[0:00] So I go call to order this meeting of the town of Grotten Select Board for May 23rd at 11 a.m., we are meeting to be assumed together with the Finance Committee and the School Committee. I apologize. We have the superintendent. We have the Dunstable Town Administrator. We have the Acting Grotten Town Manager and a various assortment of other staff and board member folks on the presenting webinar side that you can see.

[0:28] We anticipate and have a significant attendee list.

[0:32] I see some hands are up with everyone on the attendee list can make sure they have their own name listed rather than Jeff Bruno.

[0:38] I think there's a little confusion. It's a link Scott shared that we're not not quite the right one, which is fine.

[0:46] So I guess I will look at the Fincom and school committee call to order, assuming that they have enough folks to do so.

[0:56] I don't think we have, I think we have one, three.

[0:59] I'm only seeing two of you.

[1:02] I see three, but that's it.

[1:03] Scott's on here.

[1:04] Who's the third one?

[1:06] Well, we don't have a quorum meta one.

[1:09] Say you're right.

[1:10] Okay.

[1:11] We have a quorum, so I will call the school committee meeting to order.

[1:15] And then also, I think that our new member on he fully is in the attendees list.

[1:22] I don't know if it's possible to promote her to a panelist.

[1:24] Thank you.

[1:25] Thank you.

[1:26] Absolutely.

[1:27] And half an hour as well.

[1:29] Sorry.

[1:31] Can you repeat that second name that you said?

[1:33] Catherine Aula.

[1:35] Thank you.

[1:37] Perfect.

[1:44] So from a process perspective, I just want to kind of offer a brief overview of where we're at.

[1:50] As everyone knows at this point, the override for both the fire department, which we're kind

[1:55] of not talking about here in this meeting, but the override for the schools failed on Tuesday

[2:00] by 30 votes.

[2:02] So we are meeting here to talk about options and kind of chart that pathway forward at this

[2:10] point.

[2:11] The town meeting vote gives us authorization to spend both the base budget for the municipal

[2:17] and for the school as well as permission to spend the override from school at the ballot because

[2:23] that didn't pass. We don't actually have the ability to raise the revenue to do that. So we will

[2:29] talk about that. We can kind of go in a couple of different directions. One would be to change the

[2:36] budget request to go to another override vote at the ballot. Another option would be to change

[2:42] budget and hold another town meeting. So lots of different moving parts, all of the pathways

[2:48] forward involve different waiting periods and days and all of that. At a high level, obviously,

[2:55] the intent here would be to do everything we can to make sure that the district has a budget in place

[3:00] by the start of the fiscal year, which is July 1st. So we have to be particularly mindful of all of

[3:07] those different days. We do have a town council here or is he in the attendee list that needs

[3:14] to be popped over? We don't see him yet. All right. I will text him. So he will be here to

[3:22] kind of answer questions that we have. We have heard from dozens upon dozens, if not hundreds

[3:29] of folks encouraging us to do everything we can to meet the schools identified needs and similarly

[3:35] we've had dozens and hundreds of emails advocating that we really need to listen to the will of the voters.

[3:42] So there will be an opportunity for attendees to kind of ask questions.

[3:47] I'm going to ask, and I will cut people off, but if that's kind of all you have to contribute,

[3:51] is a voice in either of those directions. We have lots and lots of input on that front.

[3:59] So Peter and Bud, quick questions or...

[4:02] Yeah, thank you, Alison. Just very, very quickly, I think it might be helpful for context to sort of lay out the dynamic of where we're at, where, in fact, we've had Donsible that's actually approved the override, gotten hasn't and we need to have a, you know, budget for the school district and how the regional agreement, you know, impacts on that.

[4:23] because I think some people have raised a question about whether, you know, going back and asking again is a legal thing to do or not.

[4:30] And in fact, I think we're bound to do that based on the regional agreement and that we need to have a budget in both communities need to be part of that budget.

[4:40] So I think that's important to bear in mind.

[4:44] That's it.

[4:44] Absolutely. Thank you.

[4:45] But I'll wait till after the school presents.

[4:51] Okay.

[4:51] And please say I turn it over to you and Jeff.

[4:54] And then.

[4:55] Incom and then we'll have some more discussion.

[4:58] Okay.

[4:58] Thank you.

[4:59] I just want to really quickly just thank members of the Groughton's left

[5:02] word and finance committee for meeting with us this morning as Alison indicated.

[5:07] It is really imperative that we have a budget in place that is approved and funded by the start of the fiscal year.

[5:14] And in light of the family of the override, you know, that puts us now in a little bit of crunch time to try to figure that out.

[5:22] You know, obviously our objective here is to try to maximize stability for the schools and the students as much as possible.

[5:32] So, you know, that's, that's what we're here for and we're, we're looking to just work with the town, we're gotten to figure out the best way forward.

[5:39] So, Dr. Bruno has a couple of slides to just kind of update everybody on the state funding and where that stands and any potential impacts that that may also have on our budget.

[5:52] So, I will turn it over to Dr. Bruno to walk us through that.

[5:56] I've said before, just before you start, I think that town council is coming up as Brian and has been moved over to the attendees list.

[6:04] So if you guys can coordinate with Brian, Bob, Brian, if you can rename yourself as attorney, Brian, Bob, that would be helpful.

[6:11] Yes, there are two Brian's, apparently.

[6:13] Yeah.

[6:14] With no last name, so.

[6:15] Exactly.

[6:16] And then I believe it was the school committee that mentioned two names that I don't see on the list of attendees and maybe that they are one of the dozen or so Jeff Bruno's.

[6:28] Oh, I will reach out to them and ask them to rename themselves.

[6:35] So I think if everyone who is currently identifying is Jeff Bruno in the attendees list can just go in and and fix their name. We don't need a last name.

[6:46] You can change your name to be not Jeff Bruno. That's fine. But if you need to be moved to the webinar side to actually participate, that's going to be really helpful.

[6:54] All right.

[7:05] So I guess started.

[7:08] All right, this this is this is Jeff Bruno. I just want to be clear. The real Jeff Bruno here. I wanted to thank also Sherry Cursey who's also with us to putting these slides together.

[7:23] As Allison noted, we do have, and others in Lacey, we do have some updated information from chapter 70 subsidy, so I'm just going to share my screen and go through these slides here.

[7:51] Everybody see those? Okay. Is that coming through? Okay, great.

[7:54] So this is about re-certification for a different amount.

[8:01] As noted, we have had some updated change in chapter 70 funding to our school district.

[8:08] And just to recap the ballot results.

[8:12] So the override article in Groughton failed by 30 votes as was noted and indunstable past 529 to 350 at the ballot.

[8:23] So currently the school district does not have an approved budget at this time as available funding is not available to fund the assessments.

