001Everyone, welcome to the MSAD51 board of directors meeting for Thursday, March 18th. This is a board workshop, so we do have a little bit of a shorter agenda. A couple items that we needed to get on today just because of timing and then we'll have public comment and then our workshop. So, we're going to start with an item for action. We have um an item around an electrical service upgrade project that needed to come before the board today because it's timesensitive. And I'll be asking to start this by asking for a motion to approve the electrical upgrade project proposal in the amount of $488,000. >> So moved. >> Thank you, Jesse. Can I get a second? >> Second. >> Thank you, Megan. All right. I would like to ask Scott to present this or Jeff.
002>> I'll ask Jeff to present this. >> Yep. This item went to facilities committee for review. This has been part of the um ongoing discussions and it is related to the one campus project. Um at the high school as you all know um the high school was built over a long period of time. There's been additions made over couple well a century and a half or almost century and a half at this point and as they've done that there have been a lot of electrical um pieces that have been kind of put together over this per long period of time and they are com they are not to code uh at all even close and there's a part of the electrical service right now that runs um through the middle of the building and it
003goes underground and as we're trying to build capacity you know, electrical service. We've really out we've really gotten to the end of our ability to do that, to add anything to this building. And it's also a safety issue that's been flagged. Uh it's been flagged for some time and um it would be better to take care of it through this project. And it's been recommended to us. Um the architects um did up a quote. We we have this quote actually from CMP um that came via Steve Blat's office and it's for 488,000 to um basically stop putting service underneath the middle of the high school. That's essentially what it will do. Um and u bring everything back up to code where it should be. So, um I know it is a lot of money and
004it is something that um quite frankly I I don't I think we would have recommended it whether it was through the one campus project or not. We do have um the money through the one campus project and it is related to this project in order to do a lot of the work that we've been doing uh and to just make sure that we're we're complying with code. So, I'm recommending that you approve this strongly recommending that you approve this item. I'll open up to the board for questions. >> Megan, >> it might help to to sort of point out how it was characterized test on the finance committee meeting, the most recent one, which was that it really was a safety issue. >> Yes. >> Um, yeah. >> Facilities or finance? >> Excuse facilities. >>
005Not finance facilities. Excuse me. Thank you. It may it may help to give a little bit of context about that just to uh convey some of the urgency that I think we felt when when we were in the facility meeting. >> Yeah. I mean it's you know I want to convey the urgency but also say that we've done everything we can to make sure that the building is safe nonetheless but longterm it is it is not a safe situation and and it really needs to be um upgraded. We need to bring this to code. Having an electrical wire or having electrical service underneath a commercial building like a school building is not safe. At one point that's the way it was done. It is not safe today and it's an old service. So um it
006has been conveyed to us that it is a safety issue that needs to be corrected. >> Thanks. >> So as as part of this are we in some way future proofing ourselves if we need to add additional capacity in the future? I mean, so not just replacing the old, but are we >> we are at capacity >> ready for the future with this? >> Yeah, that's a great point. We are at capacity with our service. So, we really can't add anything to this high to the high school electrical service without upgrading our service to begin with. So, that's another important point. It's not just a safety issue, it's a capacity issue for us. We can't do any more work at this high school. Um, and it's really on its last leg. >> Sean, did you
007have a question? I had pretty much the same question. I guess the only thing I wanted to tie in was I think that relates then to the energy project that we approved is that that would increase the amount of electrical load I'm guessing. So that would also cause an impetence to do this, right? >> Yeah. Any sort of work going forward is going to cause cause us to come into question whether or not we can even maintain, you know, or do any work in this high school without upgrading the service. So it is it is a problem. It's a question mark every time now that we're going to do something. So, I know that the facilities committee is considering or the board will be considering at some point energy projects um for the high school
008which is needed and in order to do that the capacity of the we've been told that the electrical service will have to be upgraded in order to do that. You've really we've maxed out the capacity. Um the high school has got a lot of things that need to be replaced. one of the items that we're uh recommending also for next year as a capital item for the intercom as you know um which I presented in the budget as well um the intercom system is extremely old here too we need to replace it so not that that's directly related to this this request but it all kind of goes together we have a lot on the long-term facilities plan that's related to the high school I think for certain upgrades and just maintenance honestly and with
009the amount of um work that we're doing for the one campus project and just beyond that as well, this is always going to be one of those things that continues to come up. And so from a safety perspective, like obviously this is not the ideal timing to be dropping something that's relatively this sizable. And I think given the fact that we pushed this, we thought it was good for discussion here is is kind of a reflection of like its importance towards the long-term sustainability of that that building and honestly safety. Um so um I think it's fair for discussion just given the amount, but I it's not something I would like take lightly and considering the on campus and contingencies that we have. But I think it's it's the responsible action to take. Everybody already
010knows my question. >> So if we knew that this was a problem, we knew this was going to be done. Why can't we take it from capital improvements versus taking it from the one campus funding? >> You can take it from I mean that's a choice that the board can make is to take it from capital reserves instead of the one campus project if you choose to do that. Um I with the other projects that we have earmarked for capital reserves for next year um we're trying to transfer as I mentioned at the pres presentation a few weeks ago money from um emergency reserves in order to cover our capital for next year. We wouldn't have enough money to do those projects and do this project um on top of that. >> And is that
011long-term part of what you emailed out today, Tim? the the the number of items. Yes, there are a number of items within that long-term facilities project that would require >> an probably an upgrade to the electrical, including some of the HVAC. We've talked about renovations and science wings, you know, like there's it's just there's a number related that this would be like a precursor to that. So, it's something that we're probably going to have to address and if we push it off, we push it off. But at some point, it's that like it's going to be something that we probably have to address >> and and get the code. >> I'm not questioning that it needs to be done. I'm questioning which which column do we take it out of? Where where do we take
012this money from? >> It would make sense to expend it with the project because most of what's happened around the campus is related to that electrical and the other project. You also would basically expend it over the life of the bond. Um, which it's a pretty sizable capital project. It would make sense to expend it on that bond instead of trying to shortf fund it in one year with capital funds. It makes sense to uh expend that over the years of its useful life. >> Can we get an update on where we're at? I know I you've sent us stuff, but just as a reminder of where we're at as far as coming in under because of contingencies, things like that. >> Uh, in terms of the the one campus project budget, yes. >> Yeah,
013we can we can get you that. We're um we we don't have the numbers right. I don't have the numbers right now. We met with the design team last week to kind of get a sense of that and just like, you know, the highs and lows of where we're at. And we asked them to um I kind I guess come in again with like now that we're at where we're at, we had some unexpected things, probably some unlike the oh, we got those back kind of things. What's the latest in terms of like the the current estimate where we're projected to get to? And so I think I mean it's it's reasonable to before we make any kind of major decisions around that to wait for that. I just don't know how long that's going
014to take from Doug on the design team to get. >> So just to recap, we would be voting on this without knowing the most current budget. >> There's definitely money to cover this. >> I know there's money to cover it, but >> there's definitely money. >> It's just we don't have the exact figures. If you're looking for the exact number, I mean, we're still within the the amount of the the larger bid project which was under the amount that we had allocated for that. So, some of the things within that project, you know, have come up, but still with within the amount that was budgeted. So, there was still um other funds that we hadn't hocated yet outside of the the contract of Great Falls, which was the largest part of it. >> Right. That
015list is still being priced out that the facilities committee had requested um to look at. We don't have any of those pricing, but we're this is well within that amount that we have. I have a question. Are there any other things that have been on our radar that you're going to come back and say um this might be a good time to address that are sort of related to the one campus project? >> There are there is a whole bunch of items of the facilities committee is still sorting through that we've asked for pricing. There's stuff for example in the back of the high school that we know that has been work and we've we had the uh members of the facilities committee that met with the design team to look at those items and
016get pricing on that. Uh for example, there's items like paving the entire campus after the project is done. We've asked for pricing on that. Um so there's there is a list that the facilities committee is monitoring. This one feels urgent and that's why I'm bringing it to the board outside of that process. And and this was flagged by CMP um while we were doing electrical service upgrade to the maintenance building. We had to upgrade the service to get back to the maintenance building. in one of the options that we looked at, why can't we tie it into the existing high school service or that was a question mark that I had um that came up at the time and when we reevaluated it and um Steve Blat's office looked at it, CMP looked at it,
017our facilities department looked at it, it was like a no-go. You know, first of all, it wasn't safe. It there was no capacity. Um and so all this kind of came up as part of those discussions as CMP was providing service to the maintenance building out back and had to go a different route that whole you know in that in that respect. So um but there is a list but this one feels very urgent and that's why we brought it forward outside this process. >> Thank you for going into more detail about why that came up. Now, um I think that's really helpful. And also just to to address that the other question you had, Lauren, every year there's revolving renovation fund that we try to apply to through the state and hope that we
018get some of the projects paid through for that and if they don't get picked up, then they remain on the long-term facilities list. So, for example, we found out we didn't get any additional new monies this year for things that we are hoping to get picked up that will then remain on our list and then we'll have to make decisions um about when um and how we might pay for those. But um so is the hope with this one given that we have the large project already scheduled this summer for the science wing that we would be able to get to this first? I don't know what is coming first, but my they it was told to us that we really need to prioritize this um and we need to do it fast so that
019we can get it on CMP's schedule. >> Okay. >> So, if we Oh, did I No. >> Oh, okay. >> I'm just asking the question because I'm I'm a little uncomfortable without knowing more of where we're at. I I am very much in favor of this. It's obviously needed. If it can come out of one campus, I think that's great. I just I feel like I need a little bit more um of a look uh you know, a better look of where we're at. So, what would that mean to put this off till our next board meeting for example? Well, and one of the things I I just want to say Tim had referenced we Tim was part of a meeting that we had with Steve Blat's office last week and one of the things
020that we went through was generally where are we at with the project budget. So without giving exact figures, we have not expended the project contingency which is completely different from um the low bid amount that we uh that the project is under. So we're under millions of dollars in in that respect. Um, and we'll again we can get those exact figures for you, but we haven't even expended the the project contingency. >> Yeah. >> But we're concerned about the project contingency because we're still early in the prek1 project. >> Um, and we have to also remember that we finished the maintenance project. We finished the turf project. We have finished um many of the on-site uh improvements already. We have a lot more to go. Um, and we're now about a quarter of the way
021into the preK1 school project. Um we're concerned that you know the prek1 and the miw edition obviously is um probably about half done now. So with that in mind, we still have um I think it's around 800,000 in project contingency that we haven't expended when you look at all of those projects put together. So we still have the money and then we still have the the low bid money. So we we're got it's around 3 million, but it's well within that that amount >> um that you're expending. So there's no concern of going over >> at all. >> I I'm not concerned about >> I I understand your concern and I you know, but I wouldn't recommend it if I thought there was any danger of coming close to um not having money in the
022project to do it. >> Totally get that. I had heard sort of this number being floated that we were looking at 3 million, but that had not been said at a meeting >> to the best of my knowledge. So, I just wanted to hear at least some sense of what we're looking at so that >> and that's just from coming under bid. That's that's coming under. Yeah, we would have talked about at the meeting where we approved the bid on the project to Great Falls because that would have been like the difference between what we had for that bid and um what we ended up awarding and we took some stuff out like or said we weren't going to do some of the things. >> There was a lot of alternates that didn't end up
023on the >> right like the very expensive parking. when I um could someone also speak to what happens to the money that we ultimately don't expend? I mean, I know that we got a question about whether the bond would be cut by a certain amount or at what point kind of is that decision made that that money isn't needed and then what happens to it? >> Yeah, we haven't permanently bonded yet on the project. So, that we can also just not bond the full amount. Um, obviously that's part of the reason we're pricing out the other items. Some of them were pulled out before we went out to bid. Some of them never were part of the bid, but have come up. And that's why we have a running list that the facilities committee has
024been looking at and has asked for pricing on so that you know can make decisions. Those items will come to the board eventually um for approval. So, um prior to going out to permanent bonding, >> which I think permanent bonding would be November. >> Yeah. Next fall. >> Okay. So Tim, you feel that this is appropriate as chair of facilities as a >> I feel like the getting it done is appropriate. I think I have questions on a the a timing of when we have to do it, right? Like getting on CMP's schedule is nice, but like we also probably depending on where we pay for it, if people are uncomfortable with putting it on one campus, which I could like totally see 1,000% the reason why. I also see the benefit of doing that
025on such a big thing and what it would handcuff us if we don't. And this is very much relevant to do it. Um, but I I also like I'm one that likes more information than than not. So, waiting to hear back in terms of where we're looking at or where we're going to fall or the latest update from from them before we commit to spending money out of one campus. I would support that as well. So, like it's we brought this to the board specifically for this discussion rather than like here's our recommendation. And I just think it's it's important that I think >> eventually we're going to have to pay for this. >> Sure. >> Right. Like I think that's I think that's just it's coming our way. And so it's it's >> worthy
026for us to figure out right now when we want to do it. I think earlier >> is probably better. But um like again the CMP schedule thing of like how we do that. It's let's figure out when we have to do it like one when one what's the rate what's the thing that we need to install it for like what's the thing that we need to install it before like what's the reason for the timing like right now I think is worthy of it discussion >> so I'm going to say that I knew this was an issue I think it's been an issue for a while here at the high school but I will say that I did not know the extent of the safety concerns associated with this item until very recently so my
027urgency And my strong recommendation comes from asking the board to act on something that I now have a lot more information about in terms of safety. Um I think some of it came from when we were hooking up the power to the maintenance building. We got more information from CMP about why this is completely out of code and their strong recommendation to the district that you do not go don't leave this unchecked. This is not something you want to continue doing. So, I would urge and I'm strongly recommending and the board can do what it wants tonight, but I'm strong strongly recommending that you that you approve this item tonight. I don't think putting it off makes any sense. And I think now that we know the information, >> um I I don't think it's
028a good idea to put it off. >> I have I have a question about the cost. So, is this something that we could put out to bid or is it CM like CMP has to do it and the and the price is what it is or I mean because it's it's above the amount that we'd have to bid for, you know, the state level, but is it they're the only people who can do the work? >> Yeah, I mean it's a CMP project. It really is CMP. We can work directly with CMP >> on this project. If the board approves it, then we would certainly do that, but I don't think there's any other >> vendor I can think of that would do that to do it. >> Thanks. is part of the urgency just
029getting on CMP's calendar because if I read the email right, it's going to take like a chunk of days where the power is totally out to do this work and so it's not going to happen like during the school year most likely. >> But is so is the urgency a safety but also just getting on CMP's calendar? >> It would definitely be a summer project. We couldn't we couldn't try to do this during the school year even over a break. I think it would be too risky to try to do this with the understanding that we might not have the power back on before the break is over. So, we definitely need to do it during the summer. We need to get it scheduled. Um, I I think it would be disruptive if we tried
030to do it outside the school year. >> You also have the experts telling you that it's a safety issue. I don't want to live with that. If it's a safety issue, we need to take care of it. >> It's a known issue and we know a lot more than we did. >> I don't want to be responsible for that. >> Yeah. I I concur 100%. >> So, here's my question. Can we approve the project and um determine funding or financing um at the next meeting where we have the one campus update and >> at this time you don't have enough capital reserve to fund a $400,000 project until after your district budget meeting in May. Okay. when at that meeting there'll be a warrant article to transfer money to capital reserves. So, so at this
031point you don't have the ability to do it um from that mechanism. You do have the ability to do it through the uh one campus project. So, >> and I just echo Kim's comment and concern. You know, I I'm just not comfortable when I I don't even know what's there. I'm not going to write a check if I don't know what's in my account. in the school account right now >> In the one campus, there's $800,000 in the project contingency that's remaining. There's also $3 million that is unexpended from and is is there from the bid process that was in place um with where we hadn't put a lot of other alternates on the table and so forth. To me, this would trump something else that you were probably thinking about doing as one of
032the other projects out of that $3 million. So, I think this one would come right to the forefront of that. So you do have funding available in that project. Can I >> ask a clarifying question? So the $3 million that's left from the stuff we took out. So that >> that like includes the $800,000 we were going to put in for the retention pond parking. >> Correct. That was all part of the stuff that we didn't >> seems like electrical upgrades are >> more important than the parking >> than like 10 parking lots over a retention. >> Well, then I guess I will say that um I'm not breaking um but I I needed to hear that. I needed to hear where we were at um with contingencies. If that has been said and I
033missed it, I apologize. Uh but I I agree with you when you hear that there's an electrical system that is unsafe and we have the opportunity because our contingencies came in much lower than I feel comfortable voting yes for this. >> Go ahead, Sean. So looking at the um preliminary project budget, the paperwork you provided, the section A item one inter interior electrical work secondary side not CMP is a good portion of the project. So I'm assuming even though we're talking about going out to bid, that part would be going up to bid. >> We would work with our architects in order to create anything that needed to be bid on that. We would work with our architects to create specs to bid that. >> Okay. And then based on their current knowledge, do they
034have a feeling that that is an adequate number? Or do we feel like this is one of those projects because the system is so old that it very well could be, oh, we took this off and >> we're really digging in a lot deeper than we thought. >> Yeah. I believe the project's been priced appropriately. >> But I've been surprised before. Okay. But I do believe that this is a pretty accurate estimate. >> And if it was different than this, it would have to come back to the board. We'd have to talk about that. Absolutely. So, >> yeah. >> Um, >> any other questions? >> Okay. So, we're we're v I just want to make sure that I'm clear what we're voting. The the recommendation and the vote is that it would come out of
035project contingencies. >> It would come out >> Oh, no. I'm sorry. >> It would come out of project funds. >> Project the one campus project. >> One campus project funds. >> Okay. So, if you vote in favor, that's what we're voting in favor of. Okay. Any other questions? Okay. All in favor? All opposed? All right. Going to move on to public comment. The board welcomes and where did I was like where did I put my glasses? Oh on the top of my head there we go. Um the board welcomes and recognize the value of public comment to ensure public comment is fair and orderly. We follow procedures outlined in board policy beedh and we ask that all members of the public do so as well. We follow this policy to keep the meeting civil, respectful
036and productive. We also hope hope that this allows for all community members who would like to speak to be heard. Public comment is one of the many ways to connect with the board. I know I've uh the board has received a number of emails um especially related to the budget over the past week. We appreciate you reaching out um either like I said through public comment or in advance. Um so thank you. We appreciate that that um feedback and the opportunity to dialogue. Um, for public comment tonight, I've uh passed around the signup list. Um, and I'll be using this uh to go off of for public comment. Our policy allows for 30 total minutes of public comment, although that can be modified at the discretion of the board. When I invite you up, please
037use the microphone uh at the designated podium. Please state your name and town of residents. Um, comments by individuals are limited to a maximum of three minutes at a time. The clock is visible on the screen to help you keep track of time. After three minutes, the timer will go off and I ask that you please wrap your comments up. Um, all comments should be directed at me, the chair. Please keep your comments respectful and civil. Um, I want to note that any comment that is uncontrary to these rules, I will uh ask the the individual um to please uh wrap up their comments. Um, so did everyone get a chance who wanted to speak to sign up? Okay, great. Oh, yes, sure can. Um, and I will welcome Joel Richard first up. Good evening.
