##VIDEO ID:Kv3jiPY6m28## all right 7 o' second second [Music] fav we'll do a roll call to establish or just say your name to establish quum Frank mcti here Jane case here Richard Keys Erica Jacobson establish that fincom has a quorum to open our meeting okay to the flag of the United States of America and to the repic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible Liberty Justice for All okay uh we have one agenda item tonight it's a joint meeting with the finance committee uh I'm also going to just say that we're going to do we have public comment to start seeing no members of the public here um I don't think we need to do it but I just want to acknowledge that we did have it it listed as an agenda item that members of the public May address us up to three minutes if they are here there is no one here also we have had no written or email Communications received by the finance committee since the last perfect okay so since this is a joint meeting of the select board in the finance committee with one item of old business which was to review and discuss the alternative assessment presentation from Thursday May 23rd um 6:30 at the Ry fire department this is a district communication meeting to share information about funding and potential alternative assessment ideas for the Triton Regional School District um we need to collaborate as board uh two boards the select board and the finance committee decide a recommendation on whether or not to move forward with an alternative assessment and um the two DCC members Les one of them Jeff is the other um we'll bring that vote of ours back to the next DCC meeting all the three towns were T you want the close stairs getting out of work the Council on Aging they had a Halloween part so did everyone get an opportunity to review I think everybody here was at that meeting as well yes yes yes and um you all had an opportunity to review so I guess I'll take comments do you mind if I st with my board ER absolutely go for um Bill do you have any comments um and I I rehashed it again watching it and um I just keep hearing Frank vonti at the original meeting saying this is Dead on Arrival yeah um I mean it's I I can understand why they want to look at it just as Woody and the towns would like us to look at that agreement but um I don't personally I don't think it's going to go any it can't go any place it's unacceptable okay Leslie I kind of have mixed emotions about it okay um the formula that we're using right now works but can it be improved upon and that's kind of how I'm we need to see you know but then you have to go fix it oh it is broke how many how many other communities are have G with the you know changing of the formula there's been a few a few but whether or not they actually have ever used it so there's remember there's two steps to is that number one we' need to codify it in the regional agreement as an alternative so that would need to pass all three towns and the state and the state yeah we'd have to pass all three towns Commission of Education the commissioner of Education would have to then also say it's okay to have in our regional agreement and then anytime we want to use it it has to pass all three towns that year so it's not an automatic no and that oh is the largest stone block yeah I think narissa has stated because I've been part of this committee for many years and um when she did her research and she did a lot of research and she asked a lot of Regional School Districts most of them are two District Two Town districts um that have an alternative assessment they have it they've never used it because it has to be approved by both and that's that's the Achilles heel I guess in this is that we're going to we being the town of Newbury will have to go to our legislative body or town meeting members and explain to them why we think it's acceptable to subsidize another community's education program when they have the option not to I I see it dead on me I do have to say the content of the presentation that was done originally was was incredible did a great job I mean it was uh visualizing the data yeah yeah seriously I mean anyone anyone in the public who watches that tape would really get an education I think understand it any I open it up I'll start anybody on our board that wants to start I will I have two I have a couple of concerns one of my concerns I'm I'm not this this probably is not the answer but what do what is what is the and I'm assuming there's some sense that this is not going to be the answer so what what is the next step so can I because there are concerns I have a concern and I'll share it one is that currently historically if you look back at the budget school budget I go way back yeah how long years there's a tendency to try to satisfy the town that has the most difficulty meeting their budget and you know who gets screw and play English the kids and if you if you track that over time there's a sign there'd be a significant gap between where they could have been you know it's not every year but it's happened yeah so I have a question I need clarify I'm not sure how to address that but I have a clarifying question for what you just said when you said this isn't the answer what is this that specific equation formula or the whole well I don't think the answer is in here um and I don't know what it is to be honest with you um because of the nature of the Town there's there's still a sense of Nu's Nu there's no sense of Triton as the district right and in other parts of the country the school district is in is in itself the taxing agent right they develop their own budget they bring it to the communities if there's 10 communities five communities or whoever and they vote that's how that's how they you know in the midwest they do that frequently the other thing that I the other point I wanted to make was I know there's some concern about averaging the 3 years or 5 years but that one element in the existing agreement could still take place what that does it doesn't it mitigates the spikes up and down it mitigates over time you're going to pay the same but it mitigates if 30 kids move into nuber okay there's going to be a spike if if that 30 is is part of an average of the last two or three years it's not going to be as great as SP well I just want to share with you guys that