and then it was less for the outy years. Um, and so I I can just I know she's busy right now and I could if we can come back to this question. Um,
033I'll circle back to it. >> Here's the reason for it. Because if it's a one-time expense, we could take it out of there and do it out of free cash >> and reduce your budget accordingly because it wouldn't be reoccurring next year. >> Okay. Well, Tanya did just write me. They are so it is a a piece of the training and a piece of the consumable consumables and they need to be purchased annually. So, it won't be a one-time expense. >> Okay. I'm sorry. I thought I found a hope. >> Thank you, John. >> Um, next question. Um, how come uh the uh back in December when the budget was presented um it looked like you had an op you were going to combine uh classes and you had a reduction of a going to
034a teacher add some extra in there but this budget doesn't indicate that. Is there a reason for the change? >> Yes. Um, at a school committee meeting, it seemed that there wanted to be more research, more information put forth before that's something that the school committee would decide to do. Um, so at this point in this presentation, we have not included that. Um, but that will be a further conversation with school committee. >> Okay. Uh the next would be in the um upcoming year with the are you going to be able to offer the opportunity for um fifth graders to go up to the new um Chestnut Hill Academy? Will there be an an option for school of choice in >> um so that is a question I cannot answer at this time. >> I
035think that's a great conversation we'd have to have with school committee. I just I'm throwing it out because it's a school committee meeting. So, >> yeah. Oh, yeah. So, if anybody wants to chime in, feel free. >> Sarah Beth. >> Well, if we don't, the school committee doesn't have any control over whether students choice out of our district. So if they're choicing to Chestnut Street Academy or to Shootsbury or to Springfield, we don't have any say over that. It's that's up to the Ammer school committee if they choose to receive school choice students. >> Okay. They have not indicated one way or another. >> That is I mean >> that's that's for the Ammer school committee to decide. I don't know if they've decided if they will continue to be a school choice receiving district
036for next year >> or >> okay >> future years or not. That's that's not a thing that we have any control over. >> And it's also how many spots they have available in that grade if if they do. >> Yeah. Their school committee first has to decide if they will be a participating in school choice and then it is up to their administration to decide >> if and where those seats could be. >> Okay. Thank you. >> Um what are your contingency plans if you don't fill a cho school of choice seats? Um >> so right now we do have so just for instance if we had no school choice students next year um and we had no revenue at all it's this is a very hypothetical not likely to happen but if that were
037to happen we do have some funds still in the school choice balance that we could use for the next year's operating budget, but I don't anticipate that all of a sudden one year Pelum has absolutely no school choice students. Um, but there is a balancing act that has to be had with how much do you use for the operating budget, how many students are choicing in, and what's a a way to balance that that it doesn't put us in a very difficult position if we were to lose school choice students. >> Thank you. The the last question I have is I understand um well first of all what are you going to be doing to be transparent with the future choice parents who are looking at Pelum about the study being undertaken concerning the future
038education of Pelum K through six that's they go together >> yeah so I would say the the future of Pelum that's something that Dr. Z would like to put together and do an analysis that we bring forth and after we get through this budget that we will start working on putting that forth and that's something we would present to the school committee andor have school committees input on. Um but how that looks and what that shapes out to be right now I don't have that information. Um but we strive to be transparent and to include and um to talk about it publicly at the school committee meetings. So I think the first step is to follow the school committee meetings and and then we go from there. But we don't have it laid out in
039steps at this time. >> Thank you. Well, good job, >> William. >> Uh yes. I guess I just want to at our next meeting because I know Tanya is not here really be able to dig into the 19,000 of the curriculum ad. It just seems like if it's a reoccurring expense, it seems like it's a lot for 127 students and I don't even know if the I Ready is a K through six curriculum or not. Um, so it just seems like a high dollar amount to be spending and maybe we should look at that. I will take note of that. >> Um, all right. Before I call on people who have already spoken, does anybody else have any questions or want to say anything? All right, then I'm going to go to David and then
040to Rachel. >> Thanks, Margaret. I just had a follow-up question. John's question made me um a little curious about then the financial implications of people choicing out in six. So if people were were choosing to choice out um in six if that happened because of the new um academy do you have an idea to like the max number of kids? I mean, I I would never I would not anticipate all the kids maxing out, but I'm just wondering what kind of the maximum hit on the budget that would be for a um choicing out and kind of if there's been surveys done to have an idea as to the potential of what that number might look like. >> Sarah Bess, do you have a response for that? >> Yes. I think is highly unfair to
