001for for for e e e evening everyone I'd like to call the meeting to order if we can uh stand for the Pledge of Allegiance please stands one nation theice we have a moment of silence and I'm going to turn this over to um Jerell please the moment of silence tonight is for Coach Scotty Maguire who passed away I'm going to read an email that Gina shared with the school committee um it is with deep sadness that we share the passing of Michael Scotty Maguire a beloved Co mentor and chero graduate coach Maguire dedicated over a decade of coaching leaving a lasting impact on countless student athletes and the entire chero Community a familiar face on the field and Beyond Scotty brought Joy encouragement and unwavering support to all who knew him his passion for
002the game was only surpassed by his commitment to the St students he coached always leading with kindness humor and a deep belief in their potential his presence will be profoundly missed but his legacy of sportsmanship leadership and dedication will continue to inspire our thoughts are with his family friends and the many lives he touched throughout his years of service we hope they find comfort and knowing how much he was loved and respected by the chero community we will have counselors available to support students and staff throughout the week Flags will be lowered to half staff and our high school principal and athletic director will meet with the teams and athletes impacted later today he will be greatly missed thank you everyone so tonight is our budget Workshop um we have uh had another budget Workshop
003prior to this we have accepted the superintendent budget at our last school committee meeting on February 11th we will be having a district fin fincial uh hearing meeting next Tuesday where all of the voters can give us their feedback on the budget and then we will um formally adopt the budget on March 11th so tonight we will um dedicate most of the meeting to um our budget Workshop but before we do that we do have some business with budget transfers and I will turn that over to Mr zenan so in your believe in your packet you have a list of transfers if you um notice most of them are heat related so um I'm asking that we can transfer the funds so that um the repairs that have been done can be paid in a
004timely manner thank you so discussion so there was a question from the audience about the amount of the budget transfers Greg would you like to give a little bit more detail on that so we had to make um transfers in $431 15 for um Plumbing that needed to be done in um career and Tech on their heating unit in their um in their Marine building then we had to make um repairs to the caler um to the main board so there was some electrical work that needed to be done with that and that came to um $4,220 then we needed to make um a repair to the um cafeteria in the high school to the speakers the um the PA system was not working which is a safety issue and that was for $3,900 and
005then we had to um do upgrades with our alarms and maintenance for the middle school which included Plumb in and that came to $2,232 thanks Mr zenan any discussion so we have a motion and a second um all in favor of accepting the budget transfers it is unanimous thank you so item three on the agenda is our budget Workshop there have been um some feedback from the community some feedback from the school committee members about the status of Hope Valley elementary school so I did ask Gina if she would um maybe present um a couple of slides and some information about Hope Valley Elementary School for our edification and consideration as we are um embarking on our budget Workshop this evening so I'm just going to ask Gina to start us off and then we
006can talk about anything else related to the budget uh following that so if you remember we we've been having Hope Valley um on our agendas every month until we started the budget and prior to pulling it off the agenda once the budget was getting started we did a a culmination presentation which I'm I'm I have here again with the updated numbers also it's also available online it's will be one of the headlines in our website tomorrow pending any changes that happen tonight so we were asked originally to talk about school closure versus the phasing out of Hope Valley our current situation involves the enrollment trends that uh continue to see uh a decrease as well as operational costs and sustainability concerns so the question to the school committee continues to be uh are you looking
007for a closure or a phase out so far we've been doing the phase out we stopped enrolling kindergarten and next year would be grade one if we remain with the budget that I presented to the school committee however the school committee now has the budget and is looking for possible reductions and this is one of the areas that we were asked to look at so um pros and cons obviously anytime you're considering a closing of a school it is h a very difficult conversation it impacts families students staff uh you're there it's disruption it's um sense of loss of identity we have you know definitely infrastructure adjustments so those are all of the cons and I think you know many of us can see um the emotional attachment is is quite strong in our schools
008which is wonderful and that's something you want to see the pros um to closing would be the it's the cost savings it would be more budgetary utilities maintenance and we have four old elementary schools all in need of Maintenance and repairs um especially around our heating HVAC systems which we had explained throughout our our um information around our stage two application last year uh parents have uh if they if you make a decision whether to phase out or Clos they have a they have a definitive date the uncertainty has been troubling for families it's definitely something that weighs on their minds so and staff as well students have the opportunity to meet more friends PR entering Middle School it you know always an opportunity to um gain opportunities to meet one another and it does
009it would address the declining enrollment and then it does allow the district to utilize um the specialized staff for more efficient support services so but again pros and cons to both the phasing out same thing the pros and cons uh the pro is that minimizes disruptions because it doesn't impact those that are already enrolled but it does impact families that had siblings allows for a smoother transition for the receiving schools and more time to plan uh spaces the cons are the delayed cost savings uh the prolonged uncertainty the unknown of all of that the um the continuous need to do our resources curriculum and instructional costs across four schools versus three and parents are may be opting out to move their child to other and many parents did opt out already to move their child
010to the school um that they would be assigned to if Hope Valley closes so we did have a handful of parents that already decided to do that next slide mik um the cost savings that the school committee had asked me this was updated on and you can see it was updated after the February 11th school committee meeting so the Staffing is about $400,000 for four certified staff you'd be cutting two grade one one grade two and a nurse in the reduction and then $100,000 for two non-certified staff uh a TA and a custodian um and again that's those savings happen if nothing else changes with the budget like if you ask me to add stuff then I I have to adjust these numbers but that's what we know of now our current building and maintenance
011utilities for the year you know ranges about 195 pending no major emergencies our transportation um at Hope Valley is about 85,000 our buses are very light um capital is 95,000 and then our total budget impact and savings would be 875,000 if the committee determined that the closure was uh in their purview so the other question um that comes up is the current enrollment what's the enrollment capacity of the current schools as well as uh what's the enrollment look like if Hope Valley closes so in the First Column for example ashway School currently we have 2133 students there ashway is capacity at 258 with hope valy closing it would be at 234 so we would be adding one class uh most likely for grade three based on our current numbers and then if you would do
012the same thing across every school except for Hope Valley that would be the school if the committee decides to close it there's uh 107 prek right there now and 128 students in grades 1 through 4 and next year if it stays open there's a there's a 90 there would be 97 um grade two through four and prek is undetermined because we don't have all the numbers we have a handful that would return because they're three and four but those that would go into kindergarten and others would come in um newly aged into three so the other other question that continues to come up as always the classroom sizes what does the classroom size look like if we do close so at ashway the number of classrooms in grade two so if you look at every
013school and again I'll walk ashway through so for grade two the number of classrooms is the first number and the number of enrollment and then the average class size so ashway would have two grade twos 48 students class size of 24 that's what they have now grade three number of classrooms and enrollment um they have they would have three if hope valy closes with 50 students class sizes of 17 grade four two classes of 44 class sizes 22 and then there's no prek there and you would do the same thing for every school Richmond would be the largest uh the grade two if Hope Val closes they would uh have five grade twos at 96 students average class size of 21 five grade three is a 99 students average class size of 20 uh grade
014four five 103 class size 21 and some of them it's because based on ages some of the students are not necessarily they may be in a self-contained classroom and not in with uh their typical peers all day but those that's what the class sizes would look like so what I did was I added this slide from our FAQ was questions that parents have asked um all year long this qu this so I took the FAQ and then made it a slide um it's also on the website excuse me Gina Tyler Gina where was grade one it was no grade one it was grade two well there's no impact for grade one because we've already done because there's no okay so okay so I'll just clarify for everybody else there's no grade one because there's no
