001All right, we will call this meeting boys regional school committee to order. Please rise for pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for it stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all. >> Okay, we'll take a few minutes for public comment if anyone would like to make public comment. No. Okay. Uh, our first item tonight, uh, we're going to have our technology expert, CC Ducet. She's the director of the Mass for Safe Technology. >> Thank you. It's an honor and a privilege to be with you here tonight. It wasn't too many years ago that my own kids were in school in Ashlin Public Schools, and I had no idea that there was anything to even think about where wireless technology comes into play.
002And I actually revived our local education foundation and spent years bringing in wireless infrastructure and iPads and Chromebooks and smartboards and minis. And what we were being told was this great new technology that our kids would need to survive in this world today. So then one night at book group, a girlfriend of mine who's an electrical engineer tipped us off that there are biological effects. And it was book group so I just kind of made a mental note of it. And then not long after that, I had a notice cross my desk that the American Academy of Environmental Medicine, these are the doctors who get the conundras that regular doctors haven't been trained on, something in the environment is making people ill. The American Academy of Environmental Medicine back in 2012 put out a position
003statement to school superintendent saying, "Please don't let wireless into the schools." And I went, "Wow, what is that?" And as my bio indicates, I hold a master's degree in technical and professional writing. So I just thought, is there any science to this? And folks, I was astounded that you don't even have to look very far. You just need to know to look. There are literally thousands of peer-reviewed studies all over the world showing that when we stopped plugging in with wires and we started sending our signals back and forth wirelessly, how's the magic happening? Well, we traded those wires in for two-way radio frequency radiation that is in the microwave spectrum on the EMF or electromagnetic field spectrum. So the message today is certainly not no technology because we love the benefits that it brings
004but we need to be very careful about how we connect with technology and most importantly for our children and fetuses. They are especially vulnerable to this type of radiation. The science is showing that their brains have a higher water content and inch per inch they are absorbing more of this radiation than you and I with our polymorph skulls. What the science is showing us is that this is a neurotoxin. We are literally pulsating ourselves with microwaves and in the scientific literature we see links to autism. Uh Dr. Martha Herbert founded the autism lab at Massachusetts General Hospital and she sees huge connections between what happens to the families in her care and what we know scientifically happens with exposure to man-made radiation. Dr. Hugh Taylor runs the OBGYn program down at Yale and Dr. Taylor
005and his colleagues have done the rodent studies that show when you expose [clears throat] the pregnant mice to this man-made cell phone, for example, radio frequency, the pups come out bouncing off the walls of the cage, exhibiting behaviors that strongly resemble a child with ADD or ADHD. We also have studies that show it is a neurotoxin and it's causing it's one of the leading factors with this epidemic we've had before the pandemic on anxiety, depression and now well you guys are in a school you know we see suicidal ideiation like we've never seen before and it's not just the bullying that's happening online this is physiologically changing the DNA and it's also causing causing infertility. It was the infertility studies that got me on my feet when I started reading the science. They've taken male
006human sperm and exposed it to a laptop with the antennas radiating. It changed the DNA which is our road map to grower anything from a child to a plant to a pollinator or any bacteria or biome and we are changing the DNA. It caused the motility to slow and it was causing apoptosis or programmed cell death in 4 hours of exposure to a laptop. And these studies have been replicated. We're not talking just correlation. We are now advanced in the science to talk causation. So I I started reading the studies and I'm like, you've got to be kidding me. I just sent my oldest daughter up to St. Mike's with her map. My youngest had just gone into high school and I thought we'd give her a leg up. So, we got her a laptop
007for Christmas. And we're both my girls using their devices, but right on top of their reproductive systems. Kaiser Permanente has done a really good study that's never been questioned that we are seeing higher miscarriage rates with women who are using radio frequency transmitting devices. [clears throat] So, I brought all this to my schools and we became the first in the United States to even have a sign hanging in our classrooms with baby steps toward precaution. Right? Common sense. Turn it off if you're not using it. Don't let a laptop cart sit there pulsating all day. Don't let the kids come to school with a wireless device in their pocket. We are seeing breast cancers increasing in men and women for keeping it in our pockets or our bras. We are seeing colon and rectal cancers
008doubling and quadrupling among young people now because they've been growing up with this for quite some time. Most of us in this room were born into a time where our own biology could develop on point. These kids don't have that advantage anymore. So turn off the devices when not in use. Turn the wifi on only when needed. That can be handled with a switch on the wall. Put it on a timer. Harts Brook uh Waldorf School has already done that. They just put it on a timer and then if the teacher forgets it'll turn itself off after 5, 10, whatever you set it for minutes. So there are solutions. Um, but I think what helped our schools to get to this point was when they read the legal fine print that comes with all of
009our devices. So, I would invite any of you who have an iPhone on you right now to take it out and go into your settings and I want to walk you through the legal fine print that has been in there to protect industry's backside all. So, in an iPhone and it's in the Androids and Google phones, too, but I know right where it isn't here. Go into settings and a little ways down, hit general. From general, go all the way down to the bottom and hit legal and regulatory. Or from the top on legal and regulatory, you will see RF exposure. That's radio frequency radiation that they politely call energy because it is a man-made light energy form. And in that legal fine print at the bottom of the first big paragraph, it says, "We
