001good okay so uh I will call to order this meeting of the budget and finance subcommittee of the Greenfield school committee at 12:31 pm on I'm G to keep my video off in hopes that I will stop being kicked off of this can everyone hear me yes we can yes okay great uh okay so uh this meeting was called to order a minute ago and we have one item on the agenda today which is to review a uh proposed annual budget development calendar uh to be brought to the school committee for approval this week so let's see I'm going to try to share oh okay well I can't share unless you enabled participants screen sharing I think Karen I'm trying but might be easier if I share for you but let me okay yes go
002ahead I just wanted to bring up I give you options if you can now okay still not working for me so maybe you should just share so um as everyone will recall um the committee has talked about creating an annual budget development calendar the purpose for which is to help people better understand the different moving parts that uh work together over the course of a year uh to that lead to the development of our school budget um in terms of actions that are taken by the school committee School administration things that happen at the state level and uh if we wanted to get really complicated we could bring in the the federal but we won't do that um so I hope everyone's had a chance to um take a look at the calendar that's in
003the materials um as you can see there is a front page which um features some well curated pictures that I asked for from Karen of our students um which I had uh seen in use um in other other school committees and I thought it was a great idea because um our students are what this process is all about out and I I wanted to center it on them so that is the inspiration for the cover page and then the second page contains um the actual calendar itself um as you can see it is colorcoded um so that there are um there's a clear delineation between things that are happening at the city level and things that are hening within the school committee um actions that are taken by the school administration and a little bit
004about um how the state budget development process plays a role uh obviously we cannot include every single action that is taken by every one of those entities um in the course of budget development because that would just be way too long um this is just filed down to the things that are the most important for people to know and understand um about about the development of the school budget so um that is the second page and I just highlighted on the little calendar Pages at the top um our regular school committee meetings as well as some of the important um dates that are spelled out in the calendar below at the other levels um and then finally the third page is like uh frequently asked questions um uh based on um things that have come
005across the school committee's radar uh in terms of what people um often ask or wonder or don't uh understand about uh how they can have input into the budget development process and I tried to include links for people so that they can understand um at every level um at our level at the school committee as well as um at the city level and the state level how they can have a voice um in in the budget development process so that's my my Snapshot just nutshell of um of this document and I wanted to know what people think so I will open that for discussion Elizabeth you have your hand up Kate it's just beautiful it's just wonderful thank you so much for doing all of this work and thank you Karen for getting all of
006the things together and this is exactly what we need and I really like what you wrote in the FAQ um and how you said how we want to hear from everyone but linked the policies for people to be mindful about that's really wonderful um can I I'm just wondering how I can be helpful as the secretary uh can I I can input all of this into our calendar just so the people yeah I think if it's approved tomorrow yeah um it makes sense to do that yeah obviously based on approval but I just want to make sure what um like what my workload will be so I'll I'll input all of these dates and I'm I'm just assuming with my own knowledge of jargon that W and M means Ways and Means and BNF is
007budget and finance and just making sure that I've got the correct try to spell those out in the first instance that they occur in the calendar and then you the acronym there after but if I missed one or if you see an issue with like word choice or anything like that um please chime in anyone what is CIP Capital Improvement program okay right okay and then cic Capital Improvement committee correct okay got it thank you so much I know we hate acronyms and try not to use them too much on school committee but we can put them in page is a really small area some of those things so it was necessary for some um Ann I think the only uh one we miss is the first B andf but the rest uh I was
008able to see right away the uh parenthetical okay but yeah um I what Elizabeth said this is wonderful and I can't wait for this to be easily accessible to the community okay um so that um that would kind of lead us into next steps about um engaging the community and and making the calendar and its process as accessible as possible to people um which we'll save for another meeting um Karen I wanted to know I mean I know you've already looked at it um but I just wanted to be sure um that the pieces there that relate to the school administration sound accurate to you and um also when we were talking about this um over the course of the past few months um we did talk about the need to um help people understand
