##VIDEO ID:aNcUEcSgXH0## [Music] uh good afternoon ladies and gentlemen today is Thursday September 5th 2024 it is noon is there a motion to call the meeting to order so move second all those in favor all please rise for the Pledge of Allegiance I pledge Alle to the flag of the United States of Amica one nation under God indivisible jce gentlemen first item on the agenda uh permission for Town property usage um Kelsey Janet reached out to me from the daisy Scouts uh as you know Apple Peach Fest weekend they usually do a townwide yard sale and she wanted to give her Daisy Scouts an opportunity to raise some funds and asked if it was okay to use our parking lot um I personally am in full support of this there will be plenty of adults there to uh control cars parking everything and the daisy Scouts will be behind table selling various Goods um all of the application is in your book here uh they have insurance they sign the indemnity waiver and I would ask for a motion to approve Mr chairman yes sir what pocket lot Town Hall Pock Town Hall pocket okay I don't see any problem with it motion to approve second all those in favor all all right moving on to purpose of this meeting town meeting warrant review all right gentlemen if you have any questions or comments um feel free to speak up going to run through these just so we can see uh article one to see if the town will raise and appropriate or otherwise provide for a transfer from available funds of the total sum of $6,279 to pay bills for prior fiscal years or take any other action thereon or in relation there to uh we have two bills from the police department for WB Mason one for 17513 another for $12.97 and we have peer review fees from the Conservation Commission for kico engineers in the amount of $690 for a total of $ 6,278 Mr chairman yes Mr Gasper peer review fees from conservation isn't that usually covered by the applicant yeah these were not conico perform the services the uh person who is representing asked kico to do the work for the town they provided the service uh we were build as part of the ms4 uh I did not think that this was proper in that invoice we have since got a separate invoice for this it's uh prior to this pres Administration in the conom uh okay I do not I agree with you peer review should have been built but this individual one above and beyond and using conica okay thank you Mr chairman article two to see if the too raise an appropriate or otherwise provide for a transfer from available funds to fund amended amounts in various accounts that were previous ly voted in article 25 of the June 17th 2024 annual town meeting for the fiscal year beginning July 1st 2024 or take any other action thereon or in relation there to uh this would be a transfer from line item 1141 the assessor Department to line item number 1192 for Town buildings the amount of $9,500 Mr chairman yes Mr G I don't understand why the article still written to see if we will vote to raise an appropriate the money's been raised in appropriated already it's just a simple transfer from one account to another account agreed so the article should just be see if the town will transfer not not rais in appropriate that can it can be redrafted that way the motion which you see below uh it votes to amend by transferring uh Mr gelly if you could just make the article match the motion think that'll work article three to see if the town will vot to transfer from the unused balances of the capital projects identified below the sum of Undeclared the capital project stated below and anything incidental or related there to including but not limited to Undeclared or take any other action in relation there to uh this is to close out prior year Capital articles and return the Monies to the general fund correct Mr Kelly yes and we have a meeting with the schools this afternoon and that's going to be one of the issues we bring up there's very little money in the town articles that can be transferred there's a couple thousand there is 125,000 unused in the school articles that are old and we are as you know meeting with the business manager of the school to see where that stands uh it's yep uh the I would not want to move some of the Town monies because if a repair of the COA and the parting ways buildings and we've got to do those projects and uh I've talked to the it folks and they would rather that we did not at this point move the it money that we wait until the spring to do that sure but as I said there's 125 about 125,000 of school money that has yet to be touched that goes back to a number of years yep Mr chairman yes Mr G you're going to have a conversation with the school department I know on those outstanding articles that they hold um there's some Paving there that we've done some Paving already prior years for the parking lot out back on the Ford Middle School um and there's there's significant money there as well for for roof repairs and as everybody knows we just put a new school roof on the kushan elementary school so those would be the two bigger ones that are in the account that we you should have a conversation and dialogue with them absolutely thank you Mr chairman you're welcome article four to see if the town will vote to accept and expend any fair share Amendment funds that may be available from the Commonwealth Massachusetts Massachusetts Department of Transportation for construction improvements and or reconstruction of public ways and Associated equipment and to authorize the board of Selectmen to enter into contract relative ther to to appropriate set sum or sums anticipation of reimbursement from the Commonwealth or take any other action thereon or in relation there to um this one's pretty straightforward uh essentially Massachusetts says we have a portion of this fair