good evening everyone today is April 2nd um time is 6:32 p.m. and i' like to call this meeting to order first on our agenda is the um public hearing on the budgeters team specific um inform s bug um next Tuesday again we set this up based on timel um B on the first first um this is one of our opportunities to share the work that we've done is last week and we watch watch last week's session it's going to look pretty similar um that certainly doesn't mean there wasn't work or attention PID to a last week fact I talked through a couple um very significant changes even though um s pretty strategic either in the 2023 to 2026 strategic um we worked really hard with school staff leadership school committee um Community to identifi strategic priorities um few years ago the Strategic plan came into place um at the end of last year so these are the things that we want to be we want to be able to offer our students our staff the community um we we the public school is a hub of the community and there's a lot that happens public school that isn't just about necessarily the teaching and learning that happens from 7:30 to 158 or 830 to 2:30 um on a regular these are our core values relationships effective and respectful CRI a great mindset benefits everyone better tomorrow today differ should be these cor are things that we decision Mak da decisions but decisions instruction decisions decisioning um attendance discipline and all those things each stes last objectives um haven't changed like a teacher in classroom we want to go what we want our students what we want our sta we want for this community keep in developing the bud um and just like a teacher sometimes you that is set up for that objectives and trying to have high expectations for ourselves for our students for our staff and that's how we develop these budget objectives and truly want to do all these things these things cost and situation very thaty going through our our budget process I will say we did back up this a little bit this year um I think the past couple years while it is peaceful it does require a lot of time and effort team beste budget when in the end we end up being far from our best Cas scenario I do ask the team but what are the things that you believe that you need to thrive right I think I said last week it's not just about surviving it's about driving what are some of those things that we can put into place what would you benefit from is it an extra special education teacher an extra interventionist more time more money for professional development right that we do is I'll say again tonight I said it last week our budget changes by the day because we are built primarily on projections we're projecting in starting in October November of 2023 what our students and staff is going to look like on the fall of 2024 okay and so many of those things can change but the reason that we start to put at least and unfortunately a lot of those things that might be worse um they may feel like needs unfortunately some of the first things to get Bud the thing is there are some opportunities to go back to that list to BR things back in hand that last year we had a significant people know there significant cut in our technology budget we had some carryover money from one that allows us to invest in additional um student PR books right to keep the L and ones going so that was money that we didn't expect to have that we're able to put for is something that was cut out of the budget so this are what we have we've been referring to our budget and I think ask people toay caution to the level service Business Service essentially roll over everything that you have this Cent year the right that ter because it's talking about it's a ter you right service um there's a lot back and forth on there but we because it makes sense I think for people Serv Chang by that town a staff M retires decides to District different make um professional development of this company for next and they have a change of plan they're no longer offering what we intended to offer our teachers having sh all those things Corporation those things can change as well there is a certainity scho because of students Chang so let students professional development from this year to the next unfortunately it's process like have here Insurance re some of those things you can prepare for other things pop up right so we started with that as close to level Service Plus new required expenses right the example I gave last week and I'll sh again a couple months ago we received from EPA around new water t that they were going to be across Massachusetts the letter said it could anywhere from1 to $10,000 right we would be foolish the budget at the 1,000 as much as I would like to budget at the 1,000 and put that 9,000 into supporting staff or students in some other way that's not fair the district or the community all of a sudden have a $10,000 bill that you budgeted 1004 so we budget at the high end and we hope it comes in the it comes in at the low end and then that provides some of that flexibility that I mentioned earlier where now we have $9,000 that we had allocated for water testing the water testing cost a th000 that allows us to have a discussion about where could we use that where have we maybe had to overspend so can that cover it where is a new expense that we can cover with with um you don't know that yet um so any required new expense comes through U is included in the budget that we're aware of at that time so we started at level service and unfortunately where we were last week and where we are now we're still feeling a reduction in services and projecting reduction in services5 I want to remind people that these are things that were from the budget ny4 so these are things that we had last school year 2022 23 right that we don't have this school year in 23 24 and I'm telling you now they are not in next