committe man hog will participate in tonight uh tonight's meeting uh remotely Pledge of Allegiance United States America under God indivisible Li and justice for all we the rooll call Mr Bahu here Mr Mormon yes Mr Richardson here Mr Hogan Mr L Mr NCO yeah Mr Sheen Mr G yeah Kell anybody signed up for Public public appearance no you get me roll call we got you Curtis thank you thank you yeah can do it no you need your do you have any school committee uh Communications for you no I'm going to turn the meeting over to cam Co the student represent uh student representative greater loal Tech celebrated say something week from March 4th through the 8th this week celebrates the importance of students and staff working together to recognize warning signs before violence occurs so we can maintain a safe and healthy school Community the say something movement is part of the Sandy Hook promise to stop violence in our schools by creating communities of upstanding students and trusted adults skills USA C celebrated skills USA week last week with every day devoted to a different aspect of the organization the highlight of the week was the district competition and the leadership Leadership Conference held on Thursday the conference theme was no limits to professionalism at greater Lal Tech over 190 students participated in technical competitions and another 30 students participated in leadership development workshops in addition professionalism activities and events were open to all students during a morning workshop session and an endof the-day professionalism fun f best of all greater LOL claimed 54 medals in 26 events and 44 technical competitors qualified for the state competition in April we also swept the competition in carpentry welding web design additive manufacturing and painting and Design Technology skills USA would like to thank everyone who participated in our double good popcorn fundraiser in Just 4 days our members sold over $188,000 worth of popcorn from this $9,000 will support events like our career Readiness fund Fair another 2500 will support the double good foundation for kids with disabilities and 500 will be provided the years's worth of school supplies and Essentials for an orphan at the be like Brit foundation in Haiti March is read Across America month and our library is excited to celebrate last year the gltech community read 7,43 books from September through June this year from September through February we've read 5,446 books and we still have 4 months of school left we well on our our way to breaking our record as part of our celebration on March 5th the library media center held a book launch for the local poet Anthony feibo with students receiving signed copies of his book becoming an island on March 13th public Librarians from drit dunable L and Tings Boro sign students up for public library cards to continue our Community Partnerships and dedication to lifelong reading and learning thank you to everyone for all the resources and support you provide to our students and school committee school committee the student council has been busy hosting events to enhance our student experience with fun events on Valentine's Day and St Patrick's Day in addition members also helped to promote national no one eats alone day to help end social isolation during school lunch and say something week activities the Educators Rising Club attended UMass L for their annual Educators Rising conference and competition students mingled with other future teachers and attended breakout sessions on different educational Topics in addition our students came in first place in the children's literature competition first place winner in the teacher created materials competition and second place in the interactive teacher bulletin board competition for the second year in a row our club students have qualified for Nationals which will be held in Washington DC this summer math club has been preparing for the math 24 competition on Tuesday March 19th they expect to see close to 100 students and dozens of teachers in attendance in addition table talk once again donated 480 pies for students to enjoy on Pi Day March 14th as they engage and Pi related fun art Club has been invited to participate in the Congressional Art Contest for the office of Lori Tran greater loyal teachers will jury the entries for submission to ensure quality students are also producing flyers for a solar eclipse viewing event at the school bioc club has been preparing for spring in the greenhouse they started planting sunflowers tomatoes and squash for the school garden and to take some home they are also looking forward to celebrating Earth Day in April by cleaning school grounds while enjoying warm weather in the next few weeks both the boys and girls basketball teams had Great Moments during their respective Seasons with each returning over 90% of their rosters both programs look to be in strong position for next season our com our competition dance team fielded another strong Squad in year three of the program Griffin dancers recently competed in the MSA mssaa state competition the greater L greater low nooba Tech greater L Lawrence ice hockey team had a very successful season qualifying for the MIAA tournament for the second straight season Griffin indor track had another banner year the girls and boys teams captured both the regular season and League meet titles several team members also qualified for MIAA State All State and New England competitions