[Music] hello everyone and welcome to the July 8th 2024 meeting of the Brookline school committee uh I'd like to start by moving the consent agenda which uh consists today only of one item uh the minutes for June 26 2024 uh because of approval of Grants needs some more staff work uh before the committee would be ready to vote on it do I have a second for the consent agenda okay thank you Stephen um any discussion on it he seeing none Helen how do you vote Yes Jesse yes Carolyn yes Stephen yes Suzanne yes Val yes and I vote Yes as well all right moving on to our school committee actions we begin with a discussion and possible vote on a reserve fund transfer request um I see that Diane is here um Diane will you be taking the lead on presenting the work that uh that you all have been doing over the last few weeks oh and I see the Mariah's and attendees and she coming over right now yeah and Lisa as well thank you okay um thank you everyone um and apologies that it took so long to get things out but as you may or may not know the fisal year isn't entirely closed it's mostly closed but not entirely so we wanted to get the most final numbers we could before we got the reports out and Susan sends her apologies that she can't be with us tonight I believe she's in the air somewhere trying to escape Texas at the moment so um the financial reports the numbers as you can see um uh Betsy how do I screen share uh from the bottom of your menu you should see the um green button if you kind of hover around the bottom there we go okay all right is that coming up is that clear or do I need to make it bigger no it's fine okay so this is our general fund and how we've come out um mostly where we are there may be some small tweaks but this is substantively complete and this represents the change we made when we moved money from the Personnel line to the non-salary line to complete the issues we were having in the spring as you know from The Narrative we sent out earlier today um the pretty much the same trending items were happening and we ended pretty close to where we thought we would from the last report so with that are there questions I have one simple question if I may I mean the gasoline I thought we had all electric cars no I don't believe so with um facilities and trucks and whatnot I don't know I mean it's not a big amount of money and it's not something that we need to spend time on but um it is it is a journal entry from the DPW we do buy our gas through yes no I'm aware I'm aware and I I'm not I don't remember how many cars we have right now nor do I unfortunately yeah but I could find out if you'd like to know it's something it's not important for now it's not going to make a difference really in the total so I think we just go ahead but maybe you could just look into that at some point Diane are you gonna flip over to the memo and review it as well I will yes okay in fact let's do that right now okayy so this is a 493 953 which represents less than half a percent of our total general fund budget you know we always want to come in under budget but we got it in as close as we could and given the fact that we had real overages some key areas I think we did very well to bring it in as close as we did um we sure worked hard on it in these last few well we worked hard on it this whole spring so I think uh the team deserves a lot of credit for pulling it back as far as we did um transportation bounced up a bit more than we were thinking in May um it actually ended up falling a lot closer to where we originally thought in April but because of what we were able to do with circuit breaker intuition in May that helped us out to some degree um legal came in better than we originally projected in April um Professional Services ended up coming in a little worse than we even thought in April but you know it wasn't a huge deviation over the course of the spring nam's got a little better over the course of the spring but I mean these were these were the hotpots in the budget for us so no other raging hotpots emerged as we went through the spring questions on this section um I'm sorry was this distributed before this meeting yes it's in uh Betsy had sent it out can you just let me know what time that email was sent about 3:15 I think sorry Betsy I'm jumping across no thank you thank you 310 or 315 um yeah the one I have is 411 when they made a change in the narrative document actually all ER Carolyn's hand is up thanks um I guess my question is a comment and a question and none of this is a statement about your work obviously Diane or Susan's you are both new and I have I hope I've been clear in my appreciation of the work still um it's not a good situation to have to go to AC to ask for a reserve fund transfer when the statute that they'll be considering I think the wording includes that you know this can be done when there are extraordinary and unforeseen circumstances so the the professional the par professional salary line it's just it's a lot of money that was it but that shouldn't be unforeseen I I think I mean I I don't run the district but this is just seems like a super basic thing and I know you guys are making efforts um to try to ensure this doesn't happen again I guess I'm like how confident are you that this isn't gonna you know some of these things still might happen I totally get that the transportation the tuition even the settlements um but salary like we got to know who's working for the public schools of Brooklyn and how much we've promised to pay them so it's just really hard to um to look at that agreed and that's why when Susan got here she immediately was started making plans to get position control in place why we worked really hard throughout this fiscal year to get it in place for FY 