[Music] um I'm going to call the meeting to order of the Halifax school committee on May 6th 2024 at um 6:01 p.m. and this is a reminder that the meeting is being recorded and if anyone is intending to make an audio or video recording of this meeting me they should notify me at this time okay all right let's start by um doing the pledge of allegiance i al to the flag of the United States of America the for it stands one nation God indivisible withy and justice for all um I want to acknowledge and schedule any visitors that want to speak but I just want to say something first um I ran the meeting last month in an unusual fashion it is not normal to take um ongoing comments from the audience Union and so forth I allowed it in the case of the budget discussion because of the nature of the issues we were discussing and because I wanted to ensure diverse opinions were heard we're shared and heard tonight we are returning to normal meeting structure there will be a brief period right now um for public comment if you would like to speak um you need to limit your comments to 3 minutes and the committee is not obligated to respond to your comments and when public participation is done we'll proceed with the rest of the um agenda and all speakers thereafter would have to be recognized by the chair those that are not recognized by the chair are not permitted to speak um is there anyone that would like to speak right now I'd like to speak David mosio 16 sent out okay uh I actually have to leave early because I have to pick somebody up at the airport but there's a lot of questions that I have I'm G to have more I need more than three minutes um we can only allow 3 minutes you can email the school committee if you no we need to address this tonight it's it's regarding the bus situation that we're going to be facing with the children so we we need to we need to get this categorized quickly and I need to be more understanding of why we're making the cuts do you want do you want the questions now um you have 3 minutes and okay okay what is student contract with Halifax and uh first student do we have a do we have a contractable agreement that states at this that the that from from here to the fall the end of the year that we're contract to pay the bus ravage we do have yes okay that was the answer okay um the cuts that we're looking at for the the first student to to eliminate two bus buses what cuts are we making with the private busing what do you mean the the special ed busing uh there's students that go to other schools that we are obligated to pay by the state right we're obligated to obligated all right what about the other students that are living in other towns that we're picking up who's paying for those the town if um if a student is coming from another District which I don't really think happens would they they would be busted by their District okay students I'm not naming names but there's students that live in Halifax parents had the student the students were removed from their parents they're bust out of another town they're privately Bust from another town into Halifax DCF and homeless DCF and homeless situations they're paying for that okay um uh did did first student and Halifax elementary school or the school committee did you guys do an actual study on the bus routes and how many students per bus and how long it's going to take with making these new cuts um I would defer to the principals on that or I would say that principal bodry anticipates discussing uh the potential impact of buessing cuts in the presentation this evening okay I'm sorry I didn't hear that principal bodry will address that in his budget presentation this [Music] evening okay with longer bus on bus schedule times has the school committee prepared to understand what what other students are going to need especially kids with iev plans and need more time and homework at night um that is more of a question for the school not the school committee but you guys are making the cuts um we're recommending the budget amount and the school has recommended the cuts to be made why are the cuts being made the cuts are being made because our budget came in too large for the town to pay why are they being why are they larger this has been actually covered in a lot of school committee meetings and will be covered later in the budget presentation I have 3 minutes yeah I know but I'm just saying it's a very long explanation um with entailing um a lot of different aspects of I it's it's longer than 3 minutes to respond with the extra students that are coming into town that aren't we don't have extra students coming into town we're not increasing the students for next year nope in back moment's been going down the numbers are going down for corre for kindergarten and everything coming well I don't know the kindergarten numbers yet but our enrollment has been going so we don't have an answer for that yet um I believe we'll have an answer of who how big our kindergarten classes but over the last 10 years our school enrollment has decreased okay there's your time um if you have any who will be liable for the younger kids that are going to be on longer bus routes with parents that can't be at those times versus the times before with with the with the extended bus time I believe that will be covered by principal bod's presentation and um do we have time what time that's going to come up um it's on the agenda um as I do have the agenda for me you don't you have a time I don't have a time because I don't know how long the discussion all right thank you thank you would anyone else like to [Music] speak hi hi um I'd like to speak also on propos truction and transportation to begin can you say your name please oh yeah sure J thank you um has anyone sitting at the table whether it be member of the school committee or admin of the school received any information got safety concerns from the bus company of change will that be covered in the present well or you want yes we have uh both principal B and our business director have had conversations uh as well as myself have participated in conversations with the bu okay well I'd like to give two perspectives as a p student at HS and as a bus dri Went Town in your own words you working parents to on bus transportation for their children the only way with just to lose 20% of Transportation would be in my opinion finding a way to St CL and I've seen buses filling in as late as 829 at ATS my daughter arrives at 8:22 how will this change with L buses wouldn't loing multiple kids at a stop take longer than one or two students anyways while combining three stops to one might save some time I would think it would be pretty minimal while my daughter will firstday she had chosen to skip breakfast at home on occasion to have breakfast at school well she went twice and said she can't and won't do it anymore because she doesn't have enough time to eat breakfast before being asked to go to class and she ised to have my lunch time she is fortunate to not be relying on the school's pre breakfast program but what about the students that do rely on as we working time child has been able to get off the bus with an abysal distance to the front door and that's us to walk from the end of the road are you supposed to now hire a c to ensure that your child makes a home safely on top of the steadily increasing taxes the after school program is $23 a day just for after school kid meaning an extra $115 a week or $460 per month per child let's say you can find a babysit to ensure your child gets home safely you can have a cheap rate of $20 per hour you're looking at add add an expense of $100 a week or $400 a month not sure about you but I find it hard to believe Working Families that can afford to basically add na car unit to their budgets for a service that been previously offered from a driver's perspective I have many safety concerns the we of the bus SE is just under 38 in wide we are talking priming three children into a seat every seat giving them each accy 12 and2 in of States for themselves their best PS and any belongings they may be bring to school including instruments snow boots seers water bottles Etc on one hand behavior issues are already an issue on The Bu how do we add more children in TI stages to that issue there are students that literally cannot get along with one other without cing issues between physical and veral issues it is necessary to have a space to separate students location it was stated the pavers that HS is so busy she should we little skap since she's been bounc around so much the issue that are rising in a classroom all go over onto the students time ring the bus a bus has one driver to physically Drive the Bus while maintaining rules and behaviors for two to three times the number of students in any class setting here get little resources for putting out these fires beside separating students with fil us we have no means to do that also on theing spacing issue is the fact that things that on the bus other than behavior issues that would require students to have more space when a student gets a nose bleed there's going to be no way to contain that student from possibly bleeding on others or stent get sick to a stomach currently and students dispers by seat not be caught Crossfire with a full bus where do these students go we are also looking at increased transmission of illnesses whether it's into more comped SE furthermore given there are no seat belts on the bus the only way to saf the school bus is to have each and every child completely contained in their seat as the seat in front of them in case of accident or a ding event first to and have space of time however as the children get older they end up hanging over into the aisle when three students are seing together who decides what unfortunate child gets the is and the highest chance of an injury in an accident on another note say little Johnny gets off and walks home and realizes he his h a little suy box home realizes her door is unlocked is usually unlocked and it is locked today a little Mary box home her automatic lock isn't open due to dead batteries who's responsible for the child do they sit outside in any and all weather conditions waiting someone to Rive to help them do they all have a cell phone they can use to call for help who do they call do they call their parents who are half an hour away at work how about the increasing amount of um Wildlife with be in the area we all aware that they are here now and have been told that they are here to stay that we need to adapt to that there were multiple times last year where we as drivers were warned about the location of the be to keep a closer eye out for the safety of the children getting out the house how can we do this when we can't even do that going into their house how about if the student walking home SS and calls we are talking of walking to and from the bus stop in any and all water weather conditions with a bus down on busier roads without turning into some side streets the line of cares behind the buses grows very quickly so now we have a line of PRS watching a child get off the bus and walk room who to say there's not a sick person P down the RO on seeing that and try to child before you say this isn't something like the be reminded that we are changing something that's going to keep the children more vulnerable by being the way things are done now the child is their at work so my question is who's looking after the safety of the children thank you for your comments would anyone else like to speak okay we'll move on um to review and vote the regular minutes of March 14th and April 1 meetings [Music] [Music] when someone's ready we can make a motion I'll make a motion to approve the minutes for March 14th 2024 and April 1st 2024 all second thank you um all in favor I I hi hi Karen okay thank you all right um here okay all right um approval of Bill schedule I have brought with me tonight 10 warrants totaling 65469 to be signed and then delivered to town hall in the morning okay um I did not receive any school committee correspondents or reports except oh no the fire is down there okay um any future agenda items for [Music] committee okay all right let's um discuss the subcommittees versus policy put it on me okay negotiations um we are going to discuss in the um executive session after Pilgrim Pilgrim area collabor collaborative sorry April 4th and I don't know if I reported on that one we met again just like 3 days ago um which was our last meeting for the or their last meeting the year um the budget was