year's budget either right so emphasized in this and we've had some communication in the past like what's really being C really being positions that in our building in our building last school year that are not Health PE and wellness teacher from the Junior Senior High School social studies teacher was cut library media specialist was cut special education teacher was reduced band and instrumental teacher produced that impacted both schools teacher here at East Meadow was reduced um contracted service related to special education reduced assist reduced and Par professional are reduced and I put UNF there are times where we have par professional positions that we aren't able to fill although I think our our schools have done a good job in that um I think the overall reduction was a two 2.0 FTE so two full-time positions last year so that was the impact this year right and we'd be foolish to say that we don't feel that in some ways we feel it when these things are reduced on the pair of professionals right students r on teachers teachers now have had to cover things cover places where they didn't before a very I think one of the best examples I show is related to this PE and wellness so we had two full-time teachers in PE and wellness for grade seven through 12 one of the positions was cut fortunately it was through a retirement so it wasn't like something lost their job but what happened to cover that is we have two guidance counsels and two social workers who have each picked up a class so those are times now that they're not available to students in the student support street because they're a teach in a class I don't think it's the worst plan I think there's some benefits having those people in the classroom but it is a drain on resources and I think those are the things that we start to feel so this is where we started this year and this again I'm going to remind you a number of times this deficit $1.3 million was on level service not adding anything new unless it was required requ EPA that didn't again how we got there and I will talk through each one of these things we are a minimum need District we are um this is all connected to the student Opportunity Act you're following School budgets um you see a lot of news around that um this is this is how we got here special education costs this operational service division rate increases this was a talking point I had last year um it's back Transportation uh inflation related to the student Opportunity Act and the Caps that um statutorily included in that law so minimum a district essentially it means the state saying we're not going to give you less money next year than we're giving you this month it's a way that schools unless you have a dramatic fallof in your enrollment or some other factors you're G to get more money next year than you're getting this year okay what that means for Grand be right now is in the governor's budget as it stands right now it's $30 per pup and this is the total so the state increase for Grand right now from this current school year to next year ,650 okay I will say the last two years through the budget process once the House and Senate through their budget it has doubled up to $60,000 so that would put us at about $39,000 right but that's the increase in state fund to the Grand B Public School from last year to this year right it is it it's fairly insignificant I don't want them to take that to $199,000 away and say we're not going to give that to you either we will happily accept it but the cost of doing business in a school especially is far greater than $30 per people I said we are a minimum Aid District what's a Min a a district right because we're hearing Governor Hy couting more money being poured into education than ever before and she's not wrong unfortunately Grand B in FY uh 25 is Project projected to be one of 212 districts that are minimum eight districts 211 other districts will receive the $30 per pupil should have double checked this this week I think 3 17 districts in Massachusetts so we're about two3 of districts are getting minimum aid for some districts this year it's a scary place to be if you're in this I think that's 88 like if you were not a minimum made District you were getting a lot more money this year than you will be next year you're seeing in the new some places bigger districts I think Pittsfield is one they're saying like $6 million difference in SCH funding for them much bigger difference the number is I'm sure proportional to us in some way but $6 million difference in state funding from one year to the next so again like some volatility baked into this so we're not alone and if you watch the new you're seeing it every day districts talking about fiscal cliff cutting positions right all those things that were seeing in the news every day so special education costs um special education costs in general like are are rising but we're looking at outof District placement and the reason I want to look at this number is because the operational service division is a branch of the government that essentially sets the tuition rate so if a student requires an outof District placement the district cannot meet their need there are some options across the state we don't have any say on what those options cost if we're in that position where a student is going there's a essentially a tuition based on the services those students will receive and that's it there's no haggling there's no bargaining the number is the number and it is not set by Dy it is not set by any that's the operational service division last year FY 24 that number increased by 14% this year 4.6% right I'm saying it's a 20% increase over two years it's probably closer to 19 something but prior to FY 24 it was taking about a decade to hit 20% it was increasing by 2% a year right again I the reason I want people to re to understand this is like