001Um, it is May 18th at 11:30 in the morning. I suppose I should say the year, 2026. And this is the Budget, Finance, and Warrant Subcommitee Subcommitee meeting. Chair statement, this meeting is being recorded by the Budget, Finance, and Warrant Subcommitee. If any other persons present are also recording, you must notify the chairperson at this time. Um, call to order. Roll call for members. Member Webb. >> Here. Member Goodwin. >> Here. Member Childs. I am here. Public comment. We have no members of the public present, but if someone shows up later, we can always reopen public comment. Um, next, uh, approval of the May 5th, 2026 draft Subcommitee minutes. >> So moved. Second. Okay, all in favor? I. I. We are unanimous. Okay, now to the fun part, budget update and disc Okay, now Why
002is it doing this? It knows we're talking money. Okay. Participants was what we wanted open so that if someone shows up, we'll see. Okay, sorry about that, Roland. >> No, you did What I passed out in front of you is something we've obviously been working on here and I've talked to you members of the School Committee. One of the things we've heard a lot is and from many many of you as School Committee members and the public is reserve accounts that the School Department has had, whether it's a vacancy saving, pre-K or preschool circuit transportation, special education circuit breaker, school choice, etc. That those accounts have additional dollars in them. Sometimes they've been carried over year to year. Also, just as an FYI, you're probably aware of, but just for the sake of people hearing,
003some school districts actually have rainy day accounts where they actually take some of these monies and put them in some. I'm not saying a lot, but it is done out there. You've seen probably some municipalities do that as well, too. Sometimes they're called a rainy day account, sometimes they're called E&D, excess and deficiency, probably some different names that E&D would know as well. And some of those we do not. So, that's why you'll see money accrue in some of these revolving or different types of accounts that we have here. So, we we've heard that. Right? We have and these are rough numbers that I've brought to you, but the two numbers that are not rough, the school committee budget is true numbers. They're to the dollar. They're at 25,465,283. Right? The level service is and
004I'm I'm rounding for the sake of the conversations here, but it was about 1.7 over. So, we're not mincing to the dollar here, so we can just talk about that. Uh the mayor's budget, which was in the budget booklet and proposed everything, was 24,147,803. She did add, and I say she, the mayor, $450,000 towards, I guess you'd say, our budget in that sense. Towards that um delta, right? The difference of the 1.7, which was level services carried over to this year. That left, right, a remainder of about and these are aboutish but we will fine-tune this for you. Um 1.25 million. You, uh the school committee, have voted to already use 500,000 from the preschool. Am I trying to Is that the title? Not pre-K, preschool. Right, pre-K revolving. Uh pre-K revolving. So, preschool pre-K
005revolving. We've also looked at our numbers in our vacancy savings and are suggesting we take $600,000 out of that and then an additional 125-ish out of transportation. That would leave us with zero additional dollars needed to be asked for by us to either ourselves and or the city. Because I know that actually tomorrow night we'll be going to Wave and Means talking about that and they they're doing some scheduled meetings throughout the next actually the next month, right? Having different departments go in. Um I did watch a little of last week's meeting where they had some public services there. I think police and fire maybe some others but don't quote me on that uh and people talk about right? Everybody has opinions on everything, right? Where we should spend all of our money but some
006of the comments that came up too were talking about well just more money for the schools in that sense and in just generic terms if you have watched some of their public comments during that meeting. Everybody else schools are going to need more money. Everybody's going to need more money. We know the police and fire and DPW and the rec department. The rec department and senior citizens and maybe they want a technical title but you know what I mean that the council on aging or something. Everybody needs more. I think we need to do our part, right? We'll also get down and obviously start combing through. We've been combing through different accounts, right? Making sure that we can fine tune what's going on in there but in general terms what we presenting to you here
007would be if we used those some of those revolving accounts and or savings we would not ask the city for any additional funds. That's wonderful. I know it is a tough budget year for the city so >> Additional above and beyond what we paid on. Um for those of you who since it's off cam, Mel just went and shook hands with Roland for what he's managed to do. So, this is this is not just, you know, we all pray. I speak sometimes, sometimes the others speak as well, too. But, this is done with everybody, right? With our administrators, with our business manager Andy, with Steven Solomon, our assistant superintendent, with our Vera, our assistant, with lots of other people. So, you know, while I sit here and maybe sometimes you take the good and the
