001Okay. Uh so we do not have any minutes or adjustments to the agenda. So we will move right on to item six which is good news and recognition. Moon. Um so to start off uh recently uh region 10 competed in the skills USA competition um which is where hundreds of main students um compete in what like the news called the trade schools Olympics. Um and for those who don't know, it's like a national um leadership and technical organization where students get to compete in like a trades and andor leadership contest. And so recently we had some um people who meddled and did quite well. So we had uh Sean Gaston Guay who won gold in the diesel equipment technology. Um, we had Aaron Alman, Ava Garrett, Savannah Gates, and Mariah Yarro who won gold in
002the health knowledge bowl. We had Bella Gonza who won silver in prepared speech. Uh, we had Landon Whitney, who got silver in autotool identification. We had Nick Forester, Harlo Weaver, and Isaac Weed, who got silver in welding fabrication. And lastly, we got David Mubiala who got bronze in the inter internet working. Um and then also um we have like a I guess a scholarship for juniors. Um it's the Freeport Scholarship Foundation, which is a group that works hard to like provide FHS students with large scholarships if they're in financial need of it. Um and so students can receive up to $12,500 a year um for college and this is also renewable up to four years and um students want to participate there's also a registration link that our school gave us which I'm very grateful
003for. Um and also we also have a curriculum fair um next Wednesday on the 25th. So, it's going to be a day where like every class is going to go down and see what the like what businesses and different or organizations have to offer and different possible careers. And lastly, um the main house upcoming career compass is it's a virtual session which focuses on orthopedics and sports medicine and that'll be taking place on Wednesday, March 18th from 7:00 to 8:00. It's on a Zoom and students will hopefully learn how to like explore a range of careers within or orthopedics and sports medicine, hear personal career journeys um from professionals and like learn how to collaborate through like reward patient scenarios. And if students want to register, it was sent on a on like Google or
004I guess on Gmail uh through the school. >> Thank you. You have 26 minutes to get on your Zoom. [laughter] Thank you. That is a lot of great information. Congratulations to all the folks in the skills. Uh I've been seeing friends, kids from other districts who were posting about it this weekend as well. It seems like it's a pretty well attended um broad scope of skills. So that's very cool. Um the Freeport uh high school, the foundation that Moon mentioned, you guys may recall. Um that is the um that is the group that uh the board uh voted to uh take the Stson scholarship that we had and and combine it with theirs so that they facilitate those scholarships. Um I believe they've increased the number of scholarships that they're giving out each year to
005both juniors and seniors and they've increased the dollar amount to the 12,500 a year which is fantastic. So $50,000 over four years is is a huge a huge help to a lot of families. So, highly encourage folks to seek seek [clears throat] those out. Uh the other the other great part about that scholarship, well, there's there's a lot of great things. One uh is that it one of the key parts of it is the mentorship um every uh every awardee of that scholarship is u paired up with a mentor through their whole college career um to help them through that process which I think is wonderful. Um, and then the other piece is that the fact that they give out junior and senior year scholarships. So, juniors oftentimes if you waited until the end of
006the year, there may be a school they didn't apply to because of the cost. Um, but knowing you could potentially have this, um, scholarship as you finish your junior year that can help broaden your horizons in your senior year. So, um, highly recommend folks to, um, to seek that out if you are a junior and a senior. Um and the other thing I think is important that it's it's uh two fouryear col 2-year fouryear or technical training. Um they're very they're very broad in their um in their scope. They want to help as many kids as they can um pursue whatever path um excites them. So uh highly recommend folks do that. I think the board received an email from Jen Galleta who used to be a board member uh and is now I think
007the president for that um and also our previous superintendent is also on that board for that scholarship. So lots of ties to the school and to the board and to the community. So definitely a great opportunity for folks to take advantage of. Okay, I'm done with that. Sorry. Went on a side little side quest there. Um all right, so public comment. Couple of things. Tonight's public comment is um well, we have our regular public comment like we always do. Uh but we also have Thank you. [clears throat] we also have another opportunity um for uh for public input because uh for our budget process on this meeting as well as next week's meeting, we also have a public input on the budget item number nine. So how those two things will differ or be similar.
008Um so for public comment um it will run as it always does. We ask uh folks to sign up, which it appears folks have. Um we ask that you get up, tell us your name, tell us uh where you're from, ask you to keep your comments to three minutes. Um and uh they can be anything education related. Uh if you have something that you would like to share specifically about the budget, you can do that during item nine, which is public input from the budget. It will run very similarly. Um, you could also do it in public comment if you like. Uh, the distinction between the two is, uh, in public input. Number nine, we're giving folks an opportunity if you had a clarifying question about something in the budget that you would like to
009ask us. Generally, public well, public comment is always sort of one way. Uh, the board wants to hear what the community has to say. Um, but it's not a two-way conversation. in the public input section. We did put that in there to provide folks an opportunity if you had a question to ask about the budget, you could do it there. I will say this is not going to sort of become a back and forth debate about the budget between the board and community members present, but we did want to provide people an option um if they had a factual or a clarifying question um about any of the budget proposals, you would have that opportunity to ask. So, with that said, um, and maybe I should have done that before we had you all sign
010up. [laughter] So, I have the public, uh, comment sign up. So, I will go through this list. If anyone is on this list and would prefer to hold their comment to the budget specific discussion on item nine, just let me know. That's fine. I'll make a little note and we'll uh we'll get to you when we get to item nine. Sound fair? Okay. So, we will start with Aaron Abbott. Okay. Um, so I'm Erin Abbott. Um, I teach here at Freeport High School, but I live in Yarmouth. That's all the things, right? I think that's okay. Um, first, thank you for voicing your concerns about the loss of the math position. In the last meeting, Michelle and Jen spoke about why when kids get to the high school level, they switch and sometimes go to
011private schools. If we as a high school say things like, "We used to have computer programming, but we don't offer that anymore. And we used to have a math team, but we don't have anyone able to do that anymore. And we used to have a crochet club. Our math scores used to be higher. That doesn't help us look appealing to kids or parents." As Jung stated, there is no one else in the math department who could teach the computer programming class. In previous years, it was taught by a science teacher. While I believe that all of our current science teachers were preferred to continue teaching science classes, if computer programming is forced into that department for next year, then that negatively impacts all of the science classes, their numbers, their offerings. Last meeting, admin explained
012that kids who have a centipede 76 or below in any class are shifted into an intervention block. That a kid struggling in algebra would have 75 minutes of math instruction with their class and then they'd have 75 minutes of support in some way, shape, or form. If kids are struggling in math, especially because they have gaps from earlier classes, they don't want 150 minutes of math. They're burnt out and they feel defeated. I want to give you a real glimpse into our current intervention labs. As mentioned in the last meeting, let's say a kid passes algebra 1 with a low 70 and is placed in a math lab the following year. In that setting, the teacher is trying to fill gaps from the previous year while also helping with their current coursework while simultaneously assisting
013other students in algebra 2, pre-calculus, English, science, history, and others who are chronically absent and therefore behind. That's the reality for many kids now and will only be worse if we're down a teacher. These interventions may look nice on paper, but they are not the solution to raising test scores. Pre-alggebra, which wasn't mentioned last week, typically has two sections of students each year. Pre-alggebra and algebra 1 are the core foundation of all future math learning. I've taught math for 20 years from pre-alggebra through calculus and I can confidently say that success in these two early classes determines whether students succeed later on. When students miss key concepts early, those gaps follow them for years, not only in math, but also in their science classes. It is so important to have these specific classes be as
014small as possible with the absolute best teachers, with the teachers that can connect with all students. If you care about scores, kids long-term success, and mental health, you start at the core. Increasing those class sizes is literally the opposite of and everything we stand for in this district. I'm almost done. I promise you. I cannot stress enough that losing a math teacher will have only negative consequences on our students. Forget about the scores. I'm thinking about the kids. I hate seeing them cry because they feel hopeless. Because they're so frustrated. because they know they missed concepts years ago and it's haunting them now. We need this position. The kids need this position. Our total population will always fluctuate, but our kids, no matter how many, will always need to have a solid foundation. Thank you
015for your time. Thank you, Aaron. [clears throat] >> [applause] >> And I I forgot to mention in my preface, but I will uh just as Aaron did, if you hear the threem minute bell go off, just sort of wrap up your thought and and um so we can hear from as many folks as we can. So, thank you for that, Erin. Uh next we have Kathy Richard. Good evening to the members of the RSU5 school board and superintendent Gray. My name is Kathy Richard and I'm here to represent the word language department at Freeport High School and to speak about the proposed cut of a Latin teacher position for next year as well as the French middle school position. In there were 500 students enroll at the high school and at that time we had
016four full-time language teachers with the cut last year of a half-time Spanish position and the proposed cut of a Latin teacher this year. Next year we will have only three full-time teachers serving 560 students. We would like our stakeholders to know that these cuts will affect our ability to offer a rich and extensive language learning experience for our students. Almost all of our students take one year of a language. Students who want to attend four-year uh colleges like um need to take two consecutive years of the same language and students who wish to attend elite colleges need to take four years of the same language. We are concerned that with fewer teachers, we will not be able to offer those upper level languages and that will do a great disservice to many of our students
017and negatively impact the profile of our school. Cutting what few elective students have is not in their best interest, no matter the level. Additionally, the proposed cut to the French position at the middle school is detrimental to the entire word language department. Having a choice of language at the middle school is helpful to students as they have the opportunity to explore and test drive a language before committing to it. Languages should be taught at younger ages, not repeatedly cut. Research shows that language acquisition at younger ages helps to improve focus and memory while also increasing creativity and critical thinking skills. At the same time, it fosters um appreciation of other cultures, something our world desperately needs in this moment in time. To echo what Jack Broen said at last week's meeting, these are the kinds
018of choices that cause families to choose to have their students attend elsewhere. What are we doing to the word language department? What is the plan for the future of the word language department? What message is the board trying to convey to the students, parents, and teachers of this district about the importance of learning another language? Thank you for your time. >> Thank you, Kathy. [applause] Jill Highland. >> Uh, good evening board members, Superintendent Gray. My name is Joe Highland and I work at Freeport High School. Last year, this board determined that the ESOL position on the chopping block was important enough to maintain and not cut. But here we are again cutting that same position while serving the same number of students. That decision, while difficult to understand, is even harder to justify. Over the
019past four years, our program has had four different leaders telling us how to do this work. Yet, the work of this team has not changed. We have maintained steadfast in programming and dedication to the students and it has shown two teachers cannot effectively serve a district of this size. I respect the people involved in this decision but I do not believe that there is a full understanding of the complexity of what Esau services require on a daily basis. This decision appears to be based on numbers not on students not on need and not what the law requires. We currently have only three ESOL endorsed teachers in the entire district. The ones that are leading our program, not admin, general education staff or instructional coaches are not trained in language development. That means the responsibility for
020ensuring access to education for multilingual learners falls on the ESOL program. With this cut, we will now have only two ESOL endorsed teachers who will be responsible for 44 active students, nine monitored students across five buildings from preK through grade 12. Seven of those students are duly identified, requiring even more coordination and support. One teacher will try to cover FMS and FHS. One teacher will try to cover the elementary schools. How will they be able to include monitored students, required documentation, collaboration, family communication, social emotional support, and travel back and forth between buildings? Our service requirements call for one to two blocks per day across five, possibly six schools, and it's not realistic. The services we we will provide will become peacemeal at best. At the high school, this cut eliminates the multilingual learner reading
021foundations class. You would never eliminate an English class, an English department, a science department, a math department. Yet, you are eliminating the only ESOL for English class, ESOL English class for the students who need it most. This cut will also eliminate co-eing and in-class support. Not because we won't want to provide it, but because there will be no time. When support disappears, students fall behind, teachers lose collaboration, and the burden shifts to people who are not trained in language development. high school schedule alone requires constant coordination across multiple classes, teachers, and grade levels. Students will fall through the cracks. We are being told to focus on what we're saving instead of what we're cutting. But from where I stand, this feels like balancing the budget on the backs of multilingual students. We do not currently
022have the systems, the training, or the staffing in place to expect that this work can simply be absorbed by others. Language instruction and differentiation will not happen at the level it needs to. Accountability will suffer and students will receive less support than we have promised them. And we're making this decision while the district holds millions of dollars in reserve. I urge the board to reconsider this cut. Not for the sake of the position, but for the sake of the students whose access to education depends on the services we provide. >> Thank you, Joe. [applause] Thomas Arena. That works too. >> It does. >> Hi, my name is Thomas and I am from Pound. >> Thank you. >> At Powell, we have a community and taking kindergarten through fifth grade out would be destroying the school
023more than anything else that could possibly happen. Moving us, including me, I'm in third grade, out, will also tear apart the community and cannot happen. Plus, here at Pow, we do tons of fun things like swimming, skating, sle, sledding, rollerblading, using robots, skiing, movies, personalized learning, making friends, and tons of other things. Taking out kindergarten through fifth grade would would not only would be devastating not only to the kids, but also the parents, teachers, and community. And besides or and if we are moved out of panel, the vibe will be different and we won't be happy. And besides, we like the teachers and staff we have now and we want to keep them. Our teachers are also teachers we know and they are super kind. Plus, all of the fun things are I mentioned earlier
024are because of our super cool gym teacher. He even won teacher of the year. We love Pan Elementary. Please don't take us out of our school. >> [applause] >> Thank you, Thomas. I think uh Moon, we might want to make a note for the future speakers. Uh the uh skills the skills contest a few years down the road, Thomas might be competing. All right. Uh so next, Linsh. Hi y'all. this is not my thing to do, but I felt like it was really necessary. I've been before you one other time and it was during COVID when uh during basketball they wouldn't allow any fans in the gym and it was time after two years of CO to allow the the fans back and I think Michelle you and I were on the same page about
025that. But that has been my only time in 20 plus years in this district to speak in front of you. So, I just want you to understand that this is a big thing for all of the people who are here tonight speaking to you all about all of the issues that are really important to us as a community. Um, I've lived here in the in the Freeport community for over 30 years. I've had three children. Wow, I'm completely going off script here. [laughter] I've had three children go through the system. Um, I'm going to go back to this. Um, I've had three of my own children go through the school system and today they are all thriving in their adult lives as businessmen, a mainstay game warden, and a power engineer. I truly believe their
026success is rooted in the strong educational foundation they received in this district. As an educator, a parent, and a community member, I'm incredibly proud to be part of this school system. It's what has kept my family grounded here in Freeport with my own ch when my own children were here in school. I found myself advocating for them, for their academic programs, for their athletic programs, their extra extracurricular activities. Like many of you, I wanted the best possible education for my children, their peers, and my students, my own classroom students. And I feel like a lot of the panel parents that are here tonight and students have that same feeling but same sentiment. You won't see the multilingual students here. You won't see their parents here. They're not going to be here to advocate for their
027children because they often don't fully understand the process. They don't speak fluent English and simply believe that these decisions that will be made are going to be made in their child's best interest. They trust me. They trust the team, the ML team that has been building this program for the last four to five years. These families have worked hard to stay in Freeport. As you know, we've seen lots of ML families leave this district and go back to Portland and go back to the bigger cities because the resources are there for them. But these families have worked hard to stay here in Freeport instead of returning to those larger cities because they value the education this district offers. For example, I have a parent who walks over two miles every day to LLB and to