share Amendment and once again the board of Selectmen does have the authority to decide where that money is spent this is just giving us permission to do so this is very Sim SAR to the chapter 90 article and I would suggest in the future we put it in the consent agenda sure uh articles in the annual town meeting yeah makes sense and uh I would also like to have the board's permission in the future for both articles uh to include the fact fact that all projects must be approved by the board of Select absolutely as it stands right now all chapter 90 has to be approved by the voter select but this fair share amendment I would believe would fall in that same category I agree that it should just if I don't know if we do this one particular time with this individual article and if we could merge the two together in future so it's one article explaining that we have the right to expend chapter 90 and fair share Amendment make it one article instead of having you know two articles which if we could merge it into one after this first existing one passes we just merge the fair share of act into the chapter 90 funds and make one article to expend funds that probably work out better but I I do request having the Selectmen have approval because it's not specific this one y I be it's a good idea just put it in writing make it locked in correct next article is Article 5 to see if the town will vote to transfer from the storm water management ms4 stabilization fund for the cost of services in fiscal year 2024 for compliance with the general permit for discharges from the municipal separate storm water system the sum of $7,881 take any other action thereon or relation there to Mr chairman yes Mr Gasper so my first question is I believe believe the total amount in this ms4 stabilization fund is 50,000 77 $77,000 and I would ask the board uh because in our review of old articles Judy and I found an article of upwards of $35,000 that we think can pay part of this bill so we would only be asking for the difference the article from 5 2023 actually has $50,000 remaining in that article for ms4 engineering uh there's an outstanding article for $50,000 for ms4 engineering how however if we because we need to continue doing things expenditures with ms4 um I think taking it out of the stabilization is probably the only bet because we have no other expenditure way to pay for ms4 engineering which is the town's permitting right the uh right uh as of this morning Judy reported we have 35,000 in an article we can use and then the that's balance would be the stabilization fund I think that that $35,000 that you're talking about is from the Board of Health for Consulting fees there's $35,000 in that one that's not ms4 engineering so we'll look at that list of of all articles but I know there's one outstanding for $35,000 for Consulting fees from the Board of Health as well and there's 50,000 for an ms4 yeah spring annual town meeting 523 article 24 ms4 engineering that is correct that is article 24 so neither here or there yep we need we've got that money approved to spend on our ms4 permanent the town side we need that money right so we can't deplete we'd only have 2,200 bucks left over if we use that article so the best thing to do is get town meeting approval from the stabilization fund this is also a prior year mishap I would guess that we didn't pay a bill no it's it's the bill it's a bill for 24 that was for ms4 for that year right but it should have been captured earlier on right and it hasn't been because we had an opportunity to pay out of free cash or whatever we wanted to a town meeting in the spring that just went by we just got out of town meeting in June yeah we didn't receive it until after that that big of a bill wow well and that's part of the bill that I refused and sent back because of the so accumulation of this practice has happened throughout the year and then we finally got caught up to it right that's what you're alluding to yeah and it was it was built originally to the Conservation Commission and it was buil a couple of places right everywhere but where it should have been thank you Mr chairman you're welcome uh article six amend Charter section 3-1-2 Mr chairman yes Mr woman uh you board asked me to work with Mr Kelly and Town Council uh I get some questions about this before we uh present it or discuss it so maybe we can hold it off until the next meeting on the 10th yep okay yeah I know there's a couple of choices and some waiting periods so um yeah if you want to talk to Town Council and narrow down your questions absolutely all right article 7 to see if the town will vote to approve by funding the necessary cost items contained in the initial years of a memorandum of agreement that amends the three-year collective bargaining agreement between the Massachusetts laborers District Council public employees Local Union 1249 July 1 2024 through J June 30th 2027 and that the town rais and appropriate or otherwise provide for a transfer from available funds the amount of $1,775 to fund the cost of the mo MOA or take any other action thereon this [Music] is this is a placeold this a placeholder if the DPW contract is settled Mr chairman yes Mr Gasper I appreciate the article being there I was going to speak with Mr Kelly I believe that Mr Kelly and I have met with the DPW Union and I believe that we have an agreement um so it would need to be presented to the board for ratification so I would ask for an executive session Tuesday night to discuss quickly sure on this contract yeah absolutely thank you Mr chairman you're welcome article 8 to see if the town will vote to amend article six Soil Conservation bylaw the general bylaws by deleting section 3A do7 where result in transportation of materials and excess of the federal