001test. I just didn't look fine. You should We actually graduate. Good evening. Welcome to the RSU5 board of directors meeting. It is Wednesday, March 26th, 2025. We are here in the Freeport High School. Anyone who was here or saw us last week will appreciate that we have lights, not all the lamps in the building in the room. So, thank you, Glenn, for for making that happen for us. Uh we have a full board this evening and a lot to talk about. So, we will get started. Uh we'll start with the pledge of allegiance to the flag of United States of America and to the republic for it stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all. Do I have a motion for consideration and approval of the minutes from the March 19th,
0022025 meeting as presented barring any errors or omissions? Cara and uh Danielle. Thank you. All those in favor? Great. None opposed. Adjustments. I have one this evening under number eight reports from the superintendent. Um I would like to move the current letter C which is update on FY266 superintendent's proposed budget. I'd like to make that letter D. And I'd like to add a C because I have a resignation to announce. That seemed like that was a better flow for the the meeting this evening. And that's it. All right. So, uh we will get started with good news and recognition and we will look to Moon for an update. Hello everyone. Um well I guess recently as of today um two uh girls from uh whose names are Uiza and Migr uh from Tanzania uh visited
003our school for part of the day and they're from a part of the secondary education for girls advancement program and they're here to just I guess learn and study here and um I guess uh this girl named Edie Kaplan started the the girl the secondary education for girls advancement club here at FHS recent last year and it's a part of her um senior project to uh I guess tie fundraising and awareness for this program to I guess increase its longevity and then also um the main congressional delegation are hosting a service academy information night on April 10th at 6 p.m. to learn about the application nomination process. Um and then als and like represent representatives from the US merchant marine academy and other federal uh services will be there to answer questions. And then also
004um annually main the main art teachers are asked to select one student to work to showcase at the main Portland Museum of Art uh for the young the youth art month in March. And um Elliot Anderson won the award and her art piece is being displayed up there. And then also lastly um there's a food drive at the high school that ends on April 11th and um it' be really helpful for baby diapers sizes three, four, and five. Uh canned soup and cat and dog food to be donated. Thank you. Okay. So, we will move on to public comment, which I think Cynthia is coming to bring me a piece of paper. Um, so uh we do have a couple opportunities uh for folks to speak this evening. Uh similar to last week, we have
005our our normal public comment. One here, one at the end of the agenda. Uh those are our traditional public comment where we ask you to come up to the microphone, give us your name, where you live, uh and share whatever you'd like to share with us within three minutes. Um and then we also have another opportunity for public input on the budget uh a little bit after um a little bit further down the agenda after the superintendent's report. So, if folks had specific questions they wanted asked or concerns or items uh specific to the budget, public comment, you could speak to anything around education. Uh the public input is really around budget commentary. Um but you can talk about the budget during public comment too if you like. So, uh we will get started. I
006have four folks listed for public comments and we will start with Trevor. Hi everybody. Um, my name is Trevor Bean. Um, while I am the CEA president, I am here today as a 12-year employee of RSU5. Um, I love RSU5. I love the students. I love the community. I love the supportive board um, and the district's commitment to supporting growth of educators. Um, I'm concerned that recent discussions around the budget kind of have a tendency like they're almost pitting building versus building or town versus town. Um, and those talks around like specific changes and and things what I I think um are maybe having a tendency to lose sight of the forest for the trees. So, I'd like to talk about the big picture um just as you're considering uh budget uh decisions. Research shows
007that smaller class sizes mean better outcomes for students and this is more true the younger the students are. Um our class size policy reflects that and regardless of the exact class numbers the spirit of the policy is that younger kids need more individual attention than older students do. Um so districtwide I would ask are we thinking about what is best for kids? Um, and moreover, just noting that most schools actually have an increase in student numbers for next year and districtwide, we're only down uh 21 students in the project projected enrollment. Um, so if you could please consider all of this as you make your decisions um I would appreciate that. On a separate note, um qualitatively um I just want to say this is a conversation that I've had with um uh several colleagues,
008but one particular um today. Teaching has gotten harder. um living through so many unprecedented moments um has has an impact on anyone. Um and it clearly has an impact on our students. Um I think parenting is harder. Uh teaching is harder. Being a kid is harder right now. Um and while I am a better, stronger teacher than I was five, 10 or more years ago, the job has not gotten easier for that. Thank you. Thank you, Trevor Tracy. Oh, yeah. We just Sorry, I didn't ask Trevor. Uh, just your name and the town where you live. Trevor lives in Auburn. Thank you. Thank you, Tracy. Good evening, Superintendent Scarappa and members of the board of directors. My name is Tracy Trembley, though my fifth graders at Mass Landing School call me Mrs. T. I live
009in Durham. This is my seventh year teaching in RSU5 and my 26th year teaching elementary school. I love this district. I respect and appreciate Emily Grim and all my colleagues and wholeheartedly adore the children in my care. I arrive at school each morning by 6:50 and leave after 5 every day. I have never been employed at a school with teachers who work harder than my colleagues at Mass Landing. Without question, the variable that is most impactful to me as an educator in terms of teacher effectiveness and therefore positive results on my students is classroom size. This year I have 16 students in my room and I've been able to establish indelibly strong relationships which with each of them because of this smaller class size. My readers and writers are experiencing a great deal of growth
010and success because of the support I can provide them each of them daily. To add on, the culture of kindness and mutual respect is palpable within my room with my students because of our small, tightlyk knit community. Juxtapose that to my home room last year. I had 24 students in my room, which is eight more children than this year. That meant I needed two more tables in our classroom, and we couldn't even sit on the rug together for our morning meetings because we didn't have the physical space. My students did not make the academic and social emotional gains they would have had I been able to provide more support in a smaller classroom setting. In my heart of hearts, I know a large class size has caused me to be less effective than when we
011went through remote learning during COVID. Imagine that a large class size caused me to be less effective for my students than during a global pandemic. I am sharing all this with you because you're planning to eliminate the one-year fourth grade teacher position at Mass Landing. That means the fifth grade the the five third grade classes will funnel into four classrooms when that group metriculates. Inevitably, that also means the extremely talented fourth grade teachers will not be as effective for those students. It's impossible. Lastly, as I've said, I live in Durham and that's where I pay taxes. I would rather my taxes go up so students in RSU5 can get the support and education they deserve. To do that, class sizes need to remain at 20 or below, and we need to keep five fourth grade
012teachers at Masslanding School. I'd like to close with this. My fifth graders are currently in the middle of writing persuasive essays, and I challenge them to end their drafts by providing their audience with action steps. Here's an action step I'd like to share with you. Keep all fourth grade classroom teachers at Mass Landing School next year. Then moving forward as a board, work toward creating smaller yet equitable classroom sizes across RSU5. It is simply what's best for kids. It has taken us at Mass Landing a while to find our voice, but we're here tonight. Thank you for your valuable time and your thoughtful consideration. Thank you, Tracy. Janice, hi there. Janice Flynn from Freeport. um grandmother to a student uh in elementary school. Um I want to thank the board for letting me speak tonight
013and I have to say um I attended last week's rather lengthy meeting and um there was a lot of talk about programs and positions and what I witnessed I have to say was pretty impressive. Uh a wonderful example of the community coming together to try to figure it out. I listened for four and a half exhausting hours as a school board members agreed and disagreed and I both applaud and I appreciate all your efforts because you worked hard. Um I listened as the chair and the board members express anxiety and concern with the everinccreasing tax burden to bring the district um property taxpayers and I also heard uh board members one board member expressed the increase is just a pizza a week. I disagree with that cavalier dismissal of the everinccreasing tax burden that the
014property owners in the district have had to bear year over year to maintain the public school system. Um, and I also heard one actually more than one board member wonder why more district people hadn't come to express their opinions or concerns so that the board would have more community input to work with. And I have to say, um, I have an idea why because at least from my perspective, we come and I I see that you guys are listening, but I I don't think that we're being heard. I I hear and I have heard these people concerned about positions and programs. And what I haven't heard is any concern about where we are in the nation as a state. We are last. We are last. I don't hear talk about education. I hear talk about
015special education. I hear talk about um English language learners. I hear all of this time and attention and passion going to everything but the 81% of the students in the district that are not getting an education. They are not moving forward. I'm not I I think the educational system is dead for the 81% of those students and I'm sorry for that. I'm not sure what's wrong. We need a new path. You need a a new direction in education. We need to I I hear about equity that the word all the time. What the education these kids are getting is not equitable at all. All the attention time is being spent on how do we feel? Are we belonging? But we are dead last in the nation. And I don't hear any concern for that at
016all. It's like you all in a vacuum of everything is just fine and uh we can't cut this one position. I think we need a new path forward. We need a better map that works. I think the teachers are wonderful here. I think my my grandson loves the teachers. I just think that the the ability of the programs that the teachers are getting to teach a terrible and I think you need a new path forward and I hope we find it. And I am going to uh vote no on the budget because I don't see anything here that's going to help the 80% of the kids get a better education. They are still dead last. and um and I'm going to talk to everybody I know about the budget and ask them to vote no
017as well. And until you come here and you show me something that is going to bring up the educational level of the the students in the state of Maine, I'll continue to vote no on the budget. Thank you, Janice. Crystal, good evening and thank you for allowing me to speak tonight. My name is Crystal Bushy and I am a third grade teacher at Mass Landing School. I sent a letter to all of you last evening uh expressing my concern about the fourth grade teacher elimination that's being proposed. I have been teaching at Mass Landing School for 23 years now. And in that time, I've come to realize that the most important things are communication, collaboration, and community. And this district is a wonderful place to work. I have so enjoyed my time here. Um, I
018totally agree with what Trevor said that teaching is getting harder 100%. It is so different than it used to be. And so as a third grade teacher in that cohort working with them every day, I'm begging you to not cut the position. I think it would be an astronomical, devastating decision. Um, I feel that teachers are working so incredibly hard. The teachers at Mass Landing and I think in RSU 5 are committed. We're dedicated. We're hardworking. We put in so many hours and I I just I'm asking you to rethink it. And to speak to what was your name? Janice. Janice. To speak with to what Janice is saying. I wonder if we can stop thinking about cutting positions and think outside the box a little bit and maybe look at other things like curriculum,
019right? like rethinking where we're at and where we want to go because that's not okay that we're dead last, right? So, I just am wondering there's got to be other ways that we can think about things without cutting the people who are most important in these children's lives because I can guarantee you everybody who works at Mass Landing is amazing and does incredible things for your children. So, thank you for your time. Thank you for sharing your kids with us and I hope you really reconsider thinking about the budget cuts at Mass Landing. Thank you. Thank you, Crystal. Okay, so that's who we had on the uh initial public comment uh list. And like I said, we have a few more opportunities if if someone is is moved to speak. Um but we will continue
020on with the agenda and move on to item eight report from the superintendent. Okay, we'll start with 8A. Um and I just have some information. This is going to be nonbudget information but just some some celebrations that I believe some celebrations of things that are happening in our school and some updates. Um planning for our extended school year, our ESY programming is well underway. Uh this annual programming provides continued educational support for our special education students to ensure they maintain progress during the summer months. This year our program will run from July 7th to the 31st, Monday through Thursday, 8:00 a.m. to 11 11:00 a.m. And if there are folks out there who would like to work in our ESY program this summer, they can apply right online or if they want more information, they
021can contact our director of instructional support, Alicia Morris, for more information. Our director of school nutrition, Erica Malle, had held a focus group with fifth graders from Mass Landing School. They had provided some lunch feedback on a most recent student survey and she thoughtfully listened to their ideas. In addition, through her collaboration with the main coast fisherman's association, she hosted a fishtaught tasting at schools and it um at all schools actually and it resulted in many of our kids experiencing a new food for the first time. I am pleased to announce that our our mass landing staff in collaboration with families. The chronic absentee rateism rate is at 5.5% and Emily shared this is at the lowest in recent memory. So well job for um staff and families. Our first graders at More Street had
022an opportunity to see a live performance of Frog and Toad at Merryill Auditorium. And I think that's a a phenomenal experience for for kids who may have never seen a theater production before. I wish I could have gone with them. Uh and over the last few weeks at More Street School, as you know, they have a family engagement goal that um Principal Nickerson shared with you this fall. Uh they had they've had families have had an opportunity to go into school and experience some special classes. So kindergarten um um families of kindergarteners got to see music. Um, first grade families got to see PE and second grade families got to see art. Um, so those are some positive things that are happening in our schools that I wanted to share with the board. Letter B,
023support staff new hire. I'm always happy when I say we've hired a bus driver. We welcome Alicia Bennett to our team. Um, and I just want to say in general for our bus drivers, a special shout out to our team and to our director Jeremy Arsenal because Monday, um, sometimes the w what's predicted for weather like warming temperatures and rain does not happen and that did not happen at all Monday afternoon and they did a phenomenal job getting our our students home safely. So, I just wanted to shout out them. Um, letter C, resignation. I'm announcing the resignation of Amy St. Pierre, principal of Freeport Middle School. So, now our new D um review of the superintendent's budget. Um what I think I'd like to do is I've collected the questions um from you folks
024from last week. So, we've we've prepared um some answers to some of those. Um let's start with if we could I'm going to have Dr. Fornier from Freeport Middle School come up. There were two um there were two questions that were posed by the board. Um there was a question about differentiation and there was also a question um regarding wellness um the wellness content. See if I can get this up. I'm just gonna lean. Um, so do you all have a copy of the wellness? Okay, great. So these are the wellness or the health education standards. We were going to have to figure out the mic for you. Sorry. Is that better? Tall. Not as tall as you. Always has to go right after me. Yeah. So, health education standards you all have they're pretty
025um broad and the way that different schools have um addressed each of the topics have varied. So, we've started some of the work at looking at how those could be attacked in different manners. So for instance like nutrition that's just one example could be flowing into like the digestive system unit and um you know environmental health and awareness some of that work could possibly fall into STEM and science too. And then we talked about how our advisory activities, our guidance counselor and the work that we do um across that seal work that we do in our building could attack some of the things like stress and worry or um empathy and mental health. So we've sometimes had the speakers do that work or different teachers have addressed those things. So there's specific things connected to
026the health standards that this is the preliminary work that we're talking about at looking at ways but there's some excitement around it looking at it through a different lens. Are you pausing for questions on this part? Okay. Do do folks have questions? Okay. Um, this might be more of a question for you, um, Dr. Scrappa. Is there a wellness committee still in our district? We have struggled with our wellness committee in the district. Um, and I, um, last year, I think, um, when Aaron Dao was here, she as the school nutrition director was heading up that committee and I know Kelly was on it as well. And the struggle was getting people to serve on that committee. I was on it. It was Paige was there. It just yeah we helped to adapt we helped
027like adjust one of the policies like we had some momentum and that's required by policy as well. I mean that's some of the work you have to do every so many years look at that but there's not there's not another district level other than this group that we it was like Kelly and Aaron and I on a Zoom meeting a few times. Okay. I and I should have asked that before. I was at a school wellness conference not too long ago for another um for my own work reason. Um and it sounds like that's required to have a district wellness committee and we have it. You're required and their main function is really to look at that policy um at what every so many years which they do. And so we have this um committee
028but they don't meet regular. Part of it is, as Paige said, it was Erin, Kelly, and Paige, despite Erin did a lot of efforts to recruit. Yeah. One other parent we had on and off. So, it had some momentum. And then I'm not currently active in it, but I'd love to be. It's great work. Sounds like you're still on it. You just haven't met. Yeah. Yeah. Sure. Other questions for Paige on the health piece? So these are the are these all the health standards or are these the specific health standards that that health two was dealing? This is like what our state tells us. Oh okay. So this is both health one and health two accomplish these. Okay. Thank you. Thanks Paige. Um, so would it be fair to say that uh as y'all are
029figuring out how to address if if the um if wellness 2 is cut, um would it be fair to say that you all are going to be looking at this as kind of your guide for um uh what standards and performance expectations are going to be knit to what other specific classes. And so theoretically in September um uh you or someone like you uh could come back and kind of tell us that and absolutely and could say like all right these showed you the standards we need to meet them. This is how we're meeting them. Yes. Because we haven't always had a wellness too teacher. So we've had this the thought of looking at it through a scientific lens is sort of a new one that we that's where the excitement might be is thinking
030about how you know tech might absorb our internet safety piece that's addressed in here. There's so many that sort of overflow other topics as you can see they're really broad. It's not like a curriculum that we're like ditching. It's another way of looking at how are we addressing health and prioritizing it in our building. And so through our PE which that person has done health in the past and so has done a mix of things excitement there around that too. Human growth and development that's something that we would stick you know to what we've always done make sure that it's a rich um approach to that but some of these other things could fall in a bunch of different ways in our building. I have to say I kind of like the idea of weaving
031all of these different topics in throughout the day in different classes just because um it means that the conversations keep happening throughout the day throughout the you know just everywhere and I think it could be a very effective way of addressing these if it's done well. Okay, I think you can carry on. So the other piece is just the differentiation question. Um, so yeah, thinking about how we differentiate for students. It's a passion of mine actually. It's something that I've studied for many years. Um, and I lean back into just some data like how do we think about the best way to approach different kinds of learners, right? And so we've gone back and forth on this. So if we're thinking about one of the ways we've addressed it this year, um we've looked at
032um some one of you know different classes and how we're going to serve students. And really like when we look at best practices having students like clustered or tracked really like doesn't have the you know if we're talking effect size or like this impact that we're looking for for students that isn't our best practice really like this tier one and then tier two in our MTSS system of how we approach students that have a variety of learning is the best way to make sure that students are reaching these things. And so currently we've had these pieces of jobs and some of them um have just been built around numbers and now I think our goal is really to dig into RTI particularly now that we know that we'll have these two specific teachers doing that
033work and just ensuring that we're building that tier one support within the classroom and then having tier 2 be really prescripted and intentional and what is our system to do that we've been picking away at that for years, but we have met again just in the last few weeks. We're meeting again on Friday, talking about next year, what kind of programs can we be looking at progress monitoring, supporting students in a variety of ways. Um, and I think that's going to be ongoing work to make sure that we're, you know, pushing students that are at the higher end of our spectrum that we're thinking about and also supporting students that might need a little more So, so I'm clear, what you're saying is that these little um part-time positions that have basically been the classroom
034teachers for these smaller classes that is perhaps actually not best practice for supported these types of learners. I mean, John Hadtie, he's like the guy that I lean into is visible learning. He would say that effect size is almost negative to cluster kids because then you're you might be having students not that rigor of having a diverse community of learners. Now, not all of those small pieces were that. Some of them were blended in. This is where it's messy upon like me explaining how these pieces got added along the way, but some of them were just for big cohorts too. So now it's a bit confusing about what each of them are, but I think in moving forward clustering kids on their ability levels, it we would want to be thinking about differentiation at tier
035one and at tier two instead. Questions for Paige on that? Well, don't go far. I'm sure we'll have more questions for you, but thank you. Okay. Um, we had a couple of questions today um was about projected enrollment. So, there was a question about um is the projected enrollment we have for schools per grade level enrollment numbers as of October 2024. And that's correct. we always have it's our October 1 count and that's where we always build our budget from. Um and part of that is at some point you have to put a pin in it for like you know what's what's when we're looking at our actual October one count we have to put a pin in our data and then what we do is we roll those kids up to the next grade.
