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All right, I'm gonna call the meeting of

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the Derfield Elementary School committee

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to order at five o'clock.

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This meeting is being recorded.

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Uh, welcome back everyone. Happy New

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Year. Feel like it's been forever

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already that we've been in January, but

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it is a new year. Uh, first order of

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business tonight is uh to review and

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approve. We have a bunch of minutes. M

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minutes from October 21st, 2025, October

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30th 25, November 2025, and December

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18th, 2025. able

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to do them separately or other ones

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to approve the minutes as October 21st,

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2025, October 30th, 2025, November 20th,

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2025, and December 18th, 2025.

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>> Second.

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» There's no further conversation. All in

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favor?

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Thank you.

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» Next up financial statement.

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>> So I realize I did not send you

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financial reports about midday today. I

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realized that I think with the holiday I

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got behind and then uh we worked on

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budget pretty much all afternoon for the

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presentation tonight. So I owe you

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reports. Um with that said, I can state

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the warrants for the record. They don't

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have to be in the email. So we'll get

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them on record here. Um, 46 warrants

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were signed totaling $553,820.31.

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I will email it to you.

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>> You're doing minutes.

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I'll email it to

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you. That way you don't have to

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regurgitate that. Um, there are no new

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concerns with the fiscal year 26 budget.

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Uh we we probably will have while I've

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talked a lot about we have some overages

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from salaries um because we settled at a

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higher placeholder than we had in when

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we built the budget for the contract. I

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expect that we're going to see some

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savings. Um there's been some IA

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vacancies. There's always unpaid time

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off, those kinds of things. With that

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said, I did want to let you know that

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there was one staffing change. Um,

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so we had an IIA resignation midy year

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and then we had an IIA vacancy and Tina

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was able to look at the staff and sort

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of see what the needs are for the

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students in the building and we've moved

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forward with hiring a full

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specialist on

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we're sort of swapping out some wages.

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I'm saying that because one, we want you

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to know, but two, it will have 27 impact

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when we look at the budget because

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teachers are more expensive than IAS.

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So, we're not exactly swapping dollar

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for dollar. Um, but based on the needs

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of the students in the building and the

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support services that were being

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provided, it was a position um that was

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necessary. And I will say we had a

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central position sort of years ago um

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that transitioned into something less

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when someone resigned. So, we're sort of

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going back to that original model.

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>> Can you say a little bit more about what

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an inclusion specialist is specifically?

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>> Yeah, like behavior support um and

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helping kids. It doesn't have to just be

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big behavior, but just helping kids to

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be settled in in their classrooms.

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>> And that's someone who's a teacher or

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someone with like a behavioral

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the person we hired has a BCBA,

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but they're on a teacher's hat, right?

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That makes sense. Any other questions

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about that?

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>> One more question. So, it's a it's is it

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someone who is available to all grades?

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Yeah. Currently, at least.

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>> Yeah. They also um kind of hold a

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leazison position. So, they have kids on

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their case load but is also available to

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the like crisis management but also has

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a case load and also supports um

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students that um are not able to be in

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the classroom.

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Wait, sorry, one more question. So, I'm

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just trying to distinguish what that is

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between a adjustment counselor and then

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a psychologist.

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>> So, when you say not in the building, do

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you or not in the classroom? It could be

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like in the building and could also be

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someone who's not even in

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>> they support like the specialized

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programming too. So, we have students in

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Yeah. in the den or the LEA program and

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then there's students that are in the

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classroom but um need like a more

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involved behavioral plan and support.

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their students have crisis like some big

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feelings that come up

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>> and they might not be on even on an IEP.

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So they're just part of the team.

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Gotcha.

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>> Tina, it would be safe to say that I'm

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setting up throwing a softball. Go

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ahead.

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>> When you put in programs like the Dan

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program and we have increased enrollment

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in our LEAP program that this possession

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is necessary to support the teachers in

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those programs.

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>> Absolutely.

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>> Okay. That's kind of that's kind of

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basically where it's coming from is that

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we built this DEN program

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>> um and had someone inhouse that could do

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a lot of the skills that this position

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has but as an IIA

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um

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>> you know some of the skill set of

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deescalation and such not the license

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training but yeah so

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>> um so it's the in the long run it's

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going to save the district money because

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bring the program in house for um

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increasing number of kiddos in we reap

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the benefits when we're able to tuition

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in students to that program.

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>> So,

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>> and it is another adult because

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typically there's more than one child in

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crisis in the building at the time.

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>> So, it's nice to have another

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>> another trained person who can go

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deescalators.

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>> Well, and I'll be honest on that the

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my observation on that is Tina's at BCBA

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and spends a lot of her time doing that

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deescalation work. And

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>> um that's wonderful when it saves money,

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but then you have an administrator who

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um can't support other needs in the

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building if they have a child in their

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office.

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>> Yes.

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>> Is that another southpaw?

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>> That was that was that was that was

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really slow pitch.

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>> Yeah.

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>> So yeah,

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» not for the current year.

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I sure know.

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>> Okay. Principal's report.

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>> Yeah. So, it's a school improvement plan

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this time around. I know that um I think

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I sent it out in November. So, just some

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things to highlight. Um

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over the summer our instructional team

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looked at a lot of data sources, student

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achievement, demographics, survey data,

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and we created a draft and we solicited

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family feedback through surveys

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and um teacher feedback as well and

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school council feedback. Um our work was

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grounded in John Hattie's visible

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learning. I don't if anybody's familiar

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with that, but we really leaned into

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collective advocacy for um our round uh

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for our goals this year and helping us

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um become a stronger team. Uh some of

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the parent feedback just look at this we

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got was um they really it consistently

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affirmed Deerfield's kind caring

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community strong curriculum and

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opportunities to see student work. They

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asked for more consistent communication

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across grade levels and additional

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opportunities for student families and

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staff to connect up outside of academics

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particularly through evening events. So

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those priorities were reflected in the

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family and community engagement

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objective in the action steps. Um so our

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work with collective efficacy you'll

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know note in school culture um and

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leadership on objective one and

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objective two high impact instructional

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and datadriven practices.

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Um one of the um collective advocacy

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things uh activities that we're working

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on with staff is ed microteing. So guide

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cancer teacherdriven sessions where

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educators identify topics most relative

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to their practice. Um which builds

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shared ownership and micro teaching is

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where staff can share short practical

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examples. It could be video clips that

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they're looking for feedback or video

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clips where they've um these are things

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that work for them. So we're building in

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those pieces.

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Any questions around it? You'll notice

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that it has a different format. We

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copied the strategic plan. Thought it

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was a little bit more family friendly.

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So hoping that that's true.

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» All right. We have school improvement

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plan later on the agenda. So we'll get

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to the

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>> Okay. Quoting on that later unless you

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really want to go over it.

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>> I don't know. You might want to get it

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over with topics.

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>> You can just keep going. If you want go

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ahead and make the you're going to have

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to accept it if you want to just do if

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you want to go and have a discussion now

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since we opened it.

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>> We're going to go into budget and I

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don't want so um you've already started

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the conversation. I would go ahead and

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finish up the SIP.

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>> Okay. If that works for one then yeah.

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Okay. So any question

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discussion on the improvement plan?

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I would say I appreciated the um

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yeah object the family and community

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enga engagement objective all the the

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different things laid out there

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helpful

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>> that's most of the feedback that we get

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back

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events the families and

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>> it does as a parent it seems like I can

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see that the school's been trained out

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daily and it feels good

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>> like the arts night last year was like

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oh my gosh and then the announce was

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also a huge hit and math science was

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» but we're waiting for you to approve it

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before we get started. No, I'm only

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kidding. We already started those

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are

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>> Yeah.

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Yeah, I mean that was the problem

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with the one thing with the schedule is

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that we usually do the student

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improvement plan and school improvement

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plan October, November and so I sent it

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to you early and said we're moving on

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this none of it is objectable work you

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know but if there was stuff you wanted

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or didn't see or have questions on was

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really

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where it's at but school committee does

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need to approve it

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there's no further discussion on that

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I'll be looking for a motion to approve

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Move the student school improvement

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plan.

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Motion to approve school improvement.

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Right. All in favor?

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» Okay. And anything else from you, Tina?

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>> Okay. Thank you very much.

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>> Okay. Next couple comments.

276
00:10:58,000 --> 00:11:01,120
I don't see anything online.

277
00:11:01,120 --> 00:11:04,240
Okay. Uh next up we have uh the update

278
00:11:04,240 --> 00:11:08,720
on the playground renovation progress.

279
00:11:08,720 --> 00:11:10,880
>> Um

280
00:11:10,880 --> 00:11:13,600
we got the signed off. Excuse me. This

281
00:11:13,600 --> 00:11:17,519
just today we got the signed off. Um

282
00:11:17,519 --> 00:11:18,800
trying to think what it was called, but

283
00:11:18,800 --> 00:11:20,079
you have to go put it bring it to the

284
00:11:20,079 --> 00:11:21,760
deed register the deeds to put it

285
00:11:21,760 --> 00:11:25,519
through. So, um, with the, um,

286
00:11:25,519 --> 00:11:28,560
provisions that they talked about,

287
00:11:28,560 --> 00:11:30,079
>> um, you know, I printed it all out and I

288
00:11:30,079 --> 00:11:32,160
didn't bring it, but um, so basically

289
00:11:32,160 --> 00:11:33,519
we're progressively moving forward.

290
00:11:33,519 --> 00:11:34,880
We're going to talk about the funding of

291
00:11:34,880 --> 00:11:39,440
it as we talk about budget. Um, and um,

292
00:11:39,440 --> 00:11:42,480
we have a meeting

293
00:11:42,480 --> 00:11:46,480
today's Tuesday, Thursday.

294
00:11:46,480 --> 00:11:47,680
I have two different conservation

295
00:11:47,680 --> 00:11:49,279
committ

296
00:11:49,279 --> 00:11:50,399
Wednesday or Thursday. One of them is

297
00:11:50,399 --> 00:11:52,640
Weightley, one of them is Deerfield. Um,

298
00:11:52,640 --> 00:11:54,800
just to do the final walk through of it.

299
00:11:54,800 --> 00:11:56,240
I don't understand why they sent us the

300
00:11:56,240 --> 00:11:57,920
paperwork of it being complete, even

301
00:11:57,920 --> 00:11:59,040
though they still said they had to have

302
00:11:59,040 --> 00:12:01,200
one more meeting. So, um, like I said, I

303
00:12:01,200 --> 00:12:02,160
got that this morning. I was a little

304
00:12:02,160 --> 00:12:03,360
confused. So, I haven't talked to Carlos

305
00:12:03,360 --> 00:12:05,519
yet. But, so we're kind of we're kind of

306
00:12:05,519 --> 00:12:08,320
lined up to move forward on this and

307
00:12:08,320 --> 00:12:11,040
then the next step will be getting it to

308
00:12:11,040 --> 00:12:14,560
go out to bid um,

309
00:12:14,560 --> 00:12:16,880
which we will do once we figure out the

310
00:12:16,880 --> 00:12:19,680
funding of it. Um,

311
00:12:19,680 --> 00:12:21,600
and you know, we'll talk about that. I,

312
00:12:21,600 --> 00:12:23,760
you know,

313
00:12:23,760 --> 00:12:24,959
I guess we'll talk about that more at

314
00:12:24,959 --> 00:12:27,120
the next meeting, but we can also put it

315
00:12:27,120 --> 00:12:29,279
out the bid and then not move forward

316
00:12:29,279 --> 00:12:30,480
with the project. You know what I mean?

317
00:12:30,480 --> 00:12:33,200
It's just going to be cost you $1,000 to

318
00:12:33,200 --> 00:12:35,680
that's the calculation of what was it to

319
00:12:35,680 --> 00:12:38,000
put out the last bid to roughly around

320
00:12:38,000 --> 00:12:39,200
$1,000.

321
00:12:39,200 --> 00:12:39,920
>> Oh, yeah. Yeah.

322
00:12:39,920 --> 00:12:40,720
>> Yeah.

323
00:12:40,720 --> 00:12:42,240
>> So, I mean, that's what you lose if you

324
00:12:42,240 --> 00:12:44,560
put it out there and you know, the

325
00:12:44,560 --> 00:12:46,399
prices come back too high or, you know,

326
00:12:46,399 --> 00:12:48,079
that kind of thing. Good.

327
00:12:48,079 --> 00:12:50,160
>> Not to jump ahead on funding, but as

328
00:12:50,160 --> 00:12:52,480
aside from prices increasing, if you put

329
00:12:52,480 --> 00:12:53,760
it out today, decide it's too high, wait

330
00:12:53,760 --> 00:12:56,240
a while, come back to it later.

331
00:12:56,240 --> 00:12:58,560
>> Are there any constraints with the CPA

332
00:12:58,560 --> 00:12:59,600
funds from the town?

333
00:12:59,600 --> 00:13:02,720
>> We had to do it within, I believe, three

334
00:13:02,720 --> 00:13:04,079
years. We definitely have more than one

335
00:13:04,079 --> 00:13:04,320
year.

336
00:13:04,320 --> 00:13:05,600
>> Three years when it was approved.

337
00:13:05,600 --> 00:13:06,639
>> Yeah.

338
00:13:06,639 --> 00:13:08,320
Um

339
00:13:08,320 --> 00:13:11,600
when you put it out to bid

340
00:13:11,600 --> 00:13:15,839
is it possible to sort of

341
00:13:15,839 --> 00:13:19,040
how do I say this like they can give us

342
00:13:19,040 --> 00:13:21,120
different figures potent like we can

343
00:13:21,120 --> 00:13:22,399
come back to them and say okay if we

344
00:13:22,399 --> 00:13:23,839
like don't put this piece of equipment

345
00:13:23,839 --> 00:13:25,440
in should that change so you have to

346
00:13:25,440 --> 00:13:26,720
start the whole thing over there.

347
00:13:26,720 --> 00:13:28,560
>> So the way you can so I hear what you're

348
00:13:28,560 --> 00:13:31,600
saying so you can't

349
00:13:31,600 --> 00:13:34,399
negotiate or else you're kind of you're

350
00:13:34,399 --> 00:13:36,000
cheating the bid process. So you got to

351
00:13:36,000 --> 00:13:39,040
say what you want. What we could do is

352
00:13:39,040 --> 00:13:41,360
we could do add alternates.

353
00:13:41,360 --> 00:13:43,040
>> So what you do is you say this is the

354
00:13:43,040 --> 00:13:46,800
base project. How much to do that and

355
00:13:46,800 --> 00:13:48,320
let's say on this particular one and

356
00:13:48,320 --> 00:13:50,000
pave the basketball court

357
00:13:50,000 --> 00:13:51,120
>> like so you can say that's an ad

358
00:13:51,120 --> 00:13:52,959
alternate. So they add them all up and

359
00:13:52,959 --> 00:13:54,880
so that you can do the base bid and then

360
00:13:54,880 --> 00:13:57,680
say um you know we're going to do the ad

361
00:13:57,680 --> 00:13:58,800
alternate or not, right?

362
00:13:58,800 --> 00:14:00,160
>> You know that kind of thing. That's

363
00:14:00,160 --> 00:14:05,430
>> needs to just simmer for a while.

364
00:14:05,440 --> 00:14:07,680
Um,

365
00:14:07,680 --> 00:14:09,120
if you have projects that may have

366
00:14:09,120 --> 00:14:10,480
fluctuation where you want to hold a

367
00:14:10,480 --> 00:14:11,920
certain part back, right, you say,

368
00:14:11,920 --> 00:14:12,959
"Well, if you want to do this as well,

369
00:14:12,959 --> 00:14:14,079
how much that cost?" But usually you

370
00:14:14,079 --> 00:14:24,389
start with the base.

371
00:14:24,399 --> 00:14:26,240
» Well, you have budget coming up next.

372
00:14:26,240 --> 00:14:37,990
So, we do seg

373
00:14:38,000 --> 00:14:41,360
This means we'll be right along

374
00:14:41,360 --> 00:14:42,800
Darius is going to share the

375
00:14:42,800 --> 00:14:44,399
presentation

376
00:14:44,399 --> 00:14:46,399
and I will walk you through it. Jump in

377
00:14:46,399 --> 00:14:48,639
please if I'm

378
00:14:48,639 --> 00:14:50,880
stating something incorrectly or not

379
00:14:50,880 --> 00:14:52,240
remembering what we talked about a

380
00:14:52,240 --> 00:14:55,199
couple of hours ago. All right. So, uh,

381
00:14:55,199 --> 00:14:57,600
next slide shows our starting point is

382
00:14:57,600 --> 00:14:59,440
always level service budget. So that

383
00:14:59,440 --> 00:15:00,800
means that we're taking our exact

384
00:15:00,800 --> 00:15:02,800
staffing and programs and services from

385
00:15:02,800 --> 00:15:04,800
the prior year and replicating it in the

386
00:15:04,800 --> 00:15:07,760
new year and adding where necessary cola

387
00:15:07,760 --> 00:15:10,079
increases for our contracts, um

388
00:15:10,079 --> 00:15:13,120
increases for non-contract staff, uh any

389
00:15:13,120 --> 00:15:15,040
other nonwage adjustments, which you're

390
00:15:15,040 --> 00:15:16,320
going to see is a little bit more

391
00:15:16,320 --> 00:15:17,760
significant this year than usual

392
00:15:17,760 --> 00:15:19,600
primarily because of health insurance,

393
00:15:19,600 --> 00:15:21,839
but we really start at that baseline. Um

394
00:15:21,839 --> 00:15:23,760
and just consider cola for all of our

395
00:15:23,760 --> 00:15:26,399
expenditures. So, jumping right in,

396
00:15:26,399 --> 00:15:28,079
let's see what that looks like for

397
00:15:28,079 --> 00:15:30,720
Deerfield Elementary next year. I'm

398
00:15:30,720 --> 00:15:32,079
going to give you a moment to look at

399
00:15:32,079 --> 00:15:34,880
that number. I can see shock on Mary's

400
00:15:34,880 --> 00:15:36,800
face.

401
00:15:36,800 --> 00:15:39,600
>> Yeah. And and can we just kind of

402
00:15:39,600 --> 00:15:40,959
preference? So, we're going to doing

403
00:15:40,959 --> 00:15:42,560
things a little bit differently tonight

404
00:15:42,560 --> 00:15:43,839
in the sense that we're going to

405
00:15:43,839 --> 00:15:45,440
progress through

406
00:15:45,440 --> 00:15:47,279
>> the next phase two where we're going to

407
00:15:47,279 --> 00:15:49,360
offer suggestions on bringing this

408
00:15:49,360 --> 00:15:52,560
budget down. Um the reasons for that is

409
00:15:52,560 --> 00:15:55,199
the timeline of this budget

410
00:15:55,199 --> 00:15:59,199
um puts us in mid to late February and

411
00:15:59,199 --> 00:16:01,040
if we're going to have conversation

412
00:16:01,040 --> 00:16:02,399
actually late February is where our next

413
00:16:02,399 --> 00:16:07,199
school committee meeting is. Um and

414
00:16:07,199 --> 00:16:08,639
you know giving the information as we go

415
00:16:08,639 --> 00:16:09,839
through. So we're just saying so there's

416
00:16:09,839 --> 00:16:11,120
be a lot of movement of these numbers

417
00:16:11,120 --> 00:16:12,800
but basically the first part of this

418
00:16:12,800 --> 00:16:14,639
presentation is like this is the

419
00:16:14,639 --> 00:16:16,720
foundation of where we're starting at

420
00:16:16,720 --> 00:16:17,839
and then we're going to talk you through

421
00:16:17,839 --> 00:16:19,600
about how we bring that down. So, she's

422
00:16:19,600 --> 00:16:20,639
going to talk about how she stripped

423
00:16:20,639 --> 00:16:22,560
everything out to show you the true cost

424
00:16:22,560 --> 00:16:23,839
and then we're going to put things back

425
00:16:23,839 --> 00:16:26,399
in and then kind of work toward work

426
00:16:26,399 --> 00:16:27,680
toward another number. Okay.

