this government meeting is brought to you by eastw works and our local cable subscribers joining us um we're going to call to order the public hearing related to our proposed school budget for FY 2025 uh just to give you a little example very quickly of how this is going to run uh we're going to begin with public speak this first part of our meeting tonight is is a public hearing exclusively to do with this budget so this first public speak session we would ask that any comments anybody wishes to make would be in relation to that proposed budget and any sort of financial issues that go along with that um if you have other things to share after we conclude the public hearing we'll be opening a regular session and we'll have a second public speak opportunity for any body who has concerns outside of that perview um we're not going to set a strict time limit but we're going to ask clearly there's a lot of people who are invested and eager to share tonight so we would just ask that you keep your comments to just a couple of minutes if somebody's starting to run long I'll signal you gently just to wrap things up so that all all of the people in the room and joining us virtually will have an opportunity to share their thoughts this evening um we are going to roll call in Ben hery here Eric guette here Megan Harvey here Linda Marquee here Sam Hunter here mayor L Chappelle mayor lelle here Laura Scott present um so we are going to begin with opening that public speak we're going to take folks in public attendance first if you want to form a line come to the podium you can introduce yourself and share your thoughts and again we just ask you keep it to a couple of minutes thank you so much see a people are raising their hands on okay good evening members of the school committee thank you for giving me an opportunity to speak tonight I asking you to vote for a level service budget a level service budget is not a w is not a wish list or a luxury it is a necessity it is the only way to preserve the quality of Education that our community values and expects it is the only way to protect the Investments That have made in our schools with the construction of two state-of-the-art buildings it is the only way to honor the hard work and dedication of our teachers administrators and staff who have gone above and beyond to support our students during and after covid by adopting new modes of teaching and learning and supporting the social and emotional needs of our students and families for the last 25 years I have had the privilege of working with individuals who have devoted their careers to educating and supporting our students and some of my former students work in this very municiple building there are also police officers firefighters EMTs and teachers that's why I have to be really nice to my students CU some of them now are my co-workers my current students are the future of the city and soon maybe one of them will be elected to serve on a local governing body such as this one you have an important vote tonight because you are funding the future of the city please pass a level service budget and a fair contract for our staff our students and staff deserve nothing less than to have the resources and support they need to continue to thrive and succeed thank you for your time and attention and for your service to this great city thank you Sean anybody else present in the room tonight go ahead to CL you're allowed to class just remember they're supposed to do names and stuff right I believe Sean did introduce himself so just a reminder to everyone and just introduce yourself by name before you begin to speak thank you Sam I'm Evan zemer I have three children in East Hampton one no longer attends East Hampton but the other two and my comments are going to wander a little off funding but I do not think they can be addressed without funding I know providing even funding for level Services seems unaffordable but the current services are not providing enough for our struggling students and our hardworking staff especially in the elementary school we choiced out a child on an IEP realizing their well-being was more important than the civic duty to stay in East Hampton and I'm learning that we're not the only ones we are we East Hampton are becoming known in the valley as one that is school is not supporting our neurod Divergent students and now our other child a third grader a high achieving rule following student is having her well-being enjoyment of school and confidence undermined by both other children's Behavior and the consequences provided so we as parents see both sides the children with the behavioral challenges and the children who do not have them we appreciate the admin is trying has hurt our concerns our class her classroom teacher has been great all year but it's just not improving it's clear to us that the lack of support for children with difficulties is impacting everybody the staff are overwhelmed and can't meet children's needs behavioral challenges are so much that overwhelmed teachers have no tool other than Collective punishment because they need to continue with their class the behavior challenges are already hard enough on the students without those challenges but the collective punishment makes it worse we need enough trained staff to offer real support at recess real support in classrooms in addition to the classroom teachers we need enough staff to be able to in offer small um small enough to intervene and we need regulation support for kids who need breaks we need staff to understand children children do well when they can and when they can't they have unmet needs and lagging skills they need someone with the time to say hey seems like you're having trouble settling down and doing your math what's up and not settling for the first answer solving the problem certainly not taking recess away from the class we all do well when we can parents do well when they can support staff do well when they can teachers do well when they can building administrators do well when they can school committee members do well when they can schools have unmet needs and lagging skills that require support and help and the services as they stand are not enough when my children heard I was coming tonight my youngest wrote you a letter I would like to read it dear Schoolboard group consequences are unfair when some people don't do anything they still get consequences it feels discouraging and it makes it so some people feel like that if they misbehave or not they will still get in trouble also if they get recess taken away when they didn't do anything that is infuriating and appointing and it is not fair on her own she also made an additional copy of any media is present thank you Evan I love that thank you amazing thank [Applause] you awesome hi my name is Leah euu I'm a parent of a fourth grader and a sixth grader at MBS I've been watching the budget process unfold have attended some of the finance committee meetings and I'm impressed by the work of our finance committee and the school business manager Nick who has been quick to respond to my parent questions my concerns he's been transparent and they've all been professional thank you for your hard work work and for agonizing over this process together still the proposed funding is not doing enough to adequately meet the needs of our students and our teachers well it is true that funding from the state and federal government hasn't met our expectations this has been true for decades as a city it is our responsibility to provide enough resources to adequately fund each level of our school system so that we are meeting the needs of our students this will not happen if our town officials and we the taxpayers continue to accept a self-imposed commitment to keep our school funded at 39% of our overall budget a noticeable 10% lower on average than surrounding towns it's not good while serving on school counsil at mvs I have become aware of way too many ways our current budget impairs our abilities to meet the basic legal requirements set forth by desie especially in the areas of our already struggling special education department and especially in regards to how we have organized academic instruction I'm going to talk about the middle school because there are other parents here to talk about the elementary school in my household I'm hearing from two students who are struggling in stacked quote stacked classroom settings where the numbers of IEPs and 504 service needs have overwhelmed the teachers abilities to fully deliver all aspects of the grade level curriculum in a way that truly diff truly differentiates and is not distracting to my kids I don't want to feel like the only way to get my kids uh an education differentiated at their level is to Choice out of this town and I keep bringing this up and there are no solutions that are viable it's very frustrating furthermore our middle school has not updated its digital literacy curriculum or science Technology and Engineering standards to comply with those laid out by the state years and years ago in SCE it's 2016 and that's the law so we're not in compliance with the law our Middle School also lacks a curriculum map to ensure that all students equitably receive basic exposure to areas now mandated by state benchmarks we're sending them into test that they haven't gotten any background in it's really disappointing I'm proud of what our teachers are doing with what you have please don't hear me incorrectly I really am every one of you but this isn't enough and our town needs to do better I don't know what needs to change but the way we're approaching this needs to change that 38% needs to come up we need ideas from from you guys from anyone Bottom Line This is not acceptable and the district will lose more parents like me who really care and keep coming back here to fight for this stuff we also lose really good teachers who are tired of dealing with too much thank you for listening I know I I'm not preaching to you I know you know this but this is my honest feedback thank you [Applause] Leia good evening my name is Kira heninger and I'm a parent of two fifth graders at Mountain bu School our schools have been chronically underfunded for years years with an average budget increase of 1.65% prior to FY 23 the 23 and 24 budgets included higher increases thanks to the school committee superintendent mayor and city council but it just hasn't been enough to recoup the losses and cuts made to necessary teacher and staff positions as well as Cuts in basic services for our students each year we do not have any World Language or steam offerings at our Middle School post pandemic schoolage children and adolescents have been diagnosed with anxiety and depression at much higher rates increased School refusal has led to Chronic absenteeism which was presented to you recently as part of the high school school Improvement plan poor academic achievement scores are higher than ever leading to more students qualifying for special education services which was also recently shared with you by our curriculum director I urge you to ask for a review of the current IEP service grids