[Music] hello everyone I think we're ready to get started it's uh after 7 o'cl we do have a quorum um I'd ask the deputy moderator to step forward um and um I want to ask if everyone has uh an ability to have a seat if not we will have to open up another room um there are I think a few seats up in the balcony um at least there's three up there uh so you might want to go upstairs there are an elevator there um otherwise I will allow some folks to stand if that's what they prefer at the back of the hall but if you are a um not a town voter um I'd ask that you sit up front uh so we can monitor that folks that are uh authorized to vote in the town meeting I know we have some folks here uh filming the event other than our town cable services and it's okay for them to do that um and if you are recording the event uh that's fine it's your constitutional right to do it uh however uh you cannot disrupt the meeting so and if you're not a registered voter in the town you can't vote so I'd ask that you respect the uh uh tradition and the uh our town meeting privilege by voting only if you are authorized to do so or you're a registered voter um we do have a quorum so I'm going to call the meeting to order town meeting March 19th uh 2024 special town meeting is called to order and uh Madam clerk do we have a uh Return of the warrant thank you Mr moderator pursuant to the within warrant I have notified and warn the inhabitants of the town of Townsen by posting up attested copies of the same at Memorial Hall 272 Main Street at the center West towns and reading room 264 deadly Road in West Townsen police station 70 Brookline Road Harbor Fire Station 41 Main Street and The Harbor Church 80 Main Street at least 14 days before the date of the meeting as written directed Constable of towns and Michelle do okay thank you madam clerk uh all right just so everyone knows um who the people are involved I'm John Barrett and the town moderator Kathleen Spofford is our town clerk uh next to her on her right is Chaz seon deranian the chairman of the select board uh then Dr Theresa Morse uh Joseph shank Our Town Council Adam Costa and Eric Sagel the town uh administrator and the table down here is our members of uh some of the members of our finance committee Don Hayes gern bazus and Sam Grant um and our treasure collector Melissa done it sorry Melissa again okay um just a review really briefly um our uh rules of the procedure are conducted under the town meeting time I'd ask that everybody that if you want to speak be recognized before you say anything uh by raising your hand and I'll try to recognize everyone uh direct your comments to the chair and maintain the the decorum of the meeting um if there's a motion that must be in writing and brought to the clerk uh a matter finally voted on maybe reconsidered upon a majority vote if a motion is made this evening if the meeting goes into a second night uh an article which has been voted upon tonight would require a 9/10 vote to be reconsidered um if the vote tally is questioned by seven seven people counters will be brought forward to take an actual count uh as you all know I think we typically will do things by Voice vote um I believe all the articles that we have oh let's see um 2/3 or majority well the first articles are just majority vote [Music] um they're all majority votes so if the chair is in doubt we may call the counters up anyway um if you are confused about the situation on the floor uh you can interrupt a speaker to raise a point of order or you can raise a point of privilege if for some reason you can't hear what's being said or um there's some something in the hall that making it difficult for you to uh understand what's going on um a if anybody brings up a motion to move the question that is a motion that cuts off debate it's not debatable uh we would vote on that motion and if it is approved debate is cut off and then we would vote on the motion before us uh so I will ask everyone to be courteous and keep Applause to a minimum uh we're trying to get the business Town's business done here tonight uh and um I think we're ready to start so looking at the warrant articles is there a motion on let's see try to find article one here um got my uh here we go to see if the town will vote to hear a presentation to special town meeting voters on the nooba Valley Tech Technical High School budget or take any other action in relation there to Is there a motion Mr moderator I move the town here a presentation on the nishoba Valley Technical High School budget second okay motion's been made and seconded is there anything to be said about the presentation all right all those in favor please say I those opposed say no no the eyes have it I think we can say that again I I can and unless seven people rise to question the my call it is uh it is a majority to hear the uh report no we don't go by Robert's Rules sir this is by town meeting time and town bylaw so [Applause] uh if there's a presentation and I believe Mr Schlagel did you have a something that you wanted to present at this point about prop two and a half because these ultimate motions are going to be subject to a prop two and a half override so it might be informative for the town meeting to hear this first yes thank you Mr moderator um there there was a handout I hope folks were able to to get a copy of it that discussed very briefly about prop two and a half in general and this overrides that are on the ballot or on the warrant in particular um I just wanted to give some folks a little bit of Education about prop two and a half um it was a statute passed at the state back in 1980 um it effectively means that the town's Levy limit can only increase by 2 and a half% each year plus New Growth um what that means is the town by itself by a vote of town meting does not have the authority to increase taxes more than 2 and a half% it has to go to the ballot um so prop two and a half does not adjust for inflation just doesn't adjust for cost increases it's just a a very broad statute that limits the amount of tax increases in a municipality year-over-year um so in order to increase taxes more than two and a half% you're required to have an override what we have on the uh the warrant this evening is two separate proposals for appropriations of overrides um uh it's important to note the vote here tonight is not to put the override on the ballot the overrides will already appear on the April ballot the votes here tonight are to if the overrides pass to appropriate the money to to Noob and then appropriate the money to north middlex um uh so the the the vote to determine whether override succeeds is the vote at the ballot at the April Town election this is a vote to take that money if it's approved and put it towards those various School budgets um uh the the bottom half of the uh the handout that we passed out provided some general information about the impact of the overrides on the average uh tax bill in Townson uh this is all based on uh fiscal year 2024 information because that's where the tax rates exist right now is where we have fiscal year 24 tax rates um so if you look at the average value of the home in FY 24 it was about $424,000 the average tax bill was slightly over $6,100 um and using that tax rate our existing Levy limit and the assessed values of property the additional um override amount that's in the warrant for nooba Valley Technical High School um which is $287,100 um would increase the average tax bill by $85 a year um so that's about $78 per month it's a you know that that's just to let folks know what that impact would be on the average tax bill um the for North Middle sex Regional School District the the uh additional $1,461 th000 would impact the average tax bill by $424 a month or or $424 a year for a total of $353 per month now we can all we can do math in various ways but we wanted you to have this information so that you would be able to understand the the the Imp the reasons why the overrides exist and the the in general terms the impact on the tax bill and so now I'd like to turn it over to Denise pigeon who is the superintendent of uh all right question comes on well we have a motion we have comments on the motion Dr moris do you have something I just wanted to add sorry I wanted to just add just one little more piece of information by um finance committee um they did break it down if you want to try to figure out exactly how it impacts you not based on the average if you know the value of your house then it would be7 cents per $1,000 you could do the math take out your calculators for Noob Tech override and $1.7 per thousand for the north middle section override so a total of 124 per th000 for both thank you comments come on the motion and now I think we can hear the presentation from uh Dr pigeon all right we might need the all right Mr foli you can thank you will someone be advancing the slides for me oh great thank you um hi I'm Denise pigeon the superintendent of nooba Valley Technical School District um with me here tonight I have our our business manager Michelle Shepard and assistant business manager Michelle bouvet um also in the audience two members of our school committee representing Townsend um Karen Chapman and Sheldon Chapman thank you for the opportunity to present today um first slide um as you most of you are aware nishoba Valley Technical School District is a Regional Technical School District we serve eight member towns um towns in has been a member of our school district from 1979 I'm sure many of you in the room have known someone who has graduated from our school um Andor is currently attending next slide um before we begin talking about the budget I'd just like to share a little bit about what what um our school district the purpose of our school district and and why we are here um we provide high quality technical education to our eight member towns um students participate in one of one of 18 different technical programs and we've broken those programs down into career clusters and I just wanted to give you some basic information about um where the students from Townsend are um enrolled at nooba Tech so as you can see 43% of the students from Townsend that are enrolled in aatech are participating in either one of our construction or Transportation programs um 33% are taking um a technical program in health and human sciences and in Arts and Technology 24% of the students from Townsend are enrolled in those technical programs next slide please um again before we talk about the numbers it's really important to understand enrollment um with a vocational technical school the enrollment is um pretty much the driving factor and how your assessment increases and decreases each year um a couple of trends that have been occurring at nooba our enrollment our total enrollment has been increasing for several years um and in addition to that the interest in attending nooba Tech is seriously increasing as well so interest from our district towns is is up um and our total enrollment is up so we have increased by 42 District students this past year um this is the third year in a row that we have had so much District interest that we've not had any seats available for school choice students we anticipate this will be the the third year in a row our freshman class will have no school choice students next slide in terms of Townsend you're actually at your historical highest enrollment this year um with 114 students um and that goes all the way back to 1979 this is the highest enrollment you've seen in our district next slide um it's important to understand enrollment again because when we calculate the assessments the number of students attending our school um from your town plus the percentage of the Town population and the overall of nishoba tech is also important those two factors are used in calculating portions of the assessment which we'll get into in a later slide so Townsen this year you can actually see you've had the highest enrollment increase so 20 additional students from townend are now attending the showa tech now that occurs for two reasons you had a smaller senior class graduate last year and you had a larger Freshman Class come in um again interest is up and they're participating in those different technical programs that we um showed on the earlier slide next slide please um I just like to take a moment to let you know a little bit about our special populations um the numbers that you're looking up here on