038My name is Joel Richard and uh I'm here tonight as a resident of Cumberland and father of a sixth grader at Gley Middle School to encourage the board to work toward a district-wide bell-to-bell internet connected device ban in our schools. This would not only include smartphones, but smart watches, tablets, media players, and even smart glasses when those eventually pop up. I'm sure that there isn't an area of the subject that most of you haven't already heard about a thousand times. the distraction, the absolutely addictive nature of social media and its proven detrimental effects on young people's mental health, the privacy concerns around video recording in private and sensitive spaces like bathrooms and locker rooms, and the incentives for outrageous and dangerous behavior when someone is recording. I recently myself saw a compilation video online of
039a school walkout where students were throwing glass bottles and laptops into crowds of kids to the shrieking approval of their friends, recording the whole thing. But even putting aside these off-repeted concerns, we all know that school, despite what our kids tell us, is not a long time in a child's life. As many a as many a grumpy old Gen Xer like myself will tell anyone who stands still long enough, our childhood was different. We could disappear for hours and only show up at home and we were hungry. Our parents had no idea where we were. Crucially, this was a time when we most freely interacted with the world. We nurtured friendships, formed clicks, solved problems, took risks, got hurt, got bored, developed our imaginations, and acted on our creative impulses. Our schools, of course, have
040little or no control over what our kids do when they're not in the building. But so many of my son's teachers have pointed out the importance of these very skills in their formal education. working with a team, problem solving, learning from failure, getting outside of their comfort zone, and testing new ideas to either incorporate or reject, developing them into unique, responsive, and insightful people. And these are the very freedoms, skills, and behaviors that so-called smart devices seek to stamp out in exchange for continuous, thoughtless attention. Our children's time in school is deceptively short, and I know all of us are doing our best to make it one of the richest and most memorable times of their lives. I eagerly encourage each of you to work toward a district-wide bell-to-bell device ban in our schools to
041allow them to be fully present and engaged, to learn, and to create, and to become the amazing people that they're meant to be. As a quick side note, I wrote this without the help of AI. It can be done. I hope that the board will eventually tackle a problem of too much technology in the classroom and I'll be happy to come back for comments when that comes up. Thank you very much. >> Thank you so much. >> Shirley, you're up next. ever the teacher. I came with handouts. Madame chair, I'm here tonight to um make abund first I'd like to make abundantly clear I'm questioning the narratives, not the narrators. I have um a lot of respect for all of you, especially the finance committee that's been working on this budget. I've sat in many
042of the meetings and um they know how I feel about many of the things I'm going to talk about tonight. What's coming around to you is a a two-sided document. And on one side, it talks about your fund balances. And I'd like you to take a look at cost center one because for the last many years, we've had very large fund balances there. and at your discretion, you move those fund balances in June to other cost centers. But the finance committee knows that I believe that's not what I mean my own belief is that's not what people voted for. They voted for money to go to cost center 1. And what part of the problem is the narrative is if you cut the budget, you're cutting teachers and edte and classroom supplies. But that's that
043budget. If you cut I'm going to ask that you cut $500,000 from that cost center right off the top. And while that is equivalent to four teacher salaries, that is not a teacher's job. those are paper teachers. Those teachers don't exist. Um similarly in cost center 2, you have an average um fund balance in that cost center of half a million every year. Cut it by $250,000. The again, not people, not staff. So the narrative is a cut involves cutting staff but not if you are true to those cost centers. Um a recommendation of cutting $750,000 would reduce the increase you're asking for from 7.6 which is almost 7.7 tonight to 6.2 just addressing those cost centers. the other side quickly more of the narrative enrollment. I would my re recommendation is you make an
044effort to keep spending increases due to enrollment in line with actual enrollment increases. Your increases for the last four years have been 3.5, but your spending has increased 35% tenfold. The enrollment this year is up four students according to the DOE website. you could add 18 more kindergarteners next year without adding a teacher and still keep your class sizes 16 or under. And then last per pupil the raw data I took the the your spending and divided it by the number of students and you will notice that over the last four years the per pupil increase raw numbers again has increased 21%. But inflation over that same time has increased 6 to 7%. So I'm asking the board, please determine why per pupil spending is outpacing inflation. >> Thank you, Shirley. And I appreciate the
045handout and I also appreciate get getting this in advance. So thank you, >> Michael Sweat. I know, right? Good evening, Michael Sweat from uh North Yarmouth. Um, one of the the things first of all, I want to thank you. I try to remember to do this every time I come here because sometimes we feel like we're not appreciated and what happened when we sit on boards of committees. I'm on the budget committee in North Yarmouth. So, uh, I want to let you know I appreciate appreciate that. Unless anyone thinks that we have nothing better to do than come to these meetings, I can assure you there are better things that we could be doing with our time. But we're passionate about what's going on here. That's why we're here. We're not here to be critical
046and critique. We're here to prevent um provide ideas and suggestions. One of the things that we see in town budgets and school budgets is data. Not having all the data in front of us when we make decisions. And I watched the great debate here on this electrical situation. Uh needed, essential, what have you. But I didn't ask here. One of you ask the question, which I would have asked, but maybe you know the answer to this question. Why couldn't this been used to apply to the state funding for grants and for zero interest loans? Why wouldn't we have gone that way and had half the debt uh eliminated by the state? Nobody asked that question. I'm assuming you all know the answer to it. Getting back to data, you need to have actual data. What
047are the actual expenditures? If you're not getting it, you should be getting it and you should be demanding it of the administrators of the school as we demand it of the administrators of our towns. Where's the data? Show us the data. Every piece of data is critical. audits. I know there are towns that don't have audits. There are schools that don't have completed audits. There are counties which can't get audits done. Audits have been initiated here, but at least look at what we have already. It may be in draft form. There may be some details in that audit that could be helpful as you set your budget. There may be warning signs that you could see in the audit that could ward off as you're preparing your budget uh moving forward. Finally, I would just
048say that the the finance committee needs all of you engaged at this budget at all levels of this budget. I know they've done a lot of work. I've watched them. I've attended several of the meetings. I won't say many as Shirley has. Very appreciative of the work that they're doing. But you need to have the data. If you're not getting actuals, year-to- date actuals, you're being you're gonna be blindsided and you're not going to be able to make the decisions you need to make as a finance committee and as a school board that you should be making. So, you need to demand it. I mean, you got all new software. The other the other piece of data that I'd recommend because we just requested this in North Yarmouth is a vendor report. How much are
049we spending to each vendor? Maybe you already have that great information. But by looking at the North Yarmouth budget, we can see there are opportunities where we could have and should have outsourced and put things out to bid. And if you're not looking at it from a vendor review, you may be missing some good information. That's it. Thank you, Madam Chair. >> Thank you. And we don't start the time until after introductions, and we won't start it until after you finish thanking us either. So, >> no, you did. And we didn't start the timer until after I was done. Thank you. Um, okay. Next up, Meredith Comr. >> Okay, thank you. >> Hi, Dave. You know, I did because Do you see where I put my glasses on after I read the You'll be up
050next. >> All right. Thank you. And And thank you. Thank you for serving the community on the school board. I know it's a serious responsibility and it takes a lot of time and thank you for doing that. Um there are two points that I'd like to make tonight. One is the importance of the budget review process and the second is the importance of as Dave just said having the right tools or Michael just said having the right tools to make meaningful decisions about the budget. The review of the budget is probably one of your most important responsibilities. Every one of us pays thousands of dollars in taxes every year and the majority of that money goes to the school budget. The town of Cumberland, which consumes about 25% of our taxes, spends in excess of
05114 hours with the town council and the town staff reviewing every line of the budget with a focus on keeping the year-over-year spending increase to 3%. My understanding is that the this two-hour session is your only opportunity as a full board to review the school budget. This is a budget that is two and a half times this the spend of the town and consumes at least 70% of our tax dollars. It feels like there's a disconnect there. The other point that I want to make is that you need the right tools in order to make good decisions about the budget. And when I say the right tools, I'm talking about actual spending figures. I can't imagine making decisions about 2027 budgets without without having the actual year-to- date spend figures. We're a full eight months
052into the fiscal year. Every organization I've been a part of works with year-to- date actuals and projected balance of year spending in order to plan the next year's spending. Those figures should be available to you and they should be available to all of us in the public. You're spending our money. We will we want our students to receive a solid education and we want those people who are working with our students to earn a fair wage. But it's also very important to balance all of the offerings with practicality of what the community can afford. Thank you. >> Thank you. >> David Nan. >> Good evening. Dave Nan Meadow Lane. So, first I'd like to recognize all the brave edte administrative assistants. The lone teacher and the senior student that spoke here two weeks ago about
053the lack of contract for the edteex and administrative assistance. A lot of citizens are saying any vote will be a no vote no matter what happens until the contract is done. Second, I'd like to recognize the parent also at the last meeting regard uh that spoke about regarding the amount of in-person learning occurring in our schools. the half day Wednesdays. I know it's part of the contract and remote day learning days and I put remote learning in quotes do not provide enough of in-person learning that our children need. If the kids have to go to school until late June to have instructor-led learning, I'd rather that than any again in quotes learning at all. And that's what we did prior to the pandemic. I want to recognize them all as not many citizens with children
054in our schools or staff speak up out of fear of retaliation. Our citizens are scared and/or intimidated to speak here as well due to the way we've seen others be treated in the distant and not so distant past. Third, I'd like to thank the chair for your responses uh to my multiple emails this past week, these past couple weeks, which leads me to my topic. We need to insist, and this is kind of already out of date at this point, that the school hold the lines on new construction and not exceed the bids with add-ons. Use the 2.1 million in savings between the estimates from the referendum that voters approved, which were 36.6 million, 31.6 six for prek to one school and 5 million for the Mabel I Wilson improvements and the actual Great Falls
055bid of 34.5 million with the $4 million in contingencies built in to reduce the amount of bond which is a fiduciary responsibility of this board and thus reduce our debt service and I will remind all of you that the refer referendum only passed by 49 votes so it's really close uh so again keep that in mind when we're talking about all of our citizens and the taxpayers. And just to go off what the other um individual had said a few moments ago, I was at that um town council meeting the other day and they literally were going line by line. There's three times the many of sheets, pages, uh line items compared to here, and they were talking about a $700 um fixture that's at some place that's really talking about our uh golf course.
056And what does that do? So, that's the nitty-g grittiness we need out of this board. and all participants. Thank you. >> Thank you. >> Next up, Jean. Thanks. >> Um I also thank you so much for your service because this is an what you do is incredible and it's very challenging and um so it is very much appreciated. Um, I'm not going to talk about budget tonight, so sorry. Um, this is a little bit of an education piece. Um, and I've gotten involved in the preschool committee, so this is comes from that. Um, but good evening. My name is Jean Cassenus. I live at 16 Pine Lane. And, uh, I enjoyed working um, for 31 years as a special education teacher. And I'm here tonight because I care deeply about what happens to our most
057vulnerable learners. And because I believe sometimes as folks familiar with special education discuss the topic, including myself, we use acronyms and phrases, they're not well understood. Tonight, I want to share a brief conversation about evidence-based instruction. What it actually means at the preschool level, and why it cannot be an afterthought when we're placing children with disabilities into any educational setting. Evidence-based instruction means using teaching strategies and interventions that have been validated through rigorous, replicated, peer-reviewed scientific research and shown to produce measurable outcomes for young children with disabilities under IDA part B section 619, which governs preschool special education. This is not optional. It's a legal requirement. At the pre-K level, evidence-based instruction looks very different from what many people imagine. It's not primarily about reading or academics. For a three or fouryear-old with a disability,
058the most critical domains are social emotional development, communication, and language, adaptive behavior, and the ability to engage in structured learning routines. The research is clear and specific about what works in these areas. The division for early childhood has published a set of recommended practices that uh give the appropriate standard for early childhood special education. This includes embedded instruction, intentionally embedding learning opportunities tied to a student's individual education plan goals in everyday classroom activities. It's not left to chance. Responsive contingent interaction practitioners who are trained to observe and respond to a child's communication attempts in ways that expand language and promote emotional regulation. And then progress monitoring, ongoing datadriven assessments of whether a child is actually making measurable gains on their individual education plan goals. These are not general good teaching practices. There's early childhood education
059are essential, but they're not sufficient. Thank you. Thank you, Jean. Terry, Melanie, Kenny, Kelly. Thank you. Um, I had not planned to speak tonight, so I can assure you my words are not from AI because I don't even know how to use it. And I I am sure it would take the me out of the process. Um, my name is Terry Maloney Kelly and I'm a passionate community member. Um, once again, I too want to be sure that I sincerely thank all of you for the time you dedicate, for the passion that you have for our community. Um, and for the willingness because the environment has changed for the MSAD and its interactions with the community over the past three or four years and it's been a tough transition. I can understand that. But we
060are a community and you represent 75% of my financial structure in my household. Um so it's nice to feel honestly a part of your community now in which I have not felt in the past. Um humanity is defined as the shared qualities that make us human such as kindness, compassion and empathy. I am here to appeal to your sense of humanity, especially when it comes to empathy in our community because I do believe it's difficult for some to understand where others are in our world today. You play a very critical humanitarian role in the lives of our community. Our country is in turmoil. We are at war. Our economy is slowing. Our costs for basics and goods are going up. If I had planned to speak tonight, I would have here a can of soup.
061Cample soup. My sister's favorite. Hard to get because of the kind she likes. Three weeks ago, I saw it. So, I grabbed her a couple of cans and they were $1.50. Later that week, I went to a different similar chain and that can of soup was $2. Last week, that can of soup was $225. That is a 50% increase in an iconic American staple in people's household cupboards and pantries. So, why does that matter? It matters greatly. It matters greatly for everybody who already knows what the cost of the can of soup is in their cupboard. I really bet most of the folks that are working with uh a contract without a contract right now could probably tell you close to what their cans of soup cost them and they're covered. So, I am here
062to appeal to you and I'm a little disappointed and obviously very naive um thinking that you had more than just tonight to talk about your budget items because costs are going up. It wigs me sitting here tonight, which is why I decided to speak to hear about, oh, we've got contingencies. Please, folks, think about the folks that have no contingencies today and those that are going to have no contingencies tomorrow because we all know it's coming down and it's hitting all of us and it's going to hit us hard. We will have families that will lose their jobs. So, every time you want to do something that's a nice want, think about that can of soup that you're taking away from a member of our community. Thank you. Thank you, Terry. So, that closes public
063comment for this evening. Um, we're now going to move on to our budget workshop. Um, I'm glad we have a little bit of a different table configuration tonight so it can feel like we're having a bit more of a conversation than we do when we're we're in one one big line. Um, so for the budget presentation tonight, um, which is not has is not and hasn't been I guess the only opportunity I know this just came up for the for the board to discuss the budget. Um it was first presented to the full board at the last meeting. Um and today we we all sit around and talk about the budget and then it will come to a vote in about a month from now to the board. So we have um a lot of
064time between now and then to continue having conversations. And I know part of the overview before we jump into it, um I think Jeff's going to present do a presentation um highlighting some of the the key milestones. I know the finance committee has meant a tremendous amount leading up to today's presentation. Um and then I think Scott's going to take us through some particular items and then we'll open it up uh to to the board to continue our our workshop and discussion. But that's going to be the general format um as we dive into it this evening. Um I'm just trying to think of anything else to say before I hand it over, but yeah. So, we're going to start with the presentation from Superintendent Porter. Um and yeah, thank you. You put the agenda
065up. Um and that'll kick us off. So, thank you. >> Thank you. I'm just going to go through um very very briefly before we get into the account lines. Scott's going to do the budget variances. So, trying to match up the presentation of the recommended budget that I presented a couple weeks ago with the actual budget account lines uh in this in the budget that you have in front of you. And then, um this evening, we're hoping for um some direction from the board. Um whatever that is, we just need to know what the board is thinking. what your general thinking is u after your discussion before this workshop is over. So again u I had you are here the last time that we talked about the budget was the superintendent's recommended budget presentation. The
066budget process is a very long process. It's actually started back in November. Sometimes it starts in October. for the public um for engagement. It may feel like we've just started the process, but it's actually been going on for months and months as we prepare the budget that was presented uh a couple of weeks ago. So, right now, you're in the middle of the uh deliberation or the public deliberation of this budget. Um and uh that's where we are right now. So, just a reminder um and you'll see these through the account line. Scott will be pointing these um items out and the various parts of the budget so that you can see where this presentation and the increases um that we're recommending uh line up with the budget. So, new proposals advanced debt service land
067acquisition um just a reminder that um the net increase to the debt service um for the one campus project is $516,074. Again, that's a net increase to the total um debt service that's included in this budget. We also have land acquisition. Um we um purchase land as part of the one campus project and each year um for several years we are paying uh for that land. So 150,500 for enrollment growth requests. This is a growing school district, continues to grow, has been growing since 2016. We are one of only a handful of districts in the state of Maine that is actually growing. Um, as you have probably seen in the Press Herald and in other media places, um, many districts are cutting because their enrollment has been dropping for years and so they are responding
068to that. >> I don't know. We just we lost >> I think we lost the presentation. Yeah. Yeah. Let me try it again and see if it gets back up. >> I think we do have copies if people are interested to. >> Yeah, it's not going up. I think I did pass them around there. If people in the audience also need one, they're on that front chair in case you didn't get one. But everybody should have a paper copy. Um, so as we're trying to work on that, I'm on page five. Um, and basically these are the new enrollment um pieces 578,652. Um, again I'm not going to go through all these items I presented this um these are all pieces that were recommended and again we'll show these items in the accounts. The next
069category um is new proposals advance academic support. Um there's 33,163 in that category. The next one is instructional support 213,178. And then finally operations 172,107. Um and then we made some reductions to the FY26 budget of $280,324 at this point in time that that is reflected in this budget. Um if you go to slide uh 10, this is another way of looking at the operating budget. Um if you'll see that the debt service and land acquisition u the percent of net increase if you look at the 7.68% 68% which is where the budget increase is today. Um I presented a budget around 7.6. Um we continue to adjust the budget uh look through all the salary lines, benefits, etc. Um so we're at 7.68% at this time. Out of that 7.68% 6.53% are all other
070operating expenses if you take out the debt service in the land acquisition. So just another way of looking at the expenditure increase. So we're really without the the debt service increase in the land acquisition, our operating budget is 6.53% as an increase. And I think it's really important to note there's a notation at the bottom of slide 10 that the one campus uh plan of financing applies fund balance um to offset the a portion of the debt service for the next three fiscal cycles. So not in FY27. So you will not see any fund balance applied. That was part of Thank you. Yeah, that was part of the um just put that up there. Plan of financing was in FY28 29 and 30. Um you will start seeing uh the fund balance being applied as
071part of that u financing plan. So you won't see that as part of the FY27, the current budget proposal that you have in front of you. And as Scott goes through all the account lines, just remember that we have 11 cost center um designations that we have to follow. That's a state requirement. We don't use other. So we actually only we budget everything in the in 10 cost centers. Um, but just in case, and this is part of your packet, if you're wondering, wait, why is that in that particular account line or in that cost center or what's in that cost center? Um, just you can refer back to this and it will give you a detail of what's included, for example, in regular instruction. Um, so that would be all the benefits, salary, supplies
072that go with regular instruction um, in that cost center, which is obviously our largest cost center. then you can follow that through and look at the cost center descriptors as we're talking about these things if you're wondering why is that in that cost center or isn't so by the end of um the evening uh for this workshop what we're hoping the board can give us direction is um on two questions number one is the overall expenditure uh percent increase on track with the board's expectations at this time so in other words 7.68% 68% total uh increase. Is that in line with what the board uh is thinking about tonight? If not, is there an adjustment in the overall expenditure? I'm telling you what's helpful to Scott and I as superintendent and business man director for
073this district. Um if not, what adjustment in the overall expenditure percentage increase would more closely align with your expectations as a board? um because we need to have some direction in order to start making adjustments in this budget. Um and if those adjustments include uh processes that we have to go through, we've got to have time to go through those processes. So, it's very important that we have some sort of indication what you're thinking tonight. We don't have to hold you to it because you don't adopt the budget until April 15th. Um but in order to help us help you um prepare this budget for adoption. It's it is important that we get a sense of where the board is leaning tonight. >> So, I'm going to >> Can you go back two slides to
074slide 10? Um and so I'll reiterate that. So, the board votes, we vote on April 15th to adopt the budget that will then go forward to the district budget meeting, which is May 7th. >> May 7th. >> I'm like, did I say that right? May 7th in the GCA and that's where we invite the community members to come in person. Everyone gets their voting cards um on each of the the cost centers and of course there's discussion there as well. But at the April 15th meeting is when we vote to what we're going to send to that meeting. Um and then whatever moves from that meeting is what goes to the the ballot in June. And I asked you to bring this slide up because I just want to make this point clear or make
075sure I'm clear on this point. So the the two numbers that make up the increase, the first number, the 1.15%, this is what we had voted on for the plan of financing like when when the community um passed the one campus project. this is the increase um approximately like what we had included in that plan of financing with the land acquisition like we really don't have any opportunity there's nothing that we really can do about the 1.15% or what yeah whatever the increase is but that dollar amount that makes up that increase >> that's correct that's a fixed cost that's the net increase to the debt service of course the debt service changes um every year we either lose some debt service we increase we're increasing now >> this is the increase. Okay. >> The
076increase to the debt service. And then next year in FY28, you will you've committed to in the plan of financing is to start to apply some fund balance to offset um the increase in debt service in order to keep it um more um basically consistent and stable. >> Okay. Is that >> But there's no fund balance applied in this budget. >> Can you check your mic? I just want to make sure that yes, people at home can hear you, but you sound a little quieter than you normally. >> Yeah. Okay. Yes. >> Yeah, I had that same question, Leon. I mean, I think the way that it's presented here where it says new proposals advanced, just confirming actually that that was all part of one campus to begin with. We're not talking about new expenditures
077that are have been added on at this time somehow. >> Right. So, that this is part of what the the plan of financing was for this fiscal year. That's that that 1.15% of the 7.68% 68% total. That's that we're being asked to take a look at tonight. Um, so does is that point making sense? Because then I want to move to the the So then it's plus the 6.53%. So your your key question that you posed for us is talking about that 6.53%. So, the overall budget increase um is the 6.53%. That's where we're at right now with everything that was added and removed. You know, all the details that he just went through with us. Yeah. >> Um and also, I mean, as we know, a majority of this is um staff uh salaries
078and and benefits. >> Yeah. >> The one point I think another way of I I understand what you're saying. I think another way of putting it, the 1.15% of that 7.68% is previously committed. >> I would also say that a lot of the 6.53% is previously committed. >> Yeah. Bargaining agreements because the the lion share of the increase is from labor costs, salaries, and benefits. Um >> and so but the debt service and land acquisition is is in its own category. was voted by the community. It is in its category. It's committed. >> Okay. Is that making sense? Okay. Okay. Scott, do you want to >> take us through >> fun with finance? >> Yes. >> Let's have some fun. So, uh the first thing that I wanted to mention is the budget. Um where
079we are right now has been built on a number of factors. Um one is on a 14% health insurance increase. Um, we won't know what that looks like until probably first week of April, maybe end of March. And, uh, but we do know that the maximum increase it was sent out was 14%. So, we've we've put 14% down on that. Uh, some of the other pieces around this budget is we have gone through and looked at budget to actuals. There's also um some uh reductions in the assumptions around long-term subs in some of the cost center lines uh because now we have permanent subs in the buildings and we're pretty much um you know fully you know we've pretty much fully staffed our permanent subs in the buildings. So we're able to look at some
080of those assumptions in our um you know cost center lines uh particularly uh regular instruction and special education with a different lens. So we've we've looked at that as well. So that's another assumption piece on here. Um so I guess uh to just start with that we can uh also talk about that at tomorrow's finance committee meeting there will be budgeted actuals on all of the cost centers. We have developed that and that will be available at tomorrow's finance committee meeting. Um currently we're just finishing up some of the incumbrances and summer salaries that have to be acred over the course of the summer. Unlike a municipal budget or unlike uh corporate budgets, um our teachers get paid over 26 payrolls. So while they earn the pay during their 184 days of the school year,
081it's they've earned that in that 184 days, but they get paid it out over the summer. So you have to acrue those monies back against the fiscal year. So it's not as easy as just looking at what's the actual expenditure to date because there's still all the summer that has to be acred and put back against the school year if that makes sense. So okay um >> that's something you can share with the rest of the board. I know we won't all be there. So >> absolutely um we're just finishing up now. My staff's working on it and finishing it and um we should have that available for the meeting. So >> Okay. And part of what you have done um even though you might not have it right here, but and I know we've
082we've talked about this previously is you use those yearto dates as you're >> we take a look. Yeah, absolutely. We take a look at those when we're developing the budget. >> Can I jump into um because I know Scott and I have had these conversations um if everybody just were to consider just teacher salaries. So those are four different lines. that's always the first line for the for the building. Um Scott and his team have to go through each and every teacher and say, "Okay, this teacher is eligible for this increase." Some teachers come to Scott and say, "I'm going to be getting my masters, so it'll bump up even more." So then Scott has to go back in and do that. So for for those four lines alone um that is definitely not just
083like tack on you know a certain percentage that is literally going to every single staff member. Correct me if I'm wrong but I was talked about >> staff have to notify us in February of any scale movements and uh in order to move on the scale for the next year. um it was overly complicated by a very um a very detailed collective bargaining contract which involves some substantial scale changes, right? So uh so that took quite a bit of time to detail that as well. So >> yeah, I just want to say that that is an example Tim you asked last time about zero or you know starting at zero. Scott looks at every teacher the team looks at every single teacher and what is their salary going to be based on the collective bargaining.
