##VIDEO ID:s_KezaLVA-Q## e e e e e e e e e e e e e e noton okay can youall hear me yes no nope test one two good evening oh there we are okay um good evening um I called to order the meeting of the Hamilton one Regional school committee on Thursday November 21st 2024 at 702 PM um and uh at this uh I'm going to just let people know that um the first item in the on the agenda is that we are going to move into an executive session um while one can never make promises my prediction is that this will be brief we have allotted about 10 minutes for the executive session um and the committee will return so um I move uh to adjourn into executive session for no I'm gonna move it letter finish yes it's a roll call I move to uh Jour to Executive session for purpose number three to discuss strategy with respect to collective bargaining which with the HW Rea where an open meeting may have a detremental effect on the bargaining position of the public body and the chair so declares to return afterwards to Open Session do I have a second second by David Frankle this is a roll call vote Jen yes David David yes Dana as a yes um and we are adjourned into executive session and we'll see you all soon e e e e e e e e e thank you all right and we are back in Open Session thank you all for your patience um and now uh I will invite you to join us in the Pledge of Allegiance flag uned States America okay um next up on the agenda we have an opportunity for citizen comments um this is um a chance um for you the citizens to be heard and the chance for us the committee uh to listen um I if you um do want to give a comment I ask that you um state your name and please spell your last name so that we get it correct for the minutes I am going to ask someone to be a timer um and we'll you'll have three minutes um and I will stop you at the end of the three minutes just so you know um and I think I covered it okay um if you are in the room you'd like to present a public comment please approach the podium welcome this uh yeah make sure so can I ask permission to go 30 seconds over I have something that's written I will not go beyond that I can talk in three minutes but you probably won't understand me so permission to go three 30 seconds over I don't think we have a ton of people giving comments at that's okay okay but in general I know in general in general three minutes is the limit why I'm asking up front that's okay uh Deb Safford uh s f o r d Hamilton you kindly say that you appreciate the public showing up at meetings and yet when we stand here and speak it feels as though we're just speaking into the airwaves since you all have volunteered to be the representatives of fellow Hamilton Wenham residents it would seem appropriate to engage with comments as a society we have grown div increasingly divisive and able to hear outside of our own Echo Chambers when people show up and stand up for a different view they're entering your Echo chamber it would better represent the community if doing so was actually then incorporated into the discussion since we could only speak before the presentation yesterday and not during and after it I come back with a few points first Equity this key buzzword is pitched to voters emotions to approve the large Consolidated School Equity is equal outcome come not equal opportunity which is our Constitution's goal the only only Universal forms of human Equity are birth and death we are intended to be unique we used to celebrate diversity but that was only in culture and skin color not diversity of opinion skill interest capabilities Etc now the word is equity but how can we be diverse and have Equity how does a new shiny School actually provide equity and education should we be focused more on outcomes does a building provide Equity just because everybody goes there well some will have a male and some a female teacher some get the Morning Light others the afternoon some will walk the hall length and others will have just the first room it feels a bit shallow in surface considering we go to school to learn and grow shouldn't our children and families be more resilient than worried about who gets a renovated or a new building when kids grow up they surely will remember a teacher who in inspired them not the space they learned in second the disturbing rise in neuromental behavior issues has anyone investigated the impact of 5G Wi-Fi wiring in the schools the increasing use of technology and all of education has anyone looked into the covid response the curriculum of confusion about sexuality maybe the social emotional learning strategy versus traditional content is actually unsettling for children I don't know but I Ponder this Rising issue talked about yesterday and wonder how being in a large school will help a child's sense of security and well-being the nod to calling the wings on the three floors neighborhoods shows the value in the current School infrastructure third why are the schools in such ill repair why were the current schools not better maintained or was it always somehow envisioned that there would be a consolidation to give winr back to Hamilton so it could be developed a position that as a 30-year resident I never heard the public agree to but have come to understand is the prevailing view of the few in our local governance and was frequently encouraged by Mr Tracy at the select board meeting when the lease was not renewed at winr but was for color it feels like this could be a situation of create a crisis and then provide the solution where residents are coralled into doing what you want them to do similar perhaps to the fields fourth and Final since I know yesterday's meeting was at a high level and today's is more detailed I'm asking really begging for truth and accounting for what is to come budget conservatively which means for more than you think so you don't have big pops like we're going to be having show actual versus budget instead of budget to budget is there a list of projects approved at Town meetings that were not executed if that exists and if so why maintain facilities even if there's a dream of change can you wrap it up please so we actually will have a choice we need fiscal accountability and we also need to know what grants come with 3A strings attached while I expect this will fall on deaf ears I am hoping that someone here will understand that many residents are really concerned about the direction of the school district thank you thank you welcome Jeff Austin 50 Sharon Road I'm here tonight as a concerned resident to address the school board's inability or unwillingness to present a fiscally responsible plan to renovate and maintain our three small neighborhood schools these schools are not just physical structures they are cornerstones of our community and provide the best environment for our youngest Learners yet instead of committing to a solution that represents I'm sorry that respects residents desires and fiscal responsibility represented by the school's very own survey the board has prioritized a costly consolidation plan to build one massive unnecessary unnecessarily large school on the colge site the school board has argued that the consolidation plan is necessary because we are outgrowing our current schools however the data indicates our school population is actually declining this flawed reasoning undermines trust in the board's decision-making and further highlights the need for alternative Solutions years of poor maintenance and management have contributed to the current challenges facing our schools however that does not justify the decision to abandon them altogether creating a thoughtful plan to renovate our existing schools may require significantly more effort Creative Solutions and time but it's a necessary exercise the proposed Ed plan inflates renovation costs with excessive and Ne unnecessary requirements making responsible Renovations seem unattainable this leaves us with only one option a large Consolidated School that residents have clearly stated they do not want why is the board prior prioritizing maximizing State funding over developing developing a solution that aligns with our Town's values and The Proven benefits of a small school I also want to ask the board what happens if the town votes this plan down what is the contingency plan to ensure that we still have safe functional schools this lack of preparation is deeply irresponsible and the town deserves better it's worth noting that key project leaders advocating for this Consolidated Mega School are not residents of our town it is easy to promote a massive costly project when you are not the one to shoulder the financial responsibility this Dynamic this Dynamic makes it even more critical for the board to listen to those of us who live here pay taxes here and want what's best for our children and our community lastly I must address the structure of these meetings unlike other Town boards which allow for real-time Community input during discussion the school board restricts public comments to a brief window at the start of the meeting before residents even know the full scope of the topics being discussed this approach shuts out the very people who will be most affected by these decisions and undermines Trust in the process as residents we deserve leadership that reflects our priorities and values it's not enough to push for the easiest or most convenient path we need a school board that is willing to do the hard work explore Creative Solutions and ensure that we have the option to maintain our neighborhood schools in a way that balances educational needs with fiscal responsibility thank you thank you um Mr Tracy do we have anyone on Zoom it doesn't look like no okay um is there anyone else in the room that would like to offer public comment good evening Sandy Fisher f i s h e r um I don't have prepared comments I just listened I've been to many meetings I do want to Echo um what Deb Safford has said what Mr Austin has said those are those views are shared by so many people that I have spoken with not everybody can come to a meeting like this but I agree totally with what they've said Thank you thank you oh I'm sorry uh Miss Fisher I'm sorry I'm sorry can just for the minutes can you I don't think you said your address or if you did I didn't hear it three Brook oh Greenbrook okay thank you I appreciate that I'm sorry okay um looks like we still have no one on Zoom is there anyone else in the room that wants to offer a public comment okay um at this point we will close uh um public comment is closed all right and next up we have a review of a portion of the school committee protocols I think Trent would you be willing to read a portion of that indeed as elected members of the Hamilton Wenham Regional school committee we including the superintendent accept the high honor and trust that has been placed in us to ensure that the students of the district received the best educ tion possible to that end we hereby commit to the following in the conduct of our business five if an individual School Committee Member receives an email relevant to overall District policy or operations they will forward it to the full school committee and the superintendent thank you um and David would you read a portion of the mission statement please Pard me the Hamilton winham Regional School District school committee's mission is to ensure our schools create graduates with a passion for lifelong learning together with the critical skills needed to maximize their potential the Hamilton whenham Regional school committee will lead and inspire a district that attracts and retains high quality Educators by acknowledging and respecting their expertise and professionalism thank you um next up we are fortunate enough to have our our student one of our student Representatives here this evening uh Emmy pkin Emmy when you are ready hi I'm Emmy um and I'm just here to talk about what the schools have been up to to start um with the high school we just entered our first day of Spirit Week and it's this Thursday through next Wednesday it includes a lot of end of school activities dress days lunch activities and we just finished our board and room decorating we also have our Powderpuff event and Homecoming this Friday we also just finished our blood drive and our turkey Drive the sophomore class of uh 2027 also just had a cookie fundraiser where we raised over $12,000 for our class um our and girls cross country team both just won Cal and division three champ Champs um and our girl soccer which I'm actually a part of We're the second seed and we made it to the state finals which is this Saturday at 4:30 um at Curry College against Sutton who's the number one seed and it's really exciting because it'll be our first time here since 2021 when we won um our Fields also have been having a lot of progress and the turf is laid down for clubs uh we just had our Deca testing and districts is coming up soon this uh I believe in December and our theater just hosted the 25th Annual putam count County Spelling be on November 8th and 9th which was super successful and we had a lot of um participation and a lot of students who came to support over at the middle school there's been some Wellness committee meetings and murals just started which run from 2:30 to 3:30 after school they also um have introduced a lot of new clubs which is super exciting for all the members and a great way to participate over to winth they just had a parent Guardian conference or they've been having parent Guardian conferences over the past two weeks they also just uh eliminated the mcast requirement for all grades and are planning for the holiday Boutique which is coming up this December buer has also been hosting some meetings they have the buer elementary school council