the screen is H natech again you know that we are a high school um hobek compares to our other high schools so the numbers that are up here are high school to high school comparison not total School District comparison I just want to make sure that that that's clear um and I just wanted to show you again just so that you can see the comparisons um natech 53% of our students that are attending the school um are considered high needs we have um a a higher than average number of students with disabilities that are attending our district um and overall High needs so just wanted to um let folks see those averages and also to let you know this PowerPoint is posted on our website under um www. nes. under documents under financial information all of our budget materials are in there next slide please um in terms of the budget drivers this year I don't think that this is um unusual most school school districts are expressing a lot of the same budget drivers that are out there um for us increase in special education costs in terms of student needs that's been one of the biggest budget drivers that we've had we've um needed to add in some additional special education instructors we've also needed to add in an additional construction instructor um based on enrollment um we also need some additional bcba support and that stands for board certified behavior analyst support I know there's a lot of acronyms up here and I apologize um really to support some of our some of our Learners and um PA professionals including rbts which stands for a registered Behavior technician again some some students require additional support some students require one toone AIDS um we've seen an increase in that in that type of need at our school district um in addition Transportation costs in terms of our bus contract have increased we've also had to add some additional funding um for special transportation and students that might need special transport to school um the other increases are are are pretty typical that's your step- in Lane changes for teachers um your regular contractual increases just across the board um increases in the operations for our building next slide please um other things to think about when we're building our budget each year we have to think about Capital um again our our building is aging it's um the original building we have continued to do our best to keep it up um we plan to continue to do that we enlist the help of our students and a lot of our construction upkeep um we also have to keep in mind that that there are changes happening to the state formula um the required formula change is in effect with the student opportunities act and when we get into a later slide you'll see the um the effect in the assessment due to that we also know that sometimes we don't get the same amount of Transportation reimbursement each each year that's the revenue that comes direct from the state and sometimes that number can be a little volatile and lastly we're trying to be really careful to not be too reliant on one-time funds because we know that if we're too relyant on one-time funds at some point that could be could create a budget shortfall um and we've been trying to be very careful to not um have that be an issue and then there is something called OPB um again another acronym I'm sorry other post-employment benefits as a Regional School District we are required to be thinking about um how we'll pay benefits for people after retirement for our staff so we do um Talk annually about funding for OPB and what's possible during a particular budget year next slide please um just an update on capital projects one of the big projects we've been working on um we learned a few years ago that our entire fire suppression system schoolwide needed to be replaced um we knew that we could not afford to do that all in one fiscal year so we broke it up into four potentially five phases um we started with the first phase last year and that was funded through the the current year budget we did those Renovations over the summer um the FY 25 budget the only Tech um the only Capital project that's funded through the budget is to do phase two of the fire suppression project so last year we did the second floor of the academic Wing um and this summer we're proposing to do the first floor um of that fire suppression project other upgrades um during this current fiscal year we just upgraded the elevator it was our original elevator so that was definitely time um the other Renovations that we have going on I'm really happy to share that we've been very aggressive in going after um competitive Grant funds from the state the state has been fantastic recently with having um State funding really specified for vocational schools for vocational training giving the given the employment um Outlook that's out there and the need for skilled skilled workers so we've been aggressive in going over after those grants and we've been really fortunate to receive several of them so the first one was a cosmetology Grant um we've been able to replace the equipment in Co cosmetology and we're currently in the process we gutted it and we're currently in the process of putting it all back together again um we also received a grant to expand and modernize vet assisting and electrical which are our two fastest growing techn tech programs at natech those Renovations again all Grant funded not in the budget um are underway as we speak and then next slide please um again incredibly fortunate that we put in for another one of these grants and we were actually awarded um 3.75 million to add 7,000 square feet of space to house our engineering programming and web um and Robotics program so this was all direct from the state really a grant design specific for vocational schools and we were very fortunate to be one of just a handful of schools across the state selected for this so This renovation you'll see Ono in our school it is not part of the budget next slide please um in terms of capital again we are an old building we're doing our very best to to keep it in great shape if you haven't been to our building I encourage you to visit um we um looking forward again we have to finish the fire suppression project we're doing that phases um with these grants that we're implementing when we get the chance to upgrade the fire suppression as part of the grant we are doing that so that might help us reduce the number of phases in the future and then the other big Capital project and it's not for this year but it's in maybe the year after the year after that we're researching um how to go about doing a complete HVAC renovation so it's time um for our HVAC we're researching several different options um which you'll be hearing more about in future years but it again is not part of this budget that's on the table next slide please um just to give you an idea of where we stand in terms of um cost per pupil this is a a figure that's calculated by the state um noob in terms of cost per pupil actually ranks on the low end where 26 out of 29 Regional vocational schools in terms of cost per pupil um and these are other vocational schools um in the area just to give you an idea next slide please um this is the bird's eye view of the budget there is a much more detailed budget in uh on our website and there were some QR codes out at the table um the major changes are the things that I already talked to you about in the in the funding drivers so we have some additional special education Staffing we have the additional technical instructor for construction um we had to add some pair of professionals those are the those are the core of the instructional upgrades that we have in addition our ask for the increase in capital for phase two of the fire suppression project was an increase of $25,000 there were also some increases in the transportation contract and special Transportation but that's the that's the high level overview of our expense side of things next slide please um this is just a a visual of our budget and where we're spending our our funds for our budget if you add up the the yellow which is direct instructional services and the benefits um the purple that are related to those positions and then people services are the three 000s essentially what I wanted to show you is that just about you know about 75% even slightly more of our budget is spent on Direct Services to students next slide um oh I apologize the um the chart doesn't look very nice on that slide it must be a conversion from Google to PowerPoint I apologize um but what I really wanted you to see from this slide when in terms of our budget so we have our total expense budget and then there's the way in which we fund that expense budget and there's basically two buckets there's there's the funding that comes direct from the towns through the assessments and then there's also the funding that comes from other sources like direct from the state um or or or use of other one-time funds the next slide will actually help um you you'll see a little bit better if you go to the next slide so this is from a percentage perspective so 66% of our total budget is funded through town assessments so 66% of our budget is split over the eight towns when we use the formula at the end um in the last slide 26% of our budget comes direct from Chapter 70 school aid that's money the state sends direct to us that that offsets the costs for the towns um 4% from Transportation reimbursement funds and then we have some funding going in from school choice and excess and deficiency which are are really onetime funds next slide please um the reason again why enrollment is so important is because when we begin to calculate the assessment that's where it begins so in the assessment slide you see our eight towns the number of students that are enrolled in those towns the percentage of the total population um and then the rest of the formula um we go through the rest of the formula the the first call the the first major column Town's minimum contribution that is not a number that nishoba Tech calculates that's a number that's given to us by the state um driven by the state funding formula for education so that number is not one we create it's a number they're given to they give to us and we plug into the formula and then we calculate the rest of the assessment the next the next column are our costs for transportation or busing students to and from school um also our Capital costs and for this particular year it's that one fire suppression system project that I have referenced earlier um additional assessment is the additional funds that we need in order to um operate the school district and then Debt Service is for any debt that we previously had so there's just a couple of pieces of debt um that Nelle Tech still has back in 2003 2005 we did a pretty major building renovation project that we are still paying for that project but it is coming it's coming close to being paid off um and then we have a roof project that that is on there as well and then you see the total assessment so to help make this um make a little bit more sense specific to Townsend if you go to the next slide so this is um last year to this year all eight of our towns okay so um we're up 42 District students overall um you can see what happens to the increase in the town's minimum contribution and then our increased ask for capital is just over 100,000 um our increased ask for um actually that's it and the debt debt is actually slightly down we have an increase for Capital and transportation and the next slide shows you specific for Townsend so this is Townsen looking at your assessment last year and look at your assessment this year so again the major factor here for Townsend is the increase in student population you've had an increase of 20 students attending to shch um so your overall portion of the district has increased by almost 2% um and then the the state has calculated the required minimum contribution which is an increase of uh about $29,000 and then you can see the transportation and capital request goes up again that's because student population has gone up and then you can see the debt has also slightly gone up because of your percentage of the overall portion of students sent shch so the increase in the assessment um to the town of Townsen for next year is $255,300 I I don't know uh how we want to approach this because probably three more slides and then I can okay okay why don't you finish then Dr P all