001[Music] welcome Public Schools apologize good evening and welcome to the Greenfield Public Schools special school committee meeting for Monday March 17th 2025 this meeting is being recorded by greenfield Community television if any other persons present are doing the same you must notify the chairperson at this time hearing none secretary Den will you call the role excuse could you please turn the video on for the community room how is that can you see it now thank you there we are yes thank you thank you okay member Childs here member Goodwin here secretary Dena here chair Johnson mad here mayor dorer here member Martini here Vice chair seon here we are all present and accounted for and have a quorum and it is 7 pm. we will uh move on to public comment um folks will have
002up to three minutes please share the town where you live and you'll have three minutes thank you press it till it's green press it it's green think that's a bum do you want mine I love thank you than to see you hi oh that one works hi I'm Rachel Cronin Townsen I live here in Greenfield I have been teaching here in Greenfield for 25 years um my children were born raised in Greenfield graduated from Greenfield High School Valedictorian and salutatorian both of them and I'm going to tell you right now that Greenfield is important to me right it's where I chose to come it's where I chose to raise my family it's where I chose to teach and I've been here when we've had economic problems in the past I personally as a specialist here
003in Greenfield have been pink slipped five times right that's a thing that has happened to me and yet I'm still here it is my hope and dream that whatever decisions get made today in the next few weeks in the next few months that every one remember that our students the kids that we take and hold every day are the most important people we have in Greenfield and we need to keep their hope alive we need to keep their cheer alive and we need to make sure that when we are making hard choices we are keeping the things that they love or school will be terrible thank [Applause] you st ail I should say for folks on Zoom who' like to make public comment after we're done with the inperson public comment you can raise your
004hand and we'll recognize you for a zoom comment thank you go ahead hello I'm Stella Verlander and I live at 18 Pawn Street when I was 16 I came here to question the proposal the proposed budget and advocate for staff and resources that were under the chopping block to get cut now as an adult and years later I'm here again to advocate for the exact same thing this will be my last year as a high school student and my last year at ghs in my time at ghs I like to think I've learned some things one of these things is that life will always present you with choices I understand that the task of evaluating the school budget is no easy feat and there will always be people people who are unhappy with the outcome
005that's just how these things work but there will always be a choice there are decisions made that will objectively be better for the district and its students and its staff and there are decisions that will be objectively worse for them I understand that you are working with the very short end of the stick that has been forced upon you by the state and federal government for you to make do but do not let that back you into a corner I choose to believe that this community cares for one another and I know for a fact that there are people in this room that will keep fighting for our schools no matter what happens bringing up seventh and eighth graders to the school and shutting down the middle school will not be sustainable it just won't
006rushing into this decision and focusing only on short-term benefits will not work it just won't I implore you to use our community as a resource and hear our testimony to make the right choice I personally believe that merging our school with Pioneer Mohawk and more will be most beneficial in the long run as we are small schools with declining attendance rates I want to make this as clear as possible with overfilled classes less electives and less extracurriculars you will not have students like me students like Shane who do so much for our school environment students like Mel Bella and cam who have come here tonight in support of our school because they care students like April who participate in almost every club and extracurricular will cease to exist students that care do not pop out
007of nowhere this might sound harsh but it needs to be students like us were born from teachers who have time in their classes to devote to us who have time to teach classes that are filled with the norm normal amount of students and aren't um overfilled it comes from being in clubs that we love and appreciate having a reason to come to school every day from doing sports and coaches that care about us thank you April Follow by T good afternoon my name is April Rooney Adams and I am a junior at Greenfield High School I I am a part of many extracurriculars including band student council Key Club National Honor Society green room and French Club and a couple more I have attended Greenfield schools since kindergarten and have seen our district flourish and
008shine as well as through the hard times of 2020 and the pandemic my first full year in person after that was my eighth grade year I remember being so scared about being in the high school building with all the kids way up to age 18 I watched kids in my grade at 13 years old get bullied by people who were nearly adults and be pressured into more substances than ever before being in extracurriculars like student counsil and band which are combined for 8th through 12 made me feel way more safe and connected at my school but I know that that is not the case for everyone many of my classmates spent that year scared 8ighth grade is not as separate from the rest of the school as ad as adults who aren't in the building
009every day might think sure they have their own lunch period in hallway but really do they plenty of eighth grade students travel completely across the building to get to their classes including upstairs towards the science and English hallways if there are too many eighth grade students for their own hallway how are we going to fit seventh grade there too we most likely won't which results in 11 and 12 year olds walking the hallways amongst people who could very well be 18 they are in such different phases in their lives that it becomes a problem I know that many schools around us have a 7 through 12 program however their schools were designed for that for that model ours wasn't an article from Mass Live on August 2nd 2014 while our school was being built when
010talking about it states the school is built for an enrollment of 585 students in grades 8 through 12 if you look at the floor plan of our school with the classrooms that we have that much is clear I understand the budget is a very hard thing to move around especially considering the increase in health insurance taking up a large portion of the town's fund increase I also know everyone in this room including myself is here for the betterment of the Greenfield students however I do not believe that moving the 7th grade to the high school building is the best decision that we can make regarding the organization of that budget and the future of our students thank you for your time if the person who is on Deck can come and sit in the front
011row U just to make the transitions faster that'd be great is there anyone else oh there's no one else in the room okay thank you good evening my name is Tara cluder excuse me I am a teacher at Greenfield High School I am the vice president of the teachers union and I am a taxpayer in Greenfield um I'm here to ask you to please support superintendent Pat node's budget and ask you to please not put the financial crisis of the Town onto our children and onto our schools thank [Applause] you one more person in the room and then we'll go to zoom stay uh good evening Doug zelwin Greenfield um I have a a couple of thoughts here first is to recognize as I think we all do that we're in in this mess because
012of the lack of funding that we're getting from the state and the FEDS um and that squeeze is putting the same problem on towns everywhere and we all are approaching this as if we are alone and I think we need to figure out how to work with the other towns not only in the Pioneer Valley or the the Connecticut Valley but across the state there are over 200 districts right now that are in hold harmless that are being squeezed to death and going through this exercise if we keep doing it alone we're screwed secondly I think we have to recognize as we all do which is why the room is full that schools are the center and heart of a community it's why people will move here or won't move here um it's why we
013say kids are our future and then don't pay for it we have to figure out how to pay for it consistently and give them what they need um third trying to decide on the school budget without recognizing that it's part of the larger City budgets a pretty difficult challenge I mean we don't know where the money is um or how to work together as a city to figure out how to fund the schools and everything else we're trying to do this sort of in isolation tonight and that's that seems really difficult so I hope we can figure out how we can talk together across the entire city um and make good decisions that allow us to keep our schools fully funded I don't think closing the middle school is the right answer I don't know
014what the right answer is um but I do know that if we cut um the school budget um we are selling ourselves and our kids short and I hope we do everything we can to make a different Choice thank you on Zoom we'll have uh Susan wapk followed by Kim thank you for allowing me to speak tonight um I'm sus WTIC I live in for Avenue in Greenfield um I just want to talk about budgets a second um as someone who has managed a number of budgets not quite this large but almost this large um I know how difficult it is to cut budgets um but I do think that we have to remember I I really support what Doug has just said that we really need to look at this as something where we're
015all in this together where this is something that we have to look at from an overview and that uh and look at it from the point of view of there's no there are no evil people here this is this is unfortunately something that is imposed upon us not something that we started from the beginning um this is not our choice this is what we have to deal with um I'd also like to support Doug's comment that this is a Statewide issue and that we as a city and we as a community need to get our legislators to work for us because they need to understand how difficult this is and how we are being underfunded um that's a long-term issue that's a shortterm we're obviously in a short-term Pro uh problem but I want to
016thank you all for coming to this meeting with a spirit of working together and not with a an a blame game thank you Kim and then Stephanie Kim if you would share your full name and uh the town where you live okay Ken is my wife um excuse me uh we're using her computer this is Paul jablon and uh from Greenfield I would like to continue the idea that for the last three years Greenfield has been building a better and better middle school and the school committee and the schools have been working very hard at moving the fifth grade back and I would like to see that continue to happen for years I worked at universities training Middle School teachers so I have some expertise on seeing what's going on the second thing is more
017a question and that is I have great respect for our DPW I've actually written my turns saying that as well as for our rec department and fire department so this is not again trying to work together in the past when our school budgets have been cut and this is a big cut in our school budget those departments didn't necessarily have the same percentage cut we're going to lose a lot of staff and faculty if we have this budget are those departments going to lose the same percentage of staff from their departments and the last comment I have is also another question which is last year we were really out on the carpet to the state because we couldn't get enough this year couldn't get enough uh specialed persons to work with the kids who are