approved and their enr is can't hear you the the pth budget was approved they um their enrollment is 122 they're moving from limit to Silver Lake for just housing like not as part of Silver Lake they're just physically moving in a location that was for pack okay thank you uh Youth and Recreation um a fifth sixth grade dance is in the works and or has already occurred and um that's all I have okay PTO um April 10th they're talking about new fundraising trying to get the Harin Wizards perhaps maybe also a golf Ting fundraiser not till next year they um did an artart to remember fundraiser that was um really successful thanks to the art teacher fum um they are thinking about lots of new ideas for um fundraising in general um they are doing a bus driver Appreciation Day teacher staff appreciation week they're trying to really help out with funding for student for teachers for basic supplies that um are more difficult to attain now with the current budget um they were talking about ordering Field Day t-shirts um they um are reorganizing a little bit with um trying to start freshes and not a profit fundraising entity um Mr D santis was not present but said an update at the time 41 days left which is different now um big success with winter math challenge 85% participation 80% for ELA participation and there was a bubble party for the second grade class and the SEI um for that month was how to solve problems okay capital budget did they meet I don't think so no um admin review no update no update okay deib subcommittee so um Karen and I touch touch space briefly before this meeting um given the focus of the budget we kind of put a table on doing considerable work on that this month to um bring Focus to more pressing matters for our committee as a whole um but I did want to a knowledge thank you Mr Lynch for sharing um the list of responsibilities we asked for in March so thank you for that we'll be that part thank you and Union 31 has not met so the last time it met was on March March 14th y so um all right so I'll turn the time over to Mr bod for his report all right uh thank you let's see we have our school council met on April 24th uh continued work on the handbook and also on the school council survey the water update right now we have the filters have been um put on all areas water bubblers and in the kitchen but they have not been tested yeah um do we have a dollar figure where we're at right now with the water uh let's see I know we talked about it last month I can can let's see I can search for let's see water expenses uh right now what we have is a little over $199,000 so you've put the filters in but you haven't rerun the test that okay yeah when is that happening we do not have a date yet okay so there students using no they're off the on they're still using the the they're still using the water drugs okay so if the filters are in place are they just like running them temporarily like to they only been installed but they haven't we haven't actually turned them on yet until we have had them tested and we don't we don't have a date yet for them for the our director of facilities is uh setting up a date with the um the water company that did our testing earlier this year so we're waiting for a date from them now that it's the work has been completed they were waiting for us to verify that the work had been completed before they could give us a date and I mean I'm sure they're on top of it but my concern is just once the filters are in place like one water bubble might be used six times as often as another so how do you know when to replace the filters if there's like some sort of alarm system on them that they need to be replaced that was my concern before so our custodians keep they have a record book of all the filters and the usage so they they know when it get used great awesome thanks and then just getting into the budget we want is there the flyer you wanted us to approve for football I did not receive a flyer isn't there the training camp on yeah this one right the training camp for warrior football so I would just mention to the school committee that this is um as far as I I know it's a not for non it's not nonprofit albeit this organization works with students if I'm thinking of the right one but I can't log in this is Silver Lake youth football so Silver Lake youth football um although it says Silver Lake is not an affiliate of Silver Lake Regional School District just so that the committee is aware right but it's yeah it's this it's like basketball and the summer program mhm um I'll make a motion to approve the flyer okay second all right all in favor I I I I I okay yes just uh you can't hear anything back here I know I know you guys are a difficult job but seem talking each other the rest of the crowd so this point like better serve watching home so I'm not sure this the best environment anybody's fault up there we can make effort to speak the crowd your support something so you can hear better if I'm speaking out to hear like okay talking to each other hear okay but I'm just asking like you can hear me right now so if I yes now so if we okay that part of the room no Vault set up or most okay well I will do no one's fault no I know re there is also the front row is available okay but back four turn okay well we will do our best to talk as loud as we can and out towards you um all right so that's all set and then now I'll turn over the time to principal bodri for our budget update and if I may give a brief introduction to this uh both principal bodri and um our our Director of Finance and operations both have information to present to you tonight um recognizing that they have been asked to provide you with additional um by at our last meeting with the town the finance committee and the board of Select we were asked to uh present to the school what additional Cuts might look like so that is what Municipal B has provided for you tonight and um Sarah also has some updates since our last meeting and in terms of um how other budgets and they were voted in terms of Silver Lake how that ex excuse me will how that will affect the Halifax budget as well can you just indicate which file we're looking at in theer it's called May budget May budg [Music] yes you hit the magic button excuse me we got a mini version here you have Magic Touch [Music] here there we go Miss TBO our librarian thank you all right let's see here uh this is me this is you this is me um can you hear me thank you on April 1st 2024 the Halifax school committee voted to reduce the version five budget by $500,000 380,000 of reductions were delineated in the meeting and the remaining remaining 120,000 was to be determined later the previous reductions Plus an additional reduction of $143,000 are required to meet the threshold set by the town for the cost of education for FY 25 on this slide here the um and this was updated on April 1st the operating assessment for Silver Lake the portion of the assessment for Halifax is 8,615 217 .71 on the next Slide the amount that you see here for Halifax again is the amount that was voted on April 1st that was the level service budget minus $500,000 giving an fy2 budget of 6,965 [Music] 3843 on our next slide is the total cost of education again this is as of April 1st total cost of Education to Halifax is 15 m580 35614 that is a 4.9% increase over last year and this is the amount that the finance committee has asked to be reduced by another $143,000 this next slide um just to to be aware um I belong to a uh list serve of all the school business managers in the state there is a discussion on our list serve which essentially is where's your budget at compared to last year and the out of the over 100 School business managers in the state that have responded to the survey the mean increase from year to year has been 5.1% Silver Lake in Union 31 is um currently at an 8.4% if you read through the comments from the school business managers in this thread they're talking about um if the override passes at the Town level will be at this percent and if not we're going to be cutting 30 staff or we're um so these budgets that are all over the state this year you're seeing significant challenges financially on the next slide um a summary of why our budget is what it is there were increased costs in fiscal year 25 contractual obligations when when I say contractual obligations I want to be clear that I'm not just talking teachers contracts yes the teachers contracts increase that's a normal part of the negotiation process and year-to-year contractual obligations in addition to that have increased the cost of elevator maintenance the cost of um copier machines so any time any contract that the school has with a vendor or the district has with a vendor those contracts are incre increasing dramatically over the previous year health insurance although health insurance for Halifax teachers is paid by the town how uh the school department the Silver Lake School Department pays health insurance so there was an increase in health insurance that shows up in the assessment to the town there has been uh an increase in special education and transportation um special education transportation and tuitions and we're seeing a unique situation where not only is there an increase in costs but we have an increase in the number of students so that's creating an increase and the costs of supplies and utilities have risen if I may when she says the increase in the number of students that are being found eligible for special education not the total number of students thank you it's okay and I think this is your slide thanks s uh so this here is just kind of what we had when we had originally put the budget together just looking at uh our priorities when we were looking to reduce the budget we started with maintaining class size for tier one instruction uh maintain offerings in all specialist classes maintain student support utilize grant funding whenever possible to maintain interventions um we also had to take into consideration the special ed service requirements that will be changing for next year and then also providing El Services adding a 05 position um so what we did here is we put together these were voted on last meeting um so originally it was $380,000 were the cuts but we made a few uh small adjustments in terms of support staff and a contractual can I can I speak to this yes absolutely um so two of the there were changes to two of the cuts that were voted last uh time that there was a um a reduction for the assistant principal in a number of days and there's going to be a reduction in the salary that actually violates the contract so that $9,000 um we yeah it had to be put back in and then the estimate I put an aster next to it halfway through the the list their support staff reductions to FTE the estimate was in there as 40 uh $558,000 which overestimates the cost of a par professional when you know there may be a paraprofessional making $29,000 a year but if their position is cut they would bump a less scene senior par professional and so we've been using 25,000 as an estimate so those are the two changes and you can see across the bottom that on April 1st we had discussed $380,000 there were $177,000 in adjustments can I ask real quick so that puts that 127,000 needs to be designated in addition to the 50 ,000 that the town has asked us to come back and cut this meeting after our finance committee meeting which puts us at 177 for additional Cuts not 143 which [Music] is do I have that correct that is incorrect is that because okay I was just you know okay so so I think it would be helpful to look at it this way um you had aimed on the April 1st meeting for $500,000 in cuts and you had designated 380,000 of it with 120 to be a player to be named later or you know however you want to consider it and now it's not 120 it's 137 but the 500,000 that you voted on 1 is still 500,000 right but then but what I'm saying is but then we're we were asked by the town to do an additional 50 so so I guess I'm saying that we still have a certain amount that is not designated at this time we were asked by the town to do an additional 143,000 I know well but we got it too well I mean I was oh okay I'll let you okay it's 143,000 okay not an additional 50 I thought well I I'm I was just cutting like we so I'll let you just keep going okay back to me back to you okay um so can I move on from this one which was previously voted yes um all right so uh what we had originally started with was this but I have a um revised slide that we put in there uh which looks like