##VIDEO ID:4DvkAYnR8ss## e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e [Music] [Music] [Music] chadam welcome to the October 22nd 2024 13th annual town of chadam budget Summit uh which is a joint meeting of the select board and the finance committee as well as the department heads uh here in chattam and the uh monoy Regional School District um seniors uh please note this meeting is being recorded and will be available shortly Hereafter for scheduled and On Demand viewing on any smartphone or tablet device if anyone else is recording the meeting please notify the chair seeing no such notification um I will proceed pursuant to Governor Healey's March 29 2023 signing of the acts of 2023 extending certain covid-19 measures adopted during the state of emergency suspending certain provisions of the open meeting law General law chter 38 section 20 until March 31 2025 this meeting of the chadam joint meeting of the chadam select board and finance committee is being conducted in person and via remote participation every effort will be made to ensure that the public can adequately access the proceedings as provided for in the order a reminder that persons who would like to listen to this meeting while in progress may do so by calling the phone number 1508 945 4410 conference ID 203 386 491 pound sign or join the meeting online via Microsoft teams through the link in the posted agenda while this is a live broadcast and simal cast on chadam TV Xfinity channel 1072 despite our best efforts we may not be able to provide real Li uh real time time access we will post a record of this meeting on the town's website as soon as possible um I will commence the meeting uh by establishing a quorum of the select board Mr Mets present Mr dians present and Miss Davis present Mr necastro present and Mr Shell is present and I will now turn it over to um the chair of the of the uh finance committee thank you mik I will similarly I will similarly engage in a roll call to detal Quorum Tommy Don I know is absent Bar Madison here John papalardo here Joan Sprigg here Andy young here christien Andres Tracy Shields present Eric Whitley here and the chair is present all right Jill over to you I think thank you Mr chairs and Welcome to our 13th annual budget Summit it's our 13th but it happens to be the first for our finance director Carrie masero who is standing right beside me and I also want to do a quick introduction of the department heads and team that are also in the audience with us uh first I'm not sure some of you have met him Nick Cella he's our assistant Finance director assistant Town accountant welcome Nick this is your first summit we have fire chief Justin with us uh behind him we have DPW director Rob director of Community Development Katie director of Natural Resources Greg Burman I can't see if anyone else is on team on on teams with us and with us we also have uh Michael McMillan from the monore Regional School District as their business manager so welcome everybody uh we entitled this budget Summit oh let's look I see I'm sorry we have Amy Hal who's our deputy director of community services and someone with a pH that's not coming to mind mine very quickly but we look at everybody as we go along um so we're calling this stay in the course it's our financial state of the town but preliminary so a lot of what you'll see tonight are uh assumptions looking forward but also a look back to move through the agenda uh the first item is anchoring our priorities and this is laying the groundwork for decisions that will guide us through the year ahead we'll then have an overview of the current fiscal year 2025 budget our FY 2026 budget Revenue projection our FY 2026 budget and three-year operating budget expense forecasts our FY 2026 through FY 2030 a capital Improvement plan Carrie will also talk about Debt Service we'll look at recommendations and reports received and then we'll move forward with our FY 2026 budget review process directives and calendar last year the select board embarked on a goal setting process that didn't just look at the calendar year or the next fiscal year but it looked at fy2 and Beyond and in particular the vision statement notes chadam in 2030 will be a forward-looking engaged and inclusive community of demographically diverse year-round citizens that maintains a unique integration and preservation of its pristine environment promotion of healthy economy fiscally responsible and responsive leadership ship and a welcoming environment for all of chadam when we when we worked on this vision statement we also looked at our smart goals and a smart goal is specific measurable achievable relevant and time bound the goals that you'll see I'm sorry the objectives and the goals that you see before you are what we called our goal buckets so we were looking at year round housing educational Excellence Foster vibrant and sustainable local economy Environmental Conservation Coastal resiliency and natural resources water management and respond effectively to the needs of the of a diverse welcoming and livable chatam we adopted these on January 27th 2004 and the next review review will be next week on October 29th I'm going to turn it over to finance director krye to lead us through the next slides thank you thank you Joel um good evening everybody um so this slide goes over the last few years of the budget um strategies or names of the budgets that um were previously um this year FY 2026 we're calling it staying the course um for 2026 chadam will continue to adhere to principles of resilience and sustainability we will ensure a balanced budget that provides essential goods and services to all community members um this slide goes over our budgetary objectives um protect core services and uphold values ensure a fiscal responsibility with fiscal Prudence present a balanced budget and fund Community priorities for FY 2026 and Beyond this slide goes over the town budgetary components so um when we look at our budget um they consist of revenues and expenses and other Capital items um we want a budget that is balanced with revenues and expenses as we begin the FY 2026 budget we will look at revenues such as the tax levy local receipts and other available funds and when we look at the Department's requests for opening I'm sorry for the operating budgets we look at the educational assessments and the capital requ requests for all departments the operating budget for 2025 is 40 million. 6 this includes the $470,000 that was voted at town meeting for the public safety contracts and it also includes the new debt approved at the end of FY 2024 um we have educational assessments that total 10.8 million from monoy Regional School and the Cape Cod Tech with a grand total of 51.5 million there was also a capital plan in the amount of 2.4 million which was funded from free cash with 2.2 million and other available funds in the amount of 213,000 so this slide goes over um our current FY 2025 tax rate um so as you can see the value of chadam has increased um 6.30% so FY 2025 um the valuation is um 122 [Music] billion uh the tax rate decrease um 10 cents so it's 3.47 a decrease of 2.80% and the average tax bill for FY 2025 is 5,8 $10 2025 budget drivers as we think back at our budget for 2025 um there was um increases for contractual obligations such as the water um and Sewer operations we had Cass contract we saw increases for health insurance general liability insurance debt technology and also contractual sorry contractual increases for our salaries um and we also saw an increase to the chadam elementary school in FY 2025 this slide goes over the available funding sources that we look at when we um go through our budget process um so sources for operating budget we use the tax levy to fund 70% of our operating budget this is increased annually by 2 and a half% plus New Growth local receipts which funds approximately 16% of the budget we have state aid we don't usually receive a lot of that because most of it goes to the school um our debt exclusions um those are added on top of our proposition two and a half um we have excess Levy capacity and then we have other available funding sources such as special Revenue funds we have receipts reserved for appropriation and they fund about 8% of our budget and then we have the water fund um and that also funds just the water department at about 6% of the budget assumptions for 20 26 when we work through the budget process we estimate our revenues conservatively property tax increases 25% plus new growth and New Growth right now is estimated conservatively local receipts are estimated at 85% of the prior Year's actuals we are estimating 85% based on the closing of FY 2024 we also estimate what we are going to use from other available funds we estimate our expenditures based on priorities and level services for the entire Community we look at the past two prior fiscal years of actual expenditures per Department our debt is based on the most current debt schedule and as we predict an early assumption for educational assessments health benefits retirement and insurance we begin going through the budget and operational requests in the next couple weeks with the Departments so some of the projections for FY 2026 the levy base is increased by 2 and a half% which is 953 th000 we're estimating New Growth at 350 um so we are an estimating an increase of 1.3 just for those and then we add our debt for 2026 the estimate for local receipts is 85% of the FY 2024 actuals and that is at 10.8 million state aid is level to 2025 as we don't know the figures yet and we are early we are very early in the stage of the budget and we will just as we move forward with the budget we also have free cash at $1 million free cash is used to fund the capital budget and other one-time Capital expenditures for financial policies as well as best practices free cash should not be used to balance the operating budget free cash for FY 2025 funded the majority of the capital budget the capital plan I should say so going over local receipts and what they are local receipts are derived at the local level for programs services and amenities directly influenced by Behavior economy and trends um types of local receipts they come from fees programs Services excise tax transfer station stickers Beach stickers parking fines and departmental fees and other miscellaneous this slide goes over the local receipt growth that we have seen over the past few four years plus