001Good evening, everybody. Welcome to our school committee meeting. It is March 25th, 2026. At the beginning of every meeting, we read our vision statement. The Ashland Public Schools strives to be a model district that creates a culture of inclusivity for our diverse students and staff who feel safe and supported, are empowered with the academic and social-emotional skills to pursue their chosen path, and embrace their roles as positive contributors to local and global communities. This meeting is being recorded by WACA Cable TV. Our order of business this evening is our call to order, opening procedures, agenda review and adoption. We'll have some time for public participation. Our reports and presentations include the Warren School Student Chronicles, student writing with community volunteer Donna Shaw, override data slides with Paul Kendall, Warren approval, superintendent's report, which includes a
002budget update, assistant superintendent's report, action items, discussion updates, votes, student activities bank reconciliations with Chris Matthew, appointment of a school committee member to the Driscoll Scholarship Committee. Um this next item WACA AHS Television Studio use renovation. Um we will not have that officially on the agenda this evening cuz WACA is not presenting just yet, but Mr. Adams is going to share a few words about it. Um we will review the Tri-Board meeting minutes from December 10th, 2025 and January 21, 2026. And then our consent agenda includes approval of gifts and donations, minutes from March 11th, 2026. We'll have reports of school committee members, and then we will adjourn. Everybody okay with the order of business this evening? Yes. Yes. >> that you're all here, Marcy, Tina, Paul, Mark, and I am here, too. Um and
003we will um start by asking the community if there's anybody who would like to offer public comment, either online or in the audience. Seeing none, um we will move on to our first and best item on the agenda. Without a doubt. Without a doubt, we've been looking forward to this for so long. The Warren School Student Chronicles. Welcome. Thank you for having us tonight. Um I'm excited to share a project that's been happening for a few years now, and um was actually many years in the making. Um I've been very fortunate of just different school committee members that have been part of our site council, but one of our constants in the 10 years I've been here is Donna Shaw. Um Donna's been our community rep on our site council, and a few years ago
004Donna approached me of just saying, "How can we How can I help Warren classrooms?" And the more we sat and talked, it was just more of of being able to help her to to fulfill that piece of passion that she has of working with children. And for all of us at the Warren School, it was, "How do we really take advantage of a great educator who wants to work with our students more and support our teachers who are trying to do more in the classroom?" As Donna and I spoke, we just spoke about the importance of writing and saying, "How can we have more writing occur for our students and more opportunities?" And just the importance of that one-on-one conferencing with a teacher. Uh so, Donna created this idea to publish our students' work. And
005she goes into various classrooms, not only at the Warren School, but also at the Menotomy School, and works with our teachers and ultimately with our children to help them um revise their writing, edit their writing, and then finally publish their writing. Tonight, I've asked four students from Ms. Clifford's second grade class to join us. They're going to be coming up to the podium in a moment. They're going to be introducing themselves. And they're also going to just talk a little bit about some of their favorite parts from working with Mrs. Shaw. And then they are going to read an excerpt from the last entry into the Chronicles. Welcome. Can you tell us your name? My name's Audrethy and I'm from Miss Clifford's class. >> Hello. Um it's so cool to have your book published and
006Miss Shaw helped me develop new skills to make my writing better. Would you like to share some of your writing? Yeah. Um this is my best friend Venba by Audrethy. Venba is 8 years old. She has a brother but does not have a sister. She is a kind girl and really tall. She's taller than her first grade teacher. Wow. Thank you so much. That's wonderful. Would you introduce yourself? My name is Venba. I'm from room 20. Can you tell them about what did you really enjoy about working with Mrs. Shaw? I really like Miss Shaw because she's so nice and helps me develop my writing and teach me new words and how to spell things. Wonderful. Can you share a little bit of your writing? My best friend is Audrethy by Venba. My best friend
007is Audrethy. She has a little sister. Audrethy is so nice. And we both like restaurants. That's wonderful. Thank you. I love how you wrote about each other. That's so kind. It's so nice to have a best friend in your class. Hi, I'm Zitaara and I'm in Miss Clifford's class. Because why I like Miss Shaw cuz she's really nice and helpful, and she helps me learn new skills and learn how to write new things and words. And add a lot of details. Can you share a little bit of your writing? All about ice skating. Hi guys, I'm going to teach you about ice skating. It is a sport. It's even in the Olympics. Both men and women can be in it. That is wonderful. Thank you. Hi, I'm Roman. I'm from room 20. What I like
008about working with Ms. Shaw is that she helps me get better at writing and working harder and adding more detail. Wonderful. There are many college teams like Alabama, Georgia, Texas, Texas A&M, and Indiana. That's awesome. Yeah, that's a good one. They're all good. They're great. You guys did such a wonderful job. As you heard from our students, um, we're very fortunate to have Ms. Shaw. So, Ms. Shaw not only works with Ms. Clifford's class, but as I mentioned, um, she's in many of our second grade classes, also some of our first grade classrooms. And it's one where it's not limited to this. Donna has put herself out there that anyone that would like her support, she's connecting with. And it's, uh, different teachers work with her throughout the year as well. And again, just something
009I wanted to highlight right here, of just one of those another amazing pieces about our community is here in Ashland that we have amazing individuals that are willing to dedicate themselves, their time, and their efforts to be able to help our children. Uh, so again, Donna, thank you very much for everything you Thank you so much, Donna. Thank you all for doing such a wonderful job. Yeah, are you have are you enjoying the time when Mrs. Shaw comes into your class and helps you write? Yeah, it sounds like your writing skills are getting so good. And you're all published authors. We now have a copy >> we have your book right here. And you want me to tell you something fun about your teacher, Mrs. Clifford? So, I have a son, his name is Jake.