and identify whether the current special education teachers par professionals and related service providers are at adequate Staffing levels to meet these legally obligated services this review is recently requested by a school Committee Member in Northampton and the proposed budget was adjusted as the proposed Cuts eliminated positions that were needed to provide these Services we need more than level Services we need additional teachers and Par professionals to support students who are struggling the most if you do not put forth a budget to address the increasing needs of our students all students will suffer but the students that will suffer the most are those in the most vulnerable populations I have participated in enough of the recent school committee meetings to know that I'm preaching to the choir I know that you agree with me about about the needs we have as a school district and that you want to provide the students in eastampton an education that is Equitable to surrounding communities I also know you want to work with the Union in negotiations to provide adequate pay to the people that support our students and give so much of themselves each day I can urge you to make these decisions But ultimately it is your responsibility to provide enough staff and resources in order to successfully implement the mission statement and goals and objectives of the East Hampton School District thank you thank [Applause] you anyone else in the room or we can start if you want to raise your hand virtually and Megan can call you out because I can't see her screen I made it dark so I can keep my battery life I don't see any hands as of now I see a hand okay um we have Megan Davis I believe you can unmute yourself hi my name is Megan Davis um I am a parent of two kiddos at East Hampton Public Schools I also teach in a middle school um in a different district and I just um I want to thank you for the work that you're doing I want to Echo what you've heard from other parents it is really hard um to explain just how much need there is in our schools right now academically socially emotionally and the job that teachers are being asked to do is so far beyond what they were doing 20 years ago um teachers are providing fullon social emotional support while still being held accountable for teaching their academic subject at a level of rigor for students to pass their mandated tests and also while differentiating for students with different academic social emotional behavioral needs um and as um the previous speaker just mentioned our students are coming in with a lot more emotional needs in the last few years than they've had um and so I you know um I'm just here to be part of that parent body of East Hampton saying to you the school committee that you have the parents of this town's backing to ask for what our schools need um we need need more than a level service budget um but we certainly need no less than a level service budget um we need the the teachers to be compensated for the work that they're doing and to retain the teachers that we have because teachers are leaving this profession due to the fact they're underresourced um and are given they're given a job that's impossible to do when a building is underst staffed so I'm begging pleading for a budget that um staffs are building way that we're able to support the students um and and provide the the resources that teachers need in order to do their job well um so thank you very much thank you [Music] [Applause] Megan Margaret I think you should be able to go ahead and unmute yourself did she drop off she's back oh she's back there she is I don't can you unmute yourself Margaret yeah perfect goe yes I am so eager to be here that I've come on 14 different screens because um something collapsed so anyway I'm here uh my name is Margaret bets I have been in this district for 17 years and I want to say that I feel like though I couldn't agree more that schools should never have to beg for money the way that schools have to beg for money um you know since my entire childhood and Beyond there's always been this idea that schools have to have baked sales while we make more and more jet airplanes so we know that there's always been that Gap but I've never felt as optimistic about um a school committee as I do right now and about the ability for the school committee to understand and respond to the needs that we have in our um in our town um and I absolutely agree there is more that is needed um but I am so grateful that we have a level service budget to present tonight um and I deeply support that um as well as I know that the school committee and the Union want to see a fair contract I'm excited for that process as well I feel very respected right now in my profession and um in the work that that I'm doing and I just want to thank the school committee for trying to find a way um in the midst of this the number of budget cuts that are being asked um in cities all around us that we are are this year um not being asked to make cuts and um we'll be able to fully fund um at level the level service needs if this budget is passed but again I I agree with everyone who says and we need more because I think we all know that we do so thank you very much for the hard work that you've done on this budget um and I am enthusiastic and hoping that it that it passes forward thank you thank you Margaret see any other hands as of yet we're going to call one more time to see if anyone in attendance or attending virtually has an interest in sharing your thoughts we're going to give that about one more minute just to make sure we don't we do have one from home at least should be able to unmute Elise can you unmute yourself yes I can and I apologize I have a timer that's gonna go off in a minute I think so I will try to stop it if I can't if it goes off in the middle of my comment um okay thank you to everybody here listening um I want to strongly urge this group to increase funding for our schools at a percentage that will match or even exceed the percentage spent on education by neighboring districts and fully support students staff administrators and families it's clear from anecdotes told to me by my own children um in addition to those I've heard from fellow parents and caregivers that the overall social emotional culture communication and educational and extracurricular opportunities within the district have declined and whether this is due to trauma caused by covid the merging of schools into the Mountain View building teacher overwhelm um or combination of all these things other things I haven't mentioned um just underfunding our schools is is beyond counterproductive I have been a fierce advocate for our schools um over the years because I believe in the concept of public school education ideally acting as the great equalizer it was designed to be and when my children first started their academic Journey here in East H and I was enthusiastic about their experiences here a vocal advocate for the schools um but it has been disheartening lately um just considering some of the experiences um that I have had um I'm I'm specifically going to talk to some Middle School experiences um I am for the very first time considering choicing at least one child my middle school child into another District um and I need to emphasize How Deeply school choice goes against my ethical and moral compass I've never felt so disheartened about the possibility of a decision um but the way everything relates back to funding is just the lack of opportunities and resources that we're offering students compared to neighboring districts including strong Arts programs um at the middle school specifically theater uh foreign language offerings adequate training and oversight for staff and adapted or differenti instruction that is that timer hold on I apologize um so adaptive and differentiated instructions such as Universal Design for Learning methodologies um adequate Staffing training to help navigate the social emotional needs of students Afterschool offerings for our older students um I used to be a middle school science teacher and just one thing that happened recently as I was telling my middle schooler about the science activities that I used to do with my students and she said you had your students do activities uh she was flabbergasted about the idea of doing Labs things like that and just the idea that that was available to students in other districts was confounding to her um if there's not funding for the basics expected in contemporary education train resources regarding multimodal education um science lab supplies Hands-On materials for all subjects that's concerning and speaks to the budget um and I worry that there's also punitive responses to Social and emotional needs from students this tells me that teachers are overwhelmed um also due to lack of resources funding support perhaps um I worry teachers may feel they have to resort to punitive measures because of a lack of support but they're never effective in the long term so when short-term responses are are regularly employed that indicates a base need teachers may have to just survive to the next moment the next class or the next day and we don't want to be a district that runs on survival mode we certainly don't want that reputation so please consider funding a funding structure that helps repair our educational reputation not just within eastampton but in the region in the state with our students with the community um and uh that's that's all I'll have to say right now thank you very much thank you [Applause] Elise anyone else online I don't see any any anyone attending remotely has one more opportunity to raise your hand virtually and we can give you an opportunity to speak likewise anyone in public attendance who wishes to share their thoughts we're going to give it about 30 seconds and then close public speak for this public hearing I don't see anything okay most of you are probably aware but I'll just reiterate we um we've adopted Robert's Rules of Order it's improper for us to respond to you at the time that you're sharing your thoughts publicly but I want to let all of you know both those that are here tonight in person and those that have attended remotely to share your thoughts that we take both your compliments and your criticism with the same um importance and significance we are taking notes and we will discuss this and we're going to move this forward tonight what we'll be focusing on is the fy2 budget our work doesn't begin nor does it end there um so these are a lot of issues that were raised tonight that we'll have to keep picking up and working on together as we move forward so we're going to close public speak for this and we're going to move to a presentation by Nick Bernier our school business manager was going to propose um present his proposal for the fy2 school year how's that Tech going Nick working on it seamless it's going to be seamless you should be a co-host our goal is so Nick will'll have a visual presentation our goal is that you'll be able to see that on this screen check it out Madam chair just to make a a point um the presentation and public