015kindergarten currently at Hope Valley so it doesn't impact that so um current the questions that we continue to uh well I actually haven't gotten questions this year new I think it may be because we have the FAQ but where will my child go to school if Hope Valley closes the new lines are designed so that all students will be assigned to the school closest to their home so whatever school is closest to your home that's determined just based on the typical GPS mileage what happens to teachers and staff based on the current situation teachers and staff at Hope Valley will select positions at other schools based on their certification and their contract requirements based on our current anticipation of retirements uh and um leaves of absences Etc we do believe we have enough um to
016be able to have everyone remain on staff who wants to be here will prek have the required space at Charlestown including bathrooms yes Mr zenan has walked all the schools with all the spaces uh the preut classrooms will be designed to have the facilities and for their age group and for their needs the impact on busing no changes to busing every student assigned is assigned Transportation If the parents want it and as long as it's the assigned school and again it's the school closest to their home what if you want to send your child to a school that is not the one closest to their home we do that now Cho has a voluntary transfer policy where Elementary families can request a different School those requests are reviewed and typically approved unless the current enrollment
017is already at Max Capacity or close to it and uh that the parent will have to sign off that they are responsible for their own transportation if they elect to do that per the school committee's policy what will happen to the building if the school closes that would be a Town Council decision as a district leases that building um the other two questions that were like frequent one when we first started these conversations the other three elementary schools are old do other elementary schools have enough classrooms for all the children yes and then we noted the capacities earlier it doesn't mean it's pretty but there's all enough space um what is the transition plan so students can get to see their new school every school will hosts a welcome tour for All Families being reassigned
018from Hope Valley and the school Improvement teams will meet as a group to be able to uh plan for the event that that would include the Hope Valley School improv thank you superintendent Bard I just thought we would needed some structure around that conversation tonight so that's why I asked her to um to present that information to the school committee members to the people in the public anyone that's live streaming so um do we want any discussion at this time about Hope Valley Elementary School or any other related topic on the budget lry um on 211 you said it was uh million 14519 according to the the sheet you gave this when I asked you what could be level and now it's 875 how how come it's so different level funding would be a million
019dollar yeah she said total it would be 1 million that's everything on that sheet yeah that includes the fund balance Larry that includes reducing the fund balance that's also the knas and the that's everything so we're going to put actually U Kathy could you put the sheet up your mind I can have Kathy put that sheet up so the sheet that you have that Mr Phelps is referring to was a sheet um that's going to go get posted that includes the numbers you asked for Mr Phelps regarding Hope Valley it includes Miss um Chapman's request for the World Language and it has uh the district put in the neas amount because we we postponed as well as the BCI that Miss Davis had uh brought up with with her review with me and that I
020told her I would share with the committee okay so this one sheet that they're going to put up is was comprehensive of Hope Valley reest and everything together combined which came to 1.45 million plus right Pat um could you just go over because this is a big question I get asked is um about the Charo Act and the hope Valley school so if you could just explain that um so that people understand I think that would be helpful so are you talking about if we no longer enroll like how we were able to stop kindergarten so uh The Cho act talks about students enrolling and then being able to save the school if the school exists so the school if the school no longer chooses to exist then they can't be enrolled there what we're
021saying is we just can't say oh we're gonna move everybody to Richmond and keep whole Valley open and actually some my members had asked that oh what if we keep some kids at Hope Valley that can't happen you can't just move some which is why you did the phase out um because you can't newly enroll so if a school ceases to exist then there's no place to enroll or to stay yes absolutely and it's been reviewed with legal thanks Pat other input Tyler I have a question Gina can you let us know what's going to happen with the principal at Hope Valley school because we I noticed that's one thing that's not on there where's he going what's the plan for him so that was something we had uh we had mentioned back in the
022fall when we made the changes so just for everyone's edification Mr skipo is um his memorandum of agreement is that he is the director of multi- systems of support and success as well as the Hope rally principal we uh we were uh um already making shifts like that uh it just started sooner when we started to phase out Hope Valley because um it's been part of our a long strategic plan I know Linda Lyall has been a part of that work at the ca redesign since i' since I've started here and uh we the position I think we we put it into description two years ago uh started to finalize it last year and with the school committee deciding to make that change we were able to begin the implementation this year can you can
023you give a little more background know what that position is it's online so you can uh all of our job descriptions but it's basically uh a multi- systems of support is identifying resources and an allocation of resources to ensure students across the district are getting their needs met and what happens is like right now our entire team is working on what we call our tier one teams so Mr sceno is going out um and providing coaching feedback and support to those teams to be able to model share and support how you effectively doing that uh he's we brought in a uh digital dashboard that teachers are learning how to use to make this more efficient for them so his role is to oversee the support and the and the redesign basically the resources of mtss
024necessary for all schools to be able to perform and show great growth I can give you the job description I can send it it's on I just I'm just so everybody no I know just I know it's a lot of Education speak so I don't want exactly Cher yes hi Karen is mtss um a state mandate Mt there is a state law regarding MTS not that you have to have but it it is a it's a cumbersome it is right now myself Dr Cela Carrie pastori Sarah chosa I mean we've got eight people you know juggling a lot of different things but there needed to be someone who could coordinate the entire initiative and um for us that will be Jeff and while Dr Cara is you know a great coach to Mr kipo he
025also has a job that involves all kinds of things um and like I know East grenage is starting their mtss because we're working with them as well in other districts depending on where they are um are being implemented someone using the teachers union and doing different things but it's it's a pretty large initiative yes and it the law passed 2021 2021 thank you thank you Laura so I um been diving into this budget pretty pretty deeply um and I I came across a couple of Trends in it that I wanted to to to address and see if Greg had any um feedback on it the in um if you take the the 56 page budget which is not I don't believe that we we had pronounced for the public public but it is available online
026to my knowledge um there's there are increases across the board for for really small line items um and I identified 785 increases that were that are less than $995 each so when you when you add all of them up it comes to 27,5 $ 7554 worth of increases of these very small amounts so my when I went when I go through and I look at the percentages that are you know that make up those those really small increases um it's a little bit confusing to me how those small increases are are calculated because if you look at the actuals for 2024 and you think and I thought to myself like okay so that's 6 months ago according to when the budget would have been reconstructed and then you're coming up with the 2026 um projections
027and a lot of those increases are are are much higher if you compare it from you know with what is being projected for 2026 compared to what actually happened in 2024 and then if you but then if you look at what it says for the difference between 2025 which is I assume in you know like an estimated amount is that correct Greg specifics the 2025 numbers that are in those budg or that's in the budget that's basically like a an adjusted estimated estimated number correct yes it's what was budgeted so you know was it exact we won't know until the budget closes right but yes okay um and so I guess what what I'm wondering is it possible for you for you and your team to go back and pull all of this pull all
028of those numbers um I could even provide you with the information that I have the spreadsheet that I have and rather than doing a an increase of because from from what I can see it looks like that those increases um it shows a 15% increase if you pull them all together and then and so I'm wondering if there's a way for you guys to kind of go back and essentially cut that number in half so I I just need to know the line item if you can give us some line a lot of examp one at a time hold on so it it would be like I said there's 7 well how about I would start with one example please okay I'll find one for you a page number and line item would be oh