427
00:16:27,680 --> 00:16:29,279
>> Well, and what I want to also say about

428
00:16:29,279 --> 00:16:31,440
this is typically we have a part in this

429
00:16:31,440 --> 00:16:33,199
process where we talk about new needs

430
00:16:33,199 --> 00:16:35,279
and requests and then maybe that's what

431
00:16:35,279 --> 00:16:37,920
we're stripping down. This is level

432
00:16:37,920 --> 00:16:40,079
service. So, this is not any additional

433
00:16:40,079 --> 00:16:42,800
staffing. It's taking this year's um

434
00:16:42,800 --> 00:16:44,560
staff which is the majority of our

435
00:16:44,560 --> 00:16:47,279
budget is is wages. Um and when you look

436
00:16:47,279 --> 00:16:49,120
at these different growth categories

437
00:16:49,120 --> 00:16:50,800
here, so this is how the expense

438
00:16:50,800 --> 00:16:52,399
categories are broken down how you guys

439
00:16:52,399 --> 00:16:54,720
get your quotes from me. These

440
00:16:54,720 --> 00:16:57,040
categories are set by Desi. They come

441
00:16:57,040 --> 00:16:59,519
out of the budget in this way and out of

442
00:16:59,519 --> 00:17:01,279
the database so that we can report back

443
00:17:01,279 --> 00:17:03,040
at the end of the year what our expenses

444
00:17:03,040 --> 00:17:05,360
have been. So instruction is essentially

445
00:17:05,360 --> 00:17:06,959
anyone on the ground working with

446
00:17:06,959 --> 00:17:08,640
students in the building. But it also

447
00:17:08,640 --> 00:17:11,839
includes um principal's office staff,

448
00:17:11,839 --> 00:17:13,439
principal secretaries, that kind of

449
00:17:13,439 --> 00:17:17,280
thing. IAS's um teachers wages and

450
00:17:17,280 --> 00:17:19,360
non-wage expenditures. However, what I

451
00:17:19,360 --> 00:17:21,360
will say is that budget growth really is

452
00:17:21,360 --> 00:17:23,360
primarily related to wages. I don't

453
00:17:23,360 --> 00:17:25,039
think there's any non-wage growth under

454
00:17:25,039 --> 00:17:27,360
that category. Student services, the

455
00:17:27,360 --> 00:17:30,559
growth of almost $64,000 is related to

456
00:17:30,559 --> 00:17:32,080
transportation, which I'm going to talk

457
00:17:32,080 --> 00:17:34,320
a little bit about um more in the

458
00:17:34,320 --> 00:17:37,120
presentation, but there's some wages in

459
00:17:37,120 --> 00:17:40,080
there because they also lump in um the

460
00:17:40,080 --> 00:17:42,320
health office staff. So nursing staff is

461
00:17:42,320 --> 00:17:44,960
considered a student service, but that's

462
00:17:44,960 --> 00:17:46,960
mostly non-wage. Operations and

463
00:17:46,960 --> 00:17:49,600
maintenance is minimal. It's your wage

464
00:17:49,600 --> 00:17:51,520
increases for anyone that falls in that

465
00:17:51,520 --> 00:17:53,520
category, which does include some

466
00:17:53,520 --> 00:17:55,440
central office staff that work in

467
00:17:55,440 --> 00:17:58,880
facilities and it um administration is

468
00:17:58,880 --> 00:18:00,880
not administration in the building. That

469
00:18:00,880 --> 00:18:03,120
is primarily central office and school

470
00:18:03,120 --> 00:18:04,480
committee. So any school committee

471
00:18:04,480 --> 00:18:06,799
expenditures, superintendent's office or

472
00:18:06,799 --> 00:18:08,559
business office comes in there. that is

473
00:18:08,559 --> 00:18:11,280
strictly wages of the $5,000 growth. And

474
00:18:11,280 --> 00:18:12,640
then benefits and insurance is

475
00:18:12,640 --> 00:18:14,320
self-explanatory. When it comes to

476
00:18:14,320 --> 00:18:15,840
benefits and insurance, the important

477
00:18:15,840 --> 00:18:18,160
part for us to remember here is that the

478
00:18:18,160 --> 00:18:20,320
town covers insurance for school

479
00:18:20,320 --> 00:18:22,559
employees. So when we're looking at a

480
00:18:22,559 --> 00:18:25,520
$53,000 increase, um there's one

481
00:18:25,520 --> 00:18:27,360
component under building and liability

482
00:18:27,360 --> 00:18:29,360
that the town bills us for the school's

483
00:18:29,360 --> 00:18:31,200
portion of their building and liability

484
00:18:31,200 --> 00:18:33,200
insurance. We are seeing some minor

485
00:18:33,200 --> 00:18:35,120
growth there, but the other major

486
00:18:35,120 --> 00:18:37,200
increase here is due to central office

487
00:18:37,200 --> 00:18:38,640
health insurance increase, which we're

488
00:18:38,640 --> 00:18:40,480
going to talk a little bit further. So,

489
00:18:40,480 --> 00:18:43,280
we're uh about $530,000

490
00:18:43,280 --> 00:18:45,200
at level services.

491
00:18:45,200 --> 00:18:46,480
>> So, let's I'm sorry. Can I ask a

492
00:18:46,480 --> 00:18:48,559
question? Yeah. Could you remind me what

493
00:18:48,559 --> 00:18:50,240
we asked for last year? What percent?

494
00:18:50,240 --> 00:18:50,960
>> It's coming up.

495
00:18:50,960 --> 00:18:53,760
>> Okay. And then the salary increases for

496
00:18:53,760 --> 00:18:55,440
staff. I was just wondering where the

497
00:18:55,440 --> 00:18:57,520
400,000 came from.

498
00:18:57,520 --> 00:18:58,720
>> We're going to talk about it right here.

499
00:18:58,720 --> 00:19:02,799
>> Okay. Thank you. Um, so wage obligations

500
00:19:02,799 --> 00:19:04,480
and I'm seeing that I didn't update that

501
00:19:04,480 --> 00:19:06,240
first slide after I updated this today.

502
00:19:06,240 --> 00:19:08,960
So I will fix that. $418,000. The

503
00:19:08,960 --> 00:19:12,080
previous slide I think says,

504
00:19:12,080 --> 00:19:16,480
no, I'm confusing myself. $418,171,

505
00:19:16,480 --> 00:19:18,400
which is 7.6%

506
00:19:18,400 --> 00:19:22,160
of the 9.64 is strictly going to wages.

507
00:19:22,160 --> 00:19:24,320
So the primary growth in our budget is

508
00:19:24,320 --> 00:19:26,720
wage driven this year. There's several

509
00:19:26,720 --> 00:19:28,640
factors coming into play here. for all

510
00:19:28,640 --> 00:19:30,799
non-union staff. There is a placeholder

511
00:19:30,799 --> 00:19:33,600
in the budget of a 3% COLA. We do have

512
00:19:33,600 --> 00:19:36,240
staff that step even though they're not

513
00:19:36,240 --> 00:19:38,320
on a contract. We have salary schedules

514
00:19:38,320 --> 00:19:40,000
for all the different groups. So,

515
00:19:40,000 --> 00:19:42,320
custodial, school lunch, secretarial,

516
00:19:42,320 --> 00:19:43,600
and then the bottom piece is

517
00:19:43,600 --> 00:19:46,320
administrative contract renewals. So,

518
00:19:46,320 --> 00:19:48,080
um,

519
00:19:48,080 --> 00:19:50,080
we've taken into consider anyone that

520
00:19:50,080 --> 00:19:52,720
has a automatic placeholder in their in

521
00:19:52,720 --> 00:19:55,280
their contract or Darius has given me

522
00:19:55,280 --> 00:19:56,799
some feedback on where he thinks

523
00:19:56,799 --> 00:19:58,960
renewals will be coming in the new year.

524
00:19:58,960 --> 00:20:00,720
So, that's on the left hand part of the

525
00:20:00,720 --> 00:20:02,480
slide. You can see that the primary

526
00:20:02,480 --> 00:20:05,280
driver is our union contract. Uh, we

527
00:20:05,280 --> 00:20:06,799
have a very healthy contract that we

528
00:20:06,799 --> 00:20:09,600
settled on. We're making up a little bit

529
00:20:09,600 --> 00:20:11,280
for the current year. You've heard me

530
00:20:11,280 --> 00:20:13,760
talk about this with the FY26 budget.

531
00:20:13,760 --> 00:20:16,880
the placeholder was not quite enough to

532
00:20:16,880 --> 00:20:18,720
meet where we settled. So, we're having

533
00:20:18,720 --> 00:20:22,400
to make up for that in 27 and add in the

534
00:20:22,400 --> 00:20:24,559
new year's growth. So, top step is at

535
00:20:24,559 --> 00:20:28,080
4%. If anyone on the unit A contract is

536
00:20:28,080 --> 00:20:31,360
stepping, they will see 6.22%.

537
00:20:31,360 --> 00:20:33,520
The third factor on the union contract,

538
00:20:33,520 --> 00:20:35,520
which is most significant here in

539
00:20:35,520 --> 00:20:37,600
Deerfield, is that we have 10 faculty

540
00:20:37,600 --> 00:20:39,760
advancing columns. So they've advanced

541
00:20:39,760 --> 00:20:41,120
their degrees, they have additional

542
00:20:41,120 --> 00:20:43,360
credits, they may be moving from masters

543
00:20:43,360 --> 00:20:46,960
to masters plus 30. The the total

544
00:20:46,960 --> 00:20:48,640
increase when this happens varies

545
00:20:48,640 --> 00:20:51,120
because it depends on where someone is

546
00:20:51,120 --> 00:20:52,880
in the salary schedule already for

547
00:20:52,880 --> 00:20:55,600
column and for step. So this is pretty

548
00:20:55,600 --> 00:20:57,760
significant when you're talking about 10

549
00:20:57,760 --> 00:21:00,799
faculty making that type of movement.

550
00:21:00,799 --> 00:21:03,919
And then we have unit C. Um all unit C

551
00:21:03,919 --> 00:21:06,799
members are moving up. So uh we added a

552
00:21:06,799 --> 00:21:08,799
step. So the coal is 2 and a half and

553
00:21:08,799 --> 00:21:11,360
then the step is 3%. That's costing us

554
00:21:11,360 --> 00:21:13,520
about $44,000.

555
00:21:13,520 --> 00:21:15,919
And then summer stipens um we were

556
00:21:15,919 --> 00:21:17,440
slightly over budget this year which

557
00:21:17,440 --> 00:21:19,200
we're still analyzing but if you look at

558
00:21:19,200 --> 00:21:20,960
our existing budget report that is

559
00:21:20,960 --> 00:21:22,880
negative funds. So we're making an

560
00:21:22,880 --> 00:21:24,400
adjustment to account for that because

561
00:21:24,400 --> 00:21:26,000
we do expect that we're going to need

562
00:21:26,000 --> 00:21:28,000
that money moving forward as we continue

563
00:21:28,000 --> 00:21:30,480
to develop summer programs.

564
00:21:30,480 --> 00:21:33,520
So if you go back one slide, what I want

565
00:21:33,520 --> 00:21:35,760
to point out is so if you look

566
00:21:35,760 --> 00:21:37,440
instruction first line where it says

567
00:21:37,440 --> 00:21:38,960
42,000,

568
00:21:38,960 --> 00:21:42,960
that's just the increase for contractual

569
00:21:42,960 --> 00:21:45,360
teachers and IAS, each of those

570
00:21:45,360 --> 00:21:47,840
categories has salaries and wage

571
00:21:47,840 --> 00:21:51,679
increases in it. That totals the 418,000

572
00:21:51,679 --> 00:21:55,200
on the next page. Does that make sense?

573
00:21:55,200 --> 00:21:56,880
Okay.

574
00:21:56,880 --> 00:21:59,760
Um, next slide after this is non-wage

575
00:21:59,760 --> 00:22:02,320
expenditures. So, non-wage expenses,

576
00:22:02,320 --> 00:22:05,600
even though this 2% I think is high for

577
00:22:05,600 --> 00:22:08,400
our elementary schools because we don't

578
00:22:08,400 --> 00:22:10,799
carry a lot of non-wage expenses that

579
00:22:10,799 --> 00:22:13,600
typically see growth, but it is not the

580
00:22:13,600 --> 00:22:15,919
primary driver of the budget increase at

581
00:22:15,919 --> 00:22:18,799
level services. Two things are impacted

582
00:22:18,799 --> 00:22:21,120
here. There was a small cola increase on

583
00:22:21,120 --> 00:22:22,960
our transportation contract. It's a few

584
00:22:22,960 --> 00:22:24,400
thousand dollars. It's not a lot of

585
00:22:24,400 --> 00:22:26,960
money. the the majority of that change

586
00:22:26,960 --> 00:22:29,840
is coming from uh where we use rural aid

587
00:22:29,840 --> 00:22:32,000
in the current year to supplement the

588
00:22:32,000 --> 00:22:33,919
budget. I always add that back in

589
00:22:33,919 --> 00:22:36,080
because it's not a guaranteed funding

590
00:22:36,080 --> 00:22:38,080
source. So I want us to see what that

591
00:22:38,080 --> 00:22:40,080
impact would look like were we not to

592
00:22:40,080 --> 00:22:42,159
receive those funds.

593
00:22:42,159 --> 00:22:44,320
And then central office health insurance

594
00:22:44,320 --> 00:22:46,880
is taken into account there. Like the

595
00:22:46,880 --> 00:22:48,960
wages, we're getting hit twofold in this

596
00:22:48,960 --> 00:22:50,720
category because there was an October

597
00:22:50,720 --> 00:22:53,120
1st increase. And then we're going to

598
00:22:53,120 --> 00:22:55,840
see a projected we have right now 20% as

599
00:22:55,840 --> 00:22:58,640
a placeholder for July one. So that

600
00:22:58,640 --> 00:23:01,440
totals 112,000.

601
00:23:01,440 --> 00:23:03,360
So the next slide gives us historical

602
00:23:03,360 --> 00:23:06,000
data um to answer your question of where

603
00:23:06,000 --> 00:23:07,600
we were. And I gave you the dollar

604
00:23:07,600 --> 00:23:09,360
amounts as well because I think that

605
00:23:09,360 --> 00:23:11,120
that's even more important to look at

606
00:23:11,120 --> 00:23:13,440
than the percentage points in Deerfield

607
00:23:13,440 --> 00:23:15,760
in particular. So you can see last year

608
00:23:15,760 --> 00:23:18,480
3% was 160,000.

609
00:23:18,480 --> 00:23:21,039
Uh the year before was the renewal of

610
00:23:21,039 --> 00:23:23,280
our transportation contract where we saw

611
00:23:23,280 --> 00:23:25,679
that big change in our cost. That's

612
00:23:25,679 --> 00:23:28,880
where we came in at 4.65%.

613
00:23:28,880 --> 00:23:30,559
Otherwise, Deerfield has been really

614
00:23:30,559 --> 00:23:32,159
fortunate. We've had some hard

615
00:23:32,159 --> 00:23:34,400
conversations to get our numbers here.

616
00:23:34,400 --> 00:23:37,200
We've reduced sections. We've eliminated

617
00:23:37,200 --> 00:23:40,400
uh faculty and staff where needed to one

618
00:23:40,400 --> 00:23:41,440
make sure that we have the right

619
00:23:41,440 --> 00:23:43,600
staffing for enrollment and two be

620
00:23:43,600 --> 00:23:45,520
fiscally responsible with our budget. So

621
00:23:45,520 --> 00:23:48,559
we've been able to come in at that 3ish%

622
00:23:48,559 --> 00:23:51,520
or under for many years. This is really

623
00:23:51,520 --> 00:23:53,760
an anomaly for our level service budget

624
00:23:53,760 --> 00:23:59,350
to be at this level of 9.46%.

625
00:23:59,360 --> 00:24:00,720
Typically, we would talk about the

626
00:24:00,720 --> 00:24:02,480
principal's budget and new requests and

627
00:24:02,480 --> 00:24:04,320
initiatives at this point, but we do not

628
00:24:04,320 --> 00:24:06,559
have anything new to to request this

629
00:24:06,559 --> 00:24:08,559
year. Um, we did talk behind the scenes

630
00:24:08,559 --> 00:24:10,720
about a few different things. Uh, it was

631
00:24:10,720 --> 00:24:12,799
sort of decided that given the level

632
00:24:12,799 --> 00:24:14,640
service budget, we didn't want to put

633
00:24:14,640 --> 00:24:16,640
forward any new requests. Tina felt like

634
00:24:16,640 --> 00:24:19,039
we could make do with um what we have

635
00:24:19,039 --> 00:24:20,720
and we can look at other funding

636
00:24:20,720 --> 00:24:22,400
sources. you know, there may be a grant

637
00:24:22,400 --> 00:24:25,200
that we don't rely on to supplement the

638
00:24:25,200 --> 00:24:26,720
budget that could be used to buy some

639
00:24:26,720 --> 00:24:28,799
consumables and things of those natures.

640
00:24:28,799 --> 00:24:30,559
There was nothing significant. We were

641
00:24:30,559 --> 00:24:32,400
not coming in asking for a new teaching

642
00:24:32,400 --> 00:24:34,640
position or anything like that. Um, so

643
00:24:34,640 --> 00:24:37,279
there's nothing new, no impact there.