24 and have it in place as we develop the fy2 budget so you know that that was a a flat flashing red light as soon as we both walked in the door and we've worked very hard at that and it is front and center in all of our efforts of hiring terminations all the HR paperwork all the payroll paperwork it is fundamental to what we're doing right now and it's it's the the biggest part of the budget you know the positions that's where you spend your money in education it's essential position control is vital to good budget management and you know I'm excuse me for jumping around I'm I'm deeply committed to it Susan's deeply committed to it it's the only way to manage a budget before we go to Helen and Suzanne if I could ask a follow-up question to um to Carolyn's which is uh like the I'm wondering about the on the ground implications of putting in position control next year so PA professional salaries are not among the items for which we have a budget increase next year reflecting our overage from this year so this means that $1.37 million worth of pair of positions that were filled this year are just not going to happen next year no that's not true okay so you might explaining what what the what it actually implies then what what we can't speak to is the 10.89 what exactly the head count was that made up that number we do know exactly what the headcount is that makes up our number for fy2 that's where the position control comes in we created the numbers from actual bodies positions where they are so so going forward as long as we're very careful about who gets hired into what position that we don't create positions that weren't in the budget without everybody being very clear about it and equally important how they're going to be funded it will be fine it's when you run into a very common situation and this happens in all districts all your paraprofessional positions that were budgeted or fill and yet a student has an immediate need for another pair of professional and so you must hire them the IEP demands it you must do it and so you add one and then a pair of professional leaves or three leave and then you hire four because you get your wires crossed and it sounds simple but it isn't pair professions come and go very quickly demands change students move around it's very easy to lose track of your pair of professionals if you're not really meticulous about position control okay I see Helen Suzanne Steven and Mariah I'm not sure can I ask question a followup on that because mine specifically about I don't actually understand yet the answer to my question I'm hoping that that will get answered in the course of what other people are going to ask but go ahead Mar it's a specific followup on that so Diane just so I'm clear the the salary that we have budgeted for par Professionals for next year includes essentially all of the people we have hired all of the positions we have hired currently so that while we have a gap in 24 we are not forast to have that Gap in 25 because you have position controlled all the existing positions in I'm seeing you nod so I think that Andy answers your question okay um actually it's fine if no one knows this off the top of their head but what is our what did we budget for par professional salaries next year is that maybe not a not a line that we can immediately see into I can't snap that up right now but I can get back to you with that okay okay thanks so I saw Helen then Suzanne then Stephen so I just since most people are new on the school committee um to the best of my recollection this is the first time we've gone to the um to the advisory committee for a reserve fund transfer one time we thought we had to and then in the end we realized we didn't have to um this is not something that we do all the time I think this is been an unusual year with a lot of um turnover that makes it very difficult to follow things that's not an excuse but it is the reason that we're doing that this year and my My Hope Is that with with Diane and Susan you know on top of things from the beginning we will be getting you know better reports and and know that where we are um sooner um so I think I think we have to put this into perspective of all the years that that we've stayed within our budget and haven't gone over it so Andy can I make just one little comment on Helen's remarks okay just that um just to add on to what you said Helen I don't I don't think it's about turnover among the staff I think it's actual cost overages in as you see in that last colum so I just want to be like clear that like when transportation and you see some of the reasons here right the delayed in sufficient the delayed invoicing and the fact that the primary vendor wasn't able to deliver and so we had to go to other vendors like there's real reasons for cost overages here which um which in my mind aren't necessarily tied to turnover it's really just actual costs yeah no the only thing we might have done would be to freeze things earlier had we had we known that would might might have been thing but yeah you're right you're right suzan yeah thank you I just want to support what Diane was saying um so these are for position control control positions that are already existing however when you do have a new IEP it is possible that the team will s will require that we add additional pair professional and so um I mean it's also possible at a at a team meeting that they will uh remove a pair professional from a student so it can go either way but um you can't always predict exactly what your needs are going to be as you go through the year that's the team's decision and when the team says yes this student needs a pair of professional or whatever it is then um that's a requirement that we have to fulfill so again it's it's it could go either way we could lose positions or not lose them but we could we could say dismiss positions for a particular IEP or it could be that we actually increase them and so it's hard to know exactly what that number is going to be okay thank you uh Stephen and then Mariah thanks um two questions one um Diane can you I I don't remember the number specifically I thought I remembered that when this when the possibility of a request for a reserve fund transfer initially came up in school committee we were looking at a number closer to 1. 