028catch the bus to go to Portland for her job. And she does that because she wants her children to stay in this district. She doesn't want her children in the bigger districts. um it would have been easier for them to move back to Portland, but they stay here because they came here seeking better opportunities for their children and the RSU is providing that for them presently. Given this, I strongly recommend considering the 2.5 teacher model for the ESOL team. There hasn't been a decline in enrollment. We're still at the same numbers that we were at last year in CL. In fact, with our monitor students, our enrollment has actually increased this year. Additionally, considering the DOE recommended service times for ML students, which is one to two blocks a day, this would mean one teacher
029would need to travel to three schools daily, while the other would travel between two. This scenario doesn't even account for any potential new ML students in Pano. I'd like to end by thanking you all because I do know the work that you do is really difficult and uh you know having been in the district for very long for a long time and watching the work that this board has done but also other boards in the past I do really value your your work. Um, I just hope that you'll hear the conversations that are happening tonight and really take it into consideration. And it's not to have any disrespect for the admin team or Superintendent Gray because we also know that you're doing an amazing job and doing what you feel is best. Um, but we're
030the ones that are in the weeds. We get it. We understand it. And I would not be here tonight if I didn't feel like this position was very important. Thank you. Thank you, Lyn. >> [applause] >> I want to say Susanna, but I'm not sure if it is. Su Susanna. >> Suanne. >> S. Um, I'll come later. >> Okay. So, for budget. Yeah. >> Got it. Uh, Mike Shaw. Well, these were some tough acts to follow. And uh I haven't done much public speaking myself either in several years, but uh I did want to mention that there were >> Would you mind just doing me a quick favor with your name and your town? >> Sorry about that. >> That's okay. >> Michael Shaw, and I'm from Freeport. Uh, I wanted to mention there's I
031think around a dozen students that participated in the uh statewide math competition up in Fairfield and most of them placed pretty highly throughout the whole state. Actually, my son came in eighth in the entire state, I'll mention. And I know I see some parents of some of the other students here too that placed very highly. That wouldn't have been possible without the teachers that he's had throughout the years. He's been in RSU5 since Laugh and Learn. And uh I'll be quick. I just don't think you guys should be cutting any teacher positions. I'm more than happy to pay a little extra in my taxes to have RSU 5 stay whole and keep the panel school, too. Thank you, Michael. [applause] Nate Ellis. >> Budget. Okay. >> John Jake. Hello. I'm John Jakes from Freeport and
032I guess I get to play the bad guy tonight. Fun. Fun. Uh, I am here also to speak on behalf of not cutting teacher positions. Um, however, there's something else that I would like to address that probably will not be very popular considering the composition of the crowd tonight. Um, I understand your concerns about raising taxes and the need to make budget cuts in this upcoming year. I agree that a 10% tax increase is not advisable. Please take into consideration the long-term impacts on the table. With recent discussions about cutting French from the middle school curriculum, I believe this would be very unwise. Long-term, it is essential to maintain the integrity and reputation of Freeport High School. The damage to our reputation should be considered in cutting middle school French. Falmouth and Yarmouth have strong
033public support for schools and avoided consolidating for this reason. Small schools are a drain on resources. Over a decade ago, I was part of the Freeport community opposing the consolidation with Panel and Durham because many of us felt that it would lead to a reduction in quality education in Freeport. This is exactly why we opposed consolidation. Middle school French is not the place to cut. It should not matter that Durham has never had French. It should be kept so that our high school can have a strong foreign language program. Classes should be maintained. Spanish, French, and Latin all should be taught without prejudice for f for Spanish. Maine has a strong connection to the French language and history. Please honor that. We should not be looking for cuts in teacher positions. I would strongly recommend
034that you look to reduce costs in administration, transportation, and technology. And I did look over the stuff that you proposed tonight, and I see some encouraging things there. One of the big parts of my talk here was about how much we spend on technology and I see that's a huge cut and that's what has to happen. I think that's part of it. Um I would strongly uh you know look at technology. Um over a decade ago I was the author of the charter application for the Baxter School of Technology and Science. At that time I recommended switching from Apple MacBooks to Chromebooks. This would save thousands of dollars yearly while maintaining a 1:1 environment. The cost of continuing with Apple products is too expensive and frankly not worth the cost compared to the functionality of
035the Chromebook. That's another discussion for another time, but um it would need to happen this summer, but to save these teacher positions. Another serious problem is keeping the panel school viable. Those of us opposed to consolidating saw this coming. Panel is a very small town with an aging population. The long-term viability of the elementary school was always in question. If I were a resident of Powell, I would seriously be concerned about the closure and take a serious look at leaving the RSU. If the Panel community would like to keep its school, it should be it could withdraw from the RSU. It would give the community complete control over their school and free up free Freeport taxpayers from that subsidation of their school. Thank you for your time. >> Thank you, John. >> Nico Jake. My
036name is Nico Jakes and I am from Freeport attending Freeport High School. I'm a junior. I'm here to speak in regards to middle school French. I believe that it is important to note that cutting middle school French is not just cutting a position. It is cutting a person. Madame Davis is an amazing teacher and an amazing person who is vital to the Freeport Middle School community. I was in her advisory for all three years of middle school and took her French class all three years as well. She changed my life for the better. I thought of her as a third parent during a really hard time in my life. She was a light in my day and truly believed in me when I needed it most. Every other student I know who took her class
037absolutely adores her. She is a safe space that the Freeport community needs. Thank you. >> Thank you, Nico [applause] and Shana or Shana Jakes. The whole family is here tonight. Um Shaya Jakes, um Freeport. I'm a graduate of Freeport High School. I have a student at Freeport High School and I have a graduate of Freeport. Um and I'm here to speak on behalf of Saving Middle School French. Um and it I think it's really vital and important that um that position is not eliminated. Um Freeport is has that strong connection to um the French language in Maine. Um and um it offered unique opportunities to my kids about going to the on the Quebec trip and becoming um interested in other cultures. And I think it's really important to um expand students horizons and allow
038them to think of themselves as global citizens. And I also want to second what my student said about um Madame Davis. She's a great lady. Thanks. >> Thank you. [applause] Uh Zach Le. Hi, good evening. Uh, I'm Zach Le. I'm from Durham and I'm a parent of uh, one one child at DCS and one child here who just started at Freeport High School. And I'm here to ask a simple question, which is when I look at the proposed budget and the cuts that are coming up here or the cuts that are being proposed, I don't see the point. I'm looking at a median taxation increase of $30 when it when it comes down to actually getting uh or keeping the service level of our school. Uh keeping our teachers uh making sure that kids have
039full services and we're looking to cut some of that. To me over $30 doesn't make sense. Uh I've appreciated hearing some of the voices here today. And uh when I when I uh when I left the house, my daughter had just gotten home. Uh she asked me where I was going. I said I was coming here. And uh she immediately uh started uh started talking and uh had a lot to say about how worried her and her friends were, how this how these proposed changes were going to impact their day-to-day lives in class. The last thing our kids need is disruption. We need to at the very least maintain our service levels. We need to maintain our teachers. We need to maintain our programs. And if the concern is asking residents for a modest tax
040increase, I say it's time for the board to uh to show leadership and ask for us what you need. We will give it to you. And I for one will do so happily. Thank you very much. >> Thank you, Zach. [applause] This is a name we recognize, Mora. It's weird to see you on that side of the microphone. >> I know. It's It's weird to be on this side. Is Is it far enough up? Can you hear me? Okay. Good evening, board members. I'm Laura Pillsbury from Freeport. You have a difficult task ahead of you. make these cuts. As a resident of RSU5, I want my children to be able to learn French and study world cultures in middle school. I want immigrant families to have extra support because of the fear and uncertainty they're
041enduring right now. I want our beloved community outreach coordinator who spent years building relationships in our community to continue to do so as a full-time staff member. And I want our teachers to have classroom and professional development support they need and all children to have the services and supports they need to thrive. I understand you're thoughtfully considering these cuts so they will have the least negative impact on students. But that doesn't mean students won't be negatively impacted by them. For example, by losing a teacher that sparked a passion in a subject or by losing a teacher who helped them navigate making a home in a new country where they thought they would be safe or by teachers not having enough support in the classroom to give them the attention they need. We all remember our
042favorite teachers for the rest of our lives because that's how truly impactful teachers are. They open up worlds to our children they didn't know existed. Impacts on a spreadsheet do not always reflect impacts in real life. And I'm asking you to keep as many staff positions as you can. You've heard me say before that pitting older and lower income property taxpayers in our community against the education of our children is a false choice. And it truly is. We live in a wealthy community. We have enough resources to give our children the education they deserve. And yet, I know the choice you must make to either raise taxes or cut positions is very difficult and very real. Um, I won't mince words. State level policy decisions have put us in this position. Um, this isn't the
043fault of anybody in this room. I've followed the work on the school funding formula and property tax reform at the state level. And I know we can't count on the state to fix this problem, at least not in the short term, and of course, not in time for this budget to be made. But we must keep trying. So, I'm hoping as a resident of Freeport to ask the town of Freeport to establish a town property tax assistance fund funded by taxpayers and by private donations to help those in our communities for whom property taxes are unaffordable. We do already have um a program like this to support older taxpayers in our community that already exists. Um I hope Durham and Pano will consider something similar. I believe our communities must take must take action um
044to address the inequities in our tax system if the state will not so that we do not continue to be in such a difficult position. Um there's no one magic solution, but I hope we can take these small a small step to explore um something like this in our town and show those in our community that our community is a place where we value and care for all our residents and students and we don't have to choose one over the other. Thank you. Thank you, Mora. [applause] Okay, so that is everyone I had on this list. Um, I think what I will do, uh, if we had anyone else, I will give you a quick opportunity. Um, what I might do is give this back to Erica and if we have, I do have the
045two marked for for, uh, budget. If there was anyone else who wanted to add their name to the budget discussion, feel free to do that. Um, you've got as long as it takes for Tom to go through his uh, superintendent report. [snorts] Thanks everybody. So I have a few things to talk about to frame the discussion tonight. First, Kelly, if you wouldn't mind, you have thought thoughtfully prepared some information about tax impact that um is probably germaine to share right now. So I'll let Kelly start. Pam, can we turn on the Can we turn on the Yeah. >> I thought it did. All right. Okay. So, um there was a request um that came from Superintendent Gray to actually put to kind of consolidate like the tax impacts of the various tiers um in one
046sheet and then show the tax um implications of that by community. For those who are at home, um this document is available on our website under the um budget section of the website under the FY27 budget. um for those here in the audience, there were extra copies left on the um table on the entry to the library and then it was included in the board packets this evening. So, I'll just briefly walk through it. It's colorcoded in the level of tiers that have been discussed. Um the burgundy color um which is actually tier one um reductions uh actually I've got that reversed, don't I? [laughter] Actually, those are the the tier three reductions which get us to the lowest tier. Sorry um to color code that wrong. Um so 5.77 is tier three which the
047superintendent presented but was not part of his recommended budget. The blue line is tier 2 which is actually what all of the documentation has been built off of. Um and the list of reductions that you see within the handbook that you also received a copy of this evening. Um, the budget is built um with the tier 2 reductions that results at a 6.53% year-over-year increase. Um, what I'm calling tier 2A, which is that pink line, the third line down, which is 7.10, 10 that was based on last week's meeting where um the board asked to see the impact of what it would look like for um the 4 FTE edition of the FMS Spanish position and it adds back the K5 instructional strategist and it also adds two um edtech general edte back one at
048Mass Landing and one at More Street that shows at 7.10 10 the tier um one level reductions because again I've got to fix this um on the one that's public um is actually the red line those were the ones that the superintendent didn't actually recommend we go that deep um and then 10.55 the black line that's the baseline for the year-over-year budget. So I'll start with that one there and kind of read across the total operating if we stayed at the 10.55. Um that would be a total operating budget of 49,148089. It it's an a 4,692160 increase year-over-year. We're going to skip the net reduction column at this point um because that basically is calculating off of what the superintendent's recommended budget is. So, if we were to stay at the 10.55%, we would be
049adding 1.7 million back into the budget um to into the presented materials. The net ex net impact to taxation that is after um you take the expenses and then you subtract all of the anticipated revenues, state subsidies, shared revenues, local required taxation, and um locally funded debt that is in there. that would u that's the overall impact and then it starts breaking it down by community for you. The first community listed is Durham. It's um it would be a a 7.9 98% increase which for the median taxation median household the taxation increase would be $57,5755 for Freeport that's the middle two columns 6.77 with a $43328 increase and panel would be sitting at 9.03 03 um with 585.90. Now I will mention that the calculation that we're using here are um we'll see what the
050asterisk the amounts represent an increase in only the school portion of taxes. As you remember your local taxes within your municipalities are made up of three different components state I mean schools, county and municipal. So um we are only talking about um what the school's proposed increase would be on the tax rate and we're basing it on the 2526 mill rates and taxable valuations. Each community um sets their valuations on a determines the valuations on April 1st of each year. Obviously we have not reached that for um the the 26 27 year. So all this is what we typically do. We use the previous year's numbers in order to um calculate these for you. I will just walk up into the back to the blue line. Um had so the black line would be it
051had we not made any reductions whatsoever within the budget. The red again are the tier three uh tier one red represent tier one reductions. The pink is like two with a few adbacks. Um the blue line is where the superintendent's recommended budget sits currently. Um and that is a 6.31% impact taxation. The expected tax increase in Durham 5.04 which is $321. Freeport 3 3.51 which is $2244. And uh in panel 5.27 27 which is $342.16. And we'll pause there before I go into the next document that I was asked to create. It's I think it's assumed, but these are per year, right? For the the year of property tax, >> the amounts. >> Yes. Yes. Yes. It would be the annual increase. Um, again, only the school portion. [laughter] I always like to preface that
052because we're we are only one third, you know, a third of the pie. So, if there are no other questions, I will toggle over to um what I'm calling version 2A um because we calling called in the previous version the discussions that were left where the board left off last week where there was some ask of the superintendent what positions um if we were to increase what positions would be added back. So, we kind of got to what I'm considering a version 2A at this point, which is kind of a semibboard version. I was asked to put it through the formula um that I had initially created when we were looking at just the tier 2 reductions. So, the the the top box um does not change because that is if we do no reductions
053whatsoever. Um, and then the bottom lower box is actually representative of adding back in the 04 Spanish at FMS, the K5 instructional strategists, and the most street and mass landing general ed edex. Just for reference, I will toggle over to the original one that was put out based upon um version two, which uh you can see on the bottom boxes, it's um 6.46%, 5.55%, and 5.91. If um those positions are added, if version 2A is what passes, the projection would look again back down to the bottom box, 7.04. 04 6.12 and 6.47. And those are the two handouts that I had for you this evening. I will just um briefly mention that the handbook that was also in your packet. There are no changes to that handbook besides the date on the front. We just
054wanted to make sure that all the board members had a copy for the discussion this evening. Um the handbook is has information in it such as class sizes, enrollments. It also has um a a history of the adopted budget for the 10-year period. It has the proposed um all of the proposed requests that came through the budget to make it 10.55 yearover-year. And then it shows the list of reductions where we're that the superintendent's recommending to get to the 6.53, which is tier 2. Um it then gives you the article articles one through 11 to that make up your total budget because as you know when we propose a budget and we bring it to the annual budget meeting we bring it in article form and that's how we operate and then at the annual
055budget at the budget validation referendum the public is just voting on the total amount of the budget. Do they support it? Yes or no. The um the second to last page is the tax the anticipated tax impact. It gives you the full breakdown of um expend expenditures, revenues and the um impacts to tax taxation as we just reviewed. And then the final two pa last page which is front to back um we talked about last week which are the article and facility reserves um that we are holding um at the district level. Um, maybe I missed it, but can you um tell me um if level one, which is the red line, if I correct um what that means, putting back into the budget. I heard you say what 2A is. >> I will share
