Everett School Committee Livestream: April 3rd, 2025

001[Music] Hey, hey, hey. [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] Eat. [Music] Do you? Heat. Heat. [Music] be. Hey, hey, hey. [Music] Do you feel Heat. Hey, Heat. [Music] Hey [Music] baby. I ain't [Music] Hey, hey, hey. [Music] Baby, stop. [Music] Good evening and welcome to the Everett School Committee budget committee of the whole meeting on Thursday, April April 3rd, 2025. The time is 6:33 p.m. Clerk, if you could call the role to determine a quorum. Mr. Almeida Baros, present. Miss Babcock, present. Miss Barros, present. Miss Cornelio, present. Miss Cristiano, present. Mayor Di Maria. Mr. Denafhrio. Miss Garren, present. Mr. L Monica. Chairperson Hurley present. Seven members present. Seven members present. We do have a quorum. If everyone could rise for the pledge of allegiance. Pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to

002the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Yeah, Mr. Superintendent, the next order of business. Item number three, public comment. Make a motion to open. Seconded. Motion has been made and seconded to open public comment. All those in favor? I. All those opposed? The eyes have it. Public comment is open. Seeing no speakers this evening, is there anyone that would like to speak? Seeing none, is there a motion to close public comment? Make a motion to close public comment. Seconded. Motion has been made and seconded to close public comment. All those in favor? I. All those opposed? The eyes have it. Public comment is now closed. Mr. Superintendent. The next order of business. Roman numeral number four, agenda item number one, discussion of the Ever Public

003Schools proposed FY fiscal year 26 budget. Madame Chair, members of the school committee, I'd ask you to recognize our deputy superintendent, Gretchen Manning, and our director of budget, uh, Chris Schwitzer, who are seated in front of you. I'd ask you to formally invite them to the table for a future presentation. So move move to invite our guests to present. Second. So move to invite um Chris uh Schwitzer and Deputy Superintendent Gretchen Manning before us to present the um FY26 budget. All those in favor? All those opposed? The eyes have it. Welcome Chris and Gretchen. So, let me uh first begin uh by thanking all of you for this opportunity to present the FY26 budget this evening. As you know, Ever is a community of resilience and pride, and I am indeed proud to present a

004budget to you this evening that puts our students, our families, and our employees first. All school districts have their strengths and their challenges, and Everett is certainly no different. Last year, we graduated our largest class of talented students from Everett High School. This year we will surpass that number with even larger class of 2026. And although we continue to max out every single inch of space in the overcrowded schools across the district, our educators continue to find creative ways to engage and inspire students from preK through grade 12 to learn, to dream, and to succeed. Tonight, you're going to hear a few items uh presented before us to for consideration. the specifics of our fiscal year 26 budget, the contributing factors influencing this budget, and the budget process that has been both qualitative and quantitative

005components for you to consider. School committees, as you know, by law adopt budgets at cost center level. However, here in Everett, we have again gone beyond that requirement and we will be discussing the budget by school and by district closer to line item level. So, we're very transparent and very clear to provide everybody, including the public, the details that I think are important to know as you build a budget of u north of $136 million. Although school committee members received their traditional budget book a few days ago in advance of tonight's meeting. Tonight's presentation, however, will be the specific details of that proposal and that book. and you'll also have time for questions, especially to provide input uh as members of the Everett School Committee. Before we look forward, however, I'd like to take a

006minute to reflect on where we are as a result of last year's budgeting process. To date, we have invested significant uh on in our infrastructure, our IT infrastructure, our systems, our security of our IT programs, and all of the resources that support the district's uh students and staff. We have successfully negotiated five collecting bargaining agreements this year, the components of which are fully included in this year's budget for the upcoming fiscal year. We have engaged students and families through inclusive events to cultivate a sense of belonging and they can and a way in which to contribute to their success. We have developed and implemented trainings around emergency planning for all of our employees to ensure students and and staff safety to the greatest degree possible. And we have implemented year one of the three-year student

007opportunity act plan. And many of you remember who were on the school committee last year the process by which we developed a plan after extensive interview with members of our community and stakeholders. Unlike other districts, our enrollment does continue to grow. The finance team tonight will speak more about our enrollment during their presentation. But unlike other districts, we are on solid footing financially due to our stable enrollment growth combined with our prudent financial decision-making and of course our great partnership with the city of Everett and the mayor's administration has provided us with significant support along the way. Momentarily, I will ask you um to ask both deputy superintendent Gretchen Manning and Chris Whiter to present the details that I referenced. During their presentation, you will hear a vision that is again committed to teaching, learning,

008and student success. You will hear about both values and investment themes that support and relate to high academic standards and curriculum that's inclusive and student centered. We will continue to invest in our IT, our safety, and our infrastructure. We will invest in career readiness initiatives and CTE and voc vocational training pathways and of course the social and emotional well-being of our students. Together um we shine is the title of this slide. Uh we are committed to retaining the dedicated workforce that we have with teachers all who work day in and day out to make our district both a welcoming environment and a learning environment. The fiscical year 26 budget proposal includes the commitments we have made to all those five bargaining units that I mentioned earlier. And I'd like to pause and thank all the

009leaders of the bargaining units for their transparent and collaborative approach to negotiations. We as you know in Everett were very successful in doing um with the support of the school committee and the members of the negotiating team. Uh we we we pursued a path of excellence and we we showed it. There were no walkouts. There was no strikes. There was no um there was harmony and there was cooperation and we came to a wonderful agreement that's supports our environment here in Everett. This certainly has been an inclusive process and to get to this point of sharing the budget this evening. Many of the folks that are in the room tonight to hear the details of the budget help build this budget. Um although there are many interests in a budget of this size, we made

010decisions based on the best interest, the collective best interest of our students and families. In order to balance our budget for district this size, we had to make tough decisions along the way. And we had made a decision uh not to add any new requests that were not already offset by a contract reduction or other savings that we look for in the past operations. Again, we had no layoffs and had no program reductions. With increased fixed costs, we were able to present to you this evening or will be able to present the full balance budget that moves all of our services forward. We believe this is a prudent financial decision for this upcoming fiscal year and hopefully for many years in the future. I'd like to give our families and students every opportunity to succeed

011in life. I want them to be proud to wear their Ever sweatshirts at an event and around the community. And I want to be I want them to be proud to say they not only live here in Everett, but they go to school in our Everett public schools. I know you all want this for them as well. I believe the budget we are proposing tonight does just that for all of us in Everett for fiscal year 2026 and beyond. And with that, I'd like to turn the rest of the program over to um both Deputy uh Superintendent Manning and the director uh Chris Whiter of our budget. And I want to thank you once again for being here um as members of the school committee and for your personal commitment to the success that we've

012enjoyed this past fiscal year. And I know we have bright years ahead here in Everett. So thank you all of you. [Applause] Thank you, Superintendent Hart. It's an honor and a privilege to be speaking to all of you as school committee members tonight and to those of you in the audience and at home. Um talking to you about our FY26 budget proposal. I'd like to dive right in and begin with a friendly reminder of what an annual public b a public school district budget is. It is a vision for the future and it includes priorities for the year ahead. In this instance, it is for the fiscal year 2026 budget, which runs July 1st, 2025 through June 30, 2026. It's an allocation of funds rolled up by cost center and consists of line item detail

013for the district's operations as a whole, for schools, and for the departments within the schools. From a values perspective, it should be inclusive and it should be uh transparent, and ours is just that again. and it should adhere to all applicable federal laws and state law requirements. The budget process is a lengthy process and it begins in January of each year with a review of enrollments and state funding. From February through March, we prepare budget projections and scenarios and we begin our stakeholder meetings. This year, we again met with leadership teams from 10 schools and district departments. I would like to acknowledge the school and department leadership teams were many of whom are behind me tonight for being so well prepared this year for the budgeting process. In March, we focus on rolling up the

014budget line items to operational district and school-based areas. Something to note that our budget director Chris Schweitzer will discuss in more detail is that we develop the structure of the budget based on how we roll up items for our required um department of elementary and secondary uh education desky endofear financial report. And I share that because I know when I looked at the budget for the first time I was wondering why in the world certain line items were under specific cost centers. This brings us to tonight's uh budget committee of the whole. In preparation for tonight's meeting, we've provided school uh committee members with a budget book. Um and we will walk you through that in detail again this year. You'll have the opportunity to ask all of the questions that you'd like and uh

015provide us with your input as well to continue on our trajectory of delivering the budget um by the required May 1st deadline. And that's when we're legally obligated to um provide the budget to city council here in Everett. We will ask you to either move the budget out of the committee as presented or with inclusion of in additional items that you would like us to consider this evening. And as we are now in April, we hold our public budget hearing meetings next week and you will formally vote on a budget adoption and a special school committee meeting on April 29th. After that formal school committee vote in April, we will then be part of the city's budget process and present our bud budget to city council for overall approval. EPS is a department as the

016city as you all know. And although no two budget years are the same, I think it's important that there is a keen understanding of the contributing factors, some of which the superintendent shared um that influence this budget for FY26. Again, we are required uh by DESIE to spend a portion of our chapter 70 funding um provided by the state on our approved student opportunity act plan. The financial impact of that plan you approve for FY26 um is in year two now and that plan is at $ 1.57 uh million for year two. As a friendly reminder, the investment in English learners from from that plan covers our director of inclusion, director of tier 2 literacy, director of tier 2 math, eight instructional coaches, eight ELA and literacy curriculum for grades K through five, and curriculum

