001you're having fun you are live we're live right okay good afternoon iting all right guys we gotta be quiet down just a reminder that this meeting is being recorded your image and your voice may be brought let's please stand for the Pledge of Allegiance I flag uned States indivisible andice so the way we're gonna run tonight is we have one hour we are going to stop at 5:00 pm because there are multiple people on both committees that need to leave right at 5 um and we have a few topics we want to make sure that we cover so I am going to start with public comment if you would like to make a public comment you will have three minutes to speak and then unfortunately I'll have to go on to the next person is
002there anyone here that would like to make a public comment all right great did anyone have any Communications they wanted to share before we get started we need more than an hour yeah okay we do not have a consent agenda to approv so we're going to just get right into it um so first off I greatly appreciate everybody in this room arranging their schedule on a Friday afternoon to come out and have this open honest conversation it is greatly appreciated um I think there's two things I'd like to accomplish tonight the first is to discuss process and protocol for what's next we had a budget it was voted down in one town it was approved in another town we are a Regional School District what happens next um so we're going to talk about that
003and then the second thing is um I I have seen many emails and Facebook posts and questions from people about wanting more clarification about the budget so I've tried to summarize simplify things and if we have time I'd like to I have a little spreadsheet I put up maybe we can put it up on the on the projector and if we have time we can take a look at that okay um but first I wanted to just go over what's next what happened um Mike did you want to get a start on that or do you want me to I can do that make it sure thanks Mike so I prepared a little script just to save time kind of go off of it but based on all the confusion and questions that we've received
004like Megan mentioned a lot of information that's floating around online uh people not understanding having questions um too much confusion so first thing I want to say is there is a Time component to this there's a calendar there are certain number of days there are certain dates that we'd like to hit and talk about um the first date is the June 15th date uh and not to get into too much about that Carol and John have brought that up before but there is requirement to send notices around to teachers by that date uh and don't construe or misconstrue my words that does not mean if nothing happens by then that every teacher is gonna get a notice that something is going to happen it's just that is contractual dat Carol would probably speak better to
005that uh but we would like to keep that date in mind um so the way the regional budget process works is the school committee talks with the administration figures out what the schools need to operate votes on a budget sends that budget to both towns both towns then hold the town meeting they vote on that budget if it passes it passes if it does not pass we we go to what I'm going to refer to as step two in the process this is all available on the state's website there um you can Google it uh we do have something if we can put something on the slide on the screen it's the mass legislature website Department of Education website it's I'm reading directly from those websites uh step two would be the budget then goes
006back to the school committee to reconsider that happened Tuesday night this past Tuesday it was reconsidered we decided to come up with this meeting here as well to talk about it but that did happen on Tuesday so the next Pro the next step of the process is that the towns will then have a new or another meeting to vote on that budget again um depending on what happens at that meeting or that vote if it passes both towns both towns must pass it then it's passed we move on like we normally would if it does not pass at that step two stage we go to what we or I'll refer to as step three which is a district meeting a districtwide meeting I'm sorry uh and reading directly from the site the Regional School District
007committee shall convene a special districtwide meeting open to all registered voters in both municipalities at which the amended School Regional School District budget proposed by the district committee shall be considered that step three if that doesn't happen then the state does step in and do what they call a 112th budget meaning they will say you're gonna start with one 12th of last year's approved amount and that's going to be your budget until you can come up with another agreement that gives us until December at December uh the state steps in completely and you can read about it there on that website it's long I've summarized several Pages worth and as quickly as I can so I can save time later on for discussion but that is the long and short of it that's what we've
008been following that's what we're intending to follow and Megan I don't want to speak for the committee but I know that we would love to be able to move this along as quickly as possible so that everybody can come to resolution so that's what I have to say about that yeah so with that being said um just for the finance committee because I feel like and for everyone else in this room I feel like things mve really quickly you guys were still at your town meeting school committee already had a scheduled meeting and what I had done preemptively was I had had on the our agenda ahead of time in case the budget failed in Berlin a budget discussion on our agenda for uh was it Tuesday May 7th correct yep so we had that
009on our agenda the budget failed in Berlin so we did talk on Tuesday May 7th the committee did vote on a budget and what we voted on was to keep everything the same except we removed from Capital the entire $400,000 for the hbac so the amount of the capital budget um let me find that instead of 543 132 it would be 143 132 okay so we decided you know we're going to take the HVAC out and the other thing we had um talked about about the HVAC is that that's probably something that if the town wants to they can handle as part of the lease uh the new lease that we had um there was a a gentleman here from the town of burlin that I guess Dan got a quote from to install an
