001okay so I will call to order this meeting of the Greenfield school committee budget and finance subcommittee at 1203 on Wednesday January 8th 2025 we have a pretty simple agenda here today which is simply to go over the uh budget guidelines that we spoke about previously which is based on the Outreach that the uh subcommittee did and uh previously in regards to the FY 26 budget development uh but first we have public comment so is anyone present for public comment not seeing anyone so I will move on uh to the next item which is our only other item on our agenda for today uh all right so uh we're looking to discuss the uh gu the guidance document that was shared in the materials for um FY 26 budget development has everyone had a chance
002to review that because if not I will take a pause so that people can do that I have but I'd like an additional minute if possible okay okay let's take an additional two minutes and um and go ahead and review e I have reviewed I don't know if anyone else is anyone and do you need any more time nope I've read over it a couple times okay all right so um having given that oh Karen I was going to share my screen but I don't think I have that capability enabled are you able to enable that can you try now Kate I think you should be able to yeah there we go thank you okay there okay I just wanted to put this up um on screen for any body um in attendance or that
003might be looking at this later and of course this will be available uh later on as well so um it starts with an overview here which is um to explain the purpose of the document so as we discussed last month um there are many other school committees that provide guidance um like this to their superintendent uh in regards to budget development and we considered examples from various other committees um and there is certainly quite a wide variety in this um I think that this document is um useful because it is um concise and the point we certainly saw some examples that were very long um and I think it's better to have something that is um is more contained especially since in the this um kind of day and age we live in the too
004long didn't read um era so uh I I hope that this will be something people will read all the way through um and be able to digest easily uh so we have the over overview here at the beginning explaining that um this provides the community with information about what the committee's priorities are um for the uh development of the operating budget and also provides guidance to the superintendent and the administration as they're working to develop that budget proposal and then um down below we have um bulleted here for people the priorities that we as a subcommittee gathered through our Outreach efforts um that took place during the month of November and the beginning of December and that we discussed at last month's budget and finance meeting so um these seem to fit into these four
005categories um curriculum and instruction Staffing and volunteers PD and transportation priorities and this distills the um the nice amount of feedback that we got from doing that Outreach and listening and I'm not going to go over it because we already talked about all of these in detail at our last meeting um and then at the end um is some assumptions and guidance to um help just lay out what are not particular to um FY 26 these are things that we would um take into account no matter what year it was um but things that are still important to say um in the development of the budget so um it explains that we're um going to make a budget here that provides adequate resources that meets all legal mandates that meets our collective bargaining agreements contractual
006obligations and things like that um and that will make the you best use of available information about certain things that we don't necessarily no until a certain point in the process like Chapter 70 and circuit breaker programs and grants and things like that um and uh finally I thought it was important to uh just lay out in a simple way what our budget planning policy requires um of the school committee here at the end um so we've talked a lot about this policy dbd budget planning or but over the last few months because this is what what we've been working to implement in a more engaged streamlined um organized kind of a way so uh so I just thought it was important to lay out these pieces at the end um about what we need
007to carry out here in budget planning does anyone have um any suggestions are there any um edits or additional things that you need think need to be in here I guess something that is in the assumptions but doesn't really show up in the priorities is uh more of the prioritization of most economical uses so which number are you talking about so um let me see number six under assumptions and guidance which I would say rather than just an assumption we I mean we're we're about to head into a really lean Financial time and I I guess the way that the priorities are laid out uh we don't really have like okay like what percentage of resources will go to each priority in a way that is a missing piece of guidance if that makes sense
008to anyone I'm I'm not making complete sense um of that do you mean that we should suggest that x per of resources go to well I'm not saying we need to lay it I'm not saying we need to lay it out but uh I I would like something a bit more Concrete in our priorities that we are making you know taking an active look at finding ways that we can save money rather than just hear the things we are tossing money at this time if that makes more sense I hear what you're saying um my point of view on that would be that um doing our best to reduce cost and shift cost as needed in order to um in order to conserve funds is something that's always done and the always done things are
009down here whereas well so here's where I got tied up because a lot of the number one seemed like it was the always done like of course we're always going to be looking for highquality instructional materials and curriculum kind of thing so I would actually um disagree with that one because we made a specif we have made specific purchases of instructional materials over the last correct me if I'm wrong Karen I think three years and um so this is to support specific materials that we made an investment in recently and that require um additional purchases now in order to replace consumables and Karen is there am I missing anything in what I just said no that is accurate okay I I guess it's I see that one as specific to well I guess for the