[8:33] We're looking at just being very clear and consistent when our budget was certified on March 12th given the current information from the governor's budget on what our chapter 70 subsidy will be which given some legislation that has passed now both.

[8:53] and the House and the Senate, the chapter 70 amount has changed, providing additional $167,700 in relief.

[9:03] So, the timeline for this change in our chapter 70 money from the state is as follows.

[9:09] So, on January 22nd, the governor released the FY26 budget chapter 70 was set at $75 per student increase over the previous year.

[9:23] This was the numbers that we used to certify on March 12th, on April 16th.

[9:32] House Ways and Means released Chapter 70 at $150 increase per student, so this would lead to 167,700 in state aid.

[9:46] That was on April 16th.

[9:50] Following town meeting, the Senate Ways and Means on May 6th released their budget.

[9:56] This also was the same amount Chapter 70 at $150 per student.

[10:01] Instead of the 75, which increases our state aid by 167,700.

[10:08] So on May 23rd, we're looking to recertify the budget using this updated number in Chapter 70.

[10:16] of $150 per student, this would lower the assessments to each town.

[10:23] Our total budget is exactly the same, it's just the revenue side.

[10:26] Now that is different and to the good and will act to reduce assessments in both towns given that additional money.

[10:39] So what does that look like for each town in terms of impacting the assessment for FY26?

[10:47] This minimum made going from $75 per student to $150 per student will add that 167,000 roughly in state and revenue.

[10:59] So this will proportionally reduce the assessments to each town for

[11:04] a grotten. That means a reduction in the assessment of $128,995.

[11:09] And then for Dunstable, the reduction is $38,705.

[11:13] dollars.

[11:19] On March 12th, as we presented multiple times in our budget forums, based on the

[11:29] Certified Assessment on March 12th, the operational override in Grotten was 673,250 to meet the

[11:36] superintendent's proposed budget.

[11:42] On May 23rd, given that additional chapter 70 money, that

[11:48] That operational override number is now able to be reduced to $544,255.

[12:01] And then in Dunstable, as of March 12th, the operational override request was $401,037.

[12:13] The fund, our regional school district budget on March 12th.

[12:20] On May 23rd given that additional chapter 70 money, that number operational override number amount is now 362,331.

[12:34] And that's really the update given these positive changes following the House and the Senate that number that additional number for chapter 70 were anticipating to be signed into law by the governor.

[12:52] and that would impact and reduce the assessments to both towns while still keeping our budget essentially the same.

[13:03] Sherry, anything you want to add or anything that I may have missed?

[13:07] No, you probably have anything that I have.

[13:15] Okay. Thank you, Dr Bruno.

[13:17] So I think if we could just stop sharing the screen now.

[13:20] I think that a couple of school committee members were able to log out and log back in but they're in the participant list so if we can promote fairer and on he fully now they should be there.

[13:33] Thank you.

[13:34] Okay, so given the updated numbers from from the state.

[13:40] We felt that the best course of action this morning would be to recertify our budget. We're not just to make it clear we're not changing our budget at this point in time.

[13:51] The only thing that will be changing are the assessment numbers to the towns. So the school committee will vote on recertifying the budget with the understanding that over the next few weeks.

[14:02] As we work with the town of Grotten, that number will change.

[14:06] But at least everybody understands where we're starting from.

[14:11] So with that, I will go ahead and read out the budget motion.

[14:16] Just give me one second.

[14:21] Okay.

[14:23] So I entertain a motion that the total appropriation for the Grotten,

[14:27] and then civil regional school district for the fiscal year July from on 2025 to

[14:31] June of 2026 be set at 51,369,833 dollars as presented by the following

[14:40] functions 1,000 district leadership and administration 1,394,911 dollars

[14:48] 2,000 instructional services 27,895,025 dollars 3,000 other school services

[14:57] 3,650,700.

[15:00] $4,000, maintenance, $4,959,995,000, fixed charges, $11,132,554, $7,000, fixed assets, $431,750, $8,000, debt retirement

[15:20] and service, $146,813.9,000 programs with other districts, $2,658,077.

[15:33] So move.

[15:36] Okay.

[15:37] Before you guys take a vote, I just want to reiterate again for those in the attendee

[15:44] list, who are still listed as Jeff Bruno, one of whom just had their hand out.

[15:48] But you need to change your actual name to get back over here.

[15:53] That hand has gone down.

[15:54] I assume Brian that that may have been you.

[15:56] So, carry on.

[15:57] They see.

[15:57] Thank you.

[15:58] Okay.

[15:59] Thank you.

[16:00] Any discussion before you move to a vote?

[16:04] Okay.

[16:06] I will do my best to make sure I call on school community members that are here as I see them

[16:11] in the panelists list.

[16:14] So, Christina.

[16:16] Yes.

[16:17] Rosanna.

[16:18] Yes.

[16:19] Yes, Catherine. Yes, Faye. Yes. On he. Yes. And Ro.

[16:31] Yes. And myself. Yes. Did I get everybody?

[16:39] So we have another motion, which is the member assessments. And so this is the number that will change based on the projected numbers that are coming in from the state.

[16:51] So I will entertain a motion that the member towns be assessed in accordance with the education reform law and the terms of the agreement and amendments there to as follows.

[17:01] 20 million, $28,322,203.

[17:07] Groton capital, $278,643.

[17:12] Groton debt, $110,389.

[17:16] Groton total, $28,711,235.

[17:21] Dunstable operating, $8,664,157.

[17:26] dollars. Dunstable capital, $83,607. Dunstable debt, $36,424 and

[17:35] Dunstable total, $8,784,188.

[17:42] Sorry, second.

[17:46] Discussion,

[17:49] okay.

[17:50] Rosanna.

[17:51] Yes.

[17:52] Christina.

[17:54] Yes.

[17:55] Bay.

[17:58] Yes.

[17:59] on he. I'll make the abstain. Row. Yes. Myself. Yes. Okay. Thank you. So with that, I will turn it over to the grout and select board.

[18:14] Understanding that you don't need to take action on the assessment today, but it's just for discussion purposes at this time.

[18:19] Thank you, Lacey, and thank you to all of the school committee members and school affiliated folks for that helpful action and for being here.

[18:31] By doing a go ahead.

[18:32] Yes, for those on the call who don't me don't know me but Robertson chairman of the finance committee.

[18:40] So with regard to the current budget shortfall, after an extensive conversation with the town manager last night, we believe the best course of action.

[18:50] and would be not to call another override,

[18:54] but call for a special town meeting

[18:56] to fund the schools at the level they see.

[18:58] The town manager returns with vacation,

[19:01] he can work with the department heads in the school committee

[19:03] to come up with a new funding plan

[19:05] to avoid additional cuts at the schools.

[19:08] This is a way to address the many emails and message received

[19:11] from both sides over the last 24 hours,

[19:15] which is on the outcome of the override

[19:17] Right, and meet the needs of the school district.

