##VIDEO ID:ZOqpSMuLLqw## e e e e e e e e e e my b hello hey by hi hey George how are you good I was gonna ask you a question before the meeting here about blueberries do you feed them in the fall I feed him in spring in Spring H yeah yeah um yeah have a good year this year I had a great year this year um still got a problem with the fungus but um oh yeah that's every year and um usually it's under control but I think the what I was using um was a little old and wasn't as effective but we still had a bumper crop we never had more blueberries than we've had this year what was the how's this fungus manifest itself um the blueberry it's called mummy Berry you can look it up um what happens is the Mumy before they turn purple they start to shrivel up they get pink and then they go to an all white and they become really hard oh I try to pick them off when I see them and this year I picked off a lot yeah but like I said we had a lot of blueberries this year and we did really well yeah we did too we didn't protect our berries and we had a lot of turkeys and other birds but you know our plants are a lot younger than yours but you know they did pretty well birds are the Bane I mean they're just the toughest thing I love birds but I I want my share too you know well I get to see all kinds of birds you know you like bird watching get blue bird oh berries yeah yeah so anyway yeah we we did pretty well too I had one Bush that had some berries that looked like you described so just one Bush though oh well that's good yeah yeah um you can go online read about mummy Berry you'll learn mummy like uh like Egyptian mummy m u mm y okay I'll look it up thanks hey folks hi AJ nice office AJ bit of a crazy week yeah how are you doing are you in this part of the country at all are you far away I am I'm in New Haven right now nice far away yeah yeah but I'm back uh tomorrow ah sounds crazy all right let's see I think we're just waiting on Jim right uh maybe should call yeah would you mind Bob hello I have to say it was nice seeing people in person the other day at a meeting it's it's like I missed that so who was able to go uh everybody but Bob and you right okay good Jim was there and be was there and two members from well Ann herd was there and so was um Jeremy from the school committee Jeremy may you I guess I'll just call the meeting to signing in okay great good so I think I mentioned in my email I think this will be a shorter meeting um since I don't think think there's um unless you unless folks have other topics um the only thing I have on the agenda is the uh debrief the the four towns meeting um very interested in hearing what uh what people thought of it um and then um we'll we'll review some minutes and I think that that might be it for tonight hi Jim how uh all right so why why don't we just kind of quickly dispense with the minutes from uh September 17th Jim yeah just a minor George Section Five uh f it should be OPB with a b and not a d oh thank you yep just I just noticed um in section three the budget request form to specify that it should be returned yep yeah thank you and then really minor in section 4 c22 yeah just capitalize the eye yep you got it and then one other little tiny thing unless I'm wrong in five um the emergency phone overspend I think should be 8071 maybe oh okay well maybe let's look no unless I was re you know unless I'm looking at the wrong oh yeah you're looking at it right now yeah okay if you that if that's that's what it is okay changed that's it from me great I feel so nitpicky I feel like Sister Mary Margaret nit call you that if like no I had enough of that believe me please nitpick I don't take it personal it's you should be right good anybody else have any suggestions or questions I didn't have any okay seeing none I'll I'll make a motion to uh approve the September 17th minutes as amended second oh Bob I think you're muted sorry Groves Upstate Heming way I Ashu I moer I Salvador I and Stein I okay great and George um do do you know like have you been do you know to send these minutes after their oh yeah I take care of it yes I do I used to do on the Personnel Board so I send so you know the deal yeah she gets real quick yeah okay perfect thanks you're welcome all right okay um so why don't we dive into the four towns meeting um and uh so I think Bob and I were the uh only folks that couldn't make it um Bob I don't know if you had a chance but there is a recording of the meeting if you did want to watch it although we did get the slides um Becky had sent those around uh there is on on YouTube I had a chance to watch it unfortunately it didn't include any discussion that you guys might have had after the town breakout so I don't know if there was much of a discussion but you guys can fill me in I I think it was added later I went in to watch it and it said it was under I won't say under I'll say under construction I'm not sure what the word was but I couldn't run the video and then I ran it and I went to the end and our comments from the four towns were all there oh okay so maybe they added that later okay got it um all right so I mean I I'll just kind of open the floor to anybody that wanted wants to kind of share well maybe I'll ask the question was there any particular feedback provided by um any of our uh reps that were in attendance that would be worth kind of sharing with Bob and I since we we weren't there no really okay well so she gave her presentation and you saw it in the U you you saw the the document the um deck and then she asked us the caucus and we and shutesbury caucus um the select board school committee finance committee and um basically we all felt like you know after watching