001he's not wearing his glasses five minutes find our coffee find our and we'll get going C so good morning everyone I will call the Regional School commit order at um I am I think just for quick review go around through the town also sah from committee Jennifer ammer Sarah wol Le do have any call I'll call the finance committee committe doesn't have a okay sh shoots fa um I'll call the select board you I'll call the have the select Bo we do not have a tricky Finance we do not have a quum okay all right well thank you all very much for coming Saturday morning um good morning everyone morning um it hopefully there's coffee there there's appleid of donuts there's water so if you need anything like I pick me up on that table
002um thank you for joining me on my team this morning for our budget version 2.0 presentation the last time we were here in September it was very early but we still want to get out ahead of this and show the progress that we're making and so this conversation today is we'll continue that convers be a continuation of that conversation um and with me is my interal Finance director Shannon we'll be going deeper into the financials today and we'll be working this presentation together um so setting the stage um I just want to set the stage in terms of a reflection our purpose for today and we come together as four towns United by our sh commitment education and the success of our children and to move forward we must approach this financial assessment with open
003minds a collective result knowing that our investment today shapes the future of our schools and our community of tomorrow so I just want to set the stage for the conversation I think that that's often very important and and just making sure we are all here for the same purpose so where did we let leave off and our key Insight since September 28th on be lastest the budget deficit is still severe in my eyes but it's moving in a right direction um weing our H County Retirement assessment which came in a lot lower than we expected and so we were able to balance those numbers we have been looking at a organizational consolidation and looking at staff attrition um looking at positions and seeing what do we keep versus how do we consolidate some of the
004the duties um what does that look like and how do we move forward and so that's been helping us in the region and you see that as CH goes into the numbers there are some unknowns that we still kind of up in the a outside of the four towns assessments um APA negotiations are going to have our contract settled between April and May um transportation at RFP is opening January 15 and we're holding at a 10% increase in our budget and then the projected healthare we're still waiting I think by end of January early February we projected at 13% which is relatively high but we were warned that it could go up to 15% my whole team and I have had our fingers crossed that it goes down I in give me 11% 10% 9%
005something other than that 13 um but that's where we are at the last time we're here because we were facing a very um High number in terms of about $2.3 million as our possible cut we were talking about the middle school high school building consolidation um late October after this after our meeting msba invited the district into the accelerated repair program for the Middle School Loop we have been having conversations we did have a meeting with msba to talk about the use of the building what does that look like what still needs to happen so it doesn't affect our conversation um our application process and what's happening and um we do have some things to work through with the committee as well as the msba and I think that it's going to move us in
006the right direction but it's still kind of an unknown and I so we're kind of pausing but still moving with two in two with two veins it that Mak sense we're moving in what would the region look like with a consolidation what would the region look like the way it is um ongoing discussion with desie to determine any negative impact on the district statement of interest and potential Grant Awards because there are some additional grants that were applied for um to help us with our fiscal situation however a lot of it was with specific language in terms of how the region is set up so where we left off I think at the last meeting everyone was faced with about six scenarios the conversation was focusing on scenario one and two which was the 6%
007base and what would that increase for this year look like the Surplus deficit would have been about 2.2 to $2.5 million and so what we're going to do today is faster a shared understanding we want to make sure that we're all clear and unified at least as a district on how we are moving forward um I've said this before and I say this again contractually we have until April to let any employees know if we are going to to let them go um especially within apaa for us what we are looking at and what we've been trying to do is look at Personnel versus operations any school budget educator 101 any school budget a 8 to 90% of our school budget is personal which leaves 10 to 20% of oper in what is the easiest
008cut everyone feels to make is to jump straight to the person and start cutting positions but then you start to impact programming and so what we've been doing as a team is going through our budgets and working with the team to see what are the programmatic changes that can be made that wouldn't be such a Personnel impact and so what we talk about that later on and we want to build a commitment we know we don't have uh everyone doesn't have a full quum here today but we still need to have some sense of a direction because these are lives not just of adults but also of children that we are impacting and in education speak as a superintendent come January I am already planning for school year 2526 I cannot wait until April at
009May to plan for what the schools are going to look like so we do need some semblance of a conversation and of a guide adequately plan for what the region is going to look like come August of 2025 and so I hand so have we heavily refined our budget projections from what we previously presented in uh September so we have gone line by line we have met with all of our departments and District leader um and and started that much more deeper analysis we have applied 850,000 of school choice to the FY 26 budget um funding for open Hello sorry my my voice can get really high pitched and so it's hard for me to talk very loud without sounding like an ass uh so as Dr Z mentioned we um are anticipating health insurance
010at 133% our Hampshire County um came in under for an actual which was great um and freed up some funds in the budget we have the transportation RFP where we um anticipate a a 10 10% increase the bid opening for that is January 15th um we've made assumptions for where we think the colas and steps will be for our biggest bargaining unit that is under negotiations right now um and like I said before we really uh went line by line and met with each department so the number I'm going to present on the next screen is going to be very different from what we saw in September um good thing you have the packet because this is a little small uh our total expenses uh were anticipating for FY 26 the 37 mil 541 375
011um which is a 6.4% increase over 25 I have had conversations with other Regional School Districts to see where where they are at um in comparison to 25 to 26 um and there was a large consensus that most Regional districts were anywhere between a five to six and a half increase over f25 so we're not alone in this it's not um just the inner School District so that with that it I'm going to present what would be the the cost to each town if they were to fully fund our schools so this is the modified statutory method which is in our regional agreement and this is what we must default to to determine our assessments so at the top we have the operating budget then we have the Chapter 70 anticipated increase the various reimbursements
012are end support and then it brings us down to the town assessments as a base for this presentation we're using 6% from FY 25 and based on that and using the statutory method which accounts for the five-year rolling average of enrollment and minimum local contribution it would H Amhurst at a 7.68% increase pum at a 2624 lever at a 17.14 and G3 AT 11.5 and that would be is if our schools were fully F so with that um a couple years ago the method of adding the guard rails was introduced so we added that second blue column and the thought was um if the town's percentage was over 4% then they would hit the guard rail and that would be the max um so when the town's hit all of them hit the 4% because
