001go ahead and get started. Feel free to continue to settle. I know we got a few more folks checking in. There are more seats over here as well as the benches on each side. And there's a whole empty bench up here in the front if anyone's looking for a place to sit. We are going to try to leave the fans running cuz it's going to get even steamier in here and some air movement will help. But if people are having trouble hearing, please let us know. We've jacked up the sound system, so hopefully that won't be an issue. We'll have air and sound with any luck. Okay, so I am going to go ahead and call this district budget meeting to order. Welcome everyone. Thank you so much for taking the time to come out
002tonight. We so appreciate it. I want to say thank you to our Grey New Glouster High School Community Service Club um as well as members of the National Honor Society and other high school students who are giving up their summer day to come and make sure child care is provided. A special thanks to Karen Light who if she's not in the room right this second, she will be in a minute. Is she back over that way? There she's over there. Karen um is the adviser to the community service club and she was the person that really ran with us when I said, "Hey, we really should be able to do this." And she ran with it and made it happen. So Karen, huge kudos to you. Thank you. [Applause] A note for everyone, bathrooms are
003located across the hall. Um, just so you can exit through either door. Um, if you exit through this door straight in front of you, you will find a water bottle filler. So, if you brought a bottle with you, you can go ahead and fill that there. I've also put a collection of paper disposable cups. So, if you didn't bring a bottle, you should still be able to go out there and use the water bottle filler if you need to stay hydrated. Please take care of yourselves. All right. And now we move on to the pledge of allegiance. If you all please would rise and join me. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice
004for all. The first order of business is to elect a moderator to pro to preside at the meeting. Are there any nominations from the floor? >> Greg. >> I have a nomination for Greg M as the nominator as the moderator. Second. Second. Are there any other nominations from the floor? I declare the nominations closed. Could I have at least three people come up and vote for the moderator? You come right down to the table right here. Okay. Um, now we take a public vote on Greg M as moderator. All those in favor, please raise your hand. All those opposed, Greg M is elected moderator. I would ask him to come forward and be sworn in. Please raise your hand. I, Greg M. >> I, Greg M, >> do swear that I will support the Constitution
005of the United States and the state of Maine. >> Do swear that I'll support the Constitution of the United States and of the state of Maine. I I know >> as so long as I shall continue to be a citizen thereof. >> As long as I shall continue to be a citizen thereof. and that I will faithfully discharge to the best of my abilities >> and I will faithfully discharge to the best of my abilities >> the duties incumbent on myself as moderator of the MSAD15 budget meeting >> the duties incumbent on myself as moderator of the MSAD15 budget meeting >> on July 245 according to the constitution and the laws of the state of Maine >> on July 245 in accordance with the constitution and the laws of the state of Maine >> I'm
006realizing I could have just said that and you could have said I Sorry about that. >> Okay. Oh, you have to sign. I don't have the paper. >> You have it right here. >> Ed Greg has one right here. Perfect. >> Okay. So, I'm going to sign the oath and you get the counter sign. And you're not going to go far, right? >> Yeah. I'll be right here. Yeah. Whatever you need. >> Okay. All right. Good evening, everyone. Um, thanks for having me. I'm just going to do one piece of business and then I'm going to turn the floor back to the superintendent. Uh so my first order of business is to swear in the ballot clerks. Uh we have four ballot clerks and if I could get them to come forward and and raise
007your right hand. Do you swear that you'll support the Constitution of the United States and of the state of Maine so long as you shall remain a citizen thereof and that you'll faithfully discharge to the best of your abilities the duties incumbent on you of as ballot clerk of the MSAD15 budget meeting on July 24th, 2025 in accordance with the Constitution and the laws of the state of Maine. >> Okay. And if I can get you to print your name and sign on those, it you could put it on any sheet. And while they're doing that, I'm just going to turn it right back to the superintendent who's going to give a brief presentation on the budget. Am I on now? Okay, that's better. Uh, all right. So, um, we're going to just do a
008brief overview. We have presented this a few times, so we're going to keep it, um, a little more general to the updates, um, at this point. Uh, however, I did want to share I was reading a book recently and um this passage came out and I think it's a good reminder for what it is we're trying to do tonight. Um, it is our job in public education to prepare children to be productive members of society and that's what we're trying to accomplish. That aligns really closely with the mission of the school district, preparing students for their next steps. That is the job of the school district. That is the budget we have prepared for your consideration tonight. So, getting into expenses, the revised budget is $34,900,665. This is just under a $1.6 million increase over
009the previous school year. It accounts to a 4.79% increase in the overall expense budget. This is down from a 5.93% increase previously presented. how that 4.79 breaks out. 3.02% of that is contractual salary increases. 1.91% of that is um benefits related to our contractual obligations to our staff and.19% of it is the bond uh payments as well as other increases. So, as you can see, the vast majority of the increases really are related to retaining the staff that we have short of the reductions that we put in the budget. There was a question about how that plays out across the different categories of spend spending. So, the total expense of that $34,900,000 is broken out to about 85%. That big blue piece of the pie is salaries and then the big red piece is benefits.
