okay folks good evening town clerk advises me to have a quorum so we can undertake to take care of the town's business this evening uh thank you and thank you all for joining us this evening and let me welcome the viewers at home I sometimes forget that we're on cable TV and for those of you who could not make it here but want to become informed with respect to the issue I'm glad that you're tuning in at home tonight and you can help uh follow the debate uh before we move to article one I have a motion that we routinely handle to allow non-residents to speak while I'm on the topic I want the folks sitting in the right left rear section up there to understand that that's where a non-voting uh individual Set uh so if uh you're not intending to vote this evening you can stay there but if you are intending to vote I'd encourage you to move to another section so that your your vote can count as we know from our most recent election for select board every single vote can make a difference now with respect that prior to article one I'm going to read the following motion move that the following non-residents and non-voting town official and Consultants to committees be allowed to speak during the course of this annual town meeting Kevin Ruden principal assessor Suzanne kutka superintendent of schools hollison public schools Joanne manad assistant superintendent of schools Dan McLoud director of Technology hollison Public Schools Travis ofn Our Town Administrator Chris hman Town collect treasury collector Kathleen Buckley assistant Town Administrator HR Director Gita Patel Town accountant and Jay Talman the Town Council our bylaws require the town meeting vote to allow the non-residents uh to address the town meeting the vote required is a majority all those in favor say I I those opposed so voted now with respect to evening's article we have a single article that'll be presented I wanted to just outline for town meeting this evening the protocol that I had developed uh myself and had shared with the interested parties here the select board the school committee the fincom Town Clerk and Mr Talman Our Town Council who's here this evening and my thinking was that we would call I would call on uh Our Town Administrator Mr Hearn to give us a brief a procedural overview what brings us here this evening what the matter is that will be voted on this evening although I'm sure you all have a pretty good awareness of what's going to be voted on what will be the consequence of effect of a no vote what will be the consequence of a yes vote if there is a yes vote what will follow with respect to the scheduling of a town election and what will be uh presented to the voters at that time and so I'm going to ask him uh to present that to us I'm then going to read the article that you have uh and the suggested motion if there's a second for that I'm going to call on the school committee uh or the designate whoever they designate to make a single individual to make a presentation to us with respect to the article that's being presented this evening following that presentation I'm going to call on the select board one or both of them one of two or three of the members to tell us the position of the select board and what rationale if any they care to offer and if the position is not unanimous I'll offer an opportunity to one or more of the other select member select board members to State their position if it differs from the majority I'm then going to call on the finance committee to share with us their view of the article what vote if any they've taken for the recommendation or consideration I'll then open it up for uh a further presentation and debate we have a a Rost a Podium set up here in front of the school committee for their convenience so they'll be in a position to respond to questions from citizens uh without having to go to the central rostom we're going to have the we're going to utilize the podium in the front of the building for front of the room for citizens to speak those of you who haven't spoken before Town meetings or have difficulty speaking publicly I want you to understand that we're a user friendly consumer friendly group I encourage you to come up even if it's your first time doing so you might find it less challenging than you might otherwise thought of so come on up and if it's if you stammer a little bit that's okay we all do it at various times in life so if you have something to say would like to hear it I had toyed with the idea in order to ensure a fair and open debate by having people queue up on the left and the right those in able to come down the right hand side those on the left and go back and forth but I think that the less cumbersome we make it the better if I have three or four or five individuals that speak in in one point I examp in favor then I'll call on some who have a differ view so that the air gets so that the views of of uh both sides if there are both sides that form are fairly and evenly dealt with uh we I I think our rules require that speakers be limited to 10 minutes given the limited agenda that we have I'm going to be flexible with that if the school committee needs more than 10 minutes to explain their position on I'm going to allow them that Latitude to do that and if the select board and the fincom want to take more than 10 minutes and that's okay too uh I'm going to allow the uh debate to continue I I don't want an early uh motion to bring it to closure move the question so to speak until the issue's been fairly uh discussed if I get the sense that it's been fairly discussed uh going du latitude because of the importance of the matter we have this evening then I will entertain a motion to move the question and we'll then put the matter to a vote okay so if that's okay with everybody I'm going to call on Mr rear please to give us a a a procedual overview of what's before us thank you Mr H thank you Mr moderator um I get to do the boring stuff make sure everybody understands the process here um and just go through those items I think some of them will be reiterated so I'll be quick um but if there's any questions we have the moderator Town Council here that can answer any questions if I'm unclear or if anything else comes up that I don't cover I want to cover one thing before I get into the process uh which is that we are piloting um a new process this town meeting uh we were intending it for October but this presented an opportunity so if anybody needs translation services we have Google Chromebooks that are with it Chris mayo and priia are right there to give you a Chromebook you can turn it on and select from 35 languages uh for Clos captioning live to translate if you were at home uh you can go to hcats Facebook feed and turn on the translation services as well this is something that we're continuing to progress with at T meeting thank you and if if people have issues or or people have other suggestions we're open to all those we want to make town meeting as accessible as possible uh to all our residents so with that I'm just going to go through the process here make sure everybody's clear some of this is written in the materials um and some of it again will will come up in some of the presentations from the select board fincom and school committee um so the FY 25 budget the fiscal year budget was approved at annual town meeting on May 13 the fy2 budget is set to go into effect on July 1st through June 30th of 25 which is the municipality's fiscal year the budget was approved in May uh and balanced under proposition 2 and a half which I'd like to give a quick primer on a Town's annual operating budget is restricted in growth on an annual basis by a mechanism called proposition two and a half which is a legislation put in place in the 1980s that allows a municipal budget to grow a municipal entity to grow its tax levy limit which is the total amount that can be raised through taxation by 2.5% over the prior year plus New Growth which is new taxable property that's created or additions to