we on I know but I'm waiting for 6:30 oh okay you know how I am do you want to hit the record button recording in progress good evening today is Wednesday May 1st and I'd like to call this meeting of the lunenberg school committee to order we are meeting in the Town Hall in the Balada meeting room it is 6:30 in accordance with the requirements of the open meeting law please be advised that this meeting is being broadcast live over the lunenberg public access Channel if you wish to join via Zoom the meeting ID is 8653 49 4155 this meeting is broadcast live to the local access cable channel and on the public access Facebook page and will be found on the Lunenburg access YouTube channel within 24 hours after the meeting the agenda lists all topics which may be discussed at the meeting and are those reasonably anticipated by the chair votes may be taken as a result of these discussions not all items listed May in fact be discussed and other items not listed may also be brought up for discussion to the extent permitted by the open meeting law please stand if you are able for the Pledge of Allegiance I pledge alleges to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all our first topic this evening is public comments if you have a public comment please keep it to three minutes per comment and comments um need to address those items that are under the purview of the school committee is there anyone with a public comment this evening from the public Mr bardmore thank you um one of the topics that we're going to touch upon tonight is our school's ability to hire and retain the best possible staff that we possibly could in our school department and uh I know people like to joke I am a towy I was born and raised here and went uh went to lunenberg schools K through 12 um and i' I'd like to take a moment to acknowledge one of those people um and in fact his wife um who were instrumental in uh in my education um and and played an enormous role in the education and careers and um uh upbringing really uh of a generation of lunenberg students uh Don Adams died this past week he was 96 years old uh and for those of you who didn't know Mr Adams uh he was a music teacher in lunenberg from I believe the mid 60s to about the mid90s um and during that time I believe he taught at every building uh at one time or another I had him at TC pasos very briefly at Turkey Hill uh and at at lunenberg high school and uh he was extremely demanding he always got more out of you than you thought you had to give um and I know people today who are professional musicians uh who will credit Mr Adam's encouragement involvement and and uh instruction uh for their careers um but there are also a lot more people like me who are not musicians uh but may have taken an interest in music or theater or something along those lines uh along the way uh and he grabbed by the collar and pulled into a music room and said you're going to do this and by golly we did it um I was in two high school musicals that he directed uh one of which I referred to at my appointment hearing a couple of years ago um the second one I did not audition for uh I learned about it after the castings had been posted and he cast me for the second lead the uh comical buddy in Brigadoon um which was a sort of a womanizing uh alcoholic so you know go figure uh and um and I I just I could tell Don Adam stories for hours um but um I'm limited to 3 minutes so I will I will abide by that uh and and acknowledge uh his enormous contribution to me and my peers and my generation and our town the people of United Parish um and also offer deepest sympathies to his wife an Adams uh who was also a career teacher in lunenberg who taught a generation of students chemistry uh and was also my chemistry teacher so thank you very much all right anyone else Mrs brazowski I want to do my hopefully this is my last reminder to everyone that you got to come to town meeting on Saturday it's only a few days away uh we we will have child's care there so we'll have child care there I know it's a pain in the butt to go I know I'm hearing from everyone that it's people don't want to go because it's it's a lot to ask people to sit through um I know but you need to go this is there's very few opportunities where your vote really really makes a difference where you know that your vote is going to make a difference town meeting is one of those where it can come down to a few votes and your presence can make the difference between a yes or a no it matters if you show up or not so we need parents to show up on Saturday we absolutely need parents to show up um and secondly this is a two-step process it's going to hopefully pass a town meeting and then on May 18th I'm going to beg you again to go to the polls May 18th and vote Yes at the ballot as well um so it is a two-step hurdle to get through but um please please come to town meeting on Saturday please okay anyone else all right then we will move on to the chair's report um my chair's report Echoes both of those sentiments I was going to speak about Don Adams only I did not know him as a teacher I knew him as a colleague as a young teacher when I was teaching in Lancaster he was very good to me he helped me he was a mentor um a delightful person who um I continued to work with through my career so um hats off to Dawn and our condolences to an and their family the other thing is go to town meeting um we need everybody there yes there will be Child Care yes there will be lunches we will approve that eventually tonight but but you can buy for $7 in cash a lovely lunch and um we will vote on allowing it to be eaten while we are uh deliberating deliberating well deliberating too I suppose but deliberating and um it it it is the purest form of democracy for sure and uh we need to see everybody there okay so that's my chair's report we have no minutes I don't think I didn't see any no um minutes to review um um I have approved warrants um between April 10th and April 29th in the amount of $328 no$ 328,000 $28 42 and um if anyone has questions about those warrants they are to let us know and I will move on to the superintendent report thank you uh an update today at 5:00 p.m. uh was our deadline for transportation forms we have received 1 153 Transportation forms um we uh are still working to secure 38 from the high school 30 from the middle school and two from the primary school Turkey Hill we have received 100% oh yeah good job um updated numbers as of today for kindergarten we are at 107 just a reminder that our extended day summer program and our extended day before and after school program for next year uh the registration is open for both of those programs and our Early Learning Center registration will open Monday May 20th uh an update for the committee relative Rel ative to head injuries uh you are looking for a presentation uh we will uh we're tentatively scheduling it right now um we will have a presentation on athletic head injuries at our June 26th meeting Dr Ridley from the UMass Sports Med department will be in attendance that evening to answer any questions that you may have and we'll provide you a little bit of information ahead of that presentation as well um just uh a little bit of a heads up there are going to be some projects happening out on the roadways around town um that water main replacement on massav uh will be getting underway we also have some Culvert and Bridge repair projects um I would like to um thank our director of the DPW Mr Bernard because he is amazing with giving us some advanced notice uh about when all of these things are going to happen so that we can advise the transportation companies appropriately and families when appropriate but I also want to thank him so much for accommodating uh and scheduling work times knowing when our buses are are out on the road both in the morning and in the afternoon it makes a huge difference so um special shout out for Mr Bernard uh a few reminders uh for May and June again this Saturday at 9:00 a.m. uh the Middle High School auditorium uh is where you will find the annual town meeting yes Child Care will be provided by our National Honor Society students as well as our students from student council that service will be provided between the hours of 900 a.m. and 3:00 p.m. should we need to go to 3 p.m. um and our food service uh Department uh will have pre-bagged lunches available um again for $7 cash donation and there will be uh a few different uh options including a vegetarian option uh as well um May 18th is a townwide election um and as a reminder there will be the override question on the ballot um school committee meeting uh hybrid via Zoom from the Middle High School uh on May 22nd May 27th schools and school offices will be closed for the Memorial Day holiday um school committee meeting uh uh back here again in a month June 5th from town hall that will also be a hybrid meeting and June 7th cross fingers warmer than 50° and no rain uh High School graduation Outdoors oh that's so soon and our last day of school is an early release and that's June 12th yeah so we're coming down to the the end of it quickly thank you that's all I have for you tonight thank you very much okay first um now we have a student representative report thank you good to see you good to see you too for the primary school there's a steam night on tomorrow um from 5:30 to 7:00 steam is science technology engineering art and math turkey Elementary School is hosting that steam night and there's a book fair that closes tomorrow for lunberg Middle High School the 8th grade Washington DC trip is approaching quickly for lunberg high school there's a Spain trip for April 2025 the registry is open through June 2024 student government elections are next week Costa Rica trip was a success that was um April break and prom is May 18th at watcha Mountain awesome thank you so much um under new business tonight we have rainwater retention project Mr Berard okay thank you madam chair thank you for coming hey you're welcome and thank you uh superintendent Bon for your kind words yeah we do try to accommodate as many people as we can work we understand the importance of that so we appreciate that so much all right so I have a presentation I put together I assume everybody could see it y I'm screen sh it's behind you it's on the board okay and you can just let me know when you're ready to go to the next slide okay ah if I get it going on my computer I'll be all set all right so uh storm water demonstration project let's see we'll go to slide number two so what is a storm water BMP so start with what is storm water so storm water is run off from rainfall or snow snow melt and it represents the single most uh greatest source of water quality impairment for on the rivers and lakes and Waters in Massachusetts uh a BMP is a best management practice not sure why they chose that name for storm water structures but that's what it is we got to live with it uh a BMP is a device or an action that improves or prevents the pollution of urban runoff from storm water and bmps are designed so that the post development Peak discharge rates do not exceed the pre-development discharge rates and bmps are designed to remove up to 80% of the average annual post construction load of total suspended solids so it slows down water and it takes solids out of the water to to help prevent pollution go to the next slide oops so there's many types of sart bmps so I've just listed a few here there there structural ones you know um such as deep sump catch basins oil grit separators and sediment 4 base there's uh treatment uh bmps including a bio retention areas or rain garden and that's what I'm going to be talking about tonight a little bit and this there's a whole list of others um we go to the next slide I guess and there's more there's infiltration type bmps and there's other type of bmps and this is only a partial list so why did we decide to build our demonstration BMP at the the Middle High School uh it's a high traffic area for lunenberg residents um Saturday many residents are going to go right by the area where we're going to put put it so in the future people will see it um it's easy to access right there's um parking available and it's a we're going to be putting in a rainard and it's visually appealing so people might take note it's say what is that and it's a opportunity for students to learn about storm water and to participate in maintenance of the BMP uh just in tically um few years back I wasn't doing much recycling at my home and my daughter learned about recycling at school she came home dad why aren't we recycling so nowadays we have more recycling than trash so I think guess same can apply to storm water the the kids can bring it home and teach the parents all right we can move on all right why do we have to build a demonstration project it's a requirement of the ms4 permit so the ms4 permit is permit from the federal government the EPA and through the Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection the permit says we have to build one um by this year so just a little bit about that permit that permit allows cities and towns to discharge water into waterways into rivers and streams um if we don't comply with that permit they wouldn't allow us to discharge which would be impossible or they'd be finding us so this is something that has to get done all right xox the spot if you can see on the the overhead view of where I want to where the proposed um storm water BMP is going to be installed so right at the circle area in front of the high school and I I put in the plans to I'm sure it's too small to see so we we can just run through the pl uh kind of quickly the first one well we'll just go to like slide go to slide 133 right so I kind of blew it up so you could see what what we're proposing so starting at the top coming down we going to put in a new catch Basin which will catch the water from the parking lots and pipe it underground to the next new catch Basin and then then go into that grassy area and the first portion is called the for Bay it's basically Stone so water comes in hits that stone it slows the water down a lot of the solids drop out the next part is the rain Garden part so um that's a it's Mulch on the top so it'll look nice Mulch and there's plants that could tolerate being wet and then there's a layer of soils that's um special soils to um filter the water as it goes through and then there's an outlet and that'll Outlet to an existing structure so we do have to cut through the driveway in at least two spots looks like yeah so the next slide uh kind of shows what I was talking about you can see on the left the there's a pipe comes in hits that 4 bay where the Rock and then it goes the water will go over to the bio retentive area there' be plants in there that like I said the water will filter through there's an under underneath there's a stone drain to catch that water put it into that outl structure and then it'll go out to the existing structures so like I said it it slows the water down and and it filters the water all right so the next slide is a list of plants that we are proposing um again that they're native plants and they are plants that could tolerate being wet on the next slide I put a a picture of what the plants will look like so you can get a visual right so there a river birch and sweet pepper bush blue flag and blue big blue stem all right then talk about the maintenance of the BMP so year round we should be inspecting it remove any Trash anything that might be clogging it up um in the springtime uh we should be replacing molds that need to be replaced or freshening it up a little bit uh fall or spring we should be removing any dead vegetation in the spring we should replant if something is dyed uh spring or fall we should be pruning and as needed if this the um the special soils get filled or the it's not work properly would have to totally replace it and the next one so when will we install it so I I said no earlyer than June 24th which is after your last day so I think we're safe there uh it should take them it shouldn't take too long to uh complete you know I I I said like two months I don't think it'll take that long and we're going to be using a local contract that it we have a contract with that does a lot work for us and the DPW staff will assist with it that's what I have any questions or comments sure um any questions from the committee Mr Leon thanks uh I know there's been uh concerns with water in the the football field was there any consideration or would it make sense to have it located near that area I yeah I believe work needs to be done there but again it's a demonstration project that's supposed to be highly visible um what I didn't put in there I forgot to put in U we want to put a kiosk with a little explanation of what a rain Garden is and how it works so I think putting it behind the football field not too many people will see it there and then my other question was in recently we've had lots of storms with lots of water is there concern of about having a big storm and this could impact the way the drainage is commonly done could this potentially be a problem for drainage it shouldn't be again it it's designed to slow water down it's going to hold some water there um so it it should actually help with big storms thank you Mrs brazeli um what is the ms4 permit you mentioned that in the yeah Municipal separated sewer system okay so again it's the um permit that allows the town to discharge water into waterways into rivers and streams it's um administered by the D but it's mandated by the EPA okay and you're required to have a rain Garden somewhere in town or what are well any kind of um BMP we chose a rain Garden they're nice to look at and you know the idea is to have people see it and and ask oh what is this try to learn about storm water okay uh is there