084So, um I just wanted to put that out there. There's that those four lines alone. >> Yeah. >> And I do want to make a comment. Um we we do need to be careful about making any assumptions on particular lines about individuals. I just I know it it's hard sometimes because yeah you're like oh well the way this is you start maybe making up stories in your head about individuals and just wanted to >> there's also some of the details and some of the um you know the initial teacher lines and regular instruction and some of the other lines. There's also assumptions on not only who's going to move on the pay scale, uh, but there's also assumptions that are made around long-term substitutes, which would come out of those lines for medical illnesses, um,
085staff who are out for certain reasons and may have accumulated quite a bit of sick time um, when they're out and you would not only be paying that teacher, but you would also be paying the the long-term sub as well. And those are just unknowns. And so, you know, we'll look at a history on that. And that's one of the things that we've done in this particular budget is reduce some of those assumptions uh because we do have our permanent subs in place now. So and uh in previous years we haven't necessarily had those permanent subs and been fully staffed there. So uh so with that um let's go to page one. Okay. And I'll uh try to walk us through the budget. So as you know the budgets uh developed in 11 cost center
086format. You'll see that each school as we go through this also has basically its same format. It'll start with regular instruction. Then it'll go into special education. It'll go through gifted and talented. It'll go through the library. It'll go through um the custodian and the facilities. So, and it basically will become routine as you go from Nelie Wilson School to Gley Middle School four, >> you know, I mean to 45 and then to Gley Middle School and then on to the high school. And you'll start seeing some of the patterns >> um as we go through this. So >> can I ask one more question before you dive in? >> Absolutely. >> Um because it helps me to keep assumptions in mind. Um and I know we start with the largest cost center which is
087cost center one. >> Um and what are some of the assumptions that get built in um to that particular cost center that would leave things that are unspent maybe at the end of the year. That was the assumptions I was talking about in terms of some of the staff movements on scale. Some of the budgeting for health insurance because we have open enrollment in May and we don't always know who's going to come on the district's health insurance and who isn't. And also the um the assumptions that we make around health insurance. If we don't have it by the time >> we're ready to put our budget out to the community, we may not have that number soon enough in order to get ready for the district budget meeting. So, so sometimes those are the
088things that happen. is also the long-term subs and the medical pieces and >> okay budget like keep the subs in but then we don't end up needing to use >> that's right because you don't have a contingency in this budget no place is there are four or five or $600,000 contingency sitting in here >> okay >> so your contingencies are really built into your salary lines around long-term subs and those types of things okay so all right any anything else before we move on okay >> I just wanted to tack on what Leanne said about that first cost center just to put in perspective. The initial estimate you guys put out um the original paperwork had it >> about um let's just get an actual number 170 you already saved 100 shaved $170,142 out of
089that cost center since you first presented just to give everybody perspective on >> so they definitely done some digging >> going through it every day. Okay. So, >> I'll jump in on that too before because I've just been doing a bit of quick math. The increase from the 25 fiscal year 25 budget just for again those teacher salaries. So, four lines starting with line one and then each school, right? Um so last year, fiscal 20 year 26, those four lines went up a total of 1.68 million. this year they're going up and granted I was doing the math kind of quickly but same formula 841,000 and I believe a big piece of that is the long-term subs and um and also >> oh you also had some uh some contractual agreements where the largest increase
090was in >> the first year of the collective agreement right so um so now you're seeing that look a little different as you go through the next years of the collective bargain agreement >> so that's $800,000 Absolutely. >> And it's um obviously still higher, but it's not as high by basically half >> as last year. Does that make sense? >> Okay. All right. So, page one. Um and then you can look out to the lefth hand column and there's numbers for all the lines. Okay. I'm going to be referencing those line item numbers as we go through. Okay. page to just make it easy for people. You just I'll say line one, teacher salaries, and I'll talk to you a little bit about that line. And I'm not going through every single line because there's
091lines that are just fixed cost around health insurance, some of the other pieces. I'll talk about budget to actual adjustments, and I'll talk about the things that Jeff has talked about, what were new, what was reduced, and I'll kind of go through the major uh changes to the budget. Um, so if we start with line one, which is teacher salaries, you'll see that that increase is $30,000. Okay, which is really small because it's less than 1%. The reason for that is is twofold. Um, one, we made some assumptions on reducing some of our long-term subs. We also uh had two teachers that weren't filled in this particular fiscal year that have um uh been taken out. And then we also have two teachers who have been transferred to four five. So as you saw when
092Jeff was presenting the budget, he showed you the net effect of that and how two staff members would be moved to 45 due to enrollment issues. So that's why that number is is not as large as it might seem. We can go down through and just start taking a look. As we uh go through other pieces, you'll see that on the substitute salaries, which is line three, we're looking at uh having to make a possible adjustment to what we pay our daily subs and our long-term subs due to the competition in the area for substitutes. So, so we have a 10% increase there, uh projected line six, which would be um health insurance. I just wanted to point this line out. This is a basically instructional assistant health insurance, but it's pretty flat. You'll start
093seeing this 14% as we go through the entire budget. So, that's what we're estimating for an increase. As we get as we have knowledge around what that increase is actually going to be, let's say it comes in at 12% or it comes in at 10%. We'll adjust the budget to that, but we're also going to look at every single budget to actual on health insurance and what we believe people are going to take during open enrollment. Okay. If we continue down further down the page, line 28, you'll see that uh purchase professional services has gone up by about $5,600. And that has to do with increased cost of our school resource officer from the town. Uh and that is broken out over se over uh the four school cost centers, right? So, so you'll see
094that number continue to come up. Line 31, large reduction of 117,000. And the reason for that is there were literacy uh materials that were purchased uh for a new literacy program in the current year that we're in that won't carry forward into the next fiscal year. So and then uh line 32 which is right below it is the same thing around books. There were books around literacy and so forth and um so this is where we look at you know we just aren't adding on to what was before. We're looking at what was actually done and purchased and what doesn't need to be purchased in the next fiscal year. All right. >> Any questions on page one? >> Okay. >> The healthcare at what like what's the date at which like that number becomes firm?
095>> I'm hoping we have it by the end of March or the first week in April. I think the last time I looked we got it like April 1st. >> Okay. >> So before we have >> usually comes on a Friday before the before we have a weekend. >> But open enrollment doesn't happen like we >> open enrollment happens in May, >> right? So Okay. >> Yeah. So we have to kind of take that into consideration but you know we have some idea based on people's situations and stuff as they're inquiring. So we try to build that in >> on the substitute. >> Yes. >> How have we been challenged from a competitive standpoint? Like what what does that look like? >> Yeah, we have because of uh you have um daily subs who are
096paid a certain rate in the districts around us and we've tried to stay competitive with that. We're going to need to increase that again to be competitive. And then of course our permanent subs get a certain daily amount because they're here four to five days a week and we call them bench subs because they're on the bench ready to go in. Right. And uh and so that um we're going to have to look at that as well uh in order to continue and attract and keep those individuals. >> Are they compensated differently? the permanent subs versus >> they are because the permanent subs have committed to be here through the school year whether it's four days a week or or five days a week and so they are compensated at a higher level than a
097daily sub because a daily subs are they might pick up a job here they may not want to work you know four days or five days a week they might just want to pick up a day here or a day there so we do compensate that differently >> are they employees >> no these are these well they're all considered employees when we hire them. But as far as being a teacher or um something of that nature, >> like do they get benefits like >> uh they do not get benefits. They can buy at the district's rate if they want, but there are no health benefits that are afforded to that and they get under um earn paid leave. They can get five days of earn paid leave. >> Okay. >> All right. So, >> can
098I ask a question about the um >> about line 28? >> Okay. So this is the SRO increase because um because the town of Cumberland has reduced how much they're willing. Can you can you just clarify that for you want? >> Yeah, the SRO. So we uh got communication from the town of Cumberland. They for a long time they were 50/50 with us with the SAD and the town of Cumberland 50% of salary benefits. Um also they would throw things in like the SRO's car, the police car that was used, any sort of equipment. So if it was in kind stuff um we had an arrangement where it was a 50/50 split between the town and the SAD. Um this year I was informed that the split would now be 68% would follow the cost
099sharing uh formula and so the SAD would pick up um the remainder of the amount. So it's no longer a 5050 split. So, it's I think it was around a little over $33,000 means that the SAD has to pick that um difference up for next year. >> Okay. >> And we have one and a half SRO's uh FTEES SRO in the district right now. >> Thank you. >> So, there's not an overall increase to the taxpayer. It's just how it's allocated. So, instead of Cumberland residents paying more, it's more divided across the whole tax base between the two towns. Correct. It's putting more cost on North. >> Yeah, I mean it is. >> So I look at the SAD budget as as a separate budget obviously from the municipality. So I don't quite see it
100that way. Um that is how the town of Cumberland I think is looking at it. But from an SAD standpoint, it just means the SAD is now absorbing more of the cost. Um I'm not going to weigh into it more than that, but it is now part of our budget. Let's put it that way. And where did the So the 68% is determined by >> that was a number that was given to us by the town. We did not determine that >> sorry for cost sharing. So I thought maybe it was based on some other >> well I think it follows the cost sharing formula is what the way I was told um because or it comes close to the cost sharing formula between the town between the towns. Carmelan pays um around 68% and
101North Yarmouth pays the the difference if I remember correctly >> and it was based on the amount of time that the resource officers are in here. They're more than 50% in the district. So so that's why that cost sharing was looked like that way. So okay >> the other thing to keep in mind is that the SRO's also do not just work for the SAD. So they work for the town whenever school is not in session. That's another another thing to keep in mind. >> Okay, page two. We're making great progress. >> We'll get a rhythm. >> We always get the rhythm going. Okay. Um Okay, so page two. Um let's go to line 38. And if you take a look at line 38, you'll see that the uh teacher salary line is up $131,000.
102Okay? And that's in the prek area. The reason for that is that's your prek coordinator that um Jeff had pointed out is one of the things that we've added to the budget. So it's in that particular salary line. Uh if we continue now to uh line uh 55, >> can I ask a question about that? I'll be asking questions as >> as we go through the line items. >> Can I finish the page? >> Sure. >> And then we can come back. Okay. >> Okay. I wasn't sure the best format. >> No, that's great. We'll uh let's we'll go through the page and then if people have questions, we'll we'll go through the questions. Okay. and stuff. Okay. All right. Uh so line uh I'll go to 56. Um you'll see that line's up $97,000.
103It's up a little bit more than others because uh than you might expect it to be. And the reason is that is because staff has been reassigned to that particular cost center. And uh you'll find throughout special education, especially with educational technicians, staff move from buildings to buildings where the needs are. So you might see an up really large up in the edte line, a really low piece in the edtech line. That happens the same time with teachers too on some of the allocations. Okay. And then uh so for instance instructional assistance which was below it on line uh 57, we've reallocated u the cost of those staff to that area as opposed to another area in the budget. And you'll see other areas in the budget where the edte go down. Okay. So, so
104it's no relationship to what everybody's being compensated. It's no relationship to that. It's staff being moved around throughout the budget. >> All right. So, any questions on page two? >> Anukica. Um, >> so I know it's already been discussed that we would expect the prek coordinator cost to be covered by the state and I just wanted to confirm I don't think it's been said out loud that um whether that has been the experience of other programs that have hired those coordinators that that has been >> well so far that has been the experience of other programs in the area. However, we have no way. I I would I will not confirm that. We h we know that. We just don't We're expecting that we're going to get reimbursed for a good portion of this expense,
105but we we just don't know. >> But all other existing prek coordinators have been >> existing for by the state, >> right? So, for us, it'll be new. Who knows what the state will be doing next year? I we don't have any confirmation um as to the effect. So, it would be hard for me to say we'll definitely get reimbured. I expect that we will, >> but >> Okay. >> Don't know. >> Thank you. >> Can I just clarify? I think it's I think we shouldn't call it a pre-K coordinator. It's an early childhood special education prek coordinator because they're not going to reimburse us 100% just because we're expanding pre-K. We are >> taking on CDS's early childhood special education mandate and that is why they would be reimbursing us. So, calling it a
106pre-K coordinator, I think maybe will >> lead people to believe we're just expanding pre-K because we want to rather than taking on >> That's right. the job of CDS which we are mandated to do. So I think we should >> Is there an easier acronym that we can all agree to so we know >> special I don't know what I don't know if that sounds any better. It's a mouthful but I I think that's an important >> that's a very that's an important point to make. >> EC speech >> what is it? ECE >> spec education. >> Yeah I think >> doesn't roll off the tongue does it >> important distinction I think we need that. >> No I I think it's a great dy noted. >> Yeah. And so how does I'm just trying
107to like how does that work? So we have to obviously include it in our budget. It's an increase to the budget. Um we're talking about percentage increase and then you know eventually then we work out what that um the cost would be potentially between the towns and the mil rate. So how does that play into some of these things that we get reimbursed for at a different rate? >> Well, there's a couple of ways. If if this prek coordinator is actually funded, you could remove it from you you wouldn't you could remove the actual cost from the budget because what we would do is credit the revenue to the expenditure line. And so every time, >> you know, every time we got a check, we would credit back to that salary line. Okay. The other
108way that it could be handled is if we do end up getting reimbursed for that and we budgeted for it and we don't really know that it would come in as a revenue and we actually have a revenue line CDS revenue line and it would come in as a revenue and that revenue could offset the tax rate >> because you'd be counting on more revenues. >> Um but it wouldn't be until your next year's budget that you would do that uh if you wanted to count if you wanted to count the revenue towards that. >> Yeah. So >> because we don't have enough answers, we're not I'm I'm not prepared to do that yet. I think that's not, you know, but I I those are your two ways of handling it. >> Okay. >> And
109the the the way I would recommend it is if we do find out it's going to be funded, I would recommend crediting to the expenditure lines as you go along. >> Lauren, u I have a different question, but if if anybody's wants to talk more about that, I don't want to change subjects. I just wonder whether or not we can get that information before committing to it. I know like the one of the bigger advantages to to hiring for a full year like as soon as possible is because we don't have those answers and so we need someone to help us like organize and get those answers. I just feel like if there is a one of the places to potentially save, this would be one of those ones where it's like this is a
110I'm not I'm not convinced right now at this point that a full year of that is completely necessary given we don't have a lot of information on from the from the pre-K side of what we're going to do. So, I haven't been convinced of that. Doesn't mean it's not like rational. I just haven't gotten the information to know that like yes, we need it immediately fulltime next year. If there's a place to cut, this might be one for me. >> We talked a lot in finance about whether that could be a half year. >> Yep. >> Start in January. The issue is could we find someone in January and uh people who are qualified to do this position traditionally are going to be looking for this job over the summer. >> I get it. I
111mean, I I totally 10,000% get that, but if we're making hard cuts, like this is one of those things that's like if we get back to that point to Jeff's original question, >> if we're getting down to numbers, this is one where it's like it could be reimbursed. It's not. Let's figure out that before we commit fully to it. This is just one of those like areas I see before we get to any of our teachers or before we get to any of our programs. This is one that's like what can we handle? I just don't know how we would implement the state mandate effectively with without it. Um and yeah, figuring out how we can get that guarantee because I also don't want to say we're cutting something that actually would have no we
112getting fully reimbursed for. So yeah, I totally hear like and understand that point, but I am just really concerned about the obligation that's going to be on the district to implement a program effectively and the pressures that would put on currently, you know, are as we know next year we're going through a year. >> Who else has a prek coordinator and then how are they being like do you see >> Oh, they're all being I mean everyone who has >> everyone that has one has gotten reimbursed, >> right? So where are questions around it then? >> Yeah. I don't know. >> I think it's just year to year because, you know, so far and we've had lots offormational webinars about this. So far, the the Department of Ed will say, "Yes, we're planning to, you
113know, you can bill for the this position and you can get reimbursed for this position." Um, but when does that end? We don't know. And when do they start putting it through the EPS formula? We're guessing we're going to continue getting reimbursed, but we it could easily I've watched so many things be part of, you know, a direct um bill. You get reimbured and then it's gone. And so I'm just a caution. I got you. >> I I expect that we will get >> less likely to get reimbursed. I don't know if we pay for it rather than just being like, "Hey, we need this. We're not going to do it without this." >> Right? Like does that put us in a better position rather than like, "Oh, you're obviously paying for it. You're fine.