018in the highest needs with this budget are we going to have even more Cuts in special ed and I hope we really can work together answer these questions and be fair to the kids in our schools thank [Applause] you Stephanie Stephanie Duos Chapman Street Greenfield um I'm really disheartened by uh departments being pitted against each other it's one number that is expected from the taxpayers in Greenfield one number that everybody that is paying that bill they struggle they struggle like everyone else sometimes heart's decisions really do need to be made and we gave a lot of money to a library to a buyer station New New trucks new uh pocket parks there was a lot of money being expended no one's screaming through the roof and we supported the teachers we've always supported good education
019that's why we pay additional funding above the state required that they give us I mean allocation is up to the to the superintendent doesn't fall the mayor says look we're in tough times we're in tough times and everybody's squeezing their belts and it and to pit departments against each other well you know maybe the taxpayers not a lot maybe a lot of taxpayers don't actually have kids in school right now and maybe you're asking them to fund something that's you know something you they have to make hard decisions themselves about in in the taxes so you know I I really think that the mayor's um coming back with something that's reasonable I know she spent hours and hours and hours looking at you know making hard decisions across the board I mean I don't think
020it's right to to pick departments against each other I mean we do have declining enrollment in Greenfield maybe we need to look at some of the factors why um we collaborate our sports with other uh towns uh you know there's there's options there and maybe utilizing or offering um Green River School to a new tech facility for you know we're losing a lot of kids to the Franklin Tech maybe those are options too to maybe bring more kids to Greenfield so we are inviting um like Texas expanding let's maybe look at their model thanks is there any other public comment in the room or on Zoom oh we have a few here in the room so we go back to the room please state your name and spell it if needed and share the town
021where you live hi everyone my name is Pamela Goodwin I live at 54 High Street I'm older so I'm not paying taxes and I got rid of my business so wouldn't have to pay taxes but I have been a teacher for many of my years um I guess my only comment is um I hope people go back and look at some of the school committee meetings in previous months I agree with Doug swellen um and Susan rtic and I thought one of the best comments was the recent comment by member Goodwin who I'm not related to by the way and um you know was about being being a team and coming up with a plan that seems to work for a town that is having major major uh fiscal problems the last thing I'll say
022is I would like us to address the attendance problem the TR Andy problem in a way that makes sense in a way that would follow the law I don't know if we have a Trent officer or not but I think that we need one if we do not have one I'm not clear that running a second bus schedule for kids who have parents that maybe went off to work is part of a budgetary need but I think that if enough pressure is put on students and parents to show up where they need to be and if they are able to feel comfortable there that's the other problem you know special needs kids have special needs there are special teachers for them I worked alongside of them in many of my years of teaching so I
023just want kids to feel safe I want them to love sports and drama and music because honestly they're not not all showing up having a ball with Reading Writing and rithmetic thank you for your [Applause] time Anna McBain do you want this spell thing okay uh I live in Greenfield uh I am an not graduate Alum because I graduated from a different District but all the way up through most of high school I went to Greenfield and then now I work in Greenfield and I was actually in the district when the of original uh downsizing of Green River so that uh the midle mid school started housing fifth grade happened and then I was part of the inaugural 8th grade academy and what you know our current students are saying is completely true where having
024the eighth grade in the high school never should have happened I know that that model Works in so many other places but in Greenfield it just doesn't work we're all terrified our eighth grade year is terror you're scared that you're going to Excel and have to go out and be part of the Gen of the older kids so you purposefully don't Place well like it's not a good thing I Wrong um but you know it's it's also a testament to Greenfield's creativity because we were in a budget crisis at that point those two times and the people in charge you know in your positions at that point were able to come up with Solutions so that us as kids we were just like well this is weird but everything's normal like you know we we
025felt the change but we didn't so I just hope for today's kids that we can you guys can come up with a solution where you know we the students don't feel as much of a change thank you [Applause] is there any other public comment in the room is there any other public comment on Zoom hearing none thank you everybody very much for sharing your views I'd like to hear a motion to move item seven vote to approve Greenfield High School local history trip to Tucket peat museum in Connecticut on March 27 2025 to the next item so moved is there a second second um all in favor I I I carries unanimously and so uh Mr Martin if you would make your presentation are you making a presentation or not you don't have to it's
026up to you I'm supposed to present uh you're welcome to we I think we thought you might because you're here but I can wing it sure okay thank you for the email you sent to us yeah you don't mind winging yeah sure I didn't know if you had had read that I assumed it was put into the record uh yes so it's a local history elective course um and it's sort of designed around trips to mostly Franklin County um and uh our first major unit is about sort of indigenous cultures of the Northeast and more locally in the Pioneer Valley um and it centered a lot around early contact between Native Americans and English colonists um especially King Philip's War many of which battles took place in the in Franklin County um so we work
027really closely with David Brule um the nloma project and uh he gives us some guided tours he comes and he's a guest speaker um but one of the first trips we take is to the peat museum in Connecticut it's one of the sort of leading museums on indigenous cultures anywhere but especially in the Northeast uh to sort of immerse kids in you know what indigenous peoples were uh how they were living pre- contact and also how contact with Europeans is a very unstable table um were how that changed uh things for them uh drastically obviously um so the museum is phenomenal uh we went two years ago um with this class and it was one of the top things that my class uh enjoyed that year we could not go last year because they were
028renovating the museum so we're hoping to go again cam okay uh one of the students is right back there um so yeah it's 10 students um two adults because a nurse is required and so it's a little mini bus and we go and come back in the school day thank you if you have any questions I I didn't know quite what you wanted to hear but uh I think we'll do move on to the motion and if there questions or discussion I'm sure um people will be happy to hear from you but is there a motion to approve the um the field trip as presented so moved uh motion from Member den and a second from Member Goodwin uh any discussion all in favor I I carries unanimously have a great trip thank you both
029thanks for coming all right everyone really we're now moving to item three review of the mayor's statement from March 12th 2025 school committee meeting um as uh just so folks may know um the mayor made a statement and there was a discussion um but um school committee members hadn't had an opportunity to view the statement in advance and so have had a chance and since then to gather information ask questions um uh and so we wanted to provide the um members an opportunity to um discuss it again um so um I'd like to um make a motion that we um suspend the normal Rules of Order and adopt a uh Round Robin Robin format where each member would have up to 3 minutes to um to speak um and uh and I would also like
030um if the um members of the school administration here um have responses or information they can provide along the way that they have the opportunity to do so so could I hear a motion to um to make that change to our Rules of Order so moved motion for member Martini is there a second second second for member ston all in [Music] favor I I any opposed any extensions yes three minutes um secretary denif can you time the turns um and so we'll I think we'll just go around the Horseshoe um starting with member child's going to the mayor um so and you can um pass if you would like and it will come around to you again so um every member who wishes to speak will have an opportunity to I'm going to pass okay
031remember Goodwin I'm going to go back in history I mean I look at data and I look at numbers I was a math teacher so I always go there and I've lived in Greenfield for over 30 years and there have been two really hard votes in Greenfield one was Walmart which caused family fights and the second was voting for a $60 million High School I remember that day walking up to vote to the old high school and it was the first time I met Donna Woodcock she was standing in front of that school and she stopped every voter and I'm going to tell you $60 million for a high school was a lot of money and we all knew it was going to raise our taxes it was a painful vote I heard people saying
032things like that high school was good enough for me when I went to high school there was a lot of debate all over this town and when it passed our taxes went up we're still paying 1.3 or 1.4 million every single year on the high school so one of the things I want to say is I am dismayed by the blame game we have a new mayor we have a new superintendent this town has been out of control with spending a new library a new fire department a new this a new new parking garage the John over like we just borrow money and think nobody wants it back um a $60 million high school we talk about build this well business needs to come here because the taxpayers cannot afford what is going on people
033are choosing to leave town um our declining enrollment are underperforming schools those are facts um the number of children currently at the high school by removing the eighth grade you would be down to 300 it breaks my heart to hear kids say they lived in Terror in eighth grade that just makes me sick um there may be another way to look at um reconfiguring schools I think the mayor was being very creative and it was a great solution that she gave because it meant not cutting teachers in staff by closing a building you save money which means not cutting the people in front of children which I will support 100% teachers and Paras in front of children is is what needs to be the priority of this budget We're Not Alone um I looked at
