##VIDEO ID:0Z8b4r1Zkeo## [Music] the hour 7:00 having arrived I'm going to call the meeting of the brid water R school committee to order our first business is to stand for the pledge for Le to flag United States of America the stand One Nation God indivisible with liy and justice for all thank you um just a couple housekeeping uh items here and I apologize to the uh folks in the in the meeting room here is there something important going on here tonight I guess there is um I'd like to get rid of items three and four really quick we can just take them out of order and then move back to public comment that's agreeable to the committee do I have a motion by Mr Deo second by Mr King all those in favor those it's unan us okay U moving on to correspondence recognition um we've had a few emails uh one from some parents uh concerned about um about uh discipline in the school and and how we address bullying just to be clear we do not tolerate it in any way um an email on the sound quality in the auditorium hopefully we're doing a better job tonight hopefully it's going out over YouTube appropriately I would ask all the school committee members that mics in front of you or near you please grab it speak into it very clearly tonight uh so that we're able to get as much audio out there as possible for this very important meeting and obviously we continue to hear from the community about class size and its impact on student learning uh M marelli so graduation graduation hello okay uh January 7th we had 13 students um in the program and all3 students showed up as well as a pack audience like this it was probably the most students in the program having 13 myself was there miss H Mr Dolan mski as well um and I just want to thank Mr PS Miss Watson Miss Moore and counselors and teachers because without this program many of these students may not have graduated so it was um attended well and it was a great thank you m Mar it's a wonderful program uh to uh get an alternative to the regular day diploma and uh I'm glad to support it uh moving on to the consent of J my understanding Mr lo you want to refuse yourself on this one uh Mr Lo refused himself I will take a motion to adopt the consent agenda made by m seconded by Mr J Marino uh all those in favor oppos it's unanimous uh thank you very much then thank you for waiting folks uh so that we can get rid of those two housekeeping items we're going to move back now to public comment um per our policy we have a 12 minute limit on public comment the beginning and end of the meeting um and we'd ask everyone to keep uh their comments to 3 minutes I'm going to make a motion here tonight that we extend and uh wave the rule on the 12 minutes uh to 24 minutes if there's a second to that second by Mrs King discussion Mrs King no I know there's very large crowd here and I know there a very large crowd here so I really think it's important if people need to come speak and make comments um we should allow that to thank you any other discussion I would just ask everyone who comes up to make a comment try not to be repetitive of other people if we hear it once we've heard it and we do understand it and we appreciate it we want to give as many people an opportunity to give their input on uh priorities that we need to think about in the budget Etc Etc as we can I am going to try to really stick to the 24 minutes here because we do have other items we do have a presentation on the budget from the superintendent and we'd all like to get home sometime before midnight so um I appreciate that that said uh all in favor of extending uh public comment to 24 minutes say iOS it's unanimous okay we'll we'll open uh public comment and again we don't we don't engage do the public uh meeting law open meeting law but whoever would like to come down and speak at the podium speak into the microphone uh so that we can get good audio welcome to it and M Bard although EMA know you name and address for the rec please hello hello not that I've Ever Needed a microphone um Ashley Mard 270 uh range Park Bridgewater uh thank you for everyone who came out tonight we showed up we have over 200 people in the room and a majority of them are the braa staff here but we have staff from all over Southeastern Massachusetts and south of Boston with Union standing with us and the big thing we came here to say today I'm going to keep it short and sweet is that we support what the school committee and the superintendent Mr Powers are asking for we need more staff and we specifically need Town Council and Bridgewater and the selectman to put forth motions to make sure that these are funded positions for the school we can't tolerate class sizes as large as they are anymore and there's a lot of talk about taxes let me just tell you we do not compare at all the dart schools on tax rates okay the tax rates for our Dart schools and um and dart is comparable schools for um desie that we have a lot of our mcast scores rated and everything we are Far Below on the tax rate um and Far Below should I say most of all on the per pupil expenditures you have all he heard me say this but we are at the bottom of the Barrel in this state on her pupil expenditures they can only do so much up here when the town can't give us enough you can't make class sizes smaller if you don't spend more money okay if you compare the towns around us if you compare the towns around us local towns Bridgewater you're at 11 83 the same exact amount for commercial okay per thousand on your taxes I know your taxes have gone up I live in town too it's because the value of your home was reassessed and it went up but guess what West bridgew you're 1367 eastn 1448 oh West Bridgewater commercial 2455 eastn higher on the commercial as well Rainham still one of the lower ones in our surrounding communities but they're paying more than Bridgewater at 1210 and they're doing a lot more at least but I think more could happen on commercials 630 1633 East Bridgewater 1367 and just as high on their commercial rates Middleboro 1341 are you hearing a theme here we're low and that's why we're paying the bottom of the Barrel in per people expenditures and that's why our classes don't be fooled by something that says 29 that's an average I'm talking to friends who grew up in town and their kids they're texting me and saying my kids at 33 in a classroom 33 this isn't 1992 okay this is a totally different era we have more expenses thank you we have more expenses in school and the times have changed and I'm here today to ask for you to continue to follow me as we lead the path towards asking the towns to support our schools thank [Applause] right Mr gallager name address for the record please thank you Mr chairman Dennis Gallagher 160 self driver Jo also the state representative for the brid ranian district um I just want to uh briefly speak tonight and I know that many parents have emailed me at the State House this past couple of weeks I think I've replied to pretty much everybody and if I had I if I haven't I apologize but I think I've reached out to to everyone I just wanted to give you a little update I know it's in the presentation that the superintendent is going to uh talk about tonight but the governor's budget came out last week and with the Chapter 70 monies that has been appropriated for the brid Iranian School District the increase is 85% over what was fiscal 25 to about $2.7 million increase over last year the overall increase in Chapter 70 funds Statewide is about 6% so Bridgewood ranian District did make out a little bit better than other communities this is just a starting point in the budget process is now the budget once that Governor has released it comes to the house and we have our Peck at the at the numbers and then it goes to the Senate so this is just the beginning of the process but the increase over fiscal 25s 2.7 million to about 34.2 million in Chapter 70 chapter 71 uh 71 money is is funded at 95% which is about an 11% increase over last year so I think it's fair to say as has been said many times the hel driscal Administration has said many times their commitment to public education 8 through 12th level in higher education is there and they have shown their commitment to the student Opportunity Act that was passed a few years ago to do what they can do to make sure the school districts and school system throughout the state are funded to the levels that they need now I I know that there are concerns as we move forward through the budget process I just want you to know as your state representative as we move through the process I will do what I can when the opportunity comes to see if we can increase that number in addition I will certainly try to hold the line for anyone that tries to decrease the Chapter 70 funds thank you than you [Applause] uh anybody going once going twice all right I thought we might oh yes ma'am you to raise your hand you do something in that se red I missed you name and address for the record please M Lisa Bor Genie uh love cut greenham here because we care about education and this is a sequel of a movie that we don't want to see every year and yet we see it every year looking at headlines from last year we Face a shortfall headlines from this year we Face a shortfall we've got to do something differently we've got to do something different and the thing that I think we need to really look at is how are we structuring budgets responding to things like the housing growth that we have in our towns when we have businesses and houses that are constantly growing and we don't invest in our school it's going to hurt the infrastructure of the entire region and the area we deserve better and our kids deserve better I come here every year and I give the same speech and nothing changes and it is demoralizing and I feel like we need to make a big change my daughter is in the music program along with a lot of other parents in this room 1,500 kids have one music teacher let's talk about burnout because teachers are stretched I mean you're not just having a bad experience for the kids the teachers leave because they can't handle the kinds of Demands that they are expected to give the kids so we need to do something different and I don't think that we this is not acceptable and we demand better our kids demand better and our communities demand thank than you few more minut comments if anyone wish to come up going once twice okay thank you thank you very much everyone for your input uh we've got a couple more uh business sections and then we will be on to superintendent budget so that having been said we'll move on to educational reports PR student advisory council Mrs King thank you Mr chairman um I would like to invite Rachel speak up don't be afraid of all these people they're very nice good evening school committee and all the attendees tonight I'm going to report on the extension of bridging lives and special events that they have organized bridging lives is a club at the high school that spreads awareness about substance abuse and inspires students through substance abuse education they've been working on a junior bridging lives program with an included curriculum planned field trips and an entire extension of the club at the Middle School uh middle schoolers have expressed very interest so the high school members have eagerly offered last Thursday bridging lives had a very successful event at the Williams school with a bounding a bonding introduction ice breakers group reading and a lesson by our very own Mr Brook um they most recently repeated this at the RMS this Monday we should all be very proud of our virgin lives members for their action about raising awareness and connecting with younger Generations on the issue ofs also I know today is a very important night for Mr Po as is going to be pres his and I just want to say that I'm very proud of the action of our committee and Mr pow for handling the limited budget to the best of their ability and in the best interest of our students our student group has met with Mr Powers before where he gave us a crash course on how you make school budget courses and he made us aware of what he's been fighting for in this budget um for example expanding staff for special education as a result we are going to be rolling out a survey to students staff and families to see how they've been impacted by the effects of our budget and they be focused on and what they think should be prioritized um we are hoping to present this at the next meeting I know that there's a lot of hard work and tricky tradeoffs behind the budget and I look forward to working and learning from the school thank you I have I hope you have a great night I welcome you thank you thank you very all right moving on to school Improvement plans we have a few more students oh sorry no I forgot about you my bad I didn't see you in the audience hello everyone and good evening I've never spoken to this many people before so I'm very excited um I would like to speak on the hour of code that took at the event that took place at the high school library on December 11th it was the second annual Bridgewater ringham Education Foundation hour code event this year was focused on bringing together music and Technology in a fun and creative way participants explored interactive coding activities inspired by music where they could compose digital beats create visualizations and even design during virtual instruments with additional themes and handson activities available there was something for everyone to enjoy whether they were brand new into coding or had some experience it was open to all ages but aimed for those ages 6 to 13 as this event offered a welcoming environment to experiment with coding while expressing creativity in addition to the hour code I just wanted to remind everybody that the rainwater players upcoming musical Hades town will be performed on May 1st 2nd and 3rd there will be more information on ticket sales in the upcoming weeks thank you so much and I would like to welcome Sophia K to the [Applause] stand uh you're on thank you sorry I said the other B King you're on um good evening school committee Mr chairman and Powers um tonight I'm reporting to you about TJ squ robotics a recent hockey fundraiser and on January 4th the game designed to Kickstart the 2025 robotic season was released ever since then we've been more continuously to design create and build a robot well it's not quite done yet would've been prototyping or testing um and robot and our first competition is coming up soon so everyone keep an ear out everyone's invited it's free to go to and we would love to have you come in cheer um we're the ones in the obnoxious tie dye that are really loud um can't miss us um so and then another event that I'll be speaking about is the VR hockey team's hockey fights cancer fundraiser so it's their third year holding this um and it was a resounding succcess they raised over 17,000 they even invited a I believe former um V alumni of the hockey team to come and do the p drop so it was an exciting event um I didn't personally see it but I've spoken to a couple people about it and apparently it was an amazing event and everone had a great time um and finally the swim and dive also recently held special night um this is very near and dear to me I've been on the swim team since I was in eth grade I was very lucky um to have been chosen to help swim for them um they had their senior night on January 7th against a con um it was a resounding win and a very emotional night um I've known many of them for a very long time so I'll be sad to see them go but I wish them a lot of luck um upcoming um I hope all of them have a very great time in college and they live their dreams um so thank you for your time and I now welcome Kayla John to the stand [Applause] welcome good evening committee and attendees tonight I will be reporting on the best buddies holiday movie night and an update on the Hoster Health misss at the high school on December 7th we are best buddies held a holiday movie night alongside Bridgewater Middle School the movie El was played for the night in the cafeteria where students could enjoy Pizza donated by ultimate pizza with and chips donated by members of the community Mrs mcms ran the event and