comment appreciated but more of a tech thing the members of the committee who are voting cannot see what's on the screen which is a concern I think the space bar Omar I think I'll be okay can we push it back and tip it more this way oh to get it Omar if you can get these screens to work we tried from looking the remot right there over there because it was again if we just roll it back I can't roll back any not a cord not any longer I don't want to cut that see this C is tight yep thank you very much mayor can you see now again the angle's okay yep okay [Music] want [Music] I sorry oh you can go ahead next oh I can go okay and no well good evening everyone now this is a much larger crowd than I'm used to presenting my monthly budget reports in front of so uh I I hope I live up to the expectation here um before I I get started but you know basically what this presentation is is you know a summary of the the budget document um that contains our fy2 proposed operating budget before I start there's a couple folks I'd like to thank um who have been very helpful throughout this process um first of all I'd like to thank Michael oconor and his students at East Hampton High School for their work on designing the cover um I think it's great that students design the cover or the the budget book every year you know it it allows them to be represented in a document that you know otherwise they might not think about that much even though what's in it greatly impacts them um I'd like to thank melen Hollister for helping me make some of my budget book look pretty uh she helped design a few of the pages and it was very very helpful and it you know it I think the visuals make things stand out well I'd like to thank Je Libby for popping it on the website for me and taking care of all that stuff um I'd like to thank our uh administrative leadership team for all the work throughout the process these processes are certainly or can be difficult and um it takes a lot of collaboration and I appreciate that I uh work in a place where we have that Spirit um and also I'd like to thank um our school committee Finance subcommittee um for your work and input during the process we've uh we met four times um you know throughout this process um you know to to come up with what we've got for you tonight um and lastly I'd like to thank some uh City officials both uh elected and appointed for their input and conversations that I've had throughout this process too it really does take an entire Village to develop a budget um but it's it's important that that Village works together because the the school department budget is going to be the largest budget in any municipality so um all right that being said uh we'll get to the actual presentation so I'd just like to start off there's like a little add a glance uh slide here kind of showing some of the the things that happen in East Hampton Public Schools um there's an enrollment breakdown um by the high school and the three levels at Mountain View um there's some statistics there in terms of what percentage of 11th and 12th perod students successfully complete Advanced coursework um our graduation rate uh of 88.7% is listed there that's the class of 2022 uh last year's data is not officially available yet from the state um it gives you a list of uh number of Staff we have uh within the district some statistics on you know average class size student to teacher ratio uh our attendance rate things like that um we offer 21 after school sports and over 25 after school clubs and activities uh there's several postsecondary Pathways available there's a a sampling of elective courses listed there uh and of course we had to shout out our We the People team for um being state champions eight times so [Applause] um you know I I know that that every year during budget season there's always you know difficult conversations to be had but as we have them I think it's also important to highlight the good things that that occur within the the [Music] district um little bit of History here um this is really just kind of like State stuff for lack of a better term um and how our Chapter 70 funding Aid um is calculated every year I mean basically the city has a minimum share that uh the state C cul Ates that they're supposed to kick in in order to provide in a minimum uh education it's called a foundation budget um when you add the chapter 78 to that you come up with the required minimum that the the city or town needs to spend on education um and then after it's all done your uh your net School spending is is you know calculated to see where you were based on that um historically East Hampton's net School spending is uh usually about 8 to 10% above the uh required minimum Foundation budget um believe it or not there are 15 districts in the state that only have the minimum Foundation budget every year and that's all their people will kick in for them so um I don't know how they function that way but there are some districts that do one kind of wrench that got thrown at us this year is our Chapter 70 increase um is minimum um the last two years uh we were not a minimum Aid District anymore we received um over $300,000 in Chapter 70 increase in both fy2 uh3 and 24 um that's a huge impact um going into fy2 at least what's uh on the cherry sheet that comes from the governor's house to budget proposal um we're back to a minimum Aid District receiving only $30 per um student uh calculated based on our foundation enrollment so um that really only gives us an increase um of about $47,476 to inflation uh which is a word I'm certain we're all sick of hearing over the last few years but um when the student Opportunity Act was passed um they kind of redid the Chapter 70 formula a bit and they make adjustments based on inflation for various categories uh that is kept at 4 and a half% so the last couple years even though inflation was really high 45% 42% we still benefited from it uh unfortunately next year they've uh their calculations put it at 1.3 so that's basically how we became a minimum a district again we're not we didn't lose enrollment our subgroups didn't really change all that much and you know it wasn't that it was it was really just the inflation Factor there has been some advocacy at the state level um for them to finagle that and sort of redesign it but um due to the the state revenue not being what they've anticipated over the last six or so months I don't know how much traction that's going to gain at least this year uh so here's my summary slide um our fy2 proposed operating budget is in the amount of 20,671 5775 uh which represents uh a 1,842 176 $682 increase over this years uh percentage wise that's 9.78 which is a high increase to ask for um for sure it's you know it's generally increases are lower than that but there are many many reasons behind that which I'll get to as I go through the rest of this presentation um so here's some of the the factors that went into all of this um we have uh about 53.3 6% of our EA teachers are in the top three steps of their respective Lanes so it means that that a lot of our our staff are on are toward the top of the salary scale um it's unknown if all eligible teachers will move up a step uh going into next year due to the deadline for course completion not being until August um there are you know quite a few people that could move up a step if if course work is is completed and uh and documented but we don't at this time know how many uh that will be we know some of them we do not know all of them um unknown Personnel cost increases as we uh continue our negotiations with all bargaining units I already mentioned the Chapter 70 funding being flat um inflation is currently about 3.4% so you know that's in there too and prices of things are still going up um for our students that attend ctec their tuition increase will be 5% next year I do have that figure from them I don't have Smith vokes yet um because the state sets that and they generally don't do it until April or early May um there has been a push uh this year uh discussed at a couple school committee meetings here uh for more students um to attend Smith vocus instead of ctec uh over at the collaborative um so that factors in as well as Smith voke uh this year costs $4,800 or so more to um to attend than CC does um the AO District tuition increase for our students that are in specialized programs out of district is 4.69% that rate is set by the operational services division uh in the state um this current years was 14% likely most of you have heard plenty about that um while 4.69 looks good next to the 14% um if you take the average from like fy1 up until now and you back out this year's 14 because it's an outlier the Inc average increase is like just under 2% so that 4.69 is still not great um and certainly does have an impact to the amount that we uh spend on tuitions um the sr3 funding uh part of the the covid relief funding that districts got is expiring um funds have to be expended by September 30th of this year um ours will be expended by June 30th of this year um you know those funds were were vital crucial uh the three rounds of them that we got um to help districts um get through uh the the darkest days of the pandemic um but now that the funds are drying up it doesn't mean that the needs uh are going with it um so districts find themselves in in a you know tough position here where they've been relying on this funding for um you know the better part of four years and then all of a sudden it's it's going to be gone so um that is a huge Factor uh with the increase in this proposed budget um on a brighter note our cafeteria account is looking good because of the universal breakfast and lunch being free um with the um meal participation is in inreased because of that we have way more students eating uh meals at school than we did prior to the pandemic uh which is very good obviously it means students needs are being met it means they're more ready to learn um anybody who's experiencing food insecurity Can U you know benefit from that of course um and the meal reimbursements we get have uh made our account pretty healthy so um things I can do with that are really just food service related but equipment repairs and things that are maintenance budget used to cover this can Now cover so that does help us save some some local funding oops uh of course uh if you've received a utility bill recently you understand electricity costs continue to Rise um and as you would imagine it's not cheap to power Mountain View um so those are some of the the main factors for our our increases I will get a little more detailed uh as we go on um what I'm presenting to you uh tonight is a needs-based budget something I like to refer to as the path to a long recovery or perhaps a longer one than we'd thought or hoped um so this uh budget is a proposal to the school committee that reflects needs and priorities as identified by The District in accordance with our goals values and our um strategic plan or strategy for growth um it's one that seeks to align personnel and services students continue to recover from pandemic related learning loss and Trauma you've heard of