there's nothing that people here in Grand b or or in South Hadley or belg toown are doing to make these costs go up this is the cost of doing business for us though as such a small District last year that was hund just those increases were $117,000 that we no longer had to spend on facilities on professional development on students who are were in school in within the I'll say the four walls of our District next year we're predicting that would be about a 320,000 so this isn't these two it's not 170 plus 320 320 320 is the 20% difference this year so again we're talking about a deficit that started at $1.3 million and there's 320 $320,000 that two years ago we would have had some flexibility to work with right but these increases happen we don't again we don't get to choose whether to pay them or not um out of District cost you can see fy22 615 we're projecting in fy2 1.6 million inflation right inflation's all over the news it's a buzzword we see it everywhere I think the way inflation has impacted the schools is a number of ways right the costs of things have increased like insanely over the past five years unfortunately the student Opportunity Act also has statutory inflation caps which means if inflation goes above 4.5% they put a cap on it and they don't pay above the 4.5% they could the legislator legislature could have made a decision to pay above that that is not the decision they made so in FY 23 inflation was I have the numbers I need FY 23 was about 7% last year was about 8% those two years it was capped at 4.5 it's about a 6% Gap that's now been created with no mechanism to close that Gap right it's not like it automatically starts getting filled in year after year that 6% will that Gap unless something changes with the law that 6% Gap will live with us forever so as part of our process Jen and Todd and I we met with and um Chris Martin and Glen seon we met with um Granby's two representatives and Senator ala in um I believe it was late February early March and we these are the things we went over with them and talked about the impact to a small District um for some of these things this specifically now in a year where inflation is 1.35% I haven't heard much talk about raising this to 4 and a half% this year to make up for some of that 6% that we've lost right again if they do that in education it's going to impact somewhere else in the state budget as well and I think if we watch the news closely we're seeing the state budget isn't in the best place either but this is something we said to them where if you put this at 3% this year you start to make up for some of that Gap that's been created I don't think that Gap was created intentionally it just happens to be the situation that we're in right nobody was anticipating a global pandemic when the student Opportunity Act came through with that 4 and a half% inflation okay so again these are our expense drivers High need students grv since 2019 has seen an approximately 11% increase in high need students um inflation we talked about Transportation costs our Skyhigh were seen that in other districts in some ways fortunately last year we went out to bid for our regular um busing contract and we did have an increase people who are out the bid this year are getting 23 26% increase on the bids that they're receiving so it's probably something in the next bid that we'll have to certainly keep an eye on because obviously the impact of that is significant as well um and we talked about special ed but they outdated we put Junior Senior High School but I'd be lying to say that both buildings don't cost money to run right and that's money that when I talked about the junior senior high school because you know I said it last week we're having to retu the boilers there's two boilers there we're retubing them every other year so boiler one gets done this year boiler two gets done next year boiler one boiler two and that's just so that we can have heat in the winter right and staff was in there and students are in there also Rec that heat sometimes feels like a relative chm because it's doesn't there's no room control in every classroom there's right like students are and staff are making do and sometimes like it's not an issue but there are certainly times where it's an issue and like there's a dollar amount of course but there's also the time and attention that is required to these things that is difficult more difficult to put a number run right so when our maintenance staff is dealing with another issue in the boiler room that means they might not be lining the softball fields or if they're right like we're pull pushed and pulled in a number of different directions um so this is our this is I'll go through each one of these so Chapter 70 is this is the money the town receives from the state that the state is putting towards education in gr right here's our number again this is what we received last year this is what we received this year difference is $199,000 that's less than one half of 1% of our total budget required local there's a formula the state uses that basically they run the formula and says based on Revenue the town brings in and all all these other factors this is how much the town of Grandy can pay so that increased by $250,000 this year about a a little less than a 4 and a half% increase town in kind so this is these are items that we as a school get charged back from the town um sanding the Lots mowing the big fields we mow the athletic fields for games and stuff but the big fields they use their tractor on um administrative Services retired teachers health insurance um health insurance so we get charged back from the town this amount and that was $10,000,000 increase for us this year right so this was a place where if I'm being honest this was our initial deficit it was actually 1.1 something like okay initial deficit 1.1 and then we got an in time