001we can get started with the meeting I'm going to call the meeting to order please good evening everybody my name is Mark Reynolds I am the moderator for the town of Richmond and I'll be facilitating the meeting tonight would everyone please stand and salute the flag and then remain standing for a moment of silence foreign thank you first thing I want to do is just point out the fire exits to everybody there's an exit on each side of the room and also note there are exits at the back of the room that might be closer to you than the exit that you uh that you came in all aisle ways need to remain clear during the meeting we have a quorum tonight we have 55 uh registered voters from Richmond and we have more than
00225 from Hopkinton in Charlestown they stopped counting after they made their Quorum number so we don't have an exact count for those two towns but we do have a quorum everyone who wants to speak tonight will have an opportunity to do so no one person's statement is any more important than anybody else's so please treat the speakers with courtesy and respect even though people may have differing opinions we can disagree without being disagreeable the other thing is to keep in mind is you must be a registered voter to speak so you would have checked in um with your respective Town Clerk and board of canvassers I'm going to ask you to please limit your comments uh to about three minutes if you're still speaking after three minutes I'll let you know that and ask you
003to please sum up what we'll do is we'll go around the room one time give everybody a chance who wants to speak a chance to speak and once we've gone around one time we'll go around the second time so people have a second opportunity to speak if they if they so choose if you want to speak you raise your hand and once I recognize you you must come down to the microphone here in front approach the microphone and speak so everyone can hear you you need to state your name and your town of residence for the record because we are keeping a minutes of this meeting recording what is said by anyone who makes a comment this is uh this is a public hearing the school committee will take your comments uh regarding the budget
004into consideration so your comments must relate to the school budget no emotions or voting on the budget will take place during this meeting the budget will be voted on at an all-day referendum on April 4th 2023. so for the first uh item on our agenda I'd ask for a motion to waive the reading of the Warren is there a second all those in favor of waving the reading of the warrant say aye anybody opposed say no the eyes have it the motion passes next is the minutes of the annual meeting on March 1st 2022 can I get a motion to waive the reading of those minutes and a second by Mr Luzon all those in favor of waiving the reading of the minute say aye aye anybody opposed say no the eyes have it the
005motion passes all right at this time I'd like to recognize uh Catherine giusti the chair of the school committee who's going to introduce the school committee members and administrators who are up here at the on the stage and she's going to make a brief presentation concerning the budget full committee Tyler champion from Richmond Donna Chambers from Charlestown Holly Hopkins from Hopkinton Clay Johnson from Richmond Craig Luzon from Charlestown Linda Lyle from Charlestown and Andrew McQuade from Charlestown Larry Phelps from Hopkinton Patricia pouliat from Richmond Karen Reynolds from Richmond and I'm Catherine giusti from Hopkinton we have superintendent Gina Picard we have Director of Finance Ned Draper and we have assistant superintendent Michael Camella as well at this time I think we have given you ample opportunity to understand what this budget is I'm not going
006to go through another budget presentation what I'd like is I'd like to hear from you this is your opportunity to give us statements typically we don't respond in past precedence we have not responded to questions directly however we do have a school committee meeting next week and this item is on the agenda so if there's information that you would like and you state it tonight and you have a question for a specific School Committee Member I'd invite you to ask for that information from them at another public meeting it may not be uh they may not have the information you want available this evening [Music] presentation of the budget the school committee approved the FY 2024 budget in the amount of 57 million ten thousand fifty five dollars member towns contribution with Debt Service and
007anticipated state aid is an increase of 1.43 to Charlestown 1.17 increase to Richmond 1.76 increase to Hopkinton for an overall increase of 1.45 the way it stands now foreign okay thank you Catherine now we'll open it up to a public comments and just so everyone gets a chance and I don't miss anybody I'm going to kind of go Section by section so is there anyone in this section of the room that wishes to speak please raise your hand to be recognized in the back there yep Sharon Davis from Hopkinton I want to commend the school committee this year for your cooperation in trying to respond to the requests of the town councils and the towns I only have two more requests one is to take the fund balance down to two percent which would save
008148 000 and I still would like for you to look at the benefit health line I think there's money there thank you thank you Miss Davis anybody else yes Barbara capalbo from Hopkinton nice to see you all and I haven't missed you for two years enjoyed every moment of silence I would like to say I actually agree with most of this budget I think that the 1.45 is reasonable however I would like you to get it down to the two percent I think that's a reasonable request from Sharon Davis and from some of the other town councils I do think that's important because I have never argued with your budget where it has to do with teachers or salaries at all because I'm not a teacher I don't want to be a teacher and I'm
009glad they're teachers and they know what they're doing and I don't however I would always cut whenever I could anything that had to do with Administration Assistance or utilities it is almost impossible this year to cut utilities every single person in this room knows that gas electric and oil has skyrocketed food has skyrocketed salaries for low-income are rocketing which means all of your cooking staff which is Aramark or whatever it is now their salaries are going up and their food is going up there is no way to get around the food the utilities at all I do think that there are things you can do and I hope you will at least lower it to the two percent which is a reasonable request but I do appreciate the work you're doing I realize that people
010are concerned but one of the things that we did very nicely with Barry Richie is we had computers before covid Westerly had no computers they had to get 800 from GD because they had no farsight Barry Richie gave us farsight and I am hoping that you will all remember that you are here for farsight not the stuff in front of your nose so do the best you can I do hope you'll lower it somewhat I think that's possible but I do not see where there's any way to cut utilities and food at this point since I can't cut it in my budget either thank you Mr Cavallo anybody else over here in the back sir thank you hello my name is Chris calduro and I'm a taxpayer for Charlestown I am asking that you consider
011to reinstate the two positions that you caught of the teacher assistant and a maintenance worker for the district for those who don't know who I am I am the President of the charioto ESP support staff both of these positions are critical to maintain the level of Excellence that we are currently at thank you for your time thank you anybody else anybody else over here in this section or anybody in the middle like I'm an Auctioneer anyone there we'll start in the front right here good evening my name is Rana reglado I was a former member of this school committee for six years and I want to tell you that I appreciate the school committee and the administration for their hard work to bring about a modest 1.5 percent increase you have done a great job
012on that and I'm recommending and hoping that you will support the proposed budget the historical overview of the academic growth of charioto from an average school district to one of the highest performing schools in the state which can be attributed to three C's competent and committed staff caring and supportive community and terrific motivated children and we have done this routinely in placing our school district per pupil costs in the upper quarter of the Statewide spending contrary to what other people have tried to tell you that we're the highest we certainly are not the collective efforts have made our three towns highly desirable to young families who want the best education for their children just ask any real estate agent how excellent schools are a value add to their clients even in the face of tough
013fiscal realities affecting all of our schools we strive mightily to content the quality instruction for all students all the time but diminishing resources can only lead to diminishing results here are three realities that negatively affect the overall cost attributed to the district despite our high performing rankings a number of families have enrolled their children in charter schools which is their right as required by Rhode Island state law despite the efforts of public schools across Rhode Island to have our state government offset the cost of transportation and tuition costs for their mandates our pleas felt on deaf ears so the Tidy sum of one million sixty one thousand eight hundred forty nine dollars will leave our district next year a career in technical school is widely regarded in office a rich comprehensive education to many students
014our late superintendent Mr Barry Richie went to the mat with our friends in the Department of Education over a non-competition provision we lost in a number of our CTE students have migrated to other schools that will cost us 572 thousand dollars 916. finally a District transportation costs for students attending non-public out of district schools is 743 320 dollars my quick total in math is two million three hundred seventy eight dollars at 85 excuse me two million to 378 085 there are results of unfunded State mandates not that some people would have you believe is the mismanagement of school finances perpetrated by the school committee and administration these numbers of factual not sensible there are several other physical issues which I wish to point out in any school budget fixed or contractual costs make up close
015to ninety percent of an educational school budget the remaining 10 percent is allocated for education or classroom supplies it's no small money that so many of our teachers spend considerable amounts of their own money on materials to enrich the education of our students I know I speak for a lot of residents and thanking you for your generosity I want to address those who think level funding or defeating this proposed budget is being fiscally responsible frankly nothing could be further from the truth two years of living funding will force decisions that will adversely impact the academic and extracurricular opportunities for our students cuts to Staffing will compel the administration to increase class size eliminate or reduce enrichment and extracurricular offerings that will hamper our ability to offer our students the quality education they must have to