this yours might not be color coded but what we did here is uh we were able to tier this so that first tier is to the $500,000 that we originally originally talked about so the 93,9 was the adjustment from vocational tuition and transportation um and then we put in supply lines additional supply lines from the previous um had cut from the first Set uh level that we went to and then there's a support staff for reduction of 1.0 of 25,000 so those those cuts right there amount to 137,000 plus this 363 from before um and that gets us to the 500 and then we teered it to the next originally our our first time that we did our budget proposal um we had our second here was at 550,000 so proposal if we get to that point um these two positions is a05 support staff reduction and our behaviorist position to a 0.5 as well adding those together that would bring us to 550,000 and then if we are asked to go to our level three here to 643,000 um reducing our specialist and losing our reading specialist is if we have to get to that point thanks the question for clarification on this chart I think this is what La might have been trying to get at but the the vocational adjustment for vocational tuition and transportation of 93,000 that in essence is money that had been budgeted that we realize we don't need correct so we're not really cutting that we found that and it is therefore Factor it to the 500,000 that we need to find is that accurate yes okay I would just say for clarification the money wasn't found as much as the deadline to apply for AO District vocational was April 1st so after April 1st we knew exactly how many students were going to attend or or applying to AO District vocational I would also say it this time um in terms of the School committee's Vote with regard to busing I recall that we explained to the school committee that we would meet with the bus company to determine the feasibility of the routes and they have provided principal bodry uh and our uh Director of Finance and operations with um with the roots and the possibilities and so I think it's important for us to acknowledge that in fact um while it is feasible um it's going to mean uh more group stops um and it's it may also include assigned seating that's almost impossible for student for a bus driver try you can't talk Drive excuse me you cannot talk without addressing the chair David Mario 1610 I don't have to thank you I'm not acknowledging you right now superintendent cre to assign talk to superintendent asking bus driver that's going to have 60 plus kids to try and assign seats during the bus route sir we're letting them explain thank you go ahead can we talk about buses yes okay so currently uh just to clarify with buses we have currently have 10 buses uh the capacity on the buses is 71 we have at least one passenger bus that has 77 so if we did we work with our enrollment this year uh we are a little under 5 50 students so if every student were to uh be given a seat on the bus we would definitely have more than enough seats for every child because we try to accommodate not every child um takes the bus we approximately Brian chime in here for any of these we um have parent pick up and drop off or we probably can take in 60 to 75 cars per day on average for students uh then we also have a before program and an after school program which is probably about 20 or 30 students in both programs there then we also have after school programs which we're easily running at 30 so um when we look at all those different areas we're probably running about 300 350 students that are riding the bus on a daily basis when you factor in all those things that we had mentioned there if you actually took the counts on our bus you would see we have buses that are as low as 25 that are on a daily ride and then you'll see buses on a on a high bus then you're looking at 55 to 60 which is still under the capacity yes Karen uh so just a couple vation questions so what does the bus company recommend for the capacity of the bus all right so for this for the school age children so the bus when we met with bus company here we asked them if they could pull this together um and so I'll I'll just we just read through what they gave us for feedback sure um so they had given us one for one they actually gave um with the reduction of the buses so we would have a low of 52 capacity and a high of 74 for the buses and that was again if every child were to go on a bus we would definitely have the seating allowed for that so the feedback from the bus company um is is the following so high ridership leaves little room for additional enrollment to the areas where buses are in capacity maximum capacity is based on three students per seat 77 passenger vehicles are being utilized for capacity above 70 uh 77 MAX bus currently being being utilized for bus routes 25 49 24 and 23 many door to-do stops short travel streets and culde saacs have been removed to account for additional students turnaround points in the need to arrive to school on time larger number of students on per bus in longer ride times could result in additional discipline concerns for the drivers and last current rough draft of risor roots is based on current year enrollment next year's enrollment of kindergarten students could change so these numbers were done with this year's numbers so that um we would be moving the sixth graders out and then adding the kindergar well and keeping in mind we have a very large sixth grade class this year do you have numbers for kindergarten enrollment at all right now we have a a number of 73 for our incoming K which typically at this point of the year is higher than normal we're usually running around 50 to 60 at this time of year but 73 is a pretty pretty good number for us to be at at so do you think we could get to like where we are now with our kindergart in class of 90 if we keep with the 72 right now like how many people typically wait till the last minute to send their kid up for kindergart uh it's it's hard to predict but usually over the summertime we definitely do I mean as like a mom in Halifax I have a kid in second grade and a kid in kindergarten and I know it took me a hot minute to figure out how to register for my kid for kindergarten so like I was one one of those so I was 73 or whatever I was come coming in on two wheels and registering my kid so I mean I don't think the enrollment is going to be low for kindergarten it's hard to predict but um typically over the summertime we'll get anywhere between 6:00 and 10: easily additions over this just in the summer months okay so you said our current enrollment is 550 it's 5:47 right now and we have how many hes currently we have 10 specified to is that we do range literally every student in the school has an assigned bus one of the buses has 29 students on one of the buses has 73 I'm also looking at the bus routs the shortest bus route is 16 minutes the longest bus route is about 47 minutes so I know it's not an exact science and I know the bus company has you know they're experts in running Roots but I certainly think they can be more efficient uh and put make the numbers a little more Equitable I understand how geographically you a little bigger town area wise but to have 16-minute route and 47 minute route it's not very equable so I think we can definitely work with bus company on that buses are not it sounds like there's wible room there which is but to have 25 kids on a bus no we should you know what I mean think about the taxpayer more than half the bus that my kids are on students my kids are on bus 23 they get on the bus at 7:44 in the morning and they are the if I drive by to go get a dunkeys or something they the last one there my kids don't complain it's they're used to it sorry so I'm just confused by the numbers so did you say that currently our if you were to take our student population and divided by the buses did you say we're at 71 or is there is there different buses different capacity 71 capacity and then there's at least one or possibly two buses that 77 so if we have let's say that we have the same number of students next year we have a big sixth grade class so let's say we have a Big King AR class that means there would be 68 students per bus I do 547 divide by 8 that's 68 and the bus capacity is telling you that their smaller buses are 71 so that's still three and that's if every single kid takes the bus which we know they do not right I just want to make sure I personally have all that cleared as far as what I'm thinking we just need to make sure that if we had some reason to put every child on a bus then right there is a SE for everybody of course we didn't factor and we do have students that are transported by Vans and that number is not even on this on this list here so we're still under what the the bus tells us the maximum is we're under that maximum and that's with real numbers with if there was an emergency and we had to evacuate the kids out of this town every kid would have a seat absolutely definitely we're still under that number right that's my big concern it's not about the day-to-day stuff it's about if we need to get these children someplace they can all fit and that's okay absolutely you like Sean McKenzie um I have you actually ever measured a bus seat cuz you're saying fre to a seat if you met and kids come in all sh shapes inside so I'm at the bus seat measuring it with their backpacks their snow boots instruments whatever else they have they're going to have literally less than a ruler 12 Ines to sitting and in the event of an emergency got rid an active shooter or something as simple as you know waterm break or a gas line break people are working and we have to bust these kids out of here in an emergency are we going to be squabbling over 12 in of space for our children to keep them safe just if we have to a lot for a seat at on bus for every child well according to the bus company we do have enough room for every child and we don't have any concerns that kids come in different shapes and sizes and fitting you know and um there's always concerns the issue here is we need to make Cuts somewhere and the school committee and the school admins are trying to do the best we can keeping safety academics everything and if the cuts don't come here where would you like them from oh but that's what know and a I'm a school bus driver I'm also a mother in the town my concern is I do have a child with ad and it's difficult for him and I know other students on the boss as well friends of his I'm concerned about them they get very over simulated I have probably between I would say 45 and 55 Riders depending on we people go to their dad's house people go to their mom's house people have sports people par and pickup dismissal appointments so those numbers of how many kids are riding it's changes day to day I could have 20 kids one week you know one on Monday and 49 on Friday it's very and the noise we have you know what's Max Capacity for our classroom is that 30 students um well roughly estimate it would be depends on the they also have the option to send to the principal if we have a behavioral issue there is Paris that we can have in to come and help out you have one bus driver with now 71 children while they're in in their classroom or their school bus is moving you know we could be driving home the snow could start at lunchtime now we're driving in hazardous conditions with 71 children on the bus we have nobody there but us we have a behavioral issue what am I supposed to do in that sense turn around and come back to school when a snowstorm um I because I have nowhere to separate the children now because I have Max Capacity bus do you see what I'm saying absolutely appreciate or I just let them braw them back just I appreciate everything you're saying and we have incredibly difficult choices in front of us absolutely and there's no way everyone's going to like the decisions made and we've done a lot of research the admins have done a lot of research these are their recommendations other recommendations have been made but weren't voted by the committee so in this very difficult situation we have done studies where we ask them to please go to the bus company and make sure this is a feasible safe Choice M have any of you done a Ride Along on a half full I've been on many field trips and I have four children and those are fun events and I Love Field I take a sports trip or a field trip any day we I love them I understand but home to school when you have kids that are tired and overwhelmed and cranky and hungry or sick