001[music] I'm I'm going to call the meeting to order. Today is Tuesday, February 10th, 2026. This meeting is being video and audio recorded for future cable broadcasts. Please silence all cell phones for the duration of the meeting. May I have a motion to open the school committee meeting? So move >> second. We'll >> do a roll call. >> Mr. Ellis, >> yes. >> Mrs. McGu, >> yes. Mr. Hoffra, >> yes. >> Mrs. Fdera, >> yes. >> Mr. Wood, >> yes. And we'll start with the flag of the United States of America for it stands. One nation under God, indivisible, with liberty, justice for all. First item is the cons consent agenda. Everything listed in the consent agenda was distributed in advance of the meeting. Does anyone have any requests for something to be removed from
002the consent agenda and discussed or voted on separately? May I have a motion to approve and accept the items listed in the consent agenda, including the minutes for the January 13, 2026 meeting? >> So move. >> I'll second. >> All those in favor? >> Any opposed? Seeing none, the motion passes opposed. Do we have anyone signed up for delegation? >> No. Okay. So, Dr. Bailey, I'll turn it over to you to move into old business. >> Okay. Old business high school tuition agreement update. Um, we do have tenative agreements with New Bedford and Old Rochester Regional High School. I know that they have consulted with their legal council as soon as they are ready to vote. Uh, both superintendents have told me that they plan to convene the school committee to take a vote. Um,
003I do know that was supposed to discuss it last night at their meeting. Um so as soon as they vote we will be letting you know and perhaps we will convene to um have a vote of our committee. Does anybody have any questions? >> Um I have a comment. So yes I I certainly I don't know what the timing is. I know we're certainly anxious to get it done but we understand that sometimes these things take a little bit of time including legal review. would want to make sure everybody has um had their opportunity to to to do the eyes crossed the tees, but I certainly would want to convene the meeting once that's done depending on uh how close it is to our next scheduled meeting. I'd rather not wait and so we'll work
004on that. Hopefully be able to to do something soon. Dr. Miller, do you have um I know at the last haven school meeting that they voted I think that they would like to continue negotiations with Christian so it might be helpful to just give an update on where that stands. I did receive an email um today or yesterday um that came in with several dates that they're able to meet with us. So, we will be looking at what dates are good for us and we will plan to uh have a meeting with them to continue negotiating. All right, I'll go right into new business. Um I just want to thank everyone for being present tonight at the UNCAST Awards. Um we're super proud of our students. We had quite a number of students who were
005unable to make it today due to illness and other reasons, but um we were so happy that we were able to do that. Tonight for our educational spotlight, we'd like to highlight math fluency at AES. And I would like to call Julie GTO to the podium who will be presenting on our educational spotlight tonight. Math Fluency. >> Good evening, Mr. chairperson and school committee. Today we'll be discussing rocket math at a Kushna elementary school and brings us to it ties into math fluency at a Christian elementary school. So we're going to discuss some of the benefits of rocket math. It's a product that our first through fourth graders use. So students become fluent in math facts. And you might say well what is fluent? So fluent is automaticity. That's when you know your your facts
006whether it's addition, subtraction, multiplication or division within 3 seconds. So think about that for a second. Even as adults, do we know our facts within 3 seconds? I can say some of them I really struggle with, right? So fluency is the ability to quickly, accurately, and flexibly solve math problems by recalling basic facts and choosing the most efficient strategies. So with Rocket Math, students are able to see their success. They're motivated by their own learning and it's a researchbased trajectory of math. So it moves from addition of smaller numbers to larger numbers and then subtraction, then multiplication, division, and finally fractions. Now, the benefits of the student not having to actually write the division down, if you were kind of old school like me, we did our multiplication facts on a piece of paper. It
007actually takes 2/3 of a second to write down that new number. Okay, 2/3 of a second to a second. So, you're taking up one/ird of that time. It also aligns with the Massachusetts state frameworks for mathematics. And research states that early math proficiency is a determining factor for later advanced math courses like pre-calculus, algebra, trigonometry in high school and even college attendance. So this is just an example of what the trajectory looks like for rock of math. It starts with subetizing and subseatizing it is instantly recognizing small quantities of numbers. So there will be kind of like a quick flash of dots on the screen and then it will say how many do you receive? Okay. And it goes all the way to first grade where you have your addition, your subtraction and then finally
008your fractions. So for example, first grade rocket math aligns to the Massachusetts math standard 1 C6 which is adding and subtracting within 20 fluently. first grade. They're working on solidifying, adding, and subtracting within 20. Next, I wanted to show you some pictures on how we really highlight our students and we celebrate them as well. So, these students are our first graders. And what I do is I go through the first grade classrooms. And any student that's moved up a level, that was the levels that you saw on the previous slide, they get a smelle. A smelle is a smelly pencil. And these kids love them. They smell like grape soda, blueberry, bubble gum. They're very excited about this pencils. And these are the students that got this pencil about 2 weeks ago and they leveled
009up in first grade. And there are some more. You'll see these pictures in an upcoming Facebook post as well. And this aligns perfectly with our strategic objective for establishing a consistent model of instruction across grade levels that engages students in higher order thinking and empowers them to be lifelong learners. Ensuring that those assessment and those resources are aligned with the mass curriculum frameworks and prepares them for the opportunities in high school that I mentioned earlier. And finally, implementing a datadriven tiered model of instruction that continuously monitors student progress. Thank you very much. Do you have any questions for me tonight? >> Thank you. Certainly love dispensing them. Um, next in your package, you have the school calendar. The proposed school calendar. Um, school is actually for next year starting a week late because of Labor