the swim and dive team had another tremendous run of success with several team members finishing among the top Place winners in the CAC League competition our Griffin cheer team continued to build on their successful fall campaign capturing both the state vocational and CAC League titles the lady Griffins also took second at both the division one Regional State competitions before departing for the NCA Nationals in Florida where they placed third in their division Griffin wrestling once again tackled the toughest season schedule of any program around the results were as usual outstanding with a number of place winners at the MIAA Regional and state meets senior Gabe Stickney was Crown division one state champion as well as Junior Lily nor D Lily is the first Griffin wrestler to capture a State title in the MIAA girls division freshman Antoine Jackman was the D1 sectional champion and placed second at States all three along with senior Garrett a also qualified for the New England championships in Providence Rhode Island thank you than a great thank you have a motion to approve the minutes from February 15th second Mr Baho yes Mr yes Mr Richardson yes Mr Hogan Mr lame yes Mr NCO yes Mr yes Mr G yes a motion to approve the minutes from the February 29th special school committee meeting second all in favor anybody oppos motion carries all see how easy that is really uh for press on see how easy that is I we have a motion to wave the reading of the warrant second second all in favor anybody opposed motion carries all have a motion to approve the expenditure of 6,331 1553 second all in favor anybody opposed motion carries a report of the general councel I turn the meet over to superintendent Davis for a report thank you the first item on my agenda this evening is I'm happy to inform the committee that g LOL has been awarded a classroom enhancement Grant from the Collision Repair Education Foundation in the amount of $3,000 These funds will be used by the automotive collision students uh to provide tools equipment and supplies needed the next item on my agenda is to inform the committee that gr Technical High School has been awarded the 2024 uh New England Marsha Paul education grant in the amount of $2,480 these funds will be used uh for students in the information technology Services Program towards robotics uh the next item on my agenda is like I'd like to inform the committee that the day on the hill is scheduled for Monday May 6th 20124 at the State House in Boston this is a lobbying day for school superintendents and school committee members across the state uh our culinary instructors have already attended a pre-planning meeting of few weeks ago and will once again be volunteering to assist with lunch on that day so uh if anyone would like to attend uh you can communicate with me and we can uh talk about uh making a trip down to day on the hill the next item on my agenda is the Cooperative education report the report uh you will provided in your packets indicates that 228 senior student students are currently on Co-op which is 42% of the class of 2024 based on based uh on the results of the end of February have however to do to however to date uh I'm happy to say that we have 231 senior students out on Coop which is 42% of the class of 2024 and currently we have have 59 Junior students out on Cooperative education which is 10% of the class of 2025 uh so a copy of the report is in your packet and again uh thanking Stacy and Brian Jones for the work they do to uh ensure that our students are going out on Co-op the next item on my agenda is two uh approvals for two separate donations the first Don ation is uh a refurbished and fully functional Strikers stretcher from Dr Romanowski office this donation has an estimated value of $2500 due to the lack of space in the office Dr Romanowski would like to donate this item to our health assisting Department uh so I'd be looking for approval on this donation have a motion to accept the donation from Dr Romanowski of stret second I whole that like go old school can we use it for the meeting Mr bah yes Mr Moren yes Mr Richardson yes Mr Hogan people say that Mr Mr lame yeah Mr noo yes Mr Sheen yes Mr K yes it's very vintage the second uh it the second donation is a 2014 Ford Focus from a Ford Motor Company this donation has an estimated value of $8,000 in will be used for educational training purposes only by our automotive technology program students the vehicle was donated to Greater Lo because uh the automotive technology program participates extensively with a Ford online program for industry certifications through Ford Motor Company from grades 10 through 12 and we have one of the highest usages of the program in New England so they donated the car to us so we appreciate this ation and I am looking for approval have a motion will accept the 2014 Ford Focus second Mr Bahu yes Mr Moren yes Mr Richardson yes Mr Hogan yes Mr lame yes Mr NCO yes Mr Shen yes Mr G yes the next item on my agenda is I be seeking approval for the title one facilitator Miss Cheryl bul to travel out of state to attend the hos technical education conference on April 26 in Danielson Connecticut at no cost to the district the conference focuses on building successful CNC training programs and Cheryl is working very close closely with massire and the Commonwealth Corporation in providing adult training during the evening and would like to attend this professional development you a motion to accept the out