e then tell you Okay so fol are joining us today the mics we have now are really strong they will pick up any conversations happening in the background so um nobody's sitting together so it should be fine but just just a note for everybody um so the the meeting will be live streamed on YouTube and on Facebook okay so moving into our regular business if I'm recalling correctly we're not ready to do the March 14th minutes yet um but we are ready to look at the February 8th minutes um so I would entertain a motion to approve the meeting minutes of February 8th 2024 as written so motion by shaa second by Danielle any questions or comments about those minutes trve board meeting seeing none all in favor opposed abstained and I say yes so that was unanimous M moving on to bills and payroll I would um entertain a motion to accept the bills and payroll warrant has presented so motion by Heather I have a second by cat um any questions about those D pars seeing none all in favor opposed abstained and I say yes that was also unanimous um so we do have some folks here tonight so we'll start with our student C hi everybody um so not a whole lot going on um the senior week schedule was just put out so that is the it's really kind of two weeks um to celebrate the senior class um we do a chicken barbecue we do um a senior class trip which the year is just a day trip um it's going to be a day trip to Boston we're going to go to um the Blue Man Group at night and then there's a Godzilla boat ride it's called they take you to Boston Harbor it's like a thrilled boat ride the aquarium all kinds of fun stuff um for that day trip and um the prom the Gap days coming together we've started to plan that which is like a prom safety type thing um and then we also have kind of like a little bit of feedback the new lunch menu and stuff like that everybody seems to be enjoying that so yeah um and when when it's available I school committee members especially those of you who are new we are invited to a number of the senior events it's a great opportunity to celebrate um with the seniors so if we can get that out to everybody um that would be fantastic any other updates um there was a dance last Friday um that was at the PAC I believe I know a few people who wented that so that was also well attended and a lot of fun there too wonderful all right um Lisa would you would the does the NDA have any updates for us tonight nothing nothing big just um can't believe how quickly this year is flying by um short week next week and then we're into mcast we start the reading mcast that week at that first week in April um we all had PD two weeks ago and the middle school I can only speak for middle school but we had a really great um experience we're focusing on the literacy so we got to work in groups and go around and look at each other's work learning targets and success criteria which are things that we're really working hard on in the Middle School um we got to have conversations with our team and it was just a great great way to move around we moved around we weren't sitting in our seats so that was awesome um but really that's about it just looking at that June 12 an is it's coming up fast thanks so much for that update okay so we do have a few pieces of business um to get through ums sign um so we have a few pieces of business to get through um the first of which is our treasur appointment for the remainder of this year um so just as a reminder um we the the charier um resigned as Treasurer but has been standing in until we were able to replace her we're now able to replace her um so Felicia k um has um agreed to to step in as soon as we vote her in um so that's just the context for that so I would entertain a motion to approve Felicia p as District treasurer for the remainder fiscal year 24 subject to successful contract negotiations which will be carried out by the superintendent so motion by Heather second by Sean any questions Hank being close oh sorry second by Hank any questions okay seeing none all in favor opposed abstained and I say yes um so that is unanimous okay um so we also have our student opportunity act plan for approval um I'm going to hand that directly over to you and let you run through this thank you um so districts are required to submit uh plans to the state every three years under School Opportunity Act um and more commonly known as the SOA plan um so to start off I want to just give you a little background about what this is um and then we'll go through um our process we followed in our draft plan so student apportunity Act of chapter 132 of the acts of 2019 um basically this was signed into law in 2019 um and the purpose is to high quality learning experiences um and postsecondary plans are in place to support all students but in particular the S SOA plan is focused on Equity gaps for C certain student groups so so unlike our district in our district strategic Improvement plan or our DP which is about all kids our SOA plan is not meant to be about all kids although many times the things that we put in there do impact all students but oura plan is supposed to be targeting specific student groups where we we can demonstrate and show we have an equity Gap um s SOA funds are not a grant um but they're part of the Chapter 70 monies that we received um to be completely honest not we don't receive a lot of s SOA funds here in our district so while we when we look at our plan please know that while s SOA funds will support that we will be using other funding sources to support that as well um and as commissioner Riley quotes here um this is really about closing Equity gaps that exist in districts so in terms of planning again this is a requirement for all public schools in the state of Massachusetts to to go through a process to develop and submit threeyear plans um particularly focusing on some groups of students that have the greatest discrepancies um from analyzing multiple sources of student data um we include Stu uh stakeholder input in the process it was a survey that went out um either end of last month or earlier this month so we gathered qu admitted input for folks in the process um we are required to create and submit a plan for desie they review and approve that um prior to us submitting that we do we are required to get SCH committee vote and approval on the plan which is what we're seeking tonight um in the plan we identify the student Opportunity Act or SOA Focus areas and EVPs which are evidence-based practices so those are very scripted they come directly from a list provided from desie so after we identify our groups we select Focus areas directly from the SOA Focus areas and evidence-based practices that will align with those and create um a list of actions as part of our plan we also select metrics that will be used over the course of three years to assess um where we are in progress towards meeting those EVPs and focus areas those are also selected from pre-created list from Mei um and then annually we submit progress um through a report dese ass us to the out in complete um so that sort of just the nutshell of process so as we look at our data we really identified two student groups um that have discrepancies they are students with disabilities and low income um a snapshot of some of the data we use to look at that um are our heat maps that desie puts out so what you see here um are is this is in terms of student achievement um and what you'll see the is that the dark areas here the darker red areas demonstrate the largest gaps that we see between this student group and all students and so for us you can see students with disabilities um for ELA achievement is by far our largest gap and we have gaps um with lowincome students as well you'll also notice there's a lack of data for some of our subgroups here because our populations are quite small um so we do not have a large large enough population in some areas where we can actually look at data or disaggregate it the way in that way because our populations are too small um we however we are able to disaggregate other forms of data for those groups so we have looked at our e population um students of color and um additional subgroups as well when we look at our growth data we see a similar pattern where two subgroups that are showing the greatest discrepancy include students with disabilities and low income um and again we looked at multiple data sources this is one snapshot just to demonstrate those discrepancies um so those are our two students focus groups for our s SOA plan um in our feedback that we received um from our stakeholders 98.3% of folks identified um focusing on a comprehensive early literacy approach as being incredibly important um this was by far our top priority from U from our stakeholder feedback it was followed by um early literacy screening assessments and then following that was sorry um targeted academic support and acceleration so it really aligned well with our decent goals around literacy and our mtss models so we saw some really interesting alignment with priorities and what we already had in place in our plan so we selected two Focus areas um to work on for these particular groups we focused on um implementing our core literacy program at our elementary level um and the you can see here the focus area and the evidence-based practice from Desy connected to that um and our DP this is a great alignment with both our mtss goal as well as our data analysis um goal as well and then districtwide will'll be working on Universal Design for Learning um this aligns with not only being able to focus on both of those sub groups but also aligns with some feedback we received um from an external U report um gosh uh the except report which was we hired grp to come in and do an external sort of audit of our special education department but it really was looking greater than that it was looking at how is our system set up to support students with disabilities and it included some feedback from what's from instruction going on in our tier classrooms and one of the top recommendations out of that report was a need to focus on our tier one instructional practices to make sure that we are really um providing direct instruction and providing culturally re relevant teaching practices including practices so we had um you know a great amount of alignment with that as well so for our plan in terms of implementing our inter reading curriculum at TPS this plan this has been in place as our core reading program um since 2000 sorry 2020 all right uh since 2020 some of the challenges we've had is that our is that our teachers were trained right before the pandemic hit so our teachers were trained and then they were thrown into remote learning so they didn't have have a great opportunity to apply what they learned in their professional development and then they came back and the open new building and things were just very different and we've