016be overcome adversities incapable of competing in our global economy it is also necessary to point out that the pandemic had a profound effect on all our students nationally recognized educational researchers contend that the vast majority of the United States students lost approximately one year's academic growth due to school closures and despite the good faith effort of teachers to conduct distance learning to close this educational Gap all our students need competent and well Supply classrooms we will further punish them by slashing the budget are we incapable of sacrificing a cup Dunkin Donuts coffee each week to support a modest increase in our respective town taxes I believe that most families in Richmond Hopkinton and Charlestown hear enough about our kids to do so if we don't then shame on us thank you for your attention and
017consideration and vote to support our children all right anyone else in the middle anyone else in the middle section sir here on the end Bob cardoso Richmond I sat with a lot of you for years looking at the budget is it reasonable probably are there a couple of issues that we have to start to think about yes number one state aid this budget looks at a 1.7 million dollar increase in state aid question to you is it reasonable my answer is no as other people here are looking for a balanced budget or a budget that's at zero balanced budget excuse me a different way to look at it is what is the balanced budget or a zero percent budget with the state aid by reducing what you have now are six hundred and sixteen thousand
018change we end up with exactly the same number for member Town contributions and that is reasonable is it reasonable to go back to the 52 million I don't know it would be hard however we cannot start banking on something's coming out of Providence it is way out of line 1.7 million increase with everything that's going on in our economy right now is in problem to bring the budget down by six hundred and sixteen thousand dollars is not difficult and that would give us a level funded budget member Town contribution thank you thank you anybody else in the middle right right here in the phone hi uh Jill Fontenot I am a Charlestown resident I'm a taxpayer and parent of elementary and middle school age children I have also substitute taught in the district for the
019past four years five years ago I like many others here had respect and appreciation for our educational staff and was grateful to be raising children here in a district with so much to offer it's one of the reasons we moved here but I had absolutely no idea how incredibly difficult it was to work in the schools until I began subbing I have seen just over the past four years our staff being constantly asked to do more with less and they do it they do it every day for these kids the failure of the budget last year and the continued push for level funding this year is mind-boggling to me and it seems extremely short-sighted a fundamental goal of education and why many of us go to work every day is to help students love to
020learn this helps carry them through their lives as productive citizens of our community and the world the cuts necessary to level fund our budget would our ability to make our schools the learning environment they have become fewer teachers bigger classes fewer repairs to the buildings fewer extra learning opportunities these things seem small when they are discussed in these meetings to many of us in this room but at some point refusing to even allow for Budget increases to keep up with inflation bringing our schools down to the bare bones does not make for a place our students not to mention our staff want to be this doesn't produce a love of learning it produces a difficult place to learn and that's not what I want for the children in our community I support the passing of
021this budget I do not support level funding and I encourage everyone else here to do the same thank you anyone else in the middle all the way in the back in the back my name is Joyce Flanagan and I live in Richmond I'm here because I support public education it is the Bedrock of our nation it is part of our foundation learning and Excellence makes for good citizens I support the professionals who work here in the district of charahoe I support them because they work hard I also support them because they are educated and they are experts in their area I am not I am not a teacher could have been but I knew it was a very difficult job so I applaud the educational staff the support staff I applaud the school committee for
022their work please pass this budget I speak here to my community we are all in this together we need to take care of our students and give them the future that they deserve thank you anybody else in the middle and what's in the middle right here in front yes Stacy hand come on up can you hear me now my name is Jim Sullivan I've been a resident of Charlestown for 16 years and an educator for over 35 years and I have some points I'd like to mention as you consider whether you're going to pass the budget or not and I think they were important so and the first thing I want to say to you is happy Saint Patty's month and also happy Saint Patty's Day and as the Irish say slainty and slanty means
023good health to you but usually be an Irish you have a drink in your hand when you say that so getting started um the three most important goals for any school system would be to promote and Achieve educational credibility I think we'd all agree to that now these three most important things are sovereignty I'd like to say no yes accountability that measure results and also collaboration between all facts factors of the school community now do you really think that our children children's education should be controlled and mandated by politicians should we allow them to develop and mandate education curriculum and programs to be taught to our children Mr Sullivan please direct your comments to the budget sir excuse me please direct your comments toward the budget the matter of curriculum is not on the on
024the table right now budget process it's part of the thought so please please get to the budget so when I talk about the curriculum curriculum where a lot of expense goes as well so that's why I'm bringing that up so if you allow me to finish I would say that you interrupted me here but I'm going to continue if you think that then you should not be a teacher or an administrator if you believe that again mandated curriculums for Education by politicians uh if you believe that that's okay you shouldn't be a teacher and you shouldn't be an administrator that's my opinion and if you do you're in a fantasy world politicians will tell you how to spend your hard-earned money does it say on the currency that we have in politicians We Trust or
025does it say In God We Trust well I know who I would say we should trust the United States government is shredding the Constitution and the Christian values that have made our country great so we have to pay attention to that and not let it happen and I would say in finishing let's be the knights templa people and they were 700 years ago called by the Pope soldiers of God and I think we have to start putting in our narratives gods word and that's part of what I have to say so thank you very much anybody else in the middle right here in front sorry either one you'll be next I promise foreign I'm from Charlestown I am a parent of a fourth grader at Charlestown Elementary School I am a board member of the
026PTO and I spend as much time as possible at that school I'm there for field day I'm there for spaghetti suppers flash classes fun runs I am there for all of it the reason that I spend this time at Charlestown is because it is the happiest place on earth it is my Utopia in this cold cold world I credit this magic feeling and the success of the school to the Educators and staff that show up and work hard for our kids every day these are the same committed adults that guided us through an unprecedented Global pandemic with strength patients flexibility and dedication as we continue to rebound we are tracking measurable improvements and successes while our Educators continue their diligence in teaching our children despite accusations that I imagine must demoralize and that discredit the
027professional manner in which they fulfill their duties there is no indoctrination sexualization or critical race Theory being taught at the elementary level there are simply kids please address the budget please address the budget simply kids that are learning to read and write and do math faster than I can Charlestown Elementary School is exactly what you want it to be I'm discouraged by some of the comments in our community towards the future the buck does not stop at us we must look towards the future and our social responsibility to educate the future in adults that will inhabit it I'm discouraged by comments so we shouldn't encourage families to move here because we'll have to pay for the children's educations really where exactly do you expect the children of the world to go to be educated not
028in my backyard is that what we're saying in the 90s not my backyard was for nuclear waste is it for Children and Families now are you trying to gut the chair ho education system so that families will not want to move into the area lastly I would like to address the young people of this this community in regards to the budget pay attention and listen to what people are saying about you and about your beloved teachers that you've had look at how willing they are to take things from you and your younger siblings your your voice and register to vote on your 18th birthday to start taking part in this process you are far more powerful than you realize and I have far more faith in you than I do and half the members up
029here don't listen to the lies support our future vote Yes on the budget thank you good evening I am Dana stanapico I am a resident of Richmond I wasn't going to speak tonight I don't have anything prepared I am also a speech pathologist in this District I work at Hope Valley I work in the preschool and I serve I've served some of your children right here on the school committee some of your children with severe and profound special needs some of your children who are developing typically special education world is so important to our young community our special ed budget requires assistive technology it requires so much for our children to thrive I support this budget because our children who are atypical deserve the same um to serve the same rights um privileged education as
030the rest of the typicals in our curriculum in our community um I I do support this budget I hope you guys um go with the inflation go with all the other increases it's not fair to our children to have level funding some of you on the school board right now you homeschool you send to charter schools that is up to you but I don't think that then you don't want to support a budget I'm sure when your children were all in school your budgets were passed for them I feel it should be paid forward and I support this budget and I hope you all support it too it's for the best interest of our children and as the charioto creep goes all children all of the time and I think you're all responsible to uphold