State travel second second Mr Baho yes Mr Moren yes Mr Richardson yes Mr Hogan yes Mr lame yeah Mr Nako yes Mr Sheen yes Mr G yes and uh lastly I'd like to invite our director of curriculum instruction and assessment Mr Greg H to join us to provide information regarding the 2024 student Opportunity Act and I will also be asking for your approval after Mr H's presentation good evening how are you thank you um so this first slide is just a kind of a brief overview um so we are actually in our second round of the student Opportunity Act um the law was enacted in 2019 and um it makes some adjustments to how um the funding structure in Massachusetts is is set um we're not necessarily getting a lot more money um but it kind of puts some strings that are now attached to it where we need to um Identify some student groups that need the most help and ensure that the funds are being used to support those student groups in terms of our plan development there was a couple different approaches um two big pieces were kind of the collection of the data the first was um looking at a lot of data so there was state provided data um student outcome comparison tool mcast data um School climate data and we also used a lot of In-House data so midterm final exams course scores um and then a lot of like formative you know assessment data that is done in the department level um through that initial data look we identified some of the student groups that the state um list and these are kind of their terminologies so our multilingual Learners um that's the new terminology that the state is using to replace English language Learners so it went from English language Learners to English Learners and know it's MLL um students with disabilities low-income students uh are afcan American black population had some dis um disparities in last year's data as well as our Hispanic and Latino student population another big element of the student Opportunity Act plan development for 2024 is that we needed to engage families and stakeholders to get their insight into um the direction that we need to take in terms of supporting these student groups um so to do that we surveyed students we surveyed parents staff and we were to break that down by academic technical non-instructional um this also went out out to our Co-op employers some of our Advisory board members to make sure that we were getting the full Gambit of feedback from the community um and then we also did in-house data driven protocols in the different departments and then from there we were required um for the plan to identify Focus areas and then select from a bank of um evidence-based programs the department gave us as an option and this is the plan that we've developed and the funding that goes along with it um so for our 2024 SOA plan there's going to be kind of three prongs um this Focus number one is related to social emotional learning so you can kind of see in the budget category this isn't um additional funds Beyond what's in the budget this is you know Mike will continue with this so um within this first STL topic we're going to be providing additional professional development I do want to note that these funding um is over the course of three years so it'll be next years's and then the two subsequent years from that so we'll be doing additional um professional development in social emotional learning we'll be adding some additional positions to support that um that will be the um School adjustment counselor in The Rise program up in the school counseling department we'll also add one to the main office and then we'll be expanding our contract with cartwheel which provides Mental Health Services to students so our goal is that those efforts will um pan out and see some results in terms of supporting those student groups uh the second category or the second Focus area really revolves around family engagement and strengthening that schoolto Home Connection um so with this we'll be providing some professional development to teachers and strengthening two-a communication we have a handful of staff that will be going to the Harvard family engagement Institute in July um they will also be establishing a Family Resource Center um so there's you know some nominal construction cost in there um and then we'll be adding a parent liaison so that will bring um up up to three parent Liaisons and they'll all be housed in that family um liaison Center and then we'll be doing some additional nights after school um really highlighting our technical programs and you know bringing together parents and students and teachers throughout the year to highlight what they're doing in their efforts our last of the three Focus areas is really around teaching and learning um it's definitely the biggest in terms of uh funding a lot of um this category is looking for supporting those specific student groups uh we started last year with the support of the committee expanding um some of the teaching positions that we had we've seen results that have been really strong and positive with the co- teing model so we'll be expanding that um increasing kind of the strategies and the support with students with disabilities as well as MLL students um we've had now this is two years of of really good success with our project based learning initiative so we'll be continuing that into the following year uh providing I think we have 65 teachers signed up right now to do a three-day Institute this summer um we'll be implementing