had some staff turn over at our elementary school so our elementary teachers are are asking for some additional support uh in implementing the core program as well so some of the things we'll be doing we'll be revising the U schedule at Templeton Elementary School to maximize the amount of learning time um that we can for literacy um and to promote the components of the core literacy block and make sure teachers have enough time set aside to teach that um those components we also want to make sure that our schedules maximized to allow teachers to provide both whole class instruction and small instruction for literacy excuse me we'll be contracting with a professional development provider to Pro provide some additional professional development for our teachers um and we'll be um also putting together some resources to help assess the assess the mentation of the core reading program throughout the building um lastly we'll be continuing to provide professional development or common planning time to teachers to support them being able to PL to co- plan um analyze data reflect on program implementation for their grade level um and we'll be working to develop and distribute resources to families to help make sure that that Home Connection um exists between the cor ly program this will include us revising our TS report cards to make sure that they're standards based and parent friendly you um in terms of universally designed practices um we'll be engaging all teachers and staff in professional development on Universal Design for Learning um we'll be supporting and supporting them in embeding instructional practices that are both universally designed and inclusive for all students but with a particular focus on students with disabilities and low income um we'll again be developing and adopting a tool to support Gathering data on the implementation of those practices connected to that we'll be identifying priority elements from our educator evaluation rubric um to be able to provide direct feedback to teachers ongoing feedback on the implementation of UF practices this is something we do every year uh because our teacher evaluation rubric definely has so many indicators it's overwhelming um so every year we go through and we select a a subset of those that are the priority elements for the district and those are ones that we prioritize giving feedback to um teachers on and we prioritize connecting our professional development to as well um so we're trying to create that through line with our p and our evaluation in P um we will look for opportunities to highlight and share teaching practices and exemplars that are happening across the buildings um and we'll be considering future PD opportunities to invent culturally culturally responsive teaching PR practices as well um so in terms of this plan the funding that will be used will be to support PD providers um and some resources and materials for teachers um the metrics to assess and again this language comes directly from the sooa options for metrics so please U be aware of that um for the implementation of inter reading we will use um we will increase the efficiency of high quality instructional materials so that's a new acronym for you my apologies I did not Define that um as measured by classroom walkthrough tools so we'll be using classroom walkthrough procedures to help assess the implementation of the core program um and an increase in both achievement levels and growth levels for students for mcast ELA similarly for udl we'll also be looking for udl practices through classroom walkthroughs and again increase in percent of students for achievement as well as SGP for all subject areas for UD that is an SOA plan in a nutshell and I do want to give an opportunity for any questions um that folks may have and then we will um need to have the committee V approve um the focus areas for the plans I will just add that while we know that the intention behind the SOA plan is to focus on specific groups and we will do that we really try to maximize our plan in a way that will impact all students um because a lot of our CS are very small um I have a question you were mentioning I might get it wrong an UD Udi udl yes udl udl is an for Universal Design or learning okay and so what it refers to is designing learning activities lesson plans in a way that provides access points for all students and has look floor high ceiling so that all students can access something going on in your classroom it also is an opportunity to provide really clear and firm goals with flexible pathways on how students can demonstrate and get to those goals so it's a way of Designing lessons where you're embedding scaffold into your lesson for all students even though they all might not need those they exist for all students um that's one example we were one for two is on the educational H is not actually I've never seen that acronym it's always written out as the high quality curriculum did you make that one up yourself I did not that's a copy and paste of the metric directly from the SOA plan from desie so it's des's acronym um I did not I try to avoid making we have enough to try memorize yes okay um so one last check for questions all right seeing none I would entertain a motion to approve the student Opportunity Act plan as presented so moved second motion by Shan second by shaa um and since there were no questions previously I'll assume there continued to be none so all in favor I opposed abstained and I say yes so your s SOA approved unanimously okay um so we can of start our budget hearing until 6 PM we've only got nine minutes left so well done well done on willing in that that time um so if nobody is opposed um I do know that um in the under 48 Hours um I'm not I'm gonna go past point one but um on point two we do have an out of state field trip to approve so if everyone is okay with skipping to that item just we can get that done while we have a little bit of time any anyone toose to that okay um um so who can fill us in on this particular out of state field trip the prom yeah sorry um so last year we started um really helping the uh prom committee really get into planning their their events um we had it in garer last year so we packed them up brought them into Garden they met with their event planner at the menu they chose lenss chose their menu they did all of that as a group and it was fantastic so this year we're like oh we're going to do that again well never G us ringe is our state so we have to put in a field trip request form for you guys so we can take them up there in Hills and ring to do the same thing yeah so close yet right any questions about this particular field trip seeing none um I would entertain a motion to approve the April 4th out of state field trip for the prom committee to the Hidden Hills Event Hall in ring New Hampshire for event planning so um motion by Heather second by cat thank you Cat um since there were no questions all in favor opposed abstain and I say yes so your field trip is approved and we look forward to hearing more about that as the event comes closer that's exciting I love that you're including stud committee as well beautiful so I love that we're you know including the students in that level of detail because it really a lot goes into an event it's great it's great learning opportunity as much as it's a really fun night to get ready for yeah um and while we're on it I so the the I know you sent out an email an about the Gap night um do you do we know the date for that yet because I know Gap day May second and it's a full day of events for our Juniors and seniors and the sophomore that what a prom okay um we bring in speakers from alysa's place in Garder um they get a firsthand you know uh presentation from from people who been there done that you know um then we we provide stations for the kids um T and fire Philips and fire the Templeton and philon PD we have the state police coming in with an activity that I'm not going to deul because we have a student here then we have well it's got to be some far then um so the state police we also have the sheriff's office is coming in with an activity as well um we still got more more happening hopefully it's going to be an exciting year this year so I'm really excited and that we provide a cout but the kids that's great yeah and um for those of you who haven't seen it yet um and did sent out an invite school committee is invited to that event to see all that's going on um so if you're available um please let Ann know um and put that on your calendar it sounds like sounds really great event we would love to have you guys come and see what we're doing that would be fantastic thank you so much for extending the invite appreciate it all right anything anything to fill four minutes Dr P sure I kid me um we uh had I thought a very very successful presentation of our our budget um to select Bo finance committee last night um I that one very well U that's just one there just one thing the other great thing that happened today it went to Holy Cross um and with Mr Young and ashin placy to wer C superintendence Association has a um has a lunch in to recognize um the students you know generally the the top number one student in a senior class and that was fantastic so had a great time doing that um so again fantastic the dance uh I did not tend but I did go for about an hour hour and a half and it was a u think was black and white or masquerade or Mas masquerade but everyone was black and white it was um it was was really neat uh to see because it was the first dance I believe certainly since I've been here um that the eighth grade was part of the high school things um you know we've toyed with the idea and um so we did that and it was it was great it was wonderful a lot of fun um everybody was so well behaved and very well dressed to the NS as they say so it was that it was a great time um just real quick about the lunch uh you know this the survey and some of the changes that they've made um that is on the heels of our survey from our students that we that we gave to St and the feedback we received is like what are we doing well we talked about that um but what we weren't doing well a lot of it was about um quite a bit of quite I was about uh the lunches and the quality of food Etc the amount was all kinds of things so um right off the bat we've we have um just attacked that issue um and they've had some I think some great successes I've been folks have just randomly come up to me and said this these hot dogs are great I mean I mean honest to God why own son like hot I'm like okay like well okay so Rand students would just come up to me and say uh we had a chicken bowl last week and it was you know F I'm not exaggerating I'm like I'm glad you like that and so the effort these kids have always app since I've been here they've always appreciated efforts and they're always kind enough to let us know when