School Budget & Finance Subcommittee 2-3-25

001I am calling to order this meeting of the Greenfield school committee budget and Finance subcommittee on February 3rd 2025 at 6:30 p.m. and I will begin with a roll call member Martini I am [Music] here member wom yes member Childs okay member child is absent for now and I believe we'll be attending hopefully uh first item on our agenda for this evening is public comment so uh is anyone present online for public comment not seeing anyone I see Mr assistant superintendent Sullivan is joining us and so is M chest so I'm just gonna wait hi an hello and marking you present I am indeed I wish I was there in person here for a public comment so uh we're just getting through that and um now we're going to go on to our second uh

002agenda item which is uh a general discussion with the um renfield's city council chair Ways and Means Mikea and we also have City councelor John Garrett present with us today um and the purpose of this is to have a general discussion about potential collaboration between city council and school committee so toward that end I'm going to flip this and so that everybody is visible and hearable about to enter a [Laughter] podcast like subscribe can get he won't be able to see me I'll just I'll go down there this is a fundraiser look here we are yeah hey hi hi everyone um well I was uh very appreciative for G for reaching out uh to try to do some sort of collaboration between city council and school committee don't really know where this is necessarily going

003trying to formulate this kind of uh thing for the future um though I may not be here for it uh but uh kind of getting an an early idea a lot of stuff not only here but across the city Finance um the earlier we know things the better it makes it a more comprehensive understanding of what is uh what the public has the opportunity to hear and then what um just down the steps of uh of how our Charter has uh said how we're going to spend our money um is discussed and um in the Sate of like a better transparency more or less so there's no real um necessarily how we're going to do this I think this is more of a how we're going to figure this out um and what what would

004be more appropriate um I did invite uh vice president of the city council Garrett he is um the been a former vun president he also works in the schools I thought that would be at propo and he uh you know it's going to be on the city council longer than I'm going to stick around so uh so you have a massive change of art right so yeah this is the kind of thing right how fun this is exactly so try to try to just get some sort of some sort of discussion because it it it what I've seen in the in the three years prior to now it's um something that could be possibly remedied by having early intervention if you will um in in some of these discussions even before um before it reaches

005the mayor's office uh we do this with with capital committee right we get all the capital requests from the the Departments and then it gets kind of uh looked over with an advisory kind of board and then suggested and granted it's not always what the advisory committee says uh that the executive branch always has their vote how they're going to present the budget um and same thing here I don't want to think that we're going to you know reinvent the Wheel by doing anything but um I think any kind of advanced uh collaboration whether it be one meeting two meetings how many of however we figure it out um it was worthwhile to um have that information ahead of time before being essentially prevented or presented did rather information kind of after the point of

006no return uh so it was kind of the idea of saying something about this uh in the fall and I you know I'm very grateful that uh for the for the great response in in being asked to come here to either whether it's just to sit in whether it's we have a back and forth where we have questions um and however we can make this as streamline as possible thank you for coming um and um taking my C and um kind of diving into a relatively Uncharted Territory um here for um background chair Johnson mad um took note of uh city council president wandalowski is interest in increased collaboration between City Council um school committee and uh sent out a a request um for us to kind of roach that topic and um see if

007we could come up with some ideas so uh so that's what uh precipitated this and uh I think it would be excellent to um increase mean ation and collaboration with city council and um Forge a more Cooperative um closer relationship so um this is wide open there's no right or wrong answer about how to do this I don't think or maybe there is and we have no idea which ones are the wrong answers but we will try not to it up um so uh members child and um Goodwin do you have um thoughts off the top of your head about um about this potential collaboration what um I think I think you brought up something that as a taxpayer and it's just somebody who lives in Greenfield that I really care about is transparency I

008think over the years I've lived in Greenfield I've always wanted to know where's my money going I mean that's really as somebody who just paid a a big tax bill I want to know where my money's going um and I think that is the reality of um you know I went to the grocery store today and you know and you you know you go shopping and dog cookies are very expensive and $175 later I look at the receipt so I can see and I guess that's what I need I need to see the receipt from everybody who's spending Green Field it's just not the schools but it's I want to know where our money goes I mean it's really as B basic as that um as somebody who is a resident of Greenfield I think

009there has to be a higher level of accountability of where does our money go every mayor um from Chris forgy to Mayor Martin where is my money going um Amy BR had once promised me that she would tell me where my money was going but she never did so I think I think as people who are paying taxes we want we want accountability and so i' I when it comes to school budgets and somebody who's I've looked at school budgets for over 30 years and I've been part of making School budgets for over 30 years I need to see what I'm paying for in a school budget not just a bottom number you know how many kindergarten teachers are there how many first grade teachers are there you know we I once worked for a

010superintendent who was asked to cut $800,000 and he said it it cost $800,000 to have eighth grade and so we would cut eighth grade and you know it that's how I mean detailed it got but at least we knew I had a pool in my school and it cost me $50,000 of chlorine every year but I knew how much it costs to run that pool and everybody in town used it so I think it's the devil is in the details when it comes to money um and making smart choices about what we want for our kids I want to know that every third grader can read I mean that's real for me and how much does it cost to make sure that happens um and I think that's where I'm at is I need more

011information um I been looking at our budget sheets every month thank you Andy you know and I know it's like a million dollars for each Elementary School um but you know I look at special ed numbers and that's like a whole I still can't weave my way through that uh Transportation costs I know are huge but I don't know what piece of the pie that is um so I think the detail you know is important to me I think it's also um important for us to remember that even though school committee members have our um budget sheets presented to us every month and we go through the school warrants and actually do have um those receipts at our fingertips and uh we on this particular subcommittee um attend additional meetings talking about um our uh

012budget and how things are um affected by outside pressures and things like that not everybody um has the ability to do that and it's not that those things aren't accessible to everyone because certainly anyone can log on and watch a committee meeting and can go on the website and pull up the meeting materials and go through those budget Sheets if they want to and all of that um but I always um try to remember that we as elected people have the um the responsibility to kind of distill that for folks and not be expecting people to devote the same amount of time that we do uh to those things in order to understand them um so that's something that is that frequently runs through through my mind um member Childs is there something any thoughts

013that you had on this um member goodwi really summed up a lot of my thoughts about accountability and I I I think it's not just deciphering for people what all of the alphabet soup you know are standing for but also why each line item is important not just in terms of okay this gets kids to read but also what the financial implications are if we don't do certain things if that makes sense um one of the things that I'm looking at so for the coming year we do have expenses related to moving the fifth grade back to the elementary school and the e8th grade back to the middle school and uh doing that costs money yes but it also prevents the drain of students who go through fourth grade in Greenfield and then transfer out

014and their money goes with them uh just as an example so I thought we might um talk a little bit about um about what our respective roles are so that we can get a good idea of of how people understand that um but is there anything else anybody wanted to add in a general away first just in a very general way I think a you know everything that folks have said about fiscal responsibility and the need to serve our student population it's absolutely true and that's obviously the focus of the school committee and rightfully so the um I think the next years are going to be challenging budget wise for the whole city and you know not just our city but every Community where local Aid you know you don't need a crystal ball suspect

015the federal money is going to be less frequent especially for things like special education right so we're going to need to as a city look long and hard at every single budget and doing this kind of work allows us to have a more holistic picture and there's going to be things that every single person who votes for are going to be unhappy about and I don't relish that I know it's going to happen and you know what we can do by having these conversations is making sure you know again as you said a moment ago not even though the information may be out there make sure it's being disseminated in ways that are intelligible to folks useful and for us as members of the city council you know with your budget we get to it's

016the only budget where we can add to but it's also with every other budget we have the choice to either pass it or cut it right like we have relatively limited Authority as a legislative branch but we do have the ability to be a public forum you know and this public uses us as such rightfully so because it's the most readily available one with the biggest audience and so you know as we're going through this process whatever form it ends up taking it's really important that we're doing it because it's going to be we're going to be a city government Under Pressure you know and the the Cherry sheets are going to get smaller you know like I can gloom and doom all I want but the positive thing is we're talking about it now

017as opposed to letting a wall of bus you know when those come down sure you know so we know it's going to be rough but you know as long as we're alling it together we can get better outcomes than we would otherwise you know and just kind of getting back to the information piece you know it's very easy to speculate about what my money is being wasted on or whatever it might be when you don't see it and so you know the transparency element is good for the kids ultimately is the bottom line right so that make way we can make sure the resources aren't being withdrawn from them because people don't know that they're being spent in a way that's responsible so the other thing I always think about is just the huge income

018gap in our city we have really wealthy people and we have a huge population that is not and so that's something I you know keeping in mind with those grocery bills and tax bills too there are folks that are cost burdened it's like something like half the city within you know 91 and2 and 80% of us are over 60 yeah it's rough and you know and if somebody over 60 you know they may not have kids of their own in the schools but by God is it in their best interest to have a well educated youth population you know even if they may not feel that way at that moment in their lives you know so it's our job to sell that idea as well and we can do so better as a city council

019if we can honestly say like look they are cooking you know they are spending every dime in a way that is efficient and you know I'm sure that will be the result yeah I really appreciate us being here and having the opportunity I'm glad that you know president what allow is you know is pushing for this and you guys were so amiable to it yeah thanks for letting us be here that's a good takeway I guess um because I I it add something to that oh well yeah of course I I I Echo what what you're saying John and uh I think that that's as you're saying like the pulpit becomes sort of a frustration where where some things have come out uh in the past is I know I know schol committee gets under

020Fire for certain things and city council gets under Fire for certain things we don't have any control over right or like limited control over control I say with with quotes um and and it is in that Spirit why um I will only speak for myself on this one why personally um frustrations have come out is because it would be easier if and and again I've said the same things that you've said is is um I I've said this every year that I've been on ways and wound which is all all the years I've been there and I I urge other city councilors I urge the public if you want to know information watch what's happening and you know we do record these things for a purpose and go back and watch them and even on

