001Everyone, my name is Justin Smith. I am the chair of the school board and I'd like to thank you all for coming tonight. This meeting is being recorded for future view members. So, um, please keep that in mind. So, I understand the budget is very important to everyone and, um, a lot of you have already been working hard on sections of the budget. I'd like to thank you for that and I look forward to working with everyone on this um the development of our for next year. So first we're gonna start introductions. So start with John and introduce yourself. Go right up table. I'm Don King, coach director at Middle School. Jessica Smith School, business manager, principal community school. Eric Peterson. >> Thank you everyone. Welcome. I'd like to turn it over to Amy, our
002superintendent. All right. Thank you everyone for being part of this process. As you can see, we're fully in the process because my binder, you can start to watch it grow, is very thin. Right now, our mission that guides us through our new our strategic plan has four areas that guide our work. One is community focus means working hand in hand with between schools and community operations. another one of our facilities, another one of our focus areas of the strategic plan. Uh, keeping our facilities at required levels and creating options and opportunities for future growth as we look at what's ahead 16. Uh, leveraging all of the resources we have. very thankful for all of the resources we have for our leaders with us and give them the skills to go beyond us and uh recruit,
003retain and train and develop their employees to be skilled and want to stay here and work with our students. So those are just four summaries of what is in our strategic plan that guides not only development of our discipline rules here but the work that we do every single day. So you're the budget committee and our school board myself and Stacy and our administrators will come in and out as we go through different articles in which they are part of. I do want to remind our budget committee that it is the board's responsibility and it's the board's budget to recommend for approval at the district budget meeting. But your input is incredibly important. Higher board and myself value the two-way communication. So that way we understand what's happening at the municipal level and you also
004know what's happening at the district level and it can be a share both ways and that is one of the expectations for towns is that you share with the municipal budget development and then bring back what you are learning hearing about here to your your boards. um and that that allows us to really our goals is to walk together through this complicated budget process. So tonight is actually one of those um if you can say relaxing moments in the budget development process. Uh there's no numbers tonight. There's no discussion of um of what things are what things are going to be. It's really the story behind the numbers tonight. Uh 2018 has been uh working on their budget as Jeff alluded to uh uh and have turned in their initial proposed budgets to Stacy and
005we will begin working in a one-on-one meetings with myself later on this month. But tonight is uh January and we don't meet again until March. That's purposeful because I want you to be able to have an understanding of of what is going on in our buildings and in our departments. And oftentimes we share the positive things. We look at our Facebook pages. We look at uh newsletters, look at presentations. It's it's all of the great things happening in our schools. And I don't want to minimize that, take it away. But there are things that are keeping the principles and directors up all night that's we don't get a chance for time and sake to talk about. And so that is what tonight is about is what is keeping them up at night. It's called their
006pain points. And then also new this year is a two to three year outlook because as a board we continue to try to think about forward planning. We are we are planning for now and we're planning for next year but what does the the outlook look like and actually I think just to give you a little surprise here uh is the pain point two to three year outlook it's going to be the same for most of our departments is because we know that be able to resolve all these pain points in the fiscal year 27 budget but we need you to know that these are the things that we're wrestling with. I also want you to know that as an activity, it's not your job to speak out. Oh, I like what so and so
007is saying I want that in the budget. That's for the team to work out. That's their job to move forward as to if there are going to be proposals. Of course, the board does have the authority to add or decrease the budget. That is their role. But our role for this budget committee is to put forward what we believe is the best budget with maintenance of effort. the the the asked to do is not to have any new proposals and no no increases beyond maintaining what we have the natural increases that are to be there. So tonight share the pain points what's keeping them up and two to three year outlook as to what's coming on the horizon and so first want to say thank you for administrators does take a lot to come between
008[laughter] the board as our town and as well as the video that's happening to you talk about what's troubling them keeping them up at night and maybe we all know that given our financial situation of where we are where we are with school funding, subsidies, needs of our buildings that uh you know where we are current situation is probably where we'll end up with our main focus on just how do we maintain what we have. Uh so we also are realistic. We will hear tonight what's keeping them up is potential solutions uh to to to solve those problems. So before I turn things over to um our our administrators to start taking us through those pain points and two in front of you just turn over to to Lisa Lisa and Mary starting budget for
009me and I don't know if you have any information for us about sort of outlook or where is their budget Start first with the county. I just budget this year. So the county is 12 and a half% increase which is pretty substantial. Most is the jail support prisoners. Ours is pretty much done looking at about a 7% increase for our municipality and that is mostly based on increasing our fire department. We agreement really trying to grow your fire department and our ET services. So the community is is going there. That's kind of >> I don't have any updates. Last two meetings were cancelled and last night. [laughter] February right now. Then our next meeting discussions about budget. Certainly increases department just because of the differences last year. So I think as we work through that
010first schools that we will restart next $154,000 less that we have to pay for our school assessment this year. So I think that's going to be true for all three of towns that you know that that's that's going to have an impact [clears throat] and I looked at what our total budget was this year about half million are significantly less than the schools when I personally said what percent all right we'll move into our points and our two outlook so principles we're going the list of view. So that means [clears throat] before we as go and back packets feel free to ask questions. Administrators are brief and they're talk about their pain points and their and their later enough opportunity again to ask more questions. Caitlyn, let's keep you up at night. What is your
011outlook? So, I think my um point or what's keeping me up at night is just purely around um our ability to maintain our current staffing um considering um where we've been historically with um while also just being able to be responsive to the actual physical needs of the building and the things that kind of need to be addressed within. um our school building. So um you know that those staff um during that time we have seen an increase in like intensity of the needs of students, their academic needs, their behavioral needs, their social emotional needs. um and that requires staff prevention. Um we do have a growing number of families that reaching out to schools to help them to resources within the community and really being what they are. I find that staff are really
012already spread very very thin and working at their capacity and um really little flexibility to be able to take on additional things. So I I do really get worried that um if there is reductions in staff really will be able to continue to maintain the level of services that we're currently providing. Um things that I think would to address this would be, you know, doing what we can to preserve level of staffing that's currently in place um during this um budget process while also doing what we can to balance the physical needs of the building. Um and then I I do think that, you know, in the long term we need to continue to monitor really those needs of the students. Um I have noted down below that with the increase of the social emotional
013mental health of our students along with um just the the implementation of our star program and growing of our program. Uh we currently have a halftime social worker um and really I think in the future we probably need to start uh considering that needs to be a full-time position but I think that that is in this um budget process. So that >> can you speak to what the star program is? Yeah, our social emotional program. I think Joe would probably be better to be able to kind of speak to that a little bit more, but it is a district program that um really addresses students with higher social emotional um needs, behavioral needs um and so it does require a higher level of um staff and support for that program. >> Thank you question. Any