056that with you. Yeah, >> but >> right. But just but just a shortcut guide, Lois, on page six and seven, there's a little um I'm sorry to hit the microphone. There is a um little rating chart like M is a is a maintenance type item. N is a necessary addition. R is a recommended addition. And then we get down to what we would consider T1 and T2. That's your tier one reductions and your tier 2 reductions. They're coded on the side. Thanks, Steph. >> Yeah. There's a little little And then there's the guide on the on the end. So >> So just you can also follow along there. Um, what I wanted to point out while this >> Oh, so I I do want to go back and I'm going to share my original presentation
057that got all this started again. Um, but while this is up, I want to I feel that my job tonight is not to give a hard cell, but is to sort of explain the reasoning and and respect your decision. Um, a big part of the reasoning that I was trying to talk about last week derives from the projections of these numbers. And what I have to do in this position is take a macro view. And part of that macro view is what do we know we have to accomplish within the next two, five, 10 years as a district. And I know that there are some big ticket items. There are school renovations if not replacements within that period of time. There's early childhood to manage. There is one of the things that you know as
058the further you out you go the more we're estimating some key major cost drivers like what we're going to pay our staff. We're negotiating some of that right now for the support staff. We'll start negotiating with the teachers again next year. Part of what is driving the increase that we're trying to figure out what to do with right now is very justifiable pay increases for the staff across the board. I think those are things we'd like to be able to continue to do because they're investments in our district and our people. And I think we have to think about how we can accomplish all those big ticket items going forward by teeing ourselves up to have as much flexibility as possible. So those numbers speak to me and were part of why I recommended what
059I've recommended. It's to try to preserve that flexibility. So, Kelly, you can have your computer back. Sure, no problem. Okay, give me just a moment here. You know what? I should do this. Yeah. I I want to bring up my actual presentation, not just the PDF of it. Okay. So, what am I hitting here? Slideshow. There we go. Okay. So, you've seen this before and I don't think we need to spend as much time on on it as I did before, but I want to come back to try to explain some of the reasoning that drives the recommendation that I've given to you. And before I even launch into that, I fully respect everybody here and I fully respect your perspective and you're coming to advocate for it and that's I would be doing the
060same. you didn't know me as a teacher, I would be doing the same. I again I have to take a macro view when I look at the entire situation and that's what I need to try to come back to. So I don't want to go through the whole recommendation whole um slideshow again but I want to point out some of the things that were major factors in my recommendations. So first is the projected enrollment and even more dramatically this is the historical enrollment. Um I'll talk about the class sizes in a minute and where the class sizes are high and when they're low. So this is what I recommended and Lois you had asked a question about the difference between tier one and tier two basically like what the lowest level is. So the way
061I had structured this is that what you see in burgundy up there is the the tier one. That's to get to roughly an 8% budget increase. And the blue items are what I would additionally reduce to get to a roughly 7% to get to tier 2. Does that make sense? May I just clarify that what I heard was that everything that's in red would still go at tier one. >> Yes. >> And in addition at tier two, everything in red and blue would go. >> Correct. >> Thank you. >> Okay. >> Can I add but tier 2 A >> and tier 2 A which is not this is my original slideshow. So tier 2 A would sort of add back in, if I could do a different color right now, it would add back in
062the instructional strategist K to 5 level and it would add back in the two um edtes at Mor Street School and Mass Landing School. And in addition, something that is not on there at all because it's an idea that further solidified as we talk continue to talk about the budget after this presentation would be to make the Spanish position at Freeport Middle School, which is right now 6 to make it whole by adding 04. But I should clarify that that would actually be in conjunction with that we would be absorbing 04 of an edtech. The way the role is currently structured is that it's 6 Spanish. 04 edte. We felt in our conversations recently that that point4 edtech could be absorbed and then we would add point4 of a teacher. So if you're following all
063that back and forth, it's really adding to the budget. two of a teacher, which is not a huge amount of money and likely gets us a big bang for our buck in terms of extending world language all the way to seventh grade. So, I think just the major point that I I don't want to belabor this, but I feel that I'm what I owe you all as an explanation of my reasoning. I think that the differences between doing nothing and tier one and tier 2 in terms of the tax impact are substantial, especially as you go out year after year. And we're all making the best guess that we can about what is bearable for the community. And I respect that there are different perceptions about what that is. Ultimately, the board would decide that.
064I'll just say that all it takes is one very committed group of voters to come out and change a budget. The total numbers that we had voting last year, I think you and I were looking at this, Michelle, it was like,300 people total voted. The budget passed by a few 300 votes. That's an amount that can change very quickly depending on who's most motivated to come out to vote. And the harm that would be done to all of us by a budget that does not pass is very great. So we are making a judgment call. There's no formula. There's no magic eightball to predict what that tipping point is. But we certainly don't want to we we don't want to attempt that fate. And when I look at these reductions, none of which were joyful
065conversations. What I had what we all had to take note of this really was a team decision and I think that all the people sitting back there would vouch for that. We looked at honestly we looked at the staff feedback first of all which we took great pains to collect about what is most important to protect and we looked at numbers as has been suggested and we called upon our judgment which is not insignificant because we've been been doing this for a while and I just have to tell you straight out that the need that I see if I were going to add positions back in they would not be at the high school and I I I say that with respect, but I could I would have a very difficult time adding back positions
066at the high school when we look at the numbers and having first, second, and third grade classes that are right up against the limit of the class size policy. That's just not something I could in good conscience recommend. That's where the need is highest. And so if we look at adbacks, you'll notice that when you asked for some adbacks, it's somewhere between what's red and what's blue. That's where we went. The the honest truth is that I believe everything that I'm hearing from folks here about some of the impacts of reductions, there are also some impacts of reductions that we're not hearing about. And those are things that I have to think about and I have to ask the board to think about. If I kind of go down a little bit more, this was
067my not recommended tier. I don't even want to talk about it. Um, but if I look, this is a a slide that really speaks to me. So if we look at the class sizes in K to8, if we look at more street school and I have kindergarten, I will have kindergarten classes. This is at the recommended level that are 17 to 18 17 to 18. PreK is at the maximum which is 16. If I go to Mass Landing where fourth grade will be right at the maximum of the class sizes 20 to 21 and then uh I'm sorry that was third grade, fourth and fifth grade at 18 and 19 and numbers slightly lower than that in Durham except at sixth grade. That's where I feel I would have to add back. So if I
068go back up again to these this other slide here again these are the items that we felt strongly that if the board had asked for tears at 8 7 and six this is the seven this is what seems to I believe this will pass and I also believe that I won't say that this won't have some negative impacts but I will also say it will be fine. The district I would not and these people behind me would not recommend cuts that we felt were going to decimate the school system. And that's just the hierarchy of need as we saw it. And I think that's that's really all I have to explain. Thank you, Tom and Kelly for the information. This is what happens when I get up. I lose Oh, no. I gave my paper
069back, right? >> You did. >> I did. Okay. I was like, I lost the paper. >> Um, I have one other I have one other piece of information just to pass out to you. So, Jen, and Jen can talk about this better than I can, but some of these can go this way, some can go this way. These are the current numbers from Power School about math enrollment that in our current math sections, >> Lois. >> Sure. Yeah. So, I just want to make sure that I understand. I get the blue, the red. The only way that that everything that you showed that was in blue and red comes back is on the black line. Correct. Correct. >> Is that correct? >> Correct. What I've just passed around are the numbers from the from power
070school for our current math enrollment at the high school. So, for example, yes, we we do have two sections of pre-alggebra. One of them has 15 students, the other has eight students. That's a total of 23 students. And you can read the rest. There are of course some that are peak a little higher. You know, we have a section in honors algebra 2 that has 19. We have a pre-calc section of 20 and honors pre-calc section of 20 and honors pre-calc section of 24. Um, but these numbers still hold up lower than what you would have seen for kindergarten, first and second grade at More Street with the reduction of a teacher. And it's more consistent with what other departments at the high school are dealing with. And Jen, I don't know if you want
071to sort of explain this a little bit. Is this supposed to be down like this? >> Thank you, Colin. >> Good evening, Jeno from the high school. Um so when I had spoken um at two previous meetings about the numbers currently in the math uh courses and the average courses, there were some questions about um each individual section size, what that looked like and um where those averages came from. And when I had spoken, I shared a selection of math courses. is when I spoke last week, I shared algebra 1, geometry, algebra 2, and the honors sections for those honors pre-calculus, calculus, and the um computer programming. Uh and this week, what's in front of you is all of our math classes, every class, every section that we have. Um and as I shared before,
072uh we in most of our other departments, we hover between 18 to 20 students. um that's the um threshold that we look that's what we attempt to have in um a size of a section. Uh and there are some sections as I explained before where it might go up to 24 students. We're always challenged when we only offer one section of a particular class. Uh, and there is no other section of that class and there's 26 kids that are enrolled in that and do you make that one section or two sections and students often change their mind. We have an ad drop period where they're able to change the course that they're in. But these are where these numbers stand as of today. uh and [clears throat] so um they uh have not fluctuated significantly
073from um earlier in the year. We always as you know have some students transfer in and transfer out of the district or um multiple reasons why they may have um had a shift in their schedule. And so this is the representation right now. And what I had shared previously with the board is that um these average numbers are lower than um or significantly lower in some cases than some of our other departments where I was sharing those numbers last week. Um and we are feeling that um uh again in 2022 when I requested uh the addition of a math teacher that's when we were at a total population of um creeping up toward um 645 students uh and these average numbers were higher. Uh and now um feeling like this is a place where if
074we were um reducing our math department by a teacher, we would still be able to maintain um reasonable class sizes that are comparative to some of the other departments. >> Um we've heard some input that if the teacher was cut that there would not be anybody to teach computer programming. Can you address how that might be um how that would be addressed? >> So, one of our challenges right now I I will say we haven't had any discussion outside of a board meeting or made any decisions about computer programming. It has in some schools it's a part of the science department because it's considered a STEM program. Um and in other schools it is uh considered a math program. We had traditionally had it as part of our science program here and then shifted it
075um to a math uh teacher in uh last year was the first year that it shifted to the math department. Um part of that was a balance of the size of classes and looking at um current enrollment because one thing that significantly impacts our courses is um the decisions that students make. So right now uh we don't have our current numbers for enrollment for next year's courses and so then we would be looking at a total balance because our whole population will be reduced again next year from where it is this year that has a ripple effect. It impacts all of the numbers in all of the courses. So, for example, last year when we had 600 students in school, then we need x number of earth system science, which is our ninth grade science
076class. This year, when we're at 577, we need one fewer section of that class. Next year, when we go down to 555, we again will shift the number of sections that are needed. And so we look at that closely based on what students choose to sign up for um and uh and then where that class is assigned. So right now um we it went in the past we have not cut a class where we have students where there's a high interest level. For example, one of the classes that we cut this year um that I thought was unfortunate to cut because I've seen it do really well in previous schools was entrepreneurship where students are creating a business and that wasn't something that students were signing up for here and our sections were lower and
077lower um and we decided to eliminate that course. What we have done in uh other um situations, we have looked at our current teaching staff and thought about teacher strengths and student need and then decided who is teaching each course. And so that would be the same case with computer science. >> Okay. Thank you, Jen. >> Is that the end of your your piece? Here endeth the homaly. >> Okay. >> All right. So, and now we are back to the public input and we do have um a couple of names on our sheet here. Um so, I will go back to Suanne and start with you. >> We'll just ask that you give us your name and where you're from. >> Yes, I will. Yeah. Um I'm Suanne Williams Lingren and I'm from Freeport. And
078I really I want to I want to um share my thoughts here with everybody in the room. Um I'm struck by the multiple realities at hand with the board, with teachers, with parents. I'm going to speak to another part of the community that you may not hear from very often, and that's the senior community. Okay. Hi, Steve. You heard similar to last night. So, I was at the board meeting um or council meeting last night. Um, I'm struck by the passion you have to do what you think is right for your children and really support it. Um, I think there are some really tough So Sophie's choices that are being made here. And as you know, the tail wags the dog in the tail here is money. So last year you had a 6.2% increase,
079right? And that was a pretty tough cell. So going much beyond that is going to be a tougher cell this year. And this is why. And I'm sure all of you been impacted by it. Um, electricity up 20%. Food food prices by the consumer price index up 30%. Fuel went to Irving two weekends ago or last weekend up 50 cents a gallon. All right, it keeps hitting us, hitting us, hitting us. It's going to be more and more and more this year as long as the Middle East is in conflict. So everything that comes to us is going to be jacked up in prices because of fuel. All right? and we can think I won't go there. Uh, so there's RSU increase coming in. There's a town of Freeport Colola coming in. I want you
080to be very careful about the assumptions that you're making about this community and people's ability to contribute to their taxes and I'm going to share with you my re my reality. I've lived in Freeport for 33 years in the same home. Um, so the first 21 years I paid less than $6,000 a year in taxes. Wow, that was amazing. The past 12 years I have paid it has increased 53% to the tune of $132,000. I'm paying $11,000 now a year. I pay $30 a day to live in my home. I have a very small home, less than 12,200 ft. I live on 1.3 acres of land. But because I live on a title cove, my property taxes have gone crazy. I didn't ask for that. I don't want that. But you guys do contribute 75%
081to what happens to our tax base here. Um, I don't have children in the system. I never have. I don't begrudge doing my civic duty, but when it gets to the point where it's where I am now, that's a huge ouch. And um Colon, when I I remember what you were saying in December when I was at one of these meetings, we want to we don't want to cause too much pain. So I think that there's a fine line between where there's pain and where there's burden. Um so I just want to um raise that. I want you to fast forward and think about if you're going to be here 33 years in the same home, what are your taxes going to look like? What kind of actions do we need to bring to bear
082in order to shift that? So, I just want to ask encourage you to make sure that you're putting money towards what we truly need here for our children and not necessarily just the want, but what's the true need. And I think that's a very complicated question. I won't begin to try to answer that. Thank you. Thank you. Okay, Nate. >> Hi there. My name is Nathan Ellis. I'm from Freeport. Uh, I'm going to be very, very brief. Uh, I don't know if my notes were leaked to the public because most of my questions have been answered that I wanted you guys to put out. I wanted real tax dollars to be presented um so the people knew exactly how it was impacting them. I don't know if you would also present these other projected tax
083increases as well. It's not your job. You're the school. There are two other parts, right, to tax increases. If we know them, it's okay to say what we think they are projected because we need to know the whole picture. I think it's really important. Um I want to echo what some other people have said. I I know Zach said it here. You know, we are willing to pay more. Um, but as we've seen, that's it's not $30. It's some some greater numbers. And obviously with that increase comes even bigger increases in the future. Just looking at what you presented earlier. Um, I'm still willing to do that, but I certainly understand the burden on the senior community and on folks who maybe can't afford that. So, it's it's a huge decision. I think what needs
084to be put forward is the option for that. Like whether and where does that stop? I I had a quick question. Tom, I don't know if you can answer this very briefly. You said it's very harmful if the budget does not pass. Can you explain what the process, not the whole process, what happens if it doesn't pass? >> Uh, I can take that, I think. Um, Kelly will tell me if I tell you anything incorrect. Uh, so basically what it does is it restarts our process. So our budget process is uh there's three primary steps in our budget process. So we are currently in step one. Step one is the longest. We start in January and it comes to an end uh next week at the end of March where the board adopts a budget.