644
00:24:37,279 --> 00:24:40,320
However, um, as Darius mentioned, given

645
00:24:40,320 --> 00:24:42,400
the timeline of the budget and some

646
00:24:42,400 --> 00:24:44,080
communication that we've already seen

647
00:24:44,080 --> 00:24:48,080
from the towns and the 9.46%, 46%. We

648
00:24:48,080 --> 00:24:49,840
felt like it was important to come into

649
00:24:49,840 --> 00:24:52,640
this meeting with some brainstorming

650
00:24:52,640 --> 00:24:55,440
ideas to reduce our budget. Normally, we

651
00:24:55,440 --> 00:24:57,200
would wait a month, sit on these

652
00:24:57,200 --> 00:24:58,960
numbers, and then we would come back and

653
00:24:58,960 --> 00:25:02,240
talk. A February 26th meeting, and then

654
00:25:02,240 --> 00:25:04,000
our public hearing just two weeks later

655
00:25:04,000 --> 00:25:06,880
is a really tight timeline. And we're

656
00:25:06,880 --> 00:25:08,799
all already sensitive to the fact that

657
00:25:08,799 --> 00:25:10,720
the town is working on their numbers and

658
00:25:10,720 --> 00:25:12,240
I think feeling some pressure from the

659
00:25:12,240 --> 00:25:15,200
health insurance increase as well. So,

660
00:25:15,200 --> 00:25:16,240
we're going to talk about what

661
00:25:16,240 --> 00:25:18,000
reductions look like in the next couple

662
00:25:18,000 --> 00:25:21,679
of slides. So, our options to reduce the

663
00:25:21,679 --> 00:25:24,880
budget are very limited. We cannot avoid

664
00:25:24,880 --> 00:25:26,640
the increase to central office health

665
00:25:26,640 --> 00:25:30,000
insurance. Um, we can look at other

666
00:25:30,000 --> 00:25:32,080
funding sources. So, we added back in

667
00:25:32,080 --> 00:25:33,919
the money from rural aid. We know our

668
00:25:33,919 --> 00:25:36,400
allocation. We can look at that. Um,

669
00:25:36,400 --> 00:25:38,080
other funding sources that we haven't

670
00:25:38,080 --> 00:25:40,320
talked about yet would be primarily

671
00:25:40,320 --> 00:25:41,840
looking at school choice. What do we

672
00:25:41,840 --> 00:25:43,440
have available in school choice to help

673
00:25:43,440 --> 00:25:46,640
offset? The other component is to reduce

674
00:25:46,640 --> 00:25:48,720
positions which ultimately ends up in

675
00:25:48,720 --> 00:25:51,279
reducing services because wages is the

676
00:25:51,279 --> 00:25:53,919
most significant part of our budget. So

677
00:25:53,919 --> 00:25:55,600
what we've done in the next couple of

678
00:25:55,600 --> 00:25:57,360
slides we're going to outline for you is

679
00:25:57,360 --> 00:25:59,200
what that would look like if we were to

680
00:25:59,200 --> 00:26:01,360
make reductions. I think one of the

681
00:26:01,360 --> 00:26:02,960
important pieces to look at when we're

682
00:26:02,960 --> 00:26:04,640
talking about reducing services and

683
00:26:04,640 --> 00:26:06,720
positions are items that are enrollment

684
00:26:06,720 --> 00:26:09,679
driven and items that are budget driven.

685
00:26:09,679 --> 00:26:12,559
So the next slide shows you enrollment.

686
00:26:12,559 --> 00:26:14,159
Currently

687
00:26:14,159 --> 00:26:17,760
we have um 293

688
00:26:17,760 --> 00:26:21,120
students on the October 1st roster. That

689
00:26:21,120 --> 00:26:23,760
is because the sixth grade has 55

690
00:26:23,760 --> 00:26:25,279
students.

691
00:26:25,279 --> 00:26:27,440
That's going to go away because all of

692
00:26:27,440 --> 00:26:29,440
the the current fifth graders that will

693
00:26:29,440 --> 00:26:31,440
be sixth graders next year, there's only

694
00:26:31,440 --> 00:26:33,679
two sections of that grade. So we're

695
00:26:33,679 --> 00:26:35,840
losing a full class section. So we're

696
00:26:35,840 --> 00:26:40,240
going to be going from 293. I have 263

697
00:26:40,240 --> 00:26:42,640
on here, but Tina will likely add a

698
00:26:42,640 --> 00:26:44,640
couple of school choice kids here or

699
00:26:44,640 --> 00:26:47,840
there or our kindergarten enrollment.

700
00:26:47,840 --> 00:26:50,480
Um, this is based on the census for prek

701
00:26:50,480 --> 00:26:52,720
and K and and where we typically land

702
00:26:52,720 --> 00:26:55,120
that class size. So, this could really

703
00:26:55,120 --> 00:26:58,240
be 265 268.

704
00:26:58,240 --> 00:27:00,720
Bottom line is we're reducing a

705
00:27:00,720 --> 00:27:02,240
significant number of students. We're

706
00:27:02,240 --> 00:27:05,440
going from 55 in the current sixth grade

707
00:27:05,440 --> 00:27:07,360
to 34.

708
00:27:07,360 --> 00:27:10,799
So this is where the discussion of what

709
00:27:10,799 --> 00:27:12,960
reductions in positions I know he very

710
00:27:12,960 --> 00:27:15,039
much I can see Carrie smirking if you

711
00:27:15,039 --> 00:27:18,559
like this new feature Google he's doing

712
00:27:18,559 --> 00:27:21,279
it at all the meetings

713
00:27:21,279 --> 00:27:23,360
um so this is when we can have a

714
00:27:23,360 --> 00:27:25,840
conversation that says do we need to

715
00:27:25,840 --> 00:27:28,480
reduce a class section next slide

716
00:27:28,480 --> 00:27:31,600
outlines what we actually are proposing

717
00:27:31,600 --> 00:27:33,679
for staffing reductions so that first

718
00:27:33,679 --> 00:27:35,679
piece based on student enrollment we

719
00:27:35,679 --> 00:27:38,240
will naturally decrease sixth grade from

720
00:27:38,240 --> 00:27:41,360
three sections to two. Um, it ultimately

721
00:27:41,360 --> 00:27:43,919
ends up being an IIA position and a

722
00:27:43,919 --> 00:27:46,880
teaching position. Uh, we did talk today

723
00:27:46,880 --> 00:27:49,360
there is a long-term sub that would

724
00:27:49,360 --> 00:27:52,480
transition back to her IIA role. So,

725
00:27:52,480 --> 00:27:54,960
we're not actually eliminating someone's

726
00:27:54,960 --> 00:27:57,679
job and we have at least one vacancy in

727
00:27:57,679 --> 00:27:59,600
an IIA in this building already. So,

728
00:27:59,600 --> 00:28:02,000
again, not actually cutting someone's

729
00:28:02,000 --> 00:28:04,720
job from them. Um, so these are natural

730
00:28:04,720 --> 00:28:06,480
things that we should be looking at as

731
00:28:06,480 --> 00:28:08,159
part of our budget process. There's

732
00:28:08,159 --> 00:28:09,600
things that we have looked at in the

733
00:28:09,600 --> 00:28:11,279
past when we reduce sections at other

734
00:28:11,279 --> 00:28:13,679
grade levels. So that saves us about

735
00:28:13,679 --> 00:28:15,200
1.79%

736
00:28:15,200 --> 00:28:18,240
on the budget. From there, we have to

737
00:28:18,240 --> 00:28:21,360
look at actual cuts in programming and

738
00:28:21,360 --> 00:28:24,720
services. What we talked about today as

739
00:28:24,720 --> 00:28:26,880
possibilities and is still being

740
00:28:26,880 --> 00:28:29,679
discussed administratively would be an

741
00:28:29,679 --> 00:28:33,600
additional reduction of $185,000.

742
00:28:33,600 --> 00:28:34,720
We're not going to get into the

743
00:28:34,720 --> 00:28:36,640
nitty-gritty of that yet. You know, is

744
00:28:36,640 --> 00:28:38,159
it

745
00:28:38,159 --> 00:28:40,240
IAS? Is it teachers? Is it related

746
00:28:40,240 --> 00:28:42,080
service providers? We're not ready for

747
00:28:42,080 --> 00:28:44,080
that conversation. That would definitely

748
00:28:44,080 --> 00:28:47,760
be a um February discussion, but this at

749
00:28:47,760 --> 00:28:49,679
least gives us an idea of what that

750
00:28:49,679 --> 00:28:51,360
number looks like. So that would drop

751
00:28:51,360 --> 00:28:56,559
off an additional 3.42% from our budget.

752
00:28:56,559 --> 00:28:59,520
Next slide shows where these uh changes

753
00:28:59,520 --> 00:29:01,919
get us to. So again, applying rural aid

754
00:29:01,919 --> 00:29:04,799
of $79,000, eliminating the sixth grade

755
00:29:04,799 --> 00:29:08,000
class section, and then almost $200,000

756
00:29:08,000 --> 00:29:10,480
of additional staffing reductions would

757
00:29:10,480 --> 00:29:13,440
bring our budget down to a 2.99%

758
00:29:13,440 --> 00:29:16,960
increase over the prior year or 164,000

759
00:29:16,960 --> 00:29:19,679
roughly. you can see level services

760
00:29:19,679 --> 00:29:22,640
versus the reduced budget um over fiscal

761
00:29:22,640 --> 00:29:25,600
year 26. So we started at the 9.64 at

762
00:29:25,600 --> 00:29:27,600
level services and with those changes

763
00:29:27,600 --> 00:29:30,960
are looking at 2.99%.

764
00:29:30,960 --> 00:29:32,480
It's a lot of information. So I'm going

765
00:29:32,480 --> 00:29:34,000
to pause for a minute and see what

766
00:29:34,000 --> 00:29:35,760
questions you have and we can flip back

767
00:29:35,760 --> 00:29:42,710
if we need to.

768
00:29:42,720 --> 00:29:45,520
What is the uh and you may not know this

769
00:29:45,520 --> 00:29:46,880
right off the top of your head, but

770
00:29:46,880 --> 00:29:48,799
you're much better at math than I am.

771
00:29:48,799 --> 00:29:52,559
What is what would the um

772
00:29:52,559 --> 00:29:54,640
total increase be if we just had the

773
00:29:54,640 --> 00:29:57,440
sixth grade classroom in the IIA?

774
00:29:57,440 --> 00:30:00,320
>> Um so it'd be another 185,000 on top of

775
00:30:00,320 --> 00:30:02,799
it. If you go back one slide, Darius.

776
00:30:02,799 --> 00:30:05,039
So,

777
00:30:05,039 --> 00:30:07,120
um, we'd be taking off, let's call the

778
00:30:07,120 --> 00:30:09,679
top line 2% just to keep it even number.

779
00:30:09,679 --> 00:30:12,799
So, our budget's 9.64 at level service.

780
00:30:12,799 --> 00:30:14,480
So, we're taking out almost two. So,

781
00:30:14,480 --> 00:30:16,799
we'd still be at sevenish. Got

782
00:30:16,799 --> 00:30:18,480
>> a little over seven.

783
00:30:18,480 --> 00:30:20,880
>> Um, and no one wants to happen anyway

784
00:30:20,880 --> 00:30:22,720
like that. We've known this from for

785
00:30:22,720 --> 00:30:24,960
like a long time that we probably four,

786
00:30:24,960 --> 00:30:28,480
five, four years, maybe three years that was eventually going to go down.

787
00:30:28,480 --> 00:30:30,000
Yeah. So that was something we were

788
00:30:30,000 --> 00:30:30,960
expecting

789
00:30:30,960 --> 00:30:32,480
>> and no one wants to have the

790
00:30:32,480 --> 00:30:34,559
conversation about reducing staffing and

791
00:30:34,559 --> 00:30:37,520
reducing services. But given the state

792
00:30:37,520 --> 00:30:39,520
of the budget and given our enrollment,

793
00:30:39,520 --> 00:30:41,360
this is a good opportunity for us to

794
00:30:41,360 --> 00:30:43,600
have those conversations. There does

795
00:30:43,600 --> 00:30:46,320
become a point where you need to right

796
00:30:46,320 --> 00:30:48,080
side your budget for the needs of your

797
00:30:48,080 --> 00:30:50,320
community. Sometimes that means adding

798
00:30:50,320 --> 00:30:52,240
and sometimes it means reducing. And

799
00:30:52,240 --> 00:30:54,000
we're at the point of reducing. If we're

800
00:30:54,000 --> 00:30:56,000
going to add at certain years, we have

801
00:30:56,000 --> 00:30:58,559
to be able to deduct where needed. So,

802
00:30:58,559 --> 00:31:01,200
but even reducing that sixth grade

803
00:31:01,200 --> 00:31:02,640
position, our class size is still well

804
00:31:02,640 --> 00:31:04,080
under 20.

805
00:31:04,080 --> 00:31:06,880
>> Yeah. One more longer enrollment.

806
00:31:06,880 --> 00:31:07,760
>> That's good.

807
00:31:07,760 --> 00:31:09,360
>> Have we been able to look at any capital

808
00:31:09,360 --> 00:31:11,440
improvements and delaying those out a

809
00:31:11,440 --> 00:31:13,360
year

810
00:31:13,360 --> 00:31:16,559
to shave off what we had lined up?

811
00:31:16,559 --> 00:31:21,279
>> Well, so we don't control

812
00:31:21,279 --> 00:31:23,200
they're different piles of money. It's

813
00:31:23,200 --> 00:31:24,720
just that sometimes we pause the

814
00:31:24,720 --> 00:31:27,279
conversation in case you have to go into

815
00:31:27,279 --> 00:31:29,120
potentially piles I should say silos of

816
00:31:29,120 --> 00:31:31,200
money because you're putting you're

817
00:31:31,200 --> 00:31:32,640
always you know the town's always going

818
00:31:32,640 --> 00:31:34,320
to have its capital fund and putting

819
00:31:34,320 --> 00:31:36,159
things towards improving and just

820
00:31:36,159 --> 00:31:37,519
because they have a bad budget year they

821
00:31:37,519 --> 00:31:39,440
don't stop capital work unless they have

822
00:31:39,440 --> 00:31:41,440
a catastrophic year. The reason why

823
00:31:41,440 --> 00:31:42,960
we're talking about the school choice,

824
00:31:42,960 --> 00:31:44,480
we were kind of pausing about the school

825
00:31:44,480 --> 00:31:46,720
choice money toward the playground is

826
00:31:46,720 --> 00:31:48,880
depending on how deep we have to cut and

827
00:31:48,880 --> 00:31:50,080
we're going to talk a little bit further

828
00:31:50,080 --> 00:31:53,360
that this isn't the request from the

829
00:31:53,360 --> 00:31:55,760
finance committee which we is it slides

830
00:31:55,760 --> 00:31:56,480
still exist.

831
00:31:56,480 --> 00:31:58,799
>> Yeah, there's a bunch of so we'll talk

832
00:31:58,799 --> 00:32:00,480
about that in a minute. So we're still

833
00:32:00,480 --> 00:32:03,600
haven't reached where the finance

834
00:32:03,600 --> 00:32:05,840
committee you know made our suggestion

835
00:32:05,840 --> 00:32:08,000
that we put our budget coming in at

836
00:32:08,000 --> 00:32:10,080
should I just go to that slide? Um,

837
00:32:10,080 --> 00:32:11,760
well, let's keep moving.

838
00:32:11,760 --> 00:32:13,039
>> We'll come back around to that. So,

839
00:32:13,039 --> 00:32:15,279
>> that's our So, our class sizes.

840
00:32:15,279 --> 00:32:15,840
>> Yes.

841
00:32:15,840 --> 00:32:17,760
>> Yeah. This is next year's.

842
00:32:17,760 --> 00:32:22,000
>> Yep. Based on what we know right now and I don't know if this changed since

843
00:32:22,000 --> 00:32:23,919
October 1st. Ben did have some movement

844
00:32:23,919 --> 00:32:26,480
in his enrollment, but this is based on

845
00:32:26,480 --> 00:32:31,919
10 one of 25. So, by September, there

846
00:32:31,919 --> 00:32:33,760
will be whether it's plus or minus a few

847
00:32:33,760 --> 00:32:36,799
kids, some changes, but we are under

848
00:32:36,799 --> 00:32:38,480
>> 20 students. that's stable, but also

849
00:32:38,480 --> 00:32:40,640
take the kindergarten and prek numbers

850
00:32:40,640 --> 00:32:42,399
as just those are placeholders, right?

851
00:32:42,399 --> 00:32:43,519
Those will change.

852
00:32:43,519 --> 00:32:45,760
>> Yeah.

853
00:32:45,760 --> 00:32:48,399
>> Can I ask a question about the 185? Is

854
00:32:48,399 --> 00:32:50,960
that I'm just wondering where that

855
00:32:50,960 --> 00:32:53,760
number came from? Is it I know you're

856
00:32:53,760 --> 00:32:55,440
not ready to talk about any specifics,

857
00:32:55,440 --> 00:32:57,600
but did it come from

858
00:32:57,600 --> 00:32:59,919
>> your discussions about that or did it

859
00:32:59,919 --> 00:33:02,240
come from a number that we need to get

860
00:33:02,240 --> 00:33:04,080
to

861
00:33:04,080 --> 00:33:05,360
ideas that you have? Is this where it

862
00:33:05,360 --> 00:33:07,200
came from? projected ideas of what we

863
00:33:07,200 --> 00:33:08,640
could probably do.

864
00:33:08,640 --> 00:33:09,679
>> Okay, thank you.

865
00:33:09,679 --> 00:33:10,960
>> Yeah. No, it wasn't a number we were

866
00:33:10,960 --> 00:33:12,799
trying to reach. That was fact it was

867
00:33:12,799 --> 00:33:15,200
299 just happened to be like, "Oh, you

868
00:33:15,200 --> 00:33:17,039
got just under 3%." That wasn't that

869
00:33:17,039 --> 00:33:18,960
wasn't that's how kind of worked out. In

870
00:33:18,960 --> 00:33:21,360
fact, that number could change slightly.

871
00:33:21,360 --> 00:33:23,200
>> Um, as we go deeper into those numbers

872
00:33:23,200 --> 00:33:24,559
that could be like, you know, could go

873
00:33:24,559 --> 00:33:26,960
up to 38, go to, you know, 28, you know,

874
00:33:26,960 --> 00:33:29,120
um, it's

875
00:33:29,120 --> 00:33:31,039
those are kind of right. They were

876
00:33:31,039 --> 00:33:32,799
ballpark numbers about where we about.

877
00:33:32,799 --> 00:33:33,600
So, we're going to learn.

878
00:33:33,600 --> 00:33:36,080
>> Thank you. We're decreasing by like 20

879
00:33:36,080 --> 00:33:37,919
or 25 students

880
00:33:37,919 --> 00:33:38,320
>> overall.

881
00:33:38,320 --> 00:33:39,039
>> Yeah. Right.

882
00:33:39,039 --> 00:33:40,880
>> Yeah.

883
00:33:40,880 --> 00:33:43,760
>> Uh Shelley, before we move on, you uh on

884
00:33:43,760 --> 00:33:44,559
the first slide when we talk about

885
00:33:44,559 --> 00:33:46,559
reductions, you said applying rural aid

886
00:33:46,559 --> 00:33:47,840
funding and you talked about school

887
00:33:47,840 --> 00:33:48,960
choice, but that is not reflecting

888
00:33:48,960 --> 00:33:50,240
school choice money. Correct.

889
00:33:50,240 --> 00:33:54,880
>> So, go up um two more.

890
00:33:54,880 --> 00:33:58,640
>> So, we do use school choice money to

891
00:33:58,640 --> 00:34:00,720
offset the budget. So, whatever we were

892
00:34:00,720 --> 00:34:04,159
using in 26, we're using again in 27.

893
00:34:04,159 --> 00:34:06,480
But we did not add any new expenditures

894
00:34:06,480 --> 00:34:09,119
to 27. So that is still a conversation

895
00:34:09,119 --> 00:34:10,159
that we can have.

