Concord-Carslisle Joint School Committee Meeting - January 7, 2025

602 I'm going to call to order the conquer Carl Regional School District to order I'll call the conquer school committee to order perfect um so I think just for tonight we're going to have um most of the the meeting is going to be focused on the budget in somewhat of a a listening session I'll say first pass um we're going to go even more depth in a couple of weeks we do other have other things to cover um but just wanted to to Make note of that um but without further Ado why don't we do

the cchs student update and I'll turn it over to the two reps hi hi okay I'm G share it okay so for student updates the course popups happened on the last day of school before winter break and that was a really enjoyable event they went all around the school in the different um areas and they sang a bunch of songs about the holidays and it was a really great time and we get to kind of leave Our classrooms and PE out and watch them so it was really fun and then we were also now back

from winter break which is great and last week we just had Thursday and Friday which was I think a really nice time to just kind of get back into the groove and then we get the weekend and now we're back and students are kind of getting ready for midterms and so yeah midterms are next week and it'll be Tuesday Wednesday Thursday and Friday so we'll have two blocks every day where You might have a midterm test and finally for me the mmea Eastern senior District Festival is happening this weekend and this is a really cool

event and students in orchestra band and Forest will audition in November I believe and if they are chosen they get to attend this really big awesome festival and they sing a bunch of songs it's a really cool event um we are finally reaching the of the list of semester um I know a lot of My friends are very excited to start their new classes and it's just kind of like almost a fresh start heading into the new year so I feel like a lot of students are excited for that um Miss Hammer um the administrative

assistant has retired after 32 years of working at cchs um yesterday there was a clap out held to send her off and it was just really wonderful to see the entire school like come together to celebrate her so Yeah um of course the Shameless CC theater [Music] plug CC theater uh spring Musical Shrek um is happening um and during February the auditions are coming up so yeah it's awesome that's it for us thank you so much thank you cars I was just going to say I think the um one of the things we were talking

about earlier with Miss like Miss Hammer Carrie shared it on our like Communications um it's so great to See everything on Instagram um I know all the schools have some kind of a presence but it was great to like feel like we were a part of that uh especially those of us who know Miss Hammer so it was pretty pretty cool to see uh the like the support that you all did for that pretty big milestone so so thank you very much and I apologize those in person in the room you can't see people on

Zoom or the screen so we're going to have to do Our best on that tonight of the technology issue we're having we're working on them and I'm not sure if our reps know this but there are a few School commit members that Mrs Hammer was actually there when they were in high school not you Julie no okay not me either but she's really been an asset to the high school so thank you for all of her service and I hope that she really enjoys her retirement yeah well deserved Awesome any questions for the the students

no good luck with midterms yeah go study girls thank you thank you thank you both all right great um so we're gonna move into the chair's update um we're going to do something a little bit different uh a little bit outside of at least my personal comfort zone but I think it's important um as part of the chair's update for the for the region I wanted to C go back to an Ask um from Last month uh which was a comment and or respond to some of the public comments um especially some of the recent

ones additionally I've been in this role for about six months now um and I've had an opportunity I think anytime you're going into a new year whether it's resolutions or just having a chance to sit back and reflect on things um it's important to I think look at the progress the challenges that you faced um conversations I think it's a privilege To be an elected official um and to be entrusted um or appointed or for those of you that are come here as part of your job like we appreciate you showing up um and I

think just the the community members that we engage with obviously there's those of you that show that show up we appreciate that um I think a lot of conversations I know that that I have I do pick up of my kids whenever I possibly can and I get a lot of feedback at the pick in the pickup line um at the Grocery store a lot of feedback um and I think it's really important for us to to share that feedback and we don't always get a chance to pause and do that um I've also said

this before in in smaller settings um I grew up in a I grew up in Andover where it's a similar size to a little bit bigger than than conquered um I've always been involved in in the community and I think it's really important for us to find a path to lowering the temperature in the town um Not just in the conversations that HP happen here on Tuesday nights this is such a sliver of other conversations that happened um but really in the town of of conquer Carlile Boston like but anything that's around the the the

school specifically I want to figure out a way to lower the the temperature um I'm aware that that that can't just happen by saying it or snapping my finger we need to do the work there's been no shortage of that and I would say After spending a lot of time over winter break reading reflecting looking over a lot of data on the schools I know Andrew and I dug into yrbs data on New Year's Eve day um our joint Community like all of us I think we have a lot of highlights and a lot of

things that are really tough um but a path forward is is visible and attainable I really do believe that I hope between some of my comments my peers comments Tonight reports from our Lea zones and the work We have in front of us that we can build more trust through our actions and impact as we move forward I start with the goals at most meetings we're not going to do it tonight U but we are at the next January meeting and the reason is is I I think it gives us grounds to be committed to

each other to the work we do and I think it's important because at the beginning of the time we all raised the concerns that we had whether it was things like math Curriculum or IEPs or student achievement gaps um things around uh out of District placements and things with the budget um we have a lot of those things things and we we all made a lot of commitments to that um the second piece is I think you know we've also made commitments to groups that were traditionally marginalized disabilities and we haven't even dug into the

the topic of socioeconomic pressures that I think is A really big deal in this community um so one of the first things we reviewed through this L was the yrbs results as a recap I was asked to cover some of this I saw the note in the bridge um we reviewed some of the key themes back in back in October and made a commitment to revisit in February we are still on track to do this if the committee feels this is necessary there are follow-up questions on specific topics and we have sent those to the

Guidance counselor school of psychologist and Emerson directly for followup a few of us in this committee like I mentioned have looked at those oneon-one it wasn't just Andrew and I others have done that as well um and we do that because we want to ensure we fully understand the data and we want to make sure we have as few blind spots as possible and a couple things I want to ensure is that one we understand the feed back from the community the impact And the pathways to Improvement and two is as a school committee is

the investment we are making in professional development programming and overall supportive Student Success making the impact that we hope for um the hardest thing about the survey and the other surveys that Dr Hunter Miss chin and others administrators cover is that we are working with ch children when we specifically Mo at the high school we Were talking about teenagers we all want these results to be 100% or 0% depending on the framing of the question meaning we want 100% of kids to feel belong we want 0% to be bullied we are likely never going to

make those but that is something that we strive for and that is why we continue to come back here and while I'm not going to go through the the full 80 pages of the yrbs report um I will say that these results directly impact our investment as a school Committee so programming full-time employees professional development Transportation these Investments are within our purview so when we see that bullying is up for multiple types of groups of kids we ensure we have a path to support staff that they can improve this we as a school committee do

not walk the hallways or stand in the classroom we ensure that the administrators have what they need to make these programs work so When we see that suicide and depression is down significantly in all categories of kids from 2022 to 2024 we know these programs are working and our investments should continue this is why we work so hard with fincom on our budget fighting for full full-time employees extra transportation to ensure inclusion in activities and programming the work we did with our with out a district guidelines and budget is a good example of how we

can make our role that focuses On budget and achievement go handin hand in support of children with disabilities and their families we will continue to do this with initiatives and other student groups to that end I've asked Dr Hunter to speak to some of the programming we're going to cover that to tonight we also have a pretty packed agenda for the next meeting that we'll get into um and I want to just make sure that we continue to communicate that as many of um you have heard we say at the Start of a lot of

meetings um is what we focus on again is our goals and so we will monitor this and pivot as needed that is a good thing about taking this time to reflect at this point we have covered the achievement Gap with with Shelly um and we'll get an update later this quarter um as we talked about in the December meeting last on a more personal note there are a lot of comments questions and difficult conversations that happen outside of These meetings the graffiti incident for example was one that was monitored closely by Dr Hunter and the

high school administrators was very upsetting I know for a lot of people we received updates I personally sent follow-up questions and oversight to Dr Hunter up to the final hours of the break for the holiday arguably over the holiday break double checking on procedures um double checking on on law communication safety checks any lead or insights that I Personally heard I passed along I personally solicited feedback from Neighbors from friends and other closely associated with the cchs community and I know other committee members did too I did this because while I have confidence in what

the co-principal did to communicate with the cchs student body families and faculty I do and I think we all do as a committee understand that this is incredibly upsetting and it's in It's upsetting to the entire Community Whether you have students in the in the school or not as somebody who comes from a minority group I know that cold feeling in your bones when being called a slur being a target of hatred and Injustice in fact when I was elected in Carlile I don't think we talk about car very much um the first week that

I was there we had a protest at a student-led pride pride event there were horrible Things written on posters by adult protesters in the s of the community near the school that they could be on I saw things that were direct directed at me and my family and my stomach turned so during one of the public comments there was someone who said the whole town is asking you to do better when it comes to the topics of deib I heard that loud and clear I would see that there that is where the problem is for

me Candidly the whole town is not saying that and that's the problem that's the hardest part of being part of a minority group most of the time the majority does not understand how you are feeling and it is not it's not always their perspective and so it's partially happens to be that they need a nudge the majority needs a nudge and that is why we have to find a way to bring a temperature down so that they're Listening and lean into the things that are in place make them stronger make them more inclusive and where

things need to be ripped down in order to build them back stronger let's do it and let's have a conversation even if it's hard I think there are a lot of people who want to join this mindset participate be an ally but they don't see an on-ramp to do so and we need to improve this not just at the schools but in the whole community and we as a committee are Steadfast in our commitment to not just this incident uh but to all incidents around hate so I appreciate you taking the time to listen to

me um it's just something that was on my mind the the entire break and I want to make sure it's one of the first things that I address as we enter uh 2025 so thank you um everything I think we're good right thank you Julie that was incredibly powerful thank you um so we are like I Said steadfast I'm going to turn it over to you for the superintendent up that's right absolutely thank you um and I think just my own one comment to follow up on Julie's I don't I think we're in disagreement on

core values I don't think we're in disagreement on the goals somehow we're struggling to talk on the house and the whats and I couldn't agree more that I think we need to try to tone the temperature down and have Conversations that I know can move us forward because they have in the past and we've been at temperatures high frankly higher than this and made our way back and made some real progress on a lot of different things so I think the ground work is there I think we all just need to catch our breath take

all the emotion that comes with it which is really really hard right it's all very emotional and important and that's why it's emotional and try to have that Reset to go forward because I don't think there's anyone here in the community that isn't completely steadfastly committed so that said my um my updates are more logistical factual in nature and a little bit eclectic because we're just coming back to the second half of the school year and there's lots of moving pieces at this point in the year what I didn't get into is updates that almost

naturally are going to evolve through the budget Discussions at least at a high level or have Standalone presentations coming up so that's usually the goal of my updates um and honestly some nights I want to come in and celebrate everything tonight I'm going to be a little more like well there's some of this going on too and things we have to account for um but anyway tonight it's a little bit more eclectic so um we have nothing like opening and talking about desie and the coming uh two rounds Of site visits that we have um

one we have March 18th Desi will be here they're visiting all Meco districts um really just not at all in a in a high stakes way but just to come see and here and be part of what we're doing so we're looking forward to that um we see them a lot on Zoom meetings and such and it it'll be great to have them come out and actually be in buildings and see kids and all of that um desie is also hosting a directors and superintendence meeting Next week that I will attend along with Andrew Nichi

um we have a second a third oh yeah go ahead what's the output of the desie visit do they send a report is it no this is unlike the other desie visit I'm going to reference in April it's completely nonevaluative it's really they Darcy Fernandez who's the senior commissioner that overseas Meco um just wants to really get to feel what's happening spend some time here see how Our structures are meet some of the people meet some kids it's really just a put people to the things she hears which I'm actually refreshed by J he doesn't

do that much of that it's usually very high stakes so it's great to have them just come out and listen and learn um the superintendent and directors meeting with Desy next week as well there are some changes to the grant formula there's been a hold harmless provision in there which we probably will Reference later that um is expiring and given our enrollment numbers we're going to have less grant money in the future um The Playbook initiative CMS is going to take their schoolwide project and um make their way to the fifth grade again in the

next few weeks so they'll be running their scenarios their bias scenarios with the fifth grade last year it was jaw-dropping with the F fifth grade students were able to talk on and the conversations that they had as they Were presented with difficult uh situations that they might experience we started to plan for the Nubian Square trip for all of nth grade where they go and go to Meco Inc and they tour um that part of town and visit some of the local stores and usually the Highlight is the restaurants and the food um so excited

for that to get going and those are usually late spring when the weather's really good uh we're meeting with the leaders of the calculus project next Week uh CCS has been on ongoing very regular conversations with the high school um about where we are in terms of student both achievement and placement placement is the big one right because to get to calculus you have to be on a certain trajectory we had a really important meeting a couple of weeks ago where the high school leaders um went over to the middle school and a few of

us were there just to be there but we weren't really the main participants but The high school administration and department chair talked directly to the Middle School teachers about the importance of that eighth grade to nth grade transition it was really an important conversation I think it opened up some our structural challenges and just you know guess what communication makes half the difference right where people are like oh I didn't really realize the impact of this decision becomes that and I think we're already Going to be in a bit of a better place just from

having the discussion so uh Adrien Mims will be out here with us next week uh many did attend the Meco conference in December we always try to send a solid cohort to any conference mechos running um ideas did their professional development with all of ninth grade earlier in the fall um I the Committees I sit on at the state level the um desie racial imbalance advisory committee and my um Mass racial equity and diversity committees are both meeting they're on the same schedule every month so I have both meetings next week um always an exciting

time to hear not only what's going on in the state but try to guide whatever influence those groups can have um we're very heavily engaged in the work of choosing a literacy program at K5 so Shel will certainly be giving you updates on that it's really important to not like a K5 literacy curriculum when a District's never had one that is a lot about achievement Gap it's going to eliminate the um you know it depends on what teacher you have is where what skills you get or it depends on a whole bunch of other things

everyone will get the same tier one support and exposure and that is half the battle sometimes it then informs a more inform you know more effective two because you know what happened in tier one and where those double dips need to happen and things Like that so this is really I think we made gains with bringing in foundations and some other phic stuff but to actually be looking at a complete literacy program evidence-based that's a really important step in this District especially where that just has never been the way we operated so um we're excited

there's a lot of momentum Shelly we're we're talk about adjusting plans like I was the one I'm like we're not getting a whole big Curriculum and we're not doing it this year Shelly just learn and listen here we are uh you know some we do try to take the feedback in and the teachers are ready and we made some gains and learning what's out there for programs and there's some really high quality things out there that didn't even exist a few years ago which is what my concern was um and so we're moving the plan

along as we go is the goal to choose a Program before the end of the year and launch it and um so the goal is to choose a program before the end of the year she's got a committee getting up and forming to review three programs the goal is to choose one and then um ask for early adopters for next year okay so like the budget when you hear it is really about 50 perish if that many of them volunteer um to get going with then a second year to get to full implementation is it