long covid certainly um uh schools are experiencing a long recovery um as I said much longer than we we'd hoped or um or even thought um this budget is is a proposed budget is one that Taps other funding sources such as school choice and circuit breaker to ease the burden on the city as much as possible um while maintaining level services for students who are still showing High needs uh post pandemic uh and lastly one that seeks to maintain level Services as our Co relief funds expire yet our fixed costs continue to rise uh this slide right here just shows you that the the needs are still very prevalent even though our enrollment has gone down um us along with many districts um experienced a drop in enrollment uh particularly in the year that schools reopened from the the covid closures um many schools were remote for almost all year some were hybrid very few are all in person but uh regardless of the model that your District had come up with enrollment dropped universally pretty much across the state um while that's happened if you take a look at the subgroups or the selected populations on this slide um you'll see our our high needs percentage has gone up um 99.9% since the onset of covid uh our students with disabilities uh percentage is up to 28.4 which is very high compared to the state average um that's up 8 and a half% since the onset of covid um our El population has remained pretty consistent that's one um that hasn't fluctuated much uh our low income percentage has gone up 7.7% uh and our uh first l language not English is kind of up 1% so that's remained relatively consistent as well um bottom line is you know the enrollment is down but the the needs are are still growing um which is why we are presenting to you a level service budget tonight uh here's uh enrollment from fy16 up until what we project next year's will be um our highest was 1523 and fy16 our lowest was down to 138 80 um we're slowly recovering I would say but certainly not to the the levels prior to the the pandemic this is a class siiz slide at least what we anticipate based on our projected fy2 enrollment figures we think about 85 kindergarteners uh about 85 first graders grade uh grades two through five grow steadily um but this uh proposed budget keeps class size uh at a at a reasonable number uh and it does Target the uh very early grades as I know is a school committee priority over the last few years to to keep K and one you know is as reasonable as possible obviously the youngest kids have needs that the older ones don't um so this is what our average class size would look like based on the enrollment projections one second I want to remind the public because I see some people like some of these slides are going to catch your interest increasing this entire budget book is available on our website so you can peruse it at your leisure platform as well we do have iners copies that can be viewed in the building but it's probably easier for you to access it through the website and I'll post this presentation on the website tomorrow as well so it's there for [Music] you or actually Jean will post this on the website tomorrow um okay so in this uh proposed budget um our FTA uh FTE changes are uh nothing nothing major here uh the proposal is to reduce 1.0 FTE special ed teacher at Mountain View that's currently vacant um we're just proposing to not replace that position um we do have a 1.0 FTE teacher returning to East Hampton High from a leave of absence um and one East Hampton High School staff member who will increase from a 67 to a83 so our net increases as just that 0.16 um which you know does represent a level service budget uh here's some District generated funding sources the other buckets of money that we pull from to fund our schools our um special ed 240 Grant I anticipate it'll be about 558 those figures won't be out till later in this year um but that should be around where it is um if anything it's slightly low um AO District tuition uh is a huge piece of what we use that for uh we consult um with um folks in the social emotional realm uh specialized related Services can be funded out of there as well as professional development um that's a vital grant that no District could survive without our Title One Grant uh funds three reading Specialists um in the elementary level as well as some supplies title two generally funds mentor stiens for our new educator induction program as well as some District PD title 4 um is generally used for our English uh learner program tutors and supplies PD supplies some intervention materials um you can see those two grants are Rel relatively small uh circuit breaker uh for those of you are not familiar with that that's uh reimbursement for high special ed costs um we get the reimbursement the year after the spending happens the special ed spending that we're doing right now um the portion of it that hits the threshold um will be claimed in the summer and the reimbursement will come in next year um this budget proposes to use 720,000 out of that account um and really it'll pay for tuitions and specialized Transportation uh and then there's some other revolving accounts including school choice that's the big one uh I propose 2.24 five million out of that to fund some staffing um Regular and voke transportation um as an offset to the electricity cost um the Food Service revolving account number is in there that why is might be why it seems so high it's because the food service is about $830,000 of that um and the athletic revolving fund as well which funds uh athletic officials some equipment some transportation and things like that so you add all that up and you get over 2 million dollar we use to um to support students that doesn't come out of the general fund uh here's kind of an overview slide you see our uh the FY 23 budget from two years ago you see this current Year's budget and then uh the proposed figure that I mentioned earlier um so you can kind of see the history here over time of of the increases um the components of this increase though like how did we get to that 9.78 you might want um so there's a little breakdown here um Personnel salary moving from Grants to the general fund would be uh just shy of $500,000 um that's that's really your your sr3 funded staff um with also small pieces of uh funded out of an seal grant that we currently have that we're not going to have next year uh special ed Transportation I project is going to go up about 91,4 based on our current student needs um that's you know about 49% of that increase AO district tuitions is going to are going to go up $350,500 4.76 based on our current um statistics um so of that 99.78% that accounts for almost 2% of it uh utilities I think about 36,000 um but the rest of that's in school choice I mean I think it's going to go up more than that but this this is just what's tapping the general fund here uh vocational tuition I project to go up about $19,99 128 I base that on 87 students uh which is the best uh guess I have right now um what I do is I take our graduating seniors obviously back them out I move up the grades 10 uh or 9 10 and 11 students uh and then I I do communicate with folks over at Mountain View um to see how many applications have have gone out and everything so I can try to project how many grade n students there will be that's a little harder to do but um I've come to to 87 um with with an increase in Smith voke as opposed to lpvec um as I said earlier there seems to be uh sort of a push some you know increased interest in attending that uh program rather than ctec uh and the other part of that is The Graduate ating class at Smith voke right now is only five students so there will certainly be more than five incoming ninth graders so it's not like there's going to be an offset there we're not graduating a large class we're graduating very few and they'll probably be about 11 or 12 that come in so um you know you factor all that in and and you're you're looking at a pretty sizable increase in vocational tuition uh and then the rest of it's just all other categories um other person L increases that weren't in Grants um supplies contracted Services um some expenses that were in the Esser grants there's a lot of software in there and we did do a pretty deep dive about you know what can we live without what don't we need anymore I mean there was stuff that needed to be purchased for remote learning that's not really needed anymore but there's also a lot of screeners that were purchased with covid money that are necessary and will be as time goes on so um we're proposing to build that into this budget as well so staff can continue to uh do formative assessments both in the world of academics and um social emotionally um so all of that accounts to about three and a half% of that so you total all that up together and that's why um we're at you know a relatively abnormally High proposed increase if you break it down by location um you'll see that high school and Mountain View nothing really sticks out there um their increases are pretty similar and not that High um but special ed and districtwide you'll see jump up quite a bit um I think you've all heard at nazim about the special ed expenses um but you know districtwide uh you know there's a lot of Personnel in there as well so that's you know if you break it down by location what it comes down to um and then I I think this is my last slide it's a summary of total costs from all funding sources just so you can kind of see everything that goes into a whole school budget uh the First Column is the general fund you can see the figures we spend on Personnel transportation tuitions that includes both voke and special ed tuition uh utilities and then all other costs would be you know supplies and contracted services and things like that the bottom figure there is our proposed budget for next year um you'll see $1.2 million proposed out of school choice uh750 going towards Personnel 300 towards transportation and 150 towards utilities circuit breaker you can see transportation and tuitions totaling 720,000 uh our food service account is listed there I I mean that will take care of itself there's not going to be any impact on the general fund but it's important that that's represented our athletic revolving fund a little bit for personnel that funds an assistant track coach uh and there's a little bit built in there for postseason bonuses when um coaches teams make the postseason um transportation we do budget some from the general fund for that but it always runs out because transportation is expensive and we often have to contract with people other than Durham because they can't get buses for the the uh events um particularly in the fall and spring in the winter it's not a problem at all because most things are at night but spring and fall it's harder um and then all other costs for athletic would be equipment and officials um renting the the rink from Willison um you know things like that memberships um Awards things you know things of that nature uh chapter 71 revolving fund is uh that's bus pass Revenue that gets applied to our bus uh expenses uh and then grants and other revolving