[0:32] Good afternoon everyone.
[0:34] Welcome back. I call
[0:35] to order the August 26th, 2026 Needham
[0:40] School Committee meeting.
[0:43] This meeting will be recorded
[0:44] and re-broadcast on the ham channel
[0:47] and online at Ham channel board.
[0:51] We will begin our meeting, as we always do
[0:54] with public comment.
[0:59] Did you don't see anyone in the room for public comment?
[1:03] Is there anyone online s raised?
[1:08] No one raised. Okay. Give that a minute.
[1:15] No. Okay, so with
[1:20] that, we will move on to school committee chair
[1:25] and subcommittee updates.
[1:29] Do I wish to share the new? Alright.
[1:35] So Dan participated
[1:38] and a number of us attended this morning's MSBA
[1:43] meeting where they approved the project scope
[1:48] and budget grant for the Pollard Middle School Project.
[1:58] We will talk more about that,
[2:00] but this varies
[2:05] gratifying sit in.
[2:09] Are there any other chair or subcommittee?
[2:13] Yes, I'm the chair. Any other
[2:14] subcommittee? Subcommittee? Yes.
[2:17] J Just a a, a note on school committee assignments.
[2:21] I've met with most of you, but not everyone.
[2:24] And Lisa and I both tried to meet you we're trying
[2:26] to get this done before the start of school.
[2:29] Not officially, but I want
[2:31] to put out a version of it to all of you.
[2:34] We'd like to get the,
[2:35] especially the school assignments lined up when the school
[2:38] starts, because many of the school PTEs know we get in touch
[2:43] with you hopefully to have you come out
[2:44] and talk about the override and the Pollard project.
[2:48] So I wanna do that as quickly as possible.
[2:49] The actual official, you know, submit 15th meeting.
[2:53] I'm hoping to do a round, share it with everybody.
[2:55] If everybody's agreeable to their what they see there,
[2:57] then you can at least, you know,
[2:59] we can let these schools know so they can get in touch
[3:02] with you and hopefully have you a copy or ptc.
[3:05] And I know that the principals are hoping
[3:07] and invite encouraging the PTCs
[3:10] and others to have a meeting,
[3:11] potentially whatever the school is at power,
[3:14] to bring their communities to power
[3:17] to make sure they can see the building, especially
[3:19] for younger parents who haven't been through it,
[3:22] maybe have never seen the building. So that's all.
[3:25] Thank you. Very good. Anybody else?
[3:31] Okay, now that I stole your thunder, Dan.
[3:36] No, I'll turn it over to you
[3:38] for any other comments you may have.
[3:42] Just very quickly
[3:44] and high level, we are getting ready for school
[3:47] to start next Wednesday morning.
[3:50] Indeed. Promptly indeed.
[3:52] And looking forward to that school committee is welcome
[3:56] to attend our general staff meeting next Tuesday morning,
[3:59] beginning at eight 30 in the high school cafeteria.
[4:03] A lot of work has been going on, particularly
[4:06] these people over here facing me, Carmen
[4:09] and Alex and Matt and Mary.
[4:10] Get ready for the year. There was a district leadership team
[4:12] meeting this morning thanks to Lisa Michael for attending.
[4:17] That was followed by,
[4:19] and I forgot to mention this at the DLT meeting
[4:21] that Chris Goslin had a AI workshop
[4:26] that was attended by I think most of DLT.
[4:30] Yeah. And apparently very well received.
[4:33] He, he had gone to a Google training over the summer
[4:37] and this was for AI in the workplace
[4:40] and new tools and everything.
[4:42] So I I understand that went pretty well.
[4:45] The buildings are ready. They're clean, they're ready.
[4:53] The playground projects at two schools are ongoing.
[4:57] We're very excited. If you drive by Newman,
[5:00] there's a whole new front
[5:01] to Newman when you pull up into the driveway.
[5:03] It's pretty cool. The playground has this giant sale.
[5:08] This is a sale that this
[5:11] advocate beforehand how many years ago?
[5:12] Like five years ago, six years ago. We finally got it up.
[5:16] And the playground for the preschoolers is, is taking shape.
[5:20] It will not be open first day of school,
[5:23] still be fencing around it.
[5:26] We have to get the playground equipment certified.
[5:28] And then it takes a little while, the Elliot playground,
[5:33] which is being refurbished.
[5:34] And we'll have some new, new pieces.
[5:37] But also the rubberized surface is, is is not started yet.
[5:42] It's going to start though beginning next week.
[5:45] And we have a really thoughtful plan
[5:47] with the account engineers and the contractor and Mr.
[5:51] Zajak are Interpr Elliot to do that.
[5:55] Playground pieces with some
[5:58] safety equipment fencing around it.
[6:01] And the goal is to complete that project by November 1st.
[6:04] You, you need good weather for this surface to cure.
[6:08] So that's the plan. And we'll have
[6:11] that two pretty significant playground products completed.
[6:18] And we also have been working Newman Auditorium
[6:22] to get life done.
[6:23] In fact, somewhere in your packet there is a,
[6:26] we're asking you the consent agenda to
[6:30] surplus some lighting equipment that it's kind
[6:34] of come offline as a result of the renovation there.
[6:37] And we'll, we'll talk more about that.
[6:40] The schools are ready. We
[6:42] are, I think Dr.
[6:46] Es McNeil, we have, as far as I know,
[6:50] maybe two positions to hire for.
[6:54] And I know that there were interviews
[6:55] today certified for both.
[6:57] Say it again? Certified. Certified, yeah. Thank you.
[7:00] Certified. We are still looking
[7:02] for some instructional assistance.
[7:05] Yeah. But our new bus contractor has all of his drivers
[7:09] at least to start the year in place.
[7:12] And we're excited about that.
[7:13] You'll notice that the buses, by the way now all send you
[7:16] to public schools on them.
[7:17] They don't say NNRT,
[7:20] they say NRT on the panel by the door.
[7:23] 'cause they have to, but they all
[7:24] send you to public schools.
[7:27] And the last piece I'll say is that we have the
[7:32] electric bus, what am I calling it?
[7:37] Electric bus charging station.
[7:38] Station charging station installed it.
[7:41] But it's not connected yet.
[7:43] They're waiting for horizon plug in.
[7:46] So lots of been happening. Good things.
[7:49] And light buses were ready or wrong.
[7:53] So those are my great,
[7:56] Thank you.
[7:59] That's all said stuff.
[8:02] With that, we will move to our consent agenda.
[8:05] There are four items on there, including a Stan mentioned
[8:09] surplus with the lighting equipment.
[8:14] Does anyone wish to remove any items
[8:16] from the consent agenda?
[8:21] There being no objection.
[8:22] These items are approved by unanimous consent.
[8:27] All right, let's turn to our first
[8:32] discussion item, which is the draft
[8:35] fiscal year 28 budget guidelines.
[8:39] Of course, we're always planning a year ahead,
[8:46] Dan or Dan,
[8:47] I'll, I'll start and Dan's gonna fill in
[8:49] to correct all the mistakes I make.
[8:54] I, you know, I know that I,
[8:57] I asked some superintendents about this over the summer
[9:00] about guidelines of
[9:01] after the budget, how do they plan for budget?
[9:04] And I was kind of met with some blank stares.
[9:07] Typically, some superintendents say that they're told in,
[9:10] in the fall, maybe October, November.
[9:15] This is what our towns finance committee said we have.
[9:19] And so they developed a budget around that.
[9:24] And some others say that, well, we, we kind of, we we budget
[9:28] for what we think we need.
[9:30] What I'm pleased with,
[9:32] and I, this is really Ann who
[9:35] who was insisted on this many years ago, was
[9:37] that the school committee should really let us know
[9:40] what are priorities for you
[9:43] based on state local fulfillment laws so
[9:46] that we can develop a budget that reflects that.
[9:50] And so what you have
[9:51] before you is our attempt at outlining
[9:54] what the budget values
[9:56] and priorities should be for this coming year
[9:59] and including capital requests.
[10:03] And then once these are approved,
[10:04] and I would ask for your approval September 15th,
[10:06] when we meet again, usually the guidelines that we share
[10:10] with the budget managers.
[10:14] And I, I think it's a, it's a good document to go back to.
[10:17] It's, I notice that the strategic action steps are embedded
[10:20] in here because that should be basing the budget to can,
[10:24] along with federal requirements, local requirements on
[10:28] what the school committee has asked us to focus on.
[10:32] And so it's detailed,
[10:34] it has timelines in here when we will have workshops
[10:37] and subcommittee meetings and all that.
[10:40] But I think it's, it provides a lot of good information
[10:44] for the school committee and also guidance for
[10:46] the administrative team presenting the budget to you.
[10:51] And what else, if we added for that,
[10:54] If the document has not changed very much from previous
[10:57] years, there have been minor adjustments,
[10:58] but for the most part it's a consistent statement
[11:03] around your budget guidelines for your consideration.
[11:10] So with that, happy to answer your questions.
[11:14] I open it up to the committee for questions,
[11:17] comments, observations.
[11:20] This will become a voting item at a subsequent meeting.
[11:26] So do you wanna make sure that peoples question
[11:33] I will, I will add that if I may, I, I've already drafted
[11:39] a document to budget managers about waiting on your vote.
[11:45] And within it, I will tell you that I've, I've suggested
[11:49] to them that requests for new staff will be
[11:55] very, they're always carefully scrutinized.
[11:57] But I suggest that I'm not really to ask for
[12:03] lots of new staff to present to the school committee except
[12:07] for those pieces that are required,
[12:11] for example, education plan.