the state seal of by literacy which highlights the multilingualism of our students um and with that provide some seci professional development to teachers to support our multilingual multilingual Learners and then lastly um we'll be adding an instructional coach who will teach um some MLL sections but they'll also be responsible for supporting teachers with modifying their curriculum and making sure that it's accessible for mlls um and then instructional tutors will be added into the science department we've been very fortunate to have those positions in math and English and they've um obviously yielded results as you've seen on mcast and the hope is with Biology being the next one that we want to move that the tutors will help with that um so those three Focus areas combined it's just a little bit over 2.1 million um and that's the S SOA funding and then some of the other funding that we are willing to commit to make sure that we are able to hit these three Focus areas um and then with that it's we've got our um lowest our lowest performing group we are required to meet um des's three years targets that's part of the SOA plan and so that will be in English and math in achievement and growth and then we do need to measure the evidence-based programs in the other three areas and that'll be submitted annually to Desi there any questions on Thea plan no anybody I just know it seems like we're going the right direction with the MC score taking that jump and it looks like we're closing that Gap with the S SOA so congratulations I think we're doing a great job the superintendent right down to the classrooms so I mean you just look at that jump the last from the last three years it's unreal obviously hopefully it's sustainable yes um but let's be realistic so um un it's a great job I guess I have one question or comment as far as the three-year plan goals does the state sort of watch us annually and then we sort of submit some type of um paperwork let know that we're progressing yep so they'll open up um in I'm assuming it'll be in gems again their Grant Management we'll have to every year say where we are in terms of Meeting those schools So within the plan itself there's annual benchmarks and Target elements that we're going to be looking at and we'll have to show where we are with those and those were targets set by the state correct okay and if we don't meet those targets it's just sort of they sort of just continue to impr you they just say Okay correct keep an eye on this y great thank you great anybody else thanks Greg great appreciate it have a nice day thank you Greg thank you thank [Applause] you can I get a motion to approve the 2024 SOA plan so second second Mr Baho yes Mr yes Mr Richardson yes Mr Hogan yes Mr lame yes Mr noo yes Mr Shen yes Mr G yes the report of the business manager I'm Mike me good evening um so before the uh regular school committee meeting we did hold our public hearing on on the fy2 budget um so now we will be looking to uh get a vote of approval for the school commit or the presented budget has a total of 57,98811 180 you have a motion to approve the fy2 budget motion to approve second second Mr Baho yes Mr yes Mr Richardson yes Mr Hogan yes Mr lame yeah Mr NCO yes Mr Sheen yes Mr G you yes all right next item on my agenda is a list of transfers I've preferred um it's got a total of $1 million 6,894 um a lot of these were just account cleanup as we've been going through the year um balancing things out where we've moved expenditures to and then um making sure that all the money's in the right spots have a motion to approve the budget transfers motion second Mr Baho yes Mr yes Mr Richardson yes Mr Hogan yes Mr lame yeah Mr sh yes Mr G yes all right and my next item is uh an update or an updating a vote on The Food Service management contracting uh company so we've had a Mark here at grer Technical High School for I believe it's over 25 years at this point um and we went out to bid this year the state uh changeed the bid process or the proposal process on Food Service management so it was all done through the department of bed um through the Food Service management um and they set you know a lot of the template for how we go out to bid was changed and set by the state in order to align with Federal requirements um so in that process we had um we put out the the the bid and we had made some adjustments to make sure that the program that we received matched what we get offered here at greater W Tech on an uh everyday basis and we had uh about five Food Service management companies reach out and ask for copies of this proposal um and we had two companies come to our pre-bid walk through Chartwells and Aramark proposals were due March 6th and then uh myself Jill Davis and Michael Barton reviewed the proposals on the merits of how would conduct Food Service without looking at pricing um so we looked at there were benchmarks that we set for wanting participation out of our students the number of years of experience Financial stability of the company providing the type of menu that they offered the way that they offered that menu how many items they can get across the line a day how many different options they can offer for every all the students um and came back to find that based on the threshold set the proposal received from uh Aramark was rated as highly advantageous uh and the proposal received from Chartwells was uh rated as advantageous under the new state process you only open the