014additional questions about All right. Then as far as um my um two to three year outlook, um I would say that I'm very excited that this year we qualified for title one funding again, which has been a huge relief. Um we had in the past do a lot of work on um establishing some systems to be able to provide academic and behavioral interventions um students without additional staffing and so um a qualifying priority one year that allow us to have some staff have a staff member available for those academic interventions. So that um very helpful. I do uh worry down the line we will continue to be able to qualify and if we don't continue to qualify and we stop there. So I just feel like it's important to kind of keep that in forefront
015um um again referring point um again we still have the increased um needs of students and the demand for that comes from staffing. So I think that that's one of the things that we um have to be mindful of. And then again I you know have a lot of concerns about the facility itself um the EG facility and the space limitations and the um updates that are needed within the building. Um I would say that um I have a far like staff uh sustainability I have a year. So, I think continue paying to um have benefit pay rates that are comparable to those models to be able to continue to attract people to our district is really important. Um I think all of us I won't speak for others, but I think most of us
016have realized there's a a decrease of applicants that come in to fill each of those um positions each time they open up. So I think that's um something that I would like to continue to kind of continue to advocate for. Um and um again halfime fulltime um social work position is is something that I think would help that as far as the facilities and space and planning. I think we need to continue to be able to address that um and be able to provide funding to be able to address the the needs within the building. um so that we can ensure the environment is safe and supports instruction. And then um in the next two to three years um I do think that we need to continue to look at our literacy instruction and the
017curriculum that we're using. Um there's been a lot of uh new research that has come out in the last couple years on the science meeting and I just want us to be aware that um you know there may be some need to update some of our curriculum so that is aligned um to those science reading um during the most critical years for our our students. Any questions about two or really import this year. I think those are the things that impact us and environment for all of our staff thinking contracts negotiating other contracts in the coming year. It's really important those things we continue to prioritize that we keep the people that we have invested in trained. Um we've spent a lot of time developing professionally so that these they want to stay within our
018district. It keeps our district something that attracts quality candidates as well. I think part of it too is also helping you know our buildings maintained clean and safe that always improves staff morale within our buildings. um making sure that we have programs and supports within our schools that really individual needs of our students. I think our teachers talk to us of the students that are in front of them and sometimes those are unique and those are challenging sometimes outside the box and be able to be flexible with our staff as well. So I think we know this is a good staff across all of our departments in our schools, transportation and food services, special education all the way up to administration and be able to keep the levels that we have currently stable. I do
019think that you know speaking for myself I feel like a good place right now. So, I'd like to be able to just maintain what we currently have because I think that's that's a huge priority for me going to basically multi- tears. support. This is really student how students are given the resource services that they need to be successful and to demonstrate growth. Sometimes students have times they have small group for us. We have reduced demographic title but if you do anticipate it worry about the changes title funding in the future continue to see that title funding is blessing us that would if we were to lose title. So that is definitely something to do to really struggle with our facility. Heat within our school is challenging classrooms that at times reach temperatures 92 or 93
020degrees during the winter for students class as well as for staff at times in the winter. So I think that is something that need to have conversations about as well. Um and also you know one of the things that we worked hard to really support for our students academically but also and socially and what we're finding is it's hard to just do that within our school. So that are asking for elsewhere outside resources. We all know that as well availability of those resources is something that will continue. So for me, you know, our title staff hopefully our title continues to stay steady for the next two to three years. So we don't have to what we have to do for that word to go away for facilities apply. So I think for me to make
021that really critical as well find ways to partner with other outside and being able to partner with those providers to make sure that we are working with our families and that they're asking for and also working together to bring communities into our schools to talk about the issues that I think that our students are facing within our schools and outside our schools. probably on deadlines too. So this might sound a little bit but especially going out um PCS is out growing space both um indoors and outdoor space. Um first we lack a lot of space to hold meetings. if we have more than six participants um we it's like sardines and we have to go through somebody's classroom in order to have those meetings um and then if it's you know if whether you're celebrating
022somebody or heated meeting the students can hear that because the walls being in um we have peacemeal so many parts PCs that we have rooms within rooms Um, and we've tried to take part of like our assistant principal's office. Uh, we've cut in half to make room for our programs we just had. Now it's a health photo copier room so that could meet the needs of one of our functional life skills programs. Um, they need more space and it's kids first. So poor went into the photo [laughter] room. So um so it's those types of things where we're running out of space where we need to put people um so uh sufficient places to put programming without combining the classrooms. Um which also then limit small instruction. We know that small instruction is what's going
023to help move the students who struggle. Um if you've driven by during the day, you probably noticed a full parking lot. Um and those are just the stats. We don't have places for uh visitors. So sometimes they will end up uh parking either on the field which um if it's at drive light time or in the morning buses that can be a safety issue. Um people it is posted will park in the fire lane. That is also an issue. Some people will just park in between cars um two rows of cars and let the children go. as a safety issue. Um, so those are the types of things that keep me up because safety is my number one thing. Um, you know, this is not the sound, it's not ideal, but maybe thinking about modular.
024The problem with that is where would you put it? Because with modular, then you have to rethink drive line, you have to rethink busing. Um, there a great place to put it. like in my head I've tried to think John and I have had a lot of discussion about that our existing footprint isn't as big as it really seems um and so we could take the top part of the field maybe to use like a parking lot but I don't that that can be paved because of what we have existing um maybe work with the team that will be excuse me the town for parking that would be an idea maybe to make sure that the town has park for the business as well. Um we would know that will be resolved when special ed
025have spaces dedicated so that they can provide the nurses that our students need. um that able to have um can't control the heat and because um as well as um making sure that space for guests. I mean it would be nice to feel welcome be trekking the field to get to school. Anybody have questions? >> Yes. >> It's very hard to hear. It's possible that you speak of [laughter] speak of rooms inside rooms is um do the rooms like that you've created the additional space do they all have like two egresses or two ways of getting out of the room as a safety issue I was wondering >> the room that is an office had been in exist I don't That was your father, John, because that was the old that has two um but
026meetings. Um that was where the old office has been switched up. So we have the old office is where we try to hold meetings and then we've used the first part of the office as a class and that's one door. Yeah. >> Any other questions? All right. >> There were a couple of acronyms that I'm trying to learn. >> Thank you. And GATE. >> Okay. So, looking um towards the next two to three years um we kind of So big we don't have space for one grade has um only half the gymnasium for the specials. So um we try to rotate each year like kindergarten has it really small quadies. So um because we do use our um our is also the cafeteria. So we have to use um a healthy gym for physical education.