896
00:34:10,159 --> 00:34:11,280
>> We're going to talk about that in a

897
00:34:11,280 --> 00:34:12,480
little bit more with those other slides,

898
00:34:12,480 --> 00:34:12,879
too.

899
00:34:12,879 --> 00:34:14,079
>> Yep.

900
00:34:14,079 --> 00:34:17,359
>> Um so if we go down to one more, two

901
00:34:17,359 --> 00:34:19,839
more. All right. So let's look at other

902
00:34:19,839 --> 00:34:21,599
funds and expenditures and then our

903
00:34:21,599 --> 00:34:23,599
total budgets. So the next slide

904
00:34:23,599 --> 00:34:25,599
outlines revolving funds. So this is

905
00:34:25,599 --> 00:34:27,679
what Carrie was referring to when asking

906
00:34:27,679 --> 00:34:29,839
about school choice. You can see the

907
00:34:29,839 --> 00:34:32,079
funds are relatively level from the

908
00:34:32,079 --> 00:34:35,359
prior year outside of increased wages.

909
00:34:35,359 --> 00:34:37,119
So when you look at school choice and it

910
00:34:37,119 --> 00:34:41,599
shows 358,000 from last year and 372,000

911
00:34:41,599 --> 00:34:44,000
in the new year, that is only to account

912
00:34:44,000 --> 00:34:46,079
for the cola and step increases on the

913
00:34:46,079 --> 00:34:48,399
contract. It's not a new staff member.

914
00:34:48,399 --> 00:34:50,560
Okay. Same thing goes uh uh down the

915
00:34:50,560 --> 00:34:51,520
line there

916
00:34:51,520 --> 00:34:53,599
>> because when she goes in the budget, she

917
00:34:53,599 --> 00:34:56,079
so Carrie, if you're a teacher, she

918
00:34:56,079 --> 00:34:57,520
would say, "I'm going to put Carrie on

919
00:34:57,520 --> 00:34:59,440
the school choice." She assigns it to

920
00:34:59,440 --> 00:35:00,880
people rather than just a general number

921
00:35:00,880 --> 00:35:02,960
of 50,000. We assigned it to people. So,

922
00:35:02,960 --> 00:35:05,040
it's a little bit easier to tracking

923
00:35:05,040 --> 00:35:06,400
where the money is going when you look

924
00:35:06,400 --> 00:35:07,839
at different personnel people.

925
00:35:07,839 --> 00:35:08,400
>> Yep.

926
00:35:08,400 --> 00:35:09,200
>> Okay.

927
00:35:09,200 --> 00:35:10,880
>> Rural aid, you can see we're using more

928
00:35:10,880 --> 00:35:13,520
rural aid in the new year. Uh last year

929
00:35:13,520 --> 00:35:16,160
I think we used the rest of rural aid to

930
00:35:16,160 --> 00:35:19,280
help pay for the front project maybe or

931
00:35:19,280 --> 00:35:22,000
the paving in the back um and the budget

932
00:35:22,000 --> 00:35:23,599
was in a much better position. So we

933
00:35:23,599 --> 00:35:25,440
didn't need the amount you know same

934
00:35:25,440 --> 00:35:27,680
amount. This is fully using our rural

935
00:35:27,680 --> 00:35:30,320
aid money. There will not be any

936
00:35:30,320 --> 00:35:32,720
reserves left there.

937
00:35:32,720 --> 00:35:35,040
And the next slide shows you the total

938
00:35:35,040 --> 00:35:38,000
budget when we look at uh general fund

939
00:35:38,000 --> 00:35:40,480
plus revolving funds. And I do have a

940
00:35:40,480 --> 00:35:43,119
caveat in here. Uh, revolving funds has

941
00:35:43,119 --> 00:35:45,200
not taken into consideration any funding

942
00:35:45,200 --> 00:35:47,520
for the playground. In my spreadsheets,

943
00:35:47,520 --> 00:35:50,160
I have a number in my mind of where

944
00:35:50,160 --> 00:35:52,560
>> yeah, we have talked about that. But for

945
00:35:52,560 --> 00:35:54,720
demonstration purposes and not to skew

946
00:35:54,720 --> 00:35:56,480
the numbers, I really wanted you to see

947
00:35:56,480 --> 00:35:58,480
the comparison of the prior year to the

948
00:35:58,480 --> 00:36:02,720
new year. So, uh, we're going from 6.4

949
00:36:02,720 --> 00:36:04,960
roughly million total budget to just

950
00:36:04,960 --> 00:36:07,119
over 6.5.

951
00:36:07,119 --> 00:36:09,359
And the next slide shows our cost per

952
00:36:09,359 --> 00:36:12,960
pupil. This is based on the 293 because

953
00:36:12,960 --> 00:36:15,119
again everything is October 1st. That's

954
00:36:15,119 --> 00:36:18,000
how the state calculates chapter 78 as

955
00:36:18,000 --> 00:36:18,800
well.

956
00:36:18,800 --> 00:36:20,640
>> Um and then I do have that note in the

957
00:36:20,640 --> 00:36:22,960
bottom left hand corner. It's you can

958
00:36:22,960 --> 00:36:25,839
see that we have a downward slide

959
00:36:25,839 --> 00:36:29,440
compared to 2020 in overall enrollment

960
00:36:29,440 --> 00:36:31,839
and in resident enrollment, but it's a

961
00:36:31,839 --> 00:36:33,359
little bit harder to see what those

962
00:36:33,359 --> 00:36:35,280
numbers actually equate to in the chart.

963
00:36:35,280 --> 00:36:38,079
So it is 73

964
00:36:38,079 --> 00:36:40,800
um residents and 20 school choice

965
00:36:40,800 --> 00:36:42,800
students over seven school years that

966
00:36:42,800 --> 00:36:46,160
we've reduced. So it it's fiscally

967
00:36:46,160 --> 00:36:48,480
responsible for us to make the changes

968
00:36:48,480 --> 00:36:50,800
given the decline in enrollment.

969
00:36:50,800 --> 00:36:54,000
>> 2020 school year we have 356 students.

970
00:36:54,000 --> 00:36:58,870
So we'll be down to 265ish.

971
00:36:58,880 --> 00:37:02,079
» Okay. So, uh, the rest of the

972
00:37:02,079 --> 00:37:05,599
presentation gets into what Darius

973
00:37:05,599 --> 00:37:07,200
touched on a little bit. So, we did

974
00:37:07,200 --> 00:37:09,760
receive an email from finance committee

975
00:37:09,760 --> 00:37:13,359
that had a request for the school budget

976
00:37:13,359 --> 00:37:17,280
to grow at a maximum of 2 and a.5%

977
00:37:17,280 --> 00:37:19,760
including the cost of health insurance

978
00:37:19,760 --> 00:37:22,160
for school employees.

979
00:37:22,160 --> 00:37:23,520
>> We're going to break that down a little

980
00:37:23,520 --> 00:37:25,040
bit further, but I'm going to let you

981
00:37:25,040 --> 00:37:27,599
process that for a minute. This is

982
00:37:27,599 --> 00:37:30,560
atypical. the school elementary school

983
00:37:30,560 --> 00:37:32,640
budgets, none of them have ever covered

984
00:37:32,640 --> 00:37:34,800
the cost of health insurance for school

985
00:37:34,800 --> 00:37:37,440
employees. I think the town is seeing

986
00:37:37,440 --> 00:37:39,920
like Frontier is hundreds of thousand

987
00:37:39,920 --> 00:37:42,560
dollars of growth in health insurance

988
00:37:42,560 --> 00:37:44,400
between this year's impact and next

989
00:37:44,400 --> 00:37:47,760
year's impact. And um we don't believe

990
00:37:47,760 --> 00:37:49,520
that the school's the only one that is

991
00:37:49,520 --> 00:37:51,839
asked to look at things this way. From

992
00:37:51,839 --> 00:37:53,359
the email with Julie, she sort of

993
00:37:53,359 --> 00:37:55,119
alluded that they're taking this

994
00:37:55,119 --> 00:37:57,200
approach with everyone. We also

995
00:37:57,200 --> 00:37:58,800
recognize that it's probably worst case

996
00:37:58,800 --> 00:38:00,480
scenario, but we wanted to have that

997
00:38:00,480 --> 00:38:02,320
conversation and see what that actually

998
00:38:02,320 --> 00:38:04,960
looks like. Anything to add before I

999
00:38:04,960 --> 00:38:06,320
keep going?

1000
00:38:06,320 --> 00:38:08,800
>> Okay, so what does this look like? Let's

1001
00:38:08,800 --> 00:38:11,040
break it down. So 2 and a half% growth

1002
00:38:11,040 --> 00:38:15,119
over fiscal year 26 is only $160,000.

1003
00:38:15,119 --> 00:38:18,160
Where does that come from? So, the town

1004
00:38:18,160 --> 00:38:21,359
told us that in 2026, school employee

1005
00:38:21,359 --> 00:38:25,040
health insurance costs $913,000

1006
00:38:25,040 --> 00:38:27,760
plus our dees operating budget from the

1007
00:38:27,760 --> 00:38:30,160
current year of 5.5 million would mean

1008
00:38:30,160 --> 00:38:32,160
that the total cost to fund the school

1009
00:38:32,160 --> 00:38:34,720
for health insurance and budget is $6.4

1010
00:38:34,720 --> 00:38:36,240
million.

1011
00:38:36,240 --> 00:38:39,520
20 2.5% on top of that is where we get

1012
00:38:39,520 --> 00:38:41,520
the 160,000.

1013
00:38:41,520 --> 00:38:45,200
So, if we add that to the 6.4 4 million.

1014
00:38:45,200 --> 00:38:48,960
Our maximum budget could be $6.5 million

1015
00:38:48,960 --> 00:38:51,520
including health insurance. Does this

1016
00:38:51,520 --> 00:38:52,800
make sense?

1017
00:38:52,800 --> 00:38:54,480
>> The next page I think explains it when

1018
00:38:54,480 --> 00:38:54,880
you

1019
00:38:54,880 --> 00:38:57,119
>> Go ahead.

1020
00:38:57,119 --> 00:39:00,000
>> So what does that mean? the cost of

1021
00:39:00,000 --> 00:39:02,880
projected health insurance for next

1022
00:39:02,880 --> 00:39:06,079
year. If we take the 913,000

1023
00:39:06,079 --> 00:39:08,480
plus what we're projecting for a 20%

1024
00:39:08,480 --> 00:39:10,960
increase, we're looking at almost $1.1

1025
00:39:10,960 --> 00:39:12,880
million in health insurance costs for

1026
00:39:12,880 --> 00:39:15,680
school employees alone. Maximum school

1027
00:39:15,680 --> 00:39:17,599
budget just outlined on the slide before

1028
00:39:17,599 --> 00:39:20,480
was 6.5. Let's deduct the health

1029
00:39:20,480 --> 00:39:22,240
insurance that they're saying we have to

1030
00:39:22,240 --> 00:39:24,240
include. What does that leave us

1031
00:39:24,240 --> 00:39:26,800
remaining for our budget? We would have

1032
00:39:26,800 --> 00:39:30,720
um 5.4 4 million. Our FY26 budget was

1033
00:39:30,720 --> 00:39:33,280
5.5 million. So, we would be starting in

1034
00:39:33,280 --> 00:39:35,280
a deficit.

1035
00:39:35,280 --> 00:39:37,760
We've talked about that reduced budget,

1036
00:39:37,760 --> 00:39:40,320
which was adding rural aid, reducing a

1037
00:39:40,320 --> 00:39:42,480
sixth grade classroom, and an additional

1038
00:39:42,480 --> 00:39:47,119
$185,000 in staffing comes in at 5.6.

1039
00:39:47,119 --> 00:39:49,599
We would need, if the town pushed us on

1040
00:39:49,599 --> 00:39:51,359
this and said that this is what has to

1041
00:39:51,359 --> 00:39:53,200
proceed, we would be looking at

1042
00:39:53,200 --> 00:39:56,560
additional budget cuts of $187,000

1043
00:39:56,560 --> 00:39:59,359
on top of the cuts that we've already

1044
00:39:59,359 --> 00:40:02,870
talked about.

1045
00:40:02,880 --> 00:40:05,280
So, I wrote a snippy email back because

1046
00:40:05,280 --> 00:40:07,680
I could read that really quickly that we

1047
00:40:07,680 --> 00:40:09,440
were going to be upside down just in

1048
00:40:09,440 --> 00:40:11,200
request alone because we knew it was

1049
00:40:11,200 --> 00:40:13,599
about 2.7%

1050
00:40:13,599 --> 00:40:14,720
increase alone would be health

1051
00:40:14,720 --> 00:40:16,480
insurance. I just made that number up on

1052
00:40:16,480 --> 00:40:19,359
the spot, but when I wrote back and

1053
00:40:19,359 --> 00:40:21,599
Julie kind of wrote back like, I

1054
00:40:21,599 --> 00:40:23,119
understand that, but that's the request

1055
00:40:23,119 --> 00:40:25,839
we're putting out there. And so, you

1056
00:40:25,839 --> 00:40:27,040
know, you guys do what you got to do on

1057
00:40:27,040 --> 00:40:28,560
your end of doing your work, but that

1058
00:40:28,560 --> 00:40:33,040
was kind of there. So, um,

1059
00:40:33,040 --> 00:40:35,119
there's they're trying to figure out

1060
00:40:35,119 --> 00:40:36,880
what they're going to do, all that

1061
00:40:36,880 --> 00:40:38,079
information. So, talking about the

1062
00:40:38,079 --> 00:40:40,079
budget process, right? So, the cherry

1063
00:40:40,079 --> 00:40:41,680
sheets and such, the governor's budget

1064
00:40:41,680 --> 00:40:44,000
gets released on Friday, Friday morning.

1065
00:40:44,000 --> 00:40:45,760
Um, and then so all the towns will know

1066
00:40:45,760 --> 00:40:48,560
what they have for monies coming in. And

1067
00:40:48,560 --> 00:40:50,240
so, it's kind of like the what the games

1068
00:40:50,240 --> 00:40:51,520
begin at that point. Everybody's got

1069
00:40:51,520 --> 00:40:53,119
their cards up and kind of trying to

1070
00:40:53,119 --> 00:40:55,119
figure out what's coming and going. um

1071
00:40:55,119 --> 00:40:56,720
the cards kind of get put on the table

1072
00:40:56,720 --> 00:40:59,359
after Friday, including Frontier. So,

1073
00:40:59,359 --> 00:41:02,000
Frontier is kind of the um waiting to

1074
00:41:02,000 --> 00:41:03,520
see what the assessments are because

1075
00:41:03,520 --> 00:41:05,440
when Frontier sits around the table, it

1076
00:41:05,440 --> 00:41:09,599
also has a um huge increase due to

1077
00:41:09,599 --> 00:41:11,599
health insurance. And to put it in

1078
00:41:11,599 --> 00:41:13,359
perspective,

1079
00:41:13,359 --> 00:41:17,040
Frontier increases its budget by around

1080
00:41:17,040 --> 00:41:19,760
$300,000 a year, between $300,000 and

1081
00:41:19,760 --> 00:41:23,359
$350,000 a year. insurance alone before

1082
00:41:23,359 --> 00:41:26,079
anything else is half a million.

1083
00:41:26,079 --> 00:41:28,240
So the assessment the the cost of the

1084
00:41:28,240 --> 00:41:31,280
towns is is closer their increase is

1085
00:41:31,280 --> 00:41:33,119
closer to a million overall. I mean the

1086
00:41:33,119 --> 00:41:34,560
frontiers increase in budget right now

1087
00:41:34,560 --> 00:41:36,720
is closer to a million. We haven't done

1088
00:41:36,720 --> 00:41:38,880
any work on that budget yet because we

1089
00:41:38,880 --> 00:41:40,480
haven't tried to bring that down through

1090
00:41:40,480 --> 00:41:41,680
reductions which is probably going to

1091
00:41:41,680 --> 00:41:43,839
have to be the case. Um, and I've had

1092
00:41:43,839 --> 00:41:45,280
conversations with frontier staff about

1093
00:41:45,280 --> 00:41:46,240
the fact that they meant to have

1094
00:41:46,240 --> 00:41:48,160
reductions um when they start reading

1095
00:41:48,160 --> 00:41:50,079
about it, but

1096
00:41:50,079 --> 00:41:52,560
um we had to wait until we see what the

1097
00:41:52,560 --> 00:41:54,000
assessment numbers are because you don't

1098
00:41:54,000 --> 00:41:55,359
know how it's going to affect the town.

1099
00:41:55,359 --> 00:41:57,359
So you can go cutting hundreds of

1100
00:41:57,359 --> 00:41:58,720
thousands still the assessments can be

1101
00:41:58,720 --> 00:42:00,480
very high. It's it's an interesting

1102
00:42:00,480 --> 00:42:01,920
assessment is a whole different game in

1103
00:42:01,920 --> 00:42:03,920
budgeting. So there's a re that's why

1104
00:42:03,920 --> 00:42:05,440
we're p that's why Frontier hasn't come

1105
00:42:05,440 --> 00:42:08,000
out with a more has not gone into the

1106
00:42:08,000 --> 00:42:10,240
work of how it's going to get its budget

1107
00:42:10,240 --> 00:42:11,920
down is because it wants to see how it

1108
00:42:11,920 --> 00:42:13,920
reflects the assessment. So we'll have

1109
00:42:13,920 --> 00:42:15,680
that information on Friday. So

1110
00:42:15,680 --> 00:42:17,520
everything's going to kind of heat up on

1111
00:42:17,520 --> 00:42:19,599
Friday and I've had some side

1112
00:42:19,599 --> 00:42:22,000
conversations with you know um town

1113
00:42:22,000 --> 00:42:26,000
government and the question of what are

1114
00:42:26,000 --> 00:42:28,079
they going to do? How much money do they

1115
00:42:28,079 --> 00:42:30,880
have? Um the town of Deerfield does have

1116
00:42:30,880 --> 00:42:32,960
a lot of issues because they've been

1117
00:42:32,960 --> 00:42:36,720
funding a lot of things out of um free

1118
00:42:36,720 --> 00:42:38,319
cash instead of putting it on budget and

1119
00:42:38,319 --> 00:42:39,680
just kind of depending on free cash

1120
00:42:39,680 --> 00:42:42,079
every year. It's a bad process to be in.