010So as you can see about 80 to 85% of our budget is the people that we employ. The remaining categories are things like debt service, property, general supplies, etc. Those represent very small portions of the overall budget. Now how you will vote tonight on the budget is broken down by article. So we're going to share with you how the increases, reductions, and additional reductions play out across each article. That's based on feedback we received following the previous presentation. So article one is regular instruction. That is your your regular classroom um as well as gifted and talented in English language learner. When people think about a school and the expenses related to a school, most of it is falling into this out article one area. As you're going to see across most of the articles, oops,
011sorry, there we go. I have my notes so I can see them and then separate. You may have to flag me a few times on that. Um, so article one, um, additions is what you'll see across most of the articles, generally speaking, are contractual step and salary raises as well as increases in benefits, increases in the cost of health insurance. Um, the one addition that's specific to article one is we're looking to replace the math materials at the middle school. Uh, the math materials previously used have been discontinued. We cannot get them anymore. So, we need to be able to purchase something for our students. Reductions in this area in the previously appro uh proposed budget uh was reducing 1.5 or one and a half teaching positions at the high school. Um and then miscellaneous
012and like we looked at three years of spending and we tried to align our expenses to what spending has been. The additional proposed reductions, and you'll see this across almost every article, um are primarily going to a private paid family medical leave company. And this is a state law. Uh we have to participate in a paid med family medical leave program. Um if we do throw through the state, there's a cost to it. That's what we budgeted for. We have since been able to negotiate a with a private company that will cost us less. So in this case, it's mostly teachers in article one. And because the teacher contract is about to be negotiated, we didn't have to do paid family medical leave for them for the coming school year. So the the reduction in
013this article is marginal, but you're going to see that reduction across all of the articles. We additionally looked at health insurance and we looked at the spending trend around health insurance and we made um some reductions based on how that is spent. It's also a little later in the year and we know better who who is going to be working for us next year and what benefits they are going to be taking. So, we made some reductions to align with that. Article two is special education. So, that's all of our specialized classroom instructions, occupational therapy, physical therapy, speech therapy, um, as well as outside placements for students who needs met in the regular setting, um, whatever specialized setting they may need. It also spends it also includes extended school year, which are the summer services
014we're obligated to provide to some students. Again, the additions are pretty standard with what you're going to see across the board. Step and salary increases, benefit increases, and we did are looking to add one teacher at the middle school. That was a cut last year was as a cut because the needs weren't as great there. The needs have come back and we need that teacher back. Additional reductions that were in the previous budget include five educational technician positions and then the tuition meaning like college tuition reductions and other reductions aligned to historic spending. Additional proposed reductions include that private family medical leave which has a much bigger impact in this article as well as health insurance. The other large reduction we made in the new budget is moving some of our outofd district cost um
015placement costs out of the local budget and into other funding. So, $200,000 of funds that um we need in order to send students to special um schools. We're we think we can pay for it out of some other state provided funding and we don't need to do it out of the local. So, we have um moved some of that funding out of the local budget. And so, that was one of our bigger reductions in the revised budget. Article three is strange. You will have to vote on this. Um, once upon a time we used to have to allocate money for uh Portland Arts and Technology High School. Our students have that as an option. Um, you don't have to do that anymore. The state now gives money to paths directly, but we still they didn't
016change the law that says we have to vote on article 3. So, um, thank you for your patience as we get through that one. Article four is other instruction. Those are our co-curricular and athletics for both the middle school and the high school. I didn't change it. Thank you. I can I give this to you? Thank you. You have to press the down arrow. Okay, thanks. Um, article four is other instruction, co-curricular athletics, middle school, high school. Um, again, contractual salary uh benefit increases. Uh, we made reductions to align to um historic spending. There's a revenue impact we'll talk about in a minute. And then we did reduce some stipens based on student interest um over the past three to five years. the additional reductions. We do have a small private paid family medical and
017health insurance reduction. We have just a couple of staff in this article, not many. And then we went back and we did some additional reductions based on again the historic um our historic ability to fill positions and student interest in stipens. So, um we're hoping that that's not going to result in kids not being able to do choices that they want. We think it we think it's going to align to what their behaviors have been as far as what they've selected for activities. Um but we did make a reduction there, an additional reduction there. Article five is student and staff report. That's the guidance offices at all five schools, libraries at all five schools, our technology health, our nurses offices, and then improvement of instruction which is our curriculum office and that sort of thing.