008bad, and I don't know if this is good or bad, right? But, you do this, I'm presenting this to you. And and we know that in the future cuz I don't just do this today to take care of today's problem. Cuz I don't want to create problems for our future superintendent, right? Or future anybody who works here, whether they're different department heads and everything like that. It doesn't look like next year's budget will get that much better. But, in life things are cyclical. So, we know someday at some time, right? They do get to be brighter. We we know it's going to happen. If we could all predict it, we'd all be geniuses in the stock market, right? And um and financial gurus, but we're not. But, we also do know that things things definitely
009Gas prices go up, they do come down sometimes. And they take a little while, right? But, they but they do. They do, right? Last summer, I think we were all paying 230, 240 at the pump, and now we're paying, you know, 440. Right? So, it's amazing how quickly it changed in 8, 9, 10 months. It will drop slower in the future, but it will. The crisis, right? Some years the state revenue we follow, Andy and I talk about this a lot, following money coming in, revenues to the state, right? Whether it's through, you know, linear stack taxes, casinos, cannabis, you name it, right? They ebb and flow with new buildings in the state, that type of scenario. So, we right, we're at a down dip. It will at some point get better. And then we'll
010be time where maybe we can put more money, I don't say away, but accumulate some others as well. I think doing this, this does leave us still with some potential uses for even the following year, next year. Should you be but you will be, some of you may or may not be, but sitting here next year in the sense of on the subcommittee doing this next spring again where there still might be some avenues to potentially dip into. For example, transportation has roughly, and I'm using rough terms here for you, 800. Or we we project, they should Andy does a great job of projecting here trying to the end of this year being June 30th coming up pretty soon. So, that's not including the 125 taken out of transportation. >> correct. So, 800 minus 125,
011so you're going to be left with about about 675 in that one. Your special education account has about, and I'm using these just for general term, 400,000 or will, I should say does it, but will by June 30th have that. That's something you really need, you really shouldn't tap into at all. But people see it and they think it's a lot of money and and it is for all of us as homeowners, right? In that sense, but should not be tapped into because that's there for move-ins, etc., different needs that arise. Circuit breaker, roughly 900,000 in there. Similarly, should not be really be tapped into. Andy, what's that say about using this year's money for Yeah, the general fund is 12 receipts of current year's money. Yes. Statute will not allow to carry over prior
012year. receipts. So, is that you've already earmarked for a particular year or whatever the year? Right. So, you don't want to Right. Use this year's for that. And school choice as a 250,000 projected to be at the end of the year for that. And some of those cannot save to keep next year should you have unintended expenses, right? Similar to being a homeowner. Right? You want to have something. We don't want to zero out a lot of these accounts in case something happens, right? Whether it's things that aren't physical repairs to our building, who knows. Other expenses that have to be done, so this is what we're kind of presenting to you. We'd love to hear any types of comments or questions or feedbacks. Um Welcome Andy back. Obviously, he couldn't be with us at
013the last meeting, but he has a lot of He has a lot of the history here that I cannot answer in terms of I can give general terms, but in terms of specifics, possibly. And Steven, obviously, is here to help. So, just rip the band-aid right off. So, our staff, with this budget, are they all set and secured? Yeah. Are we adding additional staff with this budget? Or this is just status quo? We still do We have those two positions, one ELL and one focus studies, still reflected in here. Okay. So, That's up for discussion. It is, so I I just asked because, I mean, we didn't see each principal or departments like wish list, I'm going to call it. I mean, we all have wish lists for what they wanted for spending, so I
014I know if that included like an extra IA over at Federal Street or replacing an IA that maybe got cut out of a budget line years ago based on the position being vacant that never got filled. Yes, a lot of the IAs, speaking just specifically for that, if they're I'll use the word required to be an IEP, right? You don't have choices in the adding some of those in there if they're for wants sometimes versus needs, maybe we will readjust and move from one building to another. I don't mean to be physical person, but if it is a person possibly, but a lot of times they're vacancies and move the vacancy over. In the next month, the way we would project this going out would be obviously talking to Ways and Means tomorrow night. I'm