085Uh that budget then has to go to the annual budget meeting which is the three town meeting in May. Uh and that is where we vote on each article as uh as Kelly mentioned earlier. We vote article one, article 2, article 3 down the line. Uh and then whatever comes out of that meeting is what goes to a referendum and that's the referendum in June, the straight up or down vote. Um, so if it were to fail at the referendum, we don't leave annual budget meeting until we have a budget. Um, so that one that one uh can't fail. Um, but it could change. Um, and then the third step is the referendum. So if it fails at the referendum, we go back to step one where the board then I mean we don't have
086to start from scratch thankfully. Um, but we do have to make changes based on what we think is the reason it failed. Do we think it was too high? Do we think it was too low? Um it could be a variety of reasons depending on who who what individual voters feel. Um and then we would have to go back to another annual budget meeting where that we would have to go through that voting uh the articles again and then we would have to go to another referendum vote. Um so uh logistically I'm not sure what a realistic time frame on that would look like. It is only failed. >> Gray New Gloucester had to do it this past year. They didn't get a budget till November. >> Okay. And >> well, I I cut you
087off. >> Yeah. No, that's that was what I was looking for. >> Just the the the aspect of harm that I was actually thinking of is that it's basically a vote of no confidence in the board in the board's decision. Not in the board as a whole, but in this decision. And that resonates across so many different levels of how the school runs for a really long time. It just does sort of harm to the social fabric of the schools. >> That's great. I mean, it's very important for people to understand that. Obviously, it's not a matter of having a backup plan that you then just put up to referendum, right? Okay. Um, again, taxes putting towards uh, you know, putting those things out to the public. You've answered a lot of my questions, so
088I don't really have much else to say. I I spoke with Tom earlier on the phone. Um, just to the point of presentation to the public, uh, how I think there are some simple ways to make it much better, much more searchable. It's just data. It's just text. it can be instant for the public to get it without having to pour over hours and hours of meetings like this one that'll be on YouTube or, you know, documents online, PDFs with certain names that are hard to search through. Um, I have ideas for that. I'm not going to waste folks time with that tonight. Uh, and the other question I had that you already answered was the future costs that we have coming down the line. Obviously, that's a huge factor for folks, right? It's not
08910.5% now and then six moving forward. It's It's a lot more. Um, I guess the last thing I'll say, again, I'm willing to pay it. I Sorry, just to be clear, I I come from a family of teachers, a lot of friends. It's it's important. Um, I guess one thing that might be interesting is uh priority list of these full-time teachers, the riffs from the board. If they're put in order, uh, then we can consider, you know, it's it's 6.53 increase, can we add one or two? And what are the priorities from the board or recommendations, superintendent? And you guys will go through the reasons for why you think it's important and put those out there. And some of those reasons might just be public opinion, which is extraordinarily valid, obviously, right? That's the that's
090the people speaking for the positions they care about the most. Um, obviously these full-time positions are the biggest driver in this budget change, right? they are the vast majority of it even so some things are increasing a lot which I don't fully understand but I'm sure there are great reasons like transportation things like that there there are reasons for that but again the increase is the full-time staff that's the real driver so since there are 14 adding two or three is not a huge change to this percentage and I think it should be at least two or three or five or 14 or whatever it might be but but if we understood which ones are the most important and can advocate for them, then we can make a small change to this budget or a
091big change. But, uh, I think people have put out a lot of really great reasons for why a lot of these positions are important and we can take each one in a vacuum and they're all extraordinarily important, right? No question. But I understand that we have to look at it as a whole. So, uh, so that's that's all I had to say. So, thank you. >> Thank you, Nate. [applause] All right, Mike Shaw. Sorry to take two bites at the apple. Uh Mike Shaw from Freeport. Um, I don't want to beat a dead horse, but uh, and I wish my son were here to help me with the math, but I think I've calculated between the superintendent's recommended budget and the 10.5 budget, it's about 50 cents a day for a Freeport average resident. And
092um honestly um in regards to Tom's comment on the voters, 309 is actually out of 1300 is a pretty good statistic. I think you should give it to the voters and let them shoot it up or down and if it's down then come back to the table. But give us a chance to vote on saving at least all the teachers jobs. If you can find cuts somewhere else that'd be great. But I remember as a kid myself um looking at at my son's schedule through the day, he gets like say gym class, he gets that twice a week for only one semester in the whole year. When I was a kid, we had gym twice a week and art. We switched back and forth between art and music twice a week for the whole year.
093So just looking from you know I was there in the 80s I don't want to mention how old I am but [laughter] um till now it to me and and they did add you know he has tech which we it was all combined into science back in the day but you know so there are some differences there but um I I would just hate to see teachers getting cut and you know their opportunities to um pick classes that that will help them excel. And RSU5 has been fantastic, you know, for our kids to be winning these math contests statewide. And one of them actually is going to the national championship down in Orlando. Uh these these kids are are pretty bright. But I don't want that just for my son. We want that for kids
094behind us. and and I won't be having any more kids, but [laughter] for any of the the young parents here now or or future parents, we got to think about them, too. So, thank you. >> Thank you, Mike. [applause] Okay, so that was all I had for the uh budget. I think I saw two hands go up, so I saw John's first and then Yeah. Okay. I [clears throat] have a I'm John Jake from Freeport again. I have a proposal for you and it would begin by um restoring uh free uh Freeport Middle School French position full-time, restoring the Freeport High School math position. Uh I would not discount the fact that you will lose a computer science class and that does not play well in the community and you will have votes against the
095budget for cutting four teachers at the high school uh or four teachers yet one of them the Latin teachers should be maintained and also the ESL districtwide. Those are full four time full-time teaching positions you really need to maintain because this budget will not pass from people who are not happy with that end of it. And I understand what we're saying. Seniors, I'm a senior as well and I've lived here over 20 years as well and the taxes have gone. I agree. But we got to be getting something for that. And the fact that the elementary school numbers might be on the verge, but they're not over that. So you can't sell the community on that. You're cutting four positions, three high school teachers, decimating the language program, the foreign language program. That is not
096wise. where you can cut page six of the handout that you gave here. Okay, here are some things to consider. You know, just consider these um right here. $22,560 miscellaneous supplies, books, furniture, subscription, contracted services. There's no cuts on that $200,000 there. So, consider something there. You have an energy audit. I'm not sure what this is for $254,000. No cuts in that. You have continuing vehic uh vehicle equipment replacement plan, new buses down the line, $168,000. I think we can wait on a bus rather than cut a teacher. Think about it. Transportation, 20 hours of administrative support at the tune of $51,000. It's another one to consider. So there is places there are places and the technology I already talked about. I mean to spend that much money for laptops for all these kids when
097a Chromebook will do the job is frankly asenheim at this and I was really glad to see you took a big chunk out of that because that's a big chunk of money. So let's find the money and keep these teachers. Thank you. >> Thank you, John. >> Good evening. uh Michael Matzer from Panel. Uh really just a quick point and then a couple of questions uh for you on the budget. The first from a point perspective. Superintendent Gray, you had mentioned earlier some of the uh the close votes that have been been done recently. I would say, you know, as we have more controversy around a vote, that energy can build on either side. And I think that you have seen from some of the more recent energy that has been building in Panel with
098regard to some of the potential cuts down the line regarding Panel that that energy can grow very quickly on the preserve side as well. And so I think you have a a huge community here that has come out to support the budget as it stands today. And I think that we can rally around that and I would say use that energy, use that if we choose to go with a higher tier, a smaller smaller cut. Uh so I think there's there's an opportunity there for us to to preserve more of our services from the second uh just in terms of couple really quick questions. The first uh when Lois you had asked you know is there any room between the black line and and some of the other tiers right 2A you know tier three
099you know all of those the answer was really sort of no but I'm not sure that that's really the case and I I would ask you know just looking through that list of where the reductions are it looks like there's at least half a million if not more of reductions that have been proposed that are proposed for non-eing positions right for non-educational purposes. And so is there a tier potentially in there that that fits where the all of the teachers where most of the teachers are preserved but but those other cuts or some of the other things that were just proposed are looked at as as a potential for reduction there question. Um similarly you know was there any consideration given to not backfilling the open admin position that a search committee was just initiated
100for. Yeah. >> Okay. >> Uh, so two things. The first question, um, it's funny you say that because I actually after I said it, I was like, there's a few things. So, I actually went through the sheet. Um, and the technology piece is non-staff related. Um, there was some facilities that was split into a couple that was about $50,000, which was non-staff related. Um, >> yeah, facility study. I think the uh >> well the facility study we've actually already moved so >> still count I mean it's counted in in this these numbers I think though right it's just coming out of the reserves instead but uh school nutrition on there right and you know printing clerk potentially right you know so I think again >> well that's a staff person >> uh teaching uh positions
101I think seem to be what folks are most okay >> most concerned about but um >> okay great and then uh last I was just curious what Uh on the transportation side, look, there were some really big increases on transportation this coming year. Curious if you could shed some light on what what that was coming from. >> So um so the the actually um I'll just let you finish. Was that your last question? >> That was my question. >> Okay. So, I'm actually probably going to grab Kelly for this um because this I think sort of spans both your question and one of John's about the energy audit and the transportation piece um and what those what those relate to because those um are part of a a process. So, I want to let Kelly
102explain it better than me. Okay. So, um where to begin? Um we So, we'll talk about the energy audit. Um last, okay, we're going back a year now. So during last the 2526 school year, um the school board um voted to move forward with um 25 school year. >> Sorry. Yes. 2425. Well, the but the RFQ like for the RFQ for the energy audit um which ultimately ended up being awarded to energy management consultants um which we to refer to as EMC most of the time but I will give the full name um and EMC conducted a complete audit of our buildings um energy out of the buildings uh building envelopes HVAC HVAC systems windows doors Um, I'm furnaces. I know I'm forgetting some of the things. Glenn could probably tell me if I I
103forgot. Uh, yes. Lighting upgrades. Um, in order to try and find efficiencies within um the the budget, uh, future efficiencies within the budget, but also to address a lot of the deferred maintenance that has been happening as we preserve positions and put other things off. Um and so the um energy management's consultants presented um the facilities committee with a uh a extensive comprehensive list which got rated and put broken into four different phases. Um in 2526 we began phase one. We are in that currently um which largely involves lighting up upgrades um a furnace here at the high school and a few other things. Um and as part of that process, we are taking on a lease a lease payment annually for 17 years in order to get these capital project items done but spread
104them out over a period of time. We what you see here in the budget um because we did a lease payment is the first year payment on because this is 2627's budget. It's for the work they're currently doing in 2526. So that number cannot be reduced because last year at the I believe it was like the April 30th meeting maybe um or April 9th meeting possibly the board voted to move forward with phase one of the energy audit. This is the payment for phase one of the energy audit. Um so that's not something that can be reduced. Um when we look at the next item below which was addressed which is the continuation of vehicle and equipment replacement plan. Um we when I got back to RSU5 um and did an inventory uh a complete
105inventory of all of the vehicles that are in the district. It's not just school buses. We have grounds maintenance vehicles. We have um many vans that transport students to and from school because they um due to IEP needs. Um we have many vans that deliver kids to out of district placements. We have um vans doing shortened schedules for students. So there's several vans as well. Um most of that um there was no plan on replacement for the vans at all. We were um trying to do two maybe one bus a year, but depending upon how the budget worked out, sometimes we got a bus, sometimes we didn't get a bus. Um and so last year um during the uh budget process the joint uh the for what we're currently expending this year the we presented
106to the facility a joint facilities and finance committee a vehicle and equipment replacement plan and I would be remiss not to mention the tractors that mow the lawns and plow um because those are also in this plan. Um there was no plan for replacement for those. So over the la over last year, we spent um a considerable amount of time. We inventoried all of these items. We looked at the list. Um had we replace them on schedule, almost most almost 75% of the fleet should have been replaced in 2526 that we're in right now. um based upon their useful life. We've been bandating these together, which is one of the drivers that you see for another item that got talked about tonight, which is the um contracted services, supplies, that kind of thing. That's where
107all of the repairs are. So, I'll stick on the vehicle replacement, then I'll go and talk about that one. Um so, the for $168,000, it's more than a bus. It's actually two buses. It's the um it's the lease payment on two buses, a two vans, a tractor, a gator, and um missing some oh a grounds vehicle that was in dire need of replacement. So, this is the first year of the lease payment on those items. Um the board also voted and you will see it coming back again next year because again this was a phased approach to replacement for these vehicles where we're trying to keep a flat amount within the budget to help offset those costs. also presented during that time when we were looking at taking on the energy audit cost and the
108vehicle and equipment replacement plan. We looked at how we could do that incrementally for the taxpayers, meaning taking them on in incremental steps. So, one of the things that we did last year, um, which was for the 2526 budget, which was the first lease payment on those vehicles. I'm sorry, this is the second lease payment on these vehicles. We actually um increased the amount of undesated fund balance that we were using, which is a revenue. again get too layer too deep in the layers but you take your expenses you subtract out your revenues and then the net is what goes to taxation. So what we presented to the board and the board approved was to utilize some of our undesated fund balance in order to level off the impact annually for taking on phase 1,
1092, 3, and four of the energy audit over 4-year period. and then taking four years to work into a vehicle and equipment replacement plan where ultimately we will stop having to lease and we will be able to just buy the vehicles outright and not spend money on the interest as well. So we tried to be responsible last year but be part of being responsible last year um locks us into monies for future years in order to implement these plans. That takes care of those two items. I will speak briefly about um the transportation 20-hour administrative support that is well as an ad of 51,821. If you look at the line right below it, I am losing a half of a staff member within my office which is transitioning into that role. So you'll see a
110negative 51,821. So that's a net zero. although the expensorers are moving from um the system administration article for that person and being transferred to the transportation article. So that's some of the transportation article increase. The lease payment that we talked about for the 168,000 is also part of that. And then of course there are staff within the transportation articles because there are bus drivers that drive the buses and there's a mechanic um and well there's a mechanic's position who will finally have somebody in that role next year. Um and we also have um van drivers within that article. So um so while you see salary benefits and increases part of that 3.1 million it's not just teachers and edte it's it's districtwide. it's it's everyone except for nutrition and community programs cuz they sit in
111a separate fund. Um so [clears throat] that there's more of why transportation was up. And then the other piece um within transportation there's an increase within the contracted service line because as we all know working on vehicles you don't necessarily do that within house anymore. All our vehicles are computerized and have to be spent sent out to uh to a um a shop to be repaired. And so there are increasing costs if and we are trying to mitigate those by updating our fleet so that their our buses um and and um vans are not as old. But until we can get to that point of where we're actually working with newer vehicles um we need to continue to increase that line. We all know that fuel costs are up. That's part of the transportation line.