right next slide um I always like to say thank you to our Cooperative placement Partners again as a Regional Vocational Technical School our our goal is to have students um working out in the field so many of the business and industry in our area um will take on Cooperative placement students spread the word if you know somebody who might be interested next slide um I also just wanted to take take the opportunity let you know there are other there are other programs that are offered at natech um we are a an early adopter to a Statewide program called CTI or Career and Technical initiative this is not funded by the towns this is a state funded program um where in the evenings we're running two and 300 hour programs for people who are unemployed or underemployed and they're looking to be um retrained and go out into the workforce we're running cohorts in um Plumbing in electrical in automotive and in ADV manufacturing and every couple of months we get a new cohort that comes in um we partner with mass hire when we're um working with candidates for the programs and I just wanted to let um you all know that that is something that's out there in an option if you know someone who might be interested they run in the evenings and they run sometimes on Saturdays um and that's that that's pretty much it uh we're also open to the public we have a few um a few different businesses that are open to the public you can call um we do have a restaurant that takes reservations um we also have um automotive and auto body that will service um District residents vehicles um and and Cosmo Cuts is open for business as well thank you all right thank you Dr pigeon now uh I'm going to suggest to the meeting that the the purpose of this article was uh for uh Dr pigeon to present information but this is not something that uh we need to particularly vote on um having heard her presentation so I I think it makes more sense to take questions that you may have for Dr pigeon and as we take up article two which is the actual vote on the question so unless there's an objection to that okay so that uh concludes um article one which we already voted on quite frankly all right um article two to see if the town will vote to raise and appropriate the sum of money for general fund budget expenses for the fiscal year 2025 for the nooba Valley Technical High School operating and transportation assessments to the town for fiscal year 2025 such appropriation to be contingent upon the town's approval at an election of a prop two and a half override socalled under master General Law chapter 59 section 21 C or take any other action related there too is there a motion Mr moderator I move the town raise and appropriate the sum of 287,213 under Mass General Law chapter 59 subsection 21 C motion's been made and seconded is there anything to be said no questions yes there was a second um well I see one hand yep sir if you could stand question hold on for the mic please and could you say state your name and address please name is Tom short live here in towns and what you just voted on isn't that in Thea Valley or North Middle sex no we we what we previously voted on the first articles was just to hear the report from nooba about what they were asking for correct the current motion is to decide whether or not to approve that sum of money and under a prop two and a half override approve okay ahead thank you you're welcome uh any other Mr Stevenson I don't know if I have these numbers correct I thought I had the fiscal year 24 assessment at 1. 1424 million and the ask for fiscal year 25 was I'm sorry I get it backwards the fiscal year 24 assessment was 1362 million and the fiscal year 25 ask is 1.4 64 million is that correct question comes on the motion I think it has to do with 102,000 increase are those numbers correct or did I get them in error okay question comes on the calculation I guess of the uh amount um based on the information that I have the the assessment for FY 24 is $1,418 355 that's a total assessment for this um this upcoming fisal year um last year the total budget for FY 24 was 1,629 76 so comparing assessment to assessment um I don't know which where you're grabbing that other so what's the Delta between $255,300 in the town um meeting materials the debt can be broken out that that that figure includes debt thank you okay questions comments come on the motion any other questions and okay Mr theion yes Mr theion from uh old fit one fitzburg grad um I don't know if it's a wise idea to combine both budgets into one article I think the community should be able to review the noov budget versus the north mle SE budget okay okay Mr theion we do have two separate articles this right now the article is only for nooba the the third and fourth article will be on North Middle sex okay so we can do that in yes thank you okay um it appears we're ready to vote uh no all right someone uh in the back uh Josh ABS El and 42 Brookline so we're saying we're saying that this is going to be an additional 423 approximate dollars a year right uh no um you're talking about the actual um assessment per correct why don't you if I'll you state your question Josh and then I'll let someone else handle it I'm not going to answer it you that that seems to be that seems to be right okay excuse me that seems to be the problem I don't think the people of Townson need to spend any more money right the people of Townson should be putting the money in the pocket the people of Townson should be paying money to their school teachers they should be putting money aside for themselves money seems to go missing so now we're going to foot another bill people can put more money aside so they can hand in to pay bills that aren't directly affecting them right now with things that are going on in their town right now these people work hard these people go to work they come home and then they sit and they look at their bills like I do because Unitil is not cheap and they wonder what they're going to put aside where they're not going to spend money and they're going to do it to send money to a school system that's been in debt for 20 years they couldn't figure out what to do with the money 20 years ago so let's Fork out some more dollars now these people deserve to be able to decide what to do with their money and this isn't it the teachers comparatively to other cities and other municipalities they don't make enough the people that work inside this building for the most part like the town clerk the assistant town clerk they don't make enough they go to work and they grind every single day to figure out what Bill they're not going to pay and you want to ask them for more you should be ashamed of yourself and I'll tell you one thing if I don't get elected to sit behind that desk that's fine as long as people come out and they vote to stop you from doing what you're doing then that works okay comments come on the motion um ma'am in the front um I just wanted to you I'm sorry could you state your name please and sure my name is Amanda um I just wanted to say that the 424 you're talking about I think you're just confused because we're still on nooba so nooba Tech is 85 so can we just uh excuse me excuse me please direct your comments to the chair sorry I just uh we were talking about nooba and the numbers he's pulling is for article three but I thought we were still on two that's all yeah we're still on the Sha yeah yeah all right comments come on the motion Mr malanson Todd malanson 79 Clement Road this question is for the superintendent um the the increase in busing it's was 14.4% are you seeing that as an average increase in transportation among all the schools um and how many bids competitive did you receive any competitive Transportation bids that's an excellent question um I would say that the increases that you're seeing are like that across the board with with everyone in the region um we did go out for a competitive bid and we received one um and we had a so we are in a three-year contract the first first year of the contract was the highest increase um and we did we did negotiate with them to bring down the increase but um it is a a Statewide issue that we only receiving one uh one bus bid did that answer your question yes ma'am okay up in the balcony um hi my name is Jim Rock I live on rean Road in Townson I have a a basic question so for nooba Tech we're looking to raise an addition of $287,000 now where did this number come from is this like I think they mentioned a little before what it actually cost towns and what's our assessment is this an an addition is this the assessment or is this and if it is why wasn't it budgeted before I mean it's a two and a half override is just something that is very exceptional okay why didn't did the town not think that that that um this assessment is going to be higher this year so my first question is what is this $287,000 okay question comes out the motion I think what does that $287,000 represent thank you Mr moderator um the the $287,000 is the difference between the assessment for fiscal year 24 which is the year that we're in and the assessment that the uh the the school district has put forward for fiscal year 25 which is next year so we are pre we are preemptively asking for an override for next fiscal year it's not for the current fiscal year it's for next year the reason why there's a difference between the numbers that the district has given and the numbers that the town has is because we when when there's a certain portion of debt that's called that's excluded excluded debt which means that does that isn't part of the the prop 2 and half Levy it's it's a a debt that's above and beyond prop two and a half it's it's added on to the the the general tax bill um at the end of the of the calculation so there's a slight difference in what the what the district has because we have to separate out debt into two separate portions but this is for fiscal year 25 which is the fiscal year that starts on July 1st of this year here okay I'm just surprised that this wasn't already accounted for in the planning for the fiscal year 25 and what happens if it doesn't pass how are we going to pay nooba tech du $287,000 if the people do not vote for the 2 and a half override questions come on the article uh Mr schel sure so so we are currently in the budget process for the budget of fiscal year 25 and the town identified the fact that we didn't have sufficient funds to fund both the assessments for Noob Tech and for North Middle SEC so that's why they requested their budgets and we put them on to see if the town would approve an override um that's the those budgets are things that we we got the information from the districts within the last few weeks about what their what their assessment would be for fiscal year 25 and we're in the middle of that budget process so is there a contingency plan if my other question is my last question and I could also ask the same questions about North Middle sex which is a much higher number but my question is what is the contingency if the town is short to $287,000 question comes on the motion as to what happens well so there's a couple of things that can happen with Regional School District budgets um the the first thing is that the override gets approved every town approves the budget and the district goes forward with that approved budget the second possibility is that in the case of noob there are eight member towns that means they have to have five towns approve their budget if they don't get Five Towns to approve their budget then they would have to come up with a a a new budget proposal that lowers the the assessment to the towns and then we would have to make a determination as to what we're going to do at that point the third possibility is that the the the five towns vote for the budget but Townson doesn't approve an override in which case we would have to come up with an alternate source of funds either by cutting our budget or using some other some other funding to try to make up that $280 $7,000 difference comments questions come on the motion uh in the front here uh who's got the mic um thank you uh Linda Hatch cver Road Townson um as far as all of this going up um I'm sure it's awful for all of us but the what is the percentage of senior citizens living in the town with Social Security and when you look at the $124 overall times you know your assessment and that amount monthly you know which sounds a lot less is maybe equivalent or less