013the prior percentages are higher it would leave us at a 1.2 6 million deficit um so with that the next slide that I want to talk about is I've heard I've been following the um Town meetings and um and listening to you all and and really trying to prepare for this meeting but in the hopes that it is successful and really useful use of our time so I I've heard that this when you take the guard rail method and apply 4% across um all four towns it ends up uh bypassing the statutory method that that follows the enrollment by Town um so with that I wanted to show uh a scenario if we were to calculate what the ratio or the percentage is of the town's piece of the pie at using the statutory method
014so on the top left hand corner you can see the percentages from the prior screen um for the satary meod on the right side is hitting the 4% guard rails so if you take Amherst and they're 20 million and divide it by 25 of the pie it's 79.9 and then if you do the same for pum and Leverett and shoots very that's their percentage based on the statory method when you go over to the guardrail side and you and you see the pot of the pie is split differently because it was flat percent increase so when that happens and can you enlarge that I can't I can't read what's on the printed but it's so small I can't to okay unfortunately we are not able to zoom in so I will okay we're I'm having
015an interpret um so actually I just want to I I didn't say this before um I I am not standing up here presenting this and saying I'm advocating for it to be done this way that I'm that I'm telling you on this screen but because I was asked the question of how we might be able to relate the gar method back to the sagittary method I wanted to show this um but I'm not advocating that we do this um so what I was saying before was the statutory method and the percentages of each town sharei then we look at the Gil method and and figure out Amhurst is at 19.5 uh pum at 1.1 and and we divide each of those numbers by the total assessment it shows you the percentage of that that each
016town is paying so uh as a one potential way if you wanted to look at it was the the school is going to vote for a 4% overall budget increase uh but the towns want it related to the statutory method maybe you don't I don't know I'm just speaking through the scenario um if you were to take the the assessments the total assessment of 4% increase and time multiply that number by the statutory methods the 7992 the 5.3 7.54 and 24 you would see that this how the pie is divided up is much different um and those numbers are likely unable for the towns um I did think through other ways that we could potentially have a hybrid model if that's something we wanted to go through I'm not going to present on that right
017now um because I I just wasn't sure if that was the direction we're going into but I've already started that work if that's something that we are moving towards U but no way am I advocating so with that uh moving away from the the assessment method I wanted to show you where the region could be at um over the next few years and this is very broad it's very difficult to to do this there are a lot of unknowns that won't come up until that year comes um and the assessment method if we don't know what the what the full assessment method and it's going to change year-over-year how do we project with that revenue is going to be so for this I did the 6% for 25 I did a 4% increase for 26
018and for the remaining out years I just did a solid 3% across all not that we're going to do that but in in terms of presenting something to try to give you an outlook for the region um that's what I did here so as you can see it's still for 26 it's 1.2 million deficit for 25 27 we're projecting um 882 million deficit and for 28 goes down to 308 as a deficit and then 291 and 29 um and the these are all subject to change so don't hold me to it when we get to 27 um but it it was a deep analysis of where we could potentially be uh and some of the things that Dr and Dr Z and I have talked about are strategic decisions that you won't see the impact
019in just one year that they will take time over the course of few years to really see the impact of of the decision we make now operating and how we run the school so with that I'm going to turn it back over to Dr sorry I was trying to get [Music] financials all right so some of the Strategic efficiencies that we're talking about in terms of closing the budget Gap and we've already started is one Staffing optimization um I I want to be clear that the last time and I paid attention to the videos I saw what occurred and I I do agree with the fact that we are an educational system and the fact that we need Educators to educate our children and like I start off saying looking at any school's budget the
020first thing you look at is the largest area which is often Personnel the thought process though is that without the personnel there is really no system and so we have been looking at how do we optimize the staff that we have we've been having conversations around every role in the district from my role in and the central office role to the school base roles like how can we function what difference does it like what difference would it make in terms of the optimization or efficiency of the school system um and so we do have some positions that are still open one of the things that I told my staff was that we know that we are in a budet crunch we are any position that we are advertising we're advertising as interim for one year
021let me explain why because of the fact that we are facing a cut a deficit anyone that comes in at this time does not have seniority which means that they were more than likely be the first to go I am not it is not to me it is not the human thing to do to hire someone for a full-time position have them shift and change their lives thinking that they're coming here for a full-time job and then in April I receive and I turn around I hand them a letter saying that you do not have the seniority you have to go so I prefer to be transparent and a front and say this is a one-year position when they're hired if we have an opening that they can stay in at the end of everything
022then they do but if not I would rather them already know and make that not informed decision versus making an uninformed one so those are some of the things that we're faced with we're looking at our contracts um to see what we can bring in house that where do we have the talents in house versus Contracting out which is costly so that's what we're doing in terms of Staffing optimization we're looking at program review and redesign we've delved into all of our programs how are they funded where like how are we what are we doing in revolving funds what are we doing in in Appropriations how is this funded are we splitting task down to too many different people so that's what we're looking at we're also looking at our schedules our start times how
023does that affect our transp ation cost um how does it affect what it is that we need to do in terms of student access to instructional time um what is our data saying and our transportation cost as you can see because we're going into the RFP stage we are really trying to be cognizant and how we can reduce the number of empty buses that come into our schools especially at the region because there are many times that buses come in and there are less than 50% filled and so we are looking at what is that like how are we are able to shift those costs and that may be best impacted by Shifting the start times because of the routes that are run um and so we're looking at those conversations as well alternative R
024stream we need to look at how we deal with our facilities rental and our facilities management what are other grants that are out there that we need to apply for um I think I just approv a teacher diversity C Grant that would help us pay for professional development that is now a shift off of our operating costs so we're still at during this time trying to see how do we not really impact Personnel but we can still address this deficit where it might be something that we can Shi off of Appropriations and reduce the cut the cut by an alternative Revenue stream um procurement operations many times we're looking at we've tightened up in our procurement our purchase order process or approval process making sure that what someone puts in a requisition for Align of
025what they truly need and we don't have requisitions that are open and then we have at the end we're closing off half of it but we could have actually shifted that so we're actually over the year looking at our Trends in what we procure what what have we spent what have we not spent where are the areas that we have concerns and even loss and risk and then we talked about Facilities Management we have a lot of deferred maintenance and so Shannon is going to talk about Capital but um even this week I sent out a most parents at a ceiling tile fell in the H and you know there's issues in here as you're sit like so there's a lot of things that we actually have to address but what we're looking at is
