001meeting is being recorded your image and or voice may be broadcast please stand for the Pledge of Allegiance I pledge allegiance to the flag United States of America and to the repic for it stands one nation under God indivisible withy and justice for all okay so um what we're going to do tonight is we'll approve the consent agenda first and then if anyone would like to speak we'll let you guys speak first that way not you don't feel like you're stuck here um and if others come in as we're deliberating they'll be able to speak as well so this is a forum it's a little different than our usual meeting so if there's if you have questions later in the meeting you decide to stay you can raise your hand and I can call on
002you but it's not just an open conversation where everyone can so we're g to try to keep productive and um and moving in the right direction all right so let's start with the consent agenda okay could I please have a motion to approve the consent agenda so mov second all in favor I I I'm in I as well that motion passes all right before we do public comment did anyone have any Communications they wanted to bring up before we get into public comment okay great all right public comment do you want sure go ahead okay um first I want to thank you all for being here and for the work that you do thank you for taking the time to hear my comments some of you know me my name is Erin Kean I'm a
003royon resident I'm a of two young children we a seven and in second grade Owen is five he goes to Tanto preschool he'll be in kindergarten next year I wanted to speak in support of the proposed school budget oon Elementary School is a wonderful school and our students deserve nothing their new principal Mrs syes is phenomenal her energy her passion her enthusiasm for the job are unmatched and our students deserve nothing less if the committee does not approve the proposed budget Mrs Sykes will be forced to make Cuts some place our students will have less what less will they have will they have less space in their classroom if we don't hire an additional third grade teacher the Third grade classes will have about 28 students each will they have less social emotional support Miss
004cward is a point6 adjustment counselor if we cannot bring her on full-time we run the risk of losing her to a district that can't will they have less support staff the PA of professionals at bees are working day in and day out to help our media students succeed will they have less high quality training for their staff how will they recruit and Rain the best St will they have less enrichment opportunities for students my son has been extremely fortunate to participate in an inur group science with Mrs X for about 45 minutes a week he has learned about aerodynamics cohesion adhesion surface tension Rockets thrust with less staff those remaining will be expected to do more with less our students education will be less than it is now I inore you to approve the proposed
005budget info our students deserve nothing less or choose your list thank you thank you I really appreciate that do you want to speaker okay all right so with that being said um the only thing on the agenda tonight is our budget so I think the way we're going to run this is Nancy um is going to get up and she's going to present this presentation does everybody have access to this right all right so Nancy why don't you take 15 20 minutes and kind of explain um walk us through this and then we're gonna spend the majority of time tonight um having the committee deliberate and review this budget okay okay thank you all right thank you so on February 27th we presented a draft version of our fiscal year 25 budget this budget showed
006a 10% increase in the districtwide budget today we are presenting the districtwide budget with a 5% increase this is a summary of the changes since February 27th we increased the school Cho excuse me we increased the school choice allocation by $194,400 we have a new audit District tuition at Tonto for $75,000 we increased to special education transportation for $99,000 that split between Berlin Memorial School for 24,000 and Tonto middle school high school for 75,000 in our administrative team have met several times now so with the final review in uh adjustments from the administration team we also pushed 7.7 FTE to next year that totals approximately 617,000 and won't go through them all to save time but you can see them all listed here this page shows what we kept in the budget District y we
007kept a one FTE occupational therapist Boon Elementary we kept the 1.0 FTE classroom teacher and HTO we kept three unified sport sport coaches and we kept the 0 40 FTE math teacher. 60 FTE athletic director this will bring both of those positions to fulltime so now I'm going to quickly go through each school with you so at Berlin Memorial the compare some was initially presented with a 3% increase it is now being presented with a -2% increase with a savings of $16,679.24 Tonto middle school high school this was presented with a 12% increase it is now being presented with a 6% increase with an increase of $ 7,753 compared to the fiscal year 24 budget now we'll go over the capital changes at Berlin Memorial we took out the roof and we moved it to
008next year we decreased it support by $20,000 at Boon Elementary we moved the updates to the bathrooms and the playground equipment to next year we decreased it support by $20,000 and the cafeteria floor replacement increased by $4,800 at Tonto middle school high school the refurbishing of the track was moved to next year it support was taken out security swipe card systems was moved to next year the auditorium projector Sound and Lighting was moved to next year our hbac controls in repairs was decreased by $61,900 the athletic field renovation was increased by $4,240 the non-student device repl placements was decreased by $25,000 the paving of the walkway was decreased by $22,000 and we added in boiler repairs for $10,000 and down below is your debt for the for the high school so these next three pages
009go over the assessments by each school as you look at these you'll notice that the four s sources of revenue are from the preliminary chapter 7A that the governor released at the end of January if anyone wants to look at the backup of these figures you can go to page 23 of the slide I'm not going to go through each of these individually what I will do is I'm going to go to the assessment comparisons so you can see them by town so this is where the town of Berlin in the assessment comparison has a 5 % increase for $455,500 increase for $175,300 so that is my quick version of the presentation and I'm sure we have lots of questions all right so before we get into that Carol did you want to say something
010yeah I can my statement gonna say something sure just said the budget subcommittee the administrators and I've worked diligently it's understatement over the past months to develop the proposed budget prepared for you this evening on the course of our numerous discussions we focus primarily on our immediate needs while holding to a commitment to continue educate to continue advocating in areas we want to create maintain this year while postponing until next year and that to that end I think what I can say about our team is we made these decisions as a team throughout this process as painful as some of them were um we also recognize that we're not only um can be supportive of our schools but respectful of our towns and their current fiscal conditions to the best of our ability and we
011met numerous times with the town various Town um Representatives so in conclusion we feel very strongly that this budget can be supported by the towns and best represents our needs for the fy2 school year thank you all right before we get into questions I just want to explain um a few things so uh Julie and I have worked closely or try to work as closely as possible with Carol and Nancy with with the towns so I'm gonna start with Boon um because we have Howard here who's the um chair of the their fincom so boon is in a situation where they're able to give us $500,000 more than last year so a $500,000 increase um for both operating assessments and the Tanto Capital assessment Boon has agreed they're going to be able to use free
012cash to fund the Elementary School uh Capital assess Capital assessment so the thing with boilson is that $500,000 limit that's not just a suggestion that's if we go over that limit the town will have to go to override so that that's the levy ceiling right is that the right word Levy ceiling correct Boon will be at its Levy limit if we exceed approximately $1 million in operating expenses between the town and school side which 500,000 split between the two parts so that is a fair statement and correct statement I should say okay thank you okay so we're very close there um if you add up on if you're on page 13 and you add up the two increases for the operating assessments between bees and Tanto and then you deduct as it's in a negative
013the Boon Tanto Capital assessment don't worry about the elementary school Capital if you look at the 32213 and you net that against the two additions then you subtract with the 500 ,000 I think we're like about aund I think I went through Karen sent an email earlier today I think we're $13,000 off we're $133,000 off but Nancy you have in your number in your budget you already have a a moving money from the school choice for this number that's correct yeah so we'll have to talk about that later yeah can you repeat that okay which page I'm on page 13 would it help if I pointed as you spoke would that help people yeah all right so what Nancy did is she worked with the principes and Carol and they worked to lower the expenses
014which should lowers the assessment y so if you add up the 571 761 which is the increase in Boon Elementary operating assessment the very top one and then the increase in the Tanto operating assessment which is a 26 23 441 and then you can subtract out the Boon Tanto Capital assessment you should be at close to $113,000 yeah I know John so what Nancy has done in there is she has added a line to move almost $200,000 from school choice about the 337 the 337 don't worry about that because Boon has said they're going to cover all of our capital last year they covered Elementary School um from free cash and that's what they're going to do again this year so it's not in assessment it's I don't know if that's in this presentation I
015wanted to explain what did you say sorry I couldn't hear him you they're committing to that we have something that we can see that they're committing to that uh the chair of the fincom has committed to that so so our expectation is and that we will cover those four Capital items or five on the bo preschool site out of free cash which will use up a good chunk of it at this point that point so I don't see an issue with that is how I would leave it okay and then the other thing how much is that toal um if you look at the oper nany's number was 285 450 for the capital yep well that's just that's Elementary School yep that's all that he Howard was just saying yep the 285 450 plus we
016talked about in the me and I don't want to get into this because the roof at Boon Elementary and I feel like we need to touch upon it because we've talked about it so frequently in these meetings and now the select board had a meeting about the roof I don't know if anyone was able to join that meeting but oh yeah I did okay so maybe you can speak a little bit more to that but the gist of it is the town is going to fix the roof for us they've gotten a quote to have the roof resurfaced which is essentially ripping the top layer off and um putting a a home that's pretty much like reshingling the top the library roof I believe they're going to be able to fix immediately some holes were