017investments and professional development for early literacy screenings and literacy and math interventions. One common consideration all school district faced last year was the end of the federal grant ESER. I won't kid about the name of it this year. You may all recall our district absorbed all positions that were e on ESER in FY24 into our operating budget for this current year. We've continue to absorb those investments in the full in this budget proposal for FY26. Our general contractual um and bargaining obligations are also a contributing factor. As a superintendent mentioned, we are grateful to have worked with a collaborative leadership and membership team this year to successfully bargain all five um collective bargaining um contracts in concert with all of you. The majority of the final uh financial impact of bargaining is realized in personnel

018line items and including salaries. It also includes longevity pay and also academic and degree uh differentials as well. The largest uh substantive change we are proud to include in this budget is being able to bring our par profofessionals up to a living wage um for the important work and we thank you for approving that through the bargaining process. uh the finance team and I would like to thank all of the teachers, the Perez, the administrative assistants, the custodians and all unit members who worked collaboratively to make this happen. In all honesty, without that collaborative approach, without that harmony the superintendent spoke about, we would not be able to provide you with a service level budget this evening, um we would have been looking at a much different financial situation for the next three years. We

019again will see significant increases in special education, health insurance, and fixed or infrastructure costs. Like many districts, the cost to provide the important work of special education services continues to climb. Our education costs will rise by 20.5% next year with an impact of $1.2 million on our operating budget. We all want to talk about value and priority investments that are studentf facing. That's what we should be focusing on, right? Our mission. But we again face the reality that just as you budget for fixed cost in your households, we have the responsibility to take into account those critical infrastructure costs um or the district just simply could not operate or deliver its mission. So, as everything from eggs to books is increasing for all school districts, we too have the fiscal responsibility and account for these

020economic increases in our operating budget. And so, finally, before I turn it over to um Chris Schweitzer, I wanted to talk about the budget assumptions, some very similar to um the components of the budget. um our budget cost center again are all organized in the manner of our DESIE year-end report. Year one of the SO S S S S S S S S S S S S S S S S S S S S S S S S S S S S S S S S S S S S S S S S O plan that I just spoke about at the $ 1.57 million investment is included in this budget. And as districts throughout the Commonwealth are faced with the reality of significant budget shortfalls, their only options are layoffs or budget overrides at

021the city level. We're very fortunate here. were able to maintain our workforce uh account for increases in the fixed cost and print present to you a service level budget tonight. That means that everything we currently have in place now continues forward to next year. Unlike other school districts, we do not have to reduce programs. We don't have to reduce services and we don't have to reduce staff to provide a quality education for all students. So this budget proposal is an investment in our students, in our systems, and our most valuable resource, our people. Our people in all departments, in all schools, and all levels who collectively are committed to teaching, learning, and student success. And with that, I would like to turn it over to my colleague at the budget guru, Chris Schwitzer, um, to

022give a detailed uh, overview at the cost center and line item level. Thank you, Gretchen. Uh, just before I get started, I'd just like to thank the mayor, the school committee members for having me here today to present the FY26 superintendent's proposed budget and four-year continued service and dedication to Ever Public Schools in the larger Ever community. I would also like to thank all those that were part of the budget development process, including our students through the student advisory council and through other avenues and to our school leaders, our district-wide instructional leaders and department heads, many of which are behind us tonight. Thank you for the work that all of you do each and every day and for your impact, input, and feedback into this year's budget proposal. I am very proud of the work

023that we as a district have performed and proud of this budget proposal and look forward to our discussion here tonight. Uh, as with last year, I'd like to start off before we get to the financial portion of the presentation. Let's take a look at enrollment. Uh, we work with a third-party vendor, Open Architects, to perform various methods of analysis for us on many different metrics. One of which is our enrollment projections. The numbers presented here on this chart for 2025 and prior is based on our district's October 1 enrollment number that would have been reported to DESIE. Our enro enrollment number here this year on October 1st was 7,347. Uh just for context of last year that's only nine shy of the projection they had given us last year. As of last week our enrollment

024in the district is nearly 7,500 which also falls in line with about where we were last year. historically districts, but particular particularly ours. Throughout the year, we'll have an enrollment around this time of year higher than that October one number as students may move into the district or students may be able to get into the atoms or the WebEx as they achieve that age of three. So now as I start the finance portion of the presentation, uh just like last year, I just want to highlight exactly how the data is going to be presented to set expectations. I will first start off by presenting the data at the highest level. As you can see here, this is our proposed FY26 budget. I will then present the highle budget information shortly, including how we arrived at

025these numbers presented to you when you take into account state aid via chapter 70 funds and required local funds contributed by the city. Essentially, that's what makes up our foundation budget or our net school spending required number. The FY26 total budget is the sum of the school's operating budget, as you can see here, plus the special education transportation budget. You will see me speaking to the lines um over the next few slides that speak to that $136.9 million number. For context, the special education transportation budget is presented above and beyond our daily operating budget as sped transportation is nonnet school spending eligible. So that is why that has to be contributed by the city above and beyond. As we do get into the rest of the finance portion here uh in the next hour or

026so um I just want to highlight a few key factors to provide additional context for the presentation. We are continuing firstly with the administration's commitment to present staff and non-personnel financial information as transparently as possible. You will find the information presented here tonight follows the same format as we did last year which I think you say you know work pretty well for the flow of the presentation. Secondly, all the FY25 numbers that are presented are directly from the general ledger. Last year, we had presented and expanded chart of accounts to promote transparency and adhere to updates to Desi's chart of accounts. The additions made last year primarily were the result of new departments and salaries coming off of the ESSER grant. In an effort this year to refine our chart of accounts, as was explained

027in the memo, we're presenting new lines within our systemwide and our high school budgets to assist with procurement to assist with reporting to DESIE and to further promote transparency of where expenses are being budgeted to as we approach those sections for the systemwide and the high school. I'll speak further to those. Third, last year we had quite a few zeros in various budget lines. In almost all cases, that was due to new departments and lines and positions coming off of ESSER. This year, we do have some zeros in either the FY25 or the 26 column. I did speak to those in the memo and as those come up tonight, uh, I will speak to those. Fourth, when we do get to the financial information summaries here in a few slides and then into the schools,

028I will again be presenting in the order of school administration/theschool committee. I'll then go to systemwide and then we'll review each school individually. First by staff and then secondly by personnel and then finally to promote a more consistent flow or consistent flow to the presentation. Uh I'll routinely stop you know where appropriate at certain slides to answer any questions that you might have. So what exactly makes up our FY26 budget? Our net school spending number is provided to us by DESIE in January and it represents the minimum number of funds required for us to provide the educational experience. Our net school spending number is comprised of a required local contribution from the city and then our net school spending number less that local contribution is made up by state aid or chapter 7 funds for

029this upcoming year. Our net school spending number is $172.7 million or 6.74% increase over this current year. We then take back costs that the city incurs due to our school operations. These are the chargebacks, and I'll speak more to that on the next slide. We then arrive at our net school spending after chargebacks number. The sum of this number backs us into that $136.9 million number I had on the previous slide. When you then add back in the sped transportation uh budget number, that's what arrives us to the 142,154,420 budget. To briefly go over the chargebacks, here's a summary overview chart. I'll walk you through the various categories of the chargebacks agreement between the city and the school department. As I just said, these costs are, you know, costs that are directly incurred by the

030city as a result of the school department and our staff. The board of health, this captures the cost for the nurses to be staffed in our schools. We pay for all the nurs's salaries and then a portion of the board of health director salary. The administration section, this captures the expenses for the city finance offices around accounting and in the treasury regarding payroll, the health and life insurance. This includes primarily the health insurance for active and for retired employees. This is the second largest contributor to our chargebacks increase this year. City retirement includes our share of the city's retirement assessment. The other benefits captures school contributions towards workers compensation, unemployment claims and Medicare. And then lastly, the other expenses. This captures uh quite small the insurance on school buildings upkeep at the football stadium salaries

031for the school resource officers but primarily that total there and the increase year-over-year is for our cherry sheet assessment from the state for charter school costs and this is the largest contributor to the chargebacks this year. Here I will stop for questions before I get into the admin portion of the presentation. Miss Garin. Uh, thank you, Madam Chair. Excuse me. Um, I guess just the big question and I'm sure you'll speak about this going into it. Um, now obviously there's been the federal government has stated that they had made a cut specifically to Massachusetts education, something around four or five million. um which of course is infuriating and uh very scary. Um um but I I hope that you will uh talk about that specifically as well and how that's going to affect every schools.