029okay so if you look at athletic supplies which is row number 6,110 it says supplies Athletics medical and I believe that's on page 51 yes page 51 so if you look at that um there there's a list of supplies that were given and that is the total of it so those are the cost in I know itll so the the legislation for the concussion gear for the football shoulders and their uh the head gear for the hockey we had to include based on new legislation yeah but the line item she's discussing is oh medical is the med it's the supplies yeah okay so that's the um when they give you give us a budget with that number there's a list of of what is being purchased so the tape the um bandaid everything they need
030for their medical supplies for High School athletics and that is what the price comes to you can cut that in half but then you're not going to have medical supplies for the year we do this with the trainer so for the athletic trainer and we have a new one um reviews the necessity of of the equipment and what she needs to be able there she's on staff she's out at the football field she's out on the field to be able to make sure she's prepared for any student who has an injury or is her so based on her uh their request from the Athletics um but I also know that the medical I do believe we may have so but Laura if you you're looking at can I can I just hold hold you that
031right there Greg um let's just try to keep the sidebar conversations down because I can't I can't hear and then you know I just want to make sure that we're everybody can hear clearly thank you sorry if you look at Medical Supplies as a whole MH and not just a high school you'll see that it's a negative 82% increase so if you look at the middle school when in 20 the 25 adjusted budget they did not spend they ordered more than what they needed we have it in stock so we cut their FY 26 almost in half mhm so the middle school will have the supplies they need the high School spent their money used their supplies and that's what they need so it if you're if you're looking at each line item um we
032try to group things together so if we need medical supplies for athletics for middle school and high school um if we know middle school has stockpiled or they didn't use as much one year maybe their season was cut short and they didn't have they're not ordering as much or some of that stuff is being moved to the high school oh it's less injuries so we we make sure inventory happens of all departments but overall um and I actually think that's a great Point Mr zenan made there's a lot of reductions in the budget so you may see a line increase but it increased and we went over this the last time because other items um decrease lines increase a lot of the those small lines that have those percentages we even debated like putting those
033percentages in there because most of them were contractual and they allowed so for example I did not use utiliz my conference last year was just no time to get away um but I did have it transferred for the for the heating of a school and because we were we sometimes Dr C and I just say well then take it and we give up you know our professional learning and I you know people may not think that that's important but it is for us to grow as well but we try to find other opportunities for us to do that um but contractually we we are obligated um to be able to do that work so that we keep updated um but it is in our administrators contracts strategic contracts certain things and sometimes they use it
034and sometimes like I know the it went up because there's more cyber security needs more work around that and that professional development has increased so a a lot of the um the smaller ones are contractual or like Mr lenan said based on inventory or like Dr carela said sometimes you know we have a placeholder because certain things are every other year not every year okay so I think that that's a little bit confusing though because if you so I'll just do another example wait before you go to on another example though you're saying that you initially said there were 785 items that increased that were under $1,000 correct but the item you just gave us was not under $1,000 unless you go back to FY 23 yeah I know if you're going back to FY
03523 you're not um you're not considering inflation over the last four years um well no I'm not looking at the one from from FC year 6110 in FY 25 is $1,426 that is above the ,000 mark you said there were 785 items listed as so I'm wondering if you're going back to FY 23 when it was 8927 but I don't want to go back and forth over stuff from four years ago because inflation has greatly increased since FY 23 we cannot live in the land of FY 23 any longer right well I so okay if you go to that was that wasn't the right example I think I read the wrong line item but the one for if you look at um 713 salary stien there's a stien in there for trainer and if you
036look at how much was the actuals for 2023 it was $65.79 the actuals for 2024 is $160 and then the S the 2025 goes up to 68859 and then for 2026 projected it's asking for it there's no change so it just shows a 0% from 25 to 26 and you you can see that on that's on page 17 16 or no 16 page 16 yep what was the line I'm tror so for example if you look at those just that cluster in general and you look at the actuals that were reported and then you look at the increases that were made for 2025 and 2026 though um I believe it those are based on the the PD so that uh the right to read different different trainers um science of reading so depending on where
037that that person is that money gets allocated based on the school that they're at are you thinking 713 is an athletic trainer no I'm just talking about so that's our science of reading so that was the required professional development from the state so we have to we have to code it this way based so you may see it yes much lighter in fy2 24 because it was maybe as many people or that the people that depending on the the school that they're at so Laura I know that you have as I can see her screen she's very diligent about going through this and um do you think it might be helpful to send a copy of the specific line items to Gina and Greg and then when we come back on March 11th we can
038talk about this again um and they can respond to you directly actually coming into the office I think is helpful because then you can get we can give go through every single item okay if if I get a list of every single item um I'll give you an answer to every item okay um so so that's just for those those items in particular that I was referring to um the other question that I had was about the fuel um that is showing a pretty significant increase for Heat and Fuel it it just says fuel only where are you that is on that is row number 6,1 37 u oil Charlestown and so it's if you look at Charlestown um Pope Valley and and Richmond yes so um typically that is for heating fuel for number
039two diesel um over the last couple years what you have done is a three-year rolling average and then cut into it and um I did not feel comfortable with your three-year rolling average formula and your increase so I did a three-year rolling average and increased it by 8% um you have not had a winter in four years January 11th through January 25th which is two weeks 14 days we spent $997,000 on heat and oil to heat our eight buildings that does not include ashway because ashway is natural gas that's for two weeks if we have two more cold weeks spend almost $200,000 out of your $640,000 budget on heat and oil in one month we typically run our boilers for 5 to six months out of the year you will run out of money if
040you have a cold winter and you continue the budget the way you have you can cut that but um that's I was not willing to put myself in a position where I had to come in front of this board and say we can't heat the buildings for um February March and April because it actually got cold we had a New England winter I just ask a followup question back Greg and I appreciate the context of the two weeks um 90,000 plus so I just paid that bill that's why I know it yes have a command of that number so for this fiscal year fiscal year 25 just for the context for those people that are in the uh in the audience and and live streaming so last year we budgeted 990,000 for that line item
041for fuel oil for Charlestown um you're projecting 999,000 do you have an actual number for where we are with some of these line items for fiscal year 25 are we running ahead behind um for some of the fuel oil fuel oil line items I could run a report and pull it um because of um the last two weeks I have um I've been waiting I wanted to see what our next bill was because we um we were not here for February vacation but it was very cold and we were running our furnaces and when it's that code a lot of times we have um lead lag which means one furn is run in once off but when it gets down to um below 12 10° and you have the wind blowing around here um you
042have both furnaces burning you can burn 90 um gallons of diesel in an hour when you're doing that thank you Laura did you have any others um I did the other ones that I was looking at was the custodians um I noticed that there is an increase in the in in the line items for it's actually there's for Charlestown you can look at that one just as an example um I believe it was also at the middle school as well um and the and so what it looked like to me is that maybe we added a custodian no no um keep in mind we we um starting on July first we changed our price index for our custodians um they will be making star $20 an hour so that is a increase and if we