010Day weekend is a little late. Um, that's the biggest change in the calendar. I propose that we give it a month and then we'll put it on the agenda for next month to vote on it. This way you can sort of digest it um over the month. If you have any questions, please let me know. Next up, I have uh winter spring 2026 round 2 early literacy high dosage tutoring initiative. And I'm proud to say that we were just approved for 22 seats for this initiative of tutoring in our schools. Um we're going to use Ignite Reading again. This is something that we've been very successful with um at the elementary school. Um does anybody have any questions about that? and then virtual school enrollment. So, I want to present information on this because Desi
011recommends that we shouldn't have enrollment in virtual schools beyond the 1%. Um, so tonight we need a vote to either um restrict students from going over 1% or approve the enrollment of our students to public virtual school programs. So Jesse requires a vote because it's a local decision and this is something that our leadership team has been discussing for quite a few months and really analyzing the data and looking into it. We are over the 1% by one student. However, um one of the reasons for that is they count the number of students in K to8 as our total number of students, but then they include the number of high school students who are from a Kushnet in the virtual schools. Um, so we've actually, um, been in touch with Desi about the way they
012calculate because our school district is very different being, uh, preK to 8 versus, you know, all the other districts that have high schools. So, we don't necessarily agree with um the way they're giving us the number because they're counting the high school kids, but they're not including all of the high school kids. So, we're our team believes that opting not to restrict provides our students with more choice in programming. We've also heard and support our community's desire to have support and choice. We just feel like at this point in time where we're only one student over, this is something that we can look at year to year. But right now, when we're in talks with Jesse in the way they're calculating our percentage, we just feel like we should not restrict it because we feel
013like at this time our numbers are low for virtual school or right where they should be. So, as soon as I get more information on that, I can let you know. Does anybody have any questions before we take a vote on this? And again, my recommendation is that we not restrict um students enrolling into virtual schools at this time. We like to have that availability. >> So, do we have 11? >> We have 11. >> And the statewide cap is 2% of the overall student population of the state, right? >> I believe so. >> Yeah. >> Yep. >> I mean, I I I don't think that we're at a point that we need to worry about happening here right now. If we started to see enrollment in those online programs increase of course >> um
014over the next few years then I think it would make sense to reevaluate. It's probably something we need to take on basis. >> So so that is the plan right? We will we will review this on an annual basis going forward. Okay. >> Yeah. >> Yes. And so um the the motion is to essentially not to cap at this point the number of students that we have enrolled in virtual schools. >> I make I'd make a motion uh not to institute a cap in virtual district to roll >> Mr. Ellis. >> Yes. >> Mr. McGin. Yes. Mr. Halro. >> Yes. >> Mr. Cordera. >> Yes. >> Mr. Pleasure. >> Yes. >> Thank you. >> And that's all happened this evening. Thank you. >> Okay. Um, so I think the technology update was just part of
015our materials, right? Unfortunately, we don't get to hear from Patrick this this month, but we'll we'll we'll just wait patiently for the next meeting. So, we'll do uh business managers update. We can't wait for so >> I'll wait for the uh the slides in the moment. >> Sure. But briefly um I provided a one-page update on what I call the budget to actual. So I compared the first 6 months of this year to the first 6 months of last year. And we look at the various categories. I break them up by the department of bank codes, how they categorize our expenses, and they're summarized on the page. What I really look at is the right column of each uh section, the percent used. So what you what we want to see is that we stay
016in line. Last year's budget ended well and so we want to make sure we stay within the same parameters as last year um overall in our budget. So what the only variance I found here was that it looked like the personal uh professional salaries and government salaries was up. The reason being is I counted the actual paychecks. Last year there were 13 in the first 6 months. this year they were 14. [clears throat] >> Simply the the year could have ended on a a Friday instead of on a Tuesday and there's one more check in. So factoring that out percentage wise even though one's 57 and one's 58% were people last year. So we're doing great on that. Um and I still have adjustments to make for grants in here which in turn might a
017little better than last year at this point. It's great for this year. Um we're on on what everyone's watching their budget. We're on target. Next year will be a different story. We'll go to that point. So, um just to quickly at the department's facilities um the the the staff facilities storms we had we've been here all night sometimes plowing um shoveling, icing, sanding, um running, you know, multiple snow blowers. They've been doing a great job making sure the schools are um safe and open. Um and hopefully we have no loosening end of the snow. I hope they chair in there. So, they've done a great job. Um the contender monitor, we watch um watch the roofs. We can't get all the roofs. We watch the sand tiles to see if any water through. If so,
018we note it. As soon as we get up there, we went up and see what the situation is and fix it. Meanwhile, we change the tiles on a daily basis as soon as we see this an issue. Make sure there's no pipes, but we did have a pipe spring leak two Saturdays ago. Josh Souza was here doing a sport. Saw the water coming down from the ceilings and it was an actual pipe fitting that went up and um um with the tools had to go tighten up all the bolts and you know fitty tight hadn't been here. We had a little flood. So worked out great. Um food service is still running smooth. Uh we've been hoping to try and increase the breakfast. Uh haven't really moved as much lately, but we're working on that.