meeting friends of buer meeting and the committee meetings and then thanks they're preparing for a Thanksgiving break Cutler is also hosting a kindergarten parent informational session on Tuesday February 27th at 6:30 pm and they are having their Cutler Turkey Trot on Thanksgiving that's all thank you does anyone have any questions for Emmy I have a question what is a seed um a seed is basically we are in the fourth Division and it is ranked based off um how the best teams and you're ranked off of your seed so the first seed is the number one team in the division and the second seed is the second team in the division and so on and and that the soccer is on Saturday correct all right very exciting very exciting thank you um anybody else have any questions so we are always it's so meaningful and we are so grateful to have you come it's so good to hear the news of the district from a student and we thank you for coming um you are absolutely welcome to stay however we also know you may have other things to do this um so you're also welcome to do your homework or whatever you need to do okay thank you I think go head out thank you so much for having me Good Luck thank you stay safe out there it's nasty um okay um next up is our consent agenda does anyone have any items that they want to hold on the consent agenda David to you excuse me uh I moved at the Hilton Regional school committee um vote to approve the consent agenda as written in tonight's agenda do I have a second second by David Frankle um there's no discussion of the consent agenda all those in favor that is unanimous of the five members present and the motion passes okay uh first up on new business uh is our um teacher contract um it is there as an exhibit why don't we um if you're willing David can we start off with a motion excuse me um yeah we don't have an official one no there's no official motion um I moved at the hamiltonm regional school committee vote to approve the um Hamilton teachers contract for 24 um school year 2024 to 2027 as presented in tonight's agenda second second by Jen Carr um all right does anyone have any questions or any discussion looks like we're ready for V all those in favor that is five in favor and that is unanimous and the motion passes um do you want to say do you want to say you have anything to say congratulations uh no I'm still tired but um it's really nice to be on the other end of this and I'm sure everybody in the district is very is feeling really happy and proud right now so great work it was uh was a lot of hard work and I think everyone is yeah win-win yes exactly I think we're all feeling good um thank you um next up if the committee is willing um prank I'm sorry if the committee is willing um I would like I see that Frank from um Markham LLP is here if the committee is willing to take things out of order I'd like to um ask Frank to come up and do the audit presentation with unless there's an objection threee threee contract cor great yeah that HDMI cable will plug into here better okay thank you very much for having me here tonight appreciate the opportunity to present the results of the 2024 audit uh Vinnie had mentioned uh I think it might have been in the uh agenda that I'm from Markham and uh it's been an interesting year for us uh gone through two mergers uh maram was the first one and uh November 1st we went through a second merger and that's why you're seeing CIS up here on the screen so uh we went from powers and Sullivan to Markham and now we're C bills uh seventh largest uh CPA firm in the country so we went from powers and Sullivan which was a small like 30 person firm to Markham which was a a big like the 11th largest firm in the country and now Markham is combined with cbiz which is a publicly traded company uh to become the seventh largest CPA firm uh in the country so it's been kind of an interesting Road for us uh and um going through a lot of integration and been a pretty exciting ride but anyway I'm here uh representing cbiz tonight as your Auditors and um just thought I would uh run through the presentation just like to start off by thanking the team uh Assistant Director of Finance and operations did I get that right many assistant superintendent of finance and administration correct now okay and District accountant yes MOA yep MOA you know was really integral to getting the information that we needed and um we had very good cooperation and assistance as we normally do uh we had a new portal and everybody adapted to the new portal which uh I think was an improvement allows us to help manage like the information flow and um it we're able to transfer file securely too which is great um so they did a great job putting a package together for us and uh no issues related to cooperation getting answers to our questions or getting the information that we needed so we really appreciate all the cooperation and assistance that we we received I'm just like to start off by going over some uh required Communications principal objectives of the audit are uh expressing an opinion on the financial statements we perform the audit in accordance with uh auditing standards generally accepted in the United States of America and also government auditing standards um we're responsible for planning and Performing the audit to obtain reasonable assurance that the financial statements are uh materially uh stated free of material misstatement and barely stated in all material respects in accordance with generally accepted accounting principles uh management is respons responsible for the preparation and fair presentation of the financial statements uh significant accounting policies management is responsible for the selection and the appropriateness of accounting policies you can find the significant accounting policies uh that the district follows and note one of the financial statements there were no new accounting policies that were adopted during the year and the application of existing policies was not changed counting estimates are an integral part uh of the financial statements and they're based on Management's knowledge and experience about past and current events as well as assumptions about future events uh certain estimates are uh particularly sensitive because of their significance to the financial statements the most significant estimates of the net pension liability the other post-employment benefits liability compensated abs in depreciation on fixed assets we review the uh underlying assumptions that are used to develop those estimates and we found the assumptions to be reasonable in relation to the financial statements as a whole difficulties encountered in performing the audit as I mentioned uh we had very good cooperation so I'm happy to report we had no difficulties in dealing with management while performing the audit disagreements with management um our standards Define a disagreement with management as a matter whether or not resolved to our satisfaction concerning an accounting uh reporting or auditing matter that could be significant to the financial statements or the auditor's report and again I'm happy to report that there were no such disagreements with management that were noted during the audit and that takes me to the A results so we're able to issue an unmodified opinion on the financial statements that's the best you can get it's a clean opinion means the financial statements are fairly stated in all material respects in accordance with generally accepted accounting principles reporting deadlines were met the information that we received was accurate um we received timely responses to our inquiries and there were no significant deficiencies or material weaknesses identified during the audit not going to go through all of these but um some of Management's responsibilities as part of the audit um management is responsible for the fair presentation of the financial statements which I already mentioned and they um take have to take ownership of the financial statements review them they provide the information that's used to convert your ledgers to the Gap financial statements and then uh essentially sign off on on the report and take ownership of it uh they're also responsible for establishing and maintaining effective internal control over financial reporting to ensure that uh Financial transactions are properly recorded in the financial statements identifying and assuring uh compliance with laws and regulations making Financial records available to us as requested for the audit in performing procedures to ensure that uh assets and liabilities are appropriately valued and adjusting the financial statements to correct any material misstatements what are our responsibilities as the Auditors well mentioned it before we're responsible for expressing an opinion on the financial statements uh the audit includes examining uh obtaining an understanding of internal control sufficient to plan the audit and uh the nature timing and extent of our audit procedures uh it's not designed to provide Assurance on internal control or to identify reportable conditions we're responsible for reporting to the school committee any significant deficiencies or material weaknesses that we might encounter and if we had found some we would have let you know about that a lot sooner than this meeting uh we're responsible for communicating those matters uh that come to our attention during the audit and there were no concerns or issues that we noted during the course of the audit so those are the required Communications I like to just uh run through some financial highlights for you get through that pretty quickly um general fund fund balance total $10.8 million at the end of the year of that 1.4 million uh was nonspendable and that relates to prepaid tuition another 962 th000 was reserved for incumbrances and then you had another 2.3 million of end that was voted to fund the 2025 budget that left you with 4 .4 million of unassigned fund balance and that's um about $200,000 less than you had in the prior year uh general fund budgetary results your uh operations resulted in a $546,000 decrease in fund balance uh that was mainly due to the use of $3.2 million of end that was used to balance the budget up of that 1.8 million was transferred to a capital stabilization fund so you building up a balance in a capital stabilization fund which you know as Auditors we like to see you know reserves when you can have them um it's especially with some of the um the pandemic and everything else there are unexpected things that can come up and having reserves available is an important thing U to be able to weather you know these unexpected uh issues that might come up and different Capital needs can arise with boilers and all kinds of different things so we think it's prudent to have some money set aside for that um so that was good to see uh those so the use of end was offset by a revenue surplus of $810,000 that was mainly due to investment income and the uh increase in rates that we've seen um your expenditures came in under budget by about 1.3 million mainly related to uh instructional Services programs with other districts and other student services uh end uh go through a certification process each year with the uh division of local services that money can be appropriated for any valid School purpose your end is estimated to be about $4.3 million this year which is about um 100,000 less than last year so it's pretty much right in line uh that's about 2 .1 million over the 5% limit your uh net OPB liability am I might want to change my slides here huh sorry about that net opep liability total $ 33.8 million uh that was a decrease of 5.3 million from the prior year and that's mainly due to the the change in the discount rate so the change in the discount rate can have a really significant uh impact on your liability and um you're starting to fund it your opep uh trust fund you know you've got over $2 million in there now and um that's really helping with your discount rate and helps reduce your liability too so that's really great um the opep trust fund uh was established in 2022 you put another $200,000 into it in 2024 balance at the end of the year total $2.8 million and uh you had about 10% return on the Investments this year which was great you earned about $235,000 uh and that really starts compounding as that balance builds up in that trust fund um it's really going to help you to get that liability under control um your net pension liability uh for pension uh teachers and certain administrators can join the mass teachers retirement system and their pensions are paid for by the Commonwealth Commonwealth paid $5.2 million uh on behalf of um those uh individuals in the most current year and the liability associated with those individuals is about $54.5 million but that liability is assumed by the state so you don't have to worry about funding that and then anyone else that qualifies for a pension that's not eligible for Mass teachers can join the Essex Regional retirement system and the liability associated with the retirement system was $9.8 million and um that was about $1.1 million decrease from the prior year and um the system had similar uh results with 11% return on investments which I believe is the main reason for that uh decrease in the liability and the last slide relates to the uh single audit and the single audit is um an audit of federal Awards so if you expend more than $750,000 in a year uh of federal funds then you qualify uh for what they call a single audit and that means that we have to go in and uh perform a compliance audit on your federal Awards and uh the expenditures uh you had 967 th000 total expended in federal funds so you were over that limit 215,000 related to the school lunch program 