##VIDEO ID:NNgzbeoUDPo## this government meeting is brought to you by eastw works and our local cable subscribers good evening everybody uh thank you for joining us for a regular session meeting of the East Hampton school committee our first for the year 2025 uh we are going to roll call in Ben Ben hary here Eric Eric here Megan Megan here uh Laura Scot present Sam Sam Hunter here great um we are going to begin this evening with announcements and start with correspondence I don't have any correspondence to report I do have a note for our members to remind all of us elected that we are required even if you didn't fund raise or spend any money that you are required to file your year-end campaign reports with the city clerk um imminently okay okay uh Gibs I have a gift well I have a gift to report um I don't have any I don't have any so Sam go ahead uh we I just wanted to report that right before the holidays we received another um box of uh free covid tests for the um for U Mountain View school this time this was also from Comics and More Bookshop downtown and um I hear there's another one coming and I just have to uh arrange a time to pick it up and deliver it so I can pick it up our Morin will pick it up and deliver it so thank you very much to Comic more for that wonderful thank you we don't to accept it no okay cool um public comment uh there is anyone joining us in person or remotely if you want to raise your virtual hand to signal that you would like to share something we'll leave that open for about a minute just to see if anyone expresses interest in sharing their thoughts this evening okay all right seeing no one from the public interested in speaking this evening we're going to close public speak and move on to the superintendent update uh so tonight we wanted really talk about um what competency determination is uh I have a couple of slides if you want to put the slides up oh me the slid sure yeah do I have them yes do I what you the I got a Word document yeah that's it oh the word document I can share I can share you got it I said okay I was like looking for a slideshow do okay that would be great if you can do it cuz my computer has so people can see it let's see if it will let me do that um it actually might not let me do that hold on well I'll St anyway and says I'm not allowed to share my screen okay huh you're probably not a host neither am I I don't know let me just explain what it is anyway while I'll try again Sam oh going do what I can but sorry so basically um with the law that got changed about the mcast not being allowed as a graduation requirement uh that elimination of the mcast as a high school graduation requirement has actually um caused some challenges uh for school districts because uh in the past with the mcast being the way that was determined whether you got your high school diploma or not it no longer can be used as that for that reason so I just want I'm going to read you you know directly what the law says so being enacted by the people and by their Authority a law requiring that districts certify that students have mastered the skills competencies and knowledge of the state standards as a replacement for mcast graduation requirement so this is now what is there this is section 1D of chapter 69 the general laws appearing in the 20 2022 official Edition is hereby amended by striking from the first sentence of the words as measured by the assessment instruments described in section one which would be the mcast and is now replaced with the following by satisfactory completing course work that has been certified by the students District as showing Mastery of the skills competencies and knowledge contained in the State academic standards and curriculum Frameworks in the areas measured by the mcast high school test described in section one administered in 2023 and in any additional areas determined by the board so basically what that means is that um for those students that pass the mcast we'll talk about our grade 12 2025 students right now because that's what we're most concerned about any student that passed the mcast in English math and in science now just has to worry about passing the high school graduation requirements so if they have passed the mcast and they passed the high school graduation requirements set by uh the school committee of eastampton uh then they will graduate okay now for those students that have not passed the uh mcast requirements we now have to do which is a competency determination so uh today we met for a little while uh with the high school and District leadership in the high school to talk about how are we going to prove that students actually have the competencies in order to for us to give them their High School diploma so you you'll have two things now one is your graduation requirements and now your competency so the competency has to be in the areas that the test was taken in the spring of 2023 so the subjects will will be you know English um Algebra 1 geometry Algebra 2 or it could be physics biology and environmental science so the work that we did today is that um and we'll we'll give this to the school commit when we're complete for example um it will be do they pass the class because the course the course requirements are that we meet the state guidelines so it has to be in English 10 and then again that most kids will be geometry and most kids will be biology right or some kids will be physics so if they pass the class in grade 10 then we will accept that that they have they have met the competency determination in those three areas mhm if they have not passed the class is where the challenge comes in because then they either have to make up the class or we have to decide how else can they show us competencies in those areas all right now uh we'll move to transfer students so students that transfer into the district well can I pause so let's say so these are three different buckets that we're talking about we're talking about mathematics Ela and science so in the science Avenue if let's say student takes physics and doesn't pass they could take biology or vice versa or they could retake the class that didn't pass that's right in the math bucket that's geometry or some other Algebra 2 mhm then Ela can they move to I mean are they not already required to have have passed English 10 to graduate like is that not a redundant requirement so so we're really just looking at how we would substitute the math and so they don't have to really pass English 10 they have to have four years of English so they might take a creative English course their senior year so you have to have four years of English but this says you have to pass English 10 well this is saying what we determine is the equivalent of what they were tested on as 10th graders from the MC okay so it has to be 10th grade standard so they have to be pass 10th gr standard so let's we talked about today so let's say say for example you have a student that passed nth grade English filed 10th grade English passed 11th grade English they have to pass that 10th grade they have to be able to show that they were able to pass whatever those guidelines were for 10th grade English right so that's the you know that's kind of the tricky part about if they didn't pass so they could use the retest results um that happen prior to the day when the mcast no longer can be used for graduation say that one more time they can use the retest results so in the in the fall we gave retests for the mcast for the mcast and so and we don't have those results yet but we should be getting them um if they passed prior to when the law was agreed upon changed we can use those results okay so all right now the other part of it is the John and Abigail Adams scholarships all right they can take the February retest not for competency determination because that test will have occurred after the law CH the law was changed so they cannot do that for the accet determination but they can do that if they want to apply for the cnick scholarship or the John and John and abigil Adam so the mcast can still be used for scholarship purposes but you're saying that part of that law and I didn't understand this at the time part of that law is not saying we aren't required to use it as graduation requirement it is saying we explicitly cannot use it as a graduation requirement as a metc well we can decide that we want to use the M option or can we do it student by student for these situations you laid out no we could set it has to be a districtwide everybody takes it and it can qualify or or nobody is allowed that opportunity even if the example well I guess we could find that out we can't say that comparable like if we say it's not a requirement but if you do not pass English 10 but you do pass mcast that can be interchangeable could be an can decide that or the district in theory could we we are empowered to create our own exam kind of that would can do that too test to so that might be a better Avenue so for the kids that don't pass which is a small number by the way right there are no when we look today there were zero 2025 grad forecast the problem address after however there were more than 11 current 11th graders that did not pass yeah okay so for those 11th graders they may have passed English 10 and if they did then they don't have to take the end pass or if they passed the map so we what we have to do now is go back and look at uh for those kids that did not pass we need a little menu of options in those three areas that meet the standards for grade 10 those three areas so which also brings us to the special ed students Megan has a question so we've been talking about this in terms of like they do or do not have to have it but the test will still be given during the school day to everybody they sit down they take to 10th graders and it's we're just talking about so everyone will take it as we always have done okay it's just whether or not that's going to count everybody will take be used for scholarships it can be used for looks good on your resume so that everybody has to take it and now it will be used for your school accountability for State because the federal government states there has to be one test that the whole state takes and so it is the mcast right now so you know the challenge for all of us is going to be uh you also get appraised on how many students take the test and everybody tries to go for 100% or 99% yeah uh now that the test does not have that signific begin for high school students for graduation you know everybody is kind of worried about what's going to happen because a participation rate is part of your accountability so we'll wait and see yeah but you can't you can't out of 10th grade that gu you can now right you couldn't before but now you can be sacrificing your ability if you don't come to school of course but then you would have to pass 10th grade engl English right wait have to do that anyway because one is graduation requirements the other now is they've been divorced from one another already is what what we're saying so it's the competency determination we the mcast was that it is no longer that we cannot use it unless pass a policy do that can I I just have a question in the past before the ballot initiative what would happen if if a if somebody did not pass the 10th grade mcass they would have to take the retest so they would take the retest do they take it in 10th grade or do they take it they continue to take it they take it so they continue to take it until they or after you took it so many times you could apply what they call for EP EP which right where they would you know you've taken it you you have you haven't passed it so many times then it's a like a portfolio submit submittance