026how much of our facilities issues came out of operating they're very minimum to like we actually deal with our Capital so there's a lot of things that we're looking at um but our custodial suppli come straight from our operating and so that's that that has incurred a cost and what is that cost again going back to loss and risk and how do we use that and the time and how it's appropriate so as a team we're delving into the programmatic and the operational how can we operate what's the fiscal impact of how we operate programs in the [Music] region so for Capital I will just say that um I am human and I I'm with the uh director of facility school but I do have notes for more specific details because this is a little
027bit out of my for of of exactly what um so the first one is pretty obvious uh for our species management and abatement we are looking to continue that work um we are looking for an infrared electrical system distribution analysis and repair which by code we're now obligated to regularly use infared scanning to identify potential failures in our electrical distribution system and when those failures are detected we would need funds to repair that so that's our second one uh our energy management system hbac upgrades um that's a combination of hardware and software um and updating some of the all some of our software is older um and we need to get onto a newer version and all of this work will potentially save on our energy cost um High School auditorium curtains and rigs that's
028U pretty self-explanatory um the rigs are been become born with age and there's some safety concerns around that the auditorium house lights uh they currently need to be replaced they are extremely dim um and they lack sufficient controls to managing the light for the performances um some parking lot repaving repairs not redoing the whole parking lot but rather patching and doing the small repairs that we can um a middle school walk-in cooler and freezer which would um be for the food services and also self-explanatory an upgrade to our fire system um which is really important to have as if you know anything about what happened with Parker Farm um so uh that's that the and then the middle school parking lot repairs which is similar to the high school and a new curtain uh for
029the Middle School theater so we would be asking for a total of 485 uh for these capital projects for 26 this I'm so sorry because you probably can't read it on um so this is the capital debt schedule uh right now where this would lead us for FY 26 would be uh for the total debt support would be 471 8.89 um the out years for this look Grim I'm pretty sure they always look Grim every time we present this um and it's just a work in process that we constantly Fess when the year comes up and figure out what projects are we doing what's going to be the life of um project Etc um so with that all right so moving forward together collaboration is key we're about to transition into so transition um I
030we need a level of flexibility a lot of this is new um again every time we come come in you know we put together in one number earlier we were able to refine and come down and now our goal is to continue to do that work but we also need a a Nord star we need a guiding Point as to where we're going to go because we have to adequately run the region we have to be able to put for educational system and there are a lot of questions up in the air but we're planning with two like I said in veins and making sure that we are able to put forth for our children and transparency and ongoing communication needs to remain within I know we've had various meetings with many of you um
031we continue to answer questions we're continuing to work the team works hard and we'll continue those meetings into January so that we can present an adequate budget um but I think the first key takeaway is collaboration and critical to addressing our issue and so with that I had all right so before we split up into our T are there any clarifying questions Sarah just be loud the $850,000 of school choice revenue is is that a onetime a one time um opportunity does that exhaust the fund or no it doesn't exhaust and we typically always use x now to support the budget so that's that's common and it does not exhaust their funds is that a typical I don't remember is that a typical yes we use the same amount last year that's all I'm gonna
032ask slide 10 the one that said guard ra one thank you so that I can get number [Music] yes I can do that very shortly are there any further clarifying [Music] questions John tricky from pum out of curiosity in the current budget proposal are there any one-time costs that are included to pay for bills such as all the CLE we had over the past couple years for lawyer fees settlement fees and so forth they're Incorporated in that budget or any other one time it could be separated out for separate appropriation as one time that the towns could use from their free cash versus raising taxes to pay for that's a really good question off the top of my head I can't really think of a one time thing that we budgeted in this budget um
033the like the attorney fees that's we're always going to me attorneys it might be higher in some years because of negotiations and things of that sort um but that's not really a one a one time thing I can certainly look into it but nothing's ringing a bell that that we did that thank you any further clarifying questions yeah okay [Music] so it's 9:40 you think 15 minutes good for our towns okay so 9:55 we shall Recon okay so 10 thank you all very much I one the hand outs come we'll bring them to you see what we're talking about [Music] good morning how are you to see good morning disc AR B e e e but I think I think you're that's a good thing to bring St thank you all very much um microphone
034person just be loud so thank you all very much so right now if we can come back together and talk about how we're feeling things and decide on some next steps um can go from there what inside Shak how's it going all right so um sh I think the the quick and easy stuff um I think on question what we um use for the y25 base we have a strong feeling that it ought to be 6% that's what we all funded last year and the idea that um one or more municipality may have used onetime funds to get there that sort of their you know decision to make that's each Town's decision to make and um but we don't think it should impact how we think about the base in the subsequent years so that's
035one thing um we don't think we should be considering any scenarios that produce a deficit larger than the 1.2 million that you have there um we feel stronger about both those issues on assessment method this is where you know we this is obviously a long ongoing problem that we've all tried to solve um our I think our main feedback is that this way in which we apply a uniform percentage increase to all four municipalities is fundamentally unfair and doesn't um you know it it completely throws out this modified statutory method that we've worked collectively hard on over a number of years to try to achieve some consensus over it's sort of like the fact that we there's some math involved in this process that does utilize that method um doesn't help us if we end
036up just throwing that math way and just saying well at the end of the day we have to uniformly increase everybody's assessment by a fixed percentage 4% so that we don't think that works could we look at slide 10 on the one where you have this alternative scenario okay so so then you know to our mind we've got two assessment method scenarios one is we do the same thing we did last year which is just applied this 4% increase to everybody on this budget scenario that has a $1.2 million defic so that's option one option two is what we do at the bottom of this slide which is you know you appli this proportional um effect of the modified statutory method to that budget number right so we think that that scenario long term is
037probably the fairest and most Equitable way to do this but we recognize that that's probably not going to be accomplishable in this year because of how it impacts two communities in particular so we have a concept that we wanted to suggest which is that if you look at the bottom of that slide if emmer was willing to increase their assessment to 4% for for this year okay and we took the additional funds that that would produce over this scenario I think it get gets us an additional $314,950 and use that number to distribute to the proportionally to the smaller towns so that we can get kind of um closer to to this um actually using utilizing the modified statutory method and if we did that with the understanding that this is we're moving in the