010track system in the to install Min splits in the school so I think uh at this time if the town wants to work with him that's something you guys would have to vote I guess special town meeting use um your free cash but he has a an updated quote I think it was about $300,000 and there's rebates in the amount of between 25 to 50% that was something we discussed Tuesday but that would be um something that the town and the schools can talk about down the road but we' removed that from the budget okay okay can I make one quick clarification again um so in the lease the town's required to fund it but the lesie actually implements it okay so we can talk about that down yeah for sure yeah yeah I think
011that's something though that we would have to work together on and we're just trying to keep that we'll move that out for now um so a few things just a few points I wanted to make and then I would like to to get your take on um when you were thinking to schedule this town meeting or if you and and I'm saying you as in the finance committee and select board and um Town Administrator that are here have any questions um so so all right okay so I attempted to try to summarize um the budget this is the expenses it's not going to tie to the assessment all right um so a few things a few points I want to make first off in February when we um came forth with our original budget in
012Berlin for Berlin Memorial that amount was 5,4 $2 4,319 so sorry Megan that's not this is not legible could you uh yeah yeah I know I'm sorry um sorry Mary yeah let me just do one thing quick so we call ourself into order here so just call the order for the Berlin finance committee meeting okay you see now little better no bigger bigger that's that's uh better yet if you're just looking at one of the squares at a time it should be fine do we want to shift right some we got two more seats here no that's fine thank you um let's look the total so the total the total expense that the school committee voted on this burin Memorial only is 5,771 184 in February the budget that we had originally or that the
013the district had originally brought forth to the school committee was 5,424 319 so we have cut from Berlin Memorial $247,500 to make those uh buttons disappear at the top and then you can see the whole thing interest time just pass all the way to the right in the navigation bar I was just GNA do that is that better no see the whole thing no the carrot all the way on the right navigation bar just gonna have to go back all right so let me just make these Point there's just a few points and then I want to open it to questions what we're going to do is hopefully next week we're going to be able to have um I literally we I literally have spent the past 48 hours working on this so this is
014this is this is we've been working very quickly trying to get this out this week we are not prepared anything to do handouts tonight but that's not to say that we won't be prepared next week um so from Taho totals at Tanto this year our to the total expense that the school committee voted on at Tanto is 12,139 72 originally in February when we were first uh presented with this budget it was $1,787 616 we did cut from toono so the district has in good faith tried to make some cuts a few things that we cut were a floating nurse a school resource officer a grounds maintenance um employee a math tutor at Berlin Memorial a PA professional for kindergarten at Berlin Memorial a special education teacher at tono who our um PUO Personnel director
015very felt very strongly we needed um and a preschool evaluation program that was about $330,000 so we did make those cuts um we've also applied in of our cash 100,000 of school choice money to the Berlin budget I know that was not clear ahead of time there is a slide I can show you on that I don't even want to go to it in the interest of time it's buried in that budget presentation we also applied $694,000 of our school choice cash to the Tanto budget so it is in there and it may not have been clear um so that being said I can only speak for myself while the committee voted on this budget and the committee feels that this is a fair budget to run the district this is a budget that was
016put forth by the principles and the superintendent of schools it was worked on by the Director of Finance there was input from Personnel at each School uh this is not something that the school committee just added things to along the way and the committee feels strongly that that this is the budget um that we need this year to make the schools to run we've learned a lot of lessons along way I think next year the um both towns were very different what approach worked in Boon did not work in Berlin and we need to do things differently next year and I can commit to that that being said did you have anything you want any questions or I have one thiger question maybe slide over to the BMS side yeah so so one of the
017other PE I mean one of the other caveats know besides talking about know the 3 3 number is another number is 350,000 yes so part of the agreement on that at that time was it wasn't just 383,000 that was being allocated for the the exposure to the L District special education it was an additional $350,000 it was mixture of additional uh U circuit breaker funds and also school choice funds it was all scho yeah so you you were lucky I mean it was a number well overall it was over $700,000 you are correct correct so I no obviously we understand things that left district there was additional three employee hires but how is this how is that $700,000 expended was was the circuit breaker and school choice funds not needed and not expended and then
018therefore could be applied toward this year because we're talking I know some people are just talking about that 383,000 number but it really is over $700,000 yeah and I'm not sure if we're going to have an answer to that tonight but but this is really why I want to get to is there was that additional funds that the school funds that were applied to it that were those also or are those also being expended in this fiscal year because like say I just want to point out that the numbers we're talking about wasn't just 383,000 it was uh over 700,000 okay so first off um we so we haven't audited our fin we haven't closed the Euro so if there is a deficit what I'm sorry if there is an excess meaning there's a profit