112Insurance costs are up. That's part of that district-wide miscellaneous supplies, books, furniture, subscriptions, contracted services. The financial software in my office that we use to to pay all the bills and to pay all the people. There's increases there. Um, and the other thing I will mention about that line is that's basically a net increase line. So there the schools were asked to look at their supply lines to look at any unnecessary items and make cuts where they could. So you while I didn't list every single item because this book would be huge um you see all the lines that are within the budget um that that um amount totals it up. And they they did they they really did. They came in at those kind of non-staff items very low. That was where we looked
113first. >> And I think I got them all. And the only other thing I wanted to mention that we didn't talk about during that the budget fails is you revert back to your previous year budget. So it gets so you can operate off of your previous year's budget. um until you pass a budget. But as we know, and we're looking at, you know, we had this meeting in November, just the year-over-year staff increases. That doesn't mean everybody's wages freeze, right? It just means that we are potentially $3.2 million behind [laughter] because we're only operating off of last year's budget. Thank you. I knew you'd do a better job of that than me. Okay. Any other comments or questions for the public input piece before the board begins their deliberations? Laura, >> hi. Thank you. Sorry.
114I would be remiss if I didn't um bring up the teacher contract and I know you all be will be um renegotiating that next year and I'm curious what the historic increases have been in the past um prior to the current contract and I know that the um I know that the um current rates are higher I believe than they had been in the past. So I'm wondering what the future assumption was going assumption was for those modeling um scenarios for the future and what the percentages would be then. And um I know we can't you all can't predict the future but if we think those higher increases will need to be sustained like we saw in this last contract um is my question I guess. So uh I don't think I have a perfect
115answer for you because uh I don't have room in my head for all of the numbers that I've ever learned at the board. Um so I don't I don't know exa crazy I know. Um but um the the I can tell you the assumption [laughter] that I do know uh which was the assumption was that so next year is the last year of the current teacher contract and we assumed that again so we assumed that same rate which I believe was five and a half. >> I'm just going to sit down. >> Yeah. >> Thank you Mara. So, um, so it's, so it's seven for the BA level and then 5.5 for the M's level and 5.5 for the CAST level. >> Okay? >> And that's and that that's just what the scale grew by.
116For those who aren't at the top of the scale, there are steps in between. So there's the net increase works out to be different depending upon what your ED level is and what step you're on. >> Yeah. >> Okay. Um and I will just mention that for Morris purposes 2526 the uh BA level was 7% uh the um the MA and the CAS were six and in 2425 the BA level was 7 and the MA and CAS was 6.5. So it was 7 6.5 6.5 of the the first year of this contract. The second year was 766 and this last year which is the year we're going into is 7 5 1/2 5 1/2 and yes when I did the estimate I used what was this year's because we can't predict what we're going to
117end up negotiating. So I felt it was safe. So uh yeah. >> Yeah. I mean, whoa, today >> um we talked about this a bit. Was it last week? Were we here last week? >> I think we were. >> We were here last week. Uh we talked about this uh last week uh in our deliberations. And I think and one of the things that uh came up in that was trying to be transparent about that assumption. Um and that um since we're making that assumption, we are also um effectively signaling uh to the union um that that is what we are approaching those negotiations with um and sort of owning that as a sort of like a a starting point for those conversations um so that we would be transparent both for the board but
118for the public and also for the staff. um that uh any negotiated uh increases that are above that um would have impact on that um on that assumed increase uh that we have there. Um which again to be transparent would likely then trans would then translate into additional staff cuts. Um, so I think what we're we were trying to do last week and I'm just reiterating is just being clear that um, as we said before, we want we are very supportive of having uh, really competitive um, contracts for our for our staff. Um but also just acknowledging um that we have to make those assumptions and if um it is higher than what did we say it was 5.5 um then uh then there are downstream effects of that and just for us all to
119uh accept that and also just for the public and the staff to know that >> and the [snorts] only other thing I would like to mention is that's one component of a collective bargaining agreement right um so we also assumed that health insurance rem coverage levels remained the same. That's not what I'm saying that the premiums remain the same. What I'm saying is that the district is covering at the same level. During negotiations, there are many levers that can get played with. Right? So there's a typically a pot of money um that we can then move levers with and it might so when Colin says that's the starting point, I wouldn't necessarily agree that that's the starting point. It's the starting point for the pot of money depending upon which levers get triggered during negotiations.
120Thank you. All right. Going once, going twice. Okay. Thank you. Um, this is great. I feel like we've had this public input on the uh on our agendas for this meeting for several years and we I'm not sure we've ever had people take us up on it. So, thank you for those who did. Thank you for everyone who came and spoke during public comment. Um uh we do have another public comment at the end. If you wanted to stay, uh we would encourage you to. Um but uh so now we will move um from the public portion of this to the board portion of this. Um so item 13A is the 2027 budget deliberations by the board. Um and I will just start with um I will just start with the uh uh reminder of
121our goal for the evening. Um, next week we are scheduled to adopt a budget. Um, and as we mentioned in the process uh a little bit earlier, that is the budget that will go to the annual budget meeting in May. Um, so uh what we're shooting for tonight is for us essentially to come to that number uh so that Kelly is able to bring us those war articles, etc. next week for us to adopt and then sign and get that process moving. Um, we are not required. We could come and change some things if we wanted to next week. I would I would prefer if we didn't, but you know, it's it's it's our decision as a whole board. So, um, I would say that the smoothest process is if we can come to that
122number tonight. Um and um and then we will adopt next week. Okay. [snorts] All right. Staff. Um I guess I have a request and a suggestion of how we talk about the discussion tonight that I just wanted to talk about. Um, I think it would be helpful if we maybe spent a little bit of time at the beginning talking about how we want to approach this discussion and what we want it how we want it to go. Um, and as you might imagine, I say this because I think it's important for us to remember that it's not our job to run the schools. It's our job to see that they're wellrun. Um, and I think the best way that we could do that is by discussing in percentages only and to not get into a
123situation where we're talking about position by position. Um, and that feels most appropriate appropriate for me especially because we actually have no say in how any of this money actually gets used. We can only uh authorize money. Um, and I think it's important for us to remember that as we talk about it. And I think it's important for everyone that is listening and watching us to know that that's the case as well. Um I think if we were to go position by position like has been suggested and questioned and and talked about in the exploration phase, if we were to talk about that tonight, I'm concerned that we'll continue to erode trust between administrators and us and administrators and staff. Um, I worry that it is excruciating for people who are potentially being impacted by
124it. Um, and I kind of think it's a disservice to all the effort that has been completed so far to get back to a place where we're going line item by line item, person by person. Um, and so for that reason, it's my my my ask, I guess, is that we talk about how we're going to talk about the budget. And my suggestion would be that we talk about it through percentage increase. >> Kelly, >> yeah, I thank you, Steph. That I think that's a really great way of framing this discussion. And I to add to that, I just really want to acknowledge all of the work and the thought and the and the care that has gone into the process to this point by our administrators and our superintendent because I know um that
125Tom, Superintendent Gray, has done an extraordinary amount of work trying to get input up until this point from our administrators, from our teachers, and our community to try and shape priorities for this budget. So, um, I just want to acknowledge that that that there has been a lot of thought and care put into what they feel are priorities to keep and what is going to have the least impact for our students. And I really um just respect all of that work. And I I want to thank you guys for doing that. Um, and I just want to acknowledge too that if we don't do this hard work this year, I think we're going to be back here next year. and it's going to probably be at least as hard next year to make this have
126have this discuss discussion again. So, um I just think we need to keep that in mind. Um the third thing I wasn't here last week, so I'm not really sure how much discussion was had, but I would really like to hear um a little bit about the difference between 2 and 2 A in terms of the impact. So, if we could get a little bit of discussion about that, I would appreciate. Thank you. >> Sure. So, if I go back not to last week, but before that, there had been some conversation here for board members asking like if we were to go somewhere between the least invasive tier and the tier I recommend, what would what would I recommend adding back? So, I went to the team and we had a discussion about that. And
127last week I brought forward okay if you were going to add something back to get between those four the priorities would be and the instructional strategist K to five making the middle school Spanish teacher whole which would enable us to make sure that uh seventh and eighth graders all of them get world language and the two edte the general ed edte and mass landing respectively and that fits in with the for me the broader priority but I think the team I think I honestly speak for the team if anybody if I'm getting this wrong throw a rotten tomato um >> only if you have good aid [laughter] >> um it it really is that it's the elementary schools in particular the youngest grades where the need is greatest. There are a few aspects to that
128that I haven't even brought up yet. It's that the behaviors that we're seeing from young kids, they are not what they were 5 or 10 years ago. At More Street, we are contending with extreme behaviors all the time from very little kids who need lots of support. And that's what I have to weigh against very valid arguments about a math teacher at the high school. I'm not saying that that's not a valid argument, but I'm saying I've got to tell you the need at the other places is greater. That's where we need a person more. And as I look at all of those possibilities to add back in, for me, it would my recommendation would be you're almost adding everything back in before you add back in things that are at the high school right
129now. So, what I hear you saying is that having these two elementary school eds for our to help manage some a lot of the behaviors we're seeing would actually be pretty valuable. Is that a line I'm hearing? >> They would certainly have an impact. Um, we can manage the impact without them. A part another sort of strain of conversation that intersects there was the question about administration and I I told him um I think it was Mr. Mezer that we had not um considered reducing administration. We did put that on the table in our discussions. But what we really found was that especially at the elementary schools, we recently added assistant principles at those schools. Assistant principles can intervene with behavior in ways that edte cannot. Assistant principles can call parents, can impose consequences, can
130help with 504 processes, can follow up on attendance. We've seen dramatic decreases in absenteeism since we added those positions and having those positions there. It's a valid question to try to it is a valid priority for sure to try to prioritize student facing positions. What I'd have to say very very frankly is that those administrative positions are almost entirely studentf facing because they're dealing with behaviors that lets the teachers teach. Um and at the central office level um the we are already understaffed compared to other districts. That's in terms of administrators. For example, um, in Brunswick, they have an assistant superintendent and they also have a director of instruction. Um, we've consolidated those into one position. We have one special ed director with a district of,900 kids and over 400 of them with IEPs. Of
131course, we're going to be adding an early childhood director that will also um we have cast that position purposefully as an assistant special ed director because the early childhood mandate from the state centers on special education and it's going to explode that need. Um and the money that pays for that is almost entirely out of the separate stream of money that the state sends us will be sending us for early childhood. Um we are cobbling together administrative support positions centrally to try to address uh the transportation need which is pretty glaring. Right now our transportation director is actually doing three jobs. He's directing the department. He's driving a bus and he's the mechanic. Um which is and he does not have a direct administrative support person. Um, that's a lot of every time a kid
132needs to change their route or every time there's a field trip or every time there's a snow day that that that department needs more than it has. We we really have to make an investment there. And the way we chose to invest it is to um basically take somebody who's right now in the business office and make them halftime transportation and halftime business office to get some much needed support there. So, um I think I maybe I've digressed a little bit. [laughter] Um but I I'm just trying to explain some of the the calculations that we the calculus that we've wrestled with. >> Yeah. I guess what I'm uh specifically it would be nice if you could address the the value added of these particular the the instructional coach and the half.4 for Spanish. >>
133So with the with regard to the instructional strategist, what we have really found is that those um the instructional strategists in our district are really creating commonality of practice and they're working handinhand with the administrators to really elevate practice and elevate teaching all across the grade span. And we're seeing results of that in our data. our data are quite strong in those early grades and much of this comes down to what's you know it's all about the greatest impact on kids. Could we get by with one fewer instructional strategist? We could and we'd still be in a better position than many districts. We get a lot of bang for our buck out of that position. And I think another aspect that's been discussed a lot and I comp I completely get it. you know, we've
134talked about is world language and that's across, you know, the entire grade span, K to 12. And as I've said before, I would love for us to be a district that had world language all the way down to kindergarten. I've come from districts where that is the norm. We are simply not there at the moment. Um, and when we looked at the numbers at the middle school and the high school, we are, yes, we'd be losing a Latin teacher at the high school. But what we have right now is one Spanish teacher, one teacher who teaches French and Spanish, combination thereof, and two Latin teachers at the high school. We can reduce a Latin teacher, which prevents us from having to reduce somewhere else where the impact would be greater. And we can still have
135French, Spanish, and Latin at the high school. And at the middle school, what we found is that the way that the school is configured and time is used in the schedule right now, only 55% of any kids are getting of the kids are getting language at all. And fewer than half of those are taking French. And those who take French, we looked at the data, most of them do not go into French too at the high school. They actually the greatest plurality of them choose Latin and after that it's French one and some choose Spanish. So when we weighed all of the factors and we realize that if we make the schedule at the middle school more efficient, we can it that would then there are many pieces to that. But it enables us to
136reduce some teaching positions which truly are not needed. And it if we focus on one language by making that one teacher whole, the Spanish teacher I mean we can make sure that all middle school kids grades seven and eight get Spanish. So while it is reducing an option for a language viewed through another lens, it's actually expanding access to world language. That seems to be like a solid recommendation. I have a couple of things. Um, first before I forget because my brain is mushed sometimes. Um, there was a suggestion that we just upload our numbers without context and I think this discussion is highlighting for me how important the context is. Um, some of the line items were called out and when we explained the backstory, I'm hoping that they were clearer as things that
137we've already considered. But if you don't watch back, you don't hear that context. You don't like some of these titles are misleading, but we also can't have a whole paragraph for a line item. Um, I think what might be helpful, and I don't think it currently exists, is if there's a way for us to index our YouTubes a little bit so that if you are particularly interested in this discussion, you can click on it and watch that discussion because um, as a new board member, increasingly I've noticed that we have um, little spurts where the public is extremely interested in what we have to say, but they don't always have time or energy to go back and see our previous discussions where we've actually hashed it out quite a bit and I understand that. I've
138actually been there. [laughter] Um, but I would love to give them more of a chance to be able to do that. Um, and see that we have done some of this work. Um, it's not while it feels like it's in a vacuum, it's not. And, um, at least give them a chance to see our thinking without us having to relive it in real time again. Um, I we're all busies and I understand that. Um, but it'd be great if we could help them along by indexing or something of that way. I just wanted to get that out before I forgot it entirely. [laughter] >> We're not getting a position for that, Valerie, to index. I feel like it might be a full-time job to try and keep us. >> That's something that's been on my
139brain for the strategic communications committee. And so, I'll be sure to take that to the meeting that's scheduled >> for for what it's worth. Just while we're on this point, there was a gentleman who spoke, whose name was Nate. >> Yes, Nate was the one that mentioned just up. >> So, I talked to him on the phone today and he did have some really interesting ideas about it's nothing we can do quickly for right now, but for the future, how we could take the information that we have made publicly available, but it's dense and it's not necessarily easy to sift through, especially if you're just walking in in the middle of discussions. I do think that would be a valuable thing for us to work on. And that was a takeaway I from from his
140comment as well. Um because you know I look I look at a fair number of different districts websites for information when I'm trying to compare things and things like that. And I actually think our website has a ton of information on like way more than you find on most districts. But there's a lot and there's a lot of places and you know um so I think any uh any feedback around how we can make that more accessible for people or or you know ingestable in a reasonable way is great. So um thank you for taking that back. And then the other thing I I wanted to say that I I am rehashing from previous talks just because I I think it's an important topic here is that um while the feedback we've heard is really
141wonderful on the staff that might be getting cut um the final dispensation is determined by the contract with the union in many cases and not necessarily um position based. Right. So, you're talking about which individuals would be produced, >> right? Because I love these testimonials so much and it really is cutting. I I know that many of us are sitting here in anguish because it's it it's a true Sophie's choice. So that's where it's really hard up here because you know folks can come to the podium and they have their first amendment rights and they can really say whatever they want but we really can't go into we have to follow the contract which was negotiated and the way that the reduction of force clause for the contract works is that staff members all have
142a certain number of points and the points are assigned by different categories and the most significant one One of those categories is length of service. There are others which is how many certifications that you have and your evaluations as a part of it. But we to when we discuss when the team discusses which positions are going to have the least impact to kids, we were scrupulous about we cannot discuss this with a name attached to it. It just has to be the position. And so that's how we have to talk about it here. Even when we hear very valid feedback that a particular person is really valuable to us, they are. And that's not among the criteria we can use in our decision. >> And then finally, hopefully for now, um, >> all rights reserved.