K to five or k to2 K to Five K to five yes this is the comprehension that's the easy way to say it it's the comprehension side of the work um knowledge-based evidence work so more to come on that a lot more to come but um we're actively talking about that a lot it's it's one of the big things shelle's doing a lot of other big professional development work going on like for example this afternoon I was at the high school staff meeting they used It to bring challenge success in which is the organization we're

members of which really is about take working with high performing districts and looking at how we maintain um the three words they really drove home engagement well balanced and belonging talk about how it all fits in right and they started to talk about like engagement matters and to 100 teachers at once said let's talk you know take a few minutes and think on where your kids are they're using the Challenge success survey data that just showed that about 50% our kids self-identify as just doing school right they know how to do it um are they

loving it and thriving in it and what that next level of descriptor is a third of them are and have we do we have a population that are disengaged and not really at even that level of doing school and we're grateful it's small but it's any anybody in that category is too big and we're definitely Looking at the subgroups of who's predominantly in that group and that's certainly concerning that it's the marginalized populations and that's where our work needs to really focus do you need anything from us on that no I think you're going to

see budgets that include another year of membership with challenge success and um all the other organizations we're working with and the providers linia groups the other really strong one that's come in this year at The high school and is working with every content area department and looking at um whatever their area of focus for math it's the levels and what we're doing at each level with um science it was more focused on cultural competency per se and access um so each each department has its own little way of approaching it but all of it's about

the same which is consistent curriculum equity for all opportunity experiences for all cuz Guess what the structures we've had have eliminated opportunities from some kids and that's the really important work we need to be doing so U Middle School is really spending some in aside aside to Playbook and a number of other initiatives in a new school um inclusion is one of their big topics and really looking at how students with disabilities are integrated into classrooms and supported um more extensively in the classroom than out Which is a pretty significant change for us that we're

queuing up so um is doing an organizational review with us to change topics in April they'll be looking at human resources and Personnel curricul instruction and finance um so we've already had to do some survey work we have more surveys to do we have a lot of documents to provide they will be on site for multiple days the week before break that does result in an extensive report of strengths needs um likely some Follow-up plans depending what they see and name to us so um we're gearing up for that we've been doing bits of it

but the real big push is coming up now and because I'm on the ryak committee we got to preview the rubric that they use which they wanted input on that committee because they've made it a lot more of a focus on equity and opportunity Gap so I got to see it on both sides now I guess give them feedback on Implementation um I'm going to just mention the homeless shelter a little because it's going to come up as the budgets come through um you know it's an evolving situation right now with different plans being made

by the state we have 22 open rooms because of the um Critter issue uh we were told I took a call from the state that they are planning to fill them all we are not closing before June 30th um it's a slow roll for them to fill them so I don't Know quite how that's going to evolve but that's a lot of empty rooms all at once obviously um and then we do expect to be in some state of weaning out over the course of the 25 26 year which Bob's going to mention a few

times in the budgets of wow that's going to be an interesting position to be in so um right now we're supporting kids who are both in the shelter and attending our schools in the shelter going to school Of origin kids who were in The Shelter and have housing and have chosen to stay with us for the year it's really a web of transportation for one but then other things as well so um we're we're loving it we're loving seeing families get housing right that's the goal and we're thrilled by that and we're kind of enjoying

the kids who are staying where we get to keep them with us a little bit longer we have one family that got housing and conquered Which was really super exciting um so anyway the work is happening there other upcoming events that seem worth noting because there's a pretty robust list of them um more community- based and public facing Wes Woodson is coming to the high school January 22nd at 7:00 um he's here to talk on anxiety and um he's a diverse facilitator and comes in with that lens so we're excited CF is sponsoring that um

he will also meet with the kids at the high school the day before um so We're excited by what he's going to bring for opportunities cpac's continued its series you've probably seen they've put together a series of events for the first time um I'm only going to highlight the last one even even though they've all been fantastic uh they have managed to not only book but fundraise to bring in Kareem Weaver who's a really top reputable name in the equity work in literacy um so we're all excited to have him in town and they've got

a panel to Complement that and Millie um a g Thomas mecho CEO is going to be part of that panel so um we're excited to hear his his thoughts and how it all balances I think there's a desie um leader there too I forget some the other but it should be a really well-rounded conversation um Lunar New Year this is a festival that we had part in kicking off and now don't really do a whole lot with just does it's just grown into a community event Lunar New Year Celebration at the high school February 8th

at 2 o'clock um we're as a district going to sponsor a movie showing as part of black history month on February 12th the 68 not to be a spoiler but it's on Netflix if you haven't watched it you should uh but we want to do that as a community and celebrate it's really about celebrating the accomplishments of a um black women's unit in World War II and um pretty pretty amazing so you're All going to watch it now but still come uh some really great names in there and you know it's pretty pretty great movie

uh and then we're sponsoring and this is actually both of these are through Andrew Demitri's work in the DUI side of the uh District the right to read is another um documentary on the importance of literacy and the ongoing impacts of a lack of being literate so and again it's Equity Gap it's all the things we're talking about achievement Gap and Equity so that's on March 5th at 6 so you'll be seeing all these go out um and try to really solicit a lot of interest and engagement um so there's a lot happening and that's

just a tip of it all but um I thought we'd start to queue up some of those and use the next meetings to talk on some other aspects of try to be comprehensive in what's happening around the district thank you awesome I know car car brought it up but are you excited about the Middle school well I was saving that for the SE conquered school committee portion but uh yes I mean and just for the sake of everybody when we get there I'll have pictures and really you'll see me light up then but um the

Middle School we're in really great shape there's a don't get me wrong there's a lot to do but I think we're over the big humps and we should be opening on time the auditorium still sort of the Swing space um we're in the Weeds now both on The construction side and the logistical side Mr Carman being in the room with you would be jaw-dropping what he's managing right now boxes arve to the middle school today so they can start to pack um really really exciting it's a beautiful beautiful building I walked it twice last week

and we'll get out there again this week and now as the finishing touches happen right that's when you're like wow it's it was amazing before but now it's just just beautiful um really Seeing it all come to life so it's a really exciting time um really exciting so we're going to celebrate with the whole Community a little bit under the gun that the kids have to get in first probably because it's all so you know tight on time but um certainly we've got months ahead of the celebration and we'll look at you know everything from

the sign and how the celebration is and Justin's really thinking out of the box and what an opportunity this is to unite Unification is his theme United uniting us um you know Ellen's name being as part of that feels appropriate he's thinking you know a community's had two schools for 40 years and now you're going to put all sixth seventh and eighth graders in one school for the first time and really trying to take that as a powerful message and I'm not going to spoil what he's planning but he had my jawdropping last night with

the list of does this all sound okay and I'm Like oh my gosh like he took the logistics and is making it Visionary as he often does so so a lot more to come thanks for asking yeah we can talk more on that later yeah you can is there a Middle School Musical or there is they're doing one last musical in sandborn one last sand okay yes um the two weekends before we move out oh my gosh wow what is it I forget now um Shrek at the high school is it why don't I know

I do know That I'll find it before we thank you yes Su oh thank goodness you're here it is susal I knew it was one we all knew yeah so they're gonna they're getting rolled up and ready and G to do that right before we move yeah great oh wow it's really exciting one more in that sandborn Auditorium awesome so more to come on that later Perfect all right we're going to move to um uh public comment uh as a reminder we're going to try a format of 10 minutes for comments related to the agenda

at this point in the meeting and then General comments later in the meeting um so with that I have Michael Williams Michael Williams 1284 sberry Road at the December 10th 2024 school committee meeting uh with our superintendent's recommendations the committee discussed and approved revision to policy BDC the policy governs the representation of the committee on our By for our Boston Medical families as the conquered medical ptg disbanded November 18th a sentence was added to that policy should the metco ptg not be active the school committee will run an interim election as written this policy revision

could give the body that played a role in the dissolution of the metode ptg a hand into determining the candidate standing for election in this Reconstituted body though policy bcdb states that all Boston resident conquered or conquered Carlile Medco parents or Guardians and alumni families will be eligible for these positions at no time during the discussion was it stated that all 123 families would be notified by the committee of their eligibility to stand as candidates for election with respect to the minutes of the December 10th meeting I would ask The committee to clarify their position

and formally stipulate that all eligible conquered Carl Meco families and alumni will be contacted apprised of their eligibility and offered the opportunity to stand as candidates for election to the representative body anything less would be anti-democratic with respect to your comments chair Viola I really appreciate them and I hope that it's Ematic of what happens going Forward I believe that making a move toward a more inclusive community a Morgan inclusive system involves leadership I do also believe that the families of conquered Carlile and Boston want an open and just body they want us to do

better and to help toward that end I find myself drawn to stand as a candidate for a seat on the school committee in the April 2025 election all in the hopes that I can play a role in helping this body to build a community For everyone thank you thank you anything online no okay I I was just gonna say Kristen if you want to talk now that's fine Kristen Hagerty Revolutionary Road conquered um sorry go ahead that's um I want to Echo uh Mr Williams comments I I do appreciate the time that you took to

share your comments and and I'm encouraged and I'm I'm hopeful that some Of the actions that build trust involve kind of getting some of these items on future agendas um so for example we just had another resignation of a metco director Miss gemson who if you if you hadn't met her she was a fabulous force and for those of you who are new to the committee you might not have met the previous metco directors Felicia Paisley and before her Heidi Harris as well as two other metco folks who worked in the alcot building when I

was there um uh Denir Watford Watson excuse me Dair Watford Jackson and saon Dickerson it's a significant number of Staff who've left that was prior to domingus resigning and prior to the dissolution of the metco ptg and so what I would ask is that there is time on the agenda to kind of look at what are the health issues that are pling our metco staff who I have known over the years who've been fabulously devoted to our students and and how can we make sure That um when we attract good quality candidates that we can

retain them and help them to thrive as well thank you thank you were you gonna say something you I I was just going to say I think there's just one piece I think um sorry let me to see I took a note during both of those I I think that I think just to maybe clarify our policy discussion that we had in December because I think um just just I'm read Looking at it now vacancy occurs the Meco pgj May nominate a person for appointment to complete the unexpired twoyear term so I I think our

discussion December it was all about the ptg running that election not the school committee being involved in it so I just wanted to you know put that out publicly that it is going to be run by the mecho PG that was my understanding when we left in December we're g so I don't want to skip to it but we to talk about it During our chairs and Le on update so do you want to make sure it's covered um yeah I have I have other comments at I'll save that section yeah thanks I think there's

any other comments no nothing on L right okay so moving to the consent agenda um I know there are some typos that we caught beforehand Cynthia I know those have been since corrected okay um the other one was the anchor program was added um sorry the Nordic ski trip was Added um I think all everything is up to date so yes should um did you have any other clarifying questions or with us no no no the iary just had the wrong dates oh okay okay great so it's I assume this is the correct date the

correct yes the Nordic ski trip it had the 10th the 24th to the 26th is the correct date yes great so I I'll make a motion I'll move that we approve the consent agenda as written um on me January 7th 202 second discussion all in favor I the minute said Romano I said Ray Romano's on our no something does happen Romano does speak in there Marino I don't know oh my gosh Miss [Applause] Romano um correspondence do you want to start with CPS yeah there was none so easy update that was the trick well there

was one but it was meant for the Region so I figure you can did you see that okay um so we just had a couple from uh for correspondents at the region one was uh we have our band performing in April um in Connecticut so we were all invited unfortunately it's during break um but Dr Andrew you're going to be there I am G to go because my parents will also get a lunch out of me if I go so that that worked out beautifully so we wish we wish them well We wish we could

be there um if anything changes um I would love to go it will also be in the 250th they will that same week if you're around for that then you can see the band for and actually Mr noi is coming to our February 4th meeting to give you a bunch of highlights great that was goingon to be the pie um sorry in response so I just want to make sure everyone in the audience basing those comments we uh we do have Millie from Meco coming at our next meeting in two Weeks um so we will

be covering a lot of Meco Topics in aou Andrew will be here too both both of them will be here y Mimi yes we're not we not going to go to Boston here we may yeah we probably are still going to go to Boston we just invited Millie to come out for update out here first y yeah speaking of that we um because we're not going to go through the goals we're going to go through them next week but I want to make sure Brian and I did Meet we're going to do the coffee in

Carlile on January 27th hopefully getting parents I just have to not knock down the community room but I will get what time is it um probably at 9: in the morning okay just waiting for um me to take the action to we've agreed on a Time which that's half the battle the morning but we're gonna shoot for nine um and we're gonna hopefully get the community room I just need to push that email out Um all right and then want to make sure I didn't miss anything um oh and then we did get a a

message um in support of the amenities building from a um somebody that also sent one to to fincom those are the correspondents from the region um moving to the leison update um um Aisha do you want to start with what we've just been talking about with our goal around just that when to get a candidate going how to working on the communication anything else you want to Add um no I just I just want to um you know it's it's hard the engagement and Boston being so far this is a huge ask but it's definitely

um rewarding it's def it's you know being involved in the school committee and being um having a seat at the table is so important and I hope that um medical families um from you know that are current medical families or Alum um would take that you know would take this opportunity to become a part of the school committee um It has been rewarding to me um you know just moving forward in a positive light and having a seat at the table and your opinion being heard I think is important um for the safety of our

um our kids and to know what's going on and having a pulse a ra pulse on what's going on at the schools yep yeah and so I think think you know just candidly like from my perspective because I've said like six months in here um I'm learning I'm learning about the process that Aisha And Domingos went through a couple years ago um that was the first time there's for me it was actually really helpful to go through the the policy to learn how you did it before um and our goal is to get it filled

I mean we have we talked about March having somebody sitting here um I think the hardest part is like you said it's getting the the commitment and that's widespread um across all the commun is just it's a commitment and um but it's an important one so we just got To work through the the details and we will be communicating that some of it is just in flex and we're work we're working on it um but it's uh but our goal is to have somebody here in March is to the best of our ability is there

a coffee uh coming you talked about the car one have we scheduled the the Boston and the conquered ones like would that be an opportunity that maybe that's a great idea you to do it early February the one We did um in the library like that was the better one than the one that was well attended I thought um we cuz we did one in the library and then we did one at um coffee shop but I felt like the library went maybe it was more Central I don't know maybe that's an opportunity to talk

to like in hton is that the where we did the second one is in High Park no no not the library one the South but like maybe that's like you know they can people can meet members of The school committee what it's all about talk to you might just be an opportunity to talk to people um I Tomorrow there's a Meco meeting parents meeting um that I'm going to jump on tomorrow night to hopefully talk to the parents and to um and just you know just to let them know like this is opportuni healthier and

what it entails if they have any questions perfect and I think Dr Hunter you're including it in your Friday yeah if we get a written piece Together we can put it in there as well as and actually we can distribute directly to the entire met parent population if you get us some written things we can push that out through connect dead to make sure they all know the opportunity is awaiting them yeah we're eager to hear okay so I'll I'll work with you on that okay awesome the other thing just maybe it's more my update

than your liaison reports but I have been in a touch with a few Parents on um the ptg side and trying to make sure that group doesn't go defunk that would certainly be a loss to everyone so I don't have any takers on that yet but um we're going to keep working on that as well so that um that group can reform itself and look at what its missions and goals might be I think there's a need for culture building and community and I think a collaborative parent group would be really exciting to have for

that so we're working on that Too okay um all right awesome um from uh the on uh Tracy you had one from the select did uh yep select board met last night and Mima is offering a training on January 11th at the high school and it is called until help arrives and it's a community training program of what to do if you encounter an emergency before the First Responders arrive so this is um in preparation for the April 19th parade I think I got sent To everyone and every committee so if anybody's interested please RSVP

to that um the white Fields uh there was a an update there so I figured because they sit on our campus we have nothing to do with them but I just figured I would update the committee as to what they said last night um the cost estimate is well within the budget they amended the scope of the budget and sent it out to Gail Associates and two additional Consultants the expected proposals this Week and Ne this week and then the team will meet next week they're going to work with the rec commission and they said

they've reached out to Aaron John on the committee yeah so Aaron's there they've also met with CC fields and they are looking to do replacement in the summer of 2025 so that has been significantly um pushed up so hopefully that will happen at the right exact time well that's why it's important when they invited Aaron we were excited because That'll be why that will work out y That's great they're adding a couple meetings they February 3rd meeting on land acquisition um there may be a potential May 5th meeting to approve next year's Town calendar so

stay tuned for that the warrant opens on January 20th and closes on February 19th um the annual report submissions are due on January 10th yes it's on our it's It's moving moving that's one Tom when you ask me what Tom Lucy does for us that's one of his annual helps is the annual reports for both towns so he's working on um this Thursday night as we know is the January 9th capital hearing yes we will be there presenting we'll be there presenting um and then there was a little bit of a discussion on the caring

cost of peid so I'm sure that will come up in the CPS meeting tonight uh they Just had a brief discussion about that and they were very appreciative that the um schools are hopefully coming in at guidelines so that was another positive from the meeting last night that's all I have on selectboard okay that's great thanks cover yeah just very quickly for carile uh Carlile fincom is kicking off what they call their Marathon budget meetings they tomorrow and Thursday um originally the review of the region budget or the meeting about the region Budget was going

to be tomorrow night but because it's a Carlile school committee night and Julia and I need to be at that um they agreed to push it to their January 23d meeting so I just want to make sure everyone knew that the carile discussion is happening in a couple more weeks um and not next not this week as we expected right yes thank you and I'm happy we didn't get pushed to this Thursday because we were about to be doing a lot of moving around be There as well um any other leison updates from anyone we

have I mean we have conquer this week um okay well yeah CPC but that's on the agenda so we to hold that yes um so I think from a discussion if everyone's okay with it I think I see John here I'd like to move um Item B up um for the amenities building um you know as mentioned um we're going to be covering the budget that's majority of what we're going to cover um one thing during the Break um that I did do was just kind of tracking what we had asked for so we have