015seeing you at School Committee meeting again in June, and then the City Council would be the week after us in June where they would approve the budget, the entire city budget at that point. In the next month, still working with you mentioned Mitch Number Web. The principals working on their scenario then fine-tuning all of this, but shifting dollars versus adding. What I'm talking, right, working within this the realm of this concept of the dollar amount. So, like So, shifting, so no can't principal just going to ask us because So, if a principal decides they're desperate for three paras, I mean, can they lose a teaching position to get the paras or I mean, how how big a shift are we >> Yeah, so I mean, cuz that's my shifting world. >> Yeah, the the likely
016shifted their shifting would be requesting, let me put it that way, right? They, and I mean, with with all due respect to Sure. the important job that they have in their building, They don't get a free range Okay. on doing it. This would come through the appropriate channels, whether it's special education director, facilities maintenance, curriculum here, business and myself. Yeah, they would not just be able to turn a position into others or doing different things. >> None of that. Okay. Uh this I got Uh and I have talked with the incoming superintendent uh about this as well, too, and obviously, in the summertime, there may be some moves that would have to be made, but we wouldn't be adding to the budget. It would be moves made within budget. Yes, there's still unknowns, like I
017always say, once we I think back to when the mayor asked you know, even then, earlier, you know, do you have a number? Yeah, right. We know potentially office or whatever, have a number. There's still unknown numbers out there regarding So, we still have to say, for all intensive purposes, the summer work is going to be scratch. You know, in a sense, with the knowing the mayor's number, but final approved number, we'll start to get more information and the this means potential personnel changes that occur over the summer, they can send out stuff, so, you know, there is that work that resulted in the rebuilding of a budget. I usually say from scratch, not really from scratch, but there are still a lot of unknowns Right. that are key factors to our programs here, particularly
018for hands-on and just the whole personnel changes. You You probably will not get a state budget until after July 1st, generally every year. Yeah. All right, so. There's all of this current political agenda, that can only be less later than that. Yes. And we're still recording. >> I think we're still recording and the meeting should still be going. Okay. Okay, good. >> [clears throat] >> So, hopefully the sound continued. I'm pretty sure it does when the screen dies. Yeah. Okay. So, what I mean, I'm new to this obviously, but we would need to like approve the transfer from the vacancy savings. That's correct. Okay. >> We would have less school choice, less of this that tuition and those monies would be in those accounts for us to then use. After July. Correct. All right. And
019then my next question is what does that leave in preschool revolving and what does that leave in vacancy savings? So, preschool revolving >> that like zero those two out? vacancy savings. >> [clears throat] >> Who's got 72,000? Actually, I've got more than that in the both of the vacancy savings. This says would be reallocated so that we would use less of We planned on using in that FY26 of $600,000 of choice. We won't use $600,000 in choice. Now, that will stay there. And therefore, that zeros out that vacancy savings. So, your So, your vacancy zeroed and your pre-K when you took 500 left 65. Okay, that was Thank you. That makes sense to me. There's nothing saying also that it didn't Roland mentioned it would be you know, I just took that 500 from pre-K
020cuz the mayor mentioned. There's nothing saying when we redo the summer that we maybe we take 250 out of the pre-K and take an additional 250 out of the lunch space. You know, Yeah. As long as we get that 500 to some extent, we come back to you and show you this is how we did it. Everything still balances. It makes sense, but it's also sad because that 600 represents people we didn't hire because we couldn't find them or people who left mid-year. Um, and >> of those go go quick as you as you mentioned a minute about to spend a business. We would Um But it while it's a lot and It is. We know it's a lot. It goes quick. I mean, if we were to equate that 600 at professional positions at
021possibly 100 each with benefits, right? And all of that. You're only worth so little. That's six, right? So, yes, it's something that you've had a lot >> of time, right? I mean I was I was fortunate to meet with last just on Friday the other day with the new Secretary of Education. He came to Northampton at CES. So, all the Hampshire and Franklin County superintendents. It was Dr. Wright who used to be the receiver. You may have heard that name in Holyoke. Yeah. And now he was the superintendent in Salem. And I asked him he's just been appointed Secretary of Ed which encompasses everything different than our commissioner, right? Our commissioner is Daisy Martinez or DESE and secondary Ed. The Secretary of Education does everything from early childhood to college. In charge of that whole
022gamut there. And one of the things that was talked about was I'll use a word my word, maybe not his, loosening the regulations for certification for people to come into teaching, loosening slightly just for this one was just for the communication literacy test. If people had different career pathways that might transition, not not nothing to do with the subject matter test. They would still have to do that. But we talked about Hampshire and Franklin County and all of us have had these discussions prior to the the number of just human beings who live here, right? And while I was in Northampton on Friday big big dog down in Hampshire County and I jokingly say we're the big big boy up here, right? Okay. We're the big dog here at 17,000, 18,000 people. They're the big
