001I don't have my car p good evening welcome to the rsu5 uh board meeting it is Wednesday March 19th 2025 we're trying a new mood lighting theme here so bear with us we're going to talk fast to get as much in while we still have light outside um so we will uh get started uh we Cheyenne is not going to be with us tonight but we have a full board other than that so we'll get started with the Pledge of Allegiance United States ofer stands and jce for all so if you're watching on the live stream at home we're having some lighting issues here which is why we have lamps um but we will we will uh make do and persist so uh do I have a motion for consideration and approval of the minutes
002from the March 12th 2025 meeting as presented barring any errors or omissions thank you Kelly Danielle all those in favor great none opposed uh adjustments I have one this evening I would like to move item 15 Personnel a right after number six good news and recognition and that's those are all the adjustments okay wonderful uh so we will move right now to number six good news and recognition and look to our school board um student rep Phoebe all righty so I'm kind of like struggling because like if the camera can see me then okay um you may be thinking like oh the board met like just last week nothing's happened since then but that's wrong we have lots of still more exciting things happening um pre-season for some of the spring Sports starts on Monday
003and amazing news FHS is hosting the state track and field championship in June so the running boosters are looking for some volunteers for that um and there's a sign up link if you email the running boosters and um last Thursday and this Thursday are parent teacher conferences um at the high school so this is super helpful to connect families and teachers in order to support students and today our seniors had a scholarship meeting and a chance to review applic for scholarships and the guidance team shared that $291,000 was given to FHS students in scholarship money um last year and so that means maybe there's more this year so keep applying keep applying for the scholarships and all the information for those scholarships are on the FHS website um also the high school got the these
004really cool Aunt Flow machines in our bathrooms that dispense free pads and tampons for students who need them and the active Minds team received a free stress less week kit from the active Minds um organization so stress last week is in April so we're going to plan a really awesome event for kids right before April break and hopefully we can all be less stressed and also the interact Club is hosting a food diaper and pet food drive so um be on the lookout for how to donate to those guys so we're doing good lots of things even just one week later so stay tuned there'll be even more next week when we meet again thank you Phoebe all right so as uh superintendent scppa mentioned we will move to item number 15 a uh do
005I have a motion for consideration and approval to employ an assistant superintendent of curriculum instruction and assessment for the 25 26 school year Malik thank you and Beth after a very complete process I am very pleased to announce um our candidate is Erica maio Erica has a Bachelor's of Art in parks management from the University of North Carolina she has a MERS in International Education from Framingham State College in Massachusetts she's received her certificate of advanced study and Ed leadership from the University of Southern Maine and she's currently a doctoral student in educational leadership at Ball State University in Muny Indiana uh she has certification as a curriculum director and as well as superintendent of schools some professional highlights um which she has many I will share a few um with the board she was
006an English language arts teacher in Japan and also in Santa Fe New Mexico she was a director superintendent head heads of school in International School in krakov Poland she's been the director of curriculum instruction assessment in rsu4 um in Ellsworth she also held that role in Falmouth Public Schools she's been the director of international ad Miss in organizational strategic development as Hy school and bath she's been the director of curriculum instruction assessment in RSU 57 in Waterboro and is currently holds that role for role in the south Portland school department references describe Erica as profoundly intelligent knowledge of curriculum work it her knowledge is expansive she's extremely organized her work ethic is unrivaled she has a great rapport with teachers she's well respected collegial an integral part in improving instruction for their District her follow-through
007is impeccable and she treats all children in their families with dignity regardless of circumstance and Erica is actually in the audience this evening um Dr put on she wants to stand up she's at the back sitting with Cynthia so there's Erica so that Erica is our candidate thank you um and can you just remind folks that may be watching how what the process um sort of the because I know everyone would have gotten an email about being on the committee but just to just to talk a little bit about sort of what that process looked like sure we put together a committee that had a variety of stakeholders on it we had a board member we had community members um we had a principal um we had a had a director uh and teachers uh
008we reviewed applications were out for quite some time um it was over three weeks close to a month that we wanted to make sure we got a large pool um the committee reviewed those pool of applicants and selected candidates to be interviewed we held first interviews and then the uh committee sent two candidates for a second interview with Michelle and myself um and all candidates were um that were being considered were thoroughly vetted for reference checks um and that's how we got to the point where we presented the um candidate to you this evening thank you so very thorough process I just want to make sure folks understood what that process looked like um any comments questions I think this is going to be a great addition to uh to the district while we're sad
009to see Cynthia go I guess we can't hold it against her to retire um so I will take we have a motion in a second I will take a vote all those in favor great non opposed thank you welcome Erica [Applause] okay so we will move on to public comment um and I will just uh a couple couple of thoughts on public comment we do have a fair number of folks in the crowd tonight and we generally have two public comments on our agenda we have one at the beginning and we have one at the end just to keep it interesting we added another one kind of in the middle around budget input um so uh so there'll be there'll be several opportun for folks to speak I'll just uh and when you choose to
010speak is certainly up to you I believe uh Cynthia has the initial list for public comment um and public comment is three minutes we ask that you come up to the microphone tell us your name the town you live in uh Beth will have a timer going which we're trying to figure out how to make it louder so you guys can hear it um when the three minutes is up but we'll we'll give you an indication if if you don't hear it but um and so so that's kind of our our traditional public comment uh and then the other opportunity uh outside of public comment is public input on the budget so if we had folks that had you know a clarification question about the budget documents that we've provided or um wanted to share
011their their opinion on the on the budget um there's an opportunity for that too uh and that's just a little bit later in the uh in the agenda after we get a a review of the of the budget from the superintendent so lots of opportunities to participate uh so we'll move to public comment we have oh I love it when we have students um so our first um we have Rosa so we just asked you give us your name the town you live in and and then the microphone's yours okay um good evening members of the board my name is Rosa fuma and I live in Portland and I'm a MultiLing at Freeport High School I'm speaking to you today to address AER that is of great importance to the student and families of our
012school particularly those in Theo program I understand that there is a proposal to remove a multilingual teacher from our school and I argue to reconsider this decision the S program is a vital for the success and wellbeing for our multilingual student it is not simply an academic program it is a Lifeline that helps student navigate not only the challenge of learning English but also the challenges of adapting to a new cultural environment this program ensur that multilanguage students are given the tools and support they need to sued in their education and life the teacher who's been considered for removal from the school is not just a teacher she's an advocate a guide and a constant source of support for every multilingual student and their family she's not only committed to helping us learn but she
013also goes above and beyond to ensure that parents are involved informed and supported I remember the day when Miss highing came to Casco Bay Hotel when we first came to freeper none of us wanted to start at Freer High School everyone wanted to continue at Portland school but we saw a happy woman and she promised to our parents that she would take care of us like we are her own childrens and she did and she's still doing it most of the people moved to Portland we could continue studying there but we just fre high school every single day rain shine snow windy we are always here because because she gave us support to continue to fight if I'm speaking writing and reading things today in English and not using any more Google translator it is
014because of this supportive woman I want to be clear this is not simply an opinion this is a fact she knows us better than anyone else she understand our struggles our strength and the unique challenge we face as multi linguage students she's the best teacher and her impact on us cannot be overstated with the herir men of us would struggle to navigate on the complexity of the the school system I ask you to Recon this consequence of removing this teacher from our school it is not just about losing a valueable educator it is about respecting the stability and support that many of us rely on with all due respect to the other Educators in our school this teacher has a unique understanding of the needs of multilingual student her ability to connect with us and
015support our family is something that cannot be easily replaced she has built strong relationship with both students and parent and her presence in program is crucial to the success of the students who rely on her in the name of all mul language student I respectful ask you to rec this decision to remove this teacher from the S program thank you thank you Rosa uh Maria that was just in case she didn't finish oh she got it she she she got the brief uh okay Bethany excellent planning by the way that's a tough speech to follow so I'll do my best um my name is Bethany Howard I am a Freeport resident and a mo Street School parent as well as a special education teacher I first began working at RSU 5 during February of 2018
016when the spool school special education population was dynamically changing and additional support was re required the next school year I went to Durham Community School in our District's most intensitive behavioral program I then came back to Mo Street School in 2020 and have been here ever since each year the program I teach specifically changes based on the district's needs and every year my program requires a significant amount of administrative support the special education programs at Mo Street consists of a district K to2 functional life skills program as well as a behavior program and a resource room this year we've had to have four teachers um and the fourth classroom which is mine has a hodge podge of everyone I like to call it the Melting Pot um this year and furthermore we have a team
017of 8 to 10 Ed techs who require training and supervision many come to us without any educational experience and we're able to teach them how to um support students given the three to four programs the Special Education team requires daily support from Administration prior to having Mrs Marson our assistant principal at our school Mrs Nickerson did all of this work plus working in all the other general education classrooms as you can imagine Mrs nickerson's time was significantly taken away from the rest of the school um when she would have to deal with crises in the special ed rooms since having the assistant principal assistant principal the Special Education team has been able to have weekly PLC meetings which we had not had in many years we're able to have our own coaching to support student
018growth and delineated staff coverage when there are absences which with 8 to 10 edex is and for special education teachers that's a lot as well as support during those behavioral crises simply looking at the support of the Special Education team at Mo Street an assistant principal is Justified at Mo Street and I do not support the removal of an assistant principal from our budget thank you thank you [Applause] Bethany Melissa good evening my name is Melissa gadboys I'm a resident of Sako and um the literacy specialist at Street school and I have been in this role since the 2016 2017 school year it has recently come to my attention that the board has mentioned the potential of eliminating assistant principal positions at the elementary level in Freeport I wanted to provide some examples of how
019valuable having an assistant principal has been at Mo Street as a literacy specialist I've been part of the leadership and multi-tiered systems of support teams for the past nine years I also serve as a mentor for new teachers in my role I provide small small group intervention lessons as well as help oversee the literacy data for the entire school I meet regularly with our school administrators classroom teachers special education teachers and support staff to ensure that we are providing the best possible literacy support to our students serving in these roles and being part of these teams provide me with a unique lens to not only the academic needs but also the behavioral and social emotional needs of our students as well I have seen firsthand how invaluable it has been to have an assistant principal
020at more Street School prior to having an assistant principal the amount of responsibilities our principal handled was immeasurable and quite frankly unattainable it takes an immense and unpredictable amount of support to meet the behavioral and academic needs of an elementary school at any given time Julie Nickerson is by far the best administrator I've worked with in my 19 years in education but the challenges she faced before we had an assistant principal were simply insurmountable at times she used to have to spend a great deal of her time handling behavioral issues in both special education and in regular education classrooms the trickle down imp of the behavioral support she was needing to provide on a regular basis meant that other staff members could not do their jobs adequately because they had to provide additional support across
021the school it also meant that she would get pulled for meetings during the school day so collaboration administrator guidance to staff members was less robust the majority of our focus at weekly student assistant team meetings was on behavioral interventions and academic intervention noticeably suffered across the school since having an assistant principal we have seen Behavior supported in a way that I have never seen before we are able to be be more proactive as she has helped develop and Implement plans for students to be successful at school also by having an assistant principal our two administrators have been able to split the heavy workload of evaluations and observations of nearly 60 teachers and support staff thus making this process much much more effective our assistant principal has helped streamline the process for special education referrals and
022organizes the paperwork and planning involved with getting the evaluation process started she helps our principal organize and analyze schoolwide data and provides clear specific feedback and support to teachers in order to maximize student growth by my calculations our literacy data is the best it's looked in my nine years in the district and I do not think that's a coincidence but rather reflection of the positive impact that having an assistant principal has had on our school I could go on and on but I'm sure it's coming across how um clearly how imperative this role has been I'm asking that you consider these implications as you determine next steps for where Cuts can be made in order to achieve a reasonable budget while minimizing negative impact to our schools teachers students and families I understand budget constraints
023and Rec nize how difficult they can be thank you thank you Melissa U Michelle bossy that's okay could you guys hear that timer that time yeah jumped out of hi I'm Michelle bossy I am a Freeport resident I've had three kids go through the school systems here at the public school in Freeport um many people are here to speak on why we need a full-time assistant principal at Mo Street school and they will do so with much more knowledge and be much more eloquent than I could be I speak because I have worked at Mo Street school for about 20 years now and for the last seven or eight years I have been in the office full-time which gives me a different perspective than most in the 20 years that I've been here I've seen
024our um certainly our numbers have gone up but also in the last I don't know eight eight or 10 years I've seen the school the the population change uh with um emotional um things with children and uh uh disregulation and more special ed programs so I feel like I've seen a lot in the 20 years that I've been here um and numbers make is it's a big thing and I know numbers are going down a little bit but it's not always numbers that um really matter I think um let's see uh I feel like I can uh get the big picture of things by seeing and hearing what is going on and feeling the mood of the staff because I'm in the office I'd like to just discuss two points first why haven't you seen
025our staff at more board meetings the answer is we feel very confident in the choices that our administrators make in which where we can cut and where we really need things Julie our principal may not like me saying this but she is British through and through Keep Calm and Carry On and all of that uh there were many hard years that I am sure she would have like to have an assistant principal and I know it was hard it was a hard decision for her to even ask for one I think in the end it was affecting more than just herself but it was affect she saw that it was affecting more than just herself but affecting the students outcomes and the morale of the staff she would never have asked for the POS the
026position if she was not dead certain that it was needed second would sharing an assistant principal work I don't think so um the assistant principal Works directly with kids for a good chunk of the day every day she gives our needy students stability and consistency that they need and without that consist consistency all day the work that happens would not be successful so the last thing I would like to say is that since we have had an assistant PR principal our school has better outcomes academically which is so important but it also has given our staff including principes teachers and support staff the capacity to do their individuals jobs in a manner that you as a board would expect thank you for all your work thank you Michelle okay so that's all we had for
027the initial public comment sign up yes yep perfect thank you thank you to everyone who spoke a special thank you to Rosa we love when students get up and and speak to us so uh wonderful to hear from you uh and we will move on to reports from the superintendent letter a resignation and retirements uh announcing Courtney Kafka has has resigned as a Mor Street school at Tech and Linda Deo is retiring as our Pano elementary school administrative secretary um and those are at the end of that chunk um and we're going to go into review of the budget so I'm going to move to the podium and Kelly's going to um be projecting some pages for you we don't have a PowerPoint this evening but some some pages as we [Music] before we get
028into um some of our documents this evening and also having a conversation about um there were a lot of questions that were asked by the board and I think we've captured most of them um and we'll provide some answers for you or some documentation um for the public and um certainly folks here in the audience just a recap on the budget development process where we're at um there there are some factors we knew going into the budget as and we've shared that we actually started in August this year um our enrollment when we look from October 1 2023 to October 2024 we've we've lost 87 students we also we anticipated we would have less subsidy um and that did come to fruition um due to an enrollment and it was almost $27,000 lost our team
029took a systemic approach to the development of the budget we looked at the student needs in the schools looked at the overall needs in each department we looked at the overall needs of the district and the administrative team looked through the a lens of equity for all students and all schools our priority was continue to provide a high quality education and meet the needs of all students and while at the same time ensuring fiscal responsibility the budget priorities identified by our team were maintaining programming maintaining student support and supporting our infrastructure to provide a safe learning environment and for the public I'll remind everyone that all our budget presentations and documents can be found on the district website before we dive into the budget handbook there are just a couple of questions I'm I'm going
030to answer for folks that we have found the um the answers to um there was a question can can funds be moved between Reserve accounts that's was a question that came up from the board and we received some legal advice and yes they can be moved with voter approval and an article can be developed that can be part of the annual budget meeting so that answer is yes that can be done there was a question from the board regarding the federal local food for schools funding and what the impact of that loss that the funds are gone would be on the district um those funds were onetime temporarily funded federally funded program and it was a 100% reimbursement um model for local products and those items need to be grown or produced in Maine um
031we received $3,276 um we purchased many more local products that that far exceed $3,276 so the impact of that support at our budget but the impact is we will continue to provide um Local Foods where we can and it will be on the local side so that's in the response to that um let's see let's go into the Q&A document and I'll just I'm just going to point out a few things for you um let's see oh excuse me before the Q&A let's go to go to the handbook first sorry Kelly the handbook first which I know you've been scrolling down um you've seen all these documents before I just want to point out where the changes are this time if you go to Pages seven and8 in this document what has been updated there
032um you'll see it's in blue if you recall we needed um after conversations last week um we were going to do some of the funding of some of the life safety projects out of the local side and to make that work we had to add $6,000 so that's where you see that $66,000 increase there for this time and then if you flip to page eight you'll also see um where the um the percentage changed and the the um the pr proposed amounts changed a little bit based on that addition $6,000 so that's where for the capital that's where that came from on page nine you have updated figures there again and where you see a change there is in article 9 because that's where the capital projects and those Life Safety projects will live so