CPC on our Target um Alexa and I had a chance to talk to um Burton Flint um made an ask to join their January 14th meeting to see if conquered would reopen the process it would probably mean that if that would happen other groups would be as well um so we're still waiting to see if that's going to happen but we are going to join the January 14th meeting uh in conquer um Brian I know you're pursuing the Carlile ones um we also um I reached out to Mary Hartman because I know there were Dei

uh funds that were available in the town um just because we know that there's a big one of the reasons we're trying to push for the amenities building is the ADA compliance concern um and she just let us know that the Dei is actually going to be uh the funds are going to go to the Dei commission which is great um but she also let me know that we're not Going to get any of the arpa funds um or wreck funds so no no funds coming that way so with that being said um like I

said we did reach back out to CPC we want to make sure that we are leaving no turn uh stone unturned um when it comes to this and and the working group has done a great job um so one of the things that came out like I said we hear from the public a lot um was just about what was happened about 10 years ago when we Opened the high school around CCF play to see if there are any fundraising opportunities to offset the taxpayer burden as we've been talking about so um did reach out

to John Boyen and Drew mcmarro to see if they would join so John's agreed to come if you want to come up to the table um we wanted to just ask some questions to see could we do something similar to what we did 10 years ago with CC at play um if we could bring it back um so so John do you have I I it's nice to be back at this table and I can't believe that was 10 years ago um yes so um I appreciate the invitation and um for those who are not

as familiar with CC play um it was 10 years ago that we formed a nonprofit 501c3 with the express purpose of uh raising money to renovate the outside athletic facilities of the high school and that's what we did we raised about $5 million uh we built I'm sorry we have Working mics tonight so we're all going to have to speak up okay so I don't need I don't need to worry about this it's the people behind you that can't hear the faces I'm watching try to lean in either no our nothing works stand stand here

I'll speak loudly for those so um CC it play uh back in 2014 was formed to provide uh the funds and the project management um to renovate all the exterior all the outside athletic facilities of the high school Um it took about three years from start to finish uh we raised about5 million roughly a third of that came from CPA funds uh two-thirds came from private contributions um and we were able to rebuild two baseball fields two softball fields we built the six tennis courts uh in the present location we built a new um rectangular

grass field up at the same altitude as same elevation as the dou white fields and we put in Turf and kind of upgraded for Memorial Field so It was a very successful project um when we started CC Play We imagined that it might stick around to serve as a conduit just hold that mic it's not actually going to project but people at home hear the okay yeah perfect um so um uh we always imagined that it would be potentially useful to have the entity stick around to provide provide a source of again of like project

management oversight but also provide a vehicle for private fundraising to support future Recreation oriented projects so in the years since um that project was done we've provided minor funding to cc youth baseball for some projects to uh the other Youth Sports organizations in the in the tens of thousands of dollars so we did that was some of the money we had left over uh but uh the 501c3 does still exist um we have taken our Board of 12 it's now I believe there are two of us in the board uh Drew you mentioned and myself

and basically it's uh lying in Weight to be put to use for a good project in the future so the entity still exists and if it could be useful here we'd be happy to talk about how we could revive it repopulate it with uh with volunteers and and make it happen great awesome so I I um I'm new to this process um Bri I know do we do anything like this when we did the car playground we did it yes to a certain degree because the playground all the fundraising was done through The essentially through

the PTO and so you know it was the the CP C funds went to the PTO um and yeah it kind of helped with the the bidding process as well because it was the the nonprofit that was running the charge so I similar that's question that's what I'm trying to figure out is if we use CPC funds because hopefully we we're still going to go to both towns asking for that um what does that look like when we merge CPC funds with fundraising dollars well I can tell you what we did uh so we did

have public money in the form of CPC funds um and we had private money um this the way we approached the project was the district gave a lease to CC at play to come onto its property make the agreed upon improvements and then essentially gift those improvements to the town or to to the district and then the lease terminated right so in that way the project was actually undertaken by a a non Municipal entity so we were Not hypothetically you know we we wouldn't be bound by the same bidding process or public I'm sorry or

prevailing wage requirements that a publicly pursued project would so um there are a couple benefits if you know you wanted to explore this one would be obviously it provides a vehicle for citizens to make tax deductible donations to a project right um secondly um there may be a cost savings if um the if CC at play were to manage the project Because it wouldn't necessarily have to have to conform to all the prevailing wage requirements and my understanding well 10 years ago that was a differential of like 30 to 40% so that could represent a

substantial cost savings overall I just have a very basic question is your board interested in partnering if we were to ask CCF play are youed interested in partnering with the district to do this project um as I Say we have a very very small board now I'm just two of us I just have to put it out there like yeah no it's a good question I I I don't I think the last project was super exhausting so that board is ridden off into the sunset um I've talked to Drew about this when when Julie reached

out to me just about structurally how might we approach this and one way we might do it would be to keep um a very small board those of us who have the uer responsibility for the Nonprofit but to recruit a subcommittee essentially who would have project responsibility for fundraising and oversight of the of the construction yeah Alexa I have a couple questions so given that in your first go around 10 years ago you had about a third of the project CPC funded would it be right therefore to assume that if we were to engage in

a part parnership with your Organization that you would want the order of operations to be such that we would get some sort of commitment from the CPC and then your operation would be responsible for I'm like writing it trying to visualize your organization would be responsible for the delta in funds between what the CPC could could provide and what the you know cost or bid might be that's my sort of first question um that would certainly be one Way to approach it okay um I will tell you that when we did this 10 years ago

we didn't know exactly how much we might get from the CPC as a percentage of the overall project we targeted 1/3 2/3 that was kind of the number we laid out in my experience with the CPC they like to see substantial contribution from the partner right so I've seen instances where CPC is given 80% sometimes 50% so I I think that would really be best that's a Conversation you got to have with the CPC um but in terms from a timing or sequencing standpoint it may not be realistic to get a firm commitment from CPC

before you actually start rolling right my next question is with respect so Brian Tracy and I have um done some various work with respect to not just the amenities building um but also sort of the larger view of Completing the you know completing the campus as we approach the 10year mark to that end we have started to curate a list of potential people that and by the way we have vetted zero of them um of people who might have some interest in um putting their volunteer efforts towards that end and and and whether that's Financial

or time I don't you know I we don't know we haven't again vetted any of this would you if you were to do this would you be looking to Expand your organization beyond the two of you guys like are you looking to um create a a volunteer Corp a larger board a a group and would you want us to be helpful in that area or yeah so um the answer is most definitely yes so I just want to be clear about kind of where we are today we have a an essentially a dormant organization right

um neither Drew nor I were thinking that we were going to suddenly get involved in the Project in the schools these days right so I think we'd be looking to you to recruit a new set of volunteers who really are going to lead this project forward again we have the vehicle for fundraising to get achieve some of those other benefits but this really will need to be led by current parents or other volunteers in the community well which then brings to we've talked about a potential track up at the high school and we have said

that that would be Probably 100% fundraised um so at no cost of the taxpayer so it would be a perfect vehicle to continue on you know if you had new board members come on you know the amenities building is Project one and then the track is Project too so they could just continue on with that I mean I I think this is maybe a good analog the the CF right the CF has been around for like 25 30 years now um it the board rotates right the people who are doing all the work in the

CF are the Folks who are invested in the schools today right so I was a past president of the CF I love the organization but I did my time there right so in the same way perhaps CC had play becomes something like the CF that that could be perpetuated to pursue project after project I have another question just to keep complicating things um the friends of CC fields which also I didn't know that they were even an organization prior to this year when the Doug White Turf began to fail um so do they have a

role in the campus like were you a part of that like I'm just sort of curious as to how all these pieces or organizations might fit together work together Etc and I just don't have a familiarity apart from the fact that um even the the guy that was the head of CC Fields said I didn't know I was the head of CC Fields I signed up to be the head of CC you soccer and I guess these two Two positions are married um and you know and well except for that that's going to change in

2032 when the Doug white Fields come back to the district so I mean think that A lot's going to have to happen then yeah so the friends of CC Playing Fields was formed specifically to to build the Doug white Fields right which they did um they also put in place a funding mechanism that would provide a long-term Funding Solution for replacement of the turf um At at this point in time my understanding is that they have um the only thing they do is they collect fees yes they look after them they make sure they're safe

so they can fulfill their commitment to provide funding for replacement of the fields but beyond that they have no ambition to do anything okay addition got it great okay that doesn't work but just talk uh so um I I am not a fan of of of trying to put the so CC play operated in Completely different way than we are operating right now they did they work with Gale Associates and not the district district am I correct that's correct yeah so we're already the stakeholders and I think trying to back this thing up and trying

to at this point I think we would have to go out another year is all I'm saying if we want to change the whole structure and have CCA play run this lease the property to them have them you know we Would have to we they would have to be the applicant to CPC not us not the you know something it's you know it's and I I you know I'm not sure that you're ready to fully commit to doing the amenities building today I I don't know I don't know what the timing is um my understanding

is you guys our discussion right yeah well it would put it out no I'm saying like our it would be our discussion to to sort of decide do We to your point like delay a year right with the intention of partnering with CC rebuilding and then partnering with CC at play or would we pursue a Warren article which maybe is like the next thing that's on the agenda this year in order to secure this preferred pricing from last year I think that's our discussion right right and they did not bring a war an article outside

of CPC funds to town meeting correct is is there an opportunity for us to drive the Process and for cc at play to make a donation to make a financial donation no it has to go they have to own the process U that's that's something we need to think through more yeah yeah that's the right that that would basically that would be that would be that would be akin to someone stepping forward and saying I want to contribute a million dollars toward the construction of the building yeah so that that that could certainly happen y

Y but you have to give the time you would what you wouldn't have is you wouldn't have the T the potential for a cost right so if what you're trying to do is to reduce the impact on taxpayers you the the path you're on right now the taxpayers are going to cover 100% of the cost unless you can get people to donate which maybe you can right that would be great um but from a in terms of the construction costs um I think the simplest way to approach is if You did say you know how

could we work together would be for us to take your design and I don't know how if it's fully engineered I know you have a preferred op got the schematic they're making they're doing the design right now okay so so basically One path forward might be I think Cynthia has a good point about yes we would have if you're getting CPC funds I'm not sure about the answer to that question but in terms of uh the Construction itself and a timing you would give us your preferred design all the engineering we would take it out

we would get pricing on it right we would find um a contractor who's able to do it on schedule and at the kind of the quality level the price we're looking for and um so I would imagine we put that out to a few different people but it would be that that is a process that would be run by CCF flag so partnering with you if I'm to summarize and Understand has potentially two perceived benefits to the taxpayer one the cost itself of the construction might be reduced because you don't have the same legal constraints

that Bob would had where he to go out to bid and two the obvious one being the donations um and and we would hope that CPC was a player in this as well so then there would be but no burden to the taxpayer Ostensibly but I was going to say then there is no guarantee no warrant article for a capital project this year because I don't correct a nonprofit could be that forward so that's just that's the tradeoff that we have to that ultimately I think is our decision to have I think even if we

don't go this path for the amenities building to your point Tracy we do want to consider this at least for the track and for other campus totally yep Y and we could put a war Article together and withdraw it that is true say that again we could put a warrant article together and withdraw it if we go we're that's exactly we tried to give you the list of everything you have to put in before the deadline you can always take it out you can't add it right because we did withdraw it last year we put

be for different reason but but yeah and I don't want to complicate or scare the CPC but in the event that they Entertained a donation to offset the warrant article could they then alloc those funds wouldn't be allocated till the previous year anyway right they'd have to with it have to we'd have to reapply okay or you you CC play would reapply with our app for for anything for anything no no no I know but I'm saying I think our intention no I'm saying we have this I mean to your point like a sliver of

a window yeah Still um no we would so if we if we go the other route we would have to start over with CPC yeah we don't but that's what I guess that's what I'm ask and it we don't have to start anything over because we have nothing submitted yeah no no I'm saying but no she's saying we can't we wouldn't if we were to pursue the path with John Boon we wouldn't apply for the CP or CCF play we wouldn't apply we wouldn't but CCF oh yeah right But not this year but not on

the 14th why not because we would need to we would need to submit that budget that is potentially less than our budget right and yeah so or or TBD or maybe in some you're saying the 14th of January yeah yes no hold on a second I I think we'd have a hard time mobilizing for that I don't I want to make sure it's clear with what we agre we have no guarantee that we we are literally going on January 14th to their meeting to Ask no as the district but this is a public meeting so

people know what's going on no no but that's why I want to be clear because it is a public meeting that there's no guarantee that CPC is going to open it up to apply so we might already have to wait a year for conquer good point so we don't know yet now in car it's different we are in the process right now of car deadline the normal deadline for car is early February right wait but if that point if we were to Partner with CC at play and we've already secured the Carlile CPC funding would

we then withdraw our application and start the process over in Carlile and that would push us back a year as well right because you we've you will your process is earlier than us okay Bri because he's done this before in car but when we did it in Carl before we just submitted it as P the the committee which the playground committee yeah the school committee did not submit it and That but this but now we are it is the school committee that's submitting it to carile as of right now you don't have anyone else to

do it no I know yes we are we become the applicant yes I can I have I'll take it away and kind of ask what what that would even look like again we have a few weeks yeah car side sure um just a quick couple things to think about you should definitely check with legal counsel permissible I was Going to say that um I've worked in the private sector I can't stand some of the rules we have to comply with so I I get that um there are one you know what was done before it's

kind of borderline but if the legal council blesses it you have St you know support from legal councel um the um savings the extra money savings is just on the labor the the supplies and materials should cost the same there definitely going to be a cost difference using um prevailing wages um And then there's just a question of like so if we're not the ones running the project are we are we responsible for making sure the people are qualified to do it like what what if there's some type of safety issue so there's things to

think about I'm not sure saying it's insurmountable but like completely eyes before so we say we're comfortable what we're doing we'll work it's safe um we have legal council saying yes you can do it um they had a pretty extensive Agreement and Lease yeah maybe we resuscitate that I forget if there was some kind of indemnification for any it's on our website like it's it's all it's on there yeah so so I guess the question is for now I mean this is the purpose tonight was to have a discussion and make no formal decisions but

I guess the question would be given the the timing um conquer would be well we already know it's difficult because we don't know if it's going to Even open for us to be considered because the window somewhat passed um but we saw this window in in carile so do we want to make again it's this it's this wi um but do we want to consider having a more active discussion at next two weeks from now's meeting the 21st um about it so that if we wanted to to make a more formal decision on this that

we could apply for CPC funds under CCF play and then wait to your point Cynthia like that maybe it has to wait But the the reason I say that is we don't have to to wait in carile for car is like CPC it's like the one time the benefit of CPC being early and conquered you would we would know next year in the fall and you could actually start the project with a private entity that could move it faster and it might actually be the timing might be actually similar to if we did it through

the public route right in terms of breaking ground and Finishing a project yeah I think that's exactly the discussion we want to have yeah in the meantime is it possible to continue conversations with John you and um to try to resurrect CC at play and use some of the people that like you all have started this list of potential and I'm happy to add some people to that too because it seems like even if this doesn't become um the right path or however the committee moves forward on that the the track would greatly benefit From

100% yeah so I feel like if you're amendable to those conversations I don't know why we would delay on that for sure okay I mean so we could put this on the topic for the 21st for for two weeks from now's meeting maybe the ask would be that the working group so Brian Tracy and Alexa can I just say I think we're treading pretty heavily at open meeting law to do this kind of thing working group to me is just sort of bantering around some ideas but we're Really discussing formalizing a financial relationship with an

outside entity you know I I really think it should be kind of a subcommittee or sure whatever you want to call it because just go the meeting yeah yeah we can do that I was going to say we could that I think that's a fine thing just to complete it though and I think in parallel Carrie and I can reach out to to legal counsel I think to Bob's point and get some guidance on on that um so I I I take feedback on that I mean great we want to do something more formalized and

more public that is absolutely fine um I just want to make sure that we don't miss this this time frame that's what I'm saying yeah I agree and I think it's just going to be a much better process to to make it a public conversation so it doesn't yeah you know sure I think it goes beyond working group because yeah okay that would mean you really should Vote to form a subcommittee tonight and name who's going to be on it and then from here on post the meetings great perfect okay can I make a motion

you want to do it um we can just we can can do that um pursuant to Cynthia's um statement I move that the conquered carile Regional school committee form a s a campus completion subcommittee comprised of Alexa Anderson Tracy Morano and Brian Waton second Second discussion you need a chair so they can talk to me and Aaron about when to post your meetings so some has to take Point our next meeting we'll elect our chair right as long as one of you one of you has to communicate so we can post the first meeting with

an agenda that's our first agenda item perfect I think in the next meeting we should we need an agenda charge yeah agreed this this could to be a good placeholder for Now no and I know I know we're laughing because is moving fast but I I felt like we should have been doing this all along honestly okay okay because it's just got it yeah we have been doing a lot of bantering I will say that it wasn't really there's nothing formal that's really come out of we've been throwing around ideas to get to this point

I now we are we began this discussion I thought there's a lot yeah Rich foundational work that needs to Happen perfect yeah and then John you'll have a like a formalized policy group to work with and then as you said like once we form the subcommittee yep outside of the the subcommittee the actual I think we'll be able to have a more robust dialogue and and figure out the the I think that all sounds good because there's a lot of parameters here that need to be talked through right of options honly think you need to

keep at least Bob close because there's Definitely a lot of parameters yeah for sure thank you very much vot vote you need to you and your rules the vote all in favor I I great wonderful welcome to the subcommittee guys it's good it's a big pay a lot of pay I think like I said and John thank you for coming I think the biggest piece that we want to figure out like we made a commitment that we were going to to every Avenue to to lower the taxpayer burden so whatever we can do I don't

