00:03:47,270	you were going. OK. All right. Good evening. Alright, is this, can people hear me? You guys hear me? Yes, no, I’m. Yeah, uh, HW Kim, I’m getting knows that people say they cannot hear me. Better? OK, can everyone hear me now? OK Uh, good evening.

00:04:19,900	Um, I called to, I, what I, what we’re gonna do is, um, we have several different boards here, um, I’m gonna go around and have every board that has a quorum, um, called to order and then we’ll get the meeting started. Work for everyone. OK.

00:04:44,000	Um So, Excuse me? Do you anticipate a quorum? Um, do you want us to wait a couple of minutes? um will Well what? Ben and Karen. not be here tonight. I do not know about Deandra. and OK. Is that OK for you, Peter? Excuse me? Just. Just go ahead. I can’t hear you. We’re good. OK. All right, um.

00:05:19,800	At this point, I called to order the uh meeting of the Hamilton Wyndham Regional School Committee at 6:35 p.m. Um, let’s go this way to Wenham I’m sorry, Hamilton. Excuse me, Hamilton. Hamilton does not have a quorum. OK. Hamilton Fincom Hamilton Fincom does have a quorum.

00:05:43,700	There are 3 of us present you call your meeting to order? I’ll call the meeting to order. Thank you. Uh, one in Fincom. 35 as you said. Great. Um, and I will be happy when uh if. If, uh, if and when new members arrive, we can call those meetings to order.

00:06:08,270	Um, as needed. Um, so first off on our agenda this evening, we will have a period of public comment. Um, can everyone in the the members of the public, can you all hear me? OK, um, good, um, so, um, as you all know, this is a sort of an unusual meaning.

00:06:25,970	This is the quintuple board meeting. It’s not our typical, uh, meeting, um, various boards and committees in town do their public comment in different ways, um, this evening we’re gonna do it, um.

00:06:40,900	I’m gonna explain how we’re going to do it this evening, and I understand that that might be different than the way that you might experience other boards and committees, but it’s the way that we’re gonna handle public comment this evening, OK? Um.

00:06:56,900	So we’re gonna do it here at the beginning of the meeting and um if people have public comment, what I’m gonna ask is that you, um, approached the podium when, when we begin, you approach the podium, you’ll be offered 3 minutes, um, to offer your comments.

00:07:17,170	Um I do ask that before you start speaking that you give your name, um, and please spell your name so that, uh, your last name so that we can get it correct in the minutes. Um, we will time the 3 minutes and we will ask you to stop at the end of 3 minutes. Um I also just want to make everyone aware. That this meeting, this quintuple board meeting, we have, um, it’s a business meeting of the boards.

00:07:39,070	It’s a meeting that’s held in public for transparency so that you have the opportunity to see the meeting. Um, but it’s not a public hearing. It’s a meeting in which the boards are gonna get some presentations and the boards are gonna have the opportunity to ask questions.

00:07:53,470	So the public comment is going to be at the beginning, and after the public comment period is over, I’m gonna ask you to sit down and you are absolutely welcome to stay and watch the rest of the meeting. OK. Um, did I get everything in there? Um, I, oh, I didn’t, I didn’t say this meeting is being recorded.

00:08:12,470	This meeting is being recorded, um, and live streamed on HWAM. Um Uh, Amy, would you be willing to be our timer? OK, um, so at this point, if anyone in from the public would like to offer a public comment, I’d ask you to approach the podium. Good evening. Uh, Stephen McWhorter, 18 Cunningham Drive.

00:08:38,870	MCWH. I R T E R. Uh, the comment’s gonna be about the uh. Cutlass School building project. Uh, I’ve seen the numbers over the summer. I’ve seen a lot. Um Majority of the. Orders in Hamilton. I can’t, can’t speak for one of them. Uh don’t want the consolidated school.

00:09:06,700	Uh, districtwide, grades 1 through 5. But the numbers are perplexing, uh, the last select board meeting. finance department told us what was advertised in the survey was 70 million. We might get 50 million. I have the numbers. In the notes from the executive board.

00:09:29,530	From the state And it appears that They’re basing all this on. 117 million. Which is the building costs. That’s what we’ll get reimbursed on. So there’s $50 million of We don’t know what that is. to costs. So The citizens really want to know, you know, what’s going on and the differential $50 million.

00:09:54,870	You can build, that’s what it costs to build the Manchester by the Sea Elementary School. And uh the biggest part of it is the last. Sentence And it says You totally intend to put it on the flattest area of the Cutler lot. It’s all ledge over there. That’s an underground stream.

00:10:15,470	The town does know that. We have no idea why you would be doing putting $150 million school. The size of this project for the residents, it’s the size of the high school. I have a plan here to put a $66 million school on that lot. If the citizens, the parents, and what’s good for the children.

00:10:34,270	Want that. Thank you. Thank you. Good evening. Hello, my name is Peter Fisher. Live in Hamilton. The last name is F I S H E R. Um At the last opportunity to speak, I. Asked for The ability to compare costs. Of rehabilitating the three schools instead of consolidating them. And um Mr.

00:11:15,800	Tracy kindly approached me and Gave me the opportunity to give a call to help me find. Those costs posted, the estimates posted on the website. Um, I did not call. Mr. Tracy, I did look for those costs. Didn’t find them. I would like to see them posted.

00:11:41,370	With the names of the contractors who uh quoted on rehabilitating the schools as an alternative to consolidating. And so we can do comparison shopping. I would also recommend that we vote very soon. Instead of waiting much longer. Uh, as towns, as communities. So that we can, uh, stem the flow of costs uh for surveys that. Our ignored by the. Officials of the towns.

00:12:08,100	Thank you Thank you. Are there other public comment at this time? OK. Thank you. Um, so at this time we’re gonna close the opportunity for public comment, um, and, uh, he going now? For the architects? OK. Alright, next we’re gonna Mister Tracy’s gonna approach the screen.

00:12:46,000	I do know that, um, some of the members of the public wanted to be sure that they would, could see the screen and I It’s a challenging room, um, I, if you want to take the opportunity to to move so that you can see the screen, um.

00:13:00,470	Please feel free to move around the room so that you can see, um, I do want to make sure that board members can see. Try and do this without my glasses. Good evening, everyone. Um, thank you for the opportunity.

00:13:28,330	We wanted to give all of the uh boards in town, the opportunity to see progress to date on the elementary school project, um, really just an overview, just like we are doing with our budgets this evening. It’s our kind of first glance overview, but we wanted to make sure everybody has, uh, had an opportunity to see, uh, what’s taking place in the schematic design phase.

00:13:41,630	Um, we’ll talk a little bit about where we’ve been, where we’re going and how the process works from this point. on Um, so we’ll do a little project overview, some talk about community outreach, uh, review the schedule that uh has been laid out for us by MSBA.

00:14:00,370	We do a little site plan overview so you show, show you some of the building, uh, concept designs and then talk a little bit about the change in MSBA reimbursement, which has been fairly substantial since we began the process. Talk about next steps and then, um, adjourn, uh, that section of the meeting.

00:14:19,470	Uh, so I’d like to introduce the project team members that are here, um, from JCJ, the architectural firm. We have Doug Roberts, Alicia Caratano, Peter Morgan, Emily Sarnecki, Rebecca Brown. James, no, no James tonight. Oh, there it is. James Emanuel, sorry. Uh, and then from PMA we have uh Kevin Nigro and Nick Massey.

00:14:39,270	Uh, they are the owners Project managers managers working on the project, uh, along with the district. Some of the project goals are related to, uh, really the guiding principles that we came up with many months ago back in the visioning sessions, we had 5 visiting sessions, uh, that helped, uh, bring 50 or 60 people together to talk about

00:14:56,370	what it looked like, what it meant, what types of education, uh, needed how education needed to change. And some of the issues that uh we looked at is how to really um build something that would meet the needs of as many kids as possible across the district, um.

00:15:13,900	Really opening up the opportunity for communities to use the, the space and to be part of the space, uh, also for intergenerational learning. Um, throughout the, the building, especially with the, the younger kids, and then, uh, developed uh more opportunities for peer connections with the way the building is designed, creating a sense of belonging, integrating play within and

00:15:35,800	throughout the building, and then, excuse me, giving kids choice and agency was part of those conversations and helping kids to be able to decide.

00:15:50,270	Um, on different directions, they would like to take as they uh work through the school during the school day, and then bringing the outside in and the inside out and really trying to help, uh, make some connections to the building, uh, and things like, uh, dashboards that kids can look at that, you know, measure energy consumption or airflow so that they can uh do some of their STEM work related to something that may be happening within the building.

00:16:05,730	And then really I’m flexible space, so what, when, where and why, uh, what we learned through COVID is education doesn’t necessarily have to happen within the four walls of the classroom, and this gives us the opportunity to look differently, um, and design around, um, other spaces other

00:16:22,530	than, uh, the, the four walls of the classroom. N Nick Massey, we’ll talk about community outreach. Thank you, Mr. Tracy. How you doing, folks? My name’s *** Massey. I am a part of the owner project management team, uh, for this process.

00:16:41,900	Uh, jumping into some community outreach, uh, what we’ve done is, uh, the project team in the district has spent a lot of time and effort to um make sure that we’re getting out to the community in several different aspects. Uh, we’ve been at your ski and skate sale. Uh, we’ve met the mother’s group, we have been to school committee workshops.