the estimated amount for 2025 these are revenues related to economic growth they are considered elastic Revenue sources just like new growth for the tax levy there is M vehicle taxes as well as building permits and construction related to permit fees these revenues are sensitive to changes in the level of economic activity chadam revenues from economic growth have been steady and have increased over the years but because local receipts can change based on the economy future growth is uncertain this stage this early in the stage as we build on a budget so this is a comparison of um the first quarter of FY 2024 versus FY 2025 from July through September as we think about the FY 2026 budget is important to look back past at past Trends um our revenues are tracking positively to our budget projection as we're showing a positive number for the total amount again local receipts being an elastic Revenue they are based on economic drivers and can fluctuate in a positive or negative way so looking back at our hotel motel tax short-term rentals took effect beginning 71 2019 however they were not broken out by the Department of Revenue until 2021 so this slide shows the combination of traditional and short-term rentals over the past years whoops I'm sorry um as you can see the revenue has been progressively increasing and there is a slight dip in FY 2024 which I think that we need to keep an eye on going forward so this slide shows a breakout between short-term and traditional lodging which started in fy21 um looking at the close of FY 2024 both the short-term and the traditional rentals were slightly less in FY 2024 compared to FY 2023 in FY 2024 the short-term rental was $50,000 less than FY 2023 and the traditional lodging in 2024 was 36 6,000 less than FY 2023 just like I said before it's just something that we want to keep an eye on as we move forward so in FY 2024 the 2% of local room occupancy tax was approved by the legislature the approved 2% was for 1% to go to chadam elementary school a receipts reserved for appropriation fund and the other 1% is to go to attainable housing another receipts reserved for appropriation fund both funds received 1 point1 million in FY 2024 These funds need to be appropriated at town meeting for expenditure moving on to meals tax as you can see on this Slide the Mals tax revenue has been on a steady incline over the past couple years in increasing 93.4 7% since 2021 in 2021 meal's tax was $349,000 that we received and in FY 2024 we received $677,000 other available funds that we have our um options um for Capital and funding the budget operating budget are um sorry free cash revolving funds receipts reserved for appropriation chapter 90 we use that for um road infrastructure waterways user fee revolving fund and the waste wad capital capital stabilization fund just to name a few does anybody have any questions so far Carrie there's a roughly 84% increase in receipts received from fines is that attributable do we think to the new technology deployed on Main Street or is it just bad parking [Music] so are you talking oh so those are the parking fines so we believe it has to do with the new program that was set up with um the police department and the young kids walking around and giving out tickets so we've seen an increas in people paying Their fines for parking thank you you're welcome we're going to have a presentation on the last season with our new parking enforcement software Chief Anderson will provide it either next week or in the next coming weeks trifect thanks okay moving on free cash is one of the options that we have available for us to use um remaining unrestricted funds from oper operations of the previous fiscal year including unexpended free cash from the previous year actual receipts in excess of Revenue estimated on the tax recap sheet and unspent amounts in budget line items unpaid property taxes and certain deficits reduce that amount that can be certified as free cash the calculation of free cash is based on the June 30th balance sheet free cash is not available for appropriation until certified by the director of cash counts so this slide goes over uh our historical free cash going back to 2021 our free cash was certified at 11 million at the end of FY 2024 as you can see this amount is higher than has been in the past but at the end of FY 2023 that amount certified is lower than it has been in the past at the end of 2023 there were deficits in other funds such as borrowing accounts and Grant accounts that the town did not receive funding for or reimbursements for which charged our free cash in the amount of around $5 million during FY 2024 we received reimbursements and funding to cover the deficits charged against us and due to this the $5 million was released and what we should have received at the end of 2023 we're now receiving at the end of 2024 so this slide actually shows what our free cash would have looked like at the end of FY 2023 and end of FY 2024 if no charges were applied to our free cash we would have received around $6 million versus the 11 million in 2025 and 7.6 million in for the end of uh 2023 I did a quick calculation on the last three years of free cash certification just to see where we fell based on our financial policies and if I'm not understanding this correctly just please correct me but my interpretation is it's based on the actual expenditures in the current fiscal year not including educational assessments based on these findings at the end of 2022 which is if you look at the slide it would have been 2023 up there um the percentage is 23% that we received that year to be within the reach of the financial policies of 3 to 5% we would have only received around 978,000 or 1.6 million at the end of 2023 the percentage based on last year's amount that we've received was 7.86 m% again to be in reach of the 3 to 5% of the financial policy we would have only received one to 1.7 million and then at the end of 2024 of course the percentage is much higher at 30% um but to be in reach of the financial policy of 3 to 5% we would have only received between 1.1 and 1.8 million I understand that it's the goal to be within 3 to 5% for free cash but I would like to review this policy with the finance committee it also notes that our unrestricted unassigned fund balance will be around 10 to 15% which preach is based on our um undesignated unreserved unassigned balance so um as it states in our financial policies so this is just something that I want to mention to you as we move forward and think about things and anyways does anybody have any questions yeah go ahead yeah thank you uh Michael um Carrie just I think it would be useful to maybe help prompt that discussion or I get get more knowledge about its discussion to understand where that 6186 million balance uh emanates from stems from is it unexpended free cash from the previous year here uh sounds as though there's prior year influence here actual receipts and excess of Revenue estimated on the tax recap sheet and or unspent amounts in budget line items ese I'm I'm particularly interested in the last one unspent budget amounts in the budget and budget line items I'd love to see it parsed out by those different uh classifications if you will what drives that number in um I think it'd be very interesting yes we can definitely do that for you um so it is is based on um unexpended yeah you don't have to answer tonight but I just really think it would help it would no that's fine be very helpful to the conversation absolutely I can get that for you but it is um definitely from unexpended expenditures and also revenues that we've received so it's a combination of both it's so it's not just one or the other it's a combination and then and then and we also turned back like 400,000 I think free cash but yeah you it just begs more questions about unpend amounts and budget L it no I totally agree with you we not hire do we not you know BL blah yeah absolutely Dean yeah I want to join in that request because it'll give us some view as to whether we're over budgeting yes historically yep um you use the term um we received what what are we receiving from I just want I didn't understand so um you're talking about receiving the funds you said when you were comparing each year you said in such and such a year we received X dollar and the next year we received Y what did you mean I think it was it when you were explaining what you said what we would have received if we were within the policy percentages yes yes exact and that's confus me as well sorry I just wanted to make it clear that we are receiving more than the three to five% so I just wanted to say what we would if we received 3 to 5% the amount the what is the what that you're receiving is free cash yes it's a it's a certification of free cash so when Carrie talked about the do charging us uh or holding back free cash it was because the funds came in after the close of the fiscal year so then they released it to us I didn't know if that's where what you were asking about receiving yes yes okay so I just would would just make the comment so now we have $1 million in free cash yes and you know that's going to be viewed by some people as a big a big piggyback right big piggy bank to you know and I I think we ought to I just want to say maybe Joanne will agree with me on this one I I think there's a there's something there that might might be best used going back to the taxpayers that's all I'm saying she's got her finger up thank you go go ahead Steve so I I I think as eviden by our our commentary and observations on the whole topic of free cash over the last handful coup of years we would be willing partners for that conversation um I think having guidelines that are routinely and consistently ignored is a bad practice so I think you know again now is not the time but we would readily or happily be willing to have a chat about all of this that would be great I think it's fair to say yeah thank you thank you and I just wanted to note that the do the do's best practices uh that's where we got this from originally was 3 to 5% because there's municipalities out there that can't even certify 1% for free cash and so I'm absolutely looking at that looking at the components of free cash including our our Revenue projections every Finance director will which K's probably going to kick me but we have to with our projections at 85% of actuals it's gone up a little bit more but as we get to the