Think at the end of this we're going to say we've exhausted everything so I appreciate the partnership definitely if it does go that way for the commit um okay so I moved that and I'm actually glad we had that conversation um but I'll turn it back to um Bob and Dr Hunter to go through the superintendent's recommended budget okay and unfortunat you'll have to do it on your laptops to look at the screen so yeah sorry for that um So in terms of the regional budget um we and this will apply to both budgets so

I'll just do a little Preamble before Bob starts promote me too somebody has to promote me I I tried earlier and you declined so then I you must have hit the button by mistake okay um so you know the budgets we bring you aren't just the work you're either going to be hot or cold I have nothing else for you it's okay prepar coffeee and water the budgets we bring To you are not the work of just Bob and I by any stretch we um really ask a lot of our administrative team and Department chairs

to dive very deeply into their budgets um and start from really the ground up and I we met with the administrators earlier today and really had to name I think this might be the most robust approach I've seen them take where they came to the table with tradeoffs and not just asks we've always zerob based it but often that you know We we start from behind and we have to keep saying that the guidelines typically don't cover the contractual raises in either of the um large teacher based budgets so we are we're looking for savings

from the minute we start um and really kudos to the team that they came in with a lens of I'm not going to just bring asks I'm going to come in with what I can give up or has faded way or whatever it is whatever way they came to the savings um we we we just had a Really strong bunch of sessions with really leaders who took the zero based really really seriously this year so I think that served us very well because as we compiled the budget um we start we came in with reasonable

numbers right from the start which is just not normal so usually the budget's you know a few well above guideline and then Bob and I bring them through again and make our way to what what what we can do best and still service children and um this time I think a lot of that work was done at the building and Department level which was great so that said um and Bob will go through this obviously more detail we aren't coming into either budget without potential riffs um to really zero base and look at where you

are in time place and situation requires that sometimes you don't need everything you already have and based on enrollment and some other moving pieces um you know that's not unexpected right in fact it's Very expected by fincom um for us there's a lot of nuance to how we get to that and I think as we talk on the regional B it's especially Nuance at a high school with you know we don't just lay off a full-time person generally it's everything's in 025 of a person which means it's hard to find a person to to riff

and so it's just more complicated and there's a lot of moving pieces um so that said and I think there's some definite discussions to Have at the end of the conversation where we have you know we've met the guideline number in there the assessments follow the budget and the assessments how does that play into the guideline number is the question because conquered has a slight shift in enrollment slight being I don't know 60 some thousand but if we're trying to meet the guideline again this is small money so we're going to be able to figure

it out but like that's some Nuance we're still going have to talk through is how did the assessments play in um you know I think in history it's been very longstanding Carlile never ever box at the assessment and to very big numbers a couple of years where they just accept the kids are in the seats and that's not an operational increase that's just a fixed cost conquer's been a lot more mixed about how they respond to the um assessment changes and I actually think it's an exercise to have A conversation now because you've got an

one apartment Lex coming online and conquered in two years and another one fairly shortly after that and then MC conquer so the next five years is pretty pretty clear to me that conquer is going to be the swing in the assessment discussion so it's probably worth having the conversation now even on small dollars that we're going to give you a way to fix if they don't want to address it so that everyone understands public And and us when let's say the guideline is set at 3.5% and you show an operational increase of 3 5% but

so that's first right I always understood that to be we have met the guideline um but what happened and it happened last year in particular then that operational increase of 3.5% when it gets allocated to conquer or Carlile if there is an enrollment Shift from Carlile with it to conquered and the share of conquered budget from the previous year increases 3.6% what you're saying is the conquered finance committee has historically then said even though your overall operational increase met our guideline you have not met the guideline because our increase it's a very that what you're

that that is and it's been a very it's been a different conversation with each fincom depending on the but I'm Saying in the past there's been some times that that has been okay so we'll let Bob talk you through all of it um there's a lot of a lot of information here we really I think wanted this to be just a session to take it all in you've got two more meetings before you have to vote anything um we also want it to be an opportunity this year I there's some relief in that the numbers

are fairly already agreed upon let's talk about what the budget does for us it's not Just about the numbers the why is so important to the point that I put together a very lengthy doent to try to do some background telling of where those numbers go and what they mean um I've been asked over the years to talk more on what never made it to the budget because I usually just manage that and don't make a thing because I'm not trying to advocate for it so I don't want misperceptions but I did do a little

bit more of that this year I'm Like yeah the not funded this year is and sort of named a few things along the way more because I'm queuing you up for next year than anything else well and I also think too there's a perception that yeah that is not part of your process yes that is very much a part of and I think that perception es especially I think by um you know the the people the invested stakeholders whose job it is to work with us um so I I'm actually grateful for that I think

That's really important so I think the storytelling will include riffs it's going to include things we didn't put in and it's only some of them I didn't mention all of them but some of them and then the wise behind it and then how the numbers all come together for that in good news both budgets bring what we feel is you know level service is a hard word to Define because level looks different year a year sometimes but really solid programming to children and Um meeting all the goals that we've set as a community so that's

pretty exciting to be saying I've never built a budget where I had agreed upon numbers to back into that were doable and reasonable so that's been a really interesting process over the last two weeks because we agreed kind of ad hoc suddenly on December 19th well um we were getting ready to go on vacation and kind of settled what we were going to aim for so we've spent the last two weeks taking Where we were and making it you know all come together to those numbers and that's been a very interesting new way of approaching

things and I think you've implied this but I don't know if you've explicitly said it that both budgets will be at guideline both budgets are at guideline which is yeah and and really kudos to the fincom because you would be having a very different if they had left special ed out of District tuitions at the region in guideline you would be Having a completely different conversation with us that $400,000 plus would be competing against everything else so much gratitude to fincom thinking outside of the box and trying something new and different that they have not

done before so all right I'm gonna let Bob get into all of it thank you good evening um so I'm gonna jump through my slides here um for those who can see them on screen just a high level overview of the Process this is where we are now we you know develop zerob based budgets with the principal administrators we start that earlier in the fall at the same time uh guidelines are developed by the town of conquered and uh with Carlile uh this year Carlile indor The guideline established by conquered um we are now at

the stage where we're presenting our preliminary budget and um the open hearing will happen in February and then we have the ongoing feedback loop we Will we're expecting to get information on state aid and mid to late January which is helpful you know we use estimates for revenues at this point um I don't necessarily anticipate them changing much but certainly helpful to have the actual numbers the state is approving um and know what they are uh per puple expenditures is something we have been asked to share uh each year so I have the uh most

recent data from the Department of Elementary And secondary education uh you can see that uh conquer carile is third amongst our peer districts these are affluent districts uh in the area that we traditionally Benchmark with um and uh we won't talk about conquer now I'll talk about there in that presentation but we're third that of the peer Group which is the same as last year for conquer carel our budget objectives are to Maintain existing programs and supports to students we call that a level service budget support strategic plan initiatives um so looking at our plan

identifying items that we want to incorporate not all those initiatives cost money some of them do um meeting legal mandates for special education homelessness and other requirements um and then balancing school and student needs with fiscal capacities of our two member Towns uh some of the planning assumptions we made just to um as we go into the budget um to keep in mind is that um we're making level service budgets while meeting legal mandates homeless Transportation costs are not bud budgeted we will be reimbursed for this money on a lag basis the following year so

in essence we get paid back later um it does create some budget pressure uh but it ends up uh providing relief in the following year is that 100% reimbursement uh it's close it's not quite 100% I think it was like 90% last year um The Hope was and the promise was it was going to be 100 but it's not quite it's close though um and it's a lot higher than it used to be the um we also anticipate are you get there we also anticipate the state where's that coming from me oh okay if you

you just have to mute your volume turn the volume down I'm out um we also anticipate the St State Phasing out the conquered homeless shelter over the next 18 months um and grant funding remaining available uh during that time to offset um costs and help us support uh the students attending cchs so there's been no change to that grant funding right now is a minimal change yeah we'll talk a little bit more about that but um the um technically the grant funding expired in 1231 it's going to be vote we're expecting um I had a

Little bit more detail on the CPS presentation because it's a lot bigger number there but we're expecting it to be um continued continued okay all right how many students do we have at the high school four right it's uh it's a little bit more now let me pull it up it's fluid too no I know but it's much small compared to the yeah one schools you students at the shelter right five six Shel seven attending yeah Seven and we transport some others yep y seven in the school and transport additional children M um 20 open

rooms 22 open rooms hopefully clean and in good condition now um so the overall summary um here is uh shown um our total is uh 3.86% factoring in everything um we're going to go through these on the following slid but just a couple things I I'll I'll comment on other school services but the the big Drivers the out of District tuitions um most of that is private specialed tuitions it also includes Charter School tuition school choice and we have a an assessment we get for students at State hospitals um or state institutions that's another piece

so um most of the F 531 is 462,000 of that is out of District special ed tuitions uh debt Services down um so we'll going go through these but if you if you take out the a district tuitions that's a large Chunk of the increase we're at about 2.5% so again that's driving uh the big picture number um you can also see that by that being excluded that's about how much we'd have to cut to reach guideline um and that would be pretty painful so again I just Echo uh what Dr Hunter said we are

very appreciative we um know and we've acknowledged we heard them you know this is a one-time thing this is an exceptional situation the increase we're having uh it's not the Norm um so in District administration category um we've had some software costs up it's overall overall it's up 4.2% just a little bit above uh inflationary increase um uh it's being driven by software costs uh we migrated um after the cyber security incident last year how long ago was that now may may um feels like it was a long time ago we're still slightly um we

migrated our accounting software to a cloud-based product um to uh Enhance cyber security um and also it's operationally more efficient it can be supported by a group in Arizona and if we have a problem we have back it's just a lot more efficient um and a better model for us so that's um driving a little bit of an increase for accounting software Panorama we had paid for with Grant funds opportunistically and we knew that was going to expire and it's was going to roll into the budget it's rolling into the budget this year um We've

added a subscription for Google Education Plus which provides a lot more robust tools than the core Google product um that's Google Classroom now enhanced and things like syncing up with Aspen actually occur and some really great things and then some of our core subscriptions we do have I would say slightly above inflationary increases we do have pressures um things like mosul which is an apple um device managing Tool um so we're working with vendors to try to do the best we can to slow those price increases down on the salary side can we can we

capitalize some of those um softwares of subscription or no uh in our financial statements but not budget wise we can't capitalize yeah if I was in the private sector I might be able to pull that off but not not here um the administrative salaries is um increasing 26% and um it's mostly Because we have a instructional technologist that's retiring and there's some uh savings we anticipate on the replacement higher that person is very experienced and high in the salary scale um so that will offset some of the U the cola increases um for teaching and

instruction we're up 2.5% uh which is actually um in a better place than we typically are in the teaching instructional area Because of the um steps lanes and cola increas inrees our salaries are up 2.1% there's a reduction in 0.92 FTE and that's like Dr Hunter mentioned it's like a quarter here we have one person that's a little bit less than a quarter it's half of a quarter um but across different subjects it's a net reduction of 0.92 FTE um part of what's also helping this is that we um have a pathway special education program

that has had two Students tuition in from other towns uh and now now um we're we have three and so that $45,000 um is an offset to uh the teacher salaries um that will help um then we do have some savings on replacement hires and some retirements um as well with above that kind of offsets the cola and step and Lane increases so this is not the norm 2.1% for uh ccats ta salaries is um is is Great U from our perspective and better than what we typically are for supplies and materials our increase um

is basically fairly modest except that we've added one item that we think is important um we've added $90,000 to the technology budget to begin replacing interactive boards uh and talking to our um school principls and School Technology director the boards that are there um are they've been there since the building open some of them are Failing it's also not the technology we want to use we want to go to um interactive screens yeah that they can work with different than the ones we have now the the price of the units is similar um but we

have a lot of boards in the building 990,000 would probably allow us to do the fourth floor and we probably would need to do maybe a little bit more than 90 the next two years to do the um third floor and the second floor yeah this was a big discussion for Us that as we brought people through the zerob based it wasn't necessarily the top priority on our list but as the zero based and the budget process process panned out and we started listening to the administrators and then you go of course then you go

look and you're like oh they're right it's terrible um K5 in the high school like we've got to start chipping away at the massive um replacement things that need to happen so I'm really what happens when you put Buildings off yeah exactly and somebody 10 years from now say the same thing about the middle school yeah you need to what's the cost per unit of the new 20 about 3,000 is yeah little bit like it might have gone up a little bit but not it's less than 4,000 it's just a short throw with uh no

we're looking at screens that are the portable screens the interactive portable screens like clear touch yes like we have at the middle school yeah and I would say no no On them and then now I'm a big supporter yeah oh great I should wait for the punch line I think would you actually use them CU we're a Mac like this they're more they're more like Windows Centric and Google Centric not and they're not really a Mac uh Appliance so it's was like oh you know we've to all this Mac infrastructure but it the teachers love

them that's great um and they are much more flexible yeah so yeah Um so we're about to have a whole Middle School full of them so we'll be very quickly sharing your our thoughts but I'm one of the two non- Maxs here I see it's always hard to convert the business office they go down fighting a um can and then non-teacher salaries is down by a quarter of an FTE um uh so it's up 54,000 or 1.8% but so all in all again teaching instructional support uh is up 2.5 or 522,000 yeah I just want

to add to that you know when You see reductions there those aren't just naturally all happening some of them are but not all so there may be some folks who get hard news here as the next couple of months come by how does severance work in the budget is that an operational expense or uh it would it would actually be unemployment Unemployment uh and yes would be paid by the town yeah okay here um we do have a modest budget for it um sometimes it's retirement in this case I I'm fairly Certain I know that

this person got certified and is doing something U they are they were part um professional part tutor and I think they gave up the tutor portion of their job which was small portion of it okay so I don't think this um I think this was anyway what we don't want to do tonight and I know you already know this but I'm going to say for the community we're not disclosing which positions are being partly because things are still moving We got it close enough we could put numbers in front of you and continue our discussions

and partly because we need to respect that these are people's jobs thank you um other school Services is up 9.1% 311,000 uh 122,000 that's due to an increase in special ed Transportation costs um there's two components to that there's parent reimbursements that are up slightly um transporting them they're their children to um out of District Placements we also have um an assessment that we get from case collaborative that does our transportation um in general uh both in District and out of District um in the past they've had significant surpluses that have helped to lower the

assessment those surpluses are declining um and so we we haven't haven't budgeted a surplus offset this year um so um there's a little bit of an adjustment this year from not having the Surplus um and are all those private Transportation I mean there those costs have just skyrocketed over the past yeah there's been a market available to them to create a void there was a void there because we couldn't find whatever they want and we Bob's pretty relentless on finding the one with the best because the homeless kids are all on other providers so we've

found a couple companies couple yeah we call you know we're supposed to ask for three quotes So we found some companies and we tend To follow up with those companies and um but yeah the rates are all over the place we had one quot of like $500 for a day that's 180 school days that's what 80 90,000 $9,000 so we have searched and um there's one as low as $92 a day uh we we pay half of it but the so it is it is a challenge particularly with the the homeless Transportation which we need

to rage quickly um usually we have some ideas case doesn't do homeless they've done a little if we've already got a run With an open seat but that's about it so but with the special education Transportation cost I know we when we went and met with fincom about them kind of helping us with with the guideline on that we know that the state didn't has not come through on their commitment correct so correct one of the things that Brian and I have asked the like car is to maybe come together with you so we can

collectively make an ass to the state yeah abs That to try to lessen this that could be all School committees honestly like it really more more than just the two towns yeah so we exactly and that was other the conversation so if we could do you need help like can we help in any way with bringing that together and making a formal ask to either so Julie have you talked to masc I think that they've advocated for this very strongly in their annual meetings and in fact have bills on the table so you should Probably

today or if they have bills on the table today because I haven't I have I have in inquired outside of that but I will definitely reach out to Alicia and there might be you know there might be a standard letter that we could I think this one's been a lobbying topic for years now just keep keeping the pressure our house on them I mean nothing comes out of those committees agreed yeah yeah so yeah this so this this directly gets you Know it's part of the circuit breaker reimbursement and they're not funding the transportation piece

to the extent they said they would correct um this budget um I'll keep going through what it includes first then what it doesn't it includes um an increase for the athletic coaches um our old contract um which thankfully um has been changed in our collective bargaining had this um benchmarking process that um we did every three years uh very complicated But regardless um what it results in is every three years you get kind of a significant bump because you haven't um adjusted the coaching prices and then you're catching up three years later for three years