newb has a high enrollment this year it's over 60 students have started in kindergarten so there'll be a spike we're going to get it yeah yeah and if and if it was if there was an averaging of three or four or five years then would be as great for either way up or down m i mean if if new happen to go down if you go down one year the town says oh we have money then you then you use that money elsewhere then next year it goes up so well I thought Frank's interest Frank's comment at that meeting was interesting about setting aside a separate fund yeah I I just think that look anything that a couple of points one Jean's absolutely right about in some places the school district is the taxing body they they set the rules this is what it's going to be you pay we don't have that that's not going to change this is what it is and that's that so we have to work within our reality our reality is anything that requires unanimity is always going to feel like two wolves and a sheep deciding what to have for lunch and you will not reach unanimity period i to me that's a given but I realize it is in realm of possibility I I do not believe it will ever happen I also do not believe that any Town should be ultimately the the judge and jury over how another town manages its finances I just don't think it's viable so my feeling is that we three towns individually are are responsible for our bookkeeping and if I understood the objectives of this I me I this has been what 12 years or something in the making but the objective ultimately is is one that is necessary right it's to what J was is referring to it is to remove the shock wave that happens when your enrollment spikes or what have and to also oversee Prudence when Good Fortune Smiles upon you and your numbers are down for a year we cannot oversee what Salsbury Raleigh does with their finances in those cases and they will never agree to that and and likewise where the tables turned it just won't happen so but the concept and the need behind the entirety of this movement is very valid so some means of creating a school Bank in the year in the Years each individual town does this in the years that you're down however much it is below the moving average then maybe that's how much you have to put away and not have to but you will by your town however you structure it in your town you will put that amount away it may be that your your uh um demographics are such that that it's not needed for a very long time but at some point it will be needed and you will be ready and you will also be less inclined to when the scary number comes from the school district to say well you we that that x amount per we can't pay that you've taken the shock wave out of it you'll still get your nice aers those people won't go away but my concern with that is we have Financial policies that say we don't want onetime source of funds and even if we were to put money aside that only leave the stop gap for that one year the following year Maybe not maybe not but that's that's a role of the dice right maybe we'll get but it's at least it's some Governor around fiscal Prudence that I believe can be achieved in our reality versus um going to the going to the table once again for trying to get three towns to agree on something in which one will invariably be perceived as a loser you know um it simply won't it's it's if you want to cushion if you want a rainy day fund you have to build a day period and and the idea that that um we're going to get everybody degree as to how to do that and we're all going to follow the rules I just don't think it's viable I just don't think it's viable and I'm all for the creation of a rainy day fund I'm all for um not that not that we spend you know like drunken Sailors in the event that the that the Triton number is L but maybe if you have something in place that says well you know we're this this much am we're this much lower than the three-year moving average so this is how much we can put away and maybe this this and this don't get picked up this year because that number is still accounted for um but however you want to do it or however you don't want to do it at least it's something you control it is your future it is it is your fiscal policy and and it doesn't require unanimity to achieve it so if I'm missing something about the objective area if there's more to it than that then please do no I think the objective is and I defer the people who are actually at the DCC I'm no longer on it I just didn't kind of keeper of data um is whether or not is it to pursue the 5% or the 5year rolling average formula as the or just to keep looking at an alternative assessment what's the I don't think they mentioned it they just said the alternative assessment at at the last DC I thought it was whether to continue looking looking meeting and putting time and effort into it that was my understanding right I mean how many formulas did you look at oh my God a lot so many yeah I'd like to hear like I I'm holding my thoughts for a little bit so I I just I think comes that to do you want to do something or do you not want to do something I I believe that continuing to pursue an alternative assessment formula regardless of how many formulas you investigate that requires unanimity it's it's just it's just not going to happen so if you want to do something you have to do it in your town and um will you still have issues every time the budget comes out yeah absolutely the time you ask people to reach for their wallet going to be issues I promise but maybe there's a little less when was a little bit started up and and actually it doesn't impact my tax bill this year okay so what's most important school gets their budget pass because the number comes up to $33 per house you know per average house like all right we can handle that uh I I just think that the only way that you get to the week can handle that on behalf of taxpayers is because you've done some ready day but that would be foru yep we could we don't control we we and nothing we can do ever will yeah as long as you get two towns pass the budget well and and it could be that that two out of three towns decide to adopt a policy that puts a away any day money I don't that I think that's happened once or twice I'm not sure the other towns have two pass one didn't but then there