019Um, we're replacing equipment in the kitchens with with funds from within the food service accounts as well. Great. And, uh, the food service directors, they're continuing to work with bread, evaluating success and challenges with the gravel and go breakfast program. So, we continue pushing that and hopefully get to where most students take breakfast. Most of the hours we're giving them stuff that they can put in their backpack later on. Transportation is actually running well. a lot of parent phone calls. We manage all of them well uh in my office um handles it on a daily basis as well. She coordinates um with DPW especially with the snow bus down certain streets. So it's been challenging but you know we look towards DPW making sure our roads are safe before we send the buses up. want
020to make sure safe. And of course, we want to re reaffirm with families that there's big snow con, kids are waiting to make sure they're out in the streets. Um the solar array we've been discussing for a while now um is at the point where the attorneys are pretty much done. So now the board is slept kind of reviewing the contracts with the town administrator and they from the last conversation we had they're already going to be signing it soon. So with that being said hopefully this this summer coming up we'll be planning on starting the project in the parking lot. Um and we'll have solar energy which will be great because I don't see electricity bills going down. And this is one way for us, you know, looking out for the next 20 years
021to have a better more secure rate that we pay for electricity panels. And with that, I have some slides on the budget to go through. So this is the preliminary budget discussion. Before you do that, can I just ask one quick question? >> Sure. How how are we given it's been so cold in terms of heating and building. What does that look like? >> Um our boilers have had a lot of work. We've already spent about $40,000 this year on them. They internally they they're rusting and some of the tubes inside the water flows through around getting holes in them and turn flooding the boiler. So we've got a company in here that's actually taking these tubes out. They're upwards of 14 ft long. Replace them, put them in many tubes. How much does it
022cost to replace one of these tubes? One tube is almost $1,000. 700 to do it. And there's how many tubes in each of these boilers? Each boiler has over 30 tubes in it. So there quite a bit. And there's four boilers in total. So most of this work was on one boiler in this building, the middle school. We've been working with with the valves with the um the sensors everything on the boilers trying to keep them up and running. So >> those boilers are all from the same age essentially. Right. So this this tubing is all essentially the same age and some of it is breaking down. >> Correct. Correct. So I in our budget request for next year I've added some funds in for that. But we may have to actually go for a
023capital appropriation for the town and and do something to even if we're going to plan on changing them. It's probably a year or more before we can get something like that off the ground. Not sure. We have to we get get the funding. They've got the bid and then um show the boilers the doors in the boiler room. We might have to open the wall up. So there'll be quite a bit of work to do, but um we're getting estimates on that. So we'll be prepared if that's the case. So that's why we're kind of um still pushing forward. Um Jess and I are pushing forward on the HVAC project. Not they'll cure it but that'll help them quite a bit. The boilers then will be used um minimally you know. >> Yeah. Make sure
024you're using the heat pumps and switching right. Exactly. So that's that's our biggest concern is our boilers. That's what so part of why I asked I think I asked about the boilers last month coincidentally. But I I think it's important and I that we put together a capital plan uh and see what that looks like and we start to talk to our partners in the town about that capital plan because when you start when you're talking about 32s per boiler and for boilers, we're we're hitting numbers that are beyond I think what we can do within our operating budget and that's going to require some significant investment. Um, so I think it's important that we and I know you're working on one. I think that at some point have it here. Patrick left me on
025an outline now added with many as many projects over there completed. So there are many more cuz we have our our diesel tanks in the ground also as old as our boilers and some point you can look at those too. >> Sorry. So this is our preliminary budget discussion. Um we have numbers from the governor and as you know that'll there'll be numbers coming from the house and there'll be numbers coming from the senate and then there'll be a joint committee on finances. Usually the numbers get a little better as they move through the process but we're going to build the budget off the governor's numbers. So >> everything we do ties back to our current strategic plan. So the mission of a Christian public schools in partnership with staff, parents and community is to
026promote student success, growth and learning in a safe and supportive environment. And our vision is to be a high performing school district where all students are afforded the opportunities to realize their potential. And I just want to make note that we are actively working on a new strategic plan. This one actually ends at the end of the school year and we we really have some nice progress so that we can continue the good work uh within our district. And then currently the strategic objectives are uh we have these three pillars that we follow. Achieving academic excellence for all students, creating thriving social and emotional learning experiences for all students and strengthening partnerships with parents and the larger community. So our our budget creation, some of you have been through the budgets before not, but basically
027we begin we begin in in really November, December looking at everything in the finance office. But in January is when we sit down and actually once we see especially see the governor's numbers of where we stand cuz when the governor's office come out so does the chapter 70 report and that gives us our goal of what we must meet. So we spend the month of January um basically crunching the numbers getting the budgets ready. February as of now with with the superintendent um with the superintendent assistance we're meeting with every department and going through coming up with what's required what everyone needs. Superintendent's budget is really the needs of the system. Even though in every district it's more than what any district can afford still to be put out there so that everything can be