[19:21] And so that's where we spent a lot of time on this and we believe that is the best path forward.

[19:29] All right, thank you.

[19:33] So with that recommendation from the chair of the finance committee and with the two votes

[19:37] of the school committee, we're now left with a gap on the ground on the side of about $540,000.

[19:45] And we need to determine whether we're going to move forward to another override vote or handle this at a town meeting vote.

[19:56] You know, similarly, I've had a number of conversations with budget with the town manager in the last 24, 48 hours.

[20:05] the option to go back to town meeting, I think, is the cleanest way to both meet the needs

[20:15] of the schools, potentially, as well as honor the vote that was taken for the override which

[20:20] failed. And that would basically put us in a position of meeting to work with the schools

[20:27] and the town manager to identify any savings that could be kind of incorporated into a budget

[20:33] request any changes of revenue in addition to the chapter 70 per pupil amount that the state is

[20:39] more likely at this point to adopt.

[20:43] Talk about potentially any ability to use E&D or free cash

[20:47] on the town side and come up with some way to keep the school budget will likely by cutting

[20:54] and adapting things on the municipal side. So I think that's I guess I would start the conversation

[21:02] And with that, and we will get two members of the public eventually.

[21:07] I see they're at least one hand up, but Peter, yeah, question.

[21:12] I just so, I guess going back and revisiting the municipal budget.

[21:15] And I think that's a worthy exercise.

[21:18] I'd like to know on a see dawns here, what the timeline is or how much time we have to work with,

[21:26] particularly if we need to hold another election or call of time meeting.

[21:30] there's some time frames and those are I think legal constraints we have on the amount of time we

[21:36] have to I guess work this up. Yeah, absolutely. Go ahead, John. So if you want for a special

[21:43] election at this point, I am required to receive a ballot question within 35 days of holding

[21:51] an election. So the earliest that could be done is Friday June 27th. So I think the town manager

[21:59] if that's the route that's chosen he has potentially picked Saturday June 28th is a potential

[22:06] special election date. As far as a town meeting goes a special town meeting does require 2%

[22:13] of the registered voters to be in attendance in that number as of January 8th that's the number

[22:20] that I have would be 178.24 voters.

[22:24] No problem.

[22:27] That would require, if you were to call for a special town meeting today,

[22:32] I believe the warrant needs to be open for 20 days to allow for any citizens

[22:36] petitions and a citizens petitions for a special town meeting

[22:40] requires 100 voters signatures, not the usual 10 for an annual town meeting.

[22:47] And I think if that is what is decided the date that's being proposed for that would also be June 28th.

[22:55] Yeah, that's the thank you John, that's really helpful.

[22:58] So my understanding in talking with town council and the town manager is that if we were looking at town meeting on the 28th that we would have until June 13th to call for that meeting post the meeting open the warrant that that would give us kind of just enough.

[23:16] that that's the latest date basically that we could do that. I'm not advocating that we do that, but I also don't want to call for a meeting post a meeting when the warrant for a meeting and then have to move the meeting or something either.

[23:31] In terms of date, but also in terms of location, we need to be able to figure out what spaces are available to us.

[23:38] So for the if we're going to go to the town meeting, we have a little bit more time, you know, in the order of a week or two where we need to finalize that decision. Matt and then Becky.

[23:52] Yeah, I know this is very emotional subject with the schools and everything, but there were two override votes on the ballot.

[23:59] So if we're talking about cut taking from the municipal budget, when a municipal department was already looking for additional funds, I think we have to be very careful here because though it didn't get as much press and publicity as the school did, the department situation is still there, the short coming on the department is still there, and we need to understand and not forget the fact that they are looking for additional people as well.

[24:27] Yeah, that's a good point. Thank you, Becky.

[24:31] Yes, I want to clarify on the the choice of scheduling a town meeting. Don, could that

[24:39] town meeting be scheduled for the previous Saturday for Saturday June 21st if we decided

[24:44] today?

[24:45] Towns Council can correct me if I'm wrong, but I think if you call for a special town meeting

[24:50] Today, the warrant itself has to be open for 20 days, which would mean it would close on June 9th.

[24:59] You have a 14-day posting requirement of that warrant for a special town meeting.

[25:07] So you would have to post it by Friday the 13th in order to have your town meeting on Saturday the 28th.

[25:17] So the Saturday the 21st really would not work, is that what you're saying?

[25:21] I believe so, yes.

[25:23] Okay.

[25:24] I will also just comment.

[25:27] I've kind of gone back and forth on this.

[25:32] I think paramount in my mind is to preserve the school budget without further cuts.

[25:41] I at first understood really that the only option to do that would be to have another override vote.

[25:47] So, however, if we think we could keep the school budget intact and find some savings in

[25:59] our own budget or increase revenue or creative use of funding, I think that would be better

[26:09] for the town. It clearly having another override vote is a very divisive choice. We did get

[26:18] overwhelmed with strongly and passionately worded emails on both sides of that argument.

[26:29] So I'm a little uneasy, it would be easier to make the decision if we actually knew what kind of changes we would be making in our own budget in order for this to happen.

[26:44] However, certainly one of the things that has, one of the criticisms that we've heard loud and clear is why didn't the town look at finding this money in their own budget.

[26:54] But with the reduction from the state, it's maybe down to an amount that we actually can

[27:02] do it.

[27:02] I will rely on the, on Bud's understanding of the budget in more depth than I have.

[27:12] I'm tentatively willing to go along with that choice at this point, although I'm interested

[27:16] to hear other discussion.

[27:18] So I just want to be really clear that with a couple of things, and I know you agree on these, I think Becky, one is that, you know, throughout this process which starts at the beginning of the calendar year, we have been looking at the municipal budget.

[27:32] So it's, you know, it's not, it's not that we slapped this together in the last couple of weeks or something, you know, careless along those lines.

[27:41] the other piece is that in conversation with the town manager the only way I think we

[27:48] could get to this being able to meet the school needs without an override would be to rely

[27:54] more heavily on the school side potentially on one time revenue that is intended to support

[27:59] operating as well as to make that same first step on a slippery slope on the town side and

[28:06] use some free cash toward operating, which generally is not recommended.

[28:11] It happens, but it kind of continues to dig plus into more and more of a problem if we

[28:17] were to do that.

[28:18] So this is not a move that we could readily take without consideration and without some

[28:27] detriment.

[28:27] There would also be impacts on the meaner civil side.

[28:32] One of the pieces that we would contemplate, I believe, there's currently DPW vacancy that

[28:36] we could consider not filling. Ultimately, that would be a reduction in service and the

[28:43] community would need to understand that their expectations for flower responsiveness and other

[28:48] things are going to be impacted. We do not have any way to meet the school need without

[28:57] impacting services. John and Enbud.

[29:05] I'm not sure that the town meeting is even the best way to do this, and I know I supported this school override, I supported the fire override, they've lost.