than your Social Security increase that you got and so this is just one bill now eating up all that you just gained in your Social Security increase per month what about you know everything keeps going up so I'm kind of looking at what percentage of seniors in town are ending up getting taxed out of the Town that's a real concern for some of us okay comments come on the motion um any other questions or comments up uh in the balcony there if you could approach the microphone and uh let us know your name and address Tom Donovan it's uh 109 norn Road I'd like to know how much money's owed to the town and delinquent taxes before we go for an override okay I don't know if we have that information question comes on uh wait the uh amount of I guess taxes unpaid in the town does anybody have an answer for that gentlemen can we get mik Dave yeaha hang on hi U Melissa dunnett treasur collector um I don't have that information in front of me uh we're still collecting taxes for this year so we just um collected third quarter um as of February 1 the fourth quarter is due May 1st um in terms of a dollar amount or percentage what are you thinking you're looking for like a well if it's half a million dollars that's outstanding from last year's taxes that isn't paid we should collect on the debt yeah um I'm not going to come in and I think that's too high but I I don't think it's half a million um was the link sure you know try to let her answer um I could maybe go to my office I don't know I can't I got this I don't have the number in front of me so I'll I'll give it back to the uh Town Administrator M so so just so everybody knows for accounting purposes um whether or not the town has delinquent taxes doesn't impact the budget because those count you know we when we make a budget the budget assumes that we're going to collect all of our taxes if we don't collect them all that year it counts as a debit on our account but we're also during that year collecting taxes from previous years so that's more of a cash flow issue as opposed to a budget issue well it's either either in the red or the black that's how business Works you're in the red you're in the black sure and I I understand what you're saying but what I what I need you to understand is when we when we make a budget the budget is based on the amount of taxes that we're allowed to collect what if those taxes are are deficient we still have ways to collect them but it wouldn't change whether or not there would be a a need for an override every year I've lived here you gone for a tax increase because of shortfalls so it's either misfeasance or malfeasance all right you either you can't put it together this town needs to to look outside they either need to start allowing people to build houses to bring in more revenue or bring in businesses or something you can't come every year to the people asking for more there's not much more that's all okay comments come on the motion and anything else all right I'm going to allow Todd one more crack at it Mr malanson just to answer the question I looked it up um the gentleman asked that the tax rate has gone up year after year after year since 2018 our tax rate per th000 valuation in 2018 it was $226 per th000 as of 2024 it is $14.41 per thousand so you've gone down in six year about it's about a dollar a year we've gone down on our tax rate per thousand it's that's actually on the state dep uh Department of local services and that's what they report to the state correct okay comments come on the motion as far as what the town's tax rate is um all right I think I don't see any other hand so I think we're ready to vote all right um m theion first um Mr moderator um I might be helpful um to get a handle on on the budget here for people if we could determine what percentage of the current budget is this increase so in other words I'm trying to figure out okay some of this is inflation some of it is some new students so I'm trying to get a handle is what would be a reasonable increase so if we took the current budget and looked at what's going to be with this new budget I'd like to know the percent of increase on the current budget this represents and I think we might think of the same approach uh for the North Middle sex budget but it puts it in better perspective so um that we can um get a feel in other words how much of this is inflationary how much is it and we do know from the superintendent a lot of it's going to Capital Improvements uh we do know from the superintendent something like 15% is going into an increase in transportation um so if the if the populace understands uh better why we need the money and where we need the money and is the money being asked for appropriate for the need as we perceive it so I I'm just making a suggestion um okay so the question is can we get a percent what percentage of the school's budget is this increase is that your question Bob and then if we do this overall right how what percentage increase is it to the current budget current budget for the school of the town uh for the school well for our share this quarter of a million okay all right I I know Dr pigeon if you have that or Eric do you have a calculation as to what the percentage of the increase is sure so the the based on the calculations that we have it's about a 26% increase increase it's primarily driven by the fact that Townsen went up 20 students that's the primary primary driving factor in the increase in nooba Tech is because we are at a all-time high and the number of students that towns in ascending to nooba Tech and those 20 extra students come with additional per pupil cost so that's the primary driver of this increase but it's about a 26% increase over the over fiscal year 24 okay comments come on the motion ma'am I'm sorry your name again is well we need the um the uh video or the uh thank you hat I just want to address the comment that said taxes were um at um $20 and some per thousand and now down to 14 you have to take a look at your actual assessment one year my assessment for two bedroom home went up 60,000 I called the assessor's office and they said oh that's because there's not too many newer two-bedroom homes in Townsen so my assessment I did a whole percentage of my street mine went up you know a lot but so you can't go by $20 per thousand down to 14 you have to look at your actual value okay thank you okay comments come on the motion and I think uh Mr rahala okay motion's been made to move the question and seconded uh this is a motion that cuts off debate it's not debatable I think we might as well do that uh now so we I think we've had quite a bit of discussion so I think it's timely so all those in favor of moving the question which will cut off debate please say I I those opposed say no the eyes have it all right uh the question is before you uh does anybody need me to repeat it okay all right all those in favor of the motion on article two please say I I those opposed say no no all right I think we will call up the counters um let say Wayne okay um Wayne and Rob do you want to I think just take the balcony okay can you guys take the balcony it's pretty crowded can you guys do the floor here or do we need a couple more yeah we might need two more counters all right you guys do that side and the stage um I'd like to ask everybody who's going to vote uh either to get one side of the the floor here or the other we've got counters upstairs um I need some other counters to count on this side so um uh Bob could you count and um Nathan could you count please so you guys count that side and the folks standing all right and folks you you guys Nathan oh yeah swear those guys in Kathy please uh we'll just count this side and to your left of David foli hold on guys just going to hold on for a minute [Music] okay now for anyone hold on folks for anyone who was I guess uh uh filming and I don't know if people are still here but filming the meeting who are not registered voters I'd ask them to step forward so we don't count them uh mistakenly um and other than that we got our counters in position and I think we're ready to go so all those in favor of the motion on article two please stand in favor if you're in favor please stand [Music] e yeah yeah yeah we don't have to do real real yeah okay okay okay 38 okay let's see Wayne do you guys have a number okay okay all right everyone that voted affirmative please can sit down and everyone those in wanting to vote no on the motion please stand [Applause] [Music] for okay 43 okay folks you can have a seat uh the vote was 158 I 43 no so the motion carries article three to to see if the town will hear a presentation on the North Middle sex Regional School District Bud budget is there a motion Mr moderator I move the town here a presentation on the North Middle sex Regional School District budget motions been made and seconded all those in favor say I those opposed no no the eyes have it all right Mr Morgan yeah well um right okay a good point point of order all right I'll recognize you hi Robert LEL Brookline Street do we um this presentation that's going to be shown is there any slides up there on seniors that can't pay their electric bill is there any slides up there saying how seniors are having trouble paying any kind of bills in this town because if not this whole presentation is bias you should show both sides that's all I want to say thank you okay um I know that there is a definite uh concern about expenses um and I did Rush that vote since it seems that this is just a presentation does the meeting want to revote I don't know why what's causing that you [Music] um uh why don't we just do that over again is there any anything else to be said on article three about the presentation sir bear in mind make of yay or nay the actual Yosi Alisa um Can anyone really see these slides and can read them because um I can't I thought I had pretty good Vision but I can't and if majority cannot read them could we just ask for a summary because showing these slides in my opinion is not helping much if people people cannot read them thank you okay comments come on the motion still before us is the question on whether or not to receive this report by way of the slide presentation the PowerPoint or not so I'm going to ask for another vote on that all those in favor of hearing the for whatever you know benefit it is or isn't those who want to hear the presentation please say I I those oppos say no no the eyes have it all right Mr Morgan hi everyone Brad Morgan school superintendent for North middlex I am going to try to present over here so I'm not blocking anyone up front um want to thank Nancy Haynes our school business ad administrator for being here this evening along with multiple school school committee members Lisa Martin Lisa Bloom will Hackler and Jess foli and the several staff that we have here from North Middle sex as well thank you for coming out tonight so this budget is a little different than what we presented in February as far as a format at the February budget hearing we presented a budget with with really it came down to just basically numbers and we also have a budget narrative which is a lengthy narrative putting those numbers into words both of those are are essentially on our budget website now okay this evening's presentation is going to be a little bit different as to why the override is necessary in North middlex so if you are interested in seeing the original slideshow or the budget narrative you can find that at nmrsd budget.org and within the next couple days there will also be a real estate calculator on that for each of Our member towns we'll be able to enter the information that's presented this evening and find out how it may impact your real estate tax bills okay we can go to the next slide okay so some of the district challenges some of the district challenges that NM faces have has not changed over the past several years the state continues to underfund Regional School Districts back when regionals became something that the state was pushing for they made promises to Regionals they asked small smaller individualized school districts to combine to save money and in turn the state would help fund them and in many cases transportation is one they would fully fund transportation that is not something that they're doing the past couple years they've been great about it at 90% but prior to that it was at 70 so they really did help us through the pandemic but now we're being told that it's