023one at 34. Right? One more step down to Springfield at 150. Like this the scale just goes bang bang bang, right? I mean, your suburbs of Springfield maybe not right turn, but your smaller cities even at Chicopee 55,000, right? Like there's just a lot of human beings who work there. And albeit not the end of the world for a drive from 91 Springfield to here 40, 45 minutes. If people can find things closer to their home for quality of life, they do it just for time of commuting. >> And price of gas. And price of gas and not being away from their families, right? Etc. in that scenario. So, I've always said to many of you that Greenfield is is a great place. I've enjoyed being here. I I did a little stint 2 years
024ago. Welcome back. >> Back. Thank you for having me back. I like the people. I like the quality of life up here. I grew up my whole life skiing at Berkshire East, right? Um in this area. I don't think it's for lack of you're you're not doing anything wrong. Just there's not as many human beings >> Location. up here. And and that's the battle right now is demographics and life the number the population declines, right? Of student aid students in America and you know, also adults. That's something you're grappling with and we're seeing that the entire county grappling with that whether it's with the um regionalizing, you know, one of the one of our speakers on Friday talked about how the state given years ago incentives to regionalize. Correct. Good. >> And and doing some
025of that again, too. One of our superintendents made a great point about how about giving some incentives to close buildings, etc. And that says because people see regionalization as like end all, be all. Well, it's not really because people a lot of time people don't want to regionalize because they move to a particular place because they like that place. Or that town and if they wanted their kids to go to school in the other town, you know, I I say other but we all know what I mean. They would have moved to that. I mean, so I just know that there's more snow days when you regionalize when you combine And when I don't say not necessarily, yeah, I can agree with you not necessarily, but some people who do have the means, moving is
026school choice for them, right? Not everybody has the means and I understand that concept of school choice, but others do have the means and do it. But the point being in terms of they give money to MSBA to build new schools, right? They're basically saying, how about giving some money to or some incentive to the districts to close schools. That's right. And help with the closure and combining of schools in that sense. Those types of conversations obviously, right? Down the road. In that scenario. But yeah, these are kind of some of the things we're bringing before you today so that you still will have some dollars in some of these accounts do not the vacancy would be zeroed out. Because what I love about this is that we're not losing staff. We're not losing programs
027that we currently have. Yes, we all everybody always wants more and I'm just as guilty. If I could, I would have 50 reading specialists like zooming on our elementary schools right now. Um but we have we our future is dealing with keeping those programs, keeping that staff and letting go of the building concept. That because that's where we can save big money and that's where we can still keep our schools alive and well um by just realizing and accepting that we can get this down to fewer buildings and then the city can either turn that into housing which everybody's desperate for um and make money off it and we might get a cut back to the schools you know we can work our deals That's what I'm saying Yeah exactly so I just think that
028is a future source of making sure this stays um maybe another rainy day fund >> Yeah and and exactly what you just said you mentioned I just wrote that down I wrote no staff lost no program lost right we're not we're not coming with you and and I mean nitpicking don't get me wrong at times you're going to all have to but we're not saying you have a choice to make and do you want me to have strings for kids next year for $25,000 right we're not putting that in front of you we've seen I've seen my colleagues do that in other cities and towns in the area who are going for overrides etc who are throwing out things like unfortunately in South Hadley saying putting on the table no sports next year no band
029Yep I talked to the Frontier superintendent last week minutes South Hadley said no sports next year in 3 days he got 30 applications for school choice of kids wanting to leave South Hadley bang go to right to Frontier right and that said so we're not scaring I don't mean that in a bad way but scaring >> in that sense saying no we can still run the things that you enjoy here right the music program the composting the band right the sports all that's all the things so Well that gets the kids to actually show up at school Yeah because the clubs I say it all the time this was one of my pitches I may have said it when I was interviewing with you last year that people would talk about extracurricular activities. I don't.