[29:15] If you look at the numbers, the town meeting, we had 525 people, we're going to have a special town meeting.

[29:20] I don't know what they'll bring, probably bring more than that because you can see what the emails and we've got over 150 of them in the last day.

[29:28] But we had over 2,900 people vote at the ballot, over 2,900.

[29:33] And 525 at the town meeting.

[29:35] We're going to go back to that, I hope not.

[29:38] But we're going to go back to the smaller number at town meeting.

[29:42] I see it as this, as the second bite at the apple for the override that failed.

[29:49] I'm sorry, that's the way I see it.

[29:51] But I know where we're at.

[29:53] I guess my question maybe for Brian Fawke is if the town were to do nothing, what?

[30:00] What option does the school committee have? So it's a super-town meeting. Right. So under chapter 41 and desi regulations, with a newly certified school budget submitted to the town, town is supposed to hold a special town meeting within 45 days to consider the revised budget. That's a requirement. We do nothing.

[30:28] and the new fiscal year comes, effectively the school district doesn't have an FY26 budget and would have to see a 112 budget authorization from Destiny and go a month to month on a 112 budget until a district budget is approved.

[30:49] Thank you, Brian.

[30:51] Yeah, there's a couple of things. One, maybe people didn't hear what I said though, but when we, when I commented and I talked, it was that this is to not have another override, this is to not have another override.

[31:06] It's our proposal, Mark's proposal is talking to me and Allison was a no override.

[31:11] This is going to be a town meeting and the town meeting is going to be for Mark to come forward what he believes are the cuts and their baby service cuts, which they probably will be to fund the school to have the school cut another eight people on top of 34 is just unacceptable.

[31:29] The school is in trouble now and this is going to put him deep in trouble.

[31:31] So when we talked about this, Mark agreed that he would come back when he comes back from vacation.

[31:37] He's going to get with his people and the school and they're going to decide they're going to come up with what they believe are the proper cuts to, in fact, cover this $540,000, whatever the number 544 shortfall.

[31:49] So this is not an override. That's the way our proposal is off the table.

[31:52] So we're going to be talking about what cuts are. And I don't think this is the forum to start discussing all his cuts.

[31:59] Mark has got to come back, he's got to say it was people, he's got to go to a lot of detail to figure out where the least amount of service up scale, you know, is going to be a problem.

[32:10] So we need to figure out where he needs to figure out where the least amount of service shortfall is going to be.

[32:17] So that's so that this meeting is to say does everybody that has the authority to make the call

[32:24] agree that it's not an override. It's a town meeting. Mark's going to find the cuts and at that

[32:29] town meeting he maybe before that he'll present the cuts so people can have a chance to input because

[32:34] he says he wants to cut this and the town goes no that's the wrong thing to cut. He's got to come

[32:38] flat. He's going to come back. He's going to do that. And so let's just make the call. Do we agree?

[32:43] No override, which then honors the outcome of the override and then meet the needs of the school district by having another town meeting, which I thought he said he could have it by the 21st based on the time and maybe I'm wrong.

[32:57] But anyways, that's what I think we need to do. We don't need to discuss a lot of other stuff at this meeting. I don't think I think that's after the fact that Mark actually has a chance to look at what he needs to do.

[33:05] Thank you. Brian, quick question to you. In terms of calling for a special town meeting,

[33:11] kind of my back of the envelope calculation was that if we did that, if we wanted to hold

[33:15] a meeting on the 28th of June, we have until the 13th to kind of finalize location and all of those

[33:23] pieces, if you can just kind of run through those numbers in your head and correct that or confirm that.

[33:28] Yeah. Yeah, so to have a special time meeting on June 28th, you'd have to post the warrant

[33:37] by 14 days early, the business day before that is June 13th. Typically, it wouldn't post

[33:45] on the Saturday. So Friday, June 13th would be the posting date, but the board would have

[33:51] to vote to call the time meeting before that date. Leave some time for citizen petitions

[33:57] that come in because you have to accept under the charter, you have to accept citizen petitions

[34:01] that are filed not less than 20 days before the date of the special town meeting. So you leave

[34:06] some window of time open for citizen petitions, receive them, have them certified and then include

[34:14] them on the warrant, post the warrant not later than June 13th. You also have to publish in the newspaper

[34:24] and that ad has to run 14 days before the date.

[34:28] So you have to look back at what the newspapers,

[34:31] it's not the full warrant, it's just notice of a special

[34:33] town meeting.

[34:34] That would have to run in the newspaper,

[34:37] not later than June 13th or June 14th.

[34:40] So you'd have to contact the newspaper

[34:42] and figure out what the what the outside date

[34:45] for getting that notice would be.

[34:48] Right, and if we want the meeting of 21st is that doable?

[34:54] So, Madison said you may want a choice of picking a date that makes the most sense for

[34:58] everybody.

[34:58] When is the amount comes back?

[35:00] I think about the beginning here.

[35:03] June 2nd.

[35:06] Yeah.

[35:07] So, that would be.

[35:08] No, I just did a quick count.

[35:11] In order to post the one, if you post the one on June 13th, that's the 14 days from Rockley Saturday, the 28th.

[35:19] Yep. Your 20 days that you're required to have the warrant open for your town meeting would have to be called and the warrant would have to be open by tomorrow.

[35:28] So to do it on the first, it doesn't give you enough time to post 14 days to post the warrant and the 20 days for the warrant to be open.

[35:38] So are those 20 days or those business days or are they just calendar days? Is that where this kind of.

[35:46] So the charter requires that we include on the warrant citizen petitions that are filed at least 20 days before the date of the meeting. It doesn't actually call for the warrant to be open for 20 days. That's been a custom to petitioners who have to gather 100 signatures for a special.

[36:05] But it's not, as I read the chart, it's not, we have to leave the warrant open for 20 days.

[36:10] We just have to accept the titions that are filed at least 20 days before whatever date

[36:15] the meeting is going to be.

[36:18] So you have to leave some time to be able to accept the titions, but it doesn't necessarily have

[36:22] to be 20 days.

[36:24] Okay, so we could potentially close the warrant on the 6th of June, and then if we were to

[36:28] open it sometime next week or even on the second, obviously with the discussion here,

[36:35] folks would have that notice that they need to be getting that organized and we could

[36:39] have that that could work, correct?

[36:43] That's that's correct.

[36:45] You could you could announce your intentions to have a special time meeting a certain date

[36:50] at this meeting that gives people some time and then you know you can pick your formal

[36:55] open and pick your closure date for the warrant to give you time to get it finished and signed and

[37:02] posted 14 days before your intended meeting date. I'm confused are you saying that we would need

[37:10] on the 21st? Sorry Becky. I don't think so. This is all about the 28th still. This is what you're saying,

[37:27] six.