143>> Yep. [laughter] Uh something that I mentioned last time we have not yet discussed is the LD in front of the legislature that would potentially reduce um the state funding and how that would impact since we're trying to do a lens of the long view. I think that's most responsible. Um I hate to do this to Kelly. Do we have anything that might estimate what that would do long term? >> I did it. >> Yes. >> Um [laughter] haha. I did something Kelly hasn't done yet. It's cuz she was doing all the other stuff. Um I kind of ran through and I didn't run through all three tiers cuz I do actually have a job. Um during the day when I was doing this, but um I did run through tier two. Uh and I
144read so um as you guys shared there's kind of three proposals that have come out. Um all three would uh and basically what this is is sort of a re um a reallocation of the funding formula and um to uh to try to get money to um districts that have a harder time raising it from their tax base. Um and so there are three different scenarios um that are proposed. Um all three would result in a reduction to funding for RSU5. Um so um I ran through just sort of the tax impact piece of it. Um so the the least painful uh is a reduction of just under $200,000. Um and uh that would be a tax impact um of 5.36 in Durham compared to 5.05 3.86 in Freeport compared to 3.51 and 5.7 excuse
145me 5.67 in Panel compared to 5.27. Um, and the second tier was $644,000 reduction. That goes to six uh 6.1 in Durham, 4.86 in Freeport, and 6.62 in Pano. And the largest uh cut to our funding is $1.44 million. Uh, and that would be that the tier 2 budget would have a tax impact of 7.4 7.41 41 in Durham, 6.14 in Freeport, and 8.29 in Panel. And I always want to put the caveat that Kelly puts on. This is just the municipal part of the budget. Excuse me. This is just the school part of the bud budget, excluding the municipal and um and the county. Now, to be fair, uh in all three towns, the school budget is the largest portion of the pie. I know it's she called it thirds, but our third is
146bigger than everybody else's third. But it it is not the whole and this is just you know the the increase from our portion assuming everything else is flat. So it is um it is meaningful. Uh my understanding is is they are recommending the lowest tier the $200,000 roughly decrease. Um but that you know that question has been weighing on my mind too Valerie. you know, we can make decisions um you know, things we can control and then there's things we can't control. Um and you know, none of the recommendations see us increasing our funding from the state. They all show it decreasing our funding from the state. So, keeping that in mind as a as a potential, you know, thing on the horizon that we're going to have to grapple with, I think is important.
147>> I read the article, but I forget that would go into effect for 26 27. >> I don't think so. Like I can't imagine the plan is it would change the funding they've already provided. Is it? >> I just I layered it on against ours. I I couldn't imagine they could even make it happen by then. But gez, that would be that would be a little rough to pull the rug out after everybody's done their budgets. >> Well, again, that's why they're preliminary 8279. >> Well, yes. Right. But this is usually what preliminary means. It doesn't mean they're going to change the law in the middle, but >> they could. But I I'm just going to get on my soap box and pitch. There is a if y'all want to listen about it, tomorrow, March
14819th, is a joint committee on the joint committee on education and cultural fails are are hosting a work session on a number of bill amendments. This is one of them 1:00. You can watch it online or you can go in person. And I would probably if you have a chance speak to your local legislator, send testimony. um because it will have a significant impact. My understanding right now is MEP meri was recommending the 9010 tier. Um but >> and that's the 191,000 >> correct which is the lowest impact to us but again um we are we are in the minority in the sense of loss. Right. So there are there are more there are more districts that stand to gain from this change um than there are districts that lose from this change. And so,
149um, and yes, you'll largely see that most of it's southern Maine that tends to lose, um, and it, and, um, in and then, again, I'm not saying there aren't some southern Maine districts that are going to gain, but, for the most part, when you look at the impacts and where they are, it's largely, um, central and lower. Um, so I just while we didn't build this budget around that, um, because this kind of came in late to the process, especially for us, um, if it does take effect this year and we have gone through our budget, annual budget meeting and voted on the referendum, we're going to be looking at a subsidy reduction because we're not we can't we've already assessed taxes at that point. Um, and we'll be looking to make some curtailments to
150be honest. Could uh just before I lose her for just a second, this thought um would uh would any of the article reserves we have set up be a potential offset to that curtailment. >> Yes. >> That we would have access to without an annual budget meeting. >> Yes. as long as we have the wording appropriate on the annual on the um >> warrant at the annual budget meeting which will be sure to have the ability to expend from um but then it would have to come back to the board for a vote even after the voters approve. >> I'm just trying to think process-wise. Yes. Sorry, Lois. Go ahead. >> Has anyone read the LDS? It should say in there whether or not it's going to be put off for a year. They usually
151put that language in. And what are the LD numbers? >> It's LD 22226. >> It's on um I have an email. >> Are there three different bills though? Did you say >> um there are other things that they're also discussing? So there's LD2226 >> and then amendment review of LD 2175, 2192, and 1892. So they're talking about more than just one >> 2175. That's um regarding uh legislative review for credentiing educational personnel. >> I don't mean to interrupt. If you just give me the numbers, I'll read them tomorrow. >> 2192 >> 92 >> and then 1892. Those are the well technically the four that they're that they're talking about tomorrow at 1:00. >> It's beginning fiscal year 2728. Okay. So not next year, right? So we but it's something we would be building into our
152budget next year and >> or having to account for next year. >> My um what I know is that this this bill will have the support of the MEA and also the main state superintendent association. So I think it's I think it's likely to pass. And one of the factors that accounts for why we are kind of a loser in this is I mean correct me if I'm wrong but one of the biggest factors that they're reconsidering is changing the emphasis on property valuation to some some of that would be changed to income as measured by student poverty and they'd be using basically the federal free reduced form to the data from that as a a measuring stick. Um, so and they're trying to account for communities where people's property values have skyrocketed but their
153incomes have not kept pace and you know like to a lot of people that's a good thing. But in places where the income is relatively high compared to the rest of the state it means you're going to get less. >> Right. >> Because the pool of money isn't being proposed to change. It's how it's distributed. >> Yep. Right. And I think one of the other challenges is free lunch changed, >> right? We don't even collect the collection rate of forms. So, right, we do have to we're in the cycle of we need to collect them again next year. Um, so we will be making a hard pitch for the actual forms. Um what's still um in question is whether or not the alternative economic status form will qualify or not. Um right now the way
154when our when they're calculating our E279, they don't just use the free and reduced applications. were allowed districts to circulate what we call an alternative economic status form where parents who aren't taking advantage of free and reduced lunch can actually still claim whether or not they qualify for it. Um and then that helps us through our E279 for our um disadvantage numbers when we're when you're when you're calculating the rates. Um >> can they call it something else? Cuz it's all free lunch now. Like everyone gets free lunch. >> It is. But it's again that's to me that's part of the complicating factor in is how accurate the free and reduced numbers actually are because like you said most people are confused because lunch is free. >> Yeah. I don't need to fill it out.