and then they you have to show that the kid did have the uh knowledge in each of the areas and it went to the state and they reviewed like a portfolio similar to what they do for the for the alts and they would decide whether that student did show that that's a huge process so okay so there are no more waivers and what we're trying to solve now is we have we have a a small number of students who didn't pass the mcast in 10th Grade yes but and we need to establish their we need to determine competency yes and we're going to try to do it by looking at their classes so they pass their class is then then the school communte would say yes I just don't want the public to get confused like we're not we're not trying to make the mcast graduation requirement like I just want to be clear about the problem that we're solving people voted voted against it yes no we we were one of the communities that voted the most against it so um when you say that we have met will you just let us know who is meeting and discussing the competency requirements oh yeah so it's the right now um um Nick went Julian uh myself a special department head um sue wellson the vice principal and the principal and now the next step is we're going to be meeting with guidance okay great because um you know guidance obviously you might have to reschedule some kids to take some classes again you know depending upon where they're at um thank you so it's just important that people know because the the state can no longer by law certify competency that now we have to think of another way of doing it just in those classes English Math and Science and it has to be according to the standards of the 2023 mcast and so there's a there is a form that came out and that's the form that you I I put right there so everybody can see it we're going to put it on the district uh website that is those are the questions that um were put out by desie like how does the new law how does the new law pack students in the class of 2025 and explains you know uh they have they have to show Mastery of Common Core skills competency and knowledge and the district has to certify that so the state will not be certifying any competencies and then um how can the district locate that's just for the district how do we know what the status is for all our students uh there's what they call Edwin analytics it's a secure portal superintendent can go into it so principes have access and you can uh you could see on the CD roster uh who still needs to pass the mcast are students still able to establish local graduation requirements yes this does not change that just this is just adds the CD requirements uh school districts allowed to use a student scores on high school mcast test as part of their local graduation requirements is what you were asking apart from the competency and it says yes the establish of a local graduation requirement is at the sole discretion of school districts but that's apart from a competency determination and uh then again we talked about this which mcast High School tests were offered in 23 so English language arts is for English for math math science there were four options biology introductory physics chemistry or Technology and Engineering M um can students in the class of 2025 earn a CD by attaining the required score on a spring 2025 mcast Administration which would be the retest or the regular and the answer is no um because students beginning the 2425 school year without the competency determination may earn it through the November 24 retest or an appeal but students may not earn the CD through these processes once the new law took effect so the appeal would have had to been written also prior to the date so there a list of questions there uh what are the requirements for districts in developing a process so uh basically um usually it comes from the schools get together they decide you know because it's about scheduling and looking at the data and then they will come up with the document and they will submit it to the school committee I will defitely be providing a list of courses that meet the new language of the law no um you know usually it's not up to them to list the courses so that would be up to the district our districts required to accommodate former students this is a very important one if they're former students listening is that if you are former student and you did not graduate uh because you did not pass the mcast uh you can contact the school and we have to got a plan in place so that uh we'll be you'll be able to earn your competency determination so is there date attached to that there isn't so just want to make sure everybody's very clear about that if anybody's um listening you know if you have a student a former student in your family or if you were a former student who did not get your diploma because you did not pass the mcast but you did pass your other courses um definitely re-engage with the district and there's no date limit so that's right if you had been considering like do I want to just do a GED but that feels somehow unsatisfactory to you there may be another option yeah no absolutely so and does this include and maybe you're getting to this students with disabilities who stay like stayed until 22 got a certificate of completion did not pass the mcast so the what would happen with them is that their courses probably did not meet the standards the standards of the 10th grade English Math and Science interesting so if if you fall into that category reach out to me because I want to figure this out yeah I can have question yeah um what was my question question oh do we have a list of people who have not met the requirement so who didn't get a diploma that we could reach out out to them that's a great question yes every school has a list of those stud can we do that get a form letter send it out I would really like to what are the odds that they watching this meeting exactly extremely L somebody somebody might know somebody though that's watching the meeting right things yeah um but it's a it's a good question I think also about the special end part is that so one of the things today that we talked about is the renaming of classes because um a lot of inclusion students might have Support classes that are not really named the same way like English English one English two exactly so they they need to be renamed so that those students if they pass those classes are eligible for that high school diploma because really like if and just to make sure everybody's clear about where this comes from Legally if you require ire modifications to the curriculum due to your disability you know you you are still entitled to complete school and receive a a diploma and in in in the past um they've not been able to do that because they weren't able to pass the endast so and and of course all it does not apply to all students because it's a different situ a different thing but so it's just it's an interesting thing so if you think you know of a student who falls or former student who falls into that category um we're definitely we definitely want to engage with the and and help you figure it out mhm I have one other question I noticed that the science had four categories and I know that our chemistry wouldn't you know most of our kids wouldn't be able to access that till they either pass through bio or physics to get to chemistry but that Technology and Engineering piece is interesting to me is could we dig a little bit and find out I know we have some coursework in that at the high school I know there's talk of trying to expand science programming there but I'm wondering if there's a course that's maybe partway to kind of satisfying that that we don't think of in that way if that might be a really useful third tier biology and physics are both very intricate and specific and I can see there being the likelihood of a child who has otherwise satisfied everything else but gets kind of tripped up in that Arena but like maybe Tech and Engineering would be it's a hard one uh the tech we we used to the standards are much higher yeah still I'm not saying they're higher or lower I'm saying it's a different kind of learning and understanding that like if I could see there being a population of students who could be successful in that where it's actually a course you know you it's like take the course I understand I'm saying I wonder if we have something that's already very similar or partway there if we could for the next year to kind of look at that maybe offer that third that's an idea too yeah anyway um let's see so we high school students be required to take mcast 25 Beyond yes as I I explained that desie accountability system will continue to use assessment participation rates which we just talked about that being a challenge and the resulting achievement and growth data and its annual determinations made through the district and the school accountability system so underperforming schools or schools that are in need of intervention as they call them now uh will still uh be assigned to schools that on the basis of what their scores are on the mcast and then students still required to provide a free appropriate public education fape for students with disabilities and yes it does has not changed any of the fape requirements and there's a connection on this uh where you can read The Advisory about special ed that came out 2018 uh will Desy continue to offer mcast retest opportunities for high school students so they are offering um no students are required to take the retest in Spring but they do have the opportunity to do that that but that again is so that you can have opportunities for the scholarships to still apply for the scholarships um will desie continue to adjudicate appeals that have been submitted to desie so they will adjudicate all performance appeals received by the effective date of the new law so as of right now if there's any appeals that go in uh they will not be adjudicating those and then we already talked about the John Abigail Adams scholarship program the L cob certificate also the seal by literacy so the Sealab by literacy says that you have to get a um proficient in the English part or advance in the English part of the mcast and then you also have to pass the biliteracy test so um they're still going to use that so that you can get the sale of biliteracy so you could take the you know you result out of the test would be that uh this said that the lot took effect on December 5th so anything that happened after there um was the new law and um then they talk about the English language ads and math scheduled for November this came out right this actually just came out but they're talking about November 20 24 so we haven't got the results yet that's the one that we students took in English language uh in math for the retest uh those goals will count for the compeny termination do high school students still need to earn a compens determination order to graduate yes you have to prove that you have learned the standards um and then what is the impact of the law on students who have previously earned a CD before the date so obviously if you already earned your CD uh then you're all set you're ready just going to do the graduation requirements um let's see and what is is that the same question let me see what is the impact of the law oh yeah that's really funny yeah they have the same thing twice so that is it that's the it's kind of a little confusing when you first hear about it but then it makes sense right so graduation requirements and how do you prove that you're competent in English math and science based on 10th grade test from 2023 it's it's simple when you think about it that you just have to remember that there's two things