next quarter close out then we can feel a little bit more comfortable about using more revenues for our forecast for the next fiscal year and that does happen as we move and work on the tax rate as well we look at the current fiscal year and how much we've received in local receipts and we can increase it at that time as well so yeah I think we recognize that this is more art than science yeah but again kind of consistently running not three to five but in some instances 13 to 15 MH just it it begs consideration I understand the the the rating agencies love it not so sure the taxpayers are so happy to to Dean's point so so um John go ahead thank you I focus on the definition of free cash that you gave can you explain the unpaid property taxes uh yes so functions so um going back to the slide they actually subtract out the unpaid property taxes that we have on so propert property taxes and real estate taxes is receivable to the town so we have to book it on our Ledger and when we don't have that amount paid to us they actually subtract that out from our free cash so property taxes real estate they're combined okay so does that mean it reduces our free cash right so I don't pay my property taxes let's say it's what what was it $5,800 so I I don't pay it so that $5,800 is held back from the certification process correct and then I pay my 5800 late with fines or however that works does that 5800 then come back to the town yeah so who where where's the 5800 that's subtracted where does it live it just it lives on a spreadsheet basically okay and and I I want to knowe our collection rate is like 98% it does it's not really a high amount of of funds but it's they call it reserved so it's reserved on the on on the spreadsheet so we still have the funds that come in but it takes the next year to certify for free cash okay so it does catch up yes does and if it doesn't the property's auctioned and you get this the town gets paid it's a very complex process that isn't just the next fiscal year it happens it it it takes a while with every opportunity for someone to be able to pay off their taxes thank youcome um unlike John who wants a graduate course and all of this I I I need to go back to first grade here um and I just want to understand I I saw the paper that certified our free cash at 11.86 million that's what it is that's what it is now we have this chart uh this other chart that says if no hits and the numbers go up in 2024 and down in 2025 and I'm just trying to understand what is is is that like we're excluding nonrecurring um events or what what are we doing that gets us from what was certified to these what I presume are hypothetical numbers in that in that second chart so Carrie presented a smoothing calculation of what if that $5 million dollar was able to be certified and released to the town and so her next slide but but the 5 million is where is the five million it's in 11 million currently so last year in at the end at the beginning of 20 end of sorry end of FY 2023 we only received 2.6 because we had $5 million of hits so meaning charges against money that we can that cannot be included in certified correct yes so the 5 million is coming from a prior year is what say correct yes y okay yep so it carried forward into the next I take it it carried from 2023 is that right yes okay all right I've got it I've got it okay thank you and and for the sake of clarity those include such things as we discussed as kind of grants that were anticipated but not received in a timely fashion correct or financing plans that weren't executed yes when anticipated y things like thator yeah borrowing authorization so this that 5 million isn't because there's $5 million in turn Backs from the Departments and it's it it's it's not an error or anything it just was a timing issue for them to close out the books it's a profit and loss thing on on a panal sheet basically yeah it's a timing difference is the way I look at it exactly purely a timing difference I want I don't if I might I don't want everybody to get all worked up about the war chest that we have here even especially before we finish the budget before we look at the at all the issues in the budget because we know what kind of Demands we have for for for for monies yeah okay we coming down okay all right we we'll we'll hold that that conversation okay thank you so moving on budget forecasts um we have um attached a five-year forecast which by nature is conservative we look for Trends and with inflation Rising we pay close attention to local taxes that may fluctuate as spending May decrease salary and wage increases based on contractual obligations contract increases for FY 2026 there are health insurance increases property and liability insurance increase and debt debt issuance so this chart shows the operational growth going back to 202010 this chart includes educational assessments but does not include debt as you can see on the chart there has been a steady incline in the operating budget the total for FY 2025 is 43.8 and again this doesn't um this includes education but does not include debt FY 2026 budget forecast reviewing past performance and forecast between 2022 and 2028 as we begin planning for the FY 2026 budget we will be looking at requests from all departments prior Trends current year adjustments and future mandates within the context of the impact on operations and the taxpayer this slide show sorry I need a drink of water um this slide shows the past recently closed fiscal years and the current fiscal year budget over the past three years the operating budget has an average increase of approximately 7% including educational costs and Debt Service the increases have been due to adding additional staff salary contracts Insurance increases benefit increases increases for contracted services and increases to utility costs so these the forecasts for um FY 2026 through 2028 these budget assumptions are based on the past performance and are subject to change based on the last three years the overall budget has an average increase of 7% like I just mentioned so I am estimating a projection that in FY 2026 we will see an estimated increase of the operating budget of around 6% with an average increase to the Ed uh education assessments of the same as as we work through the budget process this amount is about up to change as it is just a preliminary judgment as we have not received any final numbers yet my prediction is being based on the past three years average and we're still seeing percentage increases of around 20 to 30% for our general liability insurance we've seen 10% increases for our health insurance benefits increased cost other increas cost to benefits due to adding uh positions and increases for Debt Service as we borrow for ongoing projects there has been contractual increases to salaries It software has increased and general contracts such as the seam Mass Water and Sewer contracts have increased the projection includes such increases as mentioned sorry as we move forward through the budget process we will be we will be looking at the past Year's actual expenditures in departments and really taking that into consideration okay just I mean it appears I understand what you've said and and probably most of what I'm about to ask about is is in that description but there are big changes from 26 to 27 to 28 in terms of the overall growth of the expend of the expenses and I'm just wondering if what are the the assumptions that drive that that difference year to year so in 27 and 28 um the difference between 26 27 28 is the um Public Safety contracts okay enough said thank you okay so I'm going to go over the water fund budget I've included the water Fund in this presentation as I wanted everybody to see the water fund budget over the past few years as and to get a visual why it's important to increase the water rates and I understand this is under review right now but I just want you all to be aware of it the water budget has increased 10.7% over the past 3 years as you can see the final numbers for the water budget ending in FY 24 the expenditures actually exceeded the revenues and the deficit is funded from the water funds retained earnings there is currently a balance in the retained earnings of around $400,000 so if we don't see the revenues start to increase it's and cover our expenses in 2025 we'll be using our retained earnings again at the end of FY 2025 just just a quick question um were we looking at rates at all we are looking at rates currently I know that's in uh progress okay what' you say we had no retained earnings I'm sorry Carrie um we have around $400,000 in retained earnings okay yeah so just to add on to what Jeff was is asking about rates um I don't the select board has not yet formally referred a recommend a the review of the rates back to the water and sewer committee is this being done at the staff level at the present time do we so I don't recall that we've done it yes I believe so is it so the plan would be for you to come to the select board and then we would refer it to Water and Sewer for a recommendation I guess is that how it goes we would likely present it first to the water andore advisory committee and then uh receive their comments and then present it to the select board they would submit a recommendation to us as they did last time yes that's what they typically do okay I just just got a quick followup would that be in time for this budget season recommendation if we get them in time maybe we can get them in in January and have the rates increased but they would definitely have to be increased for 2026 budget cor this is a small snip it to the to the broader question which is obviously much deeper but so if we we have the preservation of of water policies that we've kind of been putting together and I I I think this is a conversation EDC had a couple years ago about getting more and more people on private Wells so you get more and more people on private watering system less revenue for the town what is the forecast that you see happening in that direction and are we going to get more and more people on private systems creating less paying taxpayers onto this system so yeah you know where that's I think part of the bigger forecast we got to kind of get an idea where we're headed with that because if if more and more people do pull off the town system then they're obviously not paying the water rates which we going to drive that right that pot down yep