019for us you know in business folks if there is extra money at the end of the year then usually what the district does is they will apply it to something for the following year we haven't closed our year out so I don't know if there is going to be an an excess right what I can say is that during the year what the committee did vote to do was and you'll see right here this line right here is the sped the special education okay so we had that includes the out of District the placements I believe a good chump of the money was applied to that okay um what happened was there were some children that were out of District they ended up leaving the community so we did have some savings what the committee
020voted to do was to start a Bridges program at Berlin Memorial and what this program does is it allow we had a higher Personnel so that's where you see that increase right here sorry Megan are there minutes on that vote are there posted minutes yeah yes there are Mary um I do you know what date you know what I it was June was it June last June I went through all the meetings yeah it could have been June because I believe it was December I didn't find it sorry Jessica so you think that vote was June of 23 we I know we talked about the bridges program in June so we talk about it in June 23 all right and and it was um circuit breaker that was applying to that yeah because I I
021went through all the minutes of this past weekend I went through everything was posted there for the open me the your regular meetings and also all the budget meetings and I could not find anything about discussion on that or the vote that's being mentioned on the bridges program now again there was absolutely a vote the bridg could be issue is you're using the word Bridges because I was looking for special education no Bridges it was Bridges but that's where I was looking uh for I mean if it's nothing is there no mention of special education in there or sped or is it just Bridges your only if you're looking at the minutes it's probably listed under the bridges program but we would not that term would not have come up I believe John presented it
022it was probably before I was chair so you guys are probably right it was probably sometime either like just said in June or in the fall we didn't meet during the summer um I know John Campbell presented it to us in partnership with Janelle but we talked about the bridges program I want asked where we would have the money to fund it you know without saying too much Nancy implied that we did have some Savings in that special education out of District bucket that she could apply to that what we do is we vote budget transfers super complicated there was a spreadsheet we just voted budget transfers what month was that well Megan if I may yeah Carol just said it was in June June 2 2023 um and it was brought forward by Janelle
023Fitzpatrick the director so the vote was made in June yeah I didn't find anything in December so it was in June sorry when it was brought up and and if we mentioned this on Tuesday but I know you have the time meeting as well so you know children that need special education are are our district children and they deserve to have education in our district with their Trends but if you're to look at at a purely Financial State Janelle on Tuesday said approximately 85,000 for out of District placement so if if you look at the cost of five district out of placement versus keeping them inous in the bridges program it is a and now with the Trans Transportation cost exponentially increasing for just one run um it was an a worthy investment and I
024think at that time we should have extended that decision to you and and so for that you know that was an oversight not intentional um but it it is a good program to keep the children within the district to give them education with their peers in which they can then go to the specials with their friends as well to be integrated um but it it is a good financial decision from the information that we learned back in June and and it is a program that was originally started in 200 18 I think in Boon and then the expansion to bur yeah so and maybe we would shouldn't have or we wouldn't have discussed it at that time but I agree that during the budget process we should have uh explained more clearly um and I
025think um you know that this is where that money is being used now yes further question is did this was this program set up at the start of that the school year and avoided any of those out District special education tuition or there was some that had still be expended no I think I did read the minutes today so but they did have some out of districts in the fall right I can't speak to that but I know the discussion in June was we had some incoming children that were going to need significant and likely out of District placement um and so that's why it was recommended at that time to try to capture the children and keep them oh yeah you're right yeah you're right yeah so I can't tell you that there was
026no out of District plate from those there was there was an out of there were some out of districts that also left the district in December and I think that's where we're we got confused right Carol and without we really can't go into too much detail but there two separate things we voted on the bridges program in an attempt to save money because we knew we were applying one times funds for that and we knew we wanted to try to keep as many children not just for monetary reasons but because honest to God it's the right thing to do for these kids um you know and then that happened and then we had some out of District placements that I believe ended up leaving the district for one reason or another so that's why you
027will see the savings right here right here and then the additional the salaries right there is the um now we did we what happens is we vote on these budget transfers throughout the year so what happens is when when the Director of Finance needs to transfer money if you know whatever District Operations is going on and he or she sees Savings in one aspect and a need somewhere else um money we the committee can vote on these transfers Megan if I might just clarify back maybe to Jessica did I hear that the funding source in in June of 2023 when the decision was made so that the funding source was circuit breaker money from the state did I hear that for the minutes for the minutes okay so that's not the free cash from Berlin