[37:30] And then the deadline for citizen petitions would be Monday, the second.

[37:50] So that is doable, right? If we chose to meet on the 21st, potentially, yeah, I mean,

[37:57] I think we'll get there. Let's speed it up. And then we'll kind of return to this. Thank you, Peter.

[38:02] Yeah, I was just going to say, I think, I think we know enough now to know that we're going to need a

[38:06] meeting as far as town meeting because they're going to be changes to the budget one way or the

[38:10] other and we need the town meeting to you know to weigh in on and certify the budget. So I think we

[38:16] need we I think actually right now we could probably you know call for the meeting and then fill in

[38:21] the details once we're down the road. I really think we need to meet and I don't know if it's on June

[38:28] 2nd or get him a day or two once he gets back to to look at it and revisit the municipal budget

[38:34] But we need to have a special meeting, a select board meeting to go over this and

[38:38] do come up with some solid numbers of how we're going to make this work.

[38:43] I also don't, I hear what Bud's saying, but I wouldn't want to entirely rule out needing

[38:51] to ask from an override if we get to that point and at that meeting, at that special meeting

[38:57] and have to make some hard decisions.

[39:00] I'm not, I'm, I'm disinclined to do that, but I don't think we should take that off the table because there are some different budget numbers that are to work with and we had when we first put this together and went to town meeting.

[39:13] So I don't know that we would take that off the table today is virtually the last day that we can decide if we want to do a ballot and have it take place this fiscal year.

[39:23] You know, there obviously is a mechanism to move that forward, but that was kind of the case to have this meeting at that point, but.

[39:32] Well, to get to the previous point, I think that, you know, when Mark comes back, he will be able to make probably within a couple of weeks, what he thinks of the cuts.

[39:41] And then he can meet with the select board in the Fincon before the town meeting so that we have the numbers that he's proposing.

[39:47] I mean, he's going to need a week or two anyways, but I don't think he's going to need more than that to get this number available.

[39:54] He's already thought this through. I'm sure he even knows on vacation. I'm sure he's going to be thinking about this when he's on vacation.

[40:00] So when he goes back, my guess is I've been talking to him. So I think he's going to be ready in a couple of weeks. And therefore, he has time at that point in time,

[40:08] whether it's a Zoom meeting with a select board or whatever to have to discuss the cost.

[40:12] Just like he did when he presented the budget to us, he presented the budget and it was,

[40:15] you know, we didn't know anything a lot unless you went to all those meetings.

[40:18] That in fact, this is what he wanted to propose.

[40:20] So, he's comfortable, I'm certainly comfortable with what he believes he can do in a short period of time.

[40:25] So, I think if we can't make, we should make the call to let him go forward and put together a plan

[40:32] And with the school committee that allows them to have no other cuts to their school.

[40:39] Alison, just briefly, yeah, I think that's a good plan.

[40:44] I'd like to see those numbers, and I'd like to support something like that.

[40:48] But I don't want to totally, totally rule out, I guess, the override.

[40:53] And if that's a special election that kicks in in the next fiscal year, I'd ask Brian how

[40:58] that would work.

[40:59] would we be in a situation where that first month of that year we're on a 112th budget to

[41:04] the school district until we get a you know until you know the results of the election are

[41:09] determined and we know whether we have the additional money to you know to work with.

[41:15] Yeah so if an over so right now we have a town meeting appropriation for the full amount of

[41:22] the previously requested budget by the district. How many voted it but it did it in two parts and it

[41:28] It did one part under two-and-a-half cap,

[41:31] and then it did an additional amount

[41:33] that's contingent upon an override passing.

[41:37] Under prop two-and-a-half,

[41:38] you technically have until September 15th

[41:40] to have a ballot question that matches the appropriation.

[41:45] But for purposes of chapter 71 in the school district's budget,

[41:50] you have until July 1st.

[41:53] The district would not have an approved budget

[41:55] but as of July 1st, if we're going to do an override vote

[41:59] to meet the contingent appropriation

[42:02] sometime after July 1st.

[42:05] And so in that case, the district would have to do a 112 budget

[42:09] for as long as it needs until it hasn't approved

[42:13] a budget for Bill Towns.

[42:15] All right, and I'm sorry again, but Alison Kay,

[42:18] and as Jeff Runner's still with us,

[42:20] it's recognizing that the payment obligations

[42:24] the district have, they're not always consistent for month to month and during the summer months,

[42:29] they may not need as much of their next year's operating assessment.

[42:35] If there was some time to work, and this is sort of the inner workings, I guess, the

[42:40] district and how they work and what the payroll schedule is, something like that might be possible.

[42:52] I think all I'm saying, I agree with what Bud is saying, and I think we probably can get there

[42:59] without the override, but I don't want to totally rule that out if we get to that point

[43:04] and we find out that we need to make it and that we review the, you know, what some

[43:09] of the cuts might be and are getting, you know, feedback that they're too painful,

[43:15] or they're impacting certain public services that we don't want to impact.

[43:19] Yeah, I mean, I wouldn't anticipate at this point taking that, you know, voting to take

[43:24] that off the table or something.

[43:25] I think we would be kind of looking at affirming or voting today are intent to go to town

[43:30] meeting first. Yeah. But then Becky. Well, Becky, go first. Yeah, I think El, so you just said

[43:39] what we needed to be said. Okay. So at this point, I guess, is there a member of the select board

[43:48] who doesn't think that calling for a special town meeting should be kind of the next macro step?

[43:56] Okay. Not hearing any. Then I guess the question would become whether we're ready to commit

[44:03] to a date for that town meeting potentially, or whether we want to take a few more days.

[44:10] Kara has clarified for me, for all of us, I guess, the text that June 28th, the Performing

[44:17] Arts Center, is available. And it's free on the Monday the 30th as well. I don't know where

[44:24] people stand in terms of Saturday versus a Monday in June this time of year, et cetera, et cetera,

[44:31] et cetera. Okay. Thank you. Yeah. Excuse me. I think probably Saturday is better. However,

[44:41] the one real drawback to moving to a town meeting is that there is absolutely no way for

[44:48] remote or absentee participation, and as far as I understand, unless something has changed in the law, and a certain

[45:00] The representative of our residents will be on vacation and not able to attend. I guess that the one thing I would would say that makes it still okay in my mind to have a town meeting on Saturday, 38, is that it's a less controversial choice for us to just cut our budget.

[45:29] it then to have an override.

[45:35] So I guess I think that offering a reduced budget from what we had before is not going

[45:43] to be terribly controversial.

[45:46] Some people will be unhappy with some of the cuts, probably, but not perhaps as passionately

[45:53] unhappy as they might be if we were having another override bill.

[46:00] I agree. I mean, I think it's worth pointing out right now looking at the process options.