taxable property since the prior fiscal year shortly after this past May annual town meeting the school committee reached a memorandum agreement with the Holliston Federation of teachers or hft that is contingent on an operational override to the proposition 2 and A2 an operational override allows the tax levy limit otherwise restricted by prob 2 and A2 to increase by an amount agreed to by the community and voted on as a ballot question at a local election so here's the most important clarification I'm trying to make between the two separate mechanisms that we're talking about a ballot question which the select board has agreed to hold after Labor Day but before September 15th for various reasons at the school committee's request is the mechanism to approve the override I'll repeat that the ballot question or election is the vote on the override itself the Warren article in front of you this evening answers the question of what the funds can be used for if and only if the override ballot question passes at the local election given the timeline here for which the school committee chair can provide additional context you are being asked this evening if an override is approved in September are you in favor of spending that money as described in the warrant the warrant article is contingent on on the override passing at the ballot the override ballot question is not contingent on town meeting I know that's a little convoluted so I wanted to State it up here it is also written in the materials if there are additional questions as we're getting through the materials please feel free to use Town Council the moderator or ask a question for for anybody to to respond to so thank you very much okay thank you [Applause] Travis okay now one other opening comment that I wanted to make to you've heard me say it previous Town meetings and I take pride in the level of discourse that we have here at the hollison town meeting the topic that we present here this evening is likely to engender strong feelings both for and against from Individual members of the community who have various uh views of it and uh I just want to encourage you in your comments to be frank to be direct you can say what's on your mind but say it please in a civilized fashion in the interest of uh maintaining that measure of Civility please direct your comments to me rather than to individual members you have a question we'll put it out there but I take the position that unless it's proven otherwise that the people appearing before this multi assembled multitude here are operating in good faith and should be treated with respect and the courtesy that they're entitled to so let's let's uh have our discussion but let's have it in the Civilized fashion okay excuse me we have an issue what is it hold on one sec H is having a Comcast issue so watching Comcast on channel six which to channel I'm advised that there's a Comcast issue so if you're watching us on Channel 6 at home turn to 9 right Liz great thank you okay let's move to article one the article is entitled supplemental FY 2025 budget appropriation proposition 2 and A2 override is sponsored by the select board to see if the town will vote to raise and appropriate a sum of money from the tax levy for the purpose of supplementing the operating budget for the fiscal year beginning 20 July 1 2024 for certain departmental operating exp purposes and other expenses set supplemental appropriation being contingent upon passage of a proposition 2 and half b question for an operating override under Mass general laws chapter 59 section 21 C of taking action relative there to the purpose stated purposes one for the school department the recommended sum is $1,126 21 number two Personnel bylaw chart Town HR budget 44345 and that will be explained in the course of the presentation this evening the total contingent Appropriations total 1,170 366 I'm advised that the finance committee recommends approval of the supplemental FY 2025 budget appropriation of 1,1 12621 for the school budget and four44 $345 for the HR budget contingent upon passage of the O passing of a future ballot question for an operational override 7-0 and we'll hear from the fincom more directly about that later the motion is move that the town approve the supplemental FY 2025 budget appropriation from the tax levy of 1,1 12621 for the school budget and 44 345 for the HR budget contingent upon passing of a future ballot question for an operational override pursuant to mass Journal laws 59 section 21c is there a second I'll call on the school committee I strike that the sponsor is from the select board I'm going to call on the school committee if I could force first because even though it's sponsored by the select board I think that the school committee has presented with a laboring or this evening so I'll call on them first to make a presentation thank you Mr Alfred thank you good evening everyone uh Dan Alfred chair of the school committee 315 High Street um so before we get started there's going to be a lot of information numbers details in the presentation tonight uh we have uploaded that to our website so if you go to uh um with hollison k12.us and then click on the special town meeting um section of the website you can actually should bring up this presentation and either follow along or look at some of the numbers in more detail um if you'd like all right so Travis covered a lot of this but um just a couple things to start since most of this has already been covered I'd just like to state to say that you know if there was any way that we could have avoided having to have this special town meeting we would have we understand this is not the ideal situation for anyone but at the end of the day and I hope you'll agree when I get to the end of the presentation you'll agree that this is a good thing for hollison um well there's a confusion and I think Travis clarified it this is still the normal process it's just the normal process is embedded within the May meeting the May Town election so we're not doing anything different it's just that anytime you'd have an override just like we did last year with the uh sidewalks in the DPW that was embedded in the warrant from the Maytown meeting it was embedded in the May Town election um Also to clarify if it if this article fails tonight but then passes at the ballot that will provide unused Levy capacity that they could then be appropriated at a future date and in really any any way so we you know today is the way to tonight is the night to sort of make our our voices heard and hopefully appropriate the way that we've requested it but not use the unused Levy capacity okay just a little bit about the timeline um so this is the timeline of of the uh of our uh negotiations with the the hft so starting on November 16th sorry November 6th 2023 the hollon school committee and the hollon Federation of teachers met for 14 times over 28 hours before reaching the memorandum of agreement and signing it on May 20th 2024 we met on November 6th we met on November 9 29th we met on December 11th December 20th January 10th January 24th February 12th February 29th March 11th all with no agreement we met on March 20th no agreement we met on April 3rd we didn't reach a deal April 18th was when the ballot was when the approximately April 18th was when the clerk sent the the town election ballots to be printed at at that point we couldn't have done uh anything we met again on April 25th we didn't reach an agreement on uh on may3rd the warrant was finalized by the select board and the uh the finance committee and was published we held our um town meeting on May 13th and then met again with a with a long with a on May 15th with the Federation um on a at a date that had been decided uh weeks if if not months prior to that we got close to an agreement on that date agreed to meet again on the 20th and we signed the agreement and then ratified it both parties ratified it on May 23rd so that's the details of of the um of the background here how we got to