114we've had that >> challenge before when we deal with the state. So, I just I think this is just one area for us that we should highlight to be like, let's circle back if this is something that >> we need to prioritize. >> The other thing I wanted to add to Kim's point, um Kim mentioned not being able to find a qualified person halfway through the year. The other point to consider, and I do think you need somebody from the get-go after we know what the delivery model is to be working on this full-time in order to make this shift, but the other point you might want to think about halfway through the year, anything you put in halfway through the year, we're going to absolutely going to need that position full-time the following year
115>> in FY28. So, you'll be picking up the cost of that other half >> in a in a budget year that is already incredibly full. Um, FY2, I mean, I'm not going to say this out loud. I guess I will. FY27 is tough, but FY28 is gonna be tougher. >> Yeah. I just we're just started our board committee work. Um we have a lot of information to sift through and a lot of models to consider and I would hate to be hamstrung by having to work with a half position from the get-go on that. Um just to have that pulled out from us from the I just I think that would be tough. Yeah. I mean, so Tim, every other school district, this has been reimbursed. It's just because we are not in the early
116cohorts, like there isn't 100% certainty, right? Like they're building it as they go as they transition from CDS. So I think Jeff is just being honest that like they could pull the rug from us. Like I don't I don't assume that they would and all every other district they have funded it but like I think it's you know but yeah I I agree it would be tough to for the board to make a recommendation in June to say build this program do better than CDS and then we don't have somebody to run with it and we have folks in the district who maybe are already already doing their jobs and have a huge lift because >> right like CDS isn't doing the job they're supposed to and we're supposed to do a better job. And
117if we don't have somebody to do it, I think that's a a real risk that the program doesn't get built the way it should. >> And that's what we heard at our committee meeting this week was that the existing staff can't take this on. >> Yeah. >> And uh we need somebody. >> Yeah. It's a certain area that you could look at and just assume that it's going to be reimbured. >> Sure. >> I mean, that's the other option, right? >> Hopeful. So I I think it's fair to say that during the cohort process we have more certain or more belief that we will be getting reimbured for the next couple of years. I think after that and again I'm not don't hold me to that because I I still don't know. Um but after
118that I would guess that the state is the legislature is going to shift this to the EPS formula and we're going to be um it's going to go through the formula like every single other thing >> because I think financially that's the way the state's going to have to handle it. >> If I had to forecast and I've watched this hundred different things have the same exact thing over the years. >> Um they start this like this for a few years and then they shift it to the EPS formula. So, um I'm just c I'm just it's just a caution. >> Yeah. >> And mine was the opposite caution. Don't think that this is the place we're going to save our taxpayers money because we are including it because we expected to be we expect
119to be reimbursed. And so taking it out isn't going to save people money on their tax bills in my view. >> I'm just saying that if we're going if they want a number to get down to or get to a point they want direction. I'm just saying there are items that are like this is one that I might look at when we come back. I think we should look at a collection of them and then we can prioritize because there are arguments for and against. But if you look at oneon-one and it's like yeah that's better for each one. They add up over time. So I just think it's better for us to look at and be like where are some spots right now from a weak side of priority. That is one that I
120would consider. That's all I'm saying. And we have have we had conversation with our current preK strategist to see how this position would be different from what she's currently doing. >> So the strategist at MIW right now is for all of we have two at MIW. One that preK through grade two and then we have a 3 to five strategist for special education. So that prek to two person is handling all of the IEPs, all the initial referrals, many of which come in in first and second grade actually. So that position is very full. Um so prek for the strategist on the strategist level is a small part of their complete job that they have. So this this position is different from a special education strategist I guess is what I'm saying >> who's already
121working with CDS >> right for 32 students okay that we have >> Yep. And for our special education students and we have a special educator who works with that program too part-time and helps to manage the case loads with the 32 students which it's not 32 students that are on IEPs. No, it's only a portion of our students. >> Yeah. >> Um I see what Tim's trying to say. Um, I see what Lauren and Jesse are trying to say. And I also see what Jeff is trying to say because the pre-K coordinator is being reimbursed in other schools right now is prior to the mandate. It's just prior to the requirement that's being put through by the state >> that it's being reimbursed. There's no guarantee that it's going to continue to be reimbursed, but
122it does fall under the special ed designation, which >> has a high potential. Um, so needless to say, it's it's one that we grapple with. We, as Kim said, we've mentioned um we've had a lot of conversation about a halfyear versus a full year and recognize that in 28 it would have to be a full year commitment. Um you know, I question whether we have someone in house that is already doing half the job would be willing to con, you know, to consider I don't know. doing picking up. It's It has the potential to be a massive job, almost one and a half people probably. Um, but we're not there. And I can verify with every child care in town, we're not getting the services um and my kids are not getting the services that
123they are um allotted period. >> So we need >> I also think it it gets back to probably what Lauren had had mentioned earlier that we there's no plan yet. you don't have a delivery model and whatever the delivery model is also is contingent upon you know this position being able to um make that delivery model work um and it's complicated and that includes all the billing that goes along with it. Um this person would be working with the finance office to make sure and handle all the billing with whatever delivery model there the board approves. um super complex position honestly that's why I think it's very in a different category than a strategist >> and what you mean by the billing is I mean we have to bill for all the services >> we
124have to bill for all services >> right so that's how we get our reimbursement so it's very important to have you know this person trained up to what we need to be building as a different district to get those reimbursements and to get the I mean ultimately to get the the services for the kids that aren't getting them Right. And right now in the uh special ed office, uh Jen Staltz in her office is doing an amazing job getting this billing done. Great. Some of the things we have. So >> great. >> I think we're going to hit our 14 hours of budget review. >> Okay. Um >> All right. So, uh the other thing I would point out on page two is on line 58. Um you'll see that there's about a $4,600 reduction
125in the subline. And again, this has to do with looking at budget to actuals, but also the fact that we've basically filled our permanent subs who are able to fill in on those positions. So, you'll find some of those reductions throughout the budget. Uh, the permanent subs have really been very, very helpful to the district. So, all right, page three. Um, here we go. Uh, I draw I draw your attention to line 85 and we're in resource room, classroom, placement, and special ed. And again, you'll see uh two reductions there. You'll see about 15,000 in the special ed salary line and also in the substitute salary line, the special ed uh uh edtech line. That's actually just due to the moves. Remember I talked about moves, some lines increasing in cost centers, some lines decreasing.
126That's what that's about. And then um the substitute line there as well on line 86 is also a reduction due to the hiring that we have of our permanent subs and looking at our budget taxuals. Okay. Yes. >> Um, what assumptions are you are we using for edtech salary like compensation given where we are? >> It's all over. I mean, it's all over the piece. I mean, I've got it's going to depend on how the steps line up and how the scale lines up. So, it's pretty hard to give what that assumption looks like. >> Um, we've targeted some dollars, not necessarily percentages on how to handle that. So, >> and these numbers are actually the second year of the >> this would be the second year of the contract contract that >> you've got
127a first year of the contract. >> So, we had to make assumptions in last year's okay >> for where we are currently and this would actually be the second year. >> Okay. >> There there is assumptions to settle the collective bargaining agreement. >> Okay, that's page three. Any questions? Okay, let's go on to page four. All right, we're still at Mabel Eye Wilson School and we're uh going down and we're taking a look at line 133. And again, this is guidance counselor salary. And this is actually an adjustment that's made because we actually had a social worker that was getting charged to this line. And so we had to move that person into the social worker line. So it was basically an error on where we had the person budgeted in. So you'll see that
128salary um as we look over further in the social worker line. So that's all that is. It's just it's it's an adjustment to how we were charging somebody in their uh job title. uh page five. Uh if you go look take a look again, you'll see on uh the top of page five, line 145 again, there's an increase there for the salaries, but that's also where the social where the social worker should be who is being charged off at the wrong cost center of guidance. So that's why that increase is higher. And then on line 57, you'll see that that lines up by $13,000. And this is our site people in the district. And we had a change in hiring. And we have a doctorate level uh individual. And we also had uh adjustments made
129uh to some of our staff members who also had um doctorate levels and were working more time than um than we had budgeted. So So there's a combination of budget to actual and change in staff of $13,000. And that number will kind of look the same as we go across all the schools. you'll see an increase in that line for approximately the same amount as we go across all the schools. >> They're split between the four buildings or three buildings but four grade levels. Okay. All right. And so that would be page five. Any questions on page five? Okay. Let's go to page six. >> Can I um ask a question about line 176 >> uh on >> on page five? uh speech equipment. >> Yeah. There was uh there was equipment that was needed
130for um an incoming student. >> Okay. And should the percent change? >> Yeah, that's shouldn't look right. Okay. Okay. There's a formula over there. The dollar amount's correct, but the percentage isn't calculated right. >> Yeah. And I did mention that in the presentation, too. That's a good catch on the percentage. That is part of the equipment for We had a couple new students. We said we did not have the equipment in the district for >> that. That's what I thought that was. >> And there'll be uh we'll see it in physical therapy as well. There'll be some uh equipment there as well. Okay. So, we'll go to page six. Okay. So on page six, uh if we take a look at uh line 205, and again you heard me mention a few minutes ago about
131um uh equipment that was needed in physical therapy, and that's also for an incoming student that we need uh some uh uh special equipment for that. And on uh the next section which is starts uh line 210, this is related to our summer program extended year services where we work with students um over the course of the summer and we've made some budget to actual adjustments there based on a few years of history. >> Um so we've got a couple of decreases there. One in the teacher uh salary line in 210 and then one in the line 211. And you'll see this extended year service across all the schools and it has to do with our special education services and our tutoring services and other things during the summer. Okay. >> Can I ask a
132quick question? >> Yes. >> About um line 205. >> 205. Yes. >> When there when there are needs for particular supplies for different kids, is there is there any reimbursement by the state? Is there any reimbursement sort of >> uh I believe at times Julie has looked at some of the Medicaid reimbursements, but I'd have to go take a look at that specifically. Okay. I think we try to we try to benefit ourselves every way and some of the billing that we can. The the hardship though, there is a hardship provision which is actually being phased out by the legislature unfortunately um for ex but that applies to outofd district placements that are highcost out of district placements >> and the legislature unfortunately is now looking to phase that >> that particular one up. Yeah.
133So >> right. >> Okay. >> All right. Any other questions on six? Okay. Let's go to page seven. There was uh nothing of meaningful to highlight on page seven. So I would direct us to page eight. >> Well, actually, can I can I linger on page seven just for >> Oh, boy. Okay. Page seven. >> Because I just want to point out kind of to um Lauren to your question. If you look at the librarian salary, librarians are part of this collective bargaining issue. Correct. >> There uh the librarian is not an edtech. The librarian is a teacher. >> Right. >> Okay. And but there are uh teaching assistant salaries in there as well. >> Okay. >> So if we look at teaching assistance, >> you can look at that on line 236. Okay. >>
134Um you will see those built in. >> Yeah. >> In some of those lines, what you'll see across time is you'll not only see increases, but also people earn additional vacation time, which are additional paid days. So as they earn years of service. So it may not be the exact salary piece that we're looking at. It may add additional days as well. So, so unlike in the corporate sector or in a year- round job of 52 weeks a year where you take time off from work, educational technicians and secretaries get paid vacation time that gives them additional days outside the school year like during the school vacations, the winter breaks and um the April break in order they can get paid during those times. And so based on their years of service, they get time
135um of additional days compensated. Okay. So, so that's something as people hit a certain level of years of service, you may see an even larger increase in that line. I was just trying to point out that as one that was a little easier to calculate the less moving pieces. So, one example, right, of a uh of an edtech that where we can see where it's been budgeted for a raise. >> Yes. Um but we don't use our budget to collectively bargain with Yes. >> Okay. So, let's let's make sure we all >> I agree a bit since the question came up. >> All right. Okay. Uh so, um I'm off of page seven and moving to page eight. Okay. >> So, uh on page eight, we're now into uh technology. Okay. And actually, it um
136page seven had technology on it too. uh we had a just the techn technician salary line on that at the bottom of page seven and then uh some of the notable increases here is that and decreases is uh that under 262 there's purchase professional services and for that we have some cyber security that we have to purchase now and you know it's a you know thing we have to deal with in this day and age and then also it's the the strategic program that we have now as well. Okay, that's all >> that's uh in those lines and it's broken out across all the schools. >> Can I just ask a couple questions? um as we're talking and thinking about programming and this isn't for this year's budget but I think it's just helpful as
137we go through um if we're interested in moving away from um some more of the device related learning >> um and and back to good old um you know paper and pencil um would we expect to see I know the things that you just mentioned related to technology are things that wouldn't change even if we moved away from even one-on-one devices for the younger levels because there are technology that's other things that we're going to need regardless of um overall programming choices >> but there's a number of software items right that >> that we would be able to move away from >> you would move away from I would imagine and there's probably also uh laptops and purchases and other things you might look at working looking away from >> and so we we that
138is Is this the section like the technology section that those >> across each school? This would be your technology section >> and then we would see increases on supplies and books and periodical lines maybe >> in the schools maybe >> in the schools. Okay, that's just helpful as we're going through. Thank you. >> Historically speaking, I would say that we've saved a significant amount of money on books and supplies and if we were going to go back the direction I would see that we would spend even more. A lot of it's now on online subscriptions now as opposed to textbooks. Although there are textbooks at the high school, right? And textbooks that somehow there are grade levels. So >> I know math just bought new text the last year. >> Yes. >> Okay. So >>
139I have one at my house. >> Okay. >> So that would be that one. Now >> I I have to Kim Vine. >> Yeah. >> Vine 265. Okay. In finance has been relentless about software. Okay. And so uh we did a complete software review across the district and you'll see reductions across the lines uh relating to software reductions and looking at what are those things that we absolutely use how many users are related to it. So you'll find uh reductions there uh for those items. There is a couple areas where it's gone up a little bit because of the most part software has gone down. >> Okay. >> Are most of those software subscriptions for example like P school you pay a certain amount every year? >> Absolutely. So most of that feeds into that
140and then >> are there things that we are looking to come off in the future years with that like I mean we've narrowed down from that point are there >> at this point I don't think so I think there we looked at what was the software that was being used in the schools might there be changes where one software is replaced with another maybe okay I would think that that could happen um okay so then let's uh take a line. Look at line 270. So, school administration, your administrators are not getting a 24% increase. Okay? So, I want to let you know that um uh that is the increase and that's due to you have a new assistant principal who was listed in the presentation which is being split between um MIW right now and
141Gley Middle School 45. Okay. So, uh, that position would be split between the two so that Carol MacArthur gets some time and that, um, uh, Corey Muny gets some time with that assistant principal. There is also uh, on line 289, there is also a small reduction there in technology related software, but I did want to point it out on Kim's behalf. So, okay. Um, any questions on page eight? Okay. All right. Let's go on to finishing up uh Mayeli Wilson School on page nine. So we get into operation and maintenance of plant on page nine. And if you take a look uh starting at line 298 and then there's line 299. And these are our utilities at Mabel Eye Wilson School. We're going to see a decrease in those utilities based on budget to actual.
142we had modular city and just couldn't get our arms around what that energy cost was looking like between electricity and natural gas. We now feel we have a pretty good history of what it looks like. So, we're willing to reduce that a little bit um so that we can do more of a budget to actual adjustment there. Now, there's increases throughout other areas of the budget where energy has gone up, but well, we feel that's pretty much uh related to that. So, >> and I'm just looking forward to next year. And will this whole section be >> this whole section will look different a year from now >> like like zero? >> Uh I don't know. >> Well, we have remember we have new we have the new addition that you're going to have to
143heat >> the new edition. >> But I would hope that the new addition >> but would not be $872,000 >> dollar. >> I I think it's going to be less. Okay. if I was to guess because I would hope that that new addition is less efficient. >> I mean is more efficient and the modulars are less efficient because they have walls this thick and the building has walls that are this thick and it's it's built to energy efficient standards, right? So So I would expect that to look different. >> Will our insurance go down if we don't have modulars? >> Well on it's all relative, right? How much is it going to go up when the mod? So but yes and you'll have an addition to the new school. So, and you'll have a new
144school. So, you've increased your square footage and I would guess that your insurance is going to go up significantly because you're going to be insuring a new school addition >> for a new building. But I mean, do we pay a higher premium because >> we just insure them for their actual cost like the modulars. We just have to provide insurance on them for their actual cost. And there is there is an increase to insurance for that. >> Yeah. >> But I I wouldn't see like a huge savings to that coming on uh in the next year. So, Can I share a quick antidote? So, um, Wednesday early release, they're all sitting around the table. They're having a conversation. There's about 10 of them. And there was a conversation about the portables and there was a
145the conversation was that they were a magical place and they that had gone on to the middle school. >> Yeah. >> Actually really sad because they lost that magical place. So, as all of the adults are slamming on the portables, >> I have 10 kids who across the board >> determined that the portables were a magical place. >> So, >> right. >> Well, they're like a small learning community. >> Exactly. Like a small learning community. >> Well, we have to face I mean, we did put up a nice little school. I mean, it's a nice little place. >> They've served a really great purpose for the community. Um, I mean, we didn't we didn't just throw a couple of cheap old trailers in there. We did a nice job for teaching and learning with a
146bathroom and so we're good. >> I have not yet gone into the right portable for a conference. >> You haven't gone to the magical. >> I have not. My kids are in loop. >> Yeah, mine was magical if I say so myself. My first year of Spanish wasn't portable. Mine, too. >> There you go. Memories. >> The memories. >> We'll keep one just >> Yeah. I mean, they cost a tremendous amount of money, but let's move on to the bricks and mortar and get in there. So, okay. Um, and then we go down to line 304 and excuse me, uh, three, yeah, 304. And you'll see that that's the custodial salary line. You're going to see that there's been custodians shifted around the buildings because we've had a shortage of staff and so we're just
147positioning people and we still have a couple of open positions as well. So, we just kind of move things around to be as efficient as we can cleaning. Okay. Um Okay. So, that is page nine and the summary of it is Mabel Y Wilson School is up uh about $720,000 or about 5 5.6%. Okay. Any questions on page nine? >> Very small thing, but it just caught my eye. So on the custodial equipment, the only actual information that we have is >> just under $7,000 and then our budget for this year was 15,000. Next year is 15,000. >> I don't know what that actual looks like historically or if there's a reason why we anticipate >> Well, we're actually purchasing additional equipment and we're also in the year that we're in right now, we've actually
148encumbered it to expend it because we're going to start buying the equipment that we need to do the addition at Eye Wilson School. the modulars take a whole different cleaning piece and some of our floor machines and some of the other things we need to replace. So, >> so um and so that's why we're carrying it over forward into next year too because I would assume that there would be additional equipment that's needed. >> So there are specific items being >> yeah Don has been looking at our equipment and replace and looking to replace our equipment within the building you know backpack vacuums you know those types of things as well. I think those are like very helpful examples to see the itemized, right? Because if you're buying equipment now, that doesn't necessarily mean that
149you need you need to assume the next year you're going to need to buy equipment. So like that would be there's there was another one too I won't go back to, but when we recycle through Yeah. >> in the coming weeks, it'd be nice to see some of those out. >> Yeah. And we're looking at a replacement schedule, right? I mean, the stuff that we haven't been keeping up on our equipment and stuff, so we need to get on a replacement schedule of those. So, but yeah, we can certainly put that together. Thank you. >> Yeah, no problem. Okay. All right. So, um we have completed Mabel Eye Wilson School. Let's move on to Gley Middle School 45, which starts on page 10. Okay. So, line 322, you'll see that that lines up about $332,000.
150And uh the reason for that is that's the two teachers who have moved over from Mabel Wilson School, okay, into that building. And also you have 0.2 FTE added there for STEM and art. So that's what's been moved over to that building. Also, if we go down and we take a look at line 348, uh in that uh supply line, you'll see that's up about $8,800. The majority of that is for uh new staff. that's uh coming over and having supplies for new staff and increased enrollment. And there's also a series of math consumables that are being uh purchased uh out of that line as well. Line 349 uh books is decreased and that's just based on uh you know the need or the non-ne libraries. So, also on line 350, uh there's about a
151$28,000 increase, and the reason for that is furniture uh for the increased enrollment and for the space for the two uh staff members who are coming on board. The issue that you have there is that you have old antiquated equipment or furnishings that are there. We have some that are saved up in the attic of the maple of the um middle school. The problem is they're not the correct size for fourth and fifth graders. They're geared more towards, you know, seventh and eighth graders. And so we need the proper size for that and to address increase enrollment. >> Can can we verify the dimensions on those to see what the difference is between the chairs and desks that we have versus the chairs and desks that we would be purchasing? >> Yeah, we take a
152look at those. Absolutely. >> I mean, if it's >> Yeah. And it's and and a lot of it's remember too to uh deal with increased enrollment, right? But we'll be glad to take a look at that. >> Um 345 the per just professional services. >> Yes, that's also Sorry, I didn't highlight that. That's also the school resource officer again. Oh, >> okay. Thank you. >> I should have highlighted that. >> Okay. >> Sorry. Can I just ask one more question about the furniture? >> Yes. >> So, this is at Gley Middle. This is at four five. Yes. At the fourth and fifth grade level. Yeah. We'll be at the middle school and there'll be furniture purchased for the middle school as well. The the 68 >> students as well. >> And that's because of increased
153enrollment. >> It's in it's increased enrollment and two new staff. Yes. >> Um >> at the middle school. >> And it's also for to replace and some of it's replacing furniture that's old >> as well. But it's really more to address the uh increased uh teaching staff that you have and to address those rooms. So you can't just grab furniture out of the modular because the you're not taking and moving that to a new space because then what's that teacher in the modular going to use. Okay. >> I asked at the finance committee too. I was like digging into this because it didn't make sense in my head at first and then I'm like >> we're falling but it's not necessarily increased enrollment in my head. I think about it it's more the bubble is
154shifting. >> Absolutely. So that bubble was in little furniture and now they're in a little bit bigger furniture and then they're going to be even bigger. >> And there's and there's also some replacement of cafeteria tables. Few cafeteria tables because they, you know, break down over time and then you can't fold them up properly. You can't, you know, you just can't use them and you can't seat the proper students around them. So >> it's the bubble >> and the bubble. Yes. So this is 45. So we have two teachers. These teachers are coming from MIW. They're transferring over to 45 because of the enrollment. um increase there and we have a flat enrollment at MIW so they're making a transfer the the desk and chairs because I've asked this question too like do we need
155to purchase all these desk chairs the desk and chairs that would be going over there are too small for the children that are going over it will not be it will not be at their I believe the desk and chairs the way it was explained to me they are at their highest and they will not fit the kids as they go over to the middle school. >> Yeah. And then the middle school ones are too large. Right. And the 68 ones that are stored are too big for the four fives. >> And there's not >> and they're and they're bits and pieces, right? I mean, it's not like full huge classrooms of furniture. They're like bits and pieces of stuff. >> And we've done a lot of those bits and pieces of putting stuff together
156for a long time. And um instead of just replacing a school, the only school I've we've replaced since I've been here is the high school. >> And there's not two full classrooms sitting in the attic. >> Is there one? So good. I think there's >> I doubt it. I think there's pieces, but I think we'd have to look. >> There's also a question I thought at one point about whether there might be a lease option. I also wonder, this may not be realistic, but with all of these other schools in the state that apparently have declining enrollment, right? >> Do any of them want to get rid of their furniture? >> When there's I have a list serve, a school list serve, and when those things come up, we do take a look at them.