487 th000 to special education and 265,000 related to other educational grants the uh special education uh program program was considered a major program so that's where our compliance testing was focused and uh happy to report we had no findings no question costs we're able to issue an unmodified opinion on compliance and that's a clean clean opinion best you can get um in the next I think year or two the uh limit for the single audit is supposed to go up to a million dollar so depending on what happens with your federal funds I mean right now you're right around $967,000 if those expenditures come down when that threshold goes up you may not need to have a single audit so something to keep in mind um you're like really close to that threshold so we'll see you know where things shake out in the future but overall we uh like I said had great cooperation and the audit you know went very well from our standpoint so um I think it was good results and uh appreciate all the uh cooperation and assistance that we got thank you you're welcome anyone have any questions when does the uh $1 million threshold for the single audit take place is it I don't remember exact it's in the next year or two I can get back to you on that Vinnie I sure y thank you very much oh my pleasure and uh Vinnie thank you for your work apprciate it very appreciate thank you Frank for the work of you and your team appreciate it thank you Vinnie I appreciate that all right thank you and drive safe out there in the okay well in the rain good night good night thank you okay oh thank you here go back up yeah um okay so just so everyone as you're following Along on your agenda we are out we went a little bit out of order so now we are up under new business Item B Class size report um and to you Mr Tracy okay thank you I just wanted to um be sure that we had our class siiz reporting available as we move into the budget process um this is the usually right around the same time each year we uh released a report based on our October one submissions to the Department of Education um that's one of four times annually that we submit data to the state and it's the basis for any of the calculations that the state does uh throughout the the rest of the school year so when they're looking at uh numbers they specifically Target that one date as um the school district's numbers because they they consistently shift around with kids moving in and moving out so we we're currently serving 1669 students in District district and that's um a giant increase of four students from last year um as you know we've been on a steady decline it's been uh um a number of years where uh the enrollment has uh gradually ticked down and accelerated during Co and we're seeing a little bit of bounce back at the secondary level uh this year we've added 18 students to the secondary level 13 of them at the the Middle School uh and six at the high school and then um really tried to put out all of the enrollment uh classroom size figures along with this report so you can see uh how they compare across the district so when you're when you're looking at uh some of the shifts uh this also includes uh average sizes uh on this on on my memo the average size is specific to 18 across the entire District so when you're averaging the entire District the academic classes uh you're looking at 18 uh students in a class and um um then when you're looking at the district enrollments overall uh this chart I put it in there to so that everybody could see it goes from 2013 to current these are all October 1 specific dates um so they this is something we track year over-year uh which allows us to keep an eye on where classes change where classes shift and you know one of the examples I gave in the memo was about uh the 2023 24 7th grade class had 116 students this year a year later they have now of 120 students so we track um year-to-year changes and uh changes overall um in the groups of P to five prek to 5 I mean sixth to e8th grade and 9 through 12 um we don't generally average in our L's because they're such a small number so when you average one into you know 16 18 and 20 it drags the average down uh dramatically and same with our special a classes they're really small so we generally don't average them in but they are included on the reports that are uh attached in here and each each report is uh used this was an example the buer report teachers the number of students they have the classes they have and then on the side the averages including uh what's different on the individual reports is we include art music PE health and Library those are um included so the the averages do change slightly with the addition of the specials because they're they're often time more kids in specials uh you see that at the high school as well when you see kids going to uh say concert band they have uh they can have 30 to 35 and 40 kids in the class it throws off the averages a little bit when you when you're starting to look at uh those specific special specialized classes and that's it in the nutshell I just wanted people to have it so that as we look through the budget um development the the budget development process over the next three months uh that we have this to refer to so I'll take any questions if anybody has any on page one of your report there are two Sciences listed I assuming one of those is social studies under ER correct it is social studies yeah thank you anybody else thank you for that beauty of the elementary I'll teach the same five um okay um next up on the agenda is the new Student Activity fund account request is that you any okay the the um Student Activity accounts are managed at the the school level and annually we do a review Vinnie does a review he goes through it uh at the end of the year but uh throughout the year we do have opportunities for kids to start new clubs um this is a a new club the future health uh professionals that the high school would like to start this is uh unique and very new for us uh but one of the things they'll do is um they'll need to raise some money to participate in uh some of the activities that the national HOSA group does uh so they'll do some some fundraising just just as any of the other groups uh so we're just at requesting permission from the uh School Comm commun uh school committee to add this HOSA uh future health professionals Club into the Student Activities accounts this year um so I just want to make sure I'm fully understanding so it's just you're just opening an account we're not putting we're not you're not asking for funding correct they're going to raise their own funds just be an additional subsid make sure I understood um so exactly can you explain a bit more about what they me did I hear correctly future health professionals yeah future health professionals so kids that are looking forwards excuse me to the field of health and medical uh would would get into this and they start to be involved in activities it's kind of a national group so so they will have activities available for kids to learn more about some of the health and medical profession like is it very unique for us we haven't had anything like that way to internships or anything like that that I don't I don't know that off the top of my head we we like I said this is really brand new for us with a a small group of kids that would like to start it but it's student student it's bubbling up from the students they're interested correct exciting sounds good uh is the name HOSA or HOSA HOSA it's actually profal right the yeah that's the whole name okay I move that the Hamilton Regional school committee approve the new Student Activity fund for HOSA the future health professionals Club at the high school um as stated in tonight's agenda second second by Jen um is there are there is there any further discussion was this run last year unfunded no when I talked to Brian this is new I thought there was something similar last year the only reason I'm thinking that is because I gave money to them last year I don't think it was called HOSA I don't I think they were calling it something else maybe it's a different Club yeah this this is brand new for this year yeah it was just something similar about Health Sciences and that type of thing at least I thought so I could be wrong anything else look like we're ready to vote um all those in favor that is five and is unanimous of the five members present and the motion passes thank you um I look I hope that someday one of our student Representatives will update us on that new club sounds interesting um next up back to you Eric on ESP Staffing request thank you this is um a request for a new 1.0 FTE ESP educational support professional for a nth grade student at the high school that has moved into the district uh with an IEP that requires a onetoone professional we don't have anybody available but um as as our policy outlines we need to um bring this forward to the school committee to vote FTE above the approved budget so this is this is a request um that's coming for 10 FTE ESP the support a student at the high school and it's for this year um that's what this vote is for and then if this student remains in school district it would just be uh brought into the FY 26 budget so uh right now we're able to pay this out of the what they call the 240 Grant which is a special education grant that we get from the state you want to start us off with a motion sure I move at the Hamilton Regal school approve the. ESP Staffing request as second second by gen car um does anyone have any questions I just have some questions in general about this are these positions difficult to fill yes so if you would anticipate a protracted search period for this it'll it'll probably take some time we still actually have two other position position that are still open in the district one that I know we finally got some some people to interview for but one that has nothing um and that's one of the reasons we make it 1.0 if you make it a partial position you'll never get anybody in the slot so right now we're we're literally juggling people around to try to meet the students IEP and what are the qualifications for ESP so generally the esps are um education support professionals are people that don't need a professional license um um majority of ours are uh degreed and they uh we we always like them to have some background in education or in the classroom uh working with children as in their background then we train them for specific tasks so depending on the program they're in they may be an intensive program they may be just doing a onetoone with a student like this is basically being being with that student each day so they're they're just different types of activities that each of the esps do and some of them are litery tutors they specifically just do that so kind of a wide range we we generally take people in with some academic experience uh people who like to work with kids uh former coaches things like that and then we train them to what we need them to do and is this a salary position so it it's falls under the ESP contract it's actually an hourly rate when you look at their contract um so it depends on it's 32 32 and a half hours 32 and a half hours a week uh is is considered 1.0 for us in their contract okay and then the the rate is set by based upon the contract correct and your degree in years step scales degrees experience we have two other open positions we have we have two current open positions and this would be a third one um it just it's sometimes easier to get um support esps at the um lower levels versus the upper levels um we we had if you went back five weeks ago we had six open positions so we we've been kind of chipping away at slowly getting them in there um principles start calling around people they know and try to get people in or people have done the work before so it's not gonna be easy last question promise um is the reason like is there is there just a dir of people in this field or are we underpaying the positions we actually just negotiated a fairly substantial salary increase for this because of that we we felt across the board that we were uh underpaying comparatively if you looked around when we did uh this negotiation they were uh drastically underpaid so uh we made we had a actually a new contract it was brand new they didn't even have a contract before this they were they were known as Tas teachers assistant we move them into the ESP roles uh with that negotiation but they they're pretty comparative around these these the schools that are kind of contiguous to us so I lied I'm going to last one yeah yeah no worries um if it takes a long period of time or a some period of time to hire these individuals what supports does the district offer to make sure that students that need them are successful in the intern great question we we start moving people around we start taking people and shifting them around and you know you get somebody for an hour somebody for two hours which is not ideal sometimes um we'll we'll move that child in with a small what they call small group classrooms we a little more flexibility to do that at the high school than at the lower levels but it it's just becomes this kind of jigsaw puzzle of somebody making sure they're supporting this child every uh student at the high school actually all levels they all have a lias on so a special ed teacher who is responsible for connecting with the child making sure uh things are happening so there there's always somebody kind of keeping an eye on the ball if you will excellent thank you um I actually have a question too um I just want to ask about the um you said this in FY this current year fy2 FY okay that I guess I'm just not understanding the lessons because it says there's