033you'll see updated figures there and at the bottom the budget went up slice slightly by that $6,000 page 10 and 11 those documents the um proposed budget impact summary change based on those six that $6,000 that was added and then on page 13 and 14 this is where we get into our Reserve accounts and if you recall there's a discussion last time um there was some concerns about title funding and we wanted to make sure we were positioned to cover any positions that might be part of part of that title funding so you'll see article one there's an additional and and again this is from undesignated fund balance um $295,400 added that would cover um the cost of wages and benefits for staff members who um are funded through title one so that amount has
034been added there if you look in article two we've added an additional $618,500 actually our total allocation and this is our thinking for that there are staff members in there but we also um use local entitlement to pay for autod district placements and we those would still need to occur we didn't have the title one funding I'm Excuse me the local entitlement funding so that's why the ENT the entire allocation was there it would take care of Staff it would take care of out District placements okay then we move to the next next page um that's where you're going to see a change in the in the capital reserve fund um based on some feedback from the board again making sure that that we um protected some of our monies um if you remember our
035initial request was $2,434 $376 what and now you see a new figure of the million five on the side what this takes into account is we took out of that 2.4 million we mve the 295 800 in into Article 1 we move the 61857 into article two and you add those up you're still at the 2.4 million from undesignated to be used for these purposes that will get your undesignated fund balance down to the right spot and we'll be able to um we have some protections the board was concerned about the title funding we have protections there and you have your um your Capital reserves pumped up so and there you'll notice in addition to the septic system at panel that's where we've added the anticipated use usage would be that life safety Cameron door
036access projects as well as you remember we took the capital projects that we had initially in the local we moved them over here and we put other life safety into the local budget so those are the changes in that document so now we'll really move move to the Q&A okay okay um let's see there's one other item that the board asked for before we start going through all the changes because there are several in this document um one of the questions that was asked by the board uh last time was the assistance principal positions that have been added during the last two budget Cycles at one at more Street and one at Mass Landing we are asked to provide the cost for that um for one position and it it is $146,300 for wages and
037benefits and they were also asked to tell the board what would that look like if you combined a position and reduce one position and I'm going to ask principal Nickerson if she she'll come up and um present to the board what that would be um so I don't think it's a straight answer without painting a picture as to um how the assistant principal what impact an assistant principal has at both our schools Emily can't be here tonight so I'm speaking on behalf of both of us because I think we see the same benefits at both schools um so I'm just going to kind of walk you through the impact that that role has on both of our buildings and then kind of to kind of try and paint a picture of why fulltime is so
038valuable um with this role and then what I will answer the question of what it would look like um so first of all supervision and evaluation of staff is an impact area where the assistant principal enables greater capacity to have in each of our buildings we have between 45 and 55 staff members that are um needed to be supervised and eval and evaluated which is into the hundreds of actual observations that we actually have to do um and that's that's the have to there's a lot of um anecdotal feedback and and things that happen kind of moment to moment as things Arise at school um we want to ensure the capacity of new staff rece and that they receive infective effective supervision and support particularly during that first 2-year critical uh probationary period so at
039those times we're in classrooms more frequently in order for new people to kind of get up to speed with the programming we use um and it it just it just needs us to pay um give those people the support that shows that we value them and we would we would want to retain them um we can promote Equity across classrooms through this supervision that we've already noted the behavioral response piece is key um having somebody consistent with um an administrator title also really helps to minimize disruptions to classroom learning as it enables an adult to respond in real time when needs arise um the kinds of things that administrators are responding to are things that might involve safety for example a student who refuses to come in from the playground can take an inconvenient amount
040of time to resolve and so if it's not an administrator going out to stand for however long it takes for a child to decide that they are going to listen and come in that is somebody else being pulled from a different role directly impacted with students that will be having to manage those situations and so in both schools I think both Emily and I can talk about situations where our assistant principles have supported students with those kinds of needs and it might be the playground one day it might be the hallway the next it might be you know a a threat to leave the the property um those kinds of things just take time and um and previously without an assistant principal that's my time or in my school particularly we used our RTI and
041math teacher who has skills around behavior management so other students are impacted um when those kind of situations arise um and our assistant principles are able to support teachers with realtime support as different things come up too it's not just these big incidents there are smaller things that are just impactful when children decide they want to shut down or they're not going to do something when the day is moving you know the safety pieces become an issue in terms of a teacher is taking a class somewhere and one child decides that they're not going or um something has happened and they can't be left alone so something someone's got to respond um our assistant principles overse our rtib which enables a systemic comprehensive behavioral plan development and the progress monitoring we need to do um
042with a focus on skill building so we're collecting data around student planning we're analyzing to decide kind of ah this seems to always happen at writing time and then plans need to be put in place for intervention at those times to be more proactive to prevent those things from happening um in the future but these things also take time and they need a consistent response what we found prior to have an an assistant principal you know one day it might be me responding one day it might be the school counselor responding and the next day it's the math um interventionist responding just because the nature of where else we need to be and it takes way longer for Behavior to change when different people are responding each time even if we're following the same plan
043there's a Nuance difference when different people are responding um attendance has has been a key piece that our assistant principles have taken responsibility for so the monitoring the contacting of families to support School attendance um their coordinating and facilitating parent meetings for chronically absent and Trent students and this has contributed to be a ble to kind of have that be a priority in their role we've been able in both schools to see a reduction in those rates and um you'll know that both schools have that as goals this year and so we've been able to with that consistent response um we've been able to consistently send messages to families call families work together with them to hopefully you know keep children coming to school regularly um the other big part is special ed programming it
044we've chosen to kind of approach this slightly differently in both schools based on the strengths of our APS um Amanda mden the assistant principal at Mo Street has a strong background in special ad so she has taken the lead on supporting those programs um at m at Mass Landing um Emily still takes the lead but um then Scott is taking responsibility in other areas so that's um a big key piece and really you know where we've been short staffed in our special ed programs at Mo Street this has been kind of I think we're on year four and five of problem solving daily when either we're understaffed or and then someone calls out sick so there's a constant okay what are we going to do today how are we solving this problem and we always
045manage it but to have somebody designated to be solving those problems and supporting the team has been a really key piece um and I think you heard in one of the speakers earlier it's like you know that t that takes a lot of time and it also takes time away from supporting all classrooms um and then evaluating special ed Texs in those programs as well has been um super helpful so just some kind of additional Reflections the addition of the AP role has helped to protect time of other staff most notably our school counselors our admin secretaries in my case theti IM math teacher are now able to fully um resume the roles that they are hired to do um and they're they're not impacted and and you know that's impacting students so that's math
046intervention not being provided when we needed Behavior response that's um proactive uh guidance lessons not being provided to all students when um the school counselor was needed to be used for some of this responsive work um special education case loads within each building are a critical component of our work as administrator M Street has 74 students and mass Landing 67 so that's IEPs that an administrator has to attend that's problem solving often around needs and um and programming and scheduling and all all of those kinds of things um and then when we're considering the impact really you know I think our APS impact all staff and all students for I feel like it's really good value for money when you get you get support and and um for everybody um I think one of the
047other things to just think about is is that an assistant principal while in tit in title seems like it's a solely administrative role it really is um I think a comment that was made last last week was that it's not as close to students as a teacher would be and I think that's kind of a misunderstanding of what that role actually looks like on a day-to-day basis um our assistant principles are primarily with students and if they're not with students they're with the teachers that are supporting those students so um it is a role that directly impacts the work we do in school um you know there are times that principles have fixed meetings and responsibilities which can prohibit the ability to be responsive to to teacher and student needs again it's it's kind of
048where the single administrator um we have our administrative meeing on certain days and if you know a single administrator is out of the building then again it falls responsibility sometimes falls on those other roles to kind of help out um the assistant principal is able to be proactive with students and anticipate those who might need additional support depending on the circumstances whenever we have substitute teachers students who have the potential to become disregulated that's a really tough day for them and so our assistant principles are are kind of really thinking about that that they're thinking about the coverage who's out which children are likely to have a hard time how am I going to get in and get ahead of that so that we're keeping students in the classroom all the time um and then
049the rtib oversight is kind of a key piece for us at the elementary level we don't have full-time regular Ed social workers so in some of the other schools um where they have more of that kind of support the rtib programming is over has oversight um not only from Administration but also then there's full-time social workers in schools and we have a quarter time between our schools so um the the AP kind of fills that role of oversight and supervision with our rtib we toyed for a while when we were adding those positions whether it should be an edtech or a teacher we chose edtech but that means an edtech needs to be supervised and so um if it wasn't an assistant princip or myself it would be a teacher and again that's kind of
050taken responsibility from their other duties or time and effort um but an AP can provide feedback one of the things we have really tried to do this year as a as our second year with our assistant principal is if we have student with needs who may be on a plan that has to be run um consistently we're also partnering that with observations of the teacher to support the teacher skill building skills to support um uh children with challenging Behavior to keep again keep them in the classroom so the capacity of our assistant principles to be able to do that it's way more proactive than we were able to be with a single administrator or someone else overseeing those rtib um students um means we're building the capacity of our team at the same time um
051so what would a shared position look like so I think the nature of the support that this role provides is full-time work no question really um there's no way to schedule when this responsive support will be needed so if we split this position say mornings at one school and afternoons at the other or Mondays and Wednesdays at one school and Tuesdays and Thursdays at the other you know we lose the consistency of response like I was talking about um and you know it's it's kind of if if we have a problem or you have a problem in your classroom on at those times it's great you're going to get a quick and immediate response if not then you may or may not or we're back to impacting other roles which ultimately means impact on students
052support services that can be provided by other people um we would lose the capacity for supervision our supervision responsibilities we would lose the capacity for consistent Behavior response and teacher coaching we would lose um the attention we've been able to give around attendance and connections with families we would return to impact on other roles and essentially we'd be diluting the responsibilities and the impact that we've been able to see with the addition of these positions in our schools any questions for me we [Applause] go okay um let's look now we're going to dive in the Q&A document and I'd like us to turn please to page 10 um and this is from La there wasn't a change in this but I just want to reference that because we had a question um about Freeport Middle
053School staff reductions and the question was um posed like what would be lost or sacrificed with repos proposed reduction of two teachers and I'm going to ask Dr forer to come up and answer that question hi so so um yeah I think we kind of covered this last week but the thing that we're thinking about shifting or adjusting would be our unified Arts that's the thing that would be impacted the most particularly if we went with option number two yeah we've heard some feedback that the science curriculum is already pretty stuffed pretty tight um and also other other content in other courses and there there is some concern that adding Wellness too into these other classes might really be somewhat of a stretch in terms of trying to cover all the content during the year
054can you talk a little bit about how you feel that's going to be managed so we haven't always had Wellness to we've sometimes just had one Wellness so it would be looking at a model that way the thought of having stem and science within each grade level every day opens up some space um so we've started to look at some of the standards that are placed in Wellness too currently and ways to um utilize some of the other content areas so it would be like human growth and development might take place in Wellness one now whereas some of the other topics um would take place and we'd have to figure that out I mean we're just in these early steps of that hi hi thank you Dr fornier um I had a question about the
055curriculum and maybe this is even a question for Cynthia so recently um we heard about the Next Gen Science standards and how um on the curriculum committee and how the district is working to update those standards and update the science curriculum so I was wondering specifically about the capacity of our staff to continue to do that work work um and what that would look like if we had um this change I guess so mostly in sixth grade we've been targeting some of that I mean all the the Middle School teachers have been digging into the units that work is sort of like climbing up Cynthia I don't know if you want to speak more to that but um three to five I know was doing some work in that I know that we just had
056a collaboration with Durham but it was focused in six so where we're going with that work it I mean it's coming um there's still flexibility in how we hit standards and so our science and stem departments have worked really hard over the last few years to you know collaborate and talk about how they're going to really move things around um and each of the sixth seven and eighth grade science and stem teachers have sort of looked at how they map that out and so it would be another mapping activity of how we're going to hit standards and productive and you know comprehensive ways just one add just one addition um as she as um Dr Foria said the um sixth grade has already been part of that work across the district um as you know
057we the instructional Coach position wasn't filled at the Middle School uh this year and we do have that still in the budget and we plan to fill that and they would help support that work don't Danielle had a question trying to think of how to word it so when you say that the impact is on the United Arts that's that's uni unified sorry um I call them specials at Durham um yeah do you just mean because the the wellness teacher number two would go to be the science teacher or are there other things that you think are going to be affected because I mean we what we're working through as we talked about before we what are our priorities as a school and so the things that came out as priorities clearly science and stem
058were those and so that's what started to drive the work of building some of the schedules now we've met once as a scheduling committee um so this work is still moving forward but if we went with model two which is something that just this week I gathered probably or since I've seen you last probably six other options that teachers we've all been sharing with each other talking about ways to move through all of the options so could we waterfall could we build INF Flex I mean it's so complicated to build a schedule that um I'm getting input from teachers every day on things that they have ideas about or how would that impact you know different pieces of the unified arts and making sure we're balancing all of those things so making sure we're honoring
059band and chorus and art and wellness and all of the things so um the exact nature of how it's all going to play out out if these Cuts happened is still going to be up to our team and our school um and that's just not finalized yet but this feels like the best option with the priorities that we've you know the values that we came out of that survey that we did as a group and really trying to prioritize like what do what does FMS stand for what do we believe in like collectively I also just wanted to get some clarification about whether or how you feel um will be able to differentiate learning with the cut of these staff especially the ELA and Math teachers are we going to be able to meet the
060the needs of our Learners who may need extra support in a special classroom or a different classroom without um those teachers like one thought um again and we're not I don't want to like say that we're locked into option two because we're in such an early phase but one option in that there would be some flexibility with unified Arts teachers and there's been some really cool ideas about some co- teach models that would actually free up more staff for us to hit if we went with some of those things the biggest thing would be making sure our numbers are appropriate so that we could pull out like having numbers on the top option of like like 25 that makes it really challenging to differentiate a big group like that um this year we've done a
061push in model for a lot of our special education classes and that's been awesome um so I would hope that we would be looking at that model more so than pulling out um RTI we just met as a group last Friday we're looking at mostly this year still and but thinking productively about next year too and ways to give supports but I mean that's ongoing work I think the second model does free up some cool ideas of ways that um teachers could give support So if you look a unified arts teacher might have more of a block off and they could build in structured studies they could co- te and enrich a lesson in that way so there's lots of options in the scheduling models we're looking at and keeping our two Specialists separate I
062think will be key to that next year we also got some feedback um regarding teacher workload and number of students and classes that they're teaching at a time so could you speak to that under the options that you're looking at and how that might shift or um I guess specifically if you want to speak to option two because I know it kind of depends on the option right yeah um you mean if they'd have like a hundred I mean that that varies year to year anyway so depending on the grade level that you teach you teach um you mean how many students they see in a day or their class size number how many students total I guess they see and work with yeah yeah I mean all of these teachers would see 90 to
06399 students I mean that would be the highest um but that's how science stem and Social Studies have always been and for the unified Arts with that be different then because the kids cycle through yeah they've always had they've always seen um a series of students but it's trimester so they're not seeing them all at once okay so in this case it's possible they would have to teach is it possible they'd have to teach more sections or be seeing more kids at a time because of how the schedule is structured it it would be similar I see how you're saying like Ela and Math teachers would have more but it would be equal to how many students science stem and Social Studies have seen okay at least in eighth grade okay gotta because they've rotated
064through that cycle the whole time and so they've always seen all of the students all at the same amount of time okay so except for the ELA and math where there's the cuts those which would shift to the other teachers okay and that we've talked about that you know if you have a big essay that you have to you know some of the options that we're playing around with too are like how could we free up a teacher so if we had unified Arts teachers that were co- teing could they free up um a teacher to give really thoughtful feedback if it was some big project or something you know that would be like work that the scheduling committee would think about in our Flex options so Flex is like a built-in block that you
065might you might schedule it once a month you might just schedule it four or five times a year when you're doing some Project based um activity and so I'm calling it Flex because that's something that you might lean into if you were feeling like hey ELA teachers in seventh grade have 99 students and that's a lot of feedback to give thoughtfully we might lean into Flex to give opportunities for teachers to have more flexibility to do that thank you okay so now if we go on to let's turn to page 19 and that's the history of um budgeted wages and benefits on that page and that is been updated to reflect if if you recall last week um I Chang the um budget proposal to um have instead of a full-time reduction um of an