the presentation that taking the B down just didn't make sense and um so basically we did tell the town we know it's early we know that there's a lot to be done still but we don't agree with adjusting the base down and and I'll say the one scenario she didn't run was leaving the base but a 0% increase um which I guess she doesn't really need to we can do the math it's a $2.7 million deficit but um it would have been interesting to see that because Amis at the end um did pelum said the same thing as us pelum I'm sorry Leverett said the same thing as us Leverett said we don't see any point in lowering the base that's where we are pelum had no comment because pelum um John tricky wasn't there and the rest of the Committees didn't want to address it so they said thank you for your nice presentation and ammer you know amous wanted to see more information they wanted to see population data and um they're promis they were promised that um promis um not just population totals but by different demographics they really want to understand the trends and sped spending and that kind of thing and then after the towns commented they came back and said we don't have that $355,000 extra we paid last year and we're not going to be able to you know finance a budget at the level we had last year basically is what they said so those were the comments got it so George can you tell me what the next move is according to the people running the meeting the superintendent or Doug what's the next Pro process yeah I I I they don't expect to have another fourtown meetings meeting before November and it probably might even be into December I think is what I heard and then um you know they're going to do more number crunching and more negoti the school committee I think is going to be meeting um but not really no um if we have questions we might want to submit those questions for them but um so there was there's no there was no um sort of structural uh potential solution that didn't involve consolidating the middle and high school that that was disced us right or that's that's her that's her solution she seems pretty committed to well it's the only way she's gonna come up with it's the only way that I I think the way she was putting it is you know she's talking about meeting basic needs and in her mind the only way we're gonna oh you fro just lost J froze it wasn't this time Su I see your hand up why don't you you lost me yeah oh yeah we lost you we don't know what you said for a minute or 30 okay am I here now y you are it says my internet connection is unstable just like me so um I don't know where so only way he said only way I think oh yeah so the superintendent think I mean what I got out of it was the superintendent believes that the only way that she's going to meet the basic needs of the students with a decreased budget is through savings um from consolidating the schools and she did have if you look at the deck she has some other things above and beyond the $2.3 million $2.4 million that consolidation can bring us um you know she does have some other things but in her mind she could keep her programs she could keep the level of Education as is by consolidating the schools and if they don't consolid and if they can't consolidate the schools they're going to be cutting into a lot of things so with the reaction to that proposal of structural reform was generally favorable or or what yeah I don't know I mean there it wasn't oh go ahead Susie you've got your hand up yeah Susie why you Chim in so one thing that I took away is that the school committee met on like Tuesday and there was there's a BCG committee or whatever there was some meeting and at the very end of that week they came up with some of this direction it wasn't I don't believe it was the direction that had come out of at all from the school committee no it was a bit of a surprise for us it wasn't in the deck um it felt like she was working with some people and they felt this was the direction to take but she would um acknowledge that it hadn't been very fleshed out yet and so in some ways I felt we were being told we're figuring this out don't put a lot of effort into reacting because we don't know all about it yet um it was a little alarming to me today to read in The Gazette Scott murbach saying that um when they considered consolidating the buildings in 2019 they ran into the idea that they needed a different water sprinkers fire sprinkler system that would cost three to four millionar and that perhaps that had derailed some of this in the past for her to come up with it now she might have a way around that or she might have but it was it was very clear that this was new to her on that Saturday and that we need to wait until they um keep working on what this actually looks like um consolidating the staff at in all levels which it felt to me like she they the people that she worked with made an effort to sort of tap every level which they're also calling performance-based budgeting so I'm not sure how um how they came up with those uh different staff cuts and I I didn't understand during the meeting that it was all in terms of consolidating the building but as I process the deck today and remember we didn't see those slides she's just up on the screen and we're like on so um today it makes me feel like yeah this is all this um 2 almost $4 million is based on bringing them into one building and of course people raise things like well so how does the sixth grade fit into that model are you talking about bringing them into also the SE the um High School building or are you talking about something else so they're thinking about it they're figuring it out um I got to say um