018Again, the increases are step and benefits. There wasn't any, you know, extra things added there. Reductions were to align with historic spending and then the additional proposed reductions were for private paid family medical leave and aligning health insurance. Article six is systems administration. This is the school board, the superintendent's office, the business office, and the district's contingency fund. Again, you're seeing um contractual step increases, benefit increases, no new positions or anything like that. um reductions. We tried to look at three to five years of spending. We'd make some reductions aligned to that. And then the additional proposed includes private paid family medical health insurance. And then um you contracted a new superintendent and that superintendent was less expensive than what was budgeted. So um there was reductions there as well. Article seven is school administrators.
019Those are our principal offices. the princ the assist so the principal the assistant principal the secretaries as well as the offices um no changes again the additions and reductions are standard with what you've seen in the other articles the one uh difference is we have reduced a part-time secretary position by consolidating some services between the middle school and the high school were able to um operate the offices in the same way with a part-time less of a person is transportation all things transportation are in in this article. Um again the standard things across additions reductions and additional proposed reductions. Uh what's different about article 8? We are looking to replace some of our buses and some of our vans. We are proposing to buy a cellularbased bus radio so that our buses can be more
020in contact as they travel through the roads of Gray and New Glouester. And then the transportation software that the state has always paid for for us is no longer paying for it. And so we now have to pick up that cost locally. Article nine is our facilities and maintenance. That's custodial. All of our buildings and grounds, our fields, as well as our capital improvements. Again, you're seeing a lot of the same things. The other the what's new and different about article 9 are utilities increases. Um whether gas goes up, electricity goes up, that sort of thing. And then additionally, we have asked to do some additional investments in our capital improvements, start to get to some work on our buildings. Article 10 is our debt service. These are annual debt payments for debt we already
021have. Um the additions for FY26 as part of the air quality bond payments that was voted on in November overwhelmingly by uh by the public and um we looked we did end up in the process with the board. We moved part of the expenses for that bond payment into um the capital improvement fund. So, out of the local, but there is a small amount that then still comes to the local budget, and that's part of article 10. Um, part of the additional proposed reductions, David Pascal, our director of finance and operations, was able to uh get us a lower interest rate than what we thought we were going to be able to get. So, there was some savings there. And across all of the all of the articles, that comes to 34,9665. how that plays
022out in recent history. Uh so this 4.79% increase brings the te the 10-year average, that's the second to last gray column. Um and then all the way to the right, that gray column brings our 10-year average to a 3.82% increase, and it falls about in the median line of what uh we have seen over the last 10 years. Regional data, um this is not new data, none of it changed. All of these passed um so they were solidified. Our revised budget brings us to being the lowest percent increase in the area. Um and we are close to being the lowest number dollar figure increase. Um RSU 16 still is just a little bit lower than us even though it was a 5 point 5.12%. Their total budget is a little smaller than ours. So the
023dollar increase was 1.5 million where we're proposing a 1.6. And you can kind of see how some of the other school districts uh budgets were approved. I will say as the outlier, RSU 14 was 12.75. The vast majority of that was the bond coming due for the new middle school that they're building. So that was a significant part. It is an outlier that's a little different. Flipping to the revenue side, how we pay for all of these expenses. uh the ED279 which is how the state gives us funding uh that is predicted to be 12,256 do 256,246 keep in mind that's a prediction um it changes 12 15 times throughout the year of what exactly they're going to give us but we have to go on this data at this time other influences that hit
024our revenue as I mentioned before there is a piece uh we have required athletic families to pay in order to participate in athletics. Uh we would like to remove that program. That's going to reduce revenue by about $15,000. We are also anticipating that our tuition of other school other kids from other districts coming to our school may go down um over the next few years, but that's sort of offset a little bit by bank interest revenue that is coming in higher than we anticipated. And then finally, the board voted to use 1.25 million of our fund balance. So that balance that was left at the end of last year, the board has voted to take 1.25 million of that and take that off the top of the tax bill for the coming school year. So
025estimated tax impacts. So the expense budget once we add in adult education is 35 million, just a little bit more. Adult education has been previously approved. Um, when you put that against the ED279, the fund balance and the mis miscellaneous revenue, the local contribution required is 21 million76,352, about a $1.6 million increase. So, this projected tax impact, please note, um, we had some additional conversations with the towns in the last couple of days, um, and there were updates in valuation and mill rates and such. So, if you looked at this presentation prior to today, this slide looks different for you. You'll notice on the front page, I made a note that it's been updated and I've made a note here at the bottom it's been updated. Um, so the projected tax impact is a little