066esol teacher do a halftime reduction so the numbers there that you see are reflective and and they're updated based on those requests page 20 we have an update here this is the um proposed budget taxation increase per Town um one thing that uh I appreciate Kelly um did a lot of tracking down of looking what the median valuation was by Town um Durham is shaded in yellow pel green and Freeport blue and you'll see those numbers there based of what we received for the town it's important to note that this only represents the potential increase related to the school portion of the of your Total Property Tax Bill and it also does not reflect any other changes in the individual Town's budget or anything else that happened the um related to that property T your
067property valuation but that's an update there page 21 what you see here it's upd we updated that um there was a little bit of change in in capital if you recall from last week so we updated up that all based on that that additional $6,000 we added in there Pages 22 to 24 the update there um is again based on um that additional 6,000 added to Capital um and there's a you know the the year-over-year expenditures in all of these Pages went from 5.72% to 5.73% so that's the update there for you page 25 that's the operating budget history since Inception and that again for this year is updated based on that additional um monies that was added that were added in last week if you go to page 32 is where we get a
068little bit more complex and I'm going to try to try to explain I know it's hard to see on the screen but um you can look in your budget handbook um it's important when you look at this to start at the top of the row because we're talking about reductions and not additions okay so stop at the start at the top um and you go to the yellow line if we and we look at we're really looking at that year-over-year expense percentage if you see that y y expense if you go to the yellow line that is if you um we looked at the unfill just the unfill position what the and um what that would percentage increase would be it would be 7.69% so we were asked by one board member if we just
069looked at those numbers where would you be at so that's at the yellow line if you go to the Blue Line the 6.34% that was if you added back in um Freeport Middle School um science position which is actually um well now the Freeport Middle school0.5 vaa Freeport Middle School .25 vaa free point Middle School .25 science and 3 ESO teacher remember that we added the3 with the 0.5 we added last week to make a a whole point8 you would be at 6.34% if you look at the Orange Line the 5.80% that is if you just added in.3 back to the esol position to make it a whole so we'd add the point3 back in with a 0 five we added last week to point to be a0 um8 position the the year-over-year expense would
070be 5.80 and if you go to the pink line there's the 5.73% that was the initial request so that's how that works you start at the top and you and you work your way down because it's a reduction model not a not a a model we we add to if we move to page 33 this was a request from last week we were asked um to create um to look at what the um request for administrative wages and benefits was broken out and what we did on page 33 is we actually provided all all employee benefits so you'll see um it's in the pie chart but also below it says that's the percent of the total budget for each one of those categories so you can look through there and um that's what we have
071we get to page 34 this is a going to be a two-part question um what the board asked us um a board asked us to um provide information on the grade 6 to 8 schedule with number and teachers in class size at Durham community school and they also asked us to um to talk about the band and chorus schedule at DCS so I'm going to ask principal PID to come up and explain that good evening I'd just like to say that most Street staff you're welcome to get up and say that being British is a good thing again or at least be thinking it as I'm talking so the um I'm not quite sure what um what information you want from this so please ask questions if there's Clarity that you need um really the
072um again we're not usually finalizing a schedule right now so um what you have there is a couple of drafts I can tell you what is most likely um in the sixth grade what you see um on that first piece is the model we currently have and that we could um are looking at for next year also which is 51 students with three teachers three sections of 17 what they currently have is um an Ela class each day a math class each day and um then a science and social studies that alternates on your piece of paper but that's not on the screen but uh you see that option two you know part of what we've been looking at also is um as the conversations have focused so much around science um and looking at
073all right so if we can have that comparable amount of Science in sixth grade um that we don't currently have because our students have half a year of science then what we would do is potentially use that schedule so we're looking at that which would reduce the time time uh a little bit for humanities increase the time for um science but all of that is really school-based work that we're doing as we sort of look at the best way to prioritize the resources we have in each scenario it's 51 students three staff members class sizes of 17 so that is sixth grade uh for seventh and eth grade at our school it's important to know that our teachers teach both grade levels so the students Loop um so the science teacher teaches seventh grade science
074and eighth grade science so the students are with them for two years so just hearing your conversation there about number of students in a day you'll see that next year we have 54 7th graders anticipated 48 eighth graders anticipated um so those teachers also see 102 students a day um and are responsible for that whether they're the science teacher with their science work work the literacy teacher with the literacy work etc etc and as Paige said those um numbers fluctuate sometimes between 90 and um 100 105 something like that um in a similar manner to um FMS so uh on this one you want to stay up at Option One there the um because of the size of the classes we're going from what we have as three and two sections right now across two
075grad spans to three and three the um way in which that breaks down into the day is that block you'll see at the top what we do is we end up adding in sort of a block schedule for a couple of the classes it's hard to do science properly in 40 minutes um so they will go to um 80 minutes alternate days so it's the same amount of time time but what we do is remove a transition which in essence maximizes some of that um that time so the students would have sort of um those blocks in their day they would have either um a day that has a science double block and then math Spanish Ela and jmg on a daily basis um and then they alternate that with a Humanities block and again
076with math Spanish El jmg on a daily basis um so that works out would be class sizes of 18 and 16 if they were in two sections um it would be class sizes in seventh grade of um 27 or class sizes in e8th grade of 24 um and the um team decided that they would rather adjust the time um and break up the day in this manner to meet those needs so that's the schedule pieces we've tried to give you as a comparison I'm not sure if that answers the question that was being asked hi I just have a question um about the I know I can list some of probably what the specials are that you have but I'm wondering if you just tell me what is included in that specials period sure so
077that is um where we have fed stem uh music um wellness and our librarian has classes um throughout the day also and for grades 5 through eight uh so in in prek through four that is library in grades 5 through eight that becomes multimedia um kind of work and that's where some of the um sort of Technology um standards come into play too okay um so in the option two when you look down at the um lift block and then you have a a b and c so oh yeah I wouldn't I'd ignore that one we're not using that one I don't think okay so um you're looking at you're looking at seventh and eighth grade where is band and chorus right wait sorry were you looking at seventh and eighth grade for that option
078two yeah so we had to take that the reason that was on there literally we created this yesterday for today and um part of what this was dependent upon for that sixth rotation um with our teaching teams was we had to just work with our colleagues with jmg uh to make sure they were comfortable with the model um our jmg staff as you may or may not know are um sort of the district pays a sort of a set fee for a jmg specialist um and jmg pays the rest so there are certain programming requirements that have to be met for jmg Specialists and we just needed to talk with our coordinator to ensure that they were comfortable with what we had which they are which that was literally this afternoon so that's why I'm
079saying that that's why I didn't really speak to that second option there so then bringing back to um your band chorus question so um that there's sort of two parts to that because I know you wanted to ask about that in its current format um I can't neily speak to what it would look like next year again where we're at in March is not we're not usually finalizing next year's schedule and especially when it's in such flux as it is currently um so the maybe I could answer that um Beth if I could answer that when I talk about the music band piece that might give a little it might be a little clearer than to sort of talk about it here and then there so I'm not sure if there's other questions about this
080piece and then I'll respond to that question about the Bandon sec okay now I can answer your question so perhaps I could just uh ask answer the question that we were asked to come with which was around how is band and chorus um currently taught and provided at school I have to give a little bit of context because uh you've heard it say before one of the challenges it's very difficult to be comparing like FMS and DCS Middle School grades just because when a standalone Middle School obviously has um some different opportunities than a prek througha school in terms of meeting the needs of sixth through e8th graders just because partly as you're already hearing you have specialist teachers or unified Arts teachers focusing on three specific grade levels we have unified art teachers across
08110 grade levels um the um the nature of the schedule roles with so many grades we have like five lunches to to support which really impacts the schedule as opposed to potentially three lunches for a grade so there's just a lot of factors that it's very hard to do kind of what we're doing a little bit at the moment of trying to kind of like compare um what I would say is that we do work hard collectively with your support to try and make sure that our kids are having uh you know the same access ESS and opportunities it just will look different um and I think some of the examples which are very Concrete in ways that that has been met it's just a lot of the flexibility that's being put together in sports
082for example um where you know as a school we were definitely we were never big enough to have like a football team or field hockey team or lacrosse teams but in a bigger Middle School those Sports exist and have um become accessible to students at DCS which has been great and then Jeremy with the transportation the coaches at FMS adjust to make sure that we have shuttle buses running to make sure our kids can get to practices and sometimes the practices start a little later to accommodate our program so there's lots of things that are done to balance things out it's just tricky to compare um each day with each day so with that in mind part of what we have to balance is um I think I mentioned to you before I know I
083have that our school runs on an elementary school schedule big part of that is transportation so the buses du all the high school runs come back and pick up the elementary run which for us includes middle school students and so our day for our middle schoolers ends at 3:15 most of the teams oh almost all the schools that we compete against in sports are just straight middle schools who generally on a high school schedule cuz that's when they their bus runs go and those schools generally in school around an hour earlier sort of 220 something like that so it means that if our students are involved in a way Sports fixtures or games they have to leave school early to go there which by default means we don't we try to avoid having an academic
084class last period of the day because otherwise they're missing you know their primary academics so we have um tried to put um academics at the uh I beg you pardon we've tried to put lift block at the end of the day which is where often Banning chorus takes place the challenge then that was creating was that as a student you were faced with a choice of do you know if I want to do Sports and music um then that was becoming um detrimental in terms of we're trying to offer both opportunities so what we've done this year this is the first year we've been doing this for uh for a long time we actually have um band and chorus uh activities taking place before school and during school so um we have one and a
085half music teachers um and part of that half a music teacher position was added um I want to say about five years ago now um in response to this to try and support sort of the the growth of band and chorus so we have a full-time music teacher who is also our band uh director and chorus teacher she also teaches prek and then third fourth fifth 6th and 7th and eighth grade General music then we share a music teacher with pwle um and that music teacher teaches prek through fifth grade and fifth grade uh beginners band down at um panel and then she comes up to DCS and teaches some specific band lessons uh as well as prek-2 general music classes so uh this current school year we have banned before school um we have
086a sixth grade section 7th and eighth grade section then um we had checked in with families before the school year to see the accessibility for that and explaining what we were hoping to achieve by that and giving their students um choices to um check in with teachers or to do Sports uh without compromising music we had a uh the vast majority um were on board with that we had a couple of families for whom that was going to be prohibitive so those students get their band sections um during the school day we have additional lessons that take place during the school day for sort of sectional aspects of the band um fifth grade beginner band is also during the school day um and that is once a week and then um we have a chorus
087is during school time um also during the week then prior to concerts for about six weeks prior to concert we add in additional Whole band practice uh and chorus practice during the school day so during those times we then we put it back into that lift program um and and try to accommodate it in there so you can see it's a little complicated oh no I understand that it's very complicated I'm just trying to figure out um I HED you were going to stop it I understand it I was like wow no sorry dang it so when you're saying that chorus is in the school day and so that would occur that would occur during lift lift okay so currently your schedule has this lift block at the end of the day okay all right
088and then sometimes it's banned and other things it could be would just be study hall or catching up with teacher kind of thing that sort of thing okay all right thank you be back put everyone else off oh no not quite um thank you so much will for this information I'm so sorry if this was lost on me I just want to make sure that I have this correct because I did take extensive notes when we talked about the schedule last time and I remember talking about it and so the driver of that is again that the class size will be two classes of 24 for the eth grade and wanting to make sure that there's not like instead of adding an additional teacher changing this schedule to accommodate for that is that is that
089breaking it down correctly or how sort of okay I think uh I think there's two narratives that got Blended in there so if you um we would have had two classes of 24 with our current structure currently in 8th grade students make a choice between Spanish or jmg so what happens is they currently have everyone has Spanish and jmg in seventh grade they kind of work through those almost like exploratories but they they getting to a good level and then they make a choice in eighth grade and those classes in eighth grade currently are then smaller because they split um to decide I'm okay during this section approximately half go to jam and half go to Spanish for next year to avoid classes of 24 students will have the same model they have currently in
090seventh grade which means they'll all take Spanish and they'll all take jmg and that's what would result in those class sizes of um 16 in 8th grade next year that's that option one if you're looking on that piece of paper okay does that clarify yes okay thank you um yes thank you I appreciate that um could you also I just had a follow-up question could you remind me for um the Staffing levels that we got on our our sheets during the presentation during the workshops um and the class sizes are those projections or are those current numbers so those are projections so all we all work with projections um and it gets tricky um throughout this process because you know we have potential movein or move outs so we um we collectively have a sort
091of a date by which like so these are the projections we will use for the budget process um and then law of averages would suggest that you know two move out maybe two move in obviously it can change sometimes more move in to a certain grade level or or um um or move out of a certain grade level but there there the projections are based on current enrollments at the date we kind of like put a hold on it just so it's consistent and we're not sort of chasing you know number here and number there does that make sense yes thank you and I guess I'll just add the observation that um in deference to like when we were talking about this the equity across the district I went back and I wanted to look
092at the the reductions all the staff reductions across the schools and what the class sizes were and I did notice that Durham stood out to me as having um some projections in the third and fifth grade where the cuts are um at um the threshold of Action level under our policy yeah they're very cuspy it's true it's the it's one of the hard Parts more uh with again it's one of the unique parts of rsu5 every one of our schools is there's no one school that's the same model right so we all have slightly different grade configurations or um numbers of grades Etc um and smaller schools uh well we're a bigger School than the other a lot of the other schools but the actual grade span per se um it gets tricky when we
093get into that kind of 43 45 46 what feels like one or two students can be a Tipping Point um and without a bigger number to accommodate in five or uh six students that's where it gets tricky so yes you are correct it is a tricky one um we are comfortable with 21s 22s um and um you know you've also heard from a number of us about some cohorts lend themselves to that kind of support and some cohorts less so um in both these cases um you know we feel that the rising third and fifth graders are cohorts that can um accommodate these numbers if we have four families move in um then it's becomes it becomes a challenge and you know those are conversations that we've had with um uh kellye throughout and um
094we feel like we have Provisions there on the flip side you know we are also as I think I mentioned you at the time we're also really monitoring kindergarten because it's the opposite where we have a low projection but that gets tricky because it's not all families access prek in a half day model um because for some they need full day and to be able to get back to Durham to pick up their child from home or to arrange care is tricky so um we are working with a slightly less predictable number um we use birth data uh from the town um over a twoyear span that would be the incoming Rising k um we use existing prek um etc etc and currently the number um of students coming into kindergarten is lower than we
095would anticipate it is a smaller precare year um but the birth data was consistent with what we usually would anticipate to be a class of about 40 41 um so we're monitoring that because there's a scenario by which if that stays super low or um then we would have to be saying okay do we need a third section there so it can sort of be on both sides of the equation um the hard part with K unlike prek where um people are not sure you know they tend to get sign up earlier because they're um they you know they want a slot or they're not going to take a slot with kindergarten there's a sense of like well every child gets to go to kindergarten it's not necessarily going to be a cap which could
096could occur with preag just because numbers we have available then it does tend to result in later signups um so we often we get kindergarten during the summer which makes it tricky for this sort of work thank you so much yeah oh so can you envision a scenario where you have too many kindergarten teachers and not enough third or fifth grade teachers and you could shift one of those teachers around then yeah I mean to be honest I think we can Envision almost any scenario um because is that because you're British it's it's especially because we're British we've we've lived through many scenarios and created most of them [Laughter] ourselves yeah I have to be super careful I'm not going to get to ported here but um the um so I would I I hear
097your question and without being silly about it yes can I see that happening potentially yes but um all kidding aside you know what we every year there are changes so we had a tight grade before and then two families moved in with four children in the same grade between them and that was a big impact but that just is what happens so what we uh you know we're all of us are kind of used to the Act of saying these are the resources we have these are the needs we need to meet um let's go back to the drawing board and figure out how to do it and I think you've been hearing from people throughout the last few weeks of doing this on a sort of theoretical basis we're very used to doing it
098in a reality basis that because changes occur all the time during the school year um and you heard I think last week when uh Jee referenced at Mo stre um um when they were suddenly short a teacher and the second grade classes had to grow you know beyond what would be a planned number but was a number that everyone responded to and made sure children got what they needed so I think yes I can imagine it but equally I know that if something like that happens we'll solve it so other things all right thank you yes so I believe we've answered all the questions at this moment in time for the board so we can shift back to seats now I didn't know they referred to middle school games as fixtures that's good to know
099well thank you another British Dr up uh thank you Jean and Dr fornier and and Julie and all of our all of our folks that have put in um and Kelly of course all of the folks that have put in all of the effort in the last few weeks as we have thrown more uh information requests at you and questions and possible scenarios um this definitely um is all great information and helpful in our process okay so we are up to the second opportunity um for uh for public input on the budget so this uh would be an opportunity if you had something you wanted to share with the board uh specific to to budget um we just ask that you I have a couple folks um we ask that you come up to the