Doug Slaughter is on administrative leave so he is not he was not there and yeah I noticed that I was wondering I don't know what his input to this is um he won't have one he won't have one so you you know the words administrative leave in in my mind is that he is um it's not because he's taking a personal vacation I don't know what it means but what it does what I do think it means he's not in this planning part or not significant in this planning part so when Scott murbach puts that in the paper it feels like that's sort of the flag this is coming from a new person it may be the opportunity to charge down that road like John tricky had suggested last year and other people had suggested in the past and it might take having a brand new person but it's a brand new it's not a fleshed out idea so we um so it'd be interesting to see because there's apparently multiple committees involved in thinking it's not only you know ammer fincom and ammer toown Council and this Budget Group that coordinating group or something yeah oh is that what the C stands for I think so um and then it's the superintendent's office because it's their um Bailey Wick they got to figure it out so I would say how many minute meetings can you CR cram in between here and the next one where we're all sitting together and they have more specifics but she basically said they spent two intense days before Saturday to come up with what they and it needs more thinking there seemed to be a there was a a woman that was supporting her with some of the details is is that like an inter budon from Finance okay so is she is she functioning as kind of an interim budget she was last they were in the office last year with Doug Katie and Shannon got it okay all right um Jim I see your hand up yeah I was wondering George perhaps can answer this best um are the numbers that appeared on these sheets you know all these possibilities do they reflect um our our um Arrangement historically with um you know the the are the numbers accurate or you know in terms of the way we have been calculating um our contribution in the past if if anyone knows that the answer to that well they're straight percentage increases right depending on the scenario that that that are being applied um to everyone's fy2 budget so that's actually yeah there's there's no yeah the right and that was actually one of my questions I wanted to throw out and see if this was even possible I had the thought that could we and maybe we need to do this ourselves but is what would this budget look like if we actually applied the modified statutory method let's say without guard rails just to see how it plays out if we used the the the total assessment required from that scenario one the one that she presented as kind of the the only scenario that resulted in a surplus and not a deficit and I was wondering like I don't know maybe if I wanted to kind of throw it out perhaps to George um like if if if we thought it it was possible to kind of reverse engineer a um kind of a budget with assessments that um that actually applied yeah that applied that the method method the statutory methodology but to but to a total budget that is um the number which I think is 24 million 199 246 that was the total assessment required by scenario one do you think it would even be possible for us to do that or would we need the support from the finance people to actually do that uh yeah I'm I don't know I'd have to sit down I mean if if if everybody was hitting the guard rail on the first scenario it's a 4% increase and if everybody was hitting the guard rail it's a simple math it's 4% right but if um we take the total budget that she's showing under each of these scenarios and subtract out the revenue if we C if we can figure out what she's using for Revenue numbers I'm not sure if that was in there I know she showed 12 million yeah 12, 160 yeah she did so then yeah we could take for each of those yeah I probably could camera here's what and she she also Katie or Shannon which I think it was Katie they said every they hadn't done that and it wasn't like we're not gonna do it and um ammer wondered about the guard rail model and the options so clearly we can ask the business office to pay attention and give us those numbers we don't have to do it ourselves all right so just to clarify what what I'm asking is if if if we took this um uh like this number right here right this is the total assessment required right um and we actually used our um you know our modified statutory method to to to calculate a contribution for each town right the average increase across all four towns is going to be a 4% increase because that's what this that's where this number comes from but but for some towns it would be above four and for others including us it probably would be below four but anyway I just thought it would be an a good exercise for us to kind of know even for no other reason than to know like how much are we deviating from our modified statutory method by by going with this budget where we just apply a 4% guard rail to everybody so so the so to just answer your question um yes I can do that that that's simple enough because when you have the total assessment amount as they're showing us in each of the scenarios then all I have to do is apply our percentage in fact that can do it for everybody's percentage the only caveat it won't be the FY 26 percentage it would be the FY 25 percentage if we use the statutory allocations that were going to be used before the guard rail I could easily give you these numbers I'll do that yeah go ahead Becky be different because you don't have the 25 numbers to back you up like the we waited for 24 numbers um