032If if you don't mind me just uh that was the memo um Miss Garren's referring to the memo that I sent to each of you the other day um outlining the uh $4.6 $6 million that the Trump administration cut um not only from Everett but other districts uh across the state of Massachusetts and of course across the United States that $4.6 million fortunate for us we we did not commit that financially out of the our funds. So, while we did plan to spend that money on um an HVAC system to support the operation of one of our buildings, we did not commit the funds to it. And so, we have not lost anything. It will have no direct impact on the services that we would provide to our students. Now, I know that and and

033I wanted to also thank um Governor Healey and I wanted to shout out to um Mr. Baros um who his office and others at the state house have been working to recover or at least a stay in those funds u from the federal government. If that is successful, we will go back to the procurement uh and use that $4.6 million, but it is safe to say it is not affecting the day-to-day operations of our schools. Okay. Thank you for answering. You're welcome. Any more questions before we move on? Seeing none, go right ahead. Great. Thank you so much. So now, as we enter the individual sections of the presentation, I just wish to reiterate that each section is presented again by staff first, budget second, and then I'll stop for questions at the end of

034each section. I'd like to note that as with all positions, they're presented as they would need to be reported to Desi. I know Gretchen kind of spoke to this a moment ago, and this would be reported based on the chart of accounts. We have general ledger lines that reflect DESIE's requirements on how certain job functions fall into certain categories and those lines have been continued to be refined this year. Speaking specifically here to this slide on the school administration personnel, there's one of two slides for this section. There are no proposed changes to staffing within the school administration section for FY26. The 26 personnel categorized as administration are split up here on this slide and then I'll go to the second slide here. So this wraps up the personnel and then just speakly speaking on

035the the budget and then I'll stop for questions as we dive into a budget section for the first time. Again, just want to reiterate that all lines shown here mirror our general ledger um as it is now or as we're presenting. To comment on certain uh lines that might stand out to you, the admin dues, expenses, and meetings line is showing an increase. This is primarily due to us incurring the dues for our five district partnership or the 5DP partnership that we are adding to the operating budget. This is something that previously had lived on title grants and then was on esser the last couple of years. And then the another line on here would be our HR contracted services line you might see as an increase. We're still maintaining you know all of our

036current contracts including all one health for our employee assistance program and talented ed for job postings and applicant tracking. This increase is primarily driven with a new contract to facilitate our absence and submanagement system that we'll be introducing next school year to manage daily substitutes. And then just finishing off the budget and then I'll stop here for questions on the school committee and school administration. Uh new line's just been established here for an admin assistant for one of our assistant superintendents. This position was added at the beginning of the school year and it was offset by a vacant non-UN position earlier this year. There is an increase decrease here just financially uh in the assistant superintendent salaries line and the business department line. Um this isn't due to any position changes or anything like that.

037This is just to clean up due to guidance from Desi that regardless of your title whether it is an assistant soup the head of the finance department goes to finance not to the assistant superintendent line. So this is more of just a cleanup and I'll stop here for any questions. Mr. Baris thank you. Uh actually two of my questions you just answer which is regarding the the increase on admin uh dues and expenses and HR. Um have we hired and perhaps to the superintendent have we hired the in-house legal council? We have not. We have extended an offer and that person just declined. Um but we still have the position open. Yeah. We continue the process. Yes. All right. Thank you, Miss Babcock. I have a similar almost the same question. It was also about

038the in-house legal council. Uh, so it says that it staff count of one currently. Do we have a legal counsel currently? No, but we budgeted for it. So, we are showing the budgeted position of one. Okay. For that position. and we um had put it out and you know there's not a lot of candidates necessarily that want to work in a school district. Um however we uh did go through a process. We and they're lengthy because we have committees that are established for any of our positions. There's a rubric, there's review, there's interviews, there's second interviews, last interview with me. And um after that process, we hope that the person that has risen to the top of that of that pile is is accepts the position. and most do, but from time to time people

039are also searching out other places and um as quick as we can get them in, we try to. The legal position has been open and not for lack of trying and most recently the offer that was made uh the person declined for another position somewhere else. Uh one last question on that same topic. I've just is it common practice to have a inhouse uh legal person for the school district? There's a lot of school districts and more and more are moving towards that where budget allows. Um I was just talking to the superintendent and Lynn the other day. Um she has one and she's looking to add another because the you know this quite frankly it's a latigious society and the day-to-day operations of a big large district um require regular legal review of documents,

040personnel matters, just general direction and advice. And while we've been fortunate to have um the use of the school committee's attorney, Mr. Galvin, um he does have a large practice himself and oftentimes the answers that we need, I can't wait or you can't wait. So, I want to be sure that we continue to move our operations and protect our best interests. So, the fact that we can kind of walk down the um the hallway and talk to our person during the day is is is important and it's valuable to us. So, no, it is not unusual. just ever hasn't had one. It It makes sense. Makes sense what you're saying, especially with our um diverse population, multiple languages, connections to legal issues and topics. I think it makes uh more sense than ever. Um would

041be very helpful. What I would like since I I don't think I paid careful enough attention to it last year is a drop a job description for that in-house legal. That would be lovely. Thank you. You're welcome. Any further questions? All right, continue. Moving on to the systemwide section. Again, we'll discuss the staff first. I had one more question. I just noticed. I'm sorry. Are all these positions filled yet? No. No. Okay. No, that's it. That's easy. So, again, just entering a new section. It's going to be staff first and then the budget second. The systemwide personnel budget is where all of the student opportunity act positions and those investments that Gretchen spoke to earlier are housed, including the great work of our tier 2 directors of literacy and math, our instructional coaches and PD

042for early literacy screenings, among others. Within the systemwide personnel section, there's four slides I have here just for presentation sake. I think it's only two slides within your binder. There are in this section a total of four new positions that are being added but these four as we spoke to earlier are being offset and make FT ads to or FTE ads to the budget neutral. Uh on this first slide you'll see two of those. Uh you'll see the addition of two building maintenance technicians. We aspire to build up the capacity of our own facilities team and to be able to manage more and more projects inside with our own team instead of outsourcing the work. In particular one of these two roles we aspire to be a plumber. The cost of this position is not

043just FTE neutral, but it's budget neutral. You'll see that with the addition of this position, we offset the plumbing contract that still does appear within the maintenance department of the section of this budget. Here is slide two of four for the presentation. There's no as or something to note here. Slide three. Uh this is where you will see the addition of two of the other four positions in this section. We are adding two K through8 instructional coaches to the current 10 that we have. This would be to provide additional coaching opportunities for our staff in math and literacy. And then just wrapping up the personnel for systemwide. I presented the summary chart at the bottom to recognize those four positions. Again, they're just being presented as a new ad for next school year, but they

044are FTE neutral. um you know with the replenishment of other positions. I'll stop here for questions before I get into the budget section just because there's a couple things I'll note when we get there. Are there any questions on the personnel? Great. So now as we get into the systemwide budget, there are just a few things that I wish to address just again to provide additional context for the presentation and just to set expectations when it comes to our budget meetings with the schools in structural leaders and department heads. We build the budget from the ground up. We don't just take the current year or prior year budget number and add a cola to it. We really do build it from the ground up. Um each budget request is based on that department's goals and

045the needs for that year ahead. Therefore, you might see some of the departments do decrease in our FY26 asks from their FY25 budget. This might be due to a couple factors. one as I just spoke to. Uh secondly, in some of these cases, FY25 or subsequently FY26 might have one-time expenses that are non-recurring. You might see expenses decrease or go to zero as those departments or expenses are absorbed on grants. I did speak to those in the memos, and I'll highlight those as we get to those. But more likely, some of those smaller supplemental curriculum purchases or PD stipens that may have been embedded within those systemwide departments are now being budgeted directly to the curriculum and instruction department for FY26. Centralizing these expenses here is more transparent and helps out with reporting. An example

046would be the health department, STEM, or some of the others that you see here. They might have small decreases, but primarily those are because last year's curriculum related items or the PD stipens are just being housed in that curriculum and instruction department. In respect to my earlier comments about expanding the chart of accounts, I presented here on the slides the rolledup expenses by department to help guide our discussion. Behind this in your binder, you will see a systemwide budget that's called all lines. And I'll speak to that here. The all lines budget for system Y presents the new expense lines in the format of DESI's highest chart of accounts level of reporting. The categories are stipens, contracted services, supplies, and other. Other generally captures things that aren't supplies or contracts. Uh these are mostly subscriptions

047or dues. And then we also have to report stipens or contract services about whether they're professional development or not. As I said earlier, the expanded chart of accounts will assist us with procurement and reporting. The greatest impact that I hope this will have is that it'll be more transparent in where we're actually budgeting. In our presentation last year, you'll recall that we had departments like art, health, and all of the high school instructional departments including CTE were just reported as one line as that's what the chart of accounts was. This year, we're not just reporting, you know, say the art department just because it's there first at the 85K uh on your supplemental pieces. The additional detail that you have in their book this year will show the actual detail support of that 85k. It's

048in the form of the $15,000 contract for a yearbook portraits, $12,000 for registrations for local competitions and subscriptions, 10,000 for specific art teacher PD, and 48,000 for classroom art supplies. The introduction of these new lines is obviously new and it might take a minute to digest, but I believe that the expanded chart of accounts will be a great communication tool, not just for us tonight, but hopefully for years to come. Now I wish to highlight certain departments that may stand out to you but as I'm presenting this new all lines budget I just want to step here if you had any questions just on the format I will start getting into departments but does anyone have any questions on the supplemental all lines that was submitted Mr. Barrows. Thank you madam chair. I I believe

049it might be part of your uh presentation moving forward. You were going to mention so let me see if I understood. Sure. Some of these uh items that for example stand out to me which I believe you will explain like the athletics department that is because we are counting now all in as part of that department and not in different budget line items as we had in the past. Correct. Yeah. some of the departments in systemwide and at the high school like band and athletics, we did kind of have a couple more lines. Uh but within certain departments, it really became a struggle. Say from procurement point of view if someone said CTE supplies, but I needed bus transportation to get kids to internships or field trips. I shouldn't really putting bus to a supply