1121
00:42:42,079 --> 00:42:43,839
So

1122
00:42:43,839 --> 00:42:45,920
um they are talking about when do they

1123
00:42:45,920 --> 00:42:47,599
straighten that out? Is this year to do

1124
00:42:47,599 --> 00:42:48,640
it because everybody's going to get hit

1125
00:42:48,640 --> 00:42:50,720
by insurance. The insurance numbers are

1126
00:42:50,720 --> 00:42:53,040
also coming out shortly at sometime in

1127
00:42:53,040 --> 00:42:54,720
the next week or two. So we'll have an

1128
00:42:54,720 --> 00:42:57,920
idea of what the we've been putting

1129
00:42:57,920 --> 00:42:59,359
placeholders in. we'll have an idea what

1130
00:42:59,359 --> 00:43:03,760
the exact ask is going to be. Um so

1131
00:43:03,760 --> 00:43:06,800
all that kind of happening at once. So

1132
00:43:06,800 --> 00:43:08,160
um

1133
00:43:08,160 --> 00:43:10,160
>> essentially if they needed us to push

1134
00:43:10,160 --> 00:43:12,960
this forward we're cutting it's not even

1135
00:43:12,960 --> 00:43:14,720
level funding which we've done in the

1136
00:43:14,720 --> 00:43:17,839
past where we've funded at the same year

1137
00:43:17,839 --> 00:43:19,520
from the prior year same amount from the

1138
00:43:19,520 --> 00:43:22,480
prior year. We it requires

1139
00:43:22,480 --> 00:43:24,319
>> for also so let's go through the process

1140
00:43:24,319 --> 00:43:26,000
for and Mary you can help me out too

1141
00:43:26,000 --> 00:43:28,800
because you've done this quite a bit. Um

1142
00:43:28,800 --> 00:43:31,119
but so let's understand the process

1143
00:43:31,119 --> 00:43:32,880
right so the way they the reason why

1144
00:43:32,880 --> 00:43:34,319
school committee is separate in the

1145
00:43:34,319 --> 00:43:36,400
state of Massachusetts is so that

1146
00:43:36,400 --> 00:43:37,920
schools don't get chopped up without

1147
00:43:37,920 --> 00:43:42,800
review and so let's say you say it's

1148
00:43:42,800 --> 00:43:44,560
unreasonable for us to pick up a health

1149
00:43:44,560 --> 00:43:46,400
insurance in that same year and we meet

1150
00:43:46,400 --> 00:43:48,560
with the town we have conversations next

1151
00:43:48,560 --> 00:43:50,480
thing will be you know we're going to

1152
00:43:50,480 --> 00:43:52,960
send our preliminary budget over um at

1153
00:43:52,960 --> 00:43:55,440
some point um we'll probably hint it

1154
00:43:55,440 --> 00:43:56,800
over this is where we're kind of playing

1155
00:43:56,800 --> 00:43:57,760
around with trying to get their

1156
00:43:57,760 --> 00:43:59,760
feedback, let them get a kind of test of

1157
00:43:59,760 --> 00:44:01,760
water. And let's say they come back and

1158
00:44:01,760 --> 00:44:03,920
they say, "No, this is absolutely we're

1159
00:44:03,920 --> 00:44:04,880
going to go two and a half and

1160
00:44:04,880 --> 00:44:06,400
absolutely you're paying for insurance

1161
00:44:06,400 --> 00:44:09,920
this year." Okay, you can still bring

1162
00:44:09,920 --> 00:44:12,240
forward a budget where you believe is

1163
00:44:12,240 --> 00:44:15,440
correct. Okay, but you won't have the

1164
00:44:15,440 --> 00:44:16,960
endorsement of the finance committee,

1165
00:44:16,960 --> 00:44:18,000
>> right?

1166
00:44:18,000 --> 00:44:19,839
>> And the question is, will you get the

1167
00:44:19,839 --> 00:44:21,440
endorsement? You get the two votes when

1168
00:44:21,440 --> 00:44:22,560
you go to town meeting, right? You have

1169
00:44:22,560 --> 00:44:23,599
the finance committee and then you also

1170
00:44:23,599 --> 00:44:25,920
have the select board. So, who's going

1171
00:44:25,920 --> 00:44:28,720
to endorse and who's not?

1172
00:44:28,720 --> 00:44:31,920
They get to put the number on the

1173
00:44:31,920 --> 00:44:35,119
warrant, but you can make a you show up

1174
00:44:35,119 --> 00:44:36,480
prepared with a sheet of paper and

1175
00:44:36,480 --> 00:44:38,400
handouts for everybody as to why you're

1176
00:44:38,400 --> 00:44:40,560
going to increase it on town meeting

1177
00:44:40,560 --> 00:44:44,640
floor because this is what you know blah blah blah blah. So, it's a very

1178
00:44:44,640 --> 00:44:46,240
hard to do, but is I'm just explaining

1179
00:44:46,240 --> 00:44:48,480
what the process is is. You don't have

1180
00:44:48,480 --> 00:44:51,200
to absolutely listen to um the finance

1181
00:44:51,200 --> 00:44:52,880
committee, but we in our best interest

1182
00:44:52,880 --> 00:44:56,960
of working together. Um you know,

1183
00:44:56,960 --> 00:44:58,800
if we reduce the budget by this much

1184
00:44:58,800 --> 00:45:00,960
this year, the question is what happens

1185
00:45:00,960 --> 00:45:02,160
next year because we're going to get

1186
00:45:02,160 --> 00:45:04,079
hit. They're saying that the insurance

1187
00:45:04,079 --> 00:45:06,160
problem is is several years in the

1188
00:45:06,160 --> 00:45:08,000
making. So before it's going to come

1189
00:45:08,000 --> 00:45:09,119
before we're going to pull out of this

1190
00:45:09,119 --> 00:45:11,760
kind of nose dive with insurance. So how

1191
00:45:11,760 --> 00:45:14,400
far do you decimate the school budget

1192
00:45:14,400 --> 00:45:17,760
and start taking away programming and then you know what are those

1193
00:45:17,760 --> 00:45:19,760
effects? You know those are the

1194
00:45:19,760 --> 00:45:22,000
conversations we have to have with the

1195
00:45:22,000 --> 00:45:24,319
town. We don't know the rest of their

1196
00:45:24,319 --> 00:45:25,599
finances. I have no idea where the

1197
00:45:25,599 --> 00:45:26,800
police is coming in. I have no idea

1198
00:45:26,800 --> 00:45:28,319
where fight I have no idea where their

1199
00:45:28,319 --> 00:45:32,480
asks are and so forth. So

1200
00:45:32,480 --> 00:45:35,680
there is talk that we you know we are

1201
00:45:35,680 --> 00:45:37,520
and a conversation that we have to have

1202
00:45:37,520 --> 00:45:41,040
at the town is how we use school choice.

1203
00:45:41,040 --> 00:45:42,720
So we built up a reserve of school

1204
00:45:42,720 --> 00:45:44,560
choice of you know close to a million

1205
00:45:44,560 --> 00:45:47,440
dollars, right? And we've been hovering

1206
00:45:47,440 --> 00:45:50,560
around that million dollar mark by not

1207
00:45:50,560 --> 00:45:52,800
spending too much more than we're taking

1208
00:45:52,800 --> 00:45:56,240
in um and

1209
00:45:56,240 --> 00:45:58,079
by and keeping it there as reserve. So

1210
00:45:58,079 --> 00:46:00,560
if something comes up, so let's say we

1211
00:46:00,560 --> 00:46:01,839
have an added district placement that

1212
00:46:01,839 --> 00:46:03,520
shows up, okay, this just happened in

1213
00:46:03,520 --> 00:46:05,119
one of our communities and all of a

1214
00:46:05,119 --> 00:46:07,680
sudden we got to find $110,000 in the

1215
00:46:07,680 --> 00:46:09,760
middle of the year. If we don't have

1216
00:46:09,760 --> 00:46:11,520
school choice reserve, then the school

1217
00:46:11,520 --> 00:46:12,640
committee has to go to the select board

1218
00:46:12,640 --> 00:46:14,960
and ask them to take it out of free cash

1219
00:46:14,960 --> 00:46:16,560
>> and then they have to do and then if

1220
00:46:16,560 --> 00:46:17,760
they have it in free cash, that kind of

1221
00:46:17,760 --> 00:46:19,599
thing. So there is that kind of level of

1222
00:46:19,599 --> 00:46:21,359
protection and we started using it

1223
00:46:21,359 --> 00:46:22,800
toward capital projects instead of

1224
00:46:22,800 --> 00:46:24,880
offsetting the budget.

1225
00:46:24,880 --> 00:46:26,720
The question is that they think may

1226
00:46:26,720 --> 00:46:28,000
think that we're sitting on too much

1227
00:46:28,000 --> 00:46:30,079
money and so the question would be well

1228
00:46:30,079 --> 00:46:31,920
how do we bring that number down to what

1229
00:46:31,920 --> 00:46:34,079
they think it should be at. I would say

1230
00:46:34,079 --> 00:46:36,240
that you know we should be definitely

1231
00:46:36,240 --> 00:46:40,880
carrying what I call a year in the rear

1232
00:46:40,880 --> 00:46:43,680
in a sense that we should always have

1233
00:46:43,680 --> 00:46:45,280
the amount of money we're spending this

1234
00:46:45,280 --> 00:46:47,440
year into next year's budget so that

1235
00:46:47,440 --> 00:46:49,599
you're never caught

1236
00:46:49,599 --> 00:46:51,040
and we have you know much more than

1237
00:46:51,040 --> 00:46:53,440
that. Um

1238
00:46:53,440 --> 00:46:54,960
it's a question about how you do

1239
00:46:54,960 --> 00:46:57,359
finances. Does the school you know

1240
00:46:57,359 --> 00:46:59,280
should a school pay down and then go to

1241
00:46:59,280 --> 00:47:02,160
the town for money or you know school

1242
00:47:02,160 --> 00:47:04,400
choices is an interesting thing because

1243
00:47:04,400 --> 00:47:06,160
the way it developed not every school

1244
00:47:06,160 --> 00:47:09,599
has this problem. Um in fact most

1245
00:47:09,599 --> 00:47:10,880
schools don't most schools are upside

1246
00:47:10,880 --> 00:47:11,040
down.

1247
00:47:11,040 --> 00:47:12,480
>> They may not have this problem

1248
00:47:12,480 --> 00:47:14,240
>> and and once you burn it down it's gone.

1249
00:47:14,240 --> 00:47:15,839
And our

1250
00:47:15,839 --> 00:47:17,040
as you see we used to be in three

1251
00:47:17,040 --> 00:47:18,960
sections. Remember we we made conscious

1252
00:47:18,960 --> 00:47:20,960
decisions to reduce the amount of school

1253
00:47:20,960 --> 00:47:22,880
choice revenue coming in because we're

1254
00:47:22,880 --> 00:47:25,839
reducing the number of students. So that

1255
00:47:25,839 --> 00:47:29,119
number is coming down. Um you know some

1256
00:47:29,119 --> 00:47:30,400
of the smart things that we did when you

1257
00:47:30,400 --> 00:47:32,400
build something like the den program you

1258
00:47:32,400 --> 00:47:34,560
could take a you know it's tuition or

1259
00:47:34,560 --> 00:47:36,400
school choice in but you can take those

1260
00:47:36,400 --> 00:47:38,960
in and get significant returns on

1261
00:47:38,960 --> 00:47:40,400
placements there. So building those

1262
00:47:40,400 --> 00:47:42,880
programs is very financially beneficial

1263
00:47:42,880 --> 00:47:44,880
to the school district. And so sometimes

1264
00:47:44,880 --> 00:47:46,560
like we get you get a jump in school

1265
00:47:46,560 --> 00:47:47,920
choice like I didn't realize that well

1266
00:47:47,920 --> 00:47:49,119
we had a student come in we had

1267
00:47:49,119 --> 00:47:50,240
additional needs and we were able to

1268
00:47:50,240 --> 00:47:52,319
bill out for that kind of thing. So I

1269
00:47:52,319 --> 00:47:53,599
kind of kind of bouncing all over the

1270
00:47:53,599 --> 00:47:57,359
place but um I I did hear that the

1271
00:47:57,359 --> 00:47:58,640
question is well how much school choice

1272
00:47:58,640 --> 00:48:00,640
do you have? And that's the one of the

1273
00:48:00,640 --> 00:48:02,240
questions that will be asked of us and

1274
00:48:02,240 --> 00:48:03,920
so I want people to understand that

1275
00:48:03,920 --> 00:48:06,160
school choice number kind of where it's

1276
00:48:06,160 --> 00:48:08,960
at. We were going to with the spending

1277
00:48:08,960 --> 00:48:10,960
on the playground that number at the end

1278
00:48:10,960 --> 00:48:13,359
of year would be roughly envelope

1279
00:48:13,359 --> 00:48:15,520
numbers.

1280
00:48:15,520 --> 00:48:17,119
>> It depends on what happens with the

1281
00:48:17,119 --> 00:48:19,040
playground project. Originally the

1282
00:48:19,040 --> 00:48:21,680
placeholder was about 150,000 but it was

1283
00:48:21,680 --> 00:48:23,440
going to be over multiple years because

1284
00:48:23,440 --> 00:48:26,000
we were going to do multiple phases. I'm

1285
00:48:26,000 --> 00:48:28,319
not even sure 150,000 is going to cover

1286
00:48:28,319 --> 00:48:30,960
the existing plan for the first phase.

1287
00:48:30,960 --> 00:48:33,920
So, if we have a million dollars and we

1288
00:48:33,920 --> 00:48:35,280
go forward with all the playground

1289
00:48:35,280 --> 00:48:38,160
renovations and we spend 400,000 or

1290
00:48:38,160 --> 00:48:40,240
300,000, you know, the math is pretty

1291
00:48:40,240 --> 00:48:45,599
easy, 6 or 700,000. But two things, one,

1292
00:48:45,599 --> 00:48:48,319
Darius said this really quickly,

1293
00:48:48,319 --> 00:48:50,880
we're already exceeding revenue coming

1294
00:48:50,880 --> 00:48:53,200
in. Our revenue coming in, for simple

1295
00:48:53,200 --> 00:48:55,119
math, let's say it's 200,000. Our

1296
00:48:55,119 --> 00:48:57,760
expenses going out are 350. We're

1297
00:48:57,760 --> 00:49:00,880
overspending as it stands. And if you

1298
00:49:00,880 --> 00:49:05,829
can flip back to the enrollment slide,

1299
00:49:05,839 --> 00:49:07,920
while our class sizes are less than 20

1300
00:49:07,920 --> 00:49:09,839
each, we could blow these up and have

1301
00:49:09,839 --> 00:49:12,000
Tina take in a lot more students, but it

1302
00:49:12,000 --> 00:49:13,760
changes what our community looks like,

1303
00:49:13,760 --> 00:49:14,880
especially if we're talking about

1304
00:49:14,880 --> 00:49:17,280
reducing services.

1305
00:49:17,280 --> 00:49:18,960
But more importantly, what I want to

1306
00:49:18,960 --> 00:49:21,440
point out is

1307
00:49:21,440 --> 00:49:23,760
the next couple of grades have some

1308
00:49:23,760 --> 00:49:27,599
larger numbers, six, eight, nine in

1309
00:49:27,599 --> 00:49:30,160
first grade. Once those kids graduate

1310
00:49:30,160 --> 00:49:31,920
out, you're not going to be able to

1311
00:49:31,920 --> 00:49:34,079
backfill kindergarten with six or eight

1312
00:49:34,079 --> 00:49:36,319
more new students. You have to have room

1313
00:49:36,319 --> 00:49:38,559
for your resident enrollment. So, our

1314
00:49:38,559 --> 00:49:40,800
school choice numbers are naturally

1315
00:49:40,800 --> 00:49:43,599
going to decline. Two reasons. One,

1316
00:49:43,599 --> 00:49:46,160
we've reduced our sections and you won't

1317
00:49:46,160 --> 00:49:48,160
be able to take in as many new students

1318
00:49:48,160 --> 00:49:51,760
as you're pushing out. So, right now, as

1319
00:49:51,760 --> 00:49:53,920
it stands, we're exceeding revenue by

1320
00:49:53,920 --> 00:49:55,520
$150,000.

1321
00:49:55,520 --> 00:49:57,680
revenue is going to continue to come

1322
00:49:57,680 --> 00:50:00,640
down. We can backfill three

1323
00:50:00,640 --> 00:50:03,520
eight or nine not probably doable.

1324
00:50:03,520 --> 00:50:06,240
>> Well, and it's not smart. Well, there's

1325
00:50:06,240 --> 00:50:08,079
lots of ways to do finances, but it

1326
00:50:08,079 --> 00:50:11,440
seems the less responsible to put wages

1327
00:50:11,440 --> 00:50:13,920
on school choice and revolving funds,

1328
00:50:13,920 --> 00:50:16,960
right? So, and the biggest percentage of

1329
00:50:16,960 --> 00:50:18,720
our cost is wages,

1330
00:50:18,720 --> 00:50:19,839
>> right? So,

1331
00:50:19,839 --> 00:50:21,920
>> just transitioning to that to draw pock

1332
00:50:21,920 --> 00:50:23,200
down means we're still going to have a

1333
00:50:23,200 --> 00:50:24,640
budget problem.

1334
00:50:24,640 --> 00:50:27,119
>> Correct. So if we're if we're we're

1335
00:50:27,119 --> 00:50:28,880
drawing so let's say we we move forward

1336
00:50:28,880 --> 00:50:30,240
with the playground project right that's

1337
00:50:30,240 --> 00:50:31,760
our kind of wheels in motion and so now

1338
00:50:31,760 --> 00:50:34,880
we're at $700,000 right so we got seven

1339
00:50:34,880 --> 00:50:36,559
years before we're out of money right I

1340
00:50:36,559 --> 00:50:38,400
mean it's reloadings

1341
00:50:38,400 --> 00:50:40,640
>> as well but it it's you know you're

1342
00:50:40,640 --> 00:50:42,720
going to bring that down and then you'd

1343
00:50:42,720 --> 00:50:43,599
have to eventually

1344
00:50:43,599 --> 00:50:44,720
>> last that long but okay

1345
00:50:44,720 --> 00:50:46,079
>> okay so it's not going to last that long

1346
00:50:46,079 --> 00:50:47,040
but then you're going to have to go to

1347
00:50:47,040 --> 00:50:50,079
the town to make up for

1348
00:50:50,079 --> 00:50:52,000
this you know we were spending you know

1349
00:50:52,000 --> 00:50:54,000
as we as we saw in that budget line what

1350
00:50:54,000 --> 00:50:55,760
page is that Wait, before you go off of

1351
00:50:55,760 --> 00:51:00,470
that slide,

1352
00:51:00,480 --> 00:51:05,030
finish your thought and come back.

1353
00:51:05,040 --> 00:51:09,760
» Where's the number of No, that's wrong.

1354
00:51:09,760 --> 00:51:13,670
Sorry.

1355
00:51:13,680 --> 00:51:16,720
Where's the uh

1356
00:51:16,720 --> 00:51:18,480
>> total budget?

1357
00:51:18,480 --> 00:51:20,240
>> Right here. I mean, so we're already

1358
00:51:20,240 --> 00:51:23,599
This is what we're spending.

