Tri-Board Meeting (March 10th, 2026)

001Michael, can you hear us? >> Yeah, I can hear you. >> Okay. >> Y >> we're just waiting on a few people uh for a quarum. >> Okay. Good evening everyone and welcome to the Ashland's tri board meeting uh for March 10th, 2026. Uh we're a little after 6:00, but I'll call the select board uh meeting to order and I'll turn it over to school committee and then FinCom to open up their meetings as well. >> Oops. Sorry. Should know better by now. 605 and I call the school committee meeting to order. >> Good evening. It's uh 606 and I call the financial committee finance committee meeting to order. Thank you. >> Thank you. Thank you everybody for being here this evening and for those that are out uh in the Zoom uh audience, thank

002you for attending as well. Um [clears throat] tonight's meeting is a very important meeting and and and one that we need to uh work off of uh because of a potential override that we're that the town of Ashland is looking at uh which would dramatically affect uh all all employees and the town as a whole. So, with that, um, I will turn it over to, uh, Mr. Herbert, our town manager. Uh, Michael, I know you have, uh, some information you want to provide us, and I'll start it off with you. >> Great. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Um, can everybody hear me? Okay, >> fine. You're perfect. >> Great. So, um, so I want to apologize for not being there in person. Uh, unfortunately, I'm a little bit under the weather. Um, so I thought I

003would spare all of you my germs and do this um remotely uh where I can see uh it's still sunny outside um which is nice cuz well I've been inside for most of the time. But um anyway, I did uh put together some information for you tonight um to talk about this issue. This is our our third tri board meeting of this budget cycle. Um we did have a few more um a couple of others also in the last budget cycle and again as as we predicted back then not much u not much has changed u in terms of the structural issues that we're continuing to face and that we've had that we have faced for several years. Um, before I continue, I just want to make sure everybody can see the presentation right now.

004If you could say yes just because I can't see you right now. >> Yes. >> Okay. Thank you. Um, and again, uh, this is a structural issue. This isn't u an issue of out of control spending or spending above our means. This is a structural issue because what we're finding are that our fixed and mandated costs are continuing to rise faster than the town's revenue capacity, especially under the constraints of Proposition 2 and a half. And Proposition two and a half uh does restrict communities from going above the two and a half percent increase unless the community as a community and through a ballot measure decides that it will go above that cap. Um so Prop 2 and a half is meant to be a limiting mechanism but at the same time it gives communities

005the opportunity to overcome or over uh overcome that um limitation if that is what the community decides is in the best interest of the community. Um again this is not a one-year issue. Um, we've been talking about this for years. Uh, and we've been able to manage within basically the resources that we have utilizing tools and sometimes very creative tools uh to do so. But quite frankly, we've we don't have any more tools left in the tool box, at least large ones that we can utilize. So just to review some of the major ones that we have done. Um we have done actual cost containment. Um that is verified through our health insurance management and the plan design work that we did. Uh moving to the GIC back in 2015 has saved this community over

006$15 million if we had not made that change or compared to if we had not made that change. Um, we have solar projects uh throughout the community that reduce our operating costs and generate revenue for the town. Um, we instituted an energy savings performance contract which continues to save over and above what we were promised. Um, and we've also relied heavily on the ability of our staff and the help of our elected officials at both the local and state and federal levels to secure over $30 million in grants over the last 12 years. Um, and some of the ways that we have utilized budget restraints are we have essentially depleted or or eliminated our pay as you go capital, relying only on our free cash appropriation in the fall to fund general fund capital. We've

007actually made uh reductions in actual appropriations in municipal departments. uh specifically thinking of one year in 2021 when we made $750,000 in reductions across the municipal departments and the capital budget. Um and we've constantly been able to basically by default sometimes prioritize the work that we have. Um but that leads to service level reductions in other ways. Um it means we can't do the financial capacity or financial research that uh really really a community um of our depth and professionalism should. And another thing that we've done is we've used one-time resources significantly. Uh we've used American Rescue Plan Act funds. Um we've used the stabilization funds. uh both the general stabilization and our special education stabilization fund. And we've even gone so far as to use overlay surplus when we've need to make up a

008a gap uh with using one-time revenue. So the overall message is that we have utilized multiple tools to delay a lot delay a tax increase. Um but right now those tools are exhausted or those funds are declining rapidly. Um the the amount that we've taken out of our stabilization fund over the last year and what we're anticipating um in the next coming year is um really accelerates the depletion of those funds. A significant cost uh pressure that we face uh is health insurance costs. Um again we have taken steps to manage those. U and when we went to the GIC we saw a significant savings uh below um or we saw a significant savings compared to what we were spending it on at the time with a group called the West Suburban Health Group. But

009we were also able to keep costs low and the increases relatively low for the first years. But what happened is as more communities started taking our lead and jumping onto the GIC in order to take advantage of the basically the the purchasing power of a larger consortium. What happens is that more employees that were on the insurance started using it. And so what happens is that drives your utilization rate. And what you need to remember is utilization rate, higher utilization uh rates equal higher costs. And it doesn't necessarily mean that our employees are utilizing it more than what they used to. It just means that people in the pool, the large pool statewide are using it more than they used to. And so that is driving up uh GIC cost significantly. Um, in fact, if

010you look at that 2.5% compounded growth trajectory, um, we're actually exceeding those costs just looking at FY25. That's not even looking at 26 or 27 yet. As I mentioned before, we've used onetime revenue um just for last year's budget and this year's budget alone, we've utilized over $7 million. Um in FY25, um a lot of that came through unspent ARPA funds, which eventually helped fund capital needs and then also flowed to free cash. Um and that way we didn't lose it. And then we also spent a significant amount of onetime funds uh for our current year FY26 um almost $2.7 million. So yeah, even though you see a decline in that usage, you have to remember there was a corresponding expenditure associated with that in FY25 as well. Just looking at our staffing snapshot. If

011you look at 2007 versus 2025, I know some people are interested in this. And this is uh on the um municipal end. And this is compared to 2007, which is our earliest data, which might not actually be the best one because that was right on the heels of the layoff. But as you'll see, our employees per thousand residents has basically stayed the same. Um, we have added employees, but all of those employee or basically almost all of those employees have been added onto the staff and they are being funded outside of the general fund whether it's with a revolving fund or with grants or uh with the meals tax. They're um or with aggregation payments. um these folks are being paid outside of uh these increases are being paid outside of the general fund. Um

012and I think it's also important to note the complexity of government, local government uh now compared to 2007. I think um even people who don't do it day in and day out 247 um understand how complex things have got today. Um our public safety personnel are now also um social services. Um our our town clerk basically serves as a Britannica encyclopedia for for everything and everybody. Um it it's just the demands the service demands have increased significantly as well. Um, just quickly, I know everybody around the table um, understands what uh, Proposition 2 and a half is, but if you're watching from home, and this might be the first time you've heard of this, um, again, Proposition 2 and a half was uh, implemented back in the early 80s as a way to limit the

013amount uh, or limit the increase communities could impose upon its taxpayers in any given year. limits it to two and a half% of the increase of the tax levy each year, not the individual tax bills. And like I mentioned earlier, communities have opportunities to override that. Um they can do that through what they call a Proposition 2 and a half override, which permanently raises the levy base and then gets compounded by that 2 and a.5% each year. Um or you could do it as a debt exclusion. Um, a debt exclusion place places uh the debt payment outside the levy limit. And so that payment and that tax increase expires once that project is paid off. The importance of that 2 and a half% can't be overstated because once you have fixed costs, things that are

014mandated that you have to pay for that exceed that 2 and a.5% growth path, you start getting in trouble, especially with communities like suburban communities like um Ashland, which a lot of our revenue base is dependent upon property taxes compared to like a uh what they call a gateway city such as a Framingham or a LOL which a lot more of their tax base is made up through state aid. When you limit a community's single largest revenue source uh by two and a half% a year and your again your costs grow by more than that your fixed costs um you're on an unsustainable path and that's what we've been on for the past few years and so by FY25 our actual fixed costs were approximately 2.24 24 million above that 2 a.5% compounded reference line

015if you go back to 2014. Um as you can see we've exceeded that 2 and a.5% um several years ago and we've just been trying to trying to manage it ever since. Um, one of the things that I mentioned that we had used was our stabilization fund. Uh, utilizing over two million of that for FY26. Our stabilization fund and the way we treat it, the way we fund it, the policies that we have around it, um, has been critical to our financial success. Um, and it's not because we use it and just hoard it away and use it and and just bank it as a way to build up our reserves and show a big war chest. We actually use it when it's necessary. We just use it strategically. Over the years, and this goes