[46:07] There's no way we're going to make everybody happy. I mean, these are really tough decisions

[46:11] and there are no good choices. I think the same probably be true regardless of if we go

[46:16] a town meeting when we set that to be, there will be complaints, problems, etc.

[46:25] But?

[46:27] Well, the other issue is if the override, if we don't do the carts, we have an override

[46:32] vote at the end of the month, and then all of a sudden the override doesn't pass.

[46:37] Again, then the school has a huge problem of eight more people.

[46:41] I just don't think we, first of all, the voter said no, and I think we've got to go forward

[46:45] say the voter said no, let's do it and we'll make the reductions and they're going to maybe

[46:48] hurt but they're not going to hurt as much personally I believe as cotton eight more

[46:54] teaches out of the school system. I agree and I think everyone here I mean that's what I'm hearing

[47:00] is everyone saying that's the preferred route I think Peter's concern is that if the town manager

[47:05] where I show identify that there's absolutely no way to do this the override isn't it's still an

[47:11] option to us. So I don't think that's a problem.

[47:17] So did a select board members have a preference

[47:21] between a Saturday versus a Monday? Kara, in her amazing, while she is taking minutes of this

[47:27] meeting, has also confirmed that the PAC is available on the 21st and the 23rd. Good job, Kara.

[47:42] So it's a week earlier than, is it still good? Does it give us enough time to do everything?

[47:48] That would be a lot tighter. We would have to post everything else.

[47:52] To post we would have to probably vote today to pick that date and open the warrant to close June 2nd at the latest, potentially the end of this coming week.

[48:08] which would be the 29th, 30th, so that's that's tighter. I mean to me it's it's not as comfortable.

[48:18] I think that 28th gives us a little more time for conversation and to figure out the budget pieces.

[48:25] But if there were compelling reason to do the 21st, we certainly talk about it.

[48:30] Well, I personally, I mean, I will be able to attend on the 21st, but not the following week because of vacation, but I also think that there are likely to be more people in town on the 21st, then on the 28th.

[48:49] The 28th being the week that leads up to the 4th of July, so it's really an uncertainty.

[49:02] I guess my personal preference would be to go for the 21st even though I know it makes

[49:05] it tight, but either way we're going to not be able to have everybody there.

[49:12] Thank you, Rosanna.

[49:15] I just raised this as a possible concern, but typically there are a lot of sports that take place on the Saturdays for parents and for a lot of our college high school kids or kids that are in college now are typically working on Saturdays.

[49:34] So, if they are, you know, registered voters or would have some, you know, thoughts and attendance may be a challenge and just typically keeping that in mind just the thought.

[49:51] Yeah, appreciate it. And that's kind of our chronic, those are our chronic Saturday morning concerns. The weeknight concerns end up being more around, you know, there's a portion of our community that doesn't, doesn't want to as uncomfortable shouldn't be driving at night.

[50:08] And then, you know, the same parents that often can't attend on Saturdays, can't attend on a weeknight because they have bedtime or practices.

[50:16] I mean, we're just kind of stuck all around lazy.

[50:20] Yeah.

[50:22] I just wanted to put it out there. I don't know that you would necessarily need the extra space.

[50:27] I think it would be unlikely. But at the same time, I don't want to have the meeting scheduled for the pack. And then we get too many people to accommodate.

[50:36] And we get into a situation like what happened last year, so I don't know if you maybe want to consider doing it at the high school just to be on the safe side.

[50:44] Like I said, I mean, it's a summer meeting, so I think it would be unlikely to reach capacity, but not impossible either.

[50:52] Does anyone on this Zoom meeting have the ability to confirm the availability of the high school gym for any of the days for talking about.

[50:59] Yes, can't have to do everything.

[51:01] Yeah, I can work on that right now.

[51:07] Yeah, Allison. Yeah, thanks. Yeah, I would I throw out the 23rd of the Monday night. And I hear what Becky's saying about Saturday, but I think the Monday night.

[51:18] Again, it's actually it's fact it's going to be the longest day of the year in terms of daylight. So it's going to be light until, you know, at least nine o'clock or so.

[51:25] So that would be one, I guess one consideration or any schedule in it, but I think it might

[51:32] be, and it's before the vacation really starts, so we might get more people to turn out.

[51:37] If we are going in with a proposal that does not include an override, I believe we're less

[51:47] likely to get a real overflow.

[51:50] We do have the ability to set up the cafeteria,

[51:54] I suppose we need it for overflow.

[51:56] The other thing about using the high school again,

[51:57] there was a certain expense in using that

[52:00] and you know, outfitting it with chairs and everything else.

[52:03] So I think we could do it at the pack and be better,

[52:05] but I would think the 23rd would be a good day to shoot for.

[52:10] And then we got to scramble like crazy

[52:11] over the next few weeks on where markets back

[52:13] to come up with those cuts.

[52:16] Yeah, so Cara, again, has indicated that in conversation with Mark, he felt that the

[52:21] the performing arts center would be adequate, and that is available on the 23rd.

[52:27] Just to add to the confusion in general, Mayhem here, Rosanna.

[52:33] I did know if an outside venue eliminates the concern around capacity,

[52:40] and where that might take place, but whether, you know, whether it can be back up, but just keeping that.

[52:50] I mean, then the weather becomes a problem as well as the expense of renting chairs and stuff, which is not insignificant, but you're muted.

[53:02] You're still muted.

[53:04] Sorry about that.

[53:05] But we did this analysis and maybe Don remembers us on the Monday and Saturday routine.

[53:13] We went back for many years and we found that Saturday had better attendance.

[53:18] It was on one time that Monday was had higher attendance and that's when we had a school

[53:25] voting on the new school.

[53:28] I think that's what it was.

[53:29] But other than that, always Saturday's had a higher participation than the Monday night one.

[53:33] So part of the consideration should be with those sports as that's still going to hold,

[53:38] but I think Dawn has those stats. It showed that plattery was a better day.

[53:44] Do we know?

[53:45] Yeah.

[53:46] Becky, go ahead.

[53:47] Do we know when the sports seasons end?

[53:51] Because certainly I would think by the 28th they're done.

[53:54] But maybe by the, are they done by the 21st?

[53:57] They never end.

[53:58] Yes, Scott.

[53:59] They never end.

[54:00] Never end.

[54:01] Scott?

[54:01] So the week of the 21st and 22nd is the big end cup, the showbook for soccer, so you're

[54:08] not going to get any, anybody that plays soccer.

[54:13] Okay.

[54:14] And the weekend following that is the big state tournament if they make it.

[54:18] So I would suggest not a Saturday if you want those people to show up.

[54:23] Yeah.

[54:25] I agree.

[54:26] And I think in Monday, again, given the topic here, I think that would perhaps override

[54:33] some of our, you know, past statistics of attendance at Saturday and Monday meetings.

[54:38] I think no people will be motivated to turn out for this one.