it was a great opportunity from students from both schools to spend time together and make new friends and create memories on another note the hostb chapter held their CPR informational session on December 19th and it was a success Miss CR Mackenzie Campbell and myself organized the event and around 15 students were in attendance from the club and were able to bring their friends to learn about adult and CPR and a presentation was held on the steps to evaluate the victim of sou party at how to approach a situation safely and where the aeds are placed around the high school the hostb members have also been working diligently to carry a winter theme Bon board to inform students on interesting healths and debunk common health misconceptions thank you so much and I would like to welcome Sydney to the stand thank you welcome welome evening everyone on December 17 the social justice Club met for their monthly meeting of which 55 students attended social justice is a group any year student sign up for take part in discussion with other students last month's topic covered conf pres student years different types of communication styles used during conflict and provide scenarios for students and Ro play heav SP then as a whole group the students consider their experience and any other lesson the next meeting takes place this upcoming Tuesday February 4th students will again have the opportunity to discuss conflict resolution on the deeper LEL with a focus on specific topics that emal responses having a CH scenarios and everyone thank you all right uh now we'll move on to uh School Improvement plans and Mr Metropolis looks like you're up for us with the Bridgewater Middle School school Improvement plan thank you for coming sir thanks for having me can anybody hear me okay thank you um so I'd like to thank uh members of the Bridgewater Middle School schol Miss Fado who's our teacher representative and two parents from Kumar and Miss grip for their feedback on the school inment plan put together as you know um School Improvement plan is aligned with the district Student Success plan and so I'm just going to bring up a couple highlights from the sections that we went through uh the first is safety supportive schools action plan that's much better sorry about that you can yell at me if you can't hear me um I'm just going to hold it the first uh of that section again safe and support of schools action plan one of the highlights is developing of uh developing core values and expectations for student learning um I think it's a real critical piece to what we do as a school is sort of a backbone something that we can rely on uh it falls upon on not only myself the administrator Mr Carol as well um faculty student input and uh and family input as well so so we had a faculty meeting where we discussed um a few ideas for what those core values could be um we had a student survey out right now and we're looking forward to getting some feedback from parents and families as well moving on to the next section for curriculum instruction and assessment action plan the action um that we are going to highlight development of some data teams again the school administration as well as curriculum coordinators for the district will work with our uh teacher teams and during their uh comic planning time discuss mcast data as well as I data um so that we can uh then move forward and um use that data to inform instruction the third section operations action plan um just me being new to the school one of the things that I think is very important is just reviewing all safety protocols that we have for the building and if there are gaps so if there's a need uh let's say we have some feedback from fire and police um to incorporate those into our plans updating them as needed um we want to make sure that uh we have a crisis team in our building as well and uh everybody has the most updated protocols in their classrooms and they know what to do in case of emergency but also in support of the health and safety of our every day the last section human capital um we want to focus Contin L on professional development for the high quality instruction materials that we have um as a result of the work of the district um so we appreciate those materials uh any DDI initiatives that we have and uh the evaluation system that um is governing us and the work that we do throughout the state um so we do have some professional development time regarding that and um we try to incorporate that regularly as well into our that time thank you questions for Mr Metropolis about the BMS uh School Improvement plan Miss uh miss m yes thank you for your plan um Qui question I was wondering you mentioned about the student survey for the safety is that going to be the measur see the progress on that so the student survey is for the development of our core values um so it's out there for students about 20 questions that basically ask them about what their experience is like in school from an academic standpoint as well as a social emotional standpoint from there in that information uh we'll work together as an Administration and other leaders within the building to try to incorporate that into you know three or four values that will essentially govern the work that we do as a school and so anything that we really want to do we want to bounce back off our core values those are our aspirational thoughts about how we want to run that school and so we we talk about initiatives we talk about um things that we want to put in place the work that teachers are doing essentially the the functions of the school if they don't align with our core values we probably don't want to put them in place because those values are based on input from everyone we really want to get the input from the students so that's why we have that survey up so then how will you measure students and staff be more physically socially and emotionally supported so H how will we can do a follow-up survey in terms of health and safety I think that's probably what you're talking about maybe in a different um sphere of the uh School Improvement plan but we can certainly get a survey out to students as well as families and staff about how they feel about not only their physical saf but social emotion safety as well what I'm looking for or hoping to to see is that once those interventions that you put into place in the plan how do you test that and sure how do these steps make those so it sounds like Ser you may you're open to putting together Sur to ask if these interventions have actually contributed to the goal of making staff and students sure I I I I think I'm a little confused I I think you're are you talking about updating when when I mentioned the operations and action plan reviewing all safety protocols and developing new protocols as updated or as needed so the first um thing says safe and supportive schools action plan and then it articulates the very the within that it says that having um student and staff feeling more safe and secure so that's what I was thinking oh okay okay sure I mean I think the idea of core values students feel connected to their building and so in order to find out how that's working first of all we have to develop those values and then we have to articulate them and then build them in and essentially bake them into the school itself from there um we'll be able to develop rubrics that are associated with each value and then determine bed feedback from everybody using the rubrics whether we've met those schooles doeses that help okay sorry about that sure any other questions thank you other other questions uh Mr Lo so just in looking at the first two on your safe and support of schools action PL ppis and your student support team uh can we look at more meable out that are data driven outcomes I'm sorry I didn't hear that second part could we just uh Poss look at moving towards more data driven measurable outcomes right now you have organized articulated expectations for behavior in school areas cafeteria hallways Etc uh second is student plans articulated me listing tiered interventions and action steps in both those areas those are pieces that are part of the process and should be all set upon implementation I think when we're looking at measurement progress we need to look at the response to the PBIS model and the tiered interventions or how many students be accessing at a time sure I think that's a good point um we also need to have that first step of actually articulating those items so absolutely definitely a follow up or assessment of whether those items are in fact working I completely understand that any other questions anything else for Mr MC seeing none thank you very much Mr mop yeah thank you I appreciate uh it's my first year there so I appreciate it it's nice to be all of you have a good night thank you um W you're up next to tell us about the meral school Improvement plan good evening Mr chairman members of the school committee superintendent powers and members of the V Community the Merill Elementary School Improvement plan is aligned with the district Student Success plan this plan was developed in collaboration with the school administrators staff and our families I would like to take this time to thank the members of the school council who assisted in the creation of this plan Katrina Fischer Jen Rodriguez Ellen Fritz and colen swar and thank you for your time as you know the district's Student Success plan which drives our school Improvement plan is built upon four pillars those pillars are safe and support of schools curriculum instruction and assessment operation and human capital although we have multiple school-based action plans built into each into this plan I would just like to highlight one from each section this evening under safe and supported schools We are continuing to focus on and improving our multi-tiered systems of supports for students this includes weekly grade level seal lessons facilitated by our school adjustment counselors and school psychologist in order to Foster school learning of age appropriate social skills and then car them over into the the school [Music] environment under curriculum instruction and assessment We are continuing to focus improving the implementation of our newly purchased instrument uh in instructional materials in math and English language arts which includes the envisions math program and Wht and wisdom Ela program one way of we are doing this is we accomplish this through weekly grade level common planning time to support teacher collaboration and the implementation of best teaching practices under operations we continue to um review our our security and training uh systems and procedures within our school Under human capital we continue to utilize the wellness committee to address the physical and emotional Wellness of both students and staff that concludes my highlights for this evening and I'm happy to answer any questions that you have questions from m w M that you've articulated here are making progress tomorrow those ultimate goals so see that our our students are K1 it's a little bit different as far as how we measure that um we are very involved with PBIS and what we're doing at Merl school right now we have a lot of of things that we're implementing and how now would because we had the school psychologist and the the uh School adjustment councils in the classrooms teaching those lessons we're able to get a very good read on what the the kids who they are and what they're doing we also have something at we call the deser scores which is something more of a data driven so parents in kindergarten fill that out for us so it it's basically social emotional from their perspective then we have the teachers fill it out as well so you have two different perspectives with that and then once we get know the students and once there if there's a problem arrives or we have a concern we look at those scores and we see what they what they indicated to us initially then the teachers then take a deeper dive into that survey and then they fill it out a little bit more and then we bring the child to child study which we look at then we Pro provide an intervention and then we look to see if those interventions are working for those individual students other questions from Mr St see done thank you m thank you and uh I will note as I always do guys bring up your school Improvement plans I started on the Williams School uh School Improvement plan a long time ago we'll leave a b of that all right uh moving on we have administrative and school committee reports uh budget subcommittee report wiiz King thank you um on Tuesday January 21st the budget subcommittee met at 430 in the superintendent's conference room in attendance were Mr Fitz Gibbons Mrs Martelli superintendent Powers assistant superintendent Barry Mrs babalola the Director of Business Services miss roboso the district Treasurer Miss Healey Director of Human Resources Miss Jennifer oti the fiscal assistant for business services Mrs McDougall our reporting secretary and myself um Mrs dport was not able to attend as she was Ill that um the first discussion that we had was regarding the fiscal year 2025 budget um we discussed particularly the base account um as our the committee knows we've discussed this now for over a year um that revolving account has not been self- sustaining the Bas programmed for before and after school care summer base um vacation base and prek base um that has not been self- sustaining and in the past year and a half it has been running in the um so we have been going over reports and last year we did increase prices um we had the business office run reports for us to see where we were as of January if in fact the in implementation of the registration fees um and the different things that we have done including the price increase has help to close that Gap and make that self sustaining um after review of your reports um I do want to note Miss o oent thatly um she ran reports which really gave us a good idea of where we were to date and historical data so I do want to thank her for running that for us and attending that meeting um Mr Powers went over to base reports with us for each program individually showing the revenue and expenses to date enrollment and historical data with the following implementations for the school year the program is making strides to close that deficit um things that they have done to work on that is the implementation of registration fees increase in the fees that we um approved last school year for this school year um the base staff monitoring and adjusting Staffing based upon attendance I believe Joelle her Joel and Silva has done a great job in working on that to make sure that we're not overstaffing or understaffing um and checking attendees as well um they also implemented an online digital monthly calendar to have fam sign up in advance um foregoing a prior paper calendar which made it very difficult for the program to track how many students were attending um each day and each week and to plan and staff for that as well um also the base staff did collect outstanding balances from last year totaling up to $15,000 um upon of the reports the following programs however were still running into a deficit the summer V specifically and the prek programs after discussion and review the following recommendations were made um the business office we had a lengthy discussion about the separation of the bay school year program and the bay summer program um it was very difficult for the business office to track the summer program to see if in fact that income um as expenses um how far off we were as it is now because it's in the summer we are collecting fees in one fiscal year and paying in the next fiscal year um so the business office is going to create separate revolving account that does not mean a vote by the school committee but she did tell us that they were going to be doing that Mrs FAA that way that one program can be tracked easily um from revenue and expenses um and know that that particular one Is straddling those two fiscal years so we can keep track of that when especially when Mr Powers is working on the budget um and then the Bas school year will be its own separate revolving