yep absolutely TR um just a note I believe we had the economic um committee look at water rates before and give us an assessment I'd like to see that happen again okay yeah thank you we'll do that okay questions go ahead please moving on to the water um for 2026 to 2028 so I did the same um with the water department um for 26 through 28 um I was projecting an increase of around 6.92% um and this is based on the current Debt Service that we have the water fund has and projecting around 5.35% increase in the expenses for 2026 um it could be lower but I'm trying to figure you know make sure that we have enough money to cover the contracts that we currently have um the increase the sorry the expenses have increased on an average of 99.6% over the past three years so I'm being I think kind of fair for that as you can see the that service sorry is dropping off over the next few years um but this is just based on our current schedule as of today so if we take on if we obviously we have more water projects the more debt that we incur the higher the debt is going to be so I just want to keep that in mind um so well um this will be one of the Departments that we're really going to look at this year in 2026 oh I'm sorry yeah go ahead de yeah it's a carrye two things first the transfer from the general fund that's for fire suppression the 400,000 yes yeah okay so we pay that over to the water department so the water department um the water department pays us an assessment based on indirect costs and that's kind of for like um salaries and uh Medicare and stuff like that so it's around 300,000 and then then the general fund is paying them 400,000 it's almost a wash okay um and as you mentioned if there are new projects well um the The Debt Service will go up higher and especially if if we undertake um uh building a drilling a new well locating and uh and and building a new well that's going to be a significant right because the general fund just pays for the general fund debt and then the water pays for the water debt okay thank you y Ste kri I don't if if um the financial policies are going to be open for some consideration regarding the free cash issue I don't recall off the top of my head that there is a provision or Provisions in our financial policies relating to the goal of not having operating departments run annual deficits right and I wonder if that's something we might want to consider putting on the list is it's not just a guideline it would be a good rule that would be good some to think about perhaps yep thank you thank you anything else go ahead thank thank you go ahead okay um some of the 2026 budget um factors that we look at are um educational budgets they're not going to be received until mid January um that also goes for um retirement from barnville County and some other um health insurance assessments we won't receive until maybe the end of January as well um then we have small annual Capital items they move to the operation budget a few years ago so anything um that is under $10,000 should be funded through the operating budget versus the capital and um then Debt Service as well um debt drop off and new debt coming on for the following fiscal year uh I'm sorry yeah Joanne please thank you Mr chairman this brings up a subject that um that bothers me has for years when we talk about debt drop off we we automatically as a town have begun to think that that means well we can we can build something else or we can add we can add new debt to this and actually the the idea from my point of view is we should consider that money the taxpayers going back to relieve the taxpayer burden somehow but um I think that would be hard to Institute since most every town has gotten used to using debt drop off to fund new capital projects right which reminds me again speaking of back to the taxpayer when we talk about uh lowering our tax rate which you know Carrie that I'm so appreciative of that this year and uh always but at the same time with our evaluations increasing such I would Hazard a guess that every one of our taxpayers has received probably around the 2% increase in their tax bill right so we have to be cognizant of that yep while the news sounds good we want to think about the future and as was mentioned uh problems with uh water supply uh and what would we do what would it cost us if we couldn't keep up with what we needed in our water like what do we do then how do we pay that on top of paying off all of the other Capital expenses so those are just just thoughts that I think are in the back of my mind all the time when we when we think about the future okay thank you you're welcome thank you uh John please thank you so in the forecast the 26 s and eight forast that was in a previous slide you had a 6% plug for Education yes is that based on that's based on the past three years it's been a um did I not say it was around 7% I think for the school or 6% 6% 6% so yeah they have a 6% increase I that was the average that's the average that's the average for the past three years for the school it's been a 6% increase okay so it's not based on contractual obligations or anything the budget that we're going to receive in mid January could be more we'll have it could be it could be more yep and it's also both the cape cot Regional Technical High School and the mono Regional School District yep yep U what happened to this slide oh that was funny um sorry additionally some other items to keep in mind um are the rising cost through Insurance um we've seen again the health insurance increase 10% general liability has increased around 15 to 30% over the past few years and the cost of utilities um we will be looking at Staffing and taking taking into consideration the staff in capacity and work stress to meet the day-to-day operational needs in departments and take into consideration what the community has requested in terms of staffing needs as well as reviewing other funding priorities of the town and Community such as grounds facilities beaches cemeteries transfer station technology and cyber security chan oh I'm sorry thank you again Mr chairman um I'd like to start off our our new budget year if we could with the chart you usually can send us of the number of employees yep and the rate that that how that has changed Through The Years okay okay thanks you're welcome Ste do we have a sense of the number of open current positions unfilled open unfilled oh I don't I'm sorry I don't know that to you I I think we're at seven in total right now I know we have three positions that are open from uh DPW uh one is a grounds uh maintenance the other one is a um mechanic and then the third one is oh a transfer station uh heavy equipment operator and then we we have a couple of positions that are open um through uh Community Services we have two part time positions for the uh new writers Cove resit adult daycare center and um there's a couple of more but we're we're we're pretty close to Full Employment we have a couple of Public Safety positions too I think we have one police officer and one firefighter still okay thank you thank you um appr propo of that so we heard a pres the select board heard a presentation last week from the cemetery commission and they were talking about some unfilled positions and I think they were requesting either that those be filled or I'd have to go back and review it all but may some of them perhaps May being converted into full-time or some additional Staffing um but I think it's going to be important um since we have added a number of positions in in the last I've been on the board for 10 years we've had a lot of positions in 10 in those 10 years um and we've added a number over the last two or three years with the approval of the finance committee um I think we I'm going to want to know you know what is the advantage of hiring additional staff for some of these positions versus uh using uh utilizing outside Contracting assuming that is available I know you had some issues with the availability of of Contracting for the cemetery work but that's something I'd like to see as we get move forward with the the budgeting process uh in in consideration of what the Personnel levels should be yeah and and one of the discussion points as we move move further into the budget is looking at what services we provide and what services that may no longer be needed it's been a while since we really looked at um a comprehensive review of we we seem to keep adding on new initiatives which is fine but we're also maintaining the initiatives that we still had from 20 years ago so um I I this is something that I'll discuss with the Department hands and then when we make our budget presentation talk about that um just back to the cemetery commission they were fully budgeted fully funded and it was just up until uh a couple of months ago maybe we had a vacancy and so um we just recruited for um a grounds level or or DPW type of position and we're actually getting like 30 to 40 candidates so um that's that's the good news for this year we hadn't seen that in Prior years it had been pretty challenging thank you uh yeah I was just going to mention I'm just going to ask how long those positions have been open especially the ones at DPW and was there any concern about our rates of pay compared to uh the private sector and other municipalities if they've been open a long long time and we had we have had some historical difficulty recruiting I would just take a look at rates to pay I'm look not looking to to add expense but I'm also looking to get the services you know accomplished to finish like mowing the cemeteries we've experimented with sub just to Dean's Point Dean's question we've experimented pretty pretty deeply with the subcontracting the mowing in the cemeteries without success we had one bidder one vendor that bid um and it was off and on it just did not work we just didn't weren't any competitive anybody interested in doing it so were we not offering enough uh you know what what was the rate we were offering what's the rate in the market um so I just I'm interested in how long those positions that have been open it's good to hear there's only seven or eight but um what are the rates of pay in those positions and are we competitive or not thanks yeah and that's something we've been exam examining and we are currently in negotiations with our chatam Municipal Employees Association for which these positions are covered Dean just on the subject of personnel