001good evening and welcome to the Greenfield school committee meeting for Wednesday March 12th 2025 this meeting is being recorded by greenfield Community television gctv if any other persons present are doing the same you must notify the chairperson at this time not seeing any um secretary genive will you call the all all right member Goodwin here member Childs here secretary Den I'm here chair Johnson mad here Vice chair seon here member Martini here mayor dorer here we're all present with a Corum at 6:32 we call the meeting to order um we'll begin with public comment um we'll start with people in the room people on Zoom if you would like to make public comment please put a note in the chat and we'll call on you when we get to the zoom um public comment members
002hello uh Jesus SLA 80 eight dfield Street Greenfield forgot for a moment um I'm uh I'm here tonight for public comment to let you know that on March uh 24th uh Monday at 11:00 a.m. there will be a ways a state Ways and Means budget hearing on local Aid and um the state has started to hold these kinds of hearings not just in Boston but sometimes locally this one happens to be at UMass so this is a rare opportunity to actually be able to show up um in person um it is an invitation only hearing as in terms of public comment so there is no public comment allowed um the one that will have public comment will probably be across the state um but that's just the way things go however um um the one
003of the principles of um in in ammer has decided to make this uh particular hearing a day of uh Civic awareness and action I um share I shared with you um a a letter that he that um the principal sent out to uh parents and teachers about this where they actually plan to walk um from a school in Amherst to the campus on UMass so that they could show up at the hearing um and there are groups in Northampton that are planning on organizing and doing the same if Green Field is to have some kind of presence at that meeting it has to be incumbent upon um our Civic leaders here in Greenfield to do the same so I'm just presenting what they're doing and hoping that there is someone here who might take some
004leadership on that idea um on a and a general note about um the state funding advocacy um we are still looking to try to get the state to take greater responsibility for charter school funding there are several bills pending um the one that is most well supported um is unfortunately the one that is not going to bring us as much relief as we would hope um and um as far as the most popular idea Statewide for the funding advocacy the one that would help Greenfield the most is fixing the Chapter 70 inflation Factor so um in the absence of actually being able to have a a conversation about State funding Equity that would be what we would want to support um that in um Senate bill um 1912 which looks to which is sponsored by
005Senator cumerford and Senator Lewis which would look at reforming the Chapter 70 funding formula so that it is more Equitable is that is that the end of public comment for me sorry thank you hi Margaret ran Court 19B Street Greenfield I have been teaching in Greenfield since 1996 and I'm here to talk about our superintendent Karen patno I have never met anybody who has worked harder to meet her Mission which I believe is to meet the needs of all of our students to provide them the best educational experience that we can provide them she doesn't just talk the talk she walks the walk if we're at school at a night event she's there if we're setting up to do the susal practice she's there helping us she's there at the performance but what I really
006want to talk about is her budget she did not make that light-heartedly or frivolously she made it with one intent to provide our students with what they deserve to have and if you don't believe me you need to look at that budget because member ston touch upon it at the budget meeting but what what was not said was she gave herself a $155,000 salary decrease she did that I believe because she's trying to meet the needs of our students I have not seen anybody do that in my life we all need to acknowledge you Karen are working for us all of us feel it that staff feels our support the students and the families so when we start looking at this budget because I'm worried about what's going to happen people need to be aware
007it was not made light-heartedly and it was made with one intent to provide our students the best education they deserve so please when you're talking about this please look at that I have not met anybody who was willing to give themselves a $15,000 year decrease in their salary so I want to thank you Karen for all that you do for us and since I probably have time I want to talk about the susal if you did not get to see our fourth graders perform in the suscal you miss something special and the only reason it happened is because of you yes juk we have to thank them and we have to thank Sarah pagee and Eli with lit lit l i sorry Litwin sorry because they also worked hard but none of it would have
008happened without Karen she saw this opportunity and it was amazing it was amazing if you saw me backstage I was sobbing like a baby because I was so proud it was a once in a-lifetime experience for many of our students and you did that work to make sure it happened for all of our fourth graders at all three schools you do that every day and I appreciate you and I think the city of Greenfield should recog recognize all that you do for us hi I'm Rose skof I live on lynon Avenue um I'm a teacher in the district and I love what I do I really look forward to coming to work every day um and I wouldn't want to be anywhere else uh I've been watching the various gctv videos that lay out the
009current conflict between the school committee and the city council um and I wanted to share my perspective as a teacher as teachers navigate interpersonal conflicts with students on a daily basis and this work feels applicable um here so as a teacher I'm often in a position where students perceive my actions in a different different way than I intend and that's just the reality of adults working with kids they have a very different view of and and we just sometimes clash and when my impact doesn't match my intent and students communicate with me that they are hurt by my actions I have two options I can prove myself right and justify my actions or I can listen without judgment and work to repair the harm that I caused even if I didn't mean to cause it
010as a teacher when student requests information from me that I do not think they have any right to ask me about I have two options to shut them down or to have a curious conversation and ask why they need it as a teacher when a student doesn't understand something that I am trying to get across it is my job and my responsibility to work as best as I can within my means to clarify that information and not to shame them for their misunderstanding I also have to ask myself in those moments if it is appropriate for me to address the concern in front of the class if I'm having a conflict with a student or to have an offline conversation about it I have to evaluate the situation and decide if this is a time
011where the student will be able to receive the information that I am trying to convey so we're not very different in that respect and as school committee members I believe there is a responsibility to address harm and restore relationships and for that to take president over being right I hope that as you all discuss budget lines that affect our lives as teachers as students as parents as families that you can either restore those relationships before making decisions or take your feelings out of it to make decisions that are in the best interest of everyone in our community because I know that that's the the mission right school committee city council teachers we all want what's best for everyone in Greenfield so we have to make sure that we are all understanding that and we're on
012the same side instead of being on different sides so thank you so I've never done this before I I'm take it I'm supposed to say my address yeah okay um my your address um I think it's just the town town okay all right so my name is OT Mercier and I'm a resident of Greenfield um I'm also a mom to an amazing fourth grader at Four Corners Discovery School I wanted to comment on the district's recent collaboration with juk in presenting the susal at the Greenfield High School I'm not sure how many of you had the privilege of seeing this performance but all of the students were beaming and the auditorium was full of families our fourth grader had extended family in the audience that night and we all enjoyed this so much it wasn't
013just a little performance for us or our student this was a big deal which is what brings me here today for public comment I want to celebrate the unsung heroes of special education within our school district the instructional assistance specifically Heidi Merritt if you're unfamiliar with Miss Heidi Meritt she is our students IIA she has spent countless hours supporting Colton in his academic learning safety and social growth in the school amongst countless other things her professional ability to connect with Colton is evident in watching interactions between them as her ability to keep him safe and support him in his deficits while also encouraging Independence is such a delicate balance that has been mastered in this pair our student Colton loves Dr Seuss and music he loves to dance and the excitement of this performance was
014evident watching him on stage with a huge smile and lots of laughter what you probably don't know about Colton is that he's nonverbal he communicates with an AAC device and requires an IIA in my opinion IAS don't always get the recognition they deserve they silently show up and often have the biggest responsibilities Miss Heidi was the only adult on the stage hand inand with Colton for the entire show my fourth grader got his opportunity to shine due to the selfless work of an educ ational assistant I cannot begin to express my gratitude to her and the amazing work she has done and continues to do I shared the story with our Special Education team last week but I'd like to share it with you as I think this speaks to the impact this has had
015on my son when Colton came back from the performance night at Greenfield High School he was in the dining room and he was busy on his iPad searching YouTube videos shortly after he comes into the living room he's laughing and dancing and he was playing the suscal soundtrack off of YouTube um I just want to thank you for your time and recognition of the backbone of special education instructional assistance [Applause] hi my name is Pamela Goodwin I live at 54 High Street um I taught in Greenfield schools monteu system Pioneer over the years for many many years I also did private tutoring for the superintendent of Greenfield in two different areas one was a little sixth grader who had to be homeschooled until I brought him into a school setting one was a teenager who
016got in trouble and brought in a knife and he was expelled for the whole year so I have a lot of experience in the school system and also I had an occasion to work if any of you were here long enough to know who um Sarah fog is in the alternative education room at the high school alternative Ed was for difficult children um well difficult behaviors anyway and they came um and worked with Barry molan um and so I was a a staff there in that setting um and we did really well and those kids didn't really want to be in school but they came to school and they really functioned beautifully there I also taught um some children at the high school who were at risk I co-taught with Angela Mass I co-taught with
017a gentleman named um Matt Stenson for a year um they were all at risk kids and and then I taught summer school so I'm just here to ask the school committee um because I know we're getting ready to talk about budget um I'm a little concerned about class size in certain schools or you know maybe it's small at the high school it's larger in other settings I also had an occasion to teach remedial reading um I fell into that and a reading program up at pioneer and my Master's Degree was in instruction and curriculum through Leslie college so I've had a lot of experience and I would just like us to take a very close look at the budget I'm not clear on why we're not regionalizing or combining schools the way that some of
018the other school systems have found necessary to do because certainly the state is dropping the ball as far as funding for chapter programs I know palmont is now in Jeopardy again of being shut down and combining with maybe I think it's North Adams and that's where my three children went to holmont for all those years it was an awardwinning National Elementary School at that time and these kids are now in their 40s and 50s so I just hope that people are able to look outside of the box I don't know if we're still spending a whole lot of money to park buses somewhere uh because that does not make sense to me either so if some trimming has to happen I hope that people are able to look closely at what other districts are doing
019or whatever else might be needed because I know budget is always a horrific time for all parties concerned thank you for your time anyone on Zoom we have two people on Zoom uh John McGee will go first hi there uh my name is John McGee I live in Greenfield um as always thanks to everybody on the committee and at GPS for all of your hard work um tonight I just wanted to say thank you to the superintendent for the very sensible and caring policies for protecting protecting all of our kids in Greenfield schools um and especially the children of immigrants in the face of increasingly xenophobic Federal action um and tonight I want to encourage the school committee to co codify those policies officially at the committee level to whatever extent possible um and to
020provide for teachers and staff to be trained in carrying them out in practice that's all I have thanks uh hello McAn is next uh hi I'm Anna McBane uh I work in schools uh and I'm uh uh as an instructional assistant and I want to just say uh kind of tag on to whatever the theme of the night has been which is to say thank you to Karen uh earlier this year I got to uh be um with a student in a band concert and it's because of the support Karen shows for inclusion in all aspects of the district that we knew that we could go ahead and the funding would be uh okay to have me work that uh so thank you Karen and and uh then onto the uh budget um I hope
021that uh we we can find a solution that uh doesn't mean that any of the services that we provide our students on the direct level on are affected because those are the servic is that the students themselves would feel the most impact of if some sort of cut had to be made to our budget that Karen has built and uh also thank you Karen for the uh salary cut uh I don't think enough people around the town know what you did so thank you for that um and thank you for your time M as in Mary C B as in Barry a n is a Nancy e b oh MC I'm sorry I got that wrong can you put on your mic and spell up for Susan Susan it's m CB e a n okay
