[Music] I'm going to bring the uh Comm to order um welcome I didn't mean to yell it's the only way I I can get everyone's attention I need to learn to do that whistle thing um welcome everybody I am to um start the Silver Lake Regional school committee meeting on April 9th and we begin tonight with a school choice [Music] hearing so and we are being recorded So each year we ask the school committee to determine whether or not they wish to participate in school choice if they choose not to participate in school choice we also must explain the reason for not participating in school choice in the past reasons such as um class sizes possible budget reductions budgetary concerns have been some of the things that we have provided to the state does anyone have any thoughts on this I make a motion that the Silver Lake Regional School does not participate in school choice during the 2024 2025 school year because of class sizes in our budget second any further discussion on it seeing none all those in favor I I Madam chair I make a motion to close the public hearing is there a second to that second all those in favor I I thank you okay public participation if anybody would like to address the committee I would ask you to stand give your name and the town that you're from um if you're a teacher just acknowledge yourself as a staff member would anyone like to publicly address the committee at this time uh my name is George Ean from Kingston 131 Country Club do I do this in yeah we're all right um so I I spoke um last week at the uh the school committee meeting in Kingston uh regarding the talks about uh school budget cuts and the uh you know the the question of uh laying off teachers and possibly par professionals uh because we need to make up for this um I don't know if it was a mishandling of funds or what exactly the issue was and um I just I have a few points that I'd like to make tonight uh one that I'm I'm totally against that I mean get and getting rid of teacher positions especially especially in light of something that came out this week that um I'm sure the school committees probably know about but we as the public C haven't been told about until this week it was a video that came out about um some incidents that have happened at the elementary school and possibly the Intermediate School uh regarding some um some assaults by um some of the the migrant students um not that I'm picking anything out it's not a racially thing but uh something had happened where a where uh a student was in 2022 um was in the bathroom at the elementary school and uh she was in a stall and one of the students that were I think in her kindergarten classroom also went into the bathroom this was one of the migrants who were from the in living in the bont and and that student uh the migrants student came out came under the stall and assaulted the kindergarten in that in that stall uh to the point where she was being touched um the uh the student had uh not the migrant student the victim put her hands up was pushed to the ground and was was kissed by the the migrant student uh the parent put a video out this week she didn't put a video out but it was it was an interview uh that she had done and it became public this week where she had met mentioned that this had happened uh it was brushed under the rug by the schools uh it has not been made public and um not only did it happen that one time another incident happened with the same student the same victim a second time and now that student's sister has also had an issue happened this uh past week by another migrant uh in the school where that ironic not ironically but strangely enough it was a very similar inent where the migrant student came from under the stall in the back and assaulted the student so my my question is how do we get rid of uh staff right now when this is going on one two why is the public not being made aware of these issues I have a kindergarten in Kingston Elementary and I was not I had no idea about this I I'm sorry I'm going to Inter Point um a couple of things earlier you referenced mishandling of funds yes I want to make it perfectly clear two things right out of the gate a there is no mishandling of funds at this district for Silver Lake that has been identified or that we're even contemplating exist okay secondly the second thing that it's a little off topic here but I want to make it very clear and we have a legal opinion on our agenda tonight the restructuring of the prek was legally required of us and is not the cause of our financial woes I need to just State those things right out of the gate okay now the sensitivity to the issue you're sharing clearly you're you're sharing um incidents that should never have happened right you're sort of addressing the wrong body this evening given that we are prek now but I speak please as I'm the mom whose both daughters were affected as it does have something to do with this this is the school committee for this District nobody's kids should go through what I went through and and for him to speak up is is 100% right and you all need to hear this because my heart is broken don't tell me to stop I'm not stopping I've stopped for too long and I just had another incident today and found out that someone else went up up to my kindergarten daughter under the stall and another safety plan for my other daughter if you want to speak to him and tell him it's not about funds where are the funds going this is not about you know what you're wrong I you're wrong I'm not wrong well you need to listen the school committee needs to listen this is a district problem I I need you to smiling isn't helping me it's not funny so if I if I may this is I think what the chair is trying to say is this is Silver Lake Regional school committee it's the same thing it's a district issue it's a district it's happening all throughout four separate districts and if you have a concern with how this was handled in Kingston it needs to be addressed with the Kingston committee I think that's all that she's trying to say yeah okay that's sure what I was trying to get to okay sure well I I I apologize that I don't know the difference between these different committees it's not very really very clear the issue with the the the residents at the bore in doesn't just pertain to the the intermediate and Elementary School it's also in the Silver Lake High School too so how how we we as as residents are have a reasonable expectation that we are going to be told if there's an issue or reasonable expectation that our kids are being supervised properly in school and being taken care of the same as they would be at home so if these issues are happening at the high school level too which my son goes to Silver Lake High School and I've heard stories too um of issues here um why is it that um other students besides the migrant students are being pushed if there's a behavior issue to go to the readed school or whatever it is in bidor but these other students are not this this this poor family the the perpetrator of the original incident is still in that school in classes to this day my my two doors down tell me why that's okay and she went after again a second time tell me why that's okay does anyone want want want to speak to that there's a safety plan in place the safety plan didn't work I have another son that's supposed to be entering the school system in the fall so again I'm not sure if you're speaking to Kingston schools or if you're talking to S Lake Schools but the reality is is regardless of whether or not it's a Kingston school or a Sil school we don't share student private student information that's not aable just as if one of your children had private information we wouldn't share that publicly so disciplinary issues are in fact private and are handled according to our handbook code of conduct and state law okay was here's a question um where is the line like if a student brings a gun to school and and and and assaults or a knife and assaults a student we're made aware especially if it's a student from Kingston not a myig we're made aware immediately that there was an incident at the school the school's on lockdown this and that when were we ever made aware of a uh uh sexual assault in in any of the now you're superintendent of schools so you can answer for both school when we made aware of any of these incidents that were happening not only one incident but now three incidents that then all that's all that I'm aare of this incident was appropriately handled and reported I disagree no I disagree and um you know and I just and I'll I'll end it with this um it's it's came to light this week it's now on social media today and it's going to be a bigger deal I promise you that okay my daughter goes to school there and it's going to be a biger deal if if we have to pull our kids from the school and put them in a private school because this stuff is happening this is what need this is this is what we have to do to protect our kids because the schools are not protecting our kids right now that's my personal feeling so this is not the end of it thank you would anyone else like to address the school committee go ahead U my name is Christine shulie and I'm out of Kingston um and I just would like to read what I have written here um I am the parent of a current Middle School student a daughter and we recently moved to Kingston in part of the Stellar reputation of the middle school and high school and of the teachers and programs offered that I've heard of I'm now horrified that the Silver Lake School District currently finds itself in such a position that you have cut $1.6 million from the middle school and high school budget after seeing that the Kingston school committee decided that they only felt like cutting 300,000 instead of the 1.1 million as they were asked to I'm deeply concerned that the additional Cuts will be coming from this District I do not understand why the superintendent has not stepped in to help facilitate a more Equitable solution between all the schools what has happened is just plain irresponsible and the responsibility of this lies with you we moved here so that our daughter would have a great education and to feel safe I don't want to see more teachers cut from my child's School limiting her options when she moves into High School however at the last school committee meeting it was stated by the business manager that next year the budget will be as bad if not worse what do you plan to do to stop this the middle school and high school have already done their part making cuts to staff and programs it's time for you to do your part and not make any further cuts from the middle school and high school in order to ensure a children's future thank you I appreciate you speaking um a couple of things we're not the only School District that's facing ing this financial issue it's it's across the state and if you saw the Boston Globe article a couple of weeks ago it talked in in quite a bit of detail about it we don't like making Cuts we love the programs we have we have a great school here but when it comes down to the math and what the towns can afford we may need to make some hard decisions we've already made made some hard decisions um the superintendent again there's four different budgets going on here and the superintendent is not to blame for any of these cuts the fiscal wo of of the communities and of the state in the increased cost of insurance and special education and transportation all feed into this and it's our duty to try and work with the number and work with the budget and make the smartest decisions we can and that's what we do day in and day out year after year here um you know we've talked I've been on these committees for a long time I've been on Silva Lake for quite a while and of and on we have talked about Silva Lake will have challenges sustaining over time when John Creed was on Silver Lake he said it um I've said it uh Gordon Andrews when when Gordon was on the committee you know it's our our um student population has decreased and our cost have gone up at some point there's there's some give that has to happen having said all of that again we don't want to make Cuts we're going to make the smartest decisions we possibly can with all the factors that we have I will say one other thing though and I I come from Halifax and in the last five or six years there's been two or three instances where I've gone to town meeting and I've tried to pass a budget that makes sense and the Halifax voters have declined it and we've only passed the budget because Clinton and Kingston approved it and when you're in a Regional School situation with three school districts three towns Two Towns can force the third town to fund that budget I would ask all of you when we go to town meeting and we present these budgets this year next year the following year I would encourage and ask all of you if you live in these towns to come and support us because let me tell you it is not a pleasant experience to stand on town meeting floor and have most of the Town vote no and stand there holding an empty basket when you know the budget you have in your hand is a reasonable budget it is not a comfortable position so I would like to just say that to everybody here and to the public that's watching is there anyone else KY good evening ladies and gentlemen school committee members Administration this is very difficult for me I have been a prime supporter of the schools and of the administration and of budgets in the 12 years or so that I've been involved with finances in Kingston I I just feel it necessary to just make a couple of comments number one I'm going to correct something that was said because nobody else did the adjustments that Silver Lake made in their budget of a million 605 included 855k of reductions and 750k of Revenue so that the real so-called budget reduction was 855k I don't think there's anybody here that would disagree with that the uh other thing that I want to say is that as the chairman of the finance committee in Kingston we're doing everything we can to find a way to support the budgets that we're being asked to do however the current education increase that Kingston is looking at is $2.9 million or 10.3% from last year that's on top of a 7% increase and 1.9 million for last year well any of you that know anything about finances budgets proposition 2 and A2 you cannot live with 7 and 10% increases every year okay despite that okay we're continuing to work to find some way of justifying it however at my finance committee meeting last Wednesday night I took a informal vote and the informal vote would say that we will not be able to recommend to the town of Kingston this kind of a increase in the budget I'd also like to know because I've heard a lot of talk about what the regional committee is doing versus what the local committees are doing as we just understood the regional committee made an 855k reduction that was about 2.2% of their total budget of approximately $39 million the Kingston school committee two weeks ago made a reduction of $388,000 which is approximately 2.6% of the local $15 million budget so to say that the locals aren't doing their fair share I think is a misrepresentation my final comment is that I really do find it unfortunate that the town of Kingston at least we we we're seeing some divide versus you know the school budgets the police fire and other budgets okay and as far as I'm concerned I'm only me one member of the finance committee but I think I have a lot of support the board of Selectmen I've talked to them we're we've only been approximately $400 to $500,000 a p right now $400 to $500,000 is less than one % of the total education budget between Silver Lake and the local schools so I don't feel that it's a terribly humongous ask but I understand where we are and I just wanted to give fair warning that the finance committee of Kingston is not going to support this request I believe that the board of Selectmen are probably on the fence that um I've talked to a couple of those people I think you're going to end up with a 32 vote either in favor of the budget or against it similar to the way the local school committee was 32 in favor of the budget okay I'd like to personally invite everybody on this school committee and every anybody in the school administration who would like to come to the Kingston finance committee meeting next Wednesday night to speak up to make your comments to do whatever you think is right uh we certainly will make time for you [Music] okay my final comment is that rest assured that the town Administration in Kingston the board of Selectmen in Kingston