001meeting on Tuesday, March 31st at 11:35 a.m. Could we do a roll call, please? Mary Beckwith? Here. John Nunes? Yeah. Chris Oliver? Here. Kathleen Amaral? Beth Caldwell? I just say we're here to discuss the agenda item of looking at the proposed revised school committee school budget for FY 27. I would just remind everyone, Mary, that this meeting is being video recorded for live broadcast and future broadcast. Okay. This meeting is being recorded for live broadcast as well as for future broadcast on DCTV. So, shall we begin with a review of the proposed changes to the budget? Could we discuss the more fully? Yeah, I I would just say I know that Mr. Carli had forwarded to you an updated document update that updates some of our proposed revisions to the budget. And so, this is
002an opportunity for us to have discussion about that and answer any questions that you may have. Are we able for the viewing public, are we able to put that um uh updated draft revision um on Zoom? Let me get it to you. Is someone able to share their screen? Yeah, we're working on that right now. >> Yep. Perfect. I am always happy um to start off if no one else has anything um Madam Vice Chair. Um that's fine with us. Is it okay with you, Mr. Noons? >> Perfect. I've got some I've got some comments, but I'll you know. Yeah, let's let's wait till it's up on the screen, please. Sure. I um Mr. Oliver, are you going to uh refer to to uh that document that Mr. Kylie sent us? Yes, I'm going to
003Yeah, I'm going to be Okay. If you weren't, I'd say go ahead, but let's let's wait till we can see it. >> worries. Should be coming up momentarily. No, just just the second one. Thank you. Yep, that one. Not seeing it yet. It's about to pop up. >> Okay, see it. Yep, it's coming. Thank you. Okay, go ahead, Mr. Oliver. Uh unless there's anything Mr. Kylie wants to say before we start making comments or asking questions. Well, I mean I I I'm sorry. Or anything Dr. Sabin Maguire wants to say as well. I mean I I guess what I'd offer is that from our perspective you know, we thought that the the last school committee meeting was a was a very productive one. Um it was nice to have the select board attend and and
004we thought it was uh a good collaborative meeting in which the town administration you know, made a change to what they were initially allocating. We were pleased to see that. Uh so we have prepared a draft revision for your consideration. We're not asking you for a vote today. The vote would be on the third on April 13th. But what we're offering for your consideration is a revised proposal of total request of 5%. The detail on the screen shows you how we've gotten to that 5%. So we've reduced the amount of of maintenance increase, music increase, and athletic increase to level funding. So anything above level funding we have reduced. And we've also been able to incorporate and maintain uh some of the key positions that we recommended in the previous request. So the four ESPs
005at the elementary level, the three RBTs, the adjustment counselor at the middle school, the job coach in the Outlast program, and the elementary instrumental music. We've maintained in this budget request. Um we've made a couple of adjustments in terms of a reduction of a teaching staff position at the Quinn school. Um, and that is that would be through um through attrition. Um, there's a there's a retirement in that area, so um, you know, it wouldn't be a reduction in force. Um, we've also, you know, we were pleased to have the support of the DART, which is the um the the organization in town that organize organizes and coordinates the opioid spending of the opioid funds, so that has been able to help us uh with shifting some money that we would have spent on school
006choice to opioids, and therefore money that we could spend in school choice from our budget. So, the the total of that is is a 5% increase. Uh, so that's that's sort of where we are, and you see there um sort of you know, the variance in terms of what the town projection uh was um offered at the the 4 and 1/2% at the uh last school committee meeting on the 23rd. Okay, thank you. Um, questions for Mr. Kylie uh and or uh Mr. Oliver. You can um proceed with your comments and questions. Yeah, no, I was I was very pleased when this uh when we uh were sent this um from Mr. Kylie. Um, you know, I I think it is speaks to what I had mentioned um around forward-facing positions um and being cognizant
007of the town's bottom line. Um, clearly they did some work here um looking at enrollment numbers or enrollment projections for next year for kindergarten. Um and I see that there was some backup data that was uh shared with us as well around the FY27 projected kindergarten enrollment. Um which uh makes me feel um better uh seeing this data. Um and knowing that we're going to be looking at cutting or a a kindergarten position at Quinn due to uh low enrollment. Um obviously, I'm going to assume um I'm sure it's safe to assume that if enrollment were to change, you know, if numbers were to uptick, uh that we would have to look at uh keeping this position or bringing this position back. Is that Is that fair to say, uh Dr. Stave Amobi? I would
008say that is fair to say, yes. We will be monitoring our kindergarten enrollment very closely. Uh we're confident that the numbers that you have in front of you now, um we expect them to rise a bit, but not so dramatically that we believe that this uh this position um at this point in time, that this position uh losing this position won't cause us or cause the district great harm. Um but at the same time, we will be looking closely at those numbers as we get closer to uh to to the fall. Perfect. Um I appreciate that. So, yeah, no, I I'm I'm certainly um you know, I think we we are from my point of view anyway, we're we're trying to work with with the town as best as possible while you know, advancing our