155It's always free. >> Correct. And so that that's worrisome. Right. Um because how accurate is the data? Right. Is there local data available from the feds on who gets SNAP and who gets um other services that >> those are autoqualified? >> Those are that's right. That's who qualifies. And so can >> without asking parents to fill out a free and reduced lunch form >> that people don't understand everybody gets free lunch. Can we use other data like SNAP like who gets medic um >> medication >> main care who gets different services to figure that out is that available to us >> um my understanding it's the free and reduced numbers and what autoqualifies >> so what they what I heard discussed last week when I went to a whole so dog and pony show about
156this was that okay just this is complicated and I don't know want presuppose everybody knows the back determine who would be eligible for federal free and reduced lunch. So we got used to get that form every year that where that intersects with state funding is that so we have that data and the state gives us a multiplier effect for certain students who fall into certain categories. So if we have every student we have who is considered economically disadvantaged has a multiplier of I think 1.25. Special education has a multiplier of I think 1.5. ESOL students have a multiplier, etc., etc. So, it's really to our advantage to get these forms in. But then the state came along and made lunch free for everybody, which is super, but it also meant we're not allowed actually to
157collect that form every year. And instead, we're only allowed to collect it every fourth year. So, next year will be our year to collect it again. But in the meantime, there's this other form that the state developed called the al the alternate form, which is so that okay, you're not filling out the federal free form anymore, but we still need to know your data year to year for your state subsidy of how many kids you have in poverty. So, we're going to have you do this other form. And thus, we create form confusion. And we don't have all the people filling out the forms. And every year, we're h like we'reounding all of you to like turn in your form. It's because we get more. That's where our money comes from. So that's and this
158is where the state wants to draw its data from to make this determination about income level to revise the funding formula. And one of the things they said to all the superintendents and business managers and people whose heads were swimming with this last week is that we've looked at a bunch of different measuring sticks for this and this is the best one. I don't know if it actually is, but that's what they're selling. So that's what we have to pick up. >> I guess my the point Lois though is that while there are what we can call direct, like those people who are getting SNAP and stuff, like they're they're on a what we consider a direct list. So that notifies and qualifies you automatically. There's a lot of people who don't go out and
159seek SNAP and sneak up seek other benefits that are potentially eligible and that's what we're worried about missing is the you know if if they're relying strictly on those forms and we're and people aren't on the direct search list we may be missing those people that we're capturing with this alternate economic status form. Um, and the I'm looking at the text of the language and it of of the bill and it does say um that are eligible for free and reduced price meals. It doesn't >> mhm >> it doesn't mention the ability to collect like with an alternative an alternate form like we do currently. So that that's concerning to me just knowing the n you know that that we do pick up extra um qualifying families through that form. Um and this legislation doesn't
160allow for it or it's not clear that it >> currently won't correct >> to bring it all back to the budget. >> We're probably going to get less money in the future. [laughter] >> Yes. >> Sorry. Valerie, >> I realize that I'm on a tangent. Um, but I'm hoping that this will close a loop. Um, or at least something that we can maybe table for another time, but at least have it in the back of our minds. Is there any way that we can partner if we're already with FAPE and our early childhood stuff working, I'm assuming, with um healthcare providers to identify those kids? Is there any way we can partner with them when they're asking questions about food insecurity being like could you give them this forward if they say yes >> the
161form? >> Yes. Is that something that is possible? >> I'm not sure I'd have to dig into that. >> I have a lot as somebody who is very data driven a lot of knowledge in the the crowd nodding so I'm going to go with a nod. >> Okay. Hi Erica Mato assistant superintendent. So um there are there are possibilities for sharing information with providers. There is another form involved to allow those permissions. Um the other piece I would recommend is revising our initial point of contact at that point of registration making that workflow for parents um simplified and hopefully computer-based. uh because there have been some um we've been conducting a lot of our work on paper um and I think there are probably more streamlined ways to do that. So yes, we can uh
162through a process with providers. The state created this statewide. Um I think it was probably about eight or nine years ago. Um so that can be put into effect, but you're still going to miss some people because there won't always be those partnerships. So, I think our our best effort is placed probably at our first point of contact and making sure that the opportunities are understood and easy to access. >> Yeah. And I think it's important for us to be um very transparent on why we're collecting this information, right? I mean, I think it's a it's clearly a sensitive topic for families to share. Um, I think it's important for for community members to know why we're asking the question, particularly when there is no necessarily all the lunches are free. It's not for free
163and reduced lunch anymore. So, well, why are you even asking me for this anymore? I think it's really important that we communicate that our funding is driven by this, right? everyone benefits if we, you know, we know we have communities or we have, you know, families in our community that fall into these categories where we could be reimbursed at a higher rate, which helps the schools and helps everybody's tax bill, right? Like that's good for everybody. Um, so >> just so you know, we did a big push on this this fall and we got a significantly increase in the for the forms that we got back increased. So we we're pushing it. we continue to do the same. >> I think yeah, I think we need to keep doing that. Colin, >> I just wanted
164to come back to Stephanie's uh sort of framing of the of the conversation and I think and I think it's a really good one. I think that I suppose what I would maybe add to it as a um uh if we were to if we were to say yes, let's talk about it in terms of um just in terms of percentages or in terms of just n the budget numbers. Um, I I guess as I've been thinking about that, I think what that presupposes and I suppose I just sort of wanted to suggest that we kind of like kind of make a decision about it is sort of whether or not as a board um for the purposes of this conversation um we uh we take the superintendent and administration's um uh hierarchy um of
165need that they have articulated um kind of as gospel um for the purposes of this conversation or not. Um because I think that um that question I think then uh it just feels like that question kind of comes before uh sort of the the point that Stephanie's making. And I think that um there's kind of two paths that that sets us down. One is we um we then say okay we're not going to be having a conversation um where the board is uh directly expressing um views around the value of certain positions versus other positions. Um [snorts] whereas or we go down a path of saying we are going to do that. Um and I think just being clear with ourselves of which of those paths we want to go down. Um, I just think
166that would be helpful for us to do. >> Chris, >> um, yeah, I I understand the reasoning behind thinking about it that way. But as a as a kind of a counterpoint to that, I I feel like this entire discussion is based on these positions. And yes, we will end up at a percentage, but the positions in it matter. Um, the positions are why the public was here talking. the positions are why we have this document in front of us with them outlined and and whatnot. The the positions are this like that's the discussion. And so I feel like just stating a taxpayer percentage um really discounts that we all have our own priorities in spaces and that yes the administration has done great work in this but their priorities and ours might not match
167and that's why we're here. Um, and so I feel like you an example of this is the adding back a halftime ESOL position is not something that was a priority of the administration. Um, but is something that I find I am becoming more and more in support of um, and that is me talking about a specific position, but that feels like why I'm here. [laughter] um and that I'm not here for the taxpayer percentage. I'm here for the student impact and that my view on the student impact is important in that. So I think that in framing that discussion that's that's where I'm coming from that I think that I want to talk about positions and not specific percentages despite then eventually ending up at specific percentages because that's that's what we vote on. Anna,
168um, I hear you, Chris, but I think we need to be really, really careful because when we had a discussion and it got into positions last year, it just it doesn't end well. It doesn't feel good. Um, where I'm at right now is I tentatively support the tier 2A percentage. I have a few questions about some um cuts that would remain. Um one of them is about ESOL. I feel as if um several board meetings ago we did hear from Erica about the numbers and how the schedule was going to look and how we were following the law. I think it'd be helpful to be reminded of that if that's possible because I'd like to see that. I was concerned when I heard from a teacher that I think it was an entire ESOL class
169was going to be going away at the high school level. I I wasn't really sure what that meant. Um I also have a question about what we're losing by the halftime um community outreach position moving from full-time to halftime. And then my other thought that just keeps I've asked it before, it just keeps coming up for me is we have these five special ed adte positions vacant. If they continue to be vacant, is there a way we can get creative with using some of that funding for what the administration says it best should be used for? So, those are my three points that I'd like to hear about, but tentatively I would like to move down the tier 2A path. >> Yeah, I just want to say I like your suggestion, Colin. I think it
170would be really helpful kind of to know um what people are feeling in terms of um you know, percentage or position. I personally am um I think it's our job to think about percentage. Um, I know the administrative team has done a ton of work to present us with budget options that they feel um are appropriate and can serve our students best. Um, and I would love to frame our conversation just around that percentage and what we're comfortable with as a board and not talk specific positions. staff. I just wanted to add that I I think that uh sharing our own personal perspectives is actually not our job. Um our job is to uh enable um and to support administrators to do their job. And talking about positions for me is very clearly an administrator's
171job. Um I can ask questions about it. I can make sure that I um don't think it's negligent or harmful. Um but I don't think that it's my job as a school board member to weigh in on any particular position. Kelly, >> yeah, I'm I'm thinking about this in terms of what budget our community will support versus what kind of value we will be getting from that budget. And and so in specific the difference between tier 2 and tier a 2a is the difference between um 6.53 versus 7.1. Is that an extra burden that our community would be willing to bear? And if it is having these extra positions in here to me seem like they would be worth it. And so that's kind of how I'm framing it. like is this percentage something that
172our community will bear because if it is these particular positions seem like they would add a lot of value. >> Colin. Yeah. Yeah. And I think I think just to not just to but not u put a fine point on it is that uh yes yes we all do have um have our compasses and our ideas on on what is what is valuable and I I think that I don't think um in any of this the the suggestion is that that's not part of the discussion but I think that I think the way I was framing my my recommendation is is effectively Um, we we either as a board um trust uh the superintendent we hired um to have run this process um and to to um deliver us what he did do, which is
173deliver these different tiers um with a careful accounting of the um of the um the impact of those different choices. Um, and I think I I think again it's sort of I'm I'm making it pretty binary and it's not it's not necessarily that binary, but I think that it's helpful to kind of keep keep that in mind a little bit to just sort of say like um uh you know to to Anna's point and and again I think I think we have we've we've owned um in earlier conversations um I remember a conversation in Durham this fall where we had a very frank conversation about um the uh the impact of the the way the budget process went last year um and what uh the drivers for that and then the process that that was
174and then the impacts of that. Um and my general sense uh coming out of that was that um uh while there were reasons and valid and very valid reasons why the board chose to have the kind of conversation that we had last year um in response to some of the information we were presented with. Um that uh we don't want to repeat that process. um in and um again that's why I'm saying we I think I'd just like us to sort of decide um uh as much as as much as we can um uh effectively whether we say um Tom and the other administrators, we know you looked at this really hard and uh no one wants to cut any position um and we know that these positions connect to real human beings and we
175understand the the the value of all of what they do. Um, and yet we're trusting you to make a determination that this is the least impact. Um, either we do that or we don't do that. Tom. Um, I think maybe my most appropriate ask in I think my most appropriate ask is that I will not say that we are perfect in our judgment. But what we have really striven very purposefully to do is weigh where the impact all these choices are relative to any other choice that could be made. And what we've tried to do is weigh where the impact is the least. And so when we get into these conversations about I think that adding back the math position has a lot of value. I won't disagree. But what we've had to think about
176is, okay, but does it have more value to add that back than it does to add back a second grade teacher? I don't think it does, and I don't think the team thinks it does. And those are the way we've had to approach this. And you know, the same is true for any of the the community outreach coordinator, the ESOL position, etc. We've had to really weigh it against what else would we add back first? And I think that the fair ask of me is not to ask you like please come in at this percentage. I think it's as a representative of the team to um I think I'd like to ask for your trust that we that's how we looked at it. And if you were to ask us we'd like to come in
177at this level. We've tried to tell you what the map to get the road map to get there is that is the least impactful all the way around. Um, and that's really not just it's it's it's not about me, it's about the team and how we work together. And I think um I appreciate that. Um, and I think that that is exactly why it's really challenging for us to like pick this over that because we don't have the global and and you know fairly to have uh, you know, someone at the high school, they they don't have the necessarily the value of of knowing what the impact of that that teacher at More Street looks like, right? It it's just impossible. um you know, no shade on us or them or it's just not possible
178for us to have that global impact. I I feel our our job is to say, you know, we we gave you a charge in in Durham. We asked for you to come back with some tears. Um you've done that. I think it's our job to ask the impact of the those tears. You've done that. Um we've asked you to come back with more information. and you've done that, too. Um, and we've asked you to rethink some of that, right? I think the the the middle school Spanish piece is a really good example of that, right? Like that sort of evolving thinking based on what you're hearing and what is still good for kids and a way that's workable um in the scope of everything else. So, um, I think we've I'm going to go to
179Cara because we haven't heard from you yet. And then I kind of want I mean, we've we've now spent 20 minutes talking about the process of how we're going to talk about it. So, I'd like to get us moving on to the actual talking about it. >> Yeah. I think I just want to add to the fact that we have so much to weigh. Like there's we and we've been given so much to weigh including public comment and emails and conversations with with neighbors and friends and and other parents and it it's a lot to weigh. And so I just want to just acknowledge a few things that this is really hard. So I just want to say that this is really really hard. I think no one here needs to be told that. Um,
180and I I would imagine not a lot of people in the public or in the schools need to be told that either, but there is I I've been going through a grief process actually throughout this. I think that we are grieving the potential if if if this passes loss of a lot of positions and even though we're not supposed to think about the people, we think about the people, right? And so there there's some grief there. These aren't decisions we take lightly. we make lightly. Um, it keeps many of us up at night. Um, we're we're grieving the loss of positions and also personally I'm grieving the fact that we're in a culture where education isn't valued at the level that many of us would like to see it valued in the sense that state
181and federal funds aren't keeping helping more to keep our systems afloat to a a degree that we would like to see. Um, and some people in the communities aren't don't value education enough to be willing to pay more in taxes. But I know it's not just about valuing education. We are living in a in a time of uncertainty and rising costs and impacted personal budgets. Um, I'm grateful that our budgets have passed before, but I worry that our luck will run out if we continue to push it. And when we look at the the tax impact, we might see, oh my gosh, that going from uh 6.3% to uh or 6.53% to 10.55% that's only a difference of like$25 to $70 per taxpayer. But really, and I had to take a moment to to recognize
182this. This is year-over-year the total amount that we're asking. And it compounds as we've heard some people share that how much their taxes have increased over the last 10 years. And that that is something to consider. It's it's hard but it's something to consider. At the same time, you know, I do have concerns about specific specific cuts and I won't go into those. Uh but I want people to know that that it is concerning for many of us. Um, and I don't want to save money just to end up with widening our achievement gaps and reducing workforce readiness and potentially increasing dropout rates or impacting future enrollment. Like those are all the things that I think about like is that what the impact is going to be um on that side. Um we are tasked
183with striking that balance, right? And um there's no perfect answer, there's no right answer. it's just a difficult one. Um, and we're forced to consider all the things that have been uh brought to us and the long-term sustainability. And I think that's the piece that I keep falling back on is that long-term picture. Um, and if we are going to be receiving and that bill has not passed so, but I agree, Tom, it looks like it's heading in that direction. Um, I don't see us receiving more federal or state funding anytime soon. Um, and with decreasing enrollment and the potential formula change and the possibility of taxpayers being unwilling to continue to pay more and more and more, I don't want to go through this next year again at the same level. Um, so bottom
184line coming back to the numbers, I would support a tier 2A and consider that bold to go to tier 2 A. That's my long comment. Was your hand up, Louisis? >> No. >> Okay. I wasn't sure if it was maybe going up. >> Okay. >> Aren't we all? >> I think we all are. Yeah. [laughter] Thank you. >> That's a great That's a great metaphor. >> Yeah. >> Um I just wanted to quickly point out that um Tom tricked us a little bit because tier 2A is actually 7%. [laughter] >> Which is what we originally wanted to see. Well, to be clear, when we put those together, we didn't know what the state subsidy was going to be. So, we felt like we better leave some wiggle room. And then it came in more than
185we thought. So, okay, extra wiggle room. >> And and I appreciate your kind of forethought in that. Um, and to that point, Anna, that's kind of why I'm coming down around this the 2A mark. So, >> yeah. And I just want to point out with the adding back in the point4 FTE Spanish, I know it it's not everything everybody wants in terms of supporting our world language program, but being able to offer Spanish to all of our seventh and eighth graders, it seems like that's a really good compromise that if we can allow them all to be able to experience a world language, it's at least heading in the right direction. And I appreciate the the data that was pulled to see like, you know, do we are most of our kids that are taking
186the French avenue moving on to French 2 and getting to French 5 and and from what we've seen for the last few years that's not been the case. Not to say it never would be, but um you know, most of them are either going into French one, which they could still do, um or switching to a different language. Also great options. Um, so, uh, I I appreciate sort of the creativity around around that piece, um, to because I I mean it's for me it's I I feel like it's actually an expansion of the world language program to go from 55% of the kids and I know Pam was clear to say not 100% of kids will take language. There are some that still that wouldn't be a path for them or appropriate for them, but
187somewhere I think from the 85 to 90% of kids would be taking a world language. I I mean that's that's a pretty big pickup in my opinion. So, okay. So, um I guess my question Oh, Chris. Yeah. >> Uh sorry. Um I appreciate all of your thoughts on on this and um I know it's my first year, so this is this is definitely um I sympathize with what you said, Cara. Um, >> we all look >> a lot of a lot of what you said has been just definitely weighing on me. [laughter] Um, and so I think that's one of the reasons why thinking about the people is something that I I can't not do. Um, but that aside, I I agree that I'm at that 2A point. I think that the uh the world
188language especially that adds significant amounts of value for which is what point 2 >> um of a full-time educator and I think that's that's incredibly good. So >> I'm also first year and it's a lot to understand. I appreciate all the hard work that's been put in um very much. Um I'm not in the schools. I don't know how all of [clears throat] that works and so I appreciate Tom that you go and meet and deliberate and come up with the best scenario. So I'm trusting in that process. Um I wanted to this may be just because it's my first year but I'm also leaning towards the tier 2 A and it says 7.10 and then it goes over to the estimated tax impact and it says 7.03. 03 >> and down below on of
189the other sheet it says 7.04. >> So why are there differences in the numbers? They're slight but >> I'm going to have to ask Kelly on that. So it's rounding >> rounding. >> So well maybe it's rounding. So um the year the first column that's year-over-year expenditure. So that's like total expenses to total expenses. And that 2.10 10 that I think is rounding. That I think is supposed to be I don't know where I might be. >> I'm sorry. Which one? >> So, um nope, not that page. >> If you're looking at tier 2 A specifically. >> Okay. So, tier 2 A 7.1. Um I think that's actually 7.05 or something like that. Um and it got rounded. Um so it's it's >> the rest of them, >> right? >> I don't know. When I'm
190looking at the formula, it's taking the difference and dividing it by the year before with so it's and it comes out to 7.10. But I feel like the other well I think last week it was like four 7.04 or 7.0. >> It was 7.05 last week and then because I was doing it on the fly. >> Okay. And when I only added back a 0.2 Spanish teacher, but I thought then checked in my notes and we needed a point4. Okay, that's the problem with >> doing it on the fly, >> taking it out, taking stuff out and adding stuff in on the fly. It's when you go back to double check your math >> because you need to create a warrant. That's a legal document. >> You find your boost. So, >> we appreciate that.