027Uh we aren't able to use the stage right now. um just due to safety. Um right now the way that the school is configured um we've used every like I um discussed the assistant principal move um and parking lot and the two address we also have the issue of um the fluctuating temperatures through the building even more mitigation um efforts that we've It's still either really hot or really cold. We can open windows, but then as a taxpayer driving [clears throat] by, it's frustrating to see a window open on a cold day, but if it's 90°, you know, that's that's another issue as well. Um, and and we don't have anywhere to put the kids to another place. they can sit on the floor and call I guess but that's not conducive to learning. So
028that's um that's something that needs to be addressed. Um, I would suggest looking at being really creative, looking at some of where the um the addition the newest part of the school, looking at fixing the stage and some um part of the ramp and looking at you could add a classroom there maybe um looking at some of where the offices are, opening that up and making a classroom. Um, and then seeing if affordable is the best feasible way to to make that happen. Um, and looking at parking and traffic flow to make sure that um that's just efficient. That's a lot. Any questions? Sorry, John. John, you were up and transport [snorts] concerns about their ability to sustain our financial commitments to maintain the number of buildings that we have in the district. When the
029task force was put forth three almost three years ago now um the recommendation that came out we were going to keep all of our buildings we were going to fix them we've been fun we fix them um we have and in fact we'll be going backwards for the last three years um and the evidence can be seen in capital improvement plan um every year we created well not every year there was a 10-year plan that all the things that should be working each year in the school and uh less than 10% % of those items get marked off on this list every year. Um, [clears throat] and so, you know, we we keep talking about having conversations about the maintenance of our buildings and, you know, conditions of our buildings and fortunately, um, time for
030conversations is coming to an end. Um, we're going to have to make some hard choices whether, you know, we are truly fund our buildings and keep them own or we're going to have to come up with an alternative. And it's not going to be an easy conversation. It's not going to be popular. Um the final decision is going to be split down the road just like the Democrats and the Republicans because there are just feelings about both sides of that argument. Um and we're not here to do that tonight, Mike. But um the time will come that truly have to consider how we're gonna how we're going to do this. The money has the money has less and less every year. And so in order for me to be able to maintain our facilities, it's
031now and has been over the last several years starting to come out of our everyday operational expenses. You know, when you walk into our schools now, they look okay, but if you look really closely, you know, um athletically our buildings are starting to break down. Structurally, our buildings are all fine. You know, we have foundation issues. You know, most all still solid. Our roofs are in relatively good condition, but all of these things getting more and more expensive every year to fix and we have reached that point where we've got to make some hard choices um in the way we are financially supporting schools. Um unfortunately Amy only allowed us to give one point that us and she didn't tell us. Um, so you know go on on but um folks can't round the subject
032anymore. We really can't I can't stress that enough. We have reached a critical point in the RG16 communities that we have to do something. Um so we look at um my two to three year uh let's see um so here are here they are the capital plan was created but was never adequately funded um there so that yellow chart that goes around the bar with blue red and green the blue column represents everything that was scheduled to be replaced in the CI plan that year and there's um the green box that shows you how much was actually budgeted towards that plan every year. And there's the green card that shows you the actual amount of money that was expended. Now, the district can take some fault in the fact that there were previous years in
033the early part of the plan that we were not spent money that was allocated for the CIP. I we can go into arguments and discussions as to why that happened. Um, I can tell you that since my return, we spend almost every time is allocated to us for CIP and it's an easy thing to do. It's easy thing to do because the list of projects is never ending at this point. There just isn't enough money to fund everything that needs to be done. Parts of our buildings are 75 years old. Um, the additions constructed in the 80s are now 45 years old and even our high school is 26 years old. Our new middle school edition is coming from one to four years old. Um central office is now 20 22 >> 25 years and
034half the building is sinking into the ground. Um you know another issue that we're have to deal with but it's not a priority because it's not a school building. Um but anyway um so and this is where the inadequate funding is from a proactive planning tool. Now an emergency fund and the unfortunate thing is that emergency fund ends up dealing with things that aren't even on these lists. So things that are on the list aren't getting correct and we roll them over to the next year and again they don't get done. But like I said the other night at the the forum things don't fix themselves. These problems are not going away. Um despite our buildings remain structurally sound. Uh however many essential systems the heat distribution systems the ventilation roofing windows the plumbing electrical
035the internet um all these things are either reaching their um useful livelihood and um they are have reached um states where they need either um significant repair or innovation. Um so how we how we fix this? I don't have any answers for you. um simple and easiest to throw money in getting the money that's that's the difficult but if our if our funding doesn't improve then of course the plan has to shrink and stretch to make it work from year to year so um do we just advance the CIP list all together and just move from annual wish list to you know multi-year tactical plan which essentially is what we're doing now Um do we start to focus just on life safety and compliance and miss credit items cosmetics now just you know goes away
036because we aren't going to be able to afford to do those things. Um do we consider redirecting our services you know truly dedicated towards the improvement of our facilities? And I know I sound a little brief that it should come to me because everybody else here has their hands up and all for justifiable reasons, but these are just things that are going to have to be considered. We're going to have to reframe the CIP to a more strategic plan than what we're doing now. So again, the model the structures remain sound the growing cost of maintaining the multiple structures is no longer sustainable for me. um that to protect the instructional quality and ensuring reliable learning environments within financial limit of our community, the district must consider reducing the number of buildings that we utilize
037and again like I said not be a popular choice and it may not necessarily be the answer but we're have to look at this again and should I translation Okay. >> So, staff levels um conservation reports, it's no surprise here, uh don't meet our requirements. Um I can tell you that um since the start of the school year um both myself Stewart transportation supervisor uh team our administrative assistant um Chris administrative assistant Amy my two mechanics who are all spending time in the roads driving to make sure that are getting to where they need to be every day. Um, and Stuart, I on average now work between 50 and 60 hours every week. And 60 hours is a light week for me because not only do I often spend six hours a day in school
038doing regular routes, I still have my regular job that I have to do. So I go home at night, I throw the computer and continue to work. I weekends and I run colleagues and and I do it because I really truly love this district. I grew up here. I went to school here. I have a passion for these communities, but I'm an old people and this going to stop at some point. Um, and I know I be frank with you, but you know, it's true. You just beat up on your feet and good people are not going to stay. We're going to go someplace else. at all. I was neighbor because I didn't want to work 60 hours a week. Well, guess what? Here I am doing it again. But I have faith that I
039was in training right now. I'm holding out that those are eventually they're going to license and I will have to, you know, do so much. Start at office and we can deal with our administrative duties on more private and regular um basis. Um, we're still having to cancel routine. I mean, took a lot of pride in the fact that last year we had so few cancellations. Um, and I've lost track of so many camp since the start of school this year. Um, there's nothing worse than being on the other end of the phone with a parent who is now off because their can't get to school because we couldn't pick them up. Um, and then beyond for contracting out district services. um cutting bus lines now takes our whole RTC schools got kids to school
040every day because we just can't do it. We don't have anybody to do it. Um contracting buses are taking athletic teams at least get them to their needs because we can't do that and primarily because these things are requiring our drivers without doing their regular routes. So we can go get them after the fact because those are after the regular routes are done. That's one addition. Um so u two two or three things that we're going to have to consider to address the pain point. Um we may shorten elementary runs um have drivers do multiple routes. Um our new home starting to be closer to our competitive race. Um athletic competitions need to start later in the afternoon allowing regular drivers to get done and become available for those competitions. Um and we may have