010tested this device at a distance from the body." So if you're holding it the way they've given it to us, you are being exposed not just to one antenna, but there are multiple antennas mounted in there, and each one is constantly going, "Here I am. Where are you? Here I am. priority to make or maintain that handshake with the nearest cell tower or router. Cellular and data is a separate antenna, Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, locator, hotspot, 5G, and any other bells and whistles that they invited us to enjoy. So, the message today is not no technology, it's safe technology. And they even say in a subsequent paragraph there, to reduce your exposure, basically once you know you're radiating yourself, don't touch it. To reduce your exposure, use a hands-free option like speaker phone or a headset. You
011want to be really careful. Those earbuds, you're putting a microwave transmitter on both sides of your head. But for everything we've broken, there is a solution. There's something called a hollow tube headset that breaks the radiation about halfway down and then you just have a hollow tube going up to your head. So, we have solutions for everything. But it's a huge mind shift to say, "Oh my gosh, I love my device. I live on my device." But maybe we can just take some baby steps and say, "Well, maybe tonight I'll put it all in airplane mode. Make sure the Bluetooth antenna is turned off. make sure the Wi-Fi antenna is turned off. [clears throat] And you wouldn't believe how many times people come back and say, "Cece, I didn't want to know this." But I
012created a sleep sanctuary and oh my gosh, I slept through the night for the first time in years or my children's behavior issues calm way down when we're not pulsating them with microwaves all night. So for many years, the industry got away with saying, "Oh, there's no mechanism of harm identified in the literature. let's just keep doing what we're doing. Well, the science has advanced. Now we know about the cancers. Our own government, the US National Toxicology Program up at the NIH, gold standard in the world on toxics research, the largest study they've ever done, $30 million on cell phones, clear evidence of cancerous tumors and DNA damage. And right on the heels of our multi-million dollar study, Italy did the same. We did cell phones. They did cell towers. Same findings, clear evidence of
013cancerous tumors and DNA damage and more. So, we don't need more science. [clears throat] What we need is to take a little bit of time, look at the science that we have, and say, I think we can do better. I think we can stay connected and protected. So there's um a wonderful website called Tech Safe Schools and for our committee members and our superintendent, I will leave you a packet of information. But we know what to do. We know that when Cisco or whoever sells us these, you know, wireless access points that we've got on. We know that when we get our systems, it comes at us full tilt 100% power. Well, out in Silicon Valley at Palo Alto schools, they figured it out. You can take that down by 90% without even losing connectivity.
014So why would we bombard ourselves at this when we could just come down a bit? Same thing with the beacon signal that's trying to make that handshake. We know what to do. So that's a nice no cost first step to start reducing our exposures. >> Thank you, Cece. So, the reason CC's here tonight is uh Lisa, I think you introduced her to us. >> Last meeting we were talking about the technology devices that we're going to be putting through the budget. So, Lisa, I thought it would be good to have a presentation here. Thank you very much for coming. I know you did talk to Ally. He's messing with the door there. I don't know what he's doing. >> Can I ask you a question? Can I ask a question? >> Yeah. Well, one question.
015Go ahead. >> Um, so what about these? Are they bad, too? >> Well, the technology is great. Yeah, but most of our apps are on the devices and you don't need to be radiating yourself to use your clock, to use your alarms, to use your cameras. The only time you need to do that is to transmit a signal and data back and forth. So, we just teach people to use their technology safely. Turn all the antennas off and only turn on the one antenna you need for the shortest amount of time. >> So, you can do that on these. You should be >> Okay. >> Yeah. And and so you your website is MA for safe tech, right? And people can sign up for your email list and get notifications about legislation and webinars. >>
016Bills in Massachusetts. I helped New Hampshire pass the first law in the country to investigate this and they did. They came out with a groundbreaking report documenting all the harm, documenting the conflicts of interest with our federal agencies and the industry. And [clears throat] most importantly, making 15 recommendations for what we can do, transition our schools away from wireless for primary connectivity is one of the recommendations. And I saw that some of you are in real estate. They also want to get their building inspectors trained to go in because it's invisible, right? So, how do we know that we're even being exposed? But this is a radio frequency radiation detection meter that was recommended at the EMF or electromagnetic fields medical conference and it's about a $400 device. Lisa owns one, so you can play
017with her. >> Um, but in the scientific literature, they want us to be at 10 microwatts per square meter or less indoors. And right now, just because of the ambient radiation in here, we're at 1,420. And that's without even having a device near me. That's just kind of the electro pollution that we now live in. [clears throat] But we can choose to make some minor modifications and bring that down sign. >> Thank you very much, Cece. I know you'll be talking with Al again and maybe even coming to an admin or something as we figure out what devices we're going to be putting into the schools. Thank you very much. >> You're very welcome. >> Thank you so much. >> Reach out with any questions and I brought some um materials. >> So, did you
018just test the school? >> So, >> bad. >> So, it freaked out. [laughter] >> Am I Thank you very much for the question. So Cece and I just had a chance to with Lisa just to walk a little bit around the school and just take a look at a couple things. So um some information that we got to be we looking at and so we appreciate you coming to us tonight and certainly um it'll be great for our admin to to be looking at this. We know that technology is not going away, right? But certainly gives us pause for thought. So we appreciate you coming in and we look forward to hearing some of the information that I left you is on my resources page at Massachusetts for safe technology. The industry got a really
019big head start on us, right? And they are expert at providing the information with the benefits but not actually telling us the risks. So, in that packet that I've left for you is EMF points of confusion versus fact that will help to dispel and set the reference straight on some of the [clears throat] information that you're going to see if you go out there and start looking at this. And that sheet is on my resources page for anybody else who would like to. >> Okay. Thanks so much. >> Thank you very much. >> Al, you got those. >> Okay. >> Uh, next on the agenda is our consent agenda. Can I have a motion, please, to approve the consent agenda? Lori >> second. >> Lisa. Anybody have any questions on it? There's a lot there.