costing of Highly advantageous proposals that have come across um so when we went back through um I opened the financials on this uh arar is providing a program that looks like it'll achieve um greater um participation amongst our students and also offer a net profit of operating the pro the program of about $398,000 annually um that funding is solely for Food Service um so we're going to have to look at you know what we can do to make the lives of students better here at greater ltech through the food service department uh what types of offerings we might be able to change or upgrade and those types of things with that type of money coming in um but that's where their proposal was based um So based on having a highly advantageous proposal that seems to meet all of the needs of of Greater L Technical High School students um and offering a very advantageous Financial proposal um seeking a motion to award the Food Service management contract to aark um I'll preface that this is a a single-ear contract with four extension years onto it uh just another uh Federal requirement of the USDA programs do have a motion to accept the food management contract to arac accept motion to approve Mr Baho yes Mr yes Mr Richardson yes Mr Hogan yes Mr lame yes Mr noo yes Mr Sheen yes Mr G yes all right that is it for tonight thanks Mike you than you thank you do we have any old business okay and the new business uh first I like to thank everybody for allowing me to be the committee chairman uh this is my last meeting as a chair um that being said I want to thank everybody Colette Jill uh everybody in the building thank you I appreciate it it was uh my pleasure so now it's time to uh for the annual realization of the committee election of officers take effect on April 1st 2024 so the naming of the new chair was not will not be a joke it's really happening in April 1st so do we have a motion to nominate the chair I would like to nominate the top vot getter in the area Mr she to be cheering of Greater laal tax how I prop be April 1 I'll second that mhm have anybody else anybody else airing none airing none Matt congratulations chman congratulations M no one ran against them but yes I'll be at the parade congratulations have any motions to nominate a vice chair nominate Paul Moren force chair second do I have anybody else nominated for vice chair anybody else hearing none congratulations M Mr Vice chair any motions to nominate the secretary Nom Steve second have anybody else did he say Curtis he do have anybody else is secretary any other nominations Curtis congratulations on being named secretary congratulations C do we have any uh committee person motion Mr chair back up one again sorry it's not really new business just wanted to let you everybody know the class of 2024 signs have been designed by the kids they've been made and they're available through the PTO if anybody want call beautiful we have any uh any committee personal motions reports uh subcommittees need a motion to approve the minutes from February 15th Finance subcomittee meeting have a motion move move second Mr Baho yes Mr Moren yes Mr Richardson yes Mr Hogan yes Mr lame yes Mr noo yes Mr shien yes Mr GF yes uh we have to go on no executive session so I need a motion on Executive session pursu to Mass General law c30a section 21 A3 to discuss strategy respect to collective bargaining or litigation if an open meeting may have detrimental effect on bargaining or litigation position of the public body and the chair so declares greater L uh the greater low Regional Teachers Association so can I get a motion to SEC executive session second motion Mr Baho yes Mr  yes Mr Richardson yes Mr Hogan yes Mr lame yes Mr NCO yes Mr she yes Mr G yes Mr Baho yes Mr Moren yes Mr Richardson yes Mr Hogan yes Mr lame yes Mr NOCO yes Mr Shen yes Mr gcha yes now FB got chairman Freddy we're going to document the date and time you hesitated on your yes because in the near future we're going to call this moment back back up I look do I have a motion to adjourn please to a Jour Mr thank you have a second Mr vahu yes Mr Mor yes Mr Richardson yes Mr Hogan yes Mr lay yeah Mr noo yes Mr Sheen yes Mr Gia yes thank you everyone thanks guys thanks guys good night --------- so can we call the meeting order Mr Bahu here Mr Moren yes Mr Richardson yes Mr Hogan Mr lame Mr noo Mr shien yes Mr gcha Here We R to the Pledge of Allegiance Pledge of Allegiance to the flag of the United States of America to the stands Nation Under indivisible the right can I have a motion to open the public hearing second Mr Bahu yes Mr Mormon yes Mr Richardson yes Mr Shen yes Mr gcha yeah all I'm going to ask superintendent Davis and uh School business administrator uh Mr Knight to present this fy2 budget good evening everyone I'm happy to be here this evening to present uh gr Technical High School's FY 25 proposed budget I'd like to inform everybody that uh as we began this uh budget process it was developed based on the governor's house budget proposal and data and input from our administrators teachers parents and Comm Community Partners our budget is centered around improving student achievement in order to develop confident Learners and skilled workers I'd like to start off the budget discussion by talking about the student Opportunity Act uh as you all know in uh 2015 uh the Senate and Governor approved a change in funding to the public education formula and this B provided an additional in investment of $1.5 billion into