036A tricky spot for us is always prek and sometimes K because those are those are incoming students. So that's how we start that process. And then when's the earliest date prior to next school year that schools have realistic numbers of what that will really look like. Um and really it settles down when we really know it's about after the first week of school. Um because we have kids all and actually today I just found we're losing three students um right after April vacation. They they leave and then we have kids come in. So there's an eb and flow and then until we really start school really and have kids in seats and then then it's it's more of it slows down a little bit. Um but it's constant throughout the year and in the summer
037as well that sometimes there are families that will let us know they're moving. Sometimes they don't let us know they're moving until school starts we found out or until we get a request for records. Um the and the same with the kids that are coming. Um so that's where it's really it's it's that eb and flow which is it's not scientific but that's really what what we what we observe. Um also asked about the number of filled and unfilled um edtech positions. U so we pulled our data and I'm going to separate them into two buckets. Um gened and then we'll do special ed separately. And at this moment in time for gen ed um positions there are six that are vacant. Two are posted and then the four that are proposed reductions aren't posted
038and they haven't they haven't been posted. Um for special education as at this moment in time there are eight that are vacant right now. I'll say eight plus two because if you recall um we made a request a few months ago to take two positions that were vacant at the high school because they've struggled to get positions and combine them to make a teacher um position. So really there would be 10 counted those two that are vacant at at this moment in time. And as I shared before our priority is filling those special education eds first. Um those are required. Um some students need adult support on their IEP. So that that is our priority um over those others. But those are the numbers I always say at this moment in time because um I
039know today that Alicia was interviewing people for special education in text. I always get hopeful when I see see that happening. Um the again that's been an eb and flow for us. The other thing that I was asked last week that I couldn't immediately put my hands on but I can now. I was asked by the board what are other districts looking like looking at for increases. Um so I'll say again this is at this moment in time that I can share share where where what they have publicly shared um with their communities. Um SAD 75 and this is the percentage of increase year-over-year. Um 4.73% at this moment. Um SAD 6 is 4.77. Uh and there and there notes in here that that people are showing that it's evolving. They're not done. Brunswick is
040at 508, Sebago is 511, South Portland's 525, RSU 14's 539, Portland's 567, Falmus 597, um MSAD 15676, Gorm 69, Westbrook 695, SAD 51 uh 747, and Yarma 756. The only one that's done at this moment in terms of their uh their school committee is Yarmouth has adopted it. It's headed to their town council. Um and all the other folks, some of these haven't been they haven't updated. I asked for a new update. They haven't been updated since March 17th. So, they're still in process. Um and that's what I see from notes from my colleagues. They're still in process. Um and some folks are saying they're likely um like they're, you know, looking at um may go down, you know, I see may go down below 5%. um not ready to vote yet. So, they're all
041still in process. So, I wouldn't want to say that that put um those are definitely what they're happening. Um but looking at, as you notice, I sorted them for us. Um so, if at I'll just go with the not not the items that the board was considering last week to put back in, but just the superintendent's proposed to give us an idea where we were. We were at the 573. And of those folks, there's one, two, three, four, seven that are below us. one, two, three, four, five, and six that are above us at that data, which is was last week. So, I had that information. Um, and then there was one more request that we're going to actually ask Michelle to respond to talking about um prep um state valuation, equalized meal rate 279.
042So, we're going to let Michelle do that one. I'm going to ask uh Mora to just ask her question just so everyone knows what the question was. um because I feel like this is we we go through this generally every year around what are the differences and why is it different and change and um so happy to happy to tackle that. Great. Thank you so much for all the information. Um so on the I had been looking at the 8279 form which is the form that has um the amount that we're required to raise by the state and has like the um how the state calculates um basically EPS essential programs and services and what we have to provide in order to get the state funding. and they have a way that they calculate uh
043this the valuation in each of our three towns and then we have um on our documents um the way that I'm assuming the towns calculate it and those two figures are different and so just looking at them there seemed to be quite a discrepancy and I know that's because the state has their own way of calculating the value and they equalize it across the whole state but I'll let you speak further to that. Yes. So, um, because towns across the state don't necessarily, um, mark tomarket, if you will, on their valuations, um, you know, the goal is to be 100% of the current market valuation, right? Um, but particularly smaller towns don't often do that because there's a cost to revaluating revaluing all of the properties in town. Um, some places do it, but most
044don't. Um, and the the biggest discrepancies, uh, I think is probably what you're referring to is Durham's, uh, valuation per the per the state is, uh, just shy of $600 million and our valuation from the towns, which I probably should have had right here in my hand. Yeah, maybe used to it being the last page. Uh the valuation per uh the town of Durham as of April 1, 2024, which was the last valuation date um or date that they had a value for was $383 million. So materially less. Um and I believe um the reason for that is there hasn't been a revaluation done in Durham in many years. There's actually one scheduled for 2027. I believe it's on the docket. Um, so we are roughly 50% of market value according to the um it's
045actually um according to according to what the town has said, we're at 48% of of current market in terms of the valuation. So, that's one of the reasons I always caution people to just compare mill rates across towns because that's not really a fair um it's not an apples to apples um um it's not an apples to apples way to look at it because if the valuation of my house is $100,000 for nice round numbers. Uh but that's only 50% of the market value but the tax burden that the town needs to raise is the same regardless of what the valuation of the town is. So I have to put more dollars per thousand into the bucket to get my portion of the taxes. So my mill rate might be $22 in Durham, but that's
046on a 50% of the of the market value. So generally what happens in a um in a revaluation scenario is um everyone's typically everyone's value will go up um taxable value will go up but the amount of taxes that need to be collected in absolute dollars doesn't change. So how much you need to collect per thousand dollars of value which is how we that's what the mill rate is is how much you you're going to pay per thousand dollars of value goes down. So my guess is that the mill rate right now is 21 and change 2175 for the current year. Um and once they do a revaluation, now it's not next year. It's not till 2027, but um that mill rate will go down because the value that they're spreading that over is higher.
047Um and what it means for individual taxpayers, for those who care, uh is usually in a revaluation, a third of the people will see their taxes go up. A third of the people will see their taxes stay roughly the same and a third of the people actually see their taxes go down because the amount of the pi doesn't change. It's just making sure that everybody's value is the is um current as of the same point in time. So um so that's why the valuation that you see on the ED279 um so that because of situations like Durhams and I don't think we're unique in this um I think panels is is less than 100% as well because it's a smaller town so they don't revalue as frequently. Um you know the the state can't it
048can't just use what the towns are using because that's not really fair either because the valuate that's that's a under reportported number really. So the state uses their own calculation um and it feels a little blackbox calculation to me but we did have a session on it at the MSMA uh sort of where we tried to nail down some numbers um on how they actually use it. but they use a consistent model um across every town and all the property and all of the state so that they basically get a um a consistent valuation for all the towns when they're determining state um state subsidy. So it's a three-year average um and that has changed over the last 10 years or so. I think it used to be I think it used to be two
049and then it went to three. Um, and so that's to try and um level out any spikes or massive drops in valuation for a particular town so they don't either get clobbered one way or the other um as it relates to their subsidy. Um, so that's really the main the main difference between the valuation you would see if you pulled up the ED279 for the towns. So, just for for folks sake, um Durham is valued at uh.2 million and the town has it valued at 382.8. Freeport is 2 bill3 uh 320 million and according to the state, according to the town, it's 2 bill548. So, obviously a lot closer, but still a difference. um actually lower on the states on the state's valuation. Um but that's not overly unusual in when they're doing an average,
050right? So in a rising value environment when you're averaging it out, the average will be a little bit lower than the current year, whereas Freeports is like the current year as of April 1st of 2024. Uh and then panels um according to the the state is $357 million and then according to the town is 305. So um a a 20% or so um 15 to 20% reduction from what the state says to what the town has on their tax roles. Does that help? Yes. Thank you so much, Michelle. Um I appreciate that you going over that. Um, so I had uh wanted to look at the report that those numbers come from, which is like very exciting report. If none of you have seen it, it's got like all the values for all the towns
051in the state that they do going back like a decade or so. Um, and so I wanted to see where those where that average of three came from. Um, and whether they were using just I think they're allowed to use just the last year or threeear average if it's like lower or something like that. I'm not really exactly sure. Yeah, because I think they're trying to minimize cuts to subsidy. So, that would make sense. Does that Kelly may know the answer to that question. She was comfortable in her chair. So, I'll just say while Kelly was coming that when I was looking at that sheet, um, and I think this is important for like a few different reasons. Um, I saw that last year and this year Durham had a significant spike. And so I
052wanted to talk about if there had been growth in the town, if there are more taxpayers, if the taxes will be spread over a bigger number of people. Um, but also I think it's good to know because of subsidy. And I think like we're going to be in a similar situation this year. So we had last year Derm's valuation is lower, but now there's two years in a row or sorry the year before now there's two years in a row where the state valued it at over 700 million. So, we're going to keep and as I think we all know, like we're going to get less subsidy if either our student count goes down or our valuation goes up. And so, I think we're in a position where if if Durham Durham is growing, well,
053if any town is growing, that town is going to collect more be able to collect more taxes and lose some state subsidy. So, I just wanted that seems like a piece of the picture or that maybe we should talk about and consider because it's not only going to be an issue, you know, this year, but it's going to continue to be an issue in future budget. Uh, just it's it's a three-year valuation average or the current year, whichever is lower is the one they use. Right. So they the benefit of whichever is lower because the lower value gives you more subsidy. Correct. Okay. Yeah. No, and and that is a I mean it's a great point, Mara, as you know, one of the things we've struggled with is the um with Freeport being a minimum
054receiver, right? There is there's no technical subsidy for for Freeport. There's the special ed minimum adjustment um but no actual subsidy. and and POW is actually probably even closer to becoming a minimum receiver in terms of you know um for for new folks what a minimum receiver is is basically they tell you this is what we expect um for uh essential program and services EPS is what you have to provide. They have a pages one through three of the ED272 uh 279 tell you what those things are. These are what you have to provide. We have always provided well above and beyond that. Um but and then they say okay if this is what it costs for what we say you have to give uh this is your valuation this is the expected mill uh
055your required mill and that's the same across the state everyone has to raise this mill based on their valuation and if that amount that they require you to raise is less than the um essential programs and services the difference is subsidy they go okay we we require you to to provide this we expect you to raise at we will contribute the difference. So if your valuation is at a point where um at the at that required mill you actually can raise more than what they say is the minimum essential programs and services then you're considered what's called a minimum receiver. You don't get any subsidy. Now they do recognize that um for special ed purposes um they do provide about a million dollars. I should probably look at that number before I say that. But
056um actually Freeport is not a minimum receiver this year because uh they reduced the required mill from the prior year. So there is some actual subsidy here and then there's also um a little bit additional for Yeah. So between the subsidy usually what we get for Freeport between subsidy a small amount of subsidy and the um special ed adjustment is of between a million and a million two. Uh sometimes it's all special ed, sometimes it's a little bit subsidy, a little bit special ed, that which is the case this year. So um so as Durham's valuation goes up, I mean what we hear when we meet with the towns um you know is the the growth the the housing growth um we don't really have any commercial um growth in Durham. Um we have a
057new farm that's nice, but we don't have any commercial growth. Um but for residential they have said that the housing permits are roughly 30 a year. Um and those have been pretty consistent for the last several. Um I don't know if that number is has changed. Um but that was the last number that we've gotten from them. So I think a lot of it is valuation growing in terms of just market value like the value of homes. Yes. Yeah. And just for folks reference, that figure of state aid allocation by town is on the this beautiful sheet that Kelly prepares for us, right? Yes. Page 11. Yeah. Uh page 11 or page 10. I was looking at the the state aid per town that just showed the number. like breaking down like the amount um
058that each town gets from the state and then um the required local contribution that's required by the state for each town to contribute, right? And then the additional local monies that we divide up beyond that that we decide to spend. Okay. Um Okay. Thank you. And I believe I requed answers to all the questions you had from last week, but I'm sure as you begin deliberation, if you have more questions, we can at that time respond to them. I do have a quick update on the brochure. Um I have a so uh Jenny in her magic that she is able to uh do did find someone who is willing to print and mail for us a onepage document which will have googly eyes to encourage people to look at it when they get it in
059their mailbox. Look, not googly eyes. Sorry for the non-technical term. Um, basically what it's going to say is it's going to have the dates for the um for the annual budget meeting. It's going to have a QR code to bring people to uh the online brochure, which we are still creating. It's just not going to be mailed to every house. And it also is going to um tell people where they can pick up physical copies of it if they are not QR code savvy. Um, so, uh, so it's not as it, you know, it's great when we can get the whole booklet into everyone's hands, but I think from a timing perspective, it was probably more important for us to come down on a a budget that that um, we are we are all comfortable
060uh, putting forward. So, um, hopefully we'll get that done tonight, but uh, at least this does if people are looking for that brochure, this piece of paper will tell them where they can get it. So, thank you, Jenny, for that. That's really great. I really appreciate that. And I was wondering, not that I would expect you to know offh hand, but if there was a cost savings due to sending out the one page versus a big Oh, I imagine there was more expensive than you thought. Oh, is it? Okay. Okay. Um, so is that where we are with updates? Okay, lost my agenda again. I should have her print my agenda on a different color so I don't lose it. Okay. Um, so we are now at the public input on the budget on the
061proposed budget. Um, so if we have anyone who had a specific comment or question um that they would like to share with the board specific to the budget, we do ask you to come up to the microphone and still tell us your name and your uh town, but we know Trevor lives in Auburn. So that's what I'm going to take out of tonight's meeting. Hi, good evening. I'm Sarah Kelly. um and I live in Freeport. I sent a longer letter to the board um very early this morning uh and I just really wanted to highlight a few pieces uh that this is really the convergence of value and resources and that's kind of the conversation that's going on locally in homes in our town in you know this is not the only budget that's feeling
062crunched and with some uncertainty and unpredictability about what's to come in the future. Uh I really appreciated um Mora and I also appreciated uh Superintendent Scrappa, you and your staff that dynamic spreadsheet that you shared last year that really could calculate for folks what a tax burden increase would mean in real time looking at these budgets. That was such high value work to present to this board. So thank you for that. I mean this is incredibly complicated but I really want to lift up the way um Julie Nickerson shared about the assoc the assistant principal role. Her argument last week was this is high value for money and I think that is the founding principle that we need to be looking at any of these positions cuts any of the budget items. Uh it was
063really interesting to look into some of the deeper dives on cost centers in Durham's um annual report is very detailed line by line showing some of the town-based cost centers that are going up and they projected out to 2026 healthc care cost over 200% increase. Um you know just the cost of keeping the lights on in these buildings is going up. This is not a surprise. And so when we're facing these incremental cost raises and we feel like the only way we can do that is to cut positions, you know, my heart goes out to all of you for these decisions. And I hope that we can just continue to keep value for what we're offering at the center. Um I did have an opportunity to kind of do some math and look at, you
064know, this argument of a pizza per month and whatnot and um you know, a 1% increase. there's already going to be a 5.73% increase. So, I appreciated, Colin, that you brought up that straw man last week about is anybody willing to go a little bit higher to consider here. A 1% increase for a median tax bill burden um for Durham would be $40 per household beyond the 5.73. So already go knowing there but knowing if there is any appetite to go up and hear that some schools are going between four and 7% you know I think that's the conversation that you have to have tonight. The median tax bill for a 1% increase for Freeport would be $50 and same for Panel. So that's kind of some of the napkin math that I did as