020>> All right. All in favor? >> I. >> Anyone against? >> All right. So, that motion passes. Next up, uh, couple of quick updates. So, for those who haven't heard our superintendent search, we did decide and we've made an offer to Dr. Brent Conway, Kentucky Regional Schools. And so, we are currently at the stage where we'll be uh talking about contract with him. Uh that's you can see that's on the agenda later tonight to get into the first steps of that. So we've made the offer to him. He's accepted the offer and now we're gonna try to work out a contract. Uh next up, I think we should all recognize the football team again this year. If you weren't aware, they were in their fourth Super Bowl in a row on Saturday. Not the outcome
021everybody wanted, but uh pretty outstanding season. Pretty amazing accomplishment to reach a Super Bowl four years in a row. Uh quick fact, I did my math. Uh, Mr. Campbell, maybe you can check my math for me. I don't see Mr. Floren right here, but uh, I believe four years in a row, Super Bowl. Am I right there, Rich? Three wins, one loss, right? That works out to, I think, a 75% winning percentage in Super Bowls. Tom Brady's only at 70%. So, that's that's pretty good. >> Nice. >> Uh, so congratulations to them. I know we'll probably plan to do something uh at another committee meeting, a little quick notice with a three-day turnaround there. So, I just [clears throat] wanted to make sure we have that out there. Next up, thank you very much. Um,
022next up we have town representatives. Uh, so this item here, few weeks ago, a month ago maybe now, April reached out to me from Boilson, wanted to get the committees together. They had some information to share with us about the budget. Dates weren't going to work out. So instead, I offered for them to come here to our meeting tonight. Um, Howard is going to be joining us, but I don't see him in the room here yet. Um, we wanted to also make sure that Berlin was included in any conversations we had about budgets with the towns because of the connection with Tahanto. So, Kristen is here, town administrator from Berlin tonight. Uh, Howard's not here, Kristen. I was going to have him come up. I don't know if you you said you weren't necessarily planning
023to send us anything, but you wanted to be here to hear how the budget presentation goes. Uh, if you do have anything you want to say, please jump in and say it. But, uh, since Howard's not here right now, we'll wait for him to come in. We'll get to Al's report. How about that? >> Okay, we're going. Sure. Absolutely. Um, >> oh, wait a minute. >> Do you see anything? >> There he is. [laughter] >> Put me in coach and then you >> I did tell him about 519. We're a little ahead of ours. >> It's all good. >> Uh, why don't you start while he gets set up? >> Okay. So I can uh so thank you. Um I just want to take a moment to um publicly acknowledge some administrative changes that have
024taken place since our our last school committee meeting. Um first, Lisa Squa U is now our new director of curriculum for grades 6 through 12. Um we're thrilled to welcome her to her new position. [applause] She started with us December 1st and it seems like we've been we've been working together for uh quite a while since um since that date. Um so she's um will be our new director of curriculum for grades six through 12. Um as we have heard um John Campbell will be um retiring at the end of this year and I'll talk a little bit about that further my report. Um the goal will be that Lisa will be the curriculum director which is really what should be happening in in districts and communities uh across the entire district. So she'll be
025the curriculum director as soon as John's retired from prek to grade 12. She'll be working with John closely over the next um several months as well too for making that a smooth transition. So, welcome Lisa. Um, which leaves uh our Rich Cameron who's now our new official and many of you might know him as the assistant principal of Tanto and was also our safety uh safety um liazison. He is now officially appointed as the principal of Tahanto High School as well too. Rich that role [applause] Rich assumed that role uh in December 1st as well too. So they've both been working really hard and what a nice transition for Lisa and Rich and Rich at Lisa to be working closely together as well too. So that's been um actually very seamless. Um so um we
026we welcome them and um we look forward to working with them um this year as well too. Um which leaves an opening um as an assistant principal at Tanto. You might have seen that we've already posted as an interim. Um I know that they um been diligently doing some interviewing so um I haven't had a chance to touch base with Rich and his um team today. Um but certainly look forward to talking to them. I know we're going to plan on moving that quickly and and filling that position for for this year as well too. So we're excited for that to take place. Um one last also addition to our our team also for um for those that might notice a new face in the room um I should say I should say behind the
027camera um we welcome Alexander Whitney. Um Alex um Alex will be now working on um with Joe in the technology department. He's filling a spot for us. We're thrilled to have him. He started yesterday. Um and he'll be also filming all of our school community meetings as well too. So Alex, welcome to um the Berlin. [applause] Thrilled to have you on board as well. Want to pause there for a second. >> Howard, you ready? >> I am. >> Come on up. Applause. >> Howard is the chair. Yes. >> Well, you took away my first item. I was going to do is introduce myself. [laughter] So for those of you who don't know me, I'm Howard Troker. I am the current chair for the Boilston Finance Committee uh also known as FINO. Uh for some reason