016back many years, um, we've used over $9.4 million. Now, our balance, as you can see on the left, and it's kind of hard to see with this print, is about $10 million right now. Um, we've grown that, but if we continue to use it at the current pace or fill in the percentage gap that we had in FY26, if you look at the graph on the right, we'll exhaust that stabilization fund in three years. Um, it's just simply not sustainable to just utilize your stabilization fund for structural deficits. So, what do we do? Um, well, Jim has talked about uh restructuring uh the school's budget and and he and his team have done I I think really a remarkable job digging in deep to their budget and and retooling it. um in a way that

017again with limited resources um at least provides a vehicle um that can that can help put us on a path of sustainability if it's funded correctly. Uh and if you you know I'm looking at it a little bit broader beyond one department. I'm kind of looking at it as the community and what can we do to address these pressures from multiple angles, right? Um this is not you can't just depend upon an override to fix your financial problems. You have to look at things um comprehensively. You have to look at things holistically and you also have to look at things for the future as well. We've got a comprehensive plan where the community has indicated that those demands that they they that they have are only going to get more um and so what can

018we do to put us in the best position uh for the future. So it's really a four measure comprehensive financial and servicing restructure that I'm proposing and some of these are going to require uh deeper discussion. first would be budget restructuring and an override measure uh which we've talked about. Um prioritizing facilities and fields. Um, one of the things I'm I'm proposing is spinning off buildings and grounds from our current DPW structure and which will give us the opportunity to put more focus on our capital um capital needs and our fields not just in terms of maintaining what we have but looking at expanding them in the future. Um, another thing that, um, I'm proposing is that we take some money that's in the general stabilization fund and create a health insurance stabilization fund since

019that seems to be what drives um, a lot of issues in municipalities in Massachusetts uh, in FY27. And then one that is in its very nent stages is renovating the Valentine property for school administration use. Um, this $3.5 million override includes a $2.75 million permanent override and a $750,000 debt exclusion shift, which has already been voted on. Uh, and we've talked about this structure uh quite a bit. But the way the reason why it's important to do it this way as opposed to just a $3.5 million permanent override is this provides at least a little bit of tax relief for taxpayers. Um especially in the outer years. Um as that $750,000 does not compound the way the 2.75 does, it provides a little bit of relief and I believe it's after 22 years it drops

020off. It's a ways away, but um it does drop off. And it's important to note that once we have the new tax rate and the new values, so what both of these would result I if is an increase in $545 on the average single family home that's valued at $737,000. And so if that override passes, we'll be able to stabilize um to a certain extent our school funding. Um we'll be able to to support more uh of our municipal services and their reliability. Um we'll be able to preserve what we have right now for our public safety and operational capacity, certainly not expand it. Um, and it doesn't fix our woes, but it does give us a more sustainable FY27 starting point. And just going through the municipal departments and what would happen if the

021override did pass. So 750,000 would be shifted up to uh excluded debt and uh that would open up $750,000 in the municipal departments or capacity [clears throat] in municipal departments. That would allow us to do the following. We would add one additional firefighter per per shift and that's four shifts. Um that would bring us up to um basically where our staffing was. uh a couple of decades ago when you look at um when you look at population if you look at the number of third calls we're having coming in. So when we are having an ambulance out let's just say on two calls two or two ambulances out now we're getting more and more of those third calls. We can't address those right now. Those people have to wait for service from another community or

022wait till we get back or drop off and can get to them. um another firefighter would allow us the ability to run that third ambulance. Um we would have a dedicated full-time traffic control officer. Um most of you hear uh you know a lot of complaints about traffic. Um we would also establish a strategic reserve um which would give us the flexibility to address any unforeseen costs since a lot of this stuff is is um you know we're still refining some things. Um it gives us the ability to to make small uh little micro adjustments. Um, I also would like to see if if we're if we haven't used it by later in the year, could we possibly use it to fund some comprehensive plan related items that are smaller in scope. It's a small

023line item. It's like $60,000. Uh, so it wouldn't be able to do much, but it' provide that. Um, so it would also allow us to enhance our financial staffing. um would give us the ability to do more of that um analysis, that forecasting, that planning um that really is necessary for good government governance, excuse me. Um I mentioned the buildings and grounds department as our second measure. Um, we need to put a focus uh the proper focus I should say on maintaining some of these new facilities that the taxpayers have um have charged us uh with responsibility of overseeing. Um we need to develop, you know, more robust preventive maintenance plans for all of our capital facilities. We have 13 buildings on the municipal side. Um, all of those need some level of maintenance and

024some of them need need it more than others. We just don't have the capacity right now to do that and this would start us down that road. Um, the other thing is field expansion. We need to we need to find a way to take better care of our fields. our our folks are certainly doing it the best that they can, but uh this summer the school department is going to take over maintenance of the school fields. Um the buildings and grounds division would would be taking care of uh Stone Park, Ringel Park, Community Center. Um but then would also be looking at expanding those fields as well. That's another thing we heard. Um measure number three uh talked about again very nent stages of conversation here the renovation of the Valentine school for school administration.

025We've all seen um the disrepair that happens and how quickly buildings once they're unoccupied can fall into further disrepair. This would allow us to renovate that property for a determined use that is allowable and it would give the school department potentially the ability to move their administrative offices from the middle school into um into a new home would open up that school. I know we're worried about expanding school capacity. There's many different options we have here. Um, you know, after talking to to Doug Scott, that would take about um he estimates about $2 million. Again, that's just by a walkth through. Um, but Doug's been pretty good uh on his estimates before. Um, it could potentially allow us to use Pitway uh in a different way too or think about reuse of that. And finally,

026uh, four, I talked about, um, establishing a health insurance stabilization fund. Um, I think that's pretty self-explanatory. We need to develop a policy over how and when the funds would be drawn. That could look a couple of different ways. Um, we could look at it to where we want to smooth it out to where health insurance increases only 8% a year. you know, it it would at least help us forecast a little bit better. And so that is what I have right now for um if the override does pass. Jim, um would you like to take an opportunity at this point to um explain a little bit from the school department's perspective? >> Sure. >> What the passage of an override would mean? It is. I haven't said anything. Yeah, it's on. [clears throat] So,

027uh, thank you again, Michael, for that presentation. And I wasn't going to spend a lot of of time um with a presentation this evening partly because most of the information I've shared I've shared uh previously and and not a lot of things have changed other than conversations with the school committee at our last uh school committee meeting uh in terms of where we're comfortable moving forward in terms of a percentage should an override not pass. I think that's critically important that that we have a little discussion on that uh this evening. But I will share a few things here. This is a presentation I'm going to give tomorrow evening uh to the school committee. As you all know, we do have to have a public hearing uh for the school budget. Uh that will happen

028uh either at the the last meeting in March or the first meeting in April uh where where numbers have to be concretely set and submitted to uh the the select board in the fincom. So, let [clears throat] me just start with let's see if I can do this here. Again, I'm not going to spend a lot of time on on a [clears throat] lot of this stuff partly because we've seen it before. Um, but but I think it's critically important. The school committee does ask um continuously what does it really cost to run the Asham public schools? Uh, and it's closer to $49 million. This is FY2. These are FY26 numbers. And I think that's important. We get about 44 million from appro town appropriations. Uh and then there's plus or minus 4.4 million coming

029from grants, revolving funds, etc. Uh and and I want to be clear when we look at grants, federal grants especially, uh we are going to see a precipitous drop in the amount of funding that we get. Uh we're already uh anticipating a title one drop of $110,000 for FY27 and that's pretty significant because we fund three teachers, three educators out of those funds out of the $270,000 we currently get. Uh so so that that's not even being accounted for in this process because we don't really get those numbers until the summer. Um, and and I prefer to to work with what we know currently, but I think this is a good start. So, what is a 6.18% operational override look like? That's the number what Michael's talking about. A an increase of $2.75 million to