where we are today just to give a little bit of context um the last override was in 2010 between the time that the hollon school committee requested the override on April 15th and the and the override vote was held was 40 days based on the current timeline it'll be 110 days Community will have a lot of opportunity to figure things out in fact maybe too much but um but there will be a lot of time for for answering even more questions and we're here to answer a ton of questions tonight we want to hope we get everyone comfortable tonight but we have months to talk about it and I get that there's summer months and the last thing people want to think about is is is something like this but we have a lot of time ahead of us to to continue this conversation I know there's been a lot of um talk about what we did and didn't say and I just I think it is important and I realize that people don't follow everything that goes on at school committee meetings select board meetings um and uh and finance committee meetings but uh we we were we did email out and send out send out numerous Communications about our POS where we were with bargaining and the fact that our contract uh sorry our our budget did not necessarily have the funding required to settle a contract with the teachers we also made it very clear that we would be unwilling to go forward with an override without an operate without an agreement with the teachers okay so now let's get into the uh the brass tax the school committee is requesting as part of this warrn article additional funding of 1 million $1 26,2 if you start at the top you see that Personnel costs are about 2.1 million other operational costs are 500,000 oh sorry there you go all right um special education cost are $922,000 we have added one position which is a bcba we talked about that in May and this also includes almost $400,000 of budget cuts we have worked really hard to come up with a fiscally prudent budget in May to meeting appropriated 1.3 million we're asking for the 1.1 as part of the the the process tonight continuing on in the election and then we also received $750,000 in supplemental funding onetime funding uh for special education costs that bring our Gap to zero and then you can see the the the budget drivers on the right those are after the cuts that we did just to to remind everyone the school committee has sharpened its pencils we worked really hard to come up with a budget that we felt was fiscally responsible and was um in line with what the taxpayers of this town were were looking to for us to do which is to ensure that we were operating efficiently we came into town meeting with that we we looked at additional things as we were um considering the override cost um ultimately though we felt like we had cut deep enough already that many more additional Cuts would have negatively impacted student learning and we were trying to avoid that at all costs how many people I swear I've hav't been talking for 10 minutes people all right let's talk about the details of the contract okay so for those that haven't seen yet the uh contract details are are as follows we have uh negotiated an additional 15 minutes of increase time on uh increased instructional time starting in 2526 for all schools but placentino and placentino will receive 10 additional minutes um that works out to 540 hours over a child's K through 12 education which is over half a year of additional instructional time so K through 12 over half a year of additional instructional time we've increased student monitoring language to increase student safety during period changes at the middle in high school um and we've created a collaboration between an admin and Educators on a process to look at the Bell schedules which is the sort of the day-to-day schedule within the high school and the middle school to look at potential changes in those schedule in that in that as well looking at the financials we eliminated step two to increase and keep us highly competitive with other Metro West districts our cost of living adjustment is 4% 3% 3% over those three years and then there's a $1,500 additional top step in 25 26 uh co uh to coincide with the increased uh time instructional time while well not part of the contract as we looked at what we were going to do with the 15 minutes and we still haven't fully decided you we and that's really the the administration's uh decision along with the school committee well we haven't figured out exactly how that's going to be implemented we did know that we couldn't add it to the start of the day we're not going to make Miller a 7:15 start time and doing it at the end of the day would make um placentino get out even 10 minutes later which would create a problem on the other end so one of the solutions that's always been on the table for dealing with the star times has been increasing the number of buses and reducing the number of bus runs so that you could oh I can't get it to go forward when I want and then it goes back um so as we go forward with this we're going to be looking at reducing the number of bus runs to two from three which will reduce the sort of the number of start times from three different start times across the district to two and allow Mill to start later and plasa to start earlier um we're going to be working we've consistently heard continuing feedback about this and we're listening um that said there's a lot of work to do on the on the nitty-gritty that has to be worked out for that and so we're going to work very closely with with the teachers with the staff with the parents with the community on how that looks on actual implementation um we did present a um a three-year budget that we find we believe to be fiscally responsible it does show a gap in years two and three um we believe we can fill that Gap um there's some details of of ways that we can feel that we can't get into now due to some contractual uh sit contractual issues but we're confident that we will not be here in 3 years or in two years or in one year seeking another override to pay for this contract I just want to state that again we believe I mean we're we were committed to ensuring that this request funds at least these 3 years if not and preferably my preference would be much more so this is the uh this is on the town's website this is something that the assessor put together I appreciate it we I can't because then I can't I got to just you know anyway so this is on the town's website you can you can look at what what it would mean to your individual household but obviously the average impact including the um the additional uh money for nonunion personnel on the town side is $21 for the average household in hollon and then you can see and calculate your own your own rate just quickly on tax relief programs um hollon has through the support time meeting participates in a number of tax relief programs for low-income hold low income hous hous olds veterans uh 65 plus households um and and maybe some others and this includes a new program that was just signed into law by the governor in May um and please reach out to the assessor uh for more details and I'm he's going to be providing more information there was a a ask the assessor And the hollon reporter that goes into a lot of great details about that it's a phenomenal program um and so I I'm hopeful that it helps a lot of people out and I did it again A lot of times and never actually done this before I sat over there for 11 years and I always made sure Ken spoke so um so looking at this is these charts are all in your the one pager that we handed out today but here it is in color um if you look at our comparable neighboring districts you'll see that our average class size is below the average for for our peers that's a that's a good thing you want less kids per student per per teacher um our per pupil spending is is at the absolute bottom of the chart of all of our of our peers our residential tax base is is is uh relatively high as a percent of of total and our average single