028that was the onetime emergency fund circuit breaker money and and I'm assuming that would have been emergency circuit breaker for same year funding because of the uh significant increase in the special education demand last year I may you don't know I mean I don't want too far so I I think also what we're in transition with our finance um consultant director um and so that has caused some difficulty in this current situation that that's fine we can run it down later thank you yeah that's that's a huge Point Jess thanks for saying that school committee does not have access to the general ledger right so I had some spreadsheets I was able to kind of piece this together I sat with Carol this morning for a couple hours Julie and I sat together we went
029over notes that were NY this is not typically something a school Committee Member would do usually that level of details provided by the finance director because we're not making those journal entries so the director can say I'm gonna use you know cash whatever circuit breaker funds and it could have been school choice funds I have no idea what funds were used um but without seeing the accounting it's very hard to answer that question accurately yeah so reason I come like with the circuit breaker so in this year's uh budget breakdown on page 16 it indicated the allocation of the circuit breaker to bur BMS in that was appli the budget was just under $100,000 96,000 E6 but the actual vote that was done before by the school committee just before I think it was April
030of last year when the uh agreement came up with BMS it was indicated that 275,000 had been at to the BMS budget an additional 125,000 was added and it was voted for another 400,000 but the uh know in here it indicates that in know we're talking about uh which actually a different slide just me add the computer that's um H I know what it was are you talking circuit breaker or school choice we're talking about circuit breaker okay I have this SL the circuit breaker funding sources or um I think that she had an assessment calculation in here that shows the circuit breaker yeah I'm looking for what was FY 24 is that actually showing FY 25 interest time answer yeah that's great yeah I'm not expecting necessarily be able to get I understand talking
031Carol that you have somebody coming in finance person next Consulting to know help us get a better understanding of the numbers but that's one of the key pieces to understand here because I know even I see know an individual that's trying to dive into the details of the budget know it has even know come out know using the 383 number and we know that there was a whole thing that there was another 350,000 on that and trying to understand is like well how much was expended of this no we're talking about this Bridges programing I mean you're saying it was I mean are you say it was this thing cost $700,000 or is which I think you're right it is less but how much less and kind of X where understanding is know what can
032you know were those funds truly transfer erred from your circuit breaker account from the school choice account considering now that we know that they were set up literally a month after the uh town meeting and what are the balances in those accounts because obviously there seems to be a lot of money that's a lot of money that's going to roll over but it's now waiting possibly waiting another year so I think I would get an understanding of those funds because that's obviously a huge part of closing this Gap if anything could be allocated for this coming fiscal year as opposed to what was not being used in the present budget so so in the fall we had um car has a mentor and from the Massachusetts Associates of uh superintendent Regional Schools Mars um and
033so that because we don't get a lot of this data till a so late within the financial season they advise us to to shift everything and so that's why it appears that we were withholding data but we were advised to to not because then that guest AIT is not going to be accurate and so I think we learned this year that that timeline was not effective um and so that we're going to try to do more guests like when you went to I think the finance committee meeting in October December yeah in December Julie and I did yeah we attended we gave a we only had an above level we didn't have have a level Services budget and the request is to gr a level Services budget which was a fair request I think we
034had a capital budget as well and Kristen right along had explained to us about the free cash and the amount that they had we knew that um the amount of free cash probably would not cover everything we needed in capital we did make significant cuts out of the Tanto budget I think the capital budget at Tanto we had uh renovations to the auditorium in there um we had substantial field Renovations I think we had a new track in there so we did remove that um in in an attempt to try to bring it down we felt strongly about the HVAC because some of the classrooms in BMS do get into the 90s on those warm days um on the second floor so um we tried to keep that in there and at the time when
035the school committee had voted the quote we had or the estimate we had which was not in writing and again that's uh you know we acknowledge that would have been better to have this other quote that we now have um had said it was going to be about $400,000 so that was the estimate we had included in the capital budget in Berlin at the time when the school committee voted and as you know once the committee votes even if data changes it's it's you can't just change it because it was less than 45 days before town meeting so that was what was put for um obviously if there was extra cash we would have applied it to um an upcoming year or we would have you know had a deal with the town where we
036were able to use it on another Capital Improvement on building right um so going back to the school choice so this year we we did apply $100,000 of school choice funds to the um to the Berlin Memorial budget and almost $700,000 of school choice funds to Tanto uh so personally I do not know that we can apply anymore at this time that is a dwindling account it is oh yeah so I actually have a slide on that real quick and then I do want to switch gears sorry I don't know um so our school choice is set to be depleted here it is in burlin Memorial we will have nothing in school choice in two years Berlin does not Berlin Memorial does not have space for school choice kids I see a comment on Facebook