022thank you on to the uh report of student representatives to the committee Club reports athletic updates and the Student Life highlight all right so this year the student council took 24 delegates um to the three state or to the three-day State Conference in hyenas this is the most ghs has ever brought to this conference we have from two keynote speakers um four of our students ran workshops that were presented to 40 students each we had a really great time and brought home some new Awards once again we were recognized as a gold Council of Excellence Devon Brown and Stella Verlander receiv received the Commonwealth award um in addition to their um Devotion to our Council Miss Mass nominated them for expanding their leadership into new clubs at our school Devon helped to create the students
023of color club and Stella the sustainability Club our Council won the top 10 project award and though we did not win at that level we would like to recognize Noah Chambers as our council's unsung hero all in attendance gained valuable skills and we can't wait to start new initiatives at our school to increase the pride um of ghs winter sports had a great season girls basketball won their preliminary round in the Mia Tournament game versus BAS State Academy Unfortunately they did not fare well in the next game but they had a great experience overall boys basketball was 2-0 in the tournament um until they played against O'Brien High School in rockberry and lost in double overtime with 70 to 67 but they had a great run ice hockey lost in their first round of the
024tourney to sandwich High School 3 to2 in double overtime springing Sports start on Mon start on Monday March 17th and you can see schedules on Arbiter live.com French Club and Spanish Club hosted the 29th annual Taste of world cultures event yesterday March 11th this event was very well attended in future performances from ghs Spanish and French students the Moonlight classical Chinese Dan dance club from Smith college and the Crescent dancers each performed and invited students and guests to participate in a dance lesson we enjoyed a multicultural Feast donated by generous local businesses and we're we were so s thankful to see so many students families and community members there drama club is busy rehearsing for the somewhat true tale of Robin Hood their play this year the actors are studying and working hard to memorize
025a lot of complex dialogue including several dance steps and even a cheer they have the help of Mr bostom students to build a turret window and Mr Green's Art Club to help with painting sets costumes are being gathered and sewn thanks to miss Po's daughter Juliet and we are looking forward to the performances on April 4th and 5th tickets will be sold at the door and we're looking forward to everyone attending the Spectrum Club spent their last meeting making bracelets for an upcoming fundraiser that is in the works um they're also connected with Franklin County pride and will be helping to plan um The Pride prom which is being held at the Franklin County YMCA on April 26th from 7: to 10 p.m. it is a free event for 8th through 12th graders and they're
026excited to plan decorate and attend um in news for the students of Color Club students have gone to the seventh grade middle school advisories to present their lesson to address racialized language and provides some new tools to become active bystanders they've now met with every seventh grade advisory and they're now in discussions to meet with Miss fenmore to organize presentations to the sixth grade advisories um and for today today's Student Life presentation we have sustainability Club so this section is again um intended to highlight student excellence and achievement um sustainability Club is a new group this year and I will not spend too much time introducing them because they will probably do it better than I will um so sustainability Club if you want to take the stand hello thank you um so we're just
027going to go around and say our names I'm Stella Verlander I'm a senior I'm Isabella eblo I'm a sophomore I'm meis Al I'm a sophomore and we're just going to give a brief presentation on our club the sustainability Club it's new this year um and hold on we have a little presentation too okay wonderful um okay so I founded the sustainability Club because I saw an opportunity for improvement in our school and as the next generation of leaders I knew that ghs students were necessary part of taking action to make our school more sustainable now more than ever climate activism is greatly needed and our club members have been working hard to spread awareness and do our part we've only been a club for around five months however we have achieved a lot and we
028will share that with you tonight okay okay as ambitious students we have many goals and aspirations for our club we hope to include every ghs student in our events and projects so the sustainability becomes a core value of students at our school we also strive to always give back to our community in the form of community service and volunteering in any way possible through our environment projects we hope to help our our town and school reach Net Zero carbon emission continue to keep Greenfield green so a big part of our club is our events and projects that's really what makes everything fun um and so far this year we've walked over six miles in Monty's March and raised 700 $970 for the food bank of Western Massachusetts um this went towards meals that people in
029need um need um and this is really just to help fight the hunger crisis in America and specifically Western massachusett um and recently we took a trip to the Massachusetts state house in Boston and participated in the Massachusetts Youth Climate Coalition Lobby day we advocated for priority climate bills and spoke with representative Natalie blae and Senator Joanne comford um we learned a lot about the legislative process from this experience and we were met with a lot of support from the representatives so these bills that are um in particularly bad places in um the state of where bills get passed a lot of them were in the Ways and Means Committee um and we're helping to move those forward so that things like clean air um uh climate education will be implemented into schools all over
030Massachusetts um and as a part of our continued interest in food conversation conservation and composting we've conducted two food waste studies this year during our lunch periods at school we found that each person creates around um 65 to 75 pounds on average of food waste in a day and this research goes towards our interest in reimplementing composting programs in the high school and then um as we get more research and we move to doing food waste studies in the middle school and Elementary School to then move um interest in composting to all schools in the district as all clubs and Student Activities strive for we aim to leave a lasting positive impact on our on our school we've increased awareness in the school community and already through our events and our media presence recently we
031had the opportunity to speak with Evelyn mcdonal McDonald McDougle about our club for the Greenfield Recorder which broadened our Outreach moving forward since we're a new organiz can you hear me yeah since we're a new organization to the school it's hard to pack a large number of events into our first year this is why we've started planning ahead and thinking about fun things to implement our club next year this spring we hope to do some gardening on a smaller scale and use our garden beds outside of the high school to grow some produce and flowers we've been inspired by a fellow ghs organization the student of color club and we hope we can follow their example in giving information sessions and presentations to school in our districts majority of climate and sustainability organizations host climate
032Summit annually this is a great way to get connected with other schools though these events also learn a lot from keyn note speakers and workshops in April we're planning to attend and the phis academy end over youth CL Summit and hopefully make attending climate Summits a tradition for our club thank you all for listening to our presentation we hope this has giving you in some insight into what our club does and we hope um we're constantly growing and expanding our organization and there's a lot more that is yet to come thank you again for your attention and have a good night thank you thank you would you be able to answer questions if committee members have any for you thank you any questions for either Shane or for the sustainability Club um okay yeah member
033Childs not a question I just want to congratulate you for the success you're having and wish you the best in continuing to grow this program so that hopefully it will start reaching into the schools at the lower level so thank you for what you're doing for your school and Community thank you thank you for your support we appreciate it yeah thank you I'm impressed at your ability to stay hopeful in times that seem kind of dark to some of us so it's really um hopeful when people keep moving forward in in difficult times any questions questions okay thank you thank you so much all right I'm going to um propose a um change to the order of our agenda that we would move on now to the business manager but after the business manager's report
034um I move that the we um change the order so the mayor's presentation regarding the mayor's proposed fiscal year 2026 school budget proposal and rationale comes after that is there a a second okay there's the first the motion is there a second second a second for member child's and a and a mo motion from Member Martini um any [Music] discussion okay um roll call vote uh secretary Den member Goodwin yes member Childs yes secretary n Eve yes chair Johnson mad a yes Vice chair seon yes member Martini yes mayor dorer yes vote is unanimous all right we'll move on to the business manager's report Andy good evening everyone you had in your packets the budget reports for March uh in addition to my memo with a summary of the highlights as how things stand as
035of the March report um we are Believe It or Not uh well into our preparing the closing of the fiscal year reviewing encumbrances both salary and non-salary uh you have I highlighted some of the accounts that aren't necess aren't formally encumbered but will be expended uh Transportation salaries and those six items that are listed there so when you do that and then apply our remaining funds that we planned on using in this budget was built we have to deal with normal I say normal end of the year expenditures that aren't highlighted in those uh six of the 82,6 41 but if like I didn't want to go through I could have gone through the the budget and exhausted you know all the supply lines Etc but those six items are the ones that I kind
036of if you look at the trends are the ones that we normally spend uh through the end of the year Transportation salaries it's just we uh they're they're not in CED so we do a manual encumbrance for those um in addition we were notified recently of two placements uh where we are assigned fiscal responsibility so that will also eat into the 682,000 so with that said I can answer any questions that you might have as I said when you look just one thing before the questions I always like to show the percent expended and committed and the percent available so when you look uh we're at 97.12% expended and or committed with a 2.88% balance to be able to address other end of the year unanticipated and unencumbered expenses thank you questions from the committee
037looks like member martini and then we'll go to Mayor disorder member Martini thanks Andy do you know the um ballpark C of those uh two placements for which we are now fiscally responsible I do not uh and I think that that is are yet to be determined okay thanks mayor um I have two questions um Andy um I have question is it it's really the same category but on three different pages um on pages seven to eight and 11 the the maintenance of buildings where there's an incumbent what is it that we're paying for on page I can tell you the exact line item if you want to know um on page $2,883 encumbered no um it's maintenance of buildings also I have page s and what would that be in there it's under Greenfield
038High School and we P seven is the Middle School your honor oh I'm sorry yep you know the the top Line's a little dark I don't have enough light on this I apologize so um we spent like 800 8,733 and then it's encumbered 6,266 the incumbent is that's what I'm curious about and and U maybe we're doing it all the same way the incumbant what is that for do you know uh I'd have to get the detail of the open Po's uh that's the probably several purchase orders that the facilities director has used for supplies and materials related to building maintenance okay well then never mind I'm not going to go on to the other two pages I can get those though it's very it's just a matter of uh I'm on a Mac right
039now and I can't log into munus on a Mac I have to go through a PC so uh if you want I can while the meeting's going on I can run that report it's it was just I wondered what else we were what we were encumbering for the end of the school and and it's it's not that important the other thing I wanted to know is on the circuit breaker account um so we're um we're still supposed to get three more payments on that according to the desie website of 317,000 about we didn't get the December one doesn't look like it was given yet to our community and I I saw several other communities that didn't have that as well do you know why why that is least was listed on the website that's I
040could not tell you uh uh I can research that but you know I know it's I don't know if it impacts cash flow for the city but I know come June 30 whatever our allocated amount that we're scheduled to receive we will receive it so it could be a delay on theirin for who knows what reasons but you know uh I just I I would say that uh I have seen delays in the past in previous fiscal years um you know I could say the only reason i' ever I've ever seen a delay is if there is an end of thee report that wasn't submitted in time but they do have our end of the year report so it's not at all anything related to that okay um and if uh if I can continue
041just on this it looks like we we posted the the last one for fiscal year 24 probably came in on the very last day we posted that was the last one of fiscal year 24 in 25 so my real question is can we put five payments in in this um in fiscal year 25 because we' do three more uh is that allowed no you're supposed to post the revenues the revenues are recognized well it I would say on the city Side they should have aced the revenue and because it comes to your it comes to the treasurer's office so the revenue should be acred and it should have been posted to f524 okay because it looks like three were posted to um it looks like three were posted in fiscal year 24 and I can