to establish the the statutory numbers I mean right so it's gonna be a two-year lag right right so it's gonna be off yes yeah but I think for scale Wise It's probably it would get us in the it might get us in a ballpark just to because because I I just want to be able to to know like kind of how how much are we deviating from our preferred methodology by by doing this kind of a budget where we just apply a blanket increase and just and ass assess it to all four towns um anyway simple math it's it really it wouldn't be a big deal um okay that would be useful to know uh Becky did you have another comment you wanted to make oh I'm sorry that was the um okay so you really can't do the full me the accurately do it until I think those numbers were available yeah or J we need the numbers from the governor's office and doer right I'm sorry de yeah Bob yeah uh I just wanted to make a point and I think we have General agreement on this committee that we wanted the region to use the statutory method with the fiveyear rolling average I think that we should make them aware of that I mean did they just drop this thing off the radar completely the I mean we should ask them to run it with using the statutory method this is our method that we as a as a region have developed as the method to allocate uh our contribution I think we should ask them to run it for us I think we it's reasonable for us to ask them to run it because we want to keep that mind that that in their mind that this is what we want I don't we absolutely so I I I think we should definitely request it before the next um yeah you know four towns meeting um yeah and I don't think we're the only town that wants to see it I'm sure ERS wants to see it as well others asked yeah I was afraid it was going to get overlooked that's that was my question some time ago yeah and just just also to to just to let you know Bob we've definitely communicated this because I mean Susie and I actually met with um the superintendent in in August and we we spent quite a bit of time in that meeting talking about our concern about how we've you know how we we didn't follow this methodology last year and and and we told her and we actually gave like we followed up with some some of the historical background we told her that you know our expectation was that we would return to the method for for this coming year I think they have to be be made aware of that again I guess yeah I I think they are I think they are aware of it I mean it was it was noticed in the meeting and that's and I think our requesting those numbers is really makes more sense than us trying to come up with them on our own because it's it's giving a message that you know this is what the direction this town wants to go in right Susie and ammer said it in their list of things um that they wanted to look at the statutory the um assessment method and I said it when I recapped what shuberry was concerned about and um it's not that they I think what happened is the model they started to wrestle with came out late in the week and they they put a lot together it's not done and we can bring these things up it it wouldn't surprise me because they have some projections of lower budgets coming that we ramp back towards it we might not get there in one Fell Swoop but um you know we're we're pretty good at ramping we might end up ramping to get this to work but yes the numbers should be they should make another column that shows it and we have that for discussion am I the only person who's concerned that there's going to be like quite a bit of public concern and sort of push back about just the idea of consolidation or I was like a okay yeah no I I I know I didn't raise my hand but I think there's going to be a huge amount of push back you know that but personally I think that it's time for us to look at that seriously again you know this is lots of schools do it and we we have the space and uh I yeah um I see a couple hands up um before I go to those hint I just wanted to clarify like the the sense I got was that but I but I I'm not sure I actually heard it stated explicitly maybe maybe it was and I missed it but is is the it's part of the logic here that by doing consolidation it it what it means is that the the kinds of Staff cuts that are required have are are less focused on instruction and sort of like student facing kinds of positions and are more um you know they're they're sort of more focused on administrative and sort of building infrastructure kinds of stff was that is is that part of the rationale and was that made explicit or I not okay all right um Susie um as far as public push back this is we're talking ammer is the main player they will be push back and what she didn't come up with because it's too soon in the game is how the it would affect what the use for the Middle School building would be and depending on what that is it may change the capital costs that are coming down the track so she might be able to sell the idea more to the public um that you know it's going to change the capital picture um depending on how they think to use it somebody suggested that maybe they would think about uh leasing it to a charter school she said no she said no like immediately and then she had to back up and say it in a sentence um but clearly it wasn't her idea that that would happen but there's um because this is so new there's no talk of how how the Middle School building somebody said well is a sixth grade gonna still go to the Middle School building that's all too soon for what they're wrestling with and I expect to hear much more of that which will help respond to some of the public issues got it but but to be clear the the