grant money associated with the rain Garden there's not nobody be using um my operational funds I thought i' [Music] um okay so you covered the how often maintenance who and will the DPW be performing the maintenance M yeah well The Hope is the schools could chip in and maybe the students you know part of a class I right well picking up dead vegetation that's you don't need money for that right raking it out you do need time yeah do anything that's going to add any demands on our stff because we the the kids are you talking about having students do it well that's up to you yeah but well we don't have staff to do it for sure have St and kids don't have time in their schedule so this is something we're going to have to talk about and to buy The Mulch and those kinds of things we don't have funds yeah it looks like there's monthly inspect and remove trash there's mulch annually which is buying the mulch spreading the mulch as dead vegetation replacing dead vegetation pruning replacing entire media and all vegetation as needed yeah so the expenses that DPW would pick up but you know some like just raking it out or picking up you know dead vegetations I I can Invision the students doing that I can't free time I in their free time I'm not going to ask students to they' they've got classwork I'm not I'm not sure I mean if there was is there an environmental group or something at the high school is there some Club not an En not an environmental Club at this time I don't believe there was one a number of years ago and I think it was Middle School age students maybe um but we haven't had that club in my tenure here because the kids schedules are are very very tight so that's something that's going to have to be figured out because I I don't see kids picking that up okay I'm just question is um Honor Society they have to do community service hours well that's something that could be worked out you know we'd have we'd have to ask them but I can't promise that I'm saying that that can't be something we promise um Mrs pelski um you mentioned cutting into the driveway for the outlet when was that driveway poured when when did we PVE the driveway we are um when the school was built when it probably nine years out from that right well eight school years out from that so it was poured probably 8 and 1 half n years ago okay so would you be patching yes this driveway where it's cut into so that's going to be degrading the okay um and where would the outlet be going to an existing structure that's already out there so we're just tying it in can the existing structure handle and yeah it already is handling that flow okay we're not adding any flow okay and um another issue I had was so a few years ago we every fall we deal with the the West Nile and I remember a few years ago we had to cancel sporting events and after school activities that were happening in the evenings cuz of West Nile uh this sounds like this might be a place if it's very moist that we might have mosquito issues what about uh mosquitoes H that is a good question um I'm actually meeting with Miss keto control tomorrow I can ask him that question yeah cuz I'm I it doesn't happen every year but when we do have West outbreaks it does affect students in sports and after school activities and to put in well the the retention Basin that it's going to correct me if I'm wrong but we're talking about a matter of less than 100 ft away where does it go to right I think it goes to the other side of the parking lot is it an open to the edge of the property right right over by like where you would park your car on the other on the other side of the main Drive road you have the tennis court no to the east or to the to the west to the West I believe it does oh cuz then and he it the pipe goes this way yeah that's West I believe North oh okay I got it backwards right am I looking at this so the retent the existing retention Pond isn't it closer to um massav oh maybe I I thought it went West from there anyway it's not in my mind's eye it's not leaving the property a whole lot fast a whole lot slower than it otherwise would but I could be wrong I'm a long way from an expert on this topic but is is the point of this more the demonstration piece at this point than it is to do any kind of mitigating that isn't already being mitigated is that's correct yes so okay um I took a look at these plants mhm um I want to say no blue flag it's poisonous I looked it up and two of the trees are fine those are great River birches are good the the other two are invasive species once you plant them they go crazy oh that's not big so we may have to look at those plants for sure and in the little bit of time I had today I found that um so we're not m ating a problem with this this is like a a demonstration showpiece kind of thing that's correct um okay any yes Mr beardmore um so conceptually I buy into this 100% I'm all in on education I'm all in on giving students in particular but the general public an idea of what storm water maintenance is all about as you know I sit on the capital planning committee where I'm a normal irritation to you um but but you know in this case one of the areas that I'm particularly irritated about is our inability to to to plan for the for the the massive drainage and storm water issues that we have around town um and that's no no criticism of you Bill you're new this these are longstanding these are long-standing issues and this is exactly the right thing in my view to be doing to educate our people about ideally how to keep storm water off the roads and someplace else where it could be used more constructive ly um I I do have you know some general thoughts like for example when I first started hearing about this I was thinking like you know retention barrels and that kind of thing something that was a little bit more visible not necessarily as aesthetically pleasing but more visible um in this case if if I were just somebody walking by after this project were complete would I even know that this thing is there other than a kiosk that says that it's there like would it would it occur to me that we're doing anything in this what was you know currently just a grass yeah space that we're doing something different there other than maybe adding some vegetation and beautifying a little bit well I I think the rain Garden our best chance of people saying hey what is this because you'll have the the first of four bay with the rocks and then this m area with these plants you know in the outle that's it's probably the best chance of catching somebody's eye okay yeah um has this been like you obviously have some fairly wellth thought out plans has this been has this been was this done by a like a landscape design architect like who who planned this thing I guess I should have mentioned it it was designed by our storm waterer consultant it's CI comprehensive environmental Incorporated okay yeah so Prof Engineers somebody who knows what they're doing yeah specialized in storm water unless there's no water and then I I do I do think we got to work through the maintenance issues I'm I'm I'm a little bit concerned about that but um and and by the way we I want our schools to be a partner to the DPW and as much back and forth as we can and I think that we can figure out the maintenance if if we put our minds to it it might take a little more discussion than tonight's meeting one one area that I do have some concern about those is if we're going to go through the effort of putting in this vegetation I've never thought to look do we pile up a lot of snow in that area currently in the winter or does it go someplace else because if it does go there then is that something we need to be thoughtful about I don't know that' be a question for your staff well our facility we may have the perfect weed in here Mr hee what are your thoughts on this perfect segue could have done it better myself I snuck in late I didn't um Eric E directed facilities and grounds uh for the school um we do pile snow in that area we we put it wherever we can when we get significant snow um my thought one of my thoughts was could we use the area down by in front of uh Brooks building because that's already got a drainage um catch Bas in there um would that be a good location for it because it is right there on Massachusetts AV and as people come in they are able to see it um and when they drive by up and down they may be able to you know they'll see it um my understanding too is that area from what I heard sometimes is used by the students going out um during class they'll go out and sit sit out on the grass and that's a nice flat area for them how often they use it I don't know but I've heard that that is an area that they do go to um but I think you know my question would be can that area in Brooks building be a location as well versus right there in the middle all right so two questions first about the snow I don't see why we couldn't continue to pile snow there I don't think it's going to harm it um it's actually probably a good idea it's going to drain through there anyway um and could we move the location possibly again it's probably not the most visible you know there's not too much foot traffic there people see it but are they going to park and then walk down to it I I think there's a benefit to the visibility of the location like I'm generally amenable to the location just so long as it's well thought thought out but sure and I would like to get I would like to get the principal's opinion too because that you know we we do run programs there you know like uh you know and the only time that I ever see a lot of foot traffic on that patch is during homecoming homecoming yeah you know and and I think we can probably accommodate that so so during fire drills do students muster out there idea area is that a gathering spot for students and how else do students utilize it that's a big area when I look at the aerial photo and I look at that space and compare it to you know a wing of the building that's a pretty sizable chunk of Real Estate so I guess I would want to I would want the principal's input okay and to know how students use the area do they go out and have classes there do they meet there do parents pick up kids from there that kind of thing um it's it's a pretty sizable space but it's not like it's not going to be usable right like you're still going to be able to walk across it sit on it but if it's a Garden you can't it's not the same kind of use with the if it's a a garden it is Garden I think most of it no there won't be plants everywhere so you could walk around the plants it'd be mulch um potentially could be wet if it an open field it's not going to be an open field it's it's we're going to vegetate that area basically right right Mr school and brainy so I don't have a question I have more of a comment okay if the students organically embrace the idea of Maintenance that would be wonderful my concern is that the town is expecting at least in some small measure students to do maintenance and like I don't have any issue with my kid getting out there with a rake but I do have an issue with the town expecting people to have their children do that we wouldn't do this for garbage pickup we wouldn't do this for patching the black top I'm not sure the expectation for volunteerism is a good thing no one wants to be chosen as a volunteer and it just seems awkward right like if if the police department came and said uh there's a guy who's locked up in the holding cell and uh we're looking for people to watch him for a little bit like obviously that's way more dangerous that requires very specialized skill set but like the expectation of volunteerism seems like a bad idea okay so when you say the town it's more just me it was more just my thought um sure I was thinking like I said community service hours might be a good project and that's something that could be talked about but um I I think we have a few questions is there any other questions from Mr Bernard this evening yes was there a a date that this needs to get done by for to satisfy the state requirements it's actually June 30th of this year I I would need some sort of assurance that the cost of this is not going to fall on us it's not and that it's going to be maintained by the DPW in perpetuity and that we're not going to end up with a dead Garden that becomes our responsibility um I what I would like to do is we have some questions for the principal of the building um I'd like to hear more from Mr heie after he has a chance to take a look at this and then um I would suggest that we take a vote on this at on May 22nd meeting I would also agree to the invasive species I'm a little cautious about that as well and the that blue grass thing you see all over the place it goes like crazy so so you know the the choice of the plants and stuff you know I think we can work something out but I think we have questions and and we need to have them answered before we can take a vote all right fair enough okay mhm all right anybody else with the question that okay with everybody I like the blue flag pretty the Oh Mr hee just one more question you may have said it but I I don't recall hearing um how deep is this going to be for water if water does get retained in there roughly how deep will that be does it show it on it I think it's only a few inches potentially um I know it's not really to scale there may only be a few inches and it'll probably drain through the the same day or the next day okay okay so all everything underneath will be saturated and the hope is to just have a couple of inches through the grass right well it won't be grass it'll be mulch mulch okay all right thank you okay all right thank you you're welcome thanks Bill I see appreciate it yep on the 22nd and I'm sure we can come up with something all right all right thank [Applause] you okay um next would be extended day and Early Learning Center handbooks and Mrs uh Gillette is with us this evening on the meeting virtually so I didn't get a chance to look at this can we can we put this off until this didn't hit the Box till 5:30 can we put this off till next meeting that's a possibility there are very few changes in it the changes are the highlighted if you skim the highlighted yellow of the changes why don't we have Mrs Gillette talk about the changes and then if you're not comfortable with it we'll put it off does that make sense okay oh we can't hear you all right thank you hi um we do not have any changes really this year what we have done is just um Chang the calendar following the school calendar what the holidays would be the school cancellations uh due to professional development that's really all the changes we have this year um it's pretty much there's no fee increase the hours are the same the policies are the same and that's for ELC as well as extended day and the summer camp okay do we want to vote on the um I just have a a question that um is really directed to the superintendent and I ask because the the policy refers to uh payments um last night at the select board meeting the select board approved a um new or updated Revenue turnover policy um which my understanding having not read the policy but it was discussed at the meeting um refers to standards whereby if we receive a check we need to turn it over to deposit to the finance office office within a certain period of time and I believe it was amended a couple of times during the processes they looked at were you consulted on that they they described that it had gone by the Departments for for um for commentary and I my thinking is first of all do we know what that is and then second of all do we know that whatever we're doing here is in compliance with the town policy so um Mrs Peterson is also on the call and she um has had a lot of communication back and forth with Town Hall in the finance office um we have recently started having weekly meetings with the finance director from town hall um when we had our meeting last week I could be wrong Mrs Peterson jump in and correct me if I'm wrong but I do believe that that's where uh we learned of of the new practice that they are they are looking uh for us as one of the departments in town to to implement um it it's my understanding is it's just going to impact the frequency with which our staff have to go up to town hall from all of our buildings um Mrs do I have that right yes that's correct um it will impact the frequency um right now I'll give you an example um there are safes in every school um sometimes if there's field trips say for an example um the teachers and the secretaries will keep the money for that field trip for a week or two um to be able to collect as much as they can and then go and make the deposit at Town Hall that will now change it will be be done weekly so that's that's the most major change in the policy and um Town Hall did send us the policy to review okay okay um my um my request for future scenarios where this is to occur um we share a number of services with the town um but when you look at the way our services as a school department are calculated by the state and what we are ultimately responsible for um becomes a little bit ambiguous when for example part of the total uh cost associated with per pupil spending some of that is a portion to spending that is done here for accounting and Finance MH and we are ultimately responsible for our own Financial policies and I don't believe that that responsibility ends when it when the check crosses the threshold of town hall I could be wrong about that I'm not an attorney but I believe that to be true and there's lots of discussion in town about further combining services for efficiency sake which conceptually I am fully in support of however from a practical matter I am not seeding authority to anybody for anything and so when a policy is arrived at that requires commentary or