[10:51] First up, we have public disclosure, not seeing any audio disclosure, no public comment.

[11:06] We have

[11:07] May 17th, May 7th, May 21st, June 1st, September 3rd,

[11:24] that we accept a minute of March 9, May 7th, May 21, June 1, and September 3rd, 2026 School Committee meetings.

[11:35] Can I get a second?

[11:38] Second.

[11:39] Any changes?

[11:41] I can see it.

[11:42] Not seeing any. All those in favor say aye.

[11:45] Aye.

[11:45] Hi, and the chair votes, I also.

[11:48] Next up, we have a field trip out of state, up to Market Basket.

[11:54] Yeah, yeah, yeah.

[11:56] Yeah, Market Basket for the all program.

[12:00] This is an annual trip where they take the kids up to Market Basket.

[12:09] Mr. Chair, sorry, excuse me.

[12:12] It's actually a weekly trip.

[12:13] We have the program staff do a one-field trip for the entire year, but they go every week.

[12:24] Okay. Thank you for the clarification.

[12:29] Can I see a motion, please?

[12:32] I move to approve the market-best-field trip request from Iraq High School, all-class.

[12:37] I see. Any further questions? Not seeing any? All those in favor say aye?

[12:42] Aye.

[12:42] And the jail votes, I also thank you.

[12:45] Next up, we have the

[12:51] fundraiser request

[12:52] from Murdoch Middle High School popcorn.

[12:58] Do you like me to speak to that?

[13:00] Please.

[13:03] We have the senior class as requesting approval

[13:07] for the annual budget rate.

[13:09] Butter or braid fundraiser proceeds will help

[13:12] offset the cost of prom, senior occasions,

[13:14] and the senior class trip.

[13:16] And then we also have the cross-country team

[13:19] request for approval for a popcorn fundraiser to support program expenses and team activities.

[13:24] Thank you. Any questions on this?

[13:30] I'm not seeing any. Can I get a motion to approve, please?

[13:34] I make a motion that we approve the double good fundraiser and the cost of 2027 fundraiser

[13:40] request.

[13:43] Can I get a second? Second. All those in favor say aye.

[13:46] I, and the Chibotai also. Thank you. Okay. Liz, you want to go over the warrant thing?

[13:54] Yeah, yeah. We, just a quick explanation during our recent policy subcommittee meeting

[14:02] with the MASC. We discussed the requirement that information from the most recent warrant

[14:08] be made available to the full school committee at the next meeting following the warrant date.

[14:12] Going forward the cover page from the most recent work will be included in the packet as part of the consent agenda.

[14:19] No vote or action is required. It is being provided for informational and record keeping purposes only.

[14:27] The most recent work is dated today, September 17th, and that has been included in your packet.

[14:35] Can I get a motion to accept the warrant article as presented?

[14:39] Do we need to make a motion?

[14:43] You don't have to do anything, it's just for informational.

[14:46] Okay, so going forward we'll see these every time we have a warrant article, as we're

[14:54] going through our records.

[14:58] We found this was information.

[15:00] Thank you for your presentation. That was needed to be updated. And so now we are correcting that. Okay.

[15:10] You're up, Liz.

[15:14] to jump right into the budget update and your packet you'll see a year-to-date

[15:20] budget report as of September 14th, 2026. We are projecting current salaries for

[15:26] current staff and budgeted positions and then we have some cleanup to do in

[15:30] some of the blanket purchase orders that were created in July. So I want to

[15:34] provide a little bit of context around some of the line items that are currently

[15:37] showing at or above 100%. Particularly this early in the year, the percentage used column

[15:44] does not represent actual spending. It also includes open purchase orders and the remaining

[15:50] salary commitments for the year. So as a result some of the accounts can appear fully committed

[15:55] or temporarily over budget while we are completing year in reconciliation and adjusting estimates.

[16:01] So, several of the 12-month salary accounts are currently affected by the FY26, FY27 payroll

[16:09] transition.

[16:10] The final FY26 payroll for those employees that was processed after July 1st is therefore

[16:17] still reflected in FY27 accounts.

[16:20] The year in adjustment to move the appropriate portion back to FY26 is not yet been posted

[16:26] by the time accounts office.

[16:28] Once that occurs, those accounts should come back into alignment.

[16:32] There is one separate salary adjustment needed at the high school during reconciliation.

[16:37] I identified that the high school's social studies teacher salary line was understated

[16:42] in the original budget because the worksheets formula captured two positions rather than three

[16:48] charged to that account.