050line, but that's how the chart of accounts has been. This at least at the highest level would present to DESI's highest level of reporting. It's contracts, it's stipens, it's supplies, and then other. And then from there, hopefully it's a lot more transparent. But I think outside of departments like art and band or athletics and band, I think art is a big one. Again, it's just first. Last year, it was just that one line for 100k. Unless I spoke to it, you may not necessarily know at least at an additional level of detail what that's for. This year, I'm actually able to present that. That would then be the baseline for moving forward. Thank you. And so I guess you're going to explain the the reason of this increase on athletic department for example and the

051decrease in health department. That's where we're going to do next. Yeah, I can get great. Thank you. Thank you madam chair. Any further questions? Seeing none. Uh so specifically here I know here we do have um the social emotional learning department here within the systemwide budget. Um you know this is one of those departments that might show as a decrease um here on the second slide sorry but it's one of those items that might be as a result of moving some expenses to grants um or like I said earlier some of the expenses might be being captured within the instruction and curriculum department. So, specifically on social emotional learning because we're continuing to invest in it. Uh, I'm proud of the work that our team has done to be able to staff the social workers

052throughout the district and provide those critical supports for our students and staffs specifically in regards to the non-personnel expenses on the operating budget. We're still maintaining memberships, including those to the Mass Partnership for youth and contracts such as Care Solace, which has presented a tremendous value for our community. Stipens and supplies relating to TCI trainings are now being budgeted under title 4 or the SEAL and mental health grant. As with many other departments, as I said, the curriculum that was associated or the curriculum supplies directly within the department this past year is now budgeted with curriculum and instruction. Special education costs. I know Gretchen had spoken to this earlier. Uh in particular regarding out of district tuition costs, those are continuing to rise. Uh this year we are projecting a 1.2 $.2 million increase uh

053based on our current population and a projection for next year. This is based on guidance from the OSD on uh inflation rates. Um but then also the status of our children. Uh in respect to family leaison salaries here we have historically included the salaries for five family leaison that were physically housed here at the high school. It is appropriate as we do have family leaison on title one to budget all of those together. So the zero you see on here is not a cut or reduction at all to the leaison. It's just that that cost is going to be incurred on title one going forward. And then I did just skip a slide but on the prior slide is where the extended learning department was as well. Uh same methodology of it moving to title

054one. Extended learning programming uh specifically I know it grew a lot during um the years that we had er funding. It's a non-net school spending eligible expense when we have the enrichment programs and the vacation week programming. Um that is why we were able to capture it this year on the budget with the additional funds contributed by the city for the sustainability of offering all that going forward. The expenses related to the extended learning department are going to be absorbed on title one. Um and then in regards to athletics department this is just to ensure that we're capturing all the costs regarding the department um appropriately. So last year, I believe within the stipens line, we presented solely the stipens for the the referees. This just more accurately reports that the stipens for athletics are

055separate from clubs, you know, within the high school. Um so this fully captures the cost for the athletics department for supplies, for transportation, but then also the stipens um and the paychecks for the referees and for the coaches. Anyone have any questions on the systemwide budget? Miss Babcock. So, just I'm going to just clarify what um Mr. Barrows clarified. So, it sounds like there are some increases and decreases for a couple reasons. One is, for example, if there's a curriculum we've already paid for, it was budgeted before, so it's not going to show up again because it's already been made and purchased. And then it sounds like some of the information has been moved around to better represent the desi expectations. So where we may see a detrease in something, it doesn't mean that that

056has been cut. It just has been shifted to an appropriate Exactly. column. Could you just give one example of of exactly one of those just because you you you went real fast. Yeah. And I apologize about that. No, no worries. It's a lot. Yeah, there's a couple big ones and I think Mr. Maro spoke to the health department. I know within the health department that is entirely due to a specific health department curriculum and supplemental curriculum. Uh specifically when it comes to curriculum purchases, we might be able to enter into a the one-year contract or even upfront have a three-year access to something, but sometimes there are supplemental materials that still have to be ordered year-over-year. Those are things that generally were housed within the departments. And we've obviously through student opportunity act and hiring

057um more experts in our instructional team um we do have additional departments that have a better structure and supports such as K through8 STEM ELA social studies. Um those departments have on their own advocated for the curriculum and such but all that is housed underneath our assistant superintendent of student learning uh teaching and success and it's appropriate to house it there. I think from a reporting sake too all of our curriculum should come out of that line. Um it shouldn't necessarily live and embed within those departments. So what you're seeing budgeted at those departments is really the expenses outside of curriculum for them. So it's their specific supplies, specific PD for them or subscriptions. So one more thing you you mentioned um transportation. So for example in athletics is transportation for athletics under transportation or

058is it under athletics or is it just a separate line like is is it a line item that's you know for example like Yep. With athletics, I maintain because we've always had it an athletics department transportation line. It is a contracted line. It's just a different code. I did present this year an athletics department contracted services line and I believe a majority of that 35k is the ice rink rental. So, it's just a way to differentiate transportation from non and I believe that's consistent too with the band and music department. I have transportation for that separate from other non-transportation contracts. Okay, perfect. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Thank you madam chair. Under the same thought regarding the atletic department so supplies the reduction from 414 to 285 is not that we are buying less. It's because

059we you reallocate uh particular to the supplies. I know that this past year in 25 uh we were really trying to get a handle on the replenish cycle of a lot of our uniforms in particular. We made a lot of investments last year in upgrading a lot of supplies that were outdated pre-COVID and then also making sure we were on an appropriate replenishment schedule for varsity uniforms, moving down the JV, moving down to freshman. So, we did have a higher investment in that this past year or the year we're currently in and then next year we're just on a more sustainable maintenance maintenance going forward. All right. Thank you. Thank you. Any further questions? Thank you for these clarifying questions as well because it helps us be able to kind of modify our presentation as

060we go forward too. And I think it's just helpful to reiterate that it is a service level um budget for our friends watching from home again meeting any service or any program any curriculum um all um staffing will that is in existence now continues forward. So, we appreciate the clarifying questions and I just wanted to reiterate that for the audience, too. Thank you. All set. Great. So, now as we start to enter into the individual school sections, uh I think I laid this out earlier, but I'll be starting here with the prek schools. So, the Adams and the Webster extension. I'll then move on to our K through5 school, the Webster. And then we'll go through each K through8 school in alphabetical order. than the Devons High School and then the alternative program. As you

061can see on the chart here for the Adams, there's no FTE ads being presented for the Adams. The only change here to note, and this change is consistent, as you'll see on the next few slides, at the Webster Extension School and at the Webster, excuse me, is that we are elevating the position of headteer roles to assistant principles. the year-round support that an assistant principal would provide will add a tremendous value to the district and to each student, family, and staff. So, no FTE changes here at the Adams, WebEx, or Webster, but there is a position change to more align with the needs of the schools. And then, just as we're reviewing a school budget for the first time, the Adams previously, you'll see a zero here, the Adams previously did have one guidance counselor

062last year and was budgeted at the time of this meeting last year. Uh upon entering in the school year, we did have a vacancy and upon reviewing the school needs, a social worker um that is budgeted systemwide has been assigned here full-time. So the FTE was replaced with a union position at the high school as part of our offsetting FTE neutral budget. Uh consistent with all school-based budgets, you'll notice here on others that the textbooks line and the PD lines have been zeroed out. Uh you may recall and over the last well last year I mentioned it but over the prior few years we've been slowly reducing the textbooks line that is housed within each of the schools and this kind of goes along the lines of centralizing these type of expenses within the curriculum

063and instruction department. This line really hasn't been used in the past and we've slowly been reducing it this year along with the PD line which again was a new ad I think I think four years ago a blanket 20k to each school uh regardless of the school size. This was an ad where really we would just allocate systemwide PD and allocate it directly to the schools. It's not a line that has really been used. So the savings from these two lines at all the schoolbased budgets have now been encompassed and encumbered within systemwide departments uh primarily within that curriculum and instruction department. So again just to set expectations, you'll see those uh throughout the schoolbased budgets, but I did just want to stop here um in case anyone had questions on the Adams. Miss Babcock,

064can you just repeat what you said about the prof professional development one more time? So, it was budgeted 20,000 for each school. Yeah, I believe I believe it was FY22 they had added 20K to every single school um Lafayette as well as the Adams was 20K. Um I believe 22 was the only year they actually put expenses directly there and it was part of our you know additional 4 days um PD that teachers in Paris have. they would take say $100,000 contract for PD and they would just allocate a percent of it to each of the schools. It uh very rarely has been any line that individual schools have used um as most of our additional PD is encompassed within our systemwide budget. Yep. Thank you. Any further questions? All set. All right. So now

065on to the Webster Extension School. This school includes uh an integrated learning program or ILP which kind of speaks to the higher number of power professionals and sped staff when you compare it to the atoms uh for a school that's only about 20% bigger. Uh here at the Webster extension there's no FTE changes. The the only thing would be the I guess the presentation change of the headteer to assistant principal as we presented during the Adams presentation. And then again reviewing the budget. It follows the same methodology as the atom school. I'll move on to the the Webster school, our K through5. This school also has ILP classrooms, uh, integrated learning programs, and supports for autism. We don't have any FTE ads to the budget here for the Webster. Uh, but I do have two

066things that have financial impacts that I'd like to speak on. one I already uh kind of led into that the headteer role will be elevated to an assistant principal. This is driven primarily around the need for year-round operational support um especially in light of the growing autism spectrum disorder program. The year- round position would handle administrative tasks, school management, and student needs, ensuring a high quality learning environment. And this role too would provide stronger supports for our students, staff, and families. Miss Karen. Uh thank you madam chair. Um so u the the changing from the headteer role to assistant principal that is only at the Adams and the Webster extension. Is that correct? Adams the Webster extension so are two preks but then also the Webster school. So the Webster school right now administratively has