010He's 34 years old and his teacher was Mrs. Clifford, too. A long time ago. That's how awesome she is. She's yes. Yes, yes, yes. And she's still young, so I don't know, like the math doesn't really add up, but yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Well, it was wonderful to have you guys here tonight and I hope you continue working on your writing because you're already published authors. You could Look how much you could do. And I have a fun detail to share with you, too, that I got to work with Mrs. Shaw as a writer when I was a little kid because guess what? Mrs. Shaw's my mom. Isn't that exciting? She's a great teacher. She helped me become a really good writer, too. So nice. My kitchen was covered in newspaper rolls. And my kids
011got to write from the time they were two years old. Then when we moved out of the apartment, I didn't realize but they wrote on the walls in the bedroom. Yeah. No. And he was in the kitchen and I had to paint the whole place. Wow. Love it. They became writers. Yeah, and look look where you are now. And I sit on site council with Mrs. Shaw. Whenever you talk about this program, your eyes light up, right? Pete, I like so it's such such a great thing and it brings the community together and it's nice, I'm sure, for you to be able to still use all your talent. Well, from the day I started teaching 55 years ago, I believed that in order to engage children and get them hooked on wanting to learn, you
012have to make it real. And if they're going to write, they got to publish. And that's where the seed for me grew. Uh I wanted to put it in the newspaper because I did this in the when I taught in Milford, I did a full page in the newspaper every month. K to 12. And um they taught me how to do the layout. I learned a lot. And I gained a lot. But when I started here in Ashland, I went back to the newspaper and they said they would be more than happy to help me, but they couldn't give me a whole page because everything's digital now and they don't have a whole page to offer us. So, this is why it became a bound book. Love it. Thank you. >> I still like the
013real books, not the digital books. So, thank you all. It was wonderful to meet you all and have a great rest of your year. Thank you for coming. Yeah. Great job. >> You don't have to stick around. You're You're welcome to, but I can tell you that this is the only good part of the meeting. Not the only good part. Well, >> best part. >> The best part. Thank you for having me. Of course. Thank you. Before I leave, I want to say one thing and I mean this from the bottom of my heart. That I have been in education for 55 years and I've worked in many, many, many schools. But I have not met a system whose heart and soul and hard work is so directed and so into wanting to do the
014best for the students in Ashland. I've seen staff work together. I've seen staff collaborate with each other. I've seen staff concerned about their students in a way that I've not seen it in other schools. And I proclaim myself as a self-appointed cheerleader for the Ashland schools. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you for all you do. >> Thank you. Thank you. Uh Do you have any tissues? Who set this agenda? I don't want to follow that. Yeah, good luck. I said it was the only good thing on the on the meeting. All right. So, I'm That means I'm up. Oh, you're up. All right. Let me share this. All right. Uh so, I had reached out to Lori just because uh uh I had been preparing a bunch
015of slides and data in preparation for me to be able to talk about the override and it struck me that I hadn't presented it here, so it would be odd for uh it to be out in the in the community and not uh not be presented here first. So, um so, I'll just go through it. Uh a lot of this uh is going to be stuff you already know, but uh this is what we've uh put together for uh some of the conversations. Uh the the it's this kind of sectioned uh each of these sections I try to put a slide before it that uh scopes what the slides are going to be and also uh one of the things we've been talking about a lot is trying to make it consumable and we use
016lots of words and there's no way to not use some of the words, general fund, all these different other things and so, uh it it also tries to um define some of those terms, right? So, uh the way we started is uh just trying to break down uh, what drives the budget, what are the biggest components of the budget. So, these are general fund expenditures out of for the entire town. And then you'll see that the education is 55% fixed cost, 16, and then public safety. So, those are the three big uh, big drivers. And at the bottom it describes what fixed fixed cost. So, this is all from state data. And fixed costs are a category of state data. So, this is from uh, a schedule A that is submitted to the state. And
017so, fixed costs are essentially all all benefits, um, you know, including health care, unemployment, workers compensation, and things like that. So, obviously the largest driver is education and those fixed costs. I'll just quickly what, what falls in the category of general government? That's everything except public works and public safety that's Yeah, I think Yeah, I think I think that's that is, yeah, the the the staff and stuff for general for the general government that doesn't fall into um, uh, public works and and public safety. So, like DPW is in public works and police and fire in public safety. And then obviously we have the the town hall staff. So, planning department >> Librarian. Yeah, I I I think all all that general government stuff. So, all of our planning department's building, you know, accountants and
018things like that are in that that bucket. And then obviously the debt the debt services to pay our our bonds and and other other debt servicing. And then this is just a All of these are about trying to It's not about trying to look at the data. It's more about objectively looking at it to show just visually what's driving the budget. And so, we're across the town where people organization, right? For the what drives the budget most time is salaries and and personnel and the services that they supply. And so So here this this is talking about what drives the budget and then the subsequent slides that are going to be data will address um address those things in order as well. So as you saw salaries are the biggest driver. So the next slides
019are going to be about our expenditures relative to that. It's these also kind of tell you how to read the slides. So what these are going to be is a graph from FY 20 FY 14 through 25 typically and and a trend of our expenditures. So that will be the blue line and then there's a green line that that is starts at the same spot and does a annual 2.5% increase. Just a rough approximation of what prop 2.5 will allow. Obviously it's not ever just that. There's new growth involved but choosing that is if I try to choose another number it would be somewhat arbitrary. It is higher but it's not substantially higher obviously if it's 3% or 3.5% it would wouldn't change the shape of the of the graphs at all. And then there's