was some sort of compromise you know easier to do that there used to be a I I think I heard in the meeting when I watched it again there used to be a rolling average and it out was oh yes it disappeared in the state formula yeah somehow it was in the state formula no the rolling average was prior to the state formula no it was in the in the agreement it was in the agreement yeah and then it disappeared without a vote so I don't know isn't that interesting I think I would say cuz I don't remember I pretty with the schools it was under Garing I think so and and that's when the district became K12 so there might have been some changes in that agreement maybe that's where it happened you know because it had the agreement had to change because it went from from U 712 to K12 was that in the 90s oh gosh Come I don't know I didn't I was actually I was on school commit when it happened anyway you have any feedback well my feedback is youve identified a problem we know we have to address it it's just how we do it and all the programs previous life was we always had some management Reserve sitting there ready because we know something's going to come up and U so the idea a of a separate budget sitting there ready to go is to me good as Erica put all the data out you can see it fluctuates yeah to the BR J there but we need something there's nothing it says we could do both one is as a town the other if the district this would this is a District's issue you're rolling average to work if that's what they if if that is a way to go in some way but probably yeah but ER has got some things to say I know I I think that a couple of the points that I think that I personally hold is that I believe that the um that all three towns need to start thinking about it just expecting expecting that the Triton budget is going to go up anywhere from 5 to 10% a year yes we have to just take that as fact yes anyone who thinks it's going to go down and rally is always like we have were students it should go down it's not because the hard costs stay the same so I think we need to at this point in the year right now start to say what did we pay last year and expect to pay at least five to 10% more and how do we what else in our budget's going to have to get hit and I think that I agree with Frank I don't I I I have sat in the small room I've sat in the big rooms I've looked at these numbers for hours outside of the meetings I don't know how to sell Newberry residents to pass putting an alternative assessment that would have cost us more than $500,000 over the last five years yeah that and if you go longer it's asking people so that I just don't see that as fine because it also has path rally and rally has the same thing Salsbury is the one that says yeah thank you right now the way the numbers work we've been like if this formula had been used over the last five years we would have saved $1.3 million those two things like that's the part that I can't put myself in the the position of a town meeting constituent to say yes sign me up for paying more for exactly the same thing that's the r for sure so that's where I see The Challenge on this is that I don't see any solution that as we look back it's going to pass all three towns and so that's where I like I feel like that's why I think we walked away from this process two years ago and said we looked at it all the ways and the that that small group if there's a group that wants to take it up and go again that's great I'll send you my files but I just I just don't see how we can pass that I do if there is a way we could build into our I think that I think that looking this year looking for what FY 2026 is knowing that what we heard about the we don't have the official enrollment numbers cuz guess what October 1st is the day that this is the day but it doesn't matter what we see on paper in the district we don't know until January February so we can't even say we know what it is but we can Hazard that our that second part of the formula that percent above minimum where we do it by enrollment we can expect that we're going to have a slightly bigger piece of that pie what we don't know is what the state is going to say for our minimum local contribution and that's the thing that hit us last year was it wasn't our percentage it was our minimum local contribution so we should pretty much say I think it's going to be where it was last year or higher think it's going to be higher I think it's going to be higher I think that the demographics of the houses that are being built and what's being sold it's going to just keep saying we owe a little bit more component the wealth component is also going to put us there so if I'm you know asked to say what should we do this year I think we should expect to go up by 10% on what we what we were asked to pay last year and have to start thinking that our budget is going to start there or we have to talk about how do we get an override to do that and it's a horrible word I know people don't want to hear it but we haven't done one for education in I'm going to say I'm going to go back 10 years at least no we passed a small one we may have done a small the other maybe about seven years ago did a small teeny toy one was like $250,000 it pass in new it failed in the other two two towns so yeah so that's the thing is that we like we have to think about how we deal with this structurally going forward because we're not going to see the new growth numbers to be able to say oh we're going to get more revenues because there's more there's we're increasing our tax base that's not going to happen right in but any significant we always take 50% of whatever that new growth number and put it towards the know that that's already there but well you have Capital coming too that's yeah and that's the thing is that I feel like if I'm thinking about the things that I already know are on our Horizon spending time debating this is going to waste a lot of people's time and attention it'll be too that's the thing is I feel like we if we're going to like I would feel are putting the time and attention of the people who would have to think through how to do this on the how do we solve the building crisis how do we help solve the other Capital needs like within Newberry but with if we're going to spend our time about Triton and how