041to consider purchasing more of the class E style buses which is the flatmost um bus that we have. Uh and that you can fit a few more students onto them. So we can double that has been a lifesaver for us this year because we can double up a couple of athletic teams and yeah drop off an hour early as they need to be but we get it from there and it [clears throat] used to drop off another team someplace else. Um, how when are we going to know this is resolved? Well, when the folks in federal often see I in office more often, we'll know that we're making that. Um, so my to 10 years ago were operating 15 fullize buses and one big group and we're using three vans for special service out of
042district placements. We had two full-time mechanics and utilized a single bag attached to the Poland public works. The transportation budget was $1.5 million. Today we operate 14 fulls size buses, two mini buses for the local group and now 10 vans and a car for special service out of district placement. Um we have one and a half kids uh who are driving a vast majority of the time. Um and we're using the same driveway. Um despite the declining student population, our school size must have um remained nearly unchanged because the student population um count doesn't change um routes. You still have to go from point A to point B and whether you pick up 50 kids from point A to point B or 15 kids, the cost is still the same. You still need the same
043number of people to cover those those routes. Um but because even though a student of is declining. Number of bands needed for special services, behavioral support have tripled in that time. Uh this year the 256 budget is 2 million. So in a 10year period you know the budget gone $500,000 the growing questions on our transportation system and students um needs and service requirements increase are faster than our infrastructure and staffing are being able to keep up. Um, so if this continues, of course, how we're going to deal with it, we're going to have to reduce um our under uh utilized full size buses. Uh we're going to have to do some consolidation. We've done quite a bit of it this year. We're just going to have to continue to do more. Um we're going to
044have to consider and structuring our roofs where possible. I like to think that we spent a lot of work last summer making our pretty efficient. Um but working out for um let's see and on the on graduate steps um you know five to 10 years from now and this continues to get worse and our finances don't keep up we're going to have to consider canceling our high school altogether we're not required to state to provide transportation for the middle and high school kids only the pre through sixth grade city doesn't offer transportation to for students. I hate to think that we're going to get to that point because we're such a world community that if we don't get to some of these kids, those kids just are not going to go to school. question for
045Don. >> Don felt like I mentioned something down. John talked a lot about transportation and that that certainly is a frustration. I I didn't consider as pain point because uh John Stewart I know they're doing everything they can to make things happen and the communication has been very good. So I appreciate that. Um and I would say some of our kids that are participating activities don't realize the strength and that's because of the work being done behind the scenes. So it's off to John for that. My main point of list and Amy said two to three sentences. So I to group everything together careful um preparation of athletic and school facilities. So, uh, first of all, I know that all the other administrators talk about classroom programs and and getting kids to school and and
046I know that the high school and middle school level that the programs that I'm offering are a lot of people think clubs and activities that are, you know, something fun to do. But I would always argue that I feel against the care brings kids to school and glue for our our schools and our communities to come on a Friday night football game. Uh, people are coming to the place, parking lots full. So I think they're very very important part of what we do. Um and and we had at times great selfies and receive awesome compliments but I think every year some of those compliments are coming as often. Um so I would say prep talk about score the PV system's not turn on and the comment they had we had inspected was boy great especially
047for how old this is but one of these days it's not going to come on um so upgrading some of those um are um more specifically the big for me is Um we used to do a lot of contract services out to take care of the fields and and that was cut back and we used to treat our fields for I mean it's not just a field it's uh it's a plant so there's there's fertilization there's overseas all those things that take place and money those things have been cut back so um I've often said I'm really proud of the fact I think that we're doing really well in the um last year budget meeting somebody questioned um where maybe two years ago where all the buildings came from. We we've got a great community
048that contributed to help us make things happen and say with the concession standard built this fall for for the inside that's coming not through school budgeting stuff. Um but but those things were and John doing other jobs. I spent several hours on track to practice this fall. One after I came back from being soccer team sports award, I came here to turn the field lights on so that I can finish doing work on the field before it cold, which I could have stopped from happening, but it did. So, so fields and the facilities that we have to be able to provide safe and and first class um facilities for all the things we do on the athletic fields and in in the stage drama music areas. Um the other piece on the pain point is
049and we're surviving right now. Um, we used to have a contract for athletic training services and we have athletic training probably 90% of our high school events this year and last year but so I've got five or six people that I'm calling up to say you know two weeks from now on Friday night can you help us out and they'll show up and they'll be there for that emergency care we need athletically what we don't have in warrant is somebody on staff that will longterm treatment work with kids concussions or with kids with that injury. We've been really fortunate with some community people is that that hey take care of for a little bit. Um but but that's a problem for me because uh it's the expectation these days that you have person on site
050and so really working hard to do that. Um so those are two pain points for me. um to address those pain points. Um I would be awesome for our outside facilities uh if if we could instead if we could hire somebody in our staff that works on those that has background knowledge with that. A lot of times we're not getting that. we're getting a student that wants to work out that goes out to take care of that and it's just a let's mow the heck out of it and it's good you know whatever. So I that would be something that helps us in that if we could have I think we could create a a visionary committee for our facilities that might include head of the ground for operations and the principles love to have
051myself have some ideas with it but bring the meeting so we can talk about things that that we can keep fresh on the tables and what are those things that we can do in house that we don't need to send out a contract for But I think right now without being ad two years from now like John said with the CIP some of those things just still not getting done. I do want to appreciate John with a limited CIP. He's been helpful you know points where he can um help us and also want to thank the community because we have replaced three of our scoreboards that were original. Um thank businesses um but we all the other scoreboards are 26 years old. Our cast is 26 years old. It has a lifespan by the way
052pointing here. So we're overdue. Um and and all the equipment in the stage is and auditorium is original equipment and and those things have changed. Um to help solve this problem that those two things I think would help. Obviously as John said money help a lot of problems. Um I will tell you that we're doing everything we can. athletic program. We have extra money teams help pay for seed to cover the fields. Um we've taken gate money like we charge people to come into games and stuff. That money is going directly back into our athletic programs. It used to go back towards the kids directly to help herbs or sweat or pre stuff like that. Um a lot is now going back towards towards those other things that need to be done. We can't cover
053budget. Um the other pain point I was athletic trainer. So what could what could be done with that? Part of the problem is when co hit the college took a hit as well and there weren't as many athletic trainers graduating and also um they changed the requirement to be an athletic trainer and I think that a lot of the businesses the model people had was you work for a clinic or a healthare facility and then even you go be the athletic trainer at that at a school and a lot of places have left that model. So a lot of what schools are doing is hiring somebody as another position in their building. So instead of the $26,000 that we would contract with something like that or $30,000 becomes a full-time position with benefits and everything
054else which is a big cost to the district which is why we're limit so those points um the output in the future like John live in this community all blue clothing at home got thrown out and it's all naked and blue. So, I really believe in this. I live in town. I want things to be good. I want them to be here for our kids in the future. And so, I'll keep working at it. Um but I think um we're going to have to do something about an athletic trainer for sure and uh it's hard to uh forecast what like in two to three years because everything that John said about facilities and capital improvement it it affects my programs as well. So but I am grateful to work with the people that we do.