we've done the right thing um when we're not so um the improvements have been noticed or at least the effort how about if I put it that way but you're right it was just um it's the little things right and but it's not to them so so a lot of great things you know are happening and um and so so we're again it's all it's was all good news did any any favorites in the new menu to share before you so I personally usually bring Lun from home but I know that like Dr C said the chicken NOS SP there was a like hamburger hel that Wass the menu all right so we brought us we brought ourselves right to six o'clock who doesn't want to end on Swedish meatballs so like to open the budget hearing for the naret Regional School District school committee all right so I will hand this back over to you Dr C run us through the presentation um thank you madam chair just as a just a quick side that the um my wonderful team and I do mean my wonderfold team who does all all the great work you see apparently wanted to see just how good I can be because I presented this bud now three times and so while I was in Holy Cross not having hot dogs had chicken but um they change the presentation to make it even better and so um one could say that they're just testing it and um but I will um I I want to throw it out there because they've done a lot of work the feedback from folks who have actually given us feedback about the budget and presentation and the setup and what they want to see what they don't want to see so this is really culmination of well three presentations and folks who are kind enough to give us some feedback um so we'll see how it goes okay so obviously the reason why we do everything um sits on this one slide right here um as I've said now three times it's not lost on me but um what we try to do is just really give a representation of all one of the things that are happening here at nans especially our the newer programs leave away um the robotics course you know Etc I mean Early College tele medicine School based you know programming and the Arts and Athletics and all the things that you know um that we work really hard to improve um and as I said last night I think that you know now that we're like in either two three year two three or four in some of these programs we're really starting to see fruits of the labor of those things and it's been really exciting to see um um some of these things take off give the opportunity so obviously when we start with you know whatever what our highlights you know I want to talk about user fees a little bit that was some feedback we received you know my reasoning or at least my what I'm presenting as my reasoning is that we are seeing more and more students who um we have never we have never not um accepted a person into any extracurricular activity I need to be clear that that does not just mean Athletics it's it's the Arts it's it's literally anything that is extracurricular that may have a fee we have in fact waved that if there was a financial reason that came back and some feedback to me last night through by the presentation my presentation last night so I want to be very clear that that's anything that we do with extrac curriculum um honestly that's some of our more expensive field trips we try to offset costs there too so not just again I'm going a little bit above and beyond the extracurricular piece but we've never um you know turned anybody away but what we do know is that it's you know it's uncomfortable for parents or for students to come forward to say that they need assistance and the fact matters that um the difference would not be that would not be a make or break in terms of positions that we are seeking and we just feel that it's important to um to offer that so I just wanted to give a little bit more uh I guess space because we receiv received some feedback last night Athletics what would well we've upgraded the baseball field the dugouts the drainage um there are now stairs uh next to the um the uh the bleachers of you know on the athletic field so people don't you know have to Ken down um a dirt Hill uh so some of those things but mostly the uh the drainage was a huge huge piece thanks to the town of templon and the aror mes special education what we talk about is the Thrive program it's really in it's in it's well it's in its second you know year um the program has brought back several allplay students as we've talked about we have realized substantial Savings in um either sped Transportation or sped out of District um costs that will you know you won't see these numbers um just you know pop out at you as years go on because they'll be really realiz saving so if you or preventive um saves however you want to put it's all like preventive maintenance and some you know don't really see the effect of you know clean taking out all the filters in our you know in our air handlers but don't do it for a long time and you're going to like lose your in it's going to cost you thousands of dollars that's what these type of programs do on the financial side on the on the Human Side on the kids side they're our students they always have been our students they're from our district and we want them to be with us we want them to graduate it's worries we want to be educated here and that is a very important piece of that the health insurance uh that's a that's a huge highight for us I think that I almost kind to skip over it kind of quickly uh you know health insurance you know the the across District came out of school choice it was put in school choice years ago as a cating measure that was that just no not fiscally sound um I never thought we would be able to get that money out because it was such a large amount of money but with the hard work and Marie and of course the entire um uh you know Insurance committee you know we were able to find carry different it just it's just going to better be not only better financially for the district be able to get it out of um the cost to the district out of the SCH choice and hopefully you know result in long-term for the employees that's a big deal um our awardwinning Psychological Services as I changed it last night um you know we we offer now a a you know Site Services to all to our elementary middle and high school that quite frankly a lot of districts do not or cannot we're very proud of that um you know it's concerning that we have such a high need but it is what it is so we want to make sure that whatever the need is that we are able to handle U appropriately and uh we are and we're proud to say that that's that's been three or four years in the coming uh in making per our curriculum as we talk about at least every meeting right projectly the way prek through 12 we one of only 11 districts that have that in the entire State heard me say that before Early College courses I believe was speaking with um uh Mr Young today that you know it's I think there was a huge turnout on the on the Zoom meeting last night and something like 40 or 45 kids are looking to um you know to participate that's a that's a big deal not only again if you're interested in going to college right we're try to offer a lot of things we're trying to be a lot of things to everyone in terms of what is the path of the direction for our students when they graduate here and this is one of those areas so if it is one of those areas it gets it it gives our kids the experience that they need um get them some credits and it saves their parents money and that is important as we move forward so obviously that is been a big uh big undertaking and a great highlight as well I guess so all right Sor sorry so chapter S you talk about that all the time yes we do right that's this is how this is how the money how do we get the money that we get and we talk about this all the time it is by the foundation budget it's how many kids we have at school age who live in both towns in our district um we we basically stayed about even from last year uh we're actually was NE we minus eight kids from last year then to this year so that put us in health harmless we talk that about that a lot we're going to get a whopping 30 33,000 39 $39,000 because the state will never not give you what you know give you less than they did the year before but they're certainly not they're going to give you $30 um per kid just to I guess you know thanks for coming um that's problematic for over 200 districts this year um and a lot of districts are seeing the same thing it's a problem with the formula not necessarily that um we're seeing just a mass exitus um you know across the state although the arec declining population and mass but certainly not out here we dropped the low income group we talked about that why is that is because the the we knew that the state BS and changed the requirement um for Mass Health or for benefits and we I I think almost the same amount of districts saw a decline in their lwi income group we wrote eight low income group eight last year we are seven and we did the figures last night it was roughly a 20 I think $57,000 difference from last year that we received um you know for those students and so that that's a that's a big obviously that's a big drop um that has to do with two factors yes we dropped a group which uh the funding formul changes but we also um dropped about 47 kids from last year okay because of the new requirements so when we asked when we were contemplating the budget looking at the budget we wanted to I think for the first time at least in my ears here uh we wanted to gain you know look we're spending your money how do you want it to spend um so we we put out a survey it's probably it's the second most well uh you know attended survey that we've ever put out snow days of course um but class size was the number one um concern for the 300 plus um you know submissions that we had the second close second was compensation for teachers a lot we we have talked very openly about compensation in this District that doesn't happen in a lot of places that's not a pat on the back for myself or for anyone else it's it's just about really you know Community has asked these questions before and we put some information together which I other districts are now using quite frankly um and so you know we're we're on and we're looking at it but those are the two major concerns that we forward um and when you start thinking about like well how did you know when you're asking for all this money Chris why and we we got into the business for the very first time looking at where the kids coming from you've heard me say 50 times that we're plus 100 kids over the last 10 years years um and so why where are they coming from well when we look at the the houses um or at least the permits that were pulled these houses are in various stages of development foundation's all the way up to being done I have no idea but we picked a date and so we said okay from this dat to here how many permits