031that and I hope you all make some really good decisions on April 5th thank you thank you all the way in the back yep sir oh I heard it doesn't matter come on down you're here you're closer by the time he gets gets here you'll be done me I'm Kristen Chambers from Richmond I've lived in Richmond for 33 years both of my children attended charioto schools from grades K-12 one attended the career and tech center as well I'm thankful that they graduated when they did so that they did not have to suffer the negative effects of a school budget cut to the Bone by a segment of the school committee which ran with the sole purpose of defunding charioto schools and the guise of looking out for the taxpayer nothing improves or even maintains its
032quality through underfunding especially education if you truly care about the future of our young people which in turn affects the well-being of chair residents of all ages you will vote Yes for a fully funded budget thank you [Applause] you'll be next Mr Hearst right after this one thank you my name is Gary stoner I'm a rich uh resident of Richmond and uh want to speak in support of this budget and I want to say a few things about that yes I would like my taxes not to go up but if it means they go up because I'm paying for the school children to go to school and to have a high quality education I'll pay more in taxes as far as budgets go they're a problem and as professionals we all know that problems have
033to be solved in context in the last three years the world of its has has experienced a pandemic killing millions of people around the world having children not experiencing a regular school day for several years in a row and raising the levels of mental health problems among school children from preschool through high school to astronomical levels the people who serve those children are the teachers The Specialist and the administrators in our schools who deserve our respect and recognition of their work and we do that by funding a budget that makes sense this notion of a level funded budget is ahead in the sand approach to thinking about education and educational expenses and is not sustainable one point something percent increase barely does the job but I support it thank you I'm Scott Bill Hurst vice
034president of Hopkinton Town Council and before I continue I like to say that Mike Gary our council president had another issue when he couldn't be with us tonight I thought I should point that out uh Carey hope class of 1971 uh and I like to speak about my concerns about this budget it should be about the children it should be our families and Common Sense very frankly for many years I've wanted an outside management study done of this School District operation by a credentialed this uh I'm not going to say disorientated but a disinterested group that can look at a budget no schools has credentials and knows what to look for first of all we have to realize we talk about the school budget but we have families of all sizes all financial backgrounds and
035they have to make decisions in our household that infects their children or maybe they're elderly or different age groups that what makes up the Terre Haute community and remember because of the means of effort law the school committee has the power even after a budget is adopted to move line items around and I have a problem with the school committee that doesn't believe in an outside management study with credentials that could look at things like fixed costs which I understand is what 82-83 percent and it's very touched very difficult to touch those issues but they would look at those issues and come up with Solutions how you can deal with it the bottom line is this school committee has the power to get information and the power to make changes to benefit the students families
036and taxpayers in Terre Haute and that's what you should be doing also uh the last years election defeat so the budget should be a learning lesson and either you learn lessons or you don't learn lessons there was changes in the school committee and we're talking about a budget I'd like to thank my Council colleague Sharon Davis for efforts on this on the budget and what's going on and we talked about it at our council meeting is there is a feeling about having a tri-town committee with school committee committee members and Council people to look including this outside management study it's like a fantasy for me that people even thinking about it uh and I asked all political parties in Terre Haute in interest groups to take a stand on this budget stand up and have
037the guts to take a stand either for or against this budget that's what leadership's about that's what leadership's about not to go out and and glad hand and make statements have the guts of your convictions that's what leadership is about and I think we should all work together smart people in politics we disagree on some issues and agree on others and I just want to say that my views are not necessarily the views of the Hopkinton Town Council on the Hopkins Republican Town committee which I'm a member thank you thank you in French good evening my name is Maureen oroglado I'm a resident of Charlestown and I have been in education for more years than some people in the audience have been alive I think leadership putting all children first all the time and I
038would like to turn and address the audience for a minute please address your comments this way to the to the chair I just want them to know they have a fabulous incredibly competent school system dedicated teachers dedicated parents dedicated school committee who by the way volunteer their time they are not paid positions they work very hard I saw the effects of the pandemic and teaching from my own daughter as she struggled and taught children from her home while she was also educating her two younger children teachers put their kids first all the time you talk about Cuts in the budget if you asked every teacher in Charo how much money they paid out of their own Pockets to supplement the education to give their kids the best education they possibly can there's an old thing
039sometimes you don't know what you have until you miss it I would encourage everybody to think about what these Cuts would do you talked about fixed prices on your home I think the schools are a home out of home for our children they are safe havens for our kids they feed them breakfast they feed them lunch they hug them they take care of them they are there to support them in every way they can time money resources and I would implore that people who are on the boards of the ptos to get the message out I don't care whether you do blessed emails I used to do this when I was in a school district in another state we would get the parents to come and vote for the budget every year my husband and
040I go to the budget meetings and we look around and we think where are all the young parents it can't be just the older people who are coming out to vote you have to come out and fight for your kids and for the teachers who worked so damn hard during the pandemic I don't know how they did it honestly that was baptism by fire nobody trained them to do video classroom teaching especially the younger kids where everything is Hands-On and manipulatives how do you do that I hear so many adults say oh my God I never knew how hard it was to teach until I had to try to do it to help my children at home during the pandemic so for heaven's sakes please please please support our teachers they are the backbone of
041this educational system and they have done an incredible job they deserve our children deserve the very best that we can give them thank you [Applause] anybody else in the middle right here in front Jeremy Palmer Hopkinton Rhode Island um we're here to talk about money uh money isn't important but it buys you time so when I think about a budget that is made to sound simplified when we're talking about 1.7 percent it doesn't sound like an astronomical amount of money but the problem that I have is that no matter how the economy fluctuates that budget will never go down will still be held responsible for that one per seven point seven increase this year next year maybe 1.2 maybe the next year or two or whatever the figure may be the issue that I have
042is that we're talking about money we're talking about my move we're talking about every person in this room's money so do I have the right to my own opinion absolutely does everyone in this room have the right to an opinion absolutely so we're here to discuss what we would like to do with our money I for one as a small business owner do not believe for one second that my quality of work would be jeopardized because of the materials that I have to work with because I would give the person the best that they could that I have to offer when I started my business I had a five thousand dollar truck a couple wheel barrels and some simple tools and I gave customers the best that I could provide the same way that teachers
043do in this school today the same way that everyone up here believes that they're doing the best that they can so when we talk about money we're talking about something that is second hand when it comes to Integrity when it comes to teachers who are buying crayons pencils things for their student they do it because they have integrity because they they love what they do they understand that the totality of what's going to happen because of their efforts is going to long last money is secondary in this conversation the only thing that money is going to do is buy us time until the inevitable happens which is if people aren't having Integrity if they're not having a commitment to what they're doing then it's going to end in the same way so my concern with
044a budget increase is is that going to bring our integrity up is that going to make teachers teach hard is that going to make our school better it's not because at the end of the day money is secondary my devotion to what I do for a living comes from my Integrity from what I wish to see happen in fulfillment which I believe all the teachers and everyone who is here tonight has that same Integrity but what it comes down to is finance my electric bill has increased almost a hundred percent everybody in this room could tell you horror stories about how their life is 10 years ago is completely different from now because they are making sacrifices and at the end of the day I feel like sacrifice can be made do I think that
045this one percent uh one point seven percent is something astronomical absolutely not but the problem I have is it can never go down I don't feel like a money is the issue here I feel like Integrity is and I feel like as a community we have plenty of that so if you believe that money is going to solve our problems in a 1.7 percent is nothing and it's not a big deal then that is probably because you have the finances to do that when you run into situations on a daily basis as a parent as a teacher as a community member where you're constantly seeing nothing but up up up up up you begin to become numb to it we look at gas prices we say to ourselves you know I'm going to have to
046pay it what are you going to do what are you going to do not pay your electric bill what are you going to do you we have an option here we have an option where we can say all right let's get back to the basics and say to ourselves what can we call what can we do to make it a little easier on our community members because for me an increase isn't an option because of so many other things that we don't have an option I don't have an option if I'm going to pay my electric bill because I won't have electric I have to put gas in my truck because I have to go to work I have to pay more for materials now because everything is increased but I do have an option