the finance committee in Kingston intends to continue to support the schools the educ ation the administrators the teachers that everybody that we can within reasonable budget limitations to provide the best education that we can for the residents and their children of the town of Kingston thank you I think there was another person over here yes ma'am um Hinson 473 Rivers Drive um as I spoke earlier after George spoke um out of turn I apologize um I think my emotions not the best of me consider you owe us no apology whatsoever my family's been through but um as he just spoke about the budget which I was at the meeting a couple weeks ago um and I get my tongue the entire time um because I didn't feel confident enough to stand up in a room like this and share my story but you talk about you know the budget and where the money is going where is the money going that who's paying for these immigrants that are getting put ahead of our kids day to day today you spoke last week at the meeting um that if we if you if the school administration loses lose as a student you have to pay we pay money for that you're probably going to lose my kids unless someone's going to help me give Justice this isn't political this is Justice for my little kids that are just got to get an education this isn't for my kids this is for all the people who are here tonight who have kids school should be a safe environment nobody should be sexually assaulted touched pushed under the rug not spoken nobody calling me and letting me know what happened to my kindergartener I went through enough with my with my second grader and now this where all those funds that money that you're getting from the state the money that the school's getting for these immigrants why I was at the P Plymouth Coalition for the homeless the week before this happened to my daughter to supply them with with with clothes with with toys with whatever they needed and then this happened the week after what are you going to do as a school committee again this is a district issue District y can I can I just add one thing sure um Carrie McCrae and actually from born um and one thing that Caitlyn didn't mention and obviously she's very emotional but this spoke volumes to me is what is the procedure so when you um when you have an incident that needs to be investigated that is brought to your attention what is the time frame that that is supposed to be um brought to the parent because today when when I was speaking with Caitlyn it's when she found out after she called the school and talked to the school and said this is what my other daughter mentioned me over the weekend she got the paperwork with a safety plan which as she already spoke to the other safety plan really wasn't very effective and as I was reading through it the incident that she found out about from her daughter on Sunday happened on January 26th of 2024 the only reason she found out the only way she found out as a parent was from her 5-year-old daughter who brought it up to her on Sunday when she reached out to the vice principal and the principal they said they had no idea about it they heard nothing so the question is what is the procedure here when somebody brings something of this nature of a boy going under and looking under the Stalls of a young girl that's in the the bathroom what is that time frame because I know with DCF and things like that if there's an incident it needs to be recorded in 24 hours what what you're joing here tonight appears to be on the surface of Kingston and you're the superintendent of Kingston are you not yes I am but this is a Silver Lake school committee we also have a title 9 coordinator we follow Title 9 process we follow investigations I again the responsibility once reported is for us to in investigate to notify the parents within what time frame as soon as they know so why would they not notified on January 26th you just told me that they didn't know it happened on January 26 no it was reported on January 26 nobody called the mother and the Father the only reason why it is now exposed is because their 5-year-old daughter told them on Sunday and then it was confirmed that they been investigating it for 3 and A2 months okay I at this point need to ask you to pursue this discussion with the administration and if if you like as well with the Kingston school committee I do need to I am sympathetic and I understand your frustration Administration is responsible for the entire District this committee here is not and I I need to move forward with this committee's business this evening and I understand that but just remember this is the high school here and if we don't deal with it now other in the elementary and the Middle School these same conversations are going to be heard here I'm not suggesting it's not dealt with I'm suggesting it needs to be discussed with the right participants the Right audience and this group right here this evening is not that audience so I'm going to leave it with Jill and Ryan to ensure that they get back with you we have some committee members who are also Kingston Elementary committee members y so they obviously have heard the discussion and will be prepared for any further discussion at the Kingston Elementary level Madam chair I good go ahead John you um good evening everyone uh John le I'm the president of the Civil a Education Association um first I just want to thank Carl for such a clear explanation of the financials as Kingston sees it um you know I I've been following this all pretty closely and um that's the first time I heard it explained that uh it's the $855,000 in cuts and $750,000 in Revenue so I appreciate that um I do want to just comment also about one thing that um Paul has said you know there definitely are pressures that all school systems are under right now uh Dr PR shared with me a document about uh fiscal cliff uh in regards to how they fund inflation increases but the the amount of cuts that that we're having to entertain now in our budget this is not something that is going on everywhere um so that is certainly piece of it but to say that there are not decisions that are being made in our district that are leading to this problem um I don't think I would agree with that um I did go to the uh some of the uh elementary school meetings and a lot of people talked about the cuts and the harm that the cuts would do uh and ask the Committees not to cut crucial staff um I'm glad that the elementary schools were able to avoid the worst of the cuts but I am afraid as some people have already talked about that that might mean that we're going to see more here than we already have um so the process this year has been very troubling to me um I've been a teacher at Sil Lake for almost 20 years and watched a lot of these budgets and I can't remember anything like this um we didn't even know about these major fiscal issues until the meeting with the uh public budget hearing in February um there's confusion about what's causing them at first um it was kind of implied it was because of that reorganization um now it's become clear that the reorganization is not what's leading the charge um and um the conflict as we've heard about tonight between the different schools and who uh is going to cut what um tiered Cuts were presented for the secondary level back in February for uh the middle school and high school but um it looks like completely different cuts are going to be presented today I'm bothered by the fact that the school committee took a vote on a number to cut without having a robust discussion of what exactly those numbers were going to be meeting they come um and I haven't heard anyone in any of the meetings talk about um how going to prevent these issues going forward it was already mentioned that these issues are expected to perhaps uh continue and so I think it's vital that we know exactly what's causing it and not get tunnel vision and think it might be about one particular issue like uh State a but instead to really delve into what all the issues are I think we owe it to our students to do everything we can not to let this happen next year um and that might mean we need to move in a New Direction you know you're in a hole stop digging uh I one of the things I saw and it's come up tonight in a lot of different ways is the inefficiency of this four toown model um where the different School committees are all separate um I know that that's a much bigger conversation I know that full regionalization is being discussed but I do think that would be one way that we could solve some of these problems and I'm happy to see that um it's going to continue to be discussed at this meeting um we've also seen a lot of changes in the last few years that might have contributed to this uh why do we have so many out of District placements now is there more we can do to get students in Services they need in our own schools have we've been trying to do too much with too little leading students into out of District placements at a much higher cost um we've also seen a number of new positions added in the last few years including a dedicated prek principal dozens of coaches uh Human Resources Director and several other positions at the time I supported a lot of those increases because it seems seemed like we could afford them but now in hindsight it doesn't look that way um we've also had a number of new initiatives such as unleveling High School classes is that really working the way we're supposed to or is that contributing to not getting the kind of specific specific attention kids need and then causing more students to need more services uh than they than they're going to get in that now combined classroom um sadly I do think it's too late to fix this budget this committee has a very ult task of trying to decide how to make do with insufficient funding I trust that you will all do the very best to make those tough choices and I appreciate too that you're considering uh the union suggestions for cost cutting measures once we're through this budget though I am asking the committee to dig into the root causes and really try to figure out how we can avoid this for next year uh slea is willing to assist with this any way we can I cannot and do not believe that this is beyond our control and that there's nothing we can do thank you thank you John I I do want to um just thank you you you referenced the brainstorming activity that you and and the slea did um you you went above and beyond to try and assist us with ideas and I in all honesty if we if we consider some we don't consider others what have you we we all truly appreciate the efforts that we put in so thank you thank you would anyone else like to make any kind of comment or statement I just have a general question after you go through this budget that you did the Kingston committee did the same thing are we able to ask questions I can't remember from the Kingston one based off what we're I am going to limit I will allow some questions I'm not this is not a budget hearing and I'm not going to turn this into a budget hearing so if you have a specific question about I don't say there was an enrollment number we had a specific question about that or I don't know we had a specific question though about something we were seeing up here we couldn't ask as far as you can raise your hand and ask it I'm I'm not going to turn it into a big budget debate this is not a public hearing on the budget this committee needs to make some decisions tonight and we're going to do it with answering questions Etc but I'm not going to have a public debate okay is this going to be available this is on the website on the Cil Lake website yeah okay tomorrow um sure since it did come up sure I'd like to address leveling or unleveling as it's been described you may recall that the union and school committee have been reminded of why some levels needed to be collapsed at the high school and middle school levels the first time this was addressed through my entry findings which were publicly delivered in 2020 the second time was when I presented the district Improvement plan after the principales and coordinators developed a plan to address special education inclusion ratios it has been questioned at two other school committee meetings and I have responded publicly to those inquiries as well most recently I addressed the entire staff on our opening day this year due to the number of levels at the high school in particular but the middle school as well some students were being denied in inclusive classroom setting as guaranteed by their I students were being placed in cp2 level classes College Prep 2 that were predominantly special education when the majority of students have an IEP in a class it is not an inclusive opportunity and in some cases it created a substantially separate classroom this denies students the the least restrictive environment under special education law this denies students of their educational rights we still provide substantially separate settings for students who require this type of educational setting we did not eliminate all levels we collapsed some sections of CP 1 and cp2 to provide more appropriate and legal settings for our students we also still provide honors and AP classes in terms of professional development provided to staff I will provide you with a partial list all staff have been required to take a course on effective strategies through RBT within their first three years per contract this is paid for by the districts this is provided on an uh biannual basis and can also be taken annually in any school district all staff have been working by department on curriculum development using backwards design approach to better align Great Expectations with state standards for all students this has been being done since 2019 annually we have provided udl udl training with Katie Novak in 2022 Kelly Mertens joined us in 2022 on effective instructional practices and on effective inclusive instructional practices Dr Teresa Sullivan provided us with uh strategies and how to meet students unique needs also in 2022 all new staff participate in a mentoring program as required by the state and in 2023 we provided 6.5 hours of supporting students with disabilities and diverse learning styles not to mention additional Staffing uh programming that has been provided either through workshops professional development courses uh reimbursed to the district or um professional development provided by our own educational leaders including our special education dor Dr thank you for Madam chair I I don't want to debate the superintendent in public but I feel like I should respond I'm not going to allow it right now I feel that the committee should know the opinion of not going to allow it right now I'm not going to allow would anyone on the committee like to let me say it we're going to move forward I I don't think that's fair matter chair it isn't the public participation por it it is and I can close it and I'm going to close it it is 20 minutes of 7 I'm going to close public participation all right well there was a lot of un I'm happy to put this on a future agenda it would it wouldn't take what a minute and I thought you could my I understand John I understand thank you okay folks um approval of minutes motion to accept the minutes from our March 7th and March 22nd un second okay any further discussion seeing none all those in favor thanks Madam chair yes I'd like to take an item out of order please I'd like to motion that we take the budget discussion now in light of the fact that we have so many teachers and members of the public here tonight to hear that important conversation second any further discussion seeing none all those in favor bye thank you thank you tonight we have uh the proposed reductions prepared for you uh we have worked with our administrators our principles as well as our central Office Administration staff to compile this information for you tonight you will notice that in the tear Cuts we have gone beyond the requested amount uh as we anticipate as in the past there's been some areas that the committee has been less uh interested in um making Cuts than in others so we provided a variety of options for the committee to consider this evening I'm going to ask the chair recognize our business director Sarah H thank you super so the Silver Lake proposed version 6 budget of 4,624 5853 required a reduction of $855,000 as Ved by the Silver Lake the school committee on March 22nd 24th once that vote happened I updated the assessments to all including the revenue that was counted towards the assessments I updated the assessment calculations so the assessment for