021like I don't want to invite I will not invite you guys for for another Capital presentation to w means because you already did it right you did it at Capital we were both there and I say go back and look at the tape like look at what they presented and here's the the written documentation for it I don't want to waste anybody's time in in having to and I I I know people hate when I say that word but like I don't want to waste anybody's time um whether you're salaried or whether you're a volunteer or not I'm just not in the spirit of that is if the information is out there and it's attainable go get it and and we can all get it at that point and if you don't well then that's

022on you um but having that availability um to answer the questions that do come to us that pertain to the schools that pertain to the budget um having this kind of you know dialogue is important ahead of time um so that that folks that are you know we tried this what last year at least to um you know you get beat up uh at city council public comic and in a lot of the questions they have nothing to do with anything they can do so I'm like hey how about having a you know this is two years ago actually why why don't we have you know sounds bad but why don't we have the mayor up on the chopping block right like ready to take these questions because they're really asking questions of the executive

023and they're really asking questions like directing people to where these questions are and sometimes the accessibility um of those like readily available for people to know which person they should go and and at so to speak or or grief at um isn't always clear but also if there's anything that we can offer without somebody having to go to do that it it is it is helpful in when we're responding to to constituents and um it can just be a very quick like well this is what we we already know this because we were there or we heard this or like whatever um so we can kind of maybe calm it down ahead of time uh versus somebody not feeling frustrated about which which meeting they have to attend we had somebody last last month that

024is very grieve that they were not they thought they were going attending a different meeting was not that one um but side not but just I don't know like having any of that interc collaboration I think is important um especially in the like I said the bab steps of building the budget for the year because more importantly these last couple years were the transition of um the redistricting and all of that stuff like we may be more informed I don't feel confident enough to answer all of folks questions that have that have come to me but there are some things I am because you know because I've paid attention to to certain things but and I can steer them in the right directions and that's what I mean is it doesn't always happen that way

025that we have these these Avenues to funnel information and so any ways that you know the Departments um Can can crossover if you will um rather than being just like we're split and this is my department this is right exactly exactly um I think is just is really helpful um for everybody else and it uh qus a lot of frustration from the public it sure does so um Mike you had when I was speaking to you the other day um I thought you had a a very suit to the point way of defining the roles of school committee and um city council um when it comes to the school budget so can you repeat that something along a genius sentence don't mess it up record you gotta pull out your No I um do you

026want to tell me what I said because so we were talking about um about um the the potential for some form of collaboration and the importance of whoever is involved in that and understanding what their role is and what it isn't um because the school committee oversees the school department budget and that's that's a firm role and um it's the law and um and city council has its powers that are like pretty clearly defined in relation to that so can you just Define that for people who don't know or have never thought about it before sure so um I'm assuming what you're alluding to hopefully is [Music] um in the way that our Charter is set up like it or not um I don't but for the record um we all the department budgets are

027usually every B every budget but the schools are separating two branches which are uh salaries and wages and then expenses and I you've probably heard me say this if anybody's heard me say it at nauseum we can only give bottom line numbers for either of those two things in every other department a school so we can we can say we don't like what you're doing we think that you should we ran into this with the police years a you know years ago people wanted you know certain members to be excommunicated for lack of better word out of the police department it wasn't going to happen it was very some of us myself it very clear that's not how this works um and when you cut a budget from salaries oftentimes it cuts from the bottom

028which is unpopular of course um the same thing with expenses you can't say which things you want want you can suggest which things you want cut from the expenses and it can be an unpopular expense and hopefully department heads will listen to it and I think that's where I was getting at um in regards to the schools is we don't have the two branches of coverage in in the city um we give a one number and that's it and and as as uh Council Garett said it is the only budget that we can actually increase which we have um two years ago we had quite a bit um and found ways found ways um to to balance the budget better for the schools because of the need that was there we can't always do that

029it's never it's probably hardly goingon to ever be attainable again but um that in mind it I've been very vocal about this even with capital with with uh some of the expenditures I'll hate to use them again but the police we had some trouble a couple years ago [Music] um if if if you granted money and you've gotten suggestions and you've gotten the feedback from not only your your your own committee but then from the city council from the community members and whatnot and and we're not all in the dayto dayss and we know that um but if folks don't see if if they're suggest questions that are made and then seemingly ignored from any Department I use the words and I'll say this again good luck next year like that's that's really what it

030comes down to because people get in their minds they get um reactionary in their response when they don't see something come out the way that they thought it was intended or the way it was described to them so if they like no no no if they hear no no no no it'll be fine it'll be fine it'll be fine fine and then it's not fine that's when I say the words I'm very blunt if you don't know me uh good luck next year like they're going to see those and and we see reactionary stuff the feds right now but um those are the things that I caution about these are why like I think the talks are important on a subcommittee level on a on a collaborative level even if it's you know crossing the

031streams um that's Norm Al I think can help with quelling some of that um reactionary response um because it can be more explained and better explained and in not hearing words like well stay in your lane like that never I don't think that's ever worked for anybody ever it's definitely never worked for me you tell me to stay in my Lane the first thing I'm going to do is get out of my lane and and come at you but like you know so that that's where the the the impetus of this comes from is to not have um those kind of reactionary responses from the community or from other you know public bodies is um when when someone asks like well why like not just you know hate to use it but not you can't

032say because I said so like that doesn't work doesn't work with kids right certainly doesn't work with adults um so I don't know that's I don't know that hope what you're asking me but like that you know that's that's kind of where the rules to me we have to explain ourselves when we're making um our recommendations um or our full budget uh bottom line and I don't want to hear from personally I don't want to hear from any um that was that was very offensive actually last year I will say um just clear the air I hadn't heard that from any other department and then I heard pretty much like none your business and I said well actually kind of is my business and I felt pretty pissed off about it to be honest because

033I had worked very hard with city council the year before to improve the budget that was cut in the only Department that I could do it because I I give shits about the schools and so then that's why I got very you know sorry heated about it at the time was then I was told to like shut up and stay in your lane so um so that's Mike I'm really sorry that happened to you I don't know what quarter it came from because you and I did not talk last year correct um and um I I did not go to City Council meetings or Ways and Means last year which I did the year before but um the year before was a really um it was an extraordinary year because we needed to settle contracts

034that would enable us to be competitive um and do something about our chronically non-competitive compensation in this District which is harmful 18 ways from Sunday um here and uh so there was um there was more um communication I guess in person um that year but uh anyway last year the only city councelor that contacted me about anything related to the budget um was Mr Master Taro and we had a lengthy talk about it um mostly B prior to the uh prior to the school committee's um approval of last year's U budget proposal so um to explain for folks who don't know very briefly in the interest of time um what the um processes on the school side um for for budget development is um I want to explain that the school committee puts in a

035great deal of work um over a long period of time in which the um development of the budget features on a regular basis and um like I said before I know that everyone doesn't have the time to watch um every school committee meeting but I do want folks to keep in mind that uh the committee is thoughtful and we put in a lot of time and a lot of effort and our um this is the only you know Department in the city that is um essentially uh overseen by an elected committee like this and that's because it is so important so um I think that the committee's decisions are thoughtful budget and finance as a subcommittee has been making a concerted effort over the past year um to improve our process so that it is

036more uh collaborative more directly informed by stakeholders um as to what the committee's priorities are um in the budget development and uh I'm I feel pretty proud of that at this point um after we're done uh with this agenda item we're going to talk about um the development of the upcoming FY 6 operating budget proposal and uh you'll see how it is firmly connected to the feedback that this subcommittee actively went out to solicit from people from um people who have an a big personal stake in this school department um and I hope that that is going to help illustrate for people what um member child's was saying about why each of our um budget items is important U rather than uh more of a statement of what the school administration thinks is important which

037we have to put a great deal of stock in because they are our school administration and we have we're very lucky to have an Administration that is um led by someone who has a longstanding deep knowledge of the district um so we have to put a lot of faith in that and at the same time we have to make sure people know that this budget is developed based on what our stakeholders tell us is important to them um so that's that's the type of work that this subcommittee has been doing um this past cycle we have held um eight more listening sessions than we ever had before which was Zero um about the budget development and um have planul gone through the process of connecting what people of the people of Greenfield wants to see

038in their school department with what the priorities are in the development of this operating budget so um these things are are going to be super directly connected that doesn't mean that everyone is going to understand everything that the school department decides to do with this budget because there are things that um need to take place in the running of a school district that most people never have to touch on um in their life and um as a committee we we are going to go ahead and decide to prioritize those things even if most people don't understand them um because as the school committee we are familiar with the needs of the district in ways that other people are not necessarily so um sometimes we might make a choice that isn't popular um but is necessary

039in our view and um and that's not to like stick it in anybody's eye uh but because we know something is important um and that's the way I I I'm not maligning the way that um past committee members have done their Duty um by saying any of this I'm just explaining from my point of view what um budget and finance has been trying to do over the past year to uh to improve the process so uh you'll see we have had a lot of public engagement this year uh not directly with city council but that's like that's on the table now um but a lot of Engagement with the public uh to inform this budget we have uh established uh voted school committee budget priorities for the first time um and those are now living

040out into this um this budget proposal which has yet to be made um but the superintendent is going to be um presenting to us this evening about um how that how that budget is shaping up which is um imminent for publication and this the subcommittee will be um making a recommendation to the superintendent this evening as to um whether or not to uh forward this budget recommendation to the full school committee at our next meeting so that's where we are in our little process um and also this year we now have an annual budget development calendar which is posted on the website um which elucidates for people when things happen in this budget process and from what quarter do they happen because not everything comes from school administration or the school committee um some of