009district's strategic plan as as best as we can uh within the confines or the constraints of our of the budget. Um there is a $278,000 difference between where where our 2.5% from where we're coming in to where the town um you know wants to be. So, I'm hopeful that uh we can get closer uh to to funding our you know our budget request. Um do you feel optimistic, Mr. Carli? Uh I mean, certainly more optimistic than I was prior to our meeting on the 23rd. Obviously, there's you know there is a level of support and recognition for our needs amongst uh the community, the the other boards. Uh so so we appreciate that very much. I I have a meeting tomorrow morning um with the town administrator. So, hopefully um you know we'll know a
010little bit more at that point, but um I'm going to update him based on what may may happen today um in this meeting. Okay, perfect. Happy to hear that. Um and then I see my my last uh point would just be that we're continuing uh to spend down school choice the $245,000. Um I'll just say after um you know certainly reading some of the local media, there's a lot of Monday morning quarterbacks out there that think they know best uh with uh the school budget and uh how we should be spending school choice. Um I I will certainly say that spending school choice all at once in 1 year uh does not make any physical uh sense. Uh we have fiduciary responsibility and to spend all of our school choice funds in 1 year um
011would put us in a uh a very bad spot for the following year. So, I you know I'm confident with this uh this budget plan. Um you know I certainly I would love to have seen everything else be funded, but I think going at the town, this shows that we're willing to work with the town. Thank you, Madam Vice Chair. Mr. Noons? Yep. Oh, um actually, Mr. Kylie, can you leave it up for a moment cuz I have a couple questions. Mhm. I got just one thing to make. I um Go ahead, Mr. Noons. Sorry about that. No problem. Thank you. Madam Vice Chair. Uh I appreciate the work that that has gone into this. Uh As I've kind of said before, I for one am am still torn with putting 50 59.2 million dollars
012uh as our budget type of deal, the six the 6.85%. Um I'm a little frustrated uh because I raised the question at uh when we were presented this budget at the beginning of February to say we need to make sure that uh town hall was aware of where we were going and it was emphasized that they had been at the budget subcommittee meetings. So, they knew where we were coming from. Okay? And why they didn't uh at that point in time or uh you know, maybe a week or so later uh say you know, we got a problem. We can't You can't do that or we we being the town cannot do that. Instead, they wait till you know, quarter past 4:00 for our meet our last night our meeting in March to uh to
013send us their their proposal. With that being said, I'll get off my soapbox on that. Uh we've got for discussion for and we had a little bit of a discussion with uh the uh kindergarten the $300,000 in the kindergarten stabilization type of deal. And no, I don't want to you know, and and we did have a discussion about using that for personnel, but again, we walk off that cliff next year because we don't have the $300,000 to fund that uh those positions. So, my thought has been and it may be all wet now after last night's selectmen's meeting, if it even happened, was to take some of that to take that $300,000 and and and Mr. Kylie and I had a discussion on this this morning. And Jim, I just came up with one other
014uh idea. But, you know, what part of the the use the $300,000 to you know, make the adjustment in the uh the the 15 grand that was cut from the music, the 107 that was cut from athletics. And again, this is trying to fix some things here. Uh with 15 grand uh and this is and then I Mr. Kylie, we didn't talk about this and I just thought about it now and I apologize, but use you know, 15 grand to uh fund that athletic uh coordination stipend, you know, to give Mr. Cristofoli some help. And then, you know, probably, you know, so that's $137,000. You know, gives us a hundred and you know, $63,000 that maybe we can do something with some of the things that maintenance needs type of deal. And again, we've got
015an overall problem in the town with a structural deficit type of deal. And unfortunately, my thought is until we kind of you know, we can't spend school choice. This Chris, I agree with you wholeheartedly. You know, if we go through school choice all in one year, we're dead. We're just, you know, close you know, last one out shut the lights off as they say. But the 300,000 and and you know, uh kindergarten stabilization use for you know, per se one-time items. You know, to uh to offset these things. I mean, if we don't have that money's next year, you know, in the uh '28 budget, you know, okay, but at least we had it to do some things in '27. You know, now I know the selectmen was supposed to I didn't watch the meeting