[12:15] And I, I say that now to you that I want us to make sure
[12:18] that we are being really thoughtful about
[12:21] what's going into the budget.
[12:23] There are a lot of pressures for the town healthcare,
[12:26] for example, special education costs, tuition in particular.
[12:30] And those costs will increase next year.
[12:33] So I, I'm going to be sharing
[12:34] with the district leadership team that will have
[12:36] to be very modest in what we request.
[12:39] I think we have a, we have enrollment that's fairly steady.
[12:44] We have good programs in place, things
[12:46] that we have anticipated
[12:48] and pay for literacy rollout, for example.
[12:52] So I, I want us to be quite modest with what we request
[12:56] because you are going
[12:58] to be asking the community in a big way to step forward
[13:01] to support the pilot project.
[13:02] And I think the partnership with the operating budget,
[13:06] we should ask for that we absolutely need,
[13:10] but maybe not everything that we want.
[13:14] So just as a preview,
[13:19] Liz, Just thinking very broadly,
[13:24] I'm wondering as we start to build the FY 28 budget,
[13:29] if there's any indication, I know it's way, way too early,
[13:32] but from the state about money
[13:35] and the volatility that exists at the federal level, is
[13:39] that something that you're hearing anything about at all?
[13:45] Is, is there a potential impact on the FY 28 budget?
[13:52] We have been asking that same question
[13:57] and the answers are never explicit.
[14:00] They sort of are,
[14:03] we haven't experienced a lot of change.
[14:07] There is, in terms of the dollar values we received, we have
[14:13] some major entitlement grants
[14:14] that are special education related.
[14:16] Those appear to be, those are all under IDEA,
[14:20] the individuals with Disabilities Education Act.
[14:24] Those appear to be
[14:27] somewhat safe.
[14:33] I safe, I don't know untouched so far. Untouched so far.
[14:36] So far. There are additional funds we receive under ESSA
[14:41] Student Succeeds Act, which funds things like Title One,
[14:45] title two, three and four, which is
[14:48] limited English proficiency.
[14:52] That's our English language learner program,
[14:55] which supplements professional development for educators.
[14:59] Title one is targeted assistance
[15:02] to some volume income students
[15:04] that grants also supports the,
[15:08] the Walker School's delinquent, neglected,
[15:11] and delinquent student program.
[15:14] We have not received any
[15:17] large reductions in those funding sources.
[15:20] That's always a bit of a question.
[15:24] They, there was a programmatic change that was big this year
[15:27] around how the neglected
[15:30] and delinquent aspects of that program are
[15:33] baked into the grant and
[15:35] how they get administrator responsive,
[15:37] that wasn't the word administered responsibility for
[15:42] that program has kind of shifted away from oversight of
[15:46] what, how the federal money is spent,
[15:47] has shifted away from Walker
[15:49] and to Needham for those things that now,
[15:53] but so far we have not seen a huge reduction in those funds.
[15:58] We've also not seen a huge reduction in USDA money
[16:01] to support our nutrition services program.
[16:04] The state partners with the federal government
[16:07] to fulfill those needs.
[16:09] I think where some of the more volatile aspects
[16:12] or unknowns have to do with some of the changes
[16:14] that could occur at the state level
[16:15] that might displace funding around Medicaid
[16:19] and, and other things.
[16:21] But they haven't happened so far.
[16:25] And I, you've actually already answered this,
[16:29] I'm just gonna ask it again, I apologize in advance,
[16:32] but there's not pe there's no conversation
[16:37] for districts who are embarking on their FY 28 budget
[16:40] planning possible possibilities at the state
[16:45] level in terms of displacement of funds.
[16:47] There's nothing coming from the state. No.
[16:50] We, we have received nothing,
[16:52] but we also get informed by the state regularly that they
[16:57] are as much in the dark
[16:58] as we are sometimes about what's
[17:01] happening at the federal level.
[17:03] And that when they do receive information, it's often sort
[17:07] of late in coming.
[17:11] So we're all kind of learning together.
[17:13] The state has always been supportive of our efforts.
[17:16] They try to mitigate the impacts
[17:20] and help us to administer. So.
[17:23] So it sounds like it's a broader question mark.
[17:25] It's a big question mark for everybody.
[17:29] Okay. No, it's something we'll keep an eye on. We develop.
[17:35] Andrea Ann, I know that you know, as we all know, staff
[17:40] and people is the biggest part of our budget.
[17:42] Are there any sort of non-staff related expense items
[17:46] that you see our forecasting to grow sort
[17:50] of faster than we would've expected or anticipated
[17:53] or have seen in the recent past?
[17:55] Some of the sort of non-salary items?
[17:59] Well, definitely I would say some of the, there is a lot
[18:03] of volatility and I would say
[18:06] potentially cost increasing faster than the rate
[18:09] of inflation around some
[18:11] of our special education tuition expenditures.
[18:14] I think the finances of school systems tend to,
[18:19] and those are not just public school systems tend
[18:22] to increase at a rate
[18:23] that's a little bit faster than inflation just
[18:26] because of the nature of things.
[18:28] And I think our partner private schools are experiencing
[18:31] many the same situations.
[18:34] So that gets passed along as we find that
[18:39] capital, you know, tariffs
[18:42] and things that affect construction
[18:44] and construction costs are a concern.
[18:53] Okay.
[18:58] Michael, on on on that point
[19:00] as noted I something in the m MSP meeting too of plywood,
[19:05] which is pretty important subject to the Canadian tariff.
[19:08] Of course those change tomorrow.
[19:12] I'm wondering if there were any legislative,
[19:14] not not much federal legislative around,
[19:16] but the state level has any legislation that's been passed
[19:19] or was kind of on the horizon that could affect
[19:22] what we are required to do?
[19:24] Requirements and things we have to do
[19:26] track not the financial part that comes with the budget.
[19:30] Anything from a a regulatory point of view?
[19:33] Well, do you mean as far education?
[19:36] Yeah, programmatically one thing that comes to mind
[19:41] that our high school regulation departments this high,
[19:45] the legislature that's under
[19:49] or we don't have a final plan yet.
[19:51] Right. That could, it could,
[19:55] it has the potential for asking districts to shift some
[19:59] dollars for experiences for students that some may not have.
[20:03] One example I can think of,
[20:05] and I don't know that this is going to happen,
[20:07] but it's been discussed a lot discussed this summer,
[20:10] is whether or not students should have in person finance
[20:13] experience of some kind.
[20:15] While we offer that as an elective at native high school,
[20:17] it's quite popular and lot kids take
[20:19] it, it's not a requirement.
[20:21] So, you know, we had to do that.
[20:24] How do you do it and what way do you do it?
[20:27] And so that's, that's a small piece of,
[20:30] I I know too that there would be time
[20:33] to implement something like that.
[20:35] It would be as far as I know something just go ahead and do,
[20:40] but I don't, you know, I guess I'd look to Alex and Carmen
[20:43] and Mary, are there any other programmatic things
[20:45] that you can think of with the, considering
[20:48] it would influence our budget?
[20:55] I think one area we mentioned back in the spring when we
[20:58] were doing handbooks is the changes
[20:59] to the physical restraint and seclusion regulations.
[21:03] They, the department is clarify
[21:08] and, and made some revisions to their definition
[21:11] of timeout versus seclusion.
[21:15] Timeout is something that can be used.
[21:19] Of course we use that as a positive strategy, a lot
[21:23] of different students, but they, the student needs
[21:25] to voluntarily be able to leave the timeout situation.
[21:31] And if that is not the case, it is considered seclusion
[21:35] and we can only use seclusion if we have written consent
[21:40] from the parent of course,
[21:42] but also authorization from a physician
[21:47] and a mental health provider.
[21:49] So we knew this change was coming
[21:51] and thanks to your support, we've been focusing on
[21:55] the capacity around behavioral supports in our schools
[21:59] because what we've been able to use in the past
[22:03] around helping kids to regulate
[22:05] and keeping kids safe, we're no longer able
[22:07] to use with such ease.
[22:10] What we're experiencing as of late is that
[22:13] families are really reluctant to provide consent.
[22:16] So that puts us in a, in a bit of a situation.
[22:19] And we're, we're, we're, we're in a little bit of a,
[22:21] we're not sure what this is gonna look like yet,
[22:23] but we use a lot of great professional judgment.
[22:26] So that's how we're approaching the start of the year.
[22:29] I just am not sure what this will end up looking like from a
[22:34] support to students.
[22:35] You know, whether that be some more training
[22:38] or it could be the way
[22:39] that we're utilizing, I'm just not sure yet.
[22:43] Certainly there are some students that are more
[22:46] in special education that are on the more severe end
[22:50] of their disability.
[22:51] That could be at a higher risk
[22:53] for audit district placement if we're not able to manage
[22:56] within the schools the tools that we have.
[22:59] But hopefully that will be the situation.
[23:04] So I, I do have a couple of cost drivers
[23:08] that in the moment I should have mentioned, but didn't
[23:11] and I, any other discussion about mandates,
[23:15] I'm not aware of any others.
[23:19] One driver, and maybe not priority order
[23:22] or not in any particular order is the cost
[23:25] of technology devices has significantly increased in part
[23:29] due to the cost of what is inside those things.
[23:33] Partly due to tariffs and other things around chips.
[23:36] And so they've, they've,
[23:40] it's been a pretty significant increase.
[23:42] And that software, as you know, has been on a trajectory of,
[23:47] you know, five to seven or 8% per year.
[23:49] Just that's, we baked into our budget what we anticipated in
[23:54] this time a year ago, more or less.
[23:56] But that's always lost.