041a great deal of this is affected by the state budget and then things that uh the mayor's office does and the city council and all of this uh eventually sort of weaves itself in together into a the budget that we end up with come j July 1 uh right but it's complicated for people to understand so um the budget development calendar of the school committee now elucidates those time periods and as far as I as far as we could know them that far in advance specific dates uh and then it is um also uh paired not just with the dates and times but with frequently asked questions that all to date for people exactly how they can have input at different parts of the process uh so that people feel really empowered by that uh

042and uh lastly uh it includes the committee's budget development policy uh which we ultimately have to follow uh we've done a lot of work on this subcommittee to um flesh out that process this past year and really live that policy um by increasing our stakeholder feedback uh by having this budget development calendar which is part of that process U or part of that policy rather and uh and lastly uh it's what we're what we're about to do at this point in the in the budget development season which is that our policy says the school committee will um adopt the budget that our students need that's what it says um that we will do that does not always line up with the other pressures that the city is facing uh and that's where this uh sort

043of year-to-year tension always sort of Peaks you know right about now and then we things get figured out over the next few months and then we go into our insy uh the the school committee is charged with that responsibility we have to propose a budget that represents the needs of our students and our policy says that we will be cognizant of um the the needs of our the taxpayers of Greenfield as well and the bottom line is that the school committee needs to propose a budget that leads the needs of the students so um I hope that that I guess I have a question I'm sure it's like sitting here listening so how do you know I mean I I read this presentation and it's beautiful and everything but how do you know that those

044numbers truly represent what our children need well the committee members have the opportunity to ask questions of the superintendent so that you can get to that answer for yourself at every school committee meeting where we have our budget presentations every month and particularly this evening uh it's probably the most interesting subcommittee meeting of the year um because we are talking talking about the um upcoming superintendent proposed budget right before it is published so um this is the prime time to ask those questions actually comment question so one of the things I noticed last year on ways and needs it's you know so there's a budget book which has you know prior Year's budgets you know this year's budget you know that kind of thing and you know for many many of the Departments it was

045pretty intelligible when you read through it it's like okay and the Departments are much smaller so right there's like 20 firefighters and so you can see each of them has this salary here's their title and this is what they got paid this year and this is what they got paid last year and so you can read through it and compare apples to apples and I found you know this was true doing contract negotiations too I'm asking for the school's budget and getting handed use the word mograph because I'm forgetting photocopy uh photocopied U you know just sideways like budget spreadsheets that meant absolutely abolutely nothing to absolutely nothing and I had a similar experience with the school budget last year where I'm looking at every other department and frankly and I'm sorry to I know

046Franklin Tech has more money and more kids than we do but Franklin Tech's versus ours and I'm like I can read this and understand what it looked like in the past and I look at our schools budget and it was nearly it was very difficult to understand what was in there and so it would say like transportation and again that's where our dear friend you know got into the whole bus thing but you know in it would be a line item it was challenging to parse so you know my request and I you know is to maybe compare it to other budgets and ways that they're presented and you know the information could be golden right like this could be the absolute best budget in the world but again if I'm not an out teacher

047I teach High School history I can't you know if I can't parse it then I can't make a good independent judgment without asking questions I may not even know to ask it's not is somebody without a math teacher on this side yeah lucky that must be I don't have a CPA you know say so school committee is like a step or two ahead of you on that we have we have talked I don't know how many times at this point about the um understandability palatability of our um our budget information looking at a spreadsheet is really hard um for people to understand you get to know it if it's the same document that you look at every month but if you're somebody who's just popping in you know who understands that probably not very many

048people um so uh Andy has been dutifully um Pro providing the past couple of months uh different um type of presentation for the school committee that still includes the spreadsheets so that everybody can see all those need- gritty numbers um but also includes some narrative uh so that things are spelled out for left brain people like me need to have things put in sentences um and we've also um had some you know preliminary discussion about how the uh annual budget might be presented differently that's not going to happen this year I'm sorry guys there's not enough time um to do that at this point but it is something that is definitely being actively thought about for sure and I 100% agree with you um what time is it 750 thank you um okay so I

049I'm just gonna say this I need more information I mean that's I've asked for staff lists I asked in July I asked in October I was told to superintendent didn't have time by the chairperson I have been discouraged from asking questions I have felt like I've been told I asked too many questions um but I need to know I need to feel comfortable with this budget I Am pro education all the way and I want to be able to say to the people in this town that I support this budget but if I don't know what it's paying for I cannot do that I would like to see a staff list not even anything in detail how many kindergarten teachers do we have how many I asked our spent director how many PA professionals we

050had in the district and he said he didn't know that was I mean this is just like how many people are we paying for how many people work for Greenfield Public Schools I mean we should be able to compare the salaries from last year to the salaries this year um and see what you know if people got raises we should be able to see what's the difference I mean all of that is basic math this is not as a math teacher I'm just like it shouldn't be a secret I feel like there are secrets in this budget and I don't like that I want to feel like yes there should be slush for when emergencies happen and when that child moves into town who costs a million dollars who has special needs but I I

051just need to know what we're paying for I have a hard time talking to people who say to me my neighbors who have these delightful little children and his wife is a teacher and is like I have these high taxes our schools are underperforming and we can't keep a principal in the school and I can't pay my taxes and send my kids to private school so I'm going to have to move it's parents are making hard choices and I think we need to be able to as a community be proud of our school budget but we need to be informed about what it is it shouldn't be a secret I just want to know what we're paying for how many kindergarten teachers how many first grade teachers how many How many pairs um we've been

052advertising for a pair almost all year that bothers me so some child's not getting the support that they need is it because we're not paying the pairs enough probably um and teachers can leave Greenfield and go next door and get $5,000 more that bothers me um I'm Pro Educators so I'm like where where is this you know how much is our busing cost how much so all of this is there's so many questions that I'm used to a budget book A book that shows the school budget either by school I've seen them by school or by grade just information bottom line what are we paying for I mean just broken down um so I want to make sure that we have lots of time for for questions about the superintendent budget talk this even um

053so I do want to um I feel like we should wrap this item up for now and then come back to it um not I'm not asking you guys to attend every meeting or our next meeting I we'll work something out um but I do want to make sure we have plenty of time for um for the rest of this meeting um but I and I want to say in my first year as a school Committee Member I felt a lot like you were just saying um member goodwi because um I often felt like I wasn't allowed to ask questions or um was uh I've been actually told not to ask questions so I sort of developed a reputation I guess for um asking too many questions and um it became kind of like a

054running haha um on the committee so I really feel that um and it took a a while for me to I guess find my groove um as a school committee member um because it is most people don't know very much about um what a school committee does you would know more than most people before that on um but I certainly had a lot to learn um and walking of that fine line between um governance and administration as a school Committee Member it's really hard to figure out um because they are two different um roles and the committee is over here in governance and the superintendent is over here doing Administration and we do have to uh we do have to stay in hour Lan um in that regard and it doesn't mean that we cannot

055get questions answered um at least for my part the superintendent is more responsive to me than maybe like anybody I have met when I have a question about something so um and I don't know how you have time to do that because you have way more to do than most people I know um so I appreciate that and I want I do want people to feel like they can ask questions and at the same time I want to be mindful that um the superintendent has a massive job to do and her time is incredibly precious so um I try not to uh bug the superintendent too often um with questions and sometimes um it is important to uh run something by the committee chair to make sure that it is within our scope um or

056if we want something to be addressed by the full committee um that's something for the committee chair to decide so there's a lot to um I don't know there's just a lot to digest I guess with the role but maybe by um creating some additional venue or um process for collaboration between US city council that will help both of us to um you more heard more effective more um so it's sad I can say I've watched school committee meetings in Greenfield for 30 years there are very few I missed and I have never seen a school committee not um especially with the budget like meet with principles have conversations I mean I just nothing to be hidden I think the best one they ever saw Buzz nimow had a pie grab he showed the percentage

057of the budget which was Transportation the percentage of the budget which was special ed and then salaries and this little itty bitty slice which was expenses but it showed me as somebody who lived in town exactly how Transportation was the most expensive piece of our school budget it was informative it gave us information as as people who lived in town about what we were paying for I that's what I think the citizens of Greenfield deserve to know what they're paying for and that's true for every Department um you know it really is that's the type of um presenting that I really um liked when I was at the uh Mass Massachusetts Association of school committies um it provides a great deal of professional development for um school committee members around the Commonwealth uh one of

058the things that they do is hold an annual conference which is three days chock full of the best training I've ever been to I hate trainings they're normally useless um but masc really knows how to give you something valuable so anyway one of the things that um I was looking at at this past conference was um wher's budget uh budget book and the graphs um charts things that distill things for folks um in a more palatable way that uh was one of the best things about that I really admired it now wher has great deal more uh students and a great deal more money in their budget although they struggle too um so I don't know that we can have all of the bells and whistles that they have but um I would I would

059love to see guys right yes right yes I think it's a good involves asking them to do new things I think it's a good point that you bring up and I would say regardless of the amount of funding for a certain municipality the same process could be had um and I agree I I have not seen that in the three years that I've been on finance uh for the city um that I will say that to be very cun as I can be um the public school presentation for the operating budget is chiny at best every year it is I think no offense veterans the veterans department has better presentation of their operating budget than the school has had it's like here's a piece of paper here's our number here it is look at it

060and and accept it robust could I maybe interject Kate and actually that's all say maybe start with some conversation about what is here tonight and why and then what will be presented at our official budget hearing yes and then that may clarify for member Goodwin as well as others what actually is forthcoming um I'm gonna just move you off camera because I need to present my screen talk okay and can you see that you're good at home okay thank you um what I was asked to actually create for this evening was just to give you kind of a forecast of what's coming that this isn't the budget hearing budget book that that um I was at that Ways and Means Committee last year with the former superintendent and I was with Rick Martin where we