043are fully staffed you're going to um that is where you're going to see some of that course of those increases that you gave um with that oneye agreement to your non-certified staff we also saw reduction that that same there's a reduction in the um vendors because we were using a service so we actually saw the reduction in another line that covered also the increase that you saw in that line okay cuz in 202 24 the actuals for the custodians for Charlestown Elementary was 600 was 67,0 138 and then the projected for 2026 is 142,000 if you recall we had 11 vacancies we're down to five five it's we hired staff well that's what I but I thought they did you say we didn't hire somebody or was because we you asked if there were new
044positions added there was nothing added there's no new positions we're filling positions okay we're significantly under staffed okay so we added more res we didn't add positions we we have filled positions okay so with that is there when you look at the if you filled positions there and so now you have more payroll correct yes um I think we're just talking different languages wait what a reduction in the line of the services so we had a contract for we were paying almost $30 an hour plus for a contract service so that line I don't know that one I'm going to ask my budget friends if they know that one there was a reduction in that line so as we fill positions we're still budgeting for people that they're not here because we need them I
045mean you the overtime list alone last year was incredible so I I guess my question is is that if you if you're adding if you're able to sorry not adding but if you're filling positions at a particular school then wouldn't would it would it seem rational to to De to decrease the overtime because now you would have more people that are available to to work it's not I well if you told me tomorrow that all the positions would be filled and they will stay filled for the year and it's not going too snow right and we're not going to necessarily open up all the facilities to everybody we'll we'll you know we hold back I mean we open it up to all of the um those at request so all of that comes with impact
046Karen so overtime covers more than just filling in spots it covers snow like shoveling at correct Richmond and ashway even during the it covers when our pipe burst because our system we have to clean it up there's a sporting event or an we've had two weeks in a row where we've had nothing but emergencies and and breakages they've been working to fix as fast as they can it's not just overtime no but I mean hope would be that we would lose it but right now unfortunately while we're seeing more um people being hired uh we're looking for that stability to happen before we can say for sure Jess so while we're on the topic of the salary overtime it's line 699 in the 56 page budget but that was something I'd also asked Gina about
047with the same reasoning um if we had increased the hourly rate we would hope that the overtime go down we've already filled half the vacancies we had um one of the things I was hoping to discuss further would be a 50,000 de $50,000 decrease to that line item like it would bring us back to the FY 23 um but in line with um are you okay if I talk more about other things um so at the previous meeting I mentioned that I don't want to level fund the budget that's not in um my goals personally um I I think that I was more comfortable with closing Hope Valley when I thought we could have a long-term strateg vision of three new elementary schools to house all of our students now with the future of the
048elementary schools uncertain and that process still underway I'm I'm not in a big rush to close Hope Valley despite some of the pros that doing that would would have I think that um the Ripple effects across the district are very large especially for Richmond Elementary School which would take over hundred of those kids Charles Char Charlestown Elementary would take on 100 of the preschool students so really that's not my goal for this year um I'd like to work on the elementary school plan more separate from the budget which I know is happening um but my number one goal I don't know if you could pull up the onepage budget sheet but I think that would be helpful for folks to see um what the overall the local increase sorry what the one page budget be
049too small oh okay but it is online it's online but so the the average overall local increase is 2.67% which equals comes out to 0.62 in char Char lown 3.72 in Richmond and 3.25 in hopkington as we all know the municipal budget cap is 4% so my goal with any reductions would be to get Richmond down a percentage point which according to math that we've done um is about $400,000 cut from the overall budget so a reduction in the salary overtime the overtime line was one of the things I was interested in um reducing the fund balance to 2% The Hope Valley Capital because well I I don't think that um it would be in the best interest to shut the school out right this year I do believe that it will close eventually as
050far as consolidation will help overall um and then the World Language position or a cut there for 100,000 which comes out to 45,49 so are you making a motion just to no not yet no motions just discussion can you repeat yourself y I'm not sure if I understand your math please okay so reduce the fund balance to 2% which would be 16,45 hope belly Capital 95,000 reduce line 699 overtime reduce it by 50,000 okay um the World Language position that's in the second column of the sheet of 100,000 if you keep Hope Valley open you have to continue to maintain it capital yeah you is is that so maintenance and utilities is 195,000 capital my understanding is that's Capital Improvements for um do you have to include Hope Valley in the fiveyear capital Improvement plan
051or if it's open if it's open if it's open you do okay yeah and you won't get reimbursed because we're phasing out so you only will have to pay every single dollar because R would want us to ensure that we're going to put their Capital dollars for the reimbursement for TW at least 20 years so every time we don't we have to pay dollar for dollar so if we're doing Capital Improvements on a building that we plan to close say it again if we're doing Capital Improvements on a building that we plan to close I have to make sure that it's then you would not get the reimbursements from r no you would have gotten them if the bond passing we were using as a swing space because R allows you to use the money
052for swing space face they don't allow you to phase out and use the reimbursement to then close it's why you've done no improvements on your home schools while you were deciding whether or not new buildings were going to be built right so you if you spend a half million and ride reimburses us 300,000 the following year if you spend a half million dollars and then you close the school whatever that half million dollars went to the school that was closed you will not be reimbursed vered on right does that apply for the money we spend on the applications applications for stage one and Stage those are required required so you get reimbursed right right okay but I just want to say um I would not advise a decrease in the fund balance so again you
053can do what you want but based on our current stance with our older elementary schools that are continuing to have agac issues I do think that that is something that should not be touched especially after our audit conversations uh regarding our fund balance so I I would be opposed to that but again that's up to the committee and is regarding the salary overtime I think well I'm I'm very happy and that we've increased we have not had consistency with our with our staffing there yet and we have we have an additional request coming forward around Cho Cowboys we may not get the custodian I told you we may not need a Hope Valley if the committee decides that we want more people using the fields I'm going to need a field and maintenance person so
054there there's things that have to happen so I just need there are certain items like salary overtime if you look across years it's pretty much what it is like we're not that there's no padding there this is exactly what we've spent um and while we have still positions open we've reduced the line from the contracted services so while this looks like an increase it came from a different line so it's that's a that's just that that feels like the the healthare you know we gambled and it didn't pay off and again you can gamble and maybe it will but I'm just I would caution Linda um Jess I appreciate your recommendations um I'm a little concerned about cutting the World Language teacher um I know that the classes are small now but it might be
055a little shortsighted we are that's going to be one of our graduation right um requirements and so if we lose a World Language teacher we may never get one back and I just I'm because they're not graduating World language teachers and they're hard to find now so I would just I don't I know that some of the classes are small at this point in time I don't know if that's going to change for next year um but I just feel that might be a little shortsighted but that's just my opinion so part of our intention of scheduling this additional budget Workshop tonight was to um coales our discussion around um how we were going to attack this budget without waiting until the very last moment uh on March 11th so I'll just put that out
056there Jess um I can understand that but the public budget hearing is usually a pretty big time for public feedback I think that's part of the reason that people wait um so I just want to add that to the discussion as well Linda I just have another comment um I I know that there have been committee members that of uh floated the idea of having um a flat budget uh level funding I I honestly don't know how we would get there without closing Hope Valley and I I just don't I don't know where we would cut that kind of money to get to a level funded budget that's just my my thought Laura um I I agree with I agree with you on that because I think that you know what I started to notice