100microphone tell us who you are and uh and carry on okay Liz hi thank you whoops well I guess I'll try to bend over here um so good evening everybody I am Liz Pierce and I am one of the school counselors at the high school and a few weeks ago I spoke to all of you in support of maintaining a full-time ESO teacher at the high school level tonight I am here to advocate for the esol program to ensure the board fully understands the impact of reducing one position by point5 this reduction would mean losing the district's most experienced secondary level esol teacher the only one with a masters in secondary education while an ESO endorsement covers grades K through 12 the academic social emotional and mental health needs of students vary greatly by age
101High School is the final step before adulthood making expertise in adolescent development and curriculum essential for positive postgraduate outcomes an esol teacher at the high school does more than teach English they support students in coursework requiring Advanced language skills and collaborate with up to 20 teachers weekly to ensure proper modifications and Student Success without secondary education training and experience this critical support will be diminished I understand that data informs budget decisions but current data only reflects student numbers not the challenge of filling a part-time position the addition of multilingual student registrations throughout the year or the strain on Educators spread across multiple buildings these factors lead to inconsistent support and increased burnout I urge you to consider the broader impact of this decision the loss of a 0.5 esol District Position will ultimately reduce the
102expertise at our high school resulting in less comprehensive services for our multilingual Learners instead please consider a point2 reduction so that we can maintain a strong esol support across all grade levels thank you thank you Liz [Music] Jill if you wouldn't mind turning on all the you know the motion sensor lights as you run around that'd be great thanks I needed that all right here we go I like kids um my name is Joel Highland I um am the eso teacher at Freeport High School um for 21 years I've taught multilingual students e Esau is all I know the board has been presented with a lot of numbers from the administrative teams and while those numbers are important I want to shift the focus to the students the students that we always say are at
103the center of our decisions the ones that we saw and heard from tonight um this position is so much more than teaching every day we are an advocate interpreter cultural and family liaison Mentor appointment maker dream Builder reality reminder a hug a nudge back to class and always The Voice they turn to and hear for our students we are the home base their safe space in a world that seems to be spinning out of control the emotional well-being of students in the program will be impacted if the position is reduced to 05 the program as a whole will change students will lose their trusted adults as a result of teachers shifting schools and a new 0.5 teacher would have to be hired right now our students are thriving they are improving because of the relationships
104the consistency and the programming that we have been able to provide esol endorsed teachers are vital to Student Success at all levels the nuances that we bring to a classroom makes the difference between learning or just sitting the recommended and most effective model supported by the office of civil rights in the main Department of education is direct instruction from an esol endorsed teacher cutting the staff by 05 makes it impossible to provide the level of service our students need and deserve exiting the esol program for students is the goal but language is fluid even with an exit score of 4.5 students who test out of the program are still learning language skills and not yet reached native fluency the district's laow plan ensures compliance with federal and state laws regarding this es the Esau education
105per our allow plan we are required to monitor exited students for two years our role for monitored students really isn't any different than any other student only now we don't directly service them but we are still required to provide interpreters translate documents inform parents of school events and resources provide and schedule transportation to and from school sponsored events outside of school hours check grades provide academic support maintain connections offer scaffolding to teachers and guide students through whatever it is they need in that moment I think that it's most important to remember that this program it's not an extra it's not RTI or AP classes or gifted and talented esol in language programming is a fundamental right protected by the office of civil rights and the department of education this is not just about numbers on
106a spreadsheet it is about providing meaningful access to education it is about students our students my students and their rights to an education and a program that we need to protect please do not make this point five cut we must ensure that we are truly putting our students at the center of our decisions not just in words or by looking at numbers on a spreadsheet but in action thank you thank you Joe so that was all we had for folks that wanted to speak on the budget but I will give people an opportunity if someone had something they wanted to share oh thank yeah would this also be the only opportunity to ask any questions because once the board starts deliberating in this public comment period's closed we won't have like a back and forth
107right correct right so if someone had a question that would be the time they could ask it yep hi wonderful um I was here last week my name is Valerie Williams I live in Freeport um I might ask you get a little closer to the mic yeah height is a challenge for me as well but different I was G to say it might yeah I got it now there you go you would think the wife of a singer would know but I don't um so uh I'm about to say something very opposite to the L teacher not that I disagree with her I do not but I am a Scientist and I love numbers uh so much so that I did not prepare any words at all today um but I also am here again
108to um object to the cuts to the freeart middle school because although our stated goal is science and math the two cuts on the table are science and math so um that in and of itself flies in the face of what we our stated goal is um and I'm here again to Advocate I know I've emailed a couple times and I'm sorry if this is getting annoying but I feel passionately and I'm here again a very tired person taking my time asking for you to hear me thank you thank you Valerie okay [Music] um so uh just making sure there's nothing else we're supposed to get to before we get to our deliberations there is not great okay just uh just want to set the stage a little bit for where we are um first
109of all I think our light is working well we've lost all the light outside and hopefully you guys can still see us so that's great um where we are in our process is we have a opportunity to deliberate this evening uh next week we have another board meeting um and uh according to our budget timeline we will adopt the budget next week so we will have we can deliberate um next week that's what it says on our agenda but um really historically how it has worked is the meeting in advance of the adoption of the budget is usually where we come down uh on where we want to be for our numbers because our um budget brochure that gets printed and mailed to every household in the district must go to the printers next Thursday
110morning which means it's essentially baked before we we get here Wednesday based on what we come up with tonight so we have a couple of options uh if we can get to that point and feel comfortable with that wonderful we'll continue with that process if we don't feel like we can finish today um with a number that that we have a certain level of confidence that we will all come back and and agree with next week um then we don't have to um we don't have to go that route what it would mean sacrificing because I know we always ask what are we sacrificing to choose a different option uh and it's we would not be able to um mail the budget brochure to every household we could still produce it we could still have
111it up on our website we could still have it at all the town halls and the schools and any other areas in town where where folks uh pick up their information we do that for other things um but we wouldn't be able to mail it to every household I think there are pluses and minuses to that um but that is the reality that if we don't come out of this evening's meeting with essentially what our our finalized budget is going to look like that um that would be the sacrifice of is is the ability to mail that out to every household yeah Cara is is that so that people receive it before the Q&A sessions could it be mailed later or uh yeah I mean usually they get there the week of the Q&A starting
112um so and we have historically um that's part of the reason we do those q&as is that people get it in the mail and they can come ask us questions um so I guess I would be I guess there's I'm sure jinnie is screaming at her TV or computer right now so there may be an answer that says no we can't I'm not sure um I just know that historically in order to meet those deadlines it would have to go on Thursday um and I also asked if we could uh send just like a one-pager that says hey go to your town hall or the website if you want to see the full budget brochure because we're not mailing them to every house and apparently that is not as simple as it sounds it still
113has to get done by someone who does The Mailing and there's there's a lot of steps in the process and if we're not having um the company we use to create the budget brochure create it they wouldn't mail it for us um so as as all of our questions tend to be there's multiple layers to what might seem as a simple answer or question um so and you know I'm not personally tied to either way but I just wanted folks to understand what that looks like um so if we don't feel like we're we're ready to to come down on a number tonight that's okay we can continue those deliberations next week it probably would just mean that we wouldn't be able to send out the uh budget brochure any other questions on that okay
114okay so we were trying to think of possible ways to to tackle this uh Endeavor in front of us um and uh thought we might start with some of the some of the uh maybe more straightforward items um and um I'm trying to find the page that I'm looking for which of course I'm in the wrong book I'm sure okay here we go um I I thought we might start with the capital funding the capital projects funding and the proposal um around how we're going to shift uh some of those the funding add $6,000 to the local budget as well as allocate the um the million five and change according to Kelly's calculation um into the capital reserve to allow for the the other um uh now I'm thinking of the wrong word the safety
115life safety cameras door access um as well as the stuff that were um what's the other half of that project that we moved into this year called there's other life life it's more life safety right so the the whole life safety um funding proposal which basically UPS the local budget by 6,000 and then transfers um a million5 into the capital reserve account to allow for um for those items to get accomplished that way it seemed like there was General support for that methodology and just thought we could start with something yeah I'm looking at Danielle I thought you put your hand up we're just peeking around the lamp not yet okay great all right um all right so while we're on reserve accounts uh I guess I would love to hear folks thoughts on the
116proposals um that Kelly brought back to us today uh around transitioning $296 roughly thousand uh into the article one Reserve which would cover our Title One wages and benefits and then 618,000 uh into the Article 2 Reserve uh that would cover staff as uh wages and benefits as well as outof District placement for our um for our title funds that could be at risk uh from a federal level um so that we could maintain those Services uh and those funds would not come from local dollars but would come from the um undesignated fund balance yeah excuse me I feel really good about this just because we I think there is a lot of uncertainty in the air we we don't know what's coming down the pike and this helps just kind of cushion us if
117it's a contingency and in case we don't happen to get that money we can still cover these positions I feel really good about that and I feel even better now that we have heard from our Council that it is not that big of a deal for us to transfer funds from one Reserve account into another so if it turns out that we can't use this money we can put it into Capital reserves or some other Reserve account and use it that way yeah I I think what I heard was it would be a vote at uh so basically typically that would be once a year we could so if if we got to this point next year and we felt comfortable that our funding had stabilized and we wanted to move it somewhere else we
118could do that at that point we always could have a special um you know legislative body which is the a annual budget meeting um if we needed to do it on an emergency basis but um I think that would be the methodology of how we could move it in the future um okay uh I guess the other thing I didn't mention on the capital side was the uh implementation of the vehicle replacement plan that is another dollar amount uh increase in the budget that's the 163,000 um and that is funded through the undesignated fund balance I'll save Kelly getting up so um so that would be another that would be another funding source for that and that would get us on our way to the replacement plan to make sure sure that we're um uh
119keeping all of the buses and vans and trucks and all those things on a reasonable replacement schedule also AIT to go yes so the last piece while it doesn't impact this year's budget uh would be to move forward with the phase one of the energy audit um which is in one of these packages um and um that would result in the the first payment on that lease would happen in the following school year so while we wouldn't have a cash impact in the upcoming year we would essentially be um entering into a lease for for a future payment and that would that would um meet a uh you know the first phase of that energy audit and they they front-loaded the things that would likely have cost savings associated with them for the district um
120so hopefully some of that future cost will be will be uh recaptured through savings from that first phase of the energy audit so people feel relatively comfortable with that that approach on the capital side and the reserve questions yeah Mora um I do thanks Michelle um but I was also wondering um if there's any amount we're using from the undesignated fund balance this year to offset the tax impact of the budget I know we typically do that every year yes so that is on page uh that is on page 10 of the uh handbook so the white front page not the tan front page which is the Q&A um so it's the the proposed budget impact sheet down under uh shared Revenue the bottom line item there says undesignated fund balance uh so this year
121we use $900,000 next year we are looking to use $168,000 I believe that is the 900,000 we used last year plus the 168 for that vehicle replacement um plan we were just talking about so the so the vehicle replacement unlike the items that are coming out of the capital reserve the vehicle replacement plan will actually be in the local budget it just won't be we won't be collecting taxes for it we're going to fund that through moving undesignated fund balance to offset that piece does that make sense it's a good point we hadn't really gone through much on the uh the funding side of the of the budget we've been so so focused on the expenditure side of the budget um do folks have any questions about the proposed budget impact um you know most
122of our most of our time to date has been really around that Top Line of that page 10 which is the total operating budget of 43,9 19,000 um and then really that's just the that's just the starting line of of how the funding uh goes through um and then uh so if you kind of go down from there we have adult Ed and then that's sort of our total expenditure budget including Adult Ed we take out our shared revenues the biggest one of that is that million do of undesignated fund balance uh and then other sources of revenues that you can see on the page there whether it's interest expense or excuse me interest income CDs um uh the the funding we get from the town of Freeport to uh to maintain the Hunter Road
123Fields because they own the fields but we maintain them they pay us a fee to do that all of the those shared revenues are there at the bottom of the page and then we have our um our shared state aid for being part of the GC um thank you my head's not like creating a big shape or anything right okay good um uh so that's $56,000 that's been relatively stable it's down a little bit uh and then we get down to the operating budget minus the shared revenue and Aid and then we get down to the the state aid um so subsidy from the from the state um of 7,200 th000 which as uh superintendent Scara mentioned is about $27,000 less than the prior year um and that's driven by a couple of things one
124is one is the the number of students the other is uh valuation increases across the district but 7.2 State subsidy Durham still has a small piece of non-shared debt from prior to joining the uh joining the RSU around the um the construction uh of the Durham community school so that that's still on there so that just goes directly to the Durham portion of the budget the required local contribution is what the state uh determines each town is required to contribute according to our um cost sharing formula uh they set a mill rate and they tell you your valuation and they say in order to get your subsidy you need to raise this and that's about $20 million and then that gets us down to about $115 million in how we um that we put through
125our uh cost sharing formula so so that's page 10 um and then page 11 is what that uh what those numbers mean on a Town Bytown basis in terms of um the required local contribution the additional local monies non-shared debt in Durham's case uh and so that's kind of how that flows down that's why there's obviously different Mill rates uh by the towns because they they don't all value at the same rate um and there's different requirements from the state so so this really breaks down what each of the towns is looking at in terms of the budget we've proposed and um I will remind folks that the the tax impact is an estimate it's always an estimate uh we have last year's mill rate and last year's valuation because that's the last information we
126have but all of that gets updated with new valuation numbers on April 1st um so so I just want to remind folks of that okay sorry that was my quick what does this budget mean once we agree on the expenditure numbers um okay so uh phase one of the energy audit uh small increase to um the capital budgets funding in the local budget the vehicle replacement plan uh and then the items on the life safety that would get funded through um through the reserve account people feeling pretty good about that any concerns okay great okay um so that uh that brings us to the other items um I'm I'm looking at page seven okay live on okay so I picked page seven because they're bigger numbers but jean did point out that on page 32
127of the Q&A which has very small numbers um we can see similar things and um and this is really around um the discussion of uh the positions across the district uh and each one is identified with a a separate line item um and I don't know if it makes sense to try and chunk them out um because I think they they might might vary um depending on what we're talking about here um if I start at the bottom so that pink line kind of in the middle that superintendent proposed budget that's the that's the budget we have uh from Gan right now with the the um year-over-year expenditure increase of 5.73 um and um I'm still trying to understand how this ESO works so that's this includes a05 reduction in esol correct right if we
128went to Orange Ru okay so so if we if we felt that we wanted to go from 3 to 2.8 uh which um that that impact would go from 5.73 to 5.8 okay so I will open that conversation to see what folks yeah um thank you Michelle I had a um a slightly different proposal I wanted to sort of put before us to sort of talk about in terms of how we could approach this um we've heard so much in terms of um about so many of these positions and I I know we're going to have um we could have a very uh uh robust and in-depth conversation about um each of the different positions and um how we understand um and how we might slot them into kind of a uh um this year
129kind of a I suppose a hierarchy of needs um but I also I suppose um I was thinking to myself that um if the board is not as a sort of a majority voting block um if the if the board doesn't have any interest in going above 5.73 then we maybe shouldn't talk about the individual roles yet um I wondered whether it might be worth to have a um you know I'm not sure what the proper mechanism is but to have a um sort of a straw poll of just to say you know how how open is the board to um to going north of that amount um because I think if we if we learn through that vote that actually uh the majority of folks um want to hang out right there um then
130we probably can get out of here in about 15 minutes uh but if we if not um then I think we know uh why we're staying we're staying because we believe that their um uh some number of additions of Staff back into the budget um are desired by the board yeah I mean the other the other component of that would be um alternative ways to keep the number relatively similar but in a different way right yeah that's in my 15 minutes that I was calculating okay before we work that out um uh yeah no I think that's a I think that's a great uh jumping off point to see you know what what's the um the flavor of the board around you know because the the other piece we have to do once we adopt
131our budget is we have to get it past um and you know I think this board has historically been uh thoughtful and um in it's it's its determination of of increases it has not been a we will not go above 2% and cut until you get there and tell us what happens um you know there are times where we have to be more more more more disciplined in that and there um I think we have tried to be very um thoughtful in in making sure that anything that we are asking for is well well supported um from from our team from our board from our superintendent from our from our uh Educators um so you know I I appreciate that approach of not just giving a number and walking away um but we do have
132to get it approved while we would love to to do everything we do have to get it approved so um I guess it's a good place to start is how are people feeling about you know five and three quarters Kelly yeah there's nothing magical about 5.73 but I think um you know obviously our taxpayers want us to be careful about this and and kind of I one of the questions I'm thinking of is as people are looking at this number they're probably asking themselves well what are other districts doing how are they what are their increases looking like are we in the ballpark is that something we can look at anytime soon do we have any any sense I know we tend to be early in our process so we I'll look and see what