of increases when you Benchmark so we have a 9% increase in coach's salaries through our benchmarking going forward will our our coaching salary increases will be tied to Cola so whatever the teachers's contract has there won't be that big Bump y will be better so we do have that this year this um adjustment and going forward it'll be a smaller increase um we've added an assistant athletic director we've um done some um looking at other um athletic departments and what their Staffing is and this is something that particularly with all the weekend activity uh that

the high school has U both in District and out of District um and needing to have an administrator on site for events um felt Like this was it's just not doable aon's going to burn Aaron's burning out so we need to get some back up so there's some creativity and how we got that in there without really adding to the budget and looking at because he has an admin assistant now so we sort of anyway it doesn't matter the behind the scenes but we got creative and how we got it in so it's not a

huge increase to you but it's a very much needed position well we've I mean you've brought increase of Different teams and they do really try and be inclusive of you know it's not as though you just have a freshman at JV n Varsity I mean there's JV JV you know you have four teams instead of three so it's just all of those games have and really the LA the shortage of um officials is driving it to a 7 day a week activity when that not that was not the case years ago when they staff at

all Monday through Friday interesting yeah regular Ed Transportation has a Relatively modest increase of 2.4% 23,000 um and a piece of that is some of the cont sometimes we have to contract Service um for some of the trips um for athletics in the afternoon because of the timing of our schools closing and a lot of the vendors aren't able to do that so our transportation director gotten creative and trying to uh find ways to fill that but we've had to cut back on our contractor service budget just because we have can't find vendors That can

fill our needs um what's not budgeted in here is homeless Transportation um and that's uh about $669,000 that we're projecting uh for this year um next year remains to be seen the um requirements related to how long they're allowing people to stay in the shelter is shortening so you know we don't know but we're learning the headlines as you are and then I make some phone calls to see what's real see okay um for maintenance and operations We're up 4.7 over budget uh the the Big Driver there uh the biggest driver is um we have

some additional cyber threat detection services in support again related to the Cyber incident uh the ccrd share of that's 29,000 um our heating costs are going up 11% we had a 30 or 36 month uh contract for gas supply and um that came up so three years later you're going to have some some price increases um but lock we've again locked in for a Uh multiple a longer time period so we don't have that increase next year uh water and sewers up 12,000 we have an estimate we received from DPW on what the storm water

assessment would be this is a new assessment that uh is being rolled out um they estimate that we could be available for a credit of up to 50% and they estimated a cost of 24 so I budgeted 12 hoping that we get the credit um that's good question this might be like real dumb prefit with That when we pay our bills and this is more even probably a CPS question but I'll ask it here H to cmlp or the town of conquered for water and sewer is one way to look at that like just a

transfer of funds between one yes Town Department to another so I wonder too given how iterative the conversations were with the finance committee is and given that sort of the Natural resources sector is kind of volatile as it is um and I think about to the middle school with the electric coming on with all electric is there like a worthwhile discussion to be had to even like and I know these are small numbers like taking this out of the guideline too because our deficit is to their benefit like you like you know what I mean

they are Enterprises so they're not a town Department per se right they're trying To make money no I I get that but so no because it would be like saying we' take the gas out of the I mean it would make sense it's just the same as we're paying to the a third party gas company we're lucky very lucky many ways to have cmlp oh goodness taking out of the guideline would be like saying that when when do we stop taking a vendor out of the guideline like yeah see why you ask and I think

really at the region the Discussion first is getting Apples to Apples on what's in guideline because you're going to see costs coming up here on health benefits and workers comp and OPB which are out of guideline for the town and not for us and this year doesn't matter I don't think it really matters if we're able to get a reasonable number and work together to collaborate it doesn't really matter what was in or out as long as we all got to the same place but right yeah we did Start those discussions yeah there's probably more

to talk about there yeah and I think for the storm water it's um I'm happy for the clarification I just was trying to intellectualize it yeah it was a good question this is new too so like we have the impact this year once it's in the in the number it's going to be a similar amount every year it's not going to matter much yeah get it okay um the um so that's the heating then the rest of this is uh contractual wage Increases again so overall it's 4.7% um you know some of these key drivers

are one-time things um causing them to be an increase this year uh for fixed charges this includes benefits this is um to the question earlier this is where we would budget unemployment um our insurance is going up 6.1% the rate increase is actually higher than that but our participation levels um we anticipated when we switched to Maya that there would be a Little bit more of a participation increase um we've also had some retirements and some of the replacement hires did not enroll um so net um this is 6.1 but the rate increase that's factored

in here is 8% um the um property and liability insurance is going up 42,000 based on uh our actuals from last year projecting a a slight inflationary increase and then I've added in rental costs for the lease of the launch rental space That's the yearly rental cost um and then these are offset by Social Security tax which we are no longer um required to contribute to um instead uh the employees who have contributed to this and us in the past have we they have a orra retirement option which is common for most municipalities U we

were one of the few that that had the this um the town abolished eliminated it last year as well and we followed their lead and then The retirement assessment from conquered um they are near fully funded our assessments come down 31% um and so it's nice that we're getting some relief as to get closer to fully funded status um fixed assets is a reduction essentially because we budgeted a one-time item in fy2 that we don't need to budget in FY 26 for uh computer lab Hardware replacement so that's down 25,000 or 6.5% versus the 25

budget debt Services down 3% uh or 118,000 uh the um things to highlight here are that the access road Bond anticipation note we added it in fy2 uh our first payments are now um coming through where we're paying interest in a small principal repayment in FY 26 uh we also have a a ban for landfill remediation from several years ago uh prior to my time here and as of FY 26 That'll be fully paid down um and then our existing bonds are all level principal declining interest so that means you know over time as the

principales paid down we'll be paying less interest so that's why our debt service is declining and is anticipated to continue to decline out of District tuitions increased 532 2000 um you can see I've broken out here that the gross increase Um for tuitions for private schools and collaboratives is increased 462,000 approximately 133% uh in the budget offsets for circuit breaker and Ida Grant are flat um the state assessments for Charter Schools school choice and other organizations would include State hospitals increased by 69,000 when we compare to guideline we're not factoring in bottom part we didn't

think that the the fincom was um Considering this to be part of the equation so um you'll see the math later does not include that it just includes the 462 uh being backed out again so this is the key driver um in our budget increase this year um this is just a high level view of um of the budget from a salary non-salary perspective and the non-salary piece again is driven primarily by of District tuitions um on the homeless front uh the Estimated fy2 grant funding actually that uh might end up being higher than 72,000

but that uh was a conservative estimate um we're extending an ex uh expecting an extension of the grant like I mentioned earlier Beyond uh December 31st we're just waiting for that to be confirmed um we have less costs committed um to the homeless Grant um in this District um the transportation costs are are projected to uh increase over last year Uh we're projecting 69,000 these are unbudgeted um in essence we we have to find a way to offset this or you know draw down um some revolving funds and then pay them back uh once we

get the uh the reimbursement the following year uh update on our OPB trust um at the end of June 30 you can see we are now 60% funded I think we reported 52 or 54% last year and our budgeted contributions currently 425,000 That's fantastic there's a we're probably in the top 3% of districts across the state our Revenue budget is relatively flat you can see overall up 2.3% um Chapter 70 is relatively flat we actually in 25 the actual number ended up being slightly less than um what we budgeted and so that's partly why we're

only at 2.1% um the only kind of one that jumps here is the charter reimbursement when You have an increase in Charter tuitions the state reimburses you um gives you a reimbursement in the first year that occurs for Budget relief so I uh budgeted for that um to occur in FY 26 so just before you go on those of you who are new the this is where the region really starts to differ in that CPS we don't we're you know the revenue goes to the town so we're not monitoring we monitor that certainly to see

what state aid levels are like but it's not a Direct piece for us to account for so but in the region we have to so it's Chapter 70 which is state aid um chapter 71 is transportation reimbursement Regional districts get significant reimbursement for being Regional um it's meant to be an incentive to regionalize um and then our excess and Def efficiency as count is essentially our free cash we do pull from excess in deficiency every year when I got here we were pulling almost 700,000 from there And that was obviously really unsmart unhealthy um we've

got it down to three and really it's maintained that for probably five years now because we've been able to replenish that and get back to the almost 5% because of the way things have fallen out with the budgets um because you can't go over 5% of your operating budget in end so it's a decent number would ideally would you want to be at zero and not really drawing on end because it sort of sets you up to have To know you could bot you know you could run out of B and D at some point

if you're not replenishing but we haven't had that issue so we haven't really tackled it and frankly if you did change this some years you would have been over the 5% and um so that's just some of the background peace um this just again this kind going to walks you through how you get from the expenditure budget of 4,479 down to the assessments of the Towns so you know from the top 4,479 we're backing at all of the revenues we we receive and the utilization of end to arrive at an assessment to the towns of

35.6 million uh we then um divide that out to the Two Towns based on the relative student enrollment on October 1 um so it's 76.6 3% % for conquered and 23.37% increase for conquered and decrease for Carlile percentage wise um and I think the following slide I'll Show the student counts so um I'll move on to the next slide this is when we excuse me talk about comparing to guideline uh typically the comparison is without debt um and um certainly that's what conquer been comment has endorsed is is without debt um but I show both

here so that you can see what the actual impact is um in terms of what you're getting assessed at the bottom and then if you back out the debt you know because the debt service is declining it Tends to pull it down a little bit it's 5.29 for conquered 4.06 for Carlile here's the the change in students both are are decreasing um slightly um It's relatively stable U but but that equates to about a $75,000 impact um or shift so this is um where we um we wanted to compare to what the fincom posted they

posted the conquered fincom posted a number of 23, 9571 154 which is partway down there and Carlile Later um endorsed the fincom uh guideline and I actually I didn't and never saw it published but I calculated it the same way I calculated conquer and so what I've done is I've walked through um what our assessment is with debt I backed out Debt Service to show what our assessments are without debt um then um as was agreed you know the guideline was 3.4 3.48% with an onetime exclusion for the impact of the out District tuition Increase

so I've then backed out each District's relative share of that um7 7,000 for Carlile uh and 354 for conquered to arrive at um an assessment that does not include debt or out of District um and you can see that those compare across both towns were um we're under by about 3,000 but because of the enrollment shift we're under um under guideline under this calculation by 66,000 in Carlile and over and conquered by 63,000 for the add of District tuition I know we started to do Carlile enrolling to conquer do you envision if we could refer

like a special education if we were to start to to look into that in more detail after we have this one kind a chance to do it um we talked about it in Carl that's why I'm uh can you reframe the question I lost you too do do we envision if we could start to have I mean I can just speak for myself I don't want to speak for you Brian but I Know especially with the middle school coming online and this great space you have for special education and just the number of programs that

you have just because you're a larger district and you're conquered y um do we envision that this number like realistically do we see this coming down if Carlile were to start to work closer with conquered at a k through L I think that's a so that's a k that's a CP CPS question a CPS so it won't impact this but but it Will but in the future of course if it's very likely if carile starts to place students in the K8 programs in conquer the high school out of District number is going to reduce agreed

because I think what what what again Brian I want to give you a chance to speak too I think what we would love to do is just have you did such a great job of starting that conversation and I think for us as because we sit on two two School committees I think us Bringing it up as we close out this year but even as we go into next year from goal setting standpoint we should really start looking at this because if we can get a better funnel for you all in K3 it's only going

to help both of us when we get to the to the high school level and honestly we want to keep as many kids in Greater Community yeah as possible I miss anything Brian I don't know if you have any thoughts no no I think that's pretty comprehensive and I Think it's a wi in so many different ways for the students who as you said yeah hopefully can be within the greater yes and the transportation would be a lot less yes I do think that is like a Year's long oh for sure process like that's going

to take a long we started one child last week which is amazing but I just mean to make it a systemic kind of on a parallel conversation what do you expect that the um impact would Possibly be of the two new housing developments coming online yeah isn't that the question because the problem is if we start creating a lot of special education classrooms we're filling up our regular and then we have an influx of 150 kids yeah we have a problem we're already there a little bit and obviously it's a CPS qu conversation mostly the

high school because it's big and all these moving pieces you know kids move all day long so it's not like a one Place that gets impacted I mean the high school have we all enjoyed the fact that the high school is now just under 1,200 and that is the number it was built for and we can definitely feel the difference that we're just not squished in every direction um but can we get back to the 1300 and manage it clearly we can if we did it for quite a while so I would doubt it' be

100 high school kids that would seem like a big number you're talking K yeah I would think I Mean from the Nathan Pratt complex we pull about a little over a 100 Kids prek K2 so for lack of another you know metric that seems like a reasonable guess as we might pick back up another 100 100 both complex how many units larger aren't they yeah that's big that would be bigger iser years yeah almost double no no no if these two things come online they're bigger yeah they're like we're 200 how many Nathan Pratt like

Two I think that's pretty close to at least one of the complexes that's coming online I've been emailing both of them I think of three something yeah I think they're both in the it's 350 at the Prescott Nathan okay so that's bigger than yeah so okay who knows the first year it was a shocker yes yeah we're yeah and I think people are sort of stuck there like everybody in real estate right now like it's tough to move around yeah So but anyway I think you're right efficiencies and student benefit in Carlile would be fantastic

um getting cter over there all the way yeah know it is pretty cool can't find a sweet spot I'm just wondering how many if we could just get a look at how many classrooms we each actually have in every elementary school so you know they don't sit empty if we filled them with you're right sped programs no no but what regular how many regular education Classrooms do we currently have now versus how many could we have that's all in the documents you've got for CPS so we can dive in yeah okay all right yes sorry

what's next um just to um a little heat call there um since it's relevant um we are proposing a non-resident tuition revolving fund uh at CPS which allows us to take in money for tuitions efficiently financially and um kind of anticipation yeah that could Affect relevant to that it's relevant to your question we already have one at the high school but it could allow us to get kids into the pipeline that that help later um so I'll keep going here uh our access and efficiency was certified at uh 1.7 one almost 1.8 million on June

30th we're going through the um certification process now um just to you know we do have uh free cash doesn't I think have a limit but our um unlike free cash excess and deficiency does It's 5% of the operating and capital budget uh of the current year so our cap the most we could carry is 1,892 so we're not far off from that um I'll I typically will include a report um in a school committee agenda when we get it certified just so you see what the new amount is um but um we're in a

queue with Department of Division of local Services Department of Revenue um so we'll provide an update I'm anticipating it might um might decline a bit but There's a few moving parts so I I don't want to provide a forecast at this point um if it comes to it um we have um talked you know about what would happen if we if we had to make cuts and these are kind of initial thoughts we you know we haven't done a um a deep dive into this but um the OPB trust we we're thinking is is fairly

well funded we could potentially reduce that technology budget um we do want to Make progress on that so maybe some of that could be reduced you know other things would require us to look more deeply and um so we're we're hopeful that the way we shared the information we shared shows and supports that we've reached guideline um there is that shift across the Two Towns um where the enrollment shift affects conquered um and benefits Carlile um but overall looking at it um across the Two Towns we have met the Number and just reminder that even

though it's a60 some thousand Delta and conquered if it doesn't stay out of guideline we actually have to cut 90,000 because it's proportional right that's what we've identified 9095 um and that's that's the presentation on the budget great any questions I think one of the hopes we had tonight not certainly to take some questions tonight but also to take questions that you Might need us to research because we don't have it off the top of our heads um and then maybe to at the next meeting spend a little bit of time on highlighting what I

put together to paper on historic and storytelling so that's are you doing that the next meeting I was thinking the next meeting just time yeah well I was just going to say if we're doing if you're doing that let's hold questions until after that yeah I think yeah for no I think that's I think I think this was a lot already it's my instinct to let you process that I have a couple question is it time yeah um my first one is super boring I was going through the hund level and I just had a

question there were some money allocated to something called the school choice CH assessment and the sped assessment what are those so you don't see that the CPS side because the town does so when kids school choice into another District yeah We get assessed uh per pupil amount got it okay so that's all okay so that's same with Charter if they choose to go to a charter we could assess a per pupil amount for Charters um and then my next question is like a bigger potential discussion but to your point so and this is sort of

building off of Julie's like statement which I thought at the beginning was lovly and um it moved me um enough that um I'm wondering So took some notes um so you know we talk about here a lot that our budgets can be viewed as a value statement um and even more specific ly like I've come to see our budgets kind of can be seen as an expression of our strategic plan um if you start to really like go down deep and look at all these things so give and and and then and how we intersect

with the budget and the the you know the narrow scope of what we can really do as school Committee members one of the largest things that we can do is approve your budget look at it to ascertain whether it is a true expression of our strategic plan give you feedback on that and then ultimately advocate for it um and this year thankfully there won't be the need to do that so vociferously as in years past and you know but but we have in fact had to Advocate it and for it and sometimes that advocacy at

least in my tenure has Been really challenging and really difficult and not without creating a tremendous amount of tension between um different groups in town so and then piggy backing on what Julie said like it does seem to be that there is um a a a a sizable interest by a subset of the population in conquer to to look at and to sort of ensure that we are appropri rely um putting resources specifically To deib kind of related things um and again what we can do as members is to ensure that the the budget is

an actual expression of that so what I'm wondering and and I again when I look through all the hundred level I see and but it's no offense it sounds it looks so boring on the hundred level I'm wondering if there is an opportunity sorry it just does it looks so boring um if there's some ability to sort of aggregate what that looks like maybe Even looking at it over a couple of years showing what that in like how we've grown that investment in sort of tangible more interesting narrative ways um so that because I think

it's important that the community sees it and I and Julie you were so well spoken today talking about how that's a priority for you and I'm wondering if it's if that is a realistic ask for you guys to sort of put that Together for like our next meeting or at least before we have to ratify this budget just to be sure we're understanding the ask take Deb and show what our I mean what our plan what what what we spent to meet the plan we made yeah and I think you what I'm realizing is sometimes