hopax for FY 25 is 8,6 15,27 71 the assessment for Kingston is6 ,7 4,149 and the assessment for Clon is 33488 30 point of order can we go back to that for a moment Sarah yes or the updated F just point of order um my good friend from Kingston car earlier tonight mentioned his perspective on some of these numbers part of the reason why I'm as diligent with numbers as I am today as a school Committee Member is because of being car's pres so many years ins so with no due disrespect Carl um I just want to note how close the assessments to our three towns their local budgets are there is not much space between what we pay locally for educ and what we pay at Silver L for education so I just wanted to note that at this point Thank you thank you sir I can't see it because of the Sun the next slide I have for you is the town operating budgets this is what was voted by each of the school committees so on April 1st Halifax voted a budget of 6,965 $138 43 on April 2nd Kingston voted a budget of 14,567 3978 and on March 25th plinton voted a budget of $3,975,000 updating the total cost of education for all three towns that puts Halifax at 15,5 8,356 14 which is a 4.9% increase over FY 24 Kingston at 31,32 18512 which is a 10.6% increase over FY 24 and Clinton at 7,279 18553 which is a 6.8% increase over FY 24 giving the total cost of education for all four entities Halifax Kingston Clinton and Silver Lake of 54,1 73,9 2.71 which is an 88.4% increase over FY 24 the next slide I have for you is a graphic that I put together I apologize I just lost my notes um this is a graphic that I put together I belong to a list serve with all the school business Managers from all over the state and there was information that was shared as a group of what people's budgets look like so if you look on this graphic over on the left hand side uh that the horizontal AIS on the left hand side it starts at A5 % increase and it goes over on the right hand side to a 133% increase the mean in the Middle With The Arrow a 5.1% increase so out of the over a 100 local educational associations that responded to the survey um the mean was 5.1% increase of fy2 over FY 24 and you can see the arrow on the right hand side I have the Lake in Union 31 at an 8.4% increase so you can see the comparison to where we are with the rest of the group I would also like to share with the committee that in the comment section from all of the school business managers that responded to this they there were comments about things like the town is using significant one-time revenue or includes 20 20 FTE full-time equivalent reductions if the override does not pass then another 66 FTE will be reduced uh eliminating 33 positions using 500k of end will need to cut $3 million of override tails and other comments like using 50% of certified end so all of the people that responded to this survey and again over 100 local education associations were all commenting about how we're doing reductions from a level service budget so I felt it was important to include this for you so you could see where we ended where we are right now at this point in time but understandably a lot of towns are going to the polls and this is something that is um going to change over time and I will keep you posed something principes want to present yes so I can talk about the slide a little bit um we had conversation about where our priorities lie and what our guiding principles are and we know that part of middle school and high school programming right gives opportunities to students and open doors to Pathways in the future that they might not otherwise know about so we talked about that in the first bullet and second bullet that exploratory classes are really important yes at the middle school but it opens those doors and path way at the high school and we've talked about this atth committee before of course we want to maintain student support and student safety and we also of course have to apply with comply with special ed um requirments next slide y so I'm going to speak to the overall I'm going to speak to two of these slides for reductions so this is a group that we grouped I'm sorry this is a list that we grouped together as um districtwide uh districtwide concerns so the Silver Lake Regional School District proposed reductions we have a tier one proposed reduction for transportation and Technology the middle school high school late bus would be reduced by one day for a savings of $1,732 the technology Department proposed $1,500 reduction in technology to pre of [Music] $229,990 reduction in technology for the middle school and a $36,900 reduction in technology for the high school for a total of $79,200 so question in chat um on on the printouts of the tiered cuts it had abbreviated technology as Tech am I okay assuming that whenever I see the word Tech on my list it is not a Personnel it's not Personnel okay thank so we're talking devices and program subscriptions well programs and subscriptions and um networking wires and all the beauty that is Tech thank you very much um is now the time that since I see the foods are the up there since we took the budget out of order that we should discuss that positions we certainly can't um I don't think Sarah's run through those okay reductions yet but yes [Music] agreed so these are just proposals right now agreed yeah um t two for civil School District again technology and Staffing um the tech director suggested an additional $5,700 in technology cuts to the prepay 17,500 in cuts to the Middle School Technology and 15,000 in cuts to High School Technology we are going to realize approximately $440,000 in retirement savings um since I saw you last we had two retirements and there is a proposal to move the food service director to the revolving account for a $987 reduction so the tier 2 silver L proposed reductions is $176,950 for a total of tier one and tier2 of $2 256,257,258,259,262,274,277,284,530,531,282,283,296,301,318,319,529,532,306,270,271,272,305,315,33432 Sarah before you move on do we want to talk about the the Food Services I I think we need to see this full okay picture first I think we're all pretty favorable with moving on that but to see everything have a robust thank you the silver light intergrated preschool proposed reductions a reduction of $2,500 in supplies and dues and a reduction of $229,950 for out of District tuitions tier two would be a staffing decrease of one full-time equivalent of $65,000 so the tier one reduction $232,450 tier two reduction $65,000 gives a total of $297,450 for the integrated preschool propos re One impact the one full-time equivalent teacher has no impact on teaching and learning the IEP teams will use a data driven process supplied by student evaluations and progress monitoring system to determine the just right service level of each student currently the model employs a four day a week half day preschool program model the collaboratively proposed new program program schedule uses a tiered approach to students actual services and needs that will increase the number of available seats for students with disabilities in the integrated preschool program question specific to this yeah um and John I just want to remind you that on March 14th I did ask for every single one of those 12 positions that were in the three tiers specifically to ask if they were a reduction in Force retirement through TR remember Jason thank you and I'm going there right now Sarah as I'm reading through this it looks like we've managed to find a way that this is the only actual position that's not a retirement po this is a retirement this is a retirement okay I didn't see that on the sheet here so did we find a way to do this without laying off anybody you mean the whole package the whole package that I'm looking at I think that's important for us to understand yes that is the intent okay thank you I appreciate Madam Madam chair I just ask a brief question um is this the model uh that the the staff at the prek would then be teaching all day every day is that am I understanding that correctly or no no John um they would still have Wednesdays as the child find day as we have now and the staff at the preschool actually this afternoon were given three different types of schedules one that was actually generated by somebody who's retiring who's been with us for like 20 something years what they used to do it's just a little bit of a difference in the way that we run things inste children all days they might just get two days a okay I just want to remind everyone on the committee um that if we are looking at any changes that it might have to be bargained if it affects the schedule it sounds like the prek people might be on board with this so that shouldn't be a problem but I just you you guys are going to vote for something I want to make sure that we're not putting the C before the voice so thank you understood oh mark sorry so the out of District placement can I it's always a fluid situation I understand a of District placement is this is position that has recently since our last discussion come available not projected to be needed at this time it's not needed at this time and so that is going back thank just to explain to everybody else so the next slide I'm going to turn over to principal Gil thank you so at the high school um obviously we made every effort to avoiding Staffing with our cuts um so with the coordinators we went through every single line it in our budget to see what we could cut or do without for next school year um we came up with a total of $151,600 in cuts um the biggest impact to supplies new equipment the replacement of old equipment in our building and Athletics um it's important to note that the supply impact those are teaching supplies include a lot of our consumables in our art program our music program and our science department for example I'll go into a little bit more detail on the next slide with um the tier one impact after that the next possible thing we could look at um unfortunately is Staffing um we are looking to make 2.0 FTE cuts um from the unit a of our bargain unit these are teaching Physicians although we're absorbing them through attrition they are currently vacant positions due to resignations or retirements um not not filling those moving forward still has an impact on student learning and also a small um impact on teaching excuse me on stiens um filled by some of our teachers for extracurriculars that would either not run next year or have lower enrollment and so maybe wouldn't require an assistant in that category can you explain a little bit more about the 25588 Athletics yep I'll do that on the next can I ask about the positions um CU I'm trying to look at the most equable talk about this you have two positions from Unit A listed for 145,000 are they split out evenly or is there one position had been um budgeted a little bit for a little bit more than the other one was at 85 one was at 80 the other was at 65 80 and 65 with that with the Cs brought our tier 2 Sub total to 154,000 for a collective total of 306,000 in savings or in reductions rather and then on the next side just to kind of break down a little bit what that impact is the most significant impact to the cut of the principal line is our two-day freshman orientation program that we run um we would have to look at doing that in a very different model either through student volunteers or possibly doing something during the school day um as I mentioned previously huge impact teaching supplies sheet music Art Online subscriptions to the library that are available to all of our teachers and departments everything from batteries and calculators to whiteboards compasses in our math departments science lab materials equipment for our Wellness teachers composition books for our ELA teachers and other teaching supplies that um would have to do with out for a year in terms of equipment um several departments were looking to obtain new items for next year incling building tables for our project Le away courses new furniture for our library um to create more improved learning spaces for students printers training room equipment for our athletes as well as our Wellness students a laser engraver um we are in dire need of medical curtains for the nurse's office that are in there now are um unique to the birth of this building and um they actually have we need the M micro no help me out what's the word mic there it was there we go like I can't sh that word um right to prevent the spreading of germs um we need new ones to help with that um so Corel is going to be disinfecting them every couple of days until we're able to replace those um and unfortunately we would have to cut um our request to get new copier machines um as part of that as well and Athletics it would be a reduction to our strike and conditioning services um huge a huge cut to our athletic training supplies that was the bulkit about $15,000 we would cancel our Neptune subscription and we would not look to um subscribe to Rocket alumni which is something that was like an interactive display for the Hall of Fame so that that is something we can do without next year um in terms of contractor services and software there would be a reduction if we're not purchasing those copier machines we also wouldn't need to budget for the lease for those machines but we would also be cutting um programs like our e-hall pass software uh as far as textbooks go couple Thousand Cuts there for new and replacement titles in ela as well as World Language readers and some CTE textbooks we would be making a huge cut to our music department for the transportation line which is used for the um District trips for SVA and festivals as well as the trip that they take out of state every other year we' have an AV cut in CTE we would do about a 50% reduction in conferences and workshops we can't fully cut that line because contractually we need to provide professional vment for our teachers um but that would certainly still be an impact on their offerings and then our guidance Department we would cut report International translation services we can offset that a little bit with some of the funding we get um from emergency shelter funding and the translation services are provided but it would also impact our ability to secure several guest speakers throughout the year um next slide please in terms of the tier 2 impact again it's not impacting a person because we are able to absorb these positions through attrition however not filling them means fewer supported classrooms reduction of elective offerings class sizes can go up it's an increase to our special education lays on case loads and obviously the fewer teachers we have the more master schedule limitations that creates um with the select sions that we would not be filling um those would be extracurricular positions with low or no student participation so at the middle school it's um formatted much like principal Gill's slides you can see here under tier one we did meet with the coordinators we cut things that we felt we could live without for a year um and I'll talk more about that in the next Slide the total in regards to supplies equipment principal line even updating some signage in the school that letters have been peeling off you know things like that um PD and a few other things comes to $81,900 and I will talk about Staffing on the next slide too we do have one retirement this year as well and I will talk about that in a following slide so the total for Tier 1 and tier 2 is $46,988 so as principal Gil mentioned there are similar things the Middle School um there's some supplementary technology apps that our teachers use that we would not be using next year um PE put new p equipment some consumable materials shop clock updates in the gym um that would cut library books for next year some art and music consumable supplies and some supplementary readings resources on the principal line I just talked about that piece um dues I took that out of my own you know contract and said um I'll take a cut on that for in regards to um some of the professional organizations that I'm a part of there's also signage um like I said signage is here with the birth of the school it needs to be replaced but that can certainly wait PBIS incentives we can be creative around that and also guest speakers as principal Gil talked about technology so there's a reduction of repair line um delay on eact so we haven't set that up yet so we would just wait on those types of things same things with additional Adobe licenses we haven't used those um we are right now all set with some document cameras and we haven't at there's no other request for