consent by the school department I think that that should come to the school committee before such time as it is imposed Upon Us by the select board or any other Town entity I thought we were just approving her well we are but but this is referring to payment and I'm asking how is this payment handled and that policy changed last night it was imposed upon us last night but it would not be inflict in in have anything to do with the handbook it is well well it it could if we adapted the handbook to but that's not she's asking us to do she's asking us to approve it as handbook but comments are I can see where where it was a tangent comment um for example it may make sense to only take payments for one particular week in the month such that we're not incurring additional burdens in terms of Revenue turnover right I mean these are things that could have been considered had we known had we known anyway I'm perfectly happy to approve this I'm I've made my point yep how do the payments work now in regards to our program yes so the the payments we send out the bills they go out electronically as well as everyone gets a paper copy and they get at the middle of the month and it's through the 1 of every month we then make a deposit to the bank um once to twice depending on the number of checks we get in to the bank and then do all the um appropriate paperwork and deposit everything up to um Town Hall we get a lot of our payments through R track that is becoming more and more common now most parents will pay online and we're getting less and less checks but it is always due the first of the month unless that falls on a weekend or holiday so in general if it's due on the first of the month how long would you have to hold checks before it would make sense does the once a week make sense with you we deposit so we we can change the way we deposit right now if it's the 1 of the month we will make the deposit that after noon or the next day we send everything up to town hall then we don't we don't hold on to anything so this policy does not create a big change for you no we I mean no and as I said it's less and less checks each month um because of the uh you know it's easier for parents to go online and pay okay okay the difference here as compared to our school buildings our school buildings have safes and that's where the money is held until they're ready to take it for deposit um the impact with this policy change is really going to be um more of an impact at the school level because the secretaries will have to be um going back coming more frequently yeah which is unfortunate because we had to busy enough cut some correct great again I'm not even I think the policy probably makes good sense and I also believe that it may be largely imposed upon the town by Department of local services like it you know it it's more I think we need to go through the appropriate reviews okay all right so um Mrs Bowski are you comfortable yeah okay and thank you for fixing the typos very welcome thank you I know it's pedantic I just okay so then um is there any other discussion on the handbooks can I have a motion to approve the handbooks please I'll make a motion to approve Pro the handbooks second all those in favor I I all righty you're all set thank you thank you thank you Patty okay next annual town meeting food in the auditorium now we had been extremely clear we didn't want food in the auditorium but this is going to turn into a bumper crop of a meeting perhaps so um say they can only have food if they vote Yes No we cannot oh well if it passes not if individual vote Yes but if it doesn't pass you don't get lunch I don't think that's going to work so good try um so Dr Burnham you have a menu here I do courtesy of uh naen Lorenzen our food service director um so there will be uh choices of the bag lunch again these are not made to order they are prepared ahead of time um there would be a turkey and cheese on marble rye or sub roll available ham salami and cheese on a sub roll humus and veggies with pea bread and all three of those offerings would come uh with a bag of chips water and cookies that's a bargain for S $7 can can we reserve it ahead of time cuz I want the marble rye and so this would require a change to our policy um I would I would also or a waiver for the day or whatever we want to call it I would also say that if someone has allergies they would bring something they could eat that would be permissible even if it's not the bag lunch bought um knowing that we have challenges with our um custodial Staffing we're just looking to um mitigate uh any substantial cleaning of food from um from the auditorium that day thank you absolutely thank you Den aen for putting this together this is extra work so thank you for her for the she will be there taking your $7 n's feeding democracy that's the way it is yep um so are there is there any other discussion Mr Leon will facilities be able to set up some trash barrels in the the vicinity to that's a good point yeah I'm sure that we can have some out in the uh out in the hallway I don't I don't know if we could talk about it but I don't know that we want it inside the auditorium maybe in the doorway or something maybe just just outside the doorway yeah just outside I would also ask if we could make a request of the moderator to make a few suggestions about keeping trash clean up and disposing of yep trash and that kind of thing but I would move that we uh suspend the food and drink policy for the auditorium for town meeting on May 4th I will second that well if it goes super long it could oh Jesus if it's on May 5th you don't get food after that we're starving you out nobody's getting food after midnight Peter I can't believe you said that nobody's getting I've been there that's the other thing I need to mention they will be available for sale between the hours of 11: and one but we're this is for town meeting not for food sale the lunches are available between 11: the suspension of the PO me yes where yes where will they be um since they are planning for uh overflow locations um the gymnasium is going to be an overflow location for the meeting should there be uh an excess of 600 uh attendees clickers um the the cafeteria is also going to be set up as an overflow location in both of those locations um pack will be streaming live and there will be audio in both of those locations in in the event that anybody needs to to move to the next uh area therefore um I think our best option uh is going to be to set up in the Middle School collaboration room okay it's close enough to the kitchen for n um but you know the cafeteria is just not not going to be an option that's awesome okay how will the clickers um they've been pre-programmed and they're matched to your zone so there are only so many that will be allowed to vote inside the zone of the auditorium and if you leave and go to the cafeteria your Auditorium Zone clicker will not work you will have if you have go into an overflow space you will have clickers that are set up for the Overflow space so if you were to run into the auditorium with your clicker it will not be recognized so the vast majority of clickers will be recognized in the auditorium but there are about 200 that will not they've been set to be picked up in the Overflow space right because they figured the amount of uh clickers they had available would accommodate everyone in the auditorium and not be over capacity for the auditorium what is the capacity of the auditorium uh 608 okay I know isn't it really seriously that I know that number oh I'm impressed with all the preparation you should have let us bet and whether you know high or low generate some cash did we vote no okay we still have to vote Anthony second did yes we didn't vote yet cuz we're talking about clickers all right all those in favor I I okay we're all set on that one um we are passing over payroll modification it is not necessary it may come back at a later date and we're going to go on to FY 24 budget so I just wanted to just give the committee a brief update um as I mentioned earlier uh our team including our uh contracted uh Finance uh Consultants um as well as other members of our school department team are now meeting weekly with the finance director uh from town hall um we're hopeful that that's going to be beneficial not only for us but also um for the the new Finance staff up at Town Hall um I've asked for our team to be able to uh run another budget update to provide for the committee um at our next meeting and potentially some additional line item transfers to um handle any uh lines that are in deficit they've been doing a deep analysis of um payroll salaries and where all of those lines are and that's much more complex than the expense lines um so that will be at our our next meeting um and you'll have an opportunity to meet them and ask them some questions um they have you know they've been learning a new way of uh doing things here in lunenberg um that's a nice way to say it some of our processes are rather unique um but they they have noted that there are some that are not really efficient and require um more more time uh on the part of Staff um so potentially you know we could engage them um in that regard additionally um the uh president of the company that we've contracted with um did let me know that they they do and can uh offer uh workshops for school committees around best practices in finance so that's something that we um we may wish to consider at some point how much would that cost I don't know but I will find out I mean that's a con I I would like to know exactly the right question to ask um but I would I am very interested in that especially because we don't have a full-time budget director um so it would be great to learn more yeah I think it would be helpful um to have that information so if it's not ridiculously prohibitive right I think you know in in looking at because Mrs Peterson and I sort of map out annually the types of things that should routinely be happening at different meetings throughout the year and as you all talk about topics for future we add those to a running list um given that we are going to have school handbooks to approve we will have the retiree reception uh we only have three more meetings before the end of the fiscal year um I don't know if you want to consider if you if the committee is interested and maybe you're not interested um you might want to consider a a a separate Workshop meeting date versus an add-on to one of the three remaining business meetings that we have for for the remainder of the year that's entirely up to you um or you can wait and and hear what um the team has to say when they provide the budget report for you at the next meeting and maybe you would have a better sense at that point as to whether or not you wanted or felt you needed a workshop if we did that kind of Workshop would it be possible to wait until the new Finance director has been hired so we could all have like everybody that knows money at the same place at the same time we could assuming that I have a a candidate that is willing to take the position yeah which I hope to have information for you by next meeting okay so I will not be attending the next meeting but um you can put me down as very much looking forward to the report which I'll watch immediately following uh and very interested in the workshop and I don't think we should delay I think um you know given the situation that we're in and given the interaction that we have with the town and having a greater understanding for what our obligations are and aren't I think would be would benefit us and the district as a whole I think a workshop would be great if it was off cycle um whenever I mean I I would not mind giving up another night for a workshop I think it's important it needs to get done especially going into fiscal year 26 and that cycle I think I think we should be ready and just regarding the the suggestion that we have the next uh business manager for the district um on board and available to to attend um I think that if um the candidate uh were to be interested enough to accept a potential offer I potentially could have that candidate before you at the next meeting and um I think once they sign a contract honestly I don't think we have to wait until July 1st I think they could come and attend the workshop even if they're not officially starting on the job quite yet here okay so I think I I think that that's still potentially viable yep fingers crossed that would be fantastic absolutely but yeah I'm I'm very interested in a workshop okay all right so thank you very much I will um I'll survey the group relative to available dates to set up a workshop and I'll see if I can arrange check the cost first if they're like it's $1,000 a plate I'm not interested okay I don't think it'll be $1,000 a plate but I'll find that would be a little pricey also if we get it done before June 30th that comes out of this year's budget correct correct which I think I should be able to cover that cost that would be better anyways yep, of late right ,000 of late it is let's do it okay well then we're moving forward with the discussion of Revenue sources okay so I um talked to the chair about putting this on as a topic um during our budget cycle and the many meetings and the feedback we were getting from parents throughout and the questions that we were getting from parents around well couldn't you just have a fee for this or that or it's difficult to simultaneously be navigating a tough budget with proposed cuts and charging more fees what would we charge a fee for how much would that be that that's it's tough to do that at the same time because people get upset at the notion of different fees and so on and so forth so I thought okay we've navigated through we we have a a budget that's going before um town meeting but looking Beyond to FY 26 I'm just curious to gather some feedback and input here are there fees that we you would like me to explore and come back with a recommendation or proposal are there things that you as a committee would say that's off the table then my team and I won't spend time drafting a a proposal on something that the committee is not um open to reviewing I would say that I would be open to any fee increase so so long as all fees are tied to student lunch status so that if a person is a free St free school lunch they don't have a fee even if it increases if they are a reduced fee they would still have a reduced A reduced lunch it have reduced fee as long as that is preserved I think that people understand that budget cuts everywhere mean everybody's going to have to chip in a little more right so so current fees include our athletic fees for high school and for Middle School there is a universal activity fee for that all high school students pay um we also have facility rental fees all high school students pay the activity fee or only high school students who do an activity all high school students they all have whether or not they do an activ M what is the fee uh $55 we just charge all high school students $55 mhm okay when did that come into place that's been a practice when my kids were there my daughter used it was $35 then my daughter used her $35 my son wouldn't have touched it with a 10-ft pole but they both had to pay okay we also have facility rentals which um we need to revisit anyway we need to come in every few years with um uh proposed increases so that we continue to cover our cost um and although the committee may may want to consider a change um the mindset around the facility rental rates has really been more about covering costs not as a way to generate Revenue um we have fees for the extended day in the Early Learning Center um you know a fee that was mentioned by parents in the context of our last budget cycle was Transportation I think the committee at that time waited in and was not interested in exploring that um do we want to look at a broad Universal Middle School activity fee would not be anywhere near the $55 um are there other fees that you want to explore um and then there are other Revenue sources um as you've already authorized Mr heee to explore the potential for another uh cell tower antenna um we could potentially explore additional options with solar um as well as school choice that is a separate next agenda for your consideration but in if we if we think about these things now and I can work with team to come up with proposals if there's anything you're interested in revisiting and seeing a different proposal from what we currently do um we'll have time to talk about it before we get into developing the FY 26 cycle and you might make a decision that um you want to change a fee or a fee structure um but for it not to take effect until FY 26 so that families have advanced notice that there's going to be a shift but again if I and my team know about it by December we can Factor we can factor that in to our budget development I don't know the answer so I'm just going to ask this might be something that's like really basic do the students have to pay like a for a parking pass they do okay and how much is that I think it was $50 um Mrs Peterson is still if she's near her computer is it is it $50 it is $50 um it's not on our list be because that does not go into an account that the schools oversee or where does that where does go where does that money go where does that go where does that money to the town general fund I believe why Mrs Peterson you can weigh in on that that's correct it goes to the general fund yes that is correct and that's been a longstanding thing why so you could raise the fee but it it's going to be revenue for the town or we could just we could say what if we eliminated the parking pth and put it on the activity fee and and ask them to rent parking spots oh dear so that we we have the School receives funds for a