presentation thank you Mr McHugh okay um good evening everyone uh yeah tonight we'll uh kind of um review some of the um budgetary issues we're grappling with and kind of our our thought process on where we need uh new funding and um how we might um Marshall uh resources um new revenue or um savings within our current budget uh to meet those needs so so just a a quick review um this is going to be similar to to a presentation I gave to uh our Union leadership last week um we know that um our class size uh our enrollment is growing um in the Elementary grades um we're projecting for now that that kindergarten will be relatively the same we still continue to lose a few students at the middle in the high school and then it a kind of a deeper dive into what's going on at elementary um with the exception of grade two which is an outlier that that happened to be a very smaller than usual birth year um when those uh students finally got to kindergarten um but you can see in grades one and grades three there's um you know significant increase in those grades uh hasn't really hit uh grade four grade five this year but we we expect that um uh well we we we project the the grade three uh this is a projection of what it's going to be in 25 so next year we'll we'll see we expect to see that continued growth into grade four and then eventually grade five uh and then we kind of review a class sizes now this is based on on this year back in October um and it's uh taking taking a look at the General Ed classes across the school so different grade levels might be slightly more slightly left but less but this is the um average class sizes in General Ed so um for instance you see the mlin middle is down but that's because they have significant enrollment in the newcoming program which is not part of this uh analysis um at the high school too I did a I did a review of their um master schedule and um to be honest I you know it's a little bit difficult to to know all kind of all the ins and outs of um how they schedule but I think in general um I'm in the ballpack for what the uh what the class size is are generally but they could be more or less if I had kind of a more precise uh if I could do a more precise analysis on the schedule um so that's um you know just data points for you know how we're approaching the budget um I outlined kind of four buckets of spending that I think we need to address this year um first of all we have our salary commitments we have a number of contracts that we're uh already under the contract for fy2 and for those contracts um just the cost alone is $2.8 million um then we have three other um unions that that whose contracts will be expiring at the end of the year and of course non-unit Personnel go on a year to year basis and we're estimating uh $735,000 needs to be set aside to to be able to um negotiate at the bargaining table we've talked about um in previous meetings that we've identified a handful of accounts that are significantly unfunded uh homeless Transportation would be one of them substitute teachers uh special education summer school um needs to be um increased based on the number of um students were serving in that program legal expense budget we talked about hasn't really kept up with um the spending that is hitting that account um and then of course facilities building repairs and custodial supplies have been kind of chronically uh underfunded for a few years so the total of those would be uh an estimated hit on the budget of $1.3 million the uh the other bucket um or the third bucket would be uh Esser funding so there's a lot of um positions that are on this budget that are essential to the operation of the school department um the biggest one of these is the whole our whole elll or number of the majority positions uh for the elll newcomers program um is funded at the mlen is funded um in Essa currently uh we have adjustment counsil is we have all our building substitutes throughout the district to fund it on Essa um professional development uh was no there was no room on the budget this year to have a professional development line and um that's very important uh so we have uh projecting that we have to bring 21.2 positions funded inessa into the general fund um we're going to um let go of about nine positions some of those are are uh currently vacant for instance there were four uh literacy coaches that were not filled uh this year um but the impact again is 1.3 for this group uh on the budget and then we've identified um kind of the the big ticket uh items that we would look for new spending um one is we know that through rate setting that all our um out of district tuitions for special needs needs is increasing by 4.69% um we would want to put in um additional funding uh into the facilities department so we can um start to undertake some uh planning provide proper U project management uh to those projects um conduct building inspections recommissioning uh projects are essential to kind of inform uh our Capital needs um and and get those buildings back uh into kind of um the the um condition that they were designed for uh similarly you know there's there's little bandwidth to do um our Tech uh upgrade our our Network and keep that current um there's all kinds of there's servers routers um all kinds of connection points that make the um the the network work here we