we think of our education let's put it on the things that we know we can accomplish this feels like a Fool's a that makes sense that makes a lot of sense I attended a facilities meeting today with with um for Triton and they looked at the um we had the architect look at what they're looking at it's still there's no it's not near being done but I'll just give you guys a quick upate since we're talking about about Tren monies um they're still going to come back and look at something more but if the msba doesn't welcome the district into their you know realm in December um they're looking at what an alternative would look like if we decide to go with a loan you know the roof because the roof is needs work and there internals the bathrooms is what is a whole L gone so that's that's coming so there's Capital needs there's there's this I don't even want to say the alternative assessment but just our assessment I expect what Erica is saying I I think budgeting 10% would be wise and see where it's going to go and I think we should look at that early because I think it's going to be significant issue I think that we should assume that those cits are coming no matter what they're coming because even if even if all the stars aligned and everything lined up beautifully you're still seven or eight years till Le take a shot the ground you know uh and and that facility is falling apart so you are going to spend some money over there regardless of what transpires with the state or whatever else struggling with you know do you put a roof just put a roof on a building that needs to be renovated it's like throwing good money after bed so that's where the struggle lies right um the other piece of this formula is the Commonwealth um that's I know it's but they're aware of it they're aware of it there's that I have to follow up with Brian to see where those two um but I those two um bills were but I think Bruce put something in there to look at this they are aware as long as I keep hearing it and I know more rural communities across the state are this is happening to because this is unsustainable for us we can't continue down this road we just cannot so I don't think an alternative assessment is the is the answer because it's just taking the pie and slicing it differently the pie is getting bigger and we can't it's not sustainable it's going to bury us and we're not alone so we just still need to fight with them and screen so at the DCC meeting they did said last year 95 it 95 districts put in for funding from the state this year it's 45 and they don't know if people just gave up because they they kep put any mspa yeah so maybe some of those Stars will line up yeah theba comes in you we still have to Pony up something right oh yeah but then they said well 45 doesn't make any difference you had to be in the in the group they don't know how much money's in there last year they one of the schools concrete was falling down so they had to go fix that so well that was you know when when the woodier video went out that s through the woodier video fail's video it was all better than TR they were like oh look at this look at this I was like that's better than train that's better than train that's better than train across the board and and that's not to take anything away from wood I understand W is in need of facility or repairs or whatever it is they're going to do over there but every single element they pointed to I could have provided a Counterpoint for Tron that was significantly worse um it's yeah and that's where our students go it's yeah they it impacts them every day it impacts them from the moment they walk in there there's not a sense of it's It's the the the feeling of students who have recently graduated and who are there is that we don't matter our bathrooms don't work nobody cares it it was like that when my kids were there and that's yeah and is that so then your it's just it's does it make them want to come back can be proud I know and it's hard when you have a Regional School District to have that school pride because I grew up in a municipality and we with the Winchester agents I mean it was the W Tanners I mean you have that you don't with the new report CL right so you don't have and it's hard not pill battle anyway but I think Whittier is going to come together outside the box I really think that is a good thing and my hope is that this alternative assessment will fix itself over the course of the next 5 to 10 years through the Commonwealth because I think they they've they've stepped away from their obligation to public education I strongly believe that that's why they should be providing some semblance of relief right however it is he won't do that that's right if we have been screwed for decad right um but we need people fighting for that and that's you know the entire time through the present watching you and excellent across the board everything was truly excellent data visualization better than anything you ever seen any the municipal meetings really excellent and the entire time I'm thinking we have these awesome people doing all this work on this kotan task windmills like for what um when when really we need to provide some conduit for these people to do this kind of work where it can matter they can affect have to get to the state level at this because perpetually squeezing homeowners is is a waste of time you know ESP the the amount of people that are aging out in the community yeah and so they don't have the same kind of know inhome investment into the school system as as John fin still and we we we g into more we're surviving on less money than when we were all working and I said it before eventually we won't even be able to I mean we may be able to override out of this a little bit a little bit a little bit but eventually we won't be able to override ourselves out of it at all yeah right it's going to eat up all of us the all of the town's operating budget yep so it's we we're feeding upon ourselves so I'll call Bru on on my way home okay so I guess I will entertain a motion that the town of Newbury um recommend discontinuing the purs exercise or pursuit of an alternative assessment for the time discontinu it discontinu it yeah is there a second second all in favor thank you finance committee move move to a Jour move to aour all in favor