Special SC budget meeting

001[Music] because we need to update munus which is our payroll in HR software but we can't really update munus because we're always running payroll and doing other human um human resource related duties and so we're creating issues where we can't update munice to provide us more ability to to more efficiently run the payroll and you can see the problem so at least at this point um that position was it has been added in so um I will go through the budget details um there are copies of the budget posting that was put up they're on the public comment table I apologize the numbers are a little bit small but they are there so um okay so the overall budget this year the fy2 I will review there we talk about the budget in two different

002ways one is an all funds budget that includes money that we ask for from the city as well as Grant funds and funds that are in our revolving accounts local appropriation is exactly what it sounds like those are funds that we request from the City to fund the educational program so you can see we're comparing last year's funded amount from all funds and also the local appropriation so there is a decrease in the all funds budget of 8.04% um this is primarily because we're losing a lot of our grant funding the eer 3 was a substantial uh funding source for us and that is not going to exist after September 30th and a de an increase I apologize of 5.29% over last year's local appropriation last year you probably remember we had a quite a

003significant budget request um that was due to settling multiple contracts and having multiple years of retroactive pay be impacted um at one point multiple Year's um increases being reflected in one budget that's not the case this year the only contractual increases are the one year's contractual increase instead of some cumulative hope that made sense so we talk about an all funds which includes local and grants and revolving or just the local appropriation for the most part our conversation tonight about the budget is the local appropriation that we're talking about okay so I can go through by cost center um for the most part and I will ask Mr pockette to interject as we go so these are reported by as you can see the cost center often they are school-based or um you can see

004department when I talk about having met with department or um building level administrators it basically breaks down into the cost centers how they're reflected so North parish is actually a our preschool building um we had some increase reflected primarily there our contractual increases reflected across all of our departments we also are using um we are not using revolving money in the funding of our preschool staff right now um in part that is because at preschool primarily we have a number of students that come into our program across the course of the school year most with unknown needs at that time and because we have an integrated preschool program what that means is we serve students who do not have special education needs as well as students with special education needs um most of the time

005in a public school setting the purpose of a preschool program is so that we can appropriately serve the needs of students with um disabilities so um they are able students are able to enter our preschool when they turn three if they have identified special education needs and we don't always know when we're building the budget which three-year-olds will be coming in and what their level of need is so at this point we are not recommending that we use the revolving because we you anticipate that that could be necessary as we go through the year and then we would need to use revolving for um student supports Federal Street I'm not going to cover buildings or departments that have very minor increases or decreases most of the time what you're looking at in some minor changes

006within a school are that we have contractual increases that get added into the salaries we have staff that move between buildings they may change they may work in one building when we are building the budget and then the following year when we're building the new budget they've changed to work in a different building so salaries fluctuate somewhat um and in some places we've added staff um primarily that occurs with instructional assistance to address student needs so generally a few percent one way or another is really reflected by by those types of changes okay the English language learner department is this is reflecting the increase um the addition of a teacher but we have had some staffing changes so again it goes back to um reflecting changes in particular staff salaries the increase of the budget

007okay Athletics increased 15,000 I know there were comments about different numbers um the budget request for athletics was 15,000 um supplies and materials for their um nursing again minor we have some minor increases administrative technology there is a fairly significant reduction um we have made some fairly significant changes to things that are not necessarily our Chromebooks for students but things like addressing copy or P es to be much more efficient um to decrease the purchasing costs for toner in our buildings and repairs to old copers um and we've also been very um strategic in looking at any type of online program that's been used and purchased either on the administrative side as well as the instructional side so that is generally why you're seeing a decrease in techn technology um I will also say that

008a good almost all of the technology updates that will be seeing in this upcoming year will be Grant funded there is a significant amount of the eer 3 available um to fund two things one our security project which is thankfully going to be finished up this year as well as technology updates so we expect there will be um you know funding that is spent on technology but not from the local um the increase in the assistant superintendent curriculum and instruction that is the department the curriculum and instruction Department um this generally reflects that we have moved expenses for our literacy and math materials primarily out of Grants into the local budget for next year we do still have things that are being purchased with grant money this year before it expires so um but that

009is primarily um the expense we also are looking to replace science textbooks um I'm sure Mrs Bennett's quite happy about that our science textbooks across the secondary level are um rather old and not really meeting our standards anymore um systemwide this is primarily reflection of some staff our director of Behavioral Services and our equity and Community connections coordinator that had been Grant funded have been moved into the local um those positions support our students um with social emotional and behavioral issues mental health issues um work to coordinate our in District social work and counseling staff with outside agencies um such as CSO CHD DCF to ensure that our students have the most positive School experience that they can and that we are providing the resources they need during school um and our equity and communication

010equity and Community connections coordinator um one of his primary responsibilities is to work with families who are struggling with School attendance so both extreme extremely critical um supports for our students and staff special education minor again minor some minor changes Transportation a significant increase this is primarily due to the new contract that was signed school committee voted on that I think the last meeting um we had one bidder so they are provider um and Mr pette had shared at that time that the increase that we saw in that contract is fairly consistent um right Andy okay so it was a pretty consistent um Personnel oh we have to fund um some contractual requirements so um for whatever reason that was not reflected in in the line last year so we have reflected it um which

011is why there's that significant increase and then school committee that is the position that that um was brought in for the HR and school committee support and then business administration um you folks um voted to approve a job description for an assistant business manager this reflects a pay adjustment as well as some other contractual um increases in the business department so overall that reflects uh 5.29% local appropriation um request I do have um you all have a very large copy of the budget request in front of you um I'd like to go through a few more slides to make some um to share some data and then I would like to go through the budget point out some um different places where there are resources included um and I believe that through that conversation I

012may actually um be addressing some of the concerns that were shared um so if that's all right with the committee okay oh I forgot one of the most important parts Grants grants and revolving so we still the this is the amount of money that we are assuming will be available to use as a revenue to offset the expenses in the fy2 budget budget so we are planning to use 297,000 of the eer 3 you can see $683,000 from Title One um Title One funding is funding that is provided to districts for literacy and math support primarily we have interventionists that we pay their salaries we also have some instructional materials and online resources that are paid for title four is for um Andy help me I'm sorry yeah is that Google it we're gonna use

013our we're gonna phone a friend and we're gonna google title 4 because it is late and I've I've forgotten um so tag that's our grant that we get because the district um has been identified needing Improvement for academics so we get funding um from the State Technology healthy safe schools safe and healthy students well-rounded educational opportunities there we go um thank you so tag is used um to support instructional materials we also pay for stiens for our instructional leadership teams instructional leadership teams are teacher made teacher madeup teams that work with the administration and work with their colleagues to help look at data identify areas of need Drive instructional change advise their principles on changes instructionally that are needed they provide professional development at times to their colleagues so they really are a critical element

014in the work of improving our student learning idea 240 and 262 are both special education grants they can only be used for special education and IDE a 262 actually can only be used for preschool for special education school choice I think that's fairly self-explanatory we are assuming that we will use 300,000 of our school choice and then circuit breaker um in case you don't are not familiar with that circuit breaker is a reimbursement structure in Massachusetts where districts are reimbursed for high cost special education um programs so there is what's called a foundation that's a a particular amount of money that's utilized assuming that that's what's spent per student we are able to request a portion of reimbursement for anything that is four times the foundation number so I'm using this as an example these