037somebody said well something about school choice John I how many school choice kids do you have right now six or seven okay and those were grandfathered in we have at least for the past two or three years we have not had any new school choice kids so this those kids are probably third or fourth grade and they're you know once they're out Berlin Memorial will not have any school choice kids so we're not getting any new Revenue as you can see in next year fiscal 26 we're going to have it's 5,000 a kid so we'll have one school choice K in Berlin Memorial that's it um you know similar situation in um boyon Elementary tant as you see you're over year 718 ending balance and fiscal 25 fiscal 26 524 by fiscal 27 only have
038$200,000 left in school choice so our school choice is dwindling and we acknowledge we have an issue with that and we need to fix that so that's why right now um you know my opinion as an individual is that I I cannot vote to apply more cash to this budget right now uh especially without um a current director of Finance to advise us on the application of that so I just I don't think that is the possibility unfortunately because this is the question the concern here is because we know the large number up there of like five I think it's 505 or something on FY 24 that was the expense T is no a big piece of that was the bumping that up uh to basically uh handle that agreement so I mean what I'm
039being concerned with here is if we're saying that we're we have a significant amount um of money that's just going to be hanging out there that's not going to be expended inway 24 that we can't used to FY 25 I mean that's what it's starting to look like I mean because one of the reasons we know worked with the process last year was to try and prevent a huge Spate in the the property tax uh thing and I just know want to find out is are we really just out of luck and basically everybody's you know you're looking to push up a huge Spike and then next year where are those funds coming back and will they come back do they can can hopefully smooth out that Spike because said there's know the total sum
040we're talking about is $700,000 not 383 yeah right so it's really important to understand where all that money is going and if it's or if it's even being expended elsewhere I mean I don't know if there's other things I like said we weren't aware of these know three additional positions that were added but is there where else you know is that money going to roll over somehow or is it you say or is it being spent in some other way so one other thing and then I do want to Shi ears um because we have 20 minutes left I I'm not 100% sure so maybe I shouldn't say this the principle of there were some expenses at Tanto that I think Berlin had to cover last year that was part of that deal so it
041wasn't just for Berlin Memorial I believe we added an assistant principal at Tanto and we had to add a BCP which was um uh is another special education position um so we added those two positions and I believe that 700,000 helped to fund those positions well it was uh I have the numbers here that was additional funds allocated for uh Tanto from the school choice at least from the Berlin side of the assessment total 7,328 so I think it was probably going to be like 14,000 must have been about low over 21,00 22,000 total that was allocated to Hanto yeah so it was really small compared to those other numbers a funny thing about school choice is that we learned that you don't actually it's all actually it's only one bucket for the district and
042you actually don't have to allocate it by school you can use it as one bucket you can as long as the committee votes you can use it for different things at different schools so I don't know without I don't know how that was applied I'm just I can't answer that I wish I could um it's a good question should we talk about the rest of the budget the items that are standing out the increases you want to go back to those increases Mike because if we look at the total budget all right forgetting all the accounting debits and credits the total budget is actually down compared to last year mostly because of the special ed situation and hiring and starting the bridg program when we look the assessment which the difference between the budget the
0435.1 the assessment of 4.5 that's the difference there is you know what the state funding comes in and what the expenses this year on a net basis show that they're down the 2% yes the assessment when you look at the assessment compared to last year after using that cash to bring down that one time yes this year is higher but when you compare the original assessment that was voted approved it was actually 4.6 right that's what the assessment was before we applied $350,000 school choice money and 82715 of free cash from the town of Berlin the assessment last year was 4.6 million that's for burlin Memorial so on a total basis it's actually you know it shows on the other side I think the 106,000 is 2% lower this year yeah the assessment because of
044that cash you don't use cash to fund you're operating every year it's you know hopefully trying to cut out these big surprises emergency situations what whatever it might be same reason you would dip into your savings account in your household to to cover things but it's it as Carol and John and Lisa mentioned on Tuesday the numbers we're working with are devastating to to the towns if we don't do this the the fluctuations in the other District spending the transportation costs it's unpredictable like we mentioned you know at the end of last year at the last minute last year yeah there's a million dollars new cost coming in and within a few months after the fact that you know it goes away and it's out there next year who knows what's going to happen you
045just don't know the transportation alone I talking to Janelle today this year for one ride basically that that one ride could be one student it could be multiple students within that ride it doesn't it depends on the where they're going where they're coming from that one ride this year is $63,000 for the year give or take next year it's going to be 144,000 per ride there's nothing we can do about that that's inflation that's just the cost that they're passing on to us so it's not a simple number of okay we have X number of kids so that's x times 144,000 it's not that simple but it is a lot of money it's standing out here and the transportation is going up yeah this is other you know other increases um professional development everybody talks