[54:42] The one potential risk of a Monday night is if we get some citizens' petitions in addition

[54:49] to what we have to present. It could go on, but that's a risk.

[54:57] Yeah, I mean hearing the sports conflicts for the Saturdays, maybe the Monday the 23rd is

[55:05] the better choice. I don't think we should wait till Monday the 30th, because it's too late.

[55:12] Yeah, we've got to get it out there. Yeah. Yeah, I think too. I mean, for a special town meeting,

[55:17] because the citizens' petition needs 100 signatures. That's something of a higher bar. I wouldn't

[55:21] imagine that we would have walked some of them. And as I indicated earlier, I do think that there

[55:27] will be less to be at a time meeting about reducing, you know, the municipal and using other revenue

[55:35] sources to cover the school needs. So, Rosanna? Is there, has there ever been something done for those

[55:42] that aren't able to physically attend but wish to express their vote or their concern on some type of accommodation to do something, have access to something remote vote in or I don't know.

[55:59] There's not really any legal mechanisms to do that. I don't think.

[56:06] Even if they were on camera and they named, or some sort of ability to sign up ahead and

[56:13] they know that they are going to be something to do.

[56:16] Brian?

[56:17] No.

[56:18] There's a remote access option for representative town meetings because the statute allows

[56:24] it and the theory is you know who the people are because they've been elected to those positions.

[56:28] But for an open town meeting, there can be certain accommodations made for folks that may

[56:33] have accessibility issues, but those are sort of case-by-case, but a general remote option

[56:40] for open-town meetings is not permissible.

[56:43] Okay. Thank you. So, it sounds like we would be talking about potentially calling a

[56:49] town meeting at the performing arts center on the 23rd, which would necessitate for closing

[56:58] the warrants on the 30th, potentially, Friday the 30th, and we can open it today for

[57:06] citizens' petitions, which is that.

[57:09] We did it together, Don, Brian.

[57:12] You're ready for motion.

[57:17] Not until Brian says that that's all accurate.

[57:20] Yeah, it works.

[57:21] I would certainly, if you're going to do the 23rd, I would certainly call it now so that you

[57:26] You can declare the warrant open, so if people do want to do so,

[57:29] there's some petitions that have some time to do it.

[57:34] President, did you still have your end-up on purpose?

[57:37] I do, just in response to what was suggested

[57:42] that if someone had some sort of particular accommodation

[57:46] that prevented them from attending, whether it's themselves

[57:50] or by virtue of their family situation.

[57:54] And if there's some mechanism to be able to do that,

[57:57] it would be just an opportunity to have more voices.

[58:04] It's really, I mean, I think it's really set

[58:06] for someone who's, for an extreme situation,

[58:10] this is not for someone who doesn't want to drive at night,

[58:13] or, you know, I think the more realistic alternative

[58:18] would be if people offered to pick up a neighbor

[58:20] and drive them kind of thing. But if, as always, if someone feels like they have special

[58:26] situation, they can reach out to the town manager and we can work that with town council.

[58:34] Becky?

[58:35] I'm ready to make the motion if you want.

[58:38] Yep.

[58:38] I move that we call for a special town meeting on Monday, June 23rd at 7pm, and that we open

[58:46] the warrant for that meeting at this point and close the warrant on Brian, what's the

[58:53] right date?

[58:55] 8.30.

[58:56] You have to at least have 20 days.

[59:01] Yes, so we close it on Friday the 30th.

[59:03] You close the warrant on Friday May 30th.

[59:07] All

[59:10] right, and that meeting would be held at the performing arts center.

[59:14] Performing arts center, right?

[59:16] Yes.

[59:17] It does.

[59:17] Seven.

[59:19] Yep.

[59:20] All right.

[59:20] So we have one attendee with his hand up, assuming that this isn't just to advocate along

[59:29] the lines of the many emails we received, I guess we can open that up to comment or question

[59:34] guy.

[59:35] I don't know.

[59:39] Can you hear me?

[59:40] Yes.

[59:42] Okay.

[59:42] Okay, so I kind of think this all stands from the school board, the school was told they

[59:50] could all go up a certain amount before we need an override and they chose to go for the

[59:56] override based on surrounding towns.

[1:00:00] Which are all in the same mess and attorney down their overrides. I think the school should work on gain of funds down below the override limit.

[1:00:15] And then I saw in the town report that the town is looking for overrides for the next, I think, three to five years. So the town certainly doesn't have any money anymore money to put in.

[1:00:30] a less like the town manager and finance while personally fun the school and then we won't need

[1:00:40] override and as far as the performance center I guess Dronefield and the town meeting is put there

[1:00:51] it's gonna be shut down because of overflow like what happened in the last time because this is a

[1:00:58] topic, everyone's strongly passionate about. So it's going to have to be at the high school

[1:01:05] and what happens if you have it at the performance center and it's shut down because of overflow.

[1:01:14] Okay, thank you, guys. If we can just move them back over to an attendees so that I have one

[1:01:21] less face to keep track of here that would be great.

[1:01:25] Yeah, I mean I think we would all love

[1:01:29] to be in a situation where the school budget and the municipal budget didn't need an override

[1:01:34] and the seat came through with more funding or there were an alternative that didn't require us

[1:01:39] to be in this position considering any of these options. That's not the reality at the moment.

[1:01:47] And I hear what you're saying about the location.

[1:01:52] So there is a Jeff Bruno when they're hand up if you want to rename yourself so that we know who you are.

[1:02:00] We'll take another comment or question or two.

[1:02:06] They may need some instruction instead of do that.

[1:02:09] Well, they need to click on the little dots and change their name.

[1:02:24] Talk as you can you, but in the Jeff Bruno with their hand up, recognizing that it's obviously

[1:02:28] not Jeff Bruno, but thank you.

[1:02:35] Alison, there's also two questions in the question and answer.

[1:02:43] In one of them, it's probably one that should be clarified, was that the Fin Com's position

[1:02:49] or only Bud's position?

[1:02:52] And I appreciate that Becky.

[1:02:56] I didn't have, I only have the chat and the attendee list up, not the Q and I.

[1:02:59] I think at the beginning, what we're saying was probably his opinion as the chair, with his

[1:03:05] knowledge of the conversations he's had with the town manager and his years of service.

[1:03:10] He doesn't have a quorum. I don't believe he'd been still now.

[1:03:14] We just, yeah, just now we got one.

[1:03:16] You just got one. Okay, so you're called to order now.

[1:03:20] And, you know, Phil, like, the other question is that the town manager comes back on the second

[1:03:24] and needs two weeks to present the meeting budget. There's no way it would work on 621.

[1:03:30] So, Alison, I answered Phil's question online.

[1:03:34] Oh, perfect.

[1:03:35] I believe that's, and I think the answer to that is,

[1:03:38] I believe that this is a scenario that Tom Andrews

[1:03:40] has been preparing for.