015are not actual numbers if Foundation is 10,000 we have to get to $40,000 of expense and then we can request reimbursement of a percentage of what we've spent over that so if the total program is 50,000 we can request right now is it 75 75% of the other 10,000 so I know that's a complicated um It's Complicated system but it is not reimbursing the district for all of what we spend and um not as many you know as much as um some of our resources do cost in terms of instructional materials and Equipment um and the number of staff that we thankfully do have that support our special education programs and students um it is a fairly High bar to reach before you are able to request reimbursement so we are looking to use 1.2

016million of that in um the fy2 budget so three just over 3.6 million in um non City funds are built into the budget to offset expenses okay good okay I know this is very exciting stuff so I want to share some of the positive because um the school budget represents a significant portion of the city budget and I thought it was fair that we share some of the good things that are coming from the use of those funds one is attendance now attendance is still something that we need to work on but it is also something the entire Commonwealth is working on and as a matter of fact in October the commissioner made a point to say that he will be shining a light and issuing a call to action on chronic absenteeism and last

017year we actually surpassed our goal from the Department of Ed in terms of improving student attend and we all know that if our students are not in school to be in front of our teachers we are not going to be able to help them learn to read or write or make friends or do any of the other benefits that they Garner from being in school with us so I will share in FY 23 uh oh I have to go back I got it we are not going to be um we're going to be gentle with technology for the rest of the night so um FY 23 is last school year last school year our chronic absentee rate just from August through January was 37.9% this year in the same time frame 30% so um and

018chronic absenteeism is the definition of that is missing 10% of the school year or more um again very striking numbers um but not out of the norm across the Commonwealth unfortunately um as a matter of fact in the meeting where the commissioner made the comment about shining a light um he also shared that one in four students across the Commonwealth has been um identified as chronically absent since we came back from the pandemic so that is a very striking for for the Educators anyway it is an extremely striking statistic um so attendance rate that means positively how many what percentage of our students are in front of us last year through January 89.4 this year 91 so we are working with families and having more of our students in front of our teachers one of

019the things that is most striking was most striking for the administrators is last year last December 2022 on average half of our students um were out this year it improved to 36.8 again we're not happy with the current numbers but we are celebrating the Improvement because that many more students are here with us to learn so resources going toward attendance are making a difference nwaa that is our um formative assessment meaning we do it several times a year so that we can monitor student performance it is math and English language arts hopefully okay so I'm comparing last year fall to winter because those are the statistics we have available to us this year so we're comparing the like time frame last year to this year so last year the RIT score that is basically just

020a it's a performance measure it's consistent so a RIT score is similar to using inches to measure someone they're consistent and um an increase is an increase a decrease is a decrease um so RIT scores last year from fall to winter increased um this year our scores I apologize math last year the RIT score went from 196.7 in Fall to 2011 in the winter so an increase but this year same time period they went from 1955. 7 to we also went what we believe is the more important statistic to monitor is the percentage of students who are meeting their growth goals growth goals are set for each student it's not a static amount for for all students it's individual based on performance last year the number of students meeting their growth goal in math 31.7

021this year in that same time period 60% we look at English Lang anguage Arts last year um we had a RIT score increase fall to winter of 3.4 points this year same time period it was 6.1 points so again a nice increase and the percentage of students who were meeting their growth goals in English language arts last year 35.4 percentage of students meeting growth goal this year in the same time frame 56 .8 again we want all of our students to be meeting their growth goals that is that is our goal for the students however we are extremely pleased with the amount of growth that has occurred in one Academic Year and we may have used the ssos um acronym previously which I will Define Statewide system of support those are folks from uh the

022department of Ed that work with the district to help us in our improvement work and a quote from them when we reviewed our midyear data recently was that these reflect a pretty remarkable change it was more exciting in person than to hear it from me being said but you know they are acknowledging that um these are nice jumps in performance also and NWA some of our special populations these are um groups of students that require a specific Focus for us because they have been some of our most challenged groups of students so our English Learners I'm just going to share the percent of students meeting their growth in math last year 23.8 to this year 72 in the same time frame thank you for the wow we agree we feel like that for our students

023that is a huge huge um impact for them um again our English Learners in English language arts last year percentage of students meeting their growth goal 36.4 this year same time period 62.3 again huge jump our students with disabilities in math last year 30.7% meeting their growth goal this year 59.5 English language arts last year 36.8 this year 49.6 again not where we want them to be please don't make the mistake that we're done that is not where we are at all but so pleased to see that the efforts that we're making We Believe are having this impact on our students learning Karen has talked a lot this year about our work with HQ high quality instructional materials that is um funded by a grant FC 185 and the Consultants who work with us through

024that Grant are the teaching lab so we also had a midyear review of data with them they call it a stepb I don't know why but um and this is the a summary of some of the data from Fall so this September to um winter of 24 so they came and visited again um in February and they use a specific tool that looks at our student learning not our student not our teachers teaching our students learning so core action one this represents a significant increase in our students accessing high quality instructional material ials following the content and core two is them asking questions higher oh I can read it if I put my glasses on if I put my glasses on core action two is regarding um the questions and tasks in the text and

025they are attending to features of the text so them understanding the text that they are access ing they dramatic increase and they also are answering questions and engaging with tasks that are related to grade level vocabulary and understanding the impact of that and that students are using evidence from the TX to support their ideas so these have shown significant increases in the numbers of students percentage of students accessing those types of behaviors when they were observed in their classrooms um also the teacher directed instruction increased from 61% to 92 in The observed classes that doesn't mean before teachers were not teaching they were it is a specific reference to following um the the work in the curriculum materials and students accessing the specific materials that are provided through in the English language artarts case it's

026CK which is our Ela program which you've probably heard before okay I hope at this point um so um we also have uh 100% of the classes that teaching lab was in the students were accessing the content that was aligned with the high quality instructional materials so 100% of the students that were in those classes are getting um they're getting instruction out of materials that have been vetted by large numbers of Professionals in the field and support learning on grade level content the other piece that's extremely exciting is when the folks who were visiting looked at work samples from our students 100% were doing work on grade level uh the the material was on grade level and 72% of those were the students were able to demonstrate full comprehension of the standard that again is

027we think it was a huge bonus and shows all of the incredible work being done by our staff and again teaching lab um said in their summary that we were hitting the use of hqm out of the park and that is our teachers in the classrooms using this and engaging in the professional development okay the other thing that happened in the last couple of months is desie visited two of our buildings and the center for district and school partnership is the arm of desie that came and they observed in Federal Street and Newton and they showed areas of strength positive climate the absence of negative climate which um I had a moment when I looked at that report um but it's the absence of negative climate positive behavior management and productivity meaning the amount of

028time in the classrooms that are being used for active instruction all areas of significant strength the areas that we still need to work on are exactly what we're working on in professional development so different instructional learning formats meeting the needs of students who have different learning styles and needs um providing feedback that doesn't mean teachers aren't talking to our kids they are it means providing feedback in a way that um enhances their learning of the content so but these are the exact topics that we are working on um so this is again positive that completely objective people who don't know what we're working on came into the district and their um observations in two of our schools reflect exactly what we believe are the things that we're doing well and the areas that we still

029need to show growth okay so in the budget because we've talked about I have talked about all these positive impacts for students and I also want to highlight where we are including um funding that I believe will continue to support our students um academic growth and engagement and well-being and I also believe will answer some of the some questions um in the budget for fy2 we have maintained funding for all 12 counselors at one point um several of them were grant-funded they are all in the budget this is guidance counselors and social workers for a district our size to be able to support this level of social emotional um resources is incredible but I will tell you that we utilize every moment plus some of all of their time um we have budgeted 428,000 and