number and we're back to 1.3 right because that's money that we that comes towards our budget that we're not we can't spend so that's a pretty significant increase so this is one place where there's some new numbers from that last week these are offsets this includes um title grants this includes uh special education revolving this includes um athletic fees that you pay that go back towards um anything related to Athletics so all of the offsets based on Revenue that we bring in this is money that we turn back around and pay out back towards our budget so Esser is a bit of a tricky one we've had Esser for the past few years this is the essentially the federal stimulus money and um we have to have that money spent essentially by September 30th of this year right but it's been a place that we've used to offset our budget the past couple years we intended to do so again this year we haven't had to offset as much as we initially thought so we're trying to find ways that we can now use that money in next year's budget and pay it ahead so when I'm saying we're closing this Gap it's hasn't all been done through Straight cutting positions cutting resources no more PD things like that we've tried to find other creative ways to do that um and the examp exle this week is this number last week was 47 and this was 2 million 69 because um there was just something in that we were planning for the budget for the I'm sorry after for the budget next year we were planning to put onto the Esser but we were able to absorb it in our town allocation and our operating budget for this year okay so again wasn't all done through cutting things but ways that we can try to be flexible and M so last week our deficit our initial deficit was the same but our working deficit last week was 13,000 so there's some movement this week we're getting closer because again our objective here is the school committee next week needs to vote on a balanced budget for the town which is essentially I'm going to oversimplify it but it's essentially what is required of the Town plus anything additional over the minimum net School spending that the towns will to get so again that was our deficit last Tuesday when we had our um public forum and we're closer to 880,000 now so we're continuing to work with Town leadership ongoing conversation there making strategic Cuts but also identifying potential areas where we have some flexibility right where do we have anything in our budget do we have any savings in our budget this year that we could use for something that we intended to buy next year that we'll use this right like there's all these things that we look at right because we recognize we are super Le and then it comes down to making difficult decisions this is another slide that's changed a little bit part of the reason I want have wanted to show this slide is because I think it demonstrates that we're trying to operate pretty conservative uh one two three four five of our budget departments are showing a decrease from this current year to next year right so there's nothing had it in fact there's less money going to those faes I will say the two biggest places where the budget has grown like those are places that we don't have a whole lot of control right there's certain things in specification and related to transportation that we just don't have as much control over we can certainly do our best to ship things to try to be creative to but there are things that are cly that um we've seen this increase this is the biggest increase that in this week's presentation um last year last week we were projecting an increase of about $330,000 um but we just got a quarter's worth of invoices from a transportation and we're projecting that an additional 120 ,000 um communication mhip about that so how are we closing the deficit again talked a little bit about it before we working with Town leadership they've indicated um could provide 600,000 which is something we would be very grateful and appreciate it grateful appr um we received $600,000 last year um and two years ago and but that must be approved at so I think that's something I want to be cautious about doesn't mean like this autoa happens the article at town meeting as part of the schoolget that way we SLA originally approximately $620,000 from this school Year's budget next year this week we removed an additional 30,000 these are some of the things that are in that I'll talk about this first one a little bit similar similarly to what I said last week I recognized STA and making this presentation and sometimes when I'm in front of the public people are like why are you using FTE why would you say like we talk about a lot of things we plan a lot of things but as I've said a number of times in this presentation and last week's the budget changes often right so I am very cautious about saying we're going to cut X position because then ex teer sees this or hears about it the next day and then that position ends up being like we were able to save that position but that teacher that we had has already started looking and now moving on elsewhere right so it is a balancing act to try to communicate this in a way that is transparent but also isn't creating fear among staff and families and in those places so one of the places we'll get there to one of these positions is next this current year we have two kindergarten two first grade classes and three second grade classes next year we're project two kindergarten two first two second we have a teacher who's retiring in one of those grades which means right the position that would have been cut we lose through attrition it's still a loss it's still a cut from this year to next and it's still a position I would argue and I'm sure Lisa deay and Megan sheeper and Alison Jordan would say we have other needs that we could use that position four which is why we Tred to keep those