047to stand here today and say to you that I do not believe that money is going to change anything in this school district because I believe that everyone here has the best intentions thank you anybody else in the middle a few president thank you um could you see your name in your town of residence please yes I can I am Elaine Morgan and I live in Hopkinton on Maxson Hill Road as a taxpayer and a resident here in Hopkinton I I'm gonna make this short and sweet the average person in Hopkinton and Richmond I don't know about Charlestown and it's probably most of Charlestown except for the Waterside the average income is between 40 and 80 000 per person that's the average income and you're asking to pay I mean I I the teachers here
048are excellent and we have the best school system in the state but enough is enough we cannot pay any more we have to make Cuts where it needs to be made Cuts we need to tighten our belts everyone here is tightening tightening our belts we have to do that with the school budget also thank you thank you anybody else in the middle section sir hello my name is Jeff Noble I'm a resident of Richmond Rhode Island I'll just piggyback on some of these comments uh first of all we're not talking just about straight dollar phones we're talking about an investment our future and it's not the future of next year it's the future of 50 years from now when I'm 90 and we need smart intelligent productive children who are now adults to take care
049of us we don't have enough people already to fund Social Security like we did before we need smart people to increase the return on Capital that we have by multiple so that we are all well taken care of this 1.7 percent increase is a start to that investment in our future it needs to be higher because otherwise this whole thing's going to collapse and I don't understand how you can say you support teachers when you expect them to do more with less right now all of you with this small meager budget are Towing teachers that you need to do more with less and oh by the way we're not going to support you but we expect you to raise the test scores we got to invest in the school in order to make things better
050we need our kids to be better and we need better communities I'm sorry I'm passionate about this but I do think that we can come together and compromise this is a good start towards it and it needs to get bigger though because we're falling behind everyone else in the world is investing in their schools those Nations wanting to compete with us are not sitting around quibbling about investing in the future of our kids or their kids they're going to be competitive we're going to end up not being competitive and then what's going to happen all this is going to fall apart again thank you thank you good evening thank you Mr moderator um school committee uh first of all I am passionate about public education as well and I thank all of you just stay
051tuned I don't think I'm sorry thank you Jim McCabe I thank you all for doing your job for stepping up I am passionate about public education I'm not sure I have the courage to make the tough decisions that you have all made I've attended the budget meetings I've seen some of those impossible decisions I've seen this committee go through the budget line by line Ad nauseam to figure out where and how we can make this work I have two daughters in the Middle School System they came up through Charlestown Elementary School absolutely amazing I volunteer at the schools I volunteer to read I chaperone field trips I volunteer for Field Days Every time I step into our schools I see our taxpayer dollars hard at work I see it in the enthusiasm of the teachers
052I see it in the engagement of our students I myself have worked in the private sector of Education my mother my grandmother family members have been in public education as well one of the reasons why I'm up here to advocate for it however I don't feel but first of all I am I am surprised I am I am humbled by the outpouring of people coming to these meetings it shows a strong support for our public education system or at least I hope it does sometimes I'm not sure it does because when I hear things about curriculum hold on not go on there but it does bring up the conversation about what the state and federal government mandates upon our school system this is the budget conversation for a curriculum there are mandates that we have
053to meet that we cannot go against we cannot cut them there is no reason to penalize our community local Educators for mandates that come from the state and federal level instead let's appeal to those state legislators and the federal legislators we have with us to figure out how we can get more aid from the state the second part is with all the cuts I've seen I know we are not setting ourselves up for Success our children are the success of the future we don't see a three or five year plan one point four five percent looks pretty good this year what happens with Esser funds next year do we have a state Surplus next year the answers are no and probably not are we therefore looking at everything we can are we prepared for what's
054going to happen with these with these thoughts of level funding or going for one or two percent when the rest of the nation fighting a financial forest or I'm after covid is increasing At a next rate greater than five or six percent I also want to point out that I hear there are stats about Charles uh cheroho education perhaps not performing as well as it could I think it's worth repeating that before kovid I understand there are difficulties after covid four of the six chair host schools were in the top ten we are highly performing ride commended my children have gone through the system I thank the Educators thank you superintendent card and superintendent Richie before I support this budget I've worked in the private education system for a couple years when I hear let's
055run our schools like a private business I understand what that means I understand that they say Prophets allow us to gauge student engagement to look at how our students work and perform and therefore we pay for it the cream will rise to the top unfortunately that leaves behind those less fortunate even if they have the best aptitude at hand I will not stand for that instead I choose to support this budget I choose to support budgets going forward for a public education and the teachers that work day in and day out with toddlers to teenagers to parents and I hope they have all our supporters and I encourage you to vote Yes as well thank you in the middle please shorts hello my name is Felipe Bryson I am a taxpayer in Richmond a parent
056of three in cherijo and proud to say that I am a public school teacher in our district I say our district because it belongs to us all we are responsible for the future of This Town based on the children and the students that we rates as a parent I am conservation this district is going in if we continue to level fund this budget parents will begin pulling their children out of District then the district will be paying even more to transport and pay for those students educations as a community member I'm concerned about the value of my home if we do not support this budget then the value of our homes will suffer people will not want to move into a district with a declining school system as a teacher I am concerned with the
057lack of support some of the school committee members have for our schools cutting support staff hurts us all I would like you to consider putting back the TA position that was cut previously I worked tirelessly tirelessly to support every student that walks into our building not just the students in my classroom and every teacher here does the same as a taxpayer parent and teacher I support the passing of this budget and I hope that you will all consider doing the same thank you anybody else in the middle section right here in front good evening my name is Jennifer Sylvia I'm a resident of Hopkinton we're all experiencing the effects of a recession and many people are living paycheck to paycheck or at the very least on a very fixed income I never anticipated that my
058family would be in this situation myself but my husband just lost his job due to company layoff two two and a half weeks ago and it has been an eye-opening few weeks we have significantly had to reevaluate our spending as a family to make choices on what is actually a necessity and what we can consider a would-be nice type of expenditure this is the mindset that the school committee must have currently the school committee is asking for a 65 million dollar budget however according to the results of last year's State Testing only 41 percent of The Chariot students qualify as meeting or exceeding the academic standards that means 59 of Terre Haute students are below the standard this is unacceptable for three for a three million dollar increase in budgetary ass from last year our
059kids should be performing much better than this The Continuous rise in the school budgetary cost is creating an environment which is unsustainable to continue to live in this school district especially with the lack of performance on state test scores compared to other districts a 1.7 increase to Hopkinton residents may not seem like a lot to you the school committee members however for a taxpayer on a very fixed income this will be significant as Hopkinton residents we are very much in limbo as to what our taxes will look like in the coming fiscal year the average property reevaluation in Hopkinton just Rose by 32 percent this year this budget should not be passed until the teacher contract has performance-based metrics that Target significant Improvement on these tests to be realized within the next two years and
060not in the next five years as previously proposed in an earlier meeting this year I implore you to reassess a proposed budget and find a way to cut out the would-be nice types of expenditures that will not impact the students last year you cut the foreign language for the elementary schools and this did not need to happen as there was more than enough funding in the cola line item maybe this year we must consider offering a cola maybe this year we must consider not offering a cooler increase to be placed in the or I'm sorry we must consider offering a cola increase to be placed in the would-be nice kind of expenditure and not offer that thank you for your time thank you anybody else in the center right here in front again my name
061is Edward Lowe I live in hockington I've lived in Hopkinton and paid real estate taxes since buying my home in 1983 and raising my family there over the past over the first 30 years my wife and I were involved in the charioto school system through participation in PTO voting at budget meetings donating to scholarship fundraisers actively participating as public citizens and school committee meetings including speaking on numerous occasions to provide influence on a variety of topics we've attended sporting events we also spearheaded a Grassroots effort to restore a million dollars to The Chariot budget that was cut by a previous school committee we also participated actively by paying property taxes over this 30-year period to fund the schools during this 30 years we became increasingly aware that the student proficiency and expectation metrics employed by