030some change for physical education that is um maintaining the staff that we have had just a reminder physical education and health are required for our students so we need to make sure that they have access to um those courses across all of their grades and um health is a graduation requirement we have budgeted 303,000 and change for our music staff that does include the 25,000 that is still in the budget for strings for kids for next year this reflects the increase of a music teacher for next year we have budgeted 362 2,000 and change for our art staff that's consistent what it has been um we have $388,000 in the budget for stiens for extracurricular activities the stiens are dictated in our teachers contract um and the list of clubs or stipended um positions that

031are available are also in there um teachers do have the ability to propose new clubs there's um as matter fact we have to provide funding for up to two new clubs every year and our staff does um take advantage of that and they offer additional after school activities for our students we are still grant funding instructional leadership teams which I already talked about all of the requested academic resources are included in the budget that does include $14,000 that was requested for the music department so all of what was requested was budgeted um we have budgeted for all the field trip funding at all schools so any teacher who's doing a field trip um is able to submit that request and will get funded I have not um have not denied funding for any field trip

032that has been requested um we are providing library books districtwide with to focus on Equity inclusion um Karen has talked about our work with the libraries across primarily the elementary schools that have all been revamped we've weeded replaced many many books um across especially the elementaries but we are still building rebuilding the libraries at um the middle school and high school and then what we don't generally talk about but I think is very important is that the district does offer free before school care at all elementary schools and that is built into the salaries um of folks who who do run they do run that so um that is continuing to be provided for the district so um you know we have we have a lot of wonderful things that are in place um we

033have professional development and structures in place to support our staff in meeting student needs s we're increasing resources for students through Staffing and specialized programs or elective course offerings our current structures um are being shared and you folks don't necessarily see our structures but the work of our professional development cycle the instructional leadership teams our learning walks that Karen has talked about um is actually a model system you know it's not making change as fast as as we'd like with the um academic performance of our students but they are moving and we feel strongly that we need to retain the structures that we have in place and we have data to support that what we're doing is having a positive impact academic performance and attendance so um we'd like to keep the systems moving so

034I don't know if anyone has questions about this part or you just like to move into looking at um the very large budget the mayor has a question hi ah first that's very impressive with the improvements I'm very I'm I'm that's terrific thank you um I so I have my questions I think maybe more for Andy but the um so the title one uh you plan for six 63 this year could you tell me what you've spent Title One the last couple of years do you have would that be on your computer if not that's okay we can tell me later because I have a a few questions just even a maybe even last year I do have no it's no I've I've got the report up I'm just it's the columns are too small

035that it's now they're showing up as the number signs here title one here we go it's n fy22 we spent 50,58502 three $46,800 I'm GNA have to that's uh the balance as of now I would have to run a report I would have to get back to you on that okay any any idea what it might be like is it a million oh no not no we only get 600,000 okay all right how about may I may I can it's just on the revolving may I I have a couple um and the Ida it was the first one I didn't get the numbers the 240 2 yeah I had 240 the one it was a larger one what we spent what we were allocating this is what I wanted to know what we were allocating

036this year and maybe even just the last year I don't mean to make too much trouble cuz I didn't know was was going to ask this but what it was this year and last year and what's in that these are revolving right that idea is a grand so which he's turning microphone on at the beginning of that slide it had revolving so I just wanted to know the ones that are actually revolving what the balances are that are in them do do you know what I'm saying because so that slide that was in my presentation included um included grants as well so Title One um title four Ida both of them um those are grants so any revolving it's which were the revolving so circuit breaker circuit breaker and school choice okay so can I

037may I ask about those two yes cheer okay yes you have the floor okay so circuit breaker circuit breaker this year and last year and the balance in the revolving if that's possible and for the next one whatever they whatever those two were that our superintendent just said last year we spent $655,000 circuit breaker and for school choice we spent $125,700 that we spent that's by the circuit breaker tat okay choice we were able to spend less because of the influx of the eer grants that we had to therefore that was a whole idea was still right so and what's the balance in the school choice balance as of right now remaining balance is 410,000 was 300 in in next year's budget okay so you plan 300 in this 410 correct and the other one

038because I don't know all the rules on this I'm sure I'm not alone with that maybe I am but um the circuit breaker we I actually remember this from watching other meetings you have to spend the amount the prior year amount that receed correct okay any other revolving with any wiggle room well I mean as far as wiggle room it would be what I like to call the legitimate shell game in the sense that we could theoretically like the superintendent mentioned ahead of time about the preschool revolving account that we could use use for any new students coming in that would need some severe special needs we could theoretically use that for the preschool program and then reduce what it is in the local budget but that's the whole the concept of the all funds

039is like quite honestly it's the all funds number is what it takes to run our run our district you know and it's funded by the local the grants and a revolving account so hope I answered your question you did and then there's the um I mean we've got some other ones there's the athletic revolving account which that one goes towards athletic so and then building use go that's kind of our you know for the nominal amounts that we get we use that to offset the cost for any custodial coverage for any outside organizations that use the facilities any one of them have a balance of over a 100,000 oh God no okay thank you if only okay we're on questions on the superintendent's presentation so far any other questions member PRI thank you I want

040to ask about grants um I watched last week's city council meeting and one of the councilors was uh implying in their uh remarks that we don't need an ass assistant superintendent we need a coordinator of curriculum and a grant writer and I'm wondering if you could talk about I I don't expect you to have a number of how much we have in terms of grant funding but I would love to have that maybe for next week's school committee meeting what we what we received in grant funding um in FY 24 um but can you talk about who writes the grants that we do receive because we do get a bunch of them and how that how that works sure so um I'll take credit for my one that I wrote was the grant for the

041um energy recovery units on the Middle School roof but outside of that um Dave messing our director of pupil Services writes the two special education grants and then Karen writes all the others so all of the title grants title one two three uh no I apologize Dave messing writes title three so 124 she wrote the um grants that we received for the high quality instructional materials which has been hundreds of thousands of dollars she wrote the um Reinventing history reimagining history which is providing for professional development based on the new standards um I'm trying to think of of any other Grant she's written but it's you know over a million dollars and I think you know Karen is the director of teaching and learning um and the grant writer so that sort of encompassed I

042think in that discussion it's sort of a title great thank you if I may for example just I just have the fy22 end of the year financial report which is a required report that we submit to the state backing out I'm just rounding out the special education grants um if you want to say the grants that assistant superintendent patow wrote total just about million and I believe that was prior to the hqm grants that is also true thank you both member of child thank you I'm going to uh ask two questions that I anticipate being the questions people ask me so I'm going to let you answer them so the first is you said the 14,000 requested by the music department is in the budget um would that be as part of the music where

043where in the budget you said the 303 music staff you said or would that be in the 388,000 extracurricular where would people be looking to find that in the budget the materials that were requested would be in high school supplies and materials um salaries are in salary lines um transportation would be built into the field trip line at the high school um so it's not we do not have a music line out in in the budget it's that's not um one of the broken out budget lines um but the they're interspersed into the different lines um reflective of the category of the request okay and the second question just because I know people will be asking me this of the elementary schools Four Corners received a 10% increase when they had the largest budget to