I mentioned earlier to you um you see that you know the title one does cover some Personnel um and the rest of it is largely tuition so you add all that up together and and you come up with a you know total budget of 24,26 4395 um so you know even though our our proposed operating budget from the general fund this year is is High um we do tap other funding sources as much as we can to offset that um one last uh thing about school choice that $1.2 million figure is is high it's it's higher than I would have liked to have used um but we're in a position where where there's no choice I I mean I the the proposed operating budget as is is is high and it was important to offset that as as much as possible um the impact of that though is down the road a couple of years we won't be able to spend um more school choice money than we take in on a given year for the last few fiscal years we have we've done that comfortably um and at the end of fy21 there was a pretty sizable balance in that fund um and you know the reason for that a lot of it had to do with covid which the spending was down I mean there was you know a lot of things not happening less Transportation less Subs less activities running I mean so stuff that was budgeted for wasn't all spent so school choice money wasn't touched that much fast forward to fy22 when I well when I got hired right at the beginning of FY 23 I had to close the fy22 fiscal year um and there was a deficit so I had to apply quite a bit of school choice money to close that Gap more than was budgeted um last year we applied just about as much slightly less than what was budgeted actually um and then in this current year I'm going to have to apply more than was budgeted I know there's going to be a deficit at the end of the year uh that figure at this point I I you know I don't know but it will be um offset by extraordinary relief funding that we're going to get through circuit breaker um probably in May um that being said we take in about I don't know $683 or so thousand of school choice Revenue uh currently this year and as you you know it's not going to be any higher than that next year I mean maybe slightly it could very well be less it's less this year than last year it really depends on how many Kids Choice in and right now you're just going off your current group um you don't really know until the year starts but you can see that $1.2 million figure is much much higher than what we're taking in which again we can do that right now it's it's there and it's important to do to offset the ask of the city but starting an FY 27 that formula is not going to work anymore I think I can get through FY 26 doing this uh based on my projections I carry a live spreadsheet at all times about my school choice projections because they do fluctuate throughout the year um just because you want an updated figure um but FY 27 I mean we'll still obviously use it to offset the budget but the amount we use it's going to have to go down because it won't be there anymore um all right we finally get to my question slide we want to start down at desend anybody who wants to go first May sure yeah should I unshare this I don't think anyone wants to look at that do you want me to stop sharing it keeps our faces off the screen I mean folks might ask questions off of the slides and you might want to go back to a slide oh that's true saying okay I'll leave it there then um so great budget book we've met a couple of times thank you both to the superintendent and to the business manager of ju um having a couple of meetings with the internal finance committee uh building out and looking through your budget um I would say the process has been strong and I think a lot of that has to do with Nick attending the weekly internal Finance meeting um um which is composed of the treasurer the auditor the assessor Nick HR Director oh sugar yeah HR director and myself so and Lindsay and Lindsay yeah so thank thank you Nick got it um you know a couple of uh questions that that I have that I I guess I will admit upfront I know the answer but would like to get on on the record and make sure that I'm actually looking at the right numbers sure um with the total City expenditure of 39% for Education are there any other expenditures that push that perc up yeah okay if you and I I'm thinking that that 39% came from the DLS website you know the interactive tool you can use if you take a look at the pie charts on there like it'll it'll break up cities and towns spending um into various buckets um for their whole total operating budget um municipalities you know for Education you're not going to see health insurance in there you're not going to see dental insurance in there you're not going to see retirement contributions in there that's going to be under unclassified um a place like East Hampton's going to have higher debt service than other places because we just built a $109 million school that we're going to be paying off for quite some time so the total picture of Education spending is contained in a couple of those different buckets if you look at a town budget however particularly one that's a member of a Regional School District health insurance is in a Regional School District's budget so all of that's in there um so a Debt Service would be there too um so you know it's just important that when people look at those things myself included you know the story behind the statistics is is there too great um thank you and then as far as Debt Service um for the new school um that is in a different bucket and it's not a part of this budget no correct correct no that's one of the city's indirect costs um there was a page in the the larger budget document that details the FY 24 City indirects I just the FY 25 ones I don't have until the city council budget's passed and then the auditor will give them to me um which I need from my end of the year report as well as for next year's budget book great um that document Plus what's in my presentation will give you your net spending if you back out Transportation um I I asked you this question last year I'll ask you it again this year um with the budget that you're presenting and how you described where you would get money and sources um do you feel that this budget the amount and what you guys have all put together will get us through the next fiscal year with known expenses right now with known expenses yes thank you absolutely I with unknown expenses you never know you're an IT server away from a you know a problem sometimes but yes no expenses yes especially with enrollment and teachers not getting that info until the fall but the budget's do now okay that's all I had thanks you just want to piggy back off of that question and stab Morin with my pen sorry about that morning um oh my God what was oh no expenses can you just speak very briefly for public edification and a reminder for those who don't sit on finance subcommittee the regulations that a school department is under that might differ from a different Municipal Department say as far as accurate um projections and then meeting that budget rather than you know trying to as far when we speak about known expenses and budgeting for that right yeah yeah um you know it's I think what you're your prob asking me has to deal with like asking for Appropriations and and you know from the city after the fact um it's generally something School departments are are not really encouraged to do just because the State Department of Education is watching you and and everything if you're doing it every year they might start taking a look at you that being said there are extraordinary circumstances of which we saw one last year um that we thankfully were able to to get an appropriation to get us through the rest of life last year um and then I think I don't know five or six years ago there's a boiler issue that happened like you know something like that that's a different story because I mean a school budget can't fix a $150,000 boiler right generally unless you're a huge municipality that gets hundreds of thousands of dollars at Chapter 70 funding you know we're we're not that that City so instances like that it's it's one thing um but otherwise you know your budget is supposed to be indicative of your known costs or at least the best as you can predict them 6 months before they happen yeah I think the mayor was trying to make that point I just wanted to really hit that point home for the public yeah um I Nick thank you very much great presentation I really appreciate all the work that's gone into it um I appreciate all the work that everybody has done um finance committee the um hearing from the public um and then the work that like happens every day in our schools which um I am astounded by all the time um I have a question about outof District tuition for special education so just as kind of like background for those of you who aren't um as kind of In The Weeds about special education there are some students with disabilities uh for whom in order to receive a free and appropriate public education in which they make effective progress they need to attend a uh private school or a or public school in a different District um and then we pay for them to do that um and that's all um you know laid out in their individual education plan um and so my question is just aside that IEP and that individual process is there do we get any say or any ability to uh monitor those placements um or to uh negotiate the rate at which the rate that we're paying for students to go the tuition the rate we can't negotiate that's set by the OSD um the only time we could negotiator rate is if we were tuition a student to another public school um you know sometimes another district has a specialized program that we just don't and it makes sense to pay tuition to send a student there um in that sense yeah you can negotiate with their special ed director and kind of figure out what makes sense um but for like the approved private day schools or the residential schools that we send students to there's no negotiating there um I suppose there's some negotiating room in terms of where a student goes I mean I'm not terribly well versed in that process not being in the special education field but I know that there's often waiting lists at some places and and sometimes um families end up with a a different placement than maybe they thought they were going to have or or or whatever just because it's hard to get in a place um I think it's sometimes common place to show a family a couple of different options see what's going to be the best for their student um but in terms of the price that's really non-negotiable yeah um and the other question I had was about um transportation for special education um is there I mean and we we might it might be something where like you and I have to sit down and like look at Excel together to work this out but is there like you know I'm I'm just thinking so for those of you who don't know me I have a a child who uses um special transportation to get to school and one thing that I've wanted to do for a while is see if there's a way that we could provide a way for him to take the regular