more of those um the reduction of Chromebook Replacements you know we have some available and that might be a problem but we're going to work with what we have and we're going to um limit future purchases of docking stations same type of things in regards to equipment and PD um and the other pieces we did get the piano tuned this year thanks to the SSA Festival being held at our school so we can hold off on that um for this year but that's a small cost compared to things like transportation for inic sports right which is important to our kiddos but that was something that we wanted to manage because we wanted to save a human so on the next slide I'm sorry can I ask a question before you on um a question and one comment the reduction of Chrome book Replacements will every student have yes okay um and then I just want to point out we've heard both principles in going through their list um identify a lot of the items as I can live without it for a year so a lot of these items are going going to be necessary next year I just throw that out there goe Jason so I have publicly stated at a couple meetings but maybe not a s Lake Regional School meeting um and this is just again rough map but with circuit breaker flowing into our district next year we're going to have to be very careful with how we replace the things we're cutting this year but I see the ability for us to restore most if not all of what we're cutting this year once we have circuit breaker next year now again it doesn't necessarily mean that we'll replace exactly what's on this list because we need to take into account some of the areas of dire need that we've all been witness to over the past several years um the need the increasing need of elll students in our school the need for trained team chairs who can be dedicated and focused on um you know dispersing IEPs in an appropriate manner um you know special ed teacher dedicated to each team at the middle school so it's a true team model we need to look into the business office there's some areas where we might not replace everything but we're going to be able to replace a significant amount of what we're cutting here this year so one year is not a misnomer but I want to just make sure it's very clear the elementary committees will be facing a very steep fiscal cliff of their own next year when the circuit breaker money on their end runs out so it's going to be a bounceback between the lake and the locals next year um so it's not going to be an easy year and again it's going to be a year where we're going to have to really look at all of the budgets together as a whole for the total cost of Education as Sarah has you know really led us through this year I think that's a great model for us to continue moving forth but I I do predict we're going to be in a relatively decent place next year God willing unless there's some other storm we're not aware of coming down the pike um but the elementary is going to be in a rough position so as I talked at the last meeting you can just go to the next slide um last year you were able to support a position that gave every student exploratory classes at seventh grade level so they could better choose their CL their elected classes in eighth grade um a reduction of one FTE staff at this point would be a reduction of some of those courses or classes for seventh grade any further cuts and I just want to be clear any further Cuts Beyond this staff-wise is really going to reduce teaming and a reconfig result in a reconfiguration of the entire Middle School schedule because of how it's built and staffed and I just want to be clear about that that's an important point so the next slide is just a summary of everything that we've talked about in tier one and tier two the total for tier one and tier two was 1 Milli 6,633 in potential cuts um and this last slide was just a summary of everything that was on the previous slides to almost look at as sort of like a menu as you go through your discussion what did you say the total was the total that the administration came up with was $16,693.34 director is something that needs to be voted on and then the out of District tuition the 229,000 that is definite Al than that it's we can have an informal vote though as part of this discussion that we are going to move the food director and then we could do that as the next item of business so we don't take that item out of order okay we could include it and if the majority of us say yes we're going to include that the next move would be on the next line we would take the official vote on the food service director tool okay just just to be okay folks so that was 1, 6,000 is what you're saying okay so I think it's $1,633 above 855 we take it off right so this is our discussion now go ahead so as I brought up earlier um the assessments and the local budgets are very similar to all three towns and earlier we showed a slide that showed the reductions to the locals but many of those reductions were not because of proactive moves of the Committees it was because of the moving of plets so when we move some of the funds it automatically created some of the nees and the locals that you saw up there tonight so those numbers don't reflect the true um work of those committees and I am not here to tell any committee how they should vote their conscience and I am only a Silver Lake School Committee Member tonight and Carl I do understand the concept of the 750 $50,000 as a revenue Source but that Capital had cost to me and what I can do here at Silver Lake Regional Schools when it comes to our Capital plan as you're aware our Capital plan can range from year to year from 600 to$ 700 to $800,000 and this year we cut it back to about $300,000 and it is going to be very difficult for that to replenish itself um we are a municipality with municipalities can I ask you a question along those lines I didn't me to but so we just talked about circuit breaker maybe being the Saving Grace to replenish some but we had talked about circuit breaker replenishing end D some of the funds that's absolutely correct but we're going to be realizing way more than $750,000 can C the breaker next year significant okay I don't want to quote a number but it is sign iFly more than $750,000 it's it's well into the seven figures okay okay but what we did when we cut the 100$ 1,65 here is we provided relief to the four to the the three towns Kingston saw a reduction of 8 83,000 because of the actions we took on March 14th Halifax saw a reduction of $54,000 from their Town budget and Clinton saw a reduction of about $164,000 from their budget at the local level the locals did what the locals decided to do as was their soling ready to do I am very comfortable with the vote we've already taken for $855,000 in Cuts here that have the least impact on the students and I don't think any of us are the educational professionals to make the decision exactly how that should be done at each building level I me the reason I asked Michaela her the question is is to try and find some Equity between the Middle School and the high school uh we've taken positions before and you were on the committee too about not eliminating that late bus because of eting issues from students who don't have parents who can pick them up and do we even offer anything after school in those days when we don't have a bus if it's not Equitable for all students I mean my first glance at it is we keep the late bus and we allow Becky to keep one of the positions at 65 and Michaela to keep one of the positions but I don't even want to vote to tell my administrative Team how to run their buildings I trust the site based management and my principles so I will not be voting for further reductions or to give any further advice to the school to the school administration this can I go ahead and then I have I'm sorry I'm going to let the do a couple of questions first I'm sorry Genie first I've tried to be quiet tonight because I know my name was thrown around because I had um made a comment at the Kingston meeting that we would be looking at Cuts tonight for Silver Lake and I didn't say that because I don't take this position on this committee very seriously because they do I said that because as Jason just implied at the end of the last meeting we literally looked at our administrators and we said we have not seen any Cuts since the beginning of February what else can you bring us which is what you did tonight and I'm I'm with Jason that I don't think we need to go this deep I think that this is a very um responsible approach to I guess the situation at hand but one of the things that I think has kind of gotten thrown around a little bit is that we've preserved staff but we haven't preserved those positions and um one of the things that came did cut with our $380,000 last week was two elll positions and a reading specialist those have been cut from the budget now the two elll positions are going to be absorbed through a grant for this year and we know that grants don't go to year to year so those are going to have to come back into our budget next year because we need those positions for all reasons that you're all already aware of and then the reading specialist is absorbed through a retirement but we're going to have to do without that position moving forward so to Jason's point the locals did what we had to do but we did make reductions to our budget and then now looking at this we've managed to not have to cut staff by us telling you that but we are cutting staff from the budget and to get those positions back is going to take probably several years and we don't want to see that and I know that you all don't want to see an increase in class sizes and an increase in needs for you know the kids that do serice so I think I think going back to what the towns can afford um I I've been advised by the constituents that I represent to push the levy we didn't need to do that this year for Kingston we're under the levy I'm not saying it's going to pass 100% of Voters I know it will not but everybody that I've spoke to has asked us to maintain class sizes and to maintain staff positions and to not cut teachers and I think that we've done that I think that um you know Mr L we we do appreciate the um proposals that you've made but I think that from what our administrators have presented to us tonight we don't have to continue to ask for cuts I think we should decide what from this list is coming off give our administrators a number to work with and let them be um discretionary of those funds that we give them to support their their day today because we're not in those buildings and you know I was concerned about Athletics only because I know people are going to ask are JB Sports still you know on the table that that was a rumor that was thrown out last week so I don't want to um you know leave this meeting without allowing our principles the um ability to best to what you need to for your building so thank you um Mark had a question then there's apparent in the audience that did I just wanted to point out the actual uh Capital plan budget is 391,000 get it's Clos to 300,000 so um we did make a reduction but not quite as substantial as what you were said um the capital plan though however having just left that meeting um is at Bare Bones right now with that uh proposal and uh by kicking things down the road in the capital plan you all know that things get more expensive to fix and if you ignore the buildings that we have this is an absolute minimum on the capital side that we can uh if we had done a lot of the capital plan items before Co before things went crazy crazy expensive we would have saved these towns going forward millions of dollars we did save them $8.8 Million by recertifying the roofs on both buildings using the capital plan true after I mean after fixing them yeah we we we were aggressive we there's a lot of other things on that Capital plan that had we been able to tackle them pre I'm using Code because everyone knows like has just got so much more expensive Afters we have the two most expensive buildings in the three TS yeah and I'm sorry did you have a question I just had a quick one it might be irrelevant it's probably dropping the bucket MoneyWise when I saw the transportation and you spoke about the LA bus the money that the high school students pay the park is that Revenue that's utilized for students student services at the high school or where does that money get appropriated Toes that goes into revolving account that helps with like snow removal maintenance the parking lots that be town or is that underview no that's we school can I speak to that sure the one of the things you need to think about is when there is snow the town of Halifax cleans out the parking lots of Halifax Elementary School and the town of clemton cleans clemton and Kingston cleans Kingston and Silver Lake Regional School District cleans and plows here so the maintenance department of silver lake is responsible for this we're like our own City like that we are municipality Sarah can I ask a question ATA in at the meeting the other night we talked about um the April 1st deadline for um yes yeah is there any adjustment here for what we know now so an adjustment for Silver Lake yes the vocation tuitions are paid out of the towns so there will only be an adjustment in Kingston Clinton and Halifax and although there was a deadline of April 1st for the CH for the families for for the children to apply we haven't gotten a um an enrollment from the schools yet the acceptance and so um but we're fairly certain I think you would ask asked me a question about Halifax at one point um Halifax will realize that $93,000 savings because they only have one student enrolled and one applied okay and we had share that that might be the number the other night with them yes yeah okay thank you joim the only thing I would add for the committee's consideration is that um we did not include the um Beyond level Services asks that the principal's central office staff had originally originally put together I bring that up now um because of a um concern that you may have received regarding um Services we did present uh the the service hours and the need for that position earlier in the budget season January February um we did not continue to reiterate that given the budgetary concerns but again um I'm bringing it up now for your consideration [Music] it is in this included in this uh material or it's an additional cost it would be an additional cost and how much, 65,000 for a fulltime if that position is not approved the budget are those children that may need those Services entitled to contractual services to um there's a difference between recommended and required and there's um we had provided a slide over the recommended service hours that we would like to meet with the addition of an uh so you're we're this you're bringing this up because in our consideration of what you presented tonight if if that's going to be a consideration for the committee it would have to be de Ed as part of this discussion and we had not included those additional requests because of the position we are currently in right but it was again brought to our attention today and I thought I would bring it teach yeah it was the number one item in my Restorations for FY 26 if you didn't if you didn't noce even before anything else pleas an acknowledgement of that is it something that given you've gone above the amount of reduction that we talked about at the last un50 some, is it something you want to think about adding in because it's that that necessary for this year it's an important position to have we run the risk of being out of compliance this year the number to have and the teaching sections that they're required to have L teacher right now Becky and I share one full-time teacher she's split between both of our buildings our schedules aren't the same and so in addition to it being a strain on the teacher running back and forth um the students at both of our schools are out of the service because they don't have that support for Mark we going to get into the the week the number of students that you're serving in each school and we know what those numbers are approximately and uh what I'm hearing is that this is a an expense that if we don't put it in the budget is something that likely wear head next year you're going to have to fund anyway be well they're looking up the number sure there's nothing to prude the administration for including that ad in the $855,000 of cuts that we've already authorized we would just have to take a vote to prioritize that we put that again as a lineup all of these budgets