a balance in the FY 24 Grant yep but it would be but then that would get us through this year but then subsequently this would just if this position becomes part of the budget it's just part of the budget then we'd have to build it into the buget so that's not a grant that keeps 240 Grant is actually one that we can consistently rely on it changes a little bit but we also have the ability to roll some of it from year to year basically two years to spend it so 2 that's part of got it okay and this position is okay great anybody else have questions all right um looks like we're ready to vote everybody's clear on what the motion is y okay all those in favor and that is unanimous of the five members present and the motion passes thank you um all right we did the audit already and so next up is uh the uh initial budg budget recommendation going to plug in here unplug do you all mind if I shut these no please go ahead me catch the other one over heree the best part of the presentation yeah can we just focus on that for next half hour got come sorry can't see around corners okay so thank you guys for letting me present to you tonight this is our the first look at the superintendent's preliminary FY 26 uh budget recommendation for those of you who were here last night for the Quin quintuple board meeting there will be uh some repetitive stuff but tonight we're going to dive a little bit deeper into the numbers uh the first two slides I did go over last night but I will go over again for some members who were not here uh last night so when building the school district District's budget uh there are uh many things we look at the most important ones are listed here uh obviously our collective bargaining agreements is really the bulk of where the information and the numbers come from uh here is where we find our Cola adjustments for the year any of our step increases or our column and Lane changes uh our retirements and our staff turnover is where we look for salary savings through the budget process historically uh individual either retires or their staff turnover uh there's a tendency that that individual is a more seasoned deeper in the salary schedule employee uh when they retire or this turnover uh historically we have a tendency to hire somebody who's less seasoned uh in kind of higher or in the salary schedule uh receiving less of a salary uh so we realize salary savings through our retirements and our staff turnover historically in the budget process health insurance has always played a major role uh recently there have been uh drastic hikes hikes in our premiums which are driving up our costs however for the FY 25 budget uh we were able to negotiate a rate that was half of what we budgeted uh because of those savings they roll over into FY 26 and for FY 26 there really isn't much in terms of a health insurance increase uh so that is good news but but is definitely uh an item that drives the budget up uh most of the time year to year uh next would be our transportation costs for FY 26 we do not have a valid Transportation contract that ends this fiscal year in about the February or March time frame uh we will issue an invitation for bid for a new three-year contract uh historically the first year of the contract is a little bit bigger of an increase than the prior two years so I have put in an estimate on what I think that should be and that is incorporated into the budget uh the next item is our audit District tuitions uh historically we usually try to place either one or two additional out placements a year uh so we have enough funding from year to year to meet any new needs that a student may have uh next we meet with all of our building principles and department heads and go through line by line through their budget and discuss any new requests that they might have uh that we would incorporate into the budget last we look at the conditions of our buildings and grounds does anything need to be replaced do we have any um equipment or mechanical uh pieces in the buildings that really need our attention or need to be replaced uh so if there are any items we try to build those into the budget as well uh right now I'm going to briefly walk through kind of the the higher view of how we build the budget and kind of what goes into it uh the very first thing we look at is our enrollment shift our regional agreement uh states that we split the expenses between the town of Hamilton and the town of of Wenham based on a three-year rolling average uh on a snapshot of the student population on October 1st of the uh prior three years so in front of you I have a breakdown of Hamilton it's broken down by school and by grade uh for the town of Hamilton in FY 23 they had a student population of 1,68 and October 1st of 2024 they had the exact same amount so there was no increase or decrease for him however when you look at wenom they had an increase of three students over the prior year um in total that obviously means from our student population we have a growth of 13 students excuse me of course yes three students or 13 students if I said three I misspoke and meant 13 okay thank you uh 13 for Hamilton sorry and combined obviously I'm sorry when combined it's just 13 Hamilton's zero 1om 13 that is not our entire student population so I've also included this slide we also have tuition in students and school choice students uh overall the net result we are seeing a decrease in both of those items so overall all through districtwide through all categories we have a growth of two students from one year to the next so what does this mean for the school district's budget uh well when you take those new student population numbers and add those into the prior two years uh we have a change of 0.37% uh so we have a new three-year rolling average of 65.9 % for Hamilton and 34.083243 per increase for Venom so when we go through the budget process and you see what the percent increase for each Community is uh you can attribute you know 1.1% of that increase of Venom directly to the enrollment shift that we really don't have any control over it's simply just who uh who resides in which Community for comparative reasons uh to see if that number is a big number in last year's budget we had an enrollment shift of 24,000 so this is about 5 times what we uh saw last year uh which is still a substantial number when it comes to our enrollment shift it it it is one of the bigger numbers in the past budget Cycles so the slide I just showed you was the shift for just the operating portion uh for here I've combined both the operating and debt uh when you include both those numbers the total shift is 137,000 uh that's really the first step in the process uh what has the shift done to both communities budgets the next step we look at is all of our offsets in revenues uh for FY 26 our preliminary budget uh we have a growth of $24,000 or just over a quarter of a percent I'm going to walk through some of these changes for you uh if you have any questions at any point about something I don't go over obviously just let me know but uh for school choice I have Incorporated a reduction of six students coming in uh historically what has happened in the past few years is we have uh dwindling school choice numbers so as you go down in the grades uh sixth seventh and eth it's a it's a smaller class of school choice students when you look up at the high school and you go to the Junior and senior class it's a bigger group so we're graduating bigger groups and taking in smaller groups uh so I've Incorporated a reduction of six students we receive approximately $5,000 per student so I am estimating a reduction of $30,000 for our school choice in for our special education tuition Inn uh we really have not had this in the past but in fy2 24 we did take in a student into our special education program from I believe the town of peid um for that student we charged tuition uh that was not incorporated into our fy4 budget but we did receive the funds in FY 24 so those funds were built into our FY 25 budget however for FY 26 we do not currently have a signed contract with any community so at this time we have dropped that down to zero that might change before the final budget uh but at this time we do not have uh an agreement with any other community our tital one has dropped uh signific significantly in our tlement and we have also rearranged uh the grant to cover different types of expenses so we are unfortunately recording a reduction in our tital one Grant by approximately $30,000 our circuit breaker offset for those of you who might not be familiar with what circuit breaker is the state of Massachusetts does reimburse districts for a portion of their special ed expenditures uh there's a formula on how they come up with the amount with increasing uh specialed expenditures we're obviously going to see an increase in reimbursements uh in addition to our increase in expenditures the state is actually uh kicking in a bigger percentage they don't give you the whole thing they obviously just give you a percent of it that percent has increased uh so for us we are seeing a pretty substantial increase of 225,000 uh that will come directly off the town assessments next is our Chapter 70 B um historically our budgeting practices is for Chapter 70 to set our next year's budget amount equal to the amount we received this year uh the state does have a hold harmless uh Clause so they historically don't reduce your Chapter 70 AIDS so us setting it equal to what we received this year uh is kind of a conservative approach to make sure that we don't have a revenue shortfall next year uh this year we did rece an additional $170,000 that we are carrying into FY 26 Medicaid reimbursements have really been uh volatile over the past few years a student has to be both uh special ed and low income to be eligible for Medicaid reimbursements uh in addition we have to have staff that have certified to be uh Medicaid reimbursable uh that has gone up and down in the past five years uh I have set our amount for FY 26 equal to the amount we received in 24 uh similar to what we do with Chapter 70 unfortunately that represents a drop of approximately $40,000 next up is our interest income as you heard um Frank mentioned during the audit presentation we received uh an additional amount of interest income this year because of rising interest rates I am carrying that forward a little bit for fy2 6 where we're seeing a growth of about 177,000 the next two items are around our excess and deficiency that I will talk a little bit about uh later on in the presentation but from fy2 to FY 26 we are seeing a drop in our excess and deficiency by about 215,000 uh that is set directly off our end that is offset by expenses we have not done anything with the end uh return to the communities if you all remember that $773,000 number was the number left over from covid in 2020 uh where we were informed that the state was going to reduce our Chapter 70 funding uh so we went through this whole process uh of reducing our budget and at town meeting uh we promised that if we did in fact receive that funding we would return it to the towns and we've done that every year since I believe 2021 uh and then last we have our premiums on debt and this one is funny to me uh when we go out and borrow money they actually pay us to borrow the money and then we pay them interest I really doesn't make sense to me but because we went and borrowed money from a bank they cut us a check uh next year we will be borrowing less money uh this is directly related to the turf field project uh every year we pay down roughly $1 million as you reduce the amount that you borrow they're going to reduce the amount that they pay us so for FY 26 we have dropped that amount by approximately 34,000 uh so in total again that means only growth of roughly 24,000 but when I look at this to me it doesn't really paint a picture of what's going on with our revenues and that's because of the end the end is onetime money uh so what I've done here in the next slide is just remove our end and that drop in end to help kind of display what is really happening with our revenues we are seeing growth uh of more like three and a half% or roughly 240,000 so again this is just the same chart but removing uh the end off of it so going back to how we build it I've now layered in all of our changes in offsets and revenues so if we were to stop here and again roll all expenses forward it would still translate into what you see here a reduction to Hamilton's budget of uh 62 and an increase to wenom of 1.03 so kind of the next you know biggest but last step is incorporating all of our expenses uh so at this moment for our preliminary budget we are seeing a substantial increase in our FY 26 budget uh this is all in meaning in Ates both our operating and our debt service budget uh we're at this time we're requesting a $3.3 million increase or roughly 7.12% uh so layering that in under step three uh you can see the end result would be an increase to Hamilton of just over $2 million or just under two and I'm sorry eight and a quarter per increase and an increase to vom of 1.2 million or just over 10% uh so here I've tried to break out uh what that means both inside and outside the levy limit based on the town of Hamilton and wenam they're operating in debt it really is the same chart before uh just in a different format so next I'm really going to dive uh into the numbers and what's changed but I'll just stop and let you ask a question if you had it or I can just start going into what's changed uh from year to year we anticipate that it might go higher um we anticipate that we're going to receive more Revenue in rentals from the field uh we really don't know how much that's why we've