065best I could deep diving into where we're at. And I think that's really important to consider when you center the conversation around value for money and what taxpayers can um bring forth. So thank you. Thank you Sarah. Giving people a moment. Beth is counting to seven for me. Okay. So, we will move on to item 10, administrator reports. Kelly, I'm usually right at the podium and budget's got me all discombobulated today. Um, what's in your packet um is actually the expenditures through February 28th, 2025. Um we are on track uh as to where we were spending and and um revenue-wise uh fairly close to last year at this time. We are as an administrative team I have asked uh principles um to start looking ahead. I kind of mentioned this at the last meeting looking
066ahead as to what we need for that last semester of the year and to try to get all of those um as many as much of those monies committed as possible before we all um for the students leave on April break. um just so that we can kind of get a better handle on on uh what we're looking at for um uh what we might have left at the end of the year so that we can kind of do that final look of what what projects and items can we actually get done before the end of the school year with what we have. Um knowing that there's that there's many items on the list. Um and sometimes as as um cost of some capital items go over um we have to put things off and
067wait towards to the end of the year. So, we're really kind of looking to to try and get some of that stuff done as well before the end of the school year. So, um, everyone's being mindful of budgets and trying to get as much committed as possible that they need for the end of the year. Beth, hi. I have a quick question. I just noticed um just looking at the interest revenue how we're up 30% or so this year. Um, and I notice for the projected for next year you have it at around 259,000, but this year it's already up over 273. And so I'm just wondering, is there something that you know or are anticipating maybe an interest drop or something because I didn't know if Well, again, the interest one is always like
068rolling the dice, right? We it depends on what's happening in the economy and as we know, there's a lot going on right now. Um and and I am at you know at the time we're we're in January of 25 trying to look out to July 25 through June of 26. So while I a, you know, um, was willing to move the mark a little bit based on some past history, there there was some concern about what we may do as an economy and whether they're not there might be some sort of recession and then, you know, some some interest rates dropping. I didn't want to overcommit on that. Yes, thank you very much. I was just curious. I figured that was the case, but yeah, I appreciate And and as you know, if if in
069fact we collect more than what we had budgeted, it ends up in undesated fund balance for a future year's potential use. Yeah, I think the general uh economic expectation um the Fed they think the Fed is probably dropping rates once if not twice this year. So um I think when I got on the board the interest income line was $25,000. So uh it's moved up marketkedly since then. Um, you know, who knows exactly where that'll end up being, but I think it's always it's always better to be a little conservative on the on the revenue estimate. You don't have to make that up somewhere else. So, questions for Kelly. Thank you. All right. So, uh, board comments and committee reports. We'll start with board information exchange agenda requests. Any other committees that have met that
070would like to report out? Yep. Mora. Um, we did have an MSBA regional meeting and I've been forgetting to do updates on these sometimes, but I did have requests, so I wanted to make sure to um share it. We had a good group. They've started combining different districts, so it's nice to have an opportunity to hear from folks in um different parts of the state. Um, we talked about what different folks were doing with regard to cell phone policies and we heard from SAD75 that they had a working group that brought them recommendations and a proposal to ban phones and use yonder pouches and that the board did approve it and sent it to the policy committee and next year they'll be doing that in the high school. Um, and I think the middle school,
071although I my notes are not great on that. Sorry about that. But at least the high school. Um, and then so I wanted to mention that one specifically since it's part of our cohort that we usually compare to. Um, I mean some other schools uh differed in their approaches as to whether they were um looking at using the pouches or just had still had a policy um at the building level like what we have. Um so there were some differing perspectives on that, but everyone agreed like I think with what our board has and and administrators have told us that it's an increasing concern. Um, and uh, oh, I did think something was interesting was that um, from SAD75 talking with their um, local authorities, they said they'd actually prefer students didn't have phones during
072a crisis because it can be a distraction. I just thought that was an interesting observation and if we had ever spoken with, you know, um, our SRO about that. Um, and let's see, they gave us an update on some bills. There was one specifically about recalling school board members like creating a process statewide that they were going to be opposing. Um and then they had also shared about a full plates full potential webinar about the local food programs and like FDA or USDA funding um to schools that I had shared with the board. Um and folks shared some of their tax impacts but you've already heard about that. So I think that um that was about it. Do we know if anyone was able to listen to the webinar? I wasn't, but the full plates,
073the the food one, you know, I wasn't, but I think some of the MSBA um uh leadership did. So, I I think they were going to follow up and if they haven't sent information about it, they had said that they would share. So, I can I can ask about that. Just curious on where that where that's headed. Other comments? All right. So, we will move on to um I think it is a joint finance facilities committee. Okay. I'm going to report since Kelly did last time on the joint. Um I'm basically just going to read this because there's a lot of information which you guys all heard, but I don't want to mess it up. No. Um, we, the facilities and operations committee and the finance committee members considered two proposals put forth by administration
074based on feedback from the board of directors to consider other options that did not include the spendown $2,434,376 in undesated fund balance to complete all of the life safety proposals in light of potential federal grant funding losses for the state of Maine. So one is keep original life safety proposal as is based on the high prioritization of the RSU5 administrative team to protect students and staffs staff. Two, move the door replacements and fire access devices portion of the life safety projects back to phase one of the energy audit. replace the proposed FY26 capital projects listing with the phones and paging portion and complete the cameras and door access portion with the FY27 proposed capital fund capital projects funds. The committee then discussed various options to fund all of the life safety projects. The recommendation agreed
075upon by the joint committee to move to the full board of directors was one, complete door replacements and fire access devices portion of the life safety projects by moving them back to phase one of the energy audit. Two, replace the proposed FY26 capital projects listing with the phones and paging portion in the FY26 proposed local budget, which would add $6,000 to the FY26 proposed budget to fund adequately. Move three, move the cameras and door access portion along with the FY26 proposed capital projects to the capital reserve account. Cameras and door access would be completed in summer 2025. Hold on FY26 capital projects until the discussion regarding federal funding is complete. And four, it was recommended it was further recommended to move the portion of the recommended $2,434,376 in undesated fund balance. But I'm sorry, an
076undesated fund balance not needed to cover federal grant loss to the capital projects reserve account. So there we have it. That's what we discussed. You all heard it last time, but um just to say it out loud. And then we had the finance committee had a meeting um today and it looks like the next meeting of the facilities and operations committee is on April 9th. Thank you. questions for Beth or anyone else on the committees? Great. All right. So, we are on to 13 unfinished business. Uh board deliberations on the FY26 Superintendent proposed budget. So, um I'm going to ask I just want to confirm something um around the proposed budget um the vote that doesn't include any of the items around the capital reserve, right? Those those are just or moving money from basically
077what Beth was just talking about. The move of funds from undesated fund balance into the the article one reserve and the article 2 reserve and the capital reserve. Those are just warrant articles that the board wants on at the meeting. Yes, correct. Those will come to you as uh as part of the warrant once this portion of the budget is finalized. Articles 1 through 11. Okay. So what our our 13B here around the the vote is uh the number the articles 1 through 11. Yes. And and I believe there's a sample of that in in the packet. Um Yep. We should put it on a color. Yay. Um so matches the shirt. Um, so yes, that that is that that would be what we would be looking for a vote on this evening so that
078we can then put that all into the warrant along with the articles that were discussed at the previous meeting. There was general consensus for that. Um, and then that stuff would get sent off to the attorneys for review and approval so that we can have it signature in April 9th. Right. Perfect. Okay. 16th. So um, but we're doing we're not voting by article. We're voting by the whole budget in terms of a dollar amount, right? Or we're the approved budget. Correct. Okay. But usually you see it on the paper, right? Typically at this meeting, we've agreed. We've there is an agreement and we have filled out that paper for you so that when you're voting on a total number, you know, per article what the amounts are. Okay. Um, and you do have a something.
079you just wait till you get three steps away. Sorry, just stay for a second. Uh and but you do have a um uh the spreadsheet for to show us this with numbers in it based on the proposed budget. That is correct. I can project that for the board. Once you get a little further in the discussion, I would be able to show you a completed green sheet um so you could look through it. Great. Okay. So, uh, first I'm going to ask, um, about, uh, additional questions or do people have things that they would like to ask, um, that they feel they need to know to move forward tonight? Um, is there anything that they didn't quite get the answer to they were looking for, or it spawned another question, Kelly? Yeah, we've heard from
080a number of mass landing teachers about their concerns around the grade four teacher reduction and I would like to hear from um the administrator kind of a uh how how she's viewing that. Good evening. I'm not as tall as Paige. Not even close. Um, so I think when we looked at reductions, when we approached this budget recognizing that that starting percentage, that 12% probably wasn't a feasible number for the community, I think we tried to be really thoughtful as an administrative team um, and principles particularly in looking across schools at finding ways to mitigate impact to kids. So where were places for example where cohorts were close to that um cuto off of the class size policy. So, for example, that third grade cohort which is now in five classes is 86 students as of
081today. And looking at places and I know for example Will did the very same thing in Durham. Like where are we at 44s that or 45s that may have historically been three that we could move to two without um while certainly that leads to a shift in increase in class size. It doesn't eliminate programming that's offered to students. And so certainly like anytime you reduce a position that has an impact, right? Large or small. I won't say that there's not an impact. Of course there is. Both to the teachers in those classrooms um who are facilitating the learning of all those kids and to the students. I think you heard that from the staff who spoke tonight. I think it's equally important to recognize though that we were very thoughtful and intentional as a principal
082team um particularly at the elementary level at ensuring that that reflected equal impact across all of the buildings. So, I would say I know while you heard from mass landing teachers tonight, I anticipate that those sentiments um very well may exist in other buildings. And so, to me, the conversation is about more than that fourth grade teaching position because you run the risk if that is added, we will then have inequities across the district. whereas it it is seen as acceptable to have 23 students in a classroom in Durham but not acceptable to have 21 in a classroom in Freeport. Other questions about that? Thank you so much Emily. I appreciate that. Um I had this question of all the administrators but since you're up there I'll just ask you and then if others want
083to like chime in maybe they can. Um I was wondering in the approach to the budget um who I know the administrators had those discussions about equity across the district as you just mentioned but in within each building when you were looking at where to make those cuts like who is part of those conversations and what that process looked like and that was different by building or maybe not. Yeah it I don't think it's hugely different by building but if other principal if it is they can um jump up. So typically those conversation h excuse me conversations happen at the leadership team level within the building. So in our building that includes representation for each of our teams for special ed for grade level teams for the specialist and depending on the year those conversations
084look different right they typically start in a typical year they'll start with where are we feeling like things are going well where do we feel like there are needs within the building and so some of the things that have been added in the past couple of years reflect that the assistant principal um RTIB ed techs for example those are recent additions that come to mind this year those conversations were different because the conversations sounded more like this is not likely going to be an ad year, right? So, we are not having that conversation of like where do we want to go? Where do we want to take this building? It was more of like okay, what has the least impact? If we know that we're going to have to look at a reduction in the
085building, where is that least impactful? Right? And those conversations, the leadership team is at the center of those conversations. Certainly some of those conversations happened between the coordination of the leadership team me like leader of that team and the teams but this year it looked different knowing it wasn't like normally sometimes we survey staff we've done that historically where we might send out a Google form of like what are things that you're thinking about that would help grow our community and support kids this year knowing we knew this that 12% number I want to say in October right and so it was a different conversation this year and then Of course in January, early January before the proposed budget comes to the staff, I met with all with any staff who wanted to attend to
086talk about this is the picture at the district level. This is the picture at the mass landing level. So staff had that clarity of why certain proposals were made both within our building but also at the systems level as well. Recognizing that across the board we were looking more closely at enrollment and where were places that those enrollment numbers would allow for some shifts in the total number of teachers um at certain grade levels. Thank you Emily. Um, one thing that I feel like we heard a lot about from Will and you as well and Julie was about cohorts and how, you know, what might work for one cohort is not going to work for another. And um, sort of where the threshold class size numbers were. They were for in cohorts that it would
087would work for is what I thought I heard. Um, and it seems like now we're hearing that that upcoming grade four cohort from teachers at least. And I think we have heard from a parent, it's not really a cohort that that that would work for. And I guess I was just wondering if you could respond to that. Yeah. Um, I think a couple things come to mind. I mean, I think I hope and I I think that you you feel the passion of our mass landing teachers. Like they work so hard. They care so deeply about the kids in their care. Um, I'm sure that's parallel at our other district elementary schools. And so I I expect that like whatever the cohort is, they want like if if that cohort has been serviced with five
088teachers, they're going to advocate for five teachers. We look at a couple things with cohorts though, like one is what are the the social emotional needs of the cohort? What are the academic needs of the cohort? Sometimes we have cohorts who are like concurrent needs. I would say like our fifth grade cohort for example who was serviced as five third grades in their third grade year then four in their fourth grade year and then five again this year. Part of the reason we made that decision that's where that position that was funded out of reserve came from is recognizing when we saw that cohort in four both academically and social emotionally the the data did not support continuing at four. Um, and so it's it's looking at all of those pieces, right? And certainly like
089is it is it more accessible to teach 16 kids than 21? Absolutely. Absolutely it is. And it's that balance. And I mean that's the the pleasure you get is as a team to decide where you're comfortable. Um, but knowing we tried to be very kind of equitable and thoughtful in what reductions were proposed and recognizing like we have a lot of cohorts that have been in 20s and 21s without issue. That isn't atypical for a grade three through five elementary school span. Um, I just have a question because I'm just a little confused that we were talking about we're cutting this position, but in my understanding it was a one-year only position. So, in respect to the budget, that just goes away. Like, we would have to choose to add it back in. Correct. Well,
090it's funded out of reserve, but it's actually a fifth grade position. So it it's it's a fourth grade teacher filling it, but when it was added as a position from reserve, it was added to this cohort in fifth grade right now. So that cohort's going to the middle school, right? So it's it's then looking at okay, the incoming third grade is going to maintain at five. I think they're at 80 89 and projected enrollment. Um and then that shift goes to fourth. So like yes and no. the the position is currently funded through reserve, but it's actually a fifth grade at a the fifth grade cohort, which won't even be at Mass Landing next year. I just had a follow-up question. Is the the edtech position that you're proposing, is that currently um filled in
091your school or It is. Yes. And it has been for the duration of the position. Other questions for Emily on that? Thank you. Yeah, don't go far. Hold on. Cara might have changed your mind. Um, was that position unfilled previously or and how long was that? The edtech position. The edtech position has been filled the three years we've had it. It was added um postcoid. Some of you may remember when we were experiencing massive guest teacher shortages. um also dealing with um mandated quarantines when people got COVID or were close contacts. And so it was added to address that need, that guest teacher need. And we've used it both as a guest teacher when we don't have um substitutes or we have short teacher absences and also then for um RTI intervention when he's not
092pulled for that position. So we've had a single edtech in that position for three years. Is this the bench sub position? Yep. Okay. So, my thought is that we get a motion on the floor and then we can talk about it. Um, that seems like a way to approach it that we can then methodically go through any adjustments or not that we want to make to the proposed budget. That seem reasonable. Okay. So, uh, do you want to put it up on the screen? The just the proposed Well, do we have it with the proposed the recommended section? Okay. Okay. So, Bring it to the super. Okay. So, that's the 573. Okay. Do I have a motion for consideration approval of the FY26 superintendent proposed budget? Kelly Beth. Okay. So, we won't vote just yet.