schools over the next 7 years uh this was revised to six years and we are currently in uh year four of the six-year implementation process in this year we were required to develop a new student Opportunity Act plan about $700,000 uh dollar of the current 2.6% budget increase or about 1 half of the net School spending amount of this budget uh is uh dedicated to our student Opportunity Act initiatives any questions uh the the student Opportunity Act is aimed at tackling inequities specifically for school districts like us with higher percentages of lowincome students English language Learners currently known as multilingual Learners now and special education student students in order to uh close the achievement Gap in this year's budget we received a $421,000 increase to chapter 78 and the budget that I am recommending to the committee this evening will be 57, 981480-001 more than 1,477 $455 in additional spending or a 2.6% increase over this year's Budget on this on this slide I'd like to discuss the current uh changes to the foundation budget rates per pupil uh the governor's budget proposed is a direct result of the revised Foundation budget formula which reflects an increase per pupil expenditure to add additional uh funding to schools with high numbers of English language Learners special education students as well as low income students and I'll just go line by line talking about the increases to the uh per pupil rates so the base rate for a vocational student was raised to 16,800 $ 6033 this is a $386 32 increase uh this rate increase is actually down from last year but there was an increase but it's a smaller increase than our increase was last year for a special education student we receive $ 31,33 362 which is a $594 increase also this rate increas is down from last year for English language Learners we received $ 32218 which is an increase of $342 42 also a rate in also this rate increase is an increase but the increase is down from last year for our lowincome categories uh that were added in fy21 that did not exist before and continue to be be maintained in this FY 25 budget we have 56% of our students that fall into the lwi income category 10 uh for which we receive $ 7,163 59 which is an increase of $623 and6 again a rate increase but this increase is down from last year this uh slide just explains the overall Foundation budget rates uh these again are based on the new rates of pupil expenditure set by the state and our current enrollment our foundation budget increase by 1, 362,552 which is a 2.6% increase in this year's overall budget uh as I said earlier this is year four of a six-year s SOA plan implementation and we should expect roughly the same budget increase over the next two years the 1,362 n53 is all net School spending required funding that needs to be spent each year in addition to Future budget increases any questions on the overall overview the foundation [Music] budget all right so the proposed Revenue that's going to support our budget this year comes from um mainly from State funding you can see down toward the bottom here that's made up of our Chapter 70 uh a which is based on our U per pupil spending that we've discussed previously and that is our required net School spending amount um and that's 37,6 47,1 191 uh our estimated Transportation reimbursement for next year is up $300,000 from the previous year to $1.5 million giving us a total state aid of 39,47 1091 um the remainder of our budget really comes from the assessment to our communities our assessments are up $755,000 to cover some of the expenses that wouldn't fall under net School spending eligible uh we are also including an excess in deficiency use or our savings use of $200,000 um so those three categories combined give us our total revenue number of 57,98811 [Music] our budget is focused on I'll start with category one is refining our curriculum and instruction to expand opportunities for student voice and choice and strengthen ownership of their education as well as opportunities to make connections between their academic and Vocational coursework earn industry recognized credentials and participate in real world work experiences uh some I'll just highlight some of the uh initiatives that we'll be conducting uh under this priority we are going to continue to develop and Implement project uh based learning lessons as we have been doing over the last two years we're going to be expanding our project Lether way courses into the medical uh program areas we're going to be expand expanding our dual enrollment to include chemistry 1 and two with Labs with UMass LOL we're going to be offering uh continue to offer student leadership opportunities and we're going to be working with our students who demonstrate a level of proficiency in uh literacy which is listening speaking reading and writing in English and one or more other languages so that those uh students can acquire the Seal of biliteracy and we're going to be working on the development of curriculum uh for our uh to be determined new veterinary science so those are just some of the highlights in this area of of refining curriculum and instruction to expand opportunities for our students the next area would be to ensure the class size mitigation and AD adequate course offerings and schedule flexibility for all students uh we're going to be expanding and refining our our English language uh education co- teing model for core academics we're going to be expanding ending