00:16:58,000	We have been to the Winter boutique, um, and, um, we’ve held a number of meetings that are open to the Public, um One of the main goals for community outreach is to make sure that the community, um, is updated with the most up to-date information for the project and the most accurate information for the project.

00:17:16,170	Some upcoming community outreach we have, uh, we are here tonight at the quintuple board meeting, um, on the 7th, we will be, uh, back at your holiday boutique at the Winthrop School, which I am personally a big fan of, um, and the 10th, we will, uh, we plan to have a neighborhood in

00:17:30,600	a butters meeting at the Cutler school. And, um, on the 22nd of January, uh, we will have our community forum number 4. Reason for the community forum, uh, number 4 being over the year is we are waiting for the estimates, uh, the updated estimates to come in, uh, to be able to make the conversation

00:17:49,800	and the information being presented more productive. project timeline here. Uh, this is a high-level project timeline really which shows coming up, um, in 2025, the two big highlights here are, uh, the Hamilton Wyndham residents town meeting on April 5th. Uh, where there’ll be a vote for this project and on the ballot on April 10th.

00:18:17,170	uh, just some, some. Some dates down the road as well, construction would be. It, no, no, excuse, no excuse me, please sit down. Please sit down. You are not recognized. Please sit down. Hold on. Just hold on, just one second, please, just let me speak for one second.

00:18:41,630	So the reason that I went through that explanation at the beginning of the meeting. was to be clear that this is an opportunity for the people who are on the board to ask questions. OK. I understand, but these people that are here. Right? This Are we good? Because I Found out the mailer a Yeah I To be Thank you.

00:19:20,700	Thank you. Uh, this next slide I’m gonna hand over to JCG. Good evening everyone. I’m Alicia Carratano, your project manager from JCJ Architecture and our team is really excited to be here for a few moments tonight to give you an overview on the progress to date and on the hard work that’s been done with

00:19:44,530	the district and the school building committee, uh, regarding the schematic design for your new elementary school for all your young learners from grades 1 through 5 in both Hamilton and Wenham.

00:20:06,070	And the foundation of this design is the educational program that we heard superintendent Tracy speak about so eloquently and it’s really, really important that everyone here tonight understands that what we’re showing you is a snapshot in time, designed as a process that evolves as we go through the project and throughout, we’re gonna continue to make sure that we’re aligning both your educational plan with your budget throughout the process so as um we’re gonna start with an Overview by James, our

00:20:26,800	landscape architect, then move into an exterior discussion with um Peter, uh, one of our designers followed up by some images of what the new school, um, could look like, um, by Emily, so thank you. OK Hello, good evening.

00:20:57,730	I’m, uh, James Emanuel, landscape architect with the project team and uh the slide you have before you is the um. What we call the overview of the existing conditions of the site and uh just to get everyone oriented the, the, the building was the white um the white object located to the east side of the site.

00:21:15,900	And you can see the access, the current access loops for, for bus and also for uh cars as they come off of Asbury Street. The green space to the west northwest of the site, uh, consisting of the open fields we’ve got some topography on the site as well too.

00:21:37,170	We’re at a low point of about elevation 602 and a high point up to elevation 90, so that’s about. A 28 ft grade change over. The entirety of the site sloping from a low end uh by Woolemead up to the high end, uh, towards the back corner of the site.

00:21:54,270	And we’ve got a number of utilities, uh, as you can see on your, on your package and, and in the slide here, uh, that entered the site from Asbury Street, uh, among these being the septic system and, and uh all the other electric and water and typical utilities. So as we go into the proposed site plan.

00:22:15,170	We’ve really worked hard to come up with a plan that’s efficient, and it’s safe, functional, uh, and, and inspiring in some ways too, so um with the efficiency. We’re looking at the sighting of the building so you can see the uh location of the building in the area that was formerly the green space now you can see kind of in the red dash line,

00:22:34,470	the existing. The footprint of the existing building, so you see the relationship of those two, and that’s important, uh, so that we can see how the building relates on site to where it is now.

00:22:48,230	The efficiency of this comes in the phasing, we can build that building while keeping the other building online. Uh, we have the loop drive that goes around the building now, uh, we’re, we’re, uh, it allows for access for public safety, for emergency access in vehicles and also allows us to preserve some of the safe, the septic system, um, Keep the existing building online as well.

00:23:05,870	For the safety and design, uh, we did coordinate in meetings with first responders as well as extensive coordinations with our traffic engineers to find out the best points of access and egress from Asbury Street onto the site.

00:23:21,970	As well as the loop, uh, for the cars, the vehicles, and the loop for the uh for the bus which you’ll see in the yellow line right there, so that’s the, the bus access loop and the blue line is the car vehicle access that we’ve got a park, parking lot and in the loop road for car drop off.

00:23:37,600	Um One of the main goals was to keep cars off of Asbury Street and we’ve got a long loop road that allows for us to do that, allows for queuing, uh, during pickup and drop-off times we also have accessible routes to playing fields, accessible routes to uh to the play spaces to the basketball playgrounds, all those kinds of things and a nice route throughout the site

00:23:57,070	as well too, uh, keeping that well within the parameters of ADA compliance. And we’re also aiming to preserve the natural buffers that exist around the property, the trees, uh, and The, the natural topography as well too, so the site is really designed um with the low point.

00:24:14,730	At The West remaining kind of where it is in the building designed to integrate with the existing topography, so we’re trying to be sensitive to that as well as using um Some of the artifacts and some of the materials that are existing in the site that we’re bringing some of what’s there into the

00:24:31,800	new building to maintain the schools, uh, a, a bit of the school’s identity. So that’s the overview of the site plan and I can turn it off now to Peter to talk about the, um, architectural. Evening everybody, um, Peter Morgan with JCJ Architecture.

00:24:54,270	Uh, I’m just gonna talk a little bit about the concept behind this building and how we’re organizing it on the site. Uh, one of the most important, uh, sort of features of this project and goals for the district and the design team is to create a building that, uh, an elementary school that will provide equity for all the

00:25:09,800	students in the district. I know Alicia talked about grades 1 to 5. They’re all gonna matriculate through this program. So it’s really uh providing the same educational opportunities for all the students that are in Hamilton and Wenham as they come up through those grades, uh, really important for us.

00:25:25,730	So that great reconfiguration allows that to happen on this, on this property. Uh, we’re talking about a 7 up to 740 students in the building. Um, so really important to us is creating a uh sense of of ownership of those spaces and we’re, we’re designing this around the concept of learning neighborhoods.

00:25:44,370	Where each neighborhood in those yellow uh blocks in the scheme are essentially smaller zones where the kids really spend most of their time during the day. Uh, so if you’re in grade one, you would have that one learning neighborhood that you’re associated with most of the day.

00:25:59,870	Uh, so that they have a sense of belonging and identity and ownership of those spaces. So that’s really important to design the building around that concept. So those learning neighborhoods are really sort of feeding into and, and, um, controlled or, or collected by that yellow band. that is uh what we’re calling Cutler Boulevard.

00:26:19,370	It’s a, uh, essentially a circulation spine that, uh, those learning neighborhoods sort of feed into, um, and uh connect to the community spaces as well. So, we have nice segregation between the learning neighborhoods and the community spaces so you can use this after hours. We’re gonna get into that when we look at the floor plans a bit, um.

00:26:37,270	Another thing that’s happening um in these learning neighborhoods is we’re integrating special education programming. So special education is not in their own wing down some quarter by themselves. They’re actually embedded into the program, um, and we think that’s definitely important for us to um get that program sort of integrated into the everyday life of all the students in the, in the building.

00:26:53,530	Let’s see, next slide. So we’re gonna drop down and look a little bit more in detail at the floor plans. Um, I’m gonna try to use my pointer from this angle. I don’t know how well that’s gonna work though.

00:27:06,730	Uh, so James talked about the site and how you sort of come to the building where the main entrances are. We have a main, um, I’m gonna try to do this here. So the main entrance from the plaza side is right here, directly adjacent to the main entrance in those purple spaces, uh, are the administrative offices and nurses’ office.

00:27:22,870	So that’s right at the entrance, there’s a, uh, a transaction window for security. There’s a controlled vestibule, so people can’t get into the building without being buzzed in. Um, directly across from that main entrance, uh, is that, that gray zone is the circulation spine, that’s Cutler Boulevard.

00:27:38,270	That’s the thing that sort of um brings all the people through the building, this main circulation area. So within a stone’s throw of this entry, we have uh all the community zones, the, the gymnasium, the gymatorium, the cafeteria, the music spaces, there’s the media centers directly across the entrance, uh, as well as a shared conference room.

00:27:55,170	So there’s a lot of, uh, sort of public functions right near the front door of this, of this project. Just to the left of the main entrance, that’s the first classroom neighborhood and we talked a little bit about the classroom neighborhood. Each classroom neighborhood is essentially academic core academic classrooms, special ed programs, and also teacher support spaces.

00:28:14,100	Um, and Emily’s gonna talk a little bit more about breakout areas and how we’re gonna activate those, those places and, and really serve the students and the particular needs, the way we teach kids these days. So if we go to the right, uh, the main entrance past the administrative offices.

00:28:29,370	There’s a stairway that gets us up to the 2nd level. There’s also an elevator for ADA accessibility. So we’re going to the 2nd level now. The 2nd level is comprised of 3 more, uh, learning neighborhoods, um, there’s also the STE classrooms in yellow, uh, let’s see, right.

00:28:44,230	There, so all the specials like there’s kind of a steam hub at the center of the building where we have arts, music, science, and technology, uh, and, and those are accessed from those neighborhoods sort of equidistant, so students have about the same travel distances from their individual neighborhoods.