bus into school with with additional adult support um and I think that would probably be cost-effective I'm sure I'm not the only parent um who is feeling um you know who is interested in that and so I was just kind of wondering is there a a a way you know that we can kind of look at and see if that's something that's actually going to working towards a more inclusive solution might actually end up saving us I I would say it's definitely possible uh we currently have I mean our audit District fans are our AIT District fans those are going to be what they are um we currently have 10 IND District Vans and three prek vans I think the prek Vans are probably going to be what they are but of the 10 in District Vans I mean there could be a handful of students who um who could thrive on on the regular transportation bus and possibly we could cut down one or two of those vans which certainly would be a savings I also just want to make it very clear to everybody else like if you're thinking about your own kid and what your own kid needs uh don't think about the school budget just think about your own kid um I just happen to be in the weird position where I'm like thinking about both things at once but nobody else should do that um we're going to pitch for any families where this is paying and it's we're going to be scheduling a work session later this year likely by June it'll be at least two hours and what we're going to be doing is looking at that Transportation budget including special education Transportation options top to bottom and trying to exhaust any and all but there's a lot of things we want to look at that is one of the big pieces yeah including with the energy committee from the city done a t of great background work on electric buses and all sorts of things so yeah um those are like the two that I have right now I I was expect to at the end so yeah no problem Lind do you have any questions um I have I have a comment first of all thank you Nick for your hard work I mean this is very thorough it's very informative um thank you to everyone who was here tonight I appreciate you and I appreciate your input I'm new to school committee I'm learning um what stands out to me what I heard in comments tonight and what stands out to me is the difference between school choice out and school choice in that's something that is very important to me being able to create a school district where more students want to come into to us and so I'm going to be looking as I work with the other members of the committee and all of you as a community because we are a community that works together to provide these services for our children and so that's just the comment that I wanted to make tonight is that I think that I appreciate all that of you I hope that you understand how hard we and how dedicated we are to trying to provide that for these children so thank you I'm G just go back to you last if you have any comments to share okay do you have any questions my um I don't have any questions I've asked Nick so many questions over the past four meetings I just want to thank you for all of the work that you put into this and the way you're responsive to the values of the committee and the community um you run a bunch of different models for us that we've looked at every possible way of of doing this and we just over and over have said there's no we're not doing Cuts it's just not going to happen um because that's a value that we all share and appreciate that yes similarly I'm on the finance subcommittee so none of this was news it was all just um repetition of what we've been talking about I want to thank Nick for preparing ing us for this however because I can see in the news a lot of districts that are looking at they're slicing positions and they're slicing money to to people because that's really the only way you can really make a significant change to a budget is staff and that's what we've been fighting for um and that's what Nick has been preparing us for unfortunately we did receive a lot of money uh from for covid but unfortunately when you look at how the government you know sets these things up they don't look at it the way as if a tornado went through the tornado out of town but the debris is everywhere and so we see that our kids still need a significant amount of support in Social and emotional um needs and and the staff as well the staff have families in the district out of the district so Nick has worked with us to to work as hard as we can to find money he's moved money around he's making it very clear that that's not something we can dance around every year um but our our goal was we don't want to lose people because as as some parents even stated you know it's like dominoes when when one group suffers it it it affects the entire community so and thank you for all of you who are waiting outside for this meeting and for coming into this meeting and um and your support and then thanks to Nick for trying as hard as you can to make this a stomach aable budget you're welcome oh and lastly I want to say level Services is not what we need it's what parents are begging for so that's very important for us to know is that we need more but we're we're clinging to hoping to not lose things so thank you Nick sure um I was thinking about enrollment I was just curious like the long-term projections like are we is it a downward slope or I I feel like I've read that it doesn't necessarily look good but I'm curious what I don't really think it looks downward if you recall last year there was an enrollment study done that was um kind of connected to the you a couple of the proposed developments within the city um because um we wanted to see impact on you know will basically will Mountain View be able to handle the possible influx of students that would be attending it should these developments come to fruition um the study I I didn't actually get a copy of it until probably October of this year but when I read it I I it did not seem like the developments were going to have a terribly huge impact um so I don't know that I'd be looking at enrollment going dramatically up but you know with new housing opportunities in the city I I don't see it going down either I I think it'll be relatively flat it'll in I mean there'll be a bubble year here and there you know how that is um but you know I think over time it'll increase slowly but not like I don't think you're going to see like 16 numbers in the next couple years if that makes sense Madam chair yeah I I could just add to the impact study um interestingly um there would not um so one thing I've learned with enrollment going down and resources needed enrollment doesn't go down by a specific grade so we are obligated and want to give exactly the same every classroom whether it's 13 or 23 the same Services um that said the Housing Development that's going on in East Hampton first of all starts in 2028 and goes through 2032 they don't all come at once they also help eastampton because there will be some percent that have children and they will fill voids that we anticipate when we looked at the Don Hue Institute overall study on population and shift shifting um recently I have asked the Dy Hugh Institute and our own City councelor Tom Peak with um much needed migrant population coming into the state will that affect what we think you can handle there will be a small bump here um but we are not in one of the districts that are experiencing expecting growth over one or two% not close the housing kind of helps us um fill the the schools um that we built for a certain number so it's it's interesting but I the impact study um kind of painted that picture especially when you draw the housing unit um additions in East Hampton over what really be the next 8 to nine years for elor mayor yeah I concur with the mayor and I would say regarding enrollment in the shorter term the two things that will impact us sooner but not as much as something like that would be a the exchange of housing unit from families without children to families with which is a trend we see in our local market and then what if any impacts we see in some of our neighboring districts making dramatic cuts to Staffing how that may or may not affect choice in Choice out numbers in neighboring districts into our district I was going to add one piece school choice thing so there's when we're talking about the enrollment there's the birth rate part of things right and there's I we can't change how many kindergarteners we have expected in the city because that's how many were born you know five or six years years ago um so there's that piece and there's a couple of cliffs that we've been talking about like all the way up to you've probably seen them at in higher ed too there's these like enrollment Cliffs like all of a sudden there's way fewer kids that's separate from the school choice piece of how many kids we choice in and how many Kids Choice out um so and we've heard parents talking about that I just wanted to keep those two things sort of separate like we're not talking about this huge crisis of like people fleeing from East Hampton um that's not what's going on it's that there are a few births for this upcoming uh kindergarten class yeah I mean for what it's worth our our choice out compared to our choice in numbers have Tren have been trending towards leveling off um there is a page in the budget book that shows back to like I don't know fy13 or or so when there's like 105 student Gap in between who is leaving and who was coming um this year it's only 17 um while we obviously want to take more in than than than Choice out to other places you know that's quite the Gap closure um I'm not looking to to increase that Gap more but it just didn't I don't want to make it sound like there's a crisis of people leaving there's just not as many babies in some years Super inde you have any thoughts comments questions oh all right now well we're gonna let Ben go first I just wanted to add thank you for this work um like I it's been a real pleasure kind of watching you navigate these numbers and I it feels like you're a very straight shooter and it's it's been it's been great um and I'm also similarly you're you all being here and and standing out is hugely important and like the the testimony is extremely potent and you're saying like there isn't a big Exodus and yet yeah it feels like you know not from what we heard tonight but also just other things I've heard it there's a a certain kind of discontent going on for parents that I think we need to start thinking about a little more deeply like you know I I I heard I keep bringing this up and there are no Solutions uh we need more than level Services um a lot of um extremely powerful commentary we don't want to be a district that runs in survival mode so I realize that this is a big this is a big ask um but it's also like I I don't know how you could I don't know we it has to happen so like that's kind of where my mind is drifting um so thanks thank you B thank you for about that sorry go ahead I have just one more question and I don't know Nick this might be out of your wheelhouse a little bit I'm thinking about