have um it's a you know Mission critical um uh activity uh that we have to not only for just communication between schools and department heads but you know our students are on computers now they're taking tests uh they're doing research so it's essential to kind of keep that Network wellmaintained um the high school is undergoing uh an accreditation process which they've begun this year there was some funding provided for kind of the pre-planning um that needs to go into that but during the accreditation year um the high school will be required to host a delegation that will conduct the the accreditation we will be required to provide food and lodging for them while they're here and uh so we we're going to provide the funds to be able to do that uh another area um that uh we want to address this year is the uh the need to kind of refresh our technology for students we do we were able to buy um a lot of uh chome books and Apple tablets um back uh when we were uh flush with covid funds we got uh you know there was a lot of um school from home and it was essential to get that technology out to students uh but those um devices are coming to the end of the useful life so we we um proposing to implement a plan to refresh about 20% of our uh device inventory in fy2 and then continue uh that funding so that we're replacing devices um every five years we also would like to increase school supplies I believe the um um the the principal's office um Supply budgets are are underfunded the um Vocational Technical um School their supply budgets are underfunded and and they're able to supplement uh their supply budgets with a tuition account they have but that tuition account is um steadily um being drained uh BEC and not uh in and and because of the popularity of that program with our students um there's very few seats available to take people from the outside so we want to make sure that they uh have the supply budgets they need going forward and not uh have to rely on that uh other source of funding and then we're hoping to um launch a fin summer program and uh it could be that this program would be Grant funded I know the um the finance um director is is looking to get grant funding for that but it would be similar to the jump star program which is music focused and that would uh take place this summer so all in all um those uh slides they add up to $7.5 million um I did when I did give this presentation to the um unions I I realized that this figure did not include the Esser uh funding so um they will probably notice that this funding's a little bit higher than what I showed them last week uh and then we we had gone over the uh the Chapter 70 but I thought it was worth noting that um unfortunately Chapter 70 isn't going to be a good source of revenue for us uh this year um right now um you know the legislature is still uh deliberating uh on the state budget but based on the governor's budget um the allocation for midford uh as an increase over what we got in FY 24 was is a little over 135,000 um and that's primarily because our foundation en rollment has dipped down from 24 to FY 25 the foundation budget went up by 1.7 million the required District contrib ution went up by 2.7 million Chapter 70 went up a tick and our net School spending actually went up by 2.9 Million uh and that's because um in calculating the foundation budget our state aid should actually go down but because um Massachusetts holds school districts harmless from any decrease inrees um they never reduce the amount of Chapter 70 that you're already receiving but they do require you to spend that extra amount u in the coming school year so that's why this is 1.7 is a little bit different than the 2.9 so how are we going to try to close this Gap um we we will have a city appropriation um we are planning to um Implement a uh a couple of fees to the programs that that uses schools um one's a facility expense fee and On's a for administrative overhead for uh the provision of um business office services uh Human Resource Services and technology Services um so that can that can offset uh some of the spending and I'm I'm estimating right now that it could be as much as $200,000 that we could um uh help uh with closing that Gap um we're also looking at um these programs that we do charge um and and have revolving funds balances to make sure we're Maxim maximizing uh the use of those funds um and for example um I don't think we've been charging the Meep uh tuition account um to the fullest extent we can so we may have an opportunity to kind of add some staff uh for one or two years to that uh program so we're looking at those revolving funds for those opportunities um we are considering increasing fees um potentially for athletics um but also for uh the outside groups that rent our facilities uh to make sure we're recouping uh the actual cost uh to the district to provide U those spaces and just making sure that we are fully utilizing our grant funds we're not turning any funds back now um then we have to look at you know where can we uh reprioritize funding within our existing budget um to um reduce funding in one area so we can increase funding in other areas and so we are looking at class sizes um when class sizes are low or teachers are under underutilized we're trying to uh see if we can take some savings there um and uh you know when