017pluged pluged so the one was going they're going to do a good patch job that's going to take us get us whatever the year or however long it is until they can get the $1.5 million or $1.3 million to fix the roof in its entirety so the town is going to take care of the roof Howard you can speak to that if you want so do you want me to clarify a little bit yeah go ahead yeah all right so um we had some independent people come in and do some roof assessments uh Matt one of the Selectmen has a contact uh they made some recommendations uh we'll be able to fund from free cash replacement of the metal roof over the library the flashings around the window which is where it appears that a
018majority of the water is coming in the rubber membrane will have a number of areas patched by this point and typically patches last about two years of but our working assumption is that next year we capit we look to figure out how to do the rubber membrane full replacement at that point so we're basically think of this is we're splitting the workout so that it's not a huge piece here and then we don't have to go out and finance it to get usor yep y I cannot answer the question how soon contractors get in they're still very busy as aware yeah yeah sure assuming the wheels aftere free cash expenditures then April can go off and start working with the contractors to go figure out what what bids go out and what we and when
019it can be scheduled and then the following year is the full replacement of the passion areas so that's the working assumption is that we'll be do a full replacement the following year prop fund from the majority of free cash at least 20 25 26 before so fiscal year 26 would be the next town meeting next calendar year and that would be when you would be looking at doing the rubber membrane that point so it could be like the summer or fall they can't do it when it's cold right we learned that you can but you get a poor jum you so we're not gonna yeah I think the guy that looked at it said the cold is not good so it would either be like summer or fall all along since last year though when
020it keeps failing right so what's going to be the difference year so patches so patches done in warm weather because remember rubber membrane when you do a patch you actually heat and weld the patch in Rel so the warmer it is the better the patch sticks but typically patches only last two years I I keep track of the building in Worcester we patch the roof all the time we get two years out of our patches basically and you get 20 to 25 years out of membrane you can patch the last couple years and then some point you got to bite the bullet and then you I I just yeah I just wanted to add that piece about applying for the msba grant we're hoping to get some funding back from that as well so but
021that process takes probably a year y I would May tie into the next second part of that replacement which is what but the key thing is the library is where we have the majority of the leaks in the building and um so hopefully that will be able you know again we they're not going to commit but hope the hope is sometime summer or fall that'll be fixed are you asking why if we've been patching all along what's the difference why this is going to work versus yeah just wondering we dealt that we dealt with leagues this year last year how much longer are we going to have kids sitting and leing so so I guess the working assumption here is that there's some money available from the repair process program that the state has but
022it takes uh a year plus to go through the ranting cycle to get this and if we can do that we might as well try to get some reimbursement it's 30 to 50% I I mean I'd rather grab some State money that's your state tax yeah no it it sounds like a reasonable plan I'm just trying to get an understanding of the timing for everything yeah so this year after town meeting free articles passed that are on here for the re roof repair for them which is metal and the flashing that would get scheduled next town meeting for Boon in May wherever it is in 205 for fiscal year 26 budget would include hopefully the grant here plus then the matching funds we going to use from free cash to to do that if assuming
023the grant is zero it's still going to go ahead then then that's a discussion the selectman have to figure out because if it's more than free cash availability it's going to have to get B and that be a s compensation so lots of unknowns but there so I think I can tell you from the finance committee and I can tell you what I've heard from that is that we're committed to fixing the roof okay okay not going to happen overnight it's a two-year process okay thank you okay so that's Boyston um so that brings us to what 460 uh what about 460 all that cap and increase 46 no what do you say that again I don't I don't follow that comment sorry your 571 your 263 your oh yeah those three things brings us
024brings you to uh it's should be no it should be lower should be higher sorry 761 plus 263 and then you have to subtract out uh minus 53079 so if you take out 500,000 which is what the town is going to increase the assessment by the deficit between what Boon wants to give or boilson fincom approved 500,000 this budget as stated is uh 513 no no no use the the change column Mike yeah and you told us to ignore the 337 and substitute with 285 no ignore the 337 period don't substitute anything there that's all free cash you add three numbers 571 761 263 441 and then three then you subtract up 3221 23 you get 500 5379 yeah 51379 yeah $3,799 is been deficit but that number assumes and we need to discuss that
025later I want to put a inin in the that because I want to switch to the Berlin assessment you're sh comparison of this year to last year you're showing a drop of 337 so yeah all right that's operating I sorry that's capital I just didn't follow you there for a second all right that's how Boon is doing the their assessment is they're they're funding the that's what Bo that was the offer from Boon on the table I'm just trying to explain it yeah so um the only caveat I want everyone to understand is that in that FY 25 assessment in the elementary school in Tanto and the operating assessment that assumes we move 200,000 from school choice she has it on page one thank you Nancy increase the school choice revolving you have it on
026that yep go back to that one you were on you want me to do the um this one no go back to the very first one sorry yep all right so the very first bullet increase the school choice revolving allocation by 194 450 all right so that these numbers are assuming we're doing that didn't we see like two weeks ago or whenever the last meeting was that school choice was at like basically zero where it come so if we go to this one there's been some adjustments to it so what adjustments school can can you point what so if you look here so the increase would come from Tonto so this includes that increase that I noted so we would be taking 6944 from school choice leaving us with a balance of $718,000 by fiscal
027year 27 if we continue at the same Pace using 600 each year to allocate towards the budget we're going to be down to 200,000 we have a big drop of a lot of students coming off in FAL year 26 I want to say it's about 13 kids coming off and the other that's not to say we can't open up more spots or yeah so we can yeah that's a problem we can solve but the issue with moving money from school choice so everybody understands is that when you do that that goes into the assessment for the following fiscal year right so you're essentially then the towns don't have that on their side of the assessment right but because we're using it for recurring expenses it's going to go into our assessment so it's going to
028happen is the towns are going to be able to provide you with less because they're already close to their ceiling at least Boon close to their ceiling so it's almost like deferring the burden right by pushing it off you're just def by using this free cash we're deferring it to next year and so next year when they come in they're like all right well you added you already you're off the bat you already added this 200,000 that we didn't have last year so there's 200,000 of increased for next year so if we want to add five things next year we've got that 200,000 ad I don't want to go down that road just yet because I want to do the Berlin assessment side and then I want to open up for discussion all right so
029that's where we're at right wrong or indifferent I just want everyone to understand that's what that number includes Berlin okay and P is here so um I had said before you got here Peg as Howard jumped in when I was if you want to jump in or interrupt to help me um that would be great okay so Berlin so last year what we did in Berlin is we um again we funded part of the budget with free cash we used part of our free cash Berlin actually used part of their free cash to fund operating assessments last year which made things get super confusing so the number that they have as their fiscal 24 are operating assessment differs from the number that Nancy has because they felt that that number should not be included in
030the assessment even though technically it was it was voted on a town meeting um so Nancy used the number that was voted on a town meeting so that's about what $360,000 let me hold 381 all right here it is um so using the loow so Berlin it's BMS is the number where Berlin we we used you're right it's 383,000 of free cash which was applied to the BMS operating assessment so the operating assessment that Berlin started with was 3,924 4434 Nancy has 4, 30749 it's the top number under fy2 4 so the difference is that 383k so Berlin's fincom proposed only giving us $178,200 and special education so that would mean we would have to cut things in birth to meet their request we'd have to cut about what I say about $200,000 worth of
031stuff from what we have now maybe more so maybe later on John can talk us through what that would look like at that school um because that's a serious problem now Berlin has not provided their override Capac or their their Levy ceiling or their Levy limit so I I have calculations that we have from Consultants that we all have right for the the levy limit um Berlin has said they don't like to dip into their into that pool um so that's where we are with Berlin so I don't know Peg I don't know if you know the number for the override or we don't um Y in regards to the information on the 383,000 that we gave you it was in a letter that we sent to you and superintendent costell stating that that was
032an ADD onetime funding to cover the Gap and then these funds are not added to the base so right there you have the discrepancy that's exactly right we weren't putting it in we took it out of free cash once we had the free cash to give it to you this year we do not have the free cash to give to you the override is a decision solely by the select Board of Berlin whether we choose to put it on the ballot or not but I guess my question Peg and I don't know what the answer is is there's a so there's a place right where it might be over what you guys approve but it's still under what the override limit is so it's like the place where we were last year right where we
033disagreed but it could still pass at town meeting um no not a town meeting if an override do need to be on the ballot right needs to go on but I don't know what the limit is to hit override at Berlin that's what I'm looking for is that number is it this number that Scott gave me the 178 270 I don't think that's true that the 178 that he gave you was the two and a half% that's two and a half% increase based on that number minus the the money that we gave you last year out of free cash and out of um I think out of your money as wrong yep no not our money it was just it was just the 383 so that's 78 Yeah 178 270 Scott is coming from is