020an orange dotted line just to try to show in the same kind of context of percentage what an annualized percentage would be that's close proximity to our actual expenses. So these are our salaries and and how they they relate to that line. Two bullets at the bottom. I always try to understand this is general fund expenditures. We do pay about 1.5 million dollars of salaries out of grants and and other other funding sources. Uh and I try to keep it simple. Uh the this the primary drivers of the shape of the line relate to our steps, lanes, and quotas, right? Um So, and just uh I couple this with the next slide to put some context to this. So, the next slide next slide talks about our per pupil expenditures. And this is FY24, which
021is the latest data from the state. And uh it shows that we are the the towns I showed as far as the graph are either are ones that are in our Tri-Valley League or are part of our accept uh special education collaborative. Uh but if you look at the data, um we are ranked 361st out of 395 districts across the state. So, there's only 34 districts that have a lower per pupil expenditure than Ashland does. So, anybody that would look at the previous slide and say we're we're spending too much on salaries, um the the data doesn't bear that out. Obviously, we're doing uh more with less because our performance would be uh at least the inverse of this statistic. Uh if you can name me 34 districts that perform better in any objective category
022than us, uh good luck with that. I just have actually a question about prior slide, Paul, please. >> So, the orange dotted says this 4.75% increase. So, this isn't reflecting sort of the amount of pay increases that we've negotiated like No, yeah, so Yeah, yeah, so it's just about the expenditures and you'll see it doesn't line up perfectly because um I just keeping it trying to keep it simple, I didn't try to get it exact. I went in 0.25 in percentage increments up to but not surpassing the line. So, if I went to five, it would be slightly above it. So, we went there so we can always say that um it's more than more than that cuz I don't want to make it sound worse than it is. Uh but yes, that that is
023not about our contracts or any of those things. Um and these professional salaries are all the professional salaries that we have. Also, basically all our bargaining units essentially are all all our educators. And Paul, does head count affect that line because I'm assuming yes. So, maybe put a note on that because your head count if it went up like that some of that Yes, but uh and and we and I I can put a slide together. I do have uh graphs around that. So, um our our staffing went up with our enrollment and peaked in 2021. And since that time, we're down uh 40 FTEs. Okay. Yeah, no, I'm not looking to No, no, it's it's one of those things I I try to balance >> question. >> Yeah, I try to balance how you
024know, how many slides and how much data, but when that comes up, I can I prepare a slide for it. I already have a graph that I've I've shared with the gym on on on that cuz I I did ask Chris for the historical FTE and enrollment um and um while our enrollment continues to go up it but is uh leveling off our our FTEs are actually down. Uh I think to the level they were in FY17. Okay. Yeah, that would be good to Yeah. So, so it's not that we're adding, it's not that we're overspending. Obviously, our per pupil expenditures bear that out. Um and uh and when people ask, you know, what have you been doing? What have you been You haven't been cutting and quite frankly, we have. Yeah. Um so. I
025think just from the feedback that I've heard from a few people who have certain opinions about this, always the misperception that if you have uh $45 $50 million budget, you can always just cut and then you're not and there's more to be done and so I think those points are really important. Yeah, I I can prepare that slide and publish that. Just to have at least have it to so when the answer uh the question comes up, uh bring it up. Right now it's it's still in Excel, so I I won't bring it up here, but I I do have that. Um I have all that graph. I know that you're surprised by that. >> You're like a data ninja. Paul's a numbers person. She enjoys just part of the project, you know. >> I
026like that. Love it. It's very fitting. I was just going to go with geek, but you're much more awesome. Uh so, the next two slides, uh they're going to look very similar as far as um how the graphs are are are put together. Uh and this just is our uh special education costs and our transportation costs. Uh so, again, this shows um uh this far outpacing uh the annual percentage increases uh we can get. Uh and so, just like the previous slides, uh our actual cost for special education would be another $2.1 million in FY25. Uh and then the next bullet kind of describes that uh what we have been doing. We don't just sit it back and say, "Wow, things are really expensive." Um we believe uh very much in keeping our students in
027district both from what it means to the services they're going to provide. We we we think they should be here and think that's the best place for them, but it's also happens to be fiscally responsible. So, um then the bottom bullet there, I want to make sure it's it's framed correctly. Uh we're not saying that we would have done nothing and be $10.7 million. dollars. It's somewhere between zero and 10.7 million dollars. What Jim did to for that approximation is take the ones all of our students that are in the programs we have built, take the average out of district cost, do the math, and say if we hadn't built these programs, rough estimate that's what they would be. Clearly we wouldn't probably hopefully no district would have sat out sat on their hands and
028done nothing, but I I would I would think that we have really gone above and beyond in trying to build as many programs as we can. So it would be somewhere, you know, I would imagine in the middle of that. Yeah, our programs are roughly between 20 and 30,000 dollars savings per student based on out of district cost and in district cost. You start, you know, extrapolating cost of paraprofessionals teaching and and the number of kids, obviously it's a small group within some of these programs that we've created, so there's a higher cost associated, but you know, it's it's certainly 20 25,000 dollars of savings. Paul, does this is this just out of district expenses or it's it's the full special ed programming for the entirety of the >> education for that come out of
029the general fund. Obviously if we the reason why we stuck the general fund I'll just preface this is because one, it's the thing that ties most closely to the taxes and and the override information, and particularly when it comes to special education costs, it would get very complicated with circuit breaker circuit breaker reimbursement and really trying to tie that to a yearly cost because we get reimbursement in arrears and then we spend it in one more year in arrears. So it's it's So keeping it within the general fund is what all of these are doing. Um an observation and I don't know if anybody's willing to do all this cuz No. 14° over my pay grade. Um the one thing that I I sort of looked at this chart visually, it looks very similar to