positions in the budget more reading intervention more more um supports and services for students uh more supports for teachers but um that's one of the positions that's out we I told you before we had reduced um a music teaching position um this past year both schools impacted in music um we're essentially operating music class here special with a professional in that position we not to build that teacher in that Ro and additional Care Professionals we have worked as a team to reduce the PA of Professionals in hopes that we can maintain special education ke so there will be a loss of a couple of in order to a teer reason for that is teaching sta typically um the data says that they're here they're here to stay for a longer period there's a lot of turnover in the professional RS not justly but um I think all over the place I think at professionality list the first six people in the early 2000s um so they've certainly been here a while but I think starting at 20202 right so in the hopes to maintain consistency um wece pair professional ftted for professional development supplies um some that have been avail category two funding this in some ways I'll try to explain it is essentially related Federal money for that's related to our Network infrastructure um we're five of a five cycle so because we're in the last year's a cap how much you can SP and if all goes well we would pay for 40% of a project to get done and up the other 6% so we have been able to this year take 40% of our cap and build their budget that way years if you get into a new cycle there's a lot more money available if you have money available to supplement some of those cost I talked about last week for go setic cleaning this is something kept in our budget in the past sometimes a contingency our every so it doesn't mean we're just gonna system that's not obviously we wouldn't make a decision like that but when we're getting that so that's pretty significant line that we were able we mve off this HC course great allow school students to take a college one in the fall one in the spring we were paying essentially for half of that price which is about $9,000 um and that's something else that was C in this bu reduce contracted Services related special education and reducing some other lines related to technology repairs and services so our deficit as we sit here today again like things change for the good is umy we continue to assess our proposal Advocate increased funding but that Transportation hit this week is something that is um something that we have to be thoughtful about identify potential opportunities to reduce the deficit without cutting or cutting or reducing staff of services so again where can we be created where can we make some shifts to get to that numers have changed from last week also include Transportation um so this top number that mean the budget pass as is that mean that $78,000 deficit somehow stays in our budget that would mean we see about a $484,000 increase from last year this year 4.2% cutting that $78,000 down to Z would mean about $45,000 increas so start with the school committee if they have any questions you have any questions one of the questions that I have um is if we reduce PA professionals and we have a student that moves in with a new IEP can we share PA of services or would we end up having to then potentially find a way to build a PA back in yeah good question because these things change and it could I wish it was a easy yes or no it could work so yes per could be shared between but depending upon their IEP of course depending on their their needs right so that could be a place that right like to the point I'm trying to make is we could have a student who moves into the district from Iowa tomorrow who has an IEP that requires a care professional that would be an increase in what we're planning for next year and then my followup question is if um we're talking about reduction of some special ed services does that put us at risk of having to have more students placed outside which would increase tuition like is it a potentially a domino effect potentially okay potentially but we won't know that until every like we I sort of understand but I kind of look out there for people to understand that it's yeah and I think some ways it's not even about like your anybody's level of understanding I think it would be possible but hard to always like connect the dots back to saying like the reason the student now is out of district is because of this budgetary decision I think we try really hard to be nimble and flexible enough to like shift where students need shift but sometimes what they require just outstrip our capacity um despite people's best effs and I think there are certain things where maybe it was two or three staff that were trying to manage this situation that now it's one or two instead of two or three and that's enough to a student to place or higher level with a Prof like that cost could come from a number places yes you Services just that there's no one answer but also some of the changes that we made in Contract Services um they were too ctive for us to continue frankly and so that we were able to reallocate internally so that we would own programming or instead of Contracting out would be aost to us so those are decisions take time to kind of build up what like our structure internally um but it does change you know who the staff are that are working with the students um and some of it's just based on need of the students in our building year-over-year some of the cont services are related to specific types of therapy that students as well and that doesn't even get us into any other questions from the committee I could go on and on but I'll let someone else have yeah I think we should open it up for has questions Sor I Dana can you just identify yourself name and address please I have a few points sorry