028I like to call FINCO. Okay. Well, I I wrote up some points here. Typically, I actually don't read them. I use them as the starting points. But basically, the town of Boilston is at its levy limit like it has been for the last two fiscal years. So, people will ask what what does that mean? So, if you recall back in 1980, uh, ballot question approved proposition two and a half that basically says the real estate property taxes can't rise more than 2 and a.5%. Unless there is some kind of vote at town meeting, and those two types of votes are either a debt exclusion, which we did do for the fire station at town meeting this springtime, or a general override. So a general override would be for some specific amount and that would then
029bump up the level of whether property taxes are allowed and then you could do two and a half% the next year after that. So those are the two things the town as far as I'm aware of has never [clears throat] done a a full override. It has done a debt exclusion uh for the fire station. In fact we actually had two debt exclusion articles uh town meeting. Only the fire station passed at the ballot. Okay. And I'm sorry and that's where I just came from from a fire station building committee as we're working our way through the process here. Now with that the board of assessors and then the select board approved the what is known as the tax classification hearing on the 3rd of November and that basically has approximately $800,000 in operating budget
030increases approximately 400k for each of the sides of the house if you want to look at it that way. So basically you got about 400k. I think last year you had about 600,000 uh to work with. The town side has 400k. Uh April is going to be submitting requests to department chairs to do a level funded budget. Uh we don't know what that impact will be to services but there could be some. [clears throat] Um, as you're well aware, there are many things driving the increases here. Uh, 2 and a.5% increase. It doesn't cover the cost of, uh, what some of those increases are. So, last year, uh, the town side was hit with almost 18% healthc care increases. I think you guys saw almost the same amount. Uh, April's got some indications that this
031year we're going to be in the same boat, 15 to 18%. It's personally it's not sustainable. I don't know what's going to break this here. Uh let's see. So that's the that's the bad news. >> Oh, Howard, can I just ask a quick question? >> Of course. So we're not going to do questions and answers back and forth. He's just here to tell us the town situation. It's not a back and forth negotiation question answer situation. >> Okay. >> All right. So now I want to bring some positive news. So, the town has received its free cert free cash certification from the state earlier this uh year this summer and that number came in at 1.1 mil. I have to say both April and myself were very surprised. We were estimating somewhere around 750,000. Turns
032out boils residents like to buy cars. >> That increase to put it mildly is excise tax. Uh remember free cash is a very variable item. It goes up and down. Uh the economy is doing well. We get a little more free cash because excise taxes come in higher than expected. Uh so that number by the way was about 1 million last year. So we actually did a little better than we thought. So that leaves us with an interesting uh scenario here. We have 1.1 mil of free cash. is typically used for capital improvement items on one time charge. Uh state uh recommendations and by the way Boilston's fiscal policies say that we do not use that money for operating budget site. Okay. Now let's talk about Boilston Elementary School roof. So we put aside 500,000
033at town meeting uh of which we spent some here to hire a owner's project manager to do some research for us and then some studies. So we spent some of that money. So we have approximately 500,000 set aside. Uh my understanding here is the let me get the right name for who they are. The uh states uh accelerated building repair program Yes, thank you. Here uh you guys applied, it was accepted. Uh it is a 51% match I believe. So the working assumption here is that the estimates are approximately 4 mil for that roof. So if you work on that assumption, 4 mil minus 2 mil reimbursement from the state minus 500,000 we set aside. Now we're looking at 1.5 mil. How do we fund it? Well, uh, April, myself, the select board have batted
034around some ideas, but the one idea we want want to do is we do not want to do a debt exclusion town meeting. Uh, personally, if we did that, I would say it would be 5050 whether it would win. And if it didn't, you lose your spot with the accelerated program for that. So, we need to figure out how we make how we get that dollars and be able to fund it because we have to fund it. We're going to have to float some kind of bond. There's some ideas floating here. Remember, I have 1.1 mil in free cash, but I can't spend it all on one object because we're going to have things like, you know, the fire truck or something. Well, not a fire truck, not a $500,000 a truck. Uh but uh
035there will be other requests for capital coming up. But what I'd like to be able to do is get that number to one million that the town has to figure out how to fund. And at 1 million I think we can figure out some way to fund it. So that's not a commitment but that's our goal. And again I think what I'm working here is as I said debt exclusion article for the roof at town meeting. I seriously don't. It will not fly at the ballot box. it would probably pass it. So, uh, let's see. Is there anything else I had points I wanted to talk about? No, I think that's basically what I wanted to cover. Um, Michael, I don't know if you wanted to ask any questions in particular to me or clarifications.