00:29:04,100	Also on this floor, we have some special ed program and the art spaces are at the back there. So if you go to the 3rd floor is really the last and final uh classroom neighborhood. At the 5th level.

00:29:26,630	So we’re gonna take a look at the exterior, um, just an idea of how this is starting to look, uh, the, this mass here is, uh, the first neighborhood that we looked at that sort of directly adjacent to the main entry.

00:29:39,970	Uh, and what we’re really doing is trying to reference forms that are familiar to kids, uh, residential forms, agrarian forms like the stables and barns that are around this area, so it’s really kind of a familiar comfortable uh kind of design. And also using materials they’re familiar with as well, brick, brick is on the existing Cutler school. Uh, you can see to the right, right there, that’s the main entrance and uh the STE classrooms above.

00:29:57,530	James also uh talked a little bit about the site design at the entrance looking to have sort of a natural um organic sort of plaza with boulders and, and really um using the existing rock outcrops as a design feature as well.

00:30:14,070	So you can see there’s, uh, the canopy, there’s a, a canopy that gives students cover when they’re going to and from buses and the main entrance is there next to the main administrative offices. And then Emily’s gonna talk a little bit about the interior. Design. Little short. Good evening everybody. I’m Emily Zarnecki with JCJ Architecture, um. So we’re really excited to share some images of how the interior of the spaces can can transform the learning environment.

00:30:43,870	As you know, we’re creating this new building. We’re really thinking about what’s important to the district, what’s important to students and staff as their um entering the building.

00:31:02,630	It’s really the first impression when you walk into the school and creating a warm and welcoming environment is really key to, um, the students centering as well as having the community, um, because this is a multifunctional type of building. It’s not only used for school and academics, but by the community as well.

00:31:20,730	So as you’re walking in, you have this light filled space you have warm wood tones, durable finishes on the floor like tile and and wall tile to, um, you know, give you that, that durability for over time. Um, thinking about how the building as a teaching tool as Eric had mentioned, integrating sustainable elements and creating like an energy dashboard with a, um, yeah, this works, um, you know, digital monitor at the entry, so it’s something that not only

00:31:41,700	the students can interact. With but the community can see how those sustainable elements in the building are really working. Um, it’s a great place to introduce graphic imagery as well, um, things that tie back to the school culture and the community that can be tailored to, um, to those school

00:31:58,730	elements. Um, here we have that community stair, so as you walk in, you see that stair that leads you up to the 2nd level, but it’s also another opportunity for gathering. We have bench seating underneath, and this could become another great learning opportunity.

00:32:17,470	Moving up to the 2nd level, this is at the top of the stairs looking back, this is looking down at Cutler Boulevard as well as the 2nd floor main corridor. Here you have those STEAM programs with a lot of visibility. So now we’re putting learning on display.

00:32:38,630	Kids can see what other students are doing in those programs and get excited about different um robotics or uh video production that’s happening in those spaces. Um, we have a lot of natural daylight here you can see from above bringing coming down, so it’s a really.

00:32:54,630	light-filled space and thinking about, um, even just safety, um, and security in the space, we have these mesh railings which give you a sense of openness, but it’s also safe and secure for students who are walking by the open areas. Now we’re walking in here we have a great opportunity to introduce again some public and community spaces with the cafeteria and the gymatorium.

00:33:18,730	Um, we have an operable partition between the two spaces that can really open up and create this large open gathering space. Part of the idea here is that whether it’s during school time for large activities or after school for performances, maybe it’s an art show or a gathering, you can now open those spaces, um, with that operable partition and be able to flow back and forth.

00:33:38,970	It’s really a great opportunity for learning. Um, it’s an adaptable and flexible space, um, again, community use, um, Daylight, a lot of daylight, we keep talking about that. It’s really important to bring daylight into these school environment spaces.

00:34:01,470	So having controlled daylight, uh, where we can shut that light off with, um, with shades, um, so that you minimize glare during performances, etc. And thinking about acoustics, you know, sound is very important, so you can see we have a lot of acoustic panels and materials that will help mitigate the sound, whether you’re having gymnasium, you know, activities, um, or you’re having a performance.

00:34:24,100	So now moving into the smaller learning communities, giving you a sense of what those spaces could look like. Um, we have widened corridors in this area and this really allows for these spaces to be activated.

00:34:42,000	Um, you, you have connections back to the classrooms, so lots of visibility, teachers can have eyes on the street, see what’s going on, but kids can flow in and out working with other students, uh, working with paraprofessionals or other teachers, um, really having a space. That they can move in and out. This is a the ideas besides the first grade, it’s a multi-grade opportunity.

00:35:00,800	So this is a great place for mentorship, thinking about the some of the older kids working with some of the younger kids, um, and really defining those breakout areas in the corridor using different colors and materials, really making it fun and playful and exciting and in each learning neighborhood could be a different main color, so you create like wayfinding throughout and it’s really a

00:35:21,500	very inclusive environment. And we’re thinking about also compartmentalizing really compartmentalizing those different learning neighborhoods, so the students are really in these spaces primary with, with the students that they’re working with each day.

00:35:45,530	And then just moving into the classrooms, we’re really thinking about adaptable environments, um, thinking about how uh we can connect back to nature as well, so a lot of daylight, windows down to the floor, so we’re bringing the outdoors inside. Um, we know how beneficial that is for students and their, their general learning. And then connecting back to some small group room.

00:36:06,470	So we’re really, um, you know, the district is thinking about how important neurodiversity and um supporting all different students of different. types of learning abilities and so these types of spaces will be really beneficial for, um, paraprofessions and staff to do one on one or small group work directly connected to the classroom spaces. With that. Good evening.

00:36:31,470	My name is Kevin Nigro, I work for PMA Consultants and I’m part of your Hamilton Wyndham Owners Project Management team. And uh if you remember back, and I know you don’t know the details, but to the slide that Nick showed. It’s OK. I don’t need that. No, thank you.

00:36:49,100	Um, we have completed our milestones and requirements of the two-phase feasibility, uh, study, our PDP and PSR and we received board approval to move into the phase we’re in now which the MSBA calls the robust schematic design phase, and ultimately the outcome of this phase will be a project scope, budget and schedule agreement with the MSBA and in that agreement it’ll outline what the financial.

00:37:13,070	participation for the grant from the MSBA will be. This slide represents some good news. Um, it shows that when we started this program just before we got hired. The MSBA was reimbursing communities $432 per square foot of eligible cost. Toward your project.

00:37:37,600	In October, as we were in our PSR PDP phase, the feasibility, the MSBA board saw fit to recognize the increased cost of construction in Massachusetts and increase that eligible square foot cost to $605 and I’m pleased to report tonight that the past August and October, MSBA board meetings they again voted to increase that eligible cost per square foot to $645 per square foot.

00:38:02,730	So we’ll be, uh, and we’ve sent an email to the MSBA to confirm that our project scope and budget is happening after January 1st, 2025, and that we would be eligible for that new rate at $645 per square foot.

00:38:23,600	So that represents quite an increase in the grant participation from the MSBA we’ll be utilizing this square foot number to populate our total project cost budget worksheet which we’re reporting on at the next combined meeting is our estimates are currently underway. Thank you very much. Thank you, Kevin. this one.

00:38:49,270	So some of the next steps we have, there, there’s um an ongoing application approval process, um, right now there are two different estimators, one hired by JCJ and one hired by the onus project manager. They will both do estimates on the project and then come together and compare their estimates, they have to be within 1% of each other when all is said and done, um, so they’ll do an in an estimate review, uh, the mass Department of Education

00:39:05,270	also has to review our special ed, uh, report. We’re finalizing a report right now that has to be. submitted to the state. Uh, specifically related to special education and special education spaces and how kids will be integrated into the school building.

00:39:23,370	So those will be submitted uh on 1219 and then from there it goes through the MSBA review and comment with say look at the entire package, um, the last two packages we submitted were more than 1800, 1900 pages long. Um, so there’s a lot for them to go through.

00:39:40,100	The Department of Education will also review, uh, and send comments that will come back to the team and we’ll work together to rectify any comments or issues that may pop up from those two, groups, and then we’re gonna plan to have another community.

00:39:58,270	Forum in uh January on the 22nd, and then, um, then we start looking at, uh, construction manager qualifications, uh, responding to the comments from the Department of Education responding to the comments from the MSBA, uh, they usually have us submit a report, um, at the end of their comment period and then we’ll work together with the teams to complete that report.

00:40:15,870	Execute a scope and budget agreement with the state, which basically says, yes, this is what it looks like in, in kind of real time, if you will, the actual cost versus the actual reimbursement, which is something I know people are excited to get to or we’re hoping to get there sooner rather than later.

00:40:31,100	And then we get to the town meeting and, and um boats that will occur in both towns in April, uh, so that’s really an overview. I really want to thank everybody for the opportunity to give the team time to present kind of where we’re at, uh, especially where we haven’t been able to come to every board meeting.

00:40:45,470	do a presentation, we thought this would be a good opportunity for us to get the team out, see who’s who and um see some of the work today and really want to thank JCJ and uh PMA for the work that they’ve done to date. It’s, uh, it is an arduous process.

00:41:02,100	We meet constantly, uh, know each other well and really try to really work through the pieces of the puzzle, if you will, as they uh connect to to kids and learning. So, thank you. Thank you.