I kind of take notes as you speak but you mentioned that the Esser monies were ending and needed to be spent by September of 24 um does that and we've been cutting from Level Services as far back as I can remember which is very difficult but that put us into a jam for FY 26 potentially to be honest anticipated the flexibility is and one slide I had um a question on was your proposed departamental budgets the high school had a 6.33% increase um which equivalent to $169,200 in the specialed line there was a reduction here that went this budget because the supports being provided services with special budget shi mean they live go more to Personnel than a contracted service so like we own the Personnel now so the strip right can look a little dis at time some of those but that accounts for just all well yeah looking at it initially you saying oh so we' got all this money in high school that means what's going on there like well you know or what not and questions yeah no and I caught that only because I think it's important to know that we had a lot of cuts at the high school and one instructor even if it's Wellness Wellness is required foration we need Wellness n we need Wellness grade 10 you also need two more classes beyond that so Wellness isn't like kids just working out in the gym it is required for graduation um you do social studies you do media media is not just a librarian she actually was teaching cour workor so if you cut one teacher in the high school they teach five classes 20 per class that's 100 students effective you cut a teacher here at the elementary school that's an entire grade 50 students 602 students and that's little so just cutting one of those positions is a huge impact on a school that's really so 100 to 400 and something kids at the high school that's a big percentage of students that are affected by just one decision making it's not always just like percentages some of the impact to Cuts ands at the junior senior last year and it wasn't now it's East Meadows turn just some things that we could do at East Meadow but places the especially the um H can you sorry kend street thank you the HCC course offerings that are going to get eliminated how much did that cost last year you know 9,000 Oh I thought you were saying 9,000 per person no so that's the thing like some ways it's a argue for us but and we're looking to cut that 1.3 like chunks so to be clear that wonit student from being able to take courses College it just means that we would be unlikely to offer a grandly like so the coures that we've been offering have only hadly high students in so our students could still take a course on campus or course or still do that just not able to offer which I think you know there a benefit when for students like that so those are things that have to be to say we still want students to have that experience but that will look a little bit different one question ixes are that so I don't know any District that doesn't get not because I guess simply your question would be is have to go so I think I know what it look like I think imp of cut like that district and could cost the district and also Janice this isn't money that we're going to the town asking for this is the money that Chris Martin Glenn Saxton have had their departmental budget conversations and they came to us and offered offered that money right so when when Todd and Stephen have sat down and had conversations I've had conversations we've had smaller um just chair to chair um with Chris and Todd and Stephen this is what they came to us that the town can't afford without any kind of tax increase or whatever this is either coming out of one of their revolving accounts or um you know money from free cash or whatever so this is not us standing up on Town floor and asking and that's usually what gets people really heed up is when we decide to make an amendment on Town floor and ask for an additional amount of money I think four years ago we did that and we asked for 480 $480,000 on top of money that they had already given us and included um was pre-co so probably about four years ago so that money I feel confident that the town can afford that that would that's not us putting out um and based on some of the stuff that we've done that kind of puts us in line with what other towns that look like us are doing with their you know fun towns funding their education this is their number we I will try to clarify so met with manager anded out to fin Comm working MERS that have been provided to us and I think a couple of other things this would be a lot to ask could the Town cover this probably but not in any sustainable way right like that would which is why we recognize like there's we're a piece of the pie um and we our job is to advocate for the schools and advocate for students and our needs and our needs educ is expensive we recognize that but we also know like we have to work within a budget which I think we've done a pretty good um a couple other details that I just want to make sure few years ago the town approved $600,000 as well um that year we as a school gave $6,000 back to the town the kitchen project right so part of the reason saying like well why did you do that we had money in the Food Service account that can only be used for specific things so we offered to put money toward a kitchen project which was an acceptable use so the town could give us $200,000 that we had more flexibility with right so those are some of creative ways that we find last year I remember Mr saying the same thing and I think he said something along the lines of last year like they looked at the budget and much sure that increase came through special education that schools had no control over and um supported that at meeting and I think we're in unfortunately the same position now your larger question is is exactly that a much larger question and I don't thinky