093I imagine there'll be some discussion here. But now we've we can It seems like uh one one area that the board felt um uh some consistent support around adjusting from the init the initial uh superintendent's budget was that ESOL position. Um so um how how the process of this works um is if someone had something what they wanted to add or reduce um they could make a motion for an amendment to the motion on the floor which we would get a second for and then vote on the on the amendment. If that amendment passes, the original motion then is the amended motion, right? So the original motion goes the way the new motion on the floor for for consideration for the board is is now amended by whatever that amendment was. Does that make sense?
094So we can tackle it that way. Yes. I'd like to make an amendment. Okay. to add in um the ftt teacher one time. I'm not sure how to word it, but one the superintendence in includes two and a half. Yes. So you would want to increase it by a.5. Okay. So I would like to increase the ESOL teacher by 5 to our budget. Is that $51,000 by $51,000? Okay. Is there a second to that motion? Danielle, thank you. All right. Comments on on that piece. I'm sorry. Okay. And miss just to clarify, it would restore the proposed cut that then was proposed to be 0.5 to the full whole FTE is the motion. Yes. So that it would go from two and a half to three. People comfortable with that, ready for a vote on
095that amendment? All those in favor? Great. None opposed. All right. So that now becomes the new motion on the floor. Um so this this number is now increased by $51,000. Okay. Okay. So, other adjustments to the recommended budget. Um, I'd like to make a motion that we add the mass landing uh the two I'm sorry, the one FTE um fourth grade teacher and the one FTE edtech position back into the budget. Okay. So, the motion is to I'll let Kelly figure out the dollar amounts on those. um to increase the budget by a one full-time FTE educator position and an edtech for for Mass Landing School. So a full-time educator is 102,000 and the edte are 48,600. So it would be 150,600. Is there a second for that motion? Cheyenne, thank you. Okay. Um, discussion
096on that. Kelly. Yeah, I guess after hearing from Emily, I'm and and seeing the the class sizes, they're still within the recommended ranges, and I'm hearing I'm hearing from her a a concern about equity across the district. I'm I'm hearing a concern that if we put that back in and we have a very low class a 16 student class sizes here that um that really to be fair we we would need to do something for Durham too. So I'm not really sure how comfortable I feel based on the administrator comments on supporting that amendment. I think for me and obviously this is my first season doing this so everything seems hard but one of the hardest pieces has been the equity piece and I've really struggled that with that as well Kelly of like what's
097Durham getting and I um I believe it was Trevor from Auburn who was saying like let's not get lost here of what we're looking at and really trying to put the students first and foremost and if we try to say okay this school is getting this like I just think we're going to get totally lost cost. Um, you know, I had noted that DCS is getting the addition of the edtech 3 um to support RTIB in grades 5 through 8. Um, they do have their class sizes in particular in grade grade four are 18 to 19. That is still less if we're looking at that than the I think it's 21 in the grade four. Um, at the middle school I was more concerned, but then when I went back to Will's looking at the
098schedule and how they do it, they're still keeping class size at 18 or below. And I just feel like if we're going to invest in students, grade four is the time to do it. I mean, it's before they're getting to middle school. Our test scores are really down. And I just feel like indivi more individualized attention should be looked at particularly in a cohort where we have a teacher who's taught at that school for 23 years saying this is a difficult cohort that they've been asked to go down and they go up by their uh numbers of teachers for various years and they've seen that it doesn't work. Um, so I am in full favor of keeping the grade four educator. You know, the edtech, it's so hard. I If we have someone in there
099who's great, and it seems like we do from what we've heard, I would say let's do that, too. Other comments or questions on the mass landing position? You think I have something to say? I thought you might. This is so hard. I just have to acknowledge how really difficult this is. Um I I still feel like this is not a time to be cutting teachers and I would like to retain as many of these positions as we can. [Music] Um, and that's what I keep coming back to that I I feel like we're hearing that this is this is not the time to be cutting people in the schools and we're concerned there's concern about about scores and where we stand in the in the nation in terms of education. And I don't think it's
100because we have too many staff. I I think that we if we want to get ahead, I think we need the people in place to to help us with that. Um, and I think that we mostly agree on that and we we keep coming back to the concern about the percentage. Um, and I still think that we have room to put something forward that is a higher percentage. Um, I'm also concerned if if we don't retain some of these staff uh, some of these positions that the budget will get voted down as well because of people who want to see these positions not cut. So, I support um, Mora's proposal for those positions. I also I'm I'm concerned about cutting positions, the difficulty of not getting them back again, especially when the future of funding
101is so uncertain. I'm I'm really concerned that even if enrollment goes up and we need those positions again, that we won't be in a place where we can add them back. So I am feeling um for that reason more motivation to keep those positions and as far as the equity piece I it's that's yes like you said and I've been thinking a lot about that as well and which is what makes me say let's also include at least one of the DCS positions um in addition to the middle school ones. I don't feel very well. Uh, so my brain's not working very well. Um, but I'm going to try to say an intelligent thing tonight. This might not be it. Give me 10 shots. Um, I guess I want to I I want to [Music]
102um I was really struck by our our uh member of the public who was talking about um the concern over the um the quality of education at um at our schools. Um, and while I have no um I have no gross or particular critique of the way in which we're delivering our education to our students. Um, it did strike me um that the budget was not presented to us um nor do I believe it ever has been. So this is not a a dig at our current superintendent or finance director or anything. Um the budget was not presented to us um with an accompanying uh goal of increased performance. Um it was not presented to us with a statement of um if we have if we if we go forward with this budget um we're
103going to be improving um the educational quality of the students. we're going to be um uh improving whether by whatever measure whether it's by test scores or whether it's by um some more uh qualitative measure. Um but I think as I said I just I take that I take that member of the public's um question and feedback seriously and I think if just through that if I put that through my lens of just what I understand about education and what I understand about how performance can be increased um it's never by cutting staff um so I suppose Um, therein lies the the conundrum. I think that there's a a number of folks in our community who have critiques of the uh educational system that we're currently using. Um, however, I think we do know and
104as you know, as I appreciated Dr. um you know bringing I can't remember the actual uh individual that you me you mentioned but just bringing in actual experts to the you know educational experts and and that is who we need to rely on um and I guess I guess I would just say to that community member and to other community members to also um to trust in our administrators and to trust in our educators who are trained in this field. Um and know that we are trying to also uh uh trust in them as much as we are also uh trying to balance create a create a budget um that is that is fair and is able to be passed. Uh, I would echo um Carara's comments um um about keeping the positions and the
105equity. Um I'm would like to have a discussion about the DCS positions um as well, but I know that could be a different motion than the one that we're talking about right now. Um, I think that it it I really felt that a community member who emailed us, a couple of community members who emailed us, um, and said things that I thought really succinctly explained how my my point of view and thinking about this and one of them was that funding our schools is the most important thing that we can do. And I really believe that. I really believe that that is true. And I know how difficult this is. Like sitting in this um seat and having to make this decision about raising someone's property taxes or cutting um a teacher is um is
106very difficult. And I I think I always go back to and I think maybe maybe this is my perennial thing that now I bring up every time we have a budget negotiation that like it's the larger system that is putting us in this place and that it should not be this way and we're being put in this very difficult position because of how our system of education is funded. And I know there's a lot of really smart people talking about that at the state level and looking at that. And um there's also a lot of people looking at how we tax property and um how we can do that in a fairer way. And I hope that some of those proposals go somewhere so that we don't have to keep ending up in this position
107because it's it's not fair. It's not fair to ask uh to put uh you know someone on a fixed incomes property tax bill going up against a teacher having larger class sizes and kids getting you know better services like it's like a false choice to make and um that's not going to help us proceed on the budget tonight but I just wanted to say that because it's always true when we have to make these difficult decisions. Um, and then the other thing I wanted to say was the the community member who said that this is about our priorities and our values. And I think that's true. Um, that really resonated with me and it is about what do we value as a community and what is important to us and do we want to be
108a district that cuts positions or do we want to be a district that that continues to make investments the important investments in our schools? And um I think we're the latter type of district. Um but I also know again that this is these are very difficult conversations and it's a difficult um difficult decision to make. But I think I want to see us continue to move forward in the direction of being a district that says in a in towns that say we're going to invest in our schools and part and I would just add another concern of mine is that if we don't have as much of an increase this year like I was thinking through this and it kind of sounds like counterintuitive but like if we have a lower increase next year then
109we're gonna this year then we're going to come back and we're gonna have to have an even bigger increase next year. So, we're kind of I feel like we're hamstringing ourselves a little bit if we if we don't take an opportunity to have a slightly bigger increase than than what the administration recommended. But, I do want to just express my gratitude, my deep gratitude for all the administrators who work so hard on the budget, all of the staff, all of the community members who reached out to us and gave us your heartfelt comments. Um, I know we read all of them and we were really I mean, I really appreciate it and I know all the the board members do appreciate your valuable insights. So, thank you. Yeah, it's it's challenging for sure. Um, you
110know, I I think ahead I I don't disagree with Mora and you know, the philosophical piece on how we fund education. I don't maybe I'm a pessimist. I don't see that getting better in the any near term and I think it very well could get worse. Um, that's one of my concerns. I I guess I have sort of the flip side of the coin from Cara's comment around, you know, the ability to add things back later. We would eliminate our ability to do that. I think um I think if we can't be more efficient um we're going to we're going to end up in an unsustainable situation um when federal funding changes or we have to fund more of it at the local level or um any number of things that could add more to
111our portion of the of the money coming in um where that's coming from and you know I I I think I appreciate our administrators willingness to look and say we can deliver what the board has asked us to deliver with these resources. Um and you know no group no entity no business no company has ever said you know I want to lose resources. It's not it's not ideal. Um but it it can be a reality and you know we have we have been lucky in the growing sort of um size of our district. We have been unusual in that in the state. Um you know what we're dealing with now a lot of other districts have dealt with in prior years. Um much much more impactful um you know uh cuts had to be made.
112Um and and I guess I my feeling on what has been presented to us is it is reasonable, it is rational, it is effective and it and is and it is in a more efficient way. And um you know sometimes when you look at how the resources are are divvied up, you find other ways to do things better. Um and I think we've already heard some of that from from Dr. forier in the last couple of weeks about, you know, as we've thought about this, we think this might be a good move regardless of what happens with the position changes, you know, how we're looking at the schedules, how we're looking at delivering these these services. Kelly, uh, Kelly's point earlier about maybe weaving these health standards into other places can actually be more effective
113than health to class. Um, I'm just really, really struggling with the sort of slippery slope of, you know, well, we should just add them all back. And now we're back up to 12%. Actually, probably even more because the mass landing position wasn't even in there. Um, because that was a one-year only position. It was never intended to be filled again. It was based, it wasn't a position that was added, you know, in perpetuity. It was added as a one-year position. So, um I'm really struggling with um with with this request um sort of at the at the 11th hour um of the process. Um clearly they got feedback from someone to to reach out and you know I appreciate it. I I we do want to hear from people. Um it's just tough when it's
114the last day. um you know and and so I'm I'm not in favor of this amendment at all at this point. Yeah. I I also wanted to add this idea of just value versus resources that Sarah Kelly brought up. I I think it's a really great way to think about it. I think we can, our administrators have told us that they believe we can deliver a very high quality education to our students and have reasonable class sizes and still be a little bit more efficient and save our taxpayers some money. So, I I think none of us are saying we don't want a quality education for for our students. We're also just trying to think about um you know is the amount of money that we're asking our taxpayers to bear worth the the increment
115that we're going to get in in in higher quality. Anyone we haven't heard from that wants to share anything? People feel like they're ready to vote on. We're not voting on the whole budget. This is just the amendment to add uh the MLS um edtech and um position FTE. Okay. All those in favor of the amendment. One, two, three, four, five, six. Okay. So, that passes. So, we're adding that. So the motion on the floor, the main motion uh passes is now or the main motion is now amended to include that 150,000. Yes. Yes. Yep. So a yes. Yeah. We'll do a yes vote. Please put your hand up again for Yes. If you're a yes vote, hand all the way up. four. Yeah. Opposed just all right. So the main motion is now amended
116twice. Uh so we are at 251600 above where we were. Yes. So we've just added a quarter of a million dollars back to the budget. Okay. All right. Uh I saw Cara first. Uh, I would make a motion to amend to add uh the DCS grade three and grade five educator back into the budget. Is there a second? Sorry, DCS third grade and fifth grade teacher that were reductions in the budget. So, two FTE for for Durm Community School. a second. Okay. So, Mora is the first, Cara is the second. Discussion. Now, I'm kind of regretting having you go first because I thought you were going to say something else. But I I just want to recognize that last week I feel like we were at a place where we um were talking about the
117middle school positions and wanting to retain those. And so I I kind of want to keep that on the table. I'm concerned if we um are passing these positions that we didn't talk about last week that we will lose the option um to include those positions back in. So I'm not sure how to go about that. How? I'm not sure how to, right? I could vote no. Right. [Music] Um, it's a tough process to know how to work through. Yeah. Correctly. Yeah. We haven't had one of these in a long time on where we were not necessarily all in agreement on where where we were going with it. So, discussions about the Durham positions. So, um, I guess I'm going to ask Will to come up and give us a little bit of background on
118this third and fifth cohorts. Before Will comes up, there was a request from Sam for people to get a little closer to their mics when they talk, please. What's your question? And I didn't quite hear it. I guess I would just like to hear a little bit more about the third and fifth cohort and um the the thought process around um why we were okay with the class sizes that are um represent on the sheet. Yeah. I don't think I have really anything to add from what we've already previously sort of shared. Um and I think Emily spoke very articulately about the process. um we had looked at um these class sizes and I mentioned several times that it's very cuspy for us. We always are in that sort of range. And so um when
119we looked at the cohorts that we currently have that would be rising third and rising fifth graders, they are in three sections currently, but we felt like they could be in classes of 22 um um and still meet their needs. the um you know as we talked about if few people move out then the classes get a little bit smaller if few people move in then you know we end up with um some tricky numbers but that was a space where we felt we could live and you know one thing I guess I would say is that when they've come up um through several grade levels as a smaller cohort with three sections that cohort then benefits from that every single year. Um so it's not necessarily that oh the you know whatever grade fourth
120grade has this one year benefit if they're a smaller cohort always with extra teacher that cohort always benefits from those smaller sections year one year. Um and so as such both these cohorts have been in three to this point in time um and have had that benefit and um it felt like we could accommodate them in the class sizes we proposed. Thank you Mora. Um I appreciate Will's comments and um last week I was feeling like that. um addressed my my concern because um as I mentioned last week, I looked at the class sizes, the proposed class sizes across the district to see and compared them to our um sorry I get closer to the mic. Compared them to our class size policy. Um and these grades stood out to me. But I guess the
121question that I would ask the board is um because 22 to one is our threshold action level and I know these project projections for which age group can you would you mind just sorry I'm sorry yes um so for 3 to five uh the target is 20 to1 and the threshold action level is 22 to1 and I know these um projections are just that they're projections um but I guess I I'm wondering is is this class-siz policy still something that the board um subscribes to and wants to aim for? Because if we do, then it seems like it's not in alignment with this and and the conversation around equity and adding positions back at some schools that have different class sizes than others. That resonated with me and so that's why I made this motion.