055So just looking at my I think If anyone has any questions, be glad to get >> Oh, thanks for being here. I know heard a lot of very thoughtful um explanation of what's going on this evening and um I think we can tell the high school story to add to what you heard this evening. Excuse me. [clears throat] Um both my the high school painoint and our three-year outlook are both connected to people and it's really about instructional staff before us. Um I shared with you all some numbers of where we're looking at our class sizes um we're maintaining if not growing um at the high school um in in in the foreseeable future. Um, and just like the elementary school level, um, high school kids need, um, adults to work with. Um, it's really,
056really important. Um, and in recent years, um, since I've been in here, we've reduced our our teaching staff by two, um, full-time teaching teacher positions. Um, essentially what is three head ed head ed positions. and um and those losses, they just um create constraint on the flexibility of of what we can do with our students um and the needs that they have as they're trying to earn those credits towards graduation. Um so my um my team will be resolved. Um encouragement is is to maintain our staffing levels from the FY26 budget to this development of FY27 budget if at all possible. and my the three-year outlook um you know talking about the baseball um that we're in year 27 and about third and we have a lot of staff that have been around since those
057early years you know we lose a couple every year um I was looking at our staff list and and doing a head count and we and using kind of the year of 2006 um about a third of our staff have been around um since 2006 and so um you know really that those that years of experience and that talent um really hard to replace and we're seeing is um applicant pools um we hire for positions are really slim. Um there's just it's really hard to track qualified candidates. Um so um my pitch to be thinking about is to support all those things um that we need. It's salaries, it's benefits um but it's also resources to do really neat things with kids. um that's what ultimately attracts people um to wanting to come um to
058teach here. Um, so that's the kind of stuff be thinking about um, you know, as we move forward and what we can do with our students in high school, you're up and saw me go and kind of that you really our challenge what year is flexibility we one teacher that last year but we fortunately have excellent staff that does a great job of filling those holes unfortunately you know it's just dayto day very difficult I hear once teachers out where Easter teachers are out tomorrow it's like oh boy you know how are we gonna make make that work um because finding jobs is also very difficult but um I I am grateful for the flexibility of staff that is on hand. However, it's getting more and more challenging and that's the sort of thing that
059does keep me how do we make sure that our kids needs are being met with the staff we have available over the next two to three years. Um, you know, I we recently had a board meeting where I had the chance to speak about our school and we kind of uh was able to to say just how excited it was. We didn't have the highest this year. Plus, we had a couple reductions, but we didn't virus. Everybody else stuck around. Well, got to be careful what you say because agree with uh you know, very in line with what Eric is sharing. They've been awesome teachers in our district and staff members in our district for a long long time. I'm excited for them to have the opportunity to retire and it creates opportunities which is
060really positive too uh to bring new people into a building, new people into a staff. Um but it it certainly is one of those things that you know you're hopeful that you're going to get the right people the right fit the right applicants with time. Um, and I think one of the things we need to really take a close look at over the next two to three years is the change of students. Um, kids are changing so much um over the time that I've been in this building. Uh, academic needs are changing. Um, we have attendance needs that we're not all the same when when I started working in the school and I think a lot of it goes under the idea. So, I think over the next couple years, we're going to have a
061lot of conversations about the school look like um as we move forward. Um and maybe some of these new staff members we bring are going to give us just the the right titles. But, uh those are the things I think about as we move forward. >> You're up. So my point is around training our staff because our students are changing and they're more challenging. Um like Sean mentioned they are complicated rapidly. when I say rapidly might 8:30 in the morning and their present very different at 9:30 and then again 11:30 um just in my way with our time in the district to train our staff it's a simple pain point but it's really important um for us to think about I did have some other things I mentioned in my pain points and and it
062ties into my two plan so I'm going to just kind of leap over there. Um the outlook for special services is we've had consistent numbers but is changing is the needs of our students and so our program numbers for people to see programs for those self-contained where the students spend the majority of their day in the special ed setting and we've done a nice job the district we had a lot of support that started when um Ken healing the superintendent to grow our social emotional behavior programs and we've achieved those ro goals we have equity level we have middle school level we have high school We have FLS. We were able to bring students that were in middle school to middle school, high school. So, our programs are established here. Need to do more staff
063training because the kids that are in there are changing. But when you look at our numbers of students in special education programs, that's a third of our students who are identified with IEPs. So, that's a large population of our students. We still have students that have needs that we cannot within the district that will not change and they are outbased. That's what John talked about getting those 16 students to and from our communities to their schools in different um communities that we're you know paying for. Um and I think that one of the things that we could help would help special services solve this is if we looked at the elementary level at grade level schools. It is very at the high school and middle school students need to change or new transfer in. We
064might have staff in FLS that can come help out in academics or somebody from the resource room can go help out. But at the elementary level, we don't have that. Our staff can't easily move from one building to another. But we move our students and that's something that people need to think about. If your student is a student with a disability and they need a program, they're not going to their community school. We're moving them to Mechanic College to go to, let's say, LSG. And that's something that that I worry about, but also is a tax on our resources because we're moving bids like Domino's around to where the staff are. So I just think that as we talk about our elementary schools, it's important to consider what grade level buildings would look like. How
065many two three is is a discussion not for me. Um but it would help special services consolidate and use our resources more effectively. That's my brief. >> [clears throat] >> Y >> so in my um more expanded explanation for the two year three career outlook I talked about incoming in kindergarten for our functional life skills program this year. Um there were six of them. So it more than doubled the program. So when we look at bringing in four and three year olds, we're going to look at similar numbers of students who might need that program, three six kids that might need that FLS program. The other students most likely will be inclusive like in the preks we have. So we're going to increase the number of our prek students. So we'll need more space for
066that. But we're also going to increase the number of related services that students have. So OT, PT, speech, social work. Um, and that's going to be a problem like I think of my especially our current OT and PT have a room. They provide those services where they can find space, the gymnasium, the hallway, and the classroom. Um, so those demands are going to increase. I know how to carve enough space, but it's something that we'll have to do. We have a committee that's looking at that transition and and how that will impact them. But those students will need prek rooms like prek FLS or ASD autism spect sort of program won't be with kindergarters and first graders. It's not appropriate. So that is something that we'll have to problem solve through. >> So um can