now right because the mcast is no longer there for the state to certify so now we have take hold the role right okay and so your team is working on this and we'll bring it to the Comm so we hope to bring it to we're hoping to get it done for the ne the next H SCH meeting if not the one after that and then is that something that the committee would vote on to approve yes okay and would there hopefully when it gets presented to us could we build in time for the public to hear it does it make sense to have sort of like speak or a public hearing they could around so we can sort of get feedback on how folks are feeling yeah we'll schedule it that way anything new like that we prefer not to vote on this evening it's introduced so yeah okay great we don't have any seniors uh as what we looked at today that this would affect so we're really thinking about what are we going to do for the juniors but that would be important because they're going to be scheduling their classes in the spring we want to make sure the classes they take help them to meet confidency to recation if they didn't that's right all right makes sense thank you so much is that all any other questions that was really helpful no thank you welcome U shall we do you think Jus I see has joined us do you want to switch gears for the public that might be following along with the agenda under announcements item D was in presentation by Jesus Lea regarding the resolution to support Mass promise to invest and Jesus is joining us now just got out of a meeting good evening Jesus you can unmute yourself I think you can un unmute yourself yeah we go hi can you hear me hi yes thank you for joining us uh Sam I'm going to turn the chair over to you just to kind of open the discussion and um I believe you might even have a presentation to share screen share with us um I don't I think it'll be we'll be pretty brief I think we're good so um Jesus approached me uh well actually uh Community member um connected the two of us a couple of months ago um with um this Mass promise to invest uh um and I'll have Jesus give us an overview and then we can talk about it great hi um thank you for uh taking the time to uh to consider this resolution I prepared a very brief statement that I I'd like to read from just to keep it sort of concise yeah great great so um and Ju Just to explain um Mass promise to invest is a small Grassroots advocacy group of uh western Mass residents who are concerned with um how the school funding works at the state level and more specifically the municipal cost impact of charter school and school choice on low and moderate income districts um but eastampton is not unique in its struggle with Municipal funding for the east eastampton school district and eastampton joins over 200 Commonwealth school districts in being minimum Aid districts and many more as declining enrollment in public school districts in general eastampton like many other districts did not receive a substantial increase from the student Opportunity Act while a number of school districts received a 5% 10% or even 20% increase over Chapter 70 funding for one or more years of implementation of the student Opportunity Act eastampton received a combined 88.4% increase over the 5 years of current implementation of theun act this is not sufficient to even account for inflation over those 5 years this burden and underfunded state aid relative to increase in costs even when factoring for declining enrollment is made worse by the cumulative effect of charter school choice assessments on the eastampton public school district can you still hear me all right yes yes okay that if you in case just if you hear that dingdong that's just somebody joining the meeting remotely you can plow right through it fine okay we believe the total net assessment amount for eastampton of 1.86 million is reflective of the under calculated need in school funding by the state's Chapter 70 funding formula the the 2.83 million amount or this 1.86 million amount is the 2.8 3 million amount after factoring receipts from school choice receiving and current Charter School reimbursement so 1.86 million is sort of the remainder of what East Hampton is responsible for in assessments against its Charter against its Chapter 70 funding tonight we're hoping eastampton school committee will join Northampton ammer ammer pelm Regional South Hadley and Greenfield school committees as well as the Northampton City Council in advocating to seek immediate funding relief from the Commonwealth for legislative policies whose Financial impact on school districts across the state is asymmetrical and falls disproportionately on districts with the least means and or the and or the most needs I'd like to thank the eastampton school committee for considering supporting this resolution and while a resolution might feel insufficient in legislative power to make a difference I can assure you that endorsements and resolutions passed so far in support of this advocacy have created political Capital to bring this issue to the Forefront of the attention of several local and non-local state legislators and education funding Advocates we must also remember that the Massachusetts Association of school committees is empowered by school committees and when you pass a resolution and notify masc of its passage you are telling them what you want them to prioritize in school funding advocacy there are countless reasons why we make this specific advocacy request and funding which cannot all be enumerated here but we would welcome questions you might have about this advocacy about the funding and why eastampton support on this resolution is important thank you if I may yeah we've spoken on the record first of all beautifully stated Jesus thank you very much we're on the record we're on the record as not being common supporters of resolutions and I want to clarify I want to clarify my position on that and you may want to speak to it as well um I think they I think they lose potency I think their potency is is uh tied directly to their frequency of use first of all so I think you keep your powder dry so to speak so that when you take an action such as this it has the highest impact that you can hope that it has I also think that a resolution that is just let's say a statement of values or an identification of a problem leaves the public wondering then what or so what so I think the most valuable resolutions not only communicate your values and identify a problem but they also prescribe a solution um which I think is what sets this apart and and draws my interest in and support and one of the one of the things that I've really appreciated uh about working on this uh with Asus and with um with the other folks who've been working on this is that this is something that that came out of um kind of one well a couple of school districts and now it's sort of a more of a regional thing and I know that Jesus has been working to identify supporters in other parts of the state as well there's definitely um State reps that are interested in paying attention to this and I I noticed um there seems to just kind of be a difference in the way that this is getting talked about in a way that makes me hopeful um I think we've all kind of I I think it's kind of dawning on everybody that the idea that like School enrollment you know is tied like per pupil funding tied to school enrollment you know makes means that our school district you know our enrollment numbers are going to go up when our services improve and our services are going to improve because we're competing in an Open Marketplace with you know other school districts and Charter Schools it it turns out like public education particularly when people are having fewer children like doesn't really work that way so I think um it's been really exciting and kind of invigorating to be like okay how do we get this message across um and so what what we did was I took the um the one that ammer pelum passed I've looked at all of the resolutions that have passed um I've looked at ammer pelum as kind of a model and then I um changed you know changes to be a little more reflective of East Hampton I think but it's just basically it's just kind of laying out what the what the concerns are and then just asking our legislators to do something about it essentially leaving that like pretty open to interpretation um and um we're sending it I'm I you know we're asking to send it to um our state representatives um homar Gomez and John veis and um our state representative Aaron Saunders as well as um and then our Senator Joe cumerford and um wait that's not our Senator who's our senator cord is not is not well we're right on the cost so Northampton has a different like Omar and Johnn but then you have I put him in there I put put two the same chair in there twice this is why we go through it yeah so and comeford would cover like McGovern that's it uh so anyway I'm going to strike that out and put McGovern in there sorry McGovern and um and then also sending it out to the East Hampton City Council and the mass Association of school committees um and I think um it's just like a good opportunity for us to um like kind of join with some other districts in sort of saying out loud what the problem is um and I appreciate the opportunity to do that anybody else have questions I don't go ahead you go first sure uh I don't think AR saers is related to us either no just he's a friend of mine he's a good guy shout out to eron preaching to the choir but I just have to say thank you for doing this work um it's incredibly needed um and one of the things that really bothers me about this situation that has we've sort of found ourselves in as a state is the amount of inequity that it creates for kids um so in eastampton we have been advocating incredibly hard not that other districts are not um but we also have a city council and a mayor who are working with us to maintain positions and keep services for kids and that's not true in every district and that is happening because these shortfalls are they unless someone puts in 14 extra per to a budget you have to cut something um so wholeheartedly I sign on and thank you aome anyone else um yeah I just commend your Precision on how you just addressed us with that information it was very easy to understand I think with this recording for people to listen to and just looking over what your goals are it makes complete sense we would we would look into that and um I don't think anyone knowledgeable or unknowledgeable would would would shake their head in shock if we said that we're underfunding districts in our state so I think that anyone in the position where you are where you're fighting for this type of uh equality of of funding is uh commendable so thank you for bringing this to our attention for sure je bore U so so one of the thoughts that that I have on this is I always wish that there could be more relief for I always wish there could be more relief for um special ed funding um because you have to reach a certain threshold in order to get some some relief uh from the state on that and also um for us the homeless transportation is also a very uh is adding up yeah so that it's a 50/50 split now but I always think that maybe the state could give some relief on on on those two areas also because those are the areas um so you can have a decrease in student population but that does not address the increase in needs right so you know I don't know there's a lot I know you already have in this proposal and I appreciate that you did that I do also think about those other things that are being huge costs for us here um and it's very difficult um to to meet those needs when it is you know Chapter 70 based on your enrollment