account as well to track um the arac program we also had a discussion on as we know um when we um closed the pide program one of the effects of that were there are many students that did not have anywhere to go since they were able to take the bus um they needed a before after school care because parents were relying on that um the parking wreck on the rhem side was full at the time so those students that were displaced needed a program Bas took that program on and it became the armac program which is the rightand side of the program um however the this program although it is still running several years later we looked at the numbers and the attendance is only about 11 to 12 students that program per month um so even doing minimal Staffing it is still not sustaining the amount of Staffing Revenue versus the income coming in I'm sorry Staffing expenses income coming in um so we did have a discussion Mr Powers is going to speak to the rham park and W um and see if they can absorb those students by the end of this school year and hopefully next year we will not have to run that program as a w p need um was taken on that that will be a discussion with Mr Powers and Mr McCrae at rham Park um we did also look at the prek program which to date is still running in a deficit however it is making strides to not become a deficit but we did have a long discussion that since the other programs at the other schools from before and after care for school year are actually making up the income at a rate of I think it was $8,000 per month um we're hoping that that program by the end of the year will be self- sustaining and cover the prek we did not want to make any recommendations to raise prek again um for this year um bearing that in mind the LA the only program then that we did want to make any adjustments to um would be the summer base um we did have also another discussion after reviewing the um reports um the summer base was still not making enough strides to break even um and the cost of summer camp in the area we looked at we did look at last year and we are way under pric we did not want to raise it too much at one time last year um also because we're not making enough money in that program we are not able to allocate any funds for the base summer program to make any purchases for expens or supplies rather um during the summer I think last year we only allocated $2,000 in that program um so hopefully if we do increase the price slightly that will give them some enough fees to be able to purchase supplies and run that program for those students um because there are enough students in and that rely on that program as well um very all that in mind we do have three motions related to that program um the first motion that I would like to make Mr chairman is a motion to increase the base summer camp full day fee to $38 per day um previously $35 per day to begin July 1st 2025 which would be the next um fiscal year for this coming summer is there a second second by Mr Lo discussion any further discussion this Mr D I I heard that you didn't want to well the committee sub committee did not want to make an astronomical increase or big increase what was the justification to increas it just by $3 instead of going up to $4 where it was 35 um it was a 10% increase thank you other questions from m just want to follow up on that um question was there an analysis done to determine that that $3 increase is enough to cover the financial needs based on the price right now it is closing the Gap it is not enough to fully close that Gap the 10% increase should almost cover the Gap based on the price the revenue reports that I did on my own it is still not going to but the program overall including summer and school year I think Mr power said at the end we should what was the final number so right now both programs together we had a $60,000 deficit based on [Music] um we're making up $8,000 per month by the end of the school year we should be almost there um but for that one program that we're trying to separate out it is not currently but overall it should be I'm hoping with the 10% increase it'll be enough to almost close that gap for that program itself but we did not want to raise the price too much because those families are relying on that because they're going work or they need summer and I believe last year we raised it at 10% as well anything further um and in line of what you said about the the parents um will the communication clearly explain the reasons for the increase and how the fund will be used uh yes of course we've already had Parents start asking about summer programming uh so we want to be able to get that information out as soon as possible anything further on the base seeing none all in favor of the motion say I oppos jous thank you continuing with thank you uh the second motion related to that would be I would make a motion to increase the base vacation Week full day fee to $38 per day from $35 per day to begin July 2025 this also just aligns with um the summer base full day which was $35 to increase that vacation week day second by Mr Lo uh M King this is uh just to keep the brakes consistent for February vacation etc etc right yes February and April vacations thank you further questions see none all those in favor oppos amous [Music] and then the third related motion would be I would make a motion to increase the base afternoon early release day fee to $30 per day from the current $27 per day to begin July 2025 second uh motion by Miss Ked by Mr damarino discussion m m is that increase to address a deficit as well yes so the the half day and the vacations those are all included in that summer base kind of program so we're just trying to make sure those are aligned the other programs we are not raising prices for this regular school year before and after um and prepay okay thank you thank you any further discussion seeing none all those in favor [Music] Clos thank you continue thank you so that's everything for base um we will continue to monitor that program um and see by the end of the year how we're looking and then project for next year with these prices what that will have the program so I'm hoping in the next three months do another report out and and check on that as well um the next thing we discussed was the it Surplus uh Mr pow indicated that Mr Shan um would like to declare it items as Surplus to probably dispose of them and said items will be recycled free of charge to the district by upcycle um I have a list of items and you should have received that in your as well um accordingly I would make a motion to approve the following it items as Surplus um 95 NEC phones from BMS 25 security cameras from BMS 32 Network switches 20 iPad second generation 25 computers two servers 45 Chromebooks and 80 access points is there a second second by Miss Mar further discussion anybody see none all those in favor I post it's unanimous thank you m g thank you um the next item that we discussed um Mr poers indicated that he recently retired two Bobcats from the facilities department when their leas expired they are used for general maintenance within the district and snow removal um the new lease contract is a 5year lease for two new Bobcats to replace the retired ones as this is a more than threeyear contract the school committee must approve it the cost over the 5 years is $1,167 194 and these funds will be are already budgeted within the fac operation budget um but we do need to approve it as it is a 5year contract um accordingly I would make a motion to allow the superintendent to enter into a 60-month lease for two Bobcats totaling 120,000 $67.95 with Bobcat of kod second by Mr Lo all uh discussion Mr de the uh two Bob that were retired how old were they so I understand how long I'd have to get you that exact age I do know when we costed it out we had the ability to purchase um those two Bobcats at the end of the lease uh but because it was several years old um what we would purchase them for just didn't seem to be um you know cost cost effective that's why we went to longer lease with new equipment but in terms of the exact age of those two I can get that information for you thank you thank you further discussion m m were quotes were quotes received from more than one vendor or another brand evaluated uh yes we did explore options we explored uh continuing on with our current leasing company uh versus baton through bat Bridgewater bat Bridgewater uh just recently open it's on R 18 um one of the challenges we were having with our current um provider was that they were out of Connecticut I believe and so we weren't necessarily always getting the immediate service that we needed uh so in in terms of weighing cost also weighing uh customer service we decided to go with a local V thank you further questions m m what's the ration behind instead of purchasing out the cost of purchases is fairly significant um and obviously by leasing we know that we're at the end of this lease will'll be entering into an extension to provide equipment uh versus purchasing now uh where in 5 years uh we have 5-year-old equipment uh that we would have to continue on with uh so again it's just the efficiency of it and versus you know purchasing that equipment up front for a significant uh significantly higher cost versus leasing that over 5 Years thank you further questions quot that for the entire years was ITN that's good it's over the course of the five years further questions discussion seeing none all those in favor opposed it's unanimous thank you anything further on budget um we did just um the December 10th 2024 minutes for Budget were approved and the budget minutes of the joint meeting with the towns of December 3rd uh were approved as well um the only other thing we did discuss was a fiscal year 2026 discussion um regarding Mr power's preliminary budget which he will present R um as the tenative Governor's budget had been presented that day of January 22nd um so he will go into that so I'm not going to um get into that yet I will still L um the only other thing I do want to remark on that um after Mr Po presents tonight um the budget subcommittee will meet several times over the course of February and March to revise the budget before it's presented at the March 12th 2025 public hearing and then to the school committee on March 26 2025 to accept um before we send it to the towns and that concludes my report Mr chairman thank you Miss king um Mr de on policy sub commmittee report thank you Mr F GI I'll try to be short see since I know I'm right before the event um on January 15th the policy subcommittee superintendent conference room attend were myself this Davenport superintendent Powers assistant superintendent Barry and secretary assant um two items were on the agenda the first was student assessment policy development uh at the last school committee meeting Mr poers spoke about how desie is leading it up to uh really the districts to uh figure out how to assess whether student should graduate or receive a certificate of attendance and not providing much guidance on that uh Mrs wat uh Miss Watson is also in attendance they discussed what they have been doing in order to prepare this whether it will be a something that's put into the student handbook or whether the school committee itself will create uh a policy we've been speaking with other districts to see what how how they are approaching this and all the other districts are pretty much at the same point um we did discuss about possibly looking at what was done back in 2002 which was the last time that mcast didn't determined whether or not a student should graduate be table any policy creation uh so that M Watson and continue to gather information and report back to the subcommittee the other item on the agenda was uh a possible policy creation by a member of the school committee uh in which they were looking for a policy uh about different types of agreements that the district enter into um were several questions as the chair reached out to the the member for clarification and um unfortunately receive any I did not we we as a subcommittee didn't feel it was fair to take any action uh on that without M being able to answer questions as such that was um that the minutes were approved and that is my thank you Mr de Marino um that having been said uh we're going to move on to new business the superintendent's FY 26 preliminary budget presentation just so folks understand Mr Powers is going to present his preliminary budget this evening uh his hope and I my expectation is at the end of this the school committee will adopt the budget as their own and refer it to the budget subcommittee as M King's already suggested and she gave the timeline before of a March 12th public hearing uh at which point there will be plenty of time for anybody to be heard on the budget that is a public hearing it's meant to get public input to help the school committee um understand where everybody is and and what they want to see or not see Etc um so that that's a very important meeting to quote on your calendar and then uh if all goes well as a public meet hearing uh the school committee will meet on March 2 26th to um vote on a final budget to send to both towns for them to act on in the spring so with that um Mr Po can take the podium and school committee can go s up front so you can see the presentation Mr Rich I just have one question yes um or comment I just want especially since we have a very large group here the March 12th is a public hearing it is not like a regular school committee meeting it is more interactive at that time we will solicit questions and comments from the public so it's not just a regular school committee meeting where we cannot respond so if you have comments and questions and have need to bring those bring those to the public hearing because we can answer questions we do want feedback before we present a final budget so thank you thank you Mr chairman members of the school committee our state and local officials um our distinguished staff and our administrative team and certainly our parents and caregivers uh welcome this evening your presence speaks volume about your commitment to the students and staff of the banan Regional School District and for that I am grateful so thank you for being here this evening can everybody hear me okay with the microphone do I need make any adjustments we good I am here tonight to present the uh FY 26 preliminary budget uh as you have heard uh this is the uh first uh round of the budget discussion at the end of this evening hopefully school committee will vote to approve and adopt this budget as their own and then obviously as you've heard uh changes will be made through the spring if needed uh just a provide a quick agenda of this evening uh really what I'm hoping to be able to do is give you a quick overview of the district share with you who we are and what we're about U talk a little bit about the budget process I know I um we held a parent information night last week so I want to be able to share some of that information again with any new parent that may be here certainly some of our staff members that um you know for a lot of individuals would be parents caregivers staff members um you may not have had to worry about the budget before and so uh your in-depth knowledge of that may not be as uh you know what we'd like it to be and so tonight is an opportunity for us to share what we know about the budget and then obviously uh presenting some concrete numbers to you for FY 26 and then talk about next steps some of those have already been shared with you just a little bit about the district um you may or may not know but the bridgew RH Regional School District is the second largest Regional School District in the Commonwealth uh we are behind watus watus is currently at 6,557 students and coming in third is active boxb of 555 uh so we are a district uh currently of 5,682 students uh we operate seven school buildings but we have eight schools and we educate students in uh preschool through postgrad uh so 12 plus this is just an overview of our current enrollment so a makeup of our 5,682 students uh you can see on the left hand side that student race and ethnicity and then obviously on the right