122Other comments? I just had a question for Will. Um, it's been I think if you need to get definitely closer to your mic. How's that? Okay. Um, question for Will is we haven't heard from any teachers at Durham Community School. If those teachers were here now, do you have any idea what they would say? I'm not I'm really not sure that I can speak for what they may or may not say. I mean, similar to Emily, you know, the process she described is very representative. Um we communicated this with staff uh when we were first presenting the budget and um have continued to you know staff are aware um if you're going to say to somebody would you rather have fewer students or more students or would you rather have a perceived e easier situation
123or harder situation. I think one can hypothesize what a human response would be to that, but equally um you know I think they're also very aware of the process and what we're trying to achieve in terms of that balance and so I can't speak for what they would say but certainly it's been conversations we've presented at the school. Okay, that's one of the things I struggle with. Um because I think that point is exactly right. You know, if if you asked anyone, would you like to, you know, would you like fewer or or more of something? I guess in this case, more is not good, but um but you know, it that's the hard part. Um when we when we zero it in to a a specific whether it's teacher or position or um you
124know we hear we hear from our staff that um you know they really appreciate and admire all the work that their administrators do in those buildings. Um you know what they do in those buildings. Our administrative team does across the district on sort of a a more global level. Um, and so, you know, I I guess the the acknowledgement of of their knowing knowing the full landscape, knowing the pieces on the board, um, I I think I think I I would leave it to their recommendation. Kelly, I agree with you, Michelle, and I know we've already passed the the previous motion, but I just want to point out that that the proposal for mass landing for the 21 students in grade four per class size is actually less than the threshold action level. It's slightly
125higher than our target, but it's less than our class size threshold action level per our policy. And um same with Durham. I mean, if we keep things per the re the principles and superintendent recommended budget, we're going to still be in in our range, our target range, and a range that they've operated in for quite some time with much success to my from what I hear. And so I I just feel really uncomfortable asking for six classes of 16 and adding that extra money into the budget just to get down to class sizes of 16 to 17 when that's not even our our target target range. Danielle and then but now as as a Durham resident I I I feel stuck right so we've added to Mass Landing now I feel like I have to
126vote to add back to Durham otherwise I look like the bad Durham person who isn't supporting Will which is 100% of what I do not want to be. Um so I I agree with you Kelly and Michelle. I I think that, you know, I I'm I'm struggling with I don't want to cut teachers either. I I think education is is hugely important. Um and I'm 100% supportive of it, but I also think that we have to be conscious of what's happening in the the world around us. I mean, we're we're asking our taxpayers. I I know that we talked about the $11, the going to Starbucks or whatever, but my world, hospitals are closing. People are losing their jobs. Those are our taxpayers. They're not going to be able to do this. And we're not
127talking about just taxes. We're talking about putting food on the table. And I don't know how we say that that's okay, but we're going to have a super high school budget. I I I'm really really struggling with that. I I I I just can't. And I think that, you know, we need to go back. I would love to take that other motion off the table and and and just because I think where we're heading now is we're just going to add everything back and plus we're going to add those two extra positions in and now we're going to present a budget of 13% if if I'm right. It's it's not going to pass and it's not doable, I think, for people. And even if it could pass, is it the right thing to do? Just
128because you can, should you? I mean, that's that's where I'm struggling. So, if we want to look at our class sizes, I mean, we have class sizes of 15 in at More Street for the second grade with five teachers, right? Do we shift one if if we feel like 21 is too much here? I mean, where where's the cusp? Oh something, but yeah, I probably forgot what I very eloquently was going to say um at this point, but I did just want to say this is a very very very hard thing that we have to do right now and I want to recognize um just want to recognize that and appreciate everybody's really thoughtful deliberation. Um and I know I just want to speak to the motion that you put on the floor specifically, Mora.
129Um, as I've been thinking about all these positions, I'm thinking about these positions individually. Um, and I'm hearing some really good points from our administrators, but I'm also listening to the community feedback that we're hearing from our community members and our um our staff members. And for the Durham position specifically, I I haven't heard any feedback. So, I'm hearing what Will is proposing. Um but I'm not hearing from the community that that that is something that they're opposed to. Um so I'm feeling again speaking specifically to this motion um that it's not something I would support. Um um obviously I voted no um against the last amendment because I feel very strongly when we talk about equity that when superintendent sits down with her administrators or the administrators have sat down with their teams. There
130could be and somebody pointed this out that there could be things that we we're not privy to. So, we don't have all of the information maybe that because there might be confidential things that they can't share. Um, and when I'm looking at this, I mean that for me, the ESOL teacher is districtwide. I mean, that's something the whole district is going to benefit from as far as that goes. But when we start picking and choosing from schools, that is totally inequitable for me because they've already made that decision at the level that they have all the information. This is what they've said will work for them in an equitable way, then I'm I'm okay with that. So, I will be voting uh no on anything else that is added back into the budget. And I
131I I hear you, Danielle. Um, but I feel for me it's important that if if I I what I'm saying is is I think that what they've provided to us meets the needs and they have historically been able to deliver on that when they've said they could meet those needs. I believe them and I I am going to trust them to do that. So, while it, you know, doesn't feel equitable to add all the positions back in other places and not Durham, I feel like for me, I'm going to continue to not support the amendment. Um, and and I'm going to make this suggestion or I don't even know if this is allowed, but um any positions like dollar positions we add back, I would put that to the superintendent to work with her administrative
132team to decide where it's best needed. So, if it's we say we're going to put three positions back, then her and her team can decide where those three positions would have the most impact um in terms instead of us who don't work in the schools, who don't sit at those tables. Um we've heard from some teachers, we haven't heard from others. Um you know, so I guess I'm not comfortable stating this one is more important than that one. Um because I don't know. So, I don't know if that's allowed. Kelly's looking at me like, "Oh, God." Um, I don't I don't know that Kelly can answer it for you exactly because all the positions that are have been talked about so far or were on the cuts were out of article one. Kelly's world for
133the most part. um as far as budget's concerned is concerned is where are the b which articles are the bodies located in um and so for me and I'll I would defer to the superintendent on the actual like decision of what positions they are because for me it's more about what amount of money right gets added back um towards the article one allocation which is where those salaries and benefits live right um the ultimate decision of who and what those bodies are is not under my purview. Yeah. I think it would be really difficult for us because you have to anytime we let's say we add a position like I come to you and you authorize me to hire let's say you know a special ed teacher um at the school or if we added
134a position of fourth grade position at Mass Landing which we did last year you authorized me to do that. So um it wouldn't um you have to allow us to hire certain positions or have certain positions. So you couldn't do a car blank say add three positions or four positions. It would have to be identified what you are authorizing us to hire. What we could do um if we didn't want to wrap this up and vote on it tonight was say you know of those cuts we feel comfortable adding three back come back to us next week with your team on what those three are right then my question would be if I ca if we came back our team came back it was let's say three three had three teaching position positions we were
135adding back and then the board disagreed on that then we're kind of right back where we are. So I think it would be although I appreciate that um I know our team would have I'm sure have great feedback on that I don't think it would be practical. Okay. Because my concern is is the decisions were were made as a group and we are nitpicking individual ones out which may or may not have been the top of the list had we prioritized them and and I know that is something we have done in the past is ask you to prioritize like if we could add back one what would be the one you would want added back as a group right um we didn't ask for that this year so shame on us for not asking
136that but for me that's important right so because we heard heard from a from a discrete group of of educators. Um we're saying this one this one we want to add back, but um perhaps there is bigger need somewhere else. We just didn't happen to get an email from you know from that group. So I'm just really hesitant to to you know squeaky wheel gets the grease kind of mentality that if we hear a bunch from well okay we'll just add that one back and you know hope the ones that were quiet are okay with it. Um, I'm really struggling with that kind of and that's how it this feels to me. Um, not that not that any of the work that any of our teachers isn't extremely difficult and I certainly recognize it's gotten
137harder. Um, but I just I'm just trying to be more systemic in in my view of it. Um, and I'm struggling. Could you, Michelle, could you just clarify what you meant earlier when you said that even if we could pass a 13% budget, you're not sure if we should? What did you mean by that? Um, I think that the the way the the the finances work across the district with different impacts, right? And to to Mora's point, the increase in the valuation in Durham drove up the um the required local contribution, right? There's nothing we can do about that. That is required by the state. Um, so, you know, some of the increase is is due to that. Um and and when it when it plays out in different ways across towns um and the
138the lower impact has a larger voting block per se than the the one that would see the higher percentage increase. Um you know I I guess I'm just cognizant that I think we can pass a budget. Um, but I I I'm just I'm just sensitive to that and sensitive to what Danielle said about, you know, people in all districts, you know, losing positions and and healthc care centers threatening to close and um it's it's real and um there's just so much uncertainty and I'm just hesitant to to layer on. And just a reminder, this is just the school portion of people's tax bill. there's more. I mean, that's that's the other I think that's the other driver around sort of the difference in percentages perhaps between the towns. Um because the mill rate is the
139whole the whole mill rate, not necessarily the mill rate for education. So, um it's, you know, I'm just I'm just sensitive to that and I'm trying to not push through something just because I think we could get enough people to vote this. Yes. Um I believe in being more efficient in our schools and I think that by being that being that way in how we are minded it is built trust with the community so when we have to say we need something else they believe us and they support us and we can add it. Um, I think it's just as important on the flip side to say we think we can do what we need to do with a little bit less, so we're going to take a little bit less this year. For me,
140that feels right. I know that's not how everyone feels, and I respect that, but for me, that feels important. Yeah, I really appreciate what you said, Michelle. And I I also just want to kind of just come back to that idea that um that our administrators have been thinking about this districtwide and with a lens of equity for a long time before it reached our eyes. And um I think that they've put a lot of thought into where they felt that they could make these cuts and still be equitable across the district. I feel very uncomfortable adding a bunch of positions back into the budget from Freeport that will only benefit Freeport and then that the biggest tax impacts being in Durham. I just think that that's going to create a lot of resentment across
141the district. I just want to say that when it comes to how we respond to the input we're given and this is a democratic process, right? Something's proposed, a lot of work is put into something that's proposed. People are given the opportunity to give their feedback and there's been a lot of opportunity for that and we hear that and we we can't be we can't not be swayed by that. Um that is what the process is all about. Um and then we vote and then the town votes, right? So we all and and I guess we still need to give the town the opportunity the towns the opportunity to weigh in with their vote. Um and we might be surprised that there are more people who would value their f their tax dollars going toward
142investing in our school district then then I feel like the focus has been on the people who won't want to or who won't be able to and I I don't want to say that's not happening. Um, I still again if if if I'm going to vote for a higher budget, it's not because I don't trust the administrators or or our superintendent. I just feel like I need to say that again. I was just going to say that I 100% support what Kelly said. Um, I agree with everything that she said. And I guess to Cara, I guess what's the end point though? I think we just stop adding and we say, "Okay, we're going to do 13%." Right? I mean, we might as well stop voting right now because I feel like this is going
143to be the same discussion every single time. There's going to be a motion to add back every single person. So, is that our next step? We just say, "Hey, we're adding everybody back. We're not going to take any of the recommendations that all the administrators worked on and let's go to let's go to the booth. Um, I appreciate all these comments and I can understand like there's a piece of my concerns I think a little bit in everything that everybody else is saying. Um but um I also think that as Cara said, it's a democratic process and we have to take into account the voices of our community, including teachers, including staff. And I do really respect the work that the administrators have done for us, but I also really respect um the voices of
144our teachers. And it's important to me that we take all of those and and our community members. And it's important to me that we take all of those voices into account. Um, and we did have folks contacting us who did say they felt like, you know, things were maybe hectic with some turnover in administrators and that maybe some administrators weren't fully aware of everything they were doing in their role. And so I I have always implicitly trusted our administrators. I think we have an outstanding team of administrators and that we're very lucky in RSU5. And I agree that that because we're not taking their recommendations, I don't think means that we don't isn't a trust issue. Um, for me, it's it's related to getting additional feedback that makes me think that the cuts um will
145be will be more harmful than than what I'm willing to agree to. And um as Emily told us, I think like I don't think was the way this budget process or Gan told us the way this budget process was approached. They saw that number and they had a discussion about what they had what they would cut if they in order to get it down at each building level. And I that doesn't mean that they wanted to do it. It was because it was like a position that the district was in of saying we need to cut something or the whole budget passing will be at risk. So, also the idea that any of the administrators like want these cuts to happen, I I think there were recommendations that were made because of the situation that
146we're all in. Um, so for me, it's I I'm just thinking about all those factors. And I also just wanted to add it's very important to me as a Freeport resident that Durham residents understand that I care just as much about their school as the schools in our community. And that is also why I made this motion, right? because we didn't hear from any. So, so that was going to be my question for you, Mora, is um if this is based on feedback, we didn't get any um so what are we basing this ad back or is it just because we feel like it's the fair thing to do? Did you have something else, Cara? Okay, we should write ourselves notes. I just want to mention that we've heard a lot about equity and making
147sure we're equitable in every school and I think I haven't been on the board for very long, but my guess would be that every year is different in terms of the needs of a school. So, there may be one year where one school needs more and the next year another school needs more. So, I think we just need to keep that in mind too um as we talk about this. And just because we put we decide to add one position back in one school doesn't mean we have to do that in another school. Um I am all for equity but sometimes it's it's okay not to be equitable in that realm. Yeah. And I think as a district that's how we've always approached it is what were the needs? You know it's not what do
148what do I need? It's what does the district need and where's the cut line for how much we can handle in a given year. Right? I mean the the capital the the capital spending has been uh inordinately directed towards Panel for the last two years with with the uh the septic and the electrical and the HVAC and all the other stuff going on over there, right? Like the boiler. Um that's just the nature of the beast. I agree with that. Um, I think that that system works. Um, when when the people who know all the things happening control th those pieces and I don't I I just don't feel like we do. So, okay. Oh, Colin. Um I'm concerned a little bit about and we've we've been we've been caught in this for I don't
149know two months but I'm concerned about this circular logic that we keep falling back on which is that um because the administrators recommended the budget that is the budget that should be passed and we should trust them on it. Um when we know that that was based on an internal to the administration um not to the board an internal to the administration um target for uh a budget increase. Um so it was not I don't I don't I I think we I I I just it is not fair. It is not fair. It's not fair to the administrators to say that they were coming to this saying this is what we need. They were coming to this saying this is what we need because um we have been told that this is the percentage we
150need to hit. Second, I did not recommend that number. I don't remember voting on that. So, I also am a little frustrated though I completely understand um Michelle where you're coming from. I think I'm frustrated with the general um uh stance that it is not appropriate for the board to question the uh additions that are being made when we did not agree on the target percentage to begin with because if if we had been asked what should the target percentage be this year I would have I would have asked questions about it. I would have said what's it what was it last year? What's how is it related to the mill rate? What are the things that we're looking at? And I would have said probably somewhere between 5.5 and 7 is what I would
151have said. And that doesn't mean that that was what would go forward, but that's I know that that would be the target that I was comfortable with. So again, I just really don't want us to um I already have a splitting headache, but it's it's making my headache worse to just continue to hear this uh this faulty reasoning of we have to trust the administrators because this is what they told us that they need because that's what they need. That just is not true. It's just not true. Also, we are not meeting our educational targets as a district. I don't believe we are we are delivering the education that I would like to see our district deliver. That is not a criticism of Gan. That is not a criticism of the administrators. And it's certainly
152not a criticism of any of the teachers. But we are not doing it. And why? Because they don't have the resources to do it. So to then also say we can be more efficient to accomplish the goal. to accomplish what goal to accomplish the goal of not improving our education. That's that's not being efficient. So again, I just I am as as like last uh last week, I really appreciated the conversation last week and I really appreciated the work that you did, Kelly, to really sort of bring that down to to allow us to sort of look at those numbers and to sort of understand that impact. Um, and honestly, I feel like we've gone backwards this week. I felt like we were having a productive conversation last week that was more based around what
153is a comfortable percentage increase overall. Um, and maybe if my head wasn't hurting quite so much, um, I would have interrupted the process earlier, but I couldn't think straight. Yeah, I think that the idea of a acceptable percentage um doesn't seem like it's on the table anymore. It doesn't feel like that's that's a way to approach it. But those are two completely different ways of looking at at the budget, right? I mean, is it a numbers or is it is it in the classroom? And I think it has to be a balance of the two and where you put your importance on what weighs what side of the balance that is everybody's as personal right and decision. So Kelly I guess what we have heard from the administrators is they believe that what they have
154given us that they can deliver let's say they can deliver a quality education for our students. That's what they have told us with this budget. And I guess if we don't believe them, who are we to go in and just tell them, well then then you need to add back in this position when we don't see the same big picture that they have been discussing. I guess that's my that's my concern. If we don't believe that they can do what they think they can do, which is to deliver a quality education for our students, then why what? I don't I I guess I just don't feel like that as a board we have enough expertise to to know where to add those positions back in. I mean, that's where I'm struggling. Like if we had
155decided that we weren't comfortable cutting that many positions and we wanted to add some back, I don't feel equipped to be the one to say that's the one or that's the one. Um but apparently we have to. So okay. Um how are people feeling on voting for the the amendment for DCS? Do people feel like they they are prepared to vote on that amendment? So this is not the main motion. And this is just an amendment to add two positions for $24,000 to the budget. What does every $100,000 me mean in terms of the percentage increase? I feel like you had that. Yeah, I knew I saw it somewhere. So roughly a quarter of a point. Okay. So 25 basis points to the total budget for each position roughly. I just have a question. Yeah.