7 million wasn't that the first number that we were looking at was that the April number in April when we were projecting we did not have a clear picture of where things stood we were we were asking for information we were seeking information we had a lot of ambiguity about what was out there we hadn't yet booked all of the expenses we knew about we knew there was expenses we didn't know about um looking at trend lines things were looking fairly horrifying um and so so you know it's always better to overt tell it than under tell it right based on that point in time that's what it was looking so the bottom the bottom row of that table that says net reduction in projections from April to June is 308 would that then have brought it to 1.4 before you made further adjustments so then did you make $1.4 Million worth of adjustments in the last week ,000 because there's still a 493 deficit I I didn't hear what you just said I'm sorry there's still a deficit but we didn't close oh I see so so if it was 1.7 initially and then a further reduction of 300,000 so that brings it to 1.4 and there's still 500,000 so that means you found $900,000 worth of savings can you can you walk us through a bit about what you did to find those savings or to find those actuals just to give us further insight into this we deferred about uh I don't remember the exact number uh we deferred some expenses to next year we denied some expenses outright we um we were able to utilize another $300,000 of circuit breaker funding um and that's pretty much all of it right there okay okay and that is and that is despite the fact that the par professional salary line increased by over by by about 1.2 and that's going to be a new level of spending that we're going to have to sustain going forward yes okay thank you Diane I appreciate that hey Mariah and maybe feel free to make the motion if you want to oh I was oh I was um I just wanted to say thank you to Diane and Susan for bringing us through this process and I know it's been really hard to um build on what Helen said to take to take ownership of something that you didn't create so you kind of have to figure out how the machine was built without an instruction manual or at least without even knowing the ins and outs of it the way that you might have if you had created it so it's really wonderful that you've been able to get this far and as you said I mean this is a relatively large amount but it is a very small amount of the budget and um and if we'd come in that fraction of a percent under we'd all be thrilled and if it goes the other way you know it's it's hard but it's it's hard to have this many moving parts and especially with all of the things that you mentioned especially I think the transportation is just something that um and the tuition as well although luckily that came in under but these are things that are largely much out of our control um so I am going to make the motion that if you don't mind Diane um could you scroll down a little bit to where I think the motion is so I can read it so the motion would be that the school committee requests a reserve fund transfer in the amount of $493,500 um for the school Department's fy2 24 general fund right is there a second to Mariah's motion I'll second um okay I saw Stephen's hand first if Stephen gets that honor um okay um so it's on the floor now and I saw Carolyn and then Stephens hands up thanks um just going back to the par line item and then for the 2025 um so and you know this all makes sense I'm I have no complaint whatsoever about um spending on staff and student facing um Educators Paris unid um that's where I I want to see money spent and it was helpful to hear a little bit from Suzanne um about how you know parah assignments can change throughout the year so while we heard that the FY 25 par number is based on the headcount we have here forgive me for not knowing off the top of my head um is there contingency money there as well for fy2 that will allow flexibility as needed I believe what Susan has planned is in the event that we need to add positions to plans to do a process of bringing it to your attention on the committee to say because of the following reasons we must we should add this position to the budget it will cost this we've identified this is a funding source do you approve it as an add-on to the budget so that it will be crystal clear to everybody that this is an increase so thank you for that explanation that sounds like the answer to my question is no there's not contingency money knowing that power professional needs can shift throughout the year I mean that's great but identifying a funding source I I mean that's pretty can I can I answer a little bit of this too Andy if that's okay all right so we had a multi-year budget guideline because there was a reserve Fund in the past Caroline for staff lines that got eliminated last year for for the current year and that's part of a little bit of why we're seeing this a little bit more uh exposed and in the guidelines we made it a multi-year plan to build that back so part of that was um the Staffing um positions that got put in at the high school um this year some of them were allocated and some of