042see that we do three more which will be almost another close to another million but okay I've got it thank you very much okay any other questions for the business manager okay we will move on to the um mayor's presentation regarding mayor's proposed fiscal year 2026 school budget proposal and rationale mayor thank you thank you um Karen ingland for adding me to the agenda to speak on this tonight the school budget I just have a prepared statement not a presentation the school budget is a critical component of the overall All City budget education provides every student the opportunity to become their best selves beyond that investing in public schools is the most important expenditure of any community that any Community can make for its future the Mary school budget number for this year is 23
043m697 549 there are three main drivers for that number including exter external and internal budget factors this decision was not made lightly my emphasis as a mayor is establishing a stable Financial pathway for the city and for our schools despite alarming changes federally I am very hopeful that there will be no changes to our cherry sheet numbers for fiscal year 26 I have contacted the mass Municipal Association and the department of revenue for guidance the DOI suggested very conservative budgeting despite my prudent budget choices thus far we we were informed that we have a one in three chance of our bond rating being reduced next year due to a to due to $74 million of outstanding debt and the $51 million unfunded retirement liability health insurance costs will increase by 16.5% this year as they
044did last year that figure will represent a $1.5 million increase to the city budget these increases are unprecedented historically health care premiums have risen by 4% annually over the last 10 years as you know by law our budget can only increase by 25% for the city of Greenfield this means that the entire budget can increase by approximately 1.4 to 1.5 million most of that increase this year will go to paying the skyrocketing health care premiums our total health care costs will increase from 8.8 million to 10.3 million the school budget increased requests this year is almost 2 million the ask is more than the than the overall City budget can increase every year our budget can increase about 1.4 to 1.5 million last year the schools received about 2third of the total City increase this
045year the school committee approved a 25 a, 587,589 of 1,889 76 if this were the only Department requesting a budget increase it would be mathematically impossible to fund the city B budget and pay for the employees health insurance and no mayor can submit a budget that the city cannot fund last year almost every department head asked me for more staff I said no because we could not pay for it we added one full-time position for the entire city in fiscal year 25 these are our constraints within which we have to operate although the above external factors are outside of a control many factors we can and must control to survive these are the solutions we can explore today but must change this year to avoid a fiscal cliff the nesda study uh was published just
046in June of 2022 it is already obsolete in less than three years we have lost 254 students the the the report predict predicted this decline would happen over a 10-year period the dramatic change means that we must reexamine our plans our plans won't work with our budget or the current en moment for those of you watching the nezda study is on the gpsk website under [Music] redistricting I will be referencing one other paper which is under the energy Department under buildings if we move the eighth grade out of the high school in September as planned there will be only 300 children in a state-of-the-art energy efficient building designed to hold 788 children the high school building is superb and has the best energy rating of any of our schools with an eui of 37 conversely
047the middle school has the worst energy rating of any of our schools with an eui of 57 keep in mind the high school cost 60 million do to build of which we pay 1.3 million every single year year out of our city budget until 2039 a plan that puts the seventh and eighth grade at the high school utilizes the building better while still being well under full capacity the fifth and sixth grade could move to the elementary schools with the same Equity plan that we all strive for we can do a great job for our students increasing resources for Music Arts and sports PT speech and programs will be centralized reducing travel time busing costs and maximizing the impacts for these services for our schools to impro improve we must prioritize our spending on teachers
048and Par professionals and we must reduce building and administrative costs of note on the school budget slide show there was no actual figure uh of of the cost of moving the fifth and E eighth grades it is known that it is known we add more teachers for Less overall students in our schools in this move plan a meaningful restructuring of schools could provide the education every one of us wants and simultaneously accomplish the equity we are striving for when H when parents have the opportunity to choose what school to send their children to they are looking for strong music and arts programs excellent academics robust Athletics and exciting field trips these things are possible but only if we course correct now the Shar gold shared gold will remain impossible if the current plan stands I
049am not an educator but I do know that the numbers don't lie we know the future of funding looks Grim earlier this week the president cut the USDA food programs that we rely on to feed our students how can we justify the massive increase of the current plan when we now have to find a way to make sure hungry bellies are full we don't have another year to wait the die will be cast and we won't have any other options Transportation cost are another massive expenditure within our control evaluating contracted Services the size and energy consumption of our Fleet is needed a plan that includes oversight is necessary our school committee becomes aware of new vehicle purchases after they have happened all vehicle expenditures need to go through the capital planning process the city all
050is a green community and and an almost lost grant funding uh last year because of a vehicle purchased by another department that did not align with energy standards lastly on the budget figures on the numbers The increased cost of outof District tuition seems factually inaccurate it was reported to us that out of District tuition costs would rise by $1.5 million the director of student services agreed that all our students attend students governed by the governed by the office of students with disabilities as I stated last month that tuition can only increase by 3.67% Additionally the practice of encumbering larger amounts that you will spend is pervasive we need to represent the facts properly although fiscal year 26 seems daunting fiscal year 27 is predicted to be far worse I sincerely hope that we can come
051together to address these very serious issues let's fix this well we can together that's all thank you thank you mayor um I think it' be good for the committee to get to discuss your presentation I think maybe one way to proceed would be to start with um questions for the mayor to make sure we're all um starting with just basic uh basic facts and information and then for the the committee to get to share their um perspective on your presentation um I just I think it would be good um might be helpful for the public to know that what you have put forward is um a 0.11% decrease from for from fiscal 25 $254 less than the current fiscal Year's budget um PE are there questions that committee members have for the mayor about her
052presentation member Den um I'm not sure that it's much a question is a confirmation um are you saying that you do not wish to go forward with the redistricting that we worked on and proposed through the many Community engagement meetings that we had I am saying I I realized that we had many meetings on this um I also feel that when I bought this when I actually raised my hand on this again that some of the dis dis discussion was discouraged however I definitely think what we spoke about with the V districting putting the fifth grade and maybe the sixth grade along with them um with the street design Etc is a a great idea I think that we definitely need to look at the use of the schools now to have a high school
053with 300 students in it to be running two massive schools at half capacity with all the administrative costs is not something that we can afford to do um I referred to the mzda study and where they had us 10 years from now is where we are now and I think that those numbers actually mandate that we look at what we are doing considering the cost that this move is going to be for us to underutilize the most energy efficient building at this point in time does not seem to be good judgment at all I guess I'm asking because I appear to be the chair of the redistricting subcommittee that was ad hoc but is still alive and I would like to see if you could I guess I requesting that you could send me all
054of that information um in case we need to meet again I need to know what your your views and thoughts and plans are regarding this because it's certainly different than what we had worked on for several years I was removed from the redistricting committee but I am happy to submit any of this to you thank you any other questions for the mayor about our proposal member childs would it be possible for us to to uh get a written copy of it just for better digesting I will get that to everyone if not tonight tomorrow morning thank you any other questions for the mayor okay member Martini uh thank you I uh I appreciate member J's question s and comments um I feel quite Disturbed that after having engaged in a two and a half year
055CommunityWide uh project to design this redistricting to uh consider pulling the rug out from under families who've already made decisions about uh about which school their child will be attending next year and what have you uh and also I appreciate member child's um request just now uh normally we are provided with materials for everything that is on the agenda and I would very much have appreciated having this as part of our meeting materials before this meeting uh it's very hard to respond to a slew of detailed comments without having any lead time uh to consider them and I just want to clarify uh mayor in the school committee's recent uh budget hearing the budget proposal that was approved was presented and discussed alongside level service funding which would have uh constituted a five and change
056percent increase increase but uh what you are proposing here is not just um not the school committee's but proposed budget and not even not just level service it's actually not even level funding it's actually less than our previous uh our previous budget I just want to ask you to confirm that that is what you are suggesting so um so member Martini um two things on the on the redistricting uh first um yes we did talk about we talked about the redistricting the cost project projection however was unrealized by any of us until the budget that budget came out um by commitment to equity remains incredibly firm and I I agree with all of you on what we had proposed but things changed and I kept trying to raise my hand to speak about this but
057we need to look at the numbers of the children that are in that we have now in the school in the school system in light of facing uh daunting changes is to our health insurance the rising cost of health insurance is the main driver for what is happening to the overall City budget um we're together in this uh city employees make up maybe about 40% um School Employees make up 60% but everyone is paying and getting fabulous insurance that I want them to continue to have but that increase to the budget um is is going to be one and a half million dollar [Music] so we are many depart many departments are being cut um this is not the my favorite time of the year many departments across the city are facing Cuts because we
058can't afford to you can only do what you can afford to do um there was another part of your oh there was another piece of what you said um I actually did not concur with the $1.5 million increase that we were projected to have in outof District um out of District tuition expenses um if there was a four a just say even a 4% increase to out of District tuition cost that would have meant that we spent 37 A5 million on out of District tuition so I I question that number also and let me just see if there's anything else um we are down approximately 5% of students over the past fiscal year I think that those things were not talked about and we need to look at the spending and the best way that
059we can do this to give a great education to our children this pains me terribly to do this I think I have the same love of Education that we all do I hope I answered your question remember Martini I saw your hand are you you want to follow up um yes thank you um thank you for that explanation mayor um I also wondered uh when this situation in regards to health insurance came to your attention because I feel quite sure it's probably something that's been worrying you for quite a while um and I am wondering why you didn't come forward with any prepared motions during our budget hearing or prior to that uh to amend the budget that the school committee would be proposing because I'm sure that that would have been um discussed at
060that time and the school committee would have been interested in that but uh but there was no such motion from your corter could explain why not absolutely that was confirmed two days ago and I would say probably the first time that I heard that it was going to be in the 16% range was with 16% range was with was within the month it is certainly not anything that I kept from from anyone I think I told the superintendent what as soon as I started boring about it I knew what it was last year I hoped that that was an anomaly but I did not have advanced notice of that that I kept from anyone because honestly it's just not how I operate um when we when we get the first number he said was going
061to be 16.9% I'm sure that was in the month but I I can check um we asked our the person to go back to the insurance company um the called the meeting of the you know we've been trying the IAC but this was all happening I would say probably since our last meeting um thank you for the clarity uh I just had one other question but I don't if someone else has their hand up over there I don't want toize member Goodwin and then we'll come back to you member Martini I just remember this being brought up and a in a meeting um when we were discussing things what being brought up health insurance that the health insurance would be quite high this year yeah I don't think that was brought up that wasn't uh