133I can okay car I have a question about what happens if it doesn't get passed what is that or approved uh at the can you walk us through that process sure so our budget process is really a three-step process uh step one is right now what the board is doing we adopt a budget we then take that adopted budget and we go to our annual budget meeting which is the three town meeting where we uh we vote on on the article article by article so right now we have the opportunity to sort of adjust line items you know come to that final number at the annual budget meeting you can only adjust by article up or down ours allow for up or down uh and the n and um the the totals that come out
134of that meeting is what goes to referendum in June and so that referendum in June is uh you know just a normal go to the polls vote Yes or no there's no changing it it's do you support it or do you not um so uh we have um knock on wood not um failed a budget in is that true since the first year since the first year the first year might have failed um but uh but if we were to and it does happen it happens in other districts actually with some regularity uh we would then have to reconvene in the summer and then go through the process again we would have to uh sometimes the challenge is it's too high and sometimes the challenge is it's too low depending on the districts that have
135failed their budget I've seen budgets fail in the same town for different reasons like one was too high and the next one was too low and the third one was Goldilocks and just right so um there are that's kind of what the process would look like um we obviously wouldn't have the full you know budget process from January to June we would have a very condensed process to try and get a get a new budget if we felt like it failed because it was too high we would come back um well we could come back with the same number again if we wanted to um but generally what would happen is people we we would make some cuts to where we felt like we could get it passed we would have another annual budget meeting
136and then we would go to another referendum vote and we would continue that process um we would be locked into this year's uh spending until we approved a budget for the F upcoming year yes yes does that answer your question Phoebe uh I I just have two click verifying question so um does each town have to pass the budget not just like the majority out of the three combined it is the majority out of the three combined so um the past several years uh we have passed it in all three towns so it has been sort of a moot point but it is total yes votes in the district against total no votes in the district okay other questions on that um do could you remind me of like how close it has been in
137years past the vote oh that's a good question um okay great yeah I did look that up a month or so ago and I think it was um districtwide it was about three yeses to one no um and it was close to 50/50 in Durham um and the other towns had a um it wasn't as close more yes yeah so this is this is last year's right yeah so last year it passed in Durham by nine votes in freep Port uh so 228 to or 237 to 228 yeses uh Freeport it was 615 to 227 and pel was 166 to 100 3 exactly say that louder for the yeah everyone should be going and voting for the school budget that's crazy we have a lot more than 1,500 people in these towns yeah reg registered
138voters I'm hoping somebody might know the registered voters it's got to be I mean it's got to be close to 8 to 7 for the District No fre yeah so my guess was 8,000 for free Port so 7 to 8,000 just for free port and then Durham the population is only 4,000 so obviously it's something less than that but but I would say we're probably north of 10,000 registered voters and we got 1,500 do you have any thoughts on that yeah I'm saying let's step it up do it for me I'm not 18 yet you be by June I have my brother come back and vote though he'll be on a ship in the middle of the ocean but he'll be voted absentee votes yeah yeah okay so so so what are we what are
139we thinking about where we are now in terms of um comfort level uh with what's been proposed in terms of the cost M um could we not to derail that direction but um could we do a straw poll about willingness to go over um the 5.73 and then yes at all and then that assumes including all the other positions including the assistant principal positions right because if we're willing to go over 5.73 that means we're including everything that's not cut here or you're still thinking that that might be on the table Oh you mean to go actually get below the 5.73 right are we agreeing that if we're going to go if we're interested in going above 5.73 that's accepting everything that's proposed by the superintendent yes so so maybe we can even do one
140vote prior to that to as a straw vote to see if if people feel like we need to cut even more right like if we if if 5.73 is too high right yes so does anyone feel like 5.73 is just is too high for us to um to bring to the to bring to the table at the annual budget meeting so a yes vote is you want that number to come down you want to go down the sheet not up the sheet right down the sheet is reduction reductions yeah additional reductions okay so yes is you you'd like to see additional reductions above and beyond what's been recommended so no hands going up so I'm reading that as everyone is comfortable with a 5.73 uh expenditure increase going okay so so now now we'll go
141the other way so um so we already know that we're okay where we started so I like quarter point jumps so uh a yes vote now would be are you comfortable with considering not that that we have to get to this number but considering um an increase up to 6% so a quarter point jump so somewhere between 575 and six ra you're comfortable with that yes well well we could do it like we could just if if you're up to six you could everybody if if you want 12 raise your hand for six and then we'll just have people drop their hands once they get to a point where they're no longer comfortable does that make sense I love these straw pools this is why I don't do them does that make sense for folks
142it's kind of like you know who's been married five years who married you know if you've been married and then people drop their hands as you know you know what I'm talking about thank you yeah yeah those games the thing we do with the first day of school how long you've been teaching here that one yeah okay clarifying go for it well I I you have a better way to do it it's I'm not saying better um maybe but different um I think I guess I guess where my head is is that um I don't think I'm right now I don't have a numerical value in my mind um I think I have um I have a sort of collection of um positions that we've talked about that um I I believe it would be
143worth um examining what the impact of those would be um so I think I'm just I'm maybe proposing sort of flipping it a little bit and sort of just H like perhaps having just a conversation to say like who who's comfortable to talk about anything above 5.73 and if we are are then we um then we can start to talk about well what are the positions that you know that people are thinking um have are have really risen um to the four um and then sort of and then start to do some math uh which someone may or may not have done on his laptop uh to figure out if there's a way to uh make any of that work I see Kell has a she can do that and Kelly can do it as
144well she'll Che your yeah as she should yeah can I just clarify for the benefit of the audience um with the straw poll that we just took the board is is saying that we think at a minimum we should take the superintendent's recommendations I think that's the way I took read that straw pool yes okay so we were the cutting assistant principal positions is not on the table uh well I think it's a discussion of if if I guess it would depend on other things potentially like if folks wanted to cut one of those and keep one of the other positions to maintain the 5.7% I think that's that's where that could I I I was uh I think I was the one who asked the question just because I think it's important to have
145discussions about all the things that are are options um and um not and I I know I said I'm not necessarily in favor of this but it is a large increase we've added two years in a row what it make sense to look at that um as more of a way to offset so if people felt strongly about some of these other ones shouldn't happen that might be a way to keep the number where it is but still be able to keep some other things not that I'm advocating or endorsing that but that is it was just an option on the table I'm k um I guess I'll just say then given the volume of um of of um responses we got and Outreach and um the description from Principal Nickerson of the benefit of
146of those positions um I think that we should keep those and that those should not be on the table for cuts and would the board agree yeah I mean I think um my personal opinion on on those AP positions is that um we always when we a position we asked them to sort of weigh in on how it went the following year um and we obviously heard that it was very good at Mo street it's why we considered it at Mass Landing last year but the volume and the descriptions uh and the detail um we got around that position both tonight and in emails um was was wonderful to see how impactful uh that those people can be uh in in the system of a whole school um I I was sort of saying in
147Jess that last week we would add to Julie's you know existing 2.7 positions she fills apparently it's even more than that based on based on what we saw in those emails so um my personal opinion is I would I would not be in favor of combining those into one full-time position that's my opinion but I kind of just have another question I know that um we've talked a lot obviously I'm sure people are considering putting some of the you know positions back in and and we talk a lot about being creative and I'm just wondering has anybody had any awesome creative ideas because you know I mean it's we get this call from the the community and that you know everybody says be creative find the you know money to cut that you know um
148isn't a teacher or isn't an administrator or you know but I would love to know if somebody has any suggestion around where that would come from because you know I mean I'm looking at this and we're looking at par I mean we added $6,000 in and had to redo all our docu you know and it's just like very small amounts that we're trying to like you said you know not finding enough papers and paper clip or paper clips and paper in the district so you know I just wanted to ask my colleagues if anybody had any fantastic ideas nope we are not a creative bunch I don't I don't know that it's a fantastic idea and it's not it's certainly not a big dollar amount but I know when we had discussed Athletics we had
149talked about uh new [Music] equipment and do we see that on page seven or is that just the existing what we currently have in the budget for that would be Article 4 so the where you would see it in article 7 Michelle is under that miscellaneous supplies books Furniture subscriptions equipment it was all kind of pulled together into one larger bucket um as far as where you see it on on P AG 7 um the the net decrease for all of those lines together was the $ 76,2 20117 while there may have been an increase in a particular one line item for a particular article or Department um the net overall is that 76217 um how I addressed that question was in the in the Q&A section um there there is a a breakdown of
150article 4 four and I'm trying to scroll up to it it's gotten huge this document um it begins [Music] on sorry page 11 page 11 so and and let's remember that article 4 is not just Athletics um it is Athletics and co-curricular together um and it is also where all of our stiping live for the most part so stip amounts were negotiated as part of the Educators collective bargaining agreement last year and so a lot of those unless you're not going to offer a particular program um or a co-curricular athletic program or a co-curricular event those are kind of baked in right um if I can say it that way um and so what I tried to do with Article 4 and for areas when we looking is to break it down by object code
151to kind of show you where the larger increas es within Article 4 R um and they are surprisingly enough um within the Sal that what I would call the salary and benefit lines in this case it's stien and the stien benefits because you do still pay payroll taxes on them um so you'll see that um throughout the the article 4 if you want to get down to um so I'm still scrolling through and getting wages and benefits and it's not until page 16 um it started on page 11 and it's not until page 16 that you actually see the more um the items that break down a little further game officials I mean obviously a pretty pretty straightforward um description there um you've got Co co-curricular purchase Professional Services um purchase Services you have travel
152associated with it then you have like supplies associated with co-curricular which is that instructional Supply line that you're seeing at the top of page 17 um and then we get into dues and fees and that and that is largely um associated with both co-curricular and athletic so it's really a hodg podge of um items that are put together in order to make up Article 4 um and if you're looking specifically um so equipment the threshold for equipment changed this is like digging into the week but the threshold for equipment actually changed through the department of education's definition it it's it's $5,000 or more so unless the single cost of the item is $5,000 or more it is considered a supply so what you'll see um will you'll have to um parcel out um the supplies
153would be at the bottom of page 16 in the top of page 17 so overall the supply by line for Article 4 is up um $732 um that was a lot of talking for $732 well that's what I'm say I mean that's my like when you try to like pull apart the budget which is why on page seven of the handbook it was kind of all lumped together to say overall all of those lines have a net negative amount of $76,000 already there may be some ups and there may be some downs but overall we have looked at that it was part of the process again we kind of started in August we dug as deep as we could without going after salaries and benefits yeah thank you Kelly I just want to recognize how
154much effort has been put into this process I think we we may have mentioned that before but I just really want to thank all the administrators and everyone who has put so much time and teachers um considering all of these options and that this is this is where we're at um and the amount of creativity that has already been put in to how we could make this work um and I think we're at a point where we know that these are the most efficient options to reduce the budget and we have to choose as a board do we do we think that um um with all those reductions we can still meet the students needs um not just with the hope to meet the students needs but actually really truly meeting the students needs and
155not at the expense of burning out the staff um or are we more Com or do we feel like we're at a point where we have to ask the taxpayers to pay a little bit more um I did a little bit of informal math like I I'm not sure I should even say it because I'm not sure how accurate it is but looking at the difference between that 5.73% and the 8.35% for each taxpayer how much what is the difference there and I think it's roughly between $150 and $250 more that each taxpayer would have to pay um if we um passed it at a 5.73% increase versus an 8.35% increase or the other way around if we passed it at an 8.35% increase versus 5.73 we're talking roughly $200 more per year that each
156taxpayer within the district would have to pay so I just want to give that kind of a context I don't know if that's helpful or not and that's been a number that I've been hoping we could actually have have to help us make these decisions I feel like you have a check on the math no I don't want it's not a check on the math I just want to talk about this the sheet that you're seeing on the screen so what I tried to do today um that one you don't have that one because it's it's the one it's it's the reactive sheet Michelle so what I did was I built so lines 35 through 41 which I'm not sure you can really see the numbers but the the the Bold box the Bold outlined
157box right so what I did was this is an interactive sheet so we could kind of go down the list and this is like sequential me of saying okay yes we agree to this cut then I could both like I could highlight the line right and say okay the these cuts are going to stay and then when you start deliberating the cuts that you're not sure you want them to stay this sheet will will self- calculate so I just want to kind of talk about the Bold section first real quickly is so this is a summary of the total budget right now the 43 m996 929 the year-over-year amount is the is up 2, 384 468 so that's where you're getting the 5.73 the line below it comes directly from the taxation sheets the impact
158of Taxation and so that's where the 7.23 so two different numbers here right the 5.73 is actually the year over-year expenditure increase the 7.23 is kind of like what we're saying what amount more do we need out of Taxation what percent more so that's the 7.23 I'll just going to spread it out a little further for out of the 2,368 816 it's got the individual Town amounts the increases on each individual town it's got the expected increase to the mill rate it then actually has the percent of increase on each mill rate I just took the two sheets that that we that are in the book and I try to consolidate it into one then I added the line about the tax impact so it's all self- calculating so what I'm in order to kind
159of get to your point I am going to hold my breath and delete these and so if you look at pulling like if right now I and what I did is I just erased all position cuts right no no positions in District whether filled not filled if none of them were do it it would be an 8.36 increase um 10.57 for the Taxation and then you can see the individual impact to each town so DM's now at 426 annual 341 for free Port poundal 486 it's not doing the math for you to say one to the other because it isn't really how I built the sheet but what it was was to try to be reactive so um within your Q&A book we have that taxation sheet um but what I can quickly do is
160undo so I don't have to hold my breath any longer um so so where we're at right now with the 5.73 DMS 311 free ports 224 and panel is 349 now you really want me to be that reactive okay can I just can I ask you a question about that final line that were the 311 224 Med based Med that's the that's the median that's the median based on what that you located for us earlier this evening so I reached out to the assessors in each one of the communities and asked for the median tax rate for the 2425 year which was the last tax bills that went out um and so this information actually comes from them so now we're going to we're all going to watch Kelly be nervous as she does a
161little copying pasting here and then we're going to go back up and we're going to delete all the positions again because Michelle made me do this uh so the difference for Derm is $115 free. 117 pel 137 then I'm going to format because it's driving me crazy okay so I'm done at the mic for now but I just wanted you to know that I had built the sheet to try and address these types of questions and but for me I'm kind of the sequential person of not more like what don't you want to cut it's more like what do you like for me I built a sheet based on like what what do you want um what oh now Michelle look what I'm doing okay hang on um so anyway so my thought was is
162that we if we could and you're the board so you do what you want but my thought was is if we kind of SE and we sequentially put them in this order because based upon what we heard last at the last meeting there were a certain amount of cuts that we were willing as a board to consider um and so I had kind of built it based on that and I just need to put my formula back in my formatting back in because well it's there but I took the formatting out because I do I really do hey Kelly while you're up there could you do one calculation live just to check my math because other because if my then if my math is wrong I'm going to shut up um but if it's correct
163then I will continue to talk which I'm which I'm sure everyone will be excited about um could could you just um could you just see what it would be if we added one full-time teacher um back in at 2,000 just choose one well basically these last four lines total to 102 right so you want me to take all of these and just leave 102,000 in it no don't look at the positions just 102,000 no that would mean we only cut oh right that's true that's true yeah yeah right because we're doing the opposite let's take these out no we're we're doing it at the bottom cuz I'm not messing up my sheet not messing up my sheet no no that yeah no that's and that's uh no sorry yeah sorry sorry sorry sorry yeah adding
164just adding one back and I know that's revers how you think about it but that's how I think about it this is adding it's taking 102,000 away my brain is as small as Danielle's brain do we want we got to do it in 102 line okay we did it in 102 line okay just for anybody keeping track at home the math that I did on my spreadsheet is accurate there you go uh I haven't had a chance to look at it because it hadn't come in that's why I that's why I wanted to check it yeah thank you for doing that that's really helpful thank you so much Kelly that's what I've been hoping to see okay it's going back all right yes thank you you Kelly that was incredibly helpful so just to be
165clear to add that one position back was $1 to the average to the median household in Durham and pel and then was it a little bit less in Free Port oh no 11 P 13 in pel and 11 in Durham 11 11 and 13 okay so now we've figured out the logistics of how to do math um so now we need to actually decide on what we're what we're what we want to discuss and you know sort of philosophically look at what was presented and as a board do we feel like any of those we would prefer to keep um well I'm not actually a taxpayer because I don't want a house here but I I will just share that I have paid $11 on one single Starbucks drink before so like if anyone would
166like that kind of context like and that's I don't even want to talk about it but like yeah I would share yeah it's interesting there's always that like it's one pizza a month kind of discussion right um I'm just very I'm very cognizant of that's $11 on top of you know an almost 8% tax increase or seven s six and four um and also cognizant that this is just the school budget right so this doesn't include the county this doesn't include your town it doesn't include your roads it doesn't include your fire departments all of those things are incremental dollars on top of all of those things because we all know that the cost of everything has gone up so you know we can't expect um other budgets will will offset some of this increase
167so I'm just I'm cognizant to um respect that people you know may be challenged we we've heard some feedback from folks around increases um you know being in line with with inflation or we've heard you know previously we weren't paying in line with inflation but now our increases are in advance of inflation we're sort of back paying and there's a lot of pieces that go into you know what is what is um reasonable to expect of our taxpayers um but also to Cara's point be able to deliver on our mission of meeting the needs of our kids um so I just have a question I can't remember when voting for the budget will they just see the percent increased or like will they see any sort of dollar amount or not like because I mean
168obviously it took us so much to understand okay this is actually what it would look like based on a median value is a voter going to see a dollar amount yeah that's what I thought okay so that's the other thing it's you know and we talked about this a little last time is if we are going to go with a higher increase how is there any way to think about strategic Communications so people understand what it actually looks like or is that just not in our purview I mean we we always try we do our best we I mean that's one of the reasons we actually include it in our budget documents um I don't think that's always there in everybody's budget documents like what is the what is the tax impact um it's also