030I always say co-curricular activities. They are part of the curriculum. They're the reason many children come to school. We know they come to school to learn for 6 hours a day, right? And kids have to adjust when they come to school and all that kind of stuff, but there are other reasons want to be there as well, too. And these co-curricular, part of the curriculum, activities help them keep them coming. I think we do a lot of as someone who is in in the trenches, as I like to call it, or in the halls. I see a lot of activities happening. Like, we went to the science fair. You know, and I didn't see Mohawk there. I didn't see Frontier there. I didn't see Pioneer there. I did not see Turners Falls there. You know,
031and it was You know, it was great to You know, we went to the UMass basketball game with Newton. And I know Newton, I know our field trip money, we're over budget, fully aware of that. But, I would rather be giving these kids reasons to come to school and experiences. And, you know, if next year we're talking, okay, now we're going to start asking families for a $5 donation for field trips. You know, like you don't have to, but you know, that might be something we want to budget in. I'm not saying they have to, Mel. That wasn't what I was suggesting. Sorry, [clears throat] I was And I I went to the band concert. And I was so joyful. Well, that's that's >> Well, the experiences. They went to Six Flags. And, you know,
032like I just the number of children has grown. Um, the jazz band, I would pay if they want to play at Starbucks or something. I would pay pay them to see them. And I And I wish that those seniors who graduated will continue to play. And, you know, um And it was great to see children who I bought them drumsticks for the pandemic up on stage. You know, so I think but there were so many people there and we're getting back to where it was standing room only. I mean, I feel like we sort of faded away and I really the honor Hannah for the work that she has done to make our band come alive again. And I think that was I know one of the pushes when I decided to step up for
033school committee was what's happening with music, what's happening with band. It's a conscious rebuild. >> It has. I mean, and it's been a conscious like pulling >> to rebuild theater. Yes, drama, man. We used to have plays in each school. It was fun to dress them up as frog and toad. There are kids who will never forget being dressed up as a frog. Um so I think that those pieces kind of after the pandemic didn't come back and maybe were this will be less of this. I mean, that was a big deal. And we still And we still do it and I know you know this, but we still have theater, right? And what you're doing is it gets to be competing with our students, which our student numbers are going down. And I always
034tell parents that yeah, it's tough. There's always you So many hours. >> choices to make. A kid can't be on this this field playing this sport and be at practice and all Unfortunately, in life we all choices to make. We all can't be everywhere at one time. You do it and maybe right increasing number of Well, some point you have discussions. I know with your facilities committees, right? Who knows if the seventh grade goes into that school. I I'm not pushing it. I'm just saying, right? Um Every other school in Franklin County has that 7 to 12 where they can draw numbers down into those activities at that school. There's lots of things that are beyond your plate. Never enough Never going to be not any work for you in the future. Know that. Well,
035thank you for this cuz this I really honor you for this. We're all very appreciative that in a time when our neighbor districts are cutting positions, we've managed to preserve. But, I do want to talk about the long-term picture a bit more cuz it sounds like next year we will be okay. But, farther down >> Andy's Andy's nodding his head for people listening. But, farther down the line um I want to know what our long-term consequences as much as we can reasonably predict would be. Because I have clearly we can't spend down forever. I mean, it'll empty out eventually. It's been going on forever. Right. So, and you know, as much as we do trend analysis, I hate to say that is a a trend analysis that has occurred here. Which again, I know nobody
036likes that we've done it. But, it is a reality of the situation that we are able to sustain, maintain out of the backs I mean, really with those vacancy savings. Andy. I was just going to say we build these budgets a year in advance and then they change. And that outcome that has allowed us to sustain ourselves. And again, I've said it before, I give Greenfield credit. They use their ESSER money the right way. Which is very little with any personnel. And they use it for one-time expenses. And then even when those one-time expenses were able to then offload some of their operating but then therefore build up. Go back and look at all the webinars regarding ESSER funding. And one of the things that they said a district should be doing is building up
037their reserves from when this all goes away. Yeah. exactly what we did. I know people don't like to hear that, but that is exactly what we did. So, you know, does it mean that, you know, we can buy ourselves an F-529? I hate to say it, you know, if the trends on the vacancy savings continue. Well, we have 17 vacant seats right now, and that doesn't include 20 substitutes. So, that's the challenge, yeah. So, it's not a study hardcore, you know, sourcing. Quite honestly, we don't want it to. Enough, you know, up state. No, I'd love to see all 17 plus plus maybe at least 10 of these substitute positions filled. So, and then those other things really just depends on the space of the ship. If you've got a program that a surrounding district
038wants to send a student to, if you have space for them, and yes, we do that, you know, and then the same with the transportation. We've always looked at our little county. That to me is a double-edged sword. How do we have the drivers and the vehicles, you know, but you know, doing what it is that Rome has proposed here. It does leave us a balance as was discussed regarding the potential you know, maintenance or repair vehicle schedule, whether or not we choose to use Is there enough to purchase? We could, but you know, like like recently mentioned in his report, you know, leasing could be a very viable option to consider. We did that with the first fleet of vans. When Mr. Member Cowan and Mr. Woodring at the time decided to build this