067a principal and then a headteer. They don't currently have an assistant principal. Okay. So there there are you are you saying there is no one in there's no have you eliminated the head teacher position? We've converted it from a headteer to an assistant principal to reflect the duties that the head teacher role has historically been different than what we've been using them for. And it is providing us with superior coverage quite frankly when we can ask the headteer now to work the entire 52 weeks minus their vacation and personal. um we we have the need. So I think we're not changing FTE. We're just increasing the responsibility of that role in in each of those three cases. Okay. Thank you. Thank you, Miss Garin. Miss Babcock, on the same topic of the the head teacher,

068um I think that that we have quite an extensive summer program, too. and having these principles, new assistant principal positions opposed to headteer, would that be also supportive in the summer programming as well? There's a lot that goes on. Yes. And we also start to enroll uh our young folks uh especially in the preschool people are coming into pick, but the head teachers really work beyond the time that they're required to under the contract. We're very fortunate to have three um phenomenal um actually they're all women uh three phenomenal women doing uh great work for the district putting in an awful lot of time and energy well beyond what we pay them for. The role is really they're in charge of a building they're in charge of staff and most importantly they're in charge of

069hundreds of children and uh they need to be there. So that's why we we assessed that and we looked at that carefully and we we realized that we have been underserving um the district in those three capacities. So are these folks already in position and they're just basically getting sort of a a title and responsibility? They've really been doing the job quite frankly. Um and now we're just appropriately classifying their role. Sounds absolutely logical. Any further questions? Seeing none. And uh just the second item that I wanted to mention on the Webster school before I get to the budget. Um we are budgeting a small amount to cover additional stipens for our par staff if they were to receive and be trained to um get their certification in ABA, which is applied behavioral analysis. All

070PAR staff that are working in the ILP will be trained in ABA, which is the medically recommended and gold standard intervention for students with autism. The financial impact for those that currently don't have the ABA is just $42,000. So, as we go to the Webster school budget, that additional stipen that those powers would receive is reflected here. So, again, there's no FTE changes. The only financial impact would be elevating it to the from a headteer to assistant principal and then the additional stipens for the paris. We continued to refine the way in which we will support our students and with the support of uh staff and in particular our assistant superintendent of teaching and learning and student success and the various principles. We're looking at how we best serve the population at each of those

071schools. The Webster school, even though it's a small school, it serves some of our our um our students that need extra attention and support. We're looking at how to strengthen that. And uh these are just uh ways in which we believe we're going to do that. We may even move some classrooms around, but again, we're we're constantly looking at ways to improve how we deliver our service. Right now, we're able to maintain good uh service to our students at these schools with the current staffing, but ideally we may even reconfigure the current situation as we go into the next fiscal year as well. Again, we want to change with the needs of our students. So now, as we enter into the K through8s, I'll review them alphabetically, starting with the English school. Uh, I also

072want to know, I know I've kind of been saying if a school has a specialized program and I'll continue to do so. That's just to provide context for kind of the staffing at that school as there might be some schools that maybe have a similar enrollment, but you might not know this one has significantly more staff primarily within the par profofessional and sped teachers. So, I'll continue to present that just for better context. For example, the English school has two specialized programs uh the lab or learning adaptive behavioral program and project learning base for students with dyslexia. We're also proposing, it's not here on the list, as they're budgeted systemwide, but one of the two new instructional coaches budgeted systemwide will be based full-time here at the English school. And then here for the English

073school and for the ones that follow the same methodology on the budget here, reviewing the Cavarian school personnel page. Uh there was previously, as you'll see, there's a zero in the Cavarian budget. There was previously a budgeted success coach that came off of ESSER here in FY25. Um that position was absorbed from Esser as I said, but that position was not filled. It was vacant for a while and it offsets uh was offset through supports, you know, including um ABA Paris that we had in the school as well as assigning social workers within the Cavarian. The reduction of this FTE offset one of the maintenance workers that we've been adding to this budget. So that's an example of an offsetting position there. And then the budget follows the same methodology. For the Lafayette school, they

074do have uh the cognitive and socially delayed program or the CSD program to provide students with therapies like speech, occupational, and behavioral therapy along with specialized educational supports. Here at the Lafayette, there's no proposed staff changes and the budget follows the same methodology. The Parland school has no proposed changes. Um, as we presented with the English school, one of the new instructional coaches are going to be placed full-time at a school. The second one will be here at the Parland. And then no changes to the methodology with the school budget. Wrapping up the K through8s, we have the Whittier Whittier school. Uh, this is the personnel breakdown. There are no changes here year-over-year as well as no changes to the methodology of the budget. Moving on to the the Devon School. The Devon School um

075is really special. It's our in district therapeutic day school. Uh we're able to use the school um for great impact in our district. So instead of sending students out of district to collabor out of state or even in state private or public schools, uh we're able to keep those students inhouse. You know, if they went out of district, it'd be extremely costly from a tuition and transportation point of view. We have a tremendous program at the Devons that can serve as the least restrictive environment for our students. So the more students that we're able to keep within the Devons and provide those supports to them, the better I think for the students and for the district. And and just as a side note, over $4 million is saved by housing and taking care of our

076kids in our school each and every day. That's not counting transportation. They're in their neighborhood, if you will, and they're getting the same value as if we were sending them out. And uh it saves this district well over $4 million, and that's excluding transportation. So, it's um it's an investment and it keeps our kids local. Mr. embarrass. I just want to add what the superintendent said. I went to the Devons for the breakfast uh Thanksgiving. Uh Miss Hurley was there and Miss Babard and other folks were there. Um and of I always say that that place it's special and staff there, they do God's work. Um I don't know if Mr. don't know he was here but he he invited me or he invited us to go to a room downstairs which is phenomenal the

077there is like new equipments and things with light that students can go when they are you know not there is a name so I don't remember the name well there's calming rooms and we use that uh when children obviously we try not to restrain a child we give them opportunity to come to a better place and we use all that adaptive equipment with the support of the school committee last year. Um we purchased that to create those stronger calming environments for our young people at specifically at the DevOss. I mean it's phenomenal. It isn't it? I know and we get great results with that. It's not just nice to look at. There's results and our kids are are um brought to a better place much quicker than if we again didn't have that. Yeah. Quite

078frankly. And thank again Mr. Donah and all his Yes, he's here. wonderful director of special education. Yeah, that they do. Thank you. And then just moving on. Oh, we do have a question. I'm sorry, madame vice chair. I'm sorry. So, on the uh Devon school budget, um is it the same thing that you're shifting things around with the I noticed the uh the Devon's guidance council of salaries was at 166 and now we're going to Yep. 86. Is that because we've shifted? Yeah. So, so the Devons last year we had um budget for two FTEEs, but that was a misrepresentation. We only had one guidance counselor at the Devons. believe it was a leave that was reported but then also the person that was filling in for it. Um again I'm presenting the FY25 budget

079as it was approved. But going forward as it has been there's only one uh guidance counselor that's there. Um the budgeted role for that I believe covered a headteer at the English school uh for this year. Another example of a offsetting FTE to the budget. Okay. Thank you. Yeah. So it's not a decrease in staff. It was just a misrepres representation last year. Uh on the budget though, um most of the schools have follow the same methodology with the PD and the textbooks line. The Devons does have one unique budget role and I think I've spoken this last year, the therapeutic programming line. Traditionally, the Devons has used this um to engage in a therapy at an equin uh farm in Andover, the the therapy supplements classroom instructional supports and it's a great mental health

080treatment. um this school can use these funds at discretion as they see fit um for this program or for others that you know in this year as we've been speaking to the reduction of field trips due to the lack of nurses I still want to ensure that we have the funds for them to maybe bring a vendor in um and just to ensure the sustainability of that offering for the Devon school. So I just wanted to highlight that as that is a unique line to the Devons. Mhm. So, now we're at the high school. Uh the staff chart in your binder, I believe it's just one page, but I do have it broken up here over three slides so it's easier to read. Uh there are no staff additions at the high school, so I

081will click through publicly just to the second slide and then to the third slide. This wraps up the high school staff And then in regards to the high school budget, again, this is going to be presented in a similar manner to how I did the systemwide. Um the systemwide budget, we're still presenting kind of that expanded chart of account structure that we discussed earlier. So instead of having one line for instructional departments within the high school like we had this past year for science, math, CTE, and others, we're presenting them with that same additional level of detail of contracts, supplies, stipens, whether they're PD or not, and other. And I hope that you'll find this is a more effective way to communicate and deliver the budget to you uh for your review, but then also

082to guide our discussions. Uh, I'd also like to note, I think I reiterated this earlier or spoke on it, but our building of the high school instructional departments are no different than the budgets for the systemwide. We do build it from the ground up. Um, so again, the same methodology of, you know, there might be one-time expenses in either year or some of the curriculum related expenses or PD stipens that are in the FY25 number are now being captured within that systemwide uh department for curriculum and instruction. Mr. Bars. Thank you, Madam Chair. Does that apply also to the uh gateway to college? That's why the reduction. No. So, the the gateway to college um and I can get the backup for it, too. I believe it was the gateway to college and then within

083the guidance department. Um I I met with the director and there's a little bit lower participation than we've had within um the Bucker Hill uh program. Um, so this is an estimate based on the number of students we have this year plus a couple more to ensure still ensure that we can have access to the tuition, the supplies, and the travel. It's just over the last couple of years that program has been taken advantage of a little bit less. Certainly, if we do have students higher than what we're budgeting, projecting, we'll certainly invest in that. Um, but this is just more to accurately represent kind of what the trends have been. That was going to be my question. You just answered. So if we have more students, we'll be able tore invest regardless. Yep. Okay.