family tax bill is below the average and significantly below hopkington and then obviously some of the the uh the more affluent communities I know this one is something that the um that many people have been asking for and so we put together some compensation comparables and I'll just pause here for a minute it is on the slides and and the um on the internet but I think what what it shows is um that we are very competitive but we are not like overly competitive we we value the work that our that our teachers do we're trying to compensate that compensate them for it but at the same time there are many communities that that do pay more than us and so it it's so just let everyone take a second to to look at this if they haven't been able to bring it up on the phone and and I appreciate that it's a little bit um convoluted but just to give some context the gray is plus or minus 2% from Holliston the light green and like red or are 2 to 7 or 8% something like that then um then there's a darker color which is up to I believe 15% and then over 15% is is is the darkest colors um I think it's important also to realize that at these 15 communities 10 of them are in their last year of the contract and what does that mean they're all going to be looking at what we're doing and this chart will look much different if we look at the 2026 numbers we can't look at the 2026 numbers because we don't have them there are only a few communities that we have them for but those districts this chart would look will look different in a year as we look forward you have mainly gone over this um but um one thing I I just want to point out is that your the average property value in h the property tax in hollon pays for about 60% of the $16,000 we spend to educate a child for one year so if you have two kids in the schools that's $332,000 the average person is paying $10,000 on the tax that's a little less um it takes a village essentially is what this says we need everybody and we understand that it's hard on hard for some people and we we we we get that we do this was not an easy decision to to come to the community and ask for for this additional money but it's really really important just quickly as we get towards the uh conclusion um there have been a lot of override requests recently in in Massachusetts a lot of really big override requests uh in fact uh just on Tuesday North Reading uh put to the voters a $10 million request $1,700 per household it lost um but but that's I mean the these are the needs of our communities that that was not just schools that was that was a whole town uh townwide effort but I mean look at what just look at what is happening in Franklin our neighbor they had a $550 uh average household override that that failed last week two weeks ago they cut 40 teachers or 40 staff they gutted the Arts these are the situations that that we could find ourselves in because we will eventually need to settle a contract this is contingent if this fails there will be no day one immediate actions that need to be taken but we're still going to need to settle a contract and contracts are being settled at around where we've settled this contract we're not an outlier so our request along with the select board is $21 um average for for the average taxpayer the average in Massachusetts in 2025 for 2025 fiscal year 2025 has been 474 we're looking at 2.1% increase versus the average of 5.5% we have worked really really hard to to keep this as um excuse me fiscally conservative and minimalistic as possible to to reduce the impact on all of you so some takeaways but we've kind of covered it override is 58% less than the average for the state that's the 2011 to 454 um as a percent we're 62 below per below that's the 2.1% to 5 um sorry 5.4% I don't have F me anymore um 40 sorry 53.8% of the 26 known overrides this year have passed and there are two outstanding with hollon one of them and I believe Norton is the other that we know about about uh the yes vote not waited for total votes but has been about 54% in conclusion um the request and these funds are going to improve the educational quality for your kids 540 hours if there's one number that I want be able to leave here with other than 2011 if everyone understands that's the most important number right but really what the most important number is is 540 hours more over a year over half a year of additional educational time for student K through 12 Additionally the contract puts us puts in place the collaborative process for looking at the high school schedule and potentially the middle school schedule um this has been something that the community we've heard lots of feedback on just concerns it doesn't mean that it's going to change it just means that we're going to put through a process that's going to go to take a deep dive into what it is and what the other options are and whether we want to look at something to to improve um to improve the schedule or if it needs improving it keeps holl's teachers competitively compensated and increases competitiveness in entry level wages so one thing going back to that chart before we we are going to be paying significantly better for entry level um for entry level teachers Educators and professionals we're hoping that that will help us attract teachers and over time and then retrain them retain them yeah yeah uh hollison needs to increase its investments in its schools to remain competitive while while hollison school committee is is um is committed to a goal of increasing rigor and competitiveness while also ensuring opportunities for all and as we've been talking about the cost of this override is modest in comparison to other asss in the state and it has been 14 years since we've last requested an override the average uh of those overrides this year um the average time between overrides for those communities was 9 years so lastly uh this contract is good for teachers sorry good good for teachers good for students good for the hon public schools and good for H and I guess so thank you very much for your support I really appreciate everyone showing up tonight okay Dan thank you call on uh Miss Hine to help us with respect to the select board's position on the article good evening can everyone hear me back there thank you uh Tina Hine 142 Union Street uh chair of the select board welcome to town meeting special town meeting June 20th today 2024 a quick word about how we arrived here tonight 28 days ago the select board was notified by the school committee of the need all set we were notified 28 days ago by the school committee of the need for an override because of the just sign memorandum of agreement since May 24th the work to open the warrant sign align schedules arrange necessary staff and volunteers has been impressive and time intensive many things are owed to our dedicated town hall employees many of them here tonight presented with a request for an override triggered by a Union contract that increases teacher pay it was right and fair for the select board to revisit the growing pay disparity among non-union employees identified during the FY 24 or fiscal year 24 and fiscal year 25 budget development processes on June 5th the select board voted to EST to include a request to appropriate an additional $443 45 to mitigate the growing pay disparity the salaries of 43 employees across a number of town departments were reviewed and compared to compensation for peers in neighborhood communities the 1.5% cost of living adjustment in the fiscal years 2024 and 2025 has led to pay disparity and the override presents an opportunity to address that by adding capacity the select board asks town meeting to vote Yes tonight to appropriate $44,000 3 $44,000 345 for purpose two within the article I'd like to take a moment to briefly review select board support of the hollon public schools during the current three-year contract this support includes a advancing Capital requests through the annual town meeting warrants directing Federal cares arpa dollars to the schools