026lower than we expected it to be. So, um, per the charter, 66.71% of the expense goes to Gray and 33.29% goes to New Gloucester. That comes down to based on um the mill rate for uh gray, a tax increase per $100,000 of assessment, it's about $47. Uh for the median assessed home, which is $476,000 in gray, it would be about a $225 increase on the taxes. That includes only the school impact. So what the town does impacts this. So if the town budget ends up being lower, your actual tax bill will be different than what we're saying here. This is only the school's impact part of it. In New Gloucester, the tax increase per 100,000 of assessment is $75, meaning that median home, which is assessed at $250,000, would be about $187.84 on your tax
027bill. And that's my overview. I give it back to Mr. M. Oh, Janda, I'm gonna want that. Okay. Um, thank you, Superintendent Turner. Um, just to conclude what I was last here doing, I swore in the ballot clerks, they signed this oath and I'm going to counter sign and give it to the recording secretary. Okay. So, we've sworn in ballot clerks. Um, my next uh order of business is to set the rules of procedure for this evening. I'm going to be guided by the main moderators manual which is it's kind of Robert's rules light uh drafted by Maine municipal association and it's pretty universally used for uh by moderators uh in town meetings and school budget meetings. Is there any objection to using the main moderators manual to guide us this evening? Okay, seeing none,
028we'll do that. Uh by law, a person who's not registered to vote within the district is not allowed to address the meeting without consent of twothirds of the voters present. Um however, we do have some administrators and staff who are not residents of either town and they may be needed to answer questions or provide information that come up related to our business tonight. I'm going to ask for your general consent to allow these people to speak just to provide information and answer questions. if they wanted to speak like for or against a motion, that's not what we're doing right now. And I would take that up separately if that if they did that. So, is any pro any problems with uh allowing these folks to uh provide information to the meeting? All right, fair enough.
029Um so, this is a meeting of it's actually not a schoolboard meeting. It's a meeting of the legislative body of the district, which is you guys, the people who chose to show up this evening. you're the legislative body and uh the job your job tonight is to approve a school budget that will be later on uh voted on yes or no at secret ballot polls I think on August 26th in your in each of your towns. Um the agenda for this evening are the warrant articles which are printed on the fans that they handed out up front. And so I'm going to take up just for procedure, I'm going to take up each article in turn. After I read the article, I'll look for a motion and a second. Once those are in place, I'll
030open up the floor for discussion. So we are being recorded and we're streaming tonight. Um, so I'm going to insist that you use the microphone. If you just for a a motion and a second, you don't have to get up and use the microphone, but if you need to make a substantive motion, please use the microphone and please uh use the microphone for any discussion just so people in the room can hear you. I know the fans are a little loud and so the people watching uh online and the recording will catch everyone's audio. Okay. Um, so when I recognize you, please state your name and the town you're from. Uh, questions should go through me. I'll pass them on to whoever uh is the appropriate person to address it. Uh, if I if I
031can't answer the question, um, all remarks must be relevant to the to the motion that's on the floor. Um, we'll limit people's comments to three minutes. And, um, when we vote, when we eventually vote on things, our the first vote's going to be by show of the, uh, your yellow cards or colored cards. Um, and I'll I'll declare the results if I'm able. Um, if it's too close to call, I'll ask the ballot clerks to count. Um, I think there was some confusion last time, so I'll just outline the procedure. We have four ballot clerks. Two of them two of them are going to count one half of the room. Two of them are going to count the other half of the room. So, they're going to kind of double check each other. Um the
032and that half of the room includes the board from here over. And this half of the room includes the board from here over. Okay. So, um, and if if if the clerks if either pair if they their numbers don't jive, they're going to count again. Um, and so, um, and it takes time. So, please be patient. They're they're doing, uh, Yman's work. So, um, and I'll also remind uh the meeting that if you if if discussion's been going on for a while and um you have the the right to make a motion to stop discussion on a motion and to call for a vote. It's a little extraordinary. So, it requires a twothirds vote. Okay. Um the motion is there's no magic words but you just say I want to stop debate and or I
033move the previous question. So, um, see, so again, uh, Maggie Humphrey's, our recording secretary. And with that, I'm just going to launch into the the warrant. Okay. Article one. Shall the district be authorized to expend 13,886,561 for regular instruction? >> So moved. >> Second. >> Okay. So, article one's been moved and seconded. So, I'm going to open up the floor for discussion. Is there any discussion, comments, questions about article one? Yes. Please state your name in town. My name is Judy Simino. I live in Grey, Maine. U Mr. Moderator, I'd like to make an amendment to article one. And I'd like to make a reduction and have the article uh to be the total amount of 13,386,561. And I also would like to have a paper ballot on my amendment. >> Okay. On that second