were pulled 40 in Templeton 24 in philipson that's a lot of houses when you compare that to other to other towns again Size Matters depending on you know who you're comparing yourself to that's a lot and that's and you know so and we know that people have moved out and and families have moved in they're moving east to west and that um doesn't come as a shock to anyone certainly at the Town level or the folks who live in the communities we're seeing a lot of new faces and that's great but we also know that this is going to be something that we're going to have to plan for as we move forward so speaking about student enrollment you know Chapter 70 increase was only $39,900 for being armless um that's almost well it's almost nothing you know don't spend it all one place as they say we decreased age students in Foundation R for we talk about that our low income category dropped from 8 to 7 and but and we're still trying to catch up from the 22 uh 23 increase of 100 students in terms of staff and just resources and so when we talked about that two three years ago we're looking at the elementary school and now as you see they're coming up through the middle of high school and what we're seeing now is now we're seeing other bubbles starting to to in terms of our kiddos at the elementary as I'm as I'm looking at someone who works at the elementary who get a test at the prek andk level so what about this student enrollment well look we went back to fy20 we started there we could go back to you know we start from wherever but even with fy21 which was Co which you know I don't know how you factored in or out you know we were plus 95 kid when you start taking in you know to account that we are actively not taking as many school choice kids in based on how many kids we have in these buildings especially at the elementary that when you start looking at that and you looking at your differential that that's amazing because you're almost one for one you're more than them you know you got kids moving in and then they're just they're just work we school choice kids cannot I don't phased out right but we're stop we're not able to take them in so many buildings or in so many places in our district now so we're they're they're declining a lot faster and we're still gaining kids because residents are basically how if I use the word taking their place okay so again I said last night as I will say it the original plan the cut teaches at the elementary although very hard to take and to close an elementary school and then slowly reducing um School Choice students given what we saw back then if you TR to take that trajectory and move it forward would have worked it would have worked it because we saw declines as um the U student enrollment um projections that were done for if you have building the building you have to have one done and we are well above what they U what they predicted for um student enrollment in uh 2025 or 2024 and 2025 this honestly is just a breakdown by Town um you know clearly see the decline in school choice in fy20 had 249 we have 160 now um we've seen you know these these go up quite a bit especially in Templeton and if you kind of look at where we were in fy20 right we had 249 school choice students and we had 1,482 um kids in this District but and seats as they say right you look at FY 24 and you have 1,478 and you you dropped almost almost right Coastal 100 kids in Jersy School TR so we know that we're getting bigger and we know that they are residents so again in order to be the drum Just One Last Time what do we look at look at enrolled we looked at Foundation we always do that we try to keep in comparison because enrolled kids are the kids that we have in front of us every single day whether they school choice or they of course be residents and then you look at Foundation mment which you know our kids who our school age live in philson and templon go to a public school somewhere anywhere and you will see that they are we were flat this year but we have seen a steady increase in zy 21 in V that is a good indication just so you know that you're actually starting to see a population increase if we were increasing school choice you would call me on that and I would say you're right it's inflated by T well we've heard me say a couple times that we're we're not taking as many kids in and we're still seeing Nam this which will show that you you are in fact you know increasing kids that are living in a tance the school choice Trend report we talk about you know again the most important line is the blue line that is your differential you need to be in the positive there because you don't want it cannot be upside down in school choice being paying out more you know paying out right more than you're you know you're taking in um that's important and I was I've always matter of fact I'm very concerned about that what is interesting and it's a credit to every educator in this instruct um is the fact that the number of kids who were leaving this District terms of school choice have blocked everything we're at the lowest number of school choice out and I guess I can go all the way back to you know 2016 without a doubt this is the lowest number that I've since I've been here and that is a credit to the people who do the real work um but the fact is that the you know sending numers down that's great but also our receiving number is is declining and so we we have to keep an eye on that because we move forward so we did something that you know is a little different for me I'll be very candid is to project I won't make the joke about it in terms of projections promise M so what we did is we took you know grades one through four because those are pretty static we know who they are um kindergarten as you know prea kindergarten there's no requ for getting burn and prek is really rolling admission as as they say they come in when they turn three those numbers are always constantly FL so what I did is I simply just graduated the number of kids if you were in the you know the first grade and mve you to second grade this assumes that no one moves into the district right so we didn't even make any assumptions that way so when you look at that you go okay so if I reject one through four at 407 for FY 25 obviously next year the actual right now is 432 well what we know is that we have we've increased Elementary depending on what year you're talking about by 20 or 30 kids and these are residents we don't take school choice the element so right there that tells me like well okay there's some room for GR we could we could you know we could balance off there for a bit but given what we know if you look to the to the right Pard me to the left of that um of that graph is that we show that 248 prek eligible students for FY 25 I'm talking to Terry um who has been in this District well over she she said she' been here 100 years but that's not true she's been here close maybe to 20 25 years it's probably one of the higher numbers at least eligible kids for prek Cas you've seen in a while not probably ever but in a while so when we start looking at class sizes and uh teacher student ratios which remember going all the way back in terms of one of the the areas of concern at least when we put the the survey out and it's always a concern for us um you you know you know that that more kids we have and of course the number of students and that's how you get your student ratio so that is really what this budget is predicated on or at least um proposed budet as we move forward I don't have that is my next slide just so oh that's right that's right it's a link see they threw a link in there too okay so um I'm I'm gonna have to look at the screen because so this helps you're going to see but um so I'm G to try not to be season so as of March one actually that's F so if I have to oh we started this many many years ago I like to know exactly how many kids I have in every and where they're from in every classroom we've done this for I I don't know six seven years so what that helps us do is track how many you know just kiddos and you know in terms of equity do we have you know too many philon kids in this group ton kids well as of right now you know school choice kids school choice doesn't even come into play um as you can see we have a grand total of um 14 school choice students in the entire um Elementary School out of a grand total currently 625 680 bu resid um so I didn't add the kids were tuition did for quickk guys those are not school choice kids I want I didn't want to get into the weeks um so we also talk about ratios because that came up last last need in terms of well okay you know what kind of supports do you have down in every building and we talked about Adena students some you know and there was a question asked about ratio Etc so if you take the principal assistant principal who are the only ones who can do evaluations they have 44 evaluations the elementary has more staff provides more staff than than anyone period there's no it's not even close meaning now remember I'm cafeteria um you know stoal Etc um the the idea is that when you look at the ratio that you see 313 you know per um per administrator even if you added in the DEA students who's not an administrator um you would almost add them to you would almost add that in students to the school site side of things right um because of just the the sheer amount of kids and quite frankly the number of behaviors it was a response to the fact that that there's was just a lot of disregulated students um and we needed more uh we need more support period at the elementary school was also called you know for more at the middle and high school which second so when you when you look at that the ratio is very high um you can go to again not all elementary schools are born equal right they're not all the same the grades are different the populations are different so when we look at other when we look at other prek through fours um with the exception I think of Garder they have they they have almost 800 kids um I think and they have one more grade we have one of the largest elementaries around period in terms of total number of kids um remember that's not how it was supposed to be when it was first drawn I I I never I have said this in other presentations before but just remember it wasn't supposed to be like this back in the day there were supposed to be two elementary schools right there were you know and and so to have them allinone building is by the way we're good we're fine there's no there's no issues with um occupancy or anything like that in terms of shter numbers like yeah but the fact is that that wasn't supposed to happen this building was supposed to also house the fifth grade least from T right so when you start going back in time and just reeming some things is that this building was supposed to be through the fifth grade that was going to give us more space up here at the