041ask the Pelum school committee how many seats that the Ammer school committee would have for choice out for to receive choice students. That's not anything we have any control over. The same way we have students that choice out or charter out now and we receive choice in students. That's how many seats a new school could possibly have for Pelum students is not something we are able to answer. I will say previously when you know conversations came to the school committee and the school about participating in Chestnut Street Academy or whatever that looked like before it even had a name when Amoris first started talking about it. The feeling in Pelum I I was going to be one of those sixth grade parents when it first started those conversations first started. So both as a parent
042and as a sitting school committee at that time there was no traction. So what could happen now is not something that we we could answer. >> Mhm. I guess just I'm just curious like do you know how many Pelum um sixth graders are currently in the school just >> to kind of have an idea like if >> the enrollment would be nice to know like >> have that >> number would be >> the enrollment is there's a sheet in the budget that has the current enrollment. Oh maybe this doesn't have it by grade it was >> it was gave it in a previous meeting. Yeah, it was about it was about half and half for our current fifth and sixth grade. So, it's about 12 and 11 or 11 and 12. >> Yep. I just
043pulled it up. It's seven choice students that are choice in um or actually we would be looking at the fifth graders. So, nine um choice in students that are in fifth grade and 14 pel residents that are in fifth grade. >> Okay. >> Total of 23. >> Okay. All right. I think I think that's a question David that needs to be directed to the Ammer school committee because >> I'm just thinking about it in terms not not I guess my question is not about the opportunity for that. I guess in some ways it is, but since there is a big change locally kind of when we think about projecting how much we spend for kids choicing out that there might actually be a change then um moving forward. And so just trying to get a
044handle as to like what that potential change would be in terms of spending for kids that may choice out, right? Not saying that they would, not saying that they'd have that opportunity, >> but but it is a pretty big >> change that's happening locally. >> Yeah. >> Right. As Sarah Best said, I think we can't because we have no responsibility or ability to say anything about who choices out. We really don't have any way to pro project what that might cost. So I think at this point in time there really isn't an answer to that question. >> Can I just add to that? So you're right. We there is no answer to that question. Um but just to just to some information that might be helpful for you David is if right now if the
045nine school choice in students that are in fifth grade choice into Amherst that's not a cost that Pelum would bear because their choice in their sending district would send then Amherst $5,000 per student plus any special needs. So the maximum if we have 14 Pelum residents 14 times say all of them decided they wanted to choice and go to Amherst 14 * 5,000 is 70,000 so the maximum in this point of time for just regular choiceed out 5,000 per student however if they have special education needs that Amherst has to support them with then the costs could vary drastically depending on what the needs are of that student. >> Fair enough. Thank you. >> Okay. Um Rachel, >> I know we want to get off this. I just want to say two things. This school
046committee voted not to be exploring tuitioning our kids into Ammerst for the coming year. The model as I understand the select board is setting up is really a several yearong investigation into what would need to happen and make sense for the school in a long-term way. And when there was when when the conversation around Chestnut Street Academy and Pel came up, we heard from over a dozen fifth grade families very loudly that that was not something they were interested in. So, I I just want to echo what's been said and Sarah Best is really speaking to some time ago because her kids are a little older, but we heard from from this year's cohort of families, which I think is good data for the question you're looking at right now, data, David. Um, and and
047like certainly not um we don't we don't know factually, but that is good data for us to have. Um, the only other thing I I was raising my hand to say this a little while ago, William said this, but I I want to echo 22K per year. I do believe I Ready is the full K through six, but 22K per year for a K through6 school feels really like a lot and like an expense that does not seem sustainable. Um, so I'm just echoing that that's something I would like to get more information on and for us to really explore how that's working in the school, how teachers are experiencing it, what it is doing to support our kids in reaching goals, and if that's an expense that's worth us holding on to for the
048long term. >> Okay. Um, William, >> yes. I just wanted to make one comment. Um I Shannon, thank you for bringing it to our attention that it's $5,000 if we have to if a kid choices out of Palum. That's a cost that then comes back to us. But I want to be clear that if we were to send our fifth grade there and they did not by choice do that, we would then be paying a tuition and it would be probably five, six, 10 times, well not 10 times. I think it would be anywhere from 20 to $30,000 cost for tuitioning them in. So, please don't think that it would just be a $5,000 cost to tuition in our kids to any school. But yes, if any of our children decide decide to go to