036>> That's definitely good news for Aaron and Al to know going into this. I think last year with our process of Aaron and now speaking directly with April and with you guys, the process went really smoothly, Chris Kristen as well in Berlin. Um, so I think as we start to hear, we're going to hear from Aaron a few minutes about our budget situation. But as we start to go through that process, I think that direct communication with them and then they come and make their reports to the committee worked really well last year. I don't know if you guys had any problems with that, but it seems like you guys have a good relationship, good working relationship. Anyway, >> I will second that. We did. >> Yeah. Okay, perfect. So, I I'm expecting that to
037go on again. And uh at some point, we'll bring in maybe the new superintendent once we get the contract working through, introduce you guys to him. Uh so, you can It's not going to be his budget. He's going to have to inherit it from Al and Aaron, but then he'll be working with you guys again next year. So, >> okay. I appreciate you coming in to tell us this. Um, I did promise Howard there was going to be a back and forth conversation, questions, answers. That will be Aaron and Al's job to go back and forth with him. So, appreciate you coming in. Thank you very much. >> Okay. So, I'll just give you one little bit about the process. So, at this point in time, uh, April's requesting budgets from the town departments on
038the town side. uh and starting some point in probably the second or third week of January, the fincom will start to meet and look at those requests and invite the department chairs in to talk about where they are. In particular, uh since we are asking them to do level funded, we expect that there will be some line items that they're going to look at cutting. We will have to try to understand what those impacts are and take that back to the select board to see what they want to do. So, I would expect this is going to be a very challenging budget season this year. Unfortunately, I don't see a change coming in the next two or three years. The state uh reimbursements and everything else, nothing seems to change. >> I think Aaron's got
039a little bit about that for us as well with the document that he's got from the state. So, >> yep, understood. Definitely. >> Okay. Thank you. >> Thank you very much. Thank you, Kristen. >> Thank you. Thank you to both house. Thanks for both you guys. >> Appreciate it. >> Uh that brings us to Aaron. Aaron want to come up and talk to us about [laughter] >> um it's going to get cold fast. Um, so let me preface everything we're talking about um by saying the the budget that we the budget numbers that we have right now are both s super preliminary and they're designed to be a worst case scenario. Right? So I never want to go to towns and tell them we're at 2% and then end up at 10% at the end.
040I'd rather tell them now. Um, you know, infamous for restaurants, they always tell you your weight's going to be a little bit longer so you feel really good when you get in a little sooner, right? Same thing. I want to make sure that we start with some of the bad news. Um, so this is going to be very similar to um I think last year uh when we again started high a lot of similar drivers. So if we go to the next slide um there's some important notes. Whoops. No, that's not the first. There we go. Um, so, um, we are definitely looking at using some of our excess and deficiency, which is similar to free cash for the towns to help support the budget. Um, excess and deficiency. Um, uh, we are estimating we
041may have as much as $2.1 million in excess and deficiency. Uh, that is largely result of the past couple years not being able to use it because it wasn't certified. So we will have um we are submitting for certification right now um finalizing everything and getting that in. We'll certainly have it um back and certified in time for budget. So um I think we would definitely be looking. Last year we spent more school choice because we didn't have END. This year we'll spend a little less school choice um but have money available from END. Um, so you will see the choice. We did not spend any in 2025. Um, I don't think we spent much of any in 2024 either. Um, we have pretty solid balances in school choice. I'm not going to speak to
042that until we have our audit report back um, from the auditor. We are still waiting on our 2024 audit report. Um, I am doing my very best to beat down the door. we have had everything in since uh late spring. Um and uh we're doing the best we can trying to get it back from them. So um some of what we're doing is not sustainable in the long run. The goal is to create a bridge to sustainability. So, one of the items that Janelle and I talked about is some of the outofd district students we have um a large larger than normal cohort of those um will be grad will be graduating or aging out in the next couple years. So, we're looking to sort of offset those costs and consider them short-term or one-time
043costs. Um keep in mind we also don't have any state funds or offsets. Um this this area has been a bit of a wild card for the past few years. Chapter 70 um has been pretty erratic. So last year they provided a fairly large increase to all districts at Chapter 70 in terms of minimum aid. Um in prior years it was much lower. Um we are anticipating that um transportation reimbursement will stay at about 90%. They've really made an effort to try to keep that there. It's not 100% where it should be, but 90% will take. Next slide. [clears throat] So, want to speak to some of those top drivers. Um, these are the top four. If you look further in the presentation, you will see a bit of a longer list and I will
044continue to call these out in a significantly longer list as we get going, but these are these are really four um uh drivers that we just can't control. uh homeless and foster transportation. We are mandated by law to provide students who become homeless or fall into foster care transportation back to our school if they attended our school. Um and that can mean a van ride of an hour, hour and a half sometimes even crossing state lines. So um that gets pretty pretty costly. There is some ability to cost share. we we factor that into um our math. Um and this is based on our expectations of where we're going to be this year. [clears throat] Um out of district uh collaborative tuitions is up. Um the good thing about out of district collaborative tuitions is