156The back the um Durham Community School looking at the tables of the staffing levels for this year and then the staffing levels for next year. Where? What page are you on? This is the budget worksheet. This is the yellow page. Oh god, I don't even know where that was. It's a long time ago. Um, but for instance, it says second grade at this year has 53 students with three teachers. But then if you look at the projected student level for what would be then the same class, third grade, it has 44 students, which that's kind of what I've been basing the conversation off. So, I just want to make sure that's numbers, right? Like, do we know that we're losing students? It looks like the student numbers are the same. It looks like they didn't
157roll forward a year. Yes. So, what we were asked to provide you with um was that it's next year's projected numbers. Um, and it was like you asked for current staffing levels and what that would look like and proposed staffing levels and what that would look like. So, okay, that's that's what we we were asked to provide and that's what those charts were. Okay, so that makes sense. So, so it's next year's projected enrollment with what it would look like with current staffing, what it would look like with proposed staffing. I don't have that paper in front of me, but that's what I believe you're referring to. It's just the the confusing thing is the first table it says reflects current staffing levels. Yeah, but it's 26 projected enrollment with the current staffing level and
158the next page. So, look a line above where it says um current staffing. So, it's it was a little confusing table. We were a little confused by it too, but it was it's what each school provided. So, you had the same kind of scenario. No, no, that's that's a good So, so for what we're talking about here, current staffing levels would be classes of 141 15 in third grade and 14 15 in fifth grade and then the mass landing one would be 1617 to 21. Those are the Thank you for that clarification question, Anna. Okay, Colin. I'm not that sure if this is structurally possible or if it is would be of any interest to us, but I I I would like to suggest that we go back to what how we were approaching this
159last meeting and to have a conversation about the target percentage um and to uh have a whether it's a straw vote or what have you, um have a vote where we say we we know that um uh the the the the majority or all or whatever, right? Like vote for to say all right 5.7 5.9 or 6.2 or 6.3 whatever we we name that what it is and then we have a conversation um a difficult conversation. we have a difficult conversation about um yes, how do we prioritize positions, but I still feel like we're we're still prioritizing. We're just now having to do it in a way that's based on the order of things on the spreadsheet. um which is we did the mass landing first, now we're a new DCS and like um and
160that's I guess less holistic in my mind and I guess I just wonder whether we might be able to as a board reach more consensus um if we were able to set a target um a target number that we were comfortable with um and then work backwards from that. Again, I'm not I don't mean to disrupt uh but that's just something that I thought with my brain. Could I suggest that we maybe do a combination of both so that as part of the motions that we're making about adding positions, we look at the sheet that we had from last week and so then folks uh that Kelly had brought up so then folks could understand the impact. um just because in the abstract talking about percentages I feel like that would be difficult for me
161personally. Um but maybe we could do both at the same time like talk about the positions as well as see the percentages. I think the idea is so instead of doing them line by line kind of come up with the number and then say okay if we're comfortable with that what can we get done in that number? I guess I I just wouldn't feel like I know what number to pick. Like I don't feel like I could just pick a a percentage. Okay. But I also feel like the way we're doing it now, we're just moving in one direction and it's going to be very difficult for us to, you know, once we get like Cara said to the FMS stuff, well, we've already added 300 $400,000. What are we going to do now? So,
162I'm not really sure that this process is is very productive for us at this point. I think just um I mean, yeah, I I I'm with you, Mara. I don't um have that magical brain either, but I think we we did do that week la Sorry. Dear Jesus, we did do that work last week um of looking at the of looking at the spreadsheet. Um and we did we went through it and we started we added things in, we took them out. So, we like we know some of that already. we have we know what the sort of some of these ballparks are. Um and again I just think the I just think that even for the sake of the health of this board I might suggest that we take a different approach. I yeah
163I just have a concern about I mean we've we've voted to keep the mass landing uh to to keep those positions in the budget. So um as well as the ESOL teacher. So, if we were to pivot and take a different approach, I think we just have to honor th those votes that we've already made. Well, you could adjust them. I mean, you could make a motion to remove the edte at this point if you wanted to, if you were comfortable with I mean, it it to Kelly's point, it's money in article one. So, I I I guess just respectfully, I feel like because the votes were going to make additions that some folks didn't didn't support that that that we should that it feels like I guess I'm not sure. I just I guess
164I don't have any problem with the way that we're doing it is is what I'll say. I mean, I'm I'm with you and I'm not suggesting that this is the uh a perfect solution, but I would also say that arguably um anybody that's been watching the last few meetings um and has been hearing us talk extensively about the middle school um would have a general sense that we're leaning toward um keeping some of those keeping some of that um and the way things are going. Um, no. I don't think I would vote for that when it comes around this time because the percentage is getting too high. So, it sounds like we'd like the chart up regardless of our our future how we uh attack it. Okay. So, that I think maybe the other one
165might be more helpful to be able to see the individual items that are in there. Yes, I think uh let me get up to the microphone just so that my voice is projecting. Thank you. Um so what I have done on this sheet is because we started with the superintendent's recommended that's the entire thing was yellow, right? Okay. Voted on it. That was first motion. Um, and then [Music] we voted to uh then the board voted to add 0.5 ESOL back. So that's the green at the bottom. Um, and so I have taken it out of the recommended reductions. And so now they're zeros. See? And then the motion, the most recent motion that passed was to add a grade for educators. So I added a line and added that 102,000 because the budget was
166not reflective of that at all. And then I zeroed out the reduction for the mass landing education technician that was part of that motion as well. So that is at zero. So, right now we are um currently, if we're getting back to the screen that we were showing last week when we ended, um we are at 6.21 overall, the net impact of district-wide taxation is 7.84. And then you can see um in line 40 um 8.17 Durham, 4.45 Freeport, and 7.25 25 pound. Is that helpful for folks to see on here? And really that above what we can see is not really what we're talking about anyway, right? So, so again this this follows the model that was in the budget book where we had the overall um additions you know it was all the
167impact areas of the budget really um and so you know we started with last year's baseline or the baseline budget for last year and and really just you know put all the changes in that that are reflected on the sheets whether they were add or subtracts as we've gone through. Okay, great. So, scroll down so that we can see this. And there. I think that's pretty much everything. So, the the mechanic is the first position on the list. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. Okay. So, is that helpful for folks to see that percentage piece? Okay. So, um we do have a motion on the floor. I think regardless of which way we decide we want to approach, we need to um deal with the motion on the floor, um we can vote on it or we can
168pull it if the person who made the motion and the second want to. Um but I think Yeah. Um I'm just not sure. I don't think that I can um I'm just trying to figure out my rules. Yeah. I don't know that I can withdraw the motion. Um, I think that we would have to table it or um, you can't withdraw a motion. I don't see it on here, but I thought as long as the second also withdrew it and then you voted on it, but Okay, then I I'll withdraw it. Okay. Okay. So So that's where we stand now. Kelly, is it possible to make an amendment to an amendment? I mean, the the motion on the floor is now amended for both of these things. So, that's where we stand. So, we can
169make a new motion to to remove the grade four teacher from MLS from the budget in the in the um I guess just to be equitable to Durm. I mean, you could it would have to get a second and pass, right? So, you would have to change someone's mind in D, right? Because if the same people if people still feel the same way about it, I mean that is you could make an amendment to reduce the budget by $150,600 um and get a second and if people felt like they wanted to prioritize something else, they could vote yes on that amendment and that would bring it back to a clean slate before well I guess after the ESOL. Yeah, I guess I'm I'm I'm just looking at that number there and um I'm just wondering
170if how people are feeling about 6.21 and we haven't even begun to discuss what we were discussing last week. Um and if anybody would still feel the same way about their vote now that we have this information in front of us. So, I mean, the way to find out is to make a motion and and have a vote on it. I mean, it's it was a 65 vote, so one vote would amend them that could amend it back and then we could have the discussion about FMS or look at it more holistically as a group and prioritize. Um, I mean, I want to I want to find the Although Colin tells me there's no such thing as efficiency. All right, then I'm going to go ahead and do it. I'm going to make a motion
171that we we remove the grade four mass landing teacher from the budget. So, just the teacher, leave the edtech because that's already both both the edte. So, you want to make a motion to reduce the budget by $150,600. Correct. Okay. So, I I don't think we need to talk about this one a lot other than do people understand the mechanics of what we're doing. I'm looking for head nods. Yeah. So, a no vote is you want to keep it in, a yes vote is you want to take it out. Yes. Right. Yes. Are you good, Candy? So, explain it. Okay. So, do Kelly sounds like she has a way to explain it. Nope. I was just stretching, but I feel like you had something to say. No. Um, so basically the the question on the
172floor is do we want to remove the the action we basically do we want to reverse the action we just took about the mass landing positions and bring it back to basically the superintendent's recommendation with only the addition of the 0.5 ESOL to then kind of look at it more globally um the whole p the whole picture. So, if you vote yes on this amendment, you want to go back to the superintendent's recommendation. If you vote no on this amendment, you want to you want to keep that where it was everybody good? God, I love Robert's rules. Okay. All right. So, all those in favor, did you have a second? Yes. Yes. Beth. Beth, thank you. Sorry. Danielle and Candy. No. Four. Okay. So now now we're back to how do we approach this as
173a group? Um are I guess I should ask are people comfortable with the leaving the ESOL? Does anybody want to look to adjust that one at all? Okay. Um all right. So uh the idea of a of a percentage So now we're at 5.85 inclusive of that ESOL.5. Um, so I guess now we we've come back to what's the percentage that we feel comfortable putting forward. I don't like to just say there's a percentage that is the magic number, but I do think that it is it's useful to look at this range that that Gan has presented to us to see what other districts are doing. I think that whatever we come up with should probably lie somewhere in the middle of that range. Well, I think Yeah, I think that's where we are right
174now is in the middle. Um 473 or 585. Yeah. So, we haven't we haven't moved up a spot. Six below, five above. No, seven below, six above. Seven below, six above. So, 14 in there. So, we're right in the middle right now. For me, I looked at last year's. I think last year's was 6.7. Am I making that up? probably making it up. Six six and a half. That's the expenditures. No, that's right. That's what I want. Yeah. So, expenditures last year was let's call it six and a half. 648. Um I was I was comfortable with that then. I do think there's more uncertainty in the world now than there was a year ago. But I feel like that number seems seems reasonable in terms of of palletability. Palatability. I'm just now I'm just
175making up words. I've made up numbers. I've made up words. Um I was showing the the history of the taxation because it was in the budget handbook. Was that taxation or was that expenditures? I'm sorry. Expenditure year over year. So yeah, the the the years of the twos was the COVID funds where we had a lot of funding coming from other sources and just sort of overall angst in the world. We had a couple years in the fours or just shy of five and then six and a half last year. Um I'll go ahead and say I would be comfortable with um 7% um knowing that we have this the same needs as we had did last year and then some I that is a number I would feel comfortable with potentially higher. [Music] Um
176I I made a spreadsheet last week. It turned out it's accurate. Uh, which was really fun. Luckily, you weren't sick when you made that. Yeah. Yeah. But it still works now. Um, if um if I think with this is without considering the um the ESOL probably, so apologies on that. But I think if we added in um uh four full-time positions, that goes to 6.7. Oh, there's one, two. That's percent change, not and that would be 8.45 net impact to taxation. So, I'm just randomly going to take three the total of three positions. Yes, please check that. It puts us at 683. Okay. So, I think that was Yeah, because I was including the Esau. and four. No, but like I mean like fine car just said seven, right? So like let's I mean we
177it does translate into particular things and unfortunately we are prioritizing and that sucks but that is what we are doing. Yeah. Um what is um what's the number on three? Three was uh taking an addition. You just take three 102s. Why do you take 408? The total is 408. Oh, what the percent? Still 683. That's with three. 31. Okay. You want to see 3102? I can It's the same math, but we'll get 30. 683 is what you said for four. No, he asked for four after that. Yeah, I think it was I think I asked for three with the Esau. So, I think that that I think the 6.83 83 was for so this is plus the ESOL 3 FTE is taking that out is 659 and then if we want a fourth one it's
178683 and Esau's already included in all these numbers yes because you'll see that line 31 and 32 are zero reduction now okay so add so go to three again so I just didn't Write down the number 66 659 to 683. Kelly, could we see it with a 0.5 um FTE? So like three and a half, sorry, just a halftime position. And then also with one edtech. So adding an edtech back and then you want three pos three and a half positions sorry four and a half 7.07 07. That was the MLS. Well, that was a 48,600 edtech 42,000 FTEES full FTE and then a half FTE at 51,000. They're coming back. Yeah. We spent at least two hours last week doing this and we we ended up with a with what I thought we all
179felt pretty good about, which was the middle school positions with the with um science teacher still to be determined. And I that I came here tonight thinking we would be talking about that position in particular. and and then certainly in the last 24 hours got a lot more feedback about other positions that we're considering. I'm wondering if we could go back to where we ended last week with those positions since we had all talked about that then and then and talk about the science position and see if there's if if we all think there's room for more or if we or if the majority thinks there's room for more or not. So basically the ESOL and one position at the middle school, right? Does that I I think we had talked about the 0.25 math
180025. Well, they all add up to one. They all add up to one. Yeah. Um so sort of as the starting place for the for the discussion. I I feel comfortable with that. I think there was general consensus around um you know with with those positions in there. Um I guess for so that would be the basic idea would be that we would just be adding in two FTEEs. Well, it's one and a half because the ESOL is already in there for half. We're only increasing it a half and then the the one position at the Freeport. So, just one. Is that what you're saying? So, we are we would just be considering the the one FTE for Freeport. Well, I mean that's a discussion, right? Um I mean I think that was the general