034one, I'll before we vote, I'll take up that issue. But let's let's get through discussion first. Okay. So fir so uh the motion is to reduce the dollar amount in article one I think by $500,000 to the new figure of $13,386,561. Do I have that correct? >> Yes, that's correct. >> Okay. Is there a second to that motion? >> Okay. So now on the floor is the motion to amend. Okay. So, we're voting on whether we're going to change the dollar amount in article one before we actually vote on article one. Okay. So, do you want to speak to your motion? >> Yes, I do. Um, so what I would like to say is is um can I take this off here? Is that okay? >> Okay. >> So, um what I wanted to say
035was is um there is about $2.6 million in a reserve account. And um we are at um and I know that Sam is going to get up after me and he's going to try to like undermine what I say, but this is all in print. And what it is is there's $2.6 million sitting in a a general fund for the rainy day fund. Basically, the state of Maine actually has a limitation of 9% of the budget amount from the previous year. We're at 2.6. 2.9 is the maximum. So my my real reason for wanting to lower this is is there's money left over at the end of every year and it's costing taxpayers a lot of money for that leftover money. So I would like to reduce this. This is not taking away pay from
036anybody. This is not hurting anybody in any way. It's not reducing salaries. It's not taking away any teachers. It's not eliminating any services. All it's doing is is let's not have like a $2 million surplus every year. That's all we're asking for is not have a surplus. It's unnecessary. The state used to used to have a minimum requirement of 3% when COVID hit and now it's up to 9%. They've increased it because of COVID because of all that was happening. They wanted schools to have more of reserves and so that's still stayed in place. They voted it back in at 9% again this year. The school right now is at 8%. We're almost to our limit of what we can have in reserves. And so if we continue on this pathway, eventually we're going to
037hit that maximum. They do give the money back 1.2% this year, 1.2 million. But why keep taking it to give it back? Keep our tax dollars down. There's no need to be taxing people, you know, to this ridiculous amount when it's not necessary. Um, so yeah. So, all right. So, I just want to say too is I thank everybody for coming tonight. I know it's really hot in here and I'm not going to go on and on here because I know everybody just wants to get out of here as well as I do. So, I appreciate everybody coming tonight, no matter what side of the table you vote on. So, all right. So, thank you. And I hope everybody that votes for the amendment votes a yes on the amendment. Thank you. >> Thank you.
038[Music] >> Maybe just pass it. >> Sarah Gusky Kemer from uh New Gloucester. I sat in on the most recent finance committee meeting which I thought was great. Um but um my understanding from that meeting is that last year, fiscal year 2425 actually came within $250,000ish of the budget. Is that correct? And a back of envelope. We're looking at estimates here. >> If if you want to answer that, you can. >> Okay. Hang on. I'm gonna give the uh mic to David. So, it wasn't that we were $250,000. It that's taking into account the fund balance that we're using to support the budget. So, with that taken into account, it would be $250,000. >> Excellent. Okay. Thank you. That sounds just like so much lower than uh 2 something million. So, I appreciate that. I
039also appreciate that we have a district that uses the funds so wisely that you all are looking at the money that is actually needed for our children. Um especially in you know the political climate that we're in now where every dollar means a lot more to every person. You all are being um really good stewards of our money and of our children. So I appreciate that. So just wanted to clarify that. >> Thank you. any other comments or discussion on article on sorry on the motion to amend Sam is that okay you're coming everybody uh Sam Fifel I'm in gray um want to thank everybody for coming out tonight really appreciate everybody's interest in uh the budget I know uh three or four years ago we passed a $29 million budget with fewer than 29
040votes. So, this is great to see so many people engaged and paying attention. Um, and I know that there's been a lot of discussion about our fund balance. Um, what we are trying to do is, uh, draw that fund balance down in a measured fashion, right? Because what I want people to remember is the $1.25 million that we're rolling over is revenue and tax dollars that we don't need to raise, right? If we were to drop that all the way down, we could do it this year, but then next year we are not going to have that $2 million or $1.79 million or whatever in revenue and it will feel like a much larger tax increase. So, what we're trying to do is even out that tax increase year-over-year, uh, draw it down in a
041measured fashion and make sure we don't have, you know, a 10% increase or a 12% increase that would, you know, really hit the pocketbooks uh, in a significant way. And we're also hoping that we can find other revenue sources uh, in the interim, right? So, you know, if we give this all back, we don't have any options to try to soften that blow in the future. Uh, which is what we're really trying to do. The one thing I'd also point to is that there are other factors at play that we can't control. You notice that the state only is offering us about $215,000 more dollars this year. That is not keeping pace with how fast our expenses are increasing. Right? So the state says, "Oh, look, we're funding uh education at a higher rate, but