062The Chariot district and or the state of Rhode Island for measuring student knowledge and thereby the effectiveness of the district's selected curriculum consistently demonstrated that roughly 40 to 50 percent of the entire student body of what is now 3 000 students never totally achieved the proficiency or fully met the expectation metric that is to say we became increasingly aware that the students weren't being adequately educated for the community where they would eventually become contributing members however there was an annual appeal by The District administration that they understood the deficiencies they were preventing the students from achieving the metrics or expectations and that they would make the necessary remedial changes if given more money and more time with this assurance District residents approved the budget however the promised improvements in student performance relative to the proficiency
063or expectation never materialized or were very short-lived this in my opinion application of budget resources together with the continued failure of 40 to 50 percent of the charioto student body to achieve full proficiency or fully meet or exceed expectations was our call to action but the Chariot Administration together with some members of this and recent past School committees autocratically decree the community input to change the curriculum or educational materials and school libraries was to be constrained only to those tri-town residents with school children actively enrolled at Terra home the right to petition the school administration that I and other taxpayers had exercised for 30 years had been in my view illegally removed in other words what was being said to us as taxpayers be damned my wife and I turned our efforts to work through
064our elected Hopkinton school committee representative to provide Community taxpayer and voter input at school committee meetings but this effort was met with the school committee's refusal to place items requested by an elected Hopkinton representative on the meeting agenda in other words voters be damned as well it became crystal clear at this point that the District administration and controlling elements within the school committee including recent past school committee members had complete and total control over the education of student of chairho students and in our opinion they did not have the best interest of the community taxpayers as their top priority my wife and I are now members of The Forgotten taxpayers group and we're advocating for taxpayer disapproval of the proposed Chariot budget throughout the tri-town region because we intend to affect change through the legal
065recourse of the power of the purse foreign anybody else in the middle section anybody over here on the far my far left all the way in the back please hi everybody uh Jessica Purcell phone order in Richmond and a parent of two children one of the things that concerns me about the budget is that if you look at um the fund balance is just under four hundred thousand dollars right now for next year and with seven hundred thousand dollars in Cuts made at the last budget I worry about the unforeseen situation that puts us in the red next year the math does not support further Cuts it's clear that level funding was fiscally irresponsible it may have sent a message but only caused more problems and we do not solve problems by pushing them on
066others our schools will struggle unless we work to find long-term Solutions I thought of my mom this morning she was a single mother working full-time and it took a lot of money and time to keep her four growing children clothed so she decided to save time and money by wearing our clothes we were teenagers so she looked a little silly in our hand-me-downs but it made me laugh thinking of her and it taught me an important lesson dedicated parents make sacrifices and put their kids before themselves I know that every parent in this room does that I have absolute faith that so many of you parents have done that for your children and that is what we must do with this budget we have to keep working together so that the students are the top
067priority we have to provide a well-rounded education to all students and well-earned compensation for the dedicated and professional employees working for our schools to do this we must educate ourselves with a holistic view of our school district we have fixed costs in our school that we must fund and these costs have increased we must provide education support services and transportations for students with special needs we must ensure that our eight schools are safe and maintained we must pay for Heating and electric costs we must safely transport students across 121 square square miles the topic of Transportation leads to my request tonight which is that we add back the seventy thousand dollars cut from transfer Transportation at the last meeting this reduction will affect a majority of students across all three of our towns five days
068a week twice a day this reduction could have a big impact on a vital service that we provide bus transportation is the best way to get kids to and from their schools safely and on time every day I ask you to reconsider this reduction from the perspective of parents whose students currently ride the bus thank you I'll see you next time thank you anybody else I think there was someone in front sir did you want to be recognized now okay you passed okay come on in the back yep good evening Deb Harney town of Charlestown Town Council president but I speak tonight on behalf of myself I support this budget I support this budget because it's a compromise from where you started to where you are this budget is not everything to everyone but you
069listened people came forward with suggestions and you Incorporated them I ask that you vote to put this budget forward to the voters I will vote to support it thank you thank you not your section is next Ms Dinsmore not your next let me go Section is next hi we're almost there don't worry um Samantha Wilcox Richmond another town counselor speaking on their individual capacity as a working mother and a taxpayer I too know what it's like to live on a really fixed income and a restricted budget having been a single mom in the rural areas it's not easy and now I have the support of the schools to thank for everything they've done helping me get my kids to where they are now which is a freshman and a seventh grader they're doing great thanks
070to these amazing schools and supporting you know parents um I would also like to consider or ask you to consider putting Transportation back into the budget this affects every student every day and every family my kids get on the bus and I instantly drive to work I'm able to go in earlier and get out earlier and spend more time with my family and a big reason why I think it's not okay to remove it is because we have so much Unknown about that and I know that's why some of you voted against it but you don't know how that's going to affect these stops and the roads and the traffic at the school how many more parents will be driving their children in we don't know are my kids gonna have to walk farther from
071home right now we're lucky out on Dead End Road and they don't have to cross any main roads that are tight and windy and scary for them to be walking on and I think it's really important to have those facts before making such an extreme decision thank you thank you anybody else over on my far left okay circling back over here miss Dinsmore good evening I'm Louise Dinsmore from Richmond school committee members and administrators thank you for your service I realize what you do takes countless hours away from your lives and from your families in today's economic climate we are all making budget sacrifices it's now time for the school department and the unions to engage in shared sacrifice the Nea is negotiating another three-year teacher contract I ask you who represents the taxpayers during
072these contract negotiations the answer to that question no one no one represents the taxpayers we pay the bills and no one represents you the school administration's job is to leverage as much money as possible from you the taxpayer superintendent Picard has said that publicly that's her job and she does her job very well I realized that public education is a right that should be supported but at what cost we taxpayers are asked for increase after increase however we never get a seat at the negotiating table but are expected to just roll over and fund contracts that include millions and millions of dollars in fixed costs this budget represents 83 percent in fixed costs in the not too distant future we will be at 90 percent of fixed costs what do we do then you can't
073cut your way out of 90 fixed costs these budgets are completely unsustainable and I'm not going to sit by while the taxpayers are asked to fund more and more make sacrifices to their own personal budgets see their taxes increase while the schools in the unions refuse to engage in shared sacrifice members of the school committee why are the terms of the teacher contract best kept secret in town we have a right to know how many millions will be added over the next three years as a result of a new teacher contract and we have the right to know that before the April 4th budget votes will four million dollars be added to the budget three and a half million how much is it you have an obligation to be transparent with these taxpayers and not
074play budget games we deserve and we expect a three-year budget forecast by law isn't that what you're obligated to do are you not providing one because sharing this information will clearly demonstrate to the district's voters that not only will a three-year contract add Millions to the budget but also with certain federal funds running out in fiscal year 24 you've been creating structural deficits deficits that we can't cut ourselves out of the taxpayers who voted against last year's budgets were portrayed by some of you as being fed with misinformation and that you can't possibly understand why we voted the way we did we are immoral we're heartless we voted the way we did because you and others in this community disrespected disregarded and dismissed us time and plus we told you no on April 5th we
075told you no again on May 5th and I suspect we'll tell you no again on April 4th I will continue to vote no and I will continue to lead a district-wide effort asking taxpayers to do the same until you give us a responsible budget until you give us academic results we can be proud of until you give us respect and transparency until you give us cooperation and until you give us a three-year budget forecast until you give us a curriculum that doesn't push gender fluidity and doesn't shame kids based on the color of their skin Mr those are your supporters Ms Dinsmore ask for just ask for order so I can finish my statement please please conclude thank you I am an unabashed advocate for the taxpayer and if you are fed up and if
076you feel like a bottomless ATM machine join our effort at the forgottentaxpinners.com thank you you'll be next just after him uh good evening Michael kalasanti Richmond Town Council there are a couple of things that I want to discuss with the budget kind of peeling back a few things I know a friend who's got two manufacturing facilities one in this state one out of state they manufacture the same item one facility was running uh over cost so they had to find out why the same product being manufactured in different facilities one facility was costing more than the other I bring up that that point because when you look at the school system of Barrington very comparable in size in terms of student population and teachers when you look at Barrington there are about six to eight