left it flat uh we really need at least one year of data before we adjust that number we really as you can see don't make that much money off renting our facilities if it's um kind of an in town club we we don't charge them uh we only charge them if we have to have a custodian on duty uh there is no like additional rental fee so we don't really make a ton of money but when the turf field comes uh it might be a different story y good all right okay so right here is just our operating budget that's why you see a little bit different of a number for our debt service we did have a reduction of about 65,000 uh but again this is just our uh operating budget this is presented to you in desie format uh that that is what the state of Massachusetts says a Regional School District has to uh present and approve their budget in this format um but that's really not how we uh review and kind of oversee our bu budget we more oversee it by a a location or department so I've broken out in both areas uh it's the same numbers uh again just in Desi in Desi category or by location so one thing I want to get out of the way before I dive into these numbers because I don't want to keep repeating it is the cola and the step increases so you'll see on every one of these slides in every category you're going to see either an additional FY 25 Cola which if you look it's the second item down on your left or you're going to see an FY 26 Cola so the additional fy2 Coler is where I'm going to start at the moment so for fy2 when we built our budget uh we only had one of five of our Union contracts settled so when building the fy2 budget we really had to uh anticipate what our Cola was going to be at the time we built in a 3% increase but if you rewind back to this time last year um you were hearing things about Newton and wubber now you're hearing it about Gloucester Beverly and Marblehead uh so as we built in the 3% to be perfectly honest I didn't feel too comfortable about that so I tried to be conservative in other areas of the budget to help make up for any loss uh any uh reduction in Cola that might occur uh so I probably have we probably built in about an additional 1% Cola throughout the budget so we had about anywh between three and 4% Cola built into our budget but what ended up happening is we had colas anywhere between three and 19% um with an average of about 8% depending on what category you were in what position you were in what your degree was or how many years of experience you were so it varies widely uh depending on those factors uh so because of that we are in a $ 1.1 million salary deficit for fy2 now we are I'm not concerned about that deficit for fy2 because if you remember at the end of FY 24 you authorized us to prepay AO District tuitions we are going to call upon you for a budget transfer later in the year uh to move money from our a distri tuitions to our salary lines to cover that additional Cola for fy2 but those prepaid tuitions is kind of a one-time thing so that's not going to be here in FY 26 so that 1.1 million doll is being added in to our 25 uh I'm sorry into our 26 budget that's the additional fy2 Cola but then on top of that you have your FY 26 Cola Cola that is obviously listed here as your FY 26 Cola when you add in your FY 26 Cola to all of our FY 26 steps and column changes it's about another 1.3 million I believe so combined between the additional fy2 Cola and the new FY 26 Cola it is about 2.4 million in salaries that is being added to this budget at the moment uh if you recall the previous two slide uh previous slide our increase year-over-year is 3.3 million uh 70% of that is directly attributed to the two items I just mentioned uh if I add in one more item which is our AO distri tuitions in Transportation uh We've accounted for about three million of our 3.3 million which represents about 90% in only two items so I realized that this is a huge uh change year of a year but when you think about it not a lot has changed in terms of programs and in terms of positions uh we really are just trying to roll the year over and cover our um new contracts that we settled with so I don't want to keep repeating what the cola amount is on every slide I'm really just going to try to highlight the big um the big pluses and the big minuses and not review each uh Cola but of course if there is a question about any of it uh please don't hesitate to ask I tried to break out the cost between Cola and uh steps and stiens so if there's any questions about those please please don't hesitate to ask okay so for the buer elementary school we are seeing an increase of 376,000 or just over 12% uh here the biggest item you have is under the teachers uh Desi category uh we are requesting a new investment for A7 stem teacher at the buer elementary school you will see this at all three elementary schools uh so the idea is to split uh two teachers across the three buildings just like we do with our new Li Library um specialist from last year I believe um so you'll see this repeated at all three elementary schools that is at this time we're estimating to cost roughly ,000 and that is A7 at each school so under the buer elementary school for our other teaching Services we are reducing our parttime literacy ESP uh they currently are a61 129 FTE or roughly $166,000 again this item you will see at all three elementary schools I think about three years ago we added the two fulltime time it had to have been three years ago now sorry either way um we added two full-time literacy esps in one part-time to each of the three elementary schools now that that program has had a few years to develop we feel strong that we can eliminate the parttime position uh and still accomplish and meet the needs of the students uh so again at each of the three elementary schools you will see a reduction for the literacy ESB uh in terms of our instru materials there has been a request from the elementary school level for additional math supports so we would uh be purchasing about $5,000 in Math workbooks and another $3,000 in uh supplemental digital materials uh to help Implement some of our math programs uh for pupil Services uh they are they did request additional bus services for our kindergart orientation and our fifth grade move up day um again I'm just trying to hit on the big ticket items uh on in terms of operations and maintenance uh we have an agreement with National Grid and uh Direct Energy and constellation to provide us Gas and Electric we have a three-year contract that is expiring I believe next month the new contract we received has a 40% increase on the consumption of our electricity and our gas uh so you are going to see big numbers on our utilities uh spread across the six locations uh for buer that does translate into about a $24,000 increase I did try to do a three-year average consumption obviously if we have a colder winter it might be worse if we have a warmer winter uh we we might see a balance left over uh but we did spend a lot of time trying to figure out uh how many uh how much we consume during the year and then project that out with a 40% increase uh on the new contract moving on to the color Elementary School we are anticipating an increase of 467,000 or roughly 14.9% um the big ticket item here is a transfer from winup to Cutler this is a budget neutral transfer however if you look at the schools in a silo uh it is an increase to Cutler uh we transfer the TLC program from winr to Cutler that came with a 1.0 teacher and a 1.0 ESP uh in front of you here you are just seeing the teacher the ESP will show up on the next slide uh but that transfer does uh give an increase to Cutler of about 999,000 or that 1.0 FTE again you're seeing here the increase on the new investment for the stem teacher of approximately 70,000 um and then in addition there was also another transfer from uh winth to Cutler for their Elementary Specialists I believe this was the music program uh we transferred I think a uh must have been a 0.1 FTE from winr to Cutler um I'm sorry the other way around Cutler to win uh but that is again a budget neutral transfer yep I think I switched it yeah uh it is it's a it's two people divided by three it's two yeah so it's should be 6666 I the rounding makes it seven and I thought it was just one person yeah it's two people each specials has two music art they all have two that we use for the three schools uh one question um did you you mentioned 4 increase across the board of the utilities is that the same for gas as electric uh gas was I believe 42% electrical I think was 39 I can get you the exact numbers but I believe that's what that's what it was okay thank you yep uh so continuing on with Cutler other in our other teaching services this is that other 1.0 TLC transfer um that's an ESP P so it comes in in in a different Desi category again that is just a budget neutral transfer from one building to the other uh again you are seeing the reduction of the part-time literacy ESP for roughly 16,000 uh the same thing with buer and you'll see it again at winr is that additional funding for math Works Math workbooks and supplemental digital resources uh again we have increased cost for our buses for our kindergarten orientation and our fifth grade move up and again an increase on our utilities at around 25,000 uh moving on to winr again it's really a lot of the same that we just saw at the two schools we have our new investment of the S stem teacher that is causing an increase of approximately $70,000 uh the next big item is the planned fy2 prek teacher reduction uh so just to give a brief explanation on what happens here when we build our budget and we realize that we might have a reduction next year uh we don't know exactly who that teacher might be uh so when that happens I just set it to usually a master's five uh that's what we put in as the reduction so let's just say a master's five is 60,000 I would list a $60,000 reduction but then when fy2 actually comes and we find out who that actual teacher is they could be deeper on the salary schedule and we realize additional savings uh so that happened the prek teacher um that was reduced this fiscal year uh was $177,000 had a $117,000 higher salary than what we put in so that reduction uh we realize this year so we'll have a residual balance this year and then that reduction gets carried into f 26 um again this is the transfer of that TLC program leaving Cutler uh leaving winup and going to Cutler can I jump in on that just want to clarify that that's an FY 25 shift we did that this year just so people know it's not like we're moving the program it it already happened so it just it just we because we did the budget earlier last year it wouldn't show in last year's budget so that's a I think on the next slide it shows as FY 2 um did I do this one I'm not sure but continuing on with the winup there again is our reduction in our literacy ESP and the transfer of that other 1.0 TLC ESP again we have an increase for our Math workbooks and the digital resources uh we also have an increase of about $10,000 and I completely honest when I make a mistake when I built the 25 budget we had an individual who was a bachelor's nine if you look at our salary schedule it goes up to step 12 but in the bachelor's column it only goes to step nine that individual put in for a salary scale advancement which means they move over to the Master's column the Master's column God bless you the Master's column goes all the way down to Step 11 I budgeted them at a master's I believe either Step n or step 10 when they were eligible to jump down tumor steps because they've been here for 20 years uh so we weree we were shy this year approximately $10,000 which gets carried forward into 26 does that make sense hopefully okay uh moving on again we have the utilities increase of approximately $20,000 uh for the milera middle school we are requesting an increase of 465,000 or roughly 8.3 % uh here again we have transfers from the high school to the Middle School uh we transferred a 0.3 FTE reading specialist that was that was split 5050 High School Middle School however their schedule is more towards the middle school now so they are S at the Middle School uh I'm sorry 08 at the middle school and 02 at the high school thus transferring three FTE or roughly 33,000 from the high school to the middle school again that's budget neutral same with the uh one under it we transferred .2 FTE of the Fine Arts from the high school to the Middle School uh in addition we had some FY 25 uh planned reductions so at the middle school again we planned to reduce a 1.0 FTE teacher again we did not know exactly who that individual was going to be so again I put in reduction of a master's five uh the individual that was ultimately reduced uh made a lot more uh was more in the master 60 scale at making an additional 42,000 so we will realize those savings this year and again next year in FY 26 but in addition to that we also had an unplanned reduction uh so there was a reduction at the high school uh for our world language program that position was split between the High School Middle School uh eliminating it at the high school also eliminated a point4 at the Middle School uh so I'm calling that an unplanned FY 25 reduction and that's the same situation we will have a $25,000 balance left over at the end of this year because of it that will also get carried into 26 um also at the Middle School uh there was a there was a request this year to convert our 0.5 FTE Library ESP to a 0.5 FTE library teacher um this cost uh the Middle School approximately 10,000 this cost an uh increase of $10,000 to the middle school that will get carried into the 20 uh six budget in addition this position is split 5050 at the high school and middle