[23:58] We have also had some additional enrollment.
[24:03] The preschool this year
[24:04] that's resulted in some additional services
[24:07] that we're providing that were part of our FY 27 budget
[24:11] that may become part of our FY 28
[24:14] budget and additional classroom.
[24:16] That's likely to be something that will need to continue.
[24:25] Anything else? Any other
[24:30] thoughts or questions?
[24:32] I'll just note as I read through my packet, I was
[24:37] struck by the four pages of references
[24:41] to legal requirements.
[24:44] Like that's not even the legal requirements, it's just the,
[24:48] basically the list
[24:49] and short description of all of the legal requirements that
[24:55] govern what we do in schools and,
[24:59] and drive a chunk of how a budget gets spent.
[25:05] And I think within that structure
[25:09] then we do all the things that we do so well.
[25:12] So, all right,
[25:14] if there's nothing else then on budget guidelines,
[25:18] those will have come up for a vote at the future meeting
[25:24] and we can move on to an update on ard.
[25:29] That there's a handout.
[25:32] A handout. We have a presentation that you, your handout
[25:36] there is those at home.
[25:42] So as chair mentioned, there's this pretty awesome news
[25:47] after a long journey, the journey's not over that
[25:52] might be be tougher now,
[25:55] but really a strong news important.
[26:03] We've been engaging the community throughout the last couple
[26:06] of years and I just think it's important to emphasize that,
[26:13] you know, the all board summit that you had last fall,
[26:15] it's a very non contact though
[26:17] and very unusual to have those support summits.
[26:19] That number really won't change.
[26:21] But the number of total meetings, committee meetings,
[26:24] community events, like the one this
[26:25] evening, I will all add up.
[26:27] Certainly the split committee along
[26:29] with the school building committee
[26:30] and others that have lots
[26:32] of opportunities the community become aware of, engaged in,
[26:35] and hopefully invested in this, this project.
[26:39] So what did the, the MSBA do today?
[26:43] They took a vote to ask the executive director
[26:47] to enter into a project funding agreement with the town
[26:50] of the board with this
[26:56] total cost of 325.4 million.
[26:59] It won't go above that. It's kind of baked in right now.
[27:05] And for their part, the MSBA and, and Lisa,
[27:10] and I'll talk about this just a moment, is three,
[27:13] the higher end of reimbursement to provide up
[27:16] to including the any contingency 81
[27:21] $6 million reimbursement.
[27:23] That doesn't mean that's all the money, that
[27:25] that doesn't mean that you'll absolutely
[27:26] receive a check to that amount.
[27:28] It means that that's the most,
[27:29] that the MBA will contribute based on the plan
[27:32] that we have for us.
[27:35] It could be a little less, it won't be anymore for sure,
[27:40] but still the net project cost is million dollars,
[27:45] which is really pretty.
[27:46] It's a, it's a, it's a huge move.
[27:48] It's a huge partnership with the community.
[27:51] Certainly something to celebrate Sure. Community.
[27:57] And it, just to drive down a little bit on that, on
[28:00] that reimbursement,
[28:02] and I want to thank Elisa Hillary Brule,
[28:07] Meryl Nessler, Mariah who,
[28:13] who put simple maths together on
[28:14] what is really a complicated form of them.
[28:17] So I'm gonna turn this to Lisa to explain this. Alright,
[28:21] Super.
[28:22] So it's important to think
[28:24] of the MSB re MSBA reimbursement in two contexts.
[28:29] So the first context is what
[28:33] costs are eligible?
[28:36] And then the next context is what's the reimbursement rate?
[28:40] So the eligible costs
[28:42] are broken into the eligible square footage of the building.
[28:48] And as you'll see tonight
[28:52] and in other contexts, there's a, there's a lot
[28:57] of information about how
[29:00] that 84% is, you know, how we got to that 84%.
[29:05] But the, the square footage of the building is being 84%
[29:09] of the square footage of the building is being reimbursed.
[29:14] Another 16% will not be reimbursed.
[29:18] There's always parts of every project that are ineligible
[29:22] for reimbursement.
[29:25] And they include the theater space as well as
[29:29] storage, a little bit of the project labs.
[29:33] There's all the, the learning lab areas.
[29:36] There's spaces all over the building that are ineligible.
[29:42] So that's the first thing to understand that the, that the
[29:47] square footage is not fully reimbursable.
[29:51] And then for each square foot there is a cap
[29:55] that the MSBA puts.
[29:58] And so the building cost per square foot is in
[30:03] the $978 range,
[30:06] but the MSBA will only reimburse 600
[30:10] and something dollars of that.
[30:12] So there's a piece of the building that's ineligible
[30:16] for reimbursement and for the rest of the building,
[30:19] there's a portion of the cost of all of that square footage
[30:23] that is, is ineligible.
[30:26] So the dollar amount, the eligible costs
[30:31] are total $185 million.
[30:35] The reimbursement rate
[30:37] that we have been afforded is driven by a couple of things.
[30:40] There's a starting rate for all communities.
[30:44] There's a then scale for
[30:47] socioeconomic factors in that community.
[30:49] So as a relatively wealthy community,
[30:54] we get another 5.89 percentage points.
[30:58] Other less advantage communities would get a higher
[31:04] socioeconomic factor.
[31:05] But we're at 5.89.
[31:07] And then there are incentive points that the MSBA builds in
[31:11] around capital maintenance.
[31:13] They look at your maintenance plan
[31:14] and how you've maintained your other buildings.
[31:17] They look at the energy efficiency
[31:19] that you're building into your project
[31:21] and the potential for better air quality
[31:25] that you've built into your project.
[31:26] And we have just about as close
[31:30] to the maximum incentive points that you can get.
[31:34] So of the eligible costs of $185 million,
[31:39] the potential contingency rate is
[31:42] 42.74%
[31:45] and that translates into $79 million plus
[31:50] an additional 1.6 if you move into your contingency.
[31:55] And while we have a healthy contingency built into this
[32:00] project, and I am hopefully optimistic
[32:04] that we won't spend all of it, I'm also fairly certain
[32:07] that we will spend some of it.
[32:09] So, so we have added in that potential contingency
[32:15] reimbursement grant of $1.6 million
[32:19] and that's how you get to the 80.6.
[32:21] And well, the project funding,
[32:24] the project funding agreement that
[32:26] has actually already been initiated
[32:28] by the MSBA after the meeting today.
[32:30] We received town manager who starts this process,
[32:33] received communication from the MSB already this morning
[32:36] saying, we'd like to enter into this agreement,
[32:38] we'll include this maximum grant, $80.6 million.
[32:44] We weren't sure what we were going to get
[32:45] and what they were gonna consider eligible knowledgeable.
[32:48] So this is really a very good new story.
[32:51] But that's, that is the story. And the math is, thank you.
[32:54] The math is simple, even for someone like me that kind
[32:58] of explains how community got there.
[33:04] So a couple things, you know, it is come up
[33:07] and I know school committee members have been asked.
[33:09] I'm I'm, I'm sure other public commissions have been asked,
[33:12] you know, can't, can't we, I'll phrase it this way,
[33:15] can't we do this differently?
[33:16] Can't we do it less expensive? Can't we do it cheaper?
[33:20] So, you know, let's talk about this.
[33:22] This is information we shared before.
[33:24] One of the options the school committee discussed
[33:27] was a base repair
[33:28] and in addition to high rock,
[33:30] now the base repair is about $152.2 million.
[33:35] A high rock addition to meet the programmatic needs
[33:37] that are identified would be about $59 million.
[33:41] The MSBA reimbursement would be $0.
[33:46] And according to the, the capital plan,
[33:49] and one of the reasons, the key reason that the,
[33:51] not the key reason, but a major factor in the school making
[33:54] this decision to do ******* first was to avoid future costs
[33:59] for a satellite school for, for Mitchell,
[34:02] which is estimated to be 40 million.
[34:05] So if you went to, you know, give us, give us,
[34:10] I don't wanna be flipped
[34:11] by saying this, give us door number two.
[34:13] Door number two in total actually
[34:16] is more expensive when you bake in the reimbursement than
[34:22] what a base repair would be.
[34:25] And by the way, holler,
[34:26] the polled footprint would essentially be the same.
[34:29] You wouldn't be building a new auditorium,
[34:31] although you certainly would, would renovate it.
[34:34] The modular classrooms would be replaced with
[34:37] modular classrooms.
[34:38] And by the way, in about 20
[34:40] years, they've had to be replaced.
[34:41] So there's an additional cost there
[34:44] because they, that's their, their useful life.
[34:47] If you are building a new poll, which is
[34:49] what the MCA voted on this morning, you are
[34:54] looking at a project that is third time to complete is
[34:59] that repair project is, is 10 years the work
[35:03] that happened over the summer can't happen
[35:04] during the school year, some of it both.
[35:06] And you're looking at a project that last 50 to 70 years
[35:11] as the current school has.
[35:15] So the answer is, is yes, you,
[35:18] you could do something differently,
[35:20] but you would not be a reuniting grade six through eight.
[35:24] You would not have a building to match your education plan,
[35:28] which is why the MSBA will not participate in it
[35:30] because that drives everything.
[35:34] And you have a costly project that would last
[35:38] through at least three generations
[35:40] of middle school students.
[35:43] And so there's that cost.
[35:47] Very simple, I think is important that you understand.
[35:54] I think one thing that,
[35:55] and the MSBA did provide
[36:00] feedback on through the process
[36:03] and earlier this, earlier this summer, they shared
[36:08] this is one of the many documents, pieces
[36:10] of feedback facilities assessment subsequent
[36:12] 'cause they have folks who were working to prepare the
[36:15] MSB board to take the vote.