077million dollars less per year to educate their kids now okay you throw in the extra transportation that we would have to because our geographic area is larger so give it another two million all right so take the 2 million off the eight there's still about six million dollars less a year to educate their kids all right than than we are um just just a question and and I think it's a legitimate one and then the next thing to peel back is I don't think we would be having a lot of these discussions over the last 30 years when I was on the council again I know some people are tired of me hearing me say that but it just it's a point of comparison it was the mandates I remember it was Mr andreotti would
078always say sorry we have to fund this because of mandates yeah I did like a quick pencil that if you peel away some of these mandates all right uh really a majority of them we would be saving tens of millions of dollars in this District okay Reading Writing in arithmetic and then I think back okay you peel away these mandates right next to the town of all in Richmond there's a one-room schoolhouse that educated every grade level out of that Schoolhouse we graduate our greatest physicist our greatest chemist our greatest war heroes during World War II and a lot of the people that developed the atomic bomb came out of these one-room schoolhouses no computers all grade levels one teacher teaching them all you got to think about that a little bit so if you
079peel away the mandates and uh look at what the actual cost to run the school system I don't think we would be having any of this discussion I think we'd be glad to pay the teachers what we pay as long as it's not way above the average fixed costs of like school buildings and whatnot again we wouldn't be having these discussions that's why finally all right being reelected I don't want to have to go after uh payroll I don't want I really have to go too much I have to fix costs let's go after the real problem the real issue is that every single district is having in the state these mandates were never supposed to be paid off the individual taxpayers on the local level when the Department of Education goes before the general
080assembly and wants new mandates those mandates should be funded by the state legislature comes out of their budget and I guarantee you it would probably be a good 40 to 50 to maybe 60 percent of these mandates wouldn't pass if the general assembly knew that they were going to be paying for it out of their General budget because then that's less money that they have to do what they want with for all adults here we know how the game is played um So speaking about mandates we have a tri-town collaboration that Richmond hopping in Charlestown we're discussing it right now to support our state legislatures legislators like Elaine Morgan and Megan Carter they need support somebody mentioned tonight that why do we need to form this collaboration because we already got our state senators in
081our in our reps Mr colasanti let's stick to the budget you've been going about four or five minutes so please wrap it up okay thank you okay um so we need to support them to help reduce our budgetary costs with these mandates and I guarantee you in five to ten years if we can get those under control we wouldn't be having these discussions right now thank you thank you hi my name is Scott Irwin resident of popping in for 30 years I've never felt so forgotten as a taxpayer that's why I'm voting on April 4th this is my only recall to hopefully stop being sanded one thing that hasn't changed over the years is the inflated budgets which don't equate to strong performing schools despite what some friends of Charo want you to believe more
082money doesn't fix issues or produce a better education for our children in Terrell District which the recent test scores test scores shown in Hopkinton 83 percent of the current budget is fixed costs salaries of benefits and that needs to change in order to develop a responsible budget great performing teachers are important teaching the children of proper academics so they can be successful is critical and financially responsible budgets presented with transparencies to the taxpayer is also important in a town of hopping in the recent assessments have increased our property values of 30 percent we won't know our toll on tax rate until June and hopping in 75 cents of every dollar of our taxes goes to fontera any increase in this budget affects our taxes and limits the town's ability to provide their services I recently
083retired and had limited budget moving forward the high taxes in this District forces me to make other cuts it makes me think about if I could really afford to live in Hopkins in the future on April 4th of a vote no for the lack of respect for who pays the bill I will vote no until a responsible budget is presented and one that treats the support staff which are some of the lowest paid in the state the same as the teachers in closing I appreciate all you folks who serve on the school committee because I know you have a difficult task and I encourage new members of this committee to forge ahead despite the opposition God Bless America our children and forgotten taxpayers thank you my name is Michael Chambers and I'm from Charlestown budget
084proposal in its present tomorrow it's regressive if that's the best we can do we're going to have to settle for a regressive budget regressive being that it does not answer all the needs of the educational system we have here I have no children or grandchildren in The Chariot School District none I'm on a fixed income I have a mortgage I pay my taxes and I'm an advocate of quality education if I have to make a choice make a choice in favor of a quality education because that this is an investment that pays a high interest education is what makes us who we are as a society through education we learn how to deal with other people how to deal together to solve problems without education you don't have that ability in most cases to come
085together and solve a problem a guarantee of access to free and quality education when I say free and quality underlying free and quality access to that education should be a right of every child in this school district not half baked half financed unfinanced educational system but a quality educational system public education can only be productive with broad support commitment and participation from all sectors of the community all sectors not just half of them not just say oh I'm for Education oh I'm not for Education I'm for increasing I'm not for increasing it has to be a collaborative effort among all of the people in the three towns the three talents are basically I've heard tonight the three towns are different Charlestown everybody thinks charlestown's Rich it's not it doesn't even have the highest median income
086of the three towns but support for education in that town is high challenges to public education must be met with thoughtful Solutions and shared responsibilities this is not just the school committee's job it's all about jobs to make it work don't put it all on the school committee members or on the administration our children need to be nurtured and cultivated so that they they can they can build a strong set of goals and and and commitment to society and they can only do that through good education I have a I have two questions and this now this is the budget um first question is there seems to be a a a group that wants to level fund again second time the budget and they have every right to ask them the question is what are
087they going to sacrifice we know what sacrifice was to get it down to two percent or 1.4 percent we don't know what is going to happen when you get it down to zero percent so that at the next budget meeting I'd like to know what is on the table what will you cut because something's going to get cut I don't know if it's school lunches or Transportation or whatever but it's gonna something's going to be cut and I want to know what it is second thing is in the news this week uh General Dynamics announced that they were going to hire 5 000 new jobs and they're looking for um Young uh capable to fill the jobs and charijo is in a good position to work with the General Dynamics Corporation to supply the those
088employees and I know they have and they have they have the capability to do it but if they don't have the pro the money to support that program can you do it that's another question can you respond to the needs of General Dynamics thank you Hopkinton I'm 72 and my wife is 69. I still work part-time and my wife still works full time can you turn the volume up I don't have much volume in me thank you we have to pay our property taxes and we use tax dollars to pay those property taxes we bought a house that was built in 65 make made a lot of repairs we pay taxes on the materials then the value goes up and you pay more in taxes now we're all slaves to this system but we can't
089afford an increase in the school budget inflation is killing all of us now Barrington with 3 300 kids rated the number one school district in the state they spend around seventeen thousand per student Terre Haute with 3 100 Kids rated number 21 which is not bad since the 66th districts spends twenty thousand per student charioto spending three thousand more per student maybe we can do a little bit better for the kids without more money I read The Chariot spending came through a two percent under budget last year great please keep that budget at that 98 tax Factor we're all in the same boat we need to work together we all need to tighten our belts and make some adjustments that's all we taxpayers can afford we love the kids but we can't approve a budget
090that we can't afford thank you for listening and for all your work thank you good evening my name is Victoria Beckley I've been a member of Richmond town for 53 years I have four children that have graduated from charioto and five step children that have graduated from General uh as far as I'm concerned I have I'm now living on a fixed income I worked at a hospital for 32 years and retired and now I'm on a fixed income I have no second income coming in as I am no longer married so I am basically doing this on my own my home is 35 years old I have to do all the repairs on that out of pocket I basically am keeping up with what has to be done to survive this crisis that we're going
091through taxes have have good price going up and up and up my income has stayed the same I'm having a terrible time trying to cover groceries because they have gone up double fuel has gone up exponentially I cover all of this on my own I'm an elderly person most elderly person or on medications that's gone up all of the cost of living that elderly go through doesn't seem to matter all of these people that have I worked in a hospital I chose that position teachers chose their position to teach children everybody here has chosen what they choose to do to get through life that doesn't mean we have to sacrifice for the school committee and the school because you chose those positions you chose to work there my my problem is all of the things