062that wasn't multiple times yeah okay uh back to you member martini and then we'll go to member Den so uh say that this is um the level of funding that the the school department does receive in FY 26 uh and we have to contend with uh less than even level funding of the school budget um this in some total would [Music] um represent more than a $1.8 million cut to the proposed budget and I am curious uh exactly what you would suggest be cut and I it's I need more specifics than just to say that we should have less Administration I I'm asking what exactly you are suggesting be uh be cut or who uh you suggest so that decision won't be mine but will be the superintendent and then we would be looking at
063whatever the superintendent presents my suggestion however would be to provide the best services that we look at the utilization of our schools um I don't make a decision for the committee but if we put seventh and eighth grade in the high school um and um I've been running these numbers looking at what ndaq said just over the past couple weeks um what would fit in the elementary schools if we were able to um do K through six or one through six in our elementary schools I think we could do that without um without um oh while providing the same services that all of us are hoping for I think that we have to look at a better utilization of the numbers in face of the when faced with the declining numbers that are startling it
064it was June of 2022 when that um NASDAQ study was published um and since then as I said we're down 254 students I think we Pro I'm not sure and um there are people that know more than me about that but um but um I think either with the same design that we worked on so I didn't want my fellow teammates and members to think throwing out the idea because it was important for all of us to have Equity within our schools but can you afford to keep six Schools running that's not talking about um we need to we we need and all want to provide the same level of education and services to our children so do I but when faced with the the budget constraints that we are faced with I had to
065make terrible choices last year last year the school request was for 1, 3 like it was for [Music] 1,333 increase and and I put forward a a 900 and something I think it was a $940,000 increase as I said that was 2third of what the entire city budget could go up and when I said that we added one full-time employee that's true I cut one full-time employee from it and uh we added one person in assessing and one firefighter so that's a plus one for the whole city because of what we faced with with insurance and it's not a position that I want to be in but it's not not a position that I want all of us to be in but it is not economically feasible for us to go forward without looking at
066what else we can do and what we could combine so when you asked me about cutting that wasn't what I was thinking like who you know whose position would I be cutting I would be looking at which schools we could combine because actually that would be an enormous savings while providing the same education to our children I don't think it's possible to continue using the six schools and we might not be able to pay hungry children I mean we might not be able to afford to feed our hungry children so that I I feel I know it's a profit of Doom here but it's the writing is on the wall and we know it's not getting better and that is a factual thing what happened with our health insurance we had the person come before
067us the fact of the matter is and I did send this um print out to both the superintendent and the assistant superintendent um we are we are spending more than our premiums the health insurance costs by our members are more than our health insurance premiums we did everything last year we asked every single other um health insurance company if they would take us on but they would not because um because what what our employees and their family members spel spent on their health needs was higher than the premium that went into the health insurance company and they're running a business and then nobody else wanted to pick us up so that's a reality that we're faced with two years in a row um we tried the IAC and I forget I'm not the IAC the
068GIC and another one that um some different employees had suggested and they wouldn't take us so I was hoping it would be better this year but it's not um I don't like to be in this position either but when we're here it's like what are we going to do what are we going to what are we going to do that is the best plan and running two two schools at half capacity doesn't seem like the best idea to me that's a plan that I came up with but I'm just one member I have to run the budget though go ahead sorry member den and then back to member Martini I'm sad and really frustrated in this moment I just have to say um we always knew when we were talking about redistricting that six schools
069was really not a sustainable thing that we could have forever I mean I've talked to a lot of people about that we talked about that in the subcommittee The Pie in the Sky dream was always that someday after redistricting we could all come together and start working on a plan to have a new elementary school so that we wouldn't have six individual buildings you know that we all in different states of disrepair or you know had space issues and I think that there are so many things that are just there are moving pieces to this that I think aren't just about oh let's just put this grade in this school like that's not how it works um there's employ employment contracts on the table there's Transportation changes that have to happen I can I tell
070you how long the superintendent was saying that she spent on doing all of the streets to ascertain who could ride what buses where um we did a whole piece with the family engagement there are families who have made choices on where their child is going to go for you know the remainder of their time in a certain school and there are best practices regarding grade grade bands and where they're housed and it's just such a complex issue I just don't I don't see it being as easy as oh we have a more energy efficient school here with some space let's stick some kids there so I feel dismayed um I would much rather like to see us come together and look at how we can add more Energy Efficiency to the middle school perhaps to
071reduce costs there are lots of things out there and I just I I don't see this working and it makes me very sad because I spent a long time many hours with so many of you in little rooms talking about what you wanted what would fit what it would look like and then to just have it sort of lost because of health care costs is really sad it's just sad I just want to say it it's just sad and I don't know what to do but this just throwing people wherever to Save A Buck just doesn't seem like the right thing to to do Martini thanks uh mayor I think I heard you say that we should not have so many schools as we have but I confused and would like to know which school
072are you suggesting we eliminate can you I need more specific information about exactly what you're suggesting and when you think that should happen um so first I wanted to address um a member Den um I hear your sadness I can feel that this to me is not about sticking people some somewhere or another their families with children and I don't think any of those decisions are easy for anyone but the de the declining enrollment was not predicted and the rise in costs was not predicted I just want to assure you that I I have kids I have nine grandchildren both my daughter-in-laws teachers reading specialists this is a a a crushing thing to make a a a cut to the school budget but it is what what what can we afford to do and what
073makes the most economic sense I I don't want us to think of it like the mayor wants to stick people somewhere they're people but I also want to say when we make this decision the presentation that we had was about hiring new people I work very hard to make sure that we're not losing people for the you know for the people that I'm kind of over I guess as you would say it that are under my employee so when we're making any of these decisions and I'm worrying about it I always say oh if I know who that is like if we have somebody already they have faces and families so I always try to make a decision that is before I've done anything like that all I just want to say to you is
074facing the financial concerns that we are we're talking about hiring we're talking about moving teachers first of all from the 8th grade at down to the middle school then hiring new people that we haven't met yet people with faces and families that's how I see this and that's why I talked about making the decision before it was happening I wasn't expecting to be here either um and then I want to go back I'm sorry I was answering that question more um than member Martini's member Martini I lost that because I was trying to answer that's okay my question was I think I heard you say that um you think that we have too many schools for our number of students and I want you to explain which school you think we should eliminate and when
075you think that should happen okay so I didn't actually I was I I didn't want to come out and say something for the whole committee but I'm just running the numbers on this um it appears to me it appears obvious to me but I don't mean that it needs to be obvious to anyone else that running six schools as we are doing running two large schools with you know with four custodians and the accompanying Administration doesn't feel like the best idea they are the two two larger schools are the ones that I see this is just from a practical standpoint but there's there's people that work there so I it's hard to you know talk about on on uh um taking into consideration the people who's job jobs this would affect but those are the
076two large schools and I think that's that's where we have to make the decision two large schools that are running would I'm sorry to interrupt you but I I just don't understand your answer okay middle the middle school is H is the one that I I would think the the one that we should be closing so you're suggesting that we close the Middle School move the seventh grade to the high school and make all of the elementary schools K through six K through six and when do you think when are you suggesting that would happen if that would be possible to do for next year I would do it next year and if we needed another year in between I would do it the year after that if we moved five five through um if
077I think the best plan would be to do it next year if it was humanly possible and if not the year after that because I don't actually know I'm not a superintendent or an educator or somebody that does bus plans and I don't know how long that would take to do and I will tell you I know that our superintendent Works extraordinarily hard I think she gives 150% and I I know what I put into a budget I I can tell you I think she puts her heart and her soul into the schools and so I can't speak on her behalf or the folks that she works with about how long that would take to do and this is very difficult for me to talk about but I think it needs to be done I
078think the writing is on the wall and I think by doing that um we could afford to provide everything that everybody talks about in all of these meetings some of you are far more educated than I am on these reading plans Etc there are all of these wonderful plans that you want I think we could do all of those if we Consolidated the buildings so you asked me very specifically I think it's the middle school that we need to look at closing that's my opinion and I I think it would be uh a very unwise choice to make the decision that we're making for September so I would keep I would do seventh and eighth grade I don't think that is in into the high school this year keep that good running facility you know
079almost at uh well not really near capacity because they certainly could take more and I think we should all be discussing if K through six or 1 through six would fit in all of the elementary schools I've run the numbers and I'm uh not quite sure and I am I'm I'm not an educator but I am very good with math other uh member Martini thanks again does anybody El have a hand up because I don't want to one I'm recognizing only when I don't see any other hands raised so you're good um okay thank you mayor for being um being more straightforward about that um have you met with the superintendent to ask whether the numbers that you have run are accurate and whether what you're uh suggesting would be in any way feasible the
080superintendent and I meet um every two weeks and we did not discuss that I thought that this was a good discussion to have um uh with all of us whether or not we could put all of the people in one school is is not a decision that the two of us had together but I would welcome that discussion with her um next week right no but when I when I am wondering about something and I'm not sure whether I am correct or maybe I weigh off basee about something I put the question out there to the superintendent just to make sure that I I am I'm on the right track so I I would hope that everyone is doing that and um I am not the superintendent uh and I'm much like you and um
081not in that role and and I was also not on the redistricting committee that led the work on this project over the last several years um I'm just cognizant of the fact that it took two and a half years to develop the plan that we were supposed to be implementing in September and so I feel very skeptical about the uh plausibility to implement a wholesale different plan in a mere less than six months that's like f five and a half months um at this point so I would be very worried about that and um um also I think I heard you say that you wanted to see no less in services to our students but I'm very perplexed as to how that would happen because we provided uh a budget proposal that included level service
082numbers so a level service budget would uh be24 million $981 and one $981,000 so what what you're suggesting here is about $1.2 million less than that and I am I'm I know that you will know and and uh most people will be aware that we have um contracted step raises and um agreements that we have worked out with our staff in our last uh round of contract negotiations that must be honored and uh Absol I don't understand how um anyone could think that we would not lose Services uh with a drastic cut like that and um I'm just recollecting the last time that the school committee had to um contend with a short fall of about $200,000 I think it was um and we lost several positions including our entire foreign language program in the
083middle schools so uh I'm I'm very worried about about what you are suggesting I I appreciate the pressures that you're under and I'm I'm sorry not trying to uh P you here but I'm I'm very concerned um I I just wanted to say two things I thought this was this is not easy for me either I think this is it was better to have a discussion publicly um and the finances and it have changed dramatically as has our enrollment and you I think there is an enormous savings um as we look if if we were looking at a change in the buildings I I think in and of itself that saves a lot I don't think that would involve a loss of any teachers or par profession professionals that was I think you could easily