truck weight limits of 880,000 lb or take any other action in relation there to uh this is some cleanup of our soil bylaw I think it's extremely necessary to remove this there's a lot of variables that come into play here in relation to multiple other companies that this restricts so this is just a little clean up I think it's necessary how does this impact right you what we going through the like with keing and all that stuff or how does this impact like South Main Street and the Mr chairman yes the weight limit was put in for from a previous individual um into the bylaw um at £80,000 the problem with it is it's that £80,000 lb weight limit for large trucks is only in the soil conservation bylaw and not in the general bylaw so at that point it would be considered discrimination against one company versus other companies so unless and until there was put in a general bylaw if that's what the towns people would want which it wouldn't be recommended because we have other businesses throughout the town that carry in excess loads of 80,000 lb so um the Town Council has uh who work with myself on the soil board has made a recommendation that it should be removed the weight limit for that Soil Conservation bylaw and and this would default to the do ranks yep in other words if this was in a general bylaw you wouldn't be able to get gas trucks in our town correct so makes sense article 9 funding School roof ban repayment from the special capital expenditure fund from solar tax revenue chapter 110 of the acts of 2013 to see if the town will vote to transfer a special capital expenditure fund from solar tax revenue chapter 110 of the acts of 2013 the sum of $550,000 or take any other action thereon or in relation there to uh this is what we all agree on essentially gentlemen paying off debt as quick as we can by doing this you reduce the debt held on the band reduces interest payments and saves the tax payers of a cush money over time clear the debt as soon as we can Mr chairman yes Mr Gasper so I know Mr Kelly gave me some new information regarding solar Revenue but I mean if depending on what the what we come up with for dissolving past articles in the onset of this discussion on the school roof for about 50 roughly 50% of that school roof was somewhere in the RM of 1.3 and right now I think we owe $960,000 roughly on the band um the preliminary discussions way back when before Mr Kelly's time was to use free cash and this um Capital fund um from solar Revenue to pay down that debt so I don't know if there's a what we'll have in dissolving articles but you could take some of that money as well and put it on top of this payment if that's the pleasure of the board not saying it has to be done right now the way it looks is we'll be sitting on roughly $415,000 left of debt from a 1.3 million right which wasn't put as a debt exclusion on the taxpayers of a cushion and so kudos to the board of selectman um but you know the faster we get this debt paid down we're looking at other articles coming up and that involves debt so it's it's just an idea to be floated out there for discussion for Tuesday night yep it's a good idea once we dive through this full list here too and we have a uh when how much you do the repayment you still are going to have to roll the ban over and and the fall and when you roll it over you remember a ban is only interest only payment not principal payment so when uh you have a choice in the spring of using free cash uh prior to the next roll over to erase the debt yep so question so if we make these large payments right we'll still have I don't want to say small but a relatively small left or right uh you know payment balance balance that's where balance and could we determine what a yearly expenditure would be be to pay that down because then you know if it's if it's a relatively manageable balance maybe that's something that the school department absorbs as part of their operating budget right now I think Mr Kelly correct me if I'm wrong it's been a little while since I've looked at the the numbers and I don't have my recap sheet with me but I believe right now just the interest that we've been paying on a yearly basis is roughly $63,000 in interest only right so that's the idea we pay this chunk down I'm going to assume that if we take off half that debt um we'll be paying somewhere in the roomm of 35,000 in interest now we we the next ban that we're eligible for I believe it's November or late October that's why Mr Kelly and I had the conversation is let's get an article on so we can use that solar Revenue to crack that nut down right because we're basically essentially just taking 63,000 bucks every year and out and that's not really a great idea right understood but I you know I look I look at it as where with what projects we have on board coming on board I would love nothing more than to expire this debt but if the board of Selectmen were able to turn over a small portion for the school department say hey we've done our best this is you know on you now to retire this debt and you know maybe that's an option again I'm not saying that is the option right but at least should be part of the conversation agree y the the debt line in the budget is independent it's one of the joint lines of both school and uh the town Town similar to the insurance so uh if you want to divide it you you can uh usually the debt line though is in a separate section of the budget again conversation for down the road but I I understand if we were able to take care care of 2/3 or more than that of the project I think that's a pretty good deal for for the not only the taxpayer but also for the school department as well y article 10 authorization for an extended school transportation contract to see if the town will vote to