I think it gets lost in the community when you know we say oh we've added a additional Meco director or an additional you know adjustment counselor Or um even like our new reading curriculum like I mean you know I mean then it depends on how really big you want to go with deib and and that is a a different discussion but um I think if the community is not understanding our investment I think sure let's show them um and again what why it's meaningful to me is because that's the only thing we really have pervie

over I can't tell you Shelly what what what phonics curriculum is best that's your view I can't tell You um you know I think we need to do restorative circles versus you know whatever the alternative is but I can ensure that your budget reflects our values here and so to me if we can at the very least demonstrate to the community that we're you know we are doing that and that is where we have purview I think that that is a meaningful discussion to have and and I and and again if it's not a realistic

ask yeah I think we can certainly do it I think the challenge is when you get to things that are more ubiquitous but have a huge impact we'll probably just have to name those and it'll be harder to quantify you know like put them as outside is it easy for me to say you know we have a 0.25 FTE committed to the calculus project right that I can certainly pull out yeah things that are I yeah and so do it how you want to but I think and I don't know if that's something that everyone

is interested Might be multiple lenses I think that we can to your point like it's it's Nuance right so yeah what is like the straight ask and then what is like that is like very clear and then what parts live outside of it that's more of a narrative I cut you off what you going to say well I just have a very specific question along those lines the Meco budget with the Meco grants with specific money that we do spend on Meco and Meco Transportation some of these other Things like the calculus tangential but almost

specific but that's up to you whether to include that or not in a the I mean the purpose of the Cal p is to get diverse students to high level math so so that's de no no I'm asking me specifically sorry okay like also illustrate Meco inc's concern constant question constant lobbying about the mecho is not fully funded and what we do to um additionally above the Meco Grant to make it a better Experience we very much hope so you know um I I don't think that's controversial I don't think there's any problem with having

that discussion because you know I think it's incumbent about on all districts to do the work and I think most do not just not just us to you know fill the gaps in between the Meco Grant and what all students need right transportation to and from athletic events on the weekends and so forth so and even having those discussions in Public like might help Millie she could like on our meeting I'm saying and you know well I just think it I think that I think what it's it's important to have a conversation of the value

also that me brings to this community absolutely th% and that we can't put a price tag on that yes you can't it's I think it's invaluable that you know like bringing my son letting my son come to school out here does more for conquer than it does for my son so I think that um that's why It's important to have the conversation of how important Mecha is not only for what conquer does for mea but what th% the conversations that I've had to have forc to have like what a Meco family looks like what a

Meco student looks like is I I would think that 2025 we don't have to have these conversations but unfortunately we do so right and I'm saying totally agree with you and I hate to have it come down to a a you know we can't afford to have Meco kind of a situation because that's that's that's I think what I would would also like to do though in the in the same Spirit of what we said and Aisha has been great with giving feedback so I think when we have that view what I want to make

sure that we give time to it in I keep on saying next week next meeting is we might not be able to finish it but I think to Al's point before we ratify anything I think what we should say is for example like if There is things that you're hearing from the parents or from students or you're hearing from students or families that require things we we do have this budget to work in but can we streamline some trans transportation to make room for something in FTE and still look at the money and way to

so I think having everything on the table is a is a good thing we don't have to complete the conversations by the time we vote on a warrant article right exactly that's What I mean so I think that would be really valuable I think we're all aligned on that and then I think just making sure that during the discussion um I don't want to put in the L zes I think they the budget if you're comfortable with it we can solicit feedback of have the meeting tomorrow night Millie is going to be here in two

weeks I think let's make sure that we have that discussion um and I think like I'm I'm leaning on Transportation because that's one that comes up up a lot and we hear about the increases so like are there things that we can do to stream on it but still make sure that there's access on weekends or late like yep think just looking at it I mean we we've done a lot of different things I be happy to story tell and it's just and I think that's what it isck everything changes like it's like you said

2025 is like we if we need to update some things um so like ever since I I'm new to this so I keep on hearing well it's been over 50 years okay awesome like and there's been huge pivots that I've heard from there have so we want to share those make sure that it's as transparent as as possible so okay I just want just like obviously I know this is a regional conversation I think this goes without saying but just have this for both budgets toally yeah yeah sure that was I have one other addition

if are you ask a Question I'm done just to clarify it's it's it's both metco program cross and deib yes yes Cynthia's was Cynthia sort of becomes a subset of my ass so you're asking essentially to disaggregate some stuff yeah dib stuff might show up in a lot of places and not be like we might not catch everything there like we have an reporting tool I don't think anyone going to hold you to the dime I have like a quick question on the um the boards how many boards are you Talking like how long will

it take to replace the interactive boards yeah I couldn't remember the name I'm like it's not the active clear touch how long will it take three and a half three and a half years money probably this is and no no wa three and this is one this is year one FY 2728 money 29 yes yes yeah there other talks we've had I'll just leave it at that yes okay all right I there's a lot of boards yeah it's a lot of boards Right which is why we thought we needed to get started totally definitely um

one topic I'd like to explore further and you've alluded to this a little bit in your comments and also in your narrative document but I would love to have um a bigger conversation around um what's not in the budget um I know we've talked about this at fincom a lot um and they would be particularly interested in seeing it but just an I think you've named this that like we do zerob based Budgeting and so a lot doesn't even make it to the conversation table and so I think it would be really beneficial to the

community to see what those things are some of those things are or like just even the buckets of [Music] that's really yeah MH is the launch retail space I didn't see that called out unless I missed it it was in the fixed cost section in the 5,000 flyed 31,000 yeah not very reasonable cost and Okay 30 in there lot going on in there painted there's materials and shelving in there they're getting set up you think it's a January setup February setup I think they're pushing hard for January okay great but they things might be taking

a little longer than yeah soft yeah yeah yeah there's a lot there's a lot of positive energy there though so if there's an opportunity they need people to attend a soft opening I 100 to Right great all right um so moving through I think this is a great conversation I'm glad we did the quotequote listening session I think it worked I think it worked well yeah I think we have some good followup for um for two weeks from now so let's get back to point C on the warrant so it sounds like we're going to

probably discuss the amenities building in two weeks we're going to hold on 121 y y really this was just to remind you that if since you Probably won't know what you're doing you have to decide if you're going to put a warrant article in or not and I'll just be the reminder that the warrant is opening on January 20th and closes on February 19 you don't need to remind us you for us on the building like I think that's so your last February 4th is when you'll have to have made a decision and I'm thinking

too like when we outline the discussion on the 21st like and maybe you do it in the agenda overview But sort of option one option yeah or like be I just feel like it's so confusing like if you could just be like if this then this if you know what I mean the sub committee could work on yeah okay fine can we post okay we'll do that sorry um I don't want to do that but great we'll do it make a recommendation mayy post for Friday Friday can we post for Friday oh yeah we should

asking you Brian said yes did you Say yes what time though because we have to get it posted in both towns tomorrow morning tomorrow morning okay so hold on meet after that we'll discuss we'll let morning is going to be really hard for us to pull off we also have to send what if we did it like Friday at like lunch Brian lunch um do you like lunch no he's looking at his schedule yeah I'm gonna have to we'll talk okay we'll talk just tricky I got okay all right Capital Stabilization for the warrants do

we want to talk about that now go ahead Bob yeah I I don't necessarily think given our our increase that we should ask for it this year but I I just want to say that I absolutely think we should be making contributions to a capital stabilization fund we should not need to use our operating budget to fund the interactive boards we should have money in a capital stabilization account that can pay for the amenities building they Can contribute to the Memorial Field things like that so um we need to find a way to get this

into the budget at some point so that we can be more self-sufficient and not need to do what we need to do to get capital projects done what do you think I mean would that be dependent like if we're not going to go with a warrant amenities do we want to prioritize this the stabilization fund well the the problem we could tie this discussion together right that too Yeah but what that would be operating money versus Capital money you know what I mean like have a capital f no what number are you thinking about but

we don't have any money in it right so we we have the structure you just have no money structure there's just no money we created the structure in Co because we had some Surplus that's how you paid for that be is it something that we could redirect oped money since it's so healthy yeah I I think we I I think that For for this year um so we've talked a little bit offline about I don't think we want to do anything this year I I really I was the one that wanted to push to get

it on the radar so we could at least talk about it I think that we should look at in the future get the fincom to talk about it also and see if we can get any Buy in look at the com combination of Debt Service declining maybe some share of that maybe not I know carile I've heard has planned on That to fund their own capital projects but if you can't use a decline in debt service maybe we look at okay can we gradually ratchet down the op contributions as we get more funded and shift

50,000 to Capital stabilization and then eventually when it's fully funded you're shifting that to Capital stabilization contribution but I think once we start even if it's 50,000 in the first year we do it I think it'll be easier to continue and Increase it and you know we could do it opportunistically like if we got lucky and um not not lucky but like what if what if our tuitions come down this was an exceptional year next year and we have a big decline maybe that's an opportunity if we have a two two% increase I'm gonna be

happy if they're stable so I I this is what we've been doing I'm like it's not the right moment to ask since we're getting such support we yeah we've gone through and we see What our numbers are and there was an exception made for a district tuition so it doesn't feel like it's the right time to ask for it but I think it's the right time to to start the conversation without the pressure of an ask and say this is something we want to look at and and how you know what are the fincom think

and um and really it would be a win for the communities because if you could have some money on hand you would avoid Borrowing which UL cost everybody more money and you'd be a little more autonomous and not need warrant articles and really high LEL like $1 million warrant articles and then creating ballot votes too which cost the town money like if you had a little more to work with without needing to go borrow it it would be a be good for everybody I am intrigued about the possibility of like what if we didn't have

an amenities warn article but had Money towards Capital stabilization fund then could we later on partner with CC play and somehow they couldn't use that money that's that's a trade-off you trade that's a tradeoff it's thinking if we had this so just as an example if this Capital if amenities building needed to be done four years from now and we shifted the opep money to the capital stabilization we'd be able to pay for the whole project ourselves or the truck yeah that Would take a little longer I think that's yeah yeah but you get actually

I don't know how much that would cost I forget was about two million two million okay yeah not much longer right anyway so that's the idea but it doesn't seem like the time to ask for it y okay that's good to know um all right the last piece on the discussion is um we need a school committee representative to bargain with the cchs tutors and Transportation generally like two in case that we can we don't lose momentum if somebody has issues and this is specific to cchs um well so you've got two units there cchs

tutors is just High School transportation K12 bus drivers oh that's why I missed the 12 okay yeah that's what I thought okay and this would start one reason I mean you know spring not imminently but you probably want to get going and planning in March we've Already got one letter from the tutor demand to bargain which just means they're ready um um normally we would start in marchish these are smaller two different negotiations right negotiations we run eight bargaining units those of us who get two districts so this is two of them two of the

smaller ones I just wanted to make sure they weren't part of one no two separate so you're looking for two volunteers for each I think so for each C I did on bus drivers last normally cycle so I'm happy to do that again I've never done one of these so I'd love to do the tutors to do one yeah yeah and just for those of you who don't know usually meetings are at like 3:30 4:00 CU they we can't bargain during their work day so um we tend to do it like late afternoon into early

evening and we usually have someone that's bargained before prior to give right if anyone wants to help you with the tutors Done it before I did I did tutors before yes you did well isn't that convenient and wonderful crazy I'm a little out but I yeah well cuz we're doing the mo still we're still at the table table with the middle schild and the yeah we got some followups from last year still but I'll do transportation of the ENT why don't we do the EAS Andrew and Carrie do Transportation sure all right who's I'll do

with me with tutors TR and I are Doing tutors unless anyone else really wanted to do it no I can do it if nobody else wants to but I there's the benefit of knowled all right Carrie and Tracy for tutors yeah I've got you twice I missed something Julie Julie and TR got it Carrie and Andrew for buses don't need two for each district for Joy friends do you what's that you don't need one for each district for transportation do you oh they're both in they're in the region As well never mind sorry yeah I

think it's okay that's right you're in both mindful of the time I know you guys still have your conquer agree with that I think public common we moved we moved it up unless there's a hand ra which I don't see online did you want to speak again yes something came up yeah anything to hey Mike can you talk louder I'll try especially in the absence of a microphone I have trouble hearing you uh Michael Williams 1284 CB Road just Qui comment actually to Alexa you made an excellent comment on looking at how the department the

district and the regional district uh show that uh they have a serious commitment to EI I would submit though it might not only be by looking at the budget and how the budget is allocated but by looking at the budget challenging the budget and then looking at the data that comes from the actions see that the data that the budget drives supports What's being done interrogating that making certain that the results make sense for the dollar spent and where it doesn't tweak it going forward so it's a good good point looking at what you spend

what you get for what you spend is it working is it doing what you want to have done and then when it isn't tweak it so that works so good point good point another thing to Julie uh I like this that but people might find things that happen during the meeting they want To come again what happened so thank you welcome yep play Brian he brought it up we do it in car so can't take the credit for moving it good there's a hand up there yeah that's on the webinar though I think I don't

think it's a it's not a Community member I just wonder oh yeah okay um I think just because we we have been doing this for two and a half hours I just want to do a quick recap and then we will adjourn um So the one thing is the comment that came up earlier that we will cover in a couple weeks but I just want to make it known um so Deb's replacement for Meco um iish just brought up we want to make sure that there is a parent panel that it's actually both Meco directors

correct position so we'll be running a full search which means we put a committee together which will include parent representation student representation teachers school probably One of you maybe two since it's both districts um that sit and do that yeah whole process with us yep I just I just did want to respond to that and we'll cover it in more detail but I did want to make sure that that was publicly noted because I think it's really important y um I think that the other piece is is that um as you mentioned we have the

coffees I think getting out in the community overom communicating is a good thing right now um all especially Now so we have the one scheduled in in Carla for the 27th more details to to come I think the idea of having the one in Boston in early February to also take that opportunity to communicate um Aisha will run Point carable support um Alexa is going to get the one going in conquered the worst I know I haven't no no it's fine campus completion uh subcommittee is formed you guys will report out next next meeting um

I think one of the things that we Haven't talked about but we had the ma masc charting the course um Tracy gave me some good advice I think now that I'm chaired coming back with fresh eyes Brian and I took it like I think the second week into our tenure so I'm planning on going going Aisha I know you and Domingo had asked if we could go we could go together um if anyone else would like to revisit it I'm going to be I know it sounds weird but like you could keep going it so

much better the Second time the second time was way better I would even consider a third time I mean it's it's useful I know you think again I just wi some good for at least six months you you get something did you really though I did and I also think presenter oh I have it he sent it to me oh good good all good all good you showed it at that Mee show every I do think it's I do think this is important because it it's I think one of the things that that I've Struggled

with since being a part of it is like what do we actually have control over what we don't and that is really helpful so I'm looking forward to doing that yeah CU I missed that the first time and only like cuz we went when we were like new chairs right yeah yeah and I was like oh now I know what to pay attention to and now I know what the questions are to ask you don't know any anything that first time yeah yeah there's too much it's like I almost and Again you went and that's

lovely but I almost like recommend like going in your 11th month you know what I mean like you get so nervous and you're like oh I got to do this or like I don't look like I'm invested I'm like retrospectively I would have gone like 11 months in why Andrew waited yeah well no going and then crap we're going big picture it's just fun you can't win with us Andre can I can I just ask a question is there going to be any retirement Fanfare for Deb you think that's probably coming up some point I

mean she's been here it's a very it's her health so I don't have an answer to that right now okay okay that's okay but you know just congratulations on her retirement I know it's her yeah it's bittersweet I'm not yeah she will be missed oh very much so yeah um yeah it's good comment thank you I I just before I close I just want to Circle back to what was said at the Beginning I think we have a lot of work to do I think this is a good start um I think what aish actually

just said was giving me pause to say like we spend so much time talking about like the Meco programs of like we do look at at the budget we have to it's part of our our role but I do think there is a flip to to think about um like I've said this before like people aren't com like are actually more comfortable if I had my hair dyed pink because I fit a Stereotype um it's true like you know and I think it's it's really frustrating because people want to put people in buckets I felt

it more since moving here than I did anywhere else that I've lived um it's like uncomfortable when like talbet Julie shows up um it's because it's not part of the The Stereotype and it it's really it's really annoying um for lack of a better way of putting it and I think I like the way that Aisha mentioned it it's not we are going to Look at the budget we are going to do it because we want to make sure that the numbers the dollars are going to the things that are going to have impact but