timeline would be 25 26 right I mean that that is that's why this is being brought up yeah okay uh George yes that that 2.7 million um that she's using right Services is predicated on that but um yeah one of the um it was actually in The Gazette today apparently one of the people attending the meeting uh citizen of ammer warned the committee that there's going to be huge push back on this issue and also what the reason I raised my hand is do we think that it's even possible to do that in the next 11 months the amount of planning involved the reconfiguring of the B building the way they're going to set set up their um programs it just doesn't seem like it's possible I mean I I I I would definitely get behind it because I can't even imagine what it's going to be like if we can't get these cost savings and I also want to let everybody know that when we at when I added up all the head counts I came up with 37 people being laid off because it's in it's in the slide she she notes it so I wrote it down for each one that's 37 positions that that's if we consolidate who knows what's going to happen if we don't consolidate yeah um Jim I I mean I agree with George I think the consolidation I mean you know one kitchen instead of two kitchens and once it you know it makes good economic sense but guess is that amorist um um folks are going to go ballistic over this because to put six and sth graders in with high school students is usually a pretty tough sell in most communities from what I understand and I um I wonder about that um there was some talk about putting them in a separate part of the building you know to sort of physically isolate them more and do things like that to try to sort of ease the uh ease the U worry parents about all of this but um uh and then of course there's the matter of you know of the sixth grade coming being placed in the same building as well but I'm interested to see how they're going to pull this one off yeah and C can somebody explain this this idea the Furlow idea I I couldn't quite understand that was that like well they had to get they had to get permission I think I you know that that has to be pretty artfully uh arranged so that uh the unions and the teachers would agree to it that was it a one day or two day Furlow to save a little bit of money I yeah that's not it's not in the plan it's not in the numbers it's um beond those numbers and per reaction um which I thought wasn't so politically Savvy was she said well they can have a take a Furlow day or will be cutting teachers so for somebody who's going to go into apaa um negotiations but I do feel like all of this model all of the across theboard places that she's looking at is meant to tag everything and therefore everybody has a skin in the game and everybody can say we work together and got this result that was her one not well well responded comment as um but it's pretty far down the road and it's not in the number yet so I think it's probably not be right that's that's a good clarification because I I I wasn't sure if that was part of the restructuring plan that was going into the numbers but it sounds like it's not okay yeah because it has to be agreed to by the union it's not unilateral yeah I guess the only other question I sort of had while I was watching was like and I don't think this is the case but like I it did occur to me like it's the whole point of this basically to scare the crap out of everybody about like what what this would actually require if if if the towns were to hold firm to these this guidance kind the Varian gu various guidance that's been provided like we can't go 2 and a half% or we can't go for like is there part of this that's like okay well this is this is what you're going to get um and there's no real alternative to this and so you know with the idea that like when people are actually confronted with the reality of what that means you know maybe there's a little more flexibility I don't know that was just one thought that occurred to me Bob yeah I just I just wanted to point out just to embellish what you were all were saying I do think that it's going to be very difficult to uh there'll be a very very hostile atmosphere to these to this uh structural reform if it's put forward and we saw what happened last year when we had our budgeting process that it was pretty far Advanced get derailed by the politics in town and you know getting demonstrations and lots of publicity but you know so the superintendent has to be very skilled to and smart to to to pull this off I personally support structural reform I've talked about it I don't think the the the the district was headed towards a very difficult Financial circumstance because they didn't address some of the underlying structural issues like enrollment school choice and some other things and I think it's a pretty interesting idea and whether it can be fleshed out and to be workable and be acceptable to the financial people number one and then the these parents number two and the Union number three 2A like yeah that's that's a tough that's a tough uh thing to pull off but uh I do think it's a good idea uh essentially to restructure the school uh so this is a very very surprising uh concept it's it's pretty bold that's for sure yeah Becky um I just wanted to say AJ in response to your bringing up Scare Tactics right we used to have a superintendent named Len labinsky and that was his MMO every you know anytime we got a little questionable about the budget Scar Tactics were enrolled we were going to lose the gym teacher one year the art teacher the next but he always he was a master at it and he often got his way right uh suy um I don't consider it scare