049any other public school, it would cost currently for them to choice into a different school 5,000. But that is not a comparison number if we had to pay tuition to another district to take our kids. And then only other question I had was that you know maybe the the I Ready cost is um a per building cost and not a tuition. I mean not a per student cost because it just seems really it does seem like a high dollar amount for such a small school. Hopefully we'll get that information for our next meeting. Thank you. Um, I just wanted to caution us talking about how much it would cost to tuition out students because that that's a totally undetermined amount of money. And while it could be high, it might not be high. If you
050read the article in the newspaper about Warwick Elementary School, they were actually make able to make a deal or I'll call it a deal with the the two regional high schools, middle schools that they send their students to for this to for their choice out students, the the people who were choice in to their schools to pay $5,000 a student to choice them out. So, I just think we need to realize that we don't know what a potential tuition out cost at this time is. That would have to be an agreement between whatever district they were choicing into and us. So, um, Jenny, >> yeah, I was just going to ask if we could have, um, Tanya come and talk to us at our next meeting about this I Ready curriculum because I know that
051Mickey has referenced it a number of times in her updates as the new curriculum that they're using for ELA and math. And, um, I believe she said that the teachers really like it. I know from my professional experience that introducing a new curriculum and getting teachers professionally to a place where they understand how to implement that curriculum well is a multi-year undertaking. So I I think um this 19,000 probably doesn't represent accurately the full commitment that the school has made to this curriculum. And I think that, you know, it it's not as simple as saying we don't want to spend $19,000 next year. That would that would potentially be undoing years worth of investment um in staff development. So, I would just really like to understand from um from Tanya kind of what the full
052costs of I Ready are and what the kind of results are that we're seeing particularly from an equity perspective like how if we I know it's always really hard with a school this size to see kind of the trends um without identifying individual kids, but I would if you know any data that we can get to understand whether this new curriculum is having a positive impact across our kids and if it's having a positive impact equally I think would be really important in in making any sort of decision about whether or not this cost is justified. >> Thank you Sarah Bass. Sorry. Um, I just want us to be careful about continuing to have a conversation about tuitioning because we were talking about our current budget situation and the school committee was already pretty clear
053that we were not interested in tuitioning students anywhere um for our next budget year. So, while it could be something that our future selves look into and have a more in-depth conversation about, I don't think it's part of our FY27 budget. >> Thank you, Sarah Bass. Um, I don't see any more hands. So, what I I would like to say to all of you and see what you think about this. It sounds to me like there are two things the committee would like more information about for this budget. One of them is about the bus about the transportation and the other one is about the cost of the I Ready um item in the the item in the budget for that. Would like more explanation from Tanya regarding that. Um I think that um the
054idea of changing the way the budget is present I think things not for this budget are do we change the way Shannon prepares the budget for Pelum. Um the com combining of grades I think is not for this year because our recommendation unanimously to Shannon and Dr. Z was not to do that this come for the fiscal year 27. So if we were going to have that conversation I think that needs to be future also. Um, >> two more. Sorry. >> I didn't know my hand. Um, sorry to interrupt you. >> The two more. Shannon, I do think this is a question you can answer and I didn't write it before. Um, I remember in February we spoke some about potentially leaving space for marketing or outreach, particularly around choice, particularly in light of keeping
055uh program status quo. Do you know I know that may just be baked into people's roles but can you speak to that at all? >> Um so we do have like adver there are some lines in the budget for advertising and like for when we have to post the um school choice in the newspaper like that can come out of that line. If there's other things that you all are thinking of and have a cost estimate, um I can tell you if that's something that we already like we have enough money in the budget already for, but it if it's a lot higher then that we need to consider adjusting the budget, then please provide me some quote or an estimate. >> Okay. I don't think it's anything significant, but I'm going to take a
056little time and Margaret I'll I'll share I'll send an email to you and Shannon and Dr. Z if and when she's when she's back. Um, just around that that question if if there I don't think there are, but I'll take a little bit of time on advertising costs. The only other thing that I think was coming up when we were talking about this in February was um in the past kindergarten and first grade teachers used to need some time to go visit schools and I don't know if that needs accounting for in the budget. >> Um, well, I'm not sure what you mean. Like in the past the KN&1 teachers would go visit some of the private local preschools to share that choicing and wasn't that that Palm had school choice and to share about