030the Ashlin Public Schools budget. I want to be clear with this community. We are already looking at no matter what percentage or an override passes or or does not pass it, we are looking at reducing staffing by 13.2 full-time equivalent employees no matter what. Okay? No matter what happens, the national public schools will be reducing staffing. Partly through attrition of retirement positions. That doesn't mean those positions don't come at a cost to the schools. So for instance, a fifth grade teacher at the Mendes school may retire. Now if we don't rehire that position, clearly we can reduce that salary line item in the overall budget. However, there's an impact on the rest of the fifth grade classes, right? So those classrooms get larger in in size. So there is uh and will always be some

031sort of uh impact. We feel comfortable in administrative team uh in conversations with principles that where we landed in terms of the restructuring if you will or financial realignment uh we're we're really comfortable with. However, the the override is what's critically important to uh close gaps that exist in the operating budget, close the gaps that exist in athletics, but then also provide such great opportunity for the Ash public schools to move forward in a lot of areas. And I and I'll share that in a moment. But you'll notice Michael will probably present some numbers a little bit later uh where it's a an increase of about 2 uh 25 or 2.5% increase. The number we're working with currently at the national public schools and school committee is a 3.25%. With if with no override that's

032increased if you remember the last time I was here it was around a 25 2.55. This is through conversations at our last school committee meeting uh taken into account from principles just further conversations about the complexities of our budget and uh and momentum that we're creating in specific areas. So, I know he'll present that in a little bit, but I have these side by side, um, as we say in Vermont, side by each, and you'll be able to hopefully recognize the fact that, um, no override means significant um, reductions or reductions in our revolving accounts, right? So, we're still losing the 13.2 individuals. However, if the school committee makes that commitment to fund additional positions, it has to come out of revolving accounts. And I'll share a slide with you that's pretty scary um in

033a few moments. If I can get to this here is um again, how does an override help us? Um it it picks up about $1.1 million that we're spending in our school choice funds currently. Uh next year we're projecting about $79,000 of salaries uh that we're using this year and then $450,000 in operating expenses. So pulling that those funds into the operations again, that's where they belong. We've survived this long by utilizing revolving accounts to pay for these salaries, but they do belong in the operations. Part of the the financial realignment is moving some of those positions, if you will, right, out of um the operating budget, saying, "Hey, retirements, positions that haven't been filled." Uh you know, they're sort of taking that place, if you will, uh of of the uh positions that we're

034we're moving, athletics. I've had lots of conversations with folks about athletics. We traditionally run and this is about a $300,000 deficit in athletics and we scrub athletics in terms of looking at, you know, where costs can we um can we cut out? Uh we got middle school sports, we got high school sports. We have a lot of athletic opportunities for our our student athletes. Um do we look at raising our fees? We we traditionally bring in about $297,000 of fees. We are overall the highest fee uh per sport in the Tri Valley League, our current league. We we have the highest fees. Uh we don't have a cap. I've I've heard folks say, "Hey, let's, you know, charge $1,000 to play football." Okay, what if that family has $1,000 times three kids? there's 3,000, right?

035And we have families who are and have kids who play three sports and numerous kids. Um, to me, as I've stated before, that's just another tax on just it's a tax on folks that have kids in schools. And to me, that's inappropriate. Um, so this is sort of the stabilization of our budget is what's important. There is no growth. I I I I want to I emphasize that in this slide. I'm not looking to add staff, folks, within our budget. No matter what happens with our budget, we're reducing staff by 13.2 folks, no new staff is being added. Okay, that 2.75 helps long range vision of the Ash public schools and the community. If it fails, again, uh, significant amounts of of funds need to be used for operations and salaries. And we will continually

036have that $300,000 deficit in athletics and try to manage that somehow. And typically that would be through other revolving accounts, maybe offset more transportation costs that that are incurred in athletics, some of the salaries, some of the other expenses through school choice. These are the 13.2 positions that are being reduced through our realignment, our restructuring. Okay. So, you can see that some of these positions are positions that were not filled that we had we carried forward. Um, it doesn't mean they're not needed positions. It just means as we evaluate all of the positions in the district, the 400 plus employees, you know, that we have positions that we haven't filled that we can pull out that we're not looking to fill. You know, Chris could certainly use more help uh in the HR uh and

037or in the accounting office. You know, the the fourman band that he has uh four person band is not enough for a $49 million organization. Um but you'll see we we're losing, you know, a science teacher at the high school. Does that mean we're giving up potential electives that we've worked so hard to to add back in over the years? Um, possibly. Um, our district nursing staff uh reducing the number of nurses that we have in our our district. Now, one of them is through through a retirement. [clears throat] We're just not filling it. And then we're we're looking at the rest of the nurses and how we can reallocate them across the entire district. So there's significant you know impacts for sure um with this budget. So what's unavoidable class size increases right? You

038don't fill a fifth grade classroom teacher through retirement class sizes are just going to go up because there's less less teachers. Now it is dependent upon obviously the enrollment of of how and how many kids are moving forward right? So we focus on that. Our principles are constantly looking at our enrollment numbers to say, okay, if you've got 200 in kindergarten and next year they go to grade one and we typically have an increase of 10 to 12 students in in grade one from the previous K, how does that impact the number of teaching staff? So Mr. Regan would have 30 staff members, for instance, teaching staff, 10 for each grade level. And if he's got some grades that have significantly more students, he might shift someone who was teaching kindergarten into first grade, for

039instance. So the numbers stay lower at the first grade level and they're pretty comparable at the kindergarten level. It's not an exact science. It's hard. We're in the process of enrolling kindergarten students right now. we get we might have 185 students right now enrolled for next year but by the time we open the doors in August we could have 210. So, we start making these decisions about, okay, we've got 18 now if you have 10 staff, but well, wait a minute, we have a retirement. Let's not fill it. So, now we have nine. And then all of a sudden, now you've got 210 kids coming in. The numbers, you know, just don't work out. So, there risk involves with this, but uh we just think it's the right thing to do. As you can see,

040we are starting to level off though with an enrollment. It's just the shifting of of where they are by grade level. So, uh, some some classroom we do have some class sizes that are significant of 240 plus kids, but that's not the average right now. I always say we're we're right around a 205 to 210 is where I would land for the most part. I think it's critically important that we I talk about this every single year. People in this community have great value for the dollars we spend on education. We are ranked 362nd of 396 school districts in per pupil cost. Think about that. Just think about that for a second. There are only 34 districts who spend less than the national public schools per pupil. Yet, I would wager if you take the

041top 30 and compare our results that we're in that top 10 on the other side. It's a catch 22, right? I mean, it really is for a community. I've said that for the 16 years I've been here. It's a catch 22. We really perform well, but the challenge is going to become when we start losing educators through attrition and not having the same opportunities for kids. That's where we could run into trouble. Uh we've done Michael talks about how uh each district or the the town has has looked at uh cost efficiencies. We've created some unbelievable programs internally in the National Public Schools for our special education um students. Uh and you know, we have 127 students currently involved in our special programs K through 12, well postgrad or post high school now. Um saving

042upwards of 11 million over the course of of the creation of these programs. It's pretty significant. Where it may cost 85,000 educated child who goes out of district, we're doing it at 31,000 per child. Significant. And it also I mean I our values and our moral statement, at least mine and I know our board, we want our kids in our district. We will create programs because we want kids in our district. They're our kids. If we can keep them, we keep them. So athletics, I think this is an important piece. Uh we talk about uh structural deficit that 300,000 on a yearly basis. It's just been occurring. How do we make it balanced every year? That's a great question. It's at the end of the year. Chris Matthew literally goes through line item by line

043item of our operating budget to see did we overspend or underspend a certain line item for the year. And if some salary savings exist, we start then shifting some of our costs from athletics into that line item so we're not having that deficit. Um the school choice is the uh elephant in the room that the number of dollars and this is a different I don't know if you'll be able to see this one very well. Um, but these are my projections through the use of of revolving accounts to fund your operations. Michael talks about the stabilization fund uh and enterprise funds to manage salaries. Well, that's what we're doing and have been doing for years. So, if you use the 2.25% 25% uh that that Michael has has presented um for just an increase in

044the overall operating budget for the Ash public schools. That's a $1 million increase. So, think about this. So, anticipation in the 2627 school year, we would need $1.6 million. I'm just going to focus on school choice for a moment. We would need $1.6 million of school choice funds to be utilized to pay for salaries as well as $450,000 of operation expenses. But you get to year two. So let's get to year two, 2028. Go look at school choice. We're in the red by $926,000. We can't sustain it for more than one year at a 2 point at a 2.25% increase. We can't sustain it. That covers 13 teachers salaries and $450,000 of operations. Let's not even consider that there's going to be inflationary costs with the operations that we currently utilize. The scary thing and