028looked at and debated if need be. So once we come up um with that final number of that final budget, we present it to the school committee. Then the school committee make any changes, any additions, any deletions. Just before we send it to the town, we'll have a public meeting by law meetings. The public can voice their concerns or or um advice on the budget um at which once it's completed um it would go to the town. We also work very closely with the budget subcommittee on the school committee and then obviously um we go through it with a very fine tune call. So we'll have more meetings. We've already had a meeting. We'll have another meeting coming up shortly. >> The um the town will will uh not only give a budget to the
029school department, the town will be giving budgets looking at everyone's budgets in the town. They have already made um an announcement at their last meeting that they're looking for the town side anyways to give a level funded budget from each department and the budget was a 10% cut so they can review what that would mean to the town. Under the chapter 70 rules and regs because we receive money from the state, they can't just cut our budget. We have them to meet an amount that's given to us which is the required net school spending. So it's more difficult for them to say we're going to cut your budget because if they do have to make it up to us in the following year, you're not allowed to just let it go. So if they cut
030it too much, you'll be penalized from the state. So um at which point once they come up with the amount they're giving us, we will then continue meeting with the budget subcommittee and we'll meet that that goal, that number. So as you can see, this is for this year that just came out. Um the town is required to give us $9,654,882 uh of funding and most of that is in an appropriation to us. Some of it is some of their costs that they charge to us. They pay all the health insurance. So those costs are charged to our budget. So in in meeting that amount and you'll see in the future slide that for years they give us more than the minimum required cuz they're able to over the past few years it's it's going
031down. So for them giving us 9.6 million chapter 70 uh it says they will give us 7.5 million. So those two combined are going to make up the required net school spending. So the other sources of revenue that we have for funding our budget come from entitlement grants right now it's the grants you know the title one title two so it's approximately 162,000 this year we're hoping that um when those numbers come up for next year a little more same thing with the idea grants the special a grants 314,000 this year uh that number fluctuates more depending on your population So, um, again, we're hoping that that increases. We have circuit breaker reimbursement. So, any costs that, um, hit our special department that are over and above, it's 38,000 this year. I think it goes
032to 40,000 next year. Any cost over and above, we'll receive 75% of those funds back in the following year from the state. We're allowed to carry that money for one year, then you must spend it. So, those are funds that we use to help our budget. um that's the certain break of reimbursement and then we um have the ability to tap into some of our revolment accounts to help our budget out areas we might need I think uh for example preschool tuition I think there was two parents charged to that account and again we look at each year what comes in revenue from those funds we try not to deplete the funds but we we pull from there and um food services is its own revolment account um they take care of their own staff
033their own costs So um that fund runs well. We have no um financial issues with that. So this is just the numbers that came out for with the department of ed. As you can see our enrollment very top line there. We lost 13 students this year. So that in turn you lose the funding that was with those students. Now the foundation budget is what the low end of the calculations come in at for the foundation. Then what they look at is the required annual spending. So that's the number that the department of ed comes up with. Although the foundation budget is lower every year they want to want to to go more than that. They they've got to factor for all cities and towns for their school districts to make more. So the number that
034we need to meet for this year is 17,200,000 and it's made up like you just saw in the previous sheet by the required principal spending and by the chapter 78. So alto together it's about 47% funded by chapter 70 and the rest is funded by the town and as you can see the required spending at the bottom they want to stay at 107%. So, it's not 100. And again, the goal is that as years go by, they want to get cities and towns to fund more of their education and the state to fund less. I don't ever see that happen because we don't have the ability to to raise revenues um the way the state does. So, just some more quick statistics on it. You can see our enrollment. I put it in red, how
035it's changed. So going back you know 6 7 years ago we uh we added 45 students we added 20 that we lost 85 you can see that's the beginning of the pandemic we continue to lose the pandemic ended we got a few students back a lot of them who went virtual or or went other uh directions like private school program schools they stayed out so we're not the only ones um that are losing students most districts in the state are losing students there's no longer the influx of foreign students that we had in the past 10 years. There are um more students being homeschooled or virtual school and a lot of people are moving to those other states that are also blessed to live in more South Carolina, South Carolina. So we're not the only
036district in this position of losing students and just focus on the very last call additional town contribution. So, as I was saying earlier, the town has been contributing more to us than was what was required. As you can see, we've gone from about 800,000 over to 23,000 over. Now, a lot of those numbers in the past was health insurance cost cuz most towns when they finally report their their final dollars, you're reporting on the actual spend for health insurance. No one knows at the beginning of the year what it's going to be. By the end of the year when you finalize your reports, Department of Eds come out. But the fact that that their contributions went down tighter means that we've got to meet that school spending. We've got to hit that number. So, um,