181consensus last week. Um, but I think after what we heard from Paige tonight, I guess I would feel comfortable if we wanted to add one back to the middle school and leave that up to the leadership to decide if that's split up between multiple little pieces or if that's split up in a full-time teacher. No, based on what they know and what they need. That would be my preference. Yeah, I would be in favor of that. I'd like to make a motion that we add the 0.25 math, 0.25 English, and 0.5 English at Freeport Middle School back into the budget. Is it easier to do that or just do a one one at a time? Well, not just one at a time, but a one FTE to Freeport Middle School. Can is that specific enough
182for you guys or do you really I mean I guess I don't want to hamstring you and say you need to keep or do this with the money if you would be better served elsewhere. Right. I don't know with that I I I would like to give the administrators the freedom to use the money as they see is best within their building. I'm just going back to hiring and I can only let's say let's say all these people in these positions won the mega bucks. They all won it and they all went away and I have to hire somebody for something. You have to authorize me for what I can hire and we need to do that before now. I mean it sounds like as long as the money's in there you can decide how
183you're going to do it. I'd have to come back to you and my my only concern as all is like people have been really specific on the board of what they what they're asking for and that may or may not be what we propo that our team would propose. I feel like this is what's been brought to us, these these positions in particular, and I feel like we we continue with those positions in particular as opposed to the full-time position. I I guess um I would like Paige to speak a little bit more to this, but I think from what she said before um these little positions were kind of left over from being added in during COVID and um the way that we look at them now, they aren't necessarily as they're not serving
184the same purpose that they did at one point. So maybe she can come and talk to us a little bit more about that. Michelle, could I second the motion so that we have a motion on the floor? Yes. Yep. Second. That's for you, Cynthia, or Jenny, whoever. So, it was a me motion from Cara and a second from Mora. The no to add the pieces 0.25. 0.25.5. Yeah, I think it can be tricky to have all of these little pieces and how you utilize them. It was a question that I had for Jean about that. Is this like if you all brought that back, would we be tied to those exact prescriptions for it? Because as it evolves, it's like those are also attached to part-time edtech roles. It's just complicated to find three human
185beings that are willing to do that kind of work and how we do that. We currently have that, but as Jean said, moving forward, it feels like there'd be more flexibility in one full-time person. I' I'd want to talk to my staff more about that if you know it came to it. But, um, yeah, currently it can be tricky on how those things move. So, if we had to ask you now, what would be your preference? Because unfortunately, we're making you decide now between you and Jean. Jean can weigh in, too. I mean and I don't you obviously I haven't consulted with the staff and all that but um I see great flexibility in one FTE um and what could be done with that if you're going to want it pieces and parts are really
186difficult um to if people leave to hire and so forth is not speaking about anybody in these positions um but certainly you know I would trust Paige and her team on that if we were there um It's it's just very difficult right now because again we're we're doing a what you want us to do in the budget and if you're adding pieces and parts then we hire pieces and parts. Um but is it easier to have a one FTE and for for how um to to find staff when people leave? Absolutely. Is it easier to have a one FTE um when you're looking at how people um how staff members support kids? Absolutely. It's easier than than little bits of people. So, how would that work if we have those position those people in those
187positions now? If we had 1.25 leave, so if we approve the the one FTE back into the budget and a person in the 0.25 25 position left. You would would you um how would that one FTE help at that point? Would you not be hiring a 0.25? Would you fire the 0.25 and the 0.5? So you would have a hole to fill. I know sorry not the word that I if you put a one a 1.0 position, we would hire a 1.0 person. But certainly there's a process if there are people who are interested in the 1.0 position then there'd be a process for those people um for that and in the contract in general anytime when you're looking at a reduction in force there there are specific things we do by that. I guess
188I'd like to see us vote on this motion and then consider one FTE that would be the science separately and then each be able to vote on whether like one or the other. Um that's just my thought. Also, we currently have these positions staffed. So, we would have to hire, you know, if it was one FTE, like it would it would I'm assuming change cause change, right? Right. Uh yes. Um, I guess I I don't want to make a formal amendment or motion, whatever it's called. Um, but I might propose a um in the spirit of the holistic approach um considering um in the spirit of what you were saying, like looking at full-time positions, but looking at um adding a full-time uh position at the middle school, adding a full-time position at MLS and
189adding a full-time position at DCS at the discretion of the administrators to determine where that where that need is greatest. Um, I I suggest that knowing that um it makes a lot of people unhappy in both in on various uh polls of that, but that feels like um at least we're getting into territory of what we could call compromise. And there's nothing that says if we add back in a full-time position that you couldn't choose to keep filling it with 0.25.25.5, right? As long as I asked you that that's what we're going to hire first. I mean, that's where I think that if that's where you come down on say we want we're comfortable with three full-time positions wherever they're at. If that's I'll use what you know Colin's example then what I would would
190suggest is we come our team makes that determination and we come back and we tell you what those are and we need to have that that is indeed what you want to happen um for hiring those positions because you have to authorize us to hire those folks. So I mean I think I mean dollar figure wise you could for for I mean because that's what tonight like we need a bottom line in the budget. Um, but we also know we need to know what those actual positions are. Could I just suggest I appreciate that call and I think that's an interesting compromise. Could I just suggest could we since we have a motion put forward could we vote on could we vote on that motion and then consider anything else or do we or we
191could consider withdrawing it? It's just like getting really complicated to like fit. Well, I'm just wondering if um the idea of looking at it that way makes it because I think people feel like if I vote on this one, then maybe I won't be able to vote on that one. And if we kind of come to the consensus that we could get comfortable with three, one at each position or one at each school that we've been discussing, um then we could do one motion to take care of all of them. Um, yeah, and I mean, I really appreciate Colin's idea and I do really like that and that does seem fair to me, but I also want to honor all the feedback that we've gotten from the community about specific positions um being cut. So,
192I'm just thinking about that, too. I'm just wondering if we vote on what Colin said, which Yeah, there are motions on the floor first. Okay. Yeah, but if we Okay. So, so we so what we could if if people felt like they wanted to take the route that Colin was looking at but still want at least one position at FMS, they could vote no on this amendment, make a new amendment um which I presume was coming from over there uh and and then have that discussion um or have the discussion and then make the amendment once there's the general consensus. Um, so we're sort of crossing crossing lines on how we're dealing with it, but um, so that's one way you could do that and still get to his. So, so we do have a
193motion and we have a second and your preference would be not to withdraw those and to vote on those and then move forward from there. Okay. Anybody else have any questions? So the motion on the floor is to add back all of the pieces of a one FTE at Freeport Middle School individually without without dealing with the other two or other positions. So just that one individually. So if you're supportive of that, that's a yes vote. If you're not supportive of that, that's a no vote. Or if you're supportive of looking at it sort of as a group, then it's also a no vote. And then there would be another motion presumably potentially. Everyone know what we're voting on? Okay. All those in favor of the amendment on the floor. Sorry. You have to vote.
194You got it, Cynthia. No. Yes. No. No. I'm asking for a no vote. Oh boy, we're really not helping Colin's headache. Okay, no vote. And we know this fails, but she's just writing it down. So that's why we're keeping our hands up. Need something stronger. Don't we all? Yeah. Okay. So, that amendment uh fails three to eight. You got the f Oh, I didn't even notice Moon left. He snuck out on us. I was thinking he had the Oh, I was thinking he had the fun one. Um, okay. So we are back to the amended original motion uh with the only addition um remove uh adding back the.5 ESOL so do we have any other motions Colin I make that motion that I was talking about before that is one what do we call it
195full FTE, one FTE at Mass Landing School, one FTE at Durham Community School, and one FTE at the other one where my daughter goes, uh, Freeport Middle School. Um, uh, the the the, uh, choice of which would be left to the discretion of the administrators. End of motion. Do we have a second for the motion, Anna? Thank you. All right, discussion on this one. Question what the middle school and mass are but not your own. Um yeah. Yes, that's a good Yeah, I think what I I think my uh my logic is that um is that it's a compromise several different ways. Um it's a compromise No, it's a comp it's a compromise in that um uh there has been a it seems to to to me there's been support for potentially bringing two FTE
196into Freeport Middle School and so this is proposing only one. Um there was there was we voted earlier on uh adding an an FTE to Mass Landing School as well as an edtech. Um, and we have been having a uh larger conversation tonight about the larger question of equity between um um having to do with class size um and uh how resources are distributed. Um, so yeah, I I will acknowledge that that is not um uh it's a it's it's it's a compromise um in that I think if I had presented it without the DCS um it would have felt to me uh it would have felt to me less fair um from just an overall equity point of view even though we have not heard from those folks in that same way. Again, that's
197my logic. I'm not saying it's correct. Anna, if we agree to this, can we not add anything else? Like, is this okay? No, it it's not the end all. Um, but that gets us to 6.8. Yeah, I was not sure how to I'm just going to take three off. 6.5. That's 59. 6.5. Okay. Yeah. So then you you could um shine. And so then if we approve of this for the three FTE positions. So you said that leaves us at 6 5 and we're trying to get to seven. I'm not. Okay. Okay. I'm sorry. I'm just reeling back and I'm trying to follow here. Yeah. But that is where ideally we would want to be. Um I could be comfortable. I would prefer that we were at 65 or below personally, but I could get
198comfortable with 659 with this proposal. But then for me, that's probably I'm tapped out. Okay. In terms of additions, I agree. This is about as far as I can go. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. Any other comments or questions on this motion for amendment? So, this would be an addition of three full-time FTEEs, one at the middle school, one at the Mass Landing School, and one at the Durham Community School. Yes. And just in case anybody at home is keeping score, the logic behind this is to um balance um the democratic input that we've gotten from the community uh with an understanding of our responsibility um to pass a fiscally to propose a fiscally responsible budget. um as well as um meeting what we as a board believe are larger educational needs at the school and also
199um maintaining equity across uh the district. Okay, everyone feel ready to vote on this one? I'm seeing some questions. Yes. Ready to vote? No. Do you have something to say you want to share? Okay, then we should vote. Yeah. Okay. Yeah. Um I'm having a hard time with this one because uh I I'm having a hard time deciding how to vote because I want to vote no because it doesn't include everything that I want it to, but I know we could go beyond this. But also, I feel like if it's a decision between um a DCS position and a position that we've heard advocated for that we've said um that folks have told advocated for to be kept that like that is a choice as well. So I feel like by adding I just I
200don't know if I can support this motion. I support adding back in the staff, but um and I think I think Gina's also said that it would be difficult for the administrators because they would bring it back to the board and then the board might not agree. And I think that we would just have to defer to whatever the administrators ultimately decided. And I think we've gone around and around in circles about how we feel about that. So I won't do that again. Um but anyway, I think that's just leading me to say I support adding staff back in, but I'm going to vote no for this motion. Okay. All right. Uh, all those in favor of this amendment to the motion. Oh, Lily just added be easier to record. No. So that's only 10.
201Yeah, I don't have everybody. So I have So uh So who voted? Mora and Beth. Were those the only not everyone? Okay, then I can Okay. Okay. So that passes. So that was 83. Okay. I would make a motion that we add back an additional I don't know if we don't want to take these separately, but that we add back an additional FTE at um Mass Landing and at Freeport Middle School. We've already added back the mass you mean second one. They they didn't even cut one second. Oh, sorry. The edtech. So, there's the edtech and the fourth grade teacher. Okay. So, the edtech position. Yes, the adtech position and then um the FMS like we're not specifying in in this case, right? Because it's not science because we're what they've already said is they're
202going to fill all the science position. Oh, right. MLS. I thought we were going to change the name of that because it's not science. Well, this I think it's very confusing that it says science educator. Educator. So the motion is to add one teaching FTE, one edtech at one edtech at Mass Landing and one teacher at Freeport Middle School. Okay. So okay so is there a second cara? So that was edtech at MLS and FMS 1FT. And and what would those numbers look like? Oh, sorry. That gets us to 707. So we're deleting. And then oh we had 695 because we did an edtech and not a second teacher. You did you didn't do another 102. You did 486. I thought the I thought the number I wrote down for four and a half with
203the edtech with 707 and we added three. So we're at 659 because we that was three teachers, right? So here, let me just finish where we're done here. Right. So this is it's the other halftime position, which I don't even know where that one came from that got us to the 707. Okay, I think I'm good. Okay. So you want me to take out So what I'm hearing is we want a edtech at Mass Landing and then we want another FTE at the middle school. Yep. And I'm just going to add a line and call it one FTE FMS or we can do this guys. It'd be clear that like could be partial positions, right? It doesn't have to be I'm not It's hard considering what we already voted on. I'm just like struggling to
204wrap my head around that like Yeah, it would basically restore all of those positions, right? Okay. Okay. Because we're not adding to we're not voting to add anything. We're right because the we're right. So what we have is what we have. We wouldn't we would refill that retiring position and we would keep what we had. I think correct. Okay. So, this would add back a full-time educator, another full-time educator at Freeport Middle and an edtech position, the bench sub position at Mass Landing. So, the six openings um the the posted openings that we have at just in terms of the people we have in positions, we do have openings. So, it wouldn't necessarily mean a a cut to the person, right? We have we have plenty of spaces for the people. Okay. Okay. So, the
205the edtech position at Mass Landing that we're proposing adding back in is one that is currently unfilled. No, it's filled. It is filled. This one is filled, but we have other ones that are It's a bench sub and it is being used this year. Correct. But there are other edtech positions that are not which the person could do. Okay. Do people feel like they they have a grasp on this one? I'm having a hard time because I'm just looking ahead to the um other position that we heard comments about from the teaching teaching staff, the 0.5 ELA teacher at the Freeport High School and comparing that to the um the edtech at Mass Landing with I mean it's a little bit more salaries but they're somewhat comparable. Does anyone have thinking on that or input?
