we're ready Mr Mayor okay uh good afternoon call to order the committee of the ho meeting for Monday June 3rd 2024 four we all rise and salute the flag flag United States Amica stands Nation thank you call Mrs bronston Rizzo here Mr cajano here Mr Kingston here Mr Mata here miss Milbury Ellis pres miss monteroso here mayor Keefe here so good afternoon everyone to tonight today we are discussing the uh Ways and Means subcommittee so we have the budget to go over and um re for I'm going to request that the uh chairman for the ways means presents the budget we're going to do we're going to open up the hearing first mayor and any speakers if you want to open that up and then we'll pass it over okay great so if you want I can read the notice of public hearing that was in the newspaper for the last two weeks if that's helpful would you can't read that for me Dr Kelly sure uh this notice has been in the rier journal and the rier advocate for um the last two weeks now it uh States notice is hereby given in accordance with the provisions of section 38n of chapter 71 of the Massachusetts general laws that the rier school committee will conduct a public hearing on Monday June 3rd 2024 at 3 p.m. in the Emanuel M fanti school committee room and Via Zoom located on the first floor of Rivia High School 101 School Street relative to the Rivia Public Schools proposed fiscal year 2024 2025 School operating budget all interested persons will be given the opportunity to be heard for or against the whole or any part of the proposed budget and I will just make note that there are no members of the public present in the school committee room and I don't see anybody on the zoom other than the school committee members well thank you Dr Kelly um so at this point uh in time during the open meeting I would like to open it up to any uh anyone in the uh viewing audience and or uh on uh Zoom to uh uh to any opponents any opponents um wishing to speak okay seeing and hearing none we're going to close that side of the hearing and this time we opening up open this up to any prop points in the audience or digital audience as well wish to speak Mr Mayor if I could speak as a proponent for just a a moment um I can say that our team especially uh Mr Cruz who's at CFO has done unbelievable work along with the school committee especially the subcommittee on Ways and Means who has been very helpful to us throughout this process our budget this year was not the same kind of enormous increase that we saw in previous years it was still an increase which is great um but after we take into count to account the new costs of level Services due to inflation and everything else um and we pull in a number of Staff members that we had previously been funding under our Essa grants which have now gone away um we had very little room to play with um we did prioritize increasing Staffing at the middle school level the continued reorganization of our special education services program and increas in Staffing for our English learner programs strengthening our Early Childhood Program with a large Grant investment for the McKinley building and also with the director the hiring of a director of The Early Childhood programs and finally um the purchase or the lease of portable classrooms to alleviate the overcrowding at rier high school um I'm very much in favor of this budget I feel like it's responsible and still meets the priorities and needs of the school district thank you very much Dr Kelly do we have any other Pro opponents in the audience or on digital and or in person wishing to speak okay do not see any or hear any so you're seeing and hearing none we're going to close that side of the hearing and uh also we have committee members I know that uh chairman Kingston uh chair the ways and means subcommittee correct yes sir thank you Mr Kingston I would just like to thank um Mr Cruz and his staff and central office and their staff for all their uh hard work on the budget I concur with Dr Kelly I I think it's a good document and I'm looking forward to voting on the series thank you thank you Mr Kingson and I assume the the budget that's being presented this evening was proved favorably by The Chair by by the by the committee yes it was great um and just for the viewing audience this um this is slightly a special meeting although uh advertised in time with the the purpose to have this U uh additional meet committee meeting was to ensure that when the budget is presented to the city council that we actually had an approved budget presented to the city council uh rather than have a a kind of a an unapproved budget going in front of them so this was U getting everyone together to uh um vote on the budget before the city council had a chance to see which is good which is good practice so any other committee members I I I can't see you all personally but if anyone has any uh anything to add on on the budgetary process before we go down the list and have M Mr Cruz uh Mr chair may I be recognized M Miss monteroso I think I just wanted to Echo