034that is a two and a half% increase based on the last year number but I guess the question is what if tonight we vote to spend 500,000 in Berlin like we're doing in Boon would that put you at an override I I don't know the answer to that I haven't gotten that information I've asked that question I just don't know the answer I don't know if anyone knows if it's been calculated the calculations we have would say no you have calculations from an independent consultant that we've been working off of um but in Boon there were some other items that had to go into that calculation the fincom explained it to us so it was actually lower than the number from our consultant so that's the question I don't know if anyone from Berlin is
035able to answer that um I mean the excess living capacity is up to 1.6 million right that that's yep so that means we'd have that right and only has a million right but again passing that if that pass that becomes a tremendous tax increase to the residents of the Town ex pass the 4% last year which people struggled with with a minimum of a $600 increase based on our rough calculations last week or two weeks ago not including this current information that we have because we did not me for only potential taxpayers and again it's it's not exist act it's a guess the tax increase would be anywhere from $14 to $1,600 per household based on the budget that we originally got from you draft in February doesn't reflect this so right it's a lot
036this is a lot lower right but you're still looking at an astronomical increase to the tax in Berlin for this and unfortunately as you know um and as others may know Capital planning asked you to come back Megan you didn't fincom asked you to come back you didn't so we were operating only with the information that was provided to us and there were assumptions that were made unfortunately your budget was three months late in getting it to us it should have been in know by November so we went ahead with what we could for the budget thus that's what we're giving back to you okay all right so essentially if we voted these numbers as is it would not push Berlin to override but it would put a burden a tax burden onto the taxpayers
037all right the the 383 that was given last year that was special education so we didn't have a choice about those expenditures exactly yep thanks Jess that is true Jess what you say I couldn't he the 383 that was covered from free cash at Berlin was for special education expenditures that happened after the meeting and so that wasn't a choice that we had made to spend that much exactly last minute emergency thing right that Y and we can't just get rid of that this year because we have to fund those students or whatever the need is unless yeah the students leave the district which I don't think was the case so um does that mean that we're three months Le what it means Mike is that the budgets were due by all committees departments back
038to Berlin in November last four years I don't remember ever no that is an incorrect statement because we provide sorry that is an incorrect statement we provide a calendar every year on the due dates and it was extremely clear when the budgets were due back please don't interrup we had even please don't interrupt you interrupted me to start so you had some pretty false information out there last year as well P so about Berlin tax pay pay Boon Elementary budgets but I'm just saying I don't recall in the last four years approving a budget for the schools in November I always remember it in February and so I'm just asking for some clarification about that yeah we usually vote the end of February this year we decided to vote a little bit later because what
039happens is we're voting and Nancy doesn't have the revenue figures that's coming in from the state I think she's still waiting on something from in April you get so it's trying to just be as accurate as possible with the um and the reason why we didn't want to provide Things Early is because the mon from February 27th as you see the changes were large to put it lightly and so we didn't want to put things out there that where you would put it into your so I guess I agree next year maybe communication needs to be better but sitting and talking about numbers that are probably going to change is not a productive use of time so I didn't want to spend a lot of time talking about numbers when the committee hadn't had the
040opportunity to review and and vote and we understand that and we truly would have and I'm not going to speak for fin Kong we have a member from fin finom here but we truly have appreciated the time unfortunately by the time we get the letter from you like the final letter on this is our number due to our town meeting we have to have the budget 45 days before our town meeting date that's Friday Friday don't there has been no time left for for receiving the letter from you on Wednesday and making any final changes on Friday so we were extremely handcuffed and tried to do our best with what we have okay all right Mary sorry we're gonna I want to move on and discuss the budget okay and then we'll all right we
041had public comment at the beginning so we'll uh open it up again in a little while I just wanted to clarify the facts about how the budget process works that's all okay so well yes definitely we will move into that but I want have we're 40 minutes in I want to start talking about the budget all right so I wanted everyone to understand that on the assessment side does everyone kind of have a grasp at what Carol Julie and I and Nancy have been working on for the past couple months all right so yeah go ahead Julie let's open up questions so we have from the burland side it's 178 270 plus the 383 say that again Julie so the 2.5% increase is the 178 270 yes right period plus no no no no it's
042just 178 assuming the assessment is 383 lower so it's actually the increase if you want it it's the 178 minus 383 so yes that number would be negative meaning you have to make Cuts it's a negative number I want to clarify so that 383 is a special education their tuitions that we are mandated to which I mean they need their their education we're mandated to spend it's not a negotiable number for us we're not really in control of that number correct exactly I just wanted to clarify that because I'm not sure that everybody public understands that we're not asking for 383,000 to fund anything other than education for students who need a different kind of education that's right lri and Nancy if you go to that first slide where you show what we're adding at
043Berlin Memorial we add one more go back sorry again go to the one where you show what we're adding at each school oh sorry page three y there above level Berlin Memorial zilch they're getting nothing this year so it's not like we're saying we need a teacher we need a this we need a that we're asking for nothing we have contracted teacher salary increases we must pay we have special education Transportation increases we must pay so the other increases at Berlin Memorial are maybe a few curriculum supplies here and there that are are must CS um there is really not a lot of wiggle room Mr Campbell am I correct in saying that you are correct in say Okay so we're not asking anything new at Berlin Memorial this year can I can I add
044one more thing to that yeah go ahead the other I think one of the things is too the free cash was taken as one-time funds for certain expenditures that came up as an emergency at the end of the year even if there were changes no matter what those were eaten up by other special education expenses because there's always movement within special education so I just to explain that those funds are were needed still within special education you can't go too far in a public meeting but yeah all right does anyone have any questions about what's being presented Mike of course I do are you giving any do you guys want to go around Rob and everyone gets a turn just to talk or do you want to wait let mic go first and this is
045a lot to digest I had a question about the math teacher which one so foran so the current point6 math teacher that were're then making the point for adding in is that then sufficiently support the the math curriculum that's going to be required in the future for financial literacy it's the start okay it's a start Yeah we actually cut one whole Mass each yeah it wasn't what yeah can you explain more about the start so we would be able to add two math classes on to what is being offered now and that fulfills the graduation requirements or no one of the classes that would be taught would help to fulfill the graduation but it's not robust or anything it would I would not consider that robust no it would be um you know a foundation
046level of need you know that we provide for our [Music] students anyone else Mike you want yeah just maybe in general Carol can you speak to two years ago we voted on this District Improvement plan I know last year because of what reasons there are several things that we didn't include that were supposed to be according to that this year there are several things that we wanted to include that we were told that we needed that the committee voted on approved and said this is what we're doing to improve our school district I don't know that any of them are in this budget can you give some examples like I don't have the plan in front of so I can't I know last year we did the um we did the kindergarten Paris this year
047we were supposed to I think some of the public comment mentioned adjustment counselors science teachers elll teachers uh some upgrades to for power school social emotional materials page two page two is all the stuff the original stuff those are all the original asks yeah so we're not following our plan these were the things in the plan so we're not following our plan so what's the point of the plan guides what we need what we know we need to have and we've been pushing to have those things I think last year we were fortunate to be able to add more things than we anticipated adding um this year we're looking at like really what's essential we can't we're finding we can't get everything we need in the plan I guess that's what I would saying like
048we I think we were robust in our hopes and our intentions of getting these things but but when it comes down to numbers we keep looking at what's realistic as far as the figures you know we like to see a full-time floating nurse absolutely right now and I just wanted to clarify for the person who was here last week we are still maintaining that that part-time floating nurse we just haven't increased that to full-time um the other areas a math tutor for example we thought we would like to increase that perhaps to a full-time position but we haven't changed that position from having the mat tutor I think we got the kindergarten par of professionals last year for Boon I'm not even sure that was in the plan I'd have to go back and look
049again I didn't take a look at that recently but there are areas I think we're improving on um I just think I don't think we're forgetting those this year but we are behind them what we were hoping to accomplish you're correct in the three-year plan which should be wrapping up yes yeah yeah um so these reductions here you mentioned pushing them off the next year have the town's given any indication that that's possible we are we going to be back you're having the same conversation it feels like that at this point after going through these past couple of months we probably will be having these same discussions again next year and looking at what's most important we're still on the F we don't the athletic director uh trainer wasn't part of the discussion um that's
050just something that may be mandatory by the time we get to to next year we're not sure about that one yet I know the special education teacher was something that Janelle had has spoken about I think we can as much as she wants that I think it's we're holding on that one because part of that may be because of what what unfolds with the um it sounds like an odd connection but the preschool program and spacing at Tanto to be able to house that person so we haven't made that shift yet we're waiting for the results of that evaluation to come through so that's why I say these are not things you know do we push them off yeah you're right that's what it that's what it appears to be we had to make some