084do that without having that happen but again I'm not the superintendent nor do I claim to be but in the end I'm going to do my best to submit a a thoughtful budget for the entire city and this the other part of this and some of this it's been like since January as we all know it's this is a scary place to be in as far as budgeting I get things from our Del delegation saying it's a terrifying time right now and this isn't even predicted to be the bad year okay so I guess I want you to think about I want you to think about that and perhaps my perspective on this and why I'm saying this today because knowing well none of us knows the future right but anticipating what next year might
085be how bad it's predicted to be would it not Would we not be having more foresight to be not making a change that's going to um hook us into or have us into more um you know have done some things that we can't turn back on I guess that's how I want to say that just remember you know the federal government cut food funding for children that it it makes me think that that we have to do that now do do you know what saying the things that are coming from outside of that may be say we have to look at what we're doing on the inside and and to try to provide the very best that we can all other questions from the Committee Member Den I okay I I do understand your perspective
086mayor but you did say in your presentation that that the middle school is one of the more energy efficient buildings and the high school is also energy efficient building so but now you're saying to close the middle school so I don't know if I have that right I guess I'll have to read your proposal when you send it in but you did also say I believe I heard that there were costs associated with going through the redistricting plan that we created well there would also be costs closing the middle school and moving multiple grades around I mean there's that costs also so I'm just perplexed as to I'm perplexed as to this whole plan just perplexed sorry I don't have a question do you want to respond yes um Elizabeth um the most energy efficient
087of any of our buildings is the high school building it has an UI an energy rating of 37 the um the middle school has the worst energy r of any of our schools it has an eui 57 that that is I will send you what's on the um energy and sustainability website it was about building efficiencies and yes um everything that we do has an Associated cost with it it is just if we were talking about making this move and hiring new people because of it um I think that puts us in a fiscally more precarious state for next year where some of the federal cuts are going to hit us so much in the face that it just be be wise for us to be making a decision this year and I understand it's
088March I didn't think January and February were going to go the way they did on the federal level I bet none of us did and I didn't reach out to the Department of Revenue last year for guidance on my budget because I didn't have to um things were stable but faced with with the looming changes on the federal that are going to come and and hit us and what is hitting Us in the face this year you try to make the best decisions that you can thank you um I'm sorry I just have a followup does follow up from Member Den then member Childs then member martini and then I promise I'm done um does Jus function on fossil fuels do we use heating oil and things there is my first question then my second
089question is have has have you looked into the uh upgrades that um the msba will do for the middle school because the it is a new enough building that they would do upgrades most likely so that's my question see how far down that rabbit hole you've gone I I would say that our energy director leaves no stone unturned as far as that goes um and I can get more information to you on for all of your questions on fossil fuels M Childs so first I just want to put it out there that the new hires in question were to make it so that the middle school children would have full years each of science and social studies as opposed to a sixth grader getting half a year of one then half a year of the
090other it is an investment in an age group that it's a tricky age group the families I know who've left District have left from the Middle School it is an area that we do need to be spending attention and man just because something's a good investment if you don't have money how do you invest imaginary money into it It's Tricky I don't think we can have an answer tonight I think what we need to figure out first of all is what is the time frame we're working on that we have to come up with a solution what is doable uh what will destabilize things so much with so much uncertainty that we would end up losing even more students because the families are scared mayor would you like to respond um so well you I
091we're we're going to continue to bleed students if we can't afford to feed them and it's just this is a a priority we're going to have to prioritize what we can afford that's what I do every day when I'm looking at my budget that's what I'm doing here and I I perhaps by consol I think we'd all have to say by consolidating by consolidating in and of itself there are savings I think why don't we could all think about that for a little bit there are obvious savings by consolidating and we can address those perhaps together I am more than happy to come to any extra meetings that we have on this remember [Music] Martini I'm I'm glad to hear you say that mayor because I was just about to suggest that um I don't
092think that we will be able to um resolve this discussion this evening especially since members had no time to prepare for this discussion and I was going to suggest uh that the school committee schedule a special meeting and I also wanted to uh clarify something I think important because uh we keep talking about the um increase in the school Department's requested budget due to additional staff because of the redistricting plan that was established over the last few years and is to be implemented this fall uh but that is actually only one out of five five uh significant factors contributing to the local increase in the uh proposed budget this year so uh even if we were to Scuttle the redistricting um then that does not mean that the school department would not need additional funds
093uh our Sr grant funding ended in September there has been an increase in out of District special education tuition and I would say I would just remind everyone when we don't provide uh quality services in District then out of District placements will increase um also there was a transportation adjustment um for the contract amount with travel CS there are our curriculum and instruction materials that were previously paid out of Grants which we now need to cover ourselves and I would mayor I'm glad that you men the literacy efforts that the district has been making because Central to that was our investment in CK amplify as our new Ela uh instructional resource from kindergarten through grade seven which is uh a resource that is helping us to align our instruction with reading science more than um
094the hodg podge of uh resources and uh lack of resources we were providing to our teachers in the past and I would be heartbroken to have to say goodbye to it um and uh and I would uh underscore member Goodman's comments from our last meeting about um the fact that we still have a super majority of our students who are not achieving literacy proficiency and we need a long-term commitment to um improving our resources like that in order to move that needle and then lastly was the redistricting um alignment and I just want to clarify the the school's uh proposed budget included seven new positions and just four of those were related to the uh the redistricting in that we would need to go to full year science and social studies at the middle school
095levels which necessitates another Middle School team uh and also the superintendent has let us know on several occasions previously that we would need to do that any way uh because of requirements uh to meet expectations of the state so I'm not certain that not doing this would um eliminate the need to have those four positions I just want to highlight the other um positions that were included in this proposed budget that includes an additional English language learner teacher uh we need one and our English Learners deserve to have enough teachers um so that is not related to to redistricting uh so far as I know and uh we sorry I uh I need to get to the right spot here super intendent correct me if I'm wrong I our the English learner pH that is
096included in the proposed budget that is not related to redistricting correct correct thank you uh the other two positions were a building based substitute at the discovery school at Four Corners um and superintendent again correct me if my recollection is wrong but um that is included because it is the only one of our schools that does not have one correct thank you and the last one was a beacon teacher for anyone who does not know the beacon uh program is a alternative Pathway to graduation for students who are otherwise at high risk of uh dropping out and not attaining their high school diploma and that program was recently um eliminated by the collaborator which used to provide it for our students 30 of whom benefited from it um in recent years and so the superintendent
097felt um it was really crucial to continue to provide those Services uh to our students especially considering our uh efforts to improve our graduation rates uh so I just want to I want to make clear that not everything in this budget and not even a lot of it is related to um increased position because of redistricting and again I want to underscore that we have increases in this budget that are related to our existing staff so a level service budget would still uh represent about 1.2 million more dollars than the mayor is suggesting I'm just going to respond to that by saying there's one part of this budget that as I indicated um The increased cost there was one thing that kept coming up it was the main part of the budget so I think
098we really are going to be a lot better off than you think that our out of District tuition costs are going to increase by $1.5 million is not factually accurate and um we have a million dollars in the circuit breaker right now I was kind of indicating that in the questions that I asked with three more payments coming so that will put us up to 1.9 million that's uh count number 1515 in 1504 special student fund there's a million dollars in that um and so I think you could bre the side of relief on where we are with that major expend that major expense because it's not there thank you mayor Andy had his hand up for a while Andy well yes thank you I just have a few points of clarification regarding some of
099the issues that uh based on the mayor's statement uh let me deal with what I think the easy one first is this whole thing of not being able to feed kids the program that is being cut nobody likes Cuts don't get me wrong but it is a covid era related program that was encouraging communities to buy locals so it is a local food for schools Cooperative agreement program in fy2 the farm fresh program that is funded through this Greenfield received only [Music] $1,497 so $1,497 doesn't mean that we are not going to feed kids it is an encouragement to buy local so I would say with with all due respect I don't find that argument to be uh necessarily related to the funding issues that are being presented here tonight and then regarding the special
100education I would suggest that we all review the video from the public Hearing in the minutes Mr messing acknowledged that in the local budget for special education tuition he had included four contingencies for out of District placement in addition to the OSD increase to operational services division increase is also factored in there and then I also clarified that regarding a circuit breaker for now even though there's a balance as you're referring to if you look at my Memo from today's report just under $600,000 of that is already committed and as I said at the public hearing any balance that we have that is coming in as you're referring to as far as FY 26 is already earmarked for FY 27 that is how it is that we budget for a circuit breaker that every community
101in the Commonwealth does so to say that it's inflated or incorrect quite honestly is disingenuous and to some extent quite honestly for me quite insulting I have a a question for Andy go ahead member martini and then mayor if you wish to respond after me member Martini's question and answer from Andy thanks so in your um budget update today uh you had mentioned that there are two additional um ad of District placements that we are now fiscally responsible for per uh the state and I wanted to just have clarification since um Mr Meson included four contingencies uh in this for FY 26 does that would that now essentially mean that there are really two contingencies uh no those would be in addition those would be in addition to this okay thank you for that yeah
102see uh wanted to give the mayor a chance to respond and then I'll come to member Goodwin I saw member um that Mr messing um raised his hand as well um in respon I just wanted to respond to member Martini um I realized that all of the new positions um were not actually having to do with um moving people I just want again to state where we are today this is not like me against you this is us trying to figure out how how to do this effectively I'm a member of the school committee and I also happen to be the mayor and I'm charged with putting forward a budget that we can afford I want I want you to remember that when I did this last year only two or three months into being
103a mayor I knew how much we could go up and two-thirds of it went toward the schools and we we added one new position this year a year later there's two departments that I'm adding a position in um and and a and possibly part-time at the library it they're really hard choices you know I'm on this phone call or on this meeting with you uh struggling at a time when we're all struggling and Andy absolutely I I don't know um I I didn't know what the amount for the federal funding was I do know the economic reality that we are in absolutely this year it is 100% true that our health insurance is going up one and a half million so that we so we were able to do what we did last year um