206Um, is Jen back there somewhere? I'm sure she told us this before, but I would love to hear the rationale on that one again. Hi. Um, so you're asking for the rationale for why we are making the CLA cut. Yes. So this isn't this isn't reducing offerings in any way or or is it um we feel that we can maintain um or reasonable class sizes with still cutting this position. Um we uh and looking at the what I had shared before is that we're working closely with Paula Roberts, our our um staff member who works in our technology department who is going to work on making sure that there are numbers that are evened out from sections because right now with the nuances of our schedule u there are some classes that um are significantly
207different in size and so we feel that we'll be be able to maintain class sizes. It looked like an addition of an average of six to seven students uh per teacher if if we lose this halftime position and not not in any specific class but just their overall teaching load of six to seven. Yeah, that's an average. So right now there's some discrepancies in um those classes depending on what they're teaching 12th grade class size versus it's it's the overall size of that that grade level too. Um so that's an average of what it would look like. Um some might see more of a drop than that and some might see more of an increase than that. Okay. Thank you. So, what you're struggling with is sort of prioritizing those two pieces. Yeah. And I'm
208just remembering we did get an email, I think it was signed by all the English teachers and talking about how there it's really an important position also for college essay writing um and for I'm sure I could pull up the email somewhere, but made lots of great reasons for why we should keep it. Um, I'd be willing to entertain a friendly amendment to my amendment, but um I'm wondering what the most um effic efficient like this meeting probably with the height of efficiency right now. Height of efficiency tonight. Yeah. I'm wondering if it'd be more efficient instead of amending the amendment to like take each one individually or if we should take them all together and then I I don't know. I don't know what to do there, but I would entertain an amendment to
209the amendment to add the English teacher. I'm ELA for the position in addition to the other two. Yes. Or if we are wanting to vote in addition to the other two, if we are wanting to vote on all them together and then I suppose if that fails, then we could talk about individually looking at individually or would the board prefer to take them individually? Um, yeah, maybe I missed this, but the other edtech positions, the three and the one, are those all the rest of them are unfilled that are on there right now? Yeah. Yes. So, yeah, I would support that. I would support seconding that amendment to the amendment if you wanted to do that. So, it's probably easier to just pull your pull your your motion your pull your amendment and make a
210new one if you want to look at them all three together. Okay. Um Okay. So, then I would make a new motion that we add back the um full-time FT for a teacher at Mass Landing or I'm sorry, edtech at Mass Landing, a full-time teacher at Freeport Middle School, and a half-time teacher at um Freeport High School. I second. Okay. Okay. So, now we have a half-time teacher at the high school, a full-time teacher at FMS, and an edtech position at Mass Landing. That's the amendment on the floor. So, a yes vote would be to add all three of those back, and then we're back up to 707, right? Yes. Sorry, Jean. Forgive me, but why are we why is the proposal to cut a currently staffed edtech when we have three edte that are
211open? That edte could could if they want a position, they could have a position. And I think to Emily's point is that was a bench sub. If someone wants to be a bench sub, they or be a sub, they can sub every single day. And the reason that was initially put in by the board is we were having a terrible time getting substitutes and we're not having that problem anymore. So that's why this the recommendation was this position was removed. But this certainly if anyone wants to be an ad tech in the district, we have positions for people to be edexs in the district. So the person filling that position would still have a job as an we have openings at this very moment in time both in shared tonight both gened and special education
212right now we have openings in the district. So instead of adding it back we could just fill that position. We could just we would we would still have as many edte as we have in the building in the building. The positions we have opening are not at mass land are not at mass landing for for that role. So it would not be a mass landing position but certainly we have other edtech roles but it was the nature of the position that it's a bench sub. So it's not someone working with special education students and it's not someone like we have some edte for our TI. It's not that not that kind of position. It is a bench sub position. But to be clear, if we eliminate this position, it's not that we will be going
213without subs. We will still have plenty of subs. Yeah, that seems like with opening open positions like that, we can't fill it. It seems like that might be one that we wouldn't want to add back in if we have other open positions already. Um yeah, I guess um I I I understand the way you explained it. I think Jean, um I just uh it just seems odd to me that we would be we're we're voting to uh we're voting on whether or not to add back in a position when we already have a bunch of unfilled positions. I just don't understand why we just don't take like why I mean I I understand it in terms of the the bench sub role is different from other edtech roles but again I guess just structurally I
214guess are we just are we saying like we just do not need a bench sub anymore that's just like straight up what we're saying but we need these other open ed test open special those are special ed well there's two gen ed ones according to what she had Right. So, so what we could do if we felt, you know, that we didn't want to eliminate a position that was currently filled, we could eliminate one more of the edtech roles that's unfilled. So, for where there's six, we're removing four. We could remove five, leave one gen ed still open um looking for people and then leave the special ed ones alone which was always the always the plan and that would be a budgetneutral decision. Yes. Right. That doesn't that doesn't seem like that would be
215meeting the need though because I mean they're saying the need or the they don't need the bench sub. Well, it depends on who you ask, right? So, we heard that some people think that that that position is meaningful and helpful to have. Um, so we could we could acknowledge that in a budget neutral way versus leaving another unopened unfilled position, particularly with the number that you told us of how many uh special ed we have open, which is eight, and your idea that we would always fill special ed before we filled GED because we're required to by law to provide these services for our students with IEPs and 504s, Right. So I think the tricky part is is I'm looking right now what we have there. So of of the the six gen ed that
216there are four that we're proposing not to fill there. And then there's also there are two um because there's one like for example there's one at Mor Street that's open right now um that works with um RTI position. So you wouldn't want to eliminate that. Where's the other one? Freeport Medal. I'm looking at Kelly, too. We got our our spreadsheet. And how many special ed are there at open at Freeport Middle? There is one. Three at Morris Street, two DCS, two high school, plus the two-ed tax for a teacher. Really? Four there for 10 total. I It's just an idea around the edtech position. I mean, I guess I for me, I was comfortable with the three ad, so I'm probably a no on this whole ad anyway. Um, but any other comments on the
217amendment on the floor for EdTech at Mass Landing, full-time at FMS, halftime at the high school? Okay. So, we're going to vote. Malik's favorite part. Yeah. Okay. Uh, all those in favor So, I'm seeing three. Is that what you saw? Opposed? Hopefully, it's eight. Great. Okay. So, that does not pass. I can make I knew it was coming. I can make some more motions if um um so I would make a motion that we now so now I feel like we have to prioritize them which is getting back to what Anna said was difficult. Um, so, [Music] um, I'm sorry, I need a minute. Are you making a motion? Okay. Um, can I make a motion that we keep the uh full-time at Freeport Middle School? Second, Cara. Thank you. So, one full-time FMS educator.
218Any questions on that? Yes. Um I mean I'll just say that the just in case people are wanting to know whether we are listening just personally I um I was convinced by Dr. for's uh presentation on how they could um make the wellness work through the incorporation into the other um and I know that the we're we're leaving it up to their discretion, but um I just wanted to thank Dr. Fornier for that because I thought that was a very creative way of thinking about it. So, thank you to her team. Kelly, yeah, I I want to second that, Colin. I think that that she did a really good job of explaining how they can juggle these positions with fewer staff. And I just wanted to point out that the the position was we've been
219calling it a science position. It is not a science position. There will still be science from what everybody has said from administrators from superintendent. This is just um up to them to use however they feel would be necessary. But um we will still have science either way and we aren't losing any of our educators from that because that person is is retiring anyway. So we would be hiring a new teacher for that regardless. And maybe it's the health teacher, maybe it's someone else in the school, maybe it's outside the school, but it would be a new it would be a new teacher in that role regardless of what we do today. Um, I guess I would go back to the feedback that we heard from the staff that the from the teachers that this would
220be um detrimental to um the students and staff to lose this position. And also my concern that we have turnover in administrators this year and that we're going to have, you know, a new principal next year and that putting them into a position where they need to change the schedule and like hit the ground running and not only be a new administrator in a new school, but um potentially make all these changes is to me this is just not the time to make um this change and cut this at the middle school. Okay. I would echo those concerns and I would like to give them the opportunity to not have to juggle it. Okay. All right. Uh, everyone feel like they're So, this is just uh this feels like an easy one to in terms
221of what we're asking for in this one. It's one full-time position at FMS. So, basically, it restores the second position um from FMS. So there would be no cuts at FMS. What it is that 683 6. Yeah. So that would be that would add up to four full-time which would be 683. Yep. The second was Cara. So motion by Anna, second by Cara. Is that right? Car's like, I don't know. I just vote. Sure. Yes. Yeah. Okay. People feel ready to vote on this one. Okay. All those in favor? opposed. Okay, so that passes. So 683 is where we are. more. Um, I would make a motion that we add back the halftime ELA teacher at the high school. A second. Okay. And the impact of that Sorry. FA half FHS. Any I guess we
222lost Beth. Will we let her run to the lady's room presumably or to grab water? I don't know where she went. She's gone. She's literally running out of the building. While we're waiting, could we just go over what has been added back? Sure. So, uh, what I have so far is a half-time ESOL teacher that, uh, for $51,000. Uh, three full-time FTEEs, one at um, well, I guess four full-time FTEEs, two at Freeport Middle School, one at the Mass Landing School, and one at the Durham Community School. Okay. Thank you. Yep. Um the edtech the bench sub. Yeah. I mean, I added the I presumably the it would be a it would be K and uh well, maybe not. Uh I don't know. I think I got it to the numbers would be like below
22315. So, I think that's probably why we didn't hear anything on that class size. Yeah. We thought you just ran out of the building, Beth. First moon runs out, then you run out. Okay, so the motion on the floor is the halftime teacher at Freeport High School. We did a quick overview. Four positions, four and a half positions added back. Two Freeport Middle, one Mass Landing, one Durham, and then the ESOL halftime. That's where we're at. So, the motion is to add back the 0.5 ELA at Freeport High School. Motion in the second. Any other questions on this one? I think for me, this is this is probably, like I said, I was I was done at the three full, so I'm probably tapped out, but we'll see the the flavor of the board. Uh,
224all those in favor You good? Opposed? 38. Is that what you got? Okay. So, that does not pass. Could I make one more motion? Just let's just round it out. Um, I'd make a motion to add back the um edtech bench sub position at Mass Landing. Second. Come on, Cara. Why not? Okay, so this is for the edtech position at Mass Landing School. I think we probably um we've talked about this one. I think we have other openings that we could fill and meet the needs if we need to as opposed to keeping a position that they have said they don't need based on the change in substitutes. I do appreciate that we haven't seen the uh the massive shortage of substitutes that we had for a couple years though. That's great that it sort
225of worked itself out of of need. That's great to see. Yeah. So, I'll just say that I'm making this motion because we've heard from the mass landing staff about the value of keeping this position and having that person in the building and that this means that if that person does fill another edtech position elsewhere in the district, I hope that they do. If this motion fails, I hope that they do stay, but they will no longer be at mass signing. They'll be in a different school potentially or could leave the district. All right, everyone understand the motion on the floor? All those in favor opposed. So 38 again. Yes. Okay. Have we touched on everything? Okay. So, the motion on the floor is for consideration and approval of the 26 superintendent's proposed budget as amended
226at uh eliminating the uh reduction for the ESOL position adding back $51,000 eliminating or it's weird when we're not eliminating. So, not eliminating. What's the right terminology? Keeping keeping or not reducing? Not reducing. That sounds double negative E2. Keeping Keeping the full ESOL position. Uh a both positions at Freeport Middle School, one position at the uh Mass Landing School and one teaching position at the Durham Community School. Is that what you have as the motion on the floor, Cynthia? Yes. Is that everyone's understanding of the motion on the floor? So that is what we're looking at in terms of uh 6.83 is the expenditure increase over last year. Um anyone have any other commentary or questions before we vote on the actual motion on the floor? Yeah. I'm so sorry. Um, I know that I
227said I didn't have any more motions or amendments. Um, I'd like to u make a motion to amend the one DCS FTE to the bench sub at um to in to remove that and add the bench sub at Mass Landing and the halftime F uh halftime FTE at Freeport Middle, I'm sorry, Freeport High School. Did you get that? So, taking the one FT, I'd make to make a motion to take the one FTE off from DCS and add the one um edtech at Mass Landing and the one halftime teacher at FHS. Okay, I uh I think I understand the motion. I'm going to get a second and then we'll talk about it. Second. Uh so the motion was to remove the uh adback of the DCS full-time position and to add back the halftime FHS
228and the bench sub at Mass Landing School. Is there a second? Okay. So, without a second, we do not have an amendment on the floor. So, we are back to the original the amended full motion on the floor. four and a half teachers, basically four and a half full-time positions um added back from the superintendent's proposed budget. Any additional comments, questions? Are we ready for a vote? Colin's going to vote and run out the back door. Yeah. Uh to the turf. You're fine. All right. Seeing none, I will call for a vote. All those in favor, none opposed. Thank you. Okay, guys, that was hard. Um, I want to thank everyone at this table. I want to thank everyone in the audience. I want to thank everyone at home who's taken the time to write
229to us multiple times. Um, you know, pull us aside, give us their thoughts. It's not an easy process. There's no perfect way to go about it. Uh I think Colin's right. We probably weren't overly efficient in how we approached it um this evening, but we got through it and it's Oh, it is after 10. Darn it. Um I was hoping it was before 10. Um but it's not 11. It's not 11. Um, and I just I just want to thank like honestly thank each and every one of you because you've all said things that have really made me think and you know go back to how I look at things and while we obviously didn't have a bunch of 110 votes I think that's actually a good way to approach this and um I feel
230I feel pretty good about what we're putting forward and now we now we take it to the next step in the process and and get out there and explain explain all of this to everybody else. Yeah. My that's my question is how what's the process for explaining this? What's our plan for communicating this out to everyone? So um our process is we're going to mail this which uh and this is going to bring people to the actual we are creating the brochure. Um so we will have the actual brochure and we'll print some of them to have around the district. Um, and then obviously it'll be online. So, we'll send this to every household in all three towns. So, not just student parents, but like all the houses. Uh, so people can access it. We
231have the um the Q&As's at in each town. I think we're starting in Durham on Oh, you'd think I'd have this memorized. Um, oh, wrong one. Oh, it's in here. Hold on. Let me look at Jenny's googly eyes. She did confirm via text that they're googly eyes, by the way. Um, they're googly. Look, I think means something different. Um, yeah. Okay. Okay. So, Q&A's. Uh, April 9th is at the Durham Community School from 6:00 to 6:30 before the board meeting. Uh, April 30th is the Panel Elementary School 6:00 to 6:30 and May 7th at Freeport High School 6:00 to 6:30 uh for for a Q&A and prior to our board meeting. And then obviously the next step is the annual uh annual budget meeting which is in Durham this year on May 14th at 6:30
232followed by the budget validation referendum on Tuesday, June 10th. Yeah. Uh, so in previous years, the strategic strategic communications committee has reviewed that budget brochure and I know that since we haven't been officially meeting this year because we've been working on the strategic plan. Um, will there be a review of that brochure? Sorry. I also know we're a little late in the game at this point, but I'm I'm wondering if now I know everyone really wants to go home, but if there's anything that if any board members have any particular things that they think would be really important to have in the budget brochure for as a way to communicate uh this decision or this proposal. I think last year you guys did a really nice kind of overhaul of the the layout and got
233rid of some of the information that was probably not super relevant and put in some additional information that probably is. I think the plan was to model after that template. Um, but you know, if folks have have ideas, I I imagine it's going to print very shortly. So really the only place we might be able to to change any of those words because I know Jean couldn't write her final letter until we had our dollar amount. So you know if you think of something tonight maybe you could send it to Jean by the morning but I think it's going that quickly. Right. Yeah. And it's um we've had a discussion about what will be in there. most of the same the data you have but really putting it focused on the on the data of
234the budget and even some of the writeups that we us there will be a letter from me explaining things but some of the usual writeups we've had from some of the schools or departments everything you know lots of things have changed so those won't be included because we just don't we don't have that we don't have time to do a ask them to do all write up but we'll make sure all that data is in there and then we even look at what some other data that might be helpful for voters to include in just because it we we're trying like we got to get we got to get it printed and and out to the out to the public out to all the the schools and the town offices so people can especially with
235that date coming up sooner than you know it April 9th. Yeah. I mean just quickly I mean whether this is in the brochure or whether it's in the um in the conversations that we have with the different communities um I think I think we can still um I think we can still own that we are making a number of big cuts um in order to be um with with an understanding of our our responsibility to the the taxpayers uh because we are we're just not making as many um and so I think that that I think can still be um a key aspect of of the narrative because it is true. It's fun when narratives are true. It makes it easier. Fun with nar when narrative Why you take No, put the red light back
236on. Never mind. It's listening to you. Um yeah, that's a that's a good point. I mean, we sort of scrolled down to the section where we were keying in, but there were items up above um that were red numbers that were reductions and, you know, um recognizing that and and making sure people are aware. Um we didn't we didn't we didn't net add anything. It's Yeah, it's not 12, right? Thank goodness. Um, yeah. So, if anyone has a brilliant uh uh, you know, sentence they'd like Gene to try and work into her letter, feel free to get it to her by 7 a.m. Um, otherwise or before or or before. Um, we do have public comment still on the agenda. So, you know, if anyone wanted to speak, I would I would never cut you
237off on that. Um, no one's racing. So, um, I would take a motion to adjurnn with thanks, Kelly and Cheyenne. Not the thanks for the motion to adjurnn. Thanks for everybody's hard work. All those in favor? There's a unanimous vote. Thank you