057about what's happening at Hope Valley is when we you know at this point if what the kids are being affected by what's going on there and I think that that's really doing a disservice to them you know the fact that the elementary school kids at Hope Valley don't have the high sea program I mean that's you know that's not something that should be happening right now and if ashway doesn't have it either ashway doesn't have it either they don't have neither one of them have Librarians and it's impacted the middle school because they're missing part of a librarian library media Specialists are very difficult to find uh we have been attempting all year as at every other District there's actually legislation to mandate everybody has a library teacher but nobody can find them uh we
058had I had an interview schedule last week for a librarian and they um they turned it down to take a job closer to home um so I I just want to be clear that everything that happens at Hope Valley happens at every school no nothing on on the district end has been taken away from Hope Valley and I want I just want to be clear about that because the reason why there's no high seek in high SE was very a very small number of kids at both H Valley and ashway and regardless they both are missing out on that right now um it's it was it's a it's a great opportunity when the librarian brings down during those three periods and they do some research projects and and Elevate some of that work um but
059unfortunately I just want don't people people to think that we're pulling resources from Hope Valley because it's closing that is not true no I wasn't saying that we're pulling resources from there I'm saying that as the as the the grades get smaller it would it just seems to me like it would make more sense we have you know three other elementary schools outside of Hope Valley that are extremely high performing schools within our state and you know I just think that it would be one of those situations where if they could go to Charlestown elementary school then they would have that program there and you know that should be encouraged in my opinion I I think you're going to have a very hard time fing a librarian position or a school nurse when um anyone
060who's applying for those positions is going to Google Charo and see that um the school that they are most likely going to be filling the position in or they're going to be the low person um last hired first fired they're not going to take the job they're going to apply get the experience for the interview and then they're going to apply somewhere else and get hired so I don't you I don't see the those positions filling as long as you have um the Clos in the Hulk Valley over your head that's a good point so is from what I'm hearing are we prepared to make a decision tonight about Hope Valley for fiscal year 26 Craig someone just alluded uh sh a while ago about uh they want to hear uh the dfm next week
061but we have taxpayers right here right now and I'm more than willing to listen to every single one of them I was going to get to that as soon as the committee didn't have any questions is there anybody from the community that would like to weigh in on this or any topic Helen please come up thank you alen Chan Richmond I kept hearing the word contractual tonight so when it comes time to renegotiate contracts perhaps the uh continuing education that the teachers have could be at their own expense but people who work in the rest of the world that's usually what happens also increasing the co-pay amounts for teachers to pay with their health insurance would also be something to consider because in the rest of the world um the employees pay a larger amount
062toward the cost of the health insurance um there's I keep hearing the word mandated or the law on new curriculum um I think we might want to consider getting a waiver on some of those things also for most companies every so many years they go through and look at who is in middle management and they look to see whom they could do without um I also have concerns about closing uh Hope Valley because I know there is a development a Housing Development going up in that area so what will happen when we have an influx of 200 more children now we'll have to build another school so I would rather see us make Cuts everywhere and keep Hope Valley open no matter who you are people work on budgets people in their homes work on
063budgets and these days people just think oh I'm just going to keep borrowing until I get old then I have to sell my house and go to senior housing because I've kept refinancing to live for more than I make so and government is in that trouble too and you know I've heard it said that people don't really own their houses they just kind of rent it until they run out of money to pay the taxes that go up every year so the security of owning a home and being able to stay there only happens for people who either are really good at saving or have some other good thing happen I would like to see every part of government look for ways to cut their expenses to um consider what it costs people to live
064thank you thank you Helen anyone else from the community like to say something Mr Cardoza that's you right welcome talk right into that microphone so we can hear you and anyone streaming can hear you as well Bob cardoo Richmond I sat on this committee for a while down for 20 OD years I'd just like to make the following observations this is not a line item budget we don't but it's not like the town it's a bottom line budget and the bottom Line's too big it's your job to to fix it that's that's the end of it how you do it is up to you it's not up to us we vote on the bottom line regarding the fund balance I asked um where the transfer was coming from was going to didn't know didn't care
065where it was coming from but over the past bunch of years your your uh transfers they amount to about a million bucks a year that's a real number and instead of putting it somewhere else why don't just take it in the reserve account for the fund balance and we wouldn't go through oh we have to fix the fund balance it will self fix on the money that you've budgeted that you don't spend and that's an easy fix somebody just has to make motion and in 20 years nobody has why I don't know thank you thank you Linda isn't that what we do what money no The Bu the money that's left over money goes back into the budget of the towns okay oh Bob come on come on back up if you want to comment
066I'm sorry I guess it goes back into the school section of the Charo budget that in the town allocation yes it does you just transferred where did the money come from for this one let me be clear only because at a time I'm going to finish what I president being very rude in this in the auditorium I'm trying not to be be very rude not you Mr cardo are behind you apologize when we're making a transfer in the budget we're taking it out of an account that no longer needs the money that's why you're taking it out of it it's a surplus in that account that's where it comes from so instead of putting it in another place that you hadn't that you need it now you have to tighten your belt but that money
067that you don't use goes into your Reserve account and then we don't have the issue every year what are we going to do with a reserve account 20 years ago when we talked about it we got into the law big numbers we're in the big numbers now we're at 60 million 2% is 1.2 that's a lot of money right now the towns can't afford it that was my point thank you I just wanted to clarify we have three budgets for the Cho school department so the ch has money from hmond hopkington and Charlestown as a Regional School District any money that is not spent gets put back into those three towns for the Cho school budget for the following year it does not go back to the towns it goes back to the towns through
068the school budget through this budget just want to clarify thank you yes ma'am I'm Denon fle grade three teacher at Hope allei School welcome I have a lot of concerns about closing the school but one of my major concerns is class size um all the studies I've I have read about class size the ratio of teacher to student says that the lower the class size the better the test results so I just wanted to put that out there because most of the classes if we do close Hope Valley school and consolidate there'll be over 20 students in each class um and to me I think that's that may be too much and it may affects affect schooles in the L one thank you thank you for your feedback so did everyone have a chance and
069um to the to the teacher that just came forward to give us that feedback um there was a slide that the superintendent put up about um how classes would be impacted at each school and I if I'm just reading this across the board um Richmond class sizes it looks like would be 20 or 21 Charlestown would be 1920 grade three class size 23 ashway um grades grade two would be um class size 24 17 and 22 so there would be some instances where some of those class sizes would increase over 20 but there would be some instances that they would not so I just okay so her comment was she has concerns about new houses coming in yes sir please come on up your name and uh your town that you reside please my name
070is Bill Prince I'm from Hoppington uh I'm retired I'm going to give a different perspective because I spent much of my career outside of Rhode Island I grew up in South Kingstown in West Kingston to be specific I understand there consternation about closing a school however in my career in South Kingstown I started Elementary School kindergarten and Kingston Hill it was about a 25 to 30 minute bus ride it was it just was uh to address class siiz things my teacher would my wife was a teacher in Virginia the last year she taught it was 6 students in her class and every single one of her students pass the state mandated tests so while I understand there is research ma uh it can be done I don't see if you're going to even come close