030the one the first one. But the percentage where you've got the dotted orange line is different, right? It's 7.25% and I don't know if there's a way to highlight that more. >> to show that that this is as much a driver but in terms of a gap between 2 and 1/2%. And with special education costs are going up. Um it seems like that's a significant thing. Not not that we're trying to highlight one thing over the other. Mhm. But just looking at the two charts you kind of look at it and it looks like it's consistent and it's really not. You know, it's it's visually looks that way but Yeah. Yeah, and and and I I uh so I have some of these also uh printed on a stacked on 11 by 17 and laminated
031so when we're out in the public I see these as more support for having talking points and narratives um as opposed to trying to tell the story with them because the bullet list would have to be um much larger, right? Um you know, cuz this would go along lines of you know, we know next year we're expecting $686,000 increase um in our out of district costs without sending an additional kid uh outright. So um yeah, I the these are the these are intended to kind of be more supportive than think than actually the narratives themselves. Uh and then this is our transportation. Uh so just looking at this, uh FY18 was a contract year. Uh so we had a new contract and we had had to add three additional buses that year. So um so
032this just kind of shows you what the transportation costs are and the these are our regular buses, special education transportation and athletic buses. So uh our totality there. Um Just of curiosity, what drove the drop in '17? Like, what I don't know if you I don't know if you were able to get get that information, Chris. Um I know I know I I I I we talked about it, but I can't remember if you if you had the information. Well, No, '16 to '17. '16 to '17. See how it See how it goes down a little bit? Think back. >> Goes down a little before it goes up a lot. And the first year we were off '17 Um I feel like that's been going on longer than that. I don't know if it was
033a fuel cost adjustment, Mark. It's not significant. Oh. Yeah, it would have saved us some Right. So, what we talked about, yes. Yeah. Yeah, yeah, that that that could that could that could be what That could be what it is. Yeah. And and and to to Jim's point, you the the difference between those two data the the the FY15 and '17 data points is isn't significant. is literally like a hundred thousand dollars in Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, makes sense, right? Yeah. Um just No, no, these these are all good. Sorry, just a general question. Uh I'm wondering why the the price or sorry, the expenditure stays uh fairly consistent and even increases uh when we were all in lockdown. Do you know what the Because we have a contract and we have still have to
034pay for it. We still had to pay. Yeah. And and trust me, we we we wanted to understand that. >> We negotiated actually a little bit. Yeah, we I mean, you see there's a slight dip. Yeah. Um but we negotiated carrying some of the for lack of a better term, credits forward into the next year. Like all districts were doing and having those conversations. That's a good question, though. Yeah, no, and and and we talked about it a lot at the time. Like they have to run a business and the business has to survive as well, and we have to honor our contract, but also work with them. And so, yeah, we we we did have conversations about with them about that. So. Um and I I put in the last bullet there. Um we
035all know this, but uh maybe people in the community don't. Uh is that we will put these contracts out to bid, and uh we know we will only get one back one back. And that's not to say they're not very fair with us. It's just uh the reality of it uh that there is not really any competition when it comes to uh these contracts. True statement. So, uh the other drive The next uh set of drivers were fixed cost. Uh so, this is going to look strikingly similar. So, this is all fixed cost. So, this is town-wide. Um and it again it shows what it what it includes. Uh and then also uh highlight in a bullet that down there that while the fixed costs in the next slide is health and health insurance show
036up as municipal line items, obviously uh the schools are the biggest participants in those programs, right? We we uh have the overwhelming majority of the employees that participate. So, um want to want to just highlight that that these are essentially school costs as well. And uh the next slide will have a little bit more of a narrative on it. We will have a dip in FY17. Um so, we are trying to be good fiscal stewards, and FY17 is when the town switched its administrator to the the GIC, uh saving uh some money. But as you see, that quickly outpaced the uh the two two and a half line. Um and that FY24 to FY20 the the that is only getting steeper. Let's put it that way. Um we expect that to at least be as
037steep uh in the next uh two fiscal years. We're in FY26 obviously now, so the the we I could have gotten some data from the town. I stuck with FY25 simply because it's source state data. So, and on all these slides where there is data to be driven uh from the state, uh the link is where the data comes from is at the bottom, so people don't need to um if they want to dive into more of the the data, the the links are at the bottom of uh of of that when it's available. I'm looking at this one. And we're seeing the orange dotted line at 3.5%. The blue line below that. I'm sorry. Thank you. Um if we're looking at the orange line dotted line, and it's at 3.5% as an increase, and
038then the blue line is below that. Does that mean that our health insurance costs for that period of time have been going up less than 3.5%? So, so those are our our expenditures. So, essentially the the 3.5 line is to get to FY25 at the same same dollar amount, right? Um or roughly the same dollar amount. So, um so again so again it if we didn't make the switch, this graph would look obviously a a lot different, but um but the the only thing that the dotted line is representing is where the it ends, and essentially over that entire time shows that even with FY17 going down and stuff like that, if we averaged it, it would far outpace um even with those good good decisions where we saved a few million dollars over the
039course of several years, um we end up well above there. And And like I said, if I have uh if I graph this next year, that that's going to be, you know, well over $8 million. Um so, the the it it's it's only getting a lot worse uh lately, so. Yeah, it is. I know like I know the GIC figures for the upcoming fiscal year are 10.9% increase. And so when you when you look at this, obviously, you are closing that gap in this in the last year on the chart where FY24 to 25 um that means I think that means that you're actually the increase is much steeper than 3.5%. Is that right? Yeah. >> Yeah. So just it Yeah, no. So so this is only to FY25 and >> Right. um and yeah,