016last night, didn't go. Uh I know the selectmen was supposed to uh vote on warrant articles and then close the warrant. So, you know, would they even consider us reopening uh reopening that so we could put an article for this 300 grand? I don't know. But those are that's my uh that's my thought on this budget. I like what has been done. I mean, I'm you know, you know, we're still kicking the can down the road with human resources. I know the town said, you know, you can you know, they're willing to help out with their person type of deal. But now you're bouncing between two buildings and you know, different personnel and somebody may not be fully aware of what goes on on the school side versus the town side. So, I get a
017little concerned with that, you know, these are positions that we need. So, we have to think about those real seriously. Thank you, ma'am. Thank you, Mr. Nunes. Um I have just one question on the maintenance uh reduction. Uh what would be we be sacrificing uh by reducing that increase? I understand the music. I understand the athletic, but uh with maintenance what what are we losing by reducing that? Right. So, so uh you know, in in expressing our needs in the fiscal year 27 budget, uh the original proposal, I included an increase to the maintenance budget of 365,000 really to address uh preventative and predictive maintenance efforts and the seven buildings. So, uh you know, we we all know that these buildings are only getting older. They're having more and more concerns and it's imperative for
018us to try and stay ahead of those, you know, those concerns in terms of a predictive maintenance program and a preventative maintenance program. And to be honest, we don't we are reactionary right now. We are not uh I mean, we're preventative in terms of servicing the boilers, let's say, um which we do regularly, or changing filters in in air units, but we are not we don't have a truly comprehensive preventative maintenance program. And so, um you know, given where where where we're headed, I I mean, I I guess I'm I'm pleased to mention that the select board approved the statement of interest for the Dartmouth Middle School building last night. So, that was that was fantastic. We're we're thrilled that that's uh you know, a priority for the select board and hopefully for the community.
019Um but, you know, that's a long-term that's a long-term solution to a short-term problem. >> had a maintenance staff member. Right. Well, yes. We had we had built in a maintenance staff member. Obviously, that didn't make this proposal either. Um but but really, we want to be sure we can maintain these buildings long-term with that $365,000. And And I think what it's going to mean is that we're going to be re- continue to be reactionary and do our best. Um for instance, this year we were at a capital improvement planning meeting and we mentioned the fact that our that our um that our generator at the high school was broken and not working and the finance committee did a transfer to our budget to pay for the fix. And it was I forgot $37,000, I
020think. So, um so, that was wonderful of them. But, things like preventative maintenance to this equipment um is is critical and we need to be on top of that. If if we're going to do things right. And so, that's why that proposal was there. Correct. Okay, thank you. That that um that makes sense. Um I just want to thank um Mr. Kylie and Dr. Seaman Maguire for uh um dropping back and and working on this so quickly. Um And um thank you for all of the information you provided today. I do I can turn back over to Ms. Coughlin um if she Sure. Sorry about that. No, no worries. Um so I mean >> Sometimes it's good to be thrown into the deep end. Well, this was a gentle deep end I would say cuz
021it's uh limited scope. Um so obviously I missed a bunch. Um I I really appreciate um the town sharpening their pencil and finding more money for us. Um I think the schools need this um and they need more than the 4.5 but I I feel that we as the school committee can't ignore the revenue problems of the town and the restraints they are against. Um so um I would like to try to meet that 4.5% increase and uh since I came late to this party um did the full-day kindergarten funds come up because I do believe that um we should just we need to use it at some point and it seems like this is a good time and I don't know if it could um it could help with unfunded um things within the
022budget or um the possible key factor cuts. Like I'm not saying it should just go to one but if we reduced all a little bit could go to each so that we could still be making forward progress. What I want to see is not us going backwards. I want us to see us moving forward cuz once you lose ground it's very hard to make it up. Um so um that's where I stand and I am sorry that I am late. Um so, I'm assuming everybody else has said their piece and asked their questions. Yeah, I think Mr. Noons um wants to comment on the kindergarten stabilization fund. Great. Would the Would Ms. Clavell like to hear my rant again? Uh if you could uh reduce the No, I'm I'm kidding. No problem. In all seriousness,
023ma'am, uh I had a conversation with uh Mr. Kylie this morning and it was more what to the point like you just said about using uh that stab fund to uh fix the uh music increase, the the 15 grand there, the 107 for athletics. I did not mention to Mr. Kylie and I apologize for that, but to uh just thinking about it, using the using an additional 15,000 for the uh athletic coordination stipend to give Mr. Cristofoli some help. And then whatever was left to uh you know, it it would be uh 140, 160 somewhat thousand, give or take, uh to put back into that into the maintenance increase, you know, Mr. Kylie talked about preventive maintenance and things of that nature. So, that was basically what I said. With regards to the stab fund.