likely going to tick back to 80% possibly 70% okay so again they came close at 90 but they never fulfilled their promise of fully funding Regional Transportation something that is a little different for a Regional School District is that we are required to Pro to provide a seat on the bus for every single student in the school district that lives outside of 2 miles of their sending School even if they don't take the bus okay so we are required by law to provide a seat for every single student in the district and that can sometimes be difficult because we have a lot of parents or caregivers that drive their kids to school every single day but at any given moment could be a snowstorm or um you know a situation at home where they have to take a bus and they lose that ride we have to be able to provide that transportation to the student the other challenge that we face is that we lack a commercial tax base uh North Middle sex is not considered Rural and it's not considered Urban and we're also not Vocational Technical so we miss out on a lot of the competitive grants that are out there really the big money grants so it really does come down to the taxpayers funding the school district our primary budget drivers that I'll go over in a later slide are all well above 25% which is a challenge many of those are beyond our control and our student needs are significant right now in North Middle sex about 25% of our students qualify uh for special education and about 10% are on federal 504s for some type of of disability or medical issue with they require accommodations next slide please another challenge that we'll looking at is that we actually are receiving less money from the state of Massachusetts in FY 24 than we did in FY 25 okay it's not much but they gave us $ 22,999 less than FY 24 with all of the increases that we're looking at out there it's it's extremely difficult for us to maintain Services when we're getting less money from one year to the next our per pupil expenditures are $1,535 below the state average okay if we take all the students within the district and we go up to that state average that would be an additional $4 million that we would have at our disposal we are below the state average now and we're doing great work at the current price that we are educating students for the other thing that we have to look at is that since Co our special education needs have increased and our English language learning needs have increased and all of those items have to be addressed under federal and state law okay so the increases that we're looking at in our budget we've looked at close to 20 new positions between FY 23 and fy2 those are positions that we have had to hire we are mandated to hire so you could call it an unfunded mandate in the state okay students that are on IEPs have we have to make sure that those students are being serviced and that their class sizes are appropriate that they're getting you know that they have an inclusion specialist that they're working with and all the service providers that come with that whether it's an occupational therapist a physical therapist a speech and language pathologist those are all things that we have to be able to provide for our students the other piece is is that we have to make sure we've had a couple of years where we worked to you know catch students up from the year and a half to two years of fully remote to hybrid to coming back fully in person we're not there yet kids lost an awful lot during that time especially the younger students and we have to make sure that we are working to make sure that those students are caught up because if we don't our special education numbers will go up next slide please so we we fully recognize as as been mentioned here this evening the impact that this budget is going to have on those unfixed incomes we're committed to work with seniors with Town Hall to identify programs that will help seniors out we absolutely need your help to give students what they need the budget that we are presenting is a level service budget so it's not level funded but it's to maintain the current services that we have right now in North Middle sex Regional School District Pre K to 12 next slide please overall when I present a budget it's my job to present a budget that only looks at what do the students and staff need to educate the kids in the school district that's really the only thing that I that I should be taking into account when I'm developing a budget now that said we have been working with the town managers of all three member districts since August we've been meeting every month or every other month literally up until February trying to make it as collaborative a process as possible and Mr slagel has been fantastic in in being a partner in that so thank you for that but ultimately it's our job to put forth a budget that's going to serve the kids of North Middle sex to the best of our ability next slide please so the funding challenges as I talked about it's Antiquated when not getting enough money I have been told by our state representatives and state senators that change is coming as far as how Regional Schools are funded but also comprehensive schools as well but it's not going to come for two to three more years so what we're dealing with now is likely going to be something that we're going to deal with for the next two to three years and already they're talking about FY 26 and FY 27 being more challenging and this is not just a North Middle sex problem there are districts all around us that are in similar if not more difficult situations than we are gr and dunable Westford Acton boxboro to name a few okay all of which are struggling and it's again meant two of them are regionals regionals are undefended as I talked about earlier it's something that has to be addressed at the state level so some of the items that are usually above the 2 and a half% increase transportation both special education and the yellow school buses this year our transportation increase we negotiated down to a 10% increase for FY 25 much like Dr pigeon we had one bid okay the bidding process is supposed to be an open and fair bidding process North Middle sex nooba technical it's something we're certainly not alone all districts to my knowledge are getting one bid because it's something that the solicitor general does not follow up on at the state level it's I've called I've talked I've talked to them and it's the same answer every time I call we are looking into it but nothing changes so we have a 10% bus increase for fy2 and we are required as I said earlier to provide transportation to all students in the school district and provide a seat for every single student on the bus outside of 2 miles our health insurance our health insurance increase next year is going to be somewhere in between 7 to 11% okay in full transparency we we lost our health insurance trust nooba minut man trust was something that North Middle sex has been a part of for several years they dissolved on December 12th and told us on December 12th that effective June 30th North Middle sex Regional School District has to find another carrier so right now we are looking at a fully funded program and we're also looking with with another trust essentially called Maya to come up with a new insurance plan and one is at 7.88% and the other one is at 11.02% for increases so certainly a challenge There Staffing um is usually above the 2 and a half% in special education costs okay when I talk about special Education costs it's again maintaining compliance with IEPs but it's also looking at outof District placements if a student has to go to for instance to either the Keystone collaborative or Valley collaborative the north middle section is a member of or potentially to a private special education school okay those are all things that the Special Education team works on when it comes time to recommend a student but those again come at an increased cost last year not including the the two collaboratives the out of District placement average was a 14% increase Statewide okay so again not just a North Middle sex problem but a state problem next question please oh next slide sorry um as I talked about certainly more challenges for FY 26 to FY 27 that came last Wednesday at the state legislator's breakfast uh the superintendent round table that I attended and the legislators just obviously wanted us to be in the know with with the budget forecast moving forward so certainly something for us to consider um for FY 26 and 27 as I talked about already nooba Min man Health Group um has had a significant impact on us as far as health insurance goes and also all five of our collective bargaining agreements expire on June 30th we have an agreement with the Teachers Association but we still have to reach agreement with the power professionals secretaries nurses and custodians of Maintenance thank you next slide please so again just talking about um North Middle sex had a a substantial amount of money as many districts did in Esser funding so the federal covid money that districts received the problem with the covid money was that it all has to be spent it came in three different tiers and it had to be spent in a prescribed way so it wasn't something that the district could set aside um or use you know for a rainy day fund or something like that all Esser funds have to be expended by September 30th of 2024 they all have to be gone all all used accounted for and we have to report to Desi how that money is being used North Middle sex use that money for PPE during covid we also helped to fund intervention specialists to help catch kidss up and in some cases because we had to use the money we did fund some teaching positions as well because last year for instance the district cut just over $400,000 in the budget so we did use some of that money we do try to stay away from using one-time funds to fund ongoing expenses but we had to spend that money otherwise it's money that we would have lost and again there there there are certain things you can use it for a lot of things that you could not use it for Staffing was one so we used it to help us out um last year and it's been great it was great because again especially the intervention Specialists they help catch kids up but it's it's certainly something that we need moving forward and and we're going to lose all of our intervention specialists at the conclusion of the school year special education needs as I talked about again a significant cost supporting students in inclusion settings subpar settings the school district has multiple subpar programs um all of the uh K to8 programs with the exception of one are located at the varnam Brook Elementary School in the ntis middle school so basically the K8 programs are in peppol the reason for that is because it saved on Transportation costs saved well over $200,000 a year on Transportation cost so special education Vance it made sense to consolidate the programs all into one location service providers again occupational therapist speech and language Pathologists psychologists etc those are all services the district has to make sure that the students have access to power professionals and behavior Tech to support the needs of our students many of them behavioral needs Legal Services uh something that has um increased substantially is the acronym PRS problem resolution system so this is relatively new in the state of Massachusetts if there is um if a family has a question or really a concern or a complaint with something that the school district has done whether it could be a team decision uh on special education placement it could be discipline it could be a Bust Stop um they can file with the problem resolution system the problem resolution system then asks the school district for evidence ask the complaintant for evidence and then over a period of time they will make a decision some of those decisions are extremely costly and the issue with PRS when I when I say costly they they're very costly to the school district in some cases we've had to hire staff in other cases we've had to get a special education van but the issue with PRS is that there is no appeal so once the PRS renders its decision you cannot appeal that decision and the issue with PRS is that on some occasions they've actually run counter to the law and our legal council is working with the superintendent Association working with desie to see what if anything can be done but