061talked about how he delated the teex line by line item and I've been working with Andy for our budget hearing to include all of that including pie chart so that it's easily readable by the average bear at home but also where you can see the employees per building thank so that is forthcoming however it is not available tonight um part of what I was asked to do is just kind of highlight what the priorities were based on public feedback but also to be delicate about redistricting because we do have to follow some collective bargaining agreements and notifications to teachers whose jobs may be eliminated due to reductions in sections as well as where we might be potentially moving some folks with the eighth grade going back to the middle school and the fifth going back

062to Elementary so we've been meeting with union leaders and trying to U be cognizant of that and uh take care of things privately first with union members and members and then be able to present that at the full budget hearing when we have it on February 24th so what you have in front of you really is priorities that um came back from stakeholder feedback but that are really important to the superintendent budget and number one you will see is to maintain a level of Staffing needed to continue to provide appropriate class sizes in programming we need our teachers we need our IAS we need our staff in place to support our students we also need to continue to fund curriculum resources high quality instructional materials we've started that process with Ela math we moved into

063Science and History this year and with the district turnaround work with the ssos and our district prioritization team it is pivotal that we remain uh tried and true with those materials so that students have grade level standards based materials in front of them we also have an Ever growing elll population and we need to invest in curriculum resources to support their learning and you'll see some of the data that I shared with you tonight shows just how big the skill gaps are for our L population so we need to address those issues we have to continue to invest in professional development um we've had a lot of talk about the social and emotional needs the um counselors with the rbts boots on the ground in all of our buildings where these staff are needed to

064intervene with our students that are struggling still we're still you know seeing those effects of postco and really having to navigate a landscape that just wasn't um evident five years ago and the needs for Staffing to support those kids you'll see um at the full budget presentation though we really do need to increase our high school opportunities and that College and Career Readiness has to start at Middle School we're starting too late we're finding kids uninterested in life by 10th grade our dropout rate is increasing and they are not engaging in high school our chronic absenteeism is high there there's just you know if you're not going to a fory year college there's really little opportunity so we are really trying to up our programming at the high school so that kids remain interested that

065they get out of high school with a job where they can be sustaining a life for themselves and not just having minimum wage jobs part of the need is to constantly monitor though we do a lot of benchmark assessments but only through grade eight we're increasing those assessments so that we can keep data on Ninth and tth graders because our ninth grade failure rate for nth grade coursework is pretty high considering uh if you look at our Dart schools in comparison so we really need to um monitor our ninth graders at a closer way than we do currently can you explain darts for this oh those are districts that are uh comparable in size and grade level in not necessarily in the area but in uh student population poverty levels lowincome special ed populations um

066I think Andy might have the seven districts that we are in Dart with um that we can come back to that's good thank you yeah and then we have to continue to uh this work that we're doing doing with professional development on instructional practices and reading and literacy as member Goodwin alluded to we need our third graders to be reading proficiently before they are promoted to fourth grade and we are just not there right now and that skill Gap becomes wider and wider and wider the more they age through the system um another thing that really we're committed to and this came up earlier in the school year is uh addressing the social and emotional needs through restorative practice work training active bystanders um really having some professional development for students staff and administration on

067different Alternatives um in handling Discipline matters and building culture and Community what we've continued to um kind of unveil over the course of the year is our need to refine and increase interventions at tier two and tier three to support all of our students academic needs we have an upside down triangle right now you know 80% of our population is near needing tier intervention instead of 20 so we really need to work on what is tier one which is what our professional development Focus has been on and then how do we increase those tier two and tier three interventions to fill those skill gaps we have a chronic absenteeism issue in District we cannot ignore that so we need to maintain the staff that have been monitoring and supporting student attendance that includes our Second

068Chance bus with Transportation if you miss your first opportunity to get to school parents and families can call us and we send a van to go get them for a second chance opportunity so that they are in front of us learning and then um as addressed we have had a tiered Focus monitoring review and we've had a um program review with special ed and because of those reviews under the Desi oversight we have a lot of things that we have to address per their parameters we don't get to ignore those desie guidelines and what they tell us to do because of those reviews so out of some of that feedback and with redistricting um we have some additions that are in this budget this year we need an additional elll teacher our elll population has

069increased we currently have a hundred students identified in District but we also have 18 of them in grades 4 through 11 which we are in first year monitoring so we have to make sure that they make adequate process or they get reclassified in our L population redistricting moving our eighth grade back has required that we no longer can teach science and social studies and semester long courses we need those courses to be full year to meet the grade level standards of each grade especially Civics and eth grade along with the science so we have had to add two additional science teachers and two additional social studies teachers to absorb those vacancies for grades six seven and eight for getting that full year access to cont content we also have a building based substitute at every

070building in District with the exception of Discovery School and we have added that back in we need that person in order to cover daily absences that aren't covered by Subs that aren't taking our sub jobs and we really need those people because they have access to covering our lunch and recess Duty because our collective bargaining agreements with teachers do not allow for that to be a duty that they take on teachers don't do much day correct no it's the only place I've ever work correct and then unfortunately um with a lot of the federal cuts the collaborative of educational services in Northampton was running our Beacon program which is our our our alternative program for our high school students um it was originally adopted at GCC and GCC was running it and then the collaborative

071took it over but they are no longer funding the teacher so this program which I proudly began three years ago has been an alternative high school program for students who are credit behind and who are in danger of potentially dropping out and this program has helped at least 30 plus of our high schools seniors to graduate over the last three years so we have Incorporated that position back into um the budget for this coming year we are hoping because that is only a halfday program that the other half of the day could be a coordinator position where we could get students to be doing internships or work study programs and get them more interested in careers that they potentially want to be involved in and have those Partnerships with our Community Partners was it only

072Greenfield kids in that program correct the collaborative was going to expand it to other area high schools and I believe that was their plan moving forward for next year but they have since cut the program from their site so this is not um a line by line which you will get at the formal budget hearing in February um later this couple weeks from now but it is reflective of Step increases per collective bargaining agreements for FY 26 as well as the City Finance director had indicated for us to include a cost of living increase into the budget so with those additions we've also had some subtractions we no longer have access to eer grant funding those additional funds ended on September 30th we have our outof district special ed tuitions that have increased by $1.5

073million we had approximately $130,000 credit with travel CZ because we had been um overcharged last year so that was a nice credit last year but that credit no longer exists this year so we will be paying full price for our bus transportation with them and this budget also does not include the fact that we may potentially need an additional bus because as part of the redistricting we told families if they chose to age out in their elementary school or move to their new home school we would transport them regardless so the bus company and I have met and we have you know given them tentative class lists with where parents have made those choices and they're running roots for us right now but there could be a potential increase of an additional bus that's needed

074for our elementary runs um we're hoping that's not the case but they have not guaranteed that yet additionally um in fy2 we had grant funding that covered the cost of our high quality instructional materials in our curriculum resources we do not have those grants anymore for the coming year so in order to reorder and support those additional resources those are back into the budget is this a subscription based model for these curriculum resources um some of it is online subscriptions but also with cka our Ela program you get physical materials as well because students have individual readers yeah yeah and same with math there's workbooks um our opsed we're trying to at least get the kits ordered and then have a staggered supply list that's needed because the kits come with 180 student pieces and

075we don't have 180 students in any grade level so we know we'll have some Surplus over the course of the years um there's also been increases in out of District fed tuitions and really you know taking into consideration that over the last three years or so we've seen a 20% increase in that and really next year it's a 3.67 increase in chapter 766 approved placements that we don't have um any chance to argue with we have to pay those cost to send students out of District so we are trying to work on improving our special ed programming across the district so that we can potentially bring some students back but that is not a quick process and that is something we certainly have to work on not a cheap one it is not a cheap

076one either so um the impact though of supporting a budget we can see there is progress being made and um we have you know just the effect which I reported out at a previous school committee meeting though on you know slashing that chronic absentee rate and if we're chipping away at it we're making a difference we're getting more students in school we need to continue that work we need to continue to have that staff that oversees that that connects with families our director of Behavior Services our nurse leader they meet weekly with every building principal and their attendance team they monitor students who are not attending regularly on a case-by casee basis they connect them with uh Social Services in town if it's an anxiety issue we try to find Outside therapists for students so

077that we can get these students back in school if it's a matter of transportation we try to figure out how we can get them if they're not on a bus route how we can get them into school and just really working to uh let families know that we need their kids in school every day for the full day we've also seen some academic growth so the data that we've been reviewing at our district level professional development teams our instructional leadership building based teams um this high quality instructional material and the investment in it and along with the professional development and focus on literacy has really um made an impact I just pulled some quick um nwea which is our Benchmark assessment data um and you'll see for the fall and winter in our just overall

078student percentages we are seeing growth these are not um grade level RIT scores so we are still behind and we still have skill gaps to close and you will see that when you look at um some of our subgroups I think we have to keep true to the course though and the impact of the budget support for ongoing professional development is expensive we need high quality instruction for not only our administrative team but our instruction um instructional leaders in the building and we've started this work we're in year two of our um instructional leadership and in increasing what we're doing in our classroom and then we've added our data analysis teams this year and really diving deep into what students know and what they don't know in front of us and then how we adjust

079our instruction so that we can identify those skill gaps address them pay attention to them intervene with them and close them part of what has been ongoing with building principles in District administration we are in learning walkthroughs every week we are officially doing six with our partners from the teaching lab per the year I provided some data though that you can see that some of the identifiers that we've been using our learning walkthrough tool we have seen progress in our buildings and we are when we're not doing the official learning walks with the teaching lab uh assistant superintendent Sullivan and I are in buildings every week we alternate if I'm in the middle and high he's in elementary and prek and then we switch the following week so that people know that we are paying