045I, you know, it's not as scary, but [clears throat] at a 3.25% that we've talked about at the school committee level still requires us to utilize those funds at a significant rate where in year two we're looking at a $38,000 deficit in that account. So, it's used up in year two. Year one, it's used up for the most part at a 2.25%. But let's focus on an override. And what does that really mean to us? You can see we could have a budget or a revolving count balance of school choice of about 1.8 million. And there will be community members who say you don't need $1.8 million in your school choice. And I would say I don't disagree. But it's how utilize these funds is what's critically important over the next five years. When we

046look at the school choice funding, we have opportunities here that don't exist and will not exist otherwise. For instance, getting athletics squared away in terms of the uh deficit. Now, we're not digging into if you look at the athletic revolving, there's a significant amount of, you know, funds left over there as well. Well, Michael talked about the Ashlin public schools taking over the fields come the Ashlin public school fields come July 1. The rentals of the fields, the maintenance of the fields. Well, guess what that costs folks? Costs human resources, right? Capital. We have to be able to afford that, too. Michael's not shifting staffing that currently mows the fields and from the DPW into the Ash public schools. They're not coming with it with with the enterprise fund. So, we have to figure out

047how do we support that? Well, this is one way. It's potentially utilizing the building rental and athletic revolving and the and the enterprise fund for for field rentals to to have positions that allow us to mow the grass, line the fields, maintain the fields. So, it's a significant investment in that end as well. So, you'll notice, and I I this was I alluded to it. Some may say, "How come your bus revolving is at 900,000? Why are you why are you not decreasing that amount significantly?" And we are in the other scenarios. Our contract is up with our uh transportation company this year. So, we have to prepare for a significant increase in costs of of our transportation. We don't know what that's going to look like yet. I will tell you there will be

048one bidder. Uh they have a monopoly on transportation. It is what it is. Chris will get three people that ask for the the packet or three organizations, three vendors. One will send it back just the way just telling you that's what it's going to be. So you're at the mercy of of that transportation company. Two, our teachers contracts are up. FY27. So, we're going to be negotiating those for FY28. That will negatively impact, potentially negatively impact revolving accounts if we don't have the operating expenses built into our budget. And then, as I alluded to before, dramatic cuts in federal uh federal grants. I I again we've already we already know uh title one which we have three title one teachers across the district um that they're reducing title one by $110,000 already. We know that.

049Um so so this is one piece that I think is important that folks understand is we are living off from all of the revolving accounts. What I want to mention though however What I I would be really excited for is we don't have that capital um mechanism anymore in place for general government as well as the schools to to really meet the deferred maintenance costs that exist within our community. Right? We don't have that. These these things here, roof replacement, turf field replacement, a literacy program, they're not necessarily things that we can cover out of that school choice. we we technically could cover them. I'm just saying it's not enough funding to do that. Those are still capital items that we're going to have to come back to the community to say these are debt

050exclusion issues that we have to figure out. However, I look at a literacy program. We know we have to have a new literacy program. States's requiring we're moving forward with piloting in another year. It's probably about a million dollars when you're all said and done with professional development materials, etc. So, a three-year cost of say $300,000 plus. Well, to me, that's a perfect use of onetime funds like school choice. But we won't be able to do that if we don't pass an override. It just won't happen because we won't have the funding. We'll have to come back and look some other way to fund it. And, you know, it's a challenge. As I said, we really have two paths forward, right? I mean, that's what we're looking at right now. Um, do we want to

051fix structural stability uh or and think long term? You pay me a lot of money to think long term. I I find we get in trouble when we start thinking about just tomorrow. And that's why the 13.2 two positions and that that you know the the the structural and fiscal realignment of those positions helps us do that. It's a 6.1% increase total budget. I'm not looking to keep those 132 one point plus million plus a 2.75. Now you're looking at you know 9 10 12% increase. That's not what we're trying to do. We're trying to fix the issue we have before us. So, that's really um what I have. Um and we'll go more in depth tomorrow evening um I'm sure with the school committee because they're going to want to see the positions, additional

052positions that we're looking at pulling into uh revolving accounts should an override not pass. And you know, we're we we're going to go from, you know, eight educators to 13 potentially even to 15. And if we had to cut, we had to reduce, you're going from those 13.2 positions closer to anywhere between 20 and 30 at a level funded if we don't use the the revolving accounts. >> Thank you, Jim. >> Yep. >> Jim, will those uh will that presentation be available on the school? >> Yeah, after tomorrow uh after tomorrow evening, uh it'll be uh and the budget book. I I the budget book uh is ready to go out and usually I share that out after um >> I present it uh and that'll be presented tomorrow evening at the school committee meeting.

053>> Okay. Thank you. >> Any questions? >> I'm sure the school committee has a bunch of questions. Maybe you'll answer those tomorrow. Anybody from the board of income? >> I just have one thing. Uh Mike, can you hear me? >> Yep. >> Yeah. So, it's John. Um, so one thing I I know has come up is is people have uh had questions about the stabilization fund and you know how that could be utilized to help us uh you know smooth out volatility that could come in the event that this um override doesn't pass. And um I I know we have some policies with regard to funding free cash if it drops below a certain level of um operating uh budget that we have to kind of force free cash back into it. U I'm probably

054not saying it as eloquently as I could, but do you offhand just kind of know how that works just for the record? um you know kind of what that that what that would do to our our potential free cash in the event that we really like hit the stabilization fund hard. >> Yeah. So the way our our policy reads now is that um depending on what percentage the stabilization fund is as a percentage of our overall budget um a percentage of a certain percentage of free cash goes into the general stabilization fund. So if the stabilization fund balance is over 10% of our budget, we only put in enough that just keeps it at 10%. 10% our goal. Um I don't remember the exact percentages but if uh if it drops in between five to

05510% believe we do 60% of free cash goes to um goes to u rebuild the stabilization fund. Long story short is that um what would happen is if you start taking more out of the stabilization fund um >> you you end up if if you're not generating free cash, you know, substantive substantive free cash, you're not going to be able to refill it at the same pace, Right. And as a follow-up to that, um I know that you know, one of the things that we're all real proud of is that the town has a pretty impressive um credit rating >> and you know, when we do have to access capital markets, that's really helped us to um be able to borrow at you know, very competitive rates. Um just again, for the record, how does

056stabilization fund fold into that? Most of the bond rating agencies like to see it at 10%. Um that that was, you know, bond rating agencies like to see that you have policies and that you're that that have been well thought out in times of calm um when everybody's not, you know, thriving on emotion and and they like to see that you stick with them. And so usually policies outline most of the time like your long-term um obligations. And so, you know, they want to see that we have a plan for OPED. They want to see that we have a plan in case the bottom falls out. They want to see if the community supports um supports the government. Um, I can tell you if the override does not pass, I mean, I can't say whether

057they would downgrade us or not, but it wouldn't help us. It wouldn't work in our favor. >> Thank you. >> Great. >> I have a question while while you're getting all that together, Jim. Um, so question. So, if you know the the two scenarios that you presented, the 3.25 25 scenario if the override doesn't pass. Um given given the impacts to sort of like the longer term budget, um could you talk a little bit about if the override doesn't pass? Like what our what our situation will be like next year? like we're like I think if we proverbally kick the can down the road with the override um it's not going to go away and just would would there be any could you foresee an instance where the ask is even greater down the road

058because we're not fixing the issue now. >> Yeah, it would have to be right. I mean I mean it's just >> if if the override [clears throat] fails and we utilize $1.7 million in school choice funds to pay for salaries th that doesn't go away right so either the next year we have to reduce our budget by the 1.7 million in salaries or we have to figure out a way to incorporate that 1.7 in addition to the other things that we're not able to get on the 300,000 for athletics. Now you're at 2 million immediately and then that's before taking into account anything else in terms of contractual negotiations. Uh so you're probably looking we've been trying to work at at a number and it's going to be between five and six million for an

059override number. That's more than likely the because you've got to pick up all of the operation component. Now I'm trying to incorporate 690,000 of the operate or 1.1 million of the operations into it. We're already reducing 1 million of our current budget in order to do that. Uh [clears throat] John, you're so this is the the policy here that you were asking about. >> Yeah. uh with regard to you know what we do with the funding um and you know what Michael was saying in terms of the um free cash and general stabilization um numbers. So um but if it's greater than 10% 30% previous year's free cash goes to OPED etc. Right? So so it's significant. Um, and again, the the special ed stabilization component is there too, right? That we're utilizing those funds.