[36:18] And these are, you know,
[36:20] these are quotes from the MSBA.
[36:24] They, they very much appreciate.
[36:25] And I, and when we had our meetings in person,
[36:28] it's not really reflected in this document.
[36:30] They were exuberant about this project and this process
[36:33] and excited about it.
[36:35] And one of the folks best projects come forward to them in,
[36:39] in, in quite a while.
[36:40] They appreciate the thoughtful changes
[36:42] and refinements reductions in the estimated project costs.
[36:48] They provided feedback on parking and we were responsive.
[36:51] And by the way, the building committee's been responsive to
[36:54] neighbors, community members as well in the,
[36:57] in the development of this, of this plan.
[37:01] They appreciated the ongoing community outreach
[37:06] and they were very excited about the phasing schedule as
[37:08] to why we considered doing it that way.
[37:11] So there has been strong
[37:12] and positive feedback from
[37:13] the M MS VA throughout the process.
[37:16] It's important to note to the,
[37:18] and then lastly, as you know,
[37:20] there is a final summer information session this evening at
[37:24] 6:00 PM where Lisa, we'll go through
[37:29] El Lisa and Dr.
[37:31] Dr. Downey, the designers will go through
[37:34] a little bit more information has been, include all
[37:36] of this information and allow
[37:39] for some questions and answers.
[37:41] And then there will be, there are two open houses.
[37:44] Ski school committee, as you know,
[37:45] typically has one fall open house.
[37:48] So I'm leaning on you to have two open houses for folks
[37:52] to come and talk about anything at all
[37:53] as they typically do at your open houses,
[37:55] but also have an opportunity to visit Paula
[37:58] and see what's going on there.
[38:00] We'll have some tours.
[38:02] We're going to have at least on one of these dates,
[38:04] some childcare working on both dates for folks
[38:08] to and did before.
[38:10] And we really want to invite town meeting members in
[38:14] on the September 19th meeting in particular
[38:17] because town meeting was the first
[38:19] major vote that needs to occur.
[38:23] And then really the entire community for
[38:26] valid question on November 3rd.
[38:33] I think that's it for right now at the, that conversation
[38:36] or questions or anything.
[38:38] I, I'll just add that it was interesting this morning as I
[38:44] got with some of the district leadership team
[38:47] and you know, in a few areas, I said, you know, what,
[38:50] what are you hearing from,
[38:52] what are you hearing from your staff?
[38:54] What are you hearing from the educators
[38:56] about, you know, the space?
[38:59] And a few of them were like, you know,
[39:01] well everybody's excited,
[39:03] but you know, they're a little, they're bummed,
[39:05] they're not necessarily gonna get their
[39:07] own classroom all day.
[39:10] You know, they really hope
[39:11] that they'd have a little bit more space here.
[39:14] They, you know, they, they, and, and,
[39:17] and I said, that is perfect.
[39:20] That means we are exactly where we wanna be.
[39:23] Where nobody gets everything that they, that they want,
[39:27] but everybody gets what they need.
[39:29] And, you know, for, for every teacher
[39:33] to get their own classroom would mean that
[39:36] that classroom would sit vacant for, you know, 20
[39:40] to 30% of the day.
[39:42] And at, you know, every,
[39:44] every a thousand square feet is a million dollars.
[39:48] And this project team has taken that very, very seriously
[39:53] and gone through, over
[39:55] and over again to just try to
[40:00] tighten up and look at spaces
[40:03] and again, making sure that we're meeting our needs,
[40:07] but that we are not just giving everyone everything
[40:12] that they dream of.
[40:15] And so I I I think that that, you know,
[40:19] there's, there's some commentary in the community
[40:21] that this is the Taj Mahal of schools, that it is overbuilt
[40:25] that it is going to be, you know,
[40:28] way more than we really need to do what we do.
[40:33] That is not my observation from being really
[40:35] intimately involved in the process.
[40:37] So if, if I could add to that, that I I I, I've had the,
[40:41] you know, be honored to, to work in a couple
[40:43] building projects before I came to the,
[40:45] but also in needed when we did the Newman renovation,
[40:49] we added onto the high school after it was done.
[40:54] And when we built some new,
[40:56] and in each case, when you bring the educators to the table,
[41:00] people want more, we want bigger and we want more
[41:04] and we need additional need.
[41:06] And I completely get all of that.
[41:08] When we did the Emery Grove building, Mary Ann, Alex, Carmen
[41:13] and me wanted more and we wanted each one of us,
[41:17] including me, but we ended up doing what we we needed to do.
[41:23] And we have a, we have a great design
[41:27] with power project.
[41:29] It, it, there's, there are sufficient classrooms,
[41:34] they're all larger than our existing classrooms.
[41:37] We have a library and media center that has unique spaces
[41:41] for media and technology that we don't have right now.
[41:45] We have gymnasts, pretty simple.
[41:49] It's, you know, gymnasium.
[41:52] But we have an auditorium, which is one of the largest
[41:55] ineligible costs for this project,
[41:57] but it meets our program needs
[41:59] and it further additionally rest is community needs.
[42:03] So I think it's a right size project in building
[42:08] not only for what we're doing now kids,
[42:10] but what we don't even know we'll be doing within 20 years
[42:13] from now is there's flexible space.
[42:18] Alright, questions Ms.
[42:24] With the meeting tonight, I just,
[42:27] and I think everyone's aware of this,
[42:28] but there was one, there are a lot
[42:30] of misconceptions obviously, and that makes sense
[42:33] because it's such a complicated process.
[42:36] But there was one that I thought was particularly,
[42:39] I felt like it needed to be addressed publicly
[42:42] and that was that if we postpone the vote in November,
[42:47] we can take the vote again in April
[42:51] and I need to confirm what I believe to be true, which is
[42:55] that that is not actually an option.
[42:58] And if we were to do that,
[43:00] we would lose MSBA involvement in the project.
[43:04] And so I just felt like it was important to say
[43:06] that one in a public meeting setting
[43:09] because we would lose everything if, if someone were
[43:13] to go forward with that and think it was actually factual.
[43:18] Let me, let me address that a little bit
[43:20] to my understanding of the process.
[43:22] Yes. And in talking to the MSBA, if,
[43:27] if the vote, if the vote failed in November,
[43:33] one of the things that's happening right now is we are
[43:35] within this 120 day window to, to accomplish a vote
[43:38] and to get things done.
[43:41] Once you exceed that window,
[43:43] the MSBA can essentially pull the plug on your, your project
[43:46] and tell you to start all over again.
[43:48] We're still within that.
[43:50] If the vote failed in November,
[43:54] couple things would happen.
[43:55] Two things at least that I can think of.
[43:58] One, anything that's pushed off
[43:59] to the future will escalate the cost of this project
[44:01] because this is timed accordingly.
[44:05] And the schedule is built
[44:06] and the costs are built on that schedule.
[44:09] So any delay in April is five month delay,
[44:13] any delay, increased costs.
[44:15] So that's one thing. The second thing is if the community
[44:19] voted against, if the community could,
[44:22] you can have a conversation with the MSBA, you can ask them,
[44:28] can we get more time?
[44:30] That's not at all guaranteed.
[44:33] They can say you've gotta go back
[44:34] and start over again with a statement of interest.
[44:37] Or they would wanna have a conversation about
[44:40] why would we want to do that?
[44:42] Why would we entertain extension?
[44:44] But even if they did, the first one kicks in,
[44:46] you've gotta increase costs
[44:49] and it it be a significant challenge.
[44:53] So it would certainly delay the project
[44:58] or it would kill the project.
[45:00] And that really is a decision in conversation with the MSBA.
[45:04] And is it true that in conversation with the MSB
[45:07] and one thing they're trying to gauge is they do not wanna
[45:09] go forward if they don't have the community's
[45:12] buy-in? Is that correct?
[45:15] Oh, right. They, they would, they would certainly want
[45:17] to judge what, where is the community at?
[45:22] The MSB wants to spend money,
[45:23] they wanna support school building projects
[45:25] and they're only really investing in communities that
[45:28] have their act together are organized and ready to go.
[45:33] If that's, if that's not the case, they wanna try
[45:36] to understand that to see if this is worthwhile
[45:38] or should the available dollars go
[45:40] to another community that's prepared.
[45:45] I think another way, the way that I think about it is,
[45:48] you know, of course you have
[45:50] to make some assumptions about the rate of inflation,
[45:52] but on a project of this size, you know,
[45:54] you're talking roughly a million dollars a month
[45:58] and so to push out five
[46:01] or six months, you would have to somehow find
[46:08] more than five
[46:09] or 6,000 square feet to eliminate from this building.
[46:15] That work has been done already.
[46:18] You know, I I can't imagine what 6,000 square feet
[46:23] Actually I'll I say Lisa, I'll a little bit of that.
[46:27] Any change to the educational plan
[46:29] and the existing plan for the square footage would mean
[46:33] a completely different conversation with the SB.
[46:36] So we really couldn't even do that.
[46:39] We'd have to, I, I'm not sure we have to do, we'd have
[46:42] to consider something else, but anything
[46:44] that would would take away from the educational plan
[46:47] or anything of substance would mean the MSBA saying
[46:50] that we would've to reconsider the, again,
[46:53] We'd have to find that money from the town that,
[46:56] that extra extra, I'm sorry again,
[46:57] that extra money would have to come from the town.
[47:00] There's no other place that money would
[47:02] $80 million?
[47:03] No, the ex, the ESCO costs over the course of five months.