057the school. Um I don't know if they did that on during their regular school day. That's that's my question. >> Okay. Um I'm not sure either, but I will connect with Mickey and we can circle back to that. >> And then the other thing I actually I'm going to save this for a longer term. That's the only other thing I want to just add to your list. Thank you. >> Okay. So, um, John, >> yeah, I just wanted to you're delving into the minutia around the budget and I question whe the finance committee wants to adjourn at this point. Let you continue your meeting. If you want to adjourn, uh, raise your hand. Let Margaret see your hands up. Otherwise, we will continue. I see one hand, John. Two hands. >> All right. And mine
058is three. So, we >> I >> Yeah, that one faded into the background. Sorry, Cara. >> Therefore, I I thank you folks very much, Shannon. Great job. Uh we appreciate the opportunity. And uh so, at this point, I will adjourn the uh finance committee. Okay. Thank you, John. Thank you all for coming. I I think this was a a good move for all of us. >> Thank you. >> I agree. >> Okay. So, um, so, so the things that we want to have more information about, I guess, at the time we have the budget hearing. Um, or maybe we can fold them into the Thursday meeting. I I'm going to look into that whether maybe that can be a meeting along with a community forum, but I will have to check into that. Um, so
059we want Tanya, we want more information from Tanya and we want the information about the bus. um so that we have that information when we have the budget hearing. Okay. Um I guess the other question I have is do we need to talk about using the additional school choice to cover the $ 109,000 deficit? Sarah Bass, >> I think that is part of what's being presented in this budget and when it comes time to vote on the budget, then that's will be part of how we vote on it. I don't >> I don't I mean, you're the chair, so you get to make the decision, but I don't know that we need to make uh more have a have a vote about using the other additional school choice funds. Um especially when we previously had
060that conversation last I don't know there's so many meetings last month question markidge whenever that last word yeah we did use words like bridge the gap so okay great thank you for that >> I do have the list I think maybe that would be helpful of like we wanted more information on a couple of things do you want me to read that would that be helpful >> yes >> so more information on transportation more information on I ready um in more information on how the budget is being presented, which I actually don't think it's more information. I think it's more just like having a conversation about how we want it presented in the future, not for this year, because >> I'm sure Shannon has more than 10 times enough work to do. Um, so maybe
061we can talk about that in the my suggestion would be to have that conversation in the fall when we're starting to talk about next year's budget and talk about how that could be presented in a way that works for everyone. And you know, there will be a little bit of a transition period, but a note on the bottom that says this is transitioning from it used to be like this and now it's like this. And um and then we had previously asked about more information about combining grades. Um >> yes, that would be for next year. >> Yes. >> Not not now tonight. >> Yeah. Yeah. My feeling about information that would be helpful to have for a whatever next budget conversation would be the information about I Ready. That feels like kind of the
062only piece I would want to know before I felt like I was ready to vote a budget. um about combining g grades, how budgets are being presented and the transportation all feel like things that can wait into the future um for me. >> Okay. For you. Okay. >> Yep. >> Right. All right. Well, >> I had raised my hand because I was I was trying to get clarification about whether that was the plan for the bus information that are we trying to get that information for voting on this budget or are we trying to get that information for future budgets? Because it feels like >> making a change at this state to busing could potentially be super disruptive to a lot of families. So, I was just curious, I guess Rachel, you're the one who
063was asking for that information. Were you thinking about it as something that would impact the coming year or as something that we would want to know for the longer term? >> I would like to know for this budget. I don't I don't I don't feel like I know enough to even really answer that. Um, I think even I Shannon, I mean this with with all respect. I don't think we know like as Shannon's saying that it makes it it would make the bus well over an hour. I don't I don't know if that's like 65 minutes that we're talking about or 102 minutes and that is a those are very different conversations and I don't know that we can know without doing a little research. Um but it's a $25,000 difference which is significant on
064a 100k deficit. Um, so if we can pull that data together in time for this budget, my answer would be I would like to. Um, I think even given that data, it could be that we then say this is for a future year. But yes, I would like that data for this budget. >> Okay. So I mean I would say for both I Ready and the busing then if it sounds like it's going to impact people's ability to vote on this budget it would be really good to understand both the financial implications of changes to those and also the sort of programmatic implications of making those changes cuz like for the buses understanding how many families are we talking about and what is the time and like that context matters. And similarly with the curriculum,
065I would want to understand what are the programmatic implications of making a change to the curriculum in the you know in the short term versus looking at that as something for next year's budget. >> William. >> Yeah. And I guess a question I would have on the busing, I don't understand how it works. I I my lens is how it worked in New York and not here, but I know that I can walk to the elementary school and it's a pretty short walk from my house. I know we don't have sidewalks, so that probably impacts uh the need for busing, but it like a bus would come to it comes past my house every day and no one ever really gets on it around my house. But I I like as a community, if it