080attention attention to what's happening in in those classrooms we're paying attention to what's going on with our students so I just kind of summarized at the end some of the budget highlights and these will all be in detail and explained at the formal budget hearing but you know really expanding those opportunities at the high school and middle school Workforce Development opportunities we started a financial literacy elected this year um students had to create their budgets and learn how to survive as if they were a 21y old based on whatever job they thought they were going to uh be interested in and I was fortunate enough Mr Martin who teaches the class had me come and grade their finals so they had to present their budget presentations on how they were going to survive um with

081the a career that they chose and the money that they would make um I really do believe the beacon program is essential to supporting some of our students who are behind the eightball already in our high school and need that support um one of the things that is included that has been a de you know I don't want to say a demand but a highlight of maybe our conversations is having foreign language return to the middle school that is in the budget and increasing those music opportunities at both schools um I had the pleasure of being at the Middle School uh band concert that last Thursday night and they have 47 fifth graders for the first time who've taken instruments and they have over aund and so middle schoolers who are actually participating in music

082now so um I saw Paul calary there who was our former band director and he said the the future is coming is what he remarked so and I had to agree with him it was lovely to see we also still participate in strings for kids which the Pioneer Valley Symphony runs at our middle school and they've seen an increase in um students wanting to access that program this year as well stiens to keep our extracurricular clubs going is in part of this budget as well our field trip funding is part of this budget as well people want our students to have exponential learning opportunities the stiens for the restorative practice work and getting a zero to fiveyear plan and making this District a restorative practice district is in this budget continued investment into high quality

083instructional materials we also as part of the work that we've been doing with teaching lab have really looked into tier 2 interventions and an additional tier one diagnostic assessment so we are working with our current Title One interventionists on the core pass and really it is a diagnostic tool that can identify the certain skill a student is missing teachers can pull those students based on that skill work in small groups and hopefully get them to where they need to be and back to learning and then and obviously we need to continue to invest in professional development that's aligned with our district initiatives and through that that stien work for instructional leadership teams which is part of the Mandate from our district prioritization plan with ssos and then lastly keeping those Staffing levels to maintain smaller

084class sizes with the redistricting though I do want to highlight in order to fit the fifth grade back into every Elementary School there is only two sections of every grade level so um that was part of the discussion that's been ongoing for the last two and a half years with redistricting work but the elementary schools are only so big and that was one of the uh caveats to moving the fifth grade back and keeping the special sub separate programs where they are so that we would not have to move our special education programming currently base average for class sizes is between 16 and 18 next year and that's just based on the draft schedule that we currently have and then also that's in the budget is really this continued investment into administrative levels we hear

085a lot of conversations about uh topheavy being leadership heavy and I don't um want folks to not know all of the work that is required by us in the administrative land as well with having uh District prioritization under des's ssos plan and having the center for school and District partnership progress report monitoring along with having a tiered Focus monitoring for elll program along for having a program site review with our special ed program along with uh we've just been chosen front by the office of refugees and immigration to actually have an interaction and collaborative review as well we do have a lot that is mandated by desie we also have about 50% of our staff who are under pts so they've worked for us for three years or less which increases the number of educator

086evaluations that administrators have to actually conduct retired and we also have evaluations for every collective bargaining agreement that our Administration is involved in along with leading faculty meeting times setting agendas and supervision for professional learning times the oversight of just the daily operations of school at any time of lunch recess arrival and dismissal and and that includes you know supervision and investigation of any and all complaints bullying harassment or otherwise as well as building culture and Community with our families and parents so there is really um a lot on everyone's plate and we need the Staffing levels to be maintained in order to continue this progress for student growth and achievement thank you question yes but first I just want to say thank you for putting this together this represented a whole bunch of extra

087work which I um like I said before try not to put on to Superintendent at all possible so I appreciate it you Mike you had a question I could I I just I feel like I would just take advantage of the opportunity that I'm here um this may be more V for a regular uh full meeting but I figured since it's right before Finance was coming out um so I know a question that I thought of and a lot of folks who grew up here um have wondered is why there is I guess this a two-part question um why there is such a challenge bringing fifth grade back and making Middle School six through eight again because that was the way it was for years until a bad decision was made um to not do

088that and we have a lot fewer students than we did so I understand we don't have as many elementary schools as we used to but we also have a lot fewer students in that in enrolled now and I've heard that some it has to do with some of the special education requirements that are different um space limitations in that but um and I know that you had said that that would that would shrink it down to like two per school or two per grade I'm assuming you meant two per grade for school correct okay um and and I mean I like I said going to school here like I remember like the exact layout of where everything was and some things have changed but um so 168 that that like being question one I guess

089why why that seems to be such a challenge if we already had the space ahead of time um I see 16 to 18 per class that's pretty decent um and then I know that you're very aware of my um uh my comment earlier this year about uh last year about um the kindergarten classes and so I'm wondering what changes have been made as far as I know that this time of year is when you're you're developing the budget and you're basing it upon what you think the numbers are going to be and have any factors been changed into that because obviously last year was the first year of the redistrict change and so my concern when I brought it up was that if we have an an inflated classroom size for one year that's going

090to continue each year along right if everyone were to stay in District um so is there when you're budgeting for next year and you're you know obviously you're saying well this is the amount of kids we think like you see the amount of students you have enrolled in fourth grade so you can extrapolate on how that would be your fifth grade classes next year um even if you're well now it would be fifth to sixth I guess even if you're moving them to a different School you may not have need to have um as many buildings to house them in one but they're still gonna have different grades and or different you know classes math and history and all that stuff um is there has there been a focus on the the Baseline that you

091would think now is going to be kindergarten enrollment on numbers you have and then also recognizing and this is where I was saying I think something might have got missed previously was that is going to be the Great you're going to have the biggest variable coming into the year with late enrollment like you're probably not getting you may get a couple stragglers late and rolling in fourth grade because they moved into the city but Kindergarten not everybody knows to register prek and right they're all going to do it last minute we're Society procrastinators so like even though you say you know prge should starts in whatever March and goes through June I I can Pro I can probably say with a good deal certainty you get a lot more throughout the summer and then even

092closer to the end of summer right right before school so is that being accounted for because we have to set the budget so far in advance um maybe in a better way than it had been previously so can I just I want to delineate that because they're two different questions Sor so um in regards to to redistricting without rehashing the whole past two plus years um that the committee did extensive work on that to arrive at um I mean I'm not question District the biggest rush is that we used to have four elementary schools five and now we don't um so oh we that's what I'm saying we also have a lot fewer students we have fewer students but but not that many fewer students and and our buildings are only the size that they

093are um so I'll I'll let the superintendent answer the rest of that question but um there I mean those are the those are the biggest broad brushes I think about that we had about half the students we used to have in Greenfield like 25 years ago you need more rooms for like Title One was saying was is there something that's more that's right I'll I'll let the superintendent get into the nitt gry on that um and then um the second question is about how the school um Administration anticipates kindergarten sizes um I will say the superintendent provided detailed information about that at the September school committee meeting I would invite anyone to go back and watch it um as to what our um typical running numbers are for incoming kindergarteners over the past several years

094and how that is translated into a prediction and how this past year was truly anomaly but uh superintendent take it away sure um well with regards to redistricting though I think the issue is special ed rooms for pout Services title one for intervention math and Ela along with um spacing her uh collective bargaining teachers are entitled to a a break room that has to be in every building for their contract so there has to be a space available to them which constricts what else you can where you can put certain things in the building um we have a very large special ed program that takes up um space at Discovery School which is one school that has limited space to begin with so that's another part of the issue and part of the former committees

095um directive was not to move special ed programming because they are our most uh delicate children and in a space where they are most familiar with and then moving them would probably be more detrimental than whatnot so um I don't know I think you had Green River you had North Parish this is free me and then you had right you had five um right now um for there was D I forgot that one no longer exists right now um you're looking about 200 per Elementary is what the numbers are now and that goes to my kindergarten qu you know answer to you right now we have 13 12 and 18 enrolled we have two teachers in the budget for each building if we had to really make a decision and say is the 13 going

096to be 26 I'm not cutting it based on what happened last year and that you know because that is what the former superintendent did when we had 12 for so long and then you know August 28th I'm faced with here we go here's 40 more kids for you so what we have done at central office however is we have uh upped our Auntie with kindergarten enrollment and having them uh more often with our registar at night advertised more clearly and then we're going to do it again a month later and just really try to we got the census information from the city and really try to Target those kids that aren't in our current preschool and try to get families more aware of when they need to enroll so that we have those numbers sooner

097remember child you've been real quiet there got any question about this and presentation so far um no real questions about it um I really strongly support us bringing the uh social studies and the science to full year because I think that will help kids find what they're passionate about and want to study more deeply before they hit that ninth grade slump and also out of curiosity I I wanted to see how many students we had in District 25 years ago so I go go it and according to the AI overview we had over 110,000 students yay AI that was the square footage um best I could find was from let me see was this 2004 when we had about 1861 no this is 2006 so we're down in the past 20 years we're down 400

098students roughly thanks for that M child's is often our Intrepid researcher of things compulsive researcher uh although that does provide good evidence for why AI will not be taking over the worlds anytime soon wasn't plagarism write it it's like oh what's that I had it win AI can't do crosswords I'm sorry time I was um I was really happy uh when this when the idea of going to full year science and social studies at the middle school was first brought up which was at least a year ago um because having had a middle schooler go through this model of having um this content for only half of the year um we're talking about uh 11 12 year olds who need uh consistent um delivery of content in order to maintain their knowledge in in order