school so you're going to see the same exact number up at the at the high school review that part also at the middle school there was a request for $16,000 in uh new Ela curriculum materials uh and also you're seeing here again an increase in our utilities for approximately 52,000 uh moving on to the high school at the moment we are requesting an increase of 630,000 or roughly 99.2% uh here it's the same situation we had an fy2 plan reduction of 1.6 uh I again put in a master step five but the individual made approximately $133,000 more uh you have that opposite transfer of the Fine Arts and the opposite transfer of the reading specialist again both items are budget neutral uh continuing on at the high school as we just approved tonight we are re requesting to permanently fund that 1.0 FTE ESP that this year will be funded through the idea Grant we are carrying carrying it forward to FY 26 as there will not be as we anticipate there will not be a residual balance in our idea grant for next year uh here again as I explained at the Middle School uh that Library position is split 5050 so the high school is also seeing an increase of just under $10,000 for that conversion of an ESP to a teacher we also have a request from the high school for to replace some aging Furniture approximately 11,000 and to replace some of their PE equipment uh for approximately 5,000 uh because of the um project going on out in the turfield right now uh the graduation expenses for next year are anticipated to drop uh to that is about $166,000 we are anticipating uh not needing for graduation expenses in FY 26 uh again just like you saw at the middle school we are seeing an increase to our utilities at the moment of approximately 52,000 uh moving on to Athletics we are seeing an increase of about 112,000 or roughly 177% uh the the big item here is our user fee match uh because of the teachers contract and because of additional expenditures related to the uh sports team uh we are we have been requested to fund an additional $57,000 to match the user fee and reduce the amount that uh families have to pay to participate in our Sports there also has been a a request uh to put more effort into maintaining the back field now that we have redone the entire um area back there there's been a request to add $30,000 to continue Mowing and seeding the Back Field uh because of the new turf field uh it has been recommended that we add additional trainers uh now there is going to be multiple games going on at once and one trainer can't cover uh multiple games so there's been a request to add $8,000 so they can get additional trainers uh to cover uh the additional games that we will be holding nobody had a question on that one okay good moving on to central office uh we are anticipating an increase of 208,000 or roughly 5% uh here we have a realignment of our Treasurer and our assistant Treasurer uh historically those have been stien payments we are moving them into more Perman positions they should be counted as an FTE they really should have never have been issued as a stien or categorized as a stien I should say uh in addition we are requesting I believe three new additional teacher mentors uh that will add approximately 4,800 um here is where you see that additional anticipated general transportation contract increase uh I set an amount I believe leave around 8% increase for our Transportation uh that accumulates up to an $85,000 increase for FY 26 our SRO expenses have increased over the past two years we are build by the town of Hamilton uh for our SRO those those are anticipated that expense is anticipated to increase by approximately 12,000 for FY 26 moving on to our maintenance department uh just point out maintenance is spread out amongst all of the five schools and in addition they have their own uh kind of department where they have their own kind of districtwide funding uh so the biggest item here is our end offset as I mentioned in our Revenue section uh this budget does incorporate $1.3 million in direct offsets to our end uh one of those items is under our extraordinary maintenance these are for more smaller projects around the district uh we have some issues with our boiler up at the High School Middle School uh we have a failing AC unit at the high school library uh all items that really need to be addressed uh to be honest we don't know if we can even make it through this year not not um focusing on those two items but nonetheless we are trying to get through this year and hopefully um set aside some funds for fy2 to fix those uh we also have an increase on our utilities of $11,000 and this is directly related to the central office building where the utility costs uh sit in the maintenance Department's uh deck moving on to benefits and fixed charges we are seeing a reduction of 242,000 just to jump down to that reason for the reduction in fy2 we incorporated a one-time end offset for this fiscal year and we transferred $495,000 into our OPB trust fund we are not requesting to do that for FY 26 so that shows up as a reduction in our benefits and fixed charges what which is what is really driving the reduction in this department uh in addition to that reduction we are seeing some substantial increases as we do every year in our Essex retirement contribution historically that goes up anywhere between 8 and 12% a year I believe I've Incorporated a 10% increase for FY 26 uh currently our payment is over a million dollars uh so it's estimated to increase by about $1,000 we annually increase our OPB trust fund contribution by $50,000 every year I believe we started that in maybe 23 or 22 uh this will make our opep contribution in FY 26 300,000 uh I met with Maya our workers comp Property and Casualty Insurance carrier they have informed me to anticipate in an increase of 15% in our premiums for FY 26 uh so that in that means an increase of $35,000 for those three items uh the district does have an agreement for anyone on our HMO plan that the district will cover the first half of their deductible uh we have seen an increase in the usage of the deductible over the past two years uh this year we believe we will end in a deficit so we are requesting an additional $221,000 uh to cover the health insurance deductibles for FY 26 uh this next line item as I mentioned before was the real shocker for me we are only request ing an increase of $133,000 as it as it relates to our health insurance uh and as everyone hopefully remembers uh we increased our health insurance contribution rate this year uh so for fiscal 25 we are contributing the district is contributing 62% for FY 23 that moves to 63% so we were able to cover that additional percentage and uh an in increase to the premium rates without raising health insurance more than 14,000 the next time I give you a uh forecast update for this year I believe probably the next school committee meeting uh you're going to see that we have a pretty substantial balance left in our health insurance accounts that is the exact reason we are carrying that forward into FY 26 because of the savings that we saw this year I believe I anticipated a 10% increase in our premiums for FY 25 I was able to negotiate that down to a 4.9% uh premium rate increase that probably saved us about $200,000 in addition in fy2 um we always as I always mention this is where we try to be conservative with health insurance whenever we have a vacant position in the budget we always incorporate full benefits for the individual historically not everyone usually takes our health insurance this is really where we see a lot of our savings at the end of the year uh so in fy2 we had a number of vacant positions when we built the budget not so much the case anymore everyone has been hired uh and a lot of them did not take health insurance so the combination of uh a low enrollment rate and a reduction in the premium is what has caused the ability to pretty much completely cover a premium rate increase for FY 2 okay moving on to our Capital Acquisitions and Improvement Department uh so for fy2 this is where the majority of our end offsets are housed uh as you recall a minute ago we did have about $494,000 in our opep trust fund which does fall under a different category uh the rest of our end offsets sit here for fy2 we did ask to transfer 44,000 to our Capital stabilization uh we asked for 315,000 to um close up the res the replacement of all smartboards across the district and another $225,000 to replace uh equipment across the district those all are removed from the6 budget and we add in new items or a little bit of the same as you can see at the moment we are requesting to transfer $500,000 into our Capital stabilization for FY 26 along with increasing uh the replacement of building equipment across the district we are mainly going to focus on the high school middle school and at buer in anticipation of what might happen at um Cutler win so overall that does mean a reduction in this category of approximately 85,000 moving on to our special education department uh we are seeing an increase of 628 th000 or roughly 9% uh our big categories here is around summer school our summer school program in this SC uh I'm sorry this summer uh we really grew as a program and as a result uh we were over budget we spent about $25,000 more in teachers salaries for summer school so we have increased that a little bit as it'll be a year from now uh so we are requesting an additional 27,000 and that is also the case with the esps in our other teaching Services category uh where we're asking for an additional $6,000 for our summer school program uh M moving on to our pupil services within our special education department for fy2 it is we are currently running an estimate of a deficit of around $200,000 as it relates to our out of District transportation uh we have been given numbers here for 26 uh and it is anticipated that we we we will need an additional $256,000 to transport the students um who attend out of District placements in addition to that we are anticipating a growth of 26 ,000 for their tuitions that incorporates a 3.67% uh automatic OSD uh tuition rate increase uh last but not least is our technology department where we are seeing an increase of approximately 33,000 uh there has been an uptick in um cyber issues uh we are getting numerous emails from both the accounting department and the finance department um for kind of fraudulent changes I'll I'll leave it at that uh so there has been a request from our technology department to amplify our security features uh and to and to um invest some money in tighter uh cyber security upgrades uh there's an estimate that it'll cost approximately $50,000 this incorporates um new software and a consultant to come in and assess uh the state of our technology security system uh in addition in FY 25 uh we planned a reorganization of the technology department uh that did come to for and we ultimately saved an additional $226,000 that happened in fy2 that will be carried into FY 26 uh the next item was a correction that I received from the state uh so the finance department issues an end of- year report every year to the state it's a you know a big report that basically explains where we spent all our money we have to categorize it all we were historically categorizing Our IT department in our instructional leadership Desi category the um technology department then issues an epim report those two talk to each other at the State uh our epim report was categorizing the IT department in a different Desi category while I was reporting salaries in another area uh so we received an email to reconcile the two so you can see here it's a correction uh we are transferring their salaries from the instruction or leadership Department into the operations and maintenance uh the same exact amount so it is budget neutral it's just transferring from one Desy category to another um just because I skipped over instruction materials uh as I mentioned we did pretty much finish up the Smartboard replacement project this year however there we are shy about five smartboards so it's just a request uh to complete that and replace I believe five more for 20 I'm sorry 26,000 um again uh you see their reclassification of the $280,000 and then last there is a a request for $22,000 to uh upgrade our it infrastructure uh additional Wi-Fi and additional um outside wiring to the um athletic field so that is kind of the bulk of the changes I'm just bringing it back to kind of roll it all together here that does uh incorporate a $3.3 million increase uh in our operating budget this is that same chart in Desi category again um here I have a summary of our staffing changes from FY 25 to FY 26 there are some movements as we discussed uh a lot of it is just transfers from one school to the another uh the net result from one year to the next will be an increase uh of 088 FTE uh last I know this is small I did include it as an exhibit so hopefully everyone got a chance to look at it but I do have a sum a summary of all kind of major budget changes that are plus and minus $10,000 so what I tried to do is go through every one of those slides and just categorize everything so every single time you saw additional FY 25 Cola listed I added them all together uh that was roughly 1.07 million and obviously our FY 26 colas that really is where the bulk of all the uh increases year-over-year exist I I'm not going to go through this entire list but if anyone has any questions on it feel free to ask thank you that was 52 minutes sorry thank you we we asked for detail thank you um people have questions you you had the utilities increasing at the central office um will the new windows actually decrease our U bill in the central office wasn't that part of the