157Okay? Because there are school districts that will say, "Hey, we have furniture or we built a new building. We bought all new furniture for the building. So, you know, is it available?" We did that with Falmouth when Felmouth went through their project where they did their elementary schools and the other things and their secondary school and they did all the renovations over there. We took all of Falmouth's a good chunk of it, brought it over here, their old furniture, and used it as long as we could. >> Yeah. I mean, I definitely think this is an area where and we're interested in maybe putting an SOS out. Uh, sorry, schools with declining enrollment that you're going to need to be making significant changes. >> Let's go on the list serve and see what happens. >>
158Yeah. And I completely understand, you know, as we're building a new school to put new furniture, don't bring the piece together things that we've had on the other school over to a new school like opening it with with the new furniture. But yeah, if there's some opportunity for to adding two classrooms >> and we'll certainly talk with the administrators again, we'll look at the furniture and we'll take a look at it again. We could do a lease purchase option as well if we wanted to reduce those costs. We could basically lease purchase them over a three or five year period. That's an option as well, but um you know, we've done that before on large furniture purchases. We've done a lease purchase on that, but um we didn't bring that forward on this one. >>
159Okay. >> I have a simple question, so feel free to patronize me. I totally will take it. Um, so we're taking two teachers over from MIW. Yes. >> Where do I see that from MIW? Shouldn't that should there be a shift or where is that shift? >> You see the you see on the first salary line the first number the very number one. >> Yeah. >> So where then where's the where's the reduction there? >> The reduction is >> it's not a huge increase. the the reduction is there's also two there's also two unfilled teaching positions that we didn't fill >> out of this current fiscal year. Okay. >> All right. So that's why it became a net zero. >> Okay. >> So there was uh two positions that didn't get filled. So >> when
160you're looking at your budget to actuals at finance, you will see there is money. >> Okay. >> At Mabel I Wilson School and the salary lines because we did not fill two teaching positions. >> Yeah. I just want to note though that we are holding one of those. So I don't believe that's reflected in this line because we're looking at our kindergarten enrollment right now. >> It it is reflected because we've reduced our assumptions around long-term subs. >> Okay. So it is reflected there as well. >> Right. I was referring to the other unfilled positions. >> Yeah. >> So that would approximately would have been like five to 7% increase on that line if we weren't shifting. >> Absolutely. >> Yeah. Absolutely. If we weren't taking the reduction and we weren't moving staff over, it
161would have been a much this would have been a larger increase to the budget. >> And that's part of what why I was looking at all four teacher salary lines combined because of people moving around. And that's why I was saying that instead of a $1.6 million increase, which is what we had from last year to this year, we have an 880,000 increase. So, we still have an increase because of uh salary increases obviously, but it's not it's not as big a bump and we were able to reduce the >> budget to actual for the subs. So, I think sometimes it's helpful to look at all four of those lines, right? And add them up across them. >> Yeah. >> And then even the high school, you'll see we took into account a number of
162teachers who retired. Okay. And budgeting for a lower salary. So you'll see those things as well as we go through the budget. So um okay. So uh I guess we at this point are going to move on to page 11. Okay. And let's start at line 356 at the top. You'll see there's a decrease there in the substitute line of about $3,200. Again, we're talking again about we have permanent substitutes in the buildings now. So, we're able to look at these substitute lines and actually reduce them uh because we have full-time staff on board. And then also in line 381, you'll see that's down $34,000, but you'll see there's increases in other special ed tech lines um that happen as we shift ed techs around with based on student needs. Any questions on line 11?
163I mean on page 11. Okay, let's move on to page 12. Okay, so um only notable one on this page would be on 405 and we have an increase in the out of district tuition line of about $30,000 for an anticipated need there for out of district uh placement. Any other questions on page 12? >> Sorry, can I would just clarify this? This is when somebody's moved out of our district and has to go into another school but a private school and we are footing the bill for that. >> That's correct. Okay. >> Yeah. And just to note also that we do um wherever the student is in the district, we move them around. We move the money if there's a need or anticipated need. So they might be in one school one year and
164in a different school. >> You'll see it kind of shift around. Yeah. >> But it's only if we feel like there is a real possibility and we obviously consult with Julie Olsen. she is part of our process. Um, she's got all this information and she feels like there's a student that could possibly be placed out soon. >> That's actually a good point how it shifts between the schools like the edte >> to where the student actually is and we have students that are out of district and we have to move them from cost center to cost center too. >> It is an unfortunate name private school. >> Yeah, it it does have a different conation there. We can do that. That like comes off the chart of accounts from the state, but we can look
165at change of that. Okay. >> I just bet it's unfortunate. I was trying to >> I hear you. I hear you. It's uh Okay. Page 13. Okay. Um uh let's just go to line 454. And line 454. That's where you're seeing that. Remember I talked about the doctoral psych position kind of coming across all the lines because of the change in hire. And then also on line 461, there's an increase there of $6,300 for um for supplies. And that has to do, as I took a look, it had to do with uh testing materials. Basically, it's testing and assessment materials. >> And that percentage looks like it needs to be adjusted. >> It needs to be fixed. >> Okay, any questions on 13? Okay, let's move over to page 14. I have nothing. notable on
166page 14. So, if we'd like to move to page 15. Okay, on page 15 uh on line 505, this again is extended year summer services. And again, we're taking a look at our budget to actuals on that summer program. And we were able to reduce that by 6,700 in the teacher line and also by 3,900 in the edtech line. And again, we aren't we don't always have an assumption, you know, we don't always know what's going to happen in the extended year services, right? Um, >> but looking at a history of that, we feel pretty confident that that can be reduced. >> Now, I'm not going to complain about not spending money. Um, but I am just interested in why it it does not seem like we spent a lot of dollars during the summer.
167Um, and >> is how come Um >> well, we have staff that are working, okay? We have a number of ed techs that are working and we have a number of um uh we have a number of uh other staff that are working with us. We have people who are driving vans back and forth uh with students. Um >> well, I guess what are the requirements? Because I mean I remember like kids who had to go to summer school, right? And is this where this >> this isn't like a full summer school that you would see? This is related to uh student services who they're required um as extended extended year service. The IEP team has to qualify the students to be part of extended year services. Okay. >> So it's not an automatic students
168don't automatically go to summer school. Okay. >> They have to be IEPD in. >> We do not offer a general summer school for students. We used to >> typical anymore. >> It isn't. No. We for a long time we offered credit recovery here at the high school level. Um and so we had credit recovery for English and math and PE actually for many summers uh because we didn't have enough. We had students that just couldn't get their credit going on. Yeah. >> So we discontinued credit recovery probably probably during the pandemic is when it got discontinued and we have not brought it back. There's not been a request to bring it back or a need. >> Okay. No. I guess I'm just thinking about so kids who really need additional support, they would be on
169IEP and get that support over the summer. I that I guess that's what I'm trying to Okay. >> So an IEP team determines you have to qualify for extended year. So every student on an IEP does not necessarily qualify for extended year services. They have to show that there would be some sort of regression over the summer that would impact their have an adverse impact on their education. And uh because of that, an IEP team I it's getting late IEP team may determine that the student qualifies and then they can get services um over the summer. >> And again, these lines could change, right? I'm I'm not sure at this point, but I've tried to take into account >> what's been historic >> what what kind of historically looks like when we look at the
170actuals, right? I also will say just historically that there was a time when students just were automatically um being qualified. You know, it was just it was a the regs have changed and it's a little more stringent now to get those services over the summer. >> Okay. So, uh line 531, while it's not a huge number, that $200 will be deleted because it is a budget to actual and we'll be taking that out. Okay. So, >> just so you know. Okay. So, >> we scored. >> I I didn't catch it on the first round, so Okay. >> All right. So, that's page 15. Any other questions on 15? Okay. Let's go to 16. Okay. On line 16, um 549, which is the technology related software. Slight increase there. And it has to do um when
171you netted out what the software was going to be and then when you added in Google Workplace, which is something that we had a grant to and we no longer have a grant for that, so it's no longer reimbursed. And then also add into the the Centiggics, we end up with about a $9,400 increase there. Um, also, uh, as we get down to line 555, if you'll recall, I talked about the shared assistant principal, new assistant principal between 45 and Melai Wilson School. That's where that is showing an additional increase there. So, any questions on 16? Okay, we'll go to page 17. And uh again, Kim Vine, >> line number 576 is a software reduction of $1,300. >> Okay. >> So, all right. So, there you go. >> Okay. >> Hey, I need you to
172come to my house. >> I got a couple Amazon and Audible. >> Oh, I just found out I was playing two Disney Plus. >> Yeah. Oh, that's >> so um so in four five because the of course the largest piece is the well it wasn't an increase to the budget it was a movement of staff over it's $736,000 increase or about 12.4% on that cost side. Okay. Um we'll now move to Greedy Gley Middle School 68 which starts on page 18. And if we look at line 589, this is where we have the cost of two new teachers. Okay. And again, we also netted out some of the long-term subs against that. Uh the assumptions around that because we have our permanent subs which are paid out of the substitute line. And um so that's
173up about 354,000. That's increased plus the addition of two new staff. on 593. I just kind of wanted to show that's the 14% increase in health insurance just so you kind of see the pattern of that across the um schools. And then we can move down to line 618. And again, we have an increase in supplies there of about 7 $7,900. And that has to do with um uh new teachers and enrollment, the two new teachers and some enrollment increase. Um, we also have on line 620, which we have talked about, is about a 14 or $15,000 increase for furniture. Again, that has to do with cafeteria tables and some classroom furniture. All right. So, any questions on line 18? Do you see the pattern of each building yet? Okay. And how it develops? >>
174But it's helpful. >> All right. >> Okay. Uh, page 19. Um, we're now into special education and we're looking at line 626 and you'll see that lines up by $44,000 on educational technician and that's again the realignment of edte across the district. And line 627, we made a reduction to a special ed substitute line. And again, that has to of about, you know, $11,000, a little over $11,000. And that has to do again with looking at our what we're doing for substitutes and the use of our permanent subs and how they affect the different areas. So, all right. And so it becomes a budget to actual plus a reduction. And then if we take a look at 652, you'll see that the substitute salary line there has been reduced as well by $6,600. Same thing
175I've been talking about as we've gone through this. Uh so that's page 19. Any questions there? Okay, let's move on to page 20 in the 18,000 account lines we're looking at. Okay. Um, we can go down to line 686 and you'll see there that the health insurance is down by $15,000 and that's a budget to actual what the staff is actually taking on health insurance. Okay. Nothing else notable on page 20 if there's not any other questions. Okay. So, let's go to page 21 and I'd like to uh focus you on athletics which is game administration which start uh sets game administration gley middle school athletics. So, if you start at line 706 we have an increase there of about 5% and that's an estimate on what it will be for game officials. That's not
176our staff. That's dictated by what uh the officials and I believe it's the MPA sets the rate at. >> Yeah. >> Okay. >> Uh with the officials. So, we're just assuming there'll be an increase in cost for the officials. >> Uh there's also, as we go down and look at line 720, there's actually additional uh money and supplies there. It probably could be labeled uniforms and supplies. Um, but there's actually uh going to be a budget to actual and we need to do some uh uniform replacement uh in that area. So that's really what that pertains to. And then on line 726 under student guidance services, this is where we've added the 2FT uh to the middle school guidance. Any questions on 21 >> 696 activity statement? What what is that >> on 696? That
177has to do with all of the school activities like some of the clubs and the activities in the buildings. >> Is that the um >> it's not athletics. The athletic stipens are 707. >> It's like the after school >> that's like the after school clubs could be could be drama could be uh and it it could be a number of different clubs. >> Japan club and there's a stipen played to our paid to our teaching staff who oversee those clubs. Not the ecology school overnight trip. >> No, >> but I think that was included in your presentation too, Jeff, right? Lyn addition for unified cooking for stipen. >> Yes, that would be an example under that. >> Yeah, that would be there. It is. Yeah. >> Just quickly going back to page 20. So there's
178another um tuition >> potential, even a much larger tuition potential. I don't know. I just >> Yeah, that's a that's a placeholder um for an out of district placement that may happen. >> Okay. And again, looks like maybe percentages would need to be. >> Yeah, just well, it's it's not it's not an increase. It's a budget the same as the previous year. So, it's not an increase. >> So, that's why it's showing zero. >> And are we using that? >> It's a placeholder in anticipation. Yes. >> Uh, yes. I I I'm talking about our current year. >> In our current year, um, I'd have to take a look at that again and see how much of that we're using. Okay. I don't have it right at my fingertips, but >> just a just a budget
179tax. >> I can look at it and maybe we'll just get that back to people. Okay. >> Thank you. and have it as part of our budget taxuals. >> Great. >> For things like the that the Bruins trip or when they go and do >> I don't know whatever those activities is that 707. >> Um the Bruins trip um I believe are you talking at the high school level or are you talking at the middle school level? >> I guess that Well, okay. Things like that like I'm giving an example. >> Those are those are mostly funded by the boosters. >> Okay. >> The boosters actually fund it for the teams to attend those most of the time. >> I know. So that that so things like 707, give me some examples of that stipened.
180>> Uh that would be the coaching stipens, the assistant coaching stipens. >> So those are coaches. >> So it's it's all the coaches. >> Okay, >> that's helpful. >> Okay. >> For line 676, that that is an actual student that is placed. >> Okay. 76 >> it is. Okay. >> Okay. >> I didn't have that. Thank you. Um and c coming hot off of athletic advisory last night. Um student athletic enrollment incredible like there we have an incredible >> that's why you're going to see some when we hit the high school >> students participating in athletics. you see some increases around supplies and some other things >> like >> yes very good >> increases in fees to the uh >> due to the students y >> the fees that we get charged for >> we
181know all we've heard all the benefits I mean I know I was a student athlete who received lots of benefits from >> keeps students in school right keeps them active >> keeps them yeah healthy >> off the phones and keeps them engaged and wanting to be here True. >> Yeah. I mean, yeah. So many kids, right, come to school because they >> know that they don't get to participate otherwise. >> Can we stop at uniforms back 720? >> Yeah. >> Um, so is this a one-time? Is this going to be a year-over-year? Well, I think that there will be ongoing there's a replacement schedule of uniforms and this has to do also with a lot of increased participation in athletics uh on these uniforms. So, if it continues to increase, obviously you have to have
182more uniforms and if it's um they're on a replacement schedule, so I think you could see maybe some stabilization of it, but right now we're we're faced with increased enrollment in athletics. >> And there's a there's a fee at the middle school, too, right? >> Yeah. Yeah. >> So, how much of this has >> That was my next question. >> We aren't collecting enough money in order to offset many of our costs. Okay. And it's cost have increased um and where we're at. And we need to do more replacement on uniforms. We need to do those things. So, >> so no, it's uh we collect about >> almost $90,000 now, I think it is. So, >> and I know we did >> we use we use that for a lot of these uniform replacements and
183other things, but we also need money in addition to that. >> And I know we did take a bit of a deep dive into the fees and the structure. And >> I was really surprised to learn that we're actually one of only a handful of districts that has those fees. >> I can't stand them. >> Yeah. I The fees for athletics is like another tax on family with kids. >> But we don't charge for attendance at games. >> That's right. We don't do >> we don't charge for attendance game >> which several people have suggested >> would be >> doing either a season pass would be a nice you know a >> revenue I don't know um charging >> season pass would go over well >> yeah charging to get into events >> as an
184option or a season pass >> I think yeah it's a great idea I'm like but then other people see that as a tax like oh I already pay and I can't now I can't go to the I mean, obviously for the theater events, plug in Little Women this weekend, there's, you know, >> that makes a lot of sense because they've got a lot significant cost that they're trying to cover, right? Um, >> for the play, >> but yeah, those are things that we >> certainly something I mean, but anyway, I'm going to choose not to express my opinion on that. >> I'm sure we could have a whole >> I could have a long discussion about, you know, families and what they pay. An alternate an alternate um viewpoint on that is that the fees
185for middle school sports are really low compared to some rec sports and like >> absolutely >> Wednesday ski. So >> y >> Okay. >> And when we buy uniforms, are we buying just the uniforms? Are we buying the sweatpants and the extra jacket and the >> I I believe it's just the >> I think it's just the uniform. It's not the extra. That's typically the the >> judging judging by the past few years, it's just the uniform. Very threat. >> What I see hanging is the shirts and the pants. >> Shorts. Usually shorts. >> Shorts. >> Jacket. >> Okay. All right. Um, any other questions on line 20 on page 21? Okay. Let's move on. Page 22. >> Okay. All right. >> We're flying. All right. So, um, line 740, um, again, you'll see that
186looks like a large increase there, but it's it's really, you know, change in selections of health insurance for staff and just budget taxuals. And then on line 749, again, it's that uh, psych position, right? We had a a new hireer that came in and so you're seeing a little bit salary there. And we also had to adjust our doctoral psych position. Okay. Um, so that's page 22. Any other questions on page 22? Okay, page 23 and we are still in special education. Okay, if we uh take a look at line 7 uh excuse me 785, you'll see that the equipment in aiology has been reduced. Um we don't see a need for the equipment there next year. So we reduce that line by 2,000. And on line 799, you'll see that there's a decrease in
187teacher salaries and also 800. This is again our extended year services that we offer in the district and we've reduced those assumptions there just based on some of the actuals that we've done. >> I ask just a process qu quick question and Kim I think you probably are the best one to answer this. I I mean I think a lot of there's sped the money we spend on sped is a huge amount. It's going to be an increasing amount. I imagine too a lot of like the reimbursements or guidelines around it. I just kind of look at it and I'm like, "Yeah, okay. I trust that." Is there an expert on that committee that's like in somewhat verifying or looking at it and being like, "Yes, yes, yes, this checks out. This checks out. This
188checks out." Like almost like our prek coordinator, but from a special like who is advising on some of the costs of this? >> That would be Julie Olsen. >> Okay. So she in the finance committee >> she goes through she prepares the budget and submits a budget to us and she's probably one of the most conservative people we have that budgets >> and is it is very talented at it. So so um >> because a lot of things are build it's even easier to keep track of you know what services are actually being used because that >> and her budget doesn't have very large increases to it every year. There's a pretty much stable if it does it's got some staff increases to it very very little. Okay. So, I uh I She's your expert.
189>> Yeah. We also get our the state aid that we get back is weighted for special education. So, we do get a bunch of state aid back. >> Yeah. >> Um >> Okay. So, that would be uh page 23. Unless there's any other questions. >> Okay. Page 24. Okay. Um, so if we look at page 24 and we look at line 816, uh, you'll see an increase of about $4,000 in the employee training and development. That really has to do with a budget to actual on the professional learning grants. It wasn't uh it wasn't the amount that it should be in the current year. We actually have a contractual agreement with our association in which we put money into what are called mini grants that they can apply for. And uh so this was an
190oversight in the current year that we're in. It really should have been a higher number. Okay. >> So that's a budget taxual. Um and uh I we have a formula error on line 24 which I'll fix. Okay. Way out to the right. It's like 04. It's not a percent. Okay. So we'll fix that. Okay. >> Um okay. Any questions on page 24? Okay. Let's go to page 25. Okay. So, um, we're out of special education and we're now on to, uh, taking a look at our, um, instructional related technology line. And if we take a look at line 856, Kim, you did it again. Okay. Uh, almost a $6,300 decrease in software. Okay. And, uh, on line uh,87, that's just going to be the rolling lease that we have. Um, just to kind of point
191out to you that hardware is just that rolling lease that we have to replace and and do our laptops and our other things that we need to purchase across the year. We have a lease that's been paid off. So, we now have a rolling lease into another one without increasing the budget. Um line 862 that secretary sourly line is higher and the reason for that is adjustment on the number of days for the secretary at the high school which is a budget to actual and it's also an increase on the secretary collective bargaining agreement. Okay. Um any questions on page 25? >> Why is 868 so much higher? Is that because of the >> which area? >> 868 the retirement >> 868 >> um >> that's uh that's actually let me take a look at
192that but I think what it is is well I'll tell you it was an assumption in the collective bargaining. Okay but >> okay I'll take a look at it but it was one of our assumptions. Okay. >> Okay. >> Can we go back to 857? >> 857. Yes. Got it. >> So 24 to 25 we're at 53,668 and then we jump up which I know we increased that because of the do you see that >> steady? What I see happening now >> two three years or do we see it coming back down? >> What I see happening is that you've got a rolling lease. Okay. So or several leases. So as one lease is paid off you can take on another one without increasing the budget. So if you get in this three-year cycle of
193leases then you can continue to buy without increasing the budget. That's what I see happening. If you do away with technology issues, yeah, you're gonna, you know, as Leanne was pointing out earlier, you would reduce that. Okay. >> I just It's just a big jump and it's >> Yeah, it's now steady. >> Yeah, it is from year to year. But we took on additional leasing for the uh for the equipment and we also had I think it was we had a year where we had to do some switches. I remember >> we had some of the infrastructure around the network. So, so I think those were upgrades that we did that was related to the current fiscal year that we're in versus next fiscal year. Okay. Next fiscal year is more about devices and things.
194>> Yeah. I guess just confirming since it's the same amount being carried over. >> We'll take a look at it. >> Yeah, that'd be great. >> Yeah. And I'm looking at it in its totality between the district and what's being purchased in the tech plan. So, >> all right. Uh, so we'll just flag that one as a look. Okay. Uh, page 26. >> I'm so sorry. >> Go ahead. Go ahead. >> For principal assistant, principal salary. >> Yes. >> The one where it had to be adjusted to um I just totally lost my words those things. There was an adjustment to assistant principal salary in relationship to some of the other salaries around us and in the district. A minor a minor increase in adjustment. >> Okay, that was Thank you. >> Yeah. And it
195was to just and it was to three assistant principles across the district. >> Can can I verify an understanding? >> Yes. >> Okay. Um is there and it goes back to page 22. Sorry. >> 22. Sorry. Okay. Let me go back. Um, and it's it's more of a clarification. Um, and it's line 749. And you referenced the >> psychological teacher. Yeah. >> Psychological teacher with a doctorate. >> Yeah. >> Is that two teachers? Is that one split between two? Because you also >> I believe there's two teachers that are in that line, but there one of them is split across like four cost centers. >> Okay. Okay. >> So they're split across cost centers, right? So one of them is split across the district. >> Okay. So that I guess that answers that. >> Okay.