010curriculum and instruction it seemed like it's a lot of continuing too so okay I think I get what you're saying now so as part of um three years ago when we started doing the adoption under our uh ssos District prioritization plan they have to be specific highquality instructional materials aligned under des's um mandates so I think that's where the specifics in curriculum and instruction lie is that we have to continue to invest in those based on our um initial pilot and grant funding but that the continued investment in them is a budget cost and then we have to also look at the areas of content where we haven't adopted high quality instructional materials yet and continue to invest in that as well under our district prioritization plan okay so have we adopted elevation yet or
011is that new it is um soon to be adopted um and Dave messing's office is uh looking into that as another additional resource to assist our L population okay I think what was tripping me up is that the first one is the continuing to fund and support and then the others were things that I knew were in various degrees of progress so I wasn't sure what was new versus what was continuing if that makes sense for where I was getting tripped would it be helpful to say what the these specific material like name them in this item would that be less confusing sorry highlight here well I think it's not the needing to name them specifically more of needing to have the where we currently are now kind of thing like to continue and to
012fund and support these you know base well I you know we don't need a full paragraph about it but it it's really the so where so the elevation platform we've already started to invest in correct or not yet so this is new the K to5 science um is fifth grade is being launched I believe in 2025 and then they they are still waiting to develop K to four units so it could be a three to five year process before the whole science um open Sayed is actually created and uh outsourced and then um we have ongoing seal changes between the Second Step that we use right now but also the addition of the restorative practice work that we're going to be incorporating so those would be you know a potential future investment once we have
013that that committee making some determinations okay so I think it's the order of the bullet points that were tripping me up so because we have continue then new then new then review and possibly revise so that would be more of the continuing and then we're back to new things and then back to continuing with the maintaining so I think that was where so I think it was a formatting and ordering so I think for me it would have been helpful for them to be in the groups of adding new versus maintaining and continuing if that makes sense because with the this with the way that they were listed it made it difficult for me to tell what was in progress versus what was brand new okay so I would still want to see these in
014the categories that they are in um but I think it would be fine to order within the categories starting with what is existing and moving to what is new would that be help ful yes it would okay okay and my dog has opinion so sorry if you hear him in the background that's okay um so okay we could also um and again Karen tell me if I'm missing something but we could also um amend this and say that um we'd like to continue to fund and support the CK amplif by and illustrative math high quality instructional materials recently adopted by the district yeah we could name the um curriculums that we have adopted thus far that would make it less vague and more clear that we're talking about specific materials here I just worry because
015we also used uh Eureka squared and if at some point well I guess this is for FY 26 so that that might be the caveat out of it though if we decide to switch and go all illustrative or move fifth grade from illustrative to Eureka in the redistricting does it matter if it's identified that specifically here well what if we just add the phrase such as here we go okay okay so will say to continue to fund and support highquality instructional materials recently adopted by the district such as CA amplify and illustrative map okay okay so and um that would be I'm just analyzing here in terms of what's existing and what's new so this is a continuation the next two things are new things this is existing so we could move this item up
016to be the second one and then the art and music would be the other existing it is existing but this is talking about expanding them if possible so that's kind of new so maybe that should go it is but yeah it is a good link because it's going from the expanding to the new okay okay so this will be the third item and these two things are new and then this one is not in any of those categories really because um this is something that we have had before we don't have right now we like to have again last item for me that goes in the new category because it would be not the continuation of a program that is currently existing that's at least the way my brain organized it okay and we might
017even want to add the word new into the uh uh into the science and the elevation well not elevation because you know I don't know because that I'm just trying to think what would make it as crystal clear as possible to anyone coming in off the street and reading it right here to invest in and adopt new high quality instructional materials for K science okay okay okay and if that is above the elevation then that would imply that the elevation platform is new to the district as well okay so we can add that right here I feel like I'm so nitpicky I apologize no I want this document to be really clear to people um and this is the first time that we're doing this so I'm a big fan of doing things right the
018first time so thank you um K are you seeing where I highlighted yeah and we're just inserting new new in between right there yeah okay all right and you got the reorder yes okay thank you all right now okay I think Staffing and volunteers is all in the in this order um because the first item is to maintain a level of Staffing to continue to provide small educationally appropriate class sizes um the second one is to consider additional resources that might be necessary to fill the need for substitutes so that may involve additional I would say goes in the new things category and um increasing I obviously we already have some resources for substitutes and um and we may need more so that's another kind of linking item between current and future I think and