051really difficult decisions as a team we talked a lot about this and this is the best we could come up with but you're right we're not meeting hitting the highlights of that plan and and all of them anyway yeah I think it was I was watching one of the subcommittee budget meetings and and uh someone was in Berlin was not aware that there was a fiveyear plan and that we were trying to achieve all these things in one year two years but there is in fact a beautiful fiveyear plan um that we're trying to spread out um so that was unfortunate that that wasn't they weren't aware of that fact I think maybe we need to do a better job of about either letting people know where documentation is on our website um or uh
052I hate to say Mass emailing because nobody reads those um every went last we have yeah the other thing I would say too is we're coming up to the conclusion of that plan which was through the the other Administration and what we put down at that time I think what we need going to be working on next year I know what we're going to be working on is a strategic plan which is more which is much more realistic than than the plan I think that was created previously although I think we keep I mean that was more concrete things but we have to talk about the reasons why we want these things I think that that's going to be more meaningful to to the communities the why what of asking for these positions all right
053what else ask be on last question how many poers are in kindergarten right now one that's shared one that's Shar and there's two classes twoes and how many I guess current kindergarten class current is was 39 32 32 so and is there projected kindergart numbers next well I know people a to be rough what about Boon we have projected because I know this last year the classes in Boyston they're like each over 20 21 21 per class yeah three classrooms three pars is there a projection for next year for kindergarten is it going to be another huge class right now we have was 44 four with Drew but that was around where we were last year and we ended up the 6 okay and don't forget that big thing in the end of SE Wall
054Street yeah what's there yet yeah I know because that could start mid year people can start moving in yep yeah that's tough okay what else what else um can you explain unified I know what Unified sports is but the Unified sports coaches at the middle school high school for 11,000 to three coaches um so essentially we've Implement implemented a program for three Unified sports programs um and um as I think you know that there are some coaches salaries that aren't being used because there are certain programs that haven't run for approximately five years so that is really a wash that ends up I think it ends up being a wash yeah and ended up so even though it's it's there because it has to be you know it's a different title right it's kind of
055like a new position right so you have to put it in but at the end of the day it ended up being a wash because we were able to deduct three coaches from the budget I see yeah oh because we added the Unified sports remember I think you're asking what are the Unified sports no no I know what they are I was just wondering that figure um so when we were when so that figure is in fact for those those positions um but when we were as a team when we were looking at what currently exists I you know I had identified the programs that haven't been running so when we were developing like you know adjusting we realized it was going to be a wash anyone else Mike yeah I mean I know fantastic
056but we're not doing anything to improve anything I mean I mean you can do someh surely and then you know just it's kind of disappointing here with Danto I know we talk a lot about the drop in students from sixth grade to graduation in our whole idea around these plans was to provide more opportunities give more offering so to keep these students in town and uh I don't know that this doesn't I don't disagree but I think that and maybe something we can I I hate to use the words to do better on next year but if we could go out to the towns and say we need a million this year we need $2 million this year and we need $4 million next year I I'm just using numbers and not saying we're going
057to need four million don't worry Howard um I'm just saying like if when we do the district Improvement like Carol kept saying we're this is this one's coming to an end so we're going to have a new District Improvement here we have a whole new Administration there's going to be a new plan maybe when we're doing this plan if we tie some dollar figures to this and we say this is what we're probably going to be looking at Figures were there yeah so there was just no plan at the time there was just no plan I mean I think the planning needs to be the towns need to the planning needs to happen together at the beginning it has to happen like on year zero for the three-year plan so the towns can say Yeah
058in two in three years will we may or may not be able to fund this or do you know what I'm saying I do but I would also add to that what happened so in the last plan that was developed and there were most of the people weren't even here on the administration at that time yeah it was just the administrative team making that decision in a summer at a retreat we did not include staff in that discussion we did not include the towns yeah in that discussion to Mike I think to your point going forward it what probably would be beneficial to all of us in creating the Strategic plan to have Town representation well to speak to that Carol not talking about Select Finance commit but have you heard from parents about this
059budget about plans for you plans for the what they want what they do I mean have two people in two weeks public comment otherwise no not I have not other than the people that joined us today and and last week I have not heard anything and I don't know if the principles have heard anything I don't think it's on people's radar so it's not it's probably so School commit we need to figure out what the schools need y I think they need better than this and if the voters at town meeting want to pay for it then let them Miss can I just want to add one thing I think we're also forgetting like I know people are you know they look at I can't believe you're asking for so much I remember last year
060everybody being like wow why are you asking for so much we have increasing populations because we have lots of buildings going on in town it is what it is we also have incredible inflation when you look at just the price of special education Transportation it's more than doubled so we are in a really tough place where things that we could pay for let's say last year the year before are much more expensive every single year we're just in a really tough situation so it's not like we're being greedy I think we're we're trying to do what we can but I think people need to remember that we're in this situation because of things that are out of our control and it's hard because we're not not actually asking when you look at that the above
061level we're asking for what five one two three four if you take out the Unified sports coaches are asking for five things one two three four uh four things um so why is special ed Transportation considered I just put it in there because it's such a drastic increase but it's not actually no because it's a so it's really three things we're asking that's not an Ask we're asking for three heads yes we're asking for an occupational therapist one classroom teacher at bees and a point4 math teacher and a point6 athletic director that's really all we're doing and we're just kind of stuck with the co High Cost of everything else and and then the number of heads that are increasing as well 1100 kids where we lose 20% from 6th to 12th grade or whatever
062numbers so we lose that money yes per pup and the state reimbursement was dramatic ially lower than we expected the inflation rate was much lower than actually costs are going up and uh the state8 is going down yeah if you go to page I think it's [Music] 23 our Regional School TR transportation for fiscal year 25 is projected to drop at 200,000 38% Charter School reimbursement is going down by one really got hit hard with the transportation I'm just wondering if we didn't ask for anything at Tanto or that occupational therapist like basically nothing would Berlin both taxpayers still have to pay like $1,000 more like do we know well the classroom teacher is Boon only that's Boon Elementary um the that's not's on hook for a portion of yeah and the a portion of
063the 100,000 it's under 100,000 I'm just wondering the special there's no choice you can't cut it right that 57 that big number on there you there is you have to cut other things so youd have to cut heads right I guess I'm just trying to get to what L's point was that it's it's just it is yeah there's nothing much that we can do it doesn't seem like the little bit asking for is the cause of the increase in the tax that Berlin V Berlin residents would have to pay is that true or is that seems true it's yeah in general there's like level service increases but it's like you said it's just the cost everything's increasing so there's just not electricity increased and you know supplies increased in oil what is what is the
064at level budget percent increase um do it real quick I it's mandated at L budget what do you mean mandated at budgetting I know huge increase in that population we supposed to add one this year yeah I'm actually looking I got on the plan now Mike to go through what you yeah so you know what kind of burden is that going to put on the school the teachers and other students who are going to be impacted by that is there impa yeah I think there's going to be an impact each year we get more students who are who need elll Services that's increased in general I don't know if you have the number right now I don't want to push you y that's fine but we're definitely going to have to put another El person
065in place or or going to have to move that person currently splits that position with another course several other courses different that she teaches so we're going to have to make a full-time elll teacher out of that I think I from what two meetings ago I 40% increase in population or something like that let me let Janelle is certain about that but that's definitely you know on the radar as well that was last meeting so that not having that then not only those gets affected but the extra strain it puts on that teacher affects the other students the other classes yeah I mean it's a big class already it's a big class of students and that's at that's at Tanto primarily so you know I'm looking through the you know the plan and I'm just
066Janelle is looking for this you know we have hit a number of of positions that we've added on but to your point we either haven't gotten to all of them that we had hoped to I have to agree with you um we definitely had not so so but I I see some progress certainly last year we made a lot of progress adding things that we had even planned for this year um but I would have to say we're probably about three qus so if I had to look at this just ballparking things that we have put in place already but we still have a ways to go definitely so it comes out to 4% at $923,000 there total yeah correct districtwide instead of 5% so it's a one it's 4% so only 1% of the
067increase is due to the above level stuff and that's including your special ed Transportation because you had that an above level yes so it would be less than only things you're taking out are you're above level there yeah you could take yeah you could add those increases contractual that is of 23 million it's nothing all right so what do you guys think so Mike thinks we need to put some stuff yeah I don't think this budget do it for what we want and what we need the students I don't think it provides the right kind of working atmosphere for teachers with the working environment I don't think it do it not for two towns who want to claim that they have Great Schools yeah I'm GNA agree with Mike can you bring up the um