are subject to holding line items and funds from each one to a certain extent so but we're not voting line by line correct we're voting a bottom line number as far as I'm concerned absolutely I I couldn't agree more but I I just mathematically we we've already approved a a decrease in the budget of 855,000 and and somewhere in the body of what's been presented tonight are what those cuts are going to be if we're talking about this position being important enough to add back in then we're making it 800 or 900 and somewhat thousand potential potential that's one way of looking yeah it's not the this is a high school or middle school address is the same issue lingering in the preschool I being addressed that you don't have to really have El services in the preschool it's the exposure to language in the English language that's recommended Services usually stop in gr okay find that interesting we're waiting that long in our in our education process well their language ability and to adapt and learning language is really right at that age so they really can absorb a lot um many of the students that have come in from Child CL actually are considered dual language learners because they understand pieces of English as well as um their NE langage language we're seeing students at the secondary level who are entering our school system at age 12 13 14 through 17 the presol age thank you Paul go ahead um STW p on the intent of the committee to include Mega arars in the revolving account Food Service what Jason's asking is the discussion of moving Food Services salary into revolver contrary to my associate's argument against it I was against it as well as was I because you from an accounting standpoint you don't want to flipflop how you handle something like that I'm putting my accountant hat on um you know even just from a just a consistency standpoint and we moved that salary into the operating budget because that's what our our peer schools have the you know how they handle it so we were we were an outsider these are unusual circumstances we're faced with right now and there's no legal reason we can't take the salary out of the revolving account and since Co the state that you know government has been funding school lunches we not in the red that was one reason we took it out in the beginning as well so you know I would not normally either vote to make this change but I'm willing to do so in this circumstance agree but we're aware of the fact that the funding could evaporate it's now going to be paying and for the folks in this room we're advocating that but the proposal is to pay food service director out of revolving fund and Lou of budget fund so the revolving fund falls short with the funding we don't have enough money to pay an employ and that that I mean that's a that's a nutsh show I I I don't she's going to correct one way or the other no not correct elaborate elaborate but but what I'm what we're doing here is we we should make every effort to look at that revolving fund to make sure it has stable funding and if fees are need to be addressed that we can change we need to look at that after this that's what I'm just saying all the work isn't done we're going to go back in that with this and I I support this um we need to also make sure that our we have a stable involving so if I could speak the full service for evolving account um is actually funded by federal funds yes State funds this year but largely federal funds and the are there are very specific requirements so the Food Service revolving account can only have at most 3 months worth of supplies and salaries in it and the reason why this suggestion came up is because there's currently more than what's allowable in the account and I met with the Food Services director and we talked the normal thing is when you have an excess of money you replace equipment but she the food service director explained to me that none of the equipment warrants replacement that would be just wasting money to replace something that didn't need to be replaced so that's why we brought this to you I motion to include in the services for next year in an additional El teacher for Silver Lake Regional High School Middle School wherever you guys put it second any further discussion all those in favor by now I understand the math that that means that you need to put 65 on top of the 885 I I do get that but we were going to potentially replace two of those teachers anyway instead of going to the 1 million anyways it's just a different teacher it's like what we talked about already for next year when we come back to the funds next year it's not going to be a line to line replacement we're going to be thoughtful and proactive with how we replace those funds next year do we want to we have not officially put us on the math having that one I'm sry so where does that put our number we're adding 65 to the 855 it doesn't change it doesn't change the budget vote we took on the 14th and the 17th whatever right it's it's still the still6 $165,000 in total reductions for the towns is there any further discussion do we have to vote these TI separately no we don't we don't we don't vote them we give guidance to give suggestions and but we do need to vote for services that's next item once we're done with the budget is there anything else anybody wants to talk about or suggest with this Mark I I'd just like to clarify so right now the Administration has come up with 151,000 in addition to the 855 that we had but we' eaten up another 65,000 that 151 so if we take these tiers just as they are food service director is already out of that there's still a difference between what the administration is proposed and what the 855 originally proposed time right I I would prefer that we don't take all of that from our our building principles and our programs and our students thank I so what we're saying now is we're staying with the $855,000 reduction okay unless a motion Ohan I'm sorry you just wanted to answer the question about the total number of uh st e students presently uh 7 through 12 and that number between the two schools 51 and it was uh8 5 years ago it was what eight only 5 years ago and what is it now 51 and we also need to take into consideration what level they are as well because that indicates how many hours of services they require yeah no recommend recommend the last calendar year data run if if if you go back to the preliminary budet presentation assistant superintendent mention provided some estimated hours that would be required in addition to what we currently have and the I think um col referred to the the use of the E positions at the elementary school roughly the the percent of students who reside at the shelter and also require El students is um smaller at the secondary level so it's more difficult those funds are provided by the state but have to be used for that Express purpose of supporting students who reside at the emergency assistance shelter so there's not as much uh overlap in those two populations the secondary level for that to be a solution so just wanted to be provide a little bit more information about how that Funding Solution may not be um as as valid a fit a secondary level as it can be at the element to so 151 - 65 is $86,000 and with that $886,000 I just like that uh to Jason's Point ask our principles how they feel that they would change the list that we been presented to the $86,000 that we would not what would priorities would you be looking at I was support the pr motion that uh I wouldn't be advocated to cut Beyond 855 I think with those reduction what I'm saying is you got $86,000 that difference between what we have now uh been proposed in the latest cuts which you very nicely came up with and I appreciate the effort that it took to get here versus the 855 change that by 65,000 an additional 8 $86,000 start Staffing work with Staffing that's what I start with and then I move on to teaching supp okay any particular Staffing I'm just saying what what's the consequence yeah so again by limiting those two positions at the high school it impacts what we can offer for kids it impacts our schedule class sizes for specialed teachers in particular increase theiron students they support their leison list and uh Becky do you have a a focus of priorities yes getting a staff member back so we can run exploratory classes in grade seven thank you both comments questions do we want to tackle the Food Services topic I make a motion for the Food Service director's salary to be moved to the revolving account second is there any further discussion or questions on that all those in favor hi thank you madam sh can you take the legislative agent report out of order please certainly um so I had the opportunity to meet with the legislative um members of the House they're going to be coming out with their version of the budget publicly on April 22nd it's currently with the house ways and needs committee um I advocated for several positions um for Silver Lake Regional School Clon school committee and also the Massachusetts Association School committees one of the items I was advocating for is fully funding the Regional Schools bill at $60 million it's currently funded at $15 million um that would be a $45 million ask that actually has direct implication here at Silver Lake because it's Silver Lake receives $173,000 in rural Aid um if this bill was passed we would see over $500,000 in rural a coming to our school district here uh Clinton receives substantially less but it would still be a bom to our budget since uh $30,000 is above percent of our budget we CL um we were asking for an adjustment to the Chapter 70 inflation index um where we partnered with MTA um aft mass and with Mas I'm asking it to be adjusted from the 1.3 that's in the house two the governor version of the budget to 4.5% I don't think we're going to get that that's about a $220 million ask um stable funding for Meo at their requested funding level um they've been underfunded they've been facing the same inflationary issues it's only 3.5 million as to fully fund Meco program um fully funding Regional Transportation which is huge to us here at Silver Lake um last year Governor Healey gave us 91% approximately Regional Transportation which is still 9% below the statutory level um many Regional Schools across the state are seeing a net negative state aid this year because Regional Transportation took a hit um to be level perced funded with last year it would be about $12 million increase over House 2 uh to be fully funded would be about $25 million so again that would be a huge boom to the Silver Lake Regional School uh for my friends in Halifax they are a minimal Aid District because of their declining enrollment even if we were to adjust the chapter 7 the inflation index it probably wouldn't give them any more dollars in state aid this year um in light of that um are requesting that the minimum increment for each pup of school serves be set at 100 as the Baseline for every budget this year and moving forward um and government Key's budget it was about $25 per student so this could be a huge benefit to our friends and Halifax but to every single School District across the state and asking for circuit breaker to be set at 75% both for tuition and transportation there was some non-budgetary asks as well um we sent the bill to um the legislature about a Regional School assessment Reserve fund it was actually reported up favorably so it's now going to the rules committee uh Clinton sent um a bill to the legislature asking for the special Leed Reserve fund to be increased to 5% of net School spending it is also um supported and sent to the rules committee um we are very happy to say that the two bills giving back the right of students in our horiculture and agricultural programs to use wasting equipment under the license of trained and license chapter 74 teachers uh looks like it's going to be passed this legislative cycle and and I think this is the most important one um the rural schools Bill actually had a call for a commission on the funding of special ed Statewide looking at the issues that all of our districts are facing um not only did we see an increase in p district placements this year we also saw over a 20% increase in special ed private school costs over the past two years um with proposition 2 and A2 and in in New Growth we can't sustain that kind of pressure on our schools and it affects every student not just special ed students when those prices are so out of control and the state isn't giving a fair amount PA to the locals to provide that free and appropriate education for all of our students so that's when we're really pushing on the that commission to see if we can get the state to step up a little bit more one of the ultimate goals is potentially getting 90% as the threshold for circuit breaker and lowering the overall amount of money we have to spend before triggers right now it's about $52,000 see like it lowered down to about $40,000 and then get 90% reimbursement so we have some lofty goals the good thing is there was wide consensus about filing some of these as amendments when the bill comes out on April 22nd uh rep latra was one of the members that I spoke to and uh she herself was going to be filing some of these budgetary amendments for us um there's some other friends of ours who are going to be filing as well and whatever we don't get in the house uh I will pursue in the Senate and the Senate takes up the budget um in in may now our state revenue is off uh so so far this year we've only met revenues in August and just passed month in March um the Bell weather is always April because that's when people pay their taxes um so on May 4th or 5th or 6th we should have an indication that the Senate might be a little bit more free with funds than currently I'm hearing from the house they're very reticent to approach anything at this point above and beyond what governor heing put up thank you for that Jas a lot of good things in possibilities we're being hurt yeah um middle school resource officer um just a little update on that and in consultation with the safety fees facilities and revenue subcommittee and uh with Becky we we discussed last May and June about the possibility of increasing the SRO at the middle school to a fulltime resource officer and there was plenty of data to support that decision currently the town of Kingston pays for the full-time SRO at the high school and Halifax and tton pay for a part-time SRO at the middle school um we decided um to send two different warrants to Halifax and Clinton one for the parttime and one for a full-time SRO um we were assuming and we all know how dangerous assuming is we were assuming that the cost increase would be about double for the full-time school resource officer but when we reached out to KPD um which is going through an Administration change of their own um we were quoted 182 Plus ,000 for that SRO um and that was well beyond the scope of the warrants we had sent to Halifax and clemton um so we withdrew the full-time SRO requests um we want to let the the new Chief um get into the job and be able to sit down and have a conversation about what it would look like for us to have a full-time SRO at the middle school 10 months a year and how the town of Kingston could potentially utilize that officer um it could potentially be a net new hire for Kingston so that might be part of the issue we're seeing for the cost so again we have to have a conversation when the new Chief gets AC so there's still the part-time warrants for both and that have been supported for the past four years I very good and there's no vote there needed we don't need to vote we' already those warrants yeah the warrants were already submitted to the towns and um I did withdraw on behalf of our committee because it was outside the scope in the spirit of our atttention and the numbers we had provided very good thank you um status of the application to evaluate full regionalization so Kingston did hear back um last week um there was $600,000 in grant money available that we we applied for a portion of it and I I guess they received 38 applications total in $4.3 million in requests unfortunately we did not get the grant this time um however they are going to have more money available in 20125 and um Kingston does anticipate applying once again so hopefully our our second attempt will be a successful one um new business discussion of adding a June meeting for reorganization purposes Madam chair our current scheduled meeting is the same week as all three town meetings it's Thursday yeah right after Clinton's town meeting the day after um