045they are much more cost-effective than private tuitions. Uh our private tuitions uh go up by typically at least 3% a year. So, we're talking about again a two and a half that's a little bit higher guaranteed every year that we're going to get hit for. Uh we have one um private placement that um I don't know if it's been approved yet, but they have proposed to the state of Massachusetts a 20% increase to their regular day tuition and a 30% increase to their summer tuition. Um and I believe we have one or two students in that school. So, that is going to increase our cost significantly. Um employee health care we're predicting for an 18% increase is just like the town. Um I think we have a few extra people on the uh on our
046health insurance now. We have a pretty robust program. Uh additionally there's actually a small decrease in the calculations I did to retire health care. I actually think maybe it was um some numbers squished from one aisle to another in past years. Uh I'm going off the actual reports from our insurance company. Now, I will say that insurance companies are notoriously bad about taking people off of their invoices. We've dealt that at the town level, but we always find that when someone leaves and we cancel their insurance, it takes a few months to pull them off. So, I'm going to look at a couple months of uh insurance invoices before we finalize that. Um, you know, we're really knock on wood hoping that um that percent increase is lower, though. Uh regular transportation is up fairly
047significantly. As you'll recall, we were going out to bid at budget time last year for a new contract. Um I estimated a solid increase. The increase was larger than I expected. So, some of this is rolling some money from last year that we didn't budget towards it, but we are looking at an 8% increase um in that contract every year. We had a single bidder on our contract. We went to bid twice. We went once, we weren't happy with the results, we went to bid again. The second was same same vendor, our current vendor. No one else realistically bids. And that is the industry. That's the way it works. Um, next item. So, this is where we end up on a budget basis. Um, keep in mind that uh, excess and deficiency is not calculated
048in until we do the assessment calculation. So, school choice was blended into everything this year, last year at a higher level. This year the actual budget is offset a little less at the budget level but it will be offset a little more at the assessment level once we apply that. So um it's a little kind of back and catch up a little bit. Um anyhow uh so you know right now we're looking at 11.45%. We understand that's a big increase. You'll notice the districtwide uh piece. Uh the big factor in that is because we're planning on making the curriculum director uh prek to 12 that will become a district-wide position rather than just a tonto position. Now at the end of the day in terms of town assessments it's really going to be more or
049less a wash because of the tanto split anyhow among assessments but we just want to make sure that the the district-wide we we're not increasing the central office significantly. We're not adding a bunch of staff. It's really just um the movement of that one position. So, next slide. Um so, finally, um we get to recommended reading. Um this was actually Kristen. You shared this with us and I thought this was an excellent article. It speaks a lot to what Howard talked about the challenges with Prop 2 and a half. Um as you've heard from the towns as well as me. Um, we are looking at increases that are entirely uncontrollable, that are way, way above two and a half percent. But we live in a world where Prop 2 and a half controls the money
050that the towns get and in turn the money that that we have available. Um, additionally, some of the state aid, unrestricted aid, has been stagnant or decreased for a number of years. Um annual increases to chapter 70 you can see uh have been very low in general. Um you will hear that chapter 70 went up by three and a half 4% a year from the state. A lot of that money if you go into the report goes to very specific types of communities. And no doubt those communities need that money. They need that money desperately. But the challenge is a typical rural and suburban district uh does not see much of an increase on average. So there are a number of slides following this. Um I encourage you to go through them. I'm not going
051to go into all of the details. It includes some rough assessment numbers. Um again, this is a starting point. It is not the finish line. Uh we are going to continue to um go after every ounce of savings we can find. We're going to continue conversations about where we can take things like out of district um uh placements to be uh our needs and what have you. Uh happy to take questions. Um but uh does anybody have any questions for Aaron? If if I could just reiterate what what Mike and Howard [clears throat] said, um we we work very well together, Kristen and April and Aaron and myself, and this is just the start of the process that we're we're going through. Um we will continue to keep school committee updated as we we we
052go down this journey. Um it was a a successful one last year. We know there are going to be some challenges this year, some challenges that we don't even aware of, right? Um that the town spoke of as we are um that expenses that we're not aware of just yet and that we didn't budget for as well. Um, so those are all things that we yet to even foresee because it's only December early. Um, but we we we value the relationship working with both towns and we will make sure that continues throughout this year as well too and keep everyone informed. Um, it's really comforting that Kristen can pick up the phone, she knows to call me and talk about what things that are going on and so as well. So we cherish that relationship
053and we look forward to working with both towns as we go through this process. So thank you for that. Thanks for coming tonight as well too. If I can just close by saying um I I I I believe I said a town meeting in Berlin. I didn't speak at town meeting in Wellston, but um if anyone out there in the public anywhere here has questions, wants to just sit down and go over where these numbers come from, things like that, I'm happy to meet with anyone any time. Um, it's a policy of mine that, you know, we don't always get to every single pencil in here and we can't go to every single pencil, but we can sit down and get into the weeds if and I can start. >> Final questions from the committee