169an estimate so that makes it challenging right so um yeah we can we can do our best to try and and help folks understand what it means to them um because like you know we picked the median um but obviously there's people above that and there's people below that because that's how the math Works um so yeah I mean that's that's a problem for another day how do we how do we educate around what we're asking for I just think it's helpful though to think about it in terms of what we're voting on because it might be like oh wow that doesn't seem like much but to a voter it might yeah yeah I mean um because the I mean none of us until Kelly told us really knew what the medium value was so
170we didn't really know what the so if we didn't know it and we're pretty informed to your point you know typical taxpayers in the town won't know it um you know what the median value I mean they may know what their tax what their home is assessed at um in which case they could figure it out based on what we've given them uh in terms of what their increase would be but yeah um I would say that just in my experience with the percent increase it is something that um the residents do focus on so I mean I heard a lot last year maybe other people heard a lot from pel saying six over 6% year after year is just not sustainable so it's not only that we're just like looking at this one year
171it's like there's going to be more increases next year and there's going to be more you know and so and there have been and also the other just interesting fact in our um information we have the amount of our budget historical it's on page 25 in the Q&A historical State uh State subsidy percentage of our budget and it has gone down from 20 we used to get 22% of our budget from State subsidy and now we get 16.51% and our budget obviously has increased uh let's see $20 million um so it's you know it's something just to keep in mind that it looks like the pattern is the state subsidy is going to keep decreasing and so that is going to put um more and then obviously with the federal we just don't know and
172so you know it's just hard for me I think to think about oh it's just $100 or you know um because like Michelle said it it really piles on and you know it's it's tough so I yeah yeah yeah I mean I I I really appreciate that Beth I think I really appreciate you bringing that up and I think I guess where I've kind of gotten to just for this year is in terms of just the um uh in terms of the question of is it 5.73 or is it a little bit north of that um is I guess the way I've sort of been able to wrap my head around it is um knowing that there is going to be Financial impact to to um P taxpayers um and I think wanting to look
173kind of look directly in the eye like what am I comfortable asking like what am like um and for what um and I think I think that's where um I think you know I guess I would I guess I would sort of see it the flip of the way you were articulating Michelle um my colleague my colleague Phoebe brought up the $1 Starbucks um and that wouldn't be the way I would think about it but I think like uh can I look at any taxpayer in The District in the eye and say that um to keep one teacher it's uh worth an average um for meeting household of $11 additional and for me I can and I think I think that's kind of what the conversation is about is sort of like what at the
174end of the day what are we comfortable looking the taxpayers in the eye saying we know this is going to have an impact we understand that and we have balanced that against um the impact on education and um taking all of these fact into consideration taking Tak into taking into consideration the the decrease in state subsidy taking into in taking into consideration the changes in property valuation taking into consideration the increase in um the the necessary increase in um uh in staff salaries right it's like taking all of that into consideration but I think at this point it's like when I see somebody at Shaw's and they ask me about it be like yes I'm comfortable because I know the dollar amount for for the median income um and I feel comfortable with that and
175they don't have to like that but that's where the decision is coming from um and so I think that's kind of for me the way I'm framing our framing my thinking this evening is sort of like what is that you know what's that dollar amount and what is that percentage amount um where uh I'm just not comfortable I'm just not comfortable looking that person in the eye and saying this is uh We've balanced this out um and this is necessary I I agree with you Colin I think that's a good way of thinking of it but I also want to just be aware that there's probably some threshold somewhere where tax pays are taxpayers are just going to be like you know what this is too much pain and we don't want to support this
176budget and I don't know where that level is um but I think we just need to be keeping that in mind that we may be comfortable with it but there may be people out there and maybe enough of them that vote the budget down that we need to keep that in mind um I hear what you're saying Beth and I respect that I I sent an email out to the board just before the meeting started so I know some of you may not have had a chance to see it but I looked back at um the new teacher contract that we negotiated last year to remind myself of the percentages that were in it and before I give those I just want to say we agreed to those as a board and when we agreed
177to those I didn't agree to them thinking that we would then cut a bunch of those positions I agreed to them thinking there's going to be a tax impact to this and taxes are going to go up um so for 24 to 25 uh so that's last year right right now oh that's right yeah yeah that's right now like last I'm thinking last year the budget process like that's last year in my mind so last year um I think that was reflected in the 6 point I don't want to get it inter accurate but the 6.48 increase that we had last year um the for BA it was 7% for ma 6.5 um for PhD 6.5 then this year it's 7% for BA 6 for ma six for PhD and for next year uh sorry
178this year's budget so next year and then the year after that 26 27 7% for BA 5.5 for ma 5.5 for PhD so I I hear the that it's not sustainable to have over six% increases but I also you know we we negotiated in good faith and we we we decided on these um the board voted on this and we did so because we felt like we really wanted to attract and retain staff and that our staff is was really deserving of this and so I guess I feel that we've already made the commitment that year-over-year these increases are going to happen happen and I would hope our community would support it um so I just wanted to remind the board of that aspect of it because I know it is the biggest part of
179the budget yeah um you know obviously we agreed to the to the collective bargaining agreement um with those increases uh and and I think we even discussed when we were looking at that that those were um what we needed to do to be competitive and to compensate our our amazing staff um appropriately but being the percentages that they were they limited our ability to do other things um and I think when we look at you know trying to um trying to balance the needs uh keeping our staffing levels in line with the needs I think uh I I was comfortable approving that knowing um and and maybe I put too much faith in our administrators but you know when they ask us for something I think someone mentioned it earlier they don't come to us
180until they really need it um and so when they ask for something I'm supportive of of giving them what they've asked for and when they tell us they can deliver what we've asked of them um you know potentially with a few less positions then I believe them then too I don't want to just believe them on one or the other um I you know would we love to have 16 in every class K to 12 sure it's not sustainable it's not what we've asked for we have set what we felt are reasonable thresholds in terms of class sizes and um you know and I think if we can live within our own parameters and do it in a more efficient way um um then I think we we are we should feel obligated to do
181that right when we ask for a new position we tell them if we don't need this position it's not that once it's in there it never goes away if we didn't need it then we would look to consider reducing it right and I think the reason we have been able to get some of the increases we have gotten over the years is we've built some trust about that that we only ask for what we need and um you know we're not bare minimum we we set ambitious goals for our schools and for our for our teachers and our administrators uh and we we give them the resources to deliver on that but it goes both ways in my book so that's why I you know the idea of what is it worth to me for
182a teacher I could I I I understand that way of looking at it and and I don't disagree but I don't think it's necessarily my place to say where that is to say that should be a a kindergarten teacher at pel which I know we're not looking to add because there's only 14 of them but or a high school science teacher right we have people that work collaboratively to to bring that to us um I don't know I also don't think that anyone who spent time in the schools would think that that they're being greedy and that they have a lot of extra um I don't the the administrators weren't posed the question I don't think what fat do you have to trim like what's what's a lot of extra here that you don't need
183it was my understanding is maybe they were given you know we don't want to pass asked the taxpayers to pay more than 5% or 6% in previous years so you need to decide what you have to cut in order for us to not have to ask the taxpayers to pay more than five or 6% more and I think that those are two different experiences um well I guess that's a question for Jean so the the question was posed was back and I'll go back to our August time together with our um at our Retreat is that we knew subsidy was we going to be hit which we were um we knew our enrollment was down we looked at when we talking to our administrator he said look we leave no Rock unturned um including when
184um the if you look at the supply line the area that Kelly had um shared earlier that 76,000 plus we looked at that and we had to look at Personnel but not um but but in through the lens of still meeting the needs of kids and looking at enrollment um looking at needs where where could there be some reductions and I think we've heard from our team um that they looked hard at that and they looked you know for example some of the elementary Cuts were they're really looking at that enrollment base for that um looking that they it looking at our the class eyes policy and we're well within that range of the threshold all levels even um with redu and we've heard a lot from the middle school but with reductions at the
185middle school they're way below that threshold of 24 for grade 6 to8 and also looking at the needs of of the kids so that was a direction looking at that um because we knew it was a difficult year when we know we've got to pass a budget um so that that was a direction that was given to them and and it was really wored collaboratively um I think the other piece that's important is that for our team we felt was important that no school was hit hard but we looked across the district so that everybody gave a little um through this process but also looking at still back to our priorities that we're still meeting the needs of kids um I put my yogurt away seemed weird to be eating it um I really appreciate
186everyone's thoughts I think I I hear you Michelle about like leaving it to the administrators and trusting them for knowing you know what can be cut and that I really think about that a lot I guess what concerns me though is we heard so many very valid concerns about some of those cuts particularly at the Freeport Middle School and the esol level um and I just know that there's with the state subsidy decreasing so much like all school districts are under such pressure to cut the budget because unfortunately the way our system is is the burden is now falling on the local taxpayer and that's a huge system issue that we can't do anything about and so I don't feel like it's that cut and dry unfortunately and I think I think for the most
187part I think it's why you know they didn't propose cutting the assistant principles as we heard today um and I think we all agree that that's not a good idea but what what are the pieces like Colin was saying that we feel you know are that we feel like we can look at the taxpayer in the eye and say this needs to be added back in um but should we go back to the straw poll about people feeling ready if if people feel comfortable because I I personally don't have a sense if we're leaning that way or not adding positions back yeah like going north of going north of the the 573 I mean and I imagine that's probably a Continuum right like I'd add 50 bucks I'd add 200,000 right I don't know um
188I I think it varies and I'm not sure how we get to you know where where people's Comfort level are in terms of the dollar amounts um yeah Malik yeah I just want to um Echo what Anna just said about going back to the straw pole because I think we can probably talk and talk and talk but it might be really helpful to know where everyone kind of is in their comfort level of what that increase is going to look like because I think that can help us guide the conversation that we're going to continue to have yeah and I guess just piggybacking on on Anna's comment too I think when it comes to thinking about which of these positions we want to add back in it's almost as if the question is how much
189do we do we trust the administrators I mean we're we're hearing conflicting voices that tell us maybe um you know that the administrators aren't making decisions that are in the best interest of our kids for various reasons and it does make me I guess question um how much why yeah yeah so it's is it a numbers game or is it you know because I for me I think it's I I support the budget that was put before us with maybe some small tweaks but to that point Kelly I I I don't want to get into a second guessing I mean we heard a lot of feedback from the Middle School about those positions a lot of that was around the science component right and not being able to deliver science uh at every grade level
190consistently I think that they have brought forward a plan to to deal with that I mean I'm still blown away that they get stem and Science and Bandon chorus every day like that's that's I I love that they have you know figured out a system that gives the access and the opportunity for all of those things and to be able to to prioritize as a school what's important to them and how to make that fit um so to me that was what I was hearing in terms of um you know the the resounding commentary on on those cuts um so I'm I'm still supportive of of what the request from the from the administration was for around those so so have you come up with a better straw poll methodology to find out where people
191are comfortable calling uh no I mean I get I think it's I think this it's I'm really glad we had this conversation um well at all because I think I think it's I think it's really important for us and I think it's important for um our paying audience here tonight um and also everybody watching the video to sort of understand that like that again we are um the board the board members are just looking at this through slightly different lenses and I think that that's I think it's just important to recognize that and it's not that there's one logic to how to make this decision it's like they're different they different Logics of how we're going to arrive there um and that we're we're not necessarily all going to agree on which logic we should
192use um my hope would be that we would have a conversation where um the I suppose a compromise is reached that respects each of those each of those approaches um I I think the only other thing I would say is I I guess I I guess I'm uncomfortable with uh I'm uncomfortable with an idea that if we if the board um questions one of the cuts that we are not trusting our administrators I don't think that's a I don't think that's fair at all um and I think I think that I think we we respectfully disagree with each other all the time and I respectfully have disagreed with Jean on multiple occasions in the past as I will in the future Jean uh say today um and and that's and that's right that's right and
193good and joyful like that's the that's the way it should be and um I'm not I don't feel I don't feel that it's appropriate to create a situation where um if we by taking all the information in um uh believe for example that the esol position should be cut that therefore I don't trust Jean like I don't think that's I don't think that's fair because that's not that's not true like I trust genan on thousands of millions of things it's just not that particular thing I don't agree and I think that's um I think that's okay and I don't think it and I I just I really don't want I I really would encourage us as a board and really encourage us as a public to not see it that way to see it if
194we're disagreeing with a cut that we don't trust our administrators and we don't trust um the hard work that they've done I just don't think that's appropriate I agree with that okay thank you for saying that Colin I absolutely agree with that as well that's how I'm I'm feeling um and I lost what I was going to say next but I I think I'm I'm wondering if we could just go ahead and look at um page 32 with of the packet um yeah but I wondering if we could look at page 32 with the line colored lines um okay yes I'm just gonna say how would the board feel if we went to that blue line where we kept the FHS english5 FTE teacher and okay below the blue line so the blue line that
195is right okay okay so okay then I'm I'm just going to say the one above the Blue Line including the the english5 FTE teacher um down to the Orange Line like if we were to put those back in to the budget how yeah how many full-time equivalent would that be roughly and what would that percentage be and how would I used up my math ability earlier in the day so you want to stop because these sheets mirror each other so you want to stop at the Spanish but leave the English is that what is that what you're saying that's what I'm I'm suggesting that we start there and I'm I'd also I mean I'd like to see all of these saved um but I'm just going to start with a kind of a middle ground
196and see how the board feels about that and if if we I don't know if that's a straw poll or if that's just further discussion so is that inclusive so can I just asked is is that making the esol position a point8 or is that leaving the eso position as a whole as one FTE right now leaving it as one FTE okay and go from there so that'll tell me to zero out all of these reductions starting at the English and down to the second so that puts it at 6.47 year-over-year and 8.16 on Taxation and then you can see the um down below the proposed changes can I just give some numbers to go along with that um so the I did some calculations that were I didn't have that median that that's super
197helpful but I was doing some ranges between 300 and 700 um for what happens if it's if we add in one full-time add two full-time three full-time equivalent um and I think at that at that range um I have a 6.45 to compare it to um the the proposed difference for Durham um the difference from the proposed for Durham would be $32 um for pel it' be 38 and for free Port it'd be 32 and for a difference between a 300 and a 700 um sort of ranges from about uh for Durham it's it's quite dramatic for a $300 I'm sorry $300,000 property it's around important to note those ranges as well that I think the median the median is helpful but I think it's also um important to look at the other the Cara
198can I ask are you specifically looking at those positions like did you stop or were you just looking at the FTE number looking at those positions in particular I'd be willing to entertain adding DSS Educators back in um you know but I figured start here yeah I don't know that feels like a lot um y yep I so I think for me personally I'm really just feeling um like adding the esol teacher to the point8 and leave it at that I feel similarly to you Beth I I think that might be a fair especially when you look at page seven in our um questions Q&A and in the current year we are have we have a point uh one a full-time teacher shared between DCS and MSS for a total of 14 students and this
199year they're proposing to bring that down to a halftime teacher for 12 students at MSS and that seems like a pretty big jump down for the same number or similar number of students for for me that was an that would that is one that I would could definitely get comfortable with um I as the numbers get smaller we see this in panel all the time it's not always about the numbers of kids it's about like how do you get to this many buildings how do you be visible on a consistent basis when you to be in that many buildings and um to me I also appreciate that um that has the the buyin of the team and I also know how difficult it has been for the district to find halftime positions um so if
200we go from a full to a half um and have to replace a halftime position that's often times very challenging and I imagine esol teachers are uh one in high demand and there's probably not a ton of them so if our team is is comfortable with with this um the point8 I can get comfortable with that too Malik yeah I just um I I feel really comfortable with what Cara um proposed with keeping those let that line 25 to 31 um in the budget yeah taking taking that line 30 out Kelly um just based on based on the the feedback that we've heard from the community about those positions specifically um and and also feedback specifically from from the teachers um and the teacher said that that those cuts would impact um my comfort level
201is is there at that 6.47 which also is I think if I'm remembering correctly right where we were last year um with our increase okay yeah check check me back our historian so I feel like I looked at this completely different I was when like we ended the meeting last week um I looked at as everybody was good with C well the majority we're good with all of the DCS and the MS MSS teacher going right and the focus was primarily on the Middle School um in free port and also the esol teacher um so I don't look it at as as a money thing um as much as I guess in my mind when I look at the presentation like I feel like I have to trust what Paige says right and and I
202know we're going back to the trust thing I'm just saying that I look at that schedule I mean I asked the question about the DCS schedule right because because I've lived that schedule I understand that schedule it worked um which to me is similar to how that schedule could work also at at the Free Port Middle School um and I guess I I don't I'd like to hear more like from the board the concern about and I'm again I'm not saying I want to cut the positions I'm just saying what I guess do we feel that the kids are not in free poort if we lose that science teacher and I hate calling it the science teacher but if we lose that role do we think the kids are really going to um the education's
203going to change that much is that a fair question I mean is that what what are what are we like what is our biggest concern when it comes to that I'll be 100% honest I think the esol should stay at at 01 I I 100% think that the work that is being done I don't think we should uh decrease that I don't think we should risk losing somebody that's brought so much and has expertise in in doing uh what she has been doing um I I think she covers a ton of stuff including um I hear from my own kid all about the leadership stuff that she does um and I think that's important thing uh important stuff that we need to talk about um so that position I would love to keep at a