that special education percentage that 24.5% I think and I was just wondering is there any way to tease apart how much of that is due to an increase of identified need and how much of that is due to better child find policy that's probably out of my wheelhouse if anybody else I'm going to put that I would like to dig into that because I do I see that number come up a lot and I just in my day job I spend a lot of time trying to help families get connected to special education and get their child identified so in a way part of me is like I like see I like the idea that our child find has improved and I remember this being an issue when I was last on school committee too so I can um mention that this proposed budget does um propos reallocating a Mountain View Elementary position to a Mountain View Middle School intervention position I believe I left that out of my um my dialogue earlier but um we we see a great need for tier 2 supports at that level um so you know we think that will probably have some impact on future you know identification or not needing it because there's been tier two supports right because there's more naturalistic support yeah any other committee members with questions and I would love to hear superintendent's thoughts yeah um if I if I could just answer Sam's question a little bit I thought you might be able to Yes uh so I think yes uh child has improved but I I think that our training for multi system of Support also needs to to get deepened okay and uh somebody today also talked about um I'm a big fan of Universal Design learning and I think that's that's the focus so basically what that means is that um you treat children where their needs are in the same classroom in multi-tier approaches to learning and when you do that then uh students don't necessarily get determined as special ed because you're actually meeting them their needs at the level they're at now it's a uh you need a lot of experience uh for that to be effective and it involves a lot of professional development but it really is the answer and you do see less number of special education students when you do that so that's something that we talked about and it's in our professional development plan for next year and just another question and this is getting in for that special education student percentage is that all students with disabilities or is that students you on IEPs and 504 plans or is that just students on IEPs IEPs just IEPs so not 504 no okay that's good to know that's actually that's very helpful because like not every student with a disability question is on an IEP yeah that data is from the Desi website so it's just students with IEPs so on on the budget um first of all I want to thank Nick for his work on this budget um it just not uh starting appearing in January until now uh every single day uh when different things come up and we say can we afford this first thing he says is no uh and then right and that's good uh because you have to be fiscally responsible and all of us see programs that would like oh my this be such a great program can we purchase it and uh sometimes we can and sometimes we can't uh but his his eyes always on too because he was a principal uh what's and a teacher what's best for kids so I I really want to say that is a unique position for a business manager to have been a teacher and a principal because uh when the requests come in it comes from an understanding of living that experience so I want to thank you for that on the budget I'm so happy to say that this is a level service budget I'm sure all of you have been reading what's happening around us there are Cuts happening in so many places for staff and what we're presenting to you tonight is a level service budget with no Cuts so I just want to say how fortunate it is that we are presenting that in order to present that uh there were a lot of meetings and a lot of collaboration that went on uh we were we talked with the uh city council president uh we've met met several times with the mayor uh we sat on the finance subcommittee we met with district and school leadership uh several times we're in negotiation with the Union but we've had so many great conversations with teachers and the union um and then of course our school committee that we have here that are really all focused on what's be best for students uh coming from outside uh here and had a lot of experience uh with budgets um I really want to say that it really makes me proud to be the interim superintendent here uh because it is so obvious that parents uh and everyone that works for the district really do have the same goals and I hear what parents say about some of the other needs that they want met um I think uh we do have to be creative on in meeting some of those that don't necessarily reflect finances and we have to be really uh very creative and looking for other ways to do for example how we bring World Language to the middle school I mean there are other ways that we can do that that doesn't don't fit in this budget but because it doesn't fit in the budget doesn't mean that we're not going to look to the things that you brought up to today to find other solutions for those problems so I appreciate that and I appreciate you emailing me and keeping that information and continue to check us and say look it you said that you would try this what what has happened to you um these services that we're talking about today they're in this budget is just for this fiscal year so you know we are hopeful we'll see what's going to happen in future years to provide other services I want to say that uh also as we continue to look for resources we also appreciate if you have some ideas on resources sharing it with us uh I think this is a strong budget uh the budget book is very tight uh every bit of money that we brought in and we put out is listed there uh it's it's the true story so um tonight I'm really asking the whole school committee uh to approve this budget thank you go ahead of course I would be remiss not to um uh share a highlight from I don't know last budget meeting maybe um also uh Nick mentioned uh the uh outstanding willingness and Ingenuity of our new special ed director to do some calculations that a lot of sped directors do not to bring more District um money and for programs that we may or may not offer um now that we're eligible for and looking at those IEPs and service grids um the calculation I note a little bit from days past and it's a lot of districts just pass it up and don't bother so thank you and um I just thought everyone should note that you you joined with great enthusiasm thank you any other comments from the committee questions all right the 10c wrap up so um we want to I want to say I've been following the news closely about neighboring communities it's not it's not a great year it's not a great year in our area there's a lot of struggles um when we say is particularly those of us who sat on finance that we took a lot of Pride and satisfaction action in in the budget that Nick largely developed with help and that we approved I want to reiterate that that that doesn't end our work we're still partly through one school year we are Contin this is one stage of the process and we're we've identified a 100 more to come um the conversation doesn't end tonight what what our main focus was with this budget was to try to align what the city could afford with protecting every single position that we currently offer in our schools that's not everything we are not done but that may be the best that we can do and pass out of this city this budget season I'm going to leave it there anybody else have anything to say otherwise we could entertain a motion regarding the proposed budget I'll just add what the uh superintendent uh mentioned about we are listening we know that we're not adding things specifically in the budget for especially we hear a lot of uh needs in the middle school and we are looking for ways we've been in contact with places where fish and wildlife for example where there are programs where we can try to get stem programs or foreign language programs where we can be creative we want to be creative we want to be creative with you we don't want to look at this and just say this is what we have and that's what we're going to stick with we want to look for I don't believe in just saying okay we're stuck now we can be creative and we want to do that with you so it means a lot that you're here but like like Laura just said it's not done after tonight when we pass there's still conversations there's still dialogue and there's still things that we can do to grow whether we have the money or whether we can find it in other places yeah I just want to jump on that that we are looking at creative ways to try to fill in these gaps we everybody here is committed really strongly committed to trying to bring the best services that we can to the children in this community and we are really looking hard yeah mhm anyone else still looking for a motion y'all I would love to put forward a motion that we approve the fiscal year 25 budget as proposed by our business manager Director of Business thank you Megan can we second I can second that thank you Sam any further discussion questions comments no okay we're going to roll call vote on this one Ben hery uh Ben hery I er er I Harvey with gratitude I Linda proudly I Sam I mayor abstain many rules uh Laura Scott I deep gratitude uh motion passes thank you all very much um that was a lot of work I want to say to it took a lot of bandwidth it took a lot of bandwidth at this committee so a big chunk of our Focus can shift back to a lot of things including many many of the issues that were raised tonight so all the other things that take up bandw start meeting we'll tell you about all okay Su I adjourn this no nope I convert this just roll with it close close up right oh okay so we're she can't say loudly CL the hearing close the hearing close this public hearing thank you all so much we are now I just I don't remember the specifics we don't need to roll into the public session no this is just considered a new agenda item okay we are now picking up thank you with the regular session and now the meeting starts um announcements have any correspond correspondence I have uh just two pieces of correspondents that came uh to me one two I'm just confirming three parents who directly emailed um and and uh staff members who emailed me about um concerns of the budget and requesting that this committee approve a level Services budget um and that is just since the last school committee meeting um others before that had been reported at other meetings um I believe there were others that have gone to the chair I yeah I received several that there were three main points the first was um a request for level service budget the second was was a request for a fair contract for our teachers and other bargaining units and the third would be um identifying uh needs particularly at the elementary and middle school level um and I think we spoke at that I spoke about that at length but that was the correspondence that I received since our last meeting and then this is