parking spot rental can elimin can you get us information about how why did they go to the town how much the town is getting off our student parking passes well if if we have all of our parking spaces uh occupied based on the number of passes um we should be able to tell you that yeah because we can go back and look and see annually roughly how many roughly how much is that it's like 1,000 bucks yeah probably 200 * 50 right be a th000 no not even that many not that many okay no just we probably have maybe slightly over a hundred spots in the student lot who i' have to dou collects the fees the high school who pays for the parking passes the physical passes who order okay so we're paying money to order parking passes to give money to the town to give the money to the town that's the way it works currently yes okay that has to stop if the town wants the money the town's going to have to pay for the parking passes because right now we are losing money buying these little passes let me just double check Mrs Peterson the town does not supply the parking passes correct that's correct okay okay Mr B so obviously that's something that we need to take a look at um in the state of Massachusetts we have a history that goes back to 1635 around a free and public education several years ago when I was not a member of this board turned out to be a covid year so it was I think it was 2019 I said I was going to keep a running log of every time I opened my wallet that year and I had two kids in the school system and when Co hit I was over $1,000 there are many families in lunenberg who do not qualify or meet the free student lunch standards or the partial free student lunch standards that are under enormous Financial stress right now and we have recent census data that supports the fact that the people in lunenberg who are under the most Financial stress are families with children fact not opinion I am resistant to any fees I'm practical and I understand the realities of running a school system that can provide as many opportunities as possible to students but there have been comments made in this room in the last month about we should have busing fees cuz I paid for it when my kids were in school well maybe that's the case but I'm a no and with the possible exception of facilities rentals where I think that we should keep an eye on what the costs are and as well as what comparable rentals are in our area and provide those at Market rates um I don't think that this is a solution to any budget problem and uh I would be very difficult to convince otherwise Mr Leon I would agree with Mr beardmore uh when we were having the transportation discussion I had asked about the the costs and what it would how it connect with the fees and it the fee was going to be so much uh that it was going to be unaffordable for for families to to pay a bus fee that would actually cover the cost of the buses we see the same thing with the sports and the covering of the buses too that it's just such an expensive fee um so I I have concerns about the fees the only when we brought up the bus transportation I was interested in a fee but it was really for the purpose of parents to avoid a small fee because they were going to pick up their their kids anyways so they would fill out the form and say okay I definitely don't want to do the transportation on the bus because I'm just going to pick up my kid we would then know that we had that seat available for students that was my only thought about uh a transportation fee otherwise fees I am I am not a proponent of charging fees because it's not going to cover the cost and I think when the citizens bring that it's frustrating because we don't charge fees when the police have to go help you at your house or the the fire department is going to your house so again we're not getting fees on that end too so they shouldn't be raising fees we are for the there's an ambulance ambulance Emergency Services can charge fees we yeah there is um I agree with Brian totally with the transportation fee the only way I would see charging a transportation fee is if we got into a situation where we couldn't fit everyone on the bus and we said okay well then it's going to be 10 bucks a kid to get on the bus and that way you got to really want it cuz they're I you know if you're one of the people who saved a spot for their kid on the bus on the off chance they could need it but you're picking them up every day then the $10 might sway you in either way but if we're going to require children be at school we need to be transporting them and not charging exorbitant amounts of money to get them there well you you would I don't agree with the transportation for either but you would only charge those kids that you are not legally obligated to transport yeah um so the school BR in in order of I think hopefully support I think every school Committee Member would like to see why we are subsidizing the town in providing parking passes for people who don't collect it's not a lot of money but it's still do it's not a lot of money but any amount of money Point yes the second thing is I think that to trans transportation fee is a no-o I would never support that however I do think that athletic fees and activity fees are something that I would support and I understand that they would not cover the cost of the athletic Endeavor but they may help get coaches paid what I which I think would be a valuable thing um I also think that while the fees are high to Peter's point the reality is that in in most families the have kids that do lots of Athletics number one the fee is not the most expensive thing and number two the kids that go to like travel Sports the fees are way way more and so if we're looking at our our offerings in a Marketplace I think that raising the athletic fees the a the activity fee is weird but just the the athletic fee that one I think is a more palatable thing to do because while I get Peter's point about people being under the gun financially if those same people are also taking their kid to like travel soccer every week or travel baseball or travel basketball they're paying more than what we are charging them so I I don't I don't have an issue with raising the athletic fees I'm not going to belabor the argument but I completely disagree with you yeah I mean but the other thing is like we we need the money right and if if it's not something that we are constitutionally obligated as part of a free appropriate public education you know we would never do this but we don't have to do those things these are optional things that we provide kids if they are optional things that incur cost and the cost for athletics is in the same budget as the cost for constitutionally obligated Services I mean we can have a a point of principle but money is money and we're taking money away from things that we have to do to spend it on things that we want to do are there other fees that go to the town's general fund yes that those can you look into that are there other fees or charges that one would expect to go into the schools funds that are going into the town's General funds instead the prek tuition down at the primary school w what yeah why why how much is oh my goodness um that's at the primary school not at TCP right regular regular prek um who who pays the salary of the teachers we do okay and it's at our building yes um we we provide a special education uh preschool program because we do have to pick students up or the public schools somewhere um you've got to pick up kiddos from the age of three up if if they need services and we pay for that Transportation but we don't get the fee they only get for the prek they get the transportation only if it's in their IEP okay okay okay most most parents drive most parents drive kids so the program um we take in a certain number of what in education is commonly termed typical peers so students that don't have IEPs um to be part of the cohort with with the children that are coming in with idps um so we would have to pay teachers and we would have to have classrooms um so it's not as if we can just say we're just not going to do that anymore oh no no no I think we just want to go get that money no I'm just confused what is there a reason it goes to the town and not the school system that's it's probably the law it's the way it was set up I don't know um because that's the way it is um I think these are separate issues yes and I I think that I think that we should approach them separately yeah that is a discussion for another night are there any more cuz this has been really Illuminating we can put this on agenda yeah can we and and see where those things are but just to remind you I always think of the school budget as somewhat of a it's probably a bad analogy but a shell game in that you know if we got the money back for the prek tuition then whatever that is suppose it's $20,000 that's $20,000 we wouldn't get from the town because the town doesn't have it to get us because the town does inet not like it's trying to be difficult they don't have it it's all our money it's just how it is allocated and um like I say if we got that tuition that's that much less we would get from the town so it it perhaps would make cleaner bookkeeping but other than that I don't know that it's it would make a tremendous difference it's the principle of the thing once again I actually don't think it is when the costs go up I mean our costs go up but the two it it so here here's my point I don't think it is you and Dr Burnham had to do so many meetings over so many hours negotiating to get money from the town if that money doesn't go to the town in the first place but stays with us I'm not sure it's a dollar for dooll Shell game transfer if we know we have it and we can count on it that's different than having to go beg the town for it well that's true because this money would come directly to us cuz it's prek tuition it's not I that's I agree with Carol I having been through this once or twice and and we'll take a look at it this is put it in one pocket stick it in another yeah I'm kind of like a bucket thing but it it it's a discussion for sure um regarding my thoughts on this I am a definite know on the transportation and on the Middle School activity fee I I don't like that all high school kids have to pay that fee whether they use it or not it bothers me it always has but that's the way it's done I could see a restructuring of that fee at like $15 an activity or something just cuz that's the way it's always done people who use it use it you know I don't know it but I don't know what they do with that money if that money is something like for graduation and everybody does graduation then yeah that makes sense where did the class fees go did they go into the class treasuries yeah yes oh so um so anyways I I wouldn't do a middle school activity fee I I would look at the high school athletic fee and the Middle School athletic fee um just because I know with the little slew thing that we're in the middle we're not at the top we're not at the bottom of charges um that could be looked at um I would like to look at the facility rentals um I still think extended day Early Learning Center should be a even self-sustaining yeah self- sustaining I really don't think we should try make money off of that I'm very interested in the cell tower and the solar idea now at town meeting and I didn't pay attention maybe Peter knows better than I do isn't there something about making like solar garage type things you know you know p paring lots that have solar panels there was something in the zoning about that yeah I'm not familiar enough to comment no but it it was something that there was going to be possible to do you know I don't know if that's if that's I mean aesthetically it's not great but I don't know what would we do for Sola would we put panels on the high school or would we well there are panels there are panels there's panels on the high school and there's panels on Turkey Hill Turkey Hill and Primary School doesn't get a lot of well it does get sun I I mean the problem with solar panels when you put them on a roof is then you limit your options when it comes to your roof yeah and and that's why I won't have them on my roof you know and I that's why I don't have them on my roof right now because of the age of the roof and you know those kinds of things so I I mean I think we should be open to all external Revenue sources by the way like sponsorships is a is a topic right like if you go to I spend a lot of time going to sporting events in other towns some towns allow for sponsorships um you know to be placed on the fencing in their Athletics facilities our policy is different um you know like those are the kinds of things that potentially we could look at um but they do require a little bit of time and attention to figure them out yeah yeah I I don't know if I care for that but we'll see what happens but had one sitting on that scoreboard that's been Perpetual for the last 15 years you know the Foster Healey one that mm that's true just never went away that's true um sponsorships isn't a terrible idea does this give you any help I'm clear I think on what we don't want that we're we're in agreement that there are no new fees we want to look at right well unless we found something other that was but I I don't like anything that's there under new fees for sure I mean ultimately the budget issues are not going to be fixed oh it's not going to fix the budget no of course not it makes it hard and then we just end up burying parents in fees there's also administrative costs right like I mean the busing thing I think is a perfect example where would be very administrative there may be a a benefit in dissuading people from participating in busing although I believe that that creates a traffic problem but but the cost in the central office of trying to administer that is a whole other can of worms you know agreed can we ask Mr hey if he has thoughts on solar somewhere Mr hey do you have any thoughts on the cell tower business of the solar business not to put you on the spot I'm sorry you're the one who would know uh is in regards to the cell tower I have a meeting next month with the AT&T vendor good um and we are going to explore some different options and uh once I get through that process then I'll come back and provide you with an update on that um as far as solar um something that I wanted to explore is um the solar canopies in the parking lot I don't know if it's you know like you say Aesthetics yeah have to look at it see um see what kind of visuals I can get on it um but it's just something with the with all the solar projects grants and stuff out there um it's just something that I wanted to [Music] explore and that would be that would be some Revenue that would come in but other than that I haven't uh I don't know how much ground solar we would have I don't think we have enough space space in to do that and that's kind why I first picked the uh the parking lot but it's uh it's just all it's beginning stages of exploring it so thank you you're welcome thank you all right anything else on this topic I think the only other thought just in regards to revenue sources I think it's going back to Grants and even fundraisers too working with the PTO things like that getting creative like that I don't want to put more burden on the the the families with additional fees and the non- fees make more sense all right well then I guess we go on to the next topic okay which is is helpful thank you uh school choice again this is just something um for consideration we have already taken a vote that we um will participate in the school choice program um and we have already agreed that we will open uh five seats in the ninth grade as I say every year when we come in with um a recommendation around school choice we receive many phone calls about school choice seats at the lower grades we have always um prioritized to make sure that we can keep our class sizes at 25 or under particularly at the lower grades that said it's another opportunity for everyone to reassess um we would have to take a vote and make a decision by the next meeting in order to be able to report um to the state by by June 1st I've mapped it out for you the total number of kindergarten well the kindergarten went up just before I yeah came here tonight um so our class sizes at kindergarten are now at like 21 but you can see I would not recommend any seats at kindergarten um based on our class sizes uh for first grade they're at 22 although I think we may be up to 111 um in the first grade um but five seats at first grade would put your class size at 23 you could still have 10 move in to first grade and still keep your class size at 25 or under second grade our class sizes uh there are five different second grade classrooms but already we're at 24 in several of them again you want to be able to leave a little bit of a buffer uh to accommodate new students moving to town so we would not recommend any seats there third grade is the same our class sizes uh three out of the five classes are already at 25 fourth grade our class sizes are um at 23 or 22 uh if you open two seats they would all be at 23 and you would still have 10 seats and for movein but keep to the 25 or under uh fifth grade um class sizes are uh 22 one class of 21 you could potentially add up to six seats here um sixth grade class sizes are at 24 or 25 already so we wouldn't want to add any there 7th grade class sizes are at 22 you could potentially add five Choice seats and still have uh room to accommodate 10 movein and stay at 25 8th grade three out of the five classes are already at 25 uh the other two are at 24 so we would not be you know recommending any consideration for seats there if you were to look at all the numbers that have been proposed it's a total of 18 um we would receive