and participating in the state's School building and repair program the total approved Capital request during the fiscal year 2022 to fiscal year 2025 the period we're the Year we're about to enter on July 1st is $2,468 25 it includes areas of Technology buildings curriculum and classroom upgrades from the 1.3 million in 2020 cares and the 4.5 million in 2021 arpit funds the select board voted to spend two just over $2 million of those federal dollars to the schools and in doing so partnered with the halls and public schools to accomplish a long overdue goal of offering free full day kindergarten calls to significantly upgrade the high school have grown over the last few years and the school committee and administration prioritize joining the state program each year to build and re uh renovate build or renovate school public school buildings the select board has authorized participation in that program on behalf of the town of Holliston since 2019 the enormity and expense of a high school build uh is built into the town's 5-year Capital Improvement plan and Factor heavily in every discussion around townwide planning to improve infrastructure and buildings including most recently the May 2023 debt exclusion decisions uh that were made here at town meeting for Road and sidewalk improvements and a new DPW facility as mentioned before we look to call you back for a special election a town election on September 10th the selectboard is yet to call the ballot we're waiting for more information including tonight's uh feedback and votes but that is the intention is to come back on the 10th of September uh for a ballot question for the override I'd like to share some final thoughts I share this information with you tonight from the prior slides to demonstrate that the town of Holliston supports the Holliston Public Schools over the past three years the select for select board has brought forward every funding request made by the schools and town meeting has approved each one Hollis and voters support the education of our children in every possible way throughout a global pandemic by advancing their use of Technology by improving the physical environment in which they learn and through the appropriation of tax dollars for educational supplies materials and teacher salaries and I am confident that this will continue when the opportunity presents itself soon to fund a new school building tonight town meeting is asked to appropriate additional money to the school and town Department budgets for fiscal year 2025 any vote tonight to do this will be contingent upon voters returning later this summer for an override as has already been outlined um at a local Town election voters are PR presented with a request to build new capacity raise additional revenue and direct most of that new Revenue towards the schools as you look to vote on a $1.17 million override later this summer recognize that we here at town meeting are the legislative body deciding how and where the money is spent we just did this in May passing a $72 million operational budget of which 42 million went to the schools it is a new contract negotiating in miday that brings us back tonight and will bring us back to The Ballot Box at the end of the summer This Moment In Time calls for Big Picture thinking demographics in Holliston are changing our infrastructure must be maintained our residents our neighbors have growing and varying needs for Town services and challenges not known today will present themselves at any point the past 3 years have made that very clear and while New Opportunities and growth exist for Holliston capitalizing on those opportunities for the benefit of all residents is accomplished by the combined efforts and hard work of town departments and the employees who work in them I remind town meeting that while the upcoming election determines the override we are here tonight to decide how to balance the budget needs of every town department when you vote tonight know what those new tax dollars are going to service level decisions education decisions quality of life decisions are all determined by the balanced budgets established here at town meeting your vote here makes those decisions I will end with an affirmation we are here tonight because we support the hollon public schools we are also here because we recognize that a once in 15-year request resulting in an operational override deserves thorough deliberation I appeal to town meeting to bring forward your questions and comments as we consider the additional appropriation of $1.17 million in the fiscal year 2025 budget consider the many aspects of the decision before us recognize the complex demands for the revenue raised by property taxes and make informed choices about the educational system in Holliston I look forward to your respectful and thoughtful deliberation uh we're about to hear this evening thank you thank you thank you Tina Mr Spar wanted an opportunity to address that so call on select select board members Mr [Music] Sparrow uh thank you uh Ben SPL I'm the vice chair of the select board uh 9 Forest partk Drive and um first thing I wanted to say was I just wanted to give a big thank you to uh Bill Maher our uh moderator to Liz Greendale the town clerk uh Jay talerman Our Town Council and aarn for the enormous amount of work that they did after town meeting to get ready for another town meeting so I I really want to say thank you to them for so I'm speaking up uh by myself here I'm not necessarily speaking on behalf of the select board um but I just wanted to say a couple things um I'm not going to hit you with numbers lots of other people are going to do that and have done that but one of the things I just wanted to reiterate and to make sure was clear is that the most important thing about this community are its people and that goes for residents and town employees and I think it's really important that we ensure that we show our town employees kindness and respect um we want to make this town a better place and they're part of this process and one of the ways that we can show the kindness and respect to them is to ensure that their pay rates are competitive with other communities otherwise we risk losing great people to other places and I understand that this might be hard for some people and there some there is some hardship when we're asking for uh increases to your property taxes but just say it again that the assessor's office are excellent they'll answer your questions and they are a resource if you need to reach out you can call them you can visit them at Town Hall and I've had numerous conversations with our principal assessor Kevin ruten and he's fantastic and he can answer any question that you have so I really urge you to uh reach out to them if you have any questions about your tax bill and make sure you do vote on September 10th when that comes up the last election for the select board was decided by one vote one so your vote matters just keep that in mind in these votes um Mr Alfred brought up that the uh override votes can be very close so make sure you come out and vote on September 10th so thank you thank you we'll now hear from the fincom Mr Murphy thank you Bill yes uh V Murphy 432 northw street so uh I'm the chair of the finance committee so if you didn't know who I was so I'll go through a couple of the slides this is very short but I just wanted to say first thing okay the purpose of the article was is just to remind but Travis said it but I just want to reiterate the purpose of what we're here to do tonight is only to use say if the override passes where's the money going to be used so it doesn't have any effect on the actual vote doesn't affect the dollar amount just what's going to how the money is going to be used so if we don't do it now we'd have to do it on sometime before September 15th so this is why we chose to do it now next slide so summary of the article we've already spoken about everything so I won't go into it but the dollars to be allocated to the different