not a piece of Correspondence but I do have an update on our eel Grant um I did hear from I'm very excited about our American eel Grant um it was y yes um I don't have specifics that's being worked out between Fish and Game wildlife and Brian Sakowski sokowski okay thank you I did it Bri's hopefully he's watching that um but he he got it and he's going to be working on the plan and he will present it and I will direct him to our director of Business Services who there's no rest for the weary next thing you know we got to bring American eels into the classroom this be really fun uh my kid is very excited about the eels so it's going to be great and it it it could be multi-year there's lots of it sounds like possibilities multi eels multi eel why stop with eels um why stop with eels don't know sounds great anyway he's not bringing them here for the presentation he's going to bring them to you he's going to have them at your house if that's okay Fantastic look forward in your in the classroom um so that's it for announcements um any public comment we still have some remote attendees and some public attendees any anybody in either audience have anything to share hello Kira heninger again um I know that you can't answer my questions but after observing um the budget hearing there is a point of clarification that I'm interested in um in the presentation just given um there was talk from multiple committee members saying that there were no cut positions um except the budget um presentation that is linked to the website does have a 1.0 full-time specialed teacher position that is eliminated so I'm not sure if that has been changed since that was updated or if that is still a fact I think that should be clarified and I'm also very concerned that the same budget presentation document states that there's an increase of 39 students in special ed in the past year uh 5.7% increase and instead of increasing staff we are decreasing staff so again I'm worried that we are not meeting our legal obligations for IEP services and I think that should be looked at and if it was an error and that is no longer the case that that position is being eliminated I think it should be corrected you thank you anyone else care to contribute to public speak either in person or remotely if you are attending remotely you can raise your virtual hand however that works we need that 30 seconds no okay we are going to close public comment for this regular session we're moving on to school committee discussion uh policy subcommittee Sam as chair do you have any update yes we uh had a meeting um last week we went over the new masc policies around student technology use and um there were a few others on there too the minutes are up on the website and how does this work did you pass anything out of policy yes we did so that'll come to us for our first reading yes so um yeah moving along and we have a meeting on Friday morning okay and we're we're settling in just so people are aware I know people are used to Municipal meetings being in the evenings it just worked out better for all of our schedules to do it every other Friday morning um and so uh that's what we're doing okay great um for those who might be interested in um watching listening or speaking to that first reading I would expect it will likely be on the April 9 agenda for our regular session um okay finance my M chair do you have anything to I can't think of what else I could possibly report I um you want to expound on that budget proposal can I address a question sure okay um so thank you for that question um the the language of how that and I might tap in the director of business if I need to or just correct me maybe if I'm wrong um that is a position that's not currently filled it's a vacant position special education position the special education position so we have been all year without that position and it was in last year's budget and just we don't need it and it hasn't been filled and so moving to next year that's being removed from the budget line and instead we have this other position going in that we can and increase that we can fill and something that we have identified as a need that we're going to fill and that need is being serviced by the interventionist position that was added at the middle school level we're going to have to look into the increase to 39 students and follow up yes that part I cannot say more about but um it's so Finance just finished up the budget nothing else do you have a meeting schedule we don't but we have work sessions that we'll tell you about in a little bit and those will cover things that we that finance will kind of take on or that fall under Finance perview which I'm sure Nick is th Nick just looked up like what stay tuned stay tuned by all that kind of stuff but just I think again thank you to Nick who um has put a ton of work into this there will be um uh this will go uh into sort of the mayor's hands for a little while the mayor will propose a budget for the entire city it will go to city council Finance it will go out of city council Finance to the entire city council so even the budget process is not done stay tuned there's plenty of public meetings you could attend and learn much more mam chair if I could um there will be another um public hearing on the school budget in front of the city Council finance committee I don't think that that hearing has not been scheduled yet but as far as public comment and uh that's another great opportunity for the public and city council um uh the finance committee will hear it out before they give comments back to to me as a department May 7th May what 7th May May 7th 6 p.m. don't know the time know what time we'll announce at our next meeting what that time is it's 56 it's definitely in the evening yeah in the evening for sure it will always be posted to the agenda Center at eastampton thank you um the next item for school committee discussion is a superintendent search work session uh We've scheduled two dates for work sessions uh this first one is pretty lock down so we're going to be we're going to resume our work on the superintendent search that work session um will be a public meeting will be held at the conference room right behind us um a slightly more casual format so we can entertain a little bit more public discourse that is scheduled for this Thursday evening at 6:00 p.m. we expect it to run about 2 hours um it will not be hybrid um uh the point is for there to be public interaction um for those who are interested um that next item is school council and school Improvement plan work session um I am currently in communication we have a tentative date for that but what we wanted to do was bring an expert in from the masc the Massachusetts Association of school committees um to uh who has a long background and school councils their roles um the development of school Improvement plans we really wanted to pull on her councel to Aid with that she is not available for the meeting that we had tentatively scheduled for Wednesday April 10th so at I'm going to have to we're going to have to figure out exactly what to do about that so that is a tentative date that is set now but it may be rescheduled to accommodate I think that meeting would be much more productive if we got that sort of professional councel um so likely we're going to shove that April 10 date somewhere else but this Thursday at 6 p.m is unlike Donkey Kong for the superintendent's search and can I add one thing to that so on our agenda for Thursday is we're going to continue progress on the superintendent search and also we have an agenda item to discuss other things that we might need to have uh work sessions directed towards so if you would like to come and just contribute ideas for things that you know Transportation we've talked about school council we've talked about vocational schools we've talked about um so this is an idea generating the idea for us this year is to set a full Year's tentative calendar with roughly one work session every month or every five weeks or so so um we'll have more updates on that at our next meeting that might be news to some people here yes every weeks you're not done yet action items yeah okay um I have a motion here to approve the minutes of the February 7th 2024 executive session negotiations with the stipulation to withhold until matters are resolved reviewed and released by the chair you get a second second thank you all those in favor I I opposed extensions motion passes uh and I'm going to put a motion on the table to approve an out ofate field trip to High Meadow and grandby Connecticut for East Hampton High School grade 12 students on June 3rd 2024 is there anything we want to add to that is their annual senior hooa trip they have a great time every year uh can we get a second I second thank you Sam all those in favor I I I I opposed abstentions motion passes motion to approve the school payroll dated 37 2024 in the amount of made a second second thank you all those in favor I opposed extensions motion passes motion to approve the accounts payable authorization for payment dated 37224 in the amount of $199,000 $1.34 I can I get a second second thank you Sam all those in favor I opposed extensions motion passes do you want to introduce this motion before I make it right so we have one more motion so the prior school committee uh voted on the next item last year we um to extend our fantastic interim superintendent bendz position in additional school year um that also requires a waiver from desie um because of your status is an illustrious retiree yes in fact um so there was just a little issue with that priv prior motion because the date for the extension was a bit muddy and there was a contribution made from somebody who didn't make anyway so to dot all our eyes and cross all our teas and just to give superintendent Marine another little boost about how much we adore her we are going to move one more time um to extend and I will let my this the updated and correct language for this motion uh a motion to extend interm superintendent Meen Ban's term through the 2024 2025 school year pending approval of waiver from the Massachusetts Department of Elementary and secondary education a second thank you Linda all those in favor I opposed abstentions motion passes oh perfect I'm so lucky um our next meeting dates April 9th April 23rd May 14 May 28 and June 11 those are regular public sessions we'll also have the work sessions that we mentioned earlier um we are now going to be moving into executive session executive session pursuant to mgl c30a S21 A3 to discuss strategy with respect to collective bargaining or litigation if an open meeting may have a detrimental effect on the bargaining or litigating position of the public body and the chair so declares we will not be coming back to public session we are going to regular session we going to be adjourning our meeting from executive session so for those in the public audience have a lovely evening and we will see you at a later date thank you and all the rest of you in the back uh name name placards in your drawer cuz it makes it easier to find them City counil sh them in the e e