104we we're 300,000 over on the health insurance this thus far this year and then it's going up again that's not made up it's real and it's a whole budget you can go up 2 and a half% plus whatever the new growth is so what you know the position that we added last year in assessing it was so that we could get the most New Growth that we possibly could so that the whole Community could do better not the schools versus the city or anything it's like how many things can we afford as a as a community we need another person in it like you read about the library is waiting us for us to do things like lighting up their sign in them and U doing the fobs because I have three people for a
105community of 18,000 and when you guys were having trouble we helped like and that's what we have to do it's together but I can't unless I start you know like making a mint in the in our downstairs I can't make this and I got on and I said I'm going to put myself out there I'm going to be on a meeting with everyone where I'm actually saying this and and be trying to answer all these questions in live time which as you probably all know isn't really my best thing but I'm trying because we have to figure this out do do I have like every idea about did did I think of everything of what we could possibly do for every energy thing with the msba no I didn't because you know I've asked my
106own staff the one thing that I really need is is if you could just add a couple of hours to each day because I think like Karen we go from dawn to dusk and I'm 73 I was up till 3:30 last night and I'm sorry everyone that I didn't get this paper to you last night today so that you could read it because I finished it at 3 30 you know because I was trying to make sure that everything was factually accurate and polite at the same time and I didn't I'm sorry I didn't get it to you but that's when I finished it and then um I brought it in today and I had two people helping me with it and um I think I finished it around 4 o'clock and then went for
107a walk and so it didn't get to you and I agree with each one of you I can't digest anything thing when it's just um when it's just read to me and so I appreciate that and I I will get it to you but I've done my very best with this and it's a nightmare of a position to be in when they're telling you know what the bond rating will do to to affect us because the borrowings are so high I walked into all of that and and I I walked in gathering everybody together all the um Union heads and said look you know we need to do something different because we do a 8020 share on the insurance which means that the city takes 80% of that um but I certainly could understand why
108anybody wouldn't go for a different ratio in this economy where eggs are $10 a dozen yikes it's awful but there's some economic realities there and when you're asking me do I know how the savings would be I don't know exactly I don't know exactly but I do know the numbers and I know that they have decreased dramatically and we need to look at how we do things and I was just trying to save us from making something where we hired new where we we hired some new people those people with faces and families that we'd all grow to love just like we do each other so I'm trying to get a to the next stage and do it responsibly and to talk to you about it I think other Mayors have just said what the
109numbers going to be this was a really hard year and next year's not going to be better and we are we're teammates we have to allow talking and listening and new ideas and we may have to move some things very quickly like we're running an emergency room and all of a sudden there's a there's a mass Cas casualty incident and you respond quickly that's what's happening now there's two things at once incredibly spiraling costs with other ones on the horizon and a huge dip in enrollment and do do I have every factor of that finished out and known to you I certainly don't because I I am just one human being trying to do the very best job being a mayor of a city with a whole lot of issues but a whole lot of
110fabulous people many of you who've stepped up to the plate to serve on a school committee month after month for what $1,800 the time you put in thank you it's incredible but we have to figure this out because it's just us that's all thank you mayor m a good one so you know you hear the sadness and you hear the anger but I guess I think the most important thing is somebody who has you know been part of schools for over 40 years um and watched Greenfield school committee meetings for at least 30 um I can remember meetings where bankruptcy was discussed in Greenfield and schools were closed all over this town there were some adult who were probably in their 30s and 40s who didn't know what school they were going to until the
111day before school started but I think the most important thing is we're not alone everybody around us is going through this every time I read the newspaper another superintendent is facing cuts um nobody could plan for health insurance costs and I we're nobody can plan for that nobody can I mean what's happening in our country right now nobody everybody wakes up wondering what is the next thing that is going to happen because that is really where we're at I think this is going to be a lot of conversations to figure out um next steps um I sat on the star committee every Thursday afternoon for over a year when superintendent Harper was here and we moved the fourth grade back to the elementary schools Karen was getting furniture at the high school and I got
112some chairs from her to for fourth grade still we believe in putting you know fifth grade back at the elementary school but you've got declining enrollments you've got um outstanding costs that we were not expected as somebody who voted for a brand new high school um we're still paying over a million dollars every year on that on that building I I think there is a different way um and I don't think tonight is the night we're going to find that way it may take us two years but I think everybody has great ideas but we're not alone every District around us uh I read something in the newspaper Pioneer was talking about putting every single grade in their bit their High School um people are talking about regionalizing people are talking about all different ways
113just to keep education alive and by fighting and getting angry with each other we're not going to come up with Solutions we're not alone we're in this together um and I hope you know maybe it's a two-year plan knowing that next year is going to be worse um maybe we raise chickens and sell eggs as a fundraiser I don't know but I I'm just the reality of this is not about the mayor has nine grandchildren if she could give you all the money in the world she would um she values children and that's you know one of the reasons that um I know I voted for her and so I would sit here and say to you I've fought for school budgets for my whole career and bottom line is there isn't some um Li
114unlimited funds you know I built a brand new new Middle School in South Hadley and then the next budget cycle I was told to cut 22 teachers because with the district didn't have the money so all this anger and all this sadness is real and it happens a lot in schools who make the amount of time that a superintendent makes a budget is enough to have nightmares um and a mayor who's faced with a city that um seems to have liked to borrow money and build a lot of new buildings from a library to a fire department to parking garages that nobody parks in um we sort of I would just say to you Greenfield is the second highest taxed city in Massachusetts that is a fact and bottom line is our taxes every time
115I see a tax bill I start to shake so so bottom line is there isn't extra money laying around um I don't believe it's hidden at City Hall buried in the dungeons I think we we're just going to have to and I don't know what it's going to look like Karen's going to have to as superintendent figure out how she wants to handle that number it's really something um to but the big thing to remember is we're not alone everybody around us is doing this um every time I pick up a news paper it's another school district you know facing budget cuts and so far our number is actually the biggest one I've seen in the newspaper um and that you know so I that 1.4 million I wrote it down for health care I
116mean that is a benefit that every educator gets um the P the fact that we're still still paying for the high school um I don't know what other buildings were're still paying for um but we're in this together and I guess I just would like you know I hear a lot of anger and a lot of sadness and yes um but it's not about what's Happening Here is what's happening to us it's bigger than us I really believe that I stopped watching the news because it started to make me um very upset so I would just say to you um we're in this together um we're in this and we live in Greenfield and no other department is getting like big money um we're not you know looking at that I know the fire chief
117needs a fire truck or all our house insurance is going up so that's a 1.35 million and I want him to get his truck because I'm not sure I can handle an increase in my house insurance so as citizens of Greenfield we have to pay attention to what's happening in our city so anybody who's listening I think you need to watch all the meetings to see all of the costs that take to run our our town and to fix our potholes someday I hope so just remember we're not alone and I think the big thing is we need to do this together any other questions or comments from members I have some things um mayor you kind of use the emergency room um metaphor uh to say that where this is like a real fiscal
118emergency that we're in and I agree you can't have a health insurance costs go up that much and not be in a really tight spot um have you considered using free cash or stabilization um for this difficult Financial time we find ourselves in um we have a I'm not I'm I'm not really sure what I can say about this right now but um we had you know we had significant um significant exp expense for the settlement I think I could say that and that leaves us with $135,000 in free cash until um June 30th so I'm keeping that for um you know well you know the the the stairs and the ramp to City Hall just collap collapse so I'm keeping that for things like that to see what the bill for that is so
119it would be unwise to be to be spending that on stabilization Glenn um you know I I can't I would not use stabilization for health care costs because um I I put the Bond rating thing the bond rating information in my uh in what I had to say because the bond rating makes things worse if your bond rating goes down then you know everything that you've borrowed for or going to borrow for goes up so the bond Council whom I've just had the pleasure of meeting um they all review what you have in things so it would be be just unwise for us to use that you use the stabilization for I don't know um you even try to save that if there's something like Hurricane Irene comes along you try to save that for
120for just um I mean the the health insurance it could be up a million next year so you'd wipe out half your stabilization if you use that for this year you know what I'm saying and then I bbody G it down so I actually do try to think of every different thing not that I think of all of them and I and we welcome suggestions but I I run it by somebody you know I run it by our chief F Financial Officer and others to make the best decisions but almost everybody says you leave that stabilization at is is and free cash with um you know I think there might be a financial order out for that that settlement thing so you you'll see that next month but that wipes out most of what is
121left in in there and and again I I want to say I'm not making a lot of friends this month just so you know um you know I had people that came forward with their Capital requests and um some departments requested three or four things and they didn't get anything and um and then you know others had four requests and they got one um the you know um the school department we we put that forward and I'm sure that city council will pass it for the fire panel because that was the necessity it's it's like these choices that you make right um and if I had a magic wand I'd create an extra couple of million but I don't have that but I don't believe I could take it out of stabilization did I answer
122your question Glenn you did can you uh speak to um what assumptions you're using in your budget in regard to state aid for this year I yes I anticipate that we will get I use the cherry sheet number so it's a scary time I I've called MMA and um the Department of Revenue but they both think that our charity Street figures will come in as anticipated this year so I put the number in in the budget that you know the first number is already out I think you probably know that from being in your line of work um so you know you get the first number than the house number and the Senate number so I I that's what we did last year I'm assuming that we will get the same number on Cherry shoes
123um that we have and I don't have that number in front of me yeah but it's similar to or a little bit better actually than last year um so that's what I use for number yeah it looks like a 7 80k net positive yeah so we put that in and I I do want to say um because actually because I got a text from my wonderful Chief of Staff um uh on the health insurance cost when somebody asked me if this was a surprise I might have known for like five five oh five weeks because I did say something to Karen it within but I'm not really sure whe it was a few weeks but we did not get the last number I kept thinking it couldn't possibly happen again I did not get the
124last number until two days ago but I was pretty sure probably within the last 10 days that it was going to be um that it was going to be you know somewhere between 16 and 17% so I just wanted to make sure that I spoke that clearly thank you um I just have some comments I'd like to make and then I'd love to hear your responses mayor but um I think that this budget that you're putting forward is an absolute catastrophe for our students it will represent I think dozens of positions being lost in our schools I I uh appreciate you very much for for for asking to be put on the agenda and for uh at least getting us the uh getting the superintendent the number in advance as of yesterday and confirming it
125today um it uh so that kudos to you because the way this process works you could have just put for the number to the city council and April 1st and then we would only have a few weeks uh to yell and scream about it it and now we have many more weeks to uh be very upset because um we're if you are concerned if you're noticing declines in enrollment now uh this number is going to accelerate that like you would not believe families will be fleeing from this district and it where where we already have several schools in turnaround I think the state will see this number as a as a signal that Greenfield is really not taking the education of our students seriously and would actually put us at risk of being put into