tactics we left last year knowing there was a mess and we talked about like starting early and so here we are starting early and she's projecting these numbers I don't believe she's under projecting Revenue Lynn gismer came up to our table before we started and she said I don't see how we can make this happen that before these slides and so clearly and and those people are meeting with the BCG and blah blah blah so they're in it already and I don't think the superintendent is just trying to show only the worst case scenario or only solutions nobody can agree to right by starting a meeting now it was like put it out there what she's not saying that last year ammer some people in ammer wanted is well what teachers do you mean what programs do you mean and our and the superintendent hasn't gone into that um she hasn't gone into the detail because they said you start doing that teachers are going to leave if we know the art Department's going to be cut why would the art teacher finish the year so yeah she's not going there um yeah and it is a financial um mess and so I think she's really offering in good faith yeah some possibilities and it is scary but it does give towns time to start looking at their revenues and figuring out what they can actually come up with and then sell the cuts if that think need to happen and they're going to have a hard time doing that yeah I was um right I mean separated apart from the the the proposal here I was a little surprised by and I think I read this in The Gazette article that you referenced with but but um that the enrollment numbers looked like they they were dropping like a considerable amount from last year right um uh I'm trying to find that yeah no I can I can read it for you if you want yeah yeah please yeah um so it said um let me just get to that part of it um I think oh yeah I have it here 1,172 students are expected in the Regional Schools down 3% from the 1,210 enrollment as of October 1st 2023 a so a that kind of alarmed me because I felt like I know that there there's been a kind of a long historical Trend that we've talked about and they've shared data with us but I had kind of been under the impression that at least in the last few years I mean obviously there was kind of weird stuff around the pandemic but like that things had kind of flattened um so I was a little alarmed to read that and then I was also trying to imagine I don't think anybody can really answer this question but like what what does the what what is the potential consequence of this kind of restructuring or losing additional students like is this the kind of pretty radical change to the way our school looks and operates that might actually result in more students leaving because they don't like the idea of a of a 712 school I and nobody can answer that question right but um but it was something that that occurred to me um could we be in an even worse position enrollment wise um by by doing this kind of a thing um Jim and then George yeah I I I'm not sure they addressed that question but wasn't there a number given for the number of kids the the high school building could accommodate uh um what it was designed to do which was considerably significantly above what it looks like the enrollment might likely be in the coming year um the capacity was 3,000 they thought would be around 1100 so they say 7 through 12 will fit in there easily easily yeah can be worked out yeah got it and if the trends turn they've got capacity to pick up some new students I to answer to answer um that question uh about uh losing students I heard I think her goal is her belief is if we consolidate the school we can maintain our programs we can then work on a better um better outcome for our students improve them and actually make the school attractive the way she's viewing it is this is the first step in trying to improve prove what we have to offer to make us more competitive I mean that's what that's what this whole Ed reform thing is you know allowing these um State funding of char schools to to do right that's a pretty pretty pretty big bet but uh that's that's good go that but I thought I heard also something yeah I thought I heard her say something to the effect like implying that that the Middle School building could also eventually become like this is longterm but a a place where there's some kind of alternative program that could compete with um charter schools and and and maybe reduce the number of students that are choicing out to Charter Schools did I read that right I mean did I hear that correctly that was called Innovation program The Innovation schools they could apply for that and and perhaps create one but you know given that this is all new that's still in the works she also showed us a slide that had different it wasn't a slide it was a screenshot or a something a document she had that showed much more um population information and they said they were going to send it out it wasn't in this packet we can ask for it it has a lot of uh FTE and a lot of data and so we can see that also aren't Jim yeah aren't other other schools in our area like Northampton I I I don't remember how this was addressed at the meeting but aren't a lot of other schools pulling exactly the same scenario in other words consolidating school buildings in order to be able to deal with the uh with the with the cost of all of this do you remember anything about that I I I I I I know I know that there there are a number of 712 yeah Regional Schools in our area but I don't know about any right other towns that are like looking to make this change um but but think it's early for everybody this is we're one of the earliest ones starting they