1917.1. >> I don't know. That seems a little extra. I know. I don't I think that just seems a little bit bit too much to take into consideration. [laughter] >> And then um unless you want to put 2 Spanish. >> So here's so here's my question then. So why is this one still say 7.04 for the new one that says 2A? >> Is that still the >> the impact one? >> Yeah. That that might do with rounding because it's pulling off of other sheets with Yeah. Okay. So um so that that's the difference in the expenditure piece. the net impact to taxation piece that is a different calculation alto together because one is just expenditures and one is how much flows through to be collected because this is always something we have to talk about
192every year. Um that that first net impact to taxation that is purely like how much are we collecting in taxes um uh in total this year versus how much were we collecting last year. So there's other inputs in there like the revenues, the state subsidy and the the next natural question which you may or may not have is like so how come the towns are different like why is the town why do they okay because they all come from different bases and mill rights. So um that's why those were different >> something moving back there sounds like it >> poltergeist. >> What are you doing Glenn? What's happening over there? They're putting up lights in the other room. We just don't know it. Lois, >> I'll put my hand up. >> Okay. >> You're not
193gonna want to hear this. >> That's okay. So, I heard one of the gentlemen who came to the microphone to speak say 50 cents a day increase. So, I thought that can't possibly be right. So I subtracted and I do still know how to do that in spite of everyday math. >> Um and so I took [laughter] you like that one. So I took 507 which is the status quo number and subtracted away the level two number. And the difference for Durham is $186 a year. The difference for Freeport is $29 a year. And I'm sorry, I have a ton of friends in Panel. Their increase is $243 a year. Durham, it's 50 cents. Pound it's almost a day. I know gas is going up. I know electricity is going up. And to the young
194woman who said that she was an elder, I'm on a fixed income, too. But I'm going to tell you that to me, one of the few things that I get from Durham is knowing that the school is educating our students. I get trash pickup, too. >> That's good. >> We know that. Don't forget your bags. [laughter] >> But that's about it. And I can't support two 2A or one. I will support the status quo. And when the vote comes, if we're voting on two-way, I'm going to vote no. Just want you to hear that because education to me is it. Thank you, Valerie. I appreciate that perspective, Lois. Um, last year me would have agreed with you. [laughter] Famously did agree with you. Um [laughter] um this year me uh as I look at the
195year overyear increases and the last two years we passed 648 and 683. This year it's not a clean school budget referendum. It's also primaries where people who haven't educated themselves will be seeing this number in a vacuum. And as I've already stated, numbers in a vacuum are easy to dismiss, [laughter] easy to misunderstand. If uh a less engaged voter sees a number that is very high in their view, hops on their phone and sees what is last year's sees that this year's is higher. They don't see this rumination. They don't see us nashing our teeth, struggling. Um, I have grave concerns that this greater group that we maybe can't all reach with education of where we got to this number will vote it down because of all the reasons that I think we can all
196come up with on our own. Um, which is why I lend I tend to lean towards 2A as well. Um, and it's with great reluctance. I think the same reluctance a lot of us have. Um because I don't want us in the position of running next year's school year on this year's budget. >> Yeah. I think I just als I just want to say just want to say Lois thank you for for that for that and for that clarity and also just to say that like that's how this is supposed to work. like that's exactly how this is supposed to work. Um we we are like yes we we do each individually need to to to figure out where we fall. Um and I think that I was having a conversation with with somebody in
197sort of a different context about the the um you know the value of consensus. And I think like consensus is like a is a really powerful is a really powerful thing. And um I believe that in that um that that often and in many contexts like consensus is like really what you should be aiming for. But I also think um that the the public um bearing witness to like good conversation and then uh folks dissenting from the from um from uh a a view that uh perhaps a larger number of folks are taking. I think it's really important. I think it's really important for us to um uh I sometimes joke that that we if we have a meeting where like we have all agreed on everything like when we get to the like can
198I have a vote to dismiss like I sometimes want to vote against it like I do like I just want I want to vote against it cuz I was like I just I don't like um because I think it's important uh and I don't because I'm always tired. Um uh but >> why are meeting so late if we always all agree? Yeah, that was a good point. But I but I think again I just really I just really wanted to I just really wanted to to value that and say that that that again I think that I think that's important. I think that's important and and um um I think also just to say um uh to your to your question because you got you did like you did get practical there Michelle like I
199I also am in support of of 2A and I think that I also just want to to to say that again when um as I say that um what I what I'm saying as an individual and if we end up supporting that as a board um I think what we are doing um is both uh is both trusting in the the work that um Tom administrators are doing and also putting a hell of a lot of pressure on Tom and his administrators to deliver what uh he says they can do. Um and if they can't then we have to have conversations about that. Like that's the deal, right? Like that's the deal. And um uh it's and that is and that is uh taking into consideration all of the things that have been communicated and
200all of the concerns that we have. Um uh so I think I I guess I just sort of wanted to flag that it's sort of like it's and if if we do end up voting for something that is less than the status quo um it's with the knowledge um that all of the issues that have been raised um are not only uh are valid and true um and that we will have to navigate those and they don't go away simply because we vote we vote that way. Um and I think I just wanted to I this is sort of more of a um this is very personal but I think I just sort of wanted to own that through this process I think I have been um very aware that uh a year ago my
201wife lost her job uh through um the department of government efficiency. Um, and I've been thinking about um, and to Cara's point about sort of staying up late, like there's moments where I'm just like I'm like the amount of time that I have spent thinking about this budget and thinking about this community and this collection of students. Um, not to mention all of the other folks who are decision makers in here. Um, if that entity had spent a pinky full of that amount of of that amount of deliberation, um, I would actually uh somewhat accept the decision uh for my wife to be fired. Um, because I'd be like, "Oh, there was some there was some reasoning behind it. There was like some balancing. there was some balancing of like all the balancing that we're
202doing like pros and cons, right, of sort of saying the least impact. If someone said like, "Do you know what? Like we really have to hold on to somebody somebody else, but like um uh you're fantastic, but we need to let you go." Um be like, "Okay." Like that would suck, but [snorts] I would at least have I would at least have that to hold on to. And so I think just I just wanted to sort of air that to say that like that's the seriousness with which I take uh this work. Um and that's what I wanted to say Steph. Um I uh what my initial comments weren't my full comments because I too have trouble sleeping um [laughter] with all of this. And also um I just want to be sure that like
203my humanity is also seen through my uh request that we use just percentages. Um so I I wrote something down. I'm going to share it. So um I'll try not to be too long. Um I um I too am in favor of tier 2a. Um and it feels like a support of the superintendent's recommended budget with a slight modification. Um, and I support that because immense time, effort, and care have gone into this budget at our direction. And despite all of our questions, concerns, the administrative team's recommendations have remained consistent and confident. We often ask how we as a board can help our administrators. We've been told what would help. We've been given a recommendation with clear alternative options, and choosing from one of these is a very direct way for us to provide that
204support. If the board has trusted and supported these administrators when they relay concerns and ask for additional support and resources, I think we should also trust them when they recommend where reductions can be managed and where they can be made to support long-term sustainability and flexibility for our students. Cutting staff positions never is going to feel good. But I also don't think that making cuts is inherently bad for students when we also have a responsibility to look at all the components that go into providing equitable public education for all students across the district. especially when we know the challenges and uncertainties that lie ahead. And I want to acknowledge and thank I want to acknowledge that there are many thoughtful and understandable reasons people would disagree with this approach. All of this passionate engagement speaks
205to how much people truly care about getting this right for students. It makes me feel grateful to be a part of a community and a board where that care is so evident and it gives me hope about what will be possible as we continue to face the challenges down the road. Yeah. And so that's what I'm saying and supporting tier tier 2a as well. So thanks for listening. Other comments. So I I also spend a lot of time thinking about this as you can imagine. Um and I I like to look at trends. I like to look at data. Um, you know, we got an email today from someone who is deeply involved in knowing how schools work and budgets work and impact on kids and teachers work. And one thing he jumped out at
206me was the reference to kind of how our budgets have increased over time relative to just general market conditions. Um, and so I did a little more math. Um, and I I look at page five of of the adopted or excuse me, of the workbook, the handbook, and I kind of look at what our increases have been over the last several years. Um, 4.22, 4.99, 6.48, 6.83. Right now, we're kind of in the 6.5 to 7 range. Um, and I think about what Valerie said about people who just come and sort of like, well, what was last year's? Oh gosh, they want more. They want more again. Um, I feel like I can confidently say that, um, you know, tier 2 A meets the needs of our children. it is respectful of the people in
207our communities. Um, and I think it's what we need to do to to continue meeting the needs of our kids um in in a thoughtful way. Um, I don't like to see numbers in the sevens. Um, I don't particularly like numbers in the sixes if I'm being honest. Um, but I also value education. I also think it's important um the most important thing we can do for our communities. I mean nice roads are great um my car appreciates them but the most important thing we do is educate our kids. Um and I fully trust our team that at this two tier 2A tier they will continue to do that. Um there are always impacts. Um but I think it I I it feels to me like a defensible position. I will sleep at night. Um
208knowing that I think what we have done has has um is appropriate and weighs the impact on all of the stakeholders. Um so and I appreciate everybody's thoughts on this. So, um, so we don't take an official vote today. Um, we will take that next week. Um, but we we do want to provide the the um insights to Kelly to prepare uh to prepare the warrants. Um, I will say that everyone has free will that if seven of you show up next week and say we want to change it, we could. I don't want to eliminate people's you know actions or agency in this process. Um but if people are feeling comfortable um with their with their decisions um and we can provide that insight that is that is a smoother path forward. Um I
209feel like I'm hearing 2A is the is the consensus. Um is is I guess we could do a straw poll. I hate straw polls. Um just [laughter] um so basically um just a show of hands of who who is supportive of the the tier 2A for for a budget. Okay. Um I think that is probably adequate for >> So that would basically add >> $255,979 to article one. All of those adbacks would be in article one. So, and that changes the article. I just sort of did the math here. It's 20 million in some as opposed to 19 million in some, but that's what the the warrant would reflect next week. >> Okay. So, I just want to mention I think last year we we changed it at the >> Oh, yeah. We changed it
210like eight times at the last meeting. So one consequence possibly if next week we come and we have some other suggestions and we want to change again is that the brochure the budget brochure does not get mailed out like last year that was that was unfortunate to not have that in the mailbox for people. interesting actually because I think we talked about this uh earlier in the year actually it may have been at the Durham meeting um where we'd heard a fair amount of feedback that they preferred that method um and it's >> the QR codes people really liked that >> and it was a lot cheaper than preparing and mailing books we mailed the one pager which we would continue to do which kind of gave people the the timeline of where to go
211what to and where they could find if they wanted an actual copy um at the it was at all the schools. It was at all the town halls. I think we had it at the library, the um probably um Mallet Hall. Well, it's the town hall, but >> Mhm. >> So, I I don't think the plan was to actually print the whole brochure anyway this year. >> Yeah. >> Okay. >> There were going to be some at key locations. >> Yes. Yes. Right. So, we will print it. It will be a printed, but it won't be mailed to every mailbox. And historically the strategic communications committee has reviewed that booklet. I think last year the finance committee may have reviewed that. But is that something that we might have >> something you guys haven't done?
212>> No, we are meeting at the end of the month though and to talk about quite a few things I think. >> Uh but I I I think that that's one piece that would if we if they're March 30th is when we're meeting I think. Um, okay. I mean, I also do again trust you, Tom, to to write um your letter in a way that explains what's happening, but I I wonder if there could just >> if there are ways to exp I I think that improvement. >> Yeah. Yeah. No, I don't disagree with that. Um maybe maybe I would say there's probably cuz I always think of Jenny's probably losing her mind right now the fact that we're talking about this um changing it >> um because there's a lot of spacing issues and
213like pages and and it's a >> so um I'll just apologize now um and um >> when does it need to go to the printer because this might be completely unrealistic and I reckon >> yeah I don't know I I I don't know the answer to that. So, um I remember from last year when it got delayed a week, it was like we had one day like if if you hadn't approved it at that meeting, it wouldn't have gone out. >> Yeah. And the mailing piece is the bigger and I think we're able to get the fewer copies that don't have to go in the mail sooner. Um but um so yeah, we we'll we'll figure out the details on that. I do think it should have a set of eyes on it from the
214strategic communications. Um it might have to happen before the meeting here. You guys might need to move up your me meeting. Um because I do think there is some timeliness around that going to the printer. But um >> I basically have the information I need now to be able to write the letter. >> Okay. So >> right um I just want to bring you back to your handbook. Um the budget handbook. the second page has the timeline on it. So, I do know that um the first meeting that we're had when we do when we go and visit each town and have the Q&A session, that first meeting is on April 8th, which is pretty soon >> pretty soon. And so, um the and the flyer mentions April 8th, but it also has the QR
215code that links you to the budget document. So, we need a document to link, >> right? So, we need a document to link to. What's going to the printer is the onepage flyer, right? That has like the budget stuff on it. The most important piece of that are the dates that outline when people the Q&As's, right? and the B it tells you when the BBR is and it tells you when the annual budget meeting are, but it also has that QR code for people to look at the details so when they come to that Q&A they can have a full look at the budget and and but the budget brochure. So we need to at least have it in PDF form for when those are intended on hitting the mail as say once people have
216it in their mailbox. Right. Correct. So so we'll we'll work on that piece of it. Um, [clears throat] >> do you have what you need, Kelly? >> I do. Thank you. And um the 7.04 is because you only have point 2 of a Spanish teacher in that. >> Okay. So that's what that cuz I did that piece before I actually noticed the error on on the >> other one position. >> Does that Tom you had mentioned that the the point4 it we were moving a point4 um adte to a 0.4 for full-time educator >> for the Spanish position. >> Is that included in that in that 7.1? >> Yes. >> Okay. The the transfer in that >> there. Yeah. Okay. Too many papers. >> No kidding. >> Um All right. So, we will we will
217move on from from that. Um we have no new business. We have no personnel. We do have public comment and we do have some folks who who hung in there. So, we will reopen public comment if anyone had anything they wanted to share. Everyone shared out. I completely understand. Um, all right. Well, then I would take a motion uh for consideration and approval to enter into executive session as outlined in 1 MRSA section 4056D for the purpose of discussing administrator negotiations. Valerie and uh Steph. All those in favor you voting yes. Okay. [laughter] I'm like now you're like on Colin's train like no I don't want to say you. Okay. So uh 9:46 we're in. >> Sounds >> and so we are going to move across the hall. Yeah.