068page 21 just so we can look at our high school enrollment um so if we look at fy17 grade six right you have 88 kids and then you drop down to grade 12 all the way at the bottom for FY 25 that's 63 students we started with 88 no more1 no a go data go diagonal you lost more than 20 kids in that class yeah but that's the trend because that's your son's class usual no that was Rebecca's class that's not an unusual number that's the trend so to Mike's Point if we continue funding the schools at level every other year every two years going above level that's what we're looking at guys we're losing 20 kids a grade by the time they graduate that transl still what lost clubs lost SP lost clubs we
069can't offer those AP classes we don't have we certainly can't offer fourth year language right we want to have our kids going into school with the fourth year of a foreign language can we offer that if we don't have the staff if we don't have the kids no Julie sorry does this include school choice kids kids too yeah that's toal of the kids so you could lose you're probably losing more than 20 kids because there's school choice kids coming in yes yeah but they will be reflected in the number no this is n you're right I do still what I'm saying large yes I understand completely what you're saying we're adding inid grade nine adding you're saying resident well if you're adding in school choice kids in grade nine that are coming in and you're
070losing even if you're total at the end is only 63 you started with 88 but you added 15 in grade n that don't even live in town or don't even live in the districts because you need to fund it with you need to get students in here somehow well and this was Julian my argument about having the extra assistant principal at Tanto because if you look at the number diagonally from eight to nine that's where you lose most of your kids so if they have a very positive very you know Wonderful middle school education they're going to fight to stay here it's not even just the education it's the culture it's everything which I feel like they're working on really well this year heard very positive things um and that was the whole idea was
071we wanted to maintain those kids keep them here if you look FY 23 you have 75 kids in eth 75 in 9th and 75 in 10th so you're maintaining those numbers and the same thing um 82 to 87 we added some school choice but it stayed at 87 so kids are staying in R the last two to three years but in 22 you had 90 and8 and then in 23 there was only 74 and N yeah you gotta go up a row slide yeah I'm GL you attention to it sorry Julie I cut you off what were you no I just think it's a very important slide we those numbers are important yeah you're losing a ton of kids so so we started it by adding an assistant principal I mean we definitely need more
072because you you're seeing it thriving you're seeing you know more positive feedback from the Middle School um I just think we need to do more yeah but if we don't fund the schools they will leave oh they will they will leave I think we're even seeing a Resurgence of of Club after school clubs and activities I think the the the staff is stepping up to provide those opportunities for students I would plug for example the drama club and the performance it is good to see that that's come back again and I think that those are the kinds of things you know it's trickling back to us again um but to your point Mike you know we want to build these programs for the kids we see such great potential it's just our hands are tied
073to do what we want to be able to do that's just the way that's the way it's been so we have to pick and choose again all of the things on the plan yes absolutely we want all of those things we had to make some very very difficult decisions together about what we're going to put forward this year given the strengths that we had constraints we had I should say so I don't know if any of the principles want to speak to that at all or I just want to good I'll jump in thank you um all the things when when we do and I I shouldn't speak for all of us but I'm going just to jump in there we put in our needs what are these students need what is our schools need
074and I'm going to tell you having to make these cuts was very challenging and stressful because what we see at the students and when you cut things that you know they need I get it there's budget there's money but who are we doing a disservice to our students I don't want to speak for both of you but that's the highlight of what the last few months have been for me I think for me having been here the longest except for Carol um as an administrator I'll it's um I have a keen awareness of the Berlin community and representatives who are here and P and I we' talked about the need to more effectively communicate um on a more regular basis the problem we'll have at Berlin Memorial is that um there's not a ton to
075to cut and we've come over the years and you've all heard me be very proud of my teachers and the fabulous job that they're doing you know every time some little survey comes out that ranks us very highly I'm quick to point it out to parents those are things that have happened because of the commitment of teachers and the commitment of the community in this committee to at this point ratchet that back you're right and you you mentioned you know what would it look like um it's bodies bu it's and and you start to have these discussions in your head well would I cut the math and reading Tutors or the math and reading coaches would I cut this special or that special um these are the things that kids lose when you've got a
076budget that's already I'm going to say the word I'm going to say tonight but it's not for lack of generosity over the years um Carol and I have talked many times that the town of Berlin when we've gone to them said we really need fill in the blank they always come through um and that's not you know school that's not town meeting where we kind of r a bunch of noisy parents but in private meetings in at fincom with the select board you know when they I identifying need because that school is the center of that town um but we're in a tough place and again we've talked about this some of the things we're doing financially aren't sustainable and we have to find a better way to better identify our needs and then better
077plan to fund because right now as you can see you know we're not there and it's again it's there's not like fluff up there you know one of the things in the Improvement plan is an adjustment counselor for Berlin Memorial which as my school psychologist would tell you would allow her to do her actual job instead of being the adjustment counselor having for day it's a need can we afford it no it can't even come close to afford it um but it's there and we've got to find a way to balance what we have to have and some of it's just mandated special education I mean we all kind of shy away from talking about education but the expenses are crushing us you know it's just so you know we the towns were very generous
078with cash last year to support a a group of students who had incredibly High needs part of what we did with that was we created a whole new program because we've had kids come in since then with incredibly High needs and we're prepared for them it was a really good plan janel's part to to move us that way and that's the kind of thing we have to do you know the budget reductions that we're talking about will hurt and I think you know regardless of what this committee does or what people on the town side do or what people in the town meeting do we have to acknowledge this is this is not a good time yeah yeah so Meg given all the comments um about better planning and I know that you didn't want
079to give draft numbers is it possible can you make note that next year we start these discussions way early we're talking October November and you come to us with us being select board capital and fincom with a l not a wish list but a list of what you're looking for to say we need one two three we could probably look and say we can give you one and two can you push off three we can give you one and a half of this can you push this off the sooner you involve us in your discussions the better it's going to be so it does not come down to the 11th Hour like it did last year and like it is this year yeah of a disagreement agreement Battle Royale when it comes to what is
080the town nice description that's good I like it I mean but that's what it kind of is is that you know we don't want to handcuff you you don't want to handcuff us we didn't have the information so we went on your February best estimate and made assumptions from there so if the school committee can make a commitment to come to the not just berin but also we don't want to leave our neighbors out um come to us earlier this can potentially be avoided Megan yes what did Nancy and Carolyn you give the toal when we met we didn't have anything in October October is way too early I think December we went to the fincom meeting and Nancy provided a very rough we had a capital plan and a Julie you were there it
081was early December right 13 yeah yeah um there was a capital plan and operating we had the level asks so yeah that was in December so I don't know that October okay that's fine but I mean we can talk about Carol that's you know again that's something interally if I think if they have a three-year District Improvement plan that um the other thing is like for the special ed stuff as and I think this is where we got all got frustrated last year our hands are tied you know like John said nobody wants to talk about it but if you get a kid that's coming in out of District they can cost like anywhere between like hundred to $500,000 I mean that's like six teachers right there right so and and it's not like oh
082you can push this off it's nope you're handcuffed you have to pay this now no choice so I mean and then it's like when that happens then we're like scrambling to cut other things so um I mean but yeah if we I I hear what you're saying and I think that Communications could have been a lot better this year so um yep I think yeah the sooner the better then this way if you you know you guys are are good at the budget we're good at what has to happen on the town side so whether it's no right what is access Le capacity what is impact to Residents this is where the discussion happens so that everyone is included those who watch this on playback those who hear some version of the truth after this
083meeting it's out there and it's said and there's agreement not hey here's our budget good luck yeah I don't know that and there may not be agreement but at least you'll know well that's just it so we can know so that we can say yes we can shift this to Capital we'll shift it to Capital in two years take this out of here um yes we can give you this no we can't give you that but unfortunately when we're at the end of our timeline our hands are just tied to go back to all the other committies and departments in town to say hey all that uh um you know whatever you wanted for an extra half a person but we have to take that away from you so we are not in any position
084to do that to the burlin boards okay that was a helpful okay so that all being said we have some great ideas for next year so right near right now we're kind of faced with this budget so we've had a lot of people say they want to add things in if we add things in to boilson we will go to an override how do people feel about that so with with the amount though our our plan was like if this particular above level that was presented can cover that for now with school choice funds so it was like $133,000 it's like 200 Nancy has about right there 194 450 and then I think there's a deficit of 13,000 which I'm sure yeah if we come 13,000 close to finom number sure we can work something