037last year was actually going to be under, but then we got that extra 155,000 appropriation at the time meeting that put us over. Otherwise, it would you would see on the Department of Ed sheet is a makeup line. If you went funded by 100,000 last year, they can add that right on top and add it to your your accounts. So, so this is just a a graph that's showing as you can see the required net for spending is increasing every year. You can see chapter 70 in the blue is kind of staying pretty level. The account the town contribution is forced to go up. That's part of their formula. That's what happens to us. For a town like ours that's rural, we don't have many ways of raising more taxes. some of the larger uh
038cities and towns. So the ones that have infrastructure that have uh vacant buildings that can be re you know modernized uh towns that can build more hospital towns that can build more infrastructure they can raise their their taxes by doing that. Town like ours doesn't have all that in place so it's more difficult. So, a rough estimate for next year. I took in and looked at all the contracts, increased the contractual services for all employees that's been negotiated. Um, operations, we looked at, like we talked about earlier, the boilers, adding a lot more money to that budget. The cost of our transportation that's going up 11 12% by contract. Um, we don't have any answers on high schools yet. So, there's a high school cost there. Plus, we have students that go to um Bristol
039uh AI. Those cost us in our budget additional. We got two more students going this year from last year. So, those costs are three. So, we're up a little over a million, a million forward here. Um later on, you'll see the percentages of it. As you can see from this graph here, it's going to show you our budget. Again, most of our salaries go to most of our spending goes to salaries. So professional salaries in the purplish color there and you get clerical and power and tech. So you got more than half going and then out of district tuition is always a big number in every district. When you get down to it, you come down to supplies and materials and other expenses. It's a very little piece of pie. So when people say, "Oh,
040cut back on the on the paper cut back." It's not those expenses are not what hurting us. It's keeping people in the classrooms and it's all the special ed um um out of district tuitions and special ed needs that we have. Those are the costs that that the student opportunity act was supposed to help every district with. That was one of the factors in there was special ed. So, um again, that's I'm going to do some future pie charts of other communities, other districts. You could see how they compare to ours. I think you're going to see they're very similar. Here's our staffing. So, as you can see, the the blue is um two years ago and then the gray is where we're going. So, as you can see, we've lost teachers. Paris has increased
041a little, but that's because of special ed 101 requirements. We have no control over that. Um all the other levels, but they are we still have a few guidance. They're staying steady at about three. The coaches, I think that's two coaches. We were staying studying library nurses custodians were down but that's because we privatized for the night services building subs we cut in half over the years to help our budget front office stay steady of four people stay steady technology is barely existing with uh two people really because the department heads in another group so um that's how our staff looks just the elementary school you see the and down the middle. So, pretty much the same thing. The barriers are creeping up and again, those are what's required. Most of the other ones, they're
042very low in numbers. Um, the BCBA is something that we added. That's one of the additions. You'll see that um the front office, I think we lost a position there towards the end. and student services. Um there's a vacancy there that we haven't filled this year because of budget um constraints and superintendent office and staff the state consistent. I think that's six. So these are our vacancies. I was asked to see what we got from last year this year. So you can see we reduced the number of teachers. It might not have been an actual person. It might have been a vacant position was reduced. We did add a BCBA professionals. Um we've always had a problem filling them, but we are up a few. Those again are um they're requirements. They're not just um
043just for for staff coverage. Building base stops we cut in half. Student services is a vacancy. We didn't fill it this year to help with the budget. Front office was down one. And custodians are down three. Again, that's because we don't have um sways at night. We have a service at night. So, we've heard comments from around where they said that we, you know, have more staff than we've had before. We had it. Our staff has been reducing every single year. >> And and I just want to add that we're seeing a greater level of need of students coming in year after year. And it's been a struggle and that's why you see the increase with Paris because that's out of our control with what the needs are for special education. Um, but we are
044continuing to see the challenging behaviors and the level of need of our students. Um, so we really can't afford to cut further. I I I think [clears throat] when we start having discussions with the town, I I think that we have to very uh clearly articulate this cuz that's 18 positions, right? >> In two years, correct? And so, and I don't know that that's clear to people because I heard even in the finance committee a week or so ago, I think somebody made a comment like, you know, they brought all the positions back that were cut. So, I only say that to say I think we have to be very articulate and clear about what has happened the past couple of years and talk about whether that's a trend that can can continue. And the
045other thing that I'll just say quickly is what we gave back last year $400,000 that I might not have that number exact, which I think Um, some people have made comments about, well, if you can if you have $400,000 to get back then, but I think last year, and I might I don't have my numbers exact, but about half of that was a very unique special education situation that was planned for that didn't happen. Another big chunk of that was um unused tuition, which we've had an agreement with the town that we return. And so really, the amount of money that was actually returned that was within our control was a very small percentage of the overall budget. And I think that it's really important that we're ready to speak to that and be very