1359
00:51:23,599 --> 00:51:26,079
>> Yep. within the budget of school choice

1360
00:51:26,079 --> 00:51:28,319
revenue as it is. So, so we are

1361
00:51:28,319 --> 00:51:29,839
offsetting it. So, it gets to be a

1362
00:51:29,839 --> 00:51:32,960
dangerous game. I think it's safer. So,

1363
00:51:32,960 --> 00:51:35,520
if we So,

1364
00:51:35,520 --> 00:51:36,960
the other way of kind of playing with

1365
00:51:36,960 --> 00:51:38,960
the it's all about like shifting numbers

1366
00:51:38,960 --> 00:51:41,440
and and shifting kind of risk within the

1367
00:51:41,440 --> 00:51:43,440
budget. And so, I would argue with the

1368
00:51:43,440 --> 00:51:46,480
finance committee, okay, we'll reduce

1369
00:51:46,480 --> 00:51:48,559
the budget here and then I will ask the

1370
00:51:48,559 --> 00:51:50,400
town for a warrant to pay for the

1371
00:51:50,400 --> 00:51:52,800
playground. So you'll just take from

1372
00:51:52,800 --> 00:51:54,800
free cash instead of offsetting a

1373
00:51:54,800 --> 00:51:56,240
budget. You're going to take from free

1374
00:51:56,240 --> 00:51:58,000
cash to take care instead of we were

1375
00:51:58,000 --> 00:51:59,920
kind of handling the house and using our

1376
00:51:59,920 --> 00:52:02,720
money conservatively in the sense of so

1377
00:52:02,720 --> 00:52:04,000
it's just about like where you kind of

1378
00:52:04,000 --> 00:52:08,079
put the money and take the money. Um

1379
00:52:08,079 --> 00:52:11,510
but essentially

1380
00:52:11,520 --> 00:52:12,880
it's just it's that kind of level of

1381
00:52:12,880 --> 00:52:15,839
risk and do they want the school to hold

1382
00:52:15,839 --> 00:52:18,400
the protection

1383
00:52:18,400 --> 00:52:20,400
within its own budget? Right? And so we

1384
00:52:20,400 --> 00:52:22,960
haven't gone to the town for bailouts,

1385
00:52:22,960 --> 00:52:25,839
for transportation midyear, for

1386
00:52:25,839 --> 00:52:28,240
placements midyear, for you know those

1387
00:52:28,240 --> 00:52:29,760
kind of things. We've been able to

1388
00:52:29,760 --> 00:52:33,440
handle all that in house. So

1389
00:52:33,440 --> 00:52:35,839
>> and subsidizing capital projects

1390
00:52:35,839 --> 00:52:38,079
>> and we've had decent and we've had very

1391
00:52:38,079 --> 00:52:40,079
good budgets. So I'd be curious as to

1392
00:52:40,079 --> 00:52:42,400
like why are you messing with the stew?

1393
00:52:42,400 --> 00:52:43,520
Do you know what I mean? Like you got a

1394
00:52:43,520 --> 00:52:45,760
good good group running a solid thing.

1395
00:52:45,760 --> 00:52:46,319
But

1396
00:52:46,319 --> 00:52:50,000
>> I'd love to hear their their opinions on

1397
00:52:50,000 --> 00:52:51,119
Maybe they aren't trying to go there.

1398
00:52:51,119 --> 00:52:53,839
Maybe I'm reading into it. Maybe they're

1399
00:52:53,839 --> 00:52:55,599
um you know, maybe the two and a half

1400
00:52:55,599 --> 00:52:56,880
coming out there is saying, you know,

1401
00:52:56,880 --> 00:52:59,119
we're in a slight panic and you know,

1402
00:52:59,119 --> 00:53:00,720
we're putting this out there to see what

1403
00:53:00,720 --> 00:53:02,640
it takes to get there so that everybody

1404
00:53:02,640 --> 00:53:04,240
looks seriously at their budgets, you

1405
00:53:04,240 --> 00:53:06,880
know, and so um I've had two and a

1406
00:53:06,880 --> 00:53:09,760
half.99.

1407
00:53:09,760 --> 00:53:12,640
>> That's like very good face. Yeah. Right.

1408
00:53:12,640 --> 00:53:13,440
At least on

1409
00:53:13,440 --> 00:53:14,559
>> and they don't know where we we're

1410
00:53:14,559 --> 00:53:15,920
starting from. They they don't have all

1411
00:53:15,920 --> 00:53:17,040
the information. there's an information

1412
00:53:17,040 --> 00:53:19,200
imbalance which is really and I don't

1413
00:53:19,200 --> 00:53:20,400
know where they are. So that's the

1414
00:53:20,400 --> 00:53:22,640
problem with it's the positive and

1415
00:53:22,640 --> 00:53:23,920
negative within schools and that's why

1416
00:53:23,920 --> 00:53:26,079
they do it this way is so that you build

1417
00:53:26,079 --> 00:53:28,000
your budget based on the needs of the

1418
00:53:28,000 --> 00:53:31,280
children of the community not on city

1419
00:53:31,280 --> 00:53:33,359
hall's needs right and so that you don't

1420
00:53:33,359 --> 00:53:36,800
get police versus school fire let's go

1421
00:53:36,800 --> 00:53:38,319
prettier fire versus school you know

1422
00:53:38,319 --> 00:53:39,839
what I mean like so you don't have those

1423
00:53:39,839 --> 00:53:41,920
two departments going after each other

1424
00:53:41,920 --> 00:53:43,200
you have that's why you have this kind

1425
00:53:43,200 --> 00:53:45,359
of separate that's why they set up in my

1426
00:53:45,359 --> 00:53:46,800
opinion why they set up Massachusetts

1427
00:53:46,800 --> 00:53:47,920
that way with the oversight of the

1428
00:53:47,920 --> 00:53:49,920
school committee So,

1429
00:53:49,920 --> 00:53:51,280
>> can we go back to enrollment for a

1430
00:53:51,280 --> 00:53:53,040
second? Because I I just want to make

1431
00:53:53,040 --> 00:53:54,640
another point that if you're getting

1432
00:53:54,640 --> 00:53:57,680
questions, it's up

1433
00:53:57,680 --> 00:54:00,480
>> back.

1434
00:54:00,480 --> 00:54:01,839
>> Yeah. What does up mean?

1435
00:54:01,839 --> 00:54:05,280
>> Yeah. One more.

1436
00:54:05,280 --> 00:54:07,760
>> So, I know I get this question a lot and

1437
00:54:07,760 --> 00:54:09,359
it comes up more at Frontier than

1438
00:54:09,359 --> 00:54:10,960
Deerfield, but it's definitely come up

1439
00:54:10,960 --> 00:54:12,720
on town meeting floor is, you know, why

1440
00:54:12,720 --> 00:54:14,480
do you have school choice kids? You

1441
00:54:14,480 --> 00:54:15,680
know, they're bringing in some money,

1442
00:54:15,680 --> 00:54:18,000
but we're paying teachers. Look at our

1443
00:54:18,000 --> 00:54:20,640
resident numbers. You could not have I

1444
00:54:20,640 --> 00:54:22,720
mean I guess we could but it would be

1445
00:54:22,720 --> 00:54:24,800
complete woe to our community. You could

1446
00:54:24,800 --> 00:54:27,760
have one classroom of 31 students.

1447
00:54:27,760 --> 00:54:29,839
But likely even if we did not have those

1448
00:54:29,839 --> 00:54:31,839
school choice numbers, we're still

1449
00:54:31,839 --> 00:54:33,440
having two sections with the exception

1450
00:54:33,440 --> 00:54:36,240
of probably first grade still having two

1451
00:54:36,240 --> 00:54:38,960
sections.

1452
00:54:38,960 --> 00:54:41,839
>> We're not paying for staffing. We're

1453
00:54:41,839 --> 00:54:44,160
using school choice funds to help offset

1454
00:54:44,160 --> 00:54:45,920
the budget, but we're not paying

1455
00:54:45,920 --> 00:54:48,319
staffing specifically for school choice

1456
00:54:48,319 --> 00:54:50,640
students, right? I think that's a really

1457
00:54:50,640 --> 00:54:52,240
good distinction for everyone to

1458
00:54:52,240 --> 00:54:53,359
understand when you're having

1459
00:54:53,359 --> 00:54:55,760
conversations with the public,

1460
00:54:55,760 --> 00:54:57,359
>> right? And we made that decision last

1461
00:54:57,359 --> 00:54:59,200
year on this one as that we were going

1462
00:54:59,200 --> 00:55:01,520
to do that to keep consistency to across

1463
00:55:01,520 --> 00:55:03,680
and hope to backfill that with choice.

1464
00:55:03,680 --> 00:55:05,760
So that class a little bit smaller. I

1465
00:55:05,760 --> 00:55:07,280
mean we've what we've run into other

1466
00:55:07,280 --> 00:55:09,440
towns as well is it's also the starting

1467
00:55:09,440 --> 00:55:11,520
number of the class and then we've seen

1468
00:55:11,520 --> 00:55:13,599
kids leave

1469
00:55:13,599 --> 00:55:15,200
like you lose the free resident kids are

1470
00:55:15,200 --> 00:55:16,880
like wait a minute why are you sub you

1471
00:55:16,880 --> 00:55:18,480
know this is particularly we're talking

1472
00:55:18,480 --> 00:55:20,000
about like Sunderland has this issue

1473
00:55:20,000 --> 00:55:21,280
because they have two you have two

1474
00:55:21,280 --> 00:55:23,119
sections as well in some of their

1475
00:55:23,119 --> 00:55:24,880
classes and it's like wait a minute you

1476
00:55:24,880 --> 00:55:26,559
could have ran that class with residents

1477
00:55:26,559 --> 00:55:29,119
alone why'd you add choice well when we

1478
00:55:29,119 --> 00:55:30,559
opened and we started the class the

1479
00:55:30,559 --> 00:55:33,440
class was at 26 four kids left and now

1480
00:55:33,440 --> 00:55:35,680
it's at 20 you know 22 two, we could

1481
00:55:35,680 --> 00:55:37,200
have done that, but we've already once

1482
00:55:37,200 --> 00:55:38,800
those students are in your school, you

1483
00:55:38,800 --> 00:55:40,400
can't say, "Oh, we we don't want you

1484
00:55:40,400 --> 00:55:42,480
this year, you know." No, once you you

1485
00:55:42,480 --> 00:55:44,240
make that decision, we make a decision.

1486
00:55:44,240 --> 00:55:45,280
Not so much here. I'm just kind of

1487
00:55:45,280 --> 00:55:46,800
bringing that out loud when you look at

1488
00:55:46,800 --> 00:55:49,359
other um schools that have done that.

1489
00:55:49,359 --> 00:55:52,160
>> So, we really should be looking at a

1490
00:55:52,160 --> 00:55:54,960
plan to get expenses off of school

1491
00:55:54,960 --> 00:55:57,680
choice, not adding expenses to school

1492
00:55:57,680 --> 00:55:58,960
choice because we're going to need a

1493
00:55:58,960 --> 00:56:01,599
multi-year plan as the revenue. And I

1494
00:56:01,599 --> 00:56:03,520
can try to do some bigger projections

1495
00:56:03,520 --> 00:56:06,240
for us that would show, you know, if the

1496
00:56:06,240 --> 00:56:08,400
school choice kids age out and we don't

1497
00:56:08,400 --> 00:56:10,000
backfill all of them, what does that

1498
00:56:10,000 --> 00:56:12,400
look like for revenue? What the, you

1499
00:56:12,400 --> 00:56:15,359
know, assume a 3% growth on cola for the

1500
00:56:15,359 --> 00:56:16,960
next five years? What does that look

1501
00:56:16,960 --> 00:56:19,440
like for wages? I don't think it's even

1502
00:56:19,440 --> 00:56:21,440
going to be seven before we're at a

1503
00:56:21,440 --> 00:56:23,200
point, you know, and and maybe that's

1504
00:56:23,200 --> 00:56:24,799
part of our conversation is, oh, let's

1505
00:56:24,799 --> 00:56:27,119
deal with it down the road. Right now is

1506
00:56:27,119 --> 00:56:28,799
what we really need to tackle and focus

1507
00:56:28,799 --> 00:56:31,280
on. but it wouldn't be my recommended

1508
00:56:31,280 --> 00:56:33,520
approach and you know we just have to

1509
00:56:33,520 --> 00:56:37,990
strike the right balance with that.

1510
00:56:38,000 --> 00:56:41,920
» So are other town departments

1511
00:56:41,920 --> 00:56:44,319
also taking on their employees health

1512
00:56:44,319 --> 00:56:46,400
insurance? I don't know.

1513
00:56:46,400 --> 00:56:46,960
>> We don't know.

1514
00:56:46,960 --> 00:56:50,230
>> I don't know.

1515
00:56:50,240 --> 00:56:53,040
» Trying to remember said

1516
00:56:53,040 --> 00:56:54,319
>> just looking up the email right now

1517
00:56:54,319 --> 00:56:57,910
because I kind of

1518
00:56:57,920 --> 00:57:00,400
» um

1519
00:57:00,400 --> 00:57:02,960
>> so if we look at this from a m and I'm

1520
00:57:02,960 --> 00:57:06,160
sorry we're Mary's question wasn't

1521
00:57:06,160 --> 00:57:07,599
answered. you're looking at.

1522
00:57:07,599 --> 00:57:08,720
>> She's looking down.

1523
00:57:08,720 --> 00:57:10,319
>> It does not mention any other

1524
00:57:10,319 --> 00:57:12,240
departments in the

1525
00:57:12,240 --> 00:57:15,119
>> because if we're looking at a scale down

1526
00:57:15,119 --> 00:57:17,839
>> and less of reliance on school choice,

1527
00:57:17,839 --> 00:57:20,079
we really need to make steeper cuts. if

1528
00:57:20,079 --> 00:57:22,079
we're looking at a multi-year

1529
00:57:22,079 --> 00:57:24,880
perspective to get that to get the

1530
00:57:24,880 --> 00:57:27,599
expenses down even more because if if

1531
00:57:27,599 --> 00:57:30,720
health insurance is a multi-year issue

1532
00:57:30,720 --> 00:57:32,480
and we're going to be eating away at the

1533
00:57:32,480 --> 00:57:34,319
pot of school choice knowing that that's

1534
00:57:34,319 --> 00:57:36,720
not going to be growing anymore, we're

1535
00:57:36,720 --> 00:57:38,480
looking at steeper cuts over the next

1536
00:57:38,480 --> 00:57:40,640
two, three years. I think in the current

1537
00:57:40,640 --> 00:57:43,920
year if we can pull together what we've

1538
00:57:43,920 --> 00:57:45,760
presented today to make the reductions

1539
00:57:45,760 --> 00:57:47,200
of the sixth grade classroom and then

1540
00:57:47,200 --> 00:57:49,839
the other 185,000 and if the town

1541
00:57:49,839 --> 00:57:51,920
doesn't ask us to come to that 2 and a

1542
00:57:51,920 --> 00:57:53,839
half% we're okay with school choice

1543
00:57:53,839 --> 00:57:55,359
where it is right now and we can use

1544
00:57:55,359 --> 00:57:57,599
some of it to offset the playground. I

1545
00:57:57,599 --> 00:58:01,200
think if we can't pull together the

1546
00:58:01,200 --> 00:58:04,720
185,000 in additional cuts and the town

1547
00:58:04,720 --> 00:58:06,720
asks us to bring it down another

1548
00:58:06,720 --> 00:58:08,640
185,000.

1549
00:58:08,640 --> 00:58:10,079
We do have a bigger school choice

1550
00:58:10,079 --> 00:58:11,839
problem.

1551
00:58:11,839 --> 00:58:14,400
But yes, to your point, two, three, the

1552
00:58:14,400 --> 00:58:16,319
next two, three, four years, we're going

1553
00:58:16,319 --> 00:58:19,440
to have to start pulling expenses off,

1554
00:58:19,440 --> 00:58:21,040
>> especially if we're using

1555
00:58:21,040 --> 00:58:21,760
>> it's coming

1556
00:58:21,760 --> 00:58:25,680
>> three to 400,000 for the playground.

1557
00:58:25,680 --> 00:58:27,839
>> And I would not get into the well, let's

1558
00:58:27,839 --> 00:58:29,760
cut more now to save later. It never

1559
00:58:29,760 --> 00:58:31,280
seems to work. You know what I mean?

1560
00:58:31,280 --> 00:58:32,640
Because it just gets back filled with

1561
00:58:32,640 --> 00:58:32,960
other

1562
00:58:32,960 --> 00:58:34,240
>> No, I'm just thinking if we're looking

1563
00:58:34,240 --> 00:58:35,760
at an issue of scale, which it seems

1564
00:58:35,760 --> 00:58:38,880
like we are, like what what the our

1565
00:58:38,880 --> 00:58:40,799
supply and demand is out of whack. It's

1566
00:58:40,799 --> 00:58:44,400
getting out of whack. And so

1567
00:58:44,400 --> 00:58:45,760
trying to understand what this means for

1568
00:58:45,760 --> 00:58:48,079
the identity and the land and and kind

1569
00:58:48,079 --> 00:58:49,920
of defining what the school is and who

1570
00:58:49,920 --> 00:58:51,760
we serve and what our objectives are. I

1571
00:58:51,760 --> 00:58:54,240
think just trying to understand that

1572
00:58:54,240 --> 00:58:56,480
this is just helpful to to let that

1573
00:58:56,480 --> 00:59:01,990
stew. Um,

1574
00:59:02,000 --> 00:59:05,920
» so I think as far as school choice goes,

1575
00:59:05,920 --> 00:59:09,680
I think the first step would be we come

1576
00:59:09,680 --> 00:59:11,599
back next month and say these are the

1577
00:59:11,599 --> 00:59:13,680
positions slashservices that we're

1578
00:59:13,680 --> 00:59:15,760
looking to cut. And we have that

1579
00:59:15,760 --> 00:59:17,440
discussion as to whether or not we're

1580
00:59:17,440 --> 00:59:18,720
willing and you're willing as a

1581
00:59:18,720 --> 00:59:21,359
committee to make those reductions. And

1582
00:59:21,359 --> 00:59:23,760
if not, then we're talking about using

1583
00:59:23,760 --> 00:59:25,520
school choice money to fund them because

1584
00:59:25,520 --> 00:59:27,359
we do need to bring the budget down. The

1585
00:59:27,359 --> 00:59:29,119
bottom line, whether it is in reduced

1586
00:59:29,119 --> 00:59:32,880
positions or using a supplement fund.

1587
00:59:32,880 --> 00:59:34,799
>> And just to jump on that, so the

1588
00:59:34,799 --> 00:59:38,319
timeline is we come into the February

1589
00:59:38,319 --> 00:59:40,319
meeting and we're going to make a budget

1590
00:59:40,319 --> 00:59:42,480
that we're sending to public hearing on

1591
00:59:42,480 --> 00:59:43,280
March 11th,

1592
00:59:43,280 --> 00:59:44,160
>> two weeks later.