060Um, and you know, we're sort of making a concerted effort that that's a driver that we have no control over. Uh, I just was at the superintendents and legislative breakfast a week ago and state reps and senators heard us loud and clear about special education costs and especially out of district costs, but there's little movement and appetite for movement to try and and and control the private sector of special education um, schools um because it's not actually, you know, run by the department of ed. it's not determined that that the increase in uh the schools are are not um under the purview of of desi and that's a struggle right and I can say from a standpoint of the superintendent association we're advocating instead of a 75% reimbursement for circuit breaker we're advocating for a

06190% but we're also advocating for a three times the cost versus a four times the cost before you start getting reimbursement per pupil cost. It's significant dollars. However, they were pretty clear that the state coffers are not going to be there this year, that they're not going to rely on those. Um, chapter 70 is at $75 a student. Last year was $150. Do I think there can be some movement there? I do. I think that's if there's going to be movement, it's going to be there. And could that mean another $240,000 in revenue uh for Chapter 70? It does. it could potentially do that. We're pretty conservative and Michael and I have always been that way because I think it's the right thing to do. You just don't know >> until July to be honest

062with you. Uh when um that's why we've always made the adjustments at the town meeting in the fall. So >> I just one quick follow-up question just real quick. Um, so the 2.75 that that um that you're proposing that we're recommending for the schools, do you feel what what is your sort of confidence level that that will fix the structural issues >> and we won't be back here again next year? I know that >> next year. No. >> Okay. But >> I know that there's still going to be capital needs and there's still going to be >> So part of what I capitals is a different conversation, right? We're talking operational override here. We're talking trying to fix a structural deficit from from an operational standpoint. And the one thing I've committed to since the

063beginning with this budget and with all budgets is that hey, this is part of the reason why we're looking at those 13.2 positions, right? That's part of the reason we're making adjustments now to ensure over the next five years that we have a good solid foundation of operations. That's not to say that we're going to have to dip into the school choice down the road for salaries. We may have to. Why? Because we're not taking into account the the hundreds of thousands of dollars of federal government grants that we're not we may not get. That those positions should slide into the operations, right? We're not taking that into account yet. That could potentially happen. it it's it's a challenge um for sure you know projecting 5 years down the road but if we strictly were

064policy driven and said 3.75% which is where we normally start um and you said Jim that's what you've got to work with we'd work with it and we'd make that work without looking for an override >> Jim have you done any research into like what's a typical budget increase in other communities. >> Yeah. So, I mean there there's a text chain going around right now with the schools uh superintendent in this community or these surrounding communities and it's anywhere from 3% to 6%, right? We typically right around that 5%. We we've been fortunate. I I will always stand in front of you and say we've been very blessed in this community that the schools have been supported and that Michael and the select board and the fincom and school committee have always supported the schools.

065We've been around that 5% number five to 6%. The override number is 6.18%. It's right where we typically would have, you know, last year was 6 point something percent. I forget the the number off the top of my head. Um, but that's and that's not necessarily adding new positions. It was building a new program, which we did, but that's saving us funding. That's saving the community. Like I said, we're talking millions of dollars of savings based on programs we've built. Uh just to cover off on a question that Brandy had as well. Uh why if we waited a year would the uh override amount be more? And it's partly also and maybe Jim you can speak a little bit more to the volatility and the reasons uh we need uh those those funds in there.

066Right. So, we have a lot of things that can impact our budget, whether it be the 15 and a half% increase in special education out of district tuition for the same number of students for next year that we're expecting. Uh we had uh some many of you might have known we had some smoke uh some uh some smoke alarm issues at the high school. That was $140,000. We have a lot of things that we need uh those things to have uh some money in them. And so if we were to deplete them to kick the can down the road, we would need to ask for enough where we could start to restock that because we we need that volatility. If we don't have if we don't have that uh flexibility, uh we're cuts. That's that's

067their only other option. So, >> right, >> Paul, what's what's a 15% increase in special education uh worth in dollars? >> I think it's $686,000. >> Yeah, somewhere there. Yeah. Yeah. >> And that's a figure >> five we're five million >> this year probably the number total >> and that figure could change too if right the number of students that may come in that may come in right so that that's always that's not always it's not a constant it's yeah Joe to your point but I hearken back to that that first budget scenario we had with Tony Skavi and Mike was the assistant then and and [clears throat] no we were talking about the budget and people were like oh you made it work well we actually had a student leave the district and that

068was a $200,000 out of district student. Like I can't control that. But we have students who are moving into our community that either we're going to be fiscally responsible or we're not. If they come after April 1st, the sending district is responsible for them. We've got families moving in now. And we had Chris, he bangs his head against the wall on a daily basis about this because we don't know >> and and it's we account for what we know today. >> We have we have a lot of volatility that we and so there there needs to be >> doesn't need to be a certain dollar amount but there needs to be friends in those >> but there needs to be a path to get to that >> correct to that figure. >> Right. So, so

069>> folks, I I I hate to interrupt, but um we um I was just kind of looking at the time and just looking at the balance of our time. We really have some decisions I think we have to make. >> Um >> I think number one, we need to talk about we we're talking about stabilization fund usage. So, let's talk about the fact that we are still using the stabilization fund [clears throat] in both an override scenario and a non-override scenario. And If we don't uh if we do pass an override, we're still going to use that stabilization fund to the tune of of over $600,000. It reduces the amount that we need to use, but it doesn't eliminate it. And I think that's okay actually at this standpoint because there's a lot of potential

070developments that could come online. And um that does as as much as >> as much as we don't like to admit it sometimes uh carries with it new growth revenue um that could have an impact not just on services but also on the revenue picture. But I think what I could really use your help with is as Jim mentioned, if the override doesn't pass, they've got a budget that's looking at um at uh is it a 1.55 Jim million dollar increase and and I think I have I gave you a scenario today that had the Ashlin public schools going up a million. >> You had it at a million, right? >> Yeah. And so there's a delta there. And I need to know from the boards, do you want to look at utilizing stabilization funds

071to or more stabilization more stabilization funds if the override fails to maybe pre prevent a cat a catastrophic decrease in staffing uh especially at the Ashlin public schools. Um and if you do want to use that, what's the appropriate amount? I have a million dollars plugged in there for the Ashlin public schools. I think Jim is looking at something a little bit more. Do you want me to try to make up that delta? What What would you like me to do? >> Can I speak to that a little bit, Michael? Can you Am I on? Can you hear me? Um, you guys have done an excellent job convincing us that we need an override. Obviously, um, we all agreed to that and that's a wonderful thing that we're all on the same page and now

072we're trying to figure out how to get into the mind of the voter. we have to convince them, you know, what they stand to lose. And as you said, we're I think there's still a little bit of a a difference between what's been proposed, uh, what the two budget scenarios that you've asked us to, um, agree to and to the kinds of things that we're talking about at our meetings as sort of the bare minimum that we feel like we can ask from our um, school community. um because we've already reduced by 13 or 14 positions before anything's even happened and there's really not much left to go and we really would be in the worst case scenario where we were talking about potentially level funded, we would be decimated. And one of my concerns

073about that, obviously that's just a horrible thing in and of itself, right? The morale is is bad at school. People have already been told they're not getting their jobs back. and um you know and I just want to make sure that we're all moving in the same direction. You know, when I was listening to your your meeting the other night um and we've talked a lot about how we're all in this together, but a lot of the proposals for some of the money coming in for the 750, for example, like a lot I wrote them down. There were a lot of words used like adding, expanding, advancing, meeting goals of the comprehensive plan. And we're over here like looking at potentially, you know, being decimated and devastated and having to answer to our school community

074about lots of different things. why we don't have an SEAL director anymore, why the size of classes have gone up, why um you know, just all the a lot of different scenarios, none of which are are good. So, if we're all in this together, I just want to make sure we're moving we're all moving starting from the same place and sharing the burden of any losses and um either if we're moving forward, we're moving forward together and if we're moving backwards, we're moving backwards together. And I think in order to do that, um, the answer to your question is I think we need more support to get to the budget number that we feel is the right number to be able to at least get through the next year if we lose the override. Obviously,