and uh also if you get an increase in enrollment during a year uh there's no more money that year you have to wait till October 1st to come around so I think that the formula itself I know the Chapter 70 formula itself is you know very uh difficult to understand and very complicated but you know I I do appreciate what you're asking for and you know I wish that there were those additional things that we could also add to that or at least have conversation about hey sus you had your hand up yeah I I just wanted to say two things first I wanted to clarify that it's my understanding that uh representative uh Gomez and Senator vus are the legislators for for eastampton that's correct the state legislator in in terms of the state legislature um but to uh address the idea around a special education and special education expenses that's actually one of the places where our group first looked at um Senator Ali Vera yep had filed bills in the last legislative session uh to try to increase both the uh the threshold for special education expenses as well as the reimbursement amount right uh what we found that is if you um break down the claims per capita by District that unfortunately um the some of the wealthiest and largest districts in the state are the ones that have uh the highest claims per capita and that's because those districts have a better ability to Advocate uh for IEPs for their for their students both through their parents and through the districts themselves and so without actually until we actually study the the special education expenses and how they work I I think at this point uh if we attempt to support increases in special education expenses through the uh through the existing channels that unfortunately in terms of equity we're going to be funneling more amount of money to the wealthier districts um as a result of those kinds of proposals and so that's one of the reasons why we have focused on the sending tuition assessments because we believe that uh students that are being lost by districts through school choice and charter school is a very clear indicator of a of a need for funding for low and moderate income districts it it it basically demonstrates very clearly that these districts that are not able to spend a large amount of money above Foundation budget which many wealthy districts do are losing students to school choice in charter schools and eastampton happens to be one of those districts that does not uh fund uh a lot more above Foundation budget as so many as so many districts do um many wealthy districts are able to afford fund 20 or even 30% over Foundation budget and clearly eastampton is not that wealthy thank you do you have any interest in speaking to this I don't want to put you on the spot if you don't have no okay yeah okay saying no but getting up our business our director of Business Services is here tonight with us as well and I would I'd love to hear your thoughts if you're willing to share hi can uh everyone hear me yes uh well first of all Jes Zeus thank you for your work on this I mean I'm certainly an advocate for uh relooking at the Chapter 70 formula and how State a is distributed to districts um you know I think years back when the student Opportunity Act was being thought of I the goal was to have it be more equitably distributed but you know there's been some shortcomings as that's you know gone to fruition um I I would say particularly in the special education area as our superintendent just brought up I mean you know at the risk of of boring everybody with the ins and outs of the Chapter 70 formula um you know the student Opportunity Act it's not just based on your foundation enrollment there's also parts of your population they look at such as special ed students English Learners um lowincome students and you know they come up with formulas based on your your numbers there um to kind of you know give give more Aid in that direction um in my opinion I I think the one big shortfall is Is AO District tuition students because they don't actually count the number of students you've tuition out to other places that they give you like a flat percentage based on your foundation enrollment Which is far lower than you know we have so you know we we don't make up for that in state aid as some uh wealthier districts as Jesus mentioned might um so you know I I certainly thank you for that that work um I I always would advocate for for more funding and and I actually I emailed Sam back yesterday regarding this I'm not sure if you read it or not I said I said it I sent you the email from the wrong email address so I didn't read it yet okay well it's in there for you I responded I assure you um and you know i i g i put some numbers in it and you just gave you a couple of of my thoughts um you know um the school choice piece I just you know if the state were to kind of rethink the way they assess municipalities for choicing out students I don't know what that would do to the revenue of students choicing in right you know so I mean that that could be like a like an unintended consequence of of something like this depending on what any potential uh legislation looks like and you know I I just I don't want to forget that because districts do rely on that Revenue um unfortunately a lot of districts lose more students to choicing out than to choicing in um for various reasons and you know some are certainly more susceptible to Charter Schools as well including East Hampton because we have a charter school within our city borders um which about between 70 and 75 students attend every year from here so that that definitely is it hurts the the school budget big time um so I I totally agree with chair Scott in terms of resolutions and their use and I I think that that they should only be used uh a if their Solutions uh focused and B with discretion because they do lose their meaning if they occur all the time um but you know I I this is certainly one I would support um just you know because the the state funding formula should be looked at I mean it's I the SOA had good intent I have no doubt in my mind um I was actually just in the process of getting my business manager certification when that was coming out and I was going uh you know masbo meetings and and learning about it as it was happening and there you know and I didn't didn't know a ton about school funding back then but you know it seemed exciting I mean everybody there was excited about it and and the impact it would have on their districts and then the pandemic hit which kind of obviously threw you know wrenches and everything um you know the the other piece of the formula doesn't capture necessarily I mean they look at the number of special ed students you have but you know there's a lot of students that have needs that don't end up in that bucket either I mean just that the social emotional needs that are out there now since since the pandemic happened and you know it might not necessarily qualify somebody you know as having a disability but it doesn't mean that there's not support that students need due to you know trauma and whatnot depression loneliness things that happened during the pandemic so that doesn't get captured in there either I mean I so I think the bottom line the needs we're seeing now it does not match the increase in state aid that's occurred over the last few years yeah I want to highlight one thank you for that Nick I want to highlight one other point too in my view East Hampton and many others like it sit almost as sandwich communities so like for example we might bleed out some Choice out to some attractive Charter Schools or to slightly wealthier districts and we receive from the south of us largely from even more economically challenged communities we receive in a lot of students and the other part and piece you know I don't think anybody is seeking to vilify competing Public Schools or the idea of charter schools I've only ever taken issue with the funding structure and I think this highlights that um but it should be acknowledged publicly that particularly charter schools and often Choice situations don't don't Embrace accepting and sharing the burden of the needs that special ed students have they they often times and I won't speak to exactly how but the way it shakes out is their percentages of special students that they service are much much much lower than sandwich communities such as ours and not only does that come with a staffing cost and if it's just it's an it's costly on all levels and and we don't want to sacrifice what we offer our students with special needs but we also just need to keep the lights on yeah and we are you know we're one of many communities in Massachusetts that follow to that umbrella where you know we we don't bring in the the revenue and the property taxes that some of your you know much wealthier places do we're not rural so we don't get rural Aid We're Not Regional so we're not getting Transportation reimbursement um you know we're not lwi income to the extent where like 90% of your your you know school funding is chapter 708 so it's just we kind of just ended up in in a place where where the structure of that formula did not benefit us that much and and we're not alone at The masbo Institute in 20 2024 that was talked about a lot um during when the key there was a keynote speaker and it happened to be the um acting commissioner and um that was that was brought up by several people you know from communities comparable to East Hampton so suburban and exurban right more Subban communities yeah um and you know so it's out there it's out there but you know I I certainly think it helps to keep putting it out there yeah agreed anyone else have comment um Jesus got his hand up again oh Jesus I'm sorry I missed you did you have something else to contribute sure I I I just wanted to um and sort of go back to what the uh business manager was saying about school choice um the school choice piece is really complicated obviously um and we don't want to negatively impact those districts that benefit from school choice and are in fact relying it on it for their funding as a result of students that they lose to Charter Schools um so uh the the particular um proposal that's before you for resolution for endorsement only looks at uh underwriting net school choice assessments and it's asking for the state to underwrite it so this would not come out of the cost of the school choice positive communities and we're currently focused on the charter school piece specifically in our discussions with uh the representatives around the filing of the bill and we're hopefully going to try to add the school choice piece in later when we have um some of those situations um more understood in terms of the school choice piece I I appreciate that and I also just want to say it is just like really exciting to me personally having been on school committee about a decade ago to hear that we are that like the idea that we are making enough money back on school choice that that is it's significant like that's a really big deal here and that is not the conversation that we were having when I was first on school committee so just put that's just kind of an East Hampton specific thing um and I also just want to comment on it just hasn't come up yet in this conversation and I always like to point it out we in our community we we really want to have a world language program we really want to have languages available for our students at the middle scho at the middle school in particular like that is really really important to us that is a strong Community value of ours and there is a you know a Chinese immersion school down the street from us and and we can't have a world language program because