[16:50] So the employee salary commitments in that column are correct, it accounts for all the appropriate

[16:55] staff.

[16:56] So, we will need to bring a budget transfer to the committee at a future meeting.

[17:02] We also have several accounts where the current percentage is being driven by open purchase

[17:07] orders rather than actual standing, for example, the copy or account has an outstanding purchase

[17:12] order that will be reconciled and closed, that will release the remaining incumbents for

[17:17] that.

[17:17] The elevator and vehicle fuel accounts are similarly affected by a blanket purchase order.

[17:23] those were initially established at amounts higher than we now expect to need.

[17:28] So those will be reduced as part of our normal reconciliation process.

[17:32] A few utility accounts are also slightly above budget at this point because we

[17:36] established estimated annual income purchases at the beginning of the fiscal year.

[17:40] So as actual bills come in, those estimates will be adjusted to reflect current usage and cost.

[17:47] And if a budget transfer is needed to cover any overages, we'll bring that back to you as well for approval.

[17:53] Overall, what we're seeing at this point is primarily the result of timing, estimated

[17:58] in conferences, and normal beginning of year reconciliation.

[18:02] We will continue reviewing the accounts as the year progresses, and if we identify any

[18:07] budget variances, I'll bring those transfers or any other adjustments to the committee

[18:12] for approval.

[18:14] Happy to answer any questions.

[18:16] So a lot of these numbers are what you see showing 100% are these are just

[18:22] encumbered funds that we that we have for certain certain things so they're

[18:27] not spent as of yet they're just there because like we do our salaries a lot

[18:32] of time and we encumber the funds at the beginning of the year and then draw off

[18:37] them. Am I understanding that correctly? You are. You are.

[18:46] Everybody a minute to go

[18:47] through the numbers.

[18:49] Liz, I'm sorry.

[18:50] Can you review what happened with the teacher's budget?

[18:55] I think you said social studies, what happened there?

[18:58] Social studies.

[18:59] Yes, I was reviewing, once I pulled this report,

[19:02] I noticed that that particular line item

[19:04] was showing significantly over the budget.

[19:07] And that is relatively common as we,

[19:10] especially if we've had some vacant positions,

[19:12] sometimes we hire staff at different salaries.

[19:15] you know, that's what I think. But what I noticed is that the staff under that particular

[19:22] line item were not totaling correctly. It was only showing two staff. So there, we will

[19:28] need a budget transfer to cover that later on at a later meeting.

[19:34] And we have that, right? That's just part of moving it from one count to another. Is that correct?

[19:40] I'm sorry, stay that one more time? That's something we've accounted for. It's just moving

[19:43] get from one account to another? Is that correct?

[19:46] Yes, it's not an unanticipated position or expenditure.

[19:51] The position is already part of our staffing plan.

[19:55] The original budget just understated that particular salary account.

[19:58] So I'll correct the distribution through transfer.

[20:03] It has to be approved by the school committee once I've confirmed the best source.

[20:07] So we're still pretty early in the fiscal year and completing some salary

[20:11] and incumbrance reconciliation, so I want to make sure that I'm recommending an account

[20:16] that has a true projective savings rather than just a temporary balance.

[20:21] Thank you so much.

[20:24] You're welcome.

[20:27] Any other questions?

[20:29] Yeah.

[20:30] Okay.

[20:31] Okay.

[20:40] Do you have anything else for us Liz?

[20:45] I do not, but I'm happy to speak to the donation under new business, but that was all

[20:51] I had in my budget day.

[20:52] Absolutely,

[20:57] whenever you're ready.

[21:00] Okay, sorry.

[21:02] So the district received a general donation from the CAC that consisted of school supplies.

[21:09] These supplies were divided between the middle school and high school art departments for use for students.

[21:15] So the donation is being presented to the committee for full acceptance for

[21:35] a motion.

[21:36] I move we approve the give duration form for CAC for school supplies to Murdoch High School and Middle School.

[21:45] Can I get a second?

[21:46] Second.

[21:47] Any further questions on it?

[21:50] Not seeing any, all in favor say aye.

[21:52] Aye.

[21:53] And the chair votes aye also, thank you.

[22:00] That's going to be a real quick meeting tonight.

[22:02] I'll say.

[22:03] Yeah.

[22:04] We have no all business to anybody have any future agenda items.

[22:08] I

[22:11] was hoping that we were going to have an opportunity to review the MCAS results.

[22:18] They're not out yet.

[22:19] They're not out yet.

[22:19] When we anticipate that being out, they usually come out late October, right?