071to level funding this budget which there is a large percentage of people that apparently want that I want to see a small increase I don't see we need a huge increase but I think the way to get there is taking and ripping the Band-Aid off and closing Hope Valley school I know that's not a popular decision but as the gentleman that says it's your job you people need to take the tough actions and it's going to be very difficult on the superintendent when you can't make decisions and get the people in line and understanding that it's either this or this and that this is a big tax increase so thank you thank you sir did you have something to say come on up thank you Jasmine from hopkington um first off I would like to
072comment on etiquette and I have seen some school committee members surfing the web while uh we're discussing budget items on their laptops which is not very encouraging but um my other comment is you know closing Hope Valley is the way that you guys would like to go with the budget um what happens to the teachers are they are they spread throughout District or they do they lose their jobs like what what what is where's security for them that's that's the one concern I have because they have dedicated a lot of their years and time to this district and if they are going to be closing or phasing out you know are they going to jump ship because they know that the ship is sinking are they going to be placed in different Charlestown or Richmond
073or ashway schools um you know just that's that's my concern because the teachers are important and uh yeah so that's my question and comment yes thank you I agree with you the teachers are very important they're they're our best investment um if you will so one of the um one they have to follow the contract based on the number of openings and closings while we are would we be cutting certain positions and based on retirements coming up everyone would land in a position so but the way that happens is based on their contract so currently the contract has it what they call PS score it's based on seniority professional experience and their evaluation scores they um get the jobs from the HR department that are that are vacant across the district um so everyone who's
074retired or left their position for the year and then those teachers across the district um not just hope Valley teachers any teachers will bid and there's a little bit of a shift that happens every year um and but there is a position for everyone now it may not be the same grade that they're in but there's a position thank you P so as these people retire like this is current information so what happens if the longer we keep Hope Valley open those retirement positions could be filled by someone else someone's retiring you're saying you have it's it's an attrition right like right now they're calling H this is the time of the year they start to call again because they have to wait for six months with retirement for their appointments right so then you
075know we start hearing some Whispers I think I may we know of um possibly two more uh but they're going for their appointments and then we'll have some confirmation around April and then to May and then usually by that June time uh it starts to roll in typically we've had like none at this time and then by the end of the year I'm giving recognition to 10 to 15 um individuals so and we know um Miss Merritt knows who's going to the appointments and she and who's who's reaching out to her for certain information but the concern when you keep and again my budget has Hope Valley in it but but to everyone's point when you keep it open positions like a library media that are very small and there's not a lot of those
076positions those become harder to fill because there's not a lot of places to land yeah but what I'm saying is with attrition because I've been through this with attrition when the job when someone retires it's frozen we don't go outside looking to hire so that job is frozen correct so that you have a spot for this person to land so it could be frozen for how however long you keep Hope Valley open right so for example we've in the numbers like when we did non-renewals last month um to make sure everyone has that position those individuals that we reive those letters because they're they're covering for leave of absences they're giving that notice because we have to ensure we have enough um positions for everyone if they choose to come back right so so you're
077all right so your these positions are frozen retirees because you are your expectation is you're going to have to have slots for these Hope Valley teachers to slide into so in the meantime while this is frozen you're going to have to hire Subs to cover these classes no no we have we have the stat so for example like some of the um Subs last year got positions when people people retired so we have not had any issues here with General classroom teachers our our concerns have been around with longstanding um library media science or math positions that are hard to fail World Language like Miss Lyle said those are very once you lose those teachers they're very hard to find I'm not sure but if I'm following you correctly you're saying that if Hope Valley
078stays open and as people retire we're just going to freeze those positions and wait and see what happens oh and that's not we're so if Hope Valley stays open and three teachers retire and we have three positions open we need to fill those positions correct correct I'm sorry we will fill them right so they won't be AA you'll have to wait for the next cycle right yes retirements correct yes sorry like I know we have a lot of our our a lot of our teachers at TOP Step actually interestingly enough we found out that we are one of the districts that have the least amount we do have about 70% but a lot of districts were at the 90s so we thought we were high until we did that some of that research as we
079prepare 70% is not low though it's not low but we thought we were one of the high ones if we were not so what I'm saying is so um so you would have to look at over the next three years how many people would be eligible to retire you're going to eventually have to have slots open we we know we will right now with the Social Security change that impacted some more people to go look into retiring sooner um however but then with the pension Shi uh shift that kept people here longer and really it's about people's own individual circumstances sometimes so but we know we we have uh Christ has an idea of sort of who's ready on track and typically around may we have a good understanding about how many will be be
080coming the letters like today I got a leave of absence for next year they start to come in Pat is that is that clear yeah it's it's it's kind of like a crapshoot with what I went through was when we we had to do attrition and downsizing when people retired we didn't replace those jobs we had part-time people fill them or temporary people fill those jobs um until we got down to the numbers where you know and then of course you know with the post office we we did a massive um buyout to get out early this is back in the 80s we done that as well so if you think about so the impact for the nurse even though we're cutting a nurse we won't impact anyone because we have a resignation so that
081that that's sort of like a a neutral wash all of our special Educators we still need all them because our students are still going to other schools that need those services so those are going to be reallocated based on with so those are district so our special educators are district teachers only our classroom teachers are specific to the building everybody else is a district employee and will be moved um per the district's allocation of resources so that means you're looking at the two first grade teachers the two second grade teachers the two third grade teachers and the two fourth grade teachers and we're opening up two fourth grades at Richmond two third so we all of these positions the kids aren't going away we have the we need them to to go take those positions
082like we have the enrollment in fourth grade is a little bit higher than the other grades so we know know at Richmond we already had to roll up one because they they have uh more third graders there as well so we already know there's two positions open that will be open at Richmond I think for fourth grade and we have two cuts well there would be two teachers leaving I can't say that there's nobody else in this that wants a fourth grade because it would be open based on their contract so I just have a p is that good okay I just have a general question I guess for for Gina and Greg um and I know that we have some Town Council Members here tonight from hopkington um so Jess mentioned earlier and I'm
083looking at the onepage budget proposed for fiscal year 26 so if this budget stays as is Richmond is looking at a 3.7% increase if the budget stays as is hopkington is looking at a 3.2 24% increase the towns as far as I know have not yet considered their Town budget evaluations um Richmond was meeting tonight their finance committee was meeting tonight to start the fiscal year 26 budget process I'm assuming it's a similar timeline for Hopkinson you're in the middle of it okay so for example if Hopkinson comes back with a 3% budget increase that's proposed and Richmond comes back with a 2% or 3% budget increase isn't there a 4% cap on what can be proposed for well Sharon go ahead you know Sharon Davis talk Sharon you know we only have 20% left
084right and we have uh all of a lot of our um unions are in the process of renot negotiating so and we need equipment and so to just say oh just be happy with 3% point plus whatever I'm not happy didn't say I didn't say that I'm not accepting I'm I'm looking for you guys to do better that's all I'm going to say thank you that wasn't my point but I appreciate you the sentiment thank you Tyler I just kind of want to address what you're said what you're speaking about Louise a little bit you have to remember it's relative to size right that the town budget for hopkington is what $2 million $3 million what's your budget without the school no your budget can't be 20,000 you can't pay your DPW and you police