099to build a broad knowledge base which then um contributes to their reading comprehension which contributes to their ability to learn everything so um so I'm I'm happy to see that um coming to fruition whether it is something that we have to do anyway or not um like you were saying so um so I'm very happy to see those positions in here um I also just wanted to um express my support for the adoption of elevation um having heard from um one of our um English learner teachers um about how um important this uh is and how it will for uh her students and ability to collaborate with other teachers um to support them um I I um am glad to see that here I also just W to um encourage everyone to please um if

100you have an interest in getting into the Nitty Gritty details of the feedback that budget and finance received from all of these individual um listening sessions please go back um and watch our um last couple of meetings uh because that's when we had the much more detailed discussion about those um but all of that is is reflected um I did have a few questions um but member Goodman did you have anything you wanted to ask before I dive into m other just a couple like the extracurricular stiens and we had those years ago did they get cut never being put back in no what the what they've added is uh new clubs per year um but what we're finding is uh all right say you have 400 students at the high school you maybe have

10110% of the population involved in the clubs that currently exist so what they're trying to do is revamp and expand opportunities so that if you aren't an athlete you have some other opportunity to get involved because we do uh part of the budget includes a late bus for our students Monday Tuesday and Thursday that they get picked up from the middle school and high school so having the opportunity to build community build relationships with other folks while also being involved in something outside of academics is really the push and is are those buses well used used by the kids are they full they no they're not full we don't have 46 kids staying after on anyone given day but they are used and it does give students without transportation an opportunity to participate think about

102a lot of bands bands versus buses and that our fanss aren't in town at that time because they're doing out of District runs on the note of those extracurriculars I I know the Middle School the chess club and Dungeons and Dragons clubs in particular have been very popular they not a stereotype tend to capture a crowd that doesn't always overlap with the Athletics and academically both of them are very good for test scores I mean chess all sorts of study and Dungeons and Dragons has a lot of math so I like this yeah I run those two Club of high SCH so they are very good coun approves yeah no keep talking about how great these budg hearing yeah please tson the Esports team we've got me covered there you go um I wondered and

103maybe this is a a a tandem question for um the superintendent and Andy Could you um explain more about the um increases in out of District tuitions how those are Set uh and what recent events or increases have been with regards to that well every year the operational services division which is a rate setting Agency for the state sets the percent increase for Approved chapter 766 program so when we refer to the 20 somei per increase uh over the past three years one year there was an actual about 14% increase in those rates um this coming year it's 3.67 I think is what we do 3.67% we have no say in those rates uh that come down and then uh Mr messing has we've had some kids come in through the pipeline that are now

104going to out of District placement so that's based on the uh enrollments that we know as of right now combination of new students being placed out and the uh rate increase for fromes we know how many students are out of districts uh I know that Mr messing provided a detailed presentation about that at our most recent if you're interested but I don't remember the total number that yes yes yes that's right um when the 14% increase came down the um state did offer some assistance to some districts to help absorb that wall up but we did not for that assistance and so that's just a little bit of back just stick in there um 3% certainly easier to 14 but still not um related to that um for the superintendent what do you think just

105very broadly are the um biggest or most frequent needs um that the district is not able to meet in District that we could consider tackling in the next say three to five years in terms of new programming or addition resources um you know I think our sub separate behavioral programs at our elementary school could be strengthened which is something uh the special ed director Mr messing is working on I think a lot of the supports that are needed um we tried to implement with rbts this year at our elementary so that they could address some of the needs that these students come to us with and they are not identified on any special ed track but they do need the support R oh I'm sorry registered Behavior technician um who is specialized in dealing with

106behaviors and interventions and modifications and implementing plans so students have an opportunity to access their learning but with the supports that they need um I also think too that we we are trying to improve uh getting Subs so that we don't have to use our IAS to cover for substitutes but we have uh increased absences and we need to make sure that all students are safe and we have to end up pulling some of our IAS to cover classes in those instances so I think keeping um those building based subs and those building monitors are key personnel that help out at the building based levels especially at our elementary schools where there is just the principal um I think in the three to fiveyear plan though it really has to be increasing programming at the

107high school level and making ourselves more competitive the weight list to the tech school is very high they have a very high enrollment at this time they have very attractive programs with a new vet uh pipeline opening along with their new Aviation pipeline opening and while a green fields cannot uh compete with some of those there are Avenues with GCC and Workforce Development and working with the community college that I think are pivotal for us to take advantage of because we could be the Google you know person because GCC is offering you know getting Google Suite certified and being a Google whatever I I don't know what those terms are but there are a lot of Workforce Development opportunities at the college and I think if we actually are the pipeline to that we could

108attract um students that want to come to Greenfield High School as well to access that that may not be on the trade track or not on the four-year college track yep thank you uh the need to um improve our uh sub rate was something that the committee discussed recently because it is a problem for the school department to have to pull instructional aids to sub classes um because IAS are absolutely essential to certain students uh they they fill essential roles in a general capacity as well and uh however we have U special education students who have um IAS in their service grids for specific reasons they need those people people in order to deliver the accommodations that they're entitled to and those accommodations give them access to their education so um so absolutely we need

109to um be cognizant of how uh how competitive we are for those two particular positions and um we also need to we need to make uh more systemic uh adjustments like this new position um in order to support that um correct me if I'm wrong and I know I probably asked you this before but um the amount that previously was paid out of grants for our um in curriculum instructional materials um I believe that was about [Music] 130,000 for C materials and I know there was you're GNA have to fill in the gaps for me so it's about 262 last year um that included investigating history grades five through seven and then we adopted openai Ed for science in grade six Through Chemistry so um that included not only teacher resources but the kits as

110well that included Eureka squared at K to4 it included illustrative math grades five through um Algebra 2 and then uh CK and amplify were also included in that I wholeheartedly support purchasing those materials it's we can't have a one-time investment in a uh new instructional resource and do all this professional development that has occurred over the past couple of years particularly with CK amplify and then let it all just float away because we fail to continue to support the um ongoing purchase of materials our students need them they use them up we have to buy them again um and having had students with my particular uh kids experience I'm delighted to um have it not be a situation like uh it was in the past where um I selected the um school that I selected

111for my kids because M Goodwin then principal had the foresight to be employing evidence-based practices and and uh aligning programming and materials um that way in literacy instruction and we now have a whole District at the elementary and middle school level that is um streamlined it's consistent it's fully invested um in that so I am 150% um committed to continuing to support that okay um do you will you be able to in your um budget presentation later this month um provide a uh total cost um number for the um redistricting and the factors involved in it well that's a good question um there's so many moving parts yes and um I think that there will be some caveats because some of the moving Parts um will be filled with internal position candidates and then some

112of the costs will have to go external because the vacancies will be there so I'll try to keep a ongoing redistricting tally with the moving Parts but um they're you know with some reductions at elementary offset some additions in other areas but I will do the best I can to keep a okay redistricting thank you I think that would be really helpful for books because um the whole topic sounds murky for folks readers or um and also a lot of our stakeholders put gave us input um about that process over a long period perod of time and um I think it would be helpful for folks to be able to see okay this is here we are we are transitioning into this phase and this is what it is going to cost and we are

113this is what it represents in the school department budget um I just think it's gratifying for people to see something that they invested their personal time and in put in playing out in a concrete way that um and also helps people who are not necessarily um a parent of a student in the district or um a staff person or somebody who has that level of of a state to um to understand okay will you all will you be able to um provide for folks a total amount for um things like the step raises the cola like a dollar yeah so for the actual budget hearing presentation I have uh delated cost centers Staffing um what that Staffing represents uh what those uh differences in salaries from last year to this year represent including steps and

114colas and then um some of those those like our Specialists are split among our elementaries so I've tried to lay it lay it out so that folks understand that a point 6 that Discovery doesn't mean that that person isn't a 1.0 the other point4 is actually served under Federal Street's budget and that's just the piece that probably will get a little confusing for people to understand the split teaching but um I have that in the full budget hearing so that people can easily know who's where and what it costs for them to be there and then outside of building based cost centers um we've delated um just like what my department in munus actually represents that it's not just me and a salary that there are other people that are in my munis cost center

115and just who they are and why and then I've tried to give as much detail so that everyone knows where everyone is because we are not hiding anything we are not trying to cover anything up we are trying to tell folks what we need in order to run the schools to the best of our ability for our students so um I just didn't want that much detail uh in this presentation I apologize Andy and I are still working on the on the move so um but that will be evident and available for the February 24th hearing great clarification question is this a this was a contract negotiation year or is it already been Inked or is it coming up we are currently negotiations with Unit A and Unit C that's going to have an impact

116on next year's budget of course as well so when you're talking about step increases in the col is from the city the town accountant right or the I'm sorry the finance director so that's already that's already been you know counted for but when you're talking about step increases these are anticipated step increases based on you're St eight whatever you okay okay um will you also be able to provide um detail in terms of the cost of the restored Justice programming that you are referencing I would love to see that because that's probably the top number one thing that constituents have asked me for in the past six months um I can go back and find the number I don't know what the total number of emails was but it was a lot um that uh

117there are a lot of folks who are very interested in that um in green fieldon so I would like to be able to really um elucidate that for them sure um we met with the collaborative today as well um we have started this work internally at the E Team level and the restora to practice committee has been formed and our director of behavior services will be taking that over with the collaborative so um I think the costs in training are going to have to be estimates at this point dependent on where they decide to go for said training and who decides to be the pilot school um which is what we're hoping for in the 25 fall is to have at least one school in District be the pilot school to launch all of this

118and then have those staff be sort of train the trainers for future trainings of IND District staff so that we don't have to farm out the training after that great um in regards to the field trips um that are in here um that it and it if I were to put a number on um parent feedback that we got field trips was really high um on there uh in terms of requests uh folks really wanted to see um increased opportunities for our students to have um high quality experiences either through field trips or through um things that are brought in um to their schools and um this is something that we talked about at our um previous budget and finance meetings um as being particularly important in our district because we have a high number