046clear about that because um I think that's creating a little bit of us about how good is the forecasting or do we continue whatever and there's some good reasons why that money was returned and I think it was also responsible to return that money, right? It wasn't like we tried to lose it for other things. It didn't work out having planning to them. So, sorry. >> So, just to clarify with the staffing, any staff that was brought back last year, they were brought back into other vacant positions, those are still real positions that were eliminated. >> Right? So, to say it another way, nine positions were cut. All but two maybe of those teachers were able to get other jobs, but we still are seven positions less in terms of what we're offering to our
047kids. Correct. >> than we had before. >> Correct. >> Yeah. I think it's that's something that can easily get kind of lost in conversation if we just make up a round number and say we'll just say theoretically there's 100 positions in the school that those you know staff members would fit into and 14 of those positions were unfilled because they were just vacant. Well, we cut nine positions and now we only have 91 positions in the school. Um even though a lot of those staff members were able to move into some of those unfilled positions, we still have reduced headcount versus what we had previously. >> Yeah. So I we we are then delivering less to our kids and our families than we were before. And I and I think we have to be really
048clear about that. And I think it's sometimes we might we're living and breathing this, but when we start talking about net positions and how many teachers ended up people just kind of get lost in that. So we have to try to be very clear about what that is. But That's why we wanted to highlight this today. >> Yeah. >> And on that first number you mentioned was number 186,000 was requested at the fall fall town meeting in anticipation of needing it for special ed. It ended up not needing it. So it was only right to return. So to go and spend it on other areas would be right. So that's why they they don't look at that. >> Sure. >> Fair. I I and I can understand why someone hears a number like that and
049says but the you know there's good reason why that money was returned to that point. It was a responsible thing to do. Um but I think we have to be ready to this point. Right. So these are some of our budget challenges. Um very early. Um so our contract our CBAs for all the different unions is about $400,000 increase next year. uh special education and our district tuitions roughly around 190,000. Now our electricity and heating oil swap electricity this past year there were $240,000 in credits that were earned from solar that hadn't been using and accumulating. So Patrick McIntyre basically wiped the electricity accounts to zero and backfilled it with that money. That money now runs out. So 250 of that. >> So can I say that in in another way? >> Sure. >> It's
050going to appear like we have a $260,000 budget increase even though we kind of been getting >> some relief. It's not really, but it's going to appear that way. >> Correct. Correct. Relief for last year. And I added an extra 10,000 in there for heating oil because it looks like the prices are slowly inching back up. Um I added one more bus um in anticipation that we may need it for the high schools because we still don't have final agreements on what's happen for the high school to anticipate that. >> Can I one more time? So once we have the agreements finalized we will then start working with the districts to lay out what the busing looks like. Correct. >> We'll lay out what the busing will look like but we'll it'll be easier it'll
051be better once we know where the students are going. So that's >> in March like we're going to call. >> Yeah. I would say by the end of March we'll have a much much better idea. >> So for the mechanical repairs I added 35,000 in for the for the boilers. Like I said we already spent 40,000 this year. So >> and the 40,000 that was spent was unbudgeted. We're using money that we have in other governments. >> Exactly. >> Um just overall in all of our goods services and legal budgets 75,000 increase we had cut legal for this year but it wasn't a good time because that budget was pretty good >> and that was a a budget line last year that we cut because we wanted to we had to cut the budget. So,
052we did cover them there, but we see that the expense didn't go away. >> And so, right now for the high schools, Bristol Abby, those costs are going up um until the agreements, but we're still a heavy is already complete. So, so that's our our rough number to begin with and um literally start tomorrow. We're going to look at areas we can get by with us. So, we'll bring that number down. >> So, that's 1.4 million without adding anything too much. That's just >> Yeah, that's with everything added in. That's with every department's requests. >> Okay. So, we we put everything in for the superintendent's budget. All the requests that that the superintendent felt were justified. Sure. Now, we'll go through and get [clears throat] so um 2026 budget was 16.6 million. Uh FY27 we're
053requesting 18.1 million 4. So, on this it's an 8.4% 12% increase. I just want you to know that um on the collective bargaining agreements, it's only 2.8%. Um that that number is right in line where it should be. A lot of our um teaching staff is at top step. So they just got the cost of living increase that are getting the step and lane increase which worked out um for the benefit of us. They got the 56% is because of operations the electricity and the boilers and that's um and the transportation that was then we'll be working with also we want to maintain our staff and see areas that we can save in the budget. And the next step is we're going to review literally line by line everything that we have and go and
054I'll look at the past couple of years of spending to make sure that it's absolutely necessary have the amounts that are in those budgets. If they can be eliminated, they'll be eliminated. >> I asked all my questions already. >> Um so I do have a question. Um, this would be regarding the like maintenance and and capital costs for the boilers because I know that was a top conversation earlier. >> So, um, you added an an extra an additional $35,000 for like facilities maintenance. um that would not obviously intended to go entirely towards the cost of boiler tube replacements, but theoretically if we had like catastrophic failure and we had to replace the equivalent of all the tubes in one of the units. You said there's 42 tubes in a unit runs about $1,000 a tube.