generally I'm wondering if the um if the hiring Market is is um alleviating a little bit because uh I heard yesterday that the director of community services reported that she had received 12 applicants for the position uh uh one of the positions in the um um one of the two position positions I think you were talking about at theit the respit care yes so it wasn't it wasn't the director it was it was the new person that was hired to be the director of that program reported that she had 12 applicants yeah and we have a so U Michelle Clark who retired we posted that position and it's the projects and operations assistant I think we got like like 40 applicants I mean things are are looking much better than they have but it doesn't necessarily mean there's qualified candidates I mean we've we've we thoroughly vet them but we we have been really fortunate to get some really great candidates so uh just a few more to go the one position that's been open I know you don't want to get in the weeds but for U for a little bit is the Deputy Harbor Master so certainly we were're recruiting for that one and then um the highway there was a mechanic heavy equipment operator position um that we're re-evaluating to to make sure that it's is for market conditions so that's something that we found um that we we want to recruit we we chose to recruit at this point in the fall because we seem to get more candidates than in the busy summertime in winter so I I don't want to confuse things here but I I um the way I understood what we heard from the cemetery commission the other night uh was that there was an authorization some years ago more than five years ago for three positions that and and and budget support for that authorization for that for some reason that had kind of Fallen by the wayside and what they're uh what they presented us with was that as things stand today there's an inadequate uh dedication of Staffing Resources to what what's needed now I I I may be misremembering but I just want to put that on the table as you go forward and look at um not so much what's open or what's filled but but rather specifically with respect to the cemetery that so the Cemetary positions had been full had been funded with equipment so we we most recently have one vacancy so if the thought is to now look at do we need more DPW Grounds Maintenance is it something that if it's if we hire them just for cemetery is that a year round position so we're we're looking and talking with the Departments especially with DPW so they've they've had their positions which are really our positions through DPW and some of the equipment we've had some challenges with but I there's been no hold back and and no targeting them for I I didn't mean to imply that I think they did but you didn't well that may be but I I just want to make sure that we close the loop with them either that we explain to them how they're misapprehend what the circumstances are or you know that we work that out that's all I'm trying to achieve let's move on before I get more in the oh the other item sorry there was another item on this list um it was the verite new writers Co versite Adult Day program it's funded by the Grant in 2025 but we're going to have to um appropriate in 2024 for this program so just another item to keep in mind and and that's there's there's no chance of a grant for another year do know I don't know that um Leah might be able to answer that question more but um as is right now we're looking at funding it and do the operational budget okay thank you but we have applied we have we've applied for a grant have we have we applied oh yes we got the grant for 2025 yes yeah but I think the no but I'm asking about 26 I think the underlying assumption was it was a one-year Grant we would have to find those positions I thought that was the case too yeah yeah I I think those grants are for just the start the availability of the grants from the state on that program is just to start up the program y it was I'm not sure they have continuing operation I know it's a good question I we should a good question don't ask you don't get yeah oh sure so on to the capital Improvement plan the town of chadam has a capital Improvement plan that reflects community's needs and is reviewed and updated annually and fits within the financial plan plan that reflects the community's ability to pay the capital Improvement plan is a 5-year plan which includes onetime Capital items annual Capital items multi-year projects large projects and select board priorities so this slide goes over um the capital budget for 20125 that was uh requested um in 2025 the departmental request was around $10.4 million and we funded 2.4 million which was funded through free cash and other available funds um looking at the town's current 5-year Capital plan in cleargov as of yesterday October 21st 2024 there was um $14.5 million entered for FY 2026 12 million entered for FY 2027 5.8 for FY 28 1.9 for 2029 and 2 million for fy3 looking through the items entered for the capital for 2026 they include items such as replace the salt shed for 1.5 for the DPW 400,000 for a new ambulance for the fire department 700,000 for the Little Mill Pond Pier 300,000 for the exterior rehab of the harbor Master's office at Old Mill Boatyard and 500,000 for the townwide financial software some of these items could be um from last year's the 10.4 that rolled over to 2026 but those are the larger items that I did see in there and K just to be clear when you say they were entered these are requests submitted electronically by department heads into the central soft and budgeting system yes that's correct thank you yep the wish list the wish list yes are these carryovers indefinite until the project is undertaken and completed so they get rolled over to the next year and unless and they'll stay in there unless the department decides they no longer need something and they can remove the item they can they could stay there for two or three years and still fund a project that's not yet completed correct okay so other potential articles uh these requests are due uh December 13th and these are um well the community preservation projects are actually due November 1st um so other Capital items to keep in mind are the community preservation articles um future attainable housing developments dredging capital for the town um the transfer station Improvement project um then there's the center for active living uh funding for the town's drinking water and for the master plan and Wastewater infrastructure um those are just a few to mention um of capital requests and there's also um items from the monoy Regional School that we want to take into consideration as well um so they have um boilers and circular pumps at the middle school for 1.3 million replacing the Middle School roof for about 4.7 million and um in FY 2025 um there were items mentioned for the chadam elementary school for replacing the roof around 2.4 million replacing boilers in the elementary school around 900,000 and replacing carpet for 160,000 so as we move forward in the budget those are you know some of the items that we want to consider um just a quick question if I if I might for Scott yeah are any of these things on on your roster U potential candidates or state funding perspectively so the the roofs uh would be and we should find out uh by the end of this month whether or not the Middle School roof is on the list apparently I I say tongue and Chic we made the short list of over 70 roof projects in Massachusetts uh after after a several year Hiatus uh but uh but we're hopeful and optimistic that we'll hear in the affirmative uh here later this month but we won't know until the end of October um the middle yes so the elementary school roof we'd go through the same process we just you we started with the middle school and the middle school sighting project um uh so that's that's sort of the first thing but the elementary school at least it's uh you know it's outer um you know the roof and and looking at you know looking at are other aspects that need to get you know sort of improved to keep make sure the envelopes good and tight is there any reason to think that the the recent amendments to the operating agreement essentially uh putting the putting the elementary school on chadam Bill would impact or affect Jam's chances of getting State funding for those kind of things no okay thank you Bo yeah Cory make no for this little slide I just want to put a little plug in that I'm I want to be very optimistic that we can make some move forward with the transfer station um because that's that's kind of a you know focal topic for of my interest um both with frankly addressing the working conditions that we're trying to we made promises to our staff that we can improve those and I'd like to get that done sooner rather than later um and then I mean for anyone who's gone there on a regular basis I mean we are crystal clear the the floor in that blue building needs to be replaced yeah I think washing it and cleaning it and cleansing it is just band-aiding because it goes right back the bacteria goes right back in there and hopefully at some point in time we can get that project done sooner or later but it also opens up questions about it has to probably be done in the winter time because we're certainly not going to shut down the blue building in the summer um uh and then there's potential other policy questions about usage and how the facility is used who uses it etc etc so and those probably should come a little bit earlier in the process so I do hope we can make some some movement forward on the transfer station yes so just to first of all I would endorse that um but secondly am I correct that that the the number on that is around 29 or three the last yeah it was around um was it 2.9 yeah yeah okay thank you okay moving on so Community priorities initiatives social infrastructure um looking through the budget process we look at items that are priority to the town new programs and current programs such as the child care vouchers and the Dr Florence Seldon PreSchool Family Support Program we look at the Human Services budget and um um also on this slide is mentioned the writers Cove ver spite program again um and um sorry another item to mention is the community priorities for the housing initiatives such such as the stepping tone Stones parcel and the old Harbor Road for attainable housing and potential Town contribution we