from the state 5,000 per student if all 18 were filled and we open seats at the high school and they don't always fill so this is not guaranteed it's potential um you could potentially have additional revenue of 90,000 that said in all fairness the cost per pupil is more than $5,000 um so you have to strike a balance and be careful we can't tip to having to add a classroom and a teacher cuz the costs there are you know again I'm not looking for a vote this evening I'm I'm just giving you additional data for consideration knowing that again next year we're we're probably looking at another tough budget cycle um if you got kiddos into the system in the early grades they they tend to stay through um again not we don't need to do a vote I I just wanted to give you some data something you know for you to consider um while it's still an option right right by June 1st it's no longer an option um but there's also the flip side too that if we're looking at more Cuts next year then those classes will be bigger right yeah so full transparency it it could go either way um but again it's information that I just wanted to provide to the committee for consideration um and you you may decide nope we're just staying right with the vote that we already took we're not adding any seats at any grade Brian so a question uh for say a scenario a student School choices into first grade or second grade would they be guaranteed that spot throughout all the way up to 12 or would they have to reapply for school choice um my understanding is that once they're accepted in they're in they're in they're in thank you but we can double check that and have that information confirmed for you the next one I think it's in I think it's in our policy it's also in our policy um I mean it would be cruel right to allow a student to start here and then say sorry yeah can't go to to school with your friends anymore um so the other thing that you all need to know is that we don't get to pick and choose right which students we accept y if they apply and there's a seat available we have to accept them in Townsen where they did not pass the override they're looking at class sizes of up to 30 kids next year we're going to be looking at budget issues again for FY 26 do you see a scenario where we could be looking at class sizes that large in the lower grades so it depends on how much we have to cut we gave you for the worst case scenario budget this cycle and there were additional Cuts listed that we're not going to have to make with the budget that's going forward to town meeting um I can't say because I I don't know what we'll be projecting for increases for health insurance costs or Transportation costs uh for FY 26 we will be bidding the bus contract uh next winter um so there are there are going to be costs that are going to go up and we we know that they costs go up every year um but yeah I I think that um we're looking at cuts and if we're not if we're not going to make programmatic Cuts we don't have enough custodians to cut yeah we're running out of things to cut that's I mean next year we have to make we don't have enough cutting additional par professionals cutting we're out of cuts to make secret we need to have secretaries to process all of the day-to-day work in the building so um and I I can't look to the expense lines to cut because we've already we've already cut them I I could get a little bit of money maybe from a cut uh in an expense line but not enough to uh hold back additional teacher cuts and I'm very uh unhappy to be saying that publicly right now because I don't want to lose any more of our good teachers we were notified um within the last week that we are losing uh the teacher that um was up for Teacher of the Year um they will be going elsewhere and when you talk about limited funding sources already for next year and it's it's just being honest I mean that this is what we're looking at um we'll be looking at more staff Cuts there's there's really no place else in the budget that we would make up any substantial Gap right okay my because my concern is that pursuing that so the the state gives us for people who don't know the state gives us $5,000 a student for school choice that number has been $5,000 for how long uh my entire time here I don't even know when they set that rate that's been a long time it's been a very long time and they haven't raised it and they've specifically chosen not to raise it our state legislators have chosen not to raise the school choice amount um which makes it hard to do school choice because it makes it hard to educate the students who School choicing in um it's a burden on the town so it makes it it makes it hard to look at the potential $90,000 in conjunction with maybe not knowing what's going to happen in FY 26 like are we trading the potential money next year for trouble down the road and I don't I don't know but luckily we don't have to vote on this till after town meeting and be the ballot vote so that will give us a much clearer picture of the town's appetite for funding schools appropriately and adequately I should know the answer to this question but I really have no idea um I I do know and just for the committee's knowledge I think we all know this but school choice is a trailing Revenue source so if we bring in a student for school year 2425 that money doesn't hit until the 26 budget so just so everybody knows y we effectively educate that kid for free for a year and then we get it in a rear um does it come in Chapter 70 funding no it's a different line in the Cherry sheets okay but that was actually the nature of my question yeah so does that student count as an enrolled student for chapter 7 70 calculations that inbound student only if they here on October 1 it counts to the next year yeah yeah so there is a I would think as well I would think it would so it isn't just the 5,000 it's also the state's Foundation contribution in Chapter 70 which is considerable mean not as much as we like we can double check and not under our control in terms of where those Chapter 70 funds are applied yeah that's but it is you know once again um it would go to the town which would help out yeah but could potentially flow through you know okay I think in regards to Laura's comment uh about the class sizes if we were to cut a teacher we're just dividing the the total by four instead of five or five instead of six it definitely comes out to class sizes around 28 to 31 it did the math yes well the math teacher did the math math teacher helpful okay so there's that risk there's also the risk that you know I mean and it's a SM much smaller risk but that you know development in in local enrollment drives up our numbers as well during you know first if you're enrolling a second grader you're committed to that kid for 12 years do we know when the Howard Street subdivision is nothing else on that it's not that's not going to the not anytime soon just we won't worry about that right now but but you know I mean it but that could pop up someplace else I right yeah I mean there's this you know new NBTA communities thing where we could get a 10-story building in whum you know right you don't know um so anyway another Factor um again it's just another factor to consider if a student choic is in and they have an IEP we have to we own that IEP we cannot say oh we're not we're not accepting IEP students yeah we have to take those students and we have to deliver right the services what if it's one of the $100,000 out of District placement kids out of District placement kids well an out of District placement is not that does not that's not part of the math here can that do do you want to answer that one Mrs hansum I want to be careful we just thought you wanted to stretch so with any students who are on an IEP they have a student claim form so I'm actually going to be working with Liz on that this week right Liz um so I fill out the form um and we get a certain percent a certain amount back for whatever Services we provide for that student throughout the year it's not the complete amount um of what it actually costs us but it's something it's similar to circuit breaker if I were to claim a student in District on circuit breaker what percentage is it like 20 or is it 70 it it might be 3,000 cuz they're generally inclusion students um even if they're in R achieve or rtlc rooms you we may be getting back when the when it's all said and done like three to five, I believe but for outed districts we're not District the it's where they live it's where they live yeah okay so that wouldn't happen because it would be oh oh oh so it wouldn't happen to us no not we don't assume the so so in that case it really doesn't make sense for somebody to school choices student here if they're already out of District that being said we have a student who comes in we're not able to meet their needs I then have to reconvene a team with the sending with the school where they live the district where they live to talk about what the is going to be because that um the town of origin would be responsible for the payments of that but it's so it there's a lot of different factors with school choice I there's a lot of different factors it really is a crapshoot um when you're talking about you can't deny anybody um and there are processes in place to help recoup some of those funds um but it is what it is but but we do get some additional cost back if they're on an IEP and it's up until the students are 22 that we have to keep them in District we have we have as well yeah I I don't know again I'm not going to be at the next meeting you guys can vote on this but my feeling on it is is I would vote no and and my my thinking on it is just there's risks either way like this is risk calculus but I feel like we should control what we can control and there's a lot of uncontrollables in this one that that you know I I do appreciate the extra yeah revenue and the the hunt for extra Revenue um so thank you for all right can I just ask a question um this is to Dr Burnham and uh M hansam I'm sorry I should have I just didn't the the risk of like the very complicated somebody comes in and then we determine we can't meet his need or her need and we have to place them out you've like we only currently have seven out of District placements correct we have we have nine okay nine so the chance that that worst case scenario financially happens is relatively low it's happened once in my career how long I mean how many not in lunenberg okay how many years like how many kids what like what's the sample size for one like lots right um yeah I mean we the I had more school choice students when I was in my previous District than I've ever had here okay once once the Devin kids got out of the mix MH our school choice numbers went way down so like that worst case scenario is just like a it's worst case scenario but it's like a super small percentage chance super small percentage chance I'm more concerned with the fact that we really try to meet all kids needs so we own these kids regardless of the school choice or not so you've got to think about that added stress that may be on teachers to meet the needs of of students that might be I mean I'm I'm never going to say oh that student school choice that's having a little bit of difficulty she's having a little bit of difficulty let's let's get the other District we're always going to try to meet those kids those students needs but that in turn we know some students that are more High needs Place additional stressors on on the staff okay um so it's just realizing that as well that being said like I lost a staff member this year because she went to a different District who would school choice are children in so so there's that factor too like there's just so many back and forths like like we could what if it from now until whenever but it there there's always pluses and minus what would your recommendation be I can tell you offline no no it it really really all of the all of the things that I just said it really goes back and forth can we prioritize staff children for school choice or is that not allowed no can't do any of that okay do we have staff that want to school choice their children in I imagine that we do Dr Burton what would your recommendation be I would recommend that you don't consider any numbers in excess of what I've put here for sure yeah because that would not make me comfortable um if we have to make additional Cuts next year we are going to be looking at cutting teaching positions right that means class sizes are going to go up go up and this would only cover one so if we add you know students in we'll we'll definitely be in the range of 30 so if if we have moving see this is where you know relative to budgeting you know this in education budgeting in education is not an exact science it's not there's so many wh ifs what's the marginal stress placed on a teacher going from 25 to 26 I I don't know so I'm asking 25 to 26 isn't a lot Carol you 20 to 24 if you're talking 25 to 28 in a in an Elementary classroom that's a huge difference that's huge yeah I would refer to you the elementary teacher I I'll talk High School numbers but yeah to me you get much above 24 in an Elementary classroom and it's hard above what 244 keep in mind right we really protected those positions year we double down on Protec those class this year to the detriment of other buildings and other staff so that's where we're going next year most likely right because we if we we're not going to be able to cut a substantial number of teachers at the high school level because we won't be able to have a schedule we we based on our class sizes right now with the middle school we did not we had one we had a retirement that we recommended that we would not fill but I don't see a way that we're going to be able to make cuts to Staffing at the middle school we would have to revamp our entire schedule there and look at um enrichment time and you know our rotation of UN ified arts classes and um because we looked hard we looked really hard at what cuts we could make for this year without really totally fundamentally changing everything that we're we're we're doing what what do similarly funded school districts do in terms of school choice like the comparables that we use for all different kinds of things I have no idea can look it up yeah I don't have that answer I don't know I know a lot don't bother with it because it's only $5,000 and um the state hasn't raised it Dr Burnham you've done a great job at keeping that current fifth grade class is this the Bulge class that's the Bulge class just the fact that you have managed to keep the class size is below 25 for six years thank you well for five well we wouldn't be able to do it without the funding to be able to do it so that took a lot of shuffling I'm just I'm looking at the numbers and the way that it that's a I don't know okay so I'm going to say that we're going to look at this again next week unless anybody else has something they really need to say so we can move along because I think our next two topics may be a little long no but I thank you I just again um wanted to give you the opportunity provide you some data so that you could make some decisions that are not in the heat of a a tough budget cycle um it because it helps me because believe it or not I'm already in my mind building we FY 26 okay so we move on to athletic funding okay so we provided some overview information back in November before Mr Cassidy uh left the district um but in conversation with Mr beardmore he wanted to uh be able to share more publicly things to clarify for folks who maybe have some mistaken Impressions right absolutely about how we fund our programs so we have our Athletic program which is just the middle school and high school program the Bengals are not our program Lysa soccer is not our our program and the program is uh really funded through the athletic revolving account and our school department budget um you'll see booster clubs hanging out there and Facilities hanging out there facility rental because I am aware that there are people that believe that that's a factor so um I just want to visually show that they are separated not directly connected to funding our programs um quick school department budget overview if you look at the expense lines for athletics uh in the budget we budget 95,000 um athletic transportation we budget 40,000 however fall Transportation wow um is over 58,000 winter transportation is almost 27,000 and spring not not as much um why is that why is spring so much cheaper football I think we'll we'll see some things as we continue to go through that's a ton of money m is it football um more teams well in part yeah we yeah we've yeah as I go through we'll okay we'll start to see some things we also in our budget cover athletic Insurance um and athletic equipment reconditioning but that really pertains to football equipment um play football our athletic director has a schedule for uniform replacement uh we can only afford to replace a couple uh teams a year what is Unified sports um so our Unified sports um we have basketball and track track cross country um and our special ed students participate on the team with typical Piers it's a smaller uh typically it's a smaller group uh group um and our basketball team sort of their season is a little off cycle from the typical basketball season they're a little bit earlier um um but that's what those are and um you can see that rad provides uh Unified sports a t-shirt every year and our Middle School cross country and golf uh receive a polo every year I think Middle School track also gets t-shirts yep you might be right about that one too um okay so new equipment uh we budget 6,000 um you can see that that's probably just a bit too little but it's for annual purchase of footballs um I think soccer balls socks um