055>> Yes. >> Okay. Okay. >> That's just for the tube without the actual install. There's additional funds to install it. >> Oh, no. Well, so 700 for the tube and about 300 for the cost about a cost like that we have I would say we have to go to a thousand say situation >> right. Yeah. Yeah. I mean not that I expect something like that would happen but I mean how do you know offand how many of those boiler tubes have been replaced this this fiscal year? >> Seven in one boiler this year. >> Seven in one boiler leaking. So the other ones they're not leaking yet but they're all the same age proactively. believe that was the only seven that have ever been replaced to your knowledge. >> Yes. >> Sure. But I mean,
056it's it's kind of like, you know, you get a certain number of miles on a car once your brakes start to go, you know, that, you know, this is going to go next, this is going to go next. So, theoretically, if we've had to replace seven tubes and they're the first seven that have, you know, gotten pimples, um, the rest of them can't be that far behind based on the installation. I asked Jake to get us an estimate where the boilers are set up. There's lower tubes and upper tubes, the lower ones brought first. I want an estimate to do all four boilers and lower about 65 to 70,000. Yeah. >> To just replace the tubes and to replace all the boilers is probably about 350,000. >> So now you're going to spend 70,000 and
057repair or even replace. So yeah, >> and right now a given building has two boilers and a building can run on a single boiler. So one can be shut down for maintenance or repair while the other one runs. I know you said Jake's been swapping back and forth on a weekly basis. >> That's what we were doing. Exactly. >> Um but theoretically if one goes down and needs service, there's no more redundancy in that building until that until that boiler is back online. >> Yes. All right. Now, you know, presuming we get the air quality improvement project moved forward, that will allow some redundancy at the elementary school, but we still wouldn't have any additional redundancy here at the middle school, right? >> That's correct. Yes. >> So, what we're looking for at that point
058is is working heavily on the two of those in middle school. Make sure that they're in great shape. >> Whereas elementary, you're fine as you get extremely cold weather. But we would still want a little one at a time just to make sure that everything keeps flowing through nothing, you know, gets stuck up in there on the other valves. >> There any grants available for boilers, energy efficiency? >> There were through the mass school building authority, the roof, boiler, window projects. There's nothing right now. And they said 2027 is they'll be opening up again, but they didn't say exactly that boilers in that. So it's it's reason it's not unreasonable to assume that we could be looking at anywhere between 5 to 10 tube replacements in a given fiscal year. Theoretically more if something starts
059to really go sideways. >> Absolutely. >> But 5 to 10 is probably the you know fair minimum. >> That's why we put in >> this budget line because we've been replacing them without budgeted this year. >> Yeah. I I mean I I think it's to the point or it's going to be to the point pretty soon we have to have a conversation to say is it worth it to continue to reinvest and repair tubes versus what are the not only the benefit but you're going to get energy efficiencies from a new boiler in addition right so I think it's the conversation is probably here >> we're lucky in that Jake's background and his education is in these boilers you know so all the motor vehicles the motors everything He and Josh Susan have been fixing
060the house which is great cuz I see the the bills from the contractors. >> So it's a huge difference. So it's great that they're able to fix a lot of this. >> Do do the mechanical rooms have floor drains in the event of like catastrophic boiler failure. >> We have floor drains. Um the one is working fine. The one we we had them this past summer blown out. >> Yeah. >> But there's a crushed pipe in the middle school one. blew it out. They thought it was fine, but we did have done so went down and flooded and it took about 4 hours to train everything out. >> The boiler company just yesterday um finished there's automatic venting systems in there. Something like this happens, the venting system turns on and blows the fumes out
061the roof. >> Those had been working in years, but as of yesterday, they've been fixed. So they're coming I think tomorrow to test them to make sure they're set up so that as soon as it happens we don't smell the dies of fuel and exhaust in the building. So um that was a a big project that we wanted done. So um again Jake and Josh did a lot of prep work on that and the boiler company did come in at the end and replace some of the components of it to get to work. But ultimately if like the the amount of redundancy that we have in the overall mechanical system in the schools isn't necessarily at this moment known to be reliable enough to deal with like a catastrophic failure like a failure to vent
062fumes, failure to drain, water leaking from a boiler. So at that time we say that this is a pretty important project. The last thing we want is a flood over the weekend. Um and all of a sudden we have multiple classrooms are going to hold the boiler. If the flood is in the boiler room that's at a lower level than the rest of the school out the doors. So, but we um have set up for um actually where there's a process where they can put a plastic tube in for the pipe and fill it expands and hardens. So, there's no way to to dig the pipe up unless you full of guys with shovels are going to go under the foundation. So, hopefully that will work. >> Yeah, this this is at my point earlier,