[47:07] There's no other person
[47:09] that would come in and pay that for us.
[47:15] Andrew, I'd like to, I think,
[47:18] ask some follow up questions on the project cost comparison
[47:21] sheet, page five in the handout
[47:23] that we received looking at sort of the base repair.
[47:25] And I just, again,
[47:28] because I, I think, you know,
[47:29] we have heard in the community,
[47:31] just fix it up, it's good enough.
[47:34] We need, you know, the used car is fine essentially analogy.
[47:39] And so if we, you know, if this doesn't pass,
[47:44] we're giving up all
[47:48] of the educational benefit
[47:50] and community benefit that we've talked about, you know, for
[47:54] multiple, multiple years
[47:55] and you know, $80 million of state participation,
[47:58] which is an incredible amount of money.
[48:00] And I'll just say as an aside, the fact
[48:02] that we achieved such a high reimbursement rate,
[48:05] I think speaks to the degree to which
[48:08] the MSBA believes in the quality of the project
[48:12] that we've put forth and needham's ability to deliver
[48:16] a project of this quality for our
[48:19] students and for our community.
[48:20] But if you look at sort of the just repair it option,
[48:24] I even think this is somewhat conservative because,
[48:29] and correct me if I'm wrong, the total project cost,
[48:32] the 1 52 was that that was the value.
[48:36] Has that, have any of these costs I guess been escalated
[48:39] or are these just,
[48:40] they're escalated, they're escalated. The
[48:41] 1 52 is escalated, the, the Mitchell swing space?
[48:46] Not really, not
[48:47] Exactly, you know, he, he has been but did not, entirely
[48:49] Not to when it would actually occur, right?
[48:51] So your instincts are right. This is, that's low.
[48:55] The high rock addition is low, there's no contingency
[49:01] added yet, whereas there's a lot
[49:03] of contingency already on the current plan.
[49:08] So,
[49:10] And, and the, the interesting thing is that actually
[49:13] if you, if you went this way, I guess,
[49:16] I don't know how else to say this.
[49:17] High Rock would benefit
[49:19] because you would be adding spaces
[49:21] that they do not have hollered.
[49:25] You are using the same classrooms, same size classrooms,
[49:29] same size spaces in, they're refurbished
[49:31] and renovated in new systems,
[49:34] but the spaces remain the same.
[49:35] So you do not, you're not adding special education spaces,
[49:38] you're not thinking about the auditor,
[49:40] you're not thinking about library
[49:42] or other, certain other spaces in that building.
[49:44] High rock is a little different than,
[49:47] And again, I wanna push on that.
[49:50] So, so essentially what we would be doing at Pollard is only
[49:55] bringing it up to code
[49:58] and doing absolutely necessary renovations.
[50:01] But to your point, not enlarging the space, not dealing
[50:05] with the programmatic insufficiencies
[50:07] that we have currently.
[50:08] And having sat through some
[50:12] of the very preliminary meetings
[50:14] with the MSBA when we started this process, there are
[50:18] very significant building issues
[50:20] at the current Pollard site.
[50:22] And so I would be very concerned that
[50:28] it would be years before we got to address some
[50:30] of those issues that directly impact our educator's
[50:34] ability to do their work.
[50:36] Because if, you know,
[50:38] I know Tabitha spends an inordinate amount of time dealing
[50:42] with critical building issues wherein
[50:45] that diverts her attention from working with students
[50:48] and working with teachers.
[50:50] So I mean I think that, you know, depending on
[50:54] what you include, exclude,
[50:56] it looks like it might be cheaper.
[50:59] It's in so many ways, in my opinion, not even close.
[51:05] And even if the, even if it, you know, people could,
[51:09] could say, well, you know, don't include Mitchell,
[51:12] don't include high rock.
[51:13] Just do you know, it is such a substandard option
[51:18] and one that we've not even started planning for yet.
[51:21] So it's probably a good three years
[51:23] before we would even start
[51:25] and then it would continue many years into the future.
[51:28] So I think again, the cost of not approving this
[51:33] to me is so much more
[51:36] than just losing the MSBA.
[51:39] We may add to that, that there, the dollars
[51:41] and cents the cost to students is pretty extraordinary.
[51:45] This would take 10 years to complete.
[51:48] So the disruption to learning for, as I said,
[51:50] three generations of, of college students.
[51:52] So I I would any, any, any parent of a newborn
[51:56] or soon to be born
[51:57] or a kindergartner should hear that, that with, with
[52:01] with a repair only college, their children
[52:06] most likely face a completely disruptive middle school
[52:09] experience for the foreseeable future.
[52:13] Thank you.
[52:19] Other Questions or costs?
[52:23] Just on the chart it
[52:28] says, you know, needs education black belt
[52:29] and for a lot of people, I think what's a plan?
[52:32] Like what, what does that mean?
[52:33] And I think what we've just talked about
[52:35] really articulates it.
[52:37] And most people in this community were aware of the building
[52:39] 'cause some of them went through it, you know, older,
[52:42] the people that kids go through it understand
[52:44] how deficient that building is.
[52:47] And you may fix it up
[52:48] and you made this point, it's like classrooms are,
[52:51] you still don't have science left.
[52:53] You still have the same overcrowding in the corners
[52:56] and in, you know, in the cafeteria.
[52:58] We're not changing anything on the experience.
[53:02] So it's, that just doesn't meet the plan.
[53:04] It really is a
[53:06] and it's hard to put that on a chart in one line,
[53:09] but the reality is it's a very substandard experience,
[53:12] especially when you add, this is a building
[53:14] that was built 58 and you adding more time.
[53:18] I think the lipstick on a pig just, it goes, and,
[53:22] and many people in this community
[53:25] and many who went through the
[53:27] botched hollered renovation originally, many, many years ago
[53:31] realized this building is not,
[53:33] this is not a building you wanna repair.
[53:36] I mean you, you sometimes this is a building
[53:38] we rebuild and it makes sense.
[53:39] It was a good solid building, we could do it.
[53:42] Pollard is not a building anyone
[53:44] I think would recommend you repair.
[53:46] And so it's, it's even I think the worst thing
[53:49] that you say when you, when we do these comparisons,
[53:51] I think it's community see that
[53:54] because it's, this is actually the cost effective solution
[53:58] and the responsible solution.
[54:04] Thank you Michael, anything else? Chuck?
[54:08] Maybe just to pile on a little more, I think that
[54:13] on top of what Michael and Elisa just said,
[54:17] or sorry, Michael said is that like learning has changed.
[54:22] Like we have a new portrait of a Needham graduate
[54:25] and it's not built upon just independent test taking work.
[54:28] It's built upon collaboration and projects
[54:30] and interacting with students around you.
[54:33] The color building that we have now
[54:35] is there's no learning labs, which we're planning for.
[54:38] There's no upgraded auditorium.
[54:40] It's not built for the new portrait of a Needham graduate.
[54:44] It was built so long ago
[54:45] and when learning looked completely different.
[54:48] So I think that upgrading a space
[54:50] and having a completely new space are two different things.
[54:54] Upgrading the new par building is not,
[54:56] or the current power building is not gonna
[54:57] be sufficient at all.
[54:59] No matter how much you again put lipstick on a pig,
[55:03] it's not gonna help the learning space.
[55:05] It's not gonna help the students.
[55:06] It's not gonna help the teachers embrace the new portrait
[55:09] of the Needham graduate and Future Portraits
[55:11] of Needham graduate.
[55:13] A full new six through eight school will do that
[55:16] and will help teachers adapt
[55:17] because future grades, future generations are gonna change.
[55:21] It's not gonna look like how it looked in the past 70
[55:23] years with the same building.
[55:25] It's gonna look different. So I think again,
[55:28] like just a new school would be so much better
[55:31] for everyone involved, all the students, all the teachers,
[55:34] family, the native community.
[55:36] 'cause we want evolve. We don't wanna stay in the same place
[55:38] that we've been for so long.
[55:41] Thank you for those comments and,
[55:43] and actually a a a great segue into
[55:46] the presentation tonight.
[55:47] Where we are going,
[55:55] looks like what education looks like today,
[55:58] but how hard it is to make it happen.
[56:00] Our educators are phenomenal and they do a great job,
[56:04] but they're literally trying to
[56:18] Put much higher without cutting back significantly on
[56:21] a number of projects.
[56:22] So, you know, their decision as a board is always, we want
[56:26] to increase reimbursements to help communities,
[56:28] but we can only do so much
[56:30] or we're not gonna be able to support
[56:31] as many projects they're doing a balancing
[56:34] Act too.
[56:36] Thank you. All right.
[56:40] More on poll tonight and in the future for all of us.
[56:45] Let's turn to our third discussion item, the Steven Palmer
[56:50] Property Transition memorandum of agreement
[56:54] that has been discussed already by the select board
[56:57] and we're gonna talk about it today.
[57:00] Yes. So as a result of the school committee
[57:04] direction and conversation with select board,
[57:08] there was a decision to create a memorandum of agreement
[57:11] regarding disposition of Steve Palmer parcel
[57:15] and going further, I just wanna make sure Liz,
[57:19] we're still okay with Zoom?
[57:21] No, the wifi,
[57:24] No, so we're not zooming right now.
[57:30] We, what you turn, let's say recording up there.
[57:39] Can can you go downstairs
[57:43] and see if we can access it so we know.
[57:48] Hold on. Alright,
[57:55] we can, we'll keep going if that's okay.