in reality it's become a significant cost increase on all school districts and the big issue is again is that you cannot appeal the decision it's final elll needs um we've had a significant increase in English language Learners in the school district which has led to increased Staffing that is a mandated um service that we have to provide um I I will say at this point in time North Middle sex has not seen a substantial increase in English language Learners from the current immigration crisis but it's very possible that it is something we will have to look at and have to address in the near future because we have our neighbors um in lemonster and Fitchburg which are have a substantial number of students but that's usually because they have housing for the students whether it be hotels or College dormatory and eventually they're already talking about potentially busing students to some of the suburban school districts and again that's something although it will be funded initially by the United States federal government and state government it's something that could disappear over time that you have that need that's going to continue and we do have a class siiz policy um basically in K to8 A Elementary class that gets over 25 we have to address that with either a power with essentially a power professional or another staff member it really depends on where the issue is so for instance if we end up with it's balding across the street we have five sections just hypothetically of 26 students in a Kindergarten class it makes more sense to hire another teacher that's one person that's benefit benefit eligible as opposed to five power professionals which are less expensive but all benefit eligible as well so it does depend on where the increase is and what the need is in order to address that at the middle school level it's you would start addressing class sizes at 28 next slide please I already covered that you can go to the next slide thank you so again this is a level service budget as I talked about we are below the state average when it comes to per pupil expenditure this is from FY 2022 this is the most recent data that is out there with desie right now and we our per p expenditure is just under $118,600 per student our overall budget increase between FY 24 and FY 25 is 6.27% um and again just keeping in mind that Esser concludes and really I I've talked about budgets uh in the school district's budget we have done again I I feel as though we've done an excellent job with the money that we've had in the last 5 years our average increase even with all those drivers has been 2.89% this year again we're getting less money from the state the state counted for just over 1% inflation which is not which is which is not accurate I think we can agree on that um and again the costs are going up and we're not being supported next slide please so we will require a tax override and essentially um again this will have an impact on your assessment and I would encourage you again to visit the visit the the district's budget website you go to the next slide and what would a reduction if we don't get this override we have to reduce by $3 million okay and that would essentially be approximately 31 staff members in the district okay so when I talk about 31 staff members I'm talking about central office administration teachers building Administration power professionals custodians secretaries okay so something that we again will have a significant impact on being able to manage the district maintain a safe school but also impact class size we would be looking at class sizes prek K to8 excuse me K to8 not prek to8 of 27 to 32 students in a class okay so that would be the first step and then we essentially have to come up with an additional $850,000 okay that covers just over 2 million we would need to reduce another $850 you can go to the next slide next slide please okay and this would be the elimination of all after school activities now that would be Athletics after school music programs after school clubs now I know that this has been brought up previously in this District but I do want to just the option if we have to cut 3 million is either approximately 31 staff in after school programming or close to 50 staff and we keep the after school program if we're at 27 to 32 kids in a class with approximately 31 FTE being eliminated if we get close to 50 those numbers you can imagine what would happen to those numbers they would they would go up sub they would go up at least probably two three more as a maximum probably up to 35 so one of the issues that we're looking at is that obviously this will lead students to leave the district leave the high school look for other Alternatives um whether it be a charter school or a private school you can go to the next slide please we would also have students that are not engaged after school okay they would essentially be going home now what has the district what are we going without at this point in time and I I know our budget's high but there are number of things that we are going without currently things that used to be in place middle School foreign language program that's essentially twofold they used to be a middle school foreign language program that has been eliminated that has helped save the district some money but that was also done in part because we could not find licensed foreign language teachers okay so that's certainly we are one of the few school districts at the middle school level that does not offer foreign language but it is it's something other school districts are also looking at because of the lack of licensed or highly qualified staff to teach foreign language tiered curriculum directors we have two um K to 12 curriculum directors one Humanities one stem many of our neighbors have multiple curriculum directors curriculum directors at the elementary level curriculum directors at the Early Childhood at the middle at the high school we have two um so overall again if we compare ourselves to other districts we could potentially ask for more we we don't um additional resources for social emotional programming again after Co we have students um many students that need additional supports because of covid um and just because of the some of the stressors that they're dealing with in life uh social media being another one of them um where they certainly need support and a lot of that has come back on the school so making sure that we have the right programs in place to make sure we're able to work with the students that are struggling gifted and talented program we do not have a gifted and talented program in the district we do have honors and AP courses at the high school level but we do not have a gifted and talented program per se at the elementary and middle school level after school security um especially at the high school uh we do not have a funding mechanism in place to make sure that we are monitoring who is coming and going after school um so for instance if there is um a basketball game inside um you know in the gym we have to have someone sitting at the at the door to make sure that people are going where they're supposed to go as opposed to going elsewhere in the building just from a security standpoint okay so we do not have a funding mechanism um in place for that we have lost our Librarians at the elementary and middle school level okay those the libraries are currently being um addressed with power professionals any transitions program between kindergarten and first grade okay something a Readiness program something many districts have something that we could certainly use we do not have um a transitions program either next slide I think that's it questions yes sir um why don't we um yeah direct it through the chair sorry Mr Morgan and and do you want to take questions now generally about your presentation I I I'd rather if you have got questions about the presentation uh we'll take those questions now if we're going to have debate about whether you know to adopt the the motion on Article 4 we should Reserve that till then okay so questions about the presentation sir uh Brad Han uh I'm on Brown Road in Townson um okay um did that presentation of if we don't f this having kid class sizes 27 to 30 did that take into consideration what we have here with the MBTA Community districts with the 178 multif family units at 15 units per acre of over 11 acres obviously we're going to have more people more families moving in did that presentation take into consideration all those other kids that are going to be joining our classes and what the impact would be there additionally for all those great teachers that are here and that we we have the luxury of having how many of them are going to actually end up moving on if they lose their health care and if they have class sizes from 27 to 32 kids they can go to other school districts and give those great resources that we get and we're going to give that up for a cost of 4250 a month seems kind of minimal to me but any comments questions come on the motion folks let's let's let's get through this Mr Morgan thank you for the question so it does not take into account um any new development as of right now we do base it off of NE off of what nesda gives us um which does show um some level of stability I'm aware of the project that you're talking about it does not take into account that um it's based off of current numbers the the other thing to consider that was brought up that was a really great point is that um due to collective bargaining um we have to let power professionals know if there is a reduction by May 15 and teachers know by June 15 and the reality is in in the current climate out there with education because fewer and fewer students at the college level are going into education and one of the fears that I have is that we have a hard time hiring teachers now a great example that I shared at the senior center in peil uh about a week and a half ago was that the ntis middle school had to hire a guidance counselor through an agency now before I was superintendent I was a middle school principal and a high school principal guidance counselor positions were positions that I would literally get get 3 to 500 applications the nsta did not receive one application from a qualified person to fill that position a good friend of mine in a neighboring District called and said do you have anyone that you could recommend for a middle school physical education position again positions that used to have hundreds of applicants so the fear that I have for the students is that again if the if if we have to make that reduction many districts are hiring teachers on emergency licenses we have very few staff members on emergency licenses I'm pretty confident that if we have to reduce that number of Staff those staff members will be gone very very quickly because the job market is they just aren't teaching in it and the other fear that I have that this gentleman brought up in the back is that if we get to that point and the teachers that are left are looking at class sizes of 27 to 32 I'm fearful that they're going to leave for potentially a better situation as well so just wanted to share that comments come on the motion or on the dis discussion um Kelly Kelly Kelly five tourus lay and I just have two questions um one do you have a estimate of the percentage of high school students that are in activities that could be affected by this and speak to how that would affect their post-secondary plans and my other question is um having a child that is out of District I know that is always concerned and brings a large cost to the district I'm concerned as a former teacher that the increase in class sizes could potentially affect our AO District rates by having children who are even less capable of being able to be included in the Genet program where if you have a child with autism who may have been able to with supports be okay in a classroom of 20 will they be okay in a classroom of 30 and whether or not there's a fear of increasing our out of District great comments come on the motion uh Mr Morgan so the first part of the question I don't have a percentage of kids that are that are involved in activities but if you take Athletics music in clubs that I I would venture to guess well over 50% of our students are invol are engaged in something um you know it's really really at the high school level there are certainly clubs in some Middle School sports as well um but