024Okay, I'm I'm I'm on board with you. Um But I'm also I'm also not sure as I mentioned because last night at the selectmen's meeting they were supposed to go over the the warrant articles and then close the warrant. So, will they reopen it for us type of deal for an article of this nature or you know, because that could also open Pandora's box for somebody else. Well, if you do it for one, you got to do it for another. That type of deal. I don't know. So, that's my concern. Does anyone know the the answer to that question? They at the select board's meeting last night, they they did vote to um close the warrants. I do I I am not sure if that is limited to all new articles or citizens petition articles.
025I I'm not I'm not certain. Um but like I said, I have a meeting with the town administrator tomorrow morning, so I can I can inquire as to that possibility. I guess what I would say about use of the the kindergarten stabilization money on those items would be that I think that music, athletics, and um maintenance are structural deficit items that need to be eventually in the budget and for real. Um so, I mean I I don't there are some one-time things that we could do within the within those programs, but I I think it's more long-term. So, I I always hesitate to you know, use those funds for you know, use the one-time funds for something that's recurring, but but I do agree they have to be used at some point. The other thing
026is if we're going to use them on that, that doesn't then we're still got a 200 250,000 shot. 278,000 dollar debt amount, which obviously I will talk to the town administrator about tomorrow. So, um but you know, that's up to you folks to decide where you will want us to have, but but yeah. Anyway, two garden stabilization is 367,000. Well, okay. Made some interest and stuff. Yeah, okay. So, that's I had >> More than we thought. I had 300 on the brain. Mhm. My feeling is we spend it however we spend it, I'll defer to the professionals. But it should be spent in one way or the other. Yeah. I mean Sorry. Yes, Mr. News. Um I agree with you, Chris. I mean, because look, somewhere down the line in all seriousness, and leave school
027choice out of it for a minute, we're going to have to expend, you know, all the the quote and unquote surplus money or available funds that we have to be able to use before this town is even going to start looking at overrides. That's right. You know what I mean? If If we sit in Now it's And I apologize. I had 300,000 on the brain, and I apologize for that. But, you know, to go to town meeting and say we need an override, and oh yeah, by the way, we got 367 in the kitty, uh we're going to get laughed out of there type of type of deal. But I think what it has to be done. But So, Mr. Kylie, the Dr. Sebold Maguire, are you looking for a motion from from us for
028the 58.2? So you can go to your meeting tomorrow. Well, I I think we're at the point I mean, I obviously, I you know, I didn't prepare the budget motion for a vote for this meeting. Because well, I mean, you're still going to vote on the 13th. So um I thought we were too and and Kathleen's not here. No, no, I was just Some consensus in terms of where we are, I think would be would be critical so I can relate that to the um town administration and make work with the select board. I'm good I'm good I'm good with the, you know, much to my chagrin, I'm good with the presentation. Yeah, I'm good. We can certainly defer till our next meeting. Agreed. Okay. I will keep you posted and get ready for the
029next meeting. Yep. Good luck and thank you for Thank you everybody. Yes, thank you. Well, well well, that's great. Yeah, thank you for all the work. So uh so we are going to adjourn into executive session um for and I don't have the words up here. >> Contract negotiations. Um collective bargaining. Uh for to discuss strategy um that would have a detrimental effect on the school committee bargaining positions for the DAA, DEA, and AFSCME. Um and do I have a motion for that? So moved. And second. >> to return. And local. So a motion by I'm sorry cuz we were all talking over here. By was it Mr. Oliver and then seconded by Ms. Beckwith? That's my I did Mr. News I didn't make that motion. Okay, Mr. News made the motion, seconded by Ms.
030Beckwith, and we need a roll call vote, please. Ms. Copeland? Yes. Mary Beckwith? Yes. Mr. Oliver? Yes. Mr. News? Yes. Thank you. Thank you. Roll The executive session