the selected populations I'll give you a minute to just certain every one of them to just give you a minute to to review and Digest obviously when you look at um the makeup of our students our demographic information and then our selected populations those numbers are you know changing uh every day uh they're certainly changing from year over year and so what I tried to do is take the opportunity to actually look back a decade ago what did Bridgewater reham look like 10 years ago so looking back at the 14 15 school year compared to uh where we are now and you can obviously see you know the district has changed uh certainly I would say it's changed for the better uh we are a more uh diverse school system we Embrace that you Embrace that on a daily basis uh it makes us that much more special selected populations um and I'll just kind of walk through this uh so selective populations looks at our student obviously involvement so our 5682 and then they break it down into um some more defined categories uh the first one being high needs now High needs is really combination of these other selected populations I'll get back to hings in a minute but to start with our Engish language Learners uh you can see back in 145 roughly 2% a little under 2% of our student population uh was an English language learner um you can see now we're up to five 5% so we started uh these numbers obviously based on our October 1 enrollment so as of October 1 we had 284 L students uh we now have 304 since October one so that uh percent certainly would uh continue to increase our students with first language is not English you can see the increase there our lwi income students actually 145 it was a different category economically disadvantaged but certainly measured uh basically the same information so it's gone from 11.9 uh to 27.8% of our students are considered low low income and our students with disability uh obviously 14% which would have equated to about 7 142 students back in 1415 uh now in 2425 uh we're a little over 20% of our students are students with disabilities which is uh roughly ,00 over 1100 students uh so we're about plus four 405 little over 400 uh in terms of our students and disabilities during that 10year time um I think one of the areas that we uh continue to struggle with is looking at when you look at that increased number and certainly even with our L population uh is being able to keep peace uh with the student population making sure that we're adding additional staff and so that has been a challenge for us over the last 10 years but it's one that obviously we're committed to because we want to make sure that our students are receiving the highest quality of education and we're committed to that and I think we'll see that this evening let me just go back real quick so just uh a point of reference for the high needs category uh as I shared uh that high needs category is reflective of those other selected populations all all this information is submitted to desie October 1 and they for a lack of better terms certify it and publish it they have not released the high needs category for 24 to 25 what I will tell you is um as you see on this next slide uh last year we were at about 40% High needs um so again uh significant percent of our student population uh what we estimate this year is that's gone up to 42% U but that has not been certified by desie so you see the aspect and same thing with our staffing uh but this is just a quick snapshot of our district uh really what this is reflective is our total total enrollment over the last 10 years uh so you'll see the darker blue bar is our enrollment numbers U as you can imagine the lighter blue bar is stopping and then the percentage of high means uh and you can see that significantly has changed over uh over the course of time and I share that with you uh again not that we uh don't welcome all of our students we certainly do but as I mentioned uh when our percentage or or enrollment of highing student goes up that does require a significant amount of service and so we want to make sure that we're keeping case uh with that uh again you see as with staff numbers uh Jesse has not certified those but again as you know uh we are down certified staff and so what we anticipate based on what we submitted uh was 333 but certainly that number could change uh so just a point of caution there um and then like I said for the high needs category we're estimating at 4 % um you know it's a significant World we're not too far away from half of our students being considered high needs uh again just as a point of reference when you look back at 14 15 uh you know that would basically be about 1300 students would be considered high needs uh currently right now we're at 2386 um in terms of our students that are considered high needs you know that's that's over a thousand students that have changed in that 10 years that are now uh in that category I do also want to uh point out as as I mentioned these numbers are based on October 1 um our enrollment consistently we go back to last year and has happened again this year our enrollment consistently has increased from October 1 um and so when we look at uh the students that have enrolled in our district since October 1 compared to those students that have withdrawn for whatever reason uh we have a net increase of 57 students so again uh you know two plus classes worth of students have enrolled in our district since October 1 uh and we have not added uh class teachers uh and we saw something similar last year with that same Trend uh the number was actually higher uh the net increase last year after October 1 until I gave my budget presentation in January it was actually 98 uh so really almost four classes worth of students um you know that that's a significant increase from October 1 and we're seeing uh increases you know throughout the district at the various levels uh it's not just one um all of our schools uh I should say the majority of our schools are seeing increases brought of Middle School uh oneyear increase 2-year increase 2-year increase of 86 students the high school has seen a 2-year increase of 97 students um La Liberty is plus 42 over those two years Merl has seen a a decline in enrollment as his Mitchell Merl's - 42 Mitchell isus 26 over those two years and again that's including preschool uh for Mitchell through grade two um rham Middle School minus 15 students uh and then our third Cree of day um is minus four students and Williams is plus 62 and as you saw from the numbers where you over that 2-year Trend a plus 200 uh for those so again this is reflective of the students that are sitting in our classroom certainly not all the students that were responsible for um as you know we have students that attend our of District placements and so certainly our overall enrollment uh what they would consider our foundation enrollment would certainly be higher than the 5682 those are the students that were currently educating uh our district again a little bit more about what we're about uh here's our mission vision and Equity statement um I think uh you should be familiar with these by now but if not I'll certainly give you a moment to uh take a look um I think what should stand out for you is you know consistently hear and talk about and and see it uh in writing is that we are about excellence and education for all our students and when we say all uh we really want to commit to that that we do need all students and we want our district to be reflective of that we want our uh beliefs practices to reflect that and we want our students to feel that as well obviously everything we do is based off our Student Success plan as you know we're in our latest version of that which is just started in 2023 and we'll go through 2028 uh but the four main areas of our Student Success plan which serves as our uh District strategic plan safe and support of schools we want to make sure our students are physically and socially emotionally safe at school uh obviously curriculum instruction assessment that's what we're all about right that's teaching teaching and learning uh that's why we're here uh operations so looking at it facilities um making sure that we're you know providing learning environments for our students and staff uh that meet the needs and meet the um you know changing landscape of education and then obviously human capital uh we really want to make a strong investment in in the people that shape the future of our students uh so we want to make sure that we're providing high quality professional development to you that are providing resources and support to you uh and certainly take you know making sure that we're paying attention to your wellness and overall well-being uh hence our day today our staff Wellness area just an overview of the budget process uh it really does start I have to say we we probably start a little bit earlier than October but really October is kind of our kickoff Point uh where we start asking our department heads and principles and other staff to start submitting their requests we start talking about Personnel um for the future and then obviously goods and services that they may need obviously you can see here we are in January uh presenting the preliminary budget to you uh to the school committee and then obviously March uh as Miss King mentioned we'll have our public hearing and the school committee will hope to adopt the budget and then in May uh that the funding for the budgets are approved by the bridgew Town Council and the town of rham Voters and so those meetings take place in may just to kind of again give some context and background information uh when we start talking about building our budget there's really four four main sources of funding now there's obviously additional sources but you know when we talk about the four main ones uh these are the four that I wanted to review with you this evening uh Chapter 70 state aid obviously I'm sure it's a term you're familiar with but I I'll go into a little bit more detail about that um obviously we have our local Aid the funding provided by the towns the town of Bridgewater and the town of Rainham chapter 71 is State uh transation reimbursement for Regional School Districts and then District contribution so the the state determines uh an adequate spending level for each School District which they refer to as the foundation budget uh and obviously the foundation budget is supported by Chapter 70 which is the state or the Commonwealth uh plan for ensuring adequate and Equitable funding uh for districts across the state and then obviously local contributions local contributions uh from both towns uh the state determines a minimum contribution and that's based on the community's wealth uh they take look at your property values as well as uh the income of of residents I want to kind of you know Point your attention to these three boxes right here it just gives you a little bit more information um so as I mentioned uh the state determines what the foundation budget should look like so what theyve determined for brid rham is that our foundation budget should be $81 million 8132145139 [Music] to contribute uh so that again is the minimum contribution so between the two towns of Bridgewater and Rainham uh their contributions would be 47,1 11,455 and that leave State funding of 34 milon $29,990 uh and so what they look at is the foundation budget what the towns are going to be required to uh support the the district with and then what the state will be up an acts of chapter 7 funding uh what I will tell you is we have been fortunate uh cities and towns are only required to contribute the minimum contribution uh they don't have to uh go over we have been fortunate that both towns uh when you look historically have given more uh than what has been required and so we're thankful for that we're thankful for their partnership you know for example we look back at FY 25 minimum contribution would have been $44 million uh plus almost 45 million uh we received from both towns 54 million so you can see that they are providing additional resources uh to us and so uh to both towns and town officials here I do thank you for that uh you'll see somewhat of the conundrum that we found ourselves in uh because of State funding uh that does at times when State funding is not what we need to be uh does place a burden on the times uh Regional Transportation um so as you know we are reimbursed you might not know we reimburse for transporting students over a mile and a half uh this does not include uh transportation for field trips Athletics special education um funding uh special education Transportation chapter 71 just focuses on that Regional Transportation of students that live over a mile and a half um when uh the district rolled um sorry when the state rolled out chapter the chapter 71 program it really was to be an incentive for local towns uh to regionalize uh there's a lot of information out there from the state uh they're always encouraging uh communities to regionalize with their neighbors uh to try to cut cost um and what they promised initially was that uh there would be 100% reimbursement uh now there is a small tiny aset there that says uh you know with uh funding you know condition one funding available unfortunately for us reimbursement has never been at 100% uh you can see I included the last few fiscal years for you so FY 23 were at 79 a little over 79% reimbursement 24 is 86 almost 87 FY 25 is 84% urement and what they're uh projected right now for FY 26 will be 95 which obviously is a significant increase uh so we do appreciate that uh we've been kind of U told to be cautiously optimistic um that that may not hold once it goes through the uh various uh legislative bodies uh that could change but right now the governor's number has is at 95% reimbursement uh the district also contributes to the budget um as you know we charge fees for facil faity rentals um we charge fees for athletics we charge fees for parking uh so we're always trying to uh unfortunately you know we hate to um collect those fees but you can see when we're in um you know difficult budget Seasons uh that fees those fees actually play a role uh we do receive Medicaid reimbursement um that is something that uh you know some of the services we provide our students are eligible uh under Medicaid so we can submit for reimbursement uh obviously uh you know we have investment of funs so interest earned from that so money you know essentially in our savings account um if we had that we earn interest miscellaneous receipts uh so again money that wasn't necessarily budgeted for to come in uh it could be that uh something carried over from a prior fiscal year uh we may get a reate something like that um along those lines that would be a miscellaneous receipt circuit breaker reimbursement uh circuit breaker is obviously special education reimbursement some of the costs associated with special education are reimbursable and so that's what uh circuit breaker reimbursement is and then end which is excess and deficiencies uh that is what the you would probably commonly hear as free cash for a town uh for Regional School Districts uh we don't have refer to as free cash we have excess and deficiency so that would be uh you know the equivalent of uh rainy day savings account and and by Statute we're only allowed uh to have a certain amount in there we can't exceed uh percentage in relationship to our budget um so it's not something and that's something that we use each year to try offset the assessments that are sent to the town last year that was about $2 million we we used out of that but again something that we're you know concerned about and can we keep Pace with that eventually that money may not be there for us to use to offset future budgets so again the FY 26 budget as we start that process uh principals and districts uh administrators were asked to submit budget requests for a needs based budget now that term needs based could have several meetings and maybe one that you might be familiar with but the way we're looking at a needs-based budget is not that well of course we need to be able to turn the lights on we need to be able to heat the buildings and we need our students