00:41:18,900	Thank you all for that presentation, um, and for an overview so that our um town boards can have a You know, have an overview of where we are, um. I would like to give an opportunity if anyone on the boards has, uh, Couple quick questions, um, certainly, yes. Yeah, John McGrath from the Hamilton Fricom, um. Over the last several FICO meetings we’ve actually spent some time looking at the costs.

00:41:46,900	Um Not only of the proposed project, but the 5 options that were uh reviewed by the school building committee. So we spent some time going through that. We also spent some time looking at some of the recent projects that were approved by the uh. The state.

00:42:05,170	Um And we’re going to continue to do that going forward. I invite uh. Any You know, sister boards or members to join us if you’d like to, um, cause we’ll drill down pretty deeply into this information, um, if you can’t come to a meeting, we do record our FICO meetings and you can go on to

00:42:25,370	there are minutes and there’s a link in there and you can, um, listen to what our discussion has been, so we’re, we’re spending a fair amount of time, um.

00:42:45,270	On the numbers, um, and we want to make that information as available, uh, as possible, the last couple of incomings we’ve had some members of the public join us. So that information is readily available, uh, and it’s also on our website, uh, as well, but the one thing that I’ve learned. is not just about numbers, it’s about. How the project has sort of responded to the concerns of the community.

00:43:08,170	And if I go back to the spring, there’s a large conversation around large schools, small schools, so we actually asked, um, That that topic be addressed and because it’s a, it’s a a valid concern.

00:43:31,170	Um, what I’ve learned, and Peter, you can help me out here if I go astray, but what I’ve learned is the neighborhoods, there are 8 neighborhoods in the building, and as the educators who listen to this, uh, they talked about how, how the neighborhoods create that small school experience, um, inside this larger facility.

00:44:00,100	So The conclusion that I’ve come to as I’ve sort of learned about this is financially, um, The numbers are the numbers, but The qualitative value of the neighborhoods inside this larger facility really hit home for me and I urge everybody, committee members, members of the public to study. This neighborhood concept because it really does address the large large school, small school concept. So that’s just learnings that I’ve.

00:44:20,330	come across over the last year and a half, and I urge people to um come to our meetings, ask a lot of questions and uh and the school building committee meets all the architects are there. The PMA project managers are there, so lots of opportunities to learn, uh, digest and interact. So I just wanted to share that out. Thank you. Oh, yeah.

00:44:45,100	Oh yeah, you definitely need a mic. It’s it’s impossible to hear otherwise. Ward, uh, Wenham Fincom. on the page that says guiding principle it says 740 student elementary school grades. 1 through 5. Um I was enrollment. 2 445 students that fit that. the Uh, which is a decline from 2023, which was 452.

00:45:33,900	address The capacity assumption in the facility. Um, I’m not a demographic expert, but You know, I don’t see a lot of population growth anytime soon in the next decade. I’m, I’m, I’m welcome to be convinced otherwise, and a follow-on question where the kindergartners going? Two great questions. Thank you.

00:45:54,800	The, uh, population currently of 1 through 5 across all three buildings. Remember, all 3 buildings will come together. 640-ish right now. Um, so when, when you’re looking at the elementary population are class sizes range about 130 kids, roughly, uh, some smaller, some higher, but that’s, that’s about the average, uh, kindergarten and preschool, the

00:46:14,800	plan would be to put them into the Buker school in in early childhood or early elementary school model, uh, the Bucher schools already has a lot of the pieces of the puzzle that you need, uh, classrooms that are close together, uh, bathrooms that are already sized for the little ones and

00:46:32,100	um kind of the, the, the easy flow of the L shape of the building, so kids aren’t really having to go very far to get services like to get to the calf or the library or the nurse’s office, so. So the number is 640, not I. Correct, correct. OK, thank you. You’re welcome.

00:46:50,370	Yeah, it’s, it’s, that’s the one thing some people miss. It’s Cutler, Winthrop, and uh Bucher 1 through 5, which is about 645 students, uh, they would be moved into a new building and then the existing 7 kindergarten classrooms and currently there are 2, preschool classrooms. Sometimes we have 3 depending on the year.

00:47:08,900	Uh, so those, uh, 9 or 10 rooms would fit perfectly into the, the Bucher building in the, in the structure that’s, it’s set up. Thank you. Try 00 Go ahead, let’s do here and then we’ll Is the, this is Diano Jaanovic when I’m finance committee is the current estimates still out there, it’s a $150 million

00:47:33,230	project with about 50 million potentially reimbursable. Is that still the same ballpark that we’re operating off of or if things got the last, yeah, that’s kind of been the last thing that was ever discussed.

00:47:52,170	We’ll get an actual number in December once we get the actual estimates and the actual estimates as they apply to the reimbursable costs. We’ll know the exact number, so that’s why we’re, we’re kind of anxious for December to get here too, so that we can have those numbers to say to people, here’s the final building costs and here’s the, the reimbursable from the state, but it’s, you know, it’s, it runs. Um, based on particular rooms, the reimbursable costs.

00:48:11,500	We’ve had several meetings with the MSBA, um, which we looked at our building floor plans and we’re able to add a number of rooms into the reimbursable costs because of our specialized, uh, special ed programs.

00:48:31,170	We have several of them housed at the Winthrop school, uh, that are specific to a certain um neurodiversities and, and it gives us the opportunity to gain classrooms where otherwise they wouldn’t have uh reimbursed them. So we’re, we’re actually anxious for that number as well. We can get that out to the public. I, Trent Honda, um. Hamilton School Committee, um, I had a question similar to but slightly different than Jared’s, which um is the, the 740 number.

00:48:55,470	Um, it was stated as up to 740. Is that the maximum capacity for the proposed building. So it’s the maximum capacity at the Department of Education student model level of 22 students per classroom. Currently at the elementary level, we have 2 kids in each of our classrooms. So if we were just to move everybody over there.

00:49:16,070	Uh, we still have capacity for about another 65, 68 kids, depending on how the population changes. We have been gaining elementary population too along the way.

00:49:31,800	And one of the hallmarks of the MSBA program is they say not only design a building, but also, um, identify places where if you had to down the road 15 years from now, uh, expand, you have to identify those places in the plan, so that, that gets done as part of the, the design process. So just to that point, the um as Open in 2028, right? Correct.

00:49:55,000	So if we assume that the growth from 2020 to 2024 is the same for 2020, 2028. That would be about an 8.5% growth in The elementary school population brings us to 695 students. Which is 45 off the maximum capacity. What is the plan? For If we need room for 46 students, or 146 students.

00:50:20,270	Yeah, so there, there are, they’re currently classrooms within the facility that, so in each neighborhood, there are 7 classrooms. Uh, there are special ed spaces, there are, uh, specialized resource rooms. A number of those spaces can be, um, shifted to be used depending on your population at the time.

00:50:37,630	So your special ed population hovers right around in this district right around 18.5, 19%. Uh, so we look at that and look at how that fits the need for rooms.

00:50:52,630	So there, there are uh classroom spaces, you can, you, you also get larger classroom spaces, so you can add um more than 20 or 21 or 22 kids in a classroom, which is an, is an opportunity in the bigger spaces where in some classrooms, we have, you know, I know of a, a kindergarten, uh, excuse me, elementary classroom that was 23 kids in it, and it’s in a small room. It’s, it’s tight, so, um.

00:51:07,630	does give us the opportunity to go beyond the, the design limit of 22 per room. So just, so I’m following and not getting it wrong. So right now we’re at 20 students per classroom, uh, in the, in the elementary level, yeah, if you look at the overall averages, which will be presented tomorrow night, there are, uh, 20 across the elementary.

00:51:25,170	Proposed new building, we’d move to 22 as the estimated maximum capacity for each of the classroom that’s how it’s designed based on the MSBA structure, but we would just basically move the kids we have. To that building. There’s With whatever change we had, some classes may be, you know, 17, some might be.

00:51:43,500	21, so it’s like we have now, we have some kindergarten classrooms that are 15 and some 4, I think 4th grade is our largest group with 21s and 22s. So it depends on the classes going through.

00:52:02,600	You’ll see waves of, uh, total number is like you, you, you currently can see waves of numbers from 135, I think it’s our largest overall grade level at the elementary and I think you, you’ll get down uh to I think 117 is our, is one of our smallest.

00:52:16,100	So you get that shift in that wave, so you can, you have the flexibility within the ability to move groups of kids around, so it, it makes it helpful. So it sounds like 7:40 then isn’t the maximum capacity. It’s the maximum maximum under the department, uh, excuse me, the mass.

00:52:32,730	Uh, MSBA When you, when you look at just their numbers, they’re giving you a number based on 22 students per classroom. So do we know what the max? I guess what I’m trying to get to is, is, is there a, a, a Number of students after which we would have to add. Space to the current building as planned. Yeah, I guess it would depend on, on the grade level.

00:52:51,100	So if you start looking at grade levels because, because of the flexibility of the building, you can move grade levels around so you can integrate 2nd, 3rd, and 4th grade into a neighborhood and use a, uh, mentor model, for instance, so. You don’t have to have Exactly 7.

00:53:05,700	of each class, like right now, one of our classes is only 6, and the other 4 are 7 classrooms. So those shifts also give you an extra room to be able to shift around, but you could add, if, if you were at capacity at 35 rooms, 22 kids per room.

00:53:21,730	You could easily add 2 more across those 35 rooms, but it’s never that smooth. You don’t get exactly the same number of kids in every single grade level showing up. So to your mind, and this is my last question the ideal number of Students for this is 740 as a max.