039room, you know, so there are those options, but those aren't revenue generating. We open up more seats for choice if we have the ability to. So, there are all those things that, you know, the cliche really helps me. Yeah, we have an advertisement going out in the newspaper, I believe. I don't know if it was last weekend and I missed it, but on school choice. Mhm. Um we we will have and try to fill more of those seats. I I did get one the other day. Somebody who try to keep it vague, right, Lives in a different town. Or vague to sometimes they say to West County. I guess that they use that term here, right? Look at that. I'm starting to be uh Is that like stir mad? I don't know. West County. I
040don't know. West County. I thought it was like a Berkshire. No, I'll hear I'll hear the superintendents talk I'm telling you a lot. West County? West Franklin County. They'll distinguish between where they are like on this side or this side. >> Okay, I got that meaning. So, no. They'll use that. So, One of them? Right. So, you're saying that but You want to something Roland. Yeah, one of a kind, right? You just don't you forget. But we're we'll be taking somebody from West County, right? Who's choosing to come here versus there as a high school student. So, if we can keep doing that like you you many of you the school committee members gave me, thank you, permission last summer to take additional where I thought we had and I talked to our principals, obviously,
041right? We have to give and take. Space where I thought that they were very limited. Last year in terms of the numbers you are leading out massive numbers and we're taking in limiting those coming in. Let's bring them in. They want to come. Let's bring >> Yeah. Um I don't think this is the right time cuz I never asked these but now that you and I have discussed re- reopening inner choice. Yeah, that's that politely we talked about this is something I don't believe is my perview. The committee had set parameters for people living these I'll use the word districts but for lack of a better word >> Neighborhoods. Same place. Neighborhoods they call that. Bounds, right? You live in these just bounds that are have been drawn. I'm there. Um Committee did that? I
042enforce. I know that I have had people come to me with like special We lost >> requests such as and I'm going to use one person a family I know example, you know, the family was going to Newton, they had a niece who was going to be going to Federal Street. The niece they wanted to put at Newton and they were not allowed to so we lost three kids because that didn't happen. So I just want to You know, you talk about the bleeding of out of school choice so what happened was this family couldn't inner school choice so therefore they out of school choice together as a unit. So like few times Yeah, we're going to see that right now I mean I don't want to see that. No, we're going to see but
043if you don't want to see it then it gets to be then just let them go where they want. I'm kind of joking this may not be this budget preview but for the quick point is if you're going to let the superintendent then decide and then everybody's going to come forward and they're all going to want to go where they want to go in that sense so then you don't even need the lines. I don't mean everybody but there's going to be many those who are let's say savvy enough to do it. You're negotiating on where kids go. Okay, I'm going to pull my kids out. Yeah, I mean I mean that's how we had it prior. Yeah, this is this is something that >> you were like it was it was like you went
044to the school unless you requested to go to another school but you couldn't go to the other school unless there was space available. >> Correct. And space was always first given to out of school students and then to inner school students. No, space was always given to siblings first. Then >> So if a sibling was If they're >> used to work out mathematically really well which always fascinated me as a math person, you know, that you'd have a kindergarten class of 60 or however many we used to have 200 and some parents and they would have to put their request in writing and they were always told if there was a sibling in the school to put that first and we would put them all in this room on a table everybody who had a
045sibling was put on there and then we built it and it always came out okay one or two off and then it was a principal's choice do you want to go ahead and take the extra three or you know and yes because I'm going to lose some you know so why not I've got shares that's all that really matters I think we've probably covered the financial aspect of this and I don't want to get into the weeds of it because that would be outside of the scope of the subcommittee but I do have I do have a question that's actually budget related do we know how much we would be spending per pupil with this budget does that make sense sometimes I don't I'm I'm mixing all right Andy come on Andy you got this
046it's good by and it depends on no I'm just categorizing everyone I'm not saying like oh how much are we spending on a one-to-one but sure amuse me I'm just like how much on this budget season once what I was asking would we be spending per pupil we spend above foundation budget absolutely okay no I'm aware of that this comes out so I would not be able to truly you know have city side of the expenses okay yeah we don't have those numbers but I I said the word if this may not be proper Andy please jump in if you just took the school committee budget that's 25 plus >> That's looking for. divided by 1339 >> Yeah. You have 19. 19 grand per kid That's just like that is napkin math, right? Yeah, sounds
047great with that. That's higher than I thought it was. The issue is higher than tuition if you have your spend tuition if you're residential that may be costing 400,000 for one kid. That we change those numbers, right? Yeah. Okay. Um it would still be recording because the recording was Zoom server side. Yeah. Uh sorry, we had a power surge in the building. We're getting everything back up and running. We did pause the meeting and have only actually been talking about the power surge and the technology. So, sorry about that. We should be back momentarily. Just need to get the tech all up and running. That yeah. I don't where I live one time. We We've been in our house for 14 years only once we lost power. And it was in the dead of summer.