or whatever else in all different age groups and it's very stressful whether it's half capacity 3/4 a quarter or full capacity I know well I I've driven around with my four kids in a minivan and I've always praised bus drivers because I would welcome you on mys well I my children have all busted on these I am fully aware of everything that can happen and and you're not concerned about the more behavioral issues that we have with that many kids if we have transation like a special van for students who cannot be on Max Capacity bus and according to IEPs if they come up with a problem and we can't put these kids now with larger groups because they're causing such behavioral issues then we now have to find funding to provide private special education transportation for these other students who cannot ride the bus at Max Capacity well we also have um I'm not sure what you're trying to have me say ask for the kids that have extreme difficulties on the bus as it is with not Max Capacity there there are several children yes I I don't know that's really a question I think you should direct to the principal since it's a behavior a situation if that comes up if we have children who are already difficult you know having difficulties on the bus do we have somewhere that we can a budget that we're going to fit in when we have we need private transportation for these students who cannot physically be safe on the bus with a larger capacity group uh well there's a couple of pieces there so if they're not behaving appropriately then they could be removed from the bus they would have to find other means of transportation but if if if they require alternative means then that would have to be something that would go through the IEP process and that would be a team decision that they would make okay but a simpler would we move that child in front of the USS give him a little bit of space I mean some kids me try all sorts of a negative behavioral thing sometimes it's just over stimulation and they're crying and they're scared and they're making movements because they're it's a lot going on these are little kids first graders kindergarteners some of them are larger kids you know stalk your kids and it's I've had kids run off my bus because it's been too loud and that's a cause of concern for me for adding more children on that bus with an already overcrowded bus I appreciate everything you're sharing and this has already been voted Y and so I'm not sure this discussion is productive I completely hear what you're saying thank you um and I appreciate it thank you can I can I just say something I I also appreciate cost owners have a really difficult job but I would like to just maybe set some context for the crowd and anyone that's watching this this is like go most recent of several conversations we've had about the budget early was it our February meeting or March meeting we were advised of the situation we were in it was very late in the game for us to make significant adjustments go back to the town tell them the DI straight through and we are looking at a difficult problem none of us want to make Cuts our sister Town Kingston their school committee decided that they weren't going to make the cup that they needed to make if they're going to leave it up to the town to decide my opinion that's not a responsible thing to do um I would encourage everyone here that's a taxpayer to talk to your neighbors about funding education in this town we need taxpayers to support our schools there is only so much we can do the last meeting we we' asked Mr bodri the administration to give us some proposed cups we limited time to look at that before we needed to vote on what Cs and we did as best we could a line by line discussion we only got to 380,000 and decided we we just need to vote a dollar value because we can't figure out what to cut next no one wants to cut these expenses but we are relying on the expertise of the Educators you trust to give us the advice of what they think is feasible and safe and we listened to that the last time around and still needed to make cuts to St staff that none of us are happy with but we need to find this money I would encourage every person here to go to town meeting to make it a point to tell the town that we need to fund education better if it can't happen this year the town needs to be prepared on the level of Education that they are subjected our kids to versus what the two other towns in our district have so please understand I'm passionate about this I raised two kids through the system I've sat on many buses granted a field trips different but I will tell you after a field trip they are a nightmare so there isn't anyone here who hasn't ridden the bus and I you know God bless you for what you do every day um God bless our teachers for what they do every day um this is a tough situation and none of us wants to be here making it Year's going to be worse we need to find education please do not speak out without being called on sorry go ahead Aro I I watched meeting that you had and um I feel for not only your decision but for what's coming for these kids my I hope is that you have a contingency plan when it's C to go through to support not only our bus drivers that are here teachers that are here um we just need the support back if this is what they looks like we need to also understand um how to help our children um and in a positive way going forward um I think that's the best that we can do um at the point that we so I really appreciate all of you thank you um and good forward to next year for anybody love thank very much you Mr hi just a quick question before I do that thank you so much for all volunteers teach I have kindergarten hung up to the in September and I appreciate everything you've done I sorry I don't name gu who just spoke very cine how do we get here I think you should address that with our Administration quite frankly I asked myself how long ago did we know this been in prevent how I knew in February um the bus driver spoke very old for point of valant andere maybe late for the game but how do we get uh the whole state is here honestly La just told us the two other towns in our districts were better served than we are now that's my opinion okay but as a school Committee Member you stated that so that's your opinion where we are is where we are we all have a concern here that's why we're here I think to clarify what Miss Klein was saying is is that unfortunately for those towns that have decided that they're just going to run with the budgets as usual um those to taxpayers are going to have to even possibly do a proposition to an half all right they're going to have have to there's no way in order for them to cover these costs the taxpayers are going to pay so we're in a a a tenuous situation here because we're also taxpayers we want to make sure that we have a balanced budget that we're responsible for and so we're trying our very best to meet the needs of our students the give our teachers the support that they need because as a teacher myself I know just how much our teachers need in in terms of support not only from curriculum but also from the the administrators but we also want to make sure first and foremost that these students are safe and that they're being cared for in the best way so we are trying our very best to be responsible and balance all those things to be clear I'm not being critical of anybody at the table on any side of of the administration or anybody involved in per I'm simply asking you of other positions in ties and boards are better position than why are we here not a criticism of any school elementary system or the administration or any other Town board I'm simply asking we are where we are with a big meeting a week from tonight with tough decisions to be made argu arguments to be have we are we are I'd like to clarify my statement to say that it was a vote of the elementary school board in Kingston the Kingston school committee to not move to not cut the budget as deeply put it up to the town they're putting it up to they're putting and they may not even pass over there and so if you guys are to to cut the budget level service or otherwise as the finance committee recommended even though the chair granted more money on their side of the 50% deficit on their versus the other Tower we were still granted a deficit we made cuts that were tough you guys all make cuts that were tough not nobody lik they unilaterally you know unfat but we're here so whether the Kingston Elementary School recommended them or not the plon that hold anybody else did other towns would battle and through but we're here B the decisions that were made which I commend you for which were all difficult or or if we declined a town vote next week was the alternative correct that's the alternative that would we've already voted to get to pretty much where the town wants us to we have to vote a little bit more to get where they've asked but if you had declined to make any additional cuts the alternative would have been town meeting tonight I guess so yes I would like to address a statement made by Miss Costa Klein with regards to the budget and how did we get here since my name was mentioned my position was mentioned I'd like to clarify over the past past 2 years um following co uh it became apparent to myself and uh members of a negotiating team that our special education programs at Kingston Elementary School were incorrectly structured for decades Silver Lake did not exist as an elementary system Silver Lake was a 7 through 12 system we were required by the Department of Education and by Massachusetts regulation to address these issues over the past two years these issues have been brought up to the school committee chairs they have been brought up in subcommittee meetings they have even been brought up to the the towns and in public meetings with the towns most recently the biggest public session related to the incorporation of prek into the regional agreement in which we provided frequently asked questions as to how we got here and why we needed to address these issues at the beginning of the budget cycle which for us begins in January we started the budget process by explaining the major movements that we going to have to take place in order to address these concerns in addition in working with the state we noticed a number of other issues that had to be addressed namely that out of District tuitions should never have been charged to the elementary school budgets for students in grades 7 through 12 those tuitions and costs should have been charged directly to Silver Lake the only exception to that is the aod district vocational there's a special regulation for that and that remains with the elementary schools we are a very complicated partially regionalized School District with one business director who worked day and night in her new position along with the rest of this administrative staff to continually update these budgets and provide updates to this school committee as regularly as possible recognizing that we serve four separate in distinct Financial entities and four separate in distinct um districts as a whole so um that's how we got there there's a lot of documentation on our weite from the meetings that we've participated in our meetings are also recorded you can hear our conversations over the past 2 years and again I'm I'm shouting so that you can hear me not because I'm upset with you okay um I I feel like I I we should close comment so we can move on with our meeting because I appreciate the inputs and I know we all have lots of questions and do not want to be in this position but but decisions have to be made so that our town can function and so that our kids can get the best education possible and in the safest way possible so is are you done with your we are complete yes yes okay so back to I think where my question is so I was thinking of the original we cut to 380 which was actually 363 but you're adding in the 93,000 which was kind of part of what we talked about when we went to the town as part so putting that in with the 500,000 that we originally voted to like as you're ear marking it when it wasn't ear marked before in the 500,000 so my question is in my conversations with the town after the um Financial committee meeting that we had um they wanted us to cut 50,000 more above the 500,000 we already voted to cut that that was my understanding of what the request was we uh superintendent crew and I had a an email from the town manager and what the town manager said in the email is