063it's it's so this situation is upon us and we'll have to start to deal with it. But I think the capital improvement plan and trying to be more proactive moving forward on other that like it's it's just I think it's like we have to do it. That's the responsible thing to do. Um we can have conversations with our partners in town to see what the reaction is. But it's an old building and we're making all the repairs. We're we're making all the repairs right now in the house and we're focusing on on OSHA so we have no OSHA violations like you said on the on the SP making sure we have speedy dry making sure that we place vented out making sure that um we're going to we have some eyewash stations that we're going
064to move that'll be used into those boiling rooms cuz I know requirement behind it. make improvements in how she teaches, right? >> I think it's all great because it speaks to um um I think that it it's really important that and it speaks to kind of like the level of preparedness and um they're trying to get ahead of problems essentially. you know, if if we do have some sort of huge failure in the in one aspect of the system or another of this, we know that up until that point, we've done. Um, but I think putting together that long-term capital plan and making sure that it's communicators of town so they know what the potential needs are is going to be really critical to our next 5 years. >> Any other questions? Thank you. Appreciate
065it. Sorry for all the interruptions. I can't hold my questions. I'll forget. So, >> I like I like questions rather than written speech. So, absolutely time. Uh so, do we have any school committee member reports? >> Uh yeah, actually I do. Um we drive a little nuts over here. See if it still picks me up. All right, that seems a little bit better. Just sit back for a little bit. Um, so yeah, um I Aldo and I have been meeting with Bob Hingley, the liazison for the air quality improvement project um regularly. Uh we've had a lot of communications uh with him and then he in turn has been reporting to the select board. We've also had some meetings with the chairman of the finance committee Mike Pchet just to get them up to speed
066on where the project stands. Um Aldo and I have been working along with um the admin team and Beth Greenblat, our third party uh consultant on the project and an opportunity kind of came up unexpectedly to apply for a grant that could provide up to $3 million of funding for the towards the cost of the project. Um the grant applications were only opened up very last minute uh December 2nd. Is that accurate? Um and we have until February 13th to submit an application. Uh part of that was making sure that we keep the other components of town government in the loop. So we've met with like I said Mike Shay from finance committee. Um we have not presented in front of the finance committee but we have uh presented just today in front of the
067select board. Um Bob England was very helpful in getting us on the agenda for that. Thank them. Um, we were able to provide an update on the scope of the project, the potential for a significant portion of it to be funded via this grant. Uh, and the select board gave their unanimous uh, vote of support for the project pending grant approval. U, we'll find out on whether or not the grant was approved in the amount that's going to be dispersed in the middle of May, right around there. Um it doesn't necessarily mean that the project this project is 100% a go-ahead but that vote of support and any subsequent conversations that are come up going to come up before town meeting I think going to be really critical to finding out whether or not this
068project is going to move forward. >> One question so >> with some of the changes that had happened >> that that increased the cost of the project because of the change in the um requirements or whatever. Yeah, that that moves them the cuz the project at the previous goround was up to >> it was 4.2 4.2 >> the changes that moves the project up to >> I think it was 6.947 million. >> Okay. So, but if we were to get fully approved on this $3 million we're going to be playing at the same ballpark essentially costwise >> pretty pretty similar. Yeah. So, when when we looked at the numbers the new project cost is about $6.947 million. Uh we still have $500,000 in green communities grant money and we're we still have an estimated Eversource
069rebate of probably about 250,000. Those are consistent from the original proposal to now. Um what we're looking at is the difference between that 6, you know, whatever million after the grants, um getting another $3 million knocked off the top. What that ends up coming down to is probably about, I would say, $3.2 million in overall cost to the town after all the grants have been spoken for. Um, that's a reduction in actually the the town's overall estimated expenditure by about $250,000 after the other grants are taken into consideration. Um, so we're actually if if this gets pushed forward, we're going to be able to provide a a reduced cost to the town, which will be fantastic. It's a little complicated with the ins and the outs of the changes to the proposal. We'll have more
070info on that even moving forward, but that's where we stand right now. >> Great. I appreciate the update, Jesse, and and all the work that you've done thus far to get us to this point. So, thank you for that. >> Thanks to Aldo, too. He's been a great partner. He's been fantastic at communicating with Train and Beth and just kind of keeping the project moving forward. >> Thank you. [snorts] All jokes aside, appreciate it. >> Any anyone else? No. Okay. So, um there's some communication information in the packets. Uh there are no questions on that. Our next school committee meeting is on Tuesday, March 10th, 2026, 6 p.m. in this library. And may I have a motion to adjourn tonight's meeting? So motion >> second. >> Mr. Ellis, >> yes. >> Mr. Blake, yes. Mr.
071Hoff, >> yes. >> Mrs. Yes. Mr. >> Yes. >> All right. [music] >> [music]