have to think about the funding for the respite which I just said um so those are other priorities that you know that we look at when when we go through the budget Carrie yes what was expended out of the Family Support Program um the preschool support program I believe it was $110,000 this year out of what was the total again that we funded the total amount that was funded for this year was $10,000 okay yep we funded about 400,000 two years ago we've been able to carry it over as well okay yep thank you you're welcome do service so um overall the town's level of De service has declined from just over 20% in 2013 to just under 15% at 14.9% in 2025 um this is a moderate um slide side I'm sorry this is on the moderate side as the town continues to upgrade infrastructure and has been seeking alternative sour ources for funding rather than borrowing chadam is ahead of the curve in regard to the sewering and the T to the town the trend is favorable however the town will need to bond before the end of the fiscal year which may impact on the percent um but we do not predict that it would go over 20% do you have a a guesstimate as to what the size of that bonding might be I don't we're so um um we're still very early in this stage I mean we've only had four or five months so I mean it could be I don't know I don't want to estimate don't you said 20% what what what would that limit with that impos well it's based on your total expenses your total budget this this slide right here minus your debt so that's what you're you're looking at so it's based on it's kind of a it's a weird chart that they it's from uh I think it's called the um Financial indicator yes Financial indicator thank you good okay thank you I I'll know more once we get closer car just to to that end do do all of our bondings or the majority of our bondings call for the concurrent payment of principal as well as interest as we consider Deb service yes okay yeah right thank you you're welcome um this is uh graph on our general fund existing debt it shows the current General funds existing debt as of uh June 30th 2024 be debt free in as we last borrowed in June um for the closing of fiscal year 24 looking at the chart you will see the debt um increase in 20126 from 2025 and this is actually due to the Mass cleaning water um we have preliminary debt schedules that we receed from them and one of our first payments for um four of our clean waters are in 2026 um so those payments will begin then so that's why you see for 2025 a drop between and then it go up in 2026 on the slide they are 0% interest however but the principal payments will be due do we do we uh uh always um when we issue debt is our principal payment um over the life of the debt all is it our policy to make that equal over the life of annual equally uh over the life of the debt I don't think it's equally across the life of the debt no I think it changes it fluctuates okay yep okay thank you you're welcome this slide goes over the water fund debt as of 630 2024 um again we still have projects that um approved projects that have not been authorized yet for debt so this graph is just showing um the outstanding debt for the water fund as you can see I know like Joanne already mentioned it drops off but it could go back up again as as we borrow and Carrie where in these two slides does the sewering debt exist is that in the general fund the sewer is in the general fund yes oh it is okay it's just yeah so this is just water okay yep thanks just and at some point if I might just remind us what we have invested in our sewer our Wastewater over time since day one what have we invested since day one in our Wastewater would love to know that okay yeah I think it's sizable number thanks yep we can look at that over 100 million thank you 100 that's for sure do you guys have any other questions on the debt right now no okay um other post-employment benefits funding the trust fund has a balance of $5.4 million um we we are required annually to contribute 1.8 so approximately 700,000 is um included in the benefits as uh pay as you go and 150,000 is from overlay um there's a 1.5% um tax um and that funds the additional funding source for that for the OPB um as of right now the net OPB life liability is 14.6 as of June 30th 2023 um it has been as high as 19.1 as a liability um in 2019 um we have not received the newest Seagal reports yet for the June 30th 2024 and once we get those I will let you know what the outstanding net liability is recommendations review um so the next slide is um as presented in your packets this is a list of topics and interest or concerns to the members of the finance committee as the town works on the 2024 budget I don't know if Steph wants to go over any of these right now or just highlight do a quick flyby okay I'm happy to do a quick flyby I think free cash uh our position's been pretty clear yep uh P Water uh infrastructure similarly Shireen made made the mention of the prospective new well and the recent hydrologic study uh important stuff obviously as we've repeatedly said is the egg on which our Goose sits so we need to take good care of it um we did learn I think in one of our meetings last budget season that we had a couple of Municipal assets that were not on the insurance roster which kind of struck us as a glaring Omission so I think however that gets looked after I think we further W learned I think we further learned that that we don't have an insurance advisor formally for the for the town of chadam and that just again seems like something we should think about um the chop program houses I think we've talked about this a couple of times with the expiring um reservations restrictions on the on the Deeds um you know I think they're coming due in the next several years to me from kind of a negotiating perspective it might be advantageous to I think we have more leverage now before they expire when they're about to expire than when they do and were we to approach an owner of a home and say Here's $100,000 or whatever the number is would you like to so I just I think that's something we think that's something that should be um really thoughtfully considered uh we discussed in the spring um with Jill the idea of a recurring Capital project update semiannually was thrown out I think quarterly was was as well discussed but I think land on that and kind of trying to begin to execute on that would help not only the finance committee but I think the community broadly in generating maintaining support for these big capital projects um specific budgetary concerns we don't really need to get in the weeds here but the South J walkway at the pier at $700,000 um all the employees I've spoken to down at the pier think that's completely unnecessary expenditure uh that some modifications to the Jersey barriers would work just fine chamber of Commerce allocation has been the subject of discussion internally in the committee about to you know given the crowds that we generate and maintain through the Summers and shoulder seasons do we as a town continue to have to fund these guys $85,000 a year when they haven't changed their du structure in rememberable history uh and Staffing levels been touched on briefly um you know we've got a lot of stuff going on if we don't have the staff to thoughtfully and effectively manage them it's a it's so kind of a management failure and and it's something that you know this committee's been historically had reservations about throwing on staff but um as we've said to Jill before if these things are are if compelling arguments are made for why we need these things we should consider that um just three in particular that um or raise as project management Finance uh and the prospect of a grant writer so we can come back to this stuff when we're midseason but these are just we want to get these things on the table as concerns of the committee thank you very much um the FY 2026 budget guidelines um so we're asking departments to provide a level service budget which allows us to incorporate funding to have the flexibility to respond to unforeseen situations as we work through the fwh 2026 budget we will anticipate continued expenses but will like departments to look critically at the areas for savings we will be working with departments in the next few weeks and we we will be looking at the last two fiscal years of closing as we go through 2026 operational and capital budgets are due November 15th um for 2026 um and then um you know we're asking obviously departments look at their fees so that's one thing that we should probably be looking at um so staying on the course for 2026 will continue our Forward Thinking to meet the goals and objectives of the select board and the expect sorry expectations of the community so this is the 2026 budget uh timeline calendar it's also included in the packet that was presented to you um some of the key dates to remember that you have seen in the past are up on the slide again November 15th um the operating Capital budgets are due um um December 13 fiscal articles are due to the town manager um around January 15th we'll be receiving the um monoy Regional School budget um January 21st uh the town manager recommended budgets are going to going to be presented to the select board in fincom February 18th the finance committee recommendations are due to the select board and February 25th the select board approved budgets are to the fincom March 11th finance committee recommendations um March 21st annual town meeting warrant goes to the printer and may 2025 we don't have a date yet the annual meeting car Joe whoa I thought you'd like that can you do that again you some of us missed it hold on [Laughter] uh so car and or Jill I guess just a question from the the perspective of the finance committee having now just focused on um that lovely origami um if we revert to the select board on 18 February with our observations will that be sufficient time a week for you guys to kind of process any thinking that is processable that that we might present and and kind of react and accordingly seems just kind of a narrow narrow window for us to D for the for the selectboard to digest what certainly going to be a compelling work of financial analysis in the past so I certainly defer to the select board but um the the presentation or the recommendations that fincom provides are very high level uh on the meeting before the transmitt of the budget so I'll defer to the select board