067you please just share with the group an overview what CDS is? How did this about to take in? >> Sure. It's a state law that the public schools are required to take students with disabilities who are three and four. And what that means for us is that we'll be responsible for what they call appropriate education. So that's services. So special education services, related services like OTP, speech and somewhat work at that age. It's not as common, but also doing referrals. So that is the child responsibility looking at identifying students in that age group who might have a disability and that will be something that takes a lot of resources. Um because those referrals come obviously from not just schools but also parents, doctors, community members that might have contact with kids that might think at
068that age disability and it needs to be identified and what those services will be. >> That's a brief synopsis. Is that helpful? >> Yeah, I think talk a little bit about current state >> they will so our staffing that we will need to hire to work only with the three and four year old with will be covered by the state that's state law state law will have to be changed in order for the districts to have to take on that cost there are upgrades that also uh come with being able to take on those fit those classrooms as well as ensure that there are state funds. um as we start to look at we've heard we are seriously looking at uh the inclusive prek that just being at uh PCS because that is where the
069functional life skills program is which as you've heard say out of state that modular when we talk about modular it would be connected to the school standalone and not necessarily prek would be out there but there would be students out there want to make sure that they have access to typically developing peers So to answer your question is the the staffing for that. There's also going to be costs that are referred to our district because they would not pay for a um or would they pay for a book? Would they pay for veance? Would they pay for modular? The answer to that is no. That's not part of that. >> All right. So just kind of tapping into my pain point. I want to take a moment to appreciate that the pain point I brought
070up last year was something that we actually are in of accomplishing this year. Um with the budget last year 2526 we were able to start to improve the network which was absolutely keeping me up at night. Um, and we're now in process of moving to something else that's keeping me up. Uh, but it's kind of a common theme. Um, the staff, the technology department has two techs and myself. So, we're looking at between 7800 to one. So when you're looking at people, it's that there's 700 of you to the one tech that can support you, which is running real thin with the department. Um, and that's including myself, which is pulling me into the main office, recruiting computer, or trying to help out as we can. Um, that's keeping me working at night. Um, I'll
071respond to the email and see you guys maybe 8 9 sometimes 10 o'clock at night or 4 o'clock in the morning. Um, just because that's where we're at. Um, the way to fix it obviously staff. Um, it's not something that's going to be fixed this year. Uh, we are staying float right now, but with co that technology boom that we had publication, it really is and life cycle of that technology which is created more strength technology department. Um so hopefully that kind of works with my two to three year plan where I can get somebody that has sort of systems network administration experience or tech in here to help offset the the workload. um just to be able to support everybody at a time because there are things that do through the cracks and it's
072not fair to every and it's we're we're trying but we're we're um but it's something that optimistically we're at least the technology department we've gotten through one pain point working through another and we're keep on Okay. Um, mine short and sweet. Uh, anybody have any questions? All right. Thanks for listening to all of us. Um, it's actually hard to follow. uh what my colleagues have talked about so far because I have a different problem. I have a growth problem. Um and which is an awesome thing. Um but my growth problem is like Mark mentioned um we have limited staff. Um and that growth problem brings revenue which helps pay for um support our our program. Um I basically have a staff of me as the full-time salary person. I have an admin assistant. Um we're
073open four days a week. Um, and I have a an instructor and I have a coordinator of student services. Um, and a um part-time multilingual slashademic um instructor as well. And when I say that I have a growth problem, um trying to uh offer enrichment and workforce programming um requires more than just being open one night a week. Currently, we're open one night a week. Um so our hours are 9 to 3 Monday through Thursday and 5:30 to 8:30 Wednesday evenings. Um, when we are open on Wednesday evenings, we have all rooms except for one that's available to us in our in our space to navigate all the people that want to teach enrichment and our workforce programming into one room one night a week for roughly within a 30w week um, school schedule is
074pretty challenging. Um and with that, uh being open additional evenings would require um a staff member to stay late. Um so our current program is on Wednesday evenings. We have an our academic instructor and our coordinator are here on Wednesday evenings. This is part of um our programming because we offer academics Wednesday evening as well as Monday through Thursday during the daytime to offer the enrichment and workforce on another evening requires somebody to stay. um due to um hourly pay um for other staff members, I'm the one who ends up staying because I'm salary, which is not a problem. Um but 12, 14 hour days gets a little as John Mark everybody has mentioned that that we're thin. Um but we have um a lot of things to be grateful for this year. We won
075a grant um a 20 plus thousand grant that we were able to implement construction program. I actually um have class my construction classes on Wednesday and Thursday evenings. So, I left my class who I have a very confident um construction instructor, but I'm over here and they're over at the adult. Um, so I'll be running back over there after this is over to close down the building. Um, so my pain point that keeps me up at night and have I need to grow. Um, but in order to receive grants, I have to able to say that I can fulfill those grants like the construction program. I also have to have the staff and the space available. So, it's kind of a double-edged sword. um growing a program which is great uh but finding the resources
076is also limited. One of the great things about having more enrichment and workforce there's revenue source and in order to provide for the current staff which are couple of grants that support academic multilingual programming each year seem to see a reduction in those grants. One is a state grant, one is a federal grant. Those grants [clears throat] add up to roughly,000. That's not enough to support to in part time instructor. So, in order to create more revenue to support our high school um diploma program as well as our multilingual program, we need to raise funds. That is um through our enrichment programming and our workforce programming. both our engagement and workforce programming. When we offer a course, if those classes um run, meaning we offer them um we have enough students to pay for the
077course. We don't usually very rarely do we at least break even. So in order to support our current staff, we need to increase our our programming. But I mentioned in order to increase, we need some staff or some space. And one of the things that I proposed is to have a very part time evening person to cover the office. um to to see if that um the resolution would we be able to offer um courses and in the workforce and enrichment and be open for even that would be ultimate. But even if I could have one more night open um and the neat thing about the programming. um is it falls in line with um having students in our community gain workforce training like for example our construction program our students currently they will receive
078an OSHA uh certification first aid certification as well as nationally recognized NCCER for construction core certification. These these different certifications are recognized throughout the country. So, not only does it help our 16, but it also helps the entire community and our students will gain employment um which will also provide a livable and construction world more than livable um wage. Shel, what about your two and three year outlook? Is that merge together? >> Two to three year outlook would be um having a thriv enrichment and being able to offer more work courses like healthcare and and tele training. >> All right. environment, it's important to preur and as you heard Kate Miller allude to and I'm sure all three elementary principles would attest to that the K6 um elementary or English language arts programming needs to