1593
00:59:44,160 --> 00:59:46,799
So, um that's why we

1594
00:59:46,799 --> 00:59:47,839
thought it was important to have this

1595
00:59:47,839 --> 00:59:49,680
here to kind of kind of mle it over and

1596
00:59:49,680 --> 00:59:52,319
you know um and so forth that kind of

1597
00:59:52,319 --> 00:59:56,079
where things are at um how and how we

1598
00:59:56,079 --> 00:59:57,680
get there. Then it goes to public

1599
00:59:57,680 --> 01:00:00,720
hearing. You still can change it again

1600
01:00:00,720 --> 01:00:02,240
after public hearing you can bring it

1601
01:00:02,240 --> 01:00:04,799
down and you just can't increase it. Um,

1602
01:00:04,799 --> 01:00:08,000
but between now and February, you know,

1603
01:00:08,000 --> 01:00:10,400
after this meeting, I'm going to reach

1604
01:00:10,400 --> 01:00:13,440
out to both finance and and select board

1605
01:00:13,440 --> 01:00:15,680
and say, do is there going to be a

1606
01:00:15,680 --> 01:00:17,520
meeting of the minds of the budget once

1607
01:00:17,520 --> 01:00:21,040
they we get it on Friday um from the

1608
01:00:21,040 --> 01:00:23,280
state so we all have kind of, you know,

1609
01:00:23,280 --> 01:00:26,079
we're playing with um about what we want

1610
01:00:26,079 --> 01:00:28,960
to do there. And so there may be

1611
01:00:28,960 --> 01:00:30,240
maybe there might be another meeting

1612
01:00:30,240 --> 01:00:31,760
getting on the books about a joint

1613
01:00:31,760 --> 01:00:34,079
meeting where um to have that

1614
01:00:34,079 --> 01:00:35,599
conversation

1615
01:00:35,599 --> 01:00:37,200
even before the public hearing rather

1616
01:00:37,200 --> 01:00:41,119
than doing an isolation because we

1617
01:00:41,119 --> 01:00:44,079
because I don't have the answer of you

1618
01:00:44,079 --> 01:00:48,319
know this number we can make work or

1619
01:00:48,319 --> 01:00:49,440
you know they're going to say you know

1620
01:00:49,440 --> 01:00:51,839
you need to bring that down further and

1621
01:00:51,839 --> 01:00:54,240
then so forth. So that's kind of like

1622
01:00:54,240 --> 01:00:55,520
the next step. It's a little it's a

1623
01:00:55,520 --> 01:00:58,319
little foggy. It's not clearly defined

1624
01:00:58,319 --> 01:01:00,319
exactly how it because on good years

1625
01:01:00,319 --> 01:01:02,799
they never bug us. You know what I mean?

1626
01:01:02,799 --> 01:01:04,240
Like when we said when we said, you

1627
01:01:04,240 --> 01:01:06,559
know, two and three over before, they're

1628
01:01:06,559 --> 01:01:08,000
like, "Thank you. That's that's great.

1629
01:01:08,000 --> 01:01:10,799
That's, you know, normal growth."

1630
01:01:10,799 --> 01:01:12,400
>> So, if you go back to that last slide,

1631
01:01:12,400 --> 01:01:15,280
just to recap what we're sort of still

1632
01:01:15,280 --> 01:01:22,630
deliberating.

1633
01:01:22,640 --> 01:01:30,710
Sorry, I can't go faster then.

1634
01:01:30,720 --> 01:01:33,520
» So, we'll continue to review

1635
01:01:33,520 --> 01:01:35,839
internal suggestions for cuts

1636
01:01:35,839 --> 01:01:37,680
administratively.

1637
01:01:37,680 --> 01:01:39,680
Darius and I will continue conversations

1638
01:01:39,680 --> 01:01:42,000
with town officials. We will know better

1639
01:01:42,000 --> 01:01:45,359
the impact of Frontier's budget on the

1640
01:01:45,359 --> 01:01:48,799
town of Deerfield in the next week.

1641
01:01:48,799 --> 01:01:52,319
and then we come back next month.

1642
01:01:52,319 --> 01:01:55,200
>> Right.

1643
01:01:55,200 --> 01:01:57,839
>> So, you'll have to have input though or

1644
01:01:57,839 --> 01:02:00,720
conversations with the town

1645
01:02:00,720 --> 01:02:02,640
because with the way you just outlined

1646
01:02:02,640 --> 01:02:05,760
it when you come back next month,

1647
01:02:05,760 --> 01:02:08,400
it's not going to include taking on the

1648
01:02:08,400 --> 01:02:10,079
health insurance.

1649
01:02:10,079 --> 01:02:10,480
Well,

1650
01:02:10,480 --> 01:02:12,319
>> the way it stands, the way it stands

1651
01:02:12,319 --> 01:02:14,400
today, the way you know, the way you

1652
01:02:14,400 --> 01:02:16,400
just presented, unless there's some

1653
01:02:16,400 --> 01:02:18,319
conversation, which I think we should be

1654
01:02:18,319 --> 01:02:18,960
part of.

1655
01:02:18,960 --> 01:02:21,760
>> Yeah. I don't think

1656
01:02:21,760 --> 01:02:23,760
um

1657
01:02:23,760 --> 01:02:26,240
I don't think that

1658
01:02:26,240 --> 01:02:29,680
the letter that I got was not I don't it

1659
01:02:29,680 --> 01:02:32,079
was

1660
01:02:32,079 --> 01:02:34,079
not I'm not sure we're going to suddenly

1661
01:02:34,079 --> 01:02:36,400
change the structure of financing the

1662
01:02:36,400 --> 01:02:40,079
school and its benefits if the finance

1663
01:02:40,079 --> 01:02:42,400
community can just do that and I'm and

1664
01:02:42,400 --> 01:02:44,319
you know and I without much without that

1665
01:02:44,319 --> 01:02:46,240
conversation with this group we also

1666
01:02:46,240 --> 01:02:47,359
without the conversation with select

1667
01:02:47,359 --> 01:02:48,559
board I don't know where the authority

1668
01:02:48,559 --> 01:02:50,880
lies But it's set up that we don't

1669
01:02:50,880 --> 01:02:52,319
oversee that.

1670
01:02:52,319 --> 01:02:54,160
>> And so to suddenly say, "Oh, it's a high

1671
01:02:54,160 --> 01:02:57,119
year now. You get to oversee it."

1672
01:02:57,119 --> 01:02:58,720
>> You know, I I can see the pluses and

1673
01:02:58,720 --> 01:03:01,119
minuses of the overseeing it. And all

1674
01:03:01,119 --> 01:03:02,319
the elementarymentaries are set up the

1675
01:03:02,319 --> 01:03:06,079
same way. So, um, so you're you're right

1676
01:03:06,079 --> 01:03:09,119
on that. And so I'm not

1677
01:03:09,119 --> 01:03:10,559
I want to say I'm not entertaining

1678
01:03:10,559 --> 01:03:11,839
completely. I want to have a bigger

1679
01:03:11,839 --> 01:03:17,200
conversation on that. Um and

1680
01:03:17,200 --> 01:03:18,640
we you know we end up going to public

1681
01:03:18,640 --> 01:03:19,760
hearing with a higher budget than we

1682
01:03:19,760 --> 01:03:20,640
come to public hearing with a higher

1683
01:03:20,640 --> 01:03:21,520
budget. We have a little bit more

1684
01:03:21,520 --> 01:03:24,240
flexibility

1685
01:03:24,240 --> 01:03:25,440
although the timeline's going to get

1686
01:03:25,440 --> 01:03:27,760
really tight after that March

1687
01:03:27,760 --> 01:03:28,400
you know. Great

1688
01:03:28,400 --> 01:03:31,359
>> because I think they are last Monday in

1689
01:03:31,359 --> 01:03:33,599
April for town meeting and they have to

1690
01:03:33,599 --> 01:03:35,839
have their budget I think done a month

1691
01:03:35,839 --> 01:03:38,400
before I posted in the warrant

1692
01:03:38,400 --> 01:03:39,280
>> two weeks right

1693
01:03:39,280 --> 01:03:40,000
>> two weeks.

1694
01:03:40,000 --> 01:03:42,240
>> Yeah.

1695
01:03:42,240 --> 01:03:43,039
But they're going to want they're going

1696
01:03:43,039 --> 01:03:44,240
to want to go here. But I'm just saying

1697
01:03:44,240 --> 01:03:46,160
the smaller town sometimes go two weeks.

1698
01:03:46,160 --> 01:03:47,760
>> They can fiddle around up to then.

1699
01:03:47,760 --> 01:03:49,280
>> How long does it take to get bids for

1700
01:03:49,280 --> 01:03:50,960
the playground? Like that does seem like

1701
01:03:50,960 --> 01:03:53,280
we need to understand numbers and what

1702
01:03:53,280 --> 01:03:54,880
that would do to school choice and for

1703
01:03:54,880 --> 01:03:56,400
the finance committee to see that it's

1704
01:03:56,400 --> 01:03:58,240
actually not 800 something thousand.

1705
01:03:58,240 --> 01:04:00,240
It's going to

1706
01:04:00,240 --> 01:04:02,880
>> even if we posted even if we had it in

1707
01:04:02,880 --> 01:04:04,480
the queue to go ahead and do it, we

1708
01:04:04,480 --> 01:04:05,839
wouldn't have the numbers.

1709
01:04:05,839 --> 01:04:06,079
>> Yeah.

1710
01:04:06,079 --> 01:04:08,000
>> It takes like 90 days

1711
01:04:08,000 --> 01:04:09,920
>> at least.

1712
01:04:09,920 --> 01:04:13,200
So, you know, if we look to

1713
01:04:13,200 --> 01:04:15,280
get an idea,

1714
01:04:15,280 --> 01:04:17,599
you know, February, it's a it's a

1715
01:04:17,599 --> 01:04:20,559
relatively small job just in in a scope

1716
01:04:20,559 --> 01:04:22,160
of things of contractors. They'll be in

1717
01:04:22,160 --> 01:04:24,960
and out in just I would say a few days.

1718
01:04:24,960 --> 01:04:28,069
Um,

1719
01:04:28,079 --> 01:04:30,319
» the problem is is we're mandated by Mass

1720
01:04:30,319 --> 01:04:32,240
General law to post things for a certain

1721
01:04:32,240 --> 01:04:34,799
length of time and then you have to

1722
01:04:34,799 --> 01:04:37,039
provide opportunities for questions,

1723
01:04:37,039 --> 01:04:39,680
site visits, and some of the behind the

1724
01:04:39,680 --> 01:04:41,520
scenes work that still would have to be

1725
01:04:41,520 --> 01:04:44,480
done between the engineer and us and the

1726
01:04:44,480 --> 01:04:46,559
person helping us put the package

1727
01:04:46,559 --> 01:04:49,119
together. Like that can be lengthy just

1728
01:04:49,119 --> 01:04:52,400
to get the bid documents ready. So,

1729
01:04:52,400 --> 01:04:54,319
>> I mean 60 days would be really hard.

1730
01:04:54,319 --> 01:05:00,390
It's 90s more realistic.

1731
01:05:00,400 --> 01:05:03,680
» Well, I'm reluctant to spend on school

1732
01:05:03,680 --> 01:05:07,039
choice too quickly.

1733
01:05:07,039 --> 01:05:09,920
I don't you know, if we go back to the

1734
01:05:09,920 --> 01:05:11,920
town, here's our budget 3%. We're

1735
01:05:11,920 --> 01:05:16,480
sitting on 800,000 in school choice.

1736
01:05:16,480 --> 01:05:18,480
I don't that doesn't feel like we're

1737
01:05:18,480 --> 01:05:19,599
showing them that we're operating in

1738
01:05:19,599 --> 01:05:21,520
good faith there. So is it we're saying

1739
01:05:21,520 --> 01:05:23,119
we're committing to spending certain

1740
01:05:23,119 --> 01:05:25,920
amount of the playground which are our

1741
01:05:25,920 --> 01:05:28,400
best guess is

1742
01:05:28,400 --> 01:05:30,319
even then though even if it's half of

1743
01:05:30,319 --> 01:05:32,960
that the playground

1744
01:05:32,960 --> 01:05:34,799
I just feel like the town is still going

1745
01:05:34,799 --> 01:05:37,280
to feel we're not doing enough out of

1746
01:05:37,280 --> 01:05:38,559
school choice. There's you know based on

1747
01:05:38,559 --> 01:05:39,920
conversations I've heard from them last

1748
01:05:39,920 --> 01:05:41,920
year I know there's some people who feel

1749
01:05:41,920 --> 01:05:47,039
that it shouldn't be as high as it is.

1750
01:05:47,039 --> 01:05:49,599
>> Yeah it's been that way for years. We've

1751
01:05:49,599 --> 01:05:51,119
gotten the questions on school choice

1752
01:05:51,119 --> 01:05:52,720
and how much money do you have and why

1753
01:05:52,720 --> 01:05:54,079
are you

1754
01:05:54,079 --> 01:05:54,559
>> um sitting

1755
01:05:54,559 --> 01:05:57,119
>> punished for saving

1756
01:05:57,119 --> 01:05:59,839
>> well preparing for a very potentially

1757
01:05:59,839 --> 01:06:01,520
costly. So, the good news is we could

1758
01:06:01,520 --> 01:06:03,680
use this savings to to leverage us out

1759
01:06:03,680 --> 01:06:05,839
of this moment with the decisions we

1760
01:06:05,839 --> 01:06:07,440
make, but it's going to leave us

1761
01:06:07,440 --> 01:06:08,400
empty-handed.

1762
01:06:08,400 --> 01:06:10,240
>> If it's offset wages, though, it's just

1763
01:06:10,240 --> 01:06:12,559
going to be bigger, which we went

1764
01:06:12,559 --> 01:06:15,119
through when we did when we ended up

1765
01:06:15,119 --> 01:06:18,880
producing three positions the last time.

1766
01:06:18,880 --> 01:06:22,160
you know the we talked about school

1767
01:06:22,160 --> 01:06:23,920
choice to offset budget but then the

1768
01:06:23,920 --> 01:06:26,559
next year it would be like a triple

1769
01:06:26,559 --> 01:06:28,799
>> problem instead of just like

1770
01:06:28,799 --> 01:06:32,079
>> I think we need to kind of prepare some

1771
01:06:32,079 --> 01:06:34,240
um just putting some visuals about what

1772
01:06:34,240 --> 01:06:35,680
it what does it what does it look like

1773
01:06:35,680 --> 01:06:39,280
and what is what is our already

1774
01:06:39,280 --> 01:06:43,599
um track that we're on that is slowly

1775
01:06:43,599 --> 01:06:46,960
depleting school choice right and what

1776
01:06:46,960 --> 01:06:49,039
is the you know is it a five or sixth

1777
01:06:49,039 --> 01:06:51,200
year based on whatever you know as Shel

1778
01:06:51,200 --> 01:06:52,880
said earlier that she put something like

1779
01:06:52,880 --> 01:06:54,960
that possible together to say this is

1780
01:06:54,960 --> 01:06:57,680
what this is what we're seeing right and

1781
01:06:57,680 --> 01:07:00,240
share that information you know I mean I

1782
01:07:00,240 --> 01:07:03,520
think it's about it really is about um

1783
01:07:03,520 --> 01:07:06,559
you having you know not having all the

1784
01:07:06,559 --> 01:07:07,599
information

1785
01:07:07,599 --> 01:07:10,799
>> and I don't I don't think

1786
01:07:10,799 --> 01:07:12,720
everyone understands how much an out of

1787
01:07:12,720 --> 01:07:14,799
district placement can cost and that we

1788
01:07:14,799 --> 01:07:16,880
have to provide it like it is not a

1789
01:07:16,880 --> 01:07:19,200
choice we can do our best to serve in

1790
01:07:19,200 --> 01:07:21,599
house, but there may be a situation

1791
01:07:21,599 --> 01:07:24,880
where legally we need to spend $150,000

1792
01:07:24,880 --> 01:07:27,520
in a year to place somebody.

1793
01:07:27,520 --> 01:07:29,760
>> I think we can easily demonstrate also

1794
01:07:29,760 --> 01:07:31,839
how revenue has already come down over

1795
01:07:31,839 --> 01:07:33,920
the last few years, but expenses have

1796
01:07:33,920 --> 01:07:36,000
not. So, yeah, there's there's

1797
01:07:36,000 --> 01:07:37,760
definitely some materials we can put

1798
01:07:37,760 --> 01:07:39,359
together for the town to help better

1799
01:07:39,359 --> 01:07:40,720
understand.

1800
01:07:40,720 --> 01:07:42,000
>> Yeah. Or an easy way to show the town

1801
01:07:42,000 --> 01:07:43,280
how much we would have had to ask for

1802
01:07:43,280 --> 01:07:44,000
them

1803
01:07:44,000 --> 01:07:45,440
>> if we didn't have a school choice

1804
01:07:45,440 --> 01:07:46,000
budget.

1805
01:07:46,000 --> 01:07:48,000
>> Great. Yeah.

1806
01:07:48,000 --> 01:07:54,069
it gets it gets slippery because

1807
01:07:54,079 --> 01:07:56,000
it's like what is the staffing need in

1808
01:07:56,000 --> 01:07:57,839
this building if you reduce it by that

1809
01:07:57,839 --> 01:07:59,839
number of students? And if you look at

1810
01:07:59,839 --> 01:08:01,119
those classrooms, you'll see where you

1811
01:08:01,119 --> 01:08:03,520
need two sections of all that, but

1812
01:08:03,520 --> 01:08:05,280
there's a lot of whatifs in there. And

1813
01:08:05,280 --> 01:08:08,640
so you can have a blank, you can have a

1814
01:08:08,640 --> 01:08:10,400
kind of like a this is an envelope

1815
01:08:10,400 --> 01:08:12,400
number, but they'd have to take it in

1816
01:08:12,400 --> 01:08:16,159
good faith rather than if someone could just kind of Yeah, but you

1817
01:08:16,159 --> 01:08:17,279
could do this and you can move this and

1818
01:08:17,279 --> 01:08:18,880
you only need you only need one nurse

1819
01:08:18,880 --> 01:08:20,799
and you only need one, you know, this

1820
01:08:20,799 --> 01:08:23,120
based on in you don't actually know the

1821
01:08:23,120 --> 01:08:26,630
needs of

1822
01:08:26,640 --> 01:08:28,159
» I was thinking, you can't really go off

1823
01:08:28,159 --> 01:08:30,080
in enrollment numbers. You have to look

1824
01:08:30,080 --> 01:08:32,239
at the kids in front of you,

1825
01:08:32,239 --> 01:08:34,400
>> right? But at a minimum our resident

1826
01:08:34,400 --> 01:08:35,600
members

1827
01:08:35,600 --> 01:08:37,679
>> if nothing else. I mean could we reduce

1828
01:08:37,679 --> 01:08:40,480
at that point related service providers

1829
01:08:40,480 --> 01:08:42,080
because it's less students. Could we

1830
01:08:42,080 --> 01:08:43,920
reduce specials? Like those are the

1831
01:08:43,920 --> 01:08:45,600
kinds of things we would be looking at.

1832
01:08:45,600 --> 01:08:47,759
But you're not really reducing your

1833
01:08:47,759 --> 01:08:49,520
grade level teachers or your

1834
01:08:49,520 --> 01:08:51,920
instructional assistants.

1835
01:08:51,920 --> 01:08:55,430
And it

1836
01:08:55,440 --> 01:08:58,880
all and it gets to this weird kind of

1837
01:08:58,880 --> 01:09:03,279
thing like every other ele school would

1838
01:09:03,279 --> 01:09:05,679
love this problem.