046about we want to develop our teachers we want to provide them every opportunity they have to to learn new Styles and everything that goes along with professional Bel we're taking out almost $112,000 from from them from the teachers already in the number that we put forward um yes salaries going up because they they get raises every year that's steps and contract contract is 3% and then steps for those that are not teachers out there when they get a degree or even just an extra year of experience they get a step increase that does not that's not included in that 3% so they get a 3% plus a step increase you know supplies 4% reasonable supplies I mean the reason I didn't vote for the budget in in March was because of supplies but that didn't
047go through but we're still down 100 bucks in supplies I mean that's amazing with you know if you've been to Target or the grocery store lately that we could spend less on supplies for next year I don't know how that happen because they started ordering the paper in bulk which was a significant saving yeah that's exactly right so I struggle what else we can do here knowing that we're spending less because of the change in our special education situation even though individual items are more or less than last year yes the assessment as presented at the town meeting is higher because we used a cash balance to pay that down a little bit last year if we had not done that it was projected at 4.6 million and this year is only 4.5 so I
048don't know I'm I'm struggling to know what to do to get anything else out of here great I that was I think what we had talked about in March when we looked at this budget what else can we cut and I mean that really was the thing we started uh we had a joint Forum in October I think it was October 24th right guys we all sat together we knew we were G to have issues we knew we knew and when I say issues I don't mean personal issues I mean we knew that everybody's faced with inflation we know that the revenue Source in Berlin we've talked about this Kristen Solomon Pond Mall was a huge Revenue Source stuff's going on with that there's not a lot of commercial development in these towns we're small
049towns we've looked at growth from the tax base there's not a ton of growth either bur Boon or Berlin so we knew our Revenue sources are getting smaller and smaller we know the state aid you know it's it's not as good as we need right it doesn't cover 100% of the mandated expenses so we're left to pick up the Gap and unfortunately you know we're faced with this problem and that's why I think we went to town meeting at least myself going into town meeting thinking okay voters it's in your hands you decide what you want for your community what you want to spend your money on um and I I still we have another town meeting in Berlin and that's what I really hope happens um is that people come out and they they
050decide I loved hearing everybody's point of view we need to be more positive and less negative and focus on the actual issues but that's why we put it to town meeting the schools need this the town's trying save taxpayers money and this is the Dilemma we're in we're not going to solve this problem just us it's a whole Berlin boil problem yeah so you've reduced the special education budget by 500,000 but you've increased in other areas and I know we don't want to talk about the 383 but it's the literal Crux of the issue yes that was supposed to carry us over for one year until the reimbursement came in now you're saying you have the bridges program which is fantastic and created a savings why is that savings not being rolled into special education
051stabilization fund so you can put that money towards future years the other issue I think you're facing is you have Esser grants that have ended and schools around the state are facing this where Staffing was brought in through Esser through a three-year Grant and those staff members are trying to be kept on which I understand there are needs for that but the problem is that burden can't be shifted to the towns so there's a couple different things going on and I trust me I understand the need and you have to take the personalities out of it and the personal feelings out of it I have five autistic people in my family including my husband this is not about the need we know it's there it's huge you want people to be integrated as my godchildren
052are into leester public schools but this is just about the numbers we had a $732,000 deficit last year and we put onetime money in to cover it in understanding that that would be reimbursed in fy2 and we were told those kid the the children needed to be out of District when there was a savings that was created by creating an IND District program that savings should not have gone to other things it should have been put aside for future special education stabilization funding needs and I think that's where a lot of us are struggling so I I think there's two different things happening so I think the bridges were created because there was some incoming children separate from the late edition after the meeting family so so I think the the bridges we were seeing
053that the costs were going to go up for that those particular cohort of kids and so the bridges save that particular but you might not have seen it because those costs weren't yet there um and I think the the family cost is a totally separate thing so the bridges was to prevent those even more costs in above and beyond okay okay one thing is we never heard about the bridges program till this week and in the past the practice has been that the finance director or someone would call the town and say we're going to use this money for something different is that okay nobody did that go ahead Carol you acknowledge that I that's what we had you know someone had asked can we use such and such a money for this other thing
054because we don't need it for this y but we need it for something else right no one no one let me know about it any so Carol I want you to speak but first what happens if um so let's say there's a savings like we're if we have a if we have a savings at the end of this year I mean are we supposed to go back to the towns and say we have this much savings what do you want us to do with it or should it be the superintendent you just want to be informed is what you're saying it's that specific money yes okay I understand and I I think that's fair and I completely agree and I assume and I don't watch all the recordings for fincom so I shouldn't assume that