goal other than preventing them from falling out and hiden soon yep I would I would hope it does lower it yes yep so maybe I am a little high there um we'll definitely review it before the final I am also meeting with National Grid in about two weeks to make sure my consumption numbers are accurate to what they have so there could be adjustments on our utilities um before the tenative budget in January right now I was trying to You Know cover our basis in that 40% increase y um does anybody else have any questions I have a question but go ahead um this is just on slide 33 it should be fee reduction not free reduction I I uh I think I corrected that on mine right oh right where sorry I think I corrected it on mine I caught that today the one I think we linked to the exhibit that yep thank you Vinnie what what was the total of all utilities across the board um it is listed on that summary sheet give me one second and then do you do you have information about what what's driving that level of change uh that's three years worth of increases because our contract was originally signed three years ago so the increases that we've all seen you know at our households is really now hitting us with our new contract other than that what's driving it I I not sure the I know at home we we switched from National Grid to Constellation on the on the generation side and got it locked in for three years that's what we did as well that's what you did yep we have we're using constellation um for our electric and direct energy for our gas National Grid Supply we use National Grids pipelines and power lines so they charge us for the service of delivery uh consolation Direct Energy charge us for the consumption the consumption is what went up 40% not the delivery oh okay that's important to and thank you just I'm just folling off that same question so and it's a three-year prior it was a threee f contract so you and so you were locked in for three years and now we're locked in for the next three years yep so yep how that will probably work is we're a little high in year one but as yep you know they all increase we'll be saving in year three you know when you average it out um utilities is about 184 if I'm lining that up correctly across the district do you know what the average cost per kilowatt hour is um I think our new one is 12 cents I believe and our old one was like seven I can get you the exact numbers though um you want that on both Gas and Electric I can yeah that would be right I can email to everyone the old rate and the new rate great thank you y did you have did you have another one um no other the uh with the transportation the um if if indeed we got the EPA um Grant which I I heard on the great F that we did did you I've only heard that we we were tentatively set tentatively set we we haven't received a final confirmation so I'm just wondering to do we do we have a pro for a plan to and a financial model of how that might work and might help save some Transportation costs in uh we don't anticipate that that'll the 26 budget that would be more a 27 item so we will have to think of that if we are accepted when we go out to bid for the next contract so if we are officially accepted uh we might consider only doing a onee bid on the transportation instead of three so we don't lock ourselves in for years and you also have to consider the auto District transportation costs those are not buses those are small Vans you see going those are all private companies every every single one of them and it is uh quite the business right now uh that's booming around the state of Massachusetts so we are working with um the Northeast collaborative uh to try to figure out if we can take advantage of the some of the vehicles they have during the day that are sitting um and they'll you know charge a fee which is much less than the 300 or $350 a day fee we pay to drive kids to various um private schools around the you know specializ private schools around around the state so it's um it's something we're all looking at at the the superintendent level I was at a meeting today with uh the nor show superintendent's Round Table group and we're trying to figure out how to uh both share programs across schools to see who has openings and specialized programs so instead of spending $100,000 to send a child to a placement somewhere we could shift them uh to a local school district who might have an opening and that would drastically reduce Transportation costs as well so we're looking at different options along with mass um the Northeast Consortium and the superintendent Round Table group try to figure this out because it's in some of the bigger districts it's millions of dollars that there the impact is for for uh out of District transportation thank you yeah the and the other area that is interesting is um The Way We The Way We heat buildings is like that's Bas Heating is quite inefficient compared to what we can now do with heat pumps and heat pumps are I've just been investigating the the subsidies like Mass Save actually will give you back a substantial percentage of that so that's another thing I think we should hopefully look in our Capital planning to see where that would make the switch would make sense because would also give you air conditioning right which we don't have right um I have a I just have a question I I think I just missed it on the um I think it's on page 40 it's special education the I know that Eric has reviewed it yesterday I believe too but I just want to make sure the it's the that comes down from the state the 3.67 that that's how much institution is allowed to increase their yes they can increase more but they need a uh they do a special was it was a whole thing where it was all going to be 14% And then it wasn't so is that number has that officially come down like is is that number an estimate that you're making or is that number what that's from that's what the state has said OSD sent that out to us um two weeks ago right it was 14% last year which is which kind of rolls into this year's budget and then you add this 3.67 on top that roll you know so it it compounds really uh dramatically yeah no and and I I know that you did speak about it last night but for whatever reason it just needed a second yeah we get that number from the state and and not everybody does increase I mean NEC uh our Consortium that we work with generally does not follow that model they try to work with us we pay uh as you know a membership fee for reduce rate so it's it's uh has been very helpful in some of the instances that we have kids going out of District um so last night both towns were talking about how they were anticipating a deficit but they wanted to work with the school to avoid a operational override in the same year as a large debt exclusion um when you were done asking questions that was the question I have for you guys okay so my my my question is is is the way that this Gap is being funded um do you see it as likely going to a operational override at if we were to push this forward right now yes there is I do have two questions I'll ask the first one since you're on this topic I'll ask this one first in front of you is our Capital acquisition Improvement slide uh we are using on this slide 9 945 when you add in the additional extraordinary maintenance we're up around 1.3 million I'll let me pull up a different slide maybe that'll be easier to see all the way deficiency offset by expenses so the first one the 773 that is reducing the town assessments by that exact amount the other one however in this budget as presented we are using our excess money to purchase Capital to transfer to Capital stabilization uh we can which I'm in the middle on I I kind of haven't decided either way we could reduce some of those items and add it to that 773 to lower the town assessment this year and potentially uh avoid the O operational override this year however we are using one-time money to lower the assessment that only means that come FY 27 we will have to make up that money so I don't recommend using end that way uh the only time I would recommend it is to push an override into a year where we don't ask for a debt exclusion does that make sense it it totally does um could I just ask you to translate for people that don't speak school committee what it what it means to like avoid an operational override because of a debt exclusion this year so in this coming April town meeting we're asking for a debt exclusion for the uh new elementary school if we push this forward we would be asking for a second override for our operations uh historically in communities when you ask for two overd at the same town meeting statistically speaking both of them fail uh you're better not to say you're better off I'm only talking what historically you're better off asking for one one year and the other the next year um the question I would still have which I can't answer the towns would have to answer is even if we were to put all of that 1.3 million into it does that avoid an override for them because I still think that doesn't avoid an override in wenom so at that point to me the question is is why would we do it if it still doesn't avoid an override so we really need to work with the towns to get that number but if we do then we're avoiding an override this year and next year we would see a larger override because of the cola and step increases that will occur most most likely I I don't can't fully predict what'll happen in next budget cycle I mean we the state could and say we're giving you a t more money or you know I doubt it but would we see larger Cola increases because this year we're getting the 2025 Cola increases and the 2026 Cola increases next year it'll just be the 2027 Cola increase can I because I've of course so hard with Vinny to be able to try to not only understand it but to try to expl like so I'm going to take my stab at it and we can see if I get it right because it's it's in my opinion this is really hard to at least for me it's been hard to really hold in your head but I want to make sure I understand the in other words in so the you know when we set the budget if you're here and this is like this is the year you're in and the budget goes up if your budget goes up this year but you use onetime money that we only have once to make it look like the budget is down here so that year the budget that that would be in the upcoming a 26 if we did that the town wouldn't have to wouldn't be above what it's paying right you know wouldn't have that limit but it goes up this year and then it goes up again in 27 and then you have to go it looks like from the Town's point of view it looks like you're going from here to way up here when in reality it would have gone up like this right so it's not more I guess that's my point to Jen is saying is it it's not more it's just that it's a huge jump for the people of the town because you sort of artificially kept it low for one year so it's painful for the for the vote it looks it's a huge increase but it's not more money if you did it without you know so is that am I telling it right I I just want to yeah and if you remember a few months ago I probably gave a presentation about that 773 and trying to use prepaid tuitions to slowly stagger it down over a couple years this will be the exact opposite but what I'm saying is next year's budget so for fiscal year 2027 will not have the additional 1 7 million which is in this year's budget for the fiscal year 2025 yeah even though the cola will be lower the base is higher right so that 1 point that 9% cola this year will be reduced to a 3% Cola next year but that 9% is is now incorporated into the base of which that you're saying yeah okay got it clear in my head now um so we obviously don't need that decision tonight but it is something yeah and and I to tr's question about when the towns are saying we want to work with the school I mean it does sound like there's some work to do to talk to the specifically when them I guess to the towns about what it looks like if we do that like does it get them out of having I mean that's really going to be a really important conversation to have with both towns like because we don't we want to do something that we don't want to do something that isn't what the town doesn't support doesn't help at the end doesn't help because it'll only make it worse for us and for the communities to do that so right I think it's important to note last night's presentation and tonight's um a really kind of Allin here's everything on the table so so you know if we go back to last year I think we're at 5.6% at this time and we ended at an operating budget of 1.12 an operating increase so we'll do that work between now we'll meet with the uh Finance subcommittee Capital Finance subcommittee work through some of those numbers we'll meet we we don't we have a meeting I think next week with the Town Administrator Town manager and their budget people to be able to see where they're at um you know where where their es and flows are and where ours will be uh we're still looking at actual numbers trying to get closer on some of the estimates that we make early on you know as you see in the budget presentation even the estimates we made last year in November some of them were off by you know five or six percentage points which in the end there's no way you can tell because you set the budget and then some you know you actually get the numbers later on so there there's a lot of work to do is just really determining the direction of how this budget represents not only FY 26 but all the way through FY 27 F FY 28 because the deflection of costs is probably not a wise move in the in the Long Hall of the relationship with the towns and the and the school