our online foreign language offerings to include Spanish Chinese French and German with teacher support and as I said earlier we're going to be adding uh a new technical program which will be vinary science we are in phase two of the application process and uh we hope to know by uh by the Fall if this is going to be accepted by the Department of Elementary and secondary education you have joined the call but you are the only one but we we have made plans and to begin to develop curriculum and to begin to look for an instructor who would be able to teach uh the exploratory for the 2526 School 24 25 school year uh the next area of focus would be allocating staff and resources needed to to effectively meet the academic vocational social and emotional and behavioral needs of all our students and create a vision for engaging our families we'll be hiring an instructional coach an El instructional coach we're looking to hire a a a family liaison and and to open up a Family Resource Center here at school we're looking to hire a veterinary science instructor uh and we we're looking to hire two science tutors for the 2425 school year you the only one here and that's we're not finished we're going to be maintaining educational technology and resources and Equipment as we always do to ensure that our programs are are keeping up to date with industry and the global TR Trends uh again we're going to be purchasing equipment for our Veterinary science program and purchasing some uh Equipment Technology and media equipment for our eight new modular classrooms and then lastly uh we're going to be providing professional development and coaching to our staff in order to sustain high quality instruction to meet the needs of our multilingual Learners and deepen learning for all of our students in order to ensure educational equity and opportunity for all so we're going to be continuing to provide our instructors with professional development in Project based learning continue to provide professional development on school safety and threat assessments providing PD on De deescalation strategies on literacy across the curriculum in on co- teing for special education and multilingual Learners along with many other professional development opportunities but those are just some that I wanted to highlight and uh last but not least uh we also added some additional uh coaches to our athletic programs uh because of the increase in participation in our athletic programs we had to we have a need to add some additional coaches so our Spring Track we've added an assistant Spring Track coach uh for our indoor track we've added an assistant indoor track coach and uh uh we also have added the addition of two Unified sports weight room which would need one coach and one assisant coach and unified track which would need one coach and one assisant coach and those are some of the budget priorities for the 2425 school year focused on students and their achievements both in academic and vocational education and the expenditure that supports those initiatives uh broken down into these various categories um we see the biggest increase almost always going to be on our instructional line which is where our teacher salaries supplies materials all of those items are taken into account um additionally we'll see some notable decreases in um some of our fixed charges that was um renegotiating things like insurance and um making sure that we get the best rates possible in those areas um and then just some minor moves of a little bit of a decrease in um programs with other districts this is school choice as most the vocational schools have um filled up their enrollments they're not taking outside um member students um so our financial responsibility to schools like nooba that used to take some students that would have lived in break it um dunable LOL or tingbo um are reducing as they um they age out from being choiced into those schools and in this year's budget we did not include a contribution to the OPB trust fund um so we'll see a notable decrease in that line as well um but across our categories again the instruction really drives this budget um and that makes up you know almost almost the uh the whole of our 1.4 or 1,477 , 454 increase um some notable expenditures that aren't related to instruction or Personnel um our utility costs have kind of crept up over the last couple of years um I think when I when I started here our electricity rate was N9 9 cents per kilowatt hour um the most recent contract when we went out to bid that we could get was an 11.27 um so it's significant increase to lines like that that make up some of our bigger expenses in the budget um transportation regular Ed and special ed continue to increase um I will say it was nice that we're locked into um a contract with our transportation provider right now because word on word around school business officials um is that when you go back out to bid right now you're seeing double digit increases on the good side of things um so our extension year was under a 5% increase for our transportation um so that number stays relatively um stable even though it is one of our more notable increases year-over-year and then also we've seen a little bit of an uptick in classroom technology and software costs um some of this is the related to Chromebooks they used to be uh a very i' would say economical solution that didn't offer much from a Computing standpoint or computing power standpoint that the in the