055you guys watch all the recordings for school committee and I think that's fair and I absolutely think that the community we met Chris Chris we've met Chris we should have just talked about that I don't even know why we didn't I I'm learning about this all now I think that maybe the Director of Finance knew about it and it just wasn't communicated properly Carol did you want to say something I do I'm sorry to the audience we can't have public phone right now sorry okay two things so the I just want to bring attention to the first the Esra accounts which have all been spent down so we were fortunate in that way that we didn't use apply that money for salaries the way other districts because Millions we we didn't get that kind of
056pot we try to put it toward needs that we knew that when when those funds were depleted we weren't getting anymore we didn't have to worry about problem no ongoing Staffing correct did not the area we were trying to get and I think we the only thing we increased in was I believe a04 for a social um coun in Boon but it was in we were cautious about that because that did happen in many districts you're abely right and they are struggling because of that as well pulling Services which is what we didn't want to put ourselves in that situation so just to mention that the other thing to say I want to acknowledge and give John into this part of the conversation but then we keep going back to that topic Janelle and on
057worked very hard today and chel was working with the CPAC organization to create a document that would break down the expenses that were used for again for the bridges program I can read those numbers to you but I can send you this document as well and John I don't know if you want to add on to anything I'm saying but to give you an idea of like we think we're going to spend this much but it actually becomes that much more um because it's ongoing children come in children go out sure um cost so just to give give everybody in the audience an idea so the out of District tuition and transportation for students have moved out of Berlin during 2324 the expense was 122,000 the bridges classroom staff this is Teachers power professional supplies
058and the pment um I'm sorry so let me just go back a second to the other the number I just gave you that was not an ongoing expense because that number came out as students left that sense they down District but the cost of running the program is $174,100 annually the disc out of District tuition and transportation for students who have moved into Berlin in the 2023 24 school year was $1 15891 the par professional support for students who have moved into Berlin in 2324 is $125,000 because the number of students have one to one Services as whether so professionals additional instructional materials equipment and related services for students who moved into Berlin in 23 24th school year was approximately $226,700 so I didn't get a chance to do the total of it John I
059don't know if you have total of it it is more than the total number talking General look for what have we SP kind of over the the the the other piece of that too that we're not saying here is that's still less than aost for for students to go out of District so we're saving we're spending it and we're saving it at the same time it's EAS so it was all spent is what you're saying it was all it was goes back to Chris's point about let know that were you applying it to special education cost in that program and I would say overall the town does not expect to know what you have a surplus and you spend it on but that was emergency funding that it came in in March and we Str
060Ed to find that money we took money away from other things that we needed on the town side to provide that to the schools because we understood the importance of providing those services and so without seeing it all mapped out it looks like it just got absorbed into the budget and carried over to fy2 so I think it's more about getting that information so we can understand it because otherwise it just doesn't make sense it goes back into the communication around that in the town and and the department our department working more closely with you I'll I'll send this along to you I mean it's a whole thing that just in a one page outlin those costs and what we did John I don't know if you want to add to because I know you
061would to know if you want to add you got two minutes because I got to say one more thing and then I'm gonna adj John my time limit John loves time limits John liit you know I I think I just want to say and I've been just sitting here listening and I think one of the things we're all struggling with is a lack of concrete specific information things look like this but they might really be bad things you know we gave this much money but where did it go and I think part of what we're struggling with as a as a school district is you know nobody to tell us the answer to some of these questions um and as a result I think that you know some of that trust has been lost you
062know some of the people sitting on the other side of the room I've known for a long time and this isn't change from how we usually operate part of it structural and we're just getting used to being a Regional School System part of it is the change in our town you know there are children coming to our schools now we need a great deal more than they did even when I started here 11 years ago you know my son has my son goes to college and their motto is those who come here belong here and that's what we try to do with every child who lives in this town no matter their need they come to us we do what we can for them and I I think that we're better at them part quite
063frankly right now then we are at the word at all the M Go part and I think that when this will help a little bit I think that you're right Megan we need somebody who can actually read numbers um and understands how things go because we've used so many different numbers and I think we're all kind of like is it this number is it that number um we have to keep moving forward with this and we have to thank you Carol for saying it first start to reestablish some meaningful communication yeah John can I just add to one thing you said um the concrete information is what we need yeah and we had asked a long time ago for a level Services budget I know and we still wanted I thought that was I thought