019then the the last item is um to increase and support volunteers the district yes and also the ordering it isn't as important to me in the other sections as curriculum and instruction because curriculum and instruction was where there were the most moving pieces and you know in the others there's a little bit more detail of what exactly we're looking at true okay okay do you do you have any whoa sorry do you or Elizabeth have any suggestions in regards to the order or the wordage in professional development I think it's really clear my only thought and again I'm being super nitpicky I think I would want to uh have the uh the bullet uh point about the resources to support staff in the English learner population up higher because it is the most directly academic
020okay that makes sense this item first just and now this this is just because people are going to read it and they're going to uh say oh but on you know only one of these is explicitly academic and it's buried down here so I think the document will be better received if the very first bullet point is the most academic because of course teachers do academic professional development that makes them a better teacher but sometimes people don't see the link right away if that makes sense okay Karen you got this piece this is going as the first item under PD yep okay okay and I really like I was just going to say that I really like that the last bullet point is the CPAC one uh because that is where we Bren out to
021the full community so I was just thinking of the strategy of where the bullet points fell sorry I am being so nitpicky I apologize that I'm making it difficult for everyone you're making it beautiful in the end that's what you're doing all right and there's only one item under transportation so um no ordering there um but if you have um input about the wording anything that's solid I feel like the mere fact that this exists is wonderful okay and I agree showing real real growth and progress towards transparency with the public and towards advancing the priorities of the community um I have never seen a document like this in my years the school committee so hoay and thank you it's beautiful I am very glad to join our peers around the Commonwealth who have been
022doing this for years and um I think I think this is it um it's concise it's only two pages um I think the layout on the page is very digestible because um the three sections are um just clearly spaced out they are not too wordy um they get right at the most important things what is this for it reminds people of our strategic plan it distills all of the feedback that we got through Outreach um very concisely but I don't think it has missed anything and um it reminds us of our duties in the process the only thing I would say that it missed from the schools I talked to were more of the physical building requests and field trip requests so I didn't I don't think that physical building things should be in here
023because a lot of that has to do with capital and capital and the operating budget are two different things okay um I just was asking that now so that we will have the answer when people ask us why wasn't that there and then the other thing about the field trip or bringing in the special opportunities in lie of field trips like I know the preschool wanted to bring in like you know the entertaining UC ators in place of field trips and I'm not sure where that would fit in Aon would that fit in curriculum and instruction or do you have a thought about that um we could certainly tie it to curriculum and instruction because we would want those opportunities to be linked to standards that student students are learning so we could add it
024as the last new if you would prefer okay uh all right can we word it like this last piece yes I like the maintain and expand I think that will keep it simple for people so to maintain and potentially expand opportunities for uh H how would you word it Karen um activities assemblies presentations aligned with curriculum and standards based learning something of that sounds solid thank you all right good and we have plent we have room here so that is not going to push this past two pages so that's good okay darn it I thought it had missed nothing is there anything else you think has being missed that we talked about I think you thematically covered it all okay okay thank you for spearheading this and making sure that everybody's voices were heard thank
025you both for all of the footwork and doing this Outreach effort it was a lot so um I think that is really um I don't know I think probably it's an unsung um job um for you guys U because there's probably not too much attention I guess that people pay to that sort of thing but um but I really appreciate it because um this year I feel like our discussion about budget development is now firmly connected to stakeholder input um here and not that there's not plenty of room for expanding on that in the future but this was a first year effort at doing this and I think it was done pretty well um so I'm very I'm very happy with how this is turned out here yeah it took additional time and work but
026I do think that continuing as an annual thing to go and meet with the PTO is important because for whatever reason there are people who have lots of opinions that don't bring them to our meetings and don't email them and that doesn't make their opinions less valuable or important I could not agree with you more um I it's a lot to ask people to go to um their PTO and school councils and attend school committee meetings and subcommittee meetings and and City Body meetings and all kind you know people don't have time to do that especially busy working parents so um so yeah I think we have to put ourselves where they are um in order to hear them and they deserve to be heard so any additional suggestions okay so uh I think I
027am going to move that we recommend to the full school committee the adoption of the this with our edits I'm terrible at making motions oh my gosh that we approve the proposed priorities and guidance for fiscal year 2026 budget development with edits as discussed to the full school committee at the next meeting I'll second oh double second double second I wonder if this vote will pass okay uh so I'm a yes yes yes okay very good then uh so we will bring this to everyone um at the committee meeting and my hope is that um we will be able to put this in place um so that it is there just in time um to be useful to the superintendent and coming forward with a proposed budget very soon the season is upon us it
028sure is thank you okay um I will move to adjourn second second this time all right I say yes yes yes okay we are adjourned at 12:35 pm thank you everyone so much for all your hard work you're welcome lovely to see you all see you in a few hours see you bye [Music]