wages it's all listed on the back of the warn article we'll be doing that at the fall town meeting so we don't have to get into it tonight we just wanted to have one set amount to be allocated assuming the override passes next what did we do we being the finance committee we went through the whole process gave the third degree we would say to the school committee asking do they really need this money all the things they're going to be using it for is it Justified as they're going to be using it for how do we stand up against other schools regarding wages and other things while it is a lot of money we ultimately recommended and you'll see in the war article the passage of this so sorry wait and so y unanimously recommended see last thing recommend this appropriation lastly I just want to remind you because want to reiterate this so we don't get into a long debate we'll only take effect if the override passes this article is only amending the 2025 budget the one we did in May lastly voting for or against this article will have no impact on the override so thank you thank you thank you Mr Murphy okay the motion having been made and seconded is now open for public debate who would like to be heard it's not is that possible Mr bla you've rescued us from Silence Mr moderator I am speechless when we just say it's only one 1.2 million no questions but I want to go back to what Mr Ken Shader told us last month he said to us that so I identify as I recognize BL tell us your name and address sir please Jack Blaze 25 Mitchell Road hollist Mass 0746 thank you Mr Ken Shader told us last month the town meeting that the excise tax was down the revenue from the excise tax was down in holl yes you did don't shake your head no and okay so now I go back to Mr BL please address your comments to me even if you're looking Mr shade address your comments to me please thank you sir thank you y so now I have several questions what did the special town meeting cost and where the money come from what does the special Town election cost Mr Mar what is that do we have a slush fund and my third question Mr moderator is if it's only 1.2 million out of seven and if you remember Mr moderator last month there was not a question to ask about the school school budget the only thing you did you thanked the superintendent from ke tech for being here no further questions so my last question is why can't each budget absorb the 1.2 million and not even go for this override okay thank you I'll get those questions answer for you uh Travis can you help us or can you help us with the cost of this evening's meeting the cost of the special election and I that's the third one is a rhetorical question why can't all the Departments chip in to cover the cost of this I'm not sure that we'll get that answer but we'll see what we can do with it thank you Mr bla okay so the first question is is on the cost of the special town meeting so um the the select board did bring the town clerk to to two select board meetings to discuss this with the school committee um and ultimately the cost of this evening was quoted at about $600 um which was within the remaining appropriation for FY 24 which we are at the tail end of 10 more days in FY 24 so that was the the special town meeting the ballot uh we went through quite a few scenarios there are not a lot of good scenarios for the ballot um because we have a primary on September 3rd so there were a few numbers that were uh moved about depending on the choice that ended up being between uh the select board and the town clerk on what would be the ballot which was discussed earlier to be chosen as September 10th the estimates ranged between $10,000 and $177,000 um the highest cost being if it had been tried to be on the same night as the primary ballot this this fall which is September 3rd so the estimate is is closer to $112,000 for the ballot to be held on September 10th um where that money will come from is not entirely determined the school committee has discussed their ability to cover the cost of that uh as as the purpose for the ballot itself though the finance committee uh and the school committee have not finalized that discussion um there were other questions after that but uh those are the two all answer and I'm happy I think those two are fine to thank you I think the third question as I understood it was why can't the other munici departments cough up the money I guess in plain English to uh fund this need and Mr Talman as I understand at town meeting at its uh recent action appropriated funds to various Municipal departments for the expenditures for the upcoming fiscal year as I understand the practice and the procedure those departments are not free to Simply cough up or decline to spend the funds for the allocated purpose those funds would have to be expended for the purpose for which they were appropriated and so those Town departments are not free to just forego the full appropriation and cough it up to cover this do I have that right um that's correct and I think looking mining down even again Jay talerman Town Council mining down a little bit deeper when it uh relates to a school budget the school budget is more of a bottom line budget so so money gets moved around within that at the discretion of the school committee now I'm not I don't know all the details of the particular contract here but it the the other this doesn't affect other the other departments what you're voting on here today that is locked in those line item budgets are set now if this doesn't pass there's still room for economy throughout the course of the year but it's not related to what you're voting on tonight great thank you I proceed to any further anybody else want to be heard yes you know that you learn how I've recognized the failure of age of my eyesight I was going to ask say come on down but I kept my mouth shut and just invited you down so welcome okay I'm Barbera py 166 Union Street I support the teach teachers the schools and the children of our town the town supports the Schools admin teachers and students via Community Partnerships with Youth and Family Services Public Safety fire and police the DPW pars and recck and human resource department the town appropriates over 60% of our total budget for Education school department the community approves the school budget year after year with little or no discussion at town meeting even when it exceeds the budget guidelines given to the departments at the beginning of the budget season uh businesses donate goods and services to the many fundraisers that support students and teachers all year round as do many residents so clearly we support the schools I'm presuming during negotiations that the school committee advised the union of the warant deadline for the annual town meeting in May when they miss that deadline why uh the rush and push a week after town meeting that we need an override this special town meeting tonight and possible ballot has created extra work and expenses for the town this is irresponsible of the school committee and the hfg note this is from people who stood up and said 8 weeks is not enough time to evaluate a change that had no Financial impact to the town and who states in town meeting we are not asking for a override and then a week later says we need an override and must have a special town meeting with that four week notice we are supposed to determine if a $1.1 million override should pass evaluating the teacher pay schedules from other towns and ours shows that our teachers are paid similarly to other towns some of the wealthier towns do pay more but many other pay less for example Ashland who as of 2023 had an average salary that was almost $2700 less than Holliston teachers and I mention this because we keep hearing that Ashlin passed an override to give the teachers 3% razors over the next three years perhaps that will bring us up to our teachers pay at any rate Teachers Pay howest did Teachers Pay are competitive if there are problems in the schools throwing money