009the most important things that Administration is doing in this process um without pigeon ho holding you um into anything so I just wanted to make sure that this strikes the right balance and is accurate thanks Kate no I I agree it's it's wonderful it's a great timeline I think some of the uh Department meetings that we're going to have internally with regards to redistricting and realigning Fifth and eighth grade uh might happen in the calendar a bit early internally um so that we know where we stand but um obviously those are things I will continually um include the budget and finance subcommittee so that everyone's on the same page just so right forward that that transition in 2025 is smooth but that we're budget sound as well well okay um and I would also just
010say that this is um it's a document that is amendable changeable you know as things come up um if something needs to be adjusted then that's possible this is not like a stone tablet it's just a little PDF so um you know we can always adjust as we go along um but hopefully this is a good um just basic framework to start with for people okay um further discussion or um comments suggestions other that than that first B and F mention okay so um with that I just want to take a quick um vote on a motion I will move that uh we bring this uh proposed budget development calendar to the full school committee for approval at tomorrow's meeting and it is on the agent I enthusiastically second that motion okay and uh we'll
011just take a roll call um I will be a yes member child's yes member genive yes okay so that carries and we'll bring that forward tomorrow um at to the full school committee and uh if if it's approved lovely if it's not and it gets kicked back to us well then we'll have to um come back to the drawing board but um I did want to go ahead and schedule if possible a subsequent budget and finance um meeting since we're all here um that way we will have one on the calendar for a couple of things one if we do need to come back and adjust anything for feedback from the whole committee and to um going into what you said uh earlier and about um making this accessible to the community engaging the community
012um the next couple of things that would come up on this budget development calendar are to um discuss how exactly uh the committee would like to implement our own policy about um engaging the public and um Gathering public input and feedback in the budget development process which is policy dbd um it's referenced there in the calendar uh we already have a number of different ways which are elusive dated in that page three on this calendar for people to um to participate in this process but I do think it Bears some discussion about whether um the committee would like to do more um and when so um I would like to schedule a meeting um at least about those couple of things and uh I think we will also tap Le um the subject of just
013a review of our um end of year accounting for FY 24 um based on some questions that have been brought to me so those three things I would like to talk about in an upcoming meeting and um Karen and Andy I don't know if you are you in a spot where you could schedule a meeting right now or do you want to come back to that by email I could do it right now I think would be um amenable to that as well um how far out are you looking Kate not too far um I let's see if we were to look at the week after next would that be reasonable that would be the week of the 23rd we do have a handbook subcommittee meeting that we prescheduled for the 23rd of September I
014believe true that so and you and I will be at that so thing but I'm free the rest of that week other than that Monday and you are on the bus in the afternoon still is that correct yeah Tech is kind of late so I don't get done and finished until I can't do anything until 5:30 or six okay can you do anything before the bus yeah I have time like this I'm pretty free during the day I'm just homeworking so I can move things around I just have to be completely hard stop at 130 every day okay um so an um what about you do you have availability at this um kind of midday time like noon Yep this uh lunches time is an easy meeting time for me and the week we're looking
015at the Friday I'm not available but the rest of the week I have flexibility okay so Karen and Andy do you have any availability like Tuesday Wednesday Thursday that week during that sort of Lunch Period I can't hear you Karen you're muted oh thought I clicked it sorry uh Tuesday the 24th is my only availability we have the district walkthroughs the rest of the week with teaching lab and ssos so but Andy and I are both available at noon on the 24th if that works for everyone else all right let's set that then 12 o'clock noon on Tuesday the 24th will be our next meeting all right uh with that I will there is nothing else on the agenda and I will take a motion to adjourn so moved I'll second that one all in
016favor I I uh and we are adjourned at 1248 p.m. thank you everyone thank you thank you have a great rest of the day buddy tomorrow see you tomorrow bye [Music]