department so I think it's it's incumbent on us to look at this budget you know kind of line by line and really figure out what makes absolute sense where we can make some adjustments like Vinnie said he's still talking to utility people trying to figure out what what's realistic and then um try to figure out ways to to reduce costs within what we're doing uh reorganizations and things like that so uh there's still a lot of work to do is what I'm trying to say there's there's a ton of work the next three months is is not a boring time for Vin in the budget world I guess maybe this is I guess maybe it's out of it's out of my perview I so maybe I won't I I was just sort of wondering about obviously the in my opinion the town Al the towns might have similar conversations about how they might choose to use again that's not my Hamilton mentioned it last night cash to reduce and they could do something similar again that's I I just it's not for us to say whether they should or not I just I'm just sort of thinking about that but from a from a just a point of principle I think that um if we're going to to use one-time funds to avoid a an override in the same year because we're going to be asking for a large um debt exclusion I think that we have to be transparent absolutely about that and we have to make sure that everybody knows that that's planned and that it's coming because my understanding is that if the override doesn't pass it's catastrophic in terms of operations would you agree with that Eric yeah you have to come back to the drawing board even if you have to cut them if you have to cut million a million dollars out it's probably 20 staff members and that's that's where the money that's literally where the money yeah St yeah yeah teachers that's where the money is so that's just that would be my my just you know request for this group um is that you know if we're if we're going to be staging these things that we are very proactive about messaging that it's being staged so that we don't put ourselves in a situation where we precipitate a catastrophe I agree can I ask you one more question so my budget presentations going forward when when I change a number um do you want me to present it all in like this or just literally the change so buer teachers Desi category Changed by 35 grand for whatever reason not this either way it's the same to me I'm just wondering how you want it presented to you I think you can your presentation say it again sorry like I think you can addit your presentation to really just I mean tell you what the change is yeah I mean but I think absolutely on the presentation and that doesn't mean that it's not all still here in the document so that if somebody wants to of course yep yeah no I yeah okay questions Vinny do you have more questions for us no I'm on an hour and 15 minutes told ask too is everyone good thank you thank you very much thank you very much um all right we are moving towards the end here uh next up committee reports I suspect we don't have a lot umal Finance has um we didn't have enough people to meet so I don't have anything new to report that was my fault I'm sorry we meet again on the 18th that's about it December December 18 December 18 December 18th that's the next meeting ask you that our next Capital meeting is December 18 okay um policy oh Jen did you have a question look like J's ask something you have a question I'll ask him later okay um policy are you your policy right Jen um yes we also had to move our last meeting okay um and yeah okay um negotiations we had a big one tonight so yeah other than that I think we get the uh holiday season off before we start next CR it 16 months I think exactly no meetings scheduled because we did it thank you um David do you have a secretary report for us I actually I forgot that you asked me for one I'm sorry next time I'll send you an email yeah I'll send Janelle an email right now okay um I do um I think we're doing pretty well um but I'm wondering I'm curious about our executive session um minutes so um superintendent report um I'm actually just going to add one thing on to emy's report she covered all the bases um really well but uh one thing that's happening next week and it's a a fun little event um called Harvest we do it every year and the kidss in the archipel group sing have a little auction it's it's really a cute event it's quick if you have an hour an hour and 20 minutes or so uh stop by and hear what our kids can do they're super talented and lots of fun especially right around that Thanksgiving time because some of our um former grads come back and they come to visit and it's always fun to see those old faces return so other than that go generals on Saturday yeah when is that when is Harvest Harvest is Tuesday at uh 6:30 at the high school in the they do it in the cafeteria and go generals go generals Curry College this Saturday if you're if you're interested I I do have a question y the um we haven't met maybe I missed the meeting because I was away for a couple meetings the new facilities director and I'm just wondering whether he because previously we would kind of a regular meeting maybe every other meeting that the facilities director tell us what he's doing it is he I think um oh sorry I was reading sorry um and i' I'm just curious to see what his initially been tasked with what what's what what his goals are and so forth do you want a presentation here at school committee yeah i' I'd say every other school committee meeting because we're spending a planning to spend a huge amount on facilities and that presumably falls on him and I thought you previously said if we do get the bus electric buses that you're going to be tasking the facilities director with managing that too that that is that's not true the the the grant for the electric buses is a pass through grant that would not we would not own these buses I don't intend to run a bus company uh I don't intend to hire drivers and it's too expensive to to manage the Insurance um it's a pass through Grant uh ipswitch uh is a good example they got it last year I think they got five buses and they pass those buses through to Salter and as part of the contract they require those buses to be used um at at uh by the the Contracting Company the other way is uh if you can subcontract out um the the bus uh I can't remember the Builder now the the group that builds the bus the local group that does the uh buses Highland thank you Highland bus uh also subcontracts out they would take the buses uh through the Grant and they would basically manage everything else so there there a couple of options we wouldn't we wouldn't run our own buses we we would run into a lot of trouble just in storage I wouldn't know where to put them um there is some conversations going on with winam to use iron iron rail to set up some charging stations but that again wouldn't be us it would pass through to somebody else but I I don't know where that conversation stands and it's uh it's difficult to get charging stations right now we're still waiting I'm on my second year for the one that's supposed to be mounted here a little over two years so um that that's uh separate but our facilities director does manage transportation in general like where kids are where they're being picked up along with Jen of course who does all the behind the scenes work um but yeah that's that's really um work through the contract the details that occur through Transportation occur through the contract which Vinnie will be putting out to bid I think in March yeah in March got so can we so what I'm I'm curious about because I I I don't have the same recollection of a time when we had in every other meeting with every but we had we had on occasions in present his his uh Cent plan and where he so what would you be what specific topic would you be looking for a report on from him what he's doing I mean yeah what's he's just come on board there was a big absence for many months of having someone in that role I'm curious you know what what priorities is he addressing and what issues is he running to what what help we could be possibly yeah we could we could have them put together a report we usually do in January usually do the state of the school is in January um but it's because because of the budget process that's when we start to finalize the budget so we get a good idea of what types of things he's looking for even in this budget but also you know today alone we spent uh what $111,000 to repair the boiler at the high school because we we lost it over the weekend so those are uh things that he's dealing with right now heat is is a an issue all the time at the beginning of the school year so um but we can have them do that yeah and that way the committee can meet him that' be great for the first time sure J January sounds like a logical time yeah yeah December we'll go quickly with our budget meetings anybody have anything else for Eric yeah as part of that would be his assessment of the state of the facilities I guess because that's his thing yeah he he'll update the the state of schools report we have we'll just have him update that as part of that process so basically he would come in January present the kind of updated state of the schools and then also you know be available to answer questions okay thank you um given the time I don't have a lot to say the only thing I wanted to just report out to you is that um you know Amy had set up that um signup sheet um for different opportun to meet um be at various places to provide some public education and information and opportunity for the public to ask questions about the school building project um the a new um it's not on that sheet a new sort of space or opportunity is the Christmas tree sales that the Ed fund does um they're in Patton Park um I spoke with or emailed with um president of the Ed fund who said as long as we were self-sufficient they be thrilled to have us there um and uh so I don't know I um was I used to be a member of the Ed fund I've worked those Christmas tree sales many times it's a great event um and it brings a wide variety of people from the town um so I would really like to do it I um I know that this first weekend which is the Friday Saturday Sunday after Thanksgiving is is very busy I personally can't buy my Christmas tree that early it seems too early but a lot of people do it's really busy um so I'd love to staff a table there um I'm happy to stand there but I would love it if any of you are willing to do any time um standing at a table um at Friday Saturday Sunday that's coming up yeah I can do some time Dan just let me know when you need me excellent I'll send you all an email um because it's like I said it's not on that part of that Amy um gave and you know we'll have all the materials but it's really just an opportunity to stand at the table and provide another opportunity for the public to ask questions and provide information I'll send out an email and you can let me know if you're available I have nothing else you need a motion well no we top future meeting oh there's one more time V go thanks oh yes yes I have that on our yes you have the and a sale of a vanb the debt that'll be next b b okay s the band that makes more sense okay we're selling the band it's a fundraiser it's a fundraiser Tren did you have a topic before yeah um I I can just continue to not completely understand the um the kind of longitudinal um Gap in mcast performance at color um it sounds to me as if there are known explanations for that but I think having some kind of um root cause analysis because the a lot of the the um I don't understand the um the problems so I don't know if I agree that the solutions that are proposed address the problems would you so you'd be looking for a report or a data analysis or uh dealer's Choice yeah something that that I want to make sure I get what you want you you know it was just at the meeting we were able to identify lots of things that people didn't think were the underlying cause and I just I think that it would be really beneficial and probably you know folks that have kids that go there would also be interested in understanding what what we think that Gap is or if we don't have an explanation for it because it it was over the last three years pretty consistently AC cross metric um all right uh I'm wondering if I mean Eric and I can certainly talk about that I'm wondering whether maybe you try talk about what well we can do it one way either way I mean the root cause anal or data analysis it's is that across all sub can do it either way or is that specific to Thea it's just Ela and math in mcast but for that school well and and we had a we the scores and we presented to us and and and is asking for more detail and a data analysis about the causes and we have we actually it's Tuesday Morning's uh leadership team meeting we're talking about those Gap closing um structures that each principal will be putting in place for various targeted uh gaps that they have identified whether it be in the mcast scores or whether it be in their their um other any of their other intervention models that they're using so we'll um have a full discussion about that Tuesday on that on that agenda and then we can bring it kind of to the next steps with the Cutler piece so that we can put together some type of either a root cause analysis or data analysis across the across the building itself but um yeah we can do that see I might reach back to you to get a little more detail but sounds good yeah um all right does anybody have anything else would you like a motion I think I could find one of those I move that we adjourn okay a second 929 929 I heard a second by Trent uh all those in favor unanimous and we are adjourned at 9:29 thank you all