119of students who don't have a lot of access to those kinds of experiences outside of school so um I just wondered if that um is going to represent a material increase in those opportunities um I think we level funded the field trip lines Andy can check um we uh uh the assistant superintendent Mr Sullivan is working with principles though because what we found in District is repetition of events often where if you are a first grader and you go to the apple orchard because you're doing a unit on you know uh apples then you're doing it again in third grade so what we've done with the principles is really just uh putting a track on field trips so that every year you're having a different experience having different uh field trips that you engage in

120that align with curriculum standards but that alternate your experiences in District so that you have something you know I'm a fourth grader I can't wait to go to blank when I'm in fourth grade that there is this Contin interest in that um we're also very fortunate that the Greenfield Education Foundation supports a lot of uh things that we can't budgetarily fund and oftentimes if there's an additional field trip and we have no funding we often will uh Advocate to them and they've come through for us many times in the past um our PTO also are working collaboratively together to make sure that funding is Equitable across Ross the district um all of the presidents and I meet and talk about you know what interest um folks have so that every student can have certain experiences

121they're doing a cardboard challenge for elementary now that Federal Street is going to host but that it is open to all K through four students so they're trying to work more collaboratively together to give folks more experiences as well it was great to have um the collaboration that budget and finance had with our PTO um as well as CPAC and Alpac and um the ghs school council I really hope that that collaboration will just make those um enrichment opportunities um okay could you talk just a little about what is entailed what in refining and increasing two and three interventions because that can mean so many things yeah what we are finding and Mr Sullivan's online so maybe he wants to add more because he's been directly involved in the core and past moves with the

122teaching lab is currently the district does nwe map testing grades 2 through eight and then we do Dibbles in K through four and then they do Dibbles maze in five six and seven it's um an over overall composite score and not really identifying what is the skill Gap that our students have and therefore students um aren't actually getting what they need in intervention while folks are working very hard to do intervention with their students so um we've talked with um our interventionist group but we've also talked with the teaching lab literacy specialist and this core and pass adoption diagnostic would actually help us um address address the skill Gap that students have so that we could put them into tier 2 small groups we are looking at you fly and Lexia and I'm just gonna

123let Stephen maybe talk about those I'm GNA put them on the spot I apologize but um he's been in conversations at least with the literacy angle on youly and what youly actually could do for our students love to hear that because I know what those two programs are but not everyone how are you I'm gonna turn Stephen this way so you can talk to everyone how are you um yeah so I think I mean in a nutshell what the superintendent was saying is we can be more targeted this gives us some more specific information about deficits or challenges students might be having and then allows us to be more targeted in the resources we're using I think that's the big thing and um I also just want to like be clear that I don't think

124it's just just a tier two issue I think some of this is tier one in terms of helping people understand the data what it means how they can support with the um Core Curriculum as well so um that's where the work lies maybe member Goodwin um can I call upon your sure Professional Knowledge to explain a little bit about Lexia I lovex and Lexia is um there is not literacy expert who doesn't breathe that you can't do too much Lexia so Lexia was designed by um people who designed um the fcr website the Florida um intervention website and I got to meet the people who designed Alexia and we were part of the um pilot for adding on the support materials like the worksheets and stuff that went through it and actually um Jen marshand

125was one of the best um Lexia teachers I've ever met but she figured out when a child missed something she could pull them off the computer do a mini lesson with the child and put them right back on so what Lexia is great for is also her parents because you can can put it on your phone instead of your child just playing a game they're doing Alexia which is game likee um and at every all school meeting we um gave out little trophies for each level um and the levels go all the way up to sixth grade um they have prefixes suffixes Latin roots um and kids even enjoy redoing it which is I think the um the positive thing about Leia it's got the music it's got the the gamey stuff that they like

126um immediate feedback and what's amazing is it graphs how quickly a child learns the skills so you can see where they level out they do drop a little then you know how it grows and I think that is really helpful for teachers and everybody who deals with children that learn um because everybody learns at a different rate so you can really see um as they're progressing through Lexia the the way that they are practicing and how it impacts their learning so I think it's you know I was strange you can't do too much Lexia we always used to fight over like the Lexia and teachers get competitive with Lexia too so it charts like red green and yellow kind of like Dibbles so if your class is in the red it means they're not doing

127enough Lexia it tells you exactly how many a child should have of Lexia individual growth and then if the teacher isn't getting the child on a computer to do the Lexia you get a little email from Lexia so um teachers like to compete with Lexia as well thank you thank you I know you put in no I every parent Stephen can you hear me I can could you EXP explain just briefly for folks a little bit about youly yeah so again and Lexia and youly are right now things that we're inquiring about and looking at and um I certainly um have a lot to learn about both but both are encouraging and I think youly is really a a targeted intervention but can be a core as well or supplement to the core foundational and

128it goes back to what member Goodwin was talking about earlier is really doing everything we can to make sure we have strong readers by grade three um and youly really helps at those K12 um age groups thank you that's it told do I ask too many questions um okay it is 8:30 and we have done a good two and a half hours um does anyone have an additional question this right I don't know you know this off the top of the head how many new positions did we add last year I wasn't sure you it now but I'd have to look back at Christine's budget I don't recall I have to look back I don't remember either um okay um an am I missing you on anything nope but I had a few things but

129the moments passed for those and uh I think at this point we just really need to I I think at this point we're ready to see the more detailed budget that's coming up okay um so in that case I'm going to make a motion all right um I move to recommend the proposed FY 26 operating budget as is to H sorry to recommend the superintendent forward the proposed FY 26 operating budget as is to the full school committee go ahead so when you make that motion are you saying these numbers you're saying to go forward with these numbers yes well I'm a little bit confused because the motion is recommending the budget but we didn't see the budget we saw a budget forast and so that's where I've got a HIC up yes okay I

130move to recommend that the superintendent bring the proposed FY 26 operating budget forecast as is to the full school committee I'll second that discussion so if no one else has anything to open with I will just dive in um I think uh the I think given the needs of the district and given the um outside pressures that the district has faced that this overall um increase in terms of all funds and the local appropriation is understandable and reasonable and uh my hope that is that it will um be received as respectful of the city and uh taxpayers as well also uh letting people know what the overall needs of our students are um that being said it is not insubstantial so there's always a worry about how you will be receive uh that's my opening

131slot I think we are far from unique in that in this case I think all of the school committees over the state and school committees and school boards throughout the country are going to be hit with increases this year as well just because of changes in the economic climate so I think you hate to see an increase like that at a time when you know that people are already hurting but certain things are unavoidable and also the return on investment for public schools is still both morally and financially sound I think member Childs is obviously correct um I think I need more information before I can support that motion okay when I see the budget book with the details I need to see the details before I can support that Mo okay uh I think

132that considering the unprecedented inflation that we have all seen and uh being cognizant of the uh eer funding which has now ended for us and everyone else um member Childs is quite right about the overall um pressures of being are being faced by this district and every other District um I wonder superintendent could you talk a bit about um how this budget was looking when you um first we going through your executive leadership team meetings and what um what you have been able to do to bring it down yeah I mean we um I have met with every Department had met with every building principal and um along with the assistant superintendent and Andy and we were um at double digits at one point when we had talked a little bit ago um just really

133fine-tuning and going line by line by line by line and seeing what those dollars meant who those people were what was reflected what wasn't reflected and just really paying attention um to the detail we found um some inconsistencies with Staffing either duplicative or um just misrepresented in uh two lines of not you know um and then we looked at uh historical cost spending in certain cost center line items so that we weren't projecting an increase that was unnecessary um trying to think where else we were line item analyzing um and really just paying attention to even just the curriculum increase you know Stephen was really looking at his budget line items and making sure that we weren't um overexpressing the need that might be there in the future for those items and really getting quot

134quotes and pre you know pre- numers on that so that we weren't just you know estimating so um we've been working hard the last month or so to really be uh aware of uh we know how how much we need to run the district and but we also know we needed to be uh cost sensitive this year in a time where dollars are tight what were those double digits to start with I think we were at a 10 something and then we went to a nine 93 at some point and then uh we were at a 86 and then um as of Friday I think this I think when you and I uh spoke we were at our 97 which is where We've [Music] Ended if uh either the school committee were to recomend a

135uh smaller budget or if uh we were to recommend one that looks like this uh ultimately and it is um substantially underfunded what without uh discussing anything related to um positions or uh contracts which I know is difficult to do um could you give us an idea of what uh would be at risk you know position new positions that we're adding obviously would probably be at risk first um we'd have to look at programming and what those programs cost like Beacon you know implementing something like that and having it on the district's dime is you know costly but the overall need and benefit from it is something that would be detrimental to cut but obviously it comes down to people in programming and that would really be where the um uh we' have to look

136with each department head with each building principal and go through their own cost center line by line again and see where there are any potential future savings you know we also don't know a lot of our Desi grants because we're in turnaround um are not out yet so we don't know if there's potential cost savings for offsets if those grants become available again um we've had an open sad we've had an investigating history Grant in the past we've had our turnaround Grant um be increased in the past but those things are unknowns right now so we're also working with you know potential cost uh support that we don't know if we're going to get through that grant funding either given correct me if I'm wrong given that we previously had four schools in turnaround status

137and now only two uh how do you expect that to affect rning that's hard to say I wish I had the crystal ball of how desie determines because they also were very um giving in order to adopt highquality instructional materials to begin with and provided grants for the initial onset and then cut the districts off completely and no longer fund them after year one so um if I had to predict the way they've worked in the past I would say it's probably going to be um very much less than we've gotten in the past so we do a great job and then you get less money correct are there people's jobs in Title One or is it just materials no title one mostly funds positions Exchange and as we know with federal grants don't know