044start and I know people are going to ask me about it and I'm pretty sure I know where the differences are but there's anything that you have to say about that four corners increase so one of the elements and it would have you know you're um sort of preempting the line the the department discussion which is fine um one of the largest lines that was an increase was in the social worker we had a change in staff and on our teacher salary schedule depending on your degree and the number of years worked salary fluctuates and so the person who left was making making less than the person who came in so that reflects actual um salary the other piece at for Corners is um integrated arts I know that was um a question so the

045new music the new position for instrumental music was added into the Four Corners line the other the integrated arts teachers at the elementary as was referenced go to all three elementary schools so it doesn't really matter in terms of Form and Function where their money lies so prior to this just for the sake of insuring because when we build the budget we literally go through the entire staff list and make sure everybody's in the budget so to ensure that we had all people present and accounted for um they were primarily listed in two buildings so the library media specialist um correct me Andy that had been Grant funded believe was added to Four Corners and the new instrumental music teacher was added there but both positions will serve all three elementary schools um and generally

046I I think most people familiar with our schools realize Four Corners has our highest need Elementary level special education program where every student in the program has adult with them so if we had 12 students in that program the classroom actually has 13 adults so that given that Personnel is our highest category of spending um that reflects in the four corners cost center um so that those are primarily drivers for the increase thank you very much did that answer yep that was exactly what I was looking for okay good other questions about the superintendent's presentation so far knowing we'll be going through the line item review well not every not line item but but detailed budget review let's say it that way it was more for relief of everybody to not think we're gonna hit

047every line Sorry I know the big the big copy's loud a little bit on the microphone but much easier for everybody to see so um and it was either too big or too small so we went with too big okay good just checking okay and um folks also it's listed on our agenda that we would take a break at 8 o'clock but that I think assumed is 6: PM start time since we started a half hour late tonight I'm going to assume our break can happen at 8:30 if we need one okay go ahead okay so going through the cost centers I apologize I have notes just to make sure um I don't forget anything so I think we've North Parish NP is North Parish that's a um I'm only going to talk about the

048significant line changes not anything like I mentioned previously that had a a minor increase decrease um North Parish the increase in teaching staff costs it's you know 79% increase that actually generally reflects that we are not using revolving funds that that's and again any staff line just so I don't keep repeating it every staff line reflects the contractual increases so um so that increase generally reflects that we are not using revolving at this time um social worker we had a split position um the preschool has had a split social worker position we did not take it away we just moved the funding to one line for accountability you know in terms of making sure we had our people accounted for there we do not expect a change in social worker coverage at the preschool um

049119% again um the PA professional increase of 119% is again the revolving funds um situation Andy you're going to yell if I say something incorrect right absolutely okay and then instructional supplies does reflect a 50% decrease but after um Merill who was the director at the time solicited Supply requests from the staff looked at the um clerical supplies that were needed and ones that we still needed she put forward a budget that reflected a decrease increase in the supply budget so um and the field trip just so you see that is reinstated exact amount that had been in Prior um and had been Grant funded so any questions for a mayor yes um two questions one is um the CH the number of students last year and this year if you happen to know it

050if you don't that's okay we can find that okay you don't okay and um that revolving um what's in that [Music] revolving if Andy has that and if not we can get it another time do give me a minute please I don't know if it helps answer the question mayor but we have um six integrated classrooms um we in order to make sure that we're hitting ratios um outlined in regulation we always um assume that we will have seven students with I mean eight students without disabilities we have seven seats available for students with disabilties all those are not filled at the beginning of every year because as I said students come in when they turn three so we need to make sure we can account we also have a um spe highly specialized program

051for students who need to be in a special ed program most of the day and that has a smaller enrollment um so that's you know approximately we have six classrooms with 15 students all or most of the day we we current sorry we currently have $2,249 in the pre revolving started the year with 57 728 any other questions on North Parish hearing oh yes please this is just a real quick one and will probably apply to the other ones as well so I'll just ask it now you had mentioned that the um the social worker line just went somewhere else for accountability where did it go Newton okay I will try to remember if we're moving people like that um but thank you for asking okay if I may also the a enrollment for the

05223 24 on the was reported that desie is 90 students last year last year give me yes no was that last year 232 October one so that was our October one the the year prior was 82 for AEL keeping in mind as of October 1st we would still have vacant spots available for students that yes I think it's just the kids in the seats it was just on October one kids seats yes okay so the next building page two is Federal Street um social worker you see a little bit of an increase there that again is actual cost um looking 100% we did not eliminate all of our uh kindergarten par Educators in terms of State reporting and I should let Andy explain this but I'll take a stab at it but in terms of

053State reporting our budget has way many more lines than is necessary at some point in time lines were added for additional detail that aren't required with State reporting so we've been making an effort over the past three years to sort of consolidate funds into different lines we've if you've been on the committee you've heard that before um so par professionals kindergarten is no difference in terms of budgeting a reporting than par professionals so right correct okay um and then um Andy you're going to have to remind me oh in um last year under the um building monitor there's a a fairly significant change it's because we had a position in that line that didn't actually go in that line so we've moved it so we didn't lose people they just their money moved um and

054Andy I apologize can you remind me why we have a 58% increase in the special ed pair professional maybe you can't okay while you're looking the other piece I want to highlight is in the integrated arts it's a 20% change that's just reflective of the actual salaries of our staff over previous that's also the not using revolving account funds thank you okay we use Choice some choice and there was a to sped tuition revolving I don't know if there's any questions about Federal Street again most of the lines are minor change so see n oh there did we the the the teaching staff that was down 17.45% did are there less teachers there or less children that was that the reduction from the so last year when we did the budget um we budgeted for

055number of teaching positions but later identified that we were able to reduce one but it wasn't reflected at that time so it's reflected we anticipated needing an additional position that so when we built the budget and since we're comparing from the original approved budget it was no longer needed so therefore that's a reduction and then the other reduction changes are to Andy would you please uh turn on your microphone uh new positions that were less expensive than others and the student population there was about the same from one year to the other yeah we can go so Andy's pulling up the October 1st report that's the date that's the moment in time when all districts have to report to the Department of Education what the enrollment is at that time so that's that's the number

056that we we go by when we talk about enrollment correct so yes in 23 it was 193 24 okay good yeah I think so yes okay for corners I think we've hit the highlights um due to the questions previously I'm just going to scan quickly um some of the changes like special ed teaching staff um like I said the social worker that's just reflective of changes in personnel and salaries um building monitor again change in personnel and then instructional supplies and office supplies again when um Mr Browning solic IED from teachers looked at what they had what they needed he gave us a supply request that was less than last year and again I I want to highlight the literacy materials the math materials um those do not come out of the building based budgets

057that you'll see reflected in the curriculum and instruction department just so no one thinks that um we're not going to be purchasing math or literacy or other um required content mat materials questions on the Four Corners page seeing none okay Newton again so here's the social worker we have an increase significant increase on that line that's just where the entire salary for one person was reflected instead of split across two buildings um again for um the reduction in the par professional line at Newton we did have a position that was not required that is not in the budget and then we did move went to move some people from one line to another just reflective of creating more accuracy so um that is a reduction of one staff person again not necessarily current but from