but we do have a bylaw that requires that the budget be transmitted to the fincom so technically fincom or in the past wouldn't actually start the review until the budget was transmitted but that's many years ago so um our practice is to kick off the budget in January and then uh both boards get started if however you'd be interested in maybe doing like a one joint session for some budgets um maybe a Saturday or designated or uh night so maybe it's General government again I'm getting in the weeds um it's only because we tend to staff provides a budget presentation to the select board and then it's to fincom and I understand that there's different perspectives and questions asked it's just it's it's a long six week period of having two to three meetings uh in a week for for essentially the same presentation so don't have to let me know now if you want to and that that actually anticipates what I was about to say which is that uh obviously we would like to have adequate opportunity to receive and digest and discuss what we hear from the from the fincom um maybe a joint meeting is a good idea um and and I think it also depends as we get closer um and begin to see what's in the budget and what are the big issues uh how does the the public feel about what's going on um all of those would help inform a decision that I don't think as you were in suggesting we need to make tonight it might be good if there were a bigger uh window there that we had more time or it might be that a joint meeting makes sense but maybe we can sort that out a little bit more clearly in January or or even late December that would be my reaction Dean um my my reaction is different this has come up before I was on the fincom I've been on the select board when the budgets are presented to the select board they're presented in a rather high level manner when the fincom goes into the budget they look at every line item and if we have a joint meeting with the fincom we're going to be there for Endless hours I don't think it's productive you know I just think the process has worked so far I don't really think it needs tinkering that's my opinion I know we're not going to take any votes on it tonight but I just thought i' express my my view Mr chair as you always do Mr Vice chair I appreciate appreciate you letting me do that I've served on both as well and uh it is a line by line review of each departmental budget that is exhausting no no it's it's exhaustive I mean you guys it's not not what we do you're absolutely correct but we need your input because we it's invaluable um but before I quiet I want to say one other thing we've talked about year round housing a bit and we've talked about educational excellence and a vibrant and sustainable local economy Water Management Wastewater management responding effectively to the needs of the community but there's one larger macro issue that is of concern that I think we just want to keep in our Forefront and and be thinking about and that's when the outer Beach washes over in a moon tide without on easterly wind uh we got to take we got to take notion we got to take ATT pay attention when you go down in a boat and look at Morris Island and what's going on South Morris Island and South to the South we got to pay attention because we have a vibrantly changing or rapidly changing Coastal environment here in town the more silent Dyke the roadways the flooding in the roadways the we've got to pay we got to pay attention and that's that's could be a could be I'm not arguing to have anything baked into this budget but I think we need to keep thinking about what that means for this town financially and what kind of commitment we're going to make for Coastal resiliency because it could be it could be a big one and we've got so many other issues out there I just think this one's even larger than the issues we have standing now you look you look at the the maps of town from 1868 and horns Marina and the horns hul horns Cottage area was a swamp which it is slowly or maybe quickly reverting to in some respects the the dynamism of the ocean down off Morris island is just unbelievable it's unbelievable well Dynamic it is it's very powerful it's really really reshaping our Coastline and our interior Coastline not our not the outer Beach L the otter Beach is affected as well big time thank you for bringing that up because I we had it in our staff report but I know Coastal resiliency climate adaptation certainly keeps uh Greg bman up at night he he reminds me every time I see him so thank you for bringing that up so just a final word on the the scheduling again I sort of raised the question because it's more more of a topic for the select board than it is for us I'm happy and I'm sure we speak for the entire committee we'd be happy to consider any kind of process efficiencies that can make car's life a little easier and you I'm certainly happy to query the committee on a Saturday or whatever so thank you happy to chat okay are we okay with that where we sit right now yes yeah okay y thank you um so in case you didn't have a lot of questions or comments which you have and it's been very productive just put a prompt up about if there's anything any additional budget factors or Community priorities we should consider as we prepare for the FY 2026 budget so Jill I I I'm normally the public is not shy about raising their hand and asking questions but just for the record and for good order's sake let me note that we've had uh an invitation outstanding all all evening for public comment and if uh one one last time if anybody has anything uh uh they are welcome uh to do that um yeah no I understand I have a question to yeah U so go ahead Shireen and then we'll turn it over to U Scott and Michael I just have a comment again too um I think the coastal resiliency issue is is going to be like a a big a big topic very quickly but the other piece is that um you having some meetings with uh um uh we had Mass Municipal legislation up to date the other day and some of the things that are coming out of other communities and concerned is still that Community sustainability year round issue and I think that we should be looking at um you know I'm not talking about budgeting for anything for this year but I think we should have a deep dive back into where we're going to have to start putting you know uh Town Assets in to uh um to to be a survivable community um I don't that is not going away and um it's it should be a priority for us because it helps inform the schools we're building affordable housing which is great but there are other factors involved here that we have taken a look at in the past that we should be looking at again sh just for the sake of clarity sort of from a social perspective or yeah I think Jeff's kind of physical yeah I think it is a social perspective we should be looking at um if we're if we're going to have a thriving community and not become a resort we really do have to be uh mindful of this because we can be spending all kinds of money on beautiful things but if we don't have a substantial Community then we don't have anything fully agreed good on thank you and and if I could just add if we're referring to the same meeting Shireen I'm not sure we are but I'll prend I'll assume we are um the the state is very much aware of the CH some of the challenges that Shireen is referring to particularly year round and um and and housing and the state is looking to be a partner with us but um there's there's going to need to be um cooperation and and collaborative work to achieve some of the objectives that are important to us that and I and I I see that as a as a positive but um it it's also a recognition of um what the the needs that that that Shireen is referring to um and the need to to be helpful to the extent that they can you spot on on that thank you schools please Scott Carpenter superintendent uh Michael McMillan our business manager I can give you sort of an overview of what we're looking at at the schools in terms of enrollment our chatam students uh had a really small reduction uh we've only seen uh a reduction in two chatam students over the previous year so uh in our school system we've got uh 349 chatam students so a reduction of two is a point uh5 uh decrease in or uh increase in enrollment for chadam AR actually saw a slightly or proportionately larger uh decrease chadam Elementary School we're seeing we're seeing at both elementary schools decreased enrollment the when I I think when I came here 12 years ago there was a bubble that was uh that was at the kindergarten level at that time that bubble are now seniors and uh you know so so we're at this point where a high school that we built for 700 students is what MSA msba gave us the funding for for 700 students has 750 students in the high school because many of the families that you know that had been you know going out uh chose to come back and I think that's that's benefited us since you know we've seen a lot less money flowing out from our district um to other to other school districts so we have so we know we're we're seeing some some rewards of the academic program we also recognize that we need to keep investing in that Academic Program you know we're we're not seeing the outcomes that we want to see for students we're really focused on tier one classroom instruction and improving that we're also starting to see um just some demographic shifts happening you know so we so we have to be flexible in terms of addressing the you know the children that are in front of us we uh we are seeing increasing numbers of students who uh come from homes that speak another language uh and uh and that happens uh that happens I I would say uh even more at chadam elementary school than Harwich elementary school but those but we have you know we have year after year uh seen a need to increase English language learner supports in our school um I think you know so we have you know so we we have a lot of things where you know while our enrollment uh at the high school uh has has gone up when we look Beyond this year we can start you know we can start imagining that the high school is going to start ticking down in enrollment as as sort of smaller and smaller uh cohorts of students uh come up you know come up through the ranks um so I'm just trying to think of some of the other things that we uh you as we mentioned the uh you there's the roof that we'll hear about uh uh we have um uh Architects that have