042that higher rate is less high than it needs to be to catch up with where all of our districts are feeling expenses." So, I would also hope that we're advocating to our state reps who I hope are in the room tonight. I know I saw Sue. Uh, you know, let's get them to kick in a little bit more state money so we don't have to do so much here at the local level. Thanks so much. Thank you. Any other comments on the motion to amend? Okay, seeing none, we're going to vote. But the the person who made the motion also requested that this you were requesting that this vote on the motion to amend be by written ballot. Okay. So um for school budget meetings uh you can request a written ballot. It requires consent
043of 10% of you. So all those in favor of voting on the motion to amend by written ballot. So signify. Thank you. Opposed. Oh goodness, it's 10%. That's not easy to call. Um, let me try this again. In favor, opposed. Okay, I can't I can't make this call. Uh, so I'm going to ask the ballot clerks to do a hand count on this uh vote, whether we're going to do this by written ballot. So, uh, again, I ask for your patience in, uh, holding your cards up while the clerks count. Are you guys set? Yes. Okay. So, again, with apologies, those in favor of voting on the motion to amend by written ballot and and keep your cards up, please. Okay. So this side is done. >> Okay. Okay. So, uh, we're done with that.
044Before I see the show of hands for those opposed, I'm just gonna ask for the the the number. >> I'm sorry. >> Okay. So yeah, it I kind of got the feeling that it was like 60ish and we don't have 600 people here. So 10% motion carries. We're going to do this by written ballot and then so we're going to do this process. Okay. So um we have two ballot boxes. I think you're going to move one to the other side. Okay. And then which ballots are we going to use? >> The ones that were handed out. >> So when you checked in, they were given a b a piece of paper that has yes no. We're gonna use that one for this vote. Okay. And you're confirm that those are empty. >> Okay. I'm
045sorry. I'll be clear. So, we are voting on the motion to amend. And so, this is we're deciding whether we're going to change the number in article one that we will later vote on. Okay. So the motion to amend is to reduce the dollar amount in article one by $500,000 to a new figure of 13 million $386,561. If you're in favor of changing the dollar amount of the article so that that's the new number we're considering for article one, check yes. If you are not in favor, check no. Um, and then just posit your ballots in this in these one of these two boxes. Doesn't matter what side of the room you're on. Either box will work. >> Bring up your own. >> Oh, yes. And and please bring up your own ballot. I'm also
046going to say there's no legal requirement to fold your ballot. I know people like to fold their ballots. If you don't fold your ballots, it's the counting goes a lot faster. Feel free to fold them if you want. It's funny to look down at all these guys. I know you the people on the are like above You like the bus. Really? [Music] >> Today was his last day. >> Oh my god. >> How are you? >> Uh, initially. Yes. >> My whole like the whole went down. Uh, if there's anybody who wants to vote, who hasn't voted yet, last call for votes. Last call for votes. Okay, I'm going to close the polls and I'm going to ask the ballot clerks to count the ballots. Yes, boxes are in short. Yeah. I was not Just
047probably That looks That could be February. >> February. Whenever the wind takes off. >> Thanksgiving and Okay, let's come back to order. Um, the votes have been counted. We have 79 yes, 180 no. So, the motion to amend fails. Maggie, >> thank you. Oh, you're awesome. >> Okay. Okay. So, we're back to the motion as written. Um or yeah, as written. Um so, is there any discussion on article one as written in the original amount? Okay. Seeing none, we're going to by show of hands. All those in favor of article one. Thank you. Opposed. Okay. So, article one passes as written. No, no, no. We don't need to applaud. Okay. So, article two. Shall the district be authorized to expend 7,25,815 for special education? >> So moved. Second. >> Okay. Article 2 has been moved
048and seconded. Is there any discussion on article two? >> Okay. Seeing none, we're going to vote again by show of cards. All those in favor of article two as written. Thank you. Opposed? Thank you. So, article two passes as written. Article three. Shall the district be authorized to expend zero dollars for career and technical education. >> So moved. >> Second. >> Thank you. Uh any discussion on article three? Okay. Seeing none. All those in favor? Thank you. opposed. Thank you. Uh, article three passes as written. Article four, shall the district be authorized to expend 1,40,730 for other instruction. >> So moved. >> Second. >> Thank you. Any discussion on article 4? I'm I'm not sure if you're moving to the microphone. No, just shifting. Okay, seeing none, all those in favor of article four. Thank
049you. Opposed. Okay. Article four passes as written. Article five. Shall the district be authorized to expend $3,331,221 for student and staff support? >> So moved. >> Second. >> Thank you. >> Any discussion on article five? Okay. All those in favor of article five. Thank you. Opposed. Okay. Article five passes as written. Article six. Shall the district be authorized to expend 1,110,27 for system administration. >> So moved. Second. >> Is there any discussion on article six? Okay. All those in favor of article six. Thank you. Opposed. Okay. Article six passes as written. Article seven. Shall the district be authorized to expend 1,728,410 for school administration. >> So moved. Second. >> Any discussion on article 7? Okay. All those in favor of article 7. Thank you. Opposed. Okay. Article seven passes as written. Article eight. Shall the