034all of Franklin County you know there are some districts with 500 children in a school district and they're asking for millions of dollars it doesn't make sense Greenfield needs to go to the table with redistricting doesn't seem to want to we're not alone I looked at every request of every District in Franklin County $111 million for 5,000 children not enough thank you secretary Den I didn't realize it was going to be statement night so I'll just speak some of my ideas I was on the redistricting subcommittee and I spent a lot of time with a lot of you and we really put our heads together and we came up with so many options every idea was on the table we came up with some really wild ones and in the end we narrowed it down
035I think to two or three options and we figured out which ones would work with the size of the buildings and keeping in mind the class sizes which was a big issue and we brought in families and parents we went to all kinds of community centers we had all kinds of late night meetings we gathered everyone's thoughts about this and we arrived at the one that we thought that would work for now it wasn't a permanent idea always in the back of our minds we thought we have elementary schools that are old and we can't keep fixing them we're just putting Band-Aids on them so the idea was always in the future that we were going to need to build an elementary school for everyone which would lower the budget lower admin costs put everyone
036in the same school give us the equity that we are looking for but the problem was it's going to take 10 years and 10 years starts now we have to start thinking about this now and it's going to be another one of those really hard votes like melody was just talking about it's going to cost so much money but that's what we have to do and not just because of you you know the fiscal crisis now but because these buildings are very old and we've toured them and we've looked at them and there's so many fixes that need to be made so that's where I arrived in October of 2023 after working on this problem with all of you so I'm still in favor of continuing the redistricting as we planned but I also understand
037that we've hit this fiscal wall so I'm also open open to discussing the ways that we can fix this but it's hard for me to discuss this without having seen the full City budget yet I don't really know where all of the rest of the money is going and where all of the cuts are so I feel a little bit in the dark about it but what I do feel in my heart is that when it comes down to it the most important things are your schools fire department probably your police you know that's a conversation to have and you just don't get to have extraneous things you need to keep your water safe you need to keep your houses from burning down you need to make sure that you have your health services but
038you are able to cut everything else but those important things and that's what I want to see first before we really get into this I'll recognize myself um going around the Horseshoe um I guess yeah I share um the concern about only looking at one number it's kind of really impossible to evaluate the um the mayor's budget based on just the number for the schools uh so um it's hard to know if we're being asked to make cuts that are uh fair or not um based on the what may or may not be happening to other departments um and what the overall picture is uh the other question question that I feel like I need more information about is um free cash and stabilization which are are accounts that some people may refer to as
039your rainy day fund and it does seem like it's raining pretty hard so I'm wondering if we're not going to use those funds now um when are we going to use them and I will pass to member seon if you want to be recognized I'm assuming we'll be doing more than one go around correct great thank you um I only have a couple of things that I wanted to say right now one is thank you to everyone who showed up and made statements and also thank you to everyone who sent us emails about other possible Creative Solutions to this um to this issue I I want to address specifically redistricting and I understand that that is a a topic that brings up a lot of for folks because there was a very long process and
040a lot of people did work hard on it but I would remind us not to get caught in a sunk cost fallacy we did that work we had a particular picture in mind of what our economic situation was looking like or would look like as that work was done and now we're in a different picture so yes if it still makes sense to keep our the original plan let's do that but I don't want us to get so focused on on doing that that we don't look at other options just purely because we already did leg work on a particular one in in the in the past that leg work happened whether or not it still is the right decision so we can that it it just already happened and we can we can choose
041to move forward um in a different path if it makes more sense right now um while I can I'm I'm hearing folks talk about the the feeling a little bit at Sea with having only one number to look at and I can I I hear that I can feel that I understand that and at the same time that is the one number that is ours to look at comparing to other departments is the job of the city council and if we need to Lobby them we can but it is not our job necessarily to say what is fair it is our job to advocate for our students and to get what we need and to Advocate very strongly for that but it is ultimately not our job to say the Department of Public Works doesn't
042deserve the money they're getting or the fire department doesn't deserve the money that they're getting we can't we can't operate in that in that regard because that's not our function right now um I don't have a brilliant plan or solution to offer you but I'm hoping that we can work one out together um I would like a little bit more clarity about whether or not this is We Are Tonight making a binding decision about how to move forward or if this is continued discussion for a vote that will occur at a future time I know we have a vote sort of on redistricting but I just need to I I'm just in the in the e in the interest of not making hasty decisions I just want to understand like what is the level of
043permanence of the decisions that we're making tonight do we feel like we absolutely need to make these votes tonight and with that I'll pass so already um I agree it's very difficult um to make judgments in a murky situation where uh the mayor is bringing this to us prior to putting out her budget book uh for FY 26 but there is actually more than one number available out there if you go looking so um in the mayor's remarks last week she said that the city budget can increase only 2 and a half% and that is about the same as a million and a half dollars every year which uh is not exactly the way I see it because in five out of the last seven years the city budget has increased by considerably more than
044that uh and in fact three times it it was more than double that and uh this occurs in part because the tax levy calculation is actually not that straightforward uh it begins with the previous fiscal Year's maximum allowable tax levy plus 2 and a half% yes but then any new growth is added uh so far as I can tell Greenfield's average new growth for the last 3 years has been $450,500 lastly any excluded debt is added and uh Greenfield has run about a million a half dollars in excluded Debt Service for the past several years so adding these together that looks to me as if the new Levy limit for FY 26 would be 46 m324 21 and then in addition to the levy we need to add revenues so um greenfields cherry sheet estimates
045for FY 26 show that our receipts are projected to go up $198,400 186 is a new additional chapter 78 for schools and 12,612 is from an increase in receiving tuition for school choice other City revenues have been mostly consistent in the last few years budget books um so if we used the same number for those as last year it looks to me as if we would have estimated revenues of uh 28 8,427 76 which would bring a total of Levy plus revenues to uh 74 M 83,8 169 sorry for all the numbers um and uh then once other available funds are added meaning what the city chooses to use from stabilization and free cash then we have a total from which expenses would be deducted uh I would note that at the beginning of this
046fiscal year there was a combined almost 9 million in those accounts of which the mayor plans to use a bit over 800,000 and I think I heard her say last week that she doesn't intend to use any of those funds this year mayor thank you um Kate I love those numbers thank you for that analysis of that um so I just I'm going to respond to a couple of things I didn't know we were going to do little statements so um I liked what somebody said that we are all in this together I didn't choose to have us be here um I didn't choose to have the health insurance costs go up um and I don't want this to be an adversarial something um I I think that someone had a very good point about
047one number you know you've got like I gave this number in order for people to have time because this we had other meetings that's what we've done in the past you give the number about this time so that a school committee has time to make decisions that's what happened last year and so it was all following along at the same time I have not completed my budget and I will be up very late every night finishing this I've gone through one time and uh I'm I'm glad to hear that everybody is thinking about what's happening in every other department that's what I've been doing last year and this year and we'll continue to do that um we educating our children is one of the most important things that we could ever do but they have
048to have clean water and so it's all part of one big picture um as I said at last month's I mean it whatever was the last meeting we had a few days ago it seems like a year um but um last year we had a number that I worked with um uh cuz we were that one year that you did talk about we were like at the levy ceiling with uh I think it was like I forget what the number was like maybe like 7,000 to go before the levy ceiling you you can't live like that so um at any rate um we have to stay within certain constraints last year there was a number and I was like 1.4 and as I said it was my first year being a mayor even though it
049wasn't 5050 or whatever I thought I gave the did schools a much higher number um because I got kids and grandchildren and people that teach in my family too so but on the and it's not sides it's a community um we had a total of one extra FTE that we added and I I think that's an important thing to think about so um this year some talking about DPW that is the place where we we need something we have an increasing number of you you see it water main breaks infrastructure needs it's part of this city you are part of this city your kids your teachers you all matter to me every one of you but and there's some scientists here you want we have scientists working out the water treatment plant there's a lot
050of things down there that are broken they're part of this too this is not an easy decision to make but tough people make tough choices and these are horrible numbers I didn't make them up I I don't have the full number you you will be maybe looking at this year's budget let me tell you whatever it was um you know the other side did a lot worse last year I don't I don't know what the numbers are going to be but I've made enormous Cuts I'm calling people back writing them I just that was my first thing this morning I said I'm going to go down on this one because I know we're not making it um so um you know and I I I want to say something to address um my my my
051teammate Kate I said that is true about you know revenues and I thought but one thing I learned when I get in there I thought this is the Department of Revenue is watching us just like you have desie watching you we have the Department of Revenue watching us and you have to average whatever that is you just can't put in like if we have a really good year on the meals tax which I think is going to be really good this year um you know we have Starbucks whether or not you like Starbucks um we have this coming and I won't speak to one restaurant or another or anything they're all good but um you know those revenues will be a good thing but but I can't spend more than I have when when I