that the town the finance committee he felt would support a budget of $ 6,822 138 Which is $643,000 less than the level service budget that we started our April 1st meeting with so that's why at the beginning of this meeting I had said that if you go back in the slideshow that there's an additional 143,000 that the town is looking for reductions so that the finance committee at town meeting could support the school committee budget okay so that that makes sense where that's coming from and we have to vote on that additional 143,000 or because of the so after getting that number from the town superintendent appr the school administration principal bodry we all worked to come up with potential scenarios for the school committee to consider which is that slide 11 that you had up there with the highlights so if you look at that slide 11 the the $500,000 was already voted in April right and then the additional $50,000 in the yellow I'm sorry I'm looking at it I don't know what colors it is the same yellow y and then um and then an additional 97,500 in the red at the bottom so if the school committee were to vote the reductions that are in yellow and red then the school committee would be presenting the town meeting with the budget that the fincom would support I still don't understand not seems much higher than what we had talked about before but I I just I'm not following M so you're you're saying we should cut everything on this page to get to our budget is that yes so that's that's where I was confused too because I was thinking the 93,000 obviously wasn't found money it was money we had budgeted that we no longer needed to because we only had two vocational placements instead of the five we bud or four we budgeted for [Music] and um so that was part of like that's part of the found money like I thought it was going I thought it was going against the 500,000 we already had voted on and that's why it's up there in green but then I thought beyond the 500 we already voted that um it was an then the negotiation was another 50 beyond that but I guess I misunderstood the conversation or I so we need to cut an additional um 147,000 well to 143,000 in order to meet what the town is requested yes okay green are the green is well we that I mean I don't think we voted on these specific lines in the green yeah should we start by should we do color by colorl and go that way ask question I'd like to know what happens if we do not follow vom's recommendation what happens if we V against it if we do that and we risk our school we risk the town not passing the budget then we have only a certain amount of time to have a budget before the state will take over and then none of us have any say and what happens in our schools so it's a dangerous game to play I mean so I'm going to just add some of questions and it's for the benefit of my own understanding but also questions I anticipate folks may also have what would happen if on town meeting 4 if we present the budget that's not um the recommendation of been gone and on town meeting for a taxpayer makes a motion to uh add x amount of money to the budget to get us where we think is reasonable and then the town votes to approve that it would mean that the money would have to come from somewhere else in the town they'd have to cut somewhere else and those would be additional cuts to other departments to other over and above what other departments have already made correct I just been putting that out there because I think it's important for people to know the limits of what we can actually do at this point I wasn't saying what's cut green right away I was saying let's talk about green and then we can take it color by color and instead of looking at this whole big thing saying 647 th000 absolutely I think we should talk about it by color ask questions about it that way okay we can have bus fees still is that not an option or kindergarten tuition or um I know we had thrown that around last time in order for us to charge bus fees we would have to have a revolving account that's set up by the town and the revolving account would have to be approved at town meeting which means it would have had to go on the warrant a month ago in order to create the account to collect the fees so can we put this on for next year we like make note of this for next year to talk about that we can potentially look at it next year and again that um situ just to make clear right if someone receives free and reduced lunches then they would not have to pay the bus fee because as I stated last time I don't want it to be a challenge for anyone to get their child to school and so just because they're not paying for the bus doesn't mean they can't get on the bus in an emergency we still have to have a SE for qu yeah yes for all those questions okay do you have other questions I am curious I know we already Ved on it but is there has have we asked our student um if we can eliminate one bus and where that gets us instead of two I I know that we've already made the vote but it is something that has been kicking in my head tonight so we ask that our first student so the original conversation that I had with first student um if you if you look at how bus companies route it's easier for them to take their routes from the previous year feeded into the computer program and make adjustments on the Fly I asked them to start from scratch to take the addresses of the students and start from scratch as if Halifax were a new district and a new contract for the company and I asked them can you route the dis can you route Halifax Elementary School with eight buses and they did come back to us with a map with new routes which look different than previous years so a road that was on with another road this year might be not on the same road next year so um they gave us um a summary slide and then I asked them specifically to give the actual Roots what bus what stops what kids and then principal bodri and superintendent PR and I met and went through each bus and with a map saying okay it starts here it goes here it's and and going through that so the bus company given the task of seeing if eight buses were possible came back with yes eight buses was possible so I would assume nine buses would work also and also I guess you're asking what the savings would be which it would be half I understand that which would mean we'd have to make cut someplace else and in this new route that you're showing here are the buses more of the same amount of time cuz you were saying Mr DeSantis that some bus routes are 15 minutes right now and some are 45 does what does this do to the average time of the bus route so looking uh hold on stay with me one sec so looking at this proposal that the bus company gave us we have this is the largest uh run time the total time of 35 minutes and the smallest was is 23 minutes so it really I mean it kind of makes more you know I it's something that I think we could have done anyway right like revamp the bus root just given where our population is you look at the current numbers to say that 10 buses right now we have we have 550 students we have know 65 to 70 pick a we have 30 YMCA students so let's say 100 students want take plus the Y now you're down to 450 if you have 10 buses let's just say it was Equitable 45 on each bus you went down to nine buses you're looking at probably above 58 ons you go down to eight excuse me if you go down to n buses I think it would be 51 on bus you down to eight buses it be like I said it's not going to work out perfectly but I think we if we they for an emergency I think yes we have the capacity on B buses like we go 8 9 to 10 ranges between 45 51 to 58 students currently based off how how many drop offs and Pickups we get and our minds we get right and that isn't even counting in for all of our after school programs do have as well you know I can't on a given day in between sessions but I can say pretty consistently 100 students do not oh that's helpful if I could just address the in the emergency piece because that's come up a couple times if there were a catastrophic emergency here in Halifax Silver Lake contracts with first student and we have 31 buses 10 of them do home to school in Halifax if there were an emergency in the middle of the day and Halifax needed to evacuate there's 31 buses available to us so I don't think that should be a consideration the emergency piece and in an emergency the kids I'm hoping they not going to try to spoop their backpacks and their instruments to get on correct oh that's a very good point Thank you and right now this is just a preliminary draft that they the bus company has submitted to us so we're going to go through this and kind of poke holes in it because there are areas that Sarah and I were picking up uh when we were looking at in Jill when we looked at it that there's certain buses that may be able to drop a part of its route and it could be picked up on some of the other ones um just seeing because there's a lot of overlap if you're seeing like in this section here it's almost like have like three or four buses that are on top of each other so we're we're going to go through it and we're going to give the bus company some feedback well and so some of the buses right now might actually that are more crowded now might end up with less students in this scenario so it's not I mean it sounds like we could have used this revamp anyway yeah have you ever been stuck by bus number 2 on Elm Street it's my son's bus all right are there any other questions or discussion theen supply lines and teaching what are we talking about what does that actually and that's in addition to the 93,000 we voted last time correct yes so you found some more or we're going to go without some more that is what we're looking at yes I mean we had to find ways to cut and that's where we ended up going so yes just that question Tom um I thought the joint meeting between the select and the finance committee of the school committee there there was a gap of 120,000 I believe that to be right and I believe the sh finance committee said they pick up 70 and the school committee was responsible for under 50 but speaking to the director over here I think there was some found money for can we just do the math again on that because I think there's some confusion up there but the math might be look for cor right so part of the confusion is that the level service budget that was presented in January in oober January to administrator in October for Lev I I apologize I started working here on Thanksgiving no problem and our first budget hearing was January 1st January 2nd sorry so the level service budget that was presented on January 2nd was different because it needed revisions from the February budget which is different from the March budget so the April 1st budget that was presented was the final level service budget for the school committee to consider that budget was 7,465 138 okay how much were we looking for at that time was 5 was 500 I don't have that in front no it was not 500 if we go back to the previous presentation from the April meeting there were multiple tiers of cuts and the school committee chose to cut only 500 we were asked to cut more we didn't cut the full amount any recollection of when the finance sh made an agreement take more than 50% of the difference at that time when money was quote unquote found to support the school committee to leave the verion of War Cuts remember that okay that's that's fine I'm I'm under I'm under the memory listen you guys all have to thank this job you're G work and I I appreciate all of it I'm just I'm just suggesting that there appear to be some sort of solution in the middle or towards the school committe ground at that joint meeting with the finance committee chair and agreed to take more than 50% of the deficit and now we saying even more money might have been quote quote found due to the out of District placement that is not correct the out of District placement was discussed 26,00 per student cor I'm sorry was it 26,000 per student um for the vocational out of District vocational tuition and there was less than the 2 and half budgeted at that meeting correct before that so there should be some there and then there was a followup email from the town manager the next day that said that he felt that the fincom would support a budget of 6, 82213860 $ but not public meeting that night I don't Rec I I think I've been to a lot of meetings there was another fincom meeting just a week ago tonight there there was discussion over email about what would