it's also prior to two of our Town's elections and then we don't have another one scheduled until July um technically we would be leaderless on June 1st without a reorg so the intent of this would be to have a meeting even if it was solely for the purpose of reorg if it was even a remote meeting but still allowed by Master just to make sure that we have command and control intact for our side of the table moving forward in case anything happens towards the end of year and we did have difficulty arranging meetings last last year is Graduation May 31st this year yes unless it rains I was going to say be on June 1st if we had a quorum could we convene for reward because of our regional agreement and when we turn over members who sit on the committee June 1st it was a good idea so are we thinking of moving the May meeting to June is there anything in the May time frame that we should think about that we still need may but we need something in June to June go ahead the the three town meetings are 1113 and 1550 correct I have 13 15 and 18 18 okay Kingston's first we the 11th you're the 11th okay move back we went from four CU I thought you were four okay you're 11 now all right so at this point um and we the Wednesday after you call yeah same week yeah yeah so the um possibility of us not having uh at least two of these towns voting for this budget could present itself at that point by say may 23d but well we know by the 13th if we have 18th Sor we would know at the latest the 15th after Plumpton votes which is Wednesday if we have a budget or not right so the 16th that we get to meet now right now we are scheduled to meet on the 16th so I I would schedule the additional meeting in June for exactly what Jason said keep the meeting on the 16th schedule in the event that we're going to need to sit here and have to make another Choice based on Jas is very eloquent description of what happens if you don't go the budget I think you should be standing by do and based on based on the results of town meeting and whatever else might be on the agenda we could always not hold that meeting but I I don't disagree it's probably a good idea to keep but so what date in June then do we want to June 6th is the first Thursday I'm sorry June 6th is the first Thursday and we could do it I mean it's a reog it's nice to do in person but if if people feel you know they uh they would rather do it would virtually that would be fine as well we can make that decision later dat yeah agreed six looks good everybody open okay okay so we'll add June 6 as that's just going to be a re only no do we have to vote that or can we just add that to our calendar uh we vote the calendar so should we we should vote this as well okay I make a motion that be at Thursday June 6th at 6: p.m. pass a re second all those in favor I thank you okay the legal opinion that is in our packet tonight available on the website as well um the superintendent had a very good idea and suggestion in approaching the chairs of all the Committees and asking if we should have a legal opinion explaining and confirming our need to do the restructure that we did and I talked about this uh a little aggressively earlier tonight um there is so we do have a legal opinion confirming that the restructure was not an option we elected to have it wasn't a thought that we had it was the identification of an illegal structure having a preschool operate in a regional format a regional Manner and not be covered by the regional agreement and in all of that dovetailed into all the changes that we made from budget and Staffing in in a union contractual standpoint um again the legal agree the legal opinion is on the website if anyone would like to read it it was uh drafted by our Council and should put an end to any questions about why we did this none of us wanted to didn't elect to do this restructure um town meeting talking points um Mark had brought up quite some time ago and and uh I think we talked a little bit about we definitely need some talking points to make sure that we're all um you know singing from the same song page of the world that all of us have the same information as questions come up from um taxpayers at town meeting as to why our budget looks so different and and you know what caused that um are you folks able to draft something I know you're under quite a bit of uh of strain as well I say that because I'll be honest with you the the draft that you did for the special Town meetings before the end of the year was actually a really excellent document it was really well done so we can put something together and share it with you okay and thee May meeting well the May meeting will be after but let's draft something see what it looks like and if we had to convene any sort of quick virtual or want to kind of debate it or or edit it um but if and i' hate to put more pressure on you but if if we could get something that would be wonderful Mark I one of the slman asked and I asked the same question if we could now that we' got some firmer numbers do the math give the communities an idea how much it costs per student uh on a yearly basis that's 13,000 whatever per student we divide out the number that we have in our budget by the number student res serve I don't know if you need to break it down uh particularly by High School Middle School Preschool but it would be nice to be able to say look folks this is what it costs to educate a student based on the budget we have um that said um we all know special education is special but um we broke it down and said uh the uh regular program student class don't need to highlight was special education students is different but I'm just saying is the focus that the Selectmen are looking for is what does it cost us per student yeah without without violating any sure and then Jason I want to ask you a question so I think that that's a great idea and I think it's really should be by school but I would also caution the committee to please include the data that we also bring in Revenue so with the cost of for special education students we should be subtracting all of the revenue including the chapter 7 funds that are also attributed to students understand and I hope the number basically what are the costs of the towns forent after great thank you I have a question for you Jason a couple of meetings ago I think we were talking about the budget in general and I think you had some said something to the effect of we we can't car out special education anymore they they don't want to see it that way it's I don't know if you want to say discriminatory or whatever I think that information is so important it it's not that we can't discuss it it shouldn't be voted that way because then it hits regular students versus special ed students at town meeting floor we can discuss the cost of special ed services in our district we can be as explicit as we want as long as we don't get to the point that we're identifying individuals but we vote a budget to educate all of our kids right the the practice of doing that um is Antiquated back to a time with some of the members we served on before where the towns were experiencing a drastic increased in costs and they wanted to understand where it was coming from and it was Broken Out In order to illustrate again about 15 20 years ago that there was a dramatic increase and out of District placement and the cost to educate those students so history is repeating itself here right now um so we can talk about it on important I wouldn't hesitate to mention the key points that we know are driving the budget up but the bottom line is we educate all students who come through our so that's the bottom line number that's going to be voted at Town un for right and and I and that came directly from right but there's there's no we both the bottom line number but to give information have a budget broken out as such that you have you can see where your increases are and if it's special education it's special education the community should know that right but we were literally voting three different lines at every town meeting for the local budgets oh okay all right that's every year okay so yeah that's the practice that's coming to a okay cuz it it's kind of been in the back of my mind since you said something and I misinterpreted now I understand where you're coming from yeah I would also like to take an opportunity to say that group editing is a crack so I would suggest that we don't group edit the document the administration's coming up with for a second anyway for a second reason um if we just reply straight to the administration she is not held to the same open meeting law violations that elected officials and appointed officials are so we wouldn't have to convene in order to give her feedback if she could synthesize for us okay without all of us sitting around trying to figure out where to put the Comm in the yeah yeah okay good point Thank I have one question to ask marks um the being a sanctuary state do we get money for the children that we're educating in our school systems and can we find out of a dollar amount that we're getting reimbursed for being a sanctuary yeah go ahead Jason so we actually received a letter good question' yeah we received a letter from the state in December for $997,000 just for the students at Silver Lake High School and Middle School which is equivalent to the per pupil expenditure that we spend on our students here in Kingston does that include their elll services as well that was the total sum that we saw for from the state for those students specifically above and beyond what they already sent us for chapter 75 okay thank you I believe it was $118 a day per student that's how they came up with the $97,000 figure for instance Kingston received I believe it was 117,000 for the same um reason and believe Sarah can correct me if I'm wrong it said the first payment of so it implied that there may be additional payments but that's not guarantee than moving on to principles for work thank you so much I do not have any donations F fly request but I do have an update that I think is worthy just today we got invited to participate in an initiative called the Democratic knowledge project to implement a new resource related to our Civics curriculum in 8th grade with this acceptance um we will receive PD over the next 3 years that equals up to $ 22,170 thought that was worthy news to share thank you um that's and I give all the credit to our um Middle School and High School curriculum coordinator Melissa Fontaine and the 8th grade civics teachers as well I also put some handbook revisions for your approval and hopefully vote um tonight there is a memo and you can look in the handbook if you want like page 41 there are things highlighted our school council went over these as legal council as well um specifically for example there was a typo and referenced Ryan Lynch as her instead of HE so I fixed things like that and then I also added pieces um with our sister principal Don rothm Mitch and the school council around um communication being both written and electronic because you know we're in that age including bullying and cyber bullying we had to add to certain lines so that is all documented in the memo and um if you have any questions I can certain speak to that any questions for motion to accept I'm sorry sorry um Miss quit just because it's been out in the community recently um can you talk about the Middle School track program can you just mention about the yeah so we've hosted that position three times and unfortunately we've reached out to everyone we know parents families and um we just haven't had any applicants to Run Middle School track this for you specifically a coach yeah thank you motion to accept the 2024 2025 can book changes second for the middle school for the middle school second all any more questions comments all those in favor thank you thank you I know it's late but I do have several items um bring to your attention this evening all of which will require a vote um but first we have a couple of donations I'll present them all first and then I'll let you decide you go them all once or separately um the first in the shared drive there is a list of books that the Kingston Public Library would like to donate to our school um for usual our librarian K Maas would properly vet those books um in order to make sure that they're appropriate for us full list if you want to look at it there 15 different titles and we would of course send it thank you um second is is um Linda reading who's our retired librarian would like to donate $200 to the Silver Lake Regional High School library in recognition of school library media month which is this month April um the donation would honor the memory of Silver Lake alumni and more former staff members margarite Paul who was our title on math and mcast Paul Holmes silver L class of 1962 Silverlake Hall of Fame class of 2018 1961 Silver Lake baseball team member Eugene buddy T Silver Lake class of 1974 Silver Lake Hall of Fame class of 2007 John montoi teacher and legendary Silver Lake football coach spanning three decades Silver Lake Hall of Fame class of 2009 ASA West Glass Silver Lake class of 1963 Silver Lake Hall of Fame class of 2018 as a member of the 1961 Silver Lake baseball team and Ralph Fraser who served as our athletic director from 1985 to 1999 her hope is that this donation can be used to add books to the library collection in honor of the people I just listed and the third donation is um an anonymous donation on behalf of the family of one of our staff members in the amount of $3,500 to help offset some of the reductions we've had to make to our budget to be used for teaching supplies next school year that one makes me cry every time so in summary 15 books $200 in 3500 for supplies I make a motion to accept the books from the Kingston public library for $200 uh to be spent on books in memory of many Alum and special people to us and um the $3,500 donation to help with supplies good gratitude second and letter us to go up to all those in favor excellent thank you all um the next item is our student handbook proposals for next year's um students we have three proposals that were um vetted and approved by our school council for your review the first is an update to our attendance policy which is on page 16 There's a summary of these changes in the shared Drive the red items the new items edited versions are read for you um in addition to our sort of four standard categories for um an excused absence funeral legal matter religious holiday or medical absence we would like to add a college visit um as well as any matters that cannot be taken care of after school hours with the admin approval the second addition would be an update to our academic Integrity policy to include um chat GPT AI to remind our students to write their own work um The Proposal is to include language about that um any students seeking to gain an unfair Advantage are violating our school's academic Integrity policy this policy is also in our handbook but also listed in our um teacher course guides for all classes and then the third is just some language update to our cell phone use it's not changing what we're doing this year it's just sort of clearing up the language about what steps Administration takes when students are using their devices during class motion to accept the 2024 2025 High School handbook pleas second any questions can s none all those in favor thank you thank you and then last for your approval we have um our drafted School Improvement plan written by our school council this is for the 2024 through 2026 school years um hopefully You' had a chance to read through it but the the highlights um are really our goals surrounding School climate and culture student learning achievement and school safety and Facilities motion to accept the high school school Improvement plan for the 2024 2025 school year second any discussion seeing none all those in favor there was a lot of material in tonight's um meeting link and in a lot of times that we do I I just want to um you know encourage make sure the committee is reading the minutes before this evening reading these these handouts um I think we're trying to make a a big effort in getting things out there you know as early as possible before the meeting so we so that we can actually review them so I just want to reiterate that and then last for my presentation tonight I'd like to turn it over to Conor Doyle for our student update I'll say it it's nice having all of them here it's warst introduction I think I've ever thank you all good evening everyone um I'm very happy to be here with