authorize the select board to enter in a three-year contract with two one-year options commencing on July 1st 2024 with a qualified vendor for the provisions of bus transportation for a for students within grades kindergarten through grade eight attending Acushnet Public Schools in the town of Acushnet and contracted sending high schools subject to the select board's determination the contract is in the best interest of the town and subject annually to town meeting approval for funding these services or take any other action relative there to here Mr Kelly correct me if I'm wrong but this would still keep the 3A contract they they they are in a three-year contract right now the first year there is a contingency in the contract to allow them to extend it for the 5e year by year uh I think in our discussion with the schools we should find out what the savings would be the three versus 4 versus 5 y I do not have that uh other than that it's not an unusual situation for various School departments to try to get uh a set fee rather than gamble on uh after the three-year contract going out going out to bid to bid and getting a Higher One considering that the bus companies usually uh unofficially uh arrange uh the distribution of the contracts dist by District do we know with the with the bus company we're using like what what the fleet is made up of is it made up of electric gas gas right so they I think it would be good to know cuz I I read articles Fall River they got a fleet of electric buses New Bedford they're using electric buses I'm not saying that's the only option but if if they're a kickers in here about I'm assuming tied to gas prices and stuff like that you know what are they doing I just I'd like to know more about what what what they're using what they're doing what their game plan is you know what the contract looks like is it taking into account gas prices and there's an automatic kicker in there for increased gas prices but gas prices fluctuate you know I've seen it in other Industries where there's you know contracts based on gas prices but then gas prices go down but nobody's given the rebate there's no rebate there we just got we just good point we just got kicked by um Waste Management right got a fuel search charge in there right and part of that that's part of their contract is the fuel search charge and it was a significant amount of money I believe wasn't small change and I I think Mr Kelly just said what I wanted to know right is I want to know what the cost savings is between a 3E and a 5e if there's any right and then you got to look at what kind of escalators are in the current contract what's projected in Fugi contracts I.E what selectman wanted is talked about fuel search charge right there that's an escalator right you're going to see what that's all about I mean Electric's gone through the roof if you talk to anybody about the home electric bill right now so you know the whole gold green thing is you know going red really um but are there are there options right are there other options I don't know and I think it's all worth exploring as so like we want to alluded to is everything's going to be on the table nowadays um especially with funding limited funding that we have and I think everybody needs to really take deep dives into what they're looking at in their expense lines right and say enough is enough you got to figure it out but I mean if it's not in the interest of you know peanuts and savings from a three year five year you're going to look at the details are in the devil's in the details right what are you doing by going in in the extra couple of years right that's a problem so it really needs to be vetted out and I can't believe that was sitting here you know less than 30 days away from town meeting and we don't have any details hopefully we have some Tuesday night my goal today after this meeting when I sit down with the business manager and members of the school committee is to get as much information on the next [Music] also Mr chairman three articles here to get well four articles technically to get as much information as possible so by Tuesday you'll have all the information you need I mean what other on this bus transportation stuff and I don't I want to say we've asked the question but maybe just re why in conversations have they explored a user fee well I am not into loing on fees to people that's why this board has resisted a trash fee for y a million years and and then some but bus transportation not everybody takes a bus some people do some people don't and you kid cyc out of school you're done with that service right so um I think we're just going to look at every option possible unless it's illegal unless there a some there is a a state the state mandates that within or without a certain mileage you have to provide transportation and I think it's also by age to stay containes that right but there is there is that ask for the reg so so I don't have to ask the question again we can either shut me up or we can I believe actually I believe you're right mentioned has it been brought up it was actually brought up before Springtime meeting last year in budget sessions with them um but once again it was a hey have you looked into this and that was the the end of the discussion Transportation what do we pay now 1.4 million transport for the school if you remember we did not get a copy of the school budget until the day of town l so if you look at it in the past transportation for the school department has always been broken out into a separate budget as it should always be right and back in the day I remember that number and let's just talk five or seven years ago that number was roughly $1.3 billion so I just used what 1.4 and that's probably low that's what I'm worried