high school because it was going to be more and more traditional six through well what you know 678 we had the fifth grade down at TC for one year once we closed the building at phillipston we had to make we had to change everything basically change it back to fifth grade up here um and then of course willingly accepted all of the kiddos from the philon elementary school here in templon elementary I don't think we can we should ever by the way certainly not trying to um you know create or make Old Wounds worse but it's important to remember that this wasn't the plan it became the plan it just it became the plan and they're and we're doing fantastic if I way say um but this wasn't how it was supposed to be so when things start to get to the fact where we're starting to see some I won't say overcrowding but our our numbers are going up like Where Do We Now find this classroom that shouldn't come as a surprise necessarily um it probably would have worked out if the you know the enrollment would have stayed with projection but we're well over that so just as a kind of a for those who Maybe Might may be new and listening um here today so the fact is when you look at the middle school and you look at the El uh pardon me it's a high school you just kind of switch over sorry I'm sorry y so when you switch over you see that um although we've we've got some lower numbers at the middle school they you know they basically increase at the high school in terms of the ratios we had to do some different things we've got a behavioral specialists you know we've got guidance counselors at the high school because you need guidance counselors at the high school because kids are need to be guided to do whatever they're going to do once they graduate so obviously it looks different but the basic um setup is the same a School site bcpa and a uh School adjustment C per building and that has um and and that has in fact been um well a well received plan but it's it certainly has worked given the number of kits and number of well frankly issues so when you look at that you should see the fact that you know that's how it breaks down this is just the month I'm showing you march one we do this every as you know we do this every every every month um but the ratios are high they're they're right on at the middle in high school um but that's going to change at the high school soon as these as these numbers increase so just as they get going we'll start to see in okay so that's just again we we can come back to this but this is something that I know that we talked about it the vals administrator has and so thank you thank you so we start looking at um this how you know so here we are so what are we asking right what's the ask and the ask is that the high school middle school and TS need people um they need staff that's what they need and when we start looking at that we put them in we put the ask generally if you had to triage ucational triage in the area of of need importance isn't the word I would use it's really about need um they're all important they're equally important when we start looking at the high school the eighth grade becomes the number one position quite frankly because the share numbers because again the high school level um we'd like it to be a Spanish teacher so we can do um actually have a u the for langage program all the way up from 8th grade um you you see that we talked at you know at nazim about Monch after dark that program and what we think that that really kind of rounds out the opportunities that we're trying to give all of our high school kids or at least expose them to and this would be the vocational kind of um slice of the pie that we're trying to add um we we have internships we pretty good internship program um given that it's really at Grassroots we already know about early college and you heard about project Le the way this would really kind this would really uh give us a very well-rounded program um that would I think satisfy um most of the kids you know at Le needs are just you know um exploratory and um we heard last night montech presented before us last night that they're they are um they're aggressively seeking grants to find money for these teach for this these teachers and that's fairly new and not new information but you know we're hopeful the timing is right I'll need to talk to Dr Brown you know Tech but to see where they're at that but I think all three districts that this out the dark program K are all basically saying the same thing is that love the program this is really great but I don't know that we have the resources especially this year the Middle School the music teacher um because we need to again we these that we're trying to bring back or to you know strengthen program um there were two music teachers at the middle school it looked a little bit different then the structure was different through the middle of high school in terms of just how things were structured period but we want to be able to bring back the music teacher at the middle school one it will help with the number of kids that we have because we don't have as many unified Arts teachers as we have classroom teachers so when you have that disparity you have very large F arts classes whether they be um music absolutely um is I think I believe is essential um we we had a great Coral program here um when I first started among other things and so we'd like to really expand on that by the way for the entire that's that's something that be utiliz but they they would be the literacy teacher we've talked well I mean we just talked her about the we we know that we're the Epic Center for um Co and the effects of Co it affected everyone but but really the grades that were K1 at the time two are were you know were very negatively affected and we are seeing um issues at the middle school in terms of our literacy um and we need to strengthen that across the board but certainly right now at at the school templon elementary school has really been our Focus for the last couple years as as everyone knows it was great thing to be able to bring back think about it but but to bring back all the teachers that were um in one point cut um that were being funded through um Es at the time um and so we we've done a lot of work down at the elementary um over the last couple years but really truly need to um find a way to find three uh three Paras to support the kindergarten which we put a par professional each of the kindergarten classrooms we have five they currently two pairs right now you know two two classrooms have pairs um Le sh them but you know what I'm saying we need we need to um to find three more in order to so start talking about well you need a lot of people so we you know when we bring up compensation it's sometimes it's a it's a you know it's a hard thing to talk about right money is not easily you know you know discussed but we're having you know not only Nationwide but Massachusetts where where we've never had problems before quite honestly we're the number one state I think I don't even know how many years in a row um in terms of Education everyone knows that um but you know you would think that we would have ample amount of teachers just just you know just everywhere we do not um it's affected Massachusetts probably least you know when you look at other states but I will tell you that it's affecting Massachusetts and it's affecting western Mass I know we are Central the supposedly Central Mass it's hard to attract teachers out here if they're not from here and um again we're not talking about competing against what Cho it or F burger or lemon no one no one has even you know even thought about that although we do District um we compared ourselves to our local districts that different from the B us and we are if again unless other contracts have been settled we were the we have the lowest paid um teachers and administrators um that we you know that you know in comparison um and that creates these lists of needed staff um and so you know by the way these are updated so other words we're not taking some old sheet from like you know four months ago um we need just as many teaches as we needed back four months ago um you know uh we've had a special education teacher position that we absolutely desperately need at the elementary to then have bring a person up to the Middle School to fill that position that we discussed almost three months ago that position has been um posted since January and um and with not that we've been picky we would be but we haven't even had anyone app plot and that's wrong um so obviously if this has been this has been cenage um the Administrator salary you know comparison and the teacher comparison I only base them on average right so you know CH but you see the you see the negative numbers at the very bottom of bachelor's step one you will see that we are at at least at this very moment in time 4.1 you know 4.81% below the average of them this isn't below the top or the next to top I do that kind of on this below Paris District to District so we've got some work here and we know that we had a great um negotiation session a couple weeks ago and had a good conversation about it um about all of that and we'll be you know we've always had a good conversation about it my Frank but that's something that we're going to have to need to address um regardless okay so when we start looking at the general fund budget like what do you want what do you need um and and how much is it going to cost me so you know we you know we need a 4.99% increase which is $1.65 million just a r Philipson's increase given that would be a 10% of and some change uh increase would be $200,000 and templeton's increase would be you'd be a little over a million dollars cheat so obviously when we had the tri meeting um it was that that was a big number came as a shock to some um and you know like many small towns currently that just there's a lot of need and not a lot of money we understand that um we all are trying to catch on right all them this everyone's trying to catch up but that is what we feel and by the way it's just the positions that we have identified as needed last year I think that needs to be said is that we we needed at least three of these positions last year at least three go back but we didn't because we were again we're trying to work with towns it was then but the further the further down the road this gets the harder it's going to be to actually even catch up period and I think that that's you know that's the take of it and that's certainly been the message that we've you know and we've had some very very positive and productive conversations with both TS so this isn't you know Le so far um and they clearly understand our you know the situation because every was um so when we start looking at what does the increase actually mean about the account description that you know the you know the Thousand series series