cited Frontier in Hampshire Regional as two 7 to2 buildings and they did not site any others and I don't know I haven't they didn't site anybody else taking this step but Massachusetts is a pretty large State and we're all in the same bucket so it could be that that is how they'll figure out some of this stuff by looking at other models and it may make it easier to you know to sell this to you to the ammer population as well I mean if if if if other schools in the state are faced with the same problems that we are and I'm sure they are then then this consolidation is not going to be a big surprise perhaps I don't know just yes yeah George yeah I forgot what I was going to say I totally lost it that's what I hate about taking minutes there's two other there's um one other thing they flew by was um Choice maybe they would put a pause on choice because they often get kids choicing in who need a lot of services so they might choose to do that and the other thing that was mentioned a couple times was the drain that Charter Schools make on the taxpayers yeah so we don't have any direct control over that but uh Mindy Dom was there it's it's been said it's been said it's going to be said again Charter Schools is a bane of our existence yeah she called it pausing school choice for a year right okay and the rationale for that is that we're we're actually expending more on Education costs for those students than we're getting on Choice especially sped students but that doesn't make sense though really can you elaborate Becky yeah well with the sped I mean the I've always heard that the sped money is to follow the child so if you take in a sped student the home school so if shuberry sent their kids to ammer shry would have to pay ammer all of the sped costs that that's always been my understanding so when they said maybe that could be a mistake in her comment but how do you how do you calculate that if a student moves into the high school from another community and they're getting an IEP how do you put a dollar value on that IEP what you pay the teachers and the program you provide them for you do right but you got a teacher who's providing sped services to 10 20 different kids if you outplay what you say would be easy to track right they just either my understanding George is that the the sped services are to be paid for were by the original birth you know the hometown school so that's interesting yeah because I I had always kind of operated under the assumption that that the choice in was kind of a net positive for for the budget and so I'm I'm sort of surprised to hear um like the idea that freezing it is actually something that so the only the only explanation that would sort of make sense is if we were spending more um than we're getting reimbursed but which or more than we're getting in if we were making money well there's that right but we can't control right we can't pause on students choicing out right but the idea I I don't you Choice out if you're in a district that doesn't allow choicing in oh is that right yeah oh I didn't know that okay got it no you so a parent any parent can decide to send your kid where they want yes any parent in the state but the schools have the ability to say no choice all right all right I for some reason I thought it was the other way maybe okay Bob like just say I've been on this Choice issue for a long time and so to me the central fact is this if you uh take a choice student and you get $5,000 and you get no Chapter 70 money so if the average if the cost per student for your operation averages out to say 25,000 which is the case for amest at least that excludes cost then you're getting 5,000 for a choice in student I mean how can that be a help your budget if you're consolidating and you're reducing the number of students you're cusing choice you get a better ratio you get a better cost per student because those students those Choice students if you continue to bring them in at the numbers they're coming in now they're going to make your consolidation more difficult at very little uh re renumeration I guess I can't pronounce that word for some reason very very little money for those students compared to your own native board students which uh are are funded by the Chapter 70 money and frankly by the taxpayers in your town so yes uh Choice students costly if you're just filling empty seats and trying to get your classrooms to the proper size to make them function properly yeah that's an argument for bringing Choice stud but it's not a finan it's not financially if it affects your budget it's going to be cost no Susie I think this discussion has too many unknowns on our side so rather than discuss it I think it needs to be formed into questions if people have specific questions they can send to the central office to help flesh out our discussion that would be more useful to me than us trying to figure out from our seats here tonight right so let's do this if if we if if folks have any kind of followup questions of this nature maybe we should sort of consolidate like and collect them from our committee and then share an email with the superintendent and her team um with a list of those questions do that does that make sense so maybe for our next meeting if folks want to just take a few minutes and draft any questions that they that they have um this I think this last one is certainly one that we should we should ask about um but I think there are others that have come up um and let's let's at our next meeting let's try to sort of pull together those questions and and sort of make a list that we can we can forward that sound good okay all right um that's it I had does does anybody have any