about so there there was always presented the town meeting when we presented detailed budgets there's always a separate one I can demonstrate that by looking at a past book from town meeting that we always kept that broken out it's a significant amount of money for transportation and it just it's it's I drive by to school sometimes right and there's tons of parents I mean the line is just but Mr inkley I think I've seen your car inside of the line right you can't miss the Big Blue Cow right and it's just I don't even I don't know how you know 7500s whatever it may be but it's all the way down almost to the middle school picking up at the elementary scho I just can't believe how many people are actually picking up their children from the school the the elementary school right I know there is some regulations involving how many student are on the bus how many buses you need to have for people that actively use the bus I I don't know those figures off the top of my head it's maximum numbers it's not minimum numbers using the bus that's the problem you could have a bus that has one person on it yeah I know that in the past they've had issues too with they send out a survey every year if you're taking the bus fill out the survey so you know when your stop is you know what time the Bus shows up and I know they've had issues in the past where people will say yes we're going to take the bus and then they don't take the bus so it skews their numbers sometimes where they I believe a couple years ago it actually caused them to get a another bus put on a new route because of it so there's a definitely a possibility to see and re-evaluate if we have too much too many bus routes two bigger buses they sell smaller buses [Music] right fuel costs right just think about that right I mean if you got a school bus that can hold let's just ALR Le speak that a school bus can hold 60 students and if you only have 15 or 20 on a bus then why am I shipping one of those big buses out of the school department every day I mean they got to they got to look at that count right and say hey they make the smaller ones that might hold 30 students 20 students whatever it is I mean I don't know if we need a fleet of you know 60t long school buses cranking around town I don't know that's for the school to figure out yep but it's all part of cost right yep we'll have some options and I got some questions for them when we meet so excellent I'll get the answers article 11 to see if the town will vote under the provisions of general laws of Massachusetts chapter 40 section 13e on any amendments theto to transfer funds from the school special education Reserve fund to the fiscal year 25 aush school department to be utilized to pay without further appropriation for unanticipated or un budgeted cost of special education and Recovery high school programs out of District tuition or Transportation or take any other action relative there to uh Mr Kelly I've had multiple conversations with you and originally email this morning that kind of contradicted what this is for originally uh the school was not pushing for this article it's been in the warant and annual town meeting uh subsequent to us developing the warrant if you remember they kept working on the school budget and we didn't have final figures until right at the end and uh according to school business manager they need access to this to balance their budget Mr chairman yes Mr gas this is extremely dangerous in my opinion with trying to use a stabilization um free cash whatever you want to call it in this case it's a stabilization account fund right and I know it's there for a reason but in the amount of $189,000 that means when you take onetime revenue and do it for this budget year this substitute this budget year what you're doing is Crea a structural deficit in the next budget season so right out of the gate they're coming in with a structural deficit of $190,000 for next year's budget right this is a kill it taxation $200,000 $190,000 let's just call it is a huge hit to the people that pay taxes in this town tax bills have already gone up enough and enough enough and up and I mean what are we doing you presented a budget and I know things are unanticipated when it comes to this exact situation but there's got to be a different way for them to absorb from their budget it's it's it you you we're setting ourselves up for failure financially going into this next budget season with a structural deficit of $190,000 right out of the gate their budget's going up $190,000 this is not going away this is this is being used is not a significant how much money is in this account 329,000 you would think that you you know you the school has that flexibility to say hey we were off on this and you know we need $30,000 $50,000 that was always my interpretation of this it's not hey oh my God we shot we underfunded our budget and here we are I need $200,000 I mean that's I don't understand how that happens um my opinion it's unacceptable to ask for us to add this to taxation because that's exactly what's going to occur um and it's a big hit it's you know if I had to do the calculation I'm going to say it's anywhere between 12 and 15 cents per thousand on taxation that's a big hit for people right Mr Jim yes Mr Question to Mr Kelly so this article is this just give them the authority to do this right do it no I'm saying they explain the AR authorizes them to take money out of their so it's giving them an authority right mhm okay so the question I have is could we amend it they have the authority on uh town meeting and the school committee have the authority on this stabilization fund so could it be amended to say to withdraw funds not to exceed a certain amount like if we put in say $30,000 put a cap yeah you so you