196Good. >> Then uh Okay, that was 23. So I'm back to >> Sorry, 24. >> 25. So I'm going to 26. Okay, great. Okay, 26. >> Oh, I think I got I got the bonus that I will throw off. >> Okay, so there you go. Okay. >> Yeah, that's great. So on page 26, um what I would look at there is again this is the area where we had to increase our energy cost. And if you look at uh line 893 and then 894, you'll see that on 893 we've increased electricity. And quite frankly, we were underbudgeted in the year we're in. Okay? And if you remember in finance, we were talking about reducing stuff. Well, didn't pan out the way we thought. Okay? So we need to do a budget to actual and also
197anticipate additional cost. I mean energy costs have gone up, right? Electricity, everybody's seen that your own home. So, electrical costs have gone up and then also um and then also natural gas has also gone up in cost. And who knows where that's going to end at this moment. Okay. >> Which makes sense because we added another portable building. So, we were going to have >> Exactly. We added another modular there. And again, there were assumptions that were made and you know, actually added three modu two two modulars. Right. So uh so there were assumptions that were made around that and we look at the budget taxuals on it. So okay right it's also one of the things about the middle school it's the only building that's really fully airond conditioned so it gets all the
198use in the summertime and it is going constantly in the summer. You've got extended year services there. You've got the wreck programs using that building. So it is just used because it is the one really climate controlled building in the district. Can we ask the town for help on that? If the town is the right program and we're running the the AC and electricity, >> we could we could look at it as all our exchange of services. I mean, we have, you know, snow plowing that's exchanged for custodial and use of facilities, part of Twin Brooks usage. I mean, you know, there's some tradeoffs uh between the town and the school. >> We're paying more for the SRO. Yeah. >> And now we're paying for the SRO. Yes, I get it. So, okay. Yeah. um
199fee for actual service, but um those can always be revisited. Okay. Um but we do have a spreadsheet that shows that it's fairly equal. Okay. In the cost sharing. >> Okay. Um page 27. >> I have a question. >> Oh, sorry. Okay. Let me go back. 26. Um just the the line 898 the um actuals for custodials. >> Yeah. >> From 368 up to 609 then up to 629. >> Sure. >> Just Yeah. We s we um we actually when you take a look at the the custodial usage and where they are, we've moved people around from various years and we actually had um a shortage of custodians at one point. If you remember, I actually talked about that that we had a shortage of custodians. We're now starting to fill those positions and there
200were some um salary increases to there as well. So, and you'll look at maybe some of the other lines haven't increased as much over those years. for custodial staff is there I mean like it's very easy for like teacher to student ratios for custodial staff how do you follow be like this is an adequate amount or comparable amount to what other institutions have like we >> you try to look at square footage so what's the square footage that they're cleaning and how many staff are needed per square foot but then you got to throw in there the amount of usage of the building right I mean these buildings are used right up until the night and so uh right up until late evening And so you have to kind of look at that additional usage
201as well. So it's not the same as cleaning an office building that's closed at, you know, six o'clock or 7 o'clock. It's really looking at a building that's used pretty substantially and you try to look at a standard of square footage. >> Great. So by saying that it's $200,000 more to clean four through eight than it is prek through >> that building's used pretty heavily. >> Okay. So >> I'm just pointing it out. It is what it is. >> Yeah. And square footage wise, right? You take a look at the size of the middle school >> and we have staffing at the high school as well. So Okay. All right. So, okay, if we're all set, we'll move to 27. Again, this is just your activity transportation and your athletic transportation cost. Um, in the
202activity transportation, there's a slight reduction. Um, but in the, uh, athletic transportation, there's just a routine cost of salary increases. All right. Um, so let's move on to Gley High School. Okay. which is page 28. >> All right. So on starting on line 931, that's your teacher salary lines at the uh high school. And this is where we had I believe it was three retirements uh that are coming out of this year. So we've been able to adjust the budget based on those retirements and lower those costs. And then also uh we took out the um one of the um long-term subs out of that line as well just based on our use of other substitutes. So uh so that would be what is but one of the things that's really driving that line down
203is the three retirements that we have. And then uh the other thing I would look at is on line 959 again uh that's another allocation of the resource officer which is allocated there as well as um uh the other one on that was the uh no that's the resource officer broken out across the schools. That's that's the largest piece of that. Okay. And then um if we take a look on line 963, you'll see a big almost a $24,000 reduction in books. And that has to do because we did a one-time purchase of math books in a cycle of replacement of math text in that year. So now we don't need to necessarily do that in this year that's coming up in the new year. Any questions on page 28? >> So we'll probably see
204that increase back next year. >> Um or at some point along the line. It could be social studies text. It could be, you know, other texts, right? But the math texts were a big replacement. >> Line 959, I know you've talked about this finance, but I think it's >> 959, >> uh, purch 959, purchased professional service. >> Yes. >> Can you just explain what that is for the public at home? >> Uh, yeah, there's a number of things that are in there. Um, one of them is the SRO. Um, hang on. I'll have to look that up, Jesse. Somebody else. >> Yeah, I thought that was the SRO line. >> It's mostly the SRO. >> Is there something else in there? >> Yeah, I think there's probably something else in there. Um, if you want
205me to answer it tonight, I can or I can bring it to finance committee. Okay. All right. But it's mostly the school resource officers. >> That's why it's going up 11,000. Okay. >> So, in the three retirements, those are positions that won't be filled. Well, they'll be filled, but they'll be filled at a we hope at a cost that's less than the teachers who are higher on the pay scale. >> Got it. >> So, a lesser amount. >> Yeah. So, rather than being a master's degree plus 30 plus 30 years, >> maybe somebody in the BA level or the master's years or something like that. Okay. Makes >> sense. Thank you. >> Yeah. We hire the best qualified candidates, but obviously, you know, they probably won't be as senior as the teachers that are leaving.
206>> Yeah. >> Got it. >> Okay. Caitlyn, >> um, I had a question on line 942, the MSRS employer instructional assistant. What is the increase there? >> Uh, that has to do with um the instructional assistant salaries up above. So, if you take a look, it it's a percentage- wise, but what it is is kind of an adjustment budget to actual, >> okay, >> based on the increase in the salary up above. And that's the main state retirement system >> which we have to contribute to where um other staff who are not required under the main state retirement system would be under um social security. >> Okay. >> Thank you. >> Okay. >> So I know you're giving this to the finance committee tomorrow >> for 931. Um if we like are we on track
207right now to hit that 547 that like the budget to actual right now. Are we on track to hit that 5 million number? >> Um, we're pro uh we probably are we probably will have money left in that salary line at the end of the fiscal year because we had some of the long-term subs that didn't materialize >> and also when did we settle the contract? Um we had >> it was settled a little bit later and we made some assumptions. >> Yeah. So the I mean I will say as a reminder it's it's been a challenge for everyone. The employees working within a unit that's unsettled us as a board trying to plan out salaries and making assumptions. So we'll see this for the past few years. I mean almost every year for the
208past few years unfortunately again I >> we're talking about numbers but I also like these are people who weren't realizing for a certain period of time those increases but >> yeah I will tell you that there will be funds left in that line >> I mean it just creates a challenging position for these salary lines for them to align >> yeah no I'm just trying to figure out like that increase on the on the next side and how that how that kind of works formulaically >> there's No, like >> well and that's why you'll see the adjustment there too. Why it's why that 2.46 is not seven or eight. Right. Okay. Okay. Is because they've adjusted for that plus we've adjusted for um the salaries for the uh teaching staff and where we were going
209to be in this fiscal year. >> Okay. Okay. All right. And then uh we all set with that page 28. Any questions on 28? Are we all set? Okay. All right. All right, let's go to 29. Okay, so on page 29, we have the top line which is um Can't read it online. Hang on. Okay, >> so there we are at 965 which is miscellaneous and that has to do with the IB evaluation this year and the NAS fees. Okay, accreditation fees. Okay, >> I don't think $9,000 increase in miscellaneous. >> Tell you what it is. That's what it is. Okay. So, >> all right. And >> sorry, how frequently does that happen? >> Um, when's NEAS? Every >> So, they're both they're actually both every five years. We have the accreditation every five years
210and we have um for from NIASK and then we have the IB evaluation. They come and they do global IB global does evaluation of us. So, it just happens to be they're both now one of them Carl did tell me may or may not be happening this year. Um I think it's the IBL might be pushed off. So that is one we'll have to just >> we're still waiting. >> All right. And then um if we just go down further again, you'll see that on line 996 uh that's also related to some staff moves, okay, for special education. And uh again, we reduced the substitute salary line by $2,700 based on our actuals and um the use of our permanent subs. Okay, we can look at page 30. Okay, again, um we have a uh
211on line 1021, we have specialized private tuition, and that line is down by about $47,000. And that really is the only notable thing on line 30. I mean on page 30. All right, let's go to page 31. Okay. Uh we can start with athletics at the high school which starts on line 1044. And um there's a lot of lines to this budget in there. Okay. All right. So 1044 is um the that's again your officials and your scores. And so that's driven by um just our percentage increase. And then if we take a look, we go down further and we start looking at line 1055 um that $1,500 increase there is for ice time >> and the increase in ice time. And then if you look at um 1056 contracted services, uh that increase there
212has to do with uh more police at events. That was an agreement with the town of Cumberland uh police and EMTs at our athletic events is the largest increase of that. >> Yeah. But it's actually lower than it was budgeted for in 201. Yeah. >> Yeah. So >> we were looking the expenditures were higher in that year. They were lower this year. And so now we're coming to what we think our actual will be. >> Okay. Right. And then um uh we look at supplies and um you know is basically $6,800. And again um when I spoke with David about that, that had a lot to do with um the increase in participation and the increase of needs uh for supplies. Um could be balls, could be a number of different things, right, for athletics.
213And then also um on line uh 30 I mean excuse me on line 1058 has to do with uniforms and again that's um keeping up with the replacement schedule um uh because there is enough money that we collect in fees to cover all of that and we also have increased participation and so we have uniform increases that we have to purchase. I think also we've added in at the middle school and the high school I think we added in unified basketball as well. Okay. Uh for in for replacing their uniforms. >> Can you just explain why it was a zero >> uh because before it was funded by payforplay money and now we've gotten to a point where we need to the uniform replacements have gotten ahead of the payforplay money at this point in
214the needs of replacement. So they're basically budget lines. >> Yes. >> And is it your >> they've all been paid for out of pay for play and they they've been budget lines but they've been funded in a different fashion. >> I mean so are we assuming those lines are going to continue going forward or >> I'm assuming they're going to continue going forward in in the in the district's budget. >> I'm going to need to see that itemized I think from his request. >> Yeah. But we'll we'll definitely share that. We have we have that detail. We'll definitely share that. >> Yeah. And some some of those are pay to play and some of those also are new requests that I put in the presentation. So you'll see some of that from there. >> So
215for instance in equipment, okay, um that increase is up $12,000 and that has to do with um some of the things within creating equity between the girls teams and the boys teams that there's no batting cage that's readily available at Twin Brooks. >> And there's also um no scoreboard. Okay. And so we're looking at those two items. >> So the the Yeah, the boys teams always had >> Yeah. Boys looks great though. >> Sometimes over there. >> We We want the girls to look as equally nice. >> Yes, me too. >> That's what's it ladies first. >> I know, right? >> That's what I thought. Um well they ours were definitely older so maybe they was ladies first >> but then >> so then that $12,000 would not be yeartoear if we're replacing um either
216you know a batting cage or a scoreboard. >> Um there may be other equipment needs. I don't know that right now. There may be something else next year but I would expect there would be some equipment that would be purchased. um for athletics. >> Um the leasing rental line 1055. Um >> yes. >> Did this go down because we weren't because of the turf field >> is I'm I was just in my head making that assumption because I know that sometimes we had to rent space. >> Yeah, I would have to look at that and see and see if that was the reason why. Okay. But that's a good question. I'd have to look at that. >> Okay. because I know it's asking for >> there has been space that's been uh leased and paid
217for in some of the indoor areas. So, um out so I'm not sure what that is. >> Okay. Because I would like to know what is in here because I think that was one of the things that we talked about is um that we wouldn't be having to >> having to lease as much space on >> and so I just really like >> Yeah. Let me get a flavor of what that looks like. We can actually pull the expenditures for that year and see what see what's in there. Okay. Can we talk about 1045? I see that there's a 12,000 increase over the budgeted amount last year, but if you look at the actuals from 2024 to 2025, it's >> 760,000 $70,000 increase. Yeah, there was actually some increases to stipens across the district where
218the boosters were um we no longer have boosters paying for the coaches and we over time we kept bringing the coaches into um the athletic budget instead of the boosters paying for them. So over time there was an increase of of paying for the >> that also was some title n increases um that I presented as well that we reflected in there. So >> we're trying to not have the boosters pay for coaches. >> Okay. >> All right. So for that that would be like for the Bruins trip for example, right? >> There wasn't a that was a myth. >> That's the boosters. >> No, there was still a never happened. >> It's tomorrow. >> Okay. >> It's tomorrow. Oh >> my. >> Okay, let's set that one straight. It's not true that they went
219to the Bruins. They went to a college game. Okay. >> Are they going to the Bruins tomorrow? And the girls went to >> tomorrow >> went to a game in Portland because that's what they chose to go to. Okay. >> Are the girls going to >> So the Bruins game is a myth. >> I Here's my question. Regardless of what that is, I think my question is if like if we are trying to >> Yeah, I know. >> We're looking at those trips and a trip to Boston is way more expensive than a trip to Portland. So, are we looking at this and being like, well, we're going to increase the amount so that all teams can go to Boston, or are we looking at this and being like, we want to we have to
220budget this, so every team's going to save money and we're all just going to go Portland or we're going to do something like that. Like, >> we're trying to find equitable trips for both. >> Yeah, I get that. So, the equity part of that is do we back that up to the level of or we bringing everyone up to the Boston level or we keeping people down to the Portland level? My understanding still is there never was a Boston trip, but >> um >> we're trying to So this budget reflects additions. Thank you. >> Boston. >> That's what we found out. >> Let's Let's forget the Boston question is the answer to some of the equity issues. >> I'll tell you, >> are we raising the bar, >> right? Or are we trying to level
221set? I think that's my question. >> We are trying to level set. Is that you see what I'm saying? >> Yes. >> Okay. >> Trying to level set. >> So that increase might also in theory from a budgeting perspective include a decrease from another bucket. So for example, if we were saying that basketball gets this amount for um basketball gets this amount for athletic stipens and it was way higher than let's say baseball, right? We are bringing basketball down a little bit and baseball up a little bit. >> Well, the stipens aren't a good example because they're based on the number of hours, too. Okay. So, I understand what you're saying, but it's and you're trying to level out what's the money that's given. Stipens are based on the number of hours at a stipen
222rate. So, if baseball takes, you know, 250 hours and basketball takes 200 hours, they're they're paid on the number of hours that's anticipated for the sport. So, uh, so it's not trying to level out those. Um, by the way, we're way behind on our stipens compared to the surrounding areas, just so you know, for coaches. But, >> so it also reflects >> I do understand what you're saying. Do we bring the bar up or do we level the bar down for everyone? >> I think you're I think it's level. >> So, in um for the 2324 budget, which I think was my first year on finance, I can't remember, but I did remember um the conversation about increasing stipens. So that year we we added 48,000 to the budget >> for stipens so that uh
223I mean we were moving towards that more equitable approach and then 2425 went up uh maybe like 11,000 I think it was. Uh so you know we've been steadily increasing as um as needed but that was the year that 2324 was the year that we really jumped up and committed to more athletic stipens. >> That was a push by it was our first year. >> It also depends on it also depends on the number of participants and the students and sometimes the number of teams right sometimes you need more >> assistant coaches right >> and let me tell you >> and so and that's that's what goes on as well. start looking, okay, you had a head coach, but now you might need rather than one assistant, you might need two or three assistants, right?
224Depending on the participation. So that can drive up the cost fairly quick. >> Who decides that? And who decides whether the assistant for the assistant comes out of the district or comes out of boosters? We we um so years ago you would see a lot more assistant coaches coming out of booster money and over really I'd say an eight-year period, seven, eight year period, we have been moving moving moving all of our coaches to our district budget um partly for equity purposes to make sure that we don't just have some programs that are funding assistant coaches when they want to out of boosters and just committing to and this has been previous boards that have worked on this as well and saying all of our coaching stipens should be coming out of the district budget.
225So, this reflects um an assistant coach addition for an stipen. We also, I think, brought up two assistant coaches who are part-time stipens to full-time stipens as well. And we've and this is something we've been doing, but Scott's right, some of it is enrollment. Um we've had so many more student athletes, >> kids that want to participate. Our programs are really big. I mean, this is at the middle school level, but there was a lot of kids with no paid assistant, right? And so, we've had to make >> volunteers >> and we're relying on volunteers without paying people to actually be assistant coaches and we've been trying to right side that for a long time actually. But this is actually more reflective recently of more students participating in athletics rather than a philosophical shift, which
226for many years that was the case. um we just weren't funding enough through the budget. We're expecting the boosters to come up with the money for for coaches. Um and I we mostly I think Kim you're referencing the year there was a huge shift >> in trying to close the gap on that and not pay coaches out of booster funds anymore. So what you're seeing now some of it is title n rel a little bit of title n related. I'd say most of it's enrollment related for the stipen increases. I knew I went through my old budgets for a reason before this meeting. Um in uh it was at 183,000 and then you know we were gradually bumping it up but that 23 24 was the big year with 48,000 and a big part of
227it was that 2122 what was going on we were coming out of a pandemic when kids couldn't >> I remember Archie having like one day a week they would just kind of run around and pretend to kick a ball. um >> With masks on Yeah. Um so I don't have >> y >> 21 right in front of me, but I imagine that that was a bump um just, you know, in hopeful anticipation that more kids were going to play and then it it went up significantly throughout the years. >> Yeah, we did definitely see a drop in participation during the pandemic for sure. >> Um just a point of order. Um, it is now a little past nine o'clock. Um, does somebody want to make a motion to continue past nine? >> I made it
228last time. >> So, move. >> Can I get a second? Okay. So, Sean and Tim, um, as you can hear a number of us like sniffling over in the corner. Um, maybe if we can a goal to by 10. I know I would like to say 9:30, but um I know we have to go through this and still have a philosophical um conversation at the after that. So um I would not that we there's a finance committee meeting tomorrow. We still we'll we'll have time to continue going through this. Um but just wanted to think about our hours tonight. So >> do we have a second meeting scheduled? Oh, we're sorry. We're in the vote. >> Is there a question about the vote? >> Yeah, I like it. >> That's discussion. >> Okay, >> that's
229a discussion. >> Do we have a second um group meeting to go through this? >> We're I mean I would say we're almost through the details and I would >> and then conversation about >> I'm I just wondering whether >> to give um the answer >> Yeah. >> to this tonight, >> right? and then finance and then we can decide. We have an April 2nd meeting >> before the board vote. >> What you're saying is do we need another group meeting? >> Yeah. >> If we don't finish by 10, >> right? >> Is that what you're saying? >> We have April 5th. >> Yeah, we have another We have another board meeting. >> Another one on April 5th. >> Second. >> Thought it was on second. >> Another one on Sunday. >> Okay. >> Which
230is when we're supposed to >> So, >> right. And that's the meeting that we're supposed to have a decision and send it forward. Correct? >> No. >> April 15th. >> Okay, that's April 15. >> So, we have one more meeting. >> Yes, we have >> I think we can do it by 10. >> Okay. >> All in favor? >> All right, let's keep going. >> Let's take everybody on track. >> Yeah. >> Okay. >> So, we'll look at stipens. All right. Anyway, >> just bring that one to closure. Okay, we'll look at him and see what's going >> No one's going to Boston >> and we'll figure we'll figure out what's going on. >> Not not on the not on the district dime. How about that? >> Now that I know that there's no Boston
231Bruins, >> we have a list of every stipen in the district. We'll >> see. >> All right. So, all right. So, um Okay. So, that was page 31. Let's go to page 32. Okay. There is nothing notable on page 32. If everybody would like to go to page 33. >> All right. So on uh page 33 um again on line 1133 there is a decrease in the aiology service uh supplies uh I mean the equipment um it's just based that we don't have a need for that next year. And then also if we take a look at extended year services um you'll see that we've uh down on line 1147 we've actually adjusted those as well. Okay. Any questions on page 33? >> Okay. Page 34. I don't have anything notable to mention there. It's
232pretty basic. On page 35, um on line 1205, uh you'll see that there's a um decrease of $7400 in the software line. Um I need to review that one. Um I have some questions on that one myself. Okay. So, why it's so low? >> Okay. >> That one popped up for me today as a question. Okay. >> Can you um Sorry, Alina 1188. Um what is p purchase professional service for the library? Do you know? >> Uh that's going to be a lot of the um uh fees that they have some of the library pieces that they have for fees for like library networks, things like that. Okay. >> I mean it went down a little which is good but >> yeah. >> And up above um 1164 the purchase professional service. >> Oh yeah.