to have papers and you know paper and pencils that's those are needs but that's not what we're talking about we're talking about a needs based budget that's aligned to our Student Success plan aligned to our mission and ensures that our students have positive outcomes it's what we need to be a high performing school district and that budget that the budget that I'm going to present tonight is reflective of that uh it's based on feedback that we have heard from staff from our caregivers um and in some cases from our students uh you could hear uh Rachel fory who spoke earlier I've had a chance to meet with some of our students and so getting their feedback as well we want to make sure that all of our students the 5,682 have positive outcomes that they have excellence in education and um you know unfortunately that comes with a a cost the cost of doing business of of Education when we build our budget our budgets are built by series again I won't read through these but just for to give some context uh the 1,000 series that's um essentially central office so the superintendent's office the business office Human Resources any expense associated with school committee uh 2,000 uh instructional Services as you can imagine uh that's our our teachers teaching staff support staff um uh you know Goods materials textbooks uh anything really teaching and learning related 3,000 uh that's where we get into Transportation um so our school buses school bus transportation um special education transportation and then obviously health services so our nursing staff uh operations and maintenance as it you know States uh that would be our facilities and maintenance department so cost associated with that fixed costs and benefits again that would BR uh health insurance uh and uh leasing of equipment asset acquisition so this is capital uh so anytime we do a major Capital project of building renovation building construction uh buy a you know piece of equipment that uh has a a larger cost associated with it uh it would be charged to the 7,000 series uh debt Retirement services so that's debt that we have on our buildings uh any type of project that we've done any type of borrowing that we've done whether it be a roof replacement uh or certainly our new uh new school construction or any of our buildings in the district that have had something done to them had to borrow uh that would be charged to the 8,000 series uh just you'll see in a minute just to uh kind of preview the 7,000 8,000 series those are pulled out um so what you're going to see in a minute is that we actually look at the 1,000 through 5,000 and then the 9,000 as our operational budget that's the cost of for us to to do business every day the debt is obviously something that you know we know each year that we're going to have to pay and then capital capital varies year by year and so that was something that uh you know consultation with the towns uh the way our capital is funded by both towns is not included in our operating budget it's a separate item um and so you'll see it in a minute pulled out so here's the preliminary budget I did include for you uh what FY 24 looks like you can see fy2 approved and then obviously FY 26 initial just kind of talk a little bit about these numbers obviously uh you know the number here you see for the first subtotal the 9,778 235 in change uh we realize that's a significant increase but that is reflective of our needs based budget how can we become a high performing School District higher than we already are and ensuring positive outcomes for our kids it's giving us everything that we have determined feedback from you our own needs assessment everything that we've determined uh to meet our changing demographics our changing enrollment the changing needs of our students and so although uh that operating budget is a you know significant change a little over 20% increase from prior the year what's important to note is that when we start to look back at FY 24 and we start to look back at FY 25 uh our initial budgets during those years are significantly higher as well because what we're saying is this is what we need and unfortunately you know whether it be funding from the state funding from the towns haven't been able to match our needs and so we've had to reduce that when I look back at FY 24 our initial ask um was 82 positions we initially uh cut that down to 29 and of those 29 we you know as you know we certainly didn't add 29 positions in uh FY 24 when I look at fy2 what we asked for last year was 66 positions um as you know we weren't able to get any of those 66 and unfortunately we lost 24 so this year uh my ask to uh the school committee into to the community um is significant but really what I'm trying to do is get us back to at least even the restoration of those 24 the equivalent of those 24 positions and then also including those positions that we've asked for and as I go through this presentation what you're going to see is that I tried to give a position status so is it a new position is it something that was previously requested or is it was it eliminated in fy2 uh the majority of our positions are going to either be eliminated in FY 25 or previously requested um again going back some positions have been asked for for multiple years unfortunately we just haven't been able to put them in but that doesn't mean that we don't need them uh that our students don't deserve them uh and so when I look this year at the position ask uh we're approximately 91 positions now again 91 can seem significant but if you think back to what we've been asking for Plus getting those 24 back that really brings us we to that number what I'd like to do is try to go by series and give you an overview so I can show you the breakdown uh bu series the increase and then obviously kind of what makes up that difference so first in the uh 1000 series again Administration so the central office uh Superintendent's Office business office HR uh cost associated with school C uh some of those cost drivers also are technology it license it licenses are also Al factored into the 1,000 Series so first and foremost the cost of some of our it licenses have gone up one of the significant drivers there is that our anti antivirus subscription uh is due to be renewed and so looking at that cost of almost 70 of $70,000 plus uh and then so that's you know significant cost we're looking to add uh two positions back um to the central office one being restoring one position that we lost uh which was U you know in the business office we also actually lost a special education position uh that we're trying to uh make up currently with grant funding because it's a a much needed position but another office assistant in special education department and then looking to add um increased staff in the human resources department so between the uh increase in technology uh obviously the increase in positions uh certainly doesn't you know add 100% up to 386,000 uh but when you understand the cost of uh goods and services going up uh we also um you know increased our legal fees um because we're in negotiations and so when we are actively negotiating U that obviously we have our attorney there uh to represent us and and those fees go up so knowing that we're in in the midst of that um that fee increased as well the 2000 series here's where you're going to see your significant change again looking from fy2 to FY 26 it's roughly a $9.3 million difference uh so first and foremost we do have contractual obligations uh that we have to fulfill uh again the 2000 series U makes up you know a good portion of that is obviously our our people um and so you know there are contractual obligations that we have to fulfill uh we obviously want to look at our Goods Services supplies uh even going back to fy2 24 we've significantly reduced our supplies and materials uh going back to FY 24 then we obviously had to do it again last year in fy2 uh so looking to increase that by almost a million dollars uh the 1 to1 Chromebook uh program that we um have you know instituted for our students um is a a cost associated with that thankfully Mr Shan was able to scare some grant funding last year uh there was no cost to the district but roughly the annual cost for cor book Replacements is about $375,000 uh obviously looking at uh 16 positions now what I'll say there is when I refer to you know losing 24 last year obviously all not all of those teaching not all of those 24 positions were teaching positions so of those 24 16 fell into the 2000 series uh you'll see some of those other positions like in the 1000 series bringing back the business office system um and so it's restoring 16 positions uh that we lost in fy2 and then obviously uh looking to add additional positions 72 additional positions here are some of the positions that we're looking to uh either bring back that are new requests or been previously requested and so you can see if it was eliminated in FY 25 uh it may not necessarily been as a result of a layoff uh some of these positions were open or were able to eliminate and not fill them due to retirements or resignations or leave of absences uh but what we're asking for going forward is obviously the restoration of the great one position at Merill uh we do see uh the benefit of having esps in our kindergarten classroom we've gotten very positive feedback over the years from our kindergarten teachers from parents and so we'd like to be able to replicate that at the first grade level again this is something that we've we've asked for before uh we'd like to be able to bring back our interventionist positions uh these were uh you know key positions for us during Co they were all Grant funded we knew that unfortunately that uh was going to expire there was a position that we last for going into fy2 and unfortunately we were not able to uh bring them on board but we do see uh the significant impact that they had and so bringing back uh one and between Merill and Li Liberty uh there would be three interventionists so one and a half of Merill uh we did not fill the assistant principal position between Merill and La Liberty and certainly we want to make sure that you know we have enough administrative support for our students for our staff um and I think we're you know feeling that uh not having that position there at Li Liberty obviously restoring great two position I know we had some internal moves to be able to make up for that so essentially uh restoring the one position that we lost at L Liberty again and bringing back the interventionist and then increasing our U ESP support at lity for our students at ringham middle school again we're unfortunately uh we're not able to keep all of our grade five six teachers so returning those positions bringing back the intervention is at greenham middle school and then also adding uh unified Arts teachers when we look at the numbers right now of our when our students go to unified Arts at rham Middle School some of those classes could be upwards of 35 uh and so looking to add staff to you know for our students to be able to bring those class sizes and I think what you're going to see is a common theme you know this is some of these positions that were lost is just to get us back to uh Baseline but obviously some of these other positions are to you know moves ahead uh and also uh you know most of these target class size when you look at um you know you've heard numbers you've seen numbers um again averages um so we know we have classes that are plus 30 um K when we look at K8 um especially on the Bridgewater side we're closer to 30 then we are on the rhand side but rhand is still significant um averages of 26 27 so some classes are higher you know some classes might be lower high school's a little bit um more difficult to to get a true um class size average just because of its offerings you know some of our electives may be lower some of our electives may be higher um and so when Mr wats and I kind of we take a look at enrollment we go through uh the major content areas uh some of those classes are again are you know 30 30 plus um some classes uh have an average of above 25 um again we do have electives that have smaller enrollments but you know certainly I think we all agree anything we can do to lower class size regardless of the level um you know I think as a parent myself um you know when my kids were younger and I think the parents and the audience would feel this way uh you know it's all about the grade your your child is in so if your child's in first grade you want low class size but now as you move up if you have older students and you have students that are at the high school you want low class size for them as well um so we know there's an impact um with low class size so everything we're doing uh tonight is reflective of that when we look on the Bridgewater side uh at Mitchell uh restoring that grade two position that again we do not fill because of a retirement uh but that position was eliminated in FY 25 replicating the esps in kindergarten to first grade uh increasing our social emotional support at Mitchell by adding the school adjustment counselor this is a new request again bringing back the interventionist positions the same at Williams restoring the interventionist position we had and actually increasing the number of interventionists increasing the number of esps again to provide support for our students bridgew Middle School bringing back that intervention his position that we previously requested and weren't able to keep because of grant funding and then we did have two teachers last year uh retire from brid middle school so looking to uh fulfill those teachers as well again we weren't able to uh fill those classes so they were eliminated in FY 25 at the high school I think you know when we look at you know the high school the high school has unfortunately over the last few years um kind of taken the brunt of of some of our cuts um you know unfortunately it's something that Miss Watson has advocated uh strongly against uh but you know something that we've in my love had to made that decision but knowing that we need to get back to uh where we were previous day year and even uh trying to address some of the requests that mpal have made has made over the years um and so looking to bring back two math positions two Ela positions One World Language again I think we're seeing a significant increase in our class size in our our world language classes this year because we uh again did not f a position uh increasing the number of Staff in the business department a lot of our electives happen in the in the business department as well as uh in the world history social studies department so again looking to increase Staffing there uh we had actually had this is a new request uh one of these is a new request one was unfortunately not filled last year and so that was a position that was eliminated in fy2 and then you actually heard one of our parents speak um earlier uh we don't disagree for you know High School our size to have only uh one music and one our teacher uh Mr Lynch and and Mr wooder are doing an amazing job in their class if you walk by and listen to the music they're producing or if you walk in and see the art they're producing it's it's simply amazing uh but I know at times Miss Watson when she's doing her scheduling has to turn students away uh because it's simply not enough room for our students to take those classes so we want to be able to increase the the yachs uh as well as the high school and then increasing Proctor positions again uh looking at you know building security um we obviously have a a you know fantastic uh security Proctor uh now maning the front uh but being able to increase those positions and also increase Proctor positions across the building to be able to provide additional support for our teachers and uh our students then we get into student services again a position we've asked for uh for a few years now is uh increasing the number of uh special education administrators um certainly you'll see that we certainly need to increase the number of special uh Educators that we have uh but the oversight and oversight of programming that we're offering uh especially at the preschool