079be revisited as you heard multiple people say um learn needs are changing um the way kids brain is changing and our teaching practices also need to change and align to the current research and the most current science reading research. Um, any program has very strong foundational skills for our youngest readers and writers and programs that integrate skills cohesively or together rather than in isolation where um research goes is most effective. And we have a leadership team who will be working to kind of identify needs and look at essential skills. Um, they'll be looking at observing other schools and programs and um looking at ed reports and and trying to find out what would be best for our learners and our 16. Um, and so my two to three year out merged with this because it
080is two to three year process. It's a it's a process to um research and learn, observe and look into programs to find what would be the best fit for our our youngest learners. Um and the implementation itself is a process. So >> so this year was in year one of implementation. Um year one is more of the routine building routines and then the year two implementation is more of refining the teaching practices. So just yeah just maintaining what we have for the math is what I mean for um similar an implementation there we're also looking into like the state offers um the K12 remaining program but those are also it's through the DOE but the everything that goes with the cost. So, you know, everything we're looking at will be with the cost. It's just
081a matter of kind of trying to minimize those costs and what would be best for our nurse. >> Yeah. Once you have the initial implementation just maintaining As you know, my point was funded last year was the software. Normally, I wouldn't even have point this year because it is listening to everybody else. There's just so many needs. Um but my concern is because I'm retiring that for a new person to come up on and have to learn the job and all the demands of federal and state requirements that they might not have time to do the HR as well as the payroll person who assists with HR who's probably retiring soon herself. That's also a huge job for someone to come in and try to learn that school payroll is kind of a beast on
082its own. So I do have concern about there not being an HR person here. Most businesses some have HR departments. I've gone to several schools around the area of an HR director and your assistant if not at least an HR assigned person. And so that is a concern for me that we don't have someone even part-time person to do some HR. That brings us to the end of our pain points two to three year outlooks. Are there any questions that have been budget committees minded some feedback or some comments or maybe some compliments? [laughter] Uh we'll uh our next step for for 18 is our one meeting better to understand that and then from there during that time is new proposals. So if there is be a proposal that is brought forward that it'll be
083discussed there and brought back to the 18 to talk about fully. So will there be an offset? Probably not. We are already like from last year if I remember we've reduced positions. We looked at it single line make cuts. So there is there is really not an opportunity to have an offset from where it would be additional cost. Uh I just want to say thank you because this point and it's so helpful to me because I don't have any kids in school at home so I know what you're doing. So thank you very much for doing it. Um, oh, sorry. >> Yeah. assessment. So the university screen that we use and so I think the bottom level would be that the biggest top one is meeting all your needs. So we want to have the
084majority of our kids one instruction program where the majority of kids are having >> scores >> well for everybody. >> Spring has scores indicating the student behind and then it's two or more years behind is that red. So those are kids that are >> K2 or this is just for reading. So their schools will use it for math department math program. They have a 4K too. >> Thank you. >> And they have a part of it too. It's for cost savings also. Cost >> have a couple more agenda items for the budget committees for some of you. So I do appreciate I'll be on hold for a moment. So the next part from our the the committee is it's no surprise to the 18. We've already talked about the next part of the packet is
085our budget priorities and they know they've seen this. We we went through it yesterday again. Um this is built upon our initial discussions of their pain points here and pain point was not the first time that we've heard each other. uh we we we our first meeting is talking about those pieces and put them together into our priorities. So basically I had cut this whole entire like one pager down to to one thing that's what we got. That's really it is that's that is the goal for the FY27. Um but really that's that second one that first par the second paragraph there which means keeping the staffing cap maintaining reasonable class size and student supports addressing their space facilities and planning responsibly for rising costs needed positions and future program shifts and then um below
086all of that is is is the priorities I listed all of the put it all together to capture it how we prioritize budget, what comes in, what doesn't. Um because we don't really see for 10 to 20 years, but we don't really necessarily have an academic plan that's even like two. So that was the point two to three year outlook to where do we need to look next and how do we get there? And so the rest of budget priorities is just you know the things that are I'm key in my mind from budget and team know that is my responsibility to take on the three [clears throat] that have IE our plan is to take we have signed on the state uh to take on the foury olds for next fiscal year and then
087school year 20 will take on the three-year-olds and that is when the law says you have to take on the three and four year olds. So we want to make sure that we're planning So, um it's it's overwhelming, but it's also an exciting call at the same time to have more to make our special education program better. Um part of that too is you John and the talk about CIP this unrealistic plan. Uh is there a way to make that actually realistic that we can feel good about achieving what's on there? and John had those conversations about doing just minimize that doing what it's really life safety because our CIP has turned into really an emergency fund and I'd also like to suggest too this finance committee as well as here is establishing some reserves
088because I want to leave this place better than I found it superintendent it's my turn to to move on and part of I think is one of our deficits is not having reserve to be able to tap into it my my uh my push or my My uh documentation would be that we look at CIP reserve as well as we look at a transportation reserve and we look at the special education reserve because we do the best to forecast into the next budget year but then there's the surprises that you heard Joe talk about our our our FLS were a surprise to us. We got kids that move in and now we're paying $90,000 for them to go out of district and we just didn't plan for that. So the All of our staff talk
089about their burnout, the stretch, doing multiple jobs. Um, and you know, we're pretty decent with our positions. I mean, we have two bus driving positions, tell you friends. Um, and we um, you know, we increase our levels on contracted services. Um, but those becomes concerns for for us as a group. Um, and then the the cancellation of roots that just that pains John, that pains all of us when that our kids can't get to school and be able to work with families and ways to be able to go pick them up if they truly can't get to school because we don't want to set up, but we don't want to have that. Have to cancel bus routes. We want to think about not having middle school, high school bus run. Um part of too is
090our our budget is really think about sustaining that amount instruction that we set out with our K through six program but also looking at how do we make sure that we do plan for a three-year phase and for our literacy program. for Mary. Your question is we'll have some money in the budget next year and then an additional in year two to be spread out over two years and continue our title one support looking at that. We see two lenses for that. There's the federal government and sort of where that's gone with uh saying money will be there, money will be there things okay this year. We do wonder what title what title stream will be funded what won't as we have turned the page here. also too talk about the title ups and downs.