038direction of what you see at the bottom of this slide so maybe next year we can actually be in a position where we use the modified statutory method it's sort of we're thinking about it as a kind of way to phase into US utilizing that modified statutory method for real and not um just throwing it out by uniform so it's kind of a little bit of a hybrid um method it's sort of part modified statutory method but sort of part guard rail and what we think is it'll help two towns in particular um kind of get there this for this year with but again with the idea that we are moving we're committed as four communities to utilizing that statutory method in future what you're proposing any different from the one on the far right
039top because what it does is it it it puts ammer at 4% okay yeah and we just focus on what does that do for assessment so basically that would give us an additional $314,000 that could then be distributed to it could help pum get to their number it could help lever get to its number um the 4% what's that that's the 4% side because the 350 the only one that goes I think down combining he's saying on the bottom right bottom so the bottom instead of increasing by 2.3 yeah right that's where he's that's 4% but that's 4% which is the applying guard rails number because the only town that decreases between the de guard rails and the bottom one is ammer so if you increase ammer back up all of the others come back
040down everyone else stay with the percentages that are on the bottom correct use these percentages right not I said that shsb would still be 5.53 but pelum and Leverett would not be 19 and 11 they would be much lower still over you would pay a little bit more money but they would also pay a little bit more money just not um and also I I don't want to lose sight of the other point which is that we view this as a step towards fa phasing in that modified statutory method which we would actually commit to using inut years okay I can't can't believe myself asking this question but how do you rationalize how do you rationalize increasing amor and then yeah how do you rationalize increasing the number um it's I mean we've already talking
041about a scenario where amers would be increasing their assessment to 4% which is in that that on the slide I just wanted to say I did think about how we could do this hybrid model and if we know that is giving all departments across a 3% increase um I guess one does that would would the region still get that 3% if the statutory method is different and two if we still get the 3% then it would still have a some subsidy and I have the math not on a slide um for this of potentially phasing um that but it just so that sorry so that Sim similar idea but you're just increasing mr's assessment to 3% what you're saying we already did okay okay I just CL clarifying question yes so what AJ said we're
042raising $927,000 right in the top right right that's the amount we have to raise and we have in the bottom right it's 92,000 same number it's just how it's divided up so the one just says 4% for everybody right the other one says whatever the 2.23 blah blah blah mhm so it's the same it's just a divide so it is 4% what you're suggesting is on the board already I me might be um as spokesman for the town of leopard I can say that I don't have a quum no that's fine and um um I'm I'm inclined I'm not really particularly a numbers guy um I am inclined to go to 4% across the board um although I Tru I do understand I do understand now what it was you were trying to achieve and
043that also makes sense to me I guess I don't care respond either way but I will turn it over to Chairman of the finance commit uh uh we didn't really discuss the assessment method I'm more concerned about the 426 budet um I am confident that Le Count approve a 4% increase in our assessment I think uh would approve a larger increase in investment if they think it's needed and I think we need to know more information to know what's needed um last time when the deficit was more than 2 million uh you were talking about cut 12 teachers and multiple par professionals and administrative maintenance positions I think we need to know that kind of information now to know what what we're talking about here um but I think certainly Le would I certain that
044ltown meeting would approve a 4% increase this year I believe that we would increase a a larger we would approve a larger increase if that seems necessary when we see what cuts are with a 1.26 million do you believe Le would have proved the 11.32% increase that is based on the same 24119 assment and a complete modified statutory INE there would be there would have to be a lot of sales involved with with convincing the town that we are on a path to somewhere it's going to get us to to 4% or less than 4% to get them to agree to 11 whatever it is that would be very hard we've had a lot of discussion around um the assessment method how to get to the statutory method when we first agreed as as an
045organization to move to stat story The 4% of guard cents tell was paying the 4% when those were paying 2% 3% 2 and a half% and so we're moving toward that but since we've all reached the 4% we've not so we looked at various alternatives to say what can we do differently um and one was say Okay financially what do we think the town could afford and put that in and say we'll go up to this and you could redo the statuary the methods he was presented as are another thought is stick to the 4% but tell them might voluntarily add money to the base which could be used to decrease the deficit uh and instead of being 106,000 increase total it might have another 20 or 30,000 and I could voluntarily add that to
046our cost and uh would be used to be used in our base but to reduce the deficit as an alternative way and it'll be part of our move toward the statuary method for the following year now this goes back to something lever did uh back in the 2020 2011 somewhere in that area hel was hurting very badly region needed money so they offered an extra 50,000 that year and to cover that deficit we added to our base we paid for it the following year but would be would be in this case moving in good faith toward uh the other towns to uh help toward getting us to sat method with the caveat that next year our affordable housing will kick in and we'll have 34 loow income how people added to our base for household
047for eqv and that may offset what our C method will look like in future years when it gets added to it because that will be very very different income levels to what F been experiencing just to watch out all right first of all even though we have a quorum here today we're not voting we have not voted our financial guidelines we hope that uh those will come before the Council on Monday and be voted on there is a draft in our packet I'm GNA ask Bob hegner who is chair of our finance committee to repeat what is in the present draft of those finan those financial guidelines is what goes to our school committee to the region to the library and to the town second all we have some questions about the method as well
048okay and we want to take an opportunity to raise some of those but first of all let's go to the GU okay so what we've done in our guidelines is is what's currently in our guidelines is we don't have have the increase to 6% in the FY 25 base we have what we originally put as our base Which is 355,000 less than what's this number here and we in we added 3% to that which is what we've given to all of the four elements of our budget um at the time we've looking at the budget as of now it's inde deficit so we don't even know that we can make all of the commitments that are in our budget um if in fact we get more information and that we are running more of a
049we're running a surplus over what we have um we are willing to try to get to the 6% U base um in other words but add the 355 in plus 3% which is another 11% 11,000 something so so about 366 um but we're not we we there's nothing in our guidelines that talks about a 4% increase that's just because we have 3% we could get distribute to the the four elements of our town budget but it hasn't been voted on yet site and so we update our financial picture just like you all do our next big update is uh the end of January it's after the insurance amounts are announced and it's after the governor releases house one the next update after that is not until April which is when the house ways means Rees