you to recap the events of the month of March as well as look ahead for the month of April uh beginning with the annual credit for Life Fair which we held in March this event every year is held for our Junior students uh this year the class of 2025 and it was an aming success connecting students with future career opportunities as well as teaching financial literacy that often cannot be taught uh within the classroom time every year credit for Life receives such a warm reception by students especially due to the hard work by both The Faculty advisers as well as the community members and vendors who support as well as volunteer at the event and so with that being said and on behalf of the students I would like to thank this year's faculty advisers Miss Taylor paa and miss m Michelle McMillan as well as our administrators for their dedication to ensuring the fair smooth running and success during March as well our student council was honored to attend the 3-day Massachusetts Association of student council's annual spring conference throughout the trip participants engaged in workshops to grow their leadership skills heard from nationally acclaimed motivational speakers and took part in fundraisers such as the Polar Plunge to raise money for the Massachusetts chapter of the Special Olympics several members of the council were also recognized as Commonwealth Award winners for their work to improve their school as well as our district as unsung heroes we are all very excited to see that what these student leaders will bring back to our school in our district especially as we are set to host the fall Cass leadership conference next September for just the third time since the opening of our current High School building the high school was also fortunate to host SSA a regionwise two-day celebration of the Arts in March we welcomed hundreds of band and choir students who showcased their artistic ability for judges and other students it was a joy to truly see the creative Spirit of both Silver Lake students as well as our visitors throughout all the building I would also would like to end the March review with a special shout out to our Silver Lake chapter of National Honor Society for competing in the Southshore Community Action council's first annual March Mania food drive the NHS conducted four food drives at local supermarkets and solicited Community donations progressing from the sweet 16 to the Elite 8 all the way to the final four and finally to the championship match against the Plymouth County Sheriff's Department though unfortunately I know it's um hatte such you up like that but though the sheriff's department did come out on top and we we do congratulate them um we could not be prouder of our own students efforts in their commu with their community outreach and a very special thank you not only to the students but to our adviser Miss Carrie Maas um as well as Miss Stephanie Richie for organizing the event yes um I have just a few updates moving into April and I will make these quick because it's late for you and it's it's late for [Music] me we got to do attendance poliy [Music] you're um first for you is a preview of an upcoming spere week as I updated you last month we had originally planned for a spere week to break up uh the month of March as it can get long for students uh we ended up adjusting that to move to the week following April Break um we felt that this not only gave us more time to plan it adequately but this also uh came out a good time to break from the monotonous habits and routines as well as provide students a chance to be compress and reflect ahead of a stretch of both AP exams as well as our MC testing um before the end of the year and I will I look forward to updating you on the success of that week uh next month uh in addition I wanted to mention that students in Mr Anthony Weber's AP United States government class have been engaging in a mock election simulation to gain experience working with elections as part of the college board's curriculum this mock election walks students through a full political campaign starting with primary elections going through debates making campaign ads that conform to FEC regulations and filing campaign disclosures from HS the class has divided into forming both sweet and savory parties this year's election pits the breakfast sandwich in its running mate of hash browns against the French toast and its partner of berries and Cran tough choices with the election uh being held later this week I can't wait to share with you the winner and unofficial however unequivocal First Choice breakfast of Silver Lake without a doubt this project has become a new tradition that students look forward to exposing them to both civic responsibility and the value of open dialogue and for my last and final point tonight um on that topic of constructive and open dialogue um I wanted to share something with all of you that I am very proud of that we've done this past month uh as you all are extremely well aware this year's complex budget process um has involved a lot of community members expressing their own opinions on the organization of your budget uh students are included in this and I've had several conversations about the budget at home with their parents or Guardians and often come to school curious about what their peers and classmates also think and are hearing about the same issues um and so with that being said in a difficult year um I would like to take a moment to thank our administrators um as well as our teachers and faculty members for approaching any conversation regarding the budget with not only extreme care and delicacy but with an intent to educate and inform um but especially want to thank our students uh in particular my student leadership team has gone above and beyond to reassure and both and comfort their peers during this period of uncertainty um with many of the budget discussions occurring between students and friends um our leadership team has encouraged hearing from multiple perspectives it has also attempted to connect students with factual informations that are presented at meetings and posted on the website um these student leaders have done incredible job and I'm very proud to work with each and every one of them because it's an extremely difficult job um these are students who are volunteering outside of their normal obligations and with all the amount of rumors that have to be dispelled on a normal day I cannot tell you enough the level of absurdity um I have landed in my inbox in the last week so um these leaders um truly have gone above and Beyond um and you only see me but there are several um there's a lot that goes into this you see me I'm the finished product but this guys so um I would like for them to get some credit here tonight into the public record and um that is all I have for you as always I welcome any feedback you have anything you'd like to send back to students and I would be happy to answer any questions you have them one comment and and then a second one specific to here um the financial program credit for life that Silver Lake offers um is so incredibly important I my sons are older now they're out of college and when we talk about this with their high school friends or their college friends it comes up periodically they're at the age where they're starting to look at buying houses or you know what have you new cars it's amazing what very bright intelligent college educated kids don't even know about credit and uh you know credit scores and getting a loan and paying back a loan it's it's amazing what balancing a checkbook what they don't know so I I think that program is incredibly valuable my second comment is you have a wonderful way of delivering information and it's going to carry you very far in whatever career path you choose it's it's a it's a very unique gift you have thank you you're welcome you guys I I feel like I say this every month but you truly all of you are too kind TR wonderful um Director of Finance thank you um the financial report was in your folder was in the folder there is a deficit in the Middle School substitute line which is absorbed within the category the FY 25 budget takes that um deficit into consideration there is a deficit in homeless transportation for both the middle school and the high school exploring existing homeless funding to assist with this there's a deficit in the food service line I'm going to be reviewing this with the food service director on Friday in my monthly meeting with her and we'll explore if the revolving account can cover any of these costs what is that amount aages cuz I I'm not finding it fast enough it's gring I'm sorry um sorry to interrupt you but it's okay $2,483 okay so I'll be going over that with Megan to determine what that was and can we transfer any costs into the Food Service revolving account to offset that excellent thank you um and then there is a deficit in both special education transportation and contracted services and I plan to meet special UC education department to explore funding sources to potentially offset this and that is it any questions for the financial report motion to accept the financial report as presented second all those in favor I thank you for the corrective action plan I have made no progress since my last update I've been a little busy forgive me you're sh thank you um and then uh the last thing for my report is the end update the uh endd stands for excess and deficiency for those of you in attendance that aren't in the know um excess and Def deficiency was filed by the extended deadline of February 14th and was certified on February 28th by the state and it might be appropriate to take this off of the agenda agreed and that concludes my report thank you ass superintendent thank you uh inside your packet is our uh the the draft District student Opportunity Act plan which uh would are do every 3 years uh and send to desie purpose of the plan is supposed to be our District's efforts to uh close gaps using um the revised funding formula of identified our uh goal of an effective student support system with our mtss team as well as continued work on collaborative teaching models the gaps we would be closing we have an ambitious 70% U meeting or exceeding expectations goal desie provides an analysis that we can perform for for identified groups that um wear gaps are present for us it's student disabilities low-income students and English Learners so we're all committed to to closing those gaps plan outline it so with the approval of committee um I would propose that this would be our plan on file for the next um 3 years with that's his approval as well and I would be seeking a um the approval of the committee to uh to submit um submit this and have it be approved um by the committee I make a motion to approve the student Opportunity Act plan is presented by civil ucational School District second is there any discussion or question seeing none all those in favor thank [Music] you okay second Dr so the only item I have the this evening is um on March 26th is silver uh Silver Lake educators asso ation provided the committee with a list of proposed reductions to our budget I wanted to thank the slea for their um your willingness to identify areas to reduce and helping us to um bring about um some important decisions that we had to make albe it difficult okay very good all righty um special committees um slea than use just one minute of my time um so I think it's just a couple things I want to make sure the public understands sadly not so much in public here anymore but um you know just in terms of the uh the collapsing of levels you know Dr number of different professional development activities that were provided and yeah all of those were provided almost none of them actually relate to differentiated instruction in a classroom with wide variety of abilities so um I would just ask that you know if we are going to keep this um collapse levels like we have now that we are offering more professional development in that and then the other point that that I want to make and I think there's some confusion about it is whether this is a decision or whether we have to do it to meet desie uh guidelines and you know I'm sure Dr K has looked into it more than I have but everything that I have uh seen about indicates that you do want to obviously if it's going to be a mixed classroom with special education regular education students obviously was 90% special education students I think that would not be that type of classroom but as far as I've seen there is not a hard number and it is um from everything slea has seen it is a decision that's been made philosophically um I don't even know that we have a position opposed to that I just think the way it was done with without discussing with teachers with no buyin without talking to parents before their kids were put into it that's why I think this has continued to be a uh area of conference so I would just encourage us if we're going to be moving forward with such a dramatic change as that to make sure that we get all the stakeholders on board first and uh assuming that this does continue um you know I think it would be good for people to have those discussions going forward so that's all I want to say about that thank you John uh administrative review um the chair of admin review reached out to me to get some updated policies and procedures of how to move forward with the summit of evaluation the formative evaluation super okay uh CTE yes I have a report we met last week and uh we have evidence through guidance discussions that we have high interest in the career path annual right now we have 158 grade applications today for fall 2024 plus additional P from high school uh Silver Lake preschool for next year is full with great least Horticulture department is taking care of uh Courtyard work at Kingston Intermediate School and servicing of tractors and mowers all year long uh also doing landscape construction project for athletics our carpentry department is ready to build a new Pavilion at Kingston Elementary School and they are working towards sharing contract on next year's project uh we have a lot of success with Co program we have over I believe 40 students currently and the main uh subject was the discussion about the new program that we we're thinking about implementing so uh I have some info from Administration Administration visited couple schools Southshore locational Tech atoro North Queeny and Southeastern vocational tech school they explored couple programs they reviewed curriculum classroom space needs instructional materials demands student interest teacher backgrounds and hiring Outlook Co-op opportunity student projects and also Associated student organizations uh the trends that surfaced was that uh Administration highlighted the the marketing as the program and the reason for that was High student interest plou added chapter 74 marketing at both north and south north is staed by three full-time teachers uh marketing is accessible by unleveled student population has broad curriculum reach business marketing economics advertising Finance Hospitality social media management project management uh also another trend is that this uh Administration has confidence that licensed teacher are out there and they can be found through map department so it's easier to find a teacher uh also typical classroom space laptops and printers uh exciting R School retail operations strong postsecondary path and offering of another career for female students and the industry outlook for this is local industry data shows a 50% male and 50% female labor market local demand is higher than both it and criminal justice 11% projected National job growth over the next four years and it's our largest sector 40% of fi is represented in business and financial operations business is second most common college major according to National Center for educational statistics it's very strong data uh could [Music] be uh but we have a problem we have a I don't know what we should do now because uh maybe principal geil will jump in uh because I I don't think that the principal VI will be recommending a new program at this time right certainly not for fy2 if we were to add a new program that process the application process would start next fall and we need to be a part of next year's budget conversation so the earliest we would be able to add it FY 26 Mark add and great presentation this would allow another 15 students per class class to be enrolled R CG programs and um that currently I believe the number is 105 yes 105 can accept 105 so we' be able to take that up to 120 a