pucks for hockey baseballs softballs like all all of that kind of stuff that's that's the equipment so the athletic revolving account the funds that go into the revolving account come from user fees that's the that's the athletic Fe Fe MH ticket sales at games and Co-op fees from other districts we have at one time we had more but at this point we we only have a couple of Co-op where we don't have enough students for a team and another District doesn't have enough students for a team but we join together like our hockey team is a co-op team it's air Shirley with lunenberg what are they called are they the knights or are they the I do believe they are that's the other ones are dorky well yeah I need to I think so they plan under our banner I don't know let me double check on that what was the question again I'm sorry what's the team name of the H lunenberg hockey yeah they are um they are they are the knights I thought so so they're the air Shirley lunenberg yeah nights I and I think it depends like our girls we only had two girls and they play primarily on the air Shirley team so I think they're more considered air Shirley yeah maybe yeah I've never been to one of their games and that's Courtney Fuller your recording secretary committee who is also your athletic secretary secretary right thank you you're welcome do we have to pay Co-op fees like for the the two girls that if it depends on who the host school is sometimes we're the host School sometimes the other school is the host school and we would have to pay whatever fees their kids would be paying as well and okay same for us I like that that's a good way to um the kinds of things that get paid out are all of the athletic officials it's a lot yep so your umpires your referees um if you need to have a special detail so if we ever had to have like an EMT present that's coming out of here too our coaches stipend are paid out of this account um athletic expenses and supplies uh really more so paid out of revolving than the budget um our athletic uh staff are um coaches the the only ones paid in the local budget are the trainer and thead um because we have a trainer um the trainer works with students in the training room and we now need supplies for the train ER to work with students um we also pay for the um athletic trainers uh professional organizational membership we pay the cost for final forms we we fund end of season um letters and pins uh as well as uh we're we're funding huddle what's that um it's uh really uh I guess it's a streaming service Mr it do a bunch of things it's a um it's an online platform oh that um allows for uh first and foremost film so game film to be uploaded and then organized by coaches and shared with opposing coaches so back in the day when I played coaches would literally meet at a certain amount of time before a game and trade VHS tapes I am the videographer for lunburg high school football and I press a button and then our coach presses a button and everybody gets the film um and they can be organized by play type and athlete and that kind of thing and then our athletes um have huddle Pages which is kind of like you have to have it now in high school sports and if a coach wants a college coach wants to look at an athlete's performance it's all done through huddle to include highlight tapes and so on and so forth and now um they also do streaming so we now have I believe huddle equipment in our um in our I know we have it on our on our track and field facility we have it indoors I think it might also be in the gymnasium uh and we can use that to stream games live and pack could actually P tap into that as well it's a uh it's not inexpensive but it is a uh a phenomenally cool oh that's w cool yeah can students tell if coaches college coaches are looking at their page I don't pay for it I have no idea but I was at a recruitment camp this past weekend and the coaches specifically talked about how to organize your huddle page uh for for prospective athletes so all right well that sounds like it's necessary got to have it you got to have it all right so for the current year you've got numbers of student athletes in each season minus the current spring season they're still rounding up data on that one um how many students are uh full fee how many would be paying um a reduced fee including siblings and then how many are a waved fee and we have those num num for you as well for uh middle school so those numbers are Revenue into the revolving account ticket sales um are estimated at about 5,000 in the fall uh and 3500 in the winter and they're they don't charge for the spring spectator sport so there's no Revenue coming in there I would say that's also a frustration for a lot of parents to have to go to the games and pay to watch their children play mhm yep is that common everywhere it depends on the sport like like the superintendent said the spring Sports don't have it uh it's very common in basketball and football but not as common in the other sports are are all of the ticket sales from basketball and football um no because if they have ice on probably yeah and I think you know if they have night games for uh soccer or they probably not that they have night games all the time um although we have done a better job of trying to accommodate and have game schedules later so that parents can get to them we used to have them right you know 3 3:30 in the afternoon so so couple notes here um G are relatively standard wherever I go now I go to football and track meets predominantly but basketball games I went to games at Fitchburg and couple other places this past year and paid paid fees um what is not standard are athletic fees really the within our league yeah the the the team that we we were uh we we uh had a meet with yesterday in uh in in track they to my knowledge they do not have athletic fees um so you know back to my earlier Point these these are not necessarily standard across the board there are a lot of cities and towns that do not charge athletic fees but but by and large I pretty hard pressed to not reach out of my pocket when I'm going into a gate to to pay a gate fee do we know it is but it is frustrating to pay both do we know what the revenue like could you ever offset the athletic fees with jates that would be a that would be a pretty big number oh okay you're talking 38,000 to 5 it's like a 7even to One 8 to one right so that's right I remember all through High School having to pay to get into games and we do wave I believe for our students for Gates correct um and we also offered this year parents a season pass basically which was nice I think which was pretty cool you know I mean it's a way for our parents to save a little bit of money not substantially but that's yeah but the effort is there it's also the convenience of not having to have cash at the gate because lots of people don't deal in cash anymore um can I just ask a question about funding v v The Snack Shack we don't get any of that money no no do we charge our rental fee we do okay but we don't take a portion of the uh the profits uh concession oh who runs that's the booster clubs yeah yeah we booster clubs can request use of the concession stand most athletic programs and boosters they don't run them every time there's a game because honestly running the Boost The Snack Shack is a lot of effort um and you need people to volunteer and so on and so forth so um booster organizations use the Snack Shack and the Bengals will use the Snack Shack um but the fee to use the Snack Shack is not like a half D fee it also requires a certified person yeah sort of sa which we don't provide they do is there any way that we could change that and generate revenue from The Snack Shack or would it not be worth you could charge a higher concession stand rental fee but it's but the problem is that if you raise it too much you run the risk of more boosters saying yeah never mind we're not going to make enough money out of it so we're we're just not going to rent it but they're also it as a fundraiser yeah anyway so it's I mean why it benefits the kids benefits you're literally taking once again taking the money out of one pocket putting in another you know that said we are going to have to look at the operating costs absolutely we've got a grease trap now since we've upgraded that needs to be cleaned out um there's the cost of the water the electricity because we have multiple refrigerators and microwaves and a warming tray so we didn't have all of that before so there's utilities with all of that would it benefit us to run it ourselves during football that's what I saying games and we would have to hire staff he so that would that would probably mean we wouldn't make any having spent a lot of time in The Snack Shack at football games it's a lot to run it now all the rules yep I mean I did it when there weren't any rules yep I know um so again um just taking a look at the cost to run all this and I I'd need to verify but I think um uh largely what you see here is uh based on FY 24 numbers so it costs us 92600 and change to run our fall Athletic program it costs us almost 91,000 to run our winter programs and another 11,000 to run our spring programs um that's a lot of money what was spring again just say 11,000 11,000 yeah so does that can I ask a question so does that include the salaries of the coaches should yeah I do believe it does let me just check that 11,000 seem small yeah a lot of the numbers seem small if we're including the salaries yeah yeah like I'm why is indoor track 177,000 but like boy lacrosse is $612 so spring numbers are up until now any information oh thank you yeah all right the spring is up what we have now the fall and the winter sports that does not include coaches does not include but it does include all of the officials and things but that does not include coaches thank you oh my god thank you you're welcome we're spending a lot on Sports what's the what's the like the number of students per dollar so like you know know if there's a 100 kids that do a cheap sport that's a better bang for the buck than an expensive a lot of kiddos that do the the track um but the problem is when you when you get larger teams and they're going to competitions of games it cost us more in buses and some of the most costly uh trips are the ones as an example you got a bus to um Boston uh a track meet and the bus doesn't just drive you there and drop you off and come back at 6:00 later that night they sit there and we have to pay them even if it's t lemonster some of our most expensive bus trips were to lemonster because dech charges us they come pick up the kids and then they charge us so much money for them to be in the parking lot and there's no way around that the other thing about the track is that the there are um Invitational fees so if you want to bring your team to compete you have to pay an entrance fee to to get in whereas we don't have to pay a fee to play another hockey team right they're on our schedule it's fine we we have to um look for those additional OPP in the winter track program and obviously Reggie Lewis has to be maintained and they make money and that kind happens if we have another round of cuts in terms of are we ever going to consider cutting these I mean well one of like a ton of money and there's like 10 kids well one of the things that I suggested if you had wanted to consider modifying your athletic director position your athletic trainer position um if you reduce them at all particularly the athletic director having to organize and structure and change buses and call and notify we're canceling the a game so on and so forth for all Middle School sports and all high school sports there's a lot of work there so to reduce that position to part-time my suggestion was if you're going to reduce how much time the ad can be working you really ought to look at reducing the program that he's overseeing and coordinating so that's when I suggested that if that if that were something that you would want to consider that I would also recommend that you're looking at eliminating the Middle School sports programs I will say when I arrived here in the district there weren't any Middle School sport um there was one that was being piloted and that was um field hockey Y what about eliminating Transportation you could um and parents would have to transport and that does happen for us we we don't we don't typically get a bus to take the golf team yeah no why not to play Insurance wise you can't let kids drive I believe that's a MIAA thing well it's also license restrictions and all kinds of stuff yeah you can't you can't I know even for the musical stuff they don't if a kid shows up for a music festival for an audition and they drove themselves they disqualified what holy moly okay all right you can't go there the kids can't drive yeah fostering such independence no it's yeah so um I mean if was this the last Slide the booster club slide um nope so the booster clubs just so that everybody's aware the booster clubs are not school clubs they are not under the governance of the school department or the school committee right they are totally separate organizations the the only oversight if you will is through a subcommittee of the school committee the athletic advisory Council and largely that's about um overseeing and improving the different uh fundraising efforts so that not everybody's doing the same exact fundrais or exactly the same time there's a little bit more even that's turned out to be kind of perform at besty but that you know was one of the original goals I think around the formation of that um committee not that they don't talk about other things as well I think it's good for them to talk to each other sure be connected y oh yeah Community Building y but it does remind me of like the PTO they're an outside organization that supports the schools and the students so they can do fundraisers they can um and how they spend that money is entirely up to them um typically what they pay for are things like um their end of season banquet any award awards that they give at the banquet uh some of the groups have scholarships that they they give to students at awards senior Awards night um they typically will do some sort of senior gift whether that's a a sweatshirt or a tracksuit or or something like that that tends to be fairly standard across the booster organizations and and what they do that [Music] said the hockey boosters pay for ice time do pay for ice time I've asked the ad to make sure that it goes through the proper channels that's a donation so that we can pay a program related cost they really should come here before you and and donate that money for that earmark so that the community understands the support that you're getting so that you can also thank them for their support of our program because without that support I don't I don't know that that we would be able to especially where we don't have a solo team we don't have enough kids in lunberg wanting to play hockey that we could have our own hockey team so the fact that that they want to help so that these kids can have an opportunity to play it's it's really extraordinarily generous why don't the other boosters do that I mean I know that they're independent but it seems like the hockey boosters are doing something like really ex extraordinarily expect from my experience the the hockey booster and the football booster are very very well organized okay and there's a lot of turnover and a lot of these boosters cuz parents their kids graduate but the the hockey booster they they have a lot of fundraising that they do and football is the same with the other boosters but it's also I mean if you fortunately my kid doesn't play hockey but I have very good friends whose kids play hockey you are you talked about expense you know what I mean you're doing it from a very early age and you're conditioned to pay for ice and you're just shelling out a lot of money every year to play hockey and and it's extraordinarily expensive and there's just but like my point was more like not that the hockey parents shouldn't do it but other people should do what they do because like I know I I like the awards and the senior thing but like if it's between giving out 16 fake wood plaques or you know running a sport maybe that's what they should be doing I don't know well so this is a part of this presentation too is that the boosters are there to supplement they're not there to pay for the sports the school is respons that's been the sort of right dividing line right like if we're going to run a program we should be funding the program okay right um so in other words we wouldn't look for the lacrosse team to on the down low buy some new nets for us and drop them off on the field we should be providing what's necessary to play and the as far as I know and I've had this conversation with the ad the only fee that we are not paying the only cost that we're not paying in order to run a program is the ice time time like batting cages are a great example it's like it's not needed but you can supplement and get a batting cage from the which they're working on right now I believe for the baseball team for batting yeah how much is the ice time I'll have to get a cost on that for but it is it is a lot parents are something an hour they wake up at 400 a.m. and they don't mess around okay all right and then um facility rentals some people are under the impression that the money that we charge the Bengals for the facility rental funds our Athletic program it does not that's not enough the facility rental fees go into to the facility revolving account and we pay for as an example mowing we contract out the mowing of the playing fields the grass Playing Fields because they have to be maintained to a certain uh spec for the for the different sports um we have to pay custodians for the indoor basketball all