00:53:41,330	I does that beyond which does that begin to degrade the student experience in your perspective? I don’t, I don’t believe so. I think because of the way the building is designed, you have the opportunity to make those shifts and you’re gonna have some classrooms that’ll have 21 or 22 and in some classes

00:53:54,800	that’ll have 18 or 19, and I think the of the, the, you know, growth, if you see, we’re we’re in a, uh, a down year right now with our preschool. We only have 2 preschools next year.

00:54:08,700	We’ll probably have 2 again the following year we could have 3, which pumps up our kindergarten, so we’re, we’re, we’re kind of balanced along the way. We’re not looking for this giant take off of, of, uh, an increase in students with the project, but there is, there is room for more than 740.

00:54:29,100	It’s just the design limit of the state is 740 based on that 22 number, because our, our original class size model, and if I remember, we submitted for 23. Um, because that was our original class size model when we looked at it across the district, so the, you know, the state and our model is, is really one student off, but that gives you the opportunity to put another

00:54:45,530	30+ students in classrooms. But we have the advantage of in our district of small class sizes. When you look at it right now, we have uh the average of 20 across the elementary schools and 19 across the entire school district, which is, uh, probably not comparable when you start to look at surrounding districts and, and

00:55:03,170	what their class sizes would be compared to us. We actually have, that’s a huge advantage for us. Helpful, thank you. Rosie, go ahead. Oh, you definitely need a mic. It’s really hard to hear in this room.

00:55:26,530	I, I have a few logistical questions, Rosemary Kennedy, select board member in Hamilton, um, first question that I have is it is anticipated that the children will all enter through the main entrance. Is that correct? That’s not correct. No, that, that is uh uh one opportunity to come into the building.

00:55:47,530	Uh, there’s also a, a backside entry, which we use, uh, different models of school entry in each of our buildings, depending on where the buses drop off. Some kids are dropped in playgrounds, some kids go from a playground to a gym. Uh, the way this building is designed is you have a front entry where bus students could come in.

00:56:01,270	You have a rear entry where car students, it’s designed to drop off. It has a little row for drop offs, uh, so the kids can enter right into the gym or the cafeteria space, um, for breakfast or Uh, an opportunity to move kids into the gym for rainy days or snowy days as well. OK, so there’s more than one entrance to the school.

00:56:19,000	Another question I have is, um, and I’m. Not thinking of the big picture I’m looking at sort of operational issues when you talk about very young children and a consolidated school.

00:56:39,700	How do you plan for supervision of very young children, um, you talked about in and out of the classrooms that there are these areas outside in the hallway, so I’m wondering what you’ll do, um, to provide that adequate supervision. Sure. Currently we use a similar model in in a couple of our schools where kids are in the class in the classrooms and in the hallways.

00:57:00,730	So interventions and supports occur unfortunately in hallways on stages, uh, support personnel are working with those kids, so you have the classroom teacher who remains with the classroom kids, um, the beauty of our classroom designs in this building is there are two classrooms side by side with one small room that connects them together, that teachers can see, um, kids working, either doing interventions or Um, you know, you could have students that

00:57:20,270	are doing more advanced work where they’re grouped up in, in various group levels. Uh, so there’s opportunities for people to be around all the time. We have a fairly substantial number of uh our education support professionals that work within our buildings.

00:57:40,170	Uh, kids are often seen by OTs, PTs, uh, speech language pathologists, psychologists, so they’re the beauty of kind of bringing everybody into one space gives us more eyes on, on all of our kids. so you’re anticipating that you’ll have very similar staff requirements in this consolidated school. To some extent, I think the administrative requirements would change. You currently have 3 principles.

00:57:59,270	You wouldn’t need 3 principles, um, but your classroom teachers, you basically would move them in their class into that, into each classroom, uh, maintaining the same viability. OK.

00:58:23,600	And then finally one other question is you’re planning, um, maintenance on a large new consolidation and the Bucher school, correct? Clarify that for me, mean it’s long term or current? Well, long term because the Bucher school will still be in the in um operation for K and pre-K. So in reality, you still will be supporting an entire. Additional schools, that is correct.

00:58:45,730	And that’s driven by the, the, uh, regional agreement where we have to have one school and each of the communities, the Bucher would serve as a single school in uh Wenham. So I’m just, I’m just anticipating um maintenance costs for, um, very expensive state of the art, um, infrastructure in the new school and yes, we will also have the Bucher school and I look at that in um in

00:59:11,330	conjunction with the anticipated increases I realized this is preliminary but in both Hamilton and Wenham, there is a substantial increase in the district. um, requirements just for. Day to day, uh, maintenance and operations of the schools. So I’m just looking at those numbers very carefully. Thank you. Uh, sure.

00:59:38,530	and you just said something about the regionalization. that we have a school in each. that Would it be more efficient to house all those kids in one school. Generally, it costs you more. Um, the state doesn’t cover the cost of preschool programs, those, those costs are covered 100% by the districts.

01:00:01,530	So when districts want to say, OK, we want to move a preschool program in and add um more classrooms then it it becomes an expense that’s bare, that is on the burden of the, the towns, 100% with no reimbursement.

01:00:20,700	Um, so the regional agreement In this case, we meet, we would meet the regional agreement requirements by keeping the Buker School in Wynham. If we combined and consolidated anywhere else, but in one, we, we would have to consolidate one school in Wenham to be able to keep that model of um one school, at least one school in each community. So, no, I get that’s the root of my question.

01:00:38,270	If that weren’t if that weren’t a requirement. Would it be more cost effective to have them in a single building. Uh, possibly. I just don’t know what the MSBA would, would cover on the, on the expense side.

01:00:54,170	That’s, that’s the only thing on the increased square footage, you’re gonna put in basically 10 more classrooms. So it’s, it’s really would depend on, again, the reimbursements along the way. Alright then, OK, then a follow up to her question. Is there a capital cost coming in the next 5 years to retrofit Bucher to make it what it needs to be in order to accommodate the pre-KNK.

01:01:12,470	So one of the things we’ve been doing along the, the kind of the recent timeline is doing things like asbestos abatement, we just completed every classroom this past summer, um, redoing the gymnasium, upgrading that, upgrading the sound system, we’re upgrading the PA system. So the things that we need are already in place, kind of the Essentials, if you will, um.

01:01:32,730	Realistically, when you’re looking at it, you could, you could move your preschool and your K kids into that building tomorrow and it would function.

01:01:45,270	I would, however, add something like some fencing in the back to contain our little ones that, that go out just as we do over at the Winthrop, we have a, a fencing area for pre-K kids just because they, uh, tend to to like to take off, but uh that would really be the, the one edition if you were to say, let’s move in tomorrow. Uh, you could pull it off.

01:02:00,070	You have all the uh essentials that you need in this. building, including um bathroom spaces that are very similar to what our, our youngest learners use now at the Winthrop. OK. Thanks.

01:02:25,000	I’m Alex Rendles on the Hamilton Fincom phase of the project, was there any opportunity for the community’s input on the exterior aesthetic of the building, similar to how recently Hamilton did like a community survey for the master plan downtown um with different aesthetics went through the building committee, all of that process goes through the school building committee.

01:02:43,270	Um, I know the architects spent quite a bit of time bopping around town taking pictures of things like quartz barns and local, um, kind of larger buildings to get an idea of how to match some of the scale, and one of the things that, you know, on the Cutler school, if you look at, is Roman brick, which is a longer, skinnier brick stack, um, they, they looked at those types of things, uh, try to

01:03:00,270	find uh different textures within the community to bring into the, the exterior part of the building. Did the community specifically have input into that. Only the school building committee. Hey Thank you, thank you. Um Right. Next up on our agenda, um, are, um, the budgets, um.

01:03:29,600	You want the school district go first, is that what you? Fins up first. OK, um, so I, I, I think if, um, on my agenda I actually have, uh, Hamilton going first, but it sounds like maybe we’re gonna go to the school district first. OK. Is that work for everyone? OK, um, while, uh, is that OK? Yeah, yeah. OK, good.

01:03:53,100	Um, while Vinnie is getting, um, set up. I just wanna take a moment to um just Say to the public how much I appreciate, um, your, um, willingness to sit and listen, and I hope that you feel that the people that are your representatives here, ask some good questions, um, and I encourage you if you have

01:04:14,100	further questions, um, to about that topic. First of all, I encourage you to stay and listen to the budget presentation and I encourage if you have further questions. These are all people, all people here. Reach out to us. We’re all willing. Um, to hear from you and to respond to you.

01:04:31,600	So thank you for your, um, willingness to, um, Move through that. patiently. Thank you. Where’d you go? It was back there. Where’s Vinny dropped his computer and disappeared. OK. Hamilton was going first? No, no, no, no. We all talked before to change it up a little. OK.

01:05:17,530	OK Would you like my joke of the day. Talk amongst yourselves. Um Water supply. Right Oh It’s just it’s a long. So Yeah. I What? so Oh Do We’re here. not good Well, thanks everyone for joining us tonight. I’d like to give us a special thanks to uh Joe, Steve, Jeff, Wendy, uh, Eric, and all of the school committee members.

01:07:37,600	For, uh, helping us through this budget process and for their future work over the next 3 months working on it and Uh, refining the numbers as we move along through the process. Um Just a few items I want to mention this, you do have a printout of the presentation. With you with a few handouts.

01:08:02,000	It’s about a 16 uh slide deck. I will not be going over the whole presentation. Just a few of the first, uh, slides, but obviously if you have any questions during it, please don’t hesitate to ask.