level you know our preschool program continues to grow which is great again we're welcoming all of our students uh but certainly to have an administrator um at the building there to specifically oversee preschool um when you're factoring preschool plus the Mitchell enrollment um you're talking a thousand plus students uh and currently just have two administrators overseeing that so we' like to be able to add a special education administrator there uh looking at increasing our related service provider uh staff as well and again looking back one of these positions was previously requested uh one is a new position looking at our student services so our special Educators uh looking to add uh five special Educators again across the district based on case Lo and student need uh also adding a position we've uh requested before team chair positions uh these positions would uh be able to uh take on some of the responsibilities that fall now on our school psychologist and also our special Educators and by default that would free them up to be able to provide direct service to our students which unfortunately now uh they're called away from providing services to our students to um it wouldn't necessarily prevent them from attending meetings but sharing meetings writing reports uh if we were able to get team chair positions uh they would be able to take on some of that responsibility and then uh obviously districtwide uh looking at adding uh 14 class siiz reduction positions um again this would be based on enrollment when we looked at class size average adding 14 positions uh would get us to uh approximately 25 students per class that is not necessarily the end result of what we would hope uh we would certainly always advocate for class size to be in the low 20s uh High Teens U certainly in any case that we could have uh but we figured this was a good start for us uh certainly would address bringing back those positions and then adding these 14 uh should should see a significant impact in class size again being able to go from 30 you know 2830 uh down to 25 uh again free students may not seem like a lot uh but when you talk to our Educators and if you've been in a classroom um you know three students can make a significant difference the 3000 Series so again other school Services looking at Transportation uh looking at uh Health Services as well we are uh advocating for increasing our nursing staff uh this is a c that has been a for us um we obviously increased our nursing staff um you know significantly uh during Co and coming out of Co but what we're also finding now is that the medical needs of our students just simply has increased uh we have more medically fragile uh students attending District attending our district and requiring U you know more care and intervention throughout the school day and I know this is uh you know putting a significant tax on our nurses not that they're um you know they have a an old FL know they take they're fulfilling that oath to provide uh the highest level of care they can to all our students who want to make sure that they're uh resourced and supported as much as off when we look at uh you know our really obviously our huge increase is around Transportation um you know not just our school day Transportation but our um our special education costs when we look at our school day Transportation so thinking of you know our school buses uh we have forecasted potentially having to add additional buses obviously if we're adding additional students students uh we need to be able to get them to school and I know depending on the route uh this is also something we're working with uh lucini um Mr schmel our Transportation uh assistant is working with Vini to see if there's possibility of re-rooting buses because some buses are you know certainly lighter on U student enrollment than others uh but we may find ourselves in a situation where we have to add another school bus so we want to make sure that we have built that into the budget um obviously the cost of of Transportation goes up every year based on our contract um so just even a base increase of a you know a couple $1,000 there and then looking at um you know again adding another bus could be uh bus to two buses could be anywhere from1 to $200,000 um what I think is significant though is our special education Transportation obviously as you know we transport our students that require Transportation within the district but we also have um you know students that require Transportation outside of the district depending on where those students are attending um it could be upwards of U you know $94,000 uh just for transportation that doesn't factor in um out of District uh tuition um so you know one student could be an additional almost $100,000 um we certainly try to forecast we we you know do an analysis every year where we look at our student uh projections what we think uh case loads may be what the needs might be of our students and you know we understand that every year uh students may require you know more more than what we can provide and so we do try to account for that when building our budget that we may have students that have to go out of District but what I think is significant to share is that we actually had seven students move in this year uh you know seven move in students are not something that we can always uh prepare for or predict because we're factoring in our own students um and trying to prepare for them and so those seven students uh that moved in again are requiring um you know transportation so that could be you know anywhere up to almost $700,000 that was unanticipated um what I think is also important to note is that we had eight students in our IND District programming this year uh that their placement has changed and now they're um you know receiving out of District uh services and so that's again another significant change we do try to forecast and plan for those students but when we're planning for eight of our own students seven movein uh you can certainly see how that would drive the cost up of of Transportation operations and maintenance again looking to restore the two custodial positions that we lost last year looking to add another uh facilities position utility position our utility positions um really right now kind of form of a multi multi faet of responsibilities uh they can assist on Browns they can assist one of our uh trades workers uh they can perform duties at the schools and so they've just been a Val were positioning fors over the last couple years unfortunately you know we feel as though we need more of those um cost of utilities just like your home your gas electric um and so forth water is going up it's the same for us here at school uh so the you know the cost of doing business for you at home uh is very similar to what you know we have to go through here when you're you know you might be feeling your costs uh in other places the grocery store um and so forth uh but there are other costs that you feel that as well and so this unfortunately drives up um you know the cost of of our budget um we obviously going into FY 25 um we cut U you know $600,000 from supplies and materials for facilities uh we need to get that money back so looking to restore those goods and services again back into the budget fixed cost of benefits the biggest driver here is the cost of health insurance again something that I'm sure you you know you see on a daily basis um and so we're feeling it as well um and we obviously are working with our Insurance Advisors uh to forecast out uh potential expenses what they're telling us right now and you know the numbers won't come out for for um you know another month or so concrete numbers but they're saying you know plan a you know 10% increase and so when we look at what it cost to you know provide Insurance to our active members but also our retirees uh we want to make sure that you know we have budgeted accurately for that and so there's a significant cost increase there as well um and then obviously you know unfortunately because we were were not able to keep all of our positions last year um unattended consequence is that our unemployment insurance or our unemployment benefits increased um so we want to make sure that again we have accurately budgeted uh if we're not able to get positions back and worst case scenario we're not able to uh keep all of our current staff and we want to make sure that we have uh funds and then obviously even things such as our you know property insurance um our student Insurance that's increased by almost $100,000 as well and again these are all numbers that are provided to us from our insurance advisers uh and hopefully once the policies are finalized they're not as significant but we never want to find ourselves in a situation where we just haven't budgeted uh the proper amount and then uh the 9000 Series so this is programs with other schools uh so yes it does include chatter and school TS uh but really the bulk of this is obviously our special education costs and our special education tuitions uh either for res itial placements uh for public day school private day schools um and you know again the the state somewhat uh gives guidance for all districts to plan for uh you probably heard me talk a couple years ago the state had issued down guidance that we should anticipate a 14% increase in out of District uh costs uh thankfully this year they're only projecting a 5% increase uh so we've built a budget reflective of that uh We've obviously tried to build a budget reflective of uh you know potential students requiring additional uh placements out of District again you know looking at our current student population and their needs uh there may be individuals that would just you know their their needs outweigh and um you know our our current program but again it comes down to you know those seven movements that we can't always uh predict um when we look at some of the a of District placements it could be a day program uh which could be anywhere from you know depending on the date program and the level of need of the student anywhere from 50 to 15 ,000 uh but then we do have some students unfortunately that require a significant level of care that um you know going to a residential school and you know that could be anywhere from two to three to four to $500,000 um but again it also you know anytime we have a student that goes into an outer District program so if you have $100,000 tuition you more than likely almost have $100,000 in transportation as well um so again you know significant increase there so as I mentioned uh we pulled out the 7,000 Capital series as well as the 8,000 debt series as well so 7,000 what we're asking for Capital this year is $1.6 million so $1,692 500 that is a decrease in what we asked for last year uh again we always look at our HVAC uh maintenance and improvements where we can um you know there any heating issues if we have to address boiler issues uh we do want to um install a water filtration system over at the bridge Middle School uh any of our brid residents you know that there's um communication that goes out from town from the town from time to time without uh the water and so we want to make sure that you know we're providing safe drinking water and usable water for all of our students and staff um obviously we always want to look at our grounds equipment whether it be uh you know plow trucks sander trucks um uh you know our Bobcats um whether it be our lawnmowers we want to make sure that we're um making improvements there certainly uh a priority for us is always making sure that our security upgrades are taking place that we're always looking to you know make sure that our Builders are safe and secure so whether that be adding additional access points whether it be replacing exterior doors like we've done this year we want to be able to continue that next year and then technology improvements um obviously we want to be able to have every school uh have a you know an auditorium like this uh and we've fortunately been able to do that um rhand Middle School uh is in the process of being replaced uh we want to be able to repl Bridgewater Middle School's uh screen and projector and install a screen and projector next year we obviously made a significant commitment over there to to replace the auditorium U coming out of Co um but we want to make sure that it's usable and that you know we can use it um we also want to make sure that we have um you know our network is backed up at all times so Mr Shan is advocating for U exciting installation of a backup um program for our networks and then obviously a security camera we've made significant improvements for to our security camera system um and we want to make sure that uh they're all talking to each other so that they're not working in isolation so Mr Shan's our local safety officials uh can log into one single sign on uh and be able to access uh the cameras in the event that they need to and then obviously phone system upgrades and Replacements um as well and then debt Services uh again you can see debt is lower this year and you know certainly uh that's understandable as projects become older in age uh typically they have a a lower cost Associated them so you started to pay more principal um and so that the cost actually comes down on that debt so we've reduced that as well lastly I I just share this last slide with you uh just to kind of give you a sense and and again these are not what I would say concrete numbers but numbers that we know right now um obviously uh this is reflective of our uh you know funding that we're receiving funding that we would uh anticipate to receive uh and then obviously our sub total U so as you can see our Chapter 70 funding uh you know for this year was $34 million plus that was a $2.6 million increase a roughly 85% increase what I'll point out to you is you can see fy2 our Chapter 70 increase was only 1.8% over fy4 and that's where we find ourselves in a significant challenge now what I also note is that fy4 Chapter 70 was 12% higher than FY 23 FY 23 was 18% higher than fy22 so again as we start to build budgets based on 18 12% increases in Chapter 70 and then we only receive a 1.8% increase in Chapter 70 you can see the significant challenges that poses um to us as a district and unfortunately when you know we're getting uh 18 or 12% increases from the state that places less of a burden on the toxs but we get only 1% increase from the state the burden is placed solely on the toxs and so we're trying to make up for that lack of funding that we received last year uh certainly this year and I think the numbers that you've seen tonight are reflective of that you can see again historically chapter 71 so our regional transportation reimbursements the number that we've put forward to uh the school committee tonight or that I put forward to the school committee and the community tonight is that 109 $109 million operating budget if we were to fulfill that number using what we've received from Chapter 70 chapter 71 that would basically uh place the requirement of Bridgewater and Rainham to increase their assessment from last year about 30% you can see the numbers uh for bridge will be an increase of $10 million from last year and uh Rainham it would be an increase of 6.4 uh so 43 and 27 respectively um obviously 30% increase is a significant ask uh but this is what uh you know we have put forward as a budget a preliminary budget based on what we need to be a high performing school district and so you know that uh 109 represents approximately 21% increase over last year's budget um and you can see uh prior to prior to years last year is about a 2.9% increase the year before is about a 5.7 increase just to note if we were able last year fy2 or this current FY current fiscal year we did not lose those um 24 positions and we were asking for those and we we got the 60 plus that we were asking for we would only be looking to increase the budget by about 5% to get us to that 109 so I just want to share that with you um you know a 5% increase um you know it's not unreasonable uh if we were where we should be uh that's really all we'd be asking for but unfortunately we're asking for a 21% increase