040I could probably put something supplemental together because uh I think the the 27 rates just came in uh little while ago. Um and we obviously should know what we're spending in FY26. Um now the other component of that is com- trying to combine what comes in uh from the state on schedule A and what we would have in the system here. It's complicated um cuz there's subsidies, there's lots of different things within the system. So I have I'm very hesitant to try to combine any of the data because what's included in the data, if it's different at all, it skews the it skews the numbers a lot. >> And then sorry, no. This this wouldn't This reflects the town expenditures. As we talked about before, if if we are largely we're down 40 positions since
041over the last eight years. Right. That potentially is up to 40 people who are not on health insurance. Right? So you would think >> Exactly. Yeah. So so if you think about it this way, between FY21, which we peaked at our uh our head count, right? Between that time and FY20- 25, probably at that time I think we're down uh FTEs. So it went up to that with with uh removing uh probably uh 10% of the of the of the force. So, that I mean that that's a good observation. So, these are straight expenditures. It's not a per uh it's not a per person or per per per pupil, so. And then we get to those are all our expenditures and now we get to uh funding sources. So, this goes to something we've talked
042about a bunch in that um answering a couple of different questions like one uh probably if anybody's been listening over the past 8 10 years, we've been saying that this was coming, right? We've been talking the same things, but why now? Right? Why have we been able to make do or do the progress we have in the past uh and we we can no longer do that um and this will help uh tell that story. So, as we know here, so this is uh Chapter 70 funding, so that's the state uh funding for education, our primary source. Uh if you look from FY14 through FY19, that's prior to the implementation of the Student Opportunity Act, which is um the uh the state legislation that kind of revamped the formula for how they divvy out the
043Chapter 70 funding. And we were for many many years being disproportionately uh affected by that. And where uh like and neighboring communities were getting substantially more funding than us. So, you'll see in three years, particularly years, in FY20, in FY23 and 24, large increases of a million and a half or more dollars uh as that got implemented. So, those large expenditures were allowed us or those those large increases allowed us to um, to continue to provide level service right through that time without asking, uh, for an override. Uh, but as now the Student Opportunity Act is fully implemented, you'll see that, uh, now I do and this slide have FY26, which is our current fiscal year, and FY27 data, uh, graphed. You'll see it leveling off uh, substantially. So, uh, obviously we know what our
044FY26, uh, numbers are, uh, and FY27 is preliminary data from the state. So, all that is down and, uh, can be sourced from the link down there. And that leveling off, if I were to graph that leveling off, or down in the bullets, I do say what those increases are. So, the FY26 increase is 3.6, uh, and then for FY27, the preliminary is only 1.7% increase of our Chapter 70 funding. Now, hopefully that goes up a little bit, but it's not going to be Right, significant. >> significant. So, contextually, so just so we put a number to it, it's a hundred So, in FY26, it's a hundred fifty dollars per child. That that's what gets us to the 425,000, right? So, a hundred fifty dollars per student. This year, it's budgeted at seventy-five dollars per
045student. Okay, so the hope is as it goes through the legislative process, uh, and through, um, you know, the governor's budget and through the Senate, etc., House budget, that that number increases. So, from a perspective of the superintendent's organization, we're advocating, again, minimum a hundred, but we'd love to get up to 180. Uh, I So, to, you know, increase this would be significant. Um, this is where we were about last year, right? We were in that two hundred thousand dollar range before, um, town meeting. And then, again, we don't get that budget number until July, right? So, So, don't know. So, I always ask tell you know, folks are asking about our percentage increase. Well, because of our policies, that 1.7 million in in Chapter 70 that we received, we hadn't had actually had an
046adjustment at fall town meeting because we received heck of a lot more than we anticipated, right? Um so, our number may have started out at a 3.75 or 4% increase in the budget and it got up to 6%. It's because of how we adjusted uh based on policy and revenue that came in. Yeah, and and and to be clear, even if we get >> Right. we advocate and it works, um it's it's it's nothing that's going to help our current situation. Uh there there are no uh large uh increases like we saw in those three other fiscal years because uh it the student opportunity act is fully implemented. >> That's right. Uh so, this is uh kind of more on the municipal side, but again, uh showing all the things that put a stress on
047our budget during our budgeting cycle, um because we we are all uh drinking from the same pool as it were, right? So, uh this just shows unrestricted uh this is unrestricted state aid that comes to the to the town. Uh and it's been 3.25 almost the whole time. Um and so, if you graph this, so I mean, this is at least it's going up, but it's uh not going to compete with with any of those things. And and even that increase over that entire time is not a lot. If you look at the side, we we started you know, under 1.2 million dollars and we're about 1.67 at the end, so. So, $400,000 increase over that 12-year period. And then the other variable when it comes to revenue is new growth. So, new growth is
048So, Proposition 2 and 1/2 says uh the levy can go up 2.5% plus new growth. New growth is any improvements to real property that occur in that fiscal year. So, somebody adds a addition onto their house, somebody takes a vacant lot, puts an apartment building on it. The the the evaluation of that goes up from say, you know, $100,000 to a million dollars. So, there's $900,000 of evaluation. You take the tax rate of that current year, you do the do the math, that tax revenue can be added to the levy. So, on on top of the 2.5%. And so, you'll see here it's gone down from FY19 significantly. And there's two primary drivers of that. One is certainly the pandemic really halted a lot of development, but we've also made community as a whole made
049conscious decisions to try to slow development. A lot of residents have been very concerned about development. So, at town meeting we we've been enacted policies to help slow that. And that that does that that is impactful as well. Um, there hopefully will be some some new growth that that is coming online. Um, but when that when that happens, can't really say. So, and and again, we can't really this is impactful, but it's not something that you want to rely on to to bridge the gaps. And then this is this slide is just trying to simplify what it means for residents and their taxes, right? The the average single family home value according to the state data linked at the bottom is $737,000. Um, I try to simplify it. Typically tax rates don't look like that.