of the the cost to send these temp to S eastampton residents to that Chinese immersion school so like the fact that like our kids don't have access to languages um so that we can pay for a school that does bilingual education can I say to fa we are not faulting the families who make that choice abely we are examining the funding structures in place that leave people with these difficult to Impossible choices to make to advocate for their own children exactly like you have to you do what is the right thing for your own kid you know and I I always like want parents to do the thing that like if your child needs something different you should be able to go and get that different thing it it just shouldn't be such a disaster detriment of another Community yeah exactly and and you know like and speaking of someone I my child did you know it did do a great in a different District once and like it was needed and and um I'm glad I had the choice to do that but like the impact that it has on our district in particular is really um upsetting so I'm excited that it seems like we're kind of moving a in a direction in the state generally where we're all kind of coming around to this idea that it's not it's not working um which is also exciting because that is not what I remember you know 10 years ago of we were not kind of all there yet so so two things first of all I want to compliment Jesus I think your delivery is pitch perfect you didn't ask for this but I think you you'll make an excellent Ambassador um you are not we tend to get very emotional and histrionic when we talk about things like that you have a really lovely Manner and and just a beautiful way of articulating the issue that I think Eric reference this it is really digestible for people to understand even if they don't have a lot of expertise so I appreciate that um secondly I would just like a kind of casual straw pole show of hands to see if everyone feels comfortable voting on this tonight or if you had adequate time time to read it um if we should vote on it on the 28th or if we're com so if you would raise your hand if you are comfortable voting on it tonight and if you're not that's not okay all right so we do so um I would entertain um a motion to do you want me to read it out loud that would be that would be the motion and then for the okay um so motion to to read I guess no so um it would be a okay that's okay um it would be motion to adopt and endorse the following resolution and then you'll read the text of the resolution okay so um motion to adopt and endorse the following resolution um East Hampton school committee resolution calling for the Commonwealth of Massachusetts to underwrite Charter School tuition and school choice uh whereas 1.86 million is the amount for school choice and charter schools that was deducted from the East Hampton Public School District state aid in the fiscal year 2025 whereas this resolution addresses school funding and equity in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts and its effect on East Hampton Public Schools it joins similar petitions in other affected communities in the Commonwealth whereas this resolution is to ask the Commonwealth of Massachusetts to change the ways that charter school and school choice are funded by underwriting the municipal cost of sending tuition for low-income and moderate income cities and towns whereas under massachusetts's current funding system for each student residing in the city of eastampton who chooses to attend a charter school almost all of the funding from the city for that student follows them to the Charter School whereas under massachusetts's current funding system for each student residing in East Hampton who chooses to attend another Public School District a smaller but significant portion of the Public Funding from that from the city f for that student follows them to the chosen School District whereas the current funding system costs public school districts much more than it saves them by educating fewer students whereas when a student leaves a school the cost to operate that school remains relatively unchanged making it difficult to proportional decrease expenses in response to reductions in enrollment whereas many of the costs associated with running a school district are fixed cost costs including maintenance utilities Transportation student services and benefits negotiated in good faith for public employees whereas this results in a downward spiral of budget cuts that perpetuates the loss of students to charter schools and wealthier school districts and a continued decline in school funding loss of programming and support staff whereas the Commonwealth of Massachusetts is obligated by its Constitution to to provide a public education to all of its children rich and poor in every city and town whereas Charter Schools do not take on the full fiscal responsibility of free and appropriate public education of students with disabilities and students with those needs are routinely excluded from Charter Schools whereas the current funding system siphons valuable and necessary Public Funding disproportionately from low-income and moderate income school districts now therefore be it resolved that the school committee of the East Hampton public schools in cooperation with our Municipal Partners in the East Hampton City Council call calls upon the Commonwealth of Massachusetts to correct this inequity by taking long overdue financial responsibility for the charter school and school choice assessments for lwi income and moderate income school districts we are asking the Commonwealth to increase state aid to the east hampon Public School District by changing the funding formula for school choice tuition and Charter School tuition and not deducting any funds from state aid for public schools for school choice and Charter Schools uh be a further resolve that the East Hampton Public School District requests our local state and appointed elected and appointed officials to actively support this policy change and be further resolved that the chair of the East Hampton Public School District or her design shall send a copy of this resolution to state representatives Omar Gomez John vus state senator uh Jim McGovern and uh the East Hampton City Council president and the mass Association of school committees um just a can I get a second second yes thank you Megan I'm a note to revise I'm going to strike Aaron Saunders yes don't know how he ended up on there and why are we sending as to Joe comford she is not our Representative no McGovern neither is McGovern so to be clear come uh yeah yeah McGovern and and Joe cumerford both take care of Northampton and it's a common we're so close that it gets confused send it to the right people Laura okay uh we'll do um and um I did meet with um uh Connie denim councelor denim and she is planning on bringing the resolution to the city council as well to coor um I'll check on the date on that so we have a motion in a second are there any other questions or further discussion maybe seeing none uh all those in favor of the supporting the resolution please say I I I all those opposed say nay any extensions seeing none motion carries unanimously thank you so much Jesus we really appreciate this and we thank you so much thank you um um you can stay right where you are Miss Bernier guess was a good segue to my uh for your finance and personal upate last Business Report I'm going to give you really yeah it's starting to feel real now with under 3 weeks left um I guess before I start with the Doom and Gloom I'll uh I'll you know just I'd like to take the opportunity to thank the committee uh for for everything over the years um you know I've I always had your support I think we've worked well together collaboratively um you know with the former school committee I just I appreciated the opportunity um you know to to be here and and um you know I've valued the relationships that I've I've made and um I think in the last two and a half years we've done a lot of positive work from you know what what I walked into um in terms of the the large gap between the school committee and City Council of improved budgets for that year um and you know how we solved that issue and worked through it and built relationships and you know got us in a place where where the last two budgets were were pretty smooth um so you know I'm I'm proud of that work and you know it couldn't happened without the committee's support and dedication to the the students of the district so um thank you all um you know January 31st will not be an easy day for me um you know it's not like you know I'm running to the door cheering counting the minutes you know it's it's not going to be easy to walk out of here but um you know again thank you and uh on to the business report um at this point uh 54.63 per of our local appropriation has been either spent or is encumbered uh it's important to note that some expenses currently in the general fund will be reclassified to other funding sources as the year gets closer to ending um um continuing to monitor the fy2 budget for areas to watch um really it's a district tuition special education transportation and mckenny vento transportation um at this point there areas of of great concern um I met with the finance subcommittee last uh last week and you know talked about this in Greater detail and you know likely during that the finance committee update on the agenda um the the chair of that committee will will give the full committee an update um I'm kind of where we stand uh where I think you'll end up at the end of the year in terms of a deficit and um you know different paths the committee can can choose to take to to to deal with that um regarding the FY 26 budget process uh it's in full swing at this time principes and directors have given me all the the necessary information uh needed to build the first draft of the FY 26 proposed budget um I'm also looking at budgeted and actual spending totals from past years because you know you want to look at the history and see if there's any areas you've under or over budgeted um a budget timeline's been developed uh including meetings with the leadership team we scheduled Finance subcommittee meetings uh last week when we met um culminating with the public Hearing in late March that I believe would be March 26th I think um yes 5th 25th 5th excuse me March 25th would be the public hearing um the governor's house one budget is due out um next week on January 22nd so uh at that point we'll have an idea of what the chapter 78 will look like or at least might look like I mean often times the the minimum Aid per pupil increases as the state budget process kind of unravels it did it did this year um it often starts with $30 a student this year it went up to 104 um no idea what it'll be going into next year or if we'll be minimum eight I mean my guess would be we would be but there's no telling I mean two years ago we weren't we had a pretty sizable Chapter 70 increase 2 years ago so I I have no idea but next Wednesday on what I refer to as business manager Thanksgiving um we will I'll open up that file and and look and and see what we're looking at um lastly my uh Personnel report for December not much here um we hired one substitute teacher um and we had one reading intervention from Mountain View separate from uh employment with the district um current vacancies we have two par Educators currently open at Mountain View uh a night custodian um open at Mountain View and uh still that lunch supervisor I I was really hoping I was going to be able to to get that filled before I I depart but that that's been on here for at least a year yeah uh at this point um does anybody have any questions what's if