really when you look at the funding the significant funding is put towards the High School athletic program because that's it's just it's just a much larger program so I I would say I can certainly get a more definitive number um and how it's based overall three seasons what percentage of kids are involved in the fall winter and spring for instance but I I would venture to guess it's well over 50% and as far as the concern of um whether or not we would um run into additional issues um I I would say most definitely we will run into issues if we increase our class sizes to 27 and 32 uh we will have students that are currently on IEPs whose goals we will not be able to meet um and we will have to look at alternatives for those students potentially compensatory Services which come at a cost to the school district and we could also look at other students that could end up struggling because of the class size and the lack of attention that they're getting in that classroom and then fall behind and potentially qualify for special education services themselves so I think it's certainly a concern thank you comments come on the discussion about the presentation a m'am over here um well I I didn't hear anybody back here I did see this lady uh raise her hand so if you guys have and we got some folks upstairs okay so ma'am if you would Mandy Connor Walnut Street um I'm a taxpayer in this District I'm a parent in this District I'm also a teacher in this District just to address your issue we had over 422 students in middle school as well as high school participating in the fall Sports as of I think I just saw it yesterday um I think it was 280 for our winter sports and I believe registration closed yesterday for spring Sports I'm also a coach as well for unified Athletics 283 our service so far through the middle schools um so we have a lot of kids participating just in sports that does not include our music department which rocks our art Department that rocks as well as our musical that's coming up in April please come um so just to give you a heads up uh please make sure we invest in our future okay we're g to try to keep it down on the Applause because we got a lot of people that want to speak that's only going to cut people out from being able to speak so um at least keep your applause to a minimum okay um now I think I'm sorry there was the Dr Morris um and then I'll go upstairs to the balcony Dr Morris you you want to defer or I just have a question regarding if you you said you stated in the slides that if you didn't get this uh package as uh designed approved whether it's approved by override or however uh you get it you listed most of the cuts as teachers par professionals and after school sports there's a perception and help me understand if it's an incorrect perception or not um that your the district is extremely topheavy with positions such as a uh director of nursing which my understanding is they don't actually treat patients stem director who doesn't have classes etc etc um can you address that if is if it's true and uh if these PE p positions aren't having a direct impact on students why wouldn't they be the first place you go to make Cuts question comes on the presentation thank you so so just to clarify um the reductions um would include Administration as well both central office and building level um I I would not say that that we are topheavy um again I talked about tiered curriculum Specialists that exist in other districts we have two that are K to 12 um our supervisor of nursing is also in charge of our prek um program um so she is um she works out of the prek program every day as well but just happens to um facilitate um the nursing throughout the district and help supervise those nurses because it's extremely difficult for um someone like myself to do because I don't have a background in it um you we really need someone with a medical um and Health Services background in order to do that um and she's a super she's a supervisor she's not considered a director title is a supervisor of Health Services um so I I would say that overall um I I think that you know you can always use more help um I'm not asking for more help I'm asking um or putting in the budget what we currently have uh but also realize that if the budget does not pass that there will certainly need to be uh reductions made in that area okay comments and answers come on the question um ma'am up the balcony hi Madison Rous um sh early Road towns of Massachusetts I'm a high school senior at North Middle sex and I'm part of a student run organization that recently ran a um a field trip to North Middle sex for eth grade students where we put together a slideshow talking about um uh talking about the extracurricular activities for the music art um Sports programs and it was roughly around 80% of high school students partic participate in an extracurricular activity um should these should these activities be taken away from the students it would greatly um damage their ability to to grow and learn and and affect their ability to get into college um due to these amazing extracurricular activities at North Middle sex I was able to get into in amazing college and yeah okay comments comments come on the presentation uh I believe a gentleman there in the back I just have a quick question for uh Teresa Morse you're not possibly suggesting getting rid of a healthc care professional at the school are you for just to clarify those children that need an EpiPen those children with peanut allergies you you did you really just suggest to maybe get rid of that I I'm sorry that seems baffling to me all right um I don't think that requires an answer um yeah hi my name is uh Judy Mater Turner Road um I wanted to say no one wants their taxes to increase we all are dealing with big costs but without a school budget increase increase it's also likely that your home values will go down also many of us seniors had kids in school in this district and we wanted the budgets pass when our kids were in school it's time for us to help the Next Generation also the kids if they don't have after school programming be prepared for more crime in Townsen because kids will have nothing to do and they will find something to do that's all I have to say all right comment come on the motion all right um yep um Mr French hi my name is Nathan French I live on Brook Line Street uh I am a lifelong resident of Townsen I am an Alum of North MX Regional High School and I am fortunate to be a teacher in the district I teach at Spalding Memorial School and Ashby Elementary School it has been a privilege and honored to be a teacher in those schools I value every minute I spend with my students it is a delight and a pleasure and a huge part of my life I am here to support the override I would hope that you can join me in doing the same thing it's very important that we invest in the future of our town of our Town's children I don't have children myself but I am here to support it because I believe in supporting the children of this community going forward in perpetuity uh I believe strongly in the sense of community some are easy when John asked me to stand up and count votes I said yes without a thought that was something easy that I could do to help John and to help the community nobody wants their taxes to go up I understand that I understand that you will all vote in a way that reflects what you are able to do but I ask that you make a yes vote in support of this override not only to support students now but to support students going forward in the town and in the towns around us in our district thank you all right comments come on the the presentation we haven't even gotten into the discussion about the merits of article 4 so I I would like to limit well I have to recognize someone uh Mr Templeton all right okay motion's been made to move the question um that will cut off debate all those in favor please say I I those opposed say no okay the eyes have it and thank you everyone for your comments I'm sure it will carry on into the next article um which is article four and keep misplacing my warrant here here we go all right to see if the town will vote to raise and appropriate the the sum of money for the general fund budget expenses for fiscal year 2025 for the North middlex Regional School District operating and transportation assessments to the town for fiscal year 2025 such appropriation to be contingent upon the town's approval add an election of a prop 2 and a half override so-called under chapter Mass General Law chapter 59 section 21 C or take any other action in relation there to Is there a motion Mr moderator I move the town raise and approach apprpriate the sum of 1, 14612 N4 for general fund budget expenses for fiscal year 2025 for the North Middle sex Regional School District operating and transportation assessments to the town for fiscal year 2025 such appropriation to be contingent upon the town's approval at an election of an override of proposition 2 and A2 socalled under Mass General Law chapter 59 subsection 21 C second okay motion's been made and seconded on Article 4 and i' like to thank uh Mr Morgan for his presentation there too thank you for the participation in the last article is there anything to be said on article four Mr malanson Jan I'll get to you next so we've talked about what the effects would be on children what the effects are going to be on our tax basee one thing we haven't Haven talked about is what it have on the town financially if you lose the teachers if you lose the after school programs there is a good chance the schools will lose their accreditation most new incoming home buyers are young families with kids that means the price less people will be coming here that means your prices of your homes as the lady mentioned will be going down your Municipal budget for police fire and everything else will stay the same and eventuality is is your property per thousand will go up to meet those demands once that change happens it's very hard to reverse um the other thing that affects it is your bond raing with the state your ability to loan right now they've done this the leadership of this town has done a decent job our bond rating has gone up so it doesn't cost us as much to loan money if that changes your infrastructure that you need to build whether it be roads fixed Bridges will go up the cost to you will go up incrementally it's like a set of dominoes it's the way Municipal Finance Works we've talked about the effect on the kids the effect on on the individual um but you need to know those facts of the way that works um to Mr Morgan I have a question I've always worked under the premise that it's better to ask forgiveness than permission um under that theory have you ever thought about maybe taking a roster of kids that need the bus and only give that if we need to kick the state in the butt to make them change the mind in some of this maybe that's a way to do it um just food for thought um but I really want you to think about the long-term consequences it has for you we've been very lucky as a community we've got things built for us because we did not have the financial standing to do it that's to fire stations that's the library the senior center there are a lot of things that have been built for us because we could not raise the funds to do it ourselves this is one thing that we can do ourselves it's an Ask um superintendent Morgan said that they have problems with security and after um after school events does the town have a program to help seniors offset their taxes by doing volunteer work for the town that might be an area where we can work together to solve the problem um on some of this I would rather work together with everybody to solve a problem listen I got no problem standing my ground and telling the state to um but this is a problem we have to solve we have to come to terms with it um you vote what you need to I'm not here to sway you one way or the other but you do need to know the reality that it will have on your Finance finances long term for the town and that's all I got to say thank you all right comments come on the motion um Mr Churchville Mary Jane Churchville Main Street towns and I just have one question to Segway from what you said Mr milans you can't hold the mic closer is it not on I hello hello there you go all right so I to segue to what Mr malanson said that we need help here so I want to know what is on the town agenda to help the