which I understand is a significant increase but um you know I think we would all agree in this audience uh there wasn't anything that we have asked for that is frivolous that isn't needed uh that our students don't deserve that our staff doesn't deserve um and so we're hopeful that uh working with our state and local officials that will be able to you know fulfill this prary budget but certainly over time uh we will make adjustments as needed if we have to so really next steps um as has already been shared with you um March 12th is the public hearing March 26 is the adoption of the school committee and um May is the Bridgewater Town council meeting where they'll Goot to approve our budget and then obviously and Tom where they'll do the same um want to just acknowledge and thank uh several individuals obviously my administrative team uh for helping the school committee for always being so supportive obviously some individuals there that I wanted to recognize and acknowledge um I want to thank our state and town officials for showing up tonight uh certainly working uh closely with both brid and rhan prior to this evening um Miss Robinson and and Miss Kini and you know Mr Barnes and M Lavalette uh Mr Lavalette um you know throughout this process we started meeting with uh early on as early as uh you know September you continue to be uh throughout the fall um up until December and I'm sure we will continue to meet with them as well but I want to thank them for their partnership and for their support of the district and certainly if uh this is what our end result is that our students are able to graduate um with distinction and uh you know they go on to uh successful postgrad life if anyone to have any questions concerns there's my contact information certainly feel free to reach out uh we will be sharing this uh presentation out with the community um as we go Mr power why you just stay at Pony that way you can ask any questions that may come out of the school committee As We Gather back to the front table here um just start down on my left right down to the right if that okay with everybody if you'd like to kick off any of my statement you going to um I found the presentation to be very helpful I love the visual explanation down to explain all it did an excep job very very helpful I really looking forward to um seeing information about the spending I know I last um hear you I'm sorry I I was looking to information about spending the district does a really good job um indicating what the needs are what the ask is and what the funding have been received but I've been asking last year and this year if we could have some information about spending can you explain um the challenges in including spending uh historical spending from one or to the next and presentation like this I'm sorry I I don't think there would be any challenges it would just be additional information certainly try to uh include that um we're appropriate I I think when we look at you know we're building the budget that is one thing that we're obviously looking at you know not just what we budgeted for the prior fiscal year but what did we actually spend and that's really what drives you know some of those significant increases we may have budgeted x amount of money um and what we find is that we've actually spent more in that particular category because there could be some unforeseen expenses that have come up or um you know in the case of tuitions you know and such and so when we're building the budget we don't necessarily try to build the budget on a I'll just use you know a 10% increase on what was budgeted we try to build a budget on what was actually spent and so it could be a 10% increase on what was actually spent in the priate fal year but we can certainly try to include some of that information going for that be help anything further made Mr deor no thank you Mr Po I just want to thank you as always for a very thorough presentation um I just want to you know more of a statement and highlight something that you said that is very important need words have meaning need is something that has to happen Okay and again another word you used deser yes our students deserve the best our [Music] St I said it last year I'll say it again this year I will not vote in favor of a budget that does not give our students the ability to perform at their highest when they're out in the world I cannot look at [Applause] go ahe I cannot look the kids that I coach in the eye and say sorry but we just couldn't do it for you that's not what this district has been historically and it should not be moving forward thank you Mr Po for making sure that those words were in your presentation thank you thank you M [Music] Martelli I'd also like to thank you um all put together um we've had many budget meetings getting to this point and I'm sure there's going to be many so can't say that I look forward to some of them but'll give it our that shot this is truly what we need thank you m Mell M Dort thank you Mr power I hello um thank you as everyone else said as well and I'm going to make it super short before I have another popping attack um I just had a quick question like last year our turn the page budget we've already get able to cover with a 3% increase right so what would that look like this year just to turn the page on what we have this year you that you we can talk about it you know we've kind of looked at that uh we're looking at approximately about $10 million uh when we factor in you know some of our costs that we you know we have to again turn the lights on so you know we know there's going to be increased cost there we look at our contractual obligations that we have to fulfill um you know we're looking we're looking at about $10 million just to turn the page to every a to provide you know the service and that's just to give everybody like perspective like last year we could even turn that page so um I'm looking forward to the discussions they're going to be hard but yeah we need to provide do thank you thank you thank you Mr Dort Mr Lo so thanks superintendent pow putting this together uh found very informative uh you know some of the things that really stood and rang out were uh the amount that's going tuitions programs and as well as the transportation costs that have gone with it I don't think you have to forward the positions you you put forth today you know we're going to see these cost rise and they're going to continue to rise and not only that it does a disservice to the children of bridgew water to have to send them to other places when they're not able to be educate so I I I fully support this I think you know this is a means that we're going to have to be able to address this and bring this down through it um thank you thank you thank you m Miss K thank you I have lots of thoughts um but I will keep it brief um as being on budget chair the past several years it's always on the budget sub to bring After we receive this budget to bring a fiscally responsible budget back to the school committee and to the towns but then also balancing that with what is it is it going to serve the needs of our students um and it hasn't been but it's also you don't ourselves we rely on the state we rely on the towns so I'm really happy to see our State Rep here to see community members here families Union reps Selectmen Town counselors we need everyone to be on board and to know this is what we need and it is a need in order to serve our students we know that we are 50% of the town's budget which is a huge portion of your budgets but at the same time we've been doing a disservice students if you look back at one of Mr power's earlier slides in 2014 24% of our students were high needs and now we're over 42% that's almost doubled but yet the amount of staff went from 327 to 333 we're not keeping Pace with our students that have high needs that need extra supports and [Music] I went over the budget presentation with Mr Powers and kind of talked it through before tonight and that initial number was a shot it doesn't sound phisically responsible to bring that to the towns but when you look at what it comp is composed of it's composed of esps to give those teachers supports where we can't reduce class size it's to give them that extra set of hands to help them at the foundation grades it's extra electives it's extra special education teachers there's nothing Us in there really I've been on school committee asking for foreign language at the middle school level that's not crazy to ask for lots of student lots of schools have that but we're at base level we need special education teachers we need interventionists I have a student at the high school and yes she's taking high level math but she needed help with her math and there's no intervention is there to help them so all of our students have needs and we're not fulfilling those so this is definitely a budget cycle where we need everyone to be on board and to know what we need thank you thank you anything yes Miss mville I was going to just put down the table one more time I'm going to trade with Mr Powers um this question is generated by the comments are made by my fell school committee members um if the district received full funding and was able to fully hire staff are there certain grades or schools class remain high because of the size of the school so that's a that's a great question um obviously you know some of our schools um are at capacity um you know we have to get very creative uh I would never want to say let's not hire a teacher because we don't have space um I think we look at all possible spaces that we could use uh it may unfortunately mean you know displacing somebody from a current location uh but if it means we're able to that's something we we'll look at um we look at you know the size of our buildings um obviously Elementary uh buildings Merill and Mitchell even though Mitchell is brand new they're basically at capacity so that that's a case where we could look at some of the other learning spaces that exist in that building but again now we're taking those opportunities away from from our students uh in Merl you know there's maybe a one or two spaces that we could look at that been certain you used as classrooms um so you know there could be a challenge it's not as though School committing State the towns we to say you know we'll give you 10 more first grade teachers I simply don't have room for 10 more first grade teachers I do not um so there would be challenges there you know we we would have to obviously look at um you know again alternatives to traditional classrooms in some cases but that's not to say that we wouldn't and I think we should if we if we can anything [Music] further anything further from from my left anything further from my right all right I'm going to switch with you Mr P CU I can't deal with what I wrote down and papers and I thank so I'm not going to I'm not going to take very long I don't think because Mr Po's covered a lot of this in his budget discussion but I I just want to start out noting what Ralph Waldo Emerson said a long time ago discontent is the want of self-reliance right did I get that right my English teacher friends in the class yeah uh yeah so anyway um I wanted to just talk for a few minutes about why we I discontent right now and talk about those two big pillars of funding that Mr power has talked about the state and the town and everything I'm going to talk about is based on that net School spending that Mr P uh outlined for us and what's happened over a very long time period little snapshots are good to like give you a picture of what's happening now but I went back and I looked uh and everything comes from the Desy website they do have a great website for that I went back and I looked back to fy7 the chapter 78 from the state was 3 almost $3,500 per pupil 46% of our budget and in the last fiscal year they have up there that a gone from $3500 to $5,000 36% of our budget so what happens if you take the time to do the math the town's left to pick up the other other amount and that works out for about a 2.3% increase that the state has given us every year over that time period if we look at our member dis at our two times together the members of the district they support over the same time frame went from $4,700 to over $8,800 per pupil that's a 4% increase a year our towns are doing a very good job with the limited amount they have in funding the district dist the way they can within their budget 2.34 4% had the state kept up with the town with the town's commitment at 4% we would have over $9 million more for our budget this year from the state than we do we solve a lot of problems not all but a lot yes the governor has recommend a substantial increase in Chapter 70 this year and while we're certainly grateful for I'll note that one year can't reverse a p one year is a nice small state and of course the as the superintendent admitted but he asked for it is substantial especially from both our towns and we know our town everyone on this everyone in front of you right here knows our towns face you know tremendous issues themselves for their limited dollars uh paying for qu paying for Public Safety complex roads and bridges water quality uh Road Quality Water Supply challenges like that abound in our communities but in 30 years of serving for re I've learned one thing about our residents when we're confronted by a challenge we can rise to meet it okay we can rise to meet it I know that too long too long that we asked uh our dist our district too long long have we asked our police our fire our gpws to do more with less at this point we have to say we can only do more with more and I have confidence in uh everybody stepping up to do that it's going to be a sacrifice from everyone everyone in this room is going to have to look inside themselves and say do I want do I want to do what's right by me well what's right for the kids and the district so uh you know I'm hoping we can come up you know as a district with a plan to cut some more operating expenses I'd suggest we meet as often as possible Miss King uh with both uh towns as we go through this budget season to keep them very well versed in what we're doing and uh hopefully you know we can rely on the people of brdw and rham to uh help us out do the right thing and um and make sure that we can fund the district adequately that said I'll make a motion to accept the superintendent FY 26 budget as the school committee budget and refer to the budget subcommittee for further review second by Mr J Marino any discussion seeing none all those in favor say I opposed it's unanimous thank you all right I don't want I don't want to get yelled at by my friends who monitor the audio so I didn't want to talk to that actually um all right moving on new business uh approval of payroll warrants dated December 12 26 and January 9 2025 it's there a motion to approve made by Mr Lo second by m d report any discussion seeing none all those in favor opposed it's unanimous um 2025 26 school choice uh Mr P you just want to talk about this introdu for a second yes thank you Mr chairman uh we are uh once again requesting your approval to offer school choice um we uh this past year offered school choice just at the ninth grade level um meeting with Watson reviewing that we would like to continue that practice uh of offering school choice once again at the ninth grade level is there a motion to do that made by Mr L second by m marelli i further discussion seeing none all those in favor opposed it's unanimous uh other business I as know anyone else have any new business reasonably unforced no okay great uh we'll move on to public comment we didn't have a lot at the beginning so I'm hoping we can adhere to the 12 minutes but if folks really are doing more um maybe we can wave the rules again again um 3 minutes a piece and uh identify yourself for the uh Name by name and address the rec please thank you yes Ma Elizabeth Shar 1000 South Street good I'm here once again to continue to advocate for the district to lower their class sizes and make it our number one priority as it's been stated many many times tonight the class sizes of 30 students in a class of kindergarteners first graders second third