as they call it and generally there are numbers andul what is this so really the next page is really just a better way to look at how did each of these go up and why and what do they actually support this is our accounting system um that basically I think if everyone works in the state but you're looking at an 8% increase in administration what does Administration line cover software attorneys auditing service prices increase payroll on boarding software Etc Transportation went down I got to tell you I don't know of a district whose Transportation went down um and so it's funny because when ours has gone up others have gone down it's really just about you know what it is how it's how it happened the year before right so right now it's we should be happy we should just you know take it in run right but it also has Athletics in there and our Nur that position was reduced um middle of the year in order to um actually fund when teaching positions at the middle school maintenance you know that's again cost of living for the UFCW inflation um of course general maintenance uh benefits again that's great it's 045 is a little it's under 1% that's great it's probably never you know not going to happen every year but take it as we as as we can our debt went up just a little bit that's for the biomass um boiler went up a little just a a tick below 1% and you know really the big you know the big win this year is really the 9,000 Series um sted tuitions and and of course transportation that has almost everything to do with a couple of things um well Thrive right bringing kids back to the district um you know some kids you know kid aging out um that kind of thing but the cautionary tale always is that have two kids move in tomorrow and we be financially you know responsible for them by the way every district is and so right now though that's where we're at and we what's what's good about this that we actually we we put something in place and we actually saw the foods of it SL right so when we put in th this is what happened or what can happen it won't always look like this because you'll be deferring cost right keeping kids here saves money too so look at that um the instructional series obviously we start increased we're talking these were this we salaries are small small uh but no but these where the salaries are this is where you know we where all of the things that we have talked about is the instructional series uh 2000 series and um in supplies which by the way folks we don't we don't spend a tremendous amount of money on supplies um we do we buy we purchase what we need to but it's you know we don't keep things stock by so okay we start talking about revenues we love revenues right the general fund you know Medicare local contributions end you know those are the you know those are the biggies um we had R some evolving circuit breaker you know circuit breaker is uh basically a formula for out of District special education placements it's I believe there's a base formula of anything over I think it's 47 or 48,000 they give you a percentage of of every dollar over that and um the joke of it is that we never know until we find out if the state has any of money they don't give this to right off the bat they wait till the budget done they go oh we're gonna give it you know 3% or whatever that's that's generally how it happens state grants School lths revolving we our our meals are free but there's still a reimbursement and so we um but remember itself we the school Edge program is you know pay you go so those you know the money take care of salaries Etc and other local and school choice of course is the B so when someone says how much does it take to run the budget you know to run the district it takes $28 million to do that okay so what does that look like well um we still have nine teachers in school choice we are not this is not new to districts um we constantly rotate teachers out of there we generally put the um the newest or least expensive um staff members in there to um uh you know to stay the hit to school choice because remember that differential is absolutely key we have to watch it very Clos takes care of Staff PD athletic supplies technology basically one generally speaking what should be for we try to use the most for one time short of the staff obviously that that's circuit breaker we talked about that right that's the state reimbursement for excessive special education costs um federal grants we talked about that we're you know title one we will probably definitely see a decrease in title one but what will it be we don't know we don't get we don't receive Title One information till July which again is it's unfortunate because we would like that information sooner but it is what it is sped Early Childhood you know um covers three Title One well thaton me the title one Etc title two idea but also covers Bed pair is out of District T those grants and the state Grant of you know the nursing Grant which we still have um does our academic support person and um sub nurses Etc um other local receipts we get asked a lot about like what is other local rece well preschool right extended day um preschool lead charge because they offset a a large cost that it takes to educate prek um U the staff that takes I should say to educate our kidos who are pring and extended Deb which is completely and entirely self supporting um which I you know quite frankly probably is the one of the biggest benefits I think the district I think it's other thing but certainly people rely on um our extended date program quite a bit in order to be able to get to work quite frankly because that's it's it's you know it's imperative every time you do a budget every time you do a budget you always have to look at level service service you it's always your fault you know again it would be foolish to create a budget not least see what it would cost you um the level service level service is um as as it's defined is exactly the services the people that you have right there okay so right now n teachers we have that's it Paris that's it it's level service the service we're providing people have a misconception that level service means that you're not going up the cost on Lev service of course because everything goes up every year so there's we have contracts that we have to um so we have inflation the fuel goes I mean you get so there's a cost to do level service okay I can tell that people have heard this presentation several times I I'm trying to make it as interesting as possible and we did at this next slide you got wait je seriously I want you to hold on with both hands got a got a new slot all right you ready okay so I have done this presentation four times in the four times that I've done this presentation I forget where we've been because there's so much conversation so what we decided is to add a slide about exactly where we started and where we've been and kind of like if I could do a road map I would I'm just not that good with Graphics so the fact fact is that originally this is what we asked for right an increase of 1 point you know 1,165 was going to cost that much 1,700,000 you know have philson cost $200,000 we talked to T the very first time said look all we really budgeted for that time is $450,000 and we were like that doesn't even cover level service and that happened in this in open setion basically right right so the next thing happened okay someone's behind all right here we go service talking about level service M come on now is my this is it this is the big thing right the big end so level service we said okay level service is 24 million you know 140,000 so basically templon you know it's still was going to be an increase of $668,000 rounding and philipson was going to be$ 141,000 that was a lot of money because again if you go back to the $450,000 well level service is 668,000 we made it very clear politely that the level service isn't an option look at that level service does not meet the district's needs it's not an option it can't be it can't be we have too many kids and we've held off long enough we can't do it any longer can't can't do it and by the way I want to say this again these aren't like programs we're trying to create now like you know something new these are these are people that I need to educate kids because we have so many so this isn't like some new fangled you know program these are people so it didn't need it so then we said Okay I want to this is key is all jokes are s is that in order to even meet level service the number is still going to require us to make Cuts in the budget right to hit a to hit the number right so that is again if we were to sell one thing to this you know to explain it well is that level service doesn't that this year doesn't help because there's still going to be and we're going to show you what they would be but there would still be a cuts to cut to the budget right and so that would be you know 3 a Acres among other things right with OPB equipment substitute SP uh the clinical sped Clinical Services maintenance and so that's big thing so the adjusted when we say the adjusted need right ATS is that we need increase of n the adjusted need ass could be that's how to put that is that be 24 million 296 right that's an increase of $922,000 we're going to show you this all is a minute temp would be an increase of $8,600 and that would be what we would need to um hit the the number that we would need for for the staff if we go to the next slide I'm G letar take it for a second while I a drink of water could be very candid um to explain to uh to explain the um Productions what would it mean so last week I was asked what would a level service budget look like with two teachers the mo the two that we think our most important one for the high school one for the middle school so I came up with this list and if we cut the three a8k pairs for $87,900 I would give up my OPB contribution for FY 25 not the whole thing but reduce it by $10,000 there was an equipment lease I was hoping that we would be able to buy a new um lawn mower since we are adding two new Fields next year um but that will have to wait a year substitutes we will reduce their lined item by 42880 currently as of last week we have spent this year $ 216,303 budget was 212 so I was hoping to increase it but it's sort of a gamble that I'm willing to take hoping that we'll have staff next year rather than have to fill with long-term Subs like we did this year so hopefully that number will work um sted Clinical Services consistently goes in the red two years ago it was we spent 90,000 and had 70,000 budgeted last year we spent 79,000 had 70,000 budgeted so it's hoping to bring it up it's currently up to 75 I was hoping to bring it to 80 but we'll gamble again or hope one of them and maybe pick up some of that extra and maintenance of equipment was $900 which will just they want will know it really becomes a problem so