050They're typically some dollar amount per thousand, but instead of making people do all the math, that's just a number you can take and and and multiply. You don't need to do all the math there. So, and these will be published. There's a link on there to look up your FY26 valuation. So, if you if you know what that is, you can either do the math or just find it here to get a rough approximation of what your the impact would be. I think that was it. Any other questions? So, I I I I do I will make some slides that I do have our enrollment and our FTEs historically over the same time period, and you know, I'll prepare those slides just to at least have them for uh for conversation. Thank you. Excellent work
051and That's your new name. You're up again. Nobody has any Like how you you haven't you haven't heard enough from me. >> heard enough from you yet. All right. Uh between March 12th, 2026 and March 25th, 2026, I, Paul Kendall, authorize by my signature payables in the amount of $486,769.19. This includes general fund expenses of $404,933.93, revolving expenses of $74,509, uh $509.89, and grant expenses of $7,265, and meals tax of $63.37. I finally authorize payroll in the amount of $1,456,173.46. Thank you. Superintendent's report. >> Yeah, just a couple things. We're going to be a stand, you know, standing uh item over the next um few meetings. Obviously, the budget report and just an update. I have nothing more to report than from the last meeting other than uh April 8th will be our official public
052hearing on the budget. Um and that has been posted. It's in the MetroWest Daily News. Um so, that that is beneficially taken care of. Tomorrow evening at 7:00 uh and it's online as well as in person here. Uh there will be a conversation with regard to the override. I invite you know, folks to to tune in or come here and and you know, post questions and and ask um you know, really what the impact of of an override will have on the town. But but really, the override is focused on the schools, right? And that's I think that's the conversation that that we're having. Um what would be the impact long-term if we don't pass an override. And I want to be crystal clear when I have conversations. The override to me is about working
053towards fixing the structural deficit that exists within uh the funding of of public schools as well as communities. And in order to do that, the override is critically uh important. It also provides opportunities to utilize those one-time funds uh to support one-time expenses as opposed to relying on school choice, for instance, to cover salaries. Uh we've had this conversation numerous times. Uh I I just can't uh emphasize it enough. Um you know, when Mike and I have conversations of a $900,000-plus uh literacy program that has to come about uh because we need one that is um you know, in line with the state, uh in line with good practice, uh in line with um all things that we need to be focused on. Where do we come up with $900,000, right? That's a That's a
054big ask for our community just to support that. Whereas, one-time funds could help, you know, defer those costs over over a couple year period. But, if we don't have those funds available because we're spending them on salaries, it's going to be a real challenge for us. So, that's the only thing I have from the budgetary standpoint. Thank you. Mike. Congratulations to Warren on yet another amazing literacy night. Was able to attend that. It was a lot of fun. Enjoyed seeing the students uh helping me design what they would have fantasy school would look like. Uh Oh. Um conferences happening this week uh for our elementary students. Um we did have a great educator evaluation committee meeting. I gave you an update that we're a little behind, but I feel like we caught up really well.