[57:58] Yes. Alright, so in conversation
[58:02] with the town manager,
[58:04] the select court has actually already discussed this
[58:07] memorandum of agreement and discussing with Michael
[58:11] and Lisa it presented to you,
[58:14] the idea would be at your next meeting to
[58:20] prove it and the select board will
[58:25] do the same thing so that if things can move forward
[58:29] with planning for the student.
[58:35] Thank you. With that
[58:39] my open the floor for discussion.
[58:48] I will note that this does capture some of the things
[58:52] that we've discussed in future meetings
[58:55] where the select board will assume responsibility
[59:00] for supporting the existing tenants in the relocation
[59:02] process and winding down the current residential use.
[59:07] You know, that job of managing the occupied building is
[59:14] Going to remain there task
[59:17] that we will prepare
[59:20] and submit capital requests as part
[59:22] of the capital improvement plan going out to 2032.
[59:27] And then as we've talked about,
[59:29] the town manager will do two things.
[59:32] One, ensure that the operating budget for fiscal year 2028,
[59:38] that the any needs will be budgeted there
[59:44] to maintain, operate
[59:45] and most importantly ensure the building.
[59:49] And then the building will become part
[59:51] of a bigger conversation with
[59:54] the town wide facilities master plan, which will include
[1:00:00] the Stephen Palmer parcel
[1:00:02] and I think really all of the schools
[1:00:06] and hillside, including Hillside.
[1:00:10] And that that will allow for a more holistic
[1:00:15] conversation about, about the property
[1:00:19] and the desires for the property going forward.
[1:00:22] So I'm sure we are recording, we are.
[1:00:25] So don't worry about the visuals. Okay. We're out there.
[1:00:28] Public can hear you if that's all super.
[1:00:31] So any comments
[1:00:33] or questions seems
[1:00:39] fairly straightforward.
[1:00:42] All right. Okay, let's move on then
[1:00:47] to some of our action items.
[1:00:50] Our first action item is approving some revolving fund fees,
[1:00:56] some changes to revolving fund fees, particularly
[1:01:01] as it relates to high school testing
[1:01:02] and high school parking.
[1:01:05] There are a number of us
[1:01:08] that do have a conflict here,
[1:01:11] and so I'm gonna ask you
[1:01:14] to identify yourself now if you feel like you're unable
[1:01:17] to vote on either of those questions due
[1:01:21] to a potential conflict of interest.
[1:01:24] I'll go first having a, a high school student,
[1:01:28] Matt, Liz, Michael.
[1:01:31] Okay. So there are sufficient number of members that are
[1:01:35] technically disqualified because of a conflict of interest
[1:01:38] and there would not be a quorum present to vote the fees.
[1:01:42] So I, and no other agency has authority to take this vote.
[1:01:46] So I will invoke the rule of necessity so
[1:01:49] that all members present can vote.
[1:01:52] We will go to a roll call vote.
[1:01:55] And for those of you with that conflict, please state
[1:01:57] that you were voting under the doctrine of the rule of,
[1:02:03] but with that, let's talk about
[1:02:08] these two
[1:02:13] revolving fund fee changes.
[1:02:16] And I will start
[1:02:21] by saying regarding the modest
[1:02:26] decrease for the testing fee,
[1:02:31] I am supportive of that,
[1:02:35] but I did wanna have a fuller conversation
[1:02:38] about high school parking.
[1:02:40] So the Do you wanna start? Yeah, sorry. Lemme lemme
[1:02:43] Lemme frame it and I know
[1:02:44] that you and I talked about that.
[1:02:45] So broadly speaking, the school committee has authority
[1:02:49] to approve evolving fund fees
[1:02:51] and you now they're set up by town meeting
[1:02:54] and we have two fund balances with testing
[1:02:59] and with parking that have ample fund balance.
[1:03:03] At the end of the year, after all the bills are paid,
[1:03:05] there's ample fund balance.
[1:03:07] So one would say,
[1:03:08] because we are not a taxing authority, if you don't need
[1:03:11] to collect as much fee
[1:03:13] and we don't collect as much fee, that's kind
[1:03:15] of like the big picture there.
[1:03:17] You shouldn't just keep collecting and collecting
[1:03:19] and collecting and not spending the money
[1:03:21] that the fee is full.
[1:03:24] We are proposing to you a modest,
[1:03:27] in modest decrease in the testing fee
[1:03:29] because we believe we have sufficient fund balance
[1:03:32] and we've organized ourselves in a way to spend that down
[1:03:35] for test coordination, et cetera.
[1:03:39] In the same way with, with parking,
[1:03:42] we collect fees from students
[1:03:45] and then we, we use those funds to help
[1:03:47] with parking management and maintenance.
[1:03:50] Broadly speaking, the problem is is that the,
[1:03:54] the needs the parking maintenance needs
[1:03:59] have, the balance has exceeded the needs.
[1:04:02] And so now we have this fund balance
[1:04:05] that would suggest we do not need to keep asking
[1:04:08] for this fee from the impact students.
[1:04:11] Now we have a very different problem, for example,
[1:04:14] in athletics where we're gonna talk more about this
[1:04:17] during the budget development process where the costs are,
[1:04:21] fees that we're bringing in are, are,
[1:04:24] are not at all meeting the, the actual operating expenses.
[1:04:27] So if a different problem there,
[1:04:29] but with parking we have this abundance of a balance.
[1:04:32] And one way to address the balance is to work with the town
[1:04:37] with which Ann, Katie King and I
[1:04:42] and DVW and Erin Seaco agreed
[1:04:44] to do a little differently this year to think about
[1:04:47] what are the, the projects, what, what's the maintenance,
[1:04:50] snow removal, for example, new striping,
[1:04:55] whatever to, to use those funds appropriately.
[1:04:59] But we have sufficient to, to suggest you not
[1:05:03] to eliminate the fee, but to waive the fee for a year.
[1:05:08] It doesn't mean that everyone gets to park, it doesn't
[1:05:10] because there are not enough spaces for everybody.
[1:05:12] But the proposal is to waive it
[1:05:14] for a year while we take care of this fund balance
[1:05:17] because it is, it's something
[1:05:19] that's kind of tripped up on us.
[1:05:21] The town hasn't been able to charge us for all the things
[1:05:24] that we'd like to pay for.
[1:05:27] It's kind of a cleanup, but we go back to that fee
[1:05:31] after, at the end of this year.
[1:05:34] So that's the big idea
[1:05:37] and happy to talk about and none of your
[1:05:41] Questions.
[1:05:42] Yeah, so I, I think the, the question that,
[1:05:47] that I had was, you know, there's a lot going on in
[1:05:51] that parking lot and I think there's some, you know,
[1:05:54] there's some known things that we can do
[1:05:57] and sort of know what the budget is,
[1:05:59] but if we continued the fee
[1:06:04] for this year, yes, of course the fund balance would go up,
[1:06:08] but could we do some planning around how to spend
[1:06:11] that fund balance on the parking lot?
[1:06:16] That might be a better answer than just
[1:06:20] waiving the fee for one year.
[1:06:23] And I mean, I'm gonna pay this fee this year, so
[1:06:27] talking about conflict of interest here, but,
[1:06:30] but I guess I would advocate for keeping it in place
[1:06:33] and thinking about the fund balance in a different
[1:06:36] way going forward.
[1:06:39] Is there,
[1:06:41] Well I'll, I'm, I'm gonna defer to Anne
[1:06:44] to maybe help respond to that,
[1:06:45] but I don't know if you wanna move over.
[1:06:47] Question first,
[1:06:52] Why don't you respond first Ian,
[1:06:54] and then we'll that might change what people, people think
[1:06:58] or, sure, thank you.
[1:07:00] So all of this discussion is sort of governed by statute
[1:07:05] and what you can legally do with a fee.
[1:07:09] You can only in Massachusetts collect a fee
[1:07:11] for a restricted purpose
[1:07:12] and the statute government, which you can spend the money on
[1:07:16] in this particular statute,
[1:07:18] there aren't very many things you can spend the money on.
[1:07:21] What you can spend the money on is essentially maintenance
[1:07:24] and upkeep of the spaces that are being rented
[1:07:26] or rented to students.
[1:07:28] If you consider the fee rental expense,
[1:07:32] we've had some consultations even
[1:07:35] with town council about the scope of what
[1:07:38] that can amount to.
[1:07:41] There is a desire to do some capital upgrade
[1:07:46] to the spaces themselves.
[1:07:47] So that I should back up by saying
[1:07:50] that we have in place a person.
[1:07:54] Currently the way we currently spend the money is we have a
[1:07:57] person who is engaged in making sure the line is
[1:08:02] safe by monitoring the parking activity,
[1:08:06] making sure that students are behaving in a way
[1:08:10] that is safe within those spaces.
[1:08:13] We of course have an allowed budget for signage,
[1:08:17] for the spaces selling the permits,
[1:08:20] and every year we have a small amount of money
[1:08:23] that we budget, which is really the balance of the fee
[1:08:26] that we collect for striping,
[1:08:28] for re striping the spaces when they're needed.
[1:08:32] If, you know, repairing whole, I mean parking,
[1:08:36] potholes, potholes, thank you.
[1:08:39] But over time we still have had a growing fund balance
[1:08:43] and we, and even even snowplowing as an allowed expense.
[1:08:48] So the, the money that we've been bringing in really has
[1:08:51] been excess, has exceeded the amount of expenses
[1:08:55] that we've had to support the, to support the, the lot.
[1:08:59] So we have worked out a preliminary plan,
[1:09:02] we're not very far down that plan to do some limited work
[1:09:07] around in the lot itself.
[1:09:09] We're going to add some spaces
[1:09:12] that can then expand the number of spaces that are
[1:09:15] available to the students.