08520 million total 20 million total so it's relative to size that increas is relative to size based on their budget versus our budget budget is half 50% where for us it's 80 there's a big difference and what we can do with the rest of so I have a question for for for I have Gina maybe Greg I'm not sure um is there any type I've never seen the leas for Hope alley school I'm assuming we have one with the town right we do is there is there any type of termination Clause Is there any type of notification has to be given to the town Etc yeah I mean basically we turn the back the and I actually talked to Andrew mcqu because he did this with the 1904 building he was on the committee then
086um we just set up the dates and times but you as long as you know same thing the condition I can show I can share the lead with everyone but um actually miss Den walked a hope rally today see the excellent condition that hope Rally's in we make it look good but a lot of the issues are in the walls which I've said people you know things that you can't see that's what's breaking down okay so we send them a dollar for each School each year so if we don't send them the check we're breaking out leas it looks right I mean you've looked at the ashway lease because we're redoing it for the 1904 building so it's Act pretty much identical to that all right so with that being said Madam chair if I
087can continue yes Tyler go ahead um I have to agree with Mr Cardoza here um this isn't going to be a nickel and dime budget we've tried that I've tried that personally Laura I've done what you are trying to do it didn't work um it seems like it should but it doesn't um just doesn't make any sense I've been there I've done it um with that being said this is this is a budget of of what I'm going to call low hanging fruit at fruit at this moment U there was a there was a statistic given last year during one of the presentations that contractually we have we need I think the number was 44 Elementary School classrooms based on contract class size if we maxed out class sizes in the elementary school we had
08853 we need 44 if we maxed out class size is we could go to 44 I believe that was your math Yes actually if we go back there's a recording where you gave that number I wrote it on top of my budget book last year um so we here's here's the option right here here's the option and and trust me this is going to be wildly unpopular which is why I'm going to say it because quite honestly I think I'm wildly unpopular with some people right now anyway um we could cut nine educator positions out of this budget right now and be done and walk away and have a budget that we could you know put forth I don't think that's the way to go um we also need to realize that once we take
089Hope Valley out it's gone I can 110% guarantee the town's not giving it back so when hope valy is gone Hope Valley is gone with that being said Madame chair I'm going to make a motion to close Hope Valley School in FY 26 second okay we have a motion and a second discussion among the members members Jess we're missing two members from hington right now I don't advise voting on a motion without half of the representation from that town Madam chair yes this was a publicly announced meeting we have a quorum we're abiding to the law I mean it was choice of these individuals to be here or not the motion could still get shot down correct oh let's if you if you have a comment just come up to the microphone when I acknowledge
090thank you so we have a motion in a second is there any other discussion among the committee Larry I don't know if you can do it tonight could you show what this budget would look like if you removed every single light item that says HV on it HV meaning Hope Valley yes do that and see what the number is well I don't think you would necessarily want to do that because some of those numbers that are associated with Hope Valley would have to go to the other schools stud transfer so the number we put up there well if fuel wouldn't be going to any other schools so Larry the number that was put up there was back in October I believe my first meeting there was a detailed um list given of what would be
091deducted such as heat and oil such as trash removal um and then there were things that would not be reducted such as um school supply sh on the budget anymore if you CL sell the school that's what I'm saying that money could be allocated to but that that's in that in the presentation that's that part of that $195,000 so you all you have to do is subtract $195,000 for right now p a fuel oil for whole value is at 160 so that means you only did like $34,000 worth of maintenance on in this whole budget is the rest is 34,000 no so I I think Larry's Point also is is there anything else that's coded as Hope Valley that is not part of the $875,000 in potential reductions as a result of closing the school
092there are other items but they're attached to children so we still have the kids and their resources need to they will be moving with them so what we pulled out are absolute what we know we can see right okay fine is that satisf to you Larry 48 okay um Tyler so Larry just a quick correction the fuel oil for Hope Valley is only 40 is 53 um not 160 I think you're looking at the middle school or the high school uh High School is60 875 6141 right 6139 oh 39 okay it's 53 625 for FY 26 okay umong so though Larry those numbers will run more than once yep when before that report was submitted to you yeah Jess and then Tyler Tyler can continue okay that's fine all right no all all I was
093gonna ask is is Greg the number that superintendent Bard gave us the 875 you can run that through the onepage budget summary and give us updated totals quickly correct yes yes if you want to just take the $875,000 I can have that's what that's what we're looking at right now Kathy are you putting that in right now minut recess so you have other questions while we look so let let's ask Jess let's let them do that and try to go through this y so Jess if you want to ask your question and then um we'll have Jasmine um in um address her question and then we'll take a a short well I'll motion for ask for a motion for a short recess Jess um regarding the library librarian at H Valley in ashway if we
094keep H valy open and there's three classrooms there and there's the two tracks for each grade at ashway would it be possible for them to share a librarian the librarian at uh Hope Valley already is shared with the middle school so they're missing part of theirs as well so we already had that they don't um because of the size they all don't have full-time Librarians okay but so either way you would still need the same amount of librarians like because if you right now there's legislation to mandate Librarians and uh we're looking to do more what uh ewg has done to uh with the literacy teacher teaches the library curriculum and then supports as a reading specialist okay but but so you already have well know you have that's still two positions so even if
095the middle school had a fulltime and then the ashway and hobell had one that they split that's still two positions it's still the same amount it's two positions correct the one wa there's two but the one at hobell is at also at the middle school okay and then I I know You' shared the numbers for um the the revised numbers if kids are moving hope is closing but I'm curious which classes would be impacted as far as that work classrooms so music art PT OT which classrooms that are not dedicated to a grade would still be available if we're moving the kids and we're closing whole valley would there still be a separate art music classroom that depend school to school right and it actually depends and and also when for example if if all
096the parents decide to go to the assign school um it's going to be based on the selection so if they okay I'm closer to Richmond I'm going to Richmond then I I can tell you because we've already done the we have all the rooms um mapped out with Mrs Martin but if um they decide well I'd like to go to Charlestown that's that's that's a different um look Mr Z and the principles have all mapped out every classroom some um right now I'm not aware unless anything on a cart yet I don't know but I know we we have a lot of shared spaces already um but I know um Charlestown has two options one would um condense their music and art into one room to move her um self-contained classroom into um what is
097currently the music room the other option would um have them in separate rooms but not um the music room would not be its current room and in Richmond um she wants to meet with her school Improvement team to walk through the building and um have their input into um where she thinks she would want classrooms to be for example with their additional fourth grade classrooms at Richmond she would like fourth grade to stay upstairs because um Richmond has a very long tradition um of um fourth graders having lockers it's like a wrer passage in that school so they don't want to um for example if you were to move fourth grade downstairs or to a different level there are not lockers so she she would potentially move two rooms to make sure that all fourth
098grade all the fourth graders that are richmen are in the new um in that area that have lockers so that tradition that has been for many years enrichment doesn't have to change right and to Ty's point when we talked about the enrollment and and the math because we did it by contract size we took the contract just to clarify and we divided the number of students by the maximum capacity in the contract um which is not ideal and I'm not I'm just explaining it then that's why I made the point and that's why I made the point but but I that's how he we come up with the number we just took the contract size correct and then we divided by the number of teachers we would need and so he's not wrong um we
099need we would need less if we want to go to Max class size and I don't know that's what you're saying but that's what could happen yeah um but to your point Jess right now the classrooms exist it's just like you said they don't look like the designs of the classrooms you know that we all you know were hoping for I get that but they're what a lot of them already doing it's not perfect um but shared spaces are something that a lot of schools do um our enrollment I mean we've spread out a lot throughout the building so people have gotten comfortable with Extra Spaces that won't exist and but the capacity in the may I Bor this yes the capacity in the um so we you know you have the school capacities it's