204full-time position to be quite honest but I guess that's just my question is what are we afraid the kids are going to lose if those positions change around I think for me a lot of it I haven't fully decided about the science role but a lot of the 0.25s and the 0.5 and math and elll at the middle school was that we heard so much about losing those small roles would be significant in terms of differentiation in the classroom and Scaffolding and just really important support roles that were very significant given the high needs right now at the middle school um so that was my takeaway from that I mean I appreciated what was presented as the wellness to teacher was interested in teaching science and that seemed like a creative solution and they could
205make that work was it like what we all dreamed of no but it seemed like that could be somewhat feasible uh I guess more feasible than it seemed to lose the the support supportive roles that for for me when I looked at at the middle school that was the part that I really wasn't sure of um I think the the shifting for the unified Arts into the science and the wellness and um I think that is a a reasonable solution based on the numbers that they have and the class sizes it would create my question was about those 0.25s which are not our TI positions correct they are regular Ed positions but they are doing sort of what appears to be maybe quite ITI work is that a fair assessment right they're doing some more
206specialized support stuff they have address so but it's not officially R right yes yeah no I understand that I mean and and my understanding is is the whole mtss model is to avoid having to go to RTI right I mean that's the idea right to to scaffold it up so that they don't need to get pulled out and do other other supports so um I that was that was the part for me that I kind of struggled with um the the position the full-time one I think they have a good plan and rationale for that um but the the the the small pieces that they have made work with what they've needed that was where I I questioned I I am with you Michelle I also you know I brought brought up the question earlier
207and I also want to point out if we added back in 75 it appears on this page 32 spreadsheet that we could still come in under 6% right and that might be I think it's a full position okay so that's because it's two a quarter a quarter and a half right that's true that's that would equal one full-time position right we would still come in at under a qu 6% which might be something that taxpayers could swallow and I and I also and you know when we're looking at the the idea of sharing the the the burden and the the the the you know everybody looking to do what they can I think that um that feels better to me that we've you know it's it feels Equitable to me to look at it that
208way across the district um obviously pan doesn't have extra teachers um you know and and Massa Landing wasn't a recommendation um I would just be hesitant to add back all the positions at one school and not and not elsewhere I mean I know we could add them all back that is an option I do like theide idea of staying under six um right and and and I'm okay with that I feel like you know the the proposal was two POS two full FTE if we left if if we just pulled one FTE from from the Middle School um and honestly I'm fine leaving it up to Jean and and you know the the the team at the middle school to side where is that best in those quarter pieces is that best as a I
209mean I oh lights all went out um luckily it was the it gu so we didn't and so okay we're trying to understand the chart um so if we're looking at page 32 okay so I think I understand it now so if we cut up if we approved the recommendations down through FMS science then we're at 6.1 5.98 would mean we'd have to get rid of a halftime position somewhere okay and one thing I did want to add Michelle is because some of these numbers are cuspy in terms of class size particularly at DCS and I think also maybe at MLS if they cross the threshold like we find out that the projected enrollment actually a lot more then what would happen like we would the board meet again to approve if another teacher is
210hired or so that's a good point um so historically they have done a variety of things where they've had uh classes at a cusp level like we've had in the summer we've added a position based on because we weren't sure so we put it in reserve and then they came so we added it in um we do have Reserve accounts that allow us um some flexibility in those scenarios um so if we look at our reserves 13 in the handbook um so uh last year we put $190,000 into our regular instruction uh Reserve um and we used just shy of 70,00 000 so there's still $120,000 in our article one regular instruction Reserve so if if any of our schools felt like they were at a point where they they actually needed to add a
211full-time position we could access the funds through the reserve account um and similarly with special ed we we added 450 and we only spent 115 so um if there was a a spike beyond what we had expected in that in that population uh we'd have access there as well um the other thing we're doing is putting those Title One funds in there of another 300 so we're going to um the expectation is is our article one Reserve will be sitting at 416,000 um you know obviously we the point of putting the title one in there is we're a little concerned about the that coming through um if we got to a point where we were confident that those were going to continue as they always did then those funds are also available for teach positions
212as well to fund needs um so I have to agree with with Anna and um with Danielle on they thinking about the eso position and those partial um math and Ela positions at FMS like that's similar to my thinking behind why we would keep those and I would like to see us keep those um the so position I support I agree I support keeping it at a full-time position I'm kind of wondering if if it's a08 position if the person's really going to do their job differently like would that mean they're not in the building as much or I I feel like it's asking somebody to take a pay cut basically and I don't feel comfortable with that and given everything we heard about the esol position um I think it's so important to the
213district um and the same for the things that we heard about the partial the partial positions um in math and um Ela at the middle school um I would also like to see us keep the science teacher and I get what you're saying Michelle about positions all at one school um but I think my concern is is really the administrative team at FMS being new new to the district and then also newer to the assistant principal role and I think that they've done an amazing job but I'm really concerned that given the stress of like Amy being out on extended leave and needing an um needing a long-term sub replacement for the assistant principal and Paige being newer to the administrator role that that's just an added stress of redoing the schedule on top of
214everything that they're already dealing with and I totally trust you know when they're bringing us these options and saying we can do this like they're saying they can do it I think they can do it is it ideal I don't think it is ideal because I don't want that additional stress layered on top of all the other things that you know they are juggling Ling and having to do at the middle school level so I think for me that that's how I'm thinking about it and especially in keeping those positions is um can we do it yes is it should we do it I don't think that I don't think we should I don't think we should get rid of [Music] them uh yeah I would agree with what Mora said and to further answer
215your question Danielle I think my concern with eliminating a the wellness class is that it's a class that we've had for a reason and we've valued that class in the past and and I don't think that the value of that class has gone away um so and it's a it's a class that has a full year curriculum and and adding that to the other classes I that also have their full year curriculums I'm just I just don't see how that would really retain the education that is to be provided in that class um and as far as the other part-time positions I I feel like it's we've heard about the benefits of having the more people in the building is is helpful um and we heard that from Julie today um I know it's a
216different level um but by having the assistant principal in place that allowed the other teachers to really do um their jobs and um just having more people in the building to share the the load of all the other pieces all the hidden pieces of the of their jobs every day um I think is hugely beneficial feel like I haven't looked this way in a while don't get burned out on on your voter I'm just think I'm thinking hard about Daniel your your question and I think um uh a couple of things I think I will own um personally as an educator that I think um asking more of existing Educators and asking them to either continue to provide um the level of Education that is desired or even to improve it um uh with fewer
217resources that I'll I'll own I'll own that I just don't I just don't buy that um and that's not um that's not numbers Z like that's just knowing that again as as as someone said like I like I also trust when Paige stands up and says like we'll figure it out like I believe that they will work their damnest to figure it out um do I believe that the education the um really at the end of the day the education will be the same or better I do not I believe it be worse um and I think that's a little bit of the test that I'm I'm I'm doing on it I'll also own that um I think it also goes a little to like it's not exactly quantitative and qualitative but it is difficult
218that we have heard so much um from certain uh Community from certain communities or about certain positions um and we have that we just have that information we have that we have that U data we have those um we have that data we have those experiences um we have those voices um we have those feelings um and so I'm I'm very aware that I like I haven't heard anyone from the public speak to the DCS position and I just to be very clear I don't believe that that's because that is less valuable or that or that um or even necessarily that it's a more logical cut I just like I I don't know why we haven't heard um but know those those voices and that information are not in my head um and so I
219don't have them to work with I don't I don't I I have to kind of imagine it I have to be like well and I think I don't know that's I think that's hard so I think I'll own I'll own that as well and so I think I'm I guess I'm trying to just say that I'm human um and I'm sort of like owning like the the fallibility of of of that but also that like that that is that that is part of the um the calculus as much as the beautiful numbers that I did in my spreadsheet are also part of it can I ask Paige like if you take the science teacher out of it or that that rule right there adding back the 0.25 and the 75 right the math and the
220ELA I'm assuming that that gives us smaller class sizes even more so than what if we look at option two does it kind of decrease those numbers even more yes in ela and math for all grades or just certain grades yes because those are across the three grades okay so if we have 19 now um with with these two cuts what are the current class sizes at the middle school for ELA Millions I mean one thing we did hear from feedback is um I think it's on one of our charts oh we have a chart there's so many charts I mean one thing we did here is that I have to dig to it was long it's the current of which one the handbook no it was like yeah right yeah that just tells us
221the number of that's RTI yeah that just tells us well I mean I'm just hesitant to look at the numbers on here right because this is it depends on the schedule right like will said that there is not 24 kids in that class because when they're breaking it down right they're in they're they're smaller based on the schedule right so I'm just curious how many kids are in seats in classrooms I mean I'm sure it it varies greatly CU one range from like a class of 13 up to a class of like 18 19 it depends on the grade level it depends how the schedules flow and what's offered at each remember that like very first time I presented where I was doing that like Matrix of all that's happening currently that's you know if
222I open power school and I just look at a teacher schedule say it can vary too depending on where we pull kids or what's going on right so it's always a range yeah okay so when we're looking at um yeah so that's something we have to keep in mind and something thank you Paige um she's like I want to go home um one just just I mean I'm looking at the average numbers on page 10 and they seem extremely reasonable with the cuts that they've proposed but again I just want to go back to that differentiated learning piece and I just want to know it seems to me like it would be easier to differentiate and have those extra classes for those kids that struggle or on the other end if we had those little
223little pieces added back in the 0 25s so I'm I'm just trying to point out that maybe average numbers don't tell the whole story right yeah no I think you that was what I was trying to say but clearly not clearly so all right um I think we need to sort of come up with a way to approach this um Jen volunteered to stay until we were done to put lamps back she didn't realize we were going to be here forever uh so I feel like I'm hearing some support on the eso position do we want to just sort of take that and talk about that and and not say someone can't change their mind later but put that to bed in terms of where we'd like to see that in the final budget is
224anyone supportive of keeping it at the0 five okay look it we've made progress um so now it becomes is it 08 or do we maintain the one full full-time position yeah um it was my understanding that well and with the comments that were given from the teachers um that they're on board with the point8 so um that was the reason why I suggested point8 versus the full one yeah what I don't know is is it they could do with point the preference would be to keep it but they could make 08 work or is their preference point8 did we know that yeah yeah so yeah we um um I'm GNA guess their preferences to keep it the full position I I would be supportive of a maintain yeah the fulltime too I just thought the
225point8 was what they wanted okay anyone I I am all for as well I just want to point out that you know we're saying that stet and mass Landing we're going to go down teachers and suddenly they're going to go a kindergarten teacher is going to go from having 15 students to 19 students so it's just important to think about where we're making these choices and like really to some point we do need to look a little bit at the numbers and because that population has gone down and I never thought I would be saying that like I've been working with the new mayor Community for a long time but it's just important to think about yeah I mean that's the that's the slippery slope of you know debating specific positions and what's more important
226than another position um for me how I kind of think about the esol one um when there's only a very small number for the whole District that cover a large area um I feel like I can get comfortable because it's hard to cut pieces of a very small you know percentage of the total hours that we have for that position position I totally hear what you're saying though um around the8 versus the full I could go either way on that one um you know if we felt like we could do a full but if we brought it to 08 then we'd feel more comfortable adding in one of the other 0.25s to get us to roughly the same spot right like it's it's this awful point where you get to like horse trading positions which
227is not a great place to be because they all have value and and r to play in the district and um so so what's the pleasure of the board the esol so a a full position straw poll on a full position okay well we've made one decision it's 10 o00 well done guys okay yeah right yeah um okay so now I think um sort of the more challenging part uh is is the other positions um you know my preference would be to stick with where we were um on the on the sheet with that adjustment for the esol um I'm feeling that they're there are others who who feel strongly that we may want to look to add back some of those yeah um I just wanted to mention because I looked up um to
228double check Malik's um question around the the increase that we had last year and gosh now I can't find it of course um oh there it is and just wanted to say that even though it matches the uh year-over-year operating increase that the taxation uh the way it breaks down taxation wise is a little bit different and it's definitely um not for the good not for the good so just FYI okay so can just ask a question Kelly so the very bottom white line those fives and sevens that's what we've that's what we've put back in right for the median okay okay thank you thank you so uh maybe I guess we'll we can take a straw poll to see yeah yeah I think I mean it's it's 10:00 I think also I think we
229have a I think we kind of need to make a decision whether we're going to go forward thinking about it in terms of positions or thinking about it in terms of percentages yeah um or just or at least have some sort of understanding of kind of like what that like what our what our absolute upper limit is like you know we're just not comfortable going above I'm losing my ability to understand numbers on the screen but like you know we're not comfortable going above 6.5 or we're not comfortable going above 6.15 or what whatever it is um um but I think we kind of need to make a decision like how we're going to approach that and I know that is what you were trying to do but just to put not too fine a
230point on it yes yeah um so you know for me I look at both the percentage and I look at the tax impact of it um I don't feel comfortable with the number starting with an eight for a tax impact for the school alone budget um for me that doesn't that doesn't feel right um but I don't know I haven't backed in to see what that looks like as a total increase number but um it's it's not far above that well no that's the town that's the so so she was pointing at the Blue Line well that that's just that's the total taxation for the district that's not broken down by any of the towns you meant just so I wouldn't I wouldn't want any of the towns to be above the eight and if
231the whole district is 8.01 I think that math would work that one if not two of the towns would be above eight to get that is that fair and that's the blue line could I propose that we do a straw poll about keeping everything from the FMS science teacher down and then if that fails then we do well then I guess we can address that but then you know maybe one on the part-time positions because it seems like those are the pieces people might be feeling differently about yeah and then versus just the eso like those three scenarios so I think take yep up down off and this would be more a straw pool and just for comparison's sake what would it look like if we took away the science position but left the part-time
232positions it would be the same because it all adds up to one full-time position but the science position is one and then those other ones are one yeah so that'd be two instead of three instead of take science oh oh oh leave the science okay take get out take in other words we're not going to fund the science position or what we're calling the science the one fulltime and we would add back in the little pieces that add up to one y so that should be the first drop hole that's what you're saying well I think Mar was going above and was going to go down if that failed right yeah I just wanted since she's got the capability to quickly do the math I just wanted to kind of see what the numbers yeah
233having the one full-time cut versus keeping the two full-time Cuts that's stupid eight can I say a positive thing yes I think I think we're getting close you do you I do I do I think I think we're getting in the we getting in the range we're within the kind of aor bar right everybody okay yeah so uh so are we doing the straw pole on Mora's request which was basically add back the Free Port middle or are we doing the add back one of the two free Port middle FTE okay so both add back both so we're move the one yep there we go all right so a draw poll on that yes so if you're supportive of of what's on the board so one two three and then uh you're looking at me
234are you good candy so that would add back both freep Port Middle School positions so we wouldn't cut any positions from fre support middle school right I'm just making sure I'm looking for understanding from Candy you're good with that okay uh okay opposed to that yeah yeah yep no I agree yeah okay so we're five5 uh yes we've gotten nowhere we're five five um that's that's equal right because it's one from pel one from Durham in terms of the count of the boates even though it's a straw pole uh it's pel is the only one that has the Lesser votes oh right so if the panel the two pels are cancel each other out yeah not that you're lesser well we have a little bit over one you're vote together you guys are a super
235vote together um or yeah so as long as they were split then it's an even vote okay um so I don't feel like anybody who was a no on that feels like we should be adding back additional positions above and beyond that correct okay uh you wouldn't be in favor of adding back both those plus more no I think where I was coming from was I wasn't sure I feel like I do not want to cut any of the part-time positions at Freeport Middle School but it's still a question in my mind of whether we add a science educator back or a different position okay so basically instead of the two recommended you you you're in favor of one right now yes one recommend okay okay so why don't we do a straw poll on
236that so she's already done it no have you yes one position back one position okay so this is uh a one position cut instead of the recommended two at Freeport Middle School right right so you could either add the science or the fractional it doesn't matter the math is the same yeah so remind me the fractional people is it actually how many people is it three three separate people a a a separate human being three separate human beings okay okay uh okay so who would be comfortable with this adding back one of the positions does does that mean like she did it she added back to science because it's easier than adding back the other four but it's the math is the same right right which means we I thought we were trying to preserve
237the part time position which would mean we would need to reduce the science yes yeah there you go you're right so but just a little Clarity uh we're talking about uh sort of greater than or equal to right we're not talking in other words if we say yes we're supportive of one we're saying but you could be convinced for more exactly okay that just to be clear it's not saying like I'm like I want to talk about something lower than that it's sort of saying that or above it greater than or equal to uh okay so um so a yes vote is that you are comfortable with greater than or equal to that increase percentage increase okay no I would like to see it a little bit lower than that I was thinking like half
238of the full but um I could be I could be persuaded on the on the part-time positions um to keep them all I think they provide some flexibility I also do think we have a reserve that could meet the same need that we're talking about but if if we felt like it wasn't meeting the needs that we wanted them to and I guess my preference would be to go that route but um I could I could get comfortable with that so um all right so we done it kind of feels anticlimactic um what else did we need to there was one more Yeah Anna was Anna had some thoughts about maybe not the science but something else perhaps I don't know honestly I just I'm getting tired um I guess I just heard a lot