what meeting in the middle meant right at that meeting the fincom shair suggested more than 50% burden on the remainder of the Town budget and less than 50% burd on the school committee Pro at that yes well I I mean my understanding was we discussed that we got the you know we told them we had cut they asked us originally to cut about 700 and something, so I think maybe where we were meeting halfway was we're not going all the way up to that 700,000 so that's because now we're at 6:47 and that's where we're meeting the halfway because you know we we asked them if we could not do that entire amount and I can understand cuz I anyway I was having a hard time too anyway all right so discussion so um I have questions about the support staff reduction so um the first support staff reduction I feel like this is a power position am I accurate so even though it says 25,000 as you were saying earlier Sarah that could actually be a lower amount depending on which if you look at the presentation from April 28,000 was the number that was used 25 five is a better estimate okay so that's how many poers have we cut at this point from our original budget to so this will be the third I'm going to have to ask you that this would be the third third okay and then I know we're supposed to just be talking about Green um I you can talk about all of it okay um I'd like to move on to Yellow okay um so support staff production of a half um is that also a power yes so we're losing three and a half correct um and currently the Paras that we have the par professionals are all fulltime yes okay so someone would have to 17 I'm sorry 17 right we have 17 17 yes the C 17 before the Cuts but how many are in the um D is that DCL D six six right there's six for plan for the DLC for next year yeah I know I had the wrong acronym wait I'm sorry I thought Mr Ro in your email um with the request for information that I sent I thought there you said there was 12 in the 12 educational PA is not in the DC there's five issues there five ISC sorry can you say that again five DLC PS this year plus 12 inclusion academic 17 this year and then we're next year we're increasing our enrollment in our DLC programs so how many are going to be in DLC next year so we're looking at three in break so the six six total DLC Paras so we're losing one par to the DLC right from what we have now so that's 11 available to us next year plus we cut two so now we're down to nine and now you want us to cut your suggestion is to cut you want to sorry but your suggested proposed reductions is another one and a half correct so we [Music] have 7 and A2 so that still needs one per grade correct so we down to S and a half Paras and when you talk about classrooms that need Paras per iups if so if there's three kindergarten classrooms and I'm not trying to yell at you I'm trying to be respectful so if there's three kindergarten classrooms that par support one par can do that because of the time requirements in the IEPs is that correct so you don't need three Paras per grade obviously right so it works out that you would have one PA to service I don't even know that how you do it but thereally one PA serves Services all three of the kindergarten grades and they have enough time in their schedule to meet all the minutes in the IPS well moving into next year we would have to be more thoughtful of instead of spreading students that are on IPS across all three or four classrooms then we would need to place them in one or two classrooms opening in next year so that we can actually service those IEPs in those rooms will that cause any problems with um then are we getting into like substantially different like as long as we stay under the 50% um for the students enrolled in that classroom okay so we're is it going to be an issue with the number of IEPs that we have the way that we we've planned it out that we should definitely be within our capacity to do that [Music] okay so um can I ask more question of course yeah um so the behaviorist position I know that was something that was discussed a lot the capacity of the workload um that that person had um in terms of the number of students that um that person versus other staff um Cas if you will student can you speak up Lori sorry sorry sorry um so I know there was discussion about the number of students that the behaviors actually touches versus some of our other teaching staff and you know rather than cut from our front line teaching staff or support staff maybe we should consider this position so I see that you've added a reduction of 05 corre um so again currently that's a fulltime it's yes so just to talk this through there's a possibility that the person in that role may not feasibly be able to support themselves on half a salary and they need to we could potentially lose that particular employee that's that's a risk when you cut from Full to half right so the other question I have specifically about this position is um if we are making this cut this year my concern is precedence that um sometimes and this is just my recollection from budget years passed sometimes we've eliminated positions like I think at one point in time we didn't have a librarian for a while um maybe I'm wrong I'm misremembering but it took us a while to get to a point where we could present that to add that back into the budget do you foresee that being an issue next year you know if if we realize we really needed that at a full-time level do you foresee that being an issue to try to go back to the town and make a case for keeping that position I know I'm asking you right I actually know what to expect for next year I I think it's important to remember that principal bodry presented a budget in January that he felt would best serve his school and the community with feedback from the community in particular and through discussions here at school committee he has worked to try to um provide you with uh reductions that he thinks would have the least amount of impact to student well-being and student education he also heard some of your concerns about the behaviorist position last time and you'll notice here he reduced that just to 0.5 as opposed to a full 1.0 FTE so I just like to remind because sometimes it it begins to feel like principal bodri thinks these are this is a great idea and that's that's no that's not my implication at all TR to ask the question so I had a month to think through everything I'm sorry I've had a month to think through everything we discussed I was adamantly like no we need a behaviorist but I actually did listen to the the audience last week and their you know feedback and their um you know firsthand experience and you know that's the job of this role is to listen take input and try to make an educated decision so I'm just asking some followup questions I don't know I feel Sue at this point that five is a reasonable um you know proposal um my my question is really like does that mean we're going to have a tougher time if we want to try to bring that back to a full-time position in the future and again I don't think you answer for that and that's sort of up to us too as a school committee if we feel it's important and well it's all important um but what is the most necessity I mean I'm thinking now of teachers having if you have two classes that are basically inclusion classrooms where we had moved to a model where everybody was an inclusion classroom is that going to lead to thoughts of well I I want my kids in a class where there might not get as much attention or you know I'm I'm I just there's no way that we can execute on this without we none of us have a crystal ball we don't know what the Fallout is but and every every time we bring up one thing it brings up a hundred other concerns and that's and trying to weigh it all out is really challenging Karen so just back to Dr what Dr PR was starting to say I would just appreciate if we could take a step back and hear the rationale of so we had proposed reductions at HS at our last meeting and what you gave us tonight is titled additional proposed but I feel like it's revised SL additional proposed so I was just wondering if you could give us that rationale because there's changes right so I guess you don't have to go through everyone um I quickly did that myself here but the big thing things that I'm seeing that are different from what you proposed at our last meeting is that instead of one full-time support staff now reduce that to a 0.5 and you reduce the behaviorist to.5 instead of you know fully eliminating that position and then on the other one there was on the tier three there was a one classroom teacher which no longer is here and I'm not sure how I didn't do the math but so I guess I was just wondering about the rationale so what your changes were and what the rationale was if you could just do that for us from the before and after really it was just kind of looking at the big picture of uh all the areas that we needed to cut and we're trying not to go after personnel as much as humanly possible and we our budget is only so big that um we do need to get to the point where you know if if you're voting on it that we have to get to Personnel so when we're looking at that we kind of sit down and we start running the numbers of you know how many staff that we have here um in the building how many students that we have on I IEDs that we have to fact r how many students are being serviced by that um by that population so when we started to calculate where you know the ratios were we were looking at you know numbers for the case loads for all those areas when we're looking at uh when you break down 130 IEPs that we have in the building we would break that down even further to how many special ed teachers we have how many speech pathologists we have how many parent professionals that we have how many crisis team members we have including uh adjustment councils or School site behaviorist um and then when we factored that all in and we looked at the case loads they were very manageable when we when we did it this way and still keeping the class sizes at a reasonable amount is what we were looking at so if you if you take out the you know the enrollment of 547 student students you know the 130 students that are on IEPs and you that number actually is a little less daunting when you go through it and you calculate students that are in the DLC program that are serviced by those specialized teachers students that have sayfe speech only IEPs and then we calculate um all the different support staff that we have in quite manage so that's really where we came up with this I mean obviously we don't want to get to a to yellow or red but um we're asked to make those cuts if we need to get to that point what is the difference between the behaviorist and this might have been answered last time between the behaviorist and the School site can the School site pick up some of what the point5 of behaviorist is uh yes um so the crisis team is myself Brian um The Adjustment counselors the school psych and the behaviorist so um right now our School site doesn't have as large a case load as the behaviors but shairs all IEP meanings that happen throughout the year so we just said there's 130 IEPs that happen so can only the school pych do that for the IEPs no can other other people can help with the IEPs well it's I mean I I could share those meetings Brian could share those meetings well the question be acknowledged the question is is that the teachers and the other schools do the annuals and school psychologists only do the initials in threee rear BS so his case load would be less than 130 okay so so the answer basically is yes that the School site can take on that5 behaviorist so we're not doing our children in Injustice by getting rid of the behaviorist .5 correct I mean that would obviously would need to be picked up somewhere and so between myself Brian and other people the School site thejust counsel we would have to be able to kind of step up and carry that case load well it says the impacts would be additional PDS that something that is paid PD or just on the ins service days PD we would be looking at providing our staff with more in more professional development in managing those types of behaviors so that they could address them in tier one instruction so what would the cost for that be I don't have a dollar right well I mean I'm going to guess it's probably about equal to.5 behaviorist position so the Department of Education at the federal level gives us what we call the iris center at Vanderbilt University it's all