048It was one year we lost our power at noon a lot. Transformer on the corner. I got the flashlight I guess. The generator power on to the hallway and then everything was shut in these offices. Um oh, I'm not able to see the Okay, yep. Okay, we're getting the smart board computer thing all up here. Maybe a federal street thing? Yeah. >> [laughter] >> That's how you know. They called everyone. Okay. I am going to just leave my phone on as just in case. Oh, I think it's your laptop I was hearing. So, I was like, "Oh, no." No, it's not. It's Is it I have my phone muted. Your mic's on there anyway. You're getting a lot of feedback. I said that I've got the mic turned off. Okay, I'll leave It's like you
049have the mic turned off but you're still getting feedback. >> Okay. I've left it with my cell phone. I believe we're here. Recording is still in progress. >> us? Yes, Stephanie, are you able to hear us? Yes, I am. Wonderful, thank you. Sorry about that. Did they want to make public >> No worries. >> [clears throat] >> There was some I think there was some sort of fire brush fire or something on Federal might have caused I don't know. But I'm just speculating. >> [laughter] >> Well, while while we've got you talking to us, do you have a public comment you'd like to make cuz we'd be happy to jump backwards in the agenda to accommodate. Thank you, Anne. Um I actually have been listening to, you know, bits and pieces of it. Um some
050I was actually >> Before you get too deep in the weeds, you know >> Yes, Stephanie Duclos, Chapman Street. Greenfield. Does that help? >> [laughter] >> Um I did um When my kids were choice out of school, the transportation was on me. So, if I because my kids were enrolled in Greenfield and when I transferred my son over to Turners, um they did not provide transportation for me. I had to you know, look at carpooling and other um ways to get my son over to Turners. So, I'm not 100% sure when all of that changed. Uh I did have concern about transportation. So, >> Not that we're supposed to interrupt you, Stephanie, but it has not changed. When we talked about It's just the special ed transportation. >> transportation. We're talking about special ed transportation.
051Yeah, I heard some concerning things that we were like transporting kids still in out to Holyoke and um out of district. So, I I you know, I'm a little curious about how all of that works and how it all followed under the umbrella of the special needs. Do we not have any programs that, you know, are closer than Holyoke that would fall under that category? I'm just concerned about traveling to Holyoke with students. That That's pretty much all you know, I'm I'm just really listening, but thank you for allowing me to speak a little bit. Well, thank you for commenting and member Goodwin has an answer for you. We will We will answer your question. So, there are there are definitely um over the years, and I can say this is as a principal I
052used to have to visit all of the out of district placements that my students were at and many of them have closed down. Um I think of Brightside, I think of all the different places. And so yes, we do transport kids to programs in Holyoke because they're the only ones offering those type of services. Um and parents also have a voice in the program and whether the program fits the needs of children. But one of the things um I discovered with the thanks of our superintendent and the head of transportation is they make a lot of efforts to try to cover the cost of that transportation by working with the other districts surrounding us to if there are other children in Turners Falls or on the way to Holyoke that we can stop and pick
053up and um get a fee we do that. Which I think is above and beyond um and I'm pretty proud of our district for doing that and it's really transportation people um in our small area all talking together. So like we have a child who goes to Brattleboro, but on the way there are other children that the driver stops and picks up who are also going to Brattleboro and we receive money for picking up those children to help cover the cost of taking that child to Brattleboro. And >> And just to go off what member Webb said, the reason the child is going to Brattleboro is not because a family says we don't want to be in Greenfield, it's because we do not >> program. It's for a special program that we do not offer
054in Greenfield. And we do offer some programming in Greenfield. We have the SEATS program at Newton. We have um Transitions at Federal Street and we have the ACES program at Four Corners. And we do meet a lot of our elementary needs at that level, but sometimes we have students that we are just unable to make accommodations for. Another transportation thing could be we have a child who is in DCF custody, who or a homeless family that is displaced, for example. Um and we need to transport that child still into our school district because we have made that commitment to that family and that child, and it's really important to keep um a continuity, is that the word I want to use? Like to you know, to keep it status quo for the child and not
055cause any more Educational continuity. Yes. Can I ask a question in regards to that? Sure. So, how once they are um if if they're the homeless children that are being transported out, do we con do we continue that >> not being transported out, they're displaced. And we have a responsibility to provide education to them. No, I know >> If they are their home school. So, at what point in time does the home school actually become where they're living? I do not have that answer. That would be maybe Roland or Steven I'm looking at or to Andy may know. exemptions and things, but typically it's through the remainder of the current school year that we provide that service. And then at that point, if they even if they're still displaced, they can enroll in the district