been doing a study of the Middle School sighting uh you know so we went before the towns thinking okay this is how much it's going to cost based on uh you know based on quotes that we had to reside the building when we brought in Architects we think that project's going to be more so there'll be a presentation uh uh before the school committee uh from The Architects uh this week uh and then as the month closes out hopefully we'll hear from the state uh whether we make the list on on the roofing project at the middle school so you so I do anticipate in the near future uh us seeing you know seeing changes is uh and seeing that outer envelope of the Middle School uh get tightened down and improved which will which will be great because it's it's a fantastic building and we want to go and you keep a great building great for you know great for years to come um I don't know Michael if there are other things that you want to talk about that we didn't hit on no I mean I think so we're presenting our five our fiveyear Outlook to the school committee this week and just the challenge that the superintendent outlined already the need for ongoing capital investment our although the student numbers are going down their needs are changing and increasing that's driving our staffing changes uh and also you know as was discussed earlier recruitment has been an issue it's encouraging to hear that you're getting more applications for positions but recruiting and retaining staff continues to be a challenge and that does drive up our costs and a another challenge we're just going to be facing is although so we have fewer just because of the way the enrollment is changing we have fewer places available for school choice students coming into the district and that has been a source of revenue for us in the past it's helped to offset the budget and assessments and we'll have fewer spaces going forward and so we'll have the fewer students coming in because we can't accommodate them but that will mean a reduction in our Revenue Associated of that so just to just to provide some clarity behind that so you can think of there's there's there's physical space within the building but uh but if you open up an entire classroom and fill it up with school choice students it ends up being a cost to the Two Towns you know so so filling up a classroom of students at $5,000 a student ends up costing the town significantly more you know than you know than the 80 to $100,000 that those students are bringing in it cost you know far more than that in terms of the teacher salary the teacher benefits a support staff's salary a support staff's benefits so so when you know so when we say our district is getting smaller if we look at decade ago chattam Elementary School had three classes per grade level uh chattam elementary school today has in most of the grades two class per Glade per grade level so there's just fewer classrooms that might have a free seat to go and bring in a school choice student so as as we have fewer classrooms there's just fewer possibilities for free seats the demand is still out there you know there you know right now we are the place that families would love to send their children that's what we want to have but um but we also have to be mindful of of being good stewards of the taxpayer Dollar in terms of you know opening classrooms and uh you know not not seeing us just fill up a classroom with children from another town uh that's I think sort of the model that chadam had before we regionalized where you know where the per people expenditures for chadam were much higher than harage because there were so many students that were in the in the schools U coming from other school districts that chadam was essentially subsidizing the cost of Education there so we've been sort of approaching school choice with a through a free seat model but as we have fewer classrooms in our you Contracting District they're just fewer spots for free seats please thank you um is there not a way a way or a mechanism to have the the amount that that it's char charged for an outof District student be commensurate with what it would cost so so uh for school choice it's it was set by the legislature in the 70s so and it's was set at 5,000 and has never changed um so I you know I I I I think you know for the school districts that have a lot of students that head out you could imagine changing that number would have a huge impact on their budget Scott I've got two questions if I could please do you have um visibility in what you think the stabilized enrollment or Michael would be at the high school we're trending off a high of 750 so I I mean I think if we you know if we look at Michael's been you know been plotting you know been plotting this out but you know but we have I think what our cohort sizes that are graduating are roughly around7 yeah in the 140s but if we look at what's the our like cohorts at in the elementary schools 910 yeah so you know so we're looking at you know going from like 147 is a graduating cohort heading out but the incoming cohort 12 years down the road is around 109 and that and and you know and it's it's hard to say what that 100 where that9 is going to go I think a lot of it is really going to depend on the housing conversations that happen across the region you know so you know so right now even you even with us like we we went into this last round of contract negotiations you know as a as an Administration as a school committee and definitely as a union on the other side wanting to make sure that we could have the you know have our salaries be something that was regionally competitive and that would allow people to stay here and and be on the cape but you know but each year we have young individuals who have been renting you know we you know we hire that young teacher they rent and they get to that point where it's like okay it's it's I'm I'm now married it's time to lay down Roots but I can't afford to lay down Roots here and you know so you don't want to continue to become the farm team for off cape and and that's you know that's what you know what has been happening I think we've been we've been luckier in the last couple years I think people have been finding housing um but we're still seeing young staff head off you head off Cape um you we you know we have far fewer openings this year you know I think you asked the question of of Jill like how many open you know you know open slots do you have out there in your Staffing you know last year we had you know more than a handful of instructional assistants that just weren't filled all year all year long uh you know this year I I think we probably are down to one instructional assist assistent that's not filled you know so we're you so I think the contract that we you know we agreed to with our you know with our Union has helped on that front I think you know we're seeing some stabilization there but I do you know but I do worry just what it takes to go and keep good young staff here so my second question is it it seems evident and I could certainly be incorrect in my my assessment of it but it seems as though over the last several years that that um your budgetary efforts have met with some resistance from Harwich U just in so far as cuts and prospective cuts and Staffing and the like if I'm right has it gotten to a point where it's becoming problematic for the quality of the education you and your team looks to deliver I mean one observation that you mentioned was you weren't satisfied with student outcomes presently um is that ultimately a policy question or an execution question and if it's policy is there anything that the town of chattam can do to kind of weigh in on that conversation relative to the town of Harwich you know I I would say I I I I think while while when we come to the chatam boards and present our budget I think they're there's you know maybe less you know less requests metaphorically to sharpen our pencil um than when we you know than we when we go to Harwich in in the recent years the harwi boards both the fincom and the select board have been supportive of our budget they you know they they definitely have asked good questions and pushed back but they have been you know they have been supportive and at the same time you know I I I think there you know there are questions that their board has has asked in terms of the regional agreement and have you know have just you know wondered about is the regional agreement as fair to harch it is as it is to as it is to chadam and I know we've had some conversations between the school the town and and both towns you know regarding that but I but I think the you know I we've I think we've been blessed to have support you know ever since I've been here from the hartch community okay you for our budget okay all right that's helpful thank you Dean sorry speaking of Harwich so what is the enrollment situation with Harwich have they gone up or down we lost two students so the Harwich so harwich's enrollment uh compared to chadam is uh is uh they have 11 uh 1155 and uh I think that's just I believe that's over the last over the last year that's a change of I think just one one child so I they've been holding fairly you know fairly level um you know har Harwich Elementary School compared to if we look at just the enrollment that's going on at the elementary level uh chadam elementary schools down 2% this year compared to last year harch elementary schools down 3% this year to last year so there's you know so there's you know but again it's I think postco right now I'm trying I I think it's hard to say you know what you know what what the cohorts are year after year we had uh we had a very small cohort last year in hartch uh we had a cohort that was large enough last year to have two sections of kindergarten and chadam this year we just have one section of of kindergarten at at at chadam elementary school anything else I think we're good uh do we have somebody on online I don't see anybody online is there anybody online I don't see anybody thank you great thank you so much so thank you um would you like to adjourn your meeting I like to my meeting motion to adj our meeting a second second second thanie is not here approve John yes Andy hi yes ER yes uh and from our side move toour second all those in favor Mr M hi uh Mr Dyk hi Miss Davis Hi Mr necastro hi and Mr Shell says I we are adjourned at 7:16 p.m. thank you everybody thanks very much [Music] [Music]