052was a young mother I can I just finish this one sentence yes I just I had $40 a week for food and my favorite things are potato chips and ice cream but I had three little kids and so I bought the meat the eggs the cheese the milk and the vegetables and the fruit and they liked apple juice and I couldn't buy that my sister used to come over with the apple juice and the paper goods because there wasn't enough for those extra things thank you that's what we have to do thank you member Childs will finish this first round okay uh so like many others no prepared statement winging it um so something that as come to me a lot is what percentage of the Town budget the school budget makes up because if
053you're going to look at any Department school budget will be the biggest part of that is because these if you look at a number of staff you're looking at just under 2third roughly of the Town employees are School District employees so it's not anything unexpected that the school department would therefore have the biggest budget of departments uh looking at numbers for enrollment one of the things proposed was K through six being moved to the elementary school level but I don't believe we have room at the elementary schools to move both fifth and sixth grade there especially not without negatively impacting our most vulnerable students in special ed programs that is to the best of my knowledge I could be wrong if I am wrong I'm thrilled because then we can move sixth grade back but
054I don't think I'm wrong another idea that has been presented to me in email and in person is moving uh continuing to move fifth to the elementary school but moving sixth and seventh to the high school for a combined Junior Senior High uh on paper that does sound good but if eighth graders are already having these fear issues and if adding sixth and seventh to the high school would then bring us very close to Max Capacity at high school it seems like those sixth seventh and eighth graders it'd be pretty hard to keep them segregated ated from the oldest students there so I guess what I'm coming to for this is the math is not going to be pretty no matter how we cut it um we're going to this is a triage year this
055is a Band-Aid year we are in a terrible situation um and no one is going to be happy with what ends up happening but everybody up here is committed to preserving as much as we can as what matters the most for the kids the people on the ground working with them their teachers their instructional AIDS and I am very glad that I've got a team up here that really do care about the kids every single one of you do and so um magic idea fairy and Magic Money fairy very welcome thank you um I just like to check with the administration if there's anything you want to say or any facts you'd like to share sure um I just have a few comments just based upon a few things that were said at last week's
056meeting but um suggesting to close the Greenfield Middle School and make Elementary K through six in the high school 7 to 12 to close the budget Gap um and there's this suggestion that all programming and services including all teachers and instructional positions will stay the same I'm here to say unfortunately that is not realistic in order to reduce a budget by $1.9 million cuts to programming services and Personnel will have to be made we have been working on redistricting for the past two and a half years and I have been a part of that work and on December 13th 2023 the school committee voted in favor of moving to option 2B when I took over on July 1st that is what I have been building the work around moving forward for 202 25 to have
057redistricting take place we met with students and we scheduled them early this year so we would know staffing needs we've met with families so they could make decisions about their children's future we've met with the bus company we've met with teachers and Union leadership so they would know the impact of all of these moves and based on an $1.9 million reduction to the school committee budget it feels like all of that work done in the past 2 and a half years is being being sum summarily dismissed I am not sharing this information as a reason why we could not consider altering our course I am sharing it though so that people have an understanding of the amount of time energy and resources that have gone into this planning for two and a half years the
058mayor's idea proposes changes that the school does simply not have a plan for at this time furthermore in our budget development the City Finance director had given us a directive to include a 3% increase for all bargaining units that did not have a contract Beyond this fiscal year that is also included in the budget proposal from the schools so above all of that we were caught off guard with the mayor's suggestion of closing the Greenfield Middle School next year we have talked tonight and I've heard many people comment on how we are a team and we are all in this together I do do not feel part of this team when blindsided with his information and not included in this conversation the schools are willing Partners in looking for solutions for the benefit of our
059students and we are not considered to be at the table to be part of those Solutions I take offense it is my job to do its best for them and we need to be part of that solution in this team that we all speak of [Applause] any other comments from the administration okay um so we will we can do um iess I'll suggest one more round of three minutes each I would respectfully ask that uh school committee members uh try to stap focused on the facts and the issues and the problems we're solving I think we all understand that we're in a difficult situation and having to make tough choices tonight I hope that everyone feels heard about that I certainly hear um have heard that from from the mayor and from many others tonight
060um so with that member Goodwin or uh we'll start with member Goodwin would you like to make an additional comment we're not alone this isn't this conversation is going on all over the state our commissioner has even taken a job in Pennsylvania as a superintendent um our department of Ed is being pretty much cut to half things are happening across the United States we we weren't ready when a pandemic came we did amazing things for children we weren't ready but we did it things change fiscally every single day um things change you can't you can't plan for things that just change so I would say to you as somebody who is a member of the star committee that fifth grade should going back to the elementary school about 4 years ago cuz it was supposed
061to be the fourth grade back to the elementary school and then the following year the fifth grade we made that decision Adrien NZ was chair we made it it didn't happen I don't know why but it didn't decisions get made and they change but this city is been borrowing money that has to be paid back that is a fact if you just drive around our city you'll find out you'll see a brand new library you see a brand new fire department just notice those things cost money it's not like um we have somebody making money in the basement of City Hall which is kind of scary to start with we also have buildings that are falling apart and that is the truth but we have been doing repairs I live through a new roof new
062modules new sidewalks a new basketball court all at Newton we've made repairs we've spent money in the schools as well so things change you don't want to close the middle school fine do figure it out I mean we can go every that can be we can start talking to the towns next to us um you know um districts that are having 500 children um because of declining enrollments they're talking about putting on the children in one building um that's a K12 um everybody is looking at different things blaming people is not part of the solution um I I know the fire department needs a $1.2 million truck or all our house insurance is going to go up do I want that fire department to get that truck absolutely cuz if my house insurance goes up
063it's just one more bill I have to stop doing something else remember J would you like to speak I actually just had a question for superintendent Pat node when you look at our redistricting list all the options that we went through has anything materially changed in the last few years that would allow any of the other options to be possible the ones that we were looking at were with regards to the sixth grade since that issue came up from last week's meeting sixth grade is feasibly not possible to fit in our elementary schools um the only way our elementary principles could configure that would be by reducing sections in other classes so for instance if you had a 25 uh student first grade in one building that would be one first grade instead of two
064and then you would be impacting classroom sizes in order to fit all of them there um we did not look at other options from years ago um just because we were considering what was on the table from last week uh I just wanted to speak to um redistricting and um and what what we need to do tonight essentially so um just that I I was amazed going through that process to see uh how many moving Parts there were and even in our vote on the decision to do it it once we had voted on something it meant other things fell into place it it's an enormously complicated uh system that we that is run here in Greenfield every day by our um amazing Administration and um by all the the teachers and staff um um
065it's very complicated to have this many students educated here and when you try to change one thing it affects everything else um so tonight we do have to make a decision on that because there's just simply no way um to be ready for September unless we make a decision basically tonight about what's going to happen um and um and and that I think speaks to you know the amount of planning that went in in the um the meetings that we had the the input we took from many many different parts of the community traveling to different uh parts of the town to make sure that uh different uh constituencies in Greenfield could be represented um it it was a huge effort and a huge project and so it's not it's not something where you can
066unfortunately uh have an idea on your own come in and and have that work in time for September that's just not that's doesn't kind of give that's kind of not um it's a much more complicated system and it's much more involved uh than just having an idea and throwing it out there I guess is what I wanted to say um not that people didn't give thought to their ideas before they shared them um but certainly would be great to hear those ideas as part of the redistricting process or earlier earlier in the process than um on the eve of the budget um for the year in question so uh I think that's all I wanted to say uh Vice chair seon so I have a question but I'm not sure that it can be answered
067for for the administration which is do we have accurate cost estimates for what the different redistri ing options would have been or are so that we can compare you know the 2B that we eventually voted on and I say we but the prior school committee voted on um versus 2A or option one or whatever the option do we actually know what each of those options would have cost or would cost us still one two does that even matter because it doesn't really matter where the students are located within our city we still have to educate them no matter what building they're in and so we still need the staff to do so am I is that follow so it seems like redistricting kind of as planned since that's the thing that we've already put in