055The other day was a really valuable meeting and um we have sort of crossed a major hurdle where we seem to be in agreement um in what we would like uh the document to look like and how it's going to read moving forward. So, now we're looking to create a rubric out of that document. But, our eval committee um is back on track, I think. Uh and finally, April 2nd, we have a professional learning opportunity um due to an early release day. We are going to be spending the majority of that time for almost all of our staff members to be looking at uh PowerSchool. As you may As you know, we are moving from iPass to PowerSchool for our student information system. A great deal of professional development and time has to be dedicated
056to ensure that everyone can successfully transition over to PowerSchool. So, while there's certainly other things that we we do need to continue to work on a district, this has to be a major priority for us to make sure that it goes smoothly. So all staff will participate the majority of our staff will be participating in that. Can you just talk a little bit about um what kind of information is contained within PowerSchool? I mean I'm familiar with iPass Yeah. >> seeing like my children's grades are and things like that, but you know, is PowerSchool a more robust product and what kinds of data points are going to be contained in it and how it's going to be used? Yeah, so essentially it's our student information system. So all all all information regarding any one of
057our students will be in that program from registration data to grades. So everything is there. Parent contacts. All all of our information regarding every student is located there. In terms of like the teacher facing that that's where teacher grades will go. That's where the rank book will go. That provides an opportunity to even they have the opportunity if they want to utilize it for lesson planning and for things like student seating charts and whatnot. There's a lot that they can use within within PowerSchool and that's what we want to show them all the different things they can do. Um you know, Jim is can probably speak to it a little bit as well, but I give you that's sort of an overarching you know, view of what what it has. >> So so part of
058the switch Mark is and has been um the the reasoning behind it is one is not supported at the state level, right? So iPass is not a state certified program. We're we're one of two districts in the entire Commonwealth that still used iPass. And the the move to PowerSchool allows us to to really modernize where our student management system is and to ensure all the data we've struggled for 15 16 years uh making sure data is accurate and whatever we're publishing to the state that really has an impact on chapter 70 funding, has an impact on um you know, if you're classified students as as English learning students or students with special education plans, um that data is getting cleaned up now as well. I I I can't you know, shout out Gretchen uh King's
059um you know, work behind the scenes and Chris as well attending these meetings. Seems like every single day. Uh I don't know if it is or not, but uh I know Gretchen was on for 3 hours yesterday um ensuring the data gets moved forward. So, even having conversations Kelly was on yesterday. What does it look like at the high school? What do what do the ranks look like? What's what's the rank book? Uh how do you how do you calculate GPA? How do you uh have forward-facing information that's distributed to families? Uh we are now moving away from those if you if you're at the high school, it's probably the blue form uh that came home with with all of the the data that you had to cross out and send it back in and
060administrative assistants were sitting there looking through 800 of these to check and verify that all the data was correct. This is now going to be on families to do electronically. Uh yeah, yeah, exactly. Um I've been promising Linda Cheney for 16 years and finally we're going to get it done. Um but it's really all of the data that Mike collects through Open Architects is really still going to be the data for uh analyzing uh test scores, um progress of say I-Ready or whatever it is. It's that's not really the tool uh for for PowerSchool, uh although it will have some capacity to do those things. Um Special education for instance, we are not transitioning into PowerSchool this year. It's a that's a full year process too because we have to actually input all of the
061IEPs by hand to ensure they're accurate. So, I I said to Brett, "We'll push that back a year." And instead of moving away from They're forms, yeah. Yeah, so it's it's really time and labor intensive, right? But to ensure it's accurate. So, but as we begin next year, new IEPs, those can be you know, um input as we're going through the process, but it's really exciting. It's just a lot of work. It if rolling over one system to another, there's going to be some redundancy first for a little while, but this is going to be rolled out July 1st. So, staff can start using it for scheduling and and you know, classroom. It's really great. Thank you. All set? Yeah. Okay, next up Chris, student activities bank reconciliations. Good evening. Within your packets, you'll there
062are the FY25 and the first half of FY26 student activity reconciliations. I've reviewed and reconciled the accounts and I'm requesting your approval to to accept the reconciliations. We have a motion or any questions? I make a motion to approve the account reconciliations presented by Chris Matthew. Second. All in favor? I. >> I. Thank you. Okay, it gets hard to believe it's this time of year again. But the Driscoll Scholarship Committee is looking for a school committee member to join. Does anyone need any information on what that is? I I think the past few times I've done it, it's been online. Or maybe I think last year last time I went in person. Yeah. Um but it's just a one meeting, Takes maybe an hour. Right? Uh could I impose upon the chair ask if she'd
063be willing to do that again? Speaking as a parent of a graduating senior. Mhm. Knowing a number of the kids in the class and looking to my left Oh, yeah. and seeing that there are others at this table Yeah, like the almost the entire table. The entire table? I actually was going to offer I would happily do it, but I'm trying to remember if it happens before my term ends. Yeah. Yeah, and so I'd be happy to do it, but I'm we would have to It would it would be it would be before it ends. The meeting? Yeah, it would yeah. Would be before May May 19th technically, I guess. So if we Yeah. Right? Yeah. So as long as it's before that, I'm happy I'm happy to do it. Yeah. We'll make sure it
064happens. And I shouldn't speak for No, I was going to say the same thing. Yeah. Well, I mean we should we shouldn't be on a Right. You do have I on on a We shouldn't be appointed to a position where we're going to have a conflict with Yeah, yeah, yeah. We'll ensure the meeting happens before. That's what I'm saying. Okay. So I'll move to appoint Lori as the school committee member representative to the school scholarship committee. Second. All in favor? I. Thank you, Lori. Thank you. My pleasure. Chris, let's make sure we contact Corey tomorrow. Yep. Um and I just wanted to acknowledge Mary Lou Hunt is also a participant of this. She Um and then it would be a Orange and Betty and Corey and myself. Um Okay, awesome. Yeah, and I guess if