085out sorry Lisa yeah um I think it's really important for us to all I I I can totally respect I raised both of my children um through the Berlin Boon system I lived in Berlin for close you know over 20 years um and um I deeply respect all of the processes that take place and all of the people involved we work really hard on putting together this budget the budget that's in place right now I it um if anybody's Italian they'll know I'm getting ad up um thinking about adding things because that makes it more fragile you know what I mean it it just makes it more fragile and it makes it less um it just makes more it's not sustainable not sustainable if you look at page 17 the school choice but like funds
086go down significantly and very quickly and so I and and I think and I really think but I think it it takes time and planning and out of respect for what everybody has talked about about planning and about putting things forward in a mindful way and having a good plan and and I think those those three and five year strategic plans are really important but that planning that embedded planning and transparent planning together but to change it on a d to change it on a dime like in a meeting makes me really nervous because then it becomes something that we can't control like we we we've thought about this we've agonized over it we've thought okay if we do it this way and then next year we can do this but if there's too many
087moving parts then you're playing whack and just uh Just one thought too about the school choice money y um you know and because it seems like a really and I don't I don't know that I have um you know all facts but thinking about the buildings and the size and the capacity just thinking about oh here we'll solve this problem by adding more school choice students but we only have so much states right we only have so many teachers only have so many sections of classes so it's it's a great like let's replace maybe the kids that go but in the end like the number maybe we're comfortable here with that tont was what 90 Max right per class right so just some with the current facility right with with our current uh programming things
088like that and even that you know where we're at right now we're able to to do our offerings and have students be in certain sections the more you increase that student Choice which is great so it gets this pot larger for us it it you know we then need to add more right so just some that's just something to consider that's a valid point last year we talked about the cost you get five grand for a school choice kid the average cost to educate a pupil is like 18 Grand 16 Grand so it's it's a it's a if you did it on a per base thing it's a losing proposition but if there's space to fill that's where you know the concept of yeah you're just getting the revenue without the added cost yeah the
089goal of this committee hasn't been to increase school choice do a certain number it's been to stop losing our own kids yeah I agree why do we want you know we're we're having a hard enough time asking taxpayers to fund our students why do we want to ask them to subsidize other towns absolutely I guess my the only you know thought is if we're funding a portion of this budget with the school choice funds right I guess that's just where my thought process that's going to be an ongoing process that we have to do we need be kind of mindful of how we're using that money numers we're bringing it's not sustainable but it's it's also not I think we need to operate with the idea that once those fun school choice funds are gone
090they are gone because at least this commun is not really interested in increasing school choice at least we haven't been in the past right because the goal is to have Berlin Boon kids in the burlin Boon schools that's I don't want anybody to misinterpret that and think that any nonb boals who are currently here that they're not welcome enough but going forward the idea is to support our ten so yeah if we use this 200 Grand in school choice that's we're not replacing yeah I don't love the idea of using school choice money to fund the budget um that's probably the only thing I don't like about this presentation personally [Music] um so I just don't know the solution I don't know how to get there that's why I said how do people feel about
091an override personally again I'll say my point of view on the override I don't I don't want to go for an override I am not interested in leading a campaign like that I am not interested in you know going down that path because quite frankly I do not think it will pass right I think for an override to pass you need a shiny prize at the end of that tunnel I think taxpayers have felt the burden of their electricity and their oil and we're in a tough time desperate times desate so I do not think an override will pass even if we all believed in it I just don't think it'll pass so um you know again in Boon we're in that situation where we got to cut another 200,000 or we moved 200,000 from
092school choice um so I'm opening up I don't know the answer I'm asking you guys Boon in Berlin uh you know Peg had said they have their love yep in in Berlin Peg said they have their Levy capacity so there it's not going to go to an override but it will increase the tax burden for residents if we vote on the current budget so if you go to the assessments page in Berlin if you want it like with the current budget so we're just talking about the current budget Kristen I'm gonna ask you I hope you okay I believe in Berlin and and correct me if I'm wrong that Berlin has agreed so uh this slide 12 yep so the Berlin Tanto includes the bond the sorry the Berlin Tanto Capital includes the bond in
093here it does you have the bond in here right Nancy yes yep in here it does she has it in this number so we can get you it backed out later the Tanto debt for payment is I have it down as$ 449 954 yep so 449 minus that 498 that would be the Tanto Capital which is about what 50 grand for barlin super confusing right now I'm getting confused sorry we don't look at the Deb repayment if you look at this the debt repayment is $459 935 right and the capital is 38253 all right so Kristen go back to that other slide Nancy added them together on the slide I know you don't think of it that way but you got I'm just explaining to you as one yes so my assumption where I want
094to get to is that Berlin and maybe not this amount Berlin is able so the total actual capital is what did you say 38,000 plus the 543 543 for Berlin Memorial that's capital plus the 38 go back to the other one 38,000 for Tanto 38 for Tanto that's what the town I mean that's what the schools need for Capital so my understanding is that would potentially come from free cash so Capital all always comes from free cash because it's one time expenses yeah um the problem that we had is we have we our free cash plan allows us to spend 30% on free cash so of our previous year's free cash which was 1.7 million so that's 533,000 for all Town School not counting the debt repayment not counting the debt so the debt repayment
095doesn't come out of that okay 38 253 that's room Memorial oh so Berlin might not have the free cash to fund the capital as stated but again if you go back I think Nancy you've got that uh HB in there for 400,000 and I think there's some rebates I mean at the end of the day we need to see what we actually paid in Boon have we finished paying that in Boon no we hav't yeah so I mean Megan can I ask another favor yeah for Capital um I saw it come through today that Burl Capital planning is meeting tomorrow night okay okay Thursday one of those days Thursday okay can you please provide a description and a priority yeah for everything that you see this will help them because we only have so much
096money allotted for that that it's going to help determine what happens in these Capital budgets okay excellent yeah so we'll do that and um okay so going back to the assessment right now for Berlin if we look at operating so what what goes into the assessment in Berlin is just operating unlike Bo you missed the beginning but Boon adds into yeah so Boon adds in the Tahanto Capital into the assessment yeah yeah okay so but Verlin just looks at the increase in the operating for BMS and Tanto so the increase for let's just put a pin in in capital we can figure that out later so if it would be 200 957 plus 335 911 plus [Music] $383,000 because our beginning fy2 24 number is different yep so that's [Music] $99,800 they have cut yes
097okay got it so is that doable without an override in Berlin because if that's an override situation then that's another it depends on how the select board decides to place on the warrant they're the only member the only body in town that can place an override on the warrant so yes there's excess Levy but um they do have the ability to request that an override be called to get the greatest majority of residents to have the opportunity to vote on it so they could call for an override even if you have exess Levy yes so does everyone understand that and yep and does everyone understand the consequences of that why would you do that because if this then it goes to ballot and it's not going to pass on a ballot well that's not the
098reason well that's not the reason you I would say you get the greatest give me a second you get the greatest number of residents to vote on it right because you think about 7:30 on a Tuesday you have parents that have kids in activities you have seniors that don't drive after dark you have people that are just like I'm not sitting at that meeting for three hours I frankly don't blame them I don't want to do so if you also on a day when you vote during regular election hours you get the greatest number of people that can come out so it's the fairest shot that that's really genuinely my thinking on it no you're right Kristen I was just being fous for us for us the downside would be it could go on a
099ballot and then if it goes on a ballot and it fails we go back to Berlin's proposed budget from their fincom right which is to make $200,000 of cuts so what let the voters vote on you want it to go to ballot because what's our alternative we decide how to cut c a cut from off this getting one extra thing we're be slashing how do that's tough there's also possibility that they won't push the there is a possibility so we're still having that discussion with our legal councel who's helping us draft a warrant as to how things should be laid out so that's still under discussion um you know I will say that I I think you know the appreciation for all the work that you've done and cutting back is certainly there I think
100we are still really far off though in terms of you mean even to slash the budget just for reference by $900,000 would be literally cutting out entire department like police or fire so that's a huge amount of money from our budget um so at this point I just think given the time frame that we have with everything being due on the 22nd and being so far off I do think we're going to have two different budgets and the town's people will need to make that determination as to how they want to vote Megan if I might ask a couple of questions that might help this maybe maybe not uh okay sure um slide 18 in the right okay so I looked at desie public numbers for our fiscal 24 this is actual desie reimbursement on
101that Revenue line and it doesn't match that number so we've got 488 something there and what des's published is $647,000 16 so I don't know if that's you know a typo or whatever it is but um what I want to say to the people assembl this 75% of that Mary we don't get the full the number I said is already after the 75 is applied it's a published desing number so so one of the things that's been so hard for our finance committee and perhaps waron as well I don't Mar sorry can you do you have that link that you can easily send to ncy uh it's published desie number hooked right their fiscal 24 it's it's public all of this is public I think my point just she can look it up quickly while