084Thank you. Y Miss Babcock, um do we have any uh understanding what the you know the root of the not taking advantage of that gateway to college? I assume it's a sort of like college credit classes that you're taking through the high school through I think Bunker Hill and maybe Salem State too, I think. No, just Bunker Hill. Um, is it I'm I'm curious because I, for example, UMass Boston and the community colleges in the future are planning to the significantly reduced costs for lower income students. And I'm wondering if that's impacting maybe students are thinking, well, I can focus on my high school education now and college in those areas might be more affordable. I wonder if that could be attributed to the reduction in the enrollment in those courses or not. It quite

085possibly could be, but the gateway to college program is to, as you know, initiate uh seniors for the most part at uh at Everett High School or any high school to have be acclimated to college level courses and can take credits. I think that there's a lot of opportunity for our young people to participate in college level courses through online learning and other relationships that have been budding over the years not just with you know community colleges used to have the kind of the market on that and now all the colleges are offering op opportunities for high schoolers to participate whether it's dual enrollment gateway programs or other initiatives to get young people interested in college career paths. So, I think the options became um more plentiful in my opinion and you and I both

086have the college uh background and uh Mr. Manning does as well. So, I think um it's just that there's more options for our young people. Certainly the lowcost or nocost tuition options with the state and community colleges are really going to be an asset to our students who I think sometimes think that they can't even afford that you know to go to those public universities or colleges this effort by the the our governor and and her team to make sure that those pathways are open certainly I'm going to sure that we will see a higher participation rate in collegegoing students and I I'm hoping for that for our ever kids as well. Out of curiosity, do we have any statistics for example from like the former graduating class on what their um career decisions were

087for the future like military, political, you know, uh police force, trades, university, job, etc. We know when they're leaving what their intention is. I don't think that there's any, and I'm looking at Mr. Lynch in the back. I don't know that there's any survey done beyond that. that I know in colleges we always try to see did you go into the field that you received your degree in and we do surveying and not everyone has to participate so the numbers are always skewed but Mr. Lynch do we do any surveying to see if our students who left you know ever high school have gone on to the college that they uh or the program that they make a motion to bring Mr. Lynch second motion made and seconded to invite Mr. Lynch up the principal

088of Everford High School. All those in favor? I. All those opposed? The eyes have it. Welcome, Mr. Lynch. Well, thank you. You couldn't get away from me. Uh, yes. So, that's a we do. So, as the superintendent said, uh, let me address the first question first, I guess, about the the gateway to college because I think the superintendent answered it perfectly. There is that. Now there is more opportunities because of what the state of Massachusetts has done, the investment in CTE, advanced courses, advanced placement classes. So there's more opportunity at home and then you they don't the students don't have the burden of then trying to get to Bunker Hill or going forward. It was a different profile of student that did that. So I think that's although it's a perfect opportunity, I think it's

089great that we offer more inhouse now at Ever High School. For the second question, yes we do. So, at the beginning, we offer uh a questionnaire to all of our students whether they are going to join the military, what branch of military, if they're a two-year, fouryear um right into the workforce. And then after that, we do reach out. The problem is once we go out one, two, three, four, five years of trying to reach back, the participation rate gets very low trying to find out where students are if they're not super connected with the school on to see what they did. Um, but I will say, and I'll give a big plug for to Everett, Everett public schools, Everett High School, when you look at a lot of our recent hires, which I'm so

090proud to say, a lot of them have been our former students who have come back and worked with us. So, I just want to put that plug out there and they tend to be, you know, all of our teachers are dedicated, but when you have a teacher that went through Ever Public Schools, that went through Everett High School, that is one of the same kids that they're teaching, it's fantastic. And over the last Yeah. The last three years that I've been there, there's at least a dozen at least a dozen new hires who are our former graduates that have come back to teach. So, but we do that, we go forward, we go through it. It it it is very difficult sometimes to reach out old emails if they respond back. You know, it's and

091they're busy hopefully in their lives and their careers. So, it gets, you know, it can be a little tricky to find them, but we do have a very good grasp when they graduate. It's just after and then, you know, did they complete college? We try to track that. Did they do a four-year? Did they finish their two-year degree, four-year degree, did they go into a union? And then finish off. So, you know, we track it as best we can, but cuz it's really important. It's the most important thing that we do, right? We want to make sure that when they leave us, no matter what they choose to do, they're successful in it. And whatever path they choose, that they continue on that and they're successful in it. So, we do it. Thanks, Mr. Lynch.

092Thank you. Excuse Mr. Lynch with the customary thanks. Second. Motion has been made and seconded to excuse Mr. Lynch with the customary thanks. All those in favor? I. All those opposed. You guys have it. Thank you, Mr. Lynch. I I would just like to add as well, and I think it may get specifically to the root of your question, Member Babcock, unless something has changed, the profile of a gateway to student um is is someone who believes that high school is not for them as well and um wants to take a look at some other options. So in addition to having those external options as well, I think this school district has done a phenomenal job inhouse of being able to retain students who are going through really um some significant challenges and trauma and

093providing other options right here in this district as well. And I think that's an important um piece although I don't have the um specific data to to back up what I'm saying right now. I would say anecdotally from what I have seen in this district, it would go uh to the root of your your question as well. Miss Babcock, through you too, Miss Manning. I do know a former uh gateway student that chose to spend um most of their senior year taking classes in that manner. Um that student is um graduating in from their nursing degree now. So, it was the perfect opportunity for them. It was it was uh they they needed to to move on in a different direction to get forward in their life and it worked out perfectly. So change is

094good. I think I think your observation was correct. I I have the example to back it up. So thank you. Thank you. Any further questions? Seeing none. So moving on just uh to highlight a few things that might stand out. Uh the high school budget again just to highlight something that's different from the others. The high school does have its own line for dues and expenses um just compared to the other schools. This is because the school has specific um you know associations and memberships like NIA ask that are unique to the high school that other schools don't have. The other line that might stand out to you on this first summary chart slide and we'll move on to the second is the CTE program. Uh we have budgeted in FY26 to maintain a contract

095that's helping us assess our current program offerings and make recommendations on program adjustments. The contract further prioritizes the vendor to establish partnerships on our behalf and collaborate with local unions, agencies, grant funders, and CTE associations to expand our student internship opportunities and career pathways. This, as we're explaining, is one of the many ways that we, as a district, are investing in our career readiness for our students and enhancing our vocational technical programs that align with the labor needs in our local community. And then just wrapping up here, the high school budget. Um, again, there's no major changes within salaries. Any questions on the high school budget? Mr. Barrows. Thank you, Madam Chair. I believe you have touched on those but I can see uh the department supplies almost all of them there is a reduction

096of it and the reduction is based on I can see that u social studies department it's was 20 now it's six science department supply was 211 now it's 160 math was 27 now it's 15 uh word language was 20,000 now 17,000 Um is that because we invested a lot this the current fiscal year or No, it's it's a great question. This is more in regards to the methodology or the practice of adding the additional chart of account detail. So as was consistent within systemwide also within the instructional departments here at the high school the the social studies the math the science they all only had one general ledger line so it was supplies. So as I'm presenting the FY25, that's why you're seeing supplies as the only budgeted number for 25. Yeah. But if you

097take for example English, you can see within 26 I presented to you that additional detail. Oh, I see. So if the budget number was 25 last year for English department supplies, it was more than supplies. It was some contracts and other items being more transparent moving forward. Okay. Y. So it's not a reduction in supplies directly at the highest level, but it's more in regards to the update in the chart of accounts. Got it. All right. Thank you. Any further questions? So, ending here on the alternative school. Um, this school serves as an alternative option for adults aged 18 to 21 to re-engage with the public school system and as of last week, we had 37 students enrolled. The alternative program was approved a couple years ago by this body and is serving a tremendous

098need in our city, providing much public value. The program provides equitable access to an educational experience for atrisisk students in a non-traditional setting. We have it in the afternoons and evenings at the Devon School. The students that attend this school, they might be pregnant or teen parenting, uh, suspended or expelled or returning dropouts. So, this is a way for us to engage and bring those students back in. Um, I'm continue to be proud of the work that we're doing here to try and re-engage this population, um, you know, this portion of our community and give them an opportunity to achieve their diploma. And last year, I believe there were 14 folks that graduated across the stage u at the Veterans Memorial Stadium that graduated with a high school diploma as a result of this of

099this program. This program is amazing. And then just ending the program here, the budget um things might look like a significant increase, but just to remind everyone, this entire school's program was on ESSER. So we did have all of our salaries and expenses through September this past year still on the ESSER grant. So 266 is just presenting annualized salaries for those budgeted positions. Miss Cristiano, so how many um how many students do we expect to uh graduate this year from the alternative school? We'd have to look at their portfolio, but I think that there is a number of students that are at that stage and I can verify that number for you. Um, Dr. Adams, I I know you're here. I don't know if you're aware. I know that she has been working closely with