058the original approved budget last year um yeah that not too much else for significant change at Newton unless there's questions questions on Newton mayor okay I I'm sorry I have two questions I'm Gonna Keep at this one just so Andy I just want to keep keep you ahead I just want to know the numbers from one year to the next in four corners and the Newton school but I'm going to ask that for each one just so you'll be prepared ahead of time and to go back one if I may the the substitute teachers that was a $67,000 can you tell me what page um this is on page three the subs at the substitute of regular teachers do those subs go to all uh that was 67,000 and are we do we have a

059do we have a bigger subpool it it looks like last year was about 21,000 I just wanted we have a long-term sub there for the year so it's categorized there thank you okay and then you can tell me later the numbers I don't want to keep interrupting this is what this is for so please keep asking are you all set so I see at Four Corners this year we have 210 and Newton is 183 and we're going to keep going 301 so at your leisure you can tell me what we had last year in all four of the schools left to go four corners new um Newton Middle School and high school I just you know the changes and we can do that later because I want the superintend it might be easier if I

060may if everyone's got stuff to write on I'm going to I'm because the way the desie website works I'm going to just list this is the 2223 so the October 122 numbers which is based for last year got it so Four Corners was 214 Federal Street was 193 mhm Greenfield High 454 Greenfield Middle 300 Newton School 203 okay and AEL was 82 now fast forward to this year Four Corners is 210 Federal Street is 182 Greenfield High is 448 Greenfield Middle is 301 Newton School is 83 AEL is 90 thank you what other questions are there see n okay oh newon c up okay on to page five all right Middle School we are getting into more lines so again I just want to make sure all committee members are clear and people at home

061if you happen to be looking at the budget in terms of Math and Science Academy um grade level staff that doesn't really matter in terms of us accounting for teachers so please don't worry and think that if we don't have any staff listed under grade five that we're getting rid of fifth grade we're we are not despite the desires of the fifth grade students they still have to come so um I just want to make that point so for the line You'll see Greenfield Middle School guidance and school counselor 183% increase but if you look at the line below it which is social worker that is zeroed out so they've just been combined sorry my I got very loud there um the athletic coaching staff was moved from the middle school and just added to

062the high school totals so you'll see um generally the athletic supplies and um expenses have been moved into the high school okay uh building monitor that is a decrease because last year um Mrs fenamore utilized two and then that was changed and um this year there was only one building monitor in place and then again you'll see for the most part the athletic supplies have all been moved to the high school line and that's it for the most part the Middle School lines are generally reflective of um specific staff people leaving or being hired and contractual increases questions on page five the Middle School seeing none on to page six we're moving High School hello more lines okay um okay extracurricular activities increased um again that's putting some of the money that was Grant funded

063in last year and just reflective of any stiens or or costs associated with extracurricular activities um oh where did I go instructional electives we did not cut half of our staff this is reflective of money being moved into different lines um rather than the reduction of any positions the two people who were budgeted their positions continue to be funded and filled it's just again putting them in the correct places um you'll see the reduction of social worker at the high school we did not eliminate a social worker the money was just moved looking that increase in grade eight teaching staff is generally where the elective money went to due to staff people moving different positions within the high school okay High School integrated arts again we didn't lose anything from last year to this year

064it's people moving into different positions and if I may just when and it's no you're absolutely 100% right but I just want to give you an idea and it's this is more of a sneak preview of the workshop that I would like to do that we've talked about but for reporting purposes to this state for Department of elen Secretary of Education the there are three categories of or say the type of instruction that they look for when it comes to reporting regular education special education and chapter 74 which is vocational education so when you look at the lines I'm just going to use this the high school as an example the line 104 the ghs teaching staff line 106 ghs instructional electives line 112 ghs teaching staff grade 8 line 113 High School integrated arts

065all those are technically regular education and in addition elll English language Learners is considered regular education so this is where it's when whatever Personnel were originally assigned or the position was assigned to a line you know in our efforts to try and consolidate that because it quite honestly can be very untenable when it comes to trying to discuss with you all of you and that's not a criticism it's I mean I sometimes find myself getting lost as to where it is people are when you have so many but it's like quite honestly there are three those are the three areas regular Ed special education and Vocational so there's nothing saying that we wouldn't and we would have and that's the when we as Dr depar alluded to earlier about our use of the munus accounting

066system and the HR components of it we'll still be able to tell you who's an elective teacher who's teaching music who's teaching PE etc etc stuff but for the reporting purposes that's all regular education so I just wanted this is a highlight lighting of what it is you know so for trying to make it seem like we're not playing games or there's no Shenanigans going on here it's just that there's just an inor inordinate amount of accounts created that really when time comes for what is it that you know the education of the about here can kind sometimes skewer what it is that we're looking at so I think what I hear you saying is that over time we've accumulated a lot of lines to be able to look at a lot of detail but

067at a certain level of detail it starts to lose meaning because if a teacher moves to a different school or something like that then you're seeing fluctuations in a line item it doesn't really tell a story about what's happening with education in our schools you're hired so GL Martini correct me if I'm wrong what you're saying is that we will be looking at a confusing budget document like this until we are four years out from these changes in order to be able to compare to the previous FAL years like this if I if I can like when we have a teacher who um I can give a very specific example moves out of what was previously classified as an elective course into what we would consider a regular Ed teaching class you know teaching we

068don't necessarily um and then we have somebody else take their position in the electives we're not necessarily worried about putting the money back in electives as long as all the people and all the money are accounted for we're trying to put them into the correct categories instead of all the micro categories I understand what you're saying about that my question is it going to look like this for the next few years because we had these lines before and therefore for they have to be in there until they fall off the left hand side of the grid so I and I'd say it's going to be an exercise I'd say both prospective and retrospective where the retrospective side of things because I mean as I've this is my company's third time back in the district here

069and it's been something that I've always wanted to change where it would be worth the exercise to go back and for Budget presentation purposes to make those ioral CH changes because we know the lines that need to be in a sense Consolidated into one so that as we go forward and we do this as I've been talking with the assistant business manager it's you know I say it's an easy technical fix to go forward of what we're talking about doing and you know she agrees and everything so then it's like once we do the prospective part the retrospective part is actually going to be easy enough because I'm just going to you know quite honestly because all that information for when we do our budget development El is exported into Excel so that we can

070share with everybody and manipulate as needed it's going to be a worthwhile exercise to do it so fingers crossed that going for hardly agree that a worthwhile exercise I'm very pleased I will not have to do it however but I'll watch when you guys look at it that way no you won't I won't no I won't but I'm really happy for all of you that it'll get done my apologies for the degression I just wanted to kind of level set as that's what when we're talking about some of the things that you know she references when people are being moved oh okay so um again the so I'm getting back onto the high school I've moved down to where we're talking about building monitor um that really is we had people change positions and so

071we've accurately reflected the salaries of the people who current ly hold them because um sometimes during the course of a year we have a lot of movement within our staff either within a building or between buildings so [Music] um oh I was saying my goodness 75% increase the addition of the $45,000 that's Beacon that's our Alternative High School program that has since its Inception um been Grant funded and now we need to move it into the regular budget so that's where that is under um other services principle and we actually had um a decrease in athletic supplies okay so um one thing I will share since you know I know that the music conversation is um clearly a priority for many people as as it should be um I do want to say that there

072is a budget request that was submitted along with all the other requests at the high school it is integrated into this budget I've had the opportunity to have a conversation with our Music Teacher who shared um you know why requests have been made to the booster club which is certainly in an effort to support students and shared that um you know when he came into the schools um the torch was passed so to speak and that he was um told what the booster supported at that time and that has been maintained certainly I don't know what I was not here at the time of the change so um you know Derek has has worked to ensure that we got the request because we don't want to continue to ask the boosters to to fund things