126something like receivership I mean the the number that the numbers that Kate was talking about member Martini was referring to you know the the dozens of of students that have been helped to actually graduate because of the program that the superintendent proposed uh continuing to fund imagine graduation numbers going down that dramatically what's that going to look like for Greenfield it's it's I mean it's it's just we will not be um having an ethical budget for our students if the number is anywhere near the number that you're you're putting forward tonight um you you know if you asked uh all of the Departments to keep a certain percentage in mind for uh salary increases in in budget negotiations that itself would obviously represent an increase in our budget um you asked us to to negotiate
127on that and then come forward with something that's less than the dollar amount we're actually using this year and I I understand the position you're talking about with the insurance costs going up it's very hard to look at it at the school number without seeing the rest of your budget so so it's very hard to to see I certainly hope that other uh departments will be complaining just as loudly as many people will be complaining to in the coming weeks because it would have to really be a true fiscal emergency with all of our city services being cut um well I did appreciate your transparency with the number and and sharing your perspective with us tonight and giving us a chance to talk to you about it there are number of items in your in
128your statement that I personally felt very offended by um I felt offended that you felt that you could kind of suggest that just by rearranging the schools in some other way that we could save so much money that I mean I just I don't don't see how you could possibly responsibly include that as a as a suggestion how could you possibly consider that we would be able to re redistrict everything in in terms of September if you have been paying attention at all to what it takes to redistrict a school system um so it just seemed and it it it sort of felt like oh with with the vans that we purchased without going through the capital process that were vans that were needed and that were done in consultation to make sure they were
129up to the green standards of the city um it just felt like you're kind of adding a little laundry list of complaints that you've accumulated about the school's budgeting process and and it does not really feel responsible to me to kind of make suggestions that by doing things with with closing down a middle school um you know with with in less than six months time it just you know I I app appreciate that you have to try to find some work with us to try to find some ways to mitigate that negative impact of the number you put forward but it to me personally came across as uh I felt offend I felt offended by it because there was just kind of so little thought put into it and and not enough conversations to find
130out or even a review of what has already been presented um in terms of the special education numbers and and things like that where our business manager and our superintendent and our student services director worked so hard to to put forward really uh thoughtful presentation um that seems like it was um kind of ignored um so that that was difficult for me and I think that you know we will have to see what this looks like in the context of your broader budget but I would encourage everybody on this committee and everyone at home and all the Educators to speak up very loudly and um to insist that we have to find something else some other solution uh to the to the city's uh fiscal problems because this is basically um punching our own students
131in the gut and we can't do that we we cannot allow that to happen so mayor would you like to respond to my thoughts um well yes I would um so I would like to say that I um take offense at your remarks Glenn I um I heard other people say things like they were they were very sad or they were very worried um but I feel like yours were more offensive by far um irresponsible and so little thought were things that I wrote down and um I would just you don't have to agree with me but that's not going to help going forward um there was I'm a very responsible person I'm responsible for an entire city and um [Music] and we're a committee we're teammates and how we talk to each other other
132actually matters now we don't have to agree with each other thank God we still live in America so we can all speak what I tried to say while making two um while while making a significant cut to an Ask was to say what I thought that we could do because I think it offers some hope for the future it in my opinion it would be very irresponsible to not speak about what I see might need to be done to save us because I'm looking at the future of the city and the future of the city's budget and I could just see what making one of these changes might be something that we couldn't go back from um and I offered thoughts on where we could save because when you're doing something you try to offer
133hope and a way that you could look at this in the best light of what we could do to give all of to give all or as much as we could in services to every single special student that we have here and so it was actually thoughtful and not irresponsible how can you save I mean this is this is if you're having um if you don't have enough money for something you can look at two things um how you save money or how you make it and that's what I've done since I've been in there how could I make more money for our budget I put somebody in assessing so we could make some new growth so that there would be more so that when people were asking for new positions it could happen and
134then I made suggestions in this which in light of um which in light of current events appeared very thoughtful um they were some of them were Energy savings but most of them were based on the fact that we had two things that we did not plan on um spiraling costs that happened very very fast that I did not know about until February and declining enrollment and what could we do to save and it and to work together for a solution is not going to involve name calling it's going to be what could we do that was the best thing and so I'm just going to leave it at that um and I like look forward to working with the rest of the Committee Member Childs so how do we go about scheduling a special committee
135meeting to talk about this because I think we've reached as much productive discussion on the topic as we're going to tonight without talking in circles how's Monday at 6:30 pm Che calendar I think it's St Patrick's Day it is but we can have green beer meeting right I didn't say root beer I'm available I'm available on March 17th i' don't I'd also Glen could I just say one thing um there hasn't been any name calling saying that you feel a certain way about something is not calling somebody a name saying that you have a feeling about what's happening is not calling someone a name so I really appreciate your comments Glenn and I think that what you said was really important and insightful and thoughtful and in the future I really hope that these sort
136of things can be handled at a special meeting ahead of time where we could have these materials to digest so that we can be ready to have these kinds of conversations so we work on the date but um basically I I I'm not hearing any objection from anyone on the committee that we need a special meeting so I think that will happen Okay 7 PM oh member Martini member Martini do you have your hand up okay sorry about that can you hear me I can now yeah okay okay uh so I agree with member genive I did not hear any name calling uh so let's not go there I uh did hear dismay and concern about the probable impact of a a massive cut like this um I wanted to say um in response to
137the mayor I again I appreciate the pressures that you're under you must be extremely worried um I also want to say the school committee is used to being having the school department budget be underfunded that literally happens every year and uh the the school department absorbs cuts to the our proposed budget every year but that's not what this is this this is less than 0% is what you're suggesting this is not even level funding which would be Draconian in the Extreme as it is so um I I think that um people are right to be extraordinarily concerned about this proposal and um I am dissatisfied with hearing that you don't know specific numbers and other essential details for your proposal I really do understand that you work hard Around the Clock probably the mayor and
138the superintendent are the busiest people I know um and uh the same I expect the mayor's office to be prepared with um information like this so that people are not um blindsided and scrambling to try to figure out a murky statement like this so I'm available um for the suggested date and time for a special meeting I would just like to request a copy of the mayor's statement from this evening and I would also like to request that the mayor provide uh in advance as much specific information uh to back it up as possible so that members have time to digest it thank you okay um it is uh past 8:30 I promised a five minute break um so we will take a five minute break and why don't I'll give you s minutes so
139uh when that clock turns to 9:55 we'll resume [Music] a [Music] n [Music] n [Music] what all right we are back from our break um there is a h suggestion given the hour to ask the assistant superintendent and the superintendent if you would like to maybe just make a few brief comments and we can read your reports um or up to you whether you would like to do your full report or just make a few highlights I'm happy to cover the highlights great Al I think they're all highlights that's why I put them in there okay fair enough um oh but I appreciate the offer so last week was read Across America week we had a number of events in the schools um we had Bingo for books at the elementary schools we had a
140local author visit um and we had some celebrity readers to read to some of our students um over the course of the week so another great opportunity to promote our district priority uh around literacy we have um some upcoming events that our Title One program is either sponsoring or collaborating we have the first cardboard challenge it's this Saturday at Federal Street from 11 to 1 and that is open to all GPS students but it will be hosted at Federal Street and tomorrow night is a SK night at GMS yes um so in terms we talked a little bit last month about the district report card I did include that again this month um it is publicly available it is full disclosure data that we've had available to us for some time but um you know
141we recognize that we may lag behind the state in certain areas um you know we have two schools in turnaround and but in certain places like Mass core completion um yes we're 19 points below the state but that's also 14 14% increase from the prior year um you know it's kind of bounced up and down the past few years so that data is helpful for us to look at um but just really a few of the data points that we do look at in our decision making some Grant updates we have pursued a Civic teaching and learning Grant recently a career corrected career connected learning program grant that um we believe would supplement uh The Innovation career pathway that we're pursuing with additional um equipment uh we submitted the investigating history Grant in mid-February and
142just want to mention that we were thrilled to have our first acceleration Academy over the February break um we hosted it at Discovery School there were 19 students from grades 1 through four across the district who attended um I think all but one or two students had perfect attendance and the feedback was really positive from all the students and staff who attended huge thank you to Rachel solder Tammy Campbell Amy podelski and Britney Tuttle for leading the way and taking the chance and being part of the first GPS acceleration Academy team and we already have positions posted for our April celeration Academy um we've talked a little bit about programming our core and past diagnostic assessments um in terms of we're providing professional learning for our staff and how um those could be additional tools
143in the tool kit that they have um we have professional learning coming up on March 21st for ghs and this past week um the superintendent along with with myself and other members of the district leadership team attended an instructional prioritization Institute um with um desie where we began um planning our district priority build I would say not planning our district priority for next year but building off the work we've done this year to continue that work in the 25 26 school year and you have some photos there below thank you thank you super um I do want to highlight that AAL and kindergarten registration is uh ongoing and upcoming we have an AAL open house on Thursday March 20th from 5: to 6:30 you can contact the Academy of early learning to schedule a slot
144if you are interested in your three or four or potentially soon to be 5-year-old going if your 5-year-old turns five before September 1st though we really strongly encourage folks to register their kindergarten central office is open daily from 88: to 4:30 for kindergarten registration and then each elementary school is going to host an evening in April each Thursday of the month will be a different Elementary School for families to visit and register their kindergartener and if you have any questions you can contact my office I do want to just uh talk quickly about enrollment and uh some of the comments made tonight and I want to remind folks that uh a lack of enrollment doesn't happen just in a grade level and I think that's one of the misconceptions that a decrease in students allows
145either for the collapsing of a certain grade section or the uh ability to kind of put everyone where everyone thinks they should be um so we've only had a decrease in one student since February and that student um was sent out of District because our programming could not uh sustain the child's needs and we had to service that child but enrollment is very uh intricate and uh we look at class sizes and trying to keep class sizes at an optimal size and that is something that takes a lot of thoughtful planning um and with all due respect this is the first time I've been hearing about the potential collapse of Greenfield Middle School and the amount of time and effort for the last three years that we've put into the redistricting already that is not
146something I can foresee Happening by September and um while I'm absolutely going to be part of the solutions so that we can do what we can that's best for kids that is going to take a lot uh more thought when we did the original redistricting we were very clear that the elementary schools could only house K through five they do not have the space for additional sections so that is something just to keep in mind before our Monday meeting and we will be working on that internally um um with regards to the thoughts that were brought up tonight but that is definitely a space issue I also want to just comment that the required Cuts right now are almost a 1.9 million to our budget and regardless of how many administrators folks think we should