100the evening. Nine. So, there'll be nine that we believe will graduate this year on June the 4th, uh, with a high school diploma that otherwise would not have maybe done so without this opportunity. Any further questions? Nope. Great. So, just wrapping up the presentation. We have two areas of expenses that the committee's asked for in the past to be highlighted at a higher level. Uh this is sped and maintenance. Uh these are highlighted uh what I'm presenting on the slides, your second and third to last tabs in the binder. uh embedded within the sped's personnel and non-personnel costs on the next couple of slides are the expenses within the entire district. So this is not just the sped department as presented in systemwide but this includes the sped salaries for exp and expenses from all

101schools. So all the teachers all the power professionals and related expenses at the Devon school as well is captured within here. These costs would eventually become part of our support to prove maintenance of effort, which is a state metric to consider that districts are consistently improving to invest in special education. And then on the second slide here, again, this is in your um your binder, but this is just the rolledup summary of the non-personnel costs. And then just wrapping up, um this one's kind of from an older request, I think before our general ledger was really built up. We just wanted to make sure that we're still presenting it. uh the maintenance department is all these lines are entirely within the systemwide support that you have but just presenting it as personnel and then secondly

102by the non-personnel and again all these lines are directly within the budget book that you have already. You know this section includes some considerable items here within the maintenance department for the upkeep of our buildings and for the health and safety of our students, staff and families that come into our building. And then so this concludes the financial portion of the presentation. I will stop for any final questions you might have. But I did just want to take a moment if you'll allow to thank uh the students, our school leaders, our district-wide instructional leaders and department heads for all the input and support they had here in the FY26 budget development. Thank you to Gretchen and to the superintendent for your leadership, your your vision, and your guidance. And thank you to the school committee

103members for your continued support of the amazing dedicated staff that we have here at Ever Public Schools. We are and I might point out the dedicated students whose artwork is shown on the on the back and the front of your budget book. Didn't mean to interrupt it. Mr. Superintendent. Um, so I I just want to end again if you'll allow just that, you know, we are and I am proud of this budget, proud of the work that we've already been doing um, you know, to support the teaching and learning environment here in Ever public schools to bring about student success and look forward to continuing that great work and responsibility we have each and every day to provide more opportunities for our students. Thank you very much, Miss Babcock. Um, yes. So, I just want

104to say thank you for the preparation. I am extremely um help it was extremely helpful to see all the more specific line items and the readjustment of those costs. I think it's a better way of of um managing the money, you know, like making it more specific to see how it was. Um I think I have just two questions. Um I know that the population uh increase decrease for our students was estimated using I can't remember the name of the program or the consulting company. What was the name of the consulting company? Open Architects. Yes. Um so let me just put this out there. The the our local a close local private school has expanded to seventh and eighth grade. I assume that that is being considered because if students are leaving our district to

105go to that school, doesn't that affect um our budget in ways because of potential vouchers, etc. Could you speak on that? Yeah, it's a great question. Uh it would have some sort of an impact, you know, going forward. So, say our enrollment stayed stagnant, but some of our students did go out. Part of the the chargebacks that I presented earlier, the largest contributor to it this year is the cherish sheet assessment that we do have. It's a net of our charge for students in our district that either attend a school choice district or through charter school and then it's offset by a little bit of a reimbursement. So the first year a student does go out to a charter school, we only get have to pay half of that tuition. And so so it's something

106that's down the line. Um but I think in context of the superintendent's comments and um I think one of the reasons why we have been able to present the budget we have compared to other communities is that our enrollment hasn't been shrinking. Um so even if there were a handful of students that left our enrollment continues to grow. I think that's the biggest financial impact um before you even get down to the lines of sped in others is in other communities is that their enrollment is shrinking plus students are going out to proial schools and charter schools. Um I think as you can see working with open architects our birth rates as well as you know the growth the new growth that we have in the community. Um we're one of the few districts where

107we see our enrollment still growing. So basically the number of students is what impacts that chapter 7 money as well. So as we know we are have a lot of students and and an overcrowding issue. So that's what helps us to maintain our balanced budget. Um but um so we're that's that's how that is created. Correct. It's one of the ways that we balance our budget. Of course, I would hope that it's prudent um financial planning and careful uh expenditures of of services. But of course, the other thing too um it's you know years ago the the projection for enrollment was almost solely based on projected birth rates. That that is not the only projection any longer because as you know Massachusetts in particular and Everett certainly is is part of that. um our our

108enrollment growth is not necessarily from new births. It's new citizens into our city and we oftentimes don't uh can't necessarily plan for say 52 students for example that are here um through a relationship with the Envision Hotel. Now I know that that is where some of our students nobody planned for that a couple of years ago. So that growth uh was never even projected. And then we have an good amount of kids that come to us kind of off cycle like around December, early January from uh another country um specifically a large Portuguese-speaking population from Brazil because that's the time frame in which um that school year ends and they come to us here in Everett. Mr. Baris, thank you. Uh, Madame Chair, I have one question for you and one question for the superintendent.

109So, I see on the special ed transportation, we have an increase of $600,000. Is that the vendor who has asked for that increase? Are we projecting that $600,000 because of the number I know that under the special ed uh budget that there are increases which are necessary and things that that we need to spend more on it. uh but particularly on the uh transportation, why an increase of $600,000 from one year to the other? Yep. So, it's a great question. So, it's a projection based on our current students that we have that we know would still be at that out of district placement next year. Excuse me, end of the night. And um and so we project that forward. So, we have our known contract with Malden Transportation. So we already know the transportation cost

110next year for our in district students. So we have that population you know plus that increase next year as well as where the students are for our out of district placements. So we already per our contract with Malden transportation know what the cost is per student to go to landmark to go to Dearborn and to go to the other schools. So we were able to build that out and then that number is presented directly to the city because it is something that's not net school spending eligible. So it has to be funded by the city above and beyond our operating budget. So it's based on a projection of known students in our current contract with Malden trans. I mean it's for the city but we pay directly right because we pay chargebacks. So is not

111coming out of chapter 70 it's coming out of above and beyond the city but we are paying the city chargebacks which so we're paying directly that even though we are not paid directly uh we we pay it directly. So I know on the 29th when you officially vote for the budget there's three numbers that you vote for. It's the operating budget so our day-to-day salaries and everything. It is that chargebacks number. The third one you do vote for is the special education transportation budget as well. So it's it's above and beyond the chargebacks but again it's within the contribution from the city. So thank you. The so the 600 it is something that is negotiated with or it's a projection that we make or it's a projection that the vendor makes. It it's a projection

112I made based on a current contract we have and also potentially I we are also accommodating and Mr. Donnu can clarify it for me. We also anticipate additional students that may be required to go out of district because we may not be able to handle their their case internally. So I think that there's a piece of that that's assuming that we may have to do that with some of our student our current students. That that is correct. Thank you for clarifying that as well, superintendent. And I just wanted to add um all of our contracts and this contract included are done through um the proper procurement laws for 30B um which is the municipal um policy as well. And this contract is one that has gone through the proper bid um with the city and

113had a competitive process as well. Well, thank you. I I I remember I recall I actually have a cop of this contract because I voted on on the modern transportation um and I have a cop of of that. Um, it's just I I'm not concerned about modern transportation or there is anything wrong with the contract. I just think it's a lot of money, $600,000 increase from one year to the other. But thank you, superintendent. Um, I asked you this question last year and I have uh we have all of our principles here. Some of our schools uh the projection of enrollment are the same some decrease three four students but some schools there is an increase for example the Lafayette 31 kids which is another classroom right and there is uh no request for a

114new teacher or new staff when I asked you this question last year you said where am I going to put them um because if I look at all our principles here They I'm sure if we ask who needs more employees, all of them would raise their hand and last year you said yeah where I'm going to put them. Is that the same answer this year? Yes. Where is the mayor? Oh, he left. Um I mean it's it's serious, right? It's like Yes. Here we are as a body another year voting for another budget. Um I went to the Lafayette for the reading across America which was which was amazing. um projected to I mean there's a lot of kids in that building projected to get 30 or more kids right it's just a projection they

115end up good more uh getting more uh Brazilians I'm sure because everyone there spoke Portuguese when I got there uh still we don't have a space to put them and let me just say just as a clarifier the numbers it says for projection for FY26 is41 we have that today so we so it's going to larger than that. That's why I say the projections are just that. They're the best guess on where we could be. We're at 1,041. Um, Mr. Brady's here. We just talked about,41. It's actually what we have today for a building that was not even built to have that amount of kids, right? And we have a waiting list in some cases at midyear. Um, as the, you know, we probably have a few in the queue. They call it the queue

116because the students have to come with all the the parents have to come with all the records to pick. So they're kind of in a hold status. So we may have and and I'd have to check, we may have another five to eight kids currently, even though it's April, we could have them in the queue right now waiting for their paperwork to come into that school. The Parliament School, for example, and and Mrs. Suter is here. Uh we had to stop the the the waiting list, if you will, of students. She just has no place to put them. I mean, N Mrs. Suter will tell you, we have them in hallways. We have them in what was a locker room. We have them, you know, again, I I'm beating a dead horse here. She can

117tell you, she'll show you the pictures. Um I She had no place to put them. She loves the kids. There's no question about it. She has no place to safely put them and to allow for a great learning environment. So, we had to redirect some of those kids that would have normally gone to the pilein based on our districting to the Cavarian um or another location just to get them into the classrooms. So, yeah, it's I have no place. Yeah, it's it's sad because you look at the budget and then you see, you know, same level of stuff from FI25 to FI26 and then you look at you and then you look at our principles and they're like quiet. Of course, it's the same level of stuff. Not because they can. I mean, they're doing