073but um I want to make clear it's not because we don't support the music program it's in the past it was past practice that was being utilized um from the music department which is all you know Wonderful intentions and the music department was beautifully supported by the booster club and we want to absorb those things into the local budget not really any different than when I got here um in some of our schools Parent were being asked to supply all of our instructional materials like parents were given lists of things like please send crayons and pencils and Kleenex and I stopped that practice I believe that the district needs to budget for the necessary instructional supplies I somewhat laugh and say with the principles if if families prefer to send Puffs Plus tissues that is

074absolutely a welcome donation we'll buy School tissues which you know School tissues we all know what school tissues are we will provide tissues we will provide crayons and pencils if someone wants a particular pencil or crayon for their child or their child's class that's a different conversation um so I just want to share that we we do budget for supplies and materials they are in um and we will continue to do so um the current music staff is is you know we've added a position to the music department um the year that you know I appreciate that in the past we've had higher numbers in some places for our music department but when we look at the context of the district at the time um we had um elt at our middle school and in

075speaking with the principle she shared the very positive impact that elt had on the music program made it much much easier for the music teacher at that time to offer after school band to do full band practices to do events absolutely that you know students were a captive audience and they they had the ability in that context to do more um we do not have elt it was ended prior to me starting as superintendent so it creates some challenges and I appreciate that um so we're you know we recognize there are some challenges but I also you know we did add the instrumental music teacher back in we invested um a fair amount of money last year on new instruments for the elementary level so we'd love to have a teacher who can teach them

076you know teach our students how to use them um so just making reference to that because I know that was a concern and and a fair one but I expect that we'll see some some significant change in that piece going forward okay so high school um the field trip money was added back in um that was Grant funded last year so that was put back at the pre um well at the fy2 24 level I don't know if anybody has questions about the high school yes member Martini I think um you've spoken to this a couple of times but just for the sake of being super clear where in these lines is reflected the music teacher at ghs I will have to have Andy let me know if it's electives or General Ed staff um

077holding you know the name yeah I have to tell him the name you believe he doesn't know the exact name of every staff person we have we got to work on him the the other piece Kate when you're asking about the music teacher salary there are stiens for the music program that are separate from the salary they're they're embedded in um other lines where other s bins for extracurriculars are while Andy's looking uh when the budget request from any Department including the music department is incorporated into this where do the instructional supplies go so depending on the exact request it would either go into um mm it could be General supplies if they're asking for things that are pencil Post-it like um it could go into ghs elective supplies it could go into instructional supplies

078could go in for transportation field trips um so really it depends what thing it is that we're funding thank you Andy integrated ARS okay so that it's line 113 okay uh and I can only assume that if a field trip or field trips is included as part of that music budget it goes in the transportation field trips line generally is that that's where you would see that um is there in the past year how many music field trips have been requested for approval for a funding to the best of my recollection I've so field trip requests just to clarify for everybody field trip requests go from the requesting teacher to the principal to me to sign off um to the best of my recollection I've been asked to sign off on one and it was

079funded it was funded to the best of my recollection absolutely okay I'm asking because the correspondence that I've received seems to um consistently bring up three three things field trips uniforms and uh Instrument Repair so uh where would you see uniform maintenance or replacement um it could be in any any of the places that I said it could be instructional supplies it could be elective supplies um quite frankly if it's um you know a music repair shop because if we can't repair the it could be under uh District contracted Services okay uh and do you know off the top of your head if you have had requests to approve funding for Instrument Repair off the top did I just mix two topics instruments and uniforms I'm sorry bating that's all right it's getting late um

080I do not recall getting any requests last year we had requests for elementary um I don't recall but I don't again I don't have the in front of me but um I think that the um past practice of asking the booster to fund the bulk of the music expenses is what was part of that right okay um was there any part of the budget that was requested by the m music director that was denied in this all of the music all of as far as I'm aware all of all Supply and equipment requests that were forwarded um from departments to me were incorporated into the budget okay and I have a related question if uh there are stakeholders um such as parents who wish to have uh input with a department head into their proposed

081budget how can they do that well the um you mean with a principal or uh curriculum if someone has an idea about what they would like to see the music department put into their budget requests for the next fiscal year how would they go about doing that's the role of the school council that's what I was going to say I've answered a lot of budget questions you can answer that one so the school council's Authority is to advise the principal and ab buildings as to what it is they'd like to see within the school and that's the the venue where that should be occurring right and um Dr dear could you review uh when generally and how uh School councils meet and are open to people so generally I'm being rough with guidelines I know

082they're all different well and I'm just giving the generals um generally they're scheduled monthly some some buildings may be doing them in person some may be still doing them virtually um there's parent representation student representation um community members are often part of school councils but they are meetings that are open to the public right and the principal chairs and usually chairs with um a parent representative okay um and I know we have talked about school councils before and I'm not going to digress about this much because we're talking about the budget but uh in the past there have been some issues with um getting information um posted accurately And Timely so that people would be easily able to tell when their next school council meeting was and I know that was something that was um

083going to be improved worked on in the new school website so is that the case I'm not to um Dodge the question but I'm not responsible for posting the school council meetings that would be um PTO you know they work with the elementary principal to get things on school councel they work with the building administrators to get things added to the website so I guess if there's an issue with with any of that information I would suggest folks reach out to the building principal of the appropriate building to inquire as to the location of meeting postings okay thanks I'm done with that now thank you um member deneve and then mayor dorer thank you so much for such an easily digestible but this is a gargantuan undertaking and thank you so much it's so easy

084to read and comprehend I'm glad um so most of my questions you already answered like a magician very good but I did have one question and it was about the booster club because we've had lots of emails and people have come and spoken um have you or anybody done any um Outreach with the booster club or have they reached out in order to work on a plan to absorb some of these costs so that um we can handle them as a district so I'll be um so generally the booster as far as I'm aware would work with they certainly work with music teacher and then generally boosters are at high schools and they generally work with building administrators I don't know if there's been any communication um but honestly the scope of the budget request

085out of the music department is fairly easily absorbed okay so so every listening unless the music department unless the band all of a sudden wants to you know go to an international competition we might need to chat about that but the budget request that was submitted this year is easily absorbed into the budget even if there are budget cuts it's $14,000 in a $24 million budget I understand thank you I just wanted to make sure that people understood how that worked and Y so they can go forward and get that sure thank you mayor I think this would be for Andy it's just something I don't know if on every salary line item that you have salaries throughout every school for all different positions if and like health insurance is it's 8020 for City and

086town if if you found out that the cost of health insurance was going to double or triple would that change the salary numbers okay [Music] microphone it would not here because the health insurance is on the city Side Of The Ledger other questions about the high school okay before you move on I think it's time for a five minute break uh looking at the clock up there we'll resume at 9:04 p.m. okay we are resuming our budget hearing and we are on page seven okay so page seven represents multiple departments um the English Learners are at the first you can see there's a significant increase in line 40 which represents the additional position um just looking um increase in athletic transportation is primarily driven by the increase in the transportation [Music] contract looking to see