research based modules that are driven three of them um are about behavior management one two and three and they're really very good so I would think that you would could utilize that behavior management dur um modules during either team meeting times for the grade levels or after school when the students are here it's just as good as anybody coming in and I can support as well I've delivered professional devel that be no mhm thank you you're welcome are there any other questions discussion yeah okay go ahead no it's fine there's if we have 12 educational pairs right now moving to 7.5 on paper it works but what were what were the other educational pairs doing just more support in the room in the classrooms so we're just taking more pairs out of those gened classrooms because we're going to consolidate and with more iips per so the ratio of iips is going to be higher correct approach can you tell more about the reading specialist like the one full time um reading specialist so there will be no reading specialist we have two currently okay so this package of information that we ask for that breaks down the number of students um and these you know additional support positions in the reading specialist um it says that 65 to 75 students um utilize through our support our specialist so what will that do to that one reading specialist case is that now is there any additional support because again I'm assuming if a kid my kids need reading um support um so I imagine it's it's something that's necessary you know for a lot of kids right I mean it's obviously not ideal to to lose another reading specialist but U right now we have one math specialist and that person is responsible for a similar case load but we have to prioritize students that need it the most and then go from there okay um and I just want to make a note that um I see that in the rad um the suggestion of reducing our specialist to 0.9 is in here and that was something that was in tier last time around we didn't vote that far um I think everyone I know I received um an email from um Mr reesei with um additional um addresses an address from him about how um what his program looks like what would be affected by that change um and in kind each of the other Specialists Mr Troy Mrs lar M TBO thank you B um so um and a lot of the things that were mentioned one of them was Horus um one of them was Health um instrumental um instruction I think we talked about that last time but there was also a lot of the um Hallmarks or TS I would say that our Traditions um you know turkey shot right I'm like trying to like they're basically the extra pieces is that enrich each of those specialist area of expertise um and it would put a serious limit on their ability um to do those functions so um I just wanted to thank you to the Specialists um that are here and aren't here for taking the time to outline that information for us I don't think any of us wants to reduce um your hours um and certainly we all value um your commitment to the school and the enragement that you bring our kids um and continue to I mean my kids still um talk very fondly about any of you um and they're about they're almost all out of the school system so um I I I'm glad to see that you know things like chorus and um an instrument option and help when they um I hope that that we as a community can find a way to support those other pieces if this is what we're voting on today um to support the teachers to and our students to help keep those Hala Hallmarks if you will um and I hope that this is a onee um measure um I don't know I mean I truly when we talk about next year's budget I I'm pretty firm that we need to bring those people back so one I agree is there still time in their schedule at a 0.9 to do things like the Turkey Trot and all of those things from a 0.1 to a0 n we have to work Mrs lard um sorry I think we just have to do an instrumental as A9 I do not have time to do um as a whole point 1.0 it would still be compromised as to what it was this year because it would be it was a point4 right not be putting it into it but as a point9 howal can happen but thank you for clarifying so um Dr crew and I don't want to put you on the spot but I think this might be an example of um kind of what I was getting at that I don't know that denett and um Kingston are necessarily um going to be making the same changes for their music program that we will have to no no they uh the school committee has not voted to eliminate instrumental at in Kingston nor in Halifax however um I remain concerned that instrumental will remain at denit because as you know um most people are looking for a full-time position this position was a split position between Halifax and dennet in addition instrumental instrumental lessons are a research-based and proven way to help students improve grow feel connected socially emotionally but also academically so the the reduction of the 26,000 for instrumental um that has already been voted um is a obviously you know one of many things that we will we will be losing next year I think question does anyone else have questions um with the apps with the removal of a reading specialist is there plan for PD for our teachers and science of reading so that they can help do small group intervention to fill that Gap class tier one we can look to do that absolutely we can work with our curriculum coordinator to add that in so I know that we've gone over this a million different ways and had pretty robust discussions and I'd like to ask Dr PR and Mr bodri and Mr Dan santis given the situation we're in which is not ideal what you've presented to us is what you feel like is the best way to preserve education and safety at our schools I go first I I absolutely do okay I I obviously don't want to go to that far point and I thought you know there might be some other creative ways to come up with some some fun but um or even go back to the town I don't know given given what was asked for Brian and I I think we really did do the best that we possibly could here and we put students first ultimately and that's that was the task but it was difficult and I dreaded it and I still lose sleep about you know just looking at it but that's what we had to do okay I I would just add I'm concerned about the reductions but I don't see see an alternative that would be any better so we spent a lot of time debating discussing um thinking about different iterations that may not have as big of an impact to say that this isn't going to have an impact on Halifax Elementary would be wrong it is it's going to have an impact um but I I I he's we're pretty lean in every area that isn't Personnel or isn't a contractual obligation of some sort know and our things such as utilities schools just like the community is impacted by inflation so how did this happen well it's been happening and like many schools in the Commonwealth here we are everything is more expensive did you want to add anything Mr santis or okay can we say we vote on all these things can we go to the town and say we voted 500 and then they say no okay well we have a 550 can they can we do it that [Music] way um like we like have the 647 we have it I don't want to cut it will you just accept the 500 can we like do you know what I mean anyone can make a motion on Town floor but then they would have to find the money somewhere else so then you would have to adjust somewhere else and I mean it's that's what I was trying to ask just yeah like can we like you know sure I approve this right now we'll voted in so that we have the power to do it but can we like pretend we and is cutting back on something like the reading Specialist or the behaviorist position or any of the support staff is that going to lead us to have to hire contracted services or are we already doing that to have to get to where we need IEPs things like that it's always going to depend upon the individual students and the individual students needs so again that's a that's a difficult question for us any any number of changes are are going to negatively impact or could NE negatively impact students so again we we don't know what the students needs are that's a team process that determines that and I think one takeaway we can take from this year is what we're going to look for next year and start you know I know we started early but we have a much better picture we didn't know how regionalizing pre K would look to our budget we didn't know what the assessments would change how they would change there was a lot of unknowns and in going into next year and working with the town we can let them know what we've had to do in order to you know not impact other Town Services I mean education's very important but I and also there's State funding issues there's there's so many things that go into our budget that um isn't just a Halifax you know there's a lot and so I feel like using this as a learning experience as a school committee because if we can get back that's what we want to do and so you know to figure out work with the town I I know like there's discussion of a prop two and a half override for next year maybe that you know things like that and explain this is what we had to do this year and this is what we don't want to have to do again and in fact we'd like to restore things that we had to take away so I just like I think that this was a challenge for any school Comm I mean saying it's a learning experience for us it's true we're learning but I don't know that any school committee could have necessarily handled this differently oh no I'm not saying yeah I'm just saying that like for the future like I feel like that leaves folks with a thought that like if we had different people at the table they would have been able to figure it out better and when we're talking about people's livelihoods I don't want us to leave the community with the idea that we're learning at the expense of somebody's like living okay yeah no no that makes sense no and I mean it more as experience as instruction as a learning experience like going through cuz you're right I mean this hasn't happened before but but I see what you're saying um and I think just to clarify we really didn't have a choice on regionalization that was I mean yes we get to vote on it but there could have been some severe ramifications had we not well and if we didn't it would have been more expensive for Halifax because we would have had to send all of our prek students to out of District placements which would have been a lot more money so all of our prek students who qualified qualify which is absolutely necessary but there's you know there there are a lot to this and we've been talking about it for months and we don't mean to you know we want to answer questions as fully as we can but we've been in this for a long time so um I don't know that we really fully understood either at least I didn't like the impact that would happen and that has to do with all the end like we knew that we would save at the Halifax level we would see a reduction but that's a lay would see an increase and I think our thought process was oh they'll just watch so there'll be a slate increase I don't think anyone anticipated that it would blow up the way it did and I don't think it's just the regionalization I think it's cost of living other expenses I think it's the increased number of students that need special education services and I'm saying this mostly for Dr brew and for Sarah because I've heard you time and time again it's not one thing and it's not just our town yeah and it's not and sorry I mean to talk but it's not just our town you read articles like many school districts are facing these issues and it's really really difficult so anyway all right Karen so I just wanted to give my perspective and also gain some clarification at the same time and talking about what we need to very soon accomplish so we have a confirmed retirement so in my opinion if we were to cut one classroom teacher position it wouldn't be felt by anybody the position would not be replaced so it's a position that's not attached to a person so human being doesn't feel it and if you did that to this year's grade four which would be next year's grade five cohorts their class size would still be smaller than other class sizes however it it's irrelevant because all we would be voting on is cutting the line and administration would be privy to do whatever they want with that number so to me I feel like a classroom teacher is leaving and you don't replace that classroom teacher nobody no human being loses a position class size is