winter um so the monies from the facility rental go into the facility revolving and pay to help defray some of the costs of maintaining the facility for everyone's use it does not go to any of our athletic programming does it defay the cost in your opin opinion does it defay the cost of usage or the facility fees we have to constantly review that right so every couple of years we we look at it again uh because our our Landscaping contract goes upost somebody leave a fridge one time I remember we had to deal with that in the policy subcommittee that somebody left a fridge at the um so back before we did all that we did with the Snack Shack um when I first got here people would bring in refrigerators from home bring them into the Snack Shack and they'd use them and oh it's not working anymore let's get another one but they would leave the nonfunctioning one and it costs us to dispose of it but that's all stopped that's all stopped if if people are following policy okay that that can't happen we purchased the refrigeration for The Snack Shack honestly it's our facility we should be the ones maintaining did the refrigeration and the upgrades to the snack shop come out of facilities revolving fund yeah that partly came out of there and we had a donation um that was uh earmarked for for the upgrades there okay and then lastly there's been this question about the track and turf field um um there is a Verizon antenna on one of the light poles out at the turf field in the agreement they they pay they're leasing the pole essentially those monies go to the town and they are deposited into the athletic Turf revolving account that is not an account that we oversee that is an account that the town oversees but it's specifically for the turf um additionally we budget 45,000 in our school budget annually to make a payment to the town to continue to pay off the balance of um what's Ed on the turf and the final Turf payment will be made in 2028 but the Verizon antenna money does not fund any of our programs so does that mean really to pay the debt so does that mean the debt payment is 30 plus 45k yeah oh my gosh and we're going to have to install a new one in a few years again be nice if it makes it to 2028 it's not going but it's not going to I know which one's the turf field I don't even know the big football field down back oh the one with the Leaning fence yes oh wonderful yes so it's all part problem that's the basic overview you know there's AB been flow in the actual dollar amounts for things it depends on how many kids are play in any given year and um but but the gist of where money come from your fee where does that go what does it pay for what does the budget pay for what we budget doesn't fully pay for much it partially pays and it's largely our program is largely funded through the athletic revolving account which is user fees and Gates so I had it at $281,000 is what it costs so far and we budgeted 95 95,000 plus 40,000 so we're like where's the Gap the plus 40,000 is what for Trans Transportation that's that's in the budget the 95,000 incl tax dollars in yep so the 95,000 in our budget includes 40,000 for transportation but the transportation exceeds 40,000 to run all three three seasons so we budget way less way less like a third of what it costs if we had to pick up the full cost of running all of these Sports we couldn't huh wow that's not good it's not self sustaining but I also had a question I guess not supposed to that is really the student organization self- sustaining as well like do the student fees actually pay for the stiens for all the advisers so the Student Activity fees that that is the source of the advisor stiens for all the clubs and you have to post the position to appoint someone to be the advisor um and we have to pay those stipend and if you had a given year where only five kids wanted to do that we're not going to bring in enough to pay to pay the stipend well that's what I'm wondering like the question is oh no Sports aren't self-standing but I'm wondering if the student organizations are the same time the activities that are done at the middle school they have to figure out what the cost is per student and then they charge most of them are around $43 $45 the problem is is that we've had great success with our um um Science Olympiad team it's a huge team um but that again gets to busing costs and material costs and when we get so many kids participating same is true for any of our sports right if we have a track season where we've got 60 kids we have to hire additional assistant coaches so we went from one stipended position for Science Olympiad and the kids at the middle school loved it so much they wanted it on the high school side too we now have three advisor stiens to run our Science Olympiad so that's a good problem to have it is a good problem to and they kicked butt too they they did great this year they they did fantastic fantastic so the tough thing is is that it it gets it gets really challenging um to offer all the different kinds of clubs at the at the high school level with class advisor and all of that um I without us across the board um activity fees that you can budget and count on yeah um it would become really challenging um and we may not be able to have all of the stipended roles that we have or certain types of stipended roles that are covered out of of that revolving account would have to be incorporated into the budget so I guess I to follow up on Brian's question how are we that much in the hole for Student Activities as we are in Sports no we're doing fine with the Student Activities that's that's fine um it's in part because a lot of things slowed down during that hybrid covid year um there were some we still needed to have class advisors and all of that but some of the the clubs that would be more in person and you can't really run them remote didn't run right um but we right now anyway we're we're in good shape with okay that account okay any other questions about the athletic program funding I just want to um make sure though just to zero in on a point that Tony just made we're not in the hole we're not running a deficit we don't have a financial crisis in our athletic department the the reason why this is important to talk about is really for transparency which is sports are very popular in lunenberg mhm roughly half half of our kids in the high school participate in a sport of some kind over the course of the year it's extremely expensive to run yep and most of that expense is on the backs of the parents of those kids who are paying activity fees and gate fees and participating in booster club uh fundraisers yeah and that is what it is so costs costs related to these programs go up too what we have to pay the officials is not under our control um bus transportation goes up for athletic Transportation too um cost of General materials and supplies and at some point we will be in a deficit in the revolving account and at that point if we're not going to look at revisiting fees we are going to have to start budgeting more yeah towards Athletics in our budget cut or cutting Sports yeah okay I mean if we're going to be cutting Sports I do think we're going to need to warn the public nothing emminent there's no decision that's been made but I would take take this meeting as an FYI that the notice this this is something we will have to deal with down the road probably not terribly far down the road um because as you see it's not it's not like we we have a big balance sitting in the revolving account um pretty pretty much what what comes in goes back out do you think it'll be next budget it depends on assuming status quo it's next budget yeah yeah there may need to be some adjustment next I think we got to make sure that this is on blast because the amount of feedback that we received when we even talked about cutting non-sports programs but sports related people was so intense mhm that I think like 9:15 on a Wednesday night is probably not sufficient notice to the public no no and that's why we're having these conversations so early right that it we we can we can make some decisions ahead of a budget cycle that way these aren't all unknowns will we raise a fee won't we raise a fee if we have these conversations ahead of that all this has been decided it's off the table and now we're dealing with other things you know the regular M budget cycle I just again I wanted to be able to put all of this out this originally was asked for for that very reason it's just for information so that everybody understands what is paying for what right um but again you see the bigger picture here it's information and having information you can make decisions but again the costs for programs are going to continue to go up and at some point we won't be break even right I'll give you a heads up if I can see that on the horizon uh right now though it's it's not like you know we're in a cushy spot um we we are going to need to give people lots of warning though I mean I don't want anyone caught unaware I want people to know if we're not going to fund the schools we can't we have to focus on the very basic services and things are going to have to be let go and unfortunately this is a relevant segue to the next topic which is we are in a precarious situation around not being able to offer the variety and diversity of services that we currently offer so I think probably is a good time to segue into that very well done Mr beardmore um can we share yeah so could I may yeah I I have the deck here that we've been working against and I apologize to everybody for not putting this in the shared Drive earlier um Carol and I met on this on Monday and then we met again today um with the superintendent and and couple of members of her staff and um I've continued to do some edits and probably will continue after tonight's meeting and tomorrow morning before they get submitted to the town manager so um what I will uh share with you now is um a draft of the presentation that we will show at town meeting uh for the override so if I could share my screen you should be able to should be able to okay and I will go into PowerPoint here we go all right here we go uh so this is uh intended to present to the folks who uh attend town meeting and an overview of of how we get to where we are what the override funds and and what it's for um so first and foremost is that you know we want to make the point that the lunenberg schools should be a source of immense Pride for our town um in their current capacity um just very recently lunenberg High School in US news and World reports um ranked in the 88th percentile nationally that's pretty good the 74th percentile in the state of Massachusetts and then the 81st percentile in the wer Metro region um we set a goal uh some time ago to hit 80% at students testing at grade level in our grade school levels uh and we are tracking toward that goal right now uh based on iterative testing that occurs over the course of the year um and that assessment will be made in uh in June and this is a quote out of the uh desie uh accountability report for 2023 based on last year's mcast scores that our district is making making substantial progress toward Targets on most of our accountability measures and this is obviously all within the context of a school department like every other school department that has gone through uh challenges relating to student emotional health covid learning loss um and a variety of other headwinds which we'll talk about throughout the report um so this next slide is really you know to talk about how we got to to where we are and the budget process with some numbers uh so the town manager's preliminary budget which was proposed in February was $3,594 th000 and uh $522 um that repres represented a 2.94% increase over our previous year um but due to financial headwinds and expenses which we'll talk about in an coming slide um would have been catastrophic uh and would have amounted to over 30 full-time equivalent Cuts in our school department fortunately over a series of meetings and prolong and very prolonged discussions that we were all involved in as was our chair and our superintendent the town manager saw fit to add $236,000 $236,200 in certified New Growth funding that was basically all of I believe our certified New Growth this year an additional $41,000 $ 41,321 at some point I'll be able to say a dollar amount correctly uh practice before Saturday uh in local receipts it won't be 9:20 at night hopefully already pass my uh and a decision to not put 50 an additional $50,000 in pavement management but instead to spend that in the school department which led to the town manager's now recommended budget which we would hope by the time we get to article 8 on Saturday will have just been passed in the Omnibus budget to the tune of 23, 91,9 um and and so that is the the Omnibus budget which is basically supported through taxpayer Revenue under the proposition 2 and A2 cap and Chapter 70 funding in addition to that the select board saw fit to appropriate arpa funds in the amount of $221,600 and that funds a mandatory network security upgrade which we've been advised by our it Consultants is non-discretionary uh 911 compliant phone systems which is an unfunded State mandate that we have to comply with um which will basically enhance our ability to make emergency calls from classrooms or any location on our campus and First Responders will know where the call is coming from is effectively what that does um and 7 $5,895 in Chromebook uh purchases that is not actually cover our total recurring Chromebook costs on an annual basis but does supplement that for this year um these are one-time funds uh they are the these These funds are will not be available arpa is basically expended as a as a result of this and so our total lunberg School District District Omnibus plus onetime spending as we are currently counting on going into article 8 is$ 24,1 123,50 N8 uh and that has been our Focus for the last six months building and supporting and you know effectively fighting and advocating for this budget um and that has really been my focus personally as I said coming into this I've been skeptical of our ability to pass an override all along and I've thought that it be the of absolute importance to get whatever support we can out of the the Omnibus budget and and that is where we sit today although still $221,000 of that is non-recurring and does not support a basis for future years so why can't we get to the same level of service in FY 25 for what we spent in fy4 plus a typical 2 and 1 half to 3% increase and the answers here come down to increased utility costs increases in bus transportation costs increases in building maintenance cost increases in outo District replacement costs unfunded State mandates and increased health insurance cost and I have made a deliberate decision not to burden people with charts and graphs and numbers these have been the topics yeah of dozens of hours of school committee time and finance committee time suffice to say these costs are non-discretionary costs and as a result of that they are leading to cuts that need to be made in the current budget or cuts to services that need to be made if we continue to be supported by the current budget um the sunsetting Esser costs are not part of this requests they've effectively been written out and they are not part of the override they are they are Cuts so what will the override fund um basically let's start with what are the cuts associated with the current Omnibus budget and here they are these are by the way exactly what this committee approved as part of that letter this is literally a clipping from that letter that we put out last week um and so what the override will essentially do is of these 20 plus FTE equivalent Cuts take out about 10 and a 12 FTE equivalent oh that was a good graphic like that that's a good bill so good um can I can I interrupt sure I think we also listed the the budget line items in that list I don't know if that's in here hang hang bear with me he's going to hit a button more just that was the list that was like question you're talking numbers and wonky stuff Peter's got it he's got go back and do that again I want but with this 4.4% budget that is basically allowing us to retain 10 plus FTE positions uh or 10 FTE positions and all of the part-time positions that were eliminated uh in the budget right so that is the big part of the override uh are are these 10 positions now the asteris positions here that to know part-time positions some of them are 0.5 some of them are 0 fours some of them are 0.25s um but the the calculus basically brings this to um well over 10 FTE um and then uh expense lines will also be restored uh funding classroom supplies equipment and Educational Tools and we will be getting into more detail in terms of what that means in some future slides Additionally the override covers $241,600 that is currently coming from arpa to fund the e911 system it security upgrades and Chromebooks if the override passes that arpa money will be returned to the select board for appropriation the thinking behind this approach is is that it will ensure that the schools have a budget basis of support for facilities maintenance onetime and unanticipated infrastructure costs in future years in other words an override passes this year that money carries forward to Future years and we can count on that apportionment to cover those types of costs in out years because frankly this year we have no wiggle room in a lot of areas and and we'll talk about that so what is this going to cost the override at $948,000 will add we estimate based on the finance committee's report which will be made available which is available right now on the town website and which will be made available at town meeting for the average residential property which today