at the teachers changes nothing the school committee has not clearly communicated nor demonstrated how this contract is good for the students teachers and the town questions such as what are the positive outcomes for students in year one positive outcomes for the town and teachers besides more money what other the positive outcomes for the students in year two 15 instructional minutes what what is the plan for that and what does it look like what are the positive outcomes for students in year three positive outcomes for the town what are the positive outcomes for the teachers beside more money for TOP Step teachers uh and what does a additional scheduling flexibility while maintaining overall teacher preparation time increased modering moning monitoring at the middle and high school mean and look like now with this contract what are the benefits to the students are they not monitored in the hallway now what are the benefits for the town because of questions like these and many more I propose we indefinitely postpone this article until the school committee provides more detailed information about the need for an override now miss py before you leave the motion that I have the copy of the motion that you presented to me indicated that you move to indefinitely postpone the article until October town meeting is that what your motion is because you just yes ma'am yes okay great thank you so the motion has been presented to me in writing is move to indefinitely postpone the article until October town meeting giving the school committee time to explain in detail why they approved a contract that the town could not afford that motion is in order requires a second is there a second okay I'm sorry yes Jay can't pop to a specific oh okay okay a miss pety the Town Council who trumps me and indicates that your motion is in order with the exception of that point that if you indefinitely postpone it's indefinitely postponed you can't indefinitely postpone it to the October meeting so I'd have your permission to am to strike until the October town meeting from your motion to indefinitely postpone yes okay so I'll I'll make that change so we read indefinitely postpone the article giving the school committee time to explain in detail why they approved a contract that the town could not afford there is a second it's open for discussion anybody want to be heard either in favor or against the motion to defly postpone yes fincom MMA Michelle zemer 583 Winter Street excuse me I just wanted to remind everyone that this article concerns appropriating money if the ballot passes the override passes on September 10th so the timeline isn't today we make the decision on the override um Dan in his presentation has already said that between now and that ction there are going to be um times for a discussion I guess maybe public forums things like that so you'll have plenty of time between now and September 10th to discuss and override discuss all the issues that were mentioned um but now is not the time now we're discussing appropriating the money if the override passes just wanted to remind everyone thank you sir in the fincom did you want to be heard further you all set yeah okay any further discuss yes this is on the motion to post inde definely postpone right yeah thank you uh Ben Sweeney 15 met Brook Lane so I want to urge everyone to vote against that motion because I think our teachers need our support he did it now great thank you any further discussion if not sing then we'll move to a vote on the motion to indefinately postpone we'll do it on a Voice vote and if I'm in doubt then we'll do a hand count so all those in favor of indef postponement say I those opposed okay so that fails let's move to further discussion move to further discussion on the underlying motion yes I should say the main motion rather than the underlying motion J Larry 146 Karen Circle Holliston um couple of things um if maybe the school committee Mr moderator if you would ask them uh for me um it's being said that this override is for um $1.1 million for teacher contracts couple of questions I have is a is that 1.1 million will that fund the entirety of the contract in other words the 433 that was um apparently NE negotiated um after town meeting number one number two it also goes on in the um school committee comments continued section to say in addition to funding the teacher contract it's requesting to uh for money for additional buses you I think you mentioned that but I'd like to see what the breakdown is like what is going toward the teacher contract what is going toward the buses and then um something that I was kind of surprised to see is that it's also going for maintenance um that doesn't seem to be part of the additional I don't imagine that when that contract was negotiated maintenance was part of that contract um there so I if we could get a breakdown on funding for the teachers funding for the buses and then the maintenance that apparently has been deferred over some time um and my f that question my first question which will the entirety of the number um handle all three years of that contract thank you Mr Alford you want to defer that to somebody else are you ready for it War okay good there you go so so Jay uh well Mr Moor yeah good yeah sure uh yes the this this will cover the the the entirety of the contract so that's the starters um as far as the breakdown goes uh about 800,000 is is for for the teachers 200,000 for buses and 100,000 for other salaries um in year one so because the bus is kick in in year two we are going to do some additional maintenance in year one one time increase in maintenance and so that's why that's part of this but the buses is is so the maintenance and the buses are basically the same money just in different years okay thank you further discussion okay seeing none we'll proceed to a vote oh I'm sorry excuse me thank you takes a village you want me to uh the one the scent if you don't mind please just identify yourself thank you uh Allison quinnon 37 Pilgrim Road um I just first want to say that I'm I don't think that the bar graphs in this handout are particularly representative of where hollist and um how it matches up because all the towns listed are different um and the comparison of hollis's override ask the on the bottom of this first page um it we don't know what the other towns were asking for we don't know what the other overrides were asking for so I don't think it's a terribly useful chart um I'm wondering um if the school committee can tell us what other towns have um negotiated contracts with a 4% increase in the first year and 3% in subsequent Years thank you Mr Alfred so um Franklin is in the third year of a 444 Ashlin did A 333 but with significant increases in longevity and uh Framingham just did a 233 and a half however the top step teachers in the second year and third year will receive an additional 2% so for them it's a 255 and A2 thank you thank you yes ma'am okay let go Ahad just SEC thank you whan did a 433 thank you the middle one please thank you hi there Sarah baru 21 Fawn Road um I really appreciated Miss P's questions that she raised although we're not um postponing it indefinitely I would love to know from the school committee when are we going to get the answers to those questions I know the summer months are here so we have between now and September 10th I really want more details as to what this is going to look like what how those 15 minutes are going to be used across the schools I'm wondering if you can tell us when we will have the chance specific meetings specific open Office hours to get that information before September 10th thank you so I believe um we answered a lot of the questions in the presentation that that uh Miss py posed um as far as the use of the added instructional time I mean that is something that we're working on I'm not sure we will have definitive answers for you by September 10th but Dr K I don't know if you want to sort elaborate on your thinking um but but there will be