068motion and parents have already been communicated with and to my knowledge staff has been communicated with as well has been part of that plan seems like the best option if we're still going to need to hire them anyway um and have them on I'm not sure what cost savings there is to be had reconfiguring in other directions if there're going to be the same number of students whether they're in you know the high school or the Middle School speaking of eighth graders um I had another point or question where did it go it lives somewhere sure super so um as previously discussed we have been building this budget and planning this school year based upon option 2B there were other options presented in the redistricting years as you know one was make a K1 School
069make a 2 three School make a four five school um those have not been analized by the school department because it was not the vote with which we were directed to go so um if that is the case with the committee to eliminate the current redistricting vote that I'm working under then that would be something for discussion tonight and then we would have to replan I do want to Echo though time is of the essence because parents and families want to know what their children are doing and it is very anxiety filled and stress filled when these decisions are not made early enough for proper planning so that they can make the choices that are good for their students thank you I remembered my other point um it seems like we're being asked to make
070a decision in reaction to a proposed number by the mayor but we know that that's not actually the final step in the budgeting process and so we can't know if the number that was given to us by the mayor is the actual number that we have to work with could be less could be more we hope for more we would love more um you know but I feel like we're trying to make a decision in reaction to something that that isn't totally real and I'm having a hard time wrapping my mind around that and I I don't want to be put in a position of of reacting in that way in fear or shock or you know and like oh no we need to do this immediately and I'm I get the haste of wanting
071to communicate with our community and we can still communicate with our community with our parents and with our our our staff um and I feel like even if we don't have a firm thing to tell them yet we can keep them part of these conversations I just don't want us to make a decision in haste that we don't actually have the full and real information we need to make properly so I don't but I also understand we can't wait until the city council has done their thing and send it back to the mayor again like I'm I'm struggling a little bit and I'm wondering if my colleagues can help me think through that having gone through the uh additional Levy and revenues that I reviewed before I want to also point out that the city
072is expected to see a reduction in specifically sending tuition assessments in FY 26 the cherry sheet estimates uh include an overall reduction of sending tuition assessments of $662,000 and uh if other expenses in this section uh are similar to last year which they seem to be pretty consistent then um I would anticipate that the total amount available for the city FY 26 operating budget would then uh be about $ 67.7 million and from that would be taken this year's Debt Service which is also a pretty consistent amount um so if we pay a similar amount as last year that would bring the City operating budget to 66 2.3 almost uh that is about $2.8 million more than last year uh an increase of considerably more than 1 and A5 million even without the use of
073any stabilization or free cash funds so uh after deducting the 1 and a. half million for the increase in health insurance of order this your perview because I think that's city council perie get make committe Sor I have to ask you this is a meeting of the school committee there is an appoint of order from the from the zoom go ahead member martini thank you after deducting the million and a half uh for the increase in health insurance cost that the mayor has told us about um I am thinking that should leave about 1.3 million uh to cover the rest of the city's operating budget now I realize that's considerably less than uh the 1.8 requested by the school department um however I um having a hard time seeing a justification for not providing to
074the schools at minimum the additional Chapter 70 Aid that the state is sending that is for the purpose of our schools as well as the uh increase in our receiving tuition for uh school choice and the reduction in our sending tuitions uh that would be about 700 and some thousand and uh would be on par with the relative size of the school department with the rest of the city departments within that amount so um I I am sure that the mayor has a lot more details to use than I did with this um because again we do not have the budget book uh so I feel it's rather unfair uh to be having to do this without that but I would like a response from the mayor about um each of the specific details that
075I provided I want to recognize Andy Pat our business manager to respond before we move to the mayor yes just a point of clarification on a school choice receiving tuition that will come to the schools it's listed on a cherry sheet but it is put into a revolving account so we will be getting that so mayor um I'm not I'm not going to go line by line because I don't even have my computer but um so there's people that made some very valid points about they hated to make a decision right now um do I think that that number is going to change uh you know it comes I do this and then it goes somewhere else I'm continuing to reduce in other departments making calls um um I don't think that that number is
076going to change significantly I think that there are things I mentioned it last week um you know there might be things that we you talked about stabilization in the school uh in the city and I thought yes I tell everybody all the time what we have in stabilization in the city I I I say that I announce it at meetings it's there nobody ever uses the stabilization it's suppos to be there for the even in Hurricane Irene I don't think they did I think I said that last week um uh one thing that I would look at I'll say this to Andy and I said it before I'd be looking at that um adjusting the budget numbers with the outof district tuition that was one of the main drivers for the increase in um this
077budget it it was increased by a million and a half and as I said before we have about the same number of students and went up 3.67 so um that special ed revolving uh that we were going to use um if you remember from last year remember that last year um there is a million dollars in a special ed revolving there are adjustments that could be made to that number that would significantly bring that down say a balance of a million in the special ed revolving in 1515 the circuit breaker as of today there's a, 415,000 school choice receiving there is to um and school transportation there 1,5 926 but I know I don't do the school budget that that's what I know I don't but I review the numbers all of the time and
078I think that um we had David messing that said actually you know we overestimated on the cap so perhaps that number could be adjusted additionally this um this body voted to appropriate uh last year in the out uh District tuition line we voted to appropriate uh I think it was $483,000 and that appropriation was reduced um to 319,000 I think so um something was going to come out of the special ed revolving I think that that um it and it didn't we haven't used special ed revolving in three years although I heard in a meeting on May 1st that we've been using 300,000 that's just not so I have a print out of it here which I could share but um last year there was when there was a reduction of uh getting out my
079magnifying glass sorry this print was small we didn't know how to get it on a paper so I thought I'd bring that um and this is the smaller of my of my magnifying glasses but um that when there was a reduction last year of 400,000 we were going to take $169,000 out of the special ed revolving and put it towards that that out of District tuition line that didn't happen what happened without any of us knowing was that the out of District tuition line went down to 319,000 there are things that you can adjust that's what I would do that is definitely what I would do um but aside from that so I think there's a huge savings there aside from that I actually I know everybody I could you know I hear the flavors
080in the room I hear the flavors and the feelings I don't miss that I I'm going to finish my sentence if I may if you don't want me to I'll be silent um I've been raising my little hand as much as I could to talk about what I could see on the wall I raised my hand so much I'm no longer on the redistricting Committee just so you know and that's true it's in the July 10th meeting at uh you know I had to get up in public comment to speak about these things I'm announcing it I spoke at the budget meeting can we afford this I'm not a I am not a prophet of Dumis and gloomis I'm trying to make this work and I've spoken to another town um we needed to have
081these conversations and we're here today and I don't want to be here any more than any of you do but it's time the you know when the ink wasn't dry on this in June of 2022 when everybody was making their decisions and I wasn't here then um we had 250 more students we had in 8 through 12 we had 506 now we have 406 not even three years ago 5 through 7 we had 361 now there's 318 I'll be silent I want to recognize uh Andy and then we'll come to you and sure uh there's a lot to unravel here but I just want to start with what I think the the biggest one is is regarding the sped tuition budget so based on the claim of it being factually inaccurate we went back to
082check okay um and it was reported at that meeting if you watch at the public hearing it was acknowledged that we had contingencies in the general fund budget because and I believe it was member Goodwin that asked a question about the other contingencies and potentially circuit breaker for the circuit breaker funding we anticipate using it for this upcoming fiscal year and the following fiscal year so the fact that there's a balance in the budget for circuit breaker as it is right now does not mean that it isn't going to be used in fy2 we plan on using $1.1 million of circuit breaker funding we've used $500,000 of it already and come the end of the year we will do another reclassification of expenses to fully exhaust the 1.1 that was budgeted we are statutorily required
083to use those amounts in circuit breaker so then back to the original thing regarding the sped tuition so we went back Mr messing we all met to talk about it I'm going to give you there are three categories of AO District placement tuitions we have tuitions to collaborative programs tuition to other public schools and tuition to private schools we have four students placed at Public Schools the total tuition for FY 26 for that is $198,200 26 students at private placements the totally anticipated tuition for that with the operational services division increase of the 3.67% is 2,683 2 $55 we have three students at collaborative programs for a total tuition of $1,322 as was reported at the last school committee meeting and then now from that school committee meeting to just recently we have been assigned
084the fiscal responsibility of three students so the annualized tuition for those three students is $35,840 the total amount of those three and the fourth with the three new fiscally assigned students is 3,287 7700 our FY 26 proposed sped tuition budget with all our funding sources was $3,249 1113 ladies and gentlemen that contingency is gone we're already starting at $3 38,5 in the whole so to claim that it's factually inaccurate that claim is factually inaccurate on to the other funding sources as has been the practice in the district we oops okay for FY 26 the other funding sources we have available to us in fy2 our plan for use of circuit breaker I should excuse me school choice $300,000 of school choice it hasn't been charged it every month I report to to the school committee