them were held as a reserve to be able to deploy at the high school and the plan is to build that back over multiple years to be able to um address this but also and and I'm sure Diane could talk about this at length but you know for example if a position is empty for a fraction of the Year those funds don't get spent and then it that's money that can be deployed to another position so you know any position in the district right if it's empty there so and there's reasons that positions are unfilled all the time so it does give us some flexibility in the Personnel line um and I'm glad you brought this up too because I meant to mention before I made the motion that Susan and I have talked about um exactly what Diane mentioned which is bringing these any sorts of new positions forward bringing them forward I believe through Finance to be discussed as part of just the standard process of the subcommittee so that again it does sort of create greater transparency into when positions are added and why and what the funding mechanism is so we're all on the same page thanks that is that's helpful and I um and that's helpful history and um that makes sense what you're saying that throughout the year there can be positions that are unfunded or unfilled and that allows the flexibility um and I don't mean this to be snipy at all but obviously that didn't work um this year because we ended up $1.3 million Caroline we have um other folks with their hands up and after that I would like to move to a vote if possible because we have barely scratched our agenda um so far so unless there was something pressing Carolyn can we move on to Stephen and then Jesse sure thanks um I just wanted to Echo Helen thanks Diane and and uh just say also that um also find myself frustrated and grateful I'm frustrated that we're at this point and that we have to request this transfer um I see we have a number of AC members in attendance who are probably equally frustrated and critical at this point but I'm grateful to you and to Susan to the work you're doing at bringing uh a more rational budget process and structure to us at the school committee so we could make decision ISS and we have a process by which these things are carry less risk going forward so thank you Jesse Yeah a question for um Diane um given what you said earlier about the Dynamics of people going in and out of positions positions opening up because of IEPs Etc what specific plan do you have from a say a software tool point of view so that the district is well school committee would have some transparency into this process you know day by day as the school year transpires or is it all done in a spreadsheet somewhere it is in fact done in a spreadsheet thank you all right um before perhaps moving to a vote I would also like to add my thanks to um Diane and Susan and the finance team for um the work you've been doing to understand what's been happening and then to explain it to us and the community in a way that makes sense and that we can understand thank you um all right Betsy do you mind taking down the documents so that you and I can see all the members all right so um I don't see any more hands up so I think we can move to a vote um Helen yes Jessie hi Carolyn yes Suzanne yes Mariah yes Steven yes Val yes and I vote Yes as well so we will be requesting that Reserve fund transfer I think we're speaking twice with the advisory committee tomorrow as well as the select board I just want to remind any members who might want to participate that all of those meetings well the two advisory committee meetings are in person and so we'll be going to the select board in person as well Helen that's right so it's it's gonna be in yeah it's all in person so 103 in town hall starting at 6 and then up to the select board around 7 and then back down to advisory which is in the sixth floor and then back to advisory on the first floor for 7 o'cl have the building commission at 6 but I'll try and see where I can float um Can Can we I ask for Karen King to be promoted for this next item sure I'll bring her over right now thank you Helen okay while that's happening I can introduce the next agenda item which is the a discussion and possible vote on approving theou for 50 Fisher Avenue uh to accommodate Pierce Middle School during construction so uh you'll recall that this is I believe the third time that we've taken this up at full school committee um where we left it last time was that um you know there was some differences between the version that the select board had voted and the version that um some of us would have liked to see um and so Mariah and Susan were asked to continue the process of working with our town partners to refine that document um where we seem to have landed is um the propos tonight would be to vote through theou as the select board voted it um we have um a memo of transmitt that we would like to send um to the Town Administrator and the select board explaining some of our um questions and concerns and there are now also updated exhibits A and B um and many thanks to Karen King for um putting that together exhibit a is an updated floor plan um indicating how we plan to use the the various interior spaces um and exhib it be uh is about the parking and um and the basketball court so Helen or Karen is there anything to add on this um I I think I would hope the people would realize that the perfect sometimes could be the enemy of the good and um Jaimie has said that she's able to work with this Mo MOA and has good relationships with people and so much of you know what we do is the relationships with other Town departments and um so I would hope that we could vote this tonight so that they could move forward thanks Helen Mariah I just had one question um which