could do it but it's it's if typically it's used if someone moves into the district and they need out a district placement for sped and transportation that's an unended understood expense and that's what this is typically used for but if there's a cap ined and you have to exceed that cap then that would require a town meeting vot meeting vote and an amendment just saying there's a way to put some belts in suspended to avoid the scenario that Mr gas just suggested so here's where the scenario gets a little money according to the email I got this morning this money was represented already in the fy2 budget that was approved at town meeting in the spring so the budget that we received and voted on the up $335,000 budget the last budget that was actually the operating budget that was voted on at Springtown meeting included this money according to the the email that I got this morning what do you mean that that's not the case they used can't be incorporated they used it to balance their budget is what bottom line is Oh God so anyways there there's so many things going on right so I'm just going to I think there's other ways within the school department that they could be paying this down right so they have two academic coaches um I've talking to a lot of teachers most of them have to require master's degrees what do we have academic coaches for we don't have coaches for any other staff other than teachers if they have master's degrees do they really should they really be coached by anybody and if you're doing that miserable of a job where you're failing the students do you should you really be a teacher right so there's there's so many different things they got a a it C uh curriculum director and a small school district like this I believe that should be the superintendent's job um they got it people how many it people do they have I think it's three or four do they need three or four people in it for a small school district what are these people doing on a day-to-day basis I mean there's so many different areas that you can be looking at within the budget and saying enough is enough we I don't think we need all of these people just you know monitoring and babysitting it things I mean come on most you need is two people I mean how many things are really going wrong on a daily basis to be paying people these kind of salaries and sitting around and going I'm just waiting for something to happen and again the academic coaches I I just I I I it blows my mind you're spending a quarter of a million dollars roughly on academic coaches we're not school teachers the hardworking people that they are doing the best they can if there's a problem the superintendent principales whoever else needs staff needs to step in and address the problem not have coaches that sit there and tell a teacher what they need to do they get a master's degree in most cases right I mean I've talked to a lot of school teachers I'm friendly with a lot of school teachers it it's it just blows my mind that this is where money's being spent and and then you're asking for 189 I think it could be exorb in the school's budget already everybody keeps coming with these exorbitant request I mean we I talked about this before in the last when I was chairman when we were going through the budget right the town only has so much capacity for for Revenue right it's basically New Growth prop 2 and a half Levy increase this year that just went by we raised $543,000 in prop 2 and A2 and we originally came in with a lower number for New Growth it was like 200 well we used sh 20 or something like that but that was upped in the in when we were solving the budget deficit you basically got $800,000 without other little Revenue things that you can play around with right and Mr Kelly and I have to raise some of those those Revenue lines to make a balanced budget based on everybody's say but you you know we had o Colony up 400 inada we had the schools coming in 335 now you add back in this 200 now you're 535 this goes all your prop 2 and a half Levy just a one school department right people got to start looking at things and saying this is the the definition of insanity you just take the two schools and you've wiped out everything all the revenue I just talked about you just wiped it all out and there's nothing left for Public Safety in administration costs I mean and health insurance and pensions and everything else I mean we're spending on average $ 1.4 million year over-year when's that Trend going to stop it's not sustainable what we've been spending and I get the history over the last I think it's 10 or 15 years of what our budget's been up and it's roughly averages out to $1.4 million what are we doing we can't stay on that Trend think about that 10 years that's another $15 million is bet that's like 45% of what we're currently spending in just 10 short years from now that's what we're telling the people right don't worry just keep giving us more money everybody knows they're going to pay a little bit more in taxes every year to keep operations going but when you're whacking the snot out of people you're kicking people out of our community you're kicking people out of their homes it's not right we represent all levels of income low income medium income and high ear High earning income people right it's not just one class Hing in people where they can afford to pay more in taxation we're just crushing our residents it's not fair I'm trying to speak for everybody you know all classes of income in the in the town of aush and I've seen people be forced out of this town and it crushes my heart to continue watching it and listen to The People's Story how they can't afford to live in town anymore it's unacceptable and this is this is madness is what we're doing I I I just think