085that the practice in this district has been even when I haven't been here is we charge everything to the local budget first and then so that we're not doing journal entries back and forth with the city finance department come the end of the year we will do one final reclassification of expenses from the local budget to the respective revolving accounts just because there's nothing charged there as of right now that the mayor is reporting on doesn't mean that it's not going to be used and yes if we are lucky enough to have some wiggle room for whatever the reason may be we are going to do what is fiscally responsible for the students in this community to make sure that we have funds available to address anticipated needs unanticipated needs that's good budget practice which
086is what it is that we're doing so $300,000 for planned for school choice in fy2 FY 26 budget was built on using $663,000 of school choice 1.1 million of one excuse me 1.2 million of circuit breaker in FY 25 1.1 million in FY 26 sped tuition revolving account that is one of our other contingency that I talked about that we would like to keep because it is such a volatile area that we need to make sure that we have it if we don't have it we're going back to the city for a supplemental appropriation or we're making cuts to the local budget to offset what it is that would be these unanticipated needs Transportation revolving account planned on using luckily enough because with the con the credit we had this year we are able to
087keep some funds in the transportation revolving account next year this fi 26 budget was built on using $400,000 of Transportation revolving account funding those are the major funding sources we have available to us so to set the record straight the inflated factually inaccurate locally appropriated special education tuition funding is gone we're already in the hole so we're going to have to obviously I mean it's only by I say only $388,000 but that's where we were that's where we are now so when we build in contingencies there's a reason for it and everybody here just heard why it is that we did that because that contingency was already needed and it's already gone and it isn't even July one thank you we're still on our round robin so two member Childs okay first I want to
088give some context to our enrollment numbers specifically the drop from 2022 to 2023 so when we give that year it is the spring not the fall so if we look historically 2021 was the year that had a remote start fall of 2020 with a high hybrid finish in the spring 2022 was the Year everyone was back in person and any parents watching might be having some flashbacks from that because our children or at least mine went feral and it was a tough year we had traumatized kids who needed a lot of emotional support from their teachers there was a learning loss of kids who needed to be in the classroom to learn because not every kid can sit at a computer and learn remotely different learning styles different personalties ities so that 2022 to 2023
089drop which is the biggest enrollment drop did come after the really a very tough school year so that is what we're looking at historically for that that said our numbers have overall been trending downwards which is something we'd like to reverse because we've got a great school system here uh I would not say it if I didn't believe it and if I didn't believe it my own child would not be in it um so going to what I think we are doing here tonight and feel free to correct me if I am wrong we're looking at a strategic goal and priorities to give to the superintendent strategic goal being redistricting or Not redistrict redist Sorry English is hard redistricting or trying something else which would have been the closing the middle school we need to
090give a directive to the superintendent because she needs to build a budget to staff School schools and she needs to know which schools she's Staffing with which grades uh for that note uh it seems like we've got status quo of delay of redistricting or redistrict as planned or do something new and radical uh close the middle school or one of the ideas we've been sent for that one the K through six does not seem physically viable other options seem logistically improbable on the time scale that we have so then we're back to status quo versus redistricting I do believe redistricting is the better idea because it is what the community wants and it's better for the district's long-term Health however I am in favor of whatever preserves the staff that are working with our kids
091day in day out if it has to be delayed then it has to be delayed so I would like to us to take a serious look at status quo versus redistrict for what will keep our teachers with our kids um be that goes to the other thing we're here alongside strategic goal can I it's like one sentence our priorities because something that the school committee does is it talk we work with the superintendent and we tell her what the community wishes to prioritize which is how we got music programs back because the community told the school committee who directed the superintendent so I believe tonight we are here to give guidance to the superintendent and yeah go team thank you um so we're about to start our third round I would like this to be
092more of a lightning round if possible uh we'll give give you all the same amount of time if you wish to use it but I would do ask you to consider whether what you are going to say has already been said or whether it can be brought up when we're actually um having our discussion of the redistricting and voting on that so with that um member goodwi I think we're all in agreement that our priority is the staff with the the children and I guess I had a question for Andy when he was talking and I wanted to take my time to ask that one of the things that I see a lot of money going for is 17 drivers two two bus monitors and two dispatch um that's that's a lot of money a
093lot of people and I'm just wondering um when we asked how much money we were bringing in it doesn't seem to be bringing in as much as the cost of all those people I know at one point there was a $400,000 you had said that the Vans were bringing in so I guess to me as a teacher and an administrator the number one thing will always be teaching kids kids to read I believe that's so being in the business of Transportation um I've never worked in a district that took that on as a private like a business within a business um is that something that could be um something we look at as a potential cut is what I'm asking or are there contracts that are not something we cannot look at Mr pette I
094I would have to to somewhat agree with you because I will say this uh just transportation and copy machines are the bane of my existence so um so with all all King side though I was the decision to buy the fleet of Vans and buses and do our own special education Transportation was done when we weren't here and I'm always very hesitant to be get quote unquote get in the transportation business but it was surprising to me the revenue that was generated I don't know if the promises were made that uh and I believe Mr NCA was involved in it we might be able to ask him as to whether or not the transportation was going to fully support it's like become a net zero expense budget you so I don't know if that was
095a case I would be surprised if it was because very rarely would it be something like that however I do have some data to share as far as the overall Transportation cost the Department of Education has uh a tool that they call which is a district analysis research tool the dart if you might have seen it where it does a statistical comparison of all sorts of data and you put in the community that you belong to and it comes up with comparable communities that you're compared with regarding demographics Etc a slew of uh things that go into this calculation and of the one two three four five the communities that they were compared to quog where Palmer Spencer East Brookfield AAL Royston Holbrook Oxford Randolph Greenfield and Garder Greenfield is the second lowest as far
096as its Transportation cost in the comparable communities so is it a dollar amount that we like to spend nobody likes to spend you know what it it costs when you're talking Transportation especially because in this area for both regular red and special education Transportation when it comes to the market there are very few players involved so it's we've had districts you know that's one of the reasons why for our regular transportation we join with a a conglomerate of districts in the area to try and maximize our spending power and that still went up by about 14% when we did the last bid so long answer is is it an area to look at I'm going to say with what we're talking about here everything is on the table but as far as the cost of
097the transportation and looking at it's a statistical comparison I understand but we are amongst the comparable District districts that were recognized by the department of Elementary and secondary education were the second lowest per people amount when it comes to transportation in the that demographic Community okay or Eve um I am all for radical out of the box thinking but I just don't feel comfortable because I don't know what I don't know what the actual dollar amount is that we'd be saving by making any radical changes at this at this moment so I have a few questions for you superintendent Pat node um do you know the actual dollar cost to move to option 2B in the fall what's the cost of doing this 1. 1889 million increase the budget that proposed that includes the staff
098um we have been looking in uh knowledge of this cut what it would look like and what cuts would have to be made with regards to redistricting versus what cuts would have to be made with regards to the district staying status quo for next year um regardless of the situation obviously to meet that number there are substantial cuts across the board from Administration to Central office to facilities Transportation teachers and IAS um great thank you where will central office be if we close the middle school is there a suitable place for you all to move uh no and you also would need to move transportation in um Our IT department along with many other folks who actually are housed there along with Food Services okay and one thing that I remember in past years when
099you were the assistant superintendent you used to always tell us about the grants that you worked on and you were able to give us the amounts and assistant superintendent Sullivan has been doing that throughout this time so am I correct in understanding that you all bring in more in Grants than you than your salaries are so when people always talk about it being topheavy in administration and then we hear how much you're able to bring in through grants am I correct in that understanding and who would do that if you weren't here I guess is the other part of my question and then I have one more for the mayor so I guess it's maybe not as black and white as we would like it to be as most of this conversation isn't so entitlement
100grants Ida and um ASA title one those things I would they far Outreach our salaries um they're just those two combined are in the millions of dollars um entitlements 1.47 1.47 four for entitlement grants but then on top of that competitive grants that we pursue um I could certainly for our next meeting or provide number based on what we've gotten in the past year or two um and I don't want to compare it to anybody's salary but um that is those are offsets to the budget certainly I understand I don't want to compare it to anyone's salary either but it's just a way to get it in our minds what is brought in by the people who are working to do this and who else would do this job if it wasn't you I guess
101it's not something you have to answer it's just the thought um but do have a question for the mayor do you know the cost savings to close GMS and how do you know how many jobs will be lost if we do that do you have a a number no I don't but somebody asked me that I I think somebody s a question didn't St remember Stacy um and and um our superintendent wrote back and she said it would take a lot of thought and there were some things that I would think of that would be changed right away and and this is not up to me I'm just talking yeah okay I think you answered the question you don't know okay all right uh I don't have any additional comments member ston competitive grants and