I apologize I didn't ask earlier but I couldn't remember from the last time we talked um if the new my new understanding of the number of parking spaces available to um met the need for the number of parking spaces I guess that's a question for Karen or Helen oh Karen meeting yep so the the number of parking spaces that that we now have um will will more than meet the number of teachers that will be on site at the building any given day okay so the it's 30 right that's what I understand now is 30 is 30 plus two handicap spots yes right okay thank you harn thanks um I didn't have that question but just um say going for Mariah I thought Jamie had said she needed 35 parking spots um and then so Helen given what you just said in the intro are do you do you still want us to send this memo that includes the concerns that other school committees had me Members had um expressed previously this transmitt so I have been on vacation till about three hours ago and I didn't see that transmitt I'm sorry about that I thought I saw everything but that particular piece I'm just looking at it for the first time too okay and that's why I'm asking because um and I I was relatively agnostic on this my perspective I'm not sure it's necessary but if it makes people feel better then we should do it uh I think if we have issues we talk to them and we tell them and they'll tell us what their issues are we try and mediate between us of what you know how to manage it I mean you know I think that our issues had to do with things after school it's clear that most the kid the kids won't be there after school except up until 3:30 when the last bus sleaves so you know there may be occasional um things that happen at the school but their plan is to not have them there to have them closer to where they're going to be at the end to be able to get home for the middle schoolers I don't think that's really even present in the transmission anyway because of the comments that Jamie made there's a question about the standard events like the back to school night not requiring permission but merely communication but the question of after school activities is not present in the transmittal memo okay Andy do you want me to go through it really quickly for people um I guess if uh if several members haven't had a chance to review it yet it might be worth summarizing I mean at a bare minimum we need to mention that the um exhibits that we uh approving are different from the ones that the select board had in front of them and also that the language around Fisher Hill Park um was clarified by the parks and open space director to mean that we can use it if permitted it's not a Brit blanket prohibition it just requires a permit yeah if you want to very Briefly summarize the other so again the idea was the idea was not to try and rewrite theou but just to let to sort of flag for people's awareness both things that we had learned since the select board had signed and also to just flag those were two of the five points in the the other three points are questions we have and um one of those is about using the building for the routine School related events like I just mentioned back to school night um and we're not demanding anything we just mentioned what we prefer that that there have been this communication and we just hope that there'll be no um there won't be any denial of these kinds of events and then the second of the three that isn't just sort of routine business is termination of theou flagged that there is language that's different in two different spots about how or when theou can be terminated and then there's um sort of the issues like around you know if if the town decides to um unilaterally terminate the agreement there's nothing specific in theou that actually articulates how that would happen but also we really hope that no one wants that to happen and so we just want to really understand what was in intended for that um and then the last one is just about snow removal um just that theou says that PSB has to coordinate with DPW for any snow removal needs and us just assuming and confirming that this is the already sort of the standard level of coordination that happens and not some different kind of coordination that they're expecting because I know that principles in DPW are already talking about things as needed so just assuming it's the same old same old but wanting to confirm and that's really it and then again the routine things are um the information from Alexandra veio about use being allowed under the standard permitting process and then just letting the select board know that both exhibits have been updated since they signed okay that sounds reasonable okay before we go to Carolyn would someone like to just move it so that it's move it second and Mariah Carolyn so I'm sorry to belabor this a little but um um so the now the select board voted an exhibit and the exhibit being having to do with construction in the parking lot it was so the select board voted something that didn't include the basketball court which was approved approved by them approved by us I think it was something like $77,000 now it's been updated to to include not just the basketball court but an additional vehicle entrance or exit and so I'm a little confused now because this is the first we're seeing hearing of that and I don't know what the cost implications are for additional construction and I sent a question after receiving this earlier today but it was pretty late in the afternoon it's not clear to me whether this additional construction was approved by the building commission by the select board by us or what the cost implications are and what the implications are whether there's tree removal just it's more construction so I'm a little so