the total Cuts would be put aside and hopefully they get the grant that they were talking about last night and the pars you would have to foro them and we would have to see what happens during the summer if we get excess grant money or if we're able to hire someone at a lower rate than I budgeted so that one would have to come in later be great actually do that one of the things that I brought up last night and this is no Shad to mon Tech okay as I I want to give the same compliment I which I absolutely wholeheartedly um that when when Monte Tech and nans present their budgets we generally do back to back and so both towns honestly have the um the pleasure the honor of of really seeing the two best business managers within months um the other one well one of them is s to my right and Tammy um you know from mon Tech is is is phenomenal known her for a very long time um but she made some great was when she was going through her Bud presentation I said she was talking about that um that you know all the all the project they have to build in bleachers and they have do some things and they were doing this and they were like well we don't want to take all that out of stabil stabilization we can keep through this amount and we want to do this we got you know stabiliz it in in end and we don't want to because you know our bond rating and they were going through this whole thing was very well done and when I presented the last plan I you know just to kind of give you an idea is that we don't even have a St we have very little stabilization and every year we use our end the comment was we don't want to use all of our end in case something should happen right in case something thises from from te and by the way there's no shade to Mone Tech at all but it was a very the contrast was was notable is that out of $580,000 in EMV five wonder what these two left I'll find out later but um we use over $500,000 5 and so and we don't have a stabilization that would what we it was established back in early 2000s has $50,000 the initial investment in couple thousand doll over an interest for the past 15 years I I'm not saying that to like rub Sal in it or to but it's it's a very vast right it's a very big difference about you know I I don't know what towns would say if we did God forbid run into some kind of I don't know whatever it say J where indeed go point to the budget I mean that's that's where point to so but and fair is fair a lot of the stuff that we would wanted to fix templon helped us do that through their Ark LS I thanked them last night again I'm G to thank them again this it wasn't for those Ark LS we' never get all all the other things that we talked about in terms of the drainage and this and that that was that was those are things that we were able to check right off of our off of our list that we never would have had so want thank so um yeah so then this would be I called it the adjusted draft because we're asked for a number all we do when I say all do but all we're doing is just punching the numbers this school committee obviously has the discussion makes the determination so so I I called in an adjusted draft make sure that everyone knew that that this was not something that was in stone Etc but it would bring the increase to 3.95 per year overall asked pH increase would be uh 164,00 roughly temp increase would be 800,000 and some change um to that adjust the thre so I'm not going to go over the summary the summary hasn't really changed quite frankly um the summary is what it is uh we what is different this year is that we had excellent conversation with both things they have been SLE they've been productive they these are not understands I believe that they understand this isn't just you know just giving us you know just what we want to hear I think there are some definite challenges um for both towns I I know that all Municipal Services have challenges I get that we are starting to fall behind our staff you know what enry is not saying and I I appreciate it is that we spent a lot of money in um you know in Subs again we have six people who are six teachers with a stien are teaching an extra class we're burning them up and we're not able to hire some of the teachers that we need are more prominent ones and more coner onal teachers that is starting to take a to so I'm just simply saying that um I understand all those things and I don't necessarily have to answer but our job is to of course advocate for the schools and I think that the budget that we presented um does that um so really with that chair I will answer question I'll pass it over to my school many all school committee members what questions do you have concerns comments mine just a location question Dr where where is tble Phillips's contribution what slide is the 26 yes if you look at slide 24 it Paints the temple te philon contributions across the different budget amounts so if you want to be able to see the contributions across the possible budget amounts that's a good slly to the adjustment service see Jeff Bennett from Templeton uh and and I know what it's I have a good idea what it will lead to but uh I'm of the opinion um looking at the numbers and remembering some things uh one thing sticks in my head is the essr funds U 180 something thousand I think was Templeton when the state said you could use it and then when people got all the towns got their warrants and had their Town meetings then they said you can't do that the school committee ate that you didn't come back and say give this you know you got to for that over you you ate that and you let that that ride uh so that might got to come from somewhere down the road and you cut 243 this year you're coming back next year for it I mean everything else is going up your first the first column uh if that's your original need that's what you need then that's what you should stick with I believe if you only need the last column then that's the thing you should have asked for in the first place if you need that then I would like you I hope you would stick with it and what happens happens but I mean if that's what you really need because this snowball has been going down the hill for a number of years I expected it to be bigger actually uh watching the numbers and looking at stuff uh I was kind of surprised it wasn't bigger uh it's and it's shouldn't have been unexpected on the town side because uh various selectwood finance committee advisory committee whatever you want to call it uh it's been talk about this you know this big big hit that's coming from the school this big ask is is coming uh so you put it off it's just going to get harder next year and a year after so um and I look at the numbers and I I I talk with Chris and um I pay attention to the stuff I try to be a responsible citizen uh and so if that's what you need that column over there then I hope you would stay with that and you know what happens happen you know if we got to Duke it out well that's won't be the first time won't be the last so I just I just think if that's what you really need that's that's what I hope that you would vote for because it it'll make it easier as easy as it's going to be next year in the Years following so so thank you one other quick thing though I would uh just want to thank you again for not not only hearing residents uh concerns and input on the user fees but you actually listened and and you heard them and you did away with them and I think that was a the right thing to do and a fair thing to do so and it's a thing that you know when you're going in asking hey we we're trying to you know cut what you have to pay extra on top of paying for this so now you don't have to pay goes along with the uh direct cost of the meals you know you don't have to come in and pay for that in the here and now you're paying for it some way somewhere but and it cuts down on a lot of stuff that you don't have to deal with you don't have somebody collecting the money and how many full price and how many half price and how many no cost and then the numbers flip and the kids do a lot of dumb things you know we did a lot of dumb things but they're not dumb they they know what's going on so it's just was another thing the state funded I hope it stays in place and slowly but surely few of them extra things will go away and you just you pay that one bill in so thank you very much Mr chair else team UTI data from the student achievement programs has developed a budget priorities after long discussions we identified how these priorities T into our strategic plan we work together to identify where we have the resources required to meet all our students needs we then targeted the resources which would make the greatest impact that is the budget that you have in front of you the 2459 79 and3 the goal of this budget process is to develop a financial plan that will P support all of our students continue to improve the academic standing of this District working as a team we've been able to find creative Al not always sustainable ways to maintain most of the services We Believe are required we have not done in order for us to maintain the district to continue to move the district forward and to support our students we need to support the budget as presented we've discussed the increase uh in our student population and a significant increase in schedule at enrollment our students are hurting now and they need as much help as possible now there's so much evidence that the students have not fully recovered from the pandemic so this year's budget process is not business as usual my argument against reducing the budget is straightforward where there's no doubt that the pandemic has caused severe disruption to our student learning reducing the budget now will only impede our efforts to help our students in address the the and address the intereted learning and social emotional needs they require past budget reductions have already led to eliminations of teachers as well as cuts to Arts music and other commitment programs in some cases class sizes May swell if we lose funding for Teacher positions but continue to grow our student population holding off on the budget cuts could buy time to sa student enrollment stabilizes with all this going on in all the uncertainty of this year uh this year is not the year to make uh such a drastic cut in future years we could possibly slowly phase in these reductions while we work with our town partners to plan and involve the community in discussions on how to best tackle the challenges there's a different body of research that points to the importance of adding school funding I believe we all understand the fundamental importance of this issue now is not the time um now is the time to make the educ educational investment that will benefit us all now is the time to make the educational investment in our children adequate funding wisely spent is essential to our district it is essential to our