year which would be used expansion considered and and at the meeting of regardless of the budget situation it's our job to continually look at how we can offer our students the best education and um that means rearranging the furniture to do that we need to consider that so actively pursuing all the programs that match new need of the students um is is most important and I think that the research being done had been done really appreciates bringing it to a table hopefully we can do fund this next year thank it's a broader scope than I thought when you described what it would cover social media except it's it's broader than what what I had had thought so andol it's some of the technology right right which uh it's a different level so we want more technology in our curriculum there is an opportunity to really expand that depending upon budgetary bring that to table I just wanted to add one think you all guys know how excited I was about it and a couple meetings ago we discussed with my Kila uh that I should be somehow involved in that or that I can bring some help uh I just wanted to say that uh nobody contacted me and I wasn't involved in that at all so this is strictly a uh Administration uh research as much as I wish okay and from the schools that Administration visit South Shore V uper Bor pouth North Queeny and sou Eastern V none of them offer programming and web develop thank you so I was equally as excited about doing an IT program when we first started doing the investigation of the new project I think part of the issue that sealed the deal for me words for two years now we've been offering $85,000 worth of potential salary to get a traditional computer science teacher at the high school um and the indications were it's very difficult sometimes to get a person to run that program um we were looking for a clean lab we were looking for something that would offer people um a professional level career opportunity and I was not going into this looking for marketing but I was I was sold on that proposal at the meeting last year with the evidence I was given by Prim administrative team as much as I had my heart set on an IT Pro one of the things that came to mind as soon as you mentioned that because I thought it just sounds so exciting is that every year and currently right now the high school offers adult career opportunities and I think that that's something that the public would probably be very interested in which is revenue for good Silver Lake and I mean I took the carpentry program last year and it was amazing so I could see you know people jumping all over there I'm I'm actually taking one myself for the first time that's an awesome one April 30th guys us to forward I I do have a question I I don't expect it to be answered right now but I would like to understand why a member of my committee who wanted to participate actively in a research like that was not invited to I don't expect an answer right now but I would like somebody to come back and explain that J I'm happy to address it most of our visits took place before that meeting you know we I think had one additional one after that um I recall and with each one we did ask the school would they be open so people coming in and they said we would be happy to bring people back to look at it so that was part of our next phase to take a closer look at the program and at our last we only had two meetings this year so at our last meeting we sort of decided our next step would be to meet in the fall to reconvene if it was appropriate to have program or [Music] not the pursuit of this in this budget situation had some communication issues as I tried to identify we should be pursuing it regardless of the budget at this point but however our focus is on a budget and to their credit they didn't want to go out and Advocate spending more money we trying to cut the budget so uh but including our member I think going forward with the second phase of the research I think we should include that and not rule out the possibility of an additional program that again may meet the needs but the cost of this program I think is yes better I would like to also add that during meeting uh I asked about additional programs so I wasn't I'm not stubborn with an i but I see many different programs that are better than marketing that's my op okay and that's a continued debate with the CTE subcommittee to come up with what the next iteration to add to our CTE program should be what you presented tonight has some Merit you know thank you can I do that one more Point um Lucas I forget which meeting it was that I had actually asked principal Gil if we were talking about this budget here because we had had the discussion last fall about adding a program and she had clarified that we're not working about this year and the reason I was interested is because I knew that we kind of have a bubble year coming in so as reported with the 168 um applications between the incoming freshman and the sophomores um that are interested we could have used that extra program this year but um I think principal Gil clarified that it wasn't going to be possible for this year so clearly all right and can I just do a plug because I saw it on Facebook there's a plant sale on May 9th from the Horticulture and people are like really excited about it so until I cook off car show and all together um I think I just uh Chairman's report uh correspondence the only correspondence I had was the um decline of our application for the um exploratory regionalization uh legislative agent we've covered negotiations I do want to add one thing uh day on the hill for masc is on May 6th it's at the um Mass club which is like the top of the per if you've never been beautiful venue um and I would take anybody from this committee as my guest if they would like to join that location was very active yesterday with the soor eclipse sure yeah um negotiations we are going to meet an executive session um after uh after this meeting uh pack Amy is not here uh policy uh no meeting okay safer uh safe I had a meeting uh just ahead of this one and um we address several of the issues that clarify again with capital plan uh V that we took at 391,000 stayed the same um the cro Street uh we have on our agenda traffic light solution which is a roundabout proposal uh the so Lake uh school committee has taken an aggressive role in trying to address the safety issue on the state highway in the town of Kingston uh that said we're getting a lot of support um from the town of Kingston they provided us with a very nice engineering study that identified the problems of a traffic light and fact people will step on the gas instead of the breake when they see a yellow light and then we have people going faster as an example in front of the school so the roundabout projects going forward and thanks to Jason in his legislative connections um we are able to um address it at a federal level with some of the funding that's available the town of Kingston because that where's located has to do that application process he and I met with the highway superintendent and uh initiated that process to get that uh information out there we're well aware for the community of the accidents that are happening at this site it was dangerous even for me to make the left turn to getting here tonight um and we we highlight that um Kingston has a new police chief there may be some intro measures we can take and I look forward to meeting with him to discuss that um to see if we can put up something temporary but at time of day it doesn't seem to matter but the speed and the and the blind curve is uh is certainly a fact I don't mean to cut you off but there was literally just an accident there last week I don't know what day it was but my daughter called and said there's a bath accident you can't even come through up where you pick the boys up for football there was just littered with police so it's not just the safety aspect of it it's dramatically impacted scheduling and people being able to get to the school during the accidents too so and it wasn't bad weather either it was wasn't a bad day um the other thing we discussed Middle School uh resource officer I think we've talked about that already in the meeting uh facili report uh we had an opportunity to walk through with our facility director four members of the safer committee and got a beautiful show and tell on everything that he has all the issues that we're trying to deal with he took very good input back and forth from the committee and was able to explain a lot of the projects not just the ones we originally thought of focusing but we saw a lot of things as we were walking through the school one of the highlights of that personally was seeing the carpentry shop being used for adult education and how happy and The Smiling Faces the adults were having when we went through this evening uh walk through um we looked at lawn equipment we looked at uh all the different um capital projects that we've got included and uh walked away with u a deep appreciation for what our facilities director does additionally um we discussed at our meeting the AC project we have arer funds million and a half or so that we can put towards air conditioning our schools we have a an increase in heat and and the effects of global warming and some of the other issues but we are addressing that we did find out that our upper funds based on an initial appraisal of our host doctor are probably going to cover around 50% of what we need to do to these two buildings that said um we're looking to focus on getting a study and paying 80,000 to look at both buildings we keep an OP option right now we might be starting one instead of the other um and and then come back and try to backfill the needs in the other fi they point forward we have some rebates that'll be available again depending upon how we uh structure the project hoping to have those rebates come back and help us the year after we get this project going which is this year so um the other thing we discussed at length uh we have an admin building we kick that down the road in our budget this year we this is an issue that's been on on the table since I started on this committee 12 14 years ago and it's still out there lingering we need offer space for our staff we currently have a split we have silver L staff all over the region in various different cubby holes and different buildings there's no Central uh office even though we call it our central office uh the 5700 ft we have uh we have a study that was done last year says we need about 8,000 square feet ideally and uh we're looking at some different Alternatives um we briefly discussed uh those tonight one of those was pursuing an off-site location where we can either rent or purchase office space um together um off site so um we decided to have a study committee a subcommittee of our facilities group go out and investigate those we've identified a couple of properties already that would meet our needs that are currently on the market and then we would have to come up with how we would financially solve that problem to put in our budget either to rent the space or how we would uh purchase that uh property over time so we are looking at thinking outside the box and all those um what else we got oh the air conditioning that we have to finish for the high school uh project our house doctor has got a project going forward and there's also offer funds will be grab the funding from the towns to pay the engineer to finalize that so we can make the bid requirements by the end of this fiscal year by June and that project should be well underway I hope by uh the summer and I think that's about it I would like to request that if we do get into revolving funds fall under the uh safer committee and if we get into the shortfall you mentioned in the food service if you could have that we add that to the agenda for the next safer meeting so you can explain it to us how we got there in the details and if any of those come up ahead of the next meeting any other uh revolving funds that need us to to to look at um to put them on the agenda so that's that's I believe that's where the committee wanted revolving funds to fall yeah we did we folded it in there a couple years ago right thank you can I just say something Mark yeah um I know he's not here tonight but I just wanted to to acknowledge Mike laws for his time and effort for having us come and giving us a private one-on-one tour of what exactly is on his list and what's a priority I hands down was so impressed with the CTE Department that the school has but it was raining out but he took the time and showed us all the equipment and why he needs extra space and what exactly is on his list as a top priority and I know he's not here but I just want to acknowledge and thank him for for taking the time to ask us to and I think it what I don't know how many years it's been since safer has been given the opportunity to do that and I think maybe going forward when things like this are up that we get invited to or the next committee whoever's on it to if he has time to you know take people on the tour of what's going into the budget because it's eye openening and it makes you realize the importance of the things that need to be done and whether it was the auditorium the the floor the ceiling the garage doors where the equipments are being stored and it was enlightening to say the least and actually Jen I'd like to dtail off of that cuz I completely agree with your comments and I thought Mike had I sat in on safer tonight um I left work early and sat in on it Mike had a wonderful command of the detail of the issues I was very impressed by the depth of knowledge and he he didn't have to look at notes he didn't have to flip through anything he he knew everything off the top of his head so it was actually um I was very impressed by by how he has really you know gravitated to to um to this um position um I will say I'm saying a couple of years ago now when time flies it's longer than a couple of years ago we actually took the opportunity to invite um Town officials to walk through our facility um we walk through the abmin building we walk through the high school we walk through the middle school and I think every now and again that exercise is wonderful because you can look at the capital plan and say you know there's um there's leaks in the Middle School auditorium but until you see the damage and until you walk through that admin building um you know things like that they resonate with you more if you set eyes on it and you and you can I've been into the aitor numerous times I've never given never looked up or went on the stage see things we fixed them but the year we went through you know we had the the water infiltration and everything but I agree with you in the visual of actually seeing what's on that Capital report is that Capital plan is just so important so just anecdotal comments thank you Mar um Treasures report I don't think we have one this evening we didn't have any yeah we don't have one tonight yeah um Union 31 the meeting is canceled for Thursday okay it is canceled it is canel um we didn't have any single s any single signature warrants so the the warrant is due the 11th um April 11th so those will come to you electronically within the next couple of days okay very good um show I asked earlier but I just want for my own clarification do we have to revote a budget number at all and can we change it aside from the reductions that were in red we didn't change bottom line we didn't change bottom line okay thank you very good question so certainly yeah no motion to change it thank you um before we adourn um to Executive session spring vacation April 15th to the 19th May 16th our next sub L meeting will we'll see if we actually need that one if we just stick to June um Town meetings again to reiterate from early at Kingston May 11th Halifax May 13th and Plimpton May 15th uh please everybody attend you know have your uh neighbors attend the community attend to uh support our budget pleas passing all three times with that said I would take a motion to adjourn I make the motion to adjourn to Executive session under mgl 38 section 2183 to discuss strategy with respect to bargaining contract negotiation civil Education Association support staff pursuant to mgl chter 30A section 2187 comply with act under the authority of any new general or special law for the approval of our executive session minutes for March 7th 2024 and not to return to open session second um roll call Jason yes Lucas yes Mark yes Mike yes Jen yes and myself as a want to take a 5 minute break guys let [Music]