[1:09:17] There was a desire to do some additional work on the,
[1:09:23] on the, the turnaround area for students
[1:09:27] that was disallowed
[1:09:28] because it is directly related to the spaces
[1:09:31] that are being rented.
[1:09:33] So we are somewhat constrained in what we can do.
[1:09:38] So the projects that we have developed
[1:09:42] and the thinking that has gone into this
[1:09:44] has been within those parameters that these are the needs.
[1:09:47] This is something that we have a legitimate need for
[1:09:49] that has the possibility of expending balance that's here.
[1:09:54] It's going to take more than one year.
[1:09:56] You will not see most likely those spaces
[1:10:00] by this time next year it will be a longer horizon for that.
[1:10:03] So it's, it's surprisingly a more difficult,
[1:10:08] difficult thing to spend these monies than
[1:10:10] you might anticipate.
[1:10:14] Yes, I had a similar response to you,
[1:10:18] that was my first reaction.
[1:10:22] Also, it seems strange to just totally not have a fee
[1:10:27] and then to have a fee again.
[1:10:31] And what difficulties is it potentially
[1:10:33] that there might be difficulties for certain kids with that
[1:10:38] or certain families with having it for nothing
[1:10:41] and then having to come up with money.
[1:10:46] So I do think it sounds like the main constraint is
[1:10:49] what can you actually spend the money on?
[1:10:52] What about like resurfacing of the lot?
[1:10:55] Is that an allowed expenditure?
[1:10:58] It is and that is part of what we are going
[1:11:00] to be spending this balance on.
[1:11:03] And are you allowed to like a, like a condo
[1:11:08] off has a fee and collects it until the roof needs repair?
[1:11:14] Is it possible to use the fund in that way?
[1:11:18] So you, under the statute, the, generally speaking,
[1:11:22] your ability to collect fees is limited
[1:11:25] by the reasonable expenses that you incur in making.
[1:11:29] The space is available for students to park in.
[1:11:32] So you can't collect more than you need.
[1:11:36] That's somewhat like a tax. Okay.
[1:11:39] So that's very kind of simplistic.
[1:11:44] If there are expenses that we can decide
[1:11:48] that we need to have that that can be,
[1:11:51] that the fee can be applied to,
[1:11:53] then you can collect the fee in support of those expenses.
[1:11:58] We, I'm, I'm not an attorney, we would have
[1:12:01] to consult our attorneys about whether you can collect a fee
[1:12:04] that you do not need to have prospectively may need.
[1:12:10] I think that that is probably a gray
[1:12:13] or potentially even a disallowed kind of area.
[1:12:17] I'm just gonna say thank you Ann, for being the person
[1:12:20] who thinks about what money can do
[1:12:23] for parking spaces in high school.
[1:12:27] Not many people have that as part of their job.
[1:12:31] I, I wish I were there.
[1:12:34] There are a lot of great ideas,
[1:12:35] but something that some
[1:12:37] of them weren't really adjacent to spaces.
[1:12:39] So that I wish we could support all of the great ideas that
[1:12:47] I think Mike, Michael.
[1:12:49] Sure. Again, agreed.
[1:12:50] Thank you Anne for all of your thoroughness
[1:12:52] and how the spaces and everything can sort of utilized.
[1:12:58] Liz, you kind of brought up that point on resurfacing.
[1:13:01] I'd be curious to know the times over the last year
[1:13:05] that I've been at the high school parking lot have been a
[1:13:08] little, you know, disappointed
[1:13:11] by some of the surfacing.
[1:13:13] I don't know how serious with some of the potholes,
[1:13:17] I'm sure things are patched up.
[1:13:19] But for an area that has like the largest concentration
[1:13:22] of our youngest town population
[1:13:25] and how they sort of navigate some of the surfacing, if any
[1:13:29] of these funds could be appropriated in some sort
[1:13:32] of pool over time and I don't know how much it would cost to
[1:13:36] resurface, you know, some of these areas,
[1:13:39] but I'm somewhat surprised that the quality of some of that
[1:13:43] and it might be good, I don't know what the, you know,
[1:13:47] how we would sort of like grade our current high school
[1:13:50] parking lot, but I would be a proponent
[1:13:54] to continue the fees if it could help support this in a
[1:13:57] greater way to make resurfacing improvements
[1:14:04] more available.
[1:14:09] We ask our families to pay
[1:14:10] A ton, almost a thousand bucks a kid for
[1:14:13] to participate in sports.
[1:14:15] Actually more depending on the sport.
[1:14:19] That parking lot is not exclusively used by students.
[1:14:22] It's used by students 180 days a year for part of the day.
[1:14:26] I do not believe we should if we don't have to.
[1:14:28] I don't believe we should be asking our families to pay for
[1:14:32] resurfacing a lot that is used by many,
[1:14:36] many people and not just students.
[1:14:38] We have an opportunity to reduce fees for families.
[1:14:40] I think we should do it.
[1:14:43] Andrew, I don't love the on off nature
[1:14:47] of the proposal
[1:14:49] 'cause it does feel like, you know, some, if you,
[1:14:52] if you only have a kid who's driving this year, you sort
[1:14:54] of get a one time win.
[1:14:57] What I would, would be curious about is could we,
[1:15:00] rather than eliminating the fee,
[1:15:02] put us on a longer traject trajectory of having a lower fee
[1:15:06] to spend down the balance to sort
[1:15:08] of have it be more equitable.
[1:15:10] Not just for the current year students to get a boom
[1:15:13] but sort of for a longer horizon, make it more affordable
[1:15:16] for everyone, more people over a longer period.
[1:15:19] I don't know if that's possible.
[1:15:23] Yes, We would have so much conversation
[1:15:26] around parking spaces, but no pun intended.
[1:15:30] I, I realize I got a little down in the weeds, you know,
[1:15:33] growing up in the cracks in the parking lot.
[1:15:37] But I, if I understand the problem more broadly,
[1:15:41] it's illegal for us to be holding funds in this,
[1:15:45] holding money in this fund.
[1:15:47] And that's essentially what the issue is.
[1:15:50] We need to get rid of that money.
[1:15:52] In which case, if that's correct, I agree with Andrea maybe
[1:15:57] reducing it and spreading it out over a longer period.
[1:16:04] Ann is what's possible. Do we,
[1:16:08] We're gonna give you an award parking lot guru
[1:16:12] Again, IIII was a paralegal
[1:16:16] but I was never been an attorney so I am not really authored
[1:16:21] to give you legal advice,
[1:16:22] but from what I understand,
[1:16:27] the constraint is that we can't collect
[1:16:33] more than what we need essentially.
[1:16:35] So you have the ability to find the need.
[1:16:39] There's nothing that says
[1:16:40] that you can't spread a reduction out over multiple years.
[1:16:43] That, and we have had a strategy in many years
[1:16:48] with other funds of in part buying down fund balance
[1:16:53] through sustained reductions.
[1:16:56] That's, I think that's possible.
[1:16:59] I don't know what fee reduction you would choose.
[1:17:03] It's probably the case that we would not be able to do a,
[1:17:08] we could do some level of sustained reduction.
[1:17:10] I don't know how much of the other capital
[1:17:12] you could also do.
[1:17:13] It depends on what the impact of the sustained
[1:17:16] Reduction is.
[1:17:17] Let me ask this question. I may,
[1:17:20] have you got any information that Mr.
[1:17:22] CPA about Martin? Not yet. It's usually a lottery system.
[1:17:26] No, I know that but I I'm just no information going out.
[1:17:33] What, what, what if the school committee voted
[1:17:38] to keep, this is kind of playing off of your idea.
[1:17:43] Dan, keep the fee for parking at $50
[1:17:48] this year to,
[1:17:51] and we will come back to the school committee
[1:17:55] after Ann
[1:17:58] and I have had a chance to sit down the town manager
[1:18:00] who was kind of the town.
[1:18:02] We have to depend on the town manager to kind of bill us
[1:18:05] for some of this and this is kind of a new problem for her.
[1:18:09] So it would give us some time to see
[1:18:10] what could happen in FY 27
[1:18:13] to significantly draw down the fund balance while also
[1:18:16] having a sustainable program with the fee that makes,
[1:18:19] that matches our needs.
[1:18:20] 'cause right now one of the things Anne's saying fee is,
[1:18:23] you know, it's not really, we're,
[1:18:26] we're collecting more than we need.
[1:18:29] So if we, if instead the vote were to leave in place a fee
[1:18:33] of $50 for parking for this year, no more than $50,
[1:18:40] then we can come back to you with a plan later on.
[1:18:42] And part of the part of the problem here is just trying
[1:18:45] to understand all the balances, getting it all done
[1:18:47] and the reality of school's starting next week.
[1:18:50] So that's part of the challenge here.
[1:18:52] I wish I could say we'll come back to you in September
[1:18:55] but can't wait to do that
[1:18:57] and I apologize for kind of pushing aside you right now,
[1:19:01] But yeah, I, and it's a good problem.
[1:19:03] I I'm not in favor of charging families for money.
[1:19:05] We don't need, and I don't think there's anything wrong
[1:19:08] with fee parking for a lot that's used by many people,
[1:19:12] whether that be for a year or two year.
[1:19:14] So I cannot vote for charging families for money.
[1:19:17] We do not need,
[1:19:21] Michael.
[1:19:23] Two things I wanna think about in terms of the, the work
[1:19:27] that may or may not need to be done and how you do that.
[1:19:30] We know that there's only
[1:19:31] certain things we're allowed to do.