everyone's sentiments we're currently you know the Commonwealth I see in the news every day different districts have deficits or cutting staff or letting people go but we have such a strong district and our CFO and our district team and our ways and means subcommittee just year after year have really helped this District Excel to meet the needs of our students in our school so in a area where we really are becoming outliers and being financially sustainable and good stewards of our resources I just want to thank our team for bringing us through another budget cycle great comments let's move on any other committee members wishing to speak okay um Mr Cruz I'm actually handing that over to Mr Kingston to lead the actual vote of the committee yes um we'll be voting in series I'll give out the numbers for that particular series and then we'll vote on them uh one by one um the only thing I'd like to add is there may be a particular series that some school committee MERS can can't vote on um it doesn't necessarily mean they don't agree with it it's be due to a conflict that they may not be able to vote on it I just want to make that clear to the viewing public thank you thank you for your Clarity uh series 1000 Administration salary 2 thou 2,486 218 non salary $1,261 599 all those in favor of appropriating those amounts in salary and non-salary expense for administration John can you just also read the the total I don't for each of the series I um it's all the way to the rightor so that we get the salary non and then total total of 3,747 817 okay so we're on Zoom we need a roll call correct yeah I believe so and we do yeah we do anyway for for that amount of money so moved second Mrs bronston Rizzo yes Mr kajo yes Mr Kingston yes Mr Mata yes Mrs Milbury Ellis yes Miss monteroso yes mayor Keef yes Series 2000 instructional Services salary 79,2 38 non-salary 4,299 366 for a total of 83,1 10,604 so moved second Mrs Bronson sorry I think someone else has to make that motion motion to approve second Mrs bronston Rizzo not voting Mr cajano yes Mr Kingston not voting Mr Mata yes no not voting excuse me not voting Mrs milberry Ellis yes Mrs monteroso yes mayor Keith yes series 3000 other student services salary 5 ,1 182,183 43,372 825 13 million sorry 13,825 674 so moved second second Mrs bronston Rizzo yeah Mr cajano yes Mr Kingston yes Mr mat yes Mrs milberry Ellis yes Miss monteroso yes mayor Keefe yes series 4,000 operation of plant and maintenance salary 2,666 6 2,662 36 non salary 7,714 72 for a total of 9,731 78 so mov D second Mrs bronston Rizzo yes Mr cajano yes Mr Kingston yes Mr Mata yes Mrs milberry Ellis yes Miss monteroso yes mayor Keefe yes series 5,000 employee benefits and insurance salary $276,500 non salary $1,987 for a total of 1 million 37525 so moved second Mrs bronston Rizzo not voting Mr cajano yes Mr Kingston yes Mr mat sorry I'll just have people track their own conflict of interest but if someone has a can we have Mr Cruz speak on this he just said something I'm sorry I should have addressed that to the committee members who were on the YouTube but he gave us some instruction just before the meeting started if you could repeat that for those on the on the YouTube in your approval of the 5,000 series you're not dealing with pension or health insurance items those funds are being appropriated by the council and held back from your appropriation so the only items here are things like retirement incentives sick leave buyback unemployment workers compensation so you're most likely free to vote on the serious thank you unless you retire so I believe the motion was made by Mrs monteroso and seconded by um Mr Kingston and can we just do the roll call again Mrs bronston Rizzo yeah Mr cajano yes Mr Kingston yes Mr Mata yes Mrs milberry Ellis yes Miss monteroso yes mayor Keef yes series 7,000 building improvements salary is zero non salary 100,000 for a total of 100,000 so moved second Mrs bronston Rizzo yes Mr cajano yes Mr Kingston yes Mr Mata yes Mrs milberry Ellis yes Miss monteroso yes mayor Keefe yes series 9,000 programs with other schools salary is zero non-salary ,on 93563 for a total of 14, 93563 so moved second Mrs bronston Rizzo yes Mr cajano yes Mr Kingston yes Mr Mata yes Mrs milber Ellis yes Mrs monteroso yes mayor Keef yes the school department total budget salary 89 m716 1853 non salary 36,5 67,69 for a total budget of $126 m284 616 so moved second Mrs bronston Rizzo yes Mr cajano yes Mr Kingston yes Mr Mata yes Mrs milberry Ellis yes Miss monteroso yes mayor Keef yes Mo this best no motion to adj thank you all very much motion to adjourn there nothing I don't believe there's anything else on the agenda motion to adourn Mr chairman second roll call Mrs bronston Rizzo yes Mr cajano yes Mr Kingston yes Mr Mata yes Mrs Milbury Ellis yes Miss monteroso yes mayor Keef yes we will adjourn until the next scheduled meeting uh thank you very much to the subcommittee and all the members for attending uh getting this budget through thank have a good afternoon everyone