somebody's interested in one of these jobs what's the best way to apply School spring everything I I mean our you know advertis we do um advertise on on the school or the district website and the Facebook you know uh page as well but School spring is the best way to go and I do I I was told that our school spring postings automatically end up on indeed okay like I'm not sure what the mechanism for that looks like but I was told that that happens so only functions like Zillow yeah it just it ends up out there right so I mean the night custodians are relatively new vacancy we have somebody that left right after New Year's um but I there's tons of applicants in school spring uh the interviews will be taking place soon um I think there's probably over 15 folks have applied for that so I mean that should be easy to fill pretty quickly that's great um you know the lunch supervisor I as I said I we've you want to try to sell it to one of your custodian apples if if Larry's got a good runner up I uh can tell him to send him Jill's way great um do we want to do a round table I have a quick one yeah I don't have a question I just want to say thanks like um like incredible work and it felt like you fortified the business end of this District like with no nonsense the whole way Clarity focus and and like amazing approachability like the whole time just like it was a really great presence in in this building and around the district um so yeah like really phenomenal work man thank you best of luck in the future thanks a lot yeah thank you you're the only business manager I've worked with on the school committee so you are by far the best and the worst by default but no you're a genuine Advocate I think for our our district having as much as it needs but also wants but also you've just been a complete source of reliable and real real istic understanding super grounded and I've followed your lead as far as any Financial thinking that if Nick thinks this is not going to work which it's not going to work and look it's very forward thinking you know if we we want things yes we want to build but when you build something too quickly and then you look in the future and then Things Fall Apart so I really appreciate your um just reliable sources of of of understanding the budget so it's been a pleasure thank you this is not fair to have to do I won't say everything I could say because I I can't possibly there's not enough words I feel like we've been in the trenches together I don't know of what war but we've been in some trenches together um these past couple of budgets on the finance committee and I just I'm going to miss working with you likewise thank you I'm not cry I'm can you go first oh me okay um I will uh absolutely miss working with you Nick you've it's been so much fun learning about um Public School Finance uh from you which um it and I mean that seriously like you obviously um are really passionate about this and uh you can tell like I I really look forward to hearing you explain things I um always trust the things that you say and you're always able to like if I have questions or if um if something doesn't make intrinsic sense which is true about a lot of public school Finance um I find it very easy to ask questions and get clear answers and I really appreciate that um and thank you so much for like bringing that passion here I think it's made a big a big difference in our district it will continue to make a big difference having had you here and um best of luck thank you do you want to say anything more we um went out with Nick this uh week we had our Christmas celebration of our our central office administrators and we also save time to um honor Nick we have a little joke around here um his favorite word is no so we got him a shirt in in colors of the district and with big no and an exclamation on it so he can take that to his his new placement uh but but we always know that he says no but then if you go back the next day and you say okay well is there another way we might be able to work this if if it's workable uh he tries to find the answer for that and I I think uh one of the greatest skills is that he spent time as a principal and very rarely do you get a business director who also understands schools yeah and um how they work and what's important to teachers and you know what is necessary for schools to be successful so um I think you know he's a rare uh business manager because he comes from the school part into school business and that gives you a totally different lens on what's important so I've enjoyed working with we were speaking that um he has a dry sense of humor and so we laugh a lot here and uh we I think that's really important uh especially with money and budget can be very stressful at times and he has the ability you know to find humor in that too so I'm going to miss working with him he was my first person I met and I came here for my for my interiew him in Justin and they were both knew themselves so um we'll stay in contact right absolutely we definitely going to need uh if our new business person um applies and takes a job he she's actually asked that um that Nick be the mentor because she has a lot of trust for him and respect for the work so thank you wonderful thank you my first 10 year on school Community I used to cry at every other meeting and I pride myself on I don't do that anymore and this is a big test you Haven cried I haven't cried in a long time um a nerd loves a nerd and um the sense of humor and the fashion sense and the excellent taste in dogs all speaks to the character of this person um I just have boundless affection admiration and gratitude just what an excellent person so proficient in his five learned so much and that just that Touchstone for Nick is students and miss you doesn't cover it but I'm so excited for you you deserve every success and everything and I just I wish you 1,000% the best and that's all that's all I can that's all I can do well thank you so much I appreciate all of your your kind words and you know I will do as much as I can in the next 2 and 1 half weeks and get as much of the proposed operating budget done as I can you know couple people ask me are you taking any time off in between I was like there's really no time like like it's just it's not a good time of the year said no no I'm not I'm going to leave here on a Friday and start there on a Monday and you know it's going to be pretty hectic and and you know because it'll be a learning curve for sure um but you know I'll write it out and I'll always you know I'll definitely take a lot from here with me cuz you learn something everywhere you are and you learn things from the people you're around um so you know I'm never going to forget this and and this will be part of my work going forward so thanks again I don't know if you want me to stay up here while um Megan gives the finance committee update there may be there may be questions I don't know let's do policy first Meg needs a minute it's okay all right I'll go rest for a minute we've been in the trenches in my defense we've been in the trenches okay Sam take at least 2 minutes to talk about that's the worst part we definitely don't have two minutes of an update but um so we did have a policy meeting um we then uh scheduled another one which we needed to reschedule um I'm waiting to get some feedback from the leadership team uh regarding the um uh school choice application deadline policy which is what we're working on so we will um be reconvening sometime after uh the end of January um I think beginning of February is our next meeting so okay has CES I'm just jumping over finances CES met uh during the last time they met was during one of the superintendent interviews and they have not met since then okay so all right okay this is going to take a sharp left turn okay going to be cuz here comes the bad news which we already you already describ it fits in with the rest of the meeting what that school funding fit in with the year okay um so excuse my I can't help it yeah you will be very very s really messed Nick um so we met and um we got an overview we kind of touched onto three different budget years to kind of figure out where we've come from wrap up fiscal year 24 um which of course um we've talked about it several times is in the books the reports are all in it's closed all the te's have been crossed and the eyes dotted and do you want to just lay out for the public how fy2 lines up with real life timeline wise um oh yeah sure so one of the things that yeah we reviewed is that we've are um not we like it's our choice but the way that a school budget works is that it runs on a fiscal year so it goes starts on um July 1st um and so we name it for the year that it starts on July so we are currently in fiscal year um which one are we in 24 five five one is going we're going into is how it's named thank you um where it in where it ends yep um and so it does sort of line up a little bit to our academic calendar um but it doesn't line up January to December so it it spans um you know half a year and then the next half of the year so we closed out our last fiscal year or just got an update on that report and sort of how it all broke down um and doing all this work really helps us to understand where our big expenses are helps us forecast a little bit although there are always things that we're not quite able to predict and think about um and so in our current fiscal year um we have some ongoing issues um with our budget we already had a massive increase coming into this year um which our city funded and we are grateful for um but we are talking about something in the range of like over a million dollar deficit um potential potential potential um we have um and or encumbered uh a good proportion of the fiscal year 25 budget so far um and if things don't change um then we'll we'll need uh there'll be quite a shortfall um something on up to the order of 1.1 and I'll let Nick correct anything I'm saying that's not quite correct um the range is about 635k to a little over a million that is the anticipated most likely deficit for fy2 which is the school year we're currently sitting in so it's paying bills for stuff we're doing today and so um there's a sort of a lot that goes into this and the minutes will get posted from um our meeting and it also was recorded so it will get posted if you want to watch the entire thing and look the documents um that were in the packet but essentially we have some um costs related to special education and sending kids out of District um some unanticipated um new placements that we got which is what we've talked about for a couple couple of years of why we keep money in our revolving fund and our school choice and I'm using the wrong name for the funds I'm sure but we have to keep money ready to send these kids um you know the day they arrive in our district um and we had this is one of those years where we just had more than we expected um and it was unanticipated so we have this a huge amount we spent there the special education transportation and transportation in general is costing us um much more than we anticip it would for reasons that we're outside of our control like bringing kids to other districts that kind of stuff and then one of the things that we talked about that has increased dramatically this year is the way that we are um needing to take care of children who are in foster care and the support we provide for them and transportation for them um and also students who are homeless um and that was a difficult conversation to be having but we have um a significant number of students in our district or who live in eastampton who go to a different District um who are homeless and of course still are