100based on the ride requirements for school classroom sizes and um while I understand and listen as a teacher and principal you the space is a commodity always is but actually have any my reading glasses so hold on um so for example oh actually this is the old one sorry they I just want to make sure the updated one is online too in case anybody wants it but the enrollment capacity at Richmond is 532 so we would be at 472 so yeah it's going to feel like more like when people say to me well you know why does the Hope Valley bus ride seem shorter because there's nobody on the bus and drill and I were there this afternoon they're half empty where Richmond isn't empty and there's more kids on the bus um so you're
101going to have increasing class sizes all those spaces where we could spread out and do some more things you you know and Mrs M did a beautiful you know Wellness area and I get it but we have to make sure our classrooms exist first and um I know this is a difficult decision we are have a lot of needs across the district around um HVAC especially with all the heating we're we've been working on those but in the end you know this is a a plan that the school committee has to let us know there's only so much money we we we understand that and you make decisions and I right now it seems like some of you um are not completely there yet and I get it um but I do the buildings can
102hold that enrollment capacity do we have an idea of how many more buses would be going to Richmond with 100 well there's 70 students to a bus and then yeah so you be maybe maybe a bus and a half depending on where they live too because sometimes we can't get up in certain area so if I have to add the Mini Bus things like that but there's more kids on buses at Richmond Charlestown and ashway so the bus rides for those schools are longer than the bus rides at Hope Ry because you only have there's 128 kids on the bus and that all of them and out of the 128 there's probably 40 of them that get picked up so you're talking about 80 K like you were talking about kids you know we have
103free buses for about 70 kids there if you go buy them they're empty in the afternoon hold on one second so there's not going to be a net increase increase in the to the transportation line because we're talking about the same number of kids but just in different spaces not fa on this however oh boy if the committee decides to do some you know adding bus because there there was a bus cut last year um and there was some concerns about that and I get it but any if you if we do this we won't have it but if you add a bus because of a situation then you do so based on this no we've already included that thank you for that explanation so Greg did did you want to announce your numbers and
104then I'm sorry I told um Miss Roy that she could speak so just give me one moment and then uh Jasmine if you'd like to comment yes I would uh I appreciate the fact that it was brought up that the two Hopkinson members are not here and I'm unsure as to why Miss Hopkins is not here but Diane teft is my mother and she had major dental surgery so that was this afternoon so I don't know if she needed to bring in a sick note for that to qualify as to why she's not here but um it was unavoidable so I do appreciate it being brought up that they were not here to be participants in that vote but I just wanted to clarify that you know she did know the meeting was happening and
105she did try to attend but unfortunately she's at home right now with intense painkillers and you know stitches in her mouth so just to thank thank you okay Greg so if um you take the 800 if you close Hope Valley and you take the $875,000 and reduce it to the budget um the percentage increase for um each town after state aid would be Charles toown would be negative 1.04% Richmond would be 1.62% Hopkin would be 1.1% and your overall budget increase would be a 68% all those numbers are well below um current inflation rates in New England and the country is there any other discussion but thank you is there is there any way we can share that onepage budget spreadsheet I know we've put it up there in the past I would I would
106like to see and follow the math through please before we take a vote okay is that possible oh yeah yeah sure we're gon blow it up some more can everybody see that or do we need it's the contrast can we shut the light so the members of the community can see that no that's better that's better better Mike's going to turn the light off soop yeah I think so that's that weally the bottom right Tyler correct you need the bottom right so we blow that one up is that better people see that's perfect thank you can you I have a i bear with me speaking I'm sorry Tyler yeah sorry go ahead speaking out loud Tyler are you checking the math no I no I was just looking at something good well that's your expertise
107so was there a can I can I ask a a clarifying question quickly Greg Gina this is probably for you guys oh it's 100% for you guys was there an update so I know I see there's an updated uh uh there was an updated budget one pager that came out on what the 28th yeah we had one every meeting so you so state aid has changed yes yeah because um correct the poverty stabilization numbers uh were not included and the prek they counted them as full and they were haed y okay that was across the state they every District was asked to recalculate and they they're going to calculate for us next month okay are we good with the numbers can we put the lights up at this point thank you okay so we have
108a motion on the floor second it no we we had a motion in a second already is there any other discussion on the members uh on the part of the members of the committee about uh closing Hope Valley Elementary School uh after um uh after this fiscal this fiscal year at the end of this fiscal year so no more discussion okay Larry oh the 875 but that ain't include including the I guess the fund balance in the8 feet Capital right that's not including that no the only thing in this number was Hope Valley so there's still on that sheet a school committee request we have Miss Chapman's World Language we have Miss pel's fund balance request and we have U the nas visit and the uh so nobody made anything regarding those items we only
109did the motion which was Hope Valley so just for edification for maybe Larry's part um and I I don't mean to belabor this but there would be $875,000 in reductions as a result of the closing of Hope Valley that would include busing 85,000 Hope Valley Maintenance and utilities 195,000 um two Hope Valley grade one teachers Savings of 200,000 Hope Valley cut one grade two teacher 100,000 a nurse which there's an opening right now 100,000 custodial 60,000 and one ta 40,000 cumulatively that totals 875,000 so those are the cumulative reductions if Hope Valley is um closed and we make no other there's no other increases that occur correct so that's that's what's on the table right now so we have a motion and a second all those in favor okay so um and then all those
110opposed is Jess and it doesn't look like there's any abstentions or recusals okay okay um motion passes that was difficult um okay um are there any other is there any other discussion regarding is there any other discussion regarding any other line items for this budget to discuss Jess I'd like to add a bus back may or I'd like to consider that I think that we've seen how busing has been an issue we've cut busing and now that we have we have right now we have three buses at Hope valy because of of the of the routing so what I um let me talk to Michelle okay and get some more information about because I know I know I'm thinking the same thing but I I we did I Michelle and I spoke before we gave
111you the numbers about Hope Valley and I do think we'll be fine okay but I I know it's because of the I know with the so not a motion but let's can we can you consider that and come back to us with some more information you guys can still make changes onto March 11 right because I know based on other things that are coming up with facilities you you may be increasing maintenance or field right so I want to make okay careful GRE did you have something yeah Madam chair so we have uh we have to forward this to the taxpayers uh and vote on on the night of the 11th uh so we have two more bites at the Apple of uctions that's correct yes thank you March 4th we make we can make
112Cuts Mar March 4th if we want right Ty I've never seen it happen I'm sure you can Larry no so we have one more we have one more bu at the app it says no votes will be taken on that budget right and in the warrant it does say no votes will we can't vote at that meeting wait can you clarify what was just s um go ahead so um in the warrant for the d The District Financial meeting that occurs on March 4th that our big annual meeting where we have 25 from every town uh per the warrant it's specifically said that we will not take any votes on the FY 26 budget so we that that's in the warrant so I can't change that now because we've already done that um but you
113can make uh changes on March 11 11th yes so before we adjourn we could make other changes okay yes sir your name in town Greg Abid from hington um I I'd like to thank you Tyler for finally bringing this issue to the table it's been a long time coming I know it was difficult um and I don't take any joy in seeing the school close none of us do but but the decision had to be made whether it was to keep it open or or to close it and it it this is a topic that or decision that should have been made months ago um so I thank you and the rest of the committee for fining doing something about this thank you I think yeah it's not it's not easy Tyler did you have
114a comment okay um seeing no other hands raised can I entertain a motion to make a motion to adjourn do I have a second second second by Larry all those in favor I unanimous I I we got 22 more minutes I'm just