050their budget going back to the assessment method in the past the assessment method has always shown ammer at what we said we could get so it would have been 3% and as much as we appreciate the desire for you all to have us put the money we put in extra last year to the base we were very clear it was not a given and I we're going to try to get there we think we can get there in fact if we look at the very bottom method we think we could do that what we can go from 2.23 all the way up to four is still question clarify yes I just want to talk actual numbers so our current guidelines have funding the regions an assessment of 19 million 037 385 which isn't any of
051the numbers on this side you'll not um but if we get the prioritize based on the guidelines as written which have not been adopted we can't say that they won't change we don't know that's Monday's meeting um the all that number would then rise about 366,000 to somewhere around1 19,400 th000 somewhere in that range um and so what Lynn was basically saying is we're confident we can get to the number that is on this sheet at the very bottom but we don't know we can get yeah I was gonna clarify similar to what man just said but I just wanted to repeat what she said which is so first of all what I heard in the ammer meeting is that what's in the guidelines now is a 3% increase on the smaller base which is
052about 19 million 19.0 million if things turn out better they might be able to do a 3% increase on the 6% base and that would be 19.4 so up here you've got a 4% at 19.5 you've got 2.3% 19.6 best case scenario it sounds like from what em saying is 19.4 yeah they can do 19.2 but also what I'm hearing is if all the quick Pieces come into play we could do 19.4 which is not this number this number andree that's what I'm that's correct thanks I just to talk about issue everybody conservatively and existing information will be changing at the end of January I still want to put it out there that having a surplus that's a large Surplus at the end of the year because between when we vote our budget and when
053the numbers come in at the end of the F year does not benefit our operating budget so you know I understand your constraints but our constraints are when do we vote our budget in March in March we need to know as much as possible so that we are and then in April the super inant needs to inform members of whether or not position next year so the timeline that I'm very sensitive to because it was different last year and and now that we have more understanding of the process I have more understanding of the process just want to tell you folks um big surpluses at the end of the year don't help don't see teacher positions so the finance committee has been addressing that that has been discussed also Council level and in the guidelines
054there is an attempt to address the is of not having as much Surplus at the as as of this coming year yeah but like what part of what month would we know about the impact of those Sidelines on the on our operating we do quarterly reconciliations against our budget so by April will'll have a 34 uh reconciliation against this year's budg okay that's the best point of which we know um no I wanted to add something that that ly Lyn didn't say that that we did mention in our own meeting which is ammer is at its tax levy cap we can't Levy any more taxes it is our understanding that the other three towns are not at their tax cap um and so I think that's a point that needs to be made that we
055are we can't raise any more money but we believe the other three towns have the ability to do so because they have not reached their level and what we add to that we also have our new Elementary School hitting our tax roles this year so as much as we we are saying we're not going out for an override in fact we did go out for de exclusion for brand new scho and people start seeing that in their [Music] tax forgive me because I'm very direct so I apologize if I offend anyone in advance and if I do I'm always here to apologize and to address any of your concerns as we are standing here sitting here we're discussing numbers think about the individuals who are supposed to take over the the seats that you are
056in in a few years which is what we're trying to do here I am here as an educator and a superintendent and a speak for the children and the teachers of the district that I was asked to leave we're here we're presenting what's needed I have been meeting monthly with desie and I'm going to tell you right now we are the only region that every year is submitting an amend one page one thing Amendment about our assessment method and what we're putting in and in 20 8 it was a final amendment was something that was agreed upon the statutory method and since then every year we are changing things we put gu guard rails in place so that you know hey we're going to hit the guard rails we're going to be able to move
057forward even hitting the guard rails we are still facing a deficit so sitting down and realistically saying that we are going because we're giving everyone else 3% we're going to give the schools 3% goes against what you agreed to which is to have a guard rail of 4% so Financial Planning and budgeting in my mind you should at least have some kind of contingency to hit that 4% that's one two I think that at some point we have to come together and have a real conversation around our assessment method because I don't for me as a professional I don't work halfhazard me and every year we are submitting and asking the commissioner and everyone to approve something when we have something already in place if it needs to tweak let's tweak it but this year
058what we need to submit is this is a this year plan and this is what we're going to do the years coming afterwards that's how we get to adequately build a system for children so I understand that the towns are strapped I understand that we are held harmless but it still doesn't benefit us we might need to Advocate we might need to speak louder and speak to the individuals that can do something at a different level to shift and and see the impact the other regions are speaking about the impact to them I think one region in the conversation Shannon and I had is facing up to $5 million from the time we presented in September till now we've now showed you $933,000 [Music] end of the day the person who everyone's going to come
059to outside of the Town meetings the parents are going to come yelling and screaming at me when I have to decide between a music educator art or a sports coach because we're required to educate our children and teach them how to read to write and to add and subtract about Sciences so these are tough conversations but for me what I see is the impact to children I wanted to and uh we don't need amorist to go all the way up to 4% down rails in order to decrease pum and lever to doable numbers so one idea and this is just numbers if and and again and P I apologize for putting numbers in your thing but so if if shoots stays at 5.3% 5.53% then it would be it would seem fair maybe that Leever
060and pelum would pitch in just a little over that because their percentages are much greater at 11 and 20% essentially right so but if if Leverett only went up to say 6% and pelum went up to 7% % and I don't need know if that's feasible but if they did then that would actually only require amers to put in 3.2% increase because of the vast you know larger base that they the larger overall percentage that they have their their money goes a lot further to offset costs of the smaller towns so if you thought about it that way that would still get us closer to the statutory distribution without over we stressing perhaps it still puts a lot of stress on the smaller towns to go up by 7% is is I understand a very
061large increase however it does get them a little bit closer to the statutory method and I think you know we do have to approach this as sort of like a gradual evening of the of the distributions because obviously we can't expect any one town to make up the entire difference in one year because that would just um blow up everybody's budget and so maybe you know looking at it that way and seeing like how much could tell them actually what what percentage increase is the maximum that they could do and then sort of figure out you know in a distribution that seems fair based on that what the other towns would need to do to make up for that um the first part of what I have to say sort of like I guess inside
062the house thing but we have these Financial guidelines that are going to come up on Monday at the fincom and Bob hner mentioned that w're in deficit but I've been listening to those meetings and in those meetings they're saying that the deficit that comes up is because we're estimating very very conservatively in some categories and that currently we this this past year with those conservative estimates we're getting like $1 million in in free cash which is supposed to like to some part serve a rainy day fund and I feel like from my view I can't imagine as an educator in the schools what's more of a rainy day these kids were in elementary school during Co the federal money to help for Co is gone so those pieces come to play and in those financial