118miracles, but they wish they had more, but as you said, where I'm going to put them, right? So sad. Sad. wish we could do something but sadly we have done what we can and you are doing what you can u but that goes beyond this room. Thank you. You're welcome. And thank you both as well for your presentation and for the work that you do. I have Miss Cristiano next. Um just getting back to the chargeback for um our uh residents that go to uh charter schools. So when the parents shift them over to the charter school, right? That's part of the chargeback, right? So what happens? I mean, how closely can we track this? Meaning like so the the student now goes to the charter school, we get we get hit with it and

119then the student the student's family moves to another community. Are we still paying the charter school for a students that's not ours anymore technically? It's a good question. Uh, no. No. So, if a student did move out, if the family did move out of the district, they'd no longer be an Ever student. That's why if you look at the enrollment data, we talk about the enrollment as of October 1. Um, DESIE's enrollment number is always going to be a little bit higher than ours because DESI's number that our foundation budgets built off of and includes the students that might be in other communities due to school choice are out at charter schools or our paroial schools. But once a student moves out on October 1 next year, if they're no longer an Ever student, we

120wouldn't be on the the hook to pay that bill. That would be in that other community. So while while we trust that the charter school um is going to report that this student is no longer in the charter school, how do we verify that the student is no longer in the charter school? because I've I've read some instances of charter schools uh indicating that the student was there, but in fact, no, they've they've they've moved on to another city or town. So, I guess what I'd like to know is how do we verify? It's always trust, but how do we verify? No, it's it's a great question and I can definitely get back to you. I know that the number that we use to budget the chargebacks that's charged directly to the to the city

121of Everett through the the cherry sheet. I do believe on Desessie's website there is a way to download um through our Aspen data and such um you know what that student population might be and we can verify the addresses but just like we reporting to Desi on October one those schools are as well. I believe there is backup that were shared by the state. Um but I can follow up with you before the Monday meeting on that. Yeah, that would be great. Thank you. I do think um when the student leaves the charter school there's the the record has to be sent to whatever school they for example if they go uh say Lynfield and they no longer want to participate in the charter school they transfer records that's also recorded at DESIE as well

122but it may be a whole year to your point because the as I've told folks even principles we officially record our enrollment on October 1st you all know we get many more students after October 1st, but our official census is October 1. So my sense um madame vice chair is that if the student transfers out of that district or the charter school after October 1, we may not realize that um I want to call it savings but not that expense until the following year. That may be one way that it's tracked, but Chris and I will get an answer for you. I'm gonna go Miss Baros and Miss Babcock. I think superintendent answered my question, but it was more of like the schools that are really overpopulation. Would you send them to schools or can

123you if it's like out of their neighborhood, the ones that are overpop populated? Well, that was what I did with the parl when uh Mrs. Suter and I talked in November about the conditions there and the number of kids who were already in the building and those that were in that queue and we hadn't even made it to January. Right, Mrs. Sutira? There was no possible way. So obviously parents who thought that that child was going to end up at Parland because they lived two streets over it m were told by pick once their the private the parent information center uh once their application if you will was complete so they had all the records they were sent to the cavarian for example uh and Mr. Norman will tell you he received some students and

124their street address was probably closer to the parin than it was to the cavarian, but that was the next closest place to send them with and I hate to say an opening, but it wasn't in the condition that the parli was in. So that was my question because I know some are worse off than others are all over populated. There's some people don't believe us sometimes, but I I will send you all I've been holding it for a bit. I will send you all um an edited video of uh our our condition so that for those of you who haven't been able to see our our day-to-day operation um you'll see some pictures of of the parl you'll see the cavarian and you'll see what what I'm saying you'll see pictorially um we never put

125a child I want to be clear about that we we are never going to put a child in a position where they their safety is jeopardized and in a couple of cases we're kind of right on the fence with how do we make this even this area in the corner of the top of a staircase a little bit stronger and safer and I'm looking at uh the Webster school uh we have one of those cases there are older students we've put a barrier up so that there's no chance that they could get off of that ledge but we have eight students that sit uh for special services in a circular table that's the only place we have Miss Babcock so um so two things. One, um, you know, we've all been on tours of the

126schools and see the continuing overcrowding problems. I know for a fact that, um, the Lafayette at this point has converted every inch of usable space in the library, the locker rooms, the storage closets, everything has been converted. I'm not sure what the number for that school was, but I know it's sign it's significantly over, you know, over,41 as of today. Um, you know, at what point since we are still not anywhere closer to having more space. It's it's not something happening this year. Um I just I think that's something we'll have to think about for the future like ve very short future. So um my other question was I'm assuming because it's it's attached to the chargeback that that uh is is of course I'm going to bring up the nurses. We're I I heard

127the good news that we've hired some which is lovely. I assume that our budget includes the hiring because we'll have to pay the city back and take it out of our budget for the other necessary uh positions to be filled. Right. Okay. So, yeah, that's my question. Is it are they they are budgeted in there as as soon as the opportunity comes as soon as we are able to uh hire them. So, we we pay back the previous year on the nursing salary. So we had 11 nurses as a baseline give or take a nurse on a month but 11 and then we also pay back um the perdeium rate when we can get them through the alternative staffing through the catalog ambulance company and others. So that is part of our chargeback. We have

128had our own hiring job fair uh a week or so ago. Uh and I want to thank our director of human resources and employee relations and others uh and and all the principles who participated and we recruited um quite a number of people and we offered the city the opportunity to talk with some some potential nurses. Um either three or four I believe came in. Three have been scheduled for interviews. Let's hope they accept positions if they meet the qualifications and they would be assigned to the Ever Public Schools. So once we are staffed, you know, appropriately, um, our chargeback would look different next year because we're going to have additional nurses. So we pay for what we have on those. And then, you know, given that ideal circumstance, the budget for field trips and

129excursions, it still remains. Yes. So they go and and it's funny um not funny but one of the principles uh who remain nameless who's sitting right over there um asked um asked about that and I said as soon as we are back up to a safe number um you know there's a few months left in the school year you know I will certainly inform the the the principles to help um set up those field trips. You know most of those teachers know where they want to go. It's just they're waiting. So, as soon as we we're at a safe level, we'll be able to reinstitute that again. It it it pains me. I mean, that's we the young people look forward to that opportunity to learn outside of the classroom and we certainly want them

130to have that and we have the money for it. It's just that they have to go safely. So, let's hope that all those nurses that showed interest and whoever else out there would like to come and apply, I know that the city would take them, we will take them a day at a time if they were willing to work for us. That's uh that's very good news. It's good news, not just because of the opportunity of these outside opportunities, but to keep our the students healthy. You know, I think a lot of people think about it just being band-aids and skin knees, but there are children with serious health issues that need to be monitored daily, diabetes, um chronic illnesses that, you know, you think of kids being young and healthy and but but we

131all, you know, like all humans, they have illnesses that need to be monitored. and uh having our nurses there keeps everybody safe. Yes, Mr. Barrows. Thank you. One last thing, Madam Chair. Could you please send us that breakdown of the chargebacks that you presented? I'd like to have that in my in my book. I think we have a copy here. We can certainly provide that for you. We have the backup. All right. Thank you, Chair Hurley, may I just address the enrollment uh question for a moment? Absolutely. Um because several members have asked I think a very good question tonight around enrollment and it's given us an idea for presentation for next year. Um more than 77% of our students are considered lowincome students and even more are considered highne students. That means they have

132at least two identifying factors. So they could be lowincome and receiving uh special education st uh services. they could be low income and eel and so we don't receive a flat amount for every student as part of our funding from the state. Um we uh there's a few variables around that formula for enrollment. So I just think that's an important um factor to share and again for folks watching at home but um you've given us an idea again on a refinement for our um presentation for next year. So thank you. Thank you very much. Any further questions? Is there a motion to excuse the finance team? Make a motion to excuse the finance team. Second. Seconded. And thank you again. Thank you for the presentation. Motion. Motion has been made and seconded to excuse the

133finance team with a customary thanks. All those in favor? I. All those opposed? The eyes have it. Thank you very much. Chris and Gretchen, if I may from the chair, just compliment their pres very very detailed, very transparent um presentation. Thank our principles, assistant principles, department heads for their um collaborative work with the superintendent on a very reasonable and respectful budget presented this evening. Yes. Motion. We entertain a motion to accept the budget proposal as presented and refer it to the next school committee meeting on Monday, April 7th. Second. Actually, I will make a motion check and I'll make the motion. Oh, I will make a motion. Uh, and you can second. Second. All right. So, I'll make a motion to refer the the budget as it is. I have no chance to it and

134I believe my colleagues don't um to be voted on the next meeting or the meeting on the 29th. April 7th and then for the 7th. So motion has been made by Mr. Barrow, seconded by Miss Babcock to accept the budget proposal as presented and refer it to the next school committee meeting on Monday, April 7th. Roll call. Mr. Alita Baros, yes. Miss Babcock, yes. Miss Baros, yes. Miss Cornelio, yes. Miss Cristiano, yes. Miss Garren, yes. Madame Chair, yes. So move 70. So move 70. Motion has passed. Motion to adjurnn. Second. Motion has been made by Miss Cristiano, seconded by Miss Baros to adjurnn. All those in favor? I. All those opposed? The eyes have it. We have adjourned at 8:20. Thank you very much, everyone.