with the FY 24 assessments which were reflected in your Q4 tax bills that came out a couple of weeks ago right the average residential property is assessed at $481,500 $678 you have just voted if you if we pass the Omnibus budget to add $120 to your tax if you have that average residential property so that is the 22% increase that's part of that Omnibus that we have just voted to raise and appropriate the override will add an additional $948,000 to our Capp tax rate which will bring that $120 to $318 and so the difference between 38 18 and10 is $198 it's that Delta so if you live in a million doll property or a million $50,000 property you can just do the math based on your property value it would be 693 minus 263 or roughly $430 uh depending upon again the the value of your property right and um if anybody would like me to stand there and do math I'd be happy to do it but I would assume that people people would prefer me to drive on in the presentation I would assume don't offer that okay I noted oh no do it I want to further discussion we have gained momentum in the lunenberg schools we're making measurable progress against measurable headwinds caused by demographic changes in our town youth Mental Health crisis and covid learning loss our mcast scores our I ready scores are all showing improvements that are the result of strategic decisions that the administration and the school committee has made execution and Investments that have been made in our town we have numerous facilities projects and a growing High six figure punch list but this is part of the momentum and the initiative that the school committee has taken to address the needs of the town or the schools yes sir can I just make a comment yep I think that we should make it clear that the mcast and I scores are because of improvements made by the administration we set the policy but we don't really do any of the work I think we should give yeah yeah yeah I think that's fair yep but I I team and teachers the credit so I point taken however but it's because the school committee supports the Strategic plan and allocates the financial resources to execute in this case it needs to be the financial resources are the reason well I also think though that we are presenting here as a school committee that is making a recommendation to the Town based on our analysis of the data available but also we do have a track record of making strategic and policy decisions that are driving positive results and we are proposing that that we continue to do that and so I I I do think that it's not it's it's it's the faculty and administration absolutely it's the school committee and our foster ship of this but just as importantly it's the town and its continued investment in our schools and I think it all we need to say all of that I guess my point is I want the town to understand what it is that their money gets and their money gets a group of teachers that are far above average okay so we're going to get to that okay all right just like Brian you're getting ahead okay sorry we're gonna get to that one of the arguments I hear against the override is lunenberg teachers are great they don't need more money they'll just keep doing more with less they've doing forever so I don't want on that fire by saying you're and you're I mean obviously we're in violent agreement here but we have made high value Investments today lunenberg is in the bottom 12% in Massachusetts in per pupil spending but above average in state achievement and accountability ratings and top third as calculated in national rankings that we talked about in the opening slide we are making Investments where they matter We are continuing to invest in highquality curriculum materials and professional development through Grant and local funding we have a most qualified hiring practice we hire the most qualified applicants and we don't hire when there are not qualified applicants and we focus on the skills confidence and passion for lifelong learning for all of our students the point here that I want to make on this last bullet is that it isn't just about the mcast and the I ready test it is the whole student it is what they are able to learn about citizenship what they are able to learn about art what they are able to learn about their bodies and taking care of themselves in athletics and participation in their community and all of those things are what we are focused on and and are honestly at some risk in losing through lost momentum and declining achievement we are at risk of less focused intervention on instruction and on individual students we are at risk of reduced instructional materials that are aligned with the curriculum that is is now proving to have positive results we will have fewer classroom materials and as a result that burden is very often shifted onto teachers and staff and those cuts for this year are non-sustainable we are burning down our supplies and really would not be able to function in 26 at that level we have an un we have unsustainable facilities maintenance um we are already seeing the age of our 20-year-old primary school and our 8-year-old Middle High School and we are seeing unanticipated needs that have to be addressed now we have realized programmatically into the future and we need to be able to financially support that we lack again the ability to address unanticipated costs we have no room there's no wiggle room in this budget but here's the biggest one and I I think you know back to my opening public comment here tonight about you know one teacher of many that profoundly influenced my life I want to hire more Don Adams and I don't want to have that headwind when it comes to hiring and retaining the staff that is proving time and time again to deliver these results so the next steps vote today vote in two weeks assuming that the override passes which is admittedly a big assumption uh we will need to meet again at a special town meeting to appropriate These funds and that is basically the fin slide which will open to public discussion that was great that was great Peter you did a good job Peter thank you you crushed it your explanation of the numbers the animations the transition from side to sides it was phenomenal it was great Carol I know you're going to be on stage you have got to use the trees line you Peter brings the Peter brings the number you bring moral obligation oh I I will I will bring up that that is where you should be so let me so so let me just give a little bit of context so Carol and I will meet again on Friday and we kind of need to do some rehearsal and figure out talking points I have a whole bunch of additional context bulleted stuff Q&A stuff like there's a lot more preparation that actually still needs to go into this as well as Carol and I do need to figure out how to divide and conquer how to how she can keep me from getting into trouble like those those kinds of things um so so there is there is work to do we did and have talked about and I have notes here for one potential additional slide um which came out of a conversation this afternoon around you know should we show at a high level what the impacts are likely to be to students in each individual school and the thinking be being here that we are asking parents to come to this meeting and vote they may have getting a notice from the superintendent or seen it in The Ledger or the Sentinel or something like that but are probably not following this on a meeting to meeting basis do we need to bring something a little bit more personal for you know uh Mrs Smith's fourth grader who may not really understand what any of these Cuts actually mean for her fourth grader and so we got to kind of work that through in the next 12 hours probably uh to figure out if that slide is going to hit or if we're just going to do it through um verbal commentary do it verbally y yeah or we can do it on slide Brian yeah thank you I think that was great uh just a few comments um in regards to what you just talked about I think you could potentially hit it up when you talk about all the staff in that section of Staff y here's all the high school here's all the Middle School here's turkey yel and then the the budget line items you could obviously hit up everybody there um the the slide that had additionally I don't know if you still have it up but the additionally slide I thought it might be good idea to mention how the Chromebooks are also that recurring cost I felt like that wasn't hit in there yep right as much not only is it not a recurring cost next year we have to we have to get to the Baseline we have to add the 75 in that we lost and then so that might be something I'll try to I don't know if I want to add wording to this or just add commentary but I it was in that one time un anticipated infrastruct Yeah you mentioned infrastructure costs but I'm like I want to get that Chromebook in there somewhere because you had said it in that Top Line but yeah so here's where here where it goes bu basis budget basis and support for for recurring cost yeah like Chromebooks or recurring cost parentheses Chromebook something like that yeah Chromebooks something like that that's I was thinking something fact feel free to it was it was part of my thinking on infrastructure but I you're right it should be stipulated because there is absolutely a recurring cost as part of that yeah and that's huge so I don't think I a few more sorry go and then uh I don't know if you you guys could discuss this too we can discuss it too but people are going to bring up oh just charge more fees to the kids and it's just it's not sustainable but I don't know how much you want to address that might be a Q&A that's the Q&A thing Q&A issue I don't know that I want may not want to introduce that idea come out they're not going to cue they're just going to rant I think it's coming I mean I think it's coming and we'll have to be thoughtful about what we respond to and what we don't respond to but also you know I mean we're informed by the discussions that we've had and um you know a budget is part of a process and we are at the point in the process where the budget is the budget and and what we are proposing we are being very specific in terms of what that is going to support and it it's also closely budgeted yeah yeah spelled out and then the last one I had and this was more of a process thing I didn't know if it was correct or not but the second to last slide I think it was it was asking about appropriating the funds yes having a special town meeting I didn't know if this I thought this town meeting was appropriating it and then no we're not so so this was a deliberate discussion that went on the part of the finance committee and the select board and to a lesser extent us so we voted if you recall I was the dissenting vote on a budget that was based on that budget number that I showed that is not inclusive of the override and that carried through into the Omnibus budget and that is the appropriated budget for this town meeting there are a couple different ways to do an override one is we could have brought forth an unbalanced budget and then just said we will address that if the override doesn't pass and the money would be already appropriated as a town our committee the finance committee the select board we chose not to do it that way but that does mean that if the override passes a special town meeting will have to be called to appropriate that money and we are going to be in a position this summer where we'll have to figure out BAS on the timing you know do we run unbalanced for a month or two or like you know based on whether that you know special town meeting can be brought into August and do we post positions like that those are all things that we're going to have to work through but I'm pretty confident that we can okay thank you yep um I would it was great um thank you you should be in sales I am I know um so I would like to see one slide what it means if the override doesn't pass specifically things like the class sizes at the high school class choices at the high school the mental health support buildings going unrepaired dirty buildings grass unmowed maintenance not being done I like I really would like a slide that drives home you are not going to have a school you will not be happy we will not have a school system you can be proud of if this override doesn't pass Carol has put together the beginnings of that slide and I think over the next well 12ish hours we can put that together yeah so yep that was the only thing that was kind of missing was the because it was it was very factual it was great but it's just missing that well then why should we vote for it this was a delicate balance between facts and emotion and cuz we had a lot facts from from um from anakah a lot of charts and you know but that's Overkill I I I don't think it's they're hard to follow they're hard to follow and you make numbers say anything I think it's good to connect the positions that are cut to the actual absolutely events that will happen so I like that okay this is class size is going to increase because we cut these teachers bold this yeah yeah yeah so we can okay are we okay with this then with the addition of that slide yes yes I think that's great yes please all right okay thank you very much for your support and thank you Carol yeah and Carol I think you need to do the emotional bit a little trees okay you have Lorax you're a teacher like he's a Salesman and you have you have this emotional power use it shame us a little bit is doing the right thing we will use that we will use that he's the number guy I'm the moral Authority educator guy there you go we'll we'll work on that that's Friday morning's job but we'll I'll figure out something on the slide and send it to you and then tomorrow morning you can send it back I have talked to Carol more this week than I've talked to my wife yeah Steve says you're going again like yeah yeah outside of the presentation I want I did want to ask is there going to be a handout the over statement handout will be available great so I did have um apparent reach out to me this week and ask or suggest that we put out another reminder similar to the one that we did a week or two ago on tomorrow or Friday the plan was to send that out um we debated about how you need to have a little lead time to be able to plan but if we send it too early people lose track and um we intend to send out the um onepage menu for what would be available for lunch um as well as provide that um uh additional information around the cost it's cash it's only available between 11 and 1 um and that uh supervision of children uh will be provided through the National Honor Society students and our student council students in the library um between the hours of 9: and 3 so that folks have that information um ahead of time and again we'll remind them that meeting starts at 99: um I can let them know that there there is a plan for overflow uh I wonder if you might I don't know if you can at this point but make it 8:30 because of what Tim was saying about everybody showing up at 9:00 or just say show up early to get registered because we the kids the high school kids will be there earlier than 9 my concern is if I say 8:30 and parents arrive at 8:30 and the kids aren't the kids their parents for long you know what I mean just say plan on arriving they'll be the kids will be there so that folks can get themselves into the registration is going to be a thing it's going to be a thing and and it's very prescribed if you have someone with you that is not a voter I don't think they'll be allowed in the auditorium you'll have to go to the Overflow you get a visitor badge if yeah they're they're going to that's not all because of the numbers because of the numbers so if if if you went with Evan uses an example as 12-year-old and 8-year-old his 12-year-old might want to speak up yeah where the 8-year-old needs to go to daycare so they said well you would have to have the 12-year-old go to the Overflow because of the clicker situation um they they can't take up the seat of a clicker okay so I I don't know just that's from what I gathered from watching last night a tremendous amount of thought and planning has got into this one absolutely God bless him they've really tried to come up with every possible scenario and we've been testing we've been testing Things From Here to Eternity for two weeks so okay um if that's it on the override anybody with a report or do we want to skip that due to the time in that we still have executive session no yes let's skip that all right we will skip that um topics for future discussion um I think we're pretty well set on that unless anybody has something else that we didn't mention then be a good good topic to discuss our meetings after the election what yeah what do what we're going to do and when the reorg is and when the Could you um Carol or um Dr Burnham I'm just thinking I'm just thinking out loud here so just bear with me um I I am increasingly concerned about the superintendent's evaluation based on the complexity of the process and the timing and all that sort of thing so if you could just kind of give us some sort of written here's the game plan I think that would be helpful because I'm starting to get and I don't want to discuss it tonight other than to express my no no anxiety I can't do anything until after all this is right sorry yep but but for the next meeting I'll have I have to this by such and such a date you better get on it or even if you can put in an email or something just I think a schedule email is all right yeah cuz I'm let let me get through yeah Saturday and then yeah okay so then I would look for a motion to adjourn into executive session not to come back to General Session again I make a motion to adjourn second after exe two executive sessions sessions okay all those in favor I