um needing to gool qualify or deserve uh education so the districts that they sort of Bounce you know the eastampton and and wherever else they're going or wherever they're coming from uh split the cost of that Transportation but it is uh expensive and the numbers uh do we talk about 12 seven seven okay I don't know where I got the 12 from but more than um um you know that number one historically and it jumped to seven yeah just sort of struck our committee um the subcommittee as it's just another one of those things that's a huge increase from previous years and we're also talking about the most vulnerable students yeah yeah um so all to say um our director of Business Services laid out all of this for us we have it all um sort of broken down by category explanations we have um possible sort of solutions of ways that we can get because one of our choices is not to just stop sending children to other districts that's not on the list um so we have to pay it right and so um how much do we deplete from next year's school choice funds um do we need to go to our city council and ask for appropriation in order to cover this Gap so that we don't spend down what we need for next year's budget um we've talked about extraordinary relief we won't know about that for a while so we're still in the process of figuring it out but it does seem clear at this point that will be asking for an appropriation from the city council um to cover that that Gap so that we are not do you want to frame a little bit the amount that we had discussed in committee um do you want me please please take it away I don't want to you you okay say yeah I just jump in first please do correct some things so you know based on you know what I predict and it you know it's early on I mean things can change between now and and the end of June I think 1.1 was like the ceiling like that's the the worst it's going to be and about 650 is is the best case scenario um and the reason for that is because you know there's a couple things we can look at right off the the top um because of the minimum Aid per pupil increase from $30 per student to 104 that I referenced earlier that came after our budget was passed so that additional it was about $121,000 in Chapter 70 Aid that that went to the the city but was not factored into to the city budget because that didn't actually happen till the state budget passed in July and you recall having conversations about that before right so I mean if you can apply that you know right there um we did have fewer kids attend vocational schools this year than we budgeted for um you know just based on history I mean when you do your vocational tuition budget you got to look at what your current students are you have to move them up a grade level um sometimes the graduating class is somewhat large um and then the grade nine class is not as large and you know my first two years here there's quite a few nth graders going to either Smith or or ctec uh and this year only five went to ctec so you know we do have some vocational tuition money that can be transferred to offset some of it um there's you know I could we can apply I would say up to about $200,000 additional in circuit breaker um circuit breaker just for uh folks who aren't familiar with it is special education reimbursement for large scale costs um you know most of the time it's for students and a of District placements because you have to hit a threshold amount on how much you spend on that particular students education in order to qualify for some reimbursement like meeting it deductible pretty much yeah uh and you can get up to 75% reimbursement for the instructional services and um because of the student Opportunity Act they do reimburse for transportation now as well they didn't used to but it's never fully funded and it was actually not funded very well at all this year so our circuit breaker revenue for this current year is a little bit less than we thought it was going to be because the transportation came in lower um that said you know we we did budget circuit breaker money to go against our our budget for this year um and pretend not that this would ever happen just but pretend the budget went this year exactly as planned no unanticipated costs whatever uh we would have ended up with about $235,000 in our circuit breaker at the end of this year which you know a lot of districts carry over a full year because you you need that for emergency expenses that these unanticipated things that that Megan had referenced um obviously things didn't go completely according to plan but if we apply up to 200,000 more we'll obviously only have 35 left but that's some money that can go against it so I mean right out of the gate you can get that down you know well under a million um then it's up to the committee's you know purview as to what you how you want to tackle the rest of it um I would definitely recommend ex applying for Extraordinary relief through circuit breaker it's just the stuff's not out yet we don't have way of determining whether we'd qualify or not yet usually that stuff comes out in March uh last year it was earlier but you know I don't know if it's going to be any earlier this year um but that would be really helpful because you have to spend that in the year you would have to spend it this year so and that helped us a lot last year getting us through um I anticipate next year's circuit breaker Revenue will be pretty good I mean because our costs sure haven't gone down and one thing that's important to remember is there was a second bucket last year called Reserve relief to help with the um 14% tuition increase and you know the reserve relief you didn't have to spend it last year you could have carried that over into this year and we did carry most of it because the extraordinary relief we spent all that but that Reserve relief came off of this year's circuit breaker reimbursement it was kind of like getting an early gift right you know what I mean it's like my birthday's coming up and I get a gift two weeks before it doesn't mean I'm going to get an extra gift on my birthday that's kind of you know the the the metaphor I like to use to describe it so when trying to calculate what we're going to get in circuit breaker reimbursement next year I have to remember that that Reserve relief was taken odd of what we got this year so I mean I think we'll probably get a million in circuit breaker for next year which is good obviously um you could look at our school choice account which I'm starting to get worried about that we do use an awful lot of it to go against the budget each year um and and this current year we've budgeted 1.2 million um which would leave us you know with with you know a good amount for next year but depending on how much we have to use to go uh meet this year's budget shortfall that's going to be less than you're going to be able to use to apply towards next year's budget um your costs will just be even higher than they were FY 26 or p 25 and eventually what's going to happen is you're not going to be able to budget more than the revenue that's coming in which for years we've been able to do we've been in a good place and that's not true of every District there's a lot of districts out there barely have any um but you know we've been we've been fortunate in that sense and we've used it to to get through deficits for sure um also a small enough District that if we're making Cuts they hurt they do for sure cut hurts um you know cut no no no and I mean the the toll that that would take on buildings and their operability and students support and morale I mean there there's Myriad reasons why you don't want to look to do that um so uh you know that's that's kind of my summary um again it's they expenses that were out of our control uh we've been very meticulous about purchases and and whatnot for this year and um you know just trying to to minimize it as much as we can but I I did want to get it out there on the record and and be uh transparent so you know you know everything you you need to before I leave thank you to be clear one last thing I sort of said one of our options is not to just stop sending um children out District or soft Transportation costs um Nick laid out all sort of all of the options knowing that like hero ones were never going to want to use right so things like freezing their current budget um not filling vacancies all the way over to like reducing force and cutting and it just I mean immediately our subcommittee was like yep the full committee would never approve and also the subcommittee doesn't approve um so the community certainly would Community would not appr that's just not and I wasn't advocating for that I just have to throw everything out we've got to go through every every every option you have to look at every option and and you know the things that um you put forward as our sort of solutions or our um Band-Aids for this are are truly the only options that are available to us that align with our values you just something else had the appropriation strategy um so what we discussed we talked about that range that 1.1 to 1.2 is the highend worst case down to roughly about 650 is kind of figes grossed um so we discussed like how to approach this Megan already laid out that the other options the only other thing we will be kind of watching is that extraordinary relief which certainly we will apply for if we qualify but we have no way of knowing and we got to move now to secure funding so uh what we had discussed was requesting an appropriation a kind of two-fold appropriation Nick already highlighted um there's this about we had talked about kind of pulling that low end so taking that $650,000 number requesting that as an appropriation with a little um tag to also request kind of a process request to reclaim that Chapter 70 balance do we think that's 116,000 is I think it's like 121 is I don't remember the exact figure but 1692 so basically an appropriation in that total amount understanding that that 120ish is just basically money that's already Meant For Us is just a process request and that 650 is plugging the downam yeah for this current school year this current fiscal year that we find ourselves in um and so I think I would entertain a motion if somebody wants to say that yeah we would endorse the finance subcommittee strategy on that which would Empower us to send that appropriation request it would first go to the mayor I've certainly already we've already begun talks with the our counterparts on the city council who run Finance there so I've given them the heads up uh but they can only entertain an appropriation request that comes from the mayor so the mayor will have to sign first she had another obligation so she's not here to speak to it tonight um but I knew I know that her protocol and we have a lot of respect for that is often to kind of step aside from the financial matter she abstains from voting on financial issues um so we have made the case here tonight and we will make that to the mayor and we will then hopefully go on and make that to the city council if we could get a vote tonight yes can you just remind me of the numbers in that in that appropriation $650,000 okay plus the additional exact amount of the Chapter 70 money that is kind of in theory owed to us for lack of better terms that would just be kind of a process request it would just be getting all that money in one shot how much is that about was about $120,000 was it was it6 I thought it was 116 yeah you're right 1169 I heard Megan say it that's that's right I well cuz I have your notes in front of me so call it 117 cuz it's 116 920 so 117 is that Chapter 70 money yeah and then uh 650 is the budget shortfall for FY 25 that's the low