grade is just unacceptable as a first grade teacher in a neighborhood Town who's had 18 to 20 students in my class the last 12 years it's just mind blowing my own first grader has 30 students in her class I couldn't even to Valentine's on Amazon without getting two packages as amazing as a teacher is and all of the teachers that I've met so far in the district they're not miracle workers they're not able to take on the endless important duties of teaching our youngest most need most needy students who cannot yet even tie their shoes B their pants find a nurse's office or manage their big emotions or read or WR too much and too many to fall through the Cs with class sizes as high as this we're digging a hole so deep that many of our students are never able to call back out with smaller class sizes the teachers would be able to more effectively identify the students area of need in order to provide them with the academic and social emotional interventions they need immediately in their classroom the classroom teachers can do this when they don't have 30 kids in their class this is why our funding needs to be focused on hiring more classroom teachers this needs to be our number one priority so as far as tonight's budget I am a little bit on edge about the 91 additional positions that we're advocating for that Mr poers is advocating for only 14 of these are actually to reduce class sizes in K to8 when I first saw the number 14 I was like okay 14 and then I realized that was for K to8 across two across two different across six schools so that's really two teachers in most schools I'd love to see the numbers and I know this isn't a back and forth about how these 14 teachers are really going to change a class of 30 down to 25 when realistically 25 is shouldn't even be our ultimate goal but I we have to start somewhere I'm here to fight tooth and nail for a budget for our students and I think you know the presence tonight shows our town understands this is an issue and I think is ready to commit to fighting for our students for our schools so I just hope as the numbers continue as the budget process continues that Mr Powers and school committee you're very thoughtful and targeted about the positions that are added to make sure they classroom teachers the classroom teachers need to be hired first to reduce the class sizes before filling in any other holes everything starts in the classroom the special education students are in the classroom the students are in the classroom the students with social emotional needs are in the classrooms the classroom sizes needed to be lowered first before the other positions up thank you thank you [Applause] m his name and address for the record please hi I'm Rodriguez 45 James Way Bridgewater um so I am here as both a teacher and a parent in the district I also have several nephews and a whole lot of loved ones within this district and I was very grateful to hear our special education students mentioned numerous times tonight um and I just wanted to speak a little bit more on the impact of Staffing restrictions on our most vulnerable students um I'm at the high school here I'm the transition teacher and and we have 20 plus students in our substantially separate classrooms we have 15 or more in our life skills classrooms um and forgetting about State compliance or compliance with state regulations for a second um this is just an impossible task these stopping restrictions have also resulted in a lack of Integrity in our programming and by that I mean we have students with very different needs very different abilities and very different learning learning alongside each other um these stopping restrictions mean larger Cas loads which means more meetings more paperwork um more time out of the classroom and more teacher burnout uh my own program started this year with 18 students comparable programs are about half that um my students range from very high functioning taking college classes at ESU to students with significant cognitive impairments nonverbal medically fragile behavioral needs um I think I speak for all of our teachers when we say we are happy to work with any of these students but it is impossible to do it all at the same time uh Mr pow has worked tirelessly to make improvements where he can and we appreciate him so much for that but you know his hands are tied in so many respects so anything we can do to lessen his burden to lessen our burden will result in uh better outcomes for our students because right now they are simply not getting what they need thank [Applause] you hi my name is Liz or Elizabeth brick 39 Circle extension I'm a parent um and I've been here as a military family we've moved around the country a little bit and this is the first time I've ever been to a meeting like this I'm a little bit nervous thank you for allowing me to speak but it's the first time I've also seen the need to come to a meeting like this I've never in any of the states or counties or schools that we've been to had this type of concern for my kids's education um at bridgew Middle School our kids as large as you five six feet tall some of them weigh as ver us they're using bathrooms that were in for toilets that were installed for kindergarteners this was the old elementary school from this is demoralizing it should not be what they are expected to provide a good learning environment for them the locker situation there's lockers lining in Halls where told they had they have to go use a locker the lockers don't work some of the teachers are graceful enough to provide a common area to drop backpacks these areas are not attended to to watch students possessions during the day but also those loers do put them in there this stuff there's not enough janitorial staff to go unlock these lockers for our kids all day long so we can't send our kids to school post the bus does not come within 3/4 of a mile from my house they say that they are not able to have enough buses to come down to our neighborhood to pick up the kids so I'm down income for my household because I need to drive my kids to bust up which is cool because the bus doesn't serveice there my kids to that bus stop walking 3 with winter weather protective clothing because there's nowhere to hold it at the school because the lockers do not wear um there's lot of cafeteria there's no place for a principal to have an assembly to address the kids whether it's a need for an emergency or a need to just morale to have our kids proud of where they are there's no bis um the cafeteria itself is an old old antiqu the cafeteria must have been built for a fraction of what the population is so there's an additional Cafe used there to oversee all of these kids to have a safe environment just to have a 30 minute lunch period and so that's they need Staffing just keeping absorbed for that um ventilation ands the building has no central air conditioning so as if you imagine last year when we moved here in 100 Dee weather these kids not only is it not a good educating and learning environment or for our amazing teachers to work conduct the healthy learning environment we also had from what I understand a teacher a student had actually gotten sick and on hallway and I know that because my kids came home with it and it's disturbing it's not a healthy a good learning environment but it's absolutely not a safe Health environment not have ventilation last year at the 8th grade party we had in the old Auditorium that's there that has no ceiling fans no ventilation nothing there was over 150 kids that had to stay for their in 100 plus Auditorium where we were supposed to be having fun at 8:00 in the summer night at the end of the year this go Ahad and give you about 30 seconds to wrap up with not be acceptable the large classro size the seventh grade went from three teams to two teams no more staff meaning that the staff that was currently there had to then absorb that higher class load that's not just the general education staff that's now stressed out because they had to absorb those kids but the special ed by the way absolutely needs some type of continuity throughout the district and for the kids for a language based reading program because there are so many other so many special needs and struggling readers there's no continuity and every single semester or Year my child is changed to a new reading curriculum and therefore he is not Sor um okay m r if you have comments feel free to email them to moule we can include him in the record we're going to move on from there Miss mallerie Ashley Mard again 270 Grange Park Bridgewater um I know a lot of my staff left because I've asked them to come from near and far and I appreciate um just ending the night with a few comments one thing I know I would like to see in some of my uh friends in town actually brought up was that it would be nice to see get one of the charts and some of the future meetings that show if you hire one more teacher for this grade in this school what does that drop the class size to for that grade in that school um because averages can be misleading I know it probably definitely wouldn't be easy to understand the high school but definitely that uh PR through um eight specifically that mention of Bridgewater Middle School that's a little deceiving for people to understand uh for my councilmen that are in town in here is just understand that when um we see these numbers it's a little deceiving because there's still more Cuts with movements so like we said we went from a team uh we lost a whole entire team so teams got absorbed now you have teams in the middle schools that don't even necessarily have certified teachers in subject matters some teach multiple subjects I've had kids at the high school before who had history classes taught by their Math teachers not that I don't love my math teachers but no one wants me teaching history as a history teacher teaching math right so these have long-term effects on your kids growth and these are issues that I'm really concerned about so my big concern here is also that these numbers like these 14 additional Mr Powers you said correct me if I'm wrong but it brings us down to 25 average starting the year but we know our numbers continue to grow in the year so I just keep wanting to reemphasize when we look at building in Bridgewater that I have major concerns on this and I invite my local membership to continue to come to your zoning board and building meetings and and voice your in there but lastly I would like to say what if this doesn't happen what if the towns don't support it I'm trying my hardest my staff's trying their hardest and I know you guys are I'd like to hear a commitment to cut Sports to cut after school activities to cut pre preschool activities to cut clubs I don't want to see a br that was around in when I was in college where the high school ended at 1:00 so so the staff could have prep at the end of the day cuz we had a lack of staff that 15-year veterans got cut so that we could have gy once a week and the state had to come in and slap us on the wrist there's a lot of people around here if you just moved into town you don't know that's happened before this community has failed to support us significantly since the recession on top of it you haven't had um Spanish or French or languages in the middle schools in years and communities get that around here and am I excited to hear that maybe the elementary school classes will drop up to 25 and my friends in the next two communities over have 19 in first grade hello my kids too I got a few years to turn this around but you better believe I want it turned around as soon as possible I need you guys to continue to show up and I look forward to the opportunity thank you for the clarification on the meeting and that may meeting but I would like to see that as we move forward maybe that side by-side comparison as staff is hired um how that is going to reduce class size for the individual grades because it's difficult to understand and I would love to see that the education as suggested is prioritized thank you thank you all right have more comments 12 minutes hold on come down come down uh I'll just take a motion to extend public comment Mr de second by m down all those in favor Clos we'll extend public comment for 9 more minutes three more folks yes me we 120 oakd Lane of Bridgewater um speaking as a teacher here at the high school my husband is also a teacher and we have two children in District um one in the preschool and one in first grade the Mitchell Elementary staff is amazing I I do just want to address some chatter that I've heard about um why can't the teacher handle you know 30 students now back 10 years ago 20 years ago um I was in a class of 20 or or 30 and so and we were fine um so I I want to just put um a little more detail and and reiterate what Mr pow was saying but from a teacher's perspective um the high needs that he was speaking of just to give you an idea um the social emotional behavioral needs of these students have increased exponentially um this is we're still feeling the effects of the pandemic we haven't fully recovered um the increase in 504s especially for anxiety um we reive red envelopes um we received no contact orders these have all increased significantly in recent years um medical needs have been mentioned the IEPs um including them in um in the general in the classrooms which is wonderful we should be more inclusive um but we need more support to do that um the increasing diversity the changing culture of our district it's beautiful we we we love that we want to encourage that but we need more support um the English Learners in our classroom um the rapidly changing technology these you know one toone Chromebooks are wonderful but supervising the students proper use of them in a world with AI That's changing every day it is that is a task that is it's hard to explain how difficult it is to be teaching right now when um you have to really work to make sure that the students are doing authentic learning um and not having somebody else do it for them um you know the phones the airpods the social Med media we know what the research says about these things and and the teachers are competing with these things um I'm far less interesting than any influencer even on my best day um we know that connection between home and school is of utmost importance um and we know that a team approach to students is of utmost importance that's what's best for students so when when I was in school um my parents had no idea other than report cards and you know if they attended a parent conference but now our teachers are trying to do better right we're communicating with team members within the school um par professionals counselors adjustment counselors nurses resource officer assistant principal principal then you have you know your families we have families with different Dynamics divorces um DCF involvement m h this going to be a 30 second one great um connection is so so important in educating and we need lower class sizes in order to make those connections and make authentic learning happen thank you thank you very much any further M again name and address for record thank you Road sorry I always C of crows I had the opportunity to see my classroom for my separate CH at the Williams get redistributed this week because I pushed through to desie and said that it wasn't fair that my child was in a classroom with 17 children and that his teacher was driving so this week he's now in the classroom with a lot smaller numbers and he's able to get taught and I'm sorry that if it burdened the budget more without getting p through the town and I just hope that everyone gets this positive experience that I've been able to have without having to go through skipping the lines and going through death and feeling like you've thrown your school through the bus thank you thank you other other comments go once twice okay thank you all for coming thank you all for participating with your public comments I don't mean to be mean about time but we do try to stay on schedule as well I think all the teachers understand that um that said our next meeting is going to be uh February 26th at uh here theond up the lecture and I will take by all those in favor