[22:27] Am I right?

[22:28] Yeah, about late October.

[22:30] You get, right now, you get preliminary results and then there's some back-of-fourth of,

[22:34] some clarification on some things and then once the final number comes out the

[22:40] parents got each child's one but that's not with all the all the information

[22:46] of student growth and whatnot that all comes in in and around the same time.

[22:54] Does he raise your hand, Liz?

[22:58] I'm following.

[23:00] Okay. Yeah, so when those come in we will schedule a meeting and that will have it

[23:05] on it and that will be a full presentation of great by great and where we sit comparatively

[23:11] with the state.

[23:13] Actually, I'm looking forward to that.

[23:15] I think we're in better shape than we used to be.

[23:17] But I don't know if it goes under future agenda items or we should just sort of relay it back

[23:28] back to the superintendent to bring us that, but I'm seeing a lot of bus emails going out.

[23:39] And I noticed at the beginning of the school year and that's to be expected, but it's

[23:44] kind of frustrating for me and I'm not even a parent or one of the kids to see, oh this

[23:51] bus is running so this is what's going to happen and this is going to happen.

[23:54] I mean, I'm hoping that this is all going to get straightened out.

[24:00] Mr. Chair, we do have a meeting scheduled with the bus company for tomorrow morning.

[24:06] We've been trying to schedule with them for a couple of weeks now, and they have some

[24:10] stuff on vacation, so we're going with a list of concerns.

[24:16] Our building administration have been collectively entering the bus complaints into a spreadsheet,

[24:23] So we will go with that data and a few other questions that we had about, you know, the costs of the minibus and that sort of thing.

[24:32] So we plan on addressing all of our concerns tomorrow.

[24:35] Okay.

[24:36] Would you be so kind after that meeting to have an email sent out about how they plan to rectify this?

[24:44] I mean, we did reduce one bus so it should be easier for them.

[24:54] Sure, yeah, we can send something out once we have the information, you know, that's

[25:00] unsure everyone's looking to see.

[25:03] Okay.

[25:04] I appreciate that.

[25:07] Anything else?

[25:13] Well, we're going to go to closing member comments and I will stop with you along.

[25:17] I have nothing.

[25:21] It seems like we're off to a good start this year for our schools.

[25:26] of everything seems to be going really well.

[25:29] It's nice to see all these requests coming through

[25:33] for the different things for the students to be doing.

[25:36] I think that's all that adds to their overall educational

[25:40] background.

[25:42] Let's keep doing all that.

[25:46] I don't have anything tonight.

[25:49] Okay. Just like to say that we seem to be on a better

[25:52] better plan this year. I know that we closed our books on time this year and Liz has been working on

[26:00] closing our grants. The audit committee will be meeting shortly. The auditor was appointed on Monday

[26:07] night and he's going to be with us for a while longer because yeah. They put out some things and

[26:22] But I'm so happy that Tony Roselli is going to stay with us.

[26:27] There's no, no, he'll be here at six o'clock.

[26:47] The fundraiser?

[26:55] No.

[27:00] I don't understand what you're talking about, but-

[27:02] She wants to know what the fundraisers are for for this school year.

[27:11] What I'm going to tell you is to show up at 6 o'clock when public comment is there.

[27:17] You are more than welcome to speak.

[27:24] No, they fundraise for different events.

[27:32] They do, actually, sometimes.

[27:34] Most of the things, let me see what they say.

[27:43] Let's see.

[27:44] Here we have.

[27:46] Pup gone fundraisers, virtual fundraisers that know upfront cost for product handling.

[27:51] These are for the classes.

[27:53] These are for the classes so they have money in their funds,

[27:56] student activity funds, that they spend over the course of the year.

[28:00] They see your trips, graduation.

[28:02] What's that?

[28:06] We don't have drag shows.

[28:08] We don't have drag shows at the school.

[28:12] You're talking out of school, okay?

[28:14] All right,

[28:22] because you don't know what you're talking about, we don't have drag shows at the school.

[28:28] Number one, number two, if you'd like to speak at a meeting, we have public comment at six o'clock.

[28:34] I allowed you to answer these questions, but in the future, please comment at six o'clock when we have public comment.

[28:42] And you are more than welcome to step up to the microphone and speak, okay?

[28:47] Appreciate that.

[28:48] You're welcome. Motion to adjourn. Moved. Second it. Second.

[28:56] Second, all in favor say aye aye and we're adjourned at 6.19

School Committee 09-17-2026

Transcript