still lower than other class sizes and we preserve the specialist the reading specialist we keep pull all of our other Specialists um but again that's not something we can vote on so I just want to clarify that make sure that I'm clear um I also I'm not personally comfortable with taking away the support staff both the parist and behaviorists because those people can service all kids all kids G through six we need somebody here and now at this moment they can be moved at will it's not a classroom teacher that's assigned to a certain roster in a specific walls of the building so I personally feel that it's really important to keep those Paris that can be moved and to keep a behavior that can go and deescalate a child if you look at the list of their responsibilities case load of 30 students they also are included on the service delivery for IEPs so I feel that's a slippery slope with making sure legally that we're servicing all those IEPs um so that's how I feel as far as the cuts go I don't want to see the reading specialist cut either I think that's important to get ahead of IEPs Mr La came and spoke about that in our last meeting um but again that's not something that we're voting on so I guess I want to clarify when we vote too like as we vote through we're voting colors are we also addressing line items as well so I'm confused about making sure we're clear on exactly what we're voting what we V can I ask who the there was one confirmed retirement that I knew about in December which was Mrs tanelli and that has been factored into the budget is there an additional retirement no so that's the confirmed retirement talking about right so there's a one less class from teacher of the building so that was known prior to the um yeah I'm not talking money though I'm talking like positions right so if right so I I feel like if they just don't create If instead this money that we have we reallocate to others rather than to hiring a new classer that's what I I just wanted to mention that that's for FY 26 $39,000 what is FY 26 isn't she not retiring this year she's retiring she's not retiring until the end of next year [Music] not so do we have problem cuz we switched it to 39,000 right a savings of 39,000 so the the savings of the information that I have says that she's retiring on June 30th 20 25 so we don't so but so you didn't not I'm just concerned now that we're another shortage [Music] we nice but we're working on year2 budget correct so she's reing at the end of25 that's right which is a 26 yes we're fine but that but that's something we can think about next year yes [Music] next but either way it's irrelevant we do don't make those decisions so I just want to make sure that it's clear too so right we would just vote on that line is all HDA it is all well the the support staff is not HDA I don't think we've the reading specialist is HTA though correct yes so that will be a redu at the HTA line item is the behavior h no no I receiv with the behaviors is not H I think you're talking about two certain two different things there's the line item and what it's called and then there's then there's membership in the Halifax Teachers Association yeah well I'm talking about the line item two separate things yeah theal is in the teacher line is not in that corre yeah that's yes right that's what my understanding is what Mr just said so the behaviorist would be on their own line item to be voted on to be cut the support staff would be on their own line item to be cut and then also the librarian would not be part of the specialist reduction because the librarian is on her own line so you have to vote separately if we're going to make all specialist go to 0.9 we would have to vote separately for the librarian to also be Cut to0 N because she is not on the same line either my understanding though is that we don't have to V vote on line Tings because the Administration has line of authority we we want to see eliminated or a total budget but could decide after we going to ship some things I am I you have line so generally speaking we value the from our school committee and we present to you what it would look like if you were to make these Cuts what we would propose to do so basically if you you vote this Our intention is to reduce those line items by those amounts so we're more there's no need voting on these levels rather than necessarily line items yes and yes historically you have voted a a a budget number and um yeah I was going to say historically we have done a budget number and let have allowed the admins to work the budget out within that number the school committee I believe and tell me if I'm wrong does have the ability to vote down certain you know to reduce or change line items but there would still be wiggle room with I mean CU there's so many people on the teacher even if they're members of the HTA but like on the teacher salary line you know there's so many people there that it might not you know it's it's might not be in the exact position we [Music] correct and am I wrong to say that there's a possibility that maybe I know this is like a crazy idea but we might find a grant or like there might be some funding that we didn't realize we were eligible for that could come in and save the day you could it's not I didn't I nodded my head in agreement what did you do out the world um it is it is my experience that in this uh Silver Lake Regional School District and Union 31 we have been very good at um getting entitlement grants but competitive grants for through the state and competitive grants through the federal government isn't something that has been aggressively sought and it's time to do that OPP and again an educational process not a learning like this is educational so as far as the future for my information do we have somebody on in central office that focuses on applying for Grants on our behalf we do not have a grants manager in central office we work as hard as we can to acquire the money that's entitled to us by the federal government and keep track of it so we we work tirelessly on that there are grant opportunities pursued Melissa farell works hard on on those our curriculum coordinators at other levels do that um the restrictions on those though aren't quite the size of the entitlement grants from the federal government so and they also prioritize other districts um sometimes that have different need structures than our so to s's point they're hard to land because sometimes they want to see demographic data that doesn't match the profile of our our districts but if anybody has additional capacity and sees grants that work they will people try as they can to secure additional uh funds there was the early literacy grant that helped out um we spent down Sesser one two and three so um we drive a where where really just to land the entitlement grants is a you know it's work in our uh it's work in its work sure is there any other discussion um so if we do all these cuts to get to where the town wants us to what would be the budget number we would vote tonight 6, 82213860 $2,138 is that correct yes okay is there any other discussion I'll make a motion that we pass the Halifax budget for fy2 at $6 m822 th000 all right we'll do a vote Katie yes Lori yes Karen yes Jessica yes and myself as a [Music] yes now we will move on is there anything any other updates principal bod no I think that's everything all right um we'll turn the time over to Sarah is thank you you're welcome um we have been notified by the department of Elementary and secondary education of Halifax elementary school has qualified for circuit breaker extraordinary relief for FY 24 totaling $26,250 These funds are divided into three categories extraordinary relief which is paid through circuit breaker and that's $149,100 extraordinary relief paid through Reserve relief $ 33,6 78 and Reserve relief paid from Reserve relief for $77,400 be applied to the FY 24 budget the two Reserve relief amounts will also be received in May and can be either spent by June or held over for next year the two Reserve relief amounts are deducted from next year's circuit breaker payment so that those are funds that we would hold on to if at all possible but we have them available should we need them so we have them available for this year but but they'll be put against what we would get next year if we use them if we use them this year then we aren't seeing it next year it's basically like a pay ahead or like it's it's an advance on Advance on our circuit breaker for next year okay so we can use it this year if we have to and we can hang on to it and use it with circuit breaker regular circuit breaker next year okay um and so that's all I have for circuit breaker unless you have questions um the financial report that was in the school committee folder um there's a number of lines the FY 24 25 budget takes these lines all into consideration right now there's a deficit in legal fees where over our retainer with ston and Chandler Miller there's a deficit in homeless Transportation there's a deficit in electricity and gas and there continues to be a deficit in PD that's tuition reimbursement for teachers and at our June meeting I will be coming to you with specific line item transfers to cover these def deficits are we going to be able to cover the deficits at this point yes okay P pending no surprises I'm only laughing because this year has been full of surprises I hope no more uh there's a deficit in the principal supply line the tech Hardware line and the guidance testing materials line those are all with um absorbed within the categories there's a deficit in special education contracted services and tuition of $285,900 mentioned extraordinary relief so we will be using it as of now well the 147,000 that has to be used by June 30th you definitely be used well yeah for sure but not okay and that concludes my report does anyone have questions okay thank you um Ryan really uh inside of the school committee folder I shared um request by the school committee for an overview of um Dei efforts um at Halifax and superintendency Union 31 so I outlined um the areas where there's a district deib committee diversity Equity inclusion and belonging uh professional development that touches on um related work including working with the Anti-Defamation League in 2002 um our curriculum efforts including our soci emotional learning curriculum and our compliance with um state regulations and and federal law and just included the last bullet points on the ways in which our current policies uh reflect um equity and inclusion um around our title n process um bullying Section 504 accommodations um our mandated trainings on harassment uh confidentiality and things like that so um I hope this overview is helpful and I'm open to answer any questions anybody may have about um our work in those areas I appreciate you supplying it I looked through I do have a couple of questions I think I just would rather like sh youing em know include Karen if that's okay rather than talk through it here can talk more about it um absolutely happy to do that thank you you're welcome okay uh Dr P so I have uh the I only have one item and that is um to recognize that this is teacher appreciation week and I feel it's important to recognize our teachers who support and make our students feel safe and help encourage them to want to learn and be excited about learning um so again thank you HTA and our Teachers Association we do really really appreciate you all right um dates to remember May 27th is Memorial Day May 31st is Silver Lake graduation with a rain date of June 1st June 6th 2024 is the an early release day for grades 6 through 12 so I guess it doesn't impact HS oh it says grade 6 through 12 is it uh 6 through 12 is being has an early release what is yeah it's K it's k6 K through six is an early release on June 6th and June 14th is the last day of school um and then can I have a motion to go into executive session to not um come back into Open Session please I'll make a motion to go into executive session not returning to regular session per mgl c3a section 21 A3 to discuss strategy with respect to collective bargaining for contractual negotiation administrative assistant to the principal and Food Service employees and par par professionals an executive session P pursuant to mgl c38 S21 A7 to comply with or act under the authority of any general or special law approval or of executive session minutes from April 1st 2024 I'm second okay um we'll take a vote Katie yes Lori Karen Jessica yes myself as a yes thanks everyone [Music]