[1:03:41] And that seems out in his conversations with Buds.

[1:03:44] So we'll know very shortly.

[1:03:47] Yep, so did the not Jeff Bruno,

[1:03:51] Jeff Bruno get moved over to ask their question or comment?

[1:03:55] He was given permission to speak.

[1:03:57] Okay. Not Jeff Bruno, Jeff Bruno. Go ahead.

[1:04:09] If you are an attendee with your hand up, please speak now.

[1:04:16] We cannot hear you. You may be muted.

[1:04:21] According to my screen, that person does not meet me.

[1:04:26] Okay. Well, I think I don't quite know what to do. I think we have given them the opportunity. So I guess if you want to close that down.

[1:04:36] The select board has a motion on the table to open the warrant today through presumably May 30th calling for a special time meeting on June 23rd Monday at 7pm at the Performing Arts Center.

[1:04:51] Is there any further discussion from the select board?

[1:04:55] All

[1:04:58] right, so we need to do a roll call vote.

[1:05:03] Matt, Lani, I, John, Ryan, the I, Peter, yeah,

[1:05:10] Cunning him, I, Becky, I, I, and I will vote I as well.

[1:05:17] I think that that concludes our business.

[1:05:20] Brian, Lisee, yeah, Lisee, go ahead.

[1:05:23] Yeah, thank you, I am very sorry when I was making my earlier

[1:05:27] motion due to all of the faces on my screen I missed one of my members and so she wants her vote

[1:05:34] just to be recorded in the minutes I can't do a full recount now because I think a couple other

[1:05:40] members have dropped off but this would be for the second motion that we put on the table relative

[1:05:45] to the assessments of the member towns and so Catherine do you want to just go ahead and say what your

[1:05:51] vote would be for the minutes. Yes. Okay. Thank you. I appreciate it. Apologies, everybody.

[1:05:59] Thank you. These new meeting have some pros and some cons.

[1:06:04] But any other thoughts as we wrap up here? No, I think we're there.

[1:06:09] All right. Yeah, it's real quickly. We're scheduled to meet on the second, correct?

[1:06:15] No, we are. I don't believe we are. We need to meet that. We

[1:06:19] Yes, we will absolutely the select board will meet again, again and again. Yes, we will. Okay. We will coordinate that via email the five of us.

[1:06:32] Discussing only meeting schedule. Brian.

[1:06:37] While we're amending motions, I'm just going to ask that you

[1:06:42] re-vote and extend the warrant opening period to June 4th.

[1:06:49] So we can have the 20 days for people to do citizens' petitions.

[1:06:53] Because the 20th day is June 3rd.

[1:06:56] So the area under the charter people should have up until June 3rd

[1:06:59] to submit citizens' petitions.

[1:07:00] So you close on the 4th.

[1:07:03] but that doesn't give us 20 days prior to the 23rd.

[1:07:07] That's not 20 days from here.

[1:07:10] Yeah, you don't, again, you don't need to leave it open

[1:07:12] for 20 days from when you call it.

[1:07:15] You just have to accept everything that's submitted

[1:07:18] at least 20 days before the date of the meeting.

[1:07:21] So that would be through the second.

[1:07:24] This is the meeting is June 23rd.

[1:07:30] Yeah, I'm confused.

[1:07:34] That's how we know we're doing our job right?

[1:07:36] Counting back.

[1:07:37] Yeah, I'm confused.

[1:07:38] The 23rd minus 20 is 30.

[1:07:42] Yeah.

[1:07:43] I assume through June 2nd, is that what you're?

[1:07:49] Yeah.

[1:07:49] The 30th isn't is too soon, is what I'm saying.

[1:07:54] Okay.

[1:07:55] So the correct date is the 2nd of June.

[1:08:01] Is there a problem with this closing it on the 30th Brian?

[1:08:04] To me, that's more appealing because that's the Friday.

[1:08:06] And then we all have the weekends to process and deal

[1:08:09] with all of these things.

[1:08:10] Yeah, the problem is somebody could submit assistance petition on the second and that's

[1:08:16] still enough time before the special time meeting where the charter would say you have

[1:08:23] to put that on the warrant.

[1:08:26] Okay.

[1:08:27] I see what you're saying.

[1:08:30] All right.

[1:08:30] Then I would, I guess, accept a motion to, would we reconsider Brian, or can we just amend

[1:08:39] the the warrant open through? Yeah, I would reconsider and just have the motion be to leave the close the warrant on my math has got me to Tuesday the third would be the with the outside date.

[1:08:56] It's a 20 days before the meeting or 20 days from the time we open it.

[1:09:01] 20 days before the date of the meeting, the planned meeting.

[1:09:05] Okay.

[1:09:07] Right.

[1:09:08] Yeah.

[1:09:08] I think the error is mine and I was thinking a minimum of 20 days but that is kind of inside

[1:09:13] out backwards.

[1:09:15] So I would entertain a motion then to reconsider the motion we just made to set the tap meeting.

[1:09:20] Yeah.

[1:09:20] So move.

[1:09:21] Second.

[1:09:23] All right.

[1:09:24] Select board members.

[1:09:25] Minuki and I.

[1:09:26] Aye.

[1:09:28] Can you hear my.

[1:09:31] Aye.

[1:09:33] All right, then I would entertain a motion to set a special time meeting for June 23rd, Monday night at 7 p.m. at the performing arts center, opening the warrant today and closing it on June 3rd.

[1:09:48] Yes, so moved.

[1:09:49] Second.

[1:09:51] All right, any discussion?

[1:09:54] All right, roll call.

[1:10:04] Any other questions or comments, Brian, or gone?

[1:10:08] No, that's it.

[1:10:09] All right.

[1:10:12] Then unless someone raises their hand right now.

[1:10:18] I will.

[1:10:19] Everybody for all the work that went into making this happen.

[1:10:23] Yep.

[1:10:24] Absolutely. It's a good point.

[1:10:25] Thank you.

[1:10:26] And stay tuned because there will be more updates to come.

[1:10:28] Oh, for sure. Yeah, we can partake of some education on how to figure out math and

[1:10:34] mapping and other things and stuff. It would be great.

[1:10:39] Very much to see everybody's willingness to do that.

[1:10:42] That's why we need AI. I think we need a AI bot to do that for us.

[1:10:48] Please. Thank you, Lacey. So I will adjourn the select board meeting.

[1:10:53] Thanks, everybody. Yeah.

[1:10:56] Okay. Yeah.

[1:10:57] for the school committee and Fin Commer adjourned as well.

[1:11:01] Yep.

[1:11:01] All right.

[1:11:02] Thank you all.

[1:11:03] All right.

[1:11:04] Thanks, Alison.

[1:11:05] Good job.

[1:11:05] Yep.

Groton Select Board 5/23/25 via Internet Conference

Transcript