233>> 1164. Oh, and instructional >> under instructional >> purchase professional service. Um, >> maybe check that for to actual. >> Let me just d let me just double check that one. Okay, >> see if we can answer that one. I can look it up if we need to, but >> Okay. >> But I will I'll get an answer on that one. Great. Okay, let's see what that looks like. >> Okay, I'm drawing a blank at the moment. Um, is that like hiring Lawrence Alexander? Is that >> I don't think so in that one. No, not in that line. And I'm And I gotta tell you, I'm drawing a blank right now. >> Why? Because it's past nine o'clock. >> It's been a long day. Got a long week. So, but I'll uh I'll I'll get
234an answer on that one and we'll take a look at that one with all the pieces. So, we've got the detail. I just need to look at it. Okay. >> And I'm curious about the employee travel. >> Okay. Under >> which line? What number? Um 116 >> 1168. Yeah. Yep. >> Yeah. Maybe do it to actual for that. >> Yeah. >> Take a look at all those. Um and we'll see what's uh budget in those lines. >> Yeah. I think some of those are IB related cost. >> I think so too. >> Um because we do have training for >> actually. I think that's the IB training. I think you're right. >> Okay. >> Yeah. One of the signs. >> I think it's the IB training and I also think there's Oh, you know what
235else that is? is I think that has to do with some of the that's the IB training, but does it have to also do with some of the NEAS stuff as well? >> No, the the purchase professional services might be our IB um some of our IB fees, but I I would have to remember. >> All right, >> but the training I believe is uh IB and AP. >> Okay. All right. Sorry, I need a staff training. All right, I'm taking a pause. Some of those are flights like when we sign the warrants. Um maybe someone uh is signed up for a conference or um I did see one just this week that was someone flying to Colorado I think for maybe an IV training. I >> Yeah, but yeah, right. when they have to
236actually go to a physical location >> they do >> or they maybe reimburse mileage for their car and the meal >> possibly hotel there for more than and those would all be things that are outlined in the collective bargaining agreement. Right. >> Not for IB and training. you know, it's we it's teachers that select to go or that we've asked to go um and they've said, "I want to teach an IB course. I want to teach an AB course." They haven't been trained in that particular course before. They have to be trained. Okay. >> In order they can't teach the course without being trained actually. >> They have to be trained. AP or IB will not let them teach it. So, long pause of quiet. >> Careful, some of us will fall asleep. >> Yeah.
237They're just there. The next page has more like purchase services like >> we'll take a look at those. Um 122. >> Okay. >> I do believe that um I'm looking here. I see some chunks of it for IB. Um but I'll put it all together and see what we end up with. Okay. So, we'll take a look at that. Okay. Uh Okay. So, that's uh page 34. We're at uh let's see, we uh already talked about 35. >> Do want to dig in maybe tomorrow at the finance committee meeting about 1206. Just some of this hardware stuff and it's Yeah. amount again. >> Yeah. We've got the um we've got the tech plan and we'll we'll talk about that more. Okay. And we we'll have that to share. Okay. All right. So 36 uh let's
238see already. Okay. All right. So on 36 um we can take a look down at the utilities again. Um again that's the adjustment. You'll see that electricity is down but natural gas is up. And that's based on actual to you actual uh usage and also has to do with the maintenance building is on its own meter now. So they used to be attached to the high school. Okay. Um page 37. Um again uh the custodial piece is a shift from one of the other buildings over. That's why that's so high on line uh 1264 on uh 1264. It's a little bit higher. Um Nothing else there is really notable. >> 1267 uh retirement. >> Let me take a look at that. That's one. That one's popping. Okay. >> Thank you. >> Yeah, we'll take a
239look at that one. >> Oh, you know what that is? I'm sorry. That was the payout of my retirement of my sick time which was in sever which is in several which is in several areas. Okay. So >> you >> Oh my god. >> You've been here for some time. Hey >> out of my sick leave. All right. Because I'm operations I got to go someplace. Okay. So anyway. All right. That's part that's part of it. Okay. That's what that is. Okay. >> All right. There you go. Okay. >> Don't even know where your money is. All right. So, >> that's what I believe that is. Okay. >> Okay. I mean, that that was track. >> Okay. >> I like the honesty. >> It is what it is, right? >> We take it out of
240several areas. Okay. >> Um Okay. So, uh let's see on uh line 38, if we take a look at the nursing on 1296, you'll see there's a decrease there. And that has to do with the hiring of a new staff member. We had somebody leave and somebody knew that we hired. So that's a budget to actual adjustment. Um and then if we any other questions on line third on page 38. That was really the only thing I had notable there. All right. All right. Let's go to uh page 39. And again under on line uh oh first off on line 1345 all the all the directors I mean the uh board of directors got a reduction in their stipens. No I'm just kidding. You see it's down a thousand. We did a budget to actual
241on that based on the number of meetings. Okay. So you get extra >> every time we have an extra meeting. >> Okay. So there you go. Okay. Okay. So, we just made that budget to actual and then on uh >> Man, our our stipens are way cheaper than athletic stipens, huh, >> aren't they? >> Yeah. >> Are they? >> I think they're much cheaper than the towns as well. >> Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. And what are our contracted services? >> Uh, yes. We're heading to that when it's highlighted. Okay. Okay. >> So, line 1348, that's the enrollment study and the study being done um in the district. if you remember that one came out of the three-way meeting there. >> Yeah. Um although we might want to revisit that. >> Okay. So, that's uh that's
242what we put in there and that's we put it under there because it's the it's a contract service that the board is looking to have done. Okay. >> Sorry. Scott, can we go back for just one brief moment to page 38? >> Sure. >> Under the uh student health service, what's the contracted service 1303? >> Um which line again? 1303 >> 1303 contracted services. Okay. >> Do you know what it is? >> Student >> I for student health services. Um >> is that the doctor? >> I believe that is Dr. Chuck. >> Okay. >> He's a deal. >> All right. >> Dr. Chuck is the person that we vote on annually to be our >> Yeah, I believe your doctor. >> Yeah. Um >> Dr. Chuck likes being Dr. Chuck. So he uh he does
243not charge us what Dr. Chuck should really earn. Okay. >> All right. I believe >> to be used. That's right. >> I know we have to have >> we have there's there's meetings and it's required to have a doctor, but um he actually meets with the nurses and with Julie Olsen >> um you know uh pretty consistently throughout the year and he's also used for medications for um you know prescription medications and things like that. Okay. >> And all right, sorry one more question. 1319 retirement stipens. >> 1319. >> I'm just trying to >> Yeah, I I believe that if I remember correctly that has to do with some of the uh FICA Medicare on stipens, but I'll look at it and take a look. Okay. >> Okay. Cuz I'm just that just presented a
244little >> and it may and it may have to do with some of the main peers. I'll look at it. >> Okay. that tracks and I mean it's not a ton of money but >> because it's a it's a balance between >> uh if they're an outside employee or they're an employee of the district you know there's different there's main peers and then there's FICA okay so that's a balance on that >> it's tied to line 1311 >> yeah so I'll take a look at that okay and just make sure okay >> great thanks >> and see how that lines up >> okay so I'll put a big question mark on that one okay >> my guess is we probably missed a few things today. So, we'll see if that happens. Okay. Okay. So, it
245was a long day. All right. Um Okay. So, page 39. No other questions on 39. >> Yes. >> One question. Um purchase professional services. We're saving a lot of money there. 1334. >> 133. 1334. >> Okay. >> 24. from two years from from 24 25. Is that what you mean? >> Yeah. From 25 >> that was Lauren Alexander and we now and we now don't use him to the tune that we did before. >> Okay. >> Yeah. Okay. >> Um can I check in on for at 1349 just our legals? >> 1349. Yes. >> Yes. I remember the rationale for >> why we went to where we went to and I think this would be >> like just the again the budget to actual to see how we're doing with that. >> Y >> being
246in these meetings I imagine that we're Yeah. where we're at. >> You're right up against it right now. >> Okay. >> Yeah. You're right up against it. Okay. >> Okay. >> All right. >> So we feel comfortable continuing that level next year. >> They raise their rates every year. >> We we just don't know, right? I mean it's you don't know what you're going to be faced with every year, right? >> So we need to use less services. >> This is one of those areas that if we have to, we can do a budget transfer from another cost center. If there's money remaining at another cost center, we can do that transfer. Um if we budgeted every single line at its maximum, we would have a problem. So So we try to just see what
247might be reasonable from year to year. Okay. Um, so that was 39. Um, okay. So, in page 40, you'll see special ed legal line on 1395. I did reduce that um based on a budget to actual of what's actually been expended out of there. Most of our legal line comes under the comes out of the central office legal line. Okay. Um and then uh line 1403 mic drop. Scott out. Lower salary. Okay. Okay. There you go. Okay. Um so, uh so that's pretty much uh that's pretty much that. Page 40. Okay. >> I did not, but it was it was an opportunity. Okay. Okay. >> Uh so let's see. Um so let's go to page uh is it 41 now? Okay. So if we look at line 1415 and uh at this point um at
248this point we're still in the central office. Okay. And we're looking at telephone. Okay. Um there's on page on line 1415. We've increased it by $2,000 just to do a budget to actual. We're actually going to be over this year in that line. So, okay. >> So, we're closer to what we were in >> Exactly. Yeah. And um and then on line uh 1422, you'll see a significant decrease and that has to do with moving off the old software and onto the new software and the difference in cost between the two. There was also some imple implementation cost in the current year we're in, which won't carry over to next year. >> Got a question on 1416 advertising. What are we advertising and where? Uh we're advertising positions and um serving schools is one that
249we use, but that's not really with the cost. We put ads in many of the different periodicals and online trying to get people. So, okay, I'm going to guess that I used a good portion of that for our free bus driving class that we continue to advertise. Okay. And other position >> board members, we can't we can't do it because we can't be employees. But once we're off the board, right? >> Oh, you can get your bus driver license and volunteer if you want. >> So long as I fill the other drivers and I I have stuff left over after the drivers. Okay. >> All my free time. >> Yeah, we have uh we have plenty of things after the drivers have received all of their trips. So, okay. >> Or anyone listening in? Um,
250>> so line uh 1441, this is one that I got to revisit, but I'm I'm we're kind of estimating what it's going to take on the uh maintenance building. >> So, I'm just looking at that right now, but um so just know that that's just there right now and we're still we're still reviewing it. Okay. >> And where was it from the old building? >> Um it was actually tied to the high school. >> Oh, >> okay. So, yeah, it was kind of tied into the high school. Okay. >> Uh so, but we really do need to take a look at that and um Okay. and make sure we're budgeting for everything we need to do for the new maintenance building. >> We're just still working on that. >> Don's loving those heat pumps. Just
251>> he loves that building. It's amazing. So, it's a great building. Okay. >> And again, on um 1434 contracted services. >> Yep. 1434. Yes. Yep. >> What are they? >> Okay. So, those are >> they went down significantly whatever they were. So, one of them had really >> Yeah. In uh in 2425, that was a budget transfer made to facilities in order to preserve your capital reserve funds because we had money left in the budget. Okay. So, we replenished our capital reserve funds by moving expenditures over to facilities, which made sense. Okay. Because we had a ton of stuff that we had to do on modular city and other things we had to do. So, we needed to build our capital reserve funds. Okay. Um, the contracted services. Hang on here. >> Let's see what
252I've got. >> It's probably It's probably Seammen's man. >> Oh, yeah. It's all It's It's all those things. It's Reynolds trash. It's all that stuff. >> Uh, but I just want to give you >> garbage to garden is in there. >> Yeah. The biggest the biggest one is going to be our mechanical contractor Seammens. It could be, you know, inviting Rusty GooGans in, you know, Guggens Electric if we have repairs to the buildings, but it really has mostly to do with the care and the upkeep of the buildings and our mechanical contract with Seammens. Um, and some of our other contracts with like uh, you know, trash removal, things like that. >> Could could be the elevator. Uh, you know, it it could be a number of things. some of the testing we did for
253radon and some other >> um yeah sometimes we take that from capital but normally it would come out of facilities it would be minute man security um it would be um seammen's uh modern pest control uh rider truck rental f web johnson controls for fire protection um the majority of it is seammens There's a lot of seammens in here. And um uh Reynolds and Sun uh Mat Tri gas. Hang on. Stanley Elevator. Okay. Um Eco Main. Uh let's take a look. Modern Pest Control. They do those little fake rocks out front of the buildings. Sometimes they get Uh trying to think of what else here. That's really that's really what it is. Um I think we pretty much named Garbage Garden as you mentioned. Um Kim, uh I was just saying so those are the
254those are the major vendors in that area. >> Um Scott 1437 equipment lease purchase from 0 to 28 grand. What are we >> 1437? I think that's the >> Okay, that would be the Bobcat that was approved. Yeah. And I got to tell you, that saved us a lot of money. I mean, we used to have higher contracted services because we had to hire outside vendors to come in to help get rid of some of the snow piles. And we've been able to participate with the town now and not necessarily have to spend as much money. So, it's it's doing its work. >> Yeah. That's part of it. >> Exactly. >> Okay. >> Yeah. So, we've actually been saving some money on that. It's been helpful. Okay. All right. Anything else on line 41? I
255mean on page 41. Don't want to confuse us. Okay. All right. Let's go to page 42. Okay. We're in student transportation. So, um line 1454. It's not a reflection of uh reducing driver salaries. It's more of a look of budget to actual and and where we're heading with those salaries. Um we really still need more drivers, but we're looking at a budget to actual right now of where we are. So >> And is that in part because of the vans? >> Uh the vans are doing a lot of work. Okay. And uh but it's kind of a catch piece, right? Because the um you'll see the transportation for the vans mostly over in special education and in some other student transportation. We're using them for paths now, but um it really has to do with
256just looking at our budget to actual and where we've been for the past couple years. >> Because you don't have to have the class. >> No, you don't have to. If you have the vans, which we use, we aren't sending buses. Okay. So, and the vans are really being used in a lot of special education situations and also >> because they're student IEP directed >> and also they're being used by the coaches. They're being used by edte midday. I mean the vans are on the road constantly. >> Okay. >> And so yeah, paths I'm just trying to remember the enrollment of paths and the van sizes. >> Was it 20? >> We have about 20 students. >> 20 students. >> Okay. So how's that working? >> Um uh it's actually with using the mini bus
257and the vans. It seems to be okay. And we've also made some I talked to Don Gray and I think they were allowing some of the students juniors to drive as well. But are we relying are we relying on the meeting to drive? >> Um, we're trying not to, but right now with a shortage of bus drivers, we are relying a little bit on that. Yes, at the moment we are. >> It's only been over the last two or three weeks that we've had this issue. We usually have had a bus that's taken the past two or three weeks, we've had >> we've had a real shortage. >> We've got some people who are out on medical leave right now for medical issues. Okay. And so we've got a bit of a shortage of drivers
258at the moment. >> Okay. Yeah. I was just wondering about van size. >> Yeah, it's Well, we send two vans, right? Um not just one. >> Yeah, but I'm like what's our like have we looked at is like a is there an in? >> Oh, they can only drive a certain size without a bus driver without a license. Okay. So, we can only have a certain capacity that they can drive on the van. Okay. >> Cuz I know we're looking to purchase some new ones. I didn't know if there was like a a bigger size than >> you. We'll take a look and see if we how we how do we maximize maximize the size within the legal limits? Y, >> we'll look at that. Okay. >> Um, one of the vans we're going to
259be replacing has to do with a handicap wheelchair lift, which is broken and doesn't work properly and is pretty severely rusted. So, okay, >> that's one of the vans we'll talk about. >> Put it off. We were going to do it last year. >> We did. And we put it off a year. Yep. And we put it off a year. We now need to replace that one or it's it's it's cost prohibited to replace it. >> I mean, to repair it and so we need to look at replacing it. Okay. >> Um Okay. So, uh, let's see if we continue down. Um, on 1462, we have contracted services are down, and that was a budget to actual looking at what the repairs we were doing on the buses outside of the bus garage. Um, and
260then if we go to line 1469, electricity is reduced because we're really only paying the electricity on the breakroom side, which is the old bus garage is where the break room is. Um, and then on line uh 1472, transportation parts and a and supplies, we looked at a budget to actual on that, but we also are looking to be able to reduce that if we don't have to repair several of the buses that we're replacing. As you know, we've got two buses to be replaced in here. If we don't replace them, we're going to have to increase that line significantly to take care of um a couple of engines and some other repairs to those build to those buses. >> And I really appreciate that because I feel like that's one of those you know,
261when we're signing warrants or we're looking at that, >> how how do we know whether this this was actually budgeted carefully and responsibly so to see that it was done to actual and and lowered? Um, >> just a reminder that each each line is looked at. >> All right. So, um, my son. I apologize. >> He might he might get through even on silent, right? >> I know. I had I >> Yeah. >> So, we took a look at what was in what was the actual amount that we needed in the bus lease purchase line to to lease the buses. And you'll see it went from 105 to 93. It's not that the buses are cheaper, it's just we're only buying two. Okay. So, we're going to be lease purchasing two buses. Um, both of
262them have been approved for state funding. So, the state funding comes in the following year after you make your first payment. So, you're looking at reimbursement. The buses are actually now they're actually between 130 and 140. They've gone up significantly in price. So, um, so if we lease purchase those over, you know, the lease purchase period, um, we can get subsidy for those years that we're paying on it. And so we have the principal there and then the interest is on line 14 uh 1479 and the interest rate is 5.38 municipal rate. >> Okay. On that the van purchase is on line 1478. So that would be the principal on the two vans. >> Yeah. I'm just curious sizing. Yeah. If they're if we can we'll take a look at them and see what we
263can do. >> It might save us a bust. >> Yeah. in a van right now is, you know, 68 to $70,000, okay, for a replacement van. So, is where they're at in the area in there. Um, especially for the wheelchair one. Okay. >> So, do we need to adjust oil and fuel or are we optimistic that year from now? >> Well, >> who knows? >> I'm hoping we're out of Iran by then. Okay. So, all right. But let's see what happens. Okay. Um, and also there's um, you know, this year we're tracking. Okay. because we we actually go through the town of Cumberland's cog bid so we get our fuel there. Okay. For our um you know for our for our fleet fuel and so Okay. All right. Um so that is page 42. Any
264questions there at all? Okay. Let's continue on to page 43. So again, transportation. Um there are some of our buses that are geared towards special ed transportation. there are aids that ride on those buses. Um so um there's nothing that's an outlier there. Um that would be unlike starting at 145 and then when we get to 1500 that's transportation to paths. Um and then line 1510 again that's homeless transportation. If we have a student that's homeless living in another district, um we we're respons or living someplace else, we have a responsibility to work with the other district and transport those students here. Okay. So that's page 43. Okay. Now we are to the last page. Okay. >> We are on page 44 of 1533 lines. Okay. tonight. Um, so if you look at line 1520,
265right, this is where you're seeing that our principal on our existing debt is declining by 319,000. Okay, so our principal amount has declined. you're taking on the debt service for the building project I for the for the one campus project plus the um uh on the ban plus the land okay payment and so your net is 666,000 uh dollars okay so you're just under that 700,000 mark now the reason we didn't apply fund balance this year is because your plan of financing calls for trying to do a step up of the debt of approximately $700,000 a year each year over the next, you know, this year and the next several years till you get to 2030 31. >> Then your debt service starts to drop and you start walking down the staircase after that. So
266you'll peak but you're softening that debt because you're taking on >> you know um you know a large number in in uh 2728 is fiscal year. You're going to take on a larger portion of that debt. the applying fund balance that you've reserved for that purpose and therefore buying down the debt over those years through your budget process to help soften that to keep it at like a $700,000 increase which is you know a little over what one a little over 1.2% or 1.25% right over each of those years. So that's what we're trying to do with that and that's the plan of financing. So that's what happens in this fiscal year. It all fits into that plan. >> Okay. And that plan is actually online. If anybody wants to take a look at it,
267they can view it. Okay. And uh other is the central office. Sitting at the tail end is the utilities on the central office. So we made some budget to actual adjustments on those of not too much significance. But so the total budget is um uh a little over $4.1 million increase or 7.68%. So there any other questions? Thank you. >> You're welcome. >> Thank you. Um I know this is an extraordinary amount of work. Um so I just want to draw everyone back to um Superintendent Porter's presentation. Um there was the key questions slide um that I am hoping that we can take a little a little time to discuss as we all yawn. Um and just to get an overall sense of where where the board's at and what the work looks like between
268now and April 15th. Um, I mean I as we kind of started this conversation with um and especially after public comment and the outreach that we've gotten from the community and our own uh realities of what it what things are like right now as far as costs. Um I think we're we're all looking for all ways that I mean I personally am tightening my own budget for things. Um, I know that I feel that, you know, we've been in all the meetings of the finance committee leading up to tonight. Like those these are constant conversations that have gone on even until this point of like where where can we do where can we potentially make some cuts here? Um, and so we just wanted to kind of get like a a gut check of where
269we're at from the board perspective. Um, I know probably a lot of us have also been reading the newspaper um about what a lot of school districts and communities are are going through right now. It is nobody's having easy conversations um about budgets. Um, and so just wanted to get a sense of the board of of of how how you're feeling a month out from when you're going to be asked to to vote on this. >> I don't have a specific I don't have a specific percentage in mind, but we do need to reduce the amount I think the amount of the increase. Um, I guess for me a couple questions that come up are just and I know that we aren't necessarily looking to get into those specifics, but you know, can we do
270that um by tightening up things that are already in the budget already existing items andor, you know, is it looking at some of the items that the new proposals that are advanced? Where where are those opportunities? But I think we need to bring it down. >> When do we when do we um go through the new proposals advanced? Are these things that when when do we discuss these? >> If you have questions, please because this I mean this is the the work that is going to be happening at the finance committee um at every day at the district office between now and April 15th. So they they are just really asking for a sense of like what are what are we thinking here? >> Um can can you just clarify the ecology school overnight trip
271defer family cost? >> Yeah. So that would that would approximately bring down so there Grade seven is at the ecology school. Um it may not be grade seven in the future. We don't know, but it will be um a middle school grade that'll be going. And um this would defay the cost down to approximately $200 per family. Um it was $200 per family for a while and now it's gotten much larger. The expense is well over $200. So, what we did is we estimated um what it would how many students we'll have next year going and what would it take to get to around $200. Uh we came as close as we could and that was the difference. Um was 15,000 whatever's in the budget. Um >> because next year is the bubble year entering
272sixth grade is the Casco Bay group that'll be entering seventh grade. >> Yeah. And we use the seventh grade numbers. >> Yeah. Um, at the risk of sounding a little bit heartless, um, do we need to keep doing this? >> Not deferring the risk to fam, not deferring the cost to families, but doing the ecology overnight. I, and again, at the risk of sounding heartless, but also having a sixth grader who would be doing it next year. >> Um, it's just something that came up that and the question was, >> um, what did what What are the kids getting out of this? >> I love them going on an ecology trip. I like that my kids spent two nights out or a night I can't even remember now. But I don't know that he took
273a lot away from it and I'm just I'm wondering if we're going to tighten our belts. >> I'd love to get a sense of like how important this is. >> Yeah. I mean obviously um parents have footed the bill for this uh trip in the past. So this is the first year that we've put it into the budget. So there has been a committee that recently there was been more than one committee but one recently that um looked at this whole program involved had staff and parents on on the committee and at the end of the um it was several months the committee met and discussed this um what kind of trip it was. The trip has changed three times in the last five years. It was at Cow Island and then it was up
274at Bryant Pond and now it's it's been at the ecology school now for two years I think. >> So um I think that's an internal school. I would leave that to the school to figure out if they feel like philosophically and there was still a lot of um interest. I would say a pretty good amount of interest from at least the staff in continuing this approach feeling it it had a lot of merit and value. Um and again there were parents involved in that committee too that felt the same way. So, um I would say if the board if that's an area the board feels like that it shouldn't be in the budget, that's certainly your discretion. >> And honestly, I'd rather those things like surface now because I I would then want to hear
275from teachers, community members who are like that, you know, >> if if there is a lot of support for this, like wanting to hear, you know, sooner rather than later, I think is also helpful for us as well. Um, and one of the things I know that has been prepared because I know I've asked for it and it is there is a spreadsheet of all the different opportunities across the different grades and who pays for what and I just thought that provided some really nice context because you know I had the same question like okay who who pays for which trip which are in the budget which are we asking parents to pay for um and I for has that been shared with the full board? So yeah, can I ask has it been shared
276with you because it's all been updated. >> I think we we shared it or I shared it with everybody at the last financing. >> It has been updated. >> So we have not gotten in that >> would that also include um PTO enrichment funds for each grade. So it indicates which ones are are paid for for PTO be because I think that's also some of the conversations I want to continue to surface like if the PTO is I mean they support a ton of stuff. Um, but if there's something else where they're like, "No, we don't want our school community lose this." It's important for them. Is there opportunities there? I think Foundation 51 also comes up like are there other ways? And I think there's also interest in, you know, wanting the kids to
277also participate in in fundraising. >> Yeah. >> And so that has also been floated as as some of the ways that we should be looking to defay some of these costs. And also, um, my I'm in favor of more of a sliding scale because $200 could be nothing to one family and it could be still be huge to another family. So, I don't know logistically how that works when you don't have access to who needs um the subsidized lunch, things like that um that you know that we used to have. But um >> I think guidance there's a way to do it. >> They know workers. >> Yeah, they they Yeah. >> Yeah. I have to say they do. I just shared this um the updated field trip list with you for all the schools.