054to Aaron L. [clears throat] >> So, can I ask a clarification on excess deficiencies? Yeah. So is there any standard from the state that this is money that can be spent on both operating and capital or is it restricted to one or the other? Not restricted to one or the other. Um many school districts um use it for operations necessity sometimes. Um we do receive choice money. You can flip-flop those a little bit. It's at the end of the day when we reduce the budget we reduce the assessment. So whether we were using choice or we were using um PND, the goal would be to figure out what's a consistent amount we expect to be floating into each year and be able to not overspend that on a regular basis. >> So I would prefer
055to use it just for one capital follow >> be careful there. Let's be careful what conversation we get into. >> Yes. Yes. >> So at the state level, there's no rules or regulations around this. Does the Boils Berlin School District have any policies in place around how this money is spent? I'm referring to whether it's divided up between capital and operating. And the reason why I'm asking this question is that free cash means something very specific at the town level. State recommendations are not to use it for operating side. I mentioned that a moment ago and actually now has fiscal policies that says free cash is not to be used. >> I would like to recommend it's I mean I would like to not use it for um operating expenses. The reality is that we
056get into a position school choice as well. I mean that's another one where it really arguably should be used for oneoff expenses but our budgets are such that we can't function without spending some of them. >> It's a reality. >> Thank you. Thank you, Alen. Thank you, Aaron. All right, Aaron, you have something to tell us about surpluses. >> Sure. So, we have a memo before you that includes some surplus property that we would like to dispose of. Um, I won't get into detail on everything, but the net value is zero. Um, I actually put this memo started putting this memo together before realizing that the school committee does have a policy, policy DN um that allows the superintendent to approve disposition for surplus property valued at $2500 or less. So, in speaking with Al,
057we felt it best to bring this to the school committee and make you aware that we intend to um properly dispose of uh the surplus property. Uh by dispose, we don't mean throw into the trash. We mean to um offer it to other the towns, uh to other school districts, look at options to um reduce our environmental risk. um and provide something to either the community or um other school districts. As you know, we received furniture from Pittsburgh through the same process that helped us. So, we'd like to offer that if we could. Um we could recycle it or donate it, but at the end of the day, none of those work out. It may some of these items may have to end up in a dumpster. There's really not an option. So, uh any
058questions or if not that it doesn't require a vote. So, Anybody? >> All right, cool. >> Thank you, Aaron. >> All right, that's all you got? >> I'll get up and I think I'm back in a minute. >> Yeah, you're back in a minute with me. Yes. >> Thanks. >> Okay. Um, so a couple things. I'm going to go back. So, the first one on on my agenda is talk about public records request. Aaron, you want to I'll save you from walking all the way and having a seat before 95%. [laughter] I could have waited till he sat down, but I was just trying I fig I wouldn't go all the way. >> So, um >> so we just want to talk to you a little bit as as you're aware of our public records
059request that we've been receiving um that many districts and communities receive. Um but we want to present something to school committee that we'd like your input on in and a vote on as well too. Aaron. >> So, I guess, you know, this memo is an effort to um uh deal with something that I think we're hearing loud and clear and it's it's not a day of the week that ends in Y when we don't hear four or five times that we're not transparent about. Um, every school district hears them. So, we look at ways that we can be more transparent. recognize that we've had a number of public records requests this year. Um we've actually been asked for a lot of public records requests and open meeting law um items. So what we're proposing to
060do uh is to uh post that log on our website to include pertinent information to those public records requests as well as open meeting log uh items which are public records unto themselves. those those by nature are public records. Um all of the records that we would provide to those people requesting those material those items are public records by nature of them being part of a public records request. So we would just take a section of the website probably the public records section and just catalog those. Uh we're already maintaining all of that documentation in Google Drive folders. So the act of just posting those on the website is a click of a button. So it really this does not add significant work to our day. All right. And we have this on here. This
061is our only vote. So since you're here, why don't we uh get to this vote? >> Sure. >> You've got a recommendation here. So, could I please have a motion that the Boss Regional School Committee votes to affirm adding all public records requests and open meeting law claims including [clears throat] pertinent communications, responsive documents, and associated costs to the district website retroactive to July 1, 2025? >> So, moved. >> Lisa Beth, >> uh, anybody have any questions for Aaron or Al on this one >> or want to discuss it? Yes. So it's the request and then communications and then the documents for that request. >> Yeah. >> And all of that are public records by nature of the process itself. >> We we also figure if one person is asking for it, everyone else should
062have the ability to to know what people are asking and be able to share that information across. >> I I think I pointed out I don't ever get a request of a public and Jen can probably affirm this where they don't state it's in the public interest, right? So we're going to make it in the public interest. It's I mean it's it's transparency. It's public interest. Um I think it's fair to um to share that >> and there'll be some information that people might want to have knowledge too and others that might not mean not relevant to them at all, but we feel like everyone should be entitled to the same information. >> Sure. Anybody else? All right. Um all in favor? >> I. >> Anyone against it? All right. The motion passes. Thank you.