138what's coming down that P either Andy would you be able to talk about the governor's budget and Chapter 70 a little bit I mean for us the fortunate thing is yes the student Opportunity Act has increased the per pupil reimbursement rates in the foundation formula but when we have declining enrollment the increase that we're seeing is only about $160 some OD thousand in chapter okay and this is probably a no uh um I know it's all just a crystal ball at this point when it comes to the Federal um level but uh is there any apologize 126,000 however I will say though cheap science the cherry sheet overall though for Greenfield what a very surprisingly positive impact wow the the net if you were to look at the net overall positive when you look at

139the revenues versus the assessments that the city is it's a POS positive 780,000 Valar the community so you know we'll try and be optimistic thanks for bringing the bright side yeah I do have David GRE there are six new positions that were in fi25 an assistant special education director Elementary instrumental music English language learner teacher a float custodian and IT staff and then we had the human resource school committee position s six thank you Mike just in the sake of asking this I know this comes up um in in talks of where like recessions happened in the economy and stuff were those generally new positions or were those positions that had previously been cut and now are reinstated two I think off the top of my I'll have to double check cinal but at least

140two were reinstated the float custodian and the assistant special education director know his float position what's the problem we had cut that one yeah and then the overtime cost of making up for it turned out to be a mistake so that so I believe two of the six every in yeah but even adding an elll teacher last year we need another one to beet Service delivery so cra job have to teach kids no matter what language you nativ to speak you know like it's the same thing as the SEI yeah yeah y I speak Ukrainian they're all the movans yeah well I came from Egypt and I've never been in a public school ever that was the one I I was like oh I dare ask um if there is any um I'm not sure

141what the right word is guess as to what uh might be coming down the pike with regards to idea funding anybody watches that one also a question was asked about the AO District placements the I have the most recent 24 24 kids um no FY 24 six were in public separate day schools 13 were in private separate day schools two were in residential and two were home Hospital homeit's the big 13 13 13 is the bigger one because the private separate day schools can range anywhere between you know 175 to [Music] $350,000 and even some higher because they could be year round so we know how old they are many more years we got it on we've got one of them is age three to five and then the rest are 6 to 21 I'm

142telling you the superintendent North Adams offered to buy a parent a house in whole yoke instead of paying out a district placement cheaper almost had her to [Music] yeah sorry that's that's pretty sad actually for somebody to uh poor kid was in a bus for indicate someone's not welcome in their Community like that uh okay so uh that's why numbers can fluctuate so widely and suddenly uh when it comes to uh out of districts as well because a child may move in who happens to have certain needs that send them to a Perkins School run you a good half a million dollars or um what have you and uh you know the district doesn't have the ability to just suddenly invent the ability to meet those needs so you know that depends though on if

143it's if it's in District then the sending district is on the hope for year one for the tuition we would have to budget for to out ofate or DC on place a story we on regardless of whatever it is they tell us um um where where is the district at with um filing the requisite paperwork for Medicaid reimbursement in the city we're doing that through the collaborative that's an ongoing process when will that go in it goes in quarterly okay actually two times a year excuse me and uh has there been any discussion with anyone on the city Side as to whether that may be appropriated to the school department this year discussion and the issue I'm GNA say I say issue without any negative commentation is the fact of matter is that Greenfield funds

144the schools above the minimum required net School spending so they could make the argument that we're getting the Medicaid money anyways and just reduce the quotequote amount above the minimum required that there because Medicaid being a general funder C comes there anyways that's always been I think I back one of the last times we were here with mayor Martin was discussed but there really not much money it's about $250,000 you know so and the issue is you could say I'll give you the 250 Medicaid I'll just reduce your 250 in barely cover increases yeah which was a big deal okay any more discussion so I guess the last question is so we'd be voting just to send this forecast to the full school committee is that for their information purposes or for the full committee

145to take some sort of an action the committee is as a is not going to take an action until after the uh annual the subcommittee if it wishes to make some other recommendation other than what has been presented this evening um needs to do so right now because this um the superintendent proposed budget needs to be published in the paper uh very shortly that'll be coming up in a week so uh and then once that happens then according to the uh City Charter then we need to hold our annual budget hearing within uh 7 to 14 days is why we will be having it on the 24th and then the committee will need to subsequently meet and uh vote to approve that uh proposed budget so that'll be taking place I think March 3 March

146third so my question has to do with the motion that's on the table of what the goal of it is the goal is to provide the recommend of the budget and finance subcommittee to the full school committee what are we recommending we are recommending the superintendent's proposed budget as forecasted this evening okay now I think I see where both you and Mel were coming from do you I just do you have this in front of you an yes I do okay okay but uh because of the difference between budget forecast and budget that's because I something has to go on the paper before we see a budget book is that correct do you want to explain what is published way it's normally B yes so in order to publish our budget that needs to be

147in the paper next Monday okay uh need parameters around which to craft said budget so what is proposed tonight is the 7.97% increase and so that is what I need some guidance around in order to publish that on Monday and then craft the whole budget hearing presentation around what that 7.97% represents specifically by cost center by person by um expense okay so we're basically saying yes we think this is an acceptable goal for the budget this year yeah okay Andy did you want to say something I just I'm kind of getting now say that I'm now getting confused maybe it's the hour that we're here but um okay I'm I'm hearing it as like the that the recommendation or it could be a recommendation from the Budget Finance subcommittee to have the superintendent present what

148the detail is of the 7.97 and then the comme would take action yeah that that's where I'm at but that's not what I'm hearing I'm saying I'm heing I have to go with the 7.9 without the detail okay uh would you like to propose different wording I would certainly be open to a friendly Amendment I'm just picturing Monday paper I'm just trying to picture the timeline so it sounds like we need to have this approved of for Monday so we need but if it if we're sending it to the school committee the school committee is not meeting before Monday right right this this would sorry this would form the substance of the superintendent uh full annual budget presentation to occur on the oh did it sound like Mel was going to say something yes said

149and then stop I I just it's just such a big number um I am curious what a level funded budget would look like what the increase is that 7.9 represent level funded everybody's in the same position no new positions new position it might be nice to see the comparison between the two is that something that's mathematically possible with your Wonder laptop like if next year we had exactly the same people everybody's the same everybody got their raises everybody got their Cola what would the increase be versus the 7.9 which is the I mean I I say it's it's doable I think it's a better spell question I guess I would I guess I would say if I may though when we look at some of the things for example uh if everybody agrees on the

150high quality instructional materials where we don't know as of right now regarding the R so that's in the budget then we have the special education tuition increase of overall in a sped Department it is going up 0 1.1 million so I I understand the concern that I'm going to say the quote unquote sticker shock but it is very easy to get to the 7.97 when you look at the the director from the City Finance director about an estimate for C the step increase the new positions specifically in the middle school they four new positions regarding the redistricting and then the transportation change uh even though we have a decrease because we're using more Transportation revolving account funds um but when we get you know so I guess I say when you start to peel away

151at that 7.97% it's a very easy number to get to as scary quote unquote as it but what I'm saying is it's really not 7.9 because of all the normal increases that happen from year to year here right no I I 7.9 I go this right here that is being presented is the needs based budget as determined by the administration of the school district so when asked what are the needs from all department heads all building administrators it came to a 7.97% but what I'm saying to you is if we went forward next year even just with everybody we had now there would be an increase a probably a significant increase with Cola and raises and everything so it makes the 7.9 not look as bad is what I'm saying to you because that's probably

152like a 3% increase maybe I'm wrong but I'm just trying to say to you kind of looks a little more I'm not sure what you're asking a maatic I think I understand exactly what Mel is saying I think Mel is saying that what we are asking for is not very much overlevel funding and having that to contrast will show that no matter what to not cut programming we will already be significantly increasing and this increase in order to add these things we need is minimal compared to the increas inrease that is just the price of the world for what we already have is that what you're saying Mel absolutely it just is more consumer friendly I'm just trying to figure out how to reward this motion because it's the responsibility of the subcommittee to provide

153a recommendation to the superintendent tonight um I and I I don't want to have to schedule another meeting for the 10th so um anybody please jump in with a friendly Amendment otherwise I'm going to continue working on this wording want me to try yes please okay I move okay that um the bud the what you call it recommended budget goes forward along with um a comparison of what it would cost to run our district next year exactly as is with raises with cost of living with sped increases to to give a comparison to show that the 7.9 is not as dramatic I'm looking for a a comparison okay hang on I'm working that in it's about consumer understanding most districts just by breathing it's a 3% increase then losing Esser is not going to be

154pleasant right plus you have negotiations happening and out of District special ed tuitions that's 1.5 million there yeah but if we don't start competing salary wise we're going to be in trouble okay uh how does this how does this work for you I sorry I had too many cross outs all right I move to request the superintendent forward the FY 26 operating budget as forecasted including level funding comparison to the full school committee it wouldn't be level funding because level funding would be dracon and till we're back to The Cutting eighth grade okay so do I need to include a list of and same with raises I don't know what you call that anymore level service level service level service okay the a friendly amendment is I move to request the superintendent forward the proposed

155FY 26 operating budget as forecasted including a level service comparison to the full school committee I will still second that okay I am accepting that friendly Amendment the second has accepted it any discussion on the revised motions good okay hearing none I will take a roll call vote I yes member Goodwin yes member child yes thank you very good everyone we have no further items on our agenda for this evening so with that I will move to adjourn that uh and I am yes member Goodwin yes and member child's yes thank you everyone so much I appreciate your time I apologize for the amount of time and I promise to do better next time have a good evening bye everybody bye an [Music]