manufacturers have seemed to go away from that model and they're becoming more like a laptop now um minus some of the storage cap abilities and then some of our softwares have also seen pretty significant increases um particularly around cyber security we just had our renewal of our firewall and um some of the other related softwares that are involved in our network security and those those costs are um they're staying they're staying up there right now so Mike we should charge the kids $2 for the Chromebook now instead of one maybe on the way out that's a good idea that 12200 will break us okay uh this slide talks about our Personnel expenditure as I said earlier we're looking to hire an instructional coach for English language education a family parent liaison uh to uh to add to the current uh Liaisons that we have with the thought of having a Family Resource Center uh located in the main lobby of the School building a veterinary science instructor and two science tutors and uh part of that the advanced manufacturer savings would be supplemented to the veterinary science teacher um as I mentioned earlier on the revenue slide we are going to be using uh $200,000 out of our excess and deficiency or savings account this year's budget to meet and or to make sure we can uh expend in areas that wouldn't be net School spending eligible um the two main categories are our Medicaid filing which is done through UMass Medical um is not a eligible service that can be charged in that school spending but we do get reimbursement for that um so we do need to fund that out of excess and deficiency where the reimbursement closes out in this in the following year um so it's kind of a net zero it's actually a net positive position for us because the the filing is only uh charged at about 4.1% of the total reimbursement so uh we get a significant amount of that back uh and then also Capital vehicle purchases um for transportation of students to work sites those types of things aren't included um as net School spending eligible so we're going to use a little bit of savings to continue to update our Fleet um and I believe after this year we'll be done with all of our older 15 passenger style Vans and we'll be all in either mini buses or a newer safe style uh 14 or 10 passenger van uh that can be used by the different departments Andor Athletics groups is is desie and I know we we asked this in the past because Transportation obviously the buses are an issue and use after school sports we're using these to get our kids there we reach back out to them to see if we can include that to that school spending or are they just shut the door in our face and that's it uh no so I I made the the case less for athletics more for job site job site Transportation recently and and I actually I think the way I framed it was you're telling me I can pay a outside provider with net School spending funds to drive our students to and from a job site for work Based training but I can't buy a vehicle to do that on my own and the the response I received was yep you understand correctly um so it might not make uh doesn't make a lot sense to me right it makes no sense to me at all cu they can't provide us the service right now yep but yet we can't use it for that okay yeah so and and they do provide some of them uh I know our health and medical students do go out on a contracted bus but um by and large the other groups that go out to job sites uh carpentry and uh and the like generally drive themselves and they're much smaller groups going out I was just now I guess my next question is is it saving us money by instead of like the medical students going out is it cheaper for us just okay we're buying and saving the money on the contractor and doing that um it might be but the there needs to be a willingness to drive from from the individual who's running that group and um varied levels of comfort from individuals teams coaches Etc on whether they wish to drive or not yep okay I understand so to sum it all up uh our operating budget for FY 25 of 53,723 885 exceeds required next school spending amount of 53,54 5,8 53 m58 4,885 by $200,000 from E excess and deficiency to cover non-school net School spending eligible expenses starting with our operating budget of 53 uh, 78485 this amount must be spent on education to meet net School spending and the following are expenditures the transportation cost of 2,927 th000 Debt Service of 1,269 595 uh and OPB uh is zero uh with a total budget of 57 m981 480 our sources of revenue uh which is needed to sustain our proposed total budget the minimum local contribution which we assess our cities and towns which is set by the state is 15,937 694 our transportation assessment of 1,427 th000 and our debt assessment of 1,269 $595 a total an assessment total of 8,634 289 amongst our four towns along with our chapter 78 of 37 uh, 647 th000 $191 or chapter 71 Transportation Aid of 1,500 uh $1,500,000 and our excess and deficiency of $200,000 so that that is our budget uh report for the FY 25 budget are there any public participants wishing to speak on the fy2 budget and seeing none uh the vote for the uh FY 25 budget will take place during the regular school committee meeting at 6:30 uh we're going to close the public hearing motion to close the public hearing so move second secondo yes Mr Moren yes Mr Richardson yes Mr Sheen yes Mr getu yes we'll take a brief uh recess to begin the school committee meeting at 6:30 thank you thank you