[1:19:33] One observation we have is if
[1:19:35] as we depend on people in the town,
[1:19:36] we do this work all across town, right?
[1:19:39] Roads, parking lots and everything.
[1:19:42] And I think typically they would be looking at projects,
[1:19:47] they might not look the same way at these projects
[1:19:49] because there's a lot of stuff that's needed
[1:19:52] and I sometimes feel that I would wanna make sure
[1:19:54] that they're providing us
[1:19:57] what can we do in terms resurfacing?
[1:19:59] Those of you around a long time, remember Jeff, he used
[1:20:03] to talk about resurfacing roads
[1:20:05] and there was multiple levels.
[1:20:06] Now put a little, you put a little stuff on the top.
[1:20:08] The other is you do, you know, more
[1:20:13] report the asphalt, you actually go into the road bed
[1:20:16] and all the way down
[1:20:18] and rebuild it up, which runs more expensive.
[1:20:20] So I think we should be thinking about what, what makes
[1:20:24] that facility usable at the proper level.
[1:20:27] As I suspect if you put it against all the other things in
[1:20:31] the town, the engineers would probably tell you,
[1:20:33] oh well there's a lot that's worse, right?
[1:20:35] But we might look at it and say, well that's great
[1:20:38] but we have accumulated money to take care of this.
[1:20:42] Somebody's gonna have to pay for eventually
[1:20:44] so we should be able to use it
[1:20:46] and we wanna make sure we were looking, you know,
[1:20:48] at this project and add both safety as well as the quality
[1:20:52] of, you know, in considering that.
[1:20:55] The second, I think to Matt's point,
[1:20:57] I I think it's a fair question,
[1:20:58] but in a sense, if we think about equity,
[1:21:04] the folks who that's really, this is
[1:21:08] by its very nature parking is in equitable in the sense
[1:21:11] that the only people take advantage
[1:21:13] of it are people from families where they can have a car,
[1:21:15] you know, an 18-year-old can have a
[1:21:17] car and have it the whole day.
[1:21:18] So no, this is not something that's available
[1:21:21] to everybody in the community.
[1:21:23] Many people in this community would not be able,
[1:21:25] even if they were able to able to drive,
[1:21:27] they don't have a car that they can take
[1:21:28] and park at high school all day.
[1:21:30] So, you know, this is not the same
[1:21:32] as something everyone participates in, right?
[1:21:35] This is something that's a, it's available
[1:21:37] to a smaller group of the community who happen
[1:21:40] to be in the position of having a car that they can bring
[1:21:44] and take to the high school all day.
[1:21:46] That's not a full set of folks.
[1:21:48] And I just, I just raised that
[1:21:49] 'cause I think that makes me look a little different than
[1:21:52] something like an athletic fee or a participation fee.
[1:21:54] Something that we consider part of the entire program.
[1:21:58] I just raised that.
[1:22:00] Okay. I i I wanna keep this moving, but yes.
[1:22:04] Yeah, I would just say we have no idea
[1:22:06] what people's finances are and whether
[1:22:08] or not someone is extending money to get transportation
[1:22:11] for a student who to come from some, like we, we don't know.
[1:22:14] Yeah. And so I'll leave it.
[1:22:17] I think for me the difference is
[1:22:19] that there is also free parking available in a lot
[1:22:23] and so it, it's, it's not like paying a fee
[1:22:27] or not paying a fee deprives the student of an opportunity
[1:22:29] to park in high school.
[1:22:32] So it sounds like,
[1:22:36] so we're invoking the rule of necessity.
[1:22:40] And do I have
[1:22:44] a motion to adjust the high school parking fee
[1:22:49] to ma'am chair?
[1:22:51] Yes. May I make the recommendation
[1:22:52] that we vote on the fees separately as to votes?
[1:22:55] Yes. So one on the testing, one on the parking. Great.
[1:22:59] Okay, so let's do the testing first then.
[1:23:03] We are still evoking the rule of necessity
[1:23:06] and the motion is that the Needham school committee,
[1:23:10] upon the recommendation of the superintendent approves the
[1:23:14] reduction of the testing fee
[1:23:17] for the fiscal year 27 revolving funds.
[1:23:20] Do I So moved? Second. Second. A second. Michael.
[1:23:25] All in. And I just wanna clarify that the
[1:23:30] reduction is to the administrative fee
[1:23:32] because this is a pass through fee.
[1:23:35] If SAT
[1:23:36] or PSAT rather increases the cost of the exam,
[1:23:39] the fee will go up.
[1:23:41] So what you're actually reducing is reducing the
[1:23:44] administrative fee component.
[1:23:46] Thank you for that clarification. Okay, we have a motion.
[1:23:52] Second. Second. Second.
[1:23:54] Thank you for that point of discussion. Roll call vote Liz.
[1:23:59] Under the doctrine of the rule of necessity, I vote. Aye
[1:24:03] Michael, Under the doctrine of the rule
[1:24:05] of necessity, I vote Aye
[1:24:08] And I vote. Aye,
[1:24:10] The doctrine on the rule of necessity I vote.
[1:24:12] Aye
[1:24:13] I vote.
[1:24:14] Aye. Thank you. I vote. Aye.
[1:24:16] And under the doctrine of the rule of necessity, I vote.
[1:24:19] Aye that is a 6 0 0 vote
[1:24:23] regarding the administrative testing fee.
[1:24:28] All right. For the high school parking fee,
[1:24:33] do I have a motion to
[1:24:38] Madame Chair? I'd like to offer a motion.
[1:24:40] Yes. I'd like to offer a motion
[1:24:44] to have the school C committee set the fee
[1:24:46] for high school parking for the fiscal year 27 at $50.
[1:24:51] Do I have a second? I'll second.
[1:24:56] Thank you. Michael, can
[1:24:58] I ask a procedural question? Yes.
[1:25:00] The Rule of necessity, is it only for an I vote
[1:25:03] or is it for any vote?
[1:25:05] Any vote If you have a potential conflict
[1:25:08] of interest, which okay.
[1:25:09] With high school student. Okay. Yes.
[1:25:14] Saying so. So your first list
[1:25:18] Under the doctrine of the rule of necessity.
[1:25:20] I abstain. I feel like I need more information before I can
[1:25:23] Vote.
[1:25:24] Okay, Michael?
[1:25:26] Under the doctrine of the rule of necessity, I vote. Aye.
[1:25:31] Aye. I vote. Aye.
[1:25:33] The doctrine of the rule of necessity. I vote nay.
[1:25:37] Are you helping me keep track, Dan?
[1:25:40] Okay, Michael, I vote. Aye.
[1:25:44] And under the doctrine of the rule of necessity, I vote.
[1:25:47] Aye.
[1:25:48] So you have four ayes. One no in one state.
[1:25:52] Okay, so the motion carries
[1:25:54] And with that we will update you as the ign, however.
[1:26:02] Thank you. All right.
[1:26:06] And then finally we come to the
[1:26:12] warrant article to appropriate
[1:26:14] for the Pollard Middle School instruction,
[1:26:17] which must be buried. There it is,
[1:26:19] It is.
[1:26:20] And just one correction that I put in there.
[1:26:22] Approval one article, actually select one.
[1:26:24] So the verb really would be my rec Rec.
[1:26:27] You'll make the recommendation chair,
[1:26:28] but should be endorse my article.
[1:26:32] Okay. Your motion.
[1:26:36] Alright, do we
[1:26:43] have anything to talk about?
[1:26:45] Well, you, so
[1:26:47] Lemme make the motion and then we'll discuss.
[1:26:50] So it's my recommendation
[1:26:52] that the Needham School Committee endorses the warrant
[1:26:54] article to court funds
[1:26:56] for colored middle school project construction as submitted,
[1:27:01] moved second, moved by Liz, seconded by Michael.
[1:27:06] Any discussion?
[1:27:08] Oh yeah, chair. Just the language is very prescriptive.
[1:27:12] It's embedded by a table bullet attorneys
[1:27:16] and manager building committee.
[1:27:21] So what's laid out? And it is what town meeting? Rev vote.
[1:27:26] And by the way, this as an aside, I was asked this question,
[1:27:28] not by a strictly meeting school committee member,
[1:27:31] but the town member.
[1:27:34] This is not the same as what will be on the ballot.
[1:27:37] So ballot has very different
[1:27:38] and also prescriptive language, but not this.
[1:27:41] So they're two different, same project, different votes. So,
[1:27:46] Very good.
[1:27:48] Any other discussion?
[1:27:53] All right. Hearing none vote.
[1:27:58] All those in favor, please say aye. Aye. Any opposed?
[1:28:04] Abstained. That is a 6 0 0 vote.
[1:28:10] Alright, this brings us to the end of our public meeting.
[1:28:16] The next school committee meeting will take place Tuesday,
[1:28:19] September 15th at six 30,
[1:28:21] the Broad Meadow Performance Center.
[1:28:24] I will now entertain a motion to adjourn
[1:28:27] to Executive session in accordance
[1:28:29] with Massachusetts Open Meeting Law Purpose two.
[1:28:32] For the purpose of conducting a strategy session in
[1:28:35] preparation for negotiations with non-union personnel.
[1:28:38] The committee will not return to public session.
[1:28:42] Is there a motion? So moved. Second.
[1:28:44] Second. Moved by Liz, seconded by Michael.
[1:28:48] Any discussion or objection to the motion?
[1:28:52] All those in favor? A. A opposed?
[1:28:56] That's a 6 0 0 vote.
[1:28:59] The school committee is now an executive session.
[1:29:01] We will end the Zoom and ask anyone who is not a member
[1:29:04] of the committee to please leave them.