063guidelines we have this question of a 5% Surplus that the is looking at per year on on top of a 10.5% capital fund which is really putting we saw in the last five years an Amor 40 go down from 52% of the overall budget to 47% because we're putting more into we got these big capital projects one is an elementary school so I get that there's some balancing there but there's sort of this internal question of like what about the regional schools and then to flip it to something I just wanted the whole region to be aware of Financial guidelines is that it says right in them that um that what they're thinking the past Monday would severely restrict Regional School Districts maintenance and capital needs so I I just want to like have an
064open conversation about where our priorities are because in the meetings a lot of times we all say that we value schools but then what does that mean when we're making the budgets and so just floating to big picture and thinking about those things will I was just going to say on the the numbers here that this 6% like we keep talking about 4% and then these percentages so this is what we really should be asking for because this is this is serving our kids to the best of the ability that we can which is the 6% so when you do the 6% that would be Amor increasing by 7.6 colum increasing by 26 Leverett increasing by 17 and shoot SP increasing by 11 they appli the guard rails and so everyone went over 4% right
065so everyone gets applied the guard rails now it's all 4% now we're at I think it was a $1.2 deficit based on here so when we're all talking about these numbers we're already talking about a $1.2 million cut and when when I'm I I own property I do I'm a taxpayer of ammer I live in pum so I'm a taxpayer in pum also I have an issue when ammer says they don't have to hit the guardrail because this is we're talking these numbers we're talking 7.68 for am we're talking 26 for p we're doing the guard RS because we know we can't afford this so applying this number to then come up with new percentages and Amber saying they can't go to the four they should be going to 7.6 hel should be going to
06626 I know John would go there if he could and I I I hope that Amber would go there if they could I I have faith that we all do want to educate our kids but I do think that we need to look at this these percentages and not just these two issues first of all there is a serious misunderstanding of what the guard rails are the guard rails is a c it on so that you don't go above four but for anybody below the guard rails it was to stay at the number you were at that is the guard it's not taking everybody up to cour okay that's a misunderstanding that I think got further uh exacerbated if you will because of last year so that's one reason why the picture that would have
067been here if we were going with g would have been a 3% for am because that's what we said we have at this time and then it would have increased I'm looking at some of the long-termers in this group and saying did I get that right so the guard rail agreement is a these numbers level Services right it's a cap on the level Services it's not a cap Never it was so we were just told that four towns didn't agree to the guard rails in the second blue column we would default to the 100% statutory so if ammer says no to the guard rails and you default to the 100% statutory there are all four towns happy to pay 26% and 17% increases because we were just told that's where we default to if we
068don't agree all four on the applying guard rails and if that's the case the 100% statutory 25 million assessment is unrealistic for all of us if I've heard everyone correctly so that's not a spot you can start the conversation at if we can't if none of the towns are comfortable deposing to that so number so according to deathy that is our default right pass a budget down there if so this first number that is the desie method right that is what we sent to desie in 2008 that is our that is the our what we fall back on if we do not agree to some alternative assessment method that is already not our alternative assessment method right so the First Column is how it is if we don't agree to anything whatever the number is
069right the previous iterations of the budget were shown with whatever ammer said because that's what ammer said the guard rail was if you hit up against it then that money just came off the budget but that had the budgets were only ever presented with what ammer said it could do not that Amis wasn't part of the guard rails so if Amis was it could have been up to 4% as the guard rails it the guard rails did apply to all towns yes but when we first four years ago said okay to those guard rails we ourselves said but you cannot assume amoris will always be able to go to 4% and use Amis at 4% as a guard rail that was specifically stated by us when we started the agreement so to start saying oh
070we always agreed to an 12% is a misrepresentation of what when the former superintendent and former Finance director presented this guard rail concept what we actually agreed to but it ahead just there's two things at play here right one is what is the total budget amount the other is how do we divide that among the four towns so one is total budget and one is how do we assess it previously we set the total budget based on am's guidance of the percent increase that was affordable that was our Base number then we applied the assessment method to see what everybody would pay and then guard girls would come into play if necessary right so if Hammer said 3% of course they wouldn't hit the guard rail because that was setting the so I think the
071idea of the Guard Rael doesn't it's weird to talk about it in this way I think if we all agree to a base budget differently than Amber setting it then maybe it would so I agree like it it would come into play in certain situations but that is not how we've been approaching budgeting the region in the past the other thing I want to say public okay people keep talking about our excess this year our free cash it is because we earned interest that's happens to be thank you very much for your ni Market that was almost two million the rest is predominantly unfilled positions on the town side and there is a slight amount but not an amount we will consider in the future that is from unanticipated additional Revenue in other words we
072had new buildings they brought in more taxes that is the only thing in the pre cash that we we would are feeling we need to F no can we penalize our DPW because they can't find people no can we penalize the schools are having the same problem we somebody stand up in front of us in our council meeting and say my teacher my kid in second grade didn't have a third teacher in the group until this year is that a budget issue no I bet it it's a supply issue you had the money but you didn't have the supply so I want to make sure we understand that that money of our free cash this year was not all because we underestimated and I really apprciate you're I'm you're out yeah um I talking I
073know we're talking about all sorts of things um Mone and I think I've said it every four times meeting I'm say it again whatever path towns people students families were on preo we are on a different path and have a family member who teaches at the college level who says this is the year they don't know how to draft oh this is the year they don't know how to balance equations the social emotional needs of our students remain high we had a presentation at the ammer school committee meeting where our director of The Marine Fleming spoke to that that it's high and will remain high and that's at the elementary school level the needs of the kids they experienced trauma for a large part of their school years and their developmental years we as adults
074I don't know about your experience I have a better ability than my three children do to integrate that integrate that trauma and understand that experience I can't tell you what it's like have it dead sit in their bedroom in front of a Chromebook for physical education I can't tell you what it's like to have a kid bang on a metal um a plastic bucket with a drumstick I can't tell you what it's like to have a kid bring home art supplies some of which she never returned unfortunately and do art in her bedroom much less my children who were well supported academically at home my children who are well supported in terms of math fortunately in terms of a sence forun in terms of reading and in terms of social emotional health so when you