1839
01:09:05,679 --> 01:09:12,000
You have too much school choice. We're writing a check to you before we

1840
01:09:12,000 --> 01:09:13,279
do our budget because the amount of

1841
01:09:13,279 --> 01:09:15,679
school choice we have going out. And so

1842
01:09:15,679 --> 01:09:18,719
the fact that it's kind of like it's

1843
01:09:18,719 --> 01:09:21,679
there's this kind of um I don't know the

1844
01:09:21,679 --> 01:09:24,400
Most people don't who are talking illy

1845
01:09:24,400 --> 01:09:26,080
about school choice don't realize that

1846
01:09:26,080 --> 01:09:29,679
we are on top of it as a district. All

1847
01:09:29,679 --> 01:09:32,000
five towns are on top of it because we

1848
01:09:32,000 --> 01:09:34,960
are winning the school choice game.

1849
01:09:34,960 --> 01:09:36,319
Okay, it's a game that we didn't set up

1850
01:09:36,319 --> 01:09:37,839
the rules to and people are upset that

1851
01:09:37,839 --> 01:09:40,400
we're, you know, doing that game. But if

1852
01:09:40,400 --> 01:09:41,920
we were in the flip side, we'd be

1853
01:09:41,920 --> 01:09:43,199
saying, "Okay, the first thing in the

1854
01:09:43,199 --> 01:09:45,199
budget is we have to payundundred or

1855
01:09:45,199 --> 01:09:47,279
$500,000 to school choice and charter

1856
01:09:47,279 --> 01:09:49,679
going out and then um we're going to

1857
01:09:49,679 --> 01:09:51,040
start in a deficit and then we're going

1858
01:09:51,040 --> 01:09:52,159
to figure out how we're going to we're

1859
01:09:52,159 --> 01:09:54,080
going to cut teachers here to pay school

1860
01:09:54,080 --> 01:09:56,159
choice going out." Instead, we're we're

1861
01:09:56,159 --> 01:09:57,840
getting upset that you have understand

1862
01:09:57,840 --> 01:09:59,840
what the real argument is. You've saved

1863
01:09:59,840 --> 01:10:02,159
too much money

1864
01:10:02,159 --> 01:10:04,719
and put it on our taxpayers at 3% the

1865
01:10:04,719 --> 01:10:07,120
last few years.

1866
01:10:07,120 --> 01:10:08,239
You know what I mean?

1867
01:10:08,239 --> 01:10:09,600
your budget. It's not like, you know,

1868
01:10:09,600 --> 01:10:10,800
look at the other elementary schools

1869
01:10:10,800 --> 01:10:14,320
around us. They're 6 7 8 9 10 there. No

1870
01:10:14,320 --> 01:10:16,080
one is coming in under five around us

1871
01:10:16,080 --> 01:10:18,000
and elementary schools. And I'll have

1872
01:10:18,000 --> 01:10:19,040
all that information for the next

1873
01:10:19,040 --> 01:10:20,560
meeting, too, because you we're all

1874
01:10:20,560 --> 01:10:22,239
sharing that so people have an idea. The

1875
01:10:22,239 --> 01:10:23,199
fact that, you know, we're going to

1876
01:10:23,199 --> 01:10:25,840
propose something under five,

1877
01:10:25,840 --> 01:10:27,120
you know, it's just kind of I know

1878
01:10:27,120 --> 01:10:29,040
there's a get me fired up in that kind

1879
01:10:29,040 --> 01:10:32,400
of thing. Like there's been very good um

1880
01:10:32,400 --> 01:10:34,800
managing of our budgets and being

1881
01:10:34,800 --> 01:10:38,239
fiscally responsible. Um

1882
01:10:38,239 --> 01:10:41,199
>> I can also put together what we have

1883
01:10:41,199 --> 01:10:43,760
paid for capital projects with school

1884
01:10:43,760 --> 01:10:45,840
choice money that has saved the town and

1885
01:10:45,840 --> 01:10:48,080
the taxpayers. So that is really

1886
01:10:48,080 --> 01:10:52,239
importantly done some things there.

1887
01:10:52,239 --> 01:10:53,920
>> Yep.

1888
01:10:53,920 --> 01:10:56,400
>> My opinion at this point is I think

1889
01:10:56,400 --> 01:10:58,400
there's a lot of work there's a lot of

1890
01:10:58,400 --> 01:10:59,760
things you've taken off to bring the

1891
01:10:59,760 --> 01:11:02,480
budget from 9.6 or 7 down to just a hair

1892
01:11:02,480 --> 01:11:04,960
under three.

1893
01:11:04,960 --> 01:11:06,640
I am comfortably moving forward with

1894
01:11:06,640 --> 01:11:08,000
that at this point. I don't really have

1895
01:11:08,000 --> 01:11:10,800
the stomach to at this point say we're

1896
01:11:10,800 --> 01:11:13,679
doing two and a half percent minus

1897
01:11:13,679 --> 01:11:18,070
health insurance.

1898
01:11:18,080 --> 01:11:21,199
» So there's no um action by the committee

1899
01:11:21,199 --> 01:11:22,960
tonight. Just kind of an understanding

1900
01:11:22,960 --> 01:11:25,520
that this number we're at now. we will

1901
01:11:25,520 --> 01:11:28,080
bring you a

1902
01:11:28,080 --> 01:11:31,520
um the plan what the numbers what the

1903
01:11:31,520 --> 01:11:33,760
185 represents

1904
01:11:33,760 --> 01:11:37,040
and um you know look at school choice

1905
01:11:37,040 --> 01:11:38,800
and the modeling of that. So we have

1906
01:11:38,800 --> 01:11:44,640
that conversation and maybe it's um

1907
01:11:44,640 --> 01:11:47,040
maybe we invite you know a conversation

1908
01:11:47,040 --> 01:11:48,880
with the finance committee and select

1909
01:11:48,880 --> 01:11:50,400
board invite members from each committee

1910
01:11:50,400 --> 01:11:54,239
to come to that meeting so that you know

1911
01:11:54,239 --> 01:11:55,520
I don't know I'm trying to feel you know

1912
01:11:55,520 --> 01:11:57,040
we can fill out where they're at instead

1913
01:11:57,040 --> 01:11:58,000
you know instead of doing a whole

1914
01:11:58,000 --> 01:11:59,840
another meeting may that be a meeting

1915
01:11:59,840 --> 01:12:01,360
they could come here and attend here

1916
01:12:01,360 --> 01:12:02,640
with us they've done that in the past

1917
01:12:02,640 --> 01:12:05,280
yearfield's been usually um those

1918
01:12:05,280 --> 01:12:08,080
members have been pretty open to coming

1919
01:12:08,080 --> 01:12:09,840
and talking about it and they'll have a

1920
01:12:09,840 --> 01:12:11,360
better idea of their numbers as well.

1921
01:12:11,360 --> 01:12:15,120
So, um

1922
01:12:15,120 --> 01:12:16,640
I we'll see. Well, I'll work on all

1923
01:12:16,640 --> 01:12:18,000
that. I mean, there's a possibility we

1924
01:12:18,000 --> 01:12:19,440
might be moving meetings around and that

1925
01:12:19,440 --> 01:12:21,040
kind of stuff where we may have to go to

1926
01:12:21,040 --> 01:12:23,040
them earlier. Um and of course, I'll let

1927
01:12:23,040 --> 01:12:24,880
you guys all know and either we formally

1928
01:12:24,880 --> 01:12:27,280
make it a meeting or, you know, we go or

1929
01:12:27,280 --> 01:12:29,840
you know, whatever the mix of the group

1930
01:12:29,840 --> 01:12:34,320
is. So, um it's just that

1931
01:12:34,320 --> 01:12:36,800
it's a lot of um

1932
01:12:36,800 --> 01:12:40,480
yeah, there's a lot of crowded dates

1933
01:12:40,480 --> 01:12:41,520
because you're not the only budget

1934
01:12:41,520 --> 01:12:44,320
that's in upside down right now.

1935
01:12:44,320 --> 01:12:46,159
So, Shel and I doing a lot of visiting

1936
01:12:46,159 --> 01:12:48,080
to towns and having conversations with

1937
01:12:48,080 --> 01:12:49,440
select boards and finance committees

1938
01:12:49,440 --> 01:12:52,400
because um Sunderland's in very rough

1939
01:12:52,400 --> 01:12:55,040
shape, very very rough shape. And

1940
01:12:55,040 --> 01:12:56,800
Wheatley is in semi- rough shape.

1941
01:12:56,800 --> 01:12:59,120
Conway's okay. They're announcing that's

1942
01:12:59,120 --> 01:13:00,640
going to be somewhat palatable depending

1943
01:13:00,640 --> 01:13:01,679
on where their health insurance and

1944
01:13:01,679 --> 01:13:03,360
their town lands.

1945
01:13:03,360 --> 01:13:03,679
>> Yeah.

1946
01:13:03,679 --> 01:13:05,920
>> And then Frontier,

1947
01:13:05,920 --> 01:13:07,120
some of their assessments might be

1948
01:13:07,120 --> 01:13:08,800
crazy, too.

1949
01:13:08,800 --> 01:13:09,920
>> So,

1950
01:13:09,920 --> 01:13:12,560
>> and the other don't have that built too.

1951
01:13:12,560 --> 01:13:14,080
I'm just thinking about the other

1952
01:13:14,080 --> 01:13:14,560
>> What's that?

1953
01:13:14,560 --> 01:13:16,960
>> Is there a tech school building?

1954
01:13:16,960 --> 01:13:18,640
>> So, yeah. Wait. So, the tech school is

1955
01:13:18,640 --> 01:13:20,800
hard to put a put a it's hard to put a

1956
01:13:20,800 --> 01:13:23,280
finger on because they increase their

1957
01:13:23,280 --> 01:13:26,000
budget, but because it's based on

1958
01:13:26,000 --> 01:13:27,600
enrollment, we only see how it hits

1959
01:13:27,600 --> 01:13:29,600
enrollment in each town. And while

1960
01:13:29,600 --> 01:13:31,280
they're our school committee member and

1961
01:13:31,280 --> 01:13:33,760
ours is is um Bob Decker is the school

1962
01:13:33,760 --> 01:13:35,360
committee rep for town of Deerfield

1963
01:13:35,360 --> 01:13:39,360
there. There's no real feedback loop and

1964
01:13:39,360 --> 01:13:41,840
accountability to the tech school

1965
01:13:41,840 --> 01:13:43,760
because there's so many right

1966
01:13:43,760 --> 01:13:46,480
>> towns into it and they and they keep

1967
01:13:46,480 --> 01:13:48,239
getting hit up and down based on their

1968
01:13:48,239 --> 01:13:50,400
enrollment. So you know people like oh

1969
01:13:50,400 --> 01:13:51,679
the tech school's up and they go you've

1970
01:13:51,679 --> 01:13:52,960
increased enrollment. Oh that makes

1971
01:13:52,960 --> 01:13:54,960
sense. Well they don't say well we've

1972
01:13:54,960 --> 01:13:57,840
increased it by 6% on top of enrollment.

1973
01:13:57,840 --> 01:13:59,120
They don't they don't really talk about

1974
01:13:59,120 --> 01:14:01,520
that as much. The numbers just on the

1975
01:14:01,520 --> 01:14:03,920
thing and it's usually oh Roman's down.

1976
01:14:03,920 --> 01:14:05,840
You like tech Roman slightly up. Oh,

1977
01:14:05,840 --> 01:14:07,600
goods are going there. That's great. You

1978
01:14:07,600 --> 01:14:09,040
know, I mean there's never really that

1979
01:14:09,040 --> 01:14:10,800
kind of like how quickly is their budget

1980
01:14:10,800 --> 01:14:13,360
going. Um I mean there is some

1981
01:14:13,360 --> 01:14:14,719
oversight, but just not at the town

1982
01:14:14,719 --> 01:14:16,400
level where they're held accountable.

1983
01:14:16,400 --> 01:14:18,239
>> There's rarely a question about the tax

1984
01:14:18,239 --> 01:14:19,360
budget at any of our

1985
01:14:19,360 --> 01:14:20,960
>> I don't think I've seen one in the nine

1986
01:14:20,960 --> 01:14:24,080
years I've been here

1987
01:14:24,080 --> 01:14:26,320
and nine times four because I go to all

1988
01:14:26,320 --> 01:14:33,910
four towns.

1989
01:14:33,920 --> 01:14:38,800
Thank you. Thank you for holding.

1990
01:14:38,800 --> 01:14:40,480
>> All right.

1991
01:14:40,480 --> 01:14:44,870
>> Okay. All right.

1992
01:14:44,880 --> 01:14:47,360
So, the next thing So, we'll revisit

1993
01:14:47,360 --> 01:14:50,630
next month.

1994
01:14:50,640 --> 01:14:53,360
» I think so.

1995
01:14:53,360 --> 01:14:55,440
Um

1996
01:14:55,440 --> 01:14:56,719
this needs to appoint a member to

1997
01:14:56,719 --> 01:14:59,199
superintendent uh subcommittee supery

1998
01:14:59,199 --> 01:15:01,760
agreement. Um so a little over two years

1999
01:15:01,760 --> 01:15:03,600
ago starting three years ago um I think

2000
01:15:03,600 --> 01:15:07,280
the first time um we formed a

2001
01:15:07,280 --> 01:15:09,199
subcommittee to write a superintendency

2002
01:15:09,199 --> 01:15:11,199
agreement which just formalized put into

2003
01:15:11,199 --> 01:15:13,760
place everything um that had been

2004
01:15:13,760 --> 01:15:15,520
happening with the four districts in

2005
01:15:15,520 --> 01:15:17,120
frontier.

2006
01:15:17,120 --> 01:15:19,120
um

2007
01:15:19,120 --> 01:15:21,520
and it was uh approved two years ago. It

2008
01:15:21,520 --> 01:15:23,040
has a clause in there that says it will

2009
01:15:23,040 --> 01:15:25,120
be reviewed in two years. So here we

2010
01:15:25,120 --> 01:15:28,000
are. Uh so there'll be a subcommittee

2011
01:15:28,000 --> 01:15:30,080
putting one member from each committee.

2012
01:15:30,080 --> 01:15:31,920
Um and you know I don't think it's under

2013
01:15:31,920 --> 01:15:34,000
a huge time commitment and you know a

2014
01:15:34,000 --> 01:15:35,679
couple meetings maybe and then they'll

2015
01:15:35,679 --> 01:15:37,520
bring that back to the joint committees

2016
01:15:37,520 --> 01:15:42,000
to vote on any changes. Um I I can say

2017
01:15:42,000 --> 01:15:43,679
that we had the chair's meeting in

2018
01:15:43,679 --> 01:15:45,840
December and there was some feedback on

2019
01:15:45,840 --> 01:15:47,280
things that could be changed tweaked. So

2020
01:15:47,280 --> 01:15:48,480
there's some ideas to start with. So

2021
01:15:48,480 --> 01:15:50,719
you're not starting from scratch. So is

2022
01:15:50,719 --> 01:15:53,040
there anybody who would like to be part

2023
01:15:53,040 --> 01:15:56,870
of that?

2024
01:15:56,880 --> 01:15:59,120
» I would do it if no one wants to. So

2025
01:15:59,120 --> 01:16:04,149
Mary, did I cut you off?

2026
01:16:04,159 --> 01:16:09,040
» No. I think I should probably do it. I

2027
01:16:09,040 --> 01:16:10,880
was like, "This is sounding unfamiliar."

2028
01:16:10,880 --> 01:16:12,960
>> Yeah,

2029
01:16:12,960 --> 01:16:14,320
>> I'm happy to do it. Okay.

2030
01:16:14,320 --> 01:16:16,080
>> Yeah, sure.

2031
01:16:16,080 --> 01:16:17,600
>> Yeah, makes sense. Probably.

2032
01:16:17,600 --> 01:16:20,159
>> Okay. All righty. I appoint to

2033
01:16:20,159 --> 01:16:25,350
subcommittee.

2034
01:16:25,360 --> 01:16:28,320
» Okay. All right. Reports. Uh I have no

2035
01:16:28,320 --> 01:16:30,719
report. They're a collaborative report.

2036
01:16:30,719 --> 01:16:32,880
>> Um the search committee put forward five

2037
01:16:32,880 --> 01:16:36,080
candidates um for interview. one of

2038
01:16:36,080 --> 01:16:37,840
which is extremely controversial and

2039
01:16:37,840 --> 01:16:39,440
have been receiving letters from

2040
01:16:39,440 --> 01:16:42,480
teachers union all around the area. Um

2041
01:16:42,480 --> 01:16:44,080
that's kind of where the collaborative

2042
01:16:44,080 --> 01:16:46,480
stands. They are still despite all of

2043
01:16:46,480 --> 01:16:49,679
their butts cuts, sorry. Um facing

2044
01:16:49,679 --> 01:16:53,120
pretty significant financial challenges.

2045
01:16:53,120 --> 01:16:55,760
So

2046
01:16:55,760 --> 01:16:57,360
>> thank you.

2047
01:16:57,360 --> 01:17:00,000
>> All right. Superintendent report.

2048
01:17:00,000 --> 01:17:03,199
>> Um I had a really short report that I

2049
01:17:03,199 --> 01:17:05,920
emailed you. It included just a timeline

2050
01:17:05,920 --> 01:17:08,480
for the state budget to remind those how

2051
01:17:08,480 --> 01:17:10,080
that kind of that process works. And

2052
01:17:10,080 --> 01:17:13,040
then the other thing was the graduation

2053
01:17:13,040 --> 01:17:16,480
um the graduation council came forward

2054
01:17:16,480 --> 01:17:18,960
with its initial recommendations for

2055
01:17:18,960 --> 01:17:20,560
changing graduation requirements. Just

2056
01:17:20,560 --> 01:17:21,920
it's not obviously affect the

2057
01:17:21,920 --> 01:17:23,520
elementary, but you can see how that

2058
01:17:23,520 --> 01:17:26,560
trickles on. Um I've been asked to serve

2059
01:17:26,560 --> 01:17:28,560
on the committee to review the next

2060
01:17:28,560 --> 01:17:31,840
step. Um,

2061
01:17:31,840 --> 01:17:34,320
I think it was because I wrote really

2062
01:17:34,320 --> 01:17:36,159
bold statements in their survey they

2063
01:17:36,159 --> 01:17:38,480
sent us. Um, so I don't know if that's

2064
01:17:38,480 --> 01:17:40,560
good or bad. So, it's kind of sassy in

2065
01:17:40,560 --> 01:17:44,320
it. So, um, I'll let you know. So, I'll

2066
01:17:44,320 --> 01:17:45,520
have a little bit more knowledge about

2067
01:17:45,520 --> 01:17:49,760
what's going on in next steps. Um,

2068
01:17:49,760 --> 01:17:51,360
anyway,

2069
01:17:51,360 --> 01:17:55,280
that's what's going on there. So,

2070
01:17:55,280 --> 01:17:57,760
well, thanks for working on that.

2071
01:17:57,760 --> 01:18:01,590
>> Thank you for working on that.

2072
01:18:01,600 --> 01:18:03,760
All right.

2073
01:18:03,760 --> 01:18:06,239
No one has any other business to go

2074
01:18:06,239 --> 01:18:07,840
over. I would be looking for a motion to

2075
01:18:07,840 --> 01:18:10,870
>> adjourn.

2076
01:18:10,880 --> 01:18:12,880
Second.

2077
01:18:12,880 --> 01:18:16,800
>> All right. All in favor.

2078
01:18:16,800 --> 01:18:21,320
>> All right. I vote meeting at 618.