147cut and could be cut we will never meet 1.9 without cutting staff and potentially cutting more programs that our students deserve so um there's a lot of work to be done and it's not that I'm not willing to do it but I want to be really clear about some realities that were revealed this evening lastly I just want to add that we had a desie site visit on Friday the associate commissioner Charming Curry came um looked at all of our high school classes and it is a school inter turnaround and focused on our district instructional priorities and after the site visit debriefed with the principal the assistant superintendent and myself and in conversations um asked us why our coaches couldn't tackle some of this work or why our department heads couldn't tackle some of this
148work and we uh jokingly just gave her a chuckle and said we do not have those positions and then she went on to consider you know other avenues that we could use to do this work and in the end the people that do the work that we are required to do Under the state are our administrative team and we have a lot of work that is um being being done behind the scenes with many different Desi departments and that is not happening without lead administrators in buildings so um we were thankful for her feedback and her site visit on Friday um but one of the real takeaways is our instructional priorities are the route that we have to continue working on and that's going to continue to be costly for this District to get our
149students to schools that are not in turnaround and the rest you can um I presume read about oh the other highlight I should say though we have started the search for Newton Elementary principal interviews begin next week and we are very excited about that as well thank you thank you questions for the superintendent and assistant superintendent hearing none thank you very much we'll move on to the consent agenda is there any member who'd like to remove any item from the consent agenda I'd like to hear a motion to approve the consent agenda as presented so moved motion by member Childs second second by member Goodwin any discussion secretary Den will you call the vote hold on a second second was a good one okay member Goodwin yes member Childs yes yes secretary Deni yes chair
150Johnson mad yes Vice chair seon yes mayor dorer yes member Martini I'm not hearing you member Martini okay Mark her down as a abstain I guess so that passes with one abstention thank you move on to uh school committee reports um just briefly the executive subcommittee met and started looking at mentoring of the um Vice chair and prepare preparing um the vice chair uh for potentially being voted on chair as chair next year and also looked at how to kind of systematize and document some of the um some of the tasks that the chair performs uh member Den the legislative representative mask I I don't feel like I should have to read this whole thing because it's so late but I will if you want me to but you can read it in your packet
151um so I'll do the highlights um on February 27th um member Martini Vice chair seon and I engage in a zoom meeting with our division five chair Huma fudin and the masc president Jason Frasier and a number of other school committee members from districts in our division we were given a list of current bills to advocate for and member martini and I read them and split the homework we're bringing forward these bills to the full committee tonight for your approval as points of advocacy as we converse with our legislators for our day on the Hill activities which is May 6th this year there are four bills on the page um I can read them or we can just take a moment to look at them my goal is to make a motion that we look
152at these bills and approve the advocacy point so that when we go to the day on the hill we can say with authority that the Greenfield school committee approves this advocacy would you like me to read them or could we just take a second to look I think we can just take a second to look great and I'd like to hear a motion to approve the points of advocacy uh as presented for um conversation with legislators and for legislators and for our day on the Hill activities so moved is there a second I'll second it discussion did you get that Susan Farber thank you all right with no discussion uh secretary Den will you call the vote sure member Goodman yes member Childs yes secretary Dena yes chair Johnson mad yes Vice chair ston yes
153member martini and mayor dorer yes okay all approved with uh mayor um member Martini abstaining thank you very much for your attendance at that meeting and your work on this and getting us better prepared than ever for our day on the hill we'll move on to Old business and the business manager position um superintendent um we had a um handful of candidates who applied for the position um we are still in discussions with one candidate and should have updates um within two weeks or so um given that um we we'll need to start we need to basically a contingence plan contingency plan in the event that the final candidate uh doesn't work out for one reason or another um so I've prepared a motion for us uh to consider um and I'll just make the
154motion myself I move that the school committee authorize the superintendent to initiate the procurement process for a consultant to support the B 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 is there a second I'll second great um I can speak a little bit more to this essentially um we don't know for sure if the final candidate will end up signing with us if they don't um it's probably too late uh at our next regular meeting um for the um for us to vote to authorize the superintendent to begin the procurement process for business manager Services by by contract um so essentially if we do not and if the search is
155unex unsuccessful then we could be in a position of not having a business manager July one um at all which would be not a good situation any discussion or questions member deneve what is it what is the process to do a second round of searching with that we would be locked into whatever Services we found and then after the contract we go again um what you're saying I guess yeah I'm saying if if I mean I I suppose the other option is you could initiate another search for a business manager and try to hire but there's a great possibility that that would be unsuccessful and in the meantime you haven't started the procurement process to try to get a contractor in place for July 1 so that contract um you know probably the minimum we
156would want to do would be two years um for the for to go through the whole procurement process and find someone and the time that it takes and all that stuff you don't really have someone even on board for very long um if you do less than two years um so yeah I hear you I'm just thinking because so many districts so many uh chairs of different uh School committees told me that they found people on their second go around MH so I was just wondering what that looks like yeah I mean I I guess could we continue searching up until the point of contract ending and having to renew or find somebody new I mean can we overlap procurement and searching superintendent that's a great question we'd have to we'd have to look into
157that I don't know the answer to that if you can do both member Childs so what is the time frame for procurement to end our legal obligations um well basically in order to get you know so the school department would have to uh either go through the city or contract with some other group to do the procure because our current business manager would have a conflict of interest so um that involves basically developing a detailed scope of services putting it out there's certain timelines for notification that have to happen like it has to be listed on certain places and and then you wait to get the responses then it has to go through a scoring process and so on so that's why essentially the superintendent is saying can't wait wait until the March meeting to
158initiate that procurement process if we want to have a if a contractor in place for July 1 that process would really need to start within you know in two weeks or so given all the things that need to happen in between um yeah uh yes member Charles and then I'll go to the mayor so what Happ happens if we don't have someone in place July 1 how big of a problem how big of a crisis is it superintendent can you lay out what it would look like to be try to run the school department without a business manager um I don't know the answer to that I've never run a school department without a business manager but that is our rollover of everything so from payroll to um you know everything in between so I
159can't imagine trying to run the district without a business manager July 1 I don't know yeah I mean end of the year reporting you know there's just so many things so um we certainly don't want to be without one mayor so um are we Gathering to together on Monday could could we push this vote off on Monday so we all had a little B time to think about it um yes I think we can May May uh member Den could we find Karen could we find the answer to that question about a procurement overlapping thing for Monday oh thank you mayor um and could we would we have a defined Budget on this or could we ask for defined Budget on this defined budget you mean like budget number that we would be putting towards
160a contract um yeah I think we can have an estimate for you of you know we have an estimate of what the the the um staff person would cost and what the uh um contract contracted person might cost thank you that am I on base with that superintendent that we should be able to have some rough ballpark for people on those questions I presume so but I'm uh just thinking that you put a range when you do a bid and then they come in with their bid for their services so I'm not sure if I will have an actual cost but I'm sure there will be a range yeah it's a bit of a chicken in the egg thing because part of the procurement process would be establishing what that range is um by whoever
161did the kind of like official procurement um which involves a little research but um kind of we certainly have a picture of what we are putting in the budget for the staff person and what we're currently um paying for uh contracted business manager services so okay member Childs so do we need a motion to table this until Monday sure if so then I move that we take a uh the business manager procurement issue until Monday second um all right uh and I think it's the tbling the motion so the motion still stands but okay you accept that as a friendly Amendment okay uh any discussion non debatable oh okay thank you mayor um so secretary J will you call the vote please yes member Goodwin yes member Childs yes I'm a yes chair Johnson mad
162no Vice chair seon yes member Martini are you here okay so it pass oh I'm so sorry mayor dorer yes okay so it passes with one no and one exstension okay um on to where are we now ah um so we're on to policies bde and policy BDF um this was something we I had brought to you a draft before and I believe I've Incorporated uh the committee's feedback um the committee's feedback was essential actually uh please don't make this process go through the policy subcommittee um some members said just present us with something um as chair other members said um it should the subcommittee itself should get to provide feedback on its charge I think that what I've put forward allows essentially for both um it has the uh chair uh putting forward the
163itions for both the um subcommittees and advisory committees for uh approval by the full school committee the school committee could certainly um at that point if they didn't like the descriptions um charge an ad hoc committee um with um returning with different language um or make any changes they wish to at the meeting itself so um and certainly once a subcommittee is up been running they certainly have the opportunity to put forward request for an increased or changed scope of um of work um so I'd like to on the other the other change that I made was on uh policy bde subcommittees of the school committee it talks about having the subcommittee descriptions or subcommittees put forward at the organizational meeting however since it's the chair that needs to assign put forward uh I'll be
164back okay mayor can you hear us yes okay um I'm assuming the video is up and running and whoever is having a hard time hearing us must be the technical problem must be on there end because some are able to hear us so um so the other change that I made to um bde was that the original one talked about having these subcommittee assignments being presented at the organizational meeting but since the chair presents the subcommittee assignments and the chair is only appointed at the organizational meeting it seemed to make sense that the chair should put them forward at the first meeting of the calendar year regular meeting which has kind of been our past pack practice so that's the other change so I'd like to hear a motion to approve these uh policies as
165presented so move and is there a second second so I heard a motion from let's say from the mayor because and then a second from Member good one uh any discussion Susan Farber oh sure um the motion to approve policy bde subcommittees of the school committee and policy BDF advisory committees to the school committee has presented all right um and any objection to the people who made the Motions for that friendly Amendment from our attentive recording secretary okay any discussion secretary Den we call the vote member Goodman yes member Childs yes I'm me yes chair John smithad yes Vice chair sexon yes mayor dorer yes member Martini still absent y all right the motion carries thank you very much um let's see we've already talked about day on the hill um and had the mayor
166's presentation so um I would like to hear a motion to enter into executive session pursuant to Massachusetts General Law chapter 3A subsection 21 A3 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 and Aid requirements the committee will not return to open session so moved is there a second second a motion from Member den and a second from Member Goodwin any discussion secretary Den we call the vote member Goodwin yes member Charles yes I'm a yes chair Johnson mad yes Vice chair seon allor right I mean yes uh mayor dorer yes and member Martini still
167absent okay approved okay um members should watch their email for an invitation to the executive session it's a Google meet and now we need to do a vote to adjourn the um regular session is there a motion to adjourn the regular meeting so move and a second second motion for member Goodwin a second for member child's when you're ready secretary Jive again member Goodwins yes member child yes I'm a yes chair yes Vice chair yes mayor yes Kate Martini okay we're approved all right we're going to get an email yeah