students it is essential to our students families and it is essential to our community the most important responsibility of this committee is to promote and to improve student achievement as of yet I haven't heard an argument nor I come up with valid justification on how reducing this budget will improve this charge reducing the budget by any amount would actually be contradictory to this committee's charge eliminating Educators increasing class sizes and doing away with vital programs are all issues that are proven to be detrimental to the academic achievement of students issues we as a committee have discussed at length issues which we have fought against and agreed were not conductive to student achievement I fear we owe it to our most important constituents the students to M to maintain all of the educational needs into supporting the budget has presented s well anyone else seeing no further comment um we will now so having closed the budget hearing it's now time to move to vote um so for those not familiar um rule of a necessity only needs to be in vote um if we have um too many folks on the school committee who cannot participate in the vote because because for example they're benefiting from retirement benefit things that they have to ruce themselves we don't have anyone who meets those um would have to recuse themselves on the vote so we do not need to invoke the rule of necessity so we can um bypass that so coming to budget certification would anyone like to make a motion I'd like to make a motion to present to approve the budget as written the original original budget was it yeah 24 539 793 I second that so motion by je and a second by shaa so typically with budgets we do roll call votes just to make sure that we have um the votes we officially have the votes in we need nobody's questioning the the eyes the NES Etc um so we will do the roll call um so the um any questions or comments before we move into a vote okay seeing none Hank I Sean hi cat I sh yes Danielle Heather I Jeff yes and I say yes so that is unanimous okay so we're going to move through um we have to vote in a variety of amounts so I would entertain a motion um Bud second I think any questions or comments seeing none Hank hi Sean I Kat I sha yes Daniel hea I Jeff and I say yes so that is also unanimous I would entertain a motion for the narraganset Regional School District school committee um to vote the estimated income of 69,420 for the fy2 budget which is based on the chapter 7 aid from the governor's house one budget submission so second motion by Heather second by shaa any questions or comments seeing n ank I Sean I cat I shaa yes Danielle I Heather Jeff and I say yes so that is also unanimous I would entertain a motion that the narain at Regional School District school committee both the estimated income of $1 14,934 the fy2 budget which is based on the charter school reimbursement from the fy2 cherry sheet estimates so motion by Heather second second by Han any questions or comments seeing none Hank hi Sean hi hi Sean yes Danielle hi Heather hi Jeff and I say yes so that is unanimous I would entertain a motion that the narraganset Regional School District school committee vote the estimated income of $500,000 for the fy2 budget which is based on the FY 23 certified excess and deficiency so motion by Heather second by Danielle any questions or comments seeing none Hank hi Sean hi cat I'm Sean yes Danielle Heather J yes and I say yes so that is also unanimous I would entertain a motion that the naret Regional School District school committee vote the estimated income of $245,000 for the fy2 budget which is based on fy2 Medicaid receipts s motion by Heather second second by cat any questions or comments seeing none Hank hi Sean hi Kat hi Sean yes Danielle Heather hi Jack and I say yes so that is also unanimous so moving on to the town assessment votes we will start with the town of Templeton I would entertain a motion that the N Regional School District school committee vote the assessment amount to Templeton in the amount of 8,699 $925 so second motion by Sean and AR pink and second by P any questions or comments seea Hank hi Sean hi cat hi Sean yeah yes Danielle Heather Jeff yes and I say yes so that is also unanimous moving on to the fy2 assessment vote for philipon I would entertain a motion that the Naran Regional School District school committee vote the assessment amount to philipsson in the amount of 2,597 193 second motion by Heather and second by cat any questions or comments seeing none hey Sean hi Sean yes Danielle jeck yes and I say yes so that isan thank you everyone there's a lot of energy good conversation um you know I and thank you for all of your words Jeff well thought I well put together and really Express Where We Are okay so we can move into the next point of business um which is a vote related to the partnership program with the massachusett Regional Vocational Technical School on which I specifically wanted to wait for pending budget so I'm assuming that what we're can can someone tell me exactly what this vote allows us to do this vote will allow us to do for the mon yes I'm sorry Y for the montech um yes so we're in the items not anticipated under 48 hour that's okay um yes so the the mon Tech vocational program that we're looking to put in place would impact our Juniors and seniors and it would provide opportunities for up to 12 students six Juniors six seniors to participate in a project a program ision say with montech where students would enroll in either an electrical or carpentry program um and they would have a week on where they would go to montech and they would be in shop based classes um full-time Monday through Friday that week on and then they would be a week on here in our district um an AB week and when they're here in our district we would be working with them on a writing course offerings in in a different type sort of an alternative type situation because of their week on week off structure so that they would meet their core graduation requirements for academics um under Mass core and so um students would start their junior year then they would continue in the same program their senior year it would be a two-year commitment um when they finished the program they would have certifications com out of mind Tech as well as the required um coursework to receive a diploma from net they would remain our students um and the this first year of implementation would look a little bit different because the seniors that would go through the program would only complete half of the hours of the um program but we wouldn't be able to double up our juniors in year one because if we were to do that we would not be able to add students that next year and that junior year so the seniors would have an unusual experience the first year um but it would be a two-year cycle students would go through it be an application process in a lottery system um and if the program is successful which we anticipate would be we'd be looking to add Plumbing in future years to have other uh option and increase our enrollment um the program success any questions or comments I know this is a program we've been reviewing um but I just wanted to have that reminder for everyone so entertain a motion to approve theou to move forward with the planning of the partnership program with montachusett Regional Vocational Technical School is presented so second which one that one was sh just hear the mail voice at the end of table you give it all right so motion by Sean second by cat um we had already discussed that there were no questions so all in favor opposed abstained and I say yes um so that was unanimous we already took care of our out of field trip for prom committee um so I'll move to school committee comments any comments school committee I just really enjoy it also invested in school they' seen some school committees that are devastating and I just feel like the teachers here no wish the chair happy birthday who doesn't birthday any other school Comm comments um so our next meeting um forg again is Thursday April 25th 2024 at 5:30 p.m. says Wednesday the agenda I apologize copy agendas is that sing urse uh we do need to go into executive session this evening and we will return afterwards um so this is also roll call vote um so I would entertain a motion to enter into executive session as per Mass General Law chapter 38 section 21A for reason number three to discuss strategy with respect to Collective bargaining or litigation with the UFCW Andor the ndaa if an open meeting may have a detrimental effect on the bargaining or litigating position of the public body and the chair so declares the meeting will return to into Open Session immediately following Hank hi Sean hi Kat hi sha yes Danielle jeck yes and I say yes um so that's unanimous so we will enter into Executives someone make the motion to do that or I think I said to I would entertain a motion that's I read it okay oh I'm sorry did I forg I heard the roll call but not who made a motion in a second I think we skipped it oh sorry I would make the motion I apologize for catching That season it was unanimous so I think we can avoid going back through you got take Sean and I say yes sorry to make everybody repeat thank you so we'll enter executive session we will return shortly e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e wel back so in executive session we reviewed the memorandum of agreement um from the between the ndea and the N Regional School District um for for those who were not aware uh essentially in the last in the ndaa agreement with the school district um that ends um at the end of fy2 um there was an agreement that we would relook at what was available for fy2 um and there's an agreement that has been reached um so Hank I read this before we go to a vote Yes yes entertain a motion okay so I would entertain a motion to approve the memorandum of agreement written as the narraganset regional school committee district and the narraganset district Education Association Association jointly agreed to this memorandum of agreement MOA for additional compensation for fy2 the district and the association met on February 27th 2024 to reopen the contract in order to negotiate additional compensation beyond the amount specified for fy2 is outlined in the narraganset district Education Association contract June 2022 to June 2025 appendix a salary schedule the parties agreed to increase the cost of living adjustment for fy2 from 2% to 3% eliminate the bottom step step one and add a step to the top of the pay scale step 12 with a 2% increase over Step 11 motion by Sha and second by C is that correct yep and we're going to do roll call so Hank hi Sean K shaa yes Daniel hi Heather hi Jeff yes and I say yes so that is unanimous and that was our last piece of business for the evening so I would entertain a motion to Second motion by H second by Sean Paul in favor