that this they got to look at their budget um and stop pulling a wool over people's eyes and say you know what maybe we don't need one of these coaches or you know all these it people or the curriculum director for a small District like we are I I don't I I can't even fathom with where we're going but that's my opinion on [Music] it yeah and something's going to get something's going to break and that's the problem ultimately and I want to be very clear this this board and I speak for myself but I know this board appreciates education and we want to make sure that the students of ausher have the best education they can get but there's a level of responsibility that we have where we need to make sure that it's sustainable because you can't you can't keep doing this like you said Mr Gasper and expect something not to break in the future and we don't represent just the students in this town we represent every single taxpayer in this town and we have to be honest and we have to look at things with a very clear mind and have all the facts in front of us so part of my meeting today once again will be to get more facts out of this um and once I get that I will share them with both of you through Mr Kelly of course Mr chairman yes Mr make no mistake about it I think you just said it the best for everybody at home make no mistake about it I am 100% for education and our children right I we all are I we're all compassionate about that a great education we need a great education but great education doesn't mean continue giving me a million dollars a year and in the outcome in three years you realize that that million dollars a year didn't make our students any smarter right that's my problem is at least if you were spending money and you were coming in going look at this is this is the progression of our aush schools graduating from aush schools b d da it's paying off just it's bearing fruit from the tree that's one thing we all want great education for our students end of story that's not the conversation I'm trying to have what I'm trying to have is let's stop just throwing money at it creating positions that aren't warranted we don't do it on our side of town I don't some of them may be warranted but I I I can I'm sure I can go into that department and I can look at different people and positions and people that just they're not for the money they getting paid it's just not warranted and I've heard from number of school teachers from our local um schools um and other schools as well they've shared their experience on on it with me so it's not like I'm talking out of my butt oh well things may change dramatically if the mcast is repealed at the ballot which it should be I hope it is and you know so much curriculum is designed and developed towards the mcast hopefully this it is repealed it'll free up the teachers and the superintendent and the principles to teach teach you know how they've been taught to teach versus teaching through a test you know that's right I think we talked about it several years back um I know we did I I know I brought it up about the curriculum the expensive curriculum why we changing curriculum every two or three years I mean I was having a conversation with somebody said remember when we were in school we we we were using books from you know my older brother and my older sister and you know they were there in existence for 10 15 years curriculum wasn't changing and our generation turned out pretty damn well right I mean you look at the problems that are in in the education department now it's probably because you're SP you're changing curriculum constantly and wasting money doing so it doesn't make any sense why are we teaching kids certain things when we should be focused on the essentials of teaching um in classes right I mean I just heard from a parent um in the local schools we had a Humanity class now what is that all about I have no idea what these things are I mean what are we doing in in the in the school system today get back to the basics right math English science reading it's all the basic stuff you give them textbooks and let them learn from that I me we don't we don't need to be putting computer screens and exposing our children you know in the young grades to computer screens all freaking day long I'm sorry it's just it's don't warrant give them a book let them learn how to read let them learn how to write I mean some of these kids they don't even know how to write I mean it's it's appalling to me that our children can't write and we're worried about curriculum it's spending half million dollar of curriculum every other year or whatever to rewrite curriculum give me a break already I think a lot of that just for some clarification too I think a lot of that comes from the state level and I don't want to hold our school system accountable necessarily for something that's dictated by the state no I get it I just I I I agree I mean as somebody that has two children in the aush school system they do get a good education and they do use computers but I also make sure as a parent myself I make sure my kids are picking up books picking up textbooks and reading but you're right if if the focus isn't put towards towards that not every parents the same not every parent has the the time to to sit down and focus on education and when I'm married to an educator it's a little bit of a different situation for me right um but I I agree and I think a deep dive the the sad part is I think it's a deep dive that has to happen on the state level absolutely absolutely it's that's you know starts with the state right the Department of Education Y and to all you School teachers while we're on this conversation God bless you and thank you very much for what you do every day with our students absolutely uh