075go into these buildings on a daily basis and I haven't done it since serving on this committee but I used to go into these buildings on a daily basis our Educators every day deal with gaps learning gaps social emotional gaps mental health gaps and we're negotiating with these Educators to continue to do to continue to do this so again their small lives are in our hands and we are responsible for the whole child so I know these I know there's big plans and I can't begin to tell you how to do your part of it but we are saying as a school committee and as someone who partners with our superintendent to meet all the needs of our children they are high they will remain high this just doesn't go away it doesn't go away
076in a year it doesn't go away the year they they transitioned out of out of quarantine talk to any parent any parent will tell you that there's an impact another parent that I spoke with had a gathering at our house of college students and said yes I can see the impact I can see the impact of Co on my 11th grader on my junior in college and not to the same extent but on my 23y old so I will continue to say it but please please Co is not gone not in their lives not in our lives not in the country yeah I just want to remind the regional school committee that from the perspective of finance and we have to look out for the entire town we have to we have to respect the
077needs of the entire town and you're a part of it so as I look at the elementary school demands which are real and are going to have already been quote asked for half a percent down was it or it was up over the guidelines that we've had for years in place after adding to uh money from free cash to cover the operating cost of uh a charter school student because in essence it's a one-time event eventually going away so we didn't add it to the base but we're going to cover that separately that's on top of the amount of money being requested besides that we have the request and it looks like funing for a playground update upgrade to Ada so there's a $40,000 additional request there so we have a police department that we've
078had to increase wages because we can't hire anybody and we've done that and we still haven't filled the position yet so as you're asking for money for your pot of the the other areas are also feeling the pinch and I don't think any of the taxpayers have seen their incomes go up commensurate to the amount that the tax will have to go up last year or this year to cover the requests so it's a squeeze play from everybody needing their portion of it and add that to the requirements of the state adding to the health department other uh issues that need money also and we have a very limited number as an example our 2 and a half% increase on our base is about 150,000 for the town total so you've just we just offered
079almost half of that for the Regional School the elementary school is going to take a good chunk and there's not much left to divide up for the rest of the needs which have Co effects too so is it just you folks is lots of part that we have to uh figure out how to make it all fit together I look at it as a puzzle as the pieces of the budget puzzle come together where can we find money from different areas to fill in and do the best we can we can't meet everything all the time but we do our darnest to meet the spirit and needs of that which is BAS it which is required thank you comments commenting on on what you said and I fully agree from all sides I just want
080to reiterate that um last year when we were here we asked I think all the towns and asked as with are the big picture changes that we can make to reduce the budget for the region so that we don't have that continued uh pressure and I just want to acknowledge that the superintendent has presented significantly um significant ch change to address those concerns and as she said has already reduced the level Services budget by 900,000 compared to what presented in September so I just want to acknowledge that that work of trying to reduce the low level Services is ongoing and and probably will continue to some extent there are some uncertainties that will resolve and will continue doing that so I I just want to make it clear that we're not just sitting here and
081asking for the moon or even the level Services budget the school side has tried to reduce the costs and will continue to do so and so we're part of that solution towards finding out what that puzzle looks like in um we were I was worried and I asked questions we started these guards in f23 from my my calculations and when we started them I specifically asked to find director and the superintendent if every year the same towns are getting popped at a guard rail of 4% because their increasing 7% don't we get farther and farther away from the statutory method year after year and the superintendent and finance director said at that point oh it'll all work itself out I didn't believe it then and I think we're seeing here between that second blue column
082and the statutory here the result of that hope that it would all work itself out in the end and we'd all eventually come back closer to the sroy method two of the towns are getting farther and farther away from that satutory method every year and so while I appreciate Anna your attempt to do St like that amorist can't be seen as having to make up that that difference every year if we want to actually move to a 100% statutory method we need need the Two Towns or all three towns that are farther and farther away from it to put in a lot more money and potentially consider using more of their tax levy to do so we know that at least I think all three towns aren't at their Max tax levy to say we
083won't even consider it potentially and I don't know that's what you're saying I don't know so you you might be considering adding more you know asking more for taxes but if we if if the goal is to get us to the statutory method so that we don't have to have these crazy calculations every year Helen and Le kind of have to step up with even more than a six or a seven they used to when we started this in FY 23 the guard rail propellum went from 4.62 to four I think if my numbers are right and Leverett was it oh wait no that that's something you know wrong things they they went they they were much closer to the four % guardrail and now they're way far out of those guard rails on pretty
084much any number amoris can afford or can't afford they're still way out even worse amoris is the closest no matter what you pick basically um so I think we need the other towns to not just say ammer make it up and I guess that's the frustrating part I'm hearing from some of the other towns is well ammer just make it up and we'll stay farther away I do want to say John yes everything you said applies to ammer too um we have needs everywhere else it's not just the schools it's everyone else that's putting it on too and and we as a council have to just like their p and she L finance and so fors have to look at all of our Municipal operations not just thank you uh Andy and then Bob and
085then yeah I just want to add two things one just made was years this year um we in am also in position were in Ence we kind of a city that the other towns are organized around is is a real basis so when you come to things like U where the homeless population is and where um people are on the streets with severe mental health problems it's am and we're um therefore pressed with our Municipal services to do things things that um that are absolutely necessary they're really necessary for all of us um and uh so I as you look at um our problem you know we are very committed to schools and um we everything can want to do more but to understand that there are these other pressures on us the thing that
086I entirely different thing I really appreciate this discussion today I think when we come together [Music] feu will a [Music] lot we will know a lot more um and that's something that just happens every year we are caught in this um B um Contin L year after year and it's because of the way that the calendar works for um the state budget the development of the state budget and that part of our Revenue both for 70 and other education lines as well asri government Aid and U plus health insurance I time come together in February we will have a whole lot more information and some of the things that U we're talked about with the um plans for what finance committee is proposing as his budget policy for the coming year we will know what