I think also there is a richness and I told Alexis this like I do statistics and population health for a living and I looked at the data like the fiveyear projections in conquer and Carlile are not getting that much less white okay so um it's not changing that much there's an increase in like mixed race and other Things like so like that's why I say we have to lean into things and see like how people feel still scen and that means to D through different things through a different lenses and we're not going to solve

that in one night we're not going to solve it probably this this school year but we can certainly start charting like not charting that path so with that um I have a motion to adjourn the conquer car Regional School District meeting thanks everybody thanks Brian Thanks Julie moved have five minutes yes please I was gonna suggest that minut break break all right I didn't so I don't to use the bathro sorry I was coffee water I'm hot I'm cold I know e e e e e E e e are going to start with the Middle

School construction update and just to note for everybody this is going to be a reoccurring agenda item we are going to start to get updates both from Alexa and Andrew from the building committee perspective but then also from Dr Hunter just on what's happening in the building since she's in it so frequently um but yeah this is we're getting down to the Like Final Countdown and this is very exciting um for our entire Community it's a huge investment it's going to be great for our students for our community and to you yeah and we'll just

scroll through some pictures really quickly but it just because it's so beautiful and uh worth talking about about I think as you're about to be the owners of this place so yeah so that's the entryway and some of the outdoor photos um grass is growing somehow in January I don't know Um the landscaping's wrapping up for the most part still some spots there the big piles there are going to stay because those are going back out on the field once we demolish sandburn but um they're definitely getting the site sprued up in Finale the next

slide is um a classroom so that's pretty typical um piece one of the four on the team uh you know Common there a little bigger I can try like just do green the slideshow slideshow yeah oh right yeah Yeah on the right it's yeah I can't see it all the way I got it better oh yeah yeah yeah much better thank you it's Zoom only because our technology is not working sorry I don't know tomorrow's problem I guess um that's one of four classrooms that are along the team common um so that it's a dividing

wall in the middle that's going to get opened up they're going to start opening those up tomorrow We really excited because it'll help us to really see the classrooms and then the where you're looking in that's where that glass partition will go up um there will be curtains to if teachers want to pull so they have four walls um but we're really excited what the classroom the floors went down most recently so we're still enjoying flooring and yeah pretty much all the um classrooms have flooring now um just little bits the team Commons the piece

I'll highlight on The right that's one of the team common spaces that's getting close to finished um and there's all these you know the number of pullout spaces where the kids can work in small groups and things we just keep reminding ourselves how ex many of them there are and they're spectacular this will get all finished up um they'll be shelving in that wooden case there and then a whiteboard down the other far end and then I Think pretty sure this looks like either one of the science rooms or I think it's a part of

a science room on the right um more traditional room on the left still getting wrapped up so those are your classroom spaces this starts to move us into the other portions um a little bit of transitional space there were excited just to see doors go up a couple weeks ago cuz it really M it mattered a lot yeah it mattered a Lot um to the left is outside of the library so that's really new um that had been wide open up until last week so they've closed that off and now you can see how the

glass and the seating there that um we've seen in schematics for years are finally coming to life um The Stairway to the right is the one in the bwing which goes from the library essentially up to to where art and World Language are which is really a very cool little Nook up there with maybe five or Six classrooms two art classrooms in World Language it's a really neat quieter space um but that's the stairway they're finishing up um this is the kitchen so it's going to be a real kitchen the flooring has been the last

piece so obviously they haven't been able to put everything in yet but they've got it all queued up to do that uh the servery area is getting built out um it's really starting to come together like this is out in the cafeteria those Are believe it or not those are our waste and composting bins I love it oh wow they look great yeah doesn't it look great yeah who would get excited about that I mean just the light in that cafeteria is exceptional it's exceptional feels like you're in the woods it's yeah it's really going

to be a fantastic space and then the flooring can you just turn your volume Down thanks um it's bad enough hearing myself once uh that's the gym the big excitement there was the wood floor starting to go down last week so where it's really yeah it's it's a gorgeous gym my goodness it's just absolutely gorgeous so those are some highlights but more to come every day now as the finishes go in it more and more gets done I'll bring you pictures of my my ceiling my wood ceiling that I pretty Well fought for through the

whole project um it really is proving to warm up some of the spaces where just takes that been installed yet uh some of it so they're finishing it up now there's some in the library there's some in the bridge area there between the two buildings and might be some in the cafeteria too I think that like there I mean there's so many highlights but one of the things That I think we need to just really celebrate is uh well all all of it but is the fact that it's on time and we're going to start

in febru February 25th February 24th yep and that under budget which is I like yeah I mean Alexa and Andrew are there unbelievable because we didn't use all of the $2 million bidding contingency and we're so healthy on other contingency we're running in millions of dollars of contingency yeah but I mean even even like little change Orders are heavily scrutinized at this point so good y yeah I will give a lot of credit to that um I forget what they're called but that change order subcommittee we are you know TRC yeah yeah um it is

it is never lost on me how talented the folks on the building committee are I mean to have Don guello with her expertise as an architect Steve seski with his construction experience I mean you you you can hear like the the confidence and deep knowledge in their Voice whenever they're talking about things so you know I think the community should feel really good about the fact that the select board did really put together a committee that has the requisite expertise to ensure that we are on time and under budget and I know you've been working

yeah and I can't Gail Gail Dow is absolutely my right hand and often the day-to-day person keeping all those eyes dotted and tease cross I'm kind of the big weight that Swings in as needed but um it's been a real and I know there's what there's 10 people on this meeting and probably not a lot of people will watch it but um we we are uh we are up and active again on the Instagram account which does even though we don't have you know thousands of followers um we've started a sweek countdown um and you'll

see we're going to start posting the pictures that um have come in from you so that account will generate I think hopefully some Excitement within the community um what's it what's the name of it cmbc in conquer right but I don't see anything new what it hasn't happened yet no it did I do stories Cynthia and they disa in 24 hours it's you need to be a millennial I'm not showing them I'm not because I posted it a day ago I look on Instagram every day but sometimes it's you like my algorithm get back on

my algorithm all right I'm yeah no so I actually people don't have an Instagram Account where else would they find pH nowhere oh no actually the website has regular construction updates updates and Heather did just share with you I think and with me um she put together a Communications plan and I think we're going to do a lot more pushouts to the subscriber list um as well which we had done throughout the sort of leadup to the special Town meetings um so we that subscriber list is fairly robust people who've opted in So um Heather

I believe is gonna work with Tom to I'm pretty sure Dakota will come along anytime I invite him I have to say the bridge Instagram today in particular was really good about the tax man with the story on there so I don't know who's doing the bridge Instagram is it you it was excellent I was like oh my get some music on it and I will say when when we when Dakota was on our tour Andrew was There and I remember we said afterwards Andrew's like was who was the reporter the guy that was like

rolling around on the ground saw us I'm like yes he's anyway and so now there's floors so you can be a little L dust to leave our that so I haven't posted those yet so I on Monday I did a swe countdown that again that story disappears so we'll start posting the photos on Instagram at a regular clip who and then one of you edit the building Committee website or No uh we don't do that Aon does that and so I think I think Heather articulated potentially like oh we we were going to start it

in week six we're going to do a a weekly update that will get pushed out to the subscriber list and that we'll have photos and and at this point I'll make sure you get photos that really show the changes because that's that's what's going to happen in the next six weeks is it's really going to turn into this school and then I don't know if you Have to tag her but can you oh we always we're pretty good about tagging each other yeah real so it stays there okay maybe a real a real not a

story a real okay and then you can put the reel in the highlights and then maybe the bridge can pick it up and then they can repost all right subscri all right I don't mind staying here till midnight but I know I know I know I know we had to have that this is so minutes it we're Gonna put Bob like you know when you watch a podcast on the 1.52 we'll put you on the 1.5 that's fine that's how I do all my training there's a lot there's a lot of um duplicative stuff correct

yes well can you do it at the 100 level that's a lot longer I'm just kid all right now uh so great anything else on the Middle School Cynthia I know you had a lot to say about it I'm just kidding no no I was say I talked no no I Talked to Carri offline I just reminded her with the high school project they reported every meeting because it a subcommittee of this region yeah to the school committee so every meeting they talked about the building they show pictures of the building yeah so and they

had full inperson building committee meetings almost every week yeah so it was just different it's just different because it's under the select board um but we are gonna really Celebrate yeah I think from here on we keep doing it yeah so maybe just an updated every meeting right leave meeting it'll be on the agenda and we're gonna give it free advertising totally yeah everybody's watching our meetings yep not CTV we're like friends all right so they want you to skip right to the conquered Centric stuff the CPS Sor where are you going I have to

In and Out I don't so um the I'm skip the first SL per people exp I would just note that conquered was fourth last year it's now a third Lincoln Sudbury has surpassed it um so that's highlighted there um can I just ask a question about these are these in District or out of District it's everything it includes out of District includes in District it's all students I feel like the gold standard is the in District number especially since now our fincom has said I don't care about out of District y I would Argue that

it's not fair that we keep more students in District and it makes us look we're better because we keep more students in District these other districts have a higher percent particularly conquered they have a huge percent percentage of people a lot more than 1% out of District so I hear I hear I could probably get that data if it came to it but this is desie reported data too yeah it's yeah they'd probably have somewhere I might be able to find It oh no it would be much lower for people yeah yeah um okay planning

assumptions I'll just uh note a couple things um we you know we're assuming we transition successfully we will transition successfully to the new Middle School uh there are consolid factored in that we committed to previously we ended up uh identifying 576,000 you'll see identified here uh there are 0 budgeted For pbid and sandborn and FY 26 can just slow down on that one I just that's such a big item the consolidation savings that um I know the fincom and select board are both talking about so we are bringing forward more than the now did we

use some of the extra you know the additional to offset something else yeah a little bit of course but the the number is very clearly there at the 500,000 we committed to and right and so that came up last night and so the five They they said we committed to 500,000 not the 548 but now here you're saying that you've actually have a savings of 576,000 yes are you breaking down yeah a little further it's yeah broken down U the last so I've already talked about homeless Transportation yeah yeah of course of course but I

I I think it's important to note that um the last bullet here um I'll talk more about this but we um actually the one previously um the The second to last bullet we have to do what we did last year we had our budget approved and we had a second slide it's in the appendix I when I posted it in the Pres in the materials um we asked for what's approved in the budget and then we asked for an additional amount for homeless transportation that we're getting from the state I remember that remember that so

I don't compare that Apples to Apples I just exclude that but we they set it up last year as a Mechanism for us to get that money and because the same thing's going to happen the reimbursement is going to go to the town and we'll need to get diverted back to us but our numbers are larger so it's a lot more important that we do it now correct understood uh so the budget summary has that discussion been happening yeah I wanted to just ask about the number how many students do we have at CPS I

have to pull it up why don't you let him keep Talking it off 40 40 to 50 oh sorry no I did it it's a 35 K to 8 and 8 Middle School wow wow that's in District in District the ones we're transporting totally so that's in District and what how would you account for the empty rooms like how has that impacted the enrollment um it's left us in a holding pattern because kids moved and either they enrolled where they moved to where they are transporting back to us it's minimized the influx which is what

we Were worried about managing all at once so it seems like it's coming it just hasn't come yet it's unpredict predictable whether it's going to be very young children y yeah this shelter tends to be young kids but we've seen more diversity as the shelters are consolidating yeah so it's very fluid that's that's the word isn't the news that their shelter funding is running out in January well so they we knew that they had to I Talked to Simon actually representative catalo because they had to reup it for the subsidy um so let's hope they

still plan to do that because it hasn't gone through yet and obviously the governor is talking about changing some of the terms which will also have impact so she's talking about six months limits instead of nine as of this morning it's going to be Rocky January have a feeling so February Yeah okay I'll continue um budget summary by Desi function um you can see that most categories are fairly um low and I'll go through each of these um shortly and the a of District tuition costs here are are Stabler than they are at the high

school relatively flat um overall FTE summary um in most of this is um is CMS some of these were realized um you know in in Prior years um and I I'll go through it in a little bit More on the next slide and just a cave like some of that's placeholder partially because we are still identifying and things change over the course of the year so we're committing to the number and positions reducing but exactly which ones may still move like it might I mean Willard might not be what that looks like some of that's

even from because of the timing of like we might have made an adjustment for this year that just shows up on the budgets This you know as you see the presentation I think the middle school too it's important to note that um reduction in forces can trickle down into K5 because it's on bargaining unit it will be a uh reduction those are significant reductions they are significant reduction yeah yes um yeah pre preschool it's a it's a just adding one dat to one staff member um alcot we looked at enrollments um and that it Nets

out classroom teacher Kindergarten to to to be level I just talk on kindergarten for a minute kindergarten has been a moving Target at um thorough and ala especially this year throw like never actualized so we were able we ended up at three sections predicting we had four and then alcot did finally actualize which we've been expecting was going to change at some point and we just reallocated the position over to alcot so there's a Budget neutral increase there um maybe next time we can talk a little bit more about where we budgeted for sections I've

given you high level totals but I didn't give you the grade level breakouts and but you can see througho and alcot we keep adjusting up and down which is important to talk about like every time I make those adjustments there's a teacher in the mix um and sometimes it's a it's a riff um so we're constantly responding to the enrollments And of course K we only know what we know based on census numbers until they start registering which they started now but then they trickle in and so anyway more to come on class CL configurations

and tell me if my question if if answering my question will lead to the unintended consequence of identifying riffs too prematurely but when I look at the three elementary schools it my understanding is Willard has the most amount of students but it Seems like it's getting the brunt of FTE reductions is it that which is aren't actually connected okay great so I can just wonderful fine the enrollment is up because of the shelter and the okay other thing is about other things okay got it that's fine we're going to talk a lot about the homeless

staff though because especially it's very heavily focused and we it as the grant money slows down we're going to have some really interesting things to manage next Year and are those FTE in the they're not even in those count not in these numbers no the grant funded positions are on another side not okay yeah we'll show that but anyway just the point is you know we're constantly looking at class size and how many sections we have we've never stopped looking at that as enrollments slowed down so I just want to be sure sure we keep

saying that um so the um the special education teacher at throw and Alcott you see that one Shows an increase of one and one's decrease of another the time we buildt the budget and for 25 we actually had anticipated cutting one in each building we ended up cutting two at the row so that's already happened that's not right so those were FTE those were Rifts last spring last spring that we made um one of the Willard AIDS I know is a student that was um in the shelter that moved for a specific program at the

you don't need to yeah go into it I was just Curious sorry the bulk of this is the the consolidation at the middle school um so I'll move on from this slide I will also mention we agreed in our contract to add the council or throw which we did add this year in advance of of next year and that's where in my narrative I remind you that right now the additional counsel is Grant funded at Willard so if that dries up we're going to have to at least leave a halftime counselor there per contract That

is not in the budget with or without the homeless half time counselor was ACR was one at each was half time at each five at yeah each additional so they have at least 1.5 is there any sharing um right now the uh one counselor that we've appointed into Meco is shared between middle school and Alcott and then uh okay I'll keep going um so the um drivers at the 1,000 level Administration is up uh 7.8 or 138,000 a piece of that is salary increases and then again we have the software increases that we talked about

uh in the regional budget um for these subscriptions the CPS shares a little bit more it's 60% ccrd is 40% so those are the two key drivers of the administration increase uh teaching instructions up 1.9% over fy2 um you can see the uh the salary teacher salary piece was actually 4.6% including Cola steps and Lanes um non- teer salaries was 2.1 um the I've pulled out the CMS consolidations separately that's mostly Staffing um we budgeted this all within the teaching instruction area um some of this might be uh non instructional you know we will work