065there's I guess I just I I I just ask if there's any problem whatsoever with the timing and for some reason the deadlines don't line up whatever as long as we can fix that on our April 6th meeting to get somebody else in there. But otherwise if we can meet before the night May 19th I'm I'm it. I'm Nicole, yep. Okay. Good catch. Um Jim you want to speak on the WACA item? >> Yeah, they're going um Barbara Tizol and Paul Bowden will be coming uh to the school committee to ask for approval to do a little bit of of reconstructing of the TV station at the um at the high school. So if you remember uh the high school when it was built um there was actually there is a room that end designated
066as a as a TV station at the time. They had a program when they were at the middle school years ago and WACA's um lease is coming up and it's become very very expensive. Uh FCC's pulled a lot of funding, local funding. Uh so they approached me and said, "Hey, you know, is there anything we can do? Is there a place we can go?" And and looking you know, obviously they used to use the middle school uh and now we utilize that as our our IT area as well as the um John Murray and and facilities. Uh if I had my druthers that'd be a great spot for them to go back in because there's there's already capacity to to run any wires they need etc. There's not a lot of time in the studio
067they need anymore uh but also the high school accounts for the majority of the stuff they do, right? Or at the high school or high school sports or high school um um productions. So we we did a tour of of a couple facilities and and really that room is at the high school not utilized anymore because we don't have a television program. We use it after school for robotics as part of their area to um to to do their work. We'd have to find a spot for that uh for after school. Um and shout out to robotics they had a They had a awesome uh uh competition and and did quite well recently, but WACA It's it's a logical place. They're a community um organization that I I feel like we should support and need
068to support. Um and they they went in and looked at, "Okay, what would it cost to fix up that room to meet their needs?" So, if they have to come in and do some filming. I said, "We're not paying for anything. We We don't have the funds to do those things." Um it also has a walled-off area so they can have um you know, a control booth there. It's already built in. Um so, they weren't prepared to come tonight with with a schematic of of what they want to do and how much it would cost. So, Barb's hopefully coming back. We'll be ready for the first meeting in April. Um but it's something I really want to support. And like I said, if we can use the middle school, we have a long-range plan for
069that, too, but that's that's a ways down the road. Just an update. Okay. My only question or thing that I guess I'd like to ask you to keep in mind as you work through that issue. Um I It seems like you'll come back to us with some recommendation or request at some point, but just think about the security issues, right? So, if if folks are we're going to have WACA personnel, other people involved in their activities coming to the school building, particularly during the school day. Um need to make make sure that that's We've had those conversations, and Kelly's been is part of these conversations as well. And um for the most part, it'll be afterschool hours, but not even but it'll be just like we had here, opportunities for us to to control environment
070for sure. Yeah. Absolutely. Yep. That was really the update. Okay, awesome. >> prepared today, so. Okay, we have some tri-board meeting minutes to review December 10th and January 21. It should have been in the consent. Okay. Yeah. Yeah. So, we just move agree consensus to move it into the consent agenda? Okay. And so now we're there at the consent agenda. Do we have a motion to accept it? I'll move. Second. All in favor? I. I. We're done. Reports of school committee members, Abhishek. You're up. >> Yes, so at the high school recently there have been English MCAS that has just wrapped up today morning as well as seal of biliteracy testing for our seniors and juniors in which they can prove proficiency in a secondary language other than English by taking a test and getting
071a little badge on their diploma saying that they're they're proficient in that language. Additionally, we have had the beginning of spring sports really start to kick off and the first game should be coming up soon. So, we'll be sure to let you guys know when those start popping up. But that's pretty much it at the high school. Looking forward to some some days we have off soon. Always. Awesome. Thank you. Marcy. I attended middle school site council today. Couple school updates, MCAS next week and week after. They had a very successful popcorn fundraiser and raised $20,000. Well, they raised 40,000, 20,000 they get to keep. Amazing. Which is going to offset I was going to say. field trip only a four day fundraiser going to offset field trip expenses for each of the three grades,
072which is great. Um Unified basketball started and the jamboree's next week and Ashland is hosting. So, they said that's been just awesome. Um Keith Tech, they filled 16 spots. They got 16 spots all filled. They had 40 over 40 applicants. So, um anyway, so that was good. And then they are working through a grade analysis, which I think is really well done and Aaron's going to present it to the faculty tomorrow. But the and I'm sure she's going to come present it to all of us. But the goal is to break down grades between the concepts of academic mastery and then habits of learning. And so, as you tear up in the grades, like so sixth grade, you'd have more emphasis on habits of learning, which is like I, you know, I'm a good steward
073and uh you know, work ethic is good and I listen to my teacher and I turn in my homework and that's work ethic. And as you go up to eighth grade, that percentage ramps down. And the mastery of learning is your tests and your quizzes and really exhibiting that, you know, you're fulfilling your and demonstrating academic success. And it's very, very clear. It sounds like there's a lot of spirited discussion amongst the faculty. But I, as a parent listening to this for the first time, I think it's a great step forward again at the middle school. And the ultimate goal is to get them ready for high school. So, which I think is a great end goal. Um So, lots of good things happening at the middle school. Awesome. Thank you. Great update from them.
074And you? I don't think I have anything to add since our last meeting. >> You've been a little busy. Uh I You've been a a busy. Yeah, I don't I don't think I have too much. I mean I I did happen to stumble upon uh Literacy Night at Warren. I I haven't been in that building uh nearly as much as I would like to. It's always great to be back in >> best. Yeah. And and those buildings uh but yeah uh Aside from that, I don't think I have too much. Yeah, I don't have anything either. The last I counted meeting was just before our last meeting, so I reported out on that. I don't have anything tonight. And and nor do I. Mhm. So, I will be looking for a motion to You've got
075one. Second. All in favor? I. Good night, everybody. Good night.