075the ideal scenario is we win the override and everybody gets what they need for the for the short future. Um, but the devastations to the schools could be really bad and I I want to make sure that we're all on the same page about how we're sharing that burden. >> Not a problem. As [snorts] >> Okay. Uh while Michael's taking care of that aspect of it, I just want to make a quick announcement that uh we want to continue this conversation and come up with a decision like Michael is asking us to come up with a decision on where we're going to go with this and how much money we want to utilize on the uh stabilization account. But I see some hands that are raised in the audience. If and when we have time

076by the at the end of the meeting, we will take questions. But I will let you know that it'll be a respm minute uh discussion because it's we need to make the decisions. Love to hear the other folks, but at the same token, this is this is our time to do what we need to do. Okay. >> Thank you, Joe. >> So, thank you. >> I'm done. >> Yeah. [clears throat] >> Oh, do you need this? I don't know if it'll reach over here, but um kind of just to to piggyback on, you know, what what Lori said as you know, we I think we're as a as a committee, we're we are looking for some of those asurances that um that that the the funds and the the commitment to support the schools is

077going to be there. And you know, as Jim has laid out, um he he and his team have done a great deal of work to to look at ways that we can um realign and kind of adjust our budget to try the best that we can on our own to fix those structural deficits. We can't do it on our own. Um and we've made a number of cuts that will be happening regardless. Um and I guess what I'm looking for and what I' I'd like to hear is is how is the town going to help uh kind of bridge that gap. Um what's that going to look like? I it wasn't clear to me um from your presentation, Michael, what the impact is going to be on the town uh should the override not pass.

078There's a a big impact on the school. Um and so I I guess kind of to piggyback on what Lori said, I'm I'm looking to see how how do how do we bridge that gap? How do we actually come together and and figure out a way to um to make sure that we're getting the the the small amount really that that we'd be asking for if there was no override. >> Go ahead, Mike. >> Yeah, I I mean I I do have the rest of my presentation which I I'm happy to go through if you if you'd like me to and if you think that'd be helpful. Um, I I think what I have programmed as an increase in stabilization fund usage should the override not pass is um, uh, a $1.3 million increase over

079and above. Um, with 1 million of that going to Ashlin Public Schools and 300 of that going to the municipal departments. Um, I believe there's a $444,000 difference between um the 1 million I have and um the amount that um the 3.25% that Jim had budgeted for. Um I'm happy to try to find a way to close that if that's um if that's what you if that's what you'd like me to do. Could we just review um Jim please? What So we're you're losing um 13 positions to start just to try to minimize and then if we go to the if we get to the 1.44, how many positions are lost at that point? Or is it easier to ask you if we only have a million dollars to give you when it if it

080doesn't pass then how many positions is that? Did I read 20? >> Yeah. So, so let I want to back up with that. Right. So, and because the school committee has not voted on a budget yet and and how to allocate the resources that we have. >> So, the 13.2 positions, as you stated, are gone. Right. >> Right. We're reducing those under every scenario possible. If we were to then get to a a a budget of um 2.25, 25, right? There's an additional five positions that we would have to take out of the operating budget and fund through the revolving accounts. Right? So, it's a reduction, if you will, of the operations >> by five individuals. But unless the school committee says to me, we don't those positions are going to be reduced, they're not

081we're not people aren't losing positions. is they're just being funded for one year out of the revolving account. And as I shared with you before, in year two, that money's gone. >> And if it's a, you know, a 2.25, we're looking at a $900,000 deficit. Yeah. >> So the the money we're short basically grows. >> Correct. >> Right. And is also comp compounded in that year. >> That's right. >> Yeah. I mean I I um you know feel obviously I mean I have a background of schools in this community and um and you know also I also have used a lot of town services um and my family has in this community. I couldn't there there's no um the most critical services that a community does is its public safety and its education of its

082students and that is indeed what makes a democracy you know a democratic society right is educating our children and I honestly think there's never been a more important time in our history to educate our children um they are growing up in a world that is um has changed their how they perceive the world, how they perceive what it means to be an American. And um I just think that no matter we need to find if if if we can't get an override passed um we need to find that additional $444,000 um you know without and and I know that complicates things because people think all right well they're going to figure this out but there is a there is a cost down the road. Every time we kick the can down the road there is

083a cost. So I just think that we need to um be very cognizant of that >> interest >> down the road. Uh Michael, I have a quick question for you with respect to the stabilization account and appreciate >> your your comment with respect to that. If the override fails currently, what what are we anticipating using uh the stabilization account for right now? What what is the total figure right now that we're looking to utilize out of the stabilization account before we look at the overright and we what is what would that figure be? Are we are we not looking at it at all? >> Oh, if if we had a level funded budget >> Yeah. >> like uh the discretionary line items are level funded, we would still need to have um 549,000 in stabilization

084just to balance the budget. Okay. >> If we if we did um if if the override does pass, we would still need um uh 500,000 and and some uh and some change, excuse me. And um and if we're talking about if the override fails and us basically backstopping that with stabilization funds, you know, you're talking about an additional 1.4 on top of that. >> Thank you. So something I just want to say about this which is sound ironic potentially but maybe people don't understand how we can you know how we access stabilization if the override fails [snorts] the same people who didn't support it will then need to come to town meeting and vote for our ability to access stabilization. We just can't do that. Okay. And then we get into this cycle of drawing

085down our reserves, then being forced to replenish them if, god willing, there is any free cash, and then getting into a situation where potentially that doesn't happen and we start to start to spiral and then have to determine at what point we're going to say enough is enough and then saying enough is enough. Like Jim said earlier, we have to come back for an override within two fiscal years for twice as much money. Then we have less stabilization. we need twice as much money. And and and I I know people have and I've had it said to me and and and I I've seen other people say it, well, maybe this isn't the right time to do this. Times are tough. Times are tough. I I I can't think of any period in economic history

086over the last 40 years where you could have gone to any American and said, "I need your help to support this effort for our schools and our public safety." And have them say, "Times are tough right now. I can't do it right now." We don't know at any point in time when it's the right time to do these things. And for the record, we've been discussing this as a body for several years. This is this didn't just come out of whole cloth. This has been something that's been discussed. We've talked about it. We've said maybe not right now. Talked to Jim and Mike. You know what? Maybe not right now. We think we can make it work for a bit longer. Let's give the taxpayers a break. Yes. And that that those conversations have been

087had and that's been done. We're trying to control the controllables. We don't know what the future holds and we're not going to try to time um uh the right time because the right time is now. This is this there there's no other there's no waiting at this point. So, you know, if you're not going to support this measure, that's your your right as a citizen of the town. Uh the irony will be uh you please show up to the next town meeting to uh approve use of the stabilization fund, which is only going to cause more problems and uh and get us into an even worse situation. at which point in time you're going to have people uh start to really dissent um in ways that are going to make it even more difficult to

088get anything done as a unified board. So uh word to the wise you bring up a very interesting point Michael what would happen if this has to go to town meeting and it fails at town meeting and we don't get that money out of the stabilization account what does that do to both budgets as a result of that? I mean, we're we're going to be in some hard times. >> Yeah. >> More so than we we ever >> It blows up our models. Yeah. >> Yeah. >> So, >> and just one thing too, just I'm sorry, Michael. I don't want to I don't sorry I didn't mean to to interrupt you but >> um one thing we really didn't talk about too much but I think it's kind of the bigger elephant in the room

089that Claudia was talking a little bit about um you know the forecast for FY28 in general from a federal and state level is actually more severe than FY27. So when we think about the the budget that's coming out of the state house this year, the governor's budget is usually the floor and then usually the you know the the um the house and the the senate um bring it up a little bit more to include more money for municipalities. And that is not going to happen this year. We've been basically told that that is not there's there's there's no money there. And if, god forbid, I mean, I don't mean to be like a um >> falling. >> The sky is falling. Exactly. But if if, god forbid, the economy takes a complete nose dive and

090the federal the federal funding dries up to the state level and the state makes additional cuts across the board for everything. And I'm not saying it would be chapter 70. I'm not saying it would be chapter 90 or general government funds. It would be probably across the board. That is when we need the stabilization fund to be able to dig us out of the the the absolute worst literally worst case scenario we could ever imagine. So >> that's what it's truly for. So, I just want to just put that out there that there, you know, we are in we are even even if this doesn't pass and we come back to the voters for a 5 to6 million override in the following year, that's best case scenario. >> Yeah. >> Like that. So, like I