challenge for Mr Morgan to increase the commercial tax base do we have something in place that's happening that can help us okay question comes on the motion about what the town can do to change the commercial tax base if there's any plan is there anyone that can feel that we used to have an industrial development commission but I don't think we have one anymore so so that's a an excellent question the the the commercial tax Bas in towns and and quite frankly ashb and purple as well is very limited um the the um the opportunities to to have a commercial tax base that makes a material difference in the in the tax base that affects the school budget is is incredibly limited it would involve us trying to bring in another Sterly another Deluxe and every municipality in Massachusetts is trying to do that exact same thing it there there's we are as everyone know one of the great things about Townsen is it's not close to any highways you get away from the from the hustle and the bustle of the of the the big roads that's a challenge when it comes to bringing in Economic Development because we're 25 minutes from the closest you know four-lane Highway um so the the the plans that the town has are incremental and and are are likely focused on trying to bring some kind of more robust Loc SCH sized options but those things would not materially impact the the the school budget and not certainly in the the amount of time that we're talking about to impact the the the FY 25 26 or 27 budget okay comments come on the motion uh Mr shank thank you Mr moderator first of all it's a very difficult situation that the board the three of us have to try to make all ends meet for everybody and I understand that first I want to say all the teachers that are out there you do one hell of a job you do a great job you do an excellent job with the children my grandchildren have gone through like one gentleman said earlier he's proud to be a teacher coming through the school however we're in a situation that we need to do something here it's a huge override I understand it there are a lot of concerns I have to pay those same taxes that everybody else does but if we don't move forward and support what we need the children of the future and this community I think we're going to go backwards once again one gentleman said just look around our community there's one person that we can thank for all the new structures we have in our community that has really sat and been very quiet once again brand new fire station we would have to do that ourselves you think the school budget's expensive we'd have to buy a new library a senior center we would buy a new highway garage so we really really are above and beyond any other community where we stand with our buildings now we need to put forward to support the school however I would only say one thing to Mr Morgan I hear this all the time I'm here in town everyone knows I own my own business the school is topheavy in administration I I don't get into a confrontation about that I would only ask that Mr Morgan really looks at that that if there's any way to cut something because I am so sick of hearing when we have something like this we're going to cut the teachers why is it always we have to pick on the teachers they're the lifeblood of the community thank you hey comments all right comments come on the motion I don't think there was a rhetorical question in there um all right uh Mr matala ony Nath matala 23 Brookline Street it's really nice to see all of you people here all the chairs are filled I don't think we had this kind of turnout the past three meetings that we had we barely got a quorum and some of them so thank you for being here thank you for exercising your civic duty now I ask that to consider but before we go to the ballot and and keep in mind I'm for the schools I want our schools to succeed but these prop two and a halfs there have been many many before this and once we raise the money to pay for what they're for they don't go away so maybe I'd like to see like two or three of the old ones go away before I vote on a new one that's all comments come on the motion uh sir and the about the 3/4 way back top hat yeah uh I spoke already Robert low 44 Brook Line Street I agree just to say that I agree that the it's top heavy um but something I wanted to say to each and every one of you I need your help I need you to call your State Rep and tell them they need to pass a bill that I proposed the Town Administrator can verify all this information four years ago I got solar panels put on the roof of my house I used to pay Unitil as you all know 600 bucks a month during the winter now that I get the solar panels I get a $2500 credit do you think I'm ever going to see that from Unitil no so I went to the Town Administrator with a proposal I wanted to donate all my credit to the seniors and the veterans in this town that can't pay their electric bill he took the time took a week to to um research it found out there's a state law in place they can only take my new credit coming in which it took me 3 years to get up to 2500 so I called my State Rep and asked to sponsor a bill to change that state law to allow me to donate my whole $2500 cuz I'm not going to be using it I called them the beginning of winter 2023 and they assured me they were working on it they called me after the winter of 2023 and said now what is it that you wanted so I have been calling them endlessly they finally have what's called a bill I don't have the bill number with me but if each and one of you can call and get the laot changed and then anyone with solar panels and get gets a credit with Unitil if you can donate it to seniors and veterans that will help everybody out okay so that's all I want to say all right I sort of was a little bit lack there on the uh point of order but um that's okay uh I think is a well good point um all right Mr theion hold on Bob I'd like to comment on a couple of things our our superintendent presented here I wanted to ask one question um there must be an association or organization of superintendents and so uh I would assume that he participates in that and one of the common denominate is not just with our school budget it's coming throughout the town government is the state making these mandates that are under funded and it's showing up everywhere and um so you heard the alarm the superintendent said about all these the foreign languages that we're going to be confronted with and so I see the state spending money on all these other programs when the basic priority ones the ones that they were committed to and obligated to when we made this school district they were they're ignoring or downsizing so I think as a community we really in order to help ourselves we have to be responsible with who our legislators are so um again with the superintendent you know we can talk about subtle things like well do do the people in the athletic program uh pay a fee or something to be part of a group and we can look at a you know some of the prolifer positions that are there but all in all the presentation is very obvious and I I think my impression is that school district has done a good job and the superintendent has done a responsible job I don't see any frivilous spending anywhere and so um I think that maybe with the superintendent of schools and other school districts with support from our Town's people that we have to stop these mandates that we have to do this when they're not funding anything and it and um and that's our legislators you know they're spending the Commonwealth right now if you heard the local news has is it's uh was had a surface budget last year and now is in deficit so that only means we're going to get less and it only means we're going to get tax more on a state level so the spending that's happening in in Boston for Boston programs uh is affecting us here in Townson and and so uh the alarm is that our superintendent said the the deduction in transportation the deduction in um the state participation uh in another program was one of some of the first things he pointed out is why he needed to come to us for funding um so I I I guess that we have to have a wake up call here and I in I support what's needed for our school district here I support what the you know the efforts that have been put here and the job our superintendent has done but we can't we can't survive alone we have to get these other school districts to see what's happening we're getting these mandates for programs and for languages and and but the state's not there to pay for any of it and so they Bob yeah can you kind of wrap it up I'm wrapping up okay thank you all right uh Mr SE deranian uh chess seon durania and eight South Street um thank you Mr moderator um I just I wanted to make a couple of comments number one I'm going to um um also Echo the fact that it's nice to see a full town meeting here um I helped put out chairs so I know how many chairs are out there and we've got butts and chairs and that's important um we have a very tough decision to make and I will say that uh this board of Selectmen we've been working very hard on keeping um the the town's budget as level as possible um there are costs of living and there are things contractually that we have to uh adhere to um we have been as Mr Morgan alluded to that we have been working very closely with the school districts um since November October actually is when we we first uh we first met um we had said this is what the town can afford um we went through four meetings and all four meetings was the same this is what we can afford we have to stay within a certain part of our budget and to be as fiscally responsible as we possibly can which we have um to this point uh we decided that we were going to um have the special town meeting so that we could talk about this particular issue with the school budget so that we then can really kind of um sharpen our pencils for the rest of our budget this is why we're here today um I also want to add the the on a personal level um being from a small town I'm from Irving Massachusetts just down the road I grew up there and if it wasn't for after school uh programs I probably wouldn't be sitting here right now um I was in band and I was and drum core and both of those um uh has shown me um a lot of things in life that I wouldn't have had growing up in a very small town like Irving much like Townsen um we traveled all over and I I got a a education and life as opposed to an education in a classroom which to me was much more valuable um so I asked that uh you know we're putting this in front of you make the right decision for the children children are our future and I will support whatever the Town decides on this matter okay comments come on the article uh in the back with a blue sweatshirt that have to be recognized well I'm no I'm no Gary I'm sorry I recognized the gentleman down here sorry okay is that going to me I I just wanted to um mention one what's your name I'm I'm sorry Mark Hasbro 12 ballon Drive uh my son is a sophomore in high school right now um I know they had Cuts in the school last year I know three of his teachers that he had last year are no longer with us I'm not exactly sure if they left on their own or if they're cut but they're not there um he he is a good student but he also uh participates in after school activities and sports some of those after school activities that could be cut are academic activities Not Just Sports and some of them are volunteer groups um that give back to the community themselves one of them being best buddies where they work with disabled kids in town and another is um Giving Tree which raises funds for underserved and financially struggling families um you're cutting more than just teachers you're cutting Aid to the community as well thank you okay comments come on the motion Mr Shephard people okay motion's been made and seconded to move the question this will cut off debate on Article 4 it's not debatable all those in favor of moving the question please say I I those opposed say no the eyes have it all right the article the motion is before you article four I think we all know what it's about all those in favor of article four say I I those opposed say no no the eyes have it by majority is there anything else to be said hold on we're not done yet looking for a motion to re to dissolve the meeting meeting move to dissolve second second all those in favor say I all right this meeting is [Applause] dissolved