a couple I'm confused now because I believe Caroline you you were one of the members who last time wanted that it be updated to reflect the new entrance the changes to the no I wanted it to reflect the basketball court that was approved well implications which had implications for the remaining parking spaces and any new entrances or exits that might be needed the other thing that confuses me is why does the Moa have to address all the implications of things that it mentions so this is an MOA between us and the town about the use of the space and the use of those parking are is you know that we don't need to address any it construction costs okay that's that's fine if we don't have to I guess I'm just I'm confused and no we did not talk about a second entrance we approved a basketball court separately so I get then maybe I'm just flagging as a question and maybe someone can answer whether the additional construction work sort of how that fits in and and perhaps that's true it doesn't have to do with the Moa but I feel slightly uncomfortable approving something that has implications for more construction and cost that it's just is your hand up to answer Arn's question please go ahead then so the uh second ENT the second exit the egress was added very early on um still when when Matt Gillis was here and that between DPW and um Matt Gillis thought that that would be a better use especially if there were going to be a place based to sort of stop the back and forth through the one entrance and it also helps with the uh rubbish pickup Etc having a garbage truck come through there to pick up uh dumpster to have it just go out the one exit the uh creation of that egress is included in the cost of the basketball uh creation of the basketball uh play Space so uh there is no additional fees that would be uh part of that we will try to preserve as much of the greenery and the the um fencing as we can uh there is a little bit of the fencing that will need to come down but the the uh the main part of the fence will remain and we will stay within sort of the path area um for the the second ex for the for the exit sorry I keep saying second it's the the exit um if that helps at all thank you thank you Karen um Jesse and then if there are no more questions we can move to a vote yeah thanks Andy um first of all I just had noticed at the top of theou when I read it today that the Fifth Line uh fourth word meant to be its its but it was typed as just is so it just doesn't read correctly so maybe that change could be made before we send it over and then that's Fifth Line at the top of the first page fourth word um and then the second thing was when I read the theou and then read this letter that you wrote Andy I think they actually like they align very beautifully together and I think you know promote a collegial relationship between the town and and us you know representing PSV so um I have no issues I mean in reading it back and forth today you know to see where each of the five items were referenced we're adding some good language that tells chz in the town how we feel about some specific items and it sets a very a very you know sort of partnered kind of arrangement so I would suggest that we just send both and move forward thanks Jesse I I can't take credit really for drafting that that memo I think that was Mariah and Susan's work for the most part thank you yeah um okay so just to be clear the motion does include um sending that memo as well as approving theou itself with the new um attachments so let us move to vote Helen yes Jesse yes Carolyn yes Suzanne yes Mariah yes Stephen yes Val yes and I vote Yes as well so on a third reading we approve thatou can I ask a question yeah um Jesse were you referring to a typo in the Moa or in the transmission memo it's in theou in the in Thea itself okay thanks sure okay we have a couple of items for which we need Executive session so I would move to meet an executive session pursuant to mgl chapter 30A section 21A for the following purposes purpose three to discuss strategy with respect to collective bargaining with the beu units a b and Par professional unit if an open meeting have a detrimental effect on the bargaining and litigating position of the public body and the chair so declares and purpose seven to review and approve executive session minutes from the following meetings June 13 2024 and June 26th 2024 do I have a second second okay thanks Helen uh yes Jesse yes Carolyn yes Suzanne yes Mariah yes de yes B yes and I vote Yes as well and we're very likely going to be returning to open session afterwards so members uh you'll just close out this link and you'll have the other executive session link and the calendar invite so just be sure to close this one out because we'll come back to it thanks Betsy okay um welcome back to open session everybody uh we have two us to vote on um so would anyone like to move the fiser hill mou that we discussed earlier um okay I think just to be clear we're moving we already did that didn't we be sorry yeah there were three and I got mentioned the one that we are not voting on yes theou with the beu on full day beep who would like to move that all right Suzanne gets that honor and who would like to Second thanks Mariah um okay Mariah how do you vote Yes Carolyn yes yes Stephen yes yes and I vote Yes as well and that brings us to the second with the beu on um making the winter P director position nonaligned and adding two Unit B positions to the athletics department would anyone like to move that one thanks do I have a second okay Suzanne all right Mariah yes Carolyn yes Z yes even yes Suzanne yes and I vote Yes as well so so we have approved three moas today congratulations and we can adour the meeting good night everybody