091just want to level set that this like we are not this isn't about us trying to get more out of anything. This is about us trying to make the best possible decisions for the community as a whole and make sure that we're financially solvent. I mean, there are towns that get into such despair that the state is like looking to take them over. So, you know, we just need to like we need to do the best for our community this year, but we have to we have to keep a mind to what could potentially happen down the road and just plan for that. So, sorry, >> Brandy. To that point, just as a reminder to everyone in the community, the school budget, about 10% of the total school budget is funded from federal and state

092grants and other outside funding, which is a significant portion of the recurring cost. So, when I look at all the one-time funds and and Jim's discussion and education on the one-time funds, like I worry about like depleting those and using those that we even have, never mind the stabilization, just the school ones. And that doesn't even take into account something breaks like the fire alarms broke this year. It was $600,000. Like you we're not going to not fix the fire alarm. So I just to your point it's I just as a reminder and to be on the record those funds are one-time funds that you should be using for those types of like worst case scenarios. If I if I may, we kind of talked a little bit about the messaging that we've been talking

093about this for a long time, right? [clears throat] So, so why now, right? And we've we've been talking about this, let's say, eight more eight or more years, right? And uh we seem to always pull something out and we seem to make it work. And just to give the community some some information on why and what what what happened in those years to make us uh do that. So there's uh chapter 70 funding is the state educational funding grant system, right? And we were being disproportionately hurt uh for many many years uh where a lot of our comparable districts were getting substantially more than us. And there's something called the uh student opportunity act uh that started to be implemented. And so we had three years uh FY20, FY23, and 24 where we got uh

094over $1.5 million additional funding in those years. So without that, we would have already been uh here talking about another override. Uh we also got uh the ARPA funds and the ESSER funds. Um so those helped us through those years as well uh with some of these costs that have been escalating uh at you know well beyond our our revenues particularly on the school side and these are the it's kind of an interesting term fixed costs or or I I call them non-discretionary costs the things that we have to pay for that are going up u you know 7 8% uh or you know we we talked about the out of district tuition uh just going up for the same number of students out of district 15 and a half% %. Um, so those are

095things and yes there is circuit breaker reimbursement but uh we have to eat those costs and then we get a certain portion based on funding uh a year in a rears. So we're always playing that game and so that's uh so why now? Uh it's those we we did have these things that had significant impacts positive impacts on our budgets uh in those years. But I can tell you that the chapter 70 funding now that the student opportunity act is fully implemented is leveling off. Uh we only have a 3% increase uh in FY26 and a 1.7 increase between 26 and 27 in chapter 70 funding. So it is uh leveling off uh but those costs still uh continue to rise at that at that rate. So um we might have sound like a broken

096record because we say this every year. Um if we could have predicted what uh all those variables were, we would have been able to uh have different conversations in those years. Um but those things are are gone now. Um that that's not happening. Our our chapter 70 funding is we are not going to see large increases anymore. Uh that's leveling off. And so that's the reason why uh it is now is the right time from that perspective and why uh we've been saying this and we've been able to pull those things out in the past. and and those are kind of the the big uh the big things that relate to that. Uh, one one point I want to make and after, you know, Paul brought up some some of his excellent points is, you

097know, it it's funny when you're not at the meeting, you can you can focus more on on the words that are actually being said. And um, one thing we've got to be really really careful about, I think, um, and I just heard this now, is that, you know, we've never pulled it out. We've never fixed anything in the last eight years. We've been very clear about that. We've been very clear that we're just kicking the can down the road. Um, and that the fixes that we've had, you know, the big structural fixes, um, were made and that anything that we're doing is just really just kind of kicking the can down the road. Um, so I I think I think we've been very clear that this day of reckoning was coming at at some point.

098Um, I don't know when there is a right time or versus a right time for a tax increase. Nobody likes a tax increase in a good time. Um, but um, I I do think we got to be clear. We we've been sounding this alarm for for years now. >> You know, I think that one thing that [clears throat] it just boils down to is it's kind of simple on, you know, some level is that 2 and a half% to increase every year when every every piece so many aspects of the budget increase sometimes even by double digits. you know how it's amazing that it's it has been able to move forward in the way that we've moved forward you know I mean the gift of co you know was was some some funding that we

099didn't expect um and that you know what Paul was referencing in ESSER funds for the schools um you know and funding for the for the general government so I mean I think we all know our in our personal lives what we're living isn't 2 and a.5% increase from year to a year. It's significantly more. And town government, school departments have to also increase reasonably the same. It's and and so many of them are not things that we have a choice over. We don't have a choice over what we're going to pay for health insurance, what we're going to get charged for that. Should that be a conversation we have with our legislators? Absolutely. You know, they need to do something. They brought us into or encouraged us to go into this government employee insurance program.

100Worked really well until everybody said, "Okay, I want a piece of that." And then it doesn't work so well anymore. And we're faced with, you know, an increase in in health insurance costs that is better than 1/4th of what a two and a half% increase of the entire town budget is. I mean, it it's just it just doesn't it's just not possible. I mean, it's really pretty simple math. It's not even complicated math. It's nothing that we even need the fincom folks to explain to us. It's something that I think we can all understand. >> So I I guess the uh the burden falls on all of us right now is to make a decision as to the route that we want to take to support well we've already made that decision but now it's

101the additional funding that we want to remove from the stabilization account to keep things the way they are. Is that what is that what we're looking at right now, Michael, on this discussion? >> Just uh to to find a way to close this $444,000 gap. >> Okay. And and and Michael, I'm assuming you you're talking about the general stabilization and potentially the the special education stabilization or or is that is already already already factored in? >> Those are those are already factored in. Um um and and we've got our health insurance rates. So that are locked that's locked in. Um yeah, let me let me go take a look at the revenues again. Let me see um at our pension assessment when we're hoping to get that. >> I don't think that it's much we

102have to like if this doesn't pass, we are going to have to 400,000 some odd plus another 1.4. That's the bargain we're making. I don't I mean if I don't know if that requires a vote it's just obvious you know like that if this doesn't pass and I'm not just talking to the people here town of Ashland if this doesn't pass we're going to have to go to the stabilization fund and take out upwards of potentially $2 million to close this gap to to buy hopefully a fiscal year to figure it out and then come back. Do we need to vote on that or is this enough for me to just tell the town and hope that that concerns people? >> Does a vote happen? Yeah, >> that that wasn't sort of the obvious solution.

103Um there is a gap between the town uh budget for the schools and what we're thinking that we need to put forward. And I think a big part of this is for us to all understand the narrative. We're going to be out there in the community. People are going to want to know, you know, why should I vote for this? Why should I pay for this? what happens if I don't? And we're all very concerned about transparency. We don't want to say, "Oh my gosh, we're going to lose 45 positions." And then after they're we get to that point, you all say, "Okay, you know, we'll give you some for stabilization and we'll put it off another year." So I think the the best approach is just to be honest about doing what can we

104do um if but with emphasizing that it's really needs to pass because we're all the entire town is in really bad shape if it doesn't. There's [clears throat] no way around that. That is the major point that I think all of us are trying to make. But in order to have the conversation with voters, they're only going to vote for this if they understand where this where this how serious it is and where it lands. And none of us want to be saying anything that's not going to be true >> or or we don't want to change our minds later about anything if we can avoid that. Of course, things happen and our budget is changing daily and sometimes we do have to come in with different numbers because of the fluctuations that we experience

105that are out of our control. But to the extent that we can um provide information and and close gaps and I don't know if it's a vote or the select board, you know, agreeing that they would meet the schools with that with that gap. so that we can get our narrative in order. >> Right. I was going to say in terms of whether or not we as a tri board body or voting or kind of giving it's a select board decision, >> right, on whether or not stabilization, but that's for the select board to decide and and you know, kind of the I guess looking at is would it be stabilization funds? Are there ways to ek out some more money from the general fund by making some changes? I don't know the answers to

106those questions, but I would assume that as a body that's what you guys will be looking at. Um, but obviously there's there's a really tight turnaround on this as well too. And I think we're under the gun in terms of the time frame of where we have to pass our budget. And so we [clears throat] we need that clarity and that commitment that that that gap is going to be made up. How it's going to be made up is something to be decided by the select board. Um, so just um just to put my my thoughts out there, I feel like, you know, we really need to meet the needs of of the schools if this doesn't pass. I think the narrative partly is um you know, when people say, "Well, why would I vote