you look at class size it doesn't mean you're just reducing the number of positions you have because you will also find that you have to add positions and certain areas to kind of maintain a reasonable class size um we're looking at the our administrative administrative Staffing structure uh to see if there's any opportunities to consolidate uh uh the supervision that we provide um of course there's a whole administrative um support staff that supports that administrative Staffing so that would uh also um present opportunities to kind of reorganize that area um and then we we have to look at you know our new spending proposals as well you know at the end at the end of this process um we may not be able to afford all the spending that that we're projecting so you know uh with the S funded position positions can we bring 21 positions over um I think they're needed but we might have to uh relook at that uh to um get the cost of that uh transfer to the general fund down um you know those underfunded accounts I think um you know they need to be adjusted U because it will just be scrambling uh we're not reducing the spending in those accounts and and we're just scrambling all the time to kind of uh grab funds from other areas to make make those accounts whole but um we could possibly you know take a two-step approach and try to fund it uh over a couple fiscal years um you know any increases to those those funds are going to kind of make any shortfalls a little bit easier to manage and then also looking at our proposed new spending to uh trim that back if we can't afford to do uh all that all that we want to do in that area and then we'll hopefully in the next uh we have the get our budget proposal finalized we have to get it in shape so that we can get it printed but we're we're still um having another Committee of the whole meeting in uh in April uh at the end of April um and at that meeting we'll we'll be able to talk about kind of uh some whatever sources of outside funding outside of the uh the city appropriation that we could uh introduce into this budget uh along with any other questions the committee might have we have our public hearing on May 6th so we'll be able to provide a very detailed proposal at that time um and then of course on on May 13th um we are expecting that at a special meeting um we'll be able to vote on the budget and then submit it uh to the mayor so I'm I'm happy to to answer any questions people might have at this time thank you CFO mchu um I'm going to open it up to the committee for questions let me just member Graham thank you um thank you Jerry for all this information I I had a couple of questions but before um I asked my questions I just wanted to reiterate I know we have a big audience here and we have a lot of new members so our just wanted to reiterate our typical process which is our budget is a two-step process so our budget is um first made up of um information about what our request to the municipality is and that number I think is sort of coming out of what I'm hearing tonight um and I I'll talk about that in just a minute once I get some clarifications but the first thing the school committee does is tell the municipal government what we believe we need um to educate children maximize outcomes and run the school district responsibly next year so that's one vote that we typically take the second vote that we typically take um is a a reconcil a Reconciliation vote so essentially if there is a disc reany between what we have requested from the municipality and what the municipality um allocates to us in their in the single line item allocation to our operating budget then it is incumbent on the school committee to to operate within that allocation so if there is a discrepancy we then have to identify how do we get from what our request is to how we will actually go forward so that's our process um I think what I'm seeing in terms of the timeline is that we um certainly could be in a position um to take a vote about our request to the municipality as early as May 6 um but we could also do that on May 13 um and then you know our final vote um has has typically been much much later in terms of um that reconciliation vote um but doesn't have to be so it is I think it is possible um we could do that even as early as May 13th as well although if the council hasn't started their conversation around the budget um um and there is still like movement happening around the the city's budget overall like we may not want to take that reconciliation vote in the event that there is a gap um so and I think we know um and we've been informed by um the city's CFO that there will be a gap because the initial allocation for the school district um according to the city CFO is $3,500,000 um last year our allocation was $71,200 th000 um it's a little bit more complic ated than that because we were using two and a half $2.8 million on operating expenses um it from our Sr budget and that was necessary last year because the operating budget couldn't support the operating needs so it was a conscious decision um as were all the decisions that we've made about Esser spending and are being made across the country and have been for years so people are you know while you don't want to use one-time funds to [Music] um report things that have ongoing expense um Esser afforded um districts an