050district be authorized to expend 200 Shall the district be authorized to expend 2,236,221 for transportation and buses? >> So moved. Second. So >> any discussion or comment on article eight? Seeing none. All those in favor? Thank you. Opposed. Okay. Article 8 passes as written. Article nine. Shall the district be authorized to expend 3,762,590 for facilities maintenance? >> So moved. >> Second. >> Think we have some discussion. Sure. Uh just a quick discussion on this. Uh thanks everybody. uh don't mean to kill a bunch of time but um just to the point of discussions that we've been having and how we're trying to do things on the board level uh this article and the article previous actually increased by the largest percentage over last year and I just want to take a quick minute to explain
051why. Right, we were uh holding capital reserve funds uh with the hope that we would get a large uh construction project passed. uh the district decided not to pass that at the November polls. So what we're doing now is we voted at the last meeting to spend 800,000 of that money that was in the capital reserve fund and now we are increasing our facilities spend on a yearly basis to replace one of those fields that we had in that bond proposal. Um, so I just think it's a good example of, you know, the the bond didn't work and so now we're trying to use those, you know, funds that we had squirreled away to uh manage that impact going forward. So this is actually the largest increase uh or maybe the last transportation might be
052slightly by percentage. I think this is the largest one uh by percentage. So just want to thank everybody and just a little you know education on that. Sorry. >> Thank you. Any other discussion, questions, comments on article 10? Nine. Thank you. I'm just testing you guys. Okay. All those in favor of article nine as written. Thank you. Opposed. Okay. Article 9 passes as written. Article 10. Shall the district be authorized to expend $599,90 for debt service and other commitments? >> So moved. >> Second. Okay. Any discussion on article 10? All those in favor? Thank you. Opposed. >> Okay. Article 10 passes as written. Article 11. Shall the district be authorized to expend zero dollars for all other expenditures. >> So moved. Second. >> Any discussion on article 11? Okay. All those in favor? Thank you.
053Opposed. Okay. Article 11 passes as written. Um, as the superintendent explained at the outset, uh, we're moving on to these are the revenue articles. So, article 12, shall the district appropriate the amounts set forth below for the total cost of funding public education from kindergarten to grade 12 as described in the Essential Programs and Services Funding Act? And shall the district raise and assess the amounts described below as each municipality's contribution to the total cost of funding public education from kindergarten to grade 12 as described in the essential programs and services funding act in accordance with the main revised statutes title 2A section 15688. Uh the the numbers are presented in two columns. On the left hand side is the amount that the state determined is um necessary for uh a basic education. the essential
054programs and services uh allocation $25.9 million. On the right hand side is the amount that the district needs to raise in order to be eligible to receive state subsidy. And the amount to be raised is broken up by the two towns. Um there's a statutory explanation that's uh written in italics below. Um is there a motion for article 12? >> So moved. >> Second. Any discussion on article 12? All those in favor? Thank you. Opposed? Okay. Article 12 passes as written. Article 13. Shall the district raise and appropriate $635,719 for the annual payments on debt service previously approved by district voters for non-state funded school construction projects or non-state funded portions of school construction projects in addition to the funds appropriated as the local share of the district's contribution to the total cost of funding
055public education from kindergarten to grade 12. Again, there's a statutory explanation um printed below. So moved. Second. >> Any discussion on article 13? All those in favor? Thank you. Opposed. Okay. Article 13 passes as written. Article 14. Uh so by law this has to be done by written ballot. Okay. Um and we'll talk about how we're going to do this after when we get through discussion. So, article 14, shall the district raise and appropriate $6,581,672 in additional local funds, which exceeds the state's essential programs and services allocation model by $6,581,672 as required to fund the budget recommended by the board of directors. The board of directors give the following reasons for exceeding the state's essential programs and services funding model by 6,581,672. This amount is needed to cover costs that the state's funding model does
056not meet, including the following. One, costs of maintaining acceptable class size for best instruction to students. Two, adequate funding to address co-curricular and extracurricular programs necessary for student growth and well-being. Three, cost of required education of special needs students due to state and federal mandates. Four, cost of a technology program that addresses appropriate student development in this evolving technological age. Once again, there's a statutory explanation in italics. Is there a motion for article 14? >> So moved. >> Thank you. Second. >> Sorry, I got ahead of you. >> Second. >> So moved and seconded. Is there discussion on article 14? >> I'm sorry. Was Okay, seeing none, we're going to move to a vote, a written ballot. And how are we doing? Uh, >> okay. So, they're they're handing out a colored yes, no ballot.