additional George yeah uh no uh um oh yeah I do I have one question yeah so how do we handle the minutes for a meeting like that should I have taken minutes I took a lot of notes so I can easily put together minutes I assume that I have tocky what do you think yeah yes please right okay and how de all right I don't think they're gonna be super detailed but whatever you have okay you got it just yeah if you just want to package your notes together without spending a lot yeah it's no problem all right uh Susie I have two other bits things um I did get all of the um um information sent out to boards and departments for the FY 26 proposal but I think it would be good if all of us Liaisons go ahead and contact those people say did you get it do you have any questions this is the timeline I think it would be good to make some personal contact and I sent it all out by email but I'm going to use a phone to make sure that it got there and the other question I had was did the um our town report get edited and sent to uh Janice April yes yes yes yes it has been edited and sent to Janice wonderful terrific thank you thanks thanks to both of you um so yeah if if if liaison want to connect in the next week um with their department heads that they're assigned to and just make sure that they saw the email um I can't remember do do we also put stuff in their box that I know we did yeah okay so um that's good for us to know as well that would be great anything else any other um well something I read in the paper today is there's two hires in the town of shutesbury also there was a resignation in the town of shutesbury yes I Department new boss so our Highway superintendent resigned about two weeks ago and um the select board accepted his resignation I'm sorry his yeah and um at the last meeting on last Tuesday Tuesday and um also at the same meeting appointed a new um land use clerk Mato penalo and a new admin secretary Abby her andz so please come by and meet Abby Hernandez she's um she's very helpful and supportive and she's um newly here from Texas um but her dad lives here it's a town that she's very very much appreciating and um and she'll help with all kinds of things in the future what was the story with the superintend again the superintendent retired resigned in a new superintendent was an interim superintendent was appointed inter um at this point uh the select board met on last Wednesday with David Grenier the second um person at the highway department uh next to Steve he has worked in three other towns um as an equipment operator he has quite a depth of experience and um with management as well and he has been appointed contingent on the contract um so he's continuing on in his position and has um taken the Reigns and is doing his best uh the highway department as as you know they were taken by surprise as the rest of us so um they're doing their best to carry on are they looking for another person now to add to the department at this point um Mike resy is working a 32h hour week um as they get their feet under them after we deal with um contract for for Dave um we'll start thinking about advertising for another person they made it through um the paving project that had already been halfway set Mo most the way set up by Steve but luckily Dave was close enough and um aware enough of everything going on to um successfully have completed that project um but as far as the budget goes he has not yet looked at it so he has um I'll I'll give him a run through I know Bob is going to probably sit down with Dave and talk budget with him but that's an area he has not yet reached to he's just taken on uh doing the warrants and payroll and filling out the log book with all activities and and keeping things going so his next hurdle will be getting to know the budget so Bob yeah with that in mind I think we probably should schedule him a little later so that we can get get him yeah I was just pulling that up get his budget together it'll take a little time more than it might have with Steve who was had one year in yeah I mean we had we had Highway and fire slated for our first um so we should definitely give him some more time so um I'm thinking let's see tricky part you have yeah weather throws him too so if you go into January and and before we move it we know that what happened with Steve is he did his best first shot and he had to come back it's likely to be the same thing so moving it later doesn't particularly change that first shot um so I don't know if if the because of the snow plowing and all that all right might not be needed to move it later well Bob you want to touch Bas I'll touch B but I think we should tou B yeah out at least a month or something anyway so you know so we'll give them some time to we we I'll meet with him and we'll we'll work together with with the with the Becky and uh to to help him work on the budget and get some draft least okay great and just so you know he was he was initi Highway was initially slated for November 12 so okay that was that that's I'll be with him and talk to us our next meeting is coming up soon so perfect thank you okay anything else all right I will uh make a motion to adjourn second over side roov having right ey casu I moer I Salvador I and Stein I right thanks everybody our next meeting is the 24 oh no October 15 yep October 15 okay all right then hey the miracle yeah I'm a Yankees fan but uh but yeah Oh I thought you were a Met fan no no but I've got plenty of met people in my life all right thanks everybody and thanks for uh covering all the coverage on Saturday appreciate it guys yeah wish there all right all right take care good night night night everybody good night you