092that have gone up are causing hard hardships the tax the taxes for the school system are going to cause even more I I will continue to vote against the school budget until you take into consideration what the elderly are going through what we are all trying to deal with in this crisis situation I know if we all work together we can make this change I I like I said my children all graduated from Terrell they're all well-adjusted adults and raising children of Their Own they went through the school system and it was perfectly fine but parents have a responsibility to their children also they have to make sacrifices we have to make sacrifices and the school committee has to make sacrificed thank you for your time thank you hello my name is Alexandra Laporte Thompson
093Richmond Texas um this is all relatively new to me never been really too much involved my politics or School my daughter is a graduate of Chariot and did attend your Rise program which is a whole lot of discussion my children were coming to charahoe one of the best school systems in all of Rhode Island I've seen it fall far lower than it should be and I don't think that increasing money and not giving proof of why we're doing that we're going to increase our money than our children should be proficiency and not below them that's just my opinion I'm on a fixed income um I have had to tighten my belt and to make sacrifices with our inflation we are in a recession it is not wise to raise any more uh monies so we
094the taxpayers have to pay what's going to happen further down what's going to happen when our Azure funds are done we have nothing else to relate uh I guess to cushion what we have to pay all that's done what are we going to pay after that I already can't afford to live here and I don't know where else I can afford to live right now at this time so don't you think that it's time that we all tighten our sacrifice like um here I appreciate I appreciate the school committee because I wouldn't want to do this I'm just going to be frank about them appreciate you guys doing your job I appreciate the teachers that teach our children but and I have heard discussions maybe not from these teachers but other teachers that really aren't
095willingly wanting to teach our children they talk about how bad they are this and that and you chose that profession and if we really look at things time is our greatest currency so we shouldn't really be bickering about money we should probably be stepping forward and being the example so our children can be the best version of themselves right I would think but I just needed to say something because I just I don't like any so I appreciate thank you Ms Davis again this is my fifth year being on a Town Council and going through the budget and every year I've never touch teachers salaries I've always looked at anything other than teacher sounds and this year when I said I wanted you to touch the benefit helpline I really thought and I still think
096that there's a million dollars and used reduced it by two hundred and fifty thousand so if you need another 700 000 you just could take it right out of that line um we have paid we have budgeted that line at 6 million for the last four years we've only used five billion and this year we've only used through December a million eight so you're not going to do 6 million this year and next year you want 6 million three hundred and fifty thousand so I think that there's a lot of money I really do and it would it would ease both sides benefit Health has nothing to do with teachers has nothing to do with programs and everyone can go home and be happy thank you thank you all the way in the back sorry
097hi my name is Christopher fee I'm from Charlestown low taxes because our town is run properly I am amazed at a couple of things I'm supposed to interrupt here or just continue please thank you so much oh well okay I'm sorry Christopher fee from Charlestown um in terms of the budget it seems most people are they're poised to start cutting teacher benefits contracts that's pretty obvious um it's also fairly obvious to me that there are members who have never any intention vote that's pretty plain I mean at least be honest um there is a move this is not just in Charlestown it's happening all over the country budgets are being attacked schools are being attacked so to say this is an entirely Grassroots movement is just nonsense I'm sorry for getting it done um it
098amazes me that when budgets are being discussed the town management never is it's always complete school's fault there's never any room for improvement in running how Richmond and Hopkins and Ben Hopkins has never gone budget anyway so they never do regardless of itself um so why aren't they under as much security as we are responsible for their own budgets and apparently they're not doing a great job but and we're at the school is an easy target by several groups um so that's basically all I had to say is that you know turn your focus on people who are also responsible for the mess we're in right now it's not just the schools thank you thank you anybody else over here yes ma'am yep Barbara capalbo from Hopkinton um I've listened to everyone and I find
099it really interesting and encouraging I think that it's really good to have this kind of conversation and I think that's a benefit um I have to say I raised three boys three boys as a single mother all the way through elementary middle and high and it never occurred to me to cut the school budget it just didn't even occur to me to do that because I don't want my children just growing up and staying here I want them in Europe and Asia and California and Canada and Australia I want them to see the world and be the world and I expect this school board and the teachers to teach them the Brilliance of the entire world not so they can stay in this community but they can leave and go elsewhere and see things that
100they cannot find here and that's part of your job so I understand cutting the budget bite doing things like cutting down to your two percent which is what you're supposed to have I have no problems with that it doesn't affect any of your teachers or any of your programs um Sharon is correct about not spending money on a certain area and you could cut this year and you can always add it back if you need it because that's why you have the Surplus but I think that it's been good to hear so many people speak because we haven't had that for a very long time so I think it's a benefit I hope you will take some of this into advice and and do something that is good for all of us and I'm sure
101you'll figure it out thank you thank you anybody else over here all right moving to the center man I'm on the end hi again my name is Dana scanapico I'm from Richmond and like I said before I work at Hope Valley Elementary School and I just wanted to give a question to all of you up there have any of you ever come into a classroom to our schools other than a fire drill a lockdown drill or any other drill to watch have you been at any of our schools for a consecutive number of days to notice the rigor the hard work and the dedication that the teachers put in did you know that this past week Fairfield County came to Hope Valley to look at our new reading program did you guys know that you
102did isn't that pretty amazing that a school that is similar State wants to maybe pilot a brand new reading program that we are simultaneously learning while implementing at the same time and giving notable results that other counties and other states on the East Coast want to do I think that's pretty friggin amazing I don't know about you guys but I do and I'm sorry for my language my mom might yell at me but I'm sorry tonight has evoked a lot of emotions in me I'm kind of angry but I'm sure standing up and voting against I mean voting for the budget and voting some against some of you and I just wanted to point out that in our new inter-reading program the children are just learning straight decoding no gender fluidity Mrs Dinsmore they are
103learning nothing of the sort they are learning how to read again I'm a little angry I'm a little angry this is not a debate between us I'm sorry so please conclude please stick to the budget yep yep was a budget shut down and the taxes there are triple and double what they are here and it's appalling to me that I come and work in a school district where it's actually considered to do everybody wants to keep Richmond Rural and Hopkinton Road maybe it should fall on the Town Council bring some businesses into these areas if you want your taxes lowered don't take it out on our children past people have paid for your children's education I think it's pretty appalling and quite audacious if you ask me and finally if my seven-year-old at the time
104because at last year's school budget we went to town hall to vote I wanted to expose my children to the process he said to me Mommy why are people out here saying no do you know what that was like to tell my child out here who don't want to support an education look I put it in a compassionate view but I shouldn't have this year I don't know if I might tell him so nicely so I just hope you guys really do better okay I'm sick of the covet I'm sick of the test scores you don't know what it's like you don't and it's not fair to make it seem like we're not doing our job I went to school for six years please please conclude you've been speaking for three minutes for six years
105to get my degree in Speech Pathology I teach all your kids how to talk okay and that means they deserve a voice they deserve an education and thank you give me foreign Charlestown taxpayer parent of two current students one graduated student teacher at Charlestown Elementary PTO president of Charlestown Elementary and I wasn't going to speak tonight but just like Mrs scannabio said if I hear one more time do the best with what you got or that I don't have integrity if I don't buy my kids unfortunately he's my hair they're crayons that and then harp on the test scores you can make them look however you want you could see that there's nine kids that were close to meeting proficiently one point off we are coming off of pandemic and again feel free to come
106in our classrooms and experience what that is like just because it's over doesn't mean it's over in the schools shouldn't have to go buy them I stuff for my classroom for my kids we spend countless dollars to make our classrooms nice and bright and somewhere that kids want to come every day I shouldn't have to also buy supplies and then be accused of not having Integrity if I didn't we do do that which is why the kids have never had to go without but and we won't not do it because it hurts the kids just to prove a point to you unlike you who are trying to prove a point in hurting the children by not supporting budget thank you um I've spent 50 years in education and I've taught and administered in both low
107socio-economic environments in high social economic environments people who compare Barrington to charioto you don't understand the Dynamics they don't send their kids to Charter Schools they send them to private schools number two the N number of children with special needs profound special needs because they're not as diverse as charioto cost them Less in a cost for a child that is very severely handicapped and needs multiple services will cost over and I repeat over one hundred thousand dollars and people don't understand that those are only two variables that I'll speak to because I don't want to get into a class structure but to compare a high performing school to our schools given the social economic status of the two schools is in the word a mockery secondly people don't understand test scores and what they mean