064that was sent you Chris I no just so it's on record I would also like to request for my board and I think the fincom will benefit also is line a budget for fy2 and a line item budget for FY 25 not a powerpo a line item budget I think I I think I did that for you right here I'm not every single line looking for right here I think we can share that we do not have that but that was something I worked on so we're talking we're talking the socks that you give to kids for sports we're talking everything everything should be in the line item it is but it's by account so you're not gonna have uh Judy's socks Richie's socks uniforms that no okay yeah so the last thing I want
065to say I really want to be respectful I know people it's Friday so um this is great I'm I'm feeling really positive about this I'm really excited and I'm moving over here because I want to make sure my voice is on the mic I didn't have mic over there um for anyone that's watching on on camera um so we have to have this other town meeting um we obviously want to do it and make sure things are done well before June 15th because we don't want to get into a situation where Carol has to have an awkward conversation or make a decision that doesn't need to be made with the teachers according to their contract you know June 15th is kind of the cut off that she has to notify teachers by if any changes
066are going to be made for the next fiscal year which starts on July 1 for our district um so I'm really hoping that we can settle on a date for town meeting I know we're planning to get you the um the assessments information first yep that that's gonna I'm going to hand deliver that to you on Monday our Treasurer will be in on Monday Joe Michael back will be in on Monday to sign those um and I can bring it over one of us can just bring it right over so we don't have to wait on the mail um you will have that Monday so do you want to wait until then um we're okay we're really hoping sometime in May as we know many people are on vacation in June and in the spirit
067of trying to get as many folks out there to have their voices be heard um I think that would be great I don't know that Mak can happen and only because of our bylaws require 14 days posting and they the warrants have to be mailed to everyone in town 14 days in advance and so they have to go to the printer 10 days in advance of that so if you back that time out yeah and we also have to have the select board vote to set a town meeting open the meeting and they're not set to meet till the 20th so we have there we just need your letter and we need to work on the dates and have that is there any chance you could speed that timeline up for the benefit of everyone
068here teachers releas yeah once you have one day you can still set a date a week two weeks several weeks whatever the number of days is out so everyone knows what that Daye will be you'll have the information Monday we're promising absolutely Monday he's in at 10: a.m. Carol tells me I'll get in the car and drive it as soon as he signs it I'll have the documents done over the weekend you're saying you you're even going to meet to discuss it until the 20th is there correct any possible chance you would be able to move that up um I don't know we talk about we have a election everyone's anxiety teachers anxiety students anxiety parents anxiety I mean that us to June 5 even if we could do that first week in June I'm
069I'm just thinking rather than you know the third or fourth week in June when everyone's on we could even try for I I understand what you're saying you're going to follow your process but when you're thinking about it first week of June the last week of May it's a town bylaw it's a town bylaw no it's not that we want days yeah 24 days puts us around June 5th but if you can't decide that till June 20th and you need 14 days from then yeah so yeah all right just throwing that out there you'll have it on Monday and um Monday the 20th is your select board meeting then we'll probably have a discussion Kristen and I absolutely decide if we're going to be able to you know be able to have a meeting before
070the 20th okay great keep me posted all right and that would be great Megan if I might just addressing that point about anxiety the the town of Berlin approved the budget the schools have a budget it's in it's the power the school committee has the power right now it's in the school committee's hands whether to go with that or not I just want to point that out there that there is a budget that's been approved the town has agreed to it um and the other thing I want to compliment the people sitting here from the school district you know principles Carol and so on again to help the parents with understanding how I'm looking at this our little school district is in the top quartile 30% in the state for two things performance ranking and
071funding so I I just want to calm the waters a little bit and and say to people we are doing okay please try to you know be calm about that and we need a we need a transparent process because we can't ask the residents the taxpayers of Berlin to write a blank check so we're looking for that transparency hopefully we'll get it in the upcoming days so that we can continue to do what we've been doing for decades which is give really excellent education to our students thank you thank you m thank you thank you seriously thank you guys for coming out on Friday I really appreciate it what time is it you have seconds so just quickly so Jesse assesses our our district on needs needs intervention and that was mentioned by a parent
072online and so I just want them to watch the April 9th meeting where Janelle our Personnel director went into great detail about those particular uh things that needed to be addressed they were addressed before that report came out and all of those items have been resolved so I I do if if you continue you know questioning the quality of the special education please go back and watch Janelle talk on the April 9th meeting in the YouTube videos um she explained all right uh anything else anyone want to say I'm so sorry about the public comment did you want to say something real quick right now you have one minute no I just had a question so CL catch up with me after yeah all right sorry all right I really appreciate so could I please
073have a motion to adjourn the meeting jie L all in favor I'm an i as well thank you so much