opportunity to say what do our kids need and in a place where 80 to 85% of the activity and the spending is on humans to educate kids um it's it's inevitable that that spending would also require people who are really more considered part of the operating budget um I did have a couple of questions because I'm just trying to get a better understanding of um how of these groups these buckets break down um Jerry there was a slide that you showed um before the Esser slide that tallied up to um 1.3 can you just bring that side up again for me lose Jerry no I'm I'm back okay it was I got to deal with an issue with payroll sorry um that's okay um I was wondering if you could bring back up the slide um that came before the Esser slide um yeah this is it I can't see anything just yet uh no can't see it no not yet all right let me coming now okay ah thank you okay so those are the underfunded accounts and these are [Music] um uh okay got it so these are underfunded accounts and it seems like there's maybe some overlap here with some of the other slides is that right like when I think about substitute teachers um I I think about that Esser bucket because that is where the substitute teachers were put last year um in order to balance our budget last year so it is separate um it is the uh the Esser funded positions are um full-time bill building substitutes okay so each school has one full-time building substitute um the the high school has um three I believe uh and then there's another uh line districtwide line that funds um substitute teachers uh that are paid the daily rate got or um teachers that uh I used to sub and miss their prep they get paid for a Mis prep if they substitute during the prep got it thank you that's helpful um and then on your next slide about Esser conversion um when I look at this list um I think there are at least some number of these positions that are absolutely um not discretionary so I think specifically about the newcomers program right so correct we can't not spend that money are there other of these 21.2 um staff people that are in what what is like more likely a non-discretionary bucket rather than a like um a bucket where like we we could operate the district not that we should but we could operate the district without that line item um well um the adjustment counsil is are based on need um and I think likely what happened was that we had a need to add more in FY 24 and there was no bandwidth in the general fund to do that so they were placed on Essa um we'd have to take a look i' I've done um a kind of a case load analysis for guidance counselors and adjustment counselors and a psychologist and I think the the adjustment Medford is is doing probably better than other districts in that they're kind of maintaining a ratio of about 250 students per counselor um which is what their U what the state the National Association recommends um very few districts can oh for instance that the average Massachusetts is about 344 students per counselor um but we all know that there are um uh mental health issues still lingering amongst our students with uh coming out of covid and and so I would be um I would Advocate to kind of maintain the current Staffing there uh the grants manager we only have one grants manager for the district and we have a number of grants that have to be managed I would say that's important uh the behavior par um is something that um the guidance Department um recommended that we retain um you know that might be a a slightly lower priority than some of the others uh the newcomers program um you just you can't um uh we we have an obligation to provide programming for uh English learner students um we get uh reviewed by the state every year to make sure we're in compliance and and so we would uh we would need to um for sure bring that program into the general fund um the literacy interventionist is again is probably like uh the adjustment councel is there was probably a need um that couldn't be uh handled on the uh on the general fund in 24 uh that you know may or may not be kind of a a lowerer priority than some of the others uh the building substitutes we just have such a problem um with attracting the number of substitutes we need I know school committee is is kind of looking at that issue in the as a whole and uh the U the other thing that we kind of haven't tackled with but it's kind of still on my list and I don't know um you know how we can address it is that we have to take a serious look at the rates that we pay at daily subs and our long-term Subs um many school districts in in our surrounding area have had to come to grips with the fact that um they they you know the the days of you know 75 $85 a day for substitutes is long gone um you know even 125 would be low for a daily sub but you could it may entice some some of our retired teachers to come back um and provide those Services if needed uh long-term Subs are getting you know 250 $275 a day so that has to be looked at you know I'm going to be uh recommending some increase uh to the to the uh substitute program but um it doesn't really uh factor in any kind of rate increases um the re-engagement specialist is going to be needed we have three on Essa now we're only proposing to bring one uh back into the general fund and and that's because we uh these positions do um kind of took on the role of uh