056that they're now residing. But some families I do know who have been displaced for a few I'm going to say this, a couple of years. Um they were displaced out of Greenfield for a year and then they ended up moving back into Greenfield, and I know that Greenfield did provide transportation that entire time to that student and it has made a world of a difference in that child's life. Yeah, because you don't want a kid who's constantly being pulled from this district, plucked in that one in a single school year. Yeah. And like I said, that what I said was the general rule, but there are exceptions and exemptions and opportunities. >> I think as a district I think as a district we are always looking to put our students and our teachers first. And
057often and any minute we'll speak to this, but often times these situations that we're talking about are coming out of the school district because the Kent Intermediate Joint Agreement places would reimburse us 50% And that would be why we have money in transportation. >> For over a year? If you say See. So, I do have a transportation question. With these gas prices being double what they used to be, could we run into trouble in our transportation fund spending money faster than anticipated? Um State aid does. Yeah. State aid does. We're close to the end of the school year. Even our yellow bus contract has a fuel adjustment clause in there. So, that's a win some, lose some. When the prices are lower, we get a credit. When our expenses Otherwise potentially once they do their
058final reconciliation, they come up and send you a bill to pay for that fuel adjustment. Is that contract still good or is it coming up? Yeah, we got 3 more years on it. Okay, good. Okay, and we've got enough padding for this year and next year for that in our budget that We do not have a slush fund and we don't have a money tree in the backyard. Contingency. Yes. Good word. Good word so available that we won't run ourselves into trouble. Yes. So, strike the word padding from the record and replace with contingencies. No money tree, Anne. No money tree. We haven't figured that one out yet. Okay. Well, that was my last Oh, you're very welcome and thank you for paying attention to what's going on and being involved. I think we enjoy
059having more of a I always call it like a town hall town hall style. Well, it's a subcommittee of three. We can afford to be informal and get people answers. >> As best we can. I'm usually the only one that files those motions anyway so with the city. >> [laughter] >> Truth. Okay. All right, are we good? >> work. So, members of the subcommittee, do we have any other questions? I not about not about the budget update and discussion. I do have some questions for our next meeting but that's it. Okay, well, email me the agenda items because I'm going to be getting a scheduling email out to you guys soon because we've got our warrants meeting coming up. I just wanted to know if we could have the transportation director Okay. >> for the
060next our next meeting. So, we will put that in the scheduling email to see if we can Um well, not for Not right now. Not today, but for next meeting. Yeah. Okay. So, I'll send that scheduling email soon and looking at because the warrants has to be the week before the meeting of the full committee, you'll be able to see if it's feasible to have for then and if not, we can schedule a different meeting. >> it'd be nice to have I mean we I just had the re-envisioning meeting before this one and Mike was able to come in and just talk about some stuff which was great. But I think from like a budget standpoint if we could either and I know this is like past, we can't change what's happening but see the
061building budgets that was asked for and what they're getting possibly at the next meeting or um >> this is what they asked for too. Okay. We did not make any reductions or anything at all to what the asked for? So, that's where I was coming from. So, then if they asked for It got put in there? It got put in there? So, that Okay. So, Roland Shaking has said no and you're saying yes. Oh, I know. That's what I meant. They they ask and then you pay me to tell them no? >> decisions. >> Reality check. I pay you to we pay you to tell them no. That's what I Well, I make decisions. If it deserves a no, it's a no and if I think that's a yes, I'll recommend a yes, right? Yeah.
062Okay. It's all good. It's all good. I was just asking. I'm just going to say gratitude is the the word of the day here because [clears throat] I mean We're maintaining at a time everyone else is cutting. >> that's a that's a great way to say it again. We're maintaining, right? There's a lot of and wants. We all have wants. Yeah. Myself included, right? In our own personal life, I mean but the fact that we're not cutting, we're not removing that type of scenario. We're not setting up the future superintendent or other brand new principal right etc coming in for any types of I'll say tough times. Yes, they're going to have to work. Don't get me wrong and we doing this again every year in the future right but at least it's they're not
063coming into a bottom show. blown up you know Yes, so you know me everything you want on next agenda. Why we have rolling here I have one question that's sort of budget? Well, ask the question and then we'll see if it's budgeting. Always on TV. Can ask it after. Okay. Well, in that case are we all satisfied in them? Okay, would someone like to make a motion to adjourn? >> Second. All in favor? >> I. I. We are unanimous. We are now adjourned. Let me turn off our recording.