01:08:21,500	If anyone wants to dive deeper into the numbers, uh, I would point you to the school committee’s agenda for tomorrow night. There is a more uh detailed presentation. I believe it’s, uh, somewhere between 50 and 60 slides.

01:08:43,100	Where we dive deeper into the numbers, uh, we go through school by school, line by line, uh, literally if there was, One line item that changed by $30 I broke that out on the school committee agendas presentation, not on tonight, so if you want to look deeper into the numbers, uh, please don’t hesitate to look there, uh, in addition, The school committee has not seen this yet. Uh, tomorrow will be the first time they see it due to some scheduling difficulties.

01:09:01,970	We had a schedule this meeting ahead of their first initial look at it, so some of these numbers, uh, not only will you be seeing for the first time, but they will as well. Our finance subcommittee has seen them, but the full uh committee has, has not seen a lot of these numbers.

01:09:20,000	Uh, tonight, I’m really gonna be focusing on the big overall picture and not diving deep into the numbers, uh, because we really want you to focus. Uh, on the overall difference from one year to the next and not really dive too deep into the numbers because they’re going to change between now and the 3 months when we uh finally set

01:09:38,100	the budget. Uh, we realized this is going to be a very difficult budget year, so we know these numbers are going to be refined, so I’m really gonna be doing a high-level look, again, only looking at the first few slides of the presentation.

01:10:02,230	Excuse me, so What the district looks at when we first, uh, go to build our budget is a is a bunch of different things, uh, in certain order, the biggest thing without a doubt is our collective bargaining agreements. This is where we go to see things like our cola adjustments, our step increases in our column and lane changes for any eligible employees.

01:10:21,270	Next, we look at our retirement and staff turnover for some salary savings, uh, historically how this works is when uh uh employee retires or if a turnover happens, they’re usually a more seasoned employee. That kind of falls deeper in the salary schedule and has um a larger salary.

01:10:42,600	And somebody else when they retire or turnover happens, we have a tendency to hire in. Uh, a less seasoned employee or someone lower, kind of higher up on the salary scale, not making as much money. So when we build our budget, we really look for salary savings, uh, in these two areas.

01:11:03,470	The next big item is our health insurance and enrollment changes, uh, historically. In the past few budget cycles, we’ve been hit with high premium rate increases. Uh, I do anticipate. A high premium rate increase for FY 26, however, I was able to negotiate a much lower premium rate increase in FY 25 that we originally budgeted for.

01:11:25,900	Therefore, those savings are being rolled into 26, so for FY 26, there really isn’t much in terms of growth for health insurance, so that is good news, but that is one big ticket item. That we always look at every year. Uh, our next biggest thing is our transportation contracts.

01:11:46,630	Now for FY 26, we do not have a transportation contract in place, uh, the one we have runs for 3 years and ends in FY 25. Historically, the first year of our transportation contracts is usually a larger than normal increase. I have built in a projection here, but again, uh, that is just a projection. We won’t have those final numbers.

01:12:07,000	Until after the budget is passed in February. Uh, the next big item that we look at is our out of district tuition projections, uh, historically, we always try to be conservative in this area.

01:12:23,330	Uh, we always try to anticipate at least 1 or 2 more out of district placements throughout the year. Uh, this is due because of the volatility, you can have move-ins or you can have new out of placements.

01:12:40,600	Uh, these have a tendency to cost a little bit more, uh, so to cover these costs and to be able to uh supply the education that the students need, we usually are conservative again in this area, uh, and add in maybe 1 or 2. Uh, additional out of district placements.

01:12:58,330	Uh, the next thing we look at is we meet with our building principles and department heads and go through any new requests they have, and also look at the the condition of our buildings and grounds, is any of our equipment failing? Do we need to replace it or do any sort of maintenance, uh, during the next budget cycle. Kind of from a bigger picture perspective, we also review our district’s enrollment shift and just look at the general state of both our communities.

01:13:15,430	What’s going on in Hamilton, what’s going on in Wenham, and what’s going on with the Hamilton Wyndham Regional School District, uh, to take that into consideration when we go to build our budget. For the following years. So when I look at this budget, um, although, although there are substantial increases, there really isn’t much much new from FY 25. To 26.

01:13:38,730	It really is a lot of us rolling the budget forward. Uh, the biggest things we will go over in a minute, but overall, there really are not that many changes. But the biggest difficulties we’ve seen, uh, for FY 26, there are two of them. Uh, the first one that we do all the time is our enrollment shift.

01:13:57,530	Uh, this is the population of how many students reside in Hamilton versus how many students reside in Wenham for FY 26. Hamilton student population stayed exactly flat. There was no increase or decrease, while Wenham’s increased by 13 students. Uh, so what this ends up causing, is $137,000 shifts towards uh Wenham and away from Hamilton.

01:14:23,630	So it, in other words, if we were to level fund our budget with uh no increase, just roll it forward from one year to the next, Wenham would still see an increase of 137,000 when I would see a decrease. For Wenham, that represents a 1.1% increase, right, right out of the gate.

01:14:41,800	So when you’re looking at the budget, um, at the, the end result, Wenham’s assessment, whatever that percentage is, 1.1% is directly attributed to the enrollment. that really is uh out of our hands.

01:15:06,470	It just depends on Um, how many students live in each district? Uh, the second item is not the 2nd, it is without a doubt the biggest difficulty and the biggest item. It really is just our enrollment shift is the first thing we look at, then we move on to our collective bargaining agreements. When we built the FY 25 budget, we only had one of our 5 contracts settled, uh, therefore, I didn’t know our coal is, I didn’t know our step increases.

01:15:26,600	So for FY 25, we built in a 3% 3% cola increase for all of our contracts, uh, but if you remember and you rewind back a year ago, uh, it’s pretty much exactly what’s going on today, uh, in the news was what was going on in Newton and what was

01:15:42,870	going on in Woburn. To be completely honest, I didn’t think 3% was enough, so I tried to be conservative in other areas of the budget, uh, and anticipation that we weren’t going to Uh, be able to settle at 3%.

01:16:03,530	So what we and ultimately ended up with is somewhere between a 3 and 4%, uh, funds reserved for cola for FY 25. But at this point, all of our contracts are settled and the range varies. We are anywhere between a 3% and a 19% cola. Depending on what group you’re in. What, uh, I’m sorry, what contract do you represent? What position you have and where you fall.

01:16:26,970	Within that salary schedule, so one person could be receiving a 3% while another person could be receiving a 19%, again, depending on where you land, with that, I’m seeing an average of about an 8% increase. Hold on. And stop me at any time if you have a question.

01:16:45,600	Um, so that with an 8% increase on average. So if you think about that, that is double to a little bit more of the cola that we actually built in FY 25, and it is over 5 times the amount that we saw in FY 24, FY20 FY 24’s cola was 1.5%.

01:17:07,170	Uh, so that is what is causing, uh, obviously these large increases for FY 26. So with that we are $1.1 million shy on our FY 25 budget, which means that 1.1 million has to be made up in the 26th budget.

01:17:28,870	So right now we’re funding the colas that we didn’t fund in FY 25 through the 26 budget. But like all of our collective bargaining agreements, you then have to factor in your FY 26 cola. So our FY 26 contractual changes amount to another 1.3 million. Combined, that is $2.4 million in our collective bargaining agreements alone.

01:17:54,270	If you look at this just in the collective bargaining agreements. That represents a 5.3% increase over our FY 25 budget, and if you look in that budget document, it represents 70% of our overall. FY 26 increase. That is one item alone is representing 70% of our overall um increase for FY 26.

01:18:21,330	If I add in the next biggest item or the next biggest increase, which is our outer district tuitions and our outer district transportations, which at the moment we’re projecting an increase of over half a million dollars over $500,000 with those two items, I’ve accounted for $3 million in uh, budget tonight is at 3.3 million.

01:18:46,330	So with those two items alone, I’ve accounted for 90% of our overall increase for FY 26. Which is why I started with there really isn’t a lot that’s changed this year. It really is all related to our collective bargaining agreements and trying to fund Uh, the shortfall from FY 25 along with the funding for FY 26.

01:19:07,170	So we know we have a lot of yep, you can ask. I like it when people ask in the middle. It gives me a second to catch my breath. Can you just um clarify the, can you talk into the mic so everybody can hear you.

01:19:22,870	Can you just clarify? The outcome of the teacher’s contract. Meaning the cola, yeah, just, just high level. So, so the point is the school district has negotiated and approved on both sides, the district and the I can answer that, um, OK, so, um, it’s actually on the agenda tomorrow night for the school committee.

01:19:46,100	Um, to vote on it. Um, it’s been ratified by the union. The union has ratified it as of today. So the optimist in me says the school committee will probably ratify it. I mean, who knows? But I can’t, but it’s uh certainly been recommended by the negotiations subcommittee.

01:20:09,600	So, um, when we met last week, Um The point that I made was, it sounds like. The teachers will be positive and I’m guessing the school committee will be positive of this contract. Unlike what’s going on in Gloucester and Beverly and that is my understanding and my interpretation, yes.

01:20:39,470	And Vinny, we also talked about Last year’s increase in the school budget was Relatively modest. Uh, like 1%. Alright, um. This year it’s at this point is quite a bit higher. My view is that it probably will. Between the two years will average out. To I don’t know, maybe 4%. Something like that.

01:21:07,730	So FY 25 should have been larger to fund those, so. As, as I think about it, it’s, it’s good to have a memory of, OK, what transpired last year? Um Last year’s increase should have been higher. Or could have been higher because if we had estimated it more.