102speaking I don't you don't have I don't have internet access so other but it's the Des circuit breaker fiscal 24 number and and what what's been hard for the finance committee to try to come to Common Ground with the school district here is the transparency um on these kinds of things so if the school district can find some revenues in the coffers here uh or what's available from the state and and that's a pretty big swing we're trying to get to a number that both the towns and the school district can live with I think it's really important that the revenues available to the school really be transparent and and available to all of us so we might be able to do what our principal Campbell needs you know we might be able to do
103these things if we look at those particularly the revenue in this area and um when um someone here asked what the budget increase would be for at level services and it was 4% in a certain figure I I I I wanted also ask Nancy on the basis for that number that 4% increase does that include the Berlin free cash of 383 yes thousand okay basis so so um my understanding from our the chair of our finance committee is that there was an understanding between the past chair Michael tomman and Scott Schultz last year that this was specially designated to go to the four or five students that were coming in we were advised a year ago March that those students were going to land in burland Memorial for fiscal 24 and we needed to close
104that Gap and the school put in uh 3 ,000 school choice you know it was a huge number that happened at the end of the year it was not intended to be the budget basis for fiscal 24 as you look at fiscal 25 so we can't we can't cut that okay all right there's things I don't I don't know and understand but let me ask we can't cut that so we'd have to cut make other Cuts okay so in our current year budget I mean one of the things that we really needed to look at was what was a level Services budget this is the first time that I've actually heard a number and I wanted to understand it was my followup question but where did that $383,000 go uh did those four students actually
105enroll and show up and we are re educating this year as have gone somewhere else and then I think there is a same year emergency payment through circuit breaker did we get those monies I I know last year a couple in the last just see here we have gotten those same year payments I don't know they're emergency payments and I think we would have qualified in fiscal 24 but I don't know if we actually received the money so the overall question is can you help the towns you know we don't have a credit card in the towns we are under the state mandate just like you're under State mandate for special ed we're under State mandate for two and a half proposition two and a half and that's meant to be just a little break
106so that the residential real estate taxpayers year to year don't get these huge increases all of our taxpayers are dealing with the same inflation we're talking about here and and I I think what John Campbell said is is really appropriate you know I've been looking at the desing numbers we are this District in particularly the town of berland has been has always done more than was required and Massachusetts takes a look at our population how many students how many people we have it looks at the land it looks at the property values it looks at wages and it comes up with these Chapter 70 numbers so the state aid that comes to us is based on a complicated formula I don't understand it but the thing we need the thing we need to do year
107to year is live within that two and a half% That's the Law it's been the law here how many decades three four decades and and so all right you know let me finish Megan because I just I don't want to go too far off I'm trying to get the particularly the Educators in the room to have a little level of comfort that I think this can be worked out and um I don't want to see either town have to go to an override because look in the long term you pay for it and you have to borrow money we need to be fiscally responsible on our towns and and that has a knock on effect on the schools and what we've been able to do and if we do a plan if we do a
108fiveyear plan like we do with capital we do fiveyear plans that will that will make the wish list doable but to the point that Peg made we need to we need to go we need to stay integrated in the process of planning and we've had a couple of rough years because we haven't been in it and I want to see us come together better so thank you Megan for giving me the floor and I um was there a all right so you asked two questions so the first one was nany's verifying that number so Janelle the question was and I don't know if you know this off the top of your head do we use that $383,000 for educating did those students actually come into the district and did we use that money to educate
109so I'm really uncomfortable discussing specific student circumstances in this setting but we absolutely used appropriately for special education that's all yeah in Berlin memorial correct yeah that those would have to be used in Berlin um I I did send a link yeah to the admin team um to show the have quick access to the information and you just um you'll have you have to download from that link you have to download fy4 and you'll find the numbers are are you referring to circuit breaker yes so it m on March 4th they did update it and I apologize I I didn't get this they did increase the 75% so that we will be getting 646 831 and that was updated on March 4th thanks Nancy that that Revenue line uh 2014 forecast so this is Grand
110news we just found coule $1,000 which will help us 158 so that will increase by 5883 my wish that's for the whole District Mary so that's gonna go I understand yeah yeah so that's good news good news what I what a good um easy way just for the committee you could always trade out school choice for circuit breaker now that we have more money for the allocation or do a little bit from each or something well you know I mean that revenue is going to lower the um you can either we don't want to take from school choice it seems like that's not favorable so the we could lower the one 94 by the 158 and use circuit breaker instead I could allocate it differently and then we could take less from school choice we
111don't have to decide that tonight though we just have to vote on yeah you got to vote on a number we the total number and then we can decide if we take it from circuit breaker or whatever and S sorry one other com I just want to ask on the Tonto student numbers how does the contingent fit into those numbers your moment's definitely going down the numbers are going down into is that because some of those students are going into as yeah the also droing correct Coro all right guys so uh this is where we are we feel people feel that we need more we found $158,000 that's great so we can take a chunk of that from instead of using school choice if we keep do people want to make Cuts in Berlin or
112do you want to do you want to add things what do you want to do I think we kind of NE we're at this point in this conversation where we need to be productive in the conversation because we married the teachers in class I want you to be serious one per grade one grade I don't this is I'm trying to be serious I don't want to I want you to say what you would do to this budget you want to add things you want to cut things I'm asking honestly stick to yeah stick to our plan uh I would stick to the numbers from the February 27th whatever the date was February 27th that's what I would do so you would include all of these these things on page two can somebody go yeah the
113reduction so you'd add back the Berlin math tutor oh my goodness if the town votes not PID for it then we come back all right so what specifically do we want to add back in because a lot of this is Tanto I think we I think we have to listen yeah a lot of time but that that's one person's opinion on the that's all know I want to get everyone's op yeah yeah yeah all right so Mike is saying he wants to add back but just the math tutor so added back in the math he said just the Berlin Memorial stuff the recess Aid are we sure that recess Aid was BMS and not beses that's a bees thing that's typo no you already have one at BMS I thought we were adding no this
114is these are reductions from the budget on February 27th on February 27th bees wanted to add a recess Aid we do not have a recess Aid so that's a reduction that's taking out the BS my current recess a I have a recess a she covers lunches and recesses and does some work for teachers that's that wait wait hold on no told that none of these positions currently exist yeah no that should say be that's a typo that should say be we're notp we're not we're not getting rid of your recess a we're not we're not in the business of cutting heads at least I'm not okay she'll be happy to hear it told her something else today Megan that was my question I had to this list none of these positions exist today like they're
115not going to work tomorrow yes that's my understanding of this list correct well what John just said is no some of them are are we sure because that's I don't think that we're sure but it's ch would no we are sure that is bees I thought weren't cutting any heads i i w was completely unaware of that not looking at stay yes we had it in The Bu none of the cuts were heads no what and I just want to point out that some of them are just not adding time on to what currently exists but was that another cut that he put through that might be been a different cut that he put through when he did his Cuts adding time on adding he did not cut the rec yeah that's what I just
116want to make sure we're saying for the math Tut we have a math were're not cut that point we're just adding another half go so to be clear this list none of these hours on this list are paid up today Mike that is my understanding of this list okay John sh yeah me too no yeah I'm feel really bad that a little bit it's in my figure as bees recess sa like that that is what that is it's not so that's a typo that should say bees so there's nothing on here that we were cutting it's the part-time Math t yeah and the par professional the kindergarten par professional so Mike you want to add back the kindergarten par professional and you want to make math tutor full-time that's my opinion what we should do
117up two I mean do you want to do the preschool evaluation I think that's fine to push that okay all right everybody else Lisa what are you thinking I'm thinking that we don't change anything like you suggested okay what did she say Lisa's thinking we vote on the budget as is as currently stated and what what are so now that we found that we have that money in circuit breaker we don't have to decide that now but that opens up some opportunities to make that action that we will have to take in boil and not so painful because we won't get that whole 158 but we'll probably get 60 no more we got a good chunk of it more than 50% well 50% for Tanto you'll get 65 50 plus you get 25 6 you're
118gonna get you'll get a decent chunk you know you're gonna get more than half of that for Boon all right uh L sorry or jul did you want to speak I'm sorry I just wanted to ask question Janelle the the full-time special education teacher at tondo I know Lisa has spoken to this do you feel like that is a need more than a want I think all of the items on that on that list are truly needs um but as Lisa said before we really did you know work on presenting this budget so that it was um you know balanced and responsible then hearing that I would feel like we should vote on the budget as okay Julie yeah I was going to ask about the special education teacher and then the um the adjustment