091Um, actually they will not qualify for title one funds next year. She does know that. However, we won't be able to grandfather them in for one year and so that will be a a big push to get but they fal year 27. So they receive push continue push you also you know meet through the the training of our functional life skill staff as well as our star program is really on the line they've then uh support help in classrooms with being able to uh see students get students what they need and be part of that it's it's it's hard all the jobs in education are hard and I want to make sure that my staff feel comfortable, confident, trained. that does weigh fully on me and then um you know overall our our kids needs
092like our growing right population is sure we have less kids we had the October counts but the individual needs have increased so it's not like necessarily your enrollment is down but I would say our needs of each one of those students uh make them count for more than just one student sometimes Uh and then just really making sure our staff can sustain and continue to show up to work on a daily basis specifically our one John. So that is kind of our budget priority put together one document nighter. What do they allow the reserve at the end right >> specific ones of I believe it's uh special ed transportation operations and I think there's one bucket you might know Right. Yes. Part of district budget meeting that the voters have to approve the reserve kind
093of like how we articles where you have the um the CI you vote for and then you vote to expend it. >> Yeah. We have a bunch of them in town, but they're the same for even on the county. They don't certain wonderful because you say set of tax but don't know and that was one thing that I uh first relax like oh learning about reserves from the other superintendent and then really thinking about where we are with CIP ventilation projects as well as the special money to the bus speed. It's like how we deal with the problem but also set the next people up for even better success what we can talk to this year together and then um there's no other questions on budget priorities. The next piece in your packet is just
094some talking points for kind of where we going is it's always good just to flash back for a moment where last year's budget was just under $30 million. Um and that was increase from 25 to 26 or 5.1% for $1.46 46 million that may come up here at town houses much board meetings and that tax impact was $100,000 home. You may say wait a minute wasn't that's that's not the tax because we had that um that the the yep the I would have been there was no a little bit clearer to me as represented as we start to project out next year. Uh and this next graph that we've talked about too which was a lot everything was in our budget booklet from FY26 which is still on the website is just our pupil cost.
095So those numbers can be updated because there is a narrative out there that our spending is out of control or too much. And you can see just right between our 16 and the state uh the state spends just over 20,000 and we are at 17,600,000 per cost and districts around there. It's always good to compare um some people like some people don't. and then to capture our productions I did here that you know really think about sacrificing and I really hurt the talk about really thought about that and continue to sacrifice think about the daily work every day as well as we've gone through in the last two budget cycles um and the city of 26 only took one which I'm very grateful for but have um we have subtract n and a half teachers
096and nine nine support eight support staff positions over the last two years. We have gained a half administrative assistant to the superintendent which I'm very thankful for and also a half teacher. We have gained those. So there is that piece I do want to mention and again thank the budget committee and for supporting that. The next one was actually the image that John is referring to. you know that Warren Clark of how much the CIP should be every single year and then how much budgeted and how much is expended. I mean honestly too if you go back like you said yourself almost fail the CI has always been more than than what budgeted for. So I you know I think it's time we really consider how do we say what is the CIP I mean
097and how do we address address that so there is a gap I mean this year alone it's 7 million that's what the CI and that's just for this year alone that's not to be all of the others that got that's just this year so um that's something that you may continue to talk about boards And then our next one is is a little confusing but it does show that our bound the ED29 that's subsidy that out at the end of January February February 1 state law to come out uh they October counts and that we are down 60 sorry 53 students and then the other part too is that our economic advantaged students are also down get news of some student certification which uh has changed that number since I've had that in there. So,
098uh still is a is a is a decreased deficit but uh so that will hurt our subsidy because we have less students and they have students that are non disadvantaged who carry a higher weight. So I I am I am nervous about our 279s. We also know that valuations are up in all three of our towns continue to go up, which that means less subsidy uh from from the state. And finally too, if you can just remind your select boards and town councils, mayor sounds like you might have to cost sharing changing. So it's a two-year phase approach. And then in 20 f it'll be 18 and 20. So that's always a good thing to remind you. >> What does it say? We only have if anyone >> Yeah, because we only have the one
099we have one PC significance. is that down 24 students% keeps me up. I'm confused on that chart. You're saying >> high school is up 21. So yeah. You got 24 - 23 - 50 + 21. >> Oh, sorry. >> [laughter] >> We'll have more later on. >> So my next steps with a team is turn their individual budget sheets to Stacy. basic just makes enough years for me to have to supply back up for line by line. So they send $10,000 in supplies and they take you through what makes up to get that $10,000. So that's the level of detail that I look at. Um and then from there adjustments can be during those meetings of oh you got this this is this is incorrect. Do you have your month number there? They found quote
100that came in that they've waited for to make some adjustments and that January Stacy have February put together the budget we consider new proposals and then uh then March is when we start to up again there's quite a bit of time between now and then but that's also so you understand that there is a lot of work that goes in but then there's also the stories to be told of of of each department that of RS 216 and then in those meetings we do go article by article uh that's budget meeting changed that up last year say to go article by article that's got the end in mind seem to work well thumbs up and positive pieces >> and it also into smaller chunks so it's much more manageable and uh we'll go over forms
101of how we board and they are looking for you know recommendations from the a team which then comes to you that you can recommend that and then the board ultimately is the one to who put that forward. If you're your town council or anyone in your community asking where's web where the all budget stuff it's on the website [laughter] so there like this packet tonight like I want to go through the pain awesome love it it's right on the website and the office tool there too. So just want to make sure that you know that's there. Yeah. Yeah. And we do plan to have another event like that community forum bring everyone together and talk about budget as the topic that'll be. So we will be communicating about that a lot and at the time
102we're planning to release the budget booklet that was new last year that was very well received at the meet and community. So, we're planning to do that again, build on that success. >> And then your last page might be a stretch, but um the school funding formula is very confusing. Um the DOE has a wonderful school finance director like Stacy Galler, right? Like uh her name and she her she does a presentation at the school board and superintendent conference over here and actually recorded it. So uh it is available for you the link so you don't have to type type it in but now 17 minutes we do plan on chunking it up with the finance committee [laughter] so I encourage you know if the three US town council The last three. Yeah, that's why
103I went to stage. I went to this this >> Yeah, it was great. It was very very complicated and intense, but the first resource there, the line for information and calculations, that's I was actually pretty good. It's only like 11 pages. >> [laughter] >> It's super complicated, but yeah, >> she's very good explain. >> Thank you all so much for your time tonight. Take one time.