01:21:28,600	But anyway, What I’m trying to do is look over 2 years as we try to digest this budget, but the, the Good news is the contract has been resolved. very um, and the quality of the school. Hopefully we’ll Be positively impacted by all that news.

01:21:55,000	So that that’s sort of how I sort of framed the conversation from last week. I don’t know if I’m off base or not, but that’s. Thanks for that update, Vinny. Can I just ask, can I just make a comment. No offense to John’s reframing, I get it. 2 years, and but your comment, Vinny, that You know, nothing has changed.

01:22:16,730	I think just our general sense that The contract negotiation is a conclusion It’s how you get to the fact that nothing changed. It’s a massive increase. And to the taxpayers being happy or not, a 4% a year. Increase in the taxpayers’ taxes. Leads to people moving out of the town. So Just want to clarify.

01:22:47,630	Sure Yep A lot of seniors dollars, not so much staffing and programmatic, yes. Um, so throughout the rest of the uh presentation that I’m not going to go into detail. I do break out our, our enrollment shift uh between Hamilton and Wenham.

01:23:05,800	I also break out all of our, uh, changes in revenues and all of our changes and expenses, the last two handouts in the deck, uh, break out any changing in staffing for FY 26, uh, the request right now, uh, only goes up, uh. 0.8 of a position, uh, and then behind that again is the breakout of all major uh expense categories, plus or minus $10,000. Um, that.

01:23:29,800	does the detail part of the Uh, school committee’s budget, I mean school district presentation, I can answer more questions if you have any, but. I have a sort of a Jason question, which is out of district placements have come up the last couple of years.

01:23:49,900	Do those primarily sit in the elementary, middle, or high school. I can answer it, but I just want to take it off so you don’t see what I put on my side because it has names on on on question was, is there some anticipation that should we have a more. Accommodating elementary school, we would be able to pull out of some of these placements.

01:24:12,730	Some of them, not all of them, some of them are. More severe than we could handle within our system. So some of the, the issues like medically fragile kids need a nurse, they need um assistance on, on and off the bus so that those are really high expenses

01:24:27,630	that we, you know, and you get one or two kids that may be in that category. It’s actually easier to put them in a program that can meet all of their needs, where we really, we struggle to meet the child’s needs. And has the standard for what it takes to. qualify for an outplacement changed.

01:24:43,900	And do we expect to see an increase in outplacements similar to what Vinnie you’re showing now. 6 in the elementary level and uh sorry, 33 in the secondary, so it’s mostly secondary to accommodate them beyond 12th grade. Right, right, right, OK.

01:25:11,270	And to answer your other question, the standard is about the same. It doesn’t, it hasn’t really changed the, the, the values of the neurodiversities are changing dramatically.

01:25:29,270	Um, we’re seeing, um, much more intense and difficult behaviors and issues that at younger grade levels, uh, which is a little bit alarming, but we, we kind of seen that coming out of COVID and some of that is stuck with some, some kids along the way, so we’re seeing mental health issues, um, Really driving some of that. So if you have a mental health issue.

01:25:45,270	Coupled with uh a learning disability, it becomes a frustrating situation for that child to be able to fit in and, you know, the round pick square hole, so it’s it’s hard for kids to, to fit that process. So in, in the the cases that we look at, we really try to find the best opportunity for kids to succeed because, um, ultimately we want all our kids to be here.

01:26:02,330	Ultimately, I, I’d want every single kid to be in our buildings. It’s just really not feasible with some of the, the needs that they have and I know it’s not a non weighted average, but I’m just looking at like the cost per child, which sits somewhere between like. 10 and 18, depending on how you pull it.

01:26:16,370	It looks like for outplacements, that cost is like somewhere in the 40s to 50 per kid. 50,000 I believe it’s more than that. Yeah, it’s more than that. And you saw you anticipate a substantial increase in FY 26. Uh, for FY 26 out of district. Placements is projected to grow, I think about 240,000.

01:26:38,800	I believe it’s on the last sheet in that handout, and out of district transportation is about another. 26 I believe at the moment. OK. Go back to last year, remember we were fighting with the state over the 14% automatic increase that I remember that the district placements this year it’s 3.

01:27:00,070	67%, a little more realistic, but still more than we anticipated. It’s generally been 2% along the way, so. We still have to look at that and that’s basically a rate that any out of district private group can say, yeah, we’re gonna raise right to that rate automatically.

01:27:14,500	And if you have a kid that’s in a $150,000 placement. It’s automatically going up that 3.7%. Got it. Alright, I just. For my own knowledge, thank you. Um Yeah Jared, I, I apologize. I’m new with some of this nomenclature.

01:27:33,630	Um, and maybe I’m getting ahead of the game here, but I’m looking at the next is offsets and revenues and the next is offsets and revenues without E and D. Which, by the way, I don’t know what that means, but There’s some line items here. If somebody could translate. Circuit breaker offset. It’s a big number.

01:27:54,600	Yep, so circuit breaker offset is directly related to our out of district tuitions, the state does fund a portion of our out of district tuitions, there’s a formula that they use to determine how much they’re gonna reimburse us, but that’s a state reimbursement for us, uh, paying for out of district placements. Thank you. Uh. 3 chapter 70 base aid. That’s the just uh aid the state gives every community. Excess and deficiency returned, excess and deficiency offset by expenses.

01:28:22,800	So the easiest way I can explain that, I don’t like using this term, but it’s, it’s kind of the profit you had at the end of the year. It’s how much money you left, you have left over from the prior year.

01:28:36,800	Is it sort of like free cash and it’s it’s free cash, yes, correct. Yup. So you, you had Or your forecasting a million. 3 of Free cash. It would be about 2 million. It’s the combination. It’s those. So how do you arrive at your free cash estimate as to what you need for, uh, free cash.

01:29:05,530	I ask because we’re struggling with that in the Wenham income as to what the appropriate percentage, you know, is to hold. Uh, so I’m not sure how it works on the town side, but for the school district, we are not allowed to hold anything over 5%. The remainder has to be returned or placed in our budget, that’s what that 2 million is.

01:29:21,630	That’s everything over. Our threshold. What, what is your threshold? Is it 5% of our budget. Uh, so round numbers, it’s about 2 million. So the 5% is a discretionary figure. Uh, it’s a state maximum. We are not allowed to Hold more than that. But anything, anything below is our discretion.

01:29:54,600	Anything below that would be presumably some utilization requirements, you know, in, in the future, in future periods. OK OK. Thank you. Maybe Yeah, you definitely need, please thank you. It’d be helpful to get a sense of, um, so I see the lineup for school choice about $300,000 or so. So just doing some very quick math that I might have done it wrong.

01:30:18,070	It’s about $4000 per pupil coming in versus the $50,000 roughly going out, um. those numbers right? Like, can you kind of walk me through how that process actually works, because if we’re paying 10,000 to $20,000 for one student or Hamilton student. I don’t to come in.

01:30:43,730	Uh, we received 5000 per student from another community to come to the district. Uh, we do have a bigger than normal 12th grade class that will be graduating out, so I lowered it by, I believe about 4 students off the top of my head, so that might be where you’re coming up with the 4000 number.

01:31:00,970	Uh, we’re just anticipating that a bigger class goes out and a smaller class comes in, our school choice is slowly dwindling, uh, numbers, so it’s 5000 for each kid coming in. What was the second part of your question? I’m sorry.

01:31:19,600	I understand like what it’s 5000 companies that just like the number from the state’s yep, that’s the number that they set, uh, that they haven’t changed in decades. Um, we do have school choice out, so that students who live in Hamilton Wenham, who might attend Beverly public schools, uh, that’s an expense within the. though. But yes to send a student out.

01:31:46,070	They do have a special ed increment, so if the student does receive additional services, it might be a little bit more than 7, I’m sorry,, 5000, but it depends on what services they’re receiving, uh, generally speaking, it’s 5, 5000. Thank you OK Right. Like Thank you. And, uh, I believe Wenham is next.

01:32:18,170	I had sent uh a thing over to Janelle, but I think everybody has a handout. As well. Um, we’ve got a really short presentation here, um, if you go to the first page, we’re just gonna walk through.

01:32:40,170	Kind of our issues and challenges for FY 26, uh, probably very similar to everybody else in the room, um, you know, we’re very early in our budget process. Uh, we won’t actually meet with departments, uh, for about a week or so. Uh, so our budget is uh very preliminary at this point. It’s going to develop over the next 6 to 8 weeks, uh, and more likely materially change from what you see here tonight.

01:32:55,170	Uh, the biggest issue the town of Wenham is facing is that while you are just wrapping up your contractual, uh, negotiations, we are negotiating with 3 of our 4 unions, uh, police, fire, and uh asked me uh DPW and clerical folks.

01:33:14,500	Uh, so that’s going to have a big impact on uh RFY 26 budget, uh, and that’s really kind of tough to quantify right now. Um, in terms of the direction for our budget for FY 26, uh, both the select board and the finance and advisory committee are looking to avoid an operational override for uh FY 2026, um, and we, uh, in this presentation will only deal

01:33:33,000	with the operating budget, uh, typically in one of our capital costs are handled with free cash, uh, so they don’t really figure into this part of our equation.

01:33:52,230	Uh, flipping to our, our next page, uh, I’m just gonna hit some of the highlights, uh, of our budget for 26, uh, you know, as we just heard, uh, from Vinny, uh, I think maybe my number’s off just a little bit here from, uh, it’s changed a little since last week, but, you know, the big ticket item for us is a 10.