107for it if if if you're going to take funds from somewhere else?" And I really think the the thought that if this doesn't pass, we're going to be back asking for this times two next year. >> Yeah. >> And that is going to be more painful for people to to to absorb or there's no other place to take the money from. So when we talk about the decimation of the schools the following year, we're talking we're talking we're we're talking losses that we won't be able to recover from like period. >> So you know that that is you know we're we're making all the right decisions to try to minimize the impact for taxpayers this year. Um, but I really feel like we got to figure out this $444,000 and figure out how we can

108how we can support, you know, [clears throat] meet meet that gap. I mean, we're not talking um the entire, you know, 3.5 million. We're talking about this additional, you know, so it's basically, you know, 2 million out of our stabilization fund. And I'm comfortable with that. I feel like we should do that. Personally, >> I think you hit the nail on the head with that, Brandy. And I, you know, I think that um, you know, the way you actually for in so far as me messaging is concerned, I think you've also sort of struck upon something here like, you know, we take care of it now and we're we're minimizing the the possible impact or we kick it down the road and then the problem becomes exceptionally worse. >> So, um, yeah, I think that's

109a good way to articulate it. Don't disagree. >> Uh, unless there's any I'm going to open it up for a question because I know um there was a viewer who had their hand raised. Um, [clears throat] and I'm sorry I can't see. >> Joe, can I just see one one more thing right now? I just want to add, you know, to John's point, too, about, you know, everybody has to do when you vote, you have to do what you know you can do. and and there's no doubt I think in in anyone who's listening's mind that we need an operational override. Um and so, you know, I just want to say that while we talk about what we would do if if we that doesn't happen, this is what we need to do and this

110is what we need to do now. and and so um again I'm I don't want to discount anybody who isn't in a position um you know to to vote however they need to vote but it it just needs to be known that if you can find a way it needs to >> you you provide them all the information and they're the ones that make the decision when they go and vote you know they're the ones that have to make that decision right wrong or indifferent so I I I agree you 100%. So, I will uh ask um and I can hardly see the name up there. I see a hand, but I don't see Is it Julie? If you could uh unmute, Julie. Good evening, Julie. >> Hello. Julie Nardone, 86 Elliot Street. Um Michael,

111can you please go back to the slide with the 575 on it for the payment? You mean 5:45, Julie? whatever it was. I thought it was 575. So 5:45. Where is it? Okay. Um All right. The 545. What does that include? >> You're asking if that includes the $750,000 that is moved out of to to debt exclusion. Is that what you're asking? Um, CLA, I'm asking if it includes the override and the debt exclusion. >> And it does. It does. And >> does it include the Menddees school yet to be bonded >> because uh >> I don't. >> Yeah, she's asking if that includes the the Mind School. It has to be bonded as well. >> Okay. So, that's not in there. And I noticed the newest uh debt exclusion has escalated. to 14.5 million.

112Um, will you be asking us for debt exclusions >> right now? No, we're not asking for a debt exclusion. >> Well, I mean, it could be as soon as we vote this in, you can show up with a debt exclusion, >> right? I could I could >> That's all I want to know. And then okay so it's 575 plus the as and say that's 100 675 plus the normal >> how are you coming up with a 100 Julie >> I'm just coming up with 100 just based on my own knowledge of what I [clears throat] think's left the interest right now the interest rates quite high unless uh when the Federal Reserve they've got a new guy in there unless he drops it but let's say it's >> what's the reserve rate Now, Julie, >>

113uh, >> what's the funds rate? The federal funds rate. >> I They dropped it a couple times, so I don't know. You know, um, it's still pretty high. They dropped it, I think, two quarter I think it was two quarter points. I do watch those. >> Two quarter points. >> Yeah. >> Two basis points. >> Okay. Say it's 575 plus 100 plus the normal 300 increase. >> What's that, Julie? What's a normal 300 increase? >> Most people's taxes go up and that's just and again you're at people's taxes tend to go up two, three, 400 a year. You've got to include >> how do you how do you have do you have the data for that? Uh, you must have the data because my taxes [laughter] go up every year. >> I didn't make the

114claim. >> Okay, I wouldn't pretend. Everybody's taxes have gone up. They've gone up $3,000 since 2013. Um, they've gone up. Um, okay. So, there's that. The debt exclusions. Um, okay. um and the 575 or 545 whatever it is it's never that whatever we have been told it's always been higher. Okay. And then my final thing um we are not in this together. I keep hearing that because the people have not been included [clears throat] in any way. Um, >> I I'll disagree with you on that, Julie, and I'm going to interrupt you because I disagree. I believe everyone's had an opportunity to to to speak their piece. At any other meetings that we have, there will be forums that you'll be able to speak at and come to. Uh, this is just a tri board

115meeting where I gave you the opportunity to ask a question. Uh, this is not a platform for you to provide you additional uh commentary. This was a question that you had to ask. You needed to ask it. I believe it was answered. Uh maybe not to the best uh that you liked anyway, but it has been answered. And uh I'm going to I'm going to move forward because right now, >> one second. What you just said is exactly what I'm talking about. You never let people speak and if you don't like it, you shut it down. >> I'm not shutting it down because I don't like it, Julie. I'm shutting it down because it's not on point. >> There's a big difference between the two. a very big difference. >> Whatever it's >> and you

116a loted the time I said three minutes and it's beyond three minutes and I would be unfair if there was anybody else that had their hand raised. Okay. And it's not because I don't want to hear what you have to say or I disagree with you. You've had the opportunity. Three minutes is gone. Thank you. All right. I just want to thank everybody for being here tonight. Um uh well I didn't see any other hand raised to be very honest with you. >> Okay. >> Is is there anything else that that Michael or Jim you guys need from us in >> in closing? >> No. At this point uh we have again tomorrow evening school committee will be listening to the the full presentation that I presented tonight. Uh and then we will have our

117public budget hearing which is required by law uh most likely uh the first meeting in April because we have to post it for two weeks in um in the press. Uh and then that number will be coming forth to the select board and the fincom is our recommended budget number. >> All right. >> And outside so we'll have two obviously right the override number 6.18 and the 3.25 is what I >> is also going to be a public forum. >> Yep. That that was what I was going to mention. Yep. So, sure. >> So, just to let everybody know, we're going to be um hosting a um a public forum on Thursday, [clears throat] March 26th at 700 p.m. here in the select boardroom um and also on Zoom so we can um have people

118participate either in person or or online. Um, I know that the select board has talked about being a sponsor, you know, basically um hosting the um the public forum, but I would also um would love the the school committee to be like a like a partner with us on this. Um, and that way we'll we'll co-host it together. Um, it's really a listening session. Um Jim and Michael will present a few slides on what is happening, but it's really a a an opportunity for people to ask questions and for us to hear comments from the public. So that's going to be um on the 26th. And I'd like to suggest that we send out u maybe in Michael's newsletter and put something on our website um a a Google form that allows people to ask

119questions prior to um which would just be helpful because you know not that we wouldn't take questions that evening but it would help that be prepared with good good quality answers. >> Sure. >> Right. Yeah. >> We'll keep the time up. So so that would be good. So unless there's any additional conversation or any additional information that needs to be provided, I I want to thank Jim and Mike for the presentations, it uh it's not an easy scenario that we all have to deal with and uh for those who are watching at home. Uh bear with us. It's uh it's going to be a bumpy ride, but you know the people who have made these uh figures work uh have done it in the past and we will continue to use their expertise for the

120future and I hope that uh cooler minds prevail and people stay on point because this is very important for all of us not just for a group of individuals but for the entire town because it affects all of us as a community. All right. So with that, I will entertain any of the boards who want to make a motion to adjurnn their their their session. >> Second. [laughter] >> I'll I'll make a motion that the select board adjurnn. >> Second. >> All those in favor? >> I a motion to adjurnn the finance committee. >> Second. >> Motion. >> All in favor? [laughter] >> The other two are if you guys could unmute yourselves. Yep. >> Roit and uh Shantel or just raise your hand session forever. >> Perfect. There you go. Thank you. [laughter] >>

121Motion to adjourn school committee. >> Second. All >> in favor? >> I >> thank you very much and good night.