that's the low end of the bud so what we discussed in the way we would present this would be if we if they appro I mean it's a chunk of money to ask for so it's you know and we had a large budget increase year-over-year the lasto round which they accepted and honored and we appreciate that unfortunately the times are out pacing our our expertise here and it is what it is so the strategy that we offered is a bit of like a give and a take so we are going offer off of you know this kind of fingers crossed best scenario of that shortfall being toward the lower end and also with the knowledge that they would have of two things the first is that if for some reason we don't spend that appropriation where it was um like if if we can't spend that this year that balance would be returned to the city confers right and as we done in the past right and if we need more we will have to pull from choice so we are saying to them we are minimizing your risk we are both you know putting our butts on the table so to speak in an in equal measure to keep the school as whole and that includes already $200,000 from already yeah so we're spending $2,000 we're asking for The Gap to be filled and then right so we're already spending 200,000 from the you know what Sam let me scan the finance summary sheets I'm so sorry no no no I want to answer your questions too but I also think for future reference the sheets that Nick created are really useful my computer just died so that's okay no no no you wouldn't have it it was our policy or it was our fin sub commmittee meeting I have here if there's something specific you want it's a $200,000 from circuit breaker we have a benefit from the um vog students that we've had a few less of than expected okay and then the rest the Chapter 70 that we just we're not asking for it's just so if it holds the 650 then that leaves us with about a million in Choice which can go in a hot second if things turn sideways so what we are saying is we'll put that at risk if they will front us the 650 I I yeah cuz otherwise there's no way out of this yeah we're cutting no I trust you I was just I just wanted to make sure it was enough cuz I don't it's a low end a big ask but it's on the low end of a big ass it is yeah I don't want to go through all this process and then find out it wasn't actually enough you know I mean how does everyone feel do we want to we're meeting again later this month M and they have not they are in the process of certifying I mean I think they have cash but they're certifying additional funds that we could draw from for something like this so it wouldn't be the end of the world if we don't take this vote until later in the month does everyone want to chew on if 650 we think is sufficient or if there's a I mean I want to get I want to get you something that you can bring I don't like going back to the well more than once either yeah what do you guys think anybody have a comment I'll get to chew chew personally but I understand this yeah you want to chew chew I that feels good to me as we're talking what do you think ER I'm not allowed to talk about it oh so we don't care what Eric thinks we don't care what ER but for the public Eric's wife works for the district so he abstains from Financial decision- making go ahead Megan um I don't have anything okay yeah Sam I mean I I I how important is it that we do this tonight it's not critically important okay when's our next meeting in two we the end of January end of January two weeks so that gives us a couple of weeks to get some more answers for some of this stuff to settle I am also going to say that I'm not entirely sure I'm required to have a vote to send that appropriation as chair you're just going to do it did we do that last time I'm saying I don't remember I'm saying in a pinch I could probably do it myself I of course think these are important decisions and I think it's best I did it last time I think yeah yeah I just so it doesn't handicap us from asking for it it's just the process I would prefer to follow would be having I like I definitely trust your expertise in if you felt like we needed to do it right now I'd want to do it right now but I don't think I think we're I think it's better to be really thoughtful about how we ask for 3/4 of million dollars yeah I just want to make sure it's enough I'm just a little concerned that it's a little we look to the numbers and I I I feel confident that we're where we need to be to make it through the school year yeah given the pattern we have what's encumbered like we're not but it might mean beefing up the ask for fy20 that's what I'm that's the other thing I'm thinking too yeah and so weighing those two things together but we kind of need to put in the appropriation before we get super concrete it's a bit of a this is like everything else we do right this is negotiating a contract while this is it's everything is ass backwards I that contributes to the Gap right all of it does yes by the way all of it does um can we at some point too can we put together can we get like some kind of presentation to the bigger to the full committee around Transportation yes yes that is coming not like cuz I feel like whenever we talk about Transportation on school committee like as a school committee body we're usually talking about the school buses but this is not the school buses this isto Transportation this is special Foster and homeless transportation and vanpool vanpool explo vanpool was already killing us it was 34 of a million dollars last year it's $860 this year yeah like this is um the the that type of Transportation is really yeah not it's really bad bad for our budget we have we're in the beginning stages of talking about and this is part of what we would present to city council is we have kind of a tripod of increasing revenue streams we are getting the cart is like miles ahead of the horse now but the the public should know we are working so this isn't going to be a problem every single year and but it will take us an investment in maybe two or 3 years well and also like legislative action to be honest I don't know that doesn't happen we're creating other plans to try toate and thinking about what we've talked about a lot on this committee which is how do we reduce the need for a van pool by having monitors on buses and making right but that's not even the the transportation that's killing us in the budget it's part of it part of so actually so that's the other thing too is I would also like to separate out like how would we CU you know you have to if you're talking about like students who have um transportation as part of their IEP you have to make that decision student by student you can't just say oh our program is now everybody gets on the bus so i' want to like I definitely want to I want to talk about this in public so that we can get some public Buy in as well and some feedback because that's a lot of um we we we are very generous with our um um accessible Transportation which is great and I would love to look at ways that we can make the buses a little more universally accessible aent as we start doing our breakdown Finance meetings there will be we kind of go by cost centers so I'll make sure you get an invitation to that meeting yeah I think for a while it was probably more cost effective for us to just use vanpool because we probably didn't have as many students who got special transportation and you know maybe now it's they also I mean they're the only game it's a monopo only yeah but it's just I'm just thinking about like that versus making our school buses more accessible by having monitors and U maybe smaller buses you know so kind of but I I'd just be curious to see kind of how we would how we would even go about doing that in a single school year you know so it would be over there are a lot of things that we sort of touched upon that been the next couple of years um really important that we work on the problem is that it's like a chicken and egg thing we're like I can't figure out a way to save money on those things without costing more money initially you know one of the issues is that we have um students who need programs that we could have in District or that we could share with another District um and we have to at this point send out um but developing those programs it's an upfront cost right which means like you have to develop the program have the program available make sure that it's effective for the students but also they need to be educated at the same time in their previous placement and so that's I mean that's a big that's a tall order that's like okay I got to rain this I'm so sorry no don't apologize just yeah it's it's um it's really a quandry and I just uh I just want to make sure we're asking for enough money yeah and we may not be so we are going to noted and I think I heard what Ben said too so we're going to table this and put it back on for the 28th okay great um so we are going to move to action items Megan okay I'm switch screens thank you very much thank you Nick um did you also already do the CES update I did yes while you having my eyes were leaking okay all right here we go um let me just know the time for minutes here okay and okay um a motion to approve the school Ro dated 1212 2024 in the amount of $625,500 42 second thank you Sam all those in favor I I opposed extensions thank you Eric motion to approve sorry motion to approve the school payroll dated 1226 2024 in the amount of $653,000 in the amount of $ 343,387 second thank you Sam all those in favor I I opposed abstentions I say I did fine I felt it a motion carries okay um motion to approve the minutes of the December 12th 2024 superintendent interview Meeting those minutes are in your packet yep second thank you Sam all those in favor I I opposed extensions motion carries motion to approve the minutes of the December 11th 2024 superintendent interview meeting second thank you Sam all those in favor I opposed extensions motion carries motion to approve the minutes of December 10th 2024 superintendent interview meeting second thank you Sam all those in favor I opposed extensions motion carries motion to approve the minutes of the November 12th 2024 regular meeting second thank you Sam all those in favor I I opposed extensions motion carries motion to approve the minutes of the September 10th 2024 regular meeting with the stipulation to withhold executive session minutes until matters are resolved reviewed and released by the chairperson second thank you Sam all those in favor I opposed extensions motion carries motion to approve the minutes of the July 9th 2024 regular meeting with the stipulation to withhold executive session minutes until matters are resolved reviewed and released by the chairperson second SW we already approved that uh all those in favor opposed extensions motion carries um uh we have laid out all we did set our calendar for this year I'm not going to bore the public with the dates from now through through December because I can't even process everything that will happen between now and then our next meeting will be January 28th 2025 2 weeks from now and then um we will lay out at that time kind of what to look for in February and March the majority of it will be budget discussions but also um kind of the beginning of the integration as we have another um In-N-Out situation and I can't even cope with that tonight we'll talk about that some other time all right so uh January 28th is our next meeting and we are Cruising Into budget season um I would love to entertain a motion to adjourn motion to journ thank you Sam can I get a second second thank you Ben all those in favor I opposed extensions motion carries meeting adjourned thank you so much have a great evening e