066was save our school or not combine classrooms, but you had to take your kid to school versus having a bus, that might be something the community might be interested in. So I I think I would like to know like legally what is required that we actually provide and what the cost of that is and then what are we providing that we don't have to actually legally provide because I feel that the bus routes are pretty similar for the middle school pickups as they are to take kids to the Pelum Elementary and I I I don't know what we have to do and what we don't have to do. So just some clarity over that I think would be helpful to understand the impact that it might have or might not have. >> Okay. I I
067I would just like to say regarding the busing, you know, we we don't have a great track record of communicating with people about changes and, you know, changing the busing schedule for fall without communicating with the families. I would be a little bit concerned about that, you know, because for some people that's going to be a a big deal. you know, kids if if kids are going to now, especially young kids, are going to have to ride the bus for potentially an hour, I could see that that might be a real concern for some parents. So, personally, I would think that it would be good to have the information, but I would be concerned about voting the budget to make that change for the fall. So, Jenny, >> I just wanted to flag that I
068think there are also real equity considerations when it comes to busing. Um, that it, you know, it's not it's not everyone can make the decision as easily as everyone else. So, >> okay. All right. So, >> may I may I change one last? Um, so I just wanted clarity because it sounded I was unsure by what you were saying before of possibly adding something to to a th to Thursday's forum. And so is the expectation that you're looking for this information for Thursday or or at the next Palm School committee? >> I will I will be in touch tomorrow. >> Okay. >> About that. I I need to I need to look into what I'm allowed to do regarding that meeting. Um, so I will I will be in touch with you. >> Okay. There
069there's a meeting in between the two also, Shannon, on March 26th. I don't think it's on calendars, but there's the budget hearing. >> That might be a reasonable timeline. I'm just throwing out there. >> Yeah, that's our budget hearing. So, >> so we could have that data for that point. That might be a good >> that I think that would be helpful for community input. >> Okay. All right. Um, well, I I will talk to Shannon tomorrow and see. Um, so I think uh unless anybody has anything else, we have covered the topic tonight. Um, I just wanted to say that I had I also added to the agenda the advertisement for the budget hearing that went into the newspaper because we all learned that that's something we should have been doing. And uh, William,
070I also found out Shannon did also did the one for the meeting on Thursday. She already did that. I had forgotten that. So, we're covered. We're covered for our our forum and for the budget hearing in terms of the newspaper ad. Um, so anything else? Uh, we will meet again on Thursday. Rachel, >> sorry. I just want to say out loud another thing I learned I think from Sarah Bus maybe or from looking at the bus contract. There are not smaller buses parent in in answer to why are we not just looking at having smaller buses. The bus company that we work with only has the size buses that they have. A lot of work was put into finding that bus company that we contract with. Um so I just wanted to put that out
071here for all you. >> Okay. Thanks. Yeah. Thanks. Yes. >> I have my hand raised. I just wanted to thank Shannon for all the information she brought to us tonight and for taking all the questions and all the time you're putting into this. Thank you. Yes. Yes. I see a lot of heads nodding. Yes. >> I wanted to say the same thing, Shannon. This has been a lot of budget season and I'm very impressed and thank you for being so accommodating to all of our questions and answering so thoroughly and being so knowledgeable about things. So, it's >> I'm really glad you're here. >> Yes, indeed. There is um a question in the Q&A about whether the committee plans to discuss the public comment regarding cameras in the schools. >> Um not we can't do
072it tonight. >> Not tonight though. >> No, it's not on the agenda for tonight, but it may be in the future. Okay. Then I am going to move to adjourn the meeting and thank you all. Thank you all for the thoughtful questions and comments. >> Second. >> William, >> you have warrant reports listed on the agenda. >> Oh god, I always forget the consent agenda. Thank you. Yes, I decided to go ahead and add them. Um, I move to accept the consent agenda. Second. Thank you. Uh Sarah Bess, >> yes. >> Jenny, >> yes. >> William, >> yes. >> Rachel, >> yes. >> Margaret, yes. We accept the consent agenda. Five, nothing. All right. >> And then you also have future agenda planning on the agenda. >> We do. Um I will I guess I
073would say that we have a meeting on Thursday. We have a budget hearing on the 26th and we have a regular school committee meeting on April 7th I think and that is when we will do the vote on the budget. >> So I would just only feature agenda item I would add would be if we can have some clarity and understanding or presentation on the school cameras that were just presented to us on a feature. >> Okay. Yes. >> That recommendation. Thank you. All right. >> Wasn't easy signing up. >> I'm not done. >> Comments from the peanut gallery. Yes. Um All right. Now I make a motion to adjourn the meeting. >> Second. >> All right. Uh Jenny. >> Yes. William, >> yes. >> Rachel, >> yes. >> Sarah Bess, >> yes. >> And
074Margaret, yes. Thank you all.