gentlemen next two articles articles 12 and articles 13 involve a contract with a company to essentially enter into a Energy Management Service and also to make some Capital Improvements to the school there's a lot of information that we're still getting that I actually just received some emails on within the last day or two that I am going over with a member of the school committee and with the business manager of the school because I don't have all the information or time to digest it I don't know if you want to pass over these and just keep these here until we can speak about them on the tent I think there's far too much information that both of you would need to digest before you even think about reviewing these today um basically there's a full two-page email with a brief synopsis but there's a lot of details and there's a lot of dates leading up to town meeting where we won't actually see the final report from this company until the day of town meeting uh so I think there's some more information that needs to be had for both of you to be able to make a an educated decision um I'm going to get as much as I can today at our meeting with Mr Kelly and the school um and we'll make sure it's prepared I have asked Sydney and tany to forward you some emails that I've got from them simply just so you can see the preliminary stuff I know they were shared with fincom as well um just so we can have an idea but because of the cost of this uh it's definitely something that we need to make a very very educated decision on um and I'd like to be very very clear in no way is the select board hindering these two articles we have a responsibility both fiscally and let's just call it common sense to make sure that we have all the details possible before we put something forward we owe that to the taxpayers of the town of Acushnet and if we make a bad decision because we didn't do our due diligence that reflects poorly on all of us not to mention everybody else in this town um I've had some people reach out to me specifically asking why it's a possibility that this is being blocked from this moment I will hands down deny that this is not being blocked by the board of Selectmen this is being reviewed by the board of Selectmen which is our job and I hope you guys agree with me I 100% there's there's a lot of a lot of stuff to digest here in such a short amount of time so with that being said if you guys are willing to hold off on articles 12 and 13 until Tuesday's meeting I will get you as many answers as I can today and sharing with you this weekend great through Mr Kelly of course Mr chairman yes Mr Gasper I I I appreciate what you're doing with Mr Kelly and the school department and getting more clarity on those items because they are big ticket items right um and I don't know who's making acquisition about the board of selectman trying to block anything this is the first time that we've even seen these articles on paper form right there was some preliminary discussions Mr Kelly had with me myself anyways about the school looking for some expenditures for the schools and things of the like but there was never any detail in those conversations no further discussions I never had discussions with anybody so again the esa you know rooma Mill whatever you want to call it the chat Mill whatever you whatever you're saying is wrong about the board of Selectmen right this is what this process is about and I would like to take the opportunity Mr chairman to say thank you to you to schedule this meeting preliminary meeting to review the warrant um prior to Tuesday night when we're in regular session with other discussions that we have to have in selectman's meetings to give us an idea of what will be presented to the board so thank you very much for taking that initiative and getting this in front of us so we have at least a weekend to digest um the information and I do want to add one more thing is that I know there was a request from fire and none of the articles are in this warrant so I don't know what happened to that but I know the request was made yep and I believe it's the board of selectman's job to look at everyone all our departments have the ability to submit articles right it's our job to DET determine what goes on the warrant what doesn't go on the warrant so I I I would like as you the chairman to at least reach out to the fire chief and see what the deal is with what he was requesting absolutely y any announcements gentlemen we Apple Peach this weekend yep y we have a ride as long as it's not raining Dr said you'd be willing to participate all right thank you we're good if it's raining the weather looks the weather looks like it's changed Mr B from the last time you and I had a conversation so that's the good news right I don't want to have to have my umbrella in a convertible that's right Sunday's looking better but it is it is the weather has turned around thankfully for the Apple PE Festival so um Sunday Morning Parade what time is that fire off uh load in at 9:30 parade kicks off at 10: from pop Park all right uh EMA is going to be shutting the road down as we go and we'll end up at the festival grounds can we bring going to remember have those uh magnet yep things just remind Sydney before we leave just in case she has them stored somewhere so everybody out there that's not a Mr W as reminded us that cuz it kind of they got so many things going on Apple Peach Festival this weekend just be mindful of that make sure when you're driving through town you're extra careful because there out a lot of people that do yach sales um have Farm stands out front so just please be careful driving down the M drags um we watch out for pedestrians and thank you excellent motion toj so move second all those in favor all thanks [Music]