119C PS again that's a position that that would have been added on to not not eliminated by this right I just want to make sure so what does that mean in terms of that would mean she or he would be there every day we still have a point six position there yeah if they came if we added the additional point for it would be every day every day versus what is it three days a week now three days two she does if I can jump in here she's there two full days and two half days just because of her schedule and the student needs no is she shared with the MS no they don't have one they they do not even have Bor Berlin does not have an adjustment celor but they got a recess
120Aid Jess they have a recess um all right Julie did you have anything else so what how do you how are you [Music] feeling I know I putting everyone on the spot and then I'll say how I feel too I mean I would agree I'd agree with Mike and that these are these are needs and Janelle these are our needs however um to be careful and thoughtful with this budget um I think the reductions are not ideal but to Lisa's point they did take time to go through this and say we will be okay this year upcoming year okay um with this reduction was that that I see so I would I would agree that to go ahead with okay because we we we can't add any more reductions to this there's nothing we can't
121add any more reductions yeah there's nothing there's nothing to add for yeah we're in a tough place this year yeah this is a very tough tough place this year and it you know the state is not helping with the with the mandates kids deserve education that's a hard thing for the schools and the towns um Jess I just want to confirm so the point2 FTE floating nurse remains correct we were trying to make that a full-time correct yes um yeah I mean you know we don't want to cut bodies that we currently have you know and if the admin you know bees we need a classroom teacher to Hanto to make the full time to at least get two more classes added to the math curriculum um you know it's not ideal um I think
122all of us would like to put that back on the February budget totally agree but if you know it's potentially going to Berlin to fail and then go and then we have to cut bodies you know I think you know and hopefully with working with the towns next year and they realize where our at level budget actually means because of the different cost that we have no control over that maybe we'll be in a better place next year okay all right does anyone want to say anything else before I think I'm gonna put this to a vote is every is everyone ready I said I was going to give you a break at 6:30 and I didn't but how about I do you one better and we put this to vote unless anyone has anything
123else to say I just want to thank the admin team because knowing that everybody's on board it makes that that it was a collaborative effort I think makes a huge difference as a school committee member I speak for myself but that's how I feel knowing thank you that everybody had their say in their voice every step along the way I mean we were we were our prin the principal in the buildings and they were grueling conversations so but everybody's I think everybody stuck together and helped each other too during this time Carol did you want to say I just didn't know if you want to give your opinion oh my opinion my opinion is to vot as this um I'm a little concerned about Berlin is K still here crunch numbers real quick yeah so
124I mean we're still in Berlin we're still asking I guys like honest to God I'd love to add all this I see the need for the floating N I would love the grounds maintenance I want to bees every day and I'm Blown Away by how much work needs to be done outside they have they have garden beds there's so many things that could be done math tutor everything I think it's only fair to have a two pair of Prof professionals a BMS we have two a bees you know the adjustment counts are all of it every single thing especially the special ed teacher um so it's painful to look at this and um and say this but at the same point in time I don't think an override is going to pass I don't want
125to be put in that situation um and I think next year it might not work maybe it will I think we need to get where the towns you know not give them our number ahead of time but hey we need to add this this this and this how are you going to make it happen you know and we kind of did that with the roof of bees and I was very skeptical but I think that's GNA work out please don't prove me wrong it sounds like in two years we're gonna have a new roof on bees and we're not going to have to do an override to get it so that's a very positive thing and I'm hoping like we can have more of those instances with the towns you know moving forward so I
126I think we keep it as it is like I said the only thing I'm a little concerned with is is the Berlin number but I just don't see where we can cut anything um we're not adding anything to Berlin Memorial so the only thing we could cut you know like John says what's special do these kids not get music or do they not get art and how detrimental is that to these these children's education so my opinion is thank you as keep it as it is all right so do you guys want to take it to vote and if there's more discussion we'll take a break or first off does anyone else want to say anything else Meg I say one more Sor I'll make it really okay um the 383 I'm not trying to
127all and the money was to fill a gap in special education is clearly needed obviously mandated and and no one's disputing that however I know that that gets reimbursed a year and a years right so because there was such a high and fy2 four I think we're seeing those numbers come in higher in terms of reimbursement in FY 25 so the one request I would have is if you can go back and look at those special education reimbursement numbers for FY 25 and what they're estimated to be because I think you might actually be picking up a little bit of money there um and that might be one place that you can look at that may help yeah thank you Kristen that's an excellent point we're whereas we're getting this money or we found this
128$158,000 with the circuit breaker you know maybe maybe we figure out if we use some of that as well to fund part of the budget this year I hate using the revolving funds to fund the budget but um you know hopefully with planning um and I mean I hate to say this but at some point these towns are going to have to go to override at some point in time because when you're putting up houses your taxes you're getting if you put up a $500,000 house and somebody's paying $10,000 in taxes that's not enough to educate even one child forget about if you have two or three or four kids and oh by the way all the services your police your fire your roads so I mean the thing is these towns are popping up
129houses left right they're putting on additions you know in people are moving in they're putting up apartment complexes those are losing propositions for our schools and for our towns you want to talk commercial development okay that's another story but the towns B both Berlin and Boyston have shied away from that they don't want to turn the towns into that you know shopping malls stuff like that we've talked about Solomon pal M so at the end of the day that is the huge issue I see us all facing and we need to work together to solve that problem for the schools I don't know what the answer is though um all right so does anyone else want to say anything yeah mik first sorry then you Mary yep just kind of to Mary's point and Peg's
130Point earlier and Kristen's point you know March 4th they change these numbers if we try to do a budget in November yeah we're going to be changing these numbers and March even if we vote at the end of February so maybe after town meeting someone puts together a timeline check list policy procedure how often to check these numbers how often to update these numbers how often to review the State numbers since it seems to be you know a moving Target or moving goal post as joh to say but something we can all follow so everybody's on the same page you know yeah a great idea ility for that because this this has given me to your point the a of this year if we kept our original meeting for February 27th to do this budget
131hearing we' be back here next week because March 4th had changed it yeah we'd have to do another vote yeah so I mean I don't know what the timelin are should be but let's get on the same yeah we gotta yeah and maybe that's a good question for our consultant to put something like that together for us to well I think the reason why our timeline was this year is because we had Consultants M they were telling us to do that that's why we did this yes because they knew these were going to change in March right that was the intention it we've never expected firm numbers in February so know we just need something to work off we know change so just to clarify that all right Mary what do you sure very briefly
132on the timeline so as Town start as the town start to see their revenue picture it's an iteration to go back and forth and so so budgets r as estimates I did them corporate so you you go back and forth they're never a fixed number they always but we do have to we have to draw a line in the see and vote at some point but but building it what it does is it tempers the expectations on both sides of what can be done and to your point about as we had as we had as we build new residential and so on the state formula on Chapter 70 I learning it more than I want to know about all this is driven by how many students are enrolled you know your minimum mandated budget and
133also driven by the real estate values in the municipalities and the towns and by the wages by the the so right yes we went over that the state money it it this may not be a catastrophe that you're worried about NE because the state monies are going to go up well if the income I mean this that's the other thing we looked at this with our consultant and the incomes in the towns are too high believe it or not I understand that that's a problem for as when when they're doing the school because the incomes are so high so the C lowers our calculation right so we should all give up some money right we should all just we can donate it to the school district then we get more money well then loing I
134mean the idea that the incomes are too high they're not too high they are what they are too high for the calculation no no okay who cares about forget about the calculations incomes are are higher in these two towns because these two towns attract people with higher incomes who want to live here because it has a good school district because they want to be in this type of you start cutting cutting this not improving that not adding to that I guarantee I'll get your property taxes way down promise you that value yeah exactly you won't value your house y tax will nope I agree all right what do you guys think okay so um Nancy where's the final number in this it's on page I just got to vote we just have to vote the
13523762 4 23762 4 58 okay can I please have a motion to approve the bbrsd school budget in the amount of 23 m762 458 for the fiscal year 25 so moved L Jess any discussion I'd like to move to amend the motion to add in all the FTE production CS to that number [Music] okay a second and just to be clear that would be all these FTE positions listed on their reductions onage every single reduction the FTE so everything except the preschool and school okay so that amendment is on the table does anyone want to second that all right so there's no second so that dies right all right so the original motion is on the table to approve the budget for the 458 all right any more discussion all in favor any opposed I
136oppos I'm an i as well that motion passes all right thank you so much everybody for seriously thank you for all of your hard work administrators Nancy Dan Paul Nicole Sally Janelle Carol Julie Julie so thank you guys very much um all right guys we're gonna meet when probably tomorrow when are we meeting April oh April April 9th April 9th is our next meeting all right could I please have a motion to adjourn the meeting so Mo lri second Julie all in favor I I'm not as well thank you yeah