is the only one in that position although we might have been in this position regular um you know I think one places this presentation that would benefit a place is act they put together School commission and that commission said in order to fully fund rural schools of which does receive rural school aid um it would cost it would require the um legislature and Governor to have about million in the budget for that and last year they budgeted 15 million and his current budget stand 15 million again so he received of that 15 million about 70,000 I know it's not just as easy to do the ma four times but for the purposes here tonight I'll say four * 70 28,000 that that's the increase that we start to see from the state I think that goes a long way help cover some of these um issues we also because of the number and Mr Li mentioned it last year because of the increased cost of special education services we are anticipating hitting this essentially this threshold for Extraordinary relief um this year that should mean add money coming to that we could use in this year's budget for things like Transportation or other places and we're still waiting mess on that um but based on our calculations we should hit extraordinary relief for the first time in the seven years I've been here students right and then raing our cost amen you know and then I guess it do you have any interest in coming on school committee because we're down to we'd love to write your name in every other Tuesday from now until the end of your term three three years no you know what I'm yeah so I'll say like this is a fantastic Community phenomenal staff and I think the mentality that I see from like yeah we'll hang our head a bit but then just like pick if this is what we have to do counselor teaching class we have a class a yoga class that counts as a class we right like pupil step up but similar to your question is like have we stretched pupil yeah and I think the point that I'm hearing is that there there's a cost for these students in this building or the building next door if they residents of the town of grany they are going to cost the town something for Education be it school choice out shoot staying in grany uh charter school out um you know I guess private not every student who chooses am right like that's a whole like um so the only in our budget for next year is regular maintenance because of the kitchen project happening right now we're at a we will be at a threshold that basically means no major Pro no project can get done in that building for three years because if you cross this threshold you would have to bring the entire building up into ABA compliance I will say the select for the school committee reached out to the select board in November and went to a meeting in December where the select board had asked the Town Administrator to contact uh an architect to see what the cost to see bring them in what needs to be done to bring that up to up to code so that we can start to create a list and uh connect some costs to what that would be um but I I don't believe the school committee heard anything since just December or January on that but I do know that the select board asked for that information and had had some conversation about it um I just haven't heard anything recently on that so does that mean that more students are being put into one class no not for not for next year no so the impact student yes so right so this year we have two KS that will move to two ones we have two ones that will move to two twos and based on what we have in prek we have enough for two that will move into K prek and kindergarten registration have given us information that show we can do two grades at two classes at those grade levels so again we can go down another rabbit hole and say because we're at two per grade level we can't open up you lose Revenue potential right like they like make arguments one way or another on your circumstan yeah so those class sizes I think actually next year kindergarten will actually be a little smaller this year but the numbers tell us that is not tell us you're going to need 3ks again likely the following year I just also want to reiterate that we're not alone with this like schools just about everywhere near us are announcing deficits or you know some schools are talking about multiple position cuts up you know double digits 17 18 um so it's unfort forunate and we're a lot leaner than some of those other schools so we don't have as many areas to cut from but I want to be clear that it's not that we're doing something wrong right I I feel like it's very important because I do feel like that sometimes when we're sitting in town meeting people want to know where's all the hidden money where does the money go all of that and so I just want to be clear that we're not doing any we're not doing anything wrong we're trying to be very transparent with the budget there's increases that are beyond our control we don't have any control over transportation we don't have control over special education um we don't have control over inflation you know so we put a lot of work into it I mean Stephen and Todd are living and breeding it all day every day as long as well as the um subcommittee for budget and finance and the staff at both schools so they're doing a tremendous amount of work but I just really feel strongly that people need to understand that we're doing the be best with factors being pushed upon us not because we're mismanaging a budget exactly I'm the transp so why I don't any all of a sudden the bills came in quarter and now it's more we contract app we know what our is how can that two separate Transportation okay is one is Ty for special education over here and then we have a regular Transportation or seven buses doing every day field trips extracurriculars so those are two student is in District student is attending Smith V