239about how they were going to address that um but I'm also remembering now with those test scores that i' emailed the board about that science was one of the biggest uh low areas of achievement for our schools um I don't know I'm waffling so I I think for me what's important is that they are not reducing the amount of science time based on what they've said to us so I'm not sure what I heard was science was also important to them and that they have a plan to keep that protected um and honestly I'm not sure how they have enough time for all of those things uh you know in their schedule um you know I I'm impressed that they have as much science and stem time even with this reduced position as they do
240uh because I don't think that's typical to have stem and science every day six seven and eight in the middle schools in general so I applaud them for making that work um I guess I feel like we're still undecided because of the tie on the science um and we have a board member absent so I don't know like what that means would happen next week Cheyenne's watching from home and just wants to send us a quick text for her uh I think I also go back to the fact that we're asking for some significant cuts from all of the schools and I think that's what's bothering me about the science position is like especially the class size at Mo Street School in some two of the grades at MLS at one of the grades um
241and at DCS even though it'll be divided they'll be creative about it but it just I guess I can't get over thinking about it seeming a little bit unequitable across the different schools and that's bothering me yeah I guess I feel that way too and especially considering that you know they've kind of presented to us a plan that shows that class averages are going to be pretty reasonable with the con you know they're going to try to meet the needs of the science curriculum and content um and so I guess that's why I'm I'm supporting letting the retirement stay out of the picture and but I do I am concerned about the differentiation um and that's why I want to see those little pieces added back in but I I I look at the numbers
242that that Paige presented us and you know they're they're giving us a plan to meet the needs of the kids to keep the class sizes low and teach science and stem and so I I I have to believe that on S they that they're going to be able to do it and if they can't well we do have a reserve account we can you know tap into that if we need to so essentially we'd be looking at it like it's a wellness teacher because that's the that's the teacher that would be pulled to fill those needs right right because we would maintain three science teachers right right and so I guess that's a question for the board are you all comfortable with there not being um that Wellness class so there is a wellness class
243there's there are two Wellness classes right and they cover different so I guess I'm curious how the other because there's only I don't even think they have a wellness class I think it's Jim I I asked I asked was that in the thing yes so there is we now have a wellness and a PE cuz I thought it was one right that was what we had added there there is two but in the past I guess I looked at it like but this was gym Wellness One and so there's three actually I'm not sure I feel like Wellness one is a PE class is that yes and wellness two is the other Wellness is the other Wellness the free P midle school so like Durham yeah ex I guess I was thinking what if they
244rotated similar to how Durham does right so then you get you have the six classes right that you rotate through because every now and then I don't know if we'll he disappeared um he's sleeping in the stacks I just because sometimes I think guidance is in there too if I remember correctly right like every now and then you might have some guidance classes and so I think they do that in advisory all right maybe that is anyways I don't you know could that be a rotation to where you know again so Durham is doing it every six weeks you get a different special whatever we want to call it these days and then is that how you would do it you could potentially do it at free Port middle like so every six weeks you're
245changing so you're still maybe going to be able to get Wellness it just might be from a different teacher yes we haven't gotten that deep into how we're going to do all of these things it's more about um like a possibility of how you could address it so sixth grade they rotate through six weeks of uas so you could do that the unified Arts like that's why I'm not really sure where it's all going to land it will totally depend on what's happening right now but the way that we proposed it was one thought was we haven't always had it and so we have sometimes had it as part of like what we call PE Wellness PE and so one thought was could we get creative if we're going to have science and stem every
246single day which is like an increase in that could we blend in some of those standards into that area right because that's really what's taking up the time is is right not necessarily science which I think people feel strongly to keep every day but science and stem something has to give and all of these things have been developed because of needs of students and things that have been specific to buildings like will and I have been talking you know each principal curates their the way they approach all these positions right so those small positions evolved over time they haven't always been like a more of like it's not an RTI position but a what we keep calling differentiation that's evolved right different philosophies have changed over the course of Education too should you pull kids
247and put them in a classroom as like a different experience some people say yes some people don't depends on the cohort and the needs of the students and how we provide the supports for them so year to year some of those positions were added that year we had that big cluster of students where there was like 130 in a class and so some of them are sort of remnants and they've evolved over the time and prioritizing you know Ela and math that's why they fell in those ranges but stem and social studies and science always had a bigger you know um number of students that they serviced or or had but it yeah it just depends yeah that I that's what makes what we're talking about very difficult right because we don't know what will
248be there next year um so I guess then I'm sort of wondering is the way we're thinking about it the right way to think about it um you know now that she's mentioning well sometimes the way that we think about these sorts of things has evolved I guess I'd like to I I I just want to have a valid reason for for wanting these positions you know what I'm saying say that one more time I I want to have this if we're going to add these little Point 2.3.5 positions back in and we're doing and and I'm thinking about it because I it seems like it would be a good way to support RTI or differentiation or whatever you want to call it is that like grounded in the way things are actually done in
249the school right to override the recommendation to not move them forward um I just wanted to speak to using the reserve account I just feel if we had a full-time position I know we've run into this in the past like it's really hard to hire somebody late in the year so I feel like we're kind of making the decision now that if that it's most likely even if there is a greater need it's going to be difficult to to fill that position um if there the need becomes app parent it will be difficult to hire a full-time educator like in the middle of the year yeah it's always better to do it now than yeah can we look again at the difference between adding the science teacher back in or that position but really it's
250a wellness curriculum um the difference that it makes at the bottom there what was it before so that's taking it out that's putting it back in and what was it before sorry that's okay so yeah the seven what was1 more dollars I think that's a a fair amount to ask to retain that position I'm just struggling way to look at it I I haven't heard I haven't heard um something we we asked as them to look at it and can you deliver what we'd asked you to deliver with our with our class siiz policy and they've done that I haven't heard anything for me that says um that I'm comfortable overwriting that I mean we can make that case for every position up there it's only it's $11 it's only $11 um I haven't heard
251why though that one I mean I'm yeah I just uh I'm I'm struggling to add those back when that's um I think we have a fair plan on how to do what we've asked them to do in a highlevel way and still you know they have these things that that they're important to them and that they're protecting around the science and the stem which I respect um and so their decision was to keep those and and look to this wellness and incorporate it in somewhere else feel like they can do that there are other ways they could approach this you know stem is not every day all year long at the other Middle School right if we looked at the hours of stem that happen um you know at one school versus the other right
252so there there's time to be had if they felt like they couldn't do the other stuff right maybe it's maybe it's stem three days and or four days a week and another one is the health to get pick up those other pieces or um I think there's ways to do it um and I'm just I'm not comfortable um adding back all those positions for for one for one school in the district and still looking to to to do these others it just doesn't it doesn't sit right with me I'm struggling um I think for me what makes me willing to or comfortable with um overriding that recommendation the administrative recommendation is the public comment that we got from the science and stem teachers and they gave that to us before the proposed schedule change and
253then I felt like we still heard concerns after you know we heard from them again so um Ian one or two but certainly not in the volume yeah I think we heard from a couple of them yeah yeah I think I heard from two or three um but to me it didn't seem like those concerns were addressed so that's I mean I think that what's making me what's giving me the um the mind of wanting to keep that position is that we've heard from the folks some of the folks who work um in science and stem about it being detrimental to um and again knowing it's a wellness position but like the whole change of how it would be done um and I did dig back into all of the different Pres presentations we got
254from the administrators across the schools and I did see that it it felt like Durham was um cuspy as will would say and that's why I had those questions um but with him I guess him saying that in those particular cohorts they feel comfortable that those needs um sorry it's late and I'm tired trying to find the words but like that those needs and those Co cohorts at those levels are not such that they would say oh actually even though it's cuspy they're too the needs are too great and we need more teachers here so um I think that gave me Comfort because I was wondering do maybe we shouldn't make these cuts and Durham and I was prepared to discuss that tonight um but we um I haven't heard concerns that would override um
255making those cuts I guess in that case whereas I feel like I have in the other case and I think like to Colin's point we all have different ways that we look at that and we're all going to be convinced by like different things or different um input whatever yes yeah I guess just I guess just following off that I think I think I'm realizing that where I'm at where I'm at right now is that I don't um uh I think I would be more persuaded by the question of passibility of percentage than I would whether we've heard a good enough reason to add something something back in um I I think um just where I am right now I think like um again I have amazing respect for the um for the folks at
256FMS and the the leadership and how like how they have hustled to like to really try to figure out like a solution um but I think just again to be very Frank like no one has said that is what they want like no one said like that's the best solution for that school educationally like no one's saying that so let's I mean let's just be frank like we're we're uh folks are working hard to meet the demands that have been made of them by um by leadership both from us and from Jean um and I respect the hell out of that but that um I do not believe anybody on that team is saying that the education at that school will be better um if we if we cut that position I just think that
257is not that has not been said I I don't know though I feel like we heard some things like you know this exercise has brought to light some changes we want to make anyway we don't like the the schedule being different for sixth seventh and eth we you know we we see some you know benefits to consistency and which which maybe they would not have come across had we not had this exercise right so I I don't think it's and I'm not sure anybody would ever say you know we all we all work in roles where resources are finite and is it ever better to do with less can you get more efficient yes is there a fine line between pushing people over the edge definitely I don't think what we're asking for is that
258line or even close to it at this point based on the the feedback they've given us in terms of you know what they what they could do with what they have or what was proposed um you know I mean this I don't know I I think we did hear some some actual potential benefits of of this exercise I was just going to say it they what I've heard is that they very confident that it won't get worse so I don't know they're not saying it's not going to get better but I mean I don't know you know I mean if they're doing really well now I mean but that's obviously I don't know yeah and I think guess that's why I'm saying like I mean I think I just don't agree so that's what I'm
259saying I'm more in a position to say like if someone can make a case that the percent that percentage is too high I'm I'm open to I'm open to that I'm open to to new information I'm open to like to to um thinking critically about that I'm I have no more room in my brain for thinking critically about whether or not the position is is valid I just I'm not going to move on that um nothing's going to sway me on that but I could be I could be swayed perhaps on a conversation of the pragmatism around the percentages I don't think we'll know until we try until we ask and and I'm willing to ask for that and see and if and if for some reason it it gets voted down it doesn't mean
260that we won't have any money next year means we have to come back and try again which I know no one wants to do that next summer but it's it's just to know that that is an option yeah I mean there's always an option on on we have to get a budget done um I don't know I'm just I'm struggling over eight in terms of an impact it's that's a big number um I guess I'd have to go back and look I know we had one year um I think it was the year that it was 7.77 was the increase and Durham was close to 10 um that year and needless to say it did not pass in Durham that year um you know I just I don't know oh look but that's not by
261Town though right no yeah so the year-over-year taxation was over 10 one 42 yes 376 no didn't pass didn't pass in panel what was that percentage of no but what was the increase in the budget 7.77 well one thing I wanted to look at and everyone's probably going to kill me but um if we could look at what the numbers would be if we just I'm following Colin here and just thinking about like these Cuts they're not going to make education better um just to see if you went all the way up to keeping in I guess to the edtech bench sub but you kept all of the other positions starting with more Street school just to see what that increase would look like can I before you do that can I just ask what
262it would look like if you just take the line 26 just that one first and then yeah just zero it out and and then do the rest I'm stopping to look just wanted to see we're getting there Michelle uh can I ask another prag pragmatic question yeah I think I think here at 1040 we are it seems like we are uh ready to vote it seems that we're like we're hovering around this question um we don't have Quorum on it like we're don't we we're not we're not agreed on it um I feel like uh maybe somewhere in here we're balancing the um cost benefit of like what does it mean to make a decision tonight and therefore be able to according to your timeline send out the brochure um versus give ourselves another week
263um as well as have um Cheyenne back in the um in hopefully back in the equation um so I just I think that's worth thinking about yeah no I think um yeah I agree I don't think we're getting to a point where we will be telling uh uh Jenny and Kelly to put that book together um yeah how much I hate to even ask this because you've done so much work already how if you had to do prepare it the tax impact Pages for next Wednesday with and without that one position like is that feasible or would that just be like a ton of work and that's just not possible do you see what I'm saying so you could have both scenarios and one then we decide on one and then that's the one that
264goes to the printer so um I just don't know how many places it flows through in the book it's also in the writeups too we have to know we have to know because of all the writeups They yeah and and I'm not and I'm okay with you know if we don't do the booklet or don't mail the booklet but still create it and provide it to his is you know a variety of places to get it to folks uh I do think that will be a strategic communication piece that we want to be uh outward reaching and how we can you know either reach out to the towns and have them put in their news blasts or whatever let people know that it's not going to be in their mailbox I feel like The Bu
265the budget being mailed is really big I mean at you know I was that's what I looked at to remind myself to vote on the budget and I just feel like the more I mean I guess it could go either way but well the number of people who voted back in n 19 no 2016 is really not much different than last year and we didn't used to do the budget book so I don't think it gets any more voters maybe it does I don't know yeah I do think it's nice to have that booklet but I think it's more important that we get to a budget that we are comfortable with and that we can agree on and if that means it takes us to next meeting to Del deliberate and we don't get to
266mail that for sure and I'm okay with that um and it'll save money exactly it'll save money so I can I just $102,000 um as because it is 10:45 um and I don't think we're gonna get to um true a vote and I can I just what I am what I am assuming and thinking is that we are at the point where we are really just deliberating on one FTE is that is that fair to say just as we think about going into a meeting next week unless we decide in the next five minutes to be fair I think I think yes but I don't think we're unanimous in our agreement on that right correct I would that's true yeah yeah because I think there's people who would probably like to add back more than
267two and there's people who'd like to add back none so I think we'll probably end up somewhere in the middle where you're talking but do people feel they've exhausted their brains for the evening yes I'm sorry I'll let everyone go home I just bring up the one thing um that I had asked Michelle was um if in the reserve accounts we could use that money that we had in the past potentially to to pursue trying to fill those edtech positions I know it's like seems like an impossible task to get them all filled but um the way I'm thinking about those is that because of the tax impact that it doesn't and because they've been un unfilled that it doesn't make sense to include them in in the budget but that just because they're unfilled
268doesn't mean that there's like not the need there still so I'm just wondering if that Reserve account is available to fill those positions and if we could still pursue filling them I would say our priority is the spe these are gen Ed um aded teexs and Special Ed Ed teexs and we have not touched the reserve account for the special ed ad tax um and we have unfill Kell I was just looking at unfill position you saw another resignation tonight we have money in the budget this year and also in reserve for those so that would be our priority because we have to meet the IEP but in a perfect world where we filled all of those and maybe we had a few more uh applicants we could access we could access it yeah any
269other question that people feel like would help them wrestle with this between now and next week any any bit of information they don't have that they feel like they need yeah I guess coming back to just how I don't know if uh Paige could talk a little bit more about how that differentiation actually happens in the real world so that we have that information to think about how those positions might potentially be beneficial yeah car I'd be curious to see the curriculum for that for the wellness class and like a list of of content that's covered in a year and maybe not a proposal for how that would be spread out because I don't want to put that work on you but U just a list of content I'm just wondering if anyone else out
270there has like $102,000 and like I've seen some of those houses in South Freeport like I know it's out there feel free to just send it to phoei she'll be sure to deliver if there's any extra like I do like accept tips she needs $11 coffee I think we all need $11 coffees before these meetings um okay there wasn't anything else on the agenda right oh we have public comment love that um yeah so uh no we do have public comment it's on the Y there's people here yeah uh so yep so yep uh we just asked same same rules as always tell us your name where you from three minutes go I'm Heather Perry I'm VIs resident of Durham and I am a teacher at Mass Landing um I have the same concern that
271Michelle has expressed if that percentage is going over eight I can tell you what the conversation is in Durham and where it will land and I would be afraid that it wouldn't pass so just expressing that concern thank you heather I'll say it again Valerie Williams Freeport um really love hearing my profession diminished in such a exciting and thrilling way um I think science is really important I think reducing this teacher is egregious I am devastated that I am not going to be here next week because I believe in stem so much that I'm promoting it at another location doing an adult math team meet next Wednesday so uh I will not be here but I will be writing an additional email um I I I think that if this is cut I will do
272my very best to make this fail in June um I believe in this position really wholeheartedly um I think it is a huge detriment to our students I cannot imagine a world where this is not going to be harmful and I cannot believe that this is happening um I am super tired I've been up since 5 also um so my voice a little shaky um but I I feel really strongly that just making the plate bigger doesn't increase quality as somebody whose plate is enormous you're not going to get it I don't I mean 8% 7% 9% you're not going to get it the kids are going to hurt my student was a second grader last year at um Mass Mo Street and it was horrific I had no idea what happened but it was
273not fun my student did not have a good time as an 8-year-old that's more than 10% of their life as a CO 8-year-old that's almost all of her memories um I really am disappointed in the conversation today really disappointed um I know I'm just one person but I also know you got a lot of emails and I will do my absolute best to vote down this budget if this position is thank you thank you Valerie oh just said thank you oh sorry you were calling you back no no no no just thanking you for your comment and sticking with us till 11 o'clock um I'm not seeing anyone else heading to the mic so I would take a motion to adjourn Kelly Beth all those in favor great see you next week