102FY 24 was 1.5 million just under 1.6 actually 1.59 so 1.6 plus 1.4 correct okay member ston um I wanted to thank member Childs for very clearly I think laying out where our decisions lie um just based on what I'm hearing from my colleagues it seems like we're and I could be misreading folks facial expressions but it seems like we are not considering closing a middle school or closing any elementary schools radically CH changing the number of buildings that we have in total and I'm also getting the sense that folks are wanting to move forward with redistricting maybe not unanimously but I'm getting getting this but I really appreciate you sort of bringing us back to that's the decision that's on the table um I still I think that that is something that we can
103decide sort of separately but I am still struggling with not having a real budget number and having a lack of clarity and agreement about what is our actual financial position as a community and what we can afford really because it's a big difference between a 1.8 million cut and a $300,000 cut one of those we can more readily find some space than the other um one of those is definitely going to lead to to um challenges in providing the necessary services for children more than the other would and so I would love for us to get closer to agreement about what that number actually is um and if we don't think that that's possible tonight we should say so I also would just really love as folks are referring to different documents it seems like
104we have some people have more documents available to them than others and we're not all working from a shared set of information so I would really appreciate as uh members are gathering intel if that could be shared if we could put that in a shared Google drive or something um so that when we are talking to each other we are working from the same set of facts thank you member Martini thanks um I do have thoughts about the redistricting but I haven't been mentioning them because we are currently on an item which is review of the mayor's statement from last Wednesday so I'm reserving it for that um I would uh like to ask the mayor again um about stabilization and free cash so uh member uh sorry chair Johnson mus mad um asked about
105this as well and I would like to know um what amount of money is currently in those funds and I would like to um just go over what I can see from the budget books which is that last year the city planned to use 200,000 from opep stabilization and 421 from General stabilization and the city planned to use 100,000 from opep stabilization for the past three years running so that seems pretty consistent prior to fy2 the city did not plan to use any generalist stabilization funds for the previous five so it seems like the last time General stabilization was drawn upon before fy2 was fy19 um so it seems like that hasn't been U mostly touched for a while other than last year and uh I have similar questions in regards to free cash um
106at the beginning of the fiscal year there was 3.3 million um in there the mayor planned to use 200,000 of that in fy2 and uh the amount the city planned to use from free cash has varied quite a bit from year to year so in that it's the average over the last um say 6 years which is 104,000 might not be that meaningful um but I do notice that the plan the city has PL to use at least some free cash almost every fiscal year and the last time that we did not was fy21 so I am curious about this because the mayor um called this 16.5% % health insurance increase unprecedented because that increase was only 4% for the previous 10 years and so I would like to know from the mayor how much
107is currently in stabilization in free cash and then I would like to know um why she's not planning to use any of those funds in FY 26 because if the city were to use a similar amount of those funds as we did last year then that would bring uh so far as I can tell the total available monies for the City operating budget up to a $3.6 million increase over last year so I'm I'm looking for um clarification and help here to understand the um numbers about the money available that um that were provided last Wednesday and I'm really looking forward to that budget book I can I answer okay um go ahead and respond to member martini and then you can also have a turn to whatever else yeah I know those numbers I
108know where they are so let me start with the opep stabilization yes every year we've used like $100,000 in from from that fund used to be marijuana revenues went into that there's $100,000 left in it now um so you know we've put that in every year I have no um you know not holding on to it that could go right back in as I said last week what we have left in free cash is after the settlement that everybody's going to vote on this week we have $135,000 left in uh free cash and um again I don't take any of the money home or you know um the steps collaps by the side of City Hall there crime tape around them as I said last week so I said that has to be fixed because
109it's in a public building um and we have money in um stabilization there's $2.3 billion in stabilization um or 2337 and that will not be being used for funding um anybody's budget um that is a stabilization account that you don't use for one-time expenses just like Andy was talking about having the circuit breaker money in there you there's things that you have to keep for certain things that you don't use that for one-time budgetary something so that that won't be being used for that additionally as I think I said at the last meeting but maybe there's different people here I don't really know um we we were told that we had a one in three chance of having our bond rating go down this is by the bond Council there were other people there not
110just me I'm not making this up and the things that they wanted us to put more money in stable a if we didn't use all of that 135,000 I would have put like another 30,000 in that but I want to go back also to where we get any of those things that go in are the turn backs um as I said we put money in contract stabilization I want all of our teachers to get a raise I'm actually going through line items right now and I found a couple of places where we could reserve something for next year and and that money that goes into to to um that when there's turn backs at the end of the year every Department that doesn't spend their whole budget it comes back in and then we allot
111it to things with City council's judgment we have committees that come forward uh and child's is on it um with how we will spend things you go down the list everybody looks at it we prioritize it and then I make the tough decisions there's not enough I'm saying know to people um it is the safety mostly the safety things or a truck that you know if there's a hole and you can see through to the ground on that truck that probably getting another one and so it's it's it's actually pretty easy to make the decisions because they're so obvious like you have to do this the fire alarm panel as I said three minutes to respond to member Martini's question is there anything else you want to add okay thank you um we'll move on
112to um member Childs uh first I want to say that the mayor really is between Iraq and a hard place right now and probably the mayor of every comparable city is in the exact same place I sincerely hope that as you do your accounting magic and go through the town budget you're able to find more money but it's a bleak time out there and so yeah we just all have to do the best that we can with what we reasonably can do sorry for such a downer statement but thank you thank you everybody great discussion um I appreciate everybody's um working um with good intentions for the best interest of our students and our community um I think we should move on now to our discussion of redistricting um so we'll begin um with the
113review of the current policy that's in place um superintendent sure the vote that was taken was to adopt option 2B with redrawn lines on our website there are nine streets affected by the redistricting that will be uh realigned to a different home school in September of 2025 it was reconfiguring our elementaries to grades K to 5 our Middle School to 6 through 8 and our high school 9 through 12 thank you um so I think tonight our choices are basically between um affirming affirming our full redistricting plan as is both grade uh changes and um Geographic changes for the elementary schools or to um vote to uh keep redistricting just with regard to um the students uh elementary students and the drawing of the lines of which students go to which schools based on where
114they live or to uh dissolve the uh redistricting plan all together um so if are are there any other uh options that people are aware of that are viable um that we should be considering tonight given the timeline remember good [Music] one does that redistricting plan include the four new teachers or is that separate from that redistricting plan superintendent if you remain with option 2B it does include the four new teachers students would need ful year science and social studies and can you review the connection with the new Civics requirements sure uh the eighth grade currently has ful year Civics with the Civics project mandatory in eth grade and that would need to remain um we could potentially look at keeping six and seventh grade at halfe science and social studies although um the feedback
115that the school committee members did receive from community and parents was to move to full years um but we had planned for full year social studies in science in the current schedule that we have drafted for the fall so I think those are the three um mayor I think a lot of people were working on the streets and everything um I think that at the very least we should keep the K through five part I think people everybody agreed with that and we were going to get students together there was a lot of thought that went into that so I am just saying that I would actually like more people to have a little bit of time to talk but I would make a motion that we accept that that we did that part of
116the redistricting because it made sense and a lot of thought went into it one of the reasons why this was done as I wasn't here when it was done but I did watch school committee meetings when I was on Council was um for inclusion and I think that that's something that we all share um also I think there's a group of all of the there's a group of parents and Educators in fifth grade that knew that that was coming so I would it like so that be something that people knew from today that's where I'd be but I'm going to let other people talk and not shut that off by making a motion yeah I where where I am in the process right now is I'd like to hear I want to just make absolutely
117certain that there aren't any other viable options that other school committee members know of that we are deliberating about tonight am I missing anything remember good one I'd like to see a third option which is and I'm not sure how to say this or an amendment that there's a third option that the fifth grade remains in the elementary school and we um table the the move for the eth grade maybe to a following year so okay so that that would actually be uh fourth so just to review uh the first would be to affirm the redistricting plan as is uh the second would be to keep only the elements of the redist rting plan having to do with the geographic assignment of elementary schools third would be to dissolve the res redistricting plan altoe and