through that um and we are working through that but for Budget purposes we all put it in the teaching and and um instructional support category I have a Question and I apologize if this is like I I don't even know if this is relevant but my my question is why is so at the at CPS it's 4.6% but at the region it was it was even it was under the 3% what's the a lot more retirements at the region at the region and we also slight FTE you gave a $1,000 notification um incentive which I

feel like help we we had more inhand confirmed retirements this fall than we've had it was like October or November November 1 um so that was good I think last year when we built the budget we had almost none and we were like well we can probably expect a few it was a really risky so this time it was much and it's prob there are so many more teachers in staff K to eight then at the high school so okay I think it's worth no like a one .9 increase in the this function is never

happening again unless right because of the middle we're Catastrophically making Cuts so right yeah these are numbers that are one time adjust yeah we knew that right I'm just saying it yeah but it's worth saying yeah well it resets it resets the base down that 570 something so that's certainly important but you're never going to see a 1.9 increase again in that no but also when you look at the comparison when we're at the same point next year it's going to be up a lot and that's worth noting why I'm reminding You yeah like oh

what a great year I don't know cuz it's only CU you put up a new school yeah yeah essentially you need you need a fair number of retirements to offset the steps and Lanes our Co is 3% so that's kind of over 100 Years you'll arrive at the cola on average but assuming Staffing is level but in short time periods you you don't um non-teacher salaries was were modest at 169 2.1% % again the consolidation savings we had some Reductions in supplies materials through the zerob based budget process really in a lot of areas not

really any one particular driver there and Contract Services came down as well um our other school Services was driven by uh special ed Transportation primarily 67,000 it's about half the increase and other than that it was mostly uh inflationary pressures um or just you know normal inflation um but again half of that 3.7% is special at Otherwise that's a um really modest increase uh maintenance and operations is up 2.7% um I will say the you know I talked about the storm water assessment in the region we actually were running favorable to water and sewer and

the assessment that we were provided by DPW was was actually less than the region so um we were able to absorb that with a a minimal to no increase for water sewer uh I think it was closer to 12,000 um because we were running favorably uh The Big Driver here is the uh cyber security um costs um and then also some of our support contracts um we we've seen some pressure on those prices um so 62,000 but again overall it's 2.7% and just a reminder like we're totally going on estimates given to us by the

professional construction team about what the middle school is actually going to cost to run you're building a budget you don't really have any Actuales on so that's little anxiety producing but hopefully the estimates are pretty close yeah so I did plug their guidance in and so we do have a $91,000 offset when you combine heat and electricity and compared to the the electricity projection in the new building versus what it was in pbd sandborn that's actually 91,000 in additional to the 576,000 that we shared earlier fingers crossed yeah right right um our insurance premiums are

going up a Bit um this is based on what we are paying this year uh plus some modest inflation um you know we've had some losses as you know in Willard and the row and my two years my two and a half years here and before that there was a fire in thr row so this is not a surprise it's catching up um fixed assets primarily this is buses the increase though is that we put in a 15 um we increased it was from 5 to 20,000 um aign for replacement equipment Furniture we've had requests

from multiple elementary schools for updating some of the desks and um furniture and equipment in their buildings and um we budgeted this in one building but we're ultimately going to you know decide during the year um now that it's in the the budget will allocate it across the schools based on who needs it the most that's another one where you could spend a lot of money at once and try to do Them all but that isn't fiscally doable so we'll just at least get started and uh that might be a grade at a time which

that'll take a long time over three buildings but at least it gets the momentum started so a grade for one school yeah oh a grade for one school yeah yeah yeah so 18 so that's that's one like maybe unbudgeted need we didn't really push too far on that's an all the more reason for Capital stabilization wouldn't this also qualify for that this Is the CPS CPS we wouldn't do that at the we can't yeah um so in 18 years with this money we could um have all new Deb elementary schools yeah um so the out

of district tuitions is a 10K decrease from last year the the gross costs um the actual tuitions we're paying are down 20,000 um the offsets we're getting for Circ parer and ID EA actually declined slightly um but overall still um right So this is still about 15 kids um so that's just really good I do know from I've looked at the state averages the percentage of students we have out of District I think the state average is closer somewhere between two and three we're just a little bit over 1% one and a quarter something like

that um this just shows you the the overall budget sprit um the increase is relatively even across both Categories um this is uh just reminder of you know I just thought it would be important to highlight the Middle School transition specifically the 576,000 um electricity costs were based on guidance from smma actually a little bit more savings realized in energy costs the new Middle School versus the previous two another 91,000 we factored in a wastewater treatment facility contract into this we do have some savings from no longer Being responsible for two old buildings that have

significant maintenance so the wastewater treatment and that kind of offset um and there's no cost for sorner p factored into the 26 budget and we'll need a vote later on that not tonight but homeless grant funding we're estimating funding this year about 600,000 um the transportation here we're projecting a 254,000 um you know uh we will follow up at the Town to make sure that we're able to move forward that same language to get that um yeah it's a little bit more complicated than that I'm not going to go into it now but the timing

of our expenses and what gets reimbursed is not quite aligned but we'll um we talked about it last year I think some of them know it's just too far delay we front everything and wait um the use of the homeless Grant funds So you know when we've talked about comparisons of Staffing these are not included these are Grant funded um we have a a Lea Zone um wonderful leaone Andrea oler um an instructional Aid at alcot supporting shelter student adjustment council at Willard El teacher at Willard um in addition to the regular El teacher instructional

AIDS there's four each in grades one and two um I'm sorry grades K And1 um we have summer school trog program and we also provide Some Contract Services professional development staff and Trauma based support it's pretty remarkable that the grant cover that's a great Grant yeah it's probably the best subsidy I like that really does the job it's supposed to do that I've seen in my entire career honestly kudos to the state for keeping districts intact while all this played out you know um so that's the budget so just to clar you know confirm where

the Guideline was 2.4% or at 2.4% so we've we've uh reached the guideline there's no complicated calculation for CPS like the Isis for the region this one's straightforward um and we knew it was going to be a lower number this year with the consolidation savings um in addition uh to the budget we have items that we need to bring to town meeting and we wanted to put them on your radar now U we talked about accepting students um Carl specifically was mentioned into our programs K to8 we already have this fund at the uh CCSD

which can be voted by school committee but for municipal District school committee has to approve it and then it has to go to the town meeting so we'll need this to be approved um at some point during this this year's budget process by the school commit and then we'll bring it forward as a warrant to the town again this provides value um not just financially But educationally we have students that might not have cohorts that are big enough um and this will give them a cohort with peers and their programs um can benefit the sing

district and also benefits both CPS and then eventually uh the region so um we also you know at a later time might want to consider the the fee we we charge $4 5,000 you know maybe we do some typee of inflationary increase I don't know but that's separate Discussion when when was that set that was pretty recent right two years couple years yeah it's been hasn't been that long um okay and and I think technically we'll need to set one for CPS since we set one for the region we never voted one for the CPS

so we'll need to vote one um anyway so establishing that fund I think is straightforward the request we also request to create facilities rental revolving fund right now um it's a little bit cloy um we I will say the You know the rentals rental Revenue we have goes directly to the town of conquered uh we do have an mechanism to uh offset some custodial costs if they have to work overtime to cover an event um you know a lot of our usage happens when our second shift is already there but we anticipate in the new

building that we may need coverage um you know is it's an attractive nice new gym right so does the check just get paid to conquer Public Schools and then you deposit into This account that's what what we want to do exactly what it is right now it can to the town town and we don't see it yeah maybe at the next meeting you could just go through in a little more detail why wouldn't a fee for I mean we have to pay custodial fees if anybody's in the building after working hours right so weekends is

always custodial fee no matter what right uh well a lot of our usage is week nights that's that we don't charge custodial fee for that well Going forward I would expect the gym to be very highly used on the weekends yes yes yes that's what that's what I'm trying to get to yeah no then so there's going to be a little bit of tension between people who think some of that money should go back to the town because all the taxpayers paid for the the building so you know I think we have to balance like

we need to cover our custodial costs right and then but we also need to cover the operating costs Of running the gym that are right but is it are we taking it offline every weekend I don't think so but I mean that's why I just like a little more information like really what happens with you know I I understand the week day you know the building is online until X hours on the weekdays why why do why help me understand why is there an intellectual difference of like the taxpayers the tax goes back to the

General fund not back to us as a department of the town but ultimately that that goes to the school budget versus the town budget so like aren't we both the taxpayer aren't we just I don't know I have to think I'm just I'm not sort of I'm not following through on like the process I think you want all the fees to come to us so when we have to refinish that floor you've got money because of the usage that it had that sort of is building wait that's a Capital that's that's capital no I mean

I think like the waxing of the floor each summer is not Capital 10 years you're going to have to sand it down like we're about to have to do at the High schol well and and so that's in I guess I guess that's sort of where we have to yeah I don't I'm also concerned about I think the fees should go up as well yeah they should be comparable to the high school fees we looked at that we did look at That um when we did extensive facilities fees um no but it was gym rental

it's not like it's it's not free it's certainly not free yeah um isn't the gym comparable to the high school gym in terms of the space it's not just yeah but I don't remember the fee structure we will have a separate discussion on this yeah yeah yeah yeah we should have a separate discussion this it's too late too late if we could just get that information then what other towns do a Couple all my other communities the money came back to the schools you're paying yeah you're paying for heat when it's on on the weekend

you've got the lights on nor we can bolster our argument with that information like great yeah thank you okay and then the last item is that uh peid um will need to be declared Surplus to requirements of the school district by the school committee where uh we've Asked for um through uh Town Administration uh for specific warrant language that's needed I also asked if we could get school committee vote language I don't know if that's needs to be as formal but we've asked for it so where can Carrie and Anthony on that yeah so that

we'll bring more specifics on that but um that needs to occur this year so My My Idea in the fall was to maybe not Surplus the building keep it school committee and disposition Ourselves so maybe keep the money and put it in some sort of endowment turns out legally we can't do that but listening to your Capital stabilization I'm wondering if we can talk to the select board and if they do monetize it after disposition you know sell it to a developer whatever I don't they don't know what they're going to do with it yet

maybe we could get you know 10% of 10% of the proceeds put them in a school stabilization fund or something like That if you can convince them to do that I I I don't think that that's I mean I would say that would be very atypical I I mean it it would be great yeah um yeah it's a thought they also have um they have a they haven't figured out what they're doing with the land yet too they might not sell it I don't know I hope they do but so there's three Parcels just getting

rid of it for a reason right there's three yeah there's like the weird septic And I don't know okay so those are the that's the presentation um again we're at guideline and I think it's this one's a little bit more straightforward I think some of you know shelle's here has been listening all night but um what didn't pop because we managed the costs within similar numbers to what we've been using in the past um Shelly and the principles with shelle's leadership we Dove deep into all the professional development lines This is true at the high

school too but it's important here because the numbers are bigger um dove into that really fleshed out what high quality PD we want to do next year on very specific topics middle school and Elementary and then because we did that we had some money to reallocate so the the 100 the 100,000 for the new literacy program which is really half of it um is really coming from a reallocation of 60,000 that was in the budget for middle school math Last year so this is smart right to carry some amount of money for texts and curriculum

changes so we shifted that over and then because we needed more we were able to re work reconfigure the PD and some of the other teaching and learning lines we did a really deep dive there Shelly mostly and um start talk about zero base like kind of threw out anything we'd done in the past and started over again so you could see that that's why it's not popping because Bob Pulls things that pop right but when you looked at the 100 level popped for me and I was hoping that um that was the result of

um you guys working together and even like synthesizing just Cynthia and I were in like some of the feedback from the unions during our negotiations so I think that's a really nice example of hearing feedback synthesizing it finding a creative way to execute it so for that because I did see it more for Less Because we're so concentrated on what the PD is and how we're dividing it um that said they'll be PD to go with the literacy program so we've got a placeholder in there we might end up having to re juggle that but

I couldn't hold everything because if you read my storytelling like we open circle which is a discussion in and of itself withal curriculum and our Saga there but um you know we're either going to have to push that off find grant money or give up Something else to keep that plan going so we did hit a point where it was like okay we can't can't keep all the wish list in there and okay make some it's all right make some choices yeah choices I have a question probably for Shelly if more than 50% of your

teachers actually want to jump in on year one do you have the resources to do that um we are working through that but I think right now based on the current plan we have it really would be about 50% of your staff Of your Educators it's really about what's the best approach um different models different like we've talked a lot with a lot of other districts neighboring districts who are either ahead of us a bit in this process um in just their models and we're really learning from like best practice or just the the mistakes

or the mistakes jumped in and they weren't ready the worst practice one of the recommendations is like you could do a Early adoption for those who are just really excited about it but the challenge the kind of professional District or School levels is we can't necessarily support different Educators at different grade levels that don't have as much time to collaborate so we're thinking about different options that way okay but again I think funding wise we've budgeted for a two-year roll out of this so that every educator gets the and I have some Hope uh des's

because remember the math the middle school we got matching money from desie right so I'm hope we're hoping they're going to post that and we might be able to do some of it through that there's this prism Grant coming out yeah it's called instructional like high quality instructional materials um that may be able to provide some support we I think it would be a February release date for that opportunity so we're watching for that Yeah just thought it was worth noting it's a big big line item but it kind of because of how we got

there it didn't necessarily make the slides good very exciting on many levels this budget probably does a lot of very targeted things that move us forward in a big way more than some of the others in previous years so that's great and it's in guideline it's we did it in guideline yeah exactly great which thanks to the fin Comment yeah that meeting on the 19th roller coaster that was a roller coaster yeah um well I know that um you two worked all weekend to make these these um presentations a possibility so thank you very much

um I tried 1.5 speed too but it wasn't me else we we we broke that yeah but anyway thank you very much it's um it's noted in in the work you can see yeah thank you thank you and more to come more to come yeah we'll talk more on the 21st so um can I just Talk process we're going to you need to have a public hearing Y what looks like the best plan and we've done this before we do the public hearing at the beginning of a meeting and then um our recommendation is you

do that on the fifth of or the 4th of February which would mean you'd have the public hearing and still vote at the end of the night we've done that before as long as you have the hearing you have the chance to adjust things if you hear things at the Hearing um so that's our recommendation as you hold the hearing on the four I just need to know for sure I have to advertise that it's it's a requirement that I we should just plan for that yeah I think that sounds great and at that do

we have to say these four warrant articles yeah because the warrant's going to close the 19th yeah okay not not the public hearing though we just it's a budget public hearing just the oper the public hearing is just The budget she's correct okay but that same night you have to make decisions on your warrant the same yeah yeah okay do you mean the really important one to to nail is the are the budgets and then are we what's happening with the CPS are we moving one warrant article with the town or no that never materialized

okay did it for like the Omnibus budget or whatever no I think no that never material no that never became a formal piece I think we've done some of the Same efforts behind the scenes and in public to get SE colle have yeah no I don't think there's been any the pieces in there can move the number can't we've changed our Capital plan many times after we've done the warrant Artic yeah no and and once you vote a number we can keep bringing to you whatever things we're going to it can't grow it can't grow

correct okay gotcha yeah okay anything else thank You yeah thank you the agenda or tonight no just period can no we have the C the thorow CPC oh my god oh yeah just a quick comment I was asked to go back we were going through all of these I missed I was asked to go back to CPC on the on the 14th just to clarify some questions they have on the thorough application for the um campus improvements over there so I will I was already going to be there I'll be there anyway for the amenities

but I don't Know if that'll be a long conversation they they need some followup so so right now they haven't allocated number yet because they're waiting to have more discussion I think so okay yeah and that wasn't a long conversation yeah I just like I think that's it anybody else we did two second no we didn't do this one oh yes yeah go ahead right do that um we're GNA potentially bring one made an agenda potentially bring one other warrant to get an Extended procurement period for uh bus leases and subscriptions um we want to

have the ability to do five years for bus leases we're doing that now full disclosure um and legal council support yeah and I want to have something in writing there's a way to do it where we never have to go ask for a vote again and um and then in addition you know we're talking about uh reading subscriptions things like that the price Breaks after three years are huge uh like I can't tell you how big some of them are you end up paying for things more than you need to if you renew every three

years so I would like to have language that allows us to go to six years up to six years of course we'll be smart about like we're not going to pay for a six year subscription if it's not financially viable but you might pay instead of $100 for three years you might pay 130 for six years like those Types of discounts sometimes happen so um having language that allows us to do curriculum subscriptions for up to six years um so those are things I think we may bring forward we're going to talk to the town

because I think the town may have a couple items that are quirky that are Town things I don't know if it's Paving or what but um so we need to find out whether they're going to bring things forward and and I'd like to do this in partnership with them um but I Just wanted to mention it in case we bring it that's great that's going be my question and that's I told you all right now now turn thank you great have a good night everybody to you