057So, just to keep things orderly, let's kind of stay in place until they're handed out so that there's no confusion about who got a ballot and who didn't. That okay? All right. Again. Yes. >> You you you're moving to vote on article 14 by >> Okay. So, the motion is to while we're doing while we're waiting for this uh for ballots to be handed out to kind of take a pause on article 14 and move to art vote on article 15. Um it's a little regular. I'll I'll allow it as I'll interpret it as a motion to take up an article out of order which requires a two-thirds vote. So, right now I need a show of cards on who wants to vote on article 15 or or take up article 15 now. Okay, that
058that's twothirds. Okay, so we're g Nobody get up and vote on article 14 yet. Um but continue to hand out ballots. I'll read article 15. Shall the district authorize the board of directors to expend 34,9 34,900,65065 34,900,665 for the fiscal year beginning July 1, 2025 and ending June 30, 2026. from the district's contribution to the total cost of funding public education from kindergarten to grade 12 as described in the essential programs and services funding act from non-state funded school construct funds for non-state funded school construction projects additional local funds for school purposes under the main revised statutes title 2a section 15690 unexpended balances tuition receipts state subsidy and other receipts for the support of schools >> so moved second >> any discussion on article Article 15. Okay. Seeing none. Okay. So, we're not voting on
059article 14. We're voting on article 15. >> All those in favor of article 15. Thank you. Opposed. Okay. Article 15 passes as written. So now um I'm going to ask the ballot clerks if No, we're still handing out ballots. Mr. board member who made the motion. Thank you for the efficiency. Appreciate it. Okay. So, before we get up and vote on article 14, is there anybody who did not receive a pink ballot that wants one? Deserves one. Okay. I think everyone has a ballot. So again, if you're in favor of article 14 as written, check yes. If you're not in favor, check no. And we're going to do the same process with the ballot box. If you can confirm that they're empty. Yes. I think you did that already. So fewer people on the way.
060Mix it up a little bit. This is the last call for votes ballots on article 14. Okay. Any other ballots? Okay. I'm going to close the voting and ask the ballot clerks to count the ballots. >> Yes, basically. [Music] Oh What is it? How many years? Okay, let's come back to order. So, the results of voting on article 14 are 180 yes, 24 no. So, article 14 passes as written. Uh, we've already taken care of article 15. So, that concludes the business that we have to take care of this evening. and I'll allow the board chair to make some comments. >> Just real briefly, I wanted to thank everybody for coming out tonight. Um, >> how about a round of applause for Greg? >> How about Yes. Thanks to thanks to our moderator. I also
061want to thank our administration, our central office, um all the folks who have worked throughout the summer to bring this uh budget process back. Uh the town clerks for being here tonight. Um as well as the as well as the board and the finance committee for getting this uh second round in front of everybody. It's July, it's hot, it's evening. This show of community tonight and participation has um been such a buoy to me. Um please carry this momentum forward. This will now need to go to traditional referendum vote on August 26th. That will be at uh Gray and New Glouester at the fire station or Newan. The absentee ballot process applies here. Those are available Monday um from your town clerks. So please do participate in that. Um, and otherwise I think we're adjourned.
062>> Okay. I'd also like to thank everyone for showing up and repeat the thank you to the clerks and the ballot clerks who did a very good job tonight. Thank you so much. Maggie, do you have everything you need for the minutes? You're all set. I'll entertain a motion to adjurnn. >> Second. All those in favor? Anybody want to stay? All right. Find some air conditioning. Thank you. Have a good night. >> Board, remember you have things to sign. If you're on the board, do not leave. Jim