lots of of community conversations and discussions about plans as we as we move forward we we're going to be open and as transparent as possible with all with all this stuff we're going to hear from our school superintendent Dr Katka Susan kuska superintendent of schools I do want to say I strongly support this contract for our teachers our teachers work incredibly hard for our students each and every day I was surprised when I came to Holliston that we were one of 31 districts in the Commonwealth that did not have full free day k a free full day kindergarten so we conquer that through Opera funds and then appropriating that in the budget and I'm happy to say that's an equitable opportunity to improve literac Literacy for our students while I can't speak exactly how the minut is are going to play out one of the things I hear often when we're planning curriculum for teachers is it's so hard to fit all of the work that we have to do in for our students we have multiple standards content standards the math state standards that we are required and obligated to teach for our students to provide equity and compare in a global world world they're prepared for and in order to do so they need the time to do that so how can we help our teachers get all of that work done without increase in the length of the day I truly believe over time this is going to make a huge difference for students we've invested Capital funds this year going into the next year for math curriculum resources it surprised me that we had not done a curriculum review in math since 2011 which means we are sorely behind and giving Hands-On resources to our teachers that we needed for number years so I'm very excited we're spending a ton of PD time next year supporting our teachers implementing an entirely new curriculum resource K to 12 for math for all students that's going to take a tremendous amount of time a lot of work for our teachers and then to give the best opportunity welcome for students and academic rigor we need that extra time in our day for students so it will definitely equate to instructional minutes time on learning for students you know one of the things that I've heard also through social media even though I don't watch um fa Facebook feeds I do get feedback from people and one of the things I hear is that our students also need social emotional learning we've invested a ton of time in that and we're embedding that in our instructional day as well and then why are we not giving them more free time and play time well I have to say having taught myself for 15 years and I have a sister-in-law as a teacher my daughter is a teacher my niece is starting College this fall for teachers so I a huge supporter and lover of all teachers being one myself we need this for our children we need this for our community our students in our elementary schools just because it's come up before they get 55 minutes for lunch and recess that's a large amount of time and at 30 minutes is a long lunch time for children and I would like to give them more recess time but I don't think that's what our students need I do think the time on learning is essential to grow our community to give the best opportunity for students and I think this is a huge step in the right direction at a time when we're expecting a lot from our teachers they're taking on new learning and that's GNA be going right back to our students with this extra time as well thank you okay thank you any further discussion yes take your time now hi Melissa ducet 768 Winter Street and I've got four children in the public school system um one going into four no yeah one going into fourth two going into Fifth and one going into seventh grade and I just want to say that the teachers that my children have had have done a phenomenal job um I've had three of them on IEPs at different times right now two of them are on IEPs um our special education services that my kids have received have been phenomenal um they have grown in literacy and learning we had schools um that were in school for elementary during covid when other districts were not um um I also grew up in Holliston I live in the house I grew up in so um and uh you know everybody's always talked about how great Holliston Public School Systems are but that's not the chatter I'm hearing lately I'm hearing that Ashlin might be better I'm hearing that hopkington might be better um I'm hearing people saying they wish maybe they got their house in hopkington because the schools were better a while ago what I want to say is that our teachers are doing a good job and I want to appropriately compensate our teachers for the hard work that they do I have four at home sometimes have a hard time managing those four I don't know about the teachers when they manage 20 or 18 I don't even know the class sizes now it's probably more than that um we need our teachers we need our pair of Professionals in the schools I have one that has a dedicated parah and that is what is helping him be successful in his learning in his social emotional learning and his growing um so I'm in sport of um a contract for our teachers that pays them adequately and fairly um as well as par professionals and um doing what we can to support the schools um and I know it's a big number I know there are questions but I do think that we have elected um our members on the school committee meeting um school committee um because those are who we voted for so I trust that they've done their due diligence in the budget process um to get things where need to be and I believe they're going to answer any of the um the detailed questions that people might have I'm I'm a numbers person I'm a finance manager of commission so I can understand wanting to know the nitty-gritty details um so I'm sure those will get answered so I want to um you know just encourage everybody to vote for this budget so our teachers can have a contract and to be adequately compensated um and I do just want to point out I think a few years ago our teachers were without a contract for a while is that true yeah so I I don't want that to happen again I want our teachers to feel like this town supports them um and is willing to um pay them for what what they are worth and um they're worth more than that because honestly teachers become like little classrooms become little families and um I entrust my four kids to the schools every day um and they're doing an amazing job and I want them to continue to do an amazing job and I would hate to have the amazing teachers that my kids have had leave and go to a different district and then some new incoming child doesn't get to have that wonderful teacher because um they had to go somewhere else so thank you okay yeah I'm now satisfied that the motion has been fairly debated I'll entertain a motion do a second all those in favor of moving the question say I I those opposed so voted okay we'll move to a vote on the main motion I'll read it although just for purposes of the record the motion is move that the town approved the supplemental FY 2025 budget appropriation from the tax levy of $1,126 21 for the school budget and $443 45 for the HR budget contingent upon passing of a future ballot question for an operational override pursuant to master L chapter 59 section 21 C the motion having been made and seconded all those in favor say I I those opposed so voted just for the record I heard maybe two to three no votes the balance voted favorably so that article passes okay motion of to Jour made by Mr Alfred before I call for a second on it I do want to thank uh in particular Travis aarn Liz Greendale Jay Talman for the support they gave all of us in putting this together tonight for the select board and the fincom for their constructive input and for Mr Alfred and the finance as like that and the school committee for the man which they assisted Us in scheduling things of that matter so thank you is there a second to the motion to adour in all those in favor say I so voted thank you and good [Applause] evening for