087the real numbers um are more likely to be so um I'm really hopeful that February so first of all I I want to add my acknowledgement appreciation to the that dist school committee staff have done toce look at everything to come at us here ly if I understand things correctly up here even we're talking now about how to distribute amongst the four towns a number that still if I understand correctly is a deficit even though the amount of funding that is being requested is reduced from what we saw in September there is still a deficit if we come up with the $927,000 you know and we figure out how to divide that up so I want to just emphasize that we're still talking about a budget that's in deficit even as we argue if you
088will about how to divide up the number of 92763 the third thing that I think I'm heing um and I think I've four meetings over the years is you know we keep talking about and how do we continue in that way what is the way that we can this year FY 26 funded how can we do it in a way that will continue Us in that direction um and so obviously there are some numbers on the bottom of the screen that show what that might look like for the four towns right now and perhaps you know so I'm from pel and I see my our 20% increase here um so perhaps for some of us that this particular year looks daun and looks you know can can we really do this John has pointed out
089some of the challenges there so I think what we're looking for without coming up with getting I think what we're looking for is a way to continue the movement towards the statutory method um but to do it in FY 26 so that everybody can feel some degree of comfort um while continuing in that direction but I also want Tock knowledge and I I know that will'll have a lot more specificity and and Clarity I know that will be the case um and and maybe even in terms of what you all think about is the absolute need for the district will change as a result of what we do in in iations with the teachers and so on and the health insurance and the transportation so things will will come out um but I I'm just
090cognizant of the fact that that 92 927 is still a deficit and that when we talk about how to divide it up we need or whatever the number comes out to be 927 or some different number that we try to do it in a way that will nudge us all towards the statutory mate but try try to do it in a way that appreciates the challenges that all four towns are facing and so it may involve some towns doing a little more for example than what's shown up there now and some towns doing a little less um but let's keep moving in that direction so I have Emily Tom AJ and then we are overtime and we can pick this back up again when we have can in February on Emily I was just thinking
091back to I think it was last year um very tough year and you know I think all the towns where we made this big jump big increase can we ask for one more year to try and like find a longterm solution I remember the um plan director talking about U just basically the structural mismatch between how the regional budget um increases and what is typically affordable for the towns so I'm just wanting to see like I know when we talked in September there was like some structural changes proposed and I think we maybe away from that I don't know if that those are good you know that was a good way or not but I'm just I'm a little concerned that we're still going to be faced with the structural problem and I don't know
092that we are addressing the structural problem and I just want to bring that back to the core as we are diving back into a onee situation again right we hyper focused on how do we do this here but we do need to keep our eye on the longterm kind of sustainability I guess of the whole situation I was going to just continue what the sentiment that yeah that Bob brought up and that is that um 11.05% is a is a big number it's kind of Le but the uh actual actual number um 1. million I I haven't actually I haven't actually looked at that number and thought about the kind of impact that's going to have on the total Leever budget I look at that I took look at 11.05% I compare it to all
093the other percentages the three other towns are being asked to contribute and I think how as a select board member how is a Salesman am I going to sell that to town Town B and and the the the number itself is going to be a hell of a difficult cell but if it's but if it's a number and if it's a a if it's a amount of dollars that that can be sold in the context of a process where we're getting from point A to point B to point C uh which is eventually a point of of Greater Financial stability for all four Town that's something I can talk about and that's something I might be able to sell at now me 11.05 all by itself sorry I just wanted to point out this 11.05
094I'm sorry [Laughter] 17 yeah I I I guess just in terms of kind of next steps on this I I hope I think there's maybe not consensus but I think there's a number of voices that have articulated that this way in which we're just uniformly increasing all four municipalities by fixed percentage is not a reasonable way to move forward so I I hope that there's been talk about sort of some hybrid approach and and so I'm hoping that kind of next time we have this conversation that we'll actually see you know some numbers attached to those and I'll just you know I just want to kind of make the point it's there's a little bit of an irony here because I think you know shuberry for years has advocated for the statutory method and got
095a fair amount of push back from from other communities including ammer I me I think um but we consistently support that methodology because we think it reflects the fairest balance of considering ability to pay inputs and um student count inputs and so however we move forward um I think we we're fully behind the concepts behind that method and I I hope that we move continue to move in that in that direction so I'd like to thank everyone and I want to P you back in the last um conversation one we did Shannon did start some preliminary work in terms of what it would look like and what a hybrid is and we just sat and discussed what we think that we'll do prior to the February meeting is come up with a suggested way in
096the next couple of years for us to get to where we need to be and send that out so that can start you know everyone can come to the meeting better prepared to have a discussion as to how do we transition there for us it's just about projecting out we're going to ask for what we need and what works best like I said everyone would need to at least hit the g will still be at a deficit this year um but we agree that what we'll do to help facilitate that conversation is kind of take some of what we've heard today take what Shannon has already drafted in terms of a hybrid statutory something other than even this and kind of present that out to the for town so that when we come in the
097discussion starts from that base this is how we're going to get there for us it's every year we've been submitting to desie for fy2 only this is what it is for FY 24 only and Mandy you're right it's not going to fall from the sky if we didn't have a plan then as to start there and get back here we're continuously moving further and further away from where it is that we need to be and we have significant needs and so for us that's our commitment we'll work on that um in all of our other planning and everything else that we're doing we'll work on that because at the end of the day that serves us in a place where we can adequately work to plan for our children that serves you and the town
098and I am not afraid to speak in front of anyone so if you need me to come and be that sales person next to you I I mean I'm I'm very direct a little bit persuasive but I'm going to come with the evidence in the fact and speak to what we need so I'm so invite me to those meetings I will come in I have no fear um sometimes it works for me and against me but it's it's me that's who I am but courage is is a first step into leadership and that's what you have to have and I I'm here to make sure that our children get what they need um this is a great first step Second Step version 2.0 conversation um we like I told Shannon I guess we're not sleeping
099in February and March because until then but we'll continue to pay attention to every Finance to the meeting we'll continue to attend whatever meetings we need to we will sit and speak to you um as you know you call us and we sit and we explain we answer questions but we're going to start sending information out so that you can start planning for the February conversation so we're focused we di in and we're ready to work for our so thank you thank you so you're all A J thank you all very much February 8 please put that down because I I saw meeting where everyone felt we didn't announce it the last time we announced it at December 14th February think