063>> So, we'll we'll start that um relatively soon. >> Thanks, Aaron. Thanks, Jen. >> Thank you. >> So, if I can just go back to my my report a little bit about the strategic plan. Um so, I think one of the things that um you heard loud and clear even during the superintendent final interviews is about having a completed strategic plan. That's that's a huge piece of um the the handoff to the new superintendent. Um, so our goal is to have a fully completed and executed strategic plan for the start of the 2026 school year. Um, our our our largest accomplishment is done and Lisa, like I said, um, in her new role doing in great work already um, is the strategic survey came back to us. So we're happy to say a little over
064400 people um, responded to that survey. Um, so now we're going through all that data and really looking at it. Um, that's a that's a huge amount of work. Um Lisa uh has been uh instrumental as well. She started getting the survey together with us and so she's helping us as well too organizing that information and getting it ready for our next um strategic plan meeting which I believe is December 17th um Thursday at 3:00 and we'll getting all that data, getting that information, getting feedback from all the community members. We thank the people that did respond um and we'll be getting that and and prepared and we'll be sharing that at our next school committee meeting as well too. Um, also I'd like to talk a little bit about um, as we we said
065earlier, John Campbell has announced his um, retirement. Um, so I posted officially today the position of Berlin Memorial um, principal. Um, I spoke with John and Jen and we reviewed it. Um, so that job went on school spring today. That will be open until um, December 29th. Um I have preliminary conversations with the the new um superintendent pending um signing his contract that we'll be working together on that. I think it's extremely important that he'll be involved with that process as well too. Um because he'll be hiring the the next person that they'll be working with as well too. But we also feel just like you did as a superintendent search, there's a lot of jobs that are coming out now for principal. So we want to be able to get there ahead of time
066during that Christmas break is a huge time right afterwards. It's sort of like that landmark and then everyone starts making their announcements a retirement similar to what you did with the superintendency we want to do with the principal ship. So um that's out and ready to go as well too. So uh that went officially out today. Um and and my last comment and I know Mike talked a little bit when I was um working with with Cece who came as our guest speaker is can't can't um tell you how proud we are again of our Super Bowl um uh team that went to Super Bowl. The kids did an incredible job. We should be extremely proud of them. Julie Lee as our athletic director did a did a great job managing all that, working with
067the athletic director from West Wilston, but kids were did a great job. They fought a hard fight. Um but the honor of them being, you know, on the field of Gillette Stadium where, you know, where the the games take place, seeing their pitches on the jumbotron, right? Having um you know, the owner of the Patriots speaking to them right on the jumbotron. was pretty impressive day for them and they were true champions the way they behaved. Um they they say the true measure of a champion is how they handled defeat, right? And certainly they did and I thank everyone for being there as well too. A lot of our our staff and school committee were there um to to join with them. We had a great breakfast from the Friday before we send off breakfast
068that was really nice for them and we'll recognize them at a pre uh next school committee meeting to come in because they're still champions in our eyes. Making it all the way to to the to the championship is huge as well too. So they are definitely student scholars um student athletes and we need to [clears throat] recogn recognize them as well too. Um and I think that is it for me. >> You sure? >> Yes, that is it. I was sort of broken up with and but yes, that's it for me at this time. >> All right, cool. Thank you. Uh so you'll notice we don't have subcommittee updates on the agenda. It's not because we're taking them off the agenda. There just were no meetings since our last meeting except for the budget subcommittee.
069But tonight's Aaron's presentation was all about budget, so wasn't necessary. Uh, that takes care of that. Um, we've already done our vote. We do have a second public comment if anyone would like to make a second public comment on here. Okay, you guys. No. Okay. Uh, fair enough. Future agenda items. Anybody have a suggestion? >> Um, just one one thing. Um, I think you are on an email from David Marzo. Um, they're trying to form a capital planning committee in Boilston. I think they need a vote for either Li, Jessica, or I to be on. They need one. I think your email address was the wrong Li. >> Yeah, Jessica tried to correct it. >> Do you have a date on when they need that to >> It says they're commencing in January. I mean,
070I don't want to ask Howard any questions. Um but >> let's put on the next agenda then. >> We're going to have to. Yeah, because it's not on this agenda, but I I think we need to vote on someone to be on that um committee. They they want one school committee rep to sit on that committee. Out of the three of you, does anyone have their heart set on it? >> I mean, I'm fine doing it because Jess is doing the um >> We don't have a planner, so there's no master plan. >> Master committee right now. So, >> I mean, I don't know if you did. You want to do it, Li? Or >> I'm I'm good to do it. >> Okay. I mean, I'm happy to do it. >> I don't want to
071do it. >> No, no, no. I know. >> I feel like I have the lightest load on this, so I'm happy to do it unless Jess wants it. >> Are you sure, Jess? Yeah. Okay. It's not on the agenda. But Megan, why don't you go to the meeting? >> Yeah, if it's before our meeting. >> Yeah. >> And then we can vote on the next one. >> Yeah, we'll vote on it then. But Sounds good. Okay. Um if there's nothing else, uh may I have a motion, please, to enter executive session. We will not return to open session after this. Uh but we will go into executive session. Executive session pursuant to mass general law chapter 3A section 21A purpose 3 to discuss strategy with respect to collective bargaining BBRSD custodial staff teams local 170
072if an open meeting may have a detrimental effect on the bargaining position of the public body and the chair so declares also to enter executive session pursuant to mass general laws chapter 38 section 21A purpose two to conduct strategy session in preparation for negotiations with non-union personnel and to conduct contract negotiations ions with non non-union personnel superintendent of schools. >> Second. >> Lisa can have the move. >> Lisa Lori. Excellent. Uh this is for the contract with the custodians and for the uh new superintendent. L uh Megan. >> I Lisa. Hi. >> Beth. Hi. >> Lori. Hi. >> Jess. Hi. >> Okay. The motion passes. We will enter executive session and not return to open session. Thank you everybody.