the student is experiencing homelessness to provide as well and it's not typical yell schol bus that you see so there's in some ways there's transp contract but when it comes to special education things like that sometimes things come up that you didn't expect the monitors fired on the bus um a student mov so that they now instead of sharing a bus now since they move two require their own bus things like that just impossible to wasn't that changeed next year I think but it was run unanticipated cost it's been I'm sorry uh it's been changes in placement and numbers of um runs that we need to make that have changed since the beginning of the school year well that y I'm just going to can I just clarify since the budget was passed last June question despite first request for the invoices we got three and a half months of in at once rather than setting them every few weeks so that we can and I'm assuming too like those companies are also facing Staffing shortages you know maintaining V like all those pieces which is then having that trickle down effect to districts as well so for example I talked about we might have two students on a bus and one of the students it might be too much for just the driver so they need a monitor so the monitor might cost something or they can't hire a mon now those two students need to be put on separate bus right like predict to it and be thoughtful about how close that to be honest to say we don't want to add 50,000 budget next year you think it's going to be closer to 100 so um but yeah Transportation has been real struggle I I think they're taking a lot trans well we purchas a vein how much we Sach a and there could be but again it's just any other questions well thank you please grab a cookie or some chips on the way out there's plenty of them if you have questions or thoughts in the next few days please feel free to reach out um we'll be right back to work on this tomorrow um because we still we still have some work to do um I'm trying to be really thoughtful about how we do that so it's having a little of an impact on students and staff as possible but we also know like we're a place where we reduce the budget by $600,000 at this point we might not see impact but we know there's an impact um already and anything we can do in trying to figure out the last 78 or 80,000 um to do that in least impact way that's okay thank you okay so the only other thing we had on our agenda for this evening is um the superintendent search is that correct do you all want us get up and get a cookie or anything we'll just wa anybody no all right let's move on so I saw that um Jackie sent us a list of superintendent um search committee members I also heard from somebody uh today that would like to be added to that list so I don't know if I just type them in on that list or okay the community this Friday but that would be something I would anticipate the committee having to kind of have solidified for next week the numbers and roles that people are looking for so that they can reach out to people so what else did we need to talk about a couple other things I just wanted to provide an update I spoke to um our attorney it and I think it's fine that you guys decided on this but she said you could leave the posting open until filled and you can look at applicants as they come in um it doesn't have to be a closed session necessarily where you don't open anything until okay so um if there's anything that you wanted in regards to that Jackie could certainly pull applications and I don't know if the committee is going to identify a person to kind of be their representative on that committee and if so she could certainly send it um the information to them or we can wait give it another week or two um and send it to them what do you all think I think leaving it open and reviewing as we go um one of the pieces I was looking back at was kind of there was a subcommittee to kind of look at criteria and then candidates to kind of move forward with um that way it was you know meeting these kind of necessary pieces in order to bring to kind of the full committee for um potential interviews and things like that so I think leaving it open is important I think figuring out um who's on the committee is important so that potentially there can be that subcommittee work yeah so we need to um identify the committee so we have to reach out to the people when did we say everyone had to get back to us Friday Friday so um hopefully we'll get some more people will um then confirm that and then from that list will um a chair is um Chosen and then a subcommittee is chosen right that's how we did it last time it was like two steps right so and then I think the will also need to decide a range of finalists that you would want that committee to recommend to you because can really confirm that the finalist would be interviewed in public session and know last time we had requested three and then we the search committee moved three forward but then one pulled prior to announcing the finalist all right any other work that we need to do as far as that goes because we can't close anything until we close the um allowing people to express interest right I think the only other thing that I would suggest is um having Jackie send the posting to masc and Mas and then I thought we had told her to do that previously I think it was just posted but we certainly can do that I can ask her to do that tomorrow and then I do think school committee or design should reach out to masc about any potential list that they might have oh or um potential interterm candidates so I will ask Jackie to send that posting and M and I think that's all that that I had anything that iing anything from anybody else if not I'll take a motion to adjourn I'll make a motion to adjourn have a second second all those in favor I I thanks for coming everybody we appreciate it thank you