087any significant increases or decreases School Physician Services um there hasn't been an increase in her cost in a number of years so there was it looks like a huge chunk but it's not a big line to begin with so um that's about um the superintendent's office is pretty um pretty flat most of the um line items didn't see an increase and if I may just the regarding the salary the administrate superintendent salary at the time that we built this I had that as a placeholder while negotiations were going on so obviously that will be adjusted to reflect the correct salary but it was a placeholder at the time so I don't know if anybody has um any questions about any nursing English Learners or superintendent's office yes member ston I was just wondering if you

088could walk me through it's happening in lines 135 and 136 that's the English language learners but for um a and Federal Street why just where where those positions are reflected so um North parish is our preschool yeah they don't have um an English learner teacher um and then Federal's position if I'm not mistaken is split the yes it is a split position so the salar is just reflected solely in another buildings line any other questions on these categories all right page eight okay the IT department is at the top you'll see we have an increase in the data management staff line that reflects the requested um position that is being reinstated it was reduced last year so we're hoping to put that back into the budget um then um um contractual hardware and um contract

089phone and Hardware um John our director's done a lot of work in looking at our contracts for phone service um as well as photocopiers so you're going to see some reductions across a number of lines like those two 45 and 50% reductions um we've also as I said really looked at the online programs that we're using some of them fall under his budget line and some of them fall under the curriculum lines but we really look at usage and necessity and eliminate what's not being um highly utilized in the district and then um professional dues and subscriptions was a administrative decision I'm not sure what he just changed what had previously been budgeted under that line in his budget um and technology equipment again some of that is replacement we've been using grants to do

090um some tech upgrades so he's needing Less in local at this time you know I think it's fair to share with the committee that at some point as the grant funds are gone the replacement cycle for the Chromebooks is still going to be needed so you should expect to see some change in that to reflect a replacement cycle um it is much more wise to replace small percentage of Chromebooks annually than to try to do the full scale replacement that we're somewhat forced to do for two reasons we're going to have a fairly High number of Chromebooks go end of life meaning that they no longer take security updates um at one time and we have the grant funds available now so we're somewhat um out of necessity we have the money so we need

091to make the purchase now but that'll be spread out over the course of the upcoming years so the next department is the um assistant superintendence department so scrolling down you can basically see that um most the instructional supplies districtwide we've added um some local back but we're still using a fair chunk of Grants so the all funds for instructional supplies is 285,000 but only 79 of that is reflected in the local um again at some point there is going to come the need to move the purchase of all of our English language arts and math materials into the local budget um Tech instructional supplies this is primarily the um addition of Naviance which is um in part the College and Career one of the College and Career ready resources I referenced um Naviance is used

092middle school and high school to help students do career interest inventories um strength inventories at the high school level they're looking at you know career searches College searches things like that but it's a structured curriculum that's driven through the Naviance program um so we're hoping that that'll be a helpful resource for our students so um that's the in assistant superintendent so all the curriculum and instructional resources reflected there and then systemwide is somewhat of everything else um are um employment screening testings not um not anything funded we do post at times um ads in the recorder for jobs that come up as you'll see um marketing things like we are um a surprise but Mrs halpin's recording some radio ads for kindergarten registration so don't tell anybody it'll be a surprise when you hear them

093on the radio um so it's just an accumulation of things that need to be used um to make the district run so I don't know if there's any questions on this page questions yes member seon then member priy what is line 204 that's the this is systemwide undistributed salary I just don't understand that's the social justice coordinator and director of Behavioral Services that were Grant funded prior thank you very much thanks um if we didn't this is line 2113 I'm talking about the parking lot rental yes if we didn't rent that parking lot would we have space for our Middle School staff to park no thank you we don't really have space for them to park now other question other questions on page eight page nine oh we're almost there okay um this is primarily

094the special education department reflected um the administration special for the most part that is a that reflects the reallocation for the assistant director of special education as I said there are state and federal timelines and processes that are required under special education and the volume just really necessitates additional support we had two positions at one time we were not able to fill one last year so we took that as one of the budget cuts but um we'd like to fill it and repost it to try to get another um position um so psychologist districtwide we're estimating salaries we had two retirees several years ago this is really um you know adjusting for our estimated hopeful salaries um tutor special we did not eliminate them their salaries were moved to a a line more reflective of

095um it's just tutor special ed it was a we had duplicate lines um and then um what you'll really see at the bottom um a fairly significant decrease in our out of District tuitions um and if you look in that far right column P you'll see see the significant use of Grant and revolving funds to offset special ed tuition so $2.2 million um and then at the bottom is Section 504 that's general education services that are needed for students who have um physical or mental impairments that's the language in the 504 rules that's um but it is still considered general education so we do have some funding for services that have been needed in the past and cover what um typically has come up for students under Section anything okay good okay all right facilities

096um before I even start I'm not going to say it for every line you folks know I believe that we have a new facilities director and and Mike our current facilities director moved a lot of things from building to district from supplies to equipment so you're going to see quite a bit of Shifting between budget lines right okay um okay so um I'm just scanning down to see if there's anything hugely significant but you'll see you know one line such as um contracted Services building and maintenance at Four Corners is up but then maintenance and contracted services at central office is down substantially so at the end of the day um you know his department is only looking at a 2.3% increase so I apologize decrease so um he really just shifted um one of

097the things that was in last year's budget was some um Machinery needed to clean and polish floors which were purchased so that's reduced from this year's budget allocation which was 50,000 so I don't questions on page 10 member ston just for man Andy you just said that 2.3 2.3 speak right into the microphone you said that that 2.39% was a decrease then I'm reading all of these wrong there's no parentheses yeah there's no parenthesis on that there's no per parentheses on the percentages but on the dollar amount there is it's a former on line 283 the the total for that correct C it's not showing up on our report that way look at page 10 line 283 that salaries on this page 23 yeah that's weird on my I'm looking at my Excel here and

098that's that has a negative so okay well we'll yeah we'll fix it okay thank you I don't think you've been reading them wrong no it's it's that would be bad on page 10 no you're you're good thank you we'll make sure that we correct any other questions on page 10 all right page 11 last page okay um transportation there are a variety of Transportation costs um special ed Transportation staff you folks know I believe we have have our own transportation department they provide um a significant amount of um out of District transportation for students who attend specialized programs they also provide um almost all of the special transportation in District so um they are also um members of collective bargaining so there is some contractual increase there um transportation contracted Services that's the um contract

099so field trips transportation for special ed I mean um transportation for field trips districtwide those are handled out of the buildings and um we have to provide transportation to the um school that moved into the district so you'll see um in increase there and then um gas repairs um the cost has gone up substantially and so we're reflecting um an increase in that line for um cost of gas and repairs for our IND District Vehicles then um Personnel again these are a lot of HR functions such as the um you know incentives are part of um contracts that's where the sickle buyback reference was from the um cover sheet that we went through it was classified under Personnel that's where that is that's a contractual requirement we also have um funds that need to be

100allocated for unit a our teachers and Unit C who are primarily our par Educators for course reimbursements that's contractually required you'll see those reflected um and then there's some expenses for the committee dues legal um and then the business office expense at the end the primary increase was covered at the beginning with the um what is primarily a salary adjustment for the assistant business manager and that is that and it's actually 5.29 not the 5.86 there were some adjustments between the time we had to publish in the recorder and um so the amount you have that you were presented with this evening reflects the 5.29 accurately so that is that questions on page 11 mayor disor um line 284 uh why is that one so different all funds in local in 2 4 as opposed