01:34:07,870	5% increase to the Hamilton one school budget, uh, you know, along with the, the apportionment shift to Wenham, that’s gonna be about a $1.2 million dollar addition to our budget this year. Uh, historically, we have about a 3% increase at Essex Tech, uh, so that’s a small, you know,, $9000 adjustment for us or so.

01:34:26,430	Um, we’ve got a couple of small kind of administrative adjustments that need to be made in our budget, um, for budgets that have been historically underfunded, uh, it’s another 21,000 or so. Um, the library, which is joint library shared with Hamilton, uh, is one of the few departments who has already submitted their budget to us, um, and they are up at about 1.

01:34:49,370	6%, mainly driven by, uh, contractual obligations because that union actually is settled, uh, and that’s about a $17,000 increase to us, um, just to sort of lay out what we’ve said to our departments, they’ve been instructed to essentially level fund across the board, uh, they understand that we are likely going to have increases due to the contractual negotiations, but they’ve been

01:35:05,700	told to try and find offsets to those increases as best they can to still end up at a net zero level funded for FY 26 at this point, uh, the library made a, a pretty good faith effort to do that, uh, and, and came in, you know, under 2%, so,

01:35:21,430	you know, hopefully we can work with them a little bit more, but you know, generally that’s what we’re going to be looking for from our departments, um, joint recreation, uh, small increase there, same thing, uh, just sort of underfunded in the past, sort of catching up.

01:35:36,370	Uh, for the town, much like I’m sure for Hamilton and for the school, uh, the big ticket items for us, pension, health insurance, and then our general liability, we start the year every year assuming those are going to go up about 10%, uh, typically they come in a little bit under that, but to be conservative, we start at the

01:35:50,730	higher 10% number. That’s about a $240,000 increase, um, in the final sort of bigger ticket item we have is we are on an OPEP funding schedule in Wenham, uh, historically we just increase our OPEP contribution.

01:36:09,230	Uh, by about $10,000 each year, um, and, uh, that will, that will, you know, take place again for FY 26, moving us to 110,000. Um. Generally speaking, the last note here, uh, all of our budgets are targeting level funding, uh, we have built in sort of a conservative estimate, um, for union contracts and some other, you know, expenses that are going to increase um

01:36:28,370	for FY 26, but right now it’s really more of kind of a reserve placeholder than it is sort of specific numbers attached to items. Uh, the final page, you know, we just tried to come up with, um, a, a one page quick, you know, high-end summary here, um, to show you sort of where we’re.

01:36:45,230	and where where our, um, you know, increases are coming. So if you look at the top line, you’re sort of the town operating budget, uh, is going to go up about $560,000 roughly at 4.8, 4.

01:37:05,000	9% increase, uh, Hamilton went in Regional School, uh, as we just talked about, that’s about, uh, you know,, $1.25 million dollar increase or roughly 10% for us, uh, all in, uh,, $8700 for Essex Tech, uh, small 3% increase there. So all in our expenses are, you know, we’re estimating, uh, are gonna go up a little over $1.

01:37:24,430	8 million for the year, uh, as we walk through this chart, you’re gonna see, we’re assuming, um, you know, our amount to overlay at $200,000 is gonna stay static, uh, for now we’re assuming our state aid net of any offsets is going to remain the same for FY 26, um, we are looking at approximately $140,000 150,000 dollars. Of increased local receipts.

01:37:47,800	Um, which means the net amount, uh, that, that, uh, we’re gonna have to raise by taxation is going to have to go up about 1.6%, almost $1.7 million. add on top of that, we’ve got levy limit growth, uh, prop 2.5% growth, and we also have some excess levy capacity from the prior year.

01:38:07,700	um, that, uh, is going to, uh, ultimately net to us needing um needing about uh $670,000 there, um, or increasing about $670,000 there. So the end result for us is that as the budget stands right now with, you know, the information you’ve given us here tonight, we are at about $620,000.

01:38:30,370	Over our levy limit, uh, for, for FY 26 at this point in time, uh, you know, and I would just add, you know, that that is, is likely to change.

01:38:43,900	I mean, we are in negotiations, uh, so it’s sort of tough to know where those, those will go, um, but, um, clearly we’re going to need to do some work, uh, and hopefully work with the school, uh, to, to close that gap because I think most of us around the, the tables here agree, um, that, you know, we don’t want an operating override in the same year as a debt exclusion override.

01:38:59,330	Um You know, but certainly on our side of the table, I think, you know, between all of us, we can work to get that 620 down to a non non override in in Wenham. Thank you. Questions for one of them. Does the, does this 620 does not include.

01:39:24,500	Any colors for the three unions or so we’ve just built in a a a fixed cost, sort of a, um, you know. is built in there, yeah, I mean, you know, much like you last year, you know, could the 620 become 720 or it could become 520, uh, probably not 520, but, you know, you know, it could go

01:39:38,270	higher, but yeah, I think we feel comfortable where we striking distance at that at that number. Other questions for one. Thank you. All right. Hamilton, take it away. Thank you.

01:40:10,730	Um, much like one of them, we’re in very preliminary stages of our budget formation, uh This is 9 days earlier than it was last year, so, uh, we’re quite a little bit, uh, the numbers that you’ll see, Wendy will go over those in a few minutes for us, uh, the, they’re very preliminary and um they look like big numbers, but I assure you I’m not panicking yet, so, um, we’re, we understand there’s a lot of work to do still, um.

01:40:25,870	1st, 1st page. The FY 26 budget remains a work in progress right now, um, our FI26 budget goals are a level service budget to deliver all the same services to Hamilton residences in prior years. Uh, we are very loosely projecting uh local revenues of $40,649,442.

01:40:51,230	Um, And uh we’re projecting expenses totaling $45,392,809. Uh, I’d make a note here that uh the revenue uh projection does not include any funding, uh, from free cash or other outside sources.

01:41:12,270	So At this point, you know, the $5 million difference looks like a very big number, but um we when we balanced the budget for FY 25, there were a number of other sources that went into, into balancing that and those are not currently included in our um. Revenue projection. Uh, I’m gonna ask Wendy to kind of go through the, the brief expense summaries. OK, so the big picture, um, looking at, um, each. Projected uh department level increase.

01:41:32,100	The big picture is just to note that uh currently with the schools, it’s, you know, we’re looking between the two schools at 9.4% increase and overall the town is looking at a 3.2% increase.

01:41:54,370	So We’re, we’re hopeful that, uh, you know, we can find some areas within each, uh, within each department of, of the town and also with the school to close that gap. Again, we’re very preliminary. We don’t even have all the department heads, um, figures yet, so. And when looking at um Looking at the unclassified, we did go down because that, that held a, um, significant amount of our union contract, um, reserve last year.

01:42:15,700	So, you know, we were able to spread that among each department, uh, but overall we are looking at a $2.9 million dollar change. OK, so the, the pie chart always speaks volumes to people because it’s very clear and easy to, uh, identify quickly where the spending is and, uh, as I mentioned, the

01:42:40,170	schools you’re at 61% of, of the overall budget, um, the unclassified is 6 million at 13% and the unclassified just as a reminder that’s your health insurance, your pension, um.

01:43:04,370	And um the um the insurance for, for the, uh, town, your uh OEB in any kind of transfers to stabilizations to meet the um reserve limits and then looking at public safety, you’re at about 4.5 million or 10% of the budget. And um general government is 2.8 million or 6% of the budget, public works 2.76% of the budget and then your, uh, recreation and culture which includes your library is 1.

01:43:23,630	2 million or 3% and your health and human services is 1% uh under just under 500,000. So you know these um are, are FY 2026 assumptions and concerns. We’re currently running, I, as I said, uh, in very rough numbers, $5 million in the red. We don’t expect that to stay the case, obviously.

01:43:44,870	Uh, we’re carrying a 10% increase for insurance and uh pension increases. We’re assuming a level spend on capital projects, but we recognize right now that that may not be possible. negotiated contract increases for all of our employees. Uh, we closed all five unions last year.

01:44:02,170	In the current fiscal year, so we’re, we’re good for the next two years as far as we know what our our employee costs are going to be. Um. Our assumption is no override, uh no operational override, uh, just as when I suggested, we don’t think it would be a good idea to look for an operational ride in the same year we were

01:44:18,230	looking for data exclusion. And it assumes a loss of revenue for a couple of our IMAs, some of our intermunicipal agreements have modified and some of our partners are no longer with us, so. We always count that in the revenue side of projection, so that’s showing a loss of revenue for us. Alright, thank you.

01:44:39,270	Questions for Hamilton? OK. Right? It’s like we might have done it, right? Um. I Who’s gonna OK, I was just gonna adjourn the Fincom excellent. Why don’t we start at this side of the room then. Go for it. I’d like to. take a motion to adjourn the FICO meeting.

01:45:11,430	So moved. All right. Those in favor. Alright, Fincom is adjourned. Alright, uh, I believe you, you’re not actually called to order, um, we’ll go over here, uh, Wenham. Mm-hmm Looking for a motion to the uh Wenhamin at 8:15. I see a 1st 1 2nd. right Unanimous. Thank you. OK, all right, and the select board.

01:45:43,600	Uh, do I have a motion? Or else I move the motion that we. adjourn our meeting. a 2nd, 2nd by Amy Kumberger, all those in favor. And that is unanimous that the members present. We are adjourned. Thank you all very