278Uh you can look back four years too. It's the current year and the three years prior to see that information. >> So this is a struggle for me because I get into analysis paralysis. I have asked a number of people that have reached out um what would your number be like in terms of in like a tax increase or decrease right like where are we where are you at with that and I'd like to get some of those responses but for me I think I honestly like I've been asking for for a little while like I just need more information especially like itemized numbers because I I think a lot of these lines on the surface make a lot of sense, but then if you start getting into some of it, it's like, okay, that
279is a like a really great thing and probably doing really well, but is this something that we can find like that we can get through another funding source, right? Can we get creative if if we're the p we're the path of least resistance for a lot of these items, right? And so for certain things like uh things around the athletics, things around trips, things around like other engagement activities, there might be other ways to get the same result without impacting the educational experience of our students. So when I look at this budget, this feels a little bit like this is the lifestyle that we've been kind of going by. And I know you guys have made cuts by that, but as we like go through and see like certain things haven't changed or year to
280year we're going to get we're going to be spending this amount of money on uniforms and stuff like that year to year and that's not going to change. Like I just feel like I need to see a little bit more from an item perspective where we could possibly save and be like, okay, for a couple years this is on you. Like you got to find another way to do it or we're going to have old uniforms for a while or whatever. So I'm not sure if I can give you a number. this isn't like I don't know without seeing that information right now if I would be like yes let's put this to the voters because I can't justify half of it like I can't see it and be like yeah I feel good about
281telling someone that we're spending that amount of money without being able to see some of the details within it and so that's where I'm at so I'd like to see what this budget would look like if you if we said yeah we're going to cap you at 5% or 6% what would you guys cut from your perspective how would you prioritize that that's what I like to see in theory. >> So, I know we also um speaking of spreadsheets of things, um we did look at what different athletic programs were offering and different fee schedules. Was that shared with everyone? Because I just think that was helpful. >> Yeah. Um I don't know if that was shared with >> I don't remember sharing that. Athletic program fee schedules. Oh, do you Oh, from district area
282districts. that was >> talking about athletics like how does our fees compare? Are there other ways that and so um there's more information that can be shared just seeing like what other districts so I I think that's good especially as we're looking to ask people to increase some of those costs. Um I mean I I can tell you what number I have in mind. I mean, not that any of these nobody likes to see an increase, but when I look at this, I I know we we can't change this. I would want this to be a five something. I mean, and then ask the administration and the finance committee to to do the work to make good decisions to present back of how we could get there. That's my gut of what I could think
283to ask of our community. Again, not impacting I mean, we're going to have impact somewhere because we know what all the other increases on salaries and benefits are. Um, so there's going to be an impact. We can't just say >> I get you. >> Um, but feeling a little more comfortable. I mean, the whole thing is uncomfortable, but um, that's If we're giving direction, >> you say that again. I didn't hear you. >> If we're giving direction for me, I would want to see this five something in our little math equation here. Um, that the increases that were would be asking for the budget beyond the debt service would be in the five percent range. So about a total of 6.15 something like that. 6 point something, >> right? Yeah. >> I think I'm of
284similar mind and I'm kind of curious about um Shirley's handout here and like is it as simple as just reducing >> you know this idea of these carryovers >> going back through assumptions? Yeah, we we did look at a lot of those assumptions and reduced them in the budget you have now. If you heard me talking through the budget piece, you know, some of the long-term subs, >> uh those things that were built into the teacher salary lines, um which we call the unfilled positions in order to cover long-term subs, teachers who make uh scale movements, um retirement payouts, those things. We did reduce a lot of those assumptions across those lines. So, so that number is not going to fit with the budget you have now. >> Were they carrying like were they in
285excess of 700,000 >> a year? >> In certain years there were there were those? Yes, absolutely. >> You're saying this year that's not going to be the case. >> Next year's budget you have a lot of the assumptions that have been removed and of course you know that's what 1% a little over 1% right. Okay. >> Because that's our largest cost center. That's our largest cost center. So, >> so, um, a classic example is this year we didn't fill two teaching positions at MIW, right? So, there's going to be a balance there, okay? >> Um, we just don't fill a position to fill it, right? Or spend the money, but you also can't overexpend your budget. Um, because then you got to go back to the voters and you need to get money to approve
286to put money back into your budget again. Okay? So, um, so you have to build some lines conservatively because you also don't carry a contingency in your general operating budget. There was a time that we carried a contingency of almost $500,000. It was like $400,000. And so, if you don't carry that contingency, you have to anticipate for other things that could happen. So, somebody goes out on a medical leave and they have 120 days of sick leave and then they access 30 days from the sick bank. That's almost a full school year of having a staff member out. You've got to plan for those things to happen. So, you carry a position in the budget to be able to deal with those types of things. >> Sometimes they get used, sometimes they don't. And then
287there's assumptions that were made during our collective bargaining process as well. >> Yeah. >> That we had to make and we didn't know where that was going to land. So, yeah. And there's also like um a couple was it I guess the 2425 budget we hadn't budgeted anything for the paid family medical leave. >> That's right. >> And then we were fortunate that position hadn't been filled because that hadn't been in the budget and I trying to find that out. >> Um teacher paid family medical leave. We um Um yeah, it the actual was 13,356 that year and we had we had budgeted zero >> for it and then all of a sudden we had to pay it. So um >> we also had health insurance which came in lower than we budgeted one year.
288>> Right. So yeah, what I'm saying like there are definitely places that come in and it's probably a one-time thing, right? But you just never know. And so I remember that that year in particular, it was sort of like, thank goodness we had extra money in cost center one because we had to pay paid family medical leave which had not been budgeted for. >> Sure. And what what happens at the end of the fiscal year if there are more dollars left that weren't spent? >> Absolutely. So if there's money left at the end of the fiscal year, there's two things that happen. One, the balance rolls into what's called your unallocated fund balance, and you can designate those monies to other reserve funds at the end of the fiscal year, or you can have them
289build up as we did to offset the debt service that's coming up. All right? By not having to raise additional taxes to do that. when the debt service comes on. The other thing is is if there's funds that are left at the end of the year, you have to look at all your other cost centers and you may have had to buy something else in another cost center or hire a staff member in another cost center. So, it requires a budget transfer from one cost center to another that usually will come from your regular instruction, which is your highest cost center and where most of your employees are, or special education. It will usually come from one of those two areas. And then that money gets transferred to offset cost and another cost >> and
290that comes to the board to approve or not those transfers. So every year in the years past those monies have then been allocated through the the transfer process from the board. Same thing will happen this year in >> and the largest amount of those monies went to the shortterm facilities plan that we had to do to take care of all the modulars that we had to pay for. Um all so so it's not like we just hoarded it up to do something else with it. We specifically used it to build the city that we built over there or the buildings that we put in place, the modular classrooms, the site work for the modular classrooms at the middle school as well. Um those were huge, I mean huge expenses that we had to pay for
291and um so and that came from money that was left at the end of several fiscal years. Okay. >> And built that up. Now you also have money that because you've conserved those funds with a plan to offset your debt service over a period of years um to buy that debt service down. Okay. So at this point we're budgeting a little tighter. We're tightening up those lines a little bit and um and we've taken some of those assumptions out. Now >> if those lines go over >> Okay. Yeah. Then you're going to have to go to your emergency fund. Okay. and you'll have to look at that at some point or you'll want to consider at some point building another contingency line into your existing budget. >> If you're going to take all those lines
292and you're going to collapse them and you're going to take out out some of those assumptions, you're going to need to build a contingency line in your existing budget. >> Okay, >> Sarah. Um, we need we need to we need to cut this. we need to trim it. However you want to term it, um I don't feel the community can support this 7 six or wherever we're at, 7.7%. Um I spoke to several clients today and asked them what they felt was appropriate. Um, I had a couple and I have several clients who work at the district. So, it's a little bit tricky. Um, one of those clients who works at the district talked about concern about losing their family house because they're borrowing from Peter to pay Paul to get their bills done every
293month. Um, another um was already having concerns about their 5-year-old and their 8-year-old being able to go through the district and afford to live in their house. Um, I think it's important that we've built up a lot of reserves and we have a lot of reserves in a lot of places and I think that's really awesome and I think um the community can't continue this the consistent increases. So I I can't say well I have a lot of thoughts and a lot of questions. A lot of them I've asked and um been struggling to get some clear information. Um I would like to investigate the suggestion about cutting 500 from regular instruction. I really would. Um I'd like to know what it does. Where does that where does that take us in our um kind
294of our our buffers? And I and I recognize that that's a horribly scary thing. I'm living under buffers myself. Um I I think that we need to kind of do some re-evaluation of classes and class sizes. And if we've got classes in the kindergarten that are somewhere between 15 and 17, I think that we should carry that as a minimum throughout the district. That's um one of my thoughts. Um, I'm wondering what the unallocated fund balances, what the unallocated fund balance was in August. And then I'm also wondering what it is now. And I asked um specific questions about enrollment in each class, in each school, in each section. And um I'm just looking for that information. >> And I like I know you also sit on the finance committee so I'm assuming and I
295know there's then just so everyone knows the administrative office has got a ton of questions from various board members um all week leading up to this week, all month from community members. Um, and so I just want to make sure that, um, we also give grace to the people who are working to to get these numbers in front of us. Um, because we we know that they have the information that goes into every single one of these. I know everyone on the finance committee sits there and reviews and signs invoices and warrants. So, I just want to be careful about saying we're not getting straight answers, Sarah. So, I want to know if you feel like as chair, I need to know if like you don't feel like you're getting a straight answer on something
296because like that's a concern. So, I just want to make sure that I didn't say straight answer. I just said asking questions that and have sent emails with questions not gotten >> the detail. >> Yes. And looking for the detail. >> We Yes. We I I love that. You know, I love that detail, too. So, I just want to make sure that like we all feel like we are getting the information to make these really hard decisions. Um, and thank you for sharing your stories. I know you have people that you work with very closely then. Yeah. >> They're they're scared of losing >> Yeah. >> They're they're looking at selling their houses. >> Yeah. >> They're looking at the town being unaffordable. >> Thank you for sharing. >> And that's North Yarmouth people. Yeah.
297>> I don't know how Cumberland's doing it. >> Yeah. other I know it's uh I I don't want to cut off um like I said we're going to have more opportunities the finance committee um meets again tomorrow I think there the we're just looking for the direction that we're hoping to go less but just some of that direction so they can keep working hard on this budget. So any >> so just thinking about going in tomorrow finance committee I'm hearing that >> I heard basically one to one and a half% so we're looking at somewhere between five $500 to $800,000 that the board wants to cut out of that. Is that what I the goal is right at the moment so that we can walk in tomorrow and say that's what we got to find?
298I mean that's >> I I do agree with that. I think that that's a more a more swallowable percentage. >> So yes, can you make that happen? >> Get going on that. >> I mean I think I might go a little lower than that and then see if we need to build something back into it being like okay this is not a thing that could really pressure test. Like I the amount of work that everyone's put into it is incredible. And I understand there's like certain emotional attachment to certain things. Like if someone came into my house and I've done this with toys like there are certain toys that I could not throw away when the kids are around. It's the same kind of thing. Like there's an emotional attachment to a lot of this
299stuff and we we've changed a lot of wants to needs and I am trying to clarify like what actually is a need and then also what is what is proportional to our enrollment increase. Like we have way more people in sports. that's going to go up. And I can uh I can point to I'm not going to point to the administration to that. I'm going to point to the fact that town enrollment and like increase is directly proportional to that. That's outside of our control. But what stuff is within our control? And I I don't know that into the sense of if we can get down to that lower percentage like you said like that six maybe. I'd like to see if we can get in that fives like that's where I'd probably be more
300comfortable in terms of selling to like North Yarmouth and and and endorsing it. But uh like five total in the fives total. >> Um but you know like this is really hard. So >> yeah. Yeah. I just want to say I don't think it's an like it's more than an emotional attachment. I think Jeff has put together a really thoughtful budget that he believes is in the best interest of our students in this district. I just want to it's I appreciate all the thought that you've all put into this and I know that you're putting this forth because you think this is what our students will be best served by. >> Yes. I mean and I think well I have a lot of thoughts and I'll just I know it's after 10 so I won't
301say many. >> Um I I respect whatever the board wants us to do. Um I'm sure the finance committee will discuss this further tomorrow. um when we're talking, you know, 5 to 800,000 and I even heard more than that, we are talking about staff reductions. Um there is no other place for us to go. So, and I'm just saying that out loud um at 10:00 at night. So, I just want to put that on the table because if I don't say it, I'll feel like I'm coming back and saying, "Well, I didn't tell you that." But I think you already know that. >> Yeah. Can I just say, Lean, I think I'm in line with you. I think the number should come down if we can, but I also think if reality is healthcare is
302going up. We, you know, like there are these huge cost increases and that's real. And if the town can't afford it, the deliberative body is the vote of the town. And so, you know, if deep cuts need to be made, I think if the budget, you know, like >> I I I don't want to preemptively start cutting positions, >> but if the town votes down the budget, then that's what's going to happen. And I think that >> and we have the district budget vote, which then gives us more time before the >> Yeah. And I think I think that's the place, >> you know, where if deep cuts need to be made, that's when the message should get sent. Mhm. >> I I don't feel comfortable cutting teaching if it's going to be cutting teaching
303positions. I don't feel comfortable saying that that that's what needs to happen. I think the both towns need to say that to us. I think we should cut wherever we can, right? Like if we got to cut the field trips, you know, like cut hundreds of thousands of dollars. Absolutely. >> But if it's going to be cutting teachers, the deliberative body is the people who come out and vote. People should come out and vote. And if they vote down the budget, that sends a clear signal that like >> class sizes are going up. You're cutting teachers, right? Like, >> but I don't feel comfortable doing that preemptively. >> But I feel like we should cut everywhere we can to up until that point. Like, >> right, >> let's cut the field trips. Let's cut everything
304else. But like, >> if we can't get to 500, how close can we get? >> Y. >> And to just balance out the opinion, I purposely ask people throughout town, how do you feel about the education and how do you feel about your taxes? How would you feel about a 7% increase on the school budget? And there are still people out there, they're like, "It's worth every single penny and I would pay more if I could so a kid could have a better experience." There is that other opinion. It is not emailed to us. But if you ask for it, it is out there. >> So, I don't think it's fair to ask people that can't afford it to pay it, but there are still people out there that are saying that, too. >> Just
305to be fair, You're totally you're totally right. There are people that show up to the budget meeting every year and vote for the budget and we do it again and again. >> Yeah, it's a tough balance. >> Sorry. >> We are all available for other communication. Um, >> so >> can I just share some light on the budget though just a little bit? Sure. So if so just to give people a flavor of what the budget increase is actually consisting of about 2.2 million is just salary increases or 6.78 over the last year. Okay. And salary increases that has to do with your collective bargaining agreements and the new positions which Jeff has put forward. Okay. >> Health insurance. Health insurance is over a million dollars. It's a million one. Okay. So, if you take
306a look at those two items, you're $3 million on the $4 million increase that you have. Okay. So, then you take a look at the debt service, which is 600, >> which is 600,000 of that 1 million. Now, you're down to 400,000. Okay? >> Which is some of the other small items that we put forth in the budget. Okay? So, uh and some of the other areas with some of the increases and decreases that have come about. So, that's There's only one place you're going to go. Okay. >> Yeah, that's a great I appreciate that perspective, Scott. We've talked about that, too. >> And what was the total cost of health insurance? You said that it went up a million. >> The total cost. Yeah. Hang on. >> It's like I want to say >>
307I just want to hear this point. >> And and again, this may be a happy number, right? I mean, we may see a lesser number when% comes around in April. Maybe it comes in at 10%. Right? So, I don't know at this point, but on uh health insurance itself, the gross number on health insurance is uh $8.8 million. >> 8.8. >> Yeah. >> 7.8 last year and 6.5 the year before that. Okay. >> So, what percentage of our overall budget >> is that? I I've done it. I just >> actually I actually lined that number up right against our bill where we were this year. >> Yeah. >> And our bill is like within $20,000 of the 7.8 million in the year we're in. Yeah. >> It's a huge part of it. Um and I
308as we mentioned like this is all over the news. All every school district is in the same position. We are slightly different in that our p our numbers are going up. they're not going up as fast. They're projected to keep going up. And the other districts, they're they're having declining enrollment. And so it it is a little bit of a different position, which is also why we've gotten a little more funds. We didn't get as much funds as we have. >> We are we were clipping along at getting 1.2 million more in state subsidy, and that's not happening this year, right? Our subsidy is relatively flat. So we had 1.2 two million that was offsetting the tax increase of our budgets that were 6% or whatever, right? So, so you were able to decrease the
309tax rate with that additional revenue and that didn't happen. You have increasing value in both your communities which the state looks at as that community now receives less money because you have higher property valuation. Okay? They look at valuation as a measure of means to pay. Okay? >> So, um so with that you receive less money. >> No problem. Kim, what time is the finance committee meeting tomorrow? >> All right. >> Not a 10 from now. >> Right. >> You said >> two. >> Okay. >> Any other >> Okay. >> Good job. Thank you. >> Yeah. I my whining is nothing personal. Please know that. >> I don't take it personal. >> I appreciate the >> We understand completely. >> I know how hard you've worked, Jeff, to put it together. And I know how
310hard, Scott, you worked to make the numbers work. And I can imagine it's nerve-wracking to come and know that you're going to get >> It's like Groundhog Day >> part of the process. >> And we appreciate you. And that is the point. I appreciate ask the motion to >> Thank you. I was going to say like everyone's backing up. No one's saying it. All right. Can I get a second? >> Second. >> Everyone. >> I heard Sean. All in favor? >> All in. Okay. Cam, are you in favor? >> And we're journ. Thank you everyone. Everyone get some good sleep.