108we have a small group of kids if they fall below and your population is not large those numbers explode and it makes it look as though you're failing prior to the pandemic Charlestown ranked among the top three in this in the state in for that matter grain National recognition for their schools right now Andy all you have to do is look at higher education why is it that many major colleges and universities throughout the country stop giving the SATs because they knew their children the students would be failing below and falling below because they lost over a year and a half of Education this is a national problem on a small scale we have this issue but I'd have so at the school committee to do a very thorough lesson a town Workshop if you
109will on how to read and interpret test scores I think some of you who are thinking that were failing will be pleasantly surprised that we're not secondly I'm glad Senator Morgan is here because prior to what the president of the council in Richmond said I would exhort her to do two things one lead an initiative against opposing any mandate that the state wants to jam down our throats without the corresponding money if they don't want to pay we don't play number two we have divided as communities because of a variety of variables the most big the most and largest problem is the regressive property tax to put we put people that have the means hit them against people who do not we should abolish the property tax as the fundamental foundation for funding education in
110America some states have tried this and have succeeded not without difficulty but why is it that the Barrington SES which is high and they can afford to pay the tax have to be competing with us and putting parents who are working hard and don't have the firing to wear with all against one another because we raise taxes schools are arguably the largest budget in the towns and we need to do something about the taxing because frankly I agree why natal counts as pointing out a graduated income tax and say to the lower income families you will pay X as opposed to why and moderate that up to the people that can pay pay more but it's that something that's reasonable to do I think it is it would take the pressure off families that are
111struggling and they are up and not have them in a situation where it's one size fits all it doesn't work that way so the councils need to do their job but I want to dispel this notion that Chariot was not doing its job just look at the the data when you really understand how it's put together you will be more than pleasantly surprised again I want to thank the council uh the school committee the families here that represent the respective towns for their input to this process you [Applause] anybody out anybody else in the center section my gaze is too high Marina reglado Charlestown um I'm full support of the budget I will vote for the budget I'm sorry that some of the people that I would really like to hear this message who set
112our students on performing they weren't meeting standards if I could be in charge of the world for a year or two years I would not have had State Testing following two years plus of the pandemic if you speak to some of this teachers especially in the middle school and the high schools and they're teaching from home a lot of those students don't show up so that the teachers spend time calling the parents your children out showing up the parents are busy at work you can't put that on the school committee you can't put that on the teachers that the kids aren't showing up to participate in learning the test scores are not going to be the same you cannot equate education by Zoom as a teacher in a classroom with the kids can we address
113the budget please the other thing is I would hope every parent will pay close attention and find out ahead of time what cuts will be made before you go to vote because once the vote is in and you learn that your child is going to be having a teacher cut they might have to create split classrooms grades one and two in one classroom they might God forbid cut football that brings everybody out if you cut a sport but I hope they pay close attention because we cannot afford the luxury of cutting teachers and support staff thank you thank you everyone else in the middle anybody over on the left yes ma'am okay hi Betsy Alvarez Huffington like Cassandra I wasn't going to speak tonight um I've been thinking about this for a while with the
114budget um I'm a parent I'm a taxpayer I'm a teacher and tonight I'm just going to address people I've left but I was hired in 2009 to be a teacher here at Jerome I've worked in the district since I graduated college in 2005. finally got a job in 2009. in my contract that I signed with Mr Richie I had it was either 10 or 12 years steps to get to the top step I've been here since 2009 I'm still not TOP Step okay teacher the teacher Union different Administration different school committee made agreements things happened with the different steps adding the steps Etc as a result of that many of us myself included are taking longer to get to that TOP Step so when people say teachers haven't made sacrifices they were done like five
115to ten years ago so those that were hired we have been committed and we chose to stay in this District because we like this District it is performing it is a good District but you I'm just addressing again those people that are here that many of us are still working our way up and we do deserve to get to that TOP Step eventually to make sure that we get compensated for the education but also we are still learning that's why there's a step program we all don't make 80 90 000 year one I started at twenty four thousand dollars as a part-time teacher in this District that's what I made okay for like two or three years then I went up and went up and up and I'm still going up many of us are
116so I only spoke tonight because I've been thinking about speaking and they decided I was going to just to let people know that people did compromise at some point and there's and compromises there but at some point you're going to lose teachers if we think about that and losing teachers directly affects our students our kids our towns if competent teachers leave then that's going to impact your children thank you thank you anybody else way over there anybody last call sorry might call aside the Richmond Town Council just listening to the debate and I think it's been a good debate it's been a healthy debate um it gets a little fired up on both sides and there's nothing wrong with that but at the end here I kind of take away what everybody has said and
117it seems like there's three challenges here the first challenge I mentioned about looking at Barrington School System and look at what they're doing with their budgets to do it significantly less than what we are doing I heard somebody mention about their reading program about how other schools are coming in from out of state to look at the program because it's dynamite it's great so you know something I challenge our Administration to go see what they're doing in Barrington and I challenge you to do the same thing as those school systems coming in from out of state looking at our Dynamic fantastic uh reading program that's your challenge The Challenge on the town level I agree with Mr McPhee 100 about what the heck of the Hopkinton and Richmond been doing in promoting economic growth in
118the last one to two decades I agree with him 100 I am fighting all right the conservation Elite in Richmond they don't want any development if you look at you need to call usanti try to bring it back to the budget please trying to bring it back to the budget in terms of if we had that infrastructure built in again we wouldn't be having this discussion right now and in terms of the mandates all right the third challenge all right to our delegation at the state level working with the town councils again peeling back the mandates all the unfunded mandates that get dumped in our lap again there's the third challenge if we were to coordinate all three of those I guarantee you within four to five five years all right we have a great
119school system it would be something everybody can well afford and we wouldn't really be having these types of conversations thank you all right last call yep go ahead hi my name is Elaine Richie I'm a resident of Charlestown I have two children in the district I work in the district not in the school committee in our school school but um I have a senior and I have a seventh grader and you know we all of the citizens of Terre Haute no matter what town you live in we all have our we all have concerns and everyone here is advocating for themselves and their concerns and everyone loves children but what it comes down to is my fear and I'm hoping that all of our choices and who we voted for for school committee is here
120to do that vote and advocate for the school you're sitting here representing our children our future and I feel like there has been a lot of compromise and I feel like some people are just known no matter what compromise has been made and that's really disheartening so I really applaud everyone in the school committee to fight when it comes to time to vote no matter what happens what you choose to vote for the school or vote for our students because I'm really fearful that our grade school and our great Community is going to go downhill with the unknowns of what additional budget cuts could be and that really scares me I don't want to lose good teachers I don't want to have to send my children somewhere else I'm proud to be from Terre Haute
121and I hope that my kids my senior is going to graduate this year um but I'm hoping my seventh grader I can keep her in this district and be proud of that and be proud of other schools looking at our district to implement so please I applaud you you're on the school committee because your your town has voted you in but you're here to vote for the best interests of our students this year the next year and Beyond so how can we invest in our future if we're not investing in the future thank you so much thank you thank you yes foreign last time I was up here you just got to state your name again oh Michael Chambers from uh Charleston thank you last time I was up here I forgot to you know
122it was my fault neglected to thank the school committee members those those members of the school committee actually did the work to cut the budget that actually proposed logical cuts and actually worked on but okay that was not all of you some of you and I want to thank uh the the school superintendent work she's done she gave uh I believe her first submission it was a logical submission it is this to where we want to go and this is what it's going to take evidently there are people that don't want to go there and so therefore the school committee had to cut the budget and they cut quite a bit and I think they're going to have to cut some more based on what I've heard tonight um but anyway thank you very much
123for your work I appreciate it and um like I said before if I have to make a decision to choose where I'm going to spend my last dollar I just want to be on education thank you thank you if there are no other hands I'll entertain a motion to adjourn this meeting second third all those in favor anybody opposed thank you everyone have a good night