101to in 25 and can is there it's a combination of yes the revolving account uh we have a transportation revolving account for the transportation that we provide for other districts um we have not allocated that to that line which we've done in the past um in addition to what we have to do because our transportation drivers are are hourly so we in a sense plan for the worst once we you know as far as I want to say the worst like everybody working the maximum hours at there potentially could so that is though I'm going to say what is reflected there um so it's a combination of planning that they're all going to work full-time in a sense for the number of hours that they normally drive and not applying to Transportation revolving account funds

102that we get because we don't know how much we're ever going to get because those are kind those are Hit or Miss as to what it is that we're going to provide anticipating your question um we as of we're projecting to we technically have $252,000 in the transportation revolving account I you get like a a mind reader I do also want to share that one of the things that we are starting to do is um we have to get into a replacement cycle for our District transportation vehicles um so that's something you know that's potentially a use for some revolving funds is to purchase a new vehicle we we are in the process of purchasing one because they over years they don't work so well anymore mayor on that um you do a lot of

103other school systems right so is this the the standard transportation that we do here meaning as far as doing our own um it varies there you know admittedly I say amongst if you want to say in the world of my company I'd say maybe three do their own transportation out of 16 do their own but I do know others and there are even some bigger districts that do their own transportation wer public schools for example do their own um so it's it varies um I'll be honest I I tip my hat to those districts that choose to do it on their own because I got to say it's a headache uh when I've been in places that have done it on their own you know so I I've got a soft spot of my heart

104for the transportation staff here and the coordinators um but yeah it's so doing it on our own is was a decision to administrations AG goo I believe two superintendents ago and a business manager and a transportation coordinator felt that it would be more cost effective and the potential for Revenue generation to help with operations um admitted that decision was made preco and then when covid happened it really kind of threw that plane out the window so if you know I'm not going to say this is your question but is it worth it doing it on our own I'm going to say right now it's relatively too early to tell because we really have not had a consistent time where it is that we've been able to analyze the effectiveness of doing it on our own

105versus a contracted service due to that gap of the C and the fact that you know in order to really analyze you need to have some significant longitudinal data regarding the effectiveness of it and the potential for Revenue generation as well any other questions on page 11 okay we are through with the Page by Page um so with is there anything else you want to say superintendent I just want to re just want to reiterate that I want to go back to where I started at the beginning to say that um I believe and our administrative team believes that the work we have been doing for the past three years is starting to show an impact for our students and um we believe strongly that we should be continuing with the structures that we have

106and um I appreciate it's always challenging to try to allocate a budget that meets the priorities of everyone in the district um this was my recommendation to you folks I will say always you can do whatever you feel best with the money and um you know administratively we will make it work if it's really something that would be challenging I'll share that but you know you it is as soon as you vote it is your budget to do with as you will so I appreciate the support that um I've had in the three years this is my last budget so I really appreciate the support of the committee and all of your appreciation for the resources needed to make the changes that all of you have prioritized so thank you thank you and with that

107I would hear a motion to accept the superintendent's budget for fy2 as the school Comm committee budget for fy2 at the total amount of$ 24,1 120,000 and 120 how do you say that 24 such a large number 24,1 12, 359 so moved a motion from Member Martini is there a second second a second from Member Den discussion if they're none I have some comments um I feel like these discussions are are difficult because um money not put in one place has an impact on a student and money where money put in another place could have a a benefit to a different student or could have have a benefit to the students as a whole so they're challenging discussions they're very important discussions these are people's hard-earned dollars that go to work and we want the

108students to get the best outcomes possible um and certainly um you know we heard a lot about the music program tonight we've also been at meetings and getting emails and calls about language programs they're so important to us every single one of these things and I feel like one thing that is important to me is looking at the bigger picture which is we live in the richest country in the world and school communities like ours are forced to have these really tough discuss discussions about we fund this we're not funding that and so I know there's been some discussion of people who are interested in looking at maybe we could cut the assistant superintendent position well you know one of the things that was highlighted in the budget was the $590,000 a year that we're

109getting from the the Department of Education to help us turn around the schools because for so long we didn't have a curriculum and it was reflected in in the before numbers that the superintendent highlighted and I feel like the after figures that the superintendent highlighted are showing the result of making a substantial investment in have having an actual curriculum for our students um so that curriculum leadership is so important so I I understand people may have um you know genuine differences of opinion about about that but the I guess the other part is that if folks want to come to us and tell us we want more funding for music I would love to hear which line you want us to take it from you know do you want to take us to take it

110from the English language Learners or from the equity coordinator or from special education or from the beacon project that allows students that aren't being served by the kind of standard curriculum to have an alternative experience like where exactly should we take those funds from so I think that important questions to answer but I think the even bigger question to answer is why are we in a position where we have to make those types of decisions that are so painful and why our community is all all around having to invest so much effort into battling out over these um relatively uh small amounts of money in in the richest country on Earth so um I just kind of wanted to it's very important that we get into the details that we go Page by Page and

111we answer every question we W to you know the superintendent and her team have put an enormous amount of work into doing that and I I want to thank you for that I also want to applaud our students who've been applying themselves and have changed you know have have have they're they're the results of those numbers you know they're the ones who made those those changes and they did it with the help of their teachers so I want to thank the teachers very much for everything you've done to to turn those numbers around around and I want to thank the administration uh I and the superintendent the assistant superintendent and everyone um for what you've done to to make those changes and I also want to thank you the school committee members because and not

112just the ones sitting at this table but ones from previous groups of school committees because I personally feel like some some of the most important choices we've made were um uh approving the appointment of uh the assistant superintendent Karen patad who's done such a great job and who I'm I feel so fortunate has agreed to take on the superintendent role going forward and our hiring of you superintendent you you really came into a tough situation and you've really dugged in and no one's worked harder and you've applied everything you've known and it's such an honor to um be the recipients of your of your final budget the attending your final uh budget hearing um so I just really want to give Applause to everyone and and and repeat the superintendent's appeal like please let us

113keep let us keep doing what we've done what we're doing and and let the systems that we put in place continue to work because that you can see the results in in the um in the in the numbers and in the the response from the consultants and experts who come to visit our schools and say we're we're on the right track and we're making a difference thank you for letting me talk anyone else have any other comments before we vote all right I think we should do a roll call oh yes please mayor um I think you did I think you worked very hard and did a great job I just want to say I'm going to be abstaining on this budget I just want to explain that I'm going to do that every year

114because you'll see that from the next four years because I'm looking at the overall thing and I am sitting I'm just that's I just wanted to explain where I am I said I have another thing that I kind of hinted at because I'm looking it significant Insurance increas in increases I'm not sure that that I that I can legitimately be doing this but I'm sitting here taking it all in and uh I think you made wise choices overall so I just wanted to say that out loud so when I was abstaining my teammates here understood why thank you any other comments or questions before we vote secretary Den I think we should do it by roll call all right roll call vote secretary Den yes Vice chair Martini yes chair Johnson mad yes mayor dorer

115abstain member pretti yes member seon yes member Childs yes the motion passes with one abstention all right thank you everyone and congratulations thank you next we will have a motion to close the fy2 budget hearing which will be followed by a motion to adjourn so can I have a motion to close the budget hearing please so moved a motion from Member ston and a second from Member Martini any discussion all right I'll all in favor I I I all any extensions anyone opposed motion carries the budget hearing is closed now we'll um like to hear a motion to adjourn our school committee meeting move a motion for member pool and a second from Member seon any discussion all in favor I any opposed any abstain we are adjourned at 9:35 p.m.