or included uh duties that would be found in a kind of an attendance officer position and so there's still a need to uh to have uh somebody who's kind of responsible for attendance officer duties um and that would be um The re-engagement Specialist uh that we're proposing to bring into the general fund and professional development we talked about uh earlier that there should be some amount of money right now in Essa there's $110,000 for professional development and um this figure 1.3 assumes that we' bring the whole 110 into the budget um that could probably be shaved a little bit but um for district this size with this many staff um it's it's a kind of a low number I think I think the allocation in the foundation budget is is well over a million dollars for professional development and no school district spends what they're allocated uh but it just you know it just shows you what um you know in the development of the foundation budget what the um the plan is deemed to be kind of an appropriate professional development expense for the for Medford sure thank you um and then can you look at can you go to the new spending page the 1.4 million page so again some of this some of this is not optional right like our tuition increase right um is not optional yeah um and our knas funding is not optional corre is that right yeah okay I would I would put the uh technology expense not optionable you know the Chrome Chromebooks now are just like textbooks 10 years ago you just you every student's going to have one and um the whole you know the whole teaching Dynamic has shifted to be able to utilize um the technology the applications that are on it many many books now that we buy are are on online have an online feature so um okay yes I would include that so that you're saying the Chromebook refresh is the one that you're talking about or are you also the Apple refresh I would say that you know that has to be done those yeah those those devices do not last forever and you know you don't want to be in a position where you know some students have a have a device that works and some don't if I may just member Graham may I ask a question sure um just on the Chromebooks and the Apple fresh which I think are actual pieces of equipment um Jerry what are we estimating for that CU that I would would think would be something that would fall on the capital Improvement plan if it isn't there already yeah um I think it's uh or if you don't know a little over it's a little over 400,000 okay yeah and I think the um you know I guess Medford has always treated those things as capital but um when you talk about Chromebooks in the same vein as textbooks like they they really aren't Capital expenses anymore they're like expenses that they're it's equipment that depreciates every year and in a typical organization like you would you would handle that depreciation in your operating budget so I mean ideally what districts should be doing is having a a an amount of money in the budget every year so that there's a cycle and we don't have these big massive um changes that have to happen where we have to replace every Chromebook at the same time but instead in some sort of a like a a rolling function so I will um just wrap up my set of questions by saying last year our budget was $ 71.2 million um and then we had Esser of $2.8 million but if I start from that $1.2 million of last year and I add up all the things that Jerry described as um spending needs I get 7.5 million for a total of 78 m700 th000 um and that is um a big distance away from $ 73.5 million um that was preliminarily provided to us um and I also want to point out that the amount pre arily provided to us is a $2.3 million increase which actually doesn't even account for 3.2 opposite 3.2 said 2.3 3.2 okay so that barely that barely covers um our contractual obligations 73.5 minus 71. two I have 2.3 3.2% is that what is that what you mean mayor yes 3.2% I'm talking about dollars so in dollars that's 2,300,000 um our contractual obligations is are $2.8 million um so thank you Jerry for all this work it's very helpful thank you I'm I'm sorry if I can call a point of information real quick Jerry when you mentioned long-term subp pay did you say that they were making $275 a day member and topa with a point of point of information yeah um could you repeat that sure sorry about that um when you mentioned long-term substitute pay you mentioned $275 a day were you mentioning to this current budget or the proposed budget no I I was suggesting that um some um School departments have increased their their rates into that um kind of Mark that that's more of the market right now for a long-term sub so a longterm sub would be somebody um that we would hire because um we have a teacher that goes on maternity uh uh leave um and they may be in there for um you know three or four or five months and they'd be required to go uh to faculty meetings and and provide lesson plans and things like that right okay sorry I just wanted to clarify because I I wasn't sure if I heard you I think we pay 120 per day for it's it's hundred um dollars because I will give a personal connection that my partner is a longterm and I'm not I'm not thinking that we should go all the way to there but we do have to think about increasing those rates absolutely because it's like $80 a day with tax so I definitely