118you're adding a fourth option which would be to keep the um change for the fifth grade uh but to um to delay the um change for the eighth grade superintendent can you speak to that proposal I just want to clarify so next the fall of 2025 GMS would only house sixth and seventh grade is I'm asking you is that your proposal yes we have not worked on that configuration so I don't think I could speak to that option right now and what the impact on the district would be I think part of why um I may Advocate that we limit our choices to these three is because whenever we start to get creative again it creates a whole other other budgeting scenario a whole other logistics scenario uh unanticipated consequences so on that's why we
119had a two and a half year process before we made our choice um so uh but I again I do want to leave it open enough that if there are is some other option that we're deciding realistically deciding again uh deciding for tonight uh for implementation this September um please speak up y okay um so um I would like to um make a motion to affirm the current redistricting plan is there a second second second from uh secretary Den uh discussion member Childs I would like to ask the superintendent um looking at the budget she's been playing with what allows her to preserve more staff and more services with the dire worst case scenario budget status quo or moving forward redistricting that is which way do we keep more of our people with our kids
120so with the proposed budget cuts if we redist District currently it looks like a potential uh six admin SL central office one facilities to Transportation 8 Unit A and 2 Unit C for a total of 19 1.0 FTE if we remain the same configuration K to4 5 to 7 8 through 12 um potentially 23.6 FTE there is an increase in Unit A losses for the people watching at home that don't know what unit a and Unit C are could you just quickly our teacher uh Union thank you sorry and FTE full-time equivalent okay and would you repeat the whole thing again please thank you um and I just want to preface this this is potential this is not definitive this was us trying to work our budget to this this is um not something I
121take lightly in discussing nor do I want this to be set in stone because obviously we will do our best to do what we can but in order to meet this number um the redistricting as voted on um it looks like a potential 19 Cuts six would come from admin or central office one facilities two Transportation eight Unit A teachers and two Unit C and District Remains the Same there would be uh five administrators one facilities to Transportation 13.6 Unit A teachers into Unit C currently in the potential cuts that would be proposed thank you remember child did you want to finish so just to clarify if we're looking just at your unit a and Unit C redistricting has fewer Cuts than status quo correct okay thank you may mayor no I just am curious
122why would that be well no I'm just curious I I'm I'm just curious sure um you would have less uh electives offered at the high school because there would be less students and there would not be um additional needs for some um coverage for meeting collective bargaining agreements so in the proposed plans it is um a configuration of sped needs versus what building versus how many are housed currently in certain grade bands it is not a simple a plus b equals c i just and I know people want a simple answer but this is not something that is easily [Music] um determined based on what is happening with all the different shifts and I really do want to emphasize we are taking into to account current unfilled positions first we've been in communic ation with
123the union and um discussions about what things would be cut where and why and obviously our uh just trying to meet a number in this huge deficit that we're faced with any other discussion member Martini I just want to um reiterate some uh things from last week for anybody that wasn't um present uh just for a basic understanding the school Department's requested budget uh increase was about 1.8 million a level Service uh increase would be about 1.2 million that is to say the amount of money that would be necessary in order to maintain our existing services and the uh mayor's proposed budget is slightly less than level funding meaning slightly less than the exact same amount of money that was was allocated last year if that thank you thanks any other discussion okay um all
124in favor uh why don't we do this as a roll call vote um secretary Den the vote to affirm the current redistricting plan sure member Childs yes member Goodwin based on the information that less teachers would be cut I say yes secretary Den yes chair Johnson mad yes Vice chair ston yes member Martini yes mayor dorer abstain motion passes with one exstension thank you everybody uh we are at our uh to our Mark just about so you are entitled to break for 5 minutes and we'll return at um 9:05 [Music] n [Music] n [Music] a [Music] a [Music] n [Music] n [Music] a [Music] he [Music] a [Music] a [Music] n [Music] he [Music] he [Music] a [Music] a [Music] welcome back to the Greenfield uh school committee special meeting we are now on to
125item five discussion to determine Cuts necessary that we meet mayor's budget in light of mayor's proposal and discussion to determine School priority school committee priorities based on a less than level funded budget proposal um I think that we now have a vote on our redistricting which kind of establishes some parameters for the budgeting process and um I'd like to hear from um the chair of the budget and finance subcommittee but my thought is that we would essentially um assigned these items to the budget and finance subcommittee to start working through uh well budget and finance will be happy to meet and uh make some recommendations to the full committee before uh we come back to the table great so the process will be the mayor will formally make her um budget proposal to the city
126council on April or by April 1 then um the city council will be will figure out what our actual number is my my memory if I'm correct is that they can't go lower than the mayor's number but they can go higher if they uh kind of claw it back from other departments um so I think that it's fair to assume that the number the mayor's put forward um is not far off from what it will be uh there there may be some efforts to try to get more for us but um so I guess it's just the com the subcommittee will have to kind of factor in your basic predictions I guess about what's likely to come out of that process um but obviously likely significant cuts um anything else on this item other than
127just to say thank you budget and finance subcommittee for taking this up okay um let's see so so um discussion and vote to approve entering into the bid process for a business manager and U Mr pette our contracted business manager has agreed to leave the room for this discussion um where we left this at the last meeting was we need to give the superintendent some direction relatively soon in the event that the search for a staff business manager is not successful so that we can make sure we have a a contract in place with someone for July 1 um we've had some uh learnings and some uh developments since then so I guess superintendent I'd leave it to you to share any new contacts that might be helpful for people sure I think one of
128the questions that came up at uh last month's meeting was if we could enter into the bid process and add a 30-day Clause um which I have confirmed we could so that um if at any time we are in a contracted service agreement with a service provider there would be a 30-day clause for notice to quit if we do in fact find a business manager in that time so that we wouldn't I think there was some question over whether we had to commit for the full two years or three years of a service contract but there is the potential to put a 30-day notice to uh part ways and we could keep either the search ongoing or re-enter into a second round as some folks had wished last time so um you can do the
129two simultaneously I think was the question that came up and is my memory serving me right that we actually tabled the a motion from the last meeting to this one uh Susan Farber do you have that motion available okay all right I oh great thank you secretary Den notes that is why you have concurrent notes this secretary thing is working we did a motion to go out oh please put your mic on thank you all right we did a motion to go out to bid for the business manager you made the motion and seconded it and then we tabled it and child's made the table tabled motion and you seconded it good one and that was it passed so it's tabled so we have to take it up from the table all right um and
130uh yes I would oh sorry that was roundabout but yes yeah so the actual motion is in the minutes the draft minutes I submitted and Glen you have those in your email account which I cannot access oh I have those too got it oh yes you do uh the superintendent is pulling it up thank you superintendent I think it was under old business thank sorry I think you went bu old business yeah I thought old business came first um I moved that the school committee authorize the superintendent to initiate the procurement process for a consultant to support the business manager role in case the current business manager search is unsuccessful this authorization allows the superintendent to take necessary steps to secure consulting services in accordance with applicable procurement laws and regulations I made the motion
131in in second um M goodwi oh wait have we done the motion to take it up yet I can't remember okay so a motion to uh take up the um tabled motion from last meeting and is there a second second uh all those in favor I I I I okay discussion now that we're on that motion remember good one I'd like to make a friendly amendment to that motion to add the part um where where we will also um continue our search or do another round yep okay so to amend it um I guess after the last sentence um it would just be a sentence that says the current search for a staff uh business manager will continue is that acceptable and and do you accept that so the friendly amendment is accepted and that's
132the motion that we are voting on uh any other discussion mayor um please unmute did you have a lot of applicants how many applicants did you have uh we had five applicants four um who were qualified four interviews um one um offer made and one offer uh denied and we are currently still speaking with one applicant who is potentially still interested and we were um I actually have a meeting tomorrow so should have more updates if this does not pan out we will repost and send to U masbo and mass for um posting again thank you any other discussion I think it's very helpful to know that we can we could potentially contract in July um or Rec contract and um and then still have the 30-day out clause in order if the committee decides
133you know um at a later date uh it's time to a good time opportune time to try to seek more applicants and hearing seeing no other requests to speak uh we'll call the vote um all those in favor I I I any opposed any extensions motion carries unanimously thank you everybody um we will now move to our vote to enter into executive session pursuant to Mass General Law chapter 30A subsection 21A Section 3 to discuss strategy with respect to collective bargaining or litigation if an open meeting may have a detrimental effect on the bargaining or litigating position of the public body and seven to comply with or act under the authority of any general or special law or Federal Grant in Aid requirements the committee will not return to open session so moved motion for
134member child's second second from Member Goodwin uh roll call vote uh secretary genive member yes member child yes member good I'm a yes chair Johnson mad yes Vice chair seon yes member martini yes mayor dorer yes motion carries we are adjourned uh we we we are we just voted to enter the executive session now we need a motion to adjourn the regular meeting is there do you want to do you want to do this one go ahead one I move to adjourn motion from Member Goodwin second second for member child's those are funny any discussion um all those in favor I I the motion adjourns at 9:17 p.m. [Music] a