could see the the burden of that but I wanted to clarify because I wasn't sure if I misheard you thank you thank you is there any questions other questions member Russo thank you um I know the points been made about um devices Chromebooks um being treated as capital um I just you know my first experience of Medford as a as a district was a very long time ago when we were voting whether to buy computers I don't know this was at least a decade ago city council was Voting because it was Capital then um and if we can't get this in there as part of our budget it's it's just it's just not okay I mean we're doing so much here to bring stuff into the budget that should be in the budget should always been in the budget and to leave behind a day-to-day use item that is literally a critical part of Education doesn't make any sense to me so I just want to support that that number needs to be in the budget thank you any other questions from the committee before I open up to the floor I know we have 115 people on so we'll give anybody who wants to talk two minutes um Anthony Gan who's already has his name and address for the record if we could unmute thank you very much um name is Anthony Gan 45 El Hill Avenue L Massachusetts I am the President of the med Teachers Association uh Jerry thank you for the uh presentation I just wanted to ask a few questions uh number one um there was listed that nine of the eser positions were looking to be let go and the literacy the unfilled literacy coaches count for four of them so do you have the list of the remaining five that were looking uh that were um to be cut I I didn't get that question I'm sorry sure so the eser you you mentioned um looking to bring over some Esser positions and if I got my notes right you have nine positions you are looking to let go um we can count the four unhired literacy coaches against that do you have the the other five positions that were to be not brought over into the regular budget from the Esser funds yeah I I don't I don't have it off the top of my head well there were two um in addition of the literacy coaches there were two re-engagement Specialists um but I can I can provide that to you Anthony very good Ellie mey on that one um are there is the uh list of programs that paid to the district to use the facilities as well as the grants we are currently receiving uh a matter of public record or would that be something we'd need to request just repeat that question um Mr if I was looking for a list of programs that pay to the district such as um the the Japanese school that uses the School in the weekends or a list of grants that the School receives is that a matter of public record or something I would have to request yes it's public record okay very good um let's see and um finally as far as the plan for the budget uh to be available um I know that you're looking to finalize that um will that be sent to the uh unions for review when it is sent to um before it becomes public um a matter of a public meeting well I'm not sure what the practice is in medf but I don't have a problem with doing that okay I'll send your request then Mr Gan can you repeat the question I'm sorry I missed that I was just looking to see um once the proposed budget is completed um there is usually a time in which the union receives it but uh this timeline is um seems quite moved up from last year so I was just making sure that the union and its leadership will receive a copy of the proposed budget before it becomes a matter of public uh like a matter of the public meeting you hold got it um I think that's outlined in the contract right it is but not specifically when got it okay thank you all right thank you thank you very much member rousel thank you I just wanted to clarify um when Mr Gan was asking about the programs um and the um charge packs which is what um Mr M was uh talking about earlier um we're we're not talking about like the rentals we're talking about meat we're talking about after school the Food Services Program in this presentation I don't think we're talking about rentals in any way shape or form unless I'm misunderstanding I think he's still asking for the rent the amount we bring in for rentals just for their knowledge of course that that's fine I just wanted to make sure that relevant to this presentation that won't be included in this particular set of numbers because we can't we can't just dip into that money to to use it so thank you yeah there are restrictions and and at the last the committee of the whole that was part of the revenue um presentation so the revolving funds that we maintain we get private grants as well as state and federal grants so but that we can all we that can be provided thank you thank you thank you Mr mchu any further questions from the committee or public I know we have another meeting um two meetings on Monday the 8th a regular meeting and a committee of the whole meeting and our next budget we have Mr McHugh did put up a slide for our next two or three budget hear me hearing meeting so those will be on the website as well is there a motion on the floor motion to adjourn by member Graham seconded by I can second thank you member brandley um roll call please member Russo member branley yes Vice chair Graham yes M and tapa yes remember ol yes remember reinfeld yes memb so yes Maryland goer yes s the affirmatives